7 50 763 https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/14e533e17dbaf61aa52c3879dc28ee80.pdf 334a3f974c44765c01acae8e2bd879da PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA Published By THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA ��SLOVAKIA 2017 VOLUME XLIII NUMBERS 80-81 A scholarly annual devoted to the history, literature and culture of the Slovaks the world over Editor M. MARK STOLARIK University of Ottawa Editorial Board ROBERTK . EVANSON University of Missouri I MICHAEL NOV AK I American Enterprise Institute JAMES R. FELAK University of Washington PETER PETRO University of British Columbia CAROL S. LEFF University of Illinois PATRICIA KRAFCIK The Evergreen State College Publisher Slovak League of America 205 Madison Street Passaic, NJ 07055, USA Inquiries regarding subscriptions should be sent to the above address. The cost of a single issue is U.S. $10.00 Manuscripts for possible publication and books for review should be sent to the editor at 22 Bren-Maur Road, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K2J 3Z7 stolarik@uottawa.ca ��Table of Contents ARTICLES More Slovaks in the U.S. than Czechs? Who Says? When and Where? Kenneth Janda ..... ..... .... .... ... ..... ........ ... .. ...... ...... ... ........................ 7 A Survey of Slovak Communities of the Byzantine Rite in Canada before they Received their Own Bishopric Daniel Cerny .. ... .... ... .. .. ...... ... .... ..... .. ... ........ ..... ... ... ..... ... ..... ..... .. 28 The Slovak Army on the Eastern Front During World War II Jan Rychlik ...... ................... ...... ... ... .... .... .. ....... ...... ... ... ........ ....... 61 Kicked Out: Czechoslovakia' s Postwar Policy Toward Ethnic Minorities and its Unintended Outcomes Marty Manor Mullins ....... .......... .... ... ......... .......... ............... ....... 81 Invoking the Nation, Strengthening Devotion: National Discourse at the Slovak National Pilgrimage Alexander Bie/icky ........ ................................... .. ...... .. .......... .... 105 LITERATURE Siberia: A Slovak Folk Tale R. Vladimir Baumgarten ..... ....... ...... ... ....... .................. ............ 133 REVIEWS Jozef Klempa, Maje skusenosti za svetovej vojny. M Mark Stolarik .......... .. .. ...... ........... ..... .......................... ........ 151 Rebekah Klein-Pejsova, Mapping Jewish Loyalties in Interwar Slovakia. Jan Lanicek .. .. .... ....... .. .. .. .. .. .. .......... .. ............................. .... .. .... 152 �4 SLOVAKIA-2017 Paul Robert Magosci, With Their Backs to the Mountains. Keith P. Dyrud ......... ........ ......................................................... 156 Valerian Bystricky, Zahranicnopoliticke suvislosti vzniku Slovenskeho statu. Gregory C. Ference ......... .... .................................... .. ........... .... 15 8 Pal'o Carnogursky, Suboj s komunizmom. Jan Rychlik ..... .. ................................... ............................. ....... . 161 James Krapfl , Revolution with a human Face. Jura) Hocman ....... .................................................................... 166 Contributors ........................................... .... ..... ..... ........... ............... .. 169 Guidelines for Manuscripts .............. ............................................ ... 171 �ARTICLES �� SLOVAKIA Published By THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA ��SLOVAKIA 2017 VOLUME XLIII NUMBERS 80-81 A scholarly annual devoted to the history, literature and culture of the Slovaks the world over Editor M. MARK STOLARIK University of Ottawa Editorial Board ROBERTK . EVANSON University of Missouri I MICHAEL NOV AK I American Enterprise Institute JAMES R. FELAK University of Washington PETER PETRO University of British Columbia CAROL S. LEFF University of Illinois PATRICIA KRAFCIK The Evergreen State College Publisher Slovak League of America 205 Madison Street Passaic, NJ 07055, USA Inquiries regarding subscriptions should be sent to the above address. The cost of a single issue is U.S. $10.00 Manuscripts for possible publication and books for review should be sent to the editor at 22 Bren-Maur Road, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K2J 3Z7 stolarik@uottawa.ca ��Table of Contents ARTICLES More Slovaks in the U.S. than Czechs? Who Says? When and Where? Kenneth Janda ..... ..... .... .... ... ..... ........ ... .. ...... ...... ... ........................ 7 A Survey of Slovak Communities of the Byzantine Rite in Canada before they Received their Own Bishopric Daniel Cerny .. ... .... ... .. .. ...... ... .... ..... .. ... ........ ..... ... ... ..... ... ..... ..... .. 28 The Slovak Army on the Eastern Front During World War II Jan Rychlik ...... ................... ...... ... ... .... .... .. ....... ...... ... ... ........ ....... 61 Kicked Out: Czechoslovakia' s Postwar Policy Toward Ethnic Minorities and its Unintended Outcomes Marty Manor Mullins ....... .......... .... ... ......... .......... ............... ....... 81 Invoking the Nation, Strengthening Devotion: National Discourse at the Slovak National Pilgrimage Alexander Bie/icky ........ ................................... .. ...... .. .......... .... 105 LITERATURE Siberia: A Slovak Folk Tale R. Vladimir Baumgarten ..... ....... ...... ... ....... .................. ............ 133 REVIEWS Jozef Klempa, Maje skusenosti za svetovej vojny. M Mark Stolarik .......... .. .. ...... ........... ..... .......................... ........ 151 Rebekah Klein-Pejsova, Mapping Jewish Loyalties in Interwar Slovakia. Jan Lanicek .. .. .... ....... .. .. .. .. .. .. .......... .. ............................. .... .. .... 152 �4 SLOVAKIA-2017 Paul Robert Magosci, With Their Backs to the Mountains. Keith P. Dyrud ......... ........ ......................................................... 156 Valerian Bystricky, Zahranicnopoliticke suvislosti vzniku Slovenskeho statu. Gregory C. Ference ......... .... .................................... .. ........... .... 15 8 Pal'o Carnogursky, Suboj s komunizmom. Jan Rychlik ..... .. ................................... ............................. ....... . 161 James Krapfl , Revolution with a human Face. Jura) Hocman ....... .................................................................... 166 Contributors ........................................... .... ..... ..... ........... ............... .. 169 Guidelines for Manuscripts .............. ............................................ ... 171 �ARTICLES �� Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 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 Published By THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA SLOVAKIA 2017 VOLUME XLIII NUMBERS 80-81 A scholarly annual devoted to the history, literature and culture of the Slovaks the world over Editor M. MARK STOLARIK University of Ottawa Editorial Board ROBERTK . EVANSON University of Missouri I MICHAEL NOV AK I American Enterprise Institute JAMES R. FELAK University of Washington PETER PETRO University of British Columbia CAROL S. LEFF University of Illinois PATRICIA KRAFCIK The Evergreen State College Publisher Slovak League of America 205 Madison Street Passaic, NJ 07055, USA Inquiries regarding subscriptions should be sent to the above address. The cost of a single issue is U.S. $10.00 Manuscripts for possible publication and books for review should be sent to the editor at 22 Bren-Maur Road, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K2J 3Z7 stolarik@uottawa.ca Table of Contents ARTICLES More Slovaks in the U.S. than Czechs? Who Says? When and Where? Kenneth Janda ..... ..... .... .... ... ..... ........ ... .. ...... ...... ... ........................ 7 A Survey of Slovak Communities of the Byzantine Rite in Canada before they Received their Own Bishopric Daniel Cerny .. ... .... ... .. .. ...... ... .... ..... .. ... ........ ..... ... ... ..... ... ..... ..... .. 28 The Slovak Army on the Eastern Front During World War II Jan Rychlik ...... ................... ...... ... ... .... .... .. ....... ...... ... ... ........ ....... 61 Kicked Out: Czechoslovakia' s Postwar Policy Toward Ethnic Minorities and its Unintended Outcomes Marty Manor Mullins ....... .......... .... ... ......... .......... ............... ....... 81 Invoking the Nation, Strengthening Devotion: National Discourse at the Slovak National Pilgrimage Alexander Bie/icky ........ ................................... .. ...... .. .......... .... 105 LITERATURE Siberia: A Slovak Folk Tale R. Vladimir Baumgarten ..... ....... ...... ... ....... .................. ............ 133 REVIEWS Jozef Klempa, Maje skusenosti za svetovej vojny. M Mark Stolarik .......... .. .. ...... ........... ..... .......................... ........ 151 Rebekah Klein-Pejsova, Mapping Jewish Loyalties in Interwar Slovakia. Jan Lanicek .. .. .... ....... .. .. .. .. .. .. .......... .. ............................. .... .. .... 152 4 SLOVAKIA-2017 Paul Robert Magosci, With Their Backs to the Mountains. Keith P. Dyrud ......... ........ ......................................................... 156 Valerian Bystricky, Zahranicnopoliticke suvislosti vzniku Slovenskeho statu. Gregory C. Ference ......... .... .................................... .. ........... .... 15 8 Pal'o Carnogursky, Suboj s komunizmom. Jan Rychlik ..... .. ................................... ............................. ....... . 161 James Krapfl , Revolution with a human Face. Jura) Hocman ....... .................................................................... 166 Contributors ........................................... .... ..... ..... ........... ............... .. 169 Guidelines for Manuscripts .............. ............................................ ... 171 ARTICLES  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Front Matter, Slovakia, Vol. 43 (No. 80-81) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2017 https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/c97c679af730353a337e4d5f611ea38c.pdf 355a2abe7e3006d0f4e1a803db45e6b6 PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA Published By THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA ��SLOVAKIA VOLUMEXLIV 2019 NUMBERS 82-83 A scholarly annual devoted to the hi story, literature and cu lture of the Slovaks the world over Editor M. MARK STOLARIK University of Ottawa Ed itorial Board GREGO RY C. FERENCE Salisbury University ROBERT K. EV ANSON University of Mi ssouri JAMES R. FELAK University of Washington PETE R PETRO Un iversity of British Co lumbia CAROL S. LEFF University of Illinoi s PATRICIA KRAFCIK The Evergreen State Co ll ege Publisher Slovak League of America 205 Madison Street Passaic, NJ 07055 , USA Inquiries regarding subscriptions should be sent to the above address. The cost of a single issue is $10.00. Manuscripts for possible publication and books for review shou ld be sent to the editor at 22 Bren-Maur Road, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K2J 3Z7 stolarik@uottawa.ca ��Table of Contents ARTICLES Disputed Diversity: "Guardians of the Nation" and the Multilingual Urban Spaces of Kassa/Kos ice in the Second Half th of the 19 Century Frank Henschel .... .. ....... ...... ... ........ ...... ... .... .... .... .... ... .... .. .. .. .. ...... 7 The Transatlantic Slovak Question during the Interwar Years Michael Cude ... ........ ........... ... ...... ... .... ... ........ .. ... .. ..... .. .... .. .. .. .... 18 Imagining a Separate Slovakia : Anti-Communi st Slovak Exiles ' Struggle for an Independent Homeland Ellen L. Paul .. .. ... ........ ........ .. .. ...... .. .. .. ..... ............................... .. . 55 Slovak Emigres in the Reports of the Czechoslovak Ministry of Foreign Affairs- Actions against Ferdinand Durcansky and Jozef Kirschbaum ( 1961-1966/68) Petr Kubik ....................... .. .... .. ..... .. .. ... .... .... .... .. .. .... .. ...... .. ..... .... 72 Russophiles without Russia Vladimir Bauamgarten .............. ... ......... ............ .......... ... .... ..... ... 83 REVIEWS Tiinde Lengyelova, Zivot na s/'achtickom dvore Peter Mariassy ......... .. ............. ..... .... ............ .. ........ .... .. .. .... .. .. .. 133 Kenneth Janda, Th e Emperor and the Peasant M. Mark Stolarik .. .. .... .... .. .. ...................... ........... .. ................... 134 John Palka, My Slovakia, My Family Kenn eth Janda ........ ..... ........ ..... .... ..... ...... .... .... ... .. ...... .... ...... .... 136 Jan Hirka, Pod ochranou Marie Daniel Cerny .. ............ ... ........ ...... .. .... .. ...... .. ...... ....................... 140 �4 SLOV AKIA-2017 Michal Machacek, Gustav Husak Jozef Hyria ........... .................................................... ................ . 143 Contributors .............................................................................. 147 Guidelines for Manuscripts ..... .... .... ......................................... 148 �ARTICLES �� SLOVAKIA Published By THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA ��SLOVAKIA VOLUMEXLIV 2019 NUMBERS 82-83 A scholarly annual devoted to the hi story, literature and cu lture of the Slovaks the world over Editor M. MARK STOLARIK University of Ottawa Ed itorial Board GREGO RY C. FERENCE Salisbury University ROBERT K. EV ANSON University of Mi ssouri JAMES R. FELAK University of Washington PETE R PETRO Un iversity of British Co lumbia CAROL S. LEFF University of Illinoi s PATRICIA KRAFCIK The Evergreen State Co ll ege Publisher Slovak League of America 205 Madison Street Passaic, NJ 07055 , USA Inquiries regarding subscriptions should be sent to the above address. The cost of a single issue is $10.00. Manuscripts for possible publication and books for review shou ld be sent to the editor at 22 Bren-Maur Road, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K2J 3Z7 stolarik@uottawa.ca ��Table of Contents ARTICLES Disputed Diversity: "Guardians of the Nation" and the Multilingual Urban Spaces of Kassa/Kos ice in the Second Half th of the 19 Century Frank Henschel .... .. ....... ...... ... ........ ...... ... .... .... .... .... ... .... .. .. .. .. ...... 7 The Transatlantic Slovak Question during the Interwar Years Michael Cude ... ........ ........... ... ...... ... .... ... ........ .. ... .. ..... .. .... .. .. .. .... 18 Imagining a Separate Slovakia : Anti-Communi st Slovak Exiles ' Struggle for an Independent Homeland Ellen L. Paul .. .. ... ........ ........ .. .. ...... .. .. .. ..... ............................... .. . 55 Slovak Emigres in the Reports of the Czechoslovak Ministry of Foreign Affairs- Actions against Ferdinand Durcansky and Jozef Kirschbaum ( 1961-1966/68) Petr Kubik ....................... .. .... .. ..... .. .. ... .... .... .... .. .. .... .. ...... .. ..... .... 72 Russophiles without Russia Vladimir Bauamgarten .............. ... ......... ............ .......... ... .... ..... ... 83 REVIEWS Tiinde Lengyelova, Zivot na s/'achtickom dvore Peter Mariassy ......... .. ............. ..... .... ............ .. ........ .... .. .. .... .. .. .. 133 Kenneth Janda, Th e Emperor and the Peasant M. Mark Stolarik .. .. .... .... .. .. ...................... ........... .. ................... 134 John Palka, My Slovakia, My Family Kenn eth Janda ........ ..... ........ ..... .... ..... ...... .... .... ... .. ...... .... ...... .... 136 Jan Hirka, Pod ochranou Marie Daniel Cerny .. ............ ... ........ ...... .. .... .. ...... .. ...... ....................... 140 �4 SLOV AKIA-2017 Michal Machacek, Gustav Husak Jozef Hyria ........... .................................................... ................ . 143 Contributors .............................................................................. 147 Guidelines for Manuscripts ..... .... .... ......................................... 148 �ARTICLES �� Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 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 Published By THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA SLOVAKIA VOLUMEXLIV 2019 NUMBERS 82-83 A scholarly annual devoted to the hi story, literature and cu lture of the Slovaks the world over Editor M. MARK STOLARIK University of Ottawa Ed itorial Board GREGO RY C. FERENCE Salisbury University ROBERT K. EV ANSON University of Mi ssouri JAMES R. FELAK University of Washington PETE R PETRO Un iversity of British Co lumbia CAROL S. LEFF University of Illinoi s PATRICIA KRAFCIK The Evergreen State Co ll ege Publisher Slovak League of America 205 Madison Street Passaic, NJ 07055 , USA Inquiries regarding subscriptions should be sent to the above address. The cost of a single issue is $10.00. Manuscripts for possible publication and books for review shou ld be sent to the editor at 22 Bren-Maur Road, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K2J 3Z7 stolarik@uottawa.ca Table of Contents ARTICLES Disputed Diversity: "Guardians of the Nation" and the Multilingual Urban Spaces of Kassa/Kos ice in the Second Half th of the 19 Century Frank Henschel .... .. ....... ...... ... ........ ...... ... .... .... .... .... ... .... .. .. .. .. ...... 7 The Transatlantic Slovak Question during the Interwar Years Michael Cude ... ........ ........... ... ...... ... .... ... ........ .. ... .. ..... .. .... .. .. .. .... 18 Imagining a Separate Slovakia : Anti-Communi st Slovak Exiles ' Struggle for an Independent Homeland Ellen L. Paul .. .. ... ........ ........ .. .. ...... .. .. .. ..... ............................... .. . 55 Slovak Emigres in the Reports of the Czechoslovak Ministry of Foreign Affairs- Actions against Ferdinand Durcansky and Jozef Kirschbaum ( 1961-1966/68) Petr Kubik ....................... .. .... .. ..... .. .. ... .... .... .... .. .. .... .. ...... .. ..... .... 72 Russophiles without Russia Vladimir Bauamgarten .............. ... ......... ............ .......... ... .... ..... ... 83 REVIEWS Tiinde Lengyelova, Zivot na s/'achtickom dvore Peter Mariassy ......... .. ............. ..... .... ............ .. ........ .... .. .. .... .. .. .. 133 Kenneth Janda, Th e Emperor and the Peasant M. Mark Stolarik .. .. .... .... .. .. ...................... ........... .. ................... 134 John Palka, My Slovakia, My Family Kenn eth Janda ........ ..... ........ ..... .... ..... ...... .... .... ... .. ...... .... ...... .... 136 Jan Hirka, Pod ochranou Marie Daniel Cerny .. ............ ... ........ ...... .. .... .. ...... .. ...... ....................... 140 4 SLOV AKIA-2017 Michal Machacek, Gustav Husak Jozef Hyria ........... .................................................... ................ . 143 Contributors .............................................................................. 147 Guidelines for Manuscripts ..... .... .... ......................................... 148 ARTICLES  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Front Matter, Slovakia, Vol. 44 (No. 82-83) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2019 https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/d9af052793730953f4cc37b715bcab92.pdf 6ec3ea09b34a0213154f3e4436e95f9b PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA Published By THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA ��SLOVAKIA VOLUME XLV 2021 N UMBERS 84-85 A scholarl y annual devoted to the history, literature and culture of the Slovaks the world over Editor M. MARK STOLAR IK Uni versity of Ottawa Editorial Board ROB ERT K. EVAN SON Uni versity of Mi ssouri GR EGORY C. FERENCE Sali sbury Uni versity JAMES R. FELAK Uni versity of Washington PETER PETRO Uni versity of British Columbi a CA ROLS . LEFF Uni versity of Illi nois PATRI CIA KRA FC IK The Evergreen State Co llege Published by the Slova k League of America with the support of the Chair in Slova k History and C ulture at th e University of Ottawa 205 Madi son Street Passa ic, J 07055, USA Inquiries regarding subscriptions shou ld be sent to the above address. The cost of a single issue is$ I 0.00. Manuscripts fo r poss ibl e publicati on and books for rev iew should be sent to the editor at 22 Bren-Ma ur Road, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K2J 32 7 stolarik@uottawa.ca ��Table of Contents ARTICLES Milan Rastis lav Stefanik ( 1880-1919) : The Man Who Spoke to the Stars Michal Ksinan ...... ........ ..... .......... .... .... .... ... ... ..... ... .... ... ........ ...... .. 7 Envi sioning a Homeland : Carpatho-Rusyn Immigrants in the USA and the Czechoslovak Option Richard D. Custer .... ... .. .... .... ...... .......... .. .... ... ......... .. .. .... ........... 27 Reconsidering Slovak-A merican Religious Commitment: Thomas Bell 's Out ofthis Furnace in Historiographical Contex t Frederic Hale ...... ........ .. ....... ..... .... ............. ...... .............. ............ 53 On the Road to Nationalist Totalitarianism: Slovaki a in the Turmoi l of 1938 as Seen by the United States Foreign Service Roman Licko .. ..... ... ..... ... ... ..... ..... ..... .... ....... ....................... ... ..... 70 Picturing a Nation : Slovak Doc umentary Fi lm from its Birth Until 1950 Nicholas Hudac ... ........ ...... ..... .... ....... ... ...... ...... ... ..... ...... ...... ...... 92 "The Russians are In vad ing Us!" Presov, I 968 M. Mark Stolarik .. ........... ....... .... ...... .. ...... ...... ... ... ..... ... ..... .. ..... 121 REVIEWS Diana Duchonova, Palatin Mikulas Esterhazy Peter Mariassy ............... .... .. ......... ...... ............ .... ... ...... .... .... ... . I 5 I Zora Mintalova Zubercova, Ako sme kedysi i ili Lenka Stolarik ................. .................................................. ....... 153 �4 SLOV AKIA-2021 Daniela Kodajova et. al., Zivena: 150 rokov Spolku slovenskych i ien Edita Bosak .... ..... ................ ...... .............. .... .... .. .. .. ...... ..... .. ....... 154 Jan Raska, Czech Refi,gees in Cold War Canada M. Mark Stolarik ........ ......... ............ .. .... .... .... ............ .... .... .. .. .... 157 Miroslav Londak et. al. , Dubcek Marty Manor Mullins .. ..... .. .. ... .... ..... .. .... ..... .. .. ............... ...... .... 159 Miroslav Mojzita, Knaiko. Demes, Knai ko Ju raj Hocman ........ .. .... .. ......... ...... ... ......... ......... .. .... .... ... .... .... .. 162 Contributors ...... .............. ...... ..... .. .......... ............ .... ... ...... .......... 165 Guidelines for Manuscripts ....... ... ........ ........ ..... ................... .. .. 167 �ARTICLES �� SLOVAKIA Published By THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA ��SLOVAKIA VOLUME XLV 2021 N UMBERS 84-85 A scholarl y annual devoted to the history, literature and culture of the Slovaks the world over Editor M. MARK STOLAR IK Uni versity of Ottawa Editorial Board ROB ERT K. EVAN SON Uni versity of Mi ssouri GR EGORY C. FERENCE Sali sbury Uni versity JAMES R. FELAK Uni versity of Washington PETER PETRO Uni versity of British Columbi a CA ROLS . LEFF Uni versity of Illi nois PATRI CIA KRA FC IK The Evergreen State Co llege Published by the Slova k League of America with the support of the Chair in Slova k History and C ulture at th e University of Ottawa 205 Madi son Street Passa ic, J 07055, USA Inquiries regarding subscriptions shou ld be sent to the above address. The cost of a single issue is$ I 0.00. Manuscripts fo r poss ibl e publicati on and books for rev iew should be sent to the editor at 22 Bren-Ma ur Road, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K2J 32 7 stolarik@uottawa.ca ��Table of Contents ARTICLES Milan Rastis lav Stefanik ( 1880-1919) : The Man Who Spoke to the Stars Michal Ksinan ...... ........ ..... .......... .... .... .... ... ... ..... ... .... ... ........ ...... .. 7 Envi sioning a Homeland : Carpatho-Rusyn Immigrants in the USA and the Czechoslovak Option Richard D. Custer .... ... .. .... .... ...... .......... .. .... ... ......... .. .. .... ........... 27 Reconsidering Slovak-A merican Religious Commitment: Thomas Bell 's Out ofthis Furnace in Historiographical Contex t Frederic Hale ...... ........ .. ....... ..... .... ............. ...... .............. ............ 53 On the Road to Nationalist Totalitarianism: Slovaki a in the Turmoi l of 1938 as Seen by the United States Foreign Service Roman Licko .. ..... ... ..... ... ... ..... ..... ..... .... ....... ....................... ... ..... 70 Picturing a Nation : Slovak Doc umentary Fi lm from its Birth Until 1950 Nicholas Hudac ... ........ ...... ..... .... ....... ... ...... ...... ... ..... ...... ...... ...... 92 "The Russians are In vad ing Us!" Presov, I 968 M. Mark Stolarik .. ........... ....... .... ...... .. ...... ...... ... ... ..... ... ..... .. ..... 121 REVIEWS Diana Duchonova, Palatin Mikulas Esterhazy Peter Mariassy ............... .... .. ......... ...... ............ .... ... ...... .... .... ... . I 5 I Zora Mintalova Zubercova, Ako sme kedysi i ili Lenka Stolarik ................. .................................................. ....... 153 �4 SLOV AKIA-2021 Daniela Kodajova et. al., Zivena: 150 rokov Spolku slovenskych i ien Edita Bosak .... ..... ................ ...... .............. .... .... .. .. .. ...... ..... .. ....... 154 Jan Raska, Czech Refi,gees in Cold War Canada M. Mark Stolarik ........ ......... ............ .. .... .... .... ............ .... .... .. .. .... 157 Miroslav Londak et. al. , Dubcek Marty Manor Mullins .. ..... .. .. ... .... ..... .. .... ..... .. .. ............... ...... .... 159 Miroslav Mojzita, Knaiko. Demes, Knai ko Ju raj Hocman ........ .. .... .. ......... ...... ... ......... ......... .. .... .... ... .... .... .. 162 Contributors ...... .............. ...... ..... .. .......... ............ .... ... ...... .......... 165 Guidelines for Manuscripts ....... ... ........ ........ ..... ................... .. .. 167 �ARTICLES �� Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 2021, Vol. 45 Description An account of the resource Vol. 45 (No. 84-85), 2021. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2021 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document SLOVAKIA Published By THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA SLOVAKIA VOLUME XLV 2021 N UMBERS 84-85 A scholarl y annual devoted to the history, literature and culture of the Slovaks the world over Editor M. MARK STOLAR IK Uni versity of Ottawa Editorial Board ROB ERT K. EVAN SON Uni versity of Mi ssouri GR EGORY C. FERENCE Sali sbury Uni versity JAMES R. FELAK Uni versity of Washington PETER PETRO Uni versity of British Columbi a CA ROLS . LEFF Uni versity of Illi nois PATRI CIA KRA FC IK The Evergreen State Co llege Published by the Slova k League of America with the support of the Chair in Slova k History and C ulture at th e University of Ottawa 205 Madi son Street Passa ic, J 07055, USA Inquiries regarding subscriptions shou ld be sent to the above address. The cost of a single issue is$ I 0.00. Manuscripts fo r poss ibl e publicati on and books for rev iew should be sent to the editor at 22 Bren-Ma ur Road, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K2J 32 7 stolarik@uottawa.ca Table of Contents ARTICLES Milan Rastis lav Stefanik ( 1880-1919) : The Man Who Spoke to the Stars Michal Ksinan ...... ........ ..... .......... .... .... .... ... ... ..... ... .... ... ........ ...... .. 7 Envi sioning a Homeland : Carpatho-Rusyn Immigrants in the USA and the Czechoslovak Option Richard D. Custer .... ... .. .... .... ...... .......... .. .... ... ......... .. .. .... ........... 27 Reconsidering Slovak-A merican Religious Commitment: Thomas Bell 's Out ofthis Furnace in Historiographical Contex t Frederic Hale ...... ........ .. ....... ..... .... ............. ...... .............. ............ 53 On the Road to Nationalist Totalitarianism: Slovaki a in the Turmoi l of 1938 as Seen by the United States Foreign Service Roman Licko .. ..... ... ..... ... ... ..... ..... ..... .... ....... ....................... ... ..... 70 Picturing a Nation : Slovak Doc umentary Fi lm from its Birth Until 1950 Nicholas Hudac ... ........ ...... ..... .... ....... ... ...... ...... ... ..... ...... ...... ...... 92 "The Russians are In vad ing Us!" Presov, I 968 M. Mark Stolarik .. ........... ....... .... ...... .. ...... ...... ... ... ..... ... ..... .. ..... 121 REVIEWS Diana Duchonova, Palatin Mikulas Esterhazy Peter Mariassy ............... .... .. ......... ...... ............ .... ... ...... .... .... ... . I 5 I Zora Mintalova Zubercova, Ako sme kedysi i ili Lenka Stolarik ................. .................................................. ....... 153 4 SLOV AKIA-2021 Daniela Kodajova et. al., Zivena: 150 rokov Spolku slovenskych i ien Edita Bosak .... ..... ................ ...... .............. .... .... .. .. .. ...... ..... .. ....... 154 Jan Raska, Czech Refi,gees in Cold War Canada M. Mark Stolarik ........ ......... ............ .. .... .... .... ............ .... .... .. .. .... 157 Miroslav Londak et. al. , Dubcek Marty Manor Mullins .. ..... .. .. ... .... ..... .. .... ..... .. .. ............... ...... .... 159 Miroslav Mojzita, Knaiko. Demes, Knai ko Ju raj Hocman ........ .. .... .. ......... ...... ... ......... ......... .. .... .... ... .... .... .. 162 Contributors ...... .............. ...... ..... .. .......... ............ .... ... ...... .......... 165 Guidelines for Manuscripts ....... ... ........ ........ ..... ................... .. .. 167 ARTICLES  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Front Matter, Slovakia, Vol. 45 (No. 84-85) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2021 https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/289e982e1ea11932791357752174d95c.pdf 40d13f557c6a9506f09893826987ea60 PDF Text Text MARCH 1955 VOL. V NO . 1 ( 14) o,~:o STAT E U ~1 sl qr=-,~. J; T~ t _; :L\UG 16 J960 LIBRAR'V IN THIS ISSUE: HOW THE COMMUNISTS SEIZED S1LOVAKIA From the testimony of witnesses before the Select Committee on Communist Aggression of the House of Representatives 1. From the Special Report No . 8 2. Michael Galayda 3. Mr. and 4. Dr. Joseph Pauco Mr!l. Smrekovsky 5. Dr. Joseph Mikula 6. Philip A. Hrobak 7. .Dr. Joseph A. Mikus 8. Father Anton 9. Father Stephen Nahalka Botek 10. Jan Dobrotka 11. J ur 12. Reaction of Benes Czechs, Lettrich "Democrats" and Czecho- Detviansky Slovak Reds * • Edited and compiled by PHILIP - A. HROBAK Published by THE S LOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA �I' SLOVAKIA is prnblish d periodically by the Slovak Leaigue of Ameri ca, a cultural and civi c federation of Americans of Slovak descent. The chief purpose of SLOV A_KIA is to promote a better und,entanding and appreciation of the S lovak natio n and its long s truggl e for freedom and i.nd ependence. As Americans, memb er of the Slovak League o[ America firm ly believe that the Slovak nation, just as all n,ations, has an inherent and God-given right to freedom and inde,pend e nce. They are decli<'atecl to the cause of the Am erican way nf life, Slovak freedom and world peace, ::rnd are determ ·ned to oppose the plague of Co=unism and all other totalitarian political systems. Subscri•ption to SLOVAK IA is $1.00 per year in the U. S. A. - $2 .00 elsewhere. SLOVAKIA Box 150 MiclcIJetown , Pa. CORREC'l'ION - ln the pTevious issue of SLOVAKIA several mistakes were made inadvertently in the ,a rticle written by Dr. George W. Cesarich, "The Apo,s tles o.f Bogus Federa lism ." Please mak e the foll01wing cor,rection s : p,g. 68, first three lin,e,s shoul d r ead: "the, sufferings o,f subjugated nation s in the artificial .states which th e Croats an.cl the S lovak,s definitely an,d finall y r efus e to accept as theiT own", instead of " ... definitely anrl finally do ac cept as their own;" p,g. 69 , par 3, lin e -1, to read "is not true that these states have e v er corresponded to ," instead of "nev e r corres-ponded to;" pg. 73, par. 2. line 2, " unc onceivable" should read "i ncon ceivabl e." We regret the errors in printing and hope to avoid t h em in the future. P,r inted in the U. S. A. JEDNOTA PRESS Middletown , Pa. � MARCH 1955 VOL. V NO . 1 ( 14) o,~:o STAT E U ~1 sl qr=-,~. J; T~ t _; :L\UG 16 J960 LIBRAR'V IN THIS ISSUE: HOW THE COMMUNISTS SEIZED S1LOVAKIA From the testimony of witnesses before the Select Committee on Communist Aggression of the House of Representatives 1. From the Special Report No . 8 2. Michael Galayda 3. Mr. and 4. Dr. Joseph Pauco Mr!l. Smrekovsky 5. Dr. Joseph Mikula 6. Philip A. Hrobak 7. .Dr. Joseph A. Mikus 8. Father Anton 9. Father Stephen Nahalka Botek 10. Jan Dobrotka 11. J ur 12. Reaction of Benes Czechs, Lettrich "Democrats" and Czecho- Detviansky Slovak Reds * • Edited and compiled by PHILIP - A. HROBAK Published by THE S LOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA �I' SLOVAKIA is prnblish d periodically by the Slovak Leaigue of Ameri ca, a cultural and civi c federation of Americans of Slovak descent. The chief purpose of SLOV A_KIA is to promote a better und,entanding and appreciation of the S lovak natio n and its long s truggl e for freedom and i.nd ependence. As Americans, memb er of the Slovak League o[ America firm ly believe that the Slovak nation, just as all n,ations, has an inherent and God-given right to freedom and inde,pend e nce. They are decli<'atecl to the cause of the Am erican way nf life, Slovak freedom and world peace, ::rnd are determ ·ned to oppose the plague of Co=unism and all other totalitarian political systems. Subscri•ption to SLOVAK IA is $1.00 per year in the U. S. A. - $2 .00 elsewhere. SLOVAKIA Box 150 MiclcIJetown , Pa. CORREC'l'ION - ln the pTevious issue of SLOVAKIA several mistakes were made inadvertently in the ,a rticle written by Dr. George W. Cesarich, "The Apo,s tles o.f Bogus Federa lism ." Please mak e the foll01wing cor,rection s : p,g. 68, first three lin,e,s shoul d r ead: "the, sufferings o,f subjugated nation s in the artificial .states which th e Croats an.cl the S lovak,s definitely an,d finall y r efus e to accept as theiT own", instead of " ... definitely anrl finally do ac cept as their own;" p,g. 69 , par 3, lin e -1, to read "is not true that these states have e v er corresponded to ," instead of "nev e r corres-ponded to;" pg. 73, par. 2. line 2, " unc onceivable" should read "i ncon ceivabl e." We regret the errors in printing and hope to avoid t h em in the future. P,r inted in the U. S. A. JEDNOTA PRESS Middletown , Pa. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 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 MARCH 1955 VOL. V NO . 1 ( 14) o,~:o STAT E U ~1 sl qr=-,~. J; T~ t _; :L\UG 16 J960 LIBRAR'V IN THIS ISSUE: HOW THE COMMUNISTS SEIZED S1LOVAKIA From the testimony of witnesses before the Select Committee on Communist Aggression of the House of Representatives 1. From the Special Report No . 8 2. Michael Galayda 3. Mr. and 4. Dr. Joseph Pauco Mr!l. Smrekovsky 5. Dr. Joseph Mikula 6. Philip A. Hrobak 7. .Dr. Joseph A. Mikus 8. Father Anton 9. Father Stephen Nahalka Botek 10. Jan Dobrotka 11. J ur 12. Reaction of Benes Czechs, Lettrich "Democrats" and Czecho- Detviansky Slovak Reds * • Edited and compiled by PHILIP - A. HROBAK Published by THE S LOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA I' SLOVAKIA is prnblish d periodically by the Slovak Leaigue of Ameri ca, a cultural and civi c federation of Americans of Slovak descent. The chief purpose of SLOV A_KIA is to promote a better und,entanding and appreciation of the S lovak natio n and its long s truggl e for freedom and i.nd ependence. As Americans, memb er of the Slovak League o[ America firm ly believe that the Slovak nation, just as all n,ations, has an inherent and God-given right to freedom and inde,pend e nce. They are decli<'atecl to the cause of the Am erican way nf life, Slovak freedom and world peace, ::rnd are determ ·ned to oppose the plague of Co=unism and all other totalitarian political systems. Subscri•ption to SLOVAK IA is $1.00 per year in the U. S. A. - $2 .00 elsewhere. SLOVAKIA Box 150 MiclcIJetown , Pa. CORREC'l'ION - ln the pTevious issue of SLOVAKIA several mistakes were made inadvertently in the ,a rticle written by Dr. George W. Cesarich, "The Apo,s tles o.f Bogus Federa lism ." Please mak e the foll01wing cor,rection s : p,g. 68, first three lin,e,s shoul d r ead: "the, sufferings o,f subjugated nation s in the artificial .states which th e Croats an.cl the S lovak,s definitely an,d finall y r efus e to accept as theiT own", instead of " ... definitely anrl finally do ac cept as their own;" p,g. 69 , par 3, lin e -1, to read "is not true that these states have e v er corresponded to ," instead of "nev e r corres-ponded to;" pg. 73, par. 2. line 2, " unc onceivable" should read "i ncon ceivabl e." We regret the errors in printing and hope to avoid t h em in the future. P,r inted in the U. S. A. JEDNOTA PRESS Middletown , Pa.  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Front Matter, Slovakia, Vol. 5, No. 1 (14) 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/93e414fffd506459bf7780cefd5c472b.pdf 54815f0a3b47f0a4352806044a567894 PDF Text Text IN TID!-1. ISSUE: THE REV. STEPHEN FURDEK Remarks of the Hon . Alvin M. Bentley Memorandum of the 34th Congress of the Slovak League The Murder of Matus Cernak Professor Kerner's "CZECHOSLOVAKIA": History or Propaganda ? The Significance of Small Nations Czech Social Democrats and Red Espionage WHO SAID IT?: 62-96 * * * Edited and compi led by PHILIP A. HROBAK Published by THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA �\ : \' I SLO \ .AKlA ~s. 1mblishetl pei·iodically by the Slo,·ak League of .Arnel'ica, a cu]hll'al and ciYit fedel'ation of Ame1·icans of SloYak: descent. rl'he chief purpose of SLOYAKlA is to 1J1·omote a bettel' w1derntanding and aJJlJreciation o} the Slontk nation and its long struggle for fl'eedom and .i.J ulependence. As Ame1·i cam,, members of the Slontk League of Ame1·ica finnly beh eYe that the Slovak nation, just as all natiorn,, has an i_n hel'ent and God-given 1·ight to freedom and .i.J1dependence. !J.'hey al'e tledi<·ated to the cause of the Amel'ican \Yay of life, Slovak freedom and \\'Ol'lcl peaee arnl are detennined to oppose the plague ot Communism and all other totalih\_i-1ai1 lJOlitical systems. Subscription to SloYakia $LOO pe1· yea1· in the U. N. .A. - $2.00 elsewhere. Send subscriptions to: SLOVAKIA l3ox ·+50 Middletown, Pa. -------~------------------------Printed in the U . S. A. i EDN OT A: PR ES S M iddletown, P a. �SLOVAKIA Published quarterly by the Slovak VOL. V League of America JUNE-SEPTEMBER, 1955 NO. 2-3 (15-16 ) TEN YEARS AGO . ... I the Benes and Gottwald Czechs published report a bout the attempt and the Lettrjch Slovak "de• of the Soviet Union to i:ncorporate mocrats" celebrated the "libera• 1 Sub-Carpathian H.ussila into the So• tion" of Czecho-Slovak ia by Sta- v'iet Ukmine "was absolutely w ith. Jiu and his heroic armies. T<he out foundation. " "joyous, historic" event was cele· At t he same time Monsignor Jan orated for months. By the ,g1,ace Sramek, leaoer of the Czech Peo· of Stalin, Benes became president pie's Party and a member of Be· again; the Czech communists and nes's London government, sent a socialists ruled in Prague; and telegram to Marshal Stalin, telling t he Slovak National Council - him : " All Czecho-Slovaks are Lettrich's newborn "demoC'rats" filled with joy. The Soviet Union 's and Schmidke's Slovak commun· limitless sacrifices for our libera. ists reigned supreme in Bra• tion will never be forgotten ..... tislava. The people of the Czech Your gesture, naming Red Army lands .really were ,hap,py, we were units after Kosice and Presov, will told, but the Slovak nation was perpetuate the m e mory of the fight sorrowful and fearful of the fu· against the common enemy, this ture . Benes and 'h is Czechs had being the foundation of lasting a1ways promoted pro·SOV'iet, SO· brotherhood in arms." cialiistic policy and philosophy, Dr. Juraj Slavik, Slovak Judas whereas the S~ovaks had c onsi~t- and member of Benes's political ently and persistently opposed it. entourage, who as ambassador in As early as February 14, 1945, Washington somehow could not Jan Masaryk, broadcasting to Cze· I recognize known Reds in the Cze• cha-Slovakia from London, pro· cho-Slovak embassy, bubbled with claimed the Crimea Conference ·a unbridled joy: "Presov aga in I I i "triumph of allied statesmanship." breathes a free life. Kosice is fib. Czecho-Slovakia, he said, 'has no erated.. . . Slovakia and the Cze. serious international µrob l ems and cho-Slovak Republic shall remain "our lasting gratit,ude is due to eternally grateful to th e Red our Slav liberators, the Great Army." Powers, to Providence for putting Before leaving Britain, Dr. Edmankind's d estiny in the hands ward Benes, broadcasting from of Churchill , Roosevelt, and Sta- London to Czecho-Slovakia, said : fi n, and giving us Benes." "Do not allow yourselves to be A month earlier, Dr. Jan Papa- frightened by the Goebbels bolshenek, minister plenipotentiary and vik bogey ..... We have a treaty director of the information ser· of alliance with the Soviet Union , vice in New York of Benes's which we rate very highly and government-in-exile in London, told which we will always fulfill In the NEW YORK P OST that t-he spirit and letter, Just as the Soviet �2 SLOVAKIA Dr. Fedor Hodza - a Lettrich Union will do." Later, after -b eing welcomed in Moscow, Benes said: "de•m ocrat," member of the com"The road to Iiberated Czecho- munist-dominated National Front SloVTakia leads through Moscow. government of the Benes-Gottwald Soon the whole of Europe shall be coalition, but now in the USA, a member of the so-called Council of free." Dr. Hubert Ripka, member of Free Czecho-Slo vak-ia and the A£Bene/i's London government, told sembly of Captive European Naa fa!'ffivell press conference in tions, as well as of the InternaLondon that he did not consider t'.onal Pea-s ant Union - said bethe Western .A:lhles' apprehensions fore the provis'ional National Aschat his country mi,ght become a sembly in Prague, in 1945: "The vassal of the Soviet Un·i on were Sov,i et Union is our ally and our grounded. He said: "it is natural friend, and we are its ally and that Czecho-Slovakia should seek friends. Our friendship and alliance her security primarily in the is not based only on ideological friendship with the Soviet Union." ties. It is something more. It stems from political and geographical Dr. Joseph Lettrfoh, Slovak Jureality, from the depth of our das and Red collaborator now enhearts and from the living idea of joying freedom in tJhe USA, told Slavic unity." A. I. Goldberg of the NEW YORK 1:11MiES that "Russia has kept al I The Benes Czechs (e:enkl, tR.ipthe terms of the occupation treaty ka, Majer, Has·a l, Taborsky, Heivery fairly." The s·ame Lettrich dirich, etc.) and Slovak Judases who praised Stalin, the Red Army (•L ettri,ch, Papanek, Slavik, Hodza, of "libemtion," and the g,reat So- Kocvara, Mudry, Kvetko, etc.) beviet Union. Jleved that collaboration between Dr. Vlado Clementis, Slovak Red the UISSR and CzeC'ho-Slov,a kia who was a member of Lettrich's \W1S not only ,f easihle, but highly Slovak National Council ·a nd Be- desirable. They •believed that ne/i's communist-dominated Prague peaceful coexistence with the Reds government, broadcast over the was possible without the loss of Pl'ague l'adio on June 13, 1945, freedoms and rights. They proabout the "conditions of Czecho- moted the disastrous pro-Soviet Slovak seourity." Of course, there and anti-Slovak policy of Dr. Ed· could be no security wit:Jhout the ward Benes to the bitter end. Why Czecho-Slovak-Soviet Treaty of should they not ,b e considered re1!943. His address was published sponsible for the present terrible in the NrIDW YOR.KiSKY DIDNN1K plight of the Czech -a nd Slovak as the leading editorial on July 18, nations? And w·hy should they 1945. Dr. Jaroslav Stransky, Benes's presently be favored by our State minister now in the USA and glad Department, various agencies of to serve the FR>EE IDUROPE COM- U. S. Government (USIA, CIA, Mil'DTEE (Radio Free Europe), told j etc.), the Free Europe Committee a mass meeting in Most in 1945: . "We shall be eternally grateful to (1Rad10 Free Europe), ·and some of those who helped us, above all to our universities? Or must we beo-ur great Slav brother, the So- lieve that similar forces a.re enviet Union." trenched in these institutions? � IN TID!-1. ISSUE: THE REV. STEPHEN FURDEK Remarks of the Hon . Alvin M. Bentley Memorandum of the 34th Congress of the Slovak League The Murder of Matus Cernak Professor Kerner's "CZECHOSLOVAKIA": History or Propaganda ? The Significance of Small Nations Czech Social Democrats and Red Espionage WHO SAID IT?: 62-96 * * * Edited and compi led by PHILIP A. HROBAK Published by THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA �\ : \' I SLO \ .AKlA ~s. 1mblishetl pei·iodically by the Slo,·ak League of .Arnel'ica, a cu]hll'al and ciYit fedel'ation of Ame1·icans of SloYak: descent. rl'he chief purpose of SLOYAKlA is to 1J1·omote a bettel' w1derntanding and aJJlJreciation o} the Slontk nation and its long struggle for fl'eedom and .i.J ulependence. As Ame1·i cam,, members of the Slontk League of Ame1·ica finnly beh eYe that the Slovak nation, just as all natiorn,, has an i_n hel'ent and God-given 1·ight to freedom and .i.J1dependence. !J.'hey al'e tledi<·ated to the cause of the Amel'ican \Yay of life, Slovak freedom and \\'Ol'lcl peaee arnl are detennined to oppose the plague ot Communism and all other totalih\_i-1ai1 lJOlitical systems. Subscription to SloYakia $LOO pe1· yea1· in the U. N. .A. - $2.00 elsewhere. Send subscriptions to: SLOVAKIA l3ox ·+50 Middletown, Pa. -------~------------------------Printed in the U . S. A. i EDN OT A: PR ES S M iddletown, P a. �SLOVAKIA Published quarterly by the Slovak VOL. V League of America JUNE-SEPTEMBER, 1955 NO. 2-3 (15-16 ) TEN YEARS AGO . ... I the Benes and Gottwald Czechs published report a bout the attempt and the Lettrjch Slovak "de• of the Soviet Union to i:ncorporate mocrats" celebrated the "libera• 1 Sub-Carpathian H.ussila into the So• tion" of Czecho-Slovak ia by Sta- v'iet Ukmine "was absolutely w ith. Jiu and his heroic armies. T<he out foundation. " "joyous, historic" event was cele· At t he same time Monsignor Jan orated for months. By the ,g1,ace Sramek, leaoer of the Czech Peo· of Stalin, Benes became president pie's Party and a member of Be· again; the Czech communists and nes's London government, sent a socialists ruled in Prague; and telegram to Marshal Stalin, telling t he Slovak National Council - him : " All Czecho-Slovaks are Lettrich's newborn "demoC'rats" filled with joy. The Soviet Union 's and Schmidke's Slovak commun· limitless sacrifices for our libera. ists reigned supreme in Bra• tion will never be forgotten ..... tislava. The people of the Czech Your gesture, naming Red Army lands .really were ,hap,py, we were units after Kosice and Presov, will told, but the Slovak nation was perpetuate the m e mory of the fight sorrowful and fearful of the fu· against the common enemy, this ture . Benes and 'h is Czechs had being the foundation of lasting a1ways promoted pro·SOV'iet, SO· brotherhood in arms." cialiistic policy and philosophy, Dr. Juraj Slavik, Slovak Judas whereas the S~ovaks had c onsi~t- and member of Benes's political ently and persistently opposed it. entourage, who as ambassador in As early as February 14, 1945, Washington somehow could not Jan Masaryk, broadcasting to Cze· I recognize known Reds in the Cze• cha-Slovakia from London, pro· cho-Slovak embassy, bubbled with claimed the Crimea Conference ·a unbridled joy: "Presov aga in I I i "triumph of allied statesmanship." breathes a free life. Kosice is fib. Czecho-Slovakia, he said, 'has no erated.. . . Slovakia and the Cze. serious international µrob l ems and cho-Slovak Republic shall remain "our lasting gratit,ude is due to eternally grateful to th e Red our Slav liberators, the Great Army." Powers, to Providence for putting Before leaving Britain, Dr. Edmankind's d estiny in the hands ward Benes, broadcasting from of Churchill , Roosevelt, and Sta- London to Czecho-Slovakia, said : fi n, and giving us Benes." "Do not allow yourselves to be A month earlier, Dr. Jan Papa- frightened by the Goebbels bolshenek, minister plenipotentiary and vik bogey ..... We have a treaty director of the information ser· of alliance with the Soviet Union , vice in New York of Benes's which we rate very highly and government-in-exile in London, told which we will always fulfill In the NEW YORK P OST that t-he spirit and letter, Just as the Soviet �2 SLOVAKIA Dr. Fedor Hodza - a Lettrich Union will do." Later, after -b eing welcomed in Moscow, Benes said: "de•m ocrat," member of the com"The road to Iiberated Czecho- munist-dominated National Front SloVTakia leads through Moscow. government of the Benes-Gottwald Soon the whole of Europe shall be coalition, but now in the USA, a member of the so-called Council of free." Dr. Hubert Ripka, member of Free Czecho-Slo vak-ia and the A£Bene/i's London government, told sembly of Captive European Naa fa!'ffivell press conference in tions, as well as of the InternaLondon that he did not consider t'.onal Pea-s ant Union - said bethe Western .A:lhles' apprehensions fore the provis'ional National Aschat his country mi,ght become a sembly in Prague, in 1945: "The vassal of the Soviet Un·i on were Sov,i et Union is our ally and our grounded. He said: "it is natural friend, and we are its ally and that Czecho-Slovakia should seek friends. Our friendship and alliance her security primarily in the is not based only on ideological friendship with the Soviet Union." ties. It is something more. It stems from political and geographical Dr. Joseph Lettrfoh, Slovak Jureality, from the depth of our das and Red collaborator now enhearts and from the living idea of joying freedom in tJhe USA, told Slavic unity." A. I. Goldberg of the NEW YORK 1:11MiES that "Russia has kept al I The Benes Czechs (e:enkl, tR.ipthe terms of the occupation treaty ka, Majer, Has·a l, Taborsky, Heivery fairly." The s·ame Lettrich dirich, etc.) and Slovak Judases who praised Stalin, the Red Army (•L ettri,ch, Papanek, Slavik, Hodza, of "libemtion," and the g,reat So- Kocvara, Mudry, Kvetko, etc.) beviet Union. Jleved that collaboration between Dr. Vlado Clementis, Slovak Red the UISSR and CzeC'ho-Slov,a kia who was a member of Lettrich's \W1S not only ,f easihle, but highly Slovak National Council ·a nd Be- desirable. They •believed that ne/i's communist-dominated Prague peaceful coexistence with the Reds government, broadcast over the was possible without the loss of Pl'ague l'adio on June 13, 1945, freedoms and rights. They proabout the "conditions of Czecho- moted the disastrous pro-Soviet Slovak seourity." Of course, there and anti-Slovak policy of Dr. Ed· could be no security wit:Jhout the ward Benes to the bitter end. Why Czecho-Slovak-Soviet Treaty of should they not ,b e considered re1!943. His address was published sponsible for the present terrible in the NrIDW YOR.KiSKY DIDNN1K plight of the Czech -a nd Slovak as the leading editorial on July 18, nations? And w·hy should they 1945. Dr. Jaroslav Stransky, Benes's presently be favored by our State minister now in the USA and glad Department, various agencies of to serve the FR>EE IDUROPE COM- U. S. Government (USIA, CIA, Mil'DTEE (Radio Free Europe), told j etc.), the Free Europe Committee a mass meeting in Most in 1945: . "We shall be eternally grateful to (1Rad10 Free Europe), ·and some of those who helped us, above all to our universities? Or must we beo-ur great Slav brother, the So- lieve that similar forces a.re enviet Union." trenched in these institutions? � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to 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 IN TID!-1. ISSUE: THE REV. STEPHEN FURDEK Remarks of the Hon . Alvin M. Bentley Memorandum of the 34th Congress of the Slovak League The Murder of Matus Cernak Professor Kerner's "CZECHOSLOVAKIA": History or Propaganda ? The Significance of Small Nations Czech Social Democrats and Red Espionage WHO SAID IT?: 62-96 * * * Edited and compi led by PHILIP A. HROBAK Published by THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA \ : \' I SLO \ .AKlA ~s. 1mblishetl pei·iodically by the Slo,·ak League of .Arnel'ica, a cu]hll'al and ciYit fedel'ation of Ame1·icans of SloYak: descent. rl'he chief purpose of SLOYAKlA is to 1J1·omote a bettel' w1derntanding and aJJlJreciation o} the Slontk nation and its long struggle for fl'eedom and .i.J ulependence. As Ame1·i cam,, members of the Slontk League of Ame1·ica finnly beh eYe that the Slovak nation, just as all natiorn,, has an i_n hel'ent and God-given 1·ight to freedom and .i.J1dependence. !J.'hey al'e tledi<·ated to the cause of the Amel'ican \Yay of life, Slovak freedom and \\'Ol'lcl peaee arnl are detennined to oppose the plague ot Communism and all other totalih\_i-1ai1 lJOlitical systems. Subscription to SloYakia $LOO pe1· yea1· in the U. N. .A. - $2.00 elsewhere. Send subscriptions to: SLOVAKIA l3ox ·+50 Middletown, Pa. -------~------------------------Printed in the U . S. A. i EDN OT A: PR ES S M iddletown, P a. SLOVAKIA Published quarterly by the Slovak VOL. V League of America JUNE-SEPTEMBER, 1955 NO. 2-3 (15-16 ) TEN YEARS AGO . ... I the Benes and Gottwald Czechs published report a bout the attempt and the Lettrjch Slovak "de• of the Soviet Union to i:ncorporate mocrats" celebrated the "libera• 1 Sub-Carpathian H.ussila into the So• tion" of Czecho-Slovak ia by Sta- v'iet Ukmine "was absolutely w ith. Jiu and his heroic armies. T<he out foundation. " "joyous, historic" event was cele· At t he same time Monsignor Jan orated for months. By the ,g1,ace Sramek, leaoer of the Czech Peo· of Stalin, Benes became president pie's Party and a member of Be· again; the Czech communists and nes's London government, sent a socialists ruled in Prague; and telegram to Marshal Stalin, telling t he Slovak National Council - him : " All Czecho-Slovaks are Lettrich's newborn "demoC'rats" filled with joy. The Soviet Union 's and Schmidke's Slovak commun· limitless sacrifices for our libera. ists reigned supreme in Bra• tion will never be forgotten ..... tislava. The people of the Czech Your gesture, naming Red Army lands .really were ,hap,py, we were units after Kosice and Presov, will told, but the Slovak nation was perpetuate the m e mory of the fight sorrowful and fearful of the fu· against the common enemy, this ture . Benes and 'h is Czechs had being the foundation of lasting a1ways promoted pro·SOV'iet, SO· brotherhood in arms." cialiistic policy and philosophy, Dr. Juraj Slavik, Slovak Judas whereas the S~ovaks had c onsi~t- and member of Benes's political ently and persistently opposed it. entourage, who as ambassador in As early as February 14, 1945, Washington somehow could not Jan Masaryk, broadcasting to Cze· I recognize known Reds in the Cze• cha-Slovakia from London, pro· cho-Slovak embassy, bubbled with claimed the Crimea Conference ·a unbridled joy: "Presov aga in I I i "triumph of allied statesmanship." breathes a free life. Kosice is fib. Czecho-Slovakia, he said, 'has no erated.. . . Slovakia and the Cze. serious international µrob l ems and cho-Slovak Republic shall remain "our lasting gratit,ude is due to eternally grateful to th e Red our Slav liberators, the Great Army." Powers, to Providence for putting Before leaving Britain, Dr. Edmankind's d estiny in the hands ward Benes, broadcasting from of Churchill , Roosevelt, and Sta- London to Czecho-Slovakia, said : fi n, and giving us Benes." "Do not allow yourselves to be A month earlier, Dr. Jan Papa- frightened by the Goebbels bolshenek, minister plenipotentiary and vik bogey ..... We have a treaty director of the information ser· of alliance with the Soviet Union , vice in New York of Benes's which we rate very highly and government-in-exile in London, told which we will always fulfill In the NEW YORK P OST that t-he spirit and letter, Just as the Soviet 2 SLOVAKIA Dr. Fedor Hodza - a Lettrich Union will do." Later, after -b eing welcomed in Moscow, Benes said: "de•m ocrat," member of the com"The road to Iiberated Czecho- munist-dominated National Front SloVTakia leads through Moscow. government of the Benes-Gottwald Soon the whole of Europe shall be coalition, but now in the USA, a member of the so-called Council of free." Dr. Hubert Ripka, member of Free Czecho-Slo vak-ia and the A£Bene/i's London government, told sembly of Captive European Naa fa!'ffivell press conference in tions, as well as of the InternaLondon that he did not consider t'.onal Pea-s ant Union - said bethe Western .A:lhles' apprehensions fore the provis'ional National Aschat his country mi,ght become a sembly in Prague, in 1945: "The vassal of the Soviet Un·i on were Sov,i et Union is our ally and our grounded. He said: "it is natural friend, and we are its ally and that Czecho-Slovakia should seek friends. Our friendship and alliance her security primarily in the is not based only on ideological friendship with the Soviet Union." ties. It is something more. It stems from political and geographical Dr. Joseph Lettrfoh, Slovak Jureality, from the depth of our das and Red collaborator now enhearts and from the living idea of joying freedom in tJhe USA, told Slavic unity." A. I. Goldberg of the NEW YORK 1:11MiES that "Russia has kept al I The Benes Czechs (e:enkl, tR.ipthe terms of the occupation treaty ka, Majer, Has·a l, Taborsky, Heivery fairly." The s·ame Lettrich dirich, etc.) and Slovak Judases who praised Stalin, the Red Army (•L ettri,ch, Papanek, Slavik, Hodza, of "libemtion," and the g,reat So- Kocvara, Mudry, Kvetko, etc.) beviet Union. Jleved that collaboration between Dr. Vlado Clementis, Slovak Red the UISSR and CzeC'ho-Slov,a kia who was a member of Lettrich's \W1S not only ,f easihle, but highly Slovak National Council ·a nd Be- desirable. They •believed that ne/i's communist-dominated Prague peaceful coexistence with the Reds government, broadcast over the was possible without the loss of Pl'ague l'adio on June 13, 1945, freedoms and rights. They proabout the "conditions of Czecho- moted the disastrous pro-Soviet Slovak seourity." Of course, there and anti-Slovak policy of Dr. Ed· could be no security wit:Jhout the ward Benes to the bitter end. Why Czecho-Slovak-Soviet Treaty of should they not ,b e considered re1!943. His address was published sponsible for the present terrible in the NrIDW YOR.KiSKY DIDNN1K plight of the Czech -a nd Slovak as the leading editorial on July 18, nations? And w·hy should they 1945. Dr. Jaroslav Stransky, Benes's presently be favored by our State minister now in the USA and glad Department, various agencies of to serve the FR>EE IDUROPE COM- U. S. Government (USIA, CIA, Mil'DTEE (Radio Free Europe), told j etc.), the Free Europe Committee a mass meeting in Most in 1945: . "We shall be eternally grateful to (1Rad10 Free Europe), ·and some of those who helped us, above all to our universities? Or must we beo-ur great Slav brother, the So- lieve that similar forces a.re enviet Union." trenched in these institutions?  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Front Matter, Slovakia, Vol. 5, No. 2-3 (15-16) 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/0bc301038cf82cccbb95f298f39f3f3e.pdf c8a6e974fab72cceddd5eba2f36fa9c7 PDF Text Text \t OL. V DECEMBER , · 1955 IN THIS ISSUE: ??? "Truth Dollars"??? Th e Failur es o f C o mmunist Politi cs in Slovakia ( ' L ettri c h' s Hist o r y o f Slovakia The, Slovaks and Slavonic Civilization Ben es' s· Trip to Moscow and Cz ec ho-Slov ak Propaga nd a l( ern er's ·"Czechoslovakia": Cast les of Slovakia: WHO S AID IT ? - History or Propag a nda ? Liptovsky H ra dok 54 * * * . Ed ited and comp il ed by PHILIP A. HROBAK Publi s h ed by TH E SLOVAK L E AGU E O F AME1R ICA NO. 4 ( 17 ) �SLOVAKIA is' published periodically by the Slovak League of America, a cultural and civic federation of Americans of Slovak descent. The chief purpose of SLOVAKIA is to promote a better understanding and appreciation of the Slovak nation and its long struggle for freedom and independence. As Americans, members of the Slovak League of America firmly believe that the Slovak nation, just as all nations, has an inherent and God-given right to freedom and independence. They are dedicated to the cause of the American way of life, Slovak freedom and world peace and are determined to oppose the plague of Communism and all other totalitarian political systems. Subscription to Slovakia $1.00 per year in the U . S. A. - $2.00 elsewhere. Send subscriptions to: SLOVAKIA Box 150 Middletown, Pa. Printed in the U. S. A. JEDNOTA PRESS Middletown, Pa, � \t OL. V DECEMBER , · 1955 IN THIS ISSUE: ??? "Truth Dollars"??? Th e Failur es o f C o mmunist Politi cs in Slovakia ( ' L ettri c h' s Hist o r y o f Slovakia The, Slovaks and Slavonic Civilization Ben es' s· Trip to Moscow and Cz ec ho-Slov ak Propaga nd a l( ern er's ·"Czechoslovakia": Cast les of Slovakia: WHO S AID IT ? - History or Propag a nda ? Liptovsky H ra dok 54 * * * . Ed ited and comp il ed by PHILIP A. HROBAK Publi s h ed by TH E SLOVAK L E AGU E O F AME1R ICA NO. 4 ( 17 ) �SLOVAKIA is' published periodically by the Slovak League of America, a cultural and civic federation of Americans of Slovak descent. The chief purpose of SLOVAKIA is to promote a better understanding and appreciation of the Slovak nation and its long struggle for freedom and independence. As Americans, members of the Slovak League of America firmly believe that the Slovak nation, just as all nations, has an inherent and God-given right to freedom and independence. They are dedicated to the cause of the American way of life, Slovak freedom and world peace and are determined to oppose the plague of Communism and all other totalitarian political systems. Subscription to Slovakia $1.00 per year in the U . S. A. - $2.00 elsewhere. Send subscriptions to: SLOVAKIA Box 150 Middletown, Pa. Printed in the U. S. A. JEDNOTA PRESS Middletown, Pa, � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 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 \t OL. V DECEMBER , · 1955 IN THIS ISSUE: ??? "Truth Dollars"??? Th e Failur es o f C o mmunist Politi cs in Slovakia ( ' L ettri c h' s Hist o r y o f Slovakia The, Slovaks and Slavonic Civilization Ben es' s· Trip to Moscow and Cz ec ho-Slov ak Propaga nd a l( ern er's ·"Czechoslovakia": Cast les of Slovakia: WHO S AID IT ? - History or Propag a nda ? Liptovsky H ra dok 54 * * * . Ed ited and comp il ed by PHILIP A. HROBAK Publi s h ed by TH E SLOVAK L E AGU E O F AME1R ICA NO. 4 ( 17 ) SLOVAKIA is' published periodically by the Slovak League of America, a cultural and civic federation of Americans of Slovak descent. The chief purpose of SLOVAKIA is to promote a better understanding and appreciation of the Slovak nation and its long struggle for freedom and independence. As Americans, members of the Slovak League of America firmly believe that the Slovak nation, just as all nations, has an inherent and God-given right to freedom and independence. They are dedicated to the cause of the American way of life, Slovak freedom and world peace and are determined to oppose the plague of Communism and all other totalitarian political systems. Subscription to Slovakia $1.00 per year in the U . S. A. - $2.00 elsewhere. Send subscriptions to: SLOVAKIA Box 150 Middletown, Pa. Printed in the U. S. A. JEDNOTA PRESS Middletown, Pa,  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Front 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/fed6a7427845d9eafd3d4e7ad9830efd.pdf de3ae01b6ed6bfffa03e8f8c2fbf95e5 PDF Text Text VOL. VI MARCH, 1956 NO. 1 (18) IN THIS ISSUE: "MEMOIRS OF DR. EDUARD BENES" - R eview Louis Stur Centennial Stur: Father of Modern Slovak N ation a lism Stur's Group in th e Servic e of the P eople Radio Fr ee Europe (Reprint from "FACTS FORUM " ) Kerner's "Czechoslovakia": History or Propaganda? WHO SAID IT : 16 * * * Edited and· compi l ed by PHILIP A. HROBAK S LO VA KIA Box 150 Middletown , Pa . • Published by THE - SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA GANSER LIBRARY M!LLERSV1LLE Si.ATE COLLEGE 'MlLLERSVILLE, PA 17551 �JIRI (GEORGE) BRADA author of the article on RAD IO FRE>E EUROPE, which was publi~h od in the "FACTS FQJRIUM" (Dallas, Texas; $2.00 per annum) and is reprinted in this issue. of the "SLOV,A KIA," was born of CZECH parents in Brno, Moravia (,Czecho-Slovakia), on March 8, 1923. He is a student of psychology and sociology, and is well versed i,n several languages. During the years of the Nazi occupation, Brada worked in a factory and a lso managed to do some studying at the Englis:h Institute in Brno and the University of Rostock. Unlike many other Cz echs of his age, he never joined the Nazi Party, nor any of the organizations which upon the defeat of Nazi Germany, were dec lared to be fascist either by the Allies, or the postwar government of Czecho-Slovakia. After the war, Brada studied history, philosophy and law at the University of Brno. When the Czech Reels se.izecl a ll power in CzechoSlovakia, , in February, 194 , he was expelled from the university by the Czech Communist Action Committee and dec lai,e.cl ineligible for study at any otJher school behind the Iron Curtain. Threatened with iirrest, after he refused to become. an informer for the Czech Communist government, Brada illegally crossed the Czech-Austrian border, October 2, 1948. Since January, 1949, he has been active in several refugee organizations in Germany. From May till July 1951, he was employed by RAD·IO FREE EUROPE, as a reference assistant and librarian. At present he. is ,a journalist in Germany. Brada vigorously opposed -socialism and communism. In his testimony for the Committee on Communist Aggression , I.. S. House of Representatives (Hon. Charles J. Kersten, chairman), of June 28, 1954 , Brada mad,e a number of statements which wa.rrant the attention o[ thoughtful a,ncl a lert Americans . For example, M r . Brada made the serious dharge that "the Amer ican Int ell igence Servi c e (CIC and CIA ) is not interest e d in invest igat ing anyth ing about th e communist system." ' 'The American authorities," Bracla testified, "take as source of information not the opinions of the a,nti-communist refugees but the communist radio and pne.ss -in the East . . . they swallow every communist swi ndle and show to the East clearly tha.t they a lso are eit,he-r unint-elligent enough to be misled or are communist-dominated . . ." "The center of the communist world conspi~·acy," sajcl Brada, concluding his sworn testimony for the Kersten Committee, "seems thus to be situated in the West, in all these radio stations, as the VOICE OF A'MERLOA (,a nd) RAID IO :FlRIDE EUIROPE, the CIA and the CIC, in the western crypto-communist press and radio , in the CR!USADE l•'OR FREEOOM, and F'REE EUROPE, INC."' 'Dhe revelations of Jifi Bracla in the 'FACTS FORUM" are not entirely ne w to !Jhe readers of "SLOVAKIA" and the monthly " SLOVAK NEJWrSLETTER" which are published by the Slovak League of America. TiJley fu ll y support and su bstantiate what has been written in the two per iodicals rubout Radio Free Europe and the Voice of America. Again we urge our readers: ASK YOUR SENATORS AND YOUR REPRESENTATIVES T O DEMAND AN INVESnGATION OF RADIO FREE EUIROBE AND THE VO ICE OF AMEJUCA nY co:--.;. GRESS, ES.PEClA.LLY THEIH ··C~EC'HO, LOVAK" DIVISIO'.\IS 1 Printed in the U. S. A. �SLOV AKIA Published quarterly by the Slovak League of America MARCH, 1956 VOL. VI "HE TRUSTED THE NO. 1 (18) RUS- foreign policy in his country - SIANS" is the title of the r eview may have in at least some measure written {The New York Times Book contributed to the eventual downReview, March 4, 1956) by Mr. fall of Czecho-Slovakia. The book, it is true, is didactic Gordon A. Craig, professor of History at Princeton University, about in tone quite laborious in style, the "MEMOIRS OF DR. EDUARD freq uently repetitious, but it is not BEJNES," which were translated "almost devoid of personal anecfrom the Czech by Godfrey Lias dotes or even personal judgments," (346 p.p.) and published by the as Mr. Craig states. In fact, it is Houghton Mifflin Company of Bos- a record of almost nothing else but Benes's personal judgments (Benes ton. The book sells for $7.50. According to Mr. Craig, Mr. Be- always knew, thought, foresaw, nes and T. G. Masaryk "laid the decided, recommended, etc.). In Mr. Craig's opinion, Dr. Benes fo undations of free "Czecho-Slovakia," but mentions n o thing about may have been the "chief victim the socialistic state they promoted of Munich," but that others were from the outset. Gen. Milan R- i:§te- less "chief" victims is, I believe, fanik, also one of the founders, is questionable. He says that "levity, completely forgotten. At Geneva egotism, unscrupulousness anlll cri(League of Nations), Benes was minal ignorance" are among the "an indefatigable worker for the mildest of the terms used by Benes rights of the lesser nations." Mr. to characterize the ,p olicy of the Craig, it seems, knows nothing Western powers before Munich, but about the fact that Benes denied the same terms may be used, and the existence of the Slovak nation, probably more rightly, to characw it ho u t which Czecho-Slovakia terize Benes and his policies. would never have come into exist- Benes lambasts the Western ence; and if Mr. Craig really did Powers who created and financed a little research, he might !ind it Czecho-Slovakia (which did not difficult to name the " lesser even pay her debt to the United nations" for which Benes fought States), but in contrast, as Mr. so indefatigably. For example, what Craig admits, "is almost comdid he do or say about the "lesser pletely uncritical of Soviet policy nations" which were gobbled up in the same years." Mr. Craig does not attempt to explain this attitude by the Soviet Union ? Munich, we are told, was forced of Dr. Benes; it seems he is comupon Benes; there was nothing he pletely unaware of the fact that could do about it. Ten years later, Benes, too, promoted materialistic however, after Czecho-Slovakia had socialism. The Soviet Union, as soon as regained her freedom, Benes once again was forced to see his country Benes succeeded in getting it into conquered by totalitarianism. Mr. the League of Nations, was, accordCr aig does not consider the :possibi- , ing to Benes, .t he on ly major power lity that the policies of Dr. Benes that sought consistently to mainhimself - who was responsible for tain the princtple of collective �2 SLOVAKIA security and that, until Munich, remained true to its treaty obligations. With Czecho-Slovakia, as well as other countries? And what were these treaty obligations? Mr. Craig preferred not to expand on this subject. Benes did not criticize Soviet policy before Munich and could only ,p raise it after, because his becoming president again depended on Stalin. Nothing else mattered. Benes was obsessed with the idea that he had to revenge himself on all who opposed his socialistic policies in the past and tried to embarrass him. With the help of Stalin and, of course, the other members of the victorious United Nations, Benes got what he wanted. At the expense of the Slovak and Czech nations! The accounts of Benes's wartime discussions with Roosevelt, Eden, Stalin and other Soviet diplomats, and statesmen - printed in notes and in the appendices - are, as Craig describes it, "perhaps the meatiest part of this book." And Benes did rely heavily on the Soviet Union ,a nd believed in it, because he was a part of the policy of the Soviet Union, even though most historians and reviewers of books fail to recognize this fact. Benes boasted that he knew the Russians and the Soviet Union very well; and, of course, he always knew what he was doing and where he was going; he advised Great Britain, the United States, the Soviet Union, France, etc.; no one knew anything better than Benes when it came to politics; he was the little man who always had a plan, always the GREAT "democratic'' statesman, diplomat, politician, and international lawyer! How else could Czecho-Slovakia end than it did? After the Munich debacle and the capitulation to •Hitler, which he. did not even refer to parliament, Benes simply placed the blame for every- thing on the Western Powers, resigned and cowardly fled his country to let others sweat it out; then in 1945 he returned behind Soviet bayonets to ac~use all members of the "protectorate" Czech Government and of the independent State of Slovakia of collaboration with the Nazis and treason. As far as Benes was concerned, he was still "legally" the ,president, CzechoSlovakia never ceased to exist as such, Munich never "legally" happened, the Slovaks had no right to declare their country independent, and international law was only what Benes interpreted it to be. That was the incomparable Benes! The Memoirs of Dr. Eduard Benes, like his other published works, are to all intents and ,purposes meant to justify everything that Dr. Benes did, even if, in fact, it meant rendering a gross disservice to democracy and betraying not only his own people, the Czechs, but even the Slovaks and other nations as well to the men of the Kremlin. With Hitler, Stalin, and Mussolini the State was supreme. And so it was with Benes, even though he promoted the ideology of Godless, materialistic socialism in a less crude and violent fashion: the end he sought was the same. His MEMOIRS and various other works prove that, even though less eloquently and forcefully than does the "end of the road" Czecho-.Slovakia reached under his guidance. In his review, Mr. Craig does not mention that the very s am e MEMOIRS OF DR. EDUARD BENES, translated by Godfrey Lias, were first .published in 1954 by George Allen & Unwin Ltd. (London). The readers of the Times ·Book Review may, therefore, even as I did, purchase a book that they already have, a1isuming that it is an additional volume of Dr. Benes's Memoirs. Did Mr. Craig know that? - P.A. H. � VOL. VI MARCH, 1956 NO. 1 (18) IN THIS ISSUE: "MEMOIRS OF DR. EDUARD BENES" - R eview Louis Stur Centennial Stur: Father of Modern Slovak N ation a lism Stur's Group in th e Servic e of the P eople Radio Fr ee Europe (Reprint from "FACTS FORUM " ) Kerner's "Czechoslovakia": History or Propaganda? WHO SAID IT : 16 * * * Edited and· compi l ed by PHILIP A. HROBAK S LO VA KIA Box 150 Middletown , Pa . • Published by THE - SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA GANSER LIBRARY M!LLERSV1LLE Si.ATE COLLEGE 'MlLLERSVILLE, PA 17551 �JIRI (GEORGE) BRADA author of the article on RAD IO FRE>E EUROPE, which was publi~h od in the "FACTS FQJRIUM" (Dallas, Texas; $2.00 per annum) and is reprinted in this issue. of the "SLOV,A KIA," was born of CZECH parents in Brno, Moravia (,Czecho-Slovakia), on March 8, 1923. He is a student of psychology and sociology, and is well versed i,n several languages. During the years of the Nazi occupation, Brada worked in a factory and a lso managed to do some studying at the Englis:h Institute in Brno and the University of Rostock. Unlike many other Cz echs of his age, he never joined the Nazi Party, nor any of the organizations which upon the defeat of Nazi Germany, were dec lared to be fascist either by the Allies, or the postwar government of Czecho-Slovakia. After the war, Brada studied history, philosophy and law at the University of Brno. When the Czech Reels se.izecl a ll power in CzechoSlovakia, , in February, 194 , he was expelled from the university by the Czech Communist Action Committee and dec lai,e.cl ineligible for study at any otJher school behind the Iron Curtain. Threatened with iirrest, after he refused to become. an informer for the Czech Communist government, Brada illegally crossed the Czech-Austrian border, October 2, 1948. Since January, 1949, he has been active in several refugee organizations in Germany. From May till July 1951, he was employed by RAD·IO FREE EUROPE, as a reference assistant and librarian. At present he. is ,a journalist in Germany. Brada vigorously opposed -socialism and communism. In his testimony for the Committee on Communist Aggression , I.. S. House of Representatives (Hon. Charles J. Kersten, chairman), of June 28, 1954 , Brada mad,e a number of statements which wa.rrant the attention o[ thoughtful a,ncl a lert Americans . For example, M r . Brada made the serious dharge that "the Amer ican Int ell igence Servi c e (CIC and CIA ) is not interest e d in invest igat ing anyth ing about th e communist system." ' 'The American authorities," Bracla testified, "take as source of information not the opinions of the a,nti-communist refugees but the communist radio and pne.ss -in the East . . . they swallow every communist swi ndle and show to the East clearly tha.t they a lso are eit,he-r unint-elligent enough to be misled or are communist-dominated . . ." "The center of the communist world conspi~·acy," sajcl Brada, concluding his sworn testimony for the Kersten Committee, "seems thus to be situated in the West, in all these radio stations, as the VOICE OF A'MERLOA (,a nd) RAID IO :FlRIDE EUIROPE, the CIA and the CIC, in the western crypto-communist press and radio , in the CR!USADE l•'OR FREEOOM, and F'REE EUROPE, INC."' 'Dhe revelations of Jifi Bracla in the 'FACTS FORUM" are not entirely ne w to !Jhe readers of "SLOVAKIA" and the monthly " SLOVAK NEJWrSLETTER" which are published by the Slovak League of America. TiJley fu ll y support and su bstantiate what has been written in the two per iodicals rubout Radio Free Europe and the Voice of America. Again we urge our readers: ASK YOUR SENATORS AND YOUR REPRESENTATIVES T O DEMAND AN INVESnGATION OF RADIO FREE EUIROBE AND THE VO ICE OF AMEJUCA nY co:--.;. GRESS, ES.PEClA.LLY THEIH ··C~EC'HO, LOVAK" DIVISIO'.\IS 1 Printed in the U. S. A. �SLOV AKIA Published quarterly by the Slovak League of America MARCH, 1956 VOL. VI "HE TRUSTED THE NO. 1 (18) RUS- foreign policy in his country - SIANS" is the title of the r eview may have in at least some measure written {The New York Times Book contributed to the eventual downReview, March 4, 1956) by Mr. fall of Czecho-Slovakia. The book, it is true, is didactic Gordon A. Craig, professor of History at Princeton University, about in tone quite laborious in style, the "MEMOIRS OF DR. EDUARD freq uently repetitious, but it is not BEJNES," which were translated "almost devoid of personal anecfrom the Czech by Godfrey Lias dotes or even personal judgments," (346 p.p.) and published by the as Mr. Craig states. In fact, it is Houghton Mifflin Company of Bos- a record of almost nothing else but Benes's personal judgments (Benes ton. The book sells for $7.50. According to Mr. Craig, Mr. Be- always knew, thought, foresaw, nes and T. G. Masaryk "laid the decided, recommended, etc.). In Mr. Craig's opinion, Dr. Benes fo undations of free "Czecho-Slovakia," but mentions n o thing about may have been the "chief victim the socialistic state they promoted of Munich," but that others were from the outset. Gen. Milan R- i:§te- less "chief" victims is, I believe, fanik, also one of the founders, is questionable. He says that "levity, completely forgotten. At Geneva egotism, unscrupulousness anlll cri(League of Nations), Benes was minal ignorance" are among the "an indefatigable worker for the mildest of the terms used by Benes rights of the lesser nations." Mr. to characterize the ,p olicy of the Craig, it seems, knows nothing Western powers before Munich, but about the fact that Benes denied the same terms may be used, and the existence of the Slovak nation, probably more rightly, to characw it ho u t which Czecho-Slovakia terize Benes and his policies. would never have come into exist- Benes lambasts the Western ence; and if Mr. Craig really did Powers who created and financed a little research, he might !ind it Czecho-Slovakia (which did not difficult to name the " lesser even pay her debt to the United nations" for which Benes fought States), but in contrast, as Mr. so indefatigably. For example, what Craig admits, "is almost comdid he do or say about the "lesser pletely uncritical of Soviet policy nations" which were gobbled up in the same years." Mr. Craig does not attempt to explain this attitude by the Soviet Union ? Munich, we are told, was forced of Dr. Benes; it seems he is comupon Benes; there was nothing he pletely unaware of the fact that could do about it. Ten years later, Benes, too, promoted materialistic however, after Czecho-Slovakia had socialism. The Soviet Union, as soon as regained her freedom, Benes once again was forced to see his country Benes succeeded in getting it into conquered by totalitarianism. Mr. the League of Nations, was, accordCr aig does not consider the :possibi- , ing to Benes, .t he on ly major power lity that the policies of Dr. Benes that sought consistently to mainhimself - who was responsible for tain the princtple of collective �2 SLOVAKIA security and that, until Munich, remained true to its treaty obligations. With Czecho-Slovakia, as well as other countries? And what were these treaty obligations? Mr. Craig preferred not to expand on this subject. Benes did not criticize Soviet policy before Munich and could only ,p raise it after, because his becoming president again depended on Stalin. Nothing else mattered. Benes was obsessed with the idea that he had to revenge himself on all who opposed his socialistic policies in the past and tried to embarrass him. With the help of Stalin and, of course, the other members of the victorious United Nations, Benes got what he wanted. At the expense of the Slovak and Czech nations! The accounts of Benes's wartime discussions with Roosevelt, Eden, Stalin and other Soviet diplomats, and statesmen - printed in notes and in the appendices - are, as Craig describes it, "perhaps the meatiest part of this book." And Benes did rely heavily on the Soviet Union ,a nd believed in it, because he was a part of the policy of the Soviet Union, even though most historians and reviewers of books fail to recognize this fact. Benes boasted that he knew the Russians and the Soviet Union very well; and, of course, he always knew what he was doing and where he was going; he advised Great Britain, the United States, the Soviet Union, France, etc.; no one knew anything better than Benes when it came to politics; he was the little man who always had a plan, always the GREAT "democratic'' statesman, diplomat, politician, and international lawyer! How else could Czecho-Slovakia end than it did? After the Munich debacle and the capitulation to •Hitler, which he. did not even refer to parliament, Benes simply placed the blame for every- thing on the Western Powers, resigned and cowardly fled his country to let others sweat it out; then in 1945 he returned behind Soviet bayonets to ac~use all members of the "protectorate" Czech Government and of the independent State of Slovakia of collaboration with the Nazis and treason. As far as Benes was concerned, he was still "legally" the ,president, CzechoSlovakia never ceased to exist as such, Munich never "legally" happened, the Slovaks had no right to declare their country independent, and international law was only what Benes interpreted it to be. That was the incomparable Benes! The Memoirs of Dr. Eduard Benes, like his other published works, are to all intents and ,purposes meant to justify everything that Dr. Benes did, even if, in fact, it meant rendering a gross disservice to democracy and betraying not only his own people, the Czechs, but even the Slovaks and other nations as well to the men of the Kremlin. With Hitler, Stalin, and Mussolini the State was supreme. And so it was with Benes, even though he promoted the ideology of Godless, materialistic socialism in a less crude and violent fashion: the end he sought was the same. His MEMOIRS and various other works prove that, even though less eloquently and forcefully than does the "end of the road" Czecho-.Slovakia reached under his guidance. In his review, Mr. Craig does not mention that the very s am e MEMOIRS OF DR. EDUARD BENES, translated by Godfrey Lias, were first .published in 1954 by George Allen & Unwin Ltd. (London). The readers of the Times ·Book Review may, therefore, even as I did, purchase a book that they already have, a1isuming that it is an additional volume of Dr. Benes's Memoirs. Did Mr. Craig know that? - P.A. H. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 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 VOL. VI MARCH, 1956 NO. 1 (18) IN THIS ISSUE: "MEMOIRS OF DR. EDUARD BENES" - R eview Louis Stur Centennial Stur: Father of Modern Slovak N ation a lism Stur's Group in th e Servic e of the P eople Radio Fr ee Europe (Reprint from "FACTS FORUM " ) Kerner's "Czechoslovakia": History or Propaganda? WHO SAID IT : 16 * * * Edited and· compi l ed by PHILIP A. HROBAK S LO VA KIA Box 150 Middletown , Pa . • Published by THE - SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA GANSER LIBRARY M!LLERSV1LLE Si.ATE COLLEGE 'MlLLERSVILLE, PA 17551 JIRI (GEORGE) BRADA author of the article on RAD IO FRE>E EUROPE, which was publi~h od in the "FACTS FQJRIUM" (Dallas, Texas; $2.00 per annum) and is reprinted in this issue. of the "SLOV,A KIA," was born of CZECH parents in Brno, Moravia (,Czecho-Slovakia), on March 8, 1923. He is a student of psychology and sociology, and is well versed i,n several languages. During the years of the Nazi occupation, Brada worked in a factory and a lso managed to do some studying at the Englis:h Institute in Brno and the University of Rostock. Unlike many other Cz echs of his age, he never joined the Nazi Party, nor any of the organizations which upon the defeat of Nazi Germany, were dec lared to be fascist either by the Allies, or the postwar government of Czecho-Slovakia. After the war, Brada studied history, philosophy and law at the University of Brno. When the Czech Reels se.izecl a ll power in CzechoSlovakia, , in February, 194 , he was expelled from the university by the Czech Communist Action Committee and dec lai,e.cl ineligible for study at any otJher school behind the Iron Curtain. Threatened with iirrest, after he refused to become. an informer for the Czech Communist government, Brada illegally crossed the Czech-Austrian border, October 2, 1948. Since January, 1949, he has been active in several refugee organizations in Germany. From May till July 1951, he was employed by RAD·IO FREE EUROPE, as a reference assistant and librarian. At present he. is ,a journalist in Germany. Brada vigorously opposed -socialism and communism. In his testimony for the Committee on Communist Aggression , I.. S. House of Representatives (Hon. Charles J. Kersten, chairman), of June 28, 1954 , Brada mad,e a number of statements which wa.rrant the attention o[ thoughtful a,ncl a lert Americans . For example, M r . Brada made the serious dharge that "the Amer ican Int ell igence Servi c e (CIC and CIA ) is not interest e d in invest igat ing anyth ing about th e communist system." ' 'The American authorities," Bracla testified, "take as source of information not the opinions of the a,nti-communist refugees but the communist radio and pne.ss -in the East . . . they swallow every communist swi ndle and show to the East clearly tha.t they a lso are eit,he-r unint-elligent enough to be misled or are communist-dominated . . ." "The center of the communist world conspi~·acy," sajcl Brada, concluding his sworn testimony for the Kersten Committee, "seems thus to be situated in the West, in all these radio stations, as the VOICE OF A'MERLOA (,a nd) RAID IO :FlRIDE EUIROPE, the CIA and the CIC, in the western crypto-communist press and radio , in the CR!USADE l•'OR FREEOOM, and F'REE EUROPE, INC."' 'Dhe revelations of Jifi Bracla in the 'FACTS FORUM" are not entirely ne w to !Jhe readers of "SLOVAKIA" and the monthly " SLOVAK NEJWrSLETTER" which are published by the Slovak League of America. TiJley fu ll y support and su bstantiate what has been written in the two per iodicals rubout Radio Free Europe and the Voice of America. Again we urge our readers: ASK YOUR SENATORS AND YOUR REPRESENTATIVES T O DEMAND AN INVESnGATION OF RADIO FREE EUIROBE AND THE VO ICE OF AMEJUCA nY co:--.;. GRESS, ES.PEClA.LLY THEIH ··C~EC'HO, LOVAK" DIVISIO'.\IS 1 Printed in the U. S. A. SLOV AKIA Published quarterly by the Slovak League of America MARCH, 1956 VOL. VI "HE TRUSTED THE NO. 1 (18) RUS- foreign policy in his country - SIANS" is the title of the r eview may have in at least some measure written {The New York Times Book contributed to the eventual downReview, March 4, 1956) by Mr. fall of Czecho-Slovakia. The book, it is true, is didactic Gordon A. Craig, professor of History at Princeton University, about in tone quite laborious in style, the "MEMOIRS OF DR. EDUARD freq uently repetitious, but it is not BEJNES," which were translated "almost devoid of personal anecfrom the Czech by Godfrey Lias dotes or even personal judgments," (346 p.p.) and published by the as Mr. Craig states. In fact, it is Houghton Mifflin Company of Bos- a record of almost nothing else but Benes's personal judgments (Benes ton. The book sells for $7.50. According to Mr. Craig, Mr. Be- always knew, thought, foresaw, nes and T. G. Masaryk "laid the decided, recommended, etc.). In Mr. Craig's opinion, Dr. Benes fo undations of free "Czecho-Slovakia," but mentions n o thing about may have been the "chief victim the socialistic state they promoted of Munich," but that others were from the outset. Gen. Milan R- i:§te- less "chief" victims is, I believe, fanik, also one of the founders, is questionable. He says that "levity, completely forgotten. At Geneva egotism, unscrupulousness anlll cri(League of Nations), Benes was minal ignorance" are among the "an indefatigable worker for the mildest of the terms used by Benes rights of the lesser nations." Mr. to characterize the ,p olicy of the Craig, it seems, knows nothing Western powers before Munich, but about the fact that Benes denied the same terms may be used, and the existence of the Slovak nation, probably more rightly, to characw it ho u t which Czecho-Slovakia terize Benes and his policies. would never have come into exist- Benes lambasts the Western ence; and if Mr. Craig really did Powers who created and financed a little research, he might !ind it Czecho-Slovakia (which did not difficult to name the " lesser even pay her debt to the United nations" for which Benes fought States), but in contrast, as Mr. so indefatigably. For example, what Craig admits, "is almost comdid he do or say about the "lesser pletely uncritical of Soviet policy nations" which were gobbled up in the same years." Mr. Craig does not attempt to explain this attitude by the Soviet Union ? Munich, we are told, was forced of Dr. Benes; it seems he is comupon Benes; there was nothing he pletely unaware of the fact that could do about it. Ten years later, Benes, too, promoted materialistic however, after Czecho-Slovakia had socialism. The Soviet Union, as soon as regained her freedom, Benes once again was forced to see his country Benes succeeded in getting it into conquered by totalitarianism. Mr. the League of Nations, was, accordCr aig does not consider the :possibi- , ing to Benes, .t he on ly major power lity that the policies of Dr. Benes that sought consistently to mainhimself - who was responsible for tain the princtple of collective 2 SLOVAKIA security and that, until Munich, remained true to its treaty obligations. With Czecho-Slovakia, as well as other countries? And what were these treaty obligations? Mr. Craig preferred not to expand on this subject. Benes did not criticize Soviet policy before Munich and could only ,p raise it after, because his becoming president again depended on Stalin. Nothing else mattered. Benes was obsessed with the idea that he had to revenge himself on all who opposed his socialistic policies in the past and tried to embarrass him. With the help of Stalin and, of course, the other members of the victorious United Nations, Benes got what he wanted. At the expense of the Slovak and Czech nations! The accounts of Benes's wartime discussions with Roosevelt, Eden, Stalin and other Soviet diplomats, and statesmen - printed in notes and in the appendices - are, as Craig describes it, "perhaps the meatiest part of this book." And Benes did rely heavily on the Soviet Union ,a nd believed in it, because he was a part of the policy of the Soviet Union, even though most historians and reviewers of books fail to recognize this fact. Benes boasted that he knew the Russians and the Soviet Union very well; and, of course, he always knew what he was doing and where he was going; he advised Great Britain, the United States, the Soviet Union, France, etc.; no one knew anything better than Benes when it came to politics; he was the little man who always had a plan, always the GREAT "democratic'' statesman, diplomat, politician, and international lawyer! How else could Czecho-Slovakia end than it did? After the Munich debacle and the capitulation to •Hitler, which he. did not even refer to parliament, Benes simply placed the blame for every- thing on the Western Powers, resigned and cowardly fled his country to let others sweat it out; then in 1945 he returned behind Soviet bayonets to ac~use all members of the "protectorate" Czech Government and of the independent State of Slovakia of collaboration with the Nazis and treason. As far as Benes was concerned, he was still "legally" the ,president, CzechoSlovakia never ceased to exist as such, Munich never "legally" happened, the Slovaks had no right to declare their country independent, and international law was only what Benes interpreted it to be. That was the incomparable Benes! The Memoirs of Dr. Eduard Benes, like his other published works, are to all intents and ,purposes meant to justify everything that Dr. Benes did, even if, in fact, it meant rendering a gross disservice to democracy and betraying not only his own people, the Czechs, but even the Slovaks and other nations as well to the men of the Kremlin. With Hitler, Stalin, and Mussolini the State was supreme. And so it was with Benes, even though he promoted the ideology of Godless, materialistic socialism in a less crude and violent fashion: the end he sought was the same. His MEMOIRS and various other works prove that, even though less eloquently and forcefully than does the "end of the road" Czecho-.Slovakia reached under his guidance. In his review, Mr. Craig does not mention that the very s am e MEMOIRS OF DR. EDUARD BENES, translated by Godfrey Lias, were first .published in 1954 by George Allen & Unwin Ltd. (London). The readers of the Times ·Book Review may, therefore, even as I did, purchase a book that they already have, a1isuming that it is an additional volume of Dr. Benes's Memoirs. Did Mr. Craig know that? - P.A. H.  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Front Matter, Slovakia, Vol. 6, No. 1 (18) 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/1ea81ef7ac20ecc1142e0ee1f3cad84f.pdf 8660dfaae8183109b1e033eeba43f7c6 PDF Text Text VOL. VI JUNE, 1956 NO . 2 ( 19) IN THIS ISSUE: Our Tradition and Louis Stur Th e Politi ca l Messag e of M a't us Ce rn a k Labor and th e Slovak Republi c Israe l and Slovaki a Slovak Lit eratur e Und er th e So vi et Impact Enslav e rs of the Cz ech Nation : How Ben es Got Stribrny Kern er ' s "Czechoslov a ki a": Histo ry o r Propagand a? WHO SAID IT: 51, 60, 64 * * Edit ed a nd co mpil ed by PHILIP A . HROBAK SLO VA KIA Box 150 Middl etown , Pa . • Pub li sh ed by T H E S LOVAK LEA GUE O F A MER ICA GAN SER LlBRARY MI LLERSVl.ltE STATE COLLEGE fy11 LLERSVJL LE, PA 17551 �SLOVAKIA is published periodically by the Slovak League of America, a cultural and civic fede1·ation of Americans of Slovak descent. 'rhe chief purpo e of SLOVAKIA is to promote a better understanding and appreciation of the Slovak nation and its long struggle f 01' freedom and independence. As Americans, members of the Slovak League of America firmly believe that the Slovak nation, just as all nations, has an inherent and God-given right to freedom and independence. 'rhey are dedicated to the cause of the American way of life, Slovak freedom and world peace and are determined to oppose the plague of Communism and all other totalitarian political systems. Subscription to Slovakia $1.00 per year in the t . S. A. - $2.00 elsewhere. Send subscriptions to: SLOVAKI A Box 150 Middletown, Pa. Printed in the U. S. A. JEDNOTA PRESS Middletown, Pa. �SLOVAKIA Published VOL. VI quarterly by the Slovak JUNE, 1956 STUDENT RIOTS took rp,la,ce in Slovakia, in the cities of Bratislava, Nitra, and Banska Bystrica, on May 12, 1!}56, a ccording to reports emanating from Vienna. S.tudent demon strations against the Prague regime ,also occurred in Prague but on a smaller scale. The police arrested some 60 Slovak students, but jailed only four Czechs. They were a,ccused of presenting ultimatums demanding reduction in Marx-Leninism ,c ourses, shorter military training periods, and a complete restoration of academic freedom. Acting with unusual daring, the Slovak students asked the government to permit considerably more freedom than has existed in Czecho-Slovakla since the Reds took over complete control of the country in 1948. Their requests were submitted in the form of a Tesolution to the Minister of Education, Francis Kahuda, on May 12, when the demonstrations first started, to be repeated on May 1'5 and 20. The students' riots in Czecho-Slovakia appeared to be centered in Slovakia, although Prague has ha.d a taste of it. Parts of the resolution, dealing with student complaints a.bout housing, courses of study, and food, were published, but no publicity was permitted .for the parts which reportedly criticized some aspects of the present political way of life in Czecho-Slova.kia. Officials had previously approved a .series of student meetings in Prague and the Slovak cities as part of the liberalization movement then under way throughout League of America NO. 2 (19) the Soviet sateLlites. They figured that the students would, at most, indulge in criticism in a limited way, and not in the manner they actually did. Some of the points made by the students, but not published, included the following: 1. Political parties should be put on an equal footing, with none specially favored. The people should have the means of controlling members of the National Assembly, including the right to recall elected deputies. 2. Unrestricted freedom to travel independently of the Governm ent Travel Office. 3. A demand for a ge.neral amnesty for political prisoners; making public court records; and punishing those responsible for extorting confessions and using other illegal metheds. 4. A demand for a free press, ra;dio and films to .present information truthfuUy, quickly and independently; no interference with foreign broadcasts; and the importation of new.spapers, magazines, and books from all countries regardless of their political systems. (Slovak newspapers published in America, which advocate a free Slovakia, were banned in Czecho-Slovakia on Oc tober 10, 1946). Slovak students were nermitted for the first time since-1948 to hold their traditional May Parade and Carnival (MAJALES) on May 20; they used the occasion to lampoon the government. A group of gagged a.nd 'blindfolded �2 SLOVAKIA students, representing editors of the newspapers published for the youth, paraded ,g leefully through the streets. Another group in Bratisiava carried a coffin on whioh Wlas inscribed "aca,demic freedom." ,B ut particularly impressive was the ban-d of students in death shrouds carrying the banner "We board in student Dining Halls Paradise" ! They really did look star:ved (,the picture was J-eproduced in several American Slov.ak newspapers from ,a German paper) ! Wihen ;newsmen questioned Premier William i:§iroky on :reports that many students had been arrested, he replied that this was riot so and ,a dded: "The students have the right to openly express their views at a11 times, and we, in turn, have the right to say to them that we agree or di-sagree with them on any particular question." The BratLslava newspapers Pi:aca and Pravda, however, did not share the Premier's tolerant attitude toward recent student demonstrations, con.demning as "dem,agogic" the demands of Slovak students. • • • Czech Communist agents resid· ing in various countries, including our America, are doing their utmo.s t to have eminent Slovak and Czech exiles to return .to their homelands. "All is forgiven; come home; nothi.ng shall haJPpen to you; help us build our new democratic country" - that seems to •b e the theme song of •a ll of them. Some of the professional men an,d intelJectuats have been promised attractive salaries, new homes, freedom to work a·s they se.e -fit in their ,p rofessions, but no Slovak to our knowledge has !4ken the bait thus far. Relatives, friends and acquaintances, it seems have been organized in a Iletter-writing campaign to induce , exiles to return home. The movement, however, has failed to lure the Slovaks to the "people's democracy" establi-shed by Benes ami Gottwald in 1945. • • • STALi N labors for the Ki-emlin even in his box and gladly assumes the blame for all the violenoe, terror and murder perpetrated against innocent populations of the USSR, the satellite EurOII)ean -c ountries, Korea, China, etc. As a result of this "blameit-all-on-Stalin" campaign, every satellite country ha.s exculpated some of its Red leaders, posthumously exonerating even liquidated comrades (iBulgaria, Hungary, Poland), but this is not the case in regal'd to Slova'k 1Reds whose h earts at one time ·b led for Stalin. There has been no vindication for Vladimir Clementis, Slovak Red and former Minister o.f 'Foreign Aff.ai:rs of Czecho-Slovakia, who was executed as a "deviationist"; and no amnesty for Laco Novomesky and Gustav Husak, both of whom •a re still languishing in jail for preferring a Slovak Soviet RepubUc to a Czecho-'Slovak State. Of course, it may be that they shall have to wait till the Czech Reds of Pr,ague start an anti-Gottwald campaign. • • • IN SLOVAKIA: The mention of GOO has been ordered out of aJ.l texts. . . . Taxes in Slovakia today, ·u nder the Czech Reds, are four times higher than they were during the life of the Slovak Republic (19,39-1'945) . . . . Slovakia ,s howed the gr,eatest increase in population of all European countries in 1'955 and. ranked third in this regard among the nations of the world; the increase was 17 per thousand, •a nd the population of Slovakia is now 3,7'30,000. � VOL. VI JUNE, 1956 NO . 2 ( 19) IN THIS ISSUE: Our Tradition and Louis Stur Th e Politi ca l Messag e of M a't us Ce rn a k Labor and th e Slovak Republi c Israe l and Slovaki a Slovak Lit eratur e Und er th e So vi et Impact Enslav e rs of the Cz ech Nation : How Ben es Got Stribrny Kern er ' s "Czechoslov a ki a": Histo ry o r Propagand a? WHO SAID IT: 51, 60, 64 * * Edit ed a nd co mpil ed by PHILIP A . HROBAK SLO VA KIA Box 150 Middl etown , Pa . • Pub li sh ed by T H E S LOVAK LEA GUE O F A MER ICA GAN SER LlBRARY MI LLERSVl.ltE STATE COLLEGE fy11 LLERSVJL LE, PA 17551 �SLOVAKIA is published periodically by the Slovak League of America, a cultural and civic fede1·ation of Americans of Slovak descent. 'rhe chief purpo e of SLOVAKIA is to promote a better understanding and appreciation of the Slovak nation and its long struggle f 01' freedom and independence. As Americans, members of the Slovak League of America firmly believe that the Slovak nation, just as all nations, has an inherent and God-given right to freedom and independence. 'rhey are dedicated to the cause of the American way of life, Slovak freedom and world peace and are determined to oppose the plague of Communism and all other totalitarian political systems. Subscription to Slovakia $1.00 per year in the t . S. A. - $2.00 elsewhere. Send subscriptions to: SLOVAKI A Box 150 Middletown, Pa. Printed in the U. S. A. JEDNOTA PRESS Middletown, Pa. �SLOVAKIA Published VOL. VI quarterly by the Slovak JUNE, 1956 STUDENT RIOTS took rp,la,ce in Slovakia, in the cities of Bratislava, Nitra, and Banska Bystrica, on May 12, 1!}56, a ccording to reports emanating from Vienna. S.tudent demon strations against the Prague regime ,also occurred in Prague but on a smaller scale. The police arrested some 60 Slovak students, but jailed only four Czechs. They were a,ccused of presenting ultimatums demanding reduction in Marx-Leninism ,c ourses, shorter military training periods, and a complete restoration of academic freedom. Acting with unusual daring, the Slovak students asked the government to permit considerably more freedom than has existed in Czecho-Slovakla since the Reds took over complete control of the country in 1948. Their requests were submitted in the form of a Tesolution to the Minister of Education, Francis Kahuda, on May 12, when the demonstrations first started, to be repeated on May 1'5 and 20. The students' riots in Czecho-Slovakia appeared to be centered in Slovakia, although Prague has ha.d a taste of it. Parts of the resolution, dealing with student complaints a.bout housing, courses of study, and food, were published, but no publicity was permitted .for the parts which reportedly criticized some aspects of the present political way of life in Czecho-Slova.kia. Officials had previously approved a .series of student meetings in Prague and the Slovak cities as part of the liberalization movement then under way throughout League of America NO. 2 (19) the Soviet sateLlites. They figured that the students would, at most, indulge in criticism in a limited way, and not in the manner they actually did. Some of the points made by the students, but not published, included the following: 1. Political parties should be put on an equal footing, with none specially favored. The people should have the means of controlling members of the National Assembly, including the right to recall elected deputies. 2. Unrestricted freedom to travel independently of the Governm ent Travel Office. 3. A demand for a ge.neral amnesty for political prisoners; making public court records; and punishing those responsible for extorting confessions and using other illegal metheds. 4. A demand for a free press, ra;dio and films to .present information truthfuUy, quickly and independently; no interference with foreign broadcasts; and the importation of new.spapers, magazines, and books from all countries regardless of their political systems. (Slovak newspapers published in America, which advocate a free Slovakia, were banned in Czecho-Slovakia on Oc tober 10, 1946). Slovak students were nermitted for the first time since-1948 to hold their traditional May Parade and Carnival (MAJALES) on May 20; they used the occasion to lampoon the government. A group of gagged a.nd 'blindfolded �2 SLOVAKIA students, representing editors of the newspapers published for the youth, paraded ,g leefully through the streets. Another group in Bratisiava carried a coffin on whioh Wlas inscribed "aca,demic freedom." ,B ut particularly impressive was the ban-d of students in death shrouds carrying the banner "We board in student Dining Halls Paradise" ! They really did look star:ved (,the picture was J-eproduced in several American Slov.ak newspapers from ,a German paper) ! Wihen ;newsmen questioned Premier William i:§iroky on :reports that many students had been arrested, he replied that this was riot so and ,a dded: "The students have the right to openly express their views at a11 times, and we, in turn, have the right to say to them that we agree or di-sagree with them on any particular question." The BratLslava newspapers Pi:aca and Pravda, however, did not share the Premier's tolerant attitude toward recent student demonstrations, con.demning as "dem,agogic" the demands of Slovak students. • • • Czech Communist agents resid· ing in various countries, including our America, are doing their utmo.s t to have eminent Slovak and Czech exiles to return .to their homelands. "All is forgiven; come home; nothi.ng shall haJPpen to you; help us build our new democratic country" - that seems to •b e the theme song of •a ll of them. Some of the professional men an,d intelJectuats have been promised attractive salaries, new homes, freedom to work a·s they se.e -fit in their ,p rofessions, but no Slovak to our knowledge has !4ken the bait thus far. Relatives, friends and acquaintances, it seems have been organized in a Iletter-writing campaign to induce , exiles to return home. The movement, however, has failed to lure the Slovaks to the "people's democracy" establi-shed by Benes ami Gottwald in 1945. • • • STALi N labors for the Ki-emlin even in his box and gladly assumes the blame for all the violenoe, terror and murder perpetrated against innocent populations of the USSR, the satellite EurOII)ean -c ountries, Korea, China, etc. As a result of this "blameit-all-on-Stalin" campaign, every satellite country ha.s exculpated some of its Red leaders, posthumously exonerating even liquidated comrades (iBulgaria, Hungary, Poland), but this is not the case in regal'd to Slova'k 1Reds whose h earts at one time ·b led for Stalin. There has been no vindication for Vladimir Clementis, Slovak Red and former Minister o.f 'Foreign Aff.ai:rs of Czecho-Slovakia, who was executed as a "deviationist"; and no amnesty for Laco Novomesky and Gustav Husak, both of whom •a re still languishing in jail for preferring a Slovak Soviet RepubUc to a Czecho-'Slovak State. Of course, it may be that they shall have to wait till the Czech Reds of Pr,ague start an anti-Gottwald campaign. • • • IN SLOVAKIA: The mention of GOO has been ordered out of aJ.l texts. . . . Taxes in Slovakia today, ·u nder the Czech Reds, are four times higher than they were during the life of the Slovak Republic (19,39-1'945) . . . . Slovakia ,s howed the gr,eatest increase in population of all European countries in 1'955 and. ranked third in this regard among the nations of the world; the increase was 17 per thousand, •a nd the population of Slovakia is now 3,7'30,000. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to 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 VOL. VI JUNE, 1956 NO . 2 ( 19) IN THIS ISSUE: Our Tradition and Louis Stur Th e Politi ca l Messag e of M a't us Ce rn a k Labor and th e Slovak Republi c Israe l and Slovaki a Slovak Lit eratur e Und er th e So vi et Impact Enslav e rs of the Cz ech Nation : How Ben es Got Stribrny Kern er ' s "Czechoslov a ki a": Histo ry o r Propagand a? WHO SAID IT: 51, 60, 64 * * Edit ed a nd co mpil ed by PHILIP A . HROBAK SLO VA KIA Box 150 Middl etown , Pa . • Pub li sh ed by T H E S LOVAK LEA GUE O F A MER ICA GAN SER LlBRARY MI LLERSVl.ltE STATE COLLEGE fy11 LLERSVJL LE, PA 17551 SLOVAKIA is published periodically by the Slovak League of America, a cultural and civic fede1·ation of Americans of Slovak descent. 'rhe chief purpo e of SLOVAKIA is to promote a better understanding and appreciation of the Slovak nation and its long struggle f 01' freedom and independence. As Americans, members of the Slovak League of America firmly believe that the Slovak nation, just as all nations, has an inherent and God-given right to freedom and independence. 'rhey are dedicated to the cause of the American way of life, Slovak freedom and world peace and are determined to oppose the plague of Communism and all other totalitarian political systems. Subscription to Slovakia $1.00 per year in the t . S. A. - $2.00 elsewhere. Send subscriptions to: SLOVAKI A Box 150 Middletown, Pa. Printed in the U. S. A. JEDNOTA PRESS Middletown, Pa. SLOVAKIA Published VOL. VI quarterly by the Slovak JUNE, 1956 STUDENT RIOTS took rp,la,ce in Slovakia, in the cities of Bratislava, Nitra, and Banska Bystrica, on May 12, 1!}56, a ccording to reports emanating from Vienna. S.tudent demon strations against the Prague regime ,also occurred in Prague but on a smaller scale. The police arrested some 60 Slovak students, but jailed only four Czechs. They were a,ccused of presenting ultimatums demanding reduction in Marx-Leninism ,c ourses, shorter military training periods, and a complete restoration of academic freedom. Acting with unusual daring, the Slovak students asked the government to permit considerably more freedom than has existed in Czecho-Slovakla since the Reds took over complete control of the country in 1948. Their requests were submitted in the form of a Tesolution to the Minister of Education, Francis Kahuda, on May 12, when the demonstrations first started, to be repeated on May 1'5 and 20. The students' riots in Czecho-Slovakia appeared to be centered in Slovakia, although Prague has ha.d a taste of it. Parts of the resolution, dealing with student complaints a.bout housing, courses of study, and food, were published, but no publicity was permitted .for the parts which reportedly criticized some aspects of the present political way of life in Czecho-Slova.kia. Officials had previously approved a .series of student meetings in Prague and the Slovak cities as part of the liberalization movement then under way throughout League of America NO. 2 (19) the Soviet sateLlites. They figured that the students would, at most, indulge in criticism in a limited way, and not in the manner they actually did. Some of the points made by the students, but not published, included the following: 1. Political parties should be put on an equal footing, with none specially favored. The people should have the means of controlling members of the National Assembly, including the right to recall elected deputies. 2. Unrestricted freedom to travel independently of the Governm ent Travel Office. 3. A demand for a ge.neral amnesty for political prisoners; making public court records; and punishing those responsible for extorting confessions and using other illegal metheds. 4. A demand for a free press, ra;dio and films to .present information truthfuUy, quickly and independently; no interference with foreign broadcasts; and the importation of new.spapers, magazines, and books from all countries regardless of their political systems. (Slovak newspapers published in America, which advocate a free Slovakia, were banned in Czecho-Slovakia on Oc tober 10, 1946). Slovak students were nermitted for the first time since-1948 to hold their traditional May Parade and Carnival (MAJALES) on May 20; they used the occasion to lampoon the government. A group of gagged a.nd 'blindfolded 2 SLOVAKIA students, representing editors of the newspapers published for the youth, paraded ,g leefully through the streets. Another group in Bratisiava carried a coffin on whioh Wlas inscribed "aca,demic freedom." ,B ut particularly impressive was the ban-d of students in death shrouds carrying the banner "We board in student Dining Halls Paradise" ! They really did look star:ved (,the picture was J-eproduced in several American Slov.ak newspapers from ,a German paper) ! Wihen ;newsmen questioned Premier William i:§iroky on :reports that many students had been arrested, he replied that this was riot so and ,a dded: "The students have the right to openly express their views at a11 times, and we, in turn, have the right to say to them that we agree or di-sagree with them on any particular question." The BratLslava newspapers Pi:aca and Pravda, however, did not share the Premier's tolerant attitude toward recent student demonstrations, con.demning as "dem,agogic" the demands of Slovak students. • • • Czech Communist agents resid· ing in various countries, including our America, are doing their utmo.s t to have eminent Slovak and Czech exiles to return .to their homelands. "All is forgiven; come home; nothi.ng shall haJPpen to you; help us build our new democratic country" - that seems to •b e the theme song of •a ll of them. Some of the professional men an,d intelJectuats have been promised attractive salaries, new homes, freedom to work a·s they se.e -fit in their ,p rofessions, but no Slovak to our knowledge has !4ken the bait thus far. Relatives, friends and acquaintances, it seems have been organized in a Iletter-writing campaign to induce , exiles to return home. The movement, however, has failed to lure the Slovaks to the "people's democracy" establi-shed by Benes ami Gottwald in 1945. • • • STALi N labors for the Ki-emlin even in his box and gladly assumes the blame for all the violenoe, terror and murder perpetrated against innocent populations of the USSR, the satellite EurOII)ean -c ountries, Korea, China, etc. As a result of this "blameit-all-on-Stalin" campaign, every satellite country ha.s exculpated some of its Red leaders, posthumously exonerating even liquidated comrades (iBulgaria, Hungary, Poland), but this is not the case in regal'd to Slova'k 1Reds whose h earts at one time ·b led for Stalin. There has been no vindication for Vladimir Clementis, Slovak Red and former Minister o.f 'Foreign Aff.ai:rs of Czecho-Slovakia, who was executed as a "deviationist"; and no amnesty for Laco Novomesky and Gustav Husak, both of whom •a re still languishing in jail for preferring a Slovak Soviet RepubUc to a Czecho-'Slovak State. Of course, it may be that they shall have to wait till the Czech Reds of Pr,ague start an anti-Gottwald campaign. • • • IN SLOVAKIA: The mention of GOO has been ordered out of aJ.l texts. . . . Taxes in Slovakia today, ·u nder the Czech Reds, are four times higher than they were during the life of the Slovak Republic (19,39-1'945) . . . . Slovakia ,s howed the gr,eatest increase in population of all European countries in 1'955 and. ranked third in this regard among the nations of the world; the increase was 17 per thousand, •a nd the population of Slovakia is now 3,7'30,000.  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Front Matter, Slovakia, Vol. 6, No. 2 (19) 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/b0b685aef7c07dbb342358e5437d2bff.pdf e3d4df6e966d30fa8948b0060381b473 PDF Text Text VO L. V I SEPTEMBER - DECEMBER , 1956 NO . 3-4 ( 20-21) IN THIS ISSUE: R. I. P . Dr. Fra n c is H rusovsky , Monsignor Jo zef Tiso - Controv ersial Personality - Cz ec h o-S l o vaki a or Czechos lo vakii!l. S t,~r a n d the Slov a k In depe nd e n ce Moveme nt B en es a nd t h e Communization of Czecho-S lo vak i a ~saryk ' ~ D(}-IQ:l9oPaoy aiqs i!ile"alt+a Why Di d Benes Resi gn in 1938? M emora ndum Th e History of S lovak i a 1856 - Dr. Samu e l Cz a mb el - 1956 Castles of S lovak i a : Starohrad ( Th e Old Cast l e) of Li ptov K ern e r 's "Czec h os l ovak i a" ( Cont 'd.): History or Pro paganda? WHO SA ID IT : 24, 39, 54, 58, 62, 87 * * * Edit ed a nd co mpil ed by PHILIP A. HROBAK SLOVAKIA Box 150 Middletown , P a . • Pub I ished by ~~v t1-BkA'Wf E oF AM ER I CA .MlU.£RSV1LLE STATE cqu.EGE ~Ji.SV41.lt, l>A. 17551 �SLOVAK IA is published periodically by the Slovak League of America, a cultural and civic fedel'ation of Americans of Slovak descent. The chief purpose of SLOVAK .IA is to pl'omote a better understan ding and appreciat ion of the Slovak nation and its long stl'uggle fol' freedom and independe nce. As American s, members of the Slovak League of America firmly believe that the Slovak nation, just as all nations, has an inherent and God-given right to freedom and independe nce. They are dedicated to the cause of the American way of life, Slovak freedom and world peace and are determine d to oppose the plague of Communi sm and all other totalitaria n political systems. Subscript ion to Slovakia $1.00 per year in the U. S. A. - $2.00 elsewhere. Send subscripti ons to: SLOV AKIA Box 150 Middletow n, Pa. Printed in the U. S. A. JEDNOTA PRESS Middletown, Pa. �SLO VAK IA Published VOL. VI quarterly by the Slovak League of America SEPTEMBER-DECEM BER, 1956 NO. 3-4 (2{}-21) SLOVA.KIA AND THE RECENT REBELLIONS Whatever happened and is happening in Poland, Hungary, the Middle East, and other countTies of Europe ,a nd .A!si.a must be blamed on the policies followed by the western democracies, on the so many "wise men" from the West, who knew how to win another war, ,b ut could not win an honorable and just peace. The press has done a little to help the situation; an,d intelligence agencies of our Government did even less to clarify it. We always had and still ·h ave our embassies, employing hundreds of thousands of ,people, in the many countries of Europe and Asia, but still do not know the nations thereof sufficiently well to work with them effectively in the interests of genuine democracy. mhe Poles, we are supposed to 1b elieve, would lbe satisfied with ,G omulka Communism, the Yugoslavs like the "Tito" ,b rand, while the Slovaks go for the Czeoh type of the late Dr. Edward ·B enes. Nothing could be !farther from the truth: .all these nations pray fervently that they might be Hberated .s peedily from the scouTge of godCommunism materialistic less, which was :forced upon them durIng ,a nd iafter World War illl. Much has ,b een said and .w ritten recently about the disturbances in Poland and Hungary, but little or nothing ,about what is going on in Slovakia. But the met is that Slov,akia is not and never will be satisfied with the situation it w,a s forced into after World War II .against the will of her people. The Slovaks proved it on many occasions . .A!nd they did ti again during 1956. The students of Slovakia demonstrated in May; this was followed ,b y Poznan In Poland in June; then Hungary rebelled In October, and iPo1and a:gain was heard from. What was the situation in Slov,ak.ia when open Tebellion broke out in Budapest on October 23? ,several Slovak escapees said that the Czech Red Army immediately sealed the Slovak-iHungarian border to prevent Slovaks from helping the, Magyars; Czeoh "security police" and the Czech Army ocoupied all of Slovakia; all former Slovak deputies, ministers of government, and political leaders were rounded up as "unreliable elements" and shipped to Bohemia and Moravia. Even Gustav Husi!.k, Slovak Red leader, was transferred from a .Slovak jail to o.ne in Czech territory. The Prague Ministry of Defense ousted all Slovak oMicers from Lt. Col. up from .the "CzechoSlovak" Army and replaced Slovak militia In d'actol'ies iby Czech workers' militia. 'The Slovaks -s~pathized with the MagY'ars ,and ·h elped as much as they could under the most difficult ciTcumstances. Thousands of Slovaks and M.agyar.s from Slova- �2 SLOVAKIA while Czech reserves served with the army in Slovakia. A second Slovak escapee wrote: "Twenty-two Soviet divisions came into Hungary many of them through Slovakia. Besides that a special Czech military unit of five divisions operated in the Kosice-Miskovec aTea. . . . Controls a r e v er y Border guards have strict. . . been tripled; they shoot at practically anyone not in uniform." ·R eporters and writers for the world press still do not distinguish between Slovakia and Bohemia, the Slovaks and the Czechs: they write about the "Hung,a,rianCzechoslovak" frontier, when they actually mean the "Hungarian-SloThe Czechs took no ohances vak" frontier; for them the Reo with the Slovaks; they knew that Czech Army becomes the "Czechothe sentiment jn Slovakia was not slovak" Army. The Slovaks, it only strongly anti-Communist and seems, are bound to ,b e involved anti-Soviet, ,b ut also strongly anti- in everything the Czechs do since Czech. As one Slovak escapee, who the birth o.f the political monwitnessed the disturbances in Bra- strosity known as Czecho-Slovakia. tisla'V'a, put it: ",S ince the execuTo keep t!h e record straight, tion of President Tiso, the sentiment in Slovakia was never so ,allow us to remind all uninformed, anti-Soviet, anti-Communist, and misinformed and "slightly" confused writers, and the reading ;pubanti-Czech as it is now." lic that: the Slovaks are not During the M~.gyar revolt Slo- Czechs; Slovakia is not Bohemia; vakia iresembled ,a large military so-called "Czecho-Slovak" policy is camp; the streets of 'Bratislava strictly Czech policy; the Slovaks were •f ull of tanks, all roads -were outlawed Communism in their Re·b locked •b y the Czech Army, and public in 1939, while the Czechs machine-gun nests were planted umler .Benes would not govern with everywihere. Bratislava was the al- out them; the Slovaks were and leged headquarters of 1both the still are anti 0 Soviet, while the Soviet and Magyar ,R eds: the lat- Czechs under M-asaryk and Benes, ter were quartered in Hotel Carl- Gottwald and Zapotocky, were ton, the former in iHotel Devin. and still are :pro-Soviet; the SloBoth hotels were ,h eavily guarded, va:ks sym:pathized with the Hunas were all vublic builoing.s. All I garian "rebels" and helved them Slovak reserves were called into as much as they could under the service, 1but were not allowed to circumstances, while the Czechs serve in Slovakia; ,t hey were /collaborated with the Soviet armies shipped to Moravia ,and Bohemia, to crush the Magyar revolt. kia joined the Hungarian patriota to help shake off the halter of Moscow. Lively demonstrations against the Soviets ,and the Czechs were staged in Bratislava, Surany, Nove ZAmky, Lucenec, Kosice, and other Slovak towns. They destroyed large sections of track to hinder the movement of Red soldiers and supplies through Slovakia; heavy fighting took place near Presov. Demonstrating in Bratislava, October 27, students shouted: "Freedom for Hunga,ry - Freedom for Slovakia - Get out Russi•a ns - Go home Czechs - No more Czecho-Slovakia - ,Down with the Reds," etc. I � VO L. V I SEPTEMBER - DECEMBER , 1956 NO . 3-4 ( 20-21) IN THIS ISSUE: R. I. P . Dr. Fra n c is H rusovsky , Monsignor Jo zef Tiso - Controv ersial Personality - Cz ec h o-S l o vaki a or Czechos lo vakii!l. S t,~r a n d the Slov a k In depe nd e n ce Moveme nt B en es a nd t h e Communization of Czecho-S lo vak i a ~saryk ' ~ D(}-IQ:l9oPaoy aiqs i!ile"alt+a Why Di d Benes Resi gn in 1938? M emora ndum Th e History of S lovak i a 1856 - Dr. Samu e l Cz a mb el - 1956 Castles of S lovak i a : Starohrad ( Th e Old Cast l e) of Li ptov K ern e r 's "Czec h os l ovak i a" ( Cont 'd.): History or Pro paganda? WHO SA ID IT : 24, 39, 54, 58, 62, 87 * * * Edit ed a nd co mpil ed by PHILIP A. HROBAK SLOVAKIA Box 150 Middletown , P a . • Pub I ished by ~~v t1-BkA'Wf E oF AM ER I CA .MlU.£RSV1LLE STATE cqu.EGE ~Ji.SV41.lt, l>A. 17551 �SLOVAK IA is published periodically by the Slovak League of America, a cultural and civic fedel'ation of Americans of Slovak descent. The chief purpose of SLOVAK .IA is to pl'omote a better understan ding and appreciat ion of the Slovak nation and its long stl'uggle fol' freedom and independe nce. As American s, members of the Slovak League of America firmly believe that the Slovak nation, just as all nations, has an inherent and God-given right to freedom and independe nce. They are dedicated to the cause of the American way of life, Slovak freedom and world peace and are determine d to oppose the plague of Communi sm and all other totalitaria n political systems. Subscript ion to Slovakia $1.00 per year in the U. S. A. - $2.00 elsewhere. Send subscripti ons to: SLOV AKIA Box 150 Middletow n, Pa. Printed in the U. S. A. JEDNOTA PRESS Middletown, Pa. �SLO VAK IA Published VOL. VI quarterly by the Slovak League of America SEPTEMBER-DECEM BER, 1956 NO. 3-4 (2{}-21) SLOVA.KIA AND THE RECENT REBELLIONS Whatever happened and is happening in Poland, Hungary, the Middle East, and other countTies of Europe ,a nd .A!si.a must be blamed on the policies followed by the western democracies, on the so many "wise men" from the West, who knew how to win another war, ,b ut could not win an honorable and just peace. The press has done a little to help the situation; an,d intelligence agencies of our Government did even less to clarify it. We always had and still ·h ave our embassies, employing hundreds of thousands of ,people, in the many countries of Europe and Asia, but still do not know the nations thereof sufficiently well to work with them effectively in the interests of genuine democracy. mhe Poles, we are supposed to 1b elieve, would lbe satisfied with ,G omulka Communism, the Yugoslavs like the "Tito" ,b rand, while the Slovaks go for the Czeoh type of the late Dr. Edward ·B enes. Nothing could be !farther from the truth: .all these nations pray fervently that they might be Hberated .s peedily from the scouTge of godCommunism materialistic less, which was :forced upon them durIng ,a nd iafter World War illl. Much has ,b een said and .w ritten recently about the disturbances in Poland and Hungary, but little or nothing ,about what is going on in Slovakia. But the met is that Slov,akia is not and never will be satisfied with the situation it w,a s forced into after World War II .against the will of her people. The Slovaks proved it on many occasions . .A!nd they did ti again during 1956. The students of Slovakia demonstrated in May; this was followed ,b y Poznan In Poland in June; then Hungary rebelled In October, and iPo1and a:gain was heard from. What was the situation in Slov,ak.ia when open Tebellion broke out in Budapest on October 23? ,several Slovak escapees said that the Czech Red Army immediately sealed the Slovak-iHungarian border to prevent Slovaks from helping the, Magyars; Czeoh "security police" and the Czech Army ocoupied all of Slovakia; all former Slovak deputies, ministers of government, and political leaders were rounded up as "unreliable elements" and shipped to Bohemia and Moravia. Even Gustav Husi!.k, Slovak Red leader, was transferred from a .Slovak jail to o.ne in Czech territory. The Prague Ministry of Defense ousted all Slovak oMicers from Lt. Col. up from .the "CzechoSlovak" Army and replaced Slovak militia In d'actol'ies iby Czech workers' militia. 'The Slovaks -s~pathized with the MagY'ars ,and ·h elped as much as they could under the most difficult ciTcumstances. Thousands of Slovaks and M.agyar.s from Slova- �2 SLOVAKIA while Czech reserves served with the army in Slovakia. A second Slovak escapee wrote: "Twenty-two Soviet divisions came into Hungary many of them through Slovakia. Besides that a special Czech military unit of five divisions operated in the Kosice-Miskovec aTea. . . . Controls a r e v er y Border guards have strict. . . been tripled; they shoot at practically anyone not in uniform." ·R eporters and writers for the world press still do not distinguish between Slovakia and Bohemia, the Slovaks and the Czechs: they write about the "Hung,a,rianCzechoslovak" frontier, when they actually mean the "Hungarian-SloThe Czechs took no ohances vak" frontier; for them the Reo with the Slovaks; they knew that Czech Army becomes the "Czechothe sentiment jn Slovakia was not slovak" Army. The Slovaks, it only strongly anti-Communist and seems, are bound to ,b e involved anti-Soviet, ,b ut also strongly anti- in everything the Czechs do since Czech. As one Slovak escapee, who the birth o.f the political monwitnessed the disturbances in Bra- strosity known as Czecho-Slovakia. tisla'V'a, put it: ",S ince the execuTo keep t!h e record straight, tion of President Tiso, the sentiment in Slovakia was never so ,allow us to remind all uninformed, anti-Soviet, anti-Communist, and misinformed and "slightly" confused writers, and the reading ;pubanti-Czech as it is now." lic that: the Slovaks are not During the M~.gyar revolt Slo- Czechs; Slovakia is not Bohemia; vakia iresembled ,a large military so-called "Czecho-Slovak" policy is camp; the streets of 'Bratislava strictly Czech policy; the Slovaks were •f ull of tanks, all roads -were outlawed Communism in their Re·b locked •b y the Czech Army, and public in 1939, while the Czechs machine-gun nests were planted umler .Benes would not govern with everywihere. Bratislava was the al- out them; the Slovaks were and leged headquarters of 1both the still are anti 0 Soviet, while the Soviet and Magyar ,R eds: the lat- Czechs under M-asaryk and Benes, ter were quartered in Hotel Carl- Gottwald and Zapotocky, were ton, the former in iHotel Devin. and still are :pro-Soviet; the SloBoth hotels were ,h eavily guarded, va:ks sym:pathized with the Hunas were all vublic builoing.s. All I garian "rebels" and helved them Slovak reserves were called into as much as they could under the service, 1but were not allowed to circumstances, while the Czechs serve in Slovakia; ,t hey were /collaborated with the Soviet armies shipped to Moravia ,and Bohemia, to crush the Magyar revolt. kia joined the Hungarian patriota to help shake off the halter of Moscow. Lively demonstrations against the Soviets ,and the Czechs were staged in Bratislava, Surany, Nove ZAmky, Lucenec, Kosice, and other Slovak towns. They destroyed large sections of track to hinder the movement of Red soldiers and supplies through Slovakia; heavy fighting took place near Presov. Demonstrating in Bratislava, October 27, students shouted: "Freedom for Hunga,ry - Freedom for Slovakia - Get out Russi•a ns - Go home Czechs - No more Czecho-Slovakia - ,Down with the Reds," etc. 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 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 VO L. V I SEPTEMBER - DECEMBER , 1956 NO . 3-4 ( 20-21) IN THIS ISSUE: R. I. P . Dr. Fra n c is H rusovsky , Monsignor Jo zef Tiso - Controv ersial Personality - Cz ec h o-S l o vaki a or Czechos lo vakii!l. S t,~r a n d the Slov a k In depe nd e n ce Moveme nt B en es a nd t h e Communization of Czecho-S lo vak i a ~saryk ' ~ D(}-IQ:l9oPaoy aiqs i!ile"alt+a Why Di d Benes Resi gn in 1938? M emora ndum Th e History of S lovak i a 1856 - Dr. Samu e l Cz a mb el - 1956 Castles of S lovak i a : Starohrad ( Th e Old Cast l e) of Li ptov K ern e r 's "Czec h os l ovak i a" ( Cont 'd.): History or Pro paganda? WHO SA ID IT : 24, 39, 54, 58, 62, 87 * * * Edit ed a nd co mpil ed by PHILIP A. HROBAK SLOVAKIA Box 150 Middletown , P a . • Pub I ished by ~~v t1-BkA'Wf E oF AM ER I CA .MlU.£RSV1LLE STATE cqu.EGE ~Ji.SV41.lt, l>A. 17551 SLOVAK IA is published periodically by the Slovak League of America, a cultural and civic fedel'ation of Americans of Slovak descent. The chief purpose of SLOVAK .IA is to pl'omote a better understan ding and appreciat ion of the Slovak nation and its long stl'uggle fol' freedom and independe nce. As American s, members of the Slovak League of America firmly believe that the Slovak nation, just as all nations, has an inherent and God-given right to freedom and independe nce. They are dedicated to the cause of the American way of life, Slovak freedom and world peace and are determine d to oppose the plague of Communi sm and all other totalitaria n political systems. Subscript ion to Slovakia $1.00 per year in the U. S. A. - $2.00 elsewhere. Send subscripti ons to: SLOV AKIA Box 150 Middletow n, Pa. Printed in the U. S. A. JEDNOTA PRESS Middletown, Pa. SLO VAK IA Published VOL. VI quarterly by the Slovak League of America SEPTEMBER-DECEM BER, 1956 NO. 3-4 (2{}-21) SLOVA.KIA AND THE RECENT REBELLIONS Whatever happened and is happening in Poland, Hungary, the Middle East, and other countTies of Europe ,a nd .A!si.a must be blamed on the policies followed by the western democracies, on the so many "wise men" from the West, who knew how to win another war, ,b ut could not win an honorable and just peace. The press has done a little to help the situation; an,d intelligence agencies of our Government did even less to clarify it. We always had and still ·h ave our embassies, employing hundreds of thousands of ,people, in the many countries of Europe and Asia, but still do not know the nations thereof sufficiently well to work with them effectively in the interests of genuine democracy. mhe Poles, we are supposed to 1b elieve, would lbe satisfied with ,G omulka Communism, the Yugoslavs like the "Tito" ,b rand, while the Slovaks go for the Czeoh type of the late Dr. Edward ·B enes. Nothing could be !farther from the truth: .all these nations pray fervently that they might be Hberated .s peedily from the scouTge of godCommunism materialistic less, which was :forced upon them durIng ,a nd iafter World War illl. Much has ,b een said and .w ritten recently about the disturbances in Poland and Hungary, but little or nothing ,about what is going on in Slovakia. But the met is that Slov,akia is not and never will be satisfied with the situation it w,a s forced into after World War II .against the will of her people. The Slovaks proved it on many occasions . .A!nd they did ti again during 1956. The students of Slovakia demonstrated in May; this was followed ,b y Poznan In Poland in June; then Hungary rebelled In October, and iPo1and a:gain was heard from. What was the situation in Slov,ak.ia when open Tebellion broke out in Budapest on October 23? ,several Slovak escapees said that the Czech Red Army immediately sealed the Slovak-iHungarian border to prevent Slovaks from helping the, Magyars; Czeoh "security police" and the Czech Army ocoupied all of Slovakia; all former Slovak deputies, ministers of government, and political leaders were rounded up as "unreliable elements" and shipped to Bohemia and Moravia. Even Gustav Husi!.k, Slovak Red leader, was transferred from a .Slovak jail to o.ne in Czech territory. The Prague Ministry of Defense ousted all Slovak oMicers from Lt. Col. up from .the "CzechoSlovak" Army and replaced Slovak militia In d'actol'ies iby Czech workers' militia. 'The Slovaks -s~pathized with the MagY'ars ,and ·h elped as much as they could under the most difficult ciTcumstances. Thousands of Slovaks and M.agyar.s from Slova- 2 SLOVAKIA while Czech reserves served with the army in Slovakia. A second Slovak escapee wrote: "Twenty-two Soviet divisions came into Hungary many of them through Slovakia. Besides that a special Czech military unit of five divisions operated in the Kosice-Miskovec aTea. . . . Controls a r e v er y Border guards have strict. . . been tripled; they shoot at practically anyone not in uniform." ·R eporters and writers for the world press still do not distinguish between Slovakia and Bohemia, the Slovaks and the Czechs: they write about the "Hung,a,rianCzechoslovak" frontier, when they actually mean the "Hungarian-SloThe Czechs took no ohances vak" frontier; for them the Reo with the Slovaks; they knew that Czech Army becomes the "Czechothe sentiment jn Slovakia was not slovak" Army. The Slovaks, it only strongly anti-Communist and seems, are bound to ,b e involved anti-Soviet, ,b ut also strongly anti- in everything the Czechs do since Czech. As one Slovak escapee, who the birth o.f the political monwitnessed the disturbances in Bra- strosity known as Czecho-Slovakia. tisla'V'a, put it: ",S ince the execuTo keep t!h e record straight, tion of President Tiso, the sentiment in Slovakia was never so ,allow us to remind all uninformed, anti-Soviet, anti-Communist, and misinformed and "slightly" confused writers, and the reading ;pubanti-Czech as it is now." lic that: the Slovaks are not During the M~.gyar revolt Slo- Czechs; Slovakia is not Bohemia; vakia iresembled ,a large military so-called "Czecho-Slovak" policy is camp; the streets of 'Bratislava strictly Czech policy; the Slovaks were •f ull of tanks, all roads -were outlawed Communism in their Re·b locked •b y the Czech Army, and public in 1939, while the Czechs machine-gun nests were planted umler .Benes would not govern with everywihere. Bratislava was the al- out them; the Slovaks were and leged headquarters of 1both the still are anti 0 Soviet, while the Soviet and Magyar ,R eds: the lat- Czechs under M-asaryk and Benes, ter were quartered in Hotel Carl- Gottwald and Zapotocky, were ton, the former in iHotel Devin. and still are :pro-Soviet; the SloBoth hotels were ,h eavily guarded, va:ks sym:pathized with the Hunas were all vublic builoing.s. All I garian "rebels" and helved them Slovak reserves were called into as much as they could under the service, 1but were not allowed to circumstances, while the Czechs serve in Slovakia; ,t hey were /collaborated with the Soviet armies shipped to Moravia ,and Bohemia, to crush the Magyar revolt. kia joined the Hungarian patriota to help shake off the halter of Moscow. Lively demonstrations against the Soviets ,and the Czechs were staged in Bratislava, Surany, Nove ZAmky, Lucenec, Kosice, and other Slovak towns. They destroyed large sections of track to hinder the movement of Red soldiers and supplies through Slovakia; heavy fighting took place near Presov. Demonstrating in Bratislava, October 27, students shouted: "Freedom for Hunga,ry - Freedom for Slovakia - Get out Russi•a ns - Go home Czechs - No more Czecho-Slovakia - ,Down with the Reds," etc. 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 Front Matter, Slovakia, Vol. 6, No. 3-4 (20-21) 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/111bdde3035fd0c13fdebffee0bf6f2e.pdf 6c16bebc2871a5e695ae99ef9e655fc6 PDF Text Text MARCH, 1957 VOL. VII NO. l (22) IN THIS ISSUE: TENTH ANNIVERSARY OF DR. JOSEPH TISO' S EXECUTION I WAS EDITOR OF PRESIDENT TISO'S NEWSPAPER EIGHT FATAL DAYS IN THE LIFE OF DR. JOSEPH TISO SLOVAKIA: TRIAL OF DR. JOSEPH TISO PLEA OF SLOVAK BISHOPS IN TISp'S BEHALF HERO AND PATRIOT OF SLOVAKIA ❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖ ·!· ❖ ❖ ❖ ..!. .:. ❖ ❖ :j: This issue is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Joseph Tiso, President of Slovakia, 1939-1945, who was executed on the gal- ::; lows by the Benes-Gottwald communist-dominated regime, :\: April 18, 1947. '.(; ❖ 6 ❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖ THE TERRITORY OF ANCIENT SLOVAKIA MICKIEWICZ IN SLOVAK POETRY AND TRANSLATIONS ME MUST QUIT HELPING RED REGIMES INDEPENDENCE AND THE SLOVAK PAST FROM THE HISTORY OF SLOVAKIA KERNER'S 'CZECHOSLOVAKIA": HISTORY OR PROPAGANDA? (Cont'd.) WHO SAID IT?: 8, 18 Edited and compiled_ by PHILIP A. HROBAK SLOVAKIA Box 150 Middletown, Pa. , Published by G A ~.f t'rt~'RA'R~UE OF AMERICA MI-LLERSVILLE STATE COHEGF Mlt.LERSVILLE, PA 17551 �1907 - 1957 The Slovak League of America is completing its FIFTIETH YEAR of faithful service " FOR GOD AND FOR NATION." It was oragan ized by the Rev. Stephen Furdek, May 26, 1907, at Cleveland, O hi o. - The Slovaks of America will celebrate the Golden Jubilee of the Slovak League of America in the city of its foundation on May 26, 1957, before the opening of the 35th Congress of the League in Hotel Cleveland. SLOVAKIA is published periodically by the Slovak League of America, a cultural and civic federation of Americans of Slovak descent. The chief purpose of SLOVAKIA is to promote a better understanding and appreciation of the Slovak nation and its long struggle for freedom and independence. As Americans, members of the Slovak League of America firmly believe that the Slovak nation, just as all nations, has the inherent and God-given right to freedom and independence. They are dedicated to the cause of the American way of life, Slovak freedom and world peace and are determined to oppose the plague of Communism and all other totalitarian political systems. Subscription to SLOVAKIA is $1.00 per year in the U. S. A. - $2.00 elsewhere. Send subscriptions to: SLOVAKIA Box 150 Middletown, Pa. Printed in the U. 5. A. JEDNOTA PRESS Middletown, Pa. � MARCH, 1957 VOL. VII NO. l (22) IN THIS ISSUE: TENTH ANNIVERSARY OF DR. JOSEPH TISO' S EXECUTION I WAS EDITOR OF PRESIDENT TISO'S NEWSPAPER EIGHT FATAL DAYS IN THE LIFE OF DR. JOSEPH TISO SLOVAKIA: TRIAL OF DR. JOSEPH TISO PLEA OF SLOVAK BISHOPS IN TISp'S BEHALF HERO AND PATRIOT OF SLOVAKIA ❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖ ·!· ❖ ❖ ❖ ..!. .:. ❖ ❖ :j: This issue is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Joseph Tiso, President of Slovakia, 1939-1945, who was executed on the gal- ::; lows by the Benes-Gottwald communist-dominated regime, :\: April 18, 1947. '.(; ❖ 6 ❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖ THE TERRITORY OF ANCIENT SLOVAKIA MICKIEWICZ IN SLOVAK POETRY AND TRANSLATIONS ME MUST QUIT HELPING RED REGIMES INDEPENDENCE AND THE SLOVAK PAST FROM THE HISTORY OF SLOVAKIA KERNER'S 'CZECHOSLOVAKIA": HISTORY OR PROPAGANDA? (Cont'd.) WHO SAID IT?: 8, 18 Edited and compiled_ by PHILIP A. HROBAK SLOVAKIA Box 150 Middletown, Pa. , Published by G A ~.f t'rt~'RA'R~UE OF AMERICA MI-LLERSVILLE STATE COHEGF Mlt.LERSVILLE, PA 17551 �1907 - 1957 The Slovak League of America is completing its FIFTIETH YEAR of faithful service " FOR GOD AND FOR NATION." It was oragan ized by the Rev. Stephen Furdek, May 26, 1907, at Cleveland, O hi o. - The Slovaks of America will celebrate the Golden Jubilee of the Slovak League of America in the city of its foundation on May 26, 1957, before the opening of the 35th Congress of the League in Hotel Cleveland. SLOVAKIA is published periodically by the Slovak League of America, a cultural and civic federation of Americans of Slovak descent. The chief purpose of SLOVAKIA is to promote a better understanding and appreciation of the Slovak nation and its long struggle for freedom and independence. As Americans, members of the Slovak League of America firmly believe that the Slovak nation, just as all nations, has the inherent and God-given right to freedom and independence. They are dedicated to the cause of the American way of life, Slovak freedom and world peace and are determined to oppose the plague of Communism and all other totalitarian political systems. Subscription to SLOVAKIA is $1.00 per year in the U. S. A. - $2.00 elsewhere. Send subscriptions to: SLOVAKIA Box 150 Middletown, Pa. Printed in the U. 5. A. JEDNOTA PRESS Middletown, Pa. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 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 MARCH, 1957 VOL. VII NO. l (22) IN THIS ISSUE: TENTH ANNIVERSARY OF DR. JOSEPH TISO' S EXECUTION I WAS EDITOR OF PRESIDENT TISO'S NEWSPAPER EIGHT FATAL DAYS IN THE LIFE OF DR. JOSEPH TISO SLOVAKIA: TRIAL OF DR. JOSEPH TISO PLEA OF SLOVAK BISHOPS IN TISp'S BEHALF HERO AND PATRIOT OF SLOVAKIA ❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖ ·!· ❖ ❖ ❖ ..!. .:. ❖ ❖ :j: This issue is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Joseph Tiso, President of Slovakia, 1939-1945, who was executed on the gal- ::; lows by the Benes-Gottwald communist-dominated regime, :\: April 18, 1947. '.(; ❖ 6 ❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖❖ THE TERRITORY OF ANCIENT SLOVAKIA MICKIEWICZ IN SLOVAK POETRY AND TRANSLATIONS ME MUST QUIT HELPING RED REGIMES INDEPENDENCE AND THE SLOVAK PAST FROM THE HISTORY OF SLOVAKIA KERNER'S 'CZECHOSLOVAKIA": HISTORY OR PROPAGANDA? (Cont'd.) WHO SAID IT?: 8, 18 Edited and compiled_ by PHILIP A. HROBAK SLOVAKIA Box 150 Middletown, Pa. , Published by G A ~.f t'rt~'RA'R~UE OF AMERICA MI-LLERSVILLE STATE COHEGF Mlt.LERSVILLE, PA 17551 1907 - 1957 The Slovak League of America is completing its FIFTIETH YEAR of faithful service " FOR GOD AND FOR NATION." It was oragan ized by the Rev. Stephen Furdek, May 26, 1907, at Cleveland, O hi o. - The Slovaks of America will celebrate the Golden Jubilee of the Slovak League of America in the city of its foundation on May 26, 1957, before the opening of the 35th Congress of the League in Hotel Cleveland. SLOVAKIA is published periodically by the Slovak League of America, a cultural and civic federation of Americans of Slovak descent. The chief purpose of SLOVAKIA is to promote a better understanding and appreciation of the Slovak nation and its long struggle for freedom and independence. As Americans, members of the Slovak League of America firmly believe that the Slovak nation, just as all nations, has the inherent and God-given right to freedom and independence. They are dedicated to the cause of the American way of life, Slovak freedom and world peace and are determined to oppose the plague of Communism and all other totalitarian political systems. Subscription to SLOVAKIA is $1.00 per year in the U. S. A. - $2.00 elsewhere. Send subscriptions to: SLOVAKIA Box 150 Middletown, Pa. Printed in the U. 5. A. JEDNOTA PRESS Middletown, Pa.  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Front 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/6c8e85ccf28e2e9343fa98a9898adbcc.pdf e8ee58f42542840053bc8b204cc579f4 PDF Text Text JUNE, 1957 VOL. VII NO. 2 (23) IN TIDS ISSUE: C. I. A. DULLES AND THE BENES CZECHS 50 YEARS OF THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA ANALYZING THE ANALYSTS: IS THE SOVIET UNION DOOMED? A BELATED REPORT DR. JOSEPH TISO: CHRISTIAN DEMOCRAT CASTLES OF SLOVAKIA: ILAVA KERNER'S "CZECHOSLOVAKIA": HISTORY OR PROPAGANDA? (Cont'd.) THE HISTORY OF SLOVAKIA: CHAPTER THREE WHO SAID IT?: 9, 18, 64. Edited and compiled by PHILIP A. HROBAK SLOVAKIA Box 150 · Middletown, Pa. • • • Published by THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERI.CA GANSER LIBRARY .. MfUERSVILLE STATE COLLEGE . MILLERSVtlJ:.E'. , PA: 17551 �SLOVAKIA is published periodically by the Slovak League of America, a cultural and civic federation of Americans of Slovak descent. The chief purpose of SLOVAKIA is to promote a better understanding and appreciation of the Slovak nation and its long struggle for freedom and independence. As Americans, members of the Slovak League of America firmly believe that the Slovak nation, just as all nations, has an inherent and God-given right to freedom and independence. They are dedicated to the cause of the American way of life, Slovak freedom and world peace and are determined to oppose the plague of Communism and all other totalitarian political systems. Subscription to Slovakia $1.00 per year in the U. S. A. - $2.00 elsewhere. Send subscriptions to: SLOVAKIA Box 150 Middletown, Pa. --------------------------------Printed i~ the U. S. A. JEDNOTA PRE SS M idd!etown, Pa. � JUNE, 1957 VOL. VII NO. 2 (23) IN TIDS ISSUE: C. I. A. DULLES AND THE BENES CZECHS 50 YEARS OF THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA ANALYZING THE ANALYSTS: IS THE SOVIET UNION DOOMED? A BELATED REPORT DR. JOSEPH TISO: CHRISTIAN DEMOCRAT CASTLES OF SLOVAKIA: ILAVA KERNER'S "CZECHOSLOVAKIA": HISTORY OR PROPAGANDA? (Cont'd.) THE HISTORY OF SLOVAKIA: CHAPTER THREE WHO SAID IT?: 9, 18, 64. Edited and compiled by PHILIP A. HROBAK SLOVAKIA Box 150 · Middletown, Pa. • • • Published by THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERI.CA GANSER LIBRARY .. MfUERSVILLE STATE COLLEGE . MILLERSVtlJ:.E'. , PA: 17551 �SLOVAKIA is published periodically by the Slovak League of America, a cultural and civic federation of Americans of Slovak descent. The chief purpose of SLOVAKIA is to promote a better understanding and appreciation of the Slovak nation and its long struggle for freedom and independence. As Americans, members of the Slovak League of America firmly believe that the Slovak nation, just as all nations, has an inherent and God-given right to freedom and independence. They are dedicated to the cause of the American way of life, Slovak freedom and world peace and are determined to oppose the plague of Communism and all other totalitarian political systems. Subscription to Slovakia $1.00 per year in the U. S. A. - $2.00 elsewhere. Send subscriptions to: SLOVAKIA Box 150 Middletown, Pa. --------------------------------Printed i~ the U. S. A. JEDNOTA PRE SS M idd!etown, Pa. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 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 JUNE, 1957 VOL. VII NO. 2 (23) IN TIDS ISSUE: C. I. A. DULLES AND THE BENES CZECHS 50 YEARS OF THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA ANALYZING THE ANALYSTS: IS THE SOVIET UNION DOOMED? A BELATED REPORT DR. JOSEPH TISO: CHRISTIAN DEMOCRAT CASTLES OF SLOVAKIA: ILAVA KERNER'S "CZECHOSLOVAKIA": HISTORY OR PROPAGANDA? (Cont'd.) THE HISTORY OF SLOVAKIA: CHAPTER THREE WHO SAID IT?: 9, 18, 64. Edited and compiled by PHILIP A. HROBAK SLOVAKIA Box 150 · Middletown, Pa. • • • Published by THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERI.CA GANSER LIBRARY .. MfUERSVILLE STATE COLLEGE . MILLERSVtlJ:.E'. , PA: 17551 SLOVAKIA is published periodically by the Slovak League of America, a cultural and civic federation of Americans of Slovak descent. The chief purpose of SLOVAKIA is to promote a better understanding and appreciation of the Slovak nation and its long struggle for freedom and independence. As Americans, members of the Slovak League of America firmly believe that the Slovak nation, just as all nations, has an inherent and God-given right to freedom and independence. They are dedicated to the cause of the American way of life, Slovak freedom and world peace and are determined to oppose the plague of Communism and all other totalitarian political systems. Subscription to Slovakia $1.00 per year in the U. S. A. - $2.00 elsewhere. Send subscriptions to: SLOVAKIA Box 150 Middletown, Pa. --------------------------------Printed i~ the U. S. A. JEDNOTA PRE SS M idd!etown, Pa.  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Front Matter, Slovakia, Vol. 7, No. 2 (23) 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/161eeb4a05cda6e30f3a2efb39852a23.pdf 7fd68aaa2ee2486c25b21bf8d23bc37d PDF Text Text VOL. VII SEPTEMBER-DECEMBER, 1957 NO. 3-4(24-25) IN TIDS ISSUE: DR. TISO AND THE JEWISH PROBL EM MEMORIES OF KUNERAD THE 1944 COMMUNIST REVOLT IN SLOVAKIA " EDVARD BENES ON MUNICH DAY S" MARTIN RAZUS CAS T LES OF SLOVAKIA : GELNICA - BACKOV - JELSAVA MEMORANDUM: 35th CONGRESS, SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA KERNER'S "CZECHOSLOVAKIA" : HISTORY OR PROPAGANDA? (Conclusion ) THE SLOVAKS WERE THERE: MAJOR POLERECKY FOUGHT FOR AMERICA'S INDEPENDENCE THE HISTORY OF SLOVAKIA (Continued ) Edited and compiled by PHILIP A. HROBAK SLOVAKIA Box 150 Middletown, Pa . • • • Published by THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA �SLOVAK.IA is published periodically by the Slovak League of America, a cultural and civic federation of .Americans of Slovak descent. rrhe chief purpose of SLOVAK.IA is to promote a better understanding and appreciation of the Slovak nation and its long struggle for freedom and independence. As Americans: members of the Slovak League of America firmly believe that the Slovak nation, just as all nations, has an inherent and God-given right to freedom and independence. They are dedicated to the cause of the American way of life, Slovak freedom and world peace and are determined to oppose the plague of Communism and all other totalitarian political systems. Subscription to Slovakia $1.00 per year in the lJ. S. A. - $2.00 elsewhere. Send subscript ions to: SLOVAKIA Box 150 Middletown, Pa. Printed in the U. S. A. JEDNOTA PRESS Mldd!etown, Pa. � VOL. VII SEPTEMBER-DECEMBER, 1957 NO. 3-4(24-25) IN TIDS ISSUE: DR. TISO AND THE JEWISH PROBL EM MEMORIES OF KUNERAD THE 1944 COMMUNIST REVOLT IN SLOVAKIA " EDVARD BENES ON MUNICH DAY S" MARTIN RAZUS CAS T LES OF SLOVAKIA : GELNICA - BACKOV - JELSAVA MEMORANDUM: 35th CONGRESS, SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA KERNER'S "CZECHOSLOVAKIA" : HISTORY OR PROPAGANDA? (Conclusion ) THE SLOVAKS WERE THERE: MAJOR POLERECKY FOUGHT FOR AMERICA'S INDEPENDENCE THE HISTORY OF SLOVAKIA (Continued ) Edited and compiled by PHILIP A. HROBAK SLOVAKIA Box 150 Middletown, Pa . • • • Published by THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA �SLOVAK.IA is published periodically by the Slovak League of America, a cultural and civic federation of .Americans of Slovak descent. rrhe chief purpose of SLOVAK.IA is to promote a better understanding and appreciation of the Slovak nation and its long struggle for freedom and independence. As Americans: members of the Slovak League of America firmly believe that the Slovak nation, just as all nations, has an inherent and God-given right to freedom and independence. They are dedicated to the cause of the American way of life, Slovak freedom and world peace and are determined to oppose the plague of Communism and all other totalitarian political systems. Subscription to Slovakia $1.00 per year in the lJ. S. A. - $2.00 elsewhere. Send subscript ions to: SLOVAKIA Box 150 Middletown, Pa. Printed in the U. S. A. JEDNOTA PRESS Mldd!etown, Pa. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 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 VOL. VII SEPTEMBER-DECEMBER, 1957 NO. 3-4(24-25) IN TIDS ISSUE: DR. TISO AND THE JEWISH PROBL EM MEMORIES OF KUNERAD THE 1944 COMMUNIST REVOLT IN SLOVAKIA " EDVARD BENES ON MUNICH DAY S" MARTIN RAZUS CAS T LES OF SLOVAKIA : GELNICA - BACKOV - JELSAVA MEMORANDUM: 35th CONGRESS, SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA KERNER'S "CZECHOSLOVAKIA" : HISTORY OR PROPAGANDA? (Conclusion ) THE SLOVAKS WERE THERE: MAJOR POLERECKY FOUGHT FOR AMERICA'S INDEPENDENCE THE HISTORY OF SLOVAKIA (Continued ) Edited and compiled by PHILIP A. HROBAK SLOVAKIA Box 150 Middletown, Pa . • • • Published by THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA SLOVAK.IA is published periodically by the Slovak League of America, a cultural and civic federation of .Americans of Slovak descent. rrhe chief purpose of SLOVAK.IA is to promote a better understanding and appreciation of the Slovak nation and its long struggle for freedom and independence. As Americans: members of the Slovak League of America firmly believe that the Slovak nation, just as all nations, has an inherent and God-given right to freedom and independence. They are dedicated to the cause of the American way of life, Slovak freedom and world peace and are determined to oppose the plague of Communism and all other totalitarian political systems. Subscription to Slovakia $1.00 per year in the lJ. S. A. - $2.00 elsewhere. Send subscript ions to: SLOVAKIA Box 150 Middletown, Pa. Printed in the U. S. A. JEDNOTA PRESS Mldd!etown, Pa.  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Front Matter, Slovakia, Vol. 7, No. 3-4 (24-25) 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/9e114fd13afdb937bd65377a2a212f50.pdf acae0707c5a2b0d373a35a4cc4928fd3 PDF Text Text MARCH, 1958 VOL. VIII NO. l (26) IN THIS ISSUE: UUDOViT STUR AND HIS PLACE IN THE SLAVIC WORLD : I Uudovit Stur and Pan-Slavism II Stur's Role in Linguistics and Philology III Stur's Literary Aesthetics and Cultural Achievements IV Revolutionary, Idealist, Romantic, or Realist? ''.MEMORANDUM ON POLITICAL STRUCTURE AND ACTIVITIES OF CZECHOSLOV AKIA EXILES" OUR EXPERTS: THE CZECH SOCIALISTS! - SLOVAK NAT IONALISM: THE ORIGINS OF SLOVAK NATIONALISM THE HISTORY OF SLOVAKIA (Continued) WHO SAID IT: P. 59 Edited and compiled by PHILIP A. HROBAK SLOVAKIA Box 150 Middletown, Pa. • • • Published by THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA �SLOVAK.IA is published periodically by the Slovak League of America, a cultural and civic federation of Americans of Slovak descent. The chief purpose of SLOVAK.IA is to promote a better understanding and appreciation of the Slovak nation and its long struggle for freedom and independence. As Americans, members of the Slovak League of America firmly believe that the Slovak nation, just as all nations, has an inherent and God-given right to freedom and independence. They are dedicated to the cause of the American way of life, Slovak freedom and world peace and are determined to oppose the plague of Communism and all other totalitarian political systems. Subscription to Slovakia $1.00 per year in the U. S. A. - $2.00 elsewhere. Send subscriptions to: SLOVAKIA Box 150 Middletown, Pa. Printed in the U. S. A. JEDNOTA PRESS Mldl1!etown, Pa. � MARCH, 1958 VOL. VIII NO. l (26) IN THIS ISSUE: UUDOViT STUR AND HIS PLACE IN THE SLAVIC WORLD : I Uudovit Stur and Pan-Slavism II Stur's Role in Linguistics and Philology III Stur's Literary Aesthetics and Cultural Achievements IV Revolutionary, Idealist, Romantic, or Realist? ''.MEMORANDUM ON POLITICAL STRUCTURE AND ACTIVITIES OF CZECHOSLOV AKIA EXILES" OUR EXPERTS: THE CZECH SOCIALISTS! - SLOVAK NAT IONALISM: THE ORIGINS OF SLOVAK NATIONALISM THE HISTORY OF SLOVAKIA (Continued) WHO SAID IT: P. 59 Edited and compiled by PHILIP A. HROBAK SLOVAKIA Box 150 Middletown, Pa. • • • Published by THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA �SLOVAK.IA is published periodically by the Slovak League of America, a cultural and civic federation of Americans of Slovak descent. The chief purpose of SLOVAK.IA is to promote a better understanding and appreciation of the Slovak nation and its long struggle for freedom and independence. As Americans, members of the Slovak League of America firmly believe that the Slovak nation, just as all nations, has an inherent and God-given right to freedom and independence. They are dedicated to the cause of the American way of life, Slovak freedom and world peace and are determined to oppose the plague of Communism and all other totalitarian political systems. Subscription to Slovakia $1.00 per year in the U. S. A. - $2.00 elsewhere. Send subscriptions to: SLOVAKIA Box 150 Middletown, Pa. Printed in the U. S. A. JEDNOTA PRESS Mldl1!etown, Pa. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 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 MARCH, 1958 VOL. VIII NO. l (26) IN THIS ISSUE: UUDOViT STUR AND HIS PLACE IN THE SLAVIC WORLD : I Uudovit Stur and Pan-Slavism II Stur's Role in Linguistics and Philology III Stur's Literary Aesthetics and Cultural Achievements IV Revolutionary, Idealist, Romantic, or Realist? ''.MEMORANDUM ON POLITICAL STRUCTURE AND ACTIVITIES OF CZECHOSLOV AKIA EXILES" OUR EXPERTS: THE CZECH SOCIALISTS! - SLOVAK NAT IONALISM: THE ORIGINS OF SLOVAK NATIONALISM THE HISTORY OF SLOVAKIA (Continued) WHO SAID IT: P. 59 Edited and compiled by PHILIP A. HROBAK SLOVAKIA Box 150 Middletown, Pa. • • • Published by THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA SLOVAK.IA is published periodically by the Slovak League of America, a cultural and civic federation of Americans of Slovak descent. The chief purpose of SLOVAK.IA is to promote a better understanding and appreciation of the Slovak nation and its long struggle for freedom and independence. As Americans, members of the Slovak League of America firmly believe that the Slovak nation, just as all nations, has an inherent and God-given right to freedom and independence. They are dedicated to the cause of the American way of life, Slovak freedom and world peace and are determined to oppose the plague of Communism and all other totalitarian political systems. Subscription to Slovakia $1.00 per year in the U. S. A. - $2.00 elsewhere. Send subscriptions to: SLOVAKIA Box 150 Middletown, Pa. Printed in the U. S. A. JEDNOTA PRESS Mldl1!etown, Pa.  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Front Matter, Slovakia, Vol. 8, No. 1 (26) 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/cf3669d6bbadc58579366cbbb92662a6.pdf 4341a0d4822a40fc980ed57fbf53568e PDF Text Text ======= ======= == =====-=--JUNE, 1958 VOL . VIII NO. 2 (27} IN THIS ISSUE: SLOVAK NATIONALISM: CONFLICTS OF SLOVAK NATIONALISM UNIVERSITY TRADITIONS IN SLOVAKIA THE ORIGIN OF "SLOVAN" AND "SLOVAK" SLOVAK EMIGRATION THE HISTORY OF SLOVAKIA (Continued) WHO SAID IT: PGS. 17, 56, 64. • • • Edited and compiled by PHILIP A. HROBAK SLOVAKIA Box 150 Middletown, Pa. • • • Published by THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA �SLOV AKlA is published periodically by the Slovak League of America, a cultural and civic federation of Americans of Slovak descent. 'l'he chief purpose of SLOVAK.IA is to promote a better understandi ng and appreciation of the Slovak nation and its long struggle for freedom and independenc e. As Americans, members of the Slovak League of America firmly believe that the Slovak nation, just as all nations, has an inherent and God-given right to freedom and independenc e. They are dedicated to the cause of the American way of life, Slovak freedom and world peace and are determined to oppose the plague of Communism and all other totalitarian political systems. 8ubscr1pt1on to Slovakia $1.00 per year iJ1 the U. S. A. -- $2.00 elsewhere. ~end subscription s to: SLOVA KIA Box 150 Middletown, Pa. Printed in the U. S. A. JEDNOTA PRESS Middletow'1 . Pa. � ======= ======= == =====-=--JUNE, 1958 VOL . VIII NO. 2 (27} IN THIS ISSUE: SLOVAK NATIONALISM: CONFLICTS OF SLOVAK NATIONALISM UNIVERSITY TRADITIONS IN SLOVAKIA THE ORIGIN OF "SLOVAN" AND "SLOVAK" SLOVAK EMIGRATION THE HISTORY OF SLOVAKIA (Continued) WHO SAID IT: PGS. 17, 56, 64. • • • Edited and compiled by PHILIP A. HROBAK SLOVAKIA Box 150 Middletown, Pa. • • • Published by THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA �SLOV AKlA is published periodically by the Slovak League of America, a cultural and civic federation of Americans of Slovak descent. 'l'he chief purpose of SLOVAK.IA is to promote a better understandi ng and appreciation of the Slovak nation and its long struggle for freedom and independenc e. As Americans, members of the Slovak League of America firmly believe that the Slovak nation, just as all nations, has an inherent and God-given right to freedom and independenc e. They are dedicated to the cause of the American way of life, Slovak freedom and world peace and are determined to oppose the plague of Communism and all other totalitarian political systems. 8ubscr1pt1on to Slovakia $1.00 per year iJ1 the U. S. A. -- $2.00 elsewhere. ~end subscription s to: SLOVA KIA Box 150 Middletown, Pa. Printed in the U. S. A. JEDNOTA PRESS Middletow'1 . Pa. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 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 ======= ======= == =====-=--JUNE, 1958 VOL . VIII NO. 2 (27} IN THIS ISSUE: SLOVAK NATIONALISM: CONFLICTS OF SLOVAK NATIONALISM UNIVERSITY TRADITIONS IN SLOVAKIA THE ORIGIN OF "SLOVAN" AND "SLOVAK" SLOVAK EMIGRATION THE HISTORY OF SLOVAKIA (Continued) WHO SAID IT: PGS. 17, 56, 64. • • • Edited and compiled by PHILIP A. HROBAK SLOVAKIA Box 150 Middletown, Pa. • • • Published by THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA SLOV AKlA is published periodically by the Slovak League of America, a cultural and civic federation of Americans of Slovak descent. 'l'he chief purpose of SLOVAK.IA is to promote a better understandi ng and appreciation of the Slovak nation and its long struggle for freedom and independenc e. As Americans, members of the Slovak League of America firmly believe that the Slovak nation, just as all nations, has an inherent and God-given right to freedom and independenc e. They are dedicated to the cause of the American way of life, Slovak freedom and world peace and are determined to oppose the plague of Communism and all other totalitarian political systems. 8ubscr1pt1on to Slovakia $1.00 per year iJ1 the U. S. A. -- $2.00 elsewhere. ~end subscription s to: SLOVA KIA Box 150 Middletown, Pa. Printed in the U. S. A. JEDNOTA PRESS Middletow'1 . Pa.  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Front Matter, Slovakia, Vol. 8, No. 2 (27) 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/daa076f4001d5e0e38b897e8b44b7939.pdf 31676bcc8dcc227fe07a34ddfaf5c979 PDF Text Text VOL . VIII DECEMBER, 1958 NO. 3 (28) IN THIS ISSUE: WHY THE CZECHS DID NOT FIGHT HON. B. CARROLL REESE: THE SUDETEN GERMANS SLOVAK NATIONALISM: FEDERATIVE TENDENCIES OF SLOVAK N.ATIONALISl\-1 THE SLOVAKS AND THEIR NEIGHBORS CASTLES OF SLOVAE.IA: KRASNA HORKA SLOVAKIA'S LIFELINE WITH THE WEST RICHARD WEISHAR : . THE ROOTS OF COMMUNISM IN THE C>SR. ANDREW HLINKA AND PRAGUE THE HISTORY OF SLOVAKIA (Continued) WHO SAID IT: P. 46, 51, 68, 80 • • • Edited and compi led by PHILIP A. HROBAK SLOVAKIA Box 150 Middletown, Pa. • • • Published by THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA ~-~NSER 'LIBRARY _ , -: ! . L~RSVI.LLE STATE COLLEGE .ILLERSVILLE, -PA 17551 �RECOMMENDE D BOOKS: THIS IS SLOVAKIA, Hrusovsky; $1.00. THE SLOVAKS, Yurchak; paper cover $2.00; cloth $3.00. SKETCHES FROM SLOVAK HISTORY, Skultety; $1.00 (paper); $2.00 (cloth cover). THE DELIVERANCE OF SISTER CECILIA, $3.75. THE CHURCH OF SILE CE IN SLOVAKIA, Zubek; $3.50. FALSE FREEDOM, Delaney; $i.oo. SLOVAKIA'S ROAD TO STATEHOOD, Woytko; $1.50. ·'CZECHOSLOVAKIA " - History Made to Order, Hrobak; 50c. UNCONQUERABLES, Pauco; $3.50 ANTHOLOGY OF SLOVAK POETRY, Kramoris; $2.00. ♦ ♦ ♦ SLOVAKIA is published periodically by the Slovak League of America, a cultural and civic federation of Americans of Slovak descent. The main purpose of SLOVAKIA is to pr omote a better under· standing and appreciation of t he Slovak nation and its long, hard struggle for freedom and independence. $1.00 per annum in the U. S. A. - $2.00 elsewhere. SLOVAKIA P. 0 . Box 150 Middletown, Pa. Printed in the U. S. A. JED N OTA PRESS Mi ddletown , Pa. � VOL . VIII DECEMBER, 1958 NO. 3 (28) IN THIS ISSUE: WHY THE CZECHS DID NOT FIGHT HON. B. CARROLL REESE: THE SUDETEN GERMANS SLOVAK NATIONALISM: FEDERATIVE TENDENCIES OF SLOVAK N.ATIONALISl\-1 THE SLOVAKS AND THEIR NEIGHBORS CASTLES OF SLOVAE.IA: KRASNA HORKA SLOVAKIA'S LIFELINE WITH THE WEST RICHARD WEISHAR : . THE ROOTS OF COMMUNISM IN THE C>SR. ANDREW HLINKA AND PRAGUE THE HISTORY OF SLOVAKIA (Continued) WHO SAID IT: P. 46, 51, 68, 80 • • • Edited and compi led by PHILIP A. HROBAK SLOVAKIA Box 150 Middletown, Pa. • • • Published by THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA ~-~NSER 'LIBRARY _ , -: ! . L~RSVI.LLE STATE COLLEGE .ILLERSVILLE, -PA 17551 �RECOMMENDE D BOOKS: THIS IS SLOVAKIA, Hrusovsky; $1.00. THE SLOVAKS, Yurchak; paper cover $2.00; cloth $3.00. SKETCHES FROM SLOVAK HISTORY, Skultety; $1.00 (paper); $2.00 (cloth cover). THE DELIVERANCE OF SISTER CECILIA, $3.75. THE CHURCH OF SILE CE IN SLOVAKIA, Zubek; $3.50. FALSE FREEDOM, Delaney; $i.oo. SLOVAKIA'S ROAD TO STATEHOOD, Woytko; $1.50. ·'CZECHOSLOVAKIA " - History Made to Order, Hrobak; 50c. UNCONQUERABLES, Pauco; $3.50 ANTHOLOGY OF SLOVAK POETRY, Kramoris; $2.00. ♦ ♦ ♦ SLOVAKIA is published periodically by the Slovak League of America, a cultural and civic federation of Americans of Slovak descent. The main purpose of SLOVAKIA is to pr omote a better under· standing and appreciation of t he Slovak nation and its long, hard struggle for freedom and independence. $1.00 per annum in the U. S. A. - $2.00 elsewhere. SLOVAKIA P. 0 . Box 150 Middletown, Pa. Printed in the U. S. A. JED N OTA PRESS Mi ddletown , Pa. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 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 VOL . VIII DECEMBER, 1958 NO. 3 (28) IN THIS ISSUE: WHY THE CZECHS DID NOT FIGHT HON. B. CARROLL REESE: THE SUDETEN GERMANS SLOVAK NATIONALISM: FEDERATIVE TENDENCIES OF SLOVAK N.ATIONALISl\-1 THE SLOVAKS AND THEIR NEIGHBORS CASTLES OF SLOVAE.IA: KRASNA HORKA SLOVAKIA'S LIFELINE WITH THE WEST RICHARD WEISHAR : . THE ROOTS OF COMMUNISM IN THE C>SR. ANDREW HLINKA AND PRAGUE THE HISTORY OF SLOVAKIA (Continued) WHO SAID IT: P. 46, 51, 68, 80 • • • Edited and compi led by PHILIP A. HROBAK SLOVAKIA Box 150 Middletown, Pa. • • • Published by THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA ~-~NSER 'LIBRARY _ , -: ! . L~RSVI.LLE STATE COLLEGE .ILLERSVILLE, -PA 17551 RECOMMENDE D BOOKS: THIS IS SLOVAKIA, Hrusovsky; $1.00. THE SLOVAKS, Yurchak; paper cover $2.00; cloth $3.00. SKETCHES FROM SLOVAK HISTORY, Skultety; $1.00 (paper); $2.00 (cloth cover). THE DELIVERANCE OF SISTER CECILIA, $3.75. THE CHURCH OF SILE CE IN SLOVAKIA, Zubek; $3.50. FALSE FREEDOM, Delaney; $i.oo. SLOVAKIA'S ROAD TO STATEHOOD, Woytko; $1.50. ·'CZECHOSLOVAKIA " - History Made to Order, Hrobak; 50c. UNCONQUERABLES, Pauco; $3.50 ANTHOLOGY OF SLOVAK POETRY, Kramoris; $2.00. ♦ ♦ ♦ SLOVAKIA is published periodically by the Slovak League of America, a cultural and civic federation of Americans of Slovak descent. The main purpose of SLOVAKIA is to pr omote a better under· standing and appreciation of t he Slovak nation and its long, hard struggle for freedom and independence. $1.00 per annum in the U. S. A. - $2.00 elsewhere. SLOVAKIA P. 0 . Box 150 Middletown, Pa. Printed in the U. S. A. JED N OTA PRESS Mi ddletown , Pa.  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Front Matter, Slovakia, Vol. 8, No. 3 (28) 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/1896f03edffa8a57aca9d1693840f69c.pdf a48001a94f659697c97069c2d2c517dc PDF Text Text MAR CH, VOL. IX (29) IN THIS ISSUE: FACTS AND EVENTS BEHIND THE SCENES OF SLOVAKIA'S DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE THE GERMAN ZONE OF ' p MARCH 14 - SLOVAK INDEPENDENCE DAY SLOVAK NATIONALISM : THE ROLE OF EMIGRANTS IN SLOVAK NATIONALISM THE CONSTITUTION OF THE SLOVAK REPUBLIC SLOVAK INDEPENDENCE DAY TH E HISTORY OF SLOVAKIA • • • Edited and compiled by PHILIP A. HROBAK SLOVAKIA Box 150 Middletown, Pa. • • • Published by THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA �\ I! I RECOMMENDED BOOKS: THIS IS SLOVAKIA, Hrusovsky; $1.00. THE SLOVAKS, Yurchak; paper cover $2.00; cloth $3.00. SKETCHES FROM SLOVAK HISTORY, Skultety; $1.00 (paper); $2.00 (cloth cover). THE DELIVERANCE OF SISTER CECILIA, $3.75. THE CHURCH OF SILENCE IN SLOVAKIA, Zubek; $3.50. FALSE FREEDOM, Delaney; $2.00. SLOVAKIA'S ROAD TO STATEHOOD,' Woytko; $1.50. History Made to Order, Hrobak; 50c. ·'CZECHOSLOVAKIA" - UNCONQUERABLES, Pauco; $3.50 "GUDOViT STUR AND HIS PLACE IN THE SLAVIC WORLD , Prof. J. Khschbaum; 25c. ANTHOLOGY OF SLOVAK POETRY, Kramoris; $2.0~. ♦ ♦ ♦ SLOVAKIA is published periodically by the Slovak Leag ue of America, a cultural and civic federation of Americans of -Slovak descent. The main purpos~ of SLOVAKIA i_s to promote a better understanding and appreciation of the Slovak nation and its long, hard struggle for freedom and independence. · $1.00 per annum in tpe U. S. A. ,_ ~-.:. ··c: •·- . "'' $2.00 elsewhere. .,. . _:. ·,:_; SLOVAKIA P.O. Box 150 Middletown, --Pa. ' - .. '; ~'1• ---:t ., ------ Printed in the U. S. A. . J EQNOTA ; PRESS MiddletO;fi, Pa. ·, ·-!'-.l " � MAR CH, VOL. IX (29) IN THIS ISSUE: FACTS AND EVENTS BEHIND THE SCENES OF SLOVAKIA'S DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE THE GERMAN ZONE OF ' p MARCH 14 - SLOVAK INDEPENDENCE DAY SLOVAK NATIONALISM : THE ROLE OF EMIGRANTS IN SLOVAK NATIONALISM THE CONSTITUTION OF THE SLOVAK REPUBLIC SLOVAK INDEPENDENCE DAY TH E HISTORY OF SLOVAKIA • • • Edited and compiled by PHILIP A. HROBAK SLOVAKIA Box 150 Middletown, Pa. • • • Published by THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA �\ I! I RECOMMENDED BOOKS: THIS IS SLOVAKIA, Hrusovsky; $1.00. THE SLOVAKS, Yurchak; paper cover $2.00; cloth $3.00. SKETCHES FROM SLOVAK HISTORY, Skultety; $1.00 (paper); $2.00 (cloth cover). THE DELIVERANCE OF SISTER CECILIA, $3.75. THE CHURCH OF SILENCE IN SLOVAKIA, Zubek; $3.50. FALSE FREEDOM, Delaney; $2.00. SLOVAKIA'S ROAD TO STATEHOOD,' Woytko; $1.50. History Made to Order, Hrobak; 50c. ·'CZECHOSLOVAKIA" - UNCONQUERABLES, Pauco; $3.50 "GUDOViT STUR AND HIS PLACE IN THE SLAVIC WORLD , Prof. J. Khschbaum; 25c. ANTHOLOGY OF SLOVAK POETRY, Kramoris; $2.0~. ♦ ♦ ♦ SLOVAKIA is published periodically by the Slovak Leag ue of America, a cultural and civic federation of Americans of -Slovak descent. The main purpos~ of SLOVAKIA i_s to promote a better understanding and appreciation of the Slovak nation and its long, hard struggle for freedom and independence. · $1.00 per annum in tpe U. S. A. ,_ ~-.:. ··c: •·- . "'' $2.00 elsewhere. .,. . _:. ·,:_; SLOVAKIA P.O. Box 150 Middletown, --Pa. ' - .. '; ~'1• ---:t ., ------ Printed in the U. S. A. . J EQNOTA ; PRESS MiddletO;fi, Pa. ·, ·-!'-.l " � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to 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 MAR CH, VOL. IX (29) IN THIS ISSUE: FACTS AND EVENTS BEHIND THE SCENES OF SLOVAKIA'S DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE THE GERMAN ZONE OF ' p MARCH 14 - SLOVAK INDEPENDENCE DAY SLOVAK NATIONALISM : THE ROLE OF EMIGRANTS IN SLOVAK NATIONALISM THE CONSTITUTION OF THE SLOVAK REPUBLIC SLOVAK INDEPENDENCE DAY TH E HISTORY OF SLOVAKIA • • • Edited and compiled by PHILIP A. HROBAK SLOVAKIA Box 150 Middletown, Pa. • • • Published by THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA \ I! I RECOMMENDED BOOKS: THIS IS SLOVAKIA, Hrusovsky; $1.00. THE SLOVAKS, Yurchak; paper cover $2.00; cloth $3.00. SKETCHES FROM SLOVAK HISTORY, Skultety; $1.00 (paper); $2.00 (cloth cover). THE DELIVERANCE OF SISTER CECILIA, $3.75. THE CHURCH OF SILENCE IN SLOVAKIA, Zubek; $3.50. FALSE FREEDOM, Delaney; $2.00. SLOVAKIA'S ROAD TO STATEHOOD,' Woytko; $1.50. History Made to Order, Hrobak; 50c. ·'CZECHOSLOVAKIA" - UNCONQUERABLES, Pauco; $3.50 "GUDOViT STUR AND HIS PLACE IN THE SLAVIC WORLD , Prof. J. Khschbaum; 25c. ANTHOLOGY OF SLOVAK POETRY, Kramoris; $2.0~. ♦ ♦ ♦ SLOVAKIA is published periodically by the Slovak Leag ue of America, a cultural and civic federation of Americans of -Slovak descent. The main purpos~ of SLOVAKIA i_s to promote a better understanding and appreciation of the Slovak nation and its long, hard struggle for freedom and independence. · $1.00 per annum in tpe U. S. A. ,_ ~-.:. ··c: •·- . "'' $2.00 elsewhere. .,. . _:. ·,:_; SLOVAKIA P.O. Box 150 Middletown, --Pa. ' - .. '; ~'1• ---:t ., ------ Printed in the U. S. A. . J EQNOTA ; PRESS MiddletO;fi, Pa. ·, ·-!'-.l "  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Front Matter, Slovakia, Vol. 9, No. 4 (29) Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource March 1959 https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/cb1c7289d31cbcab00966343b7893e79.pdf 8346f725c8f693c2dbe47d87d5fd73de PDF Text Text JUNE-DECEMBER, 1959 VOL. IX NO. 5 (30) IN THIS ISSUE : SLOVAKIA UNDER COMMUNISM SLOVAKIA'S ACCESSION TO THE TRIPARTITE PACT SLOVAKIA AND THE CHURCH INTERNATIONAL SOCIAL JUSTICE SLOVAK NATIONALISM: NATIONALISM OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY FATHER SEGINAK'S IMPRESSLON OF PRAGUE AND PRESOV THE KREMLIN HAS SHOWN ITS HAND ELEVEN HUNDRED YEARS OF PRAYERFUL SONG STEPHEN OSUSKY AND MARCH 1939 OSUSKY AFTER MARCH 14, 1939 THE HISTORY OF SLOVAKIA WHO SAID IT: 19, 37, 64, 68 • • • Edited and compiled by PHILIP A. HROBAK SLOVAKIA Box 150 Middletown, Pa. • • • Published by TH E SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA �RECOMMENDED BOOKS: THIS IS SLOVAKIA, Hrusovsky; $1.00. THE SLOVAKS, Yurchak; paper cover $2.00; cloth $3.00. SKETCHES FROM SLOVAK HISTORY, Skultety; $1.00 (paper); $2.00 (cloth cover). • THE DELIVERANCE OF SISTER CECILIA, $3.75. THE CHURCH OF SILENCE IN SLOVAKIA, Zubek; $3.50. FALSE FREEDOM, Delaney; $2.00. SLOVAKIA'S ROAD TO STATEHOOD, Woytko; $1.50. ·'CZECHOSLOVAKIA'' - History Made to Order, Hrobak; 50c. UNCONQUERABLES, Pauco; $3.50 t:;UDOV1T STUR AND HIS PLACE IN THE SLAVIC WORLD, Prof. J. Kirschbaum; 25c. ANTHOLOGY OF SLOVAK POETRY, Kramoris; $2.00. ♦ ♦ ♦ SLOVAKIA is published periodically by the Slovak League of America, a cultural and civic federation of Americans of Slovak descent. The main purpose of SLOVAKIA is to promote a better understanding and appreciation of the Slovak nation and its long, hard struggle for freedom and independence. $1.00 per annum in the U. S. A. - $2.00 elsewhere. SLOVAKIA P. 0. Box 150 Middletown, Pa. Printed in the U. S. A. JEDNOTA PRESS Middletown, Pa. � JUNE-DECEMBER, 1959 VOL. IX NO. 5 (30) IN THIS ISSUE : SLOVAKIA UNDER COMMUNISM SLOVAKIA'S ACCESSION TO THE TRIPARTITE PACT SLOVAKIA AND THE CHURCH INTERNATIONAL SOCIAL JUSTICE SLOVAK NATIONALISM: NATIONALISM OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY FATHER SEGINAK'S IMPRESSLON OF PRAGUE AND PRESOV THE KREMLIN HAS SHOWN ITS HAND ELEVEN HUNDRED YEARS OF PRAYERFUL SONG STEPHEN OSUSKY AND MARCH 1939 OSUSKY AFTER MARCH 14, 1939 THE HISTORY OF SLOVAKIA WHO SAID IT: 19, 37, 64, 68 • • • Edited and compiled by PHILIP A. HROBAK SLOVAKIA Box 150 Middletown, Pa. • • • Published by TH E SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA �RECOMMENDED BOOKS: THIS IS SLOVAKIA, Hrusovsky; $1.00. THE SLOVAKS, Yurchak; paper cover $2.00; cloth $3.00. SKETCHES FROM SLOVAK HISTORY, Skultety; $1.00 (paper); $2.00 (cloth cover). • THE DELIVERANCE OF SISTER CECILIA, $3.75. THE CHURCH OF SILENCE IN SLOVAKIA, Zubek; $3.50. FALSE FREEDOM, Delaney; $2.00. SLOVAKIA'S ROAD TO STATEHOOD, Woytko; $1.50. ·'CZECHOSLOVAKIA'' - History Made to Order, Hrobak; 50c. UNCONQUERABLES, Pauco; $3.50 t:;UDOV1T STUR AND HIS PLACE IN THE SLAVIC WORLD, Prof. J. Kirschbaum; 25c. ANTHOLOGY OF SLOVAK POETRY, Kramoris; $2.00. ♦ ♦ ♦ SLOVAKIA is published periodically by the Slovak League of America, a cultural and civic federation of Americans of Slovak descent. The main purpose of SLOVAKIA is to promote a better understanding and appreciation of the Slovak nation and its long, hard struggle for freedom and independence. $1.00 per annum in the U. S. A. - $2.00 elsewhere. SLOVAKIA P. 0. Box 150 Middletown, Pa. Printed in the U. S. A. JEDNOTA PRESS Middletown, Pa. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 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 JUNE-DECEMBER, 1959 VOL. IX NO. 5 (30) IN THIS ISSUE : SLOVAKIA UNDER COMMUNISM SLOVAKIA'S ACCESSION TO THE TRIPARTITE PACT SLOVAKIA AND THE CHURCH INTERNATIONAL SOCIAL JUSTICE SLOVAK NATIONALISM: NATIONALISM OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY FATHER SEGINAK'S IMPRESSLON OF PRAGUE AND PRESOV THE KREMLIN HAS SHOWN ITS HAND ELEVEN HUNDRED YEARS OF PRAYERFUL SONG STEPHEN OSUSKY AND MARCH 1939 OSUSKY AFTER MARCH 14, 1939 THE HISTORY OF SLOVAKIA WHO SAID IT: 19, 37, 64, 68 • • • Edited and compiled by PHILIP A. HROBAK SLOVAKIA Box 150 Middletown, Pa. • • • Published by TH E SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA RECOMMENDED BOOKS: THIS IS SLOVAKIA, Hrusovsky; $1.00. THE SLOVAKS, Yurchak; paper cover $2.00; cloth $3.00. SKETCHES FROM SLOVAK HISTORY, Skultety; $1.00 (paper); $2.00 (cloth cover). • THE DELIVERANCE OF SISTER CECILIA, $3.75. THE CHURCH OF SILENCE IN SLOVAKIA, Zubek; $3.50. FALSE FREEDOM, Delaney; $2.00. SLOVAKIA'S ROAD TO STATEHOOD, Woytko; $1.50. ·'CZECHOSLOVAKIA'' - History Made to Order, Hrobak; 50c. UNCONQUERABLES, Pauco; $3.50 t:;UDOV1T STUR AND HIS PLACE IN THE SLAVIC WORLD, Prof. J. Kirschbaum; 25c. ANTHOLOGY OF SLOVAK POETRY, Kramoris; $2.00. ♦ ♦ ♦ SLOVAKIA is published periodically by the Slovak League of America, a cultural and civic federation of Americans of Slovak descent. The main purpose of SLOVAKIA is to promote a better understanding and appreciation of the Slovak nation and its long, hard struggle for freedom and independence. $1.00 per annum in the U. S. A. - $2.00 elsewhere. SLOVAKIA P. 0. Box 150 Middletown, Pa. Printed in the U. S. A. JEDNOTA PRESS Middletown, Pa.  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Front 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/9dc86c5a6e35cec03fa65bcc3c27426b.pdf 83e57f4902c0efb3f718c590d57f75fe PDF Text Text 124 SLOVAKIA General Milan Rastislav Stefanik and the Moven1ent for Czecho-Slovak Independence Mary Ann Kadera It soon became apparent to Thomas G. Masaryk and the group of exiles around him; namely, Edward Benes, Antonin Svehla, and the Doctors Hajn, Scheiner, Herban and samal1 that in order to induce the allies to agree to the partition of the Dual Monarchy, the people who would be free after the partition had to make a tangible contribution to the allied war efforts. "To this end the National Czecho-Slovak Committee was established with Masaryk as head, Edward Benes, Masaryk's right-hand man, as secretary and the great Slovak, General Milan Stefanik as vice president." 2 Since Stefanik was the only one of the three who had had any military experience (he had served with distinction in the French Air Force) the task of providing a Czecho-Slovak division to fight with the allied armies was given to him. The son of a Protestant minister, Stefanik, who was born in the Slovak village of Kosariska in 1880, had achieved a brilliant career as a mathematician and an astronomer of world wide stature. After completing his studies of science, law and medicine at the University of Prague, he went to Paris in 19043 where he became Secretary to the Astronomical Observ:atory. As a result he was sent on scientific and astronomical missions to various parts of the world such as Mont Blanc, Spain, Oxford, Turkestan, Algiers, South America and Tahiti. 4 Using his influence in the Frenoh social circle, Stefanik began to acquaint those in influence of Magyar tyranny and to gain their sympathy for the suffering Slovak nation. As soon as Austria declared war on Serbs, Stefanik left Marocco where he had been engaged in astronomical observation and returned to France and enlisted as a private in the French army. (Stefanik was also a citizen �SLOVAKIA 125 of France). After first fighting on the Western front, Stefanik was tranferred to the French Air Force in January and in July 1915 took part in the battles on the Aisne and near Ypres. 5 Afterwards he was sent as an airman to Serbia. Having no contact with Masaryk or his plans as yet, Stefanik already thought of organizing a separate corps of Slovaks who had fought against their convictions on the side of Austria-Hungary and who had been captured by the Allies. Due to the Serbian retreat he was forced to abandon this plan. Toward the end of November, Stefanik arrived in Rome on a special torpedo boat from Vallona. While in Rome his fame as a member of the French Academy led to his acquaintance with the French Ambassador, Monsieur Barrere and Sonnino, the Italian Foreign Minister. Upon returning to Paris, Stefanik became associated with Masaryk and Benes. Thus the nucleus of the CzechoSlovak Legion was organized in France. It was Stefanik who held the link to the important government officials who would one day decide the fate of Austria-Hungary and with it Czecho-Slovakia. Stefanik travelled to Italy where he used his influence to spread the cause of establishing an independent state for the Czechs and the Slovaks after the defeat of AustriaHungary. In July and August of 19166 he visited Russia where he conferred with all military authorities and even with the Tsar who sent, through Stefanik, greetings to Masaryk and approval of his policy. From Russia Stefanik went to the Rumanian front where he organized many volunteer Slovak prisoners for military service in France which arrived in the summer of 1917. He returned to Russia in January 1917 and then proceeded to Paris. While in Paris, he kept in touch with the Southern Slavic states and Italy. Then, he continued to Rome. 7 Of Stefanik and his journey, Thomas G. Masaryk, in his book, The Making of a State, comments: His methods were those of an apostle rather than of <1 diplomat and soldier. In Paris, where he had gradually made a ckcle of friends and admirers, he smoothed the way for me and for Dr. Benes in many an influential quarter and he did tqe same in Rome. When I Ulink of him I always remember the picture ()f �126 SLOVAKIA our little Slovak tinkers who wander throughout the world; but this Slovak wandered through all the Allied fronts, through all Government Departments, political drawing-rooms and Courts. From him Marshall Foch heard for the first time about us and our work against Austria.a "But perhaps stefanik's most important contribution to the future of his people was the visit he made to the United States in 1917." 9 In the United States, American Slovaks and Czechs were promoting the cause of Czechoslovakia. It was Stefanik who was largely responsible for the combining of the two efforts ( one here and the other in Paris) toward the common goal both were seeking. Although the American Slovaks wanted a Slovakia free of Magyar rule, they distrusted the idea of uniting with the Czechs who were numerically superior. Before they would accept this union, they had to be guaranteeed that Slovakia would be a political and cultural autonomy in the proposed new state. For this reason representatives of the Czech National Alliance and the Slovak League met and signed the Cleveland Agreement. In the Agreement three main points were emphasized: 1) The new state would be a federal republic consisting of both Czech lands (Moravia, Bohemia and Silesia) and Slovakia. 2) Slovakia would be nationally autonomous, it would have its own administration, schools and cultural development and also the use of the Slovak language within its borders. 3) Voting suffrage in Czecho-Slovakia would be secret, universal and direct. 10 But despite the good will which was created by the Cleveland Agreement, Slovak fears of "Czechism" still persisted. There was good reason for this fear. In 1916 Czech spokesmen began to use the term "Czechia" to describe the Council's objectives, the Council's publication, "Samostatnost," talked unceasingly of the Czech army, the Czech language and the Czech culture, leaving no doubt that for them the new state was to be dominated by the Czechs. Even Masaryk stated in an official communique to London that "The Slovaks are Czechs." In so doing, he not only ignored a thousand years of history but also brought the full weight of Slovak wrath upon him. In his reply to Masaryk, Vladimir Hurban wrote to Masaryk in 1917: �SLOVAKIA 127 There is not a single Slovak in all Slovakia who would call himself a Czech. Slovaks regard themselves as an ethnically distinct nation, as such we have lived and suffered. As Slovaks we hope to see dawn of liberty fur our land; we wish to unite with Czechs in one political state, but onl.y if our national and cultural autonomy will be safeguarded.11 In order to counteract the Pan-Czech attitude and to have the Cleveland Agreement gain wider acceptance in Europe, the Slovak League of America sent Gustav Kosik, editor of the Catholic Sokol and Dr. Stephen Osusky, a lawyer and a Protestant minister, as its representative to the National Council. During this time the recruitment of the Czech-Slovak foreign legion was going wery slowly. For this reason Edward Benes requested the French government to entrust Stefanik with the mission of organizing volunteers among the American Czechs and Slovaks for the army in France with the approval of the United States government. Permission was granted while Stefanik was still in Russia. Stefanik postponed this trip to the United States in order to complete his work in Rumania where he gained one thousand 12 prisoners for the Czecho-Slovak army. Before stefanik's departure 1 the French government had already sent a special political commission headed by Franklin Bouillon to gain the permission of the United States government for this task. Upon arriving in America in June 191713 Stefanik through the French ambassador, Jusserand, immediately contacted the government officials in Washington. After a conference with the then Secretary of State, Lansing, in which Jusserand stressed the loyalty of the Czechs and Slovaks to the United States of America, permission was granted to all Czechs and Slovaks not subject to military duty in the American army to join the CzechoSlovak Legion in France. Besides the recruitment, Stefanik · also had to see to the financial and travelling arrangements. While in the United States, Stefanik contacted American journalists and wrote several articles on the cause for the newpapers. He aroused both the interest of F. H. Allen of the "World" and of Gordon Smith, ("The New Republic,") and his articles soon appeared in their magazines. �128 SLOVAKIA Theodore Roosevelt, Lansing Frank and A. Polk Oater the head of the American delegation at the Peace Conference at Versailles) were other influential people with whom Stefanik caxne in close contact. 14 It has been conceded by most historians that Stefanik achieved his greatest success in the United States by securing the cooperation of both parties ( the Czechs and the Slovaks) in the Czecho-Slovak movement. stefanik was a true Slovak patriot. "While dealing with him the American Slovaks could be sure of an integrity and a sincere awareness of Slovak affairs they often found missing in Czech leaders." 15 For this reason, Stefanik was able to dispel the skepticism with which the Slovaks had greeted any and all manifestations of centralist Pan-Czechism. The first important meeting between Stefanik and the Czechs and the Slovaks was held on July 1, 191 7 at the Congress Hall Hotel in Washington. Dr. Fisher, President of the Czech National Society; Albert Mamatey, President of the Slovak League; Emil Voslm; Ivan Daxner; Charles Pergler; Dr. Hrdlicka; Ivan Bielek; and, Ferdinand Pisecky were some of the important men who attended. "Stefanik reported on conditions in Russia but the main object of the meeting was to arrange the military organization and the cooperation of the Czechs and Slovaks. At this meeting Daxner raised the Czecho-Slovak question and against his so-called 'autonomistic attitude,' Stefanik emphasized the necessity of forming a politically inseparable state and not an ethnographically inseparable one." 16 (Whether Stefanik envisioned a separate Slovak assembly in Bratislava to handle Slovak affairs is not clear.) Charles Pergler who also attended the meeting has asserted: " Naturally, the representatives of the Slovak organizations of the future Czechoslovak state often came to Stefanik. Stefanik always insisted that it was the concern of the nation at home, that it alone must decide concerning its future organization, in short, that it is impossible to dictate from beyond the borders of the country and that every such attempt would be futile. Whenever the question of Slovak autonomy arose, he !decidedly pointed out, that no guarantees could be demanded from th<>se living outside of the new state. " 11 �SLOVAKIA 129 However, it is impossible to deny the fact that Stefanik, although he gave no written promise, did reach an agreement with the American Slovaks and succeeded in gaining their cooperation with the American Czechs without the Slovaks relinquishing their principles. Stefanik in a ringing declaration on September 16 at the Carnegie Hall mass meeting told several thousand compatriots that "Our fight against Austria-Hungary can end only when both our fraternal nations, the Czechs and the Slovaks, are united in an independent State free of Magyar-German domination." 18 It was at this meeting also that Franklin Bouillon made the first public statement by an influential allied statesman officially calling for the dismemberment of Austria-Hungary. At a meeting held in New York on September 20, Stefanik was able to dispel the fears of the Slovak Catholic clergymen-that Slovak Catholicism would suffer at the hands of a completely Czechi"zed non-Catholic or perhaps anti-Catholic government in Prague. Stefanik and the Clergy agreed that the new state would have to guarantee religious in addition to cultural freedom for Slovakia before the American Slovaks would give their full support to it. Of the success of this meeting Benes later wrote: ''The meeting with the Slovak priests was very important because at this meeting Stefanik broke all suspicion and unwillingness of the priests as regards the movement for independence . . ." 19 Although stefanik's delicate health prohibited him from making many public appearances, when he did, however, he succeeded in making a deep impression upon his listeners. He spoke both Slovak and Czech and would sometimes pass from one laguage into the other in the same speech. "He gained the confidence off the people by his enthusiasm and his fascinating manner as well as with his firm and uncompromising attitude towards all things." 20 In other meetings which were held Stefanik met with presidents of the Slovak and Czech organizations (July 1); received a deputation of Slovaks headed by Milan Getting �130 SLOVAKIA (July 24); was present at a meeting of Czecho-Slovak artists (August 13); and, in September addressed the Czech and Slovak women of New York. 21 After a meeting which took place between the sixteenth and eighteenth of October, Stefanik along with other Czech and Slovak leaders organized a Czecho-Slovak military committee in order that the recruiting could proceed in an orga_¢zed manner. After the meeting recruiting was begun by a proclamation for mobilization by Stefanik who also issued instructions for the Czecho-Slovak soldiers in America. The country was divided into four sections each · with a separate "reporter" who was responsible to Stefanik. This plan later had to be adjusted. The recruiting did not go as well as had been expected. Many of the Czechs and Slovaks had already joined the Canadian army even before the United States entered the War and, forty thousand22 joined the American army soon after the United States entered. Thus, only two thousand five hundred23 men were recruited. Having completed the task of cementing Czecho-Sloval{ relationships in the United States, Stefanik was granted permission by French General Vignal to return to Paris in order to organize the Czechs in France. Vignal highly praised stefanik's work in America in a telegram sent on November 5 and December 5, 1917 saying: "He proved to possess the highest degree of tact, discipline and sense for organization. His personal influence in all matters was such that no misunderstanding arose during his stay and all the Crech groups followed his directions" aqd again "I am not able to praise sufficiently this great patriot, coolheaded and inspired by the most honest and highest feelings. Full of tact and wisdom, he gained the sympathies of the highest officials of the American Ministry of Foreign Affairs and he organizeld with the greatest success the recruiting of the Czechoslovaks."24 All of this time, the collapse of Austria-Hungary continued steadily. In 1918 for the first time the Czech members of the Reichsrat demanded a sovereign state of their own. The establishment of Czecho-Slovakia had only vaguely been an allied war aim. However, when the Allies realized how important a Czech and Slovak movement free of Bolshevism would be in central Europe, the National Council then began to make progress. It was �SLOVAKIA 131 Stefani.k's Czecho-Slovak legion in Russia that finally swayed the tide of allied opinion. The legion had remained apart from and had even fought against the Bolsheviks and, for this reason, Allied statesmen took another look at Masaryk's National Council and its aims. May 30, 1918 Thomas Masaryk signed the Pittsburgh Pact which guaranteed Slovakia its autonomy. "On September 3, 1918 Masaryk and the National Council were recognized as the de-facto government of Czecho-Slovakia. The new government now had legal existence.''.25 However, the feeling which followed this was shortlived. It was soon discovered that Masaryk did not take the signing of the Pittsburgh Pact seriously as can be seen by the statement, "it (the Pittsburgh Pact) was concluded in order to appease a small faction which was dreaming of God knows what sort of independence for Slovakia." 26 According to Gilbert L. Oddo, the Slovaks in America should have insisted that Stefanik, too, sign the Pittsburgh Pact thus binding the National Council itself. The declaration of independence that was presented to Secretary of State Lansing in order to be approved had stated: "that the rights of Bohemia might be united to those of the Slovak brethren in Slovakia, once a part of our (Czech) state ... " 27 Stefanik was displeased with the manner and the wording of the declaration. An aide had written that the General was disturbed because the proclamation was issued in Washington instead of Paris; issued without his previous knowledge; and, that Masaryk had affixed his (Stefanik's) signature to it without prior consultation. Stefanik voiced these objections both to Masaryk and Benes by telegraph on October eighteenth. 28 Soon after Masaryk's National Council took over the Czecho-Slovak government in Prague on October 28, 191829 other atrocities were committed to make Slovakia seem more insignificant. Dr. Vavro srobar was appointed by Prague as Minister Plenipotentiary for the administration of Slovakia. He had surrounded himself solely with Prague-educated Czechophiles and was strongly against any form of Slovak autonomy. �132 SLOVAKIA At the Peace Conference at Versailles in 1919, the Slovak nation was included in Czecho-Slovakia only because Masaryk and Benes asserted that the Slovaks were Czechs who spoke a dialect of the Czech language. When Andrew Hlinka, the great Slovak fighter for autonomy and leader of the Slovak People's Party, wanted to expose this false claim, he was expelled. He was later imprisoned by the Czechs. But the worst blow to Slovakia was the death of General Milan Stefanik amidst circumstances that have been suspected ever since. A little after 11 a.m. on May 4, 1919 the Italian plane-Caproni No. 11,495, carrying Stefanik to CzechoSlovakia to take up his duties as first Minister of Defense in the Czecho-Slovak Republic, circled the Vajnory Airport near Bratislava for a landing. In one blind flash the plane rocked, burst into flames, and crashed to the ground, a victim of an anti-aircraft barrage thrown up by the Czecho-Slovak military garrison at the field on orders from its Czech commanding officer. Prague tried to keep the tragedy very secret. When that proved to be impossible, stefanik's death was explained as an accident. The commanding officer had thought it to be an enemy plane. "But despite all the rationalizing attempts of Czech propaganda, eye witnesses still alive today, as well as certain members of the military garrison, insist that the shooting was willful, that Stefanik was deliberately murdered." 30 Masaryk expressed his personal regrets but refused to have the "accident" investigated either because it would damage the negotiations at Versailles or perhaps because it would give damaging evidence of Czech duplicity and deceit. Stefanik had been openly displeased with the slighting reference to Slovakia in Masaryk's declaration of independence. "Stefanik was a fierce Slovak patriot who would not stand still to the Czech centralism, the outline of which by this time had already been revealed."31 He was a Slovak Christian who could nev_er compromise with the rationalist agnosticism of the chief policy makers in Prague. Stefanik was thus an "inconvenient gadfly" 32 to Czech plans to make Slovakia a part of the "great Czechia" that �SLOVAKIA 133 the National Council had dreamed of. The death of Stefanik served Prague well. It can only be suspected if it was planned that way. Even from the sketchy reference to his work and the surprisingly meagre sources available to the historian of today, it is clearly evident that in courage, in self-sacrifice, in tact and ability in diplomacy, in integrity, and in zeal for the cause he was no t surpassed by anyone of the leaders in the Czech<>-Slovak movement for independence.33 Thus, with stefanik',s death the year 1919 came to a tragic close. The autonomy which had been sought, cherished and died for under Magyar rule still seemed a remote hope. Indeed, Slovakia did not become an independent state until 1939 under Tiso. 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) 6) 7) 8) 9) 10) 11) 12) 13) 14) 15) 16) 17) 18) 19) 20) 21) 22) 23) 24) 25) 26) 27) 28) 29) 30) S. Harrison Thomson, Czecho-Slovakia in European History, Princeton, New Jersey : Princeton University Press, 1944, p. 252. Gilbert L. Oddo, Slovakia And Its People, New York : Robert Speller & Sons, 1960, p . 160. Dr. Thomas Garigue Masaryk, The Making of a State, New York : Frederick A. Stokes, 1927, p. 191. Ibid. Ibid. Ibid. Ibid. , p. 102. Ibid., p. 104. Gilbert L. Oddo, op. cit., p . 161. Ibid., p. 162. Ibid., p . 163. Stephanie 0. Husek, " General Milan Rastislav Stefanik in America,"' Jednota Katolicky Kalend.ar, 1938, p. 184. Gilbert L. O<l):lo, op. cit., p. 165. Stephanie 0 . Husek, op. cit., p. 185. Gilbert L. Oddo, op. cit., p. 166. Stephanie 0 . Rusek, op. cit., p. 189. Ibid. Gilbert L. Oddo, op. cit., p. 167. Ibid. , pp. 168-169. Stephanie 0. Husek, <ip. cit., p. 190. Ibid. Ibid. , p. 183. Ib~i., p. 184. Ibid. , p. 192. Gilbert L. Oddo, op. cit., p. 177. Ibid., p. 176. Ibid., p. 183. Ibid. Ibid., p. 182. Ibid., pp. 191-192. �134 SLOVAKIA 31) Ibid., p . 192. 32) Ibid. 33) Stephanie 0. Rusek, op. cit., p. 182. BIBLIOGRAPHY Harrison, S. Czechoslovakia in European History, Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1944, pp. 196-283. Husek, Stephanie 0 . Ph.D. "General Milan Ra:stislav Stefanik in America," in Jednota Katolicky Kalerzt:lar, 1938, pp. 181-192. Kerner, Robert J . (ed). Czechoslovakia, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1940. Masaryk, Thomas Garigue, The Making of a State, New York: Frederick A. Stokes, 1927. Oddo, Gilbert L. Slovakia And Its People, New York: Robert Speller & Sons, 1960. Seton-Watson, R. W. A History of the Czechs and Slovaks, New York: Hutchinson and Co., 1943. Weiss, Louise. "The Founders of the Czech Republic," in Current H istory, Vol. 11, pp. 287-289. (SECOND PRIZE AWARD) Svatopluk: Political Opportunist or National Hero? Mary Susan Sabol Great Moravia, founded in the early ninth century, was the first political organization established by the Danubian Slavs without foreign leadership or foreign interference. Because of the Frankish pressure on the Slavs after the Avar's fall, the Slavs under Mojmir I determined to create an independent state, with its power centers at Devin and Nitra, based on the tradition of the previous Samo state. Great Moravia achieved its greatest power and influence under Svatopluk, of the Mojmirid line, from 871 to 894.1 In 870, Svatopluk, regent of Nitra, plotted with German backing against his uncle, Rastislav, ruler of the Great Moravian Empire. 2 When Rastislav heard of the plot, he challenged Svatopluk to do battle. Rastislav, however, was defeated and taken prisoner by the Germans. Svatopluk was entrusted with Great Moravia by Carloman, son of Louis the German. Soon Svatopluk lost the confidence of the Germans; was deposed and imprisoned. � 124 SLOVAKIA General Milan Rastislav Stefanik and the Moven1ent for Czecho-Slovak Independence Mary Ann Kadera It soon became apparent to Thomas G. Masaryk and the group of exiles around him; namely, Edward Benes, Antonin Svehla, and the Doctors Hajn, Scheiner, Herban and samal1 that in order to induce the allies to agree to the partition of the Dual Monarchy, the people who would be free after the partition had to make a tangible contribution to the allied war efforts. "To this end the National Czecho-Slovak Committee was established with Masaryk as head, Edward Benes, Masaryk's right-hand man, as secretary and the great Slovak, General Milan Stefanik as vice president." 2 Since Stefanik was the only one of the three who had had any military experience (he had served with distinction in the French Air Force) the task of providing a Czecho-Slovak division to fight with the allied armies was given to him. The son of a Protestant minister, Stefanik, who was born in the Slovak village of Kosariska in 1880, had achieved a brilliant career as a mathematician and an astronomer of world wide stature. After completing his studies of science, law and medicine at the University of Prague, he went to Paris in 19043 where he became Secretary to the Astronomical Observ:atory. As a result he was sent on scientific and astronomical missions to various parts of the world such as Mont Blanc, Spain, Oxford, Turkestan, Algiers, South America and Tahiti. 4 Using his influence in the Frenoh social circle, Stefanik began to acquaint those in influence of Magyar tyranny and to gain their sympathy for the suffering Slovak nation. As soon as Austria declared war on Serbs, Stefanik left Marocco where he had been engaged in astronomical observation and returned to France and enlisted as a private in the French army. (Stefanik was also a citizen �SLOVAKIA 125 of France). After first fighting on the Western front, Stefanik was tranferred to the French Air Force in January and in July 1915 took part in the battles on the Aisne and near Ypres. 5 Afterwards he was sent as an airman to Serbia. Having no contact with Masaryk or his plans as yet, Stefanik already thought of organizing a separate corps of Slovaks who had fought against their convictions on the side of Austria-Hungary and who had been captured by the Allies. Due to the Serbian retreat he was forced to abandon this plan. Toward the end of November, Stefanik arrived in Rome on a special torpedo boat from Vallona. While in Rome his fame as a member of the French Academy led to his acquaintance with the French Ambassador, Monsieur Barrere and Sonnino, the Italian Foreign Minister. Upon returning to Paris, Stefanik became associated with Masaryk and Benes. Thus the nucleus of the CzechoSlovak Legion was organized in France. It was Stefanik who held the link to the important government officials who would one day decide the fate of Austria-Hungary and with it Czecho-Slovakia. Stefanik travelled to Italy where he used his influence to spread the cause of establishing an independent state for the Czechs and the Slovaks after the defeat of AustriaHungary. In July and August of 19166 he visited Russia where he conferred with all military authorities and even with the Tsar who sent, through Stefanik, greetings to Masaryk and approval of his policy. From Russia Stefanik went to the Rumanian front where he organized many volunteer Slovak prisoners for military service in France which arrived in the summer of 1917. He returned to Russia in January 1917 and then proceeded to Paris. While in Paris, he kept in touch with the Southern Slavic states and Italy. Then, he continued to Rome. 7 Of Stefanik and his journey, Thomas G. Masaryk, in his book, The Making of a State, comments: His methods were those of an apostle rather than of <1 diplomat and soldier. In Paris, where he had gradually made a ckcle of friends and admirers, he smoothed the way for me and for Dr. Benes in many an influential quarter and he did tqe same in Rome. When I Ulink of him I always remember the picture ()f �126 SLOVAKIA our little Slovak tinkers who wander throughout the world; but this Slovak wandered through all the Allied fronts, through all Government Departments, political drawing-rooms and Courts. From him Marshall Foch heard for the first time about us and our work against Austria.a "But perhaps stefanik's most important contribution to the future of his people was the visit he made to the United States in 1917." 9 In the United States, American Slovaks and Czechs were promoting the cause of Czechoslovakia. It was Stefanik who was largely responsible for the combining of the two efforts ( one here and the other in Paris) toward the common goal both were seeking. Although the American Slovaks wanted a Slovakia free of Magyar rule, they distrusted the idea of uniting with the Czechs who were numerically superior. Before they would accept this union, they had to be guaranteeed that Slovakia would be a political and cultural autonomy in the proposed new state. For this reason representatives of the Czech National Alliance and the Slovak League met and signed the Cleveland Agreement. In the Agreement three main points were emphasized: 1) The new state would be a federal republic consisting of both Czech lands (Moravia, Bohemia and Silesia) and Slovakia. 2) Slovakia would be nationally autonomous, it would have its own administration, schools and cultural development and also the use of the Slovak language within its borders. 3) Voting suffrage in Czecho-Slovakia would be secret, universal and direct. 10 But despite the good will which was created by the Cleveland Agreement, Slovak fears of "Czechism" still persisted. There was good reason for this fear. In 1916 Czech spokesmen began to use the term "Czechia" to describe the Council's objectives, the Council's publication, "Samostatnost," talked unceasingly of the Czech army, the Czech language and the Czech culture, leaving no doubt that for them the new state was to be dominated by the Czechs. Even Masaryk stated in an official communique to London that "The Slovaks are Czechs." In so doing, he not only ignored a thousand years of history but also brought the full weight of Slovak wrath upon him. In his reply to Masaryk, Vladimir Hurban wrote to Masaryk in 1917: �SLOVAKIA 127 There is not a single Slovak in all Slovakia who would call himself a Czech. Slovaks regard themselves as an ethnically distinct nation, as such we have lived and suffered. As Slovaks we hope to see dawn of liberty fur our land; we wish to unite with Czechs in one political state, but onl.y if our national and cultural autonomy will be safeguarded.11 In order to counteract the Pan-Czech attitude and to have the Cleveland Agreement gain wider acceptance in Europe, the Slovak League of America sent Gustav Kosik, editor of the Catholic Sokol and Dr. Stephen Osusky, a lawyer and a Protestant minister, as its representative to the National Council. During this time the recruitment of the Czech-Slovak foreign legion was going wery slowly. For this reason Edward Benes requested the French government to entrust Stefanik with the mission of organizing volunteers among the American Czechs and Slovaks for the army in France with the approval of the United States government. Permission was granted while Stefanik was still in Russia. Stefanik postponed this trip to the United States in order to complete his work in Rumania where he gained one thousand 12 prisoners for the Czecho-Slovak army. Before stefanik's departure 1 the French government had already sent a special political commission headed by Franklin Bouillon to gain the permission of the United States government for this task. Upon arriving in America in June 191713 Stefanik through the French ambassador, Jusserand, immediately contacted the government officials in Washington. After a conference with the then Secretary of State, Lansing, in which Jusserand stressed the loyalty of the Czechs and Slovaks to the United States of America, permission was granted to all Czechs and Slovaks not subject to military duty in the American army to join the CzechoSlovak Legion in France. Besides the recruitment, Stefanik · also had to see to the financial and travelling arrangements. While in the United States, Stefanik contacted American journalists and wrote several articles on the cause for the newpapers. He aroused both the interest of F. H. Allen of the "World" and of Gordon Smith, ("The New Republic,") and his articles soon appeared in their magazines. �128 SLOVAKIA Theodore Roosevelt, Lansing Frank and A. Polk Oater the head of the American delegation at the Peace Conference at Versailles) were other influential people with whom Stefanik caxne in close contact. 14 It has been conceded by most historians that Stefanik achieved his greatest success in the United States by securing the cooperation of both parties ( the Czechs and the Slovaks) in the Czecho-Slovak movement. stefanik was a true Slovak patriot. "While dealing with him the American Slovaks could be sure of an integrity and a sincere awareness of Slovak affairs they often found missing in Czech leaders." 15 For this reason, Stefanik was able to dispel the skepticism with which the Slovaks had greeted any and all manifestations of centralist Pan-Czechism. The first important meeting between Stefanik and the Czechs and the Slovaks was held on July 1, 191 7 at the Congress Hall Hotel in Washington. Dr. Fisher, President of the Czech National Society; Albert Mamatey, President of the Slovak League; Emil Voslm; Ivan Daxner; Charles Pergler; Dr. Hrdlicka; Ivan Bielek; and, Ferdinand Pisecky were some of the important men who attended. "Stefanik reported on conditions in Russia but the main object of the meeting was to arrange the military organization and the cooperation of the Czechs and Slovaks. At this meeting Daxner raised the Czecho-Slovak question and against his so-called 'autonomistic attitude,' Stefanik emphasized the necessity of forming a politically inseparable state and not an ethnographically inseparable one." 16 (Whether Stefanik envisioned a separate Slovak assembly in Bratislava to handle Slovak affairs is not clear.) Charles Pergler who also attended the meeting has asserted: " Naturally, the representatives of the Slovak organizations of the future Czechoslovak state often came to Stefanik. Stefanik always insisted that it was the concern of the nation at home, that it alone must decide concerning its future organization, in short, that it is impossible to dictate from beyond the borders of the country and that every such attempt would be futile. Whenever the question of Slovak autonomy arose, he !decidedly pointed out, that no guarantees could be demanded from th<>se living outside of the new state. " 11 �SLOVAKIA 129 However, it is impossible to deny the fact that Stefanik, although he gave no written promise, did reach an agreement with the American Slovaks and succeeded in gaining their cooperation with the American Czechs without the Slovaks relinquishing their principles. Stefanik in a ringing declaration on September 16 at the Carnegie Hall mass meeting told several thousand compatriots that "Our fight against Austria-Hungary can end only when both our fraternal nations, the Czechs and the Slovaks, are united in an independent State free of Magyar-German domination." 18 It was at this meeting also that Franklin Bouillon made the first public statement by an influential allied statesman officially calling for the dismemberment of Austria-Hungary. At a meeting held in New York on September 20, Stefanik was able to dispel the fears of the Slovak Catholic clergymen-that Slovak Catholicism would suffer at the hands of a completely Czechi"zed non-Catholic or perhaps anti-Catholic government in Prague. Stefanik and the Clergy agreed that the new state would have to guarantee religious in addition to cultural freedom for Slovakia before the American Slovaks would give their full support to it. Of the success of this meeting Benes later wrote: ''The meeting with the Slovak priests was very important because at this meeting Stefanik broke all suspicion and unwillingness of the priests as regards the movement for independence . . ." 19 Although stefanik's delicate health prohibited him from making many public appearances, when he did, however, he succeeded in making a deep impression upon his listeners. He spoke both Slovak and Czech and would sometimes pass from one laguage into the other in the same speech. "He gained the confidence off the people by his enthusiasm and his fascinating manner as well as with his firm and uncompromising attitude towards all things." 20 In other meetings which were held Stefanik met with presidents of the Slovak and Czech organizations (July 1); received a deputation of Slovaks headed by Milan Getting �130 SLOVAKIA (July 24); was present at a meeting of Czecho-Slovak artists (August 13); and, in September addressed the Czech and Slovak women of New York. 21 After a meeting which took place between the sixteenth and eighteenth of October, Stefanik along with other Czech and Slovak leaders organized a Czecho-Slovak military committee in order that the recruiting could proceed in an orga_¢zed manner. After the meeting recruiting was begun by a proclamation for mobilization by Stefanik who also issued instructions for the Czecho-Slovak soldiers in America. The country was divided into four sections each · with a separate "reporter" who was responsible to Stefanik. This plan later had to be adjusted. The recruiting did not go as well as had been expected. Many of the Czechs and Slovaks had already joined the Canadian army even before the United States entered the War and, forty thousand22 joined the American army soon after the United States entered. Thus, only two thousand five hundred23 men were recruited. Having completed the task of cementing Czecho-Sloval{ relationships in the United States, Stefanik was granted permission by French General Vignal to return to Paris in order to organize the Czechs in France. Vignal highly praised stefanik's work in America in a telegram sent on November 5 and December 5, 1917 saying: "He proved to possess the highest degree of tact, discipline and sense for organization. His personal influence in all matters was such that no misunderstanding arose during his stay and all the Crech groups followed his directions" aqd again "I am not able to praise sufficiently this great patriot, coolheaded and inspired by the most honest and highest feelings. Full of tact and wisdom, he gained the sympathies of the highest officials of the American Ministry of Foreign Affairs and he organizeld with the greatest success the recruiting of the Czechoslovaks."24 All of this time, the collapse of Austria-Hungary continued steadily. In 1918 for the first time the Czech members of the Reichsrat demanded a sovereign state of their own. The establishment of Czecho-Slovakia had only vaguely been an allied war aim. However, when the Allies realized how important a Czech and Slovak movement free of Bolshevism would be in central Europe, the National Council then began to make progress. It was �SLOVAKIA 131 Stefani.k's Czecho-Slovak legion in Russia that finally swayed the tide of allied opinion. The legion had remained apart from and had even fought against the Bolsheviks and, for this reason, Allied statesmen took another look at Masaryk's National Council and its aims. May 30, 1918 Thomas Masaryk signed the Pittsburgh Pact which guaranteed Slovakia its autonomy. "On September 3, 1918 Masaryk and the National Council were recognized as the de-facto government of Czecho-Slovakia. The new government now had legal existence.''.25 However, the feeling which followed this was shortlived. It was soon discovered that Masaryk did not take the signing of the Pittsburgh Pact seriously as can be seen by the statement, "it (the Pittsburgh Pact) was concluded in order to appease a small faction which was dreaming of God knows what sort of independence for Slovakia." 26 According to Gilbert L. Oddo, the Slovaks in America should have insisted that Stefanik, too, sign the Pittsburgh Pact thus binding the National Council itself. The declaration of independence that was presented to Secretary of State Lansing in order to be approved had stated: "that the rights of Bohemia might be united to those of the Slovak brethren in Slovakia, once a part of our (Czech) state ... " 27 Stefanik was displeased with the manner and the wording of the declaration. An aide had written that the General was disturbed because the proclamation was issued in Washington instead of Paris; issued without his previous knowledge; and, that Masaryk had affixed his (Stefanik's) signature to it without prior consultation. Stefanik voiced these objections both to Masaryk and Benes by telegraph on October eighteenth. 28 Soon after Masaryk's National Council took over the Czecho-Slovak government in Prague on October 28, 191829 other atrocities were committed to make Slovakia seem more insignificant. Dr. Vavro srobar was appointed by Prague as Minister Plenipotentiary for the administration of Slovakia. He had surrounded himself solely with Prague-educated Czechophiles and was strongly against any form of Slovak autonomy. �132 SLOVAKIA At the Peace Conference at Versailles in 1919, the Slovak nation was included in Czecho-Slovakia only because Masaryk and Benes asserted that the Slovaks were Czechs who spoke a dialect of the Czech language. When Andrew Hlinka, the great Slovak fighter for autonomy and leader of the Slovak People's Party, wanted to expose this false claim, he was expelled. He was later imprisoned by the Czechs. But the worst blow to Slovakia was the death of General Milan Stefanik amidst circumstances that have been suspected ever since. A little after 11 a.m. on May 4, 1919 the Italian plane-Caproni No. 11,495, carrying Stefanik to CzechoSlovakia to take up his duties as first Minister of Defense in the Czecho-Slovak Republic, circled the Vajnory Airport near Bratislava for a landing. In one blind flash the plane rocked, burst into flames, and crashed to the ground, a victim of an anti-aircraft barrage thrown up by the Czecho-Slovak military garrison at the field on orders from its Czech commanding officer. Prague tried to keep the tragedy very secret. When that proved to be impossible, stefanik's death was explained as an accident. The commanding officer had thought it to be an enemy plane. "But despite all the rationalizing attempts of Czech propaganda, eye witnesses still alive today, as well as certain members of the military garrison, insist that the shooting was willful, that Stefanik was deliberately murdered." 30 Masaryk expressed his personal regrets but refused to have the "accident" investigated either because it would damage the negotiations at Versailles or perhaps because it would give damaging evidence of Czech duplicity and deceit. Stefanik had been openly displeased with the slighting reference to Slovakia in Masaryk's declaration of independence. "Stefanik was a fierce Slovak patriot who would not stand still to the Czech centralism, the outline of which by this time had already been revealed."31 He was a Slovak Christian who could nev_er compromise with the rationalist agnosticism of the chief policy makers in Prague. Stefanik was thus an "inconvenient gadfly" 32 to Czech plans to make Slovakia a part of the "great Czechia" that �SLOVAKIA 133 the National Council had dreamed of. The death of Stefanik served Prague well. It can only be suspected if it was planned that way. Even from the sketchy reference to his work and the surprisingly meagre sources available to the historian of today, it is clearly evident that in courage, in self-sacrifice, in tact and ability in diplomacy, in integrity, and in zeal for the cause he was no t surpassed by anyone of the leaders in the Czech<>-Slovak movement for independence.33 Thus, with stefanik',s death the year 1919 came to a tragic close. The autonomy which had been sought, cherished and died for under Magyar rule still seemed a remote hope. Indeed, Slovakia did not become an independent state until 1939 under Tiso. 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) 6) 7) 8) 9) 10) 11) 12) 13) 14) 15) 16) 17) 18) 19) 20) 21) 22) 23) 24) 25) 26) 27) 28) 29) 30) S. Harrison Thomson, Czecho-Slovakia in European History, Princeton, New Jersey : Princeton University Press, 1944, p. 252. Gilbert L. Oddo, Slovakia And Its People, New York : Robert Speller & Sons, 1960, p . 160. Dr. Thomas Garigue Masaryk, The Making of a State, New York : Frederick A. Stokes, 1927, p. 191. Ibid. Ibid. Ibid. Ibid. , p. 102. Ibid., p. 104. Gilbert L. Oddo, op. cit., p . 161. Ibid., p. 162. Ibid., p . 163. Stephanie 0. Husek, " General Milan Rastislav Stefanik in America,"' Jednota Katolicky Kalend.ar, 1938, p. 184. Gilbert L. O<l):lo, op. cit., p. 165. Stephanie 0 . Husek, op. cit., p. 185. Gilbert L. Oddo, op. cit., p. 166. Stephanie 0 . Rusek, op. cit., p. 189. Ibid. Gilbert L. Oddo, op. cit., p. 167. Ibid. , pp. 168-169. Stephanie 0. Husek, <ip. cit., p. 190. Ibid. Ibid. , p. 183. Ib~i., p. 184. Ibid. , p. 192. Gilbert L. Oddo, op. cit., p. 177. Ibid., p. 176. Ibid., p. 183. Ibid. Ibid., p. 182. Ibid., pp. 191-192. �134 SLOVAKIA 31) Ibid., p . 192. 32) Ibid. 33) Stephanie 0. Rusek, op. cit., p. 182. BIBLIOGRAPHY Harrison, S. Czechoslovakia in European History, Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1944, pp. 196-283. Husek, Stephanie 0 . Ph.D. "General Milan Ra:stislav Stefanik in America," in Jednota Katolicky Kalerzt:lar, 1938, pp. 181-192. Kerner, Robert J . (ed). Czechoslovakia, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1940. Masaryk, Thomas Garigue, The Making of a State, New York: Frederick A. Stokes, 1927. Oddo, Gilbert L. Slovakia And Its People, New York: Robert Speller & Sons, 1960. Seton-Watson, R. W. A History of the Czechs and Slovaks, New York: Hutchinson and Co., 1943. Weiss, Louise. "The Founders of the Czech Republic," in Current H istory, Vol. 11, pp. 287-289. (SECOND PRIZE AWARD) Svatopluk: Political Opportunist or National Hero? Mary Susan Sabol Great Moravia, founded in the early ninth century, was the first political organization established by the Danubian Slavs without foreign leadership or foreign interference. Because of the Frankish pressure on the Slavs after the Avar's fall, the Slavs under Mojmir I determined to create an independent state, with its power centers at Devin and Nitra, based on the tradition of the previous Samo state. Great Moravia achieved its greatest power and influence under Svatopluk, of the Mojmirid line, from 871 to 894.1 In 870, Svatopluk, regent of Nitra, plotted with German backing against his uncle, Rastislav, ruler of the Great Moravian Empire. 2 When Rastislav heard of the plot, he challenged Svatopluk to do battle. Rastislav, however, was defeated and taken prisoner by the Germans. Svatopluk was entrusted with Great Moravia by Carloman, son of Louis the German. Soon Svatopluk lost the confidence of the Germans; was deposed and imprisoned. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1971, Vol. 21 Description An account of the resource Vol. 21 (No. 44), 1971. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1971 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document 124 SLOVAKIA General Milan Rastislav Stefanik and the Moven1ent for Czecho-Slovak Independence Mary Ann Kadera It soon became apparent to Thomas G. Masaryk and the group of exiles around him; namely, Edward Benes, Antonin Svehla, and the Doctors Hajn, Scheiner, Herban and samal1 that in order to induce the allies to agree to the partition of the Dual Monarchy, the people who would be free after the partition had to make a tangible contribution to the allied war efforts. "To this end the National Czecho-Slovak Committee was established with Masaryk as head, Edward Benes, Masaryk's right-hand man, as secretary and the great Slovak, General Milan Stefanik as vice president." 2 Since Stefanik was the only one of the three who had had any military experience (he had served with distinction in the French Air Force) the task of providing a Czecho-Slovak division to fight with the allied armies was given to him. The son of a Protestant minister, Stefanik, who was born in the Slovak village of Kosariska in 1880, had achieved a brilliant career as a mathematician and an astronomer of world wide stature. After completing his studies of science, law and medicine at the University of Prague, he went to Paris in 19043 where he became Secretary to the Astronomical Observ:atory. As a result he was sent on scientific and astronomical missions to various parts of the world such as Mont Blanc, Spain, Oxford, Turkestan, Algiers, South America and Tahiti. 4 Using his influence in the Frenoh social circle, Stefanik began to acquaint those in influence of Magyar tyranny and to gain their sympathy for the suffering Slovak nation. As soon as Austria declared war on Serbs, Stefanik left Marocco where he had been engaged in astronomical observation and returned to France and enlisted as a private in the French army. (Stefanik was also a citizen SLOVAKIA 125 of France). After first fighting on the Western front, Stefanik was tranferred to the French Air Force in January and in July 1915 took part in the battles on the Aisne and near Ypres. 5 Afterwards he was sent as an airman to Serbia. Having no contact with Masaryk or his plans as yet, Stefanik already thought of organizing a separate corps of Slovaks who had fought against their convictions on the side of Austria-Hungary and who had been captured by the Allies. Due to the Serbian retreat he was forced to abandon this plan. Toward the end of November, Stefanik arrived in Rome on a special torpedo boat from Vallona. While in Rome his fame as a member of the French Academy led to his acquaintance with the French Ambassador, Monsieur Barrere and Sonnino, the Italian Foreign Minister. Upon returning to Paris, Stefanik became associated with Masaryk and Benes. Thus the nucleus of the CzechoSlovak Legion was organized in France. It was Stefanik who held the link to the important government officials who would one day decide the fate of Austria-Hungary and with it Czecho-Slovakia. Stefanik travelled to Italy where he used his influence to spread the cause of establishing an independent state for the Czechs and the Slovaks after the defeat of AustriaHungary. In July and August of 19166 he visited Russia where he conferred with all military authorities and even with the Tsar who sent, through Stefanik, greetings to Masaryk and approval of his policy. From Russia Stefanik went to the Rumanian front where he organized many volunteer Slovak prisoners for military service in France which arrived in the summer of 1917. He returned to Russia in January 1917 and then proceeded to Paris. While in Paris, he kept in touch with the Southern Slavic states and Italy. Then, he continued to Rome. 7 Of Stefanik and his journey, Thomas G. Masaryk, in his book, The Making of a State, comments: His methods were those of an apostle rather than of <1 diplomat and soldier. In Paris, where he had gradually made a ckcle of friends and admirers, he smoothed the way for me and for Dr. Benes in many an influential quarter and he did tqe same in Rome. When I Ulink of him I always remember the picture ()f 126 SLOVAKIA our little Slovak tinkers who wander throughout the world; but this Slovak wandered through all the Allied fronts, through all Government Departments, political drawing-rooms and Courts. From him Marshall Foch heard for the first time about us and our work against Austria.a "But perhaps stefanik's most important contribution to the future of his people was the visit he made to the United States in 1917." 9 In the United States, American Slovaks and Czechs were promoting the cause of Czechoslovakia. It was Stefanik who was largely responsible for the combining of the two efforts ( one here and the other in Paris) toward the common goal both were seeking. Although the American Slovaks wanted a Slovakia free of Magyar rule, they distrusted the idea of uniting with the Czechs who were numerically superior. Before they would accept this union, they had to be guaranteeed that Slovakia would be a political and cultural autonomy in the proposed new state. For this reason representatives of the Czech National Alliance and the Slovak League met and signed the Cleveland Agreement. In the Agreement three main points were emphasized: 1) The new state would be a federal republic consisting of both Czech lands (Moravia, Bohemia and Silesia) and Slovakia. 2) Slovakia would be nationally autonomous, it would have its own administration, schools and cultural development and also the use of the Slovak language within its borders. 3) Voting suffrage in Czecho-Slovakia would be secret, universal and direct. 10 But despite the good will which was created by the Cleveland Agreement, Slovak fears of "Czechism" still persisted. There was good reason for this fear. In 1916 Czech spokesmen began to use the term "Czechia" to describe the Council's objectives, the Council's publication, "Samostatnost," talked unceasingly of the Czech army, the Czech language and the Czech culture, leaving no doubt that for them the new state was to be dominated by the Czechs. Even Masaryk stated in an official communique to London that "The Slovaks are Czechs." In so doing, he not only ignored a thousand years of history but also brought the full weight of Slovak wrath upon him. In his reply to Masaryk, Vladimir Hurban wrote to Masaryk in 1917: SLOVAKIA 127 There is not a single Slovak in all Slovakia who would call himself a Czech. Slovaks regard themselves as an ethnically distinct nation, as such we have lived and suffered. As Slovaks we hope to see dawn of liberty fur our land; we wish to unite with Czechs in one political state, but onl.y if our national and cultural autonomy will be safeguarded.11 In order to counteract the Pan-Czech attitude and to have the Cleveland Agreement gain wider acceptance in Europe, the Slovak League of America sent Gustav Kosik, editor of the Catholic Sokol and Dr. Stephen Osusky, a lawyer and a Protestant minister, as its representative to the National Council. During this time the recruitment of the Czech-Slovak foreign legion was going wery slowly. For this reason Edward Benes requested the French government to entrust Stefanik with the mission of organizing volunteers among the American Czechs and Slovaks for the army in France with the approval of the United States government. Permission was granted while Stefanik was still in Russia. Stefanik postponed this trip to the United States in order to complete his work in Rumania where he gained one thousand 12 prisoners for the Czecho-Slovak army. Before stefanik's departure 1 the French government had already sent a special political commission headed by Franklin Bouillon to gain the permission of the United States government for this task. Upon arriving in America in June 191713 Stefanik through the French ambassador, Jusserand, immediately contacted the government officials in Washington. After a conference with the then Secretary of State, Lansing, in which Jusserand stressed the loyalty of the Czechs and Slovaks to the United States of America, permission was granted to all Czechs and Slovaks not subject to military duty in the American army to join the CzechoSlovak Legion in France. Besides the recruitment, Stefanik · also had to see to the financial and travelling arrangements. While in the United States, Stefanik contacted American journalists and wrote several articles on the cause for the newpapers. He aroused both the interest of F. H. Allen of the "World" and of Gordon Smith, ("The New Republic,") and his articles soon appeared in their magazines. 128 SLOVAKIA Theodore Roosevelt, Lansing Frank and A. Polk Oater the head of the American delegation at the Peace Conference at Versailles) were other influential people with whom Stefanik caxne in close contact. 14 It has been conceded by most historians that Stefanik achieved his greatest success in the United States by securing the cooperation of both parties ( the Czechs and the Slovaks) in the Czecho-Slovak movement. stefanik was a true Slovak patriot. "While dealing with him the American Slovaks could be sure of an integrity and a sincere awareness of Slovak affairs they often found missing in Czech leaders." 15 For this reason, Stefanik was able to dispel the skepticism with which the Slovaks had greeted any and all manifestations of centralist Pan-Czechism. The first important meeting between Stefanik and the Czechs and the Slovaks was held on July 1, 191 7 at the Congress Hall Hotel in Washington. Dr. Fisher, President of the Czech National Society; Albert Mamatey, President of the Slovak League; Emil Voslm; Ivan Daxner; Charles Pergler; Dr. Hrdlicka; Ivan Bielek; and, Ferdinand Pisecky were some of the important men who attended. "Stefanik reported on conditions in Russia but the main object of the meeting was to arrange the military organization and the cooperation of the Czechs and Slovaks. At this meeting Daxner raised the Czecho-Slovak question and against his so-called 'autonomistic attitude,' Stefanik emphasized the necessity of forming a politically inseparable state and not an ethnographically inseparable one." 16 (Whether Stefanik envisioned a separate Slovak assembly in Bratislava to handle Slovak affairs is not clear.) Charles Pergler who also attended the meeting has asserted: " Naturally, the representatives of the Slovak organizations of the future Czechoslovak state often came to Stefanik. Stefanik always insisted that it was the concern of the nation at home, that it alone must decide concerning its future organization, in short, that it is impossible to dictate from beyond the borders of the country and that every such attempt would be futile. Whenever the question of Slovak autonomy arose, he !decidedly pointed out, that no guarantees could be demanded from th<>se living outside of the new state. " 11 SLOVAKIA 129 However, it is impossible to deny the fact that Stefanik, although he gave no written promise, did reach an agreement with the American Slovaks and succeeded in gaining their cooperation with the American Czechs without the Slovaks relinquishing their principles. Stefanik in a ringing declaration on September 16 at the Carnegie Hall mass meeting told several thousand compatriots that "Our fight against Austria-Hungary can end only when both our fraternal nations, the Czechs and the Slovaks, are united in an independent State free of Magyar-German domination." 18 It was at this meeting also that Franklin Bouillon made the first public statement by an influential allied statesman officially calling for the dismemberment of Austria-Hungary. At a meeting held in New York on September 20, Stefanik was able to dispel the fears of the Slovak Catholic clergymen-that Slovak Catholicism would suffer at the hands of a completely Czechi"zed non-Catholic or perhaps anti-Catholic government in Prague. Stefanik and the Clergy agreed that the new state would have to guarantee religious in addition to cultural freedom for Slovakia before the American Slovaks would give their full support to it. Of the success of this meeting Benes later wrote: ''The meeting with the Slovak priests was very important because at this meeting Stefanik broke all suspicion and unwillingness of the priests as regards the movement for independence . . ." 19 Although stefanik's delicate health prohibited him from making many public appearances, when he did, however, he succeeded in making a deep impression upon his listeners. He spoke both Slovak and Czech and would sometimes pass from one laguage into the other in the same speech. "He gained the confidence off the people by his enthusiasm and his fascinating manner as well as with his firm and uncompromising attitude towards all things." 20 In other meetings which were held Stefanik met with presidents of the Slovak and Czech organizations (July 1); received a deputation of Slovaks headed by Milan Getting 130 SLOVAKIA (July 24); was present at a meeting of Czecho-Slovak artists (August 13); and, in September addressed the Czech and Slovak women of New York. 21 After a meeting which took place between the sixteenth and eighteenth of October, Stefanik along with other Czech and Slovak leaders organized a Czecho-Slovak military committee in order that the recruiting could proceed in an orga_¢zed manner. After the meeting recruiting was begun by a proclamation for mobilization by Stefanik who also issued instructions for the Czecho-Slovak soldiers in America. The country was divided into four sections each · with a separate "reporter" who was responsible to Stefanik. This plan later had to be adjusted. The recruiting did not go as well as had been expected. Many of the Czechs and Slovaks had already joined the Canadian army even before the United States entered the War and, forty thousand22 joined the American army soon after the United States entered. Thus, only two thousand five hundred23 men were recruited. Having completed the task of cementing Czecho-Sloval{ relationships in the United States, Stefanik was granted permission by French General Vignal to return to Paris in order to organize the Czechs in France. Vignal highly praised stefanik's work in America in a telegram sent on November 5 and December 5, 1917 saying: "He proved to possess the highest degree of tact, discipline and sense for organization. His personal influence in all matters was such that no misunderstanding arose during his stay and all the Crech groups followed his directions" aqd again "I am not able to praise sufficiently this great patriot, coolheaded and inspired by the most honest and highest feelings. Full of tact and wisdom, he gained the sympathies of the highest officials of the American Ministry of Foreign Affairs and he organizeld with the greatest success the recruiting of the Czechoslovaks."24 All of this time, the collapse of Austria-Hungary continued steadily. In 1918 for the first time the Czech members of the Reichsrat demanded a sovereign state of their own. The establishment of Czecho-Slovakia had only vaguely been an allied war aim. However, when the Allies realized how important a Czech and Slovak movement free of Bolshevism would be in central Europe, the National Council then began to make progress. It was SLOVAKIA 131 Stefani.k's Czecho-Slovak legion in Russia that finally swayed the tide of allied opinion. The legion had remained apart from and had even fought against the Bolsheviks and, for this reason, Allied statesmen took another look at Masaryk's National Council and its aims. May 30, 1918 Thomas Masaryk signed the Pittsburgh Pact which guaranteed Slovakia its autonomy. "On September 3, 1918 Masaryk and the National Council were recognized as the de-facto government of Czecho-Slovakia. The new government now had legal existence.''.25 However, the feeling which followed this was shortlived. It was soon discovered that Masaryk did not take the signing of the Pittsburgh Pact seriously as can be seen by the statement, "it (the Pittsburgh Pact) was concluded in order to appease a small faction which was dreaming of God knows what sort of independence for Slovakia." 26 According to Gilbert L. Oddo, the Slovaks in America should have insisted that Stefanik, too, sign the Pittsburgh Pact thus binding the National Council itself. The declaration of independence that was presented to Secretary of State Lansing in order to be approved had stated: "that the rights of Bohemia might be united to those of the Slovak brethren in Slovakia, once a part of our (Czech) state ... " 27 Stefanik was displeased with the manner and the wording of the declaration. An aide had written that the General was disturbed because the proclamation was issued in Washington instead of Paris; issued without his previous knowledge; and, that Masaryk had affixed his (Stefanik's) signature to it without prior consultation. Stefanik voiced these objections both to Masaryk and Benes by telegraph on October eighteenth. 28 Soon after Masaryk's National Council took over the Czecho-Slovak government in Prague on October 28, 191829 other atrocities were committed to make Slovakia seem more insignificant. Dr. Vavro srobar was appointed by Prague as Minister Plenipotentiary for the administration of Slovakia. He had surrounded himself solely with Prague-educated Czechophiles and was strongly against any form of Slovak autonomy. 132 SLOVAKIA At the Peace Conference at Versailles in 1919, the Slovak nation was included in Czecho-Slovakia only because Masaryk and Benes asserted that the Slovaks were Czechs who spoke a dialect of the Czech language. When Andrew Hlinka, the great Slovak fighter for autonomy and leader of the Slovak People's Party, wanted to expose this false claim, he was expelled. He was later imprisoned by the Czechs. But the worst blow to Slovakia was the death of General Milan Stefanik amidst circumstances that have been suspected ever since. A little after 11 a.m. on May 4, 1919 the Italian plane-Caproni No. 11,495, carrying Stefanik to CzechoSlovakia to take up his duties as first Minister of Defense in the Czecho-Slovak Republic, circled the Vajnory Airport near Bratislava for a landing. In one blind flash the plane rocked, burst into flames, and crashed to the ground, a victim of an anti-aircraft barrage thrown up by the Czecho-Slovak military garrison at the field on orders from its Czech commanding officer. Prague tried to keep the tragedy very secret. When that proved to be impossible, stefanik's death was explained as an accident. The commanding officer had thought it to be an enemy plane. "But despite all the rationalizing attempts of Czech propaganda, eye witnesses still alive today, as well as certain members of the military garrison, insist that the shooting was willful, that Stefanik was deliberately murdered." 30 Masaryk expressed his personal regrets but refused to have the "accident" investigated either because it would damage the negotiations at Versailles or perhaps because it would give damaging evidence of Czech duplicity and deceit. Stefanik had been openly displeased with the slighting reference to Slovakia in Masaryk's declaration of independence. "Stefanik was a fierce Slovak patriot who would not stand still to the Czech centralism, the outline of which by this time had already been revealed."31 He was a Slovak Christian who could nev_er compromise with the rationalist agnosticism of the chief policy makers in Prague. Stefanik was thus an "inconvenient gadfly" 32 to Czech plans to make Slovakia a part of the "great Czechia" that SLOVAKIA 133 the National Council had dreamed of. The death of Stefanik served Prague well. It can only be suspected if it was planned that way. Even from the sketchy reference to his work and the surprisingly meagre sources available to the historian of today, it is clearly evident that in courage, in self-sacrifice, in tact and ability in diplomacy, in integrity, and in zeal for the cause he was no t surpassed by anyone of the leaders in the Czech<>-Slovak movement for independence.33 Thus, with stefanik',s death the year 1919 came to a tragic close. The autonomy which had been sought, cherished and died for under Magyar rule still seemed a remote hope. Indeed, Slovakia did not become an independent state until 1939 under Tiso. 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) 6) 7) 8) 9) 10) 11) 12) 13) 14) 15) 16) 17) 18) 19) 20) 21) 22) 23) 24) 25) 26) 27) 28) 29) 30) S. Harrison Thomson, Czecho-Slovakia in European History, Princeton, New Jersey : Princeton University Press, 1944, p. 252. Gilbert L. Oddo, Slovakia And Its People, New York : Robert Speller & Sons, 1960, p . 160. Dr. Thomas Garigue Masaryk, The Making of a State, New York : Frederick A. Stokes, 1927, p. 191. Ibid. Ibid. Ibid. Ibid. , p. 102. Ibid., p. 104. Gilbert L. Oddo, op. cit., p . 161. Ibid., p. 162. Ibid., p . 163. Stephanie 0. Husek, " General Milan Rastislav Stefanik in America,"' Jednota Katolicky Kalend.ar, 1938, p. 184. Gilbert L. O<l):lo, op. cit., p. 165. Stephanie 0 . Husek, op. cit., p. 185. Gilbert L. Oddo, op. cit., p. 166. Stephanie 0 . Rusek, op. cit., p. 189. Ibid. Gilbert L. Oddo, op. cit., p. 167. Ibid. , pp. 168-169. Stephanie 0. Husek, <ip. cit., p. 190. Ibid. Ibid. , p. 183. Ib~i., p. 184. Ibid. , p. 192. Gilbert L. Oddo, op. cit., p. 177. Ibid., p. 176. Ibid., p. 183. Ibid. Ibid., p. 182. Ibid., pp. 191-192. 134 SLOVAKIA 31) Ibid., p . 192. 32) Ibid. 33) Stephanie 0. Rusek, op. cit., p. 182. BIBLIOGRAPHY Harrison, S. Czechoslovakia in European History, Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1944, pp. 196-283. Husek, Stephanie 0 . Ph.D. "General Milan Ra:stislav Stefanik in America," in Jednota Katolicky Kalerzt:lar, 1938, pp. 181-192. Kerner, Robert J . (ed). Czechoslovakia, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1940. Masaryk, Thomas Garigue, The Making of a State, New York: Frederick A. Stokes, 1927. Oddo, Gilbert L. Slovakia And Its People, New York: Robert Speller & Sons, 1960. Seton-Watson, R. W. A History of the Czechs and Slovaks, New York: Hutchinson and Co., 1943. Weiss, Louise. "The Founders of the Czech Republic," in Current H istory, Vol. 11, pp. 287-289. (SECOND PRIZE AWARD) Svatopluk: Political Opportunist or National Hero? Mary Susan Sabol Great Moravia, founded in the early ninth century, was the first political organization established by the Danubian Slavs without foreign leadership or foreign interference. Because of the Frankish pressure on the Slavs after the Avar's fall, the Slavs under Mojmir I determined to create an independent state, with its power centers at Devin and Nitra, based on the tradition of the previous Samo state. Great Moravia achieved its greatest power and influence under Svatopluk, of the Mojmirid line, from 871 to 894.1 In 870, Svatopluk, regent of Nitra, plotted with German backing against his uncle, Rastislav, ruler of the Great Moravian Empire. 2 When Rastislav heard of the plot, he challenged Svatopluk to do battle. Rastislav, however, was defeated and taken prisoner by the Germans. Svatopluk was entrusted with Great Moravia by Carloman, son of Louis the German. Soon Svatopluk lost the confidence of the Germans; was deposed and imprisoned.  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource General Milan Rastislav Štefánik and the Movement for Czecho-Slovak Independence Description An account of the resource Mary Ann Kadera Slovakia, Vol. 21 (No. 44), 1971 pp. 124-134 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Kadera, Mary Ann Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1971 name https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/8432117ce31dcf25dea601b1d8b24549.pdf eec6c6389871a17e6c1eba125bbfabaf PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA 41 Good Slovak Republic By Konstantin cul en It was March 14, 1945. I was scheduled to be the main speaker in a certain Slovak city which was known chiefly for the strange fact that people disliked to go there for celebrations and lectures. The population consisted generally of teachers, professors, students and officials. In short, they lived there because they had to. To my great surprise, the auditorium was filled to capacity ten minutes before the program was slated to start. This was unusual because the town had the reputation of starting all of its programs late in order to give stragglers time to come and give the speaker some encouragement in a sparsely filled hall. On this occasion, however, many had to be turned away but they waited outside during the entire program. After the program I asked what had brought such a great crowd to the affair. A small landowner explained it this way: "We all feel that our enemies are about to destroy our Slovak Republic. Now we realize more than ever before what we shall lose. I tell you never was the idea of the Slovak Republic as strong as at this very moment, and it will be even stronger when we don't have it any more. But we shall revive it again ... at the very first opportunity, mind my words," he concluded. In later years I often recalled what this genuine Slovak patriot had said. Many agreed with him wholeheartedly then, and many still do today. I am fully aware of this, for the idea is very much alive today and stronger, too, for in the passing years people have witnessed the contrast between what was and what is the situation in our time. Czech politicians, alone, like to think that the Slovak Republic vanished forever. They are convinced that "the Czecho-Slovak Republic is the only plausible solution and way of life for the Slovak nation." The newspapermen spread this propaganda. They ignore the obvious fact that for six years the Slovaks proved this thesis wrong ... the reality of the Slovak Republic is proof positive of the �42 SLOVAKIA self-reliance of the Slovak nation. The Czech people do not accept this view. If their political leaders do not see the writing on the wall let them live with their illusions. Is there a nation in the whole wide world which has surrendered its right for a self-governing state, especially after demonstrating, as did the Slovak nation, that it can govern itself successfully? We know of no such nation. Nations have lost their self-governing states but always by force, by defeat, by treason, but never by a voluntary surrender of their natural right to govern themselves. Well, the Czechs always did consider us to be inferior ... no wonder they have such a low opinion of us anyway. "The Slovaks have gloriously given up their inglorious past," a Czech newspaper gloated. "Still, though they have given up their Slovak state, they repeatedly sigh how good they had it under Tiso," the same article noted. ( Cas, November 17, 1946) If someone voluntarily and gloriously gives up something, he will not want it back. I am not alone in this opinion. The general secretary of the Socialist-Democratic Party declared in parliament: "In Slovakia there are forces to preserve an independent Slovakia inside the framework of Czecho-Slovakia. It is imperative for the Slovaks to realize that the patience of Czech public opinion has its limits." (Slaboda, December 19, 1946). Too bad the above mentioned speaker did not venture to predict what would happen the moment those limits of Czech patience were reached. It would be interesting to see if war would follow ... or would the Czechs declare their independence? When we consider this Czech spokesman had in mind the Slovak Democratic Party ( which had 62 % of the votes and the Slovak Freedom Party 4 %, this adds up to 66 % of the Slovak people) that favored, as he rightfully suspected, a Slovak state. Another Czech observer who studied the situation in Slovakia after the Slovaks reportedly 'gave up their right to self-government' declared: "The average Czech considers the existence of the �SLOVAKIA 43 Czecho-Slovak Republic as self-evident. He talks Czech but feels like a Czechoslovak, thinks like a Czechoslovak and on state occasions flies the Czechoslovak Flag. It is different in Slovakia, however. "This is quite obvious as one approaches Bratislava by train. The first tobacco store he sees from the window displays a Slovak emblem. At the railroad station the Slovak Flag is displayed side by side with the Czechoslovak banner . . . and when the national court is in session the Slovak Flag waves proudly above the bulding. The internal dissension, though not so apparent, is perhaps more or less intense. Sensitiveness in the linguistic sphere, constant vigilance and an air of mistrust, in fact, an atmosphere of expectation, reserve and expediency seems to be everywhere. Actually there are people who find it distasteful to utter the word, 'Czecho-Slovakia'." (Engineer Teyssler, Svobodny zitfek, October 17, 1946). What does all this signify? Simply that the Slovak nation awaits the opportunity of declaring its freedom. It has not renounced its national destiny. Many others observe the same thing and there are plenty of signs to confirm this view. Today's situation the Slovak nation regards as a temporary one, one that was forced upon it. To be forced into a state against its will when it is powerless, at the moment, to resist does not mean the Slovak nation has surrendered its natural right to self-government in its own national state. Archbishop Charles Kmet'ko publicly expressed his conviction under oath on the subject of President Tiso's politics: To Dr. sujan's question: "What did the Slovak state give the Slovak nation, morally or otherwise?" The reply by the highest ecclesiastic-Ordinary in Slovakia was spontaneous: "First of all," he said, "what Hlinka affirmed is an internationally acknowledged principle. Can anyone imagine a nation that does not want self-government? Is it possible that a poor man never dreams of owning his own home some day? Obviously, there is no such nation or person that does not want to be independent and to be master of his own household." �44 SLOVAKIA sujan interposed: "But that independence was dependence!" Kmet'ko: "Nonetheless, it was ten times better than a protectorate," the archbishop responded. sujan: "You denounced the direction of the Hlinka Slovak People's Party at the beginning of the Czecho-Slovak Republic because you foresaw an unhappy outcome. How could you abandon so many of your better principles in relationship to the Czecho-Slovak Republic after Munich?" Kmet'ko: "The Czecho-Slovak Republic is the only form in which the Slovak nation can live peaceably and progressively. Yet, if, theoretically, we could have a self-governing Slovak state, we could be independent. I say, if it is possible, we are for it. If impossible, we are for the Czecho-Slovak Republic." (Katolicke noviny, March 2, 1947). If the Czechs were convinced that the Slovak state is theoretically and practically impossible, then they could have used Kmet'ko's arguments as favorable propaganda. But actually they believe that an independent Slovakia is a possibility, not only theoretically but practically because they witnessed its realization. No wonder this statement caused a furore. Benes himself retorted: "This means that if the situation warranted a change the Slovaks tomorrow or the day after tomorrow would be for it. I will never accept this argument. I refuse to consider it in principle. I want a simple solution, clear-cut and definitive. Both of us must speak plainly: yes, yes, no, no!" (March 13, 1947). The Slovaks must speak out, Benes says, but first and last on his terms. In other words, they must agree with him, whether they feel that way or not. Since he spoke so vociferously in this tone, he knew that Slovak public opinion opposed his views. That is why he categorically announced he rejected Kmet'ko's opinion. What virtually is Benes's attitude towards the Slovak nation? By what right has a foreigner the power to direct the destiny of our ·nation to its own detriment? Benes has the right to dictate to us what policy we should follow and what views we are to have? Then any Hungarian. Russian. �SLOVAKIA 45 Polish or Austrian ruler has that right, too, for these are our neighbors ... a logical deduction from Benes' line of reasoning. Archbishop Kmet'ko was not Hlinka's follower. Certainly, he was not against Czecho-Slovakia, as such, because he believed as many of us believed, too, that this was the only way for our existence at the time. But he became more and more convinced in time that he was wrong, and that is why he proclaimed his belief in national independence as a better solution. The spirit of the Slovak Republic proved beyond any shadow of a doubt that the Slovak nation is vitally strong enough to sustain a self-governing state. The idea is very much alive and will once again give life to a new, revived free Slovakia in the future. This is inevitably the final solution to the aspirations of a freedom-loving Slovak people. A loyal citizen and patriot must support the best solution for his country, not foreign interests that are detrimental to its national interest. Benes in this struggle represents alien Czech interests, Kmet'ko and Tiso are representatives of the Slovak nation whose interests they defend as leaders of their people who are in full agreement with them. Schmidtke, a communist, once said: "There are people who find it difficult to renounce their sympathy for the fascist Slovak state." (Pravda, September 6, 1946). In short, it seems to us that 'the glorious renunciation of the Slovak Republic' is such that neither the Czechs, nor the communists, believe this, on the contrary, at every turn they discover a clear-cut expression of the desire for restoration of the Slovak Republic, and the desire for its renewal is manifested in word and deed on every side. A government, however, that gives its people a larger loaf of bread, that invests just taxes in its own development, that gives priority to the native language of its people and places it where it rightfully belongs, that builds roads, railways, hospitals, schools, etc., etc., and that emanates from the nation and rules the nation for its best interests, is a good government. Such a government the nation does not renounce. �46 SLOVAKIA On the other hand, a nation gives up on a government that takes away the best part of an honestly-earned loaf of bread, that deprives it of using its own language, that attempts to rob it of its nationality, that does not recognize its national identity. Such a government is not good and a nation gladly renounces it. What government ruled Slovakia in the first and second instance? It is needless to respond to this question, for we have many authentic reports from contemporary ministers and representatives how inept were the various administrations in the Czecho-Slovak Republic. Further, it is well to cite testimony of fereigners, not at all friendly to us, about how good the Slovak Republic really was. One could publish a book filled with their favorable quotations and observations. Perhaps ihe following statement will suffice to indicate what others thought of the Slovak Republic: 1) "The average, simple and intelligent Slovak lived in an oasis for six years of prosperity in a free Slovak state under the leadership of Tiso. "It is true, as we often repeated, that the Slovaks had it good during wartime, not so much because of German kindness but because of their own native skill. In Slovakia there are still signs of this so-called 'German goodness' in contrast to Czech lands." (Osvobozeny nasinec, December 1, 1946). 2) "Slovakia among the small European nations up to the autumn of 1944 remained unaffected directly by the war. Relative security, prosperity brought on, for this or that reason, the growth of national culture and art, national self-consciousness and other circumstances seemed to indicate that the Slovak Republic would not become involved actively in the war at all." (Obzory, E. Komorovsky: Slovensko vcera a dnes-Slovakia yesterday and today, 1946). 3) "Six years during World War II for the Czechs were cruel and retrogressive, for the Slovaks up to 1944 they were economically and socially successful, internationally and politically, however, problematical. During this time Czech industry, although partially dislocated and paralyzed, due to air bombardments, managed to survive and in some instances made progress. �SLOVAKIA 47 "Meanwhile, the Slovaks for fully five years progressed immensely on all fronts ... they had the great advantage of ruling themselves, which we did not have ... they not only caught up to us, but even forged ahead." (Obzory, 1946, page 815: My narod ceskoslovensky). 4) "Slovakia in wartime enjoyed prosperity and relatively great freedom. It was, as a matter of fact, a showcase state which the German used for propaganda purposes to show how they treated a good obedient child." (Obzory, 1945, page 262). 5) Dr. Vavro srobar said: "During the war Slovakia had the best situation on the continent. There were no executions, no concentration camps. There was plenty of bread, food, potatoes. Anyone could purchase a goose, or pork, and any kind of meat was available at relatively cheap prices." (Eudovy dennik, July 19, 1945). 6) "We do not deny, either the upli~t of religious life or the growth of spiritual and civilizing influence in the country. Under favorable conditions Slovakia was completely free on the religious side." Osvobozeny nasinec). 7) "Even after the breakthrough on the fighting-front the amount of goods was greater in Slovakia than on January 1, 1939." (Dr. Matura v Zat'kovom procese. Ndrodna obrbda, September 12, 1946). 8) "Frequently in studying conditions in Slovakia one concludes that the average citizen did not have it bad at all, in fact, he was not bad off during the entire war." (Cas, December 18, 1946). 9) "Economically, Slovakia was in very good shape. Government officials admit this and write about it openly. There were no exceptions, everyone was well off, whether he was a worker, an official or farmer. While the Germans exploited the Czechs, our government officials cleverly arranged to give the Germans a minimum of their national output." (Kanadsky Slovak. A letter from Kosice, August 6, 1946). Unaoubtedly, these few quotations from various sources indicate that the Slovak Republic was not bad at all. Fereign �48 SLOVAKIA newspapers, such as the London T i mes, wrote in the same vein. In wartime Benes propaganda sought to convince the Slovaks of their 'bad plight.' After war Czechs had this to say: "The years of the independent Slovak state were marked by rapidly increasing prosperity with the result of a high standard of living. This changed considerably after the war. "It was a period of building, progress and communication, and relative internal freedom, though not definitely democratic, yet it was free of any so-called fascist terror, particularly in the Hitlerian sense of the word. "While Czech schools were closed, the Slovak university received hundreds of highly qualified and intelligent students year after year. These can now be employed in various positions. Cultural life reached a new high level. "All this was not the work of the ruling regime-it was a national evolution of a people who seized the opportunity to get ahead. Slovak youth, according to personal testimony, was determined to advance at all costs. Slovak autonomists do not consider themselves to be discredited but rather exonerated for their policies by the events of their time ... which proved them to be right in pursuing those policies." (Obzory, "cesi a Slovaci", 1946, p. 774). So these were the so-called 'crimes' of the Slovak Republic! Obviously, a Czech, admitting the facts, must try in every way, however, to discredit the regime of the Slovak Republic. For him, it is only true that it was a natural evolution impelled by a new opportunity. But a people enjoys such an opportunity only in its own state. It is not a crime to seek such an opportunity ... it is only a natural evolution. Furthermore, that the Slovaks themselves might have some merit for their own economic well-being as a consequence of their wise and judicious politics a Czech finds it difficult to admit. On their side of the ledger, while the Czechs reluctantly admit they made mistakes, they claim these were not malicious. Well, was it not malicious to dismantle Slovak factories? This 'mistake' they attribute not to their government but to the "zivnobanka" administration. �SLOVAKIA 49 At present, finally when all the facts are in and when any objective-minded person must admit that conditions in Slovakia during the war were ideal, we are continually hearing from various quarters that the situation was unnatural, unchristian and immoral, completely wrong from every angle, because conditions were bad everywhere, and that must include Slovakia, it could not have been an exception, and so Czechs generally try to debunk the government of the Slovak Republic. Dr. Kozeluhova (a Czech) after lauding wartime conditions in Slovakia concludes : "Since in Slovakia much of the national wealth was in the forests, lumber exports were greatly excessive. Actually, we have to note that it will be a long, long time before the exorbitant cutting-down of trees will be replaced by new growth. Although the Germans did not impoverish the Slovaks by demands for food, there was prosperity, but future generations will have to suffer. It is clear that after years of abundance the postwar consequences would result in many lean years." (Obzory, 1945, p. 263). She was not alone in this view, for another Czech, Engineer J. Rotnagel expressed the same opinion in his book, cesi a Slovdci ( Czechs and Slovaks): "And the Slovaks? Let no one be deceived by the claim of a sounder and better financial status and higher living standards in Slovakia in contrast to Czech lands. The so-called prosperity was brought on by undue exploitation of the country's natural resources, particularly by the harvesting of the luxuriant Slovak forests by the Slovak: government." (page 275). What he is trying to say is that prosperity in Slovakia was at the expense of future generations. The Czechs talk about the exploitation of Slovak forests just like the Venetians of ancient times in Dalmatia and neighboring lands. Never in the history of Slovaks was there such economic exploitation on all sides as occurred under Czech domination in the old Czecho-Slovak Republic. The proof is in the records of the parliament in Prague, especially in the records of various companies operating in eastern Slovakia. How was this operation effected during the regime of the Slovak Republic? Reference to this was made in Zat'ko's �50 SLOVAKIA process, and not only as a mere statement but backed up by statistics. An authority on natural resources, Zat'ko reported as follows: "The Germans established a quota for the Czechs to produce 50 % more lumber than normally. In contrast to this, the normal capacity of lumber produced in Slovakia was not even reached so that the Slovak Republic actually saved 15,000,000 cubic metres of wood valued at 3,000,000,00 crowns." (N<irodnd obroda, September 12, 1946). This, then, is the truth based on facts. Simply stated, this action preserved millions of cubic metres of lumber for future generations. From this, one must conclude that the government was far-sighted, and far better than its predecessors. The government of the Slovak Republic planned and regulated the prosperity of its era while at the same time provided for the future. Least known and unpublicized is the fact that at the end of the war the Slovak Republic had a surplus of more than a billion crowns, which the Prague government confiscated, spent in less than two years and plunged the country into a deficit of 4 billion crowns by 1947. A treasure trove of fine lumber estimated in value of more than 3 billion crowns was left intact for future generations by the Slovak Republic. Industrial expansion was greatly augmented, too. The Slovaks had an abundance of food. What more material goods does one need aside from shelter and clothing? And the Slovak Republic provided these vital needs, too, for its people. After such derogatory statements about so-called exploitation by the Slovak Republic it sounds rather strange to hear a radio broadcast in Bratislava: "Czecho-Slovakia has a surplus of lumber in the eastern part of the country for extensive export." (Praha, January 8, 1947). It is easy to manipulate words, sentences and conclusions in an effort to hide the truth, but eventually the truth will uncover the lie, and cold statistics will further confirm what is true. It would be extremely difficult to find a nation whose officials were so guilty of deceit as those on the Czech side. One of these glaring examples is their shameless attempt to explain away Slovak prosperity. �SLOVAKIA 51 Exploitation of Slovak forests attributed falsely to the Slovak Republic is now followed by a strange sequel: the official order to cut down no less than five million cubic metres in 1947, and that for export. So, the postwar Czechoslovak government is following the example of the Slovak Republic's 'exploitation' by cutting down lumber in Slovakia, not in Czech lands, however. Every lie or falsehood sooner or later is detected. And so it is in this case. The lie levelled against the Slovak Republic comes to roost in Prague. Factually, the Slovak state was governed wisely and honestly. Such a state only a primitive and stupid people would voluntarily renounce. The Slovak nation has not renounced its right to a selfgoverning state but denounces every attempt to falsify the genuine record of good government and achievement of its Slovak Republic. From experience down through the ages that saw the Slovaks survive many regimes, they have come to realize that by far the best, the most beneficial was the regime of the Slovak Republic. No need to hide its imperfections, but what regime is perfect? Nevertheless, there is no comparison between Czecho-Slovakia and the Slovak Republic as far as its benefits go when one looks at the record that is indelibly imprinted on the pages of history. All of these events lead us to the obvious conclusion, namely, that the Slovaks are not satisfied with the present state of affairs, and that they aspire to renew their own Slovak state. None of the leading Slovak cultural or political leaders joined Benes when he left the country. In 1939 the Slovak wholeheartedly and unanimously took the oath of allegiance to the Slovak Republic. Why? Because they did not love Czecho-Slovakia. At the conclusion of the war when President Tiso was persuaded to leave the country thousands of Slovaks, intellectuals as well as average citizens, followed him into exile. Why? Because they wanted to work for the restoration of the Slovak Republic. The people at home are united in spirit with their Slovak countrymen abroad in the struggle to restore their self-governing state at the earliest opportunity. To this they are committed and dedicated as freedomloving men who aspire to a life of national freedom for their �52 SLOVAKIA people who for too long a time have been forced to live in servitude. Slovaks at home and throughout the entire world are of one mind, namely, that eventually and inevitably their eternal struggle for freedom and statehood must become a reality again. This dream is in keeping with the finest Slovak traditions of the past and a sacred legacy of our forefathers . It is in the spirit of Jjudovit stur who, after bitter experience and disappointments, declared: "We must liberate ourselves once and forever from the unendurable yoke of foreign rule if we are to take our rightful place that belongs to us on the strength of our abilities, and that means we must attain the ultimate goal of self-governing statehood because a nation that is enslaved has its bands bound, its spirit depressed and faces the danger of ultimate extinction." (Slovanstvo a svet buducnosti). To engage and negotiate in politics with anyone who is willing to help us was the slogan of the American Slovaks a half century ago. "We must pursue a political course," wrote Tholt-Vel'kostiavnicky, " that will bring us eventually to our national independence." (Slovensky dennik, February 27, 1909). In another article Vel'kostiavnicky wrote: "We Slovaks must have an honorable political program that will permit us to adopt a policy or unite with a nation with which we will be able to cooperate mutually, with positive assurance and a guarantee of our national independence. We must be a fully and independent and selfgoverning nation because this is according to the natural law, and a principle of an individual entity that belongs to every nation. "Every nation like every person upon reaching maturity desires to be free, and a nation aspires to have its own individual self-governing state. Thus it is with our Slovak nation, for we do not want to be infants iorever, nor dependents or slaves. We are impelled to this not only by the spirit of the age but by nature and every conceivable political experience of the past. "We Slovaks declare to the whole world that we are �SLOVAKIA 53 a nation that wants to be free, and therefore, must have its own free self-governing state in Europe." Our forebears spoke distinctly in this manner and spirit when all they had was the historic fact of the existence of Slovak statehood more than a thousand years ago, and of course, the basis for their claim the universally accepted principle that all nations aspire to independence. We had it a thousand years ago. We lost it because of overwhelming force but we did not surrender the right to be independent. That right belongs to us today and forever. Holly, stur and Tholt-Vel'kostiavnicky, and their followers believed this firmly. Should we who saw with our own eyes the happy reality of an independent Slovak state believe less? Should we after having witnessed what our Slovak state accomplished in six short years willingly bow our heads and place them in the Czech yoke? "No, never!" Let us unite with anyone who wants to help us, as Tholt wrote once, and oppose anyone and everyone who is against Slovak statehood. There are vital material resources that a nation needs but more importantly a nation has need of strong enduring moral values without which a nation cannot exist or long endure. Foremost among the characteristics that make a nation what it is is national consciousness. Both the Magyars and Czechs concentrated their attacks on this central point. Slovaks who possessed a conviction of their own national identity were recognized as inimical to their plans of assimilating the Slovaks. Accordingly they sought to destroy all self-consciousness by bribery, force and imprisonment. For all time renegades from the Slovak nation are listed as "mad'ar6ni" and "cechoslovaci." They degraded themselves by abandoning their Slovak nation because of an inferiority complex, and so they became satraps first of Magyar and subsequently of Czech overlords. Self-consciousness is an acquired virtue and strengthened by one's own conviction that he is his own man, and an individual person who is equal to any man, and he proves �54 SLOVAKIA it to himself and others by his actions in practical life. He stands proudly on his own two feet, so to speak. As in the experience of a child taking his first step which requires courage and effort, so it is with a nation taking its first step towards going ahead without any assistance. The Slovaks took their first step in modern times in the Czecho-Slovak Republic, but soon learned to stand and walk with confidence on their own two feet in the Slovak Republic. Slovak self-consciousness reached such a stage that even erstwhile "Czecho-Slovaks" changed and became convinced of their equality with the Czechs! Quite a transformation. And today they proudly assert they are Slovaks . . . not "Czechoslovaks", as once upon a time they timidly imagined themselves to be. This new spirit of self-reliance is the direct result of the successful development that led to Slovak statehood in our times. Czechs returning to Slovakia after the war, or those who meet Slovak visitors in Prague, are made aware immediately that these are not the old type Slovaks but a new generation or race of self-conscious members of the Slovak nation. This self-consciousness of the average Slovak, and of the intellectual as well, causes great consternation in the Czech camp. A certain 'Moravus' dealing with this natural phenomenon declared this to be absolutely 'insufferable.' With the exception of communist periodicals the Slovak press unanimously attacked him. Moravus got a stinging reply in Slaboda, October 26, 1948: "Awareness of the Slovak nation's abilities and possibilities is the source of the current self-consciousness," insufferable, indeed! cas (Time) replied in kind: "Thank God, Slovakia today is not the Slovakia of yesterday when the country had fewer than five hundred intellectuals.'' Ndrodnd obroda (National Renewal) added on October 26, 1946: "There is no resemblance between the Slovak nation that awoke from a long slumber in 1918 and the Slovak nation today.'' Where did this self-consciousness emanate from? �SLOVAKIA 55 To a large degree, from the Slovak Republic. It does not exist today as it did then, but the spirit has survived because we proved to ourselves and the whole world that we could rule our own country better and more efficiently than any alien master ... and because the average Slovak received more for his efforts, he became convinced of his ability to stand on his own two feet as a proud individual of the Slovak nation and as a loyal citizen of the SlovakRepublic. Some politicians who formerly did not dare to have an opinion of their own, relying entirely on Prague wrote: "Slovak affairs can be conducted best right here in Slovakia without interference from Prague, as has been amply demonstrated in recent years. "Slovakia stands firmly on its own feet and is progressing nicely without needless Czech supervision that may now concentrate on solving problems close to home in Prague itself." ( Cas) Under pressure of this new development even Benes changed his tune about his familiar theme, "one nation" i.e., only a Czechoslovak nation (sic), when he said in Kosice: "Since 1918 Slovakia has become stronger and more prosperous, and it has advanced culturally, politically and organizationally so that its rights must be respected. That was self-evident to me in 1938 when I proposed decentralization in the republic." Benes' statement is not true, however. The Czech president addressed a similar proposal on October 4, 1938, to Tiso but he had it recalled from the post office because he was suddenly forced to resign from the presidency. The fact is that in 1938 Benes declared: "No Slovak problem exists. Therefore, there is no need for a solution." Since even Benes admits Slovakia's maturity and progress, why was it denied a Slovak national council, a board of commissioners and other agencies on the basis of the Kosice Agreement? Let us search for the source of the best qualities of every nation. We shall find clues in the following: "The intensive and extensive experience of Slovak statehood produced a new Slovak personality whose political �56 SLOVAKIA spirit and abilities astonished observers who could not help but admire real achievements of the era." (Dr. V. Busek, Svobodny zitfek, No. 36, 1946). One Czech finally admits that it was the Slovak Republic that accomplished wonders. Then why judge Slovak politicians for their achievements? Benes brought them to trial precisely because they were responsible for the rise and growth of Slovak national self-consciousness, because they gave testimony to their own nation of their effective leadership in utilizing their innate talents and skills in establishing independence and statehood. Benes no longer can repeat what he once said to Razus: "You Slovaks have nowhere to go." The Slovaks do not have to go anywhere. All they have to do and they want to do is to stay in their own historic homeland and manage their own affairs in their national household. In the eyes of Benes who attempted to make Slovakia a Czech colony there was no greater crime in all history than that of Tiso and his governmental staff that dared to take off and soar high on their wings like Slovak eagles in the blue sky high above a free land. "Never again will dictatorship rule the Slovaks, for one learns once ancl. for all from his personal experience," writes Slaboda, November 12, 1946. Quotations of this new popular view were often repeated in the postwar era when Prague seized political control of Slovakia after the war. One heard statements like the following: "We have outgrown our infant clothes, we will not take orders from Praha. We lived without Czechs and we can live without them; we were burned once, never again, etc." Dr. Kulhanek advised his Czech countrymen to face the facts, reminding them at long last this (Slovak nation) was not a primitive tribe of sheepherders whiling away the hours blowing the fujara (a musical instrument which may be described as a giant cousin of the saxophone), nor a group of migrant tinkers. "This is a very capable nation comprising seriousminded people of realism. They seek to solve contemporary problems with greater calm and keener perspicacity than we do." (Svobodny zitfek, October 4, 1946). �SLOVAKIA 57 Another Czech periodical observed: "Czechs have to be aware of the great re-birth in Slovakia since 1938, and that there is a great difference between Slovaks of yesterday and today. The Slovaks have matured politically and have grown up culturally, their national self-consciousness has been strengthened and ripened. The great majority of Slovaks, not excluding former 'Hlasist' devotees who preached a Czechoslovak form of national unity, feel they are members of an independent nation, and they will not tolerate either political or cultural overlordship, nor economic domination. (Zemedelske listy). Reacting to these tributes to the Slovak Republic from even hitherto hostile quarters an American Slovak journalist wrote: "What great miraculous powers of national liberty and independent statehood must have been at work that in less than six years of the regime of the Slovak Republic these transformed many in the former 'Hlasist' Czechoslovak camp into self-conscious Slovak Patriots." ( Osadne Hlasy, August 9, 1946). No political regime in the world ever gave its people as much as the administration of the Slovak Republic gave the Slovak nation. Self-pride, independence, the spirit of conscientious work, national consciousness, as well as the conversion of Czechoslovak factions, those unbelieving Thomases, all this was inspired by the Slovak Republic. Nevertheless, we are faced with the paradox of all paradoxes, namely, the persecution, imprisonment and execution of the very persons who accomplished all these things. What irony of fate that propagators of noble ideals are now being hounded, tried in court and sentenced to prison and death in the country they served so nobly and so well! Despite this tragedy enemies of the Slovak nation have lost the fight, for the fanatical movement to absorb the Slovaks in a conglomerate of a "Czechoslovak" people was crushed. This was genocide long before it was labelled as such after the war. Hlinka, Tiso and Sidor and their colleagues won the good fight and saved the Slovak nation in a crisis that saw their domestic enemies, the Hlasists, converted to the cause of Slovak national freedom. Ideologically, Benes was defeated. He asserted that he �58 SLOVAKIA recognized only a "Czechoslovak" nation-Hlinka triumphed hy 'declaring he did not recognize such a nation because it never existed. Today Benes, the Bolsheviks and their collaborators may condemn, imprison and hang the creators of the Slovak Republic, they may confiscate their properties and seek to erase their names from history, but they will never succeed in stamping out the self-consciousness of the Slovak nation that came to full maturity in the Slovak Republic. No power in the world can eradicate the aspiration of the Slovak nation for its own free, independent statehood. Attempts to educate a new generation of Slovaks to repudiate the achievements of the brave men ,a nd women who created the Slovak state will be in vain, as will be the terroristic methods designed to intimidate the Slovak people into acknowledging that they have lost their will to be free. Slovak coins with the image of the immortal Slovak president, the banner of the Slovak army, photographs from the Slovak state remain, all reminders of the Slovak Republic. Most important of all, however, is the abiding conviction that we are equals with the civilized and cultured nations of Europe, that we have enough intelligence, that we have a nation that is alert and wide-awake, and particularly that we have a will strong enough to renew our Slovak state at the earliest opportunity. Clearly and unequivocally we declare again: The Slovak nation is ready to accept a helping hand from every great power on earth. Echoes and re-echoes will be heard incessantly throughout Slovakia until the restoration of a free Slovak state. Times have changed and today's situation is not the same as it was when we had our own Slovak Republic. Unpleasant and unbearable though the truth is to some Czechs of the past, the wise ones admit it must be respected, and they are reconciled to the inevitable gennination of a free Slovak state that must come into being again for a self-conscious Slovak nation in the near future. Such is the destiny of a nation determined to have its own self-governing state. (A translation by Andrew Pier from unpublished book of Konstantin culen.) � SLOVAKIA 41 Good Slovak Republic By Konstantin cul en It was March 14, 1945. I was scheduled to be the main speaker in a certain Slovak city which was known chiefly for the strange fact that people disliked to go there for celebrations and lectures. The population consisted generally of teachers, professors, students and officials. In short, they lived there because they had to. To my great surprise, the auditorium was filled to capacity ten minutes before the program was slated to start. This was unusual because the town had the reputation of starting all of its programs late in order to give stragglers time to come and give the speaker some encouragement in a sparsely filled hall. On this occasion, however, many had to be turned away but they waited outside during the entire program. After the program I asked what had brought such a great crowd to the affair. A small landowner explained it this way: "We all feel that our enemies are about to destroy our Slovak Republic. Now we realize more than ever before what we shall lose. I tell you never was the idea of the Slovak Republic as strong as at this very moment, and it will be even stronger when we don't have it any more. But we shall revive it again ... at the very first opportunity, mind my words," he concluded. In later years I often recalled what this genuine Slovak patriot had said. Many agreed with him wholeheartedly then, and many still do today. I am fully aware of this, for the idea is very much alive today and stronger, too, for in the passing years people have witnessed the contrast between what was and what is the situation in our time. Czech politicians, alone, like to think that the Slovak Republic vanished forever. They are convinced that "the Czecho-Slovak Republic is the only plausible solution and way of life for the Slovak nation." The newspapermen spread this propaganda. They ignore the obvious fact that for six years the Slovaks proved this thesis wrong ... the reality of the Slovak Republic is proof positive of the �42 SLOVAKIA self-reliance of the Slovak nation. The Czech people do not accept this view. If their political leaders do not see the writing on the wall let them live with their illusions. Is there a nation in the whole wide world which has surrendered its right for a self-governing state, especially after demonstrating, as did the Slovak nation, that it can govern itself successfully? We know of no such nation. Nations have lost their self-governing states but always by force, by defeat, by treason, but never by a voluntary surrender of their natural right to govern themselves. Well, the Czechs always did consider us to be inferior ... no wonder they have such a low opinion of us anyway. "The Slovaks have gloriously given up their inglorious past," a Czech newspaper gloated. "Still, though they have given up their Slovak state, they repeatedly sigh how good they had it under Tiso," the same article noted. ( Cas, November 17, 1946) If someone voluntarily and gloriously gives up something, he will not want it back. I am not alone in this opinion. The general secretary of the Socialist-Democratic Party declared in parliament: "In Slovakia there are forces to preserve an independent Slovakia inside the framework of Czecho-Slovakia. It is imperative for the Slovaks to realize that the patience of Czech public opinion has its limits." (Slaboda, December 19, 1946). Too bad the above mentioned speaker did not venture to predict what would happen the moment those limits of Czech patience were reached. It would be interesting to see if war would follow ... or would the Czechs declare their independence? When we consider this Czech spokesman had in mind the Slovak Democratic Party ( which had 62 % of the votes and the Slovak Freedom Party 4 %, this adds up to 66 % of the Slovak people) that favored, as he rightfully suspected, a Slovak state. Another Czech observer who studied the situation in Slovakia after the Slovaks reportedly 'gave up their right to self-government' declared: "The average Czech considers the existence of the �SLOVAKIA 43 Czecho-Slovak Republic as self-evident. He talks Czech but feels like a Czechoslovak, thinks like a Czechoslovak and on state occasions flies the Czechoslovak Flag. It is different in Slovakia, however. "This is quite obvious as one approaches Bratislava by train. The first tobacco store he sees from the window displays a Slovak emblem. At the railroad station the Slovak Flag is displayed side by side with the Czechoslovak banner . . . and when the national court is in session the Slovak Flag waves proudly above the bulding. The internal dissension, though not so apparent, is perhaps more or less intense. Sensitiveness in the linguistic sphere, constant vigilance and an air of mistrust, in fact, an atmosphere of expectation, reserve and expediency seems to be everywhere. Actually there are people who find it distasteful to utter the word, 'Czecho-Slovakia'." (Engineer Teyssler, Svobodny zitfek, October 17, 1946). What does all this signify? Simply that the Slovak nation awaits the opportunity of declaring its freedom. It has not renounced its national destiny. Many others observe the same thing and there are plenty of signs to confirm this view. Today's situation the Slovak nation regards as a temporary one, one that was forced upon it. To be forced into a state against its will when it is powerless, at the moment, to resist does not mean the Slovak nation has surrendered its natural right to self-government in its own national state. Archbishop Charles Kmet'ko publicly expressed his conviction under oath on the subject of President Tiso's politics: To Dr. sujan's question: "What did the Slovak state give the Slovak nation, morally or otherwise?" The reply by the highest ecclesiastic-Ordinary in Slovakia was spontaneous: "First of all," he said, "what Hlinka affirmed is an internationally acknowledged principle. Can anyone imagine a nation that does not want self-government? Is it possible that a poor man never dreams of owning his own home some day? Obviously, there is no such nation or person that does not want to be independent and to be master of his own household." �44 SLOVAKIA sujan interposed: "But that independence was dependence!" Kmet'ko: "Nonetheless, it was ten times better than a protectorate," the archbishop responded. sujan: "You denounced the direction of the Hlinka Slovak People's Party at the beginning of the Czecho-Slovak Republic because you foresaw an unhappy outcome. How could you abandon so many of your better principles in relationship to the Czecho-Slovak Republic after Munich?" Kmet'ko: "The Czecho-Slovak Republic is the only form in which the Slovak nation can live peaceably and progressively. Yet, if, theoretically, we could have a self-governing Slovak state, we could be independent. I say, if it is possible, we are for it. If impossible, we are for the Czecho-Slovak Republic." (Katolicke noviny, March 2, 1947). If the Czechs were convinced that the Slovak state is theoretically and practically impossible, then they could have used Kmet'ko's arguments as favorable propaganda. But actually they believe that an independent Slovakia is a possibility, not only theoretically but practically because they witnessed its realization. No wonder this statement caused a furore. Benes himself retorted: "This means that if the situation warranted a change the Slovaks tomorrow or the day after tomorrow would be for it. I will never accept this argument. I refuse to consider it in principle. I want a simple solution, clear-cut and definitive. Both of us must speak plainly: yes, yes, no, no!" (March 13, 1947). The Slovaks must speak out, Benes says, but first and last on his terms. In other words, they must agree with him, whether they feel that way or not. Since he spoke so vociferously in this tone, he knew that Slovak public opinion opposed his views. That is why he categorically announced he rejected Kmet'ko's opinion. What virtually is Benes's attitude towards the Slovak nation? By what right has a foreigner the power to direct the destiny of our ·nation to its own detriment? Benes has the right to dictate to us what policy we should follow and what views we are to have? Then any Hungarian. Russian. �SLOVAKIA 45 Polish or Austrian ruler has that right, too, for these are our neighbors ... a logical deduction from Benes' line of reasoning. Archbishop Kmet'ko was not Hlinka's follower. Certainly, he was not against Czecho-Slovakia, as such, because he believed as many of us believed, too, that this was the only way for our existence at the time. But he became more and more convinced in time that he was wrong, and that is why he proclaimed his belief in national independence as a better solution. The spirit of the Slovak Republic proved beyond any shadow of a doubt that the Slovak nation is vitally strong enough to sustain a self-governing state. The idea is very much alive and will once again give life to a new, revived free Slovakia in the future. This is inevitably the final solution to the aspirations of a freedom-loving Slovak people. A loyal citizen and patriot must support the best solution for his country, not foreign interests that are detrimental to its national interest. Benes in this struggle represents alien Czech interests, Kmet'ko and Tiso are representatives of the Slovak nation whose interests they defend as leaders of their people who are in full agreement with them. Schmidtke, a communist, once said: "There are people who find it difficult to renounce their sympathy for the fascist Slovak state." (Pravda, September 6, 1946). In short, it seems to us that 'the glorious renunciation of the Slovak Republic' is such that neither the Czechs, nor the communists, believe this, on the contrary, at every turn they discover a clear-cut expression of the desire for restoration of the Slovak Republic, and the desire for its renewal is manifested in word and deed on every side. A government, however, that gives its people a larger loaf of bread, that invests just taxes in its own development, that gives priority to the native language of its people and places it where it rightfully belongs, that builds roads, railways, hospitals, schools, etc., etc., and that emanates from the nation and rules the nation for its best interests, is a good government. Such a government the nation does not renounce. �46 SLOVAKIA On the other hand, a nation gives up on a government that takes away the best part of an honestly-earned loaf of bread, that deprives it of using its own language, that attempts to rob it of its nationality, that does not recognize its national identity. Such a government is not good and a nation gladly renounces it. What government ruled Slovakia in the first and second instance? It is needless to respond to this question, for we have many authentic reports from contemporary ministers and representatives how inept were the various administrations in the Czecho-Slovak Republic. Further, it is well to cite testimony of fereigners, not at all friendly to us, about how good the Slovak Republic really was. One could publish a book filled with their favorable quotations and observations. Perhaps ihe following statement will suffice to indicate what others thought of the Slovak Republic: 1) "The average, simple and intelligent Slovak lived in an oasis for six years of prosperity in a free Slovak state under the leadership of Tiso. "It is true, as we often repeated, that the Slovaks had it good during wartime, not so much because of German kindness but because of their own native skill. In Slovakia there are still signs of this so-called 'German goodness' in contrast to Czech lands." (Osvobozeny nasinec, December 1, 1946). 2) "Slovakia among the small European nations up to the autumn of 1944 remained unaffected directly by the war. Relative security, prosperity brought on, for this or that reason, the growth of national culture and art, national self-consciousness and other circumstances seemed to indicate that the Slovak Republic would not become involved actively in the war at all." (Obzory, E. Komorovsky: Slovensko vcera a dnes-Slovakia yesterday and today, 1946). 3) "Six years during World War II for the Czechs were cruel and retrogressive, for the Slovaks up to 1944 they were economically and socially successful, internationally and politically, however, problematical. During this time Czech industry, although partially dislocated and paralyzed, due to air bombardments, managed to survive and in some instances made progress. �SLOVAKIA 47 "Meanwhile, the Slovaks for fully five years progressed immensely on all fronts ... they had the great advantage of ruling themselves, which we did not have ... they not only caught up to us, but even forged ahead." (Obzory, 1946, page 815: My narod ceskoslovensky). 4) "Slovakia in wartime enjoyed prosperity and relatively great freedom. It was, as a matter of fact, a showcase state which the German used for propaganda purposes to show how they treated a good obedient child." (Obzory, 1945, page 262). 5) Dr. Vavro srobar said: "During the war Slovakia had the best situation on the continent. There were no executions, no concentration camps. There was plenty of bread, food, potatoes. Anyone could purchase a goose, or pork, and any kind of meat was available at relatively cheap prices." (Eudovy dennik, July 19, 1945). 6) "We do not deny, either the upli~t of religious life or the growth of spiritual and civilizing influence in the country. Under favorable conditions Slovakia was completely free on the religious side." Osvobozeny nasinec). 7) "Even after the breakthrough on the fighting-front the amount of goods was greater in Slovakia than on January 1, 1939." (Dr. Matura v Zat'kovom procese. Ndrodna obrbda, September 12, 1946). 8) "Frequently in studying conditions in Slovakia one concludes that the average citizen did not have it bad at all, in fact, he was not bad off during the entire war." (Cas, December 18, 1946). 9) "Economically, Slovakia was in very good shape. Government officials admit this and write about it openly. There were no exceptions, everyone was well off, whether he was a worker, an official or farmer. While the Germans exploited the Czechs, our government officials cleverly arranged to give the Germans a minimum of their national output." (Kanadsky Slovak. A letter from Kosice, August 6, 1946). Unaoubtedly, these few quotations from various sources indicate that the Slovak Republic was not bad at all. Fereign �48 SLOVAKIA newspapers, such as the London T i mes, wrote in the same vein. In wartime Benes propaganda sought to convince the Slovaks of their 'bad plight.' After war Czechs had this to say: "The years of the independent Slovak state were marked by rapidly increasing prosperity with the result of a high standard of living. This changed considerably after the war. "It was a period of building, progress and communication, and relative internal freedom, though not definitely democratic, yet it was free of any so-called fascist terror, particularly in the Hitlerian sense of the word. "While Czech schools were closed, the Slovak university received hundreds of highly qualified and intelligent students year after year. These can now be employed in various positions. Cultural life reached a new high level. "All this was not the work of the ruling regime-it was a national evolution of a people who seized the opportunity to get ahead. Slovak youth, according to personal testimony, was determined to advance at all costs. Slovak autonomists do not consider themselves to be discredited but rather exonerated for their policies by the events of their time ... which proved them to be right in pursuing those policies." (Obzory, "cesi a Slovaci", 1946, p. 774). So these were the so-called 'crimes' of the Slovak Republic! Obviously, a Czech, admitting the facts, must try in every way, however, to discredit the regime of the Slovak Republic. For him, it is only true that it was a natural evolution impelled by a new opportunity. But a people enjoys such an opportunity only in its own state. It is not a crime to seek such an opportunity ... it is only a natural evolution. Furthermore, that the Slovaks themselves might have some merit for their own economic well-being as a consequence of their wise and judicious politics a Czech finds it difficult to admit. On their side of the ledger, while the Czechs reluctantly admit they made mistakes, they claim these were not malicious. Well, was it not malicious to dismantle Slovak factories? This 'mistake' they attribute not to their government but to the "zivnobanka" administration. �SLOVAKIA 49 At present, finally when all the facts are in and when any objective-minded person must admit that conditions in Slovakia during the war were ideal, we are continually hearing from various quarters that the situation was unnatural, unchristian and immoral, completely wrong from every angle, because conditions were bad everywhere, and that must include Slovakia, it could not have been an exception, and so Czechs generally try to debunk the government of the Slovak Republic. Dr. Kozeluhova (a Czech) after lauding wartime conditions in Slovakia concludes : "Since in Slovakia much of the national wealth was in the forests, lumber exports were greatly excessive. Actually, we have to note that it will be a long, long time before the exorbitant cutting-down of trees will be replaced by new growth. Although the Germans did not impoverish the Slovaks by demands for food, there was prosperity, but future generations will have to suffer. It is clear that after years of abundance the postwar consequences would result in many lean years." (Obzory, 1945, p. 263). She was not alone in this view, for another Czech, Engineer J. Rotnagel expressed the same opinion in his book, cesi a Slovdci ( Czechs and Slovaks): "And the Slovaks? Let no one be deceived by the claim of a sounder and better financial status and higher living standards in Slovakia in contrast to Czech lands. The so-called prosperity was brought on by undue exploitation of the country's natural resources, particularly by the harvesting of the luxuriant Slovak forests by the Slovak: government." (page 275). What he is trying to say is that prosperity in Slovakia was at the expense of future generations. The Czechs talk about the exploitation of Slovak forests just like the Venetians of ancient times in Dalmatia and neighboring lands. Never in the history of Slovaks was there such economic exploitation on all sides as occurred under Czech domination in the old Czecho-Slovak Republic. The proof is in the records of the parliament in Prague, especially in the records of various companies operating in eastern Slovakia. How was this operation effected during the regime of the Slovak Republic? Reference to this was made in Zat'ko's �50 SLOVAKIA process, and not only as a mere statement but backed up by statistics. An authority on natural resources, Zat'ko reported as follows: "The Germans established a quota for the Czechs to produce 50 % more lumber than normally. In contrast to this, the normal capacity of lumber produced in Slovakia was not even reached so that the Slovak Republic actually saved 15,000,000 cubic metres of wood valued at 3,000,000,00 crowns." (N<irodnd obroda, September 12, 1946). This, then, is the truth based on facts. Simply stated, this action preserved millions of cubic metres of lumber for future generations. From this, one must conclude that the government was far-sighted, and far better than its predecessors. The government of the Slovak Republic planned and regulated the prosperity of its era while at the same time provided for the future. Least known and unpublicized is the fact that at the end of the war the Slovak Republic had a surplus of more than a billion crowns, which the Prague government confiscated, spent in less than two years and plunged the country into a deficit of 4 billion crowns by 1947. A treasure trove of fine lumber estimated in value of more than 3 billion crowns was left intact for future generations by the Slovak Republic. Industrial expansion was greatly augmented, too. The Slovaks had an abundance of food. What more material goods does one need aside from shelter and clothing? And the Slovak Republic provided these vital needs, too, for its people. After such derogatory statements about so-called exploitation by the Slovak Republic it sounds rather strange to hear a radio broadcast in Bratislava: "Czecho-Slovakia has a surplus of lumber in the eastern part of the country for extensive export." (Praha, January 8, 1947). It is easy to manipulate words, sentences and conclusions in an effort to hide the truth, but eventually the truth will uncover the lie, and cold statistics will further confirm what is true. It would be extremely difficult to find a nation whose officials were so guilty of deceit as those on the Czech side. One of these glaring examples is their shameless attempt to explain away Slovak prosperity. �SLOVAKIA 51 Exploitation of Slovak forests attributed falsely to the Slovak Republic is now followed by a strange sequel: the official order to cut down no less than five million cubic metres in 1947, and that for export. So, the postwar Czechoslovak government is following the example of the Slovak Republic's 'exploitation' by cutting down lumber in Slovakia, not in Czech lands, however. Every lie or falsehood sooner or later is detected. And so it is in this case. The lie levelled against the Slovak Republic comes to roost in Prague. Factually, the Slovak state was governed wisely and honestly. Such a state only a primitive and stupid people would voluntarily renounce. The Slovak nation has not renounced its right to a selfgoverning state but denounces every attempt to falsify the genuine record of good government and achievement of its Slovak Republic. From experience down through the ages that saw the Slovaks survive many regimes, they have come to realize that by far the best, the most beneficial was the regime of the Slovak Republic. No need to hide its imperfections, but what regime is perfect? Nevertheless, there is no comparison between Czecho-Slovakia and the Slovak Republic as far as its benefits go when one looks at the record that is indelibly imprinted on the pages of history. All of these events lead us to the obvious conclusion, namely, that the Slovaks are not satisfied with the present state of affairs, and that they aspire to renew their own Slovak state. None of the leading Slovak cultural or political leaders joined Benes when he left the country. In 1939 the Slovak wholeheartedly and unanimously took the oath of allegiance to the Slovak Republic. Why? Because they did not love Czecho-Slovakia. At the conclusion of the war when President Tiso was persuaded to leave the country thousands of Slovaks, intellectuals as well as average citizens, followed him into exile. Why? Because they wanted to work for the restoration of the Slovak Republic. The people at home are united in spirit with their Slovak countrymen abroad in the struggle to restore their self-governing state at the earliest opportunity. To this they are committed and dedicated as freedomloving men who aspire to a life of national freedom for their �52 SLOVAKIA people who for too long a time have been forced to live in servitude. Slovaks at home and throughout the entire world are of one mind, namely, that eventually and inevitably their eternal struggle for freedom and statehood must become a reality again. This dream is in keeping with the finest Slovak traditions of the past and a sacred legacy of our forefathers . It is in the spirit of Jjudovit stur who, after bitter experience and disappointments, declared: "We must liberate ourselves once and forever from the unendurable yoke of foreign rule if we are to take our rightful place that belongs to us on the strength of our abilities, and that means we must attain the ultimate goal of self-governing statehood because a nation that is enslaved has its bands bound, its spirit depressed and faces the danger of ultimate extinction." (Slovanstvo a svet buducnosti). To engage and negotiate in politics with anyone who is willing to help us was the slogan of the American Slovaks a half century ago. "We must pursue a political course," wrote Tholt-Vel'kostiavnicky, " that will bring us eventually to our national independence." (Slovensky dennik, February 27, 1909). In another article Vel'kostiavnicky wrote: "We Slovaks must have an honorable political program that will permit us to adopt a policy or unite with a nation with which we will be able to cooperate mutually, with positive assurance and a guarantee of our national independence. We must be a fully and independent and selfgoverning nation because this is according to the natural law, and a principle of an individual entity that belongs to every nation. "Every nation like every person upon reaching maturity desires to be free, and a nation aspires to have its own individual self-governing state. Thus it is with our Slovak nation, for we do not want to be infants iorever, nor dependents or slaves. We are impelled to this not only by the spirit of the age but by nature and every conceivable political experience of the past. "We Slovaks declare to the whole world that we are �SLOVAKIA 53 a nation that wants to be free, and therefore, must have its own free self-governing state in Europe." Our forebears spoke distinctly in this manner and spirit when all they had was the historic fact of the existence of Slovak statehood more than a thousand years ago, and of course, the basis for their claim the universally accepted principle that all nations aspire to independence. We had it a thousand years ago. We lost it because of overwhelming force but we did not surrender the right to be independent. That right belongs to us today and forever. Holly, stur and Tholt-Vel'kostiavnicky, and their followers believed this firmly. Should we who saw with our own eyes the happy reality of an independent Slovak state believe less? Should we after having witnessed what our Slovak state accomplished in six short years willingly bow our heads and place them in the Czech yoke? "No, never!" Let us unite with anyone who wants to help us, as Tholt wrote once, and oppose anyone and everyone who is against Slovak statehood. There are vital material resources that a nation needs but more importantly a nation has need of strong enduring moral values without which a nation cannot exist or long endure. Foremost among the characteristics that make a nation what it is is national consciousness. Both the Magyars and Czechs concentrated their attacks on this central point. Slovaks who possessed a conviction of their own national identity were recognized as inimical to their plans of assimilating the Slovaks. Accordingly they sought to destroy all self-consciousness by bribery, force and imprisonment. For all time renegades from the Slovak nation are listed as "mad'ar6ni" and "cechoslovaci." They degraded themselves by abandoning their Slovak nation because of an inferiority complex, and so they became satraps first of Magyar and subsequently of Czech overlords. Self-consciousness is an acquired virtue and strengthened by one's own conviction that he is his own man, and an individual person who is equal to any man, and he proves �54 SLOVAKIA it to himself and others by his actions in practical life. He stands proudly on his own two feet, so to speak. As in the experience of a child taking his first step which requires courage and effort, so it is with a nation taking its first step towards going ahead without any assistance. The Slovaks took their first step in modern times in the Czecho-Slovak Republic, but soon learned to stand and walk with confidence on their own two feet in the Slovak Republic. Slovak self-consciousness reached such a stage that even erstwhile "Czecho-Slovaks" changed and became convinced of their equality with the Czechs! Quite a transformation. And today they proudly assert they are Slovaks . . . not "Czechoslovaks", as once upon a time they timidly imagined themselves to be. This new spirit of self-reliance is the direct result of the successful development that led to Slovak statehood in our times. Czechs returning to Slovakia after the war, or those who meet Slovak visitors in Prague, are made aware immediately that these are not the old type Slovaks but a new generation or race of self-conscious members of the Slovak nation. This self-consciousness of the average Slovak, and of the intellectual as well, causes great consternation in the Czech camp. A certain 'Moravus' dealing with this natural phenomenon declared this to be absolutely 'insufferable.' With the exception of communist periodicals the Slovak press unanimously attacked him. Moravus got a stinging reply in Slaboda, October 26, 1948: "Awareness of the Slovak nation's abilities and possibilities is the source of the current self-consciousness," insufferable, indeed! cas (Time) replied in kind: "Thank God, Slovakia today is not the Slovakia of yesterday when the country had fewer than five hundred intellectuals.'' Ndrodnd obroda (National Renewal) added on October 26, 1946: "There is no resemblance between the Slovak nation that awoke from a long slumber in 1918 and the Slovak nation today.'' Where did this self-consciousness emanate from? �SLOVAKIA 55 To a large degree, from the Slovak Republic. It does not exist today as it did then, but the spirit has survived because we proved to ourselves and the whole world that we could rule our own country better and more efficiently than any alien master ... and because the average Slovak received more for his efforts, he became convinced of his ability to stand on his own two feet as a proud individual of the Slovak nation and as a loyal citizen of the SlovakRepublic. Some politicians who formerly did not dare to have an opinion of their own, relying entirely on Prague wrote: "Slovak affairs can be conducted best right here in Slovakia without interference from Prague, as has been amply demonstrated in recent years. "Slovakia stands firmly on its own feet and is progressing nicely without needless Czech supervision that may now concentrate on solving problems close to home in Prague itself." ( Cas) Under pressure of this new development even Benes changed his tune about his familiar theme, "one nation" i.e., only a Czechoslovak nation (sic), when he said in Kosice: "Since 1918 Slovakia has become stronger and more prosperous, and it has advanced culturally, politically and organizationally so that its rights must be respected. That was self-evident to me in 1938 when I proposed decentralization in the republic." Benes' statement is not true, however. The Czech president addressed a similar proposal on October 4, 1938, to Tiso but he had it recalled from the post office because he was suddenly forced to resign from the presidency. The fact is that in 1938 Benes declared: "No Slovak problem exists. Therefore, there is no need for a solution." Since even Benes admits Slovakia's maturity and progress, why was it denied a Slovak national council, a board of commissioners and other agencies on the basis of the Kosice Agreement? Let us search for the source of the best qualities of every nation. We shall find clues in the following: "The intensive and extensive experience of Slovak statehood produced a new Slovak personality whose political �56 SLOVAKIA spirit and abilities astonished observers who could not help but admire real achievements of the era." (Dr. V. Busek, Svobodny zitfek, No. 36, 1946). One Czech finally admits that it was the Slovak Republic that accomplished wonders. Then why judge Slovak politicians for their achievements? Benes brought them to trial precisely because they were responsible for the rise and growth of Slovak national self-consciousness, because they gave testimony to their own nation of their effective leadership in utilizing their innate talents and skills in establishing independence and statehood. Benes no longer can repeat what he once said to Razus: "You Slovaks have nowhere to go." The Slovaks do not have to go anywhere. All they have to do and they want to do is to stay in their own historic homeland and manage their own affairs in their national household. In the eyes of Benes who attempted to make Slovakia a Czech colony there was no greater crime in all history than that of Tiso and his governmental staff that dared to take off and soar high on their wings like Slovak eagles in the blue sky high above a free land. "Never again will dictatorship rule the Slovaks, for one learns once ancl. for all from his personal experience," writes Slaboda, November 12, 1946. Quotations of this new popular view were often repeated in the postwar era when Prague seized political control of Slovakia after the war. One heard statements like the following: "We have outgrown our infant clothes, we will not take orders from Praha. We lived without Czechs and we can live without them; we were burned once, never again, etc." Dr. Kulhanek advised his Czech countrymen to face the facts, reminding them at long last this (Slovak nation) was not a primitive tribe of sheepherders whiling away the hours blowing the fujara (a musical instrument which may be described as a giant cousin of the saxophone), nor a group of migrant tinkers. "This is a very capable nation comprising seriousminded people of realism. They seek to solve contemporary problems with greater calm and keener perspicacity than we do." (Svobodny zitfek, October 4, 1946). �SLOVAKIA 57 Another Czech periodical observed: "Czechs have to be aware of the great re-birth in Slovakia since 1938, and that there is a great difference between Slovaks of yesterday and today. The Slovaks have matured politically and have grown up culturally, their national self-consciousness has been strengthened and ripened. The great majority of Slovaks, not excluding former 'Hlasist' devotees who preached a Czechoslovak form of national unity, feel they are members of an independent nation, and they will not tolerate either political or cultural overlordship, nor economic domination. (Zemedelske listy). Reacting to these tributes to the Slovak Republic from even hitherto hostile quarters an American Slovak journalist wrote: "What great miraculous powers of national liberty and independent statehood must have been at work that in less than six years of the regime of the Slovak Republic these transformed many in the former 'Hlasist' Czechoslovak camp into self-conscious Slovak Patriots." ( Osadne Hlasy, August 9, 1946). No political regime in the world ever gave its people as much as the administration of the Slovak Republic gave the Slovak nation. Self-pride, independence, the spirit of conscientious work, national consciousness, as well as the conversion of Czechoslovak factions, those unbelieving Thomases, all this was inspired by the Slovak Republic. Nevertheless, we are faced with the paradox of all paradoxes, namely, the persecution, imprisonment and execution of the very persons who accomplished all these things. What irony of fate that propagators of noble ideals are now being hounded, tried in court and sentenced to prison and death in the country they served so nobly and so well! Despite this tragedy enemies of the Slovak nation have lost the fight, for the fanatical movement to absorb the Slovaks in a conglomerate of a "Czechoslovak" people was crushed. This was genocide long before it was labelled as such after the war. Hlinka, Tiso and Sidor and their colleagues won the good fight and saved the Slovak nation in a crisis that saw their domestic enemies, the Hlasists, converted to the cause of Slovak national freedom. Ideologically, Benes was defeated. He asserted that he �58 SLOVAKIA recognized only a "Czechoslovak" nation-Hlinka triumphed hy 'declaring he did not recognize such a nation because it never existed. Today Benes, the Bolsheviks and their collaborators may condemn, imprison and hang the creators of the Slovak Republic, they may confiscate their properties and seek to erase their names from history, but they will never succeed in stamping out the self-consciousness of the Slovak nation that came to full maturity in the Slovak Republic. No power in the world can eradicate the aspiration of the Slovak nation for its own free, independent statehood. Attempts to educate a new generation of Slovaks to repudiate the achievements of the brave men ,a nd women who created the Slovak state will be in vain, as will be the terroristic methods designed to intimidate the Slovak people into acknowledging that they have lost their will to be free. Slovak coins with the image of the immortal Slovak president, the banner of the Slovak army, photographs from the Slovak state remain, all reminders of the Slovak Republic. Most important of all, however, is the abiding conviction that we are equals with the civilized and cultured nations of Europe, that we have enough intelligence, that we have a nation that is alert and wide-awake, and particularly that we have a will strong enough to renew our Slovak state at the earliest opportunity. Clearly and unequivocally we declare again: The Slovak nation is ready to accept a helping hand from every great power on earth. Echoes and re-echoes will be heard incessantly throughout Slovakia until the restoration of a free Slovak state. Times have changed and today's situation is not the same as it was when we had our own Slovak Republic. Unpleasant and unbearable though the truth is to some Czechs of the past, the wise ones admit it must be respected, and they are reconciled to the inevitable gennination of a free Slovak state that must come into being again for a self-conscious Slovak nation in the near future. Such is the destiny of a nation determined to have its own self-governing state. (A translation by Andrew Pier from unpublished book of Konstantin culen.) � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 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 SLOVAKIA 41 Good Slovak Republic By Konstantin cul en It was March 14, 1945. I was scheduled to be the main speaker in a certain Slovak city which was known chiefly for the strange fact that people disliked to go there for celebrations and lectures. The population consisted generally of teachers, professors, students and officials. In short, they lived there because they had to. To my great surprise, the auditorium was filled to capacity ten minutes before the program was slated to start. This was unusual because the town had the reputation of starting all of its programs late in order to give stragglers time to come and give the speaker some encouragement in a sparsely filled hall. On this occasion, however, many had to be turned away but they waited outside during the entire program. After the program I asked what had brought such a great crowd to the affair. A small landowner explained it this way: "We all feel that our enemies are about to destroy our Slovak Republic. Now we realize more than ever before what we shall lose. I tell you never was the idea of the Slovak Republic as strong as at this very moment, and it will be even stronger when we don't have it any more. But we shall revive it again ... at the very first opportunity, mind my words," he concluded. In later years I often recalled what this genuine Slovak patriot had said. Many agreed with him wholeheartedly then, and many still do today. I am fully aware of this, for the idea is very much alive today and stronger, too, for in the passing years people have witnessed the contrast between what was and what is the situation in our time. Czech politicians, alone, like to think that the Slovak Republic vanished forever. They are convinced that "the Czecho-Slovak Republic is the only plausible solution and way of life for the Slovak nation." The newspapermen spread this propaganda. They ignore the obvious fact that for six years the Slovaks proved this thesis wrong ... the reality of the Slovak Republic is proof positive of the 42 SLOVAKIA self-reliance of the Slovak nation. The Czech people do not accept this view. If their political leaders do not see the writing on the wall let them live with their illusions. Is there a nation in the whole wide world which has surrendered its right for a self-governing state, especially after demonstrating, as did the Slovak nation, that it can govern itself successfully? We know of no such nation. Nations have lost their self-governing states but always by force, by defeat, by treason, but never by a voluntary surrender of their natural right to govern themselves. Well, the Czechs always did consider us to be inferior ... no wonder they have such a low opinion of us anyway. "The Slovaks have gloriously given up their inglorious past," a Czech newspaper gloated. "Still, though they have given up their Slovak state, they repeatedly sigh how good they had it under Tiso," the same article noted. ( Cas, November 17, 1946) If someone voluntarily and gloriously gives up something, he will not want it back. I am not alone in this opinion. The general secretary of the Socialist-Democratic Party declared in parliament: "In Slovakia there are forces to preserve an independent Slovakia inside the framework of Czecho-Slovakia. It is imperative for the Slovaks to realize that the patience of Czech public opinion has its limits." (Slaboda, December 19, 1946). Too bad the above mentioned speaker did not venture to predict what would happen the moment those limits of Czech patience were reached. It would be interesting to see if war would follow ... or would the Czechs declare their independence? When we consider this Czech spokesman had in mind the Slovak Democratic Party ( which had 62 % of the votes and the Slovak Freedom Party 4 %, this adds up to 66 % of the Slovak people) that favored, as he rightfully suspected, a Slovak state. Another Czech observer who studied the situation in Slovakia after the Slovaks reportedly 'gave up their right to self-government' declared: "The average Czech considers the existence of the SLOVAKIA 43 Czecho-Slovak Republic as self-evident. He talks Czech but feels like a Czechoslovak, thinks like a Czechoslovak and on state occasions flies the Czechoslovak Flag. It is different in Slovakia, however. "This is quite obvious as one approaches Bratislava by train. The first tobacco store he sees from the window displays a Slovak emblem. At the railroad station the Slovak Flag is displayed side by side with the Czechoslovak banner . . . and when the national court is in session the Slovak Flag waves proudly above the bulding. The internal dissension, though not so apparent, is perhaps more or less intense. Sensitiveness in the linguistic sphere, constant vigilance and an air of mistrust, in fact, an atmosphere of expectation, reserve and expediency seems to be everywhere. Actually there are people who find it distasteful to utter the word, 'Czecho-Slovakia'." (Engineer Teyssler, Svobodny zitfek, October 17, 1946). What does all this signify? Simply that the Slovak nation awaits the opportunity of declaring its freedom. It has not renounced its national destiny. Many others observe the same thing and there are plenty of signs to confirm this view. Today's situation the Slovak nation regards as a temporary one, one that was forced upon it. To be forced into a state against its will when it is powerless, at the moment, to resist does not mean the Slovak nation has surrendered its natural right to self-government in its own national state. Archbishop Charles Kmet'ko publicly expressed his conviction under oath on the subject of President Tiso's politics: To Dr. sujan's question: "What did the Slovak state give the Slovak nation, morally or otherwise?" The reply by the highest ecclesiastic-Ordinary in Slovakia was spontaneous: "First of all," he said, "what Hlinka affirmed is an internationally acknowledged principle. Can anyone imagine a nation that does not want self-government? Is it possible that a poor man never dreams of owning his own home some day? Obviously, there is no such nation or person that does not want to be independent and to be master of his own household." 44 SLOVAKIA sujan interposed: "But that independence was dependence!" Kmet'ko: "Nonetheless, it was ten times better than a protectorate," the archbishop responded. sujan: "You denounced the direction of the Hlinka Slovak People's Party at the beginning of the Czecho-Slovak Republic because you foresaw an unhappy outcome. How could you abandon so many of your better principles in relationship to the Czecho-Slovak Republic after Munich?" Kmet'ko: "The Czecho-Slovak Republic is the only form in which the Slovak nation can live peaceably and progressively. Yet, if, theoretically, we could have a self-governing Slovak state, we could be independent. I say, if it is possible, we are for it. If impossible, we are for the Czecho-Slovak Republic." (Katolicke noviny, March 2, 1947). If the Czechs were convinced that the Slovak state is theoretically and practically impossible, then they could have used Kmet'ko's arguments as favorable propaganda. But actually they believe that an independent Slovakia is a possibility, not only theoretically but practically because they witnessed its realization. No wonder this statement caused a furore. Benes himself retorted: "This means that if the situation warranted a change the Slovaks tomorrow or the day after tomorrow would be for it. I will never accept this argument. I refuse to consider it in principle. I want a simple solution, clear-cut and definitive. Both of us must speak plainly: yes, yes, no, no!" (March 13, 1947). The Slovaks must speak out, Benes says, but first and last on his terms. In other words, they must agree with him, whether they feel that way or not. Since he spoke so vociferously in this tone, he knew that Slovak public opinion opposed his views. That is why he categorically announced he rejected Kmet'ko's opinion. What virtually is Benes's attitude towards the Slovak nation? By what right has a foreigner the power to direct the destiny of our ·nation to its own detriment? Benes has the right to dictate to us what policy we should follow and what views we are to have? Then any Hungarian. Russian. SLOVAKIA 45 Polish or Austrian ruler has that right, too, for these are our neighbors ... a logical deduction from Benes' line of reasoning. Archbishop Kmet'ko was not Hlinka's follower. Certainly, he was not against Czecho-Slovakia, as such, because he believed as many of us believed, too, that this was the only way for our existence at the time. But he became more and more convinced in time that he was wrong, and that is why he proclaimed his belief in national independence as a better solution. The spirit of the Slovak Republic proved beyond any shadow of a doubt that the Slovak nation is vitally strong enough to sustain a self-governing state. The idea is very much alive and will once again give life to a new, revived free Slovakia in the future. This is inevitably the final solution to the aspirations of a freedom-loving Slovak people. A loyal citizen and patriot must support the best solution for his country, not foreign interests that are detrimental to its national interest. Benes in this struggle represents alien Czech interests, Kmet'ko and Tiso are representatives of the Slovak nation whose interests they defend as leaders of their people who are in full agreement with them. Schmidtke, a communist, once said: "There are people who find it difficult to renounce their sympathy for the fascist Slovak state." (Pravda, September 6, 1946). In short, it seems to us that 'the glorious renunciation of the Slovak Republic' is such that neither the Czechs, nor the communists, believe this, on the contrary, at every turn they discover a clear-cut expression of the desire for restoration of the Slovak Republic, and the desire for its renewal is manifested in word and deed on every side. A government, however, that gives its people a larger loaf of bread, that invests just taxes in its own development, that gives priority to the native language of its people and places it where it rightfully belongs, that builds roads, railways, hospitals, schools, etc., etc., and that emanates from the nation and rules the nation for its best interests, is a good government. Such a government the nation does not renounce. 46 SLOVAKIA On the other hand, a nation gives up on a government that takes away the best part of an honestly-earned loaf of bread, that deprives it of using its own language, that attempts to rob it of its nationality, that does not recognize its national identity. Such a government is not good and a nation gladly renounces it. What government ruled Slovakia in the first and second instance? It is needless to respond to this question, for we have many authentic reports from contemporary ministers and representatives how inept were the various administrations in the Czecho-Slovak Republic. Further, it is well to cite testimony of fereigners, not at all friendly to us, about how good the Slovak Republic really was. One could publish a book filled with their favorable quotations and observations. Perhaps ihe following statement will suffice to indicate what others thought of the Slovak Republic: 1) "The average, simple and intelligent Slovak lived in an oasis for six years of prosperity in a free Slovak state under the leadership of Tiso. "It is true, as we often repeated, that the Slovaks had it good during wartime, not so much because of German kindness but because of their own native skill. In Slovakia there are still signs of this so-called 'German goodness' in contrast to Czech lands." (Osvobozeny nasinec, December 1, 1946). 2) "Slovakia among the small European nations up to the autumn of 1944 remained unaffected directly by the war. Relative security, prosperity brought on, for this or that reason, the growth of national culture and art, national self-consciousness and other circumstances seemed to indicate that the Slovak Republic would not become involved actively in the war at all." (Obzory, E. Komorovsky: Slovensko vcera a dnes-Slovakia yesterday and today, 1946). 3) "Six years during World War II for the Czechs were cruel and retrogressive, for the Slovaks up to 1944 they were economically and socially successful, internationally and politically, however, problematical. During this time Czech industry, although partially dislocated and paralyzed, due to air bombardments, managed to survive and in some instances made progress. SLOVAKIA 47 "Meanwhile, the Slovaks for fully five years progressed immensely on all fronts ... they had the great advantage of ruling themselves, which we did not have ... they not only caught up to us, but even forged ahead." (Obzory, 1946, page 815: My narod ceskoslovensky). 4) "Slovakia in wartime enjoyed prosperity and relatively great freedom. It was, as a matter of fact, a showcase state which the German used for propaganda purposes to show how they treated a good obedient child." (Obzory, 1945, page 262). 5) Dr. Vavro srobar said: "During the war Slovakia had the best situation on the continent. There were no executions, no concentration camps. There was plenty of bread, food, potatoes. Anyone could purchase a goose, or pork, and any kind of meat was available at relatively cheap prices." (Eudovy dennik, July 19, 1945). 6) "We do not deny, either the upli~t of religious life or the growth of spiritual and civilizing influence in the country. Under favorable conditions Slovakia was completely free on the religious side." Osvobozeny nasinec). 7) "Even after the breakthrough on the fighting-front the amount of goods was greater in Slovakia than on January 1, 1939." (Dr. Matura v Zat'kovom procese. Ndrodna obrbda, September 12, 1946). 8) "Frequently in studying conditions in Slovakia one concludes that the average citizen did not have it bad at all, in fact, he was not bad off during the entire war." (Cas, December 18, 1946). 9) "Economically, Slovakia was in very good shape. Government officials admit this and write about it openly. There were no exceptions, everyone was well off, whether he was a worker, an official or farmer. While the Germans exploited the Czechs, our government officials cleverly arranged to give the Germans a minimum of their national output." (Kanadsky Slovak. A letter from Kosice, August 6, 1946). Unaoubtedly, these few quotations from various sources indicate that the Slovak Republic was not bad at all. Fereign 48 SLOVAKIA newspapers, such as the London T i mes, wrote in the same vein. In wartime Benes propaganda sought to convince the Slovaks of their 'bad plight.' After war Czechs had this to say: "The years of the independent Slovak state were marked by rapidly increasing prosperity with the result of a high standard of living. This changed considerably after the war. "It was a period of building, progress and communication, and relative internal freedom, though not definitely democratic, yet it was free of any so-called fascist terror, particularly in the Hitlerian sense of the word. "While Czech schools were closed, the Slovak university received hundreds of highly qualified and intelligent students year after year. These can now be employed in various positions. Cultural life reached a new high level. "All this was not the work of the ruling regime-it was a national evolution of a people who seized the opportunity to get ahead. Slovak youth, according to personal testimony, was determined to advance at all costs. Slovak autonomists do not consider themselves to be discredited but rather exonerated for their policies by the events of their time ... which proved them to be right in pursuing those policies." (Obzory, "cesi a Slovaci", 1946, p. 774). So these were the so-called 'crimes' of the Slovak Republic! Obviously, a Czech, admitting the facts, must try in every way, however, to discredit the regime of the Slovak Republic. For him, it is only true that it was a natural evolution impelled by a new opportunity. But a people enjoys such an opportunity only in its own state. It is not a crime to seek such an opportunity ... it is only a natural evolution. Furthermore, that the Slovaks themselves might have some merit for their own economic well-being as a consequence of their wise and judicious politics a Czech finds it difficult to admit. On their side of the ledger, while the Czechs reluctantly admit they made mistakes, they claim these were not malicious. Well, was it not malicious to dismantle Slovak factories? This 'mistake' they attribute not to their government but to the "zivnobanka" administration. SLOVAKIA 49 At present, finally when all the facts are in and when any objective-minded person must admit that conditions in Slovakia during the war were ideal, we are continually hearing from various quarters that the situation was unnatural, unchristian and immoral, completely wrong from every angle, because conditions were bad everywhere, and that must include Slovakia, it could not have been an exception, and so Czechs generally try to debunk the government of the Slovak Republic. Dr. Kozeluhova (a Czech) after lauding wartime conditions in Slovakia concludes : "Since in Slovakia much of the national wealth was in the forests, lumber exports were greatly excessive. Actually, we have to note that it will be a long, long time before the exorbitant cutting-down of trees will be replaced by new growth. Although the Germans did not impoverish the Slovaks by demands for food, there was prosperity, but future generations will have to suffer. It is clear that after years of abundance the postwar consequences would result in many lean years." (Obzory, 1945, p. 263). She was not alone in this view, for another Czech, Engineer J. Rotnagel expressed the same opinion in his book, cesi a Slovdci ( Czechs and Slovaks): "And the Slovaks? Let no one be deceived by the claim of a sounder and better financial status and higher living standards in Slovakia in contrast to Czech lands. The so-called prosperity was brought on by undue exploitation of the country's natural resources, particularly by the harvesting of the luxuriant Slovak forests by the Slovak: government." (page 275). What he is trying to say is that prosperity in Slovakia was at the expense of future generations. The Czechs talk about the exploitation of Slovak forests just like the Venetians of ancient times in Dalmatia and neighboring lands. Never in the history of Slovaks was there such economic exploitation on all sides as occurred under Czech domination in the old Czecho-Slovak Republic. The proof is in the records of the parliament in Prague, especially in the records of various companies operating in eastern Slovakia. How was this operation effected during the regime of the Slovak Republic? Reference to this was made in Zat'ko's 50 SLOVAKIA process, and not only as a mere statement but backed up by statistics. An authority on natural resources, Zat'ko reported as follows: "The Germans established a quota for the Czechs to produce 50 % more lumber than normally. In contrast to this, the normal capacity of lumber produced in Slovakia was not even reached so that the Slovak Republic actually saved 15,000,000 cubic metres of wood valued at 3,000,000,00 crowns." (N<irodnd obroda, September 12, 1946). This, then, is the truth based on facts. Simply stated, this action preserved millions of cubic metres of lumber for future generations. From this, one must conclude that the government was far-sighted, and far better than its predecessors. The government of the Slovak Republic planned and regulated the prosperity of its era while at the same time provided for the future. Least known and unpublicized is the fact that at the end of the war the Slovak Republic had a surplus of more than a billion crowns, which the Prague government confiscated, spent in less than two years and plunged the country into a deficit of 4 billion crowns by 1947. A treasure trove of fine lumber estimated in value of more than 3 billion crowns was left intact for future generations by the Slovak Republic. Industrial expansion was greatly augmented, too. The Slovaks had an abundance of food. What more material goods does one need aside from shelter and clothing? And the Slovak Republic provided these vital needs, too, for its people. After such derogatory statements about so-called exploitation by the Slovak Republic it sounds rather strange to hear a radio broadcast in Bratislava: "Czecho-Slovakia has a surplus of lumber in the eastern part of the country for extensive export." (Praha, January 8, 1947). It is easy to manipulate words, sentences and conclusions in an effort to hide the truth, but eventually the truth will uncover the lie, and cold statistics will further confirm what is true. It would be extremely difficult to find a nation whose officials were so guilty of deceit as those on the Czech side. One of these glaring examples is their shameless attempt to explain away Slovak prosperity. SLOVAKIA 51 Exploitation of Slovak forests attributed falsely to the Slovak Republic is now followed by a strange sequel: the official order to cut down no less than five million cubic metres in 1947, and that for export. So, the postwar Czechoslovak government is following the example of the Slovak Republic's 'exploitation' by cutting down lumber in Slovakia, not in Czech lands, however. Every lie or falsehood sooner or later is detected. And so it is in this case. The lie levelled against the Slovak Republic comes to roost in Prague. Factually, the Slovak state was governed wisely and honestly. Such a state only a primitive and stupid people would voluntarily renounce. The Slovak nation has not renounced its right to a selfgoverning state but denounces every attempt to falsify the genuine record of good government and achievement of its Slovak Republic. From experience down through the ages that saw the Slovaks survive many regimes, they have come to realize that by far the best, the most beneficial was the regime of the Slovak Republic. No need to hide its imperfections, but what regime is perfect? Nevertheless, there is no comparison between Czecho-Slovakia and the Slovak Republic as far as its benefits go when one looks at the record that is indelibly imprinted on the pages of history. All of these events lead us to the obvious conclusion, namely, that the Slovaks are not satisfied with the present state of affairs, and that they aspire to renew their own Slovak state. None of the leading Slovak cultural or political leaders joined Benes when he left the country. In 1939 the Slovak wholeheartedly and unanimously took the oath of allegiance to the Slovak Republic. Why? Because they did not love Czecho-Slovakia. At the conclusion of the war when President Tiso was persuaded to leave the country thousands of Slovaks, intellectuals as well as average citizens, followed him into exile. Why? Because they wanted to work for the restoration of the Slovak Republic. The people at home are united in spirit with their Slovak countrymen abroad in the struggle to restore their self-governing state at the earliest opportunity. To this they are committed and dedicated as freedomloving men who aspire to a life of national freedom for their 52 SLOVAKIA people who for too long a time have been forced to live in servitude. Slovaks at home and throughout the entire world are of one mind, namely, that eventually and inevitably their eternal struggle for freedom and statehood must become a reality again. This dream is in keeping with the finest Slovak traditions of the past and a sacred legacy of our forefathers . It is in the spirit of Jjudovit stur who, after bitter experience and disappointments, declared: "We must liberate ourselves once and forever from the unendurable yoke of foreign rule if we are to take our rightful place that belongs to us on the strength of our abilities, and that means we must attain the ultimate goal of self-governing statehood because a nation that is enslaved has its bands bound, its spirit depressed and faces the danger of ultimate extinction." (Slovanstvo a svet buducnosti). To engage and negotiate in politics with anyone who is willing to help us was the slogan of the American Slovaks a half century ago. "We must pursue a political course," wrote Tholt-Vel'kostiavnicky, " that will bring us eventually to our national independence." (Slovensky dennik, February 27, 1909). In another article Vel'kostiavnicky wrote: "We Slovaks must have an honorable political program that will permit us to adopt a policy or unite with a nation with which we will be able to cooperate mutually, with positive assurance and a guarantee of our national independence. We must be a fully and independent and selfgoverning nation because this is according to the natural law, and a principle of an individual entity that belongs to every nation. "Every nation like every person upon reaching maturity desires to be free, and a nation aspires to have its own individual self-governing state. Thus it is with our Slovak nation, for we do not want to be infants iorever, nor dependents or slaves. We are impelled to this not only by the spirit of the age but by nature and every conceivable political experience of the past. "We Slovaks declare to the whole world that we are SLOVAKIA 53 a nation that wants to be free, and therefore, must have its own free self-governing state in Europe." Our forebears spoke distinctly in this manner and spirit when all they had was the historic fact of the existence of Slovak statehood more than a thousand years ago, and of course, the basis for their claim the universally accepted principle that all nations aspire to independence. We had it a thousand years ago. We lost it because of overwhelming force but we did not surrender the right to be independent. That right belongs to us today and forever. Holly, stur and Tholt-Vel'kostiavnicky, and their followers believed this firmly. Should we who saw with our own eyes the happy reality of an independent Slovak state believe less? Should we after having witnessed what our Slovak state accomplished in six short years willingly bow our heads and place them in the Czech yoke? "No, never!" Let us unite with anyone who wants to help us, as Tholt wrote once, and oppose anyone and everyone who is against Slovak statehood. There are vital material resources that a nation needs but more importantly a nation has need of strong enduring moral values without which a nation cannot exist or long endure. Foremost among the characteristics that make a nation what it is is national consciousness. Both the Magyars and Czechs concentrated their attacks on this central point. Slovaks who possessed a conviction of their own national identity were recognized as inimical to their plans of assimilating the Slovaks. Accordingly they sought to destroy all self-consciousness by bribery, force and imprisonment. For all time renegades from the Slovak nation are listed as "mad'ar6ni" and "cechoslovaci." They degraded themselves by abandoning their Slovak nation because of an inferiority complex, and so they became satraps first of Magyar and subsequently of Czech overlords. Self-consciousness is an acquired virtue and strengthened by one's own conviction that he is his own man, and an individual person who is equal to any man, and he proves 54 SLOVAKIA it to himself and others by his actions in practical life. He stands proudly on his own two feet, so to speak. As in the experience of a child taking his first step which requires courage and effort, so it is with a nation taking its first step towards going ahead without any assistance. The Slovaks took their first step in modern times in the Czecho-Slovak Republic, but soon learned to stand and walk with confidence on their own two feet in the Slovak Republic. Slovak self-consciousness reached such a stage that even erstwhile "Czecho-Slovaks" changed and became convinced of their equality with the Czechs! Quite a transformation. And today they proudly assert they are Slovaks . . . not "Czechoslovaks", as once upon a time they timidly imagined themselves to be. This new spirit of self-reliance is the direct result of the successful development that led to Slovak statehood in our times. Czechs returning to Slovakia after the war, or those who meet Slovak visitors in Prague, are made aware immediately that these are not the old type Slovaks but a new generation or race of self-conscious members of the Slovak nation. This self-consciousness of the average Slovak, and of the intellectual as well, causes great consternation in the Czech camp. A certain 'Moravus' dealing with this natural phenomenon declared this to be absolutely 'insufferable.' With the exception of communist periodicals the Slovak press unanimously attacked him. Moravus got a stinging reply in Slaboda, October 26, 1948: "Awareness of the Slovak nation's abilities and possibilities is the source of the current self-consciousness," insufferable, indeed! cas (Time) replied in kind: "Thank God, Slovakia today is not the Slovakia of yesterday when the country had fewer than five hundred intellectuals.'' Ndrodnd obroda (National Renewal) added on October 26, 1946: "There is no resemblance between the Slovak nation that awoke from a long slumber in 1918 and the Slovak nation today.'' Where did this self-consciousness emanate from? SLOVAKIA 55 To a large degree, from the Slovak Republic. It does not exist today as it did then, but the spirit has survived because we proved to ourselves and the whole world that we could rule our own country better and more efficiently than any alien master ... and because the average Slovak received more for his efforts, he became convinced of his ability to stand on his own two feet as a proud individual of the Slovak nation and as a loyal citizen of the SlovakRepublic. Some politicians who formerly did not dare to have an opinion of their own, relying entirely on Prague wrote: "Slovak affairs can be conducted best right here in Slovakia without interference from Prague, as has been amply demonstrated in recent years. "Slovakia stands firmly on its own feet and is progressing nicely without needless Czech supervision that may now concentrate on solving problems close to home in Prague itself." ( Cas) Under pressure of this new development even Benes changed his tune about his familiar theme, "one nation" i.e., only a Czechoslovak nation (sic), when he said in Kosice: "Since 1918 Slovakia has become stronger and more prosperous, and it has advanced culturally, politically and organizationally so that its rights must be respected. That was self-evident to me in 1938 when I proposed decentralization in the republic." Benes' statement is not true, however. The Czech president addressed a similar proposal on October 4, 1938, to Tiso but he had it recalled from the post office because he was suddenly forced to resign from the presidency. The fact is that in 1938 Benes declared: "No Slovak problem exists. Therefore, there is no need for a solution." Since even Benes admits Slovakia's maturity and progress, why was it denied a Slovak national council, a board of commissioners and other agencies on the basis of the Kosice Agreement? Let us search for the source of the best qualities of every nation. We shall find clues in the following: "The intensive and extensive experience of Slovak statehood produced a new Slovak personality whose political 56 SLOVAKIA spirit and abilities astonished observers who could not help but admire real achievements of the era." (Dr. V. Busek, Svobodny zitfek, No. 36, 1946). One Czech finally admits that it was the Slovak Republic that accomplished wonders. Then why judge Slovak politicians for their achievements? Benes brought them to trial precisely because they were responsible for the rise and growth of Slovak national self-consciousness, because they gave testimony to their own nation of their effective leadership in utilizing their innate talents and skills in establishing independence and statehood. Benes no longer can repeat what he once said to Razus: "You Slovaks have nowhere to go." The Slovaks do not have to go anywhere. All they have to do and they want to do is to stay in their own historic homeland and manage their own affairs in their national household. In the eyes of Benes who attempted to make Slovakia a Czech colony there was no greater crime in all history than that of Tiso and his governmental staff that dared to take off and soar high on their wings like Slovak eagles in the blue sky high above a free land. "Never again will dictatorship rule the Slovaks, for one learns once ancl. for all from his personal experience," writes Slaboda, November 12, 1946. Quotations of this new popular view were often repeated in the postwar era when Prague seized political control of Slovakia after the war. One heard statements like the following: "We have outgrown our infant clothes, we will not take orders from Praha. We lived without Czechs and we can live without them; we were burned once, never again, etc." Dr. Kulhanek advised his Czech countrymen to face the facts, reminding them at long last this (Slovak nation) was not a primitive tribe of sheepherders whiling away the hours blowing the fujara (a musical instrument which may be described as a giant cousin of the saxophone), nor a group of migrant tinkers. "This is a very capable nation comprising seriousminded people of realism. They seek to solve contemporary problems with greater calm and keener perspicacity than we do." (Svobodny zitfek, October 4, 1946). SLOVAKIA 57 Another Czech periodical observed: "Czechs have to be aware of the great re-birth in Slovakia since 1938, and that there is a great difference between Slovaks of yesterday and today. The Slovaks have matured politically and have grown up culturally, their national self-consciousness has been strengthened and ripened. The great majority of Slovaks, not excluding former 'Hlasist' devotees who preached a Czechoslovak form of national unity, feel they are members of an independent nation, and they will not tolerate either political or cultural overlordship, nor economic domination. (Zemedelske listy). Reacting to these tributes to the Slovak Republic from even hitherto hostile quarters an American Slovak journalist wrote: "What great miraculous powers of national liberty and independent statehood must have been at work that in less than six years of the regime of the Slovak Republic these transformed many in the former 'Hlasist' Czechoslovak camp into self-conscious Slovak Patriots." ( Osadne Hlasy, August 9, 1946). No political regime in the world ever gave its people as much as the administration of the Slovak Republic gave the Slovak nation. Self-pride, independence, the spirit of conscientious work, national consciousness, as well as the conversion of Czechoslovak factions, those unbelieving Thomases, all this was inspired by the Slovak Republic. Nevertheless, we are faced with the paradox of all paradoxes, namely, the persecution, imprisonment and execution of the very persons who accomplished all these things. What irony of fate that propagators of noble ideals are now being hounded, tried in court and sentenced to prison and death in the country they served so nobly and so well! Despite this tragedy enemies of the Slovak nation have lost the fight, for the fanatical movement to absorb the Slovaks in a conglomerate of a "Czechoslovak" people was crushed. This was genocide long before it was labelled as such after the war. Hlinka, Tiso and Sidor and their colleagues won the good fight and saved the Slovak nation in a crisis that saw their domestic enemies, the Hlasists, converted to the cause of Slovak national freedom. Ideologically, Benes was defeated. He asserted that he 58 SLOVAKIA recognized only a "Czechoslovak" nation-Hlinka triumphed hy 'declaring he did not recognize such a nation because it never existed. Today Benes, the Bolsheviks and their collaborators may condemn, imprison and hang the creators of the Slovak Republic, they may confiscate their properties and seek to erase their names from history, but they will never succeed in stamping out the self-consciousness of the Slovak nation that came to full maturity in the Slovak Republic. No power in the world can eradicate the aspiration of the Slovak nation for its own free, independent statehood. Attempts to educate a new generation of Slovaks to repudiate the achievements of the brave men ,a nd women who created the Slovak state will be in vain, as will be the terroristic methods designed to intimidate the Slovak people into acknowledging that they have lost their will to be free. Slovak coins with the image of the immortal Slovak president, the banner of the Slovak army, photographs from the Slovak state remain, all reminders of the Slovak Republic. Most important of all, however, is the abiding conviction that we are equals with the civilized and cultured nations of Europe, that we have enough intelligence, that we have a nation that is alert and wide-awake, and particularly that we have a will strong enough to renew our Slovak state at the earliest opportunity. Clearly and unequivocally we declare again: The Slovak nation is ready to accept a helping hand from every great power on earth. Echoes and re-echoes will be heard incessantly throughout Slovakia until the restoration of a free Slovak state. Times have changed and today's situation is not the same as it was when we had our own Slovak Republic. Unpleasant and unbearable though the truth is to some Czechs of the past, the wise ones admit it must be respected, and they are reconciled to the inevitable gennination of a free Slovak state that must come into being again for a self-conscious Slovak nation in the near future. Such is the destiny of a nation determined to have its own self-governing state. (A translation by Andrew Pier from unpublished book of Konstantin culen.)  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Good Slovak Republic Description An account of the resource Konštantín Čulen Slovakia, Vol. 25 (No. 48), 1975 pp. 41-58 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 1975 SNK https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/914a3c943f39263a5e15ed271c40ffe2.pdf 15f77a7c54bc66f1bb8c31940c077068 PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA 18 Sonya Jason Good Times and Love THE LIFE OF THOMAS AND MARIE BELL One learns a great deal about any person by the mate he or she chooses. This is especially pertinent for a writer. I had been most fortunate in reading the last of Thomas Bell's books first and while reading In the Midst of Life, became well acquainted with a man of integrity, courage and honesty to the very end. But beyond Bell the man and writer, I caught deep glimpses of the tender love and regard he held for his wife, Marie, and later discovered that these qualities weave in and out like a golden thread through all his works. Now, I could only know Bell by his written memorials. But happily, I could still learn to know the woman he loved and thus I sought out to investigate her, what manner of woman this was that has been loved as few women have, and what was the meter of their life together that produced such affection. She stood in the doorway of her house in Santa Cruz, a tiny, dark haired lady in a chic pantssuit. A glance, a warm embrace and she led me into the kitchen for a chicken sandwich and coffee before she would talk of anything or anyone, even Bell. Marie Bell summarized her life with her husband as full of "good times and love." And for several hours we talked of some of those good times and the love. Thomas Belejcak was born in Braddock, Pennsylvania, on March 7, 1903. His father was an immigrant Slovak but his mother was a first generation American of Slovak parents. He was the oldest of four children and was trained in the Roman Catholic religion, but later repudiated all religions. He also regretted the Anglicizing of his name to Bell but understood the necessity at the time it was done out of economic urgency. Bell's father died on his 11th birthday and he became the man of the family and at 15, was working in a glass �SLOVAKIA 19 company in Glassport, Pennsylvania. When he was 16 and working as an apprentice electrician in Donora, Pennsylvania, his mother died of tuberculosis in a sanitarium. His brother and sisters were shifted about to various relatives to care for. At 19, with the sum of $15.00 in his pocket, Bell went to New York, sleeping in subways until he found a job. He worked for a time as a mechanic in a Long Island Railroad shop before he shipped out to sea as seaman for two years. Upon his return, he found a job as salesman for Schulte's Book Store and then sent for his brother and two sisters to live with him. He wrote his first novel in his spare time, The Breed of Basil, which was neither a great literary nor financial success but revealed a sensitive talent for feeling and words. It was shortly after that he first met Marie Benedetti, the laughing, dark eyed, dark haired Marie whose characteristics were to appear in the woman in his books and stories. It was a traditional meeting but never again was this couple to follow tradition. Bell's sister, Evelyn, worked for Norcross Greeting Card Co., as did Marie, and she asked Marie and another girl for dinner. Marie arrived with a copy of a P. G. Wodehouse book under her arm. After dinner, Bell took her to the subway but accompanied the other girl all the way home across town. Later, he confided to Marie that he lost interest in the other girl when she tried to impress him with her encyclopedia. He then wrote a note to her asking for a date and arrived with a corsage of three yellow roses that were not quite appropriate for the date spent playing ball in the park. But they dated regularly after that day until he felt he should state his intentions. "I want you to know that I am not the marrying kind," Bell announced, not long after that first date in April 1931. "Then we had better call the whole thing off, because I am," she countered. Happily, they did not call it off and on January 2, 1932, 28-year-old Thomas Bell took for his bride the lovely 19year-old Marie to begin twenty-seven years of that life of good times and love. The beginning was hardly auspicious as an astrologer �20 SLOVAKIA might put it. During their first year of marriage, Bell became ill with pneumonia. After his recovery, he was forced to make a choice. Write or work. Not both. Years later, his widow stated unequivocally, that had he attempted to work and write that "it would have killed him," and noted that "A writer gives and gives, you see, never takes, and very quickly expends himself." But she refuses credit for the fact that without her or a wife just like her, there would have been few other or maybe no other books by Bell. He might well have lapsed into another frustrated creative writer whose talent is buried in the cares of the workaday world out of the necessity of earning a living for his family. But there was another destiny for Bell. And Marie was the focal point in it. She became the breadwinner of the family when he made his choice to write. "We had the perfect arrangement," she says now. "Tom wrote from 9 until 4. Then he straightened the house, cooked dinner, ordinary things for me he thought I needed and the strict diet things for him. Then we read, played games, visited and just enjoyed our hours together." Marie worked her way up from 17-year-old messenger to a $10,0000 a year art director when she left Norcross in 1955 to move to Santa Cruz. After his crucial decision, Bell wrote his second book, The Second Prince, published in England under the title, Striker Godown. In this, he utilizes many of his own experiences and expounds his views of striking out against a life of conformity-whatever risk such rebellion entails. Marie says it was during this period that he was finding himself as a person and a writer. His third novel was probably the most financially successful, Marie recalls that when he dropped by her office after a visit to his agent and swung her in the air, she caught a whiff of alcohol, something he almost never touched. "I knew something big had happened," she smiled. He showed her the one year screen writer contract that All Brides Are Beautiful had brought and swung her high again. "We're on our way to Hollywood," as they both laughed with joy. �SLOVAKIA 21 She remembers that year of 1937 in Hollywood when the book was made into the movie, From This Day Forward. as one of the most carefree in their lives. But when it came to an end, Bell refused to sign another contract. "I have other books to write," he decided, and they returned to New York. In 1940 he became seriously ill and for two years, underwent tests before a malignancy in the ilium was discovered. Ever after, he had to adhere to a stringent diet which placed limitations upon mobility and life style. Marie credits her parents for Bell's recovery from the surgery for malignancy. They owned a farm in New Jersey and it was there that Bell went to recuperate. When she saw him three weeks later, she hardly recognized the emaciated husband she had left there. Her mother had cared for Bell, cooking and coaxing him to eat until fifteen pounds were added to the spare frame. "He loved my parents and they loved him. In fact, my whole family loved him," Marie says. "They asked his advice and called him Al. In them, he found the love from a family and parents that he was not able to get from his own." After recovery, their life resumed its peaceful routine. Writing, reading, cooking and photography for Bell. Working, reading, planning their trips to Coney Island, Nantucket, and plays and family for Marie. It was then that Bell wrote his most powerful novel. Out of This Furnace is the saga of three generations of Slovak Americans with all the societal changes and the part they played. But here, he reveals at his best the varying relationships of men and women and how they changed generation by generation. At the end, the relatively independent young wife of Dobie may be the new era of more individual relationships of man-wife of the present and of the Bells themselves. Till I Come Back to You followed. Made into a play, it was badly received by Bell and the public and closed after a brief run on Broadway. During this period he wrote short stories. "That was fun ... " Marie chuckles now: "He would take a week to write one of these romantic boy-girl things and sell it for �22 SLOVAKIA two thousand dollars or more. We had lots of money then." Out of the 25 stories he wrote, one serious effort, The Man Who Made Good in America, was about the Slovak workers in the mills and republished in Our Lives, American Labor Stories in 1948. It is still acclaimed for its poignant example of the exploitation of the Slovak mill workers. The last of Bell's novels shows the refined technique of research blended with perception until the reader is certain that the writer of There Comes A Time had worked as a bank teller. Actually, Marie reveals that the union permitted him to work briefly as a teller and in other bank functions for this story of the formation of a labor union in the bank and its unification with the larger union. As in all his honest works, Bell never falls into the trap of "good guys versus bad guys, or even not so good guys." There are no heroes or heroines. There are people, real people, like Joel Pane who responds to that cross road in everyone's life when one must choose to do more with his life than just exist, or ignore that resurgence of life's beckoning at the price of beginning to decline in spirit as the physiological counterpart begins its descent. Joel Pane, however, like Bell himself, opts for life and its risks and wins his moment of peace with himself. In 1950, nearing fifty years of age, Bell developed a writing block. In exploring the reason for it with his widow, the traditional questions were asked. Was it due to the severe emotional deprivation? Being the man of the family at age eleven? The fact that there never had been a childhood? The harshness of his father? Any and all of these were enough to decimate the strongest psychological constitution. Three years of analysis followed and Bell learned to understand and accept that the tragedy of his early life was also the tragedy of his parents and an entire two or three generations of immigrants who shared in and shaped the upheaval of America, as much too gradually the shackles of poverty and exploitation were thrown off. At the end of three years, he brought Marie to meet his analyst. After a long conference, Dr. Rustin laughingly told him, "With a wife like yours, you don't need analysis. Just �SLOVAKIA 23 don't ever use it to mistreat her in any way ..." Thus ended the inner journey to the psyche, at least with the help of an analyst. For he traveled the rest of his way alone but travel he did. And he traveled outwardly, too, for this now freed him to do something he had long wanted, move to California. But it was not until he was certain that his beloved motherin-law would be all right as his father-in-law had died two years before, and she could adjust to Marie moving far away and leaving her with Marie's two sisters in New York. In his journal, In the Midst of Life, he poignantly describes that last long plane trip that ushered in a new life of being shopkeepers of a stationery and book store. "Tom had five more years of life out here. I never gave up ... when we knew he had an inoperable tumor, we tried every chemical known to science . . . every treatment ... until the very last day, I never gave up hope." And those five years were good ones although Bell wrote only on note pads and in his journal. A poor sleeper, he utilized this time for jotting down ideas and thoughts that came to an active mind. The question of childlessness had to be asked and it was. Marie pondered this for a time before she replied in her direct way. "I never minded not having children as I didn't have much of a maternal instinct. But I regretted it for Tom. He would have been a wonderful father ... " she reflected with tenderness. "He was one of those unusual people who can play with children and yet approach them with the sense of dignity of their being a distinct individual. Children loved him. My nieces and nephews loved him and when grown, often talked and still do of how he played with them and talked with them ... " The shortsightedness of adoption agencies was never a subject that Bell mentioned in his writing, perhaps too sensitive an area for exploration. But Marie tE>lls how they were refused a child--even an older child not too easily adoptable-because she worked outside the house and Bell would have been the one to remain in the home to care �24 SLOVAKIA for the child. This was an arrangement very suspect and considered abnormal at that time. But he refused to let it blight their lives. "Don't worry about it, Marie," he assured her. "We will just have to be a little bit closer to each other, that's all." Whatever else he felt, he carried it to the ocean grave with his ashes, but one suspects he would never write anything that might even slightly hurt the woman he loved. Again and again the thought of how far ahead of their time the Bells were would intrude in the middle of a statement by Marie or in reading passages from his books. How complete was his acceptance of his woman, how spontaneous the expressions of affection; notes pinned on a mirror, a hand scrawled message for "16 years with the right woman" to accompany the birthday lapel pin, a kiss in the middle of Broadway for no reason other than "I just thought how glad I am that you are with me." He recorded some of these moments with his photographic hobby. Nudes of his wife enjoying a waterfall, strolling the beach in shorts, playing with animals or pensively reading. He recorded them also in words in all his books, but particularly that last journal. One is particularly touched by his account of those last few months when he knew he was dying. One is even more scored with poignancy in the account of those last days by his widow. When he knew his end was imminent, he asked his brother to take him to the hospital so "Marie won't come · home from the store and find me dead." There, he lived one day, a day that she still hoped would not be his last, that a miracle would happen. On the last visit, she was able to tell him that In the Midst of Life was to be published by Atheneum Publishers. He patted her hand and murmured "Good publishers, Marie." She left, hoping that this would spark some new life into his wasted body. But a few hours later, he was dead. Later, she learned of how painstakingly he had planned all details of the funeral to spare her; the arrangements for cremation, the brief service, and even the outfit she would �SLOVAKIA 25 wear, the beige coat and dress rather than dark colors he hated to see her in. It was a rare funeral for California, where people avoid funerals at all costs if they can. But over 220 of his friends, customers, business acquaintances, nurses and doctors from the hospital, neighbors, all gathered for the short service. It was concluded by Marie placing a corsage of three yellow roses on his coffin, then closing it forever. In August 1961, the cardboard cakebox containing his ashes was dropped into the bay at Santa Cruz, and only the corsage of three yellow roses marked the spot for moments before it, too, floated downwards into that deep ocean of foreverness, leaving behind the two things he loved best, his "wife and typewriter" as he put it so starkly in those last words he wrote. Several months later, his widow showed that his instinct in choosing her for mate was right for she revealed integrity to match his own. Offered a huge sum of money to sell the book to Readers' Digest Condensed Book Club, she refused. She could not "bear to have Tom's last work, all of him that was in that book, cut up and changed until it was no longer him. He would not have liked that." Instead, she consented to the sale of two chapters that would be published as he wrote them. They appeared in the July issue of the Digest, with the title, Six Months to Live. Bell began his life with impatience as if he realized that it would not span the traditional three score and ten. He sat up at six months, and fearing something amiss, his parents consulted a doctor who assured them there was not. From then on, he seemed to always be in a hurry, to live, to love, to understand and to express it all. Reading his way through the local library in his teens, he cut his writing eye teeth on the real meat of Montaigne, Seneca, Keats, Russell, and Thoreau as well as all the classics. He worked at various jobs until he had no choice but to write only. When that seemed ended, he made his choice again and returned to the community life as a shopkeeper �26 SLOVAKIA and enjoyed those that he loved most, his wife, brother and sister-in-law, the beach and the solitude of reading and jotting ideas and thoughts. So sure his writing days were ended, he told no one of his past successes but it was only when they came to pay those last respects did most the mourners learn that he was a writer. "He was fascinated with people," Marie explained, "and he wanted them to talk to him as a person, not a writer." To the last, he took care of the woman he loved, planning her income and living arrangements and for that final act of dropping his ashes into the ocean, he had arranged for his brother to perform that function, not her. Bell was a third generation Slovak-American, and with his generation, the family of the Bells have ended. Curiously, none of his siblings had offspring as did neither he and his Marie. And yet, that life instinct was transmuted into his writing creativity, telling us years later about the immigrants and people of his time, more so than if he had had children who may have failed to perceive and pass on the truths about that life in that time and that place. Without his Marie it is doubtful that his mission would have been accomplished, although she refuses to see.. it other than in terms of the good fortune of having been the·· recipient of immeasurable tenderness and love, from her parents first and then from Bell. She felt that the score is even, he owed her nothing nor did she him. Ironically, Bell owned no property in his lifetime. But only three years ago, after selling the store, his widow bought the first house she ever owned and is living in it, pretty much as she always did, filling the days with friends, relatives, reading as much as she can and attending plays. She has no regrets except that Bell did not live his normal life span to share these years with her, but aside from that understandable one, her erect figure, easy and lilting laugh and bright brown eyes are the heritage of sharing a life of 27 years of "good times and love." In evaluating Bell and his books, I learned of a man of no pretense, hypocrisy and of great integrity. He told of the joys, fears and disappointmets in what the most recent �SLOVAKIA 27 psychological terminology would term "real" that has no denials of his true feelings. How much of this was his Slovak inheritance and how much individual Bell, who can say. But the destiny of his life was a good one. He produced good, very good, work and the affectionate qualities of his life were good indeed. Parents-in-law who filled the long void of a loveless childhood, a wife who fitted her life to his easily and with no complaint, and countless friends and acquaintances to enjoy the good times and finally, the courage to endure that last bitter time at the end. Although Bell disbelieved in a life after death, this is beyond his power and it appears that the strong spirit expressed in his writing is having a resurgence. One understands, as one of his doctors wrote Marie after his death, "that he was a most unusual man whose facing of the suffering of the transfusions and taps and pain was with courage we seldom see." More than that, the reader senses, as did the literary critics who received his last book, the basic decency and goodness of the man and his life and therefore celebrate their continuance, in whatever form perceived. For of all the eternal qualities, that of goodness may be the most valuable. Without it, nothing else is quite palatable; success or failure, joy or grief, even life or death, · and certainly no human relationship of a lasting nature can exist without a measure of it. For goodness is the great leavener that brings all . things in perspective, as wrote Dostoevski in his novel, The Idiot. It is the quality perhaps most derided but still, the one most yearned for-in others -and when present, is remembered long after all else is forgotten. One wishes with Bell's widow that the quantity of his years may have been greater, at least the three score and ten of the Bible he doubted or disbelieved, in the assumption that more books would have been forthcoming. And yet, in the final summation, one accepts reluctantly, as no doubt did Bell, that for the man and for t:q_e -writer, that surely one could do worse. Much worse, indeed. � SLOVAKIA 18 Sonya Jason Good Times and Love THE LIFE OF THOMAS AND MARIE BELL One learns a great deal about any person by the mate he or she chooses. This is especially pertinent for a writer. I had been most fortunate in reading the last of Thomas Bell's books first and while reading In the Midst of Life, became well acquainted with a man of integrity, courage and honesty to the very end. But beyond Bell the man and writer, I caught deep glimpses of the tender love and regard he held for his wife, Marie, and later discovered that these qualities weave in and out like a golden thread through all his works. Now, I could only know Bell by his written memorials. But happily, I could still learn to know the woman he loved and thus I sought out to investigate her, what manner of woman this was that has been loved as few women have, and what was the meter of their life together that produced such affection. She stood in the doorway of her house in Santa Cruz, a tiny, dark haired lady in a chic pantssuit. A glance, a warm embrace and she led me into the kitchen for a chicken sandwich and coffee before she would talk of anything or anyone, even Bell. Marie Bell summarized her life with her husband as full of "good times and love." And for several hours we talked of some of those good times and the love. Thomas Belejcak was born in Braddock, Pennsylvania, on March 7, 1903. His father was an immigrant Slovak but his mother was a first generation American of Slovak parents. He was the oldest of four children and was trained in the Roman Catholic religion, but later repudiated all religions. He also regretted the Anglicizing of his name to Bell but understood the necessity at the time it was done out of economic urgency. Bell's father died on his 11th birthday and he became the man of the family and at 15, was working in a glass �SLOVAKIA 19 company in Glassport, Pennsylvania. When he was 16 and working as an apprentice electrician in Donora, Pennsylvania, his mother died of tuberculosis in a sanitarium. His brother and sisters were shifted about to various relatives to care for. At 19, with the sum of $15.00 in his pocket, Bell went to New York, sleeping in subways until he found a job. He worked for a time as a mechanic in a Long Island Railroad shop before he shipped out to sea as seaman for two years. Upon his return, he found a job as salesman for Schulte's Book Store and then sent for his brother and two sisters to live with him. He wrote his first novel in his spare time, The Breed of Basil, which was neither a great literary nor financial success but revealed a sensitive talent for feeling and words. It was shortly after that he first met Marie Benedetti, the laughing, dark eyed, dark haired Marie whose characteristics were to appear in the woman in his books and stories. It was a traditional meeting but never again was this couple to follow tradition. Bell's sister, Evelyn, worked for Norcross Greeting Card Co., as did Marie, and she asked Marie and another girl for dinner. Marie arrived with a copy of a P. G. Wodehouse book under her arm. After dinner, Bell took her to the subway but accompanied the other girl all the way home across town. Later, he confided to Marie that he lost interest in the other girl when she tried to impress him with her encyclopedia. He then wrote a note to her asking for a date and arrived with a corsage of three yellow roses that were not quite appropriate for the date spent playing ball in the park. But they dated regularly after that day until he felt he should state his intentions. "I want you to know that I am not the marrying kind," Bell announced, not long after that first date in April 1931. "Then we had better call the whole thing off, because I am," she countered. Happily, they did not call it off and on January 2, 1932, 28-year-old Thomas Bell took for his bride the lovely 19year-old Marie to begin twenty-seven years of that life of good times and love. The beginning was hardly auspicious as an astrologer �20 SLOVAKIA might put it. During their first year of marriage, Bell became ill with pneumonia. After his recovery, he was forced to make a choice. Write or work. Not both. Years later, his widow stated unequivocally, that had he attempted to work and write that "it would have killed him," and noted that "A writer gives and gives, you see, never takes, and very quickly expends himself." But she refuses credit for the fact that without her or a wife just like her, there would have been few other or maybe no other books by Bell. He might well have lapsed into another frustrated creative writer whose talent is buried in the cares of the workaday world out of the necessity of earning a living for his family. But there was another destiny for Bell. And Marie was the focal point in it. She became the breadwinner of the family when he made his choice to write. "We had the perfect arrangement," she says now. "Tom wrote from 9 until 4. Then he straightened the house, cooked dinner, ordinary things for me he thought I needed and the strict diet things for him. Then we read, played games, visited and just enjoyed our hours together." Marie worked her way up from 17-year-old messenger to a $10,0000 a year art director when she left Norcross in 1955 to move to Santa Cruz. After his crucial decision, Bell wrote his second book, The Second Prince, published in England under the title, Striker Godown. In this, he utilizes many of his own experiences and expounds his views of striking out against a life of conformity-whatever risk such rebellion entails. Marie says it was during this period that he was finding himself as a person and a writer. His third novel was probably the most financially successful, Marie recalls that when he dropped by her office after a visit to his agent and swung her in the air, she caught a whiff of alcohol, something he almost never touched. "I knew something big had happened," she smiled. He showed her the one year screen writer contract that All Brides Are Beautiful had brought and swung her high again. "We're on our way to Hollywood," as they both laughed with joy. �SLOVAKIA 21 She remembers that year of 1937 in Hollywood when the book was made into the movie, From This Day Forward. as one of the most carefree in their lives. But when it came to an end, Bell refused to sign another contract. "I have other books to write," he decided, and they returned to New York. In 1940 he became seriously ill and for two years, underwent tests before a malignancy in the ilium was discovered. Ever after, he had to adhere to a stringent diet which placed limitations upon mobility and life style. Marie credits her parents for Bell's recovery from the surgery for malignancy. They owned a farm in New Jersey and it was there that Bell went to recuperate. When she saw him three weeks later, she hardly recognized the emaciated husband she had left there. Her mother had cared for Bell, cooking and coaxing him to eat until fifteen pounds were added to the spare frame. "He loved my parents and they loved him. In fact, my whole family loved him," Marie says. "They asked his advice and called him Al. In them, he found the love from a family and parents that he was not able to get from his own." After recovery, their life resumed its peaceful routine. Writing, reading, cooking and photography for Bell. Working, reading, planning their trips to Coney Island, Nantucket, and plays and family for Marie. It was then that Bell wrote his most powerful novel. Out of This Furnace is the saga of three generations of Slovak Americans with all the societal changes and the part they played. But here, he reveals at his best the varying relationships of men and women and how they changed generation by generation. At the end, the relatively independent young wife of Dobie may be the new era of more individual relationships of man-wife of the present and of the Bells themselves. Till I Come Back to You followed. Made into a play, it was badly received by Bell and the public and closed after a brief run on Broadway. During this period he wrote short stories. "That was fun ... " Marie chuckles now: "He would take a week to write one of these romantic boy-girl things and sell it for �22 SLOVAKIA two thousand dollars or more. We had lots of money then." Out of the 25 stories he wrote, one serious effort, The Man Who Made Good in America, was about the Slovak workers in the mills and republished in Our Lives, American Labor Stories in 1948. It is still acclaimed for its poignant example of the exploitation of the Slovak mill workers. The last of Bell's novels shows the refined technique of research blended with perception until the reader is certain that the writer of There Comes A Time had worked as a bank teller. Actually, Marie reveals that the union permitted him to work briefly as a teller and in other bank functions for this story of the formation of a labor union in the bank and its unification with the larger union. As in all his honest works, Bell never falls into the trap of "good guys versus bad guys, or even not so good guys." There are no heroes or heroines. There are people, real people, like Joel Pane who responds to that cross road in everyone's life when one must choose to do more with his life than just exist, or ignore that resurgence of life's beckoning at the price of beginning to decline in spirit as the physiological counterpart begins its descent. Joel Pane, however, like Bell himself, opts for life and its risks and wins his moment of peace with himself. In 1950, nearing fifty years of age, Bell developed a writing block. In exploring the reason for it with his widow, the traditional questions were asked. Was it due to the severe emotional deprivation? Being the man of the family at age eleven? The fact that there never had been a childhood? The harshness of his father? Any and all of these were enough to decimate the strongest psychological constitution. Three years of analysis followed and Bell learned to understand and accept that the tragedy of his early life was also the tragedy of his parents and an entire two or three generations of immigrants who shared in and shaped the upheaval of America, as much too gradually the shackles of poverty and exploitation were thrown off. At the end of three years, he brought Marie to meet his analyst. After a long conference, Dr. Rustin laughingly told him, "With a wife like yours, you don't need analysis. Just �SLOVAKIA 23 don't ever use it to mistreat her in any way ..." Thus ended the inner journey to the psyche, at least with the help of an analyst. For he traveled the rest of his way alone but travel he did. And he traveled outwardly, too, for this now freed him to do something he had long wanted, move to California. But it was not until he was certain that his beloved motherin-law would be all right as his father-in-law had died two years before, and she could adjust to Marie moving far away and leaving her with Marie's two sisters in New York. In his journal, In the Midst of Life, he poignantly describes that last long plane trip that ushered in a new life of being shopkeepers of a stationery and book store. "Tom had five more years of life out here. I never gave up ... when we knew he had an inoperable tumor, we tried every chemical known to science . . . every treatment ... until the very last day, I never gave up hope." And those five years were good ones although Bell wrote only on note pads and in his journal. A poor sleeper, he utilized this time for jotting down ideas and thoughts that came to an active mind. The question of childlessness had to be asked and it was. Marie pondered this for a time before she replied in her direct way. "I never minded not having children as I didn't have much of a maternal instinct. But I regretted it for Tom. He would have been a wonderful father ... " she reflected with tenderness. "He was one of those unusual people who can play with children and yet approach them with the sense of dignity of their being a distinct individual. Children loved him. My nieces and nephews loved him and when grown, often talked and still do of how he played with them and talked with them ... " The shortsightedness of adoption agencies was never a subject that Bell mentioned in his writing, perhaps too sensitive an area for exploration. But Marie tE>lls how they were refused a child--even an older child not too easily adoptable-because she worked outside the house and Bell would have been the one to remain in the home to care �24 SLOVAKIA for the child. This was an arrangement very suspect and considered abnormal at that time. But he refused to let it blight their lives. "Don't worry about it, Marie," he assured her. "We will just have to be a little bit closer to each other, that's all." Whatever else he felt, he carried it to the ocean grave with his ashes, but one suspects he would never write anything that might even slightly hurt the woman he loved. Again and again the thought of how far ahead of their time the Bells were would intrude in the middle of a statement by Marie or in reading passages from his books. How complete was his acceptance of his woman, how spontaneous the expressions of affection; notes pinned on a mirror, a hand scrawled message for "16 years with the right woman" to accompany the birthday lapel pin, a kiss in the middle of Broadway for no reason other than "I just thought how glad I am that you are with me." He recorded some of these moments with his photographic hobby. Nudes of his wife enjoying a waterfall, strolling the beach in shorts, playing with animals or pensively reading. He recorded them also in words in all his books, but particularly that last journal. One is particularly touched by his account of those last few months when he knew he was dying. One is even more scored with poignancy in the account of those last days by his widow. When he knew his end was imminent, he asked his brother to take him to the hospital so "Marie won't come · home from the store and find me dead." There, he lived one day, a day that she still hoped would not be his last, that a miracle would happen. On the last visit, she was able to tell him that In the Midst of Life was to be published by Atheneum Publishers. He patted her hand and murmured "Good publishers, Marie." She left, hoping that this would spark some new life into his wasted body. But a few hours later, he was dead. Later, she learned of how painstakingly he had planned all details of the funeral to spare her; the arrangements for cremation, the brief service, and even the outfit she would �SLOVAKIA 25 wear, the beige coat and dress rather than dark colors he hated to see her in. It was a rare funeral for California, where people avoid funerals at all costs if they can. But over 220 of his friends, customers, business acquaintances, nurses and doctors from the hospital, neighbors, all gathered for the short service. It was concluded by Marie placing a corsage of three yellow roses on his coffin, then closing it forever. In August 1961, the cardboard cakebox containing his ashes was dropped into the bay at Santa Cruz, and only the corsage of three yellow roses marked the spot for moments before it, too, floated downwards into that deep ocean of foreverness, leaving behind the two things he loved best, his "wife and typewriter" as he put it so starkly in those last words he wrote. Several months later, his widow showed that his instinct in choosing her for mate was right for she revealed integrity to match his own. Offered a huge sum of money to sell the book to Readers' Digest Condensed Book Club, she refused. She could not "bear to have Tom's last work, all of him that was in that book, cut up and changed until it was no longer him. He would not have liked that." Instead, she consented to the sale of two chapters that would be published as he wrote them. They appeared in the July issue of the Digest, with the title, Six Months to Live. Bell began his life with impatience as if he realized that it would not span the traditional three score and ten. He sat up at six months, and fearing something amiss, his parents consulted a doctor who assured them there was not. From then on, he seemed to always be in a hurry, to live, to love, to understand and to express it all. Reading his way through the local library in his teens, he cut his writing eye teeth on the real meat of Montaigne, Seneca, Keats, Russell, and Thoreau as well as all the classics. He worked at various jobs until he had no choice but to write only. When that seemed ended, he made his choice again and returned to the community life as a shopkeeper �26 SLOVAKIA and enjoyed those that he loved most, his wife, brother and sister-in-law, the beach and the solitude of reading and jotting ideas and thoughts. So sure his writing days were ended, he told no one of his past successes but it was only when they came to pay those last respects did most the mourners learn that he was a writer. "He was fascinated with people," Marie explained, "and he wanted them to talk to him as a person, not a writer." To the last, he took care of the woman he loved, planning her income and living arrangements and for that final act of dropping his ashes into the ocean, he had arranged for his brother to perform that function, not her. Bell was a third generation Slovak-American, and with his generation, the family of the Bells have ended. Curiously, none of his siblings had offspring as did neither he and his Marie. And yet, that life instinct was transmuted into his writing creativity, telling us years later about the immigrants and people of his time, more so than if he had had children who may have failed to perceive and pass on the truths about that life in that time and that place. Without his Marie it is doubtful that his mission would have been accomplished, although she refuses to see.. it other than in terms of the good fortune of having been the·· recipient of immeasurable tenderness and love, from her parents first and then from Bell. She felt that the score is even, he owed her nothing nor did she him. Ironically, Bell owned no property in his lifetime. But only three years ago, after selling the store, his widow bought the first house she ever owned and is living in it, pretty much as she always did, filling the days with friends, relatives, reading as much as she can and attending plays. She has no regrets except that Bell did not live his normal life span to share these years with her, but aside from that understandable one, her erect figure, easy and lilting laugh and bright brown eyes are the heritage of sharing a life of 27 years of "good times and love." In evaluating Bell and his books, I learned of a man of no pretense, hypocrisy and of great integrity. He told of the joys, fears and disappointmets in what the most recent �SLOVAKIA 27 psychological terminology would term "real" that has no denials of his true feelings. How much of this was his Slovak inheritance and how much individual Bell, who can say. But the destiny of his life was a good one. He produced good, very good, work and the affectionate qualities of his life were good indeed. Parents-in-law who filled the long void of a loveless childhood, a wife who fitted her life to his easily and with no complaint, and countless friends and acquaintances to enjoy the good times and finally, the courage to endure that last bitter time at the end. Although Bell disbelieved in a life after death, this is beyond his power and it appears that the strong spirit expressed in his writing is having a resurgence. One understands, as one of his doctors wrote Marie after his death, "that he was a most unusual man whose facing of the suffering of the transfusions and taps and pain was with courage we seldom see." More than that, the reader senses, as did the literary critics who received his last book, the basic decency and goodness of the man and his life and therefore celebrate their continuance, in whatever form perceived. For of all the eternal qualities, that of goodness may be the most valuable. Without it, nothing else is quite palatable; success or failure, joy or grief, even life or death, · and certainly no human relationship of a lasting nature can exist without a measure of it. For goodness is the great leavener that brings all . things in perspective, as wrote Dostoevski in his novel, The Idiot. It is the quality perhaps most derided but still, the one most yearned for-in others -and when present, is remembered long after all else is forgotten. One wishes with Bell's widow that the quantity of his years may have been greater, at least the three score and ten of the Bible he doubted or disbelieved, in the assumption that more books would have been forthcoming. And yet, in the final summation, one accepts reluctantly, as no doubt did Bell, that for the man and for t:q_e -writer, that surely one could do worse. Much worse, indeed. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to 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 SLOVAKIA 18 Sonya Jason Good Times and Love THE LIFE OF THOMAS AND MARIE BELL One learns a great deal about any person by the mate he or she chooses. This is especially pertinent for a writer. I had been most fortunate in reading the last of Thomas Bell's books first and while reading In the Midst of Life, became well acquainted with a man of integrity, courage and honesty to the very end. But beyond Bell the man and writer, I caught deep glimpses of the tender love and regard he held for his wife, Marie, and later discovered that these qualities weave in and out like a golden thread through all his works. Now, I could only know Bell by his written memorials. But happily, I could still learn to know the woman he loved and thus I sought out to investigate her, what manner of woman this was that has been loved as few women have, and what was the meter of their life together that produced such affection. She stood in the doorway of her house in Santa Cruz, a tiny, dark haired lady in a chic pantssuit. A glance, a warm embrace and she led me into the kitchen for a chicken sandwich and coffee before she would talk of anything or anyone, even Bell. Marie Bell summarized her life with her husband as full of "good times and love." And for several hours we talked of some of those good times and the love. Thomas Belejcak was born in Braddock, Pennsylvania, on March 7, 1903. His father was an immigrant Slovak but his mother was a first generation American of Slovak parents. He was the oldest of four children and was trained in the Roman Catholic religion, but later repudiated all religions. He also regretted the Anglicizing of his name to Bell but understood the necessity at the time it was done out of economic urgency. Bell's father died on his 11th birthday and he became the man of the family and at 15, was working in a glass SLOVAKIA 19 company in Glassport, Pennsylvania. When he was 16 and working as an apprentice electrician in Donora, Pennsylvania, his mother died of tuberculosis in a sanitarium. His brother and sisters were shifted about to various relatives to care for. At 19, with the sum of $15.00 in his pocket, Bell went to New York, sleeping in subways until he found a job. He worked for a time as a mechanic in a Long Island Railroad shop before he shipped out to sea as seaman for two years. Upon his return, he found a job as salesman for Schulte's Book Store and then sent for his brother and two sisters to live with him. He wrote his first novel in his spare time, The Breed of Basil, which was neither a great literary nor financial success but revealed a sensitive talent for feeling and words. It was shortly after that he first met Marie Benedetti, the laughing, dark eyed, dark haired Marie whose characteristics were to appear in the woman in his books and stories. It was a traditional meeting but never again was this couple to follow tradition. Bell's sister, Evelyn, worked for Norcross Greeting Card Co., as did Marie, and she asked Marie and another girl for dinner. Marie arrived with a copy of a P. G. Wodehouse book under her arm. After dinner, Bell took her to the subway but accompanied the other girl all the way home across town. Later, he confided to Marie that he lost interest in the other girl when she tried to impress him with her encyclopedia. He then wrote a note to her asking for a date and arrived with a corsage of three yellow roses that were not quite appropriate for the date spent playing ball in the park. But they dated regularly after that day until he felt he should state his intentions. "I want you to know that I am not the marrying kind," Bell announced, not long after that first date in April 1931. "Then we had better call the whole thing off, because I am," she countered. Happily, they did not call it off and on January 2, 1932, 28-year-old Thomas Bell took for his bride the lovely 19year-old Marie to begin twenty-seven years of that life of good times and love. The beginning was hardly auspicious as an astrologer 20 SLOVAKIA might put it. During their first year of marriage, Bell became ill with pneumonia. After his recovery, he was forced to make a choice. Write or work. Not both. Years later, his widow stated unequivocally, that had he attempted to work and write that "it would have killed him," and noted that "A writer gives and gives, you see, never takes, and very quickly expends himself." But she refuses credit for the fact that without her or a wife just like her, there would have been few other or maybe no other books by Bell. He might well have lapsed into another frustrated creative writer whose talent is buried in the cares of the workaday world out of the necessity of earning a living for his family. But there was another destiny for Bell. And Marie was the focal point in it. She became the breadwinner of the family when he made his choice to write. "We had the perfect arrangement," she says now. "Tom wrote from 9 until 4. Then he straightened the house, cooked dinner, ordinary things for me he thought I needed and the strict diet things for him. Then we read, played games, visited and just enjoyed our hours together." Marie worked her way up from 17-year-old messenger to a $10,0000 a year art director when she left Norcross in 1955 to move to Santa Cruz. After his crucial decision, Bell wrote his second book, The Second Prince, published in England under the title, Striker Godown. In this, he utilizes many of his own experiences and expounds his views of striking out against a life of conformity-whatever risk such rebellion entails. Marie says it was during this period that he was finding himself as a person and a writer. His third novel was probably the most financially successful, Marie recalls that when he dropped by her office after a visit to his agent and swung her in the air, she caught a whiff of alcohol, something he almost never touched. "I knew something big had happened," she smiled. He showed her the one year screen writer contract that All Brides Are Beautiful had brought and swung her high again. "We're on our way to Hollywood," as they both laughed with joy. SLOVAKIA 21 She remembers that year of 1937 in Hollywood when the book was made into the movie, From This Day Forward. as one of the most carefree in their lives. But when it came to an end, Bell refused to sign another contract. "I have other books to write," he decided, and they returned to New York. In 1940 he became seriously ill and for two years, underwent tests before a malignancy in the ilium was discovered. Ever after, he had to adhere to a stringent diet which placed limitations upon mobility and life style. Marie credits her parents for Bell's recovery from the surgery for malignancy. They owned a farm in New Jersey and it was there that Bell went to recuperate. When she saw him three weeks later, she hardly recognized the emaciated husband she had left there. Her mother had cared for Bell, cooking and coaxing him to eat until fifteen pounds were added to the spare frame. "He loved my parents and they loved him. In fact, my whole family loved him," Marie says. "They asked his advice and called him Al. In them, he found the love from a family and parents that he was not able to get from his own." After recovery, their life resumed its peaceful routine. Writing, reading, cooking and photography for Bell. Working, reading, planning their trips to Coney Island, Nantucket, and plays and family for Marie. It was then that Bell wrote his most powerful novel. Out of This Furnace is the saga of three generations of Slovak Americans with all the societal changes and the part they played. But here, he reveals at his best the varying relationships of men and women and how they changed generation by generation. At the end, the relatively independent young wife of Dobie may be the new era of more individual relationships of man-wife of the present and of the Bells themselves. Till I Come Back to You followed. Made into a play, it was badly received by Bell and the public and closed after a brief run on Broadway. During this period he wrote short stories. "That was fun ... " Marie chuckles now: "He would take a week to write one of these romantic boy-girl things and sell it for 22 SLOVAKIA two thousand dollars or more. We had lots of money then." Out of the 25 stories he wrote, one serious effort, The Man Who Made Good in America, was about the Slovak workers in the mills and republished in Our Lives, American Labor Stories in 1948. It is still acclaimed for its poignant example of the exploitation of the Slovak mill workers. The last of Bell's novels shows the refined technique of research blended with perception until the reader is certain that the writer of There Comes A Time had worked as a bank teller. Actually, Marie reveals that the union permitted him to work briefly as a teller and in other bank functions for this story of the formation of a labor union in the bank and its unification with the larger union. As in all his honest works, Bell never falls into the trap of "good guys versus bad guys, or even not so good guys." There are no heroes or heroines. There are people, real people, like Joel Pane who responds to that cross road in everyone's life when one must choose to do more with his life than just exist, or ignore that resurgence of life's beckoning at the price of beginning to decline in spirit as the physiological counterpart begins its descent. Joel Pane, however, like Bell himself, opts for life and its risks and wins his moment of peace with himself. In 1950, nearing fifty years of age, Bell developed a writing block. In exploring the reason for it with his widow, the traditional questions were asked. Was it due to the severe emotional deprivation? Being the man of the family at age eleven? The fact that there never had been a childhood? The harshness of his father? Any and all of these were enough to decimate the strongest psychological constitution. Three years of analysis followed and Bell learned to understand and accept that the tragedy of his early life was also the tragedy of his parents and an entire two or three generations of immigrants who shared in and shaped the upheaval of America, as much too gradually the shackles of poverty and exploitation were thrown off. At the end of three years, he brought Marie to meet his analyst. After a long conference, Dr. Rustin laughingly told him, "With a wife like yours, you don't need analysis. Just SLOVAKIA 23 don't ever use it to mistreat her in any way ..." Thus ended the inner journey to the psyche, at least with the help of an analyst. For he traveled the rest of his way alone but travel he did. And he traveled outwardly, too, for this now freed him to do something he had long wanted, move to California. But it was not until he was certain that his beloved motherin-law would be all right as his father-in-law had died two years before, and she could adjust to Marie moving far away and leaving her with Marie's two sisters in New York. In his journal, In the Midst of Life, he poignantly describes that last long plane trip that ushered in a new life of being shopkeepers of a stationery and book store. "Tom had five more years of life out here. I never gave up ... when we knew he had an inoperable tumor, we tried every chemical known to science . . . every treatment ... until the very last day, I never gave up hope." And those five years were good ones although Bell wrote only on note pads and in his journal. A poor sleeper, he utilized this time for jotting down ideas and thoughts that came to an active mind. The question of childlessness had to be asked and it was. Marie pondered this for a time before she replied in her direct way. "I never minded not having children as I didn't have much of a maternal instinct. But I regretted it for Tom. He would have been a wonderful father ... " she reflected with tenderness. "He was one of those unusual people who can play with children and yet approach them with the sense of dignity of their being a distinct individual. Children loved him. My nieces and nephews loved him and when grown, often talked and still do of how he played with them and talked with them ... " The shortsightedness of adoption agencies was never a subject that Bell mentioned in his writing, perhaps too sensitive an area for exploration. But Marie tE>lls how they were refused a child--even an older child not too easily adoptable-because she worked outside the house and Bell would have been the one to remain in the home to care 24 SLOVAKIA for the child. This was an arrangement very suspect and considered abnormal at that time. But he refused to let it blight their lives. "Don't worry about it, Marie," he assured her. "We will just have to be a little bit closer to each other, that's all." Whatever else he felt, he carried it to the ocean grave with his ashes, but one suspects he would never write anything that might even slightly hurt the woman he loved. Again and again the thought of how far ahead of their time the Bells were would intrude in the middle of a statement by Marie or in reading passages from his books. How complete was his acceptance of his woman, how spontaneous the expressions of affection; notes pinned on a mirror, a hand scrawled message for "16 years with the right woman" to accompany the birthday lapel pin, a kiss in the middle of Broadway for no reason other than "I just thought how glad I am that you are with me." He recorded some of these moments with his photographic hobby. Nudes of his wife enjoying a waterfall, strolling the beach in shorts, playing with animals or pensively reading. He recorded them also in words in all his books, but particularly that last journal. One is particularly touched by his account of those last few months when he knew he was dying. One is even more scored with poignancy in the account of those last days by his widow. When he knew his end was imminent, he asked his brother to take him to the hospital so "Marie won't come · home from the store and find me dead." There, he lived one day, a day that she still hoped would not be his last, that a miracle would happen. On the last visit, she was able to tell him that In the Midst of Life was to be published by Atheneum Publishers. He patted her hand and murmured "Good publishers, Marie." She left, hoping that this would spark some new life into his wasted body. But a few hours later, he was dead. Later, she learned of how painstakingly he had planned all details of the funeral to spare her; the arrangements for cremation, the brief service, and even the outfit she would SLOVAKIA 25 wear, the beige coat and dress rather than dark colors he hated to see her in. It was a rare funeral for California, where people avoid funerals at all costs if they can. But over 220 of his friends, customers, business acquaintances, nurses and doctors from the hospital, neighbors, all gathered for the short service. It was concluded by Marie placing a corsage of three yellow roses on his coffin, then closing it forever. In August 1961, the cardboard cakebox containing his ashes was dropped into the bay at Santa Cruz, and only the corsage of three yellow roses marked the spot for moments before it, too, floated downwards into that deep ocean of foreverness, leaving behind the two things he loved best, his "wife and typewriter" as he put it so starkly in those last words he wrote. Several months later, his widow showed that his instinct in choosing her for mate was right for she revealed integrity to match his own. Offered a huge sum of money to sell the book to Readers' Digest Condensed Book Club, she refused. She could not "bear to have Tom's last work, all of him that was in that book, cut up and changed until it was no longer him. He would not have liked that." Instead, she consented to the sale of two chapters that would be published as he wrote them. They appeared in the July issue of the Digest, with the title, Six Months to Live. Bell began his life with impatience as if he realized that it would not span the traditional three score and ten. He sat up at six months, and fearing something amiss, his parents consulted a doctor who assured them there was not. From then on, he seemed to always be in a hurry, to live, to love, to understand and to express it all. Reading his way through the local library in his teens, he cut his writing eye teeth on the real meat of Montaigne, Seneca, Keats, Russell, and Thoreau as well as all the classics. He worked at various jobs until he had no choice but to write only. When that seemed ended, he made his choice again and returned to the community life as a shopkeeper 26 SLOVAKIA and enjoyed those that he loved most, his wife, brother and sister-in-law, the beach and the solitude of reading and jotting ideas and thoughts. So sure his writing days were ended, he told no one of his past successes but it was only when they came to pay those last respects did most the mourners learn that he was a writer. "He was fascinated with people," Marie explained, "and he wanted them to talk to him as a person, not a writer." To the last, he took care of the woman he loved, planning her income and living arrangements and for that final act of dropping his ashes into the ocean, he had arranged for his brother to perform that function, not her. Bell was a third generation Slovak-American, and with his generation, the family of the Bells have ended. Curiously, none of his siblings had offspring as did neither he and his Marie. And yet, that life instinct was transmuted into his writing creativity, telling us years later about the immigrants and people of his time, more so than if he had had children who may have failed to perceive and pass on the truths about that life in that time and that place. Without his Marie it is doubtful that his mission would have been accomplished, although she refuses to see.. it other than in terms of the good fortune of having been the·· recipient of immeasurable tenderness and love, from her parents first and then from Bell. She felt that the score is even, he owed her nothing nor did she him. Ironically, Bell owned no property in his lifetime. But only three years ago, after selling the store, his widow bought the first house she ever owned and is living in it, pretty much as she always did, filling the days with friends, relatives, reading as much as she can and attending plays. She has no regrets except that Bell did not live his normal life span to share these years with her, but aside from that understandable one, her erect figure, easy and lilting laugh and bright brown eyes are the heritage of sharing a life of 27 years of "good times and love." In evaluating Bell and his books, I learned of a man of no pretense, hypocrisy and of great integrity. He told of the joys, fears and disappointmets in what the most recent SLOVAKIA 27 psychological terminology would term "real" that has no denials of his true feelings. How much of this was his Slovak inheritance and how much individual Bell, who can say. But the destiny of his life was a good one. He produced good, very good, work and the affectionate qualities of his life were good indeed. Parents-in-law who filled the long void of a loveless childhood, a wife who fitted her life to his easily and with no complaint, and countless friends and acquaintances to enjoy the good times and finally, the courage to endure that last bitter time at the end. Although Bell disbelieved in a life after death, this is beyond his power and it appears that the strong spirit expressed in his writing is having a resurgence. One understands, as one of his doctors wrote Marie after his death, "that he was a most unusual man whose facing of the suffering of the transfusions and taps and pain was with courage we seldom see." More than that, the reader senses, as did the literary critics who received his last book, the basic decency and goodness of the man and his life and therefore celebrate their continuance, in whatever form perceived. For of all the eternal qualities, that of goodness may be the most valuable. Without it, nothing else is quite palatable; success or failure, joy or grief, even life or death, · and certainly no human relationship of a lasting nature can exist without a measure of it. For goodness is the great leavener that brings all . things in perspective, as wrote Dostoevski in his novel, The Idiot. It is the quality perhaps most derided but still, the one most yearned for-in others -and when present, is remembered long after all else is forgotten. One wishes with Bell's widow that the quantity of his years may have been greater, at least the three score and ten of the Bible he doubted or disbelieved, in the assumption that more books would have been forthcoming. And yet, in the final summation, one accepts reluctantly, as no doubt did Bell, that for the man and for t:q_e -writer, that surely one could do worse. Much worse, indeed.  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Good Times and Love: The Life of Thomas and Marie Bell Description An account of the resource Sonya Jason Slovakia, Vol. 25 (No. 48), 1975 pp. 18-27 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Jason, Sonya, 1924- Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1975 LCNAF https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/86d96c7d18c798012ece401fefbe311c.pdf 9cc550b54da39724fe915bd2ad8cc4c2 PDF Text Text 130 SLOVAKIA Great Slovak Talent Ethnic America is finally emerging from the cocoon of silence about its hopes, successes and failures, progress and achievements. This emergence is not, as some critics charge, hyphenating the United States. On the contrary it is a reemphasis and recounting of the very ideals which made this country gloriously different from other nations. Slovak-Americans are quick to tell you that in the past, and even current history of Slovakia, success could not have been easily achieved by Slovaks. Liberty was something they discovered only in the United States where even failure is not hopeless. The following article from the pen of the editor of Slovakia was translated from Slovak into English as a reminder that the fruition of the dreams of immigrants are fulfilled by succeeding sons and daughters and grandchildren, thanks to the opportunity for education, liberty, as well as the "stick-to-it-iveness" of each individual. The translator therefore presents this article in that spirit and with a hearty ... BRAVO, CYRIL J. ZILKA Among the talented artists justifiably highlighted by Jednota is Cyril J. Zilka of Miami, Florida. Although only 18 years of age, Cyril is a member of the Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra of Miami. It may therefore be a correct assumption that he is one of the youngest member of a philharmonic symphony orchestra in America. Such membership is acquired only through exceptional talent and our Slovak-American, Cyril Zilka, possesses it. His long series of performances testify to his mastership and artistry. It was not luck or mere chance that gave Zilka the opportunity to participate in the All-American Youth Orchestra at the John F. Kennedy Musical Center at Washington on May 9, 1972. Only the best musical talent in the land was accepted for this orchestra. This opportunity and success came about through Cyril's talent and performances in other cities. In 1972 Cyril was the orchestral concert master of all �SLOVAKIA 131 high schools in Florida, as well as of the Orchestral School of Miami, and likewise for the past two years of the Youth Orchestra of Greater Miami. Last year he was concert master at the Conservatory of the University of Cincinnati and he will continue in this capacity this summer. Cyril has attended many music courses in which he has always placed first. In 1971 he won a scholarship to Tanglewood, renowned musical center, and he also won a scholarship to the Eastern Musical Festival. He is a member of the Carmen Nappo Quarted where he plays first violin. For the past three years he has been a member of the Symphonic Orchestra in North Miami Beach in which he also plays first violin. He has appeared in 90 public concerts in Miami and the neighboring vicinity. Last year he won first prize, competing against contestants of all the high schools of the state of Florida - as soloist, in duet, and in chamber orchestral performances. He played first violin in all of these appearances. In 1972 Cyril won a scholarship for an eight-week music festival in Rome, Italy. He has received offers for further studies from the University of Cincinnati, Peabody Conservatory, Boston University, and the University of Miami for his oustanding performances. Cyril selected the University of Cincinnati. He is the bearer of All-American awards for musical performances - three Arion Awards - and innumerable musical awards and trophies. There is no doubt that Cyril Zilka has great talent. His grandparents came from Slovakia and settled in Monessen, Pa., where for many years they were members of the First Catholic Slovak Union, Branch 311. Cyril's father, Cyril, Sr., was a teacher at the Slovak Benedictine Boys High School at Cleveland, Ohio. If we need any further nudge to have some means of compiling data on our talented Slovak-Americans, the case of Cyril J. Zilka should provide it. We need a SlovakAmerican "Who's Who" for without it we have no way of knowing the progress and successes of our people or who represents us in the advancement of the cultural, artistic, military, professional, political or organizational life in the United States. Translated by Paul B e r i s h � 130 SLOVAKIA Great Slovak Talent Ethnic America is finally emerging from the cocoon of silence about its hopes, successes and failures, progress and achievements. This emergence is not, as some critics charge, hyphenating the United States. On the contrary it is a reemphasis and recounting of the very ideals which made this country gloriously different from other nations. Slovak-Americans are quick to tell you that in the past, and even current history of Slovakia, success could not have been easily achieved by Slovaks. Liberty was something they discovered only in the United States where even failure is not hopeless. The following article from the pen of the editor of Slovakia was translated from Slovak into English as a reminder that the fruition of the dreams of immigrants are fulfilled by succeeding sons and daughters and grandchildren, thanks to the opportunity for education, liberty, as well as the "stick-to-it-iveness" of each individual. The translator therefore presents this article in that spirit and with a hearty ... BRAVO, CYRIL J. ZILKA Among the talented artists justifiably highlighted by Jednota is Cyril J. Zilka of Miami, Florida. Although only 18 years of age, Cyril is a member of the Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra of Miami. It may therefore be a correct assumption that he is one of the youngest member of a philharmonic symphony orchestra in America. Such membership is acquired only through exceptional talent and our Slovak-American, Cyril Zilka, possesses it. His long series of performances testify to his mastership and artistry. It was not luck or mere chance that gave Zilka the opportunity to participate in the All-American Youth Orchestra at the John F. Kennedy Musical Center at Washington on May 9, 1972. Only the best musical talent in the land was accepted for this orchestra. This opportunity and success came about through Cyril's talent and performances in other cities. In 1972 Cyril was the orchestral concert master of all �SLOVAKIA 131 high schools in Florida, as well as of the Orchestral School of Miami, and likewise for the past two years of the Youth Orchestra of Greater Miami. Last year he was concert master at the Conservatory of the University of Cincinnati and he will continue in this capacity this summer. Cyril has attended many music courses in which he has always placed first. In 1971 he won a scholarship to Tanglewood, renowned musical center, and he also won a scholarship to the Eastern Musical Festival. He is a member of the Carmen Nappo Quarted where he plays first violin. For the past three years he has been a member of the Symphonic Orchestra in North Miami Beach in which he also plays first violin. He has appeared in 90 public concerts in Miami and the neighboring vicinity. Last year he won first prize, competing against contestants of all the high schools of the state of Florida - as soloist, in duet, and in chamber orchestral performances. He played first violin in all of these appearances. In 1972 Cyril won a scholarship for an eight-week music festival in Rome, Italy. He has received offers for further studies from the University of Cincinnati, Peabody Conservatory, Boston University, and the University of Miami for his oustanding performances. Cyril selected the University of Cincinnati. He is the bearer of All-American awards for musical performances - three Arion Awards - and innumerable musical awards and trophies. There is no doubt that Cyril Zilka has great talent. His grandparents came from Slovakia and settled in Monessen, Pa., where for many years they were members of the First Catholic Slovak Union, Branch 311. Cyril's father, Cyril, Sr., was a teacher at the Slovak Benedictine Boys High School at Cleveland, Ohio. If we need any further nudge to have some means of compiling data on our talented Slovak-Americans, the case of Cyril J. Zilka should provide it. We need a SlovakAmerican "Who's Who" for without it we have no way of knowing the progress and successes of our people or who represents us in the advancement of the cultural, artistic, military, professional, political or organizational life in the United States. Translated by Paul B e r i s h � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1974, Vol. 24 Description An account of the resource Vol. 24 (No. 47), 1974. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1974 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document 130 SLOVAKIA Great Slovak Talent Ethnic America is finally emerging from the cocoon of silence about its hopes, successes and failures, progress and achievements. This emergence is not, as some critics charge, hyphenating the United States. On the contrary it is a reemphasis and recounting of the very ideals which made this country gloriously different from other nations. Slovak-Americans are quick to tell you that in the past, and even current history of Slovakia, success could not have been easily achieved by Slovaks. Liberty was something they discovered only in the United States where even failure is not hopeless. The following article from the pen of the editor of Slovakia was translated from Slovak into English as a reminder that the fruition of the dreams of immigrants are fulfilled by succeeding sons and daughters and grandchildren, thanks to the opportunity for education, liberty, as well as the "stick-to-it-iveness" of each individual. The translator therefore presents this article in that spirit and with a hearty ... BRAVO, CYRIL J. ZILKA Among the talented artists justifiably highlighted by Jednota is Cyril J. Zilka of Miami, Florida. Although only 18 years of age, Cyril is a member of the Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra of Miami. It may therefore be a correct assumption that he is one of the youngest member of a philharmonic symphony orchestra in America. Such membership is acquired only through exceptional talent and our Slovak-American, Cyril Zilka, possesses it. His long series of performances testify to his mastership and artistry. It was not luck or mere chance that gave Zilka the opportunity to participate in the All-American Youth Orchestra at the John F. Kennedy Musical Center at Washington on May 9, 1972. Only the best musical talent in the land was accepted for this orchestra. This opportunity and success came about through Cyril's talent and performances in other cities. In 1972 Cyril was the orchestral concert master of all SLOVAKIA 131 high schools in Florida, as well as of the Orchestral School of Miami, and likewise for the past two years of the Youth Orchestra of Greater Miami. Last year he was concert master at the Conservatory of the University of Cincinnati and he will continue in this capacity this summer. Cyril has attended many music courses in which he has always placed first. In 1971 he won a scholarship to Tanglewood, renowned musical center, and he also won a scholarship to the Eastern Musical Festival. He is a member of the Carmen Nappo Quarted where he plays first violin. For the past three years he has been a member of the Symphonic Orchestra in North Miami Beach in which he also plays first violin. He has appeared in 90 public concerts in Miami and the neighboring vicinity. Last year he won first prize, competing against contestants of all the high schools of the state of Florida - as soloist, in duet, and in chamber orchestral performances. He played first violin in all of these appearances. In 1972 Cyril won a scholarship for an eight-week music festival in Rome, Italy. He has received offers for further studies from the University of Cincinnati, Peabody Conservatory, Boston University, and the University of Miami for his oustanding performances. Cyril selected the University of Cincinnati. He is the bearer of All-American awards for musical performances - three Arion Awards - and innumerable musical awards and trophies. There is no doubt that Cyril Zilka has great talent. His grandparents came from Slovakia and settled in Monessen, Pa., where for many years they were members of the First Catholic Slovak Union, Branch 311. Cyril's father, Cyril, Sr., was a teacher at the Slovak Benedictine Boys High School at Cleveland, Ohio. If we need any further nudge to have some means of compiling data on our talented Slovak-Americans, the case of Cyril J. Zilka should provide it. We need a SlovakAmerican "Who's Who" for without it we have no way of knowing the progress and successes of our people or who represents us in the advancement of the cultural, artistic, military, professional, political or organizational life in the United States. Translated by Paul B e r i s h  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Great Slovak Talent Description An account of the resource "The following article from the pen of the editor of Slovakia was translated from Slovak into English..." trans. Paul Berish Slovakia, Vol. 24 (No. 47), 1974 pp. 130-131 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Paučo, Jozef, 1914-1975 Berish, Paul Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1974 name SNK https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/2c556388b5ae469772d396e611e7b6a3.pdf 22be1dfe9b4f01ed3cda7b57635994ef PDF Text Text 24 SLOVAKIA GUSTAV MARSHALL-PETROVSKY (1862-1916) Jan Petrovsky In the capitalist United States of America in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, conditions were such that American Slovaks were able to achieve a higher level of national consciousness than their cousins in the Kingdom of Hungary. This was shown by their well-developed societies, associations and organizations, by the quality and range of numerous American-Slovak publications and by their cultural activities with their own literary, theatrical and scientific achievements. 1 One of the preeminent cultural leaders of American Slovaks at that time was Gustav Marshall-Petrovsky and, since Jozef Pauco failed to include him in his book on Slovak pioneers in America, I will attempt to fill this gap. 2 The idea of national self-realization among American Slovaks originated in the last decades of the nineteenth century, when Slovak fraternal benefit societies were established. 3 The writer, journalist and patriot Gustav Marshall-Petrovsky was one of the pre-eminent leaders of American Slovaks. He was the best-known and most published of Slovak prose writers living in the USA. As such, he was an important symbol of Slovak national development. 4 He defined a nation as a people related by blood, speaking the same language and practicing the same culture and ideals. 5 Gustav Marshall- Petrovsky played a leading role in promoting Slovak culture and ideals.6 11 Bielik, Frantisek, "Slovenske vyst'ahovalectvo a jeho mi es to v nas ich narodnyc h dejinach" [Slova k Emigration and Its Place in Our Nati onal History], in "Vyst'ahovalectvo a i ivot kraj anov vo svete [E mi grati on and the Life of Our Co untrymen Abroad] (Martin: Matica slove nska, 1982), 32. 2 Pauco, Jozef, Slovenski priekopnici v Amerike (Cleveland, 1972). 3 Bielik, op.cit. 4 Alner, Juraj , " Literatura o slove nskom vyst'ahovalectve do Spojenych statov americkych" [Literature about Slovak Emi grati on to the United States of Ameri ca], in : Slovaci v zahranici 4 - 5 ( I 979), I 3 7. 5 Balch, Emily G., Our Slavic Fellow Citizens (New York: Charities Publication Committee, 1910), I 0. 6 Alner, " Literature about Slova k Emi gra ti on .. ... , 137. �SLOVAKIA 25 This patriot was born on June 8, 1862 in the Lutheran village of Bacsky Petrovec, in southern Hungary (now in Serbia) to the family of an affluent Slovak tanner. He attended elementary school in his home town and went on to grammar school in nearby Novy Sad and Sarvas. After studying law for a year at the Lutheran Lyceum in Presov (Slovakia), he was expelled by Education Minister Agoston Trefort for his national activity among fellow-students when he tried to form a Slovak student organization. Indeed, he was forbidden to study in any school in Hungary. Therefore, between 1882 and 1890 he studied medicine in Vienna and joined the Slovak academic society "Tatran," of which he was elected president three times. 7 Gustav's father and grandfather had also made a deep impresssion upon him, especially in his perception of his nation, language and culture. Both gave him a strong appreciation of his homeland. But the strongest influence on Gustav was his father. 8 That led to his umbrage against national oppression and Magyarization 9 in Hungary, which made his further studies in that Kingdom impossible. 10 Petrovsky was a conscious Slovak patriot who, even in the most difficult and crucial moments of harassment in Presov, never turned away from his primary goal: the social, economic, cultural and literary elevation of his nation. In that effort there was no obstacle in his temperament, boisterous and ambitious character, but on the contrary, these attributes enabled him to penetrate the cause of the problems, to recruit young Slovak students and inflame them for work 7 Kocak, Michal , "Gustav Marsall- Petrovsky : Spomienka pri 135. vyroc i narodeni a" [Gustav Marshall - Petrovsky: On the Anniversary of his 135 th Birthday], in: Slovenske narodne noviny. 8, No. 11 , 1997, p. 8. 8 Various authors, "Zivot a die/a Gustava Marfola- Petrovskeho: Zborn ik prac z medzinarodneho sy mp6zia v Novom Sade, Petro vci a Hloianoch 23. a 24. okt6bra 1987" [The Life and Work of Gustav Marshall- Petrovsky," Almanac of Works from the International Symposium in No vy Sad, Petrovec and Hloiany on October 23rd and 24th, 198 7] (Novy Sad: OBZOR, 1989), p. 19. 9 It was an attem pt by the Magyar ruling classes to create a united Hungarian state of 30 mill ion people speaki ng one language (Magyar), practicing one culture, and having one fee ling and thought. Butvin , Jozef, "V boj i za narodnu a socialnu slobodu" [The Struggle fo r Nat iona l and Social Freedom], in Dejiny Slovenska slovom i obrazom II. [Slovak Histo,y in Words and Pictures II.] (Martin: Osveta, I 98 I), 58. Various authors, Life and Work of Gustav ... , p. I 9. 10 Petrovsky, Gustav, M, Janosik, kapitan horskych chlapcov - j eho biirlivy i ivot a desna smrt' [Janosik, Captain of the Mountain Boys- His Notorious Life and Frightful Death] (Bacsky Petrovec: OBZOR, I 967), 267. �26 SLOVAKIA among his people. His unshakeable activity in the 1880s helped in the revival of Slovak national life, especially the Slovak student movement, in times of the strongest Magyarization. 11 In addition to his works that appeared in the Almanach slovenskej mladeie in 1885 (Slovak Youth Almanac) and Pamatnica Tatrana in 1890 (Memory of Tatran), Petrovsky made his literary debut in Tatran with "Novely" - Z parku, Kaplan, Pod hrubou korou (Short Stories- of the Park, the Chaplain, Under the Thick Crust) in 1887. Before leaving Vienna in 1890 he published a Slovak grammar in German. 12 In the United States he published a second edition of a Practical Guidebook of Slovak in the German Language in 1907. 13 In 1890 the persecuted Marshall-Petrovsky moved to the United States. He immediately joined various Slovak fraternal-benefit societies and worked as an editor of Slovak newspapers and periodicals. From the beginning he became one of the pioneers of Slovak national and cultural life. In 1893, together with the Reverend Stefan Furdek of Cleveland, he founded the Matica slovenska in America and Petrovsky became its second president (the Hungarian government had closed the original Matica in 1875). Petrovsky was one of the founders of the Slovak Evangelical Union (1892), initially editor of P.V. Rovnianek's weekly Amerikansko-slovenske noviny (American-Slovak News, founded in 1886) in Pittsburgh, and later editor and co-owner of the weekly Slovak v Amerike (The Slovak in America, founded in 1889) 14 in New York City. Still later he edited the weekly Luteran (Lutheran) 15 in Cleveland, he helped to found the weekly Slovenske slovo (The Slovak Word) in Chicago in 19131914, and became managing editor of Chicagsky dennik (Chicago Daily). After he had a falling out with the publisher of the latter newspaper, he decided to become a banker, but failed in this attempt. He died destitute in Chicago on June 15th, 1916 after 24 years of work in the USA and was buried in the Bohemian National Cemetery. Petrovsky's work in so many newspapers may have drained him of lot of creative energy. The continual uncertainty in that profess11 Various authors, "Life and Work of Gustav Marshall- Petrovsky," Almanac of .. , p. 28 . 12 Praktisches Lehrbuch der slowakische Sprache (Vienna, 1890). 13 Bartalska, I.:ubica, "Gustav Marshall- Petrovsky," in : Slovaks abroad. .., p. 299. 14 The first newspaper in which he started to wri te as an American immigrant. 15 Later Slovens/..y hlasnik (Slovak Herald). �SLOVAKIA 27 sion brought him many troubles . But the same destiny overtook many of his fellow workers. He advertised his works in the newspapers at which he was employed. These works included sketches, novels and fairy tales. The lives and characters of his literary works reflected the hardships and experiences of Slovak immigrants after they moved to the United States. 16 Petrovskys American short stories appeared at a very specific time in his life--from August of 1905 to March of 1906. From his correspondence we know that Petrovsky was at that time editor of Slovensky hlasnik (Slovak Herald) in Allegheny, Pennsylvania. This newspaper was the official organ of the Slovak Evangelical Union and had a strong national orientation. In 1906 it paid a lot of attention to the trial of the Rev. Andrej Hlinka of Ruzomberok. On July 13, 1905 Petrovsky started the valuable rubric Zabava a poucenie (Fun and Advice), given to fiction . In July and August of 1905, drawing upon a Greek fairy tale and a Russian sketch, Petrovsky elaborated upon and translated four didactic pictures of life and published his sketch Kto mecom bojuje, mecom zahynie! (He Who Fights with the Sword, Will Die by the Sword!). The same literary invention follows in two short stories--The Samaritan and The Parakeet. Petrovsky's resolution to fill this rubric with reality was activated by his literary experience and so his pictures of real life as didactic stories attained wider artistic merit and gradually merged into clear fictional works: Tak sa easy menia ... (The Times, They Are a Changing . .. ), September, 1905, Pan Tlchuba v nesnadzach (Mr. Babbler in Trouble), October, 1905, which appeared under "Amusing Narratives in the Life of American Slovaks;" Spat' (Back) November-December, 1905 ; Mi n6 spik englis (Me no Speak English), January, 1906; Ochranca komarov (Protector of Mosquitoes), February, 1906; Pozde (Late), February 1906, with the subtitle "A Short Story from the Life of American Slovaks;" and Presta/ pr6by (He stopped Trying), March, 1906, with the subtitle "A Story From the life of Hungarian Serbians." 17 Meanwhile, Petrovsky also published books of advice and novels . In his much earlier Radca slovenskych prist'ahovalcov v Ame16 Bartalska, Cubica, "Gustav Marshall- Petrovsky," in Slovaci v zahranici, 4-5 (Slovaks abroad) ( 1979), p. 299, 30 I. 17 Marsall-Petrovs ky, Gustav : Spod zavejov americkych. Bacsky Petrovec: Obzor, 1966, s. 260, 26 1. �28 SLOVAKIA rike (Advisor to Slovak Immigrants in America), which he published in 1895, Petrovsky warned his countrymen against exploitation and abuse as cheap labor and criticized contemporary conditions, the system of capitalism and the huge social differences that existed in the United States. In his 1894 novel Janosik, kapitan horskych chlapcov - j eho bur/ivy i ivot a desna smrt' (Janosik, Captain of the Mountain Boys: His Riotous Life and Frightful Death), which is his most extensive work, Petrovsky focused upon traditional, never-beforetold and fabulous acts in Janosik's life. He did not depart from the main, traditional, stories which are divided into particular themesJanosik who steals from the rich and gives to the poor, who has his great love and enemies among his own people, who is admired and hated. Nevertheless, Petrovsky ' s Janosik is different in some places. Through his hero the author wanted to awaken a love for all Slovaks, emphasizing the spirit of patriotism and love for the everlasting values of his ancestors. 18 In 1906 Petrovsky published a collection of short stories entitled Spod zavejov americkych (From Beneath the Snowdrifts of America), in which he detailed the tragedy of many inexperienced countrymen, cruelly exploited and abused by capitalists. 19 Here he utilized the most common anglicized words such as majna (mine) in America, ollerajt (all right) or st6r (store). 20 As he declared: "I named my little book Spod zavejov americkych because the fairy tales contained in it originated in snowdrifts, both there and here. " 21 While in America, Petrovsky did not forget his homeland and tried to rouse his countrymen against Magyarization in Hungary. He criticized those who were indifferent to national societies. In his story Spat' (Back), he discussed the problem of the gradual denationalizing of Slovaks in America, blaming not only the American educational system, but also the indifference of many countrymen to their assimilation. 22 The literary message of this patriot, journalist, rebel, editor and social activist can be illustrated in two ways. In several novels and 18 Petrovsky, Gustav M., Janosik, Captain of .. , p. 267 . Kutlik, F. , "Gustav Marshall- Petrovsky," in : Eud, 35, No. 69 ( I982), p. 5. 20 Petrovsky, Gustav M., Spod zavejo v americkych [From Beneath the Snowdrifts of America] (Bacsky Petrovec : OBZOR and Bratislava: TATRAN0, p. 276 . 21 Petrovsky, Gustav M. : Dielo llJ (Bae sky Petrovec: Obzor, 1966), 196 . 22 Kutlik, F., "Gustav Marshall - Petrovsky," in: People, p. 5. 19 �SLOVAKIA 29 romances he tried to educate the reader in a popular way, at the expense of literary quality. Many of his stories, especially of the love genre, are artistically of high quality and the story Back and the collection of tales From Beneath the Snowdrifts of America are touching and masterfully written.23 In his novel about Slovak coal miners in the United States, Obete ciernych diamantov (Victims of Black Diamonds, 1906), tragedy is substituted for sentimental love, and it leads to a fatal climax. Here he described the coal mining environment in the USA.24 Amongst the best of Marshall's works are the stories which he published in Spod zavejov americkych and Obete ciernych diamantov. The focus of the first group are love affairs, amusing stories of everyday life and sad, even tragic, events. In these stories Petrovsky penetrated inside of a Slovak man who lived separated from his family and his place of birth. He fixed his eyes, not only on his face, but even on his privacy. It is a sad face, covered by tragedy, often by despair, a face yearning for home, a face which is disturbed by those who forgot their homeland. In Obete ciernych diamantov, he presented the story of a mining disaster in one of America's many coalfields . He brought to the surface the tragic story of Slovaks who were looking for work overseas at a time of national oppression and poverty. The author wrote it in a remarkably suggestive style, with a sense for drama and intensity of action.25 The trials and tribulations of Slovak emigrants to America were described by Marshall- Petrovsky himself: "A frost awaits them. What a cry, what hopes they must bury in their scramble for bread. And what will happen to those living at home? Not even millions of dollars sent to Slovakia can compensate for each sender's soul and spirit. " He then added, I greet you all with my sincere fraternal heart and I wish you and I could be back in the place from whence misery and tragedy banished us, to this cold and unforgiving place. 23 1bid. Cabadaj , Peter, "Album za budanych osobnosti: Marsall- Petrovsky, Gustav [Album of Forgotten Persona liti es: Marshall- Petrovsky, Gustav], in Literarny tyi dennfk, 13 , No. 18 (2000), p. 8. 25 Petrovs ky , Gustav M., Spod zavejov americkych [From Beneath the Snowdrifts of America], p. 276. 24 �30 SLOVAKIA The branch ripped from the tree will never become rooted and the stem will dry up, even breaking its limbs ... therefore come back! Back from beneath the snowdrifts of America, here to your place of birth and poverty! Better to cry with a f ellow countryman than to smile with strangers. Here, by ourselves, we will become aliens !26 Until his death, Marshall- Petrovsky was on the front lines of the struggle for Slovak national liberation. At the beginning of the Great War in 1914 he was a co-signer in the name of the Chicagsky dennik (Chicago Daily) of the Memorandum of the Slovak League.27 When he died in 1916 as the most significant American Slovak writer and journalist, Gustav Marshall-Petrovsky had fallen into poverty and was almost forgotten. However, by 1922 his memory was resurrected and his countrymen built him a monument. 28 He died at the age of 54, still eager to work, although he had none. He had abandoned Hungary due to national oppression and was going to leave America due to social oppression. His big dream to return to his liberated homeland went unfulfilled. 29 Whoever knew Gustav Marshall-Petrovsky in his younger years would never forget his elegant and aristocratic looks. He was erudite and well-educated but impulsive and always dissatisfied. He studied law, theology and medicine but finished none. In the USA he worked as a journalist, as a writer, as a banker, but without success. Nevertheless, he had one thing in common with the Czech writer Vladimir Klacel : during his life poverty, after his death, recognition.30 Here is what the literary critic Andrej Mraz had to say about him : Gustav Marshall- Petrovsky, cried out from deep within his soul to his countrymen spread across the United States of 26 Petrovsky, Gustav M.: , Dielo lll (Bacsky Petrovec : Obzor, 1966), 196 . OL ME I 9 15, XXV, 16 I 3 ,"Memorandum of the Slovak League of America." SYD I, 360. Literamy archi v Mati ci slovenskej (LAMS), fo nd broadsheets 5/21 / 19 16. 28 Composite authors: L ife and work of Gustav Mars hall - Petrovsky: Almanac of .. , 73, 74. 9 KUTLiK, F.: Gustav Marshall - Petrovsky. In: Peop le. p. 5. 3 °Capek, Tomas, Nasa Amerika [Our America ] (Prague: Czechoslovak Nati onal Council. 1926) 92. 27 g- �SLOVAKIA 31 America: come back, come home, we are perishing here, we are like a branch ripped from a tree. Many of his countrymen responded, but Marshall-Petrovsky did not make it to the ship carrying home the Slovak emigrants from America, and so came the day whhen his sad and tormented heart beat for the last time .... 31 31 Kocak, Michal, "Gustav Marshall- Petrovsky: Remembrance of... ," In: Slovak ... , p. 8. � 24 SLOVAKIA GUSTAV MARSHALL-PETROVSKY (1862-1916) Jan Petrovsky In the capitalist United States of America in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, conditions were such that American Slovaks were able to achieve a higher level of national consciousness than their cousins in the Kingdom of Hungary. This was shown by their well-developed societies, associations and organizations, by the quality and range of numerous American-Slovak publications and by their cultural activities with their own literary, theatrical and scientific achievements. 1 One of the preeminent cultural leaders of American Slovaks at that time was Gustav Marshall-Petrovsky and, since Jozef Pauco failed to include him in his book on Slovak pioneers in America, I will attempt to fill this gap. 2 The idea of national self-realization among American Slovaks originated in the last decades of the nineteenth century, when Slovak fraternal benefit societies were established. 3 The writer, journalist and patriot Gustav Marshall-Petrovsky was one of the pre-eminent leaders of American Slovaks. He was the best-known and most published of Slovak prose writers living in the USA. As such, he was an important symbol of Slovak national development. 4 He defined a nation as a people related by blood, speaking the same language and practicing the same culture and ideals. 5 Gustav Marshall- Petrovsky played a leading role in promoting Slovak culture and ideals.6 11 Bielik, Frantisek, "Slovenske vyst'ahovalectvo a jeho mi es to v nas ich narodnyc h dejinach" [Slova k Emigration and Its Place in Our Nati onal History], in "Vyst'ahovalectvo a i ivot kraj anov vo svete [E mi grati on and the Life of Our Co untrymen Abroad] (Martin: Matica slove nska, 1982), 32. 2 Pauco, Jozef, Slovenski priekopnici v Amerike (Cleveland, 1972). 3 Bielik, op.cit. 4 Alner, Juraj , " Literatura o slove nskom vyst'ahovalectve do Spojenych statov americkych" [Literature about Slovak Emi grati on to the United States of Ameri ca], in : Slovaci v zahranici 4 - 5 ( I 979), I 3 7. 5 Balch, Emily G., Our Slavic Fellow Citizens (New York: Charities Publication Committee, 1910), I 0. 6 Alner, " Literature about Slova k Emi gra ti on .. ... , 137. �SLOVAKIA 25 This patriot was born on June 8, 1862 in the Lutheran village of Bacsky Petrovec, in southern Hungary (now in Serbia) to the family of an affluent Slovak tanner. He attended elementary school in his home town and went on to grammar school in nearby Novy Sad and Sarvas. After studying law for a year at the Lutheran Lyceum in Presov (Slovakia), he was expelled by Education Minister Agoston Trefort for his national activity among fellow-students when he tried to form a Slovak student organization. Indeed, he was forbidden to study in any school in Hungary. Therefore, between 1882 and 1890 he studied medicine in Vienna and joined the Slovak academic society "Tatran," of which he was elected president three times. 7 Gustav's father and grandfather had also made a deep impresssion upon him, especially in his perception of his nation, language and culture. Both gave him a strong appreciation of his homeland. But the strongest influence on Gustav was his father. 8 That led to his umbrage against national oppression and Magyarization 9 in Hungary, which made his further studies in that Kingdom impossible. 10 Petrovsky was a conscious Slovak patriot who, even in the most difficult and crucial moments of harassment in Presov, never turned away from his primary goal: the social, economic, cultural and literary elevation of his nation. In that effort there was no obstacle in his temperament, boisterous and ambitious character, but on the contrary, these attributes enabled him to penetrate the cause of the problems, to recruit young Slovak students and inflame them for work 7 Kocak, Michal , "Gustav Marsall- Petrovsky : Spomienka pri 135. vyroc i narodeni a" [Gustav Marshall - Petrovsky: On the Anniversary of his 135 th Birthday], in: Slovenske narodne noviny. 8, No. 11 , 1997, p. 8. 8 Various authors, "Zivot a die/a Gustava Marfola- Petrovskeho: Zborn ik prac z medzinarodneho sy mp6zia v Novom Sade, Petro vci a Hloianoch 23. a 24. okt6bra 1987" [The Life and Work of Gustav Marshall- Petrovsky," Almanac of Works from the International Symposium in No vy Sad, Petrovec and Hloiany on October 23rd and 24th, 198 7] (Novy Sad: OBZOR, 1989), p. 19. 9 It was an attem pt by the Magyar ruling classes to create a united Hungarian state of 30 mill ion people speaki ng one language (Magyar), practicing one culture, and having one fee ling and thought. Butvin , Jozef, "V boj i za narodnu a socialnu slobodu" [The Struggle fo r Nat iona l and Social Freedom], in Dejiny Slovenska slovom i obrazom II. [Slovak Histo,y in Words and Pictures II.] (Martin: Osveta, I 98 I), 58. Various authors, Life and Work of Gustav ... , p. I 9. 10 Petrovsky, Gustav, M, Janosik, kapitan horskych chlapcov - j eho biirlivy i ivot a desna smrt' [Janosik, Captain of the Mountain Boys- His Notorious Life and Frightful Death] (Bacsky Petrovec: OBZOR, I 967), 267. �26 SLOVAKIA among his people. His unshakeable activity in the 1880s helped in the revival of Slovak national life, especially the Slovak student movement, in times of the strongest Magyarization. 11 In addition to his works that appeared in the Almanach slovenskej mladeie in 1885 (Slovak Youth Almanac) and Pamatnica Tatrana in 1890 (Memory of Tatran), Petrovsky made his literary debut in Tatran with "Novely" - Z parku, Kaplan, Pod hrubou korou (Short Stories- of the Park, the Chaplain, Under the Thick Crust) in 1887. Before leaving Vienna in 1890 he published a Slovak grammar in German. 12 In the United States he published a second edition of a Practical Guidebook of Slovak in the German Language in 1907. 13 In 1890 the persecuted Marshall-Petrovsky moved to the United States. He immediately joined various Slovak fraternal-benefit societies and worked as an editor of Slovak newspapers and periodicals. From the beginning he became one of the pioneers of Slovak national and cultural life. In 1893, together with the Reverend Stefan Furdek of Cleveland, he founded the Matica slovenska in America and Petrovsky became its second president (the Hungarian government had closed the original Matica in 1875). Petrovsky was one of the founders of the Slovak Evangelical Union (1892), initially editor of P.V. Rovnianek's weekly Amerikansko-slovenske noviny (American-Slovak News, founded in 1886) in Pittsburgh, and later editor and co-owner of the weekly Slovak v Amerike (The Slovak in America, founded in 1889) 14 in New York City. Still later he edited the weekly Luteran (Lutheran) 15 in Cleveland, he helped to found the weekly Slovenske slovo (The Slovak Word) in Chicago in 19131914, and became managing editor of Chicagsky dennik (Chicago Daily). After he had a falling out with the publisher of the latter newspaper, he decided to become a banker, but failed in this attempt. He died destitute in Chicago on June 15th, 1916 after 24 years of work in the USA and was buried in the Bohemian National Cemetery. Petrovsky's work in so many newspapers may have drained him of lot of creative energy. The continual uncertainty in that profess11 Various authors, "Life and Work of Gustav Marshall- Petrovsky," Almanac of .. , p. 28 . 12 Praktisches Lehrbuch der slowakische Sprache (Vienna, 1890). 13 Bartalska, I.:ubica, "Gustav Marshall- Petrovsky," in : Slovaks abroad. .., p. 299. 14 The first newspaper in which he started to wri te as an American immigrant. 15 Later Slovens/..y hlasnik (Slovak Herald). �SLOVAKIA 27 sion brought him many troubles . But the same destiny overtook many of his fellow workers. He advertised his works in the newspapers at which he was employed. These works included sketches, novels and fairy tales. The lives and characters of his literary works reflected the hardships and experiences of Slovak immigrants after they moved to the United States. 16 Petrovskys American short stories appeared at a very specific time in his life--from August of 1905 to March of 1906. From his correspondence we know that Petrovsky was at that time editor of Slovensky hlasnik (Slovak Herald) in Allegheny, Pennsylvania. This newspaper was the official organ of the Slovak Evangelical Union and had a strong national orientation. In 1906 it paid a lot of attention to the trial of the Rev. Andrej Hlinka of Ruzomberok. On July 13, 1905 Petrovsky started the valuable rubric Zabava a poucenie (Fun and Advice), given to fiction . In July and August of 1905, drawing upon a Greek fairy tale and a Russian sketch, Petrovsky elaborated upon and translated four didactic pictures of life and published his sketch Kto mecom bojuje, mecom zahynie! (He Who Fights with the Sword, Will Die by the Sword!). The same literary invention follows in two short stories--The Samaritan and The Parakeet. Petrovsky's resolution to fill this rubric with reality was activated by his literary experience and so his pictures of real life as didactic stories attained wider artistic merit and gradually merged into clear fictional works: Tak sa easy menia ... (The Times, They Are a Changing . .. ), September, 1905, Pan Tlchuba v nesnadzach (Mr. Babbler in Trouble), October, 1905, which appeared under "Amusing Narratives in the Life of American Slovaks;" Spat' (Back) November-December, 1905 ; Mi n6 spik englis (Me no Speak English), January, 1906; Ochranca komarov (Protector of Mosquitoes), February, 1906; Pozde (Late), February 1906, with the subtitle "A Short Story from the Life of American Slovaks;" and Presta/ pr6by (He stopped Trying), March, 1906, with the subtitle "A Story From the life of Hungarian Serbians." 17 Meanwhile, Petrovsky also published books of advice and novels . In his much earlier Radca slovenskych prist'ahovalcov v Ame16 Bartalska, Cubica, "Gustav Marshall- Petrovsky," in Slovaci v zahranici, 4-5 (Slovaks abroad) ( 1979), p. 299, 30 I. 17 Marsall-Petrovs ky, Gustav : Spod zavejov americkych. Bacsky Petrovec: Obzor, 1966, s. 260, 26 1. �28 SLOVAKIA rike (Advisor to Slovak Immigrants in America), which he published in 1895, Petrovsky warned his countrymen against exploitation and abuse as cheap labor and criticized contemporary conditions, the system of capitalism and the huge social differences that existed in the United States. In his 1894 novel Janosik, kapitan horskych chlapcov - j eho bur/ivy i ivot a desna smrt' (Janosik, Captain of the Mountain Boys: His Riotous Life and Frightful Death), which is his most extensive work, Petrovsky focused upon traditional, never-beforetold and fabulous acts in Janosik's life. He did not depart from the main, traditional, stories which are divided into particular themesJanosik who steals from the rich and gives to the poor, who has his great love and enemies among his own people, who is admired and hated. Nevertheless, Petrovsky ' s Janosik is different in some places. Through his hero the author wanted to awaken a love for all Slovaks, emphasizing the spirit of patriotism and love for the everlasting values of his ancestors. 18 In 1906 Petrovsky published a collection of short stories entitled Spod zavejov americkych (From Beneath the Snowdrifts of America), in which he detailed the tragedy of many inexperienced countrymen, cruelly exploited and abused by capitalists. 19 Here he utilized the most common anglicized words such as majna (mine) in America, ollerajt (all right) or st6r (store). 20 As he declared: "I named my little book Spod zavejov americkych because the fairy tales contained in it originated in snowdrifts, both there and here. " 21 While in America, Petrovsky did not forget his homeland and tried to rouse his countrymen against Magyarization in Hungary. He criticized those who were indifferent to national societies. In his story Spat' (Back), he discussed the problem of the gradual denationalizing of Slovaks in America, blaming not only the American educational system, but also the indifference of many countrymen to their assimilation. 22 The literary message of this patriot, journalist, rebel, editor and social activist can be illustrated in two ways. In several novels and 18 Petrovsky, Gustav M., Janosik, Captain of .. , p. 267 . Kutlik, F. , "Gustav Marshall- Petrovsky," in : Eud, 35, No. 69 ( I982), p. 5. 20 Petrovsky, Gustav M., Spod zavejo v americkych [From Beneath the Snowdrifts of America] (Bacsky Petrovec : OBZOR and Bratislava: TATRAN0, p. 276 . 21 Petrovsky, Gustav M. : Dielo llJ (Bae sky Petrovec: Obzor, 1966), 196 . 22 Kutlik, F., "Gustav Marshall - Petrovsky," in: People, p. 5. 19 �SLOVAKIA 29 romances he tried to educate the reader in a popular way, at the expense of literary quality. Many of his stories, especially of the love genre, are artistically of high quality and the story Back and the collection of tales From Beneath the Snowdrifts of America are touching and masterfully written.23 In his novel about Slovak coal miners in the United States, Obete ciernych diamantov (Victims of Black Diamonds, 1906), tragedy is substituted for sentimental love, and it leads to a fatal climax. Here he described the coal mining environment in the USA.24 Amongst the best of Marshall's works are the stories which he published in Spod zavejov americkych and Obete ciernych diamantov. The focus of the first group are love affairs, amusing stories of everyday life and sad, even tragic, events. In these stories Petrovsky penetrated inside of a Slovak man who lived separated from his family and his place of birth. He fixed his eyes, not only on his face, but even on his privacy. It is a sad face, covered by tragedy, often by despair, a face yearning for home, a face which is disturbed by those who forgot their homeland. In Obete ciernych diamantov, he presented the story of a mining disaster in one of America's many coalfields . He brought to the surface the tragic story of Slovaks who were looking for work overseas at a time of national oppression and poverty. The author wrote it in a remarkably suggestive style, with a sense for drama and intensity of action.25 The trials and tribulations of Slovak emigrants to America were described by Marshall- Petrovsky himself: "A frost awaits them. What a cry, what hopes they must bury in their scramble for bread. And what will happen to those living at home? Not even millions of dollars sent to Slovakia can compensate for each sender's soul and spirit. " He then added, I greet you all with my sincere fraternal heart and I wish you and I could be back in the place from whence misery and tragedy banished us, to this cold and unforgiving place. 23 1bid. Cabadaj , Peter, "Album za budanych osobnosti: Marsall- Petrovsky, Gustav [Album of Forgotten Persona liti es: Marshall- Petrovsky, Gustav], in Literarny tyi dennfk, 13 , No. 18 (2000), p. 8. 25 Petrovs ky , Gustav M., Spod zavejov americkych [From Beneath the Snowdrifts of America], p. 276. 24 �30 SLOVAKIA The branch ripped from the tree will never become rooted and the stem will dry up, even breaking its limbs ... therefore come back! Back from beneath the snowdrifts of America, here to your place of birth and poverty! Better to cry with a f ellow countryman than to smile with strangers. Here, by ourselves, we will become aliens !26 Until his death, Marshall- Petrovsky was on the front lines of the struggle for Slovak national liberation. At the beginning of the Great War in 1914 he was a co-signer in the name of the Chicagsky dennik (Chicago Daily) of the Memorandum of the Slovak League.27 When he died in 1916 as the most significant American Slovak writer and journalist, Gustav Marshall-Petrovsky had fallen into poverty and was almost forgotten. However, by 1922 his memory was resurrected and his countrymen built him a monument. 28 He died at the age of 54, still eager to work, although he had none. He had abandoned Hungary due to national oppression and was going to leave America due to social oppression. His big dream to return to his liberated homeland went unfulfilled. 29 Whoever knew Gustav Marshall-Petrovsky in his younger years would never forget his elegant and aristocratic looks. He was erudite and well-educated but impulsive and always dissatisfied. He studied law, theology and medicine but finished none. In the USA he worked as a journalist, as a writer, as a banker, but without success. Nevertheless, he had one thing in common with the Czech writer Vladimir Klacel : during his life poverty, after his death, recognition.30 Here is what the literary critic Andrej Mraz had to say about him : Gustav Marshall- Petrovsky, cried out from deep within his soul to his countrymen spread across the United States of 26 Petrovsky, Gustav M.: , Dielo lll (Bacsky Petrovec : Obzor, 1966), 196 . OL ME I 9 15, XXV, 16 I 3 ,"Memorandum of the Slovak League of America." SYD I, 360. Literamy archi v Mati ci slovenskej (LAMS), fo nd broadsheets 5/21 / 19 16. 28 Composite authors: L ife and work of Gustav Mars hall - Petrovsky: Almanac of .. , 73, 74. 9 KUTLiK, F.: Gustav Marshall - Petrovsky. In: Peop le. p. 5. 3 °Capek, Tomas, Nasa Amerika [Our America ] (Prague: Czechoslovak Nati onal Council. 1926) 92. 27 g- �SLOVAKIA 31 America: come back, come home, we are perishing here, we are like a branch ripped from a tree. Many of his countrymen responded, but Marshall-Petrovsky did not make it to the ship carrying home the Slovak emigrants from America, and so came the day whhen his sad and tormented heart beat for the last time .... 31 31 Kocak, Michal, "Gustav Marshall- Petrovsky: Remembrance of... ," In: Slovak ... , p. 8. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 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 24 SLOVAKIA GUSTAV MARSHALL-PETROVSKY (1862-1916) Jan Petrovsky In the capitalist United States of America in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, conditions were such that American Slovaks were able to achieve a higher level of national consciousness than their cousins in the Kingdom of Hungary. This was shown by their well-developed societies, associations and organizations, by the quality and range of numerous American-Slovak publications and by their cultural activities with their own literary, theatrical and scientific achievements. 1 One of the preeminent cultural leaders of American Slovaks at that time was Gustav Marshall-Petrovsky and, since Jozef Pauco failed to include him in his book on Slovak pioneers in America, I will attempt to fill this gap. 2 The idea of national self-realization among American Slovaks originated in the last decades of the nineteenth century, when Slovak fraternal benefit societies were established. 3 The writer, journalist and patriot Gustav Marshall-Petrovsky was one of the pre-eminent leaders of American Slovaks. He was the best-known and most published of Slovak prose writers living in the USA. As such, he was an important symbol of Slovak national development. 4 He defined a nation as a people related by blood, speaking the same language and practicing the same culture and ideals. 5 Gustav Marshall- Petrovsky played a leading role in promoting Slovak culture and ideals.6 11 Bielik, Frantisek, "Slovenske vyst'ahovalectvo a jeho mi es to v nas ich narodnyc h dejinach" [Slova k Emigration and Its Place in Our Nati onal History], in "Vyst'ahovalectvo a i ivot kraj anov vo svete [E mi grati on and the Life of Our Co untrymen Abroad] (Martin: Matica slove nska, 1982), 32. 2 Pauco, Jozef, Slovenski priekopnici v Amerike (Cleveland, 1972). 3 Bielik, op.cit. 4 Alner, Juraj , " Literatura o slove nskom vyst'ahovalectve do Spojenych statov americkych" [Literature about Slovak Emi grati on to the United States of Ameri ca], in : Slovaci v zahranici 4 - 5 ( I 979), I 3 7. 5 Balch, Emily G., Our Slavic Fellow Citizens (New York: Charities Publication Committee, 1910), I 0. 6 Alner, " Literature about Slova k Emi gra ti on .. ... , 137. SLOVAKIA 25 This patriot was born on June 8, 1862 in the Lutheran village of Bacsky Petrovec, in southern Hungary (now in Serbia) to the family of an affluent Slovak tanner. He attended elementary school in his home town and went on to grammar school in nearby Novy Sad and Sarvas. After studying law for a year at the Lutheran Lyceum in Presov (Slovakia), he was expelled by Education Minister Agoston Trefort for his national activity among fellow-students when he tried to form a Slovak student organization. Indeed, he was forbidden to study in any school in Hungary. Therefore, between 1882 and 1890 he studied medicine in Vienna and joined the Slovak academic society "Tatran," of which he was elected president three times. 7 Gustav's father and grandfather had also made a deep impresssion upon him, especially in his perception of his nation, language and culture. Both gave him a strong appreciation of his homeland. But the strongest influence on Gustav was his father. 8 That led to his umbrage against national oppression and Magyarization 9 in Hungary, which made his further studies in that Kingdom impossible. 10 Petrovsky was a conscious Slovak patriot who, even in the most difficult and crucial moments of harassment in Presov, never turned away from his primary goal: the social, economic, cultural and literary elevation of his nation. In that effort there was no obstacle in his temperament, boisterous and ambitious character, but on the contrary, these attributes enabled him to penetrate the cause of the problems, to recruit young Slovak students and inflame them for work 7 Kocak, Michal , "Gustav Marsall- Petrovsky : Spomienka pri 135. vyroc i narodeni a" [Gustav Marshall - Petrovsky: On the Anniversary of his 135 th Birthday], in: Slovenske narodne noviny. 8, No. 11 , 1997, p. 8. 8 Various authors, "Zivot a die/a Gustava Marfola- Petrovskeho: Zborn ik prac z medzinarodneho sy mp6zia v Novom Sade, Petro vci a Hloianoch 23. a 24. okt6bra 1987" [The Life and Work of Gustav Marshall- Petrovsky," Almanac of Works from the International Symposium in No vy Sad, Petrovec and Hloiany on October 23rd and 24th, 198 7] (Novy Sad: OBZOR, 1989), p. 19. 9 It was an attem pt by the Magyar ruling classes to create a united Hungarian state of 30 mill ion people speaki ng one language (Magyar), practicing one culture, and having one fee ling and thought. Butvin , Jozef, "V boj i za narodnu a socialnu slobodu" [The Struggle fo r Nat iona l and Social Freedom], in Dejiny Slovenska slovom i obrazom II. [Slovak Histo,y in Words and Pictures II.] (Martin: Osveta, I 98 I), 58. Various authors, Life and Work of Gustav ... , p. I 9. 10 Petrovsky, Gustav, M, Janosik, kapitan horskych chlapcov - j eho biirlivy i ivot a desna smrt' [Janosik, Captain of the Mountain Boys- His Notorious Life and Frightful Death] (Bacsky Petrovec: OBZOR, I 967), 267. 26 SLOVAKIA among his people. His unshakeable activity in the 1880s helped in the revival of Slovak national life, especially the Slovak student movement, in times of the strongest Magyarization. 11 In addition to his works that appeared in the Almanach slovenskej mladeie in 1885 (Slovak Youth Almanac) and Pamatnica Tatrana in 1890 (Memory of Tatran), Petrovsky made his literary debut in Tatran with "Novely" - Z parku, Kaplan, Pod hrubou korou (Short Stories- of the Park, the Chaplain, Under the Thick Crust) in 1887. Before leaving Vienna in 1890 he published a Slovak grammar in German. 12 In the United States he published a second edition of a Practical Guidebook of Slovak in the German Language in 1907. 13 In 1890 the persecuted Marshall-Petrovsky moved to the United States. He immediately joined various Slovak fraternal-benefit societies and worked as an editor of Slovak newspapers and periodicals. From the beginning he became one of the pioneers of Slovak national and cultural life. In 1893, together with the Reverend Stefan Furdek of Cleveland, he founded the Matica slovenska in America and Petrovsky became its second president (the Hungarian government had closed the original Matica in 1875). Petrovsky was one of the founders of the Slovak Evangelical Union (1892), initially editor of P.V. Rovnianek's weekly Amerikansko-slovenske noviny (American-Slovak News, founded in 1886) in Pittsburgh, and later editor and co-owner of the weekly Slovak v Amerike (The Slovak in America, founded in 1889) 14 in New York City. Still later he edited the weekly Luteran (Lutheran) 15 in Cleveland, he helped to found the weekly Slovenske slovo (The Slovak Word) in Chicago in 19131914, and became managing editor of Chicagsky dennik (Chicago Daily). After he had a falling out with the publisher of the latter newspaper, he decided to become a banker, but failed in this attempt. He died destitute in Chicago on June 15th, 1916 after 24 years of work in the USA and was buried in the Bohemian National Cemetery. Petrovsky's work in so many newspapers may have drained him of lot of creative energy. The continual uncertainty in that profess11 Various authors, "Life and Work of Gustav Marshall- Petrovsky," Almanac of .. , p. 28 . 12 Praktisches Lehrbuch der slowakische Sprache (Vienna, 1890). 13 Bartalska, I.:ubica, "Gustav Marshall- Petrovsky," in : Slovaks abroad. .., p. 299. 14 The first newspaper in which he started to wri te as an American immigrant. 15 Later Slovens/..y hlasnik (Slovak Herald). SLOVAKIA 27 sion brought him many troubles . But the same destiny overtook many of his fellow workers. He advertised his works in the newspapers at which he was employed. These works included sketches, novels and fairy tales. The lives and characters of his literary works reflected the hardships and experiences of Slovak immigrants after they moved to the United States. 16 Petrovskys American short stories appeared at a very specific time in his life--from August of 1905 to March of 1906. From his correspondence we know that Petrovsky was at that time editor of Slovensky hlasnik (Slovak Herald) in Allegheny, Pennsylvania. This newspaper was the official organ of the Slovak Evangelical Union and had a strong national orientation. In 1906 it paid a lot of attention to the trial of the Rev. Andrej Hlinka of Ruzomberok. On July 13, 1905 Petrovsky started the valuable rubric Zabava a poucenie (Fun and Advice), given to fiction . In July and August of 1905, drawing upon a Greek fairy tale and a Russian sketch, Petrovsky elaborated upon and translated four didactic pictures of life and published his sketch Kto mecom bojuje, mecom zahynie! (He Who Fights with the Sword, Will Die by the Sword!). The same literary invention follows in two short stories--The Samaritan and The Parakeet. Petrovsky's resolution to fill this rubric with reality was activated by his literary experience and so his pictures of real life as didactic stories attained wider artistic merit and gradually merged into clear fictional works: Tak sa easy menia ... (The Times, They Are a Changing . .. ), September, 1905, Pan Tlchuba v nesnadzach (Mr. Babbler in Trouble), October, 1905, which appeared under "Amusing Narratives in the Life of American Slovaks;" Spat' (Back) November-December, 1905 ; Mi n6 spik englis (Me no Speak English), January, 1906; Ochranca komarov (Protector of Mosquitoes), February, 1906; Pozde (Late), February 1906, with the subtitle "A Short Story from the Life of American Slovaks;" and Presta/ pr6by (He stopped Trying), March, 1906, with the subtitle "A Story From the life of Hungarian Serbians." 17 Meanwhile, Petrovsky also published books of advice and novels . In his much earlier Radca slovenskych prist'ahovalcov v Ame16 Bartalska, Cubica, "Gustav Marshall- Petrovsky," in Slovaci v zahranici, 4-5 (Slovaks abroad) ( 1979), p. 299, 30 I. 17 Marsall-Petrovs ky, Gustav : Spod zavejov americkych. Bacsky Petrovec: Obzor, 1966, s. 260, 26 1. 28 SLOVAKIA rike (Advisor to Slovak Immigrants in America), which he published in 1895, Petrovsky warned his countrymen against exploitation and abuse as cheap labor and criticized contemporary conditions, the system of capitalism and the huge social differences that existed in the United States. In his 1894 novel Janosik, kapitan horskych chlapcov - j eho bur/ivy i ivot a desna smrt' (Janosik, Captain of the Mountain Boys: His Riotous Life and Frightful Death), which is his most extensive work, Petrovsky focused upon traditional, never-beforetold and fabulous acts in Janosik's life. He did not depart from the main, traditional, stories which are divided into particular themesJanosik who steals from the rich and gives to the poor, who has his great love and enemies among his own people, who is admired and hated. Nevertheless, Petrovsky ' s Janosik is different in some places. Through his hero the author wanted to awaken a love for all Slovaks, emphasizing the spirit of patriotism and love for the everlasting values of his ancestors. 18 In 1906 Petrovsky published a collection of short stories entitled Spod zavejov americkych (From Beneath the Snowdrifts of America), in which he detailed the tragedy of many inexperienced countrymen, cruelly exploited and abused by capitalists. 19 Here he utilized the most common anglicized words such as majna (mine) in America, ollerajt (all right) or st6r (store). 20 As he declared: "I named my little book Spod zavejov americkych because the fairy tales contained in it originated in snowdrifts, both there and here. " 21 While in America, Petrovsky did not forget his homeland and tried to rouse his countrymen against Magyarization in Hungary. He criticized those who were indifferent to national societies. In his story Spat' (Back), he discussed the problem of the gradual denationalizing of Slovaks in America, blaming not only the American educational system, but also the indifference of many countrymen to their assimilation. 22 The literary message of this patriot, journalist, rebel, editor and social activist can be illustrated in two ways. In several novels and 18 Petrovsky, Gustav M., Janosik, Captain of .. , p. 267 . Kutlik, F. , "Gustav Marshall- Petrovsky," in : Eud, 35, No. 69 ( I982), p. 5. 20 Petrovsky, Gustav M., Spod zavejo v americkych [From Beneath the Snowdrifts of America] (Bacsky Petrovec : OBZOR and Bratislava: TATRAN0, p. 276 . 21 Petrovsky, Gustav M. : Dielo llJ (Bae sky Petrovec: Obzor, 1966), 196 . 22 Kutlik, F., "Gustav Marshall - Petrovsky," in: People, p. 5. 19 SLOVAKIA 29 romances he tried to educate the reader in a popular way, at the expense of literary quality. Many of his stories, especially of the love genre, are artistically of high quality and the story Back and the collection of tales From Beneath the Snowdrifts of America are touching and masterfully written.23 In his novel about Slovak coal miners in the United States, Obete ciernych diamantov (Victims of Black Diamonds, 1906), tragedy is substituted for sentimental love, and it leads to a fatal climax. Here he described the coal mining environment in the USA.24 Amongst the best of Marshall's works are the stories which he published in Spod zavejov americkych and Obete ciernych diamantov. The focus of the first group are love affairs, amusing stories of everyday life and sad, even tragic, events. In these stories Petrovsky penetrated inside of a Slovak man who lived separated from his family and his place of birth. He fixed his eyes, not only on his face, but even on his privacy. It is a sad face, covered by tragedy, often by despair, a face yearning for home, a face which is disturbed by those who forgot their homeland. In Obete ciernych diamantov, he presented the story of a mining disaster in one of America's many coalfields . He brought to the surface the tragic story of Slovaks who were looking for work overseas at a time of national oppression and poverty. The author wrote it in a remarkably suggestive style, with a sense for drama and intensity of action.25 The trials and tribulations of Slovak emigrants to America were described by Marshall- Petrovsky himself: "A frost awaits them. What a cry, what hopes they must bury in their scramble for bread. And what will happen to those living at home? Not even millions of dollars sent to Slovakia can compensate for each sender's soul and spirit. " He then added, I greet you all with my sincere fraternal heart and I wish you and I could be back in the place from whence misery and tragedy banished us, to this cold and unforgiving place. 23 1bid. Cabadaj , Peter, "Album za budanych osobnosti: Marsall- Petrovsky, Gustav [Album of Forgotten Persona liti es: Marshall- Petrovsky, Gustav], in Literarny tyi dennfk, 13 , No. 18 (2000), p. 8. 25 Petrovs ky , Gustav M., Spod zavejov americkych [From Beneath the Snowdrifts of America], p. 276. 24 30 SLOVAKIA The branch ripped from the tree will never become rooted and the stem will dry up, even breaking its limbs ... therefore come back! Back from beneath the snowdrifts of America, here to your place of birth and poverty! Better to cry with a f ellow countryman than to smile with strangers. Here, by ourselves, we will become aliens !26 Until his death, Marshall- Petrovsky was on the front lines of the struggle for Slovak national liberation. At the beginning of the Great War in 1914 he was a co-signer in the name of the Chicagsky dennik (Chicago Daily) of the Memorandum of the Slovak League.27 When he died in 1916 as the most significant American Slovak writer and journalist, Gustav Marshall-Petrovsky had fallen into poverty and was almost forgotten. However, by 1922 his memory was resurrected and his countrymen built him a monument. 28 He died at the age of 54, still eager to work, although he had none. He had abandoned Hungary due to national oppression and was going to leave America due to social oppression. His big dream to return to his liberated homeland went unfulfilled. 29 Whoever knew Gustav Marshall-Petrovsky in his younger years would never forget his elegant and aristocratic looks. He was erudite and well-educated but impulsive and always dissatisfied. He studied law, theology and medicine but finished none. In the USA he worked as a journalist, as a writer, as a banker, but without success. Nevertheless, he had one thing in common with the Czech writer Vladimir Klacel : during his life poverty, after his death, recognition.30 Here is what the literary critic Andrej Mraz had to say about him : Gustav Marshall- Petrovsky, cried out from deep within his soul to his countrymen spread across the United States of 26 Petrovsky, Gustav M.: , Dielo lll (Bacsky Petrovec : Obzor, 1966), 196 . OL ME I 9 15, XXV, 16 I 3 ,"Memorandum of the Slovak League of America." SYD I, 360. Literamy archi v Mati ci slovenskej (LAMS), fo nd broadsheets 5/21 / 19 16. 28 Composite authors: L ife and work of Gustav Mars hall - Petrovsky: Almanac of .. , 73, 74. 9 KUTLiK, F.: Gustav Marshall - Petrovsky. In: Peop le. p. 5. 3 °Capek, Tomas, Nasa Amerika [Our America ] (Prague: Czechoslovak Nati onal Council. 1926) 92. 27 g- SLOVAKIA 31 America: come back, come home, we are perishing here, we are like a branch ripped from a tree. Many of his countrymen responded, but Marshall-Petrovsky did not make it to the ship carrying home the Slovak emigrants from America, and so came the day whhen his sad and tormented heart beat for the last time .... 31 31 Kocak, Michal, "Gustav Marshall- Petrovsky: Remembrance of... ," In: Slovak ... , p. 8.  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Gustáv Marshall-Petrovský (1862-1916) Description An account of the resource Ján Petrovský Slovakia, Vol. 40 (No. 74-75), 2010 pp. 24-31 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Petrovský, Ján Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2010 name https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/4ee8bccf87776b5436ecb3ea05c0ef6a.pdf e39480df46c62f5715cc2298fe8e25e9 PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA HEROIC SLOVAK B]SiHiOP - 99 WiCT]M OF COMMUNISM When 'One talks rubout Catholic bishops behind ·t he Iron Ountain - victims of Communist ,persecution - tJhe names of Cardinals Aloysius Stepinac, Joseph Mindszenty amd Joseph Berran usually come to our mind. But there is qruiite an imposing number of other heroic bishops in Communist jails and labor camps, hidden from the eyes of the world. They are som~how forigotten even in the Catholic press, but certia:inly not in t:he eyers orf God for Wlhom they are suffering. One orf these heroic victims of Communism was John Vojrba;sM1,k, bishop of rtilie Sipis Diocese in Slovakia, who died on August 4, 1965, after fifiteen years of imprisonment and confinement. He was the most ,beloved amd revered Slova,k bishop whose martyrdom is a source of inspiraition to t:he WJhole Slova;k nation. Vojtassruk's position in Slovrukia cam be compared to tJhat of Cardinal Stepi:nac in Croaitia. Bishop Vojtassak was !born on November 14, 1877, in Zaikmnenne in Orava, the poorest district orf Slovakia, from poor peasant parenrts. Among tJhe S-Eovak people, to have a son in the priesthood was considered trhe highest ideal and distincti'(){n. To attain that goal they did nOlt hesitate to make it:Jhe greatest sacrifices 0,nd undergo 1:Jhe greatest hardsihiips. To the overwhelmiJng joy of his p3irents Jahn Vojtassaik was ordained a priest on July 1, 1901. It was at a time when Slovakia was suffering under rbhe burden orf imposed magyarization. It was considered harmful and daingerous to one's career t'O ,s how his 1Sfovaik patriotism . .Patriotic priests were l8ibeled by Magyar civil a;nd ecclesiastica:l authorities as Pam-Slavs, and their priestly ,l ives would be spent in 1:lhe poorest and remotest parishes of rbhe diocese. John Vojtassak knew this very well, ibut lhe did not waver. He always remained fairthful to tJhe Slovak people. After working as assistant pastor in several small parishes, he became, in 1911, ,p astor in Veli:cna, a poor vi-llag,e orf Orava, where he stayed until 1919. As a ,p riest, John Vojta;ssak exoolied in pastoral zeal. Besides his regular priesitily duties he wrote articles in Slovak ma:gazines, particularly for the "SVATA RODINA" ('Dhe Holy Family), of whioh he became ediitor. In his articles, Vojtassaik tried to bolster the nationa:l and religious conscientiousness of the Slovruk people. He acquired a nationltl renown throughout all of S'lovrukia. 1 1 �SLOVAKIA His generosity toward Slovak national caiuses was ibotmdless. When as a young ,p riest he did not have any money to contribute for ithe estaiblishment of the Sfovaik National Museum, lhe g,ave his most va,lued treasur,e, his go'lden wa•tclh 01nd -ohain, wlhioh he received a;s a gift ifor his priestly oroinaUon. Tihis gesture became a legendary iHustr,aition of his ardent 'love for his nation. T,he end of World WaT I mea:nt the end of the old Austro-Hungarian Monarchy •a nd the fo11maition of the new Czecho~Slovak Republic. It was aJ1so the end of the imposed ma,gayairization of tJhe Slovak nation. In the Czeoho-Slovaik Republic, the apostolic zeai and work done by John Vojt•a ssak i.for the welfare of the Slova,k people were rewaroed. He W8Js named rector of the Diocesan Seminary in Spisska Kapituila in 1919, and a year later he W8JS arppoiinted bishop of the Spis Diocese by tihe Holy See. With great enthusiasm ihe plunged info the work of reforming his diocese. His primary preoccupation was the Catholirc education of yoUlbh. He founded a Te8ic'her's A:cademy for men in Spisska Kaipitwl.ia and another for women in Levoca. In Levioca he a!1so est8Jbliished a Minor Seminary. The Major Seminary at Spisska KapitJula became a model for a11 other seminaries in Slova!kia. To pr,omote viarious apostolaJtes rbishop Vojt8Jssak supported the religious orders and congregations in his diocese. He ail so iinrkoduced into his diocese School Brotheris as well as Missionaries of the DiviM Word. At the same time Vojtassfuk's concern wiitJh Slovak nrationa1 affairs did not diminish. As his stature among the Slovak !hierarchy grew, so did ,his influence in the political ilife of Slo-vakia. After the war, the Czechs came to Sfovrukia to help in its -administrative a,nd cultural tasks. But from the -beginnin.g the Czechs manifested a certain· a'loofness towaird the S:lovaks. With the ove11t:hrow of the Haibsburg Catholic Monarchy, chauvinistic Czechs tried to overthrow the Crutholic Church in the new Republic and return ito Hu.ssitism. 'I1he Czechs in Slovaikia did not respect Slovak tra,ditions nor their aJttaohment to their priests rand their Catholic reli!gion. Furthermore, bhe S1ov.aks soon realized that Czecih intentiOIJl.S toward · Slovakia in other respects were not the best·eirther. The Ozeoh:s in Slovwkia oocrupied not only positions for. .which -there was not enoug,h q,ua,l ified Slovaik per- �SLOVAKIA 101 soninel, -but even petty clerica:l jobs for which tlhere was more than enough Slovia:k mam,power. Tihe Prague government did not care to develop ·Slovruk industria!l caipacitty, but rather J-iindered it. 'Dhe Czechs did not respect tihe Slovwk language, and tried to engulf the Slovalk s under ,f oe guise of so-called Czechoslovak nation. This irritated Sloviak .p atriots. Msgr. Andrew Hlinka, who during the Magya,r regime ,s uffered prison terms for his Slovak patri<otism, now became the staunohest fighter :rgainst Czech encrooohments ilil 1Sfovakia. The program of his Peoples' Party was the ,culitura!l ,and administrative autonomy of Slovrukia in ithe framework of the Czeoho-S'lovak Republic. 'Dhls •policy was based on 1:Jhe Pittsbu~g,h Pact, conoll\lded between the American Slovaks aind Czechs in P1Usburg,h, ,P a., on May 30, 1918, and signed by Prof. 'Ilhomas G. Masaryk, the first president of the Republic. But Masruryk reneged on Jij,s own words and pursued a ,p olicy of strict centralism toward Slovakia directed from Prague. In the struggle for Slovak autonomy bishop Vojtassak was a dose co-worker of Msgr. Hlinlka. Jin 1939 Adolf Hitler occupied the Czech territories (Bohemia •amd Moravia), and Slovakia ,b ecame independent. After tJhe deait:Jh of :Msgr. Andrew Hlilllka on August 16, 1938, Msgr. Joseph Tiso became •t he head of Hlinlka's SlovaJk Peoples' Party. He was elected president of the Slovak Republic on October 26, 1939. Slova:kia, being in Gemnany's sphere orf influence, could not pur,s ue an independent foreign policy. Neveritheless, in internal a:Hiairs the regi<me of Msgr. Tiso was relatively free and democratic. German efforts to nazi!fy Slovakia were thwarted by Msgr. Tiso. Even the Jewish question, despite German pressure, was solved in a mi'lder manner than in other countries under Germ.'8JI1 influence. During the S<lovak R epublic B1shop Vojtassak brought his diocese to fu:11 blossom. 'Ilhe Retreat Movement, which spread tlhroug,hoUJt Slovakia during the war, was most flourishing in the Spis diocese. Bishop Vojtassak was ,prominent in aH tlhe nationia!l Catholic enterpdses. Through his efforts the S:lovaik Cait:Jholic Oharities was organized on a national basis. He was instrumental in founding the Catholic Press Bureau and the ,Slovia:k Catholic Academy, comprising aU 8-lova,k soholars of distinction. Bishop Vojtassak became the �102 SLOVAKIA first military bishop of the .Slova:k Republi-c and a member of the State Council, an advisory body to ,bhe .President of the Republic. 'I'he Slov'8Jk Republic was of a shor.t duration. In the spring of 1945 the Russian a:rmies ovel"I"an SlovaJkia. 'Dhe Allied Power.s agreed to the restoration of the Czecho-Slovak Republic. By the Ya.'lta Agreement, the new Cz.oohoSlovarkia was to be under Soviet _politioal influence. The communi:uation of Czecho-Slovaiki!a began to some degree immediately after the Second World War. fu the new Ozeoho..:Slovaik Republic thou.sands of Slovak patriots were sentenced to long terms of imprisonment for alleged c0Ha1boration witJh the Nazis. iMsgr. Joseph Tiso and scores of others were executed. Bishop Vojtassak was imprisoned for the firist time in May, 1945, and was confined for seven months. Further trirbulatio:ns for the S1ovruk nation were to come after February 25, 1948, when the Commuinists took full control of 0:uedho-Slovakia. Since June 1949, all the bishops were under constant police surveillance and detained in their residences. Those considered as most opposed to the Conummist regime were imprisoned. Bi<Slhop Vojtassaik was i,mprisoned in Braitislav,a in September 1950. After months of brainwashing in the Bratislava police prison, on Janua:ry 15, 1951, togetfuer with Paul Gojdic, bishop of the Presov Byzantine rite Diocese, and Michael Buzalk!a, auxiliary ,bishop of the Trnava Apostolic Admiinistratu~e, ihe was sentenced to 24 yeacrs of imprisonment, his properties were confiscated, and he was deprived of aU civil. rights. Bishop Vojta,ssaik was 73 years old at the time of hi!s triral. Conspiracy and treason against the Czecho-Slova:k Republic were 'his alleged crimes. Only those witnesses who testified against him were admitted to the trirul. The ·l awyer assigned for •his defense by the Communist regime made no plea for his client. The whole trial hinged on the "confession" of the defendant which had been extorted by the weH-known methods of Communist police mvestigation. We do not know all the detJails of the torments Bishop Vojtassak ,s uffered in various prisons where he spent more than seven years. Prison life is ·h ar.sh in any cir.cumstances, parti•c ularly irn Communi!st dungeons. 'Db.ere acre reports, smuggled through the Iron Curta:irn, tJhat in the case of Bish- �103 SLOVAKIA op Vojtassivk there were instances of s•adistic torture. Brutal Communist jaHers occasionally poured out their hatred of God on the aged Bishop. They .malig:ned him in the presence of other ,prisoners. At one time, they kept him in a cell witlh a feeble-minded inmate. At other times they assigned him the most repulsive jobs. Yet, Bishop Vojtassivk never lost ,h is composure and dignity, being always aware of the fact that he was suffering for Christ at the hands of his cruellest enemies. The rea:l reason for sentencing Bishop Vojtassivk was his unoompromi,sing loyalty to God, the Church and the Slovaik people. 'Dhe Communists were aware of Bishop VojtJassak's unique position in tihe '8'1-0vak nation. By destroying him tJhey intended to destroy t:Jhe resistance of the priests and the Slovak Catholic to their regime. But they achieved just the opposite reslrlrts. The Slovak people regard their imprisoned bishops and priests a,s martyrs of Christ. The heroic resistance of these witnesses of Obrist serves as Ml inspiration to them in t:Jhei,r resistamce to Communism. Wihen Bishop Vojitassak was about 80 yeairs old, the Communists released 1him from prison. BUit they kept him under constant surveillance in the 'house of detention in Bohemia. His .p leas to be permitted to live in Slovrukia wiit:Jh his relaitives were rejected. He died in exile, in Seno'hraby in Bohemia, on August 4, 1965, . almost 88 years old. His funeral at hi,s native viliage of Zakamenne was a maiss demonstraJtion of the Slovaik people for the beloved Bishop and a protest against Communist brutality. It is reported from Slova:kia that even a young 'SlovaJk Communist who was Sl\.l!pposed to ta.1!k at the ifuneraJl aibout the alleged "crimes" of the deceased Bishop spoke aJbout the injustice committed on an innocent man amd a,boUJt an imminent accounting for this crime. T. J. Zubek, O.F.M. LITERATURE Joseph M. Kirschbaum, Slovakia - Nation at the Crossroads of Central Europe . New York, 1960. Joseph A. Mikus, Slovakia - A political History (1918-1950). Milwaukee, Wis., 1963. Gilbert L. Oddo, Slovakia and Its People. Cleveland, Ohio, 1960. T. J . Zubek, O.F.M. , The Church of Silence in Slovakia, Whiting, Ind., 1956. T. J . Zubek, O.F.M., Slovak Bishops - Martyrs of Christ. Toronto, Ont., 1963. � SLOVAKIA HEROIC SLOVAK B]SiHiOP - 99 WiCT]M OF COMMUNISM When 'One talks rubout Catholic bishops behind ·t he Iron Ountain - victims of Communist ,persecution - tJhe names of Cardinals Aloysius Stepinac, Joseph Mindszenty amd Joseph Berran usually come to our mind. But there is qruiite an imposing number of other heroic bishops in Communist jails and labor camps, hidden from the eyes of the world. They are som~how forigotten even in the Catholic press, but certia:inly not in t:he eyers orf God for Wlhom they are suffering. One orf these heroic victims of Communism was John Vojrba;sM1,k, bishop of rtilie Sipis Diocese in Slovakia, who died on August 4, 1965, after fifiteen years of imprisonment and confinement. He was the most ,beloved amd revered Slova,k bishop whose martyrdom is a source of inspiraition to t:he WJhole Slova;k nation. Vojtassruk's position in Slovrukia cam be compared to tJhat of Cardinal Stepi:nac in Croaitia. Bishop Vojtassak was !born on November 14, 1877, in Zaikmnenne in Orava, the poorest district orf Slovakia, from poor peasant parenrts. Among tJhe S-Eovak people, to have a son in the priesthood was considered trhe highest ideal and distincti'(){n. To attain that goal they did nOlt hesitate to make it:Jhe greatest sacrifices 0,nd undergo 1:Jhe greatest hardsihiips. To the overwhelmiJng joy of his p3irents Jahn Vojtassaik was ordained a priest on July 1, 1901. It was at a time when Slovakia was suffering under rbhe burden orf imposed magyarization. It was considered harmful and daingerous to one's career t'O ,s how his 1Sfovaik patriotism . .Patriotic priests were l8ibeled by Magyar civil a;nd ecclesiastica:l authorities as Pam-Slavs, and their priestly ,l ives would be spent in 1:lhe poorest and remotest parishes of rbhe diocese. John Vojtassak knew this very well, ibut lhe did not waver. He always remained fairthful to tJhe Slovak people. After working as assistant pastor in several small parishes, he became, in 1911, ,p astor in Veli:cna, a poor vi-llag,e orf Orava, where he stayed until 1919. As a ,p riest, John Vojta;ssak exoolied in pastoral zeal. Besides his regular priesitily duties he wrote articles in Slovak ma:gazines, particularly for the "SVATA RODINA" ('Dhe Holy Family), of whioh he became ediitor. In his articles, Vojtassaik tried to bolster the nationa:l and religious conscientiousness of the Slovruk people. He acquired a nationltl renown throughout all of S'lovrukia. 1 1 �SLOVAKIA His generosity toward Slovak national caiuses was ibotmdless. When as a young ,p riest he did not have any money to contribute for ithe estaiblishment of the Sfovaik National Museum, lhe g,ave his most va,lued treasur,e, his go'lden wa•tclh 01nd -ohain, wlhioh he received a;s a gift ifor his priestly oroinaUon. Tihis gesture became a legendary iHustr,aition of his ardent 'love for his nation. T,he end of World WaT I mea:nt the end of the old Austro-Hungarian Monarchy •a nd the fo11maition of the new Czecho~Slovak Republic. It was aJ1so the end of the imposed ma,gayairization of tJhe Slovak nation. In the Czeoho-Slovaik Republic, the apostolic zeai and work done by John Vojt•a ssak i.for the welfare of the Slova,k people were rewaroed. He W8Js named rector of the Diocesan Seminary in Spisska Kapituila in 1919, and a year later he W8JS arppoiinted bishop of the Spis Diocese by tihe Holy See. With great enthusiasm ihe plunged info the work of reforming his diocese. His primary preoccupation was the Catholirc education of yoUlbh. He founded a Te8ic'her's A:cademy for men in Spisska Kaipitwl.ia and another for women in Levoca. In Levioca he a!1so est8Jbliished a Minor Seminary. The Major Seminary at Spisska KapitJula became a model for a11 other seminaries in Slova!kia. To pr,omote viarious apostolaJtes rbishop Vojt8Jssak supported the religious orders and congregations in his diocese. He ail so iinrkoduced into his diocese School Brotheris as well as Missionaries of the DiviM Word. At the same time Vojtassfuk's concern wiitJh Slovak nrationa1 affairs did not diminish. As his stature among the Slovak !hierarchy grew, so did ,his influence in the political ilife of Slo-vakia. After the war, the Czechs came to Sfovrukia to help in its -administrative a,nd cultural tasks. But from the -beginnin.g the Czechs manifested a certain· a'loofness towaird the S:lovaks. With the ove11t:hrow of the Haibsburg Catholic Monarchy, chauvinistic Czechs tried to overthrow the Crutholic Church in the new Republic and return ito Hu.ssitism. 'I1he Czechs in Slovaikia did not respect Slovak tra,ditions nor their aJttaohment to their priests rand their Catholic reli!gion. Furthermore, bhe S1ov.aks soon realized that Czecih intentiOIJl.S toward · Slovakia in other respects were not the best·eirther. The Ozeoh:s in Slovwkia oocrupied not only positions for. .which -there was not enoug,h q,ua,l ified Slovaik per- �SLOVAKIA 101 soninel, -but even petty clerica:l jobs for which tlhere was more than enough Slovia:k mam,power. Tihe Prague government did not care to develop ·Slovruk industria!l caipacitty, but rather J-iindered it. 'Dhe Czechs did not respect tihe Slovwk language, and tried to engulf the Slovalk s under ,f oe guise of so-called Czechoslovak nation. This irritated Sloviak .p atriots. Msgr. Andrew Hlinka, who during the Magya,r regime ,s uffered prison terms for his Slovak patri<otism, now became the staunohest fighter :rgainst Czech encrooohments ilil 1Sfovakia. The program of his Peoples' Party was the ,culitura!l ,and administrative autonomy of Slovrukia in ithe framework of the Czeoho-S'lovak Republic. 'Dhls •policy was based on 1:Jhe Pittsbu~g,h Pact, conoll\lded between the American Slovaks aind Czechs in P1Usburg,h, ,P a., on May 30, 1918, and signed by Prof. 'Ilhomas G. Masaryk, the first president of the Republic. But Masruryk reneged on Jij,s own words and pursued a ,p olicy of strict centralism toward Slovakia directed from Prague. In the struggle for Slovak autonomy bishop Vojtassak was a dose co-worker of Msgr. Hlinlka. Jin 1939 Adolf Hitler occupied the Czech territories (Bohemia •amd Moravia), and Slovakia ,b ecame independent. After tJhe deait:Jh of :Msgr. Andrew Hlilllka on August 16, 1938, Msgr. Joseph Tiso became •t he head of Hlinlka's SlovaJk Peoples' Party. He was elected president of the Slovak Republic on October 26, 1939. Slova:kia, being in Gemnany's sphere orf influence, could not pur,s ue an independent foreign policy. Neveritheless, in internal a:Hiairs the regi<me of Msgr. Tiso was relatively free and democratic. German efforts to nazi!fy Slovakia were thwarted by Msgr. Tiso. Even the Jewish question, despite German pressure, was solved in a mi'lder manner than in other countries under Germ.'8JI1 influence. During the S<lovak R epublic B1shop Vojtassak brought his diocese to fu:11 blossom. 'Ilhe Retreat Movement, which spread tlhroug,hoUJt Slovakia during the war, was most flourishing in the Spis diocese. Bishop Vojtassak was ,prominent in aH tlhe nationia!l Catholic enterpdses. Through his efforts the S:lovaik Cait:Jholic Oharities was organized on a national basis. He was instrumental in founding the Catholic Press Bureau and the ,Slovia:k Catholic Academy, comprising aU 8-lova,k soholars of distinction. Bishop Vojtassak became the �102 SLOVAKIA first military bishop of the .Slova:k Republi-c and a member of the State Council, an advisory body to ,bhe .President of the Republic. 'I'he Slov'8Jk Republic was of a shor.t duration. In the spring of 1945 the Russian a:rmies ovel"I"an SlovaJkia. 'Dhe Allied Power.s agreed to the restoration of the Czecho-Slovak Republic. By the Ya.'lta Agreement, the new Cz.oohoSlovarkia was to be under Soviet _politioal influence. The communi:uation of Czecho-Slovaiki!a began to some degree immediately after the Second World War. fu the new Ozeoho..:Slovaik Republic thou.sands of Slovak patriots were sentenced to long terms of imprisonment for alleged c0Ha1boration witJh the Nazis. iMsgr. Joseph Tiso and scores of others were executed. Bishop Vojtassak was imprisoned for the firist time in May, 1945, and was confined for seven months. Further trirbulatio:ns for the S1ovruk nation were to come after February 25, 1948, when the Commuinists took full control of 0:uedho-Slovakia. Since June 1949, all the bishops were under constant police surveillance and detained in their residences. Those considered as most opposed to the Conummist regime were imprisoned. Bi<Slhop Vojtassaik was i,mprisoned in Braitislav,a in September 1950. After months of brainwashing in the Bratislava police prison, on Janua:ry 15, 1951, togetfuer with Paul Gojdic, bishop of the Presov Byzantine rite Diocese, and Michael Buzalk!a, auxiliary ,bishop of the Trnava Apostolic Admiinistratu~e, ihe was sentenced to 24 yeacrs of imprisonment, his properties were confiscated, and he was deprived of aU civil. rights. Bishop Vojta,ssaik was 73 years old at the time of hi!s triral. Conspiracy and treason against the Czecho-Slova:k Republic were 'his alleged crimes. Only those witnesses who testified against him were admitted to the trirul. The ·l awyer assigned for •his defense by the Communist regime made no plea for his client. The whole trial hinged on the "confession" of the defendant which had been extorted by the weH-known methods of Communist police mvestigation. We do not know all the detJails of the torments Bishop Vojtassak ,s uffered in various prisons where he spent more than seven years. Prison life is ·h ar.sh in any cir.cumstances, parti•c ularly irn Communi!st dungeons. 'Db.ere acre reports, smuggled through the Iron Curta:irn, tJhat in the case of Bish- �103 SLOVAKIA op Vojtassivk there were instances of s•adistic torture. Brutal Communist jaHers occasionally poured out their hatred of God on the aged Bishop. They .malig:ned him in the presence of other ,prisoners. At one time, they kept him in a cell witlh a feeble-minded inmate. At other times they assigned him the most repulsive jobs. Yet, Bishop Vojtassivk never lost ,h is composure and dignity, being always aware of the fact that he was suffering for Christ at the hands of his cruellest enemies. The rea:l reason for sentencing Bishop Vojtassivk was his unoompromi,sing loyalty to God, the Church and the Slovaik people. 'Dhe Communists were aware of Bishop VojtJassak's unique position in tihe '8'1-0vak nation. By destroying him tJhey intended to destroy t:Jhe resistance of the priests and the Slovak Catholic to their regime. But they achieved just the opposite reslrlrts. The Slovak people regard their imprisoned bishops and priests a,s martyrs of Christ. The heroic resistance of these witnesses of Obrist serves as Ml inspiration to them in t:Jhei,r resistamce to Communism. Wihen Bishop Vojitassak was about 80 yeairs old, the Communists released 1him from prison. BUit they kept him under constant surveillance in the 'house of detention in Bohemia. His .p leas to be permitted to live in Slovrukia wiit:Jh his relaitives were rejected. He died in exile, in Seno'hraby in Bohemia, on August 4, 1965, . almost 88 years old. His funeral at hi,s native viliage of Zakamenne was a maiss demonstraJtion of the Slovaik people for the beloved Bishop and a protest against Communist brutality. It is reported from Slova:kia that even a young 'SlovaJk Communist who was Sl\.l!pposed to ta.1!k at the ifuneraJl aibout the alleged "crimes" of the deceased Bishop spoke aJbout the injustice committed on an innocent man amd a,boUJt an imminent accounting for this crime. T. J. Zubek, O.F.M. LITERATURE Joseph M. Kirschbaum, Slovakia - Nation at the Crossroads of Central Europe . New York, 1960. Joseph A. Mikus, Slovakia - A political History (1918-1950). Milwaukee, Wis., 1963. Gilbert L. Oddo, Slovakia and Its People. Cleveland, Ohio, 1960. T. J . Zubek, O.F.M. , The Church of Silence in Slovakia, Whiting, Ind., 1956. T. J . Zubek, O.F.M., Slovak Bishops - Martyrs of Christ. Toronto, Ont., 1963. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1966, Vol. 16 Description An account of the resource Vol. 16 (No. 39), 1966. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1966 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document SLOVAKIA HEROIC SLOVAK B]SiHiOP - 99 WiCT]M OF COMMUNISM When 'One talks rubout Catholic bishops behind ·t he Iron Ountain - victims of Communist ,persecution - tJhe names of Cardinals Aloysius Stepinac, Joseph Mindszenty amd Joseph Berran usually come to our mind. But there is qruiite an imposing number of other heroic bishops in Communist jails and labor camps, hidden from the eyes of the world. They are som~how forigotten even in the Catholic press, but certia:inly not in t:he eyers orf God for Wlhom they are suffering. One orf these heroic victims of Communism was John Vojrba;sM1,k, bishop of rtilie Sipis Diocese in Slovakia, who died on August 4, 1965, after fifiteen years of imprisonment and confinement. He was the most ,beloved amd revered Slova,k bishop whose martyrdom is a source of inspiraition to t:he WJhole Slova;k nation. Vojtassruk's position in Slovrukia cam be compared to tJhat of Cardinal Stepi:nac in Croaitia. Bishop Vojtassak was !born on November 14, 1877, in Zaikmnenne in Orava, the poorest district orf Slovakia, from poor peasant parenrts. Among tJhe S-Eovak people, to have a son in the priesthood was considered trhe highest ideal and distincti'(){n. To attain that goal they did nOlt hesitate to make it:Jhe greatest sacrifices 0,nd undergo 1:Jhe greatest hardsihiips. To the overwhelmiJng joy of his p3irents Jahn Vojtassaik was ordained a priest on July 1, 1901. It was at a time when Slovakia was suffering under rbhe burden orf imposed magyarization. It was considered harmful and daingerous to one's career t'O ,s how his 1Sfovaik patriotism . .Patriotic priests were l8ibeled by Magyar civil a;nd ecclesiastica:l authorities as Pam-Slavs, and their priestly ,l ives would be spent in 1:lhe poorest and remotest parishes of rbhe diocese. John Vojtassak knew this very well, ibut lhe did not waver. He always remained fairthful to tJhe Slovak people. After working as assistant pastor in several small parishes, he became, in 1911, ,p astor in Veli:cna, a poor vi-llag,e orf Orava, where he stayed until 1919. As a ,p riest, John Vojta;ssak exoolied in pastoral zeal. Besides his regular priesitily duties he wrote articles in Slovak ma:gazines, particularly for the "SVATA RODINA" ('Dhe Holy Family), of whioh he became ediitor. In his articles, Vojtassaik tried to bolster the nationa:l and religious conscientiousness of the Slovruk people. He acquired a nationltl renown throughout all of S'lovrukia. 1 1 SLOVAKIA His generosity toward Slovak national caiuses was ibotmdless. When as a young ,p riest he did not have any money to contribute for ithe estaiblishment of the Sfovaik National Museum, lhe g,ave his most va,lued treasur,e, his go'lden wa•tclh 01nd -ohain, wlhioh he received a;s a gift ifor his priestly oroinaUon. Tihis gesture became a legendary iHustr,aition of his ardent 'love for his nation. T,he end of World WaT I mea:nt the end of the old Austro-Hungarian Monarchy •a nd the fo11maition of the new Czecho~Slovak Republic. It was aJ1so the end of the imposed ma,gayairization of tJhe Slovak nation. In the Czeoho-Slovaik Republic, the apostolic zeai and work done by John Vojt•a ssak i.for the welfare of the Slova,k people were rewaroed. He W8Js named rector of the Diocesan Seminary in Spisska Kapituila in 1919, and a year later he W8JS arppoiinted bishop of the Spis Diocese by tihe Holy See. With great enthusiasm ihe plunged info the work of reforming his diocese. His primary preoccupation was the Catholirc education of yoUlbh. He founded a Te8ic'her's A:cademy for men in Spisska Kaipitwl.ia and another for women in Levoca. In Levioca he a!1so est8Jbliished a Minor Seminary. The Major Seminary at Spisska KapitJula became a model for a11 other seminaries in Slova!kia. To pr,omote viarious apostolaJtes rbishop Vojt8Jssak supported the religious orders and congregations in his diocese. He ail so iinrkoduced into his diocese School Brotheris as well as Missionaries of the DiviM Word. At the same time Vojtassfuk's concern wiitJh Slovak nrationa1 affairs did not diminish. As his stature among the Slovak !hierarchy grew, so did ,his influence in the political ilife of Slo-vakia. After the war, the Czechs came to Sfovrukia to help in its -administrative a,nd cultural tasks. But from the -beginnin.g the Czechs manifested a certain· a'loofness towaird the S:lovaks. With the ove11t:hrow of the Haibsburg Catholic Monarchy, chauvinistic Czechs tried to overthrow the Crutholic Church in the new Republic and return ito Hu.ssitism. 'I1he Czechs in Slovaikia did not respect Slovak tra,ditions nor their aJttaohment to their priests rand their Catholic reli!gion. Furthermore, bhe S1ov.aks soon realized that Czecih intentiOIJl.S toward · Slovakia in other respects were not the best·eirther. The Ozeoh:s in Slovwkia oocrupied not only positions for. .which -there was not enoug,h q,ua,l ified Slovaik per- SLOVAKIA 101 soninel, -but even petty clerica:l jobs for which tlhere was more than enough Slovia:k mam,power. Tihe Prague government did not care to develop ·Slovruk industria!l caipacitty, but rather J-iindered it. 'Dhe Czechs did not respect tihe Slovwk language, and tried to engulf the Slovalk s under ,f oe guise of so-called Czechoslovak nation. This irritated Sloviak .p atriots. Msgr. Andrew Hlinka, who during the Magya,r regime ,s uffered prison terms for his Slovak patri<otism, now became the staunohest fighter :rgainst Czech encrooohments ilil 1Sfovakia. The program of his Peoples' Party was the ,culitura!l ,and administrative autonomy of Slovrukia in ithe framework of the Czeoho-S'lovak Republic. 'Dhls •policy was based on 1:Jhe Pittsbu~g,h Pact, conoll\lded between the American Slovaks aind Czechs in P1Usburg,h, ,P a., on May 30, 1918, and signed by Prof. 'Ilhomas G. Masaryk, the first president of the Republic. But Masruryk reneged on Jij,s own words and pursued a ,p olicy of strict centralism toward Slovakia directed from Prague. In the struggle for Slovak autonomy bishop Vojtassak was a dose co-worker of Msgr. Hlinlka. Jin 1939 Adolf Hitler occupied the Czech territories (Bohemia •amd Moravia), and Slovakia ,b ecame independent. After tJhe deait:Jh of :Msgr. Andrew Hlilllka on August 16, 1938, Msgr. Joseph Tiso became •t he head of Hlinlka's SlovaJk Peoples' Party. He was elected president of the Slovak Republic on October 26, 1939. Slova:kia, being in Gemnany's sphere orf influence, could not pur,s ue an independent foreign policy. Neveritheless, in internal a:Hiairs the regi<me of Msgr. Tiso was relatively free and democratic. German efforts to nazi!fy Slovakia were thwarted by Msgr. Tiso. Even the Jewish question, despite German pressure, was solved in a mi'lder manner than in other countries under Germ.'8JI1 influence. During the S<lovak R epublic B1shop Vojtassak brought his diocese to fu:11 blossom. 'Ilhe Retreat Movement, which spread tlhroug,hoUJt Slovakia during the war, was most flourishing in the Spis diocese. Bishop Vojtassak was ,prominent in aH tlhe nationia!l Catholic enterpdses. Through his efforts the S:lovaik Cait:Jholic Oharities was organized on a national basis. He was instrumental in founding the Catholic Press Bureau and the ,Slovia:k Catholic Academy, comprising aU 8-lova,k soholars of distinction. Bishop Vojtassak became the 102 SLOVAKIA first military bishop of the .Slova:k Republi-c and a member of the State Council, an advisory body to ,bhe .President of the Republic. 'I'he Slov'8Jk Republic was of a shor.t duration. In the spring of 1945 the Russian a:rmies ovel"I"an SlovaJkia. 'Dhe Allied Power.s agreed to the restoration of the Czecho-Slovak Republic. By the Ya.'lta Agreement, the new Cz.oohoSlovarkia was to be under Soviet _politioal influence. The communi:uation of Czecho-Slovaiki!a began to some degree immediately after the Second World War. fu the new Ozeoho..:Slovaik Republic thou.sands of Slovak patriots were sentenced to long terms of imprisonment for alleged c0Ha1boration witJh the Nazis. iMsgr. Joseph Tiso and scores of others were executed. Bishop Vojtassak was imprisoned for the firist time in May, 1945, and was confined for seven months. Further trirbulatio:ns for the S1ovruk nation were to come after February 25, 1948, when the Commuinists took full control of 0:uedho-Slovakia. Since June 1949, all the bishops were under constant police surveillance and detained in their residences. Those considered as most opposed to the Conummist regime were imprisoned. Bi<Slhop Vojtassaik was i,mprisoned in Braitislav,a in September 1950. After months of brainwashing in the Bratislava police prison, on Janua:ry 15, 1951, togetfuer with Paul Gojdic, bishop of the Presov Byzantine rite Diocese, and Michael Buzalk!a, auxiliary ,bishop of the Trnava Apostolic Admiinistratu~e, ihe was sentenced to 24 yeacrs of imprisonment, his properties were confiscated, and he was deprived of aU civil. rights. Bishop Vojta,ssaik was 73 years old at the time of hi!s triral. Conspiracy and treason against the Czecho-Slova:k Republic were 'his alleged crimes. Only those witnesses who testified against him were admitted to the trirul. The ·l awyer assigned for •his defense by the Communist regime made no plea for his client. The whole trial hinged on the "confession" of the defendant which had been extorted by the weH-known methods of Communist police mvestigation. We do not know all the detJails of the torments Bishop Vojtassak ,s uffered in various prisons where he spent more than seven years. Prison life is ·h ar.sh in any cir.cumstances, parti•c ularly irn Communi!st dungeons. 'Db.ere acre reports, smuggled through the Iron Curta:irn, tJhat in the case of Bish- 103 SLOVAKIA op Vojtassivk there were instances of s•adistic torture. Brutal Communist jaHers occasionally poured out their hatred of God on the aged Bishop. They .malig:ned him in the presence of other ,prisoners. At one time, they kept him in a cell witlh a feeble-minded inmate. At other times they assigned him the most repulsive jobs. Yet, Bishop Vojtassivk never lost ,h is composure and dignity, being always aware of the fact that he was suffering for Christ at the hands of his cruellest enemies. The rea:l reason for sentencing Bishop Vojtassivk was his unoompromi,sing loyalty to God, the Church and the Slovaik people. 'Dhe Communists were aware of Bishop VojtJassak's unique position in tihe '8'1-0vak nation. By destroying him tJhey intended to destroy t:Jhe resistance of the priests and the Slovak Catholic to their regime. But they achieved just the opposite reslrlrts. The Slovak people regard their imprisoned bishops and priests a,s martyrs of Christ. The heroic resistance of these witnesses of Obrist serves as Ml inspiration to them in t:Jhei,r resistamce to Communism. Wihen Bishop Vojitassak was about 80 yeairs old, the Communists released 1him from prison. BUit they kept him under constant surveillance in the 'house of detention in Bohemia. His .p leas to be permitted to live in Slovrukia wiit:Jh his relaitives were rejected. He died in exile, in Seno'hraby in Bohemia, on August 4, 1965, . almost 88 years old. His funeral at hi,s native viliage of Zakamenne was a maiss demonstraJtion of the Slovaik people for the beloved Bishop and a protest against Communist brutality. It is reported from Slova:kia that even a young 'SlovaJk Communist who was Sl\.l!pposed to ta.1!k at the ifuneraJl aibout the alleged "crimes" of the deceased Bishop spoke aJbout the injustice committed on an innocent man amd a,boUJt an imminent accounting for this crime. T. J. Zubek, O.F.M. LITERATURE Joseph M. Kirschbaum, Slovakia - Nation at the Crossroads of Central Europe . New York, 1960. Joseph A. Mikus, Slovakia - A political History (1918-1950). Milwaukee, Wis., 1963. Gilbert L. Oddo, Slovakia and Its People. Cleveland, Ohio, 1960. T. J . Zubek, O.F.M. , The Church of Silence in Slovakia, Whiting, Ind., 1956. T. J . Zubek, O.F.M., Slovak Bishops - Martyrs of Christ. Toronto, Ont., 1963.  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Heroic Slovak Bishop - Victim of Communism Description An account of the resource T. J. Zubek, O.F.M. Slovakia, Vol. 16 (No. 39), 1966 pp. 99-103 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Zúbek, Teodorik J., 1914-1988 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1966 SNK https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/45adc31d44d6443594a03d4e370d57f1.pdf c2242299f2efa63f4c444c374ab3e92d PDF Text Text 116 SLOVAKIA Historical and Empirical Methods of Studying Slovak-Americans as A Distinct Ethnic Group By Dr. Steven I. Miller Any attempt to study a given group of people is a difficult task because it required and presupposes a host of complicated procedures and insights into the workings of that group. That is, the group must be "understood" (to use Max Weber's term) on several levels: historical, linguistic, demographic, familial, political, economic and so on. Unless a composite picture of the social grouping is made available on the variables mentioned above, it is virtually impossible to obtain a mature understanding of that group's values, beliefs and life-styles. How then should this task of understanding a group of people be undertaken? There are several approaches to the problem, and we will attempt to deliniate, in a broad perspective, some of them. My thesis is that Slovaks in America have not been, until very recently, studied in any systematic fashion, and that because of this oversight, the Slovak-American community is not well known to scholars and laymen. I also believe that this paucity of systematic research has caused fragmentation and alienation within the Slovak-American community, and is exemplified in a general lack of interests in things Slovak by second and third generation Slovak-Americans. There has also been, I believe, an over emphasis by certain scholars on the political problems within Slovakia itself, with a subsequent neglect of studying in depth the issues that have concerned Slovak-Americans more recently. Now, I am not arguing that the political-historical issues concerning the Slovaks in Slovakia, past and present, be overlooked or minimized in any way. This perspective is needed and merits further research. But the issue now, I believe, is one of balance or priorities. Second and third �SLOVAKIA 117 generation Slovak-Americans find it increasingly difficult to identify in any meaningful fashion with the historicalpolitical problems of Slovakia since 1918. The issues have become too distant in space and time engender a spirit of concern within this younger group. Thus a dilemma ensues: on the one hand there is the necessity of specifying the historical problems (in terms of political and moral issues ) of Slovaks as a unique national group with the possibility of losing the interest of native born SlovakAmericans; on the other hand is the problem of concentrating too exclusively on the concerns of contemporary Slovak-Americans and de-emphasizing their historical ties with Slovakia. My own feelings are that the second emphasis will in the long run be the most beneficial for all Slovaks. Namely, the in-depth and scholarly attempt to study SlovakAmerican communities in terms of historical origins and contemporary problems. How then can we go about fulfilling this task? The first step is to understand a little more about the nature of historical and empirical research. A NEED FOR DEFINING THE PROBLEM: THE HISTORICAL APPROACH Before a group of people can be studied in any systematic fashion, it is necessary to determine some type of general approach. The approach (or methodology as it is called) that one chooses will in turn permit him to view the situation in a certain way, and to draw certain conclusions from what he observes. These conclusions, if they are based on a sufficient amount of evidence, will then permit the investigator to draw appropriate conclusions or relationships about the group he is studying. Thus the historical approach will specify a problem ( or a hypothesis) that is decided upon as being worthy of further research. For example, one might want to study the history of the first permanent Slovak community in the United States; or, within this framework, look at the role of the priest in relation to newly arrived immigrants. Historical research is vital because as F . Kerlinger states, "it is the critical investigation of events, developments and experiences of the past, the careful weighing of evidence of the validity of sources of information on the past, and �118 SLOVAKIA the interpretation of the weighted evidence." 1 Within this framework, the ethnic historian is particularly concerned with examining written sources in order to determine the quality and quantity of evidence available for the substantiation of his hypothesis. He is basically concerned with primary sources ( original records, minutes of meetings, etc.) and in the methods of internal and external criticism.2 External criticism is concerned with establishing the validity of the sources used, while internal criticism focuses on the content of the documents, themselves. Kerlinger points out the necessity of historiography when he cites the conclusions of the Social Science Research Council.3 Historiography has a necessary relevance to all the soda! sciences, to the humanities, and to the formulation of public and private policies because (1) all the data used in the social sciences, in the humanities, and in the formulation of public and private policies are drawn from records of, experience in, or writing about the past; because (2) all policies respecting human affairs, public or private, and all generalizations of a nonstatistical character in the social sciences and in the humanities involve interpretations of or assumptions about the past; and because (3) all workers in the social sciences and in the humanities are personalities of given times, places, and experience whose tmnking is consequently in some measure conditioned and determined my the historical circumstances of their lives and experiences. Thus, as a starting point in defining the approaches that may be fruitfully used in studying Slovak-Americans, we can see the necessity for beginning the investigation with a solid basis in htstoriography. From this perspective a further methodology can be defined, namely, the social science or empirical approach. 4 SOCIAL SCIENCE APPROACHES TO ETHNIC STUDIES The empirical approach to understanding group behavior utilizes the perspective of history, while at the same time focusing on a more specific problem that is of interest to the researcher. The empirical approach holds that there is an objective world containing "meaning" in the form of patterns of behavior, and that the task of the social scientist is to recognize these behaviors, and interpret them in such a way as to arrive at both their overt and covert meaning. The tactic that is employed in the empirical approach is, basically, what has become known as the scientific method. That is, one formulates a problem that �SLOVAKIA 119 is deemed worthy of study; a hypothesis is put forward that states a certain relationship about the problem under study; the hypothesis is subjected to some type of test (in many cases statistical); and a conclusion, subject to the limits of the quality and quantity of evidence is put forth either substantiating or refuting the hypothesis. What is crucial in this approach is that one must take pains in the beginning of the investigation to formulate the problem as precisely as possible. This is why a hypothesis (or hypotheses) is necessary. A hypothesis is an assumption, a guess, or as Kerlinger says, "a conjectural statement about the relationship between two or more observed phenomena or variables. 5 Thus, one might wish to investigate the relationship between the Slovaks' commitment to their religious beliefs and the tendency to build parochial schools; or, perhaps, examine the correlation between Slovak attitudes toward education and the intergenerational mobility of their children. What we are suggesting here is that there are many more aspects of Slovak culture that can be identified, studied, made known and preserved, and that empirical investigation is only concerned with the compilation of meaningless statistics, or that it will obscure the unique "flavor" of Slovak culture. This need not be the case. What the empirical method of investigation strives to do is to bring to the surface the complexities of values and beliefs of a group of people and, by implication, their uniqueness. Empirical investigation also has the corollary effect of describing and explaining those characteristics that bind and hold a group together. The famous Polish Sociologist, Florian Znaniecki,6 in trying to explain the nature of the sociological investig·ation that he used in his classic work The Polish Peasant, states: Thus all generalizations constituting the common-sense social theory and based on individual experience are both insignificant and subject to innumerable exceptions. A sociology that accepts them necessarily condemns itself to remain in the same methodological stage, and a practice based upon them must be as insecure and as full of failures as is the activity of every individual. Znaniecki, however, goes on to state that sound empirical investigation has the effect of eventually explaining individual behavior more clearly. He goes on to state,7 �120 SLOVAKIA Whenever, now, this "practical" sociology makes an effort to get above the level of popular generalizations by the study of social reality instead of relying upon individual experience, it still preserves the same method as the individual in his personal reflection; investigation always goes on with an immediate reference to practical aims, and the standards of the desirable and undesirable are the ground upon which theoretic problems are approached. Thus, empirical research is an attempt to identify specific problems of interest, and subject these problems to the scrutiny of the scientific (in a broad sense) method. We have now identified the historical and empirical approaches to the study of group behavior as being two powerful tools that the researcher is able to use in arriving at "meaning" for social phenomena. I believe a further positive step in studying Slovak-Americans would be to incorporate both methodological approaches into a larger perspective. A SYNTHESIS OF HISTORICAL- EMPIRICAL INVESTIGATION A perspective that incorporates historiography and a social science empirical approach is needed on two accounts: to broaden the area of investigation for scholars in general, and to insure that a body of well researched and validated knowledge be made available for future generations of people interested in their ethnic heritage. I am positing this approach not as a grand synthesis of two methodological systems to inquiry, but rather to deliniate the thrust of research that is needed to fulfill a large knowledge-gap existing about Slovak-Americans. The historical-social science approach combines the broader inquiry of the historian with the more specialized interest of the social scientist. This type of analysis is supported by a fairly substantial body of research. 8 More specifically, this type of research is now being undertaken by scholars interested in Slovak-American developments. Of particular relevance here is the research being carried on by the University of Minnesota.9 There is, to begin with, a large body of available material on Slovak-Americans that can be ascertained from examining the insurance application files of the First Catholic Slovak Union. The information from these files provides a vast amount of historical information that can give us an accurate profile of the Slovak �SLOVAKIA 121 emigrating to America. From these sources, the researcher is able to gather a composite picture of Slovak-American life. Thus, as Stolarik points out, " we can deduce the relative number of people who emigrated from each county, each village, each city . . . In addition, we can compare the grouping of people in the individual lodges at the parish level." 10 From this data other generalizations can be drawn; the amount of horizontal mobility, life expectancy, group cohesion, marriage patterns, length of residence in America, and so forth. Additional information is available from parish and lodge records. These records provide the researcher with data on parish life, relationship with clergy and the structure of parochial education. Likewise, newspapers such as Slovak v Amerike and Jednota are a further source of important historical materials. Thus, there is an abundance of historical material in which to set a firm basis for the study of SlovakAmericans . Now, within this historical framework, the researcher is also able to concentrate on certain specific aspects of behavior and apply the methods of the social sciences. For example, one of the areas that would be of interest to the sociologist, within the context of Slovak-American communities, would be the nature of social mobility. 11 The idea of mobility is closely related to the notion of stratification. That is, the sociologist is interested in the way societies group their members, and what types of judgements are placed on the people within the various strata. Once he has ascertained how the stratification system is constructed, he can ask whether or not it is possible to "move" from one strata to another, or the amount and type of mobility that occurs. These questions are significant to the researcher because from them he can gain a better understaning to the exact nature of the group he is investigating. For instance, if the researcher is able to identify a number of social classes as being representative of a given society, he can gain a great deal of information as to what different classes value; what their income and educational levels are; what occupations are associated with them; how they raise their children; their mortality rates; associations they belong to; political attitudes they hold; geographical �122 SLOVAKIA areas they occupy, and so forth. With this data, the investigator can determine what the "life-styles" and "lifechances" are for different groups in a society. 12 For our purpose the point is this: To study SlovakAmericans in tenns of mobility (and this is only one dimension) patterns is valuable in that a great deal of useful information can be gotten on changing life-styles and life-chances. This type of data, in turn, will give us answers to such questions as the rate of intergenerational mobility ( differences between father's and son's occupation); the increasing or decreasing educational level of Slovak-Americans ; and, generally, how well they have become assimilated within American society. Many other significant aspects of Slovak-American life can be examined through social science inquiry. One could take, as a point of departure for study, the chances within the structure of the Slovak-American family. A comparison could be made, for instance, between the structure of the family from the time of emigration, to the first five or ten years of living in America. It would be possible then to study such things as the impact of industrialization on the family unit, and the methods used to cope with strain and role conflicts.13 Or one could examine the cohesiveness of Slovak families as a function of their religious identity, language or fraternal organizations. The need for historical background material would, of course, be necessary here also. Inquiry could continue into such areas as achievement levels of Slovak-American children (for any given historical period); the value placed on education by Slovak families; the role of daughters in Slovak families; the role of the mother in the family unit, and so on. The techniques for investigating these types of questions have been worked out within the social sciences, and can be fruitfully employed in providing answers to the above. It is beyond the scope of this article to go into detail as to the statistical design that would be appropriate in investigating these questions. The methodology is available, however, and a design can be worked out by persons trained in these methods. 14 �SLOVAKIA 123 FUTURE DIRECTIONS What we have been saying is this: Slovaks have made a distinct and unique contribution to American Society. They have done this through much hardship, sacrifice, and the endurance of many types of overt and subtle injustices. As with any ethnic group, the Slovaks have a right to emphasize their special contributions in shaping American society. But in order to know what Slovaks have accomplished here and elsewhere, we must first know more about them in a systematic and objective way. To do this requires a frame of mind that is willing to set aside political controversies that are over a half-century old and that relate exclusively to Slovakia. It also calls for a change in attitude in terms of defining Slovak culture in an overly personal and emotional fashion. That is, equating Slovak culture with poetic attempts to discover the "true" Slovak "character"; or with attempts to mythologize certain Slovak leaders and their alleged contributions to all Slovaks. This change of attitude also implies a reorganization of priorities. It calls for supporting historical and scientific research in studying Slovaks; in taking positions on social issues; and in the realization that if young people do not identify in some meaningful way with their Slovak-American heritage, that heritage will not survive. One way to guarantee the survival of this heritage is, I believe, through the type of research outlined thus far. It is only by a large scale emphasis on sound research that a body of knowledge about Slovak-Americans can be constructed. This in turn will stimulate further scholarly interest the results of which will be incorporated, formally, within the structure of higher education and passed on to others who wish to carry on the investigation. In summary, is should be noted again, that objective research does not undermine the uniqueness of a group's heritage or contributions. Studying Slovak-Americans objectively does not mean that one forgets the struggle for freedom that Slovaks have had to under go, or the religious persecutions they have been subjected to. Research does not mean that personal experiences and insights of people do not count, or that the common-man Slovak is forgotten. What objective research does do is to give the sons and daughters of the "average Slovak" a lasting body of knowledge about �124 SLOVAKIA their heritage and of the sacrifices and contributions of their parents and grandparents. REFERENCES 1) Fred N. Kerlinger, Foundation of Behavioral Research (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1965), p. 698. 2) Ibid., p . 699. 3) Ibid., p. 700. 4) For an in depth discussion of the scientific method see, May Brodbeck, "Logic And Scientific Method In Research On Teaching," in Handbook Of Research On Teaching , N. L. Gage, (ed), (Chicago: Rand McNally and Company, 1963) , pp. 44-93. 5) Kerlinger, p. 14. 6) Florian Znaniecki, On Humanistic Sociology, Robert Bierstedt (ed. ), (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1969), p. 58. An excerpt taken from the "Methodological Note" , William I. Thomas and Florian Znaniecki, The Polish Peasant in Europe and America (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1927), 1:1-86. 7) Ibid., p. 58. 8) For a compilation of sources using these methods see, Werner J . Cahnman and Alvin Bosko££ (ed.) , Sociology and History (London: Free Press, 1964) . 9) I am especially indebted to Mr. M. Mark Stolarik of the University of Minnesota for permission to use his excellent paper, "The Immigrant Is Not Anonymous" which was delivered before the American Educational Research Association, The History of Edu cation Division on March 5, 1970. Mr. Stolarik has done what, I believe, is pioneering work in the area of Slovak-American ethnic origins. He has set the important groundwork for further scholarly efforts (both historical and empirical) in this whole area. As Mr. Stolarik points out, this type of research is well on its way and will, if pursued by other scholars, give us a well grounded body of knowledge on Slovak-Americans. I am using the general outline of Mr. Stolarik's paper, pp. 1-10, in this part of the discussion. 10) Stolarik, p. 2. 11) Carol Owen, Social Stratification (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1968), and Melvin M. Tumin, Social Stratification: The Forms And Functions of Inequality (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1967), pp. 56-81. 12) Kurt B. Mayer and Walter Buckley, Class And Society (New York: Randon House, 1970) , pp. 86-134. 13) Talcott Parsons and Robert F. Bales, Family, Socialization and Interaction Process ( Glencoe, Illinois: The Free Press, 1955), pp. 3-9. 14) See, for example, Delbert C. Miller, Handbook of Research And Social Measurement (New York: David McKay Company, Inc., 1964) . � 116 SLOVAKIA Historical and Empirical Methods of Studying Slovak-Americans as A Distinct Ethnic Group By Dr. Steven I. Miller Any attempt to study a given group of people is a difficult task because it required and presupposes a host of complicated procedures and insights into the workings of that group. That is, the group must be "understood" (to use Max Weber's term) on several levels: historical, linguistic, demographic, familial, political, economic and so on. Unless a composite picture of the social grouping is made available on the variables mentioned above, it is virtually impossible to obtain a mature understanding of that group's values, beliefs and life-styles. How then should this task of understanding a group of people be undertaken? There are several approaches to the problem, and we will attempt to deliniate, in a broad perspective, some of them. My thesis is that Slovaks in America have not been, until very recently, studied in any systematic fashion, and that because of this oversight, the Slovak-American community is not well known to scholars and laymen. I also believe that this paucity of systematic research has caused fragmentation and alienation within the Slovak-American community, and is exemplified in a general lack of interests in things Slovak by second and third generation Slovak-Americans. There has also been, I believe, an over emphasis by certain scholars on the political problems within Slovakia itself, with a subsequent neglect of studying in depth the issues that have concerned Slovak-Americans more recently. Now, I am not arguing that the political-historical issues concerning the Slovaks in Slovakia, past and present, be overlooked or minimized in any way. This perspective is needed and merits further research. But the issue now, I believe, is one of balance or priorities. Second and third �SLOVAKIA 117 generation Slovak-Americans find it increasingly difficult to identify in any meaningful fashion with the historicalpolitical problems of Slovakia since 1918. The issues have become too distant in space and time engender a spirit of concern within this younger group. Thus a dilemma ensues: on the one hand there is the necessity of specifying the historical problems (in terms of political and moral issues ) of Slovaks as a unique national group with the possibility of losing the interest of native born SlovakAmericans; on the other hand is the problem of concentrating too exclusively on the concerns of contemporary Slovak-Americans and de-emphasizing their historical ties with Slovakia. My own feelings are that the second emphasis will in the long run be the most beneficial for all Slovaks. Namely, the in-depth and scholarly attempt to study SlovakAmerican communities in terms of historical origins and contemporary problems. How then can we go about fulfilling this task? The first step is to understand a little more about the nature of historical and empirical research. A NEED FOR DEFINING THE PROBLEM: THE HISTORICAL APPROACH Before a group of people can be studied in any systematic fashion, it is necessary to determine some type of general approach. The approach (or methodology as it is called) that one chooses will in turn permit him to view the situation in a certain way, and to draw certain conclusions from what he observes. These conclusions, if they are based on a sufficient amount of evidence, will then permit the investigator to draw appropriate conclusions or relationships about the group he is studying. Thus the historical approach will specify a problem ( or a hypothesis) that is decided upon as being worthy of further research. For example, one might want to study the history of the first permanent Slovak community in the United States; or, within this framework, look at the role of the priest in relation to newly arrived immigrants. Historical research is vital because as F . Kerlinger states, "it is the critical investigation of events, developments and experiences of the past, the careful weighing of evidence of the validity of sources of information on the past, and �118 SLOVAKIA the interpretation of the weighted evidence." 1 Within this framework, the ethnic historian is particularly concerned with examining written sources in order to determine the quality and quantity of evidence available for the substantiation of his hypothesis. He is basically concerned with primary sources ( original records, minutes of meetings, etc.) and in the methods of internal and external criticism.2 External criticism is concerned with establishing the validity of the sources used, while internal criticism focuses on the content of the documents, themselves. Kerlinger points out the necessity of historiography when he cites the conclusions of the Social Science Research Council.3 Historiography has a necessary relevance to all the soda! sciences, to the humanities, and to the formulation of public and private policies because (1) all the data used in the social sciences, in the humanities, and in the formulation of public and private policies are drawn from records of, experience in, or writing about the past; because (2) all policies respecting human affairs, public or private, and all generalizations of a nonstatistical character in the social sciences and in the humanities involve interpretations of or assumptions about the past; and because (3) all workers in the social sciences and in the humanities are personalities of given times, places, and experience whose tmnking is consequently in some measure conditioned and determined my the historical circumstances of their lives and experiences. Thus, as a starting point in defining the approaches that may be fruitfully used in studying Slovak-Americans, we can see the necessity for beginning the investigation with a solid basis in htstoriography. From this perspective a further methodology can be defined, namely, the social science or empirical approach. 4 SOCIAL SCIENCE APPROACHES TO ETHNIC STUDIES The empirical approach to understanding group behavior utilizes the perspective of history, while at the same time focusing on a more specific problem that is of interest to the researcher. The empirical approach holds that there is an objective world containing "meaning" in the form of patterns of behavior, and that the task of the social scientist is to recognize these behaviors, and interpret them in such a way as to arrive at both their overt and covert meaning. The tactic that is employed in the empirical approach is, basically, what has become known as the scientific method. That is, one formulates a problem that �SLOVAKIA 119 is deemed worthy of study; a hypothesis is put forward that states a certain relationship about the problem under study; the hypothesis is subjected to some type of test (in many cases statistical); and a conclusion, subject to the limits of the quality and quantity of evidence is put forth either substantiating or refuting the hypothesis. What is crucial in this approach is that one must take pains in the beginning of the investigation to formulate the problem as precisely as possible. This is why a hypothesis (or hypotheses) is necessary. A hypothesis is an assumption, a guess, or as Kerlinger says, "a conjectural statement about the relationship between two or more observed phenomena or variables. 5 Thus, one might wish to investigate the relationship between the Slovaks' commitment to their religious beliefs and the tendency to build parochial schools; or, perhaps, examine the correlation between Slovak attitudes toward education and the intergenerational mobility of their children. What we are suggesting here is that there are many more aspects of Slovak culture that can be identified, studied, made known and preserved, and that empirical investigation is only concerned with the compilation of meaningless statistics, or that it will obscure the unique "flavor" of Slovak culture. This need not be the case. What the empirical method of investigation strives to do is to bring to the surface the complexities of values and beliefs of a group of people and, by implication, their uniqueness. Empirical investigation also has the corollary effect of describing and explaining those characteristics that bind and hold a group together. The famous Polish Sociologist, Florian Znaniecki,6 in trying to explain the nature of the sociological investig·ation that he used in his classic work The Polish Peasant, states: Thus all generalizations constituting the common-sense social theory and based on individual experience are both insignificant and subject to innumerable exceptions. A sociology that accepts them necessarily condemns itself to remain in the same methodological stage, and a practice based upon them must be as insecure and as full of failures as is the activity of every individual. Znaniecki, however, goes on to state that sound empirical investigation has the effect of eventually explaining individual behavior more clearly. He goes on to state,7 �120 SLOVAKIA Whenever, now, this "practical" sociology makes an effort to get above the level of popular generalizations by the study of social reality instead of relying upon individual experience, it still preserves the same method as the individual in his personal reflection; investigation always goes on with an immediate reference to practical aims, and the standards of the desirable and undesirable are the ground upon which theoretic problems are approached. Thus, empirical research is an attempt to identify specific problems of interest, and subject these problems to the scrutiny of the scientific (in a broad sense) method. We have now identified the historical and empirical approaches to the study of group behavior as being two powerful tools that the researcher is able to use in arriving at "meaning" for social phenomena. I believe a further positive step in studying Slovak-Americans would be to incorporate both methodological approaches into a larger perspective. A SYNTHESIS OF HISTORICAL- EMPIRICAL INVESTIGATION A perspective that incorporates historiography and a social science empirical approach is needed on two accounts: to broaden the area of investigation for scholars in general, and to insure that a body of well researched and validated knowledge be made available for future generations of people interested in their ethnic heritage. I am positing this approach not as a grand synthesis of two methodological systems to inquiry, but rather to deliniate the thrust of research that is needed to fulfill a large knowledge-gap existing about Slovak-Americans. The historical-social science approach combines the broader inquiry of the historian with the more specialized interest of the social scientist. This type of analysis is supported by a fairly substantial body of research. 8 More specifically, this type of research is now being undertaken by scholars interested in Slovak-American developments. Of particular relevance here is the research being carried on by the University of Minnesota.9 There is, to begin with, a large body of available material on Slovak-Americans that can be ascertained from examining the insurance application files of the First Catholic Slovak Union. The information from these files provides a vast amount of historical information that can give us an accurate profile of the Slovak �SLOVAKIA 121 emigrating to America. From these sources, the researcher is able to gather a composite picture of Slovak-American life. Thus, as Stolarik points out, " we can deduce the relative number of people who emigrated from each county, each village, each city . . . In addition, we can compare the grouping of people in the individual lodges at the parish level." 10 From this data other generalizations can be drawn; the amount of horizontal mobility, life expectancy, group cohesion, marriage patterns, length of residence in America, and so forth. Additional information is available from parish and lodge records. These records provide the researcher with data on parish life, relationship with clergy and the structure of parochial education. Likewise, newspapers such as Slovak v Amerike and Jednota are a further source of important historical materials. Thus, there is an abundance of historical material in which to set a firm basis for the study of SlovakAmericans . Now, within this historical framework, the researcher is also able to concentrate on certain specific aspects of behavior and apply the methods of the social sciences. For example, one of the areas that would be of interest to the sociologist, within the context of Slovak-American communities, would be the nature of social mobility. 11 The idea of mobility is closely related to the notion of stratification. That is, the sociologist is interested in the way societies group their members, and what types of judgements are placed on the people within the various strata. Once he has ascertained how the stratification system is constructed, he can ask whether or not it is possible to "move" from one strata to another, or the amount and type of mobility that occurs. These questions are significant to the researcher because from them he can gain a better understaning to the exact nature of the group he is investigating. For instance, if the researcher is able to identify a number of social classes as being representative of a given society, he can gain a great deal of information as to what different classes value; what their income and educational levels are; what occupations are associated with them; how they raise their children; their mortality rates; associations they belong to; political attitudes they hold; geographical �122 SLOVAKIA areas they occupy, and so forth. With this data, the investigator can determine what the "life-styles" and "lifechances" are for different groups in a society. 12 For our purpose the point is this: To study SlovakAmericans in tenns of mobility (and this is only one dimension) patterns is valuable in that a great deal of useful information can be gotten on changing life-styles and life-chances. This type of data, in turn, will give us answers to such questions as the rate of intergenerational mobility ( differences between father's and son's occupation); the increasing or decreasing educational level of Slovak-Americans ; and, generally, how well they have become assimilated within American society. Many other significant aspects of Slovak-American life can be examined through social science inquiry. One could take, as a point of departure for study, the chances within the structure of the Slovak-American family. A comparison could be made, for instance, between the structure of the family from the time of emigration, to the first five or ten years of living in America. It would be possible then to study such things as the impact of industrialization on the family unit, and the methods used to cope with strain and role conflicts.13 Or one could examine the cohesiveness of Slovak families as a function of their religious identity, language or fraternal organizations. The need for historical background material would, of course, be necessary here also. Inquiry could continue into such areas as achievement levels of Slovak-American children (for any given historical period); the value placed on education by Slovak families; the role of daughters in Slovak families; the role of the mother in the family unit, and so on. The techniques for investigating these types of questions have been worked out within the social sciences, and can be fruitfully employed in providing answers to the above. It is beyond the scope of this article to go into detail as to the statistical design that would be appropriate in investigating these questions. The methodology is available, however, and a design can be worked out by persons trained in these methods. 14 �SLOVAKIA 123 FUTURE DIRECTIONS What we have been saying is this: Slovaks have made a distinct and unique contribution to American Society. They have done this through much hardship, sacrifice, and the endurance of many types of overt and subtle injustices. As with any ethnic group, the Slovaks have a right to emphasize their special contributions in shaping American society. But in order to know what Slovaks have accomplished here and elsewhere, we must first know more about them in a systematic and objective way. To do this requires a frame of mind that is willing to set aside political controversies that are over a half-century old and that relate exclusively to Slovakia. It also calls for a change in attitude in terms of defining Slovak culture in an overly personal and emotional fashion. That is, equating Slovak culture with poetic attempts to discover the "true" Slovak "character"; or with attempts to mythologize certain Slovak leaders and their alleged contributions to all Slovaks. This change of attitude also implies a reorganization of priorities. It calls for supporting historical and scientific research in studying Slovaks; in taking positions on social issues; and in the realization that if young people do not identify in some meaningful way with their Slovak-American heritage, that heritage will not survive. One way to guarantee the survival of this heritage is, I believe, through the type of research outlined thus far. It is only by a large scale emphasis on sound research that a body of knowledge about Slovak-Americans can be constructed. This in turn will stimulate further scholarly interest the results of which will be incorporated, formally, within the structure of higher education and passed on to others who wish to carry on the investigation. In summary, is should be noted again, that objective research does not undermine the uniqueness of a group's heritage or contributions. Studying Slovak-Americans objectively does not mean that one forgets the struggle for freedom that Slovaks have had to under go, or the religious persecutions they have been subjected to. Research does not mean that personal experiences and insights of people do not count, or that the common-man Slovak is forgotten. What objective research does do is to give the sons and daughters of the "average Slovak" a lasting body of knowledge about �124 SLOVAKIA their heritage and of the sacrifices and contributions of their parents and grandparents. REFERENCES 1) Fred N. Kerlinger, Foundation of Behavioral Research (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1965), p. 698. 2) Ibid., p . 699. 3) Ibid., p. 700. 4) For an in depth discussion of the scientific method see, May Brodbeck, "Logic And Scientific Method In Research On Teaching," in Handbook Of Research On Teaching , N. L. Gage, (ed), (Chicago: Rand McNally and Company, 1963) , pp. 44-93. 5) Kerlinger, p. 14. 6) Florian Znaniecki, On Humanistic Sociology, Robert Bierstedt (ed. ), (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1969), p. 58. An excerpt taken from the "Methodological Note" , William I. Thomas and Florian Znaniecki, The Polish Peasant in Europe and America (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1927), 1:1-86. 7) Ibid., p. 58. 8) For a compilation of sources using these methods see, Werner J . Cahnman and Alvin Bosko££ (ed.) , Sociology and History (London: Free Press, 1964) . 9) I am especially indebted to Mr. M. Mark Stolarik of the University of Minnesota for permission to use his excellent paper, "The Immigrant Is Not Anonymous" which was delivered before the American Educational Research Association, The History of Edu cation Division on March 5, 1970. Mr. Stolarik has done what, I believe, is pioneering work in the area of Slovak-American ethnic origins. He has set the important groundwork for further scholarly efforts (both historical and empirical) in this whole area. As Mr. Stolarik points out, this type of research is well on its way and will, if pursued by other scholars, give us a well grounded body of knowledge on Slovak-Americans. I am using the general outline of Mr. Stolarik's paper, pp. 1-10, in this part of the discussion. 10) Stolarik, p. 2. 11) Carol Owen, Social Stratification (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1968), and Melvin M. Tumin, Social Stratification: The Forms And Functions of Inequality (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1967), pp. 56-81. 12) Kurt B. Mayer and Walter Buckley, Class And Society (New York: Randon House, 1970) , pp. 86-134. 13) Talcott Parsons and Robert F. Bales, Family, Socialization and Interaction Process ( Glencoe, Illinois: The Free Press, 1955), pp. 3-9. 14) See, for example, Delbert C. Miller, Handbook of Research And Social Measurement (New York: David McKay Company, Inc., 1964) . � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1972, Vol. 22 Description An account of the resource Vol. 22 (No. 45), 1972. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1972 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document 116 SLOVAKIA Historical and Empirical Methods of Studying Slovak-Americans as A Distinct Ethnic Group By Dr. Steven I. Miller Any attempt to study a given group of people is a difficult task because it required and presupposes a host of complicated procedures and insights into the workings of that group. That is, the group must be "understood" (to use Max Weber's term) on several levels: historical, linguistic, demographic, familial, political, economic and so on. Unless a composite picture of the social grouping is made available on the variables mentioned above, it is virtually impossible to obtain a mature understanding of that group's values, beliefs and life-styles. How then should this task of understanding a group of people be undertaken? There are several approaches to the problem, and we will attempt to deliniate, in a broad perspective, some of them. My thesis is that Slovaks in America have not been, until very recently, studied in any systematic fashion, and that because of this oversight, the Slovak-American community is not well known to scholars and laymen. I also believe that this paucity of systematic research has caused fragmentation and alienation within the Slovak-American community, and is exemplified in a general lack of interests in things Slovak by second and third generation Slovak-Americans. There has also been, I believe, an over emphasis by certain scholars on the political problems within Slovakia itself, with a subsequent neglect of studying in depth the issues that have concerned Slovak-Americans more recently. Now, I am not arguing that the political-historical issues concerning the Slovaks in Slovakia, past and present, be overlooked or minimized in any way. This perspective is needed and merits further research. But the issue now, I believe, is one of balance or priorities. Second and third SLOVAKIA 117 generation Slovak-Americans find it increasingly difficult to identify in any meaningful fashion with the historicalpolitical problems of Slovakia since 1918. The issues have become too distant in space and time engender a spirit of concern within this younger group. Thus a dilemma ensues: on the one hand there is the necessity of specifying the historical problems (in terms of political and moral issues ) of Slovaks as a unique national group with the possibility of losing the interest of native born SlovakAmericans; on the other hand is the problem of concentrating too exclusively on the concerns of contemporary Slovak-Americans and de-emphasizing their historical ties with Slovakia. My own feelings are that the second emphasis will in the long run be the most beneficial for all Slovaks. Namely, the in-depth and scholarly attempt to study SlovakAmerican communities in terms of historical origins and contemporary problems. How then can we go about fulfilling this task? The first step is to understand a little more about the nature of historical and empirical research. A NEED FOR DEFINING THE PROBLEM: THE HISTORICAL APPROACH Before a group of people can be studied in any systematic fashion, it is necessary to determine some type of general approach. The approach (or methodology as it is called) that one chooses will in turn permit him to view the situation in a certain way, and to draw certain conclusions from what he observes. These conclusions, if they are based on a sufficient amount of evidence, will then permit the investigator to draw appropriate conclusions or relationships about the group he is studying. Thus the historical approach will specify a problem ( or a hypothesis) that is decided upon as being worthy of further research. For example, one might want to study the history of the first permanent Slovak community in the United States; or, within this framework, look at the role of the priest in relation to newly arrived immigrants. Historical research is vital because as F . Kerlinger states, "it is the critical investigation of events, developments and experiences of the past, the careful weighing of evidence of the validity of sources of information on the past, and 118 SLOVAKIA the interpretation of the weighted evidence." 1 Within this framework, the ethnic historian is particularly concerned with examining written sources in order to determine the quality and quantity of evidence available for the substantiation of his hypothesis. He is basically concerned with primary sources ( original records, minutes of meetings, etc.) and in the methods of internal and external criticism.2 External criticism is concerned with establishing the validity of the sources used, while internal criticism focuses on the content of the documents, themselves. Kerlinger points out the necessity of historiography when he cites the conclusions of the Social Science Research Council.3 Historiography has a necessary relevance to all the soda! sciences, to the humanities, and to the formulation of public and private policies because (1) all the data used in the social sciences, in the humanities, and in the formulation of public and private policies are drawn from records of, experience in, or writing about the past; because (2) all policies respecting human affairs, public or private, and all generalizations of a nonstatistical character in the social sciences and in the humanities involve interpretations of or assumptions about the past; and because (3) all workers in the social sciences and in the humanities are personalities of given times, places, and experience whose tmnking is consequently in some measure conditioned and determined my the historical circumstances of their lives and experiences. Thus, as a starting point in defining the approaches that may be fruitfully used in studying Slovak-Americans, we can see the necessity for beginning the investigation with a solid basis in htstoriography. From this perspective a further methodology can be defined, namely, the social science or empirical approach. 4 SOCIAL SCIENCE APPROACHES TO ETHNIC STUDIES The empirical approach to understanding group behavior utilizes the perspective of history, while at the same time focusing on a more specific problem that is of interest to the researcher. The empirical approach holds that there is an objective world containing "meaning" in the form of patterns of behavior, and that the task of the social scientist is to recognize these behaviors, and interpret them in such a way as to arrive at both their overt and covert meaning. The tactic that is employed in the empirical approach is, basically, what has become known as the scientific method. That is, one formulates a problem that SLOVAKIA 119 is deemed worthy of study; a hypothesis is put forward that states a certain relationship about the problem under study; the hypothesis is subjected to some type of test (in many cases statistical); and a conclusion, subject to the limits of the quality and quantity of evidence is put forth either substantiating or refuting the hypothesis. What is crucial in this approach is that one must take pains in the beginning of the investigation to formulate the problem as precisely as possible. This is why a hypothesis (or hypotheses) is necessary. A hypothesis is an assumption, a guess, or as Kerlinger says, "a conjectural statement about the relationship between two or more observed phenomena or variables. 5 Thus, one might wish to investigate the relationship between the Slovaks' commitment to their religious beliefs and the tendency to build parochial schools; or, perhaps, examine the correlation between Slovak attitudes toward education and the intergenerational mobility of their children. What we are suggesting here is that there are many more aspects of Slovak culture that can be identified, studied, made known and preserved, and that empirical investigation is only concerned with the compilation of meaningless statistics, or that it will obscure the unique "flavor" of Slovak culture. This need not be the case. What the empirical method of investigation strives to do is to bring to the surface the complexities of values and beliefs of a group of people and, by implication, their uniqueness. Empirical investigation also has the corollary effect of describing and explaining those characteristics that bind and hold a group together. The famous Polish Sociologist, Florian Znaniecki,6 in trying to explain the nature of the sociological investig·ation that he used in his classic work The Polish Peasant, states: Thus all generalizations constituting the common-sense social theory and based on individual experience are both insignificant and subject to innumerable exceptions. A sociology that accepts them necessarily condemns itself to remain in the same methodological stage, and a practice based upon them must be as insecure and as full of failures as is the activity of every individual. Znaniecki, however, goes on to state that sound empirical investigation has the effect of eventually explaining individual behavior more clearly. He goes on to state,7 120 SLOVAKIA Whenever, now, this "practical" sociology makes an effort to get above the level of popular generalizations by the study of social reality instead of relying upon individual experience, it still preserves the same method as the individual in his personal reflection; investigation always goes on with an immediate reference to practical aims, and the standards of the desirable and undesirable are the ground upon which theoretic problems are approached. Thus, empirical research is an attempt to identify specific problems of interest, and subject these problems to the scrutiny of the scientific (in a broad sense) method. We have now identified the historical and empirical approaches to the study of group behavior as being two powerful tools that the researcher is able to use in arriving at "meaning" for social phenomena. I believe a further positive step in studying Slovak-Americans would be to incorporate both methodological approaches into a larger perspective. A SYNTHESIS OF HISTORICAL- EMPIRICAL INVESTIGATION A perspective that incorporates historiography and a social science empirical approach is needed on two accounts: to broaden the area of investigation for scholars in general, and to insure that a body of well researched and validated knowledge be made available for future generations of people interested in their ethnic heritage. I am positing this approach not as a grand synthesis of two methodological systems to inquiry, but rather to deliniate the thrust of research that is needed to fulfill a large knowledge-gap existing about Slovak-Americans. The historical-social science approach combines the broader inquiry of the historian with the more specialized interest of the social scientist. This type of analysis is supported by a fairly substantial body of research. 8 More specifically, this type of research is now being undertaken by scholars interested in Slovak-American developments. Of particular relevance here is the research being carried on by the University of Minnesota.9 There is, to begin with, a large body of available material on Slovak-Americans that can be ascertained from examining the insurance application files of the First Catholic Slovak Union. The information from these files provides a vast amount of historical information that can give us an accurate profile of the Slovak SLOVAKIA 121 emigrating to America. From these sources, the researcher is able to gather a composite picture of Slovak-American life. Thus, as Stolarik points out, " we can deduce the relative number of people who emigrated from each county, each village, each city . . . In addition, we can compare the grouping of people in the individual lodges at the parish level." 10 From this data other generalizations can be drawn; the amount of horizontal mobility, life expectancy, group cohesion, marriage patterns, length of residence in America, and so forth. Additional information is available from parish and lodge records. These records provide the researcher with data on parish life, relationship with clergy and the structure of parochial education. Likewise, newspapers such as Slovak v Amerike and Jednota are a further source of important historical materials. Thus, there is an abundance of historical material in which to set a firm basis for the study of SlovakAmericans . Now, within this historical framework, the researcher is also able to concentrate on certain specific aspects of behavior and apply the methods of the social sciences. For example, one of the areas that would be of interest to the sociologist, within the context of Slovak-American communities, would be the nature of social mobility. 11 The idea of mobility is closely related to the notion of stratification. That is, the sociologist is interested in the way societies group their members, and what types of judgements are placed on the people within the various strata. Once he has ascertained how the stratification system is constructed, he can ask whether or not it is possible to "move" from one strata to another, or the amount and type of mobility that occurs. These questions are significant to the researcher because from them he can gain a better understaning to the exact nature of the group he is investigating. For instance, if the researcher is able to identify a number of social classes as being representative of a given society, he can gain a great deal of information as to what different classes value; what their income and educational levels are; what occupations are associated with them; how they raise their children; their mortality rates; associations they belong to; political attitudes they hold; geographical 122 SLOVAKIA areas they occupy, and so forth. With this data, the investigator can determine what the "life-styles" and "lifechances" are for different groups in a society. 12 For our purpose the point is this: To study SlovakAmericans in tenns of mobility (and this is only one dimension) patterns is valuable in that a great deal of useful information can be gotten on changing life-styles and life-chances. This type of data, in turn, will give us answers to such questions as the rate of intergenerational mobility ( differences between father's and son's occupation); the increasing or decreasing educational level of Slovak-Americans ; and, generally, how well they have become assimilated within American society. Many other significant aspects of Slovak-American life can be examined through social science inquiry. One could take, as a point of departure for study, the chances within the structure of the Slovak-American family. A comparison could be made, for instance, between the structure of the family from the time of emigration, to the first five or ten years of living in America. It would be possible then to study such things as the impact of industrialization on the family unit, and the methods used to cope with strain and role conflicts.13 Or one could examine the cohesiveness of Slovak families as a function of their religious identity, language or fraternal organizations. The need for historical background material would, of course, be necessary here also. Inquiry could continue into such areas as achievement levels of Slovak-American children (for any given historical period); the value placed on education by Slovak families; the role of daughters in Slovak families; the role of the mother in the family unit, and so on. The techniques for investigating these types of questions have been worked out within the social sciences, and can be fruitfully employed in providing answers to the above. It is beyond the scope of this article to go into detail as to the statistical design that would be appropriate in investigating these questions. The methodology is available, however, and a design can be worked out by persons trained in these methods. 14 SLOVAKIA 123 FUTURE DIRECTIONS What we have been saying is this: Slovaks have made a distinct and unique contribution to American Society. They have done this through much hardship, sacrifice, and the endurance of many types of overt and subtle injustices. As with any ethnic group, the Slovaks have a right to emphasize their special contributions in shaping American society. But in order to know what Slovaks have accomplished here and elsewhere, we must first know more about them in a systematic and objective way. To do this requires a frame of mind that is willing to set aside political controversies that are over a half-century old and that relate exclusively to Slovakia. It also calls for a change in attitude in terms of defining Slovak culture in an overly personal and emotional fashion. That is, equating Slovak culture with poetic attempts to discover the "true" Slovak "character"; or with attempts to mythologize certain Slovak leaders and their alleged contributions to all Slovaks. This change of attitude also implies a reorganization of priorities. It calls for supporting historical and scientific research in studying Slovaks; in taking positions on social issues; and in the realization that if young people do not identify in some meaningful way with their Slovak-American heritage, that heritage will not survive. One way to guarantee the survival of this heritage is, I believe, through the type of research outlined thus far. It is only by a large scale emphasis on sound research that a body of knowledge about Slovak-Americans can be constructed. This in turn will stimulate further scholarly interest the results of which will be incorporated, formally, within the structure of higher education and passed on to others who wish to carry on the investigation. In summary, is should be noted again, that objective research does not undermine the uniqueness of a group's heritage or contributions. Studying Slovak-Americans objectively does not mean that one forgets the struggle for freedom that Slovaks have had to under go, or the religious persecutions they have been subjected to. Research does not mean that personal experiences and insights of people do not count, or that the common-man Slovak is forgotten. What objective research does do is to give the sons and daughters of the "average Slovak" a lasting body of knowledge about 124 SLOVAKIA their heritage and of the sacrifices and contributions of their parents and grandparents. REFERENCES 1) Fred N. Kerlinger, Foundation of Behavioral Research (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1965), p. 698. 2) Ibid., p . 699. 3) Ibid., p. 700. 4) For an in depth discussion of the scientific method see, May Brodbeck, "Logic And Scientific Method In Research On Teaching," in Handbook Of Research On Teaching , N. L. Gage, (ed), (Chicago: Rand McNally and Company, 1963) , pp. 44-93. 5) Kerlinger, p. 14. 6) Florian Znaniecki, On Humanistic Sociology, Robert Bierstedt (ed. ), (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1969), p. 58. An excerpt taken from the "Methodological Note" , William I. Thomas and Florian Znaniecki, The Polish Peasant in Europe and America (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1927), 1:1-86. 7) Ibid., p. 58. 8) For a compilation of sources using these methods see, Werner J . Cahnman and Alvin Bosko££ (ed.) , Sociology and History (London: Free Press, 1964) . 9) I am especially indebted to Mr. M. Mark Stolarik of the University of Minnesota for permission to use his excellent paper, "The Immigrant Is Not Anonymous" which was delivered before the American Educational Research Association, The History of Edu cation Division on March 5, 1970. Mr. Stolarik has done what, I believe, is pioneering work in the area of Slovak-American ethnic origins. He has set the important groundwork for further scholarly efforts (both historical and empirical) in this whole area. As Mr. Stolarik points out, this type of research is well on its way and will, if pursued by other scholars, give us a well grounded body of knowledge on Slovak-Americans. I am using the general outline of Mr. Stolarik's paper, pp. 1-10, in this part of the discussion. 10) Stolarik, p. 2. 11) Carol Owen, Social Stratification (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1968), and Melvin M. Tumin, Social Stratification: The Forms And Functions of Inequality (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1967), pp. 56-81. 12) Kurt B. Mayer and Walter Buckley, Class And Society (New York: Randon House, 1970) , pp. 86-134. 13) Talcott Parsons and Robert F. Bales, Family, Socialization and Interaction Process ( Glencoe, Illinois: The Free Press, 1955), pp. 3-9. 14) See, for example, Delbert C. Miller, Handbook of Research And Social Measurement (New York: David McKay Company, Inc., 1964) .  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Historical and Empirical Methods of Studying Slovak-Americans as a Distinct Ethnic Group Description An account of the resource Dr. Steven I. Miller Slovakia, Vol. 22 (No. 45), 1972 pp. 116-124 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Miller, Steven I. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1972 LCNAF https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/574089206b642f83a9cda68af3648a4b.pdf c2acc0b496c7bfee40ab932cc3769fde PDF Text Text 22 SLOVAKIA wownd was adm1nistered anew, when a free and independent Slow.Ilda was born. They are squirnl.in,g like a wounded snaJke and wd:11 not recognize the truth that there was no other way out for the .sa1viation of the Slovak nation, except that wMch the ,present lead~s in Slovakia had taken . . . . " Amedcans of .Slovffik descent kneiw the meaning o.f freedom and independence. They enjoyed the bJess,i ngs of the American way of life. As tTue Ameniicans they CO'llld not wish less to the nation they descended from. It is to their everliasting oredit that the,y ruoted as manfully as they did when the Slovak Republic wrus born on March 14, 1939. God bles,s Amerioa, God 1bless and protect the Slovak nation in this darkest period of its history! • • • HISTORICAL TRUTH AND :F ALSE LEGENDS Francis Hrusovsky Theil'e rure people who are not bl1nd, b1u t do not want to see the true face of reality. They aTe not deaif, but their ears are not a;c,cessi:ble to the voice of truth. Nor are they inteHectuaUy so dull as nOlt to ,be aJble to comprehend a matter in its .sulbstance, :if they only wanted to. Such people distort even the s1mplest matter and enravel it with a veil of confusion oocording to their o,w n conceptions and their own selfish interests. The,y are cowardly to kno,w and confess the truth and PTefer to deceive themse1ves and ha;ve suf:fiicient courage to deceive others. In this manner it is possiible to charructerize the ,p eople who present the historical fact of the proclamation of the state independence of Slovrukia in a false light and then with consistent stubbornness endeavo,r to 1present in a false light everything that is connected with the Slovak Republic. The utterly simple historical fact is that on March 14, 1939, the Slovak Assembliy declared Slovakia an independent Slovruk State This historical fact was acknowledged by many states (27), which recognized the SlovaJk Republic either de jure or de facto and esta:blished drplomaUc rela- �SLOVAKIA 23 tions with it. And not-even the worst distortion oif the truth can deny the incontrovertible reality that the Sloivak nation accepted the decision of the Slovruk Ass,emlbly spontaneously, but even with sincere enthusiasm. Whoever obsevved the internail developmelllt of the Sloivak Republic with open eyes and without prejudice, and whoever wanted to see how bhe relationship of the Slovak nation to Slo,vaik independence was being for.med, very easily could have convinced himself that their relationship was always positive and was constantly becoming more ardent. It was really and truly only a natural developcnent. Even though the historical facts were and still are easily ascertainaJble, some people, nevertheless. did not and still do not like the simple and plain truth and, therefore, dress the historical e,v ent in garments orf false legends. The gist o,f the matter is lost to them in a flood of details, and by stressing secondary, frequently insignificaint phenomena, the,y stun or cover up the real sUJbSitance. Of cours z, they know what they are doing; they know what they wish to attain by doing so. When e,v aluating a historical fact, such as the declaration o,,f the state independence of Slovakia, the only question of real s,i:gnifiicance is whether the SloiVruk nation had the rrght to declare its country an independent state. It may be interesting, .but utterly secondary, whether this historical dedsion of the Slovak Assembly was made under this or that international situation which, aifter all, fol'med only the outer frame for March 14, 1939. The Slovak nation itself never doubted arbout its inherent right to. freedom and state independernJCe. And it will not debate about this right with aruy one. '.Dhe incontr01Vertible truth is that it does possess this right in the same measure as do other nations of the earth. The people who created and are still creating false legends rubout March 14, 1939, do not have the courage to openly denry the Slovak nation the r:ght to state inclepe,n dence: in fact, b principle they recognize this right_ and th€1oretiically hruve no objections a:gainst it. Nevertheless, for reasons olbvious and best known to themselves, they present the very event of �24 SLOVAKIA the declaration of the independence of the Slov,ak State in a fal:se light. Into the forefront of the historical scene they are pushing per.sons who did not have a deciding role in the issue and are magnifying phenomena whi'ch were only secondary ~isodes. Even though they know that Dr. Joseph Tiso and Karol Sidor repudiated Hitler's proposition, and even though they know that neither Hitler nor his people had any influence on the members of the Slovak Assembly, nevertheless they maintain and continue to ~peat that the decl·a ration of the state independence of Slovakia was dictated to the Slovalks from the outside. This is a conscious and intentional falsification of a historical fact. Such a presentation o.f the matter is proof of not comprehending historical development and is an insult for the Slovak nation which is thereby pre,se,nted as a child without its own will. They created this false legend so that they might devaluate the state independence of SlovaJkia and validate their own interests . .Am,other false legend is the story that by declaring the ind~ndence cxf Slovakia the Slovaiks committed treason against the state, the state which during 1ts entire existence never fol.!f,Bled the dghteous demands of the Slovalk nation and with its political ideo.Jogy and its internal management stood in opposition to the ,vital interests of Slovakia. Allegations of "treason" against the. Sl01Va)k nation are proof that, a:ccording to such- an opinion, the SlOIVak nation was db1rged to r emain until the end of time in union with a state whrch did not satisfy the needs of a free Sl01Vaik way of life. That Js, the SJ01VaJks, even though theoretically the right to independence was not denied them, were not to be allowed to use this right in practice, nay, even had to surrend<eT it. The ,p eople who .talik about the "treason" of the Slovak nation in thts fashion naturally would have to see even a greater treason in the declaration olf independence of the United S'tates and would have to condemp. the course of every nation whi!ch has already declared the independence of its country or which is still endeavori.I.J:g- to attain_its in- �SLOVAKIA 25 dependence. Of course, ithey are wise eno1UJgh not to mention any such nonsense. The srume ,people - the Benes Czeohs ( Czech Socialists and pro-1Soviet Czechs) and the so-ica11ed "Czechoslovaks" (Slovak renegades in the pay oif the Benes Czechs) - talJked long and loudly alboiut the "treason" of the Slovak nation against Slavdom. But this legend lasted only as long as coonmtmist Moscow appeared in a Slovruk mamtie so thait it might thereby more effectiively realize its own designs in the ensl·a ved .SlOV1anic (1Shwic) countries. When Ml()SICow discarded this imam.tle., these people immediately ceased talking about Slawdom, 1because the legend lost tts attraictiveness. Perhrups the greatest inconsistency and confused contriadiction was found in ,tJhe legend aJbout SlOIVak "fascism," whiich stated that by declaring its independence Slovakiia had ,t hrwst herself into the embrace. of nruzism. If the authors of this legend really were interested in the truth, they would necessarily have to adrmit and give pulblic testimony to the fact that the Slovak Reipubl.ic, mana;ged in ,t he spirit of the slogan "loyal to ourselrves . . ." by President J oseiph Tiso,, was the most secure iprotection of SlovaJk lilfe against the influence of German nruzism. The legend, whiich was farthest from historical truth and is the crown of a}ll falsehoods and misrepresentations about the Slwak RepU!blic, is the legend aJbout tilie SO'-lealled "national uprising" and its "great a·chievemeruts," which the "CzechoslovaJks" invented in their fantasy and described. in such glowing teI'lmS, declaring that in the union oif the Comm'UI1ist-dominated National Front "the Sl'OIVruks were governing themselves." As shameful as was the content of this legend with all its details, so just as shamel:f.trl and inglorious was also its end. All these legends, blown wp beyond credi!ble dimensions by the fanfare of irresistible propaganda, were dispelied li!ke a dirty, ma}odorous mist. There remained onil.y lbare rea}lity and historical triuth. And suich a reality and clerur, undenia;ble and unaltera'b le histoTiical truth is the fact that the Slovalk nation did have its -own indepernderut staite and that in this state. even .with all its faults and shortcomings, the Slo- �26 SLOVAKIA vruks soon became cOiIWinoed that Slova;kia was self-suffie,ient economically and that they were mature enough politically to live a free and independent life. After the false legends, the puripose of which it was to stupefy the Slovak naition and stifle in it the yearning for independence, there came a period of suffering, misery and enslavement. But the burden of this sad fate only strengthened in the Slovak nation the consciousness of its ri ght to fz:eedom and fo11tified its desire for the restoration of the state independence of Slovrukia. The Slovaik nation, ooe of the oldest Christian nruti ons o,f central Europe, will never rest satisfied until it is free of all tyranny and all foreign domrinatioo.. 1 1 • • • THE FIFTEENTH ANNIVERSARY OF SLOVAKIA'S DECLARATI ON OF INDEPENDE NCE N3 citiizens of the democraitic Republic of the United States of America, we firimly hold to the beLief that all nations without exception. have the inherent, God-given right the right to establish to freedom and independence to- freely elect a right the and state their own ,p olitical government of their orwn choice. On March 14, 1939, after centuries of alien domination, the 1peo.ple of Slovrukia exercised their inherenit right when their druly elected representative s in the autonomous Slovak Asseimlbly proclaimed the independence of their country and estaJblished the Republic of Slovakia. Of course, the:re are people in Amen-ca even today who present this historical fact in a false light and endeavor to debase and vilify everything connected with it. Nevertheless, the utterly .s imple historical truth is that the Slovak Asse:m!bly unanimously declared the land of the Slovaks an independent repulblic - the Republic of Slovakia. The Slova'k Repll!blic, the dream of Slovak generations, became a reality and was recogmzed by twenty-seven countries, ilncluili.ng the governments of Great Britain, France and the Soviet Union. After Slovakia was declared inde- � 22 SLOVAKIA wownd was adm1nistered anew, when a free and independent Slow.Ilda was born. They are squirnl.in,g like a wounded snaJke and wd:11 not recognize the truth that there was no other way out for the .sa1viation of the Slovak nation, except that wMch the ,present lead~s in Slovakia had taken . . . . " Amedcans of .Slovffik descent kneiw the meaning o.f freedom and independence. They enjoyed the bJess,i ngs of the American way of life. As tTue Ameniicans they CO'llld not wish less to the nation they descended from. It is to their everliasting oredit that the,y ruoted as manfully as they did when the Slovak Republic wrus born on March 14, 1939. God bles,s Amerioa, God 1bless and protect the Slovak nation in this darkest period of its history! • • • HISTORICAL TRUTH AND :F ALSE LEGENDS Francis Hrusovsky Theil'e rure people who are not bl1nd, b1u t do not want to see the true face of reality. They aTe not deaif, but their ears are not a;c,cessi:ble to the voice of truth. Nor are they inteHectuaUy so dull as nOlt to ,be aJble to comprehend a matter in its .sulbstance, :if they only wanted to. Such people distort even the s1mplest matter and enravel it with a veil of confusion oocording to their o,w n conceptions and their own selfish interests. The,y are cowardly to kno,w and confess the truth and PTefer to deceive themse1ves and ha;ve suf:fiicient courage to deceive others. In this manner it is possiible to charructerize the ,p eople who present the historical fact of the proclamation of the state independence of Slovrukia in a false light and then with consistent stubbornness endeavo,r to 1present in a false light everything that is connected with the Slovak Republic. The utterly simple historical fact is that on March 14, 1939, the Slovak Assembliy declared Slovakia an independent Slovruk State This historical fact was acknowledged by many states (27), which recognized the SlovaJk Republic either de jure or de facto and esta:blished drplomaUc rela- �SLOVAKIA 23 tions with it. And not-even the worst distortion oif the truth can deny the incontrovertible reality that the Sloivak nation accepted the decision of the Slovruk Ass,emlbly spontaneously, but even with sincere enthusiasm. Whoever obsevved the internail developmelllt of the Sloivak Republic with open eyes and without prejudice, and whoever wanted to see how bhe relationship of the Slovak nation to Slo,vaik independence was being for.med, very easily could have convinced himself that their relationship was always positive and was constantly becoming more ardent. It was really and truly only a natural developcnent. Even though the historical facts were and still are easily ascertainaJble, some people, nevertheless. did not and still do not like the simple and plain truth and, therefore, dress the historical e,v ent in garments orf false legends. The gist o,f the matter is lost to them in a flood of details, and by stressing secondary, frequently insignificaint phenomena, the,y stun or cover up the real sUJbSitance. Of cours z, they know what they are doing; they know what they wish to attain by doing so. When e,v aluating a historical fact, such as the declaration o,,f the state independence of Slovakia, the only question of real s,i:gnifiicance is whether the SloiVruk nation had the rrght to declare its country an independent state. It may be interesting, .but utterly secondary, whether this historical dedsion of the Slovak Assembly was made under this or that international situation which, aifter all, fol'med only the outer frame for March 14, 1939. The Slovak nation itself never doubted arbout its inherent right to. freedom and state independernJCe. And it will not debate about this right with aruy one. '.Dhe incontr01Vertible truth is that it does possess this right in the same measure as do other nations of the earth. The people who created and are still creating false legends rubout March 14, 1939, do not have the courage to openly denry the Slovak nation the r:ght to state inclepe,n dence: in fact, b principle they recognize this right_ and th€1oretiically hruve no objections a:gainst it. Nevertheless, for reasons olbvious and best known to themselves, they present the very event of �24 SLOVAKIA the declaration of the independence of the Slov,ak State in a fal:se light. Into the forefront of the historical scene they are pushing per.sons who did not have a deciding role in the issue and are magnifying phenomena whi'ch were only secondary ~isodes. Even though they know that Dr. Joseph Tiso and Karol Sidor repudiated Hitler's proposition, and even though they know that neither Hitler nor his people had any influence on the members of the Slovak Assembly, nevertheless they maintain and continue to ~peat that the decl·a ration of the state independence of Slovakia was dictated to the Slovalks from the outside. This is a conscious and intentional falsification of a historical fact. Such a presentation o.f the matter is proof of not comprehending historical development and is an insult for the Slovak nation which is thereby pre,se,nted as a child without its own will. They created this false legend so that they might devaluate the state independence of SlovaJkia and validate their own interests . .Am,other false legend is the story that by declaring the ind~ndence cxf Slovakia the Slovaiks committed treason against the state, the state which during 1ts entire existence never fol.!f,Bled the dghteous demands of the Slovalk nation and with its political ideo.Jogy and its internal management stood in opposition to the ,vital interests of Slovakia. Allegations of "treason" against the. Sl01Va)k nation are proof that, a:ccording to such- an opinion, the SlOIVak nation was db1rged to r emain until the end of time in union with a state whrch did not satisfy the needs of a free Sl01Vaik way of life. That Js, the SJ01VaJks, even though theoretically the right to independence was not denied them, were not to be allowed to use this right in practice, nay, even had to surrend<eT it. The ,p eople who .talik about the "treason" of the Slovak nation in thts fashion naturally would have to see even a greater treason in the declaration olf independence of the United S'tates and would have to condemp. the course of every nation whi!ch has already declared the independence of its country or which is still endeavori.I.J:g- to attain_its in- �SLOVAKIA 25 dependence. Of course, ithey are wise eno1UJgh not to mention any such nonsense. The srume ,people - the Benes Czeohs ( Czech Socialists and pro-1Soviet Czechs) and the so-ica11ed "Czechoslovaks" (Slovak renegades in the pay oif the Benes Czechs) - talJked long and loudly alboiut the "treason" of the Slovak nation against Slavdom. But this legend lasted only as long as coonmtmist Moscow appeared in a Slovruk mamtie so thait it might thereby more effectiively realize its own designs in the ensl·a ved .SlOV1anic (1Shwic) countries. When Ml()SICow discarded this imam.tle., these people immediately ceased talking about Slawdom, 1because the legend lost tts attraictiveness. Perhrups the greatest inconsistency and confused contriadiction was found in ,tJhe legend aJbout SlOIVak "fascism," whiich stated that by declaring its independence Slovakiia had ,t hrwst herself into the embrace. of nruzism. If the authors of this legend really were interested in the truth, they would necessarily have to adrmit and give pulblic testimony to the fact that the Slovak Reipubl.ic, mana;ged in ,t he spirit of the slogan "loyal to ourselrves . . ." by President J oseiph Tiso,, was the most secure iprotection of SlovaJk lilfe against the influence of German nruzism. The legend, whiich was farthest from historical truth and is the crown of a}ll falsehoods and misrepresentations about the Slwak RepU!blic, is the legend aJbout tilie SO'-lealled "national uprising" and its "great a·chievemeruts," which the "CzechoslovaJks" invented in their fantasy and described. in such glowing teI'lmS, declaring that in the union oif the Comm'UI1ist-dominated National Front "the Sl'OIVruks were governing themselves." As shameful as was the content of this legend with all its details, so just as shamel:f.trl and inglorious was also its end. All these legends, blown wp beyond credi!ble dimensions by the fanfare of irresistible propaganda, were dispelied li!ke a dirty, ma}odorous mist. There remained onil.y lbare rea}lity and historical triuth. And suich a reality and clerur, undenia;ble and unaltera'b le histoTiical truth is the fact that the Slovalk nation did have its -own indepernderut staite and that in this state. even .with all its faults and shortcomings, the Slo- �26 SLOVAKIA vruks soon became cOiIWinoed that Slova;kia was self-suffie,ient economically and that they were mature enough politically to live a free and independent life. After the false legends, the puripose of which it was to stupefy the Slovak naition and stifle in it the yearning for independence, there came a period of suffering, misery and enslavement. But the burden of this sad fate only strengthened in the Slovak nation the consciousness of its ri ght to fz:eedom and fo11tified its desire for the restoration of the state independence of Slovrukia. The Slovaik nation, ooe of the oldest Christian nruti ons o,f central Europe, will never rest satisfied until it is free of all tyranny and all foreign domrinatioo.. 1 1 • • • THE FIFTEENTH ANNIVERSARY OF SLOVAKIA'S DECLARATI ON OF INDEPENDE NCE N3 citiizens of the democraitic Republic of the United States of America, we firimly hold to the beLief that all nations without exception. have the inherent, God-given right the right to establish to freedom and independence to- freely elect a right the and state their own ,p olitical government of their orwn choice. On March 14, 1939, after centuries of alien domination, the 1peo.ple of Slovrukia exercised their inherenit right when their druly elected representative s in the autonomous Slovak Asseimlbly proclaimed the independence of their country and estaJblished the Republic of Slovakia. Of course, the:re are people in Amen-ca even today who present this historical fact in a false light and endeavor to debase and vilify everything connected with it. Nevertheless, the utterly .s imple historical truth is that the Slovak Asse:m!bly unanimously declared the land of the Slovaks an independent repulblic - the Republic of Slovakia. The Slova'k Repll!blic, the dream of Slovak generations, became a reality and was recogmzed by twenty-seven countries, ilncluili.ng the governments of Great Britain, France and the Soviet Union. After Slovakia was declared inde- � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to 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 22 SLOVAKIA wownd was adm1nistered anew, when a free and independent Slow.Ilda was born. They are squirnl.in,g like a wounded snaJke and wd:11 not recognize the truth that there was no other way out for the .sa1viation of the Slovak nation, except that wMch the ,present lead~s in Slovakia had taken . . . . " Amedcans of .Slovffik descent kneiw the meaning o.f freedom and independence. They enjoyed the bJess,i ngs of the American way of life. As tTue Ameniicans they CO'llld not wish less to the nation they descended from. It is to their everliasting oredit that the,y ruoted as manfully as they did when the Slovak Republic wrus born on March 14, 1939. God bles,s Amerioa, God 1bless and protect the Slovak nation in this darkest period of its history! • • • HISTORICAL TRUTH AND :F ALSE LEGENDS Francis Hrusovsky Theil'e rure people who are not bl1nd, b1u t do not want to see the true face of reality. They aTe not deaif, but their ears are not a;c,cessi:ble to the voice of truth. Nor are they inteHectuaUy so dull as nOlt to ,be aJble to comprehend a matter in its .sulbstance, :if they only wanted to. Such people distort even the s1mplest matter and enravel it with a veil of confusion oocording to their o,w n conceptions and their own selfish interests. The,y are cowardly to kno,w and confess the truth and PTefer to deceive themse1ves and ha;ve suf:fiicient courage to deceive others. In this manner it is possiible to charructerize the ,p eople who present the historical fact of the proclamation of the state independence of Slovrukia in a false light and then with consistent stubbornness endeavo,r to 1present in a false light everything that is connected with the Slovak Republic. The utterly simple historical fact is that on March 14, 1939, the Slovak Assembliy declared Slovakia an independent Slovruk State This historical fact was acknowledged by many states (27), which recognized the SlovaJk Republic either de jure or de facto and esta:blished drplomaUc rela- SLOVAKIA 23 tions with it. And not-even the worst distortion oif the truth can deny the incontrovertible reality that the Sloivak nation accepted the decision of the Slovruk Ass,emlbly spontaneously, but even with sincere enthusiasm. Whoever obsevved the internail developmelllt of the Sloivak Republic with open eyes and without prejudice, and whoever wanted to see how bhe relationship of the Slovak nation to Slo,vaik independence was being for.med, very easily could have convinced himself that their relationship was always positive and was constantly becoming more ardent. It was really and truly only a natural developcnent. Even though the historical facts were and still are easily ascertainaJble, some people, nevertheless. did not and still do not like the simple and plain truth and, therefore, dress the historical e,v ent in garments orf false legends. The gist o,f the matter is lost to them in a flood of details, and by stressing secondary, frequently insignificaint phenomena, the,y stun or cover up the real sUJbSitance. Of cours z, they know what they are doing; they know what they wish to attain by doing so. When e,v aluating a historical fact, such as the declaration o,,f the state independence of Slovakia, the only question of real s,i:gnifiicance is whether the SloiVruk nation had the rrght to declare its country an independent state. It may be interesting, .but utterly secondary, whether this historical dedsion of the Slovak Assembly was made under this or that international situation which, aifter all, fol'med only the outer frame for March 14, 1939. The Slovak nation itself never doubted arbout its inherent right to. freedom and state independernJCe. And it will not debate about this right with aruy one. '.Dhe incontr01Vertible truth is that it does possess this right in the same measure as do other nations of the earth. The people who created and are still creating false legends rubout March 14, 1939, do not have the courage to openly denry the Slovak nation the r:ght to state inclepe,n dence: in fact, b principle they recognize this right_ and th€1oretiically hruve no objections a:gainst it. Nevertheless, for reasons olbvious and best known to themselves, they present the very event of 24 SLOVAKIA the declaration of the independence of the Slov,ak State in a fal:se light. Into the forefront of the historical scene they are pushing per.sons who did not have a deciding role in the issue and are magnifying phenomena whi'ch were only secondary ~isodes. Even though they know that Dr. Joseph Tiso and Karol Sidor repudiated Hitler's proposition, and even though they know that neither Hitler nor his people had any influence on the members of the Slovak Assembly, nevertheless they maintain and continue to ~peat that the decl·a ration of the state independence of Slovakia was dictated to the Slovalks from the outside. This is a conscious and intentional falsification of a historical fact. Such a presentation o.f the matter is proof of not comprehending historical development and is an insult for the Slovak nation which is thereby pre,se,nted as a child without its own will. They created this false legend so that they might devaluate the state independence of SlovaJkia and validate their own interests . .Am,other false legend is the story that by declaring the ind~ndence cxf Slovakia the Slovaiks committed treason against the state, the state which during 1ts entire existence never fol.!f,Bled the dghteous demands of the Slovalk nation and with its political ideo.Jogy and its internal management stood in opposition to the ,vital interests of Slovakia. Allegations of "treason" against the. Sl01Va)k nation are proof that, a:ccording to such- an opinion, the SlOIVak nation was db1rged to r emain until the end of time in union with a state whrch did not satisfy the needs of a free Sl01Vaik way of life. That Js, the SJ01VaJks, even though theoretically the right to independence was not denied them, were not to be allowed to use this right in practice, nay, even had to surrend<eT it. The ,p eople who .talik about the "treason" of the Slovak nation in thts fashion naturally would have to see even a greater treason in the declaration olf independence of the United S'tates and would have to condemp. the course of every nation whi!ch has already declared the independence of its country or which is still endeavori.I.J:g- to attain_its in- SLOVAKIA 25 dependence. Of course, ithey are wise eno1UJgh not to mention any such nonsense. The srume ,people - the Benes Czeohs ( Czech Socialists and pro-1Soviet Czechs) and the so-ica11ed "Czechoslovaks" (Slovak renegades in the pay oif the Benes Czechs) - talJked long and loudly alboiut the "treason" of the Slovak nation against Slavdom. But this legend lasted only as long as coonmtmist Moscow appeared in a Slovruk mamtie so thait it might thereby more effectiively realize its own designs in the ensl·a ved .SlOV1anic (1Shwic) countries. When Ml()SICow discarded this imam.tle., these people immediately ceased talking about Slawdom, 1because the legend lost tts attraictiveness. Perhrups the greatest inconsistency and confused contriadiction was found in ,tJhe legend aJbout SlOIVak "fascism," whiich stated that by declaring its independence Slovakiia had ,t hrwst herself into the embrace. of nruzism. If the authors of this legend really were interested in the truth, they would necessarily have to adrmit and give pulblic testimony to the fact that the Slovak Reipubl.ic, mana;ged in ,t he spirit of the slogan "loyal to ourselrves . . ." by President J oseiph Tiso,, was the most secure iprotection of SlovaJk lilfe against the influence of German nruzism. The legend, whiich was farthest from historical truth and is the crown of a}ll falsehoods and misrepresentations about the Slwak RepU!blic, is the legend aJbout tilie SO'-lealled "national uprising" and its "great a·chievemeruts," which the "CzechoslovaJks" invented in their fantasy and described. in such glowing teI'lmS, declaring that in the union oif the Comm'UI1ist-dominated National Front "the Sl'OIVruks were governing themselves." As shameful as was the content of this legend with all its details, so just as shamel:f.trl and inglorious was also its end. All these legends, blown wp beyond credi!ble dimensions by the fanfare of irresistible propaganda, were dispelied li!ke a dirty, ma}odorous mist. There remained onil.y lbare rea}lity and historical triuth. And suich a reality and clerur, undenia;ble and unaltera'b le histoTiical truth is the fact that the Slovalk nation did have its -own indepernderut staite and that in this state. even .with all its faults and shortcomings, the Slo- 26 SLOVAKIA vruks soon became cOiIWinoed that Slova;kia was self-suffie,ient economically and that they were mature enough politically to live a free and independent life. After the false legends, the puripose of which it was to stupefy the Slovak naition and stifle in it the yearning for independence, there came a period of suffering, misery and enslavement. But the burden of this sad fate only strengthened in the Slovak nation the consciousness of its ri ght to fz:eedom and fo11tified its desire for the restoration of the state independence of Slovrukia. The Slovaik nation, ooe of the oldest Christian nruti ons o,f central Europe, will never rest satisfied until it is free of all tyranny and all foreign domrinatioo.. 1 1 • • • THE FIFTEENTH ANNIVERSARY OF SLOVAKIA'S DECLARATI ON OF INDEPENDE NCE N3 citiizens of the democraitic Republic of the United States of America, we firimly hold to the beLief that all nations without exception. have the inherent, God-given right the right to establish to freedom and independence to- freely elect a right the and state their own ,p olitical government of their orwn choice. On March 14, 1939, after centuries of alien domination, the 1peo.ple of Slovrukia exercised their inherenit right when their druly elected representative s in the autonomous Slovak Asseimlbly proclaimed the independence of their country and estaJblished the Republic of Slovakia. Of course, the:re are people in Amen-ca even today who present this historical fact in a false light and endeavor to debase and vilify everything connected with it. Nevertheless, the utterly .s imple historical truth is that the Slovak Asse:m!bly unanimously declared the land of the Slovaks an independent repulblic - the Republic of Slovakia. The Slova'k Repll!blic, the dream of Slovak generations, became a reality and was recogmzed by twenty-seven countries, ilncluili.ng the governments of Great Britain, France and the Soviet Union. After Slovakia was declared inde-  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Historical Truth and False Legends Description An account of the resource Francis Hrušovský Slovakia, Vol. 4, No. 1 (10), March 1954 pp. 22-26 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Hrušovský, František, 1903-1956 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource March 1954 LCNAF https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/adf906e61f3a83e663e3fd6a469ac1eb.pdf 52d0cf32e36a3976846f12a2e8b270d9 PDF Text Text 160 SLOVAKIA WINNING ESSAYS Slovak League of America Scholarship Program I. HISTORY AND TRADITION OF WOODEN HOUSES OF SLOVAKIA Paul F i a l k O V i C Consciously or unconsciously, man looks with satisfaction upon that which is substantially and enduringly built. It is this sense of sheer structural value which makes us admire the Pyramids, the Temples of Greece, and the mighty Cathedrals of the thirteenth century. The same instinct communicates to every observer, even the most casual, the bluff and rugged strength of our old houses; and he who knows these ancient dwellings more intimately. Perhaps through having been fortunate enough to live in one of them, one is keenly and sensitively responsive ta the security and the abundance of strength which they embody . The houses are mighty frames of oaken timbers . These timbers, which measure 16 and even 18 inches, have stood unshaken for two centuries or more. By comparison, the frame house of today is built of 2 by 4 studs which must be sheathed with inch boards to impact to the framework the practicable modicum of rigidity. Today, architects are hired to design luxuriously constructed houses. Tradition carried down the knowledge of construction and building of their domain from father to son. The use of crude tools, knowledge, and materials of yesterday contribute to the Slovak pride given to us by our forefathers. Truth is the fundamental principle of Architecture . Of the many Architectural Styles, which have at one time or another achieved popularity, those memorable few which most creditably bear the test of time are precisely the ones which reflect, faithfully and without distortion, the eco - �SLOVAKIA 161 nomic and social conditions out of which they sprang. An Architectural Style, if it is to be true, vital, and enduring, must clearly and candidly exhibit the spirit of the time in which it flourished, the spirit which is implicit in all the characteristic transaction of the time, and which may almost be defined as the sum of its manners, customs, and mode of living. The early Architecture of Slovakia, judged by this criterion, was unmistakably pure and virile. The most superficial examination of the period is enough to prove that it was productive of a "true" style in Architecture. Its buildings are honest, straight forward, devoid of affectation and sham. It is wood that accompanies us from the cradle to the coffin in our daily life. Instruments, buildings, and boats are just a few things that can be manufactured from wood, especially where it predominates in nature and in mountainous regions covered mostly by forests. Well, Slovakia is such a country. Whole villages consisting of wooden cottages, halfmasoned and half log-made, were created by the highlanders in their settlements and on their sites surrounded by mountains. Such settlements primarily existed in the Orava region and in Central and Eastern Slovakia. If we were to go to these regions, we would still find these cottages standing, well preserved, in their own beauty of folk fancy carvings and decorative carvings. The ancient villages were formed by dense rows of streets characterized by having in the gable only two little windows one close to the other. Examples of such cottages could be found at Spisska Bela or in large miners' hous3s at Donovaly and at the spania Dolina. Lack of professional guidance and limited material (natural material) made it impossible for the owner to built a large house. The reason for this is that the wood lacked the strength needed to support weight at large spans. Just like a coin collector's are his coins, these people also had pride in the wood which they worked with. There was a warm relationship found between man and wood. The love they had working with this wood is shown by the folk carvings engraved in the wood by the owner. It �162 SLOVAKIA was an amazing accomplishment made by the owner to be able to carve this wood using such crude tools. The window frames were made out of wood because of the availability of trees; and sometimes plaster was also used. These windows found at the gabled end of the house brought a warm feeling of peace to match the scenic forest and mountains. Nature plays a very big role in the decision of how steep the pitch of the roof is. A typical roof slope is 40 to 50 degrees depending on its location. These houses which were located at the edge of the forest have low pitched roofs; but those located in the valley have a very steeply pitched roof because of the heavy snows which they are burdened with. The most significant aspect of these roofs is the handmade shingles which are cut and laid out by the owner. There were only two main areas in the house, the living room (first floor) and the attic. The attics were used for storage and sometimes a place for someone to bed down at night. The main floor was used for eating, sleeping, gatherings, and was also used for sheltering the livestock. In a house today, we would consider the living room, with the TV playing, as the focal point of the house. In the early houses of Slovakia, the stove served as the focal point . Besides being used for cooking food, the stove served as a place for gathering and exchanging of stories among family and friends. The stove was built from a mixture of clay, chaff, and straw, and smoothly finished to the desired shape by the owner. The floor along with the stove was made of this same mixture of clay. An interesting aspect of the interior is the number of times which they paint the interior walls in one year. This paint, being of lime mixture, served as a health factor to the family. They didn't have tile, or plaster, to cover the joists and rafters so they were always left exposed. There exposed joists served a very important role to the family. High above the floor the Bible was found nestled atop a joist with other valuable papers. Being tradition and also the safest place in the house, this is the reason for finding these articles in this place. Another reason for finding the Bible so high is as tradition says-the Bible should be set �SLOVAKIA 163 in the highest place of the household. Inside the Family Bible, there would be found an account of the family tree. Everything found in the interior of a house was made out of wood. Chairs, spoons, tables, and plates were made by the owner. Even the nails (pegs) which hold the beams were made out of wood. Why wood? Metal nails were too expensive and were only used by blacksmiths to repair the shoes on a horse . A wooden house asserts itself from the architectoral point of view expressively by its gabled front. In this way, aerial pictures of whole villages are thus presented. A beautiful example of this can be found in the upper Hron river district, primarily in Hel'pa and Pohorela. In such cases as the houses built at Hel'pa and Pohorela, the walls and partitions were constructed from rough wood beams interrupted only for window and door openings. The joints between the wooden beams were filled by moss and finished with a clay covering. After th9 finish coating of clay was applied, it was then painted with lime or left exposed. The combination of wood and clay material was a very healthy element because it balanced the humidity inside the house so it wasn't too wet or dry. The houses were made of wood only from the shelf which was made of stone. This shelf serving as a base to carry the loads of the house was approximately four feet deep. In Hron district a very characteristic element of the house was a wooden fence with a roof covering on top which reserved a private area. This area extended between the house and stable. This enclosure of public to private has an urbanistic importance. It creates a two house unit and space between them which is totally private. During the summer, these private spaces were used for social gatherings. The use of wood in the construction of houses was convenient but also dangerous-high flammability. In the past, there were many large fires which often destroyed the whole village. Once a large fire destroys a village, the houses are reconstructed the same way with the same style; but the name of the village is changed. An example of this is Pohorela which was destroyed by fire. �164 SLOVAKIA From time to time, the terrain in some places demands another solution, for instance gradated, corner-shaped or other configuration in space and form. These configurations of houses comparing whole settlements, facing streets, are types of exclusively Slovak settlements. Communities like Vysny Kubin, Jasenova, Fackov, Hubova, or Stankovany are today merely historical documents. Jasenova is different from other villages in the sense that the houses are oriented to the village square. The houses are enriched with additional covered open-space protected by rain. These covered open-spaces are porches. These porches are usually located on the second floor, which is the living area, while the first floor is used as a shelter for livestock. These porches are supported by two main cantilever beams, which are supported by two columns; and the columns in turn are supported by two more cantilevers. An important factor about these porches is the construction of the railing. It is a nice sight to sea how the railing is cut into folk carvings designed by the owner's own style. The owners then would actually compete against each other to see who had the best craftmanship. Today, we have faucets within the house with which we receive our source of water. In the Slovak villages, they had wells located outside the house from which they would draw up water in a bucket as their supply of water. A characteristic point of view about these wells is when they were constructed they took on similar features of the owner's house. The same wood, style, and pitched roof with shingles, shows the sense of pride the owner had for all his construction. The gable roof of these houses was also decorated with some sort of ornament. The houses used a cross or certain vertical siding as their decorative piece located at the gabled end of the roof. New York City has the Empire State Building - St. Louis has the Arch- and Slovak villages have a bell tower as their masterpiece. This bell tower wasn't only used for religious purposes but also for civil means of communication. Every village bell had a different tone so as not to get confused between two villages or more. This bell would sound in case of emergencies and also to notify the men �SLOVAKIA 165 and women working in the fields when it was lunch and supper time. Just like every other piece of construction the bell tower was also built out of wood. Various kinds of construction of the loghouses, their structure, their elevations of masonry at Liptov, roofing, roof corners, balconies, and filling between the timber can be seen enywhere in a great variety. Plastering of the timb3r is sometimes carried out for reasons of insulation. This is to preserve timber against the influence of rain, sometimes even cold or simply to veil poverty of the wooden house. The protection from rain is evidenced by plastering the log walls on the outside up to the height where the loghous2 is not protected by the overhanging gutter. For the s2me reasons, the timber and interstices are white-washed with lime especially in corner transverse sections of the logs . At cicmany, this ornamentics in lime culminate in rich spiral ornamentation and painting of the logs, reminding of embroidery stiches. Under this ornamentation, the buildings lose their wooden block-like character formed by the wooden block in which doors and windows are carved out. The beauty of these houses is such that cicmany is known as one of the most beautiful attractions of th3 world. Since nature is the survival of the Slovaks, the d2corated walls of the houses in this village represent the different symbols of nature. Flowers, trees, etc., are just a few of the decorative symbols found painted on the house walls. Every house is a magnificent figure of originality and beauty created by the owner . The decorated walls and carved wood are all reasons for competition among neighbors. The young women who live in cicmany today are employed by factories and offices outside their village. After they come home at night, they work decorating costumes with the same art work as on the houses so they may wear their costumes on weekends for the tourist entertainment. However, decorating the costumes for tourist entertainment is not the only reason for doing this. They decorated their costumes because of the love and pride they have for our forefathers tradition. On the log structure, there sit various regional roof peculiarities, primarily saddle roofs and more rarely curb roofs sloping down into four gutters. There are slightly �166 SLOVAKIA sloping roofs from the summit into the gable the construction of which was started at a later period especially in the environment of cadca. Changes of the latter roofs into gabled ones are very well discernible in the houses of cicmany. Roofs with the lower edge of the latter type are typical for the upper Hron river region. In all houses, the roofs considerably exceed the log structure so as to make possible to store them round the house fuelwood and let it dry for their winter use. Wooden houses are usually amply lined round the walls with wood for drying. Building logs are deposited outside the house to season in the sun, and branches are left in heaps in the back yard and used as fuel. Briefly, wood around the house smells of resin; and, for instance, at Liptovska Revuca, cierny Balog, Stankovany, but mainly in the villages of the Orava district, there is a considerable reserve of wood stored around the house. A rare peculiarity are the balconied and storied constructions in the Orava District at Jasenova, then at cicmany, in the vicinity of Kremnica and upper part of Turiec. In Slovakia, very ancient interiors with open fireplaces and ovens have been preserved. Many special studies have been written about their singularities and their Old Frankish and Slavonic origin. Greatest fullness and utilization of the esthetic taste could hardly have been exhausted by the building of dwellings. Feeling of beauty has mostly asserted itself in the building of sacral structures where it was necessary to erect for the Divine Power magnificent, decorated tabernaclesbuilding of wooden churches, belfries, steeples, and ceme tery crosses. The poor sculptors could not afford to erect churches from marble. They were unable to order cross-9s from polished basalt or granite. As everything else, these objects were constructed from wood. The art of building from wood can justly be considered the national and original expression of folk building and of building in general in Slovakia, since it developed directly from the natural conditions and from the oldest cultural folk strata. As far as wooden structures, cultural and sacral, in various religious rites (Catholic, Orthodox, Greek Catholic, �SLOVAKIA 167 and Protestant ), there have been preserved in Slovakia seventy of them. The most interesting are wooden churches in Eastern Slovakia. In the majority of cases, the Orthodox and Greek Catholic churches in Slovakia are the most numerous and can be divided into three types. The first type usually possesses a quadrangular high tower which is set in front of the main nave of the church and has its own belfry independent of the church. These churches are found in Slovakia at Hranicne and Matysova near Stara :Cubovna. Then, they continue westward of Bardejov with the church at Fricka and south of Bardejov at Venecia and Kozany. The second type of churches that have the same quadrangular tower, higher or lower, are connected with th2 main nave or directly set up on the roof of the main church but not directly built into the church. The third type is the most easterly one and is expressad by definite elements and character. There are the threa steeple-like terminations of the logrooms: The anteroom, the main nave and apsis which in its interior is separated from the main nave by iconostas. Each of these spaces culminates in a spire. The highest is the anterior part with a bulb-like cupola. The intermediate cupola is lower, quadrangular or octagonal with a log structure ceiling. Also, the smallest posterior part above the apsis terminates in a small spire. This type of church belongs to the most numerous ones. The densest networks of wooden churches is spread south below Dukla pass whether one approaches coming from Bardejov and Zborov to Svidnik or whether one i::; coming from Vranov to Svidnik and further to the east to Kruzlova, Ladomirova, Korejovce, Hunkovce, Nova Polianka (previously Mergeska), semetkovce, Mirol'a, Bodruzal, Vysny, and Nizny Komarnik, right to the pass. Finally, we have to mention the age of these wooden structures. On the territory of Slovakia, the oldest one is considered to be the wooden church at Trocany, 20 km. north of Presov, the origin of which is put in the 14th century. This is easy to explain since yew wood was used in its construction. Also, a building in Hervartov, and more �168 SLOVAKIA definitely so, originates in the end of the 15th century. Then follows the church at Zabrez. The Protestant churches generally come from the 17th and 18th centuries. Churches of the eastern rite are the youngest. They originated in the 18th and 19th centuries. Then, it has to be remembered that the tooth of tim2 and the woodworm enjoy with hearty appetite the wooden building memorials . It is the peak of time for us to preserve our eminent memorials in "scansens" beside museums or in other suitable sites in nature to save what still can be saved. (First place - College) REFERENCES Eugen Lazist'an and Jan Michalov, Drevene stavby na Slovensku, Frantisek Kalina, Bratislava, 1971. Emanuel Hruska, Stavba miest, Slovenska akademia vied, Bratislav.1, 1970. E. Lorad, Umelecko-historicke pamdtne kostoly na Slm; ens.1m, Spolo!( sv. Vojtecha, Trnava, 1957. Vladimir Wagner, Vyvin vytvarneho umenia na Slovensku, Slovenska akademia vied, Bratislava, 1948. Kalendar Jednota 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974, Prva K-atoLcka Slovenska Jednota v USA, Middletown Pa. Mag:i.zine and periodicals: Jednota, Slovak v Amerike, Katolicky Sokol. Consultations with experts of Slovak art and architecture. II. MILAN RASTISLA V STEFANIK AND THE TRAGEDY OF THE SLOVAK PEOPLE Robert P o j e r During the late part of the nineteenth century, the seeds of nationalism had already been sown throughout the great empires of Europe. It would take the trauma of a world war before these nationalistic aspirations could be realized. In 1867 the Austro-Hungarian Dual Monarchy made its appearance. Within this vast empire, there existed many peoples-the Austrians and the Magyars, of course; the Serbs, Croats, Ruthenes, Rumanians, Czechs, and Slovaks, to name just a few. Although on the surface, this Austro-Hungarian Empire � 160 SLOVAKIA WINNING ESSAYS Slovak League of America Scholarship Program I. HISTORY AND TRADITION OF WOODEN HOUSES OF SLOVAKIA Paul F i a l k O V i C Consciously or unconsciously, man looks with satisfaction upon that which is substantially and enduringly built. It is this sense of sheer structural value which makes us admire the Pyramids, the Temples of Greece, and the mighty Cathedrals of the thirteenth century. The same instinct communicates to every observer, even the most casual, the bluff and rugged strength of our old houses; and he who knows these ancient dwellings more intimately. Perhaps through having been fortunate enough to live in one of them, one is keenly and sensitively responsive ta the security and the abundance of strength which they embody . The houses are mighty frames of oaken timbers . These timbers, which measure 16 and even 18 inches, have stood unshaken for two centuries or more. By comparison, the frame house of today is built of 2 by 4 studs which must be sheathed with inch boards to impact to the framework the practicable modicum of rigidity. Today, architects are hired to design luxuriously constructed houses. Tradition carried down the knowledge of construction and building of their domain from father to son. The use of crude tools, knowledge, and materials of yesterday contribute to the Slovak pride given to us by our forefathers. Truth is the fundamental principle of Architecture . Of the many Architectural Styles, which have at one time or another achieved popularity, those memorable few which most creditably bear the test of time are precisely the ones which reflect, faithfully and without distortion, the eco - �SLOVAKIA 161 nomic and social conditions out of which they sprang. An Architectural Style, if it is to be true, vital, and enduring, must clearly and candidly exhibit the spirit of the time in which it flourished, the spirit which is implicit in all the characteristic transaction of the time, and which may almost be defined as the sum of its manners, customs, and mode of living. The early Architecture of Slovakia, judged by this criterion, was unmistakably pure and virile. The most superficial examination of the period is enough to prove that it was productive of a "true" style in Architecture. Its buildings are honest, straight forward, devoid of affectation and sham. It is wood that accompanies us from the cradle to the coffin in our daily life. Instruments, buildings, and boats are just a few things that can be manufactured from wood, especially where it predominates in nature and in mountainous regions covered mostly by forests. Well, Slovakia is such a country. Whole villages consisting of wooden cottages, halfmasoned and half log-made, were created by the highlanders in their settlements and on their sites surrounded by mountains. Such settlements primarily existed in the Orava region and in Central and Eastern Slovakia. If we were to go to these regions, we would still find these cottages standing, well preserved, in their own beauty of folk fancy carvings and decorative carvings. The ancient villages were formed by dense rows of streets characterized by having in the gable only two little windows one close to the other. Examples of such cottages could be found at Spisska Bela or in large miners' hous3s at Donovaly and at the spania Dolina. Lack of professional guidance and limited material (natural material) made it impossible for the owner to built a large house. The reason for this is that the wood lacked the strength needed to support weight at large spans. Just like a coin collector's are his coins, these people also had pride in the wood which they worked with. There was a warm relationship found between man and wood. The love they had working with this wood is shown by the folk carvings engraved in the wood by the owner. It �162 SLOVAKIA was an amazing accomplishment made by the owner to be able to carve this wood using such crude tools. The window frames were made out of wood because of the availability of trees; and sometimes plaster was also used. These windows found at the gabled end of the house brought a warm feeling of peace to match the scenic forest and mountains. Nature plays a very big role in the decision of how steep the pitch of the roof is. A typical roof slope is 40 to 50 degrees depending on its location. These houses which were located at the edge of the forest have low pitched roofs; but those located in the valley have a very steeply pitched roof because of the heavy snows which they are burdened with. The most significant aspect of these roofs is the handmade shingles which are cut and laid out by the owner. There were only two main areas in the house, the living room (first floor) and the attic. The attics were used for storage and sometimes a place for someone to bed down at night. The main floor was used for eating, sleeping, gatherings, and was also used for sheltering the livestock. In a house today, we would consider the living room, with the TV playing, as the focal point of the house. In the early houses of Slovakia, the stove served as the focal point . Besides being used for cooking food, the stove served as a place for gathering and exchanging of stories among family and friends. The stove was built from a mixture of clay, chaff, and straw, and smoothly finished to the desired shape by the owner. The floor along with the stove was made of this same mixture of clay. An interesting aspect of the interior is the number of times which they paint the interior walls in one year. This paint, being of lime mixture, served as a health factor to the family. They didn't have tile, or plaster, to cover the joists and rafters so they were always left exposed. There exposed joists served a very important role to the family. High above the floor the Bible was found nestled atop a joist with other valuable papers. Being tradition and also the safest place in the house, this is the reason for finding these articles in this place. Another reason for finding the Bible so high is as tradition says-the Bible should be set �SLOVAKIA 163 in the highest place of the household. Inside the Family Bible, there would be found an account of the family tree. Everything found in the interior of a house was made out of wood. Chairs, spoons, tables, and plates were made by the owner. Even the nails (pegs) which hold the beams were made out of wood. Why wood? Metal nails were too expensive and were only used by blacksmiths to repair the shoes on a horse . A wooden house asserts itself from the architectoral point of view expressively by its gabled front. In this way, aerial pictures of whole villages are thus presented. A beautiful example of this can be found in the upper Hron river district, primarily in Hel'pa and Pohorela. In such cases as the houses built at Hel'pa and Pohorela, the walls and partitions were constructed from rough wood beams interrupted only for window and door openings. The joints between the wooden beams were filled by moss and finished with a clay covering. After th9 finish coating of clay was applied, it was then painted with lime or left exposed. The combination of wood and clay material was a very healthy element because it balanced the humidity inside the house so it wasn't too wet or dry. The houses were made of wood only from the shelf which was made of stone. This shelf serving as a base to carry the loads of the house was approximately four feet deep. In Hron district a very characteristic element of the house was a wooden fence with a roof covering on top which reserved a private area. This area extended between the house and stable. This enclosure of public to private has an urbanistic importance. It creates a two house unit and space between them which is totally private. During the summer, these private spaces were used for social gatherings. The use of wood in the construction of houses was convenient but also dangerous-high flammability. In the past, there were many large fires which often destroyed the whole village. Once a large fire destroys a village, the houses are reconstructed the same way with the same style; but the name of the village is changed. An example of this is Pohorela which was destroyed by fire. �164 SLOVAKIA From time to time, the terrain in some places demands another solution, for instance gradated, corner-shaped or other configuration in space and form. These configurations of houses comparing whole settlements, facing streets, are types of exclusively Slovak settlements. Communities like Vysny Kubin, Jasenova, Fackov, Hubova, or Stankovany are today merely historical documents. Jasenova is different from other villages in the sense that the houses are oriented to the village square. The houses are enriched with additional covered open-space protected by rain. These covered open-spaces are porches. These porches are usually located on the second floor, which is the living area, while the first floor is used as a shelter for livestock. These porches are supported by two main cantilever beams, which are supported by two columns; and the columns in turn are supported by two more cantilevers. An important factor about these porches is the construction of the railing. It is a nice sight to sea how the railing is cut into folk carvings designed by the owner's own style. The owners then would actually compete against each other to see who had the best craftmanship. Today, we have faucets within the house with which we receive our source of water. In the Slovak villages, they had wells located outside the house from which they would draw up water in a bucket as their supply of water. A characteristic point of view about these wells is when they were constructed they took on similar features of the owner's house. The same wood, style, and pitched roof with shingles, shows the sense of pride the owner had for all his construction. The gable roof of these houses was also decorated with some sort of ornament. The houses used a cross or certain vertical siding as their decorative piece located at the gabled end of the roof. New York City has the Empire State Building - St. Louis has the Arch- and Slovak villages have a bell tower as their masterpiece. This bell tower wasn't only used for religious purposes but also for civil means of communication. Every village bell had a different tone so as not to get confused between two villages or more. This bell would sound in case of emergencies and also to notify the men �SLOVAKIA 165 and women working in the fields when it was lunch and supper time. Just like every other piece of construction the bell tower was also built out of wood. Various kinds of construction of the loghouses, their structure, their elevations of masonry at Liptov, roofing, roof corners, balconies, and filling between the timber can be seen enywhere in a great variety. Plastering of the timb3r is sometimes carried out for reasons of insulation. This is to preserve timber against the influence of rain, sometimes even cold or simply to veil poverty of the wooden house. The protection from rain is evidenced by plastering the log walls on the outside up to the height where the loghous2 is not protected by the overhanging gutter. For the s2me reasons, the timber and interstices are white-washed with lime especially in corner transverse sections of the logs . At cicmany, this ornamentics in lime culminate in rich spiral ornamentation and painting of the logs, reminding of embroidery stiches. Under this ornamentation, the buildings lose their wooden block-like character formed by the wooden block in which doors and windows are carved out. The beauty of these houses is such that cicmany is known as one of the most beautiful attractions of th3 world. Since nature is the survival of the Slovaks, the d2corated walls of the houses in this village represent the different symbols of nature. Flowers, trees, etc., are just a few of the decorative symbols found painted on the house walls. Every house is a magnificent figure of originality and beauty created by the owner . The decorated walls and carved wood are all reasons for competition among neighbors. The young women who live in cicmany today are employed by factories and offices outside their village. After they come home at night, they work decorating costumes with the same art work as on the houses so they may wear their costumes on weekends for the tourist entertainment. However, decorating the costumes for tourist entertainment is not the only reason for doing this. They decorated their costumes because of the love and pride they have for our forefathers tradition. On the log structure, there sit various regional roof peculiarities, primarily saddle roofs and more rarely curb roofs sloping down into four gutters. There are slightly �166 SLOVAKIA sloping roofs from the summit into the gable the construction of which was started at a later period especially in the environment of cadca. Changes of the latter roofs into gabled ones are very well discernible in the houses of cicmany. Roofs with the lower edge of the latter type are typical for the upper Hron river region. In all houses, the roofs considerably exceed the log structure so as to make possible to store them round the house fuelwood and let it dry for their winter use. Wooden houses are usually amply lined round the walls with wood for drying. Building logs are deposited outside the house to season in the sun, and branches are left in heaps in the back yard and used as fuel. Briefly, wood around the house smells of resin; and, for instance, at Liptovska Revuca, cierny Balog, Stankovany, but mainly in the villages of the Orava district, there is a considerable reserve of wood stored around the house. A rare peculiarity are the balconied and storied constructions in the Orava District at Jasenova, then at cicmany, in the vicinity of Kremnica and upper part of Turiec. In Slovakia, very ancient interiors with open fireplaces and ovens have been preserved. Many special studies have been written about their singularities and their Old Frankish and Slavonic origin. Greatest fullness and utilization of the esthetic taste could hardly have been exhausted by the building of dwellings. Feeling of beauty has mostly asserted itself in the building of sacral structures where it was necessary to erect for the Divine Power magnificent, decorated tabernaclesbuilding of wooden churches, belfries, steeples, and ceme tery crosses. The poor sculptors could not afford to erect churches from marble. They were unable to order cross-9s from polished basalt or granite. As everything else, these objects were constructed from wood. The art of building from wood can justly be considered the national and original expression of folk building and of building in general in Slovakia, since it developed directly from the natural conditions and from the oldest cultural folk strata. As far as wooden structures, cultural and sacral, in various religious rites (Catholic, Orthodox, Greek Catholic, �SLOVAKIA 167 and Protestant ), there have been preserved in Slovakia seventy of them. The most interesting are wooden churches in Eastern Slovakia. In the majority of cases, the Orthodox and Greek Catholic churches in Slovakia are the most numerous and can be divided into three types. The first type usually possesses a quadrangular high tower which is set in front of the main nave of the church and has its own belfry independent of the church. These churches are found in Slovakia at Hranicne and Matysova near Stara :Cubovna. Then, they continue westward of Bardejov with the church at Fricka and south of Bardejov at Venecia and Kozany. The second type of churches that have the same quadrangular tower, higher or lower, are connected with th2 main nave or directly set up on the roof of the main church but not directly built into the church. The third type is the most easterly one and is expressad by definite elements and character. There are the threa steeple-like terminations of the logrooms: The anteroom, the main nave and apsis which in its interior is separated from the main nave by iconostas. Each of these spaces culminates in a spire. The highest is the anterior part with a bulb-like cupola. The intermediate cupola is lower, quadrangular or octagonal with a log structure ceiling. Also, the smallest posterior part above the apsis terminates in a small spire. This type of church belongs to the most numerous ones. The densest networks of wooden churches is spread south below Dukla pass whether one approaches coming from Bardejov and Zborov to Svidnik or whether one i::; coming from Vranov to Svidnik and further to the east to Kruzlova, Ladomirova, Korejovce, Hunkovce, Nova Polianka (previously Mergeska), semetkovce, Mirol'a, Bodruzal, Vysny, and Nizny Komarnik, right to the pass. Finally, we have to mention the age of these wooden structures. On the territory of Slovakia, the oldest one is considered to be the wooden church at Trocany, 20 km. north of Presov, the origin of which is put in the 14th century. This is easy to explain since yew wood was used in its construction. Also, a building in Hervartov, and more �168 SLOVAKIA definitely so, originates in the end of the 15th century. Then follows the church at Zabrez. The Protestant churches generally come from the 17th and 18th centuries. Churches of the eastern rite are the youngest. They originated in the 18th and 19th centuries. Then, it has to be remembered that the tooth of tim2 and the woodworm enjoy with hearty appetite the wooden building memorials . It is the peak of time for us to preserve our eminent memorials in "scansens" beside museums or in other suitable sites in nature to save what still can be saved. (First place - College) REFERENCES Eugen Lazist'an and Jan Michalov, Drevene stavby na Slovensku, Frantisek Kalina, Bratislava, 1971. Emanuel Hruska, Stavba miest, Slovenska akademia vied, Bratislav.1, 1970. E. Lorad, Umelecko-historicke pamdtne kostoly na Slm; ens.1m, Spolo!( sv. Vojtecha, Trnava, 1957. Vladimir Wagner, Vyvin vytvarneho umenia na Slovensku, Slovenska akademia vied, Bratislava, 1948. Kalendar Jednota 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974, Prva K-atoLcka Slovenska Jednota v USA, Middletown Pa. Mag:i.zine and periodicals: Jednota, Slovak v Amerike, Katolicky Sokol. Consultations with experts of Slovak art and architecture. II. MILAN RASTISLA V STEFANIK AND THE TRAGEDY OF THE SLOVAK PEOPLE Robert P o j e r During the late part of the nineteenth century, the seeds of nationalism had already been sown throughout the great empires of Europe. It would take the trauma of a world war before these nationalistic aspirations could be realized. In 1867 the Austro-Hungarian Dual Monarchy made its appearance. Within this vast empire, there existed many peoples-the Austrians and the Magyars, of course; the Serbs, Croats, Ruthenes, Rumanians, Czechs, and Slovaks, to name just a few. Although on the surface, this Austro-Hungarian Empire � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to 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 160 SLOVAKIA WINNING ESSAYS Slovak League of America Scholarship Program I. HISTORY AND TRADITION OF WOODEN HOUSES OF SLOVAKIA Paul F i a l k O V i C Consciously or unconsciously, man looks with satisfaction upon that which is substantially and enduringly built. It is this sense of sheer structural value which makes us admire the Pyramids, the Temples of Greece, and the mighty Cathedrals of the thirteenth century. The same instinct communicates to every observer, even the most casual, the bluff and rugged strength of our old houses; and he who knows these ancient dwellings more intimately. Perhaps through having been fortunate enough to live in one of them, one is keenly and sensitively responsive ta the security and the abundance of strength which they embody . The houses are mighty frames of oaken timbers . These timbers, which measure 16 and even 18 inches, have stood unshaken for two centuries or more. By comparison, the frame house of today is built of 2 by 4 studs which must be sheathed with inch boards to impact to the framework the practicable modicum of rigidity. Today, architects are hired to design luxuriously constructed houses. Tradition carried down the knowledge of construction and building of their domain from father to son. The use of crude tools, knowledge, and materials of yesterday contribute to the Slovak pride given to us by our forefathers. Truth is the fundamental principle of Architecture . Of the many Architectural Styles, which have at one time or another achieved popularity, those memorable few which most creditably bear the test of time are precisely the ones which reflect, faithfully and without distortion, the eco - SLOVAKIA 161 nomic and social conditions out of which they sprang. An Architectural Style, if it is to be true, vital, and enduring, must clearly and candidly exhibit the spirit of the time in which it flourished, the spirit which is implicit in all the characteristic transaction of the time, and which may almost be defined as the sum of its manners, customs, and mode of living. The early Architecture of Slovakia, judged by this criterion, was unmistakably pure and virile. The most superficial examination of the period is enough to prove that it was productive of a "true" style in Architecture. Its buildings are honest, straight forward, devoid of affectation and sham. It is wood that accompanies us from the cradle to the coffin in our daily life. Instruments, buildings, and boats are just a few things that can be manufactured from wood, especially where it predominates in nature and in mountainous regions covered mostly by forests. Well, Slovakia is such a country. Whole villages consisting of wooden cottages, halfmasoned and half log-made, were created by the highlanders in their settlements and on their sites surrounded by mountains. Such settlements primarily existed in the Orava region and in Central and Eastern Slovakia. If we were to go to these regions, we would still find these cottages standing, well preserved, in their own beauty of folk fancy carvings and decorative carvings. The ancient villages were formed by dense rows of streets characterized by having in the gable only two little windows one close to the other. Examples of such cottages could be found at Spisska Bela or in large miners' hous3s at Donovaly and at the spania Dolina. Lack of professional guidance and limited material (natural material) made it impossible for the owner to built a large house. The reason for this is that the wood lacked the strength needed to support weight at large spans. Just like a coin collector's are his coins, these people also had pride in the wood which they worked with. There was a warm relationship found between man and wood. The love they had working with this wood is shown by the folk carvings engraved in the wood by the owner. It 162 SLOVAKIA was an amazing accomplishment made by the owner to be able to carve this wood using such crude tools. The window frames were made out of wood because of the availability of trees; and sometimes plaster was also used. These windows found at the gabled end of the house brought a warm feeling of peace to match the scenic forest and mountains. Nature plays a very big role in the decision of how steep the pitch of the roof is. A typical roof slope is 40 to 50 degrees depending on its location. These houses which were located at the edge of the forest have low pitched roofs; but those located in the valley have a very steeply pitched roof because of the heavy snows which they are burdened with. The most significant aspect of these roofs is the handmade shingles which are cut and laid out by the owner. There were only two main areas in the house, the living room (first floor) and the attic. The attics were used for storage and sometimes a place for someone to bed down at night. The main floor was used for eating, sleeping, gatherings, and was also used for sheltering the livestock. In a house today, we would consider the living room, with the TV playing, as the focal point of the house. In the early houses of Slovakia, the stove served as the focal point . Besides being used for cooking food, the stove served as a place for gathering and exchanging of stories among family and friends. The stove was built from a mixture of clay, chaff, and straw, and smoothly finished to the desired shape by the owner. The floor along with the stove was made of this same mixture of clay. An interesting aspect of the interior is the number of times which they paint the interior walls in one year. This paint, being of lime mixture, served as a health factor to the family. They didn't have tile, or plaster, to cover the joists and rafters so they were always left exposed. There exposed joists served a very important role to the family. High above the floor the Bible was found nestled atop a joist with other valuable papers. Being tradition and also the safest place in the house, this is the reason for finding these articles in this place. Another reason for finding the Bible so high is as tradition says-the Bible should be set SLOVAKIA 163 in the highest place of the household. Inside the Family Bible, there would be found an account of the family tree. Everything found in the interior of a house was made out of wood. Chairs, spoons, tables, and plates were made by the owner. Even the nails (pegs) which hold the beams were made out of wood. Why wood? Metal nails were too expensive and were only used by blacksmiths to repair the shoes on a horse . A wooden house asserts itself from the architectoral point of view expressively by its gabled front. In this way, aerial pictures of whole villages are thus presented. A beautiful example of this can be found in the upper Hron river district, primarily in Hel'pa and Pohorela. In such cases as the houses built at Hel'pa and Pohorela, the walls and partitions were constructed from rough wood beams interrupted only for window and door openings. The joints between the wooden beams were filled by moss and finished with a clay covering. After th9 finish coating of clay was applied, it was then painted with lime or left exposed. The combination of wood and clay material was a very healthy element because it balanced the humidity inside the house so it wasn't too wet or dry. The houses were made of wood only from the shelf which was made of stone. This shelf serving as a base to carry the loads of the house was approximately four feet deep. In Hron district a very characteristic element of the house was a wooden fence with a roof covering on top which reserved a private area. This area extended between the house and stable. This enclosure of public to private has an urbanistic importance. It creates a two house unit and space between them which is totally private. During the summer, these private spaces were used for social gatherings. The use of wood in the construction of houses was convenient but also dangerous-high flammability. In the past, there were many large fires which often destroyed the whole village. Once a large fire destroys a village, the houses are reconstructed the same way with the same style; but the name of the village is changed. An example of this is Pohorela which was destroyed by fire. 164 SLOVAKIA From time to time, the terrain in some places demands another solution, for instance gradated, corner-shaped or other configuration in space and form. These configurations of houses comparing whole settlements, facing streets, are types of exclusively Slovak settlements. Communities like Vysny Kubin, Jasenova, Fackov, Hubova, or Stankovany are today merely historical documents. Jasenova is different from other villages in the sense that the houses are oriented to the village square. The houses are enriched with additional covered open-space protected by rain. These covered open-spaces are porches. These porches are usually located on the second floor, which is the living area, while the first floor is used as a shelter for livestock. These porches are supported by two main cantilever beams, which are supported by two columns; and the columns in turn are supported by two more cantilevers. An important factor about these porches is the construction of the railing. It is a nice sight to sea how the railing is cut into folk carvings designed by the owner's own style. The owners then would actually compete against each other to see who had the best craftmanship. Today, we have faucets within the house with which we receive our source of water. In the Slovak villages, they had wells located outside the house from which they would draw up water in a bucket as their supply of water. A characteristic point of view about these wells is when they were constructed they took on similar features of the owner's house. The same wood, style, and pitched roof with shingles, shows the sense of pride the owner had for all his construction. The gable roof of these houses was also decorated with some sort of ornament. The houses used a cross or certain vertical siding as their decorative piece located at the gabled end of the roof. New York City has the Empire State Building - St. Louis has the Arch- and Slovak villages have a bell tower as their masterpiece. This bell tower wasn't only used for religious purposes but also for civil means of communication. Every village bell had a different tone so as not to get confused between two villages or more. This bell would sound in case of emergencies and also to notify the men SLOVAKIA 165 and women working in the fields when it was lunch and supper time. Just like every other piece of construction the bell tower was also built out of wood. Various kinds of construction of the loghouses, their structure, their elevations of masonry at Liptov, roofing, roof corners, balconies, and filling between the timber can be seen enywhere in a great variety. Plastering of the timb3r is sometimes carried out for reasons of insulation. This is to preserve timber against the influence of rain, sometimes even cold or simply to veil poverty of the wooden house. The protection from rain is evidenced by plastering the log walls on the outside up to the height where the loghous2 is not protected by the overhanging gutter. For the s2me reasons, the timber and interstices are white-washed with lime especially in corner transverse sections of the logs . At cicmany, this ornamentics in lime culminate in rich spiral ornamentation and painting of the logs, reminding of embroidery stiches. Under this ornamentation, the buildings lose their wooden block-like character formed by the wooden block in which doors and windows are carved out. The beauty of these houses is such that cicmany is known as one of the most beautiful attractions of th3 world. Since nature is the survival of the Slovaks, the d2corated walls of the houses in this village represent the different symbols of nature. Flowers, trees, etc., are just a few of the decorative symbols found painted on the house walls. Every house is a magnificent figure of originality and beauty created by the owner . The decorated walls and carved wood are all reasons for competition among neighbors. The young women who live in cicmany today are employed by factories and offices outside their village. After they come home at night, they work decorating costumes with the same art work as on the houses so they may wear their costumes on weekends for the tourist entertainment. However, decorating the costumes for tourist entertainment is not the only reason for doing this. They decorated their costumes because of the love and pride they have for our forefathers tradition. On the log structure, there sit various regional roof peculiarities, primarily saddle roofs and more rarely curb roofs sloping down into four gutters. There are slightly 166 SLOVAKIA sloping roofs from the summit into the gable the construction of which was started at a later period especially in the environment of cadca. Changes of the latter roofs into gabled ones are very well discernible in the houses of cicmany. Roofs with the lower edge of the latter type are typical for the upper Hron river region. In all houses, the roofs considerably exceed the log structure so as to make possible to store them round the house fuelwood and let it dry for their winter use. Wooden houses are usually amply lined round the walls with wood for drying. Building logs are deposited outside the house to season in the sun, and branches are left in heaps in the back yard and used as fuel. Briefly, wood around the house smells of resin; and, for instance, at Liptovska Revuca, cierny Balog, Stankovany, but mainly in the villages of the Orava district, there is a considerable reserve of wood stored around the house. A rare peculiarity are the balconied and storied constructions in the Orava District at Jasenova, then at cicmany, in the vicinity of Kremnica and upper part of Turiec. In Slovakia, very ancient interiors with open fireplaces and ovens have been preserved. Many special studies have been written about their singularities and their Old Frankish and Slavonic origin. Greatest fullness and utilization of the esthetic taste could hardly have been exhausted by the building of dwellings. Feeling of beauty has mostly asserted itself in the building of sacral structures where it was necessary to erect for the Divine Power magnificent, decorated tabernaclesbuilding of wooden churches, belfries, steeples, and ceme tery crosses. The poor sculptors could not afford to erect churches from marble. They were unable to order cross-9s from polished basalt or granite. As everything else, these objects were constructed from wood. The art of building from wood can justly be considered the national and original expression of folk building and of building in general in Slovakia, since it developed directly from the natural conditions and from the oldest cultural folk strata. As far as wooden structures, cultural and sacral, in various religious rites (Catholic, Orthodox, Greek Catholic, SLOVAKIA 167 and Protestant ), there have been preserved in Slovakia seventy of them. The most interesting are wooden churches in Eastern Slovakia. In the majority of cases, the Orthodox and Greek Catholic churches in Slovakia are the most numerous and can be divided into three types. The first type usually possesses a quadrangular high tower which is set in front of the main nave of the church and has its own belfry independent of the church. These churches are found in Slovakia at Hranicne and Matysova near Stara :Cubovna. Then, they continue westward of Bardejov with the church at Fricka and south of Bardejov at Venecia and Kozany. The second type of churches that have the same quadrangular tower, higher or lower, are connected with th2 main nave or directly set up on the roof of the main church but not directly built into the church. The third type is the most easterly one and is expressad by definite elements and character. There are the threa steeple-like terminations of the logrooms: The anteroom, the main nave and apsis which in its interior is separated from the main nave by iconostas. Each of these spaces culminates in a spire. The highest is the anterior part with a bulb-like cupola. The intermediate cupola is lower, quadrangular or octagonal with a log structure ceiling. Also, the smallest posterior part above the apsis terminates in a small spire. This type of church belongs to the most numerous ones. The densest networks of wooden churches is spread south below Dukla pass whether one approaches coming from Bardejov and Zborov to Svidnik or whether one i::; coming from Vranov to Svidnik and further to the east to Kruzlova, Ladomirova, Korejovce, Hunkovce, Nova Polianka (previously Mergeska), semetkovce, Mirol'a, Bodruzal, Vysny, and Nizny Komarnik, right to the pass. Finally, we have to mention the age of these wooden structures. On the territory of Slovakia, the oldest one is considered to be the wooden church at Trocany, 20 km. north of Presov, the origin of which is put in the 14th century. This is easy to explain since yew wood was used in its construction. Also, a building in Hervartov, and more 168 SLOVAKIA definitely so, originates in the end of the 15th century. Then follows the church at Zabrez. The Protestant churches generally come from the 17th and 18th centuries. Churches of the eastern rite are the youngest. They originated in the 18th and 19th centuries. Then, it has to be remembered that the tooth of tim2 and the woodworm enjoy with hearty appetite the wooden building memorials . It is the peak of time for us to preserve our eminent memorials in "scansens" beside museums or in other suitable sites in nature to save what still can be saved. (First place - College) REFERENCES Eugen Lazist'an and Jan Michalov, Drevene stavby na Slovensku, Frantisek Kalina, Bratislava, 1971. Emanuel Hruska, Stavba miest, Slovenska akademia vied, Bratislav.1, 1970. E. Lorad, Umelecko-historicke pamdtne kostoly na Slm; ens.1m, Spolo!( sv. Vojtecha, Trnava, 1957. Vladimir Wagner, Vyvin vytvarneho umenia na Slovensku, Slovenska akademia vied, Bratislava, 1948. Kalendar Jednota 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974, Prva K-atoLcka Slovenska Jednota v USA, Middletown Pa. Mag:i.zine and periodicals: Jednota, Slovak v Amerike, Katolicky Sokol. Consultations with experts of Slovak art and architecture. II. MILAN RASTISLA V STEFANIK AND THE TRAGEDY OF THE SLOVAK PEOPLE Robert P o j e r During the late part of the nineteenth century, the seeds of nationalism had already been sown throughout the great empires of Europe. It would take the trauma of a world war before these nationalistic aspirations could be realized. In 1867 the Austro-Hungarian Dual Monarchy made its appearance. Within this vast empire, there existed many peoples-the Austrians and the Magyars, of course; the Serbs, Croats, Ruthenes, Rumanians, Czechs, and Slovaks, to name just a few. Although on the surface, this Austro-Hungarian Empire  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource History and Tradition of Wooden Houses of Slovakia Description An account of the resource Paul Fialkovic Slovakia, Vol. 25 (No. 48), 1975 pp. 160-168 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Fialkovic, Paul Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1975 name https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/a381cf65883b3c9382b41ca001a3fdce.pdf b73421c08544cb795b727805d3d56009 PDF Text Text SLOV.AKIA 43 IDSTORY OF SWVAK ART Exposed to many influences, Slovakia bas had a variegated history. Stamped brlcks, excavated at various points. lndicate that the Romans extended their domlnlon beyond the Danube lnto the area whlch 1s now Slovakia. As early as the seventh century these reglons were lnhablted by tbe ancestors of the Slovaks who had to defend themselves agalnst the Uralo-Altaic Avars. Thls perlod 1s characterlzed by a mlxture of Slovak and Avar influences. In the nlnth century, the Great Moravian state was an lmportant factor, but it was extingulshed by the Magyars. Stability dld not ensue unt!l the time of the bu!lding of castles and of settlements round about them. Their rulns form one of the picturesque attract!ons of present-day Slovakla. At flrst the castles were but rudely bui!t structures for defense. Gradually more ornate forms of archltecture were employed. The apse of the castle at Nitra is a remnant of the old baslllca consecrated about the year 830. Some thlrty years later the Slovak apostles Salnts Cyril and Methodlus, held servlces here. Parts of the cathedra\ at Spišská Kapitula In Spiš, and the churches at Deakovce. Saint Benadlk on the Hron, and a few chapel rotundas. are remnants of thls early perlod. Gothlc monuments are to be found in the Spiš reglon. There is evldence here of the influence of the Franklsh school of architecture. Gothic archltecture spread lnto Slovakla princlpally from Poland and Sllesia. Remarkable as a well-nlgh perfect example of Gothlc a.rchitecture is the church of Saint James at Levoč:i.. The 21 metre hlgh altar !s noteworthy. Nothing llke lt ls to be found In the West. King Zapolya's chapel at Spišský Štvrtok (Donnersmark) is one of the ruost notable edlflces of thls period, consistlng of two Gothic stories above eacb otber. Bratislava, Košice, Bardiov, Prešov, and Trnava. can also boast of Gothic edifices. The oldest frescoes date from the year 1317. Spišská Kapitula, Levoča, Bardiov, and Kežmarok, have large wing altar paint!ngs in thelr churches. The lnfluence of Renalssance archltecture. comlng trom Italy, affected the buildlng of castles first. Between the flfteenth and eighteenth centuries most of the cities and towns of Spiš belonged to Poland. Thls lnfluenced the archltecture of the perlod. The Jesults built the first baroque churches. From the Danube the baroque style of archltecture, emanatlng from Vlenna, spread over all Slovakla. The baroque tower of the Bratislava City Hall resembles that of Diirnsteln In tbe Wachan reglon of Austrla. The castle at Bratislava was renovated by Maria Theresa, 1740 to 1780. At the foot of the castle the noblllty, whlch always lmltated royalty, bullt thelr splendld palaces. The Grassalkovich Palace and the Palace of the Prlmate, the latter bullt by Hlldebrand, are two remarkably fine speclmens of thls perlod. The lnterlors were exquisltely deco• rated. Thls luxury-lovlng era saw the introduction of fine tapestrles and gobelins. Sculptures decorate the exterlors and carvlngs the lnterlors of these bu!ldlngs. The Protestant churcb bullding!< disclose the archltectural In· fluence of Germany. The large wooden churches at Kežmarok and at �44 SLOVAKIA tbe village of Veľká Paludza are unique for Centra) Europe. Tbe wooden Greek Cathollc churches in Eastern Slovakia are of special interest, because they are creations of the common people. In the Jarge towns there are beautiful buildings in the Empire style. Most or them were designed by Vienna architects. The latter part of the nineteenth century shows the prevalence of Budapest influences, tbough some architects and artists went to Vienna, Municb, and Prague to complete their training. • • • • SUBTERRANEAN CAVES OF SLOVAKJA Subterranean caves are found in the immense calcareous complexes of Slovakia. Tbe llmestone masses were convulsed tectonically by the foldlng of the Carpatbians and turned into Karst formations during the tertiary and diluvial geological eras. Thus there came into existence t he multitude of exquisitely beautiful and most interesting caves which must be regarded as amongst the marvels of Europe. Depending on how far the Karst process developed, they may be divided lnto two groups: lone caves comlng into existence on slopes; and extensive cavern Jabyr!nths. The ice caverns belong to the f!rst group. Within them ice is preserved in a natural manner. Magnif!cent ls the world-known ice cavern at Dobšiná which was discovered In the year 1870 by some s hepherds. It is now access!ble to the general public and a v!sit does not require any special physical effort. The lce 1s estimated at about 125,000 cub!c meters and weighs about a mlllion tons. The cavern labyrlnths of Demänová, discovered in 1921, belong to the second group. It was found by persons who were seeking the course of the Domica brook, wbich d!sappeared suddenly. Here are imposing views upon enormous subterranean s paces, where the wild scenery of catastrophes wh!ch occurred ages ago still 1s visible. Yet the exploration of this inferno paradise can be undertaken without the sllghtest danger. One walks about leisurely througb former beds of streams and through cool water tunnels. One beholds brooklets which descend with deafening clamor into terriflc deptbs. To penetrate deeply into this vast labyrinth is an experience of a lifetime. It is a mysterious world full o[ surprislng variety. 'ľhere are majestic halls adorned with stalactites situated In many stories underneath each other. One can see travertine formations in glorious sbapes. Everyth!ng glistens resplendently. Mysteriously shaped natural sculpture abounds in variegated shades of colors. Such real Venus grottoes perhaps are not to be found elsewbere. The cllmax of all this mightiness are the 360 foot preclpices at the bottom of whlch are fairly-like halls wh!ch were discovered In 1927. lt is a fortunate coincidence that these subterranean marvels are situated so near to the resorts of the High Tatra Mountalns. From them also the Bela stalactite caverns and the Važeca cave may be vis!ted with ease. Further subterranean Jabyrinths are to he founcl in the Svätojánska dolina near Jasov and at Hosusovo, the latter perhaps the most magnif!cent of all. It was not discovered unt!I 1926. � SLOV.AKIA 43 IDSTORY OF SWVAK ART Exposed to many influences, Slovakia bas had a variegated history. Stamped brlcks, excavated at various points. lndicate that the Romans extended their domlnlon beyond the Danube lnto the area whlch 1s now Slovakia. As early as the seventh century these reglons were lnhablted by tbe ancestors of the Slovaks who had to defend themselves agalnst the Uralo-Altaic Avars. Thls perlod 1s characterlzed by a mlxture of Slovak and Avar influences. In the nlnth century, the Great Moravian state was an lmportant factor, but it was extingulshed by the Magyars. Stability dld not ensue unt!l the time of the bu!lding of castles and of settlements round about them. Their rulns form one of the picturesque attract!ons of present-day Slovakla. At flrst the castles were but rudely bui!t structures for defense. Gradually more ornate forms of archltecture were employed. The apse of the castle at Nitra is a remnant of the old baslllca consecrated about the year 830. Some thlrty years later the Slovak apostles Salnts Cyril and Methodlus, held servlces here. Parts of the cathedra\ at Spišská Kapitula In Spiš, and the churches at Deakovce. Saint Benadlk on the Hron, and a few chapel rotundas. are remnants of thls early perlod. Gothlc monuments are to be found in the Spiš reglon. There is evldence here of the influence of the Franklsh school of architecture. Gothic archltecture spread lnto Slovakla princlpally from Poland and Sllesia. Remarkable as a well-nlgh perfect example of Gothlc a.rchitecture is the church of Saint James at Levoč:i.. The 21 metre hlgh altar !s noteworthy. Nothing llke lt ls to be found In the West. King Zapolya's chapel at Spišský Štvrtok (Donnersmark) is one of the ruost notable edlflces of thls period, consistlng of two Gothic stories above eacb otber. Bratislava, Košice, Bardiov, Prešov, and Trnava. can also boast of Gothic edifices. The oldest frescoes date from the year 1317. Spišská Kapitula, Levoča, Bardiov, and Kežmarok, have large wing altar paint!ngs in thelr churches. The lnfluence of Renalssance archltecture. comlng trom Italy, affected the buildlng of castles first. Between the flfteenth and eighteenth centuries most of the cities and towns of Spiš belonged to Poland. Thls lnfluenced the archltecture of the perlod. The Jesults built the first baroque churches. From the Danube the baroque style of archltecture, emanatlng from Vlenna, spread over all Slovakla. The baroque tower of the Bratislava City Hall resembles that of Diirnsteln In tbe Wachan reglon of Austrla. The castle at Bratislava was renovated by Maria Theresa, 1740 to 1780. At the foot of the castle the noblllty, whlch always lmltated royalty, bullt thelr splendld palaces. The Grassalkovich Palace and the Palace of the Prlmate, the latter bullt by Hlldebrand, are two remarkably fine speclmens of thls perlod. The lnterlors were exquisltely deco• rated. Thls luxury-lovlng era saw the introduction of fine tapestrles and gobelins. Sculptures decorate the exterlors and carvlngs the lnterlors of these bu!ldlngs. The Protestant churcb bullding!< disclose the archltectural In· fluence of Germany. The large wooden churches at Kežmarok and at �44 SLOVAKIA tbe village of Veľká Paludza are unique for Centra) Europe. Tbe wooden Greek Cathollc churches in Eastern Slovakia are of special interest, because they are creations of the common people. In the Jarge towns there are beautiful buildings in the Empire style. Most or them were designed by Vienna architects. The latter part of the nineteenth century shows the prevalence of Budapest influences, tbough some architects and artists went to Vienna, Municb, and Prague to complete their training. • • • • SUBTERRANEAN CAVES OF SLOVAKJA Subterranean caves are found in the immense calcareous complexes of Slovakia. Tbe llmestone masses were convulsed tectonically by the foldlng of the Carpatbians and turned into Karst formations during the tertiary and diluvial geological eras. Thus there came into existence t he multitude of exquisitely beautiful and most interesting caves which must be regarded as amongst the marvels of Europe. Depending on how far the Karst process developed, they may be divided lnto two groups: lone caves comlng into existence on slopes; and extensive cavern Jabyr!nths. The ice caverns belong to the f!rst group. Within them ice is preserved in a natural manner. Magnif!cent ls the world-known ice cavern at Dobšiná which was discovered In the year 1870 by some s hepherds. It is now access!ble to the general public and a v!sit does not require any special physical effort. The lce 1s estimated at about 125,000 cub!c meters and weighs about a mlllion tons. The cavern labyrlnths of Demänová, discovered in 1921, belong to the second group. It was found by persons who were seeking the course of the Domica brook, wbich d!sappeared suddenly. Here are imposing views upon enormous subterranean s paces, where the wild scenery of catastrophes wh!ch occurred ages ago still 1s visible. Yet the exploration of this inferno paradise can be undertaken without the sllghtest danger. One walks about leisurely througb former beds of streams and through cool water tunnels. One beholds brooklets which descend with deafening clamor into terriflc deptbs. To penetrate deeply into this vast labyrinth is an experience of a lifetime. It is a mysterious world full o[ surprislng variety. 'ľhere are majestic halls adorned with stalactites situated In many stories underneath each other. One can see travertine formations in glorious sbapes. Everyth!ng glistens resplendently. Mysteriously shaped natural sculpture abounds in variegated shades of colors. Such real Venus grottoes perhaps are not to be found elsewbere. The cllmax of all this mightiness are the 360 foot preclpices at the bottom of whlch are fairly-like halls wh!ch were discovered In 1927. lt is a fortunate coincidence that these subterranean marvels are situated so near to the resorts of the High Tatra Mountalns. From them also the Bela stalactite caverns and the Važeca cave may be vis!ted with ease. Further subterranean Jabyrinths are to he founcl in the Svätojánska dolina near Jasov and at Hosusovo, the latter perhaps the most magnif!cent of all. It was not discovered unt!I 1926. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1951, Vol. 1 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1951 Description An account of the resource <ul><li>Issue 1 (No. 1), May 1951.</li> <li>Issue 2 (No. 2), December 1951.</li> </ul> Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context <ul><li><a href="https://n2t.net/ark:/13960/s261hfmshm7" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><span>ark:/13960/s261hfmshm7</span></a></li> <li><a href="https://n2t.net/ark:/13960/s21tk2wkzj4" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><span>ark:/13960/s21tk2wkzj4</span></a></li> </ul> Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document SLOV.AKIA 43 IDSTORY OF SWVAK ART Exposed to many influences, Slovakia bas had a variegated history. Stamped brlcks, excavated at various points. lndicate that the Romans extended their domlnlon beyond the Danube lnto the area whlch 1s now Slovakia. As early as the seventh century these reglons were lnhablted by tbe ancestors of the Slovaks who had to defend themselves agalnst the Uralo-Altaic Avars. Thls perlod 1s characterlzed by a mlxture of Slovak and Avar influences. In the nlnth century, the Great Moravian state was an lmportant factor, but it was extingulshed by the Magyars. Stability dld not ensue unt!l the time of the bu!lding of castles and of settlements round about them. Their rulns form one of the picturesque attract!ons of present-day Slovakla. At flrst the castles were but rudely bui!t structures for defense. Gradually more ornate forms of archltecture were employed. The apse of the castle at Nitra is a remnant of the old baslllca consecrated about the year 830. Some thlrty years later the Slovak apostles Salnts Cyril and Methodlus, held servlces here. Parts of the cathedra\ at Spišská Kapitula In Spiš, and the churches at Deakovce. Saint Benadlk on the Hron, and a few chapel rotundas. are remnants of thls early perlod. Gothlc monuments are to be found in the Spiš reglon. There is evldence here of the influence of the Franklsh school of architecture. Gothic archltecture spread lnto Slovakla princlpally from Poland and Sllesia. Remarkable as a well-nlgh perfect example of Gothlc a.rchitecture is the church of Saint James at Levoč:i.. The 21 metre hlgh altar !s noteworthy. Nothing llke lt ls to be found In the West. King Zapolya's chapel at Spišský Štvrtok (Donnersmark) is one of the ruost notable edlflces of thls period, consistlng of two Gothic stories above eacb otber. Bratislava, Košice, Bardiov, Prešov, and Trnava. can also boast of Gothic edifices. The oldest frescoes date from the year 1317. Spišská Kapitula, Levoča, Bardiov, and Kežmarok, have large wing altar paint!ngs in thelr churches. The lnfluence of Renalssance archltecture. comlng trom Italy, affected the buildlng of castles first. Between the flfteenth and eighteenth centuries most of the cities and towns of Spiš belonged to Poland. Thls lnfluenced the archltecture of the perlod. The Jesults built the first baroque churches. From the Danube the baroque style of archltecture, emanatlng from Vlenna, spread over all Slovakla. The baroque tower of the Bratislava City Hall resembles that of Diirnsteln In tbe Wachan reglon of Austrla. The castle at Bratislava was renovated by Maria Theresa, 1740 to 1780. At the foot of the castle the noblllty, whlch always lmltated royalty, bullt thelr splendld palaces. The Grassalkovich Palace and the Palace of the Prlmate, the latter bullt by Hlldebrand, are two remarkably fine speclmens of thls perlod. The lnterlors were exquisltely deco• rated. Thls luxury-lovlng era saw the introduction of fine tapestrles and gobelins. Sculptures decorate the exterlors and carvlngs the lnterlors of these bu!ldlngs. The Protestant churcb bullding!< disclose the archltectural In· fluence of Germany. The large wooden churches at Kežmarok and at 44 SLOVAKIA tbe village of Veľká Paludza are unique for Centra) Europe. Tbe wooden Greek Cathollc churches in Eastern Slovakia are of special interest, because they are creations of the common people. In the Jarge towns there are beautiful buildings in the Empire style. Most or them were designed by Vienna architects. The latter part of the nineteenth century shows the prevalence of Budapest influences, tbough some architects and artists went to Vienna, Municb, and Prague to complete their training. • • • • SUBTERRANEAN CAVES OF SLOVAKJA Subterranean caves are found in the immense calcareous complexes of Slovakia. Tbe llmestone masses were convulsed tectonically by the foldlng of the Carpatbians and turned into Karst formations during the tertiary and diluvial geological eras. Thus there came into existence t he multitude of exquisitely beautiful and most interesting caves which must be regarded as amongst the marvels of Europe. Depending on how far the Karst process developed, they may be divided lnto two groups: lone caves comlng into existence on slopes; and extensive cavern Jabyr!nths. The ice caverns belong to the f!rst group. Within them ice is preserved in a natural manner. Magnif!cent ls the world-known ice cavern at Dobšiná which was discovered In the year 1870 by some s hepherds. It is now access!ble to the general public and a v!sit does not require any special physical effort. The lce 1s estimated at about 125,000 cub!c meters and weighs about a mlllion tons. The cavern labyrlnths of Demänová, discovered in 1921, belong to the second group. It was found by persons who were seeking the course of the Domica brook, wbich d!sappeared suddenly. Here are imposing views upon enormous subterranean s paces, where the wild scenery of catastrophes wh!ch occurred ages ago still 1s visible. Yet the exploration of this inferno paradise can be undertaken without the sllghtest danger. One walks about leisurely througb former beds of streams and through cool water tunnels. One beholds brooklets which descend with deafening clamor into terriflc deptbs. To penetrate deeply into this vast labyrinth is an experience of a lifetime. It is a mysterious world full o[ surprislng variety. 'ľhere are majestic halls adorned with stalactites situated In many stories underneath each other. One can see travertine formations in glorious sbapes. Everyth!ng glistens resplendently. Mysteriously shaped natural sculpture abounds in variegated shades of colors. Such real Venus grottoes perhaps are not to be found elsewbere. The cllmax of all this mightiness are the 360 foot preclpices at the bottom of whlch are fairly-like halls wh!ch were discovered In 1927. lt is a fortunate coincidence that these subterranean marvels are situated so near to the resorts of the High Tatra Mountalns. From them also the Bela stalactite caverns and the Važeca cave may be vis!ted with ease. Further subterranean Jabyrinths are to he founcl in the Svätojánska dolina near Jasov and at Hosusovo, the latter perhaps the most magnif!cent of all. It was not discovered unt!I 1926.  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource History of Slovak Art Description An account of the resource Slovakia, Vol. 1, No. 2 (2), December 1951 pp. 43-44 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource December 1951 https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/c45f1d2c56012b6738f56b0c792ac597.pdf 0b12b1071ee898dc55ee4e6734578df8 PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA Published by the Slovak League of America VOL. XIII MARCH, 1963 NO. 1 (36) HOW OHBIS'DANITY CAME TO THE SLOVAKS P.A. HROBAK Christianity came to the pagan Slovaks slowly and gradually. And there are no indications that the Slovaks, once Christianized, openly rebelled against Christianity and reverted to paganism. This is evidence that the SlovaJks of the early 9th century were under the influence of Christianity for several generations. They were converted to Christianity by missionaries who came from countries in which Christianity was already sufficiently developed and prepared for missionary activities among their pagan neighbors. There are certain indications that missionaries from the southern countries tried to spread Christianity on the territory of the Slovans (Slov,anic peoples) along the Danube River rwho were subjugated by the Avars before the end of the sixth century. The centers of this missionary activity were the ·b ishoprics and monasteries situated on the Adriatic Sea or in the northern countries of the Balkan Peninsula, where remnants of an ecclesiastical organization have been preserved. 1 But systematic missionary activity in this area, which included the territory of the ancient Slova.iks, was developed by missionaries from Bavaria. Christianity came to Bavaria both on the Danube and on the Rhine through soldiers and merchants. 2 Then, as is well :known, at first Irish, and later Frankish and AngloSa.xJon missionaries sowed the seed of the Gospel in the hearu; of the rude warriors. Among those missionaries were: St. Kilian and his ,p upils Colonat (Coloman) and Totnan at WtiriJburg; in the Alpgau region !St. Magnus; at Ratisbon and Freising St. Rupert, St. Emuneram and St. Corbinian.3 Stricter regulations were introduced by Winfrid (St. Boniface), familiarly known as the "Apostle of the Germans." St. Columban came to Bavaria from France, while St. Gall :was active in southern Germany and in 612 settled in what later became Switzerland. �2 SLOVAKIA St. Co11binian, the Apostle of Central Bavaria, worked in and out of ·F lreising where there was an Irish monastery, the monks of which later foll!Ilded other monasteries, among them the one established in 769 at Innichen in the Tyrol. This latter monastery had the special task to spread Christianity in neighboring Corutania which was inhabited by the Slovenes (ISlovinci). The Irish bishop St. Emmeram resided in Regensburg where he built a monastery and became its abbot with the dignity of a bishop.t Because the city was situated on the Danube, on the road that connected Bavaria with the territory of the Danubian Slovanic peoples, it had all the prerequisites for missionary work among them. St. Rupert, Bishop of Worms, ba,ptized Duke Theodo of Bavaria, erected at Waldersee a church in honor of St. Peter, and at the end of the seventh century made Juvavum (Salzburg), where he found the ruins of Roman buildings, his episcopal seat.5 The monastery, which St. Rupert built there in honor of St. Peter, became an important center for the activity of the Irish monks in Bavaria. From the life history of St. Emmeram we learn that he did .plan to do mission wor,k among the A vars. He actually left Bavaria but on the advice of the Bavarian prince remained in Regensburg, so that he himself did not get to the territory of the A vars and the Slovans (Slovanic peoples) whom the Avars dominated. There is evidence, however, that some members of his group, or some Irish missionaries from the Regensburg monastery, did some missionary work there. 6 The first Christian church on Slovak territory, built by Prince Pribina at Nitra, was dedicated to St. E)mmeram. in 833. It is significant, too, that among the churches built ,b y Slovak rulers in the ninth century in Pannonia, there is one dedicated to St. Rupert, Bishop of Salzburg. 7 In the eighth century quite a few Benedictine monasteries were established in Bavaria and Austria. One of the most significant was the monastery at Tegernsee, whose members did missionary work among the Al,p ian Slovans and also founded the monastery of St. Hippolitus in Lower Austria. It appears that it was this monastery of St. Hippolitus that was charged with the task of doing missionary work on the territory of Slovakia: on the slope of Mt. Zobor, near Nitra - the seat of Slovak princes, a monastery �SLOVAKIA 3 was built and dedicated to St. llippolitus. We do not know exactly when this monastery was founded, but there are indications that it was early in the 9th century. The Mt. Zobor Benedictine monastery wery well could have been a mission station of the Bavarian missionaries who labored in ancient Slovakia. 8 The Irish mission, which developed in Bavaria and extended to the lands occupied by the Avars and Slovans, had no political character; there was no political power backing it. Bavarian missionaries, however, alongside their religious and ecclesiastical mission fulfilled also a political role: there activity, especially at the end of the 8th century, had the full support of the Frankish Empire. Working out of Salzburg, missionaries ,b egan to develop their activity on the territory of the Slovanic tribes who had occupied the Danubian region and the eastern spurs of the Alps. In the beginning, while the Danubian Slovans ('Slovaks) were dominated by the Avars, the Salzburg missionaries worked more on the territory of the Corutanian Slovans (Slovenes-Slovinci) which was more accessible from Salzburg. The influence of Salzburg extended to Corutania already some time in the half of the eighth century, that is, in the very early years of the Bavarian ecclesiastical organization. It is more than probaJble that the Salzburg missionaries visited also other Slovanic provinces, especially Trans-Danubian Pannonia which was settled by Slovak tribes. They had to work cautiously ,a nd covertly, since the dominating Avars were .p agans.9 It is also very probable that missionaries from the Passau vicinity visited the Slovak tribes along the Danube and its tributaries. Some of the monasteries located near the banks of the Danube were devoted to mission work from their inception and it is very probable that they labored among the ancient Slovaks who suffered Avar hegemony. Of course, systematic and effective missionary activity could be developed by the Bavarian apostles only after the Frankish armies of Charles the Great (Charlemagne) subdued the Avars in the last decade of the eighth century and the Frankish Empire displayed a great interest in the extensive territory. Bishop Arno of Salzburg was entrusted by Charlemagne with the work of Christianizing the Avar- �4 SLOVAKIA Slovanic lands. When the latter suggested that Bishop Arno be elevated to an archbishop, Pope Leo m obliged in 798. 10 Letters, which the learned .Aibbot Alcuin wrote to the Archbishop of Sal~burg and to Charlemagne, reveal the preparations made for mission work among the Avars and Slovanic peoples; they learned their language to some extent, translated current prayers and the texts used for confession and baptism. The linguistic characteristics of these ancient literary souvenirs, probably from the end of the eighth and the beginning of the ninth century, prove that Bavarian missionaries did la,,bor on the territory of the ancient Slovaks. 11 Salzburg fulfilled its mission role during the lifetime of Archbishop Arno and continued in it under his succes-sors. Naturally, the Salzburg missionaries developed their actilvity first of all on the territory that was most accessible to them. This was Trans-Danubian Pannonia, which was occupied for the most part by Slovwk tribes who in the southwestern part af this country had contacts with the Slovene tribes. Among the missionaries, who came from Sabiburg, were also missionary bishops who, by the authority af the Archbishop of Salzburg, exercised ecclesiastical jurisdiction in Pannonia. Bishop Deodoric was one of them; he labored in Pannonia also under Archbishop Arno's successor, Archbishop Adalram (&21-836). Later, during the lifetime of Archbishop Adalwin (859-873), Bishop Osbald was head of the mission work Pannonia. 12 After the victory of the Fra:n'ks over the A vars a new situation arose on the German-Slovanic border on the middle Danube. Charlemagne sought to Christianize the peoples he subjugated. On the territory occupied by the Frankish armies, after the defeat of the Avars, on both ban!ks of the middle Danube, the East Mark (Ostmark) was established, which became the immediate neighbor of the land accupied by the Slovaks. In comparison with the Germans, the SlovaJks, and all Slovans generally, lagged behind in their political and cultural development. 13 Reports of Frankish chroniclers began to speak in a clear language how individual Slovanic tribes were forced under the sovereignty of the Frankish kings. Accorrnng to these reports representatives of Slovanic tribes came to German towns to pay �SLOVAKIA fj tribute to the German king. Among the first Slovanic princes, representatives of the Slovak tribes were also present. The report of 8~5 relates about chieftains and messengers of all Slovans, who lived along the eastern border of the Frankish Empire. The report of 822 states that the Empire Assembly, called to Frankfurt by Louis the Pious, was attended also by representatives of the Czechs, Moravians, and even the Avars who still remained in Pa:nnonia. All delegations came with gifts, for Louis, which demonstrated that the Slovanic tribes rec.ognized the Gennan sovereign as their master. 14 The Slovaks in this report appear under the name of Moravians, because in those times thus were indicated the Slovanic tribes which had settled on both sides of the Morava River. They were the Slovak tribes which settled on the territories of present day Moravi,a and Slovakia and were also called "iSloveni." We do not know exactly how many tribes composed the Slovak Moravians, but we can assume that they formed a tribal alliance made up of several tribes. According to some reports there were eleven Slovak tribes north of the Danube. Besides these there also were several tribes on the southern bank, on the territory of Pannonia, but these were not called Moravians. 15 From available records, it would appear that at the beginning of the 9th century the Slovak tribes were divided into three groups. The western group occupied both sides of the Morava River and was, therefore, called Moravian. The eastern group, settled on the plains, valleys and basins of present-day .Slovakia, was indicated by the name "Sloveni." The third group, disrupted both by Avar hegemony and anti-Avar wars and settled on the territory of TransDanubian Pannonia, also belonged to the ''Sloveni". 16 The three groups formed one tribal alliance, united by a bond of common origin, close relationship and a common language, settled on connected territory on the middle Danube, appearing under a common name and endur.ing or sharing, at least partially and for a time, even a common historic lot. History tells us that Archbishop Adalram of Salzburg came to Slowlkia to bless a church in Nitra, the seat of the Slovak Prince Pribina. Since he was Archbishop of �6 SLOVAKIA Saraburg from 821 to 836, this event must have taken place within those yeaTS, most .p robably a,'bout 833. The report of this blessing for the first time mentions the name of a Slovak ruler, the seat of Slovak princes and the Christian church built on the territory of ,p resent-day Slov~kia. There were, however, more churches in Pannonia, where the Slovaks had accepted Christianity at the beginning of the 9th century through the Bavarian missionaries. The greatest significaJllce of this event, however, is that it mar,ks the entrance of the Slovaiks into Christian society, the society of the cultured nations of Europe. The Slovaks are, therefore, not only the oldest Slovanic inhabitants of the Danube B~in, but also the oldest cultured nation on the middle Danube. 17 While Prince Pribina united the SlovaJk tribes of pre.sent day Slovakia and was related to the Slovak tribes of Pannonia, Prince Mojmiir united the Slovak tribes on both sides of the Morava River. Pribina's seat of government was the Nitra Castle, while that of Mojmir was Devin. Mojmir's people were Christianized by the Bavarian missionaries who came from the monasteries of the Passau bishopric. In time a struggle for supremacy took place and in the end Mojmir won out, banishing Pri-bina from Nitra. Mojmir thus became the ruler of all the Slovak tribes above the north bank of the Danube. Neighbol'ling on the exipanding Frankish Empire, the Slova!ks recognized the need for unification in the interest of their own security and welfare. Mojmir, the stronger Oif the two Slovak princes, imposed his will on Plribina without bloodshed and, it would appear, with thte a,p.proval of the Frankish sovereign. Pribina, his wife and son, Kocel', escorted by several magnates, were given asylum by Count Ratbod, Margrave of the Eastern Mark (Ostmark). There he sought the aid of the Frankish sovereign to regain his Nitra principality.18 &successful and falling out with Ratbod, Pribina, still intent on regainig his former principality, sougtht the aid of the Bulgairians, but to no avaiil. Then he went to Ratimir, the Croatian prince, who ruled the country along the Sava River, but he, too, could not help him, because he had his own troubles with the ,F rankish king. In 838, King Louis the German ordered Ratbod to subdue the troublesome �SLOVAKIA 7 subjects of Raltimir. In the battle that ensued, Ratimir was fortunate to escape, as was Pribina and his retinue. Wearied and dejected, Pribina crossed the Sava River and asked Count Salach of Corutania to attempt a reconciliation with Ratbod. 19 After Pribina made his peace with Ratbod, the latter used his influence witill King Louis the German who entrusted Pribina (in 847) with a principality in Pannonia, near Blatno. There Pribina built a formidable citadel which was called Blatnohrad (Moosburg). Prince Pribina build churches and endowed monasteries, and often welcomed the h-chbishop of Salzburg to his court.20 His son Kocef continued in his work: 32 churches were built in Pannonia. m the meantime, ~arlmann, oldest son of Louis the German, allied himse1f with Rastislav, ruler of Great Moravia and revolted against his father. Pribina remained loyal to the dcing. He lost his life in 861 in one of the many skirmishes with warriors of Rastislav, Slovak prince and Mojmir's nephew, who governed the Nitra principality.21 MojmiiI''s success in organizing a strong principality, uniting Slovak tribes and gaining the favor of the magnates, roused the suspicions of the Frankish king. AB a result Mojmir was unseated in 846 by King Louis the German, who then made Rastislav the governor of Great Moravia, the land of the Slovaks. .Prince Rastislav continued in his uncle's footsteps, building a stronger and mightier Great Moravia, which Kmg Louis eventually regarded with growing concern. The result was mutual distrust which led to the invasion of Rastislav's territory by the Frankish king in the spring of 855, when the Bavarian .Alrmy under Count Ernst invia.ded the Ozech lands. Louis attacked Rastislav's anny, but was repulsed. Not being aible to penetrate Rastislav's defense positions, Louis withdrew and in his rage ravaged the land of the Slovaks. Rastislav · retaliated in kind, took over the offensive, chased Louis out of the country and laid waste the German territory on the Danube.22 After this victory Rastislav gaive serious thought to organizing an ecclesiastical province in his land, one which would not be dependent on the Bavarian province, because he fully appreciated what the German missionaries. were �8 SLOVAKIA doing for the Frankish Empire: they spread not only Christianity but endeavored to extend tihe empire. Rastislav decided to emulate the Franks who influenced and were recognired by the Cln.1.rch. In 860, Rastislav sent a special mismon to Pope Nicholas I, in Rome with a request for missionaries who could speak the language of his people. After quite some delay, the mission returned to report to Rastislav, that the Pope could not oblige, ,b ecause there were no such missionaries in Rome. It was then, in 862, that Rastislav sent a delegation to Emperor Michael LH, to Constantinople, with the same request. The mission was successful. The saintly brothers, Consoontine (Cyril) and Methodius, came to the land of Rastislav, the homeland of the ancient Slovaks, in 863, to complete the work of Ohristianizing the Slovaks.23 REFERENCES 1. iDr. Frantisek Hrus ovsky : Sfovenski Vladari, Obrana Pre ss, Inc., !Scranton, Pa., 1948, p. 45. 2. iEiuber:Geschichte der Einfilhrung und Verbreitung des Chrlstenthums in SUdosten Deutschlands, Salzburg, 1874-75, 4 Vols.; Hefele : Geschichte der EinfUhrung des Christenthums im Siidwestlichen Deutschland, TU.bingen, 1837. 3. The Catholic Encyclopedia : Bavaria. 4. Hrui§ovsky, op. cit., p . 51. 6. The Oathollc Encyclopedia : Salzburg. 6. Hrusov,s ky : op. cit., p. 62. 7. ['bid em, p. 63. 8. IJlbidem, P. 55. 9. ,Ibidem, p. 60. 10. !llbid-em, p . 61. 11. lllbidem, pp. 63-64. 12. Elidem, p. 65. 13. 'Ilb!dem, p . 70. H. •I lbidem, p . 73. 15. i11bidem, p . 74. 16. \Ibidem, p. 7 4. 17. Jibiilem, p. 79 ; Hrusov.sky : Slovens kc dejiny, M atica Slovenska, Turciansky Svaty Martin, 1940; pp. 3'3-34 ; Gi!lbert L . Oddo : Slovakia And Its People, Robert Speller & S ons, New York, 1960 ; p. 10; Joseph M. Kirschbaum: Slovakia - Nation at the Crossroads of Central Europe, Robert Speller & Sons, New York, 1960.; p . 16. 18. Hrusovsky: Slovenski Vladari, pp. 84--86. 19. Ilbidem, p . 87. 20. illbidem, P. 91. 21. lllbidem, p. 95. 12. Ilbidem, p . 116. .23. l'bid~m, p . 134 . . . � SLOVAKIA Published by the Slovak League of America VOL. XIII MARCH, 1963 NO. 1 (36) HOW OHBIS'DANITY CAME TO THE SLOVAKS P.A. HROBAK Christianity came to the pagan Slovaks slowly and gradually. And there are no indications that the Slovaks, once Christianized, openly rebelled against Christianity and reverted to paganism. This is evidence that the SlovaJks of the early 9th century were under the influence of Christianity for several generations. They were converted to Christianity by missionaries who came from countries in which Christianity was already sufficiently developed and prepared for missionary activities among their pagan neighbors. There are certain indications that missionaries from the southern countries tried to spread Christianity on the territory of the Slovans (Slov,anic peoples) along the Danube River rwho were subjugated by the Avars before the end of the sixth century. The centers of this missionary activity were the ·b ishoprics and monasteries situated on the Adriatic Sea or in the northern countries of the Balkan Peninsula, where remnants of an ecclesiastical organization have been preserved. 1 But systematic missionary activity in this area, which included the territory of the ancient Slova.iks, was developed by missionaries from Bavaria. Christianity came to Bavaria both on the Danube and on the Rhine through soldiers and merchants. 2 Then, as is well :known, at first Irish, and later Frankish and AngloSa.xJon missionaries sowed the seed of the Gospel in the hearu; of the rude warriors. Among those missionaries were: St. Kilian and his ,p upils Colonat (Coloman) and Totnan at WtiriJburg; in the Alpgau region !St. Magnus; at Ratisbon and Freising St. Rupert, St. Emuneram and St. Corbinian.3 Stricter regulations were introduced by Winfrid (St. Boniface), familiarly known as the "Apostle of the Germans." St. Columban came to Bavaria from France, while St. Gall :was active in southern Germany and in 612 settled in what later became Switzerland. �2 SLOVAKIA St. Co11binian, the Apostle of Central Bavaria, worked in and out of ·F lreising where there was an Irish monastery, the monks of which later foll!Ilded other monasteries, among them the one established in 769 at Innichen in the Tyrol. This latter monastery had the special task to spread Christianity in neighboring Corutania which was inhabited by the Slovenes (ISlovinci). The Irish bishop St. Emmeram resided in Regensburg where he built a monastery and became its abbot with the dignity of a bishop.t Because the city was situated on the Danube, on the road that connected Bavaria with the territory of the Danubian Slovanic peoples, it had all the prerequisites for missionary work among them. St. Rupert, Bishop of Worms, ba,ptized Duke Theodo of Bavaria, erected at Waldersee a church in honor of St. Peter, and at the end of the seventh century made Juvavum (Salzburg), where he found the ruins of Roman buildings, his episcopal seat.5 The monastery, which St. Rupert built there in honor of St. Peter, became an important center for the activity of the Irish monks in Bavaria. From the life history of St. Emmeram we learn that he did .plan to do mission wor,k among the A vars. He actually left Bavaria but on the advice of the Bavarian prince remained in Regensburg, so that he himself did not get to the territory of the A vars and the Slovans (Slovanic peoples) whom the Avars dominated. There is evidence, however, that some members of his group, or some Irish missionaries from the Regensburg monastery, did some missionary work there. 6 The first Christian church on Slovak territory, built by Prince Pribina at Nitra, was dedicated to St. E)mmeram. in 833. It is significant, too, that among the churches built ,b y Slovak rulers in the ninth century in Pannonia, there is one dedicated to St. Rupert, Bishop of Salzburg. 7 In the eighth century quite a few Benedictine monasteries were established in Bavaria and Austria. One of the most significant was the monastery at Tegernsee, whose members did missionary work among the Al,p ian Slovans and also founded the monastery of St. Hippolitus in Lower Austria. It appears that it was this monastery of St. Hippolitus that was charged with the task of doing missionary work on the territory of Slovakia: on the slope of Mt. Zobor, near Nitra - the seat of Slovak princes, a monastery �SLOVAKIA 3 was built and dedicated to St. llippolitus. We do not know exactly when this monastery was founded, but there are indications that it was early in the 9th century. The Mt. Zobor Benedictine monastery wery well could have been a mission station of the Bavarian missionaries who labored in ancient Slovakia. 8 The Irish mission, which developed in Bavaria and extended to the lands occupied by the Avars and Slovans, had no political character; there was no political power backing it. Bavarian missionaries, however, alongside their religious and ecclesiastical mission fulfilled also a political role: there activity, especially at the end of the 8th century, had the full support of the Frankish Empire. Working out of Salzburg, missionaries ,b egan to develop their activity on the territory of the Slovanic tribes who had occupied the Danubian region and the eastern spurs of the Alps. In the beginning, while the Danubian Slovans ('Slovaks) were dominated by the Avars, the Salzburg missionaries worked more on the territory of the Corutanian Slovans (Slovenes-Slovinci) which was more accessible from Salzburg. The influence of Salzburg extended to Corutania already some time in the half of the eighth century, that is, in the very early years of the Bavarian ecclesiastical organization. It is more than probaJble that the Salzburg missionaries visited also other Slovanic provinces, especially Trans-Danubian Pannonia which was settled by Slovak tribes. They had to work cautiously ,a nd covertly, since the dominating Avars were .p agans.9 It is also very probable that missionaries from the Passau vicinity visited the Slovak tribes along the Danube and its tributaries. Some of the monasteries located near the banks of the Danube were devoted to mission work from their inception and it is very probable that they labored among the ancient Slovaks who suffered Avar hegemony. Of course, systematic and effective missionary activity could be developed by the Bavarian apostles only after the Frankish armies of Charles the Great (Charlemagne) subdued the Avars in the last decade of the eighth century and the Frankish Empire displayed a great interest in the extensive territory. Bishop Arno of Salzburg was entrusted by Charlemagne with the work of Christianizing the Avar- �4 SLOVAKIA Slovanic lands. When the latter suggested that Bishop Arno be elevated to an archbishop, Pope Leo m obliged in 798. 10 Letters, which the learned .Aibbot Alcuin wrote to the Archbishop of Sal~burg and to Charlemagne, reveal the preparations made for mission work among the Avars and Slovanic peoples; they learned their language to some extent, translated current prayers and the texts used for confession and baptism. The linguistic characteristics of these ancient literary souvenirs, probably from the end of the eighth and the beginning of the ninth century, prove that Bavarian missionaries did la,,bor on the territory of the ancient Slovaks. 11 Salzburg fulfilled its mission role during the lifetime of Archbishop Arno and continued in it under his succes-sors. Naturally, the Salzburg missionaries developed their actilvity first of all on the territory that was most accessible to them. This was Trans-Danubian Pannonia, which was occupied for the most part by Slovwk tribes who in the southwestern part af this country had contacts with the Slovene tribes. Among the missionaries, who came from Sabiburg, were also missionary bishops who, by the authority af the Archbishop of Salzburg, exercised ecclesiastical jurisdiction in Pannonia. Bishop Deodoric was one of them; he labored in Pannonia also under Archbishop Arno's successor, Archbishop Adalram (&21-836). Later, during the lifetime of Archbishop Adalwin (859-873), Bishop Osbald was head of the mission work Pannonia. 12 After the victory of the Fra:n'ks over the A vars a new situation arose on the German-Slovanic border on the middle Danube. Charlemagne sought to Christianize the peoples he subjugated. On the territory occupied by the Frankish armies, after the defeat of the Avars, on both ban!ks of the middle Danube, the East Mark (Ostmark) was established, which became the immediate neighbor of the land accupied by the Slovaks. In comparison with the Germans, the SlovaJks, and all Slovans generally, lagged behind in their political and cultural development. 13 Reports of Frankish chroniclers began to speak in a clear language how individual Slovanic tribes were forced under the sovereignty of the Frankish kings. Accorrnng to these reports representatives of Slovanic tribes came to German towns to pay �SLOVAKIA fj tribute to the German king. Among the first Slovanic princes, representatives of the Slovak tribes were also present. The report of 8~5 relates about chieftains and messengers of all Slovans, who lived along the eastern border of the Frankish Empire. The report of 822 states that the Empire Assembly, called to Frankfurt by Louis the Pious, was attended also by representatives of the Czechs, Moravians, and even the Avars who still remained in Pa:nnonia. All delegations came with gifts, for Louis, which demonstrated that the Slovanic tribes rec.ognized the Gennan sovereign as their master. 14 The Slovaks in this report appear under the name of Moravians, because in those times thus were indicated the Slovanic tribes which had settled on both sides of the Morava River. They were the Slovak tribes which settled on the territories of present day Moravi,a and Slovakia and were also called "iSloveni." We do not know exactly how many tribes composed the Slovak Moravians, but we can assume that they formed a tribal alliance made up of several tribes. According to some reports there were eleven Slovak tribes north of the Danube. Besides these there also were several tribes on the southern bank, on the territory of Pannonia, but these were not called Moravians. 15 From available records, it would appear that at the beginning of the 9th century the Slovak tribes were divided into three groups. The western group occupied both sides of the Morava River and was, therefore, called Moravian. The eastern group, settled on the plains, valleys and basins of present-day .Slovakia, was indicated by the name "Sloveni." The third group, disrupted both by Avar hegemony and anti-Avar wars and settled on the territory of TransDanubian Pannonia, also belonged to the ''Sloveni". 16 The three groups formed one tribal alliance, united by a bond of common origin, close relationship and a common language, settled on connected territory on the middle Danube, appearing under a common name and endur.ing or sharing, at least partially and for a time, even a common historic lot. History tells us that Archbishop Adalram of Salzburg came to Slowlkia to bless a church in Nitra, the seat of the Slovak Prince Pribina. Since he was Archbishop of �6 SLOVAKIA Saraburg from 821 to 836, this event must have taken place within those yeaTS, most .p robably a,'bout 833. The report of this blessing for the first time mentions the name of a Slovak ruler, the seat of Slovak princes and the Christian church built on the territory of ,p resent-day Slov~kia. There were, however, more churches in Pannonia, where the Slovaks had accepted Christianity at the beginning of the 9th century through the Bavarian missionaries. The greatest significaJllce of this event, however, is that it mar,ks the entrance of the Slovaiks into Christian society, the society of the cultured nations of Europe. The Slovaks are, therefore, not only the oldest Slovanic inhabitants of the Danube B~in, but also the oldest cultured nation on the middle Danube. 17 While Prince Pribina united the SlovaJk tribes of pre.sent day Slovakia and was related to the Slovak tribes of Pannonia, Prince Mojmiir united the Slovak tribes on both sides of the Morava River. Pribina's seat of government was the Nitra Castle, while that of Mojmir was Devin. Mojmir's people were Christianized by the Bavarian missionaries who came from the monasteries of the Passau bishopric. In time a struggle for supremacy took place and in the end Mojmir won out, banishing Pri-bina from Nitra. Mojmir thus became the ruler of all the Slovak tribes above the north bank of the Danube. Neighbol'ling on the exipanding Frankish Empire, the Slova!ks recognized the need for unification in the interest of their own security and welfare. Mojmir, the stronger Oif the two Slovak princes, imposed his will on Plribina without bloodshed and, it would appear, with thte a,p.proval of the Frankish sovereign. Pribina, his wife and son, Kocel', escorted by several magnates, were given asylum by Count Ratbod, Margrave of the Eastern Mark (Ostmark). There he sought the aid of the Frankish sovereign to regain his Nitra principality.18 &successful and falling out with Ratbod, Pribina, still intent on regainig his former principality, sougtht the aid of the Bulgairians, but to no avaiil. Then he went to Ratimir, the Croatian prince, who ruled the country along the Sava River, but he, too, could not help him, because he had his own troubles with the ,F rankish king. In 838, King Louis the German ordered Ratbod to subdue the troublesome �SLOVAKIA 7 subjects of Raltimir. In the battle that ensued, Ratimir was fortunate to escape, as was Pribina and his retinue. Wearied and dejected, Pribina crossed the Sava River and asked Count Salach of Corutania to attempt a reconciliation with Ratbod. 19 After Pribina made his peace with Ratbod, the latter used his influence witill King Louis the German who entrusted Pribina (in 847) with a principality in Pannonia, near Blatno. There Pribina built a formidable citadel which was called Blatnohrad (Moosburg). Prince Pribina build churches and endowed monasteries, and often welcomed the h-chbishop of Salzburg to his court.20 His son Kocef continued in his work: 32 churches were built in Pannonia. m the meantime, ~arlmann, oldest son of Louis the German, allied himse1f with Rastislav, ruler of Great Moravia and revolted against his father. Pribina remained loyal to the dcing. He lost his life in 861 in one of the many skirmishes with warriors of Rastislav, Slovak prince and Mojmir's nephew, who governed the Nitra principality.21 MojmiiI''s success in organizing a strong principality, uniting Slovak tribes and gaining the favor of the magnates, roused the suspicions of the Frankish king. AB a result Mojmir was unseated in 846 by King Louis the German, who then made Rastislav the governor of Great Moravia, the land of the Slovaks. .Prince Rastislav continued in his uncle's footsteps, building a stronger and mightier Great Moravia, which Kmg Louis eventually regarded with growing concern. The result was mutual distrust which led to the invasion of Rastislav's territory by the Frankish king in the spring of 855, when the Bavarian .Alrmy under Count Ernst invia.ded the Ozech lands. Louis attacked Rastislav's anny, but was repulsed. Not being aible to penetrate Rastislav's defense positions, Louis withdrew and in his rage ravaged the land of the Slovaks. Rastislav · retaliated in kind, took over the offensive, chased Louis out of the country and laid waste the German territory on the Danube.22 After this victory Rastislav gaive serious thought to organizing an ecclesiastical province in his land, one which would not be dependent on the Bavarian province, because he fully appreciated what the German missionaries. were �8 SLOVAKIA doing for the Frankish Empire: they spread not only Christianity but endeavored to extend tihe empire. Rastislav decided to emulate the Franks who influenced and were recognired by the Cln.1.rch. In 860, Rastislav sent a special mismon to Pope Nicholas I, in Rome with a request for missionaries who could speak the language of his people. After quite some delay, the mission returned to report to Rastislav, that the Pope could not oblige, ,b ecause there were no such missionaries in Rome. It was then, in 862, that Rastislav sent a delegation to Emperor Michael LH, to Constantinople, with the same request. The mission was successful. The saintly brothers, Consoontine (Cyril) and Methodius, came to the land of Rastislav, the homeland of the ancient Slovaks, in 863, to complete the work of Ohristianizing the Slovaks.23 REFERENCES 1. iDr. Frantisek Hrus ovsky : Sfovenski Vladari, Obrana Pre ss, Inc., !Scranton, Pa., 1948, p. 45. 2. iEiuber:Geschichte der Einfilhrung und Verbreitung des Chrlstenthums in SUdosten Deutschlands, Salzburg, 1874-75, 4 Vols.; Hefele : Geschichte der EinfUhrung des Christenthums im Siidwestlichen Deutschland, TU.bingen, 1837. 3. The Catholic Encyclopedia : Bavaria. 4. Hrui§ovsky, op. cit., p . 51. 6. The Oathollc Encyclopedia : Salzburg. 6. Hrusov,s ky : op. cit., p. 62. 7. ['bid em, p. 63. 8. IJlbidem, P. 55. 9. ,Ibidem, p. 60. 10. !llbid-em, p . 61. 11. lllbidem, pp. 63-64. 12. Elidem, p. 65. 13. 'Ilb!dem, p . 70. H. •I lbidem, p . 73. 15. i11bidem, p . 74. 16. \Ibidem, p. 7 4. 17. Jibiilem, p. 79 ; Hrusov.sky : Slovens kc dejiny, M atica Slovenska, Turciansky Svaty Martin, 1940; pp. 3'3-34 ; Gi!lbert L . Oddo : Slovakia And Its People, Robert Speller & S ons, New York, 1960 ; p. 10; Joseph M. Kirschbaum: Slovakia - Nation at the Crossroads of Central Europe, Robert Speller & Sons, New York, 1960.; p . 16. 18. Hrusovsky: Slovenski Vladari, pp. 84--86. 19. Ilbidem, p . 87. 20. illbidem, P. 91. 21. lllbidem, p. 95. 12. Ilbidem, p . 116. .23. l'bid~m, p . 134 . . . � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1963, Vol. 13 Description An account of the resource Issue 1 (No. 36), March 1963. 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 1963 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document SLOVAKIA Published by the Slovak League of America VOL. XIII MARCH, 1963 NO. 1 (36) HOW OHBIS'DANITY CAME TO THE SLOVAKS P.A. HROBAK Christianity came to the pagan Slovaks slowly and gradually. And there are no indications that the Slovaks, once Christianized, openly rebelled against Christianity and reverted to paganism. This is evidence that the SlovaJks of the early 9th century were under the influence of Christianity for several generations. They were converted to Christianity by missionaries who came from countries in which Christianity was already sufficiently developed and prepared for missionary activities among their pagan neighbors. There are certain indications that missionaries from the southern countries tried to spread Christianity on the territory of the Slovans (Slov,anic peoples) along the Danube River rwho were subjugated by the Avars before the end of the sixth century. The centers of this missionary activity were the ·b ishoprics and monasteries situated on the Adriatic Sea or in the northern countries of the Balkan Peninsula, where remnants of an ecclesiastical organization have been preserved. 1 But systematic missionary activity in this area, which included the territory of the ancient Slova.iks, was developed by missionaries from Bavaria. Christianity came to Bavaria both on the Danube and on the Rhine through soldiers and merchants. 2 Then, as is well :known, at first Irish, and later Frankish and AngloSa.xJon missionaries sowed the seed of the Gospel in the hearu; of the rude warriors. Among those missionaries were: St. Kilian and his ,p upils Colonat (Coloman) and Totnan at WtiriJburg; in the Alpgau region !St. Magnus; at Ratisbon and Freising St. Rupert, St. Emuneram and St. Corbinian.3 Stricter regulations were introduced by Winfrid (St. Boniface), familiarly known as the "Apostle of the Germans." St. Columban came to Bavaria from France, while St. Gall :was active in southern Germany and in 612 settled in what later became Switzerland. 2 SLOVAKIA St. Co11binian, the Apostle of Central Bavaria, worked in and out of ·F lreising where there was an Irish monastery, the monks of which later foll!Ilded other monasteries, among them the one established in 769 at Innichen in the Tyrol. This latter monastery had the special task to spread Christianity in neighboring Corutania which was inhabited by the Slovenes (ISlovinci). The Irish bishop St. Emmeram resided in Regensburg where he built a monastery and became its abbot with the dignity of a bishop.t Because the city was situated on the Danube, on the road that connected Bavaria with the territory of the Danubian Slovanic peoples, it had all the prerequisites for missionary work among them. St. Rupert, Bishop of Worms, ba,ptized Duke Theodo of Bavaria, erected at Waldersee a church in honor of St. Peter, and at the end of the seventh century made Juvavum (Salzburg), where he found the ruins of Roman buildings, his episcopal seat.5 The monastery, which St. Rupert built there in honor of St. Peter, became an important center for the activity of the Irish monks in Bavaria. From the life history of St. Emmeram we learn that he did .plan to do mission wor,k among the A vars. He actually left Bavaria but on the advice of the Bavarian prince remained in Regensburg, so that he himself did not get to the territory of the A vars and the Slovans (Slovanic peoples) whom the Avars dominated. There is evidence, however, that some members of his group, or some Irish missionaries from the Regensburg monastery, did some missionary work there. 6 The first Christian church on Slovak territory, built by Prince Pribina at Nitra, was dedicated to St. E)mmeram. in 833. It is significant, too, that among the churches built ,b y Slovak rulers in the ninth century in Pannonia, there is one dedicated to St. Rupert, Bishop of Salzburg. 7 In the eighth century quite a few Benedictine monasteries were established in Bavaria and Austria. One of the most significant was the monastery at Tegernsee, whose members did missionary work among the Al,p ian Slovans and also founded the monastery of St. Hippolitus in Lower Austria. It appears that it was this monastery of St. Hippolitus that was charged with the task of doing missionary work on the territory of Slovakia: on the slope of Mt. Zobor, near Nitra - the seat of Slovak princes, a monastery SLOVAKIA 3 was built and dedicated to St. llippolitus. We do not know exactly when this monastery was founded, but there are indications that it was early in the 9th century. The Mt. Zobor Benedictine monastery wery well could have been a mission station of the Bavarian missionaries who labored in ancient Slovakia. 8 The Irish mission, which developed in Bavaria and extended to the lands occupied by the Avars and Slovans, had no political character; there was no political power backing it. Bavarian missionaries, however, alongside their religious and ecclesiastical mission fulfilled also a political role: there activity, especially at the end of the 8th century, had the full support of the Frankish Empire. Working out of Salzburg, missionaries ,b egan to develop their activity on the territory of the Slovanic tribes who had occupied the Danubian region and the eastern spurs of the Alps. In the beginning, while the Danubian Slovans ('Slovaks) were dominated by the Avars, the Salzburg missionaries worked more on the territory of the Corutanian Slovans (Slovenes-Slovinci) which was more accessible from Salzburg. The influence of Salzburg extended to Corutania already some time in the half of the eighth century, that is, in the very early years of the Bavarian ecclesiastical organization. It is more than probaJble that the Salzburg missionaries visited also other Slovanic provinces, especially Trans-Danubian Pannonia which was settled by Slovak tribes. They had to work cautiously ,a nd covertly, since the dominating Avars were .p agans.9 It is also very probable that missionaries from the Passau vicinity visited the Slovak tribes along the Danube and its tributaries. Some of the monasteries located near the banks of the Danube were devoted to mission work from their inception and it is very probable that they labored among the ancient Slovaks who suffered Avar hegemony. Of course, systematic and effective missionary activity could be developed by the Bavarian apostles only after the Frankish armies of Charles the Great (Charlemagne) subdued the Avars in the last decade of the eighth century and the Frankish Empire displayed a great interest in the extensive territory. Bishop Arno of Salzburg was entrusted by Charlemagne with the work of Christianizing the Avar- 4 SLOVAKIA Slovanic lands. When the latter suggested that Bishop Arno be elevated to an archbishop, Pope Leo m obliged in 798. 10 Letters, which the learned .Aibbot Alcuin wrote to the Archbishop of Sal~burg and to Charlemagne, reveal the preparations made for mission work among the Avars and Slovanic peoples; they learned their language to some extent, translated current prayers and the texts used for confession and baptism. The linguistic characteristics of these ancient literary souvenirs, probably from the end of the eighth and the beginning of the ninth century, prove that Bavarian missionaries did la,,bor on the territory of the ancient Slovaks. 11 Salzburg fulfilled its mission role during the lifetime of Archbishop Arno and continued in it under his succes-sors. Naturally, the Salzburg missionaries developed their actilvity first of all on the territory that was most accessible to them. This was Trans-Danubian Pannonia, which was occupied for the most part by Slovwk tribes who in the southwestern part af this country had contacts with the Slovene tribes. Among the missionaries, who came from Sabiburg, were also missionary bishops who, by the authority af the Archbishop of Salzburg, exercised ecclesiastical jurisdiction in Pannonia. Bishop Deodoric was one of them; he labored in Pannonia also under Archbishop Arno's successor, Archbishop Adalram (&21-836). Later, during the lifetime of Archbishop Adalwin (859-873), Bishop Osbald was head of the mission work Pannonia. 12 After the victory of the Fra:n'ks over the A vars a new situation arose on the German-Slovanic border on the middle Danube. Charlemagne sought to Christianize the peoples he subjugated. On the territory occupied by the Frankish armies, after the defeat of the Avars, on both ban!ks of the middle Danube, the East Mark (Ostmark) was established, which became the immediate neighbor of the land accupied by the Slovaks. In comparison with the Germans, the SlovaJks, and all Slovans generally, lagged behind in their political and cultural development. 13 Reports of Frankish chroniclers began to speak in a clear language how individual Slovanic tribes were forced under the sovereignty of the Frankish kings. Accorrnng to these reports representatives of Slovanic tribes came to German towns to pay SLOVAKIA fj tribute to the German king. Among the first Slovanic princes, representatives of the Slovak tribes were also present. The report of 8~5 relates about chieftains and messengers of all Slovans, who lived along the eastern border of the Frankish Empire. The report of 822 states that the Empire Assembly, called to Frankfurt by Louis the Pious, was attended also by representatives of the Czechs, Moravians, and even the Avars who still remained in Pa:nnonia. All delegations came with gifts, for Louis, which demonstrated that the Slovanic tribes rec.ognized the Gennan sovereign as their master. 14 The Slovaks in this report appear under the name of Moravians, because in those times thus were indicated the Slovanic tribes which had settled on both sides of the Morava River. They were the Slovak tribes which settled on the territories of present day Moravi,a and Slovakia and were also called "iSloveni." We do not know exactly how many tribes composed the Slovak Moravians, but we can assume that they formed a tribal alliance made up of several tribes. According to some reports there were eleven Slovak tribes north of the Danube. Besides these there also were several tribes on the southern bank, on the territory of Pannonia, but these were not called Moravians. 15 From available records, it would appear that at the beginning of the 9th century the Slovak tribes were divided into three groups. The western group occupied both sides of the Morava River and was, therefore, called Moravian. The eastern group, settled on the plains, valleys and basins of present-day .Slovakia, was indicated by the name "Sloveni." The third group, disrupted both by Avar hegemony and anti-Avar wars and settled on the territory of TransDanubian Pannonia, also belonged to the ''Sloveni". 16 The three groups formed one tribal alliance, united by a bond of common origin, close relationship and a common language, settled on connected territory on the middle Danube, appearing under a common name and endur.ing or sharing, at least partially and for a time, even a common historic lot. History tells us that Archbishop Adalram of Salzburg came to Slowlkia to bless a church in Nitra, the seat of the Slovak Prince Pribina. Since he was Archbishop of 6 SLOVAKIA Saraburg from 821 to 836, this event must have taken place within those yeaTS, most .p robably a,'bout 833. The report of this blessing for the first time mentions the name of a Slovak ruler, the seat of Slovak princes and the Christian church built on the territory of ,p resent-day Slov~kia. There were, however, more churches in Pannonia, where the Slovaks had accepted Christianity at the beginning of the 9th century through the Bavarian missionaries. The greatest significaJllce of this event, however, is that it mar,ks the entrance of the Slovaiks into Christian society, the society of the cultured nations of Europe. The Slovaks are, therefore, not only the oldest Slovanic inhabitants of the Danube B~in, but also the oldest cultured nation on the middle Danube. 17 While Prince Pribina united the SlovaJk tribes of pre.sent day Slovakia and was related to the Slovak tribes of Pannonia, Prince Mojmiir united the Slovak tribes on both sides of the Morava River. Pribina's seat of government was the Nitra Castle, while that of Mojmir was Devin. Mojmir's people were Christianized by the Bavarian missionaries who came from the monasteries of the Passau bishopric. In time a struggle for supremacy took place and in the end Mojmir won out, banishing Pri-bina from Nitra. Mojmir thus became the ruler of all the Slovak tribes above the north bank of the Danube. Neighbol'ling on the exipanding Frankish Empire, the Slova!ks recognized the need for unification in the interest of their own security and welfare. Mojmir, the stronger Oif the two Slovak princes, imposed his will on Plribina without bloodshed and, it would appear, with thte a,p.proval of the Frankish sovereign. Pribina, his wife and son, Kocel', escorted by several magnates, were given asylum by Count Ratbod, Margrave of the Eastern Mark (Ostmark). There he sought the aid of the Frankish sovereign to regain his Nitra principality.18 &successful and falling out with Ratbod, Pribina, still intent on regainig his former principality, sougtht the aid of the Bulgairians, but to no avaiil. Then he went to Ratimir, the Croatian prince, who ruled the country along the Sava River, but he, too, could not help him, because he had his own troubles with the ,F rankish king. In 838, King Louis the German ordered Ratbod to subdue the troublesome SLOVAKIA 7 subjects of Raltimir. In the battle that ensued, Ratimir was fortunate to escape, as was Pribina and his retinue. Wearied and dejected, Pribina crossed the Sava River and asked Count Salach of Corutania to attempt a reconciliation with Ratbod. 19 After Pribina made his peace with Ratbod, the latter used his influence witill King Louis the German who entrusted Pribina (in 847) with a principality in Pannonia, near Blatno. There Pribina built a formidable citadel which was called Blatnohrad (Moosburg). Prince Pribina build churches and endowed monasteries, and often welcomed the h-chbishop of Salzburg to his court.20 His son Kocef continued in his work: 32 churches were built in Pannonia. m the meantime, ~arlmann, oldest son of Louis the German, allied himse1f with Rastislav, ruler of Great Moravia and revolted against his father. Pribina remained loyal to the dcing. He lost his life in 861 in one of the many skirmishes with warriors of Rastislav, Slovak prince and Mojmir's nephew, who governed the Nitra principality.21 MojmiiI''s success in organizing a strong principality, uniting Slovak tribes and gaining the favor of the magnates, roused the suspicions of the Frankish king. AB a result Mojmir was unseated in 846 by King Louis the German, who then made Rastislav the governor of Great Moravia, the land of the Slovaks. .Prince Rastislav continued in his uncle's footsteps, building a stronger and mightier Great Moravia, which Kmg Louis eventually regarded with growing concern. The result was mutual distrust which led to the invasion of Rastislav's territory by the Frankish king in the spring of 855, when the Bavarian .Alrmy under Count Ernst invia.ded the Ozech lands. Louis attacked Rastislav's anny, but was repulsed. Not being aible to penetrate Rastislav's defense positions, Louis withdrew and in his rage ravaged the land of the Slovaks. Rastislav · retaliated in kind, took over the offensive, chased Louis out of the country and laid waste the German territory on the Danube.22 After this victory Rastislav gaive serious thought to organizing an ecclesiastical province in his land, one which would not be dependent on the Bavarian province, because he fully appreciated what the German missionaries. were 8 SLOVAKIA doing for the Frankish Empire: they spread not only Christianity but endeavored to extend tihe empire. Rastislav decided to emulate the Franks who influenced and were recognired by the Cln.1.rch. In 860, Rastislav sent a special mismon to Pope Nicholas I, in Rome with a request for missionaries who could speak the language of his people. After quite some delay, the mission returned to report to Rastislav, that the Pope could not oblige, ,b ecause there were no such missionaries in Rome. It was then, in 862, that Rastislav sent a delegation to Emperor Michael LH, to Constantinople, with the same request. The mission was successful. The saintly brothers, Consoontine (Cyril) and Methodius, came to the land of Rastislav, the homeland of the ancient Slovaks, in 863, to complete the work of Ohristianizing the Slovaks.23 REFERENCES 1. iDr. Frantisek Hrus ovsky : Sfovenski Vladari, Obrana Pre ss, Inc., !Scranton, Pa., 1948, p. 45. 2. iEiuber:Geschichte der Einfilhrung und Verbreitung des Chrlstenthums in SUdosten Deutschlands, Salzburg, 1874-75, 4 Vols.; Hefele : Geschichte der EinfUhrung des Christenthums im Siidwestlichen Deutschland, TU.bingen, 1837. 3. The Catholic Encyclopedia : Bavaria. 4. Hrui§ovsky, op. cit., p . 51. 6. The Oathollc Encyclopedia : Salzburg. 6. Hrusov,s ky : op. cit., p. 62. 7. ['bid em, p. 63. 8. IJlbidem, P. 55. 9. ,Ibidem, p. 60. 10. !llbid-em, p . 61. 11. lllbidem, pp. 63-64. 12. Elidem, p. 65. 13. 'Ilb!dem, p . 70. H. •I lbidem, p . 73. 15. i11bidem, p . 74. 16. \Ibidem, p. 7 4. 17. Jibiilem, p. 79 ; Hrusov.sky : Slovens kc dejiny, M atica Slovenska, Turciansky Svaty Martin, 1940; pp. 3'3-34 ; Gi!lbert L . Oddo : Slovakia And Its People, Robert Speller & S ons, New York, 1960 ; p. 10; Joseph M. Kirschbaum: Slovakia - Nation at the Crossroads of Central Europe, Robert Speller & Sons, New York, 1960.; p . 16. 18. Hrusovsky: Slovenski Vladari, pp. 84--86. 19. Ilbidem, p . 87. 20. illbidem, P. 91. 21. lllbidem, p. 95. 12. Ilbidem, p . 116. .23. l'bid~m, p . 134 . . .  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource How Christianity Came to the Slovaks Description An account of the resource P. A. Hrobák Slovakia, Vol. 13, No. 1 (36), March 1963 pp. 1-8 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Hrobak, Philip Anthony, 1904-1964 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource March 1963 LCNAF https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/9300c821ed15a55b939dcfcb0256c321.pdf 77429f714a8fae10074b53a07fbd9aa0 PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA ·uow FREE lS RADIO FREE EUROPE? BY KURT GLASSER 1- THE VOICE OF F REEDOM IN DOUBLE TAL K In the southeast corner of the English Garden, Munich's Centra! Park, a h andsome new building is being erected. This building, paid for by the voluntary contrlbutlons of millions of American citizens, will house the executive offices and studios of RADIO FREE EUROPE. Medium-wave broadcasts in Czech and Slovak have been started on an lllh•hour schedule, and are beamed eastward by a directional antenna. There are also brief s hort-wave programs in Hungarian, Rumanian and Bulgarian; medium-wave programs in lhese languages are to follow later. Radio Free Europe is a private American station. lt is owned by the National Committee for a Free Europe, and supported through the Crusade for Freedom campaign. 'I'he response to the dramatic '·HELP LLFT THE IRON CURTAIN" posters is gratlfying. Presumably the donors are gratified to thlnk that their dollars are helping to fight Communism. They would not be quite so gratif!ed if they knew what was happening wlth some of their money. Q€neral Lucius D. Clay and other prlncipal figures in the National Committee for a Free Europe are, 1 believe, personally beyond reproach. It would not occur to any norma! journalist to write "m udraking" articles on any activity sponsored by them. lt never occurred to me to criticize RFE until l arrlved In Munich in 1951 and begaµ resear<:h on problems affecting iron-curtain refugees in Western Germany. Quite by accident I sturobled on the fol· Io wing facts: 1. The principal Czechs and Slovaks associated with the National Committee and those employed by Rad io Free Europe are not· - as is commonly supposed - fighters against Communism. Quite on the contrary, they fellow-traveled with the Communists from at least 1939 to 1948, helped them to power, and even today follow a Communist-sponsored propaga.nda line. 2. These individuals belong to an organization which has systematically betrayed members of the democratic underground in Czecho-Slovakia by tipping them off to Dictator Gottwa lďs secret police. 3. A number of Radio Free Europe staff members are either Communist agents or have criminal records. 4. Radlo Free Europe's Czech-Slovak program is helping Stalin by sabotaging international understanding and promoting rivalry and hatred between European peoples. WHY CZECHO-SLOVAKIA COLLAP SED The Czech exile organization associated with the National Committee is the "Council of Free Czechoslovakia," beaded by Dr. Peter Zenkl, formerly vice-Premler under Gottwald. This organization, known among exiles as the Benes party, has the inside track in determining who geta jobs in Radio Free Europe and what polic)' the station shall follow. To understand what thls means politically, we �shall have to trace briefly the history of Czecho-Slovakla slnce World War 1. If the American staff óf the National Commlttee had studied this hlstory more critlcally than it evidently dld, it would not bave been duped by Czech fellow-travelers. To begin wltb, there is no "Czechoslovak ian" people, except as one has been dellberately created by the propaganda of the Czech natlonallst partles. The Czecbs and the Slovaks are two dlstinct natlons, witb languages as dlfferent as German and Dutch. T hey can, wltb some effort, understand each o tber and read each other's newspapers. At the end of World War I, when the old Austro-H ungarlan monarchy was collapsing, most Slovaks favored an Independent Slo-vakia. Tbey consented, however, to jolning wlth the Czech s on the 8trengtb of the so-called Pittsburgh Agreement, signed in 1918 by Presldent Thomas Masaryk of Czecbo·Slovakia. This agreement provtded for full equality between Ci:echs and Slovaks and a substantial measure of autonomy for Slovakia within t he framework ot Czecho-Slovakia. The Pittsburgh Agreement was never carried out. Instead, tbe Czech Government maintained centrallzed rule from Prague and discrlminated systematlcally against tbe Slovaks and the Sudeten Germans (who are really German-speaking Austrians). In 1925 Masaryk justlfied tbe denial of Slovak autonomy by stating that tbe Pitts· burgh Agreement was slmply a recommendatioo of American Czechs and Slovaks and, tberefore, not blnding. Only Czech civil servants got tbe best jobs, and tbe Government, first under :'lfasaryk and later under Benes, did ali lt could to promote Czech nationalism and culture al tbe expense of the non-Czech peoples of the Republjc. Tbe result was tbat both the Slovaks and the Sudeten Germans, not to mentlon some 250,000 Hungarians, became increaslngly anxious to "get out !rom under." Tbls fact was made abundantly clear in Lord ;Runciman'5: 1938 report to the Britlsh Government. The Czecho-Slovak Government had not neglected to operate .a ťontinuous, high-pressure public relations campaign io tbe United States and otber western countrles When Hitler demanded cesslon of the Sudetenland in September 1938, the sympatbies of the western world were wholly wltb Czecho-Slovakla, wbich was pictured as an island of peaceful democracy In the sea of fascism. 'l'be fact of the matter was that the country was well along the road to civil war. If Brltain and France had backed tbe Prague Government and had Czecho-Slovakla t ried to figbt, \t is practically certaln tbat the Slovaks, Sudeten Germans and Hungarians would have refused to cooperate. At · the beight of the Munlch crisis, Professor Cernak, Slovak s pokesman in the Prague cabinet, presented Benes wlth an ultimatum demanding agreement to Slovak autonomy wltbln 24 hours, otherwise he would leave bis post in the government. Reluctantly Prague agreed to grant autonomy on October 6, 1938. However, after Munich, in March 1939, the Prague Government deposed Slovak Prime Minister 'l'iso, occupied Bratislava with Czech armed forces and installed a new governmenľ In Slovakia. lt was this interventlon which gave Hitler tbe excuse to march lnto Prague. lt must be admitted that the Slovak Republlc came int~ existence �SLOVAKIA witb Hitler's belp. But tbis did not make it a Nazi state any more t han German aid to Finland corrupted tbe lnstitutlons of· tbaľcoimtry. BENES BECOMES A TOOL OF STALIN · It is understandable tbat Benes sbould have turned to Stalin for support after "tlie Municb debacle. Brltaln and France had, as h e felt, let bim down. The only power wlilch could restore Czecho-Slovakia was Soviet Russia and, it may be added, the only way in which Czechoslovakia with its pre-war boundaries can be held together today is by sheer force. In any case, the "Czechoslovakian Liberat!on Move· ment," wbich was started in Paris and moved to London in 1940. was based from the beginnlng on the pr!ncipie of constant and close collaboratlon with the Soviet Union. As Dr. Peter Zenk l, whose influence today over Radio Free Europe is apparent from the posttion he holds, sald in a speech to th e Temporary :-.ationat Assembly in );ovember 1945: " The nationa lly conscious Czechs and Slovaks have no doubt that in thelr own interest, as well as ín lnľernational interests, perma~ent collaboration with the USSR is neceua ry. Never without the USSR, never against the USSR, always on its side!" The collaboration between the Benes party and the Sovi_ets ' ~ontinued even during the strained relations between the USSR and the Western powers whicb, lasted from September 1939 unt!I Hltler's atiack on the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941. As H ubert Ripka, Beneš' ~Iinister of Informatlon in the LoI)don "Czecboslovak Democratic Government," explained in bis book "East and West" (London, 1944): "Since, in the new situation, it was impossible to collaborate officia lly with the Soviet Union, we ... did nothing whlch might pre. judice or prevent the renewal of cooperatlon at the earliest possible • moment; l need only recall how strongly our attltude contrasted wlth that of .many others during the Soviet-Finnish War. Moreover, even in that period, there was no lnterruption of the personal contacts and exohange of information between ourselves and important Soviet representatives in London, Paria, Washington and elsewhere." The Provisional Czecboslovakian Government, which was ·ftnanced by the British, introduced Jarge ·numbers of "democratic Czechoslovakian refugees," who were in reality Soviet agents. One of t•hese, L.udwig Freund, joined the staff oť the Communist "Daily Worker" at B ritlsh Government expense. Others, such as Messrs. Bieheller, Ohrenstein, Klinger and Steín (none- of whom were Czechs or Slovaks) Joined the staff of the Britlsh Broadcasting Company and prepared t he speeches for the "non-Communist" members of the Czech governme nt. Here ts a s ample of this propaganda: " ... the Ruuian Novemb·er Revolution not only increaaed the strength of the Ruasian Soviet State, it also ralaed to greater heights than ever before the standard of civilization, culture and living, of the wide ma11es of the Soviet peoples.... Bolshevism is a supér.national ideal, an eternal ideal, a human ideal, an ideal whlch has klndled the minds of the noblest of men from the time of Piato and through the· Christian era, through the Freneh Revolution and untll today.: : . Juat as the French Revolution strovť to realize the idea! · of equality." (B. B. C. program of·,November 7, 1942, speech by Mr. Ri1>lfä). · �SLOVAKIA 28 Tbis Mr. Ripka is anotber leadlng f!gure in the "Council of Free Czecboslovakia," wbich has played a leadlng role in tbe selection of Czech and Slovak personnel for Radio Free Europe Benes and bis friends also introduced a number of Commun!st .igents into the U nited States (also disguised as democratic Czecho• Slovak!an refugees) , sneh as the Soviet employee Bension Batt wbo publlshed tbe Czech paper New Y orkské Li sty and a Hungarian Communist Desider Benau, who edited the Slovak paper ("Czechoslôvak daily") called New Y or k ský Denník. Benau is now editor of a Communist dally in Slovakia. In 1941 the KremUn decided that the Benes organization was worthy of recognition as the official Czecho,Slovak government, and iJ1 1943 Benes went to Moscow and formally concl uded an agreement with Stalin. I am not informed as to tbe details or this agreement. but apparently lt provided that the Sovlets and not tbe United States s hould occupy Czecho0Slovakia as well as indicating wbat part!es s hould be allowed after the war. Needless to say, the dominating role of .the Communist Party was assured. II - THE F A K E D E MOCRACY - 1945-1948 As the war drew to a c lose, in late 1944 and early 1945, the Benes Government moved in a body from London to Kosice and then Prague, with a long stop-over In Moscow. While in the Soviet capital, the "Czechoslovak" politicians received exact instructions as to wbat they· were to do wben tbey got horne. Stalin did not want to alarm t be Western Allles by setting up an outright Communist government in P rague while tbe bulk of the Gls and Tommies were stm in Ger• many. lt was therefore decided to use the sy'stem of "bloc politics" (compulsory coalition of several parties) wbich is in vogue in the Soviet Zone of Germany and which General Eisenhower had rejected for the U. S. Zone "since it !s incompatible w!th the traditional American idea of political activity and effective political l!fe in a democratic sense" (New York Times, October 17. 1945). Only the fol lowing part!es were permitted: 1. Communist Part y ; 2. National Socialist (Benes) Party ; 3. Social Democratic (Socialist) Party; 4. The Czec h Cleri ca l Party (Srameťs "Česká Lldová Strana." ). The Agrarian Party and the Small Tradesmen's Party, which had existed b efore tbe war, were forbidden, slnce tbey refused to collaborate with tbe Communists. George Str!brny was sentenced to life imprisonment and Rudolpb Beran (no relation to tbe archbishop) was sentenced to 20 years in 1946 for attempting to organlze "unauthorized" polltlcal parties. Slnce the Soviets were not sure bow the Social Democratic Party would bebave (in Germany it is strongly anti-Communist) tbey suppJied this party with new leaders from Moscow. who elected the Communist Zapotorky as head of the United Czech Trade Unions. To make sure nothing would go wrong, some 200.000 c~ech and Slovak citizens wbo had given evidence of bP.lng anti-Communist were ex<'luded from the 1946 elections on one pretext or another. To cap tbe cllmax, tbe Communist leader Klement Gottwal<l. who had been r arefully groomed In Moscow for the job, was elected Prime Minister. As for the Slovaks, the Sovlets seemed for a time to support Slovak autonomy an<l then cbange<l th~ir minds Tn any case, thP, �iLOVAKIA Slovaks were not a sked what they thought about the matter. Mr. F. A . Voight, the editor of the London magazine "Nlneteenth Century and After," described thc situation in th e following terms: 1-'Czechoslovakia is today a vassal state in a procesa of dissolution. Of the three administratíve areas which compose it, one, Car. patho-Ukraine, has been annexed by the Soviet Union. The second, Slovakia, is independent from Prague but not from Moscow. The quarrel between Czechs and Slovaks seems to be irreconcilable. One has the impression that the Czechoslovak state is today a fiction and that it will never again be a reality. For if one should remove the Russian overlordship, the Czechs could only recover power over the Slovaks by force of arms. And in this undertaking they would cer. tainly be defeated, for they have not a single friend in centra! Europe, whereas the S lova ks have many.... Even in Bohemia and Moravia the central government has but little authority. lt ia a pliable tool of the Russian supervision, with little will of its own. Dr. Benes is the victim of the politics which he has followed for so long." - And this was written not in 1948, bu t appeared in November 1945! ~embers of the Benes group in exile try to pretend that they entered the government In 1945 on the theory that the four parties would operate on a "live and let live" basis. This is straigh t mythology. In the first place, n o non-Communist politicians in their right minds would get together and elect a Communlst prime minister. Secondly, the non--Communlst parties had no polltlcal programs of t heir own. All parties had accepted a common program, the so-called Kosice Program of 1945, named after the city in which it was adopted. '!'he Kosice Program had been prepared in advance by t he Communists and included tbe complete s oclalization of industry ·and agricul• ture, as well as many of tbe ot her measure!< taken slnce 1948 by the Gottwald government. In other w ords, the complete commun!zation of the country had been prepared in advance with t he active collaboration of the Benes party. These collaborators included Hubert Ripka, Peter Zenkl, John Papanek, J. Stransky, Ferdinand Peroutka and a number of others . who are today connected, directly or indirectly, with the National Committee for a Free Europe and with Radio F ree Europe. Most of these National Fronters are enjoying the protection of the United States today; a large number have been provided with jobs on research pro. jects paid for by the Crus ade for Freedom or by the State Department. From the point of view of long-range international politics, the most significant thing which h appened during the period of fake democracy was the expulsion of almost three million Sudeten Germans. Some of t hese people h ad been Nazis. What the post-war Czech government, with the active encouragement of the Soviets, did was to deport the entire German-speaking minortly, regardless of their po. litical attitudes. P eople whose ancestors had lived in the border areas of Bohemla for almost a thousand years we re forced overnight t o leave tbeir horne.s and property and were shlpped in frelght cars to varlous points in Germa ny. Not content with exproprlatlng the Sudetens, an art!on wlthout precedent or justlficatlon In lnternatlonal law, the �ao SLOVAKI.A Commun ist partlsans, with the explicit appro val of Benes and his frien<!s, tortured and -murdered tens of t housands, !ncluding m any Sudetens with antl-Nazi records. Thjs is a hlstorlcal fact, however little lt may be_ k nown in th e Un lted S tates. T he expulslon :was so tho rÓugl;l_ . that. _numbers of n on-Germ an J ews were .deported, slm ply bec,a.u.se .t hey had lndicated "German'.' as thel r Janguage in t he Jast cen's us: slnce Ylddish was . 110.t recognized by. t he . Czech s t atistical authorťties. · · "-T.he Czechs," wrote Mr. Voight, · " have developed the most violent nationallsm. They have adopted a racial doctrine akin to H itler's (with · the difference that the Slava instead ot the .Germans are the Herrenvolk') and _their methods are hard ly difterent trom those of the Fascísts. They ·have; in truth, become Slavic Nazis." The -power behind tll.e expulsions was . r evealed recently In t he Prague Communist paper Rude Pravo (1951, No. 63), wbich edltorial ized as follows: "Thrl>ugh the historical victo ry of the Soviet Union it was possible to i-eorganize our country so as to banish once and for all the dangers stemming from unsolved natlonality problems and from the i;editious propaganda which threatened our first republic. lt ia impossible to overestimate the · historic importance of the fact that a fter a history of a thousand years the expulsion of the Germans has guar anteed the safety of our Fatherland as never before. Our peoples owe undying thanks to Comrade Stalin, who advocated this soluti9n in Potsdam and fought it through against the resistance of the Western powers." . The expulsion o f the Sude ten Germans created a political powder barrel compared to which the Pollsh Corridor before World W a r II was a medium•slzed lady cracker. Germany, whlch lost a large part ot its food-produc!ng terrltory and is populated to the bursting po int, v.iii never wlllingly accept tbe exile ot the Sudet ens. Czecho-Slovakla. on t he ot her ha nd, can hold on to t he Sudetenland on ly so long as she is backed by s uperior military rorce - th a1 of S oviet Russla. The way out of tbe dllemma would be for t he Czechs to make an agreeruent witb the Sudeten Germans pe rmitting them to come back. T hi!I is, ho.wever, exactly what Stalin does not want, slnce a Czech state at peace wlt h Germany and stable wlth ln itself would no longer depend on Russia n support to keep it in existence. F or this reason, Stalln's Czech puppets dld and continue to do every th ing to prevent a s ettlement of the Sudeten problem. The broadcasts of Radio Free Europe conform exactly to this Stalinist pollcý. The Kremlin's pollcy or m alntainlng hatred a t white b eat between the Czech s and the Germans was expounded by Otto Graf, now a member or the political statf of Radlo Free Europe in Munlch, as follows: "lf, in conn~tion with Ge rmans in Czechoslovakia, the -queation of the humanitarian tradltion of the Czech people ia raiaed, then the question is raised in the wrong place. lf lt were aimply that we didn'.t WANT to live wlth the Germans, the question might be justlfled. The fact is, we CAN'T live .wlth them." - ( Svet Prace, Vol. 1, No. 11, September 20, 1945, page 3). Ceskosloven1ke Noviny, the organ of th e Councll or Free CzechoSlovakla, tbe U. S. orga nization of Benes' followers which su ppllee the �SLOVAKIA 31 intelJectual leadershlp for Radlo Free · Europe, put the matter even more blunlly. How's thls for Ch rislian. Brotherhood? : "The Czechoalovak ian emigration knowa well that the new world Ôrder ia only poaaible on the baaia of the equality of all peoples in Eur!)pe. But at the eame time it hear,1 clearly the voice of t~. people a t home, which uttera thia apontaneoua .wi1h: Never to have , to eat at the aame table wlth German1, ever to have to pray_ I!" ·tti.e aame church with them." - (Artlcle by Duben, No. 24, Page 8), Fortunately not all Czech.s are ready to a.ccept Stalln's gospl!l .or liatred. An oppositlon group b eaded by General Prchala, the only Czech general who ever opposed Hitler on the battlefleld, has slgned a compact with the Sudetep GerD)an rep;-esentatio n In Munlch. Thls <:ompact. concluded on August 4, 1950, provldes that arter the Jlberatlon oťCzecho-Slovakla the Sudeten Germans shall be !ree to return to their homes. Therearter both natións shali enjoy equal rights under a federatlve štate.· General Prchala and bis followers i.ilso believed In ~elf-determln ation ·ror the Slovaks. ' ·.• · The policy or the Prchala group, the Czech Natlonal Commlttee, 1s so senslble that tbe Benes party bas not bePn able to thlnk. of a.ny rational argument agalnst it. So they follow the tbreadworn tactlcs or <lenounclng Prchala and his followers as rascists. And wba.t does the American management of Radlo Free Europe clo about the problem or the Slovaks and the Sudeten Germans? lt refuses to discuss lt. As Mr. Grltfith, polJUcal advlser to Mr. J ackson, stated I!) a press conference held on AprlJ 30, 1951: "Men of good will cannot a·IJow them1elve1 to be distracted in attempting · now to answer queations whlch cannot be answered now." Mr. Jackson backed bim up by saying: "The problem of Czech1 and Slovaka in Germany (sic) ·w ill not be diacu11ed on the air on thi1 transmitter." A llttle l:.ter in the conference the followlng interchange took place: "Queslion: Do you have at present the cooperatlon of all tbe main Czech and Slovak political tactlons among the emlgrants? " Mr. Jackson: Oh yes, the answer is yes." Mr. Jackson was evldently mlslnformed. •Radlo Free Europe does not have the cooperatlon of the Czech Nat1011al Commlttee, whlch has as regiatered members some 3,000 of the 12,000-odd Czechs no-w ' llvlng in Germany as well as a sizable memhershl p In Great Brltaln„ Canada, AustraJla, eti;. ~or does lt have the good wlll of the Slovak ~a.~lonjll Councll Abroad, the largest and most conslstently antl-Commun lst organlzatlon of exiled Slovaks .,..... or any representativ e group of Slovak patrlots. The Americans ln chacge or Radio Free Europe may think they are belng neutra!. ActuallY, they are exhlblllng partlsanship or the most vlclous sort, that sort whlch refuses to come out In the open and show lts cards. The resull ls that Radlo Free Europe 1s llkely to antagonlze more people than lt pleases, Jncludlng exaclly those groups which tbe United States should be courtlng as allles In lts struggle against world Communlsm, By following the Benes line and then " refuslng to discuss," the station la by impllcatlon condonlng :Czech ult.a-11atlonll]ism and the b rutal -expuls lon of milllons of -:reNgees. T.bere ls ,iothing tbat Stalin couJd like better. •, �32 SLOVAKIA I II - HOW TO RUN AN ANTI-COMMUNIST UNDERGROUND WITH COMMUNIST AGENTS On February 21, 1948, the "non-Communist" members of Gottcabinet resigned. To analyze just what h a ppened in t he "Gottwald Putsch" would be an involved historical job which I do not wan t to undertake here. Two points, however, a re signif icant: walďs 1. M inisters Ripka, Zen kl , Papanek and Stransky and others who n ow run the Council of F r ee Czechoslovakia and whose policies dominate the Czech program of Radio F ree Europe m ade not even a show ot resistance to the Communist g rab for power. Minister Zenkl spent the whole week-end ot the Putsch at a country house-party comfortably removed trom the scene of operations. 2. The fact that the Kremlin did not consider these gentlemen necessary any more in their previous positions does not of itself make them any less Communist fellow-travelers than they wer e before. lf Stal in should fire Molotoff, wou l d he be any less of a Bolshevi k ? N ot necessari ly. tThe Czech exile V. L. Borln writes ("Against the H angman," London, 1951, page 14) that he th inks t he real reason for th e "reorganization of 1948" was not to consolidate Communist power, since the Communists already had all the power they needed, but to make h!ghpower politlcians available for a razzle·dazzle job designed to confuse the United States and Britain. T h is t hesis is h ard to prove or disprove. lt is, nevertheless, lnteresting that most of the Benes g roup, including all the ministe11s and many "smal\ fry," left Czecho-Slovakia without the sligh test lnterference from the Government. The retiring dignitaries, escorted by several Communist agents traveling incognito, fellow-traveled to the United States Zone of Germany, wbere they announced themsel ves as "democrats" who had tought the good fight and as m artyrs of democracy. Tbey were met witb open arms (and with financial support) by the U. S. authorities, particuarly by certain former Czechs who h ad emigrated earlier and become U. S. citizens, A short whlle later the grou p was assembled in New York, where lt proceeded to promote the American Fund for Czecboslovak Refugees, l ne. (1775 Broadway), roping in such respect• able sponsors as Elleanor Roosevelt, Senator H erb ert Lehman, Dorothy 'ľhompson, etc., etc. Don't blam e these good people too hastily: the American publ ic was so hopel essly misinformed about what had really 1-appened in Czecho,Slovakia that to help the "poor refugees" seemed the natural and human thing to do. In order to be taken seriously, an exile organizatlon has to have an underground movement in the same country. So th e exiled Benes party organized an underground, the principal menib ers of whlch had been selected before Messrs. Zenkl, Ripka and Stransky had ever left Czecho,Slovakla. That it "vas possible to organize an underground at all was due to the fact that tbe Benes party, on the middle and loweľ levels, lncluded a number of people who were sincere democrats ancl an ti-Communists. If you want an effective underground in a dictatorshlp country you have t o pick leaders who are unknown politically. Instead, Ripka, Zenkl and .Stransky picked Mrs. M ilada Horakova, National Socialist (Benes) Party member or Parliament and known anti-Communist; Josef Ne- �SLOVAKIA 33 staval, Jawyer, member of NSP Centra! Executive Committee; Misa Frana Zem inova, First Vice-Chairman of the NSP; Jiri Hej da, econo• mist, member of the State Economic Council. Of the foregoing, all except Hejda were under observation by the Communist Secret Police, a fact which Ripka and his friends must have known if they were not poli tical idiots. In addi tion to these leaders. a set of liaison officers were appointed who were equally suspect, including Zenkľs brother Hudolf and the secretaries of Benes and Ripka. On the first anniversary of Benes' death the exiles asked their friends to mail protests to the U. S. Embassy in Prague. Although these letlers were anonymous, they did serve to tip off the Communlst secret police as to the location of resistance centers. Radio Free Europe is now conducting a similar "give-away" program. Exlled Czechs and Slovaks ,vrite in about themselves and persona) news is broadcast under a "nickname" but with mention of the localities in which the families llve. Several exiles have pointed out to the writer that this procedure is sufficient, in smaller towns, to provide the secret police with very useful information. As a center for making contacts wlth members of the underground in Czecho-Slovakia, Ripka and his friends established an operational headquarters in Frankfurt under the direction of a certain Gen eral Mor avec, formerly hea.d of the "Czecboslovakian Jntelligence Service" in London. This operational Headquarters was and is a key position in the whole structure of the Council of Free Czechoslovakia's under· ground. Jt was and ls tbe German sending and receivlng station for couriers coming back and forth from Czecho-Slovakia. Jts connection with Radlo Free Europe will be discussed in the last chapter. I have heard Moravec described as a well-meaning man without too much political sense. His staff, however, includes or included the following individuals: 1. As principal deputy, D r. Schenk. As a police officlal of Brunn (Brno), Dr. Schenk asslsted In the arranging of the famous Brunn Death March on Corpus Christi Day, 1945, in which tbe entire Ger• man population of that city was forced to march 60 kilometers to the Austrian border. Tbose who straggled were beaten to death. At night the Germans were locked in cement barracks to which Soviet soldiers were admitted for the purpose of raping the women. Between 2000 and 3000 Germans died before the march was over. In 1948 Dr. Schenk, as a "democratic exile," got a job screening refugees for the JRO, where he had the reputation of approvlng only Benes supporters for asslstance. H e then went to work in Moraveťs office where he 1,till is, according to the !atest lnformatlon. 2. M ih ula, a courier between Frankfurt and Prague. Hls travels ceased abruptly in February 1951 when the United States Court ln Hegensburg sentenced bim to 7 years imprisonment as a Communist s py. 3. Rudolf Sima, courier for Moravec and shnultaneously member of the S'I'B (Czech Secret Police). He was recently arrested In Stuttgart and is now in U. S. custody. 4 Schn eeberger, occasional inmate of tbe Valka "Foreigners' Camp" near Nurn-berg. The frequency and overtness with which th!s gentleman crosses tbe borcler has given rise there to the general opinlon �SLOVAKIA 34 that he is also an STB man . .At the time of this writing he was at Jarge in the U. S. Zone of Germany. 5. Satran, well known to emigres as a Prague underworld chai-acter and one-tíme proprietor of "The Spider," a dive used extensively for the exchange of stolen goods. Convictions are reported ·for deallng in stolen goods, pandering and cheating at cards. H e has recently gone to work for Radlo Free Europe but bis Whereaboutli is --strictly secret." 6. Vera Chovancova, Moravec's secretary and girl-friend of a cerLain Marian, W'ho is know.n to be an STB agent. Mornvec also had couriers who were not membe1:s of the Czech 8TB, ho-wever, these dlsappeared at a discouraging rate whlle crossing 1he border, for reasons that are not bard to guess. To meet the prob• lem caused by t.he ensuing persorinel shortage. Moravec's offtce sent letters by the conductors on the Orient Express, which carries through cars from Prague to Ostende. Anyone who knows anything about dictatorships knows that conductors on international traina are alwaya agenta of the secret police. The result of Moravec's efficient operations was that when Gott· walp's .-Communists held their famous espionag~ trials, the state prosecutor had a f-a~rly complete file of all th~--correspondence sent or received by the defendants. Significantly en.o ugh, the record of the trial contained no mention of Moravec or his headquarters, nor did the prosecution introduce a letter which Ne11taval had written, aaking that Ripka be dropped from the organizatio11 for Communlat _c olla. boration. Mrs. Horakova was sentenced to death, Nestaval and H ejda to life imprisonment and slxty-eight year old Miss Zeminova to twenty years at bard Jabor. Wlth this operaťiôn, the democratlc resl11tance in Czechoslovakia, insofar as · lt existed in the Benes party, was effectively liquidated. IV - AMERICA'S LAT.EST PROBLEM CHILO In the selectlon of personnel to pian and carry out its Czech broadcasting problem, the National Commlttee for a Free Europ e relied heavlly on the advice of the CollÍlcll for Free Czechoslovakla. !<'or a whlle, in early 1951, the org_ahizatlon spllt on the quesUon of who was a fellow-traveler, but slnce then, as I understand it, things have tieen happlly patched up. •· ·• The he~d of the entire Czech g·ro~p in ~uni~h is Ferdinand Peroutka, formerly propaganda director of the Natlonal Socialist Party and editor of the newspaper Oi,esek (Today) in Prague. Slnce Mr. Peroutka is responsible for puttlng together a program for w hlch Ámericans are pay!ng and which - in spite of the prlvate ausplces of Radlo Free Europe - 1s frequently taken as representing .Americall pol!cy and opln!on, it is important to know what klnd of democr,acy ~fr. Peroutka advocates. Here are some of his opinions, taken from his book "Talť ·nebo tak" (So or So), published in Prague in 1947: "N ever in history was Russia so mighty, never were the forcea of socialiam so colosaaly forged together. This ls a new hiitorical epoch. Nevertheless some people think in a stick-in-the-ltlUd ' fashion. lt has not yet been possible to convince everyone of the neceísity: of the overthrów'·of 'capitalism_._, __., ( Page 8). �SLOVAKIA 36 "Already in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries it became clear that whoever d.oes not want socialism small must take. it big. You people, who today pr aise this or t hat virtue of capitalism, tell me, how have yo u s olved the social problem . .." ( Page 9. Transla. tor's note : By t he use of. "sma ll" and "big" Mr. Peroutka would seem to identlfy himself with th e Bolshevlkl or "big" socialista, as op. posed to the Mens hevikl or "small" socialista.) " Along the road on which the Russian Revolution passed, there lie the rotting remains of t he unfulfilled pr ophecies of its enemies. This (the revolution: tr.) is a historical impulse a s g reat as the Reformation or the Fre nch Revolutlon, perhaps as gr eat as Christianity•. " ( Page 33) "In our situation resistance against the great work of s ocialízation - open or secret - can only be considered as reaction. In this respect w e need have no doubt who are the reactionaries." ( Page 141 ) '.'Many t lmes we have said, that in this land only one develop. ment is possible, to socialism. Have our activities helped this develop. ment? Or have we obstructed it ? ... lt is necessary for everyone to be able to say proudly : 1 was there, 1 hel ped!" ( Pages 170.171) Mr . Peroutka is backed up by two experts in dialectical materlali~m. Dr. Ziak and Dr. (Berger) Bellak. Dr. Zlak ls the editor of an intelleetual magazlne called Tribuna which 1s forb idden In F rance and ano ther called "Reality" which is forbidden in Switzerland. Unfortunately I have not been able to peruse these journals as I do not r_e ad Czech, but I am told that their basic thesis !s the need for t he party masses to sub mlt to Jeadershlp by the elite cadre. Bellak was formerly a Communist Party functionary in Slovakia under the name of Berger. H e puts out a German-language sheet called "MH!tant Democra cy'" which few Germans read because it takes Stalin's anti• German line. Some of the staff members are left-wing sociallsts, such as J osef Kodicek, who helped put out pro..Sovlet propaganda over BBC durln g the war, and Ma,rtin K vetko. who partlclp ated in a Communist-sponsored uprising In 1S!ovakia in August 1944. Pavel Tlgrld (formerly Schonfeld), Peroutka's asslstant, was for mer editor o f a magazlne called "Lift Culture" and has admltted openly havlng collaborated wlth th e Communists. Some of the lesser personnel are rather interestlng, such as Eva Fischl, daugh ter of the present Czech Communist amb assad or to Eastern Germ any, and Mesdames Kamlerova and Lisa. nov a who were speclalists in inclting riots against the German management of Camp Valka and who ostentatiously exhibited a plcture of Stalln In their room. There is a Mr. Stein, who is reported to be a Communist functionary from the Prague reglon. I do not k now whether he is tbe same Stein whom the Comm unlsts planted with BBC during tbe war. A FEW POl.lCY HEADACHES Tbe fact tbat the Natlonal Commlttee for a Free Europe gave the Benes party free relgn In personnel and pollcy matters for tbe Czech program of Radlo Free Europe h as ralsed a number of thorny problems. Some of these affeet only the station a.od tbe Commlttee. Other~ involved th e basic forelgn relatlons of tbe Unlted States. �36 SLOVAKIA To begin with, the broadcasts have evoked a very mixed reaction. Since the Slovaks in the Benes group {the renegade Slovaks) are those who have accepted tbe premise of a unitary Czecho-Slovak state, .iud since this attitude tends to color the political commentaries, the pro· gram is automatically distasteful to tbe overwhelming majority of patrlotlc Slovaks who are definitely anti-Commun!st. As one Slovak leader put it to me: "they speak our language but they do not apeak our thoughts." So far as the Czechs are concerned, the political orientatiou of the program is likely to appeal only to those who favor the Benes policy of ad vanced socialism bordering on Communism. These people won't find too much wrong with tbe Gottwalcl regime anyway. T he program holds out little hope for the Czech citizen who wants a positive pian for getting away from socialism and Soviet domination. In other words, it simply is not a clear-cut anti-Communist program. 'ľhe most that can be said about it is that it is an antl-the-particulargroup-of-Oommunists-who-Olappen-to-be-running-Czechoslovakia-at-lthe-moment program. It is doubtful whether Americans intended to put their money into financing sguabbles between rival groups of Communists and near-Communists. Another problem is essentially a technical one. The mission of the station requires that it have a good source of news from inside Czecho•Slovakia. At the present Ume, Radio Free Europe is trying to use the Moravec office as a source. Slnce, however, Moravec's only reliable agents {in the sense of getting there and back ) are also agents o( the Communist serret police, •Radio Free Europe is getting only such news as the Gottwald government cares to give it, which isn't too much. The other horn of this rlilemma is that if Radio Free Europe tries to set up its own couriers, the Communists within the Moravec outfit and within its O\ľll set-up can easily arrange for their liguida· tion. At the moment, the station is buying information from whomever will give it, and paying fan cy prices. The result is that enterprising Czechs are cooking up the most amazing stories; and the staff has no way of checking whether these stories are true or not. Even the collection of news material ad boc has run !nto diffiC'ulties. The individual ass!gned to collect news from the inmates ot Camp Valka, one Yaroslav Dvoracek, the leader of the Benes group in the camp is - to break the monotony - not a Communist nor even a fellow-traveler. He is a former member of the Czech Fasc ist Party of General Gayda. Unfortunately Mr. Dvoracck's activities were rudely interrupted on April 18, 1951 by the police. He was in jail, while I was there, awaiting trial on rharges of misappropriating CARE packages and clotbing sent by American friends to the Sokol or camp alhletic organization. On the Political side, the most immediate problem is that the anti-<Sudeten tendencies of Radio Free Europe's Czech-Slovak program are getting the Germans mad as hornets. There have already been !leveral protests by German refugee groups and a formal interpellation in the Bavarian parliament_ It was reported that plans for a formal protest to the United States by the Centra) German Government at I~nn were being consiclered. When I was in New York in March, I attempted to dlscuss tbe problem of German public relations wlth of- �S LOVAKIA 37 ficials of the National Committee and was told, in effect, that since Radlo Free Europe would not broadcast in Germau no such problem wa.s anticipated. The station is, bowever, located in Germany. There are plenty of Sudeten Germans who can understand Czech and .they teli other G.ermans what they hear. Tbere is a public relations problem. If it gets m uch worse the Unit.ed States Government may find it necessary .to do something about it. N EEDED - A GOOD CLEANUP Before going further, I would like to point out that the criticisms ir, this report have been directed solely at the Czech and Slovak actlvities of Radio Free Europe. Nothing said here is intended to refer to any of the other programs, about which I am not informed. It would be too bad if the present fizzle in the Czech and Slovak program oť Radio Free Europe should cause people to ťeel the whole idea s hould be dropped. The pian is a splendid one if carried out properly. Whwt is needed is a thorough housecleaning in which all Communists and fellow-travelers are definitely and permanently f!red. Administration and program planning should be in the hands of Ameri· cans, who should lay down the political pollcy. Personnel investigations should be made by political analysts who know their h!story and are experts in comparative ideologies. In the case of the Czech program, the cleanup won't be easy since it involves the uprooting of a jungle of misinformation, prejudices and vested interests planted by Czech and "Czecho-Slovak" fellow-travelers over a number of years. The bistory of this crypto-Communist inf!uence on the State Department, American universities and the public in general is a wbole subject in itself, which would probably take a Congressional investlgation to unravel. • • • WHO SAID IT ? "There is one tbing we can express and interpret in full. It is the sincere, deep hearty and infinite gratitu'de of all Czechs and Slovaks to the Soviet Union, to its people, its army and its skipper, Generalissimo Stalin, for everything that they have so far done and are stm doing for us. It is the unfalsified, unselfisb and pure feeling of friend• ship and sympathy that we bave for this great, for us so intimate and n eighborly a country. It is the pure joy from the joys of the successes and the progress of the USSR, it 1s the unshatterable hope that Slovanism in its new form will safeguard for itself and for the world a deserved peace, in which all nations antl states shall live their own Jives, freely, without fears, democratlcally and In dignity, in agreement, welfare and happiness. In this spirit from our souls we greet the jubileeing USSR, we congratulate it from our hearts for the results attained ln peace and war. We wish that it keep on prospering, flourishing and growing mighty unto its own greatness, but also unto the welfare of all mankind. Long live the Soviet Union and may its Soviet chief and skipper, J. V. Stalin, in full health live to see many more of its joyous jubilees." - Dr. Joseph Lettrlch, ČAS, 11-7-47. � SLOVAKIA ·uow FREE lS RADIO FREE EUROPE? BY KURT GLASSER 1- THE VOICE OF F REEDOM IN DOUBLE TAL K In the southeast corner of the English Garden, Munich's Centra! Park, a h andsome new building is being erected. This building, paid for by the voluntary contrlbutlons of millions of American citizens, will house the executive offices and studios of RADIO FREE EUROPE. Medium-wave broadcasts in Czech and Slovak have been started on an lllh•hour schedule, and are beamed eastward by a directional antenna. There are also brief s hort-wave programs in Hungarian, Rumanian and Bulgarian; medium-wave programs in lhese languages are to follow later. Radio Free Europe is a private American station. lt is owned by the National Committee for a Free Europe, and supported through the Crusade for Freedom campaign. 'I'he response to the dramatic '·HELP LLFT THE IRON CURTAIN" posters is gratlfying. Presumably the donors are gratified to thlnk that their dollars are helping to fight Communism. They would not be quite so gratif!ed if they knew what was happening wlth some of their money. Q€neral Lucius D. Clay and other prlncipal figures in the National Committee for a Free Europe are, 1 believe, personally beyond reproach. It would not occur to any norma! journalist to write "m udraking" articles on any activity sponsored by them. lt never occurred to me to criticize RFE until l arrlved In Munich in 1951 and begaµ resear<:h on problems affecting iron-curtain refugees in Western Germany. Quite by accident I sturobled on the fol· Io wing facts: 1. The principal Czechs and Slovaks associated with the National Committee and those employed by Rad io Free Europe are not· - as is commonly supposed - fighters against Communism. Quite on the contrary, they fellow-traveled with the Communists from at least 1939 to 1948, helped them to power, and even today follow a Communist-sponsored propaga.nda line. 2. These individuals belong to an organization which has systematically betrayed members of the democratic underground in Czecho-Slovakia by tipping them off to Dictator Gottwa lďs secret police. 3. A number of Radio Free Europe staff members are either Communist agents or have criminal records. 4. Radlo Free Europe's Czech-Slovak program is helping Stalin by sabotaging international understanding and promoting rivalry and hatred between European peoples. WHY CZECHO-SLOVAKIA COLLAP SED The Czech exile organization associated with the National Committee is the "Council of Free Czechoslovakia," beaded by Dr. Peter Zenkl, formerly vice-Premler under Gottwald. This organization, known among exiles as the Benes party, has the inside track in determining who geta jobs in Radio Free Europe and what polic)' the station shall follow. To understand what thls means politically, we �shall have to trace briefly the history of Czecho-Slovakla slnce World War 1. If the American staff óf the National Commlttee had studied this hlstory more critlcally than it evidently dld, it would not bave been duped by Czech fellow-travelers. To begin wltb, there is no "Czechoslovak ian" people, except as one has been dellberately created by the propaganda of the Czech natlonallst partles. The Czecbs and the Slovaks are two dlstinct natlons, witb languages as dlfferent as German and Dutch. T hey can, wltb some effort, understand each o tber and read each other's newspapers. At the end of World War I, when the old Austro-H ungarlan monarchy was collapsing, most Slovaks favored an Independent Slo-vakia. Tbey consented, however, to jolning wlth the Czech s on the 8trengtb of the so-called Pittsburgh Agreement, signed in 1918 by Presldent Thomas Masaryk of Czecbo·Slovakia. This agreement provtded for full equality between Ci:echs and Slovaks and a substantial measure of autonomy for Slovakia within t he framework ot Czecho-Slovakia. The Pittsburgh Agreement was never carried out. Instead, tbe Czech Government maintained centrallzed rule from Prague and discrlminated systematlcally against tbe Slovaks and the Sudeten Germans (who are really German-speaking Austrians). In 1925 Masaryk justlfied tbe denial of Slovak autonomy by stating that tbe Pitts· burgh Agreement was slmply a recommendatioo of American Czechs and Slovaks and, tberefore, not blnding. Only Czech civil servants got tbe best jobs, and tbe Government, first under :'lfasaryk and later under Benes, did ali lt could to promote Czech nationalism and culture al tbe expense of the non-Czech peoples of the Republjc. Tbe result was tbat both the Slovaks and the Sudeten Germans, not to mentlon some 250,000 Hungarians, became increaslngly anxious to "get out !rom under." Tbls fact was made abundantly clear in Lord ;Runciman'5: 1938 report to the Britlsh Government. The Czecho-Slovak Government had not neglected to operate .a ťontinuous, high-pressure public relations campaign io tbe United States and otber western countrles When Hitler demanded cesslon of the Sudetenland in September 1938, the sympatbies of the western world were wholly wltb Czecho-Slovakla, wbich was pictured as an island of peaceful democracy In the sea of fascism. 'l'be fact of the matter was that the country was well along the road to civil war. If Brltain and France had backed tbe Prague Government and had Czecho-Slovakla t ried to figbt, \t is practically certaln tbat the Slovaks, Sudeten Germans and Hungarians would have refused to cooperate. At · the beight of the Munlch crisis, Professor Cernak, Slovak s pokesman in the Prague cabinet, presented Benes wlth an ultimatum demanding agreement to Slovak autonomy wltbln 24 hours, otherwise he would leave bis post in the government. Reluctantly Prague agreed to grant autonomy on October 6, 1938. However, after Munich, in March 1939, the Prague Government deposed Slovak Prime Minister 'l'iso, occupied Bratislava with Czech armed forces and installed a new governmenľ In Slovakia. lt was this interventlon which gave Hitler tbe excuse to march lnto Prague. lt must be admitted that the Slovak Republlc came int~ existence �SLOVAKIA witb Hitler's belp. But tbis did not make it a Nazi state any more t han German aid to Finland corrupted tbe lnstitutlons of· tbaľcoimtry. BENES BECOMES A TOOL OF STALIN · It is understandable tbat Benes sbould have turned to Stalin for support after "tlie Municb debacle. Brltaln and France had, as h e felt, let bim down. The only power wlilch could restore Czecho-Slovakia was Soviet Russia and, it may be added, the only way in which Czechoslovakia with its pre-war boundaries can be held together today is by sheer force. In any case, the "Czechoslovakian Liberat!on Move· ment," wbich was started in Paris and moved to London in 1940. was based from the beginnlng on the pr!ncipie of constant and close collaboratlon with the Soviet Union. As Dr. Peter Zenk l, whose influence today over Radio Free Europe is apparent from the posttion he holds, sald in a speech to th e Temporary :-.ationat Assembly in );ovember 1945: " The nationa lly conscious Czechs and Slovaks have no doubt that in thelr own interest, as well as ín lnľernational interests, perma~ent collaboration with the USSR is neceua ry. Never without the USSR, never against the USSR, always on its side!" The collaboration between the Benes party and the Sovi_ets ' ~ontinued even during the strained relations between the USSR and the Western powers whicb, lasted from September 1939 unt!I Hltler's atiack on the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941. As H ubert Ripka, Beneš' ~Iinister of Informatlon in the LoI)don "Czecboslovak Democratic Government," explained in bis book "East and West" (London, 1944): "Since, in the new situation, it was impossible to collaborate officia lly with the Soviet Union, we ... did nothing whlch might pre. judice or prevent the renewal of cooperatlon at the earliest possible • moment; l need only recall how strongly our attltude contrasted wlth that of .many others during the Soviet-Finnish War. Moreover, even in that period, there was no lnterruption of the personal contacts and exohange of information between ourselves and important Soviet representatives in London, Paria, Washington and elsewhere." The Provisional Czecboslovakian Government, which was ·ftnanced by the British, introduced Jarge ·numbers of "democratic Czechoslovakian refugees," who were in reality Soviet agents. One of t•hese, L.udwig Freund, joined the staff oť the Communist "Daily Worker" at B ritlsh Government expense. Others, such as Messrs. Bieheller, Ohrenstein, Klinger and Steín (none- of whom were Czechs or Slovaks) Joined the staff of the Britlsh Broadcasting Company and prepared t he speeches for the "non-Communist" members of the Czech governme nt. Here ts a s ample of this propaganda: " ... the Ruuian Novemb·er Revolution not only increaaed the strength of the Ruasian Soviet State, it also ralaed to greater heights than ever before the standard of civilization, culture and living, of the wide ma11es of the Soviet peoples.... Bolshevism is a supér.national ideal, an eternal ideal, a human ideal, an ideal whlch has klndled the minds of the noblest of men from the time of Piato and through the· Christian era, through the Freneh Revolution and untll today.: : . Juat as the French Revolution strovť to realize the idea! · of equality." (B. B. C. program of·,November 7, 1942, speech by Mr. Ri1>lfä). · �SLOVAKIA 28 Tbis Mr. Ripka is anotber leadlng f!gure in the "Council of Free Czecboslovakia," wbich has played a leadlng role in tbe selection of Czech and Slovak personnel for Radio Free Europe Benes and bis friends also introduced a number of Commun!st .igents into the U nited States (also disguised as democratic Czecho• Slovak!an refugees) , sneh as the Soviet employee Bension Batt wbo publlshed tbe Czech paper New Y orkské Li sty and a Hungarian Communist Desider Benau, who edited the Slovak paper ("Czechoslôvak daily") called New Y or k ský Denník. Benau is now editor of a Communist dally in Slovakia. In 1941 the KremUn decided that the Benes organization was worthy of recognition as the official Czecho,Slovak government, and iJ1 1943 Benes went to Moscow and formally concl uded an agreement with Stalin. I am not informed as to tbe details or this agreement. but apparently lt provided that the Sovlets and not tbe United States s hould occupy Czecho0Slovakia as well as indicating wbat part!es s hould be allowed after the war. Needless to say, the dominating role of .the Communist Party was assured. II - THE F A K E D E MOCRACY - 1945-1948 As the war drew to a c lose, in late 1944 and early 1945, the Benes Government moved in a body from London to Kosice and then Prague, with a long stop-over In Moscow. While in the Soviet capital, the "Czechoslovak" politicians received exact instructions as to wbat they· were to do wben tbey got horne. Stalin did not want to alarm t be Western Allles by setting up an outright Communist government in P rague while tbe bulk of the Gls and Tommies were stm in Ger• many. lt was therefore decided to use the sy'stem of "bloc politics" (compulsory coalition of several parties) wbich is in vogue in the Soviet Zone of Germany and which General Eisenhower had rejected for the U. S. Zone "since it !s incompatible w!th the traditional American idea of political activity and effective political l!fe in a democratic sense" (New York Times, October 17. 1945). Only the fol lowing part!es were permitted: 1. Communist Part y ; 2. National Socialist (Benes) Party ; 3. Social Democratic (Socialist) Party; 4. The Czec h Cleri ca l Party (Srameťs "Česká Lldová Strana." ). The Agrarian Party and the Small Tradesmen's Party, which had existed b efore tbe war, were forbidden, slnce tbey refused to collaborate with tbe Communists. George Str!brny was sentenced to life imprisonment and Rudolpb Beran (no relation to tbe archbishop) was sentenced to 20 years in 1946 for attempting to organlze "unauthorized" polltlcal parties. Slnce the Soviets were not sure bow the Social Democratic Party would bebave (in Germany it is strongly anti-Communist) tbey suppJied this party with new leaders from Moscow. who elected the Communist Zapotorky as head of the United Czech Trade Unions. To make sure nothing would go wrong, some 200.000 c~ech and Slovak citizens wbo had given evidence of bP.lng anti-Communist were ex<'luded from the 1946 elections on one pretext or another. To cap tbe cllmax, tbe Communist leader Klement Gottwal<l. who had been r arefully groomed In Moscow for the job, was elected Prime Minister. As for the Slovaks, the Sovlets seemed for a time to support Slovak autonomy an<l then cbange<l th~ir minds Tn any case, thP, �iLOVAKIA Slovaks were not a sked what they thought about the matter. Mr. F. A . Voight, the editor of the London magazine "Nlneteenth Century and After," described thc situation in th e following terms: 1-'Czechoslovakia is today a vassal state in a procesa of dissolution. Of the three administratíve areas which compose it, one, Car. patho-Ukraine, has been annexed by the Soviet Union. The second, Slovakia, is independent from Prague but not from Moscow. The quarrel between Czechs and Slovaks seems to be irreconcilable. One has the impression that the Czechoslovak state is today a fiction and that it will never again be a reality. For if one should remove the Russian overlordship, the Czechs could only recover power over the Slovaks by force of arms. And in this undertaking they would cer. tainly be defeated, for they have not a single friend in centra! Europe, whereas the S lova ks have many.... Even in Bohemia and Moravia the central government has but little authority. lt ia a pliable tool of the Russian supervision, with little will of its own. Dr. Benes is the victim of the politics which he has followed for so long." - And this was written not in 1948, bu t appeared in November 1945! ~embers of the Benes group in exile try to pretend that they entered the government In 1945 on the theory that the four parties would operate on a "live and let live" basis. This is straigh t mythology. In the first place, n o non-Communist politicians in their right minds would get together and elect a Communlst prime minister. Secondly, the non--Communlst parties had no polltlcal programs of t heir own. All parties had accepted a common program, the so-called Kosice Program of 1945, named after the city in which it was adopted. '!'he Kosice Program had been prepared in advance by t he Communists and included tbe complete s oclalization of industry ·and agricul• ture, as well as many of tbe ot her measure!< taken slnce 1948 by the Gottwald government. In other w ords, the complete commun!zation of the country had been prepared in advance with t he active collaboration of the Benes party. These collaborators included Hubert Ripka, Peter Zenkl, John Papanek, J. Stransky, Ferdinand Peroutka and a number of others . who are today connected, directly or indirectly, with the National Committee for a Free Europe and with Radio F ree Europe. Most of these National Fronters are enjoying the protection of the United States today; a large number have been provided with jobs on research pro. jects paid for by the Crus ade for Freedom or by the State Department. From the point of view of long-range international politics, the most significant thing which h appened during the period of fake democracy was the expulsion of almost three million Sudeten Germans. Some of t hese people h ad been Nazis. What the post-war Czech government, with the active encouragement of the Soviets, did was to deport the entire German-speaking minortly, regardless of their po. litical attitudes. P eople whose ancestors had lived in the border areas of Bohemla for almost a thousand years we re forced overnight t o leave tbeir horne.s and property and were shlpped in frelght cars to varlous points in Germa ny. Not content with exproprlatlng the Sudetens, an art!on wlthout precedent or justlficatlon In lnternatlonal law, the �ao SLOVAKI.A Commun ist partlsans, with the explicit appro val of Benes and his frien<!s, tortured and -murdered tens of t housands, !ncluding m any Sudetens with antl-Nazi records. Thjs is a hlstorlcal fact, however little lt may be_ k nown in th e Un lted S tates. T he expulslon :was so tho rÓugl;l_ . that. _numbers of n on-Germ an J ews were .deported, slm ply bec,a.u.se .t hey had lndicated "German'.' as thel r Janguage in t he Jast cen's us: slnce Ylddish was . 110.t recognized by. t he . Czech s t atistical authorťties. · · "-T.he Czechs," wrote Mr. Voight, · " have developed the most violent nationallsm. They have adopted a racial doctrine akin to H itler's (with · the difference that the Slava instead ot the .Germans are the Herrenvolk') and _their methods are hard ly difterent trom those of the Fascísts. They ·have; in truth, become Slavic Nazis." The -power behind tll.e expulsions was . r evealed recently In t he Prague Communist paper Rude Pravo (1951, No. 63), wbich edltorial ized as follows: "Thrl>ugh the historical victo ry of the Soviet Union it was possible to i-eorganize our country so as to banish once and for all the dangers stemming from unsolved natlonality problems and from the i;editious propaganda which threatened our first republic. lt ia impossible to overestimate the · historic importance of the fact that a fter a history of a thousand years the expulsion of the Germans has guar anteed the safety of our Fatherland as never before. Our peoples owe undying thanks to Comrade Stalin, who advocated this soluti9n in Potsdam and fought it through against the resistance of the Western powers." . The expulsion o f the Sude ten Germans created a political powder barrel compared to which the Pollsh Corridor before World W a r II was a medium•slzed lady cracker. Germany, whlch lost a large part ot its food-produc!ng terrltory and is populated to the bursting po int, v.iii never wlllingly accept tbe exile ot the Sudet ens. Czecho-Slovakla. on t he ot her ha nd, can hold on to t he Sudetenland on ly so long as she is backed by s uperior military rorce - th a1 of S oviet Russla. The way out of tbe dllemma would be for t he Czechs to make an agreeruent witb the Sudeten Germans pe rmitting them to come back. T hi!I is, ho.wever, exactly what Stalin does not want, slnce a Czech state at peace wlt h Germany and stable wlth ln itself would no longer depend on Russia n support to keep it in existence. F or this reason, Stalln's Czech puppets dld and continue to do every th ing to prevent a s ettlement of the Sudeten problem. The broadcasts of Radio Free Europe conform exactly to this Stalinist pollcý. The Kremlin's pollcy or m alntainlng hatred a t white b eat between the Czech s and the Germans was expounded by Otto Graf, now a member or the political statf of Radlo Free Europe in Munlch, as follows: "lf, in conn~tion with Ge rmans in Czechoslovakia, the -queation of the humanitarian tradltion of the Czech people ia raiaed, then the question is raised in the wrong place. lf lt were aimply that we didn'.t WANT to live wlth the Germans, the question might be justlfled. The fact is, we CAN'T live .wlth them." - ( Svet Prace, Vol. 1, No. 11, September 20, 1945, page 3). Ceskosloven1ke Noviny, the organ of th e Councll or Free CzechoSlovakla, tbe U. S. orga nization of Benes' followers which su ppllee the �SLOVAKIA 31 intelJectual leadershlp for Radlo Free · Europe, put the matter even more blunlly. How's thls for Ch rislian. Brotherhood? : "The Czechoalovak ian emigration knowa well that the new world Ôrder ia only poaaible on the baaia of the equality of all peoples in Eur!)pe. But at the eame time it hear,1 clearly the voice of t~. people a t home, which uttera thia apontaneoua .wi1h: Never to have , to eat at the aame table wlth German1, ever to have to pray_ I!" ·tti.e aame church with them." - (Artlcle by Duben, No. 24, Page 8), Fortunately not all Czech.s are ready to a.ccept Stalln's gospl!l .or liatred. An oppositlon group b eaded by General Prchala, the only Czech general who ever opposed Hitler on the battlefleld, has slgned a compact with the Sudetep GerD)an rep;-esentatio n In Munlch. Thls <:ompact. concluded on August 4, 1950, provldes that arter the Jlberatlon oťCzecho-Slovakla the Sudeten Germans shall be !ree to return to their homes. Therearter both natións shali enjoy equal rights under a federatlve štate.· General Prchala and bis followers i.ilso believed In ~elf-determln ation ·ror the Slovaks. ' ·.• · The policy or the Prchala group, the Czech Natlonal Commlttee, 1s so senslble that tbe Benes party bas not bePn able to thlnk. of a.ny rational argument agalnst it. So they follow the tbreadworn tactlcs or <lenounclng Prchala and his followers as rascists. And wba.t does the American management of Radlo Free Europe clo about the problem or the Slovaks and the Sudeten Germans? lt refuses to discuss lt. As Mr. Grltfith, polJUcal advlser to Mr. J ackson, stated I!) a press conference held on AprlJ 30, 1951: "Men of good will cannot a·IJow them1elve1 to be distracted in attempting · now to answer queations whlch cannot be answered now." Mr. Jackson backed bim up by saying: "The problem of Czech1 and Slovaka in Germany (sic) ·w ill not be diacu11ed on the air on thi1 transmitter." A llttle l:.ter in the conference the followlng interchange took place: "Queslion: Do you have at present the cooperatlon of all tbe main Czech and Slovak political tactlons among the emlgrants? " Mr. Jackson: Oh yes, the answer is yes." Mr. Jackson was evldently mlslnformed. •Radlo Free Europe does not have the cooperatlon of the Czech Nat1011al Commlttee, whlch has as regiatered members some 3,000 of the 12,000-odd Czechs no-w ' llvlng in Germany as well as a sizable memhershl p In Great Brltaln„ Canada, AustraJla, eti;. ~or does lt have the good wlll of the Slovak ~a.~lonjll Councll Abroad, the largest and most conslstently antl-Commun lst organlzatlon of exiled Slovaks .,..... or any representativ e group of Slovak patrlots. The Americans ln chacge or Radio Free Europe may think they are belng neutra!. ActuallY, they are exhlblllng partlsanship or the most vlclous sort, that sort whlch refuses to come out In the open and show lts cards. The resull ls that Radlo Free Europe 1s llkely to antagonlze more people than lt pleases, Jncludlng exaclly those groups which tbe United States should be courtlng as allles In lts struggle against world Communlsm, By following the Benes line and then " refuslng to discuss," the station la by impllcatlon condonlng :Czech ult.a-11atlonll]ism and the b rutal -expuls lon of milllons of -:reNgees. T.bere ls ,iothing tbat Stalin couJd like better. •, �32 SLOVAKIA I II - HOW TO RUN AN ANTI-COMMUNIST UNDERGROUND WITH COMMUNIST AGENTS On February 21, 1948, the "non-Communist" members of Gottcabinet resigned. To analyze just what h a ppened in t he "Gottwald Putsch" would be an involved historical job which I do not wan t to undertake here. Two points, however, a re signif icant: walďs 1. M inisters Ripka, Zen kl , Papanek and Stransky and others who n ow run the Council of F r ee Czechoslovakia and whose policies dominate the Czech program of Radio F ree Europe m ade not even a show ot resistance to the Communist g rab for power. Minister Zenkl spent the whole week-end ot the Putsch at a country house-party comfortably removed trom the scene of operations. 2. The fact that the Kremlin did not consider these gentlemen necessary any more in their previous positions does not of itself make them any less Communist fellow-travelers than they wer e before. lf Stal in should fire Molotoff, wou l d he be any less of a Bolshevi k ? N ot necessari ly. tThe Czech exile V. L. Borln writes ("Against the H angman," London, 1951, page 14) that he th inks t he real reason for th e "reorganization of 1948" was not to consolidate Communist power, since the Communists already had all the power they needed, but to make h!ghpower politlcians available for a razzle·dazzle job designed to confuse the United States and Britain. T h is t hesis is h ard to prove or disprove. lt is, nevertheless, lnteresting that most of the Benes g roup, including all the ministe11s and many "smal\ fry," left Czecho-Slovakia without the sligh test lnterference from the Government. The retiring dignitaries, escorted by several Communist agents traveling incognito, fellow-traveled to the United States Zone of Germany, wbere they announced themsel ves as "democrats" who had tought the good fight and as m artyrs of democracy. Tbey were met witb open arms (and with financial support) by the U. S. authorities, particuarly by certain former Czechs who h ad emigrated earlier and become U. S. citizens, A short whlle later the grou p was assembled in New York, where lt proceeded to promote the American Fund for Czecboslovak Refugees, l ne. (1775 Broadway), roping in such respect• able sponsors as Elleanor Roosevelt, Senator H erb ert Lehman, Dorothy 'ľhompson, etc., etc. Don't blam e these good people too hastily: the American publ ic was so hopel essly misinformed about what had really 1-appened in Czecho,Slovakia that to help the "poor refugees" seemed the natural and human thing to do. In order to be taken seriously, an exile organizatlon has to have an underground movement in the same country. So th e exiled Benes party organized an underground, the principal menib ers of whlch had been selected before Messrs. Zenkl, Ripka and Stransky had ever left Czecho,Slovakla. That it "vas possible to organize an underground at all was due to the fact that tbe Benes party, on the middle and loweľ levels, lncluded a number of people who were sincere democrats ancl an ti-Communists. If you want an effective underground in a dictatorshlp country you have t o pick leaders who are unknown politically. Instead, Ripka, Zenkl and .Stransky picked Mrs. M ilada Horakova, National Socialist (Benes) Party member or Parliament and known anti-Communist; Josef Ne- �SLOVAKIA 33 staval, Jawyer, member of NSP Centra! Executive Committee; Misa Frana Zem inova, First Vice-Chairman of the NSP; Jiri Hej da, econo• mist, member of the State Economic Council. Of the foregoing, all except Hejda were under observation by the Communist Secret Police, a fact which Ripka and his friends must have known if they were not poli tical idiots. In addi tion to these leaders. a set of liaison officers were appointed who were equally suspect, including Zenkľs brother Hudolf and the secretaries of Benes and Ripka. On the first anniversary of Benes' death the exiles asked their friends to mail protests to the U. S. Embassy in Prague. Although these letlers were anonymous, they did serve to tip off the Communlst secret police as to the location of resistance centers. Radio Free Europe is now conducting a similar "give-away" program. Exlled Czechs and Slovaks ,vrite in about themselves and persona) news is broadcast under a "nickname" but with mention of the localities in which the families llve. Several exiles have pointed out to the writer that this procedure is sufficient, in smaller towns, to provide the secret police with very useful information. As a center for making contacts wlth members of the underground in Czecho-Slovakia, Ripka and his friends established an operational headquarters in Frankfurt under the direction of a certain Gen eral Mor avec, formerly hea.d of the "Czecboslovakian Jntelligence Service" in London. This operational Headquarters was and is a key position in the whole structure of the Council of Free Czechoslovakia's under· ground. Jt was and ls tbe German sending and receivlng station for couriers coming back and forth from Czecho-Slovakia. Jts connection with Radlo Free Europe will be discussed in the last chapter. I have heard Moravec described as a well-meaning man without too much political sense. His staff, however, includes or included the following individuals: 1. As principal deputy, D r. Schenk. As a police officlal of Brunn (Brno), Dr. Schenk asslsted In the arranging of the famous Brunn Death March on Corpus Christi Day, 1945, in which tbe entire Ger• man population of that city was forced to march 60 kilometers to the Austrian border. Tbose who straggled were beaten to death. At night the Germans were locked in cement barracks to which Soviet soldiers were admitted for the purpose of raping the women. Between 2000 and 3000 Germans died before the march was over. In 1948 Dr. Schenk, as a "democratic exile," got a job screening refugees for the JRO, where he had the reputation of approvlng only Benes supporters for asslstance. H e then went to work in Moraveťs office where he 1,till is, according to the !atest lnformatlon. 2. M ih ula, a courier between Frankfurt and Prague. Hls travels ceased abruptly in February 1951 when the United States Court ln Hegensburg sentenced bim to 7 years imprisonment as a Communist s py. 3. Rudolf Sima, courier for Moravec and shnultaneously member of the S'I'B (Czech Secret Police). He was recently arrested In Stuttgart and is now in U. S. custody. 4 Schn eeberger, occasional inmate of tbe Valka "Foreigners' Camp" near Nurn-berg. The frequency and overtness with which th!s gentleman crosses tbe borcler has given rise there to the general opinlon �SLOVAKIA 34 that he is also an STB man . .At the time of this writing he was at Jarge in the U. S. Zone of Germany. 5. Satran, well known to emigres as a Prague underworld chai-acter and one-tíme proprietor of "The Spider," a dive used extensively for the exchange of stolen goods. Convictions are reported ·for deallng in stolen goods, pandering and cheating at cards. H e has recently gone to work for Radlo Free Europe but bis Whereaboutli is --strictly secret." 6. Vera Chovancova, Moravec's secretary and girl-friend of a cerLain Marian, W'ho is know.n to be an STB agent. Mornvec also had couriers who were not membe1:s of the Czech 8TB, ho-wever, these dlsappeared at a discouraging rate whlle crossing 1he border, for reasons that are not bard to guess. To meet the prob• lem caused by t.he ensuing persorinel shortage. Moravec's offtce sent letters by the conductors on the Orient Express, which carries through cars from Prague to Ostende. Anyone who knows anything about dictatorships knows that conductors on international traina are alwaya agenta of the secret police. The result of Moravec's efficient operations was that when Gott· walp's .-Communists held their famous espionag~ trials, the state prosecutor had a f-a~rly complete file of all th~--correspondence sent or received by the defendants. Significantly en.o ugh, the record of the trial contained no mention of Moravec or his headquarters, nor did the prosecution introduce a letter which Ne11taval had written, aaking that Ripka be dropped from the organizatio11 for Communlat _c olla. boration. Mrs. Horakova was sentenced to death, Nestaval and H ejda to life imprisonment and slxty-eight year old Miss Zeminova to twenty years at bard Jabor. Wlth this operaťiôn, the democratlc resl11tance in Czechoslovakia, insofar as · lt existed in the Benes party, was effectively liquidated. IV - AMERICA'S LAT.EST PROBLEM CHILO In the selectlon of personnel to pian and carry out its Czech broadcasting problem, the National Commlttee for a Free Europ e relied heavlly on the advice of the CollÍlcll for Free Czechoslovakla. !<'or a whlle, in early 1951, the org_ahizatlon spllt on the quesUon of who was a fellow-traveler, but slnce then, as I understand it, things have tieen happlly patched up. •· ·• The he~d of the entire Czech g·ro~p in ~uni~h is Ferdinand Peroutka, formerly propaganda director of the Natlonal Socialist Party and editor of the newspaper Oi,esek (Today) in Prague. Slnce Mr. Peroutka is responsible for puttlng together a program for w hlch Ámericans are pay!ng and which - in spite of the prlvate ausplces of Radlo Free Europe - 1s frequently taken as representing .Americall pol!cy and opln!on, it is important to know what klnd of democr,acy ~fr. Peroutka advocates. Here are some of his opinions, taken from his book "Talť ·nebo tak" (So or So), published in Prague in 1947: "N ever in history was Russia so mighty, never were the forcea of socialiam so colosaaly forged together. This ls a new hiitorical epoch. Nevertheless some people think in a stick-in-the-ltlUd ' fashion. lt has not yet been possible to convince everyone of the neceísity: of the overthrów'·of 'capitalism_._, __., ( Page 8). �SLOVAKIA 36 "Already in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries it became clear that whoever d.oes not want socialism small must take. it big. You people, who today pr aise this or t hat virtue of capitalism, tell me, how have yo u s olved the social problem . .." ( Page 9. Transla. tor's note : By t he use of. "sma ll" and "big" Mr. Peroutka would seem to identlfy himself with th e Bolshevlkl or "big" socialista, as op. posed to the Mens hevikl or "small" socialista.) " Along the road on which the Russian Revolution passed, there lie the rotting remains of t he unfulfilled pr ophecies of its enemies. This (the revolution: tr.) is a historical impulse a s g reat as the Reformation or the Fre nch Revolutlon, perhaps as gr eat as Christianity•. " ( Page 33) "In our situation resistance against the great work of s ocialízation - open or secret - can only be considered as reaction. In this respect w e need have no doubt who are the reactionaries." ( Page 141 ) '.'Many t lmes we have said, that in this land only one develop. ment is possible, to socialism. Have our activities helped this develop. ment? Or have we obstructed it ? ... lt is necessary for everyone to be able to say proudly : 1 was there, 1 hel ped!" ( Pages 170.171) Mr . Peroutka is backed up by two experts in dialectical materlali~m. Dr. Ziak and Dr. (Berger) Bellak. Dr. Zlak ls the editor of an intelleetual magazlne called Tribuna which 1s forb idden In F rance and ano ther called "Reality" which is forbidden in Switzerland. Unfortunately I have not been able to peruse these journals as I do not r_e ad Czech, but I am told that their basic thesis !s the need for t he party masses to sub mlt to Jeadershlp by the elite cadre. Bellak was formerly a Communist Party functionary in Slovakia under the name of Berger. H e puts out a German-language sheet called "MH!tant Democra cy'" which few Germans read because it takes Stalin's anti• German line. Some of the staff members are left-wing sociallsts, such as J osef Kodicek, who helped put out pro..Sovlet propaganda over BBC durln g the war, and Ma,rtin K vetko. who partlclp ated in a Communist-sponsored uprising In 1S!ovakia in August 1944. Pavel Tlgrld (formerly Schonfeld), Peroutka's asslstant, was for mer editor o f a magazlne called "Lift Culture" and has admltted openly havlng collaborated wlth th e Communists. Some of the lesser personnel are rather interestlng, such as Eva Fischl, daugh ter of the present Czech Communist amb assad or to Eastern Germ any, and Mesdames Kamlerova and Lisa. nov a who were speclalists in inclting riots against the German management of Camp Valka and who ostentatiously exhibited a plcture of Stalln In their room. There is a Mr. Stein, who is reported to be a Communist functionary from the Prague reglon. I do not k now whether he is tbe same Stein whom the Comm unlsts planted with BBC during tbe war. A FEW POl.lCY HEADACHES Tbe fact tbat the Natlonal Commlttee for a Free Europe gave the Benes party free relgn In personnel and pollcy matters for tbe Czech program of Radlo Free Europe h as ralsed a number of thorny problems. Some of these affeet only the station a.od tbe Commlttee. Other~ involved th e basic forelgn relatlons of tbe Unlted States. �36 SLOVAKIA To begin with, the broadcasts have evoked a very mixed reaction. Since the Slovaks in the Benes group {the renegade Slovaks) are those who have accepted tbe premise of a unitary Czecho-Slovak state, .iud since this attitude tends to color the political commentaries, the pro· gram is automatically distasteful to tbe overwhelming majority of patrlotlc Slovaks who are definitely anti-Commun!st. As one Slovak leader put it to me: "they speak our language but they do not apeak our thoughts." So far as the Czechs are concerned, the political orientatiou of the program is likely to appeal only to those who favor the Benes policy of ad vanced socialism bordering on Communism. These people won't find too much wrong with tbe Gottwalcl regime anyway. T he program holds out little hope for the Czech citizen who wants a positive pian for getting away from socialism and Soviet domination. In other words, it simply is not a clear-cut anti-Communist program. 'ľhe most that can be said about it is that it is an antl-the-particulargroup-of-Oommunists-who-Olappen-to-be-running-Czechoslovakia-at-lthe-moment program. It is doubtful whether Americans intended to put their money into financing sguabbles between rival groups of Communists and near-Communists. Another problem is essentially a technical one. The mission of the station requires that it have a good source of news from inside Czecho•Slovakia. At the present Ume, Radio Free Europe is trying to use the Moravec office as a source. Slnce, however, Moravec's only reliable agents {in the sense of getting there and back ) are also agents o( the Communist serret police, •Radio Free Europe is getting only such news as the Gottwald government cares to give it, which isn't too much. The other horn of this rlilemma is that if Radio Free Europe tries to set up its own couriers, the Communists within the Moravec outfit and within its O\ľll set-up can easily arrange for their liguida· tion. At the moment, the station is buying information from whomever will give it, and paying fan cy prices. The result is that enterprising Czechs are cooking up the most amazing stories; and the staff has no way of checking whether these stories are true or not. Even the collection of news material ad boc has run !nto diffiC'ulties. The individual ass!gned to collect news from the inmates ot Camp Valka, one Yaroslav Dvoracek, the leader of the Benes group in the camp is - to break the monotony - not a Communist nor even a fellow-traveler. He is a former member of the Czech Fasc ist Party of General Gayda. Unfortunately Mr. Dvoracck's activities were rudely interrupted on April 18, 1951 by the police. He was in jail, while I was there, awaiting trial on rharges of misappropriating CARE packages and clotbing sent by American friends to the Sokol or camp alhletic organization. On the Political side, the most immediate problem is that the anti-<Sudeten tendencies of Radio Free Europe's Czech-Slovak program are getting the Germans mad as hornets. There have already been !leveral protests by German refugee groups and a formal interpellation in the Bavarian parliament_ It was reported that plans for a formal protest to the United States by the Centra) German Government at I~nn were being consiclered. When I was in New York in March, I attempted to dlscuss tbe problem of German public relations wlth of- �S LOVAKIA 37 ficials of the National Committee and was told, in effect, that since Radlo Free Europe would not broadcast in Germau no such problem wa.s anticipated. The station is, bowever, located in Germany. There are plenty of Sudeten Germans who can understand Czech and .they teli other G.ermans what they hear. Tbere is a public relations problem. If it gets m uch worse the Unit.ed States Government may find it necessary .to do something about it. N EEDED - A GOOD CLEANUP Before going further, I would like to point out that the criticisms ir, this report have been directed solely at the Czech and Slovak actlvities of Radio Free Europe. Nothing said here is intended to refer to any of the other programs, about which I am not informed. It would be too bad if the present fizzle in the Czech and Slovak program oť Radio Free Europe should cause people to ťeel the whole idea s hould be dropped. The pian is a splendid one if carried out properly. Whwt is needed is a thorough housecleaning in which all Communists and fellow-travelers are definitely and permanently f!red. Administration and program planning should be in the hands of Ameri· cans, who should lay down the political pollcy. Personnel investigations should be made by political analysts who know their h!story and are experts in comparative ideologies. In the case of the Czech program, the cleanup won't be easy since it involves the uprooting of a jungle of misinformation, prejudices and vested interests planted by Czech and "Czecho-Slovak" fellow-travelers over a number of years. The bistory of this crypto-Communist inf!uence on the State Department, American universities and the public in general is a wbole subject in itself, which would probably take a Congressional investlgation to unravel. • • • WHO SAID IT ? "There is one tbing we can express and interpret in full. It is the sincere, deep hearty and infinite gratitu'de of all Czechs and Slovaks to the Soviet Union, to its people, its army and its skipper, Generalissimo Stalin, for everything that they have so far done and are stm doing for us. It is the unfalsified, unselfisb and pure feeling of friend• ship and sympathy that we bave for this great, for us so intimate and n eighborly a country. It is the pure joy from the joys of the successes and the progress of the USSR, it 1s the unshatterable hope that Slovanism in its new form will safeguard for itself and for the world a deserved peace, in which all nations antl states shall live their own Jives, freely, without fears, democratlcally and In dignity, in agreement, welfare and happiness. In this spirit from our souls we greet the jubileeing USSR, we congratulate it from our hearts for the results attained ln peace and war. We wish that it keep on prospering, flourishing and growing mighty unto its own greatness, but also unto the welfare of all mankind. Long live the Soviet Union and may its Soviet chief and skipper, J. V. Stalin, in full health live to see many more of its joyous jubilees." - Dr. Joseph Lettrlch, ČAS, 11-7-47. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 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 ·uow FREE lS RADIO FREE EUROPE? BY KURT GLASSER 1- THE VOICE OF F REEDOM IN DOUBLE TAL K In the southeast corner of the English Garden, Munich's Centra! Park, a h andsome new building is being erected. This building, paid for by the voluntary contrlbutlons of millions of American citizens, will house the executive offices and studios of RADIO FREE EUROPE. Medium-wave broadcasts in Czech and Slovak have been started on an lllh•hour schedule, and are beamed eastward by a directional antenna. There are also brief s hort-wave programs in Hungarian, Rumanian and Bulgarian; medium-wave programs in lhese languages are to follow later. Radio Free Europe is a private American station. lt is owned by the National Committee for a Free Europe, and supported through the Crusade for Freedom campaign. 'I'he response to the dramatic '·HELP LLFT THE IRON CURTAIN" posters is gratlfying. Presumably the donors are gratified to thlnk that their dollars are helping to fight Communism. They would not be quite so gratif!ed if they knew what was happening wlth some of their money. Q€neral Lucius D. Clay and other prlncipal figures in the National Committee for a Free Europe are, 1 believe, personally beyond reproach. It would not occur to any norma! journalist to write "m udraking" articles on any activity sponsored by them. lt never occurred to me to criticize RFE until l arrlved In Munich in 1951 and begaµ resear<:h on problems affecting iron-curtain refugees in Western Germany. Quite by accident I sturobled on the fol· Io wing facts: 1. The principal Czechs and Slovaks associated with the National Committee and those employed by Rad io Free Europe are not· - as is commonly supposed - fighters against Communism. Quite on the contrary, they fellow-traveled with the Communists from at least 1939 to 1948, helped them to power, and even today follow a Communist-sponsored propaga.nda line. 2. These individuals belong to an organization which has systematically betrayed members of the democratic underground in Czecho-Slovakia by tipping them off to Dictator Gottwa lďs secret police. 3. A number of Radio Free Europe staff members are either Communist agents or have criminal records. 4. Radlo Free Europe's Czech-Slovak program is helping Stalin by sabotaging international understanding and promoting rivalry and hatred between European peoples. WHY CZECHO-SLOVAKIA COLLAP SED The Czech exile organization associated with the National Committee is the "Council of Free Czechoslovakia," beaded by Dr. Peter Zenkl, formerly vice-Premler under Gottwald. This organization, known among exiles as the Benes party, has the inside track in determining who geta jobs in Radio Free Europe and what polic)' the station shall follow. To understand what thls means politically, we shall have to trace briefly the history of Czecho-Slovakla slnce World War 1. If the American staff óf the National Commlttee had studied this hlstory more critlcally than it evidently dld, it would not bave been duped by Czech fellow-travelers. To begin wltb, there is no "Czechoslovak ian" people, except as one has been dellberately created by the propaganda of the Czech natlonallst partles. The Czecbs and the Slovaks are two dlstinct natlons, witb languages as dlfferent as German and Dutch. T hey can, wltb some effort, understand each o tber and read each other's newspapers. At the end of World War I, when the old Austro-H ungarlan monarchy was collapsing, most Slovaks favored an Independent Slo-vakia. Tbey consented, however, to jolning wlth the Czech s on the 8trengtb of the so-called Pittsburgh Agreement, signed in 1918 by Presldent Thomas Masaryk of Czecbo·Slovakia. This agreement provtded for full equality between Ci:echs and Slovaks and a substantial measure of autonomy for Slovakia within t he framework ot Czecho-Slovakia. The Pittsburgh Agreement was never carried out. Instead, tbe Czech Government maintained centrallzed rule from Prague and discrlminated systematlcally against tbe Slovaks and the Sudeten Germans (who are really German-speaking Austrians). In 1925 Masaryk justlfied tbe denial of Slovak autonomy by stating that tbe Pitts· burgh Agreement was slmply a recommendatioo of American Czechs and Slovaks and, tberefore, not blnding. Only Czech civil servants got tbe best jobs, and tbe Government, first under :'lfasaryk and later under Benes, did ali lt could to promote Czech nationalism and culture al tbe expense of the non-Czech peoples of the Republjc. Tbe result was tbat both the Slovaks and the Sudeten Germans, not to mentlon some 250,000 Hungarians, became increaslngly anxious to "get out !rom under." Tbls fact was made abundantly clear in Lord ;Runciman'5: 1938 report to the Britlsh Government. The Czecho-Slovak Government had not neglected to operate .a ťontinuous, high-pressure public relations campaign io tbe United States and otber western countrles When Hitler demanded cesslon of the Sudetenland in September 1938, the sympatbies of the western world were wholly wltb Czecho-Slovakla, wbich was pictured as an island of peaceful democracy In the sea of fascism. 'l'be fact of the matter was that the country was well along the road to civil war. If Brltain and France had backed tbe Prague Government and had Czecho-Slovakla t ried to figbt, \t is practically certaln tbat the Slovaks, Sudeten Germans and Hungarians would have refused to cooperate. At · the beight of the Munlch crisis, Professor Cernak, Slovak s pokesman in the Prague cabinet, presented Benes wlth an ultimatum demanding agreement to Slovak autonomy wltbln 24 hours, otherwise he would leave bis post in the government. Reluctantly Prague agreed to grant autonomy on October 6, 1938. However, after Munich, in March 1939, the Prague Government deposed Slovak Prime Minister 'l'iso, occupied Bratislava with Czech armed forces and installed a new governmenľ In Slovakia. lt was this interventlon which gave Hitler tbe excuse to march lnto Prague. lt must be admitted that the Slovak Republlc came int~ existence SLOVAKIA witb Hitler's belp. But tbis did not make it a Nazi state any more t han German aid to Finland corrupted tbe lnstitutlons of· tbaľcoimtry. BENES BECOMES A TOOL OF STALIN · It is understandable tbat Benes sbould have turned to Stalin for support after "tlie Municb debacle. Brltaln and France had, as h e felt, let bim down. The only power wlilch could restore Czecho-Slovakia was Soviet Russia and, it may be added, the only way in which Czechoslovakia with its pre-war boundaries can be held together today is by sheer force. In any case, the "Czechoslovakian Liberat!on Move· ment," wbich was started in Paris and moved to London in 1940. was based from the beginnlng on the pr!ncipie of constant and close collaboratlon with the Soviet Union. As Dr. Peter Zenk l, whose influence today over Radio Free Europe is apparent from the posttion he holds, sald in a speech to th e Temporary :-.ationat Assembly in );ovember 1945: " The nationa lly conscious Czechs and Slovaks have no doubt that in thelr own interest, as well as ín lnľernational interests, perma~ent collaboration with the USSR is neceua ry. Never without the USSR, never against the USSR, always on its side!" The collaboration between the Benes party and the Sovi_ets ' ~ontinued even during the strained relations between the USSR and the Western powers whicb, lasted from September 1939 unt!I Hltler's atiack on the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941. As H ubert Ripka, Beneš' ~Iinister of Informatlon in the LoI)don "Czecboslovak Democratic Government," explained in bis book "East and West" (London, 1944): "Since, in the new situation, it was impossible to collaborate officia lly with the Soviet Union, we ... did nothing whlch might pre. judice or prevent the renewal of cooperatlon at the earliest possible • moment; l need only recall how strongly our attltude contrasted wlth that of .many others during the Soviet-Finnish War. Moreover, even in that period, there was no lnterruption of the personal contacts and exohange of information between ourselves and important Soviet representatives in London, Paria, Washington and elsewhere." The Provisional Czecboslovakian Government, which was ·ftnanced by the British, introduced Jarge ·numbers of "democratic Czechoslovakian refugees," who were in reality Soviet agents. One of t•hese, L.udwig Freund, joined the staff oť the Communist "Daily Worker" at B ritlsh Government expense. Others, such as Messrs. Bieheller, Ohrenstein, Klinger and Steín (none- of whom were Czechs or Slovaks) Joined the staff of the Britlsh Broadcasting Company and prepared t he speeches for the "non-Communist" members of the Czech governme nt. Here ts a s ample of this propaganda: " ... the Ruuian Novemb·er Revolution not only increaaed the strength of the Ruasian Soviet State, it also ralaed to greater heights than ever before the standard of civilization, culture and living, of the wide ma11es of the Soviet peoples.... Bolshevism is a supér.national ideal, an eternal ideal, a human ideal, an ideal whlch has klndled the minds of the noblest of men from the time of Piato and through the· Christian era, through the Freneh Revolution and untll today.: : . Juat as the French Revolution strovť to realize the idea! · of equality." (B. B. C. program of·,November 7, 1942, speech by Mr. Ri1>lfä). · SLOVAKIA 28 Tbis Mr. Ripka is anotber leadlng f!gure in the "Council of Free Czecboslovakia," wbich has played a leadlng role in tbe selection of Czech and Slovak personnel for Radio Free Europe Benes and bis friends also introduced a number of Commun!st .igents into the U nited States (also disguised as democratic Czecho• Slovak!an refugees) , sneh as the Soviet employee Bension Batt wbo publlshed tbe Czech paper New Y orkské Li sty and a Hungarian Communist Desider Benau, who edited the Slovak paper ("Czechoslôvak daily") called New Y or k ský Denník. Benau is now editor of a Communist dally in Slovakia. In 1941 the KremUn decided that the Benes organization was worthy of recognition as the official Czecho,Slovak government, and iJ1 1943 Benes went to Moscow and formally concl uded an agreement with Stalin. I am not informed as to tbe details or this agreement. but apparently lt provided that the Sovlets and not tbe United States s hould occupy Czecho0Slovakia as well as indicating wbat part!es s hould be allowed after the war. Needless to say, the dominating role of .the Communist Party was assured. II - THE F A K E D E MOCRACY - 1945-1948 As the war drew to a c lose, in late 1944 and early 1945, the Benes Government moved in a body from London to Kosice and then Prague, with a long stop-over In Moscow. While in the Soviet capital, the "Czechoslovak" politicians received exact instructions as to wbat they· were to do wben tbey got horne. Stalin did not want to alarm t be Western Allles by setting up an outright Communist government in P rague while tbe bulk of the Gls and Tommies were stm in Ger• many. lt was therefore decided to use the sy'stem of "bloc politics" (compulsory coalition of several parties) wbich is in vogue in the Soviet Zone of Germany and which General Eisenhower had rejected for the U. S. Zone "since it !s incompatible w!th the traditional American idea of political activity and effective political l!fe in a democratic sense" (New York Times, October 17. 1945). Only the fol lowing part!es were permitted: 1. Communist Part y ; 2. National Socialist (Benes) Party ; 3. Social Democratic (Socialist) Party; 4. The Czec h Cleri ca l Party (Srameťs "Česká Lldová Strana." ). The Agrarian Party and the Small Tradesmen's Party, which had existed b efore tbe war, were forbidden, slnce tbey refused to collaborate with tbe Communists. George Str!brny was sentenced to life imprisonment and Rudolpb Beran (no relation to tbe archbishop) was sentenced to 20 years in 1946 for attempting to organlze "unauthorized" polltlcal parties. Slnce the Soviets were not sure bow the Social Democratic Party would bebave (in Germany it is strongly anti-Communist) tbey suppJied this party with new leaders from Moscow. who elected the Communist Zapotorky as head of the United Czech Trade Unions. To make sure nothing would go wrong, some 200.000 c~ech and Slovak citizens wbo had given evidence of bP.lng anti-Communist were ex<'luded from the 1946 elections on one pretext or another. To cap tbe cllmax, tbe Communist leader Klement Gottwal<l. who had been r arefully groomed In Moscow for the job, was elected Prime Minister. As for the Slovaks, the Sovlets seemed for a time to support Slovak autonomy an<l then cbange<l th~ir minds Tn any case, thP, iLOVAKIA Slovaks were not a sked what they thought about the matter. Mr. F. A . Voight, the editor of the London magazine "Nlneteenth Century and After," described thc situation in th e following terms: 1-'Czechoslovakia is today a vassal state in a procesa of dissolution. Of the three administratíve areas which compose it, one, Car. patho-Ukraine, has been annexed by the Soviet Union. The second, Slovakia, is independent from Prague but not from Moscow. The quarrel between Czechs and Slovaks seems to be irreconcilable. One has the impression that the Czechoslovak state is today a fiction and that it will never again be a reality. For if one should remove the Russian overlordship, the Czechs could only recover power over the Slovaks by force of arms. And in this undertaking they would cer. tainly be defeated, for they have not a single friend in centra! Europe, whereas the S lova ks have many.... Even in Bohemia and Moravia the central government has but little authority. lt ia a pliable tool of the Russian supervision, with little will of its own. Dr. Benes is the victim of the politics which he has followed for so long." - And this was written not in 1948, bu t appeared in November 1945! ~embers of the Benes group in exile try to pretend that they entered the government In 1945 on the theory that the four parties would operate on a "live and let live" basis. This is straigh t mythology. In the first place, n o non-Communist politicians in their right minds would get together and elect a Communlst prime minister. Secondly, the non--Communlst parties had no polltlcal programs of t heir own. All parties had accepted a common program, the so-called Kosice Program of 1945, named after the city in which it was adopted. '!'he Kosice Program had been prepared in advance by t he Communists and included tbe complete s oclalization of industry ·and agricul• ture, as well as many of tbe ot her measure!< taken slnce 1948 by the Gottwald government. In other w ords, the complete commun!zation of the country had been prepared in advance with t he active collaboration of the Benes party. These collaborators included Hubert Ripka, Peter Zenkl, John Papanek, J. Stransky, Ferdinand Peroutka and a number of others . who are today connected, directly or indirectly, with the National Committee for a Free Europe and with Radio F ree Europe. Most of these National Fronters are enjoying the protection of the United States today; a large number have been provided with jobs on research pro. jects paid for by the Crus ade for Freedom or by the State Department. From the point of view of long-range international politics, the most significant thing which h appened during the period of fake democracy was the expulsion of almost three million Sudeten Germans. Some of t hese people h ad been Nazis. What the post-war Czech government, with the active encouragement of the Soviets, did was to deport the entire German-speaking minortly, regardless of their po. litical attitudes. P eople whose ancestors had lived in the border areas of Bohemla for almost a thousand years we re forced overnight t o leave tbeir horne.s and property and were shlpped in frelght cars to varlous points in Germa ny. Not content with exproprlatlng the Sudetens, an art!on wlthout precedent or justlficatlon In lnternatlonal law, the ao SLOVAKI.A Commun ist partlsans, with the explicit appro val of Benes and his frien<!s, tortured and -murdered tens of t housands, !ncluding m any Sudetens with antl-Nazi records. Thjs is a hlstorlcal fact, however little lt may be_ k nown in th e Un lted S tates. T he expulslon :was so tho rÓugl;l_ . that. _numbers of n on-Germ an J ews were .deported, slm ply bec,a.u.se .t hey had lndicated "German'.' as thel r Janguage in t he Jast cen's us: slnce Ylddish was . 110.t recognized by. t he . Czech s t atistical authorťties. · · "-T.he Czechs," wrote Mr. Voight, · " have developed the most violent nationallsm. They have adopted a racial doctrine akin to H itler's (with · the difference that the Slava instead ot the .Germans are the Herrenvolk') and _their methods are hard ly difterent trom those of the Fascísts. They ·have; in truth, become Slavic Nazis." The -power behind tll.e expulsions was . r evealed recently In t he Prague Communist paper Rude Pravo (1951, No. 63), wbich edltorial ized as follows: "Thrl>ugh the historical victo ry of the Soviet Union it was possible to i-eorganize our country so as to banish once and for all the dangers stemming from unsolved natlonality problems and from the i;editious propaganda which threatened our first republic. lt ia impossible to overestimate the · historic importance of the fact that a fter a history of a thousand years the expulsion of the Germans has guar anteed the safety of our Fatherland as never before. Our peoples owe undying thanks to Comrade Stalin, who advocated this soluti9n in Potsdam and fought it through against the resistance of the Western powers." . The expulsion o f the Sude ten Germans created a political powder barrel compared to which the Pollsh Corridor before World W a r II was a medium•slzed lady cracker. Germany, whlch lost a large part ot its food-produc!ng terrltory and is populated to the bursting po int, v.iii never wlllingly accept tbe exile ot the Sudet ens. Czecho-Slovakla. on t he ot her ha nd, can hold on to t he Sudetenland on ly so long as she is backed by s uperior military rorce - th a1 of S oviet Russla. The way out of tbe dllemma would be for t he Czechs to make an agreeruent witb the Sudeten Germans pe rmitting them to come back. T hi!I is, ho.wever, exactly what Stalin does not want, slnce a Czech state at peace wlt h Germany and stable wlth ln itself would no longer depend on Russia n support to keep it in existence. F or this reason, Stalln's Czech puppets dld and continue to do every th ing to prevent a s ettlement of the Sudeten problem. The broadcasts of Radio Free Europe conform exactly to this Stalinist pollcý. The Kremlin's pollcy or m alntainlng hatred a t white b eat between the Czech s and the Germans was expounded by Otto Graf, now a member or the political statf of Radlo Free Europe in Munlch, as follows: "lf, in conn~tion with Ge rmans in Czechoslovakia, the -queation of the humanitarian tradltion of the Czech people ia raiaed, then the question is raised in the wrong place. lf lt were aimply that we didn'.t WANT to live wlth the Germans, the question might be justlfled. The fact is, we CAN'T live .wlth them." - ( Svet Prace, Vol. 1, No. 11, September 20, 1945, page 3). Ceskosloven1ke Noviny, the organ of th e Councll or Free CzechoSlovakla, tbe U. S. orga nization of Benes' followers which su ppllee the SLOVAKIA 31 intelJectual leadershlp for Radlo Free · Europe, put the matter even more blunlly. How's thls for Ch rislian. Brotherhood? : "The Czechoalovak ian emigration knowa well that the new world Ôrder ia only poaaible on the baaia of the equality of all peoples in Eur!)pe. But at the eame time it hear,1 clearly the voice of t~. people a t home, which uttera thia apontaneoua .wi1h: Never to have , to eat at the aame table wlth German1, ever to have to pray_ I!" ·tti.e aame church with them." - (Artlcle by Duben, No. 24, Page 8), Fortunately not all Czech.s are ready to a.ccept Stalln's gospl!l .or liatred. An oppositlon group b eaded by General Prchala, the only Czech general who ever opposed Hitler on the battlefleld, has slgned a compact with the Sudetep GerD)an rep;-esentatio n In Munlch. Thls <:ompact. concluded on August 4, 1950, provldes that arter the Jlberatlon oťCzecho-Slovakla the Sudeten Germans shall be !ree to return to their homes. Therearter both natións shali enjoy equal rights under a federatlve štate.· General Prchala and bis followers i.ilso believed In ~elf-determln ation ·ror the Slovaks. ' ·.• · The policy or the Prchala group, the Czech Natlonal Commlttee, 1s so senslble that tbe Benes party bas not bePn able to thlnk. of a.ny rational argument agalnst it. So they follow the tbreadworn tactlcs or <lenounclng Prchala and his followers as rascists. And wba.t does the American management of Radlo Free Europe clo about the problem or the Slovaks and the Sudeten Germans? lt refuses to discuss lt. As Mr. Grltfith, polJUcal advlser to Mr. J ackson, stated I!) a press conference held on AprlJ 30, 1951: "Men of good will cannot a·IJow them1elve1 to be distracted in attempting · now to answer queations whlch cannot be answered now." Mr. Jackson backed bim up by saying: "The problem of Czech1 and Slovaka in Germany (sic) ·w ill not be diacu11ed on the air on thi1 transmitter." A llttle l:.ter in the conference the followlng interchange took place: "Queslion: Do you have at present the cooperatlon of all tbe main Czech and Slovak political tactlons among the emlgrants? " Mr. Jackson: Oh yes, the answer is yes." Mr. Jackson was evldently mlslnformed. •Radlo Free Europe does not have the cooperatlon of the Czech Nat1011al Commlttee, whlch has as regiatered members some 3,000 of the 12,000-odd Czechs no-w ' llvlng in Germany as well as a sizable memhershl p In Great Brltaln„ Canada, AustraJla, eti;. ~or does lt have the good wlll of the Slovak ~a.~lonjll Councll Abroad, the largest and most conslstently antl-Commun lst organlzatlon of exiled Slovaks .,..... or any representativ e group of Slovak patrlots. The Americans ln chacge or Radio Free Europe may think they are belng neutra!. ActuallY, they are exhlblllng partlsanship or the most vlclous sort, that sort whlch refuses to come out In the open and show lts cards. The resull ls that Radlo Free Europe 1s llkely to antagonlze more people than lt pleases, Jncludlng exaclly those groups which tbe United States should be courtlng as allles In lts struggle against world Communlsm, By following the Benes line and then " refuslng to discuss," the station la by impllcatlon condonlng :Czech ult.a-11atlonll]ism and the b rutal -expuls lon of milllons of -:reNgees. T.bere ls ,iothing tbat Stalin couJd like better. •, 32 SLOVAKIA I II - HOW TO RUN AN ANTI-COMMUNIST UNDERGROUND WITH COMMUNIST AGENTS On February 21, 1948, the "non-Communist" members of Gottcabinet resigned. To analyze just what h a ppened in t he "Gottwald Putsch" would be an involved historical job which I do not wan t to undertake here. Two points, however, a re signif icant: walďs 1. M inisters Ripka, Zen kl , Papanek and Stransky and others who n ow run the Council of F r ee Czechoslovakia and whose policies dominate the Czech program of Radio F ree Europe m ade not even a show ot resistance to the Communist g rab for power. Minister Zenkl spent the whole week-end ot the Putsch at a country house-party comfortably removed trom the scene of operations. 2. The fact that the Kremlin did not consider these gentlemen necessary any more in their previous positions does not of itself make them any less Communist fellow-travelers than they wer e before. lf Stal in should fire Molotoff, wou l d he be any less of a Bolshevi k ? N ot necessari ly. tThe Czech exile V. L. Borln writes ("Against the H angman," London, 1951, page 14) that he th inks t he real reason for th e "reorganization of 1948" was not to consolidate Communist power, since the Communists already had all the power they needed, but to make h!ghpower politlcians available for a razzle·dazzle job designed to confuse the United States and Britain. T h is t hesis is h ard to prove or disprove. lt is, nevertheless, lnteresting that most of the Benes g roup, including all the ministe11s and many "smal\ fry," left Czecho-Slovakia without the sligh test lnterference from the Government. The retiring dignitaries, escorted by several Communist agents traveling incognito, fellow-traveled to the United States Zone of Germany, wbere they announced themsel ves as "democrats" who had tought the good fight and as m artyrs of democracy. Tbey were met witb open arms (and with financial support) by the U. S. authorities, particuarly by certain former Czechs who h ad emigrated earlier and become U. S. citizens, A short whlle later the grou p was assembled in New York, where lt proceeded to promote the American Fund for Czecboslovak Refugees, l ne. (1775 Broadway), roping in such respect• able sponsors as Elleanor Roosevelt, Senator H erb ert Lehman, Dorothy 'ľhompson, etc., etc. Don't blam e these good people too hastily: the American publ ic was so hopel essly misinformed about what had really 1-appened in Czecho,Slovakia that to help the "poor refugees" seemed the natural and human thing to do. In order to be taken seriously, an exile organizatlon has to have an underground movement in the same country. So th e exiled Benes party organized an underground, the principal menib ers of whlch had been selected before Messrs. Zenkl, Ripka and Stransky had ever left Czecho,Slovakla. That it "vas possible to organize an underground at all was due to the fact that tbe Benes party, on the middle and loweľ levels, lncluded a number of people who were sincere democrats ancl an ti-Communists. If you want an effective underground in a dictatorshlp country you have t o pick leaders who are unknown politically. Instead, Ripka, Zenkl and .Stransky picked Mrs. M ilada Horakova, National Socialist (Benes) Party member or Parliament and known anti-Communist; Josef Ne- SLOVAKIA 33 staval, Jawyer, member of NSP Centra! Executive Committee; Misa Frana Zem inova, First Vice-Chairman of the NSP; Jiri Hej da, econo• mist, member of the State Economic Council. Of the foregoing, all except Hejda were under observation by the Communist Secret Police, a fact which Ripka and his friends must have known if they were not poli tical idiots. In addi tion to these leaders. a set of liaison officers were appointed who were equally suspect, including Zenkľs brother Hudolf and the secretaries of Benes and Ripka. On the first anniversary of Benes' death the exiles asked their friends to mail protests to the U. S. Embassy in Prague. Although these letlers were anonymous, they did serve to tip off the Communlst secret police as to the location of resistance centers. Radio Free Europe is now conducting a similar "give-away" program. Exlled Czechs and Slovaks ,vrite in about themselves and persona) news is broadcast under a "nickname" but with mention of the localities in which the families llve. Several exiles have pointed out to the writer that this procedure is sufficient, in smaller towns, to provide the secret police with very useful information. As a center for making contacts wlth members of the underground in Czecho-Slovakia, Ripka and his friends established an operational headquarters in Frankfurt under the direction of a certain Gen eral Mor avec, formerly hea.d of the "Czecboslovakian Jntelligence Service" in London. This operational Headquarters was and is a key position in the whole structure of the Council of Free Czechoslovakia's under· ground. Jt was and ls tbe German sending and receivlng station for couriers coming back and forth from Czecho-Slovakia. Jts connection with Radlo Free Europe will be discussed in the last chapter. I have heard Moravec described as a well-meaning man without too much political sense. His staff, however, includes or included the following individuals: 1. As principal deputy, D r. Schenk. As a police officlal of Brunn (Brno), Dr. Schenk asslsted In the arranging of the famous Brunn Death March on Corpus Christi Day, 1945, in which tbe entire Ger• man population of that city was forced to march 60 kilometers to the Austrian border. Tbose who straggled were beaten to death. At night the Germans were locked in cement barracks to which Soviet soldiers were admitted for the purpose of raping the women. Between 2000 and 3000 Germans died before the march was over. In 1948 Dr. Schenk, as a "democratic exile," got a job screening refugees for the JRO, where he had the reputation of approvlng only Benes supporters for asslstance. H e then went to work in Moraveťs office where he 1,till is, according to the !atest lnformatlon. 2. M ih ula, a courier between Frankfurt and Prague. Hls travels ceased abruptly in February 1951 when the United States Court ln Hegensburg sentenced bim to 7 years imprisonment as a Communist s py. 3. Rudolf Sima, courier for Moravec and shnultaneously member of the S'I'B (Czech Secret Police). He was recently arrested In Stuttgart and is now in U. S. custody. 4 Schn eeberger, occasional inmate of tbe Valka "Foreigners' Camp" near Nurn-berg. The frequency and overtness with which th!s gentleman crosses tbe borcler has given rise there to the general opinlon SLOVAKIA 34 that he is also an STB man . .At the time of this writing he was at Jarge in the U. S. Zone of Germany. 5. Satran, well known to emigres as a Prague underworld chai-acter and one-tíme proprietor of "The Spider," a dive used extensively for the exchange of stolen goods. Convictions are reported ·for deallng in stolen goods, pandering and cheating at cards. H e has recently gone to work for Radlo Free Europe but bis Whereaboutli is --strictly secret." 6. Vera Chovancova, Moravec's secretary and girl-friend of a cerLain Marian, W'ho is know.n to be an STB agent. Mornvec also had couriers who were not membe1:s of the Czech 8TB, ho-wever, these dlsappeared at a discouraging rate whlle crossing 1he border, for reasons that are not bard to guess. To meet the prob• lem caused by t.he ensuing persorinel shortage. Moravec's offtce sent letters by the conductors on the Orient Express, which carries through cars from Prague to Ostende. Anyone who knows anything about dictatorships knows that conductors on international traina are alwaya agenta of the secret police. The result of Moravec's efficient operations was that when Gott· walp's .-Communists held their famous espionag~ trials, the state prosecutor had a f-a~rly complete file of all th~--correspondence sent or received by the defendants. Significantly en.o ugh, the record of the trial contained no mention of Moravec or his headquarters, nor did the prosecution introduce a letter which Ne11taval had written, aaking that Ripka be dropped from the organizatio11 for Communlat _c olla. boration. Mrs. Horakova was sentenced to death, Nestaval and H ejda to life imprisonment and slxty-eight year old Miss Zeminova to twenty years at bard Jabor. Wlth this operaťiôn, the democratlc resl11tance in Czechoslovakia, insofar as · lt existed in the Benes party, was effectively liquidated. IV - AMERICA'S LAT.EST PROBLEM CHILO In the selectlon of personnel to pian and carry out its Czech broadcasting problem, the National Commlttee for a Free Europ e relied heavlly on the advice of the CollÍlcll for Free Czechoslovakla. !<'or a whlle, in early 1951, the org_ahizatlon spllt on the quesUon of who was a fellow-traveler, but slnce then, as I understand it, things have tieen happlly patched up. •· ·• The he~d of the entire Czech g·ro~p in ~uni~h is Ferdinand Peroutka, formerly propaganda director of the Natlonal Socialist Party and editor of the newspaper Oi,esek (Today) in Prague. Slnce Mr. Peroutka is responsible for puttlng together a program for w hlch Ámericans are pay!ng and which - in spite of the prlvate ausplces of Radlo Free Europe - 1s frequently taken as representing .Americall pol!cy and opln!on, it is important to know what klnd of democr,acy ~fr. Peroutka advocates. Here are some of his opinions, taken from his book "Talť ·nebo tak" (So or So), published in Prague in 1947: "N ever in history was Russia so mighty, never were the forcea of socialiam so colosaaly forged together. This ls a new hiitorical epoch. Nevertheless some people think in a stick-in-the-ltlUd ' fashion. lt has not yet been possible to convince everyone of the neceísity: of the overthrów'·of 'capitalism_._, __., ( Page 8). SLOVAKIA 36 "Already in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries it became clear that whoever d.oes not want socialism small must take. it big. You people, who today pr aise this or t hat virtue of capitalism, tell me, how have yo u s olved the social problem . .." ( Page 9. Transla. tor's note : By t he use of. "sma ll" and "big" Mr. Peroutka would seem to identlfy himself with th e Bolshevlkl or "big" socialista, as op. posed to the Mens hevikl or "small" socialista.) " Along the road on which the Russian Revolution passed, there lie the rotting remains of t he unfulfilled pr ophecies of its enemies. This (the revolution: tr.) is a historical impulse a s g reat as the Reformation or the Fre nch Revolutlon, perhaps as gr eat as Christianity•. " ( Page 33) "In our situation resistance against the great work of s ocialízation - open or secret - can only be considered as reaction. In this respect w e need have no doubt who are the reactionaries." ( Page 141 ) '.'Many t lmes we have said, that in this land only one develop. ment is possible, to socialism. Have our activities helped this develop. ment? Or have we obstructed it ? ... lt is necessary for everyone to be able to say proudly : 1 was there, 1 hel ped!" ( Pages 170.171) Mr . Peroutka is backed up by two experts in dialectical materlali~m. Dr. Ziak and Dr. (Berger) Bellak. Dr. Zlak ls the editor of an intelleetual magazlne called Tribuna which 1s forb idden In F rance and ano ther called "Reality" which is forbidden in Switzerland. Unfortunately I have not been able to peruse these journals as I do not r_e ad Czech, but I am told that their basic thesis !s the need for t he party masses to sub mlt to Jeadershlp by the elite cadre. Bellak was formerly a Communist Party functionary in Slovakia under the name of Berger. H e puts out a German-language sheet called "MH!tant Democra cy'" which few Germans read because it takes Stalin's anti• German line. Some of the staff members are left-wing sociallsts, such as J osef Kodicek, who helped put out pro..Sovlet propaganda over BBC durln g the war, and Ma,rtin K vetko. who partlclp ated in a Communist-sponsored uprising In 1S!ovakia in August 1944. Pavel Tlgrld (formerly Schonfeld), Peroutka's asslstant, was for mer editor o f a magazlne called "Lift Culture" and has admltted openly havlng collaborated wlth th e Communists. Some of the lesser personnel are rather interestlng, such as Eva Fischl, daugh ter of the present Czech Communist amb assad or to Eastern Germ any, and Mesdames Kamlerova and Lisa. nov a who were speclalists in inclting riots against the German management of Camp Valka and who ostentatiously exhibited a plcture of Stalln In their room. There is a Mr. Stein, who is reported to be a Communist functionary from the Prague reglon. I do not k now whether he is tbe same Stein whom the Comm unlsts planted with BBC during tbe war. A FEW POl.lCY HEADACHES Tbe fact tbat the Natlonal Commlttee for a Free Europe gave the Benes party free relgn In personnel and pollcy matters for tbe Czech program of Radlo Free Europe h as ralsed a number of thorny problems. Some of these affeet only the station a.od tbe Commlttee. Other~ involved th e basic forelgn relatlons of tbe Unlted States. 36 SLOVAKIA To begin with, the broadcasts have evoked a very mixed reaction. Since the Slovaks in the Benes group {the renegade Slovaks) are those who have accepted tbe premise of a unitary Czecho-Slovak state, .iud since this attitude tends to color the political commentaries, the pro· gram is automatically distasteful to tbe overwhelming majority of patrlotlc Slovaks who are definitely anti-Commun!st. As one Slovak leader put it to me: "they speak our language but they do not apeak our thoughts." So far as the Czechs are concerned, the political orientatiou of the program is likely to appeal only to those who favor the Benes policy of ad vanced socialism bordering on Communism. These people won't find too much wrong with tbe Gottwalcl regime anyway. T he program holds out little hope for the Czech citizen who wants a positive pian for getting away from socialism and Soviet domination. In other words, it simply is not a clear-cut anti-Communist program. 'ľhe most that can be said about it is that it is an antl-the-particulargroup-of-Oommunists-who-Olappen-to-be-running-Czechoslovakia-at-lthe-moment program. It is doubtful whether Americans intended to put their money into financing sguabbles between rival groups of Communists and near-Communists. Another problem is essentially a technical one. The mission of the station requires that it have a good source of news from inside Czecho•Slovakia. At the present Ume, Radio Free Europe is trying to use the Moravec office as a source. Slnce, however, Moravec's only reliable agents {in the sense of getting there and back ) are also agents o( the Communist serret police, •Radio Free Europe is getting only such news as the Gottwald government cares to give it, which isn't too much. The other horn of this rlilemma is that if Radio Free Europe tries to set up its own couriers, the Communists within the Moravec outfit and within its O\ľll set-up can easily arrange for their liguida· tion. At the moment, the station is buying information from whomever will give it, and paying fan cy prices. The result is that enterprising Czechs are cooking up the most amazing stories; and the staff has no way of checking whether these stories are true or not. Even the collection of news material ad boc has run !nto diffiC'ulties. The individual ass!gned to collect news from the inmates ot Camp Valka, one Yaroslav Dvoracek, the leader of the Benes group in the camp is - to break the monotony - not a Communist nor even a fellow-traveler. He is a former member of the Czech Fasc ist Party of General Gayda. Unfortunately Mr. Dvoracck's activities were rudely interrupted on April 18, 1951 by the police. He was in jail, while I was there, awaiting trial on rharges of misappropriating CARE packages and clotbing sent by American friends to the Sokol or camp alhletic organization. On the Political side, the most immediate problem is that the anti-<Sudeten tendencies of Radio Free Europe's Czech-Slovak program are getting the Germans mad as hornets. There have already been !leveral protests by German refugee groups and a formal interpellation in the Bavarian parliament_ It was reported that plans for a formal protest to the United States by the Centra) German Government at I~nn were being consiclered. When I was in New York in March, I attempted to dlscuss tbe problem of German public relations wlth of- S LOVAKIA 37 ficials of the National Committee and was told, in effect, that since Radlo Free Europe would not broadcast in Germau no such problem wa.s anticipated. The station is, bowever, located in Germany. There are plenty of Sudeten Germans who can understand Czech and .they teli other G.ermans what they hear. Tbere is a public relations problem. If it gets m uch worse the Unit.ed States Government may find it necessary .to do something about it. N EEDED - A GOOD CLEANUP Before going further, I would like to point out that the criticisms ir, this report have been directed solely at the Czech and Slovak actlvities of Radio Free Europe. Nothing said here is intended to refer to any of the other programs, about which I am not informed. It would be too bad if the present fizzle in the Czech and Slovak program oť Radio Free Europe should cause people to ťeel the whole idea s hould be dropped. The pian is a splendid one if carried out properly. Whwt is needed is a thorough housecleaning in which all Communists and fellow-travelers are definitely and permanently f!red. Administration and program planning should be in the hands of Ameri· cans, who should lay down the political pollcy. Personnel investigations should be made by political analysts who know their h!story and are experts in comparative ideologies. In the case of the Czech program, the cleanup won't be easy since it involves the uprooting of a jungle of misinformation, prejudices and vested interests planted by Czech and "Czecho-Slovak" fellow-travelers over a number of years. The bistory of this crypto-Communist inf!uence on the State Department, American universities and the public in general is a wbole subject in itself, which would probably take a Congressional investlgation to unravel. • • • WHO SAID IT ? "There is one tbing we can express and interpret in full. It is the sincere, deep hearty and infinite gratitu'de of all Czechs and Slovaks to the Soviet Union, to its people, its army and its skipper, Generalissimo Stalin, for everything that they have so far done and are stm doing for us. It is the unfalsified, unselfisb and pure feeling of friend• ship and sympathy that we bave for this great, for us so intimate and n eighborly a country. It is the pure joy from the joys of the successes and the progress of the USSR, it 1s the unshatterable hope that Slovanism in its new form will safeguard for itself and for the world a deserved peace, in which all nations antl states shall live their own Jives, freely, without fears, democratlcally and In dignity, in agreement, welfare and happiness. In this spirit from our souls we greet the jubileeing USSR, we congratulate it from our hearts for the results attained ln peace and war. We wish that it keep on prospering, flourishing and growing mighty unto its own greatness, but also unto the welfare of all mankind. Long live the Soviet Union and may its Soviet chief and skipper, J. V. Stalin, in full health live to see many more of its joyous jubilees." - Dr. Joseph Lettrlch, ČAS, 11-7-47.  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource How Free is Radio Free Europe? Description An account of the resource Kurt Glasser Slovakia, Vol. 2, No. 2 (4), August 1952 pp. 25-37 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Glaser, Kurt, 1914-1993 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource August 1952 LCNAF https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/d033383ad3e73b0c22316c27576ac95d.pdf 9a1c0f39a0c07be4b8a5ddd7714e1a34 PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA 78 HOW '.fillE COMMUNISTS SEIZED POWER IN SWVAKIA (STATEMENT BY PHILIP A. HROBAK, PRESIDENT OF THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA AND EDITOR OF THE JEDNOTA, OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE FIRST CATHOLIC SLOVAK UNION, MADE BEFORE THE KERSTEN COMMITTEE ON COMMUNIST AGGRESSION, IN THE COUNTY COURT HOUSE, MILWAUKEE, FRIDAY AFTERNOON, OCT0!3ER 22, 1954) If there is a nation in the world today that really is anti-Communist, that nation is th,e Slovak nation. It is a matter of historical record that the Slovaks have fought the plague of materialistic- Communism consistently and persistently, in and OU! of season, for over a hundred years. Louis Stur, champion of democracy and Slovak freedom, repudiated the godless, materialistic philosophy of Marx in 1849. In his book "SLOV ANSTVO A SVET BUDUCNOSTI" (Slavdom and the World of the Future), written in 1849 but published after his death in 1856, he wrote: "In every instance Communism means the collapse and the destruction of the State. Communism arrived at this aim through atheism and apostacy from Christianity. In every form of Communism, n_o matter what its origin, the outlook on life is gloomy, lacking every tender joy. It brings the most cruel slavery. Communism, let it strive and pretend in any manner whatsoever that it will make all peoples share in all rights, nevertheless, knows nothing about humanity; it degrades humanity and because it holds to systems that are impractical and unrealizable, it belongs among the most stupid innovations that have thus far been created by the human mind." In 1905, at its very first session, the newly organized Hlinka Slovak Peoples Party, did not hesitate to condemn CommuniSIIIl. Fourteen years later, in 1919, when CzechoSlovakia was already established, General Milan R. Stefanik, Slovak hero of World War I and one of the founders of Czecho-Slovakia cautioned T. G. Masaryk and Edward Benes not to flirt with Communism, not to make any compromises with the Bolsheviks. Stefanik was in Russia �SLOVAKIA 79 during 1918-1919 and saw Communism at work first hand. In February, he sent a telegram to Masaryk in Prague which said: "To flirt with Bolshevist tendencies would be comparable to foresaking the path of honor and sanity. The fight against Bolshevism in all its manifestations must prevail in our politics." Andrew Hlinka, fearless champion of Slovak freedom and founder and head of the Slovak Peoples Party, fought Communism and Communists all his life. So did Martin Razus, head of the Slovak National Party and distin. guished poet. Finally, Dr. Joseph Tiso, president and martyr of the Slovak Republic, exhorted his Slovak people to persevere in its fight against the dread plague of Communism even as he was being led to the gallows on April 18, 1947, by order of the Communist-dominated National Front government of the Benes-Gottwald coalition. Up to the creation of Czecho-Slovakia in 1918, materialistic Communism could not gain a foothold among the Slovaks. After the Bolshevik group headed by Bela Kun seized the government in Hungary, his Red horde: invaded southern Slovakia, murdering thousands of innocent people and pillaging their lands. This only steeled the Slova.ks in their determination to fight Communism and Communists. In the early years of the Czecho-Slovak Republic, the Prague Gove,r nrnent sent some 200,000 "progressive and liberal-minded" Czechs to Slovakia to take over various government posts, educational positions and other tasks. Their main objective, however, was to make Czechs out of Slovaks. It was then that leftist tendrncies began to take hold among some of the intelligentsia. The Communist Party, however, had pretty rough going among the Slovaks, who were traditionally deeply religious and opposed to the godless philosophy of Marx. Up to Munich, J 938, the Communist Party never represented more than JO per cent of the electorate in Slovakia. We must not forget, however, that the Czechs in Slovakia represented about 15· per cent of the electorate. It was the Czech group that gave the greatest support to Communists in Slovakia. �80 SLOVAKIA After Munich and the cowardly resignation of president Edward Benes, Slovakia was granted autonomy by the Prague Parliament. The government of the Slovak State was in Christian democratic hands. The Communist Party was outlawed in Slovakia in 1938 by the Slovak Government. Of course, the Reds worked underground, keeping their contacts with Moscow and, later, with the London government of Dr. Edward Benes. When Benes concluded the so-called "Czechoslovak Soviet" Treaty on December 12, 1943, the Slovaks knew definitely that not only they, but even the Czechs wert' formally sold out to the Kremlin. Benes had always been pro-Soviet and admitted it openly. So did his followers, the Czech National Socialists (The Czech Nazis). The Slovaks opposed his policy consistently and resolutely even in the Prague Parliament, declaring that such a policy even. tually would bring ruin and Red enslavement to the peoples of Czecho-Slovakia. But the Slovaks were in a minority, so the policy of Benes and his followers, supported by other Czech leftist parties and the Slovak Agrarians, the socalled "Czechoslova ks" (Slovaks in the pay of the Czechs), prevailed. In 1943, Moscow parachuted Soviet partisan leaders into Slovakia to create incidents, to spread terror and confusion among the population of central Slovakia. Communists, led by Schmid,ke and Husak, and the Slovak Agrarians, led by Dr. Joseph Lettric,h, and assuming the name of Slovak "Democrats," got together on Christmas Day, 1943, and concluded an agreement to collaborate as closely as possible in all things with the USSR in the spirit of the Benes-Soviet Treaty of December 12, 1943. And they did. They planned and executed the Communist-in spired Slovak uprising in August, 1944, which they misnomered the "Slovak National Uprising," in order to make the world believe that the whole Slovak nation revolted against its government to destroy its own Republic. The terroristic acts of the partisans brought the German Anny into Slovakia, and terror and destruction, and mass murders and �SLOVAKIA 81 mass graves. Some 70,000 Slovaks were killed . The Communist revolt of August, 1944, prepared the ground for the Communists to take over key posts in SlQlVakia in 1945 and, later, In February 1948, the entire Government of Czecho-Slovakia. Benes was recognized by both the United Nations and the USSR. The Slovaks, completely abandoned, were helpless; their situation desperate. The victorious United Nations were not at all interested in the political will of the Slovak Nation. Benes and his Moscow-created government had all the say in 1945, they controlled the press and radio, Slovakia was wantonly destroyed. The Communist-dominated National Front government wasted no time in Slovakia. The Slovak National Council - a 50-50 coalition of Communists and Lettrich "Democrats" nationalized churches, ecclesiastical schools and institutions, confiscated properties, set up a concentration camp and "people's" courts to mete out "justice" to all who opposed the regime, that is Benes, the Communists and the USSR. A wave o,f ruthless, brutal perse.cution of all anti-Communist element ensued. Over 130,000 were placed under arrest, tens of thousands were deported, disfranchised and dispossessed, and hundreds were murdered. In 1946 the vast masses of the Slovak people had little choice in the elections held in May. In 1945 only two political parties were allowed to organize in Slovakia by the Benes government: the old Communist Party and the old Agrarian Party; the latter, however, had to change its name to the "Democratic" Party, because the Agrarian Party had been outlawed in Czech lands. Two other parties were allowed to form just prior to the elections of 1946 by the Communist-domin ated Prague government which were supposed to weaken the "Democrats" and, therefore strengthen the position of the Communists. The ruse, however, failed. The Slovaks could vote for the Lettrich "Democrats," or for the Communists who held the upper hand in Slovakia. The overwhelming majority of the Slovak people, which was Catholic (about 85 per cent), was not allowed to organize a political party. Being advised and instru.cted by their religious a:nd political leaders, the Slovak �82 SLOVAKIA Catholics voted for the Lettrich "Democrats" - after a,n agreement had been reached by the leaders of the Catholics and the "Democrats." Doing so, they recikoned, they chose the lesser of two evils. The Communists were beaten decisively; they received only 30 per cent of the votes cast, while the "Democrats" poled 62 per cent . The difference would have been still greater if thousands of Slovaks had not been disfranchised ; jailed and intimidated; and if the army, the partisans and imported Czech Reds had not been allowed to vote in Slovakia. In the Czech lands (Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia), where the Prague government had allowed four parties to ex,ist, the Communists and Socialists came out on top (over 54 per centJ. 'l'he Lettrich "Democrats" won the elections in Slovakia in 1946, but the Communists continued to hold on to the key positions; of course, with the blessing of Moscow and the Communist-do minated National Front Government of Prague. The Slovaks proved themselves courageous and valiant in voting against the Communists, but it availed them nothing. The Lettrich "Democrats" lacked the courage and fight; their spineless leaders conveniently forgot the working agreement with the Catholics; and yielded to the Communists on practically every score. So the Communists ran Slovakia the way they wanted to, oppressing and suppressing all non~Communist elements ruthlessly. True it is that the "Democrats" protested weakly on occasions, but nothing more, even though they did have the backing of the overwhelming majority of the Slovak people. They were gradually awakening to what collaboration with the Communists means. They were partners in the National Front and the Slovak National Counoil; they had agreed to collaborate closely with the Reds. And the Reds had only one purpose: to make Slovakia and the.n the whole of Czecho-Slovak ia subservient to them and to Moscow. If the "Democrats" balked or tried to back out, they could very easily be labeled "enemies" of the State and the National Front, according to the decrees and regulations which they had formulated with the Communists, and which they used against all so-called "Fascist and Nazi" elements, meaning, of course, anti-Communist elements �SLOVAKIA 83 in Slovakia. So they continued to collaborate and govern with the Communists, until the Reds threw them out. Dr. Eward Benes, president of the Czecho-Slovak Republic, resigned in 1938 and fled his country during its worst crisis, congratulating his successor, who was elected in his place according to the Constitution of Czecho-Slovakia. Later he reappointed himself president again and, by the grace of Stalin, returned as such with his Moscowformed government behind the Red Army. This, l believe, is without precedent in history. Benes became president again, but only at a price, a very high price - the sell-out of the Slovaks and the Czechs to the men of the Kremlin. Stalin did no favors for nothing. The Slovaks and the Czechs at home had no voice in the matter. As a result of Benes's pro-Soviet policy, nothing else could have happened in Czecho-Slovakia except what did happen on February 25, 1948. Such and only such can be the conclusion of all thoroughly informed observers. Moscow and her stooges had a "sure thing" in Czecho-Slovakia ; they simply could not miss Benes and his Czech Socialists. supported by their stooges in Slovakia, the "Czechoslovaks" or Lettrich "Democrats" - the traitqrs of the Slovak nation - had prepared the way and, hence, are responsible for the sell-out of the Czech and Slovak nations to the ruthless men of the Kremlin. Benes and his political entourage firmly believed that collaboration between the USSR and Czecho-Slovakia was not only feasible, but highly desirable; that peaceful coexistence with the Reds was possible without the loss of freedoms and rights. And they promoted that policy to the bitter end. Czecho-Slovakia ended up just as did the other countries whose political leaders thought they could collaborate with Communists and the USSR, form coalition governments with them, and still preserve their independence, freedoms and rights. Moscow and its stooges deeply appreciated all such collaborations and rewarded all collaborators in the customary Red fashion - it liquidated them, proving again that Communism devours its own children. Many Slovak Communists and Lettrich "Democrat,s " have �84 SLOVAKIA already paid for their folly and the ruinous pro-Soviet policy of Dr. Edward Benes with their lives. Many more languish in prisons, concentration camps and forced labor camps - the very same institutions they helped the Communists to establish. The Communists were able to seize Slovakia not beca use they had the support of the vast masses of the Slovak people, but despite the fact that the overwhelming majority of the Slovak nation opposed them. And, in fact, sWl opposes them today. The victorious United Nations did not respect the will of the Slovak nation, in fact, were not even interested in ascertaining the will of the Slovaks. They did, however, respect the will of Benes and his Cze<!h Socialists, who, in the end, brought ruin and Red enslavement even on their own Czech nation. Slovakia was, therefore, sold out to the Reds by Benes and the victorious United Nations whose favor and confidence he enjo,yed. Slovakia is ruled by force and violence - the Communist system. The lesson of Slovakia, and then that of Czecho-Slovakia should be repeated over and over again so that it might be learned thoroughly. Peaceful coexistence with the USSR, the Communist world, is strictly a myth. To give it credence would be folly. Collaboration with Communists and the USSR means, in the end, a brutal suppression of all freedoms and rights and Red enslavement. • • • WHO SAID IT? "With equal enthusiasm we are today manifesting for the idea~s of our, and only our, Ozechoslovruk Democracy, which is on its way of development ,t o a new poople's fomn. . . . T.he unresel"ved alliance with our Eastern neighbor, witlh the mighty USSR, .bl.lit also our friendly contacts wi•th the rest of the world, espeoi:aUy with our western democracies, gives us the feeling of cel"tainty that no matter what might hiappen a,broad, aur internati<ona1 posilt'ion is f.imn and we need not ferur that we can come urpon new dangers and dif.ficu1ties." (!Dr. Joseph Lettrich, Vic~Ohairm.an of the Executive Committee of the "Council of Free Czechoslovakia," C.AIS, Novemlber 18, 1947). � SLOVAKIA 78 HOW '.fillE COMMUNISTS SEIZED POWER IN SWVAKIA (STATEMENT BY PHILIP A. HROBAK, PRESIDENT OF THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA AND EDITOR OF THE JEDNOTA, OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE FIRST CATHOLIC SLOVAK UNION, MADE BEFORE THE KERSTEN COMMITTEE ON COMMUNIST AGGRESSION, IN THE COUNTY COURT HOUSE, MILWAUKEE, FRIDAY AFTERNOON, OCT0!3ER 22, 1954) If there is a nation in the world today that really is anti-Communist, that nation is th,e Slovak nation. It is a matter of historical record that the Slovaks have fought the plague of materialistic- Communism consistently and persistently, in and OU! of season, for over a hundred years. Louis Stur, champion of democracy and Slovak freedom, repudiated the godless, materialistic philosophy of Marx in 1849. In his book "SLOV ANSTVO A SVET BUDUCNOSTI" (Slavdom and the World of the Future), written in 1849 but published after his death in 1856, he wrote: "In every instance Communism means the collapse and the destruction of the State. Communism arrived at this aim through atheism and apostacy from Christianity. In every form of Communism, n_o matter what its origin, the outlook on life is gloomy, lacking every tender joy. It brings the most cruel slavery. Communism, let it strive and pretend in any manner whatsoever that it will make all peoples share in all rights, nevertheless, knows nothing about humanity; it degrades humanity and because it holds to systems that are impractical and unrealizable, it belongs among the most stupid innovations that have thus far been created by the human mind." In 1905, at its very first session, the newly organized Hlinka Slovak Peoples Party, did not hesitate to condemn CommuniSIIIl. Fourteen years later, in 1919, when CzechoSlovakia was already established, General Milan R. Stefanik, Slovak hero of World War I and one of the founders of Czecho-Slovakia cautioned T. G. Masaryk and Edward Benes not to flirt with Communism, not to make any compromises with the Bolsheviks. Stefanik was in Russia �SLOVAKIA 79 during 1918-1919 and saw Communism at work first hand. In February, he sent a telegram to Masaryk in Prague which said: "To flirt with Bolshevist tendencies would be comparable to foresaking the path of honor and sanity. The fight against Bolshevism in all its manifestations must prevail in our politics." Andrew Hlinka, fearless champion of Slovak freedom and founder and head of the Slovak Peoples Party, fought Communism and Communists all his life. So did Martin Razus, head of the Slovak National Party and distin. guished poet. Finally, Dr. Joseph Tiso, president and martyr of the Slovak Republic, exhorted his Slovak people to persevere in its fight against the dread plague of Communism even as he was being led to the gallows on April 18, 1947, by order of the Communist-dominated National Front government of the Benes-Gottwald coalition. Up to the creation of Czecho-Slovakia in 1918, materialistic Communism could not gain a foothold among the Slovaks. After the Bolshevik group headed by Bela Kun seized the government in Hungary, his Red horde: invaded southern Slovakia, murdering thousands of innocent people and pillaging their lands. This only steeled the Slova.ks in their determination to fight Communism and Communists. In the early years of the Czecho-Slovak Republic, the Prague Gove,r nrnent sent some 200,000 "progressive and liberal-minded" Czechs to Slovakia to take over various government posts, educational positions and other tasks. Their main objective, however, was to make Czechs out of Slovaks. It was then that leftist tendrncies began to take hold among some of the intelligentsia. The Communist Party, however, had pretty rough going among the Slovaks, who were traditionally deeply religious and opposed to the godless philosophy of Marx. Up to Munich, J 938, the Communist Party never represented more than JO per cent of the electorate in Slovakia. We must not forget, however, that the Czechs in Slovakia represented about 15· per cent of the electorate. It was the Czech group that gave the greatest support to Communists in Slovakia. �80 SLOVAKIA After Munich and the cowardly resignation of president Edward Benes, Slovakia was granted autonomy by the Prague Parliament. The government of the Slovak State was in Christian democratic hands. The Communist Party was outlawed in Slovakia in 1938 by the Slovak Government. Of course, the Reds worked underground, keeping their contacts with Moscow and, later, with the London government of Dr. Edward Benes. When Benes concluded the so-called "Czechoslovak Soviet" Treaty on December 12, 1943, the Slovaks knew definitely that not only they, but even the Czechs wert' formally sold out to the Kremlin. Benes had always been pro-Soviet and admitted it openly. So did his followers, the Czech National Socialists (The Czech Nazis). The Slovaks opposed his policy consistently and resolutely even in the Prague Parliament, declaring that such a policy even. tually would bring ruin and Red enslavement to the peoples of Czecho-Slovakia. But the Slovaks were in a minority, so the policy of Benes and his followers, supported by other Czech leftist parties and the Slovak Agrarians, the socalled "Czechoslova ks" (Slovaks in the pay of the Czechs), prevailed. In 1943, Moscow parachuted Soviet partisan leaders into Slovakia to create incidents, to spread terror and confusion among the population of central Slovakia. Communists, led by Schmid,ke and Husak, and the Slovak Agrarians, led by Dr. Joseph Lettric,h, and assuming the name of Slovak "Democrats," got together on Christmas Day, 1943, and concluded an agreement to collaborate as closely as possible in all things with the USSR in the spirit of the Benes-Soviet Treaty of December 12, 1943. And they did. They planned and executed the Communist-in spired Slovak uprising in August, 1944, which they misnomered the "Slovak National Uprising," in order to make the world believe that the whole Slovak nation revolted against its government to destroy its own Republic. The terroristic acts of the partisans brought the German Anny into Slovakia, and terror and destruction, and mass murders and �SLOVAKIA 81 mass graves. Some 70,000 Slovaks were killed . The Communist revolt of August, 1944, prepared the ground for the Communists to take over key posts in SlQlVakia in 1945 and, later, In February 1948, the entire Government of Czecho-Slovakia. Benes was recognized by both the United Nations and the USSR. The Slovaks, completely abandoned, were helpless; their situation desperate. The victorious United Nations were not at all interested in the political will of the Slovak Nation. Benes and his Moscow-created government had all the say in 1945, they controlled the press and radio, Slovakia was wantonly destroyed. The Communist-dominated National Front government wasted no time in Slovakia. The Slovak National Council - a 50-50 coalition of Communists and Lettrich "Democrats" nationalized churches, ecclesiastical schools and institutions, confiscated properties, set up a concentration camp and "people's" courts to mete out "justice" to all who opposed the regime, that is Benes, the Communists and the USSR. A wave o,f ruthless, brutal perse.cution of all anti-Communist element ensued. Over 130,000 were placed under arrest, tens of thousands were deported, disfranchised and dispossessed, and hundreds were murdered. In 1946 the vast masses of the Slovak people had little choice in the elections held in May. In 1945 only two political parties were allowed to organize in Slovakia by the Benes government: the old Communist Party and the old Agrarian Party; the latter, however, had to change its name to the "Democratic" Party, because the Agrarian Party had been outlawed in Czech lands. Two other parties were allowed to form just prior to the elections of 1946 by the Communist-domin ated Prague government which were supposed to weaken the "Democrats" and, therefore strengthen the position of the Communists. The ruse, however, failed. The Slovaks could vote for the Lettrich "Democrats," or for the Communists who held the upper hand in Slovakia. The overwhelming majority of the Slovak people, which was Catholic (about 85 per cent), was not allowed to organize a political party. Being advised and instru.cted by their religious a:nd political leaders, the Slovak �82 SLOVAKIA Catholics voted for the Lettrich "Democrats" - after a,n agreement had been reached by the leaders of the Catholics and the "Democrats." Doing so, they recikoned, they chose the lesser of two evils. The Communists were beaten decisively; they received only 30 per cent of the votes cast, while the "Democrats" poled 62 per cent . The difference would have been still greater if thousands of Slovaks had not been disfranchised ; jailed and intimidated; and if the army, the partisans and imported Czech Reds had not been allowed to vote in Slovakia. In the Czech lands (Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia), where the Prague government had allowed four parties to ex,ist, the Communists and Socialists came out on top (over 54 per centJ. 'l'he Lettrich "Democrats" won the elections in Slovakia in 1946, but the Communists continued to hold on to the key positions; of course, with the blessing of Moscow and the Communist-do minated National Front Government of Prague. The Slovaks proved themselves courageous and valiant in voting against the Communists, but it availed them nothing. The Lettrich "Democrats" lacked the courage and fight; their spineless leaders conveniently forgot the working agreement with the Catholics; and yielded to the Communists on practically every score. So the Communists ran Slovakia the way they wanted to, oppressing and suppressing all non~Communist elements ruthlessly. True it is that the "Democrats" protested weakly on occasions, but nothing more, even though they did have the backing of the overwhelming majority of the Slovak people. They were gradually awakening to what collaboration with the Communists means. They were partners in the National Front and the Slovak National Counoil; they had agreed to collaborate closely with the Reds. And the Reds had only one purpose: to make Slovakia and the.n the whole of Czecho-Slovak ia subservient to them and to Moscow. If the "Democrats" balked or tried to back out, they could very easily be labeled "enemies" of the State and the National Front, according to the decrees and regulations which they had formulated with the Communists, and which they used against all so-called "Fascist and Nazi" elements, meaning, of course, anti-Communist elements �SLOVAKIA 83 in Slovakia. So they continued to collaborate and govern with the Communists, until the Reds threw them out. Dr. Eward Benes, president of the Czecho-Slovak Republic, resigned in 1938 and fled his country during its worst crisis, congratulating his successor, who was elected in his place according to the Constitution of Czecho-Slovakia. Later he reappointed himself president again and, by the grace of Stalin, returned as such with his Moscowformed government behind the Red Army. This, l believe, is without precedent in history. Benes became president again, but only at a price, a very high price - the sell-out of the Slovaks and the Czechs to the men of the Kremlin. Stalin did no favors for nothing. The Slovaks and the Czechs at home had no voice in the matter. As a result of Benes's pro-Soviet policy, nothing else could have happened in Czecho-Slovakia except what did happen on February 25, 1948. Such and only such can be the conclusion of all thoroughly informed observers. Moscow and her stooges had a "sure thing" in Czecho-Slovakia ; they simply could not miss Benes and his Czech Socialists. supported by their stooges in Slovakia, the "Czechoslovaks" or Lettrich "Democrats" - the traitqrs of the Slovak nation - had prepared the way and, hence, are responsible for the sell-out of the Czech and Slovak nations to the ruthless men of the Kremlin. Benes and his political entourage firmly believed that collaboration between the USSR and Czecho-Slovakia was not only feasible, but highly desirable; that peaceful coexistence with the Reds was possible without the loss of freedoms and rights. And they promoted that policy to the bitter end. Czecho-Slovakia ended up just as did the other countries whose political leaders thought they could collaborate with Communists and the USSR, form coalition governments with them, and still preserve their independence, freedoms and rights. Moscow and its stooges deeply appreciated all such collaborations and rewarded all collaborators in the customary Red fashion - it liquidated them, proving again that Communism devours its own children. Many Slovak Communists and Lettrich "Democrat,s " have �84 SLOVAKIA already paid for their folly and the ruinous pro-Soviet policy of Dr. Edward Benes with their lives. Many more languish in prisons, concentration camps and forced labor camps - the very same institutions they helped the Communists to establish. The Communists were able to seize Slovakia not beca use they had the support of the vast masses of the Slovak people, but despite the fact that the overwhelming majority of the Slovak nation opposed them. And, in fact, sWl opposes them today. The victorious United Nations did not respect the will of the Slovak nation, in fact, were not even interested in ascertaining the will of the Slovaks. They did, however, respect the will of Benes and his Cze<!h Socialists, who, in the end, brought ruin and Red enslavement even on their own Czech nation. Slovakia was, therefore, sold out to the Reds by Benes and the victorious United Nations whose favor and confidence he enjo,yed. Slovakia is ruled by force and violence - the Communist system. The lesson of Slovakia, and then that of Czecho-Slovakia should be repeated over and over again so that it might be learned thoroughly. Peaceful coexistence with the USSR, the Communist world, is strictly a myth. To give it credence would be folly. Collaboration with Communists and the USSR means, in the end, a brutal suppression of all freedoms and rights and Red enslavement. • • • WHO SAID IT? "With equal enthusiasm we are today manifesting for the idea~s of our, and only our, Ozechoslovruk Democracy, which is on its way of development ,t o a new poople's fomn. . . . T.he unresel"ved alliance with our Eastern neighbor, witlh the mighty USSR, .bl.lit also our friendly contacts wi•th the rest of the world, espeoi:aUy with our western democracies, gives us the feeling of cel"tainty that no matter what might hiappen a,broad, aur internati<ona1 posilt'ion is f.imn and we need not ferur that we can come urpon new dangers and dif.ficu1ties." (!Dr. Joseph Lettrich, Vic~Ohairm.an of the Executive Committee of the "Council of Free Czechoslovakia," C.AIS, Novemlber 18, 1947). � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1954, Vol. 4 Description An account of the resource <ul><li>Issue 1 (No. 10), March 1954.</li> <li>Issue 2 (No. 11), June 1954.</li> <li>Issue 3-4 (No. 12-13), Sept.-Dec. 1954.</li> </ul> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1954 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document SLOVAKIA 78 HOW '.fillE COMMUNISTS SEIZED POWER IN SWVAKIA (STATEMENT BY PHILIP A. HROBAK, PRESIDENT OF THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA AND EDITOR OF THE JEDNOTA, OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE FIRST CATHOLIC SLOVAK UNION, MADE BEFORE THE KERSTEN COMMITTEE ON COMMUNIST AGGRESSION, IN THE COUNTY COURT HOUSE, MILWAUKEE, FRIDAY AFTERNOON, OCT0!3ER 22, 1954) If there is a nation in the world today that really is anti-Communist, that nation is th,e Slovak nation. It is a matter of historical record that the Slovaks have fought the plague of materialistic- Communism consistently and persistently, in and OU! of season, for over a hundred years. Louis Stur, champion of democracy and Slovak freedom, repudiated the godless, materialistic philosophy of Marx in 1849. In his book "SLOV ANSTVO A SVET BUDUCNOSTI" (Slavdom and the World of the Future), written in 1849 but published after his death in 1856, he wrote: "In every instance Communism means the collapse and the destruction of the State. Communism arrived at this aim through atheism and apostacy from Christianity. In every form of Communism, n_o matter what its origin, the outlook on life is gloomy, lacking every tender joy. It brings the most cruel slavery. Communism, let it strive and pretend in any manner whatsoever that it will make all peoples share in all rights, nevertheless, knows nothing about humanity; it degrades humanity and because it holds to systems that are impractical and unrealizable, it belongs among the most stupid innovations that have thus far been created by the human mind." In 1905, at its very first session, the newly organized Hlinka Slovak Peoples Party, did not hesitate to condemn CommuniSIIIl. Fourteen years later, in 1919, when CzechoSlovakia was already established, General Milan R. Stefanik, Slovak hero of World War I and one of the founders of Czecho-Slovakia cautioned T. G. Masaryk and Edward Benes not to flirt with Communism, not to make any compromises with the Bolsheviks. Stefanik was in Russia SLOVAKIA 79 during 1918-1919 and saw Communism at work first hand. In February, he sent a telegram to Masaryk in Prague which said: "To flirt with Bolshevist tendencies would be comparable to foresaking the path of honor and sanity. The fight against Bolshevism in all its manifestations must prevail in our politics." Andrew Hlinka, fearless champion of Slovak freedom and founder and head of the Slovak Peoples Party, fought Communism and Communists all his life. So did Martin Razus, head of the Slovak National Party and distin. guished poet. Finally, Dr. Joseph Tiso, president and martyr of the Slovak Republic, exhorted his Slovak people to persevere in its fight against the dread plague of Communism even as he was being led to the gallows on April 18, 1947, by order of the Communist-dominated National Front government of the Benes-Gottwald coalition. Up to the creation of Czecho-Slovakia in 1918, materialistic Communism could not gain a foothold among the Slovaks. After the Bolshevik group headed by Bela Kun seized the government in Hungary, his Red horde: invaded southern Slovakia, murdering thousands of innocent people and pillaging their lands. This only steeled the Slova.ks in their determination to fight Communism and Communists. In the early years of the Czecho-Slovak Republic, the Prague Gove,r nrnent sent some 200,000 "progressive and liberal-minded" Czechs to Slovakia to take over various government posts, educational positions and other tasks. Their main objective, however, was to make Czechs out of Slovaks. It was then that leftist tendrncies began to take hold among some of the intelligentsia. The Communist Party, however, had pretty rough going among the Slovaks, who were traditionally deeply religious and opposed to the godless philosophy of Marx. Up to Munich, J 938, the Communist Party never represented more than JO per cent of the electorate in Slovakia. We must not forget, however, that the Czechs in Slovakia represented about 15· per cent of the electorate. It was the Czech group that gave the greatest support to Communists in Slovakia. 80 SLOVAKIA After Munich and the cowardly resignation of president Edward Benes, Slovakia was granted autonomy by the Prague Parliament. The government of the Slovak State was in Christian democratic hands. The Communist Party was outlawed in Slovakia in 1938 by the Slovak Government. Of course, the Reds worked underground, keeping their contacts with Moscow and, later, with the London government of Dr. Edward Benes. When Benes concluded the so-called "Czechoslovak Soviet" Treaty on December 12, 1943, the Slovaks knew definitely that not only they, but even the Czechs wert' formally sold out to the Kremlin. Benes had always been pro-Soviet and admitted it openly. So did his followers, the Czech National Socialists (The Czech Nazis). The Slovaks opposed his policy consistently and resolutely even in the Prague Parliament, declaring that such a policy even. tually would bring ruin and Red enslavement to the peoples of Czecho-Slovakia. But the Slovaks were in a minority, so the policy of Benes and his followers, supported by other Czech leftist parties and the Slovak Agrarians, the socalled "Czechoslova ks" (Slovaks in the pay of the Czechs), prevailed. In 1943, Moscow parachuted Soviet partisan leaders into Slovakia to create incidents, to spread terror and confusion among the population of central Slovakia. Communists, led by Schmid,ke and Husak, and the Slovak Agrarians, led by Dr. Joseph Lettric,h, and assuming the name of Slovak "Democrats," got together on Christmas Day, 1943, and concluded an agreement to collaborate as closely as possible in all things with the USSR in the spirit of the Benes-Soviet Treaty of December 12, 1943. And they did. They planned and executed the Communist-in spired Slovak uprising in August, 1944, which they misnomered the "Slovak National Uprising," in order to make the world believe that the whole Slovak nation revolted against its government to destroy its own Republic. The terroristic acts of the partisans brought the German Anny into Slovakia, and terror and destruction, and mass murders and SLOVAKIA 81 mass graves. Some 70,000 Slovaks were killed . The Communist revolt of August, 1944, prepared the ground for the Communists to take over key posts in SlQlVakia in 1945 and, later, In February 1948, the entire Government of Czecho-Slovakia. Benes was recognized by both the United Nations and the USSR. The Slovaks, completely abandoned, were helpless; their situation desperate. The victorious United Nations were not at all interested in the political will of the Slovak Nation. Benes and his Moscow-created government had all the say in 1945, they controlled the press and radio, Slovakia was wantonly destroyed. The Communist-dominated National Front government wasted no time in Slovakia. The Slovak National Council - a 50-50 coalition of Communists and Lettrich "Democrats" nationalized churches, ecclesiastical schools and institutions, confiscated properties, set up a concentration camp and "people's" courts to mete out "justice" to all who opposed the regime, that is Benes, the Communists and the USSR. A wave o,f ruthless, brutal perse.cution of all anti-Communist element ensued. Over 130,000 were placed under arrest, tens of thousands were deported, disfranchised and dispossessed, and hundreds were murdered. In 1946 the vast masses of the Slovak people had little choice in the elections held in May. In 1945 only two political parties were allowed to organize in Slovakia by the Benes government: the old Communist Party and the old Agrarian Party; the latter, however, had to change its name to the "Democratic" Party, because the Agrarian Party had been outlawed in Czech lands. Two other parties were allowed to form just prior to the elections of 1946 by the Communist-domin ated Prague government which were supposed to weaken the "Democrats" and, therefore strengthen the position of the Communists. The ruse, however, failed. The Slovaks could vote for the Lettrich "Democrats," or for the Communists who held the upper hand in Slovakia. The overwhelming majority of the Slovak people, which was Catholic (about 85 per cent), was not allowed to organize a political party. Being advised and instru.cted by their religious a:nd political leaders, the Slovak 82 SLOVAKIA Catholics voted for the Lettrich "Democrats" - after a,n agreement had been reached by the leaders of the Catholics and the "Democrats." Doing so, they recikoned, they chose the lesser of two evils. The Communists were beaten decisively; they received only 30 per cent of the votes cast, while the "Democrats" poled 62 per cent . The difference would have been still greater if thousands of Slovaks had not been disfranchised ; jailed and intimidated; and if the army, the partisans and imported Czech Reds had not been allowed to vote in Slovakia. In the Czech lands (Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia), where the Prague government had allowed four parties to ex,ist, the Communists and Socialists came out on top (over 54 per centJ. 'l'he Lettrich "Democrats" won the elections in Slovakia in 1946, but the Communists continued to hold on to the key positions; of course, with the blessing of Moscow and the Communist-do minated National Front Government of Prague. The Slovaks proved themselves courageous and valiant in voting against the Communists, but it availed them nothing. The Lettrich "Democrats" lacked the courage and fight; their spineless leaders conveniently forgot the working agreement with the Catholics; and yielded to the Communists on practically every score. So the Communists ran Slovakia the way they wanted to, oppressing and suppressing all non~Communist elements ruthlessly. True it is that the "Democrats" protested weakly on occasions, but nothing more, even though they did have the backing of the overwhelming majority of the Slovak people. They were gradually awakening to what collaboration with the Communists means. They were partners in the National Front and the Slovak National Counoil; they had agreed to collaborate closely with the Reds. And the Reds had only one purpose: to make Slovakia and the.n the whole of Czecho-Slovak ia subservient to them and to Moscow. If the "Democrats" balked or tried to back out, they could very easily be labeled "enemies" of the State and the National Front, according to the decrees and regulations which they had formulated with the Communists, and which they used against all so-called "Fascist and Nazi" elements, meaning, of course, anti-Communist elements SLOVAKIA 83 in Slovakia. So they continued to collaborate and govern with the Communists, until the Reds threw them out. Dr. Eward Benes, president of the Czecho-Slovak Republic, resigned in 1938 and fled his country during its worst crisis, congratulating his successor, who was elected in his place according to the Constitution of Czecho-Slovakia. Later he reappointed himself president again and, by the grace of Stalin, returned as such with his Moscowformed government behind the Red Army. This, l believe, is without precedent in history. Benes became president again, but only at a price, a very high price - the sell-out of the Slovaks and the Czechs to the men of the Kremlin. Stalin did no favors for nothing. The Slovaks and the Czechs at home had no voice in the matter. As a result of Benes's pro-Soviet policy, nothing else could have happened in Czecho-Slovakia except what did happen on February 25, 1948. Such and only such can be the conclusion of all thoroughly informed observers. Moscow and her stooges had a "sure thing" in Czecho-Slovakia ; they simply could not miss Benes and his Czech Socialists. supported by their stooges in Slovakia, the "Czechoslovaks" or Lettrich "Democrats" - the traitqrs of the Slovak nation - had prepared the way and, hence, are responsible for the sell-out of the Czech and Slovak nations to the ruthless men of the Kremlin. Benes and his political entourage firmly believed that collaboration between the USSR and Czecho-Slovakia was not only feasible, but highly desirable; that peaceful coexistence with the Reds was possible without the loss of freedoms and rights. And they promoted that policy to the bitter end. Czecho-Slovakia ended up just as did the other countries whose political leaders thought they could collaborate with Communists and the USSR, form coalition governments with them, and still preserve their independence, freedoms and rights. Moscow and its stooges deeply appreciated all such collaborations and rewarded all collaborators in the customary Red fashion - it liquidated them, proving again that Communism devours its own children. Many Slovak Communists and Lettrich "Democrat,s " have 84 SLOVAKIA already paid for their folly and the ruinous pro-Soviet policy of Dr. Edward Benes with their lives. Many more languish in prisons, concentration camps and forced labor camps - the very same institutions they helped the Communists to establish. The Communists were able to seize Slovakia not beca use they had the support of the vast masses of the Slovak people, but despite the fact that the overwhelming majority of the Slovak nation opposed them. And, in fact, sWl opposes them today. The victorious United Nations did not respect the will of the Slovak nation, in fact, were not even interested in ascertaining the will of the Slovaks. They did, however, respect the will of Benes and his Cze<!h Socialists, who, in the end, brought ruin and Red enslavement even on their own Czech nation. Slovakia was, therefore, sold out to the Reds by Benes and the victorious United Nations whose favor and confidence he enjo,yed. Slovakia is ruled by force and violence - the Communist system. The lesson of Slovakia, and then that of Czecho-Slovakia should be repeated over and over again so that it might be learned thoroughly. Peaceful coexistence with the USSR, the Communist world, is strictly a myth. To give it credence would be folly. Collaboration with Communists and the USSR means, in the end, a brutal suppression of all freedoms and rights and Red enslavement. • • • WHO SAID IT? "With equal enthusiasm we are today manifesting for the idea~s of our, and only our, Ozechoslovruk Democracy, which is on its way of development ,t o a new poople's fomn. . . . T.he unresel"ved alliance with our Eastern neighbor, witlh the mighty USSR, .bl.lit also our friendly contacts wi•th the rest of the world, espeoi:aUy with our western democracies, gives us the feeling of cel"tainty that no matter what might hiappen a,broad, aur internati<ona1 posilt'ion is f.imn and we need not ferur that we can come urpon new dangers and dif.ficu1ties." (!Dr. Joseph Lettrich, Vic~Ohairm.an of the Executive Committee of the "Council of Free Czechoslovakia," C.AIS, Novemlber 18, 1947).  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource How the Communists Seized Power in Slovakia Description An account of the resource Statement by Philip A. Hrobak, President of the Slovak League of America and editor of the Jednota, official organ of the First Catholic Slovak Union, made before the Kersten Committee on Communist Aggression, in the county court house, Milwaukee, Friday afternoon, October 22, 1954 Slovakia, Vol. 4, No. 3-4 (12-13), Sept.-Dec. 1954 pp. 78-84 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Hrobak, Philip Anthony, 1904-1964 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource Sept.-Dec. 1954 LCNAF https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/efa6f46e44b94f6f5c82ce212e023eec.pdf dcb6d3cffabaa2213aae768b7623cc98 PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA Published VOL. V quarterly by the Slovak League of MARCH 1955 America NO . 1 (14) HOW THE COMMUNISTS SEIZED SLOVAKIA is told on the following pa,ges by witnesses called upon to testify by the Select Committee on Com• mu.nist Aiggression of the House of Representatives, headed by the Hon. Ch:a.J'lles J . Kersten of Mil· waukee, Wis. Michael Galayda is an .American citzen who experienced Communist terror in Slovakia. He was there W1,d saw Communism at work a mong his people w'ho had persdstenUy ,and consistently fought the Red plague for over a hundred years. H e makes his home in Hazleton, Pa. Mr. and Mrs. Smrekovsky, American citizens, also witnessed the terror and horror of Red rule in Slovakia ,f irst hand. They have relatives and many friends in S1ovakia and, hen.ce are using an assumed name. Dr. Joseph Pauco, news.paperman and writer, c ame to America in 1950; he is assistant editor of the .TIIDDNOTA (Union), the official organ of the First Catholic Slovak Union, and a1so chairman of the U. S. Bran,ch of the Slov,a k National Council Abroad. Dr. Joseph Mikula studied law 1 and politics and was very active ' in student circ'les of Slovakia ,before he Jlled the Red terror which invaded his native Slovakia. Dr. Joseph Mikus, foraner Slovak dilplomat, lawyer and writer, became the director of the Press Bureau of the Slovak League of America, Wash!lngton, D. C., soon after his arrival in America several years ago. Jan Dobrotka, now an exile in West Germany, was a Sergeant of the Department of National Security in Bratislava, Slovakia. Jur Detviansky was an active officer of the Sloviak Army before he Hed to the West. Rev. Anton Botek, S.T.D., editor and former director of the Catholic Center in Bratd•slava, S-Jovakia, is in charge of the S lovak Catholic Action in Exiile; he edits "HLASY Z RiMA," (Voices From Rome), Italy. Rev. Stephen Nahalka, S.T.D., ecclesiastical writer and former personal secretary to Bishop John Vojtassak of t'he Spis Diocese, 1Slovaki,a - who, by the way, was sentenced to 24 years 1n prison 1by the Reds lives in Rome. Italy. Philip A. Hrobak, editor of the JEDNl()TA since 1938 and president of t'he Slovak League of America since 19'50, is a native AmerLcan, born in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1904. Active in Slovak aff.airs for the past 35 years,, Mr. Hrobak has devoted much time to the study of Czecho-Slovakda and Slovakia and the people responsible for government. His articles and pampb:lets in Engilish have contributed greatly to expose "Czechoslo,v ak" pseudo-democracy, the maohinations of the Benes Czechs (Socialists) and Lettri.ch "detnocrats", the people responsible for the betrayal of the Slova;ks to the men of the Kremlin - +and the Reds and Socialists aictJ!ve In Slovak circles in Amertlca. · �SLOVAKIA Communist Aggression Against Slovakia (The Select Committee on Communist Aggression, House of Representatives, EJighty-Third Congress, 1954, under the ch·a irmans•h lp of the HonoraJble Oharles J. Kersten, did quite a. remarkable jdb to ascertain how the !Communists seized pO'wer in the various countries of IDurope. I believe it is the first time in our history that an honest attempt was made to understand the 'background of the -peoples behind the Iron Curtain. 1Slovak representatives were among those who gave testimony of Communist a,ggression in S-tovakia, which differed in so.me respects from th.at in other countries. From the testimony of various witnesses who were heard, and the many others who sent in their statements fl'Qm various countries, it is quite eviden,t that 1Slovrukia fell an easy prey to Moscow iand the C-Ommunlsts because of the pro-Soviet -poli<:y of Dr. Edward ,B enes and the Czech Socialists, who ruled in Czecho-Siovakia with the Communists after World War ]I. Slovakia, traditionally anti-Communist, was jn fact sold out by the National Front ,Government of Prague. The vast masses of the Slovak population ,had no ,c•hoice; their wiH meant nothin,g to Benes and tib.e Prague regime, whJ.ch took over Slovakia with the help of Soviet bayonets, disregardin,g the pollti-cal wHl of the peOII)le completely. Excerpts from the testimony of Slovak witnesses, l'\Vlhic,h are contained on these pages, definitely prove that. P.A. H.). FROM THE SPECIAL REPORT NO. 8 SLOVAKIA !Slovaki,a is situated between the Carpathian Mountains on the north and the Danube and the Tisa Rivers on the south. The in!hrubitants are !known as Slov,aks and with the !Poles a111d the Ozechs, belong to the group of western Slaivs. The political history of the ·S lov,a!ks goes back to the beginnmg of the ninth century when ChmsUan civilization was introduced into their territoTy, and it was during this period that tlhe ruler, H;astisfav, 84~70, made himself lmown by an intensiive ChTistiianmation of the country. FoJilowing hls ti,nvitation, two brothers, Saints Cyril and Methodius, who henceforth were to b.ecome the rupostles of the Slaivs, came in 863 from Byoo.ntium to Great Moravia. B y their activities, they laid the foundations for church organizaibions, the Slav liturgy, a'.Jiphrubet, •a nd literature. It was in this way that the rwork of the two missionaries �SLOVAKIA 3 from Byzruntrl:l.l!Ill brought ,t he western Slavs into the fold of the Catholic OhuTch, an historical event of paramount ipolitic,al and oulturral importance. In the tenth century, ,Slovakia ,b ecame for a time a battlefie'ld in the struggles .among the SlaVIS, Magyars, and Germans, and at the fbegiillnmg of the eleventh century, she became a part of the kingdom of Hungary, organized under the Arpad dynasty. In the fifteenth and at the !beginning of the si~teenth century the internal prOiblems of Hungary reached a certain degree of consolidation. The invasions of •c entral Europe by the 'Dmks in tJhe ,s ixteenth and seventeenth ceinturies, however, reduced Hungary to the area of the Slovalda of today and political and cultural liife was concentrated in that area. For a long time sessions of the Hungarian Pa•r liament were held •a nd coronations of the Hungarian llings were celebrated in BratisJava. The end o,f the eighteenth and the first half of the nineteenth centuries mark the /beginning of the Slovak national renaissance. At this time, the nationa1ities tin central Emope we,r e about to abrundon Latin as the literary and spoken language of the cu!tiivated claS'S and to replace it by their own national language. Consequently, a spiritual rebirth stirred up national aspirations among the different peoples of the !Hapsburg monarchy. In 1848, the Slov,a,ks -organiized a military uprising against the centralism of 'BudaJpeSt and: helped 1:Jhe Emperor crush the Kossuth rebellion against the Hapsburgs. They did it with the hope that Slovrukia wocld ibe finally acknowledged as an autonomous land within a federated monaTohy, ibut thedr hopes in this respect were never satisfied. h1 the "Memorand'll!IIl of the Slovak Nation" of Jl.l'lle 7, 1861, a Slovak National Assemlbly, asked the Parliament of Hungary to create an rarl!ministiratirve unit from the oounties imlhaJbited lby tlhe iSloviaJc population under the name of "Slovak region." It was to ,b e ,provjdedJ with such a degree of poaitical and oultural autonomy which would be compatible wiith the prniciiple of u.mty of the monarchy. But the Hungarian Parlioonent failed to act. �4 SLOVAKIA In 1868 the Nationality Act was passed in the /Pairliament of Hunga:ry .b y which Magyar was proclaimed. the official language of the ,s tate administration in the kingdom, except for some autonomous bodies. 1n 1895, the Serbs, the Rwmanians from Transylvania and the Slovaks convOlked a congress of nationalities in Budapest in which they claimed ,respect for their national rights and asked once more for a federative reform of the kingdom on the ,p rinciple of equality. Such a reform was not carried out. As a ,c onsequence the non.,Magy,ar nationa!lities lost, during the First World War, their interest in the continued existence ()ff the dual monarchy oif AustriaHu.ngary. 1 World War I and Formation of the Czecho-Slovak State Dwring World War [ the ,s pirit of nationalism was greatly stimulated within the Alustro-Hungari:ain Empire. Thi•s spirit was reflected iby increasing demands for greater autonomy or ouwi:ght independence ,f or the clifforent nations within that empire. The advocacy of the principle of nationa:l self-tdeter-mination by President Wilson further stimulated these iaJS!)iratiOill,s. and dlid much to set the stage for the peace settlements. Dur:i.ng the course of the war Czech political leaders established a secret committee wh~ch directed the ,a ctivities of Ozech nationalists at home and abroad. Thomas G. Masaryk, as the leader of this movement, toured Europe and the United 'States Wlhere h e recei.:ved encouragement and support. Meanwhile a movement ,a rose among the ·l arge number oif Americans of Slovaik descent promoting Slovak!ia's separation from Hungary. Th.Tee different solutions of the Slovaik prob1em were oovi,saged: Slovakia as a new state, as ia partner orf a Czecho-Slovruk Federation •o r a·s a territory forming a pollitircal union with the prospectirve Polish Republic. Finally, the SloivaJk -League of Amerioa entered into contact with the Amemcans of Czech descent and signed with their organilzations, in 191 5, t;he Cleveland agreement, and in 1918 the Pittsburgh Parct, 'both of which aim·e d at 1 1 1 �5 SLOVAKIA the creation of a Czecho-.Slova1k federal state. In these doouments the Slov,aik organi•z ation stipulated that Slovakfa should 'be an equal mem1ber iwitJh the Czech lands ·a nd have complete legislative, executive, judiciary and cultural autonomy in strictly national matters, while matters of common interest, such as foreign affairs and defense, should be within the competence '()!f a common parlitailllent. 1 A tangi!ble proof of the aspi-rabions of 1:Jhe Ozec:h and Slo:vruk peoples toiward foll mdependence iwas demonstrated by the thousands of thei:r soldiers who had swrendeired on the 'Various fronts. They formed the Czecho-Slovak Legions in Russia, France, amd Ita1y and fought on the side of the Al[ied and Associated \P,o wers. 1 In order to convince ·W estern statesmen that the concept of national states 1was, ~n concern with the iwill of the people a Congress otf !Peop1es Oppressed ·b y the Hrups'burg Monarchy was commenced in Apilil 191'8 at Rome. This congress did much to mfl,uence the th,i nking in western Europe and in the United States. ln the summer of 1918, F'ra.nce, Great Britain, the United States, and Italy offici,all,y recognized the Czecho-1Slovak National Council as a defacto gOIVerrunent and the Gzecho-lSlwak forces as an Allied army waging regu~ar warfare agarl.nst kustria-Hungary and Germany. A Ozeoho-4Slwak IPro:visionrul Government •w as set up in Paris with Masaryik as President and was recogn.iized de jure by the Aflied and Associated Powers. It issued the Declaration of Czecho..SlovaJk Independence on October 18, 1918, in Paris. On the saime day President Wilson rejected the Austrian ,proiposa:l for the organi zation of Austria-Hungary on a federa l !b asis iby reiplyiing that !he could no longer accept •~ere autonomy of these peoples as a basis of peace .. ." On Octolber 28, 1918, the Ozecho-Slo,yak Nationial Colllllcil in !P:mgue proclaimed the deiposibion of the Austrian Emperor as so,yereign of the Czech and Slcxvak lands and the estrublishment of a free and united Republic ,of Ozecho-4SlovavaJda. The ,SiovaJk National Counchl, a revolutionary 'body composed of Slovak patriots, convened on October 30, 1918, 1 1 �SLOVAKIA 6 and ,pwb1isihed a document known •a s the Dec1aration of Turcia.nsky rSv. Martlin. In. this document they proclaimed the separation of Slo.va:lci<a from the Kiingdom of Hungary and their intention to form with the Ozech lands a CzeohoSlOWlik .state. On November 14, 1918, this decision was ratified 1~ the Crecho--iSlvoruk National Assembly which elected T. G. 1M as•aryik as President of the Republic and set up the first ,caJbinet. However, it was not long !b efore serious dlisagreement developed between the Ozechs and ISlovaJks on the form of government for the new state. The Ozeohs farvored a Czecho~Sl01Vak ,centralist state whHe the Sllo,vaiks ins.i:sted upon a Czecho~SlQl\llaJk feder.ation ~n whioo the identity and individrua:lity of each nation would ibe •recognized and preserved. In the opinion of !Slovak leadJers the Ozecho,..slovak state, for all practical purposes, was to become a Czech ,s tate, enlarged 'by Slovakia ra nd :sulb-Oaripathlian Ruthenia. This situation resulted .in the !Slovaks taking a firm ,position a,g ainst the centralist form of government. Monsignor Andrew Hilinka, a great patriotic [eader from the time of pre~a:r HrUlllgar.y, went dandestine1y in !September 1919 to Pairis in order to present S1ova;kia's cause before the Peace Conference, ,a dvocating an international guaranty fo·r the selfgovernment of the ,Slovruk nation withi:n OzechoJSlova!kia. Denounced to the •French authorities !by the Ozecho,.;Slovak delegation as a Hapsburg spy, he was foTced to return to Slovaikia without any result. Toniprisoned 1by order of Prague at Mirov, Mara'Via, Hlinka was to stay tJhere until April 1920, when he was elected deputy of the 'Slovak People's Party, founded iby him under the Hungarian regime and reestabllished in December 19'18. 1 POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT ConstitutJional Structure Althowg,h the !basic ,constitution was not adopted until. February 1920, its .gener.al principles had been B!pplied from the very •b eginning of Cze.cho-Slovaik independence. The philosophy underlying this fundamental law is expressed in the preamble, whfoh is striikingly similar to the �SLOVAKIA 7 preamble of the Constitution of the United States. The main body of the Consbitution provided for a popularly elected Parliament, a President selected by both houses of Parliament and an independent judiciary. Parties and Politics The politics of the period may ibe divided into four phases: 1. Nationalistic phase (1918-19) Following the proclamation of independence, ,a ll Czech political parties agreed on the fundamental principles on which the new state ,w as to be bui1t. Having reaohed this major consensus and the necessary leg,islation having been enacted, the coalition had accomplished its task and a split on partisan lines followed. 2. Swing toward Social Democraicy (1919-20) The period of Socia.dist rule in the Czecho-Slovruk Republic did not accom;plish too many changes in the country's economy although the r,a,iUwa,ys, mines, and water power were socialiized. The division of the 1Soci:alists into Socialist amd Communist ranks ended the brief era of Socialist eJQ!)erimentation in Czooho-Slovrukia. 3. The agrarian era (1922-35) This was a period of Telative ·parliamentary stability under the leadershiip of the Agrarian Party, which managed the government along m.iddile-of~the-road policies. A satisfactory coalition government was maintained throughout this period. 4. The crisis ( 1935-38) This period iwas the touchstone of the solidity of the Czecho-1Slovruk state. Confronted with the serious iproblem of the Sudeten Germain poipuil.ation, Czecho-6lovakia betrayed no signs, of political panic. The .principal political ,parties in Ozecho-Slovrukia in the period betiween the two World Wars formed the following groups: National 'Democrats. - This party, conservative and intensely nationalist, drew its princi'pa:l support from businessmen, the professions, and hi,gher cirvil servants. It never beoame very ,powenfu:l. �8 SLOVAKIA Populists. - Under the name of the Czech Populist Party and the Slovak Pe>ipulist Party, respectiively, this group endeavored to bring CathoiJ.ic ideas into plllblic life. The Sllllall faruners and workers in rural districts were its strongholds, especially in Slovakia. Agrarians. - This poJitica-1 groUJp, the largest in the subsequent parliaments, was solidly entrenched in both rural aind town districts by means 0£ a widespread network of cooperat:1ve, economic, and mtlturnJl organimtions. Its broaid economic and so.cia'l program att•r acted wide support. National Socialists. - Thi1s non-Marxian Socialist Party may ibie described as a "radicai national party of the lower middle class and of the wonkers." It had rather more influence than its moderate numerical strength would indii;cate. Social Democrats. - This, party, resembling the social democratic parties of other European countries, had more influence during the first two years of bhe Republic. Though outwardly united it was, however, undermined by dissension within its own ranks, whicih finally resulted in the expu1lsion of the Communist faction . Communists. - The Ozecho-Sloivaik Commll!Ilist Party was created in 1920 as a result of the e~ulsion of Communist elements from the 'Social Democratic Party. Though equia:lly subversive and aggressiive as elsewhere in Europe, the Ozecho-iSlovaJk Communists never secured a la:rge foll-owing during the two decades before the Second World War. Economic, Social and Cultural Development Agrarian reform iRediistribu:tion of land was an urgent iprOlblem facing the IIlew government and a Land Reform Act, therefore, was one of the first measures passed ,b y the Czecho-Slovak Parliament. This ,a ct entitled the state to truke over, •a,fter com;pensation, all ,1and :from the great estates in excess of a fixed maximum and to permit land purcha,se by those who needed it most. The agr,ariam. refomi program substantially improved the material conditions of the rural popula- �SLOVAKIA 9 tion aml averted the diam.ger of ,agrarian disturbances. Economic development While Czecho-1Slovruk agricl.l!ltura:l resources almost covered domestic req,uiTements, indrustrial prodUJCtion was far in excess of the needs of the home market since Ozecho-1Slovakia had been the industrial center of the former Austro..lHJungarian Empire. 'Since the Danulbiian countries, originally Czooho-Slovakia'•s principal foreign ma,r ket fOT manufadured goods, were increasing the tempo of their industria;lization with a view to :restricting tihe import orf industrial µvoducts, Ozecho..JSlovruk foreign trade was olbJiiged to look for new outlets. These were found ma,i nly in those western and oversea countries which were Czecho-1SloV1aJkia's .principal suppliers of •r aw materials, especially the United States and Great Britain. Economically aJnd fin!andalil.y Czecho-Slorvaikia was a sound state in central Europe. As an exporting country it was severely hlt by the wodd economic depression of the early thirties, hut, lby timely adtj:ustments to new price and exchange levels, it was one orf the first Eiurropean countries to weather the crisis. Education and social progress The cl.l!ltmrra1 level orf the Czechs was hlgh and their passion fOT education was prQIVeribial in central Eur.ope. The new R.ep'Ulblic fostered educaition by establishing additional free schools •a nd by, improving the existing ,schools. The Ozecho-1Slorva,k :S tate a,lso forged ahead in the field of social impmve:ment. All groU!ps and interests pos,sessed the rig:ht of organi,z ation ,a nd thus organized lalbor had its trade unio,n s, farmers their cooperative societies, and white--coUar worker,s and businessmen their associations. Health a,nd other types of ,social insurance were either provided for or encouraged iby the State and pro¥i:sion was made for State assistance to hoursing and cooperatives. The Religious Situation The re1igious .situation created after the esmblishment of the Repu'blic in 19'18 must, like many other of the coun- �SLOVAKIA :iO try's developments, ibe rvieiwed against its historical backgrou!Ild. A strong Czech groUJp of modernist, nationalistic Roman clergy insisted on radicall reforms, such as the use of the vernacuiliar in the lituvgy ,and the abolition of compulsory celibacy, Wlhich the Roman Curia could not accept. As a result, this group seceded from Rome and esta:blished an independent "Ozecho-1S1ovak Church" ,w hioh originally numbered aJbout one million adherents, lbut ,w hich lost half its meimlbership by 1939, so that Roman Catholics still comprised 80 •p er cent of the popul,a tion. In spite of adverse circu:mstl8Jnces, the Roman Cathoilic ChUTch adjusted itself, therefore, to the new millieu and recovered much for its former influence. In the political and cultural life of the new Repwblic, the Protestant element played a role far beyond its numerical strength. Many ,prominent political leaders, Thomas G. Masaryk among them, 1be'longed to the Protestant faith. 1 Internal Problems 'J.'lhe OOIIlstituition of 1920, in }airge measure disiregarding the ethnographic realities of Czecho-Slovakia, was to become a bone of contention 1b ,etween the Czechs on the one side, and 1:Jhe. 1Slova:k,s, Ger.mans, Mag,yar:s, and Ruthenians on the other. The Slovaks demanded the incorporation of the main clauses of the Pittsburgh Pa-ct into the Constitution. The Ruthemans, whose autonomy within CzechoSlovakia had ,b een granted by the Treaty of St. Germain, asked that this international obligation be respected 'by the Prague Government. The Ge:rana:ns ,and the Magyars solicited oulturaJ rig,hts and adnninistr,a,ti,ve autonomy on the local level, as granted iby the same Treaty of St. Germain. 'Dhis psychological split among the ,populatiOIIl of OzechoSlova1ki,a wea:kened consideriaJbly the new state from both the internal and international point of rview. The Czech statesmen tried to iremedy this situation by creating a system of international treaties such as the Little Entente, 1920, the Pact of Alliance and FriendsihiJp with France, 1924, and a similar pact with the Soviet Union, 1935. Uke the Austro-Hunga1rian staite'Smen in 1867, Benes believed �11 SLOVAKIA that the transformation of Czech~Slova!kia into a federation of three memlbers, the Czech lands, 1Slov,a kia, and Subcarpaitlliian iRuthenia, would weaken the international position of the centralized state, I)a)rticularly with reference to HW11gary and Germany. Consequently, in the field of internal ,administraJtio,n he developed a system, in which aJll branches of Gove:rnment in Slov.a:kia and Sulbca rpathiian Ruthenia ,w ere reserved iprimari1y to 1:Jhe Czec,hs. Politicall'Y, al·l problems of these bwo lands we.re to ibe decided in the Pa:-ag,ue Parliament, where !Slovakia had only 58 and Ruthenia 9 deputies out of 300. Thus, even the most important questions such a;s the relation betlween state and church, official language, system of schools, the economy, were to be decided ib;y the Ozech parliamentarian majority. Ai3 to the cutural aspect, secondary schodls in Slovakia as wel[ ,as the Bratislava Universirty lbecaJm.e an officiaJl domain of Ozech ,professors, teacihing the UJnitarian concept of a "Czechoslovak" nation m ithe ethnic sense. On October 1, 1938, there were 523 Czech and 345 Sloviaik instructors teaching in the secondary schools of Slovaikia. At the same time, there were 66 Czech and only 24 Slov~k professors in the Bratisl,a,va Uruversity. From the standpoint of the economy Slovakia was to remain a predominantly agrarian land, while the Czech part of the Repulblic was highly induskialized. This policy of two dif,ferent measures is shown by the share of Slovakia and Ruthenia ~n the industrial production of the RepU!blic. The participation of these two lands in the whole industry, !between 1934 and 1937, was only 8.5 per cent, while 91.5 iper cent went to the Czec,h lands. The proper importance of these figures is stressed by the fact, that Slwakia constituted 23 per cent and Rutheinia 5.5 per cent of the total popuJation of the Re1pulblic. From the adlministratifve ,p oint of view, the district and county offices in Slo,vakia and iRuthenia were mostly direcited iby Czech off,iciais who were directly responsible to Prague ,as were the police. In 1938 there were 120,926 Czech pwb1ic offici,a ls in 'Slovakia. All these aspects created in Ozecho-Slovakia what has 1 1 �12 SLOVAKIA been knoiWn as the "Sll.ova;k problem." The Slovak People's Party which, in 1925 had 23 deputies, became not only the strongest single party in Slav,aJkia, lbut a majority party of the Slovak people (not counting minorities and the Comm1.1!11ists) endorsed 1:Jhe federative reform of the Republic asking for the accomplishment of stipulations contained in the ,PittslblllI'gh Pact. A:s early as Jianuary 25, 1922, this party presented its fiTst project for c01I1stituti01I1al reform in Czecho-Slovakia. The prog,ram hatl the following main points: !Slovakia to be granted her own Diet and Government. As common affairs would ,b e considered: The President, the Army, Foreign Affairs, and Communications. The Sloviak Diet to harve exolU1Sive competence in such matters as natiOIIlal eduoaJtion, denominations, justice, commerce, agriculture, publric works, social welifare, and corresponding finances. The executive ;power in Slov-rukia, as iregards b.oth the laws which wound be :voted by the Central Parliament in Prague and those which would be enacted. lby the Diet of Bratis:larva, would belong to the Slovruk Gorvernment. Laws voted ,by ithe Central Parliament would lbe without validity in .Slovakia if rejected by a two-.thirds majority in the •Sll.ovak Diet. This proposal would have satisfied !Slovak aspirations, but it was 111ever put on the agenda o;f Parliament. A second proposed reform concerning the decentirali>zation of the state administration was presented to the Czecho4S1avruk Parliiament by the 1Slovak People's 1Party, May 8, 1930. More modest in -i ts scope than the first one, this document claimed for -Slovakia the same constitutional position which had 1b een gr8.lllted ihwt never carried out by article 3 of the constitwtion relating to Sub.carpathian Ruthenia. According to this proposal, IS1ovakta should have had her own 'Diet as a national legislative ,b ody and a governor as chief of the land executiive. The iDiet would have lbeen competent to enact laws concerning [anguage, education, religion, municipal, and district administration and justice as well as other matters whioh the laws of the Central ,Parliament would comer wpon it. Laws enacted by the <Diet of Slovakia and .si:gned by the 1 �SLOVAKIA 13 President of the Republic would ibe promulgated, under sigruature of the gavemor, in a sipecial col1ection of laiws for Slova:kia. Although presented in due form, this proposal was never discussed in the Parliament. Octdber 16, 1932, the Slovak People's Party of Andrew H!linika and the Slova!k National Party of M. Ra;zus (a small traditionailist <Protestant party) having joined in an agreement a;b,out the necessity of autonomy for Slovakia, stressed their detemnination to pursue the fight for Slovakia's national rights, "even ,t houg,h it may ,bring the disintegration of >the Ozecho..,Slov,a;k Republic." Fol1.owing the resignation of T. G. Masaryk as President of the Repulblic, E. Benes became 1a candidate in Deceimber 19315 for that office. After some consultations, the Slovak People's Party end!orsed his election, stiipwlating, however, that a ,pol,icy of national equality between the Czechs and the 1Slava:kis should ibe inaugrnrated by the President aind a law concerning 'Slovak~a's autonomy ,be promulgated in one year. Nevertheless, it was two years later before the Prague Government was ready to, consider the Sl()IVruk prdblem and this ooourred in connection wit!h the Sudeto·- German claims for nation,a,1 rights within the Republic. This nationality group had been integrated into CzechoSlovakia in spite of their protest. -Since the very foTlffiation of Czecho,..,Sl'ovakia, the German minority had been soliciting a form of cultural autonomy in the schools, local administration, and in the courts. Later on they asked for a better economic amd social <poll.icy in the German areas suffering from unemployment. For a long time, Prague did not lristen to such :voices. But with Hitler's accession in Gennany, the Sudeto-Germans recei;ved the !backing of the 'I1hl1rd Reich. Consequent11 theiT claims increased at the same time as their courage. In 1935 the ,Sudeto-German P,a rty, with 44 deputies, lbeoame the second ,g reatest party in the Repuiblic. The (P,raigue Goverll!!Ilent, not willing to ~ppear as acting under foreign pressure, remained reluctant. T.he stiffer the Czecho..jSlovak Government 1becaime, the more Hitler determined to annihilate Czecho ... Slovakia. �14 SLOVAKIA PairalJel to this evolution was Sfovrukia's struggle for its own rrights. JU/Ile 5, 1938, a third projed concerning the federalization of the Repulblic was pU!blished lby the SlovaJk People's Party, a!lld presented to the Central Government. It was only one week !before the, Munich Conference, 1Septem'be:r 22, 1'938, that E . Benes sent a counteriproject to the Praesidium of the Sllovaik ,People's Barty. Shortly after, the conflict :betiween Prague and: the Sudeto-Ge:rrmans was resolrved in Munich, where, on the basis of Lord Rundman's rrecommendation, the Sudetenl:and went to Germany. This decision created for ISlovaikia a new situation. As a consequence of a policy in whioh she had praotically no share, Sllovrukia was ,a lso to surrender in favor Olf ifllUJilgary her Southern !boundary ·zone, ,s ettled mostly ,b y Magyar population. This was a psychdlo,gical blow which brought an agreement among all Slova!k ,political parties, except for the Communist, Social-Democrat and minority parties, rubout Slovakia's autonomy. Thus on October 6, 1938, one day after the resignation of ,E . Benes, six ipolitica,,l parties of SlovaJkia, representing 36 out of 58 deputies, puiblished a dedarration in which they agreed that the third project of constitutional reform shO'llld be immediat~ly put in practice and l8Jil autonomous gorverrnment for Slovakia 1b e appointed ,u nder the chairmanship of iDr. Joseph Tiso. 1 November 2, 1938, lby the ar,bi,tration of Ciano and Von Ribbentrop in Vienna, 10,309 .s quare kilometers with ·853,670 inhafbitants were to .b,e ceded by :Slovakia to Hungary. This included 503,980 'Magyars and 272,145 Slovaks. ISfovakia saw that she was becoming a viotim of an international po1itica1 game ,w ithout aniy faJllJlt of her own. The Vienna decision proved the futility of the fomner party dirvisions and produced ra n integrating effect upon the Slo:va;k politica:l spectrum. Parties which had signed rt.he Declaration of Zilina on October 6, agreed on NovembeT 10, 1938, on the formation of a common party !known henceforth as the Party of National Unity. This political evolution in 1Slovrukia was f:inal:ly sanctioned by the Ozech and Slovak representatives irn the �15 SLOVAKIA Prague Parliament on No-vemlber 19, 193'8. Then, by a constitutionall ,amendiment, Ozecho-Slovrukia became a federation of Bohemi!a-<Maravfa, !Slovakia and! Oa:rpathian Ukraine (,Ruthenia). Burt the relations between Prague and the Slova:k Government remained tenJSe, because of 9,000 Czech officia1s who 1Were removed lby the Slovak Goivernment, and the share of Slovakia in the income and expense, orf the common <budget. FOREIGN ,R ELATIONS Beforre Munich The principal aim of Ozecho-Slovakia's foreign policy was the preserivation of the status quo as estaJblished by the 19~9 peace settlements, and the estaJblishment of friend-ly relations with all her neighlbors through ,a n exten1Sive system of adequate agreements. Eduard Benes, Minister of Foreign Affairs until 11936 and 1ater 1P resident of the Repulblic, was the girniding sipiirit of this policy. A solid :f oundation for rthe, presewation .o f the status quo in cenibral Europe was laid !by the CTeation of the Little Entente formed by Ozecho-Sfoivakia, Yugos1a;vfa and Rumania, and three victorious Danulbian states bordering on vanquished Austda and Hungary. Ozecho-1Slovalda was ·a n enthusiastic supporter of the League of Nations and colktJborated ,w holeiheartedly in the negotiations which brought Germany and the ,Soiviet Union into the League. When Hitler came to power in 1933, Ozecho-iSlovakia's foreign relations entered into a critical phase and two ye31rs of vi,r,uJent Nazi pro,paganda among the Sudeten Germans !bore frwt in the results of the 1935 elections. The NaJZi..sponsored :Sudetendeutsche IPartei poiiled over 62 per cent of the total Ge1riman vote and c01Wed the smaller German parties .i nto submission. 1 Later .on, acting on instructioillS from iBer,Hn, the <leaders od: the Sudeten German movement put fomvard demands which no Czecho-S1,orva'k 1g overnment •c ould a·c cept and, with the anne:,ration of Austria, the srtage was set for final action. De.seprately anxious to avert a new war, France and �16 SLOVAKIA Great Britain proposed to Czecho-Slovakia that she should cede to Germany all areas with a German majority. When Ozecho--srtovakia demwred, she was informed that she must ae<!ept the proposal or bear the conisequences alone. The result was tihat the Czechs gave in and at Munich their country was di vided on the lines dictated by Hitler. 1 After Munich After MU1J1ioh, Czecho-.Slova:kia tried to adjust itself to the new situation. President Benes resigned and left the country. He was succeeded 1b y Emil Hacha, an eldeI1ly and experienced jurist with no politioa1 affiliations, who believed that close cooperation with the Third Reich was the country's only hope of sur:vival. The tra,nsition to Hitler's New Order was swift. Obnoxious parties were dissolived and the Government was given wide power,s to govern by decree. The ,administration was purged, the 1press put under rigorous control and antiSemitic measures were ena,cted. The situation in central Europe after Mlliilloh became even more confused. Germany began to remind the Bohemian puibLic of the role the Kingdom of Bohemia had played within the Holy Roman Empire. !Hungary started to speak about her histor,i,cal boundaries and the necessity of a common frontier with Poland. According to the Nuremberg documents, Hitler 1at that time. had already decided to destroy Czecho-Slovakia. But there was apparently no definite decision o.n S1ova:kia as to wihether to place it under German OCOU1pation or to ha;ve it occU1pied by Hungary. In this situation, the Slovak GOIVernment had only one preoccupation: to preserve what unity had remained of Sloviakia after the Vienna a11bitration and to avoid:, as far as possible, direct domination lby a:ny of her neighbors. On Ma11ch 10, 1969, the Prague Government dismissed the government of Dr. Joseph Tiso and proclaimed martial law in 'Slovakia. The Slova!k people considered this a violation of agreements that had /been si,gned ~tween Prague and Bratislaiva and incorporated into the Constitution. Puibl~c demonstrations spread throll!g.hout 'Slova:kia. Invited to a consultation by Hitler in Berlin, Dr. Joseph �SLOVAKIA 17 Tiso, the dismissed chairman of the Slov,ak Gooernment was shown a telegram by Von Ribbentrop, according to which HUIIlgary iwas ready to occupy Slova,kia. Hlitler then suggested that this eventuality may be prevented by the declaration of 1Slovakia's independence. Consequently, Dr. Tiso returned to Bratisl,aiva where, om March 14, 1939, following his report, the IS'lovak Diet proclaimed independence. President Hacha was then summoned to Berlin and presented with an ultimatum aiming at the i.mJpos.ition of a protectorate upon Bohemia-Moravia. Forced into submission, the Presiderut ,s igned ,a declruration by w1hich he "ip1aced the destiny of the Czech people and country with confidence in the 'hands of the Fuehrer of the German Reich." German troo1ps marched into Bohemia and from Prague (March 16) Hitler issued the proclamation establishing the "Protectorate of Bohemia-Mora'Via." Thereafter, Hungary annexed Sub-Carpathian Ruthenia. Czecho-SlovaJkia was dead. The Establishment of the Slovak Republic Even though the Slovak state was largely the result of a tense international situation, it nevertheless co.rresponded to· the aspirations of the Slovak ~ple for freedom and the principle of self-determination a,nd seltf-1govern.ment. After Munich, central EUTotpe became a part of the German orbit. Therefore, in oroer to. d.~scourage Hungary in her armed attack launched against Eastern Slovakia, the Slovak Government concluded •w ith Germany a treaty of protection, March 23, 1939, by which the <Reich assured the existence of Sloiva;kia without destroying its .national pe,r sonality. In exchange, S1ova:kia ha,d to, follow the German line in foreign policy. Altogether, 2:l states. reoogniiized the international .i ndividuality of Slovaikia. Besides the countries which were later to become members of the Axis, S~ovaikia was recognized by the Holy See, the -Soviet Union, iSpain, 1Switzedand, Sweden, Grea,t Britain (de facto) , France (de facto), Liberia, Costa Rica, and Ecuador. According to the constitution voted on July 21, 1939, �18 SLOVAKIA SlovaJkiia became a Repulblic with a Parliament of 80 members and a Government of nine. The constitution contained princi!pleis, which in some aspects combined features of the liberal staite, the Christian democracy, and the authoritarian state,. In the beginning all poweT of the 'Slova:k Reipu'blic was vested in the Parliiamenrt !but later on, in 19·41, after Slovakia had entered the war against the S'Oviet Union, the executive was to prevail over the legislature. The numlber of political parties was reduced. The Communist and the :Social il)emocrat pa·r ties, representing only ten deputies, had been 1s uppressed as suJbversive, in October 1938. Six other parties merged mto the Slov,ak Unity Party, the baokibone of the ipolitcal system of the SLovak state, and tlhere were two minority parties: German and Magyar. The SlOIVaJk state was far froon being a perfect democracy in the trarlitional sense. R reflected a compromise between the past and the present, between an old tradition and a temporarily determined political dynamism in Central Europe. lBut, in ,general, it was an expression of the se'Lf-q>reservation instinct of the 1SlO'Vak nation. The Sloviruk Government, in 1941, joined Gernnany, with two armored dirvisions, in :the war against the Soviet Union. Although on [)ecemlber 1:2, 1941, the Slovak Press Bureau had pulb'lished an anno'UIIlcement that the ISlovia;k Repulblic was in a state of war with the United !States and Great Britain, neither the President nO'r the tS lovak Pa:rliament or Government ever made such a decision or declaration. In fact, the Sl01Vruk forces, during the Second World War, did not engage in comlbat against any of the Western Powers. 1 World War B and the Restoration of Czecho-Slovakia Czechs in the protectorate of Bohemia-Morawa ,w ere not directly iDJVolved in the •S econd World War. They were exempt from militaJry service hut had to work for the German war machine. Though their contribution in the fight for freedom was not Sipectacular, thousands of Czech patriots ipaid with their live'S for their efforts to 1keep the flame of freedom fHalrering. After Munich, many Czechs and SlovaJks left the coun- �SLOVAKIA 19 try and established themsel,ves talbroad, mostly in Paris and London, which became the cenrters of their political activities. Headed by Eduaxd Benes, these emigres set urp a National Committee to taJke up the struggle for the restoration of a free Czecho-iSlovakia. The committee was recognized first as the provisional and eventwall.'y as the regulaT Government of Czecho-Sloviakia, by Great Britain and, later, iby the United !S tates and the Soviet Union. Czecho-'Sl01Vaikia was thus given the status of an allied state under foreign ocoupation. The Munich agreement was declared null and void and Czecho-.Slova.kia's original frontiein; were guaranteed. While the C!zecho-.Slovak GQI\Ternment-ii.n-exile was primarily concerned with the consolidation of the international position of the Republic, the Czecho-Sfovak Communist leaders in Moscow were com1pleting their plan for immediately seizing power after the li/beration. Moscow knew precisely what Ozecho-Slovalkia's <international .p osition would be once the Red army was stationed within the ter.ritory and was concerned on:ly with tadica:l movements aimed at bringing ahout a speedy sovietfomtion of the country. Toward the end of 1943, E. Benes went to Mosco.w where, on Decembe:r 12, 1943, he signed with Stalin a treaty of alliance, friendship, and mutual help between the Soviet Union and Czecho-Slovakia. tBy this treaty, the ·S oviet Uruon was to approach Ozecho-1Slova1kia after the end of the war as an ally. No. such treaty having been <:oncluded. with the Western Powers, the influence of Moscow on the future of emergent Ozecho-Slovakia became predominant. In Soviet tactics, this treaty was to create a favora!ble atmosphere in Bohemia-lMo:ravia fm: tbe idea of a Soviet ·l iberation. During his visit in Moscow, E. Benes came to a,n agreement with K. Gottwald, the ex,iled chief of the Czech Communist Party, aJbouit the main prindples upon which the edifice of the future Ozecho-,Slovakia wouJd rely: (1) The state admin.stration 'wouJld be repla<:ed by "natio,n_aa committees" (IS01Viet.s); (2) the .fOI1II1er right-of--center parties would 1b e eliiminaited; (3) the non-Communist parties in ire- �20 SLOVAKIA ,s tored Ozecho ..Slovak,ia would form ,w ith the Communists a "government of National 1F ront"; (4) "people's courts" would lbe established to eliminate all war criminals. These principles with an extensive inter,pretation and -aipplication of ipoints (2) and ( 4) and the nationali2ation of indiustcy were to, lay the fou:ndaitions for a "People's !Democracy" in Czecho-1Slovakia. In Slov:alkia, the treaty of friendship , mutual help, and coJ1aboration with the Soviet Union iProduced a stimulating effect upon the Commun1st .and Social Democrat undergroUIIlds and also on a group of lilberals whose imaigiination, with respect to central Europe, was tempted more lb y the absent Soviet Union than 'by the present Germany. These ,groll!ps met secretly on Christmas 1943 in Bratislava and signed what is known as the "ChristJmas agreement." In this declaration they reaffirmed their will to work for the restoration of "Ozecho·-IS1ov•a kia," for a Illarrow collalboration with the iSov.ieit Union in the field of foreign policy, for the estaiblishment of political justice and for the continuation oif resistance against the Germans and the Slovak Government. :FROM THE TESTIMONY OF MICHAEL GALAYDA, AMERICAN CITIZEN FROM HAZLETON, PA. Mr. McTigue. The Russians deported to Russia the teachers and iwell-educated ,peoip le? Mr. G alayda. Yes, t eachers and educated people. Mr. McTigue. And you were in Slova:kia while this was going on; is that correct? Mr. Galayda. Yes. Mr. :McTigue. Now, while these deportations were going on did you then endeavor to get a visa o.ut ·o f the country ? Mr. GaJayda. I :tried a couple of times but it was impossible at that time. I was put in ja•il two tim es. Mr. tM cTigue. Who puit you in jail? Mr . Galayda. The Ozecho-Sloivak Army. They asked me to fight ,a gainst the Germans. I ref,u:sed. I said, "I am an American citizen and I refuse to serve in the Czec,ho..,Slovaik Army." �SLOVAKIA 21 !Mr. (McTigue. 1S0, you were put in jail because. you refused to serve? Mr. Galayda. Yes, thaJt's right. MT. !MoTigue. Now, when was t1he second time you were put in jail? Mr. Galayda. Wel1, the second time was in 1946. Mr. Mc'Digue. iBy the Communists? Mr. Galayda. Yes. Mr. McTigue. Why? Mr. Galayda. Well, because I was campaigning against communism. Mr. McT,i gue. You were making taiks against communism? Mir. Ga1ayda. Yes, I made ,a couple speeches in the villages against communi sm. That is why I was jailed. 'M r. iMcTigue. Noiw, in 1'94fi, at the end of the war, did you try to get a Un~ted States passport? Mir. Galayda. Yes, I did. Mr. McTiig ue To return to the United States? Mr. Galayda. Yes. [n 1945, when the war was 0 1ver, me and my brothers decided to Oeaive, because at that time the United States was ,stil'l fighting with the Japanese. So we decided to leave and join the American Army. Mr. iMcTigue. iDecided to come home? Mr. Galayda. Yes. We went to the American cons,ul in Prague. He refused. He saiid, "You have to get your passport finst, then you can join American Army." So ,J came home. Mir. McTigue. How did you go about gettiing your passpont? Mr. Galadya. Well, we went to Hungary. On the way from Budapest to Bratislava - weH, i will tell you something 3:borut the !Russian s-oldd.ers, what they did. Mr. McTigue. Yes, I wish you woiuld. This is while you are taiking the train to 'Bratislava? Mr. Galayda Yes. 'l never am going to forget that time what happened. Mr. McTigue. You are on the train now? Mr. Galayda. Yes. Mir. McTigue. Is this what you are describing? Mr. Galayda. Yes. 1 1 �22 SLOVAKIA Mir. McTigue. And you rure en route to Prague lby way of Budapest and Bratislava? Mr. Galayda. The Russians pulled the emergency brake. They had guns; they took the money frOirn .the ipoople, and in every coach was one soldier. He had a gun. They robbed the people. They ta!ke everything. Then I heard some screaming, a girl, a couple of giTls started screaming. I know that. I remember that. And I don't know what happened because 1I didn't see because in every coach was one soldier and we can't move. Mr. McTigue. And they -to ok the girls off the tra,i n ? Mr. Galayda. Yes. Mr. Bonin. How long did they hold the train up? Mr. Gailay<la. Oh, Irt was, I think, at least one hour. Mr. Boll!in. One hour. Mr. :Mc'I'igue. And everybody on the train ·w as relieved of his valualbles, jewelry, money? Mr. Galaiyda. They took everything. Mr. McTigue. Now, what !hia:ppened when you finally reached .Prague ? Mr. Galayda. Well, when I reached the Prague, liike I said, I went to the American consul. I itold hd.m I ,wanted to join the American Army. H~ said, "!No. You have to get your Arnevican ,p assport first." So then I came home. Mr. McTigue. You came home to Slovakia? Mr. Galadya. Yes. I came baok home. Then I start speruking agafast communism. Mr. Mc'lligue. You started writing against communism ; you made some speeches against communism? Mr. Galayda. Yes. Mr. Galayda. Yes. Mr. Bonin. ls that correct? Mr. Bonin. Now, did any,body ma!ke any complaint rubout theiir activities, itaking this property aJway from them? Mr. Ga1ayd:a. No, 'alt that time it rwaiS impossible to say something. iMr. Bonin. You had nobody to turn to to even make a Mr. Galayda. No. complaint? Mr. Bonin. If you did ma!ke a compla int you would probably ·b e arre&t ed ? 1 1 �SLOVAKIA 23 Mr. Galayda. Then yOl\l are sent ito Russia. Mr. Bonin. In other wocds, tllere was a c0111Stant fear in the minds of the peoiple that they would go to a concentration camp? Mr. Galayda. Yes, that's tight. Mrr. Bonin. Into 'Si-ber-ia? Mr. Ga:layda. Yes. Mr. Bonin. Which, of course, is nothing ito .p leasant to M1ybody living ·b ehind the Iron Curtain? Mr. Gafayda. No, I don't think so. Mr. Bonin. You were very happy to get ou:t of there? Mr. Galayda. Yes,. The Communist Party is no good for this world; a!bsoI1U1telly no good. Becaiuse ,I was over there -and I lb.ave experience: ,I lived in Czecho-lS1ovakia for 20 years, and I know. They iaire no good in this world. Mr. Bonin. They are no good for this world. Well, do you have any moos-a ge to tell ,to the people of the United States who may feel that communism is a good system of government? Mr. Galayda. Well, there is one thing I can say, and that is the American ,p eople should be proud of what they have, freedom of speech and everything They should ibe ,p roud o.f what they have. Mr. Bomn. ls, it-here any freedom of religion under the Communists? iMr. Galayda. No. Mir. Bonoin. Is there Mly freedom iof the press? Mr. Galayda. No. Mr. Bonin. Is there any freedom of assembly? Mr. Galayda . No. Mr. Bonin. Is there any freedom to use radio and teleMr. Galayda. No. visi'o n as we do !ill America here.? Mr. Bonin. [t i,s a ,pretty lblack picture, this lirving behind t.he Iron Curtain; isn't iit? Mir. Galayda. That's ~ight. (Wilkes-Barre, Pa., ISeptemiber 30, 1954). FROM THE TESTIMONY OF MR. SMREKOVSKY MT. McTigue. You came to this country in 1928; is that correct? Mr. Smrekiovsky. 1928 is correct. Mr. MoTigue. And did you become a:n American citizen at that time? �2-l SLOVAKIA Mr. Smrekovsky. Yes, sir, after being five years in this country. Mr. McTi!gue. I under,stand that you returned to Slovakfa in 1939; is that cor.root? Mr. 1Smrekovgky_ 1939; yes. Mr. !l\foTigue. What iwas the purpose for returning to Slova·k ia at that time? Mr. Smrekovsky. To. visit my father because he was reaching 90 rund wrote me that he was i'll; so I wanted to visit him and see him. Mr. Mc'figue. Now, did you return to Slovakia before the 'Outlbreak oif wa;r between Germa;ny a.ind Polamd? Mr. 1Sm.rekovsky. Yes. We had a little difficll'l,ty crossing t:he ·Polish boroer, lbut ,that didn't amount to much. Mr . .McTigiue. Noiw, at thait time, conditions were good in ,Slovakia; is that correct? Mr. Smreko'V'sky. Yes, they were. Mr. Mc'figue. There wasn't any difficulty as far as Mr. ,S mrekovs,k y. We didn't .know anything about wa:r then. Mr. McTigue. There was ,c omplete fu-eedom of ithe Mr. ISm.rekovsky. Yes. press... Mr. McTigue. Freedom of ireligion . . . Mr. 1Smerkovsky. Yes. Mr. McTigue. And freedom of assembly Mr. Smerkov:sky. Yes. iMr. iMcTigue. Hoiw long did you stay in 1Slovakia? Mr. 1Smrekovsky. 1Seven years. Mr. McTigue. Then you were there at the time the Rus1M r. !Smrekov.s ky. Ye·s, I was. sians C'aime into 1Slovaikia? Mrr. Mc'figue. What - or, w:hen did you first come .in contact with the Commun.ists? Mr. Smrekovsky. After the German Army was defeated, they started to drop parachutists to organize Communist bands to pers.e cute and rob middle class and decent people. 1M r. Mc'.Dig,ue. Noiw, did this haJppen in 1944? Mr. IS mrekovs.ky. Yes. lMr. Mcrrigue. And thls i1s the Communist-inspir ed uprising that you are talk,i ng a:bout. �SLOVAKIA 25 Mr. Smrekovsky. Yes. Mr. McTi,g ue And in the community where you were liviing rthey had parachuted agents into the community to organi1ze Communist bands in order to continue the uprising? Mr. Smreko,v,s ky. That's right. Mr. McTi'gue. And bring it to a successful conclusion, if necessary? !Mr. ISmrekovsky. Yes, and spread commurnsm at the same time. Mr. Mc'I'igue. Now, can you teH us some of the things you wit:ne.ssed, yourself, during the course of this Communist-inspired uprising? Mr. Smrekovsky. I remember a family cruptured by the OommUIIllists. There were five memlbers in the fami'ly, a twoyear-old giirl, there was another bigger girl, a son-in-laiw, a,n old man, and his wife. They were dragged to the edge of the forest and shot from ithe back. Then they dug a hole for them and buried them. Mr. Bonin. Mr. Counsel, I just want to interrupt here. We hea.ird testimony .b efore from different witnesses when stating that ithey were shot in the back, do you mean that the . . . Mr. Smrekoivsky. They start •t o run. Mr. Bonin. They ,s tarted to run? Mr. Smrekovsky. They started to run and they shot them from the back. iMr. Bonin. And they shot tlhem firom the bru~k whiie they were trying to get away from them? Mr. 1Smrekovsky. Yes. Mr. Bonin. Now, they were agents of the Russian Government - that were doing that? Mr. Smrekovs:ky. Exactly. Mr. Bonin. .A!nd were they armed, these people that were shot, or were they with01Ut a,r,ms? Mr. IS mrekovsky. They were without arms. Mir. Bonin. They were without arms? Mr. '.Smrekovsky. Without arr-ms, innocent people. Mr. Bonin. But, nevertheless, they were all .s hot in the baC'k, the one two years of a,ge, four years of age, the two larger ones, the son-in...,Jaw, and the father? 1 1 �26 SLOVAKIA ,M r. Smrekovsky. And the mother, too. Five persons. Mr. Bonin. Five persons? Now, you say that they were tossed in •a mass grave; is that correct? Mr. Smrekovsky. That's right. Mr. Bonin. They were a:11 placed in the same g:raJVe? MT. 1Smrekovsky. Yes. Mr. Bonin. Was there any re1iigious burirul service involrved? MT. Smrekovsky. No, sir. No, sir. They just buried them there like any criminals. It ha:ppened around Oot:ctber, and during tJhe winter they dug them out and :p ut them in the cemetery, in the corner of the cemetery, where they are Mr. Bonin. Continue Mr. Counsel. sti1l buried. 'Mr. IMcTiigue. Now, after the Communists had occuipied Slovwkia, did there come a time when you were put in jail your1self? 1Mr. Smreikovsky. Yes. r:r was there 14 days. Mr. Mcfl'igue. Why? Mir. 1Smrekovsky. Of course, they had no reason. They wanted to get rid of the middle-class people. My ·brother-4nlaw and a friend of mine were an-ested. Finally, my wife went to the authorities <a!Ild they let me free after 14 days. Mr. McTigue. What happened to your brother-in~law? Mr. 1Smrekovsky. Well, he was jailed also, hut they released him. Mr. Mc'I'igue. But there were others whom they didn't Mr. Smrekovsky. Yes. ,r elease? ~fr. lMc'l'igue. You know that of your own personal Mr. 'Sm~kOIV'sky. Yes. knowledge? Mr. Mc'.Digue. They were friends of yours? Mr. 'Smrekov,s ky. Yes. Mr. McTigue. Leading people in the community? •M r. Smrekovsky. Yes. Mr. Smrekov,s ky. Yes. Mr. McTigue. Priests? Mr. Smrekovsky. That's right. Mr. McTigue. Nuns? of different rel,i gious faiths? people And lMcTigu.e. Mr. Mr. SmTekovsky. Yes. MT McTigue.·· Now, when did you and how did you get back to the United States? �SLOVAKIA 27 Mr. SmrekoV!Siky. As soon as the American constcl came to Prague, I a,pplied for visa to the United States, and as soon as my transportation was ready I lef.t and came to the United States, first of Octolber 1946. I left my we there for three years until I could bring her 'O'Ver. Mr. iMcTigue. Now, at the time you le.flt you awned some Mr. Smrelwvsky. Yes. · property; didn't you? Mr. iMcTigue. What lhaippened to that iproperty af.ter you left? . Mr. Smrekovsky. Well, that was a1l confiscated. My wife had to sign a statement tha,t it's gi;ven to ,the Govem.ment. And every'body ,w ho wamts to come to America had to do that. Otherwise she would't get a !Visa. The Chairman. That is a method of highway robbery that they hold against somebody that wants to migraJte from one country to. another? Mr. S'mrekovsky. Yes, sir. Mr. Bonin. They compel them to transfer their i)roperty to the Government. (Wil:kes-iBarre, Pa., September 30, 1954). a FROM THE TESTIMONY OF MRS. SMREKOVSKY iMr. McTigue. When yoUJr husband left Slova!kia in 1946 to come to the Untted States, he left you in Slovakia; is (Mrs. Smrekovsky. Yes. that correct. Mr. iMcTigue. And at the time he left you in 1946 you had under yourr care the property which you both owned; is Mrs. :SmrekoV'Slky. Yes. thaJt correct? Mr. McTigue. rNow, when your husband left and you had the ipropeirty under your management, what experience did you have with the Communists? Mrs. Smrekovsky. Very ibad. Mr. McTigue. Did they make efforts to frig,hten you in --any way so that you would give your property ;to them? Mrs. Sinreko1Vsky. ThaJt was the only hope to come to this country, unless if agreed that the property is transferred to the Government. Mr. McTigue. So until you signed over your property to �28 SLOVAKIA the Government you 'had no chance of leaving Slovakia; is !Mrs. 1Smrekovsky. Yes. that correct? MT. iMcTigue. iln it.he meantime, while you were still there, in 1946 and b,efore you left the country, were your friends mistreated by the Comrnurusts? Were any of yoll'I' close friends that you harve personal ikno,w ledge of mistreated in any way by the Communists? !Mrs. Smrekorvsky. In my hometown there were shot or massacred four 1people while I was wiith my ,p arents - there was a senator, a notary public, a mayo.r , and a foo-ester. DuTing the night, in theilr ntght clothes, they loaded them UJp in one truck rund took them away. Mr. McTigue. What was their crime? Why were they shot? Mrs. Smrekovsky. Because they were not Communists and they never a:gireed with the Comml.llilists. MT. Bonin. Oongressman Feighan. Just a minute. In other words, even though the Communists ,have been in Slo1Mrs. Smre~ovsky. Yes. va:kia since 1945 . . . Mir. Bonin. StiM your relatives ·a nd friends have not beMrs. Smrekovsky. Right. come Communists? Mr. Bonin. They still belie·v e in ,t he religion and the freedom of religion that they had before?. Mrs. Smrekovsky. And they hope they wihl be £.reed and live again like decent people. MT. Bonin. In other words, regardless of how long the Communists may dominate Slorvrukia, there is still that desire for freedom on theiiT prurt and to live as they used to prior to the Communist regime that has been imposed upon Mrs. Smrekovsky. Yes, sir. them? Mr. Bonin. Now, I understand that t:hese four influential 1poople, a senator, a mayor, a t:imiber man and a notary public, were also shot because rthey failed to accept communism and to lead the people through Communist doctrines and princilples under the domination of the Russian system? Mrs. Smrekorvsky. Right. Mr. Bottin. That is the type of freedom thaJt is being sold to the ,people behind the lTOn Currtain? Mrs. -Smrekovsky. Yes, sir. �SLOVAKIA 29 MT. Bonin. Force, threats, violence, and intimidation, in order to constantly keep them in fear of whait is apt to happen to them? 1M rs. Smrekovsky. Exactly. Mr. Bonin. Now, your wifo came out of Czecho-iSliovrukia in 1'9 49; ts thart: correct? Mr. IS mrekovsky. Yes, sirr. Mr. !Bonin. And the principal reason ,w hy you aTe testifying under an assumed name is lbecaUJSe you are fearrful of what might haJppen to your relaUves and ,t he friends. that you ,s till 1haJVe in 1s1ova~ia? Mr. Srnrekovsky. Exactly. (WiJJkes-iBarre, Pa., ,September 30, 1954). FROM THE TESTIMONY OF JOSEPH PAU00 Mr. McTigue. 1Mr. Pall'co, where are you living at the present ,t ime? - - - Dr. Pauco. ln Middletown, Pa. Mr. McTigue. H ow are yiou employed? Dr. Pa:ll!co. I am assistant editor of the Slova.k weekly, Jednota. Mr. McTigue. Mir. !PauJco, I understand that you were born in Slovakia, is that correct. Dr. PaU!co. Yes; that is true. Mr. ,M cTigue. What part of Slovakia? Dr. Pauco. In ceilltraJl Slovakia. Mr. McTigue. Central ISlovaJkia. And it's my understanding that you spent most of your adult life as a journalist; is that coTrect? [)r. ,Pawc'O. Yes; that is correct, sir. Mr. McTi:gue. W1hiile yiou were in Slova!kia, it is also my understanding that in yiour capacity as -a journa:list, you had the occasion to witness the Communist~in,s;pired uprising in 1944; is that correct? Dr. Pa'Ulco. Yes, that's true. Mr. Mc'lligue. And were, you also present at the uncovering of the mass graves at Vinnitsia in the Ukraine? Dr. Pauico. Yes; that's right. Mr. McTigue . . How d!id you happen to be there? Dr. 1Pau'co. I was a member of a journalist expedition in July 1943 It wa:s an e~pedition of all journalists firom cen.trrul Europe. I came to Vmnitsia in July 1943 and I wais there four days. In those four days I saw five ,o.r six maSIS grarves of the Ukrainian people and some Polish people, who were �30 SLOVAKIA murdered by the ,Soviets. An eX!planation was girven to us by the Geamam.. dootors that these people were shot between 1939 and 1941. I spoke with the local people, Ukrainia:n and Polish people, some dozens of these people, because we were allowed to spealk to those people - a,t the mass graves there in Vinnitsia, in the town of Vinnitsia. For example, I was shaved twice in a local lba'.l'bershop, and I spoke to these men and with some. other people ,i n Vinnitsi,a. A concert was gurven in t'he town of Vinnitsia in honor of ,t he journaliSll:s' e,q;>edition, and after this concert, I spoke with several men and women, and all these Ukrairuian people trul'ked to me. They said what I saiw there in mass graJVes is true, and that their relaitirves were shot by the Soviets between 1939 and 1941, after the occupation of west Uikra,inia in 1939. Some people of Ukrainian nationality known as strong anti-Communists were deported in the Illight. And late,r , at the begmning of the wa:r !between 1Sovieit Russia and Germany, deporta:tion was in ~eat masses. Nob,ody ,w as sure that hls, relatives, hrusbands, sons, or some other of the family, wilhl not be shot in the night. I have in my memory six ox seven cases of the wives and daughters of the shot fathers and brothers, who told me their relatives were deported in the night. The people knew nothing. Their husbands and fathers were sent to Siberia or probably shot. Mir. McTigu:e. How many people were killed Dr. Pauco. Several 'hundred. iMr. McTigue. At Vinnitsia? Dr. Pau'co. 1Severrul hundred. I was at the graves four days and I spoke with several dozens of Ukrainian women, and, I learned, several ·hundred were buried in these mass grarves. iMr. McTigue. In these mass grarves that you knew about? Dr. ·P auco. Yes; in Vinniitsi.a. Mr. McTigue. Yes. But there were other mass graves disc01Vered later on; is that correct? Dr. Pau'CO. I heard about it. I know a;bout Katyn, but I wasn't there. ,I was in Vinnitsia and I can state only what l saw at these mass graves. I have here a statement of what �SLOVAKIA :n I saJW at these mass graves. Mr. McTigue. iMay I suggest, Mir. Chairman, since we hawe other testimony that we want to develop, and since we haJVe other witnesses, t:ha.t we admit this statement into the reoord, but not have it read at this time? Dr. Paulco. All right. Mr. ,McTig;ue. IMaJke it a ,p art of the reoord. Mr. !Bo:nin. Woll!ld you have any objection if we make this staitement a part of the record at this time and you g;ilVe us the highlights of it as of thJis moment? Dr. PaUlc<>. All right. Mr. Bonin. Without oibjootion, we will take the statement and place it in the committee files. Mr. iMcTigue. You may recall, Mr. Chairman, tllait we had testimony at our hearings in Munich on the Vinnd.tsia murders very much ,a long the same 1ines Mr. Paruoo is testifying. This testimony that he has given today on the subject of the Vin.nlitsi.ai massacre eertainlly corroibo,rates wha,t we hea.Td from many ,wiit:nesses in Munich. You aJlso recall in connection with that testimony that one of ibhe witnesses descri1bed the finding of hundreds of bod!ies of Vinnitsi:a \'i,ctims under the floor of a d'ance hall in one of the amusement •pariks iw:hen these mass graves were investig;ated. iI am sure you recall thait testimony. Mr. Bonin. Yes. I distinctly recall that, a'lld this corroborates the faot tJhat these mass graves and the mass kfiling of citizens of Vinnirtsia was deli;b erate and ,pe~trated entirely by ,t he Communist regime in Russia. Now, I understand, Mr. Pauioo., that you have some addition.al testimony suipplementing what 1happene:d in V!innitsia aind what took ,p lace in 'Slov,aikia; is that C()lrrect? Dr. PaU!co. Yes. I woltld iiJke to say thiat the same thing that h~ppened in Vinnitsia in 1939-41 happened in Slovakia in lr944. The Sovli.ets' s~hool oif prurtisans were parachuted in the s,prmg of 1'94'4 in the mou:nrtains of Slorvaki1a, and then in August 1'9414 they orga.ruzed a so-calil ed uprising against the SlovaJk Government a'lld shot hundredlS and thousands of Slovaks of anti..Communist feeling. Im Slova1ci(a, we had at this time, 1944, several mass graves of innocent Slovak ciiti- �32 SLOVAKIA zens, Slova.ik ainti-Oommunist patriots. The Communist part~,s ans ,w ere 1pariachUJted, as I mentioned, by the Soviets, and the partisans were also furnh,,hed Soviiet ammunition. This so-called upris,i ng in 1Slov-akia started with prepairations in 194'3. Some so.-,called underground politicians made an 8.'greement with the Communist leader, Karol Schmidke. And this Karol ;Schmidke saiid in 1946 that this action in 1943, this preparation of the uprising, was the merit o;f the illegal Communist Party. All the people who declined to collaborate with the Communist ieaders in 1944 were shot. Thiiis happened in central 1Slova.ikia because central Slovakia is a mountainous land. Then the German armies came to S1ova-kia and :Slorvak ter:nitory was a battlefield. After this Communist uprising in ,Slovrukia, I heard f.rom my friends, from my relatives in ISJ.ovakria thrut many innocent ,p eople, farmers, ,w orkei,s, priests, ,s ome ipriesits, ,s ome congressmen, were shot by the Communists. I recall a congressman, a Catholic priest Anthony Salat. He was of very strnnig feeling against the Communists. He wrote several books againist communism and, iin the first week of the uprising, he was shot. In 1Slw8!kia were liquidated about forty to fifty thousand :S lovaks in this Communist putsch. 1 Mr. IMc'Digue. T1hey were shot? Dr. Pauco. They were shot 1b y the Soviets, b,y the Soviets' paritisan,s and by the collaborators in Slovakia. !Mr. McTigue. About '50,000? Dr. Paufo. Yes, aJbout '50,000. Mr. McTigue. 1In the period of one year? Dr. Pauco. In the period of three months. Mr. McTigue. Three months? Dr. Pauco. The purtsch was defeated in two months, but after there were some battles in the mountains in Slovakia, and in December the Red Army ,c ame to Slovalkia. Several thousand Slo.vaJks fr,om eas,t ern Sl01viakia were sent by the NK_,V il) to Russia, to Siberia and concentration camps. and to the mines in Dombas. Mr. IMcTigue. Norw, when and how did ,t he uprising finally end? �33 SLOVAKIA Dr. Pauco. The German Army came into Slovakia in September 1944. Mr. McTigue. Now, you had a close relationship with Monsignor Tiso; isn't that correct? Dr. Pauco. 'f.hat's true. Ylr. McTigue. Now, will you tell the committee who Monsignor Tiso is and briefly explain your relationship with him and your discussion with h~m afte,r the putsch? Dr. Pauco. I was editor-in-chief of the greatest daily in Slovakia, the "Slovak." This daily was the organ ,o f Monsignor Tiso. Joseph Tiso was the first Slovak President. He was the legal President of the SlovaJk Republic, which came into being on March 14, 1939. The ,Slovaik Republic had diplomatic relations with 27 naJtions, of them 17 or 18 were on the side of the western allies. Monsignor Tiso was a Christian ruler - after a thousand years, the first Slovak irll'ler and I had the opportunity to spea:k with him practically every week . I reca:11 thrut on August 20, 1944, I was in Presov at a meeting called by the Government, by the army, and by the Slovak People's Party. At that time, in eastern Slovrukia the situation was very critica•l and the delegates practicaly from every village and every town from eastern Slovakda told the Government and government representatirves of Bratislava, tha:t something wliitl hruppen if the Slovak Army and Slovak police do not interlere. Pradically the whole of eastern Slovakia was, parachuted at this ,t ime by the So;yiets, the Soviet parti,sans and Soviet a;genrts. I spoke after this meeting with Dr. Tiso, and ag,ain when the pUJtsch was liquidated. Dr. Tiso at this time was ready to resign. He hoped that some Slovak politician would take the Slovak question to the International Tribunal. Mr. Bonin. Tribunal? Dr. Pauco . Tribunal, yes, because he would iiike to change the regime, but to preserve independent Slovakia. That was the goal of Monsignor Dr. Tiso. Mr. McTigue. What happened to Monsignor Tiso eventuallv? Dr. Pauco. Monsignor Tiso was hanged, executed by the Communist nation:i.l court, April 18, 1947, in Bratislava. Dr. 1 �34 SLOVAKIA Tiso wa.s the first among the Catholic prelrates in central Europe who were executed by the Communists afte,r Warld War Iil. Mr McTigue. The usual phony charges, I suppose, were applied, and the usurul phony court procedures were set in motion? Dr. Pauco. Just becallise he had anti-Communist feelings; I know, 'Il!Ot from Dr. Ttso, but from his personal secretary who its living now i n Caniada, seiveral times, Soviet agents were ready to assuire to Slova.ks and Dr. Tiso himself a seperate Slovak-,Soviet Repulblic if Dr. Tiso will go wtth the Soviets, and Dr. Tiso refused. Tiso said one time, I recall, that tf his own brother were a Communist, he would fii.ght him. And I am SJure that i·s why Dr. Tiso wa:s executed by the Commtmists' so-called nahonal court in April 1947. Mr. Fetghain When you state that Monsirgnor Tiso was the first of the clergymen to he executed by the Russian Communists, you mean the first outstanding figure, both in the spiritual and politic8il world? Dr. Pll!uico. Yes, sn-. That's correct. Mr. Feiigihain. That's 1a ll. Mir. Bonin. W-ell, Mr. Pauco, it is nothing uncommon for a priest or a member of the clergy in central EUI'Opean countries to be in political life; isn't that correct? Dr. Paooo . Yes, that's ri.ghit. Mr. Bonin. And, therefore, they would be permitted to engBlge in political lifo . . . Dr. Pauco. Yes. MT. Bonin. Bllit they took a leave od' absence from their clerical life; isn't that coreivct? Dr. Pauco. No, that was not so in S1ovakiia. Monsignoir Tiso, as Prresident of the Slovak RepU!blic, was the adm~nistrator of his own parish in Bano:vce, rund sang Holy Mass there practically every Sunday. 'Mr. McTigue. Tell me, Mr. P8iuoo., how and why did you escaipe from Slo1Va!kia arnd come to this country? Dr. Praulco. After what I ,s aw in Vinnitsia, then in Slovakia , and what I hearo from many hundreds orf escll!pees from Ukrainia, from Poland, from Russia, from Hu'Il!gary, �SLOVAKIA 35 from Ruman:i:a ., from Lithiuani:a, about ·p ractices of 1S01Viets, I could not stay in rS1()1VlaJk:J,a, because I hated communism ; I hated oolsiheiv:ism, and I hoped to live in the free Western World. I am happy that 1 am here in this free ,a nd democratic couliltTy. I haive my relatives over there, ,a nd one of my relatives came through the border just several months ago to Austriia. He. ~s: now in the American Zone, and he writes to me. thlat Oill!r ;p eople over there behind the Iron Curtain have friends. here in the United States, and they are praying every d·a y that the Gorvernmen t of the United States wHl win the battle against communism . ,A nd Slorvaks, like IPoles, the Uikrairuans , the Baltic nations, or Rum•a nia, Hung,ary, the Czechs:, Croatians,, :Serbians, and so on, they like to be free like you are here in this country; they like to be independen t, and, maybe, wiH sometime be ruinified in a great European federation li,k e yoru are here urnfied in the United States. Mr. M:c~•g ue. When di:d you say you left Slovakia? Dr. Pauco. It wa:s in Apr.ii 1945. Mr. McTigue. And when did you arrive in this country? Dr. 'P auco. WoUT years aglO, in Apri[ 1950. Mr. McTigue. I have no further questions, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Bonin. Mir. Feiglha:n. Mr. Feighan. Mr. Pau!co, we have heard testimony with reference to the Vinnitsia massacres ,w hich stated' to us that after the Commllllllists were diriiven out of the Ukm.i.ne in 1943 and the Naizis came in, they opened up graves of which there were 38, each of them the same length, and widlhh, and depth, that they conWned ov:er 10,000 rpeople they weiI'en't aill U!kirruinians; some were IPoJes, and of other nationalities ; 'that the people there were of various status ; they were, :farmers, armsan;s, wovkers, ,a nd rinteilleotUJals, and the testimony th1at we rnceived also. indicated, at iJ.east with reference to those particulaT graves, that tlhey were done by the So;viet Russ,i ans durJng the years 1937 and 1938, but I assume that they did many othera besides those. Dr. Pa:uco. I spoke ,t o the 1people of Vinniitsia, these �SLOVAKIA 36 people, Ukramiians and Poles, were all liquidated tb y the Soviet agents. ,MT. Feighan. Yes. That ~s my understanding. Dr. Pauoo. Yes. Mr. Feighan. The testimony that we had shows that. I 1have no further que,s1t1:ons Mr. Bonin. WeH, Mr. Pa.'Ulco, you stated that this alleged uprising in Slovakiia was clearly Communist inspired, is that OOlITect.. Mr. Pauco. Yes, that is correct. Mr. BODJin. They created dissension and they created an atmospheTe Olf revolt within Slova:ki:a? Dr. Pauoo. Yes. !Mr. !Bonin. And a.gents had been sent in there, is that cor,rec.t, to irritate and agitate this revolt? Dr. Pauico. That is correct. Mr. iBonin. And by thait means using the Commurnst tecfunique to wipe out the ,people that were undesiralble to them? Dr. Pauco. Yes Mr. !Bonin. Of coU1I1Se, iwe lhruve had testimony where thait same identicaJl truing was used in- other countries that have come under the domi'Il'ation of the Russians throughout different parts of Ea;sitern EuTope, lbut this is <the fhist time, I beli'e!V'e, that we had testimony that they were aotually dvopped in by pamchute to iITitate and agitaite rund crnate the trouble. Dr. Pauc·o. Yes. Mr. Bonin. But, in the meantime, they !had some agitators in there already; iis tlhat correct? Dr. Pauico. Oh, yes. Mr. Bonin. And they had le:6twingers ,i n there? iDr. Pallico. Yes. iMr. !Bonin. Who were ready to follow the agents tha:t were dTopped in? Dr. PauJco. Yes. Mir. !Bonin. In other words, isome people in the United States fool that there are not many Communistls, lb ut they are aliways :ready, willing w:hen the o.p portune time cOllnes, to seize that opportunity to overthrow the existing governmenrt: in any partioular place . Dr. Pauco. Thait's wue. Mr. Bondn. Now, of course, since you have lbeen in the 1 �SLOVAKIA 37 United States, you have been trying to. bring to the attention of the people of the free world this Commwnist threat; is that correct? Dr. P,a uco. Yes, that is oorredt. Mrr. Bonin. And in each instance where you haive an opportUillity, and I understand that you are still a newspaperman and a joornalist, you bring these facts to .t he attention of the people that Tead your newspaper, the Je<lnota? Dr. fuuco. Yes, that's correct Mr. Boniin. This isn't tJhe fiiirst part, of Eastern Europe that we have heard of where forty to f,i fty thousand people have boon slaughtered.; O'Ilce a;gain demonstrating that the Communist regime holds power only because 1t UJSeS force and threats and intimidation to keep the people ias helpless as they possibly can. Dr. Paiu100. That is correct. Mr. Bonin. WeH, on behalf of the committee.. I 'Wish to thank yow for your splendid staJte:rnent tlhat you haive made as a part of thii:s ree-0,r d and for the reswme orf yo'lllI' experiences in Ozecho-Siovakia and in .Slov•a kia. Dr. Pauco. Thank you. Mr. Boiruin. Mr. Feighan has another question 'h e would like to as!k you, Mr. Pauco. Mr. Fei,ghan. Do you not feel that it is correct, Mr. Pautco, that the people of 1Slo;v;akia are imbued with the nationali-stic -spirit, a love of God and a love of colUllltry, and they just seek the right of self-deteTmination as ~ sovereign nation? - Dr. Pauco. That is co,r rect, Slir. Mr Bonin. In other words, they are asking nothing more than some of the principles: that have been em.mcia:ted through long yea.rs, that each people have the right to de- · termine the kmd o.f government they wish to have, the type of leaders they wish to have, and to conooct their Lives and thei,r g01Vernment in theiT own nationialistic spirit and attitude. The people orf R!Umania, Hung,a ry, Po•land, Lithuania, Latvia, EJSltooila, ruid o:their nations ha,v e the same desire to goveTn themselves; is that correct. Dr. Pauico. Yes; iliat iis correct. MT. Bomn. Welil., I 'Wliish to thank you ,v ery much for your testimony, and we sincerely hope thait the opportunity 1 �SLOVAKIA 38 presents itself to defeat thls Communist threat, not only to the Ewopean natio111S., burt: also to the peoples of the free world. Thank you ve,r y much. Dr. P,aulco. Thank you. Mr. Feiighan. Waiit a minute, Mr. Pauco·. Dr. Pauco. Yes. Mr. Feighan. During your experience in Slova>lcia, did you haive an opportunity to witness the manner by which the Russian Commlln!isbs tried to break up the culture, the 1,anguage, the customs, and the religion of the Slovak people? Dr. Pauco. I lived in Bratislava. Bvatislava is the capital of Sllo;v,rukdoa, and is on fille west border of Slovrukia. The Soviets came from the east. The whole of Slov-akJa was occupied on April 7 or 8, ,a nd I escaped from Bratis lav,a on April 4. Mr. Feighan. I see. Dr. Paulco. I wasn't there after the Soviets occupied the whole of Slov.alk,i a, ·b ut I was in Braitiosla:va during three months thait the eastern part of Sl()!Va:kia was occupied by the !Soviets, and I heard from my relatives, from my f11iends , of the methods which I mentioned before. Mr. !Feighan. Yes; but you were noi there yourself t o see it and observe .iit? Dr. Pmrco. No, no. Mr. Feigihan. Well thank you, Mr. Pauco Or. Paulco. You are wekome. Mr. Bonin. Thank you <very much. (Wil'kes-,Barre, Pa. , September 30, 1954). FROM THE TESTIMONY OF DR. JOSEPH l\1IKULA IMr. iMcTigue. Were you in Sl'OVlaJkia during World War Dr. Miku1a. Yes, I was. Mr. iMcTigue. Were you a pairt of the underground movemerut in Slovakia? Dr. Mikul,a. Yes, sir. We started the underground movement at the end of World War II. I was one of those who started it. iMr. Mc'Digue. When did it start ? Dr. Mi1kula. It was in 1944. tr? �SLOVAKIA 39 :Mir. McTigue. What caused you amd others to form this underground moivement? Dr. Mikula. I will read a short statement in this connection. The inception of the anti-Communist arganirlation is attrilbutafule to the iintellectuals wlho foresaw the necessity of truking preventive measures aga,inst the imminent d001ger of communism. They studied communism and decided to combat it, ~cause tlhey had no false illusions of whether or not the Communists wOIU!ld Telax their demands after World War II. The first communistic pressur~ was expected in the field of religion. Conseqiue.ntly, the preparations were directed for the defense of re!l,i gious freed.om and the preservation of religious life in the event of intensive persecutions. The second fi.eld was the po[iltical field. Ourr ca1cuJations at the !beginning w&e wrong. They didn't staTt at the beginning in religiious _peil'Sooution, but it:Jhey concentrated an theliir activities in the political field. Mr. Kersten. Have you finished with your s1:Jatement? Dir. Mikul,a. No; very briefly about this polii!tical field. The most essential elements in tlhe polritical life of the nation are political parties. The Communists knew it, and acted accordingly. They were verry cautious. that no par.ty existed which by attracting the sympathy of a majority of the _population wouild endanger t'he position of the Commumst Party. So, the parties which airose after the war with the petrmisSlion of the Communusts were incapable of eiffecting strong anti-Communist oipposition, because, first, theiy had no roots, no tradition, a;mong the population. Second, part of their leadeffi, were either tools of Communists ior opportunists who, /because of l,a ck of principles and courage, completely sulbmitted to the Communist pressure, and third, throug;h the assistance of the ColIIlm.unist Party, they were s'h ackJed - aM other parties were shackled by the coordinating comrruttee of all the parrties, the socalled National Front. This Nationa'l Front was nothing else but a machine in the ih ands of the Communists to control aU o,pposiition against the Communist Party. Mr. Mc'l'igue. Were you the recognized leader of the un- �40 SLOVAKIA derground in Slovakia? Dr. Mikula I woll!ldn't say so. Mr McTig;ue. Were you one of ,t he leaders? Dr. Mikula. Yes. Mr. McTigue. !Did you ar.ronge to have some of your members sent abroad in order to assist in the underground movement from without ? Dr. Mtkula. I thin:k I can state it quite openly. Our program was to prepa1re things, firs,t, at home, and, second, we had some people out aibroad. I mean, out of ,the count.Ty. We ,s end them out of the country ,a nd directed the situ.aitiion, informed them, they ind'ormed us. The illlformatiion we receirved we direoted to ,proper aut'horitie;, iMr. Keirsiten. Now, just at this ipoint - we want to ma:ke sure that you understand ,p erfectly clearly, Mr. Mikula. We know, of course, that you did operate in the underground in Slovakia, and there are undou!btedly a number of things that you would not wish to spea;k a.'bout specifiicaHy and openly. 1S0 that any question the oounseil or any member here might ask in that regard, you just use yom own judgment. We don':t want you to disclose pU!blicly anything t hat would in any way endanger the ipresent situation there, a:nd that is what you 'ha,,ve in mind, Mr. Counsel, I am sure. Mr McTigue. Yes, Mr. Chairman. Dr. [Mikula. Yes. I 'Wl3.'Ilted to ask yo u for this permission. Mr. Mc'Tugue. How long were you a part of the undergroU1I1d in Slovakia.? Dr. Miikwla. I was wor,king directly in the field almost fiiive years to the. end ,o f 1'949. 1Iin Feb:rua.ry 11950 I left for the United States. ·Mr. McTigue. And did you emigrate to the Uniited States in 1950? Dr. Milkula. Yes, I did. Mr. McTigue. Now, when you left 1S1ova.ki.a in 1949, were you furced to !leave your wife b e hind'( Dr. Mikula. No, I was one of tho se who was sent abroad when the Communists took over and legia.l opposition was ailimost iimpossilble in ,the country. So, I went out from Slova:kfa in 1945, and I was wonk,i ng outside of Sfoviakia.. I was worlcing abroad. I have here a little bo~ldet edited by 1 1 �41 SLOVAKIA the Ministry of l!nterior in .Prague; the head of the Ministry of Interior was a well-iknown Oommunist •o y the name of Nosek. It was edited and published by the Ministry of Interior, 5,000 issues were distrilbuted over here. My name is mentioned aJbout 70 or 80 times in this booklet. Mr. Kersten. Just .so we get th•a t clearly, as I understand it, you ~eift Sloivaikia in 1945. Dr. Mikuia. Yes, I did. Mr. Kersten. And you were outside the country? Dr. Mikula. Yes. Mr. Kersten. !But while you were outside the coll!Ilitry during the fullowmg yerurs up 'll'Iltil -about 1949 or 1950, you were woriking in t'hiis movement, is that correct? Mr. '.Mhlm~ia. I was in steady contact, and I was one of the leaders outside. MT. Kersten. Of the lllillderground freedom m01vement in Slova,kiia? Dr. Mii kula. Yes. Mr. Kersten. And this :book ,t hat you have ha,nded us here is a booldet put out by the Communists in Bratislava? Dr. Miikula. 1:rl ·P rague. The Ministry of InteriOT, Czecho-Slovakia. Mr. [Kersten. Maylbe we 1had better mark this. Dr. Milrula. The title of .the book is "Conspiracy Agaiinst the Repl]blic." iMT•. Kersten. Would you mark thi<s "Milwaukee Exhibit 4." And you have stated rthat this Milwaukee Exhibit 4 is a Communist ,pubH1cation ipulblished in what year? Dr. Miiktl'l.a:. ffit was printed Noivemlber 1947. Mr. Kersten. And it contains rtJhe accounts of operations 2.gainst the Communist g01Vernmen t; is that correct? Dr. Mikula. Yes. Mr. Kersten. And you are named in here, as you say, 70 or 80 times? [)r. Mii:ku1 a !Something liike that. Mr. Kersten. In rw1hat crupacity? Dr. Miikuila. Someitiiimes as ibhe leadeT of the underground, sometimes as an American agenrt, sometimes Mr. Kerstein. Always in a derogatory sense? Dr. M~kuJ1a. Absolutely. 1 1 1 �42 SLOVAKIA Mr. Kersten. I notice on 1:Jhe first page of the printing here - one of the first rpages - it is aotually page 7,, but it seems to be the start "Of the body of t'he article - I notice a name - Joseph rMi!kufa. Is that you? Dr. Mikula. That i:s me. Mr. Kersten. Then you are named frequently therearfter; Dr. Mikula. Yes. is t:Jhiat rig1ht? Mr. Kersten. Proceed, Mr. Coltl7lsel. Mr. McTigue. I w,ant to •ask you two questions. Dr. Mikula. Wi'fil you briefly tell uis something about the ac'tiivities of the ll!Ilderground, and secondly, were these actiivities effectiive, in y;our j,udg,menit? Mr. iKersten. Keeping in mind tJhe safety maitters that we tahlced albout. Dr. Miikua,a. As I mentioned before, the legaiJ. resistance or Jega!l oppositilion againJSt communism was foiling. So, the people 1wirt:Jh ra nti-Oommunist tendencies lost faith m their weaik and oppo:rbuni,stic party leaders, and consequently, sought -0ther mea.lilS wiherelby they might prevenit the Communists from ·aocompl:iishing their ,plans. Now, the diTect answer to your question, "Wihat were the actiivities ?" Fiirst, to do e,verythiing that would undermine the Coimmu!nist IP .arty, and the ends of tfue Oommunist Party. We knew that they will try to Sovietize, to taike over the counwy. So, we rpuibliiished leaflets. We published booklets. We pu'b1is,ihed pe;riodiools. IDverytilimg was hllegal and underground. That w.as at 'the b~imling. Laiter on, when it wiIB pretty hrurd to distrilbute mimeographed leaflets or publications - because they were against the Communists - we started an illegal triansimi-titer - a shortwaive radio station. It is not necessairy to teH where and how it was, but it existed and rit worked very effectively. Then, later on, we tried to collect all possible rnformaitiorn from political, economical, military, oullJtu,r,a-1 life; get it out and mfomi the worild 1aJbout the si•tUJatiion over there. JUJst to show you how it was done, here are some photostatic copies of the orders issued by the commander in ohlef of the nati'Onal security guard. It was a gend:armery police. �SLOVAKIA 43 Mr. McTigue. Communis t police? Dr. Milrula. CommUIIlist, yes. Mr. McTiguei. What did the ·o rder say? Dr. Mikula. They are different o:rders. For example, I will just ~ k of the first one. lt i,s dated Bratislava, March 4, 1947, firom the head{l_uall'lters of Nationail !S ecurity Guiard. The orders to the lower units of National Security Guards : il order that ,s pecial attention be paid to tJhe transports of Volhyi.ruia Ozechs cOIInli.ng from tihe U. S. S. R. - thait is the Soviet Union - they have already settled on the territory of Slovrukia. They have to lbe constantly watched arid fO!Nowed, because they are spreadling internationr uUy false infurmation a:bOUJt iour eastern ally, the U. S. S. R. Mr. !McTigue. Wha:t people is he talking rubout in tlhis order? Dr. !M.ikiula. One of the tactics of Commt.Lll!ist takeover was tramsplanta tion; movements of the people. Right after t'he war we had a HUJngarian minority in 1Slcwakia and a SlovaJki,a n minoniity in iH ungary. Now , right aft.er the war started the transportru tion orf these minorities frQiffi HUI11gary to Slovwkia, a,:nd from 1S1ova!kfa. to Hungary. What happened to Slovakia? From H1.1!11.g,acy came the people who couldn't sipealk any word of Sloviak. To Hungacy came people from Slova:kiia. There were Ozeohs iwho Hived about 200 or 300 years in one province of [Russia calllled Vo1hynia. Just to show good faith tor something like bha.t, the Sowet moved those Volhynia: Czechs to Ozeciho-Slovaikia. 'Dhe movements of the population are very serious thinigs, because they !bring insecurity. Noibody knows how long he stays in his ()IWll house., in his 01W11 neighlborllood, and so insecure people are aliways much easier for the CommUilasts to handle. Mr. McTigue. That is the grnup to whiioh he has reference in the order? Dr. Mikula. That is tihe explanation . So further: Specifically , I ask the units of Nationa,] Soourity Guard to watch the tI"ansports corning in and the transient transports orf V oohyniia Czec:hs going through the railroad station. �44 SLOVAKIA Those Czechs wouldn't come !into any contact with the public. I mea.n witJh the popu1ati10n. Then you hiwe here the order to maintain ~ continuous oontro1l on ail calls in post offices and telephone-Office excihanges. This was done by the ipol!ice. They ccmtr.ol all calls ·c oming in and W:hait was said. If they find something against the regime they wt accorcmng to regufations. Thls here is concerning the control of the pop.wlation in traiins. Everyone - they sa,y here, "Everyone is Slllpposed to have this ridentificaitioo. card1." So, the units of SiNB - lower units - are ordered lh:ere to control the population, and if somebody hasn't his idenitificatlion card, he ris supposed to be arrested am.cl brougiht ilil for investigation to the nearest police station. This order ooncerns the former gendarmes orr mem!bers of the National Security Guard poiice who were deported to Russia, were coniiined there, and later on brought 1b ack to Slovakia. Same of them were put in the!ir fonner positions. They were ·agaiin rcinsitated a:s gendarmes, but the order says: To the Ministry ()If Interior came the information t:Jhat the behavior ()If these returned former memlbers of gendarme is not satisfactory. They taJlk very sharply against the !S oviets iand are doring that even in the company of the other members of the unit. I order you to follow those memlbers in your d±sbr.icits and remind them that for bad talk aibout the brother nation, Russia, they can be ,p unished and arrested. Mr. McTigue. Now, what you haNe been de.scmbing to the oommittee . . . Dr. Mikll!la. These •a re just the examples of how information was oolle_c ted and brought out and utilized. Mr. McTigue. Now, do you know, or oan you tell the oommittee whether there is an wnderground operating in SwvaJkia ,a t the present time? Dr. Miilmla. l am posritive there is. First, I would just say from the general point of vtl.ew, so long as the Comm'Ulilists are unaJble to change human nait'UT'e, there wiU [be the will. to 1be free. It means there will be the will to rresist. That is a general rea:son �SLOVAKIA 45 Second, the best proof ,i s that you still read in the papers how much troulble they haJVe in .t his or that group or with this group, and so on. These are the 1best documents that the :resistance is not only aJlii.ve, but is acti1Ve. Mr. iMcTigue. Do you fool thaJt the underground is the heart of the resistance, the core of the resisltance, in Slovaki,a today? Dr. Mhlrul'a. I would say so. I would dare say that albout 80 or 90 per cent of the population is anti-Communist, but not aU of these 80 o:r 90 per cent are willing to ta!ke am. acti:ve part to fight oommundsm. Mr. iMcrrigiue. Why? Dr. (Mlikula. Because of the advances of oommumsm they are very cautious ito. d:o nothing which could provoke or cailll for Communist reprisals This is one reason. !Second, urSU1ally the people WOII'king activei1y and directly are, in my opinion, heroes, and not everyone cam. be a hero. So, from thds group, from this 80 per cent, we can sruy whaJt is in tlhe underground is the most ii.miporllant and most vaJLuiaJble co,re of passive and ,a ctive resistam.ce. Mr. McTigue. You were in Slov,rukia at the time of the Communist taikeover; is that correct? Dr. Mikula. Yes. Mr. IMc'Digue. Were there wholesaile arrests and deportations in Slovakia. as there were in the other C-Ollll!tries? Dr. Milkllll,a. Slovakia. is a small counrtry of 31bou,t 3½ million poipuilation. So the figures. are not so enormous, but in relatio1I1, in proportion to ,t he whole popll'laition, they are pretty big They deported in :t'he fi.rst month aifteir the occupa1tion of Slovakia rubout 38,000 people. Besides this, in tlhe !first half year, when they took over, aibout 133,000 people were put in ja,i1s, in camps, amd taken out of theiir normal life. Mr.' Mcrrigue. [ ha;ve M further questions. Mir. Kersten. Mr. Bentley? . Mr. Be1I1tley. When did you leave Slovakia? Dr. Mikula. I lefit Slovalci.a in 1945. Mr. Bentley. That was just the beginni.DJg of the antiCornmi.mist resistance then,, I presume. Dr. Mitkula. Yes. �46 SLOVAKIA Mir. Bentley. ilfaJVe you mamta.ined contacits, or how have yiou gotten yml'I' worrunaJtion regarding the activities of the underground since that time? Dr. MikU!la. As I Wld you, we haJVe steady contact through couriers. I wi!ll j!U'st mention one thing: In 1945 our coUJriers hrougiht over my wife with two little children. Mr. Chai:run:an rememJbers those l.ititle children. One w:as four and one was ,s ix. Mr. Bentley. How l01ng was co111tact of this kind maintained? Dr. Miikulia. ,J t.hinik that contac.t is stiH mamtarlned, but I could rta1k 3111d testify ,t o the end of 1'949. Mr. Bentley. Until the end of 1949, which was a,bout two years after the coup d'etat in Pra,gue? Dr. Milrula. Yes. !Mr. Bentley. And srunce .that time, your ilmowledge has been 01JJ.ly fTom information, not direct; rum I correct? Dr. Miku]a. lit is secondary. Before I reccived mormatron diirecil,y. I was ll'S'lllally the first who received it. Now I a'In receiving informia,tion, but later. Mr. Bentley. How dloes the situation in Slovakia compare wi;th that of otfuer countries in the Soviet satellite, would YOIU say? Iis it -b etter or worae? DT. MikU!la. I thiinlk .t he condifti,ons a;re generaHy the same in all the coU!Iltries. As for the resistance, maybe in S'lovakira, the resistance is a little bit stronger and maybe a little bit more success:fluil, 1becall!se, as you iknow, Slovakia is a country orf farnners, a country of mountainee:ris, ·a nd the people i1I1: Slovaiki'a are deeply reliigtlous. T.he hardest thing for the Communists to break ~re the farmers and /besides that, to remove Teligion from the sow of the rpeoiple and rep}ace it by Leninism is not so easy. You know .t hat. Mr. Bentley. So you would say that the cond!itiOIIl!S are about the same, but -the resistance itJhere is a little bit ·stronger? Dr. Mikula. Yes. The same. The same concentration camps, liaJbor orumps, the same tendency to create Kollkhozes and co[lectiive farms, the same tendency to brealk any possible resistance, and if there dsn't any hope, arrest the peo- �SLOVAKIA 47 ple, seind them ,t o uranii.ium mines; tJhe same everywhere, the same procedure. Mr. Bentley. Am ,I correct in believing that part of Slovakiia has been incorporiated in the 'Soviet Union? Dr. Mi:kula. A very small eastern part. Abowt 15 or 18 villages of S1ova1-da were inconporated inito the Soviet Ull!ion. Mr. Bentley. '.Dhe fiact that this resi,s tance dioes exist or does not exist in 'SlrovaJkia to the extent you say it does, what, in your opinio!Il, can lbe done most effectiively to eniruble this resistance to continue ,and maintain itself. Whrut encouragement or assistrunce can be givan, if any? Dr. 1M:iikuil.a. I would state .it in ·one way: To increase the hopes of ipeople lh'ling over there that soonetime there will be a cha1I1ge. iMr. Bentley. We ,a:re ta:lking specificailly of SLovaik:i!a. Dr. M:ikula. Spooiffioa.My, for 1Slovakia, it is absolutely necessary to reassure a;gaiin and again those people tlhat we are not forgetting them, we are not •giviing them up, and we have unde.rstaind!i!Il!g for their specific prolblems. Mr. Bentley. Including the right 'O'f self-determination? Dr. iMitkullia. '.Dhia.t is w!hat I walllted to say. We should not stick to the owtmoded, ourtlived st'I'luctures. '.Dhey have proved to be un:successfol, and rwe should give to the people the right to be free and to have therr OIWIIl: government, ·a ccording to their own c1hooce. That is one o.f the most important t'hd.ngs. Then th'i<s po<l.tnt: The people are, I wou!l.d say, 90 per cent 'llillited in Slovalk:ta. .Anyrt;hin,g whioh .poi.nrt:s o.wt thait we are forgetting them, rwe are not undersibanding them, is cutting otff the will to resist. iMr. Bentley. Thank you very much. Thiat i'S a:11, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Kersten. Congressman Feighan? MT. Feighan. Dr. 'Mikula, as I understand it, you feel thrut the people of 1SIOV1akia should be ,giiven assurances that the free ,w orld would sirnpport their desire for seiltf national determiniation of thei:r own identity as a nation if they so desiire? · Dr. Miikula. Wihen you are talking generally albout the popu1ation of Slovakia, that is one of the most important �48 SLOVAKIA things that they need; some kind of good will that we have a.!11 understanding oif thei'l' problem. MT. Feighan. Then if ,w e ,w ould tell the whole world that we stand by the principle upon which our Naition was founded, thiat is, the ri!ght of self-determi:ri:ati-cm, that would be he'l!pful to them. 'In other words, Mr. Mikula, if the free w0irld shO'Uld gi,ve the Communists a free hand !in t!hese caiptiive nations,, this would cause those people to lose hope, ilS that right? Dr. iM:ikuil:a. Absolutely. One of the most •i mportant things is to show those people :tlhait we are really l!Iliform.etl a'boUJt their plight, a.Jbout tlhe conditions under ,w hich they are 11ivimg, that rwe hacve actually access to the most secret communistic conspiracies. 'We shouJ.d convey t:his knowledge to the masses. That is one of the moot imlportant th,i ngs. Mr. Kersten. Does thrat hellp to sha:ke and lessen the Communist ipawer in 'Uhose countries? Dr. iMikul1a. It is •curttin.g off the arrogamt communistic se!lf-corufiderice, amd when we ta.Jke such a cut through the Communist Party, we see there are just a few intellectuals, a group of fanatics, and a great nuim ber of opportunists. The greatest ipart of them a.Te oppoiitun:ists. Activities must be directed against those opportunists, because they are afmid. They betrayed, first, second, thoird time. They a.re readty to betray todlay and every day. Mr. Kersten. ~irst o;f iaU, let me ask you this: YO!U have gone to Detroit from iMHrwaUJkee? Dr. M~kula. Yes. MHiwaiUJkee is my ,h ome. Mr. Ker,s ten. You li:ved 1here several years and ~eft for Detroit a short whlle ago wlhere you now live and :work Dr. MikuiJ.a. Yes. with your family? Mr. Kersten. Dr. MikU'la, you iha,ve given us a great deal of valuable inlfoirmation, rparticula:rly the knowledge that I know you ha'V'e, of the existence of the undeiig,round in Slocvakii a, resi,s tance, opposition, which our evidence indicates exists in all the other cOUIIltries likewise to a very great extent. !Mr. Kersten. Thank you, Dr. ~u!la, for yOUT aippear~Milwaukee, Wis., October 22, 1954). ance here today. 1 �SLOVAKIA 49 FROM THE TESTIMONY OF PHILIP A. HROBAK Mir. Kersten. I want to say we are rvery honored and happy to haive you here with us, Mr. Hrobak, as the president of the Slovak League of America. :Mr. Hrobak. And tihe editor of the Jednota, the official organ of the First Catholic SlovaJk Union of the United States and Canada. · Mr. Kersten. I notice through several years of knowledge of your activities that you have keen understa:ndmg of whaJt it means for a nation or a country or a people to be occupied lby the Communists and some of the ways in whioh they fight and some of the thinigs that we should do to combat this new kind of enemy. Mr. iMcTigue. How many memlb:ers, Mr. Hro'bak, are a:ssociated or affiliated with the Slo:vak League of America? Mr. Hroba:k. The SloviaJk League .o f America, rubout 300,000. !Mr. Mo'Dig,ue. What, ibriefly, is the Slovak League of .America? Mr. Hrobaik. The pur:poses? Mr. McTigue. Yes. 1Mr. HTdbak. A cirvic and culturial origarnzation of Americans of Slov,a;k descent. It was organized in Oleveland in 1907. 'Mr. Mc'lligue. It is mry understanding, MT. Chaimnan, that !Mr. HrdbaJk has a statement which he wiSlhes to present to the committee, and if there is no objection, may I sugigest that the witness be permitted to proceed wiith the statement? · Mr. Kersten. Without objection, it is so ordered. !Mr. Hrdbalk. If you permit me, I would like to first express my deep appreciation to this committee for the opportunity given me to present the Slovruk chaipter in the dread detail of Communist aggression. I believe it is for the first time, at least as far as I know, that ,a real, honest effort is :being miade to know the background olf the many peoples behind the Iron Curtain, nations who always were and still are our friends, �50 SLOVAKIA peoiples who with all their hearts want to be our friends because to them America has always lbee:n a living symbol of freedom and independence, and now is just aJbout their last hope of sa1vation from Red tyranny. I harve the greatest respect for the hono-raJble gentlemen on this committee and its chairman, Charles Kersten. The coonmittee has a difficult taslk, b,ut it is doing that task admiraJbliy well. Helping the nations behind the Ixon Curtain to helrp liberate themselves from the curse of communism cannot and must not become ipOlitically a partisan a:flf1air. It is the business, the duty, of every American to take part in it; every Almerican must see it in that perspectirve, because it is, after all, in the interest of the security of our own America. I would li!ke to e~press one point ,b efore I read my statement, and that is that the SlovaJks have no quarreJ with the Czech nation as such. The Czech nation today is in the same Red fix as the SlovaJk nation. The Sfovak•s, however, cannot remain silent about Czech .p olitical leaders who were in a very large measure responsible for the present terrilble plight of the Ozech and Slovak nations over there, and who made it possilble foc the Communists to seize power in Czecho-Slova!kia practically without any troUJble. ("How the Communists Seized Power in SlovaJkia" the statement by P. A. Hrobaik, president of the Slovak League of America and Editor of the "J ednota," official 011gan of the First CathoHc Slorvak Union, •b efore the Kersten Committee on Communist Aggr(}SSion, in the County Court House, Milwaukee, Wis., Friday afternoon, October 22, 1954 - was .pulblished in full in the iprevious issue [Septemlber.,Decemlber 19541 of SLOVAKIA and, hence,, is not repeated here.) Mr. iMcTi,gue. 1I take it from your statement, Mrr. Hrobaik, that you consider the National Socialistic Party of Czecho-,Slovalda a:s the one which was responsible for the sellout to Moscow; is that correct? Mr. HrrobaJk. I do, sir. Mr. McTigue. Do you consider that the case of Czecho1 �SLOVAKIA 51 Slovakia is a practical or typical example of what happens to a nation that attemipts to coo,peirate or coexist with Communists? Mr. Hroba:k. Definitely. Mr. McTigue. What do you think of the present Kremlin campaign to sell the nati0'11s of the free world on peaceful coexistence? Mr. Hrohak. That is the Kremilin's way of trying to lull us to sleep; forget our problems, our troubles; forget what communism is, and just let them get strong enough until they can take all of us. Mr. McTigue. In your opinion, what do you think we can do to keeip the ho,pes of the people of Slovakia alive? How can we most help them at a time like this? Mr. Hrolba!k. We must let them know that we a;re behind them; that we have not forgotten them; that .Americans stiH believe in the principles uip on which their country was founded, in the principle of freedom and independence ; and let them know that we shall do everything to help them he1p themselves to overthrow the regime they have. ~fir. McTigue. You agree with Mr. Mikula, who testified here earlier today, that the resistance is still strong among the ,people of SlovaJkia? Mr. Hrabaik. It certainly is. We have had cootact with the people directly and indirectly right through the war, and we still get letters from people, who come from Slovakia today. Mr. McT-fgue. You are able to maintain an effective system of communicati10n with the Slovakian people with what is going on over there today; is that correct? Mr. Hrobalk. indirectly. Certain people get the info;rmation from persons in Sl>ova~ia and then we get it. Mr. Kersten. Mr. Bentley? Mr. Bentley. Mr. HrobaJk, I want to go 1b aclt a little bit before the period of Communist domanation of Slovakia and look at the situation there !b:rfofly during the Second World War. When SlO'V'aJkia was an independent reipulblic, what exactly was the relationship at that time between Slovakia and Germany? �52 SLOVAKIA Mr. HrOlbalk. Foveign policy was undoulbtedlly dictaited by Germmy, /but the domestic policy was not, until the uprising of 1944, when the German Aiimy came in to occupy Sloval~ia. Then bhe Slova.ks were in for it. Mr. Bentley. -Would you say that the fad, for example, that Slovalkia had troops on the Russian f.vont was a voluntary action or wa:s that dd.otated b:y Genmany? Mr. Hvdbalk. I think it was both. I think th13Jt the Germans expected it, and the Slovaks, to make it aippear that they aire really taking the business seriously, s.e nt a token division there. The Slovaks had a way of exchanging men by classes; they never had many men in the field. Mr. Bentley. Did -Slov:akia take any action toward the UTrited States at the time or shortlly after Pearl Harbor when the Germans declared war? Mr. Hrobaac. No; we tried to ascertain thait business. We found out that some ,p erson, I believe it was the German radlio in Vienrna, d'id ma.Ike a statement that Slovakia declared warr, but as far as- we could find out from our own State Department and War Department, there is absolUJtely no formal declaration of war aga:inst the United States. iMr. Bentley. Never was at any time? Mr. Hlrolbruk. Never was at any time. We couldn't find that out from our own United States Goveirnment because that point interested us rvery much, and so far there is absolutely no record of it. Mr. Bentley. Now, you say there was a distinction between the foreign policy of the Slov,a k Repulbl:ic which was exercised and the domesti'c .poHicy. You mean -t he domestic policy of the Slovak Repulblic was independent of Gennany? Mr. HrobaJk. Yes; just about all independent; I mean, running the country of Slovakia itself. Mr. Bentley. Was there any form of oppression at thait time? Mr. Hrobaik. There was no oppression of religion or any other thing. Some laiws. were enacted that ha;d to coincide with some of the laiws that · the Germans had, but oUJtside of that, the economic conditions - even Mr. Sr0ib31r, one of �SLOVAKIA 53 the most intimate foiends of Benes had to admit after the wax, were good. Mr. Kersten. You say there was no oppression. There was freedom of religion and the other political freedoms that you normally would expect? Mr. HrOlb.ak. None. Some claim that there was ,political swppression in Sl01Va!kia, but they don't explain the problem correctly. The fact is that the ISlovaik parties, the two only genuine !Slovak parties, are the Hlinka People's Barty sometimes called the Catholic Party, and the Razus Slwalk National Party, whi·c h was considered the Lutheran Parby. Now these worked for the same program with one accoro. Mr. Bent-ley. Following the wprising of August 1944, when the German mHitary came in to ,p ut it down, from that time Slovakia lost its. independence? Mr. Hrrolbak Yes. The Slovaks got it from both sides. They were murdered by the occupation troops a.ind then by the partisans on the other end. Mr. Bentley. After the German military occupation did the Tiso government continue in po,w er? Mr. HrdbaJk. They continued. in ,power until 1945. Tiso tried to explain away as best he coui'd that it was not a national uprising; that the Slovruk Army and the Slovak gendarmerie couild ta.Ike care olf the troubles in Slova:kia themselves. The Germans firral,l y did not believe the Slovaks rufter General Otto's military mission was stopped at Turciansky :S vaty Martin. I believe it was on August 25; the group of aJbout 25 or 30 people, women and children included, were taken off the train and put up in barracks for the night. The neoct morning ~l were lined up against a wall and mowed down with machine guns by the prurtisans. Then there were other murders, sabotage, terrorrist activities, which all came too soon, even for Benes's liberation movement which he had allegedly organized. The leader of that movement was supposed to be General Golian. The uiprising was Communist-in spired and did not have popular support. �54 SLOVAKIA Mr. Bentley. The Rm!ssian military OCCUipation of Slovalkia took place about when? Mr. HrQbak. Albout Easter Sunday, 1945. Mr. Bentley. And at that time the Slovak Government escaped to Germany? Mr. Hlrobak. The Slovak Government went to Austria. Mr. Bentley. And I believe they were finally captured with the American troops? Mr. Hrobak They were not captured. They surrendered to General Walker's army at that time. We had a copy of the surrender papers and we gave it to, our State Department, and, of course, the Army Department. Mr. Bentley. And what happened to the members of the Slovak Goivernment? Mr. Hrohak. Well, unfortunately, even despite all our effovts in America to preivent their being handed over to Benes and his governrrnent in London, unfortunately, I say, our pleas availed us nothing, and Tiso's Slovak Government was gi'Ven up to Benes and the Benes.Gottwald coalition government. Tiso, after being tried by a "people's" court, was hanged on April 18, 1947, while members of the Slovak Govenunent were sentenced to prison. Mr. Bentley. They were tried as war criminals? Mr. Hrabaik. Yes, "war criminals," according to Prague. Mr. Bentley. What is the sit'lllation in Slovakia today under the Commrunist government of Prague? Is there any form of committee for Slo;vaikia or is there a completely unified government? Mr. Hrobaik. Prague is still trying to tell us that the Slovaiks themselves govern the.ir part of the state and the Czechs govern their part, and so on, but that is not true. The Czech Red centralized government in Prague is running the whole show. Even Slovak Communists are not safe; Clementis is gone, so are others, and the secretary general of the Slovak Communist Party is Karel Bacilek, a Czech. Mr. Bentley. You say the Communists are trying to appeal to Slovak nationa1ism somewhat? Mr. Hrobak. They did. Today it doesn't mean any- �SLOVAKIA 55 thing. They are done for. In fact, 1S lovak Reds were for separation in 1926, long ibefore Hlinka's pa,r ty. Mr. Bentley. Who? Mr. Hrdba.lk. The Communists. It is a matter of record. They knew what the people wanted. They figtN"ed that there are no people in any country who, do not desire to be free and independent and they used that to gain their SUipport. Hlinka's Party fought for autonomy; in the beginning, you know, it wanted to haive a federation where SlovaJk,i a would simply have states' rights. The fight was simply for states' rights, as we understand them here in the States. The Slovaks wanted to elect their own governor, their own judges, their school di,rectors, and so on. They were not for separatism until much later. Mr. Bentley. Mr. Hrobak, you were here, I imagine, when Dr. Milkiu.la was testifying, and he said it was his belief that so far as the people of Slovakia are concerned, what they really wanted was the right to self-determination. Do, you concur in that? Mr. HroibaJk. That is correct. Mr. Bentley. Thanik you ivery much. Your statement and your testimony has contributed to the hearings, I am sure. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 1Mr. Kersten. Mr. Hrolbak, l think at this time it is quite clear from the records of recent history that the attempts of the Benes government to collaborate with and have coexistence with the Soviet Union is a classic case of what it means to make this attempt. I meant merely for that government to put itsel1' in a position to be swallowed wp by the COll'Il.Illunists. Mr. Hrobak. That is correct. Mr. Kersten. It is a classic case in that regard. Mr. Hrobak. Correct. iMr. Kersten. And I believe one of the ministers of the Benes government in London, Dr. Stransky, thought that Mr. Hrobak Yes. too. Mr. Kersten. And that, along with other similar epi- �56 SLOVAKIA sod.es, certainly proves that there is no such thing as peaceful coexistence with the Communist s. Mr. HTolbaik. That is correct. Mr. Ker.sten. Well, I want to than!k you. The records show if it doesn't already that Congressm an Bentley knows a great deal about this situation in Ea:stern Europe because he was an American diplomat in Hungary for several yeairs, and he knows firsthand sOime of the real maichinations of the Communist s when they truke aver a country. Mr. Bentley. I was ailso in Slova-kia. Mr. Kersten. I am sure he has firstha:nd knowledge of that, too. Mr. HrolbaJk. Mr. Chairman, -t he statement that I have made is based not only on what we haive from Slovaks, patriotic Slovaks, 'but it iis also based O!t1 the 'book that the regime put out in 1946, that is by the Lettrich "Demo-. crats" arid the Husak Communist s; the name of it is "Natl Tatrou sa Blyska" - (Lightning over the Tatras). The booik has contr~butio ns from both sides, MT. Lettrich's men and the Husaik men. And, of coocse, on the book that was already introduced, there were only 5,000 of these, The Conspiracy .Aigainst the Republic, which was introd uced as testimony by Dr. Mikula. That is my oopy. Then on a boolk that was published here in America by the Communists called "Parti:zani na Slovensku" - (Partisans in Slovakia), published in Chicago. And, I believe, another booklet called "Verni ostruli," (They Remained Faithful). This book dealt with the uprising; it was written by Deso Benau, ,w ho was editor of the New Yonksky Dennik (The New York Daily), in 1946. Mr. Benau wa:s editor of that paper from 1942 to 1946 and tod!ay is doing an admiraJble job for the Communist s in BraUshwa. In this pamphlet - I will leaNe you this copy - you can see the organizatio ns that are affiliated with us The SlovaJk League of America -- and the me:rrubers they have. - I might add here that our papers were outlaiwed from Ozecho-Slovakia by the Communist s on October 10, �57 SLOVAKIA 1946 - that is this paper, the Jednota. and three other Slova!k p8{!)ers. Now, as you see here in this particular paper dated Decemlber 13, 1944, we didn't wait until 1948 to tell America that Benes sold out the Czechs and Slova!ks to Stalin. The big headline in that Decemlber 13, 1944, issue right on the front page reads: "Sl()IVakia soJd out by Dr. Ed/ward Benes." Mr. Mc'Digue. What is that .pu!blication? Mr. Hro!b.ruk. This is the Jednota, the official organ of the First Catholic Slovak Union of the United States and Canada. And my statement is further ·b ased on the information contained in the booklet "The Rise and Fall of the Democratic Party in Slovakia," which was written by Constantine Cu1en, a new:spruperman from Slova;kia now residing in Canada, and ipu!blished in Slovaik by the Slovaik League of America. I have translated it into English and the committee is welcome to it any time. Mr. Kersten. Thank you, Mr. Hrobak. (Milwaukee, Wis., Octo'ber 22, 1954). 1 STATEMENT BY DR. JOSEPH A. MIKUS Fram 1944 until my escape from Soviet-dominated Czecho-Slovakra, i:n March, 1948, I resided in Bratislava. During this period I was three times imprisoned by the National Front Government: in 1945, 1946, and 1947. Now, as a Slovalk refugee in the United States, I am glad to have the opportunity of exposing to the Committee on Communist A!ggression the tactics which, to miy own knowledge and ibased on my personal experience, were utilized 'b y the Communists in Slovakia to establish themselves first as a politca.-1 party and finally as a dominant force in tha,t country. Introduction Before entering upon a discussion of the subject: proper, I would like to outline in general terms what has until now been the main trend in Slovakia's political history. �58 SLOVAKIA After losing her political independe nce in the ninth century, Slovakia existed for a thousand years under for eign dominatio n. Desrpite this fact, the Sl01Va!k nation did not lose its ethnograp hic and cultural individua lity. Within the nraime~o rik of the Austro-H ungarian Empire, it was ruble to survive all the ;pressure of the Magyar cultural and political centralism whioh seriously menaced its very naJtional existence in the 19th century. World War I finally providied an opportun ity for the 1SlovaJks to rid themsel'Ves of the restrictin g grip of this ancient and obsolete power structure . On May 30, 1918, at the close of World War I, the Slovak League of America signed together with the organilzatio ns of .Amemcans of Czech descent the so-called Pittsburg h Agreeme nt, aimed at creating a dualist federal union of the Czechs and Slov,atk,s which a little later entered the world communi ty of nations under the name of Ozecho-!Slio:vakia. Although provision s guarantee ing the preservat ion of the Slovak national and po1itical individuality were, according to the principle of self-deter mination, the essential condition of this solution, the Ozech political leaders, T. G. Masaryik and E. Benes, never made any real attempt to fulfill their pledges. Instead of a federal union providing for a reasonaib le degree of self-gover nment for the Slovaks, and in utter disregard of the political will of the Slo1V.:\k people, Prague organized a strongly centralize d state. On !February 29, 1920, the first so-called revolutio nary parliame nt Oif Oze:cho..JSlovakia, ~inted !by the Prague revolutio nary governme nt, voted for the first Czecho-lSlovak Constitut ion which suibmerge d the Slovak national individua lity through the device of a speciousl y conceirved "Ozecho-!Slorvaik" nation, wherein the Czechs wouid always lbe assured of their majority status and their predomin ance. Not being a minority group in the sense provided for under internatio nal treaties signed after World War I, Slovakia ·r emained without any internatio nal protection . Contrary to the famous definition of democracy by Abraham Lincoln, the regime a:rfuitrarily established by Prague in Slo:vaJkia could be described not as a governme nt of the people, by the people, for the " �SLOVAKIA 69 people," 'but rather as "the g,overnment of the Ozech bureaucracy by the concept of the 'Czecho..:Slovak' nation foisted upon the Sl01Vak people." For 20 years SlovaJkia sought to· haive the principle of equality between the Czechs and the Slovalks inco:r.porated into the constitution. The Slo,vak political leaders argued that the Pittsburgh Agreement was of international relevance and that it should 'be respected by both parties in the very interest of the joint Czecho-Slovalk state. Prague, conrfident of the support implicit in the Little Entente (1920), thie Mutual Defense Treaty with France (1924), and, last but not least, the 'Dreaty of Friendship and Mutual Aid concluded with the Soviet Union (1935), felt strong enough to refuse any discU1ssion on this pomt at any time. The Munich Oonference of Septemlber 28, 1938, the primary sig.niificance of which was the coUaipse of the Ozecho~SlovaJk sysltem · of military a,lliances, inevitaJbly brouight the nationality problem of the heterogeneous Ozecho-Slovak State into the foreground. By the policy o;f E. Benes, and in accordance with the Vienna arbitration of Von R~bentro,p and Ciano on Novemb,er 2, 1938, SlOIVakia, lost over 10,000 square kilometers of territory to Hungary; an a·rea which included 853,000 inhabitants. This was a national catastrophe. Ha,ving experienced this and other deceptions,, and !being confronted in MaTch 193,9 with the alternative of the partition of her territory among Germany, Hung,a ry, and Poland, or of falling under direct German administration, Slovakia voted on March 14, 1939, thrnugh her legitimately constituted Diet in Bratislava, for independence. During World War II -E. Benes, who had voluntarily resigned his oflice of President of Czecho-Slovakia, found refuge as a ,pri'Vl8.te indilvidual in ,London. His basic goal was to reestrublish Czecho"'Slo,valkia and, in spite of the oppositi'on. of the SlOIValk people, he was able to achieve this goal ,b y relying essentially on the help of the Red army and a grourp of domestic colla!borato~s. lirl the main body of my statement I will explain the ;principal facts of this evo- �SLOVAKIA 60 lution, but I would first of all li!ke to stress one important point : All 'Slovaiks in the free world greatly ruppreciate the fact that the House Committee on Oommunist Aggression has paid particul ar attention to the tactics• which communism aipplied in Slovaikia. As a matter of fact, these tactics were very difforenit 'from - for exMn1ple - those adopted in the Czech area. This fine distinction - an a,rt in which Moscow h•a s aliways been a master - resllilted from the clifference of attitude demonstrated toward the Sovieit Union by the population of Slova:kia at the end of World Wa:r II. As is kno,wn, during World War IT the Czech lands were a German protectorate. At that time and until 1944, Slovaikia was a relatively fTee state, imbued with only one desire: To reaffirm her status as a national state after the end of the war. Whereas the populaition of Bohemia and Moravia loolked fonwa:rd with high hO!pe to its liberation from German domination 1by the Soviets, that of Slovakia considered the approach of the Soviet Army as a dista:ster which would put an end to the Slovak national state. Because of this difference in psychological attitude, Moscow decided from the•outset on a policy of appeasement of the Czechs and on a prog,r am designed to smash the resistance of the Slova:ks. A detailed ,plan for this program had ibeen elalborated, with the Kremlin's blessing, by E. Benes and K. Gottwald, who as early as 1943 were in Moscow. 1 A. The Blueprint for Sovietization After the Teheran Conference, which toolk place Novemlber 28 - December 1, 1943, it b,ecame clear that the Soviet Union would inevitaJbly play an important role in post-war Europe . This conference gave substantial encouragement to the hopes of the Communists and certain pro.-Soviet non~ommunists in Slovakia. Immediately thereafter, on December 12, 1943, Dr. Edward Benes, as chief of the Czecho-Slova:k: Government-rn-exile, signed the Treaity of F'riends·hip, Mutual Aid and Col1ia/boration ,w ith Stalin in Moscow. In article 4 of this treaty the two· signafories agreed upon close political and economic cooperaition. "Talking into consideration their respective peaceful interests," �SLOVAKIA 61 says the treaty, "the high contracting parties have decided, after the restoration of peace, to estaiblish a close and friendly collaboration . . ." They will develop to the maximum their economic relations and will grant each other, after the war, all possilble economic help." No such treaty haw.ing been signed with the United States, Great Britain, or France, this international a:greement predetermined the orientation of Ozecho~SlovaJkia toward Moscow in the post-iwar European scheme of politica:l relations. The Benes-Stalin treaty served as a strong stimulus for those who had been aspiring to political power within the framework of Soviet influence in central Europe. In this category were included, among others, fOTmer memJbers of the Slova:k Communist P,arty. In the 1935 elections, this party had gained six sea:ts of the 58 corresponding to Slo;vaikia in the Pmgue Pa:rliament. Consequently, around 10 per cent of the total ,p opulation of the country had voted for this party, which the Government of the Sl01Vak Republic had suppressed as a subversive group in 1938. The non-Communist growp, smaller and weaker in its common punpose, was composed mostly of descendants of Czech exiles who in the seventeenth century, at the time of the Count er Refiormation, had settled in Slovakia. Both of these factions, equally willing to back " ... the apocaly,ptical horse from the E}ast" (as communism was perfervidly described lby one of the factional leaders, r..udovit Sensel ), met secretly on Christmas Day, 1943, and created a joint r evolutionary organization under the name of the Slovak National Council. The goal of this movement, as estaJblished under article 2 of the respective secret document, was: " . . . to ta:ke over, at the expedient time, all political, legislative, military, and governmental executive power in Slova:kia and to use it according to the will of the ,people until such time as their freely elected reipresentati<ves shall themsel,ves ibe ruble to take it over." The b.asic political tenets of the so-called Christmas Agreement were laid down in another document, the first three articles of which read as follows : �62 SLOVAKIA "(1) It is our desire that the Slovaks and the Czechs, as the two most closely related Slav nations, shall unite their destinies in a Czecho-Slovalk Republic which will be their common government organized on the principle of equality. "(2) We desire close collaboration with all Slav states and peoples, particularly with the Soviet Union, in whioh we see a protecting shield for the free life and welfare of all small nations in general, and of the Slav nations in particular. "(3) The future Czecho..Slovak Republic shall conduct its foreign policy in the spirit of these .principles and should therefore, lean on the Soviet Union." It is appropriate to mention here that, during his visit to Moscow in Deceimib er 1943, E. Benes had in principle agreed with K. Gottwald to set up a So'Viet ty;pe of internal administration in Cze.cho-Slovakia after its reestablishment as a dualist union ; to eliminate all traditional conservative political parties in the Ozech area, as well as in Slovakia; and to esta:bli,s h the regime of a so-called National Front Government. In his Memoirs, published in Prague in 1947, E . Benes recognized this in the following passage (pp. 408-409) : ''Thereafter Gottwald e,opressed his opinion a'bout the way in which this revolution should be prepared. He stressed the necessity of forming national committees (i.e., So¥iets) , which would not only constitute the revolutionary cells of insurrection, but would even se:rve as embryos for the whole revolutionary political administration, I was not apposed.'' - wrote Benes - "to this opinion . . ." 1 "Then Deputy Gottwald," continued Benes, "went on to consider the question of the structure of political parties after the revolution in Czecho-Slovakia. He was certain of a great Te1volutionary shift to the leift, of a great Socialist majority, rund of a great defeat of our block of right-of-center parties as it existed before the war: agrarians, national democrats, and artisans . . . As to the admission of the Agrarian Party, our Communists were not willing to commit themselves in any specific way in De- �SLOVAKIA 63 cember 1943. For all of us the merciless liquidation of fasoism was without any distinction the basic and obvious issue." In the same discussion., Benes and Gottwald touched on the problem of the National Front Government: "It will be necessary," ~ote Benes, "for the governmental parties to form a unified national front after the Uberation, to form a common reivolutionary program, and to pledge themselves to put it jointly into practiice. I then expressed my agreement with the plan concerning a national front ." (pp. 409-410). On the basis of these three principles,: Sovietization of administTati'ons, elimination of the conservative parties, and organization of the National Front Government as it emerged in 194'5, Cze'cho-1Siovakia was inevitrubly fated to become a "people's" democrwcy. Wihat was the practical result for SlorvaJkia of the Benes-Gottwald agreement? The Communist and the nonCommunist pro~Soviet group conspiring a.gain.st the Slovak Repulblic, although not representing more than 24 percent of the population, became the future leading force of Slwakia. B. The August 1944 Insurrection Since early 1944 the Soviet partisan headqll!arters in Kiev, with Rudo1ph Slanslky as i.ts main political adviser, had 1been pouring Red ,p arachutists and Communist agents into the mountains of central Slovakia, far behind the German frontlines. Through contacts with many Communists and non-Communist symjpathizers, Sfova'ks, Czeehs, and fornigners in various cities and villages of the country, these agents maI11a,g ed to create a network of informants and future collruborators. More recent documents reveal that as early as Fehrua·r y 7, 1944. Proif. Viladimir Jershov of Russian· origin, Gregorij Soloshenko, second lieutenant of the Red army, and William Zingor, a Slo~-ak Communist, came to an agreement in Tureiansky Sv. Martin that " . . . all future partisan activities in Slovakia would follow instructions �64 SLOVAKIA from Mos:cow."l It was also agreed that 2ingor would be the chief of the Slova:k partisans, with Soloshenko as his sulbstitute. These self-appointments were later " . . . recognized by partisan headquarters in Kiev, and the Turiec County group was integrated into the general Soviet partisan system. By this act the partisan movement in Turiec assumed the character of a militaTy organ~tion." 2 Moreover, in the summer of 1944 the following Sol\Tiet rugents were, a.mong many others, actiive in Slovakia: Ing. Nicolai Avenaria, as liaison officer in Myjawa; Jmfa Nikolaiev, a graduate of the Leningrad Naival Academy, as distrilbutor of arnns; Ing. Dimitrij Venero:vsky am.d Ivan Platonovich, active in preparing the partisan or.ganization of Liptov County. In Turiec, whioh was the center of the So·viet partisan activities, I·v:an Stepanol\Tich and Alexander Fjodorovich Krajushkin were actively operating. The real Soviet partisan camp was organized in the Kantorska Valle~, near Sklabina. It was commanded by a second lieutenant of the Red Army, Ilvan VySOIC!ldj. Nikola Sur:kov, second lieutenant of the Red army, was in command of a similar camp near Priekopa. The most effective of these Soviet agents was Alexei Velichko, captain oif the Soviet paratroopers, who, in fact, ibecame the chief of all partisan actil\Tity in Central Slovakia. Even General Osmolov was sent to SlovaJda for a period of time to assure coordination of the activity of the different groups. In the meantime, on August 1, 1944, Gen. Bar Komorovs:ki, in command of the Polis:h underground army, ordered a general insurrection in Wa.rsa.w. H e did this after hea.iring an a;ppeal of _Radio Moscow encouraging the people of Warsaiw to carry out a ·general uprising. "The hour of a·ction has already arriived," declared Moscow. Bor Komor-ovski was consequently firmly conivinced that he would receive eiffoctiive aid from the Red army, which had just reached the gates of the Praga sulbwr.b, 10 miles from Warsaw. But the e~pected hel.p neyer came. In his telegram of (1) Cont ributions to the H istory of th e Slo vak Nationa:l Insurrection (In Slovalk ) , Turcians ky Sv. M.arrt in , 1947, p . 26. ( 2 ) IbM.. , p. 29. �SLOVAKIA 66 August 16, 1944, to Prime Minister Churchill, Stalin dissociated himself from the "Wa1rsaiw venture." And so under the very eyes of the Red .army, the German units were able to carry out their m8Sllicre of those Polish patTiots who to Strulin (,according to his telegram of August 22, 1944, to Churchill) were but "a groU!p of criminals." On Octdber 2 the uiprising collapsed 1because Stalin was unwilling to help "the Polish reactionaries." The Waraaw insurrection seemed to ha:ve no effect on Slovalkia. This was a ibloiw to Soviet expectations. To the U. S. S. R., Sl~i,a, in the summer of 1944 was, from a military viewpoint, an eID1Pty tera'itory with a "reactionary government and nationalist populations," with some "deviated Communists" and some opporturustic non-Communist elements looking hopefully to Benes in London. A civH W8JI' in Ozecho~Sloiwukia wouild haive been immensely helpful to the political aim!s of Moscow. But patriotic Slovaks were too wise to begin an internal struggle. Three weeks had passed siI11Ce the beginning of the Warsaw U!prising, and still no rea.c,tion in Slovakia. In order to purge this country of its "reactionary" elements before the impending occupat:rion, Moscow needed German military intervention there. ft was up to the Soviet aigen.ts to provoke it and their opportunity was not long in arising. On August 24, 1944, a spec,ial German military train stopped in Tureiansky Sv. Martin, some miles from the Soviet partisan headquarters illl ,Sklabina. The chief of the railway station, in collusion with Captain Velichko, refused to let it leaive. G€aleral Otto, former chielf olf the Gernnan milimry mission in Rumania and now retwrmng from Bucharest to .Berlin with his suite of 28 ;persons, was then oonducted to the military barracik,s, held a prisoner on instructions from Velichko, and together with all his aides was killed by a unit of revolting soldiers the fohlawirtg day. ThereUJPOn Hitler, infuriated with a Slovaik Government which was "unalble to 'k eep oroer in the hinterland of the German lines," decided to send General Hloeffle into Slovakia with an army of six di,visions to arunihrilate the �66 SLOVAKIA partisan movement. It was as a result of this decision that the political and military leaders of the pro-Soviet conspiracy started the U[>rising whioh was announced on August 29, by Radio Banslka Bystrica. Within two months General Hoeffle crushed this Sorviet-inspired venture. Although the political chiefs of the insurrection, such as the "Demo .. crats" Joseph Lettrich, Jan Ursiny, iMatej Josiko, Martin Kvetko, Samuel Bellus, etc., and the Commum,s ts Gusta,v Husak, Laco Novomesky, Karol Schmidke, etc., were aible to escrupe, its military chiefs, General Viest and General Golian, were not so fortunate. As they were attempting to escrupe by plane, the latter was burned by their angry and disillusioned soldiers. Both of them were then captured by the Germans and ta:ken to a concentration camip in the Reich from ,w hich they were never to return. Wihile alll of this was going on, the Soviet Army was quietly resting on the north side of the Carpathian Mountams where it had been stationed for ove,r four months, tranquilly ruwaiting the last act in this &ama. It is evident that the U!prising was only a trrup set b.y the Soviet partisans to ensnare the ". . . Sl~ak reactionary and opportunist elements." This pur,pose of the insurrection was revealed during the trial against Slansky in Prague in 1952. As has already been mentioned, the former secretary general of the Comm.1N1ist Party of Ozeoho-1Slovakia had been the main ctivil adviser for the 1944 insurrection in Kiev. With respect to this function the state prosecutor ques~ tioned him as follows: Prosecutor: Why did th.e Anglo-iAmerican agent (general) P1ka show an interest in placing the partisan units in Slovakia under the command of (General) Golian? Slanslky: He sought to place all partisan units under the command of the reactionary General Golian at Banska Bys:trica so as to faciJ.itate Golian's supervision of their activities. Pika tried, in the interest of the imperialists and of the London Government of Dr. Benes, to reduce the influence of the par1Usa.n.s as far as possdible.3 (3) Marcel Peju: Hier et Aujourd1hui: Le sens du proces Slansky II. Les Temps Modernes. P.ari,s, June 1953, p. 2013. �SLOVAKIA 67 Thus Slansky revealed many years later what the Soviets really thought of the leading non-Communist personalities in the 1944 insurrection in Slovaikia. This event is a great national tragedy. Whereas during the thref' years of her participation in the struggle against bolshevism, Slovakia lost only 2,500 soldiers on the eastern front, she lost around 30,000 persons in the insurrection in the short space of two months. Unlike the insurrection of Warsaw, that of Banska Bystrica has nothing to do with Slovak ~triotism. It is quite clear that Slovak patriots would have never organized an insurrection the purpose of which was to reestablish foreign external and internal control in their country. C. The "Liberation" of Slovakia What is known as the liberation of Slovakia by the Soviets is in fact a misnomer and a grave distortion of the historical facts. During World War II, though subject to a certain international supervision by Germany, Slovalkia was a relatively free country. During five years, until the insurrection of Banska Bystrica, no one was executed for political reasons . The Slovak Government in Bratislava was able to master all the difficulties of the war period during these years. Then the Red army came. I waited for the Soviet "liberation" with a family which lived on the outskirts of a small town, S., in western Slovakia. They had a nice, or as the Communists would say, a '~bourgeois" home here. On the morning of a day of mid-April 1945, the Soviet Army entered the town. The house in question, which was located on a hill, was then chosen as headquarters for the Soviet commanding generral in that sector of the front. During the two days that the general stayed in the house, the conduct of the Russians was exemplary. After the general and his staff had left, we congratulated ourselves on our not too bad experience with the Soviet Army and prepared to cel~brate this event with a good family dinner that evening. At p. m., just as we were sitting down to table, a first lieutenant and a sergeant of �68 SLOVAKJA the Red army entered the house. The latter put his gun on the dining-room ta>ble and began checking on our identity. Meanwhile the officer began to inspect the house "looking for hidden German spies." In the course of this inspection he found our ,p ersonal effects in Oiile of the bedrooms and ·b rought them into the dining room. He then proceeded to examine these things in detail and chose for himself whatever happened to please him: A watch, a leather suitcase, etc. We then saw that a second lieutenant of the Red army had entered the house and began in turn to forage through it. After a while he ordered a young lady to go into the kitchen to give him a glass of water. When these three left, after 9 :30 p. m., the lady in question colJapsed because she had been violated. After this visit by offi .. cers, two other groups of soldiers, many of them drunk, successively entered bhe house, each one having held us, that is, four men and three ladies, under terror in their own way, until 2 :30 a. m. In the city of Bratislava, which numbered around 200,000 inhabitants, more than 4,000 dishonored women had to go to the hospital for examination. During the "liberation" of SlovaJkia by the Soviets, around 20,000 Slovaks, mostly intellectuals, were sent by po1itical commissarias into la;bor camps of Russia, while various tens of thousands of inhaJbitants were imprisoned. D. Political Evolution Aft.er 1945 On April 5, 1945, the government of Dr. E. Benes followed the advancing Red army from Moscow into the easVSlovaikian city of Kosice and estaJblished the Third Czecho-iSlova!k Republic in the shadow of Soviet bayonets, through the so-called Kosice declaration. Thus a foreign government was imposed upon the Slovaik people which, except for two small :factions of political opportunists, had been loyal to the Slova>k State - all of this without any plebiscite. The Communists and pro-Soviet "Democrats", who had already rendered a great service to Moscow in the 1944 uprising, became the ex cutors of the n w state will in Slovaikia. �SuOVA.KIA 69 According to. the Benes-Gotlbwald agreement of December 1943 in Mos'coiw, they eliminated from the political life of Slovrukia all other former political ,parties, namely, the Slovak People's Party, the Agrarian Party, the Slovak National Party, and the Artisans Party. These parties }:lad received in the 1935 elections 19 plus 112, plus 1, plus 1, or a total of 33 seats in the Prague Parliament out of the grand total of 58 seats corresponding to Slovalkia. Not countiing the Magyar and the German minorities which had then elected 11 deputies and did not take part in the uprising, the two pro-Soviet factions cor,r esiponded in strengbh to only 1'4 deputies of the pre~war Slova,k representation in the Prague Parliament, six of them being Communists, four Social Democrats, and four others. Now, after haiving assured the mo!Ilopoly of political re,presentation for themselves, the Communist and pro~ Soviet "Democrat" fa.c tions agreed upon a spo.ils system exipressed in the form of a 50-50 share in the political aJff~irs of Slovakia. In this way the political irufl:uence of the Communists increased, in comparison with the year 1935, from 10 to 50 percent, and that of the pro...Soviet "Democrntic" faction from 13 to 50 percent. Afthough this 50--50 relation 'between the two factions was corrected by the elections of May 26, 1946, in favor of the "Democrats" who, 'becauS€ of the exdusion of other traditional ,parties, gained 62 .p ercent of all voters in SlovaJkia, while the Communists got only 30 percent, the actual influence of the Communist Party did not diminish at all. From the outset the Communists had taken oiver the Commissariat of Interior, including the Police; o;f EducatiOIIl; and of Industry, together with other key ,p ositions in the administration Oif Slovakia. They also retained the chairmanship of the Board of Commissioners, i.e., the regional g01vernment for Slo:vaikia. MeaI11Whhle the Sovietizaition of Czecho~Slovaikia was progressing in every field of Government activity: In the field of industry, President Benes, ever olbedient to the Communi,s ts, nationalized the main branches of industry by Decrees Nos. 100, 102 and 103 of October 28, 1945, and this without any consultation with the nation - mines, 1 �70 SLOVAKIA 100 percent; steel industry, 100 percent; sugar production, 80 percent; electricity, 73 percent; chemical industry, 72 percent; metallurgy, 68.5 percent; glass industry, 65 percent; leather, 53.5 percent; gas, 50 percent; textiles, 47 percent; ceramics, 46.5 percent; pruper industry, 4'5.5 percent; distilleries, 31.5 percent; breweries, 27.5 percent; clothing, 25 percent; mills, 14 percent; food, 9 percent; wood industry, 8 percent. By these acts the IIlum!ber of wor.kers in the nationalized sector ,b ecame 570,000, whereas only 430,000 working people fell within the field of private industry. ln the field of education all the schools were nationalized by decree of the Slovalk National Council (No. 34, dated May 16, 1945). Decree No. 47 of 1945 comiscated the property of pri:viate schools, without compensation. By decree of the Slovak National Council • (No. 33 of May 15, 1945) the following institubions of political justice were created: Oommunit,y and <list.riot "people's courts" and a national court in Bratislava. The legal task of these courts was to judge war criminals, but their political pmpose was to get rid of the -p olitical adversaries of the two factions in power, under the pretext of collaboration with Germany. The political character of this distorted justice was determined by three circumstances : 1. According to article 42 of Executive Decree No. 55 Board of Commissioner s, dated June 5, 1945, the the of memlbers of these courts were to be ruppoinrted by the two political ,parties in power. 2. These courts, disregarding the classiical principle nulla poena, sine lege, were made component to decide upon cases which were not punishable according to the Penal Code. 3. This legislation introduced the principle of collective guilt and collective :responsilbility. 4. Art.i.cle 5 of Decree No. 33 of May 15, 194!5, provided for labor camps, which were estaJblished through Executive Decree No. 105 of August 23, 1945. According to the provisions of article 2 of this last decree, the following cate- �SLOVAKIA 71 gories of persons were to be sent to lrubor camps: a. Those sentenced by the "ipeople's courts"; b. Tho,s e whose activities were a threat to "the people's demoeratic regime," public security, puib1ic peace and order, rpulblic nutrition and the reconstruction o:f economic life; or those who were enemies of the state or conspirators against it; c. Those who· do not work; d. Those who declined to do the work assigned to them within the framework of laibor duty. '5. No plea was admissible agaiinst the act of indictment; the defendant did not have a free choice in selecting his defender; no ·a ppeal was granted to a sentenced de. fendaJI11t. 6. Sentences to imprisonment usually involved the confiscation of the ded'endant's property. It 4, ruppropriate to add here tha,t before being .brought to· trial the "traitors," "Fasci.Sits," "collaJborationists," and "unreliable persons" were entirely at the memy of their indictor~. There was no impartial court, as the grand jury in America, to examine into the basis of an accusation. This was an era of arlbitrary indictments and personal revenge. By its decree No. 5,1 of May 2, 1945, the Sloivaik Natiooal Council dissolved in Slorvakia all assodations, except for those few which were eixipressly exempted from thls general ,p rovision. Freedom of the press, of assembly, and other human rights were likewise a;bolished. E. The "Coup de Force" of November 1947 in Slovakia All these measures were aimed at the weakening of traditional political forces and the estaiblishmenrt of an exclusively Communist power. For a long time the leading personalities of the Sloivak Democratic Party, such as Joseph Lettrich, Jan Ursiny, Matej Josko, Martin Kvetko, Stephen Koovara, etc., did not know whether they should remain loyal to their "gentleman's agreement" of 1945 with the Communists or follow the anti-Communist line orf the great ma;j.ority of the Slwak people. Finally they decided �SLOVAK.IA 72 to remain loyal to their agreements with the Communist s. Instead of getting .r id of the Oommunist s, as would have been normal for a party which had won 62 percent of all the votes of SlovaJkia, the "Democrat s" did not alb.andon the principle of the National Front G01Vernment. This loyalty was to prove their fatal undoing later on. In Selptemlber 1947, under the pretext of having disc01Vexed a conspiracy a,gainst the governmen t in the Democratic Party, the Communist s decided to liqUJidate this party. Jan Kempny, Milos iBugar, and Joseph St8!sko., three deputies of the Catholic wing of this party, were imprisoned, as well as a,bout 2,000 other Slova\k patriots. Thereafter the Communist s organized demonstrat ions against " . . . the reactionari es hidden within the Democratic Party." In this violent dispute between the two political parties in Slo vaJkia, the Ozech-1Soci alist block - i.e., the Communists, the Social Democrats , and the National Socialists of Benes - representin g togeither 18'5 deputies (93 plus 37 plus 55) out of the 300 in the Prague Parliament , threw their weight on the side of the Slovak Communis ts (23 deputies) and against the Democratic Party (43 deputies). The Czech Catholics ( 44 deputies) remained undecided. There was only one honora,ble way to prevent the constant intewenUo n of Prague in the internal affairs of Slova!kia, name ly, to proclaim the inde pendence of Slovakia. Instead of doing that, Joseph Lettrich, chaimnan of :the Slovaik Demooratic Party, gave his consent to further limitatio!Ils on the politi>Cal preirogative s of his own party. 1 After a visit of Klement Gottwald to Bratislava, the Democratic Party was relegated on Novemlber 18, 1947, to a minority status in the regional governmen t of Slova1kia. Out of 15 seats there, it retained only 7, while the triumphant Communist bloc got 8: The Communist Party itself (including the chairman), 5; the Wreedom Party, 1; the Social Democratic La,bor Pairty, 1; and the last seat fell to General M~kttlas Ferjencik, "the neutral Oommis,s ioner of the Interior," playing in fact into the hands of the Communist s. Such a hll!IIliliating change would have been impossi!ble without a Czech coup de force in SloV3Jkia. �SI.IOVAKIA 73 Having thus eliminated the greatest obstacle from the way of their ambition for exclusive power, the Czech Marxist rbloc (includ!ing 56 percent of aU Czech voters of 1946 and 130 deputies (93 Communists and 37 Social Democrats) out of 23,1 corresponding to the Ozec<h area) was finally able, on February 25, 1948, to, peacefully consolidate its position and, by eliminating the Czech Catholics and National Socialists, to pass over from the priniciple od' the National Front Gorvernment to a sheer Communist dictatorshilp. Conclusion As a conolusion to this statement, I wish to repeat that I welcome this. opportunity of finally putting the events which took place in Ozecho-iSlovia'k ia between 19451948 in the pro.per historical light. It is with regret that I must state. that neither of the two congressional documents dealing with the Communist subjtu gation of CzechoSlovakia - i.e., House Document No. 154, part I, on The Coup de Force in Prague, pulblished in 1,9 49 by the Foreign Affairs Committee, and DoCIU!Illent No. 70, pa,rt 4, on internal tensions in Ozecho-,Slovalkia, recently pulblished by the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Senate (July 1954), contain aipproprfate facts and analyses of the acts of Commun.ist aggression committed during that period in Slovrukia. (Wa,s hington, D. C., December 3, 1954). fflE TESTIMONY OF FATHER ANTON BOTEK Mr. Kersten. 'Dhe hearings will come to orde•r . Mr. McTigue. Your name is Father Anton Botelk, is that correct, Father? Father Botek. Yes. Mr. McTigue. And you were fOl'!Illerly director of Catholic Action in Slo:vahla, is that correct? Father Botek. Yes. Mr. McTi:gue. fa it true you were in prison a total number of seven times? Father Botelk. Yes. Mr. McTigue. Imprisoned by the Communists.? Father Botek. Yes. �74 SLOVAKIA Mr. iMcTigue. From 1945 to 1949? Father Botek. No, from 1949 till 1950. Mr. McTigue. When did the Communists occupy SlovaFather Botek. In 1944. kia, Father? Mr. McTigue. Norw, Father, tell us something a!bout the f,i ght to !keep the Catholic schools open in 1945 and 1946 following the Communist occupation. Father Botek. As early as 1944, during the 1944 CommUJili.st uprising in SlovaJkia, the so-,ca,lled Slovakian National Council was concerned with the abolition of all church-Operated school,s. Mr. McTigue. Can you tell us something aJbout the tactics of the Communists used to destroy the organizations of the church? Father Botek. At first they rubolished all Catholic Church operated schools; then they disbanded all Catholic associations, and fina:lly they sll!ppressed the Catholic press. Mr. McTigue. Slo:v akia is predominantly Catholic in Father Botek. Yes. religion, is tihat right, Father? Mr. McTigue. What are the percentages of Catholics in Slo;vakia? Father Botek. Eighty-two ,p ercent are Catholic. Mr. McTigue. Is there anything you can tell us, Father, rubout the so-called elections in 1946 in Slovaikia? F1a:ther Bote:k. As early as 1944, there were only two political .p arties admitted; that is, the Communist Party and the so-.c alled Slovaikiian Democratic Party. .The Slovakian Democratic Party denied any political party that would be able to defend their rights by democratic method. Mr. MoTigue. Wasn't there some agreement between the Slova1kian bishops amd the Democratic Party, Father? Father Botek. Since there was no political representation of Slovakian Catholics, the Sloviakian bishops and clergy tried to find means by which Slovitkian Catholics could exipress their political will. This was necessary especially since the Communasts were anxious to win the sympathies of the Slovakian people. The Communists tried to use, especially, the Sloivakian Nation's. feelings for their 1 �SLOVAKIA 75 pu~ses and they suggested to the SlovaJkian people the creation of an independent SlovaJkian State after the end of World War II. This, howerver, wasn't approved by Mos~ cow. Therefore, the Commurusts tried to achieve a selfrule for ISlovaJkia within the frame of the Czecho...Slovakian Re,pulblic and they finally succeeded in it; this was then inco:riporated into the so-called Kosice agreement concluded in 1945. The Communists also tried to win the sympathy and support of SlovaJkian Oathol.ics, promising the former members of the CathoJic Slova;kian People's Party tha;t they woU!ldn't be punished for their wrur-time activities if they joined the Communist Party. They also wanted some priests for their policies; for instance, a certain priest, Joseph Straka, who was previously suspended from his office b,y his bishop because of irregularities in administration. The bishOipS foribade Catholic priests to make any canvassing prior to the 1946 elections and the Catholic priests were also fonbidden to be candidates for any political party in those elections. Father Straka, however, disobeyed this order of the Catholic bishops and made .propaganda for the Communist Party in winning Catholics for that party. He promised Slovakian Catholics that the Com1rm.11n.ist Party would guarantee complete religious freedom to CathoJics and he issued also several ~itten statements to the peoiple, one of which I am in position to furnish to this committee. The Slovafidan people, however, didn't let themselves be misled by the Communist propa;ganda and they trusted the bishops because they knew their a;ttitude toward the Communists was the only correct one, since the bishops warned them agaiinst the Communists even during the time Oif Worlld War fil. Therefore, we tried to find some cooperation with the Democrati:c Party of Slovakia, which was not at least Communist, even tho.ugh this party was also coresponsilble for the fact that the Communists were aJble to penetrate SloiV'a!kia. The Catholics were es'peci'ally indignant aigainst the Democratic Barty of Slova1cia ~ cause they rug-reed to the confiscation of 1,800 elementary schools and 80 schools of higher grade which were prevfo:us.. ly operated by the Catholic Church, because this conifisca1 �76 SLOVAKIA tion took place. i,n 19'115, at the time when the commissioner for education was the chairman of the Democratic Party, Dr. Joseph Lettriich, T.he so-called "Democrats," however, became aware of the great pressure, and the great activities developed by the Communists and therefore they also, on their part, tried to win su>ppo•r t of the Catholic population of SlovaJkia for themseJves. At tha,t time we Catholics still conducted negotiations with both the Communists and the Democratic Pa·:rity since we still hoip ed that we would be aJble to achieve from the Communists the admission of a Catholic Party to be on the other side. There were also preparations made for an ag,r eement with the Democratic Party. The Communists, during the negotia.tions, always applied the tactics of postponement of a final decision. They made indications that they might be inclined ·to admit, if not an ex,plicity Catholic party but a P'arty which would at least, to some extent, aP\peal to the Catholic population of Slovaikia. However, it soon became apparent that no agreement could be reached with the Communists. Therefore, on the 30th of March, 1946, we concluded an agreement with the Democratic Party of SlovaJkia. In this agreement, the Democratic Party of SlovaJkia pledged itself to admit Catholics as candidates on their list of candidates in the 1946 elections. When the Communists realized this they qtlliokly allowed another party, which was called the Freedom Pa,rty and of which they claimed this was a Catholic party. In this party there were several good Catholics, even such persons who previously part-icilpated in the negotiations with the Democratic Party, but the chief leaders of that party couldn't be trusted. The Communists also made propaganda or encouraged voters to cast inrvalid votes beca:UJSe they calculated that Slovakians who• disrug,reed both with the Communist and Democratk Pa!r ty would prefer to cast invalid votes which then would diminish the percentage of votes received by the Democratic Party. These irnvalid votes were. generally referred to as "white ballots" because they were plain slips ()If ,paper. This oppovtunity to use these white ballots was voted in the Parliament prim· to the elections, and the Communists and the representative s of the Free- �77 SLOVAKIA dom Party were in favor of this policy. Then it became ob.viou:s thalt the Fireedom Party was merely a pwppet party under control orf the Communist s. We therefore started ,pmpagand a among the Catholics to vote for the Democratic Party. We couldn't deve1orp this propaganda publicly, hut we r equested Slovakian bishops to issue a statement to the Slovalkian voters. In this statement orf the bishops, Caltholics were called upon to vote according to their Christian conscience; they we<re forihidden to vote for an undemocra tic party which would .not admit religious freedom and they were called upon to vote for the party wh~,ch would guarantee demncratic freedom. This statement clearly indicated thalt SlovaJkiam. CathoUcs were foiibidden to vote in favor of the Communist Party but it still was necessary to instruct the Slovakian Catholics that it ,w asn't good for them to vote for the Freedom Party either. Therefore, a statement was included in this aipipeal by the bi shops stating that it was not true; that the rumors were not true which stated that the Slovakian bishops joined the Freedom Party and that they were inclined to vote for that party. Those :mimors we.re spread by the Communis t Party and hy the Freedom Party. Copies of this proclamati on oif the bishops were sent to all iparish priests; it was also published in the Catholic press and we had couriers talking them personally to each priest. As a result of this campaign, the Democratic Party won in the 1946 elections and receiived 61 ½ percent of all votes cast. HO!Wever, we found out that the Democratic Party didn't de.fend the interests of the Slovakian Catholics and that this ,p arty even failed to defend its own memlbers of Parliament who were Catholics. The Oomnmniirst-controlled Commissio n of the Interior in SlovaJkia had arrested the leaders of the Catholic group within the Pairliame.nrt who were members of the Democratic Party. In the a,greement reruohed between the Catholic representati v,es and the representat ives of the Democratic Party, the Democratic Pat-ty pledged itself, or guaranteed to, Catholics that the schools would be returned to. the Catholiircs ag·a:in and that the press would also be allowed, as well as Catholic organrzatio ns. How1 �78 SLOVAKIA ever, the Democratic Party failed to honor these promises and in arguments with the Communists they always yielded to the Communist demands in order to avoid personal troubles with them. Therefore, Catholics decided to take up direct negotiations with the Government itself in order to defend their rights. Bishop Jantausch persona1ly called on the chairman of the Board of Commissioner s in Slovakia trying to achieve the fulfillment of the promises given by the Democrats and the guarantees for the democratic rights of Catholics. However, he failed to achieive any results. I accompanied him on his visits to the Communist Commissioner HusaJk, and the Communist Commissioner Viktory, and neither of these two ever agreed to any concessions to the Catholics. Then a commission was. introduced which was to find a solution of all ,pr01blems of the Catholics. In this commission, representative s of the Communist Party were Husak and Novomesky, and the representative s of the Demooratic Party were Filo and Frastacky. On the part of the Catholics, the representative s were Bishop Lazik, Cannon Cvincek, Carnogursky, and myself. The pro!blems to be solved were the reesta!blishme nt of church-Operat ed schools, a free Catholic press, admission of Catholic organizations, discontinuatio n of inhuman deportations of the Germans and Hungarians from Slovakia, confiscation of property and cancellation of work on Sundays. This commission convened only twice in the winter of 1947, but no results were achieved. In 1945 the Communists abolished the following Catholic organizations : Organization of Catholic women, with a memlbership of 100,000; the Organization of Catholic Men, with 30,000, and the Association of Catholic Youth, with a membership of 50,000. Mr. MoTigue. In 1948, is it true that the central office of Catholic Action, of which you were director, was liquidated and you were arrested? Father Botek. Yes. Mr. McTigue. What were you charged with when you were arrested, Fathoc? Father Botek. The Central Catholic Bureau received �SLOVAKIA instructions from the Catholic bishops to taJke over all acti,v ities previously carried out by the Catholic Action. However, we were aware of the fad that all organrizations didn't haive a legal background, a legal footing, and therefore any acttvities developed by this organization oould be stopped by the Communists any time they wanted. The activitie.g of the Central Bureau, the Catholic Action Bureaiu, were carried on with a great risk. I knew I was collSltantly shadowed by one or two secret policemen and that offic:ially all persons who entered the offices of our orgaruza.tions were super.vised by the· Communists. Instances happened that visitors at or1.1r office were then apprehended by these policemen, searched, beaten Uip , and adivised to omit further visits to our bureau. Therefore, we were anx,ious to keep our activities in the field of the Cathohl.c Action strictly within the limits of religion a,nd not to mix in any political aspects. Nevertheless, the Communists didn't permit our activities and on December 7, 1948, eigiht Communist po1icemen inivaded our bureau and declared that our organization was disbanded and that the 'b,ureau had to be closed dQIWiJl. The employees at the bureau we.r e sent to a room where they were searched while, in the meantime, in the ibwreau itself, all documents were searched by the Communist police. This search la,s ted from 8 o'clook in the morning until evening hours, but finally the employees of the bureau were released to their homes, and I was t aiken by the police to my apartment which also was searched by the police. The office rooms of the bureau were then sealed by the Communist police. 1:'he Communists then entered the office rooms of the Catholic bureau twice more and also, I, myself, was twice investigated by the pol,ice. Likewise, my assistant at the bureau was investigated by the police. On the 29th of January 1949, three policemen oame to my apartment at 6 :30 o'clock in the · morning and intended to ta ke me to. the police station. At that time I was just saying my daily Mass and I was notified that the policemen were waiting for me. I could escrupe, but I decided aga,inst this, because I suspected that I would discredit, by esca,ping, the Central Catholic Bureau and also 1 �80 SLOVAKlA the Slovakian bishops. I was taken to the police station at Bra:tislav and held for seven days U1I1der very poor conditions. The iinrvestigators tried to force me to confess that I had connections with the Western Powers, that I engaged in espionage activities, and that I develO!I)ed subversive activities against the Peoiple's Democratic regime in Ozecho-iSlO!Vak.ia. They didn't have any evidence a,gainst me and, therefore, the]' tr8.lllsferred me to the regional court's prison where they held me for another five months pending investigation. At the end of these five months, my foI1IDer assistant at the Catholic Bureau, as well as the expert for pastoral activities in the border areas, were released and I was put on trial. Since they couldn't produce any evidence in support of the charges that I wo:riked for foreign powers and that I engaged in espionage activities, they forced a student to testif,y against me, that I knew of his espionage activities and failed to reiport this to the police. For this offense I was sentenced to seven months' imprisonment. On July 7, 1'949, I was transferred to the Leopoldov penitentiary b.eca:use, at the time the Communists organized their so-called CathoHc Action, which was controlled by them, many Catholics who supported the genuine Catholic Action were imprisoned, so that the prisons were crowded. I served the rest of my term at LeO!poldov and on the 28th of August 1949 I was released. I was in poor health as a result of my imprisonment and, therefore, I had to go to a hosip ital, but after a month I myself requested to ibe assigned to a small parish so as to disappear from the eyes od' the Communists. Mr. McTigue. Was this in 1950, Father? F,8 /ther Botek. 1949. While at this small parish, we were preparing an ecdesiastical sermon and at this time a local Communist called on me and requested me, pleaded with me, that I shouldn't launch any attacks against Communists in my sermon, bec3/Use he stated he was charged with my suI1veillance and was to report everything on me, including that whicih I told in my sermons, and he stated he was a Catholic, too, and was the father of eight children he couldn't refuse this Communist order to spy on me and on the other hand, if another .person would be given �SLOVAKIA 81 the same instructions, this other person could do harm to me. When I was approximatel,y two months at this par,ish, the local chairman of the Communist Party called on me and notified me that I was swpposed to report at the district national committee for some discussion. I was afraid, however, that this was just a triok and that people were previously sentenced on charges of underground activities and were sent to forced-.JaJb.or camps even after they had served their terms imposed by the courts. However, the Communists are very cautious while proceeding against Catholic priests since the parishioners defended their ,priest$ against arrest and there were clashes between the population and the Communist police who a,r rived to arrest Catholic priests, especially at the time when the Communists started their own sponsored Catholic Action. There.fore, they endeavored to lure our parish priests fronn their parishes and to arrest them at a place where such resistance by local parishioners couldn't be offered. TherefoiI'e, I decided not to report at the district national committee and await my arrest at the parish office, and on the same day the police arrived and took me to a forced-labor camp at Nova:ky My parishioners protested against my arrest; however, they didn't put up any ·physical resistance since they already experienced that such resistance was followed by arrests of hundreds of innocent people and that it still was to no avail because the pTiests were always eventuaUy arrested. I could tell you about conditions there, albout my experiences which I had at that time when I was held at the Bmtisl8'va County jail. At that time there were members at least of ten underground groups held at that prison. When I had an opportunity to talik to them, I asked how they became involved in underground activities and how it happened that they were arrested since there were always rubout 50 persons from each group arrested. Most of these for.mer members of the undengr.ound groups stated that there was always a Communist spy planted by the Communists within their organizations, and that this Communist spy even encouraged them to develop underground activ:ities which he then reported to the Communist police. �82 SLOVAKIA I realized that the Communists had put under sur:veill~e all people whom they suspected might engage in underground activ-ities and if they failed to find anything, any underground actiivities, they encouraged such people to develop such activities, and be.fore a group could actually start its undeirground activities, the spy denounced them to the police and the memJbers of the group were arrested. In 1,9 49, the Communists realized that they were U!Ilaible to win the Catholic bishops for their puriposes; therefore, they decided to organize their o,w n Catholic Action. They coTI1Vened a meeting of the so-<:aJled representaUves of the Catholic Church in Prague on June 10, 1949. To this meeting they invited several priests under false pretexts, stating that this was to he a conference to negotiate and discuss church pro1b lems. In addition, there were also several Catholic laymen invited to this meeting, who were mostly mem!bers of the Communist Party but didn't play any decisive role in the Catholic life, and the Communists eventually declared this meeting as the new leadership of the Catholic Action. The Communists declared that since the Vatican was against the people and since the bishops supported the v ,a tican in this policy, they intended to leave to the Ohu:rch only the spiritual care and admit only the kind of questions and morals that the Pope could rule in .the affairs concerning the Catholic morals a:nd the· Catholic faith; but all other religious· questions would be taken care of by this Catholic Action. This evidently was an attempt by the Communists to seize control over the administration of the Catholic Church in Czecho-Slovakia. However, they real.ized that they didn't haNe the sU1pport of the people. Therefore, they initiated an aotion of signatures which were to be rutta,c hed by the entire population of C!zecho-Sloivakia, to a memorandUllll issued by the rubove-mentioned meeting at which this Communist Catholic Action was founded. Branches of the Communist Party organization were entrusted with the carrying out of this signature action. They convened meetings in towns and in viUages, and also at wo:rikiplaces. at which the present people were called uipon to put their signatu:re on the memorandum. The bishops, �SLOVAKIA 83 however, condemned this Catholic Action, and the Holy See declared every person who would sign this memorandum as excommunicated from the Catholic Church. Mr. McTigue. Father, you were in a forced labor camp in 1950; is that correct? Father Botek. Yes. Mr. McTigue. Did you get sick at that time and were you sent to a hospital? Father Botelk. Yes. Mr. McTigue. Can you tell us very briefly something about how the Communists treated the Sister,s at the hospital? Father Botek. A Communist order previously arrested all nuns those who were nurses at hospitals because there was a great laclk of trained nurses at the hospitals. These nuns, however, who were left as nurses at the hospitals, were e~posed to various Communist chicaneries. That was done by Communist functionaries at the hospital, by Communist doctors, and men, and assistants. They were called upon to renounce their mernlbership in their religious orders and to become civilian nurses. The Communists tried to Lure · the younger nuns with a promise that if they agreed to renounce their membership in the religious order, tihey would be permitted to go to a university without any previous education, which was otheIWise required from university students. This was the same pattern as was rupplied in the case of young Communist woI'kers who also were admitted to university studies without adequate education and just attend a short preparatory course. Except for a few exceptions, most of these nuns refused the Communist demands and so the Communists started to remove the nun nur,ses from hospitals. MT. McTigue. When did you learve Slovrukia, Father? Father Botek. On the 26th of June 1951. Mir. McT,~giue. Did you have any trouble in getting out of SlQIVakia? Father Botek. I made a previous attempt to escrupe. At that time we were a group of 22 escapees. However, �84 SLOVAKIA this escrupe mdn't succeed and. so I had to try it a second time, at which time we were only four escapees and we succeeded in crossing the border. ,M r. McTigue. Your present assignment at this time is in Rome; is that correct, Father? Father Botek. Yes. Mr. Busby. Father Botek, we know that communism is opposed to all religions, but I think the comm~ttee might like t-0 know how successful the Communists were in their efforts to infiltrate and to destroy the Catholic religion in SlovaJkia. Father Botek. Previously, when I still was at the Central Catholic Bureau, we intercepted a secret Communist instruction in continuing a Commumst plian for destruc,tion of the Church and for its seizure and control. Under these instructions, the indirvidual phases were to be the following: At first the ibishops of the Catholic Church in Czecho-,Slova:kia were to be separated from the Vatican; the second step was to be. that the bishops were t-0 be discredited in the eyes of the priests, as well as of the laymen Catholics, and finally, the last phase was to be the separation of the Catholic laymen from their priests. IMr. Busbey. Now, that leads ri,ght up to my question. Up until the time you left Slovakia, and from yOIUI' own personal olbservation, h ow successful was this plan of the Communists? Father Botek. They succeeded in accomplishing the first oibjective; that is, to separate the Catholic Church in Czecho'"'Slorvrukia from the Vatican. They expelled the Annuncias from the Vatican to Ozech0-Slovakia so that contacts of Ozecho-iSl01Vakian authorities with the Vatican were interrupted. Nevertheless, the Catholics in OzechoSlovaJkia remained faithful to the Vatican, to the Holy See. However, they failed in achieving their second olbjective. to make the Catholic bishops bend to their demands and to have them - to maJke them tools in the propagation of communism in Slovakia. Therefore, the Communists ,pliaced a commissary to each episcoipal office who was to taike care that the bjsho,ps didn't have any contacts with the �SLOVAKIA 86 clergy and with the congregation. These Communist commissars controlled the in- and out-going mail; they controlled the visitors who intended to call on the bishops, and admitted only those whom they considered harmless; but even the talks of such visitors with the bishops were monitored. Mr. Busbey. Father, can you tell us aJbout the methods and technics used by the Communists to indoctrinate the pupils with the, theory of Marxism? Father Botek. The Communists innoculated the Marxist ideology and way of thin'king to the pupils from the very first grade of elementary school. When I was in hiding with a family who had an 8-year-old daughter, I overheard her tal!ks with her parents and I heard that this girl was thinking in Communist terms and that her way of thinking was completely inJfiluenced by the Communist doctrine. Mr. Busbey. Father, do you agree with some of the other witnesses we have heard, in the belief that if something isn't done in the immediate future and that if we let the Communists ikeep on educating the real young boys and girls, it will be more difficult, as time goes on, to defeat this Communist march toward worrld revolution? Father Botek. lt is a fact that the Communists have had great successes in educating the very young people in their ideology and the parents are almost unable to influence or to counteract against this Communist ideology implanted inrto the chlldren because these children are instructed to report at school any attempts ,b y their parents to dissuade them :13rom communism. Therefore, it is a fact; that if communism is given enough time, that these youths will become completely communistic and the Communist strength will be increased. Mr. Busbey. Can you give the committee any illustrations of the technics used by the Communists to make the children believe in Stalin before he died, instead of God? Father Botek. Yes, I saw the mrugazines for children, for school-children, containing slogans such as "Stalin is our sun; everything we haive, we've got from Stalin," and �86 SLOVAK IA "Stalin is ouT benefac tor, Stalin is our greatest benefac tor, Stalin is the greatest man, Stalin is the most beautifu l man." Mr. Busbey. Father, are you qualified to. tell the committee how the Commu nists rocploited the economy of Slovakia? Father Botek. In these economi c aspects, I am not well versed; I only Olbse,r:ved thait there was a general lack of all consum er goods and that the living conditio ns were poor. Mr. Busbey. WhiJe you were in prison, were you given any consider ation at all because of the fact that you were a member of the clergy? Father Botek. This ,prdbaJbly was the case 'b ecause I never was maltreat ed, never was beaten at interrog ations, and I observe d that many fello•w prisoner s were beaten, so that I prolbaibly enjoyed preferen tial treatme nt. This, may!be, was due to the faot that there was still a trace of Catholic faith in my investig ators so that they were reluctant to rai,se their hands aigainst me as a priest. I also had the followin g experien ce. While I was in ,prison, a prison guard caime to me and asked me whether he should give his signatur e to the Commu nist Ac~ion Manifes to. IMT. Busbey. My final question ; do you lbelieve tha,t any agreeme nt made with the Commu nists is worth the paper it is written on? Father Botek. From my e~perience, I had negotiat ions with the Commu nists, I can sta:te thait the Commu nists never honor their word thait they gave in such negotiations, and this is in accorda nce with their general policy which goes that everyth ing is good that promote s the Communist cause, and therefor e I am convinced thait any negotiatio ns or any agreeme nts reached with the Communists are worthle ss. Mr. Madden . Father Botek, you in your testimon y haive covered very well your experien ces back over the years with the Commu nist Party in Slovakia and the only question I would like to ask is what percenta ge of the populati on of Sloviahla today are Commun ists, true Communists at heart; what percent age: 5 percent; 10 percent; 20 ; or what would you say? �SLOVAKIA 87 Father Botclc. I thin!k that the percentage doesn't exceed 10 ,p ercent. Mr. No71blad. Is the Voice of America or Radio Free Europe listened to by many of the people in the area you come from? F1ather Botclc. While I was in hiding with several fa .. milies in Slovakia, we frequently listened to the Voice of America and Free EuTope programs. However, I heard from these ipeople many objections against the spirit of those programs beamed to Ozecho-.S1ovaJkia. Mr. Nor.blad. What were the dbjoctions, generally, in Slovakia? I am refemnig to the conditions in Slovakia. Father Botek. The objections were mainly of a national and religious nature. The Slavaikian peqple are a very religious people. They are 82 percent Catholics and 13 pereent Protestants, who also are active Protestaints. Therefore, programs promoting ideas of a reformer, Jan Huss, or the religious ideas of Masaryk and the other socalled free thinlkers, are not appeaJ.ing to the Sl01Vakian population. Ma-. Noy,blad. Do they believe the world news, the straight news given on those programs? Father Botek. Well, the Slovallcian people listen eagerly to the news broadcasts by the Voice of America. However, once OT twice I .w itnessed the following incident. Slovakian listeners who listened to the program of the Voice of America, said, after the news was over, just said, "Well, turn it off because the news is over and they are now going to stam their propaganda for the Czech Republic and we do not want any Oze<!h Republic." Mr. Norblad. Do you feel that the radio broadoasts are doing some good behind the Iron Curtain? Father Botek They certainly are of great use and great efficiency but this efficiency would still be greater if the rest of the pro.grams, except for the news, was also adjusted to those two major feelings of the Slovakian popufation, the religious feelin:g and the national feeling. Mr. No:rlblad. Do you get the programs clearly or are they j&mmed by the Soviets? �88 SLOVAKIA Father Botek. The programs are being jammed but on la11ger radio sets they still can be received and if the transmission is jammed on one wave, on one b,and of the radio,, it may ,be still tuned in on another one. Mr. Feighan. There is, is there not, a very strict feeling of healthy nationalism within Slovakia? Father Botek. Yes. Mr. Feighan. And that of course. is the reason why there has been some resentment to the broadcasts? F1ather Botek. Yes. I also heard comments by listeners to the Radio Free Europe, and Voice of America programs to ·the effect that in spite of the fact that there are almost one million SlO'Vitk immigrants in the United States, who ha.ve their own homes there and national life in the United States, these programs do not bring any reports on the activities developed by these Slovak organi~atrons in the United States; they only bring reports. of aotivities of organi•z ations which are not sympathetic to the Slovak people and, therefore, the Slova!kian population, in order to learn of the activities of the Slov:ak organizations in the United States, tune in on Radio Rome, which also beams SlO'Vakian programs. Mr. Feighan. Well, it is a pity that the pe-o:ple within Slovak,ia are not acquainted with the tremendous contribution of the Slovakian immigrants to the culture and ciivic development of our cotmtry. l!"'ather, would y;ou relate. in a U.ttle more detail, if you are familiar with the fact that the Communists in 1948, I believe, offered Slovakia the opportunity to ·b ecome a Slovak S01Viet Republic? Fiather Botek. That was actually in 1944 and 1945, not in 1948. At that time this policy was promoted by the S]pvaikian Communists, Husak and Novomesky. However, Moscow disapproved. of this policy and, therefore, the Slovakian Communists had to put up with Czecho-Slovakia, within which SlO'V•a!kia was to have broad autonomy, self-rule. Mr. Feighan. Was it no,t the Slo¥ak Government that refused rather than Moscow's refusing? Father Botek. Naturally the Slovak Government was �SLOVAKIA 89 opposed to this idea since it was a Catholic Government. Mr. Feighan. Well, you've got it both ways; now there is only one way. Flather Botek. I would like to explain this apparent discrepancy. This was due to the fact that there was in 1944, there was a Sl,QIV'a)ldan Govemment of an independent Slovakian State which to some extent - whose sovereignty was to some extent restricted by Germans. When the Communists started their wprising, in August 1944, they tried to arouse the sympathies of the SlOIVa:k people with promises of an independent Slovakian State but within the framework of the S01Viet Socialist Repulblic. Rusruk and N ovomesky were leading organizers of the wprising in 1944. This policy of the Slovakian Communists, however, was disapproved by Moscow. Mr. Feighan. Is it not true thait because of the spirit of healthy nationalism within Slovrukia that the Slovak people would not accept the offer to be a part of the U. S. S. R., ~a,use they knew that such a so-.called independence of Slo,vaikia would be national in structme only, but in su!bstance it would be socialistic? Father Botek This is possible. This is possilble, but President Booes, who was at Moscow at that time, persuaded the Moscow leaders to drop that idea; and he made also great concessions to the Russia,ns so that they considered it more profitruble for them to hruve a CzechoSlovak Republic rather than a small Slovakian Repulblic. Mr. Feighan. F'ather, did thi s Communist Catholic Action still function between that time of its first meeting in June 1949 until you left in Jll!Ile of 1951? Father Botek. This Communist- sponsored Catholic action prorved to be a complete failure. They still held an anniversary meeting the following year but they didn't celebra,te the foundation of thls Catholic Action in the third year any more. Mr. Kersten. I hope you understand, Father, that all of ourr questions are asked in the spirit of inquiry regarding the Communist aggression upon Slovakia. That is our overall purpose, and thank you, Father, for the testimony. (Munich, Germany, June 26, 1954). 1 �90 SLOVAKIA TESTIMONY OF FATHER STEFAN NAHALKA (The witness wa:s sworn. The same interipreter was utilized as for the previous witness.) Mr. McTigue. Your name is Father Stefan N ahal!ka, is Father Nahalka. Yes. that correct? Mr. McTigue. Were you born in Slovakia? Father N ahalka. Yes. Mir. McTigue. Were you ordained a priest in Slov,aJkia? Father N ahalka. I studiied theology in Rome, so I was ordained in Rome. Mir. McTigue. And assigned to parish duties in Slovakia, is that correct? !Father Naha1ka. Since 1943, I was a'SSigned to duty in Slovakia. Mr. MicTigue. And at one time, Father, you were secretary to Bishop Vojtassa!k, is that correct? Father Naha1ka. Yes, I was in that capacity from 1946 to 1949. Mr. McTigue. Do you recall the uprising, so-called, Father Nrahalka. Yes. in Slovakia? Mr. McTigue. When did the t11prising taike place? Flather NahaLka. At the place in which I resided, the uprising started on the 26th of August 1944, when this town was occupied by Communist guerillas. Mr. McTigue. Can you tell us something aborut what the guerillas did in that town? Father Nrahalka. At that time I was chruplain at the town of Ruio:miberoik and during the firist days of the Communist uprising, the relbels forced the popll!lation, the men in tha;t town, forcibly to join the rebel army even though they were completely disiruterested and even opposed to the uprising. They also committed grave atroci~ies. In a valley called Podsucha, they murdered over 80 innocent people and buried them in a mass grave. In a nea'Iiby village, the partisans mwdered without any connection with the military, a Catholic priest named Martin:ko. In the Lupca valley, the Communist guerillas tortured to death there a Catholic priest named Seda; they cut �SLOVAKIA 91 stri!Ps of hi,s skin from his back and finally even cut off his genitals. Since the population was not in favor of the uprising, the rebels used this deceptive propa,ganda to wm the sympathles of the popul ation. To this end they spread the rumor,s that the president of the Slovakian R~Ulbl,ic, Dr. Tiso, was arrested and de1p orted by the Germans and that, therefore, Slovrukia should arise. Mr. McTigue. Father, in 1949, did each b:i,shop have a political commissar assigned to him so that he could watch over the bishop's activiities? FaJther Naha1ka. In 1949, when the negotia,tions between the Communists and the Slovakian bishops broke down, the Communists placed Communist commissars into every ibishop's oftfice and they also placed one commissar into Bishop Vojtassa:k's oft:Eice, who was a young Communist, ,a former tailor. He was approximately 24 years old at that time, and t'here was aJil'Other Co:mmun,ist placed in the main entrance to the ,b ishop's office who chooked on all visitors at the bishop's office. The. commissar opened: the bishop's mail, in- and out...going, and overheard all conversations the bishop had with his visitors and also acoompanied him on ,a ll his trips,. He also seized control O'Ver the files of the bishop's office and he tooik out items firom those files. Mr. McTigue. Were the rooms in the hishoip's home, for example, wired ? Father N ahallm. There were no microphones in the rooms of the bishoip's office because the commissar wa,s present at all conversations, ibut I know orf a case. when the Communists placed microphones in the conference room for the bishop's conferences. Mr. McTi,g ue. Were you secretary to Bishop Vojtassa.k in 1949? Father Nahalika. Well, I was secretary to Bishop Vojta:ssaik until January 1'949 and afterwards I lived in the 'Vicinity of the bish0tp's residence, in the priest's seminary. Mr. McTigue. Were you arrested by the Communists, Father? 1 Fruther N ahalika. I was arrested in December 1945 and held in imprisonment until January 1946. 1 �92 SLOVAKIA ,Mr. McTigue. When did you leaive Slovakia, Father? -Father Nahalk,a. llll May 1953. Mr. McTigue. That is a little more than a year ago. Did you hawe any difficulty in getting out of Slovakia? FaJther Nahiallk,a. Well, the crossing of the bo,rder was very difficult. At first we had to wait fo~ 14 days for run opportunity, for a favnrruble time to cross the border and we had to ~ very cautious while crossing to a :border area in which the border g,u ards are authorized to fire at anybody whom they see, without warning and finally we h,ad to cut through the barbed wire fences directly on the border. Mr. Madden. Father Nahallka, when Father Boteik was testifying, he mentioned something regarding certain broadcasts thaJt were cormng over the Voice of . Arrnerioa and Radio Wree Europe; do you know anything regarding the broadcasts th·a t come 01Ver? Do you have any knowldge on th-at? Father Nahallka. I was in hiding f.or two years with the viarious people from almost all social striafa and during this time I had ample opportUillity to 1isten to foreign broadcasts. Mr. Madden. Oou:ld you tell us regarding your knowledge of the hmadcasts that come into, Slovaikia? Father Nruha.1':ma. The people in Slovakia eaigerly listen to democriaitic broadcasts. However, the preferences a.re different and also the foreign broadcasts axe hOON'ily jammed by the Communists. The people in Slovakia listen to news broadcasts in the Slovak language by Riadio Free Europe, Voice of America and also BBC in London; however, they disaigree on many aspects in the poJ.i;tical comments broadcast from these stations. They are opposed to the political part of the program of those broad~asts mainly beca'll'Se they realize that such programs do not state the entire Communist case in Slovakia. Mr. Madden. You mean anti-Communist? Father Nahalka. Are not efficient enough to inspire anti.Communist feelinig or to keep up the ainti-Communist attitude of the population. This opposition to the programs, �93 SLOVAKIA the poJitical programs of those stations is due to the fact that they do not appeal to the national and religious fee~ ings of the Slovakians and a.iso from the ideological viewpoint, there are some oibjections, since they are sometimes very much alike with the Communist propaganda. '.Dhey teJl people who know, in these broadcasts, there are people who formerly collaiborated with the Communists and they are now talking aib,out anti-Communists. For instance, the reports of the so~called Slovia,kian national uprising was a very, very - was a great mistake. At the time when the transmitters were still in operation, people in Slovakia eagerly listened to an illegal transmitter called the Wlhite Legion transmitter and the people in Slo;vakia also :5requently listened to the religious programs broadoost by Radio Vatican. IMr. Madden. Do yoo think the programs broadcast by the Voice of America and Radio Free Europe do any good - I mean, against the Communists? Father Nahalka. These broadcasts have their effects in the line of anti-communism, but especially thr01Ugh their news which they broadlcast. However, they could be still more efficient if they adjusted their political programs also to the needs and desires of the Slovak population. (Munich, Germany, June 26, 1954). THE TESTIMONY OF JAN DOBROTKA Mr. McTigue. You are a Slovak, is that correct? Mr. Dobrotka. ¥ es. iMr. McTigue. And you were 'bom on OctOlber 20, 1913 at Dechtice, Slovakia, is that correct? Mr. Dolbrotka. Yes. Mr. McTigue. During the Communist occupation of SlovaJkia you were a master sergeant in the SiN.B, socalled, which is known as the Bureau of Internal Security, is that correct? Mr. Dob:mtka. Yes, sir. Mr. McTigue. And you were a uniformed master sergeant in the Buireau of Internal Security from 1947 to 1951, is that correct? Mr. Dobrotka. That is right. 1 �94 SLOVAKIA Mr. McTigue. Was the Bureau of Internal Security completely controlled by the Communists,? Mr. DobTOtka. As of 194'8 it was completely under Communist control. Mr. M'CTigue. But you were a member of the Bureau of Internal Security prior to the time that it was under Communist control, isn't that correct? Mr. Ddbrotka. Yes. Mr. McTigue. And you were required to stay on as a member of the Bureau of Internal Security after the Communists got control, is that corerct? Mr. Ddbrotka. Well, I was automatically taken over. Mr. McTigiue. After the Bureau of Internal Security was taiken over by the Communists, did you from time to time receive orders to arrest priests, to make house searches, and so forth and so on? Mr. Dobrotka. Yes, I received such orders. Mr. McTigue. Were there many of such arrests made? Mr. Dobrotka. Many wealthy farmers were arrested. Mr. McTigue. Can you tell us something about the orders that were given to suppress and liquidate the Slovak Democratic Party members and the Slovak League? Mr. Dobrotka. As of 1948 memlbers of the Democratic Party were removed from all leadmg positioos in the administraJtion. The Slovak League was completely liquidated because the Communists considered this organization a swbversive and reactionary organizati'on, because it wa3 supporteq by the Slovak Leagiue of America. iMr. McTigue. Did you ever rec{:ive orde~s to give close supervision to the activity of certain parish priests in Slovakia? Mr. Dobrotka. Yes; I recei,v ed such orders. Mr. McTigue. What kind of orders were they? iMr. Dobrotka. We received such orders through channels from the government down to our posts and such orders arrived in sealed envelopes and were classified as secret, and we were instructed to open these eI1JVeloipes only u:pon special order by telephone. !Mr. McTigue. Who were the men that actually handed �SLOVAKIA 95 you the orders, were they uniformed Soviet police or were they plain-clothes men? Mr. Dolbrotka. These were members of the uniformed police. They were my immedia,te superiors and they related these orders to me. Mr. McTigue. Iif you were instructed under sealed orders to report on certain priests, what kind of reports did you m0lke,? Mr. Dobrotka. Under these orders we were to Sllipervise the sernnons of priests and to report periodically on whether there were any political aspects in those sermons by priests. Mr. McTigue. Did you ever report, for example, that there was any political significance to what a priest had to say? Mr. Dobrotka. I <know I sulbmitted annual reports to this effect, and I can state approximately 60 to 70 percent of the memlbers of the SNB did not reporit any priests to their superiors. This was also due to the fact that the priests were aware of the fact that they were Slllpervised by the police and, therefore, they avoided any political speeches within their sermons. Mr. MoTigue. Did the same kind of procedure, that is reporting on their activities, apply to businessmen and peasants and the PQpulace in general? Mr. Dobrotka. Yes; we received such orders to supervise the activities of the entire population, especially to observe whether the former mem!bers of the partially liquidated Democratic Party developed any underground acti<vities. Mr. McTigue. Were many priests arrested and interned at the time you were in the Bureau of Internal Security? Mr. Ddbratka. From the entire district in which I was active there were approximately three cases of arrests of priests, however, not a single priest was arrested in the area under my jurisdiction. Mr. McTigue. Tha,t is because you kept reporting to your superiors that the priests were only talking to God, is that correct? �96 SLOVAKIA Mr. Ddbrotka. That is right; there was no reason for their arrest. Mr. McTigue. When did you manage to esca,pe from SlorvaJkia? Mr. Dobrotka. On Deoomlber 3, 1951. Mr. McTigue. Did yiou haive any troUJble in getting out of Slorvalcia? Mr. Dobrotka. No; I did not have any tro'Ulble in escaping. Mr. McTigue. You are now a member of the Labor Service unit at Bad Kreuznach? Mr. Dobrotka. Yes, sir. Mr. Kersten. Any questions? Mr. Busbey. When did you ·become a mem!ber of the Bureau of Internal Security? Is that the correct name? Mr. Dobrotka. In 1938. At that time the name of my headquarterrs was Provincial Command of Gendarmerie, which was under the Minister of Interior. Mr. Buskey. That was in 1938? Mr. DOlbrotlra. Yes, in 1938, at which time Slovakia became an independent state. Mr. Busbey. Were you a memlber of the Communist Party at that time in 1938? Mr. Dobrotka. No, sir ; at that time memibers of the gendarmerie were fonbidden to become memlbers of any political parties. Mr. Busbey. In what year was, it that you assumed your duties of reporting on priesrts? Mr. Dabrotka. That was after February 1948, at the time when the Catholic Action was started. Mr. Busbey. You were a member of the Communist Party at that time ? Mr. Dobrotka. No, sir. Mr. Busbey. Were you ever a memlber of the Communist Party? Mr. Dobrotka. In March 1948 all members orf the SNB in order to protect their own existence were forced to file an application fur mem'bership in the COIIDmunist Party. Mr. BUS1bey. In order to saive your life, you had to become a member of the Communi'St Party at that time? �SLOVAKIA 97 Inter:preter. He became a memiber in March 1M8, but your previous quesltion was whether he was a member in February 1948. Mr. Busbey. Did you attend church prior to March 1948? Mr. Dobrotka. Yes; I did. I am a practical Catholic and I attended Mass every Sunday. Mr. Bustbey. And how rubout after March 1948? Mr. Do!brotka. After March 1948 I continued attending Mass regularly, however, we were aware that from that time on we were under supervision by the Communists, particularly all our contacts with priests, with the local priest, local teacher and local government officer were suspicious, because these persons were considered as reactionary, and our activities and connections with the people were supervised by Communists spies which were set on us by the Communist Party. Mr. Busbey. Would you agree with me that the greatest bulrwark ag,ainst communism, and the hope of the whole world for e:venrual elimination of communism and for world peace, is the fact that the people, not only behind the Iron Curtain, 'b ut all over the world, will continue to belie:ve in God? Mr. DO!brotka. This I 'believe. Mr. Buslbey. In other words, as long as the people have a deep-seated, strong belief in God, we can be sure that we will eventually eradicate communism from the earth? Mr. Dobrotka. Yes. May this ha,ppen as soon as possilble. Mr. Bus•bey. Thank you. No further questions. (The witness was excused.) (,Munich, Germany, June 29, 1954). THE TESTIMONY OF JUR DETVIANSKY Mr. Det'Vianslky was called a:nd duly sworn and testified through the Slo,vak interpreter as follows: Mr. McTigue. Your name is Jur Detviansky? Mr. Detviansky. Yes. Mr. McTigue And you were born on September 6, 1919, �98 SLOVAKIA in Slovakia in the village of Ladomila, is that correct? _Mr. Detviansiky. Yes. Mr. McTig,ue. You were a recorder of vital statistics in the town of Deitv:a until August 1950, is that correct? Mr. DetvfanSlky. That is correct. Mr. McTigue. This is the time, of course,, that Slovakia was under the Communist domination or occupation? Mr. Detviansky. Yes. iMr. McTigue. Later you were an administrative officer at Zvolen until Septemlber 1951, is that correct? Mr. Detviansky. Yes, sir. ,M r. McTi,gue. Were you discharged from this office by the Communists? Mr. Detviansky. Yes. Mr. McTig,ue. Why? Mr. Detviansiky. As a politically unreliable person. Mr. McTigue. In your ,p osition you know something about the quotas which were set for the farmers lby the Communists, is that correct? Mr. Detviansiky. Yes. Mr. Kersten. Will you speaJk a little louder in Slovaik and in English. Mr. McTigue. How were these quotas set? Mr. Detrviansky. The quotas were estalbJished for individual farmers in the presence of a representative of the Communist Party. The •p rinci:p le for this establishment, this prescrilbing of quotas, was· to prescribe those quotas to wealthy farmers in such a manner that nothing would be left for their own needs. This policy was aimed at desiroying the independenec of farmers and forcing them to join the farmers' cooperative wh[ch would make them the farmers dependent on the Communists. To the same end also several other measures were taken by the Communists, such as, for instance, that all laJbor force was taken away from the farmers and transferred to industrial pul'p()ses. Mr. McTigue. So it was impossible for these farmers, big and small, to meet the quotas imposed by the Communists, is that correct? ,M r. Detvianslky. At first the farmers managed to meet the delivery quotas because they helped each other �SWVAKIA 99 in tendmg the soil. But later this task became imposs~b'l.e to fttlfill and famJ.ers rubandoned. their farms and/ or were arrested for not ful£illing their deliivery quotas. ~- McTigue. Can you give any examples which you know of from your own personal knowledge, of how some of the peasants on small farims reacted to the quotas? Mr. Debviansky. There were several instances, but the most significant of them was that which occurred at Detva-lKostolna. It was on: Decemiber 5, 1951, when a farmer named Jan Ba/bic from despair because of the hard delivery quotas prescriibed to him 1knifed his three children, 1, 3 and 5 years old. His wife and two older children succeeded in escaping his desperate aJCt. He committed this action of despair because he stated that since they took aiway from him everything they should take away also his family. Mr. McTigue. When did you escape to the West? Mr. Detviansky. In Decemlber 1951. Mr. McTigrue. And you are now a caiptain in one of the Labor Service COIJ:Il!pany units at Kaiserslautern , is that correct? Mr. Detviansky. Yes. Mr. No:rlblad. Is the treatment which you harve been receiving here aH you expected? Mr. Detvfansky. Well, the treatment l received here meets my expectations, however, I am dissatisfied with the slow progress of the struggle rugainst the Communists and I am impatient to return to my home country. Mr. Norblad. Many of us are quite dissatisfied with the progress of OUI' fight against communism. Mr. Kersten. In other words I understrund you feel that the men, the young men of Slovakia as well as the people of the other captive nations that are in the free world would like to try to help the people ibaok in those countries and your country to regain their fireedom, is that right? Mr. Detviansky. Yes, sir, the sooner the better. Mr. Kersten. And you likewise feel that the young main back behind the Iron Curtain, even those under arms, �100 S!LOVAIHA would if they have the Oipportunity help get rid of Communists? Mr. Detviansky. As far as Slovakia is concerned, I can srtaite that since I was previously an active army officer and knew the mentality of the Sl01Vakian soldiers, I can state that 90 percent orf the Slova,kian young men would use such an oipportunity. Mr. Kersten. Thank you. The witness was. excused. (Munich, Germany, June 29, 1954). When the Kersten Committee pwblished its findings, the Benes Czechs (Socialists), the Slovak renegades the Lettrich "democrats" - and the Reds began to scream "murder!" That, of course, is quite understandaJble. For the ladk of positive al'gument, they resort to the smear technique, the usua,l line of the Reds. "CAS" (TIME) the official propaganda sheet of the Lettrich "we-got-6'2 %of-the,JSlovak-vote-in-1946" democrats, who actively collaborated with the Reds and Moscow from 1943 to Fe!bruary 25, 1948 - in its issue of February 1, 195:5, attaciked the Kersten Committee and the testimony of most of the Slovak witnesses, laJbeling the report "scandalous." It is unfortunate that the Keraten Committee did not call wpon the Lettrioh "democrats" to testify; the story would have been more complete. At least Dr. Joseph Lettrich, "leader" of the Slovak "democrats," and Gen. Nicholas Ferjencik, "non-!I)artisan" head of Lettrich's gestapo, should have ,b een given the opportunity to confess that the "democrats" did .conclude agreements with the Reds in 1943 and 1945 to collaJborate closely on all issues. The Kersten Committee did a good job in the time allotted to it. The wol1k initiated: should !be completed. Albove all else, leading Benes Czechs (Socialists) and Lettrich "democrats" - former members of the Communist-d ominated National Front government of Prague - should be girven the opportunity to "sing"! � SLOVAKIA Published VOL. V quarterly by the Slovak League of MARCH 1955 America NO . 1 (14) HOW THE COMMUNISTS SEIZED SLOVAKIA is told on the following pa,ges by witnesses called upon to testify by the Select Committee on Com• mu.nist Aiggression of the House of Representatives, headed by the Hon. Ch:a.J'lles J . Kersten of Mil· waukee, Wis. Michael Galayda is an .American citzen who experienced Communist terror in Slovakia. He was there W1,d saw Communism at work a mong his people w'ho had persdstenUy ,and consistently fought the Red plague for over a hundred years. H e makes his home in Hazleton, Pa. Mr. and Mrs. Smrekovsky, American citizens, also witnessed the terror and horror of Red rule in Slovakia ,f irst hand. They have relatives and many friends in S1ovakia and, hen.ce are using an assumed name. Dr. Joseph Pauco, news.paperman and writer, c ame to America in 1950; he is assistant editor of the .TIIDDNOTA (Union), the official organ of the First Catholic Slovak Union, and a1so chairman of the U. S. Bran,ch of the Slov,a k National Council Abroad. Dr. Joseph Mikula studied law 1 and politics and was very active ' in student circ'les of Slovakia ,before he Jlled the Red terror which invaded his native Slovakia. Dr. Joseph Mikus, foraner Slovak dilplomat, lawyer and writer, became the director of the Press Bureau of the Slovak League of America, Wash!lngton, D. C., soon after his arrival in America several years ago. Jan Dobrotka, now an exile in West Germany, was a Sergeant of the Department of National Security in Bratislava, Slovakia. Jur Detviansky was an active officer of the Sloviak Army before he Hed to the West. Rev. Anton Botek, S.T.D., editor and former director of the Catholic Center in Bratd•slava, S-Jovakia, is in charge of the S lovak Catholic Action in Exiile; he edits "HLASY Z RiMA," (Voices From Rome), Italy. Rev. Stephen Nahalka, S.T.D., ecclesiastical writer and former personal secretary to Bishop John Vojtassak of t'he Spis Diocese, 1Slovaki,a - who, by the way, was sentenced to 24 years 1n prison 1by the Reds lives in Rome. Italy. Philip A. Hrobak, editor of the JEDNl()TA since 1938 and president of t'he Slovak League of America since 19'50, is a native AmerLcan, born in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1904. Active in Slovak aff.airs for the past 35 years,, Mr. Hrobak has devoted much time to the study of Czecho-Slovakda and Slovakia and the people responsible for government. His articles and pampb:lets in Engilish have contributed greatly to expose "Czechoslo,v ak" pseudo-democracy, the maohinations of the Benes Czechs (Socialists) and Lettri.ch "detnocrats", the people responsible for the betrayal of the Slova;ks to the men of the Kremlin - +and the Reds and Socialists aictJ!ve In Slovak circles in Amertlca. · �SLOVAKIA Communist Aggression Against Slovakia (The Select Committee on Communist Aggression, House of Representatives, EJighty-Third Congress, 1954, under the ch·a irmans•h lp of the HonoraJble Oharles J. Kersten, did quite a. remarkable jdb to ascertain how the !Communists seized pO'wer in the various countries of IDurope. I believe it is the first time in our history that an honest attempt was made to understand the 'background of the -peoples behind the Iron Curtain. 1Slovak representatives were among those who gave testimony of Communist a,ggression in S-tovakia, which differed in so.me respects from th.at in other countries. From the testimony of various witnesses who were heard, and the many others who sent in their statements fl'Qm various countries, it is quite eviden,t that 1Slovrukia fell an easy prey to Moscow iand the C-Ommunlsts because of the pro-Soviet -poli<:y of Dr. Edward ,B enes and the Czech Socialists, who ruled in Czecho-Siovakia with the Communists after World War ]I. Slovakia, traditionally anti-Communist, was jn fact sold out by the National Front ,Government of Prague. The vast masses of the Slovak population ,had no ,c•hoice; their wiH meant nothin,g to Benes and tib.e Prague regime, whJ.ch took over Slovakia with the help of Soviet bayonets, disregardin,g the pollti-cal wHl of the peOII)le completely. Excerpts from the testimony of Slovak witnesses, l'\Vlhic,h are contained on these pages, definitely prove that. P.A. H.). FROM THE SPECIAL REPORT NO. 8 SLOVAKIA !Slovaki,a is situated between the Carpathian Mountains on the north and the Danube and the Tisa Rivers on the south. The in!hrubitants are !known as Slov,aks and with the !Poles a111d the Ozechs, belong to the group of western Slaivs. The political history of the ·S lov,a!ks goes back to the beginnmg of the ninth century when ChmsUan civilization was introduced into their territoTy, and it was during this period that tlhe ruler, H;astisfav, 84~70, made himself lmown by an intensiive ChTistiianmation of the country. FoJilowing hls ti,nvitation, two brothers, Saints Cyril and Methodius, who henceforth were to b.ecome the rupostles of the Slaivs, came in 863 from Byoo.ntium to Great Moravia. B y their activities, they laid the foundations for church organizaibions, the Slav liturgy, a'.Jiphrubet, •a nd literature. It was in this way that the rwork of the two missionaries �SLOVAKIA 3 from Byzruntrl:l.l!Ill brought ,t he western Slavs into the fold of the Catholic OhuTch, an historical event of paramount ipolitic,al and oulturral importance. In the tenth century, ,Slovakia ,b ecame for a time a battlefie'ld in the struggles .among the SlaVIS, Magyars, and Germans, and at the fbegiillnmg of the eleventh century, she became a part of the kingdom of Hungary, organized under the Arpad dynasty. In the fifteenth and at the !beginning of the si~teenth century the internal prOiblems of Hungary reached a certain degree of consolidation. The invasions of •c entral Europe by the 'Dmks in tJhe ,s ixteenth and seventeenth ceinturies, however, reduced Hungary to the area of the Slovalda of today and political and cultural liife was concentrated in that area. For a long time sessions of the Hungarian Pa•r liament were held •a nd coronations of the Hungarian llings were celebrated in BratisJava. The end o,f the eighteenth and the first half of the nineteenth centuries mark the /beginning of the Slovak national renaissance. At this time, the nationa1ities tin central Emope we,r e about to abrundon Latin as the literary and spoken language of the cu!tiivated claS'S and to replace it by their own national language. Consequently, a spiritual rebirth stirred up national aspirations among the different peoples of the !Hapsburg monarchy. In 1848, the Slov,a,ks -organiized a military uprising against the centralism of 'BudaJpeSt and: helped 1:Jhe Emperor crush the Kossuth rebellion against the Hapsburgs. They did it with the hope that Slovrukia wocld ibe finally acknowledged as an autonomous land within a federated monaTohy, ibut thedr hopes in this respect were never satisfied. h1 the "Memorand'll!IIl of the Slovak Nation" of Jl.l'lle 7, 1861, a Slovak National Assemlbly, asked the Parliament of Hungary to create an rarl!ministiratirve unit from the oounties imlhaJbited lby tlhe iSloviaJc population under the name of "Slovak region." It was to ,b e ,provjdedJ with such a degree of poaitical and oultural autonomy which would be compatible wiith the prniciiple of u.mty of the monarchy. But the Hungarian Parlioonent failed to act. �4 SLOVAKIA In 1868 the Nationality Act was passed in the /Pairliament of Hunga:ry .b y which Magyar was proclaimed. the official language of the ,s tate administration in the kingdom, except for some autonomous bodies. 1n 1895, the Serbs, the Rwmanians from Transylvania and the Slovaks convOlked a congress of nationalities in Budapest in which they claimed ,respect for their national rights and asked once more for a federative reform of the kingdom on the ,p rinciple of equality. Such a reform was not carried out. As a ,c onsequence the non.,Magy,ar nationa!lities lost, during the First World War, their interest in the continued existence ()ff the dual monarchy oif AustriaHu.ngary. 1 World War I and Formation of the Czecho-Slovak State Dwring World War [ the ,s pirit of nationalism was greatly stimulated within the Alustro-Hungari:ain Empire. Thi•s spirit was reflected iby increasing demands for greater autonomy or ouwi:ght independence ,f or the clifforent nations within that empire. The advocacy of the principle of nationa:l self-tdeter-mination by President Wilson further stimulated these iaJS!)iratiOill,s. and dlid much to set the stage for the peace settlements. Dur:i.ng the course of the war Czech political leaders established a secret committee wh~ch directed the ,a ctivities of Ozech nationalists at home and abroad. Thomas G. Masaryk, as the leader of this movement, toured Europe and the United 'States Wlhere h e recei.:ved encouragement and support. Meanwhile a movement ,a rose among the ·l arge number oif Americans of Slovaik descent promoting Slovak!ia's separation from Hungary. Th.Tee different solutions of the Slovaik prob1em were oovi,saged: Slovakia as a new state, as ia partner orf a Czecho-Slovruk Federation •o r a·s a territory forming a pollitircal union with the prospectirve Polish Republic. Finally, the SloivaJk -League of Amerioa entered into contact with the Amemcans of Czech descent and signed with their organilzations, in 191 5, t;he Cleveland agreement, and in 1918 the Pittsburgh Parct, 'both of which aim·e d at 1 1 1 �5 SLOVAKIA the creation of a Czecho-.Slova1k federal state. In these doouments the Slov,aik organi•z ation stipulated that Slovakfa should 'be an equal mem1ber iwitJh the Czech lands ·a nd have complete legislative, executive, judiciary and cultural autonomy in strictly national matters, while matters of common interest, such as foreign affairs and defense, should be within the competence '()!f a common parlitailllent. 1 A tangi!ble proof of the aspi-rabions of 1:Jhe Ozec:h and Slo:vruk peoples toiward foll mdependence iwas demonstrated by the thousands of thei:r soldiers who had swrendeired on the 'Various fronts. They formed the Czecho-Slovak Legions in Russia, France, amd Ita1y and fought on the side of the Al[ied and Associated \P,o wers. 1 In order to convince ·W estern statesmen that the concept of national states 1was, ~n concern with the iwill of the people a Congress otf !Peop1es Oppressed ·b y the Hrups'burg Monarchy was commenced in Apilil 191'8 at Rome. This congress did much to mfl,uence the th,i nking in western Europe and in the United States. ln the summer of 1918, F'ra.nce, Great Britain, the United States, and Italy offici,all,y recognized the Czecho-1Slovak National Council as a defacto gOIVerrunent and the Gzecho-lSlwak forces as an Allied army waging regu~ar warfare agarl.nst kustria-Hungary and Germany. A Ozeoho-4Slwak IPro:visionrul Government •w as set up in Paris with Masaryik as President and was recogn.iized de jure by the Aflied and Associated Powers. It issued the Declaration of Czecho..SlovaJk Independence on October 18, 1918, in Paris. On the saime day President Wilson rejected the Austrian ,proiposa:l for the organi zation of Austria-Hungary on a federa l !b asis iby reiplyiing that !he could no longer accept •~ere autonomy of these peoples as a basis of peace .. ." On Octolber 28, 1918, the Ozecho-Slo,yak Nationial Colllllcil in !P:mgue proclaimed the deiposibion of the Austrian Emperor as so,yereign of the Czech and Slcxvak lands and the estrublishment of a free and united Republic ,of Ozecho-4SlovavaJda. The ,SiovaJk National Counchl, a revolutionary 'body composed of Slovak patriots, convened on October 30, 1918, 1 1 �SLOVAKIA 6 and ,pwb1isihed a document known •a s the Dec1aration of Turcia.nsky rSv. Martlin. In. this document they proclaimed the separation of Slo.va:lci<a from the Kiingdom of Hungary and their intention to form with the Ozech lands a CzeohoSlOWlik .state. On November 14, 1918, this decision was ratified 1~ the Crecho--iSlvoruk National Assembly which elected T. G. 1M as•aryik as President of the Republic and set up the first ,caJbinet. However, it was not long !b efore serious dlisagreement developed between the Ozechs and ISlovaJks on the form of government for the new state. The Ozeohs farvored a Czecho~Sl01Vak ,centralist state whHe the Sllo,vaiks ins.i:sted upon a Czecho~SlQl\llaJk feder.ation ~n whioo the identity and individrua:lity of each nation would ibe •recognized and preserved. In the opinion of !Slovak leadJers the Ozecho,..slovak state, for all practical purposes, was to become a Czech ,s tate, enlarged 'by Slovakia ra nd :sulb-Oaripathlian Ruthenia. This situation resulted .in the !Slovaks taking a firm ,position a,g ainst the centralist form of government. Monsignor Andrew Hilinka, a great patriotic [eader from the time of pre~a:r HrUlllgar.y, went dandestine1y in !September 1919 to Pairis in order to present S1ova;kia's cause before the Peace Conference, ,a dvocating an international guaranty fo·r the selfgovernment of the ,Slovruk nation withi:n OzechoJSlova!kia. Denounced to the •French authorities !by the Ozecho,.;Slovak delegation as a Hapsburg spy, he was foTced to return to Slovaikia without any result. Toniprisoned 1by order of Prague at Mirov, Mara'Via, Hlinka was to stay tJhere until April 1920, when he was elected deputy of the 'Slovak People's Party, founded iby him under the Hungarian regime and reestabllished in December 19'18. 1 POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT ConstitutJional Structure Althowg,h the !basic ,constitution was not adopted until. February 1920, its .gener.al principles had been B!pplied from the very •b eginning of Cze.cho-Slovaik independence. The philosophy underlying this fundamental law is expressed in the preamble, whfoh is striikingly similar to the �SLOVAKIA 7 preamble of the Constitution of the United States. The main body of the Consbitution provided for a popularly elected Parliament, a President selected by both houses of Parliament and an independent judiciary. Parties and Politics The politics of the period may ibe divided into four phases: 1. Nationalistic phase (1918-19) Following the proclamation of independence, ,a ll Czech political parties agreed on the fundamental principles on which the new state ,w as to be bui1t. Having reaohed this major consensus and the necessary leg,islation having been enacted, the coalition had accomplished its task and a split on partisan lines followed. 2. Swing toward Social Democraicy (1919-20) The period of Socia.dist rule in the Czecho-Slovruk Republic did not accom;plish too many changes in the country's economy although the r,a,iUwa,ys, mines, and water power were socialiized. The division of the 1Soci:alists into Socialist amd Communist ranks ended the brief era of Socialist eJQ!)erimentation in Czooho-Slovrukia. 3. The agrarian era (1922-35) This was a period of Telative ·parliamentary stability under the leadershiip of the Agrarian Party, which managed the government along m.iddile-of~the-road policies. A satisfactory coalition government was maintained throughout this period. 4. The crisis ( 1935-38) This period iwas the touchstone of the solidity of the Czecho-1Slovruk state. Confronted with the serious iproblem of the Sudeten Germain poipuil.ation, Czecho-6lovakia betrayed no signs, of political panic. The .principal political ,parties in Ozecho-Slovrukia in the period betiween the two World Wars formed the following groups: National 'Democrats. - This party, conservative and intensely nationalist, drew its princi'pa:l support from businessmen, the professions, and hi,gher cirvil servants. It never beoame very ,powenfu:l. �8 SLOVAKIA Populists. - Under the name of the Czech Populist Party and the Slovak Pe>ipulist Party, respectiively, this group endeavored to bring CathoiJ.ic ideas into plllblic life. The Sllllall faruners and workers in rural districts were its strongholds, especially in Slovakia. Agrarians. - This poJitica-1 groUJp, the largest in the subsequent parliaments, was solidly entrenched in both rural aind town districts by means 0£ a widespread network of cooperat:1ve, economic, and mtlturnJl organimtions. Its broaid economic and so.cia'l program att•r acted wide support. National Socialists. - Thi1s non-Marxian Socialist Party may ibie described as a "radicai national party of the lower middle class and of the wonkers." It had rather more influence than its moderate numerical strength would indii;cate. Social Democrats. - This, party, resembling the social democratic parties of other European countries, had more influence during the first two years of bhe Republic. Though outwardly united it was, however, undermined by dissension within its own ranks, whicih finally resulted in the expu1lsion of the Communist faction . Communists. - The Ozecho-Sloivaik Commll!Ilist Party was created in 1920 as a result of the e~ulsion of Communist elements from the 'Social Democratic Party. Though equia:lly subversive and aggressiive as elsewhere in Europe, the Ozecho-iSlovaJk Communists never secured a la:rge foll-owing during the two decades before the Second World War. Economic, Social and Cultural Development Agrarian reform iRediistribu:tion of land was an urgent iprOlblem facing the IIlew government and a Land Reform Act, therefore, was one of the first measures passed ,b y the Czecho-Slovak Parliament. This ,a ct entitled the state to truke over, •a,fter com;pensation, all ,1and :from the great estates in excess of a fixed maximum and to permit land purcha,se by those who needed it most. The agr,ariam. refomi program substantially improved the material conditions of the rural popula- �SLOVAKIA 9 tion aml averted the diam.ger of ,agrarian disturbances. Economic development While Czecho-1Slovruk agricl.l!ltura:l resources almost covered domestic req,uiTements, indrustrial prodUJCtion was far in excess of the needs of the home market since Ozecho-1Slovakia had been the industrial center of the former Austro..lHJungarian Empire. 'Since the Danulbiian countries, originally Czooho-Slovakia'•s principal foreign ma,r ket fOT manufadured goods, were increasing the tempo of their industria;lization with a view to :restricting tihe import orf industrial µvoducts, Ozecho..JSlovruk foreign trade was olbJiiged to look for new outlets. These were found ma,i nly in those western and oversea countries which were Czecho-1SloV1aJkia's .principal suppliers of •r aw materials, especially the United States and Great Britain. Economically aJnd fin!andalil.y Czecho-Slorvaikia was a sound state in central Europe. As an exporting country it was severely hlt by the wodd economic depression of the early thirties, hut, lby timely adtj:ustments to new price and exchange levels, it was one orf the first Eiurropean countries to weather the crisis. Education and social progress The cl.l!ltmrra1 level orf the Czechs was hlgh and their passion fOT education was prQIVeribial in central Eur.ope. The new R.ep'Ulblic fostered educaition by establishing additional free schools •a nd by, improving the existing ,schools. The Ozecho-1Slorva,k :S tate a,lso forged ahead in the field of social impmve:ment. All groU!ps and interests pos,sessed the rig:ht of organi,z ation ,a nd thus organized lalbor had its trade unio,n s, farmers their cooperative societies, and white--coUar worker,s and businessmen their associations. Health a,nd other types of ,social insurance were either provided for or encouraged iby the State and pro¥i:sion was made for State assistance to hoursing and cooperatives. The Religious Situation The re1igious .situation created after the esmblishment of the Repu'blic in 19'18 must, like many other of the coun- �SLOVAKIA :iO try's developments, ibe rvieiwed against its historical backgrou!Ild. A strong Czech groUJp of modernist, nationalistic Roman clergy insisted on radicall reforms, such as the use of the vernacuiliar in the lituvgy ,and the abolition of compulsory celibacy, Wlhich the Roman Curia could not accept. As a result, this group seceded from Rome and esta:blished an independent "Ozecho-1S1ovak Church" ,w hioh originally numbered aJbout one million adherents, lbut ,w hich lost half its meimlbership by 1939, so that Roman Catholics still comprised 80 •p er cent of the popul,a tion. In spite of adverse circu:mstl8Jnces, the Roman Cathoilic ChUTch adjusted itself, therefore, to the new millieu and recovered much for its former influence. In the political and cultural life of the new Repwblic, the Protestant element played a role far beyond its numerical strength. Many ,prominent political leaders, Thomas G. Masaryk among them, 1be'longed to the Protestant faith. 1 Internal Problems 'J.'lhe OOIIlstituition of 1920, in }airge measure disiregarding the ethnographic realities of Czecho-Slovakia, was to become a bone of contention 1b ,etween the Czechs on the one side, and 1:Jhe. 1Slova:k,s, Ger.mans, Mag,yar:s, and Ruthenians on the other. The Slovaks demanded the incorporation of the main clauses of the Pittsburgh Pa-ct into the Constitution. The Ruthemans, whose autonomy within CzechoSlovakia had ,b een granted by the Treaty of St. Germain, asked that this international obligation be respected 'by the Prague Government. The Ge:rana:ns ,and the Magyars solicited oulturaJ rig,hts and adnninistr,a,ti,ve autonomy on the local level, as granted iby the same Treaty of St. Germain. 'Dhis psychological split among the ,populatiOIIl of OzechoSlova1ki,a wea:kened consideriaJbly the new state from both the internal and international point of rview. The Czech statesmen tried to iremedy this situation by creating a system of international treaties such as the Little Entente, 1920, the Pact of Alliance and FriendsihiJp with France, 1924, and a similar pact with the Soviet Union, 1935. Uke the Austro-Hunga1rian staite'Smen in 1867, Benes believed �11 SLOVAKIA that the transformation of Czech~Slova!kia into a federation of three memlbers, the Czech lands, 1Slov,a kia, and Subcarpaitlliian iRuthenia, would weaken the international position of the centralized state, I)a)rticularly with reference to HW11gary and Germany. Consequently, in the field of internal ,administraJtio,n he developed a system, in which aJll branches of Gove:rnment in Slov.a:kia and Sulbca rpathiian Ruthenia ,w ere reserved iprimari1y to 1:Jhe Czec,hs. Politicall'Y, al·l problems of these bwo lands we.re to ibe decided in the Pa:-ag,ue Parliament, where !Slovakia had only 58 and Ruthenia 9 deputies out of 300. Thus, even the most important questions such a;s the relation betlween state and church, official language, system of schools, the economy, were to be decided ib;y the Ozech parliamentarian majority. Ai3 to the cutural aspect, secondary schodls in Slovakia as wel[ ,as the Bratislava Universirty lbecaJm.e an officiaJl domain of Ozech ,professors, teacihing the UJnitarian concept of a "Czechoslovak" nation m ithe ethnic sense. On October 1, 1938, there were 523 Czech and 345 Sloviaik instructors teaching in the secondary schools of Slovaikia. At the same time, there were 66 Czech and only 24 Slov~k professors in the Bratisl,a,va Uruversity. From the standpoint of the economy Slovakia was to remain a predominantly agrarian land, while the Czech part of the Repulblic was highly induskialized. This policy of two dif,ferent measures is shown by the share of Slovakia and Ruthenia ~n the industrial production of the RepU!blic. The participation of these two lands in the whole industry, !between 1934 and 1937, was only 8.5 per cent, while 91.5 iper cent went to the Czec,h lands. The proper importance of these figures is stressed by the fact, that Slwakia constituted 23 per cent and Rutheinia 5.5 per cent of the total popuJation of the Re1pulblic. From the adlministratifve ,p oint of view, the district and county offices in Slo,vakia and iRuthenia were mostly direcited iby Czech off,iciais who were directly responsible to Prague ,as were the police. In 1938 there were 120,926 Czech pwb1ic offici,a ls in 'Slovakia. All these aspects created in Ozecho-Slovakia what has 1 1 �12 SLOVAKIA been knoiWn as the "Sll.ova;k problem." The Slovak People's Party which, in 1925 had 23 deputies, became not only the strongest single party in Slav,aJkia, lbut a majority party of the Slovak people (not counting minorities and the Comm1.1!11ists) endorsed 1:Jhe federative reform of the Republic asking for the accomplishment of stipulations contained in the ,PittslblllI'gh Pact. A:s early as Jianuary 25, 1922, this party presented its fiTst project for c01I1stituti01I1al reform in Czecho-Slovakia. The prog,ram hatl the following main points: !Slovakia to be granted her own Diet and Government. As common affairs would ,b e considered: The President, the Army, Foreign Affairs, and Communications. The Sloviak Diet to harve exolU1Sive competence in such matters as natiOIIlal eduoaJtion, denominations, justice, commerce, agriculture, publric works, social welifare, and corresponding finances. The executive ;power in Slov-rukia, as iregards b.oth the laws which wound be :voted by the Central Parliament in Prague and those which would be enacted. lby the Diet of Bratis:larva, would belong to the Slovruk Gorvernment. Laws voted ,by ithe Central Parliament would lbe without validity in .Slovakia if rejected by a two-.thirds majority in the •Sll.ovak Diet. This proposal would have satisfied !Slovak aspirations, but it was 111ever put on the agenda o;f Parliament. A second proposed reform concerning the decentirali>zation of the state administration was presented to the Czecho4S1avruk Parliiament by the 1Slovak People's 1Party, May 8, 1930. More modest in -i ts scope than the first one, this document claimed for -Slovakia the same constitutional position which had 1b een gr8.lllted ihwt never carried out by article 3 of the constitwtion relating to Sub.carpathian Ruthenia. According to this proposal, IS1ovakta should have had her own 'Diet as a national legislative ,b ody and a governor as chief of the land executiive. The iDiet would have lbeen competent to enact laws concerning [anguage, education, religion, municipal, and district administration and justice as well as other matters whioh the laws of the Central ,Parliament would comer wpon it. Laws enacted by the <Diet of Slovakia and .si:gned by the 1 �SLOVAKIA 13 President of the Republic would ibe promulgated, under sigruature of the gavemor, in a sipecial col1ection of laiws for Slova:kia. Although presented in due form, this proposal was never discussed in the Parliament. Octdber 16, 1932, the Slovak People's Party of Andrew H!linika and the Slova!k National Party of M. Ra;zus (a small traditionailist <Protestant party) having joined in an agreement a;b,out the necessity of autonomy for Slovakia, stressed their detemnination to pursue the fight for Slovakia's national rights, "even ,t houg,h it may ,bring the disintegration of >the Ozecho..,Slov,a;k Republic." Fol1.owing the resignation of T. G. Masaryk as President of the Repulblic, E. Benes became 1a candidate in Deceimber 19315 for that office. After some consultations, the Slovak People's Party end!orsed his election, stiipwlating, however, that a ,pol,icy of national equality between the Czechs and the 1Slava:kis should ibe inaugrnrated by the President aind a law concerning 'Slovak~a's autonomy ,be promulgated in one year. Nevertheless, it was two years later before the Prague Government was ready to, consider the Sl()IVruk prdblem and this ooourred in connection wit!h the Sudeto·- German claims for nation,a,1 rights within the Republic. This nationality group had been integrated into CzechoSlovakia in spite of their protest. -Since the very foTlffiation of Czecho,..,Sl'ovakia, the German minority had been soliciting a form of cultural autonomy in the schools, local administration, and in the courts. Later on they asked for a better economic amd social <poll.icy in the German areas suffering from unemployment. For a long time, Prague did not lristen to such :voices. But with Hitler's accession in Gennany, the Sudeto-Germans recei;ved the !backing of the 'I1hl1rd Reich. Consequent11 theiT claims increased at the same time as their courage. In 1935 the ,Sudeto-German P,a rty, with 44 deputies, lbeoame the second ,g reatest party in the Repuiblic. The (P,raigue Goverll!!Ilent, not willing to ~ppear as acting under foreign pressure, remained reluctant. T.he stiffer the Czecho..jSlovak Government 1becaime, the more Hitler determined to annihilate Czecho ... Slovakia. �14 SLOVAKIA PairalJel to this evolution was Sfovrukia's struggle for its own rrights. JU/Ile 5, 1938, a third projed concerning the federalization of the Repulblic was pU!blished lby the SlovaJk People's Party, a!lld presented to the Central Government. It was only one week !before the, Munich Conference, 1Septem'be:r 22, 1'938, that E . Benes sent a counteriproject to the Praesidium of the Sllovaik ,People's Barty. Shortly after, the conflict :betiween Prague and: the Sudeto-Ge:rrmans was resolrved in Munich, where, on the basis of Lord Rundman's rrecommendation, the Sudetenl:and went to Germany. This decision created for ISlovaikia a new situation. As a consequence of a policy in whioh she had praotically no share, Sllovrukia was ,a lso to surrender in favor Olf ifllUJilgary her Southern !boundary ·zone, ,s ettled mostly ,b y Magyar population. This was a psychdlo,gical blow which brought an agreement among all Slova!k ,political parties, except for the Communist, Social-Democrat and minority parties, rubout Slovakia's autonomy. Thus on October 6, 1938, one day after the resignation of ,E . Benes, six ipolitica,,l parties of SlovaJkia, representing 36 out of 58 deputies, puiblished a dedarration in which they agreed that the third project of constitutional reform shO'llld be immediat~ly put in practice and l8Jil autonomous gorverrnment for Slovakia 1b e appointed ,u nder the chairmanship of iDr. Joseph Tiso. 1 November 2, 1938, lby the ar,bi,tration of Ciano and Von Ribbentrop in Vienna, 10,309 .s quare kilometers with ·853,670 inhafbitants were to .b,e ceded by :Slovakia to Hungary. This included 503,980 'Magyars and 272,145 Slovaks. ISfovakia saw that she was becoming a viotim of an international po1itica1 game ,w ithout aniy faJllJlt of her own. The Vienna decision proved the futility of the fomner party dirvisions and produced ra n integrating effect upon the Slo:va;k politica:l spectrum. Parties which had signed rt.he Declaration of Zilina on October 6, agreed on NovembeT 10, 1938, on the formation of a common party !known henceforth as the Party of National Unity. This political evolution in 1Slovrukia was f:inal:ly sanctioned by the Ozech and Slovak representatives irn the �15 SLOVAKIA Prague Parliament on No-vemlber 19, 193'8. Then, by a constitutionall ,amendiment, Ozecho-Slovrukia became a federation of Bohemi!a-<Maravfa, !Slovakia and! Oa:rpathian Ukraine (,Ruthenia). Burt the relations between Prague and the Slova:k Government remained tenJSe, because of 9,000 Czech officia1s who 1Were removed lby the Slovak Goivernment, and the share of Slovakia in the income and expense, orf the common <budget. FOREIGN ,R ELATIONS Beforre Munich The principal aim of Ozecho-Slovakia's foreign policy was the preserivation of the status quo as estaJblished by the 19~9 peace settlements, and the estaJblishment of friend-ly relations with all her neighlbors through ,a n exten1Sive system of adequate agreements. Eduard Benes, Minister of Foreign Affairs until 11936 and 1ater 1P resident of the Repulblic, was the girniding sipiirit of this policy. A solid :f oundation for rthe, presewation .o f the status quo in cenibral Europe was laid !by the CTeation of the Little Entente formed by Ozecho-Sfoivakia, Yugos1a;vfa and Rumania, and three victorious Danulbian states bordering on vanquished Austda and Hungary. Ozecho-1Slovalda was ·a n enthusiastic supporter of the League of Nations and colktJborated ,w holeiheartedly in the negotiations which brought Germany and the ,Soiviet Union into the League. When Hitler came to power in 1933, Ozecho-iSlovakia's foreign relations entered into a critical phase and two ye31rs of vi,r,uJent Nazi pro,paganda among the Sudeten Germans !bore frwt in the results of the 1935 elections. The NaJZi..sponsored :Sudetendeutsche IPartei poiiled over 62 per cent of the total Ge1riman vote and c01Wed the smaller German parties .i nto submission. 1 Later .on, acting on instructioillS from iBer,Hn, the <leaders od: the Sudeten German movement put fomvard demands which no Czecho-S1,orva'k 1g overnment •c ould a·c cept and, with the anne:,ration of Austria, the srtage was set for final action. De.seprately anxious to avert a new war, France and �16 SLOVAKIA Great Britain proposed to Czecho-Slovakia that she should cede to Germany all areas with a German majority. When Ozecho--srtovakia demwred, she was informed that she must ae<!ept the proposal or bear the conisequences alone. The result was tihat the Czechs gave in and at Munich their country was di vided on the lines dictated by Hitler. 1 After Munich After MU1J1ioh, Czecho-.Slova:kia tried to adjust itself to the new situation. President Benes resigned and left the country. He was succeeded 1b y Emil Hacha, an eldeI1ly and experienced jurist with no politioa1 affiliations, who believed that close cooperation with the Third Reich was the country's only hope of sur:vival. The tra,nsition to Hitler's New Order was swift. Obnoxious parties were dissolived and the Government was given wide power,s to govern by decree. The ,administration was purged, the 1press put under rigorous control and antiSemitic measures were ena,cted. The situation in central Europe after Mlliilloh became even more confused. Germany began to remind the Bohemian puibLic of the role the Kingdom of Bohemia had played within the Holy Roman Empire. !Hungary started to speak about her histor,i,cal boundaries and the necessity of a common frontier with Poland. According to the Nuremberg documents, Hitler 1at that time. had already decided to destroy Czecho-Slovakia. But there was apparently no definite decision o.n S1ova:kia as to wihether to place it under German OCOU1pation or to ha;ve it occU1pied by Hungary. In this situation, the Slovak GOIVernment had only one preoccupation: to preserve what unity had remained of Sloviakia after the Vienna a11bitration and to avoid:, as far as possible, direct domination lby a:ny of her neighbors. On Ma11ch 10, 1969, the Prague Government dismissed the government of Dr. Joseph Tiso and proclaimed martial law in 'Slovakia. The Slova!k people considered this a violation of agreements that had /been si,gned ~tween Prague and Bratislaiva and incorporated into the Constitution. Puibl~c demonstrations spread throll!g.hout 'Slova:kia. Invited to a consultation by Hitler in Berlin, Dr. Joseph �SLOVAKIA 17 Tiso, the dismissed chairman of the Slov,ak Gooernment was shown a telegram by Von Ribbentrop, according to which HUIIlgary iwas ready to occupy Slova,kia. Hlitler then suggested that this eventuality may be prevented by the declaration of 1Slovakia's independence. Consequently, Dr. Tiso returned to Bratisl,aiva where, om March 14, 1939, following his report, the IS'lovak Diet proclaimed independence. President Hacha was then summoned to Berlin and presented with an ultimatum aiming at the i.mJpos.ition of a protectorate upon Bohemia-Moravia. Forced into submission, the Presiderut ,s igned ,a declruration by w1hich he "ip1aced the destiny of the Czech people and country with confidence in the 'hands of the Fuehrer of the German Reich." German troo1ps marched into Bohemia and from Prague (March 16) Hitler issued the proclamation establishing the "Protectorate of Bohemia-Mora'Via." Thereafter, Hungary annexed Sub-Carpathian Ruthenia. Czecho-SlovaJkia was dead. The Establishment of the Slovak Republic Even though the Slovak state was largely the result of a tense international situation, it nevertheless co.rresponded to· the aspirations of the Slovak ~ple for freedom and the principle of self-determination a,nd seltf-1govern.ment. After Munich, central EUTotpe became a part of the German orbit. Therefore, in oroer to. d.~scourage Hungary in her armed attack launched against Eastern Slovakia, the Slovak Government concluded •w ith Germany a treaty of protection, March 23, 1939, by which the <Reich assured the existence of Sloiva;kia without destroying its .national pe,r sonality. In exchange, S1ova:kia ha,d to, follow the German line in foreign policy. Altogether, 2:l states. reoogniiized the international .i ndividuality of Slovaikia. Besides the countries which were later to become members of the Axis, S~ovaikia was recognized by the Holy See, the -Soviet Union, iSpain, 1Switzedand, Sweden, Grea,t Britain (de facto) , France (de facto), Liberia, Costa Rica, and Ecuador. According to the constitution voted on July 21, 1939, �18 SLOVAKIA SlovaJkiia became a Repulblic with a Parliament of 80 members and a Government of nine. The constitution contained princi!pleis, which in some aspects combined features of the liberal staite, the Christian democracy, and the authoritarian state,. In the beginning all poweT of the 'Slova:k Reipu'blic was vested in the Parliiamenrt !but later on, in 19·41, after Slovakia had entered the war against the S'Oviet Union, the executive was to prevail over the legislature. The numlber of political parties was reduced. The Communist and the :Social il)emocrat pa·r ties, representing only ten deputies, had been 1s uppressed as suJbversive, in October 1938. Six other parties merged mto the Slov,ak Unity Party, the baokibone of the ipolitcal system of the SLovak state, and tlhere were two minority parties: German and Magyar. The SlOIVaJk state was far froon being a perfect democracy in the trarlitional sense. R reflected a compromise between the past and the present, between an old tradition and a temporarily determined political dynamism in Central Europe. lBut, in ,general, it was an expression of the se'Lf-q>reservation instinct of the 1SlO'Vak nation. The Sloviruk Government, in 1941, joined Gernnany, with two armored dirvisions, in :the war against the Soviet Union. Although on [)ecemlber 1:2, 1941, the Slovak Press Bureau had pulb'lished an anno'UIIlcement that the ISlovia;k Repulblic was in a state of war with the United !States and Great Britain, neither the President nO'r the tS lovak Pa:rliament or Government ever made such a decision or declaration. In fact, the Sl01Vruk forces, during the Second World War, did not engage in comlbat against any of the Western Powers. 1 World War B and the Restoration of Czecho-Slovakia Czechs in the protectorate of Bohemia-Morawa ,w ere not directly iDJVolved in the •S econd World War. They were exempt from militaJry service hut had to work for the German war machine. Though their contribution in the fight for freedom was not Sipectacular, thousands of Czech patriots ipaid with their live'S for their efforts to 1keep the flame of freedom fHalrering. After Munich, many Czechs and SlovaJks left the coun- �SLOVAKIA 19 try and established themsel,ves talbroad, mostly in Paris and London, which became the cenrters of their political activities. Headed by Eduaxd Benes, these emigres set urp a National Committee to taJke up the struggle for the restoration of a free Czecho-iSlovakia. The committee was recognized first as the provisional and eventwall.'y as the regulaT Government of Czecho-Sloviakia, by Great Britain and, later, iby the United !S tates and the Soviet Union. Czecho-'Sl01Vaikia was thus given the status of an allied state under foreign ocoupation. The Munich agreement was declared null and void and Czecho-.Slova.kia's original frontiein; were guaranteed. While the C!zecho-.Slovak GQI\Ternment-ii.n-exile was primarily concerned with the consolidation of the international position of the Republic, the Czecho-Sfovak Communist leaders in Moscow were com1pleting their plan for immediately seizing power after the li/beration. Moscow knew precisely what Ozecho-Slovalkia's <international .p osition would be once the Red army was stationed within the ter.ritory and was concerned on:ly with tadica:l movements aimed at bringing ahout a speedy sovietfomtion of the country. Toward the end of 1943, E. Benes went to Mosco.w where, on Decembe:r 12, 1943, he signed with Stalin a treaty of alliance, friendship, and mutual help between the Soviet Union and Czecho-Slovakia. tBy this treaty, the ·S oviet Uruon was to approach Ozecho-1Slova1kia after the end of the war as an ally. No. such treaty having been <:oncluded. with the Western Powers, the influence of Moscow on the future of emergent Ozecho-Slovakia became predominant. In Soviet tactics, this treaty was to create a favora!ble atmosphere in Bohemia-lMo:ravia fm: tbe idea of a Soviet ·l iberation. During his visit in Moscow, E. Benes came to a,n agreement with K. Gottwald, the ex,iled chief of the Czech Communist Party, aJbouit the main prindples upon which the edifice of the future Ozecho-,Slovakia wouJd rely: (1) The state admin.stration 'wouJld be repla<:ed by "natio,n_aa committees" (IS01Viet.s); (2) the .fOI1II1er right-of--center parties would 1b e eliiminaited; (3) the non-Communist parties in ire- �20 SLOVAKIA ,s tored Ozecho ..Slovak,ia would form ,w ith the Communists a "government of National 1F ront"; (4) "people's courts" would lbe established to eliminate all war criminals. These principles with an extensive inter,pretation and -aipplication of ipoints (2) and ( 4) and the nationali2ation of indiustcy were to, lay the fou:ndaitions for a "People's !Democracy" in Czecho-1Slovakia. In Slov:alkia, the treaty of friendship , mutual help, and coJ1aboration with the Soviet Union iProduced a stimulating effect upon the Commun1st .and Social Democrat undergroUIIlds and also on a group of lilberals whose imaigiination, with respect to central Europe, was tempted more lb y the absent Soviet Union than 'by the present Germany. These ,groll!ps met secretly on Christmas 1943 in Bratislava and signed what is known as the "ChristJmas agreement." In this declaration they reaffirmed their will to work for the restoration of "Ozecho·-IS1ov•a kia," for a Illarrow collalboration with the iSov.ieit Union in the field of foreign policy, for the estaiblishment of political justice and for the continuation oif resistance against the Germans and the Slovak Government. :FROM THE TESTIMONY OF MICHAEL GALAYDA, AMERICAN CITIZEN FROM HAZLETON, PA. Mr. McTigue. The Russians deported to Russia the teachers and iwell-educated ,peoip le? Mr. G alayda. Yes, t eachers and educated people. Mr. McTigue. And you were in Slova:kia while this was going on; is that correct? Mr. Galayda. Yes. Mr. :McTigue. Now, while these deportations were going on did you then endeavor to get a visa o.ut ·o f the country ? Mr. GaJayda. I :tried a couple of times but it was impossible at that time. I was put in ja•il two tim es. Mr. tM cTigue. Who puit you in jail? Mr . Galayda. The Ozecho-Sloivak Army. They asked me to fight ,a gainst the Germans. I ref,u:sed. I said, "I am an American citizen and I refuse to serve in the Czec,ho..,Slovaik Army." �SLOVAKIA 21 !Mr. (McTigue. 1S0, you were put in jail because. you refused to serve? Mr. Galayda. Yes, thaJt's right. MT. !MoTigue. Now, when was t1he second time you were put in jail? Mr. Galayda. Wel1, the second time was in 1946. Mr. Mc'Digue. iBy the Communists? Mr. Galayda. Yes. Mr. McTigue. Why? Mr. Galayda. Well, because I was campaigning against communism. Mr. McT,i gue. You were making taiks against communism? Mir. Ga1ayda. Yes, I made ,a couple speeches in the villages against communi sm. That is why I was jailed. 'M r. iMcTigue. Noiw, in 1'94fi, at the end of the war, did you try to get a Un~ted States passport? Mir. Galayda. Yes, I did. Mr. McTiig ue To return to the United States? Mr. Galayda. Yes. [n 1945, when the war was 0 1ver, me and my brothers decided to Oeaive, because at that time the United States was ,stil'l fighting with the Japanese. So we decided to leave and join the American Army. Mr. iMcTigue. iDecided to come home? Mr. Galayda. Yes. We went to the American cons,ul in Prague. He refused. He saiid, "You have to get your passport finst, then you can join American Army." So ,J came home. Mir. McTigue. How did you go about gettiing your passpont? Mr. Galadya. Well, we went to Hungary. On the way from Budapest to Bratislava - weH, i will tell you something 3:borut the !Russian s-oldd.ers, what they did. Mr. McTigue. Yes, I wish you woiuld. This is while you are taiking the train to 'Bratislava? Mr. Galayda Yes. 'l never am going to forget that time what happened. Mr. McTigue. You are on the train now? Mr. Galayda. Yes. Mir. McTigue. Is this what you are describing? Mr. Galayda. Yes. 1 1 �22 SLOVAKIA Mir. McTigue. And you rure en route to Prague lby way of Budapest and Bratislava? Mr. Galayda. The Russians pulled the emergency brake. They had guns; they took the money frOirn .the ipoople, and in every coach was one soldier. He had a gun. They robbed the people. They ta!ke everything. Then I heard some screaming, a girl, a couple of giTls started screaming. I know that. I remember that. And I don't know what happened because 1I didn't see because in every coach was one soldier and we can't move. Mr. McTigue. And they -to ok the girls off the tra,i n ? Mr. Galayda. Yes. Mr. Bonin. How long did they hold the train up? Mr. Gailay<la. Oh, Irt was, I think, at least one hour. Mr. Boll!in. One hour. Mr. :Mc'I'igue. And everybody on the train ·w as relieved of his valualbles, jewelry, money? Mr. Galaiyda. They took everything. Mr. McTigue. Now, what !hia:ppened when you finally reached .Prague ? Mr. Galayda. Well, when I reached the Prague, liike I said, I went to the American consul. I itold hd.m I ,wanted to join the American Army. H~ said, "!No. You have to get your Arnevican ,p assport first." So then I came home. Mr. McTigue. You came home to Slovakia? Mr. Galadya. Yes. I came baok home. Then I start speruking agafast communism. Mr. Mc'lligue. You started writing against communism ; you made some speeches against communism? Mr. Galayda. Yes. Mr. Galayda. Yes. Mr. Bonin. ls that correct? Mr. Bonin. Now, did any,body ma!ke any complaint rubout theiir activities, itaking this property aJway from them? Mr. Ga1ayd:a. No, 'alt that time it rwaiS impossible to say something. iMr. Bonin. You had nobody to turn to to even make a Mr. Galayda. No. complaint? Mr. Bonin. If you did ma!ke a compla int you would probably ·b e arre&t ed ? 1 1 �SLOVAKIA 23 Mr. Galayda. Then yOl\l are sent ito Russia. Mr. Bonin. In other wocds, tllere was a c0111Stant fear in the minds of the peoiple that they would go to a concentration camp? Mr. Galayda. Yes, that's tight. Mrr. Bonin. Into 'Si-ber-ia? Mr. Ga:layda. Yes. Mr. Bonin. Which, of course, is nothing ito .p leasant to M1ybody living ·b ehind the Iron Curtain? Mr. Gafayda. No, I don't think so. Mr. Bonin. You were very happy to get ou:t of there? Mr. Galayda. Yes,. The Communist Party is no good for this world; a!bsoI1U1telly no good. Becaiuse ,I was over there -and I lb.ave experience: ,I lived in Czecho-lS1ovakia for 20 years, and I know. They iaire no good in this world. Mr. Bonin. They are no good for this world. Well, do you have any moos-a ge to tell ,to the people of the United States who may feel that communism is a good system of government? Mr. Galayda. Well, there is one thing I can say, and that is the American ,p eople should be proud of what they have, freedom of speech and everything They should ibe ,p roud o.f what they have. Mr. Bomn. ls, it-here any freedom of religion under the Communists? iMr. Galayda. No. Mir. Bonoin. Is there Mly freedom iof the press? Mr. Galayda. No. Mr. Bonin. Is there any freedom of assembly? Mr. Galayda . No. Mr. Bonin. Is there any freedom to use radio and teleMr. Galayda. No. visi'o n as we do !ill America here.? Mr. Bonin. [t i,s a ,pretty lblack picture, this lirving behind t.he Iron Curtain; isn't iit? Mir. Galayda. That's ~ight. (Wilkes-Barre, Pa., ISeptemiber 30, 1954). FROM THE TESTIMONY OF MR. SMREKOVSKY MT. McTigue. You came to this country in 1928; is that correct? Mr. Smrekiovsky. 1928 is correct. Mr. MoTigue. And did you become a:n American citizen at that time? �2-l SLOVAKIA Mr. Smrekovsky. Yes, sir, after being five years in this country. Mr. McTi!gue. I under,stand that you returned to Slovakfa in 1939; is that cor.root? Mr. 1Smrekovgky_ 1939; yes. Mr. !l\foTigue. What iwas the purpose for returning to Slova·k ia at that time? Mr. Smrekovsky. To. visit my father because he was reaching 90 rund wrote me that he was i'll; so I wanted to visit him and see him. Mr. Mc'figue. Now, did you return to Slovakia before the 'Outlbreak oif wa;r between Germa;ny a.ind Polamd? Mr. 1Sm.rekovsky. Yes. We had a little difficll'l,ty crossing t:he ·Polish boroer, lbut ,that didn't amount to much. Mr . .McTigiue. Noiw, at thait time, conditions were good in ,Slovakia; is that correct? Mr. Smreko'V'sky. Yes, they were. Mr. Mc'figue. There wasn't any difficulty as far as Mr. ,S mrekovs,k y. We didn't .know anything about wa:r then. Mr. McTigue. There was ,c omplete fu-eedom of ithe Mr. ISm.rekovsky. Yes. press... Mr. McTigue. Freedom of ireligion . . . Mr. 1Smerkovsky. Yes. Mr. McTigue. And freedom of assembly Mr. Smerkov:sky. Yes. iMr. iMcTigue. Hoiw long did you stay in 1Slovakia? Mr. 1Smrekovsky. 1Seven years. Mr. McTigue. Then you were there at the time the Rus1M r. !Smrekov.s ky. Ye·s, I was. sians C'aime into 1Slovaikia? Mrr. Mc'figue. What - or, w:hen did you first come .in contact with the Commun.ists? Mr. Smrekovsky. After the German Army was defeated, they started to drop parachutists to organize Communist bands to pers.e cute and rob middle class and decent people. 1M r. Mc'.Dig,ue. Noiw, did this haJppen in 1944? Mr. IS mrekovs.ky. Yes. lMr. Mcrrigue. And thls i1s the Communist-inspir ed uprising that you are talk,i ng a:bout. �SLOVAKIA 25 Mr. Smrekovsky. Yes. Mr. McTi,g ue And in the community where you were liviing rthey had parachuted agents into the community to organi1ze Communist bands in order to continue the uprising? Mr. Smreko,v,s ky. That's right. Mr. McTi'gue. And bring it to a successful conclusion, if necessary? !Mr. ISmrekovsky. Yes, and spread commurnsm at the same time. Mr. Mc'I'igue. Now, can you teH us some of the things you wit:ne.ssed, yourself, during the course of this Communist-inspired uprising? Mr. Smrekovsky. I remember a family cruptured by the OommUIIllists. There were five memlbers in the fami'ly, a twoyear-old giirl, there was another bigger girl, a son-in-laiw, a,n old man, and his wife. They were dragged to the edge of the forest and shot from ithe back. Then they dug a hole for them and buried them. Mr. Bonin. Mr. Counsel, I just want to interrupt here. We hea.ird testimony .b efore from different witnesses when stating that ithey were shot in the back, do you mean that the . . . Mr. Smrekoivsky. They start •t o run. Mr. Bonin. They ,s tarted to run? Mr. Smrekovsky. They started to run and they shot them from the back. iMr. Bonin. And they shot tlhem firom the bru~k whiie they were trying to get away from them? Mr. 1Smrekovsky. Yes. Mr. Bonin. Now, they were agents of the Russian Government - that were doing that? Mr. Smrekovs:ky. Exactly. Mr. Bonin. .A!nd were they armed, these people that were shot, or were they with01Ut a,r,ms? Mr. IS mrekovsky. They were without arms. Mir. Bonin. They were without arms? Mr. '.Smrekovsky. Without arr-ms, innocent people. Mr. Bonin. But, nevertheless, they were all .s hot in the baC'k, the one two years of a,ge, four years of age, the two larger ones, the son-in...,Jaw, and the father? 1 1 �26 SLOVAKIA ,M r. Smrekovsky. And the mother, too. Five persons. Mr. Bonin. Five persons? Now, you say that they were tossed in •a mass grave; is that correct? Mr. Smrekovsky. That's right. Mr. Bonin. They were a:11 placed in the same g:raJVe? MT. 1Smrekovsky. Yes. Mr. Bonin. Was there any re1iigious burirul service involrved? MT. Smrekovsky. No, sir. No, sir. They just buried them there like any criminals. It ha:ppened around Oot:ctber, and during tJhe winter they dug them out and :p ut them in the cemetery, in the corner of the cemetery, where they are Mr. Bonin. Continue Mr. Counsel. sti1l buried. 'Mr. IMcTiigue. Now, after the Communists had occuipied Slovwkia, did there come a time when you were put in jail your1self? 1Mr. Smreikovsky. Yes. r:r was there 14 days. Mr. Mcfl'igue. Why? Mir. 1Smrekovsky. Of course, they had no reason. They wanted to get rid of the middle-class people. My ·brother-4nlaw and a friend of mine were an-ested. Finally, my wife went to the authorities <a!Ild they let me free after 14 days. Mr. McTigue. What happened to your brother-in~law? Mr. 1Smrekovsky. Well, he was jailed also, hut they released him. Mr. Mc'I'igue. But there were others whom they didn't Mr. Smrekovsky. Yes. ,r elease? ~fr. lMc'l'igue. You know that of your own personal Mr. 'Sm~kOIV'sky. Yes. knowledge? Mr. Mc'.Digue. They were friends of yours? Mr. 'Smrekov,s ky. Yes. Mr. McTigue. Leading people in the community? •M r. Smrekovsky. Yes. Mr. Smrekov,s ky. Yes. Mr. McTigue. Priests? Mr. Smrekovsky. That's right. Mr. McTigue. Nuns? of different rel,i gious faiths? people And lMcTigu.e. Mr. Mr. SmTekovsky. Yes. MT McTigue.·· Now, when did you and how did you get back to the United States? �SLOVAKIA 27 Mr. SmrekoV!Siky. As soon as the American constcl came to Prague, I a,pplied for visa to the United States, and as soon as my transportation was ready I lef.t and came to the United States, first of Octolber 1946. I left my we there for three years until I could bring her 'O'Ver. Mr. iMcTigue. Now, at the time you le.flt you awned some Mr. Smrelwvsky. Yes. · property; didn't you? Mr. iMcTigue. What lhaippened to that iproperty af.ter you left? . Mr. Smrekovsky. Well, that was a1l confiscated. My wife had to sign a statement tha,t it's gi;ven to ,the Govem.ment. And every'body ,w ho wamts to come to America had to do that. Otherwise she would't get a !Visa. The Chairman. That is a method of highway robbery that they hold against somebody that wants to migraJte from one country to. another? Mr. S'mrekovsky. Yes, sir. Mr. Bonin. They compel them to transfer their i)roperty to the Government. (Wil:kes-iBarre, Pa., September 30, 1954). a FROM THE TESTIMONY OF MRS. SMREKOVSKY iMr. McTigue. When yoUJr husband left Slova!kia in 1946 to come to the Untted States, he left you in Slovakia; is (Mrs. Smrekovsky. Yes. that correct. Mr. iMcTigue. And at the time he left you in 1946 you had under yourr care the property which you both owned; is Mrs. :SmrekoV'Slky. Yes. thaJt correct? Mr. McTigue. rNow, when your husband left and you had the ipropeirty under your management, what experience did you have with the Communists? Mrs. Smrekovsky. Very ibad. Mr. McTigue. Did they make efforts to frig,hten you in --any way so that you would give your property ;to them? Mrs. Sinreko1Vsky. ThaJt was the only hope to come to this country, unless if agreed that the property is transferred to the Government. Mr. McTigue. So until you signed over your property to �28 SLOVAKIA the Government you 'had no chance of leaving Slovakia; is !Mrs. 1Smrekovsky. Yes. that correct? MT. iMcTigue. iln it.he meantime, while you were still there, in 1946 and b,efore you left the country, were your friends mistreated by the Comrnurusts? Were any of yoll'I' close friends that you harve personal ikno,w ledge of mistreated in any way by the Communists? !Mrs. Smrekorvsky. In my hometown there were shot or massacred four 1people while I was wiith my ,p arents - there was a senator, a notary public, a mayo.r , and a foo-ester. DuTing the night, in theilr ntght clothes, they loaded them UJp in one truck rund took them away. Mr. McTigue. What was their crime? Why were they shot? Mrs. Smrekovsky. Because they were not Communists and they never a:gireed with the Comml.llilists. MT. Bonin. Oongressman Feighan. Just a minute. In other words, even though the Communists ,have been in Slo1Mrs. Smre~ovsky. Yes. va:kia since 1945 . . . Mir. Bonin. StiM your relatives ·a nd friends have not beMrs. Smrekovsky. Right. come Communists? Mr. Bonin. They still belie·v e in ,t he religion and the freedom of religion that they had before?. Mrs. Smrekovsky. And they hope they wihl be £.reed and live again like decent people. MT. Bonin. In other words, regardless of how long the Communists may dominate Slorvrukia, there is still that desire for freedom on theiiT prurt and to live as they used to prior to the Communist regime that has been imposed upon Mrs. Smrekovsky. Yes, sir. them? Mr. Bonin. Now, I understand that t:hese four influential 1poople, a senator, a mayor, a t:imiber man and a notary public, were also shot because rthey failed to accept communism and to lead the people through Communist doctrines and princilples under the domination of the Russian system? Mrs. Smrekorvsky. Right. Mr. Bottin. That is the type of freedom thaJt is being sold to the ,people behind the lTOn Currtain? Mrs. -Smrekovsky. Yes, sir. �SLOVAKIA 29 MT. Bonin. Force, threats, violence, and intimidation, in order to constantly keep them in fear of whait is apt to happen to them? 1M rs. Smrekovsky. Exactly. Mr. Bonin. Now, your wifo came out of Czecho-iSliovrukia in 1'9 49; ts thart: correct? Mr. IS mrekovsky. Yes, sirr. Mr. !Bonin. And the principal reason ,w hy you aTe testifying under an assumed name is lbecaUJSe you are fearrful of what might haJppen to your relaUves and ,t he friends. that you ,s till 1haJVe in 1s1ova~ia? Mr. Srnrekovsky. Exactly. (WiJJkes-iBarre, Pa., ,September 30, 1954). FROM THE TESTIMONY OF JOSEPH PAU00 Mr. McTigue. 1Mr. Pall'co, where are you living at the present ,t ime? - - - Dr. Pauco. ln Middletown, Pa. Mr. McTigue. H ow are yiou employed? Dr. Pa:ll!co. I am assistant editor of the Slova.k weekly, Jednota. Mr. McTigue. Mir. !PauJco, I understand that you were born in Slovakia, is that correct. Dr. PaU!co. Yes; that is true. Mr. ,M cTigue. What part of Slovakia? Dr. Pauco. In ceilltraJl Slovakia. Mr. McTigue. Central ISlovaJkia. And it's my understanding that you spent most of your adult life as a journalist; is that coTrect? [)r. ,Pawc'O. Yes; that is correct, sir. Mr. McTi:gue. W1hiile yiou were in Slova!kia, it is also my understanding that in yiour capacity as -a journa:list, you had the occasion to witness the Communist~in,s;pired uprising in 1944; is that correct? Dr. Pa'Ulco. Yes, that's true. Mr. Mc'lligue. And were, you also present at the uncovering of the mass graves at Vinnitsia in the Ukraine? Dr. Pauico. Yes; that's right. Mr. McTigue . . How d!id you happen to be there? Dr. 1Pau'co. I was a member of a journalist expedition in July 1943 It wa:s an e~pedition of all journalists firom cen.trrul Europe. I came to Vmnitsia in July 1943 and I wais there four days. In those four days I saw five ,o.r six maSIS grarves of the Ukrainian people and some Polish people, who were �30 SLOVAKIA murdered by the ,Soviets. An eX!planation was girven to us by the Geamam.. dootors that these people were shot between 1939 and 1941. I spoke with the local people, Ukrainia:n and Polish people, some dozens of these people, because we were allowed to spealk to those people - a,t the mass graves there in Vinnitsia, in the town of Vinnitsia. For example, I was shaved twice in a local lba'.l'bershop, and I spoke to these men and with some. other people ,i n Vinnitsi,a. A concert was gurven in t'he town of Vinnitsia in honor of ,t he journaliSll:s' e,q;>edition, and after this concert, I spoke with several men and women, and all these Ukrairuian people trul'ked to me. They said what I saiw there in mass graJVes is true, and that their relaitirves were shot by the Soviets between 1939 and 1941, after the occupation of west Uikra,inia in 1939. Some people of Ukrainian nationality known as strong anti-Communists were deported in the Illight. And late,r , at the begmning of the wa:r !between 1Sovieit Russia and Germany, deporta:tion was in ~eat masses. Nob,ody ,w as sure that hls, relatives, hrusbands, sons, or some other of the family, wilhl not be shot in the night. I have in my memory six ox seven cases of the wives and daughters of the shot fathers and brothers, who told me their relatives were deported in the night. The people knew nothing. Their husbands and fathers were sent to Siberia or probably shot. Mir. McTigu:e. How many people were killed Dr. Pauco. Several 'hundred. iMr. McTigue. At Vinnitsia? Dr. Pau'co. 1Severrul hundred. I was at the graves four days and I spoke with several dozens of Ukrainian women, and, I learned, several ·hundred were buried in these mass grarves. iMr. McTigue. In these mass grarves that you knew about? Dr. ·P auco. Yes; in Vinniitsi.a. Mr. McTigue. Yes. But there were other mass graves disc01Vered later on; is that correct? Dr. Pau'CO. I heard about it. I know a;bout Katyn, but I wasn't there. ,I was in Vinnitsia and I can state only what l saw at these mass graves. I have here a statement of what �SLOVAKIA :n I saJW at these mass graves. Mr. McTigue. iMay I suggest, Mir. Chairman, since we hawe other testimony that we want to develop, and since we haJVe other witnesses, t:ha.t we admit this statement into the reoord, but not have it read at this time? Dr. Paulco. All right. Mr. ,McTig;ue. IMaJke it a ,p art of the reoord. Mr. !Bo:nin. Woll!ld you have any objection if we make this staitement a part of the record at this time and you g;ilVe us the highlights of it as of thJis moment? Dr. PaUlc<>. All right. Mr. Bonin. Without oibjootion, we will take the statement and place it in the committee files. Mr. iMcTigue. You may recall, Mr. Chairman, tllait we had testimony at our hearings in Munich on the Vinnd.tsia murders very much ,a long the same 1ines Mr. Paruoo is testifying. This testimony that he has given today on the subject of the Vin.nlitsi.ai massacre eertainlly corroibo,rates wha,t we hea.Td from many ,wiit:nesses in Munich. You aJlso recall in connection with that testimony that one of ibhe witnesses descri1bed the finding of hundreds of bod!ies of Vinnitsi:a \'i,ctims under the floor of a d'ance hall in one of the amusement •pariks iw:hen these mass graves were investig;ated. iI am sure you recall thait testimony. Mr. Bonin. Yes. I distinctly recall that, a'lld this corroborates the faot tJhat these mass graves and the mass kfiling of citizens of Vinnirtsia was deli;b erate and ,pe~trated entirely by ,t he Communist regime in Russia. Now, I understand, Mr. Pauioo., that you have some addition.al testimony suipplementing what 1happene:d in V!innitsia aind what took ,p lace in 'Slov,aikia; is that C()lrrect? Dr. PaU!co. Yes. I woltld iiJke to say thiat the same thing that h~ppened in Vinnitsia in 1939-41 happened in Slovakia in lr944. The Sovli.ets' s~hool oif prurtisans were parachuted in the s,prmg of 1'94'4 in the mou:nrtains of Slorvaki1a, and then in August 1'9414 they orga.ruzed a so-calil ed uprising against the SlovaJk Government a'lld shot hundredlS and thousands of Slovaks of anti..Communist feeling. Im Slova1ci(a, we had at this time, 1944, several mass graves of innocent Slovak ciiti- �32 SLOVAKIA zens, Slova.ik ainti-Oommunist patriots. The Communist part~,s ans ,w ere 1pariachUJted, as I mentioned, by the Soviets, and the partisans were also furnh,,hed Soviiet ammunition. This so-called upris,i ng in 1Slov-akia started with prepairations in 194'3. Some so.-,called underground politicians made an 8.'greement with the Communist leader, Karol Schmidke. And this Karol ;Schmidke saiid in 1946 that this action in 1943, this preparation of the uprising, was the merit o;f the illegal Communist Party. All the people who declined to collaborate with the Communist ieaders in 1944 were shot. Thiiis happened in central 1Slova.ikia because central Slovakia is a mountainous land. Then the German armies came to S1ova-kia and :Slorvak ter:nitory was a battlefield. After this Communist uprising in ,Slovrukia, I heard f.rom my friends, from my relatives in ISJ.ovakria thrut many innocent ,p eople, farmers, ,w orkei,s, priests, ,s ome ipriesits, ,s ome congressmen, were shot by the Communists. I recall a congressman, a Catholic priest Anthony Salat. He was of very strnnig feeling against the Communists. He wrote several books againist communism and, iin the first week of the uprising, he was shot. In 1Slw8!kia were liquidated about forty to fifty thousand :S lovaks in this Communist putsch. 1 Mr. IMc'Digue. T1hey were shot? Dr. Pauco. They were shot 1b y the Soviets, b,y the Soviets' paritisan,s and by the collaborators in Slovakia. !Mr. McTigue. About '50,000? Dr. Paufo. Yes, aJbout '50,000. Mr. McTigue. 1In the period of one year? Dr. Pauco. In the period of three months. Mr. McTigue. Three months? Dr. Pauco. The purtsch was defeated in two months, but after there were some battles in the mountains in Slovakia, and in December the Red Army ,c ame to Slovalkia. Several thousand Slo.vaJks fr,om eas,t ern Sl01viakia were sent by the NK_,V il) to Russia, to Siberia and concentration camps. and to the mines in Dombas. Mr. IMcTigue. Norw, when and how did ,t he uprising finally end? �33 SLOVAKIA Dr. Pauco. The German Army came into Slovakia in September 1944. Mr. McTigue. Now, you had a close relationship with Monsignor Tiso; isn't that correct? Dr. Pauco. 'f.hat's true. Ylr. McTigue. Now, will you tell the committee who Monsignor Tiso is and briefly explain your relationship with him and your discussion with h~m afte,r the putsch? Dr. Pauco. I was editor-in-chief of the greatest daily in Slovakia, the "Slovak." This daily was the organ ,o f Monsignor Tiso. Joseph Tiso was the first Slovak President. He was the legal President of the SlovaJk Republic, which came into being on March 14, 1939. The ,Slovaik Republic had diplomatic relations with 27 naJtions, of them 17 or 18 were on the side of the western allies. Monsignor Tiso was a Christian ruler - after a thousand years, the first Slovak irll'ler and I had the opportunity to spea:k with him practically every week . I reca:11 thrut on August 20, 1944, I was in Presov at a meeting called by the Government, by the army, and by the Slovak People's Party. At that time, in eastern Slovrukia the situation was very critica•l and the delegates practicaly from every village and every town from eastern Slovakda told the Government and government representatirves of Bratislava, tha:t something wliitl hruppen if the Slovak Army and Slovak police do not interlere. Pradically the whole of eastern Slovakia was, parachuted at this ,t ime by the So;yiets, the Soviet parti,sans and Soviet a;genrts. I spoke after this meeting with Dr. Tiso, and ag,ain when the pUJtsch was liquidated. Dr. Tiso at this time was ready to resign. He hoped that some Slovak politician would take the Slovak question to the International Tribunal. Mr. Bonin. Tribunal? Dr. Pauco . Tribunal, yes, because he would iiike to change the regime, but to preserve independent Slovakia. That was the goal of Monsignor Dr. Tiso. Mr. McTigue. What happened to Monsignor Tiso eventuallv? Dr. Pauco. Monsignor Tiso was hanged, executed by the Communist nation:i.l court, April 18, 1947, in Bratislava. Dr. 1 �34 SLOVAKIA Tiso wa.s the first among the Catholic prelrates in central Europe who were executed by the Communists afte,r Warld War Iil. Mr McTigue. The usual phony charges, I suppose, were applied, and the usurul phony court procedures were set in motion? Dr. Pauco. Just becallise he had anti-Communist feelings; I know, 'Il!Ot from Dr. Ttso, but from his personal secretary who its living now i n Caniada, seiveral times, Soviet agents were ready to assuire to Slova.ks and Dr. Tiso himself a seperate Slovak-,Soviet Repulblic if Dr. Tiso will go wtth the Soviets, and Dr. Tiso refused. Tiso said one time, I recall, that tf his own brother were a Communist, he would fii.ght him. And I am SJure that i·s why Dr. Tiso wa:s executed by the Commtmists' so-called nahonal court in April 1947. Mr. Fetghain When you state that Monsirgnor Tiso was the first of the clergymen to he executed by the Russian Communists, you mean the first outstanding figure, both in the spiritual and politic8il world? Dr. Pll!uico. Yes, sn-. That's correct. Mr. Feiigihain. That's 1a ll. Mir. Bonin. W-ell, Mr. Pauco, it is nothing uncommon for a priest or a member of the clergy in central EUI'Opean countries to be in political life; isn't that correct? Dr. Paooo . Yes, that's ri.ghit. Mr. Bonin. And, therefore, they would be permitted to engBlge in political lifo . . . Dr. Pauco. Yes. MT. Bonin. Bllit they took a leave od' absence from their clerical life; isn't that coreivct? Dr. Pauco. No, that was not so in S1ovakiia. Monsignoir Tiso, as Prresident of the Slovak RepU!blic, was the adm~nistrator of his own parish in Bano:vce, rund sang Holy Mass there practically every Sunday. 'Mr. McTigue. Tell me, Mr. P8iuoo., how and why did you escaipe from Slo1Va!kia arnd come to this country? Dr. Praulco. After what I ,s aw in Vinnitsia, then in Slovakia , and what I hearo from many hundreds orf escll!pees from Ukrainia, from Poland, from Russia, from Hu'Il!gary, �SLOVAKIA 35 from Ruman:i:a ., from Lithiuani:a, about ·p ractices of 1S01Viets, I could not stay in rS1()1VlaJk:J,a, because I hated communism ; I hated oolsiheiv:ism, and I hoped to live in the free Western World. I am happy that 1 am here in this free ,a nd democratic couliltTy. I haive my relatives over there, ,a nd one of my relatives came through the border just several months ago to Austriia. He. ~s: now in the American Zone, and he writes to me. thlat Oill!r ;p eople over there behind the Iron Curtain have friends. here in the United States, and they are praying every d·a y that the Gorvernmen t of the United States wHl win the battle against communism . ,A nd Slorvaks, like IPoles, the Uikrairuans , the Baltic nations, or Rum•a nia, Hung,ary, the Czechs:, Croatians,, :Serbians, and so on, they like to be free like you are here in this country; they like to be independen t, and, maybe, wiH sometime be ruinified in a great European federation li,k e yoru are here urnfied in the United States. Mr. M:c~•g ue. When di:d you say you left Slovakia? Dr. Pauco. It wa:s in Apr.ii 1945. Mr. McTigue. And when did you arrive in this country? Dr. 'P auco. WoUT years aglO, in Apri[ 1950. Mr. McTigue. I have no further questions, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Bonin. Mir. Feiglha:n. Mr. Feighan. Mr. Pau!co, we have heard testimony with reference to the Vinnitsia massacres ,w hich stated' to us that after the Commllllllists were diriiven out of the Ukm.i.ne in 1943 and the Naizis came in, they opened up graves of which there were 38, each of them the same length, and widlhh, and depth, that they conWned ov:er 10,000 rpeople they weiI'en't aill U!kirruinians; some were IPoJes, and of other nationalities ; 'that the people there were of various status ; they were, :farmers, armsan;s, wovkers, ,a nd rinteilleotUJals, and the testimony th1at we rnceived also. indicated, at iJ.east with reference to those particulaT graves, that tlhey were done by the So;viet Russ,i ans durJng the years 1937 and 1938, but I assume that they did many othera besides those. Dr. Pa:uco. I spoke ,t o the 1people of Vinniitsia, these �SLOVAKIA 36 people, Ukramiians and Poles, were all liquidated tb y the Soviet agents. ,MT. Feighan. Yes. That ~s my understanding. Dr. Pauoo. Yes. Mr. Feighan. The testimony that we had shows that. I 1have no further que,s1t1:ons Mr. Bonin. WeH, Mr. Pa.'Ulco, you stated that this alleged uprising in Slovakiia was clearly Communist inspired, is that OOlITect.. Mr. Pauco. Yes, that is correct. Mr. BODJin. They created dissension and they created an atmospheTe Olf revolt within Slova:ki:a? Dr. Pauoo. Yes. !Mr. !Bonin. And a.gents had been sent in there, is that cor,rec.t, to irritate and agitate this revolt? Dr. Pauico. That is correct. Mr. iBonin. And by thait means using the Commurnst tecfunique to wipe out the ,people that were undesiralble to them? Dr. Pauco. Yes Mr. !Bonin. Of coU1I1Se, iwe lhruve had testimony where thait same identicaJl truing was used in- other countries that have come under the domi'Il'ation of the Russians throughout different parts of Ea;sitern EuTope, lbut this is <the fhist time, I beli'e!V'e, that we had testimony that they were aotually dvopped in by pamchute to iITitate and agitaite rund crnate the trouble. Dr. Pauc·o. Yes. Mr. Bonin. But, in the meantime, they !had some agitators in there already; iis tlhat correct? Dr. Pauico. Oh, yes. Mr. Bonin. And they had le:6twingers ,i n there? iDr. Pallico. Yes. iMr. !Bonin. Who were ready to follow the agents tha:t were dTopped in? Dr. PauJco. Yes. Mir. !Bonin. In other words, isome people in the United States fool that there are not many Communistls, lb ut they are aliways :ready, willing w:hen the o.p portune time cOllnes, to seize that opportunity to overthrow the existing governmenrt: in any partioular place . Dr. Pauco. Thait's wue. Mr. Bondn. Now, of course, since you have lbeen in the 1 �SLOVAKIA 37 United States, you have been trying to. bring to the attention of the people of the free world this Commwnist threat; is that correct? Dr. P,a uco. Yes, that is oorredt. Mrr. Bonin. And in each instance where you haive an opportUillity, and I understand that you are still a newspaperman and a joornalist, you bring these facts to .t he attention of the people that Tead your newspaper, the Je<lnota? Dr. fuuco. Yes, that's correct Mr. Boniin. This isn't tJhe fiiirst part, of Eastern Europe that we have heard of where forty to f,i fty thousand people have boon slaughtered.; O'Ilce a;gain demonstrating that the Communist regime holds power only because 1t UJSeS force and threats and intimidation to keep the people ias helpless as they possibly can. Dr. Paiu100. That is correct. Mr. Bonin. WeH, on behalf of the committee.. I 'Wish to thank yow for your splendid staJte:rnent tlhat you haive made as a part of thii:s ree-0,r d and for the reswme orf yo'lllI' experiences in Ozecho-Siovakia and in .Slov•a kia. Dr. Pauco. Thank you. Mr. Boiruin. Mr. Feighan has another question 'h e would like to as!k you, Mr. Pauco. Mr. Fei,ghan. Do you not feel that it is correct, Mr. Pautco, that the people of 1Slo;v;akia are imbued with the nationali-stic -spirit, a love of God and a love of colUllltry, and they just seek the right of self-deteTmination as ~ sovereign nation? - Dr. Pauco. That is co,r rect, Slir. Mr Bonin. In other words, they are asking nothing more than some of the principles: that have been em.mcia:ted through long yea.rs, that each people have the right to de- · termine the kmd o.f government they wish to have, the type of leaders they wish to have, and to conooct their Lives and thei,r g01Vernment in theiT own nationialistic spirit and attitude. The people orf R!Umania, Hung,a ry, Po•land, Lithuania, Latvia, EJSltooila, ruid o:their nations ha,v e the same desire to goveTn themselves; is that correct. Dr. Pauico. Yes; iliat iis correct. MT. Bomn. Welil., I 'Wliish to thank you ,v ery much for your testimony, and we sincerely hope thait the opportunity 1 �SLOVAKIA 38 presents itself to defeat thls Communist threat, not only to the Ewopean natio111S., burt: also to the peoples of the free world. Thank you ve,r y much. Dr. P,aulco. Thank you. Mr. Feiighan. Waiit a minute, Mr. Pauco·. Dr. Pauco. Yes. Mr. Feighan. During your experience in Slova>lcia, did you haive an opportunity to witness the manner by which the Russian Commlln!isbs tried to break up the culture, the 1,anguage, the customs, and the religion of the Slovak people? Dr. Pauco. I lived in Bratislava. Bvatislava is the capital of Sllo;v,rukdoa, and is on fille west border of Slovrukia. The Soviets came from the east. The whole of Slov-akJa was occupied on April 7 or 8, ,a nd I escaped from Bratis lav,a on April 4. Mr. Feighan. I see. Dr. Paulco. I wasn't there after the Soviets occupied the whole of Slov.alk,i a, ·b ut I was in Braitiosla:va during three months thait the eastern part of Sl()!Va:kia was occupied by the !Soviets, and I heard from my relatives, from my f11iends , of the methods which I mentioned before. Mr. !Feighan. Yes; but you were noi there yourself t o see it and observe .iit? Dr. Pmrco. No, no. Mr. Feigihan. Well thank you, Mr. Pauco Or. Paulco. You are wekome. Mr. Bonin. Thank you <very much. (Wil'kes-,Barre, Pa. , September 30, 1954). FROM THE TESTIMONY OF DR. JOSEPH l\1IKULA IMr. iMcTigue. Were you in Sl'OVlaJkia during World War Dr. Miku1a. Yes, I was. Mr. iMcTigue. Were you a pairt of the underground movemerut in Slovakia? Dr. Mikul,a. Yes, sir. We started the underground movement at the end of World War II. I was one of those who started it. iMr. Mc'Digue. When did it start ? Dr. Mi1kula. It was in 1944. tr? �SLOVAKIA 39 :Mir. McTigue. What caused you amd others to form this underground moivement? Dr. Mikula. I will read a short statement in this connection. The inception of the anti-Communist arganirlation is attrilbutafule to the iintellectuals wlho foresaw the necessity of truking preventive measures aga,inst the imminent d001ger of communism. They studied communism and decided to combat it, ~cause tlhey had no false illusions of whether or not the Communists wOIU!ld Telax their demands after World War II. The first communistic pressur~ was expected in the field of religion. Conseqiue.ntly, the preparations were directed for the defense of re!l,i gious freed.om and the preservation of religious life in the event of intensive persecutions. The second fi.eld was the po[iltical field. Ourr ca1cuJations at the !beginning w&e wrong. They didn't staTt at the beginning in religiious _peil'Sooution, but it:Jhey concentrated an theliir activities in the political field. Mr. Kersten. Have you finished with your s1:Jatement? Dir. Mikul,a. No; very briefly about this polii!tical field. The most essential elements in tlhe polritical life of the nation are political parties. The Communists knew it, and acted accordingly. They were verry cautious. that no par.ty existed which by attracting the sympathy of a majority of the _population wouild endanger t'he position of the Commumst Party. So, the parties which airose after the war with the petrmisSlion of the Communusts were incapable of eiffecting strong anti-Communist oipposition, because, first, theiy had no roots, no tradition, a;mong the population. Second, part of their leadeffi, were either tools of Communists ior opportunists who, /because of l,a ck of principles and courage, completely sulbmitted to the Communist pressure, and third, throug;h the assistance of the ColIIlm.unist Party, they were s'h ackJed - aM other parties were shackled by the coordinating comrruttee of all the parrties, the socalled National Front. This Nationa'l Front was nothing else but a machine in the ih ands of the Communists to control aU o,pposiition against the Communist Party. Mr. Mc'l'igue. Were you the recognized leader of the un- �40 SLOVAKIA derground in Slovakia? Dr. Mikula I woll!ldn't say so. Mr McTig;ue. Were you one of ,t he leaders? Dr. Mikula. Yes. Mr. McTigue. !Did you ar.ronge to have some of your members sent abroad in order to assist in the underground movement from without ? Dr. Mtkula. I thin:k I can state it quite openly. Our program was to prepa1re things, firs,t, at home, and, second, we had some people out aibroad. I mean, out of ,the count.Ty. We ,s end them out of the country ,a nd directed the situ.aitiion, informed them, they ind'ormed us. The illlformatiion we receirved we direoted to ,proper aut'horitie;, iMr. Keirsiten. Now, just at this ipoint - we want to ma:ke sure that you understand ,p erfectly clearly, Mr. Mikula. We know, of course, that you did operate in the underground in Slovakia, and there are undou!btedly a number of things that you would not wish to spea;k a.'bout specifiicaHy and openly. 1S0 that any question the oounseil or any member here might ask in that regard, you just use yom own judgment. We don':t want you to disclose pU!blicly anything t hat would in any way endanger the ipresent situation there, a:nd that is what you 'ha,,ve in mind, Mr. Counsel, I am sure. Mr McTigue. Yes, Mr. Chairman. Dr. [Mikula. Yes. I 'Wl3.'Ilted to ask yo u for this permission. Mr. Mc'Tugue. How long were you a part of the undergroU1I1d in Slovakia.? Dr. Miikwla. I was wor,king directly in the field almost fiiive years to the. end ,o f 1'949. 1Iin Feb:rua.ry 11950 I left for the United States. ·Mr. McTigue. And did you emigrate to the Uniited States in 1950? Dr. Milkula. Yes, I did. Mr. McTigue. Now, when you left 1S1ova.ki.a in 1949, were you furced to !leave your wife b e hind'( Dr. Mikula. No, I was one of tho se who was sent abroad when the Communists took over and legia.l opposition was ailimost iimpossilble in ,the country. So, I went out from Slova:kfa in 1945, and I was wonk,i ng outside of Sfoviakia.. I was worlcing abroad. I have here a little bo~ldet edited by 1 1 �41 SLOVAKIA the Ministry of l!nterior in .Prague; the head of the Ministry of Interior was a well-iknown Oommunist •o y the name of Nosek. It was edited and published by the Ministry of Interior, 5,000 issues were distrilbuted over here. My name is mentioned aJbout 70 or 80 times in this booklet. Mr. Kersten. Just .so we get th•a t clearly, as I understand it, you ~eift Sloivaikia in 1945. Dr. Mikuia. Yes, I did. Mr. Kersten. And you were outside the country? Dr. Mikula. Yes. Mr. Kersten. !But while you were outside the coll!Ilitry during the fullowmg yerurs up 'll'Iltil -about 1949 or 1950, you were woriking in t'hiis movement, is that correct? Mr. '.Mhlm~ia. I was in steady contact, and I was one of the leaders outside. MT. Kersten. Of the lllillderground freedom m01vement in Slova,kiia? Dr. Mii kula. Yes. Mr. Kersten. And this :book ,t hat you have ha,nded us here is a booldet put out by the Communists in Bratislava? Dr. Miikula. 1:rl ·P rague. The Ministry of InteriOT, Czecho-Slovakia. Mr. [Kersten. Maylbe we 1had better mark this. Dr. Milrula. The title of .the book is "Conspiracy Agaiinst the Repl]blic." iMT•. Kersten. Would you mark thi<s "Milwaukee Exhibit 4." And you have stated rthat this Milwaukee Exhibit 4 is a Communist ,pubH1cation ipulblished in what year? Dr. Miiktl'l.a:. ffit was printed Noivemlber 1947. Mr. Kersten. And it contains rtJhe accounts of operations 2.gainst the Communist g01Vernmen t; is that correct? Dr. Mikula. Yes. Mr. Kersten. And you are named in here, as you say, 70 or 80 times? [)r. Mii:ku1 a !Something liike that. Mr. Kersten. In rw1hat crupacity? Dr. Miikuila. Someitiiimes as ibhe leadeT of the underground, sometimes as an American agenrt, sometimes Mr. Kerstein. Always in a derogatory sense? Dr. M~kuJ1a. Absolutely. 1 1 1 �42 SLOVAKIA Mr. Kersten. I notice on 1:Jhe first page of the printing here - one of the first rpages - it is aotually page 7,, but it seems to be the start "Of the body of t'he article - I notice a name - Joseph rMi!kufa. Is that you? Dr. Mikula. That i:s me. Mr. Kersten. Then you are named frequently therearfter; Dr. Mikula. Yes. is t:Jhiat rig1ht? Mr. Kersten. Proceed, Mr. Coltl7lsel. Mr. McTigue. I w,ant to •ask you two questions. Dr. Mikula. Wi'fil you briefly tell uis something about the ac'tiivities of the ll!Ilderground, and secondly, were these actiivities effectiive, in y;our j,udg,menit? Mr. iKersten. Keeping in mind tJhe safety maitters that we tahlced albout. Dr. Miikua,a. As I mentioned before, the legaiJ. resistance or Jega!l oppositilion againJSt communism was foiling. So, the people 1wirt:Jh ra nti-Oommunist tendencies lost faith m their weaik and oppo:rbuni,stic party leaders, and consequently, sought -0ther mea.lilS wiherelby they might prevenit the Communists from ·aocompl:iishing their ,plans. Now, the diTect answer to your question, "Wihat were the actiivities ?" Fiirst, to do e,verythiing that would undermine the Coimmu!nist IP .arty, and the ends of tfue Oommunist Party. We knew that they will try to Sovietize, to taike over the counwy. So, we rpuibliiished leaflets. We published booklets. We pu'b1is,ihed pe;riodiools. IDverytilimg was hllegal and underground. That w.as at 'the b~imling. Laiter on, when it wiIB pretty hrurd to distrilbute mimeographed leaflets or publications - because they were against the Communists - we started an illegal triansimi-titer - a shortwaive radio station. It is not necessairy to teH where and how it was, but it existed and rit worked very effectively. Then, later on, we tried to collect all possible rnformaitiorn from political, economical, military, oullJtu,r,a-1 life; get it out and mfomi the worild 1aJbout the si•tUJatiion over there. JUJst to show you how it was done, here are some photostatic copies of the orders issued by the commander in ohlef of the nati'Onal security guard. It was a gend:armery police. �SLOVAKIA 43 Mr. McTigue. Communis t police? Dr. Milrula. CommUIIlist, yes. Mr. McTiguei. What did the ·o rder say? Dr. Mikula. They are different o:rders. For example, I will just ~ k of the first one. lt i,s dated Bratislava, March 4, 1947, firom the head{l_uall'lters of Nationail !S ecurity Guiard. The orders to the lower units of National Security Guards : il order that ,s pecial attention be paid to tJhe transports of Volhyi.ruia Ozechs cOIInli.ng from tihe U. S. S. R. - thait is the Soviet Union - they have already settled on the territory of Slovrukia. They have to lbe constantly watched arid fO!Nowed, because they are spreadling internationr uUy false infurmation a:bOUJt iour eastern ally, the U. S. S. R. Mr. !McTigue. Wha:t people is he talking rubout in tlhis order? Dr. !M.ikiula. One of the tactics of Commt.Lll!ist takeover was tramsplanta tion; movements of the people. Right after t'he war we had a HUJngarian minority in 1Slcwakia and a SlovaJki,a n minoniity in iH ungary. Now , right aft.er the war started the transportru tion orf these minorities frQiffi HUI11gary to Slovwkia, a,:nd from 1S1ova!kfa. to Hungary. What happened to Slovakia? From H1.1!11.g,acy came the people who couldn't sipealk any word of Sloviak. To Hungacy came people from Slova:kiia. There were Ozeohs iwho Hived about 200 or 300 years in one province of [Russia calllled Vo1hynia. Just to show good faith tor something like bha.t, the Sowet moved those Volhynia: Czechs to Ozeciho-Slovaikia. 'Dhe movements of the population are very serious thinigs, because they !bring insecurity. Noibody knows how long he stays in his ()IWll house., in his 01W11 neighlborllood, and so insecure people are aliways much easier for the CommUilasts to handle. Mr. McTigue. That is the grnup to whiioh he has reference in the order? Dr. Mikula. That is tihe explanation . So further: Specifically , I ask the units of Nationa,] Soourity Guard to watch the tI"ansports corning in and the transient transports orf V oohyniia Czec:hs going through the railroad station. �44 SLOVAKIA Those Czechs wouldn't come !into any contact with the public. I mea.n witJh the popu1ati10n. Then you hiwe here the order to maintain ~ continuous oontro1l on ail calls in post offices and telephone-Office excihanges. This was done by the ipol!ice. They ccmtr.ol all calls ·c oming in and W:hait was said. If they find something against the regime they wt accorcmng to regufations. Thls here is concerning the control of the pop.wlation in traiins. Everyone - they sa,y here, "Everyone is Slllpposed to have this ridentificaitioo. card1." So, the units of SiNB - lower units - are ordered lh:ere to control the population, and if somebody hasn't his idenitificatlion card, he ris supposed to be arrested am.cl brougiht ilil for investigation to the nearest police station. This order ooncerns the former gendarmes orr mem!bers of the National Security Guard poiice who were deported to Russia, were coniiined there, and later on brought 1b ack to Slovakia. Same of them were put in the!ir fonner positions. They were ·agaiin rcinsitated a:s gendarmes, but the order says: To the Ministry ()If Interior came the information t:Jhat the behavior ()If these returned former memlbers of gendarme is not satisfactory. They taJlk very sharply against the !S oviets iand are doring that even in the company of the other members of the unit. I order you to follow those memlbers in your d±sbr.icits and remind them that for bad talk aibout the brother nation, Russia, they can be ,p unished and arrested. Mr. McTigue. Now, what you haNe been de.scmbing to the oommittee . . . Dr. Mikll!la. These •a re just the examples of how information was oolle_c ted and brought out and utilized. Mr. McTigue. Now, do you know, or oan you tell the oommittee whether there is an wnderground operating in SwvaJkia ,a t the present time? Dr. Miilmla. l am posritive there is. First, I would just say from the general point of vtl.ew, so long as the Comm'Ulilists are unaJble to change human nait'UT'e, there wiU [be the will. to 1be free. It means there will be the will to rresist. That is a general rea:son �SLOVAKIA 45 Second, the best proof ,i s that you still read in the papers how much troulble they haJVe in .t his or that group or with this group, and so on. These are the 1best documents that the :resistance is not only aJlii.ve, but is acti1Ve. Mr. iMcTigue. Do you fool thaJt the underground is the heart of the resistance, the core of the resisltance, in Slovaki,a today? Dr. Mhlrul'a. I would say so. I would dare say that albout 80 or 90 per cent of the population is anti-Communist, but not aU of these 80 o:r 90 per cent are willing to ta!ke am. acti:ve part to fight oommundsm. Mr. iMcrrigiue. Why? Dr. (Mlikula. Because of the advances of oommumsm they are very cautious ito. d:o nothing which could provoke or cailll for Communist reprisals This is one reason. !Second, urSU1ally the people WOII'king activei1y and directly are, in my opinion, heroes, and not everyone cam. be a hero. So, from thds group, from this 80 per cent, we can sruy whaJt is in tlhe underground is the most ii.miporllant and most vaJLuiaJble co,re of passive and ,a ctive resistam.ce. Mr. McTigue. You were in Slov,rukia at the time of the Communist taikeover; is that correct? Dr. Mikula. Yes. Mr. IMc'Digue. Were there wholesaile arrests and deportations in Slovakia. as there were in the other C-Ollll!tries? Dr. Milkllll,a. Slovakia. is a small counrtry of 31bou,t 3½ million poipuilation. So the figures. are not so enormous, but in relatio1I1, in proportion to ,t he whole popll'laition, they are pretty big They deported in :t'he fi.rst month aifteir the occupa1tion of Slovakia rubout 38,000 people. Besides this, in tlhe !first half year, when they took over, aibout 133,000 people were put in ja,i1s, in camps, amd taken out of theiir normal life. Mr.' Mcrrigue. [ ha;ve M further questions. Mir. Kersten. Mr. Bentley? . Mr. Be1I1tley. When did you leave Slovakia? Dr. Mikula. I lefit Slovalci.a in 1945. Mr. Bentley. That was just the beginni.DJg of the antiCornmi.mist resistance then,, I presume. Dr. Mitkula. Yes. �46 SLOVAKIA Mir. Bentley. ilfaJVe you mamta.ined contacits, or how have yiou gotten yml'I' worrunaJtion regarding the activities of the underground since that time? Dr. MikU!la. As I Wld you, we haJVe steady contact through couriers. I wi!ll j!U'st mention one thing: In 1945 our coUJriers hrougiht over my wife with two little children. Mr. Chai:run:an rememJbers those l.ititle children. One w:as four and one was ,s ix. Mr. Bentley. How l01ng was co111tact of this kind maintained? Dr. Miikulia. ,J t.hinik that contac.t is stiH mamtarlned, but I could rta1k 3111d testify ,t o the end of 1'949. Mr. Bentley. Until the end of 1949, which was a,bout two years after the coup d'etat in Pra,gue? Dr. Milrula. Yes. !Mr. Bentley. And srunce .that time, your ilmowledge has been 01JJ.ly fTom information, not direct; rum I correct? Dr. Miku]a. lit is secondary. Before I reccived mormatron diirecil,y. I was ll'S'lllally the first who received it. Now I a'In receiving informia,tion, but later. Mr. Bentley. How dloes the situation in Slovakia compare wi;th that of otfuer countries in the Soviet satellite, would YOIU say? Iis it -b etter or worae? DT. MikU!la. I thiinlk .t he condifti,ons a;re generaHy the same in all the coU!Iltries. As for the resistance, maybe in S'lovakira, the resistance is a little bit stronger and maybe a little bit more success:fluil, 1becall!se, as you iknow, Slovakia is a country orf farnners, a country of mountainee:ris, ·a nd the people i1I1: Slovaiki'a are deeply reliigtlous. T.he hardest thing for the Communists to break ~re the farmers and /besides that, to remove Teligion from the sow of the rpeoiple and rep}ace it by Leninism is not so easy. You know .t hat. Mr. Bentley. So you would say that the cond!itiOIIl!S are about the same, but -the resistance itJhere is a little bit ·stronger? Dr. Mikula. Yes. The same. The same concentration camps, liaJbor orumps, the same tendency to create Kollkhozes and co[lectiive farms, the same tendency to brealk any possible resistance, and if there dsn't any hope, arrest the peo- �SLOVAKIA 47 ple, seind them ,t o uranii.ium mines; tJhe same everywhere, the same procedure. Mr. Bentley. Am ,I correct in believing that part of Slovakiia has been incorporiated in the 'Soviet Union? Dr. Mi:kula. A very small eastern part. Abowt 15 or 18 villages of S1ova1-da were inconporated inito the Soviet Ull!ion. Mr. Bentley. '.Dhe fiact that this resi,s tance dioes exist or does not exist in 'SlrovaJkia to the extent you say it does, what, in your opinio!Il, can lbe done most effectiively to eniruble this resistance to continue ,and maintain itself. Whrut encouragement or assistrunce can be givan, if any? Dr. 1M:iikuil.a. I would state .it in ·one way: To increase the hopes of ipeople lh'ling over there that soonetime there will be a cha1I1ge. iMr. Bentley. We ,a:re ta:lking specificailly of SLovaik:i!a. Dr. M:ikula. Spooiffioa.My, for 1Slovakia, it is absolutely necessary to reassure a;gaiin and again those people tlhat we are not forgetting them, we are not •giviing them up, and we have unde.rstaind!i!Il!g for their specific prolblems. Mr. Bentley. Including the right 'O'f self-determination? Dr. iMitkullia. '.Dhia.t is w!hat I walllted to say. We should not stick to the owtmoded, ourtlived st'I'luctures. '.Dhey have proved to be un:successfol, and rwe should give to the people the right to be free and to have therr OIWIIl: government, ·a ccording to their own c1hooce. That is one o.f the most important t'hd.ngs. Then th'i<s po<l.tnt: The people are, I wou!l.d say, 90 per cent 'llillited in Slovalk:ta. .Anyrt;hin,g whioh .poi.nrt:s o.wt thait we are forgetting them, rwe are not undersibanding them, is cutting otff the will to resist. iMr. Bentley. Thank you very much. Thiat i'S a:11, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Kersten. Congressman Feighan? MT. Feighan. Dr. 'Mikula, as I understand it, you feel thrut the people of 1SIOV1akia should be ,giiven assurances that the free ,w orld would sirnpport their desire for seiltf national determiniation of thei:r own identity as a nation if they so desiire? · Dr. Miikula. Wihen you are talking generally albout the popu1ation of Slovakia, that is one of the most important �48 SLOVAKIA things that they need; some kind of good will that we have a.!11 understanding oif thei'l' problem. MT. Feighan. Then if ,w e ,w ould tell the whole world that we stand by the principle upon which our Naition was founded, thiat is, the ri!ght of self-determi:ri:ati-cm, that would be he'l!pful to them. 'In other words, Mr. Mikula, if the free w0irld shO'Uld gi,ve the Communists a free hand !in t!hese caiptiive nations,, this would cause those people to lose hope, ilS that right? Dr. iM:ikuil:a. Absolutely. One of the most •i mportant things is to show those people :tlhait we are really l!Iliform.etl a'boUJt their plight, a.Jbout tlhe conditions under ,w hich they are 11ivimg, that rwe hacve actually access to the most secret communistic conspiracies. 'We shouJ.d convey t:his knowledge to the masses. That is one of the moot imlportant th,i ngs. Mr. Kersten. Does thrat hellp to sha:ke and lessen the Communist ipawer in 'Uhose countries? Dr. iMikul1a. It is •curttin.g off the arrogamt communistic se!lf-corufiderice, amd when we ta.Jke such a cut through the Communist Party, we see there are just a few intellectuals, a group of fanatics, and a great nuim ber of opportunists. The greatest ipart of them a.Te oppoiitun:ists. Activities must be directed against those opportunists, because they are afmid. They betrayed, first, second, thoird time. They a.re readty to betray todlay and every day. Mr. Kersten. ~irst o;f iaU, let me ask you this: YO!U have gone to Detroit from iMHrwaUJkee? Dr. M~kula. Yes. MHiwaiUJkee is my ,h ome. Mr. Ker,s ten. You li:ved 1here several years and ~eft for Detroit a short whlle ago wlhere you now live and :work Dr. MikuiJ.a. Yes. with your family? Mr. Kersten. Dr. MikU'la, you iha,ve given us a great deal of valuable inlfoirmation, rparticula:rly the knowledge that I know you ha'V'e, of the existence of the undeiig,round in Slocvakii a, resi,s tance, opposition, which our evidence indicates exists in all the other cOUIIltries likewise to a very great extent. !Mr. Kersten. Thank you, Dr. ~u!la, for yOUT aippear~Milwaukee, Wis., October 22, 1954). ance here today. 1 �SLOVAKIA 49 FROM THE TESTIMONY OF PHILIP A. HROBAK Mir. Kersten. I want to say we are rvery honored and happy to haive you here with us, Mr. Hrobak, as the president of the Slovak League of America. :Mr. Hrobak. And tihe editor of the Jednota, the official organ of the First Catholic SlovaJk Union of the United States and Canada. · Mr. Kersten. I notice through several years of knowledge of your activities that you have keen understa:ndmg of whaJt it means for a nation or a country or a people to be occupied lby the Communists and some of the ways in whioh they fight and some of the thinigs that we should do to combat this new kind of enemy. Mr. iMcTigue. How many memlb:ers, Mr. Hro'bak, are a:ssociated or affiliated with the Slo:vak League of America? Mr. Hroba:k. The SloviaJk League .o f America, rubout 300,000. !Mr. Mo'Dig,ue. What, ibriefly, is the Slovak League of .America? Mr. Hrobaik. The pur:poses? Mr. McTigue. Yes. 1Mr. HTdbak. A cirvic and culturial origarnzation of Americans of Slov,a;k descent. It was organized in Oleveland in 1907. 'Mr. Mc'lligue. It is mry understanding, MT. Chaimnan, that !Mr. HrdbaJk has a statement which he wiSlhes to present to the committee, and if there is no objection, may I sugigest that the witness be permitted to proceed wiith the statement? · Mr. Kersten. Without objection, it is so ordered. !Mr. Hrdbalk. If you permit me, I would like to first express my deep appreciation to this committee for the opportunity given me to present the Slovruk chaipter in the dread detail of Communist aggression. I believe it is for the first time, at least as far as I know, that ,a real, honest effort is :being miade to know the background olf the many peoples behind the Iron Curtain, nations who always were and still are our friends, �50 SLOVAKIA peoiples who with all their hearts want to be our friends because to them America has always lbee:n a living symbol of freedom and independence, and now is just aJbout their last hope of sa1vation from Red tyranny. I harve the greatest respect for the hono-raJble gentlemen on this committee and its chairman, Charles Kersten. The coonmittee has a difficult taslk, b,ut it is doing that task admiraJbliy well. Helping the nations behind the Ixon Curtain to helrp liberate themselves from the curse of communism cannot and must not become ipOlitically a partisan a:flf1air. It is the business, the duty, of every American to take part in it; every Almerican must see it in that perspectirve, because it is, after all, in the interest of the security of our own America. I would li!ke to e~press one point ,b efore I read my statement, and that is that the SlovaJks have no quarreJ with the Czech nation as such. The Czech nation today is in the same Red fix as the SlovaJk nation. The Sfovak•s, however, cannot remain silent about Czech .p olitical leaders who were in a very large measure responsible for the present terrilble plight of the Ozech and Slovak nations over there, and who made it possilble foc the Communists to seize power in Czecho-Slova!kia practically without any troUJble. ("How the Communists Seized Power in SlovaJkia" the statement by P. A. Hrobaik, president of the Slovak League of America and Editor of the "J ednota," official 011gan of the First CathoHc Slorvak Union, •b efore the Kersten Committee on Communist Aggr(}SSion, in the County Court House, Milwaukee, Wis., Friday afternoon, October 22, 1954 - was .pulblished in full in the iprevious issue [Septemlber.,Decemlber 19541 of SLOVAKIA and, hence,, is not repeated here.) Mr. iMcTi,gue. 1I take it from your statement, Mrr. Hrobaik, that you consider the National Socialistic Party of Czecho-,Slovalda a:s the one which was responsible for the sellout to Moscow; is that correct? Mr. HrrobaJk. I do, sir. Mr. McTigue. Do you consider that the case of Czecho1 �SLOVAKIA 51 Slovakia is a practical or typical example of what happens to a nation that attemipts to coo,peirate or coexist with Communists? Mr. Hroba:k. Definitely. Mr. McTigue. What do you think of the present Kremlin campaign to sell the nati0'11s of the free world on peaceful coexistence? Mr. Hrohak. That is the Kremilin's way of trying to lull us to sleep; forget our problems, our troubles; forget what communism is, and just let them get strong enough until they can take all of us. Mr. McTigue. In your opinion, what do you think we can do to keeip the ho,pes of the people of Slovakia alive? How can we most help them at a time like this? Mr. Hrolba!k. We must let them know that we a;re behind them; that we have not forgotten them; that .Americans stiH believe in the principles uip on which their country was founded, in the principle of freedom and independence ; and let them know that we shall do everything to help them he1p themselves to overthrow the regime they have. ~fir. McTigue. You agree with Mr. Mikula, who testified here earlier today, that the resistance is still strong among the ,people of SlovaJkia? Mr. Hrabaik. It certainly is. We have had cootact with the people directly and indirectly right through the war, and we still get letters from people, who come from Slovakia today. Mr. McT-fgue. You are able to maintain an effective system of communicati10n with the Slovakian people with what is going on over there today; is that correct? Mr. Hrobalk. indirectly. Certain people get the info;rmation from persons in Sl>ova~ia and then we get it. Mr. Kersten. Mr. Bentley? Mr. Bentley. Mr. HrobaJk, I want to go 1b aclt a little bit before the period of Communist domanation of Slovakia and look at the situation there !b:rfofly during the Second World War. When SlO'V'aJkia was an independent reipulblic, what exactly was the relationship at that time between Slovakia and Germany? �52 SLOVAKIA Mr. HrOlbalk. Foveign policy was undoulbtedlly dictaited by Germmy, /but the domestic policy was not, until the uprising of 1944, when the German Aiimy came in to occupy Sloval~ia. Then bhe Slova.ks were in for it. Mr. Bentley. -Would you say that the fad, for example, that Slovalkia had troops on the Russian f.vont was a voluntary action or wa:s that dd.otated b:y Genmany? Mr. Hvdbalk. I think it was both. I think th13Jt the Germans expected it, and the Slovaks, to make it aippear that they aire really taking the business seriously, s.e nt a token division there. The Slovaks had a way of exchanging men by classes; they never had many men in the field. Mr. Bentley. Did -Slov:akia take any action toward the UTrited States at the time or shortlly after Pearl Harbor when the Germans declared war? Mr. Hrobaac. No; we tried to ascertain thait business. We found out that some ,p erson, I believe it was the German radlio in Vienrna, d'id ma.Ike a statement that Slovakia declared warr, but as far as- we could find out from our own State Department and War Department, there is absolUJtely no formal declaration of war aga:inst the United States. iMr. Bentley. Never was at any time? Mr. Hlrolbruk. Never was at any time. We couldn't find that out from our own United States Goveirnment because that point interested us rvery much, and so far there is absolutely no record of it. Mr. Bentley. Now, you say there was a distinction between the foreign policy of the Slov,a k Repulbl:ic which was exercised and the domesti'c .poHicy. You mean -t he domestic policy of the Slovak Repulblic was independent of Gennany? Mr. HrobaJk. Yes; just about all independent; I mean, running the country of Slovakia itself. Mr. Bentley. Was there any form of oppression at thait time? Mr. Hrobaik. There was no oppression of religion or any other thing. Some laiws. were enacted that ha;d to coincide with some of the laiws that · the Germans had, but oUJtside of that, the economic conditions - even Mr. Sr0ib31r, one of �SLOVAKIA 53 the most intimate foiends of Benes had to admit after the wax, were good. Mr. Kersten. You say there was no oppression. There was freedom of religion and the other political freedoms that you normally would expect? Mr. HrOlb.ak. None. Some claim that there was ,political swppression in Sl01Va!kia, but they don't explain the problem correctly. The fact is that the ISlovaik parties, the two only genuine !Slovak parties, are the Hlinka People's Barty sometimes called the Catholic Party, and the Razus Slwalk National Party, whi·c h was considered the Lutheran Parby. Now these worked for the same program with one accoro. Mr. Bent-ley. Following the wprising of August 1944, when the German mHitary came in to ,p ut it down, from that time Slovakia lost its. independence? Mr. Hrrolbak Yes. The Slovaks got it from both sides. They were murdered by the occupation troops a.ind then by the partisans on the other end. Mr. Bentley. After the German military occupation did the Tiso government continue in po,w er? Mr. HrdbaJk. They continued. in ,power until 1945. Tiso tried to explain away as best he coui'd that it was not a national uprising; that the Slovruk Army and the Slovak gendarmerie couild ta.Ike care olf the troubles in Slova:kia themselves. The Germans firral,l y did not believe the Slovaks rufter General Otto's military mission was stopped at Turciansky :S vaty Martin. I believe it was on August 25; the group of aJbout 25 or 30 people, women and children included, were taken off the train and put up in barracks for the night. The neoct morning ~l were lined up against a wall and mowed down with machine guns by the prurtisans. Then there were other murders, sabotage, terrorrist activities, which all came too soon, even for Benes's liberation movement which he had allegedly organized. The leader of that movement was supposed to be General Golian. The uiprising was Communist-in spired and did not have popular support. �54 SLOVAKIA Mr. Bentley. The Rm!ssian military OCCUipation of Slovalkia took place about when? Mr. HrQbak. Albout Easter Sunday, 1945. Mr. Bentley. And at that time the Slovak Government escaped to Germany? Mr. Hlrobak. The Slovak Government went to Austria. Mr. Bentley. And I believe they were finally captured with the American troops? Mr. Hrobak They were not captured. They surrendered to General Walker's army at that time. We had a copy of the surrender papers and we gave it to, our State Department, and, of course, the Army Department. Mr. Bentley. And what happened to the members of the Slovak Goivernment? Mr. Hrohak. Well, unfortunately, even despite all our effovts in America to preivent their being handed over to Benes and his governrrnent in London, unfortunately, I say, our pleas availed us nothing, and Tiso's Slovak Government was gi'Ven up to Benes and the Benes.Gottwald coalition government. Tiso, after being tried by a "people's" court, was hanged on April 18, 1947, while members of the Slovak Govenunent were sentenced to prison. Mr. Bentley. They were tried as war criminals? Mr. Hrabaik. Yes, "war criminals," according to Prague. Mr. Bentley. What is the sit'lllation in Slovakia today under the Commrunist government of Prague? Is there any form of committee for Slo;vaikia or is there a completely unified government? Mr. Hrobaik. Prague is still trying to tell us that the Slovaiks themselves govern the.ir part of the state and the Czechs govern their part, and so on, but that is not true. The Czech Red centralized government in Prague is running the whole show. Even Slovak Communists are not safe; Clementis is gone, so are others, and the secretary general of the Slovak Communist Party is Karel Bacilek, a Czech. Mr. Bentley. You say the Communists are trying to appeal to Slovak nationa1ism somewhat? Mr. Hrobak. They did. Today it doesn't mean any- �SLOVAKIA 55 thing. They are done for. In fact, 1S lovak Reds were for separation in 1926, long ibefore Hlinka's pa,r ty. Mr. Bentley. Who? Mr. Hrdba.lk. The Communists. It is a matter of record. They knew what the people wanted. They figtN"ed that there are no people in any country who, do not desire to be free and independent and they used that to gain their SUipport. Hlinka's Party fought for autonomy; in the beginning, you know, it wanted to haive a federation where SlovaJk,i a would simply have states' rights. The fight was simply for states' rights, as we understand them here in the States. The Slovaks wanted to elect their own governor, their own judges, their school di,rectors, and so on. They were not for separatism until much later. Mr. Bentley. Mr. Hrobak, you were here, I imagine, when Dr. Milkiu.la was testifying, and he said it was his belief that so far as the people of Slovakia are concerned, what they really wanted was the right to self-determination. Do, you concur in that? Mr. HroibaJk. That is correct. Mr. Bentley. Thanik you ivery much. Your statement and your testimony has contributed to the hearings, I am sure. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 1Mr. Kersten. Mr. Hrolbak, l think at this time it is quite clear from the records of recent history that the attempts of the Benes government to collaborate with and have coexistence with the Soviet Union is a classic case of what it means to make this attempt. I meant merely for that government to put itsel1' in a position to be swallowed wp by the COll'Il.Illunists. Mr. Hrobak. That is correct. Mr. Kersten. It is a classic case in that regard. Mr. Hrobak. Correct. iMr. Kersten. And I believe one of the ministers of the Benes government in London, Dr. Stransky, thought that Mr. Hrobak Yes. too. Mr. Kersten. And that, along with other similar epi- �56 SLOVAKIA sod.es, certainly proves that there is no such thing as peaceful coexistence with the Communist s. Mr. HTolbaik. That is correct. Mr. Ker.sten. Well, I want to than!k you. The records show if it doesn't already that Congressm an Bentley knows a great deal about this situation in Ea:stern Europe because he was an American diplomat in Hungary for several yeairs, and he knows firsthand sOime of the real maichinations of the Communist s when they truke aver a country. Mr. Bentley. I was ailso in Slova-kia. Mr. Kersten. I am sure he has firstha:nd knowledge of that, too. Mr. HrolbaJk. Mr. Chairman, -t he statement that I have made is based not only on what we haive from Slovaks, patriotic Slovaks, 'but it iis also based O!t1 the 'book that the regime put out in 1946, that is by the Lettrich "Demo-. crats" arid the Husak Communist s; the name of it is "Natl Tatrou sa Blyska" - (Lightning over the Tatras). The booik has contr~butio ns from both sides, MT. Lettrich's men and the Husaik men. And, of coocse, on the book that was already introduced, there were only 5,000 of these, The Conspiracy .Aigainst the Republic, which was introd uced as testimony by Dr. Mikula. That is my oopy. Then on a boolk that was published here in America by the Communists called "Parti:zani na Slovensku" - (Partisans in Slovakia), published in Chicago. And, I believe, another booklet called "Verni ostruli," (They Remained Faithful). This book dealt with the uprising; it was written by Deso Benau, ,w ho was editor of the New Yonksky Dennik (The New York Daily), in 1946. Mr. Benau wa:s editor of that paper from 1942 to 1946 and tod!ay is doing an admiraJble job for the Communist s in BraUshwa. In this pamphlet - I will leaNe you this copy - you can see the organizatio ns that are affiliated with us The SlovaJk League of America -- and the me:rrubers they have. - I might add here that our papers were outlaiwed from Ozecho-Slovakia by the Communist s on October 10, �57 SLOVAKIA 1946 - that is this paper, the Jednota. and three other Slova!k p8{!)ers. Now, as you see here in this particular paper dated Decemlber 13, 1944, we didn't wait until 1948 to tell America that Benes sold out the Czechs and Slova!ks to Stalin. The big headline in that Decemlber 13, 1944, issue right on the front page reads: "Sl()IVakia soJd out by Dr. Ed/ward Benes." Mr. Mc'Digue. What is that .pu!blication? Mr. Hro!b.ruk. This is the Jednota, the official organ of the First Catholic Slovak Union of the United States and Canada. And my statement is further ·b ased on the information contained in the booklet "The Rise and Fall of the Democratic Party in Slovakia," which was written by Constantine Cu1en, a new:spruperman from Slova;kia now residing in Canada, and ipu!blished in Slovaik by the Slovaik League of America. I have translated it into English and the committee is welcome to it any time. Mr. Kersten. Thank you, Mr. Hrobak. (Milwaukee, Wis., Octo'ber 22, 1954). 1 STATEMENT BY DR. JOSEPH A. MIKUS Fram 1944 until my escape from Soviet-dominated Czecho-Slovakra, i:n March, 1948, I resided in Bratislava. During this period I was three times imprisoned by the National Front Government: in 1945, 1946, and 1947. Now, as a Slovalk refugee in the United States, I am glad to have the opportunity of exposing to the Committee on Communist A!ggression the tactics which, to miy own knowledge and ibased on my personal experience, were utilized 'b y the Communists in Slovakia to establish themselves first as a politca.-1 party and finally as a dominant force in tha,t country. Introduction Before entering upon a discussion of the subject: proper, I would like to outline in general terms what has until now been the main trend in Slovakia's political history. �58 SLOVAKIA After losing her political independe nce in the ninth century, Slovakia existed for a thousand years under for eign dominatio n. Desrpite this fact, the Sl01Va!k nation did not lose its ethnograp hic and cultural individua lity. Within the nraime~o rik of the Austro-H ungarian Empire, it was ruble to survive all the ;pressure of the Magyar cultural and political centralism whioh seriously menaced its very naJtional existence in the 19th century. World War I finally providied an opportun ity for the 1SlovaJks to rid themsel'Ves of the restrictin g grip of this ancient and obsolete power structure . On May 30, 1918, at the close of World War I, the Slovak League of America signed together with the organilzatio ns of .Amemcans of Czech descent the so-called Pittsburg h Agreeme nt, aimed at creating a dualist federal union of the Czechs and Slov,atk,s which a little later entered the world communi ty of nations under the name of Ozecho-!Slio:vakia. Although provision s guarantee ing the preservat ion of the Slovak national and po1itical individuality were, according to the principle of self-deter mination, the essential condition of this solution, the Ozech political leaders, T. G. Masaryik and E. Benes, never made any real attempt to fulfill their pledges. Instead of a federal union providing for a reasonaib le degree of self-gover nment for the Slovaks, and in utter disregard of the political will of the Slo1V.:\k people, Prague organized a strongly centralize d state. On !February 29, 1920, the first so-called revolutio nary parliame nt Oif Oze:cho..JSlovakia, ~inted !by the Prague revolutio nary governme nt, voted for the first Czecho-lSlovak Constitut ion which suibmerge d the Slovak national individua lity through the device of a speciousl y conceirved "Ozecho-!Slorvaik" nation, wherein the Czechs wouid always lbe assured of their majority status and their predomin ance. Not being a minority group in the sense provided for under internatio nal treaties signed after World War I, Slovakia ·r emained without any internatio nal protection . Contrary to the famous definition of democracy by Abraham Lincoln, the regime a:rfuitrarily established by Prague in Slo:vaJkia could be described not as a governme nt of the people, by the people, for the " �SLOVAKIA 69 people," 'but rather as "the g,overnment of the Ozech bureaucracy by the concept of the 'Czecho..:Slovak' nation foisted upon the Sl01Vak people." For 20 years SlovaJkia sought to· haive the principle of equality between the Czechs and the Slovalks inco:r.porated into the constitution. The Slo,vak political leaders argued that the Pittsburgh Agreement was of international relevance and that it should 'be respected by both parties in the very interest of the joint Czecho-Slovalk state. Prague, conrfident of the support implicit in the Little Entente (1920), thie Mutual Defense Treaty with France (1924), and, last but not least, the 'Dreaty of Friendship and Mutual Aid concluded with the Soviet Union (1935), felt strong enough to refuse any discU1ssion on this pomt at any time. The Munich Oonference of Septemlber 28, 1938, the primary sig.niificance of which was the coUaipse of the Ozecho~SlovaJk sysltem · of military a,lliances, inevitaJbly brouight the nationality problem of the heterogeneous Ozecho-Slovak State into the foreground. By the policy o;f E. Benes, and in accordance with the Vienna arbitration of Von R~bentro,p and Ciano on Novemb,er 2, 1938, SlOIVakia, lost over 10,000 square kilometers of territory to Hungary; an a·rea which included 853,000 inhabitants. This was a national catastrophe. Ha,ving experienced this and other deceptions,, and !being confronted in MaTch 193,9 with the alternative of the partition of her territory among Germany, Hung,a ry, and Poland, or of falling under direct German administration, Slovakia voted on March 14, 1939, thrnugh her legitimately constituted Diet in Bratislava, for independence. During World War II -E. Benes, who had voluntarily resigned his oflice of President of Czecho-Slovakia, found refuge as a ,pri'Vl8.te indilvidual in ,London. His basic goal was to reestrublish Czecho"'Slo,valkia and, in spite of the oppositi'on. of the SlOIValk people, he was able to achieve this goal ,b y relying essentially on the help of the Red army and a grourp of domestic colla!borato~s. lirl the main body of my statement I will explain the ;principal facts of this evo- �SLOVAKIA 60 lution, but I would first of all li!ke to stress one important point : All 'Slovaiks in the free world greatly ruppreciate the fact that the House Committee on Oommunist Aggression has paid particul ar attention to the tactics• which communism aipplied in Slovaikia. As a matter of fact, these tactics were very difforenit 'from - for exMn1ple - those adopted in the Czech area. This fine distinction - an a,rt in which Moscow h•a s aliways been a master - resllilted from the clifference of attitude demonstrated toward the Sovieit Union by the population of Slova:kia at the end of World Wa:r II. As is kno,wn, during World War IT the Czech lands were a German protectorate. At that time and until 1944, Slovaikia was a relatively fTee state, imbued with only one desire: To reaffirm her status as a national state after the end of the war. Whereas the populaition of Bohemia and Moravia loolked fonwa:rd with high hO!pe to its liberation from German domination 1by the Soviets, that of Slovakia considered the approach of the Soviet Army as a dista:ster which would put an end to the Slovak national state. Because of this difference in psychological attitude, Moscow decided from the•outset on a policy of appeasement of the Czechs and on a prog,r am designed to smash the resistance of the Slova:ks. A detailed ,plan for this program had ibeen elalborated, with the Kremlin's blessing, by E. Benes and K. Gottwald, who as early as 1943 were in Moscow. 1 A. The Blueprint for Sovietization After the Teheran Conference, which toolk place Novemlber 28 - December 1, 1943, it b,ecame clear that the Soviet Union would inevitaJbly play an important role in post-war Europe . This conference gave substantial encouragement to the hopes of the Communists and certain pro.-Soviet non~ommunists in Slovakia. Immediately thereafter, on December 12, 1943, Dr. Edward Benes, as chief of the Czecho-Slova:k: Government-rn-exile, signed the Treaity of F'riends·hip, Mutual Aid and Col1ia/boration ,w ith Stalin in Moscow. In article 4 of this treaty the two· signafories agreed upon close political and economic cooperaition. "Talking into consideration their respective peaceful interests," �SLOVAKIA 61 says the treaty, "the high contracting parties have decided, after the restoration of peace, to estaiblish a close and friendly collaboration . . ." They will develop to the maximum their economic relations and will grant each other, after the war, all possilble economic help." No such treaty haw.ing been signed with the United States, Great Britain, or France, this international a:greement predetermined the orientation of Ozecho~SlovaJkia toward Moscow in the post-iwar European scheme of politica:l relations. The Benes-Stalin treaty served as a strong stimulus for those who had been aspiring to political power within the framework of Soviet influence in central Europe. In this category were included, among others, fOTmer memJbers of the Slova:k Communist P,arty. In the 1935 elections, this party had gained six sea:ts of the 58 corresponding to Slo;vaikia in the Pmgue Pa:rliament. Consequently, around 10 per cent of the total ,p opulation of the country had voted for this party, which the Government of the Sl01Vak Republic had suppressed as a subversive group in 1938. The non-Communist growp, smaller and weaker in its common punpose, was composed mostly of descendants of Czech exiles who in the seventeenth century, at the time of the Count er Refiormation, had settled in Slovakia. Both of these factions, equally willing to back " ... the apocaly,ptical horse from the E}ast" (as communism was perfervidly described lby one of the factional leaders, r..udovit Sensel ), met secretly on Christmas Day, 1943, and created a joint r evolutionary organization under the name of the Slovak National Council. The goal of this movement, as estaJblished under article 2 of the respective secret document, was: " . . . to ta:ke over, at the expedient time, all political, legislative, military, and governmental executive power in Slova:kia and to use it according to the will of the ,people until such time as their freely elected reipresentati<ves shall themsel,ves ibe ruble to take it over." The b.asic political tenets of the so-called Christmas Agreement were laid down in another document, the first three articles of which read as follows : �62 SLOVAKIA "(1) It is our desire that the Slovaks and the Czechs, as the two most closely related Slav nations, shall unite their destinies in a Czecho-Slovalk Republic which will be their common government organized on the principle of equality. "(2) We desire close collaboration with all Slav states and peoples, particularly with the Soviet Union, in whioh we see a protecting shield for the free life and welfare of all small nations in general, and of the Slav nations in particular. "(3) The future Czecho..Slovak Republic shall conduct its foreign policy in the spirit of these .principles and should therefore, lean on the Soviet Union." It is appropriate to mention here that, during his visit to Moscow in Deceimib er 1943, E. Benes had in principle agreed with K. Gottwald to set up a So'Viet ty;pe of internal administration in Cze.cho-Slovakia after its reestablishment as a dualist union ; to eliminate all traditional conservative political parties in the Ozech area, as well as in Slovakia; and to esta:bli,s h the regime of a so-called National Front Government. In his Memoirs, published in Prague in 1947, E . Benes recognized this in the following passage (pp. 408-409) : ''Thereafter Gottwald e,opressed his opinion a'bout the way in which this revolution should be prepared. He stressed the necessity of forming national committees (i.e., So¥iets) , which would not only constitute the revolutionary cells of insurrection, but would even se:rve as embryos for the whole revolutionary political administration, I was not apposed.'' - wrote Benes - "to this opinion . . ." 1 "Then Deputy Gottwald," continued Benes, "went on to consider the question of the structure of political parties after the revolution in Czecho-Slovakia. He was certain of a great Te1volutionary shift to the leift, of a great Socialist majority, rund of a great defeat of our block of right-of-center parties as it existed before the war: agrarians, national democrats, and artisans . . . As to the admission of the Agrarian Party, our Communists were not willing to commit themselves in any specific way in De- �SLOVAKIA 63 cember 1943. For all of us the merciless liquidation of fasoism was without any distinction the basic and obvious issue." In the same discussion., Benes and Gottwald touched on the problem of the National Front Government: "It will be necessary," ~ote Benes, "for the governmental parties to form a unified national front after the Uberation, to form a common reivolutionary program, and to pledge themselves to put it jointly into practiice. I then expressed my agreement with the plan concerning a national front ." (pp. 409-410). On the basis of these three principles,: Sovietization of administTati'ons, elimination of the conservative parties, and organization of the National Front Government as it emerged in 194'5, Cze'cho-1Siovakia was inevitrubly fated to become a "people's" democrwcy. Wihat was the practical result for SlorvaJkia of the Benes-Gottwald agreement? The Communist and the nonCommunist pro~Soviet group conspiring a.gain.st the Slovak Repulblic, although not representing more than 24 percent of the population, became the future leading force of Slwakia. B. The August 1944 Insurrection Since early 1944 the Soviet partisan headqll!arters in Kiev, with Rudo1ph Slanslky as i.ts main political adviser, had 1been pouring Red ,p arachutists and Communist agents into the mountains of central Slovakia, far behind the German frontlines. Through contacts with many Communists and non-Communist symjpathizers, Sfova'ks, Czeehs, and fornigners in various cities and villages of the country, these agents maI11a,g ed to create a network of informants and future collruborators. More recent documents reveal that as early as Fehrua·r y 7, 1944. Proif. Viladimir Jershov of Russian· origin, Gregorij Soloshenko, second lieutenant of the Red army, and William Zingor, a Slo~-ak Communist, came to an agreement in Tureiansky Sv. Martin that " . . . all future partisan activities in Slovakia would follow instructions �64 SLOVAKIA from Mos:cow."l It was also agreed that 2ingor would be the chief of the Slova:k partisans, with Soloshenko as his sulbstitute. These self-appointments were later " . . . recognized by partisan headquarters in Kiev, and the Turiec County group was integrated into the general Soviet partisan system. By this act the partisan movement in Turiec assumed the character of a militaTy organ~tion." 2 Moreover, in the summer of 1944 the following Sol\Tiet rugents were, a.mong many others, actiive in Slovakia: Ing. Nicolai Avenaria, as liaison officer in Myjawa; Jmfa Nikolaiev, a graduate of the Leningrad Naival Academy, as distrilbutor of arnns; Ing. Dimitrij Venero:vsky am.d Ivan Platonovich, active in preparing the partisan or.ganization of Liptov County. In Turiec, whioh was the center of the So·viet partisan activities, I·v:an Stepanol\Tich and Alexander Fjodorovich Krajushkin were actively operating. The real Soviet partisan camp was organized in the Kantorska Valle~, near Sklabina. It was commanded by a second lieutenant of the Red Army, Ilvan VySOIC!ldj. Nikola Sur:kov, second lieutenant of the Red army, was in command of a similar camp near Priekopa. The most effective of these Soviet agents was Alexei Velichko, captain oif the Soviet paratroopers, who, in fact, ibecame the chief of all partisan actil\Tity in Central Slovakia. Even General Osmolov was sent to SlovaJda for a period of time to assure coordination of the activity of the different groups. In the meantime, on August 1, 1944, Gen. Bar Komorovs:ki, in command of the Polis:h underground army, ordered a general insurrection in Wa.rsa.w. H e did this after hea.iring an a;ppeal of _Radio Moscow encouraging the people of Warsaiw to carry out a ·general uprising. "The hour of a·ction has already arriived," declared Moscow. Bor Komor-ovski was consequently firmly conivinced that he would receive eiffoctiive aid from the Red army, which had just reached the gates of the Praga sulbwr.b, 10 miles from Warsaw. But the e~pected hel.p neyer came. In his telegram of (1) Cont ributions to the H istory of th e Slo vak Nationa:l Insurrection (In Slovalk ) , Turcians ky Sv. M.arrt in , 1947, p . 26. ( 2 ) IbM.. , p. 29. �SLOVAKIA 66 August 16, 1944, to Prime Minister Churchill, Stalin dissociated himself from the "Wa1rsaiw venture." And so under the very eyes of the Red .army, the German units were able to carry out their m8Sllicre of those Polish patTiots who to Strulin (,according to his telegram of August 22, 1944, to Churchill) were but "a groU!p of criminals." On Octdber 2 the uiprising collapsed 1because Stalin was unwilling to help "the Polish reactionaries." The Waraaw insurrection seemed to ha:ve no effect on Slovalkia. This was a ibloiw to Soviet expectations. To the U. S. S. R., Sl~i,a, in the summer of 1944 was, from a military viewpoint, an eID1Pty tera'itory with a "reactionary government and nationalist populations," with some "deviated Communists" and some opporturustic non-Communist elements looking hopefully to Benes in London. A civH W8JI' in Ozecho~Sloiwukia wouild haive been immensely helpful to the political aim!s of Moscow. But patriotic Slovaks were too wise to begin an internal struggle. Three weeks had passed siI11Ce the beginning of the Warsaw U!prising, and still no rea.c,tion in Slovakia. In order to purge this country of its "reactionary" elements before the impending occupat:rion, Moscow needed German military intervention there. ft was up to the Soviet aigen.ts to provoke it and their opportunity was not long in arising. On August 24, 1944, a spec,ial German military train stopped in Tureiansky Sv. Martin, some miles from the Soviet partisan headquarters illl ,Sklabina. The chief of the railway station, in collusion with Captain Velichko, refused to let it leaive. G€aleral Otto, former chielf olf the Gernnan milimry mission in Rumania and now retwrmng from Bucharest to .Berlin with his suite of 28 ;persons, was then oonducted to the military barracik,s, held a prisoner on instructions from Velichko, and together with all his aides was killed by a unit of revolting soldiers the fohlawirtg day. ThereUJPOn Hitler, infuriated with a Slovaik Government which was "unalble to 'k eep oroer in the hinterland of the German lines," decided to send General Hloeffle into Slovakia with an army of six di,visions to arunihrilate the �66 SLOVAKIA partisan movement. It was as a result of this decision that the political and military leaders of the pro-Soviet conspiracy started the U[>rising whioh was announced on August 29, by Radio Banslka Bystrica. Within two months General Hoeffle crushed this Sorviet-inspired venture. Although the political chiefs of the insurrection, such as the "Demo .. crats" Joseph Lettrich, Jan Ursiny, iMatej Josiko, Martin Kvetko, Samuel Bellus, etc., and the Commum,s ts Gusta,v Husak, Laco Novomesky, Karol Schmidke, etc., were aible to escrupe, its military chiefs, General Viest and General Golian, were not so fortunate. As they were attempting to escrupe by plane, the latter was burned by their angry and disillusioned soldiers. Both of them were then captured by the Germans and ta:ken to a concentration camip in the Reich from ,w hich they were never to return. Wihile alll of this was going on, the Soviet Army was quietly resting on the north side of the Carpathian Mountams where it had been stationed for ove,r four months, tranquilly ruwaiting the last act in this &ama. It is evident that the U!prising was only a trrup set b.y the Soviet partisans to ensnare the ". . . Sl~ak reactionary and opportunist elements." This pur,pose of the insurrection was revealed during the trial against Slansky in Prague in 1952. As has already been mentioned, the former secretary general of the Comm.1N1ist Party of Ozeoho-1Slovakia had been the main ctivil adviser for the 1944 insurrection in Kiev. With respect to this function the state prosecutor ques~ tioned him as follows: Prosecutor: Why did th.e Anglo-iAmerican agent (general) P1ka show an interest in placing the partisan units in Slovakia under the command of (General) Golian? Slanslky: He sought to place all partisan units under the command of the reactionary General Golian at Banska Bys:trica so as to faciJ.itate Golian's supervision of their activities. Pika tried, in the interest of the imperialists and of the London Government of Dr. Benes, to reduce the influence of the par1Usa.n.s as far as possdible.3 (3) Marcel Peju: Hier et Aujourd1hui: Le sens du proces Slansky II. Les Temps Modernes. P.ari,s, June 1953, p. 2013. �SLOVAKIA 67 Thus Slansky revealed many years later what the Soviets really thought of the leading non-Communist personalities in the 1944 insurrection in Slovaikia. This event is a great national tragedy. Whereas during the thref' years of her participation in the struggle against bolshevism, Slovakia lost only 2,500 soldiers on the eastern front, she lost around 30,000 persons in the insurrection in the short space of two months. Unlike the insurrection of Warsaw, that of Banska Bystrica has nothing to do with Slovak ~triotism. It is quite clear that Slovak patriots would have never organized an insurrection the purpose of which was to reestablish foreign external and internal control in their country. C. The "Liberation" of Slovakia What is known as the liberation of Slovakia by the Soviets is in fact a misnomer and a grave distortion of the historical facts. During World War II, though subject to a certain international supervision by Germany, Slovalkia was a relatively free country. During five years, until the insurrection of Banska Bystrica, no one was executed for political reasons . The Slovak Government in Bratislava was able to master all the difficulties of the war period during these years. Then the Red army came. I waited for the Soviet "liberation" with a family which lived on the outskirts of a small town, S., in western Slovakia. They had a nice, or as the Communists would say, a '~bourgeois" home here. On the morning of a day of mid-April 1945, the Soviet Army entered the town. The house in question, which was located on a hill, was then chosen as headquarters for the Soviet commanding generral in that sector of the front. During the two days that the general stayed in the house, the conduct of the Russians was exemplary. After the general and his staff had left, we congratulated ourselves on our not too bad experience with the Soviet Army and prepared to cel~brate this event with a good family dinner that evening. At p. m., just as we were sitting down to table, a first lieutenant and a sergeant of �68 SLOVAKJA the Red army entered the house. The latter put his gun on the dining-room ta>ble and began checking on our identity. Meanwhile the officer began to inspect the house "looking for hidden German spies." In the course of this inspection he found our ,p ersonal effects in Oiile of the bedrooms and ·b rought them into the dining room. He then proceeded to examine these things in detail and chose for himself whatever happened to please him: A watch, a leather suitcase, etc. We then saw that a second lieutenant of the Red army had entered the house and began in turn to forage through it. After a while he ordered a young lady to go into the kitchen to give him a glass of water. When these three left, after 9 :30 p. m., the lady in question colJapsed because she had been violated. After this visit by offi .. cers, two other groups of soldiers, many of them drunk, successively entered bhe house, each one having held us, that is, four men and three ladies, under terror in their own way, until 2 :30 a. m. In the city of Bratislava, which numbered around 200,000 inhabitants, more than 4,000 dishonored women had to go to the hospital for examination. During the "liberation" of SlovaJkia by the Soviets, around 20,000 Slovaks, mostly intellectuals, were sent by po1itical commissarias into la;bor camps of Russia, while various tens of thousands of inhaJbitants were imprisoned. D. Political Evolution Aft.er 1945 On April 5, 1945, the government of Dr. E. Benes followed the advancing Red army from Moscow into the easVSlovaikian city of Kosice and estaJblished the Third Czecho-iSlova!k Republic in the shadow of Soviet bayonets, through the so-called Kosice declaration. Thus a foreign government was imposed upon the Slovaik people which, except for two small :factions of political opportunists, had been loyal to the Slova>k State - all of this without any plebiscite. The Communists and pro-Soviet "Democrats", who had already rendered a great service to Moscow in the 1944 uprising, became the ex cutors of the n w state will in Slovaikia. �SuOVA.KIA 69 According to. the Benes-Gotlbwald agreement of December 1943 in Mos'coiw, they eliminated from the political life of Slovrukia all other former political ,parties, namely, the Slovak People's Party, the Agrarian Party, the Slovak National Party, and the Artisans Party. These parties }:lad received in the 1935 elections 19 plus 112, plus 1, plus 1, or a total of 33 seats in the Prague Parliament out of the grand total of 58 seats corresponding to Slovalkia. Not countiing the Magyar and the German minorities which had then elected 11 deputies and did not take part in the uprising, the two pro-Soviet factions cor,r esiponded in strengbh to only 1'4 deputies of the pre~war Slova,k representation in the Prague Parliament, six of them being Communists, four Social Democrats, and four others. Now, after haiving assured the mo!Ilopoly of political re,presentation for themselves, the Communist and pro~ Soviet "Democrat" fa.c tions agreed upon a spo.ils system exipressed in the form of a 50-50 share in the political aJff~irs of Slovakia. In this way the political irufl:uence of the Communists increased, in comparison with the year 1935, from 10 to 50 percent, and that of the pro...Soviet "Democrntic" faction from 13 to 50 percent. Afthough this 50--50 relation 'between the two factions was corrected by the elections of May 26, 1946, in favor of the "Democrats" who, 'becauS€ of the exdusion of other traditional ,parties, gained 62 .p ercent of all voters in SlovaJkia, while the Communists got only 30 percent, the actual influence of the Communist Party did not diminish at all. From the outset the Communists had taken oiver the Commissariat of Interior, including the Police; o;f EducatiOIIl; and of Industry, together with other key ,p ositions in the administration Oif Slovakia. They also retained the chairmanship of the Board of Commissioners, i.e., the regional g01vernment for Slo:vaikia. MeaI11Whhle the Sovietizaition of Czecho~Slovaikia was progressing in every field of Government activity: In the field of industry, President Benes, ever olbedient to the Communi,s ts, nationalized the main branches of industry by Decrees Nos. 100, 102 and 103 of October 28, 1945, and this without any consultation with the nation - mines, 1 �70 SLOVAKIA 100 percent; steel industry, 100 percent; sugar production, 80 percent; electricity, 73 percent; chemical industry, 72 percent; metallurgy, 68.5 percent; glass industry, 65 percent; leather, 53.5 percent; gas, 50 percent; textiles, 47 percent; ceramics, 46.5 percent; pruper industry, 4'5.5 percent; distilleries, 31.5 percent; breweries, 27.5 percent; clothing, 25 percent; mills, 14 percent; food, 9 percent; wood industry, 8 percent. By these acts the IIlum!ber of wor.kers in the nationalized sector ,b ecame 570,000, whereas only 430,000 working people fell within the field of private industry. ln the field of education all the schools were nationalized by decree of the Slovalk National Council (No. 34, dated May 16, 1945). Decree No. 47 of 1945 comiscated the property of pri:viate schools, without compensation. By decree of the Slovak National Council • (No. 33 of May 15, 1945) the following institubions of political justice were created: Oommunit,y and <list.riot "people's courts" and a national court in Bratislava. The legal task of these courts was to judge war criminals, but their political pmpose was to get rid of the -p olitical adversaries of the two factions in power, under the pretext of collaboration with Germany. The political character of this distorted justice was determined by three circumstances : 1. According to article 42 of Executive Decree No. 55 Board of Commissioner s, dated June 5, 1945, the the of memlbers of these courts were to be ruppoinrted by the two political ,parties in power. 2. These courts, disregarding the classiical principle nulla poena, sine lege, were made component to decide upon cases which were not punishable according to the Penal Code. 3. This legislation introduced the principle of collective guilt and collective :responsilbility. 4. Art.i.cle 5 of Decree No. 33 of May 15, 194!5, provided for labor camps, which were estaJblished through Executive Decree No. 105 of August 23, 1945. According to the provisions of article 2 of this last decree, the following cate- �SLOVAKIA 71 gories of persons were to be sent to lrubor camps: a. Those sentenced by the "ipeople's courts"; b. Tho,s e whose activities were a threat to "the people's demoeratic regime," public security, puib1ic peace and order, rpulblic nutrition and the reconstruction o:f economic life; or those who were enemies of the state or conspirators against it; c. Those who· do not work; d. Those who declined to do the work assigned to them within the framework of laibor duty. '5. No plea was admissible agaiinst the act of indictment; the defendant did not have a free choice in selecting his defender; no ·a ppeal was granted to a sentenced de. fendaJI11t. 6. Sentences to imprisonment usually involved the confiscation of the ded'endant's property. It 4, ruppropriate to add here tha,t before being .brought to· trial the "traitors," "Fasci.Sits," "collaJborationists," and "unreliable persons" were entirely at the memy of their indictor~. There was no impartial court, as the grand jury in America, to examine into the basis of an accusation. This was an era of arlbitrary indictments and personal revenge. By its decree No. 5,1 of May 2, 1945, the Sloivaik Natiooal Council dissolved in Slorvakia all assodations, except for those few which were eixipressly exempted from thls general ,p rovision. Freedom of the press, of assembly, and other human rights were likewise a;bolished. E. The "Coup de Force" of November 1947 in Slovakia All these measures were aimed at the weakening of traditional political forces and the estaiblishmenrt of an exclusively Communist power. For a long time the leading personalities of the Sloivak Democratic Party, such as Joseph Lettrich, Jan Ursiny, Matej Josko, Martin Kvetko, Stephen Koovara, etc., did not know whether they should remain loyal to their "gentleman's agreement" of 1945 with the Communists or follow the anti-Communist line orf the great ma;j.ority of the Slwak people. Finally they decided �SLOVAK.IA 72 to remain loyal to their agreements with the Communist s. Instead of getting .r id of the Oommunist s, as would have been normal for a party which had won 62 percent of all the votes of SlovaJkia, the "Democrat s" did not alb.andon the principle of the National Front G01Vernment. This loyalty was to prove their fatal undoing later on. In Selptemlber 1947, under the pretext of having disc01Vexed a conspiracy a,gainst the governmen t in the Democratic Party, the Communist s decided to liqUJidate this party. Jan Kempny, Milos iBugar, and Joseph St8!sko., three deputies of the Catholic wing of this party, were imprisoned, as well as a,bout 2,000 other Slova\k patriots. Thereafter the Communist s organized demonstrat ions against " . . . the reactionari es hidden within the Democratic Party." In this violent dispute between the two political parties in Slo vaJkia, the Ozech-1Soci alist block - i.e., the Communists, the Social Democrats , and the National Socialists of Benes - representin g togeither 18'5 deputies (93 plus 37 plus 55) out of the 300 in the Prague Parliament , threw their weight on the side of the Slovak Communis ts (23 deputies) and against the Democratic Party (43 deputies). The Czech Catholics ( 44 deputies) remained undecided. There was only one honora,ble way to prevent the constant intewenUo n of Prague in the internal affairs of Slova!kia, name ly, to proclaim the inde pendence of Slovakia. Instead of doing that, Joseph Lettrich, chaimnan of :the Slovaik Demooratic Party, gave his consent to further limitatio!Ils on the politi>Cal preirogative s of his own party. 1 After a visit of Klement Gottwald to Bratislava, the Democratic Party was relegated on Novemlber 18, 1947, to a minority status in the regional governmen t of Slova1kia. Out of 15 seats there, it retained only 7, while the triumphant Communist bloc got 8: The Communist Party itself (including the chairman), 5; the Wreedom Party, 1; the Social Democratic La,bor Pairty, 1; and the last seat fell to General M~kttlas Ferjencik, "the neutral Oommis,s ioner of the Interior," playing in fact into the hands of the Communist s. Such a hll!IIliliating change would have been impossi!ble without a Czech coup de force in SloV3Jkia. �SI.IOVAKIA 73 Having thus eliminated the greatest obstacle from the way of their ambition for exclusive power, the Czech Marxist rbloc (includ!ing 56 percent of aU Czech voters of 1946 and 130 deputies (93 Communists and 37 Social Democrats) out of 23,1 corresponding to the Ozec<h area) was finally able, on February 25, 1948, to, peacefully consolidate its position and, by eliminating the Czech Catholics and National Socialists, to pass over from the priniciple od' the National Front Gorvernment to a sheer Communist dictatorshilp. Conclusion As a conolusion to this statement, I wish to repeat that I welcome this. opportunity of finally putting the events which took place in Ozecho-iSlovia'k ia between 19451948 in the pro.per historical light. It is with regret that I must state. that neither of the two congressional documents dealing with the Communist subjtu gation of CzechoSlovakia - i.e., House Document No. 154, part I, on The Coup de Force in Prague, pulblished in 1,9 49 by the Foreign Affairs Committee, and DoCIU!Illent No. 70, pa,rt 4, on internal tensions in Ozecho-,Slovalkia, recently pulblished by the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Senate (July 1954), contain aipproprfate facts and analyses of the acts of Commun.ist aggression committed during that period in Slovrukia. (Wa,s hington, D. C., December 3, 1954). fflE TESTIMONY OF FATHER ANTON BOTEK Mr. Kersten. 'Dhe hearings will come to orde•r . Mr. McTigue. Your name is Father Anton Botelk, is that correct, Father? Father Botek. Yes. Mr. McTigue. And you were fOl'!Illerly director of Catholic Action in Slo:vahla, is that correct? Father Botek. Yes. Mr. McTi:gue. fa it true you were in prison a total number of seven times? Father Botelk. Yes. Mr. McTigue. Imprisoned by the Communists.? Father Botek. Yes. �74 SLOVAKIA Mr. iMcTigue. From 1945 to 1949? Father Botek. No, from 1949 till 1950. Mr. McTigue. When did the Communists occupy SlovaFather Botek. In 1944. kia, Father? Mr. McTigue. Norw, Father, tell us something a!bout the f,i ght to !keep the Catholic schools open in 1945 and 1946 following the Communist occupation. Father Botek. As early as 1944, during the 1944 CommUJili.st uprising in SlovaJkia, the so-,ca,lled Slovakian National Council was concerned with the abolition of all church-Operated school,s. Mr. McTigue. Can you tell us something aJbout the tactics of the Communists used to destroy the organizations of the church? Father Botek. At first they rubolished all Catholic Church operated schools; then they disbanded all Catholic associations, and fina:lly they sll!ppressed the Catholic press. Mr. McTigue. Slo:v akia is predominantly Catholic in Father Botek. Yes. religion, is tihat right, Father? Mr. McTigue. What are the percentages of Catholics in Slo;vakia? Father Botek. Eighty-two ,p ercent are Catholic. Mr. McTigue. Is there anything you can tell us, Father, rubout the so-called elections in 1946 in Slovaikia? F1a:ther Bote:k. As early as 1944, there were only two political .p arties admitted; that is, the Communist Party and the so-.c alled Slovaikiian Democratic Party. .The Slovakian Democratic Party denied any political party that would be able to defend their rights by democratic method. Mr. MoTigue. Wasn't there some agreement between the Slova1kian bishops amd the Democratic Party, Father? Father Botek. Since there was no political representation of Slovakian Catholics, the Sloviakian bishops and clergy tried to find means by which Slovitkian Catholics could exipress their political will. This was necessary especially since the Communasts were anxious to win the sympathies of the Slovakian people. The Communists tried to use, especially, the Sloivakian Nation's. feelings for their 1 �SLOVAKIA 75 pu~ses and they suggested to the SlovaJkian people the creation of an independent SlovaJkian State after the end of World War II. This, howerver, wasn't approved by Mos~ cow. Therefore, the Commurusts tried to achieve a selfrule for ISlovaJkia within the frame of the Czecho...Slovakian Re,pulblic and they finally succeeded in it; this was then inco:riporated into the so-called Kosice agreement concluded in 1945. The Communists also tried to win the sympathy and support of SlovaJkian Oathol.ics, promising the former members of the CathoJic Slova;kian People's Party tha;t they woU!ldn't be punished for their wrur-time activities if they joined the Communist Party. They also wanted some priests for their policies; for instance, a certain priest, Joseph Straka, who was previously suspended from his office b,y his bishop because of irregularities in administration. The bishOipS foribade Catholic priests to make any canvassing prior to the 1946 elections and the Catholic priests were also fonbidden to be candidates for any political party in those elections. Father Straka, however, disobeyed this order of the Catholic bishops and made .propaganda for the Communist Party in winning Catholics for that party. He promised Slovakian Catholics that the Com1rm.11n.ist Party would guarantee complete religious freedom to CathoJics and he issued also several ~itten statements to the peoiple, one of which I am in position to furnish to this committee. The Slovafidan people, however, didn't let themselves be misled by the Communist propa;ganda and they trusted the bishops because they knew their a;ttitude toward the Communists was the only correct one, since the bishops warned them agaiinst the Communists even during the time Oif Worlld War fil. Therefore, we tried to find some cooperation with the Democrati:c Party of Slovakia, which was not at least Communist, even tho.ugh this party was also coresponsilble for the fact that the Communists were aJble to penetrate SloiV'a!kia. The Catholics were es'peci'ally indignant aigainst the Democratic Barty of Slova1cia ~ cause they rug-reed to the confiscation of 1,800 elementary schools and 80 schools of higher grade which were prevfo:us.. ly operated by the Catholic Church, because this conifisca1 �76 SLOVAKIA tion took place. i,n 19'115, at the time when the commissioner for education was the chairman of the Democratic Party, Dr. Joseph Lettriich, T.he so-called "Democrats," however, became aware of the great pressure, and the great activities developed by the Communists and therefore they also, on their part, tried to win su>ppo•r t of the Catholic population of SlovaJkia for themseJves. At tha,t time we Catholics still conducted negotiations with both the Communists and the Democratic Pa·:rity since we still hoip ed that we would be aJble to achieve from the Communists the admission of a Catholic Party to be on the other side. There were also preparations made for an ag,r eement with the Democratic Party. The Communists, during the negotia.tions, always applied the tactics of postponement of a final decision. They made indications that they might be inclined ·to admit, if not an ex,plicity Catholic party but a P'arty which would at least, to some extent, aP\peal to the Catholic population of Slovaikia. However, it soon became apparent that no agreement could be reached with the Communists. Therefore, on the 30th of March, 1946, we concluded an agreement with the Democratic Party of SlovaJkia. In this agreement, the Democratic Party of SlovaJkia pledged itself to admit Catholics as candidates on their list of candidates in the 1946 elections. When the Communists realized this they qtlliokly allowed another party, which was called the Freedom Pa,rty and of which they claimed this was a Catholic party. In this party there were several good Catholics, even such persons who previously part-icilpated in the negotiations with the Democratic Party, but the chief leaders of that party couldn't be trusted. The Communists also made propaganda or encouraged voters to cast inrvalid votes beca:UJSe they calculated that Slovakians who• disrug,reed both with the Communist and Democratk Pa!r ty would prefer to cast invalid votes which then would diminish the percentage of votes received by the Democratic Party. These irnvalid votes were. generally referred to as "white ballots" because they were plain slips ()If ,paper. This oppovtunity to use these white ballots was voted in the Parliament prim· to the elections, and the Communists and the representative s of the Free- �77 SLOVAKIA dom Party were in favor of this policy. Then it became ob.viou:s thalt the Fireedom Party was merely a pwppet party under control orf the Communist s. We therefore started ,pmpagand a among the Catholics to vote for the Democratic Party. We couldn't deve1orp this propaganda publicly, hut we r equested Slovakian bishops to issue a statement to the Slovalkian voters. In this statement orf the bishops, Caltholics were called upon to vote according to their Christian conscience; they we<re forihidden to vote for an undemocra tic party which would .not admit religious freedom and they were called upon to vote for the party wh~,ch would guarantee demncratic freedom. This statement clearly indicated thalt SlovaJkiam. CathoUcs were foiibidden to vote in favor of the Communist Party but it still was necessary to instruct the Slovakian Catholics that it ,w asn't good for them to vote for the Freedom Party either. Therefore, a statement was included in this aipipeal by the bi shops stating that it was not true; that the rumors were not true which stated that the Slovakian bishops joined the Freedom Party and that they were inclined to vote for that party. Those :mimors we.re spread by the Communis t Party and hy the Freedom Party. Copies of this proclamati on oif the bishops were sent to all iparish priests; it was also published in the Catholic press and we had couriers talking them personally to each priest. As a result of this campaign, the Democratic Party won in the 1946 elections and receiived 61 ½ percent of all votes cast. HO!Wever, we found out that the Democratic Party didn't de.fend the interests of the Slovakian Catholics and that this ,p arty even failed to defend its own memlbers of Parliament who were Catholics. The Oomnmniirst-controlled Commissio n of the Interior in SlovaJkia had arrested the leaders of the Catholic group within the Pairliame.nrt who were members of the Democratic Party. In the a,greement reruohed between the Catholic representati v,es and the representat ives of the Democratic Party, the Democratic Pat-ty pledged itself, or guaranteed to, Catholics that the schools would be returned to. the Catholiircs ag·a:in and that the press would also be allowed, as well as Catholic organrzatio ns. How1 �78 SLOVAKIA ever, the Democratic Party failed to honor these promises and in arguments with the Communists they always yielded to the Communist demands in order to avoid personal troubles with them. Therefore, Catholics decided to take up direct negotiations with the Government itself in order to defend their rights. Bishop Jantausch persona1ly called on the chairman of the Board of Commissioner s in Slovakia trying to achieve the fulfillment of the promises given by the Democrats and the guarantees for the democratic rights of Catholics. However, he failed to achieive any results. I accompanied him on his visits to the Communist Commissioner HusaJk, and the Communist Commissioner Viktory, and neither of these two ever agreed to any concessions to the Catholics. Then a commission was. introduced which was to find a solution of all ,pr01blems of the Catholics. In this commission, representative s of the Communist Party were Husak and Novomesky, and the representative s of the Demooratic Party were Filo and Frastacky. On the part of the Catholics, the representative s were Bishop Lazik, Cannon Cvincek, Carnogursky, and myself. The pro!blems to be solved were the reesta!blishme nt of church-Operat ed schools, a free Catholic press, admission of Catholic organizations, discontinuatio n of inhuman deportations of the Germans and Hungarians from Slovakia, confiscation of property and cancellation of work on Sundays. This commission convened only twice in the winter of 1947, but no results were achieved. In 1945 the Communists abolished the following Catholic organizations : Organization of Catholic women, with a memlbership of 100,000; the Organization of Catholic Men, with 30,000, and the Association of Catholic Youth, with a membership of 50,000. Mr. MoTigue. In 1948, is it true that the central office of Catholic Action, of which you were director, was liquidated and you were arrested? Father Botek. Yes. Mr. McTigue. What were you charged with when you were arrested, Fathoc? Father Botek. The Central Catholic Bureau received �SLOVAKIA instructions from the Catholic bishops to taJke over all acti,v ities previously carried out by the Catholic Action. However, we were aware of the fad that all organrizations didn't haive a legal background, a legal footing, and therefore any acttvities developed by this organization oould be stopped by the Communists any time they wanted. The activitie.g of the Central Bureau, the Catholic Action Bureaiu, were carried on with a great risk. I knew I was collSltantly shadowed by one or two secret policemen and that offic:ially all persons who entered the offices of our orgaruza.tions were super.vised by the· Communists. Instances happened that visitors at or1.1r office were then apprehended by these policemen, searched, beaten Uip , and adivised to omit further visits to our bureau. Therefore, we were anx,ious to keep our activities in the field of the Cathohl.c Action strictly within the limits of religion a,nd not to mix in any political aspects. Nevertheless, the Communists didn't permit our activities and on December 7, 1948, eigiht Communist po1icemen inivaded our bureau and declared that our organization was disbanded and that the 'b,ureau had to be closed dQIWiJl. The employees at the bureau we.r e sent to a room where they were searched while, in the meantime, in the ibwreau itself, all documents were searched by the Communist police. This search la,s ted from 8 o'clook in the morning until evening hours, but finally the employees of the bureau were released to their homes, and I was t aiken by the police to my apartment which also was searched by the police. The office rooms of the bureau were then sealed by the Communist police. 1:'he Communists then entered the office rooms of the Catholic bureau twice more and also, I, myself, was twice investigated by the pol,ice. Likewise, my assistant at the bureau was investigated by the police. On the 29th of January 1949, three policemen oame to my apartment at 6 :30 o'clock in the · morning and intended to ta ke me to. the police station. At that time I was just saying my daily Mass and I was notified that the policemen were waiting for me. I could escrupe, but I decided aga,inst this, because I suspected that I would discredit, by esca,ping, the Central Catholic Bureau and also 1 �80 SLOVAKlA the Slovakian bishops. I was taken to the police station at Bra:tislav and held for seven days U1I1der very poor conditions. The iinrvestigators tried to force me to confess that I had connections with the Western Powers, that I engaged in espionage activities, and that I develO!I)ed subversive activities against the Peoiple's Democratic regime in Ozecho-iSlO!Vak.ia. They didn't have any evidence a,gainst me and, therefore, the]' tr8.lllsferred me to the regional court's prison where they held me for another five months pending investigation. At the end of these five months, my foI1IDer assistant at the Catholic Bureau, as well as the expert for pastoral activities in the border areas, were released and I was put on trial. Since they couldn't produce any evidence in support of the charges that I wo:riked for foreign powers and that I engaged in espionage activities, they forced a student to testif,y against me, that I knew of his espionage activities and failed to reiport this to the police. For this offense I was sentenced to seven months' imprisonment. On July 7, 1'949, I was transferred to the Leopoldov penitentiary b.eca:use, at the time the Communists organized their so-called CathoHc Action, which was controlled by them, many Catholics who supported the genuine Catholic Action were imprisoned, so that the prisons were crowded. I served the rest of my term at LeO!poldov and on the 28th of August 1949 I was released. I was in poor health as a result of my imprisonment and, therefore, I had to go to a hosip ital, but after a month I myself requested to ibe assigned to a small parish so as to disappear from the eyes od' the Communists. Mr. McTigue. Was this in 1950, Father? F,8 /ther Botek. 1949. While at this small parish, we were preparing an ecdesiastical sermon and at this time a local Communist called on me and requested me, pleaded with me, that I shouldn't launch any attacks against Communists in my sermon, bec3/Use he stated he was charged with my suI1veillance and was to report everything on me, including that whicih I told in my sermons, and he stated he was a Catholic, too, and was the father of eight children he couldn't refuse this Communist order to spy on me and on the other hand, if another .person would be given �SLOVAKIA 81 the same instructions, this other person could do harm to me. When I was approximatel,y two months at this par,ish, the local chairman of the Communist Party called on me and notified me that I was swpposed to report at the district national committee for some discussion. I was afraid, however, that this was just a triok and that people were previously sentenced on charges of underground activities and were sent to forced-.JaJb.or camps even after they had served their terms imposed by the courts. However, the Communists are very cautious while proceeding against Catholic priests since the parishioners defended their ,priest$ against arrest and there were clashes between the population and the Communist police who a,r rived to arrest Catholic priests, especially at the time when the Communists started their own sponsored Catholic Action. There.fore, they endeavored to lure our parish priests fronn their parishes and to arrest them at a place where such resistance by local parishioners couldn't be offered. TherefoiI'e, I decided not to report at the district national committee and await my arrest at the parish office, and on the same day the police arrived and took me to a forced-labor camp at Nova:ky My parishioners protested against my arrest; however, they didn't put up any ·physical resistance since they already experienced that such resistance was followed by arrests of hundreds of innocent people and that it still was to no avail because the pTiests were always eventuaUy arrested. I could tell you about conditions there, albout my experiences which I had at that time when I was held at the Bmtisl8'va County jail. At that time there were members at least of ten underground groups held at that prison. When I had an opportunity to talik to them, I asked how they became involved in underground activities and how it happened that they were arrested since there were always rubout 50 persons from each group arrested. Most of these for.mer members of the undengr.ound groups stated that there was always a Communist spy planted by the Communists within their organizations, and that this Communist spy even encouraged them to develop underground activ:ities which he then reported to the Communist police. �82 SLOVAKIA I realized that the Communists had put under sur:veill~e all people whom they suspected might engage in underground activ-ities and if they failed to find anything, any underground actiivities, they encouraged such people to develop such activities, and be.fore a group could actually start its undeirground activities, the spy denounced them to the police and the memJbers of the group were arrested. In 1,9 49, the Communists realized that they were U!Ilaible to win the Catholic bishops for their puriposes; therefore, they decided to organize their o,w n Catholic Action. They coTI1Vened a meeting of the so-<:aJled representaUves of the Catholic Church in Prague on June 10, 1949. To this meeting they invited several priests under false pretexts, stating that this was to he a conference to negotiate and discuss church pro1b lems. In addition, there were also several Catholic laymen invited to this meeting, who were mostly mem!bers of the Communist Party but didn't play any decisive role in the Catholic life, and the Communists eventually declared this meeting as the new leadership of the Catholic Action. The Communists declared that since the Vatican was against the people and since the bishops supported the v ,a tican in this policy, they intended to leave to the Ohu:rch only the spiritual care and admit only the kind of questions and morals that the Pope could rule in .the affairs concerning the Catholic morals a:nd the· Catholic faith; but all other religious· questions would be taken care of by this Catholic Action. This evidently was an attempt by the Communists to seize control over the administration of the Catholic Church in Czecho-Slovakia. However, they real.ized that they didn't haNe the sU1pport of the people. Therefore, they initiated an aotion of signatures which were to be rutta,c hed by the entire population of C!zecho-Sloivakia, to a memorandUllll issued by the rubove-mentioned meeting at which this Communist Catholic Action was founded. Branches of the Communist Party organization were entrusted with the carrying out of this signature action. They convened meetings in towns and in viUages, and also at wo:rikiplaces. at which the present people were called uipon to put their signatu:re on the memorandum. The bishops, �SLOVAKIA 83 however, condemned this Catholic Action, and the Holy See declared every person who would sign this memorandum as excommunicated from the Catholic Church. Mr. McTigue. Father, you were in a forced labor camp in 1950; is that correct? Father Botek. Yes. Mr. McTigue. Did you get sick at that time and were you sent to a hospital? Father Botelk. Yes. Mr. McTigue. Can you tell us very briefly something about how the Communists treated the Sister,s at the hospital? Father Botek. A Communist order previously arrested all nuns those who were nurses at hospitals because there was a great laclk of trained nurses at the hospitals. These nuns, however, who were left as nurses at the hospitals, were e~posed to various Communist chicaneries. That was done by Communist functionaries at the hospital, by Communist doctors, and men, and assistants. They were called upon to renounce their mernlbership in their religious orders and to become civilian nurses. The Communists tried to Lure · the younger nuns with a promise that if they agreed to renounce their membership in the religious order, tihey would be permitted to go to a university without any previous education, which was otheIWise required from university students. This was the same pattern as was rupplied in the case of young Communist woI'kers who also were admitted to university studies without adequate education and just attend a short preparatory course. Except for a few exceptions, most of these nuns refused the Communist demands and so the Communists started to remove the nun nur,ses from hospitals. MT. McTigue. When did you learve Slovrukia, Father? Father Botek. On the 26th of June 1951. Mir. McT,~giue. Did you have any trouble in getting out of SlQIVakia? Father Botek. I made a previous attempt to escrupe. At that time we were a group of 22 escapees. However, �84 SLOVAKIA this escrupe mdn't succeed and. so I had to try it a second time, at which time we were only four escapees and we succeeded in crossing the border. ,M r. McTigue. Your present assignment at this time is in Rome; is that correct, Father? Father Botek. Yes. Mr. Busby. Father Botek, we know that communism is opposed to all religions, but I think the comm~ttee might like t-0 know how successful the Communists were in their efforts to infiltrate and to destroy the Catholic religion in SlovaJkia. Father Botek. Previously, when I still was at the Central Catholic Bureau, we intercepted a secret Communist instruction in continuing a Commumst plian for destruc,tion of the Church and for its seizure and control. Under these instructions, the indirvidual phases were to be the following: At first the ibishops of the Catholic Church in Czecho-,Slova:kia were to be separated from the Vatican; the second step was to be. that the bishops were t-0 be discredited in the eyes of the priests, as well as of the laymen Catholics, and finally, the last phase was to be the separation of the Catholic laymen from their priests. IMr. Busbey. Now, that leads ri,ght up to my question. Up until the time you left Slovakia, and from yOIUI' own personal olbservation, h ow successful was this plan of the Communists? Father Botek. They succeeded in accomplishing the first oibjective; that is, to separate the Catholic Church in Czecho'"'Slorvrukia from the Vatican. They expelled the Annuncias from the Vatican to Ozech0-Slovakia so that contacts of Ozecho-iSl01Vakian authorities with the Vatican were interrupted. Nevertheless, the Catholics in OzechoSlovaJkia remained faithful to the Vatican, to the Holy See. However, they failed in achieving their second olbjective. to make the Catholic bishops bend to their demands and to have them - to maJke them tools in the propagation of communism in Slovakia. Therefore, the Communists ,pliaced a commissary to each episcoipal office who was to taike care that the bjsho,ps didn't have any contacts with the �SLOVAKIA 86 clergy and with the congregation. These Communist commissars controlled the in- and out-going mail; they controlled the visitors who intended to call on the bishops, and admitted only those whom they considered harmless; but even the talks of such visitors with the bishops were monitored. Mr. Busbey. Father, can you tell us aJbout the methods and technics used by the Communists to indoctrinate the pupils with the, theory of Marxism? Father Botek. The Communists innoculated the Marxist ideology and way of thin'king to the pupils from the very first grade of elementary school. When I was in hiding with a family who had an 8-year-old daughter, I overheard her tal!ks with her parents and I heard that this girl was thinking in Communist terms and that her way of thinking was completely inJfiluenced by the Communist doctrine. Mr. Busbey. Father, do you agree with some of the other witnesses we have heard, in the belief that if something isn't done in the immediate future and that if we let the Communists ikeep on educating the real young boys and girls, it will be more difficult, as time goes on, to defeat this Communist march toward worrld revolution? Father Botek. lt is a fact that the Communists have had great successes in educating the very young people in their ideology and the parents are almost unable to influence or to counteract against this Communist ideology implanted inrto the chlldren because these children are instructed to report at school any attempts ,b y their parents to dissuade them :13rom communism. Therefore, it is a fact; that if communism is given enough time, that these youths will become completely communistic and the Communist strength will be increased. Mr. Busbey. Can you give the committee any illustrations of the technics used by the Communists to make the children believe in Stalin before he died, instead of God? Father Botek. Yes, I saw the mrugazines for children, for school-children, containing slogans such as "Stalin is our sun; everything we haive, we've got from Stalin," and �86 SLOVAK IA "Stalin is ouT benefac tor, Stalin is our greatest benefac tor, Stalin is the greatest man, Stalin is the most beautifu l man." Mr. Busbey. Father, are you qualified to. tell the committee how the Commu nists rocploited the economy of Slovakia? Father Botek. In these economi c aspects, I am not well versed; I only Olbse,r:ved thait there was a general lack of all consum er goods and that the living conditio ns were poor. Mr. Busbey. WhiJe you were in prison, were you given any consider ation at all because of the fact that you were a member of the clergy? Father Botek. This ,prdbaJbly was the case 'b ecause I never was maltreat ed, never was beaten at interrog ations, and I observe d that many fello•w prisoner s were beaten, so that I prolbaibly enjoyed preferen tial treatme nt. This, may!be, was due to the faot that there was still a trace of Catholic faith in my investig ators so that they were reluctant to rai,se their hands aigainst me as a priest. I also had the followin g experien ce. While I was in ,prison, a prison guard caime to me and asked me whether he should give his signatur e to the Commu nist Ac~ion Manifes to. IMT. Busbey. My final question ; do you lbelieve tha,t any agreeme nt made with the Commu nists is worth the paper it is written on? Father Botek. From my e~perience, I had negotiat ions with the Commu nists, I can sta:te thait the Commu nists never honor their word thait they gave in such negotiations, and this is in accorda nce with their general policy which goes that everyth ing is good that promote s the Communist cause, and therefor e I am convinced thait any negotiatio ns or any agreeme nts reached with the Communists are worthle ss. Mr. Madden . Father Botek, you in your testimon y haive covered very well your experien ces back over the years with the Commu nist Party in Slovakia and the only question I would like to ask is what percenta ge of the populati on of Sloviahla today are Commun ists, true Communists at heart; what percent age: 5 percent; 10 percent; 20 ; or what would you say? �SLOVAKIA 87 Father Botclc. I thin!k that the percentage doesn't exceed 10 ,p ercent. Mr. No71blad. Is the Voice of America or Radio Free Europe listened to by many of the people in the area you come from? F1ather Botclc. While I was in hiding with several fa .. milies in Slovakia, we frequently listened to the Voice of America and Free EuTope programs. However, I heard from these ipeople many objections against the spirit of those programs beamed to Ozecho-.S1ovaJkia. Mr. Nor.blad. What were the dbjoctions, generally, in Slovakia? I am refemnig to the conditions in Slovakia. Father Botek. The objections were mainly of a national and religious nature. The Slavaikian peqple are a very religious people. They are 82 percent Catholics and 13 pereent Protestants, who also are active Protestaints. Therefore, programs promoting ideas of a reformer, Jan Huss, or the religious ideas of Masaryk and the other socalled free thinlkers, are not appeaJ.ing to the Sl01Vakian population. Ma-. Noy,blad. Do they believe the world news, the straight news given on those programs? Father Botek. Well, the Slovallcian people listen eagerly to the news broadcasts by the Voice of America. However, once OT twice I .w itnessed the following incident. Slovakian listeners who listened to the program of the Voice of America, said, after the news was over, just said, "Well, turn it off because the news is over and they are now going to stam their propaganda for the Czech Republic and we do not want any Oze<!h Republic." Mr. Norblad. Do you feel that the radio broadoasts are doing some good behind the Iron Curtain? Father Botek They certainly are of great use and great efficiency but this efficiency would still be greater if the rest of the pro.grams, except for the news, was also adjusted to those two major feelings of the Slovakian popufation, the religious feelin:g and the national feeling. Mr. No:rlblad. Do you get the programs clearly or are they j&mmed by the Soviets? �88 SLOVAKIA Father Botek. The programs are being jammed but on la11ger radio sets they still can be received and if the transmission is jammed on one wave, on one b,and of the radio,, it may ,be still tuned in on another one. Mr. Feighan. There is, is there not, a very strict feeling of healthy nationalism within Slovakia? Father Botek. Yes. Mr. Feighan. And that of course. is the reason why there has been some resentment to the broadcasts? F1ather Botek. Yes. I also heard comments by listeners to the Radio Free Europe, and Voice of America programs to ·the effect that in spite of the fact that there are almost one million SlO'Vitk immigrants in the United States, who ha.ve their own homes there and national life in the United States, these programs do not bring any reports on the activities developed by these Slovak organi~atrons in the United States; they only bring reports. of aotivities of organi•z ations which are not sympathetic to the Slovak people and, therefore, the Slova!kian population, in order to learn of the activities of the Slov:ak organizations in the United States, tune in on Radio Rome, which also beams SlO'Vakian programs. Mr. Feighan. Well, it is a pity that the pe-o:ple within Slovak,ia are not acquainted with the tremendous contribution of the Slovakian immigrants to the culture and ciivic development of our cotmtry. l!"'ather, would y;ou relate. in a U.ttle more detail, if you are familiar with the fact that the Communists in 1948, I believe, offered Slovakia the opportunity to ·b ecome a Slovak S01Viet Republic? Fiather Botek. That was actually in 1944 and 1945, not in 1948. At that time this policy was promoted by the S]pvaikian Communists, Husak and Novomesky. However, Moscow disapproved. of this policy and, therefore, the Slovakian Communists had to put up with Czecho-Slovakia, within which SlO'V•a!kia was to have broad autonomy, self-rule. Mr. Feighan. Was it no,t the Slo¥ak Government that refused rather than Moscow's refusing? Father Botek. Naturally the Slovak Government was �SLOVAKIA 89 opposed to this idea since it was a Catholic Government. Mr. Feighan. Well, you've got it both ways; now there is only one way. Flather Botek. I would like to explain this apparent discrepancy. This was due to the fact that there was in 1944, there was a Sl,QIV'a)ldan Govemment of an independent Slovakian State which to some extent - whose sovereignty was to some extent restricted by Germans. When the Communists started their wprising, in August 1944, they tried to arouse the sympathies of the SlOIVa:k people with promises of an independent Slovakian State but within the framework of the S01Viet Socialist Repulblic. Rusruk and N ovomesky were leading organizers of the wprising in 1944. This policy of the Slovakian Communists, however, was disapproved by Moscow. Mr. Feighan. Is it not true thait because of the spirit of healthy nationalism within Slovrukia that the Slovak people would not accept the offer to be a part of the U. S. S. R., ~a,use they knew that such a so-.called independence of Slo,vaikia would be national in structme only, but in su!bstance it would be socialistic? Father Botek This is possible. This is possilble, but President Booes, who was at Moscow at that time, persuaded the Moscow leaders to drop that idea; and he made also great concessions to the Russia,ns so that they considered it more profitruble for them to hruve a CzechoSlovak Republic rather than a small Slovakian Repulblic. Mr. Feighan. F'ather, did thi s Communist Catholic Action still function between that time of its first meeting in June 1949 until you left in Jll!Ile of 1951? Father Botek. This Communist- sponsored Catholic action prorved to be a complete failure. They still held an anniversary meeting the following year but they didn't celebra,te the foundation of thls Catholic Action in the third year any more. Mr. Kersten. I hope you understand, Father, that all of ourr questions are asked in the spirit of inquiry regarding the Communist aggression upon Slovakia. That is our overall purpose, and thank you, Father, for the testimony. (Munich, Germany, June 26, 1954). 1 �90 SLOVAKIA TESTIMONY OF FATHER STEFAN NAHALKA (The witness wa:s sworn. The same interipreter was utilized as for the previous witness.) Mr. McTigue. Your name is Father Stefan N ahal!ka, is Father Nahalka. Yes. that correct? Mr. McTigue. Were you born in Slovakia? Father N ahalka. Yes. Mir. McTigue. Were you ordained a priest in Slov,aJkia? Father N ahalka. I studiied theology in Rome, so I was ordained in Rome. Mir. McTigue. And assigned to parish duties in Slovakia, is that correct? !Father Naha1ka. Since 1943, I was a'SSigned to duty in Slovakia. Mr. MicTigue. And at one time, Father, you were secretary to Bishop Vojtassa!k, is that correct? Father Naha1ka. Yes, I was in that capacity from 1946 to 1949. Mr. McTigue. Do you recall the uprising, so-called, Father Nrahalka. Yes. in Slovakia? Mr. McTigue. When did the t11prising taike place? Flather NahaLka. At the place in which I resided, the uprising started on the 26th of August 1944, when this town was occupied by Communist guerillas. Mr. McTigue. Can you tell us something aborut what the guerillas did in that town? Father Nrahalka. At that time I was chruplain at the town of Ruio:miberoik and during the firist days of the Communist uprising, the relbels forced the popll!lation, the men in tha;t town, forcibly to join the rebel army even though they were completely disiruterested and even opposed to the uprising. They also committed grave atroci~ies. In a valley called Podsucha, they murdered over 80 innocent people and buried them in a mass grave. In a nea'Iiby village, the partisans mwdered without any connection with the military, a Catholic priest named Martin:ko. In the Lupca valley, the Communist guerillas tortured to death there a Catholic priest named Seda; they cut �SLOVAKIA 91 stri!Ps of hi,s skin from his back and finally even cut off his genitals. Since the population was not in favor of the uprising, the rebels used this deceptive propa,ganda to wm the sympathles of the popul ation. To this end they spread the rumor,s that the president of the Slovakian R~Ulbl,ic, Dr. Tiso, was arrested and de1p orted by the Germans and that, therefore, Slovrukia should arise. Mr. McTigue. Father, in 1949, did each b:i,shop have a political commissar assigned to him so that he could watch over the bishop's activiities? FaJther Naha1ka. In 1949, when the negotia,tions between the Communists and the Slovakian bishops broke down, the Communists placed Communist commissars into every ibishop's oftfice and they also placed one commissar into Bishop Vojtassa:k's oft:Eice, who was a young Communist, ,a former tailor. He was approximately 24 years old at that time, and t'here was aJil'Other Co:mmun,ist placed in the main entrance to the ,b ishop's office who chooked on all visitors at the bishop's office. The. commissar opened: the bishop's mail, in- and out...going, and overheard all conversations the bishop had with his visitors and also acoompanied him on ,a ll his trips,. He also seized control O'Ver the files of the bishop's office and he tooik out items firom those files. Mr. McTigue. Were the rooms in the hishoip's home, for example, wired ? Father N ahallm. There were no microphones in the rooms of the bishoip's office because the commissar wa,s present at all conversations, ibut I know orf a case. when the Communists placed microphones in the conference room for the bishop's conferences. Mr. McTi,g ue. Were you secretary to Bishop Vojtassa.k in 1949? Father Nahalika. Well, I was secretary to Bishop Vojta:ssaik until January 1'949 and afterwards I lived in the 'Vicinity of the bish0tp's residence, in the priest's seminary. Mr. McTigue. Were you arrested by the Communists, Father? 1 Fruther N ahalika. I was arrested in December 1945 and held in imprisonment until January 1946. 1 �92 SLOVAKIA ,Mr. McTigue. When did you leaive Slovakia, Father? -Father Nahalk,a. llll May 1953. Mr. McTigue. That is a little more than a year ago. Did you hawe any difficulty in getting out of Slovakia? FaJther Nahiallk,a. Well, the crossing of the bo,rder was very difficult. At first we had to wait fo~ 14 days for run opportunity, for a favnrruble time to cross the border and we had to ~ very cautious while crossing to a :border area in which the border g,u ards are authorized to fire at anybody whom they see, without warning and finally we h,ad to cut through the barbed wire fences directly on the border. Mr. Madden. Father Nahallka, when Father Boteik was testifying, he mentioned something regarding certain broadcasts thaJt were cormng over the Voice of . Arrnerioa and Radio Wree Europe; do you know anything regarding the broadcasts th·a t come 01Ver? Do you have any knowldge on th-at? Father Nahallka. I was in hiding f.or two years with the viarious people from almost all social striafa and during this time I had ample opportUillity to 1isten to foreign broadcasts. Mr. Madden. Oou:ld you tell us regarding your knowledge of the hmadcasts that come into, Slovaikia? Father Nruha.1':ma. The people in Slovakia eaigerly listen to democriaitic broadcasts. However, the preferences a.re different and also the foreign broadcasts axe hOON'ily jammed by the Communists. The people in Slovakia listen to news broadcasts in the Slovak language by Riadio Free Europe, Voice of America and also BBC in London; however, they disaigree on many aspects in the poJ.i;tical comments broadcast from these stations. They are opposed to the political part of the program of those broad~asts mainly beca'll'Se they realize that such programs do not state the entire Communist case in Slovakia. Mr. Madden. You mean anti-Communist? Father Nahalka. Are not efficient enough to inspire anti.Communist feelinig or to keep up the ainti-Communist attitude of the population. This opposition to the programs, �93 SLOVAKIA the poJitical programs of those stations is due to the fact that they do not appeal to the national and religious fee~ ings of the Slovakians and a.iso from the ideological viewpoint, there are some oibjections, since they are sometimes very much alike with the Communist propaganda. '.Dhey teJl people who know, in these broadcasts, there are people who formerly collaiborated with the Communists and they are now talking aib,out anti-Communists. For instance, the reports of the so~called Slovia,kian national uprising was a very, very - was a great mistake. At the time when the transmitters were still in operation, people in Slovakia eagerly listened to an illegal transmitter called the Wlhite Legion transmitter and the people in Slo;vakia also :5requently listened to the religious programs broadoost by Radio Vatican. IMr. Madden. Do yoo think the programs broadcast by the Voice of America and Radio Free Europe do any good - I mean, against the Communists? Father Nahalka. These broadcasts have their effects in the line of anti-communism, but especially thr01Ugh their news which they broadlcast. However, they could be still more efficient if they adjusted their political programs also to the needs and desires of the Slovak population. (Munich, Germany, June 26, 1954). THE TESTIMONY OF JAN DOBROTKA Mr. McTigue. You are a Slovak, is that correct? Mr. Dobrotka. ¥ es. iMr. McTigue. And you were 'bom on OctOlber 20, 1913 at Dechtice, Slovakia, is that correct? Mr. Dolbrotka. Yes. Mr. McTigue. During the Communist occupation of SlovaJkia you were a master sergeant in the SiN.B, socalled, which is known as the Bureau of Internal Security, is that correct? Mr. Dob:mtka. Yes, sir. Mr. McTigue. And you were a uniformed master sergeant in the Buireau of Internal Security from 1947 to 1951, is that correct? Mr. Dobrotka. That is right. 1 �94 SLOVAKIA Mr. McTigue. Was the Bureau of Internal Security completely controlled by the Communists,? Mr. DobTOtka. As of 194'8 it was completely under Communist control. Mr. M'CTigue. But you were a member of the Bureau of Internal Security prior to the time that it was under Communist control, isn't that correct? Mr. Ddbrotka. Yes. Mr. McTigue. And you were required to stay on as a member of the Bureau of Internal Security after the Communists got control, is that corerct? Mr. Ddbrotka. Well, I was automatically taken over. Mr. McTigiue. After the Bureau of Internal Security was taiken over by the Communists, did you from time to time receive orders to arrest priests, to make house searches, and so forth and so on? Mr. Dobrotka. Yes, I received such orders. Mr. McTigue. Were there many of such arrests made? Mr. Dobrotka. Many wealthy farmers were arrested. Mr. McTigue. Can you tell us something about the orders that were given to suppress and liquidate the Slovak Democratic Party members and the Slovak League? Mr. Dobrotka. As of 1948 memlbers of the Democratic Party were removed from all leadmg positioos in the administraJtion. The Slovak League was completely liquidated because the Communists considered this organization a swbversive and reactionary organizati'on, because it wa3 supporteq by the Slovak Leagiue of America. iMr. McTigue. Did you ever rec{:ive orde~s to give close supervision to the activity of certain parish priests in Slovakia? Mr. Dobrotka. Yes; I recei,v ed such orders. Mr. McTigue. What kind of orders were they? iMr. Dobrotka. We received such orders through channels from the government down to our posts and such orders arrived in sealed envelopes and were classified as secret, and we were instructed to open these eI1JVeloipes only u:pon special order by telephone. !Mr. McTigue. Who were the men that actually handed �SLOVAKIA 95 you the orders, were they uniformed Soviet police or were they plain-clothes men? Mr. Dolbrotka. These were members of the uniformed police. They were my immedia,te superiors and they related these orders to me. Mr. McTigue. Iif you were instructed under sealed orders to report on certain priests, what kind of reports did you m0lke,? Mr. Dobrotka. Under these orders we were to Sllipervise the sernnons of priests and to report periodically on whether there were any political aspects in those sermons by priests. Mr. McTigue. Did you ever report, for example, that there was any political significance to what a priest had to say? Mr. Dobrotka. I <know I sulbmitted annual reports to this effect, and I can state approximately 60 to 70 percent of the memlbers of the SNB did not reporit any priests to their superiors. This was also due to the fact that the priests were aware of the fact that they were Slllpervised by the police and, therefore, they avoided any political speeches within their sermons. Mr. MoTigue. Did the same kind of procedure, that is reporting on their activities, apply to businessmen and peasants and the PQpulace in general? Mr. Dobrotka. Yes; we received such orders to supervise the activities of the entire population, especially to observe whether the former mem!bers of the partially liquidated Democratic Party developed any underground acti<vities. Mr. McTigue. Were many priests arrested and interned at the time you were in the Bureau of Internal Security? Mr. Ddbratka. From the entire district in which I was active there were approximately three cases of arrests of priests, however, not a single priest was arrested in the area under my jurisdiction. Mr. McTigue. Tha,t is because you kept reporting to your superiors that the priests were only talking to God, is that correct? �96 SLOVAKIA Mr. Ddbrotka. That is right; there was no reason for their arrest. Mr. McTigue. When did you manage to esca,pe from SlorvaJkia? Mr. Dobrotka. On Deoomlber 3, 1951. Mr. McTigue. Did yiou haive any troUJble in getting out of Slorvalcia? Mr. Dobrotka. No; I did not have any tro'Ulble in escaping. Mr. McTigue. You are now a member of the Labor Service unit at Bad Kreuznach? Mr. Dobrotka. Yes, sir. Mr. Kersten. Any questions? Mr. Busbey. When did you ·become a mem!ber of the Bureau of Internal Security? Is that the correct name? Mr. Dobrotka. In 1938. At that time the name of my headquarterrs was Provincial Command of Gendarmerie, which was under the Minister of Interior. Mr. Buskey. That was in 1938? Mr. DOlbrotlra. Yes, in 1938, at which time Slovakia became an independent state. Mr. Busbey. Were you a memlber of the Communist Party at that time in 1938? Mr. Dobrotka. No, sir ; at that time memibers of the gendarmerie were fonbidden to become memlbers of any political parties. Mr. Busbey. In what year was, it that you assumed your duties of reporting on priesrts? Mr. Dabrotka. That was after February 1948, at the time when the Catholic Action was started. Mr. Busbey. You were a member of the Communist Party at that time ? Mr. Dobrotka. No, sir. Mr. Busbey. Were you ever a memlber of the Communist Party? Mr. Dobrotka. In March 1948 all members orf the SNB in order to protect their own existence were forced to file an application fur mem'bership in the COIIDmunist Party. Mr. BUS1bey. In order to saive your life, you had to become a member of the Communi'St Party at that time? �SLOVAKIA 97 Inter:preter. He became a memiber in March 1M8, but your previous quesltion was whether he was a member in February 1948. Mr. Busbey. Did you attend church prior to March 1948? Mr. Dobrotka. Yes; I did. I am a practical Catholic and I attended Mass every Sunday. Mr. Bustbey. And how rubout after March 1948? Mr. Do!brotka. After March 1948 I continued attending Mass regularly, however, we were aware that from that time on we were under supervision by the Communists, particularly all our contacts with priests, with the local priest, local teacher and local government officer were suspicious, because these persons were considered as reactionary, and our activities and connections with the people were supervised by Communists spies which were set on us by the Communist Party. Mr. Busbey. Would you agree with me that the greatest bulrwark ag,ainst communism, and the hope of the whole world for e:venrual elimination of communism and for world peace, is the fact that the people, not only behind the Iron Curtain, 'b ut all over the world, will continue to belie:ve in God? Mr. DO!brotka. This I 'believe. Mr. Buslbey. In other words, as long as the people have a deep-seated, strong belief in God, we can be sure that we will eventually eradicate communism from the earth? Mr. Dobrotka. Yes. May this ha,ppen as soon as possilble. Mr. Bus•bey. Thank you. No further questions. (The witness was excused.) (,Munich, Germany, June 29, 1954). THE TESTIMONY OF JUR DETVIANSKY Mr. Det'Vianslky was called a:nd duly sworn and testified through the Slo,vak interpreter as follows: Mr. McTigue. Your name is Jur Detviansky? Mr. Detviansky. Yes. Mr. McTigue And you were born on September 6, 1919, �98 SLOVAKIA in Slovakia in the village of Ladomila, is that correct? _Mr. Detviansiky. Yes. Mr. McTig,ue. You were a recorder of vital statistics in the town of Deitv:a until August 1950, is that correct? Mr. DetvfanSlky. That is correct. Mr. McTigue. This is the time, of course,, that Slovakia was under the Communist domination or occupation? Mr. Detviansky. Yes. iMr. McTigue. Later you were an administrative officer at Zvolen until Septemlber 1951, is that correct? Mr. Detviansky. Yes, sir. ,M r. McTi,gue. Were you discharged from this office by the Communists? Mr. Detviansky. Yes. Mr. McTig,ue. Why? Mr. Detviansiky. As a politically unreliable person. Mr. McTigue. In your ,p osition you know something about the quotas which were set for the farmers lby the Communists, is that correct? Mr. Detviansiky. Yes. Mr. Kersten. Will you speaJk a little louder in Slovaik and in English. Mr. McTigue. How were these quotas set? Mr. Detrviansky. The quotas were estalbJished for individual farmers in the presence of a representative of the Communist Party. The •p rinci:p le for this establishment, this prescrilbing of quotas, was· to prescribe those quotas to wealthy farmers in such a manner that nothing would be left for their own needs. This policy was aimed at desiroying the independenec of farmers and forcing them to join the farmers' cooperative wh[ch would make them the farmers dependent on the Communists. To the same end also several other measures were taken by the Communists, such as, for instance, that all laJbor force was taken away from the farmers and transferred to industrial pul'p()ses. Mr. McTigue. So it was impossible for these farmers, big and small, to meet the quotas imposed by the Communists, is that correct? ,M r. Detvianslky. At first the farmers managed to meet the delivery quotas because they helped each other �SWVAKIA 99 in tendmg the soil. But later this task became imposs~b'l.e to fttlfill and famJ.ers rubandoned. their farms and/ or were arrested for not ful£illing their deliivery quotas. ~- McTigue. Can you give any examples which you know of from your own personal knowledge, of how some of the peasants on small farims reacted to the quotas? Mr. Debviansky. There were several instances, but the most significant of them was that which occurred at Detva-lKostolna. It was on: Decemiber 5, 1951, when a farmer named Jan Ba/bic from despair because of the hard delivery quotas prescriibed to him 1knifed his three children, 1, 3 and 5 years old. His wife and two older children succeeded in escaping his desperate aJCt. He committed this action of despair because he stated that since they took aiway from him everything they should take away also his family. Mr. McTigue. When did you escape to the West? Mr. Detviansky. In Decemlber 1951. Mr. McTigrue. And you are now a caiptain in one of the Labor Service COIJ:Il!pany units at Kaiserslautern , is that correct? Mr. Detviansky. Yes. Mr. No:rlblad. Is the treatment which you harve been receiving here aH you expected? Mr. Detvfansky. Well, the treatment l received here meets my expectations, however, I am dissatisfied with the slow progress of the struggle rugainst the Communists and I am impatient to return to my home country. Mr. Norblad. Many of us are quite dissatisfied with the progress of OUI' fight against communism. Mr. Kersten. In other words I understrund you feel that the men, the young men of Slovakia as well as the people of the other captive nations that are in the free world would like to try to help the people ibaok in those countries and your country to regain their fireedom, is that right? Mr. Detviansky. Yes, sir, the sooner the better. Mr. Kersten. And you likewise feel that the young main back behind the Iron Curtain, even those under arms, �100 S!LOVAIHA would if they have the Oipportunity help get rid of Communists? Mr. Detviansky. As far as Slovakia is concerned, I can srtaite that since I was previously an active army officer and knew the mentality of the Sl01Vakian soldiers, I can state that 90 percent orf the Slova,kian young men would use such an oipportunity. Mr. Kersten. Thank you. The witness was. excused. (Munich, Germany, June 29, 1954). When the Kersten Committee pwblished its findings, the Benes Czechs (Socialists), the Slovak renegades the Lettrich "democrats" - and the Reds began to scream "murder!" That, of course, is quite understandaJble. For the ladk of positive al'gument, they resort to the smear technique, the usua,l line of the Reds. "CAS" (TIME) the official propaganda sheet of the Lettrich "we-got-6'2 %of-the,JSlovak-vote-in-1946" democrats, who actively collaborated with the Reds and Moscow from 1943 to Fe!bruary 25, 1948 - in its issue of February 1, 195:5, attaciked the Kersten Committee and the testimony of most of the Slovak witnesses, laJbeling the report "scandalous." It is unfortunate that the Keraten Committee did not call wpon the Lettrioh "democrats" to testify; the story would have been more complete. At least Dr. Joseph Lettrich, "leader" of the Slovak "democrats," and Gen. Nicholas Ferjencik, "non-!I)artisan" head of Lettrich's gestapo, should have ,b een given the opportunity to confess that the "democrats" did .conclude agreements with the Reds in 1943 and 1945 to collaJborate closely on all issues. The Kersten Committee did a good job in the time allotted to it. The wol1k initiated: should !be completed. Albove all else, leading Benes Czechs (Socialists) and Lettrich "democrats" - former members of the Communist-d ominated National Front government of Prague - should be girven the opportunity to "sing"! � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to 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 Published VOL. V quarterly by the Slovak League of MARCH 1955 America NO . 1 (14) HOW THE COMMUNISTS SEIZED SLOVAKIA is told on the following pa,ges by witnesses called upon to testify by the Select Committee on Com• mu.nist Aiggression of the House of Representatives, headed by the Hon. Ch:a.J'lles J . Kersten of Mil· waukee, Wis. Michael Galayda is an .American citzen who experienced Communist terror in Slovakia. He was there W1,d saw Communism at work a mong his people w'ho had persdstenUy ,and consistently fought the Red plague for over a hundred years. H e makes his home in Hazleton, Pa. Mr. and Mrs. Smrekovsky, American citizens, also witnessed the terror and horror of Red rule in Slovakia ,f irst hand. They have relatives and many friends in S1ovakia and, hen.ce are using an assumed name. Dr. Joseph Pauco, news.paperman and writer, c ame to America in 1950; he is assistant editor of the .TIIDDNOTA (Union), the official organ of the First Catholic Slovak Union, and a1so chairman of the U. S. Bran,ch of the Slov,a k National Council Abroad. Dr. Joseph Mikula studied law 1 and politics and was very active ' in student circ'les of Slovakia ,before he Jlled the Red terror which invaded his native Slovakia. Dr. Joseph Mikus, foraner Slovak dilplomat, lawyer and writer, became the director of the Press Bureau of the Slovak League of America, Wash!lngton, D. C., soon after his arrival in America several years ago. Jan Dobrotka, now an exile in West Germany, was a Sergeant of the Department of National Security in Bratislava, Slovakia. Jur Detviansky was an active officer of the Sloviak Army before he Hed to the West. Rev. Anton Botek, S.T.D., editor and former director of the Catholic Center in Bratd•slava, S-Jovakia, is in charge of the S lovak Catholic Action in Exiile; he edits "HLASY Z RiMA," (Voices From Rome), Italy. Rev. Stephen Nahalka, S.T.D., ecclesiastical writer and former personal secretary to Bishop John Vojtassak of t'he Spis Diocese, 1Slovaki,a - who, by the way, was sentenced to 24 years 1n prison 1by the Reds lives in Rome. Italy. Philip A. Hrobak, editor of the JEDNl()TA since 1938 and president of t'he Slovak League of America since 19'50, is a native AmerLcan, born in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1904. Active in Slovak aff.airs for the past 35 years,, Mr. Hrobak has devoted much time to the study of Czecho-Slovakda and Slovakia and the people responsible for government. His articles and pampb:lets in Engilish have contributed greatly to expose "Czechoslo,v ak" pseudo-democracy, the maohinations of the Benes Czechs (Socialists) and Lettri.ch "detnocrats", the people responsible for the betrayal of the Slova;ks to the men of the Kremlin - +and the Reds and Socialists aictJ!ve In Slovak circles in Amertlca. · SLOVAKIA Communist Aggression Against Slovakia (The Select Committee on Communist Aggression, House of Representatives, EJighty-Third Congress, 1954, under the ch·a irmans•h lp of the HonoraJble Oharles J. Kersten, did quite a. remarkable jdb to ascertain how the !Communists seized pO'wer in the various countries of IDurope. I believe it is the first time in our history that an honest attempt was made to understand the 'background of the -peoples behind the Iron Curtain. 1Slovak representatives were among those who gave testimony of Communist a,ggression in S-tovakia, which differed in so.me respects from th.at in other countries. From the testimony of various witnesses who were heard, and the many others who sent in their statements fl'Qm various countries, it is quite eviden,t that 1Slovrukia fell an easy prey to Moscow iand the C-Ommunlsts because of the pro-Soviet -poli<:y of Dr. Edward ,B enes and the Czech Socialists, who ruled in Czecho-Siovakia with the Communists after World War ]I. Slovakia, traditionally anti-Communist, was jn fact sold out by the National Front ,Government of Prague. The vast masses of the Slovak population ,had no ,c•hoice; their wiH meant nothin,g to Benes and tib.e Prague regime, whJ.ch took over Slovakia with the help of Soviet bayonets, disregardin,g the pollti-cal wHl of the peOII)le completely. Excerpts from the testimony of Slovak witnesses, l'\Vlhic,h are contained on these pages, definitely prove that. P.A. H.). FROM THE SPECIAL REPORT NO. 8 SLOVAKIA !Slovaki,a is situated between the Carpathian Mountains on the north and the Danube and the Tisa Rivers on the south. The in!hrubitants are !known as Slov,aks and with the !Poles a111d the Ozechs, belong to the group of western Slaivs. The political history of the ·S lov,a!ks goes back to the beginnmg of the ninth century when ChmsUan civilization was introduced into their territoTy, and it was during this period that tlhe ruler, H;astisfav, 84~70, made himself lmown by an intensiive ChTistiianmation of the country. FoJilowing hls ti,nvitation, two brothers, Saints Cyril and Methodius, who henceforth were to b.ecome the rupostles of the Slaivs, came in 863 from Byoo.ntium to Great Moravia. B y their activities, they laid the foundations for church organizaibions, the Slav liturgy, a'.Jiphrubet, •a nd literature. It was in this way that the rwork of the two missionaries SLOVAKIA 3 from Byzruntrl:l.l!Ill brought ,t he western Slavs into the fold of the Catholic OhuTch, an historical event of paramount ipolitic,al and oulturral importance. In the tenth century, ,Slovakia ,b ecame for a time a battlefie'ld in the struggles .among the SlaVIS, Magyars, and Germans, and at the fbegiillnmg of the eleventh century, she became a part of the kingdom of Hungary, organized under the Arpad dynasty. In the fifteenth and at the !beginning of the si~teenth century the internal prOiblems of Hungary reached a certain degree of consolidation. The invasions of •c entral Europe by the 'Dmks in tJhe ,s ixteenth and seventeenth ceinturies, however, reduced Hungary to the area of the Slovalda of today and political and cultural liife was concentrated in that area. For a long time sessions of the Hungarian Pa•r liament were held •a nd coronations of the Hungarian llings were celebrated in BratisJava. The end o,f the eighteenth and the first half of the nineteenth centuries mark the /beginning of the Slovak national renaissance. At this time, the nationa1ities tin central Emope we,r e about to abrundon Latin as the literary and spoken language of the cu!tiivated claS'S and to replace it by their own national language. Consequently, a spiritual rebirth stirred up national aspirations among the different peoples of the !Hapsburg monarchy. In 1848, the Slov,a,ks -organiized a military uprising against the centralism of 'BudaJpeSt and: helped 1:Jhe Emperor crush the Kossuth rebellion against the Hapsburgs. They did it with the hope that Slovrukia wocld ibe finally acknowledged as an autonomous land within a federated monaTohy, ibut thedr hopes in this respect were never satisfied. h1 the "Memorand'll!IIl of the Slovak Nation" of Jl.l'lle 7, 1861, a Slovak National Assemlbly, asked the Parliament of Hungary to create an rarl!ministiratirve unit from the oounties imlhaJbited lby tlhe iSloviaJc population under the name of "Slovak region." It was to ,b e ,provjdedJ with such a degree of poaitical and oultural autonomy which would be compatible wiith the prniciiple of u.mty of the monarchy. But the Hungarian Parlioonent failed to act. 4 SLOVAKIA In 1868 the Nationality Act was passed in the /Pairliament of Hunga:ry .b y which Magyar was proclaimed. the official language of the ,s tate administration in the kingdom, except for some autonomous bodies. 1n 1895, the Serbs, the Rwmanians from Transylvania and the Slovaks convOlked a congress of nationalities in Budapest in which they claimed ,respect for their national rights and asked once more for a federative reform of the kingdom on the ,p rinciple of equality. Such a reform was not carried out. As a ,c onsequence the non.,Magy,ar nationa!lities lost, during the First World War, their interest in the continued existence ()ff the dual monarchy oif AustriaHu.ngary. 1 World War I and Formation of the Czecho-Slovak State Dwring World War [ the ,s pirit of nationalism was greatly stimulated within the Alustro-Hungari:ain Empire. Thi•s spirit was reflected iby increasing demands for greater autonomy or ouwi:ght independence ,f or the clifforent nations within that empire. The advocacy of the principle of nationa:l self-tdeter-mination by President Wilson further stimulated these iaJS!)iratiOill,s. and dlid much to set the stage for the peace settlements. Dur:i.ng the course of the war Czech political leaders established a secret committee wh~ch directed the ,a ctivities of Ozech nationalists at home and abroad. Thomas G. Masaryk, as the leader of this movement, toured Europe and the United 'States Wlhere h e recei.:ved encouragement and support. Meanwhile a movement ,a rose among the ·l arge number oif Americans of Slovaik descent promoting Slovak!ia's separation from Hungary. Th.Tee different solutions of the Slovaik prob1em were oovi,saged: Slovakia as a new state, as ia partner orf a Czecho-Slovruk Federation •o r a·s a territory forming a pollitircal union with the prospectirve Polish Republic. Finally, the SloivaJk -League of Amerioa entered into contact with the Amemcans of Czech descent and signed with their organilzations, in 191 5, t;he Cleveland agreement, and in 1918 the Pittsburgh Parct, 'both of which aim·e d at 1 1 1 5 SLOVAKIA the creation of a Czecho-.Slova1k federal state. In these doouments the Slov,aik organi•z ation stipulated that Slovakfa should 'be an equal mem1ber iwitJh the Czech lands ·a nd have complete legislative, executive, judiciary and cultural autonomy in strictly national matters, while matters of common interest, such as foreign affairs and defense, should be within the competence '()!f a common parlitailllent. 1 A tangi!ble proof of the aspi-rabions of 1:Jhe Ozec:h and Slo:vruk peoples toiward foll mdependence iwas demonstrated by the thousands of thei:r soldiers who had swrendeired on the 'Various fronts. They formed the Czecho-Slovak Legions in Russia, France, amd Ita1y and fought on the side of the Al[ied and Associated \P,o wers. 1 In order to convince ·W estern statesmen that the concept of national states 1was, ~n concern with the iwill of the people a Congress otf !Peop1es Oppressed ·b y the Hrups'burg Monarchy was commenced in Apilil 191'8 at Rome. This congress did much to mfl,uence the th,i nking in western Europe and in the United States. ln the summer of 1918, F'ra.nce, Great Britain, the United States, and Italy offici,all,y recognized the Czecho-1Slovak National Council as a defacto gOIVerrunent and the Gzecho-lSlwak forces as an Allied army waging regu~ar warfare agarl.nst kustria-Hungary and Germany. A Ozeoho-4Slwak IPro:visionrul Government •w as set up in Paris with Masaryik as President and was recogn.iized de jure by the Aflied and Associated Powers. It issued the Declaration of Czecho..SlovaJk Independence on October 18, 1918, in Paris. On the saime day President Wilson rejected the Austrian ,proiposa:l for the organi zation of Austria-Hungary on a federa l !b asis iby reiplyiing that !he could no longer accept •~ere autonomy of these peoples as a basis of peace .. ." On Octolber 28, 1918, the Ozecho-Slo,yak Nationial Colllllcil in !P:mgue proclaimed the deiposibion of the Austrian Emperor as so,yereign of the Czech and Slcxvak lands and the estrublishment of a free and united Republic ,of Ozecho-4SlovavaJda. The ,SiovaJk National Counchl, a revolutionary 'body composed of Slovak patriots, convened on October 30, 1918, 1 1 SLOVAKIA 6 and ,pwb1isihed a document known •a s the Dec1aration of Turcia.nsky rSv. Martlin. In. this document they proclaimed the separation of Slo.va:lci<a from the Kiingdom of Hungary and their intention to form with the Ozech lands a CzeohoSlOWlik .state. On November 14, 1918, this decision was ratified 1~ the Crecho--iSlvoruk National Assembly which elected T. G. 1M as•aryik as President of the Republic and set up the first ,caJbinet. However, it was not long !b efore serious dlisagreement developed between the Ozechs and ISlovaJks on the form of government for the new state. The Ozeohs farvored a Czecho~Sl01Vak ,centralist state whHe the Sllo,vaiks ins.i:sted upon a Czecho~SlQl\llaJk feder.ation ~n whioo the identity and individrua:lity of each nation would ibe •recognized and preserved. In the opinion of !Slovak leadJers the Ozecho,..slovak state, for all practical purposes, was to become a Czech ,s tate, enlarged 'by Slovakia ra nd :sulb-Oaripathlian Ruthenia. This situation resulted .in the !Slovaks taking a firm ,position a,g ainst the centralist form of government. Monsignor Andrew Hilinka, a great patriotic [eader from the time of pre~a:r HrUlllgar.y, went dandestine1y in !September 1919 to Pairis in order to present S1ova;kia's cause before the Peace Conference, ,a dvocating an international guaranty fo·r the selfgovernment of the ,Slovruk nation withi:n OzechoJSlova!kia. Denounced to the •French authorities !by the Ozecho,.;Slovak delegation as a Hapsburg spy, he was foTced to return to Slovaikia without any result. Toniprisoned 1by order of Prague at Mirov, Mara'Via, Hlinka was to stay tJhere until April 1920, when he was elected deputy of the 'Slovak People's Party, founded iby him under the Hungarian regime and reestabllished in December 19'18. 1 POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT ConstitutJional Structure Althowg,h the !basic ,constitution was not adopted until. February 1920, its .gener.al principles had been B!pplied from the very •b eginning of Cze.cho-Slovaik independence. The philosophy underlying this fundamental law is expressed in the preamble, whfoh is striikingly similar to the SLOVAKIA 7 preamble of the Constitution of the United States. The main body of the Consbitution provided for a popularly elected Parliament, a President selected by both houses of Parliament and an independent judiciary. Parties and Politics The politics of the period may ibe divided into four phases: 1. Nationalistic phase (1918-19) Following the proclamation of independence, ,a ll Czech political parties agreed on the fundamental principles on which the new state ,w as to be bui1t. Having reaohed this major consensus and the necessary leg,islation having been enacted, the coalition had accomplished its task and a split on partisan lines followed. 2. Swing toward Social Democraicy (1919-20) The period of Socia.dist rule in the Czecho-Slovruk Republic did not accom;plish too many changes in the country's economy although the r,a,iUwa,ys, mines, and water power were socialiized. The division of the 1Soci:alists into Socialist amd Communist ranks ended the brief era of Socialist eJQ!)erimentation in Czooho-Slovrukia. 3. The agrarian era (1922-35) This was a period of Telative ·parliamentary stability under the leadershiip of the Agrarian Party, which managed the government along m.iddile-of~the-road policies. A satisfactory coalition government was maintained throughout this period. 4. The crisis ( 1935-38) This period iwas the touchstone of the solidity of the Czecho-1Slovruk state. Confronted with the serious iproblem of the Sudeten Germain poipuil.ation, Czecho-6lovakia betrayed no signs, of political panic. The .principal political ,parties in Ozecho-Slovrukia in the period betiween the two World Wars formed the following groups: National 'Democrats. - This party, conservative and intensely nationalist, drew its princi'pa:l support from businessmen, the professions, and hi,gher cirvil servants. It never beoame very ,powenfu:l. 8 SLOVAKIA Populists. - Under the name of the Czech Populist Party and the Slovak Pe>ipulist Party, respectiively, this group endeavored to bring CathoiJ.ic ideas into plllblic life. The Sllllall faruners and workers in rural districts were its strongholds, especially in Slovakia. Agrarians. - This poJitica-1 groUJp, the largest in the subsequent parliaments, was solidly entrenched in both rural aind town districts by means 0£ a widespread network of cooperat:1ve, economic, and mtlturnJl organimtions. Its broaid economic and so.cia'l program att•r acted wide support. National Socialists. - Thi1s non-Marxian Socialist Party may ibie described as a "radicai national party of the lower middle class and of the wonkers." It had rather more influence than its moderate numerical strength would indii;cate. Social Democrats. - This, party, resembling the social democratic parties of other European countries, had more influence during the first two years of bhe Republic. Though outwardly united it was, however, undermined by dissension within its own ranks, whicih finally resulted in the expu1lsion of the Communist faction . Communists. - The Ozecho-Sloivaik Commll!Ilist Party was created in 1920 as a result of the e~ulsion of Communist elements from the 'Social Democratic Party. Though equia:lly subversive and aggressiive as elsewhere in Europe, the Ozecho-iSlovaJk Communists never secured a la:rge foll-owing during the two decades before the Second World War. Economic, Social and Cultural Development Agrarian reform iRediistribu:tion of land was an urgent iprOlblem facing the IIlew government and a Land Reform Act, therefore, was one of the first measures passed ,b y the Czecho-Slovak Parliament. This ,a ct entitled the state to truke over, •a,fter com;pensation, all ,1and :from the great estates in excess of a fixed maximum and to permit land purcha,se by those who needed it most. The agr,ariam. refomi program substantially improved the material conditions of the rural popula- SLOVAKIA 9 tion aml averted the diam.ger of ,agrarian disturbances. Economic development While Czecho-1Slovruk agricl.l!ltura:l resources almost covered domestic req,uiTements, indrustrial prodUJCtion was far in excess of the needs of the home market since Ozecho-1Slovakia had been the industrial center of the former Austro..lHJungarian Empire. 'Since the Danulbiian countries, originally Czooho-Slovakia'•s principal foreign ma,r ket fOT manufadured goods, were increasing the tempo of their industria;lization with a view to :restricting tihe import orf industrial µvoducts, Ozecho..JSlovruk foreign trade was olbJiiged to look for new outlets. These were found ma,i nly in those western and oversea countries which were Czecho-1SloV1aJkia's .principal suppliers of •r aw materials, especially the United States and Great Britain. Economically aJnd fin!andalil.y Czecho-Slorvaikia was a sound state in central Europe. As an exporting country it was severely hlt by the wodd economic depression of the early thirties, hut, lby timely adtj:ustments to new price and exchange levels, it was one orf the first Eiurropean countries to weather the crisis. Education and social progress The cl.l!ltmrra1 level orf the Czechs was hlgh and their passion fOT education was prQIVeribial in central Eur.ope. The new R.ep'Ulblic fostered educaition by establishing additional free schools •a nd by, improving the existing ,schools. The Ozecho-1Slorva,k :S tate a,lso forged ahead in the field of social impmve:ment. All groU!ps and interests pos,sessed the rig:ht of organi,z ation ,a nd thus organized lalbor had its trade unio,n s, farmers their cooperative societies, and white--coUar worker,s and businessmen their associations. Health a,nd other types of ,social insurance were either provided for or encouraged iby the State and pro¥i:sion was made for State assistance to hoursing and cooperatives. The Religious Situation The re1igious .situation created after the esmblishment of the Repu'blic in 19'18 must, like many other of the coun- SLOVAKIA :iO try's developments, ibe rvieiwed against its historical backgrou!Ild. A strong Czech groUJp of modernist, nationalistic Roman clergy insisted on radicall reforms, such as the use of the vernacuiliar in the lituvgy ,and the abolition of compulsory celibacy, Wlhich the Roman Curia could not accept. As a result, this group seceded from Rome and esta:blished an independent "Ozecho-1S1ovak Church" ,w hioh originally numbered aJbout one million adherents, lbut ,w hich lost half its meimlbership by 1939, so that Roman Catholics still comprised 80 •p er cent of the popul,a tion. In spite of adverse circu:mstl8Jnces, the Roman Cathoilic ChUTch adjusted itself, therefore, to the new millieu and recovered much for its former influence. In the political and cultural life of the new Repwblic, the Protestant element played a role far beyond its numerical strength. Many ,prominent political leaders, Thomas G. Masaryk among them, 1be'longed to the Protestant faith. 1 Internal Problems 'J.'lhe OOIIlstituition of 1920, in }airge measure disiregarding the ethnographic realities of Czecho-Slovakia, was to become a bone of contention 1b ,etween the Czechs on the one side, and 1:Jhe. 1Slova:k,s, Ger.mans, Mag,yar:s, and Ruthenians on the other. The Slovaks demanded the incorporation of the main clauses of the Pittsburgh Pa-ct into the Constitution. The Ruthemans, whose autonomy within CzechoSlovakia had ,b een granted by the Treaty of St. Germain, asked that this international obligation be respected 'by the Prague Government. The Ge:rana:ns ,and the Magyars solicited oulturaJ rig,hts and adnninistr,a,ti,ve autonomy on the local level, as granted iby the same Treaty of St. Germain. 'Dhis psychological split among the ,populatiOIIl of OzechoSlova1ki,a wea:kened consideriaJbly the new state from both the internal and international point of rview. The Czech statesmen tried to iremedy this situation by creating a system of international treaties such as the Little Entente, 1920, the Pact of Alliance and FriendsihiJp with France, 1924, and a similar pact with the Soviet Union, 1935. Uke the Austro-Hunga1rian staite'Smen in 1867, Benes believed 11 SLOVAKIA that the transformation of Czech~Slova!kia into a federation of three memlbers, the Czech lands, 1Slov,a kia, and Subcarpaitlliian iRuthenia, would weaken the international position of the centralized state, I)a)rticularly with reference to HW11gary and Germany. Consequently, in the field of internal ,administraJtio,n he developed a system, in which aJll branches of Gove:rnment in Slov.a:kia and Sulbca rpathiian Ruthenia ,w ere reserved iprimari1y to 1:Jhe Czec,hs. Politicall'Y, al·l problems of these bwo lands we.re to ibe decided in the Pa:-ag,ue Parliament, where !Slovakia had only 58 and Ruthenia 9 deputies out of 300. Thus, even the most important questions such a;s the relation betlween state and church, official language, system of schools, the economy, were to be decided ib;y the Ozech parliamentarian majority. Ai3 to the cutural aspect, secondary schodls in Slovakia as wel[ ,as the Bratislava Universirty lbecaJm.e an officiaJl domain of Ozech ,professors, teacihing the UJnitarian concept of a "Czechoslovak" nation m ithe ethnic sense. On October 1, 1938, there were 523 Czech and 345 Sloviaik instructors teaching in the secondary schools of Slovaikia. At the same time, there were 66 Czech and only 24 Slov~k professors in the Bratisl,a,va Uruversity. From the standpoint of the economy Slovakia was to remain a predominantly agrarian land, while the Czech part of the Repulblic was highly induskialized. This policy of two dif,ferent measures is shown by the share of Slovakia and Ruthenia ~n the industrial production of the RepU!blic. The participation of these two lands in the whole industry, !between 1934 and 1937, was only 8.5 per cent, while 91.5 iper cent went to the Czec,h lands. The proper importance of these figures is stressed by the fact, that Slwakia constituted 23 per cent and Rutheinia 5.5 per cent of the total popuJation of the Re1pulblic. From the adlministratifve ,p oint of view, the district and county offices in Slo,vakia and iRuthenia were mostly direcited iby Czech off,iciais who were directly responsible to Prague ,as were the police. In 1938 there were 120,926 Czech pwb1ic offici,a ls in 'Slovakia. All these aspects created in Ozecho-Slovakia what has 1 1 12 SLOVAKIA been knoiWn as the "Sll.ova;k problem." The Slovak People's Party which, in 1925 had 23 deputies, became not only the strongest single party in Slav,aJkia, lbut a majority party of the Slovak people (not counting minorities and the Comm1.1!11ists) endorsed 1:Jhe federative reform of the Republic asking for the accomplishment of stipulations contained in the ,PittslblllI'gh Pact. A:s early as Jianuary 25, 1922, this party presented its fiTst project for c01I1stituti01I1al reform in Czecho-Slovakia. The prog,ram hatl the following main points: !Slovakia to be granted her own Diet and Government. As common affairs would ,b e considered: The President, the Army, Foreign Affairs, and Communications. The Sloviak Diet to harve exolU1Sive competence in such matters as natiOIIlal eduoaJtion, denominations, justice, commerce, agriculture, publric works, social welifare, and corresponding finances. The executive ;power in Slov-rukia, as iregards b.oth the laws which wound be :voted by the Central Parliament in Prague and those which would be enacted. lby the Diet of Bratis:larva, would belong to the Slovruk Gorvernment. Laws voted ,by ithe Central Parliament would lbe without validity in .Slovakia if rejected by a two-.thirds majority in the •Sll.ovak Diet. This proposal would have satisfied !Slovak aspirations, but it was 111ever put on the agenda o;f Parliament. A second proposed reform concerning the decentirali>zation of the state administration was presented to the Czecho4S1avruk Parliiament by the 1Slovak People's 1Party, May 8, 1930. More modest in -i ts scope than the first one, this document claimed for -Slovakia the same constitutional position which had 1b een gr8.lllted ihwt never carried out by article 3 of the constitwtion relating to Sub.carpathian Ruthenia. According to this proposal, IS1ovakta should have had her own 'Diet as a national legislative ,b ody and a governor as chief of the land executiive. The iDiet would have lbeen competent to enact laws concerning [anguage, education, religion, municipal, and district administration and justice as well as other matters whioh the laws of the Central ,Parliament would comer wpon it. Laws enacted by the <Diet of Slovakia and .si:gned by the 1 SLOVAKIA 13 President of the Republic would ibe promulgated, under sigruature of the gavemor, in a sipecial col1ection of laiws for Slova:kia. Although presented in due form, this proposal was never discussed in the Parliament. Octdber 16, 1932, the Slovak People's Party of Andrew H!linika and the Slova!k National Party of M. Ra;zus (a small traditionailist <Protestant party) having joined in an agreement a;b,out the necessity of autonomy for Slovakia, stressed their detemnination to pursue the fight for Slovakia's national rights, "even ,t houg,h it may ,bring the disintegration of >the Ozecho..,Slov,a;k Republic." Fol1.owing the resignation of T. G. Masaryk as President of the Repulblic, E. Benes became 1a candidate in Deceimber 19315 for that office. After some consultations, the Slovak People's Party end!orsed his election, stiipwlating, however, that a ,pol,icy of national equality between the Czechs and the 1Slava:kis should ibe inaugrnrated by the President aind a law concerning 'Slovak~a's autonomy ,be promulgated in one year. Nevertheless, it was two years later before the Prague Government was ready to, consider the Sl()IVruk prdblem and this ooourred in connection wit!h the Sudeto·- German claims for nation,a,1 rights within the Republic. This nationality group had been integrated into CzechoSlovakia in spite of their protest. -Since the very foTlffiation of Czecho,..,Sl'ovakia, the German minority had been soliciting a form of cultural autonomy in the schools, local administration, and in the courts. Later on they asked for a better economic amd social <poll.icy in the German areas suffering from unemployment. For a long time, Prague did not lristen to such :voices. But with Hitler's accession in Gennany, the Sudeto-Germans recei;ved the !backing of the 'I1hl1rd Reich. Consequent11 theiT claims increased at the same time as their courage. In 1935 the ,Sudeto-German P,a rty, with 44 deputies, lbeoame the second ,g reatest party in the Repuiblic. The (P,raigue Goverll!!Ilent, not willing to ~ppear as acting under foreign pressure, remained reluctant. T.he stiffer the Czecho..jSlovak Government 1becaime, the more Hitler determined to annihilate Czecho ... Slovakia. 14 SLOVAKIA PairalJel to this evolution was Sfovrukia's struggle for its own rrights. JU/Ile 5, 1938, a third projed concerning the federalization of the Repulblic was pU!blished lby the SlovaJk People's Party, a!lld presented to the Central Government. It was only one week !before the, Munich Conference, 1Septem'be:r 22, 1'938, that E . Benes sent a counteriproject to the Praesidium of the Sllovaik ,People's Barty. Shortly after, the conflict :betiween Prague and: the Sudeto-Ge:rrmans was resolrved in Munich, where, on the basis of Lord Rundman's rrecommendation, the Sudetenl:and went to Germany. This decision created for ISlovaikia a new situation. As a consequence of a policy in whioh she had praotically no share, Sllovrukia was ,a lso to surrender in favor Olf ifllUJilgary her Southern !boundary ·zone, ,s ettled mostly ,b y Magyar population. This was a psychdlo,gical blow which brought an agreement among all Slova!k ,political parties, except for the Communist, Social-Democrat and minority parties, rubout Slovakia's autonomy. Thus on October 6, 1938, one day after the resignation of ,E . Benes, six ipolitica,,l parties of SlovaJkia, representing 36 out of 58 deputies, puiblished a dedarration in which they agreed that the third project of constitutional reform shO'llld be immediat~ly put in practice and l8Jil autonomous gorverrnment for Slovakia 1b e appointed ,u nder the chairmanship of iDr. Joseph Tiso. 1 November 2, 1938, lby the ar,bi,tration of Ciano and Von Ribbentrop in Vienna, 10,309 .s quare kilometers with ·853,670 inhafbitants were to .b,e ceded by :Slovakia to Hungary. This included 503,980 'Magyars and 272,145 Slovaks. ISfovakia saw that she was becoming a viotim of an international po1itica1 game ,w ithout aniy faJllJlt of her own. The Vienna decision proved the futility of the fomner party dirvisions and produced ra n integrating effect upon the Slo:va;k politica:l spectrum. Parties which had signed rt.he Declaration of Zilina on October 6, agreed on NovembeT 10, 1938, on the formation of a common party !known henceforth as the Party of National Unity. This political evolution in 1Slovrukia was f:inal:ly sanctioned by the Ozech and Slovak representatives irn the 15 SLOVAKIA Prague Parliament on No-vemlber 19, 193'8. Then, by a constitutionall ,amendiment, Ozecho-Slovrukia became a federation of Bohemi!a-<Maravfa, !Slovakia and! Oa:rpathian Ukraine (,Ruthenia). Burt the relations between Prague and the Slova:k Government remained tenJSe, because of 9,000 Czech officia1s who 1Were removed lby the Slovak Goivernment, and the share of Slovakia in the income and expense, orf the common <budget. FOREIGN ,R ELATIONS Beforre Munich The principal aim of Ozecho-Slovakia's foreign policy was the preserivation of the status quo as estaJblished by the 19~9 peace settlements, and the estaJblishment of friend-ly relations with all her neighlbors through ,a n exten1Sive system of adequate agreements. Eduard Benes, Minister of Foreign Affairs until 11936 and 1ater 1P resident of the Repulblic, was the girniding sipiirit of this policy. A solid :f oundation for rthe, presewation .o f the status quo in cenibral Europe was laid !by the CTeation of the Little Entente formed by Ozecho-Sfoivakia, Yugos1a;vfa and Rumania, and three victorious Danulbian states bordering on vanquished Austda and Hungary. Ozecho-1Slovalda was ·a n enthusiastic supporter of the League of Nations and colktJborated ,w holeiheartedly in the negotiations which brought Germany and the ,Soiviet Union into the League. When Hitler came to power in 1933, Ozecho-iSlovakia's foreign relations entered into a critical phase and two ye31rs of vi,r,uJent Nazi pro,paganda among the Sudeten Germans !bore frwt in the results of the 1935 elections. The NaJZi..sponsored :Sudetendeutsche IPartei poiiled over 62 per cent of the total Ge1riman vote and c01Wed the smaller German parties .i nto submission. 1 Later .on, acting on instructioillS from iBer,Hn, the <leaders od: the Sudeten German movement put fomvard demands which no Czecho-S1,orva'k 1g overnment •c ould a·c cept and, with the anne:,ration of Austria, the srtage was set for final action. De.seprately anxious to avert a new war, France and 16 SLOVAKIA Great Britain proposed to Czecho-Slovakia that she should cede to Germany all areas with a German majority. When Ozecho--srtovakia demwred, she was informed that she must ae<!ept the proposal or bear the conisequences alone. The result was tihat the Czechs gave in and at Munich their country was di vided on the lines dictated by Hitler. 1 After Munich After MU1J1ioh, Czecho-.Slova:kia tried to adjust itself to the new situation. President Benes resigned and left the country. He was succeeded 1b y Emil Hacha, an eldeI1ly and experienced jurist with no politioa1 affiliations, who believed that close cooperation with the Third Reich was the country's only hope of sur:vival. The tra,nsition to Hitler's New Order was swift. Obnoxious parties were dissolived and the Government was given wide power,s to govern by decree. The ,administration was purged, the 1press put under rigorous control and antiSemitic measures were ena,cted. The situation in central Europe after Mlliilloh became even more confused. Germany began to remind the Bohemian puibLic of the role the Kingdom of Bohemia had played within the Holy Roman Empire. !Hungary started to speak about her histor,i,cal boundaries and the necessity of a common frontier with Poland. According to the Nuremberg documents, Hitler 1at that time. had already decided to destroy Czecho-Slovakia. But there was apparently no definite decision o.n S1ova:kia as to wihether to place it under German OCOU1pation or to ha;ve it occU1pied by Hungary. In this situation, the Slovak GOIVernment had only one preoccupation: to preserve what unity had remained of Sloviakia after the Vienna a11bitration and to avoid:, as far as possible, direct domination lby a:ny of her neighbors. On Ma11ch 10, 1969, the Prague Government dismissed the government of Dr. Joseph Tiso and proclaimed martial law in 'Slovakia. The Slova!k people considered this a violation of agreements that had /been si,gned ~tween Prague and Bratislaiva and incorporated into the Constitution. Puibl~c demonstrations spread throll!g.hout 'Slova:kia. Invited to a consultation by Hitler in Berlin, Dr. Joseph SLOVAKIA 17 Tiso, the dismissed chairman of the Slov,ak Gooernment was shown a telegram by Von Ribbentrop, according to which HUIIlgary iwas ready to occupy Slova,kia. Hlitler then suggested that this eventuality may be prevented by the declaration of 1Slovakia's independence. Consequently, Dr. Tiso returned to Bratisl,aiva where, om March 14, 1939, following his report, the IS'lovak Diet proclaimed independence. President Hacha was then summoned to Berlin and presented with an ultimatum aiming at the i.mJpos.ition of a protectorate upon Bohemia-Moravia. Forced into submission, the Presiderut ,s igned ,a declruration by w1hich he "ip1aced the destiny of the Czech people and country with confidence in the 'hands of the Fuehrer of the German Reich." German troo1ps marched into Bohemia and from Prague (March 16) Hitler issued the proclamation establishing the "Protectorate of Bohemia-Mora'Via." Thereafter, Hungary annexed Sub-Carpathian Ruthenia. Czecho-SlovaJkia was dead. The Establishment of the Slovak Republic Even though the Slovak state was largely the result of a tense international situation, it nevertheless co.rresponded to· the aspirations of the Slovak ~ple for freedom and the principle of self-determination a,nd seltf-1govern.ment. After Munich, central EUTotpe became a part of the German orbit. Therefore, in oroer to. d.~scourage Hungary in her armed attack launched against Eastern Slovakia, the Slovak Government concluded •w ith Germany a treaty of protection, March 23, 1939, by which the <Reich assured the existence of Sloiva;kia without destroying its .national pe,r sonality. In exchange, S1ova:kia ha,d to, follow the German line in foreign policy. Altogether, 2:l states. reoogniiized the international .i ndividuality of Slovaikia. Besides the countries which were later to become members of the Axis, S~ovaikia was recognized by the Holy See, the -Soviet Union, iSpain, 1Switzedand, Sweden, Grea,t Britain (de facto) , France (de facto), Liberia, Costa Rica, and Ecuador. According to the constitution voted on July 21, 1939, 18 SLOVAKIA SlovaJkiia became a Repulblic with a Parliament of 80 members and a Government of nine. The constitution contained princi!pleis, which in some aspects combined features of the liberal staite, the Christian democracy, and the authoritarian state,. In the beginning all poweT of the 'Slova:k Reipu'blic was vested in the Parliiamenrt !but later on, in 19·41, after Slovakia had entered the war against the S'Oviet Union, the executive was to prevail over the legislature. The numlber of political parties was reduced. The Communist and the :Social il)emocrat pa·r ties, representing only ten deputies, had been 1s uppressed as suJbversive, in October 1938. Six other parties merged mto the Slov,ak Unity Party, the baokibone of the ipolitcal system of the SLovak state, and tlhere were two minority parties: German and Magyar. The SlOIVaJk state was far froon being a perfect democracy in the trarlitional sense. R reflected a compromise between the past and the present, between an old tradition and a temporarily determined political dynamism in Central Europe. lBut, in ,general, it was an expression of the se'Lf-q>reservation instinct of the 1SlO'Vak nation. The Sloviruk Government, in 1941, joined Gernnany, with two armored dirvisions, in :the war against the Soviet Union. Although on [)ecemlber 1:2, 1941, the Slovak Press Bureau had pulb'lished an anno'UIIlcement that the ISlovia;k Repulblic was in a state of war with the United !States and Great Britain, neither the President nO'r the tS lovak Pa:rliament or Government ever made such a decision or declaration. In fact, the Sl01Vruk forces, during the Second World War, did not engage in comlbat against any of the Western Powers. 1 World War B and the Restoration of Czecho-Slovakia Czechs in the protectorate of Bohemia-Morawa ,w ere not directly iDJVolved in the •S econd World War. They were exempt from militaJry service hut had to work for the German war machine. Though their contribution in the fight for freedom was not Sipectacular, thousands of Czech patriots ipaid with their live'S for their efforts to 1keep the flame of freedom fHalrering. After Munich, many Czechs and SlovaJks left the coun- SLOVAKIA 19 try and established themsel,ves talbroad, mostly in Paris and London, which became the cenrters of their political activities. Headed by Eduaxd Benes, these emigres set urp a National Committee to taJke up the struggle for the restoration of a free Czecho-iSlovakia. The committee was recognized first as the provisional and eventwall.'y as the regulaT Government of Czecho-Sloviakia, by Great Britain and, later, iby the United !S tates and the Soviet Union. Czecho-'Sl01Vaikia was thus given the status of an allied state under foreign ocoupation. The Munich agreement was declared null and void and Czecho-.Slova.kia's original frontiein; were guaranteed. While the C!zecho-.Slovak GQI\Ternment-ii.n-exile was primarily concerned with the consolidation of the international position of the Republic, the Czecho-Sfovak Communist leaders in Moscow were com1pleting their plan for immediately seizing power after the li/beration. Moscow knew precisely what Ozecho-Slovalkia's <international .p osition would be once the Red army was stationed within the ter.ritory and was concerned on:ly with tadica:l movements aimed at bringing ahout a speedy sovietfomtion of the country. Toward the end of 1943, E. Benes went to Mosco.w where, on Decembe:r 12, 1943, he signed with Stalin a treaty of alliance, friendship, and mutual help between the Soviet Union and Czecho-Slovakia. tBy this treaty, the ·S oviet Uruon was to approach Ozecho-1Slova1kia after the end of the war as an ally. No. such treaty having been <:oncluded. with the Western Powers, the influence of Moscow on the future of emergent Ozecho-Slovakia became predominant. In Soviet tactics, this treaty was to create a favora!ble atmosphere in Bohemia-lMo:ravia fm: tbe idea of a Soviet ·l iberation. During his visit in Moscow, E. Benes came to a,n agreement with K. Gottwald, the ex,iled chief of the Czech Communist Party, aJbouit the main prindples upon which the edifice of the future Ozecho-,Slovakia wouJd rely: (1) The state admin.stration 'wouJld be repla<:ed by "natio,n_aa committees" (IS01Viet.s); (2) the .fOI1II1er right-of--center parties would 1b e eliiminaited; (3) the non-Communist parties in ire- 20 SLOVAKIA ,s tored Ozecho ..Slovak,ia would form ,w ith the Communists a "government of National 1F ront"; (4) "people's courts" would lbe established to eliminate all war criminals. These principles with an extensive inter,pretation and -aipplication of ipoints (2) and ( 4) and the nationali2ation of indiustcy were to, lay the fou:ndaitions for a "People's !Democracy" in Czecho-1Slovakia. In Slov:alkia, the treaty of friendship , mutual help, and coJ1aboration with the Soviet Union iProduced a stimulating effect upon the Commun1st .and Social Democrat undergroUIIlds and also on a group of lilberals whose imaigiination, with respect to central Europe, was tempted more lb y the absent Soviet Union than 'by the present Germany. These ,groll!ps met secretly on Christmas 1943 in Bratislava and signed what is known as the "ChristJmas agreement." In this declaration they reaffirmed their will to work for the restoration of "Ozecho·-IS1ov•a kia," for a Illarrow collalboration with the iSov.ieit Union in the field of foreign policy, for the estaiblishment of political justice and for the continuation oif resistance against the Germans and the Slovak Government. :FROM THE TESTIMONY OF MICHAEL GALAYDA, AMERICAN CITIZEN FROM HAZLETON, PA. Mr. McTigue. The Russians deported to Russia the teachers and iwell-educated ,peoip le? Mr. G alayda. Yes, t eachers and educated people. Mr. McTigue. And you were in Slova:kia while this was going on; is that correct? Mr. Galayda. Yes. Mr. :McTigue. Now, while these deportations were going on did you then endeavor to get a visa o.ut ·o f the country ? Mr. GaJayda. I :tried a couple of times but it was impossible at that time. I was put in ja•il two tim es. Mr. tM cTigue. Who puit you in jail? Mr . Galayda. The Ozecho-Sloivak Army. They asked me to fight ,a gainst the Germans. I ref,u:sed. I said, "I am an American citizen and I refuse to serve in the Czec,ho..,Slovaik Army." SLOVAKIA 21 !Mr. (McTigue. 1S0, you were put in jail because. you refused to serve? Mr. Galayda. Yes, thaJt's right. MT. !MoTigue. Now, when was t1he second time you were put in jail? Mr. Galayda. Wel1, the second time was in 1946. Mr. Mc'Digue. iBy the Communists? Mr. Galayda. Yes. Mr. McTigue. Why? Mr. Galayda. Well, because I was campaigning against communism. Mr. McT,i gue. You were making taiks against communism? Mir. Ga1ayda. Yes, I made ,a couple speeches in the villages against communi sm. That is why I was jailed. 'M r. iMcTigue. Noiw, in 1'94fi, at the end of the war, did you try to get a Un~ted States passport? Mir. Galayda. Yes, I did. Mr. McTiig ue To return to the United States? Mr. Galayda. Yes. [n 1945, when the war was 0 1ver, me and my brothers decided to Oeaive, because at that time the United States was ,stil'l fighting with the Japanese. So we decided to leave and join the American Army. Mr. iMcTigue. iDecided to come home? Mr. Galayda. Yes. We went to the American cons,ul in Prague. He refused. He saiid, "You have to get your passport finst, then you can join American Army." So ,J came home. Mir. McTigue. How did you go about gettiing your passpont? Mr. Galadya. Well, we went to Hungary. On the way from Budapest to Bratislava - weH, i will tell you something 3:borut the !Russian s-oldd.ers, what they did. Mr. McTigue. Yes, I wish you woiuld. This is while you are taiking the train to 'Bratislava? Mr. Galayda Yes. 'l never am going to forget that time what happened. Mr. McTigue. You are on the train now? Mr. Galayda. Yes. Mir. McTigue. Is this what you are describing? Mr. Galayda. Yes. 1 1 22 SLOVAKIA Mir. McTigue. And you rure en route to Prague lby way of Budapest and Bratislava? Mr. Galayda. The Russians pulled the emergency brake. They had guns; they took the money frOirn .the ipoople, and in every coach was one soldier. He had a gun. They robbed the people. They ta!ke everything. Then I heard some screaming, a girl, a couple of giTls started screaming. I know that. I remember that. And I don't know what happened because 1I didn't see because in every coach was one soldier and we can't move. Mr. McTigue. And they -to ok the girls off the tra,i n ? Mr. Galayda. Yes. Mr. Bonin. How long did they hold the train up? Mr. Gailay<la. Oh, Irt was, I think, at least one hour. Mr. Boll!in. One hour. Mr. :Mc'I'igue. And everybody on the train ·w as relieved of his valualbles, jewelry, money? Mr. Galaiyda. They took everything. Mr. McTigue. Now, what !hia:ppened when you finally reached .Prague ? Mr. Galayda. Well, when I reached the Prague, liike I said, I went to the American consul. I itold hd.m I ,wanted to join the American Army. H~ said, "!No. You have to get your Arnevican ,p assport first." So then I came home. Mr. McTigue. You came home to Slovakia? Mr. Galadya. Yes. I came baok home. Then I start speruking agafast communism. Mr. Mc'lligue. You started writing against communism ; you made some speeches against communism? Mr. Galayda. Yes. Mr. Galayda. Yes. Mr. Bonin. ls that correct? Mr. Bonin. Now, did any,body ma!ke any complaint rubout theiir activities, itaking this property aJway from them? Mr. Ga1ayd:a. No, 'alt that time it rwaiS impossible to say something. iMr. Bonin. You had nobody to turn to to even make a Mr. Galayda. No. complaint? Mr. Bonin. If you did ma!ke a compla int you would probably ·b e arre&t ed ? 1 1 SLOVAKIA 23 Mr. Galayda. Then yOl\l are sent ito Russia. Mr. Bonin. In other wocds, tllere was a c0111Stant fear in the minds of the peoiple that they would go to a concentration camp? Mr. Galayda. Yes, that's tight. Mrr. Bonin. Into 'Si-ber-ia? Mr. Ga:layda. Yes. Mr. Bonin. Which, of course, is nothing ito .p leasant to M1ybody living ·b ehind the Iron Curtain? Mr. Gafayda. No, I don't think so. Mr. Bonin. You were very happy to get ou:t of there? Mr. Galayda. Yes,. The Communist Party is no good for this world; a!bsoI1U1telly no good. Becaiuse ,I was over there -and I lb.ave experience: ,I lived in Czecho-lS1ovakia for 20 years, and I know. They iaire no good in this world. Mr. Bonin. They are no good for this world. Well, do you have any moos-a ge to tell ,to the people of the United States who may feel that communism is a good system of government? Mr. Galayda. Well, there is one thing I can say, and that is the American ,p eople should be proud of what they have, freedom of speech and everything They should ibe ,p roud o.f what they have. Mr. Bomn. ls, it-here any freedom of religion under the Communists? iMr. Galayda. No. Mir. Bonoin. Is there Mly freedom iof the press? Mr. Galayda. No. Mr. Bonin. Is there any freedom of assembly? Mr. Galayda . No. Mr. Bonin. Is there any freedom to use radio and teleMr. Galayda. No. visi'o n as we do !ill America here.? Mr. Bonin. [t i,s a ,pretty lblack picture, this lirving behind t.he Iron Curtain; isn't iit? Mir. Galayda. That's ~ight. (Wilkes-Barre, Pa., ISeptemiber 30, 1954). FROM THE TESTIMONY OF MR. SMREKOVSKY MT. McTigue. You came to this country in 1928; is that correct? Mr. Smrekiovsky. 1928 is correct. Mr. MoTigue. And did you become a:n American citizen at that time? 2-l SLOVAKIA Mr. Smrekovsky. Yes, sir, after being five years in this country. Mr. McTi!gue. I under,stand that you returned to Slovakfa in 1939; is that cor.root? Mr. 1Smrekovgky_ 1939; yes. Mr. !l\foTigue. What iwas the purpose for returning to Slova·k ia at that time? Mr. Smrekovsky. To. visit my father because he was reaching 90 rund wrote me that he was i'll; so I wanted to visit him and see him. Mr. Mc'figue. Now, did you return to Slovakia before the 'Outlbreak oif wa;r between Germa;ny a.ind Polamd? Mr. 1Sm.rekovsky. Yes. We had a little difficll'l,ty crossing t:he ·Polish boroer, lbut ,that didn't amount to much. Mr . .McTigiue. Noiw, at thait time, conditions were good in ,Slovakia; is that correct? Mr. Smreko'V'sky. Yes, they were. Mr. Mc'figue. There wasn't any difficulty as far as Mr. ,S mrekovs,k y. We didn't .know anything about wa:r then. Mr. McTigue. There was ,c omplete fu-eedom of ithe Mr. ISm.rekovsky. Yes. press... Mr. McTigue. Freedom of ireligion . . . Mr. 1Smerkovsky. Yes. Mr. McTigue. And freedom of assembly Mr. Smerkov:sky. Yes. iMr. iMcTigue. Hoiw long did you stay in 1Slovakia? Mr. 1Smrekovsky. 1Seven years. Mr. McTigue. Then you were there at the time the Rus1M r. !Smrekov.s ky. Ye·s, I was. sians C'aime into 1Slovaikia? Mrr. Mc'figue. What - or, w:hen did you first come .in contact with the Commun.ists? Mr. Smrekovsky. After the German Army was defeated, they started to drop parachutists to organize Communist bands to pers.e cute and rob middle class and decent people. 1M r. Mc'.Dig,ue. Noiw, did this haJppen in 1944? Mr. IS mrekovs.ky. Yes. lMr. Mcrrigue. And thls i1s the Communist-inspir ed uprising that you are talk,i ng a:bout. SLOVAKIA 25 Mr. Smrekovsky. Yes. Mr. McTi,g ue And in the community where you were liviing rthey had parachuted agents into the community to organi1ze Communist bands in order to continue the uprising? Mr. Smreko,v,s ky. That's right. Mr. McTi'gue. And bring it to a successful conclusion, if necessary? !Mr. ISmrekovsky. Yes, and spread commurnsm at the same time. Mr. Mc'I'igue. Now, can you teH us some of the things you wit:ne.ssed, yourself, during the course of this Communist-inspired uprising? Mr. Smrekovsky. I remember a family cruptured by the OommUIIllists. There were five memlbers in the fami'ly, a twoyear-old giirl, there was another bigger girl, a son-in-laiw, a,n old man, and his wife. They were dragged to the edge of the forest and shot from ithe back. Then they dug a hole for them and buried them. Mr. Bonin. Mr. Counsel, I just want to interrupt here. We hea.ird testimony .b efore from different witnesses when stating that ithey were shot in the back, do you mean that the . . . Mr. Smrekoivsky. They start •t o run. Mr. Bonin. They ,s tarted to run? Mr. Smrekovsky. They started to run and they shot them from the back. iMr. Bonin. And they shot tlhem firom the bru~k whiie they were trying to get away from them? Mr. 1Smrekovsky. Yes. Mr. Bonin. Now, they were agents of the Russian Government - that were doing that? Mr. Smrekovs:ky. Exactly. Mr. Bonin. .A!nd were they armed, these people that were shot, or were they with01Ut a,r,ms? Mr. IS mrekovsky. They were without arms. Mir. Bonin. They were without arms? Mr. '.Smrekovsky. Without arr-ms, innocent people. Mr. Bonin. But, nevertheless, they were all .s hot in the baC'k, the one two years of a,ge, four years of age, the two larger ones, the son-in...,Jaw, and the father? 1 1 26 SLOVAKIA ,M r. Smrekovsky. And the mother, too. Five persons. Mr. Bonin. Five persons? Now, you say that they were tossed in •a mass grave; is that correct? Mr. Smrekovsky. That's right. Mr. Bonin. They were a:11 placed in the same g:raJVe? MT. 1Smrekovsky. Yes. Mr. Bonin. Was there any re1iigious burirul service involrved? MT. Smrekovsky. No, sir. No, sir. They just buried them there like any criminals. It ha:ppened around Oot:ctber, and during tJhe winter they dug them out and :p ut them in the cemetery, in the corner of the cemetery, where they are Mr. Bonin. Continue Mr. Counsel. sti1l buried. 'Mr. IMcTiigue. Now, after the Communists had occuipied Slovwkia, did there come a time when you were put in jail your1self? 1Mr. Smreikovsky. Yes. r:r was there 14 days. Mr. Mcfl'igue. Why? Mir. 1Smrekovsky. Of course, they had no reason. They wanted to get rid of the middle-class people. My ·brother-4nlaw and a friend of mine were an-ested. Finally, my wife went to the authorities <a!Ild they let me free after 14 days. Mr. McTigue. What happened to your brother-in~law? Mr. 1Smrekovsky. Well, he was jailed also, hut they released him. Mr. Mc'I'igue. But there were others whom they didn't Mr. Smrekovsky. Yes. ,r elease? ~fr. lMc'l'igue. You know that of your own personal Mr. 'Sm~kOIV'sky. Yes. knowledge? Mr. Mc'.Digue. They were friends of yours? Mr. 'Smrekov,s ky. Yes. Mr. McTigue. Leading people in the community? •M r. Smrekovsky. Yes. Mr. Smrekov,s ky. Yes. Mr. McTigue. Priests? Mr. Smrekovsky. That's right. Mr. McTigue. Nuns? of different rel,i gious faiths? people And lMcTigu.e. Mr. Mr. SmTekovsky. Yes. MT McTigue.·· Now, when did you and how did you get back to the United States? SLOVAKIA 27 Mr. SmrekoV!Siky. As soon as the American constcl came to Prague, I a,pplied for visa to the United States, and as soon as my transportation was ready I lef.t and came to the United States, first of Octolber 1946. I left my we there for three years until I could bring her 'O'Ver. Mr. iMcTigue. Now, at the time you le.flt you awned some Mr. Smrelwvsky. Yes. · property; didn't you? Mr. iMcTigue. What lhaippened to that iproperty af.ter you left? . Mr. Smrekovsky. Well, that was a1l confiscated. My wife had to sign a statement tha,t it's gi;ven to ,the Govem.ment. And every'body ,w ho wamts to come to America had to do that. Otherwise she would't get a !Visa. The Chairman. That is a method of highway robbery that they hold against somebody that wants to migraJte from one country to. another? Mr. S'mrekovsky. Yes, sir. Mr. Bonin. They compel them to transfer their i)roperty to the Government. (Wil:kes-iBarre, Pa., September 30, 1954). a FROM THE TESTIMONY OF MRS. SMREKOVSKY iMr. McTigue. When yoUJr husband left Slova!kia in 1946 to come to the Untted States, he left you in Slovakia; is (Mrs. Smrekovsky. Yes. that correct. Mr. iMcTigue. And at the time he left you in 1946 you had under yourr care the property which you both owned; is Mrs. :SmrekoV'Slky. Yes. thaJt correct? Mr. McTigue. rNow, when your husband left and you had the ipropeirty under your management, what experience did you have with the Communists? Mrs. Smrekovsky. Very ibad. Mr. McTigue. Did they make efforts to frig,hten you in --any way so that you would give your property ;to them? Mrs. Sinreko1Vsky. ThaJt was the only hope to come to this country, unless if agreed that the property is transferred to the Government. Mr. McTigue. So until you signed over your property to 28 SLOVAKIA the Government you 'had no chance of leaving Slovakia; is !Mrs. 1Smrekovsky. Yes. that correct? MT. iMcTigue. iln it.he meantime, while you were still there, in 1946 and b,efore you left the country, were your friends mistreated by the Comrnurusts? Were any of yoll'I' close friends that you harve personal ikno,w ledge of mistreated in any way by the Communists? !Mrs. Smrekorvsky. In my hometown there were shot or massacred four 1people while I was wiith my ,p arents - there was a senator, a notary public, a mayo.r , and a foo-ester. DuTing the night, in theilr ntght clothes, they loaded them UJp in one truck rund took them away. Mr. McTigue. What was their crime? Why were they shot? Mrs. Smrekovsky. Because they were not Communists and they never a:gireed with the Comml.llilists. MT. Bonin. Oongressman Feighan. Just a minute. In other words, even though the Communists ,have been in Slo1Mrs. Smre~ovsky. Yes. va:kia since 1945 . . . Mir. Bonin. StiM your relatives ·a nd friends have not beMrs. Smrekovsky. Right. come Communists? Mr. Bonin. They still belie·v e in ,t he religion and the freedom of religion that they had before?. Mrs. Smrekovsky. And they hope they wihl be £.reed and live again like decent people. MT. Bonin. In other words, regardless of how long the Communists may dominate Slorvrukia, there is still that desire for freedom on theiiT prurt and to live as they used to prior to the Communist regime that has been imposed upon Mrs. Smrekovsky. Yes, sir. them? Mr. Bonin. Now, I understand that t:hese four influential 1poople, a senator, a mayor, a t:imiber man and a notary public, were also shot because rthey failed to accept communism and to lead the people through Communist doctrines and princilples under the domination of the Russian system? Mrs. Smrekorvsky. Right. Mr. Bottin. That is the type of freedom thaJt is being sold to the ,people behind the lTOn Currtain? Mrs. -Smrekovsky. Yes, sir. SLOVAKIA 29 MT. Bonin. Force, threats, violence, and intimidation, in order to constantly keep them in fear of whait is apt to happen to them? 1M rs. Smrekovsky. Exactly. Mr. Bonin. Now, your wifo came out of Czecho-iSliovrukia in 1'9 49; ts thart: correct? Mr. IS mrekovsky. Yes, sirr. Mr. !Bonin. And the principal reason ,w hy you aTe testifying under an assumed name is lbecaUJSe you are fearrful of what might haJppen to your relaUves and ,t he friends. that you ,s till 1haJVe in 1s1ova~ia? Mr. Srnrekovsky. Exactly. (WiJJkes-iBarre, Pa., ,September 30, 1954). FROM THE TESTIMONY OF JOSEPH PAU00 Mr. McTigue. 1Mr. Pall'co, where are you living at the present ,t ime? - - - Dr. Pauco. ln Middletown, Pa. Mr. McTigue. H ow are yiou employed? Dr. Pa:ll!co. I am assistant editor of the Slova.k weekly, Jednota. Mr. McTigue. Mir. !PauJco, I understand that you were born in Slovakia, is that correct. Dr. PaU!co. Yes; that is true. Mr. ,M cTigue. What part of Slovakia? Dr. Pauco. In ceilltraJl Slovakia. Mr. McTigue. Central ISlovaJkia. And it's my understanding that you spent most of your adult life as a journalist; is that coTrect? [)r. ,Pawc'O. Yes; that is correct, sir. Mr. McTi:gue. W1hiile yiou were in Slova!kia, it is also my understanding that in yiour capacity as -a journa:list, you had the occasion to witness the Communist~in,s;pired uprising in 1944; is that correct? Dr. Pa'Ulco. Yes, that's true. Mr. Mc'lligue. And were, you also present at the uncovering of the mass graves at Vinnitsia in the Ukraine? Dr. Pauico. Yes; that's right. Mr. McTigue . . How d!id you happen to be there? Dr. 1Pau'co. I was a member of a journalist expedition in July 1943 It wa:s an e~pedition of all journalists firom cen.trrul Europe. I came to Vmnitsia in July 1943 and I wais there four days. In those four days I saw five ,o.r six maSIS grarves of the Ukrainian people and some Polish people, who were 30 SLOVAKIA murdered by the ,Soviets. An eX!planation was girven to us by the Geamam.. dootors that these people were shot between 1939 and 1941. I spoke with the local people, Ukrainia:n and Polish people, some dozens of these people, because we were allowed to spealk to those people - a,t the mass graves there in Vinnitsia, in the town of Vinnitsia. For example, I was shaved twice in a local lba'.l'bershop, and I spoke to these men and with some. other people ,i n Vinnitsi,a. A concert was gurven in t'he town of Vinnitsia in honor of ,t he journaliSll:s' e,q;>edition, and after this concert, I spoke with several men and women, and all these Ukrairuian people trul'ked to me. They said what I saiw there in mass graJVes is true, and that their relaitirves were shot by the Soviets between 1939 and 1941, after the occupation of west Uikra,inia in 1939. Some people of Ukrainian nationality known as strong anti-Communists were deported in the Illight. And late,r , at the begmning of the wa:r !between 1Sovieit Russia and Germany, deporta:tion was in ~eat masses. Nob,ody ,w as sure that hls, relatives, hrusbands, sons, or some other of the family, wilhl not be shot in the night. I have in my memory six ox seven cases of the wives and daughters of the shot fathers and brothers, who told me their relatives were deported in the night. The people knew nothing. Their husbands and fathers were sent to Siberia or probably shot. Mir. McTigu:e. How many people were killed Dr. Pauco. Several 'hundred. iMr. McTigue. At Vinnitsia? Dr. Pau'co. 1Severrul hundred. I was at the graves four days and I spoke with several dozens of Ukrainian women, and, I learned, several ·hundred were buried in these mass grarves. iMr. McTigue. In these mass grarves that you knew about? Dr. ·P auco. Yes; in Vinniitsi.a. Mr. McTigue. Yes. But there were other mass graves disc01Vered later on; is that correct? Dr. Pau'CO. I heard about it. I know a;bout Katyn, but I wasn't there. ,I was in Vinnitsia and I can state only what l saw at these mass graves. I have here a statement of what SLOVAKIA :n I saJW at these mass graves. Mr. McTigue. iMay I suggest, Mir. Chairman, since we hawe other testimony that we want to develop, and since we haJVe other witnesses, t:ha.t we admit this statement into the reoord, but not have it read at this time? Dr. Paulco. All right. Mr. ,McTig;ue. IMaJke it a ,p art of the reoord. Mr. !Bo:nin. Woll!ld you have any objection if we make this staitement a part of the record at this time and you g;ilVe us the highlights of it as of thJis moment? Dr. PaUlc<>. All right. Mr. Bonin. Without oibjootion, we will take the statement and place it in the committee files. Mr. iMcTigue. You may recall, Mr. Chairman, tllait we had testimony at our hearings in Munich on the Vinnd.tsia murders very much ,a long the same 1ines Mr. Paruoo is testifying. This testimony that he has given today on the subject of the Vin.nlitsi.ai massacre eertainlly corroibo,rates wha,t we hea.Td from many ,wiit:nesses in Munich. You aJlso recall in connection with that testimony that one of ibhe witnesses descri1bed the finding of hundreds of bod!ies of Vinnitsi:a \'i,ctims under the floor of a d'ance hall in one of the amusement •pariks iw:hen these mass graves were investig;ated. iI am sure you recall thait testimony. Mr. Bonin. Yes. I distinctly recall that, a'lld this corroborates the faot tJhat these mass graves and the mass kfiling of citizens of Vinnirtsia was deli;b erate and ,pe~trated entirely by ,t he Communist regime in Russia. Now, I understand, Mr. Pauioo., that you have some addition.al testimony suipplementing what 1happene:d in V!innitsia aind what took ,p lace in 'Slov,aikia; is that C()lrrect? Dr. PaU!co. Yes. I woltld iiJke to say thiat the same thing that h~ppened in Vinnitsia in 1939-41 happened in Slovakia in lr944. The Sovli.ets' s~hool oif prurtisans were parachuted in the s,prmg of 1'94'4 in the mou:nrtains of Slorvaki1a, and then in August 1'9414 they orga.ruzed a so-calil ed uprising against the SlovaJk Government a'lld shot hundredlS and thousands of Slovaks of anti..Communist feeling. Im Slova1ci(a, we had at this time, 1944, several mass graves of innocent Slovak ciiti- 32 SLOVAKIA zens, Slova.ik ainti-Oommunist patriots. The Communist part~,s ans ,w ere 1pariachUJted, as I mentioned, by the Soviets, and the partisans were also furnh,,hed Soviiet ammunition. This so-called upris,i ng in 1Slov-akia started with prepairations in 194'3. Some so.-,called underground politicians made an 8.'greement with the Communist leader, Karol Schmidke. And this Karol ;Schmidke saiid in 1946 that this action in 1943, this preparation of the uprising, was the merit o;f the illegal Communist Party. All the people who declined to collaborate with the Communist ieaders in 1944 were shot. Thiiis happened in central 1Slova.ikia because central Slovakia is a mountainous land. Then the German armies came to S1ova-kia and :Slorvak ter:nitory was a battlefield. After this Communist uprising in ,Slovrukia, I heard f.rom my friends, from my relatives in ISJ.ovakria thrut many innocent ,p eople, farmers, ,w orkei,s, priests, ,s ome ipriesits, ,s ome congressmen, were shot by the Communists. I recall a congressman, a Catholic priest Anthony Salat. He was of very strnnig feeling against the Communists. He wrote several books againist communism and, iin the first week of the uprising, he was shot. In 1Slw8!kia were liquidated about forty to fifty thousand :S lovaks in this Communist putsch. 1 Mr. IMc'Digue. T1hey were shot? Dr. Pauco. They were shot 1b y the Soviets, b,y the Soviets' paritisan,s and by the collaborators in Slovakia. !Mr. McTigue. About '50,000? Dr. Paufo. Yes, aJbout '50,000. Mr. McTigue. 1In the period of one year? Dr. Pauco. In the period of three months. Mr. McTigue. Three months? Dr. Pauco. The purtsch was defeated in two months, but after there were some battles in the mountains in Slovakia, and in December the Red Army ,c ame to Slovalkia. Several thousand Slo.vaJks fr,om eas,t ern Sl01viakia were sent by the NK_,V il) to Russia, to Siberia and concentration camps. and to the mines in Dombas. Mr. IMcTigue. Norw, when and how did ,t he uprising finally end? 33 SLOVAKIA Dr. Pauco. The German Army came into Slovakia in September 1944. Mr. McTigue. Now, you had a close relationship with Monsignor Tiso; isn't that correct? Dr. Pauco. 'f.hat's true. Ylr. McTigue. Now, will you tell the committee who Monsignor Tiso is and briefly explain your relationship with him and your discussion with h~m afte,r the putsch? Dr. Pauco. I was editor-in-chief of the greatest daily in Slovakia, the "Slovak." This daily was the organ ,o f Monsignor Tiso. Joseph Tiso was the first Slovak President. He was the legal President of the SlovaJk Republic, which came into being on March 14, 1939. The ,Slovaik Republic had diplomatic relations with 27 naJtions, of them 17 or 18 were on the side of the western allies. Monsignor Tiso was a Christian ruler - after a thousand years, the first Slovak irll'ler and I had the opportunity to spea:k with him practically every week . I reca:11 thrut on August 20, 1944, I was in Presov at a meeting called by the Government, by the army, and by the Slovak People's Party. At that time, in eastern Slovrukia the situation was very critica•l and the delegates practicaly from every village and every town from eastern Slovakda told the Government and government representatirves of Bratislava, tha:t something wliitl hruppen if the Slovak Army and Slovak police do not interlere. Pradically the whole of eastern Slovakia was, parachuted at this ,t ime by the So;yiets, the Soviet parti,sans and Soviet a;genrts. I spoke after this meeting with Dr. Tiso, and ag,ain when the pUJtsch was liquidated. Dr. Tiso at this time was ready to resign. He hoped that some Slovak politician would take the Slovak question to the International Tribunal. Mr. Bonin. Tribunal? Dr. Pauco . Tribunal, yes, because he would iiike to change the regime, but to preserve independent Slovakia. That was the goal of Monsignor Dr. Tiso. Mr. McTigue. What happened to Monsignor Tiso eventuallv? Dr. Pauco. Monsignor Tiso was hanged, executed by the Communist nation:i.l court, April 18, 1947, in Bratislava. Dr. 1 34 SLOVAKIA Tiso wa.s the first among the Catholic prelrates in central Europe who were executed by the Communists afte,r Warld War Iil. Mr McTigue. The usual phony charges, I suppose, were applied, and the usurul phony court procedures were set in motion? Dr. Pauco. Just becallise he had anti-Communist feelings; I know, 'Il!Ot from Dr. Ttso, but from his personal secretary who its living now i n Caniada, seiveral times, Soviet agents were ready to assuire to Slova.ks and Dr. Tiso himself a seperate Slovak-,Soviet Repulblic if Dr. Tiso will go wtth the Soviets, and Dr. Tiso refused. Tiso said one time, I recall, that tf his own brother were a Communist, he would fii.ght him. And I am SJure that i·s why Dr. Tiso wa:s executed by the Commtmists' so-called nahonal court in April 1947. Mr. Fetghain When you state that Monsirgnor Tiso was the first of the clergymen to he executed by the Russian Communists, you mean the first outstanding figure, both in the spiritual and politic8il world? Dr. Pll!uico. Yes, sn-. That's correct. Mr. Feiigihain. That's 1a ll. Mir. Bonin. W-ell, Mr. Pauco, it is nothing uncommon for a priest or a member of the clergy in central EUI'Opean countries to be in political life; isn't that correct? Dr. Paooo . Yes, that's ri.ghit. Mr. Bonin. And, therefore, they would be permitted to engBlge in political lifo . . . Dr. Pauco. Yes. MT. Bonin. Bllit they took a leave od' absence from their clerical life; isn't that coreivct? Dr. Pauco. No, that was not so in S1ovakiia. Monsignoir Tiso, as Prresident of the Slovak RepU!blic, was the adm~nistrator of his own parish in Bano:vce, rund sang Holy Mass there practically every Sunday. 'Mr. McTigue. Tell me, Mr. P8iuoo., how and why did you escaipe from Slo1Va!kia arnd come to this country? Dr. Praulco. After what I ,s aw in Vinnitsia, then in Slovakia , and what I hearo from many hundreds orf escll!pees from Ukrainia, from Poland, from Russia, from Hu'Il!gary, SLOVAKIA 35 from Ruman:i:a ., from Lithiuani:a, about ·p ractices of 1S01Viets, I could not stay in rS1()1VlaJk:J,a, because I hated communism ; I hated oolsiheiv:ism, and I hoped to live in the free Western World. I am happy that 1 am here in this free ,a nd democratic couliltTy. I haive my relatives over there, ,a nd one of my relatives came through the border just several months ago to Austriia. He. ~s: now in the American Zone, and he writes to me. thlat Oill!r ;p eople over there behind the Iron Curtain have friends. here in the United States, and they are praying every d·a y that the Gorvernmen t of the United States wHl win the battle against communism . ,A nd Slorvaks, like IPoles, the Uikrairuans , the Baltic nations, or Rum•a nia, Hung,ary, the Czechs:, Croatians,, :Serbians, and so on, they like to be free like you are here in this country; they like to be independen t, and, maybe, wiH sometime be ruinified in a great European federation li,k e yoru are here urnfied in the United States. Mr. M:c~•g ue. When di:d you say you left Slovakia? Dr. Pauco. It wa:s in Apr.ii 1945. Mr. McTigue. And when did you arrive in this country? Dr. 'P auco. WoUT years aglO, in Apri[ 1950. Mr. McTigue. I have no further questions, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Bonin. Mir. Feiglha:n. Mr. Feighan. Mr. Pau!co, we have heard testimony with reference to the Vinnitsia massacres ,w hich stated' to us that after the Commllllllists were diriiven out of the Ukm.i.ne in 1943 and the Naizis came in, they opened up graves of which there were 38, each of them the same length, and widlhh, and depth, that they conWned ov:er 10,000 rpeople they weiI'en't aill U!kirruinians; some were IPoJes, and of other nationalities ; 'that the people there were of various status ; they were, :farmers, armsan;s, wovkers, ,a nd rinteilleotUJals, and the testimony th1at we rnceived also. indicated, at iJ.east with reference to those particulaT graves, that tlhey were done by the So;viet Russ,i ans durJng the years 1937 and 1938, but I assume that they did many othera besides those. Dr. Pa:uco. I spoke ,t o the 1people of Vinniitsia, these SLOVAKIA 36 people, Ukramiians and Poles, were all liquidated tb y the Soviet agents. ,MT. Feighan. Yes. That ~s my understanding. Dr. Pauoo. Yes. Mr. Feighan. The testimony that we had shows that. I 1have no further que,s1t1:ons Mr. Bonin. WeH, Mr. Pa.'Ulco, you stated that this alleged uprising in Slovakiia was clearly Communist inspired, is that OOlITect.. Mr. Pauco. Yes, that is correct. Mr. BODJin. They created dissension and they created an atmospheTe Olf revolt within Slova:ki:a? Dr. Pauoo. Yes. !Mr. !Bonin. And a.gents had been sent in there, is that cor,rec.t, to irritate and agitate this revolt? Dr. Pauico. That is correct. Mr. iBonin. And by thait means using the Commurnst tecfunique to wipe out the ,people that were undesiralble to them? Dr. Pauco. Yes Mr. !Bonin. Of coU1I1Se, iwe lhruve had testimony where thait same identicaJl truing was used in- other countries that have come under the domi'Il'ation of the Russians throughout different parts of Ea;sitern EuTope, lbut this is <the fhist time, I beli'e!V'e, that we had testimony that they were aotually dvopped in by pamchute to iITitate and agitaite rund crnate the trouble. Dr. Pauc·o. Yes. Mr. Bonin. But, in the meantime, they !had some agitators in there already; iis tlhat correct? Dr. Pauico. Oh, yes. Mr. Bonin. And they had le:6twingers ,i n there? iDr. Pallico. Yes. iMr. !Bonin. Who were ready to follow the agents tha:t were dTopped in? Dr. PauJco. Yes. Mir. !Bonin. In other words, isome people in the United States fool that there are not many Communistls, lb ut they are aliways :ready, willing w:hen the o.p portune time cOllnes, to seize that opportunity to overthrow the existing governmenrt: in any partioular place . Dr. Pauco. Thait's wue. Mr. Bondn. Now, of course, since you have lbeen in the 1 SLOVAKIA 37 United States, you have been trying to. bring to the attention of the people of the free world this Commwnist threat; is that correct? Dr. P,a uco. Yes, that is oorredt. Mrr. Bonin. And in each instance where you haive an opportUillity, and I understand that you are still a newspaperman and a joornalist, you bring these facts to .t he attention of the people that Tead your newspaper, the Je<lnota? Dr. fuuco. Yes, that's correct Mr. Boniin. This isn't tJhe fiiirst part, of Eastern Europe that we have heard of where forty to f,i fty thousand people have boon slaughtered.; O'Ilce a;gain demonstrating that the Communist regime holds power only because 1t UJSeS force and threats and intimidation to keep the people ias helpless as they possibly can. Dr. Paiu100. That is correct. Mr. Bonin. WeH, on behalf of the committee.. I 'Wish to thank yow for your splendid staJte:rnent tlhat you haive made as a part of thii:s ree-0,r d and for the reswme orf yo'lllI' experiences in Ozecho-Siovakia and in .Slov•a kia. Dr. Pauco. Thank you. Mr. Boiruin. Mr. Feighan has another question 'h e would like to as!k you, Mr. Pauco. Mr. Fei,ghan. Do you not feel that it is correct, Mr. Pautco, that the people of 1Slo;v;akia are imbued with the nationali-stic -spirit, a love of God and a love of colUllltry, and they just seek the right of self-deteTmination as ~ sovereign nation? - Dr. Pauco. That is co,r rect, Slir. Mr Bonin. In other words, they are asking nothing more than some of the principles: that have been em.mcia:ted through long yea.rs, that each people have the right to de- · termine the kmd o.f government they wish to have, the type of leaders they wish to have, and to conooct their Lives and thei,r g01Vernment in theiT own nationialistic spirit and attitude. The people orf R!Umania, Hung,a ry, Po•land, Lithuania, Latvia, EJSltooila, ruid o:their nations ha,v e the same desire to goveTn themselves; is that correct. Dr. Pauico. Yes; iliat iis correct. MT. Bomn. Welil., I 'Wliish to thank you ,v ery much for your testimony, and we sincerely hope thait the opportunity 1 SLOVAKIA 38 presents itself to defeat thls Communist threat, not only to the Ewopean natio111S., burt: also to the peoples of the free world. Thank you ve,r y much. Dr. P,aulco. Thank you. Mr. Feiighan. Waiit a minute, Mr. Pauco·. Dr. Pauco. Yes. Mr. Feighan. During your experience in Slova>lcia, did you haive an opportunity to witness the manner by which the Russian Commlln!isbs tried to break up the culture, the 1,anguage, the customs, and the religion of the Slovak people? Dr. Pauco. I lived in Bratislava. Bvatislava is the capital of Sllo;v,rukdoa, and is on fille west border of Slovrukia. The Soviets came from the east. The whole of Slov-akJa was occupied on April 7 or 8, ,a nd I escaped from Bratis lav,a on April 4. Mr. Feighan. I see. Dr. Paulco. I wasn't there after the Soviets occupied the whole of Slov.alk,i a, ·b ut I was in Braitiosla:va during three months thait the eastern part of Sl()!Va:kia was occupied by the !Soviets, and I heard from my relatives, from my f11iends , of the methods which I mentioned before. Mr. !Feighan. Yes; but you were noi there yourself t o see it and observe .iit? Dr. Pmrco. No, no. Mr. Feigihan. Well thank you, Mr. Pauco Or. Paulco. You are wekome. Mr. Bonin. Thank you <very much. (Wil'kes-,Barre, Pa. , September 30, 1954). FROM THE TESTIMONY OF DR. JOSEPH l\1IKULA IMr. iMcTigue. Were you in Sl'OVlaJkia during World War Dr. Miku1a. Yes, I was. Mr. iMcTigue. Were you a pairt of the underground movemerut in Slovakia? Dr. Mikul,a. Yes, sir. We started the underground movement at the end of World War II. I was one of those who started it. iMr. Mc'Digue. When did it start ? Dr. Mi1kula. It was in 1944. tr? SLOVAKIA 39 :Mir. McTigue. What caused you amd others to form this underground moivement? Dr. Mikula. I will read a short statement in this connection. The inception of the anti-Communist arganirlation is attrilbutafule to the iintellectuals wlho foresaw the necessity of truking preventive measures aga,inst the imminent d001ger of communism. They studied communism and decided to combat it, ~cause tlhey had no false illusions of whether or not the Communists wOIU!ld Telax their demands after World War II. The first communistic pressur~ was expected in the field of religion. Conseqiue.ntly, the preparations were directed for the defense of re!l,i gious freed.om and the preservation of religious life in the event of intensive persecutions. The second fi.eld was the po[iltical field. Ourr ca1cuJations at the !beginning w&e wrong. They didn't staTt at the beginning in religiious _peil'Sooution, but it:Jhey concentrated an theliir activities in the political field. Mr. Kersten. Have you finished with your s1:Jatement? Dir. Mikul,a. No; very briefly about this polii!tical field. The most essential elements in tlhe polritical life of the nation are political parties. The Communists knew it, and acted accordingly. They were verry cautious. that no par.ty existed which by attracting the sympathy of a majority of the _population wouild endanger t'he position of the Commumst Party. So, the parties which airose after the war with the petrmisSlion of the Communusts were incapable of eiffecting strong anti-Communist oipposition, because, first, theiy had no roots, no tradition, a;mong the population. Second, part of their leadeffi, were either tools of Communists ior opportunists who, /because of l,a ck of principles and courage, completely sulbmitted to the Communist pressure, and third, throug;h the assistance of the ColIIlm.unist Party, they were s'h ackJed - aM other parties were shackled by the coordinating comrruttee of all the parrties, the socalled National Front. This Nationa'l Front was nothing else but a machine in the ih ands of the Communists to control aU o,pposiition against the Communist Party. Mr. Mc'l'igue. Were you the recognized leader of the un- 40 SLOVAKIA derground in Slovakia? Dr. Mikula I woll!ldn't say so. Mr McTig;ue. Were you one of ,t he leaders? Dr. Mikula. Yes. Mr. McTigue. !Did you ar.ronge to have some of your members sent abroad in order to assist in the underground movement from without ? Dr. Mtkula. I thin:k I can state it quite openly. Our program was to prepa1re things, firs,t, at home, and, second, we had some people out aibroad. I mean, out of ,the count.Ty. We ,s end them out of the country ,a nd directed the situ.aitiion, informed them, they ind'ormed us. The illlformatiion we receirved we direoted to ,proper aut'horitie;, iMr. Keirsiten. Now, just at this ipoint - we want to ma:ke sure that you understand ,p erfectly clearly, Mr. Mikula. We know, of course, that you did operate in the underground in Slovakia, and there are undou!btedly a number of things that you would not wish to spea;k a.'bout specifiicaHy and openly. 1S0 that any question the oounseil or any member here might ask in that regard, you just use yom own judgment. We don':t want you to disclose pU!blicly anything t hat would in any way endanger the ipresent situation there, a:nd that is what you 'ha,,ve in mind, Mr. Counsel, I am sure. Mr McTigue. Yes, Mr. Chairman. Dr. [Mikula. Yes. I 'Wl3.'Ilted to ask yo u for this permission. Mr. Mc'Tugue. How long were you a part of the undergroU1I1d in Slovakia.? Dr. Miikwla. I was wor,king directly in the field almost fiiive years to the. end ,o f 1'949. 1Iin Feb:rua.ry 11950 I left for the United States. ·Mr. McTigue. And did you emigrate to the Uniited States in 1950? Dr. Milkula. Yes, I did. Mr. McTigue. Now, when you left 1S1ova.ki.a in 1949, were you furced to !leave your wife b e hind'( Dr. Mikula. No, I was one of tho se who was sent abroad when the Communists took over and legia.l opposition was ailimost iimpossilble in ,the country. So, I went out from Slova:kfa in 1945, and I was wonk,i ng outside of Sfoviakia.. I was worlcing abroad. I have here a little bo~ldet edited by 1 1 41 SLOVAKIA the Ministry of l!nterior in .Prague; the head of the Ministry of Interior was a well-iknown Oommunist •o y the name of Nosek. It was edited and published by the Ministry of Interior, 5,000 issues were distrilbuted over here. My name is mentioned aJbout 70 or 80 times in this booklet. Mr. Kersten. Just .so we get th•a t clearly, as I understand it, you ~eift Sloivaikia in 1945. Dr. Mikuia. Yes, I did. Mr. Kersten. And you were outside the country? Dr. Mikula. Yes. Mr. Kersten. !But while you were outside the coll!Ilitry during the fullowmg yerurs up 'll'Iltil -about 1949 or 1950, you were woriking in t'hiis movement, is that correct? Mr. '.Mhlm~ia. I was in steady contact, and I was one of the leaders outside. MT. Kersten. Of the lllillderground freedom m01vement in Slova,kiia? Dr. Mii kula. Yes. Mr. Kersten. And this :book ,t hat you have ha,nded us here is a booldet put out by the Communists in Bratislava? Dr. Miikula. 1:rl ·P rague. The Ministry of InteriOT, Czecho-Slovakia. Mr. [Kersten. Maylbe we 1had better mark this. Dr. Milrula. The title of .the book is "Conspiracy Agaiinst the Repl]blic." iMT•. Kersten. Would you mark thi<s "Milwaukee Exhibit 4." And you have stated rthat this Milwaukee Exhibit 4 is a Communist ,pubH1cation ipulblished in what year? Dr. Miiktl'l.a:. ffit was printed Noivemlber 1947. Mr. Kersten. And it contains rtJhe accounts of operations 2.gainst the Communist g01Vernmen t; is that correct? Dr. Mikula. Yes. Mr. Kersten. And you are named in here, as you say, 70 or 80 times? [)r. Mii:ku1 a !Something liike that. Mr. Kersten. In rw1hat crupacity? Dr. Miikuila. Someitiiimes as ibhe leadeT of the underground, sometimes as an American agenrt, sometimes Mr. Kerstein. Always in a derogatory sense? Dr. M~kuJ1a. Absolutely. 1 1 1 42 SLOVAKIA Mr. Kersten. I notice on 1:Jhe first page of the printing here - one of the first rpages - it is aotually page 7,, but it seems to be the start "Of the body of t'he article - I notice a name - Joseph rMi!kufa. Is that you? Dr. Mikula. That i:s me. Mr. Kersten. Then you are named frequently therearfter; Dr. Mikula. Yes. is t:Jhiat rig1ht? Mr. Kersten. Proceed, Mr. Coltl7lsel. Mr. McTigue. I w,ant to •ask you two questions. Dr. Mikula. Wi'fil you briefly tell uis something about the ac'tiivities of the ll!Ilderground, and secondly, were these actiivities effectiive, in y;our j,udg,menit? Mr. iKersten. Keeping in mind tJhe safety maitters that we tahlced albout. Dr. Miikua,a. As I mentioned before, the legaiJ. resistance or Jega!l oppositilion againJSt communism was foiling. So, the people 1wirt:Jh ra nti-Oommunist tendencies lost faith m their weaik and oppo:rbuni,stic party leaders, and consequently, sought -0ther mea.lilS wiherelby they might prevenit the Communists from ·aocompl:iishing their ,plans. Now, the diTect answer to your question, "Wihat were the actiivities ?" Fiirst, to do e,verythiing that would undermine the Coimmu!nist IP .arty, and the ends of tfue Oommunist Party. We knew that they will try to Sovietize, to taike over the counwy. So, we rpuibliiished leaflets. We published booklets. We pu'b1is,ihed pe;riodiools. IDverytilimg was hllegal and underground. That w.as at 'the b~imling. Laiter on, when it wiIB pretty hrurd to distrilbute mimeographed leaflets or publications - because they were against the Communists - we started an illegal triansimi-titer - a shortwaive radio station. It is not necessairy to teH where and how it was, but it existed and rit worked very effectively. Then, later on, we tried to collect all possible rnformaitiorn from political, economical, military, oullJtu,r,a-1 life; get it out and mfomi the worild 1aJbout the si•tUJatiion over there. JUJst to show you how it was done, here are some photostatic copies of the orders issued by the commander in ohlef of the nati'Onal security guard. It was a gend:armery police. SLOVAKIA 43 Mr. McTigue. Communis t police? Dr. Milrula. CommUIIlist, yes. Mr. McTiguei. What did the ·o rder say? Dr. Mikula. They are different o:rders. For example, I will just ~ k of the first one. lt i,s dated Bratislava, March 4, 1947, firom the head{l_uall'lters of Nationail !S ecurity Guiard. The orders to the lower units of National Security Guards : il order that ,s pecial attention be paid to tJhe transports of Volhyi.ruia Ozechs cOIInli.ng from tihe U. S. S. R. - thait is the Soviet Union - they have already settled on the territory of Slovrukia. They have to lbe constantly watched arid fO!Nowed, because they are spreadling internationr uUy false infurmation a:bOUJt iour eastern ally, the U. S. S. R. Mr. !McTigue. Wha:t people is he talking rubout in tlhis order? Dr. !M.ikiula. One of the tactics of Commt.Lll!ist takeover was tramsplanta tion; movements of the people. Right after t'he war we had a HUJngarian minority in 1Slcwakia and a SlovaJki,a n minoniity in iH ungary. Now , right aft.er the war started the transportru tion orf these minorities frQiffi HUI11gary to Slovwkia, a,:nd from 1S1ova!kfa. to Hungary. What happened to Slovakia? From H1.1!11.g,acy came the people who couldn't sipealk any word of Sloviak. To Hungacy came people from Slova:kiia. There were Ozeohs iwho Hived about 200 or 300 years in one province of [Russia calllled Vo1hynia. Just to show good faith tor something like bha.t, the Sowet moved those Volhynia: Czechs to Ozeciho-Slovaikia. 'Dhe movements of the population are very serious thinigs, because they !bring insecurity. Noibody knows how long he stays in his ()IWll house., in his 01W11 neighlborllood, and so insecure people are aliways much easier for the CommUilasts to handle. Mr. McTigue. That is the grnup to whiioh he has reference in the order? Dr. Mikula. That is tihe explanation . So further: Specifically , I ask the units of Nationa,] Soourity Guard to watch the tI"ansports corning in and the transient transports orf V oohyniia Czec:hs going through the railroad station. 44 SLOVAKIA Those Czechs wouldn't come !into any contact with the public. I mea.n witJh the popu1ati10n. Then you hiwe here the order to maintain ~ continuous oontro1l on ail calls in post offices and telephone-Office excihanges. This was done by the ipol!ice. They ccmtr.ol all calls ·c oming in and W:hait was said. If they find something against the regime they wt accorcmng to regufations. Thls here is concerning the control of the pop.wlation in traiins. Everyone - they sa,y here, "Everyone is Slllpposed to have this ridentificaitioo. card1." So, the units of SiNB - lower units - are ordered lh:ere to control the population, and if somebody hasn't his idenitificatlion card, he ris supposed to be arrested am.cl brougiht ilil for investigation to the nearest police station. This order ooncerns the former gendarmes orr mem!bers of the National Security Guard poiice who were deported to Russia, were coniiined there, and later on brought 1b ack to Slovakia. Same of them were put in the!ir fonner positions. They were ·agaiin rcinsitated a:s gendarmes, but the order says: To the Ministry ()If Interior came the information t:Jhat the behavior ()If these returned former memlbers of gendarme is not satisfactory. They taJlk very sharply against the !S oviets iand are doring that even in the company of the other members of the unit. I order you to follow those memlbers in your d±sbr.icits and remind them that for bad talk aibout the brother nation, Russia, they can be ,p unished and arrested. Mr. McTigue. Now, what you haNe been de.scmbing to the oommittee . . . Dr. Mikll!la. These •a re just the examples of how information was oolle_c ted and brought out and utilized. Mr. McTigue. Now, do you know, or oan you tell the oommittee whether there is an wnderground operating in SwvaJkia ,a t the present time? Dr. Miilmla. l am posritive there is. First, I would just say from the general point of vtl.ew, so long as the Comm'Ulilists are unaJble to change human nait'UT'e, there wiU [be the will. to 1be free. It means there will be the will to rresist. That is a general rea:son SLOVAKIA 45 Second, the best proof ,i s that you still read in the papers how much troulble they haJVe in .t his or that group or with this group, and so on. These are the 1best documents that the :resistance is not only aJlii.ve, but is acti1Ve. Mr. iMcTigue. Do you fool thaJt the underground is the heart of the resistance, the core of the resisltance, in Slovaki,a today? Dr. Mhlrul'a. I would say so. I would dare say that albout 80 or 90 per cent of the population is anti-Communist, but not aU of these 80 o:r 90 per cent are willing to ta!ke am. acti:ve part to fight oommundsm. Mr. iMcrrigiue. Why? Dr. (Mlikula. Because of the advances of oommumsm they are very cautious ito. d:o nothing which could provoke or cailll for Communist reprisals This is one reason. !Second, urSU1ally the people WOII'king activei1y and directly are, in my opinion, heroes, and not everyone cam. be a hero. So, from thds group, from this 80 per cent, we can sruy whaJt is in tlhe underground is the most ii.miporllant and most vaJLuiaJble co,re of passive and ,a ctive resistam.ce. Mr. McTigue. You were in Slov,rukia at the time of the Communist taikeover; is that correct? Dr. Mikula. Yes. Mr. IMc'Digue. Were there wholesaile arrests and deportations in Slovakia. as there were in the other C-Ollll!tries? Dr. Milkllll,a. Slovakia. is a small counrtry of 31bou,t 3½ million poipuilation. So the figures. are not so enormous, but in relatio1I1, in proportion to ,t he whole popll'laition, they are pretty big They deported in :t'he fi.rst month aifteir the occupa1tion of Slovakia rubout 38,000 people. Besides this, in tlhe !first half year, when they took over, aibout 133,000 people were put in ja,i1s, in camps, amd taken out of theiir normal life. Mr.' Mcrrigue. [ ha;ve M further questions. Mir. Kersten. Mr. Bentley? . Mr. Be1I1tley. When did you leave Slovakia? Dr. Mikula. I lefit Slovalci.a in 1945. Mr. Bentley. That was just the beginni.DJg of the antiCornmi.mist resistance then,, I presume. Dr. Mitkula. Yes. 46 SLOVAKIA Mir. Bentley. ilfaJVe you mamta.ined contacits, or how have yiou gotten yml'I' worrunaJtion regarding the activities of the underground since that time? Dr. MikU!la. As I Wld you, we haJVe steady contact through couriers. I wi!ll j!U'st mention one thing: In 1945 our coUJriers hrougiht over my wife with two little children. Mr. Chai:run:an rememJbers those l.ititle children. One w:as four and one was ,s ix. Mr. Bentley. How l01ng was co111tact of this kind maintained? Dr. Miikulia. ,J t.hinik that contac.t is stiH mamtarlned, but I could rta1k 3111d testify ,t o the end of 1'949. Mr. Bentley. Until the end of 1949, which was a,bout two years after the coup d'etat in Pra,gue? Dr. Milrula. Yes. !Mr. Bentley. And srunce .that time, your ilmowledge has been 01JJ.ly fTom information, not direct; rum I correct? Dr. Miku]a. lit is secondary. Before I reccived mormatron diirecil,y. I was ll'S'lllally the first who received it. Now I a'In receiving informia,tion, but later. Mr. Bentley. How dloes the situation in Slovakia compare wi;th that of otfuer countries in the Soviet satellite, would YOIU say? Iis it -b etter or worae? DT. MikU!la. I thiinlk .t he condifti,ons a;re generaHy the same in all the coU!Iltries. As for the resistance, maybe in S'lovakira, the resistance is a little bit stronger and maybe a little bit more success:fluil, 1becall!se, as you iknow, Slovakia is a country orf farnners, a country of mountainee:ris, ·a nd the people i1I1: Slovaiki'a are deeply reliigtlous. T.he hardest thing for the Communists to break ~re the farmers and /besides that, to remove Teligion from the sow of the rpeoiple and rep}ace it by Leninism is not so easy. You know .t hat. Mr. Bentley. So you would say that the cond!itiOIIl!S are about the same, but -the resistance itJhere is a little bit ·stronger? Dr. Mikula. Yes. The same. The same concentration camps, liaJbor orumps, the same tendency to create Kollkhozes and co[lectiive farms, the same tendency to brealk any possible resistance, and if there dsn't any hope, arrest the peo- SLOVAKIA 47 ple, seind them ,t o uranii.ium mines; tJhe same everywhere, the same procedure. Mr. Bentley. Am ,I correct in believing that part of Slovakiia has been incorporiated in the 'Soviet Union? Dr. Mi:kula. A very small eastern part. Abowt 15 or 18 villages of S1ova1-da were inconporated inito the Soviet Ull!ion. Mr. Bentley. '.Dhe fiact that this resi,s tance dioes exist or does not exist in 'SlrovaJkia to the extent you say it does, what, in your opinio!Il, can lbe done most effectiively to eniruble this resistance to continue ,and maintain itself. Whrut encouragement or assistrunce can be givan, if any? Dr. 1M:iikuil.a. I would state .it in ·one way: To increase the hopes of ipeople lh'ling over there that soonetime there will be a cha1I1ge. iMr. Bentley. We ,a:re ta:lking specificailly of SLovaik:i!a. Dr. M:ikula. Spooiffioa.My, for 1Slovakia, it is absolutely necessary to reassure a;gaiin and again those people tlhat we are not forgetting them, we are not •giviing them up, and we have unde.rstaind!i!Il!g for their specific prolblems. Mr. Bentley. Including the right 'O'f self-determination? Dr. iMitkullia. '.Dhia.t is w!hat I walllted to say. We should not stick to the owtmoded, ourtlived st'I'luctures. '.Dhey have proved to be un:successfol, and rwe should give to the people the right to be free and to have therr OIWIIl: government, ·a ccording to their own c1hooce. That is one o.f the most important t'hd.ngs. Then th'i<s po<l.tnt: The people are, I wou!l.d say, 90 per cent 'llillited in Slovalk:ta. .Anyrt;hin,g whioh .poi.nrt:s o.wt thait we are forgetting them, rwe are not undersibanding them, is cutting otff the will to resist. iMr. Bentley. Thank you very much. Thiat i'S a:11, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Kersten. Congressman Feighan? MT. Feighan. Dr. 'Mikula, as I understand it, you feel thrut the people of 1SIOV1akia should be ,giiven assurances that the free ,w orld would sirnpport their desire for seiltf national determiniation of thei:r own identity as a nation if they so desiire? · Dr. Miikula. Wihen you are talking generally albout the popu1ation of Slovakia, that is one of the most important 48 SLOVAKIA things that they need; some kind of good will that we have a.!11 understanding oif thei'l' problem. MT. Feighan. Then if ,w e ,w ould tell the whole world that we stand by the principle upon which our Naition was founded, thiat is, the ri!ght of self-determi:ri:ati-cm, that would be he'l!pful to them. 'In other words, Mr. Mikula, if the free w0irld shO'Uld gi,ve the Communists a free hand !in t!hese caiptiive nations,, this would cause those people to lose hope, ilS that right? Dr. iM:ikuil:a. Absolutely. One of the most •i mportant things is to show those people :tlhait we are really l!Iliform.etl a'boUJt their plight, a.Jbout tlhe conditions under ,w hich they are 11ivimg, that rwe hacve actually access to the most secret communistic conspiracies. 'We shouJ.d convey t:his knowledge to the masses. That is one of the moot imlportant th,i ngs. Mr. Kersten. Does thrat hellp to sha:ke and lessen the Communist ipawer in 'Uhose countries? Dr. iMikul1a. It is •curttin.g off the arrogamt communistic se!lf-corufiderice, amd when we ta.Jke such a cut through the Communist Party, we see there are just a few intellectuals, a group of fanatics, and a great nuim ber of opportunists. The greatest ipart of them a.Te oppoiitun:ists. Activities must be directed against those opportunists, because they are afmid. They betrayed, first, second, thoird time. They a.re readty to betray todlay and every day. Mr. Kersten. ~irst o;f iaU, let me ask you this: YO!U have gone to Detroit from iMHrwaUJkee? Dr. M~kula. Yes. MHiwaiUJkee is my ,h ome. Mr. Ker,s ten. You li:ved 1here several years and ~eft for Detroit a short whlle ago wlhere you now live and :work Dr. MikuiJ.a. Yes. with your family? Mr. Kersten. Dr. MikU'la, you iha,ve given us a great deal of valuable inlfoirmation, rparticula:rly the knowledge that I know you ha'V'e, of the existence of the undeiig,round in Slocvakii a, resi,s tance, opposition, which our evidence indicates exists in all the other cOUIIltries likewise to a very great extent. !Mr. Kersten. Thank you, Dr. ~u!la, for yOUT aippear~Milwaukee, Wis., October 22, 1954). ance here today. 1 SLOVAKIA 49 FROM THE TESTIMONY OF PHILIP A. HROBAK Mir. Kersten. I want to say we are rvery honored and happy to haive you here with us, Mr. Hrobak, as the president of the Slovak League of America. :Mr. Hrobak. And tihe editor of the Jednota, the official organ of the First Catholic SlovaJk Union of the United States and Canada. · Mr. Kersten. I notice through several years of knowledge of your activities that you have keen understa:ndmg of whaJt it means for a nation or a country or a people to be occupied lby the Communists and some of the ways in whioh they fight and some of the thinigs that we should do to combat this new kind of enemy. Mr. iMcTigue. How many memlb:ers, Mr. Hro'bak, are a:ssociated or affiliated with the Slo:vak League of America? Mr. Hroba:k. The SloviaJk League .o f America, rubout 300,000. !Mr. Mo'Dig,ue. What, ibriefly, is the Slovak League of .America? Mr. Hrobaik. The pur:poses? Mr. McTigue. Yes. 1Mr. HTdbak. A cirvic and culturial origarnzation of Americans of Slov,a;k descent. It was organized in Oleveland in 1907. 'Mr. Mc'lligue. It is mry understanding, MT. Chaimnan, that !Mr. HrdbaJk has a statement which he wiSlhes to present to the committee, and if there is no objection, may I sugigest that the witness be permitted to proceed wiith the statement? · Mr. Kersten. Without objection, it is so ordered. !Mr. Hrdbalk. If you permit me, I would like to first express my deep appreciation to this committee for the opportunity given me to present the Slovruk chaipter in the dread detail of Communist aggression. I believe it is for the first time, at least as far as I know, that ,a real, honest effort is :being miade to know the background olf the many peoples behind the Iron Curtain, nations who always were and still are our friends, 50 SLOVAKIA peoiples who with all their hearts want to be our friends because to them America has always lbee:n a living symbol of freedom and independence, and now is just aJbout their last hope of sa1vation from Red tyranny. I harve the greatest respect for the hono-raJble gentlemen on this committee and its chairman, Charles Kersten. The coonmittee has a difficult taslk, b,ut it is doing that task admiraJbliy well. Helping the nations behind the Ixon Curtain to helrp liberate themselves from the curse of communism cannot and must not become ipOlitically a partisan a:flf1air. It is the business, the duty, of every American to take part in it; every Almerican must see it in that perspectirve, because it is, after all, in the interest of the security of our own America. I would li!ke to e~press one point ,b efore I read my statement, and that is that the SlovaJks have no quarreJ with the Czech nation as such. The Czech nation today is in the same Red fix as the SlovaJk nation. The Sfovak•s, however, cannot remain silent about Czech .p olitical leaders who were in a very large measure responsible for the present terrilble plight of the Ozech and Slovak nations over there, and who made it possilble foc the Communists to seize power in Czecho-Slova!kia practically without any troUJble. ("How the Communists Seized Power in SlovaJkia" the statement by P. A. Hrobaik, president of the Slovak League of America and Editor of the "J ednota," official 011gan of the First CathoHc Slorvak Union, •b efore the Kersten Committee on Communist Aggr(}SSion, in the County Court House, Milwaukee, Wis., Friday afternoon, October 22, 1954 - was .pulblished in full in the iprevious issue [Septemlber.,Decemlber 19541 of SLOVAKIA and, hence,, is not repeated here.) Mr. iMcTi,gue. 1I take it from your statement, Mrr. Hrobaik, that you consider the National Socialistic Party of Czecho-,Slovalda a:s the one which was responsible for the sellout to Moscow; is that correct? Mr. HrrobaJk. I do, sir. Mr. McTigue. Do you consider that the case of Czecho1 SLOVAKIA 51 Slovakia is a practical or typical example of what happens to a nation that attemipts to coo,peirate or coexist with Communists? Mr. Hroba:k. Definitely. Mr. McTigue. What do you think of the present Kremlin campaign to sell the nati0'11s of the free world on peaceful coexistence? Mr. Hrohak. That is the Kremilin's way of trying to lull us to sleep; forget our problems, our troubles; forget what communism is, and just let them get strong enough until they can take all of us. Mr. McTigue. In your opinion, what do you think we can do to keeip the ho,pes of the people of Slovakia alive? How can we most help them at a time like this? Mr. Hrolba!k. We must let them know that we a;re behind them; that we have not forgotten them; that .Americans stiH believe in the principles uip on which their country was founded, in the principle of freedom and independence ; and let them know that we shall do everything to help them he1p themselves to overthrow the regime they have. ~fir. McTigue. You agree with Mr. Mikula, who testified here earlier today, that the resistance is still strong among the ,people of SlovaJkia? Mr. Hrabaik. It certainly is. We have had cootact with the people directly and indirectly right through the war, and we still get letters from people, who come from Slovakia today. Mr. McT-fgue. You are able to maintain an effective system of communicati10n with the Slovakian people with what is going on over there today; is that correct? Mr. Hrobalk. indirectly. Certain people get the info;rmation from persons in Sl>ova~ia and then we get it. Mr. Kersten. Mr. Bentley? Mr. Bentley. Mr. HrobaJk, I want to go 1b aclt a little bit before the period of Communist domanation of Slovakia and look at the situation there !b:rfofly during the Second World War. When SlO'V'aJkia was an independent reipulblic, what exactly was the relationship at that time between Slovakia and Germany? 52 SLOVAKIA Mr. HrOlbalk. Foveign policy was undoulbtedlly dictaited by Germmy, /but the domestic policy was not, until the uprising of 1944, when the German Aiimy came in to occupy Sloval~ia. Then bhe Slova.ks were in for it. Mr. Bentley. -Would you say that the fad, for example, that Slovalkia had troops on the Russian f.vont was a voluntary action or wa:s that dd.otated b:y Genmany? Mr. Hvdbalk. I think it was both. I think th13Jt the Germans expected it, and the Slovaks, to make it aippear that they aire really taking the business seriously, s.e nt a token division there. The Slovaks had a way of exchanging men by classes; they never had many men in the field. Mr. Bentley. Did -Slov:akia take any action toward the UTrited States at the time or shortlly after Pearl Harbor when the Germans declared war? Mr. Hrobaac. No; we tried to ascertain thait business. We found out that some ,p erson, I believe it was the German radlio in Vienrna, d'id ma.Ike a statement that Slovakia declared warr, but as far as- we could find out from our own State Department and War Department, there is absolUJtely no formal declaration of war aga:inst the United States. iMr. Bentley. Never was at any time? Mr. Hlrolbruk. Never was at any time. We couldn't find that out from our own United States Goveirnment because that point interested us rvery much, and so far there is absolutely no record of it. Mr. Bentley. Now, you say there was a distinction between the foreign policy of the Slov,a k Repulbl:ic which was exercised and the domesti'c .poHicy. You mean -t he domestic policy of the Slovak Repulblic was independent of Gennany? Mr. HrobaJk. Yes; just about all independent; I mean, running the country of Slovakia itself. Mr. Bentley. Was there any form of oppression at thait time? Mr. Hrobaik. There was no oppression of religion or any other thing. Some laiws. were enacted that ha;d to coincide with some of the laiws that · the Germans had, but oUJtside of that, the economic conditions - even Mr. Sr0ib31r, one of SLOVAKIA 53 the most intimate foiends of Benes had to admit after the wax, were good. Mr. Kersten. You say there was no oppression. There was freedom of religion and the other political freedoms that you normally would expect? Mr. HrOlb.ak. None. Some claim that there was ,political swppression in Sl01Va!kia, but they don't explain the problem correctly. The fact is that the ISlovaik parties, the two only genuine !Slovak parties, are the Hlinka People's Barty sometimes called the Catholic Party, and the Razus Slwalk National Party, whi·c h was considered the Lutheran Parby. Now these worked for the same program with one accoro. Mr. Bent-ley. Following the wprising of August 1944, when the German mHitary came in to ,p ut it down, from that time Slovakia lost its. independence? Mr. Hrrolbak Yes. The Slovaks got it from both sides. They were murdered by the occupation troops a.ind then by the partisans on the other end. Mr. Bentley. After the German military occupation did the Tiso government continue in po,w er? Mr. HrdbaJk. They continued. in ,power until 1945. Tiso tried to explain away as best he coui'd that it was not a national uprising; that the Slovruk Army and the Slovak gendarmerie couild ta.Ike care olf the troubles in Slova:kia themselves. The Germans firral,l y did not believe the Slovaks rufter General Otto's military mission was stopped at Turciansky :S vaty Martin. I believe it was on August 25; the group of aJbout 25 or 30 people, women and children included, were taken off the train and put up in barracks for the night. The neoct morning ~l were lined up against a wall and mowed down with machine guns by the prurtisans. Then there were other murders, sabotage, terrorrist activities, which all came too soon, even for Benes's liberation movement which he had allegedly organized. The leader of that movement was supposed to be General Golian. The uiprising was Communist-in spired and did not have popular support. 54 SLOVAKIA Mr. Bentley. The Rm!ssian military OCCUipation of Slovalkia took place about when? Mr. HrQbak. Albout Easter Sunday, 1945. Mr. Bentley. And at that time the Slovak Government escaped to Germany? Mr. Hlrobak. The Slovak Government went to Austria. Mr. Bentley. And I believe they were finally captured with the American troops? Mr. Hrobak They were not captured. They surrendered to General Walker's army at that time. We had a copy of the surrender papers and we gave it to, our State Department, and, of course, the Army Department. Mr. Bentley. And what happened to the members of the Slovak Goivernment? Mr. Hrohak. Well, unfortunately, even despite all our effovts in America to preivent their being handed over to Benes and his governrrnent in London, unfortunately, I say, our pleas availed us nothing, and Tiso's Slovak Government was gi'Ven up to Benes and the Benes.Gottwald coalition government. Tiso, after being tried by a "people's" court, was hanged on April 18, 1947, while members of the Slovak Govenunent were sentenced to prison. Mr. Bentley. They were tried as war criminals? Mr. Hrabaik. Yes, "war criminals," according to Prague. Mr. Bentley. What is the sit'lllation in Slovakia today under the Commrunist government of Prague? Is there any form of committee for Slo;vaikia or is there a completely unified government? Mr. Hrobaik. Prague is still trying to tell us that the Slovaiks themselves govern the.ir part of the state and the Czechs govern their part, and so on, but that is not true. The Czech Red centralized government in Prague is running the whole show. Even Slovak Communists are not safe; Clementis is gone, so are others, and the secretary general of the Slovak Communist Party is Karel Bacilek, a Czech. Mr. Bentley. You say the Communists are trying to appeal to Slovak nationa1ism somewhat? Mr. Hrobak. They did. Today it doesn't mean any- SLOVAKIA 55 thing. They are done for. In fact, 1S lovak Reds were for separation in 1926, long ibefore Hlinka's pa,r ty. Mr. Bentley. Who? Mr. Hrdba.lk. The Communists. It is a matter of record. They knew what the people wanted. They figtN"ed that there are no people in any country who, do not desire to be free and independent and they used that to gain their SUipport. Hlinka's Party fought for autonomy; in the beginning, you know, it wanted to haive a federation where SlovaJk,i a would simply have states' rights. The fight was simply for states' rights, as we understand them here in the States. The Slovaks wanted to elect their own governor, their own judges, their school di,rectors, and so on. They were not for separatism until much later. Mr. Bentley. Mr. Hrobak, you were here, I imagine, when Dr. Milkiu.la was testifying, and he said it was his belief that so far as the people of Slovakia are concerned, what they really wanted was the right to self-determination. Do, you concur in that? Mr. HroibaJk. That is correct. Mr. Bentley. Thanik you ivery much. Your statement and your testimony has contributed to the hearings, I am sure. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 1Mr. Kersten. Mr. Hrolbak, l think at this time it is quite clear from the records of recent history that the attempts of the Benes government to collaborate with and have coexistence with the Soviet Union is a classic case of what it means to make this attempt. I meant merely for that government to put itsel1' in a position to be swallowed wp by the COll'Il.Illunists. Mr. Hrobak. That is correct. Mr. Kersten. It is a classic case in that regard. Mr. Hrobak. Correct. iMr. Kersten. And I believe one of the ministers of the Benes government in London, Dr. Stransky, thought that Mr. Hrobak Yes. too. Mr. Kersten. And that, along with other similar epi- 56 SLOVAKIA sod.es, certainly proves that there is no such thing as peaceful coexistence with the Communist s. Mr. HTolbaik. That is correct. Mr. Ker.sten. Well, I want to than!k you. The records show if it doesn't already that Congressm an Bentley knows a great deal about this situation in Ea:stern Europe because he was an American diplomat in Hungary for several yeairs, and he knows firsthand sOime of the real maichinations of the Communist s when they truke aver a country. Mr. Bentley. I was ailso in Slova-kia. Mr. Kersten. I am sure he has firstha:nd knowledge of that, too. Mr. HrolbaJk. Mr. Chairman, -t he statement that I have made is based not only on what we haive from Slovaks, patriotic Slovaks, 'but it iis also based O!t1 the 'book that the regime put out in 1946, that is by the Lettrich "Demo-. crats" arid the Husak Communist s; the name of it is "Natl Tatrou sa Blyska" - (Lightning over the Tatras). The booik has contr~butio ns from both sides, MT. Lettrich's men and the Husaik men. And, of coocse, on the book that was already introduced, there were only 5,000 of these, The Conspiracy .Aigainst the Republic, which was introd uced as testimony by Dr. Mikula. That is my oopy. Then on a boolk that was published here in America by the Communists called "Parti:zani na Slovensku" - (Partisans in Slovakia), published in Chicago. And, I believe, another booklet called "Verni ostruli," (They Remained Faithful). This book dealt with the uprising; it was written by Deso Benau, ,w ho was editor of the New Yonksky Dennik (The New York Daily), in 1946. Mr. Benau wa:s editor of that paper from 1942 to 1946 and tod!ay is doing an admiraJble job for the Communist s in BraUshwa. In this pamphlet - I will leaNe you this copy - you can see the organizatio ns that are affiliated with us The SlovaJk League of America -- and the me:rrubers they have. - I might add here that our papers were outlaiwed from Ozecho-Slovakia by the Communist s on October 10, 57 SLOVAKIA 1946 - that is this paper, the Jednota. and three other Slova!k p8{!)ers. Now, as you see here in this particular paper dated Decemlber 13, 1944, we didn't wait until 1948 to tell America that Benes sold out the Czechs and Slova!ks to Stalin. The big headline in that Decemlber 13, 1944, issue right on the front page reads: "Sl()IVakia soJd out by Dr. Ed/ward Benes." Mr. Mc'Digue. What is that .pu!blication? Mr. Hro!b.ruk. This is the Jednota, the official organ of the First Catholic Slovak Union of the United States and Canada. And my statement is further ·b ased on the information contained in the booklet "The Rise and Fall of the Democratic Party in Slovakia," which was written by Constantine Cu1en, a new:spruperman from Slova;kia now residing in Canada, and ipu!blished in Slovaik by the Slovaik League of America. I have translated it into English and the committee is welcome to it any time. Mr. Kersten. Thank you, Mr. Hrobak. (Milwaukee, Wis., Octo'ber 22, 1954). 1 STATEMENT BY DR. JOSEPH A. MIKUS Fram 1944 until my escape from Soviet-dominated Czecho-Slovakra, i:n March, 1948, I resided in Bratislava. During this period I was three times imprisoned by the National Front Government: in 1945, 1946, and 1947. Now, as a Slovalk refugee in the United States, I am glad to have the opportunity of exposing to the Committee on Communist A!ggression the tactics which, to miy own knowledge and ibased on my personal experience, were utilized 'b y the Communists in Slovakia to establish themselves first as a politca.-1 party and finally as a dominant force in tha,t country. Introduction Before entering upon a discussion of the subject: proper, I would like to outline in general terms what has until now been the main trend in Slovakia's political history. 58 SLOVAKIA After losing her political independe nce in the ninth century, Slovakia existed for a thousand years under for eign dominatio n. Desrpite this fact, the Sl01Va!k nation did not lose its ethnograp hic and cultural individua lity. Within the nraime~o rik of the Austro-H ungarian Empire, it was ruble to survive all the ;pressure of the Magyar cultural and political centralism whioh seriously menaced its very naJtional existence in the 19th century. World War I finally providied an opportun ity for the 1SlovaJks to rid themsel'Ves of the restrictin g grip of this ancient and obsolete power structure . On May 30, 1918, at the close of World War I, the Slovak League of America signed together with the organilzatio ns of .Amemcans of Czech descent the so-called Pittsburg h Agreeme nt, aimed at creating a dualist federal union of the Czechs and Slov,atk,s which a little later entered the world communi ty of nations under the name of Ozecho-!Slio:vakia. Although provision s guarantee ing the preservat ion of the Slovak national and po1itical individuality were, according to the principle of self-deter mination, the essential condition of this solution, the Ozech political leaders, T. G. Masaryik and E. Benes, never made any real attempt to fulfill their pledges. Instead of a federal union providing for a reasonaib le degree of self-gover nment for the Slovaks, and in utter disregard of the political will of the Slo1V.:\k people, Prague organized a strongly centralize d state. On !February 29, 1920, the first so-called revolutio nary parliame nt Oif Oze:cho..JSlovakia, ~inted !by the Prague revolutio nary governme nt, voted for the first Czecho-lSlovak Constitut ion which suibmerge d the Slovak national individua lity through the device of a speciousl y conceirved "Ozecho-!Slorvaik" nation, wherein the Czechs wouid always lbe assured of their majority status and their predomin ance. Not being a minority group in the sense provided for under internatio nal treaties signed after World War I, Slovakia ·r emained without any internatio nal protection . Contrary to the famous definition of democracy by Abraham Lincoln, the regime a:rfuitrarily established by Prague in Slo:vaJkia could be described not as a governme nt of the people, by the people, for the " SLOVAKIA 69 people," 'but rather as "the g,overnment of the Ozech bureaucracy by the concept of the 'Czecho..:Slovak' nation foisted upon the Sl01Vak people." For 20 years SlovaJkia sought to· haive the principle of equality between the Czechs and the Slovalks inco:r.porated into the constitution. The Slo,vak political leaders argued that the Pittsburgh Agreement was of international relevance and that it should 'be respected by both parties in the very interest of the joint Czecho-Slovalk state. Prague, conrfident of the support implicit in the Little Entente (1920), thie Mutual Defense Treaty with France (1924), and, last but not least, the 'Dreaty of Friendship and Mutual Aid concluded with the Soviet Union (1935), felt strong enough to refuse any discU1ssion on this pomt at any time. The Munich Oonference of Septemlber 28, 1938, the primary sig.niificance of which was the coUaipse of the Ozecho~SlovaJk sysltem · of military a,lliances, inevitaJbly brouight the nationality problem of the heterogeneous Ozecho-Slovak State into the foreground. By the policy o;f E. Benes, and in accordance with the Vienna arbitration of Von R~bentro,p and Ciano on Novemb,er 2, 1938, SlOIVakia, lost over 10,000 square kilometers of territory to Hungary; an a·rea which included 853,000 inhabitants. This was a national catastrophe. Ha,ving experienced this and other deceptions,, and !being confronted in MaTch 193,9 with the alternative of the partition of her territory among Germany, Hung,a ry, and Poland, or of falling under direct German administration, Slovakia voted on March 14, 1939, thrnugh her legitimately constituted Diet in Bratislava, for independence. During World War II -E. Benes, who had voluntarily resigned his oflice of President of Czecho-Slovakia, found refuge as a ,pri'Vl8.te indilvidual in ,London. His basic goal was to reestrublish Czecho"'Slo,valkia and, in spite of the oppositi'on. of the SlOIValk people, he was able to achieve this goal ,b y relying essentially on the help of the Red army and a grourp of domestic colla!borato~s. lirl the main body of my statement I will explain the ;principal facts of this evo- SLOVAKIA 60 lution, but I would first of all li!ke to stress one important point : All 'Slovaiks in the free world greatly ruppreciate the fact that the House Committee on Oommunist Aggression has paid particul ar attention to the tactics• which communism aipplied in Slovaikia. As a matter of fact, these tactics were very difforenit 'from - for exMn1ple - those adopted in the Czech area. This fine distinction - an a,rt in which Moscow h•a s aliways been a master - resllilted from the clifference of attitude demonstrated toward the Sovieit Union by the population of Slova:kia at the end of World Wa:r II. As is kno,wn, during World War IT the Czech lands were a German protectorate. At that time and until 1944, Slovaikia was a relatively fTee state, imbued with only one desire: To reaffirm her status as a national state after the end of the war. Whereas the populaition of Bohemia and Moravia loolked fonwa:rd with high hO!pe to its liberation from German domination 1by the Soviets, that of Slovakia considered the approach of the Soviet Army as a dista:ster which would put an end to the Slovak national state. Because of this difference in psychological attitude, Moscow decided from the•outset on a policy of appeasement of the Czechs and on a prog,r am designed to smash the resistance of the Slova:ks. A detailed ,plan for this program had ibeen elalborated, with the Kremlin's blessing, by E. Benes and K. Gottwald, who as early as 1943 were in Moscow. 1 A. The Blueprint for Sovietization After the Teheran Conference, which toolk place Novemlber 28 - December 1, 1943, it b,ecame clear that the Soviet Union would inevitaJbly play an important role in post-war Europe . This conference gave substantial encouragement to the hopes of the Communists and certain pro.-Soviet non~ommunists in Slovakia. Immediately thereafter, on December 12, 1943, Dr. Edward Benes, as chief of the Czecho-Slova:k: Government-rn-exile, signed the Treaity of F'riends·hip, Mutual Aid and Col1ia/boration ,w ith Stalin in Moscow. In article 4 of this treaty the two· signafories agreed upon close political and economic cooperaition. "Talking into consideration their respective peaceful interests," SLOVAKIA 61 says the treaty, "the high contracting parties have decided, after the restoration of peace, to estaiblish a close and friendly collaboration . . ." They will develop to the maximum their economic relations and will grant each other, after the war, all possilble economic help." No such treaty haw.ing been signed with the United States, Great Britain, or France, this international a:greement predetermined the orientation of Ozecho~SlovaJkia toward Moscow in the post-iwar European scheme of politica:l relations. The Benes-Stalin treaty served as a strong stimulus for those who had been aspiring to political power within the framework of Soviet influence in central Europe. In this category were included, among others, fOTmer memJbers of the Slova:k Communist P,arty. In the 1935 elections, this party had gained six sea:ts of the 58 corresponding to Slo;vaikia in the Pmgue Pa:rliament. Consequently, around 10 per cent of the total ,p opulation of the country had voted for this party, which the Government of the Sl01Vak Republic had suppressed as a subversive group in 1938. The non-Communist growp, smaller and weaker in its common punpose, was composed mostly of descendants of Czech exiles who in the seventeenth century, at the time of the Count er Refiormation, had settled in Slovakia. Both of these factions, equally willing to back " ... the apocaly,ptical horse from the E}ast" (as communism was perfervidly described lby one of the factional leaders, r..udovit Sensel ), met secretly on Christmas Day, 1943, and created a joint r evolutionary organization under the name of the Slovak National Council. The goal of this movement, as estaJblished under article 2 of the respective secret document, was: " . . . to ta:ke over, at the expedient time, all political, legislative, military, and governmental executive power in Slova:kia and to use it according to the will of the ,people until such time as their freely elected reipresentati<ves shall themsel,ves ibe ruble to take it over." The b.asic political tenets of the so-called Christmas Agreement were laid down in another document, the first three articles of which read as follows : 62 SLOVAKIA "(1) It is our desire that the Slovaks and the Czechs, as the two most closely related Slav nations, shall unite their destinies in a Czecho-Slovalk Republic which will be their common government organized on the principle of equality. "(2) We desire close collaboration with all Slav states and peoples, particularly with the Soviet Union, in whioh we see a protecting shield for the free life and welfare of all small nations in general, and of the Slav nations in particular. "(3) The future Czecho..Slovak Republic shall conduct its foreign policy in the spirit of these .principles and should therefore, lean on the Soviet Union." It is appropriate to mention here that, during his visit to Moscow in Deceimib er 1943, E. Benes had in principle agreed with K. Gottwald to set up a So'Viet ty;pe of internal administration in Cze.cho-Slovakia after its reestablishment as a dualist union ; to eliminate all traditional conservative political parties in the Ozech area, as well as in Slovakia; and to esta:bli,s h the regime of a so-called National Front Government. In his Memoirs, published in Prague in 1947, E . Benes recognized this in the following passage (pp. 408-409) : ''Thereafter Gottwald e,opressed his opinion a'bout the way in which this revolution should be prepared. He stressed the necessity of forming national committees (i.e., So¥iets) , which would not only constitute the revolutionary cells of insurrection, but would even se:rve as embryos for the whole revolutionary political administration, I was not apposed.'' - wrote Benes - "to this opinion . . ." 1 "Then Deputy Gottwald," continued Benes, "went on to consider the question of the structure of political parties after the revolution in Czecho-Slovakia. He was certain of a great Te1volutionary shift to the leift, of a great Socialist majority, rund of a great defeat of our block of right-of-center parties as it existed before the war: agrarians, national democrats, and artisans . . . As to the admission of the Agrarian Party, our Communists were not willing to commit themselves in any specific way in De- SLOVAKIA 63 cember 1943. For all of us the merciless liquidation of fasoism was without any distinction the basic and obvious issue." In the same discussion., Benes and Gottwald touched on the problem of the National Front Government: "It will be necessary," ~ote Benes, "for the governmental parties to form a unified national front after the Uberation, to form a common reivolutionary program, and to pledge themselves to put it jointly into practiice. I then expressed my agreement with the plan concerning a national front ." (pp. 409-410). On the basis of these three principles,: Sovietization of administTati'ons, elimination of the conservative parties, and organization of the National Front Government as it emerged in 194'5, Cze'cho-1Siovakia was inevitrubly fated to become a "people's" democrwcy. Wihat was the practical result for SlorvaJkia of the Benes-Gottwald agreement? The Communist and the nonCommunist pro~Soviet group conspiring a.gain.st the Slovak Repulblic, although not representing more than 24 percent of the population, became the future leading force of Slwakia. B. The August 1944 Insurrection Since early 1944 the Soviet partisan headqll!arters in Kiev, with Rudo1ph Slanslky as i.ts main political adviser, had 1been pouring Red ,p arachutists and Communist agents into the mountains of central Slovakia, far behind the German frontlines. Through contacts with many Communists and non-Communist symjpathizers, Sfova'ks, Czeehs, and fornigners in various cities and villages of the country, these agents maI11a,g ed to create a network of informants and future collruborators. More recent documents reveal that as early as Fehrua·r y 7, 1944. Proif. Viladimir Jershov of Russian· origin, Gregorij Soloshenko, second lieutenant of the Red army, and William Zingor, a Slo~-ak Communist, came to an agreement in Tureiansky Sv. Martin that " . . . all future partisan activities in Slovakia would follow instructions 64 SLOVAKIA from Mos:cow."l It was also agreed that 2ingor would be the chief of the Slova:k partisans, with Soloshenko as his sulbstitute. These self-appointments were later " . . . recognized by partisan headquarters in Kiev, and the Turiec County group was integrated into the general Soviet partisan system. By this act the partisan movement in Turiec assumed the character of a militaTy organ~tion." 2 Moreover, in the summer of 1944 the following Sol\Tiet rugents were, a.mong many others, actiive in Slovakia: Ing. Nicolai Avenaria, as liaison officer in Myjawa; Jmfa Nikolaiev, a graduate of the Leningrad Naival Academy, as distrilbutor of arnns; Ing. Dimitrij Venero:vsky am.d Ivan Platonovich, active in preparing the partisan or.ganization of Liptov County. In Turiec, whioh was the center of the So·viet partisan activities, I·v:an Stepanol\Tich and Alexander Fjodorovich Krajushkin were actively operating. The real Soviet partisan camp was organized in the Kantorska Valle~, near Sklabina. It was commanded by a second lieutenant of the Red Army, Ilvan VySOIC!ldj. Nikola Sur:kov, second lieutenant of the Red army, was in command of a similar camp near Priekopa. The most effective of these Soviet agents was Alexei Velichko, captain oif the Soviet paratroopers, who, in fact, ibecame the chief of all partisan actil\Tity in Central Slovakia. Even General Osmolov was sent to SlovaJda for a period of time to assure coordination of the activity of the different groups. In the meantime, on August 1, 1944, Gen. Bar Komorovs:ki, in command of the Polis:h underground army, ordered a general insurrection in Wa.rsa.w. H e did this after hea.iring an a;ppeal of _Radio Moscow encouraging the people of Warsaiw to carry out a ·general uprising. "The hour of a·ction has already arriived," declared Moscow. Bor Komor-ovski was consequently firmly conivinced that he would receive eiffoctiive aid from the Red army, which had just reached the gates of the Praga sulbwr.b, 10 miles from Warsaw. But the e~pected hel.p neyer came. In his telegram of (1) Cont ributions to the H istory of th e Slo vak Nationa:l Insurrection (In Slovalk ) , Turcians ky Sv. M.arrt in , 1947, p . 26. ( 2 ) IbM.. , p. 29. SLOVAKIA 66 August 16, 1944, to Prime Minister Churchill, Stalin dissociated himself from the "Wa1rsaiw venture." And so under the very eyes of the Red .army, the German units were able to carry out their m8Sllicre of those Polish patTiots who to Strulin (,according to his telegram of August 22, 1944, to Churchill) were but "a groU!p of criminals." On Octdber 2 the uiprising collapsed 1because Stalin was unwilling to help "the Polish reactionaries." The Waraaw insurrection seemed to ha:ve no effect on Slovalkia. This was a ibloiw to Soviet expectations. To the U. S. S. R., Sl~i,a, in the summer of 1944 was, from a military viewpoint, an eID1Pty tera'itory with a "reactionary government and nationalist populations," with some "deviated Communists" and some opporturustic non-Communist elements looking hopefully to Benes in London. A civH W8JI' in Ozecho~Sloiwukia wouild haive been immensely helpful to the political aim!s of Moscow. But patriotic Slovaks were too wise to begin an internal struggle. Three weeks had passed siI11Ce the beginning of the Warsaw U!prising, and still no rea.c,tion in Slovakia. In order to purge this country of its "reactionary" elements before the impending occupat:rion, Moscow needed German military intervention there. ft was up to the Soviet aigen.ts to provoke it and their opportunity was not long in arising. On August 24, 1944, a spec,ial German military train stopped in Tureiansky Sv. Martin, some miles from the Soviet partisan headquarters illl ,Sklabina. The chief of the railway station, in collusion with Captain Velichko, refused to let it leaive. G€aleral Otto, former chielf olf the Gernnan milimry mission in Rumania and now retwrmng from Bucharest to .Berlin with his suite of 28 ;persons, was then oonducted to the military barracik,s, held a prisoner on instructions from Velichko, and together with all his aides was killed by a unit of revolting soldiers the fohlawirtg day. ThereUJPOn Hitler, infuriated with a Slovaik Government which was "unalble to 'k eep oroer in the hinterland of the German lines," decided to send General Hloeffle into Slovakia with an army of six di,visions to arunihrilate the 66 SLOVAKIA partisan movement. It was as a result of this decision that the political and military leaders of the pro-Soviet conspiracy started the U[>rising whioh was announced on August 29, by Radio Banslka Bystrica. Within two months General Hoeffle crushed this Sorviet-inspired venture. Although the political chiefs of the insurrection, such as the "Demo .. crats" Joseph Lettrich, Jan Ursiny, iMatej Josiko, Martin Kvetko, Samuel Bellus, etc., and the Commum,s ts Gusta,v Husak, Laco Novomesky, Karol Schmidke, etc., were aible to escrupe, its military chiefs, General Viest and General Golian, were not so fortunate. As they were attempting to escrupe by plane, the latter was burned by their angry and disillusioned soldiers. Both of them were then captured by the Germans and ta:ken to a concentration camip in the Reich from ,w hich they were never to return. Wihile alll of this was going on, the Soviet Army was quietly resting on the north side of the Carpathian Mountams where it had been stationed for ove,r four months, tranquilly ruwaiting the last act in this &ama. It is evident that the U!prising was only a trrup set b.y the Soviet partisans to ensnare the ". . . Sl~ak reactionary and opportunist elements." This pur,pose of the insurrection was revealed during the trial against Slansky in Prague in 1952. As has already been mentioned, the former secretary general of the Comm.1N1ist Party of Ozeoho-1Slovakia had been the main ctivil adviser for the 1944 insurrection in Kiev. With respect to this function the state prosecutor ques~ tioned him as follows: Prosecutor: Why did th.e Anglo-iAmerican agent (general) P1ka show an interest in placing the partisan units in Slovakia under the command of (General) Golian? Slanslky: He sought to place all partisan units under the command of the reactionary General Golian at Banska Bys:trica so as to faciJ.itate Golian's supervision of their activities. Pika tried, in the interest of the imperialists and of the London Government of Dr. Benes, to reduce the influence of the par1Usa.n.s as far as possdible.3 (3) Marcel Peju: Hier et Aujourd1hui: Le sens du proces Slansky II. Les Temps Modernes. P.ari,s, June 1953, p. 2013. SLOVAKIA 67 Thus Slansky revealed many years later what the Soviets really thought of the leading non-Communist personalities in the 1944 insurrection in Slovaikia. This event is a great national tragedy. Whereas during the thref' years of her participation in the struggle against bolshevism, Slovakia lost only 2,500 soldiers on the eastern front, she lost around 30,000 persons in the insurrection in the short space of two months. Unlike the insurrection of Warsaw, that of Banska Bystrica has nothing to do with Slovak ~triotism. It is quite clear that Slovak patriots would have never organized an insurrection the purpose of which was to reestablish foreign external and internal control in their country. C. The "Liberation" of Slovakia What is known as the liberation of Slovakia by the Soviets is in fact a misnomer and a grave distortion of the historical facts. During World War II, though subject to a certain international supervision by Germany, Slovalkia was a relatively free country. During five years, until the insurrection of Banska Bystrica, no one was executed for political reasons . The Slovak Government in Bratislava was able to master all the difficulties of the war period during these years. Then the Red army came. I waited for the Soviet "liberation" with a family which lived on the outskirts of a small town, S., in western Slovakia. They had a nice, or as the Communists would say, a '~bourgeois" home here. On the morning of a day of mid-April 1945, the Soviet Army entered the town. The house in question, which was located on a hill, was then chosen as headquarters for the Soviet commanding generral in that sector of the front. During the two days that the general stayed in the house, the conduct of the Russians was exemplary. After the general and his staff had left, we congratulated ourselves on our not too bad experience with the Soviet Army and prepared to cel~brate this event with a good family dinner that evening. At p. m., just as we were sitting down to table, a first lieutenant and a sergeant of 68 SLOVAKJA the Red army entered the house. The latter put his gun on the dining-room ta>ble and began checking on our identity. Meanwhile the officer began to inspect the house "looking for hidden German spies." In the course of this inspection he found our ,p ersonal effects in Oiile of the bedrooms and ·b rought them into the dining room. He then proceeded to examine these things in detail and chose for himself whatever happened to please him: A watch, a leather suitcase, etc. We then saw that a second lieutenant of the Red army had entered the house and began in turn to forage through it. After a while he ordered a young lady to go into the kitchen to give him a glass of water. When these three left, after 9 :30 p. m., the lady in question colJapsed because she had been violated. After this visit by offi .. cers, two other groups of soldiers, many of them drunk, successively entered bhe house, each one having held us, that is, four men and three ladies, under terror in their own way, until 2 :30 a. m. In the city of Bratislava, which numbered around 200,000 inhabitants, more than 4,000 dishonored women had to go to the hospital for examination. During the "liberation" of SlovaJkia by the Soviets, around 20,000 Slovaks, mostly intellectuals, were sent by po1itical commissarias into la;bor camps of Russia, while various tens of thousands of inhaJbitants were imprisoned. D. Political Evolution Aft.er 1945 On April 5, 1945, the government of Dr. E. Benes followed the advancing Red army from Moscow into the easVSlovaikian city of Kosice and estaJblished the Third Czecho-iSlova!k Republic in the shadow of Soviet bayonets, through the so-called Kosice declaration. Thus a foreign government was imposed upon the Slovaik people which, except for two small :factions of political opportunists, had been loyal to the Slova>k State - all of this without any plebiscite. The Communists and pro-Soviet "Democrats", who had already rendered a great service to Moscow in the 1944 uprising, became the ex cutors of the n w state will in Slovaikia. SuOVA.KIA 69 According to. the Benes-Gotlbwald agreement of December 1943 in Mos'coiw, they eliminated from the political life of Slovrukia all other former political ,parties, namely, the Slovak People's Party, the Agrarian Party, the Slovak National Party, and the Artisans Party. These parties }:lad received in the 1935 elections 19 plus 112, plus 1, plus 1, or a total of 33 seats in the Prague Parliament out of the grand total of 58 seats corresponding to Slovalkia. Not countiing the Magyar and the German minorities which had then elected 11 deputies and did not take part in the uprising, the two pro-Soviet factions cor,r esiponded in strengbh to only 1'4 deputies of the pre~war Slova,k representation in the Prague Parliament, six of them being Communists, four Social Democrats, and four others. Now, after haiving assured the mo!Ilopoly of political re,presentation for themselves, the Communist and pro~ Soviet "Democrat" fa.c tions agreed upon a spo.ils system exipressed in the form of a 50-50 share in the political aJff~irs of Slovakia. In this way the political irufl:uence of the Communists increased, in comparison with the year 1935, from 10 to 50 percent, and that of the pro...Soviet "Democrntic" faction from 13 to 50 percent. Afthough this 50--50 relation 'between the two factions was corrected by the elections of May 26, 1946, in favor of the "Democrats" who, 'becauS€ of the exdusion of other traditional ,parties, gained 62 .p ercent of all voters in SlovaJkia, while the Communists got only 30 percent, the actual influence of the Communist Party did not diminish at all. From the outset the Communists had taken oiver the Commissariat of Interior, including the Police; o;f EducatiOIIl; and of Industry, together with other key ,p ositions in the administration Oif Slovakia. They also retained the chairmanship of the Board of Commissioners, i.e., the regional g01vernment for Slo:vaikia. MeaI11Whhle the Sovietizaition of Czecho~Slovaikia was progressing in every field of Government activity: In the field of industry, President Benes, ever olbedient to the Communi,s ts, nationalized the main branches of industry by Decrees Nos. 100, 102 and 103 of October 28, 1945, and this without any consultation with the nation - mines, 1 70 SLOVAKIA 100 percent; steel industry, 100 percent; sugar production, 80 percent; electricity, 73 percent; chemical industry, 72 percent; metallurgy, 68.5 percent; glass industry, 65 percent; leather, 53.5 percent; gas, 50 percent; textiles, 47 percent; ceramics, 46.5 percent; pruper industry, 4'5.5 percent; distilleries, 31.5 percent; breweries, 27.5 percent; clothing, 25 percent; mills, 14 percent; food, 9 percent; wood industry, 8 percent. By these acts the IIlum!ber of wor.kers in the nationalized sector ,b ecame 570,000, whereas only 430,000 working people fell within the field of private industry. ln the field of education all the schools were nationalized by decree of the Slovalk National Council (No. 34, dated May 16, 1945). Decree No. 47 of 1945 comiscated the property of pri:viate schools, without compensation. By decree of the Slovak National Council • (No. 33 of May 15, 1945) the following institubions of political justice were created: Oommunit,y and <list.riot "people's courts" and a national court in Bratislava. The legal task of these courts was to judge war criminals, but their political pmpose was to get rid of the -p olitical adversaries of the two factions in power, under the pretext of collaboration with Germany. The political character of this distorted justice was determined by three circumstances : 1. According to article 42 of Executive Decree No. 55 Board of Commissioner s, dated June 5, 1945, the the of memlbers of these courts were to be ruppoinrted by the two political ,parties in power. 2. These courts, disregarding the classiical principle nulla poena, sine lege, were made component to decide upon cases which were not punishable according to the Penal Code. 3. This legislation introduced the principle of collective guilt and collective :responsilbility. 4. Art.i.cle 5 of Decree No. 33 of May 15, 194!5, provided for labor camps, which were estaJblished through Executive Decree No. 105 of August 23, 1945. According to the provisions of article 2 of this last decree, the following cate- SLOVAKIA 71 gories of persons were to be sent to lrubor camps: a. Those sentenced by the "ipeople's courts"; b. Tho,s e whose activities were a threat to "the people's demoeratic regime," public security, puib1ic peace and order, rpulblic nutrition and the reconstruction o:f economic life; or those who were enemies of the state or conspirators against it; c. Those who· do not work; d. Those who declined to do the work assigned to them within the framework of laibor duty. '5. No plea was admissible agaiinst the act of indictment; the defendant did not have a free choice in selecting his defender; no ·a ppeal was granted to a sentenced de. fendaJI11t. 6. Sentences to imprisonment usually involved the confiscation of the ded'endant's property. It 4, ruppropriate to add here tha,t before being .brought to· trial the "traitors," "Fasci.Sits," "collaJborationists," and "unreliable persons" were entirely at the memy of their indictor~. There was no impartial court, as the grand jury in America, to examine into the basis of an accusation. This was an era of arlbitrary indictments and personal revenge. By its decree No. 5,1 of May 2, 1945, the Sloivaik Natiooal Council dissolved in Slorvakia all assodations, except for those few which were eixipressly exempted from thls general ,p rovision. Freedom of the press, of assembly, and other human rights were likewise a;bolished. E. The "Coup de Force" of November 1947 in Slovakia All these measures were aimed at the weakening of traditional political forces and the estaiblishmenrt of an exclusively Communist power. For a long time the leading personalities of the Sloivak Democratic Party, such as Joseph Lettrich, Jan Ursiny, Matej Josko, Martin Kvetko, Stephen Koovara, etc., did not know whether they should remain loyal to their "gentleman's agreement" of 1945 with the Communists or follow the anti-Communist line orf the great ma;j.ority of the Slwak people. Finally they decided SLOVAK.IA 72 to remain loyal to their agreements with the Communist s. Instead of getting .r id of the Oommunist s, as would have been normal for a party which had won 62 percent of all the votes of SlovaJkia, the "Democrat s" did not alb.andon the principle of the National Front G01Vernment. This loyalty was to prove their fatal undoing later on. In Selptemlber 1947, under the pretext of having disc01Vexed a conspiracy a,gainst the governmen t in the Democratic Party, the Communist s decided to liqUJidate this party. Jan Kempny, Milos iBugar, and Joseph St8!sko., three deputies of the Catholic wing of this party, were imprisoned, as well as a,bout 2,000 other Slova\k patriots. Thereafter the Communist s organized demonstrat ions against " . . . the reactionari es hidden within the Democratic Party." In this violent dispute between the two political parties in Slo vaJkia, the Ozech-1Soci alist block - i.e., the Communists, the Social Democrats , and the National Socialists of Benes - representin g togeither 18'5 deputies (93 plus 37 plus 55) out of the 300 in the Prague Parliament , threw their weight on the side of the Slovak Communis ts (23 deputies) and against the Democratic Party (43 deputies). The Czech Catholics ( 44 deputies) remained undecided. There was only one honora,ble way to prevent the constant intewenUo n of Prague in the internal affairs of Slova!kia, name ly, to proclaim the inde pendence of Slovakia. Instead of doing that, Joseph Lettrich, chaimnan of :the Slovaik Demooratic Party, gave his consent to further limitatio!Ils on the politi>Cal preirogative s of his own party. 1 After a visit of Klement Gottwald to Bratislava, the Democratic Party was relegated on Novemlber 18, 1947, to a minority status in the regional governmen t of Slova1kia. Out of 15 seats there, it retained only 7, while the triumphant Communist bloc got 8: The Communist Party itself (including the chairman), 5; the Wreedom Party, 1; the Social Democratic La,bor Pairty, 1; and the last seat fell to General M~kttlas Ferjencik, "the neutral Oommis,s ioner of the Interior," playing in fact into the hands of the Communist s. Such a hll!IIliliating change would have been impossi!ble without a Czech coup de force in SloV3Jkia. SI.IOVAKIA 73 Having thus eliminated the greatest obstacle from the way of their ambition for exclusive power, the Czech Marxist rbloc (includ!ing 56 percent of aU Czech voters of 1946 and 130 deputies (93 Communists and 37 Social Democrats) out of 23,1 corresponding to the Ozec<h area) was finally able, on February 25, 1948, to, peacefully consolidate its position and, by eliminating the Czech Catholics and National Socialists, to pass over from the priniciple od' the National Front Gorvernment to a sheer Communist dictatorshilp. Conclusion As a conolusion to this statement, I wish to repeat that I welcome this. opportunity of finally putting the events which took place in Ozecho-iSlovia'k ia between 19451948 in the pro.per historical light. It is with regret that I must state. that neither of the two congressional documents dealing with the Communist subjtu gation of CzechoSlovakia - i.e., House Document No. 154, part I, on The Coup de Force in Prague, pulblished in 1,9 49 by the Foreign Affairs Committee, and DoCIU!Illent No. 70, pa,rt 4, on internal tensions in Ozecho-,Slovalkia, recently pulblished by the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Senate (July 1954), contain aipproprfate facts and analyses of the acts of Commun.ist aggression committed during that period in Slovrukia. (Wa,s hington, D. C., December 3, 1954). fflE TESTIMONY OF FATHER ANTON BOTEK Mr. Kersten. 'Dhe hearings will come to orde•r . Mr. McTigue. Your name is Father Anton Botelk, is that correct, Father? Father Botek. Yes. Mr. McTigue. And you were fOl'!Illerly director of Catholic Action in Slo:vahla, is that correct? Father Botek. Yes. Mr. McTi:gue. fa it true you were in prison a total number of seven times? Father Botelk. Yes. Mr. McTigue. Imprisoned by the Communists.? Father Botek. Yes. 74 SLOVAKIA Mr. iMcTigue. From 1945 to 1949? Father Botek. No, from 1949 till 1950. Mr. McTigue. When did the Communists occupy SlovaFather Botek. In 1944. kia, Father? Mr. McTigue. Norw, Father, tell us something a!bout the f,i ght to !keep the Catholic schools open in 1945 and 1946 following the Communist occupation. Father Botek. As early as 1944, during the 1944 CommUJili.st uprising in SlovaJkia, the so-,ca,lled Slovakian National Council was concerned with the abolition of all church-Operated school,s. Mr. McTigue. Can you tell us something aJbout the tactics of the Communists used to destroy the organizations of the church? Father Botek. At first they rubolished all Catholic Church operated schools; then they disbanded all Catholic associations, and fina:lly they sll!ppressed the Catholic press. Mr. McTigue. Slo:v akia is predominantly Catholic in Father Botek. Yes. religion, is tihat right, Father? Mr. McTigue. What are the percentages of Catholics in Slo;vakia? Father Botek. Eighty-two ,p ercent are Catholic. Mr. McTigue. Is there anything you can tell us, Father, rubout the so-called elections in 1946 in Slovaikia? F1a:ther Bote:k. As early as 1944, there were only two political .p arties admitted; that is, the Communist Party and the so-.c alled Slovaikiian Democratic Party. .The Slovakian Democratic Party denied any political party that would be able to defend their rights by democratic method. Mr. MoTigue. Wasn't there some agreement between the Slova1kian bishops amd the Democratic Party, Father? Father Botek. Since there was no political representation of Slovakian Catholics, the Sloviakian bishops and clergy tried to find means by which Slovitkian Catholics could exipress their political will. This was necessary especially since the Communasts were anxious to win the sympathies of the Slovakian people. The Communists tried to use, especially, the Sloivakian Nation's. feelings for their 1 SLOVAKIA 75 pu~ses and they suggested to the SlovaJkian people the creation of an independent SlovaJkian State after the end of World War II. This, howerver, wasn't approved by Mos~ cow. Therefore, the Commurusts tried to achieve a selfrule for ISlovaJkia within the frame of the Czecho...Slovakian Re,pulblic and they finally succeeded in it; this was then inco:riporated into the so-called Kosice agreement concluded in 1945. The Communists also tried to win the sympathy and support of SlovaJkian Oathol.ics, promising the former members of the CathoJic Slova;kian People's Party tha;t they woU!ldn't be punished for their wrur-time activities if they joined the Communist Party. They also wanted some priests for their policies; for instance, a certain priest, Joseph Straka, who was previously suspended from his office b,y his bishop because of irregularities in administration. The bishOipS foribade Catholic priests to make any canvassing prior to the 1946 elections and the Catholic priests were also fonbidden to be candidates for any political party in those elections. Father Straka, however, disobeyed this order of the Catholic bishops and made .propaganda for the Communist Party in winning Catholics for that party. He promised Slovakian Catholics that the Com1rm.11n.ist Party would guarantee complete religious freedom to CathoJics and he issued also several ~itten statements to the peoiple, one of which I am in position to furnish to this committee. The Slovafidan people, however, didn't let themselves be misled by the Communist propa;ganda and they trusted the bishops because they knew their a;ttitude toward the Communists was the only correct one, since the bishops warned them agaiinst the Communists even during the time Oif Worlld War fil. Therefore, we tried to find some cooperation with the Democrati:c Party of Slovakia, which was not at least Communist, even tho.ugh this party was also coresponsilble for the fact that the Communists were aJble to penetrate SloiV'a!kia. The Catholics were es'peci'ally indignant aigainst the Democratic Barty of Slova1cia ~ cause they rug-reed to the confiscation of 1,800 elementary schools and 80 schools of higher grade which were prevfo:us.. ly operated by the Catholic Church, because this conifisca1 76 SLOVAKIA tion took place. i,n 19'115, at the time when the commissioner for education was the chairman of the Democratic Party, Dr. Joseph Lettriich, T.he so-called "Democrats," however, became aware of the great pressure, and the great activities developed by the Communists and therefore they also, on their part, tried to win su>ppo•r t of the Catholic population of SlovaJkia for themseJves. At tha,t time we Catholics still conducted negotiations with both the Communists and the Democratic Pa·:rity since we still hoip ed that we would be aJble to achieve from the Communists the admission of a Catholic Party to be on the other side. There were also preparations made for an ag,r eement with the Democratic Party. The Communists, during the negotia.tions, always applied the tactics of postponement of a final decision. They made indications that they might be inclined ·to admit, if not an ex,plicity Catholic party but a P'arty which would at least, to some extent, aP\peal to the Catholic population of Slovaikia. However, it soon became apparent that no agreement could be reached with the Communists. Therefore, on the 30th of March, 1946, we concluded an agreement with the Democratic Party of SlovaJkia. In this agreement, the Democratic Party of SlovaJkia pledged itself to admit Catholics as candidates on their list of candidates in the 1946 elections. When the Communists realized this they qtlliokly allowed another party, which was called the Freedom Pa,rty and of which they claimed this was a Catholic party. In this party there were several good Catholics, even such persons who previously part-icilpated in the negotiations with the Democratic Party, but the chief leaders of that party couldn't be trusted. The Communists also made propaganda or encouraged voters to cast inrvalid votes beca:UJSe they calculated that Slovakians who• disrug,reed both with the Communist and Democratk Pa!r ty would prefer to cast invalid votes which then would diminish the percentage of votes received by the Democratic Party. These irnvalid votes were. generally referred to as "white ballots" because they were plain slips ()If ,paper. This oppovtunity to use these white ballots was voted in the Parliament prim· to the elections, and the Communists and the representative s of the Free- 77 SLOVAKIA dom Party were in favor of this policy. Then it became ob.viou:s thalt the Fireedom Party was merely a pwppet party under control orf the Communist s. We therefore started ,pmpagand a among the Catholics to vote for the Democratic Party. We couldn't deve1orp this propaganda publicly, hut we r equested Slovakian bishops to issue a statement to the Slovalkian voters. In this statement orf the bishops, Caltholics were called upon to vote according to their Christian conscience; they we<re forihidden to vote for an undemocra tic party which would .not admit religious freedom and they were called upon to vote for the party wh~,ch would guarantee demncratic freedom. This statement clearly indicated thalt SlovaJkiam. CathoUcs were foiibidden to vote in favor of the Communist Party but it still was necessary to instruct the Slovakian Catholics that it ,w asn't good for them to vote for the Freedom Party either. Therefore, a statement was included in this aipipeal by the bi shops stating that it was not true; that the rumors were not true which stated that the Slovakian bishops joined the Freedom Party and that they were inclined to vote for that party. Those :mimors we.re spread by the Communis t Party and hy the Freedom Party. Copies of this proclamati on oif the bishops were sent to all iparish priests; it was also published in the Catholic press and we had couriers talking them personally to each priest. As a result of this campaign, the Democratic Party won in the 1946 elections and receiived 61 ½ percent of all votes cast. HO!Wever, we found out that the Democratic Party didn't de.fend the interests of the Slovakian Catholics and that this ,p arty even failed to defend its own memlbers of Parliament who were Catholics. The Oomnmniirst-controlled Commissio n of the Interior in SlovaJkia had arrested the leaders of the Catholic group within the Pairliame.nrt who were members of the Democratic Party. In the a,greement reruohed between the Catholic representati v,es and the representat ives of the Democratic Party, the Democratic Pat-ty pledged itself, or guaranteed to, Catholics that the schools would be returned to. the Catholiircs ag·a:in and that the press would also be allowed, as well as Catholic organrzatio ns. How1 78 SLOVAKIA ever, the Democratic Party failed to honor these promises and in arguments with the Communists they always yielded to the Communist demands in order to avoid personal troubles with them. Therefore, Catholics decided to take up direct negotiations with the Government itself in order to defend their rights. Bishop Jantausch persona1ly called on the chairman of the Board of Commissioner s in Slovakia trying to achieve the fulfillment of the promises given by the Democrats and the guarantees for the democratic rights of Catholics. However, he failed to achieive any results. I accompanied him on his visits to the Communist Commissioner HusaJk, and the Communist Commissioner Viktory, and neither of these two ever agreed to any concessions to the Catholics. Then a commission was. introduced which was to find a solution of all ,pr01blems of the Catholics. In this commission, representative s of the Communist Party were Husak and Novomesky, and the representative s of the Demooratic Party were Filo and Frastacky. On the part of the Catholics, the representative s were Bishop Lazik, Cannon Cvincek, Carnogursky, and myself. The pro!blems to be solved were the reesta!blishme nt of church-Operat ed schools, a free Catholic press, admission of Catholic organizations, discontinuatio n of inhuman deportations of the Germans and Hungarians from Slovakia, confiscation of property and cancellation of work on Sundays. This commission convened only twice in the winter of 1947, but no results were achieved. In 1945 the Communists abolished the following Catholic organizations : Organization of Catholic women, with a memlbership of 100,000; the Organization of Catholic Men, with 30,000, and the Association of Catholic Youth, with a membership of 50,000. Mr. MoTigue. In 1948, is it true that the central office of Catholic Action, of which you were director, was liquidated and you were arrested? Father Botek. Yes. Mr. McTigue. What were you charged with when you were arrested, Fathoc? Father Botek. The Central Catholic Bureau received SLOVAKIA instructions from the Catholic bishops to taJke over all acti,v ities previously carried out by the Catholic Action. However, we were aware of the fad that all organrizations didn't haive a legal background, a legal footing, and therefore any acttvities developed by this organization oould be stopped by the Communists any time they wanted. The activitie.g of the Central Bureau, the Catholic Action Bureaiu, were carried on with a great risk. I knew I was collSltantly shadowed by one or two secret policemen and that offic:ially all persons who entered the offices of our orgaruza.tions were super.vised by the· Communists. Instances happened that visitors at or1.1r office were then apprehended by these policemen, searched, beaten Uip , and adivised to omit further visits to our bureau. Therefore, we were anx,ious to keep our activities in the field of the Cathohl.c Action strictly within the limits of religion a,nd not to mix in any political aspects. Nevertheless, the Communists didn't permit our activities and on December 7, 1948, eigiht Communist po1icemen inivaded our bureau and declared that our organization was disbanded and that the 'b,ureau had to be closed dQIWiJl. The employees at the bureau we.r e sent to a room where they were searched while, in the meantime, in the ibwreau itself, all documents were searched by the Communist police. This search la,s ted from 8 o'clook in the morning until evening hours, but finally the employees of the bureau were released to their homes, and I was t aiken by the police to my apartment which also was searched by the police. The office rooms of the bureau were then sealed by the Communist police. 1:'he Communists then entered the office rooms of the Catholic bureau twice more and also, I, myself, was twice investigated by the pol,ice. Likewise, my assistant at the bureau was investigated by the police. On the 29th of January 1949, three policemen oame to my apartment at 6 :30 o'clock in the · morning and intended to ta ke me to. the police station. At that time I was just saying my daily Mass and I was notified that the policemen were waiting for me. I could escrupe, but I decided aga,inst this, because I suspected that I would discredit, by esca,ping, the Central Catholic Bureau and also 1 80 SLOVAKlA the Slovakian bishops. I was taken to the police station at Bra:tislav and held for seven days U1I1der very poor conditions. The iinrvestigators tried to force me to confess that I had connections with the Western Powers, that I engaged in espionage activities, and that I develO!I)ed subversive activities against the Peoiple's Democratic regime in Ozecho-iSlO!Vak.ia. They didn't have any evidence a,gainst me and, therefore, the]' tr8.lllsferred me to the regional court's prison where they held me for another five months pending investigation. At the end of these five months, my foI1IDer assistant at the Catholic Bureau, as well as the expert for pastoral activities in the border areas, were released and I was put on trial. Since they couldn't produce any evidence in support of the charges that I wo:riked for foreign powers and that I engaged in espionage activities, they forced a student to testif,y against me, that I knew of his espionage activities and failed to reiport this to the police. For this offense I was sentenced to seven months' imprisonment. On July 7, 1'949, I was transferred to the Leopoldov penitentiary b.eca:use, at the time the Communists organized their so-called CathoHc Action, which was controlled by them, many Catholics who supported the genuine Catholic Action were imprisoned, so that the prisons were crowded. I served the rest of my term at LeO!poldov and on the 28th of August 1949 I was released. I was in poor health as a result of my imprisonment and, therefore, I had to go to a hosip ital, but after a month I myself requested to ibe assigned to a small parish so as to disappear from the eyes od' the Communists. Mr. McTigue. Was this in 1950, Father? F,8 /ther Botek. 1949. While at this small parish, we were preparing an ecdesiastical sermon and at this time a local Communist called on me and requested me, pleaded with me, that I shouldn't launch any attacks against Communists in my sermon, bec3/Use he stated he was charged with my suI1veillance and was to report everything on me, including that whicih I told in my sermons, and he stated he was a Catholic, too, and was the father of eight children he couldn't refuse this Communist order to spy on me and on the other hand, if another .person would be given SLOVAKIA 81 the same instructions, this other person could do harm to me. When I was approximatel,y two months at this par,ish, the local chairman of the Communist Party called on me and notified me that I was swpposed to report at the district national committee for some discussion. I was afraid, however, that this was just a triok and that people were previously sentenced on charges of underground activities and were sent to forced-.JaJb.or camps even after they had served their terms imposed by the courts. However, the Communists are very cautious while proceeding against Catholic priests since the parishioners defended their ,priest$ against arrest and there were clashes between the population and the Communist police who a,r rived to arrest Catholic priests, especially at the time when the Communists started their own sponsored Catholic Action. There.fore, they endeavored to lure our parish priests fronn their parishes and to arrest them at a place where such resistance by local parishioners couldn't be offered. TherefoiI'e, I decided not to report at the district national committee and await my arrest at the parish office, and on the same day the police arrived and took me to a forced-labor camp at Nova:ky My parishioners protested against my arrest; however, they didn't put up any ·physical resistance since they already experienced that such resistance was followed by arrests of hundreds of innocent people and that it still was to no avail because the pTiests were always eventuaUy arrested. I could tell you about conditions there, albout my experiences which I had at that time when I was held at the Bmtisl8'va County jail. At that time there were members at least of ten underground groups held at that prison. When I had an opportunity to talik to them, I asked how they became involved in underground activities and how it happened that they were arrested since there were always rubout 50 persons from each group arrested. Most of these for.mer members of the undengr.ound groups stated that there was always a Communist spy planted by the Communists within their organizations, and that this Communist spy even encouraged them to develop underground activ:ities which he then reported to the Communist police. 82 SLOVAKIA I realized that the Communists had put under sur:veill~e all people whom they suspected might engage in underground activ-ities and if they failed to find anything, any underground actiivities, they encouraged such people to develop such activities, and be.fore a group could actually start its undeirground activities, the spy denounced them to the police and the memJbers of the group were arrested. In 1,9 49, the Communists realized that they were U!Ilaible to win the Catholic bishops for their puriposes; therefore, they decided to organize their o,w n Catholic Action. They coTI1Vened a meeting of the so-<:aJled representaUves of the Catholic Church in Prague on June 10, 1949. To this meeting they invited several priests under false pretexts, stating that this was to he a conference to negotiate and discuss church pro1b lems. In addition, there were also several Catholic laymen invited to this meeting, who were mostly mem!bers of the Communist Party but didn't play any decisive role in the Catholic life, and the Communists eventually declared this meeting as the new leadership of the Catholic Action. The Communists declared that since the Vatican was against the people and since the bishops supported the v ,a tican in this policy, they intended to leave to the Ohu:rch only the spiritual care and admit only the kind of questions and morals that the Pope could rule in .the affairs concerning the Catholic morals a:nd the· Catholic faith; but all other religious· questions would be taken care of by this Catholic Action. This evidently was an attempt by the Communists to seize control over the administration of the Catholic Church in Czecho-Slovakia. However, they real.ized that they didn't haNe the sU1pport of the people. Therefore, they initiated an aotion of signatures which were to be rutta,c hed by the entire population of C!zecho-Sloivakia, to a memorandUllll issued by the rubove-mentioned meeting at which this Communist Catholic Action was founded. Branches of the Communist Party organization were entrusted with the carrying out of this signature action. They convened meetings in towns and in viUages, and also at wo:rikiplaces. at which the present people were called uipon to put their signatu:re on the memorandum. The bishops, SLOVAKIA 83 however, condemned this Catholic Action, and the Holy See declared every person who would sign this memorandum as excommunicated from the Catholic Church. Mr. McTigue. Father, you were in a forced labor camp in 1950; is that correct? Father Botek. Yes. Mr. McTigue. Did you get sick at that time and were you sent to a hospital? Father Botelk. Yes. Mr. McTigue. Can you tell us very briefly something about how the Communists treated the Sister,s at the hospital? Father Botek. A Communist order previously arrested all nuns those who were nurses at hospitals because there was a great laclk of trained nurses at the hospitals. These nuns, however, who were left as nurses at the hospitals, were e~posed to various Communist chicaneries. That was done by Communist functionaries at the hospital, by Communist doctors, and men, and assistants. They were called upon to renounce their mernlbership in their religious orders and to become civilian nurses. The Communists tried to Lure · the younger nuns with a promise that if they agreed to renounce their membership in the religious order, tihey would be permitted to go to a university without any previous education, which was otheIWise required from university students. This was the same pattern as was rupplied in the case of young Communist woI'kers who also were admitted to university studies without adequate education and just attend a short preparatory course. Except for a few exceptions, most of these nuns refused the Communist demands and so the Communists started to remove the nun nur,ses from hospitals. MT. McTigue. When did you learve Slovrukia, Father? Father Botek. On the 26th of June 1951. Mir. McT,~giue. Did you have any trouble in getting out of SlQIVakia? Father Botek. I made a previous attempt to escrupe. At that time we were a group of 22 escapees. However, 84 SLOVAKIA this escrupe mdn't succeed and. so I had to try it a second time, at which time we were only four escapees and we succeeded in crossing the border. ,M r. McTigue. Your present assignment at this time is in Rome; is that correct, Father? Father Botek. Yes. Mr. Busby. Father Botek, we know that communism is opposed to all religions, but I think the comm~ttee might like t-0 know how successful the Communists were in their efforts to infiltrate and to destroy the Catholic religion in SlovaJkia. Father Botek. Previously, when I still was at the Central Catholic Bureau, we intercepted a secret Communist instruction in continuing a Commumst plian for destruc,tion of the Church and for its seizure and control. Under these instructions, the indirvidual phases were to be the following: At first the ibishops of the Catholic Church in Czecho-,Slova:kia were to be separated from the Vatican; the second step was to be. that the bishops were t-0 be discredited in the eyes of the priests, as well as of the laymen Catholics, and finally, the last phase was to be the separation of the Catholic laymen from their priests. IMr. Busbey. Now, that leads ri,ght up to my question. Up until the time you left Slovakia, and from yOIUI' own personal olbservation, h ow successful was this plan of the Communists? Father Botek. They succeeded in accomplishing the first oibjective; that is, to separate the Catholic Church in Czecho'"'Slorvrukia from the Vatican. They expelled the Annuncias from the Vatican to Ozech0-Slovakia so that contacts of Ozecho-iSl01Vakian authorities with the Vatican were interrupted. Nevertheless, the Catholics in OzechoSlovaJkia remained faithful to the Vatican, to the Holy See. However, they failed in achieving their second olbjective. to make the Catholic bishops bend to their demands and to have them - to maJke them tools in the propagation of communism in Slovakia. Therefore, the Communists ,pliaced a commissary to each episcoipal office who was to taike care that the bjsho,ps didn't have any contacts with the SLOVAKIA 86 clergy and with the congregation. These Communist commissars controlled the in- and out-going mail; they controlled the visitors who intended to call on the bishops, and admitted only those whom they considered harmless; but even the talks of such visitors with the bishops were monitored. Mr. Busbey. Father, can you tell us aJbout the methods and technics used by the Communists to indoctrinate the pupils with the, theory of Marxism? Father Botek. The Communists innoculated the Marxist ideology and way of thin'king to the pupils from the very first grade of elementary school. When I was in hiding with a family who had an 8-year-old daughter, I overheard her tal!ks with her parents and I heard that this girl was thinking in Communist terms and that her way of thinking was completely inJfiluenced by the Communist doctrine. Mr. Busbey. Father, do you agree with some of the other witnesses we have heard, in the belief that if something isn't done in the immediate future and that if we let the Communists ikeep on educating the real young boys and girls, it will be more difficult, as time goes on, to defeat this Communist march toward worrld revolution? Father Botek. lt is a fact that the Communists have had great successes in educating the very young people in their ideology and the parents are almost unable to influence or to counteract against this Communist ideology implanted inrto the chlldren because these children are instructed to report at school any attempts ,b y their parents to dissuade them :13rom communism. Therefore, it is a fact; that if communism is given enough time, that these youths will become completely communistic and the Communist strength will be increased. Mr. Busbey. Can you give the committee any illustrations of the technics used by the Communists to make the children believe in Stalin before he died, instead of God? Father Botek. Yes, I saw the mrugazines for children, for school-children, containing slogans such as "Stalin is our sun; everything we haive, we've got from Stalin," and 86 SLOVAK IA "Stalin is ouT benefac tor, Stalin is our greatest benefac tor, Stalin is the greatest man, Stalin is the most beautifu l man." Mr. Busbey. Father, are you qualified to. tell the committee how the Commu nists rocploited the economy of Slovakia? Father Botek. In these economi c aspects, I am not well versed; I only Olbse,r:ved thait there was a general lack of all consum er goods and that the living conditio ns were poor. Mr. Busbey. WhiJe you were in prison, were you given any consider ation at all because of the fact that you were a member of the clergy? Father Botek. This ,prdbaJbly was the case 'b ecause I never was maltreat ed, never was beaten at interrog ations, and I observe d that many fello•w prisoner s were beaten, so that I prolbaibly enjoyed preferen tial treatme nt. This, may!be, was due to the faot that there was still a trace of Catholic faith in my investig ators so that they were reluctant to rai,se their hands aigainst me as a priest. I also had the followin g experien ce. While I was in ,prison, a prison guard caime to me and asked me whether he should give his signatur e to the Commu nist Ac~ion Manifes to. IMT. Busbey. My final question ; do you lbelieve tha,t any agreeme nt made with the Commu nists is worth the paper it is written on? Father Botek. From my e~perience, I had negotiat ions with the Commu nists, I can sta:te thait the Commu nists never honor their word thait they gave in such negotiations, and this is in accorda nce with their general policy which goes that everyth ing is good that promote s the Communist cause, and therefor e I am convinced thait any negotiatio ns or any agreeme nts reached with the Communists are worthle ss. Mr. Madden . Father Botek, you in your testimon y haive covered very well your experien ces back over the years with the Commu nist Party in Slovakia and the only question I would like to ask is what percenta ge of the populati on of Sloviahla today are Commun ists, true Communists at heart; what percent age: 5 percent; 10 percent; 20 ; or what would you say? SLOVAKIA 87 Father Botclc. I thin!k that the percentage doesn't exceed 10 ,p ercent. Mr. No71blad. Is the Voice of America or Radio Free Europe listened to by many of the people in the area you come from? F1ather Botclc. While I was in hiding with several fa .. milies in Slovakia, we frequently listened to the Voice of America and Free EuTope programs. However, I heard from these ipeople many objections against the spirit of those programs beamed to Ozecho-.S1ovaJkia. Mr. Nor.blad. What were the dbjoctions, generally, in Slovakia? I am refemnig to the conditions in Slovakia. Father Botek. The objections were mainly of a national and religious nature. The Slavaikian peqple are a very religious people. They are 82 percent Catholics and 13 pereent Protestants, who also are active Protestaints. Therefore, programs promoting ideas of a reformer, Jan Huss, or the religious ideas of Masaryk and the other socalled free thinlkers, are not appeaJ.ing to the Sl01Vakian population. Ma-. Noy,blad. Do they believe the world news, the straight news given on those programs? Father Botek. Well, the Slovallcian people listen eagerly to the news broadcasts by the Voice of America. However, once OT twice I .w itnessed the following incident. Slovakian listeners who listened to the program of the Voice of America, said, after the news was over, just said, "Well, turn it off because the news is over and they are now going to stam their propaganda for the Czech Republic and we do not want any Oze<!h Republic." Mr. Norblad. Do you feel that the radio broadoasts are doing some good behind the Iron Curtain? Father Botek They certainly are of great use and great efficiency but this efficiency would still be greater if the rest of the pro.grams, except for the news, was also adjusted to those two major feelings of the Slovakian popufation, the religious feelin:g and the national feeling. Mr. No:rlblad. Do you get the programs clearly or are they j&mmed by the Soviets? 88 SLOVAKIA Father Botek. The programs are being jammed but on la11ger radio sets they still can be received and if the transmission is jammed on one wave, on one b,and of the radio,, it may ,be still tuned in on another one. Mr. Feighan. There is, is there not, a very strict feeling of healthy nationalism within Slovakia? Father Botek. Yes. Mr. Feighan. And that of course. is the reason why there has been some resentment to the broadcasts? F1ather Botek. Yes. I also heard comments by listeners to the Radio Free Europe, and Voice of America programs to ·the effect that in spite of the fact that there are almost one million SlO'Vitk immigrants in the United States, who ha.ve their own homes there and national life in the United States, these programs do not bring any reports on the activities developed by these Slovak organi~atrons in the United States; they only bring reports. of aotivities of organi•z ations which are not sympathetic to the Slovak people and, therefore, the Slova!kian population, in order to learn of the activities of the Slov:ak organizations in the United States, tune in on Radio Rome, which also beams SlO'Vakian programs. Mr. Feighan. Well, it is a pity that the pe-o:ple within Slovak,ia are not acquainted with the tremendous contribution of the Slovakian immigrants to the culture and ciivic development of our cotmtry. l!"'ather, would y;ou relate. in a U.ttle more detail, if you are familiar with the fact that the Communists in 1948, I believe, offered Slovakia the opportunity to ·b ecome a Slovak S01Viet Republic? Fiather Botek. That was actually in 1944 and 1945, not in 1948. At that time this policy was promoted by the S]pvaikian Communists, Husak and Novomesky. However, Moscow disapproved. of this policy and, therefore, the Slovakian Communists had to put up with Czecho-Slovakia, within which SlO'V•a!kia was to have broad autonomy, self-rule. Mr. Feighan. Was it no,t the Slo¥ak Government that refused rather than Moscow's refusing? Father Botek. Naturally the Slovak Government was SLOVAKIA 89 opposed to this idea since it was a Catholic Government. Mr. Feighan. Well, you've got it both ways; now there is only one way. Flather Botek. I would like to explain this apparent discrepancy. This was due to the fact that there was in 1944, there was a Sl,QIV'a)ldan Govemment of an independent Slovakian State which to some extent - whose sovereignty was to some extent restricted by Germans. When the Communists started their wprising, in August 1944, they tried to arouse the sympathies of the SlOIVa:k people with promises of an independent Slovakian State but within the framework of the S01Viet Socialist Repulblic. Rusruk and N ovomesky were leading organizers of the wprising in 1944. This policy of the Slovakian Communists, however, was disapproved by Moscow. Mr. Feighan. Is it not true thait because of the spirit of healthy nationalism within Slovrukia that the Slovak people would not accept the offer to be a part of the U. S. S. R., ~a,use they knew that such a so-.called independence of Slo,vaikia would be national in structme only, but in su!bstance it would be socialistic? Father Botek This is possible. This is possilble, but President Booes, who was at Moscow at that time, persuaded the Moscow leaders to drop that idea; and he made also great concessions to the Russia,ns so that they considered it more profitruble for them to hruve a CzechoSlovak Republic rather than a small Slovakian Repulblic. Mr. Feighan. F'ather, did thi s Communist Catholic Action still function between that time of its first meeting in June 1949 until you left in Jll!Ile of 1951? Father Botek. This Communist- sponsored Catholic action prorved to be a complete failure. They still held an anniversary meeting the following year but they didn't celebra,te the foundation of thls Catholic Action in the third year any more. Mr. Kersten. I hope you understand, Father, that all of ourr questions are asked in the spirit of inquiry regarding the Communist aggression upon Slovakia. That is our overall purpose, and thank you, Father, for the testimony. (Munich, Germany, June 26, 1954). 1 90 SLOVAKIA TESTIMONY OF FATHER STEFAN NAHALKA (The witness wa:s sworn. The same interipreter was utilized as for the previous witness.) Mr. McTigue. Your name is Father Stefan N ahal!ka, is Father Nahalka. Yes. that correct? Mr. McTigue. Were you born in Slovakia? Father N ahalka. Yes. Mir. McTigue. Were you ordained a priest in Slov,aJkia? Father N ahalka. I studiied theology in Rome, so I was ordained in Rome. Mir. McTigue. And assigned to parish duties in Slovakia, is that correct? !Father Naha1ka. Since 1943, I was a'SSigned to duty in Slovakia. Mr. MicTigue. And at one time, Father, you were secretary to Bishop Vojtassa!k, is that correct? Father Naha1ka. Yes, I was in that capacity from 1946 to 1949. Mr. McTigue. Do you recall the uprising, so-called, Father Nrahalka. Yes. in Slovakia? Mr. McTigue. When did the t11prising taike place? Flather NahaLka. At the place in which I resided, the uprising started on the 26th of August 1944, when this town was occupied by Communist guerillas. Mr. McTigue. Can you tell us something aborut what the guerillas did in that town? Father Nrahalka. At that time I was chruplain at the town of Ruio:miberoik and during the firist days of the Communist uprising, the relbels forced the popll!lation, the men in tha;t town, forcibly to join the rebel army even though they were completely disiruterested and even opposed to the uprising. They also committed grave atroci~ies. In a valley called Podsucha, they murdered over 80 innocent people and buried them in a mass grave. In a nea'Iiby village, the partisans mwdered without any connection with the military, a Catholic priest named Martin:ko. In the Lupca valley, the Communist guerillas tortured to death there a Catholic priest named Seda; they cut SLOVAKIA 91 stri!Ps of hi,s skin from his back and finally even cut off his genitals. Since the population was not in favor of the uprising, the rebels used this deceptive propa,ganda to wm the sympathles of the popul ation. To this end they spread the rumor,s that the president of the Slovakian R~Ulbl,ic, Dr. Tiso, was arrested and de1p orted by the Germans and that, therefore, Slovrukia should arise. Mr. McTigue. Father, in 1949, did each b:i,shop have a political commissar assigned to him so that he could watch over the bishop's activiities? FaJther Naha1ka. In 1949, when the negotia,tions between the Communists and the Slovakian bishops broke down, the Communists placed Communist commissars into every ibishop's oftfice and they also placed one commissar into Bishop Vojtassa:k's oft:Eice, who was a young Communist, ,a former tailor. He was approximately 24 years old at that time, and t'here was aJil'Other Co:mmun,ist placed in the main entrance to the ,b ishop's office who chooked on all visitors at the bishop's office. The. commissar opened: the bishop's mail, in- and out...going, and overheard all conversations the bishop had with his visitors and also acoompanied him on ,a ll his trips,. He also seized control O'Ver the files of the bishop's office and he tooik out items firom those files. Mr. McTigue. Were the rooms in the hishoip's home, for example, wired ? Father N ahallm. There were no microphones in the rooms of the bishoip's office because the commissar wa,s present at all conversations, ibut I know orf a case. when the Communists placed microphones in the conference room for the bishop's conferences. Mr. McTi,g ue. Were you secretary to Bishop Vojtassa.k in 1949? Father Nahalika. Well, I was secretary to Bishop Vojta:ssaik until January 1'949 and afterwards I lived in the 'Vicinity of the bish0tp's residence, in the priest's seminary. Mr. McTigue. Were you arrested by the Communists, Father? 1 Fruther N ahalika. I was arrested in December 1945 and held in imprisonment until January 1946. 1 92 SLOVAKIA ,Mr. McTigue. When did you leaive Slovakia, Father? -Father Nahalk,a. llll May 1953. Mr. McTigue. That is a little more than a year ago. Did you hawe any difficulty in getting out of Slovakia? FaJther Nahiallk,a. Well, the crossing of the bo,rder was very difficult. At first we had to wait fo~ 14 days for run opportunity, for a favnrruble time to cross the border and we had to ~ very cautious while crossing to a :border area in which the border g,u ards are authorized to fire at anybody whom they see, without warning and finally we h,ad to cut through the barbed wire fences directly on the border. Mr. Madden. Father Nahallka, when Father Boteik was testifying, he mentioned something regarding certain broadcasts thaJt were cormng over the Voice of . Arrnerioa and Radio Wree Europe; do you know anything regarding the broadcasts th·a t come 01Ver? Do you have any knowldge on th-at? Father Nahallka. I was in hiding f.or two years with the viarious people from almost all social striafa and during this time I had ample opportUillity to 1isten to foreign broadcasts. Mr. Madden. Oou:ld you tell us regarding your knowledge of the hmadcasts that come into, Slovaikia? Father Nruha.1':ma. The people in Slovakia eaigerly listen to democriaitic broadcasts. However, the preferences a.re different and also the foreign broadcasts axe hOON'ily jammed by the Communists. The people in Slovakia listen to news broadcasts in the Slovak language by Riadio Free Europe, Voice of America and also BBC in London; however, they disaigree on many aspects in the poJ.i;tical comments broadcast from these stations. They are opposed to the political part of the program of those broad~asts mainly beca'll'Se they realize that such programs do not state the entire Communist case in Slovakia. Mr. Madden. You mean anti-Communist? Father Nahalka. Are not efficient enough to inspire anti.Communist feelinig or to keep up the ainti-Communist attitude of the population. This opposition to the programs, 93 SLOVAKIA the poJitical programs of those stations is due to the fact that they do not appeal to the national and religious fee~ ings of the Slovakians and a.iso from the ideological viewpoint, there are some oibjections, since they are sometimes very much alike with the Communist propaganda. '.Dhey teJl people who know, in these broadcasts, there are people who formerly collaiborated with the Communists and they are now talking aib,out anti-Communists. For instance, the reports of the so~called Slovia,kian national uprising was a very, very - was a great mistake. At the time when the transmitters were still in operation, people in Slovakia eagerly listened to an illegal transmitter called the Wlhite Legion transmitter and the people in Slo;vakia also :5requently listened to the religious programs broadoost by Radio Vatican. IMr. Madden. Do yoo think the programs broadcast by the Voice of America and Radio Free Europe do any good - I mean, against the Communists? Father Nahalka. These broadcasts have their effects in the line of anti-communism, but especially thr01Ugh their news which they broadlcast. However, they could be still more efficient if they adjusted their political programs also to the needs and desires of the Slovak population. (Munich, Germany, June 26, 1954). THE TESTIMONY OF JAN DOBROTKA Mr. McTigue. You are a Slovak, is that correct? Mr. Dobrotka. ¥ es. iMr. McTigue. And you were 'bom on OctOlber 20, 1913 at Dechtice, Slovakia, is that correct? Mr. Dolbrotka. Yes. Mr. McTigue. During the Communist occupation of SlovaJkia you were a master sergeant in the SiN.B, socalled, which is known as the Bureau of Internal Security, is that correct? Mr. Dob:mtka. Yes, sir. Mr. McTigue. And you were a uniformed master sergeant in the Buireau of Internal Security from 1947 to 1951, is that correct? Mr. Dobrotka. That is right. 1 94 SLOVAKIA Mr. McTigue. Was the Bureau of Internal Security completely controlled by the Communists,? Mr. DobTOtka. As of 194'8 it was completely under Communist control. Mr. M'CTigue. But you were a member of the Bureau of Internal Security prior to the time that it was under Communist control, isn't that correct? Mr. Ddbrotka. Yes. Mr. McTigue. And you were required to stay on as a member of the Bureau of Internal Security after the Communists got control, is that corerct? Mr. Ddbrotka. Well, I was automatically taken over. Mr. McTigiue. After the Bureau of Internal Security was taiken over by the Communists, did you from time to time receive orders to arrest priests, to make house searches, and so forth and so on? Mr. Dobrotka. Yes, I received such orders. Mr. McTigue. Were there many of such arrests made? Mr. Dobrotka. Many wealthy farmers were arrested. Mr. McTigue. Can you tell us something about the orders that were given to suppress and liquidate the Slovak Democratic Party members and the Slovak League? Mr. Dobrotka. As of 1948 memlbers of the Democratic Party were removed from all leadmg positioos in the administraJtion. The Slovak League was completely liquidated because the Communists considered this organization a swbversive and reactionary organizati'on, because it wa3 supporteq by the Slovak Leagiue of America. iMr. McTigue. Did you ever rec{:ive orde~s to give close supervision to the activity of certain parish priests in Slovakia? Mr. Dobrotka. Yes; I recei,v ed such orders. Mr. McTigue. What kind of orders were they? iMr. Dobrotka. We received such orders through channels from the government down to our posts and such orders arrived in sealed envelopes and were classified as secret, and we were instructed to open these eI1JVeloipes only u:pon special order by telephone. !Mr. McTigue. Who were the men that actually handed SLOVAKIA 95 you the orders, were they uniformed Soviet police or were they plain-clothes men? Mr. Dolbrotka. These were members of the uniformed police. They were my immedia,te superiors and they related these orders to me. Mr. McTigue. Iif you were instructed under sealed orders to report on certain priests, what kind of reports did you m0lke,? Mr. Dobrotka. Under these orders we were to Sllipervise the sernnons of priests and to report periodically on whether there were any political aspects in those sermons by priests. Mr. McTigue. Did you ever report, for example, that there was any political significance to what a priest had to say? Mr. Dobrotka. I <know I sulbmitted annual reports to this effect, and I can state approximately 60 to 70 percent of the memlbers of the SNB did not reporit any priests to their superiors. This was also due to the fact that the priests were aware of the fact that they were Slllpervised by the police and, therefore, they avoided any political speeches within their sermons. Mr. MoTigue. Did the same kind of procedure, that is reporting on their activities, apply to businessmen and peasants and the PQpulace in general? Mr. Dobrotka. Yes; we received such orders to supervise the activities of the entire population, especially to observe whether the former mem!bers of the partially liquidated Democratic Party developed any underground acti<vities. Mr. McTigue. Were many priests arrested and interned at the time you were in the Bureau of Internal Security? Mr. Ddbratka. From the entire district in which I was active there were approximately three cases of arrests of priests, however, not a single priest was arrested in the area under my jurisdiction. Mr. McTigue. Tha,t is because you kept reporting to your superiors that the priests were only talking to God, is that correct? 96 SLOVAKIA Mr. Ddbrotka. That is right; there was no reason for their arrest. Mr. McTigue. When did you manage to esca,pe from SlorvaJkia? Mr. Dobrotka. On Deoomlber 3, 1951. Mr. McTigue. Did yiou haive any troUJble in getting out of Slorvalcia? Mr. Dobrotka. No; I did not have any tro'Ulble in escaping. Mr. McTigue. You are now a member of the Labor Service unit at Bad Kreuznach? Mr. Dobrotka. Yes, sir. Mr. Kersten. Any questions? Mr. Busbey. When did you ·become a mem!ber of the Bureau of Internal Security? Is that the correct name? Mr. Dobrotka. In 1938. At that time the name of my headquarterrs was Provincial Command of Gendarmerie, which was under the Minister of Interior. Mr. Buskey. That was in 1938? Mr. DOlbrotlra. Yes, in 1938, at which time Slovakia became an independent state. Mr. Busbey. Were you a memlber of the Communist Party at that time in 1938? Mr. Dobrotka. No, sir ; at that time memibers of the gendarmerie were fonbidden to become memlbers of any political parties. Mr. Busbey. In what year was, it that you assumed your duties of reporting on priesrts? Mr. Dabrotka. That was after February 1948, at the time when the Catholic Action was started. Mr. Busbey. You were a member of the Communist Party at that time ? Mr. Dobrotka. No, sir. Mr. Busbey. Were you ever a memlber of the Communist Party? Mr. Dobrotka. In March 1948 all members orf the SNB in order to protect their own existence were forced to file an application fur mem'bership in the COIIDmunist Party. Mr. BUS1bey. In order to saive your life, you had to become a member of the Communi'St Party at that time? SLOVAKIA 97 Inter:preter. He became a memiber in March 1M8, but your previous quesltion was whether he was a member in February 1948. Mr. Busbey. Did you attend church prior to March 1948? Mr. Dobrotka. Yes; I did. I am a practical Catholic and I attended Mass every Sunday. Mr. Bustbey. And how rubout after March 1948? Mr. Do!brotka. After March 1948 I continued attending Mass regularly, however, we were aware that from that time on we were under supervision by the Communists, particularly all our contacts with priests, with the local priest, local teacher and local government officer were suspicious, because these persons were considered as reactionary, and our activities and connections with the people were supervised by Communists spies which were set on us by the Communist Party. Mr. Busbey. Would you agree with me that the greatest bulrwark ag,ainst communism, and the hope of the whole world for e:venrual elimination of communism and for world peace, is the fact that the people, not only behind the Iron Curtain, 'b ut all over the world, will continue to belie:ve in God? Mr. DO!brotka. This I 'believe. Mr. Buslbey. In other words, as long as the people have a deep-seated, strong belief in God, we can be sure that we will eventually eradicate communism from the earth? Mr. Dobrotka. Yes. May this ha,ppen as soon as possilble. Mr. Bus•bey. Thank you. No further questions. (The witness was excused.) (,Munich, Germany, June 29, 1954). THE TESTIMONY OF JUR DETVIANSKY Mr. Det'Vianslky was called a:nd duly sworn and testified through the Slo,vak interpreter as follows: Mr. McTigue. Your name is Jur Detviansky? Mr. Detviansky. Yes. Mr. McTigue And you were born on September 6, 1919, 98 SLOVAKIA in Slovakia in the village of Ladomila, is that correct? _Mr. Detviansiky. Yes. Mr. McTig,ue. You were a recorder of vital statistics in the town of Deitv:a until August 1950, is that correct? Mr. DetvfanSlky. That is correct. Mr. McTigue. This is the time, of course,, that Slovakia was under the Communist domination or occupation? Mr. Detviansky. Yes. iMr. McTigue. Later you were an administrative officer at Zvolen until Septemlber 1951, is that correct? Mr. Detviansky. Yes, sir. ,M r. McTi,gue. Were you discharged from this office by the Communists? Mr. Detviansky. Yes. Mr. McTig,ue. Why? Mr. Detviansiky. As a politically unreliable person. Mr. McTigue. In your ,p osition you know something about the quotas which were set for the farmers lby the Communists, is that correct? Mr. Detviansiky. Yes. Mr. Kersten. Will you speaJk a little louder in Slovaik and in English. Mr. McTigue. How were these quotas set? Mr. Detrviansky. The quotas were estalbJished for individual farmers in the presence of a representative of the Communist Party. The •p rinci:p le for this establishment, this prescrilbing of quotas, was· to prescribe those quotas to wealthy farmers in such a manner that nothing would be left for their own needs. This policy was aimed at desiroying the independenec of farmers and forcing them to join the farmers' cooperative wh[ch would make them the farmers dependent on the Communists. To the same end also several other measures were taken by the Communists, such as, for instance, that all laJbor force was taken away from the farmers and transferred to industrial pul'p()ses. Mr. McTigue. So it was impossible for these farmers, big and small, to meet the quotas imposed by the Communists, is that correct? ,M r. Detvianslky. At first the farmers managed to meet the delivery quotas because they helped each other SWVAKIA 99 in tendmg the soil. But later this task became imposs~b'l.e to fttlfill and famJ.ers rubandoned. their farms and/ or were arrested for not ful£illing their deliivery quotas. ~- McTigue. Can you give any examples which you know of from your own personal knowledge, of how some of the peasants on small farims reacted to the quotas? Mr. Debviansky. There were several instances, but the most significant of them was that which occurred at Detva-lKostolna. It was on: Decemiber 5, 1951, when a farmer named Jan Ba/bic from despair because of the hard delivery quotas prescriibed to him 1knifed his three children, 1, 3 and 5 years old. His wife and two older children succeeded in escaping his desperate aJCt. He committed this action of despair because he stated that since they took aiway from him everything they should take away also his family. Mr. McTigue. When did you escape to the West? Mr. Detviansky. In Decemlber 1951. Mr. McTigrue. And you are now a caiptain in one of the Labor Service COIJ:Il!pany units at Kaiserslautern , is that correct? Mr. Detviansky. Yes. Mr. No:rlblad. Is the treatment which you harve been receiving here aH you expected? Mr. Detvfansky. Well, the treatment l received here meets my expectations, however, I am dissatisfied with the slow progress of the struggle rugainst the Communists and I am impatient to return to my home country. Mr. Norblad. Many of us are quite dissatisfied with the progress of OUI' fight against communism. Mr. Kersten. In other words I understrund you feel that the men, the young men of Slovakia as well as the people of the other captive nations that are in the free world would like to try to help the people ibaok in those countries and your country to regain their fireedom, is that right? Mr. Detviansky. Yes, sir, the sooner the better. Mr. Kersten. And you likewise feel that the young main back behind the Iron Curtain, even those under arms, 100 S!LOVAIHA would if they have the Oipportunity help get rid of Communists? Mr. Detviansky. As far as Slovakia is concerned, I can srtaite that since I was previously an active army officer and knew the mentality of the Sl01Vakian soldiers, I can state that 90 percent orf the Slova,kian young men would use such an oipportunity. Mr. Kersten. Thank you. The witness was. excused. (Munich, Germany, June 29, 1954). When the Kersten Committee pwblished its findings, the Benes Czechs (Socialists), the Slovak renegades the Lettrich "democrats" - and the Reds began to scream "murder!" That, of course, is quite understandaJble. For the ladk of positive al'gument, they resort to the smear technique, the usua,l line of the Reds. "CAS" (TIME) the official propaganda sheet of the Lettrich "we-got-6'2 %of-the,JSlovak-vote-in-1946" democrats, who actively collaborated with the Reds and Moscow from 1943 to Fe!bruary 25, 1948 - in its issue of February 1, 195:5, attaciked the Kersten Committee and the testimony of most of the Slovak witnesses, laJbeling the report "scandalous." It is unfortunate that the Keraten Committee did not call wpon the Lettrioh "democrats" to testify; the story would have been more complete. At least Dr. Joseph Lettrich, "leader" of the Slovak "democrats," and Gen. Nicholas Ferjencik, "non-!I)artisan" head of Lettrich's gestapo, should have ,b een given the opportunity to confess that the "democrats" did .conclude agreements with the Reds in 1943 and 1945 to collaJborate closely on all issues. The Kersten Committee did a good job in the time allotted to it. The wol1k initiated: should !be completed. Albove all else, leading Benes Czechs (Socialists) and Lettrich "democrats" - former members of the Communist-d ominated National Front government of Prague - should be girven the opportunity to "sing"!  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource How the Communists Seized Slovakia (special issue) Description An account of the resource From the testimony of witnesses before the Select Committee on Communist Aggression of the House of Representatives<br /><ol><li>From the Special Report No. 8</li> <li>Michael Galayda</li> <li>Mr. and Mrs. Smrekovský</li> <li>Dr. Joseph Paučo</li> <li>Dr. Joseph Mikula</li> <li>Philip A. Hrobák</li> <li>Dr. Joseph A. Mikuš</li> <li>Father Anton Botek</li> <li>Father Stephen Náhalka</li> <li>Ján Dobrotka</li> <li>Jur Detviansky</li> <li>Reaction of Beneš Czechs, Lettrich "Democrats" and Czecho-Slovak Reds</li> </ol> Slovakia, Vol. 5, No. 1 (14), March 1955<br />pp. 1-100 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource March 1955 specialissue https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/575fd74b2c0220cb32780f0e819fc80c.pdf 372740dc44a33c68193f09f3b6423935 PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA HOW TIIE CZECHS DECEIVED US CONST A NTIN E ČU L EN "Why do you not believe that old mistakes will not be repeated in the Czechoslovak Republlc?" I was asked by a Czech Slovak (a Czeehoslovak! ). "Because," I answer,,d, "only a donkey trlps twice on tbe same stone. And we Slovaks have already been deceived twice by Czech promiaes. One deceptlon was labeled the Pittsburgh Pact, and tbe second the Košice Agreement." "But you must belleve," said the Beneš Slovak, " just Jike a drowning man clinging to a straw." "Believe? But whom? The old decelvers? Here's a Jetter from a young Slovak who, In 1944, was one of those who believed the ~echs more than he dld hls brother Slovaks. After 1945," he wrltes, "many of my friends went to Prague to work in the mlnistrles. They worked in the Mlnistry of Foreign Trade, where Ripka was boss. When they wanted to execute some document, they had to steal it. In P rague they were willlng to employ Slovaks and, in cases, even elevate them, but they did not want them to work for Slovakia and make decisions and have influence on the trend of events and development of Slovakla." That young Slovak, an exile today, recently reminded me tbat I was right when I told bim, during the years of the Slovak Republlc, that the Czechs did not learn anything, or did they forget anythlng. At one Ume I collected a list of Czech promises very dillgently. Slnce 1919 I have recorded qulte a number or them. The first promlse sounded llke this: We Czechs are going to Slovakia only to help you out; when the Slovaks have capable people or their own, we w!ll ret•trn horne and let them manage their own arfalrs. Statlstics, however, show that there were less Slovaks in centra! offices in 1938, than there were in 1936. The schools in Slovakla, run by the Czechs, dld put out a lot of scholarly people, but !t seems that these schools were not as excellent as the Czech schools. Otherwlse someone mlght be able to say that this 1s just au anti-Czech argument to show that the Czechs used to send their worst professors to Slovakla, slnce they could not turn out, for example, anybody for the Jeading poslt!on in the Presidenťs office, in Parliament and in the varlous minlstries. The fact that out of 150 Generals only one was Slovak could be au argument that the Slovaks are a terribly peace-loving natlon and that the Czechs were all Žlžkas and warrlors. At the beginnlng of 1919, the offlclal Czech Press Bureau (ÔTK) had this joyful report propagated In Amer!ca: "The Slovak language shall be introduced as a required subject In the middle schools In Bohemia and Moravla. At the Prague philosophical facuJty it already has lts own seminary; it shall have a lecturer and the lectures on Slovak l!terature shall 'be ín Slovak. "Literary and scientlfic societles are prepar!ng to arrange coursel!I in Slovak for their members and for the general public. A Slovak dictionary and a Slovak comparat!ve . grammar are being publlshed. A review hlstory or literature wlll follow. �SLOV AK1A "A council of foremost Slovaks here or technical expert& on the Slovak language, because the Minlstry of Schools and Natlonal Enlightenment wills it, are preparing plans and school books for Slovakia, which shall be placed before natlve Slovak experta and, after agreement and approval, shall be published speedlly and passed out to ouľ students. "Professors from all sides are answering our call to teach in the first complete Slovak gymnasimn in Skalica; they are perfectlng themselves in Slovak and, as soon as circumstances allow, they shall actively undertake teaching work. And after the first middle school, there shall be in other parts of our country a second, a third and a fourth. "Already today the Slovak language is at horne in our entire State. A former Clnderella has now become the most-liked chlld of the entire Czechoslovak society" (NÁRODNt NOVINY, Jan. 16, 1919). Well, what flnally happened? The Slovak language was uot lntroduced into Czech schools, nay they stlfled it even in Slovak schools. In Bohemia the Czecn language was taught, but in Slovakla only the Czech brand of Slovak, that is the so-called "Czechoslovak" language. A Slovak dictionary and grammar were not being published at that time at all, nor were they being pre· pared. The dictlonary was prepared later by Professor Tvrdt, a Slovak professor, who could not flnd a teaching position in Slovakia. Slovak text)><loks were not approved by Slovaks, "but by Czechs in Pragúe. They _dld not like to approve textbooks prepared by Slovaks, because books afforded the Czechs a nice income. As late as 1938, practtcally all. textbooks of technical schools and a large percentage of the other schools in Slovakia were in Czech. At the Skalica gymnazlum, where Slovak professors flocked in such numbers already in 1919, there were, in 19~8, 15% Slovak professors and 85% Czech. lndeed, iu 1938, the Slovak language was not "at horne" even at the Universlty of Bratislava, or in barr acks, tbe schools and offlces. In 1988, 80% of the leading official pos itions in Slovakia were in Czech hands and the majority of Czechs offlciated in Czech. And in Prague, in the centra! offlces, where the destluy of Slovakia was being decided, there were three Slovaks out of 200 officials. In a word, in 1919 the Czech Press Bureau wanted Americans of Slovak descent to relax their vigilance. In the meantime, the Czech parliament, witb a Czech majority, passed a Iaw, according to which the Slovak nation vauished as such and, follo.wiug U1e Magyar pattern, instead of a unitary Hungarian natlon, we had a unltary Czechoslovak nation, with the Czechoslovak language as the otflcial language, the State language. Whosoever wishes can believe new Czech promises. The Slovakl!I cannot and must not, because the Czechs are determlned to destroy the Slovak nation. A wlse and cautious person wlll not believe them, b&caúse the people doing the promlsing today are the pupils or Masaryk'a scbool and that school really excelled in deception. The "master" cheated to s uch an extent that he denled his own slgnature on the· document which was called the Pittsburgh Pact. The Slovak natlon has matured to sllch an extent that lt does not believe the Czechs. It shall belleve them, but with caution, only when t he Morava river shall again be thelr bouudary. � SLOVAKIA HOW TIIE CZECHS DECEIVED US CONST A NTIN E ČU L EN "Why do you not believe that old mistakes will not be repeated in the Czechoslovak Republlc?" I was asked by a Czech Slovak (a Czeehoslovak! ). "Because," I answer,,d, "only a donkey trlps twice on tbe same stone. And we Slovaks have already been deceived twice by Czech promiaes. One deceptlon was labeled the Pittsburgh Pact, and tbe second the Košice Agreement." "But you must belleve," said the Beneš Slovak, " just Jike a drowning man clinging to a straw." "Believe? But whom? The old decelvers? Here's a Jetter from a young Slovak who, In 1944, was one of those who believed the ~echs more than he dld hls brother Slovaks. After 1945," he wrltes, "many of my friends went to Prague to work in the mlnistrles. They worked in the Mlnistry of Foreign Trade, where Ripka was boss. When they wanted to execute some document, they had to steal it. In P rague they were willlng to employ Slovaks and, in cases, even elevate them, but they did not want them to work for Slovakia and make decisions and have influence on the trend of events and development of Slovakla." That young Slovak, an exile today, recently reminded me tbat I was right when I told bim, during the years of the Slovak Republlc, that the Czechs did not learn anything, or did they forget anythlng. At one Ume I collected a list of Czech promises very dillgently. Slnce 1919 I have recorded qulte a number or them. The first promlse sounded llke this: We Czechs are going to Slovakia only to help you out; when the Slovaks have capable people or their own, we w!ll ret•trn horne and let them manage their own arfalrs. Statlstics, however, show that there were less Slovaks in centra! offices in 1938, than there were in 1936. The schools in Slovakla, run by the Czechs, dld put out a lot of scholarly people, but !t seems that these schools were not as excellent as the Czech schools. Otherwlse someone mlght be able to say that this 1s just au anti-Czech argument to show that the Czechs used to send their worst professors to Slovakla, slnce they could not turn out, for example, anybody for the Jeading poslt!on in the Presidenťs office, in Parliament and in the varlous minlstries. The fact that out of 150 Generals only one was Slovak could be au argument that the Slovaks are a terribly peace-loving natlon and that the Czechs were all Žlžkas and warrlors. At the beginnlng of 1919, the offlclal Czech Press Bureau (ÔTK) had this joyful report propagated In Amer!ca: "The Slovak language shall be introduced as a required subject In the middle schools In Bohemia and Moravla. At the Prague philosophical facuJty it already has lts own seminary; it shall have a lecturer and the lectures on Slovak l!terature shall 'be ín Slovak. "Literary and scientlfic societles are prepar!ng to arrange coursel!I in Slovak for their members and for the general public. A Slovak dictionary and a Slovak comparat!ve . grammar are being publlshed. A review hlstory or literature wlll follow. �SLOV AK1A "A council of foremost Slovaks here or technical expert& on the Slovak language, because the Minlstry of Schools and Natlonal Enlightenment wills it, are preparing plans and school books for Slovakia, which shall be placed before natlve Slovak experta and, after agreement and approval, shall be published speedlly and passed out to ouľ students. "Professors from all sides are answering our call to teach in the first complete Slovak gymnasimn in Skalica; they are perfectlng themselves in Slovak and, as soon as circumstances allow, they shall actively undertake teaching work. And after the first middle school, there shall be in other parts of our country a second, a third and a fourth. "Already today the Slovak language is at horne in our entire State. A former Clnderella has now become the most-liked chlld of the entire Czechoslovak society" (NÁRODNt NOVINY, Jan. 16, 1919). Well, what flnally happened? The Slovak language was uot lntroduced into Czech schools, nay they stlfled it even in Slovak schools. In Bohemia the Czecn language was taught, but in Slovakla only the Czech brand of Slovak, that is the so-called "Czechoslovak" language. A Slovak dictionary and grammar were not being published at that time at all, nor were they being pre· pared. The dictlonary was prepared later by Professor Tvrdt, a Slovak professor, who could not flnd a teaching position in Slovakia. Slovak text)><loks were not approved by Slovaks, "but by Czechs in Pragúe. They _dld not like to approve textbooks prepared by Slovaks, because books afforded the Czechs a nice income. As late as 1938, practtcally all. textbooks of technical schools and a large percentage of the other schools in Slovakia were in Czech. At the Skalica gymnazlum, where Slovak professors flocked in such numbers already in 1919, there were, in 19~8, 15% Slovak professors and 85% Czech. lndeed, iu 1938, the Slovak language was not "at horne" even at the Universlty of Bratislava, or in barr acks, tbe schools and offlces. In 1988, 80% of the leading official pos itions in Slovakia were in Czech hands and the majority of Czechs offlciated in Czech. And in Prague, in the centra! offlces, where the destluy of Slovakia was being decided, there were three Slovaks out of 200 officials. In a word, in 1919 the Czech Press Bureau wanted Americans of Slovak descent to relax their vigilance. In the meantime, the Czech parliament, witb a Czech majority, passed a Iaw, according to which the Slovak nation vauished as such and, follo.wiug U1e Magyar pattern, instead of a unitary Hungarian natlon, we had a unltary Czechoslovak nation, with the Czechoslovak language as the otflcial language, the State language. Whosoever wishes can believe new Czech promises. The Slovakl!I cannot and must not, because the Czechs are determlned to destroy the Slovak nation. A wlse and cautious person wlll not believe them, b&caúse the people doing the promlsing today are the pupils or Masaryk'a scbool and that school really excelled in deception. The "master" cheated to s uch an extent that he denled his own slgnature on the· document which was called the Pittsburgh Pact. The Slovak natlon has matured to sllch an extent that lt does not believe the Czechs. It shall belleve them, but with caution, only when t he Morava river shall again be thelr bouudary. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to 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 HOW TIIE CZECHS DECEIVED US CONST A NTIN E ČU L EN "Why do you not believe that old mistakes will not be repeated in the Czechoslovak Republlc?" I was asked by a Czech Slovak (a Czeehoslovak! ). "Because," I answer,,d, "only a donkey trlps twice on tbe same stone. And we Slovaks have already been deceived twice by Czech promiaes. One deceptlon was labeled the Pittsburgh Pact, and tbe second the Košice Agreement." "But you must belleve," said the Beneš Slovak, " just Jike a drowning man clinging to a straw." "Believe? But whom? The old decelvers? Here's a Jetter from a young Slovak who, In 1944, was one of those who believed the ~echs more than he dld hls brother Slovaks. After 1945," he wrltes, "many of my friends went to Prague to work in the mlnistrles. They worked in the Mlnistry of Foreign Trade, where Ripka was boss. When they wanted to execute some document, they had to steal it. In P rague they were willlng to employ Slovaks and, in cases, even elevate them, but they did not want them to work for Slovakia and make decisions and have influence on the trend of events and development of Slovakla." That young Slovak, an exile today, recently reminded me tbat I was right when I told bim, during the years of the Slovak Republlc, that the Czechs did not learn anything, or did they forget anythlng. At one Ume I collected a list of Czech promises very dillgently. Slnce 1919 I have recorded qulte a number or them. The first promlse sounded llke this: We Czechs are going to Slovakia only to help you out; when the Slovaks have capable people or their own, we w!ll ret•trn horne and let them manage their own arfalrs. Statlstics, however, show that there were less Slovaks in centra! offices in 1938, than there were in 1936. The schools in Slovakla, run by the Czechs, dld put out a lot of scholarly people, but !t seems that these schools were not as excellent as the Czech schools. Otherwlse someone mlght be able to say that this 1s just au anti-Czech argument to show that the Czechs used to send their worst professors to Slovakla, slnce they could not turn out, for example, anybody for the Jeading poslt!on in the Presidenťs office, in Parliament and in the varlous minlstries. The fact that out of 150 Generals only one was Slovak could be au argument that the Slovaks are a terribly peace-loving natlon and that the Czechs were all Žlžkas and warrlors. At the beginnlng of 1919, the offlclal Czech Press Bureau (ÔTK) had this joyful report propagated In Amer!ca: "The Slovak language shall be introduced as a required subject In the middle schools In Bohemia and Moravla. At the Prague philosophical facuJty it already has lts own seminary; it shall have a lecturer and the lectures on Slovak l!terature shall 'be ín Slovak. "Literary and scientlfic societles are prepar!ng to arrange coursel!I in Slovak for their members and for the general public. A Slovak dictionary and a Slovak comparat!ve . grammar are being publlshed. A review hlstory or literature wlll follow. SLOV AK1A "A council of foremost Slovaks here or technical expert& on the Slovak language, because the Minlstry of Schools and Natlonal Enlightenment wills it, are preparing plans and school books for Slovakia, which shall be placed before natlve Slovak experta and, after agreement and approval, shall be published speedlly and passed out to ouľ students. "Professors from all sides are answering our call to teach in the first complete Slovak gymnasimn in Skalica; they are perfectlng themselves in Slovak and, as soon as circumstances allow, they shall actively undertake teaching work. And after the first middle school, there shall be in other parts of our country a second, a third and a fourth. "Already today the Slovak language is at horne in our entire State. A former Clnderella has now become the most-liked chlld of the entire Czechoslovak society" (NÁRODNt NOVINY, Jan. 16, 1919). Well, what flnally happened? The Slovak language was uot lntroduced into Czech schools, nay they stlfled it even in Slovak schools. In Bohemia the Czecn language was taught, but in Slovakla only the Czech brand of Slovak, that is the so-called "Czechoslovak" language. A Slovak dictionary and grammar were not being published at that time at all, nor were they being pre· pared. The dictlonary was prepared later by Professor Tvrdt, a Slovak professor, who could not flnd a teaching position in Slovakia. Slovak text)><loks were not approved by Slovaks, "but by Czechs in Pragúe. They _dld not like to approve textbooks prepared by Slovaks, because books afforded the Czechs a nice income. As late as 1938, practtcally all. textbooks of technical schools and a large percentage of the other schools in Slovakia were in Czech. At the Skalica gymnazlum, where Slovak professors flocked in such numbers already in 1919, there were, in 19~8, 15% Slovak professors and 85% Czech. lndeed, iu 1938, the Slovak language was not "at horne" even at the Universlty of Bratislava, or in barr acks, tbe schools and offlces. In 1988, 80% of the leading official pos itions in Slovakia were in Czech hands and the majority of Czechs offlciated in Czech. And in Prague, in the centra! offlces, where the destluy of Slovakia was being decided, there were three Slovaks out of 200 officials. In a word, in 1919 the Czech Press Bureau wanted Americans of Slovak descent to relax their vigilance. In the meantime, the Czech parliament, witb a Czech majority, passed a Iaw, according to which the Slovak nation vauished as such and, follo.wiug U1e Magyar pattern, instead of a unitary Hungarian natlon, we had a unltary Czechoslovak nation, with the Czechoslovak language as the otflcial language, the State language. Whosoever wishes can believe new Czech promises. The Slovakl!I cannot and must not, because the Czechs are determlned to destroy the Slovak nation. A wlse and cautious person wlll not believe them, b&caúse the people doing the promlsing today are the pupils or Masaryk'a scbool and that school really excelled in deception. The "master" cheated to s uch an extent that he denled his own slgnature on the· document which was called the Pittsburgh Pact. The Slovak natlon has matured to sllch an extent that lt does not believe the Czechs. It shall belleve them, but with caution, only when t he Morava river shall again be thelr bouudary.  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource How the Czechs Deceived Us Description An account of the resource Constantine Čulen Slovakia, Vol. 2, No. 2 (4), August 1952 pp. 42-43 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 August 1952 SNK https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/aca28d01eb176a6710664a7553ed389f.pdf 1249ab6b1575119e79e968ef5117fb0a PDF Text Text 80 SLOVAKIA Hugolfn Gavlovic's Valaska Skala and Skala Krest'anska Gerald J . Sabo For most Slavists, the eighteenth century in Slovak history and culture remains pretty much unknown territory. Even among specialists in Slovak studies, that era m ay bring to mind simply Anton Bernol ak and possibly J a n Baltaza r M agin . Bernolak should certa inly stand out as the first cod ifer of the Slovak language , a nd Magin deserves more than a few brief sentences for hi s de fense of Slovak ethnic a nd cultural rights . Y et m any other writers from the e ighteenth ce ntury deserve not onl y mention but substantial comm entary , because their writings in the Slovak vernacular before Bernolak's codificat ion exem plified and promoted Slovak consciousness. Amon g these a uthors a prominent place is occupied by the Franciscan priest Hugolfn Gavlovic. Gavlovic was born in 17 12 in Czarny Dunaj ec, Poland, yet he spent virtually his entire life in Slovak-speaking areas. 2 H e di ed in 1787, th e year Bernolak publicly began his codification effort s. G avlovic considered himself ethnically Polish. Still , as far as can be ascertained, the only Slavic la n gu age in which h e wrote was the contemporary Slovak vernacul ar. In a number of hi s writings, he even explicity expres~ed his awareness of writing in Slovak. 3 Gavlovic's co n scious Slovak writing but Polish e thnicity is more th an some curiously interest ing point. I t is especially strikin g again st the b ackground of in tense nationalistic fr iction at that time . This nationalisti c frict ion was between Slovaks a nd various ethnic gro u ps, but in particula r th e Hun garians. The effects of th is fri ct ion reached even into Franciscan foundations and affected th e governan ce of Franciscan eccles iastical provin ces. 4 Gavlovic began writing in 1745 after he had finished his Franciscan course of studies and h ad become a priest. From 1745 until h is death in 1 787 , he composed nearly twenty distin ct pieces of Slovak writin g in prose o r poetry . Among his poetic writings, the most prominent are Valask a Skala (Th e Shepherd ' s School) and Skala Krest'anska (A C h ris1 �SLOVAKIA 81 tian School). Though Valaska Skala and Skala Krest'anska are di stinct pieces of writing, they should be treated together for a number of reasons. Both are written for the same audience - Franciscan T e rti aries,6 that is , lay persons who pattern their lives according to prescript s of Franciscan spirituality and traditions . Also , in both compositions is found a poetic form peculiar only to them : Gavlovic called this form koncept. 7 A koncept consists of twelve verses or six rhymed couplets ; each verse has fourteen syllables with a caesura-like pause after the eighth sylla bl e. Usual ly , some rhymed couplets of varying length are related to a koncept . At times, the various pictorial illustrations in both Gavlovic "schools" are connected with kon cepty as well as other verse units . 8 Thus , in Valaska Skala but especially in Skala Krest'anska , the format of the koncept a nd other verse units could be said to resem ble emblematic poetry: a verse-motto, a versified elaboration of the motto, and the related illustration. 9 Besides similarities in a udience and poetic units, the two "schools " are explicitly related to each oth er by Gavlovic him self. According to Gavlovic, Val ask a Skala was written to foster the reader ' s " moral ch aracter, " Skol a Krest'ansk a his "holiness." 10 Gavlovic has also described Valaska Skala as "cheese," someth in g that would n ourish th e reader. In its author 's view, Skala Krest'an sk a represents a " pleasant sce nt '' from a b ouqu et of fl owers. 11 Clearly , Gavlovic expressed a contrast between the physical a nd external against the non-physical a nd internal. Also , the epigraphs fo r the two "schools" show their contrasting emphases and areas of con centration . For Valask a Skala, it is the H oratian utile-dulci - the practically beneficial made palatably pleasant ; this epigraph aptly expresses the mundane yet religiously instructive character of Val ask a Sk ala . 11 T he epigraph for Skala Krest'anska is the last verse from th e seventh chapte r of the Biblical book Sirach: " R emember the last thin gs, a nd you will never sin ." 13 From a reading of the two ''schools,'' it is evide n t that for Gavlovic, they represented the two states in Christia n spiri tualit y: th e act ive an d contemplative ways of livin g. In the active life, as in Val ask a Skol a, the goal of a Christian is the practice of good morals and virtues a nd all this entail s. In the co n templative life , as in Skala Krest'anska , the aim is the conte mpl ation of God , sp iritu al matters , espec iall y of th e '' four last things,'' d eath, judgment, hell , and heaven. 14 I n effect, then, through th ese writings Gavlovic offered the �82 SLOVAKIA reader a sort of program for good Christian living and thinking . In appreciatin g these two "schools," the Christian reader could then set about reali zing the active a nd contemplative ways of living in his earthly existe n ce. Gavlovic completed Valaska Skala in March , 1755, and Skala Krest'an ska in August, 17 58. 15 At what dates he began to write each "sch ool " can not at present be d etermin ed. In the letter of the ecclesiastical cen sor for Skala Krest'an sk a, Gavlovic is n amed as the a uthor. 16 This identification has in turn contributed to verifying Gavlovic 's autho rship of Valaska Skala. Val ask a Skala and Skala Krest'anska are extensive pieces of poetry. Valaska Skala comprises nearly e ighteen th ousand verses, virtually all of which are fourteen syll ables in length ; there are also some twentyfour hundred verses of varyin g length for the couplet- mottoes above the kan cepty as well as numerous related mottoes beside the k ancep ty. In Valaska Skala, there are twenty-seven illu strations, but only nine in Skala Krest'an ska. 17 The mass of verses and illustrations in each ''school'' is a rranged accord in g to schemes wh ere symmetry and numerical sym bolism play d efinite roles. 18 Valask a Skala has three major divisions: first, an introductory portion with twelve parts of varying length ; second, a main body with twentytwo subdivisions known as naty (nata in the sin gul ar); a nd third, a co ncluding portion with two parts of unequal length . The introductory and concludin g portions - virtually equal in length - fram e the main body . In the m a in body, the predominant textual unit is the kancept ; in each of the twenty-two subdivions or naty , there are fifty-nin e kancepty. The major motif of Valaska Skala is J esus the Good Shepherd as portrayed in St. J ohn 's Gospel. 19 In the main body , Gavlovic presented a series of stories on Biblical shepherds. Th ese stories are part of the introdu cto ry narrative for each of the first twenty-one naty . Abel is the first shepherd prese nted, and the shepherds of Be thlehem are the subjects that introdu ce th e twenty-first nata. Th e twenty-second nata has no introdu ctory n arrat ive but begins with a kancept about the resurrected Christ; the risen J esus is comm issionin g Peter to feed his sheep, the Christian Church . otably, then, the lin e of Biblical shephe rds in the twenty-two naty forms a chronologically linear presentation of Biblical history - from the era of Adam through that of the resurrected Christ, the Second Adam. T he two concluding sections of Valask a Skala are �SLOVAKIA 83 on death and the Last judgment; they aptly complete the Christian timespectrum presented in the preceding main body. The most prominent instance of numerical symbolism in Valaska Skala involves the first twenty-one naty of the main body. Gavlovic was very explicit that Valaska Skala comprised only twenty-one naty. 10 Yet he included a twenty-second nata, and the two concluding sections on death and the Last Judgment. The explanation for this is based on the symbolic number of 1260 from the Biblical book Apocalypse. Symbolically, the number 1260 represents a time period when evil and extreme suffering are the lot of God's people ; this period is to be followed by a new era under the leadership of Christ. 21 In Valaska Skala, 1260 is the number of textual units in the first twenty-one naty . The last kancept of nata twenty-one clearly expresses a definite finality: Buch ge Alpha y Omega wsseckeho stworeni, A bez neho w clowekovi ni c d obre ho neni* On ge sprawedliweg laski wzdy horicy plamen , Nech ho dussa ma milu ge Az na weki Amen . (XXI , lix , 1-2 , 11-12) God is the Alpha and Omega of all creati on , And without him there is nothing of goodness in a person• He is always the burning flam e of just a ffec tion , M ay my soul love him Until forever Amen. Even the pagination of the first twenty-one naty contributes to understanding their extent according to the symbolic number 1260. 11 These naty are that period of suffering and patient waiting before the reign of Christ. Aptly, then, the twenty-second nata begins with the resurrected Christ and his future vicar Peter. This new era is traditionally known as the "last times," that era from Christ 's resurrection until his Second Coming at the end of the world and of time. ll The next crucial moments in a Christian 's existence during the "last times" are his death and the Last Judgment. These two moments form the them es for the concluding sections of Valaska Skala . In effect, then , Gavlovic also used a specific number of textual units to present symbolically his Christian view of time and history. In the main body of Valaska Skala, Gavlovic presented much more than Biblical material. In the introductory narratives for the naty, Gavlovic occasionally included comments on valasi, i.e. the Slovak mountain shepherds who represent a distinctive group in Slovak history and culture. 24 The valasi in Valaska Skala are contemporary figures who �84 SLOVAKIA illustrate actions that foster or d etract from proper Christian conduct. In the nearly thirteen hundred koncepty , there is a range of topics all to show what helps make a good Christian citizen of this world and the next. Whatever has to do with the total human b eing and Christian is treated - social deportment , catechetical matters, virtues, vices , and points of health . Nothing seems too trivial for discussion. Examples of the more religious kon cept as well as of the more mundane type will illustrate this, as the following two show : 25 Powinn os t P as tyru • Kryst u s poru ca swe owce Petrow i k pase ni , By wssech podl e sweg moznos ti priwad zal k Spaseni . K azdy wrchni na podda nych musy sta rost miti , Aby ned al od Spase ni fa dn emu bluditi. Otec di tkam , Pan podd a nym , gazd a sweg celedi* Z poru ceni Krystoweho nech uz itek hl edi . An o y ty twoge g Du sse pastyrem bi t musyss, Ga k gu stratiss gakokoli w , hrozny Sud okus iss . Co mu ze byt ku Spaseni ginym , nezanedbag, Al e negprw n a twu Duss u neglepssi pozo r dag . G ak twu Du ssu , a y gin ych priwedess k Spa seni , Budess Srdcy Krys towemu giste k potesse ni. (XXII, i) R esponsibility of the Shepherd Chri st entrusts his sheep to Peter for past ure, So th at he would bring them all to Salvation . Each superi or must have conce rn for th ose subj ec t to him , So tha t he would not permit any of th em to stray . A fa ther fo r his children , a master for his se rfs, a householder for his se rvants* Let him see k benefi t because of the cha rge of C hrist. Yes a nd you must be the shepherd of your Soul , If you so mehow lose it , you will taste a terribl e Jud gm ent. Don ' t neglect wh at can be to others' Salvat ion , But first give the bes t attenti on to yo ur Soul. If you bring your soul and oth ers to Salvati on , You will surely be a consola ti on to C hrist 's H ea rt . Pan owi chud obn y N ech neni • podobn y Ml ce t pred Pa nem Slu ssy gak a men T ak obcu ge bohac z chud ym , gako wlk z baranem , Gestli mu zess , nem eg nikd y spolec nost z pa nem . G ak te vola k sobe , nechot, • kd yz budess negiti, Gak se odd aliss od neho , budess pokog m iti . Kd yz b ud ess s nim , tehdy nemlu w wsselico slobodne , Newe r mn ohim reca m geho, snat m lu wi podwodn e. Bude te mn ohimi slowmi p robowa t libezne , �SLOVAKIA 85 Dokud negake tagemstw i od teba newez ne . Bude se te usmiwagic wsselico spytowa t , A twe recy w swogeg hl awe pilne pa matowa t . Gak od teba zw i to co chce , hn et twa r swu promeni , Zabyge te z twym gaz ikem krem twe ho domnen i. (XV II , xxv) May a poor ma n not be like to a lord/ master It is as fit as an Amen to be silent before a lord/ master A ri ch man associates with a poor ma n just as a wolf wit h a shee p, If you ca n , don't ever have a ny dealin gs wi th a lord/ mas ter . When he calls you to him , don ' t go , • when you wi ll n ot go, When you distance yourself from him , you 'II have peace. W hen you wi ll be with him , th en don ' t speak all kind s of thi ngs freely, Don ' t believe hi s man y speec hes/wo rds , pe rh a ps he spea ks decept ively. H e wi ll tes t/ probe you kindly with many words, Unt il he h as taken some secrets from you. H e will smilingly ask you a ll so rt s of thin gs, And wi ll recall laboriousl y/we ll your speeches in his head. As soo n as/ when he learns from you wha.t he wants, at once his face will chan ge, H e will kill you with your tongue beyond anything you can imagine. Compared to Valaska Skala , Skala Krest'anska h as a simpl er compositional arran gement. This is probably because Skala Krest'an sk a conce rns only four m atte rs: death, judgment, hell , and heave n - the traditional "four las t things ." Yet , as in Valaska Skala, the kan cepty of Skala Krest'anska are crucial to a ppreciating the symmetry a nd numerical symbolism in this composition. Skala Krest'an ska has two maj o r divisions: an introductory po rti on of four parts that vary in le n gth , a nd a main body of four equ al subdivisions th at are simila r in format. Each of the fo ur subdiv isions in the main body h as o ne of the "four last things " as its guiding theme. In Valaska Skala , J esus the Good Shepherd had his counterpart in the good contemporary valach or shepherd. In Skala Krest'anska, the reader is also presented with the hum a n counterp a rt of Christ - St. Franc is of Assisi with stigmata. The stigmata are '' marks resem blin g the wounds on the cru cified body of C hrist [o n the hand s, the fee t , a nd the right side o f C hrist's chest; these marks are ] believed to have bee n supe rnat u rall y impressed upon the bod ies of certain pe rso ns , as St. Francis of Assisi.' ' 26 Among the illustrations and texts about the '' fo ur last things' ' are also illustrations of St. Fra ncis with st igmata as he refl ects on each of the "four last things ." The escha tology presented in text and illustrations is further empha- �86 SLOVAKIA sized b y the numerical sy mbolism used in com posin g the four subdivisions o f the m ain body. Each subdivision has k on cepty on 144 pages. Indeed , in each subdivision , only the pages with koncepty are numbered; the rem a ining pages in each subdivi sion and the pages of the introductory port ion are not numbered. The number 144 is related to the sym bolic number 144 ,000 ; thi s latter number sym bolically represents the number of Christians saved at the end of time as noted in the Biblical boo k Apocalypse . 17 Thus , the apocalyptic number of Christians saved - 144 ,000 - is associated with th e 144 pages of kon cepty for each of the "four last things ." For G avlovic , the readin g of these koncepty was to help number th e reader among those saved . ·After all , that was the primary aspiration of Gavlovic not only for his reader but also for himself. Th e very last kon cept - the end - of Skala Krest'anska clearly conveys this othe r-worldly view offered by G avlovic to his reader : Prigd k nam kralows twi twe" Co nce ptus hie S. Laurentij Ju stin* D ag na m n ebe weeny Boze Nassa mdl ost k nemu nemoze Otce nass, ktery sy w Nebi, Prigd k nam kralows twi twe, Nebo k dobrem u cyn eni Srdce w nas ge mrtwe. Zustawame w ned osta tku , a y w leniwosti, Nemu ze me dostat nebe bez twogeg mil os ti . M i do nebe nepri gde me; zosta neme w bide, Gak kra lows twi twe z tweg wu le k na m bidnym neprigde . Eliasse na ohni wem woze wzals do neb e, Y nas prigmi w tweg milosti , to prosime tebe. Zaden ku Krystu negide, gak ho netahn ess ty, Tahni n as w p rowaskach laski , neb sy we wssem Swaty. Abi sme spaseni byli , prigd twe kralowstwi k n am, A ty Boze az na we ki panu g n ad nami sam . (0 Nebi , 288) Your kingdom co me to us This kon ceptlco nce pt (from] St. Law rence Ju stinia n" Give us heave n ete rnal God Our wea kn ess cannot reach/approach it Our Fa ther , who a re in H eave n , Your kin gd om com e to us, For our H eart is dead to good d eeds. W e rema in want ing , a nd in laz iness, W e cannot att ain heave n without yo ur grace. W e will not reach heave n ; we will re main in misery, If you r kin gdom does not com e to wretched u s by your will. Elias was ra ised to heave n on a fi ery ve hicl e/cha ri ot, R eceive also us in your grace, thi s we implore you . No one co mes to C hri st , if you do not draw him yourself, Draw us in the bonds of love/affection , for you are H oly in everythin g. �SLOVAKIA 87 T hat we mi ght be saved, yo ur kin gdom co m e to us , And you God yourself rul e ove r u s fo reve r . A s two pieces of Slovak writing, V alaska Skol a and Skol a Krest'anska d o di splay som e litera ry ima gina tion in their compositional a rra n gem ent and co nten t. Y et the ir purposes wer e n o t belles lettres ente rta inment bu t the fosterin g of the C h r istia n read er 's m oral ch a racter a nd holiness. Their m or ali stic a nd religiou s ch a racters sh ould n o t , a nd in truth , do no t d e trac t fro m their place in Slovak histo ry a nd culture. T h ey remain p rominen t a nd substantive exampl es of con sciously Slovak writing lo n g before Slovaks were al lowed to exe rcise the ir righ ts as a di st inct Slavic peopl e. NOTES ' An example of thi s lim ited view of Slovak writing is the first sentence of Pete r Brock 's otherwise good study The Slovak Nat ional Awakening (T oron to: Uni ve rsity of Toronto Press, I 976), p . 3 : " A Slovak ve rn acul a r was fir st used for literary purposes in the 1780s when it replaced C zec h a m ong the Slovak Cat hol ic in tell ige nts ia.'' ' For a more deta iled biography of Gavlovic and a d iscuss ion of his writin gs, see Gerald J. Sabo, "Slovak Did actic Poetry: Gav lovic 's Valask a Skala. Volum e I: Introdu ctory Study. Volume II : Edition of V alask a Skala ," Di ss. Yale 1978, l , 1-8. This is the only English source fo r thi s information. Signi fi cant Slovak sources on Gavlovic and hi s w ritin gs a re: Celes tin Le pacek , " Zivot a dic lo P . H ugolfna G avlovica, " V yrocne zpravy sukromneho gymnazia rad u sv . Franc isk a v M ala ck ach , 5- 10 ( 1932 -3 7); Lepace k, " Zlomky z d'alsfch Gavlovifovych ruko pisov ," Literarno-historick y sbornik M atice slovenskej , 2-3 , Nos. 1-2 ( 1945-46), 79-84 ; J ozef' Min ari k , " Hu golfn Gav lovic: Va lask a skola, mravuv stodola (l itera rn o-esteti cky rozbo r 16 vyb ranyc h bas nf)," Tri lirerarn o-esrerick e rozbory zo starsej slovenskej Jic era tury (Bratis lava: Slovenske pedagogic ke nakl ada tel'stvo, 1973) , pp. 61-98; G izela Slavkovsk a, "Gavlov icova Valaska Skala." eq ui valen t of a docto ra l dissert a ti on ( Bra tislava: U niv e rzita Komens keho , prob. 1972); Slavkovs ka , " Gavlov ifova Va laska Skala," S lovcnska lic era ru ra, 2 1, o. 5 ( 1974), 459-480. ' In Valaska Skala , in eight inst ances (fi ve times " na slowenski gazik . " two times " na slowenski , '· a nd once '' w slowensk em gazik u "), Gav lov ic expressed th e phrase '' in the Slovak lang uage" when he tra nslat ed a H e brew Bibli cal name in1 0 its Slovak meaning : nota I. introductory na rrati ve, line 33: V. int rodu ctory narrative, 9: VIII. in trodu ctory narrativ e. 3; X. introductory na rrative. 49; XI. in troduuory na rrativ e, 7; X III , int roductory na rrati ve. 1: X IV , introdu cto ry narrative. 6; a nd X IX, in troclu c1ory narrat ivc , 7. Linguist s agree tha t Gavlovi c wrote in Slova k , e.g. l.'..ubomfr 6urovic, "Slovak," The Slavic Lircrar_v Languages: Fonnacion and Dnwlopmenr. Alex a nder Sc hen ker and Edwa rd Stankiewicz , eds . ( New H aven: Yale Concilium o n Intern a ti onal and Arca Studies, 1980), p. 214. Of this la nguage in genera l, Eugen Paul inv wrote: �88 SLOVAKIA The Slova ki zing process went so far that by th e end of th e fir st half of the 18th ce ntury, we alread y have among Slovak Catholics a sufficiently firmly normali zed national written language whi ch on account of esse nti al deviation s from Czech ca nnot be called on ly Slovakized Czech. N or mu st it be disting uish ed from Czech only on th e lin guistic side. Import antly, that is, n ot even its users and writers con sidered it as Czech. Th ey considered it, h ere more, ch ere less explicic y, as ch e dom escic Slovak language. The term " J esuit Slovak " was at one time coined for this language. This d es ignation would perhaps m eta pho ri call y do just ice to th e fa ct that thi s language was used in Catholic writin g. H oweve r , it is necessa ry, of course, to reali ze th at thi s la nguage did no t origin a te in Slovak Catholic writing , but that Catholics took it over as esse ntiall y set, and that it was u sed as cultural W es t-Sl ovak eve n in oth er functions. Further one must reali ze that in Catholic writing, not onl y J esuits used this language, even if th ese la tt er were th e most act ive in the rc-Ca tholi cization of Slovaki a. (Dejin y spisovnej slovenciny, I [ 1966 ; rpt. Brati slava : Slove nske pedagogicke nakl ada tel'stvo, 1971], p. 78. Ita li cs a nd tra nsla ti on a re min e .) ' See Sabo, pp . 50-56 , for nati onalistic friction in gene ral, and pp. 58-62 for nati onalisti c fri ct io n in Franciscan founda ti ons. Also , Ysevlad J oze f Gajdos, 0 . F . M. , Franciskani v slovens½ej lit eracure (C levela nd : First Catholic Slova k Union, 1979), pp . 23-26. In this work, Gajdos also has a sho rt biograph y of Gavlovi c, a brief co mm ent a ry o n so m e of his writings, a li st of m ost of hi s works , and a sm all bibli ogra phy on G av lovic. Thi s book co nt a ins a wealth of m a terial on Francisca n trai nin g and activiti es in Slovak areas. 5 Both m a nu script s, actually a ut og raphs b y Gavlov ic him self, a re prese rved in th e Lite rarny archiv M a ti ce slovenskej (LAMS) in Martin unde r th e signa ture B89 for V alask a Skala and MJ3 3 1 for Skala Krest'a nska. V alask a S k ala ha had three editi o n s. In th e first editi o n do ne in two volum es in 1830-3 1, th e auto gra ph was d evasta tin gly altered allegedl y by Mi cha l R eset ka acco rdin g to th e lin gui st ic no rm s of Bernolak-S lova k , bern olaccin a . In th e seco nd edi ti o n of 197 1, Rudolf Kraj covic, th e ed itor , re prod uced the tex t in questionab le fo rm at a nd form , but most unfortunately deleted some forty-seven percent of th e aut ogra ph tex t. The third edition is a reprintin g o f th e Kraj cov ic second ed itio n , but now with som e fift y- li ve perce nt of th e autograph text deleted. Non e of the pictori al illu stra tion s of Valaska Skala was reprodu ced in a ny o f th e three ed iti ons. As rega rd s Skala Kresc'a nsk a, a few selections - some two perce nt of th e a ut ogra ph text - ca n be found in Gizela Slavkovska's edited workja miluji, nesmfm provfdaci ... : Ancol6gia zo slovenskej barokovej poezie (Bratislava: T a tra n , 1977) , pp . 275-30 1. 6 Th is is made clea r in Valaska Skala in th e dedication immed ia tely after th e titl epage a nd first illustra ti o n as we ll as in the int rodu cto ry part " D arowa ni Ku uiicku cwemu ," line 57; and in Skala Kresc'a n ska, o n th e titl e page a nd in th e introducto ry part " Darowani Trecimu R adu Seraflin skemu ," pages 13-1 6 of th e aut ogra ph (wi th titl e-page as page one). Fo r possible reasons for Gavlovic dedi ca tin g these two works to Tertiaries, see Sabo , pp . 66-7 1. ' For details on Gav lovic ' s kon cepc form, see, Sabo, pp . 86-94. A koncepc is also found �SLOVAKIA ' 9 ' 0 " " 13 14 15 16 11 " 19 ' 0 89 in Gavlovi i''s "last will a nd testament, " and an inco mplete one (one sentence short) among fragm entary autograph s of Gavlovic. In my thesis , I discuss the a rtist of the illustrations for Valaska Skala on pages 79-82. Subsequ entl y, Slavkovska studied th e same m a tt er and published her co mments in " ' Tajomstva ' prveho vydania Valaskej Skoly ," Slovenska literatura , 25, No. 6 ( 1978) , 663-669 . John L. Lievsay , "Embl em ," Princeton Encyclopedia of Poet1y and Poetics, enlarged edition , Alex Preminger et al. ed. (Princeton: Princeton Uni ve rsity Press, 1974). Bes id es variou s pl aces in V alaska Skala , wh e re Gavlovic speaks of Valaska Skala in these terms, he co mpa res the two "school s" in Skala Krest'anska on page fourtee n with titl e-page as page one in " D aro wani Tretimu Radu S eraffinskemu ," lin es 45 -46. Valaska Skala, "Darowani Ku uiitku twemu ," line 44 ; Skala Krest'ansk a, " Darowani Tretimu Radu S eraffin sk emu ," lines 33-34. On the title-page of Valaska Skala , Gavlovic cited :Omne tulit pun ctum , qui miscuit utile dulci (H e ha s won eve ry vote who has bl end ed profit a nd pleas ure . .. ), verse 343, H. Ru shton Fairclough , trans., Horace: Satires, Epistles, and Ars Poetica (London and Cambridge, Mass. : William H eine m a n , Ltd. , 1970), pp. 478-479. For other pl aces wh ere G av lovic ex pressed th e se nse of this Horati a n ve rse, see Sabo , p. 68 , note 101. On the page immediat ely preceding th e titl e-page, it is cited in La tin a nd in a Slovak translation. In th e Vulgate ve rsion th a t I u sed , Alberto Colun ga a nd La urentio Turrado, ed ., 4th ed. , se ri es Bibliateca d e autores Christianos , Madrid , 1975, the last verse is forty , but in English ve rsions of this chapter, th e verse is thirt y-six. Karl Rahn e r , " Last Things , " Sa cram entum Mundi: An Encyclopedia of Th eology (New York: H e rd e r a nd H e rd er , 1969) , 274-2 76. Th ese da tes a re found on the d edi cation page of Valaska Skala right after th e titlepage a nd fir st illu stration , and for Skala Krest'a nska on th e prese nt titl e- page. Thi s letter is found at th e ve ry beginning of the bound autograph of Skala Krest'anska. Fo r a de tai led stud y ofGavlovic's a uthorship of th ese writings, see Sabo, pp. 11-15. From my st ud y of the sy mm etri cal structure of Skala Krest'anska , it is evident that th e re were probab ly at least nin e illustration s, four of which are mi ssing, and th a t some of the text which introduces th e k on cept y on d ea th and those on judgment is also mi ss in g. Bes id es th e numerical sy mboli sm ex pl a in ed in the subsequent text of m y article , furth e r num eri cal sy mboli sm in V a/ask a Skala is discussed in Sabo, pp. 124-28. The Gospel a nd th e Bibli cal book Apocalypse a ttribut ed to St. John th e Eva n geli st had a signifi can t influ e nce on th e format a nd mat e rial co nt ent of V a/aska Skala as we ll as on those of ot he r writings by Ga vlo vic: Sabo , pp. 114- 2 1. In " D arowan i Ku uzi tku twemu, " lin es 37-38 , Gavlovii' spec ifi ed twe nt y- one noty, ye t he added a twenty-second which he called " Pridawek or Additi on. " It is m y strong belief that Gavlov ic's spec ifi c in sistence o n twe nt y-o ne noty and hi s present at ion of th e m with Biblical shepherds introdu cin g eac h infl uenced J a n Holl y's stru cturin g of hi s Selanky or Pasto rals where th ere a re twent y-o ne pastoral so ng subdivi sion s; lik e Gav lov ic, Holl y begins hi s twe nt y-first (a nd las t) pastoral with referen ce to th e �90 " " " " " ' 0 " " SLOVAKIA Bet hl ehem shepherds . In a let ter of May 6, 183 1, Holly spoke of Gavlovic and his Valaska Skala: " Lette r #32 to M a rtin Hamuljak ," Jozef Ambrus , ed ., Korespondencia jan Holleho (M a rtin : M a tica slovenska , 1967), p . 74. The Selanky began to be published in 1835 some four years after the publicati on of R ese tka's ed ition of Valaska Skala: Encyklopedia Slovenska, II (1978) , sub verbo " Holl y, Jan. " An ed ition of the Selanky with a modern verse rendition was published by Tatran in J 970 as volume 22 of its se ri es Citanie studuju cej mladeze . Sabo , p . 125, note 13 1, a nd p . 126. Also, J ean-Loui s D ' Aragon, S.J ., " The Apocalypse ,'' The J erome Biblical Com m entary (Englewood Cliffs, N .J .: PrenticeH all , In c., 1968), p. 480. Sabo, p. 126 , not e 133: " In each n ota , the introducto ry section a nd first kon cept ac tu ally cover th ese three autograph pages, yet Gavlovic pagin ated th em on the third page as a sin gle Arabic-numbered page . Thus, acco rdin g to thi s peculi a r pagination , each nota has thirty pages. And this m eans th at the twenty-on e noty spec ifi ed by Gavlovic have six hundred and thirty pages or half of the 1260 , the number of textu al units that a ppear o n th ese 630 pages." As regards th e co ncept o f the " last times ," see Karl Lowith , " The Biblical View of Hi sto~y, " Meaning in History (C hi cago and London : Un iversity of Ch icago Press, 1949 , Phoenix paperback, 1957), p . 188 . As rega rds ,,alasi, for an English ource see Sa b o, pp . 37-38; and for Slovak sources see J a n Podolak, " The P asto ral Cu ltu re of th e Ca rpathian as a Subject of an Ethnological Study," Ethnologica slavica , 1 ( 1969), especial ly 70-77, a nd Encyklopedia Sloven ska , V I ( 1982), sub vcrbo " Valasi," " Valasska l'udova piesen," and '' Valasske pravo." Old so urces a bout valasi , their culture, a nd their wa y of li vin g a re: And rej K i!v ulj ak , " Val as i na Slove n sku: Ora vs ky pod za mok ," Sbornik n a pocest' jozefa Skulte1yh o (Turciansky Svii ty M a rtin : M at ica slovenska , 1933), pp . 336 -374; Karel K ad lec, Valasi a valassk e pravo v zem ich slovansk ych a uh erskych (Pra ha: Ces ka akadcmia cisare Frantiska J osefa, 19 16) ; V aclav C halo upec ky, Valasi na S lovensku (Praha: Slovansky u stav , 1947); a ndjosef Macurek, Valasi v za padnfch K a1pa1ech v 15. - 18 scole1f (Ost rava: K rajske naklad a telstvf, 1959). Th e ca pital R oman numera l is th e no/a number; th e sm a ll Roman num eral is th e k on cep1 numb er in thar 1101 a. Beca use of space limit ;itions , th e side- m otto here has bee n placed a bove the k oncep1. In th e text of Valask a Skala . Gav lov ic also in corporated fo lk ex press ions such as prove rbs and sayings that ca n be fo un d in ex tant compil a ti ons o f suc h ex pre. siuns as we ll ·as ones or his own ('rca ti u n ; sec Sa bo , pp . 168- 171, and Vojtcch Sarluska, " Piit's to prfslovf, " Li1er,im ya rchf, - 1975 . 12 (Mart in: M a ti ca sloven ska, 1976), 135- 167. Webs 1er·.- New C ollcgiait· Diction ary , 1961, su/.J v(·rbo ' ·Sri gma. " Sabo, p. 127, note 134; J ea n-Loui s D ' Aragon , " Th e Apondy p;e," p. 47 8 . In Skala K res1'anska , a couplet-m o tto or vary in g leng rh rs found aboH: a koncepl with o ne a nd nea rl y a lwa ys two re lated mot toes on the side . Beca use o f spate limitation s, I hav e placed in o rd er th e first a nd sclond side- m ottoe for th e koncep1 above the couplet-mono found at th e head of the koncepl . �SLOVAKIA 91 ,. Th e New Ca th olic Encyclopedia ( l 967), sub verbo " Lawrence Justini an , St ." My study of Gavlovic was greatl y facilitied b y Docent J ozef Minarik of th e Filozofi cka faku lta Univerzity Kom enskeho a nd Gi zela Slavkovska of the Litera rn ovedny Ustav Slove nskej Akadem ie Vied , both of Bra tisla va, while I was on th e exchange program of th e Intern ati onal R esea rch and Exchanges Board and on a Fulbright-H ays grant in 1975 -76. This pape r is based on a docto ral disse rt ation, " Slovak Didact ic Poetry: G avlovic's Va/aska S kala " at Ya le Univers ity, 1978. Prese nted in Pa nel 128 , "Slovak Litera ture as a Mirror of the Na tional Awakenin g," a t th e AAASS convention in Philadelphi a on 8 November 1980. � 80 SLOVAKIA Hugolfn Gavlovic's Valaska Skala and Skala Krest'anska Gerald J . Sabo For most Slavists, the eighteenth century in Slovak history and culture remains pretty much unknown territory. Even among specialists in Slovak studies, that era m ay bring to mind simply Anton Bernol ak and possibly J a n Baltaza r M agin . Bernolak should certa inly stand out as the first cod ifer of the Slovak language , a nd Magin deserves more than a few brief sentences for hi s de fense of Slovak ethnic a nd cultural rights . Y et m any other writers from the e ighteenth ce ntury deserve not onl y mention but substantial comm entary , because their writings in the Slovak vernacular before Bernolak's codificat ion exem plified and promoted Slovak consciousness. Amon g these a uthors a prominent place is occupied by the Franciscan priest Hugolfn Gavlovic. Gavlovic was born in 17 12 in Czarny Dunaj ec, Poland, yet he spent virtually his entire life in Slovak-speaking areas. 2 H e di ed in 1787, th e year Bernolak publicly began his codification effort s. G avlovic considered himself ethnically Polish. Still , as far as can be ascertained, the only Slavic la n gu age in which h e wrote was the contemporary Slovak vernacul ar. In a number of hi s writings, he even explicity expres~ed his awareness of writing in Slovak. 3 Gavlovic's co n scious Slovak writing but Polish e thnicity is more th an some curiously interest ing point. I t is especially strikin g again st the b ackground of in tense nationalistic fr iction at that time . This nationalisti c frict ion was between Slovaks a nd various ethnic gro u ps, but in particula r th e Hun garians. The effects of th is fri ct ion reached even into Franciscan foundations and affected th e governan ce of Franciscan eccles iastical provin ces. 4 Gavlovic began writing in 1745 after he had finished his Franciscan course of studies and h ad become a priest. From 1745 until h is death in 1 787 , he composed nearly twenty distin ct pieces of Slovak writin g in prose o r poetry . Among his poetic writings, the most prominent are Valask a Skala (Th e Shepherd ' s School) and Skala Krest'anska (A C h ris1 �SLOVAKIA 81 tian School). Though Valaska Skala and Skala Krest'anska are di stinct pieces of writing, they should be treated together for a number of reasons. Both are written for the same audience - Franciscan T e rti aries,6 that is , lay persons who pattern their lives according to prescript s of Franciscan spirituality and traditions . Also , in both compositions is found a poetic form peculiar only to them : Gavlovic called this form koncept. 7 A koncept consists of twelve verses or six rhymed couplets ; each verse has fourteen syllables with a caesura-like pause after the eighth sylla bl e. Usual ly , some rhymed couplets of varying length are related to a koncept . At times, the various pictorial illustrations in both Gavlovic "schools" are connected with kon cepty as well as other verse units . 8 Thus , in Valaska Skala but especially in Skala Krest'anska , the format of the koncept a nd other verse units could be said to resem ble emblematic poetry: a verse-motto, a versified elaboration of the motto, and the related illustration. 9 Besides similarities in a udience and poetic units, the two "schools " are explicitly related to each oth er by Gavlovic him self. According to Gavlovic, Val ask a Skala was written to foster the reader ' s " moral ch aracter, " Skol a Krest'ansk a his "holiness." 10 Gavlovic has also described Valaska Skala as "cheese," someth in g that would n ourish th e reader. In its author 's view, Skala Krest'an sk a represents a " pleasant sce nt '' from a b ouqu et of fl owers. 11 Clearly , Gavlovic expressed a contrast between the physical a nd external against the non-physical a nd internal. Also , the epigraphs fo r the two "schools" show their contrasting emphases and areas of con centration . For Valask a Skala, it is the H oratian utile-dulci - the practically beneficial made palatably pleasant ; this epigraph aptly expresses the mundane yet religiously instructive character of Val ask a Sk ala . 11 T he epigraph for Skala Krest'anska is the last verse from th e seventh chapte r of the Biblical book Sirach: " R emember the last thin gs, a nd you will never sin ." 13 From a reading of the two ''schools,'' it is evide n t that for Gavlovic, they represented the two states in Christia n spiri tualit y: th e act ive an d contemplative ways of livin g. In the active life, as in Val ask a Skol a, the goal of a Christian is the practice of good morals and virtues a nd all this entail s. In the co n templative life , as in Skala Krest'anska , the aim is the conte mpl ation of God , sp iritu al matters , espec iall y of th e '' four last things,'' d eath, judgment, hell , and heaven. 14 I n effect, then, through th ese writings Gavlovic offered the �82 SLOVAKIA reader a sort of program for good Christian living and thinking . In appreciatin g these two "schools," the Christian reader could then set about reali zing the active a nd contemplative ways of living in his earthly existe n ce. Gavlovic completed Valaska Skala in March , 1755, and Skala Krest'an ska in August, 17 58. 15 At what dates he began to write each "sch ool " can not at present be d etermin ed. In the letter of the ecclesiastical cen sor for Skala Krest'an sk a, Gavlovic is n amed as the a uthor. 16 This identification has in turn contributed to verifying Gavlovic 's autho rship of Valaska Skala. Val ask a Skala and Skala Krest'anska are extensive pieces of poetry. Valaska Skala comprises nearly e ighteen th ousand verses, virtually all of which are fourteen syll ables in length ; there are also some twentyfour hundred verses of varyin g length for the couplet- mottoes above the kan cepty as well as numerous related mottoes beside the k ancep ty. In Valaska Skala, there are twenty-seven illu strations, but only nine in Skala Krest'an ska. 17 The mass of verses and illustrations in each ''school'' is a rranged accord in g to schemes wh ere symmetry and numerical sym bolism play d efinite roles. 18 Valask a Skala has three major divisions: first, an introductory portion with twelve parts of varying length ; second, a main body with twentytwo subdivisions known as naty (nata in the sin gul ar); a nd third, a co ncluding portion with two parts of unequal length . The introductory and concludin g portions - virtually equal in length - fram e the main body . In the m a in body, the predominant textual unit is the kancept ; in each of the twenty-two subdivions or naty , there are fifty-nin e kancepty. The major motif of Valaska Skala is J esus the Good Shepherd as portrayed in St. J ohn 's Gospel. 19 In the main body , Gavlovic presented a series of stories on Biblical shepherds. Th ese stories are part of the introdu cto ry narrative for each of the first twenty-one naty . Abel is the first shepherd prese nted, and the shepherds of Be thlehem are the subjects that introdu ce th e twenty-first nata. Th e twenty-second nata has no introdu ctory n arrat ive but begins with a kancept about the resurrected Christ; the risen J esus is comm issionin g Peter to feed his sheep, the Christian Church . otably, then, the lin e of Biblical shephe rds in the twenty-two naty forms a chronologically linear presentation of Biblical history - from the era of Adam through that of the resurrected Christ, the Second Adam. T he two concluding sections of Valask a Skala are �SLOVAKIA 83 on death and the Last judgment; they aptly complete the Christian timespectrum presented in the preceding main body. The most prominent instance of numerical symbolism in Valaska Skala involves the first twenty-one naty of the main body. Gavlovic was very explicit that Valaska Skala comprised only twenty-one naty. 10 Yet he included a twenty-second nata, and the two concluding sections on death and the Last Judgment. The explanation for this is based on the symbolic number of 1260 from the Biblical book Apocalypse. Symbolically, the number 1260 represents a time period when evil and extreme suffering are the lot of God's people ; this period is to be followed by a new era under the leadership of Christ. 21 In Valaska Skala, 1260 is the number of textual units in the first twenty-one naty . The last kancept of nata twenty-one clearly expresses a definite finality: Buch ge Alpha y Omega wsseckeho stworeni, A bez neho w clowekovi ni c d obre ho neni* On ge sprawedliweg laski wzdy horicy plamen , Nech ho dussa ma milu ge Az na weki Amen . (XXI , lix , 1-2 , 11-12) God is the Alpha and Omega of all creati on , And without him there is nothing of goodness in a person• He is always the burning flam e of just a ffec tion , M ay my soul love him Until forever Amen. Even the pagination of the first twenty-one naty contributes to understanding their extent according to the symbolic number 1260. 11 These naty are that period of suffering and patient waiting before the reign of Christ. Aptly, then, the twenty-second nata begins with the resurrected Christ and his future vicar Peter. This new era is traditionally known as the "last times," that era from Christ 's resurrection until his Second Coming at the end of the world and of time. ll The next crucial moments in a Christian 's existence during the "last times" are his death and the Last Judgment. These two moments form the them es for the concluding sections of Valaska Skala . In effect, then , Gavlovic also used a specific number of textual units to present symbolically his Christian view of time and history. In the main body of Valaska Skala, Gavlovic presented much more than Biblical material. In the introductory narratives for the naty, Gavlovic occasionally included comments on valasi, i.e. the Slovak mountain shepherds who represent a distinctive group in Slovak history and culture. 24 The valasi in Valaska Skala are contemporary figures who �84 SLOVAKIA illustrate actions that foster or d etract from proper Christian conduct. In the nearly thirteen hundred koncepty , there is a range of topics all to show what helps make a good Christian citizen of this world and the next. Whatever has to do with the total human b eing and Christian is treated - social deportment , catechetical matters, virtues, vices , and points of health . Nothing seems too trivial for discussion. Examples of the more religious kon cept as well as of the more mundane type will illustrate this, as the following two show : 25 Powinn os t P as tyru • Kryst u s poru ca swe owce Petrow i k pase ni , By wssech podl e sweg moznos ti priwad zal k Spaseni . K azdy wrchni na podda nych musy sta rost miti , Aby ned al od Spase ni fa dn emu bluditi. Otec di tkam , Pan podd a nym , gazd a sweg celedi* Z poru ceni Krystoweho nech uz itek hl edi . An o y ty twoge g Du sse pastyrem bi t musyss, Ga k gu stratiss gakokoli w , hrozny Sud okus iss . Co mu ze byt ku Spaseni ginym , nezanedbag, Al e negprw n a twu Duss u neglepssi pozo r dag . G ak twu Du ssu , a y gin ych priwedess k Spa seni , Budess Srdcy Krys towemu giste k potesse ni. (XXII, i) R esponsibility of the Shepherd Chri st entrusts his sheep to Peter for past ure, So th at he would bring them all to Salvation . Each superi or must have conce rn for th ose subj ec t to him , So tha t he would not permit any of th em to stray . A fa ther fo r his children , a master for his se rfs, a householder for his se rvants* Let him see k benefi t because of the cha rge of C hrist. Yes a nd you must be the shepherd of your Soul , If you so mehow lose it , you will taste a terribl e Jud gm ent. Don ' t neglect wh at can be to others' Salvat ion , But first give the bes t attenti on to yo ur Soul. If you bring your soul and oth ers to Salvati on , You will surely be a consola ti on to C hrist 's H ea rt . Pan owi chud obn y N ech neni • podobn y Ml ce t pred Pa nem Slu ssy gak a men T ak obcu ge bohac z chud ym , gako wlk z baranem , Gestli mu zess , nem eg nikd y spolec nost z pa nem . G ak te vola k sobe , nechot, • kd yz budess negiti, Gak se odd aliss od neho , budess pokog m iti . Kd yz b ud ess s nim , tehdy nemlu w wsselico slobodne , Newe r mn ohim reca m geho, snat m lu wi podwodn e. Bude te mn ohimi slowmi p robowa t libezne , �SLOVAKIA 85 Dokud negake tagemstw i od teba newez ne . Bude se te usmiwagic wsselico spytowa t , A twe recy w swogeg hl awe pilne pa matowa t . Gak od teba zw i to co chce , hn et twa r swu promeni , Zabyge te z twym gaz ikem krem twe ho domnen i. (XV II , xxv) May a poor ma n not be like to a lord/ master It is as fit as an Amen to be silent before a lord/ master A ri ch man associates with a poor ma n just as a wolf wit h a shee p, If you ca n , don't ever have a ny dealin gs wi th a lord/ mas ter . When he calls you to him , don ' t go , • when you wi ll n ot go, When you distance yourself from him , you 'II have peace. W hen you wi ll be with him , th en don ' t speak all kind s of thi ngs freely, Don ' t believe hi s man y speec hes/wo rds , pe rh a ps he spea ks decept ively. H e wi ll tes t/ probe you kindly with many words, Unt il he h as taken some secrets from you. H e will smilingly ask you a ll so rt s of thin gs, And wi ll recall laboriousl y/we ll your speeches in his head. As soo n as/ when he learns from you wha.t he wants, at once his face will chan ge, H e will kill you with your tongue beyond anything you can imagine. Compared to Valaska Skala , Skala Krest'anska h as a simpl er compositional arran gement. This is probably because Skala Krest'an sk a conce rns only four m atte rs: death, judgment, hell , and heave n - the traditional "four las t things ." Yet , as in Valaska Skala, the kan cepty of Skala Krest'anska are crucial to a ppreciating the symmetry a nd numerical symbolism in this composition. Skala Krest'an ska has two maj o r divisions: an introductory po rti on of four parts that vary in le n gth , a nd a main body of four equ al subdivisions th at are simila r in format. Each of the fo ur subdiv isions in the main body h as o ne of the "four last things " as its guiding theme. In Valaska Skala , J esus the Good Shepherd had his counterpart in the good contemporary valach or shepherd. In Skala Krest'anska, the reader is also presented with the hum a n counterp a rt of Christ - St. Franc is of Assisi with stigmata. The stigmata are '' marks resem blin g the wounds on the cru cified body of C hrist [o n the hand s, the fee t , a nd the right side o f C hrist's chest; these marks are ] believed to have bee n supe rnat u rall y impressed upon the bod ies of certain pe rso ns , as St. Francis of Assisi.' ' 26 Among the illustrations and texts about the '' fo ur last things' ' are also illustrations of St. Fra ncis with st igmata as he refl ects on each of the "four last things ." The escha tology presented in text and illustrations is further empha- �86 SLOVAKIA sized b y the numerical sy mbolism used in com posin g the four subdivisions o f the m ain body. Each subdivision has k on cepty on 144 pages. Indeed , in each subdivision , only the pages with koncepty are numbered; the rem a ining pages in each subdivi sion and the pages of the introductory port ion are not numbered. The number 144 is related to the sym bolic number 144 ,000 ; thi s latter number sym bolically represents the number of Christians saved at the end of time as noted in the Biblical boo k Apocalypse . 17 Thus , the apocalyptic number of Christians saved - 144 ,000 - is associated with th e 144 pages of kon cepty for each of the "four last things ." For G avlovic , the readin g of these koncepty was to help number th e reader among those saved . ·After all , that was the primary aspiration of Gavlovic not only for his reader but also for himself. Th e very last kon cept - the end - of Skala Krest'anska clearly conveys this othe r-worldly view offered by G avlovic to his reader : Prigd k nam kralows twi twe" Co nce ptus hie S. Laurentij Ju stin* D ag na m n ebe weeny Boze Nassa mdl ost k nemu nemoze Otce nass, ktery sy w Nebi, Prigd k nam kralows twi twe, Nebo k dobrem u cyn eni Srdce w nas ge mrtwe. Zustawame w ned osta tku , a y w leniwosti, Nemu ze me dostat nebe bez twogeg mil os ti . M i do nebe nepri gde me; zosta neme w bide, Gak kra lows twi twe z tweg wu le k na m bidnym neprigde . Eliasse na ohni wem woze wzals do neb e, Y nas prigmi w tweg milosti , to prosime tebe. Zaden ku Krystu negide, gak ho netahn ess ty, Tahni n as w p rowaskach laski , neb sy we wssem Swaty. Abi sme spaseni byli , prigd twe kralowstwi k n am, A ty Boze az na we ki panu g n ad nami sam . (0 Nebi , 288) Your kingdom co me to us This kon ceptlco nce pt (from] St. Law rence Ju stinia n" Give us heave n ete rnal God Our wea kn ess cannot reach/approach it Our Fa ther , who a re in H eave n , Your kin gd om com e to us, For our H eart is dead to good d eeds. W e rema in want ing , a nd in laz iness, W e cannot att ain heave n without yo ur grace. W e will not reach heave n ; we will re main in misery, If you r kin gdom does not com e to wretched u s by your will. Elias was ra ised to heave n on a fi ery ve hicl e/cha ri ot, R eceive also us in your grace, thi s we implore you . No one co mes to C hri st , if you do not draw him yourself, Draw us in the bonds of love/affection , for you are H oly in everythin g. �SLOVAKIA 87 T hat we mi ght be saved, yo ur kin gdom co m e to us , And you God yourself rul e ove r u s fo reve r . A s two pieces of Slovak writing, V alaska Skol a and Skol a Krest'anska d o di splay som e litera ry ima gina tion in their compositional a rra n gem ent and co nten t. Y et the ir purposes wer e n o t belles lettres ente rta inment bu t the fosterin g of the C h r istia n read er 's m oral ch a racter a nd holiness. Their m or ali stic a nd religiou s ch a racters sh ould n o t , a nd in truth , do no t d e trac t fro m their place in Slovak histo ry a nd culture. T h ey remain p rominen t a nd substantive exampl es of con sciously Slovak writing lo n g before Slovaks were al lowed to exe rcise the ir righ ts as a di st inct Slavic peopl e. NOTES ' An example of thi s lim ited view of Slovak writing is the first sentence of Pete r Brock 's otherwise good study The Slovak Nat ional Awakening (T oron to: Uni ve rsity of Toronto Press, I 976), p . 3 : " A Slovak ve rn acul a r was fir st used for literary purposes in the 1780s when it replaced C zec h a m ong the Slovak Cat hol ic in tell ige nts ia.'' ' For a more deta iled biography of Gavlovic and a d iscuss ion of his writin gs, see Gerald J. Sabo, "Slovak Did actic Poetry: Gav lovic 's Valask a Skala. Volum e I: Introdu ctory Study. Volume II : Edition of V alask a Skala ," Di ss. Yale 1978, l , 1-8. This is the only English source fo r thi s information. Signi fi cant Slovak sources on Gavlovic and hi s w ritin gs a re: Celes tin Le pacek , " Zivot a dic lo P . H ugolfna G avlovica, " V yrocne zpravy sukromneho gymnazia rad u sv . Franc isk a v M ala ck ach , 5- 10 ( 1932 -3 7); Lepace k, " Zlomky z d'alsfch Gavlovifovych ruko pisov ," Literarno-historick y sbornik M atice slovenskej , 2-3 , Nos. 1-2 ( 1945-46), 79-84 ; J ozef' Min ari k , " Hu golfn Gav lovic: Va lask a skola, mravuv stodola (l itera rn o-esteti cky rozbo r 16 vyb ranyc h bas nf)," Tri lirerarn o-esrerick e rozbory zo starsej slovenskej Jic era tury (Bratis lava: Slovenske pedagogic ke nakl ada tel'stvo, 1973) , pp. 61-98; G izela Slavkovsk a, "Gavlov icova Valaska Skala." eq ui valen t of a docto ra l dissert a ti on ( Bra tislava: U niv e rzita Komens keho , prob. 1972); Slavkovs ka , " Gavlov ifova Va laska Skala," S lovcnska lic era ru ra, 2 1, o. 5 ( 1974), 459-480. ' In Valaska Skala , in eight inst ances (fi ve times " na slowenski gazik . " two times " na slowenski , '· a nd once '' w slowensk em gazik u "), Gav lov ic expressed th e phrase '' in the Slovak lang uage" when he tra nslat ed a H e brew Bibli cal name in1 0 its Slovak meaning : nota I. introductory na rrati ve, line 33: V. int rodu ctory narrative, 9: VIII. in trodu ctory narrativ e. 3; X. introductory na rrative. 49; XI. in troduuory na rrativ e, 7; X III , int roductory na rrati ve. 1: X IV , introdu cto ry narrative. 6; a nd X IX, in troclu c1ory narrat ivc , 7. Linguist s agree tha t Gavlovi c wrote in Slova k , e.g. l.'..ubomfr 6urovic, "Slovak," The Slavic Lircrar_v Languages: Fonnacion and Dnwlopmenr. Alex a nder Sc hen ker and Edwa rd Stankiewicz , eds . ( New H aven: Yale Concilium o n Intern a ti onal and Arca Studies, 1980), p. 214. Of this la nguage in genera l, Eugen Paul inv wrote: �88 SLOVAKIA The Slova ki zing process went so far that by th e end of th e fir st half of the 18th ce ntury, we alread y have among Slovak Catholics a sufficiently firmly normali zed national written language whi ch on account of esse nti al deviation s from Czech ca nnot be called on ly Slovakized Czech. N or mu st it be disting uish ed from Czech only on th e lin guistic side. Import antly, that is, n ot even its users and writers con sidered it as Czech. Th ey considered it, h ere more, ch ere less explicic y, as ch e dom escic Slovak language. The term " J esuit Slovak " was at one time coined for this language. This d es ignation would perhaps m eta pho ri call y do just ice to th e fa ct that thi s language was used in Catholic writin g. H oweve r , it is necessa ry, of course, to reali ze th at thi s la nguage did no t origin a te in Slovak Catholic writing , but that Catholics took it over as esse ntiall y set, and that it was u sed as cultural W es t-Sl ovak eve n in oth er functions. Further one must reali ze that in Catholic writing, not onl y J esuits used this language, even if th ese la tt er were th e most act ive in the rc-Ca tholi cization of Slovaki a. (Dejin y spisovnej slovenciny, I [ 1966 ; rpt. Brati slava : Slove nske pedagogicke nakl ada tel'stvo, 1971], p. 78. Ita li cs a nd tra nsla ti on a re min e .) ' See Sabo, pp . 50-56 , for nati onalistic friction in gene ral, and pp. 58-62 for nati onalisti c fri ct io n in Franciscan founda ti ons. Also , Ysevlad J oze f Gajdos, 0 . F . M. , Franciskani v slovens½ej lit eracure (C levela nd : First Catholic Slova k Union, 1979), pp . 23-26. In this work, Gajdos also has a sho rt biograph y of Gavlovi c, a brief co mm ent a ry o n so m e of his writings, a li st of m ost of hi s works , and a sm all bibli ogra phy on G av lovic. Thi s book co nt a ins a wealth of m a terial on Francisca n trai nin g and activiti es in Slovak areas. 5 Both m a nu script s, actually a ut og raphs b y Gavlov ic him self, a re prese rved in th e Lite rarny archiv M a ti ce slovenskej (LAMS) in Martin unde r th e signa ture B89 for V alask a Skala and MJ3 3 1 for Skala Krest'a nska. V alask a S k ala ha had three editi o n s. In th e first editi o n do ne in two volum es in 1830-3 1, th e auto gra ph was d evasta tin gly altered allegedl y by Mi cha l R eset ka acco rdin g to th e lin gui st ic no rm s of Bernolak-S lova k , bern olaccin a . In th e seco nd edi ti o n of 197 1, Rudolf Kraj covic, th e ed itor , re prod uced the tex t in questionab le fo rm at a nd form , but most unfortunately deleted some forty-seven percent of th e aut ogra ph tex t. The third edition is a reprintin g o f th e Kraj cov ic second ed itio n , but now with som e fift y- li ve perce nt of th e autograph text deleted. Non e of the pictori al illu stra tion s of Valaska Skala was reprodu ced in a ny o f th e three ed iti ons. As rega rd s Skala Kresc'a nsk a, a few selections - some two perce nt of th e a ut ogra ph text - ca n be found in Gizela Slavkovska's edited workja miluji, nesmfm provfdaci ... : Ancol6gia zo slovenskej barokovej poezie (Bratislava: T a tra n , 1977) , pp . 275-30 1. 6 Th is is made clea r in Valaska Skala in th e dedication immed ia tely after th e titl epage a nd first illustra ti o n as we ll as in the int rodu cto ry part " D arowa ni Ku uiicku cwemu ," line 57; and in Skala Kresc'a n ska, o n th e titl e page a nd in th e introducto ry part " Darowani Trecimu R adu Seraflin skemu ," pages 13-1 6 of th e aut ogra ph (wi th titl e-page as page one). Fo r possible reasons for Gavlovic dedi ca tin g these two works to Tertiaries, see Sabo , pp . 66-7 1. ' For details on Gav lovic ' s kon cepc form, see, Sabo, pp . 86-94. A koncepc is also found �SLOVAKIA ' 9 ' 0 " " 13 14 15 16 11 " 19 ' 0 89 in Gavlovi i''s "last will a nd testament, " and an inco mplete one (one sentence short) among fragm entary autograph s of Gavlovic. In my thesis , I discuss the a rtist of the illustrations for Valaska Skala on pages 79-82. Subsequ entl y, Slavkovska studied th e same m a tt er and published her co mments in " ' Tajomstva ' prveho vydania Valaskej Skoly ," Slovenska literatura , 25, No. 6 ( 1978) , 663-669 . John L. Lievsay , "Embl em ," Princeton Encyclopedia of Poet1y and Poetics, enlarged edition , Alex Preminger et al. ed. (Princeton: Princeton Uni ve rsity Press, 1974). Bes id es variou s pl aces in V alaska Skala , wh e re Gavlovic speaks of Valaska Skala in these terms, he co mpa res the two "school s" in Skala Krest'anska on page fourtee n with titl e-page as page one in " D aro wani Tretimu Radu S eraffinskemu ," lin es 45 -46. Valaska Skala, "Darowani Ku uiitku twemu ," line 44 ; Skala Krest'ansk a, " Darowani Tretimu Radu S eraffin sk emu ," lines 33-34. On the title-page of Valaska Skala , Gavlovic cited :Omne tulit pun ctum , qui miscuit utile dulci (H e ha s won eve ry vote who has bl end ed profit a nd pleas ure . .. ), verse 343, H. Ru shton Fairclough , trans., Horace: Satires, Epistles, and Ars Poetica (London and Cambridge, Mass. : William H eine m a n , Ltd. , 1970), pp. 478-479. For other pl aces wh ere G av lovic ex pressed th e se nse of this Horati a n ve rse, see Sabo , p. 68 , note 101. On the page immediat ely preceding th e titl e-page, it is cited in La tin a nd in a Slovak translation. In th e Vulgate ve rsion th a t I u sed , Alberto Colun ga a nd La urentio Turrado, ed ., 4th ed. , se ri es Bibliateca d e autores Christianos , Madrid , 1975, the last verse is forty , but in English ve rsions of this chapter, th e verse is thirt y-six. Karl Rahn e r , " Last Things , " Sa cram entum Mundi: An Encyclopedia of Th eology (New York: H e rd e r a nd H e rd er , 1969) , 274-2 76. Th ese da tes a re found on the d edi cation page of Valaska Skala right after th e titlepage a nd fir st illu stration , and for Skala Krest'a nska on th e prese nt titl e- page. Thi s letter is found at th e ve ry beginning of the bound autograph of Skala Krest'anska. Fo r a de tai led stud y ofGavlovic's a uthorship of th ese writings, see Sabo, pp. 11-15. From my st ud y of the sy mm etri cal structure of Skala Krest'anska , it is evident that th e re were probab ly at least nin e illustration s, four of which are mi ssing, and th a t some of the text which introduces th e k on cept y on d ea th and those on judgment is also mi ss in g. Bes id es th e numerical sy mboli sm ex pl a in ed in the subsequent text of m y article , furth e r num eri cal sy mboli sm in V a/ask a Skala is discussed in Sabo, pp. 124-28. The Gospel a nd th e Bibli cal book Apocalypse a ttribut ed to St. John th e Eva n geli st had a signifi can t influ e nce on th e format a nd mat e rial co nt ent of V a/aska Skala as we ll as on those of ot he r writings by Ga vlo vic: Sabo , pp. 114- 2 1. In " D arowan i Ku uzi tku twemu, " lin es 37-38 , Gavlovii' spec ifi ed twe nt y- one noty, ye t he added a twenty-second which he called " Pridawek or Additi on. " It is m y strong belief that Gavlov ic's spec ifi c in sistence o n twe nt y-o ne noty and hi s present at ion of th e m with Biblical shepherds introdu cin g eac h infl uenced J a n Holl y's stru cturin g of hi s Selanky or Pasto rals where th ere a re twent y-o ne pastoral so ng subdivi sion s; lik e Gav lov ic, Holl y begins hi s twe nt y-first (a nd las t) pastoral with referen ce to th e �90 " " " " " ' 0 " " SLOVAKIA Bet hl ehem shepherds . In a let ter of May 6, 183 1, Holly spoke of Gavlovic and his Valaska Skala: " Lette r #32 to M a rtin Hamuljak ," Jozef Ambrus , ed ., Korespondencia jan Holleho (M a rtin : M a tica slovenska , 1967), p . 74. The Selanky began to be published in 1835 some four years after the publicati on of R ese tka's ed ition of Valaska Skala: Encyklopedia Slovenska, II (1978) , sub verbo " Holl y, Jan. " An ed ition of the Selanky with a modern verse rendition was published by Tatran in J 970 as volume 22 of its se ri es Citanie studuju cej mladeze . Sabo , p . 125, note 13 1, a nd p . 126. Also, J ean-Loui s D ' Aragon, S.J ., " The Apocalypse ,'' The J erome Biblical Com m entary (Englewood Cliffs, N .J .: PrenticeH all , In c., 1968), p. 480. Sabo, p. 126 , not e 133: " In each n ota , the introducto ry section a nd first kon cept ac tu ally cover th ese three autograph pages, yet Gavlovic pagin ated th em on the third page as a sin gle Arabic-numbered page . Thus, acco rdin g to thi s peculi a r pagination , each nota has thirty pages. And this m eans th at the twenty-on e noty spec ifi ed by Gavlovic have six hundred and thirty pages or half of the 1260 , the number of textu al units that a ppear o n th ese 630 pages." As regards th e co ncept o f the " last times ," see Karl Lowith , " The Biblical View of Hi sto~y, " Meaning in History (C hi cago and London : Un iversity of Ch icago Press, 1949 , Phoenix paperback, 1957), p . 188 . As rega rds ,,alasi, for an English ource see Sa b o, pp . 37-38; and for Slovak sources see J a n Podolak, " The P asto ral Cu ltu re of th e Ca rpathian as a Subject of an Ethnological Study," Ethnologica slavica , 1 ( 1969), especial ly 70-77, a nd Encyklopedia Sloven ska , V I ( 1982), sub vcrbo " Valasi," " Valasska l'udova piesen," and '' Valasske pravo." Old so urces a bout valasi , their culture, a nd their wa y of li vin g a re: And rej K i!v ulj ak , " Val as i na Slove n sku: Ora vs ky pod za mok ," Sbornik n a pocest' jozefa Skulte1yh o (Turciansky Svii ty M a rtin : M at ica slovenska , 1933), pp . 336 -374; Karel K ad lec, Valasi a valassk e pravo v zem ich slovansk ych a uh erskych (Pra ha: Ces ka akadcmia cisare Frantiska J osefa, 19 16) ; V aclav C halo upec ky, Valasi na S lovensku (Praha: Slovansky u stav , 1947); a ndjosef Macurek, Valasi v za padnfch K a1pa1ech v 15. - 18 scole1f (Ost rava: K rajske naklad a telstvf, 1959). Th e ca pital R oman numera l is th e no/a number; th e sm a ll Roman num eral is th e k on cep1 numb er in thar 1101 a. Beca use of space limit ;itions , th e side- m otto here has bee n placed a bove the k oncep1. In th e text of Valask a Skala . Gav lov ic also in corporated fo lk ex press ions such as prove rbs and sayings that ca n be fo un d in ex tant compil a ti ons o f suc h ex pre. siuns as we ll ·as ones or his own ('rca ti u n ; sec Sa bo , pp . 168- 171, and Vojtcch Sarluska, " Piit's to prfslovf, " Li1er,im ya rchf, - 1975 . 12 (Mart in: M a ti ca sloven ska, 1976), 135- 167. Webs 1er·.- New C ollcgiait· Diction ary , 1961, su/.J v(·rbo ' ·Sri gma. " Sabo, p. 127, note 134; J ea n-Loui s D ' Aragon , " Th e Apondy p;e," p. 47 8 . In Skala K res1'anska , a couplet-m o tto or vary in g leng rh rs found aboH: a koncepl with o ne a nd nea rl y a lwa ys two re lated mot toes on the side . Beca use o f spate limitation s, I hav e placed in o rd er th e first a nd sclond side- m ottoe for th e koncep1 above the couplet-mono found at th e head of the koncepl . �SLOVAKIA 91 ,. Th e New Ca th olic Encyclopedia ( l 967), sub verbo " Lawrence Justini an , St ." My study of Gavlovic was greatl y facilitied b y Docent J ozef Minarik of th e Filozofi cka faku lta Univerzity Kom enskeho a nd Gi zela Slavkovska of the Litera rn ovedny Ustav Slove nskej Akadem ie Vied , both of Bra tisla va, while I was on th e exchange program of th e Intern ati onal R esea rch and Exchanges Board and on a Fulbright-H ays grant in 1975 -76. This pape r is based on a docto ral disse rt ation, " Slovak Didact ic Poetry: G avlovic's Va/aska S kala " at Ya le Univers ity, 1978. Prese nted in Pa nel 128 , "Slovak Litera ture as a Mirror of the Na tional Awakenin g," a t th e AAASS convention in Philadelphi a on 8 November 1980. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1982-83, Vol. 30 Description An account of the resource Vol. 30 (No. 55-56), 1982-83. 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 1982-83 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 80 SLOVAKIA Hugolfn Gavlovic's Valaska Skala and Skala Krest'anska Gerald J . Sabo For most Slavists, the eighteenth century in Slovak history and culture remains pretty much unknown territory. Even among specialists in Slovak studies, that era m ay bring to mind simply Anton Bernol ak and possibly J a n Baltaza r M agin . Bernolak should certa inly stand out as the first cod ifer of the Slovak language , a nd Magin deserves more than a few brief sentences for hi s de fense of Slovak ethnic a nd cultural rights . Y et m any other writers from the e ighteenth ce ntury deserve not onl y mention but substantial comm entary , because their writings in the Slovak vernacular before Bernolak's codificat ion exem plified and promoted Slovak consciousness. Amon g these a uthors a prominent place is occupied by the Franciscan priest Hugolfn Gavlovic. Gavlovic was born in 17 12 in Czarny Dunaj ec, Poland, yet he spent virtually his entire life in Slovak-speaking areas. 2 H e di ed in 1787, th e year Bernolak publicly began his codification effort s. G avlovic considered himself ethnically Polish. Still , as far as can be ascertained, the only Slavic la n gu age in which h e wrote was the contemporary Slovak vernacul ar. In a number of hi s writings, he even explicity expres~ed his awareness of writing in Slovak. 3 Gavlovic's co n scious Slovak writing but Polish e thnicity is more th an some curiously interest ing point. I t is especially strikin g again st the b ackground of in tense nationalistic fr iction at that time . This nationalisti c frict ion was between Slovaks a nd various ethnic gro u ps, but in particula r th e Hun garians. The effects of th is fri ct ion reached even into Franciscan foundations and affected th e governan ce of Franciscan eccles iastical provin ces. 4 Gavlovic began writing in 1745 after he had finished his Franciscan course of studies and h ad become a priest. From 1745 until h is death in 1 787 , he composed nearly twenty distin ct pieces of Slovak writin g in prose o r poetry . Among his poetic writings, the most prominent are Valask a Skala (Th e Shepherd ' s School) and Skala Krest'anska (A C h ris1 SLOVAKIA 81 tian School). Though Valaska Skala and Skala Krest'anska are di stinct pieces of writing, they should be treated together for a number of reasons. Both are written for the same audience - Franciscan T e rti aries,6 that is , lay persons who pattern their lives according to prescript s of Franciscan spirituality and traditions . Also , in both compositions is found a poetic form peculiar only to them : Gavlovic called this form koncept. 7 A koncept consists of twelve verses or six rhymed couplets ; each verse has fourteen syllables with a caesura-like pause after the eighth sylla bl e. Usual ly , some rhymed couplets of varying length are related to a koncept . At times, the various pictorial illustrations in both Gavlovic "schools" are connected with kon cepty as well as other verse units . 8 Thus , in Valaska Skala but especially in Skala Krest'anska , the format of the koncept a nd other verse units could be said to resem ble emblematic poetry: a verse-motto, a versified elaboration of the motto, and the related illustration. 9 Besides similarities in a udience and poetic units, the two "schools " are explicitly related to each oth er by Gavlovic him self. According to Gavlovic, Val ask a Skala was written to foster the reader ' s " moral ch aracter, " Skol a Krest'ansk a his "holiness." 10 Gavlovic has also described Valaska Skala as "cheese," someth in g that would n ourish th e reader. In its author 's view, Skala Krest'an sk a represents a " pleasant sce nt '' from a b ouqu et of fl owers. 11 Clearly , Gavlovic expressed a contrast between the physical a nd external against the non-physical a nd internal. Also , the epigraphs fo r the two "schools" show their contrasting emphases and areas of con centration . For Valask a Skala, it is the H oratian utile-dulci - the practically beneficial made palatably pleasant ; this epigraph aptly expresses the mundane yet religiously instructive character of Val ask a Sk ala . 11 T he epigraph for Skala Krest'anska is the last verse from th e seventh chapte r of the Biblical book Sirach: " R emember the last thin gs, a nd you will never sin ." 13 From a reading of the two ''schools,'' it is evide n t that for Gavlovic, they represented the two states in Christia n spiri tualit y: th e act ive an d contemplative ways of livin g. In the active life, as in Val ask a Skol a, the goal of a Christian is the practice of good morals and virtues a nd all this entail s. In the co n templative life , as in Skala Krest'anska , the aim is the conte mpl ation of God , sp iritu al matters , espec iall y of th e '' four last things,'' d eath, judgment, hell , and heaven. 14 I n effect, then, through th ese writings Gavlovic offered the 82 SLOVAKIA reader a sort of program for good Christian living and thinking . In appreciatin g these two "schools," the Christian reader could then set about reali zing the active a nd contemplative ways of living in his earthly existe n ce. Gavlovic completed Valaska Skala in March , 1755, and Skala Krest'an ska in August, 17 58. 15 At what dates he began to write each "sch ool " can not at present be d etermin ed. In the letter of the ecclesiastical cen sor for Skala Krest'an sk a, Gavlovic is n amed as the a uthor. 16 This identification has in turn contributed to verifying Gavlovic 's autho rship of Valaska Skala. Val ask a Skala and Skala Krest'anska are extensive pieces of poetry. Valaska Skala comprises nearly e ighteen th ousand verses, virtually all of which are fourteen syll ables in length ; there are also some twentyfour hundred verses of varyin g length for the couplet- mottoes above the kan cepty as well as numerous related mottoes beside the k ancep ty. In Valaska Skala, there are twenty-seven illu strations, but only nine in Skala Krest'an ska. 17 The mass of verses and illustrations in each ''school'' is a rranged accord in g to schemes wh ere symmetry and numerical sym bolism play d efinite roles. 18 Valask a Skala has three major divisions: first, an introductory portion with twelve parts of varying length ; second, a main body with twentytwo subdivisions known as naty (nata in the sin gul ar); a nd third, a co ncluding portion with two parts of unequal length . The introductory and concludin g portions - virtually equal in length - fram e the main body . In the m a in body, the predominant textual unit is the kancept ; in each of the twenty-two subdivions or naty , there are fifty-nin e kancepty. The major motif of Valaska Skala is J esus the Good Shepherd as portrayed in St. J ohn 's Gospel. 19 In the main body , Gavlovic presented a series of stories on Biblical shepherds. Th ese stories are part of the introdu cto ry narrative for each of the first twenty-one naty . Abel is the first shepherd prese nted, and the shepherds of Be thlehem are the subjects that introdu ce th e twenty-first nata. Th e twenty-second nata has no introdu ctory n arrat ive but begins with a kancept about the resurrected Christ; the risen J esus is comm issionin g Peter to feed his sheep, the Christian Church . otably, then, the lin e of Biblical shephe rds in the twenty-two naty forms a chronologically linear presentation of Biblical history - from the era of Adam through that of the resurrected Christ, the Second Adam. T he two concluding sections of Valask a Skala are SLOVAKIA 83 on death and the Last judgment; they aptly complete the Christian timespectrum presented in the preceding main body. The most prominent instance of numerical symbolism in Valaska Skala involves the first twenty-one naty of the main body. Gavlovic was very explicit that Valaska Skala comprised only twenty-one naty. 10 Yet he included a twenty-second nata, and the two concluding sections on death and the Last Judgment. The explanation for this is based on the symbolic number of 1260 from the Biblical book Apocalypse. Symbolically, the number 1260 represents a time period when evil and extreme suffering are the lot of God's people ; this period is to be followed by a new era under the leadership of Christ. 21 In Valaska Skala, 1260 is the number of textual units in the first twenty-one naty . The last kancept of nata twenty-one clearly expresses a definite finality: Buch ge Alpha y Omega wsseckeho stworeni, A bez neho w clowekovi ni c d obre ho neni* On ge sprawedliweg laski wzdy horicy plamen , Nech ho dussa ma milu ge Az na weki Amen . (XXI , lix , 1-2 , 11-12) God is the Alpha and Omega of all creati on , And without him there is nothing of goodness in a person• He is always the burning flam e of just a ffec tion , M ay my soul love him Until forever Amen. Even the pagination of the first twenty-one naty contributes to understanding their extent according to the symbolic number 1260. 11 These naty are that period of suffering and patient waiting before the reign of Christ. Aptly, then, the twenty-second nata begins with the resurrected Christ and his future vicar Peter. This new era is traditionally known as the "last times," that era from Christ 's resurrection until his Second Coming at the end of the world and of time. ll The next crucial moments in a Christian 's existence during the "last times" are his death and the Last Judgment. These two moments form the them es for the concluding sections of Valaska Skala . In effect, then , Gavlovic also used a specific number of textual units to present symbolically his Christian view of time and history. In the main body of Valaska Skala, Gavlovic presented much more than Biblical material. In the introductory narratives for the naty, Gavlovic occasionally included comments on valasi, i.e. the Slovak mountain shepherds who represent a distinctive group in Slovak history and culture. 24 The valasi in Valaska Skala are contemporary figures who 84 SLOVAKIA illustrate actions that foster or d etract from proper Christian conduct. In the nearly thirteen hundred koncepty , there is a range of topics all to show what helps make a good Christian citizen of this world and the next. Whatever has to do with the total human b eing and Christian is treated - social deportment , catechetical matters, virtues, vices , and points of health . Nothing seems too trivial for discussion. Examples of the more religious kon cept as well as of the more mundane type will illustrate this, as the following two show : 25 Powinn os t P as tyru • Kryst u s poru ca swe owce Petrow i k pase ni , By wssech podl e sweg moznos ti priwad zal k Spaseni . K azdy wrchni na podda nych musy sta rost miti , Aby ned al od Spase ni fa dn emu bluditi. Otec di tkam , Pan podd a nym , gazd a sweg celedi* Z poru ceni Krystoweho nech uz itek hl edi . An o y ty twoge g Du sse pastyrem bi t musyss, Ga k gu stratiss gakokoli w , hrozny Sud okus iss . Co mu ze byt ku Spaseni ginym , nezanedbag, Al e negprw n a twu Duss u neglepssi pozo r dag . G ak twu Du ssu , a y gin ych priwedess k Spa seni , Budess Srdcy Krys towemu giste k potesse ni. (XXII, i) R esponsibility of the Shepherd Chri st entrusts his sheep to Peter for past ure, So th at he would bring them all to Salvation . Each superi or must have conce rn for th ose subj ec t to him , So tha t he would not permit any of th em to stray . A fa ther fo r his children , a master for his se rfs, a householder for his se rvants* Let him see k benefi t because of the cha rge of C hrist. Yes a nd you must be the shepherd of your Soul , If you so mehow lose it , you will taste a terribl e Jud gm ent. Don ' t neglect wh at can be to others' Salvat ion , But first give the bes t attenti on to yo ur Soul. If you bring your soul and oth ers to Salvati on , You will surely be a consola ti on to C hrist 's H ea rt . Pan owi chud obn y N ech neni • podobn y Ml ce t pred Pa nem Slu ssy gak a men T ak obcu ge bohac z chud ym , gako wlk z baranem , Gestli mu zess , nem eg nikd y spolec nost z pa nem . G ak te vola k sobe , nechot, • kd yz budess negiti, Gak se odd aliss od neho , budess pokog m iti . Kd yz b ud ess s nim , tehdy nemlu w wsselico slobodne , Newe r mn ohim reca m geho, snat m lu wi podwodn e. Bude te mn ohimi slowmi p robowa t libezne , SLOVAKIA 85 Dokud negake tagemstw i od teba newez ne . Bude se te usmiwagic wsselico spytowa t , A twe recy w swogeg hl awe pilne pa matowa t . Gak od teba zw i to co chce , hn et twa r swu promeni , Zabyge te z twym gaz ikem krem twe ho domnen i. (XV II , xxv) May a poor ma n not be like to a lord/ master It is as fit as an Amen to be silent before a lord/ master A ri ch man associates with a poor ma n just as a wolf wit h a shee p, If you ca n , don't ever have a ny dealin gs wi th a lord/ mas ter . When he calls you to him , don ' t go , • when you wi ll n ot go, When you distance yourself from him , you 'II have peace. W hen you wi ll be with him , th en don ' t speak all kind s of thi ngs freely, Don ' t believe hi s man y speec hes/wo rds , pe rh a ps he spea ks decept ively. H e wi ll tes t/ probe you kindly with many words, Unt il he h as taken some secrets from you. H e will smilingly ask you a ll so rt s of thin gs, And wi ll recall laboriousl y/we ll your speeches in his head. As soo n as/ when he learns from you wha.t he wants, at once his face will chan ge, H e will kill you with your tongue beyond anything you can imagine. Compared to Valaska Skala , Skala Krest'anska h as a simpl er compositional arran gement. This is probably because Skala Krest'an sk a conce rns only four m atte rs: death, judgment, hell , and heave n - the traditional "four las t things ." Yet , as in Valaska Skala, the kan cepty of Skala Krest'anska are crucial to a ppreciating the symmetry a nd numerical symbolism in this composition. Skala Krest'an ska has two maj o r divisions: an introductory po rti on of four parts that vary in le n gth , a nd a main body of four equ al subdivisions th at are simila r in format. Each of the fo ur subdiv isions in the main body h as o ne of the "four last things " as its guiding theme. In Valaska Skala , J esus the Good Shepherd had his counterpart in the good contemporary valach or shepherd. In Skala Krest'anska, the reader is also presented with the hum a n counterp a rt of Christ - St. Franc is of Assisi with stigmata. The stigmata are '' marks resem blin g the wounds on the cru cified body of C hrist [o n the hand s, the fee t , a nd the right side o f C hrist's chest; these marks are ] believed to have bee n supe rnat u rall y impressed upon the bod ies of certain pe rso ns , as St. Francis of Assisi.' ' 26 Among the illustrations and texts about the '' fo ur last things' ' are also illustrations of St. Fra ncis with st igmata as he refl ects on each of the "four last things ." The escha tology presented in text and illustrations is further empha- 86 SLOVAKIA sized b y the numerical sy mbolism used in com posin g the four subdivisions o f the m ain body. Each subdivision has k on cepty on 144 pages. Indeed , in each subdivision , only the pages with koncepty are numbered; the rem a ining pages in each subdivi sion and the pages of the introductory port ion are not numbered. The number 144 is related to the sym bolic number 144 ,000 ; thi s latter number sym bolically represents the number of Christians saved at the end of time as noted in the Biblical boo k Apocalypse . 17 Thus , the apocalyptic number of Christians saved - 144 ,000 - is associated with th e 144 pages of kon cepty for each of the "four last things ." For G avlovic , the readin g of these koncepty was to help number th e reader among those saved . ·After all , that was the primary aspiration of Gavlovic not only for his reader but also for himself. Th e very last kon cept - the end - of Skala Krest'anska clearly conveys this othe r-worldly view offered by G avlovic to his reader : Prigd k nam kralows twi twe" Co nce ptus hie S. Laurentij Ju stin* D ag na m n ebe weeny Boze Nassa mdl ost k nemu nemoze Otce nass, ktery sy w Nebi, Prigd k nam kralows twi twe, Nebo k dobrem u cyn eni Srdce w nas ge mrtwe. Zustawame w ned osta tku , a y w leniwosti, Nemu ze me dostat nebe bez twogeg mil os ti . M i do nebe nepri gde me; zosta neme w bide, Gak kra lows twi twe z tweg wu le k na m bidnym neprigde . Eliasse na ohni wem woze wzals do neb e, Y nas prigmi w tweg milosti , to prosime tebe. Zaden ku Krystu negide, gak ho netahn ess ty, Tahni n as w p rowaskach laski , neb sy we wssem Swaty. Abi sme spaseni byli , prigd twe kralowstwi k n am, A ty Boze az na we ki panu g n ad nami sam . (0 Nebi , 288) Your kingdom co me to us This kon ceptlco nce pt (from] St. Law rence Ju stinia n" Give us heave n ete rnal God Our wea kn ess cannot reach/approach it Our Fa ther , who a re in H eave n , Your kin gd om com e to us, For our H eart is dead to good d eeds. W e rema in want ing , a nd in laz iness, W e cannot att ain heave n without yo ur grace. W e will not reach heave n ; we will re main in misery, If you r kin gdom does not com e to wretched u s by your will. Elias was ra ised to heave n on a fi ery ve hicl e/cha ri ot, R eceive also us in your grace, thi s we implore you . No one co mes to C hri st , if you do not draw him yourself, Draw us in the bonds of love/affection , for you are H oly in everythin g. SLOVAKIA 87 T hat we mi ght be saved, yo ur kin gdom co m e to us , And you God yourself rul e ove r u s fo reve r . A s two pieces of Slovak writing, V alaska Skol a and Skol a Krest'anska d o di splay som e litera ry ima gina tion in their compositional a rra n gem ent and co nten t. Y et the ir purposes wer e n o t belles lettres ente rta inment bu t the fosterin g of the C h r istia n read er 's m oral ch a racter a nd holiness. Their m or ali stic a nd religiou s ch a racters sh ould n o t , a nd in truth , do no t d e trac t fro m their place in Slovak histo ry a nd culture. T h ey remain p rominen t a nd substantive exampl es of con sciously Slovak writing lo n g before Slovaks were al lowed to exe rcise the ir righ ts as a di st inct Slavic peopl e. NOTES ' An example of thi s lim ited view of Slovak writing is the first sentence of Pete r Brock 's otherwise good study The Slovak Nat ional Awakening (T oron to: Uni ve rsity of Toronto Press, I 976), p . 3 : " A Slovak ve rn acul a r was fir st used for literary purposes in the 1780s when it replaced C zec h a m ong the Slovak Cat hol ic in tell ige nts ia.'' ' For a more deta iled biography of Gavlovic and a d iscuss ion of his writin gs, see Gerald J. Sabo, "Slovak Did actic Poetry: Gav lovic 's Valask a Skala. Volum e I: Introdu ctory Study. Volume II : Edition of V alask a Skala ," Di ss. Yale 1978, l , 1-8. This is the only English source fo r thi s information. Signi fi cant Slovak sources on Gavlovic and hi s w ritin gs a re: Celes tin Le pacek , " Zivot a dic lo P . H ugolfna G avlovica, " V yrocne zpravy sukromneho gymnazia rad u sv . Franc isk a v M ala ck ach , 5- 10 ( 1932 -3 7); Lepace k, " Zlomky z d'alsfch Gavlovifovych ruko pisov ," Literarno-historick y sbornik M atice slovenskej , 2-3 , Nos. 1-2 ( 1945-46), 79-84 ; J ozef' Min ari k , " Hu golfn Gav lovic: Va lask a skola, mravuv stodola (l itera rn o-esteti cky rozbo r 16 vyb ranyc h bas nf)," Tri lirerarn o-esrerick e rozbory zo starsej slovenskej Jic era tury (Bratis lava: Slovenske pedagogic ke nakl ada tel'stvo, 1973) , pp. 61-98; G izela Slavkovsk a, "Gavlov icova Valaska Skala." eq ui valen t of a docto ra l dissert a ti on ( Bra tislava: U niv e rzita Komens keho , prob. 1972); Slavkovs ka , " Gavlov ifova Va laska Skala," S lovcnska lic era ru ra, 2 1, o. 5 ( 1974), 459-480. ' In Valaska Skala , in eight inst ances (fi ve times " na slowenski gazik . " two times " na slowenski , '· a nd once '' w slowensk em gazik u "), Gav lov ic expressed th e phrase '' in the Slovak lang uage" when he tra nslat ed a H e brew Bibli cal name in1 0 its Slovak meaning : nota I. introductory na rrati ve, line 33: V. int rodu ctory narrative, 9: VIII. in trodu ctory narrativ e. 3; X. introductory na rrative. 49; XI. in troduuory na rrativ e, 7; X III , int roductory na rrati ve. 1: X IV , introdu cto ry narrative. 6; a nd X IX, in troclu c1ory narrat ivc , 7. Linguist s agree tha t Gavlovi c wrote in Slova k , e.g. l.'..ubomfr 6urovic, "Slovak," The Slavic Lircrar_v Languages: Fonnacion and Dnwlopmenr. Alex a nder Sc hen ker and Edwa rd Stankiewicz , eds . ( New H aven: Yale Concilium o n Intern a ti onal and Arca Studies, 1980), p. 214. Of this la nguage in genera l, Eugen Paul inv wrote: 88 SLOVAKIA The Slova ki zing process went so far that by th e end of th e fir st half of the 18th ce ntury, we alread y have among Slovak Catholics a sufficiently firmly normali zed national written language whi ch on account of esse nti al deviation s from Czech ca nnot be called on ly Slovakized Czech. N or mu st it be disting uish ed from Czech only on th e lin guistic side. Import antly, that is, n ot even its users and writers con sidered it as Czech. Th ey considered it, h ere more, ch ere less explicic y, as ch e dom escic Slovak language. The term " J esuit Slovak " was at one time coined for this language. This d es ignation would perhaps m eta pho ri call y do just ice to th e fa ct that thi s language was used in Catholic writin g. H oweve r , it is necessa ry, of course, to reali ze th at thi s la nguage did no t origin a te in Slovak Catholic writing , but that Catholics took it over as esse ntiall y set, and that it was u sed as cultural W es t-Sl ovak eve n in oth er functions. Further one must reali ze that in Catholic writing, not onl y J esuits used this language, even if th ese la tt er were th e most act ive in the rc-Ca tholi cization of Slovaki a. (Dejin y spisovnej slovenciny, I [ 1966 ; rpt. Brati slava : Slove nske pedagogicke nakl ada tel'stvo, 1971], p. 78. Ita li cs a nd tra nsla ti on a re min e .) ' See Sabo, pp . 50-56 , for nati onalistic friction in gene ral, and pp. 58-62 for nati onalisti c fri ct io n in Franciscan founda ti ons. Also , Ysevlad J oze f Gajdos, 0 . F . M. , Franciskani v slovens½ej lit eracure (C levela nd : First Catholic Slova k Union, 1979), pp . 23-26. In this work, Gajdos also has a sho rt biograph y of Gavlovi c, a brief co mm ent a ry o n so m e of his writings, a li st of m ost of hi s works , and a sm all bibli ogra phy on G av lovic. Thi s book co nt a ins a wealth of m a terial on Francisca n trai nin g and activiti es in Slovak areas. 5 Both m a nu script s, actually a ut og raphs b y Gavlov ic him self, a re prese rved in th e Lite rarny archiv M a ti ce slovenskej (LAMS) in Martin unde r th e signa ture B89 for V alask a Skala and MJ3 3 1 for Skala Krest'a nska. V alask a S k ala ha had three editi o n s. In th e first editi o n do ne in two volum es in 1830-3 1, th e auto gra ph was d evasta tin gly altered allegedl y by Mi cha l R eset ka acco rdin g to th e lin gui st ic no rm s of Bernolak-S lova k , bern olaccin a . In th e seco nd edi ti o n of 197 1, Rudolf Kraj covic, th e ed itor , re prod uced the tex t in questionab le fo rm at a nd form , but most unfortunately deleted some forty-seven percent of th e aut ogra ph tex t. The third edition is a reprintin g o f th e Kraj cov ic second ed itio n , but now with som e fift y- li ve perce nt of th e autograph text deleted. Non e of the pictori al illu stra tion s of Valaska Skala was reprodu ced in a ny o f th e three ed iti ons. As rega rd s Skala Kresc'a nsk a, a few selections - some two perce nt of th e a ut ogra ph text - ca n be found in Gizela Slavkovska's edited workja miluji, nesmfm provfdaci ... : Ancol6gia zo slovenskej barokovej poezie (Bratislava: T a tra n , 1977) , pp . 275-30 1. 6 Th is is made clea r in Valaska Skala in th e dedication immed ia tely after th e titl epage a nd first illustra ti o n as we ll as in the int rodu cto ry part " D arowa ni Ku uiicku cwemu ," line 57; and in Skala Kresc'a n ska, o n th e titl e page a nd in th e introducto ry part " Darowani Trecimu R adu Seraflin skemu ," pages 13-1 6 of th e aut ogra ph (wi th titl e-page as page one). Fo r possible reasons for Gavlovic dedi ca tin g these two works to Tertiaries, see Sabo , pp . 66-7 1. ' For details on Gav lovic ' s kon cepc form, see, Sabo, pp . 86-94. A koncepc is also found SLOVAKIA ' 9 ' 0 " " 13 14 15 16 11 " 19 ' 0 89 in Gavlovi i''s "last will a nd testament, " and an inco mplete one (one sentence short) among fragm entary autograph s of Gavlovic. In my thesis , I discuss the a rtist of the illustrations for Valaska Skala on pages 79-82. Subsequ entl y, Slavkovska studied th e same m a tt er and published her co mments in " ' Tajomstva ' prveho vydania Valaskej Skoly ," Slovenska literatura , 25, No. 6 ( 1978) , 663-669 . John L. Lievsay , "Embl em ," Princeton Encyclopedia of Poet1y and Poetics, enlarged edition , Alex Preminger et al. ed. (Princeton: Princeton Uni ve rsity Press, 1974). Bes id es variou s pl aces in V alaska Skala , wh e re Gavlovic speaks of Valaska Skala in these terms, he co mpa res the two "school s" in Skala Krest'anska on page fourtee n with titl e-page as page one in " D aro wani Tretimu Radu S eraffinskemu ," lin es 45 -46. Valaska Skala, "Darowani Ku uiitku twemu ," line 44 ; Skala Krest'ansk a, " Darowani Tretimu Radu S eraffin sk emu ," lines 33-34. On the title-page of Valaska Skala , Gavlovic cited :Omne tulit pun ctum , qui miscuit utile dulci (H e ha s won eve ry vote who has bl end ed profit a nd pleas ure . .. ), verse 343, H. Ru shton Fairclough , trans., Horace: Satires, Epistles, and Ars Poetica (London and Cambridge, Mass. : William H eine m a n , Ltd. , 1970), pp. 478-479. For other pl aces wh ere G av lovic ex pressed th e se nse of this Horati a n ve rse, see Sabo , p. 68 , note 101. On the page immediat ely preceding th e titl e-page, it is cited in La tin a nd in a Slovak translation. In th e Vulgate ve rsion th a t I u sed , Alberto Colun ga a nd La urentio Turrado, ed ., 4th ed. , se ri es Bibliateca d e autores Christianos , Madrid , 1975, the last verse is forty , but in English ve rsions of this chapter, th e verse is thirt y-six. Karl Rahn e r , " Last Things , " Sa cram entum Mundi: An Encyclopedia of Th eology (New York: H e rd e r a nd H e rd er , 1969) , 274-2 76. Th ese da tes a re found on the d edi cation page of Valaska Skala right after th e titlepage a nd fir st illu stration , and for Skala Krest'a nska on th e prese nt titl e- page. Thi s letter is found at th e ve ry beginning of the bound autograph of Skala Krest'anska. Fo r a de tai led stud y ofGavlovic's a uthorship of th ese writings, see Sabo, pp. 11-15. From my st ud y of the sy mm etri cal structure of Skala Krest'anska , it is evident that th e re were probab ly at least nin e illustration s, four of which are mi ssing, and th a t some of the text which introduces th e k on cept y on d ea th and those on judgment is also mi ss in g. Bes id es th e numerical sy mboli sm ex pl a in ed in the subsequent text of m y article , furth e r num eri cal sy mboli sm in V a/ask a Skala is discussed in Sabo, pp. 124-28. The Gospel a nd th e Bibli cal book Apocalypse a ttribut ed to St. John th e Eva n geli st had a signifi can t influ e nce on th e format a nd mat e rial co nt ent of V a/aska Skala as we ll as on those of ot he r writings by Ga vlo vic: Sabo , pp. 114- 2 1. In " D arowan i Ku uzi tku twemu, " lin es 37-38 , Gavlovii' spec ifi ed twe nt y- one noty, ye t he added a twenty-second which he called " Pridawek or Additi on. " It is m y strong belief that Gavlov ic's spec ifi c in sistence o n twe nt y-o ne noty and hi s present at ion of th e m with Biblical shepherds introdu cin g eac h infl uenced J a n Holl y's stru cturin g of hi s Selanky or Pasto rals where th ere a re twent y-o ne pastoral so ng subdivi sion s; lik e Gav lov ic, Holl y begins hi s twe nt y-first (a nd las t) pastoral with referen ce to th e 90 " " " " " ' 0 " " SLOVAKIA Bet hl ehem shepherds . In a let ter of May 6, 183 1, Holly spoke of Gavlovic and his Valaska Skala: " Lette r #32 to M a rtin Hamuljak ," Jozef Ambrus , ed ., Korespondencia jan Holleho (M a rtin : M a tica slovenska , 1967), p . 74. The Selanky began to be published in 1835 some four years after the publicati on of R ese tka's ed ition of Valaska Skala: Encyklopedia Slovenska, II (1978) , sub verbo " Holl y, Jan. " An ed ition of the Selanky with a modern verse rendition was published by Tatran in J 970 as volume 22 of its se ri es Citanie studuju cej mladeze . Sabo , p . 125, note 13 1, a nd p . 126. Also, J ean-Loui s D ' Aragon, S.J ., " The Apocalypse ,'' The J erome Biblical Com m entary (Englewood Cliffs, N .J .: PrenticeH all , In c., 1968), p. 480. Sabo, p. 126 , not e 133: " In each n ota , the introducto ry section a nd first kon cept ac tu ally cover th ese three autograph pages, yet Gavlovic pagin ated th em on the third page as a sin gle Arabic-numbered page . Thus, acco rdin g to thi s peculi a r pagination , each nota has thirty pages. And this m eans th at the twenty-on e noty spec ifi ed by Gavlovic have six hundred and thirty pages or half of the 1260 , the number of textu al units that a ppear o n th ese 630 pages." As regards th e co ncept o f the " last times ," see Karl Lowith , " The Biblical View of Hi sto~y, " Meaning in History (C hi cago and London : Un iversity of Ch icago Press, 1949 , Phoenix paperback, 1957), p . 188 . As rega rds ,,alasi, for an English ource see Sa b o, pp . 37-38; and for Slovak sources see J a n Podolak, " The P asto ral Cu ltu re of th e Ca rpathian as a Subject of an Ethnological Study," Ethnologica slavica , 1 ( 1969), especial ly 70-77, a nd Encyklopedia Sloven ska , V I ( 1982), sub vcrbo " Valasi," " Valasska l'udova piesen," and '' Valasske pravo." Old so urces a bout valasi , their culture, a nd their wa y of li vin g a re: And rej K i!v ulj ak , " Val as i na Slove n sku: Ora vs ky pod za mok ," Sbornik n a pocest' jozefa Skulte1yh o (Turciansky Svii ty M a rtin : M at ica slovenska , 1933), pp . 336 -374; Karel K ad lec, Valasi a valassk e pravo v zem ich slovansk ych a uh erskych (Pra ha: Ces ka akadcmia cisare Frantiska J osefa, 19 16) ; V aclav C halo upec ky, Valasi na S lovensku (Praha: Slovansky u stav , 1947); a ndjosef Macurek, Valasi v za padnfch K a1pa1ech v 15. - 18 scole1f (Ost rava: K rajske naklad a telstvf, 1959). Th e ca pital R oman numera l is th e no/a number; th e sm a ll Roman num eral is th e k on cep1 numb er in thar 1101 a. Beca use of space limit ;itions , th e side- m otto here has bee n placed a bove the k oncep1. In th e text of Valask a Skala . Gav lov ic also in corporated fo lk ex press ions such as prove rbs and sayings that ca n be fo un d in ex tant compil a ti ons o f suc h ex pre. siuns as we ll ·as ones or his own ('rca ti u n ; sec Sa bo , pp . 168- 171, and Vojtcch Sarluska, " Piit's to prfslovf, " Li1er,im ya rchf, - 1975 . 12 (Mart in: M a ti ca sloven ska, 1976), 135- 167. Webs 1er·.- New C ollcgiait· Diction ary , 1961, su/.J v(·rbo ' ·Sri gma. " Sabo, p. 127, note 134; J ea n-Loui s D ' Aragon , " Th e Apondy p;e," p. 47 8 . In Skala K res1'anska , a couplet-m o tto or vary in g leng rh rs found aboH: a koncepl with o ne a nd nea rl y a lwa ys two re lated mot toes on the side . Beca use o f spate limitation s, I hav e placed in o rd er th e first a nd sclond side- m ottoe for th e koncep1 above the couplet-mono found at th e head of the koncepl . SLOVAKIA 91 ,. Th e New Ca th olic Encyclopedia ( l 967), sub verbo " Lawrence Justini an , St ." My study of Gavlovic was greatl y facilitied b y Docent J ozef Minarik of th e Filozofi cka faku lta Univerzity Kom enskeho a nd Gi zela Slavkovska of the Litera rn ovedny Ustav Slove nskej Akadem ie Vied , both of Bra tisla va, while I was on th e exchange program of th e Intern ati onal R esea rch and Exchanges Board and on a Fulbright-H ays grant in 1975 -76. This pape r is based on a docto ral disse rt ation, " Slovak Didact ic Poetry: G avlovic's Va/aska S kala " at Ya le Univers ity, 1978. Prese nted in Pa nel 128 , "Slovak Litera ture as a Mirror of the Na tional Awakenin g," a t th e AAASS convention in Philadelphi a on 8 November 1980.  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Hugolín Gavlovič's Valaská Škola and Škola Kresťanská Description An account of the resource Gerald J. Sabo Slovakia, Vol. 30 (No. 55-56), 1982-83 pp. 80-91 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Sabo, Gerald J., 1945–2020 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1982-83 LCNAF+dates https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/3126c8bb6a75e470db2622aa9f6ceb22.pdf 630f44e9a7f41446684d380065bd7854 PDF Text Text 56 SLOVAKIA to support the ambitions of a few exiled po1iticians who may or may not represent the wishes and interests of their peoples. It is not surprising that many Czech politicians find it easier to make political capital out of the Masaryk legend than to follow an entirely new line, but would it not be advisable to eliminate this myth from Western pmpaganda and make no more use of names which bear a heavy responsibility for disrupting the unity of the Danubian region? It is difficult to see how the creation of a new Europe can be assisted by the memory of people whose narrow nationalism had such a baneful influence on the course of history. Politicians of Masaryk's type are very often public dangera, for they rouse peoples to revolt and then fail through weakness to guide the forces they have had conjured up in a suitable direction. A new spirit is needed; the entire Central European problem must be settled on a basis of what is right and not who is right. Political actions should be judged by their results and not by the nationality of those responsible for them, and usually it is at least a generaition before the true nature of these results becomes apparent. Viewed from this distance in time, it is obvious that Masaryk's "liberation" led to the balkanization of Central Europe and that the treaties of 1919 created a situation incomparably worse than the one they were supposed to remedy . • • • HUMAN IUGHTS AND EXILES Hans Schlitz Emigrants are to be pitied. Anyone forced to leave his home because of danger to life and limb deserves our sincerest sympathy. I can even feel for those emigrants who were at one time my bitter political opponents. The right to asylum is one of the human rights; so is the right to one's homeland. Exiles should, in their own interest, beware of treating human rights to·o lightly. By consigning them to the flames, we burn with them the right to asylum. He who breaks a principle should not complain if the stigma of C~in marks his brow. �SLOVAKIA 57 One Mr. Pejskar, now employed with Radio Free Europe at Munich, might well ponder that thought. He edits in his spare time a Czech emigre paper Ceske Slovo (The Czech Word). This "Czech word" was once the official organ of the Czech National Socialists, the party of Edward Benes. Ceske Slovo strives to perpetuate previous policies. On June 1, 1960 - issue No. 6 - it carried a memorandum of the Council of Free Czechoslovakia on "Czechoslovak-German Relations." The article depicts the expulsion of the Sudeten German people as final, as the best and only possible solution of the difficulties in that area. The western powers, including the West German Federal Republic, are implored to recognize at long last this irrevocable fact. Otherwise, "if the removal of the Sudeten Germans should noit be considered definitive, Germany would exclude herself from the community of free nations and become a destroyer, instead of ,a co-rebuilder, of Europe's future. The West must stick to its agreement on the deporitations and regard the Sudeten German question as settled. For tactical reasons the free world must reject the demand of the Sudeten Germans (to be allowed to return and see realized the right to t!he homeland)." These phrases comprise the core of a memorandum which for the time being seems to be the last act of the Council of Free Czechoslovakia, broken up again despite its dollar-filled cheque-book. Democracy and Socialism, organ of the Czech Social Democrats in exile, reports that the following leading members have voluntarily left the Council: Dr. J. Lettrich, chairman of the plenary assembly; F. Nemec, Dr. Osusky, Dr. Bellus, Dr. Frastacky, Dr. Hodza (son of Milan Hodza), V. Jedinec, Dr. Cerny (sonin-law of Svehla and former minister of the interior), J. Macek, A. Heidrich, Dr. Prochazka, V. Majer. It has also been learned that Ferentsik, representative of the Carpatho-Ukrainia ns, has likewise quit the Council. In other words, practically all representatives of the Slovaks, Carpatho-Ukrainia ns, Czech Agrarians, People's Party, Social Democrats, and Artisans Party have withdrawn. Mr. Zenkl and his party friends are the sole remnant. We do not know whether the Council ran aground �58 SLOVAKIA on the memorandum. Naturally, the recalcitrants will not voice their disagreement aloud. Nobody these days dares to differ publicly. Yet there are a few who feel ashamed of debasing - by the printed word - the principle of human rights in a world worthy of subsistence only and as long as human rights are heeded. The memorandum has caused a crisis among Czech exiles. The German public, without being overly concerned, should lodge due protest to this pa,per. We have reason to believe that in May, 1960, Dr. Zenkl intended to visit leading German politicians. These men are engaged in a gigantic struggle on behalf of their people for the right of self-determination . Doesn't Dr. Zenkl surmise that, by refusing the right of self-determination to the Germans from Bohemia and Moravia-Silesia, he puts the German statesmen in a precarious position? One cannot negotiate in a dubious or indirect way on the sell-out of the right of self-determination with politicians who stand or fall with the principle of self-determination. Dr. Zenkl is not only a representative member of the Council of Free Czechoslovakia; he presently also presides over the Assembly of Captive European Nations (ACEN). The delegation of that assembly of enslaved European nations hurriedly assured a Munich newspaper .that said delegation's Bonn office disavows the memorandum in question. And it immediately asked the New York bureau to clarify the statement as being, at most, the opinion of the Council of Free Czechoslovakia under Dr. Zenkl, but by no means the attitude of ACEN and the great majority of its members. Mr. Zenkl and his trusting entourage are travelling a fateful road indeed! Des-pite everything, we still feel that in a new Europe genuine reconciliation between Germany and her eastern neighbors is possible. About a year ago, in a London exile paper, a Czech member of ACEN likened the Sudeten Germans to withered grass on the roadside to be tread into the ground or swept away by the wind. This demark by the honorable Mr. Rehak shows poetical talent but little political insight. The two millions of Sudeten G~rmans �SLOVAKIA 59 who, impoverished and wrecked in body and soul, sought refuge in the West German Federal Republic, did not become the dynamite they were designed for by the mighty Stalin and the less mighty Benes. As a rule the expellees proved a valuable and constructive element in the economic and political revival of Germany. They likewise bore witness of their friendship for the Czech emigrants who came after them. It is a shabby business, indeed, when the Czechs now fifteen years after the war's end - try to further the cause of Bolshevism by demanding from the free nations, and even the German community, complete disregard for the just claim of the Sudeten German expellees . • • • WHERE ALL ROADS END The Swiss daily Neue Zurcher Zeitung gives its readers a glimpse across Austria's border into tlhe Bohemian Forest, OSSR: What would the former professor and representative to the Austro-Hungarian Reichstag in Vienna, Thomas Garrigue Masaryk, say today if he could see what has become of the State he founded, 1:lhe former Czecho-Slovak Republic? A kindly fate beckoned him - in the year 1937 at 1:lhe age of 87 - to another world. He may have sensed what was to come, did not have to see the day, however, when the State, of which he was the founder and long-time president, was crushed by Hitler in 1938-39 and set up again in 1945, subsequently to be placed under the yoke of world Communism by politicians subservient to 1:lhe Kremlin. His son, Jan Masaryk, lived to see t:Jhe great tragedy of his fatherland: destruction under Hitler, resurrection in 1945 in the shadow of Russian bayonets and the expulsion of more than three million Germans living near its borders in t!he Sudeten areas, at home there for centuries. At the end of tJhis series of events came tihe final Bolshevization that gave his country the kiss of death. Was it the guilt of the father, Thomas Masaryk, who gave President Wilson in 1918 a false picture of 1:lhe population structure in the German regions claimed for the new � 56 SLOVAKIA to support the ambitions of a few exiled po1iticians who may or may not represent the wishes and interests of their peoples. It is not surprising that many Czech politicians find it easier to make political capital out of the Masaryk legend than to follow an entirely new line, but would it not be advisable to eliminate this myth from Western pmpaganda and make no more use of names which bear a heavy responsibility for disrupting the unity of the Danubian region? It is difficult to see how the creation of a new Europe can be assisted by the memory of people whose narrow nationalism had such a baneful influence on the course of history. Politicians of Masaryk's type are very often public dangera, for they rouse peoples to revolt and then fail through weakness to guide the forces they have had conjured up in a suitable direction. A new spirit is needed; the entire Central European problem must be settled on a basis of what is right and not who is right. Political actions should be judged by their results and not by the nationality of those responsible for them, and usually it is at least a generaition before the true nature of these results becomes apparent. Viewed from this distance in time, it is obvious that Masaryk's "liberation" led to the balkanization of Central Europe and that the treaties of 1919 created a situation incomparably worse than the one they were supposed to remedy . • • • HUMAN IUGHTS AND EXILES Hans Schlitz Emigrants are to be pitied. Anyone forced to leave his home because of danger to life and limb deserves our sincerest sympathy. I can even feel for those emigrants who were at one time my bitter political opponents. The right to asylum is one of the human rights; so is the right to one's homeland. Exiles should, in their own interest, beware of treating human rights to·o lightly. By consigning them to the flames, we burn with them the right to asylum. He who breaks a principle should not complain if the stigma of C~in marks his brow. �SLOVAKIA 57 One Mr. Pejskar, now employed with Radio Free Europe at Munich, might well ponder that thought. He edits in his spare time a Czech emigre paper Ceske Slovo (The Czech Word). This "Czech word" was once the official organ of the Czech National Socialists, the party of Edward Benes. Ceske Slovo strives to perpetuate previous policies. On June 1, 1960 - issue No. 6 - it carried a memorandum of the Council of Free Czechoslovakia on "Czechoslovak-German Relations." The article depicts the expulsion of the Sudeten German people as final, as the best and only possible solution of the difficulties in that area. The western powers, including the West German Federal Republic, are implored to recognize at long last this irrevocable fact. Otherwise, "if the removal of the Sudeten Germans should noit be considered definitive, Germany would exclude herself from the community of free nations and become a destroyer, instead of ,a co-rebuilder, of Europe's future. The West must stick to its agreement on the deporitations and regard the Sudeten German question as settled. For tactical reasons the free world must reject the demand of the Sudeten Germans (to be allowed to return and see realized the right to t!he homeland)." These phrases comprise the core of a memorandum which for the time being seems to be the last act of the Council of Free Czechoslovakia, broken up again despite its dollar-filled cheque-book. Democracy and Socialism, organ of the Czech Social Democrats in exile, reports that the following leading members have voluntarily left the Council: Dr. J. Lettrich, chairman of the plenary assembly; F. Nemec, Dr. Osusky, Dr. Bellus, Dr. Frastacky, Dr. Hodza (son of Milan Hodza), V. Jedinec, Dr. Cerny (sonin-law of Svehla and former minister of the interior), J. Macek, A. Heidrich, Dr. Prochazka, V. Majer. It has also been learned that Ferentsik, representative of the Carpatho-Ukrainia ns, has likewise quit the Council. In other words, practically all representatives of the Slovaks, Carpatho-Ukrainia ns, Czech Agrarians, People's Party, Social Democrats, and Artisans Party have withdrawn. Mr. Zenkl and his party friends are the sole remnant. We do not know whether the Council ran aground �58 SLOVAKIA on the memorandum. Naturally, the recalcitrants will not voice their disagreement aloud. Nobody these days dares to differ publicly. Yet there are a few who feel ashamed of debasing - by the printed word - the principle of human rights in a world worthy of subsistence only and as long as human rights are heeded. The memorandum has caused a crisis among Czech exiles. The German public, without being overly concerned, should lodge due protest to this pa,per. We have reason to believe that in May, 1960, Dr. Zenkl intended to visit leading German politicians. These men are engaged in a gigantic struggle on behalf of their people for the right of self-determination . Doesn't Dr. Zenkl surmise that, by refusing the right of self-determination to the Germans from Bohemia and Moravia-Silesia, he puts the German statesmen in a precarious position? One cannot negotiate in a dubious or indirect way on the sell-out of the right of self-determination with politicians who stand or fall with the principle of self-determination. Dr. Zenkl is not only a representative member of the Council of Free Czechoslovakia; he presently also presides over the Assembly of Captive European Nations (ACEN). The delegation of that assembly of enslaved European nations hurriedly assured a Munich newspaper .that said delegation's Bonn office disavows the memorandum in question. And it immediately asked the New York bureau to clarify the statement as being, at most, the opinion of the Council of Free Czechoslovakia under Dr. Zenkl, but by no means the attitude of ACEN and the great majority of its members. Mr. Zenkl and his trusting entourage are travelling a fateful road indeed! Des-pite everything, we still feel that in a new Europe genuine reconciliation between Germany and her eastern neighbors is possible. About a year ago, in a London exile paper, a Czech member of ACEN likened the Sudeten Germans to withered grass on the roadside to be tread into the ground or swept away by the wind. This demark by the honorable Mr. Rehak shows poetical talent but little political insight. The two millions of Sudeten G~rmans �SLOVAKIA 59 who, impoverished and wrecked in body and soul, sought refuge in the West German Federal Republic, did not become the dynamite they were designed for by the mighty Stalin and the less mighty Benes. As a rule the expellees proved a valuable and constructive element in the economic and political revival of Germany. They likewise bore witness of their friendship for the Czech emigrants who came after them. It is a shabby business, indeed, when the Czechs now fifteen years after the war's end - try to further the cause of Bolshevism by demanding from the free nations, and even the German community, complete disregard for the just claim of the Sudeten German expellees . • • • WHERE ALL ROADS END The Swiss daily Neue Zurcher Zeitung gives its readers a glimpse across Austria's border into tlhe Bohemian Forest, OSSR: What would the former professor and representative to the Austro-Hungarian Reichstag in Vienna, Thomas Garrigue Masaryk, say today if he could see what has become of the State he founded, 1:lhe former Czecho-Slovak Republic? A kindly fate beckoned him - in the year 1937 at 1:lhe age of 87 - to another world. He may have sensed what was to come, did not have to see the day, however, when the State, of which he was the founder and long-time president, was crushed by Hitler in 1938-39 and set up again in 1945, subsequently to be placed under the yoke of world Communism by politicians subservient to 1:lhe Kremlin. His son, Jan Masaryk, lived to see t:Jhe great tragedy of his fatherland: destruction under Hitler, resurrection in 1945 in the shadow of Russian bayonets and the expulsion of more than three million Germans living near its borders in t!he Sudeten areas, at home there for centuries. At the end of tJhis series of events came tihe final Bolshevization that gave his country the kiss of death. Was it the guilt of the father, Thomas Masaryk, who gave President Wilson in 1918 a false picture of 1:lhe population structure in the German regions claimed for the new � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1960, Vol. 10 Description An account of the resource <ul><li>Issue 6 [sic] (No. 31), March-June 1960.</li> <li>Issue 7 [sic] (No. 32), September-December 1960.</li> </ul> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1960 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document 56 SLOVAKIA to support the ambitions of a few exiled po1iticians who may or may not represent the wishes and interests of their peoples. It is not surprising that many Czech politicians find it easier to make political capital out of the Masaryk legend than to follow an entirely new line, but would it not be advisable to eliminate this myth from Western pmpaganda and make no more use of names which bear a heavy responsibility for disrupting the unity of the Danubian region? It is difficult to see how the creation of a new Europe can be assisted by the memory of people whose narrow nationalism had such a baneful influence on the course of history. Politicians of Masaryk's type are very often public dangera, for they rouse peoples to revolt and then fail through weakness to guide the forces they have had conjured up in a suitable direction. A new spirit is needed; the entire Central European problem must be settled on a basis of what is right and not who is right. Political actions should be judged by their results and not by the nationality of those responsible for them, and usually it is at least a generaition before the true nature of these results becomes apparent. Viewed from this distance in time, it is obvious that Masaryk's "liberation" led to the balkanization of Central Europe and that the treaties of 1919 created a situation incomparably worse than the one they were supposed to remedy . • • • HUMAN IUGHTS AND EXILES Hans Schlitz Emigrants are to be pitied. Anyone forced to leave his home because of danger to life and limb deserves our sincerest sympathy. I can even feel for those emigrants who were at one time my bitter political opponents. The right to asylum is one of the human rights; so is the right to one's homeland. Exiles should, in their own interest, beware of treating human rights to·o lightly. By consigning them to the flames, we burn with them the right to asylum. He who breaks a principle should not complain if the stigma of C~in marks his brow. SLOVAKIA 57 One Mr. Pejskar, now employed with Radio Free Europe at Munich, might well ponder that thought. He edits in his spare time a Czech emigre paper Ceske Slovo (The Czech Word). This "Czech word" was once the official organ of the Czech National Socialists, the party of Edward Benes. Ceske Slovo strives to perpetuate previous policies. On June 1, 1960 - issue No. 6 - it carried a memorandum of the Council of Free Czechoslovakia on "Czechoslovak-German Relations." The article depicts the expulsion of the Sudeten German people as final, as the best and only possible solution of the difficulties in that area. The western powers, including the West German Federal Republic, are implored to recognize at long last this irrevocable fact. Otherwise, "if the removal of the Sudeten Germans should noit be considered definitive, Germany would exclude herself from the community of free nations and become a destroyer, instead of ,a co-rebuilder, of Europe's future. The West must stick to its agreement on the deporitations and regard the Sudeten German question as settled. For tactical reasons the free world must reject the demand of the Sudeten Germans (to be allowed to return and see realized the right to t!he homeland)." These phrases comprise the core of a memorandum which for the time being seems to be the last act of the Council of Free Czechoslovakia, broken up again despite its dollar-filled cheque-book. Democracy and Socialism, organ of the Czech Social Democrats in exile, reports that the following leading members have voluntarily left the Council: Dr. J. Lettrich, chairman of the plenary assembly; F. Nemec, Dr. Osusky, Dr. Bellus, Dr. Frastacky, Dr. Hodza (son of Milan Hodza), V. Jedinec, Dr. Cerny (sonin-law of Svehla and former minister of the interior), J. Macek, A. Heidrich, Dr. Prochazka, V. Majer. It has also been learned that Ferentsik, representative of the Carpatho-Ukrainia ns, has likewise quit the Council. In other words, practically all representatives of the Slovaks, Carpatho-Ukrainia ns, Czech Agrarians, People's Party, Social Democrats, and Artisans Party have withdrawn. Mr. Zenkl and his party friends are the sole remnant. We do not know whether the Council ran aground 58 SLOVAKIA on the memorandum. Naturally, the recalcitrants will not voice their disagreement aloud. Nobody these days dares to differ publicly. Yet there are a few who feel ashamed of debasing - by the printed word - the principle of human rights in a world worthy of subsistence only and as long as human rights are heeded. The memorandum has caused a crisis among Czech exiles. The German public, without being overly concerned, should lodge due protest to this pa,per. We have reason to believe that in May, 1960, Dr. Zenkl intended to visit leading German politicians. These men are engaged in a gigantic struggle on behalf of their people for the right of self-determination . Doesn't Dr. Zenkl surmise that, by refusing the right of self-determination to the Germans from Bohemia and Moravia-Silesia, he puts the German statesmen in a precarious position? One cannot negotiate in a dubious or indirect way on the sell-out of the right of self-determination with politicians who stand or fall with the principle of self-determination. Dr. Zenkl is not only a representative member of the Council of Free Czechoslovakia; he presently also presides over the Assembly of Captive European Nations (ACEN). The delegation of that assembly of enslaved European nations hurriedly assured a Munich newspaper .that said delegation's Bonn office disavows the memorandum in question. And it immediately asked the New York bureau to clarify the statement as being, at most, the opinion of the Council of Free Czechoslovakia under Dr. Zenkl, but by no means the attitude of ACEN and the great majority of its members. Mr. Zenkl and his trusting entourage are travelling a fateful road indeed! Des-pite everything, we still feel that in a new Europe genuine reconciliation between Germany and her eastern neighbors is possible. About a year ago, in a London exile paper, a Czech member of ACEN likened the Sudeten Germans to withered grass on the roadside to be tread into the ground or swept away by the wind. This demark by the honorable Mr. Rehak shows poetical talent but little political insight. The two millions of Sudeten G~rmans SLOVAKIA 59 who, impoverished and wrecked in body and soul, sought refuge in the West German Federal Republic, did not become the dynamite they were designed for by the mighty Stalin and the less mighty Benes. As a rule the expellees proved a valuable and constructive element in the economic and political revival of Germany. They likewise bore witness of their friendship for the Czech emigrants who came after them. It is a shabby business, indeed, when the Czechs now fifteen years after the war's end - try to further the cause of Bolshevism by demanding from the free nations, and even the German community, complete disregard for the just claim of the Sudeten German expellees . • • • WHERE ALL ROADS END The Swiss daily Neue Zurcher Zeitung gives its readers a glimpse across Austria's border into tlhe Bohemian Forest, OSSR: What would the former professor and representative to the Austro-Hungarian Reichstag in Vienna, Thomas Garrigue Masaryk, say today if he could see what has become of the State he founded, 1:lhe former Czecho-Slovak Republic? A kindly fate beckoned him - in the year 1937 at 1:lhe age of 87 - to another world. He may have sensed what was to come, did not have to see the day, however, when the State, of which he was the founder and long-time president, was crushed by Hitler in 1938-39 and set up again in 1945, subsequently to be placed under the yoke of world Communism by politicians subservient to 1:lhe Kremlin. His son, Jan Masaryk, lived to see t:Jhe great tragedy of his fatherland: destruction under Hitler, resurrection in 1945 in the shadow of Russian bayonets and the expulsion of more than three million Germans living near its borders in t!he Sudeten areas, at home there for centuries. At the end of tJhis series of events came tihe final Bolshevization that gave his country the kiss of death. Was it the guilt of the father, Thomas Masaryk, who gave President Wilson in 1918 a false picture of 1:lhe population structure in the German regions claimed for the new  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Human Rights and Exiles Description An account of the resource Hans Schütz Slovakia, Vol. 10, No. 7 (32), September-December 1960 pp. 56-59 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Schütz, Hans Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource September-December 1960 name https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/765bc103ba58fb3af349d96c74fafee3.pdf 792c7e0706d68c7f49b1f660b2c03934 PDF Text Text 16 SLOVAKIA HUNGARIAN EXILES AND SLOVAK INDEPENDENCE BY GEORGE N,AGY In his article, which appeared in the September-Decem ber (1960) issue of "SLOVAKIA" entitled "Magyar Exiles and Slovakia," Dr. Joseph Kirschbaum brings up the question why official Hungarian exile circles, notably the Hungarian National Council of New York, are not cooperating w'ith the exiled Slovak independence movement and why several Hungarian "journalists and more or less known diplomats," notably Andrew Gyorgy, Stephen Kertesz, and Stephen Borsody, in their scientific works show a lack of objectively regarding Slovakia and the Slovaks. Before trying to clarify these questions, I have to object to Dr. Kirschbaum's constant use of the expression "Magyar" instead of "Hungarian." While, in the Hungarian language, the terms "Hungaria" and "Hungarian" are unknown, they are generally used throughout the Western world and can, therefore, not arbitrarily be replaced in English (French, German, etc.) by the expression "Magyar." To use the word "Hungary" as a geographical term - intending to indicate that historical Hungary against present-day Hungary has been inha!bited not by "Magyars" alone, but by Slovaks, Croatians, and other nationalities, too - might serve as an artificial justification for certain Slovak claims to parts of Hunga11ian history, coat-ofarms, etc., but is both historically wrong and linguistically mistaken, because originally the expression "Hungarian," derived from the words "Onogur," "Ungur," was the name by which the Hungarian tribes were called in Europe (mainly by the Germans) before entering the Danube Basin. Returning now to the questions brought up by Dr. Kirschbaum, I have to deal with the different aspects involved in this problem. First of all, up to now, due to an outdated political misconception supported by legalistic conservatism, the United States Government recognizes Czecho-Slovakia, and, consequently, the Czecho-Slovak, and not the Czech and �SLOVAKIA 17 Slovak exile groups and their organizations only. For this reason, all other exile groups which are recognized by the U. S. Administratio n, including the Hungarian National Council, have to deal with the "Council of Free Czechoslovakia" as the only officially recognized representative organization of both Czech and Slovak exile groups. Apart from this fact, it is undeniable that many Hungarian politicians, especially those of the elder generation, considered the Czechs and not the Slovaks as the ones with whom Hungary had to deal in questions regarding relations between Hungary and Czecho~Slovakia. The reason for this attitude is plausible, if we consider the historical developments of the past. Since medieval times, the Czechs played an important part in the history of Central Europe and their influence was often prominent, if not dominant, in directing both external and domestic affairs of the Habsburg Monarchy. Then, after the First World War, when Czecho-Slovak ia was born, Benes and Masaryk, who forged the new and unha,ppy order of Central Europe, became de facto dictators of the international affairs of that area. So great was their prestige and their influence in the chancelaries of Western Europe that there was hardly any chance to conduct successful political negotiations in the Danube Basin, and, of course, regarding Czecho-Slovakia, without their participation. In spite of the lessons taught to us by the history of the past forty years, and particularly since 1945, much of the false glory of Benes's political conception is still alive, especially in American official and intellectual circles. The influence of this spirit is felt strongly in many a scientific work written even in recent times and a clear indication of it can be found in the preface of Borsody's book, too. Another reason for the lack of understanding of the Slovak problem is the fact that Slovak national consciousness is of a rather recent or~gin. While Slovak intellectuals cherished the idea of Slovak autonomy long ago and fought later for independence, the broad masses of the people embraced these aspirations fully only after Slovakia did gain its independence in 1939 and made a success of it. There- �18 SLOVAKIA fore, any outsider, who did not follow closely the developments which led to Slovak independence and the astonishing achievements of the Slovak State during its short-lived existence, is naturally inclined to underestimate the effect that these events had on the minds of the Slovak people. Hungarian politicians of that time were mostly too preoccupied with the mounting pressure of international events upon the fate of Hungary itself to devote much of their attention to a thorough study of the developments in Slovakia. Few of them had a chance, as I did, to witness closely what went on beyond Hungary's northern border. It is the duty of the few of us who followed the Slovak independence movement closely to take the initiative and eliminate past misunderstandings. The differences between Slovaks and Hungarians have to be settled between Bratislava and Budapest, without outside interference by Czechs or anybody else. But, as our peoples in our homelands are at present prevented from expressing their free will, it is up to us, exile groups in the Free World, to join forces and to pave the way for a sincere understanding and friendship between our two peoples. I am convinced that our close cooperation in working together for the restoration of Slovak independence could become a key factor in creating a new and healthy political order in the Danube Basin after its liberation from Soviet domination. X X IX X MORE CLARl,FICA1110N N1E1EOEO I fuilly appreciate the effort of Mr. George Nagy, SecretaryGeneral of the Canadian.Jlungarian Federation, to clarify some questions relating to Hungaria1w ~agyar)'5lovak relations. He is, of course, entitled to his opinions. History, however, is - rather should lbe - based on facts. And the fact is that Mlagyar historians, politicians, statesmen, and even religious leaders have thus far preferred either to iglill().fll the Slovaks of both past and present Hungary or to humiliate and vHMy them when re!ferrincg to them rn their writings. Certainly it is a situation that should be corrected. In his attempt to clarify the question r,a,i sed by Dr. Joseph Kirscblbaum, '.Mr. Nagy malres several good points, but i,n several instances, unfortunately, on1y adds to the confusion whioh he attempts to dispel. He objects "to the constant use of the expression 'Magyar' i,nstead of 'Hung•arian', because," he says: "While, in the Hungarian language, the terms 'Hungaria' and 'Hungarian' are unknown, they �19 SLOVAKIA are generally used throughout the Western world and can, therefore, not ar:bitrarily 'be replaced in Engli'Sh, (French, German, etc.), by the expression 'M!a,gy1ar'." What is Mr. Nagy trying to sell? Now, why are those terms unknown in the HilliNG!A!RIDAlN language? Simply because there is no HUING.AlR!tAN language! But there is a MAGYIAiR la,ngua,ge. 11he terms, however, ar,e very well known - and have been for centuries - in the SrLOVAK language. Hum•gary is a ,p olitioal entity, a multi-national state. The official language of the c,o untry, since the Magyars domiinlaited it, hras ailiways been MAGIY'iAR - anld to tlhe Magyrars -tlhe land of Hungary has always been, MAGYARORSZAG - Magya1'land, present!~ Magyar Nepkozt.trsasag - People's Repulblic of Magyarland), and so they always ~n6isted on using the English HUNGARY fur the Magyar MAGYAR0RSZAG, even though the term IIDNGAlRY, as Nagy says, does not exis't in the HUiNGA!R!liAN (he means Malgyiar) l anguage. Therr-e is no Hungarian language, but p11actically all Magyar periodicals, writers, schoiars, scienltists and arti'Sts are lafbeled Hungarian. Gyufa von Zathure:czky, we read just recently (SUl)iET.IDN BUILlJEIDIN, Dec. 1961), now residling in Munich, Germany, is a freelamce writer, "formerly editor-in-chief of the Hungarian daily iELLElN~ElK and BerHn corresponldent for variolll.S Hungarian parpers." Furthermore, the Slovaks do not have to resort to "artificial justification" forr any claims they may ha,v e "to parts of Hungarian" histor,y. The hist-ori~al fact is that the forefathers of the Slovaks i.nhafbited the teru-itory of Hum•g,ariy long before the forebears of the Magyars invaded it. "It is both historicaUy wr.o ng and linguistically mistaken" to use the term Magyar instead of Hungary, declares Mr. Nagy, '"because originally the expression 'Hungarran' deri'Ved from the words '0nogur', 'Ungur' - was the name by which the Hungarian tribes were called in Europe (ma·ionly by the Ge!'lman,s) before entering the 1 Danube basin." This I cannot bu,y. 'I1he "Hun~r'ian trilbes," referred to by Nagy could hardly ha.ve beeru "Hungarian triib es" before they entered the Da,nwbian basin, the territory of Hungary. If the Germans or ,a ny other peorple called those tri!bes "Onogur" or "Ungur," as Nragy claims, they must harve had some reason for it. Nagy's attempt to ma•k e Hungary MAGYAR f.aills shol1t aga,in. Those terms, Nagy had told us, ai"e wniknown in the M-agy,ai- language. But they are kn()IWn in the Slovak language (uhor; uhorie; U:hor; Uhry; uhorsky). But there is no "uhorctna" - Hunlg arian language, just as there is no "ceskoslovencina" - Czechoslovak language. The ''Hum•gari,an trtbes" re'feNed to must ha,ve beem, the forebears of the Slovaks. What Mr. Na-gy has to say a/bout Ozecho-Slovakra (use the hyphen, pJease!), and T. G. Masarylk and Dr. Edlwarrd Bene§, is in a large sense true. But that is hardly sulfiicienit reaSOIIl! - iif it is real11Jy interested in truth and justice - that the Hungarian National Coundl should "HAVE TO" deal wi.1lh the so-called Ooun·cil ,o:f Fu-ee Cze~hoslovakia. I say th'at even though it still may be "the onLy offi.cia•Hy recognized repr,esentatirve organization of both Czech and Slo- = �20 SLOVAKIA vak exile groups" - recognized as such by the United States Government or a,ny other govexin,ment. Mr. Nagy a,n d the Hungarian National CounJCH know that the "Council of Free Czechosltov,aki,a " is completely dominated by the Benes Czechs, the Czech socialists who collalbor•a ted fully with the Czech Reds amd Moscow, especially stnce 11945. If Magyars or Hungadans prefer to dea'l with the people of the "Council of ftee Czechoslo,vakia" - who deny the right of self-determin•altion to the Slovak nab-on and aire in princi'p le opposed to Slovak freedom and i,n d•eipeliltdence - they do so at their own peril. To go along with such people because they still enjoy prestige a,nd recognition means to make a mockery of democralcy, justice and the right. Principles should not be saori'ficed for expediency. Slovak nationalism, Mr. Nagy i:ndticates, i'S of "rather rec•e nt origi,n ." HOIW receinit? When did national states· originate in Europe? How many were there before the 19th century? Wti.11 Mr. Na•gy deny that the Mag,y ars· considered themselves the "State-nation" and really became chauvinistic after the estalblishment of the Dual-Mor.iarchy tn 1867? Preoccupation with anything else but matters of State can make for the downlfaH of a political formation. The fa.te of Austria-<Hunigary was decidted by politicians who were "too preodcurpi·e d with mounting pressure of i,nterna'tional ev,e nts" to see what was happening inside the countriy. The Magyars of Huin,gary adamantl,y opposed Slovak autonoony ~ and 1ost Slovakia. The Masarytk-lBenes "democracy" of Ozecho-Slovatkiia - a bad copy of old Austria~unigary - also coUaipsed: the Czedhs, even tlhough T. G. Masaryk had guaranteed it im, writing (The Pittsburgh Pact, May 30, HHS), denied autonomy to the Slovaks - and lost them. Sure, Czecho.Slovatkia still exists on paper a·n d is recognized as the land of the Slovaks and the Czechs, but as far as the Slovaks are concerned, it is deader than the proverbi<al door naH. The time to work for Magyar-Hungarian and Slo,v ak independeinice is NOW - and not after Magya1".<ffungar~ans and S1ovatks a•r e li'bernted from Soviet domination. The Slovaks at home and albroad will continue to fight the plague of Communiism - as they have fought it for the past 100 y,e ars - even id' the Ma,g yars and Czechs, Hungariain-s and Czechosloval~s do collalborate with it or with its former collaiborators. They do not wairnt to be tofd that they MIUST join wiith the CZIDOHJS to f,i ght the Reds - and specifically with those Czechs who, after February 25, 1948, suddenly became "democratic, anti-Oommunist exiles froon Czecho-Sl-01Vakia." The Slovaks are in the same boat as the Magyar-<Hungarians, the Ozechs, the Senbo-Slovenia,nC:rtoat'iain Yu·goslavs, the Poles, Chinese, U1rnaiinians, Byelorussians, East Germans, Estonians, Latvians and L'ithuanfans, and others who were sacrificed to the Red Molo>ch of Moscow by the drun'k-'withvictory Uniited N~tions. All wainit to be :ftree and independent of alien ruile, no matter how benevolent it may appear to be; all want to be masters of their own destiny. Let us remember: expedients are for the hour; pr~niciples for the ages. Justice delayed, is justice denied. P. A. H!ROBtAJK. � 16 SLOVAKIA HUNGARIAN EXILES AND SLOVAK INDEPENDENCE BY GEORGE N,AGY In his article, which appeared in the September-Decem ber (1960) issue of "SLOVAKIA" entitled "Magyar Exiles and Slovakia," Dr. Joseph Kirschbaum brings up the question why official Hungarian exile circles, notably the Hungarian National Council of New York, are not cooperating w'ith the exiled Slovak independence movement and why several Hungarian "journalists and more or less known diplomats," notably Andrew Gyorgy, Stephen Kertesz, and Stephen Borsody, in their scientific works show a lack of objectively regarding Slovakia and the Slovaks. Before trying to clarify these questions, I have to object to Dr. Kirschbaum's constant use of the expression "Magyar" instead of "Hungarian." While, in the Hungarian language, the terms "Hungaria" and "Hungarian" are unknown, they are generally used throughout the Western world and can, therefore, not arbitrarily be replaced in English (French, German, etc.) by the expression "Magyar." To use the word "Hungary" as a geographical term - intending to indicate that historical Hungary against present-day Hungary has been inha!bited not by "Magyars" alone, but by Slovaks, Croatians, and other nationalities, too - might serve as an artificial justification for certain Slovak claims to parts of Hunga11ian history, coat-ofarms, etc., but is both historically wrong and linguistically mistaken, because originally the expression "Hungarian," derived from the words "Onogur," "Ungur," was the name by which the Hungarian tribes were called in Europe (mainly by the Germans) before entering the Danube Basin. Returning now to the questions brought up by Dr. Kirschbaum, I have to deal with the different aspects involved in this problem. First of all, up to now, due to an outdated political misconception supported by legalistic conservatism, the United States Government recognizes Czecho-Slovakia, and, consequently, the Czecho-Slovak, and not the Czech and �SLOVAKIA 17 Slovak exile groups and their organizations only. For this reason, all other exile groups which are recognized by the U. S. Administratio n, including the Hungarian National Council, have to deal with the "Council of Free Czechoslovakia" as the only officially recognized representative organization of both Czech and Slovak exile groups. Apart from this fact, it is undeniable that many Hungarian politicians, especially those of the elder generation, considered the Czechs and not the Slovaks as the ones with whom Hungary had to deal in questions regarding relations between Hungary and Czecho~Slovakia. The reason for this attitude is plausible, if we consider the historical developments of the past. Since medieval times, the Czechs played an important part in the history of Central Europe and their influence was often prominent, if not dominant, in directing both external and domestic affairs of the Habsburg Monarchy. Then, after the First World War, when Czecho-Slovak ia was born, Benes and Masaryk, who forged the new and unha,ppy order of Central Europe, became de facto dictators of the international affairs of that area. So great was their prestige and their influence in the chancelaries of Western Europe that there was hardly any chance to conduct successful political negotiations in the Danube Basin, and, of course, regarding Czecho-Slovakia, without their participation. In spite of the lessons taught to us by the history of the past forty years, and particularly since 1945, much of the false glory of Benes's political conception is still alive, especially in American official and intellectual circles. The influence of this spirit is felt strongly in many a scientific work written even in recent times and a clear indication of it can be found in the preface of Borsody's book, too. Another reason for the lack of understanding of the Slovak problem is the fact that Slovak national consciousness is of a rather recent or~gin. While Slovak intellectuals cherished the idea of Slovak autonomy long ago and fought later for independence, the broad masses of the people embraced these aspirations fully only after Slovakia did gain its independence in 1939 and made a success of it. There- �18 SLOVAKIA fore, any outsider, who did not follow closely the developments which led to Slovak independence and the astonishing achievements of the Slovak State during its short-lived existence, is naturally inclined to underestimate the effect that these events had on the minds of the Slovak people. Hungarian politicians of that time were mostly too preoccupied with the mounting pressure of international events upon the fate of Hungary itself to devote much of their attention to a thorough study of the developments in Slovakia. Few of them had a chance, as I did, to witness closely what went on beyond Hungary's northern border. It is the duty of the few of us who followed the Slovak independence movement closely to take the initiative and eliminate past misunderstandings. The differences between Slovaks and Hungarians have to be settled between Bratislava and Budapest, without outside interference by Czechs or anybody else. But, as our peoples in our homelands are at present prevented from expressing their free will, it is up to us, exile groups in the Free World, to join forces and to pave the way for a sincere understanding and friendship between our two peoples. I am convinced that our close cooperation in working together for the restoration of Slovak independence could become a key factor in creating a new and healthy political order in the Danube Basin after its liberation from Soviet domination. X X IX X MORE CLARl,FICA1110N N1E1EOEO I fuilly appreciate the effort of Mr. George Nagy, SecretaryGeneral of the Canadian.Jlungarian Federation, to clarify some questions relating to Hungaria1w ~agyar)'5lovak relations. He is, of course, entitled to his opinions. History, however, is - rather should lbe - based on facts. And the fact is that Mlagyar historians, politicians, statesmen, and even religious leaders have thus far preferred either to iglill().fll the Slovaks of both past and present Hungary or to humiliate and vHMy them when re!ferrincg to them rn their writings. Certainly it is a situation that should be corrected. In his attempt to clarify the question r,a,i sed by Dr. Joseph Kirscblbaum, '.Mr. Nagy malres several good points, but i,n several instances, unfortunately, on1y adds to the confusion whioh he attempts to dispel. He objects "to the constant use of the expression 'Magyar' i,nstead of 'Hung•arian', because," he says: "While, in the Hungarian language, the terms 'Hungaria' and 'Hungarian' are unknown, they �19 SLOVAKIA are generally used throughout the Western world and can, therefore, not ar:bitrarily 'be replaced in Engli'Sh, (French, German, etc.), by the expression 'M!a,gy1ar'." What is Mr. Nagy trying to sell? Now, why are those terms unknown in the HilliNG!A!RIDAlN language? Simply because there is no HUING.AlR!tAN language! But there is a MAGYIAiR la,ngua,ge. 11he terms, however, ar,e very well known - and have been for centuries - in the SrLOVAK language. Hum•gary is a ,p olitioal entity, a multi-national state. The official language of the c,o untry, since the Magyars domiinlaited it, hras ailiways been MAGIY'iAR - anld to tlhe Magyrars -tlhe land of Hungary has always been, MAGYARORSZAG - Magya1'land, present!~ Magyar Nepkozt.trsasag - People's Repulblic of Magyarland), and so they always ~n6isted on using the English HUNGARY fur the Magyar MAGYAR0RSZAG, even though the term IIDNGAlRY, as Nagy says, does not exis't in the HUiNGA!R!liAN (he means Malgyiar) l anguage. Therr-e is no Hungarian language, but p11actically all Magyar periodicals, writers, schoiars, scienltists and arti'Sts are lafbeled Hungarian. Gyufa von Zathure:czky, we read just recently (SUl)iET.IDN BUILlJEIDIN, Dec. 1961), now residling in Munich, Germany, is a freelamce writer, "formerly editor-in-chief of the Hungarian daily iELLElN~ElK and BerHn corresponldent for variolll.S Hungarian parpers." Furthermore, the Slovaks do not have to resort to "artificial justification" forr any claims they may ha,v e "to parts of Hungarian" histor,y. The hist-ori~al fact is that the forefathers of the Slovaks i.nhafbited the teru-itory of Hum•g,ariy long before the forebears of the Magyars invaded it. "It is both historicaUy wr.o ng and linguistically mistaken" to use the term Magyar instead of Hungary, declares Mr. Nagy, '"because originally the expression 'Hungarran' deri'Ved from the words '0nogur', 'Ungur' - was the name by which the Hungarian tribes were called in Europe (ma·ionly by the Ge!'lman,s) before entering the 1 Danube basin." This I cannot bu,y. 'I1he "Hun~r'ian trilbes," referred to by Nagy could hardly ha.ve beeru "Hungarian triib es" before they entered the Da,nwbian basin, the territory of Hungary. If the Germans or ,a ny other peorple called those tri!bes "Onogur" or "Ungur," as Nragy claims, they must harve had some reason for it. Nagy's attempt to ma•k e Hungary MAGYAR f.aills shol1t aga,in. Those terms, Nagy had told us, ai"e wniknown in the M-agy,ai- language. But they are kn()IWn in the Slovak language (uhor; uhorie; U:hor; Uhry; uhorsky). But there is no "uhorctna" - Hunlg arian language, just as there is no "ceskoslovencina" - Czechoslovak language. The ''Hum•gari,an trtbes" re'feNed to must ha,ve beem, the forebears of the Slovaks. What Mr. Na-gy has to say a/bout Ozecho-Slovakra (use the hyphen, pJease!), and T. G. Masarylk and Dr. Edlwarrd Bene§, is in a large sense true. But that is hardly sulfiicienit reaSOIIl! - iif it is real11Jy interested in truth and justice - that the Hungarian National Coundl should "HAVE TO" deal wi.1lh the so-called Ooun·cil ,o:f Fu-ee Cze~hoslovakia. I say th'at even though it still may be "the onLy offi.cia•Hy recognized repr,esentatirve organization of both Czech and Slo- = �20 SLOVAKIA vak exile groups" - recognized as such by the United States Government or a,ny other govexin,ment. Mr. Nagy a,n d the Hungarian National CounJCH know that the "Council of Free Czechosltov,aki,a " is completely dominated by the Benes Czechs, the Czech socialists who collalbor•a ted fully with the Czech Reds amd Moscow, especially stnce 11945. If Magyars or Hungadans prefer to dea'l with the people of the "Council of ftee Czechoslo,vakia" - who deny the right of self-determin•altion to the Slovak nab-on and aire in princi'p le opposed to Slovak freedom and i,n d•eipeliltdence - they do so at their own peril. To go along with such people because they still enjoy prestige a,nd recognition means to make a mockery of democralcy, justice and the right. Principles should not be saori'ficed for expediency. Slovak nationalism, Mr. Nagy i:ndticates, i'S of "rather rec•e nt origi,n ." HOIW receinit? When did national states· originate in Europe? How many were there before the 19th century? Wti.11 Mr. Na•gy deny that the Mag,y ars· considered themselves the "State-nation" and really became chauvinistic after the estalblishment of the Dual-Mor.iarchy tn 1867? Preoccupation with anything else but matters of State can make for the downlfaH of a political formation. The fa.te of Austria-<Hunigary was decidted by politicians who were "too preodcurpi·e d with mounting pressure of i,nterna'tional ev,e nts" to see what was happening inside the countriy. The Magyars of Huin,gary adamantl,y opposed Slovak autonoony ~ and 1ost Slovakia. The Masarytk-lBenes "democracy" of Ozecho-Slovatkiia - a bad copy of old Austria~unigary - also coUaipsed: the Czedhs, even tlhough T. G. Masaryk had guaranteed it im, writing (The Pittsburgh Pact, May 30, HHS), denied autonomy to the Slovaks - and lost them. Sure, Czecho.Slovatkia still exists on paper a·n d is recognized as the land of the Slovaks and the Czechs, but as far as the Slovaks are concerned, it is deader than the proverbi<al door naH. The time to work for Magyar-Hungarian and Slo,v ak independeinice is NOW - and not after Magya1".<ffungar~ans and S1ovatks a•r e li'bernted from Soviet domination. The Slovaks at home and albroad will continue to fight the plague of Communiism - as they have fought it for the past 100 y,e ars - even id' the Ma,g yars and Czechs, Hungariain-s and Czechosloval~s do collalborate with it or with its former collaiborators. They do not wairnt to be tofd that they MIUST join wiith the CZIDOHJS to f,i ght the Reds - and specifically with those Czechs who, after February 25, 1948, suddenly became "democratic, anti-Oommunist exiles froon Czecho-Sl-01Vakia." The Slovaks are in the same boat as the Magyar-<Hungarians, the Ozechs, the Senbo-Slovenia,nC:rtoat'iain Yu·goslavs, the Poles, Chinese, U1rnaiinians, Byelorussians, East Germans, Estonians, Latvians and L'ithuanfans, and others who were sacrificed to the Red Molo>ch of Moscow by the drun'k-'withvictory Uniited N~tions. All wainit to be :ftree and independent of alien ruile, no matter how benevolent it may appear to be; all want to be masters of their own destiny. Let us remember: expedients are for the hour; pr~niciples for the ages. Justice delayed, is justice denied. P. A. H!ROBtAJK. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to 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 16 SLOVAKIA HUNGARIAN EXILES AND SLOVAK INDEPENDENCE BY GEORGE N,AGY In his article, which appeared in the September-Decem ber (1960) issue of "SLOVAKIA" entitled "Magyar Exiles and Slovakia," Dr. Joseph Kirschbaum brings up the question why official Hungarian exile circles, notably the Hungarian National Council of New York, are not cooperating w'ith the exiled Slovak independence movement and why several Hungarian "journalists and more or less known diplomats," notably Andrew Gyorgy, Stephen Kertesz, and Stephen Borsody, in their scientific works show a lack of objectively regarding Slovakia and the Slovaks. Before trying to clarify these questions, I have to object to Dr. Kirschbaum's constant use of the expression "Magyar" instead of "Hungarian." While, in the Hungarian language, the terms "Hungaria" and "Hungarian" are unknown, they are generally used throughout the Western world and can, therefore, not arbitrarily be replaced in English (French, German, etc.) by the expression "Magyar." To use the word "Hungary" as a geographical term - intending to indicate that historical Hungary against present-day Hungary has been inha!bited not by "Magyars" alone, but by Slovaks, Croatians, and other nationalities, too - might serve as an artificial justification for certain Slovak claims to parts of Hunga11ian history, coat-ofarms, etc., but is both historically wrong and linguistically mistaken, because originally the expression "Hungarian," derived from the words "Onogur," "Ungur," was the name by which the Hungarian tribes were called in Europe (mainly by the Germans) before entering the Danube Basin. Returning now to the questions brought up by Dr. Kirschbaum, I have to deal with the different aspects involved in this problem. First of all, up to now, due to an outdated political misconception supported by legalistic conservatism, the United States Government recognizes Czecho-Slovakia, and, consequently, the Czecho-Slovak, and not the Czech and SLOVAKIA 17 Slovak exile groups and their organizations only. For this reason, all other exile groups which are recognized by the U. S. Administratio n, including the Hungarian National Council, have to deal with the "Council of Free Czechoslovakia" as the only officially recognized representative organization of both Czech and Slovak exile groups. Apart from this fact, it is undeniable that many Hungarian politicians, especially those of the elder generation, considered the Czechs and not the Slovaks as the ones with whom Hungary had to deal in questions regarding relations between Hungary and Czecho~Slovakia. The reason for this attitude is plausible, if we consider the historical developments of the past. Since medieval times, the Czechs played an important part in the history of Central Europe and their influence was often prominent, if not dominant, in directing both external and domestic affairs of the Habsburg Monarchy. Then, after the First World War, when Czecho-Slovak ia was born, Benes and Masaryk, who forged the new and unha,ppy order of Central Europe, became de facto dictators of the international affairs of that area. So great was their prestige and their influence in the chancelaries of Western Europe that there was hardly any chance to conduct successful political negotiations in the Danube Basin, and, of course, regarding Czecho-Slovakia, without their participation. In spite of the lessons taught to us by the history of the past forty years, and particularly since 1945, much of the false glory of Benes's political conception is still alive, especially in American official and intellectual circles. The influence of this spirit is felt strongly in many a scientific work written even in recent times and a clear indication of it can be found in the preface of Borsody's book, too. Another reason for the lack of understanding of the Slovak problem is the fact that Slovak national consciousness is of a rather recent or~gin. While Slovak intellectuals cherished the idea of Slovak autonomy long ago and fought later for independence, the broad masses of the people embraced these aspirations fully only after Slovakia did gain its independence in 1939 and made a success of it. There- 18 SLOVAKIA fore, any outsider, who did not follow closely the developments which led to Slovak independence and the astonishing achievements of the Slovak State during its short-lived existence, is naturally inclined to underestimate the effect that these events had on the minds of the Slovak people. Hungarian politicians of that time were mostly too preoccupied with the mounting pressure of international events upon the fate of Hungary itself to devote much of their attention to a thorough study of the developments in Slovakia. Few of them had a chance, as I did, to witness closely what went on beyond Hungary's northern border. It is the duty of the few of us who followed the Slovak independence movement closely to take the initiative and eliminate past misunderstandings. The differences between Slovaks and Hungarians have to be settled between Bratislava and Budapest, without outside interference by Czechs or anybody else. But, as our peoples in our homelands are at present prevented from expressing their free will, it is up to us, exile groups in the Free World, to join forces and to pave the way for a sincere understanding and friendship between our two peoples. I am convinced that our close cooperation in working together for the restoration of Slovak independence could become a key factor in creating a new and healthy political order in the Danube Basin after its liberation from Soviet domination. X X IX X MORE CLARl,FICA1110N N1E1EOEO I fuilly appreciate the effort of Mr. George Nagy, SecretaryGeneral of the Canadian.Jlungarian Federation, to clarify some questions relating to Hungaria1w ~agyar)'5lovak relations. He is, of course, entitled to his opinions. History, however, is - rather should lbe - based on facts. And the fact is that Mlagyar historians, politicians, statesmen, and even religious leaders have thus far preferred either to iglill().fll the Slovaks of both past and present Hungary or to humiliate and vHMy them when re!ferrincg to them rn their writings. Certainly it is a situation that should be corrected. In his attempt to clarify the question r,a,i sed by Dr. Joseph Kirscblbaum, '.Mr. Nagy malres several good points, but i,n several instances, unfortunately, on1y adds to the confusion whioh he attempts to dispel. He objects "to the constant use of the expression 'Magyar' i,nstead of 'Hung•arian', because," he says: "While, in the Hungarian language, the terms 'Hungaria' and 'Hungarian' are unknown, they 19 SLOVAKIA are generally used throughout the Western world and can, therefore, not ar:bitrarily 'be replaced in Engli'Sh, (French, German, etc.), by the expression 'M!a,gy1ar'." What is Mr. Nagy trying to sell? Now, why are those terms unknown in the HilliNG!A!RIDAlN language? Simply because there is no HUING.AlR!tAN language! But there is a MAGYIAiR la,ngua,ge. 11he terms, however, ar,e very well known - and have been for centuries - in the SrLOVAK language. Hum•gary is a ,p olitioal entity, a multi-national state. The official language of the c,o untry, since the Magyars domiinlaited it, hras ailiways been MAGIY'iAR - anld to tlhe Magyrars -tlhe land of Hungary has always been, MAGYARORSZAG - Magya1'land, present!~ Magyar Nepkozt.trsasag - People's Repulblic of Magyarland), and so they always ~n6isted on using the English HUNGARY fur the Magyar MAGYAR0RSZAG, even though the term IIDNGAlRY, as Nagy says, does not exis't in the HUiNGA!R!liAN (he means Malgyiar) l anguage. Therr-e is no Hungarian language, but p11actically all Magyar periodicals, writers, schoiars, scienltists and arti'Sts are lafbeled Hungarian. Gyufa von Zathure:czky, we read just recently (SUl)iET.IDN BUILlJEIDIN, Dec. 1961), now residling in Munich, Germany, is a freelamce writer, "formerly editor-in-chief of the Hungarian daily iELLElN~ElK and BerHn corresponldent for variolll.S Hungarian parpers." Furthermore, the Slovaks do not have to resort to "artificial justification" forr any claims they may ha,v e "to parts of Hungarian" histor,y. The hist-ori~al fact is that the forefathers of the Slovaks i.nhafbited the teru-itory of Hum•g,ariy long before the forebears of the Magyars invaded it. "It is both historicaUy wr.o ng and linguistically mistaken" to use the term Magyar instead of Hungary, declares Mr. Nagy, '"because originally the expression 'Hungarran' deri'Ved from the words '0nogur', 'Ungur' - was the name by which the Hungarian tribes were called in Europe (ma·ionly by the Ge!'lman,s) before entering the 1 Danube basin." This I cannot bu,y. 'I1he "Hun~r'ian trilbes," referred to by Nagy could hardly ha.ve beeru "Hungarian triib es" before they entered the Da,nwbian basin, the territory of Hungary. If the Germans or ,a ny other peorple called those tri!bes "Onogur" or "Ungur," as Nragy claims, they must harve had some reason for it. Nagy's attempt to ma•k e Hungary MAGYAR f.aills shol1t aga,in. Those terms, Nagy had told us, ai"e wniknown in the M-agy,ai- language. But they are kn()IWn in the Slovak language (uhor; uhorie; U:hor; Uhry; uhorsky). But there is no "uhorctna" - Hunlg arian language, just as there is no "ceskoslovencina" - Czechoslovak language. The ''Hum•gari,an trtbes" re'feNed to must ha,ve beem, the forebears of the Slovaks. What Mr. Na-gy has to say a/bout Ozecho-Slovakra (use the hyphen, pJease!), and T. G. Masarylk and Dr. Edlwarrd Bene§, is in a large sense true. But that is hardly sulfiicienit reaSOIIl! - iif it is real11Jy interested in truth and justice - that the Hungarian National Coundl should "HAVE TO" deal wi.1lh the so-called Ooun·cil ,o:f Fu-ee Cze~hoslovakia. I say th'at even though it still may be "the onLy offi.cia•Hy recognized repr,esentatirve organization of both Czech and Slo- = 20 SLOVAKIA vak exile groups" - recognized as such by the United States Government or a,ny other govexin,ment. Mr. Nagy a,n d the Hungarian National CounJCH know that the "Council of Free Czechosltov,aki,a " is completely dominated by the Benes Czechs, the Czech socialists who collalbor•a ted fully with the Czech Reds amd Moscow, especially stnce 11945. If Magyars or Hungadans prefer to dea'l with the people of the "Council of ftee Czechoslo,vakia" - who deny the right of self-determin•altion to the Slovak nab-on and aire in princi'p le opposed to Slovak freedom and i,n d•eipeliltdence - they do so at their own peril. To go along with such people because they still enjoy prestige a,nd recognition means to make a mockery of democralcy, justice and the right. Principles should not be saori'ficed for expediency. Slovak nationalism, Mr. Nagy i:ndticates, i'S of "rather rec•e nt origi,n ." HOIW receinit? When did national states· originate in Europe? How many were there before the 19th century? Wti.11 Mr. Na•gy deny that the Mag,y ars· considered themselves the "State-nation" and really became chauvinistic after the estalblishment of the Dual-Mor.iarchy tn 1867? Preoccupation with anything else but matters of State can make for the downlfaH of a political formation. The fa.te of Austria-<Hunigary was decidted by politicians who were "too preodcurpi·e d with mounting pressure of i,nterna'tional ev,e nts" to see what was happening inside the countriy. The Magyars of Huin,gary adamantl,y opposed Slovak autonoony ~ and 1ost Slovakia. The Masarytk-lBenes "democracy" of Ozecho-Slovatkiia - a bad copy of old Austria~unigary - also coUaipsed: the Czedhs, even tlhough T. G. Masaryk had guaranteed it im, writing (The Pittsburgh Pact, May 30, HHS), denied autonomy to the Slovaks - and lost them. Sure, Czecho.Slovatkia still exists on paper a·n d is recognized as the land of the Slovaks and the Czechs, but as far as the Slovaks are concerned, it is deader than the proverbi<al door naH. The time to work for Magyar-Hungarian and Slo,v ak independeinice is NOW - and not after Magya1".<ffungar~ans and S1ovatks a•r e li'bernted from Soviet domination. The Slovaks at home and albroad will continue to fight the plague of Communiism - as they have fought it for the past 100 y,e ars - even id' the Ma,g yars and Czechs, Hungariain-s and Czechosloval~s do collalborate with it or with its former collaiborators. They do not wairnt to be tofd that they MIUST join wiith the CZIDOHJS to f,i ght the Reds - and specifically with those Czechs who, after February 25, 1948, suddenly became "democratic, anti-Oommunist exiles froon Czecho-Sl-01Vakia." The Slovaks are in the same boat as the Magyar-<Hungarians, the Ozechs, the Senbo-Slovenia,nC:rtoat'iain Yu·goslavs, the Poles, Chinese, U1rnaiinians, Byelorussians, East Germans, Estonians, Latvians and L'ithuanfans, and others who were sacrificed to the Red Molo>ch of Moscow by the drun'k-'withvictory Uniited N~tions. All wainit to be :ftree and independent of alien ruile, no matter how benevolent it may appear to be; all want to be masters of their own destiny. Let us remember: expedients are for the hour; pr~niciples for the ages. Justice delayed, is justice denied. P. A. H!ROBtAJK.  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Hungarian Exiles and Slovak Independence Description An account of the resource George Nagy Slovakia, Vol. 11, No. 2 (34), September-December 1961 pp. 16-20 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Nagy, George Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource September-December 1961 LCNAF https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/9b964b756148f0d55292194851d3aff0.pdf 63a27c69236b127e82f6d929b6bdf47f PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA 145 HUNGARIAN MINORITY POLITICS IN SLOVAKIA: UNDER FICO, AFTER EU ACCESSION Carol Skalnik Leff Many scholars of European integration have shown keen interest in the behavior of new members after the pressures of "conditionality" have been lifted, and the political and policy constraints of qualifying for membership have abated. The 2006 election in Slovakia, won by Robert Fico's SMER, was the first contested after Slovakia's EU accession, and offers a useful case study of one of the EU's desiderata- the treatment of ethnic minorities. In this article, I analyze the Fico era's impact on the minority rights agenda by focusing on two points. The first is the Fico government's record in the sphere of minority politics and policy. The second, and in some respects potentially more consequential, is the way the Slovak party system' s identity politics dimension was reconfigured during his term of office. I contextualize this analysis by noting the Fico government's positioning in the evolution of the "two-level game" on minority rights issues played out under successive Slovak governments with the European Union. During the pre-accession period, external pressures to conform to European concerns seemed less important for Slovak responsiveness than the composition of the government in power. The postaccession period analyzed here seems to follow the same pattern, with the Fico government relatively resistant to external initiatives and the successor Radicova government more aligned with EU norms and expectations. The Context: 2006 witnessed the first Slovak elections following the country's accession to the European Union. Slovakia's two previous national elections had been fought in the shadow of EU membership prospects. Both the 1998 and 2002 elections immediately preceded critical moments in the accession process- the choice of candidate states in 1998 and the final decisions on membership invitations in 2002. Karen Henderson made the point most strongly: "While it has been argued that referendums sometimes fulfill the function of second �146 SLOVAKIA order national elections ... Slovakia had twice experienced something approaching the reverse: national elections, in 1998 and 2002 , that were in part referendums about whether Slovakia should join the EU ." 1 Given the strength of pro-integration sentiment, which was rising toward the eightieth percentiles by the late 1990s, I would rephrase this formulation to suggest that the referendum quality of these elections consisted of the question of whether Slovakia would be able to join the EU, or which party could best deliver on membership. As Henderson noted, "the vital question was not whether [Slovaks] wanted the EU, but whether the EU wanted them." 2 In 1998 Vladimir Meciar lost the election and hence the key impediment to EU acceptance of Slovakia was removed. The 2002 results secured the conditions for a final push.3 The two right-of-center coalition governments under SDKU leader Mikulas Dzurinda that served from 1998 to 2006 strove, successfully, to cement Slovakia's case for inclusion in the 2004 EU enlargement. Tactically, one of the centerpiece components of that effort was the inclusion of the Hungarian Minority Coalition (SMK) in both governments. The alignment strategy to please Europe in the case is quite evident, and noticeable in Romania and Bulgaria as well; for the EU, ethnic minority parties were the preferred coalition partners, and radical nationalist participation a source of EU concern . Lacking its own minority rights acquis at the collapse of Com4 munism, the European Union's expectations about respect for minority rights protection was often ad hoc, and rested on the Copenhagen Criteria of 1993 rather than on developed community law. 1 Karen Henderson, " EU Accession and the New Slovak Consensus," West European Politics 27:4 (September, 2004), 653 . 2 Henderson, 656. 3 By 2002, the incumbent government urged voters to let it "fini sh what we started" and take that last "one more step (one last step is needed to the EU and NA TO... with us you' ll make it). The SDKU, in its famous peaceable kingdom billboard (a cat and dog entwined together) reminded voters that the party had managed to maintain a fract ious coalition : "Thanks to that, we are on the threshold of NATO and the EU." 4 The European Union was still the European Economic Communities in 1989, but for simplicity 's sake, I will refer to the "European Union" throughout. For a critique of the EU's minority rights conditionality, see Kyriaki Topidi, "The Limits of EU Conditionali ty: Minority Ri ghts in Slovakia," Journal on Ethnopolitics and Minority Issues in Europe I (2003), 20-29. �SLOVAKIA 147 However, all states with substantial minorities were well aware that minority treatment by the government was under scrutiny; hence, the elevation of the SMK to a coalition partner was accompanied by policy adjustments in the eroded minority rights regime of the Meciar period. The 2006 elections that brought Fico to power, however, occurred in a very different international strategic context, one in which Slovakia's European fate no longer depended on electoral outcomes and government composition. "We got you into Europe" lacked the resonance of SDKU's (Slovak Christian Democratic Party) 2002 appeal "You need us to get into Europe." 5 However, the economy that had earned Slovakia the epithet "Tatra Tiger" had not benefited all; Slovakia's unemployment rate of 15% in 2006 was one of the highest in Europe (and that was an improvement over the peak of 19% in 2000-2002). Small wonder, then, that Robert Fico 's populist critique of the reform era found powerful electoral resonance in 2006. His new government, however constituted, would face different international and domestic constraints than had been true for the previous decade. For the purpose of this analysis, the most salient point is that the externally-induced incentives for minority inclusion, and for adherence to minority-tolerant policies, were less pronounced than in the past. One thing, however, remained constant. It was generally impossible to form a majority coalition without including one of the two key parties aligned on the identity dimension of the party system: either the SMK or the Slovak National Party (SNS). 6 The choice between them had been definitive for the tenor of the government's minority relations policy after past elections. The question wasn't simply, therefore, whether the SMK was in or out, but rather that its exclusion likely meant the inclusion of the SNS. SMER's leadership chose the latter option (a choice that will be discussed below), with 5 In 2002, the incumbent anti- Meciar parties urged voters to let them "finish what we started" and take that last "one more step." (the billboard message: one last step is needed to the EU and NATO ... with us you'll make it). 6 In 1998, the inclusion of the SMK produced an over-sized coalition . SMK was not necessary for a parliamentary majority. It was, however, necessary, for agenda control and constitutional change, including the transition to a directly elected presidency that was virtually the first order of business of the Dzurinda government that formed the coalition. �148 SLOVAKIA consequences that shaped the minority rights agenda for the Fico government. Minority Policy Dimensions of the Fico Government: Policy relevant to minorities in Slovakia has followed the trajectory of government change. Meciar's second and third governments in the l 990 's had ruled with the support of the Slovak National Party (SNS) and pursued minority-relevant policies that evoked European criticism, either because of overt actions (language and education laws) or omissions (the failure to pass a minority-language law to clarify and codify the language rights of non-Slovaks). By contrast, the three right-of-center governments, led by Jozef Moravcik and twice by Dzurinda, ruled with the support of the Hungarian minority coalition and proved responsive to the European push for stronger minority protections. The coalition pattern continued under Fico and his successor lveta Radicova, with Fico's left-of-center government incorporating the SNS and Radicova's right-of-center coalition including the new Hungarian-Slovak Most-Hid formation (Note that Slovakia's predictable pattern of coalition alliances is by no means characteristic: in Bulgaria, Romania and Macedonia-the three other East and Central European countries with established and governmentally salient minority parties- both right-and left-of-center governments have ruled with minority party support. In Slovakia, the SMK has not changed sides). Policy initiatives cannot fully capture the almost immediate change of tone in Hungarian-Slovak relations, marked by patriotic football hooliganism and the virulent controversy over the Malina/ Malinova affair.7 The core of Fico' s minority policy-making, however, was a re-balancing toward Slovak language rights in uradny (official) communication, and correspondingly greater ambiguity about the security of minority language rights. The first controversy emerged over the potentially restrictive impact of the 2008 amendments 7 Hedvig Malina was a Hungarian student in Nitra who in 2006 reported to the police that she had been assaulted for speaking Hungarian in public. The complaint generated a mini-Dreyfus affa ir, with one' s political orientation determining whether or not to give credence to her claims. The government ultimately sided against her, and lodged perjury charges. The Fico government charged Hungary with unacceptable interference in the case. See also "Slovakia and Hungary: Trouble in Felvidek," Transitions Online, September 5, 2006. �SLOVAKIA 149 to the education law regarding Hungarian language education. In the spring of 2009, the focus was on Hungarian language textbooks, with the government seeking to supplant minority-produced course materials with translations of Slovak texts. This was accompanied by a protracted disagreement about the rendering of Slovak place names. For example, the government wanted the Danube river in Slovak (Dunaj) rather than Hungarian (Duna), even in Hungarian texts. The compromise, reached in February of 2009, appears to allow the previous practice of using "deep-rooted" geographical place names in Hungarian with the Slovak names in parentheses. Additional concern was generated by the restriction of Hungarian minority Radio Patria broadcasts to short wave transmitters that did not reach Bratislava or eastern Slovakia.8 The Language Law But the most internationally visible and resonant initiative was a revisiting of the language laws of the 1990s, as amended in 1999 under the Dzurinda government. As Martin Votruba has pointed out, a major thrust of the 1999 amendment (Act on the Use of Minority Language) had been to remove the penalties (fines) that Meciar's government had enacted for violations of the 1995 law establishing the primacy of the Slovak language. 9 Hastily drafted to meet EU expectations and, therefore, imprecise in some passages, the 1999 amendment did establish rights to the use of minority language in official communications.10 In response to the status quo, the coalition program of the Fico government in 2006 included commitments to safeguard the state language and in particular the "promotion of Slovak culture in the mixed regions ." Legislation fulfilling this pledge by privileging the use of the Slovak language in official communications passed in 8 See Kata Eplenyi, "The Language Rights of Hungarian Communities in Slovakia and Romania: The Impacts and Perspectives of EU-Membership," Masters Thesis, Central European University, Budapest, Nationalism Studies Program, 2009. 9 Votruba 's analysis of the provisions of the law is the most comprehensive I have found. Martin Votruba, "The Uncommon Language: Bratislava, Budapest, and Brussels," Slovak Studies Association Newsletter, volume 33 (2009). See also Farimah Daftary and Kinga Gal, "The New Slovak Language Law: Internal or External Politics?" ECMI Working paper #8, September 2000. http ://www.ecmi.de/download/working paper 8.pdf. 10 Eplenyi, "Language Rights. " �150 SLOVAKIA 2009, and provoked an immediate storm of international protest, largely centered on the hefty penalties (up to 5,000 euros) that could be imposed for violations. Media commentary tended to paint the legislation with a broad brush, whether in praise or blame, and thus to obfuscate the actual provisions. It would appear for example, that vivid scenarios of fines for an ethnically Hungarian patient speaking the native tongue to his ethnically Hungarian doctor in Hungarian are inapt, since the government maintained that only legal entities and not individuals were slated to be fined for violations . 11 Nor were the frequently invoked foreign-language church services under threat. However, in protecting Slovak language use, the law clearly appeared to have a chilling effect on minority language rights, and aroused vehement criticism from both the Hungarian minority and from neighboring Hungary, as well as from critics in the European Parliament. For its part, the government tended to make somewhat misleading claims about international approval (a familiar pattern in the Meciar years as well) . Emblematic of suspicion about those claims was the opposition demand that the OSCE advisory opinion on the law be published in full , without abridgement. A slightly exasperated Knut Vollebaek, the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities, visited Slovakia by invitation during the controversy, and chastised both sides for exaggerating the OSCE position. He reiterated the OSCE conclusion that the law met international standards, but added "that doesn't mean that I necessarily think it's a good law;" he said that the High Commission would like to see the fines omitted from the legislation, and warned that the normative validity of some provisions would depend on their implementation. 12 The ongoing engagement of external arbiters was evident in this contra11 Nonetheless, the successor Radicova government introduced legislation in September of 2010 to lower fines and to explicitly lift their imposition on individuals except where citizen safety and property ri ghts were in question, to permit nonSlovak records in minority schools, and to exempt transport, communications and postal employees. Catherine McNally, "Are Relations between Hungary and Slovakia beginning to thaw?" CS!S, October 5, 2010, http ://csis.org. 12 OSCE Envoy Proffers 'Advice' On Language Law, European Dialogue, September 30, 2009, http://eurodialogue.org/osce/OSCE-Envoy-Proffers-Advice-On-Language-Law; Zuzana Vaskova, "Slovakia's Controversial Language Law," EU Reporter, September 28, 2009, http://www.eureporter.co.uk/story/slovakias-controversial-language-law. �SLOVAKIA 151 versy, although Slovakia was no longer constrained by mandatory monitoring. A second feature of policy during the Fico administration was an exchange of symbolic and substantive rebuffs between the Hungarian and Slovak governments, implicitly or usually explicitly targeting the issue of loyalties to state or nation. An official state visit between Fico and Hungarian Prime Minister Gordon Bajnai, the first such in eight years, was cancelled after the language law controversy . 13 Another unfortunate incident surrounded the unveiling of a statue of St. Stephen in the city of Komarno in August of 2009. Hungary's president Laszlo S6lyom planned to attend this event as a private citizen, but was stopped from crossing the bridge between Hungary and Slovakia after a diplomatic exchange confirmed that he would not be permitted to enter Slovakia for this purpose. The Slovak government considered this event a provocation, noting that no high Slovak official had been invited to the unveiling. In July of 2010, the newly-installed nationalist FIDESZ government in Hungary further roiled the waters by taking the incident to the European Court of Justice. (Ex-president S6lyom returned to lay a wreath at the statue without incident in August of 2010). 14 The most sensitive development in Slovak-Hungarian relations occurred in the interval between the April Hungarian elections of 2010 and the June Slovak elections. A few days after its installation, the FIDESZ government, led by Viktor Orban, lobbed a political grenade into the Slovak election campaign by approving a new law on dual citizenship. By a crushing vote of 344-3 with five abstentions, the Hungarian parliament sanctioned measures that would allow ethnic Hungarians abroad to apply for citizenship as of January, 2011 even without the intention of residing in Hungary (they would not have voting rights in Hungary itself) . The Fico government recalled its ambassador from Budapest, called a session of the security council, and retaliated with legislation forfeiting Slovak citizenship 13 Lubos Palata "Slovak Language Law: Slap in the Face," Transitions Online, July 13, 2009. http :ijwww.ceeo1 .com/aspx/issuedetails.aspx?issueid=f3bblacd-4a304701-9d6f-6889e003d4bc&articleld=3fa741b5-2f9f-4663-9824-a43e09e 7fe4b. 14 "Mad'arsky exprezident S6lyom presiel do Komama bez problemov," SME, August 22, 2010. �152 SLOVAKIA to those taking additional Hungarian citizenship. 15 Orban 's somewhat baffling timing would appear likely to damage the electoral prospects of the Hungarian minority in Slovakia and to bolster Slovak nationalist voting. The European community could only watch ineffectively, urge a negotiated settlement to the question, and ponder what citizenship norms might be appropriate to cross-border minorities. 16 Overall, the Fico government's minority rights initiatives bear a pronounced resemblance to those of the Meciar era, the last time the SNS was in government and the governmental orientation stressed the risks to Slovak identity of a multi-ethnic state. As in the case of the Meciar governments, external concerns seemed largely ineffectual in modifying the course of policy-making or ameliorating relations with Hungary. The policy-making dynamics, however, are less complex than the partisan political dynamics, to which I now tum. The Fico Government and Its Impact on the Identity Dimension of the Party System. Although minority relations may appear to be only a delimited segment of the larger political picture, in two important respects they were arguably central to Fico's governance because of the impact they have had on coalition formation in 2006 and 2010 and on coalition politics in between. Indeed, Fico 's government notably shaped the party system itself, but not only in terms of its national identity dimension. In both respects the impact had international ramifications. I now want to focus on this larger picture. 15 Previous Slovak law allowed for dual citizenship, but with certain provisions that could be adapted to bar dual citizenship in this particular instance. See Dagmar Kusa, "The Slovak Question and the Slovak Answer: Citizenship during the Quest for National Self-Determination and after," in Rainer Baubock, Bernhard Perching and Wiebke Sievers, eds ., Citizenship Policies in the New Europe (Amsterdam: IMISCOE Research, University of Amsterdam Press, 2009), 275-303. Note that Romania remained silent over Orban 's move, although it equally affected Romania' s large Hungarian minority. The Romanian government had previously used Orban 's ploy in extending citizenship rights to ethnically Romanian Moldovans in 2009, and so could hardly complain about a similar law in Hungary. See Slovak Sfectator, August 10, 2010. 1 See for example, Rainer Baubock, ed., "Dual Citizenship for Transborder Minorities? How to Respond to the Hungarian-Slovak Tit-for-Tat," EU Working Papers, RSCAS 2010/75 (2010, European University Institute, San Domenico di Fiesole, Italy). �SLOVAKIA 153 Government formation in post-communist states has consistently proved challenging, although the challenges have varied systematically from state to state. A common thread through most of the postcommunist era to date, however, has been the Euro-relevance of coalition choices. In the 2002 election campaign, SMER's inaugural effort, Fico refused to name preferred coalition partners or to rule out the HZDS (although he emphatically rejected a cabinet shared with either Meciar or Dzurinda, leaders he styled as representative of an 17 old, corrupt generation). Some analysts have plausibly suggested that his failure to exclude the HZDS raised voter doubts about a Fico-led government's capacity to complete the EU integration project and helped to account for his last minute sag in the polls. 18 The coalition formation process after the 2006 elections was undoubtedly critical to the subsequent pattern of party system dynamics in ways I will investigate below. Frontrunner Fico had promised a coalition that Europe could approve. In the late stages of the campaign, some analysts dismissed the possibility of a SMER-HZDSSNS coalition (including two political formations most unpopular in Europe because of their perceived demagogic, authoritarian and nationalist leadership) as a product of incumbent Dzurinda's fear-mongering. SMER derided this as a bogey-man. Fico characterized the coalition as a "specter" created by Dzurinda. 19 SMER's Vice President Robert Kalinak told reporters , "Smer will not be part of any government that is not internationally accepted, and I think that's a pretty clear statement that you can deduce all kinds of things from." 20 .... But apparently not the coalition that actually emerged in 2006. In the event, the "worst case scenario" was not merely a scare tactic. The victorious Smer did indeed invite the HZDS and the SNS into a coalition, albeit explicitly without either of their leaders, in cabinet positions. And Fico assured the public, at home and abroad, that the presence of the SNS in government did not dilute existing commitments to minority and human rights, again signaling that minority parties were not pariahs . The Bratislava daily Novy cas dub17 Fico was born in 1964, Dzurinda in 1955 and Meciar in 1942. Tim Haughton, "We Will finish What We've Started: The 2002 Parliamentary Elections," Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics 19:4 (December, 2003), 65-90. 19 Transitions Online, June 19, 2006; TASR, June 12, 2006. 20 Interview with Robert Kalinak, Slovak Spectator, June 12, 2006. 18 �154 SLOVAKIA bed this the "you can't be serious" coalition-and it prompted an immediate external response. The European Union cannot dictate who is eligible to govern a member state. This issue was clarified with the case of Austria, a neutral state that joined the EU in 1995, once membership ceased to be associated with the divisions of the Cold War. Shortly thereafter, the use of conditionality after accession to membership received a major setback. In 2000, Austria breached a long-standing but informal West European consensus against the inclusion of the radical right in democratic governments- a so-called "cordon sanitaire" against extremist parties--when Austria's Christian Democrats accepted Jorg Haider and his Freedom Party as junior coalition partners. Appalled that a party led by a man who attended SS reunions was included in a member government, the EU created an impromptu and awkward state of "diplomatic isolation" that proved largely counterproductive, and embarrassing in its implication that the European Union, riddled with its own democratic deficits, had the right to judge the democratically elected governments of its members. The EU backed down after seven months.21 If the EU wouldn't act, the European party formation in which SMER was an observing member- the Party of European Socialists (PES)--was not similarly constrained, although ultimately equally ineffectual. PES publicly expressed "concern and deep misgivings" over Fico's coalition choices, as well as "shock" and "deep disgust," for good measure. Club deputy chair Johannes Swoboda expressed doubt that such a government could uphold European values; 22 and the Belgian socialist MEP asked "Don't you feel ashamed as a social 21 EU concern persists. The long-term legacy of the abortive effort to assert European values in the Austrian case, and to provide for response to future democratic deviations is Article 7 of both the Nice Constitution and the Lisbon Treaty, which provides a so-called "emergency brake," a decision-making mechanism to impose sanctions on member states that manifest a "serious breach" of European values specified in the treaty under Article 2. Approving the Lisbon Treaty thus does provide a new conditionality mechanism; it remains to be seen how badly it is needed and whether it will have any practical utility. See http ://register.consilium.europa.eu/gdf/en/08/st06/st06655.en08.pdf 2 "Evropsti socialiste znepokojeni vznikajici koalici na Slovensku," CTK, June 29, 2006. �SLOVAKIA 155 democrat of forming a coalition with a party known for its xenophobia?"23 In October 2006, PES President Poul Nyrup Rasmussen announced: The PES resolution refers specifically to the Declaration "For a modern, pluralist and tolerant Europe" adopted by PES Congress in 2001 in Berlin which states "all PES parties adhere to the following principles .. . to refrain from any form ofpolitical alliance or co-operation at all levels with any political party which incites or attempts to stir up racial or ethnic prejudices and racial hatred. " 24 Only in 2008 was SMER 'S membership application conditionally reinstated after both SMER and SNS submitted letters confirming their commitment to minority rights, a largely declarative gesture. But this so-called "nightmare coalition" with the HZDS and SNS was not inevitable. The contrasting case of Bulgaria is instructive. The victorious Borisov party in 2009 ruled out a coalition with the Turkish minority MRF during the election campaign as part of the incumbent government he attacked. Like Fico, candidate Borisov employed a populist discourse-what Pop-Eleches would call the new centrist populism 25- and an appeal that, while taking pot shots at minorities, was not radically nationalist. His "outsider" strategy, however, dictated a rejection of all the status quo parties, and particularly the incumbents. Fico, on the other hand, although not loath to criticize minorities, had moderated his populist appeals and reoriented to social democracy by the 2006 election. 26 Fico gave serious consideration to a KDH/MKP coalition, but could not get agreement on it-Miroslav Kusy notes that the KDH leadership was badly and bitterly split on the possibility, with some insisting on a set of moral issues (such as ban23 24 25 Slovak Spectator, September 11 , 2006. http ://www.pes.org/en/news/smer-suspended-pes-political-family. Pop-Eleches, "Throwing out the Bums: Protest Voting and Unorthodox Parties after Communism," World Politics 62 (2010), 221-60. 26 See Kevin Deegan-Krause and Tim Haughton, "Toward a More Useful Conceptualization of Populism: Types and Degrees of Populist Appeals in the Case of Slovakia," Politics and Policy 37:4 (2009), 82 1-41 . �156 SLOVAKIA ning same-sex marriage and contraception); KDH deliberations were so protracted that Fico ultimately gave up. 27 KDH's hesitation was the mostly widely cited reason for the sinking of the alternative SMER-SMK-KDH coalition, both by media and coalition partners. 28 Despite the programmatic dissonances with SMER, such an alignment had the attraction for KDH and SMK of averting the coalition that did in fact emerge. In any case, Fico is a clever politician, and he realized that the SNS and HZDS would be easier to undercut. Fico could and did steal some of the SNS political clothes and a bit of its electorate by annexing the nationalist issue-a kind of electoral poaching that would have been impossible against the KDH and SMK--and in Meciar's HZDS he had an aging and politically dying junior partner. Fico is also something of a control freak- he immediately sidelined Monika Flasikova-Benova, a public critic of his coalition choice, at the next party congress by stripping her and others of leadership roles-(he was also canny in avoiding the appointment of too many MPs as ministers, who if discarded, might return to parliament and defect from the party). His final coalition choices therefore, would be more malleable, provided he could manage the public response, in particular, to SNS outbursts. In the new government, Meciar's party alarmingly claimed the Justice portfolio. SNS portfolios included Agriculture, Regional Development and Education, all highly salient policy domains for minorities. Agriculture and Regional Development, previously held by SMK, are germane to economic conditions in the ethnically mixed areas of southern Slovakia, which are generally more rural and less developed than the north or west. And putting education policy in the hands of SNS raised concerns that minority issues would get short shrift. 27 Miroslav Kusy, "Catastrophic Scenario in Bratislava," The Analyst: Central and Eastern European Review 2 (2006), 37. The KDH division was so pronounced as to cause a leadership crisis and resignations from the party leadership in its aftermath. 28 See for example the comments by Ivan Miklos in Hospodtirske noviny, June 29, 2006: "The European Peoples Party won't understand very well, how it is possible that these three EPP member parties weren't able to reach agreement. In this sense, I think that the responsibility for this situation lies especially on the KDH. " In this case, Miklos blamed the KDH for balking at bringing the HZDS into a SDKUKDH-SMK coalition. �SLOVAKIA 157 Two related effects of this government's tenure on party system dynamics are worth noting. At the majority nationalist end of the identity continuum, one can visualize Fico as a political vampire, draining his coalition partners of standing and voters. Fico preempted the national issue from his more volatile and extremist coalition colleague, Jan Slota of the SNS, by challenging the national sentiment of historians at the Slovak Academy of Sciences, as well as of the media, both of whom he accused of exhibiting "un-Slovak" tendencies. Fico proclaimed 2008 as the "Year of the Slovak Nation." He re-constructed pre-national history with a claim on the Great Moravian Empire having consisted of "ancient Slovaks"29 and commissioned a statue of warrior King (Prince) Svatopluk for the Bratislava Castle courtyard-an equestrian monument installed just before the elections in 2010 amid great controversy about the historicity of the claims made about his ethnicity, the Byzantine cross on his shield, and even whether he was actually a king.30 From the outset, Fico tended to overlook rather than to chastise the SNS and its incendiary leader. He was content to let Slota's outrageous statements pillory his own credibility. A case in point: Slota apparently sought to launch his party's electoral campaign in early 2010 with the pronouncement that Hungary was planning a military 31 invasion of Slovakia to revise the Treaty of Trianon. Fico did chastise the spectacular SNS corruption in office. Both in the 1990s and in the Fico government, the SNS has been noted for ministerial corruption. The SNS held two portfolios-Construction and Regional development and Environment--in the Fico government, in addition to a deputy prime-ministership. Both incumbents at Construction and Regional Development were dismissed in quick succession over the so-called "Bulletin-Board" tender, in which public procurement procedures were violated in favor of an in-house 29 "Fico's Revisionist History," Transitions Online, February 29, 2008. ° Fico expressed the hope that the statue would become a national pilgrimage site, 3 but the statue immediately became politicized as the extremist group "Our Slovakia" came to its rescue (a commission on its dissolution has been formed) without an assembly permit. As of November 2010, the party's website has youtube video of riot police blocking the pilgrimage. Meanwhile, anti-racist groups mobilized to challenge the party. Fico also appropriated the 18 th century social bandit Jano~ik as a Social Democrat. 31 The Slovak Spectator, March 24, 2010. �158 SLOVAKIA process that awarded contracts to two firms with close ties to the SNS leader Jan Slota. SNS Environment Minister Jaroslav Izak, who was asked to resign for his ministry's mishandling of EU environmental funds , was followed by Jan Chrbet, whose forced resignation was triggered by a scandal surrounding the awarding of carbon emissions contracts on terms unfavorable to the government. When his successor from the SNS, Viliam Tursky, was also removed for murky contract awards, Prime Minister Fico announced that it was time to take the environmental portfolio away from the SNS.32 (Startlingly, Slota demanded the human and minority rights portfolio in exchange for the lost environmental slot.) Hence, by the end of his term in office, Fico had succeeded not only in pre-empting Slota with a more respectable nationalism, but also in discrediting him and his party on the politically winning issue of anti-corruption (a useful diversion from SMER 's own corruption problems).33 By 2010, the debilitated SNS squeaked into the subsequent parliament by only a tenth of a percentage point over the electoral threshold and lost more than half of its previous seats (down from twenty to nine )- a voting hemorrhage that pre-election opinion polls suggest went to Fico. 34 Tibor Kis concludes that Fico "offered voters a European alternative to Vladimir Meciar's nationalist L'S-HZDS and a social and ' Slovak' alternative relative to centre-right organiza- 32 See The Slovak Spectator, August 31, 2009. http://spectator.sme.sk/articles/view/36352/11 /people often get what they want n ot what they need.html. 33 SNS corruption problems might have been predicted from its previous term in office, and by the general trends in ministerial corruption region-wide. In the overall universe of cabinet ministers in 13 post-communist EU members and candidate members serving between 1990 and 2009, minority politicians were just about exactly average in their involvement in corruption scandals (13%). The majority nationalist party ministers, by contrast, were close to twice as likely to be scandal prone (23%) as the norm, and thereby more embarrassing as coalition partners. Involvement in corruption scandals as used here does not imply eventually proven guilt in a court of law. (Corruption Involvement is coded if the minister is formally investigated by law enforcement agencies or parliament, arrested and tried, or documented as engaging in suspect behavior by a corruption agency). 34 See Kevin Deegan-Krause 's Pozorblog, 2010 Slovak Parliamentary Elections: Post-Election Report, July 14, 2010, http://www.pozorb1og. com/ . �SLOVAKIA 159 tions."35 Fico appears, indeed, to have been too successful in this regard: As Mesik notes, "By attracting SNS as well as HZDS voters, Fico successfully cannibalized his partners in the government and only woke up to the day when his by far strongest party did not have partners to form a government with." Hungarian Minority Politics If Fico proved effective (and somewhat self-defeating) in absorbing votes from his coalition partners in the 2010 elections, the exclusion of the SMK from government also had ramifications for minority party politics. At first, the SMK' s position on the opposition benches had some echoes of the 1990s. Amidst a general disarray after losing power, it was striking that the Fico era started with the failure of the ethnic Slovak opposition parties to back the SMK on issues like the Hedviga Malinova /Malina Hedvig case. The three opposition parties did not meet for four months until the controversy regarding Deputy Agriculture Minister Marian Zahumensky. Second, the transition to opposition acerbated longstanding tensions within the SMK. As long as the SMK was in government, tensions within the party could be curbed. Going into opposition meant not only a loss of policy influence, but also a time of reckoning. In March of 2007, the popular and moderate Bela Bugar moved on his less moderate vice-chair- the venerable communist-era dissident Miklos Duray--by seeking to abolish the vice-chair position; the effort rebounded, leading to an upset victory for the party leadership by Pal Csaky. The new SMK was ever more closely identified with Hungary and particularly with FIDESZ, a stance that proved an excellent foil for Slota and the SNS . The SMK was "increasingly perceived and portrayed by Slovak politicians as an extraterritorial branch of FIDESZ." 36 35 Tibor Kis, "Smer: Success Story or Scandal?" The Analyst-Central and Eastern European Review I (2008), 67 . 36 Mesik, Juraj , Slovakia 2010: An Election with Only Limited Choice (Prague: Heinrich Boll Stiftung, 2010), p. I. https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache :NXmv IM538AJ :www.boell.cz/downloads/slovakia-20 I 0( I ).pdf+Slovakia+20 I 0:+An+Election+with+Only+Limited+Choice&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEE SjAbC2uqap66j5MK3mL54uKxbdb6uwiyAnKG8PdcOnGr7TN3cTV4UToaJbphV Dhh Wjlam VNsCTq DriBh Yin WQ4wn6V9PW9qn WFarJSCkyf Jho VJx2g9JpgEj7MPq-DXaaQb&sig=AHIEtbQZam6lz-BjubssUvDtT73Na95dzA �160 SLOVAKIA Csaky 's orientation to the protection of Hungarian interests was to look outward. An example was his meeting with Laszlo Tokes, a central figure of the hard-line wing of Romania' s minority party UDMR, and Csaky's attendance as an observer at the Carpathian Autonomy Council that Tokes had founded. The two leaders apparently discussed the idea of a cross-national mini-minority parliament. Nothing could have been better calculated to play to ethnic Slovak fears about Slovak Hungarian loyalties.37 In 2008, Bugar left the SMK and founded his own party- one that signaled its moderation on national issues with the name MostHid (bridge in Slovak and Hungarian). Csaky professed to believe, along with Slota, that Most-Hid was a stalking horse (actually a Trojan horse) created and funded by SMER. Beyond that, he refused to discuss future cooperation with Most-Hid on the grounds that it wouldn't make it into parliament. 38 Csaky was quite wrong. Defying the pre-election polls, Most-Hid polled over eight percent, nearly doubling the vote of Csaky's SMK, and replacing it in parliament. What did the 2010 vote mean? Were Hungarian voters seeking moderation, as some media analysts said? Or was it a coordination failure , with Hungarians in Slovakia voting strategically in hopes of getting both SMK and Most-Hid into parliament? (This view would explain why Most-Hid did so much better than the last pre-election polls suggested-ethnic Hungarian voters, seeing that SMK was comfortably over the threshold, may have diverted votes to MostHid/ 9 As in the case of many party schisms, then, the upshot was a crippling of Hungarian minority representation in parliament. 40 37 "Csaky naru~il tabu," SME, September 29, 2008. "Csaky: Nep6jdeme do vlady za kazdu cenu," SME, May 7, 20 10, http ://volby.sme.sk/clanok_ tlac.asp?cl=5363302 39 The Slovak Spectator June 21, 20 IO ; some SMK leaders embraced this theory. "Csaky konti, SMK hl'ada ~efa" SME, June 14, 20 I 0, http ://volby.sme.sk/clanoktlac.asp?cl=5421864. 40 A pre-election poll in 20 IO indicated that Most-Hid was drawing almost 60% of its supporters from SMK, 18% from first time voters, 5% from former non-voters and the rest from other parties. The Slovak Spectator, June 3, 20 I 0. The number of Hungarians in the Most-Hid delegation itself was also lowered by the preferential voting of supporters of OKS (Civic Conservative Party), with whom Most-Hid fo rmed a joint candidate slate. See Viera Zuborova, Viera (2011 ), Marketizacia vonkaj~ej reklamy v parlamentnych vol'bach 20 IO v Slovenskej republike," Acta Politologica 3: I (2011 ):7; statistics at "Vysledky preferenfoeo hlasovania: Vys38 �SLOVAKIA 161 Conclusion: Is there reason to expect a durable effect of the Fico era for identity politics in Slovakia? The policy footprint was not especially deep, and the succeeding Radicova government mitigated some of its impact on Hungarian minority relations. The Fico language law was partially modified in December of 2010, restricting its use, but disappointing minorities-who deemed the amendment "less bad"-by its retention of the penalties for improper language use.41 2011 saw an initiative to resolve the dual citizenship issue by joint agreement with the Hungarian government, although to date without a favorable response from the Orban government. 42 The long-term party system effects are less predictable. For example, while Meciar's slide into oblivion even deepened in the 2012 election, sliding to a mere percentage point of the electorate, it is less obvious that Slota's SNS is on the brink of extinction despite the narrow escape in 2010 and the failure to return to parliament in 2012. Earlier, the SNS had survived a schism (in some respects the mirror image of what happened to SMK after 2006) that actually knocked it out of parliament in 2002; it reconsolidated and returned. In 2012, as well, the party was fractured by the expulsion of deputy leader Anna Belousova, who contested the 2012 election with her own party Nation and Justice. Despite the SNS record of corruption and outrageousness, yet another reunion of the party leadership might resuscitate it, although service in Fico 's government was definitely a poisoned chalice. In the 2010 election, the shrinkage of the SNS deprived Fico of a coalition partner and the prime ministership. As a result of the March, 2012 elections, Fico no longer needed that assistance, since his SMER became the first Slovak party since indeledky volieb do NR SR: 12.06.2010," Most-Hid website, http://www.most-hidke.sk/sk/vo1by-nrsr20 I 0-preferencne-hlasy. 41 "Language Act takes a "less bad" form," Minority Report, Monthly Bulletin on the Hungarian Community in Slovakia, Issue 12-2010, http://www.freeweb.hu/mkdsz l/pdf/MR-Ol-2011.pdf. 42 "Hungary: "Nern! " to Slovak Dual Citizenship Proposal," The Daily.sk, posted 12 July 20 11 , http://www.thedaily.sk/2011 /07 /12/top-news/hungary-nem-to-slovak-dualcitizensh ip-proposal/. The Fico government, elected in March of 2012, signaled that it would slightly modify its earlier draconian response by allowing dual citizenship to Slovaks actually residing in the other country. �162 SLOVAKIA pendence to win an outright majority of the parliamentary seats (83 out of 150).43 As for the emergence of two major partisan competitors for the Hungarian electorate, the ambiguities in interpreting Most-Hid's victory over the SMK stand in the way of a clear prediction. Past electoral outcomes show that being in power has not previously eroded the support of the minority electorate, either in Slovakia or in the parallel cases of Bulgaria and Romania. On that basis, it might be possible to argue for Most-Hid to further consolidate its position. However, what Romania, Bulgaria and Slovakia also had in common until this election was the dominance of a single minority party or electoral coalition. 44 The story may be quite different with an alternative and established minority-based party challenging each decision, even from outside parliament. The municipal elections of November 2010 and the parliamentary elections of 2012, which showed the two Hungarian parties splitting their vote, did not clarify the picture. Although an extraparliamentary party like the SMK could not promise influence at the center to woo voters, the SMK retained its established organizational base and its government subsidy and thus retains a presence in politics (it also retains its representation in the European parliament). Local party organizations generally hold the decision-making power to run joint candidates with other parties or to cooperate in local coalitions after elections, and there was indeed some limited cooperation, but also cases, as in the Komarno mayor's race, where dividing the Hungarian vote opened the way to victory for an independent Slovak candidate. The basis for cooperation, however, is shaky. The SMK has grown ever closer to the nationalist Fidesz party in Hungary, and proudly announced in March 2011 that Hungary had incorporated three SMK proposals into its new constitution. Moreover, the SMK party chair, Joszef Berenyi, actually announced in January of 2011 that he was applying for Hungarian citizenship under the controversial new law. These maneuvers only underline the SMK' s distance from the more moderate Most-Hid. During the winter of 2011, de43 Sme, March 11 , 2012. It is true that before 1998, the SMK was not a single entity; rather, it was a group of Hungarian parties which ran on a single slate, not as competitors. 44 �SLOVAKIA 163 spite the clear electoral incentives to do so, the two parties failed to reach any agreement on electoral cooperation in 2012, and contested the parliamentary elections completely separately. Once again, SMK barely missed parliamentary representation, while Most-Hid survived, although it lost more than a percentage point and one MP in the 2012 elections. In closing, it would appear that electoral outcomes and coalition choices matter more than external pressures for normative conformity on minority rights issues, just as they did in the pre-accession period before 2004. Government policies on minorities in Slovakia respond primarily to partisan domestic constituencies, and vary according to the government in power. Even though minority inclusion in government was known to be desirable to Brussels, once Slovakia was safely in the European Union, minority inclusion was not jettisoned, but rather subject to the same kinds of political logic and choices that determined which identity-based party would be included in government before 2004. � SLOVAKIA 145 HUNGARIAN MINORITY POLITICS IN SLOVAKIA: UNDER FICO, AFTER EU ACCESSION Carol Skalnik Leff Many scholars of European integration have shown keen interest in the behavior of new members after the pressures of "conditionality" have been lifted, and the political and policy constraints of qualifying for membership have abated. The 2006 election in Slovakia, won by Robert Fico's SMER, was the first contested after Slovakia's EU accession, and offers a useful case study of one of the EU's desiderata- the treatment of ethnic minorities. In this article, I analyze the Fico era's impact on the minority rights agenda by focusing on two points. The first is the Fico government's record in the sphere of minority politics and policy. The second, and in some respects potentially more consequential, is the way the Slovak party system' s identity politics dimension was reconfigured during his term of office. I contextualize this analysis by noting the Fico government's positioning in the evolution of the "two-level game" on minority rights issues played out under successive Slovak governments with the European Union. During the pre-accession period, external pressures to conform to European concerns seemed less important for Slovak responsiveness than the composition of the government in power. The postaccession period analyzed here seems to follow the same pattern, with the Fico government relatively resistant to external initiatives and the successor Radicova government more aligned with EU norms and expectations. The Context: 2006 witnessed the first Slovak elections following the country's accession to the European Union. Slovakia's two previous national elections had been fought in the shadow of EU membership prospects. Both the 1998 and 2002 elections immediately preceded critical moments in the accession process- the choice of candidate states in 1998 and the final decisions on membership invitations in 2002. Karen Henderson made the point most strongly: "While it has been argued that referendums sometimes fulfill the function of second �146 SLOVAKIA order national elections ... Slovakia had twice experienced something approaching the reverse: national elections, in 1998 and 2002 , that were in part referendums about whether Slovakia should join the EU ." 1 Given the strength of pro-integration sentiment, which was rising toward the eightieth percentiles by the late 1990s, I would rephrase this formulation to suggest that the referendum quality of these elections consisted of the question of whether Slovakia would be able to join the EU, or which party could best deliver on membership. As Henderson noted, "the vital question was not whether [Slovaks] wanted the EU, but whether the EU wanted them." 2 In 1998 Vladimir Meciar lost the election and hence the key impediment to EU acceptance of Slovakia was removed. The 2002 results secured the conditions for a final push.3 The two right-of-center coalition governments under SDKU leader Mikulas Dzurinda that served from 1998 to 2006 strove, successfully, to cement Slovakia's case for inclusion in the 2004 EU enlargement. Tactically, one of the centerpiece components of that effort was the inclusion of the Hungarian Minority Coalition (SMK) in both governments. The alignment strategy to please Europe in the case is quite evident, and noticeable in Romania and Bulgaria as well; for the EU, ethnic minority parties were the preferred coalition partners, and radical nationalist participation a source of EU concern . Lacking its own minority rights acquis at the collapse of Com4 munism, the European Union's expectations about respect for minority rights protection was often ad hoc, and rested on the Copenhagen Criteria of 1993 rather than on developed community law. 1 Karen Henderson, " EU Accession and the New Slovak Consensus," West European Politics 27:4 (September, 2004), 653 . 2 Henderson, 656. 3 By 2002, the incumbent government urged voters to let it "fini sh what we started" and take that last "one more step (one last step is needed to the EU and NA TO... with us you' ll make it). The SDKU, in its famous peaceable kingdom billboard (a cat and dog entwined together) reminded voters that the party had managed to maintain a fract ious coalition : "Thanks to that, we are on the threshold of NATO and the EU." 4 The European Union was still the European Economic Communities in 1989, but for simplicity 's sake, I will refer to the "European Union" throughout. For a critique of the EU's minority rights conditionality, see Kyriaki Topidi, "The Limits of EU Conditionali ty: Minority Ri ghts in Slovakia," Journal on Ethnopolitics and Minority Issues in Europe I (2003), 20-29. �SLOVAKIA 147 However, all states with substantial minorities were well aware that minority treatment by the government was under scrutiny; hence, the elevation of the SMK to a coalition partner was accompanied by policy adjustments in the eroded minority rights regime of the Meciar period. The 2006 elections that brought Fico to power, however, occurred in a very different international strategic context, one in which Slovakia's European fate no longer depended on electoral outcomes and government composition. "We got you into Europe" lacked the resonance of SDKU's (Slovak Christian Democratic Party) 2002 appeal "You need us to get into Europe." 5 However, the economy that had earned Slovakia the epithet "Tatra Tiger" had not benefited all; Slovakia's unemployment rate of 15% in 2006 was one of the highest in Europe (and that was an improvement over the peak of 19% in 2000-2002). Small wonder, then, that Robert Fico 's populist critique of the reform era found powerful electoral resonance in 2006. His new government, however constituted, would face different international and domestic constraints than had been true for the previous decade. For the purpose of this analysis, the most salient point is that the externally-induced incentives for minority inclusion, and for adherence to minority-tolerant policies, were less pronounced than in the past. One thing, however, remained constant. It was generally impossible to form a majority coalition without including one of the two key parties aligned on the identity dimension of the party system: either the SMK or the Slovak National Party (SNS). 6 The choice between them had been definitive for the tenor of the government's minority relations policy after past elections. The question wasn't simply, therefore, whether the SMK was in or out, but rather that its exclusion likely meant the inclusion of the SNS. SMER's leadership chose the latter option (a choice that will be discussed below), with 5 In 2002, the incumbent anti- Meciar parties urged voters to let them "finish what we started" and take that last "one more step." (the billboard message: one last step is needed to the EU and NATO ... with us you'll make it). 6 In 1998, the inclusion of the SMK produced an over-sized coalition . SMK was not necessary for a parliamentary majority. It was, however, necessary, for agenda control and constitutional change, including the transition to a directly elected presidency that was virtually the first order of business of the Dzurinda government that formed the coalition. �148 SLOVAKIA consequences that shaped the minority rights agenda for the Fico government. Minority Policy Dimensions of the Fico Government: Policy relevant to minorities in Slovakia has followed the trajectory of government change. Meciar's second and third governments in the l 990 's had ruled with the support of the Slovak National Party (SNS) and pursued minority-relevant policies that evoked European criticism, either because of overt actions (language and education laws) or omissions (the failure to pass a minority-language law to clarify and codify the language rights of non-Slovaks). By contrast, the three right-of-center governments, led by Jozef Moravcik and twice by Dzurinda, ruled with the support of the Hungarian minority coalition and proved responsive to the European push for stronger minority protections. The coalition pattern continued under Fico and his successor lveta Radicova, with Fico's left-of-center government incorporating the SNS and Radicova's right-of-center coalition including the new Hungarian-Slovak Most-Hid formation (Note that Slovakia's predictable pattern of coalition alliances is by no means characteristic: in Bulgaria, Romania and Macedonia-the three other East and Central European countries with established and governmentally salient minority parties- both right-and left-of-center governments have ruled with minority party support. In Slovakia, the SMK has not changed sides). Policy initiatives cannot fully capture the almost immediate change of tone in Hungarian-Slovak relations, marked by patriotic football hooliganism and the virulent controversy over the Malina/ Malinova affair.7 The core of Fico' s minority policy-making, however, was a re-balancing toward Slovak language rights in uradny (official) communication, and correspondingly greater ambiguity about the security of minority language rights. The first controversy emerged over the potentially restrictive impact of the 2008 amendments 7 Hedvig Malina was a Hungarian student in Nitra who in 2006 reported to the police that she had been assaulted for speaking Hungarian in public. The complaint generated a mini-Dreyfus affa ir, with one' s political orientation determining whether or not to give credence to her claims. The government ultimately sided against her, and lodged perjury charges. The Fico government charged Hungary with unacceptable interference in the case. See also "Slovakia and Hungary: Trouble in Felvidek," Transitions Online, September 5, 2006. �SLOVAKIA 149 to the education law regarding Hungarian language education. In the spring of 2009, the focus was on Hungarian language textbooks, with the government seeking to supplant minority-produced course materials with translations of Slovak texts. This was accompanied by a protracted disagreement about the rendering of Slovak place names. For example, the government wanted the Danube river in Slovak (Dunaj) rather than Hungarian (Duna), even in Hungarian texts. The compromise, reached in February of 2009, appears to allow the previous practice of using "deep-rooted" geographical place names in Hungarian with the Slovak names in parentheses. Additional concern was generated by the restriction of Hungarian minority Radio Patria broadcasts to short wave transmitters that did not reach Bratislava or eastern Slovakia.8 The Language Law But the most internationally visible and resonant initiative was a revisiting of the language laws of the 1990s, as amended in 1999 under the Dzurinda government. As Martin Votruba has pointed out, a major thrust of the 1999 amendment (Act on the Use of Minority Language) had been to remove the penalties (fines) that Meciar's government had enacted for violations of the 1995 law establishing the primacy of the Slovak language. 9 Hastily drafted to meet EU expectations and, therefore, imprecise in some passages, the 1999 amendment did establish rights to the use of minority language in official communications.10 In response to the status quo, the coalition program of the Fico government in 2006 included commitments to safeguard the state language and in particular the "promotion of Slovak culture in the mixed regions ." Legislation fulfilling this pledge by privileging the use of the Slovak language in official communications passed in 8 See Kata Eplenyi, "The Language Rights of Hungarian Communities in Slovakia and Romania: The Impacts and Perspectives of EU-Membership," Masters Thesis, Central European University, Budapest, Nationalism Studies Program, 2009. 9 Votruba 's analysis of the provisions of the law is the most comprehensive I have found. Martin Votruba, "The Uncommon Language: Bratislava, Budapest, and Brussels," Slovak Studies Association Newsletter, volume 33 (2009). See also Farimah Daftary and Kinga Gal, "The New Slovak Language Law: Internal or External Politics?" ECMI Working paper #8, September 2000. http ://www.ecmi.de/download/working paper 8.pdf. 10 Eplenyi, "Language Rights. " �150 SLOVAKIA 2009, and provoked an immediate storm of international protest, largely centered on the hefty penalties (up to 5,000 euros) that could be imposed for violations. Media commentary tended to paint the legislation with a broad brush, whether in praise or blame, and thus to obfuscate the actual provisions. It would appear for example, that vivid scenarios of fines for an ethnically Hungarian patient speaking the native tongue to his ethnically Hungarian doctor in Hungarian are inapt, since the government maintained that only legal entities and not individuals were slated to be fined for violations . 11 Nor were the frequently invoked foreign-language church services under threat. However, in protecting Slovak language use, the law clearly appeared to have a chilling effect on minority language rights, and aroused vehement criticism from both the Hungarian minority and from neighboring Hungary, as well as from critics in the European Parliament. For its part, the government tended to make somewhat misleading claims about international approval (a familiar pattern in the Meciar years as well) . Emblematic of suspicion about those claims was the opposition demand that the OSCE advisory opinion on the law be published in full , without abridgement. A slightly exasperated Knut Vollebaek, the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities, visited Slovakia by invitation during the controversy, and chastised both sides for exaggerating the OSCE position. He reiterated the OSCE conclusion that the law met international standards, but added "that doesn't mean that I necessarily think it's a good law;" he said that the High Commission would like to see the fines omitted from the legislation, and warned that the normative validity of some provisions would depend on their implementation. 12 The ongoing engagement of external arbiters was evident in this contra11 Nonetheless, the successor Radicova government introduced legislation in September of 2010 to lower fines and to explicitly lift their imposition on individuals except where citizen safety and property ri ghts were in question, to permit nonSlovak records in minority schools, and to exempt transport, communications and postal employees. Catherine McNally, "Are Relations between Hungary and Slovakia beginning to thaw?" CS!S, October 5, 2010, http ://csis.org. 12 OSCE Envoy Proffers 'Advice' On Language Law, European Dialogue, September 30, 2009, http://eurodialogue.org/osce/OSCE-Envoy-Proffers-Advice-On-Language-Law; Zuzana Vaskova, "Slovakia's Controversial Language Law," EU Reporter, September 28, 2009, http://www.eureporter.co.uk/story/slovakias-controversial-language-law. �SLOVAKIA 151 versy, although Slovakia was no longer constrained by mandatory monitoring. A second feature of policy during the Fico administration was an exchange of symbolic and substantive rebuffs between the Hungarian and Slovak governments, implicitly or usually explicitly targeting the issue of loyalties to state or nation. An official state visit between Fico and Hungarian Prime Minister Gordon Bajnai, the first such in eight years, was cancelled after the language law controversy . 13 Another unfortunate incident surrounded the unveiling of a statue of St. Stephen in the city of Komarno in August of 2009. Hungary's president Laszlo S6lyom planned to attend this event as a private citizen, but was stopped from crossing the bridge between Hungary and Slovakia after a diplomatic exchange confirmed that he would not be permitted to enter Slovakia for this purpose. The Slovak government considered this event a provocation, noting that no high Slovak official had been invited to the unveiling. In July of 2010, the newly-installed nationalist FIDESZ government in Hungary further roiled the waters by taking the incident to the European Court of Justice. (Ex-president S6lyom returned to lay a wreath at the statue without incident in August of 2010). 14 The most sensitive development in Slovak-Hungarian relations occurred in the interval between the April Hungarian elections of 2010 and the June Slovak elections. A few days after its installation, the FIDESZ government, led by Viktor Orban, lobbed a political grenade into the Slovak election campaign by approving a new law on dual citizenship. By a crushing vote of 344-3 with five abstentions, the Hungarian parliament sanctioned measures that would allow ethnic Hungarians abroad to apply for citizenship as of January, 2011 even without the intention of residing in Hungary (they would not have voting rights in Hungary itself) . The Fico government recalled its ambassador from Budapest, called a session of the security council, and retaliated with legislation forfeiting Slovak citizenship 13 Lubos Palata "Slovak Language Law: Slap in the Face," Transitions Online, July 13, 2009. http :ijwww.ceeo1 .com/aspx/issuedetails.aspx?issueid=f3bblacd-4a304701-9d6f-6889e003d4bc&articleld=3fa741b5-2f9f-4663-9824-a43e09e 7fe4b. 14 "Mad'arsky exprezident S6lyom presiel do Komama bez problemov," SME, August 22, 2010. �152 SLOVAKIA to those taking additional Hungarian citizenship. 15 Orban 's somewhat baffling timing would appear likely to damage the electoral prospects of the Hungarian minority in Slovakia and to bolster Slovak nationalist voting. The European community could only watch ineffectively, urge a negotiated settlement to the question, and ponder what citizenship norms might be appropriate to cross-border minorities. 16 Overall, the Fico government's minority rights initiatives bear a pronounced resemblance to those of the Meciar era, the last time the SNS was in government and the governmental orientation stressed the risks to Slovak identity of a multi-ethnic state. As in the case of the Meciar governments, external concerns seemed largely ineffectual in modifying the course of policy-making or ameliorating relations with Hungary. The policy-making dynamics, however, are less complex than the partisan political dynamics, to which I now tum. The Fico Government and Its Impact on the Identity Dimension of the Party System. Although minority relations may appear to be only a delimited segment of the larger political picture, in two important respects they were arguably central to Fico's governance because of the impact they have had on coalition formation in 2006 and 2010 and on coalition politics in between. Indeed, Fico 's government notably shaped the party system itself, but not only in terms of its national identity dimension. In both respects the impact had international ramifications. I now want to focus on this larger picture. 15 Previous Slovak law allowed for dual citizenship, but with certain provisions that could be adapted to bar dual citizenship in this particular instance. See Dagmar Kusa, "The Slovak Question and the Slovak Answer: Citizenship during the Quest for National Self-Determination and after," in Rainer Baubock, Bernhard Perching and Wiebke Sievers, eds ., Citizenship Policies in the New Europe (Amsterdam: IMISCOE Research, University of Amsterdam Press, 2009), 275-303. Note that Romania remained silent over Orban 's move, although it equally affected Romania' s large Hungarian minority. The Romanian government had previously used Orban 's ploy in extending citizenship rights to ethnically Romanian Moldovans in 2009, and so could hardly complain about a similar law in Hungary. See Slovak Sfectator, August 10, 2010. 1 See for example, Rainer Baubock, ed., "Dual Citizenship for Transborder Minorities? How to Respond to the Hungarian-Slovak Tit-for-Tat," EU Working Papers, RSCAS 2010/75 (2010, European University Institute, San Domenico di Fiesole, Italy). �SLOVAKIA 153 Government formation in post-communist states has consistently proved challenging, although the challenges have varied systematically from state to state. A common thread through most of the postcommunist era to date, however, has been the Euro-relevance of coalition choices. In the 2002 election campaign, SMER's inaugural effort, Fico refused to name preferred coalition partners or to rule out the HZDS (although he emphatically rejected a cabinet shared with either Meciar or Dzurinda, leaders he styled as representative of an 17 old, corrupt generation). Some analysts have plausibly suggested that his failure to exclude the HZDS raised voter doubts about a Fico-led government's capacity to complete the EU integration project and helped to account for his last minute sag in the polls. 18 The coalition formation process after the 2006 elections was undoubtedly critical to the subsequent pattern of party system dynamics in ways I will investigate below. Frontrunner Fico had promised a coalition that Europe could approve. In the late stages of the campaign, some analysts dismissed the possibility of a SMER-HZDSSNS coalition (including two political formations most unpopular in Europe because of their perceived demagogic, authoritarian and nationalist leadership) as a product of incumbent Dzurinda's fear-mongering. SMER derided this as a bogey-man. Fico characterized the coalition as a "specter" created by Dzurinda. 19 SMER's Vice President Robert Kalinak told reporters , "Smer will not be part of any government that is not internationally accepted, and I think that's a pretty clear statement that you can deduce all kinds of things from." 20 .... But apparently not the coalition that actually emerged in 2006. In the event, the "worst case scenario" was not merely a scare tactic. The victorious Smer did indeed invite the HZDS and the SNS into a coalition, albeit explicitly without either of their leaders, in cabinet positions. And Fico assured the public, at home and abroad, that the presence of the SNS in government did not dilute existing commitments to minority and human rights, again signaling that minority parties were not pariahs . The Bratislava daily Novy cas dub17 Fico was born in 1964, Dzurinda in 1955 and Meciar in 1942. Tim Haughton, "We Will finish What We've Started: The 2002 Parliamentary Elections," Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics 19:4 (December, 2003), 65-90. 19 Transitions Online, June 19, 2006; TASR, June 12, 2006. 20 Interview with Robert Kalinak, Slovak Spectator, June 12, 2006. 18 �154 SLOVAKIA bed this the "you can't be serious" coalition-and it prompted an immediate external response. The European Union cannot dictate who is eligible to govern a member state. This issue was clarified with the case of Austria, a neutral state that joined the EU in 1995, once membership ceased to be associated with the divisions of the Cold War. Shortly thereafter, the use of conditionality after accession to membership received a major setback. In 2000, Austria breached a long-standing but informal West European consensus against the inclusion of the radical right in democratic governments- a so-called "cordon sanitaire" against extremist parties--when Austria's Christian Democrats accepted Jorg Haider and his Freedom Party as junior coalition partners. Appalled that a party led by a man who attended SS reunions was included in a member government, the EU created an impromptu and awkward state of "diplomatic isolation" that proved largely counterproductive, and embarrassing in its implication that the European Union, riddled with its own democratic deficits, had the right to judge the democratically elected governments of its members. The EU backed down after seven months.21 If the EU wouldn't act, the European party formation in which SMER was an observing member- the Party of European Socialists (PES)--was not similarly constrained, although ultimately equally ineffectual. PES publicly expressed "concern and deep misgivings" over Fico's coalition choices, as well as "shock" and "deep disgust," for good measure. Club deputy chair Johannes Swoboda expressed doubt that such a government could uphold European values; 22 and the Belgian socialist MEP asked "Don't you feel ashamed as a social 21 EU concern persists. The long-term legacy of the abortive effort to assert European values in the Austrian case, and to provide for response to future democratic deviations is Article 7 of both the Nice Constitution and the Lisbon Treaty, which provides a so-called "emergency brake," a decision-making mechanism to impose sanctions on member states that manifest a "serious breach" of European values specified in the treaty under Article 2. Approving the Lisbon Treaty thus does provide a new conditionality mechanism; it remains to be seen how badly it is needed and whether it will have any practical utility. See http ://register.consilium.europa.eu/gdf/en/08/st06/st06655.en08.pdf 2 "Evropsti socialiste znepokojeni vznikajici koalici na Slovensku," CTK, June 29, 2006. �SLOVAKIA 155 democrat of forming a coalition with a party known for its xenophobia?"23 In October 2006, PES President Poul Nyrup Rasmussen announced: The PES resolution refers specifically to the Declaration "For a modern, pluralist and tolerant Europe" adopted by PES Congress in 2001 in Berlin which states "all PES parties adhere to the following principles .. . to refrain from any form ofpolitical alliance or co-operation at all levels with any political party which incites or attempts to stir up racial or ethnic prejudices and racial hatred. " 24 Only in 2008 was SMER 'S membership application conditionally reinstated after both SMER and SNS submitted letters confirming their commitment to minority rights, a largely declarative gesture. But this so-called "nightmare coalition" with the HZDS and SNS was not inevitable. The contrasting case of Bulgaria is instructive. The victorious Borisov party in 2009 ruled out a coalition with the Turkish minority MRF during the election campaign as part of the incumbent government he attacked. Like Fico, candidate Borisov employed a populist discourse-what Pop-Eleches would call the new centrist populism 25- and an appeal that, while taking pot shots at minorities, was not radically nationalist. His "outsider" strategy, however, dictated a rejection of all the status quo parties, and particularly the incumbents. Fico, on the other hand, although not loath to criticize minorities, had moderated his populist appeals and reoriented to social democracy by the 2006 election. 26 Fico gave serious consideration to a KDH/MKP coalition, but could not get agreement on it-Miroslav Kusy notes that the KDH leadership was badly and bitterly split on the possibility, with some insisting on a set of moral issues (such as ban23 24 25 Slovak Spectator, September 11 , 2006. http ://www.pes.org/en/news/smer-suspended-pes-political-family. Pop-Eleches, "Throwing out the Bums: Protest Voting and Unorthodox Parties after Communism," World Politics 62 (2010), 221-60. 26 See Kevin Deegan-Krause and Tim Haughton, "Toward a More Useful Conceptualization of Populism: Types and Degrees of Populist Appeals in the Case of Slovakia," Politics and Policy 37:4 (2009), 82 1-41 . �156 SLOVAKIA ning same-sex marriage and contraception); KDH deliberations were so protracted that Fico ultimately gave up. 27 KDH's hesitation was the mostly widely cited reason for the sinking of the alternative SMER-SMK-KDH coalition, both by media and coalition partners. 28 Despite the programmatic dissonances with SMER, such an alignment had the attraction for KDH and SMK of averting the coalition that did in fact emerge. In any case, Fico is a clever politician, and he realized that the SNS and HZDS would be easier to undercut. Fico could and did steal some of the SNS political clothes and a bit of its electorate by annexing the nationalist issue-a kind of electoral poaching that would have been impossible against the KDH and SMK--and in Meciar's HZDS he had an aging and politically dying junior partner. Fico is also something of a control freak- he immediately sidelined Monika Flasikova-Benova, a public critic of his coalition choice, at the next party congress by stripping her and others of leadership roles-(he was also canny in avoiding the appointment of too many MPs as ministers, who if discarded, might return to parliament and defect from the party). His final coalition choices therefore, would be more malleable, provided he could manage the public response, in particular, to SNS outbursts. In the new government, Meciar's party alarmingly claimed the Justice portfolio. SNS portfolios included Agriculture, Regional Development and Education, all highly salient policy domains for minorities. Agriculture and Regional Development, previously held by SMK, are germane to economic conditions in the ethnically mixed areas of southern Slovakia, which are generally more rural and less developed than the north or west. And putting education policy in the hands of SNS raised concerns that minority issues would get short shrift. 27 Miroslav Kusy, "Catastrophic Scenario in Bratislava," The Analyst: Central and Eastern European Review 2 (2006), 37. The KDH division was so pronounced as to cause a leadership crisis and resignations from the party leadership in its aftermath. 28 See for example the comments by Ivan Miklos in Hospodtirske noviny, June 29, 2006: "The European Peoples Party won't understand very well, how it is possible that these three EPP member parties weren't able to reach agreement. In this sense, I think that the responsibility for this situation lies especially on the KDH. " In this case, Miklos blamed the KDH for balking at bringing the HZDS into a SDKUKDH-SMK coalition. �SLOVAKIA 157 Two related effects of this government's tenure on party system dynamics are worth noting. At the majority nationalist end of the identity continuum, one can visualize Fico as a political vampire, draining his coalition partners of standing and voters. Fico preempted the national issue from his more volatile and extremist coalition colleague, Jan Slota of the SNS, by challenging the national sentiment of historians at the Slovak Academy of Sciences, as well as of the media, both of whom he accused of exhibiting "un-Slovak" tendencies. Fico proclaimed 2008 as the "Year of the Slovak Nation." He re-constructed pre-national history with a claim on the Great Moravian Empire having consisted of "ancient Slovaks"29 and commissioned a statue of warrior King (Prince) Svatopluk for the Bratislava Castle courtyard-an equestrian monument installed just before the elections in 2010 amid great controversy about the historicity of the claims made about his ethnicity, the Byzantine cross on his shield, and even whether he was actually a king.30 From the outset, Fico tended to overlook rather than to chastise the SNS and its incendiary leader. He was content to let Slota's outrageous statements pillory his own credibility. A case in point: Slota apparently sought to launch his party's electoral campaign in early 2010 with the pronouncement that Hungary was planning a military 31 invasion of Slovakia to revise the Treaty of Trianon. Fico did chastise the spectacular SNS corruption in office. Both in the 1990s and in the Fico government, the SNS has been noted for ministerial corruption. The SNS held two portfolios-Construction and Regional development and Environment--in the Fico government, in addition to a deputy prime-ministership. Both incumbents at Construction and Regional Development were dismissed in quick succession over the so-called "Bulletin-Board" tender, in which public procurement procedures were violated in favor of an in-house 29 "Fico's Revisionist History," Transitions Online, February 29, 2008. ° Fico expressed the hope that the statue would become a national pilgrimage site, 3 but the statue immediately became politicized as the extremist group "Our Slovakia" came to its rescue (a commission on its dissolution has been formed) without an assembly permit. As of November 2010, the party's website has youtube video of riot police blocking the pilgrimage. Meanwhile, anti-racist groups mobilized to challenge the party. Fico also appropriated the 18 th century social bandit Jano~ik as a Social Democrat. 31 The Slovak Spectator, March 24, 2010. �158 SLOVAKIA process that awarded contracts to two firms with close ties to the SNS leader Jan Slota. SNS Environment Minister Jaroslav Izak, who was asked to resign for his ministry's mishandling of EU environmental funds , was followed by Jan Chrbet, whose forced resignation was triggered by a scandal surrounding the awarding of carbon emissions contracts on terms unfavorable to the government. When his successor from the SNS, Viliam Tursky, was also removed for murky contract awards, Prime Minister Fico announced that it was time to take the environmental portfolio away from the SNS.32 (Startlingly, Slota demanded the human and minority rights portfolio in exchange for the lost environmental slot.) Hence, by the end of his term in office, Fico had succeeded not only in pre-empting Slota with a more respectable nationalism, but also in discrediting him and his party on the politically winning issue of anti-corruption (a useful diversion from SMER 's own corruption problems).33 By 2010, the debilitated SNS squeaked into the subsequent parliament by only a tenth of a percentage point over the electoral threshold and lost more than half of its previous seats (down from twenty to nine )- a voting hemorrhage that pre-election opinion polls suggest went to Fico. 34 Tibor Kis concludes that Fico "offered voters a European alternative to Vladimir Meciar's nationalist L'S-HZDS and a social and ' Slovak' alternative relative to centre-right organiza- 32 See The Slovak Spectator, August 31, 2009. http://spectator.sme.sk/articles/view/36352/11 /people often get what they want n ot what they need.html. 33 SNS corruption problems might have been predicted from its previous term in office, and by the general trends in ministerial corruption region-wide. In the overall universe of cabinet ministers in 13 post-communist EU members and candidate members serving between 1990 and 2009, minority politicians were just about exactly average in their involvement in corruption scandals (13%). The majority nationalist party ministers, by contrast, were close to twice as likely to be scandal prone (23%) as the norm, and thereby more embarrassing as coalition partners. Involvement in corruption scandals as used here does not imply eventually proven guilt in a court of law. (Corruption Involvement is coded if the minister is formally investigated by law enforcement agencies or parliament, arrested and tried, or documented as engaging in suspect behavior by a corruption agency). 34 See Kevin Deegan-Krause 's Pozorblog, 2010 Slovak Parliamentary Elections: Post-Election Report, July 14, 2010, http://www.pozorb1og. com/ . �SLOVAKIA 159 tions."35 Fico appears, indeed, to have been too successful in this regard: As Mesik notes, "By attracting SNS as well as HZDS voters, Fico successfully cannibalized his partners in the government and only woke up to the day when his by far strongest party did not have partners to form a government with." Hungarian Minority Politics If Fico proved effective (and somewhat self-defeating) in absorbing votes from his coalition partners in the 2010 elections, the exclusion of the SMK from government also had ramifications for minority party politics. At first, the SMK' s position on the opposition benches had some echoes of the 1990s. Amidst a general disarray after losing power, it was striking that the Fico era started with the failure of the ethnic Slovak opposition parties to back the SMK on issues like the Hedviga Malinova /Malina Hedvig case. The three opposition parties did not meet for four months until the controversy regarding Deputy Agriculture Minister Marian Zahumensky. Second, the transition to opposition acerbated longstanding tensions within the SMK. As long as the SMK was in government, tensions within the party could be curbed. Going into opposition meant not only a loss of policy influence, but also a time of reckoning. In March of 2007, the popular and moderate Bela Bugar moved on his less moderate vice-chair- the venerable communist-era dissident Miklos Duray--by seeking to abolish the vice-chair position; the effort rebounded, leading to an upset victory for the party leadership by Pal Csaky. The new SMK was ever more closely identified with Hungary and particularly with FIDESZ, a stance that proved an excellent foil for Slota and the SNS . The SMK was "increasingly perceived and portrayed by Slovak politicians as an extraterritorial branch of FIDESZ." 36 35 Tibor Kis, "Smer: Success Story or Scandal?" The Analyst-Central and Eastern European Review I (2008), 67 . 36 Mesik, Juraj , Slovakia 2010: An Election with Only Limited Choice (Prague: Heinrich Boll Stiftung, 2010), p. I. https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache :NXmv IM538AJ :www.boell.cz/downloads/slovakia-20 I 0( I ).pdf+Slovakia+20 I 0:+An+Election+with+Only+Limited+Choice&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEE SjAbC2uqap66j5MK3mL54uKxbdb6uwiyAnKG8PdcOnGr7TN3cTV4UToaJbphV Dhh Wjlam VNsCTq DriBh Yin WQ4wn6V9PW9qn WFarJSCkyf Jho VJx2g9JpgEj7MPq-DXaaQb&sig=AHIEtbQZam6lz-BjubssUvDtT73Na95dzA �160 SLOVAKIA Csaky 's orientation to the protection of Hungarian interests was to look outward. An example was his meeting with Laszlo Tokes, a central figure of the hard-line wing of Romania' s minority party UDMR, and Csaky's attendance as an observer at the Carpathian Autonomy Council that Tokes had founded. The two leaders apparently discussed the idea of a cross-national mini-minority parliament. Nothing could have been better calculated to play to ethnic Slovak fears about Slovak Hungarian loyalties.37 In 2008, Bugar left the SMK and founded his own party- one that signaled its moderation on national issues with the name MostHid (bridge in Slovak and Hungarian). Csaky professed to believe, along with Slota, that Most-Hid was a stalking horse (actually a Trojan horse) created and funded by SMER. Beyond that, he refused to discuss future cooperation with Most-Hid on the grounds that it wouldn't make it into parliament. 38 Csaky was quite wrong. Defying the pre-election polls, Most-Hid polled over eight percent, nearly doubling the vote of Csaky's SMK, and replacing it in parliament. What did the 2010 vote mean? Were Hungarian voters seeking moderation, as some media analysts said? Or was it a coordination failure , with Hungarians in Slovakia voting strategically in hopes of getting both SMK and Most-Hid into parliament? (This view would explain why Most-Hid did so much better than the last pre-election polls suggested-ethnic Hungarian voters, seeing that SMK was comfortably over the threshold, may have diverted votes to MostHid/ 9 As in the case of many party schisms, then, the upshot was a crippling of Hungarian minority representation in parliament. 40 37 "Csaky naru~il tabu," SME, September 29, 2008. "Csaky: Nep6jdeme do vlady za kazdu cenu," SME, May 7, 20 10, http ://volby.sme.sk/clanok_ tlac.asp?cl=5363302 39 The Slovak Spectator June 21, 20 IO ; some SMK leaders embraced this theory. "Csaky konti, SMK hl'ada ~efa" SME, June 14, 20 I 0, http ://volby.sme.sk/clanoktlac.asp?cl=5421864. 40 A pre-election poll in 20 IO indicated that Most-Hid was drawing almost 60% of its supporters from SMK, 18% from first time voters, 5% from former non-voters and the rest from other parties. The Slovak Spectator, June 3, 20 I 0. The number of Hungarians in the Most-Hid delegation itself was also lowered by the preferential voting of supporters of OKS (Civic Conservative Party), with whom Most-Hid fo rmed a joint candidate slate. See Viera Zuborova, Viera (2011 ), Marketizacia vonkaj~ej reklamy v parlamentnych vol'bach 20 IO v Slovenskej republike," Acta Politologica 3: I (2011 ):7; statistics at "Vysledky preferenfoeo hlasovania: Vys38 �SLOVAKIA 161 Conclusion: Is there reason to expect a durable effect of the Fico era for identity politics in Slovakia? The policy footprint was not especially deep, and the succeeding Radicova government mitigated some of its impact on Hungarian minority relations. The Fico language law was partially modified in December of 2010, restricting its use, but disappointing minorities-who deemed the amendment "less bad"-by its retention of the penalties for improper language use.41 2011 saw an initiative to resolve the dual citizenship issue by joint agreement with the Hungarian government, although to date without a favorable response from the Orban government. 42 The long-term party system effects are less predictable. For example, while Meciar's slide into oblivion even deepened in the 2012 election, sliding to a mere percentage point of the electorate, it is less obvious that Slota's SNS is on the brink of extinction despite the narrow escape in 2010 and the failure to return to parliament in 2012. Earlier, the SNS had survived a schism (in some respects the mirror image of what happened to SMK after 2006) that actually knocked it out of parliament in 2002; it reconsolidated and returned. In 2012, as well, the party was fractured by the expulsion of deputy leader Anna Belousova, who contested the 2012 election with her own party Nation and Justice. Despite the SNS record of corruption and outrageousness, yet another reunion of the party leadership might resuscitate it, although service in Fico 's government was definitely a poisoned chalice. In the 2010 election, the shrinkage of the SNS deprived Fico of a coalition partner and the prime ministership. As a result of the March, 2012 elections, Fico no longer needed that assistance, since his SMER became the first Slovak party since indeledky volieb do NR SR: 12.06.2010," Most-Hid website, http://www.most-hidke.sk/sk/vo1by-nrsr20 I 0-preferencne-hlasy. 41 "Language Act takes a "less bad" form," Minority Report, Monthly Bulletin on the Hungarian Community in Slovakia, Issue 12-2010, http://www.freeweb.hu/mkdsz l/pdf/MR-Ol-2011.pdf. 42 "Hungary: "Nern! " to Slovak Dual Citizenship Proposal," The Daily.sk, posted 12 July 20 11 , http://www.thedaily.sk/2011 /07 /12/top-news/hungary-nem-to-slovak-dualcitizensh ip-proposal/. The Fico government, elected in March of 2012, signaled that it would slightly modify its earlier draconian response by allowing dual citizenship to Slovaks actually residing in the other country. �162 SLOVAKIA pendence to win an outright majority of the parliamentary seats (83 out of 150).43 As for the emergence of two major partisan competitors for the Hungarian electorate, the ambiguities in interpreting Most-Hid's victory over the SMK stand in the way of a clear prediction. Past electoral outcomes show that being in power has not previously eroded the support of the minority electorate, either in Slovakia or in the parallel cases of Bulgaria and Romania. On that basis, it might be possible to argue for Most-Hid to further consolidate its position. However, what Romania, Bulgaria and Slovakia also had in common until this election was the dominance of a single minority party or electoral coalition. 44 The story may be quite different with an alternative and established minority-based party challenging each decision, even from outside parliament. The municipal elections of November 2010 and the parliamentary elections of 2012, which showed the two Hungarian parties splitting their vote, did not clarify the picture. Although an extraparliamentary party like the SMK could not promise influence at the center to woo voters, the SMK retained its established organizational base and its government subsidy and thus retains a presence in politics (it also retains its representation in the European parliament). Local party organizations generally hold the decision-making power to run joint candidates with other parties or to cooperate in local coalitions after elections, and there was indeed some limited cooperation, but also cases, as in the Komarno mayor's race, where dividing the Hungarian vote opened the way to victory for an independent Slovak candidate. The basis for cooperation, however, is shaky. The SMK has grown ever closer to the nationalist Fidesz party in Hungary, and proudly announced in March 2011 that Hungary had incorporated three SMK proposals into its new constitution. Moreover, the SMK party chair, Joszef Berenyi, actually announced in January of 2011 that he was applying for Hungarian citizenship under the controversial new law. These maneuvers only underline the SMK' s distance from the more moderate Most-Hid. During the winter of 2011, de43 Sme, March 11 , 2012. It is true that before 1998, the SMK was not a single entity; rather, it was a group of Hungarian parties which ran on a single slate, not as competitors. 44 �SLOVAKIA 163 spite the clear electoral incentives to do so, the two parties failed to reach any agreement on electoral cooperation in 2012, and contested the parliamentary elections completely separately. Once again, SMK barely missed parliamentary representation, while Most-Hid survived, although it lost more than a percentage point and one MP in the 2012 elections. In closing, it would appear that electoral outcomes and coalition choices matter more than external pressures for normative conformity on minority rights issues, just as they did in the pre-accession period before 2004. Government policies on minorities in Slovakia respond primarily to partisan domestic constituencies, and vary according to the government in power. Even though minority inclusion in government was known to be desirable to Brussels, once Slovakia was safely in the European Union, minority inclusion was not jettisoned, but rather subject to the same kinds of political logic and choices that determined which identity-based party would be included in government before 2004. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to 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 145 HUNGARIAN MINORITY POLITICS IN SLOVAKIA: UNDER FICO, AFTER EU ACCESSION Carol Skalnik Leff Many scholars of European integration have shown keen interest in the behavior of new members after the pressures of "conditionality" have been lifted, and the political and policy constraints of qualifying for membership have abated. The 2006 election in Slovakia, won by Robert Fico's SMER, was the first contested after Slovakia's EU accession, and offers a useful case study of one of the EU's desiderata- the treatment of ethnic minorities. In this article, I analyze the Fico era's impact on the minority rights agenda by focusing on two points. The first is the Fico government's record in the sphere of minority politics and policy. The second, and in some respects potentially more consequential, is the way the Slovak party system' s identity politics dimension was reconfigured during his term of office. I contextualize this analysis by noting the Fico government's positioning in the evolution of the "two-level game" on minority rights issues played out under successive Slovak governments with the European Union. During the pre-accession period, external pressures to conform to European concerns seemed less important for Slovak responsiveness than the composition of the government in power. The postaccession period analyzed here seems to follow the same pattern, with the Fico government relatively resistant to external initiatives and the successor Radicova government more aligned with EU norms and expectations. The Context: 2006 witnessed the first Slovak elections following the country's accession to the European Union. Slovakia's two previous national elections had been fought in the shadow of EU membership prospects. Both the 1998 and 2002 elections immediately preceded critical moments in the accession process- the choice of candidate states in 1998 and the final decisions on membership invitations in 2002. Karen Henderson made the point most strongly: "While it has been argued that referendums sometimes fulfill the function of second 146 SLOVAKIA order national elections ... Slovakia had twice experienced something approaching the reverse: national elections, in 1998 and 2002 , that were in part referendums about whether Slovakia should join the EU ." 1 Given the strength of pro-integration sentiment, which was rising toward the eightieth percentiles by the late 1990s, I would rephrase this formulation to suggest that the referendum quality of these elections consisted of the question of whether Slovakia would be able to join the EU, or which party could best deliver on membership. As Henderson noted, "the vital question was not whether [Slovaks] wanted the EU, but whether the EU wanted them." 2 In 1998 Vladimir Meciar lost the election and hence the key impediment to EU acceptance of Slovakia was removed. The 2002 results secured the conditions for a final push.3 The two right-of-center coalition governments under SDKU leader Mikulas Dzurinda that served from 1998 to 2006 strove, successfully, to cement Slovakia's case for inclusion in the 2004 EU enlargement. Tactically, one of the centerpiece components of that effort was the inclusion of the Hungarian Minority Coalition (SMK) in both governments. The alignment strategy to please Europe in the case is quite evident, and noticeable in Romania and Bulgaria as well; for the EU, ethnic minority parties were the preferred coalition partners, and radical nationalist participation a source of EU concern . Lacking its own minority rights acquis at the collapse of Com4 munism, the European Union's expectations about respect for minority rights protection was often ad hoc, and rested on the Copenhagen Criteria of 1993 rather than on developed community law. 1 Karen Henderson, " EU Accession and the New Slovak Consensus," West European Politics 27:4 (September, 2004), 653 . 2 Henderson, 656. 3 By 2002, the incumbent government urged voters to let it "fini sh what we started" and take that last "one more step (one last step is needed to the EU and NA TO... with us you' ll make it). The SDKU, in its famous peaceable kingdom billboard (a cat and dog entwined together) reminded voters that the party had managed to maintain a fract ious coalition : "Thanks to that, we are on the threshold of NATO and the EU." 4 The European Union was still the European Economic Communities in 1989, but for simplicity 's sake, I will refer to the "European Union" throughout. For a critique of the EU's minority rights conditionality, see Kyriaki Topidi, "The Limits of EU Conditionali ty: Minority Ri ghts in Slovakia," Journal on Ethnopolitics and Minority Issues in Europe I (2003), 20-29. SLOVAKIA 147 However, all states with substantial minorities were well aware that minority treatment by the government was under scrutiny; hence, the elevation of the SMK to a coalition partner was accompanied by policy adjustments in the eroded minority rights regime of the Meciar period. The 2006 elections that brought Fico to power, however, occurred in a very different international strategic context, one in which Slovakia's European fate no longer depended on electoral outcomes and government composition. "We got you into Europe" lacked the resonance of SDKU's (Slovak Christian Democratic Party) 2002 appeal "You need us to get into Europe." 5 However, the economy that had earned Slovakia the epithet "Tatra Tiger" had not benefited all; Slovakia's unemployment rate of 15% in 2006 was one of the highest in Europe (and that was an improvement over the peak of 19% in 2000-2002). Small wonder, then, that Robert Fico 's populist critique of the reform era found powerful electoral resonance in 2006. His new government, however constituted, would face different international and domestic constraints than had been true for the previous decade. For the purpose of this analysis, the most salient point is that the externally-induced incentives for minority inclusion, and for adherence to minority-tolerant policies, were less pronounced than in the past. One thing, however, remained constant. It was generally impossible to form a majority coalition without including one of the two key parties aligned on the identity dimension of the party system: either the SMK or the Slovak National Party (SNS). 6 The choice between them had been definitive for the tenor of the government's minority relations policy after past elections. The question wasn't simply, therefore, whether the SMK was in or out, but rather that its exclusion likely meant the inclusion of the SNS. SMER's leadership chose the latter option (a choice that will be discussed below), with 5 In 2002, the incumbent anti- Meciar parties urged voters to let them "finish what we started" and take that last "one more step." (the billboard message: one last step is needed to the EU and NATO ... with us you'll make it). 6 In 1998, the inclusion of the SMK produced an over-sized coalition . SMK was not necessary for a parliamentary majority. It was, however, necessary, for agenda control and constitutional change, including the transition to a directly elected presidency that was virtually the first order of business of the Dzurinda government that formed the coalition. 148 SLOVAKIA consequences that shaped the minority rights agenda for the Fico government. Minority Policy Dimensions of the Fico Government: Policy relevant to minorities in Slovakia has followed the trajectory of government change. Meciar's second and third governments in the l 990 's had ruled with the support of the Slovak National Party (SNS) and pursued minority-relevant policies that evoked European criticism, either because of overt actions (language and education laws) or omissions (the failure to pass a minority-language law to clarify and codify the language rights of non-Slovaks). By contrast, the three right-of-center governments, led by Jozef Moravcik and twice by Dzurinda, ruled with the support of the Hungarian minority coalition and proved responsive to the European push for stronger minority protections. The coalition pattern continued under Fico and his successor lveta Radicova, with Fico's left-of-center government incorporating the SNS and Radicova's right-of-center coalition including the new Hungarian-Slovak Most-Hid formation (Note that Slovakia's predictable pattern of coalition alliances is by no means characteristic: in Bulgaria, Romania and Macedonia-the three other East and Central European countries with established and governmentally salient minority parties- both right-and left-of-center governments have ruled with minority party support. In Slovakia, the SMK has not changed sides). Policy initiatives cannot fully capture the almost immediate change of tone in Hungarian-Slovak relations, marked by patriotic football hooliganism and the virulent controversy over the Malina/ Malinova affair.7 The core of Fico' s minority policy-making, however, was a re-balancing toward Slovak language rights in uradny (official) communication, and correspondingly greater ambiguity about the security of minority language rights. The first controversy emerged over the potentially restrictive impact of the 2008 amendments 7 Hedvig Malina was a Hungarian student in Nitra who in 2006 reported to the police that she had been assaulted for speaking Hungarian in public. The complaint generated a mini-Dreyfus affa ir, with one' s political orientation determining whether or not to give credence to her claims. The government ultimately sided against her, and lodged perjury charges. The Fico government charged Hungary with unacceptable interference in the case. See also "Slovakia and Hungary: Trouble in Felvidek," Transitions Online, September 5, 2006. SLOVAKIA 149 to the education law regarding Hungarian language education. In the spring of 2009, the focus was on Hungarian language textbooks, with the government seeking to supplant minority-produced course materials with translations of Slovak texts. This was accompanied by a protracted disagreement about the rendering of Slovak place names. For example, the government wanted the Danube river in Slovak (Dunaj) rather than Hungarian (Duna), even in Hungarian texts. The compromise, reached in February of 2009, appears to allow the previous practice of using "deep-rooted" geographical place names in Hungarian with the Slovak names in parentheses. Additional concern was generated by the restriction of Hungarian minority Radio Patria broadcasts to short wave transmitters that did not reach Bratislava or eastern Slovakia.8 The Language Law But the most internationally visible and resonant initiative was a revisiting of the language laws of the 1990s, as amended in 1999 under the Dzurinda government. As Martin Votruba has pointed out, a major thrust of the 1999 amendment (Act on the Use of Minority Language) had been to remove the penalties (fines) that Meciar's government had enacted for violations of the 1995 law establishing the primacy of the Slovak language. 9 Hastily drafted to meet EU expectations and, therefore, imprecise in some passages, the 1999 amendment did establish rights to the use of minority language in official communications.10 In response to the status quo, the coalition program of the Fico government in 2006 included commitments to safeguard the state language and in particular the "promotion of Slovak culture in the mixed regions ." Legislation fulfilling this pledge by privileging the use of the Slovak language in official communications passed in 8 See Kata Eplenyi, "The Language Rights of Hungarian Communities in Slovakia and Romania: The Impacts and Perspectives of EU-Membership," Masters Thesis, Central European University, Budapest, Nationalism Studies Program, 2009. 9 Votruba 's analysis of the provisions of the law is the most comprehensive I have found. Martin Votruba, "The Uncommon Language: Bratislava, Budapest, and Brussels," Slovak Studies Association Newsletter, volume 33 (2009). See also Farimah Daftary and Kinga Gal, "The New Slovak Language Law: Internal or External Politics?" ECMI Working paper #8, September 2000. http ://www.ecmi.de/download/working paper 8.pdf. 10 Eplenyi, "Language Rights. " 150 SLOVAKIA 2009, and provoked an immediate storm of international protest, largely centered on the hefty penalties (up to 5,000 euros) that could be imposed for violations. Media commentary tended to paint the legislation with a broad brush, whether in praise or blame, and thus to obfuscate the actual provisions. It would appear for example, that vivid scenarios of fines for an ethnically Hungarian patient speaking the native tongue to his ethnically Hungarian doctor in Hungarian are inapt, since the government maintained that only legal entities and not individuals were slated to be fined for violations . 11 Nor were the frequently invoked foreign-language church services under threat. However, in protecting Slovak language use, the law clearly appeared to have a chilling effect on minority language rights, and aroused vehement criticism from both the Hungarian minority and from neighboring Hungary, as well as from critics in the European Parliament. For its part, the government tended to make somewhat misleading claims about international approval (a familiar pattern in the Meciar years as well) . Emblematic of suspicion about those claims was the opposition demand that the OSCE advisory opinion on the law be published in full , without abridgement. A slightly exasperated Knut Vollebaek, the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities, visited Slovakia by invitation during the controversy, and chastised both sides for exaggerating the OSCE position. He reiterated the OSCE conclusion that the law met international standards, but added "that doesn't mean that I necessarily think it's a good law;" he said that the High Commission would like to see the fines omitted from the legislation, and warned that the normative validity of some provisions would depend on their implementation. 12 The ongoing engagement of external arbiters was evident in this contra11 Nonetheless, the successor Radicova government introduced legislation in September of 2010 to lower fines and to explicitly lift their imposition on individuals except where citizen safety and property ri ghts were in question, to permit nonSlovak records in minority schools, and to exempt transport, communications and postal employees. Catherine McNally, "Are Relations between Hungary and Slovakia beginning to thaw?" CS!S, October 5, 2010, http ://csis.org. 12 OSCE Envoy Proffers 'Advice' On Language Law, European Dialogue, September 30, 2009, http://eurodialogue.org/osce/OSCE-Envoy-Proffers-Advice-On-Language-Law; Zuzana Vaskova, "Slovakia's Controversial Language Law," EU Reporter, September 28, 2009, http://www.eureporter.co.uk/story/slovakias-controversial-language-law. SLOVAKIA 151 versy, although Slovakia was no longer constrained by mandatory monitoring. A second feature of policy during the Fico administration was an exchange of symbolic and substantive rebuffs between the Hungarian and Slovak governments, implicitly or usually explicitly targeting the issue of loyalties to state or nation. An official state visit between Fico and Hungarian Prime Minister Gordon Bajnai, the first such in eight years, was cancelled after the language law controversy . 13 Another unfortunate incident surrounded the unveiling of a statue of St. Stephen in the city of Komarno in August of 2009. Hungary's president Laszlo S6lyom planned to attend this event as a private citizen, but was stopped from crossing the bridge between Hungary and Slovakia after a diplomatic exchange confirmed that he would not be permitted to enter Slovakia for this purpose. The Slovak government considered this event a provocation, noting that no high Slovak official had been invited to the unveiling. In July of 2010, the newly-installed nationalist FIDESZ government in Hungary further roiled the waters by taking the incident to the European Court of Justice. (Ex-president S6lyom returned to lay a wreath at the statue without incident in August of 2010). 14 The most sensitive development in Slovak-Hungarian relations occurred in the interval between the April Hungarian elections of 2010 and the June Slovak elections. A few days after its installation, the FIDESZ government, led by Viktor Orban, lobbed a political grenade into the Slovak election campaign by approving a new law on dual citizenship. By a crushing vote of 344-3 with five abstentions, the Hungarian parliament sanctioned measures that would allow ethnic Hungarians abroad to apply for citizenship as of January, 2011 even without the intention of residing in Hungary (they would not have voting rights in Hungary itself) . The Fico government recalled its ambassador from Budapest, called a session of the security council, and retaliated with legislation forfeiting Slovak citizenship 13 Lubos Palata "Slovak Language Law: Slap in the Face," Transitions Online, July 13, 2009. http :ijwww.ceeo1 .com/aspx/issuedetails.aspx?issueid=f3bblacd-4a304701-9d6f-6889e003d4bc&articleld=3fa741b5-2f9f-4663-9824-a43e09e 7fe4b. 14 "Mad'arsky exprezident S6lyom presiel do Komama bez problemov," SME, August 22, 2010. 152 SLOVAKIA to those taking additional Hungarian citizenship. 15 Orban 's somewhat baffling timing would appear likely to damage the electoral prospects of the Hungarian minority in Slovakia and to bolster Slovak nationalist voting. The European community could only watch ineffectively, urge a negotiated settlement to the question, and ponder what citizenship norms might be appropriate to cross-border minorities. 16 Overall, the Fico government's minority rights initiatives bear a pronounced resemblance to those of the Meciar era, the last time the SNS was in government and the governmental orientation stressed the risks to Slovak identity of a multi-ethnic state. As in the case of the Meciar governments, external concerns seemed largely ineffectual in modifying the course of policy-making or ameliorating relations with Hungary. The policy-making dynamics, however, are less complex than the partisan political dynamics, to which I now tum. The Fico Government and Its Impact on the Identity Dimension of the Party System. Although minority relations may appear to be only a delimited segment of the larger political picture, in two important respects they were arguably central to Fico's governance because of the impact they have had on coalition formation in 2006 and 2010 and on coalition politics in between. Indeed, Fico 's government notably shaped the party system itself, but not only in terms of its national identity dimension. In both respects the impact had international ramifications. I now want to focus on this larger picture. 15 Previous Slovak law allowed for dual citizenship, but with certain provisions that could be adapted to bar dual citizenship in this particular instance. See Dagmar Kusa, "The Slovak Question and the Slovak Answer: Citizenship during the Quest for National Self-Determination and after," in Rainer Baubock, Bernhard Perching and Wiebke Sievers, eds ., Citizenship Policies in the New Europe (Amsterdam: IMISCOE Research, University of Amsterdam Press, 2009), 275-303. Note that Romania remained silent over Orban 's move, although it equally affected Romania' s large Hungarian minority. The Romanian government had previously used Orban 's ploy in extending citizenship rights to ethnically Romanian Moldovans in 2009, and so could hardly complain about a similar law in Hungary. See Slovak Sfectator, August 10, 2010. 1 See for example, Rainer Baubock, ed., "Dual Citizenship for Transborder Minorities? How to Respond to the Hungarian-Slovak Tit-for-Tat," EU Working Papers, RSCAS 2010/75 (2010, European University Institute, San Domenico di Fiesole, Italy). SLOVAKIA 153 Government formation in post-communist states has consistently proved challenging, although the challenges have varied systematically from state to state. A common thread through most of the postcommunist era to date, however, has been the Euro-relevance of coalition choices. In the 2002 election campaign, SMER's inaugural effort, Fico refused to name preferred coalition partners or to rule out the HZDS (although he emphatically rejected a cabinet shared with either Meciar or Dzurinda, leaders he styled as representative of an 17 old, corrupt generation). Some analysts have plausibly suggested that his failure to exclude the HZDS raised voter doubts about a Fico-led government's capacity to complete the EU integration project and helped to account for his last minute sag in the polls. 18 The coalition formation process after the 2006 elections was undoubtedly critical to the subsequent pattern of party system dynamics in ways I will investigate below. Frontrunner Fico had promised a coalition that Europe could approve. In the late stages of the campaign, some analysts dismissed the possibility of a SMER-HZDSSNS coalition (including two political formations most unpopular in Europe because of their perceived demagogic, authoritarian and nationalist leadership) as a product of incumbent Dzurinda's fear-mongering. SMER derided this as a bogey-man. Fico characterized the coalition as a "specter" created by Dzurinda. 19 SMER's Vice President Robert Kalinak told reporters , "Smer will not be part of any government that is not internationally accepted, and I think that's a pretty clear statement that you can deduce all kinds of things from." 20 .... But apparently not the coalition that actually emerged in 2006. In the event, the "worst case scenario" was not merely a scare tactic. The victorious Smer did indeed invite the HZDS and the SNS into a coalition, albeit explicitly without either of their leaders, in cabinet positions. And Fico assured the public, at home and abroad, that the presence of the SNS in government did not dilute existing commitments to minority and human rights, again signaling that minority parties were not pariahs . The Bratislava daily Novy cas dub17 Fico was born in 1964, Dzurinda in 1955 and Meciar in 1942. Tim Haughton, "We Will finish What We've Started: The 2002 Parliamentary Elections," Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics 19:4 (December, 2003), 65-90. 19 Transitions Online, June 19, 2006; TASR, June 12, 2006. 20 Interview with Robert Kalinak, Slovak Spectator, June 12, 2006. 18 154 SLOVAKIA bed this the "you can't be serious" coalition-and it prompted an immediate external response. The European Union cannot dictate who is eligible to govern a member state. This issue was clarified with the case of Austria, a neutral state that joined the EU in 1995, once membership ceased to be associated with the divisions of the Cold War. Shortly thereafter, the use of conditionality after accession to membership received a major setback. In 2000, Austria breached a long-standing but informal West European consensus against the inclusion of the radical right in democratic governments- a so-called "cordon sanitaire" against extremist parties--when Austria's Christian Democrats accepted Jorg Haider and his Freedom Party as junior coalition partners. Appalled that a party led by a man who attended SS reunions was included in a member government, the EU created an impromptu and awkward state of "diplomatic isolation" that proved largely counterproductive, and embarrassing in its implication that the European Union, riddled with its own democratic deficits, had the right to judge the democratically elected governments of its members. The EU backed down after seven months.21 If the EU wouldn't act, the European party formation in which SMER was an observing member- the Party of European Socialists (PES)--was not similarly constrained, although ultimately equally ineffectual. PES publicly expressed "concern and deep misgivings" over Fico's coalition choices, as well as "shock" and "deep disgust," for good measure. Club deputy chair Johannes Swoboda expressed doubt that such a government could uphold European values; 22 and the Belgian socialist MEP asked "Don't you feel ashamed as a social 21 EU concern persists. The long-term legacy of the abortive effort to assert European values in the Austrian case, and to provide for response to future democratic deviations is Article 7 of both the Nice Constitution and the Lisbon Treaty, which provides a so-called "emergency brake," a decision-making mechanism to impose sanctions on member states that manifest a "serious breach" of European values specified in the treaty under Article 2. Approving the Lisbon Treaty thus does provide a new conditionality mechanism; it remains to be seen how badly it is needed and whether it will have any practical utility. See http ://register.consilium.europa.eu/gdf/en/08/st06/st06655.en08.pdf 2 "Evropsti socialiste znepokojeni vznikajici koalici na Slovensku," CTK, June 29, 2006. SLOVAKIA 155 democrat of forming a coalition with a party known for its xenophobia?"23 In October 2006, PES President Poul Nyrup Rasmussen announced: The PES resolution refers specifically to the Declaration "For a modern, pluralist and tolerant Europe" adopted by PES Congress in 2001 in Berlin which states "all PES parties adhere to the following principles .. . to refrain from any form ofpolitical alliance or co-operation at all levels with any political party which incites or attempts to stir up racial or ethnic prejudices and racial hatred. " 24 Only in 2008 was SMER 'S membership application conditionally reinstated after both SMER and SNS submitted letters confirming their commitment to minority rights, a largely declarative gesture. But this so-called "nightmare coalition" with the HZDS and SNS was not inevitable. The contrasting case of Bulgaria is instructive. The victorious Borisov party in 2009 ruled out a coalition with the Turkish minority MRF during the election campaign as part of the incumbent government he attacked. Like Fico, candidate Borisov employed a populist discourse-what Pop-Eleches would call the new centrist populism 25- and an appeal that, while taking pot shots at minorities, was not radically nationalist. His "outsider" strategy, however, dictated a rejection of all the status quo parties, and particularly the incumbents. Fico, on the other hand, although not loath to criticize minorities, had moderated his populist appeals and reoriented to social democracy by the 2006 election. 26 Fico gave serious consideration to a KDH/MKP coalition, but could not get agreement on it-Miroslav Kusy notes that the KDH leadership was badly and bitterly split on the possibility, with some insisting on a set of moral issues (such as ban23 24 25 Slovak Spectator, September 11 , 2006. http ://www.pes.org/en/news/smer-suspended-pes-political-family. Pop-Eleches, "Throwing out the Bums: Protest Voting and Unorthodox Parties after Communism," World Politics 62 (2010), 221-60. 26 See Kevin Deegan-Krause and Tim Haughton, "Toward a More Useful Conceptualization of Populism: Types and Degrees of Populist Appeals in the Case of Slovakia," Politics and Policy 37:4 (2009), 82 1-41 . 156 SLOVAKIA ning same-sex marriage and contraception); KDH deliberations were so protracted that Fico ultimately gave up. 27 KDH's hesitation was the mostly widely cited reason for the sinking of the alternative SMER-SMK-KDH coalition, both by media and coalition partners. 28 Despite the programmatic dissonances with SMER, such an alignment had the attraction for KDH and SMK of averting the coalition that did in fact emerge. In any case, Fico is a clever politician, and he realized that the SNS and HZDS would be easier to undercut. Fico could and did steal some of the SNS political clothes and a bit of its electorate by annexing the nationalist issue-a kind of electoral poaching that would have been impossible against the KDH and SMK--and in Meciar's HZDS he had an aging and politically dying junior partner. Fico is also something of a control freak- he immediately sidelined Monika Flasikova-Benova, a public critic of his coalition choice, at the next party congress by stripping her and others of leadership roles-(he was also canny in avoiding the appointment of too many MPs as ministers, who if discarded, might return to parliament and defect from the party). His final coalition choices therefore, would be more malleable, provided he could manage the public response, in particular, to SNS outbursts. In the new government, Meciar's party alarmingly claimed the Justice portfolio. SNS portfolios included Agriculture, Regional Development and Education, all highly salient policy domains for minorities. Agriculture and Regional Development, previously held by SMK, are germane to economic conditions in the ethnically mixed areas of southern Slovakia, which are generally more rural and less developed than the north or west. And putting education policy in the hands of SNS raised concerns that minority issues would get short shrift. 27 Miroslav Kusy, "Catastrophic Scenario in Bratislava," The Analyst: Central and Eastern European Review 2 (2006), 37. The KDH division was so pronounced as to cause a leadership crisis and resignations from the party leadership in its aftermath. 28 See for example the comments by Ivan Miklos in Hospodtirske noviny, June 29, 2006: "The European Peoples Party won't understand very well, how it is possible that these three EPP member parties weren't able to reach agreement. In this sense, I think that the responsibility for this situation lies especially on the KDH. " In this case, Miklos blamed the KDH for balking at bringing the HZDS into a SDKUKDH-SMK coalition. SLOVAKIA 157 Two related effects of this government's tenure on party system dynamics are worth noting. At the majority nationalist end of the identity continuum, one can visualize Fico as a political vampire, draining his coalition partners of standing and voters. Fico preempted the national issue from his more volatile and extremist coalition colleague, Jan Slota of the SNS, by challenging the national sentiment of historians at the Slovak Academy of Sciences, as well as of the media, both of whom he accused of exhibiting "un-Slovak" tendencies. Fico proclaimed 2008 as the "Year of the Slovak Nation." He re-constructed pre-national history with a claim on the Great Moravian Empire having consisted of "ancient Slovaks"29 and commissioned a statue of warrior King (Prince) Svatopluk for the Bratislava Castle courtyard-an equestrian monument installed just before the elections in 2010 amid great controversy about the historicity of the claims made about his ethnicity, the Byzantine cross on his shield, and even whether he was actually a king.30 From the outset, Fico tended to overlook rather than to chastise the SNS and its incendiary leader. He was content to let Slota's outrageous statements pillory his own credibility. A case in point: Slota apparently sought to launch his party's electoral campaign in early 2010 with the pronouncement that Hungary was planning a military 31 invasion of Slovakia to revise the Treaty of Trianon. Fico did chastise the spectacular SNS corruption in office. Both in the 1990s and in the Fico government, the SNS has been noted for ministerial corruption. The SNS held two portfolios-Construction and Regional development and Environment--in the Fico government, in addition to a deputy prime-ministership. Both incumbents at Construction and Regional Development were dismissed in quick succession over the so-called "Bulletin-Board" tender, in which public procurement procedures were violated in favor of an in-house 29 "Fico's Revisionist History," Transitions Online, February 29, 2008. ° Fico expressed the hope that the statue would become a national pilgrimage site, 3 but the statue immediately became politicized as the extremist group "Our Slovakia" came to its rescue (a commission on its dissolution has been formed) without an assembly permit. As of November 2010, the party's website has youtube video of riot police blocking the pilgrimage. Meanwhile, anti-racist groups mobilized to challenge the party. Fico also appropriated the 18 th century social bandit Jano~ik as a Social Democrat. 31 The Slovak Spectator, March 24, 2010. 158 SLOVAKIA process that awarded contracts to two firms with close ties to the SNS leader Jan Slota. SNS Environment Minister Jaroslav Izak, who was asked to resign for his ministry's mishandling of EU environmental funds , was followed by Jan Chrbet, whose forced resignation was triggered by a scandal surrounding the awarding of carbon emissions contracts on terms unfavorable to the government. When his successor from the SNS, Viliam Tursky, was also removed for murky contract awards, Prime Minister Fico announced that it was time to take the environmental portfolio away from the SNS.32 (Startlingly, Slota demanded the human and minority rights portfolio in exchange for the lost environmental slot.) Hence, by the end of his term in office, Fico had succeeded not only in pre-empting Slota with a more respectable nationalism, but also in discrediting him and his party on the politically winning issue of anti-corruption (a useful diversion from SMER 's own corruption problems).33 By 2010, the debilitated SNS squeaked into the subsequent parliament by only a tenth of a percentage point over the electoral threshold and lost more than half of its previous seats (down from twenty to nine )- a voting hemorrhage that pre-election opinion polls suggest went to Fico. 34 Tibor Kis concludes that Fico "offered voters a European alternative to Vladimir Meciar's nationalist L'S-HZDS and a social and ' Slovak' alternative relative to centre-right organiza- 32 See The Slovak Spectator, August 31, 2009. http://spectator.sme.sk/articles/view/36352/11 /people often get what they want n ot what they need.html. 33 SNS corruption problems might have been predicted from its previous term in office, and by the general trends in ministerial corruption region-wide. In the overall universe of cabinet ministers in 13 post-communist EU members and candidate members serving between 1990 and 2009, minority politicians were just about exactly average in their involvement in corruption scandals (13%). The majority nationalist party ministers, by contrast, were close to twice as likely to be scandal prone (23%) as the norm, and thereby more embarrassing as coalition partners. Involvement in corruption scandals as used here does not imply eventually proven guilt in a court of law. (Corruption Involvement is coded if the minister is formally investigated by law enforcement agencies or parliament, arrested and tried, or documented as engaging in suspect behavior by a corruption agency). 34 See Kevin Deegan-Krause 's Pozorblog, 2010 Slovak Parliamentary Elections: Post-Election Report, July 14, 2010, http://www.pozorb1og. com/ . SLOVAKIA 159 tions."35 Fico appears, indeed, to have been too successful in this regard: As Mesik notes, "By attracting SNS as well as HZDS voters, Fico successfully cannibalized his partners in the government and only woke up to the day when his by far strongest party did not have partners to form a government with." Hungarian Minority Politics If Fico proved effective (and somewhat self-defeating) in absorbing votes from his coalition partners in the 2010 elections, the exclusion of the SMK from government also had ramifications for minority party politics. At first, the SMK' s position on the opposition benches had some echoes of the 1990s. Amidst a general disarray after losing power, it was striking that the Fico era started with the failure of the ethnic Slovak opposition parties to back the SMK on issues like the Hedviga Malinova /Malina Hedvig case. The three opposition parties did not meet for four months until the controversy regarding Deputy Agriculture Minister Marian Zahumensky. Second, the transition to opposition acerbated longstanding tensions within the SMK. As long as the SMK was in government, tensions within the party could be curbed. Going into opposition meant not only a loss of policy influence, but also a time of reckoning. In March of 2007, the popular and moderate Bela Bugar moved on his less moderate vice-chair- the venerable communist-era dissident Miklos Duray--by seeking to abolish the vice-chair position; the effort rebounded, leading to an upset victory for the party leadership by Pal Csaky. The new SMK was ever more closely identified with Hungary and particularly with FIDESZ, a stance that proved an excellent foil for Slota and the SNS . The SMK was "increasingly perceived and portrayed by Slovak politicians as an extraterritorial branch of FIDESZ." 36 35 Tibor Kis, "Smer: Success Story or Scandal?" The Analyst-Central and Eastern European Review I (2008), 67 . 36 Mesik, Juraj , Slovakia 2010: An Election with Only Limited Choice (Prague: Heinrich Boll Stiftung, 2010), p. I. https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache :NXmv IM538AJ :www.boell.cz/downloads/slovakia-20 I 0( I ).pdf+Slovakia+20 I 0:+An+Election+with+Only+Limited+Choice&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEE SjAbC2uqap66j5MK3mL54uKxbdb6uwiyAnKG8PdcOnGr7TN3cTV4UToaJbphV Dhh Wjlam VNsCTq DriBh Yin WQ4wn6V9PW9qn WFarJSCkyf Jho VJx2g9JpgEj7MPq-DXaaQb&sig=AHIEtbQZam6lz-BjubssUvDtT73Na95dzA 160 SLOVAKIA Csaky 's orientation to the protection of Hungarian interests was to look outward. An example was his meeting with Laszlo Tokes, a central figure of the hard-line wing of Romania' s minority party UDMR, and Csaky's attendance as an observer at the Carpathian Autonomy Council that Tokes had founded. The two leaders apparently discussed the idea of a cross-national mini-minority parliament. Nothing could have been better calculated to play to ethnic Slovak fears about Slovak Hungarian loyalties.37 In 2008, Bugar left the SMK and founded his own party- one that signaled its moderation on national issues with the name MostHid (bridge in Slovak and Hungarian). Csaky professed to believe, along with Slota, that Most-Hid was a stalking horse (actually a Trojan horse) created and funded by SMER. Beyond that, he refused to discuss future cooperation with Most-Hid on the grounds that it wouldn't make it into parliament. 38 Csaky was quite wrong. Defying the pre-election polls, Most-Hid polled over eight percent, nearly doubling the vote of Csaky's SMK, and replacing it in parliament. What did the 2010 vote mean? Were Hungarian voters seeking moderation, as some media analysts said? Or was it a coordination failure , with Hungarians in Slovakia voting strategically in hopes of getting both SMK and Most-Hid into parliament? (This view would explain why Most-Hid did so much better than the last pre-election polls suggested-ethnic Hungarian voters, seeing that SMK was comfortably over the threshold, may have diverted votes to MostHid/ 9 As in the case of many party schisms, then, the upshot was a crippling of Hungarian minority representation in parliament. 40 37 "Csaky naru~il tabu," SME, September 29, 2008. "Csaky: Nep6jdeme do vlady za kazdu cenu," SME, May 7, 20 10, http ://volby.sme.sk/clanok_ tlac.asp?cl=5363302 39 The Slovak Spectator June 21, 20 IO ; some SMK leaders embraced this theory. "Csaky konti, SMK hl'ada ~efa" SME, June 14, 20 I 0, http ://volby.sme.sk/clanoktlac.asp?cl=5421864. 40 A pre-election poll in 20 IO indicated that Most-Hid was drawing almost 60% of its supporters from SMK, 18% from first time voters, 5% from former non-voters and the rest from other parties. The Slovak Spectator, June 3, 20 I 0. The number of Hungarians in the Most-Hid delegation itself was also lowered by the preferential voting of supporters of OKS (Civic Conservative Party), with whom Most-Hid fo rmed a joint candidate slate. See Viera Zuborova, Viera (2011 ), Marketizacia vonkaj~ej reklamy v parlamentnych vol'bach 20 IO v Slovenskej republike," Acta Politologica 3: I (2011 ):7; statistics at "Vysledky preferenfoeo hlasovania: Vys38 SLOVAKIA 161 Conclusion: Is there reason to expect a durable effect of the Fico era for identity politics in Slovakia? The policy footprint was not especially deep, and the succeeding Radicova government mitigated some of its impact on Hungarian minority relations. The Fico language law was partially modified in December of 2010, restricting its use, but disappointing minorities-who deemed the amendment "less bad"-by its retention of the penalties for improper language use.41 2011 saw an initiative to resolve the dual citizenship issue by joint agreement with the Hungarian government, although to date without a favorable response from the Orban government. 42 The long-term party system effects are less predictable. For example, while Meciar's slide into oblivion even deepened in the 2012 election, sliding to a mere percentage point of the electorate, it is less obvious that Slota's SNS is on the brink of extinction despite the narrow escape in 2010 and the failure to return to parliament in 2012. Earlier, the SNS had survived a schism (in some respects the mirror image of what happened to SMK after 2006) that actually knocked it out of parliament in 2002; it reconsolidated and returned. In 2012, as well, the party was fractured by the expulsion of deputy leader Anna Belousova, who contested the 2012 election with her own party Nation and Justice. Despite the SNS record of corruption and outrageousness, yet another reunion of the party leadership might resuscitate it, although service in Fico 's government was definitely a poisoned chalice. In the 2010 election, the shrinkage of the SNS deprived Fico of a coalition partner and the prime ministership. As a result of the March, 2012 elections, Fico no longer needed that assistance, since his SMER became the first Slovak party since indeledky volieb do NR SR: 12.06.2010," Most-Hid website, http://www.most-hidke.sk/sk/vo1by-nrsr20 I 0-preferencne-hlasy. 41 "Language Act takes a "less bad" form," Minority Report, Monthly Bulletin on the Hungarian Community in Slovakia, Issue 12-2010, http://www.freeweb.hu/mkdsz l/pdf/MR-Ol-2011.pdf. 42 "Hungary: "Nern! " to Slovak Dual Citizenship Proposal," The Daily.sk, posted 12 July 20 11 , http://www.thedaily.sk/2011 /07 /12/top-news/hungary-nem-to-slovak-dualcitizensh ip-proposal/. The Fico government, elected in March of 2012, signaled that it would slightly modify its earlier draconian response by allowing dual citizenship to Slovaks actually residing in the other country. 162 SLOVAKIA pendence to win an outright majority of the parliamentary seats (83 out of 150).43 As for the emergence of two major partisan competitors for the Hungarian electorate, the ambiguities in interpreting Most-Hid's victory over the SMK stand in the way of a clear prediction. Past electoral outcomes show that being in power has not previously eroded the support of the minority electorate, either in Slovakia or in the parallel cases of Bulgaria and Romania. On that basis, it might be possible to argue for Most-Hid to further consolidate its position. However, what Romania, Bulgaria and Slovakia also had in common until this election was the dominance of a single minority party or electoral coalition. 44 The story may be quite different with an alternative and established minority-based party challenging each decision, even from outside parliament. The municipal elections of November 2010 and the parliamentary elections of 2012, which showed the two Hungarian parties splitting their vote, did not clarify the picture. Although an extraparliamentary party like the SMK could not promise influence at the center to woo voters, the SMK retained its established organizational base and its government subsidy and thus retains a presence in politics (it also retains its representation in the European parliament). Local party organizations generally hold the decision-making power to run joint candidates with other parties or to cooperate in local coalitions after elections, and there was indeed some limited cooperation, but also cases, as in the Komarno mayor's race, where dividing the Hungarian vote opened the way to victory for an independent Slovak candidate. The basis for cooperation, however, is shaky. The SMK has grown ever closer to the nationalist Fidesz party in Hungary, and proudly announced in March 2011 that Hungary had incorporated three SMK proposals into its new constitution. Moreover, the SMK party chair, Joszef Berenyi, actually announced in January of 2011 that he was applying for Hungarian citizenship under the controversial new law. These maneuvers only underline the SMK' s distance from the more moderate Most-Hid. During the winter of 2011, de43 Sme, March 11 , 2012. It is true that before 1998, the SMK was not a single entity; rather, it was a group of Hungarian parties which ran on a single slate, not as competitors. 44 SLOVAKIA 163 spite the clear electoral incentives to do so, the two parties failed to reach any agreement on electoral cooperation in 2012, and contested the parliamentary elections completely separately. Once again, SMK barely missed parliamentary representation, while Most-Hid survived, although it lost more than a percentage point and one MP in the 2012 elections. In closing, it would appear that electoral outcomes and coalition choices matter more than external pressures for normative conformity on minority rights issues, just as they did in the pre-accession period before 2004. Government policies on minorities in Slovakia respond primarily to partisan domestic constituencies, and vary according to the government in power. Even though minority inclusion in government was known to be desirable to Brussels, once Slovakia was safely in the European Union, minority inclusion was not jettisoned, but rather subject to the same kinds of political logic and choices that determined which identity-based party would be included in government before 2004.  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Hungarian Minority Politics in Slovakia: Under Fico, After EU Accession Description An account of the resource Carol Skalnik Leff Slovakia, Vol. 41 (No. 76-77), 2013 pp. 145-163 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Leff, Carol Skalnik, 1947- Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2013 LCNAF+dates https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/4b3dfb1be510791b953c7ba1bf686763.pdf 1bd60abcbe147ef63cc1b2e4b7d2a222 PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA 21 I Met President Tiso E. L. Delaney Periodically some senators and representatives arise in the halls of Congress to eloquently deplore the plight of those people in what we rightly regard as the "Captive Nations". Apart from expressions of synthetic sympathy nothing meaningful is done to effect the liberation of those captives in the Soviet-communist combine. The short-lived Republic of Slovakia is one of those unfortunate victims. Thirty three years ago-March 14, 1939, the Slovak Parliament in Bratislava-in accordance with the CzechoSlovak constitution - unanimously proclaimed the independence of the Slovak Republic. With its population of about 4,400,000 and an area of approximately 50,000 square kilometers, Slovakia is in the heart of Eastern Europe . In the 9th and 10th centuries it was the first political, cultural and Christian center in that part of the world . But it was not until March of 1939 that Slovakia's duly elected political representatives proclaimed their right of self-determination. In March 1939 there was no war in Europe and none was imminent. Practically all European countries officially recognized Slovakia and established diplomatic or consular relations with the new political entity-including our wartime allies, Britain, France and the Soviet Union. The fact that pernicious influences in our Washington administration succeeded in withholding recognition of the new Republic does not alter the indisputable fact that it did exist. Non-European countries with representation in Bratislava, the capital, were: Japan, Manchuria, Siam, China, Costa Rica and Equador. It is appropriate to mention that the Soviet had approximately 200 persons attached to its embassy in Bratislava. Other countries could operate with 10 or 12 people. But undoubtedly large staffs are �22 SLOVAEJA needed for propaganda, subversion and espionage, in which the Soviet is always engaged. During World War II, when a large part of Europe was plagued by want, Slovakia was rightfully regarded as an oasis of peace, prosperity and plenty. This paradise in war-rationed Europe had existed over three years before I had an opportunity to enjoy it. A few days after my arrival in Bratislava, the capital, I was invited to a dinner party where I met Jozef Mracna. He had been Consul for Czecho-Slovakia in New York. We soon discovered that we had many mutual friends there. He returned to Slovakia when it became a self-governing republic and was an official of the administration. I asked him if he could arrange for me to interview the President. He said he could-and did. On my arrival at the presidential palace at the appointed time I met Dr. Karol Murin, personal secretary of Msgr. Tiso who escorted me into the President's private study. Msgr. Tiso, or President Tiso as he was then, greeted me with a hearty hand-shake and a few words of English -his entire vocabulary in that language, as he laughingly admitted. He spoke Slovak, Czech, German and Hungarian, so our interview was conducted in German. His black hair was sprinkled with a few strands of grey and his dark blue eyes resembled those of the Irish. I mentioned to the President that a learned professor in Banska Bystrica told me that the Slovaks and Irish are both of Celtic origin. Msgr. Tiso observed that there is some similarity between Slovakia and Ireland; both countries are predominently Christian and have been for centuries; both are largely agrarian and both have more of their countrymen in America than in Europe. Our discussion touched on various subjects. For generations Slovakia had been a farming community but now they were promoting various industries. "A major problem confronting us," said the President, "is in getting teachers and technical instructors for the projects we hope to develop." When Slovakia was part of Czecho-Slovakia, the Czechs �SLOVAKIA 23 contrived to keep all industries in their part of the country. Now Slovakia, as the President observed, was endeavoring to encourage and develop its resources without too much reliance on Czechs, Germans, Hungarians or Russians. As the time came for me to leave, I mentioned to his Excellency that there was a twinkle of humor in his eyes and would it be quite proper for me to send him a little reminder of our visit? "What-for instance?" he asked. "I'm sure that during these winter nights it is quite cold in this ages-old palace. So I thought - that for medicinal purpose, of course, you might appreciate a half dozen bottles of good Canadian whisky." He laughed heartily and said, "I'll be glad to get it." The gift was sent. Some time later I was asked to again visit the palace when the President gave me a beautiful example of the artistic needle work that is done by many of the Slovak women and girls. That treasure is still in my possession. Little did I surmise that we were to be together several more times-but under vastly different circumstances. In the so-called histories and recordings of important events in Central and Eastern Europe during the latter weeks of World War II-much is purposely omitted. There is no mention of the unprecedented proposal made by the Soviet communists to recognize Slovakia as a sovereign state and to retain Msgr. Tiso as President. That proposal was made through diplomatic channels and told me by Stefan Tiso, then prime minister of Slovakia and confirmed by the former foreign minister of Slovakia, Dr. Ferdinand f>urcansky, presently residing in Munich, Germany. Of all the captive nations under the thraldom of Soviet communism, none would be more incongruous than a communist Slovakia with a Catholic monsignor as its president. Of course the Kremlin's proposal was curtly rejected by the Tiso administration. When the Red army advanced from Budapest toward Bratislava, President Tiso and his cabinet together with many others fled to Kremsmuenster, Austria. They expected and rightly so, that the United States forces would occupy �24 SLOVAKIA that part of Eastern Europe. The Slovak "colony" arrived in Austria April 1, 1945. (This writer left Slovakia the following day.) Although regarded as "top secret" it was known that the former president of Czecho-Slovakia, Eduard Benes, with the aid of Franklin Roosevelt had flown to Moscow where he betrayed his country to the communists, with the understanding that he would be the "president" of the republic we now know as Czecho-Slovakia. On May 8, 1945, the refugee Slovak government in Austria signed a surrender document which was co-signed by Brig. General W. A. Collier of the US Army; Col. T. 0. Curtis and Capt. David W. Allard of the US Army. General Collier assured the Slovak refugees that they would not be delivered to the communists. Like some of the other pledges of proper treatment that were made by American officialdom to the anticommunists in certain European countries, such assurances were flagrantly violated. President Tiso, with his cabinet members, private secretary and another priest were transferred from Austria to an internment establishment in Freising, Bavaria, which was maintained by the U.S. Army . In Dr. J . M. Kirschbaum's book "Slovakia-Nation at the Crossroads of Central Europe" is noted on page 311 a caption: Denial By U.S. War Department." (as follows) "Washington, D. C. February 7, 1947. "There is no record in the files of this office which shows that Monsignor Tiso was ever held by the American Forces or delivered to the Czechoslovakian authorities from American custody. Daniel Noce, Major General, O.S.C . Chief Civil Affairs Div." That statement of General Noce was either due to lamentable and inexcusable ignorance of fact or deliberate lie. I was with Msgr. Tiso many hours of many days when he and his fellow Slovaks were imprisoned by the American military forces in barracks at Freising. The charge against me was that I "had written anti-communist articles during the war." The charge was correct. I had written anti-communist, anti-Soviet articles. I dared, in fact cordially invited the �SLOVAKIA 25 Justice Department officials to make such formal indictment against me. If anti-Soviet and anti-communist was regarded as un-American and a criminal offense, I wanted it publicized in an American court. For obvious reasons the Justice Department found it convenient not to invite such exposure of aid to communist causes of which certain departments of the administration were guilty. All were shocked one morning when word was received at the Freising barracks that the Slovaks were to be delivered to the communist regime of Eduard Benes. I went to those betrayed Slovaks and assured them that it was not real Americans who were violating every pledge given them. Among the armed guards who were to deliver the Slovaks to the communist torturers were European born refugees in American uniforms . The testimony of those Slovaks who endured that transfer from Freising into the territory of the Czech regime of communist-aiding Eduard Benes-is a matter of indisputable record. We recall with shame the barbarian brutalities suffered recently by the Lithuanian seaman who sought refuge on an American Coast Guard vessel. Equally as brutal treatment was the lot of those Slovaks whe were beaten, kicked and tortured unmercifully by the alien element in American uniforms, then delivered to the communists. During the sham "trial" in Bratislava of Msgr. Tiso the communist prosecutor endeavored to force reference by Tiso of that ordeal. But Tiso refused to speak of it. His fate was pre-ordained. Death by hanging. Because he had served his God and his beloved people to the best of his ability-he was sentenced to death. Two hours before his execution he wrote a message for his people and for all Western Christian civilization. He wrote-in part: "I consider myself a martyr in defense c:>f Christianity against Bolshevism-against which the nation must defend itself in all possible ways, not only in the spirit of its Christian character but in the interests of its future." I recall that Msgr. Tiso once impressed on me the truth that "you cannot compromise with communism." That truism should be impressed on those who now urge cooperation with communism. � SLOVAKIA 21 I Met President Tiso E. L. Delaney Periodically some senators and representatives arise in the halls of Congress to eloquently deplore the plight of those people in what we rightly regard as the "Captive Nations". Apart from expressions of synthetic sympathy nothing meaningful is done to effect the liberation of those captives in the Soviet-communist combine. The short-lived Republic of Slovakia is one of those unfortunate victims. Thirty three years ago-March 14, 1939, the Slovak Parliament in Bratislava-in accordance with the CzechoSlovak constitution - unanimously proclaimed the independence of the Slovak Republic. With its population of about 4,400,000 and an area of approximately 50,000 square kilometers, Slovakia is in the heart of Eastern Europe . In the 9th and 10th centuries it was the first political, cultural and Christian center in that part of the world . But it was not until March of 1939 that Slovakia's duly elected political representatives proclaimed their right of self-determination. In March 1939 there was no war in Europe and none was imminent. Practically all European countries officially recognized Slovakia and established diplomatic or consular relations with the new political entity-including our wartime allies, Britain, France and the Soviet Union. The fact that pernicious influences in our Washington administration succeeded in withholding recognition of the new Republic does not alter the indisputable fact that it did exist. Non-European countries with representation in Bratislava, the capital, were: Japan, Manchuria, Siam, China, Costa Rica and Equador. It is appropriate to mention that the Soviet had approximately 200 persons attached to its embassy in Bratislava. Other countries could operate with 10 or 12 people. But undoubtedly large staffs are �22 SLOVAEJA needed for propaganda, subversion and espionage, in which the Soviet is always engaged. During World War II, when a large part of Europe was plagued by want, Slovakia was rightfully regarded as an oasis of peace, prosperity and plenty. This paradise in war-rationed Europe had existed over three years before I had an opportunity to enjoy it. A few days after my arrival in Bratislava, the capital, I was invited to a dinner party where I met Jozef Mracna. He had been Consul for Czecho-Slovakia in New York. We soon discovered that we had many mutual friends there. He returned to Slovakia when it became a self-governing republic and was an official of the administration. I asked him if he could arrange for me to interview the President. He said he could-and did. On my arrival at the presidential palace at the appointed time I met Dr. Karol Murin, personal secretary of Msgr. Tiso who escorted me into the President's private study. Msgr. Tiso, or President Tiso as he was then, greeted me with a hearty hand-shake and a few words of English -his entire vocabulary in that language, as he laughingly admitted. He spoke Slovak, Czech, German and Hungarian, so our interview was conducted in German. His black hair was sprinkled with a few strands of grey and his dark blue eyes resembled those of the Irish. I mentioned to the President that a learned professor in Banska Bystrica told me that the Slovaks and Irish are both of Celtic origin. Msgr. Tiso observed that there is some similarity between Slovakia and Ireland; both countries are predominently Christian and have been for centuries; both are largely agrarian and both have more of their countrymen in America than in Europe. Our discussion touched on various subjects. For generations Slovakia had been a farming community but now they were promoting various industries. "A major problem confronting us," said the President, "is in getting teachers and technical instructors for the projects we hope to develop." When Slovakia was part of Czecho-Slovakia, the Czechs �SLOVAKIA 23 contrived to keep all industries in their part of the country. Now Slovakia, as the President observed, was endeavoring to encourage and develop its resources without too much reliance on Czechs, Germans, Hungarians or Russians. As the time came for me to leave, I mentioned to his Excellency that there was a twinkle of humor in his eyes and would it be quite proper for me to send him a little reminder of our visit? "What-for instance?" he asked. "I'm sure that during these winter nights it is quite cold in this ages-old palace. So I thought - that for medicinal purpose, of course, you might appreciate a half dozen bottles of good Canadian whisky." He laughed heartily and said, "I'll be glad to get it." The gift was sent. Some time later I was asked to again visit the palace when the President gave me a beautiful example of the artistic needle work that is done by many of the Slovak women and girls. That treasure is still in my possession. Little did I surmise that we were to be together several more times-but under vastly different circumstances. In the so-called histories and recordings of important events in Central and Eastern Europe during the latter weeks of World War II-much is purposely omitted. There is no mention of the unprecedented proposal made by the Soviet communists to recognize Slovakia as a sovereign state and to retain Msgr. Tiso as President. That proposal was made through diplomatic channels and told me by Stefan Tiso, then prime minister of Slovakia and confirmed by the former foreign minister of Slovakia, Dr. Ferdinand f>urcansky, presently residing in Munich, Germany. Of all the captive nations under the thraldom of Soviet communism, none would be more incongruous than a communist Slovakia with a Catholic monsignor as its president. Of course the Kremlin's proposal was curtly rejected by the Tiso administration. When the Red army advanced from Budapest toward Bratislava, President Tiso and his cabinet together with many others fled to Kremsmuenster, Austria. They expected and rightly so, that the United States forces would occupy �24 SLOVAKIA that part of Eastern Europe. The Slovak "colony" arrived in Austria April 1, 1945. (This writer left Slovakia the following day.) Although regarded as "top secret" it was known that the former president of Czecho-Slovakia, Eduard Benes, with the aid of Franklin Roosevelt had flown to Moscow where he betrayed his country to the communists, with the understanding that he would be the "president" of the republic we now know as Czecho-Slovakia. On May 8, 1945, the refugee Slovak government in Austria signed a surrender document which was co-signed by Brig. General W. A. Collier of the US Army; Col. T. 0. Curtis and Capt. David W. Allard of the US Army. General Collier assured the Slovak refugees that they would not be delivered to the communists. Like some of the other pledges of proper treatment that were made by American officialdom to the anticommunists in certain European countries, such assurances were flagrantly violated. President Tiso, with his cabinet members, private secretary and another priest were transferred from Austria to an internment establishment in Freising, Bavaria, which was maintained by the U.S. Army . In Dr. J . M. Kirschbaum's book "Slovakia-Nation at the Crossroads of Central Europe" is noted on page 311 a caption: Denial By U.S. War Department." (as follows) "Washington, D. C. February 7, 1947. "There is no record in the files of this office which shows that Monsignor Tiso was ever held by the American Forces or delivered to the Czechoslovakian authorities from American custody. Daniel Noce, Major General, O.S.C . Chief Civil Affairs Div." That statement of General Noce was either due to lamentable and inexcusable ignorance of fact or deliberate lie. I was with Msgr. Tiso many hours of many days when he and his fellow Slovaks were imprisoned by the American military forces in barracks at Freising. The charge against me was that I "had written anti-communist articles during the war." The charge was correct. I had written anti-communist, anti-Soviet articles. I dared, in fact cordially invited the �SLOVAKIA 25 Justice Department officials to make such formal indictment against me. If anti-Soviet and anti-communist was regarded as un-American and a criminal offense, I wanted it publicized in an American court. For obvious reasons the Justice Department found it convenient not to invite such exposure of aid to communist causes of which certain departments of the administration were guilty. All were shocked one morning when word was received at the Freising barracks that the Slovaks were to be delivered to the communist regime of Eduard Benes. I went to those betrayed Slovaks and assured them that it was not real Americans who were violating every pledge given them. Among the armed guards who were to deliver the Slovaks to the communist torturers were European born refugees in American uniforms . The testimony of those Slovaks who endured that transfer from Freising into the territory of the Czech regime of communist-aiding Eduard Benes-is a matter of indisputable record. We recall with shame the barbarian brutalities suffered recently by the Lithuanian seaman who sought refuge on an American Coast Guard vessel. Equally as brutal treatment was the lot of those Slovaks whe were beaten, kicked and tortured unmercifully by the alien element in American uniforms, then delivered to the communists. During the sham "trial" in Bratislava of Msgr. Tiso the communist prosecutor endeavored to force reference by Tiso of that ordeal. But Tiso refused to speak of it. His fate was pre-ordained. Death by hanging. Because he had served his God and his beloved people to the best of his ability-he was sentenced to death. Two hours before his execution he wrote a message for his people and for all Western Christian civilization. He wrote-in part: "I consider myself a martyr in defense c:>f Christianity against Bolshevism-against which the nation must defend itself in all possible ways, not only in the spirit of its Christian character but in the interests of its future." I recall that Msgr. Tiso once impressed on me the truth that "you cannot compromise with communism." That truism should be impressed on those who now urge cooperation with communism. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1972, Vol. 22 Description An account of the resource Vol. 22 (No. 45), 1972. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1972 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document SLOVAKIA 21 I Met President Tiso E. L. Delaney Periodically some senators and representatives arise in the halls of Congress to eloquently deplore the plight of those people in what we rightly regard as the "Captive Nations". Apart from expressions of synthetic sympathy nothing meaningful is done to effect the liberation of those captives in the Soviet-communist combine. The short-lived Republic of Slovakia is one of those unfortunate victims. Thirty three years ago-March 14, 1939, the Slovak Parliament in Bratislava-in accordance with the CzechoSlovak constitution - unanimously proclaimed the independence of the Slovak Republic. With its population of about 4,400,000 and an area of approximately 50,000 square kilometers, Slovakia is in the heart of Eastern Europe . In the 9th and 10th centuries it was the first political, cultural and Christian center in that part of the world . But it was not until March of 1939 that Slovakia's duly elected political representatives proclaimed their right of self-determination. In March 1939 there was no war in Europe and none was imminent. Practically all European countries officially recognized Slovakia and established diplomatic or consular relations with the new political entity-including our wartime allies, Britain, France and the Soviet Union. The fact that pernicious influences in our Washington administration succeeded in withholding recognition of the new Republic does not alter the indisputable fact that it did exist. Non-European countries with representation in Bratislava, the capital, were: Japan, Manchuria, Siam, China, Costa Rica and Equador. It is appropriate to mention that the Soviet had approximately 200 persons attached to its embassy in Bratislava. Other countries could operate with 10 or 12 people. But undoubtedly large staffs are 22 SLOVAEJA needed for propaganda, subversion and espionage, in which the Soviet is always engaged. During World War II, when a large part of Europe was plagued by want, Slovakia was rightfully regarded as an oasis of peace, prosperity and plenty. This paradise in war-rationed Europe had existed over three years before I had an opportunity to enjoy it. A few days after my arrival in Bratislava, the capital, I was invited to a dinner party where I met Jozef Mracna. He had been Consul for Czecho-Slovakia in New York. We soon discovered that we had many mutual friends there. He returned to Slovakia when it became a self-governing republic and was an official of the administration. I asked him if he could arrange for me to interview the President. He said he could-and did. On my arrival at the presidential palace at the appointed time I met Dr. Karol Murin, personal secretary of Msgr. Tiso who escorted me into the President's private study. Msgr. Tiso, or President Tiso as he was then, greeted me with a hearty hand-shake and a few words of English -his entire vocabulary in that language, as he laughingly admitted. He spoke Slovak, Czech, German and Hungarian, so our interview was conducted in German. His black hair was sprinkled with a few strands of grey and his dark blue eyes resembled those of the Irish. I mentioned to the President that a learned professor in Banska Bystrica told me that the Slovaks and Irish are both of Celtic origin. Msgr. Tiso observed that there is some similarity between Slovakia and Ireland; both countries are predominently Christian and have been for centuries; both are largely agrarian and both have more of their countrymen in America than in Europe. Our discussion touched on various subjects. For generations Slovakia had been a farming community but now they were promoting various industries. "A major problem confronting us," said the President, "is in getting teachers and technical instructors for the projects we hope to develop." When Slovakia was part of Czecho-Slovakia, the Czechs SLOVAKIA 23 contrived to keep all industries in their part of the country. Now Slovakia, as the President observed, was endeavoring to encourage and develop its resources without too much reliance on Czechs, Germans, Hungarians or Russians. As the time came for me to leave, I mentioned to his Excellency that there was a twinkle of humor in his eyes and would it be quite proper for me to send him a little reminder of our visit? "What-for instance?" he asked. "I'm sure that during these winter nights it is quite cold in this ages-old palace. So I thought - that for medicinal purpose, of course, you might appreciate a half dozen bottles of good Canadian whisky." He laughed heartily and said, "I'll be glad to get it." The gift was sent. Some time later I was asked to again visit the palace when the President gave me a beautiful example of the artistic needle work that is done by many of the Slovak women and girls. That treasure is still in my possession. Little did I surmise that we were to be together several more times-but under vastly different circumstances. In the so-called histories and recordings of important events in Central and Eastern Europe during the latter weeks of World War II-much is purposely omitted. There is no mention of the unprecedented proposal made by the Soviet communists to recognize Slovakia as a sovereign state and to retain Msgr. Tiso as President. That proposal was made through diplomatic channels and told me by Stefan Tiso, then prime minister of Slovakia and confirmed by the former foreign minister of Slovakia, Dr. Ferdinand f>urcansky, presently residing in Munich, Germany. Of all the captive nations under the thraldom of Soviet communism, none would be more incongruous than a communist Slovakia with a Catholic monsignor as its president. Of course the Kremlin's proposal was curtly rejected by the Tiso administration. When the Red army advanced from Budapest toward Bratislava, President Tiso and his cabinet together with many others fled to Kremsmuenster, Austria. They expected and rightly so, that the United States forces would occupy 24 SLOVAKIA that part of Eastern Europe. The Slovak "colony" arrived in Austria April 1, 1945. (This writer left Slovakia the following day.) Although regarded as "top secret" it was known that the former president of Czecho-Slovakia, Eduard Benes, with the aid of Franklin Roosevelt had flown to Moscow where he betrayed his country to the communists, with the understanding that he would be the "president" of the republic we now know as Czecho-Slovakia. On May 8, 1945, the refugee Slovak government in Austria signed a surrender document which was co-signed by Brig. General W. A. Collier of the US Army; Col. T. 0. Curtis and Capt. David W. Allard of the US Army. General Collier assured the Slovak refugees that they would not be delivered to the communists. Like some of the other pledges of proper treatment that were made by American officialdom to the anticommunists in certain European countries, such assurances were flagrantly violated. President Tiso, with his cabinet members, private secretary and another priest were transferred from Austria to an internment establishment in Freising, Bavaria, which was maintained by the U.S. Army . In Dr. J . M. Kirschbaum's book "Slovakia-Nation at the Crossroads of Central Europe" is noted on page 311 a caption: Denial By U.S. War Department." (as follows) "Washington, D. C. February 7, 1947. "There is no record in the files of this office which shows that Monsignor Tiso was ever held by the American Forces or delivered to the Czechoslovakian authorities from American custody. Daniel Noce, Major General, O.S.C . Chief Civil Affairs Div." That statement of General Noce was either due to lamentable and inexcusable ignorance of fact or deliberate lie. I was with Msgr. Tiso many hours of many days when he and his fellow Slovaks were imprisoned by the American military forces in barracks at Freising. The charge against me was that I "had written anti-communist articles during the war." The charge was correct. I had written anti-communist, anti-Soviet articles. I dared, in fact cordially invited the SLOVAKIA 25 Justice Department officials to make such formal indictment against me. If anti-Soviet and anti-communist was regarded as un-American and a criminal offense, I wanted it publicized in an American court. For obvious reasons the Justice Department found it convenient not to invite such exposure of aid to communist causes of which certain departments of the administration were guilty. All were shocked one morning when word was received at the Freising barracks that the Slovaks were to be delivered to the communist regime of Eduard Benes. I went to those betrayed Slovaks and assured them that it was not real Americans who were violating every pledge given them. Among the armed guards who were to deliver the Slovaks to the communist torturers were European born refugees in American uniforms . The testimony of those Slovaks who endured that transfer from Freising into the territory of the Czech regime of communist-aiding Eduard Benes-is a matter of indisputable record. We recall with shame the barbarian brutalities suffered recently by the Lithuanian seaman who sought refuge on an American Coast Guard vessel. Equally as brutal treatment was the lot of those Slovaks whe were beaten, kicked and tortured unmercifully by the alien element in American uniforms, then delivered to the communists. During the sham "trial" in Bratislava of Msgr. Tiso the communist prosecutor endeavored to force reference by Tiso of that ordeal. But Tiso refused to speak of it. His fate was pre-ordained. Death by hanging. Because he had served his God and his beloved people to the best of his ability-he was sentenced to death. Two hours before his execution he wrote a message for his people and for all Western Christian civilization. He wrote-in part: "I consider myself a martyr in defense c:>f Christianity against Bolshevism-against which the nation must defend itself in all possible ways, not only in the spirit of its Christian character but in the interests of its future." I recall that Msgr. Tiso once impressed on me the truth that "you cannot compromise with communism." That truism should be impressed on those who now urge cooperation with communism.  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource I Met President Tiso Description An account of the resource E. L. Delaney Slovakia, Vol. 22 (No. 45), 1972 pp. 21-25 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Delaney, Edward L. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1972 LCNAF https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/fe15352d8e1a70cb9f81cab07783bcfa.pdf 34067c7af7e7338496eb0152b9150b71 PDF Text Text 90 SLOVAKIA - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ----- I Was a Counnunist Yes, I was a Communist I am one no longer. For forty-five years I had lived in Canada. I survived the depression with all its critical aspects; I had seen misery hunger. thousands unemployed and I myself was one of them. I had been accustomed to work, for I worked even from my earliest days jn our parental home where there were eleven of us children. Out of that group I ventured to set out for Canada to seek my fortune. And I was overtaken by an economic crisis there. It was w~nt, hunger, unemployment and all their attendant evils that brought me into the midst of the Communists. Comrades always spoke very optimistically. They had glowing terms for Russia where there is no sign of destitution, where bread abounds beyond one's needs, where everything belongs to the ploretariat: farms, homes, factories, the state, the government, everything. That is where Justice reigns. That is where no one is wronged. It is a worker's paradise. Anyone who went through the depression and was young and unmarried found it easy to embrace Communism. That is what happened to me. Once Communism triumphs, I promised myself, there will be an end to hard times; everything will be ours: the factories, the country, the govenunent, the army. And there will be laws only to safeguard the rights of the worker and his interests. All this was promised by the party. I have been in Canada for forty-five years. Twentythree of these years I spent as a Communist. I fought with every one who dared to speak against the Soviet Union. I would not tolerate any unkind remark against it and resorted to name calling, pointing out that those who did not agree with me were blind, ignorant, bartered menials of capitalism. That was my line of action before the war. Nor was I any better during the war and I did not change after the fighting. I was dedicated to the idea that Communism must dominate the whole world and only then would good times prevail. For this pronounce- �SLOVAKIA 91 ment I almost had my teeth knocked out and I was proud to bear it as a martyr defending Communist thought. I evicted God from my heart, for they said that He is a helper of capitalists, that He commands us to obey those who are destroying us of the working class. They called me a Red and I took pride in it. For the cause of Communism I would have fought the world and for its triumph I would have laid dawn my life without a moment's thought or hesitation. When they wanted to compliment someone among the Communists, they compared him to me. I was a shining example. I worked for the party, I collected funds to further its interests, I canvassed for subscribers to our party publication. Nine years after the war I believed this with an indomitable faith that did not waver for a single instant. I waited patiently. I was not interested in reports that this or that individual brought from Slovakia. If I heard someone say that it was now worse there than it ever had been, I immediately countered the observation in my own mind as an example of base paid propaganda aimed against Communism and I reacted with intensified effort in behalf of "world peace," that beguiling cloak that effectively conceals the true nature of Communist dictatorship all the world over. The time will come, I repeated prophetically on every possible accasion and I uttered the words with vehemence and fiery emphasis. And it did come. My family in Slovakia included a number of Communists and I believed everything that they wrote me, that there is plenty in the land, that absolute justice is accorded to everyone, that life is better than it ever had been there. I believed them then but I believe them no longer. Twenty-five years of Communism in Slovakia disillusioned me and cured me effectively. A friend of mine was going over and I wanted to go and to stay there permanently. I planned to sell all that I had here before leaving. I wanted to go to build the homeland for the proletariat, the paradise for workers of which I had fondly dreamed for so many years but my wife and children were unwilling. And today I thank them and �92 SLOVAKIA I thank God that I did not go, for r would have perished there miserably as did thousands of other Communists like m,;;, men of whom there are very many more in the world. My Communist friend left. He was tougher and more impassioned than I. He left and within half a year he returned. He said very little to others, for he feared reprisals on his family and relatives in Slovakia and he even feared for his own life and welfare. He has a fine family, a wife and children; he owns a car and has some savings in the bank. He opened up and told me everything two years ago. He was deathly pale as he confided in me, for was not sure but that I might betray him. Ever since that day, I have a changed attitude toward reports from Slovakia. I began to see with my eyes wide open. My brother-in-law who was sending me those glorified accounts of Communist achievements was a base scoundrel and a sot who would have denounced or murdered his very mother for drink. The friend who was definitely cured of Communism by his visit to Slovakia put this question to me : Do you know what is the greatest source of sustenance for our people who suffer indescribably at home? - THE FAITH_ And their most powerful and invincible helper is GOD. He whom we treated as an object of ridicule. It was in the course of this discussion thit I first began to doubt. Two years passed from the time of that visit. It was twenty-three years from the time that power passed into the hands of the Communists in Slovakia. I was fifty years since the Reds had seized power in Russia, in the Ukraine and elsewhere. And these years did not suffice-not for the evclution of a paradise but not even for the betterment of life in general. A million times I asked myself why. Why? For is not the government of the ploretariat to be concerned in the first place about the food supply, the housing, the security and well-being of the ploretariat? It heaps all the excuses and the reasons for failure upon others and it dins upon those who never saw the rest of the world that the best of life exists in Russia and in those countries and places where the Communists are in control. �93 SLOVAKIA My enthusiasm cooled. Subsequent months brought a complete r evelation and I was cured of Communism forever. I made it a point to speak with scores of people who had been in Slovakia and in similar countries. Always it was in privatf:) with just the two of us exchanging views. I wanted to know the unvarnished truth about how they lived-the Slovaks, the Poles, and the others who were under the Reds . There came a message from my distressed father : My son, on bared knees pray daily that God may preserve you from the adversities upon which we have fallen here . It brought me to my knees. Never in my life had I prayed as I did then . I openly wept like a child; I clasped my hands fervently and begged to be forgiven for all those insults with which I had toasted God. I went out to find a church, to find a priest, a confessional and peace of soul. Today I pray with all my heart for those pitiable victims that languish in that Communist "paradise" which is more truthfully termed a hell. There is no justice there, no truth, no peace. There is only fear, terror, destitution and misery, insecurity and a protracted death in life. There lies on the table before me the last letter I have had from my father. They have stripped him of all that he had saved up in the sweat of his brow-his farmlands , his horses, his cows. And they want to commit him to a poorhouse where people do not live but die, for Communism does in fact talk about an old age pension but allots to the aged so little that they waste away, they starve, they die . "They have taken away everything," he writes, " and they keep taking- from everybody. You would actually have to weep over the injustices which are perpetrated upon us. As I write the letter, my eyes are filled with tears of blood; my heart is oppressed with extreme distress. I am overwhelmed not for myself alone but rather for the nation. Pray that God may save and protect you and deliver us before we perish. The situation is becoming worse and worse." J. V. � 90 SLOVAKIA - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ----- I Was a Counnunist Yes, I was a Communist I am one no longer. For forty-five years I had lived in Canada. I survived the depression with all its critical aspects; I had seen misery hunger. thousands unemployed and I myself was one of them. I had been accustomed to work, for I worked even from my earliest days jn our parental home where there were eleven of us children. Out of that group I ventured to set out for Canada to seek my fortune. And I was overtaken by an economic crisis there. It was w~nt, hunger, unemployment and all their attendant evils that brought me into the midst of the Communists. Comrades always spoke very optimistically. They had glowing terms for Russia where there is no sign of destitution, where bread abounds beyond one's needs, where everything belongs to the ploretariat: farms, homes, factories, the state, the government, everything. That is where Justice reigns. That is where no one is wronged. It is a worker's paradise. Anyone who went through the depression and was young and unmarried found it easy to embrace Communism. That is what happened to me. Once Communism triumphs, I promised myself, there will be an end to hard times; everything will be ours: the factories, the country, the govenunent, the army. And there will be laws only to safeguard the rights of the worker and his interests. All this was promised by the party. I have been in Canada for forty-five years. Twentythree of these years I spent as a Communist. I fought with every one who dared to speak against the Soviet Union. I would not tolerate any unkind remark against it and resorted to name calling, pointing out that those who did not agree with me were blind, ignorant, bartered menials of capitalism. That was my line of action before the war. Nor was I any better during the war and I did not change after the fighting. I was dedicated to the idea that Communism must dominate the whole world and only then would good times prevail. For this pronounce- �SLOVAKIA 91 ment I almost had my teeth knocked out and I was proud to bear it as a martyr defending Communist thought. I evicted God from my heart, for they said that He is a helper of capitalists, that He commands us to obey those who are destroying us of the working class. They called me a Red and I took pride in it. For the cause of Communism I would have fought the world and for its triumph I would have laid dawn my life without a moment's thought or hesitation. When they wanted to compliment someone among the Communists, they compared him to me. I was a shining example. I worked for the party, I collected funds to further its interests, I canvassed for subscribers to our party publication. Nine years after the war I believed this with an indomitable faith that did not waver for a single instant. I waited patiently. I was not interested in reports that this or that individual brought from Slovakia. If I heard someone say that it was now worse there than it ever had been, I immediately countered the observation in my own mind as an example of base paid propaganda aimed against Communism and I reacted with intensified effort in behalf of "world peace," that beguiling cloak that effectively conceals the true nature of Communist dictatorship all the world over. The time will come, I repeated prophetically on every possible accasion and I uttered the words with vehemence and fiery emphasis. And it did come. My family in Slovakia included a number of Communists and I believed everything that they wrote me, that there is plenty in the land, that absolute justice is accorded to everyone, that life is better than it ever had been there. I believed them then but I believe them no longer. Twenty-five years of Communism in Slovakia disillusioned me and cured me effectively. A friend of mine was going over and I wanted to go and to stay there permanently. I planned to sell all that I had here before leaving. I wanted to go to build the homeland for the proletariat, the paradise for workers of which I had fondly dreamed for so many years but my wife and children were unwilling. And today I thank them and �92 SLOVAKIA I thank God that I did not go, for r would have perished there miserably as did thousands of other Communists like m,;;, men of whom there are very many more in the world. My Communist friend left. He was tougher and more impassioned than I. He left and within half a year he returned. He said very little to others, for he feared reprisals on his family and relatives in Slovakia and he even feared for his own life and welfare. He has a fine family, a wife and children; he owns a car and has some savings in the bank. He opened up and told me everything two years ago. He was deathly pale as he confided in me, for was not sure but that I might betray him. Ever since that day, I have a changed attitude toward reports from Slovakia. I began to see with my eyes wide open. My brother-in-law who was sending me those glorified accounts of Communist achievements was a base scoundrel and a sot who would have denounced or murdered his very mother for drink. The friend who was definitely cured of Communism by his visit to Slovakia put this question to me : Do you know what is the greatest source of sustenance for our people who suffer indescribably at home? - THE FAITH_ And their most powerful and invincible helper is GOD. He whom we treated as an object of ridicule. It was in the course of this discussion thit I first began to doubt. Two years passed from the time of that visit. It was twenty-three years from the time that power passed into the hands of the Communists in Slovakia. I was fifty years since the Reds had seized power in Russia, in the Ukraine and elsewhere. And these years did not suffice-not for the evclution of a paradise but not even for the betterment of life in general. A million times I asked myself why. Why? For is not the government of the ploretariat to be concerned in the first place about the food supply, the housing, the security and well-being of the ploretariat? It heaps all the excuses and the reasons for failure upon others and it dins upon those who never saw the rest of the world that the best of life exists in Russia and in those countries and places where the Communists are in control. �93 SLOVAKIA My enthusiasm cooled. Subsequent months brought a complete r evelation and I was cured of Communism forever. I made it a point to speak with scores of people who had been in Slovakia and in similar countries. Always it was in privatf:) with just the two of us exchanging views. I wanted to know the unvarnished truth about how they lived-the Slovaks, the Poles, and the others who were under the Reds . There came a message from my distressed father : My son, on bared knees pray daily that God may preserve you from the adversities upon which we have fallen here . It brought me to my knees. Never in my life had I prayed as I did then . I openly wept like a child; I clasped my hands fervently and begged to be forgiven for all those insults with which I had toasted God. I went out to find a church, to find a priest, a confessional and peace of soul. Today I pray with all my heart for those pitiable victims that languish in that Communist "paradise" which is more truthfully termed a hell. There is no justice there, no truth, no peace. There is only fear, terror, destitution and misery, insecurity and a protracted death in life. There lies on the table before me the last letter I have had from my father. They have stripped him of all that he had saved up in the sweat of his brow-his farmlands , his horses, his cows. And they want to commit him to a poorhouse where people do not live but die, for Communism does in fact talk about an old age pension but allots to the aged so little that they waste away, they starve, they die . "They have taken away everything," he writes, " and they keep taking- from everybody. You would actually have to weep over the injustices which are perpetrated upon us. As I write the letter, my eyes are filled with tears of blood; my heart is oppressed with extreme distress. I am overwhelmed not for myself alone but rather for the nation. Pray that God may save and protect you and deliver us before we perish. The situation is becoming worse and worse." J. V. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1970, Vol. 20 Description An account of the resource Vol. 20 (No. 43), 1970. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1970 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document 90 SLOVAKIA - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ----- I Was a Counnunist Yes, I was a Communist I am one no longer. For forty-five years I had lived in Canada. I survived the depression with all its critical aspects; I had seen misery hunger. thousands unemployed and I myself was one of them. I had been accustomed to work, for I worked even from my earliest days jn our parental home where there were eleven of us children. Out of that group I ventured to set out for Canada to seek my fortune. And I was overtaken by an economic crisis there. It was w~nt, hunger, unemployment and all their attendant evils that brought me into the midst of the Communists. Comrades always spoke very optimistically. They had glowing terms for Russia where there is no sign of destitution, where bread abounds beyond one's needs, where everything belongs to the ploretariat: farms, homes, factories, the state, the government, everything. That is where Justice reigns. That is where no one is wronged. It is a worker's paradise. Anyone who went through the depression and was young and unmarried found it easy to embrace Communism. That is what happened to me. Once Communism triumphs, I promised myself, there will be an end to hard times; everything will be ours: the factories, the country, the govenunent, the army. And there will be laws only to safeguard the rights of the worker and his interests. All this was promised by the party. I have been in Canada for forty-five years. Twentythree of these years I spent as a Communist. I fought with every one who dared to speak against the Soviet Union. I would not tolerate any unkind remark against it and resorted to name calling, pointing out that those who did not agree with me were blind, ignorant, bartered menials of capitalism. That was my line of action before the war. Nor was I any better during the war and I did not change after the fighting. I was dedicated to the idea that Communism must dominate the whole world and only then would good times prevail. For this pronounce- SLOVAKIA 91 ment I almost had my teeth knocked out and I was proud to bear it as a martyr defending Communist thought. I evicted God from my heart, for they said that He is a helper of capitalists, that He commands us to obey those who are destroying us of the working class. They called me a Red and I took pride in it. For the cause of Communism I would have fought the world and for its triumph I would have laid dawn my life without a moment's thought or hesitation. When they wanted to compliment someone among the Communists, they compared him to me. I was a shining example. I worked for the party, I collected funds to further its interests, I canvassed for subscribers to our party publication. Nine years after the war I believed this with an indomitable faith that did not waver for a single instant. I waited patiently. I was not interested in reports that this or that individual brought from Slovakia. If I heard someone say that it was now worse there than it ever had been, I immediately countered the observation in my own mind as an example of base paid propaganda aimed against Communism and I reacted with intensified effort in behalf of "world peace," that beguiling cloak that effectively conceals the true nature of Communist dictatorship all the world over. The time will come, I repeated prophetically on every possible accasion and I uttered the words with vehemence and fiery emphasis. And it did come. My family in Slovakia included a number of Communists and I believed everything that they wrote me, that there is plenty in the land, that absolute justice is accorded to everyone, that life is better than it ever had been there. I believed them then but I believe them no longer. Twenty-five years of Communism in Slovakia disillusioned me and cured me effectively. A friend of mine was going over and I wanted to go and to stay there permanently. I planned to sell all that I had here before leaving. I wanted to go to build the homeland for the proletariat, the paradise for workers of which I had fondly dreamed for so many years but my wife and children were unwilling. And today I thank them and 92 SLOVAKIA I thank God that I did not go, for r would have perished there miserably as did thousands of other Communists like m,;;, men of whom there are very many more in the world. My Communist friend left. He was tougher and more impassioned than I. He left and within half a year he returned. He said very little to others, for he feared reprisals on his family and relatives in Slovakia and he even feared for his own life and welfare. He has a fine family, a wife and children; he owns a car and has some savings in the bank. He opened up and told me everything two years ago. He was deathly pale as he confided in me, for was not sure but that I might betray him. Ever since that day, I have a changed attitude toward reports from Slovakia. I began to see with my eyes wide open. My brother-in-law who was sending me those glorified accounts of Communist achievements was a base scoundrel and a sot who would have denounced or murdered his very mother for drink. The friend who was definitely cured of Communism by his visit to Slovakia put this question to me : Do you know what is the greatest source of sustenance for our people who suffer indescribably at home? - THE FAITH_ And their most powerful and invincible helper is GOD. He whom we treated as an object of ridicule. It was in the course of this discussion thit I first began to doubt. Two years passed from the time of that visit. It was twenty-three years from the time that power passed into the hands of the Communists in Slovakia. I was fifty years since the Reds had seized power in Russia, in the Ukraine and elsewhere. And these years did not suffice-not for the evclution of a paradise but not even for the betterment of life in general. A million times I asked myself why. Why? For is not the government of the ploretariat to be concerned in the first place about the food supply, the housing, the security and well-being of the ploretariat? It heaps all the excuses and the reasons for failure upon others and it dins upon those who never saw the rest of the world that the best of life exists in Russia and in those countries and places where the Communists are in control. 93 SLOVAKIA My enthusiasm cooled. Subsequent months brought a complete r evelation and I was cured of Communism forever. I made it a point to speak with scores of people who had been in Slovakia and in similar countries. Always it was in privatf:) with just the two of us exchanging views. I wanted to know the unvarnished truth about how they lived-the Slovaks, the Poles, and the others who were under the Reds . There came a message from my distressed father : My son, on bared knees pray daily that God may preserve you from the adversities upon which we have fallen here . It brought me to my knees. Never in my life had I prayed as I did then . I openly wept like a child; I clasped my hands fervently and begged to be forgiven for all those insults with which I had toasted God. I went out to find a church, to find a priest, a confessional and peace of soul. Today I pray with all my heart for those pitiable victims that languish in that Communist "paradise" which is more truthfully termed a hell. There is no justice there, no truth, no peace. There is only fear, terror, destitution and misery, insecurity and a protracted death in life. There lies on the table before me the last letter I have had from my father. They have stripped him of all that he had saved up in the sweat of his brow-his farmlands , his horses, his cows. And they want to commit him to a poorhouse where people do not live but die, for Communism does in fact talk about an old age pension but allots to the aged so little that they waste away, they starve, they die . "They have taken away everything," he writes, " and they keep taking- from everybody. You would actually have to weep over the injustices which are perpetrated upon us. As I write the letter, my eyes are filled with tears of blood; my heart is oppressed with extreme distress. I am overwhelmed not for myself alone but rather for the nation. Pray that God may save and protect you and deliver us before we perish. The situation is becoming worse and worse." J. V.  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource I Was a Communist Description An account of the resource J. V. Slovakia, Vol. 20 (No. 43), 1970 pp. 90-93 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1970 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Anonymous LCNAF https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/61b97e8a6667b4e204ee5aec380a2684.pdf d51f4318c3ccf8071e25c987b7b5f243 PDF Text Text 20 SLOVAKIA I WAS AN OFFICER OF THE CZECHO-SLOVAK ARMV Anonymous Preferred Until the autumn of 1'948, I was an active officer of the Ozecho.;Slovak Army, bearing the rank of Stalff-Captain. I achieved this rank doing regular officer's duties after graduating as ·an artiHery 'lieutenant from the Military Academy at BratisilaNa, the capital city of Slovrukia, my country. In 1942-43, ·as a member of the Slovak Army, I was ~n comlbat rugainst the U.1S.S.R. During that time I travelled through Galicia, Ukvainia, White Ruthenia and the Caucasus and :came· in cootact with the divty, miserable, starved and frightened population of those territories. I spoke with many intellec.tuals there and they gave me an idea of what real life is li!ke in communist Russia. I had heard similar stories before, at home, but found it hard to believe them. Now I had it first hand from people who. lived under the men of the -Kremlin. At t:Jhe end of 1944 and the 1b eginning of 19415, the Red Army made its way in Slovakia and eventually "lit~ted" all of Ozecho-,Slovakia. The Red occupation lasted until the end of 1946, but even after that time the country, especially Slo.va!kia - the eastern part of Czecho-Slovakia - remained an eldarado for · military units, groups and indi,viduals whether desertees or reguJar sOildier of the Red Arimy who robbed, pillaged, plundered, murdered and raped almost at will. Thds occupation had a very great influence on the reorgani1z ation of the OzechO-iSlorvak Army after the wrur. First, because the first 1post-war Ozeoho.;81ovak government was established in Moscow, which was its official residence for a time, and, secondly, beca.u se the first Czecho-Slova;k _A rmy corps, organized in Russia during the war, was the fir~t to come into the coll!Iltry with the Russdans. The Ozecho-.Slov-a k Army was made up of two nationalities: the. Czechs and the ,Sfovruks, These two nations, even thoug,h they lived in the same state and were governed by the same government (Prague), did not get along very �SLOVAKIA 21 well. Causes of this lay deeply in the mentalities coming out of their religious beliefs, traditions and economic structure. Furthermore, the Slova:ks felt that they were forced to lilve with the Czechs in the same state, since no reaJl representative of the SlovaJk nation attended the P.aris Peace Conference in 1'919, or was consulted. As time went on, the lea;d. ing Czech politiciruns e~loited the Slovaks more and more and stul:fuornly refused to recognize their just claims and their inherent dght to freedom, lilberty and the pursuit of hruppiness. This resulted in the utter colia:pse of Ozecho-,Slovakia in 1939, when the Slovruk nation proclaimed the independence of SlovaJkia all1d the Czechs ca:me under the Germans. The prolblems which preceded the collapse of the first Ozech0-4SlovaJk Repulblic (1918-11938) were not solved after 1945, but rather intensified. They af1footed /both civilian and army personnel. The deteriorated relations between the Ozechs and Slo'Vaks g;rew worse, because Dr. Edward Benes and his Moscow government pursued communist tendencies and persecuted anti-socialistic and anti--communistic elements e$peciaHy in S}()JVa,k ia. Thousands of good citizens were disfranchised, dispossessed, forcefully deported out of Slovrukia, jailed and even executed lb ecaue they refused to accept the new order of Benes and Stalin and cooperate with Communists. Officers of the Slovak Army and their families suffered the most. The armed forces were suibordinate to the Ministry of National Defense and were dirvided ,i nto four inHitary regions (Vojenske Olblasti): 1. Praigue, 2. Hradec Kralove, 3. Brno, 4. Bratislava. The Department of Defense Security was o-r ganized under the Ministry of National Defense; its task was to -keep the military in line and it was much the same as the NKVD in the Red Army. The department had 'brancihes or units at aH headquarters, in all army units and Judependent units. The heads oif these departments were also sll!bstitute commanders; all were from the first Ozecho-,Slovak Army Corps which was trained and schooled in Russia. Their activities were aiimed especiaUy against Slwaik officers ·who were at least 90 per cent anti-communist. This socalled · "Fifth Department" (Intelligence) of the Ministry of �22 SLOVAK·I A Naitional Defense had to keep a record of just albout everything on everybody in the Army. Agents of the department shadowed every officer amd reported what he did on or off duty . .Ais soon as am,y officer !became a suspect of some indiscretion or v-iolation - real or imagined - he was jailed and held for court. Another new department established within the armed forces was the Department of T,raining and Education. Officers of this department were assigned to every military unit, staritilng from a company, battery, or a wing. The functions of these officers were the same as those of the Polytrl.llks (political commissars) in the Red Army. Their job was to preserve unity in the army, hold the soldiers to certain princi<ples and incmkate and foster the idea of devotion and loyalty to the state and the regime. These officers spread the seed of Commun<ism and hate against their superiors among their men. Once a week they held lectures, praJsin,g Stalin, the Red Army, the heroes of Socialism and Soviet establishment s and smearing and condemning Ca;piWism, western democracy and Christianity. The officers of this Department of Educaition and braining had little or no education at a;ll. Communists took advantage of this fact and devloped in them a certain 'kind of ill-aimbition by granting them high ranks, because they had learned to speaik and act as they were ordered. In 1948 I was an instructor in a.school for officers in reserve. I taught ballistics. When I had to interrupt my teaching, because I was called to taike part in artill.ery maneuvers, a captain substituted for me. When he introduced' himself to the attendants of the sohool, he told them: "Let the staff-captaiin continue gilv:ing you lectures on the subject of baHistics. I can't do it, because I finished at the Moscow School and their ballistics are altogether different than those of the CzechoSlovaik A,r my; they use different mathematics; it's very complicated, so I won't coinfuse you with it." The students immediately felt that something was wrong, because my substitute did not want to teach ballistics. 'Dhey urged him to explain ballistics as taught by the Moscow School, but he evaded alil questions on the suibject and preferred to talk about the history of the Red Army. When I returned to the �SLOVAKIA 23 school, I chec,ked the record orf this individual and found that he was illiterate when drafted into the service. The officer-iins tructors had a very destTuct1ve inf1uence upon the moral discipline, and behavior of the men. 'I'heir poweT increased to such an extent that rriany commande rs could not f,ulfiH programs and orders regarding men's training. In 1946 morale and discipline were so deteriorate d that practically no one's orders were 01beyed; such a condition existed in SlovaJkia especially. During a football game in Bratislawa ilil 1946, a riot 'b roke out in the stands and General Sirica, commande r of 'Military District No. 4 was beaten brutally when he attempted to ca:Jm the rioters. These officers, it seems, were outside the jurisdiction of regU'lar commanders. COIIllmanders usually did not ask to haive them puniished or transferred , because i[ they did so, they were the 01I1es to 'be punished and t:Jransferred. The reoiiganiza tion of the Czooho-Slo vak Airrmiy, Sovietstyle, was begun in 1945, ·b ut was not completed in 1948, antj. I doubt that it will ever be completed. Chaos, fear and inseouriity, brought in ,by Dr. Benes and his Londlon-Moscow governmen t in 1946, hiwe taken hold of the milita_ry. No one is certain of anything; every!body, it seems, is spying on every!body else. Partisans, formerly ,p rivileged, who robb,e d, plundered and raped the population, are now :be:ing replaced as um-eliaJble. The Communis ts are in complete power and control in Ozeicho-Slovaikia and oruy tried and loya,1-to-Moscow Reds are placed in responsible positions Court martials and severe punishmen ts hwe failed to increase disciipline and morale. Desertions by officers, who were favorites just a while back, ooour daily. 1 During 1947 and 1948 I was imprisoned on several occasions and inivesitiigated on ohar,ges of conspiracy. When I escruped successfull y in the autumn of 1948, I said good-1bye to no one, not even my dear wife who was with chi'ld at that time. After I deserted the army and escaped, I Jearned that my wife W?,S 'jaHed man~ times and brutally beaten during the investigatio n. Her herulth gradually broke down and in 1951 she died under the most tragic circumstan ces, leaving two small children. She was only 26. �SLOVAKIA Living in Canada today, I am not an ofificer any more. I work as a helper on construction jobs and feel well ·and satisfied, though I cannot but he1p think of my children and re'latirves over there. And despite the hardships and . misfortunes which ibeset me some time ago, when I fost. aff I had gatined during my residence in Canada, I fee1 rich, because I .lmow thait, God willing, I'll ·b e up tomQII'rOW doing the same wo:r1k I was doing yesterday without a police guard. I can malke my plans for the future freely without fear that some one shall intenfere in my affairs. Today my only wish is that I might have my children with me to en'.i<)y the peace and security of a great democratic country. • • • TH~ SLOVAK STATE AND CENTRAL EUROPE Dr. Arved Grebert When judging the problem of the function of the Slovak State in the CootraJl-Ewropean area, it is necessary a.1bove all else to bear in. mind several faicts which ·emanate from the goopoliticaJl situation of the territOII'y of Slovakia. The territory of SlovaJlci.a occutpies am. important place in the Central-®uropean region. Its sfu-ategic significance, its mineral wealth, the ,p ower potential of its inhaJbitants, as weli as its economk produicti.Jvity represents values, always tempts its nerghl>ors, especially the Magyrurs, Ozechs and the Poles. The attempt to dominate Slovakia, or to gain influence over it, is, therefore, a natural part of their poHtical aspirations and plans. "The Gibraltar and the Danube Basin" From the military standpoint, Slovakia is one of the most natural stroo.gholds of Central Europe. Propped up against the migihty Car,pathian range of mountains, which represent its everlasting and natural 1borders on the north and · the west, and protected on the s01Uth /by the broad Danulbe, the second lamgest ri,yer on the Eurqpean continent, its territory presents an ideal terrain for military defense. Its valleys are narrowed and, therefore, easily defended. effoet.Nely even with a relatively small number of people and arms. � 20 SLOVAKIA I WAS AN OFFICER OF THE CZECHO-SLOVAK ARMV Anonymous Preferred Until the autumn of 1'948, I was an active officer of the Ozecho.;Slovak Army, bearing the rank of Stalff-Captain. I achieved this rank doing regular officer's duties after graduating as ·an artiHery 'lieutenant from the Military Academy at BratisilaNa, the capital city of Slovrukia, my country. In 1942-43, ·as a member of the Slovak Army, I was ~n comlbat rugainst the U.1S.S.R. During that time I travelled through Galicia, Ukvainia, White Ruthenia and the Caucasus and :came· in cootact with the divty, miserable, starved and frightened population of those territories. I spoke with many intellec.tuals there and they gave me an idea of what real life is li!ke in communist Russia. I had heard similar stories before, at home, but found it hard to believe them. Now I had it first hand from people who. lived under the men of the -Kremlin. At t:Jhe end of 1944 and the 1b eginning of 19415, the Red Army made its way in Slovakia and eventually "lit~ted" all of Ozecho-,Slovakia. The Red occupation lasted until the end of 1946, but even after that time the country, especially Slo.va!kia - the eastern part of Czecho-Slovakia - remained an eldarado for · military units, groups and indi,viduals whether desertees or reguJar sOildier of the Red Arimy who robbed, pillaged, plundered, murdered and raped almost at will. Thds occupation had a very great influence on the reorgani1z ation of the OzechO-iSlorvak Army after the wrur. First, because the first 1post-war Ozeoho.;81ovak government was established in Moscow, which was its official residence for a time, and, secondly, beca.u se the first Czecho-Slova;k _A rmy corps, organized in Russia during the war, was the fir~t to come into the coll!Iltry with the Russdans. The Ozecho-.Slov-a k Army was made up of two nationalities: the. Czechs and the ,Sfovruks, These two nations, even thoug,h they lived in the same state and were governed by the same government (Prague), did not get along very �SLOVAKIA 21 well. Causes of this lay deeply in the mentalities coming out of their religious beliefs, traditions and economic structure. Furthermore, the Slova:ks felt that they were forced to lilve with the Czechs in the same state, since no reaJl representative of the SlovaJk nation attended the P.aris Peace Conference in 1'919, or was consulted. As time went on, the lea;d. ing Czech politiciruns e~loited the Slovaks more and more and stul:fuornly refused to recognize their just claims and their inherent dght to freedom, lilberty and the pursuit of hruppiness. This resulted in the utter colia:pse of Ozecho-,Slovakia in 1939, when the Slovruk nation proclaimed the independence of SlovaJkia all1d the Czechs ca:me under the Germans. The prolblems which preceded the collapse of the first Ozech0-4SlovaJk Repulblic (1918-11938) were not solved after 1945, but rather intensified. They af1footed /both civilian and army personnel. The deteriorated relations between the Ozechs and Slo'Vaks g;rew worse, because Dr. Edward Benes and his Moscow government pursued communist tendencies and persecuted anti-socialistic and anti--communistic elements e$peciaHy in S}()JVa,k ia. Thousands of good citizens were disfranchised, dispossessed, forcefully deported out of Slovrukia, jailed and even executed lb ecaue they refused to accept the new order of Benes and Stalin and cooperate with Communists. Officers of the Slovak Army and their families suffered the most. The armed forces were suibordinate to the Ministry of National Defense and were dirvided ,i nto four inHitary regions (Vojenske Olblasti): 1. Praigue, 2. Hradec Kralove, 3. Brno, 4. Bratislava. The Department of Defense Security was o-r ganized under the Ministry of National Defense; its task was to -keep the military in line and it was much the same as the NKVD in the Red Army. The department had 'brancihes or units at aH headquarters, in all army units and Judependent units. The heads oif these departments were also sll!bstitute commanders; all were from the first Ozecho-,Slovak Army Corps which was trained and schooled in Russia. Their activities were aiimed especiaUy against Slwaik officers ·who were at least 90 per cent anti-communist. This socalled · "Fifth Department" (Intelligence) of the Ministry of �22 SLOVAK·I A Naitional Defense had to keep a record of just albout everything on everybody in the Army. Agents of the department shadowed every officer amd reported what he did on or off duty . .Ais soon as am,y officer !became a suspect of some indiscretion or v-iolation - real or imagined - he was jailed and held for court. Another new department established within the armed forces was the Department of T,raining and Education. Officers of this department were assigned to every military unit, staritilng from a company, battery, or a wing. The functions of these officers were the same as those of the Polytrl.llks (political commissars) in the Red Army. Their job was to preserve unity in the army, hold the soldiers to certain princi<ples and incmkate and foster the idea of devotion and loyalty to the state and the regime. These officers spread the seed of Commun<ism and hate against their superiors among their men. Once a week they held lectures, praJsin,g Stalin, the Red Army, the heroes of Socialism and Soviet establishment s and smearing and condemning Ca;piWism, western democracy and Christianity. The officers of this Department of Educaition and braining had little or no education at a;ll. Communists took advantage of this fact and devloped in them a certain 'kind of ill-aimbition by granting them high ranks, because they had learned to speaik and act as they were ordered. In 1948 I was an instructor in a.school for officers in reserve. I taught ballistics. When I had to interrupt my teaching, because I was called to taike part in artill.ery maneuvers, a captain substituted for me. When he introduced' himself to the attendants of the sohool, he told them: "Let the staff-captaiin continue gilv:ing you lectures on the subject of baHistics. I can't do it, because I finished at the Moscow School and their ballistics are altogether different than those of the CzechoSlovaik A,r my; they use different mathematics; it's very complicated, so I won't coinfuse you with it." The students immediately felt that something was wrong, because my substitute did not want to teach ballistics. 'Dhey urged him to explain ballistics as taught by the Moscow School, but he evaded alil questions on the suibject and preferred to talk about the history of the Red Army. When I returned to the �SLOVAKIA 23 school, I chec,ked the record orf this individual and found that he was illiterate when drafted into the service. The officer-iins tructors had a very destTuct1ve inf1uence upon the moral discipline, and behavior of the men. 'I'heir poweT increased to such an extent that rriany commande rs could not f,ulfiH programs and orders regarding men's training. In 1946 morale and discipline were so deteriorate d that practically no one's orders were 01beyed; such a condition existed in SlovaJkia especially. During a football game in Bratislawa ilil 1946, a riot 'b roke out in the stands and General Sirica, commande r of 'Military District No. 4 was beaten brutally when he attempted to ca:Jm the rioters. These officers, it seems, were outside the jurisdiction of regU'lar commanders. COIIllmanders usually did not ask to haive them puniished or transferred , because i[ they did so, they were the 01I1es to 'be punished and t:Jransferred. The reoiiganiza tion of the Czooho-Slo vak Airrmiy, Sovietstyle, was begun in 1945, ·b ut was not completed in 1948, antj. I doubt that it will ever be completed. Chaos, fear and inseouriity, brought in ,by Dr. Benes and his Londlon-Moscow governmen t in 1946, hiwe taken hold of the milita_ry. No one is certain of anything; every!body, it seems, is spying on every!body else. Partisans, formerly ,p rivileged, who robb,e d, plundered and raped the population, are now :be:ing replaced as um-eliaJble. The Communis ts are in complete power and control in Ozeicho-Slovaikia and oruy tried and loya,1-to-Moscow Reds are placed in responsible positions Court martials and severe punishmen ts hwe failed to increase disciipline and morale. Desertions by officers, who were favorites just a while back, ooour daily. 1 During 1947 and 1948 I was imprisoned on several occasions and inivesitiigated on ohar,ges of conspiracy. When I escruped successfull y in the autumn of 1948, I said good-1bye to no one, not even my dear wife who was with chi'ld at that time. After I deserted the army and escaped, I Jearned that my wife W?,S 'jaHed man~ times and brutally beaten during the investigatio n. Her herulth gradually broke down and in 1951 she died under the most tragic circumstan ces, leaving two small children. She was only 26. �SLOVAKIA Living in Canada today, I am not an ofificer any more. I work as a helper on construction jobs and feel well ·and satisfied, though I cannot but he1p think of my children and re'latirves over there. And despite the hardships and . misfortunes which ibeset me some time ago, when I fost. aff I had gatined during my residence in Canada, I fee1 rich, because I .lmow thait, God willing, I'll ·b e up tomQII'rOW doing the same wo:r1k I was doing yesterday without a police guard. I can malke my plans for the future freely without fear that some one shall intenfere in my affairs. Today my only wish is that I might have my children with me to en'.i<)y the peace and security of a great democratic country. • • • TH~ SLOVAK STATE AND CENTRAL EUROPE Dr. Arved Grebert When judging the problem of the function of the Slovak State in the CootraJl-Ewropean area, it is necessary a.1bove all else to bear in. mind several faicts which ·emanate from the goopoliticaJl situation of the territOII'y of Slovakia. The territory of SlovaJlci.a occutpies am. important place in the Central-®uropean region. Its sfu-ategic significance, its mineral wealth, the ,p ower potential of its inhaJbitants, as weli as its economk produicti.Jvity represents values, always tempts its nerghl>ors, especially the Magyrurs, Ozechs and the Poles. The attempt to dominate Slovakia, or to gain influence over it, is, therefore, a natural part of their poHtical aspirations and plans. "The Gibraltar and the Danube Basin" From the military standpoint, Slovakia is one of the most natural stroo.gholds of Central Europe. Propped up against the migihty Car,pathian range of mountains, which represent its everlasting and natural 1borders on the north and · the west, and protected on the s01Uth /by the broad Danulbe, the second lamgest ri,yer on the Eurqpean continent, its territory presents an ideal terrain for military defense. Its valleys are narrowed and, therefore, easily defended. effoet.Nely even with a relatively small number of people and arms. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to 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 20 SLOVAKIA I WAS AN OFFICER OF THE CZECHO-SLOVAK ARMV Anonymous Preferred Until the autumn of 1'948, I was an active officer of the Ozecho.;Slovak Army, bearing the rank of Stalff-Captain. I achieved this rank doing regular officer's duties after graduating as ·an artiHery 'lieutenant from the Military Academy at BratisilaNa, the capital city of Slovrukia, my country. In 1942-43, ·as a member of the Slovak Army, I was ~n comlbat rugainst the U.1S.S.R. During that time I travelled through Galicia, Ukvainia, White Ruthenia and the Caucasus and :came· in cootact with the divty, miserable, starved and frightened population of those territories. I spoke with many intellec.tuals there and they gave me an idea of what real life is li!ke in communist Russia. I had heard similar stories before, at home, but found it hard to believe them. Now I had it first hand from people who. lived under the men of the -Kremlin. At t:Jhe end of 1944 and the 1b eginning of 19415, the Red Army made its way in Slovakia and eventually "lit~ted" all of Ozecho-,Slovakia. The Red occupation lasted until the end of 1946, but even after that time the country, especially Slo.va!kia - the eastern part of Czecho-Slovakia - remained an eldarado for · military units, groups and indi,viduals whether desertees or reguJar sOildier of the Red Arimy who robbed, pillaged, plundered, murdered and raped almost at will. Thds occupation had a very great influence on the reorgani1z ation of the OzechO-iSlorvak Army after the wrur. First, because the first 1post-war Ozeoho.;81ovak government was established in Moscow, which was its official residence for a time, and, secondly, beca.u se the first Czecho-Slova;k _A rmy corps, organized in Russia during the war, was the fir~t to come into the coll!Iltry with the Russdans. The Ozecho-.Slov-a k Army was made up of two nationalities: the. Czechs and the ,Sfovruks, These two nations, even thoug,h they lived in the same state and were governed by the same government (Prague), did not get along very SLOVAKIA 21 well. Causes of this lay deeply in the mentalities coming out of their religious beliefs, traditions and economic structure. Furthermore, the Slova:ks felt that they were forced to lilve with the Czechs in the same state, since no reaJl representative of the SlovaJk nation attended the P.aris Peace Conference in 1'919, or was consulted. As time went on, the lea;d. ing Czech politiciruns e~loited the Slovaks more and more and stul:fuornly refused to recognize their just claims and their inherent dght to freedom, lilberty and the pursuit of hruppiness. This resulted in the utter colia:pse of Ozecho-,Slovakia in 1939, when the Slovruk nation proclaimed the independence of SlovaJkia all1d the Czechs ca:me under the Germans. The prolblems which preceded the collapse of the first Ozech0-4SlovaJk Repulblic (1918-11938) were not solved after 1945, but rather intensified. They af1footed /both civilian and army personnel. The deteriorated relations between the Ozechs and Slo'Vaks g;rew worse, because Dr. Edward Benes and his Moscow government pursued communist tendencies and persecuted anti-socialistic and anti--communistic elements e$peciaHy in S}()JVa,k ia. Thousands of good citizens were disfranchised, dispossessed, forcefully deported out of Slovrukia, jailed and even executed lb ecaue they refused to accept the new order of Benes and Stalin and cooperate with Communists. Officers of the Slovak Army and their families suffered the most. The armed forces were suibordinate to the Ministry of National Defense and were dirvided ,i nto four inHitary regions (Vojenske Olblasti): 1. Praigue, 2. Hradec Kralove, 3. Brno, 4. Bratislava. The Department of Defense Security was o-r ganized under the Ministry of National Defense; its task was to -keep the military in line and it was much the same as the NKVD in the Red Army. The department had 'brancihes or units at aH headquarters, in all army units and Judependent units. The heads oif these departments were also sll!bstitute commanders; all were from the first Ozecho-,Slovak Army Corps which was trained and schooled in Russia. Their activities were aiimed especiaUy against Slwaik officers ·who were at least 90 per cent anti-communist. This socalled · "Fifth Department" (Intelligence) of the Ministry of 22 SLOVAK·I A Naitional Defense had to keep a record of just albout everything on everybody in the Army. Agents of the department shadowed every officer amd reported what he did on or off duty . .Ais soon as am,y officer !became a suspect of some indiscretion or v-iolation - real or imagined - he was jailed and held for court. Another new department established within the armed forces was the Department of T,raining and Education. Officers of this department were assigned to every military unit, staritilng from a company, battery, or a wing. The functions of these officers were the same as those of the Polytrl.llks (political commissars) in the Red Army. Their job was to preserve unity in the army, hold the soldiers to certain princi<ples and incmkate and foster the idea of devotion and loyalty to the state and the regime. These officers spread the seed of Commun<ism and hate against their superiors among their men. Once a week they held lectures, praJsin,g Stalin, the Red Army, the heroes of Socialism and Soviet establishment s and smearing and condemning Ca;piWism, western democracy and Christianity. The officers of this Department of Educaition and braining had little or no education at a;ll. Communists took advantage of this fact and devloped in them a certain 'kind of ill-aimbition by granting them high ranks, because they had learned to speaik and act as they were ordered. In 1948 I was an instructor in a.school for officers in reserve. I taught ballistics. When I had to interrupt my teaching, because I was called to taike part in artill.ery maneuvers, a captain substituted for me. When he introduced' himself to the attendants of the sohool, he told them: "Let the staff-captaiin continue gilv:ing you lectures on the subject of baHistics. I can't do it, because I finished at the Moscow School and their ballistics are altogether different than those of the CzechoSlovaik A,r my; they use different mathematics; it's very complicated, so I won't coinfuse you with it." The students immediately felt that something was wrong, because my substitute did not want to teach ballistics. 'Dhey urged him to explain ballistics as taught by the Moscow School, but he evaded alil questions on the suibject and preferred to talk about the history of the Red Army. When I returned to the SLOVAKIA 23 school, I chec,ked the record orf this individual and found that he was illiterate when drafted into the service. The officer-iins tructors had a very destTuct1ve inf1uence upon the moral discipline, and behavior of the men. 'I'heir poweT increased to such an extent that rriany commande rs could not f,ulfiH programs and orders regarding men's training. In 1946 morale and discipline were so deteriorate d that practically no one's orders were 01beyed; such a condition existed in SlovaJkia especially. During a football game in Bratislawa ilil 1946, a riot 'b roke out in the stands and General Sirica, commande r of 'Military District No. 4 was beaten brutally when he attempted to ca:Jm the rioters. These officers, it seems, were outside the jurisdiction of regU'lar commanders. COIIllmanders usually did not ask to haive them puniished or transferred , because i[ they did so, they were the 01I1es to 'be punished and t:Jransferred. The reoiiganiza tion of the Czooho-Slo vak Airrmiy, Sovietstyle, was begun in 1945, ·b ut was not completed in 1948, antj. I doubt that it will ever be completed. Chaos, fear and inseouriity, brought in ,by Dr. Benes and his Londlon-Moscow governmen t in 1946, hiwe taken hold of the milita_ry. No one is certain of anything; every!body, it seems, is spying on every!body else. Partisans, formerly ,p rivileged, who robb,e d, plundered and raped the population, are now :be:ing replaced as um-eliaJble. The Communis ts are in complete power and control in Ozeicho-Slovaikia and oruy tried and loya,1-to-Moscow Reds are placed in responsible positions Court martials and severe punishmen ts hwe failed to increase disciipline and morale. Desertions by officers, who were favorites just a while back, ooour daily. 1 During 1947 and 1948 I was imprisoned on several occasions and inivesitiigated on ohar,ges of conspiracy. When I escruped successfull y in the autumn of 1948, I said good-1bye to no one, not even my dear wife who was with chi'ld at that time. After I deserted the army and escaped, I Jearned that my wife W?,S 'jaHed man~ times and brutally beaten during the investigatio n. Her herulth gradually broke down and in 1951 she died under the most tragic circumstan ces, leaving two small children. She was only 26. SLOVAKIA Living in Canada today, I am not an ofificer any more. I work as a helper on construction jobs and feel well ·and satisfied, though I cannot but he1p think of my children and re'latirves over there. And despite the hardships and . misfortunes which ibeset me some time ago, when I fost. aff I had gatined during my residence in Canada, I fee1 rich, because I .lmow thait, God willing, I'll ·b e up tomQII'rOW doing the same wo:r1k I was doing yesterday without a police guard. I can malke my plans for the future freely without fear that some one shall intenfere in my affairs. Today my only wish is that I might have my children with me to en'.i<)y the peace and security of a great democratic country. • • • TH~ SLOVAK STATE AND CENTRAL EUROPE Dr. Arved Grebert When judging the problem of the function of the Slovak State in the CootraJl-Ewropean area, it is necessary a.1bove all else to bear in. mind several faicts which ·emanate from the goopoliticaJl situation of the territOII'y of Slovakia. The territory of SlovaJlci.a occutpies am. important place in the Central-®uropean region. Its sfu-ategic significance, its mineral wealth, the ,p ower potential of its inhaJbitants, as weli as its economk produicti.Jvity represents values, always tempts its nerghl>ors, especially the Magyrurs, Ozechs and the Poles. The attempt to dominate Slovakia, or to gain influence over it, is, therefore, a natural part of their poHtical aspirations and plans. "The Gibraltar and the Danube Basin" From the military standpoint, Slovakia is one of the most natural stroo.gholds of Central Europe. Propped up against the migihty Car,pathian range of mountains, which represent its everlasting and natural 1borders on the north and · the west, and protected on the s01Uth /by the broad Danulbe, the second lamgest ri,yer on the Eurqpean continent, its territory presents an ideal terrain for military defense. Its valleys are narrowed and, therefore, easily defended. effoet.Nely even with a relatively small number of people and arms.  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource I Was an Officer in the Czecho-Slovak Army Description An account of the resource Anonymous Preferred Slovakia, Vol. 4, No. 2 (10), June 1954 pp. 20-24 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/8a07f8a0f63768f3250f2df46d174473.pdf 2ae7e0bca944237820e30c44ff57c0f7 PDF Text Text SLOVAKÍA Z5 1 WAS IN SWVAKJA Edward L. Delaney Many Slovaks in America, especially those horn in this country, have but a limited knowledge of their parents' or grandparents' !and. As for the millions of Americans who have no klnsbip with Slovak!a, the word is merely the latter half of Czecho-Slovakia, which had been impressed upon their consclousness by the propaganda bureaus ot tbe late Edward BAnes and bis predecessor Thomas Masaryk. One will search long In those propaganda papers for any paragraphs conveying the impresslon that the Slovaks are the political, cultural or industria! equals o! the Czechs. Perhaps one reason that the Czech rather than the Slovak part of the hyphenated name has been given greater publicity !s that the capital, Prague, is predomlnantly Czech and the majority or visitors from other parta of the world seldom get beyond that city. There is no denying that the Prague of pre-1945 days did possess an individua.l atmosphere and charm for those who are interested In the architectural treasures and historlcal landmarks of Europe's older ci ties. · It was this writer's good fortune to have vis!ted or reslded Cor extended periods in several ot the other European capitals before visiting Prague. Many months later I was afforded the opportunity for a stay of two years in Slovakia. At that Ume the synthetic CzechoSlovakia had ceased to exist. Following nine hundred years or struggling fot; independence, the Republic of Slovakla was establlshed and the people could say that they had attained somethlng approximating tbeir goal. Tbe evening of my arrival in Bratislava, capital of tbe new State, a Professor Doba! called on me at the Carlton Hotel. He lnformed me that he was connected with the State propaganda bureau and that their attache, Streiznic, at tbe Berlin Legatľon, had telegraphed that l was arrlvlng. Foreign correspondents and writers were sought out by them and efforts made to present their country In the best light. An appolntment was made ror me to meet bis cbief, Tido J. Gaspar. Tido J., as I soon learned, was the most photographed man in Slovakia. No news reel was complete witbout bim smiling or band· shaking 'bi~ way into the center of the picture. He was the official greeter An actor with the wbole country as bis stage. In bis !apel, winter or summer, was always a gardenia, a full bloom rose or a cluster of flowers In season. His attire was patterned on tbe rigorously correct Unes 'Óf New York's ófficial greeter, Grover Whalen. In fact one got the lmpresslon that T!do J. Gaspat may bave met or studied tbe life-and-times of Grover Wbalen or the late Jimmy Walker, the most popular mayor New York ever had. for he was their counterpart in Centra! Europe. What can I do for you ?" · he asked after we had exchanged the usua,I formalities of visitor and host. "Nothlng," I informed bim, except to suggest what would be In• teresting · for me from a scen!c as well as a hlstor!cal point ot �26 SLOVAKIA view. That appealed to him. The alert and competent young men or his travel department la!d out an !tlnerary for me whlch covered the pr!ncipal c!tles and !ncluded a short stay in the justly famed H!gh Tatra resorts of the Carpath!an Mounta!ns. Bratislava was at that tlme the Mecca for all who, by any maneuvering, could arrange to go there. World War II was in the early stages. Food restrictions and rationing had been !mposed on a large part of Western and Centra! Europe. A long bridge over the Danube connects Bratislava with Austrla, across which rolls the rail and motor traff!c to Vlenna some s!xty miles away. But !t ls no longer the Vienna of Johann Strauss and Franz Lehar music with food and rink to be enjoyed in lelsurely comfort. Even in those early days of the war all Au.stria and Germany were areas of dismal faces and unappetlzing meals. Bratislava - which many still referred to as Pressburg - was the magnet that drew vlsitors from all Centra! Europe. For in Slovakia was to be had food and rink, muslc and laughter w!thout let, stay, or hindrance. With the exception of the adjoining country of Hungary, no other part of Centra! Europe enjoyed the essentials and many of the luxuries of life, as did the people of Slovakla before the period when Stalin's hordes swarmed over the country like a swarm of locusts and literally laid lt to waste. In most of the propaganda that emanated from various sources in Europe and was eagerly snapped up and exaggerated by the sinlster influences in this country, the impression was conveyed that Germany syphoned off the food resources of Slovakia long before thelr armies actually occupled the country late in the year 1944. Even at the risk of being charged with attempting to mitigate the sins of the Nazi Reglme. I assert that, in those days it was regarded as rare good fortune if one could get lnto the Slovak paradise and there obtain a good meat wlth whatever was desired in the way of w!nes, spirits or liquors, all at prices which, even in those tlmes were reasonabl!l. Until the severe winter of 1944-45, citrus fruits, such as lemons and oranges from Italy or Spain, might he had in the public markets. Such delicacies had been off the markets in Austria and Germany for nearly five years. In addition to al! dairy products, poultry, beef, pork, sugar, <>onfectionery and tobacco wares were obta!nable in Slovak!a with but slight restrlctlons on the amount of certaln items that mlgbt be pur• chased. Also clotbing. s boes and dress materlals were to be had. At tbat time the shops of Austrla and Germany were bare of goods. Just over the Danube from Bratislava the sbops were emoty. Such stores as the Woolworth cbain were barren. Shelves and tables of empty cartons or a single item - usually a wooden toy or some article of glass. Rows of the same useless article. Nothing was to be found that contalned metal, cotton, rubber wool, s!lk - all of which materials were needed for the war supplies. After observing those empty shops in Vienna, Munich, Berlin. Frankfurt and Cologne, it was as a fairyland to enter business establlshments of the same type In Slovakia and f!nrl most anything one might expect to see in shops beyond the warrlng zone. �SLOVAKIA 27 The people or Slovakia knew they were enjoylng a verltable heaven of plenty as compared to thelr neighbors. T heir new status as an independent country began in the spring of 1939. Only a few rersons, whether in the cities. towns or villages, did not realize that they were the envy of people in their neighborlng states. Slovak inde• pendence and self-determinatlon was paying them divldends even in the material advantages they could see and understand. Small wonder that their political leaders were popular and their policles approved. Therefore it was not surprlsing that the majority of the people had only words or praise for President Joseph Tiso and the other of!icials of their young republic. What many dld not reallze was that Germany was syphonlng off thelr surplus or agrlcultural and manufactured products. In exchange the Slovaks dld recelve some goods, such as tools, machinery, electrical equipment and rallway supph es, but for the most part they got only promises to pay in such materials. The debt owing by Germany was increasing with staggerlng amounts each month. But the majority of the people enjoyed thelr temporary prosperity with scant worry about the future. Although there was little doubt in their minds as early as 1942, that the Axls Powers were doomed to defeat, they held to the hope that by somf! political magic they would escape the horrors of war and the pf!nalties to follow. In those days of the Republlc of Slovakla, it was a country or contrasts. Evidences of its centuries old clvilizatlon and customs were to be observed alongside products that were as up to the minute as tomorrow's newspaper. For example: the express tralns making daily trips to and from the high Tatra resorts were powered by Diesel electrlc locomotives, with Jounge. dining and observation cars comparable to those of other European railway systems. But in the country, through which the deluxe traln sped smoothly, one observed also the prlmltlve ox carts on winding dlrt roads. Oxen pulled the ploys and harrows In the fields. Moreover, the branch railway lines that wound around or over the mountains and dipped down into fertile valleys offered the traveler what comfort he might get from a bard wooden bench In a dlmly llgh ted coach behlnd a wood burnlng steam engine of the type used In the western mountain country of the Unlted States seventy-five years ago. Stepping from the modern express on the High Tatra run, to the minlature traln that huffed and puffed its way to Banska Stiavnica was like bridging a gap of t.hree quarters of a century. It chanced that my arrival in Banska Stiavnica synchronized with a heavy snow storm. After plodding through darkness and deep snow for what seemed to be a mlie, the youth. who had dragged my luggage on a sled. ushered me through the portals of a buildlng that had al\ the appearances of an old Roman ruln. It was old and the Romans had probably been there. but lt was not ruined and from the durable manner in which stone and mortar were put into buildings In those middle ages, it will not be in rulns for another few centuries. Tens of thousands of shoes or sandals had worn deep grooves In the stone door step. E lectrlc llghts replaced the candles or oil tapers that had _Iighted the way for guests who came there in other �SLQVAKIA 28 centuries, but that was a bout all the concesslon that had been made to the lJ!Odern world. The building, so l learned from the Sudeten German woman who operated it, was over three hundred years old. The cold room to which I was asslgned boasted a bed whlch was less than three centuries old, but it was about the only modem plece In the antique setting. Although appreciat!ng the charm of archltectural treasures and old Jandmarks, there are limes when one misses the creature comforts that are affored in our modern hotels and homes. Tbat was one of tbose times. But the warmlng effect of a "slivovica" and gobs or excellently roasted goose, i,olisbed off with another potent drink, served to banlsh the fear of \Vaking in that three hundred year old room to find tbat I was frozen to death. Oddly enough one seldom heard about the precious metals that were once part of Slovakia's contrlbutlon to the worlďs wealth. Much of the old currency and art objects in the Hungarian empire and Centra! Europe were made from gold and silver ores that were mined at Kremnica and near Banska Stiavnica. But witb tbe increaslng costs of production and the relatlvely cbeap prlce or the metal during tbe quarter of a century before tbe birth of the Republlc of Slovakia, those -mines had been practically abondoned. World War II altered tbe situation. Centra) Europe was cut off (rom tbe silver producing countries of North and South America. Mining of that metal was steppe<l up. The silver sm.iths of Slovakia again plied thelr trade and many articles of thelr handlwork appeared in the sbops. Througb the perfidlous acts of the signers of the agreements at Teheran and Yalta, Stalin's minions. the Communist confiscators, have no doubt taken possession of tbose sources of wealth. Whatever treasure ts taken from them now, finds its way into the coffers ot the Communists instead of belng rashioned into articles for the use ot people or for objects of art in the churcbes or Cbrist. Like other In• dustries, whicb were created or resulted after tbe establishment of the Republic or Slovakia. tbe mines or Stiavnica are servlng the needs of Stalin. Political charlatans. such as Edward Benes, who were lauded by tbe American press and propagandists. sold tbe Slovaks lnto bondage for less than the thirty pieces o! sllver, wbich was the prlce of J udas for betraying bis Master. Tbey wanted and for a Ume e njoyed persona) aggrandizement and polltlcal power as puppets of tbelr Moscow master. They silenťed any murmur of protest tbat mlgbt have been raised by the people who for nine bundred years had struggled for indepen?.encei · · S LO V A K IA - V ICTI M OF TE.H ERAN A N D Y A LTA Tbe Centra! European satellites around the Soviet star are often to as. being of Slavic origin. Some omnisctent ones give that as one reason why Stalin had little dlfflculty In merging them into tbe Red. orbít. Slovakia, as we know, was one or tbe countrie!\ sold lnto bondage at Teheran and Yalta - tbe completlon or the betrayal belng seen when Eduarq Benes returned in 1945 as puppet president of tbe socalled Czecho-Slovakia and for two years or so made grotesque referŕed �i LOVAKIA efforts to disguise tbe fact tbat Stalin, and not Benes or Klement Gottwahl, was tbe supreme belng In their capltal al Prague. Etbnologlcally lt is not lncorrect to group tbe peoples ot Russla. Poland, Czecboslovakia, Ukralnla, Bulgarla and Yugoslaľia into a Pan-Slav classlflcation. Tbe vast majority of the peoples In lhe socalled Slav nations bas llttle in common witb tbe Russa!ns. In past generations tbere was a bond of Cbristian religion wb!cb ran tbrough all tbe Slav countries, eitber tbe Ortbodox Greek-Russian Cburcb or, in tbe case of Slovakia, Poland, Croatia. lbe Roman Catbollc Cburcb. Tbe rise or atbelstlc Communlsm In Russla was t be deatb knell of Chrlstlanity tbere, bence a splltting wedge was d riven between most of the Balkan and Centra! European countries and t be great Slav domain of tbe Soviet. Slovakla, Poland and Croatla bave been predominantly Roman Catbollc for centuries. Only a small percentage are adherents ot tbe Ortbodox Cburcb. Hence, any contention tbat tbere is a racia! and religlous afflnity among the Slav peoples, wblcb simplifled tb elr enslavement by Moscow, 1s lacklng In support. F urthermore, lt is leaktng out tbrougb cracks and crinks In the Iro!l Curtaln that Stalln ls flnd· ing more tban a llttle dltficulty In merglng the Slovaks lnto bis godless domain. Wben for over eleven centuries a people, sucb as tbe Slovaks wbo bave prayed to God and H is Son, tbe Cbrlst, lt ls not llkely tbat tbe delty of tbe Kremlin can soon purge t belr mlnds or tbe OnA Supreme Being. THE SLOVAK$ ARE CELTS? Also - lf we were to accept the oplnlon of a learned professor it was my good fortune to meet in Banska Bystrica - tbere ls no RACIAL kinshlp between tbe Slovaks and tbe Russians. The Slovaks are not Slavs, asserted tbat student of blstory, but on the contrary ' they are Celts. A professor Doba! In Bratislava had given me a note ót lntroductlon to tbe curator of tbe museum In Banska Bysttica. It de· veloped tbat tbe gentleman knew more about the bistory ot manklnd tban Gl bbons, H. G. Wells, or any ot tbose wbo bave wtltten. 'Welgbty tomes on tbe origin or man, etc. ' 1• Tbls Slovak scbolar, well along In yt>ars, bad ·been lnstrúctor In a unlversity al Constantlnople (before it was called Istanbul) also in Budapest. His speclalty was Sanskrit Arabic, tbe Hebrew language and otber writings on tbe earlíest hlstory or manklnd. "You are Irisb," he said to me, after we had dlsposed of a slivovica and coffee, "and the Irlsh are Celts. A characteristlc ot tbe l rlsb is black halr with blue eyes. Tbat 1s observed among our people here In Slovakla." President Tiso, 1 have already mentioned had black bair and blue eyes. If the professor ,vas endeavorlng to make me feel a racia! kinshlp wlth the Slovaks - the Celtlsh background - he certatnly supported hls oplnion wlth more arguments than black and b lue for hair and eyes. lt was a lengthy thesls he expounded on tbe !:'Ubject, but the glst or lt was that au the people or Europe stem from the origlnal tn h abitants llvlng in tbe region around the Medlterranean, the Jordah, tbe �30 SLOVAKIA Hed and the Dead Sea. The garden of Paradise is supposed to have been in that general part of the Near East. The Celts - as part of the early human family of whlch we have any history, so the professor asserted - were brawny, pioneer lads, pagans in those days, of course, who hunted and explored and pushed their way westward. Some of them got as far as the western s hores of Europe, which we now know as the coast of Brittany in France. From there they launched boats and set up their cabeens in Ireland and Scotland, wbere they are today. Some of those early Ce!ts, acco rding to this student of the subject, decided tha,t the area just west of the Carpathian Mountalns - which is Slovakia - was a pretty good part of the earth to stake out for t heir children and grandchildren for generations to come. So there they stayed. Like the other Celts who went on to I reland, they were converted to Christ!anlty well over a thousand years ago and bave remained steadfast in their faith ever slnce, just as have the fightin' lrish. That, the Banska Bystrica gentleman lnformed me. is another evidence of the kinship, the similarlty in character and traditions. He then escorted me to a conical plie of stones towerlng four stories high, in which were kept many relics and articles that had been dug from the ground in Slovakia over th e past generations. There were cooking utensils, ornaments of solid gold and silver, bits of clothing, crude instruments for killing, such as tbe crusaders of the middle ages carried, and many other articles. Oddly enough, 1 had seen articles almost identically the same in the museum of Dublin, Ireland, on one of my visits there. Those in the Dublin museum had been unearthed in tbe peat bogs and fields of Ireland. The professor had a point there. The traces of clvllization, which we have found, do have similarity. The old gentleman then took me to his home and into the b asement or cellar under it. There were stacks of musty manuscripts, some on tbe oldest known kind of parchment. The signs and symbols on tbey were just hierog!yphics to me, but to that scholar they told stories and epics of hlstory wbich had been written in the mlddle ages. Whether or not tbe Slovaks are Celts and kin ot the Irish and Scots, instead of the Russians, I shall not attempt to prove. But that was the contention of one learned Slovak in Banska Bystrica. S LOV AKIA U NDER THE REDS Of course, now that the Communisl<i are in Slovakia, and Moscow is to be regarded as the fountain head of all culture and wisdom, it is likely that any reference to tbe Cbristian Celts as being remotely related to the Slovaks will be purged trom the people's minds and records. It would be interesting to know what the Communlsts have done to the sbrlne, the mausoleum of Fatber Andrej H linka In Ruzomberok, at wbich I had knelt in prayer a day or so before going to Banska Bystrica. It was Father Hlinka who, by bis zeal, tireless energy and strength of cbaracter, had brought about the political unity and solidarity wh!ch made possi ble tbe creation of the Slovak Republic. Al· thougb lt was short Jlved, it did demonstrate to the world that a �SLOVAKIA 31 Slovak state is feasible and may again be upon the maps of Europe. It would be incorrect to assert that everyone in the Slovak Repub• Ile, durlng the stx years of its exlstence, was enthuslastlcally 01>tlmistic as to lts future in the assembly of nations comprlsíng the European continent. In this connection, it shoula be mentioned, tbat tbe greatly_ publicized pian or proposal said to bave been urged by General Dwight Eisenhower, !or a United States of Europe, may be dlsmissed as wlshful thinking. Such a "United States" could not possibly function at thls stage of world history when half of Europe is free and half s lave, half Christlan and half under the ruthless dominatlon of pagan dictators. Until the situation 1s altered and Communism ls banished from Europe, there can be no lasting unity. To even dlscuss the matter be· fore that 1s accomplished, is utterly Cutile. A SLOVAK TEXAS RANGER SPEAKS HIS MIND A well-to-do industrialist in Bratislava pointed out to me about 1942 what was to be the fate of Slovakla and Europe in the postwar period. He iS not a Slovak but one who resided in Slovakla when it was part oľ the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. then under the gov· ernment of Czechoslovakia and remained to carry on under tbe Re· 1mblic, as did many of Hungarlan, Czecb, Austrian or German natlonality. All enjoyed equ al rights. As be may still be living there, it would be wrong to mentlon bis name, because reprisals might be inflicted on bim, should these words be brought to the attentlon of Red spies in tbis country. On my lnitial visit to bis home, the first objects that met my eyes were a western saddle and a Wlnchester rifle In a regulatlon leather holster. Very much American. Then I got tbe story. He had been a Texas Ranger in bis younger days! There were notches in bis leg from slugs of desperados, several of wbom he had killed in bis encounters wltb tbem along the borders of the Rio Grande. Speaklng five languages fluently and knowing thl! contlnent of Europe thorougbly, his opinions on the current and impending eventa were wor• thy of attentlon "Wbat a misfortune 'Teddy' Roosevelt isn't in the White House today," he said shortly after we met. "Things would be dlfferent. Tbe way lt appears now, Europe is being delivered stralgbt lnto chaos and Communism. You know what that means? I do. Durlng the bloody reign of terror under tbat so-and-so (expressive Texas Ranger term) Bela Kun, I witnessed enough of lt. I was !nterpreter before some ot the committees in Budapest and stared that 'so-and-so' In the eye many a tlme. ľd bave kllled bim if I got the chance, and he knew lt. What is the intention of Franklln Roosevelt? To dellver us over t<_> the Reds aga in?" It was necE>ssary to first destroy the forces or Hitler, I pointed out and then . . . "Then what? Thaťs tbe quest!on. True enougb the Nazl yoke on the German people must be broken and they be brought back to belp in the scheme of thlngs. But you mark my worda, Stalln is the only one who ia winning anything in thia war. He'a not winning it elther. lťs being given to him. Unless bis henchmen are thrown out of t.he �32 SLOVAKIA Balkans, the Baltic states, Poland and all the other spots he will take over soon; the whole of Europe and western civllizatlon wlll go back• ward tor ~ century or so." "You are not so badly off here in Slovakia at present," I ventured to say. "NQnsense. Our freedom here is but temporary, and so 1s the pros• períty, Fooľs gold. You know what tbat 1s? A flasb In the pan, a mi· rage. Can't make this country self-sufficient. It bas to be bltcbed on t& some other part of Europe. Always has been. Tbe Germans deve!• oped it at one period of bistory. It was part of tbe Hapsburg Man· archy, tben the neglected half of Czecho·Slovakla. It wlll be taken over by the Reds after the war - see if ľm not rlght. Could make it a self·determining state, if the otber European powers, supported by America, demanded it. But tbey won't, unless great pressure ls brougbt on the influences now in Washington, London and Paris. But ľm not leaving here. Sure, ľm what tbey cal\ a capitallst, an enemy of the Reds. rve gat that Wincbester and two Colt plstols. Wben they're empty the Reds can take wbaťs left. I won't know mucb about it tben." That was one man's opinion of wbat was transplring in Slovakia anct Centra! Europe at tbat time and wbat he thought tbe future beld far tbem. He was not always so explosive in bis observatlons. but in tbe two years and more I knew bim I learned to respect his estimate of the Europeao scene. though at times I may not have entlrPIY agreed with bim. But was be not right as regards the sell-out of Christianity in Cen· tral Europe? Was he not correct In bis predictlon that only Stalln was wiooing t he war and that bis greatest aldes were then oot In '.\toscow. but In London and Washington? In these days when we art! exhorted to strlve and save and struggle to rescue Europe and ourselves rrom the menace of Communlst cont.rol, let us reflect on tbe facts or tbose who - wltb wbat appears to bave been pre-determlnation - consigned Slovak:a and otber Christian nations to perdition. MEETING PRESIDENT TISO At a dinner party in Bratislava l flrst met Joseph Mracna, formerly Consul far Czecboslovakia in New York. lt developed, wben comparlng notes, t hat we had both salled from New York on the same day in Oecembr 1939. He on tbe Vulcania bound far Llsbon. wbile my voyage was on tbe Excalibur witb Genoa as my destinatlon. Mracna and bis wlfe, who was Viennese. were very pro-American an.d longed far the tlme when they migbt return to tbe Unitd States wher-e he ·had many frlends and acqualntaoces, several of whom were also my friends. Although born In Slovakia, Mracna had spent tbe greater part of bis life in other countries. He attended unlversities in Vienna and Par!s, following wb!ch he had been occup!ed In forelgn countrles even before becoming the Czecboslovakian Consul In New York. He was, at the time I knew him, a member of tbe Foreign Office of the new Sl_ovak .Republlc wbere hls experience and knowledge of affalrs in .several other countries was most usefuL I asked !f he could arrange an audience for me with the Pres!dent. He said he could; and did. �SLOVAKIA 33 When I arr!ved at the presldentlal palace at the time ap polnted for my a udlence, Ka rol Murin, persona) secretary for the Preslden t, cautioned me aga!nst detaining him too long and also mentioned that it would be inappropriate to questlon him on matters of foreign a nd domestlc policy. Mracna, it seems, had lnferred that !t was more of a persona) and human interest chat that I desired with the P res!den t, whlch was correct, but r was also most eager to interview bim on politlcal issues - domestic and foreign. Monsignor J oseph Tiso. or Pres!dent Tiso as he was then, rad!a ted those qua lities so often observed in the successful pol!tlc!an. An!mation, vigor, affability and the obvious desire to make frlends and please people, withont Jettlng it appear as a veneer to mask h!s real thoughts. He greeted me with a hearty llandshake and. after Karol Murin left us. he Jed the way to the corner of bis study in the palace. He was in perfect health, but a physical dlrector would undoubtedly have prescribed more exercise to guard agalnst overwelght whlch ls often the worry of those nearing the half-century mark. His black ha!r was but sparsely sprinkled wlth grey and a radiant tr!nkle llgh ted bis dark blue eyes. Slnce my knowledge of the Slovak language was limited to some dozen or more words and he spoke very little Engllsh, our interview was carried on in German. My openlng remark was that he had established history by belng the first Catholic priest to be the head of a sovere!gn state. "Oh, no," he replied, "there was Selpel in the former Austrian government." Monsi'gnor Seipel, 1 reminded bim, was prime minister but not president. "There was Richelieu." He, too, as l called to bis attention, was prime minister whiJe Louis of France was king. So it seemed that my reference to history was correct. After some minutes or general conversatlon I said that I had been cautioned not to question bim on matters of state, but that I would like to do so. "Please do. Any questions you ask, l'll try to answer the m." WHAT ABOUT POLICIES? Then 1 was free to touch on several topics that lnterested me and most anyone else who had any knowledge of the happen!ngs !nside Central Europe during these days. "It is true that your pol!cies are dictated by Germany?" '"No," he lnsfsted. "In forelgn matters our policies are formu• lated so that tbey do not conflict with those of the Axls Powers. Slnce we are within their orblt lt would be sulcidal to strongly oppose them. But in domestlc matters we form our own pollcles whlch, In many instances, do not coincide wlth those of Germany. German terr!tory as you know is just across the Danube. Only a bridge between us but it !s a long bridge." He smiled when he realized that. I grasvoo his none too subtle meaning. �34 SLOVAKIA "Some of your critics," I then said, "declare that you - and by that I mean the Slovak Republic - are subject to instructions from the Vatican." "The usual charge of the uninformed," he replied. "l have no connection with the Vatican, except through the diplomatic channels, the same as other countries to which the Vatican City has accredited representation. (T here was a Vatlcan diplomatic official resident in Bratislava.) Any communications affecting the religious affairs of our people would be transmitted through the bishops. I am not a bishop. In my capacity as president I have no counection with Rome, other than I have polnted out." All rellgious denominations were accorded the same right of worship, he pointed out. The largest Protestant group was the Lutheran Evangelical, of which Rev. Martin Razus was the accepted leader and who was not only cooperating with bim politically, but they were personal friends. In the eastern part of the state were also many Orthodox or Greek Catholics. AGAIN WITH THE CZECHS ? Was lt likely, l asked, that the Slovaks and Czechs would again llilite in a government after tbe war? That questinon did not receive a direct answer. He remlnded me that trom the very inception of the Czecho-Slovakian government, there had been dlscrimintalon against tbe Slovaks. The autonomy, which had been promlsed, had been denied them. Those who protested and agitated for Slovak rights, such as Hlinka and hlmself, were imprisoned. Something like nine months he had spent in a Czech jail for protestlng the injustices that were lnflicted on t he Slovak people and demanding that their rights be recognized. Later he had been Minister of Health in the Prague cabinet. The Slovaks. he assured me, de· s ired to live in peace and harmony wlth the Czechs, the Poles, the Hungarlans and the Germans, but they a lso believed they were entltled to the "self-determlnation" that had been loudly proclaimed and was said to be the lnalienable right even of all small nations. They were now, for the first Ume in hlstory, an independent country. The problems facing them were many and varied. President Tiso referred wlth considerable pleasure to hls vislt in the Unlted States in 1937. He expressed the wish that the thousands of Slovaks in Canada and the United States be informed of the prospects for bette rment which he felt was due their people through the enactment of the programs of development then under way. NEED OF TEACHERS AND TECHNICIANS Thelr greatest problem, he said, was in finding men and women for the jobs that had been created. "We need technlcians, instructors in t he schools and universities and speciallsts for industria! projects. Our hlgh schools are over-crowded. Students want education and want to get ahead, but we lack sufflcient teachers. Tbe same in many businesses. We bope to meet these needs in tlme." He made the remark that, although s peclallsts and technlclans were urgently needed. he boped tbey would not bave to rely too much on the Germans. Tbat and otber comments indicated hls disllke for �SLOVAKIA 36 tbe small army of German engineers and tecbnicians wbo had come into the country to aid In its development. THE SLOVAKS AND THE RUSSIANS There had been a small token Slovak force sent against the Soviet soon after the outbreak of the German-Soviet hostillties in 1941, but they were withdrawn and tbe men, for the most part, were work· Ing in various industries that contributed products for the war effort. l pointed out to the President that they and tbe Russians were Slavs and was it not consistent that they be on tbe side of tbeir blood brotbers? Tbere was a pause and bis face became very earnest. "Quite true, We are blood brothers. But when tbose blood brotbers are Bolsheviks and Communlsts," doubling his flst and pounding on the table in front of bim Tiso said, ''then we'll fight to tbe last man." Presldent Tiso, like the martyred Draja Mlhailovitcb of Yugosla• vla, Archbisbop Stepinac and Mindszenty of Budapest, did not hesitate to take a firm and defiant stand against the greatest menace Christian civlllzation was then facing - and is still facing today. But because he and tbose other courageous ones were not deceived by tbe propaganda, the pious platitudes and spurious pollcies of tbe Western Powers as regards tbe Soviet, he was marked for sacrifice. The Washington State Department, at tbe bebest of Stalln's puppets, actually delivered bim to tortures and to death. Deny it tbougb they would llke to do today - when Christian leaders llke J osepb Tiso are neetled to weld Central Europe into a strong bastion against the Communlst horde - the bald trutb remains that In 1945 our State Department, as a supine and subserv!ent tool of Stalin. cons!gned T!so and tbe Slovaks t_o Red domination and extermination. Regardless of all arguments to the contrary, Josepb Tiso was slncerely desirous of helping his people - the long oppressed country that for nine hundred years had kept the fires or Chrlstlanlty alive in Centra! Europe. How long those fires will smoulder under the ruth· less domination of Communist destroyers of religion and clvllizatlon, is a grave question. Wbether it was mistaken judgment for tbe Slovaks to accept the assistance of Germany, to achieve the measure of independence they enjoyed, is a matter of oplnion. There was no war in progress wben the Slovak Republlc was born and none was imminent. Tbey revolted against obvlous injustices of tbe Prague Government. The Czech majority could bave compromised and settled tbeir dlfferences. Tbey did not. Wben tbe interna] revolt came. Hitler took advantage of tbe situatlon and proffered bis migbt against outslde aggresslon. Slovakla accepted tbe offer. If Josepb Tiso was a traltor to bis country, then tbe same can be said of Eamon de Valera in Ireland, Mabatma Gbandi in India. or the gallant Marsball Mannerheim in brave little Flnland. AII were patriots fighting for tbeir people. All were persecuted, smeared and discredited, but tbeir names will live in tbe blstories yet to be wrltten. �36 SLOVAKlA TI SO HAD A SENSE OF H UMOR After furtber lengtby dlscussion of varlous toplcs, I was about to depart when Karol Murin came to Inform tbe President tbat tbe Finance Minister was waitlng to see bim. Tlso accompanled me lnto a vast room looklng out across a walled garden in wbicb he sald líe took dally walks. Little dld l know tben tbat, over two year.s later, he would be taking many long walks togetber in another walled enclosure and resume our discussions on tbe worlďs affairs. But tbat is another story. Tbe air of tbe room was cbilly. - A tbougbt occurred to me. "Your Excellency," I said, ·•some persons told me tbat you a re always very seriouJ and earnest. But tbere's a twlnkle ot mirtb In your eyes at times and I bave an Idea tbat there's conslderable humor In you." "Perbaps," he smlled. "Would lt be appropriate If I gave you a little present?" "Wbat, · for instance·?" "I tbougbt tbat in tbese cold days of winter, just for mediclnal purposes, of course, you migbt appreciate a half dozen bottles ot gflod Canadlan whisky." Tlso chuckled and bis eyes lígbted witb the mirth I had noted there before. "ľll be glad to get lt," be' ~'aid. · The half dozen bottles were duly delivered fróm a source In "Bra tislava wbere I knew it was obtainable. Later on Karol Murin ask-ečl me to call again at tbe palace, wben I was given the compllments ot the Presldent and a token of bis appreciation for the whisky. It lš a wonder!ully embroidered table c loth, one of the finest specimens ot Slovak rieedlework that could posslbly be found. It is today my most treasur-ed possession. Very recently a letter came to me trom Karol Murin who ls now a resident of Canada. He informed me that my friend Joseph Mracna, whom I got to know very well in tbe two years following our meeting, had been murdered by the Commnnists. The Slovak patriot, Monslgnor Joseph Tlso, was delivered to Benes and bi.s Red Government by. the United States autborlties to be exterminated, because he was the arch enemy of Communism. Jn 1946, the year when· that assistance to Communist deslgns was. rendered by our offlclals, lt was polltlcally unwise to declare one's 'undying opposition to the forces or antl-God even then seeklng our destruction. Presldent Tiso pald tbe supreme penalty for bis devotion to bis God and bis country. COMES MY TURN TO BE I NVESTIGATED Tbe Carlton Hotel, in Bratislava, where I had reslded for months, was a meeting place for German military officers, legation attaches and couriers, coming and going all the tíme. A physician llving in the hotel, wbom I had called on a tlme or two for professlonal services, informed· me tbat someone at the German Legatlon had quizzed bim about me. The pbyslcian was Slovak, bis wife Hungarlan, enougb to assure me they were not sympathetic to the German otflcials. "That American 1s no frlend ot Germany," the legation omclal sald to the physician. ·'Whaťs he dolng here and why is he permitted to stay ?" �SLOVAKIA 37 Just what the doctor said to dlvert suspicion, I do not know, but within a few days the local police inspectors came to question me a bout my stay in the country, my source ot income, what 1 was doing, and so on. My replles were vague, but apparently satlsfactory for the Slovak police. But it caused me considerable worry. Pressure mlght be brought to bear which would send me across that bridge into German territory. That I must escape at all costs. Again I sought out Joseph Mracna In the Foreign Office. We bad talked frankly before and I knew I could trust hlm. My permit to remaln in Slo· vakia was about to expire and also my passport. Would they deport me? Mracna conferred wlth the proper authoritles, then lnformed me that if I did not become a "public charge·• - that !s, if I had assets on which to live - they . would give me sanctuary. I -would not be detported even at the expiration of permits or passports. I assured him that my persona! assets were sufficient to maintaln me for an extended period. 1 GO TO PIESTAN Y At the suggestion of Mracna, I arranged to live in Piestany, a health resort about sixty mlles from Bratislava which !s famed for its hot baths. It was far enough from the capltal that the German mllitary officlals or Gestapo agents wer not prowling around. Al· though the Republic malntalned its own police and defense force, judiciary, customs and ·immigration officials - no one arrlving or departing without tbeir sanction - there seemed to be a tacit agreement that the German military and legation oftlcials could come there for extended holidays. They came malnly [or food and drink, which weré almost non-existent in Germany and Austria at that tlme. Piestany is world famed. The baths - mud and hÓt pools - are beneficial for those wlth rheumatlsm, arthritls and other ills. Before the war there were visitors from as far away as India, Africa and l;loth North and South America. The two largest hotels - one on an island of the Vah River, and on which are the hot springs had been taken over and operated by the Interior Department ot the Slovak State. Soon after I went there as a voluntary "internee," Piestany became tbe headquart.ers of many involuntary internees of the Slovak Government. First to arrive were twenty-six - including the children - ot the !talian dlplomatlc corps in Bratislava. The !talian Minister, Cortese. had declared his allegiance to the antl-Mussolini, or Badoglio government, which jolned forces with the Western Allies. Naturally, he and bis entlre staff who shared his sympathles were anathema to the Germans. With the setting up of the Fascist forces in Northern Haly, pressure was brought to bear on Slovakia to deport the anti Fascists to the northern part of Italy which was still occupied by Germany and cooperating with it. TISO, TH E H U MAN ITARIAN But. contrary to generally circulated statements that President Tiso was a puppet ot Germany, he deflnitely refused to llsten to the suggestlons or demands of the Germans. nor wonld he consent to the Itallan Legatlon staff belng interned In Germany, which was a �38 SLOVAK.IA later idea of the Germans. So wlthin six weeks or my taking up residence in the Grand Royal Hotel in Piestany as a lone "internee," twenty-slx Italians moved in together with two attaches of the Slovak Foreign Offlce a.s guardians or "watchers." Two of the arrivals were Count Giovanni Revedin and his Amerlcan-born wife with whom I had become acquainted previously. The question was put to the Countess and the Foreign omce "guardians" "Are internees being held incommunicado?" The answer was no. I was not restralned from associating with them. In ternment in Piestany was not so onerous for them, because, unofflcially, Slovakia was more pro-Allied than pro-Axis. It is doubt· ful if any of the Allied countries were as considerate of interned subjects of an "enemy" nation as Slovakla was for those ot the !talian Diplomatlc corps, now no longer officially welcome. Later on arrived some from the Rumanian and Bnlgarian legations also. They were quartered at the governmenťs expense in one of the country's best hotels, permitted to retain their motor cars. though restricted in the use of them. If, however, any member of the corps found it necessary to go to Bratislava. some slxty miles distant, the Foreign Office representative granted permlssion. Usuaiiy lt was for a trip there and return the same day. Otherwise they were free - as was the case wlth myself - to roam all about the countryside, to nearby villages, to go flshing, bathing In the splendld pool in summer or in the Vah River and getting what relaxation they might need by attending the Jocal movie theatres, uslng tbe s kating rinks in wlnter and the tennis courts In summer. Slnce they were cut off from their sources of income, the Slovak government advanced them a small amonnt of spending money at regular intervals, pald hospital bills for those who required sneh hospitalizatlon, and very large fees for speciallsts who performed operatlons on some members or the group. It was convenient for me that friends with diplomatic immunity were there. The manuscrlpts on which I was then working would have ticketed me into one of the Nazi concentration camps had they fallen into their hands. Bnt Count Revedin as well as members of the Minister's family kept them in their possession - safe from search and seizure. Another who had taken ,;anctuary there was Siegfried Geyer, a dramatlst well known in Germany, Austria and Hungary, whose plays had been performed in Switzerland, Sweden, London and New York. One of his comedles, "Candle Light," was presented in Londoo where it ran for a year. Later it was brought to New York. where lt had some success. then was purchased by Warner Brothers and filmed, as were other of bis plays. TISO NOT AN ANTI-SEMITE The purge or J ews In Austria forced GPyer to flee into Slovakia where he was given presidential permission to remain. That same permission was granted to others I knew personally. One of them was an official of the Slovak travel bureau and another was an engineer for the resort and bealth department who resided wlth bis wlfe in Piestany and whom I vlsited many Limes. Another was a physician attached to tbe government hospital. Hence the base accusatlons of �SLOVAKIA 39 anti-Sem!tism that were hurled against Tiso - when the Reds de• manded his death - were false and easily proven to be noth!ng but falsehoods. Siegfried Geyer and I were work!ng daily on some manuscrlpts. Through underground communication I had been warned that milltary forces were to occupy the country. Two nights later the w!fe or a Slovak cabinet minister came to inform me that in a few hours the Germans would be in Piestany. Geyer was with me at the time. He felt that it was h!s death knell. It was two weeks or more before any action was taken toward deportation of the Jews. On the night of September 8, 1944, Geyer Jeft me, saying that we would meet at eleven in the morning. I never saw bim again. Through an acquaintance I learned that he wa s picked off the street the morning after leaving me and was carted away in a blue motor van. Three others of my acquaintances vanished the same day. For years they had found sanctuary and In many instances exceptional employment in the Slovak Republic, and this is asserted in direct contradiction of generally circulated propaganda by pressure groups that President Tiso and bis cablnet members aided in tbe extermlnation of the J ews. WAR COMES TO S LOVAK I A - GERMANS TAKE OVER In the sixteen months of my residence tbere, before the German occupation I had observed growing resentment against their powerful nelghbor. Now it became more bitter though the people were prudent enough not to make any outward sign of it. A pigmy does not force a quarrel with a giant. Tbe !talian diplomatic internees merited the attentlon of the German occupatlon officials. First tbeir motor cars were lmpounded. Then they were moved to tbe other hotel an an island In the Vah River, the two bridges a cross the river being circled with barricades and sentries posted at eacb end. A curfew edict went lnto effect and miles of barbed wire barriers were thrown around the city. Trenches and embankments were dug on tbree sides of tbe city, fleld telephones and power cables being strung along the streets and far into the country side. Tbls front was to be held at all costs - so lt was said. Slovakla now began to realize that all war fronts were closing in on ber. For over five years tbey had boped and prayed that this destructlon would not be vislted on them. But now it was at tbelr door. Tbe morning following the German occupatlon I went to tbe office of Inspector Vavro of tbe Slovak police. Prevlously wben my twelve month residence permit had exp!red I had sougbt bim. He merely sm!led at my fears. "Are you loslng any sleep over lt?" he asked. "Go away from here. l've forgotten you're in Piestany." An "enemy" subject, wbicb technically I was, could not bope for greater consideratlon. But now Vavro was no longer in complete autbority. His advice. however, was tbe same as before. "Didn't I teli you long ago that l've forgotten that you are here?" he said. "Return to your bouse and stay out of sight for a wb!le. My report witb your name on lt bas been conveniently misla!d. It will be some tiroe before tbe Germans tlncl :,ou." �40 SLOVAKlA Tbree days later men visited me, saying that tbey were wlth tbe German State Police. Tbere was tbe usual routine question!ng. Identlfication papers; occupation; slnce wbat date and wby was I residing' In the country? Wbat ls contained In the luggage and what !s in the mass of manuscripts, papers, etc.? Joseph Mracna had given me a letter to be sbown at just such times. It came lnto view and served to substantlate my statement tbat tbe Slovak autborities were acquainted with the contents of my bulging brief case. After a tborougb searcb of the place in whlch tbey found no radio, camera, weapons, photograpbs or otber susplcious appearing articles, the three men departed. Tension tbrougboul the country was becoming more noticable. Reports ŕlltering through from the eastern boundaries of the country were terrlfying. The Germans, being forced westward, forced all the villagers to evacuate ·with them' - or be shot. Their houses were burned. But before doing so they were stripped of everythlng In the way of metal. Door hinges, locks, farm machinery, tools and lmplements were taken away. Long convoys of half starved and bedraggled evacuees from the eastern slde of Slovakla and also from Hungary woved westward by wagon and on foot. Sometimes for eight or ten hours at a time those wretched and homeless people were coming at snalľs pace over t he. pHls, through the fringe of Piestany, and then vanished over the western horizon. " LIBERATION" BY THE REDS But even worse fate awaited those who eluded the German evacuation decrees. The Red "liberators" advancing into the eastern areas of Slovakia confiscated what might have been overlooked by the Germans. They roundetl up and deported children; no one seemed to know wbere. It was rumored they were sent to Russia. So between the plague of Germany, and the terrorlsts of the Soviet, poor llttle Slovakla had little to choose. They were caught between two enemies. Pressure was brought to bear on tbe Slovak government to hand the interned diplomats over to Germany. I took a message for them to tbe Swlss Consulate In Bratislava, for transmission to the outside world. It was hoped that if publicity was given their pllght in the Swiss and other neutra! papers, it would have some reaction, and also become known to the Allied authorlties. The messages and reports in Switzerland did perhaps seŕve to alter the announced lntention of the Germans to dellver the Ital!ans lnto the hands of the Mussolini faction in North Italy, who mlght have shot them as traltors. Instead they were sent first to Vienna and then to Sllesia. Amerlcan flyers who made forced landings or were shot down over Slovakia were taken in hand by the Slovak authorities. Tbose who requlred bospitalization were given tbe best the capltal atrorded - whlch was excellent. Karol Murin told me on · one of my vlslts to the Palace that, on instructions trom Presldent Tlso, he and bis wlfe s ougbt out the Amerlcan prlsoiiers in the hospltals to see that nothlng was left undone for tbeir comfort. Even bouquets of flowers were sent to brighten tbelr rooms. ··· ~- ' �SLÔVlinA 41 What a contrast trom the shameful treatment that was accorded Pres!dent Tiso, Karol Murin and members of their cab!net when they voluntarlly sought sanctuary In the American zone of occupatlon. More on this will follow. The Germans ended all the consideration and special attention that was given war prisoners. The German military officials took them, as well as many Slovaks, despite protests from the President and Foreign Minister, Stephen Tiso. Again it was a case of the pigmy and the giant. Might was right. The story of tbe gbastly occupation and betrayal will be told later. THE BEGINNI N G OF THE END On New Year's Eve of 1945 I was wltb frlends In Piestany. 'ľbe forbidden {by the Germans) broadcasts of tbe London radlo w1:,re turned on for the latest news in Czecb, German and Englisb. Also that evening Adolf Hitler broadcast a brlef greeting to der Deutscber Volk - hls "friends." Some of the llsteners insisted that lt was not Hitler's voice. Otbers expressed the opinion tbat lt was "der Fubrer" but a very mucb changed volce. It was generally believed tbat the attempted assassination of six montbs previously had left some per• manent impaiľment. During tbe iatter part of 1944 motlon pictures of him - wblcb was unusual - were always taken at a distance and tbere was a no ticeable awkwardness of one arm. It was rumored that he sustained other injuries. The London radlo gave lengthy discussions on tbe plaos for the liberation and rehabilitation of Centra! Europe. We assumed that there was complete accord among the Allied Powers and that tbe views and oplnlons expressed represented tbose of tbe United States. The piana were thoae of the Red dominated group of Edwa rd Benes and foreto ld th e diaaster t hat was inevitab le. Anyone with even the most meagre knowledge of European history knew that the rulers of the Kremlin hoped to dominate and absorb all tbe S lav people. Therefore, it was alarmlng for the people in Centra! Europe to observe the manner in whlch the Allled Powers permitted the Soviet to occupy the Balkans, move up into Hungary and tben sweep lnto Slovakla. As my friends In Piestany and Bratislava pointed out re. peatedly, the Allied Powers, and particularly America, should have re• membered what bappened in the Ilaltlc states, In Flnland and in Poland. It was tbe pattern of Red absorb tion and complete control, once they planted foot on the soil o f a country. The only exceptlon was that of Spalo - the slngle country where the Communlsts ~uf• fered milltary defeat. Offlcial Washington, let us remem ber also, was cooperatlve with the Communist terrorists in Spain at that Ume - regardless of the denials that some or the hierarchy of the e lect now wish to read lnto the record. Moscow's deslgns in Spain, in the Baltic states, In the Balkans and no w in Centra! Europe were so obvious as the Pyramlds on the Sahara. The milltary o ccupatlon was but the prelude to permanen t lncorpo ration lnto the Red orblt. After the Red army occupied Budapest, whlch for centurles had been a bastlon of Chrlstlanlty against the antl-Christlan forces on the East, it left only Bratislava as the lmportant city of the Danube between Budapest and Vienna. Mlllions of kronen In materials and mil• �42 SLOVAK.IA lions of man-power hours were expended on the defenses. The Eastern Front, lt seemed, would soon be in our front yards. When the day and night booming of artlllery began to be hear d in Piestany, many felt it wise to move westward. A famlly I knew In Bratislava had obtalned a motor truck and fuel two precious thlngs - intending to flee into southern Bavaria. By phone from Piestany I arranged to share space in the Bavaria-bound truck. But when l arrived there by train trom Piestany the truck had a\ready left. Now, where to go or what to do? Huge artlllery pieces were being wheeled through the str eets westward. German milltary supplies in motor cars and wagons trundled westward. Cattle and horses were being driven in the directlon of Vienna. It is doubtful if they got far along that road before the Hed army captured and butchered them. OFF TO PRAGUE An acquaintance advised me to Jeave for Prague as rall transport was still operating in that direction. When I inquired about visa or permit to enter the ·'Protectorate" and officiaľs secretary informed me that "tbe bars are down; you may go anywhere you can obtain transportation." At tbe railway station J got a ticket for Prague. A train was scbeduled to leave that evening about six. Tbe station was a seething mad-house. Pandemonium, orrlerly confusion, bundreds of terrorstricken people with bundreds of bags. bundles and babies trying to get somewbere - anywbere. In tbe black-out, long after slx o'clock, tbere was an air-raid warning. Police herded people into a vast underground shelter that had been tunnelled into a rocky bili aero.ss the railway tracks. MorP .:onfusion, anxiety and wondering if we would ever get out of the stricken city. The train - scheduled for six o'clock - left in tbe thickening blackness of the night about eleven. People were packed in to suffocation. At a town called Cuty. on thP. Crontier, l transferred to anotber train tbat landed me in Brno, now Czechoslovakia, about eight in the morning. After snatching four hours sleep at the Grand Hotel, I contrived to board (without the special military permit) an express train which landed me in Prague about mldnight. All train service into Slovakia ended tbe morning after I de• parted. Had J delayed a few hours longer tbe Reds would have inc luded me in their spreading net of "liberation." Even the most unobservant person must bave sensed the uneasiness of the Germans then in Prague. Czechs and the evacuees from Slovakia, Hungary and Poland knew it was but a matter of weeks or days when the American and British forces would be in Berlin. Tb'at meant the end of the war. but what then? Every day motor trucks and cars of all kinds were being loacled with bousehold goods, cats, dogs, bird cages, German women and children. Then at evening they rolled off into the darkness. Branche.• of trees or other <'amouflaging uas used to disguise the vebicles as much as possible. They dld not chance mass movements or evacuees in dayl!gbt llours. �SLOVAKIA 43 REVOLUTION AND REVENGE Friday evening, May Fourtb, marked tbe beglnning ot tbe uprising against six long years ot German dictatorsbip. A mysterious and ominous atmospbere pervaded Prague. Crowds began convergmg in Wenselplatz - as it was then called_ For wbat? No one seemed to know. Sometbing was to bappen. A revolution was in tbe making. Little by little tbings occurred. Men, women and boys began defacing German words on tbe fronts of business establ!shments. Tbey commenced to alter tbe street signs - - which were in dual language - Czecb and German_ Tbe electric trams were halted by tbe crowd Then matters became more serious. Sirens screamed, military cars pushed througb tbe crowds, commands were barked over t.he loud speakers in the s quare. Small armoured tanks rolled into view. A plstol shot, a woman's scream, crowds surging back against tbe walls and the rattle of machlne guns Four days and nigbts tbe battle continued. The Prague raáio remained in Czech hands and was their greatest asset. Pleas from it were directed to the American forces, said to be thirty, tben twenty, tben ten miles away. Professor Matousek, director of tbe station, would beg in broken English for tbem to hurry. The Stars and Stripes waved from the top;, of buildings and in many windows. An enthusiastic welcome would be glven tbeir liberators. The question asked by hundreds was: '·When do you think tbe Americans wíll get here?" Little did they know then that they would never arrive_ That Prague and the Czechs, together with the millions of Slovaks, had b een sold down-river by Eduard Benes in a secret deal entered into with Stalin. A deal that had the benediction of Franklin D. Roosevelt who was even then loudly prating about saving the Western World from the Nazi destroyers of Christianity, only to be consigned to the Soviet, the greatest destroyers and enemies of Christian civilization since the Cruclfixion. THE SAD AWAKENING On the sixth day of the revolution in which bundreds or !!ves and millions in property was destroyed. General Vlassoff's troopers were s linking along the shattered fronts of buildings in Wenzelspaltz. These were the Russians, mostly from the Ukraine, who had first been equipped by the Germans to fight thP Communists. Now they turned on the Germans and were belping to drive tbem out of Prague. The thought came to me at the time: what will be tbe fate or these pol!tlcal pawns? They followed tbeir leader, General VlassofI against the Bolshevik terrorists, then they remainecl witb him when he turned agalnst the Germans. Would tbe Allied nations give them sanctuary and a cbance to live• They did not. General Vlassoff was dellvered to the Moscow '"liberators" just as was President Tiso and bis cabinet. After a mock tria! that followed the pattern of al! Red trlals. Vlassoff was put before a firing squad. But what ls the fate of tbe simple l{ussian farmeťs boy hundreds of them - wbo wore a uniform an carried a rifle, or drove a team of horses pulling a wagon Joad of supplles to aid In the war for tbe West? Any number or t.hem were hquldated and others are �SLOV~ .I A 110w slaves In Slberia. Not being articulate their story is never heard. And who delivered them to death or slavery? The same ones wbo dellvered the Slovaks to the Communlsts at Teheran and Yalta. By the end of the sixth or seventh day there came into the n1lnds or the beleagured people of Prague as well as the hundreds or Slovak, Pollsh and Hungarian evacuees, the susplclon that the Amerlcans were not coming. When for days the Amer!can rorces did not advance a step, but on the contrary moved away trom the city, they knew that something or a Mach!avelian nature had taken place behind the scenes. That they had been sold !nto bondage. All the p!ous words and pretty promlses that had been inade about guaranteeing their liberatlon - were just so many empty words. It became obvlous that political tricksters had ordained in secret conferences that Czecho-Slovakia was to be handed lnto the Red orbit. It was agaínst every tenet of their beliefs. part!cularly the Slovaks, who were avowed and m!l!tant foes or the Communist ideology and who w!th thelr then presldent, Joseph Tlso, had said they would t!ght to the !ast man. Now they realized that they were being conslgned to Red dominat!on. After another day of intermittent bombing and shell fire those of us In Prague heard a jubilant news announcer on the London radlo assure us that "the war in Europe !s over." That same inaccurate statement came from the American operated radlo stations In Germany and France and synchronized. ironlcally enough, with the staccato barking of machlne guns that raked Wenzelsplatz and the occasional deep toned thunder of an aerlal bomb or German shell that ~xploded somewhere too near ror comfort. For the people of Czecho-Slovakia the war was not over. We knew in tbe promises of the Western Powers, had been abandoned to t.he then that the Czechs and Slovaks. also the Hungarlans. the Poles and the other people of Chrlstian nations. who had placed thelr fatth benign brutallties and tyranny of Joseph Stalin. Innuences In Washington hari labored zealously to airl the Kremli n's effort for worldwide destruct!on of Chrl.stlan civllizatlon. and the Slovaks were another pawn In the game. Proof or that innuence and c!tations or those. who were lnstrumental In lntlict!ng that ruln on Centra! :E;urope. bave already been written tnto the publi<' records. Slovakia had enjoyed a measure of freedom only to have lt snatched away anrl her peopl~ consigned to oppression, spollatlon and deportation. far more ghastly than any they had endured in past bistory. But rbeir falth in God and their delermlnation to flght on has 1emalned. • • • WHO SAID IT? - "We are children or freedom. We cannot be s afe except in an environment of freedom. We belleve in freedom as fundamentally as we belleve anythlng In thls world. We belleve In it far everyone In our country. And we don't restrict thls belie! to freedom for ourselves. We belleve that all people in the world are entltled to as much freedom, to develop in thelr own way, as we want ourselves." - (Secretary of State, Dean Acheson, Aprll 22, 1950). � SLOVAKÍA Z5 1 WAS IN SWVAKJA Edward L. Delaney Many Slovaks in America, especially those horn in this country, have but a limited knowledge of their parents' or grandparents' !and. As for the millions of Americans who have no klnsbip with Slovak!a, the word is merely the latter half of Czecho-Slovakia, which had been impressed upon their consclousness by the propaganda bureaus ot tbe late Edward BAnes and bis predecessor Thomas Masaryk. One will search long In those propaganda papers for any paragraphs conveying the impresslon that the Slovaks are the political, cultural or industria! equals o! the Czechs. Perhaps one reason that the Czech rather than the Slovak part of the hyphenated name has been given greater publicity !s that the capital, Prague, is predomlnantly Czech and the majority or visitors from other parta of the world seldom get beyond that city. There is no denying that the Prague of pre-1945 days did possess an individua.l atmosphere and charm for those who are interested In the architectural treasures and historlcal landmarks of Europe's older ci ties. · It was this writer's good fortune to have vis!ted or reslded Cor extended periods in several ot the other European capitals before visiting Prague. Many months later I was afforded the opportunity for a stay of two years in Slovakia. At that Ume the synthetic CzechoSlovakia had ceased to exist. Following nine hundred years or struggling fot; independence, the Republic of Slovakla was establlshed and the people could say that they had attained somethlng approximating tbeir goal. Tbe evening of my arrival in Bratislava, capital of tbe new State, a Professor Doba! called on me at the Carlton Hotel. He lnformed me that he was connected with the State propaganda bureau and that their attache, Streiznic, at tbe Berlin Legatľon, had telegraphed that l was arrlvlng. Foreign correspondents and writers were sought out by them and efforts made to present their country In the best light. An appolntment was made ror me to meet bis cbief, Tido J. Gaspar. Tido J., as I soon learned, was the most photographed man in Slovakia. No news reel was complete witbout bim smiling or band· shaking 'bi~ way into the center of the picture. He was the official greeter An actor with the wbole country as bis stage. In bis !apel, winter or summer, was always a gardenia, a full bloom rose or a cluster of flowers In season. His attire was patterned on tbe rigorously correct Unes 'Óf New York's ófficial greeter, Grover Whalen. In fact one got the lmpresslon that T!do J. Gaspat may bave met or studied tbe life-and-times of Grover Wbalen or the late Jimmy Walker, the most popular mayor New York ever had. for he was their counterpart in Centra! Europe. What can I do for you ?" · he asked after we had exchanged the usua,I formalities of visitor and host. "Nothlng," I informed bim, except to suggest what would be In• teresting · for me from a scen!c as well as a hlstor!cal point ot �26 SLOVAKIA view. That appealed to him. The alert and competent young men or his travel department la!d out an !tlnerary for me whlch covered the pr!ncipal c!tles and !ncluded a short stay in the justly famed H!gh Tatra resorts of the Carpath!an Mounta!ns. Bratislava was at that tlme the Mecca for all who, by any maneuvering, could arrange to go there. World War II was in the early stages. Food restrictions and rationing had been !mposed on a large part of Western and Centra! Europe. A long bridge over the Danube connects Bratislava with Austrla, across which rolls the rail and motor traff!c to Vlenna some s!xty miles away. But !t ls no longer the Vienna of Johann Strauss and Franz Lehar music with food and rink to be enjoyed in lelsurely comfort. Even in those early days of the war all Au.stria and Germany were areas of dismal faces and unappetlzing meals. Bratislava - which many still referred to as Pressburg - was the magnet that drew vlsitors from all Centra! Europe. For in Slovakia was to be had food and rink, muslc and laughter w!thout let, stay, or hindrance. With the exception of the adjoining country of Hungary, no other part of Centra! Europe enjoyed the essentials and many of the luxuries of life, as did the people of Slovakla before the period when Stalin's hordes swarmed over the country like a swarm of locusts and literally laid lt to waste. In most of the propaganda that emanated from various sources in Europe and was eagerly snapped up and exaggerated by the sinlster influences in this country, the impression was conveyed that Germany syphoned off the food resources of Slovakia long before thelr armies actually occupled the country late in the year 1944. Even at the risk of being charged with attempting to mitigate the sins of the Nazi Reglme. I assert that, in those days it was regarded as rare good fortune if one could get lnto the Slovak paradise and there obtain a good meat wlth whatever was desired in the way of w!nes, spirits or liquors, all at prices which, even in those tlmes were reasonabl!l. Until the severe winter of 1944-45, citrus fruits, such as lemons and oranges from Italy or Spain, might he had in the public markets. Such delicacies had been off the markets in Austria and Germany for nearly five years. In addition to al! dairy products, poultry, beef, pork, sugar, <>onfectionery and tobacco wares were obta!nable in Slovak!a with but slight restrlctlons on the amount of certaln items that mlgbt be pur• chased. Also clotbing. s boes and dress materlals were to be had. At tbat time the shops of Austrla and Germany were bare of goods. Just over the Danube from Bratislava the sbops were emoty. Such stores as the Woolworth cbain were barren. Shelves and tables of empty cartons or a single item - usually a wooden toy or some article of glass. Rows of the same useless article. Nothing was to be found that contalned metal, cotton, rubber wool, s!lk - all of which materials were needed for the war supplies. After observing those empty shops in Vienna, Munich, Berlin. Frankfurt and Cologne, it was as a fairyland to enter business establlshments of the same type In Slovakia and f!nrl most anything one might expect to see in shops beyond the warrlng zone. �SLOVAKIA 27 The people or Slovakia knew they were enjoylng a verltable heaven of plenty as compared to thelr neighbors. T heir new status as an independent country began in the spring of 1939. Only a few rersons, whether in the cities. towns or villages, did not realize that they were the envy of people in their neighborlng states. Slovak inde• pendence and self-determinatlon was paying them divldends even in the material advantages they could see and understand. Small wonder that their political leaders were popular and their policles approved. Therefore it was not surprlsing that the majority of the people had only words or praise for President Joseph Tiso and the other of!icials of their young republic. What many dld not reallze was that Germany was syphonlng off thelr surplus or agrlcultural and manufactured products. In exchange the Slovaks dld recelve some goods, such as tools, machinery, electrical equipment and rallway supph es, but for the most part they got only promises to pay in such materials. The debt owing by Germany was increasing with staggerlng amounts each month. But the majority of the people enjoyed thelr temporary prosperity with scant worry about the future. Although there was little doubt in their minds as early as 1942, that the Axls Powers were doomed to defeat, they held to the hope that by somf! political magic they would escape the horrors of war and the pf!nalties to follow. In those days of the Republlc of Slovakla, it was a country or contrasts. Evidences of its centuries old clvilizatlon and customs were to be observed alongside products that were as up to the minute as tomorrow's newspaper. For example: the express tralns making daily trips to and from the high Tatra resorts were powered by Diesel electrlc locomotives, with Jounge. dining and observation cars comparable to those of other European railway systems. But in the country, through which the deluxe traln sped smoothly, one observed also the prlmltlve ox carts on winding dlrt roads. Oxen pulled the ploys and harrows In the fields. Moreover, the branch railway lines that wound around or over the mountains and dipped down into fertile valleys offered the traveler what comfort he might get from a bard wooden bench In a dlmly llgh ted coach behlnd a wood burnlng steam engine of the type used In the western mountain country of the Unlted States seventy-five years ago. Stepping from the modern express on the High Tatra run, to the minlature traln that huffed and puffed its way to Banska Stiavnica was like bridging a gap of t.hree quarters of a century. It chanced that my arrival in Banska Stiavnica synchronized with a heavy snow storm. After plodding through darkness and deep snow for what seemed to be a mlie, the youth. who had dragged my luggage on a sled. ushered me through the portals of a buildlng that had al\ the appearances of an old Roman ruln. It was old and the Romans had probably been there. but lt was not ruined and from the durable manner in which stone and mortar were put into buildings In those middle ages, it will not be in rulns for another few centuries. Tens of thousands of shoes or sandals had worn deep grooves In the stone door step. E lectrlc llghts replaced the candles or oil tapers that had _Iighted the way for guests who came there in other �SLQVAKIA 28 centuries, but that was a bout all the concesslon that had been made to the lJ!Odern world. The building, so l learned from the Sudeten German woman who operated it, was over three hundred years old. The cold room to which I was asslgned boasted a bed whlch was less than three centuries old, but it was about the only modem plece In the antique setting. Although appreciat!ng the charm of archltectural treasures and old Jandmarks, there are limes when one misses the creature comforts that are affored in our modern hotels and homes. Tbat was one of tbose times. But the warmlng effect of a "slivovica" and gobs or excellently roasted goose, i,olisbed off with another potent drink, served to banlsh the fear of \Vaking in that three hundred year old room to find tbat I was frozen to death. Oddly enough one seldom heard about the precious metals that were once part of Slovakia's contrlbutlon to the worlďs wealth. Much of the old currency and art objects in the Hungarian empire and Centra! Europe were made from gold and silver ores that were mined at Kremnica and near Banska Stiavnica. But witb tbe increaslng costs of production and the relatlvely cbeap prlce or the metal during tbe quarter of a century before tbe birth of the Republlc of Slovakia, those -mines had been practically abondoned. World War II altered tbe situation. Centra) Europe was cut off (rom tbe silver producing countries of North and South America. Mining of that metal was steppe<l up. The silver sm.iths of Slovakia again plied thelr trade and many articles of thelr handlwork appeared in the sbops. Througb the perfidlous acts of the signers of the agreements at Teheran and Yalta, Stalin's minions. the Communist confiscators, have no doubt taken possession of tbose sources of wealth. Whatever treasure ts taken from them now, finds its way into the coffers ot the Communists instead of belng rashioned into articles for the use ot people or for objects of art in the churcbes or Cbrist. Like other In• dustries, whicb were created or resulted after tbe establishment of the Republic or Slovakia. tbe mines or Stiavnica are servlng the needs of Stalin. Political charlatans. such as Edward Benes, who were lauded by tbe American press and propagandists. sold tbe Slovaks lnto bondage for less than the thirty pieces o! sllver, wbich was the prlce of J udas for betraying bis Master. Tbey wanted and for a Ume e njoyed persona) aggrandizement and polltlcal power as puppets of tbelr Moscow master. They silenťed any murmur of protest tbat mlgbt have been raised by the people who for nine bundred years had struggled for indepen?.encei · · S LO V A K IA - V ICTI M OF TE.H ERAN A N D Y A LTA Tbe Centra! European satellites around the Soviet star are often to as. being of Slavic origin. Some omnisctent ones give that as one reason why Stalin had little dlfflculty In merging them into tbe Red. orbít. Slovakia, as we know, was one or tbe countrie!\ sold lnto bondage at Teheran and Yalta - tbe completlon or the betrayal belng seen when Eduarq Benes returned in 1945 as puppet president of tbe socalled Czecho-Slovakia and for two years or so made grotesque referŕed �i LOVAKIA efforts to disguise tbe fact tbat Stalin, and not Benes or Klement Gottwahl, was tbe supreme belng In their capltal al Prague. Etbnologlcally lt is not lncorrect to group tbe peoples ot Russla. Poland, Czecboslovakia, Ukralnla, Bulgarla and Yugoslaľia into a Pan-Slav classlflcation. Tbe vast majority of the peoples In lhe socalled Slav nations bas llttle in common witb tbe Russa!ns. In past generations tbere was a bond of Cbristian religion wb!cb ran tbrough all tbe Slav countries, eitber tbe Ortbodox Greek-Russian Cburcb or, in tbe case of Slovakia, Poland, Croatia. lbe Roman Catbollc Cburcb. Tbe rise or atbelstlc Communlsm In Russla was t be deatb knell of Chrlstlanity tbere, bence a splltting wedge was d riven between most of the Balkan and Centra! European countries and t be great Slav domain of tbe Soviet. Slovakla, Poland and Croatla bave been predominantly Roman Catbollc for centuries. Only a small percentage are adherents ot tbe Ortbodox Cburcb. Hence, any contention tbat tbere is a racia! and religlous afflnity among the Slav peoples, wblcb simplifled tb elr enslavement by Moscow, 1s lacklng In support. F urthermore, lt is leaktng out tbrougb cracks and crinks In the Iro!l Curtaln that Stalln ls flnd· ing more tban a llttle dltficulty In merglng the Slovaks lnto bis godless domain. Wben for over eleven centuries a people, sucb as tbe Slovaks wbo bave prayed to God and H is Son, tbe Cbrlst, lt ls not llkely tbat tbe delty of tbe Kremlin can soon purge t belr mlnds or tbe OnA Supreme Being. THE SLOVAK$ ARE CELTS? Also - lf we were to accept the oplnlon of a learned professor it was my good fortune to meet in Banska Bystrica - tbere ls no RACIAL kinshlp between tbe Slovaks and tbe Russians. The Slovaks are not Slavs, asserted tbat student of blstory, but on the contrary ' they are Celts. A professor Doba! In Bratislava had given me a note ót lntroductlon to tbe curator of tbe museum In Banska Bysttica. It de· veloped tbat tbe gentleman knew more about the bistory ot manklnd tban Gl bbons, H. G. Wells, or any ot tbose wbo bave wtltten. 'Welgbty tomes on tbe origin or man, etc. ' 1• Tbls Slovak scbolar, well along In yt>ars, bad ·been lnstrúctor In a unlversity al Constantlnople (before it was called Istanbul) also in Budapest. His speclalty was Sanskrit Arabic, tbe Hebrew language and otber writings on tbe earlíest hlstory or manklnd. "You are Irisb," he said to me, after we had dlsposed of a slivovica and coffee, "and the Irlsh are Celts. A characteristlc ot tbe l rlsb is black halr with blue eyes. Tbat 1s observed among our people here In Slovakla." President Tiso, 1 have already mentioned had black bair and blue eyes. If the professor ,vas endeavorlng to make me feel a racia! kinshlp wlth the Slovaks - the Celtlsh background - he certatnly supported hls oplnion wlth more arguments than black and b lue for hair and eyes. lt was a lengthy thesls he expounded on tbe !:'Ubject, but the glst or lt was that au the people or Europe stem from the origlnal tn h abitants llvlng in tbe region around the Medlterranean, the Jordah, tbe �30 SLOVAKIA Hed and the Dead Sea. The garden of Paradise is supposed to have been in that general part of the Near East. The Celts - as part of the early human family of whlch we have any history, so the professor asserted - were brawny, pioneer lads, pagans in those days, of course, who hunted and explored and pushed their way westward. Some of them got as far as the western s hores of Europe, which we now know as the coast of Brittany in France. From there they launched boats and set up their cabeens in Ireland and Scotland, wbere they are today. Some of those early Ce!ts, acco rding to this student of the subject, decided tha,t the area just west of the Carpathian Mountalns - which is Slovakia - was a pretty good part of the earth to stake out for t heir children and grandchildren for generations to come. So there they stayed. Like the other Celts who went on to I reland, they were converted to Christ!anlty well over a thousand years ago and bave remained steadfast in their faith ever slnce, just as have the fightin' lrish. That, the Banska Bystrica gentleman lnformed me. is another evidence of the kinship, the similarlty in character and traditions. He then escorted me to a conical plie of stones towerlng four stories high, in which were kept many relics and articles that had been dug from the ground in Slovakia over th e past generations. There were cooking utensils, ornaments of solid gold and silver, bits of clothing, crude instruments for killing, such as tbe crusaders of the middle ages carried, and many other articles. Oddly enough, 1 had seen articles almost identically the same in the museum of Dublin, Ireland, on one of my visits there. Those in the Dublin museum had been unearthed in tbe peat bogs and fields of Ireland. The professor had a point there. The traces of clvllization, which we have found, do have similarity. The old gentleman then took me to his home and into the b asement or cellar under it. There were stacks of musty manuscripts, some on tbe oldest known kind of parchment. The signs and symbols on tbey were just hierog!yphics to me, but to that scholar they told stories and epics of hlstory wbich had been written in the mlddle ages. Whether or not tbe Slovaks are Celts and kin ot the Irish and Scots, instead of the Russians, I shall not attempt to prove. But that was the contention of one learned Slovak in Banska Bystrica. S LOV AKIA U NDER THE REDS Of course, now that the Communisl<i are in Slovakia, and Moscow is to be regarded as the fountain head of all culture and wisdom, it is likely that any reference to tbe Cbristian Celts as being remotely related to the Slovaks will be purged trom the people's minds and records. It would be interesting to know what the Communlsts have done to the sbrlne, the mausoleum of Fatber Andrej H linka In Ruzomberok, at wbich I had knelt in prayer a day or so before going to Banska Bystrica. It was Father Hlinka who, by bis zeal, tireless energy and strength of cbaracter, had brought about the political unity and solidarity wh!ch made possi ble tbe creation of the Slovak Republic. Al· thougb lt was short Jlved, it did demonstrate to the world that a �SLOVAKIA 31 Slovak state is feasible and may again be upon the maps of Europe. It would be incorrect to assert that everyone in the Slovak Repub• Ile, durlng the stx years of its exlstence, was enthuslastlcally 01>tlmistic as to lts future in the assembly of nations comprlsíng the European continent. In this connection, it shoula be mentioned, tbat tbe greatly_ publicized pian or proposal said to bave been urged by General Dwight Eisenhower, !or a United States of Europe, may be dlsmissed as wlshful thinking. Such a "United States" could not possibly function at thls stage of world history when half of Europe is free and half s lave, half Christlan and half under the ruthless dominatlon of pagan dictators. Until the situation 1s altered and Communism ls banished from Europe, there can be no lasting unity. To even dlscuss the matter be· fore that 1s accomplished, is utterly Cutile. A SLOVAK TEXAS RANGER SPEAKS HIS MIND A well-to-do industrialist in Bratislava pointed out to me about 1942 what was to be the fate of Slovakla and Europe in the postwar period. He iS not a Slovak but one who resided in Slovakla when it was part oľ the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. then under the gov· ernment of Czechoslovakia and remained to carry on under tbe Re· 1mblic, as did many of Hungarlan, Czecb, Austrian or German natlonality. All enjoyed equ al rights. As be may still be living there, it would be wrong to mentlon bis name, because reprisals might be inflicted on bim, should these words be brought to the attentlon of Red spies in tbis country. On my lnitial visit to bis home, the first objects that met my eyes were a western saddle and a Wlnchester rifle In a regulatlon leather holster. Very much American. Then I got tbe story. He had been a Texas Ranger in bis younger days! There were notches in bis leg from slugs of desperados, several of wbom he had killed in bis encounters wltb tbem along the borders of the Rio Grande. Speaklng five languages fluently and knowing thl! contlnent of Europe thorougbly, his opinions on the current and impending eventa were wor• thy of attentlon "Wbat a misfortune 'Teddy' Roosevelt isn't in the White House today," he said shortly after we met. "Things would be dlfferent. Tbe way lt appears now, Europe is being delivered stralgbt lnto chaos and Communism. You know what that means? I do. Durlng the bloody reign of terror under tbat so-and-so (expressive Texas Ranger term) Bela Kun, I witnessed enough of lt. I was !nterpreter before some ot the committees in Budapest and stared that 'so-and-so' In the eye many a tlme. ľd bave kllled bim if I got the chance, and he knew lt. What is the intention of Franklln Roosevelt? To dellver us over t<_> the Reds aga in?" It was necE>ssary to first destroy the forces or Hitler, I pointed out and then . . . "Then what? Thaťs tbe quest!on. True enougb the Nazl yoke on the German people must be broken and they be brought back to belp in the scheme of thlngs. But you mark my worda, Stalln is the only one who ia winning anything in thia war. He'a not winning it elther. lťs being given to him. Unless bis henchmen are thrown out of t.he �32 SLOVAKIA Balkans, the Baltic states, Poland and all the other spots he will take over soon; the whole of Europe and western civllizatlon wlll go back• ward tor ~ century or so." "You are not so badly off here in Slovakia at present," I ventured to say. "NQnsense. Our freedom here is but temporary, and so 1s the pros• períty, Fooľs gold. You know what tbat 1s? A flasb In the pan, a mi· rage. Can't make this country self-sufficient. It bas to be bltcbed on t& some other part of Europe. Always has been. Tbe Germans deve!• oped it at one period of bistory. It was part of tbe Hapsburg Man· archy, tben the neglected half of Czecho·Slovakla. It wlll be taken over by the Reds after the war - see if ľm not rlght. Could make it a self·determining state, if the otber European powers, supported by America, demanded it. But tbey won't, unless great pressure ls brougbt on the influences now in Washington, London and Paris. But ľm not leaving here. Sure, ľm what tbey cal\ a capitallst, an enemy of the Reds. rve gat that Wincbester and two Colt plstols. Wben they're empty the Reds can take wbaťs left. I won't know mucb about it tben." That was one man's opinion of wbat was transplring in Slovakia anct Centra! Europe at tbat time and wbat he thought tbe future beld far tbem. He was not always so explosive in bis observatlons. but in tbe two years and more I knew bim I learned to respect his estimate of the Europeao scene. though at times I may not have entlrPIY agreed with bim. But was be not right as regards the sell-out of Christianity in Cen· tral Europe? Was he not correct In bis predictlon that only Stalln was wiooing t he war and that bis greatest aldes were then oot In '.\toscow. but In London and Washington? In these days when we art! exhorted to strlve and save and struggle to rescue Europe and ourselves rrom the menace of Communlst cont.rol, let us reflect on tbe facts or tbose who - wltb wbat appears to bave been pre-determlnation - consigned Slovak:a and otber Christian nations to perdition. MEETING PRESIDENT TISO At a dinner party in Bratislava l flrst met Joseph Mracna, formerly Consul far Czecboslovakia in New York. lt developed, wben comparlng notes, t hat we had both salled from New York on the same day in Oecembr 1939. He on tbe Vulcania bound far Llsbon. wbile my voyage was on tbe Excalibur witb Genoa as my destinatlon. Mracna and bis wlfe, who was Viennese. were very pro-American an.d longed far the tlme when they migbt return to tbe Unitd States wher-e he ·had many frlends and acqualntaoces, several of whom were also my friends. Although born In Slovakia, Mracna had spent tbe greater part of bis life in other countries. He attended unlversities in Vienna and Par!s, following wb!ch he had been occup!ed In forelgn countrles even before becoming the Czecboslovakian Consul In New York. He was, at the time I knew him, a member of tbe Foreign Office of the new Sl_ovak .Republlc wbere hls experience and knowledge of affalrs in .several other countries was most usefuL I asked !f he could arrange an audience for me with the Pres!dent. He said he could; and did. �SLOVAKIA 33 When I arr!ved at the presldentlal palace at the time ap polnted for my a udlence, Ka rol Murin, persona) secretary for the Preslden t, cautioned me aga!nst detaining him too long and also mentioned that it would be inappropriate to questlon him on matters of foreign a nd domestlc policy. Mracna, it seems, had lnferred that !t was more of a persona) and human interest chat that I desired with the P res!den t, whlch was correct, but r was also most eager to interview bim on politlcal issues - domestic and foreign. Monsignor J oseph Tiso. or Pres!dent Tiso as he was then, rad!a ted those qua lities so often observed in the successful pol!tlc!an. An!mation, vigor, affability and the obvious desire to make frlends and please people, withont Jettlng it appear as a veneer to mask h!s real thoughts. He greeted me with a hearty llandshake and. after Karol Murin left us. he Jed the way to the corner of bis study in the palace. He was in perfect health, but a physical dlrector would undoubtedly have prescribed more exercise to guard agalnst overwelght whlch ls often the worry of those nearing the half-century mark. His black ha!r was but sparsely sprinkled wlth grey and a radiant tr!nkle llgh ted bis dark blue eyes. Slnce my knowledge of the Slovak language was limited to some dozen or more words and he spoke very little Engllsh, our interview was carried on in German. My openlng remark was that he had established history by belng the first Catholic priest to be the head of a sovere!gn state. "Oh, no," he replied, "there was Selpel in the former Austrian government." Monsi'gnor Seipel, 1 reminded bim, was prime minister but not president. "There was Richelieu." He, too, as l called to bis attention, was prime minister whiJe Louis of France was king. So it seemed that my reference to history was correct. After some minutes or general conversatlon I said that I had been cautioned not to question bim on matters of state, but that I would like to do so. "Please do. Any questions you ask, l'll try to answer the m." WHAT ABOUT POLICIES? Then 1 was free to touch on several topics that lnterested me and most anyone else who had any knowledge of the happen!ngs !nside Central Europe during these days. "It is true that your pol!cies are dictated by Germany?" '"No," he lnsfsted. "In forelgn matters our policies are formu• lated so that tbey do not conflict with those of the Axls Powers. Slnce we are within their orblt lt would be sulcidal to strongly oppose them. But in domestlc matters we form our own pollcles whlch, In many instances, do not coincide wlth those of Germany. German terr!tory as you know is just across the Danube. Only a bridge between us but it !s a long bridge." He smiled when he realized that. I grasvoo his none too subtle meaning. �34 SLOVAKIA "Some of your critics," I then said, "declare that you - and by that I mean the Slovak Republic - are subject to instructions from the Vatican." "The usual charge of the uninformed," he replied. "l have no connection with the Vatican, except through the diplomatic channels, the same as other countries to which the Vatican City has accredited representation. (T here was a Vatlcan diplomatic official resident in Bratislava.) Any communications affecting the religious affairs of our people would be transmitted through the bishops. I am not a bishop. In my capacity as president I have no counection with Rome, other than I have polnted out." All rellgious denominations were accorded the same right of worship, he pointed out. The largest Protestant group was the Lutheran Evangelical, of which Rev. Martin Razus was the accepted leader and who was not only cooperating with bim politically, but they were personal friends. In the eastern part of the state were also many Orthodox or Greek Catholics. AGAIN WITH THE CZECHS ? Was lt likely, l asked, that the Slovaks and Czechs would again llilite in a government after tbe war? That questinon did not receive a direct answer. He remlnded me that trom the very inception of the Czecho-Slovakian government, there had been dlscrimintalon against tbe Slovaks. The autonomy, which had been promlsed, had been denied them. Those who protested and agitated for Slovak rights, such as Hlinka and hlmself, were imprisoned. Something like nine months he had spent in a Czech jail for protestlng the injustices that were lnflicted on t he Slovak people and demanding that their rights be recognized. Later he had been Minister of Health in the Prague cabinet. The Slovaks. he assured me, de· s ired to live in peace and harmony wlth the Czechs, the Poles, the Hungarlans and the Germans, but they a lso believed they were entltled to the "self-determlnation" that had been loudly proclaimed and was said to be the lnalienable right even of all small nations. They were now, for the first Ume in hlstory, an independent country. The problems facing them were many and varied. President Tiso referred wlth considerable pleasure to hls vislt in the Unlted States in 1937. He expressed the wish that the thousands of Slovaks in Canada and the United States be informed of the prospects for bette rment which he felt was due their people through the enactment of the programs of development then under way. NEED OF TEACHERS AND TECHNICIANS Thelr greatest problem, he said, was in finding men and women for the jobs that had been created. "We need technlcians, instructors in t he schools and universities and speciallsts for industria! projects. Our hlgh schools are over-crowded. Students want education and want to get ahead, but we lack sufflcient teachers. Tbe same in many businesses. We bope to meet these needs in tlme." He made the remark that, although s peclallsts and technlclans were urgently needed. he boped tbey would not bave to rely too much on the Germans. Tbat and otber comments indicated hls disllke for �SLOVAKIA 36 tbe small army of German engineers and tecbnicians wbo had come into the country to aid In its development. THE SLOVAKS AND THE RUSSIANS There had been a small token Slovak force sent against the Soviet soon after the outbreak of the German-Soviet hostillties in 1941, but they were withdrawn and tbe men, for the most part, were work· Ing in various industries that contributed products for the war effort. l pointed out to the President that they and tbe Russians were Slavs and was it not consistent that they be on tbe side of tbeir blood brotbers? Tbere was a pause and bis face became very earnest. "Quite true, We are blood brothers. But when tbose blood brotbers are Bolsheviks and Communlsts," doubling his flst and pounding on the table in front of bim Tiso said, ''then we'll fight to tbe last man." Presldent Tiso, like the martyred Draja Mlhailovitcb of Yugosla• vla, Archbisbop Stepinac and Mindszenty of Budapest, did not hesitate to take a firm and defiant stand against the greatest menace Christian civlllzation was then facing - and is still facing today. But because he and tbose other courageous ones were not deceived by tbe propaganda, the pious platitudes and spurious pollcies of tbe Western Powers as regards tbe Soviet, he was marked for sacrifice. The Washington State Department, at tbe bebest of Stalln's puppets, actually delivered bim to tortures and to death. Deny it tbougb they would llke to do today - when Christian leaders llke J osepb Tiso are neetled to weld Central Europe into a strong bastion against the Communlst horde - the bald trutb remains that In 1945 our State Department, as a supine and subserv!ent tool of Stalin. cons!gned T!so and tbe Slovaks t_o Red domination and extermination. Regardless of all arguments to the contrary, Josepb Tiso was slncerely desirous of helping his people - the long oppressed country that for nine hundred years had kept the fires or Chrlstlanlty alive in Centra! Europe. How long those fires will smoulder under the ruth· less domination of Communist destroyers of religion and clvllizatlon, is a grave question. Wbether it was mistaken judgment for tbe Slovaks to accept the assistance of Germany, to achieve the measure of independence they enjoyed, is a matter of oplnion. There was no war in progress wben the Slovak Republlc was born and none was imminent. Tbey revolted against obvlous injustices of tbe Prague Government. The Czech majority could bave compromised and settled tbeir dlfferences. Tbey did not. Wben tbe interna] revolt came. Hitler took advantage of tbe situatlon and proffered bis migbt against outslde aggresslon. Slovakla accepted tbe offer. If Josepb Tiso was a traltor to bis country, then tbe same can be said of Eamon de Valera in Ireland, Mabatma Gbandi in India. or the gallant Marsball Mannerheim in brave little Flnland. AII were patriots fighting for tbeir people. All were persecuted, smeared and discredited, but tbeir names will live in tbe blstories yet to be wrltten. �36 SLOVAKlA TI SO HAD A SENSE OF H UMOR After furtber lengtby dlscussion of varlous toplcs, I was about to depart when Karol Murin came to Inform tbe President tbat tbe Finance Minister was waitlng to see bim. Tlso accompanled me lnto a vast room looklng out across a walled garden in wbicb he sald líe took dally walks. Little dld l know tben tbat, over two year.s later, he would be taking many long walks togetber in another walled enclosure and resume our discussions on tbe worlďs affairs. But tbat is another story. Tbe air of tbe room was cbilly. - A tbougbt occurred to me. "Your Excellency," I said, ·•some persons told me tbat you a re always very seriouJ and earnest. But tbere's a twlnkle ot mirtb In your eyes at times and I bave an Idea tbat there's conslderable humor In you." "Perbaps," he smlled. "Would lt be appropriate If I gave you a little present?" "Wbat, · for instance·?" "I tbougbt tbat in tbese cold days of winter, just for mediclnal purposes, of course, you migbt appreciate a half dozen bottles ot gflod Canadlan whisky." Tlso chuckled and bis eyes lígbted witb the mirth I had noted there before. "ľll be glad to get lt," be' ~'aid. · The half dozen bottles were duly delivered fróm a source In "Bra tislava wbere I knew it was obtainable. Later on Karol Murin ask-ečl me to call again at tbe palace, wben I was given the compllments ot the Presldent and a token of bis appreciation for the whisky. It lš a wonder!ully embroidered table c loth, one of the finest specimens ot Slovak rieedlework that could posslbly be found. It is today my most treasur-ed possession. Very recently a letter came to me trom Karol Murin who ls now a resident of Canada. He informed me that my friend Joseph Mracna, whom I got to know very well in tbe two years following our meeting, had been murdered by the Commnnists. The Slovak patriot, Monslgnor Joseph Tlso, was delivered to Benes and bi.s Red Government by. the United States autborlties to be exterminated, because he was the arch enemy of Communism. Jn 1946, the year when· that assistance to Communist deslgns was. rendered by our offlclals, lt was polltlcally unwise to declare one's 'undying opposition to the forces or antl-God even then seeklng our destruction. Presldent Tiso pald tbe supreme penalty for bis devotion to bis God and bis country. COMES MY TURN TO BE I NVESTIGATED Tbe Carlton Hotel, in Bratislava, where I had reslded for months, was a meeting place for German military officers, legation attaches and couriers, coming and going all the tíme. A physician llving in the hotel, wbom I had called on a tlme or two for professlonal services, informed· me tbat someone at the German Legatlon had quizzed bim about me. The pbyslcian was Slovak, bis wife Hungarlan, enougb to assure me they were not sympathetic to the German otflcials. "That American 1s no frlend ot Germany," the legation omclal sald to the physician. ·'Whaťs he dolng here and why is he permitted to stay ?" �SLOVAKIA 37 Just what the doctor said to dlvert suspicion, I do not know, but within a few days the local police inspectors came to question me a bout my stay in the country, my source ot income, what 1 was doing, and so on. My replles were vague, but apparently satlsfactory for the Slovak police. But it caused me considerable worry. Pressure mlght be brought to bear which would send me across that bridge into German territory. That I must escape at all costs. Again I sought out Joseph Mracna In the Foreign Office. We bad talked frankly before and I knew I could trust hlm. My permit to remaln in Slo· vakia was about to expire and also my passport. Would they deport me? Mracna conferred wlth the proper authoritles, then lnformed me that if I did not become a "public charge·• - that !s, if I had assets on which to live - they . would give me sanctuary. I -would not be detported even at the expiration of permits or passports. I assured him that my persona! assets were sufficient to maintaln me for an extended period. 1 GO TO PIESTAN Y At the suggestion of Mracna, I arranged to live in Piestany, a health resort about sixty mlles from Bratislava which !s famed for its hot baths. It was far enough from the capltal that the German mllitary officlals or Gestapo agents wer not prowling around. Al· though the Republic malntalned its own police and defense force, judiciary, customs and ·immigration officials - no one arrlving or departing without tbeir sanction - there seemed to be a tacit agreement that the German military and legation oftlcials could come there for extended holidays. They came malnly [or food and drink, which weré almost non-existent in Germany and Austria at that tlme. Piestany is world famed. The baths - mud and hÓt pools - are beneficial for those wlth rheumatlsm, arthritls and other ills. Before the war there were visitors from as far away as India, Africa and l;loth North and South America. The two largest hotels - one on an island of the Vah River, and on which are the hot springs had been taken over and operated by the Interior Department ot the Slovak State. Soon after I went there as a voluntary "internee," Piestany became tbe headquart.ers of many involuntary internees of the Slovak Government. First to arrive were twenty-six - including the children - ot the !talian dlplomatlc corps in Bratislava. The !talian Minister, Cortese. had declared his allegiance to the antl-Mussolini, or Badoglio government, which jolned forces with the Western Allies. Naturally, he and bis entlre staff who shared his sympathles were anathema to the Germans. With the setting up of the Fascist forces in Northern Haly, pressure was brought to bear on Slovakia to deport the anti Fascists to the northern part of Italy which was still occupied by Germany and cooperating with it. TISO, TH E H U MAN ITARIAN But. contrary to generally circulated statements that President Tiso was a puppet ot Germany, he deflnitely refused to llsten to the suggestlons or demands of the Germans. nor wonld he consent to the Itallan Legatlon staff belng interned In Germany, which was a �38 SLOVAK.IA later idea of the Germans. So wlthin six weeks or my taking up residence in the Grand Royal Hotel in Piestany as a lone "internee," twenty-slx Italians moved in together with two attaches of the Slovak Foreign Offlce a.s guardians or "watchers." Two of the arrivals were Count Giovanni Revedin and his Amerlcan-born wife with whom I had become acquainted previously. The question was put to the Countess and the Foreign omce "guardians" "Are internees being held incommunicado?" The answer was no. I was not restralned from associating with them. In ternment in Piestany was not so onerous for them, because, unofflcially, Slovakia was more pro-Allied than pro-Axis. It is doubt· ful if any of the Allied countries were as considerate of interned subjects of an "enemy" nation as Slovakla was for those ot the !talian Diplomatlc corps, now no longer officially welcome. Later on arrived some from the Rumanian and Bnlgarian legations also. They were quartered at the governmenťs expense in one of the country's best hotels, permitted to retain their motor cars. though restricted in the use of them. If, however, any member of the corps found it necessary to go to Bratislava. some slxty miles distant, the Foreign Office representative granted permlssion. Usuaiiy lt was for a trip there and return the same day. Otherwise they were free - as was the case wlth myself - to roam all about the countryside, to nearby villages, to go flshing, bathing In the splendld pool in summer or in the Vah River and getting what relaxation they might need by attending the Jocal movie theatres, uslng tbe s kating rinks in wlnter and the tennis courts In summer. Slnce they were cut off from their sources of income, the Slovak government advanced them a small amonnt of spending money at regular intervals, pald hospital bills for those who required sneh hospitalizatlon, and very large fees for speciallsts who performed operatlons on some members or the group. It was convenient for me that friends with diplomatic immunity were there. The manuscrlpts on which I was then working would have ticketed me into one of the Nazi concentration camps had they fallen into their hands. Bnt Count Revedin as well as members of the Minister's family kept them in their possession - safe from search and seizure. Another who had taken ,;anctuary there was Siegfried Geyer, a dramatlst well known in Germany, Austria and Hungary, whose plays had been performed in Switzerland, Sweden, London and New York. One of his comedles, "Candle Light," was presented in Londoo where it ran for a year. Later it was brought to New York. where lt had some success. then was purchased by Warner Brothers and filmed, as were other of bis plays. TISO NOT AN ANTI-SEMITE The purge or J ews In Austria forced GPyer to flee into Slovakia where he was given presidential permission to remain. That same permission was granted to others I knew personally. One of them was an official of the Slovak travel bureau and another was an engineer for the resort and bealth department who resided wlth bis wlfe in Piestany and whom I vlsited many Limes. Another was a physician attached to tbe government hospital. Hence the base accusatlons of �SLOVAKIA 39 anti-Sem!tism that were hurled against Tiso - when the Reds de• manded his death - were false and easily proven to be noth!ng but falsehoods. Siegfried Geyer and I were work!ng daily on some manuscrlpts. Through underground communication I had been warned that milltary forces were to occupy the country. Two nights later the w!fe or a Slovak cabinet minister came to inform me that in a few hours the Germans would be in Piestany. Geyer was with me at the time. He felt that it was h!s death knell. It was two weeks or more before any action was taken toward deportation of the Jews. On the night of September 8, 1944, Geyer Jeft me, saying that we would meet at eleven in the morning. I never saw bim again. Through an acquaintance I learned that he wa s picked off the street the morning after leaving me and was carted away in a blue motor van. Three others of my acquaintances vanished the same day. For years they had found sanctuary and In many instances exceptional employment in the Slovak Republic, and this is asserted in direct contradiction of generally circulated propaganda by pressure groups that President Tiso and bis cablnet members aided in tbe extermlnation of the J ews. WAR COMES TO S LOVAK I A - GERMANS TAKE OVER In the sixteen months of my residence tbere, before the German occupation I had observed growing resentment against their powerful nelghbor. Now it became more bitter though the people were prudent enough not to make any outward sign of it. A pigmy does not force a quarrel with a giant. Tbe !talian diplomatic internees merited the attentlon of the German occupatlon officials. First tbeir motor cars were lmpounded. Then they were moved to tbe other hotel an an island In the Vah River, the two bridges a cross the river being circled with barricades and sentries posted at eacb end. A curfew edict went lnto effect and miles of barbed wire barriers were thrown around the city. Trenches and embankments were dug on tbree sides of tbe city, fleld telephones and power cables being strung along the streets and far into the country side. Tbls front was to be held at all costs - so lt was said. Slovakla now began to realize that all war fronts were closing in on ber. For over five years tbey had boped and prayed that this destructlon would not be vislted on them. But now it was at tbelr door. Tbe morning following the German occupatlon I went to tbe office of Inspector Vavro of tbe Slovak police. Prevlously wben my twelve month residence permit had exp!red I had sougbt bim. He merely sm!led at my fears. "Are you loslng any sleep over lt?" he asked. "Go away from here. l've forgotten you're in Piestany." An "enemy" subject, wbicb technically I was, could not bope for greater consideratlon. But now Vavro was no longer in complete autbority. His advice. however, was tbe same as before. "Didn't I teli you long ago that l've forgotten that you are here?" he said. "Return to your bouse and stay out of sight for a wb!le. My report witb your name on lt bas been conveniently misla!d. It will be some tiroe before tbe Germans tlncl :,ou." �40 SLOVAKlA Tbree days later men visited me, saying that tbey were wlth tbe German State Police. Tbere was tbe usual routine question!ng. Identlfication papers; occupation; slnce wbat date and wby was I residing' In the country? Wbat ls contained In the luggage and what !s in the mass of manuscripts, papers, etc.? Joseph Mracna had given me a letter to be sbown at just such times. It came lnto view and served to substantlate my statement tbat tbe Slovak autborities were acquainted with the contents of my bulging brief case. After a tborougb searcb of the place in whlch tbey found no radio, camera, weapons, photograpbs or otber susplcious appearing articles, the three men departed. Tension tbrougboul the country was becoming more noticable. Reports ŕlltering through from the eastern boundaries of the country were terrlfying. The Germans, being forced westward, forced all the villagers to evacuate ·with them' - or be shot. Their houses were burned. But before doing so they were stripped of everythlng In the way of metal. Door hinges, locks, farm machinery, tools and lmplements were taken away. Long convoys of half starved and bedraggled evacuees from the eastern slde of Slovakla and also from Hungary woved westward by wagon and on foot. Sometimes for eight or ten hours at a time those wretched and homeless people were coming at snalľs pace over t he. pHls, through the fringe of Piestany, and then vanished over the western horizon. " LIBERATION" BY THE REDS But even worse fate awaited those who eluded the German evacuation decrees. The Red "liberators" advancing into the eastern areas of Slovakia confiscated what might have been overlooked by the Germans. They roundetl up and deported children; no one seemed to know wbere. It was rumored they were sent to Russia. So between the plague of Germany, and the terrorlsts of the Soviet, poor llttle Slovakla had little to choose. They were caught between two enemies. Pressure was brought to bear on tbe Slovak government to hand the interned diplomats over to Germany. I took a message for them to tbe Swlss Consulate In Bratislava, for transmission to the outside world. It was hoped that if publicity was given their pllght in the Swiss and other neutra! papers, it would have some reaction, and also become known to the Allied authorlties. The messages and reports in Switzerland did perhaps seŕve to alter the announced lntention of the Germans to dellver the Ital!ans lnto the hands of the Mussolini faction in North Italy, who mlght have shot them as traltors. Instead they were sent first to Vienna and then to Sllesia. Amerlcan flyers who made forced landings or were shot down over Slovakia were taken in hand by the Slovak authorities. Tbose who requlred bospitalization were given tbe best the capltal atrorded - whlch was excellent. Karol Murin told me on · one of my vlslts to the Palace that, on instructions trom Presldent Tlso, he and bis wlfe s ougbt out the Amerlcan prlsoiiers in the hospltals to see that nothlng was left undone for tbeir comfort. Even bouquets of flowers were sent to brighten tbelr rooms. ··· ~- ' �SLÔVlinA 41 What a contrast trom the shameful treatment that was accorded Pres!dent Tiso, Karol Murin and members of their cab!net when they voluntarlly sought sanctuary In the American zone of occupatlon. More on this will follow. The Germans ended all the consideration and special attention that was given war prisoners. The German military officials took them, as well as many Slovaks, despite protests from the President and Foreign Minister, Stephen Tiso. Again it was a case of the pigmy and the giant. Might was right. The story of tbe gbastly occupation and betrayal will be told later. THE BEGINNI N G OF THE END On New Year's Eve of 1945 I was wltb frlends In Piestany. 'ľbe forbidden {by the Germans) broadcasts of tbe London radlo w1:,re turned on for the latest news in Czecb, German and Englisb. Also that evening Adolf Hitler broadcast a brlef greeting to der Deutscber Volk - hls "friends." Some of the llsteners insisted that lt was not Hitler's voice. Otbers expressed the opinion tbat lt was "der Fubrer" but a very mucb changed volce. It was generally believed tbat the attempted assassination of six montbs previously had left some per• manent impaiľment. During tbe iatter part of 1944 motlon pictures of him - wblcb was unusual - were always taken at a distance and tbere was a no ticeable awkwardness of one arm. It was rumored that he sustained other injuries. The London radlo gave lengthy discussions on tbe plaos for the liberation and rehabilitation of Centra! Europe. We assumed that there was complete accord among the Allied Powers and that tbe views and oplnlons expressed represented tbose of tbe United States. The piana were thoae of the Red dominated group of Edwa rd Benes and foreto ld th e diaaster t hat was inevitab le. Anyone with even the most meagre knowledge of European history knew that the rulers of the Kremlin hoped to dominate and absorb all tbe S lav people. Therefore, it was alarmlng for the people in Centra! Europe to observe the manner in whlch the Allled Powers permitted the Soviet to occupy the Balkans, move up into Hungary and tben sweep lnto Slovakla. As my friends In Piestany and Bratislava pointed out re. peatedly, the Allied Powers, and particularly America, should have re• membered what bappened in the Ilaltlc states, In Flnland and in Poland. It was tbe pattern of Red absorb tion and complete control, once they planted foot on the soil o f a country. The only exceptlon was that of Spalo - the slngle country where the Communlsts ~uf• fered milltary defeat. Offlcial Washington, let us remem ber also, was cooperatlve with the Communist terrorists in Spain at that Ume - regardless of the denials that some or the hierarchy of the e lect now wish to read lnto the record. Moscow's deslgns in Spain, in the Baltic states, In the Balkans and no w in Centra! Europe were so obvious as the Pyramlds on the Sahara. The milltary o ccupatlon was but the prelude to permanen t lncorpo ration lnto the Red orblt. After the Red army occupied Budapest, whlch for centurles had been a bastlon of Chrlstlanlty against the antl-Christlan forces on the East, it left only Bratislava as the lmportant city of the Danube between Budapest and Vienna. Mlllions of kronen In materials and mil• �42 SLOVAK.IA lions of man-power hours were expended on the defenses. The Eastern Front, lt seemed, would soon be in our front yards. When the day and night booming of artlllery began to be hear d in Piestany, many felt it wise to move westward. A famlly I knew In Bratislava had obtalned a motor truck and fuel two precious thlngs - intending to flee into southern Bavaria. By phone from Piestany I arranged to share space in the Bavaria-bound truck. But when l arrived there by train trom Piestany the truck had a\ready left. Now, where to go or what to do? Huge artlllery pieces were being wheeled through the str eets westward. German milltary supplies in motor cars and wagons trundled westward. Cattle and horses were being driven in the directlon of Vienna. It is doubtful if they got far along that road before the Hed army captured and butchered them. OFF TO PRAGUE An acquaintance advised me to Jeave for Prague as rall transport was still operating in that direction. When I inquired about visa or permit to enter the ·'Protectorate" and officiaľs secretary informed me that "tbe bars are down; you may go anywhere you can obtain transportation." At tbe railway station J got a ticket for Prague. A train was scbeduled to leave that evening about six. Tbe station was a seething mad-house. Pandemonium, orrlerly confusion, bundreds of terrorstricken people with bundreds of bags. bundles and babies trying to get somewbere - anywbere. In tbe black-out, long after slx o'clock, tbere was an air-raid warning. Police herded people into a vast underground shelter that had been tunnelled into a rocky bili aero.ss the railway tracks. MorP .:onfusion, anxiety and wondering if we would ever get out of the stricken city. The train - scheduled for six o'clock - left in tbe thickening blackness of the night about eleven. People were packed in to suffocation. At a town called Cuty. on thP. Crontier, l transferred to anotber train tbat landed me in Brno, now Czechoslovakia, about eight in the morning. After snatching four hours sleep at the Grand Hotel, I contrived to board (without the special military permit) an express train which landed me in Prague about mldnight. All train service into Slovakia ended tbe morning after I de• parted. Had J delayed a few hours longer tbe Reds would have inc luded me in their spreading net of "liberation." Even the most unobservant person must bave sensed the uneasiness of the Germans then in Prague. Czechs and the evacuees from Slovakia, Hungary and Poland knew it was but a matter of weeks or days when the American and British forces would be in Berlin. Tb'at meant the end of the war. but what then? Every day motor trucks and cars of all kinds were being loacled with bousehold goods, cats, dogs, bird cages, German women and children. Then at evening they rolled off into the darkness. Branche.• of trees or other <'amouflaging uas used to disguise the vebicles as much as possible. They dld not chance mass movements or evacuees in dayl!gbt llours. �SLOVAKIA 43 REVOLUTION AND REVENGE Friday evening, May Fourtb, marked tbe beglnning ot tbe uprising against six long years ot German dictatorsbip. A mysterious and ominous atmospbere pervaded Prague. Crowds began convergmg in Wenselplatz - as it was then called_ For wbat? No one seemed to know. Sometbing was to bappen. A revolution was in tbe making. Little by little tbings occurred. Men, women and boys began defacing German words on tbe fronts of business establ!shments. Tbey commenced to alter tbe street signs - - which were in dual language - Czecb and German_ Tbe electric trams were halted by tbe crowd Then matters became more serious. Sirens screamed, military cars pushed througb tbe crowds, commands were barked over t.he loud speakers in the s quare. Small armoured tanks rolled into view. A plstol shot, a woman's scream, crowds surging back against tbe walls and the rattle of machlne guns Four days and nigbts tbe battle continued. The Prague raáio remained in Czech hands and was their greatest asset. Pleas from it were directed to the American forces, said to be thirty, tben twenty, tben ten miles away. Professor Matousek, director of tbe station, would beg in broken English for tbem to hurry. The Stars and Stripes waved from the top;, of buildings and in many windows. An enthusiastic welcome would be glven tbeir liberators. The question asked by hundreds was: '·When do you think tbe Americans wíll get here?" Little did they know then that they would never arrive_ That Prague and the Czechs, together with the millions of Slovaks, had b een sold down-river by Eduard Benes in a secret deal entered into with Stalin. A deal that had the benediction of Franklin D. Roosevelt who was even then loudly prating about saving the Western World from the Nazi destroyers of Christianity, only to be consigned to the Soviet, the greatest destroyers and enemies of Christian civilization since the Cruclfixion. THE SAD AWAKENING On the sixth day of the revolution in which bundreds or !!ves and millions in property was destroyed. General Vlassoff's troopers were s linking along the shattered fronts of buildings in Wenzelspaltz. These were the Russians, mostly from the Ukraine, who had first been equipped by the Germans to fight thP Communists. Now they turned on the Germans and were belping to drive tbem out of Prague. The thought came to me at the time: what will be tbe fate or these pol!tlcal pawns? They followed tbeir leader, General VlassofI against the Bolshevik terrorists, then they remainecl witb him when he turned agalnst the Germans. Would tbe Allied nations give them sanctuary and a cbance to live• They did not. General Vlassoff was dellvered to the Moscow '"liberators" just as was President Tiso and bis cabinet. After a mock tria! that followed the pattern of al! Red trlals. Vlassoff was put before a firing squad. But what ls the fate of tbe simple l{ussian farmeťs boy hundreds of them - wbo wore a uniform an carried a rifle, or drove a team of horses pulling a wagon Joad of supplles to aid In the war for tbe West? Any number or t.hem were hquldated and others are �SLOV~ .I A 110w slaves In Slberia. Not being articulate their story is never heard. And who delivered them to death or slavery? The same ones wbo dellvered the Slovaks to the Communlsts at Teheran and Yalta. By the end of the sixth or seventh day there came into the n1lnds or the beleagured people of Prague as well as the hundreds or Slovak, Pollsh and Hungarian evacuees, the susplclon that the Amerlcans were not coming. When for days the Amer!can rorces did not advance a step, but on the contrary moved away trom the city, they knew that something or a Mach!avelian nature had taken place behind the scenes. That they had been sold !nto bondage. All the p!ous words and pretty promlses that had been inade about guaranteeing their liberatlon - were just so many empty words. It became obvlous that political tricksters had ordained in secret conferences that Czecho-Slovakia was to be handed lnto the Red orbit. It was agaínst every tenet of their beliefs. part!cularly the Slovaks, who were avowed and m!l!tant foes or the Communist ideology and who w!th thelr then presldent, Joseph Tlso, had said they would t!ght to the !ast man. Now they realized that they were being conslgned to Red dominat!on. After another day of intermittent bombing and shell fire those of us In Prague heard a jubilant news announcer on the London radlo assure us that "the war in Europe !s over." That same inaccurate statement came from the American operated radlo stations In Germany and France and synchronized. ironlcally enough, with the staccato barking of machlne guns that raked Wenzelsplatz and the occasional deep toned thunder of an aerlal bomb or German shell that ~xploded somewhere too near ror comfort. For the people of Czecho-Slovakia the war was not over. We knew in tbe promises of the Western Powers, had been abandoned to t.he then that the Czechs and Slovaks. also the Hungarlans. the Poles and the other people of Chrlstian nations. who had placed thelr fatth benign brutallties and tyranny of Joseph Stalin. Innuences In Washington hari labored zealously to airl the Kremli n's effort for worldwide destruct!on of Chrl.stlan civllizatlon. and the Slovaks were another pawn In the game. Proof or that innuence and c!tations or those. who were lnstrumental In lntlict!ng that ruln on Centra! :E;urope. bave already been written tnto the publi<' records. Slovakia had enjoyed a measure of freedom only to have lt snatched away anrl her peopl~ consigned to oppression, spollatlon and deportation. far more ghastly than any they had endured in past bistory. But rbeir falth in God and their delermlnation to flght on has 1emalned. • • • WHO SAID IT? - "We are children or freedom. We cannot be s afe except in an environment of freedom. We belleve in freedom as fundamentally as we belleve anythlng In thls world. We belleve In it far everyone In our country. And we don't restrict thls belie! to freedom for ourselves. We belleve that all people in the world are entltled to as much freedom, to develop in thelr own way, as we want ourselves." - (Secretary of State, Dean Acheson, Aprll 22, 1950). � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to 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 SLOVAKÍA Z5 1 WAS IN SWVAKJA Edward L. Delaney Many Slovaks in America, especially those horn in this country, have but a limited knowledge of their parents' or grandparents' !and. As for the millions of Americans who have no klnsbip with Slovak!a, the word is merely the latter half of Czecho-Slovakia, which had been impressed upon their consclousness by the propaganda bureaus ot tbe late Edward BAnes and bis predecessor Thomas Masaryk. One will search long In those propaganda papers for any paragraphs conveying the impresslon that the Slovaks are the political, cultural or industria! equals o! the Czechs. Perhaps one reason that the Czech rather than the Slovak part of the hyphenated name has been given greater publicity !s that the capital, Prague, is predomlnantly Czech and the majority or visitors from other parta of the world seldom get beyond that city. There is no denying that the Prague of pre-1945 days did possess an individua.l atmosphere and charm for those who are interested In the architectural treasures and historlcal landmarks of Europe's older ci ties. · It was this writer's good fortune to have vis!ted or reslded Cor extended periods in several ot the other European capitals before visiting Prague. Many months later I was afforded the opportunity for a stay of two years in Slovakia. At that Ume the synthetic CzechoSlovakia had ceased to exist. Following nine hundred years or struggling fot; independence, the Republic of Slovakla was establlshed and the people could say that they had attained somethlng approximating tbeir goal. Tbe evening of my arrival in Bratislava, capital of tbe new State, a Professor Doba! called on me at the Carlton Hotel. He lnformed me that he was connected with the State propaganda bureau and that their attache, Streiznic, at tbe Berlin Legatľon, had telegraphed that l was arrlvlng. Foreign correspondents and writers were sought out by them and efforts made to present their country In the best light. An appolntment was made ror me to meet bis cbief, Tido J. Gaspar. Tido J., as I soon learned, was the most photographed man in Slovakia. No news reel was complete witbout bim smiling or band· shaking 'bi~ way into the center of the picture. He was the official greeter An actor with the wbole country as bis stage. In bis !apel, winter or summer, was always a gardenia, a full bloom rose or a cluster of flowers In season. His attire was patterned on tbe rigorously correct Unes 'Óf New York's ófficial greeter, Grover Whalen. In fact one got the lmpresslon that T!do J. Gaspat may bave met or studied tbe life-and-times of Grover Wbalen or the late Jimmy Walker, the most popular mayor New York ever had. for he was their counterpart in Centra! Europe. What can I do for you ?" · he asked after we had exchanged the usua,I formalities of visitor and host. "Nothlng," I informed bim, except to suggest what would be In• teresting · for me from a scen!c as well as a hlstor!cal point ot 26 SLOVAKIA view. That appealed to him. The alert and competent young men or his travel department la!d out an !tlnerary for me whlch covered the pr!ncipal c!tles and !ncluded a short stay in the justly famed H!gh Tatra resorts of the Carpath!an Mounta!ns. Bratislava was at that tlme the Mecca for all who, by any maneuvering, could arrange to go there. World War II was in the early stages. Food restrictions and rationing had been !mposed on a large part of Western and Centra! Europe. A long bridge over the Danube connects Bratislava with Austrla, across which rolls the rail and motor traff!c to Vlenna some s!xty miles away. But !t ls no longer the Vienna of Johann Strauss and Franz Lehar music with food and rink to be enjoyed in lelsurely comfort. Even in those early days of the war all Au.stria and Germany were areas of dismal faces and unappetlzing meals. Bratislava - which many still referred to as Pressburg - was the magnet that drew vlsitors from all Centra! Europe. For in Slovakia was to be had food and rink, muslc and laughter w!thout let, stay, or hindrance. With the exception of the adjoining country of Hungary, no other part of Centra! Europe enjoyed the essentials and many of the luxuries of life, as did the people of Slovakla before the period when Stalin's hordes swarmed over the country like a swarm of locusts and literally laid lt to waste. In most of the propaganda that emanated from various sources in Europe and was eagerly snapped up and exaggerated by the sinlster influences in this country, the impression was conveyed that Germany syphoned off the food resources of Slovakia long before thelr armies actually occupled the country late in the year 1944. Even at the risk of being charged with attempting to mitigate the sins of the Nazi Reglme. I assert that, in those days it was regarded as rare good fortune if one could get lnto the Slovak paradise and there obtain a good meat wlth whatever was desired in the way of w!nes, spirits or liquors, all at prices which, even in those tlmes were reasonabl!l. Until the severe winter of 1944-45, citrus fruits, such as lemons and oranges from Italy or Spain, might he had in the public markets. Such delicacies had been off the markets in Austria and Germany for nearly five years. In addition to al! dairy products, poultry, beef, pork, sugar, <>onfectionery and tobacco wares were obta!nable in Slovak!a with but slight restrlctlons on the amount of certaln items that mlgbt be pur• chased. Also clotbing. s boes and dress materlals were to be had. At tbat time the shops of Austrla and Germany were bare of goods. Just over the Danube from Bratislava the sbops were emoty. Such stores as the Woolworth cbain were barren. Shelves and tables of empty cartons or a single item - usually a wooden toy or some article of glass. Rows of the same useless article. Nothing was to be found that contalned metal, cotton, rubber wool, s!lk - all of which materials were needed for the war supplies. After observing those empty shops in Vienna, Munich, Berlin. Frankfurt and Cologne, it was as a fairyland to enter business establlshments of the same type In Slovakia and f!nrl most anything one might expect to see in shops beyond the warrlng zone. SLOVAKIA 27 The people or Slovakia knew they were enjoylng a verltable heaven of plenty as compared to thelr neighbors. T heir new status as an independent country began in the spring of 1939. Only a few rersons, whether in the cities. towns or villages, did not realize that they were the envy of people in their neighborlng states. Slovak inde• pendence and self-determinatlon was paying them divldends even in the material advantages they could see and understand. Small wonder that their political leaders were popular and their policles approved. Therefore it was not surprlsing that the majority of the people had only words or praise for President Joseph Tiso and the other of!icials of their young republic. What many dld not reallze was that Germany was syphonlng off thelr surplus or agrlcultural and manufactured products. In exchange the Slovaks dld recelve some goods, such as tools, machinery, electrical equipment and rallway supph es, but for the most part they got only promises to pay in such materials. The debt owing by Germany was increasing with staggerlng amounts each month. But the majority of the people enjoyed thelr temporary prosperity with scant worry about the future. Although there was little doubt in their minds as early as 1942, that the Axls Powers were doomed to defeat, they held to the hope that by somf! political magic they would escape the horrors of war and the pf!nalties to follow. In those days of the Republlc of Slovakla, it was a country or contrasts. Evidences of its centuries old clvilizatlon and customs were to be observed alongside products that were as up to the minute as tomorrow's newspaper. For example: the express tralns making daily trips to and from the high Tatra resorts were powered by Diesel electrlc locomotives, with Jounge. dining and observation cars comparable to those of other European railway systems. But in the country, through which the deluxe traln sped smoothly, one observed also the prlmltlve ox carts on winding dlrt roads. Oxen pulled the ploys and harrows In the fields. Moreover, the branch railway lines that wound around or over the mountains and dipped down into fertile valleys offered the traveler what comfort he might get from a bard wooden bench In a dlmly llgh ted coach behlnd a wood burnlng steam engine of the type used In the western mountain country of the Unlted States seventy-five years ago. Stepping from the modern express on the High Tatra run, to the minlature traln that huffed and puffed its way to Banska Stiavnica was like bridging a gap of t.hree quarters of a century. It chanced that my arrival in Banska Stiavnica synchronized with a heavy snow storm. After plodding through darkness and deep snow for what seemed to be a mlie, the youth. who had dragged my luggage on a sled. ushered me through the portals of a buildlng that had al\ the appearances of an old Roman ruln. It was old and the Romans had probably been there. but lt was not ruined and from the durable manner in which stone and mortar were put into buildings In those middle ages, it will not be in rulns for another few centuries. Tens of thousands of shoes or sandals had worn deep grooves In the stone door step. E lectrlc llghts replaced the candles or oil tapers that had _Iighted the way for guests who came there in other SLQVAKIA 28 centuries, but that was a bout all the concesslon that had been made to the lJ!Odern world. The building, so l learned from the Sudeten German woman who operated it, was over three hundred years old. The cold room to which I was asslgned boasted a bed whlch was less than three centuries old, but it was about the only modem plece In the antique setting. Although appreciat!ng the charm of archltectural treasures and old Jandmarks, there are limes when one misses the creature comforts that are affored in our modern hotels and homes. Tbat was one of tbose times. But the warmlng effect of a "slivovica" and gobs or excellently roasted goose, i,olisbed off with another potent drink, served to banlsh the fear of \Vaking in that three hundred year old room to find tbat I was frozen to death. Oddly enough one seldom heard about the precious metals that were once part of Slovakia's contrlbutlon to the worlďs wealth. Much of the old currency and art objects in the Hungarian empire and Centra! Europe were made from gold and silver ores that were mined at Kremnica and near Banska Stiavnica. But witb tbe increaslng costs of production and the relatlvely cbeap prlce or the metal during tbe quarter of a century before tbe birth of the Republlc of Slovakia, those -mines had been practically abondoned. World War II altered tbe situation. Centra) Europe was cut off (rom tbe silver producing countries of North and South America. Mining of that metal was steppe<l up. The silver sm.iths of Slovakia again plied thelr trade and many articles of thelr handlwork appeared in the sbops. Througb the perfidlous acts of the signers of the agreements at Teheran and Yalta, Stalin's minions. the Communist confiscators, have no doubt taken possession of tbose sources of wealth. Whatever treasure ts taken from them now, finds its way into the coffers ot the Communists instead of belng rashioned into articles for the use ot people or for objects of art in the churcbes or Cbrist. Like other In• dustries, whicb were created or resulted after tbe establishment of the Republic or Slovakia. tbe mines or Stiavnica are servlng the needs of Stalin. Political charlatans. such as Edward Benes, who were lauded by tbe American press and propagandists. sold tbe Slovaks lnto bondage for less than the thirty pieces o! sllver, wbich was the prlce of J udas for betraying bis Master. Tbey wanted and for a Ume e njoyed persona) aggrandizement and polltlcal power as puppets of tbelr Moscow master. They silenťed any murmur of protest tbat mlgbt have been raised by the people who for nine bundred years had struggled for indepen?.encei · · S LO V A K IA - V ICTI M OF TE.H ERAN A N D Y A LTA Tbe Centra! European satellites around the Soviet star are often to as. being of Slavic origin. Some omnisctent ones give that as one reason why Stalin had little dlfflculty In merging them into tbe Red. orbít. Slovakia, as we know, was one or tbe countrie!\ sold lnto bondage at Teheran and Yalta - tbe completlon or the betrayal belng seen when Eduarq Benes returned in 1945 as puppet president of tbe socalled Czecho-Slovakia and for two years or so made grotesque referŕed i LOVAKIA efforts to disguise tbe fact tbat Stalin, and not Benes or Klement Gottwahl, was tbe supreme belng In their capltal al Prague. Etbnologlcally lt is not lncorrect to group tbe peoples ot Russla. Poland, Czecboslovakia, Ukralnla, Bulgarla and Yugoslaľia into a Pan-Slav classlflcation. Tbe vast majority of the peoples In lhe socalled Slav nations bas llttle in common witb tbe Russa!ns. In past generations tbere was a bond of Cbristian religion wb!cb ran tbrough all tbe Slav countries, eitber tbe Ortbodox Greek-Russian Cburcb or, in tbe case of Slovakia, Poland, Croatia. lbe Roman Catbollc Cburcb. Tbe rise or atbelstlc Communlsm In Russla was t be deatb knell of Chrlstlanity tbere, bence a splltting wedge was d riven between most of the Balkan and Centra! European countries and t be great Slav domain of tbe Soviet. Slovakla, Poland and Croatla bave been predominantly Roman Catbollc for centuries. Only a small percentage are adherents ot tbe Ortbodox Cburcb. Hence, any contention tbat tbere is a racia! and religlous afflnity among the Slav peoples, wblcb simplifled tb elr enslavement by Moscow, 1s lacklng In support. F urthermore, lt is leaktng out tbrougb cracks and crinks In the Iro!l Curtaln that Stalln ls flnd· ing more tban a llttle dltficulty In merglng the Slovaks lnto bis godless domain. Wben for over eleven centuries a people, sucb as tbe Slovaks wbo bave prayed to God and H is Son, tbe Cbrlst, lt ls not llkely tbat tbe delty of tbe Kremlin can soon purge t belr mlnds or tbe OnA Supreme Being. THE SLOVAK$ ARE CELTS? Also - lf we were to accept the oplnlon of a learned professor it was my good fortune to meet in Banska Bystrica - tbere ls no RACIAL kinshlp between tbe Slovaks and tbe Russians. The Slovaks are not Slavs, asserted tbat student of blstory, but on the contrary ' they are Celts. A professor Doba! In Bratislava had given me a note ót lntroductlon to tbe curator of tbe museum In Banska Bysttica. It de· veloped tbat tbe gentleman knew more about the bistory ot manklnd tban Gl bbons, H. G. Wells, or any ot tbose wbo bave wtltten. 'Welgbty tomes on tbe origin or man, etc. ' 1• Tbls Slovak scbolar, well along In yt>ars, bad ·been lnstrúctor In a unlversity al Constantlnople (before it was called Istanbul) also in Budapest. His speclalty was Sanskrit Arabic, tbe Hebrew language and otber writings on tbe earlíest hlstory or manklnd. "You are Irisb," he said to me, after we had dlsposed of a slivovica and coffee, "and the Irlsh are Celts. A characteristlc ot tbe l rlsb is black halr with blue eyes. Tbat 1s observed among our people here In Slovakla." President Tiso, 1 have already mentioned had black bair and blue eyes. If the professor ,vas endeavorlng to make me feel a racia! kinshlp wlth the Slovaks - the Celtlsh background - he certatnly supported hls oplnion wlth more arguments than black and b lue for hair and eyes. lt was a lengthy thesls he expounded on tbe !:'Ubject, but the glst or lt was that au the people or Europe stem from the origlnal tn h abitants llvlng in tbe region around the Medlterranean, the Jordah, tbe 30 SLOVAKIA Hed and the Dead Sea. The garden of Paradise is supposed to have been in that general part of the Near East. The Celts - as part of the early human family of whlch we have any history, so the professor asserted - were brawny, pioneer lads, pagans in those days, of course, who hunted and explored and pushed their way westward. Some of them got as far as the western s hores of Europe, which we now know as the coast of Brittany in France. From there they launched boats and set up their cabeens in Ireland and Scotland, wbere they are today. Some of those early Ce!ts, acco rding to this student of the subject, decided tha,t the area just west of the Carpathian Mountalns - which is Slovakia - was a pretty good part of the earth to stake out for t heir children and grandchildren for generations to come. So there they stayed. Like the other Celts who went on to I reland, they were converted to Christ!anlty well over a thousand years ago and bave remained steadfast in their faith ever slnce, just as have the fightin' lrish. That, the Banska Bystrica gentleman lnformed me. is another evidence of the kinship, the similarlty in character and traditions. He then escorted me to a conical plie of stones towerlng four stories high, in which were kept many relics and articles that had been dug from the ground in Slovakia over th e past generations. There were cooking utensils, ornaments of solid gold and silver, bits of clothing, crude instruments for killing, such as tbe crusaders of the middle ages carried, and many other articles. Oddly enough, 1 had seen articles almost identically the same in the museum of Dublin, Ireland, on one of my visits there. Those in the Dublin museum had been unearthed in tbe peat bogs and fields of Ireland. The professor had a point there. The traces of clvllization, which we have found, do have similarity. The old gentleman then took me to his home and into the b asement or cellar under it. There were stacks of musty manuscripts, some on tbe oldest known kind of parchment. The signs and symbols on tbey were just hierog!yphics to me, but to that scholar they told stories and epics of hlstory wbich had been written in the mlddle ages. Whether or not tbe Slovaks are Celts and kin ot the Irish and Scots, instead of the Russians, I shall not attempt to prove. But that was the contention of one learned Slovak in Banska Bystrica. S LOV AKIA U NDER THE REDS Of course, now that the Communisl<i are in Slovakia, and Moscow is to be regarded as the fountain head of all culture and wisdom, it is likely that any reference to tbe Cbristian Celts as being remotely related to the Slovaks will be purged trom the people's minds and records. It would be interesting to know what the Communlsts have done to the sbrlne, the mausoleum of Fatber Andrej H linka In Ruzomberok, at wbich I had knelt in prayer a day or so before going to Banska Bystrica. It was Father Hlinka who, by bis zeal, tireless energy and strength of cbaracter, had brought about the political unity and solidarity wh!ch made possi ble tbe creation of the Slovak Republic. Al· thougb lt was short Jlved, it did demonstrate to the world that a SLOVAKIA 31 Slovak state is feasible and may again be upon the maps of Europe. It would be incorrect to assert that everyone in the Slovak Repub• Ile, durlng the stx years of its exlstence, was enthuslastlcally 01>tlmistic as to lts future in the assembly of nations comprlsíng the European continent. In this connection, it shoula be mentioned, tbat tbe greatly_ publicized pian or proposal said to bave been urged by General Dwight Eisenhower, !or a United States of Europe, may be dlsmissed as wlshful thinking. Such a "United States" could not possibly function at thls stage of world history when half of Europe is free and half s lave, half Christlan and half under the ruthless dominatlon of pagan dictators. Until the situation 1s altered and Communism ls banished from Europe, there can be no lasting unity. To even dlscuss the matter be· fore that 1s accomplished, is utterly Cutile. A SLOVAK TEXAS RANGER SPEAKS HIS MIND A well-to-do industrialist in Bratislava pointed out to me about 1942 what was to be the fate of Slovakla and Europe in the postwar period. He iS not a Slovak but one who resided in Slovakla when it was part oľ the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. then under the gov· ernment of Czechoslovakia and remained to carry on under tbe Re· 1mblic, as did many of Hungarlan, Czecb, Austrian or German natlonality. All enjoyed equ al rights. As be may still be living there, it would be wrong to mentlon bis name, because reprisals might be inflicted on bim, should these words be brought to the attentlon of Red spies in tbis country. On my lnitial visit to bis home, the first objects that met my eyes were a western saddle and a Wlnchester rifle In a regulatlon leather holster. Very much American. Then I got tbe story. He had been a Texas Ranger in bis younger days! There were notches in bis leg from slugs of desperados, several of wbom he had killed in bis encounters wltb tbem along the borders of the Rio Grande. Speaklng five languages fluently and knowing thl! contlnent of Europe thorougbly, his opinions on the current and impending eventa were wor• thy of attentlon "Wbat a misfortune 'Teddy' Roosevelt isn't in the White House today," he said shortly after we met. "Things would be dlfferent. Tbe way lt appears now, Europe is being delivered stralgbt lnto chaos and Communism. You know what that means? I do. Durlng the bloody reign of terror under tbat so-and-so (expressive Texas Ranger term) Bela Kun, I witnessed enough of lt. I was !nterpreter before some ot the committees in Budapest and stared that 'so-and-so' In the eye many a tlme. ľd bave kllled bim if I got the chance, and he knew lt. What is the intention of Franklln Roosevelt? To dellver us over t<_> the Reds aga in?" It was necE>ssary to first destroy the forces or Hitler, I pointed out and then . . . "Then what? Thaťs tbe quest!on. True enougb the Nazl yoke on the German people must be broken and they be brought back to belp in the scheme of thlngs. But you mark my worda, Stalln is the only one who ia winning anything in thia war. He'a not winning it elther. lťs being given to him. Unless bis henchmen are thrown out of t.he 32 SLOVAKIA Balkans, the Baltic states, Poland and all the other spots he will take over soon; the whole of Europe and western civllizatlon wlll go back• ward tor ~ century or so." "You are not so badly off here in Slovakia at present," I ventured to say. "NQnsense. Our freedom here is but temporary, and so 1s the pros• períty, Fooľs gold. You know what tbat 1s? A flasb In the pan, a mi· rage. Can't make this country self-sufficient. It bas to be bltcbed on t& some other part of Europe. Always has been. Tbe Germans deve!• oped it at one period of bistory. It was part of tbe Hapsburg Man· archy, tben the neglected half of Czecho·Slovakla. It wlll be taken over by the Reds after the war - see if ľm not rlght. Could make it a self·determining state, if the otber European powers, supported by America, demanded it. But tbey won't, unless great pressure ls brougbt on the influences now in Washington, London and Paris. But ľm not leaving here. Sure, ľm what tbey cal\ a capitallst, an enemy of the Reds. rve gat that Wincbester and two Colt plstols. Wben they're empty the Reds can take wbaťs left. I won't know mucb about it tben." That was one man's opinion of wbat was transplring in Slovakia anct Centra! Europe at tbat time and wbat he thought tbe future beld far tbem. He was not always so explosive in bis observatlons. but in tbe two years and more I knew bim I learned to respect his estimate of the Europeao scene. though at times I may not have entlrPIY agreed with bim. But was be not right as regards the sell-out of Christianity in Cen· tral Europe? Was he not correct In bis predictlon that only Stalln was wiooing t he war and that bis greatest aldes were then oot In '.\toscow. but In London and Washington? In these days when we art! exhorted to strlve and save and struggle to rescue Europe and ourselves rrom the menace of Communlst cont.rol, let us reflect on tbe facts or tbose who - wltb wbat appears to bave been pre-determlnation - consigned Slovak:a and otber Christian nations to perdition. MEETING PRESIDENT TISO At a dinner party in Bratislava l flrst met Joseph Mracna, formerly Consul far Czecboslovakia in New York. lt developed, wben comparlng notes, t hat we had both salled from New York on the same day in Oecembr 1939. He on tbe Vulcania bound far Llsbon. wbile my voyage was on tbe Excalibur witb Genoa as my destinatlon. Mracna and bis wlfe, who was Viennese. were very pro-American an.d longed far the tlme when they migbt return to tbe Unitd States wher-e he ·had many frlends and acqualntaoces, several of whom were also my friends. Although born In Slovakia, Mracna had spent tbe greater part of bis life in other countries. He attended unlversities in Vienna and Par!s, following wb!ch he had been occup!ed In forelgn countrles even before becoming the Czecboslovakian Consul In New York. He was, at the time I knew him, a member of tbe Foreign Office of the new Sl_ovak .Republlc wbere hls experience and knowledge of affalrs in .several other countries was most usefuL I asked !f he could arrange an audience for me with the Pres!dent. He said he could; and did. SLOVAKIA 33 When I arr!ved at the presldentlal palace at the time ap polnted for my a udlence, Ka rol Murin, persona) secretary for the Preslden t, cautioned me aga!nst detaining him too long and also mentioned that it would be inappropriate to questlon him on matters of foreign a nd domestlc policy. Mracna, it seems, had lnferred that !t was more of a persona) and human interest chat that I desired with the P res!den t, whlch was correct, but r was also most eager to interview bim on politlcal issues - domestic and foreign. Monsignor J oseph Tiso. or Pres!dent Tiso as he was then, rad!a ted those qua lities so often observed in the successful pol!tlc!an. An!mation, vigor, affability and the obvious desire to make frlends and please people, withont Jettlng it appear as a veneer to mask h!s real thoughts. He greeted me with a hearty llandshake and. after Karol Murin left us. he Jed the way to the corner of bis study in the palace. He was in perfect health, but a physical dlrector would undoubtedly have prescribed more exercise to guard agalnst overwelght whlch ls often the worry of those nearing the half-century mark. His black ha!r was but sparsely sprinkled wlth grey and a radiant tr!nkle llgh ted bis dark blue eyes. Slnce my knowledge of the Slovak language was limited to some dozen or more words and he spoke very little Engllsh, our interview was carried on in German. My openlng remark was that he had established history by belng the first Catholic priest to be the head of a sovere!gn state. "Oh, no," he replied, "there was Selpel in the former Austrian government." Monsi'gnor Seipel, 1 reminded bim, was prime minister but not president. "There was Richelieu." He, too, as l called to bis attention, was prime minister whiJe Louis of France was king. So it seemed that my reference to history was correct. After some minutes or general conversatlon I said that I had been cautioned not to question bim on matters of state, but that I would like to do so. "Please do. Any questions you ask, l'll try to answer the m." WHAT ABOUT POLICIES? Then 1 was free to touch on several topics that lnterested me and most anyone else who had any knowledge of the happen!ngs !nside Central Europe during these days. "It is true that your pol!cies are dictated by Germany?" '"No," he lnsfsted. "In forelgn matters our policies are formu• lated so that tbey do not conflict with those of the Axls Powers. Slnce we are within their orblt lt would be sulcidal to strongly oppose them. But in domestlc matters we form our own pollcles whlch, In many instances, do not coincide wlth those of Germany. German terr!tory as you know is just across the Danube. Only a bridge between us but it !s a long bridge." He smiled when he realized that. I grasvoo his none too subtle meaning. 34 SLOVAKIA "Some of your critics," I then said, "declare that you - and by that I mean the Slovak Republic - are subject to instructions from the Vatican." "The usual charge of the uninformed," he replied. "l have no connection with the Vatican, except through the diplomatic channels, the same as other countries to which the Vatican City has accredited representation. (T here was a Vatlcan diplomatic official resident in Bratislava.) Any communications affecting the religious affairs of our people would be transmitted through the bishops. I am not a bishop. In my capacity as president I have no counection with Rome, other than I have polnted out." All rellgious denominations were accorded the same right of worship, he pointed out. The largest Protestant group was the Lutheran Evangelical, of which Rev. Martin Razus was the accepted leader and who was not only cooperating with bim politically, but they were personal friends. In the eastern part of the state were also many Orthodox or Greek Catholics. AGAIN WITH THE CZECHS ? Was lt likely, l asked, that the Slovaks and Czechs would again llilite in a government after tbe war? That questinon did not receive a direct answer. He remlnded me that trom the very inception of the Czecho-Slovakian government, there had been dlscrimintalon against tbe Slovaks. The autonomy, which had been promlsed, had been denied them. Those who protested and agitated for Slovak rights, such as Hlinka and hlmself, were imprisoned. Something like nine months he had spent in a Czech jail for protestlng the injustices that were lnflicted on t he Slovak people and demanding that their rights be recognized. Later he had been Minister of Health in the Prague cabinet. The Slovaks. he assured me, de· s ired to live in peace and harmony wlth the Czechs, the Poles, the Hungarlans and the Germans, but they a lso believed they were entltled to the "self-determlnation" that had been loudly proclaimed and was said to be the lnalienable right even of all small nations. They were now, for the first Ume in hlstory, an independent country. The problems facing them were many and varied. President Tiso referred wlth considerable pleasure to hls vislt in the Unlted States in 1937. He expressed the wish that the thousands of Slovaks in Canada and the United States be informed of the prospects for bette rment which he felt was due their people through the enactment of the programs of development then under way. NEED OF TEACHERS AND TECHNICIANS Thelr greatest problem, he said, was in finding men and women for the jobs that had been created. "We need technlcians, instructors in t he schools and universities and speciallsts for industria! projects. Our hlgh schools are over-crowded. Students want education and want to get ahead, but we lack sufflcient teachers. Tbe same in many businesses. We bope to meet these needs in tlme." He made the remark that, although s peclallsts and technlclans were urgently needed. he boped tbey would not bave to rely too much on the Germans. Tbat and otber comments indicated hls disllke for SLOVAKIA 36 tbe small army of German engineers and tecbnicians wbo had come into the country to aid In its development. THE SLOVAKS AND THE RUSSIANS There had been a small token Slovak force sent against the Soviet soon after the outbreak of the German-Soviet hostillties in 1941, but they were withdrawn and tbe men, for the most part, were work· Ing in various industries that contributed products for the war effort. l pointed out to the President that they and tbe Russians were Slavs and was it not consistent that they be on tbe side of tbeir blood brotbers? Tbere was a pause and bis face became very earnest. "Quite true, We are blood brothers. But when tbose blood brotbers are Bolsheviks and Communlsts," doubling his flst and pounding on the table in front of bim Tiso said, ''then we'll fight to tbe last man." Presldent Tiso, like the martyred Draja Mlhailovitcb of Yugosla• vla, Archbisbop Stepinac and Mindszenty of Budapest, did not hesitate to take a firm and defiant stand against the greatest menace Christian civlllzation was then facing - and is still facing today. But because he and tbose other courageous ones were not deceived by tbe propaganda, the pious platitudes and spurious pollcies of tbe Western Powers as regards tbe Soviet, he was marked for sacrifice. The Washington State Department, at tbe bebest of Stalln's puppets, actually delivered bim to tortures and to death. Deny it tbougb they would llke to do today - when Christian leaders llke J osepb Tiso are neetled to weld Central Europe into a strong bastion against the Communlst horde - the bald trutb remains that In 1945 our State Department, as a supine and subserv!ent tool of Stalin. cons!gned T!so and tbe Slovaks t_o Red domination and extermination. Regardless of all arguments to the contrary, Josepb Tiso was slncerely desirous of helping his people - the long oppressed country that for nine hundred years had kept the fires or Chrlstlanlty alive in Centra! Europe. How long those fires will smoulder under the ruth· less domination of Communist destroyers of religion and clvllizatlon, is a grave question. Wbether it was mistaken judgment for tbe Slovaks to accept the assistance of Germany, to achieve the measure of independence they enjoyed, is a matter of oplnion. There was no war in progress wben the Slovak Republlc was born and none was imminent. Tbey revolted against obvlous injustices of tbe Prague Government. The Czech majority could bave compromised and settled tbeir dlfferences. Tbey did not. Wben tbe interna] revolt came. Hitler took advantage of tbe situatlon and proffered bis migbt against outslde aggresslon. Slovakla accepted tbe offer. If Josepb Tiso was a traltor to bis country, then tbe same can be said of Eamon de Valera in Ireland, Mabatma Gbandi in India. or the gallant Marsball Mannerheim in brave little Flnland. AII were patriots fighting for tbeir people. All were persecuted, smeared and discredited, but tbeir names will live in tbe blstories yet to be wrltten. 36 SLOVAKlA TI SO HAD A SENSE OF H UMOR After furtber lengtby dlscussion of varlous toplcs, I was about to depart when Karol Murin came to Inform tbe President tbat tbe Finance Minister was waitlng to see bim. Tlso accompanled me lnto a vast room looklng out across a walled garden in wbicb he sald líe took dally walks. Little dld l know tben tbat, over two year.s later, he would be taking many long walks togetber in another walled enclosure and resume our discussions on tbe worlďs affairs. But tbat is another story. Tbe air of tbe room was cbilly. - A tbougbt occurred to me. "Your Excellency," I said, ·•some persons told me tbat you a re always very seriouJ and earnest. But tbere's a twlnkle ot mirtb In your eyes at times and I bave an Idea tbat there's conslderable humor In you." "Perbaps," he smlled. "Would lt be appropriate If I gave you a little present?" "Wbat, · for instance·?" "I tbougbt tbat in tbese cold days of winter, just for mediclnal purposes, of course, you migbt appreciate a half dozen bottles ot gflod Canadlan whisky." Tlso chuckled and bis eyes lígbted witb the mirth I had noted there before. "ľll be glad to get lt," be' ~'aid. · The half dozen bottles were duly delivered fróm a source In "Bra tislava wbere I knew it was obtainable. Later on Karol Murin ask-ečl me to call again at tbe palace, wben I was given the compllments ot the Presldent and a token of bis appreciation for the whisky. It lš a wonder!ully embroidered table c loth, one of the finest specimens ot Slovak rieedlework that could posslbly be found. It is today my most treasur-ed possession. Very recently a letter came to me trom Karol Murin who ls now a resident of Canada. He informed me that my friend Joseph Mracna, whom I got to know very well in tbe two years following our meeting, had been murdered by the Commnnists. The Slovak patriot, Monslgnor Joseph Tlso, was delivered to Benes and bi.s Red Government by. the United States autborlties to be exterminated, because he was the arch enemy of Communism. Jn 1946, the year when· that assistance to Communist deslgns was. rendered by our offlclals, lt was polltlcally unwise to declare one's 'undying opposition to the forces or antl-God even then seeklng our destruction. Presldent Tiso pald tbe supreme penalty for bis devotion to bis God and bis country. COMES MY TURN TO BE I NVESTIGATED Tbe Carlton Hotel, in Bratislava, where I had reslded for months, was a meeting place for German military officers, legation attaches and couriers, coming and going all the tíme. A physician llving in the hotel, wbom I had called on a tlme or two for professlonal services, informed· me tbat someone at the German Legatlon had quizzed bim about me. The pbyslcian was Slovak, bis wife Hungarlan, enougb to assure me they were not sympathetic to the German otflcials. "That American 1s no frlend ot Germany," the legation omclal sald to the physician. ·'Whaťs he dolng here and why is he permitted to stay ?" SLOVAKIA 37 Just what the doctor said to dlvert suspicion, I do not know, but within a few days the local police inspectors came to question me a bout my stay in the country, my source ot income, what 1 was doing, and so on. My replles were vague, but apparently satlsfactory for the Slovak police. But it caused me considerable worry. Pressure mlght be brought to bear which would send me across that bridge into German territory. That I must escape at all costs. Again I sought out Joseph Mracna In the Foreign Office. We bad talked frankly before and I knew I could trust hlm. My permit to remaln in Slo· vakia was about to expire and also my passport. Would they deport me? Mracna conferred wlth the proper authoritles, then lnformed me that if I did not become a "public charge·• - that !s, if I had assets on which to live - they . would give me sanctuary. I -would not be detported even at the expiration of permits or passports. I assured him that my persona! assets were sufficient to maintaln me for an extended period. 1 GO TO PIESTAN Y At the suggestion of Mracna, I arranged to live in Piestany, a health resort about sixty mlles from Bratislava which !s famed for its hot baths. It was far enough from the capltal that the German mllitary officlals or Gestapo agents wer not prowling around. Al· though the Republic malntalned its own police and defense force, judiciary, customs and ·immigration officials - no one arrlving or departing without tbeir sanction - there seemed to be a tacit agreement that the German military and legation oftlcials could come there for extended holidays. They came malnly [or food and drink, which weré almost non-existent in Germany and Austria at that tlme. Piestany is world famed. The baths - mud and hÓt pools - are beneficial for those wlth rheumatlsm, arthritls and other ills. Before the war there were visitors from as far away as India, Africa and l;loth North and South America. The two largest hotels - one on an island of the Vah River, and on which are the hot springs had been taken over and operated by the Interior Department ot the Slovak State. Soon after I went there as a voluntary "internee," Piestany became tbe headquart.ers of many involuntary internees of the Slovak Government. First to arrive were twenty-six - including the children - ot the !talian dlplomatlc corps in Bratislava. The !talian Minister, Cortese. had declared his allegiance to the antl-Mussolini, or Badoglio government, which jolned forces with the Western Allies. Naturally, he and bis entlre staff who shared his sympathles were anathema to the Germans. With the setting up of the Fascist forces in Northern Haly, pressure was brought to bear on Slovakia to deport the anti Fascists to the northern part of Italy which was still occupied by Germany and cooperating with it. TISO, TH E H U MAN ITARIAN But. contrary to generally circulated statements that President Tiso was a puppet ot Germany, he deflnitely refused to llsten to the suggestlons or demands of the Germans. nor wonld he consent to the Itallan Legatlon staff belng interned In Germany, which was a 38 SLOVAK.IA later idea of the Germans. So wlthin six weeks or my taking up residence in the Grand Royal Hotel in Piestany as a lone "internee," twenty-slx Italians moved in together with two attaches of the Slovak Foreign Offlce a.s guardians or "watchers." Two of the arrivals were Count Giovanni Revedin and his Amerlcan-born wife with whom I had become acquainted previously. The question was put to the Countess and the Foreign omce "guardians" "Are internees being held incommunicado?" The answer was no. I was not restralned from associating with them. In ternment in Piestany was not so onerous for them, because, unofflcially, Slovakia was more pro-Allied than pro-Axis. It is doubt· ful if any of the Allied countries were as considerate of interned subjects of an "enemy" nation as Slovakla was for those ot the !talian Diplomatlc corps, now no longer officially welcome. Later on arrived some from the Rumanian and Bnlgarian legations also. They were quartered at the governmenťs expense in one of the country's best hotels, permitted to retain their motor cars. though restricted in the use of them. If, however, any member of the corps found it necessary to go to Bratislava. some slxty miles distant, the Foreign Office representative granted permlssion. Usuaiiy lt was for a trip there and return the same day. Otherwise they were free - as was the case wlth myself - to roam all about the countryside, to nearby villages, to go flshing, bathing In the splendld pool in summer or in the Vah River and getting what relaxation they might need by attending the Jocal movie theatres, uslng tbe s kating rinks in wlnter and the tennis courts In summer. Slnce they were cut off from their sources of income, the Slovak government advanced them a small amonnt of spending money at regular intervals, pald hospital bills for those who required sneh hospitalizatlon, and very large fees for speciallsts who performed operatlons on some members or the group. It was convenient for me that friends with diplomatic immunity were there. The manuscrlpts on which I was then working would have ticketed me into one of the Nazi concentration camps had they fallen into their hands. Bnt Count Revedin as well as members of the Minister's family kept them in their possession - safe from search and seizure. Another who had taken ,;anctuary there was Siegfried Geyer, a dramatlst well known in Germany, Austria and Hungary, whose plays had been performed in Switzerland, Sweden, London and New York. One of his comedles, "Candle Light," was presented in Londoo where it ran for a year. Later it was brought to New York. where lt had some success. then was purchased by Warner Brothers and filmed, as were other of bis plays. TISO NOT AN ANTI-SEMITE The purge or J ews In Austria forced GPyer to flee into Slovakia where he was given presidential permission to remain. That same permission was granted to others I knew personally. One of them was an official of the Slovak travel bureau and another was an engineer for the resort and bealth department who resided wlth bis wlfe in Piestany and whom I vlsited many Limes. Another was a physician attached to tbe government hospital. Hence the base accusatlons of SLOVAKIA 39 anti-Sem!tism that were hurled against Tiso - when the Reds de• manded his death - were false and easily proven to be noth!ng but falsehoods. Siegfried Geyer and I were work!ng daily on some manuscrlpts. Through underground communication I had been warned that milltary forces were to occupy the country. Two nights later the w!fe or a Slovak cabinet minister came to inform me that in a few hours the Germans would be in Piestany. Geyer was with me at the time. He felt that it was h!s death knell. It was two weeks or more before any action was taken toward deportation of the Jews. On the night of September 8, 1944, Geyer Jeft me, saying that we would meet at eleven in the morning. I never saw bim again. Through an acquaintance I learned that he wa s picked off the street the morning after leaving me and was carted away in a blue motor van. Three others of my acquaintances vanished the same day. For years they had found sanctuary and In many instances exceptional employment in the Slovak Republic, and this is asserted in direct contradiction of generally circulated propaganda by pressure groups that President Tiso and bis cablnet members aided in tbe extermlnation of the J ews. WAR COMES TO S LOVAK I A - GERMANS TAKE OVER In the sixteen months of my residence tbere, before the German occupation I had observed growing resentment against their powerful nelghbor. Now it became more bitter though the people were prudent enough not to make any outward sign of it. A pigmy does not force a quarrel with a giant. Tbe !talian diplomatic internees merited the attentlon of the German occupatlon officials. First tbeir motor cars were lmpounded. Then they were moved to tbe other hotel an an island In the Vah River, the two bridges a cross the river being circled with barricades and sentries posted at eacb end. A curfew edict went lnto effect and miles of barbed wire barriers were thrown around the city. Trenches and embankments were dug on tbree sides of tbe city, fleld telephones and power cables being strung along the streets and far into the country side. Tbls front was to be held at all costs - so lt was said. Slovakla now began to realize that all war fronts were closing in on ber. For over five years tbey had boped and prayed that this destructlon would not be vislted on them. But now it was at tbelr door. Tbe morning following the German occupatlon I went to tbe office of Inspector Vavro of tbe Slovak police. Prevlously wben my twelve month residence permit had exp!red I had sougbt bim. He merely sm!led at my fears. "Are you loslng any sleep over lt?" he asked. "Go away from here. l've forgotten you're in Piestany." An "enemy" subject, wbicb technically I was, could not bope for greater consideratlon. But now Vavro was no longer in complete autbority. His advice. however, was tbe same as before. "Didn't I teli you long ago that l've forgotten that you are here?" he said. "Return to your bouse and stay out of sight for a wb!le. My report witb your name on lt bas been conveniently misla!d. It will be some tiroe before tbe Germans tlncl :,ou." 40 SLOVAKlA Tbree days later men visited me, saying that tbey were wlth tbe German State Police. Tbere was tbe usual routine question!ng. Identlfication papers; occupation; slnce wbat date and wby was I residing' In the country? Wbat ls contained In the luggage and what !s in the mass of manuscripts, papers, etc.? Joseph Mracna had given me a letter to be sbown at just such times. It came lnto view and served to substantlate my statement tbat tbe Slovak autborities were acquainted with the contents of my bulging brief case. After a tborougb searcb of the place in whlch tbey found no radio, camera, weapons, photograpbs or otber susplcious appearing articles, the three men departed. Tension tbrougboul the country was becoming more noticable. Reports ŕlltering through from the eastern boundaries of the country were terrlfying. The Germans, being forced westward, forced all the villagers to evacuate ·with them' - or be shot. Their houses were burned. But before doing so they were stripped of everythlng In the way of metal. Door hinges, locks, farm machinery, tools and lmplements were taken away. Long convoys of half starved and bedraggled evacuees from the eastern slde of Slovakla and also from Hungary woved westward by wagon and on foot. Sometimes for eight or ten hours at a time those wretched and homeless people were coming at snalľs pace over t he. pHls, through the fringe of Piestany, and then vanished over the western horizon. " LIBERATION" BY THE REDS But even worse fate awaited those who eluded the German evacuation decrees. The Red "liberators" advancing into the eastern areas of Slovakia confiscated what might have been overlooked by the Germans. They roundetl up and deported children; no one seemed to know wbere. It was rumored they were sent to Russia. So between the plague of Germany, and the terrorlsts of the Soviet, poor llttle Slovakla had little to choose. They were caught between two enemies. Pressure was brought to bear on tbe Slovak government to hand the interned diplomats over to Germany. I took a message for them to tbe Swlss Consulate In Bratislava, for transmission to the outside world. It was hoped that if publicity was given their pllght in the Swiss and other neutra! papers, it would have some reaction, and also become known to the Allied authorlties. The messages and reports in Switzerland did perhaps seŕve to alter the announced lntention of the Germans to dellver the Ital!ans lnto the hands of the Mussolini faction in North Italy, who mlght have shot them as traltors. Instead they were sent first to Vienna and then to Sllesia. Amerlcan flyers who made forced landings or were shot down over Slovakia were taken in hand by the Slovak authorities. Tbose who requlred bospitalization were given tbe best the capltal atrorded - whlch was excellent. Karol Murin told me on · one of my vlslts to the Palace that, on instructions trom Presldent Tlso, he and bis wlfe s ougbt out the Amerlcan prlsoiiers in the hospltals to see that nothlng was left undone for tbeir comfort. Even bouquets of flowers were sent to brighten tbelr rooms. ··· ~- ' SLÔVlinA 41 What a contrast trom the shameful treatment that was accorded Pres!dent Tiso, Karol Murin and members of their cab!net when they voluntarlly sought sanctuary In the American zone of occupatlon. More on this will follow. The Germans ended all the consideration and special attention that was given war prisoners. The German military officials took them, as well as many Slovaks, despite protests from the President and Foreign Minister, Stephen Tiso. Again it was a case of the pigmy and the giant. Might was right. The story of tbe gbastly occupation and betrayal will be told later. THE BEGINNI N G OF THE END On New Year's Eve of 1945 I was wltb frlends In Piestany. 'ľbe forbidden {by the Germans) broadcasts of tbe London radlo w1:,re turned on for the latest news in Czecb, German and Englisb. Also that evening Adolf Hitler broadcast a brlef greeting to der Deutscber Volk - hls "friends." Some of the llsteners insisted that lt was not Hitler's voice. Otbers expressed the opinion tbat lt was "der Fubrer" but a very mucb changed volce. It was generally believed tbat the attempted assassination of six montbs previously had left some per• manent impaiľment. During tbe iatter part of 1944 motlon pictures of him - wblcb was unusual - were always taken at a distance and tbere was a no ticeable awkwardness of one arm. It was rumored that he sustained other injuries. The London radlo gave lengthy discussions on tbe plaos for the liberation and rehabilitation of Centra! Europe. We assumed that there was complete accord among the Allied Powers and that tbe views and oplnlons expressed represented tbose of tbe United States. The piana were thoae of the Red dominated group of Edwa rd Benes and foreto ld th e diaaster t hat was inevitab le. Anyone with even the most meagre knowledge of European history knew that the rulers of the Kremlin hoped to dominate and absorb all tbe S lav people. Therefore, it was alarmlng for the people in Centra! Europe to observe the manner in whlch the Allled Powers permitted the Soviet to occupy the Balkans, move up into Hungary and tben sweep lnto Slovakla. As my friends In Piestany and Bratislava pointed out re. peatedly, the Allied Powers, and particularly America, should have re• membered what bappened in the Ilaltlc states, In Flnland and in Poland. It was tbe pattern of Red absorb tion and complete control, once they planted foot on the soil o f a country. The only exceptlon was that of Spalo - the slngle country where the Communlsts ~uf• fered milltary defeat. Offlcial Washington, let us remem ber also, was cooperatlve with the Communist terrorists in Spain at that Ume - regardless of the denials that some or the hierarchy of the e lect now wish to read lnto the record. Moscow's deslgns in Spain, in the Baltic states, In the Balkans and no w in Centra! Europe were so obvious as the Pyramlds on the Sahara. The milltary o ccupatlon was but the prelude to permanen t lncorpo ration lnto the Red orblt. After the Red army occupied Budapest, whlch for centurles had been a bastlon of Chrlstlanlty against the antl-Christlan forces on the East, it left only Bratislava as the lmportant city of the Danube between Budapest and Vienna. Mlllions of kronen In materials and mil• 42 SLOVAK.IA lions of man-power hours were expended on the defenses. The Eastern Front, lt seemed, would soon be in our front yards. When the day and night booming of artlllery began to be hear d in Piestany, many felt it wise to move westward. A famlly I knew In Bratislava had obtalned a motor truck and fuel two precious thlngs - intending to flee into southern Bavaria. By phone from Piestany I arranged to share space in the Bavaria-bound truck. But when l arrived there by train trom Piestany the truck had a\ready left. Now, where to go or what to do? Huge artlllery pieces were being wheeled through the str eets westward. German milltary supplies in motor cars and wagons trundled westward. Cattle and horses were being driven in the directlon of Vienna. It is doubtful if they got far along that road before the Hed army captured and butchered them. OFF TO PRAGUE An acquaintance advised me to Jeave for Prague as rall transport was still operating in that direction. When I inquired about visa or permit to enter the ·'Protectorate" and officiaľs secretary informed me that "tbe bars are down; you may go anywhere you can obtain transportation." At tbe railway station J got a ticket for Prague. A train was scbeduled to leave that evening about six. Tbe station was a seething mad-house. Pandemonium, orrlerly confusion, bundreds of terrorstricken people with bundreds of bags. bundles and babies trying to get somewbere - anywbere. In tbe black-out, long after slx o'clock, tbere was an air-raid warning. Police herded people into a vast underground shelter that had been tunnelled into a rocky bili aero.ss the railway tracks. MorP .:onfusion, anxiety and wondering if we would ever get out of the stricken city. The train - scheduled for six o'clock - left in tbe thickening blackness of the night about eleven. People were packed in to suffocation. At a town called Cuty. on thP. Crontier, l transferred to anotber train tbat landed me in Brno, now Czechoslovakia, about eight in the morning. After snatching four hours sleep at the Grand Hotel, I contrived to board (without the special military permit) an express train which landed me in Prague about mldnight. All train service into Slovakia ended tbe morning after I de• parted. Had J delayed a few hours longer tbe Reds would have inc luded me in their spreading net of "liberation." Even the most unobservant person must bave sensed the uneasiness of the Germans then in Prague. Czechs and the evacuees from Slovakia, Hungary and Poland knew it was but a matter of weeks or days when the American and British forces would be in Berlin. Tb'at meant the end of the war. but what then? Every day motor trucks and cars of all kinds were being loacled with bousehold goods, cats, dogs, bird cages, German women and children. Then at evening they rolled off into the darkness. Branche.• of trees or other <'amouflaging uas used to disguise the vebicles as much as possible. They dld not chance mass movements or evacuees in dayl!gbt llours. SLOVAKIA 43 REVOLUTION AND REVENGE Friday evening, May Fourtb, marked tbe beglnning ot tbe uprising against six long years ot German dictatorsbip. A mysterious and ominous atmospbere pervaded Prague. Crowds began convergmg in Wenselplatz - as it was then called_ For wbat? No one seemed to know. Sometbing was to bappen. A revolution was in tbe making. Little by little tbings occurred. Men, women and boys began defacing German words on tbe fronts of business establ!shments. Tbey commenced to alter tbe street signs - - which were in dual language - Czecb and German_ Tbe electric trams were halted by tbe crowd Then matters became more serious. Sirens screamed, military cars pushed througb tbe crowds, commands were barked over t.he loud speakers in the s quare. Small armoured tanks rolled into view. A plstol shot, a woman's scream, crowds surging back against tbe walls and the rattle of machlne guns Four days and nigbts tbe battle continued. The Prague raáio remained in Czech hands and was their greatest asset. Pleas from it were directed to the American forces, said to be thirty, tben twenty, tben ten miles away. Professor Matousek, director of tbe station, would beg in broken English for tbem to hurry. The Stars and Stripes waved from the top;, of buildings and in many windows. An enthusiastic welcome would be glven tbeir liberators. The question asked by hundreds was: '·When do you think tbe Americans wíll get here?" Little did they know then that they would never arrive_ That Prague and the Czechs, together with the millions of Slovaks, had b een sold down-river by Eduard Benes in a secret deal entered into with Stalin. A deal that had the benediction of Franklin D. Roosevelt who was even then loudly prating about saving the Western World from the Nazi destroyers of Christianity, only to be consigned to the Soviet, the greatest destroyers and enemies of Christian civilization since the Cruclfixion. THE SAD AWAKENING On the sixth day of the revolution in which bundreds or !!ves and millions in property was destroyed. General Vlassoff's troopers were s linking along the shattered fronts of buildings in Wenzelspaltz. These were the Russians, mostly from the Ukraine, who had first been equipped by the Germans to fight thP Communists. Now they turned on the Germans and were belping to drive tbem out of Prague. The thought came to me at the time: what will be tbe fate or these pol!tlcal pawns? They followed tbeir leader, General VlassofI against the Bolshevik terrorists, then they remainecl witb him when he turned agalnst the Germans. Would tbe Allied nations give them sanctuary and a cbance to live• They did not. General Vlassoff was dellvered to the Moscow '"liberators" just as was President Tiso and bis cabinet. After a mock tria! that followed the pattern of al! Red trlals. Vlassoff was put before a firing squad. But what ls the fate of tbe simple l{ussian farmeťs boy hundreds of them - wbo wore a uniform an carried a rifle, or drove a team of horses pulling a wagon Joad of supplles to aid In the war for tbe West? Any number or t.hem were hquldated and others are SLOV~ .I A 110w slaves In Slberia. Not being articulate their story is never heard. And who delivered them to death or slavery? The same ones wbo dellvered the Slovaks to the Communlsts at Teheran and Yalta. By the end of the sixth or seventh day there came into the n1lnds or the beleagured people of Prague as well as the hundreds or Slovak, Pollsh and Hungarian evacuees, the susplclon that the Amerlcans were not coming. When for days the Amer!can rorces did not advance a step, but on the contrary moved away trom the city, they knew that something or a Mach!avelian nature had taken place behind the scenes. That they had been sold !nto bondage. All the p!ous words and pretty promlses that had been inade about guaranteeing their liberatlon - were just so many empty words. It became obvlous that political tricksters had ordained in secret conferences that Czecho-Slovakia was to be handed lnto the Red orbit. It was agaínst every tenet of their beliefs. part!cularly the Slovaks, who were avowed and m!l!tant foes or the Communist ideology and who w!th thelr then presldent, Joseph Tlso, had said they would t!ght to the !ast man. Now they realized that they were being conslgned to Red dominat!on. After another day of intermittent bombing and shell fire those of us In Prague heard a jubilant news announcer on the London radlo assure us that "the war in Europe !s over." That same inaccurate statement came from the American operated radlo stations In Germany and France and synchronized. ironlcally enough, with the staccato barking of machlne guns that raked Wenzelsplatz and the occasional deep toned thunder of an aerlal bomb or German shell that ~xploded somewhere too near ror comfort. For the people of Czecho-Slovakia the war was not over. We knew in tbe promises of the Western Powers, had been abandoned to t.he then that the Czechs and Slovaks. also the Hungarlans. the Poles and the other people of Chrlstian nations. who had placed thelr fatth benign brutallties and tyranny of Joseph Stalin. Innuences In Washington hari labored zealously to airl the Kremli n's effort for worldwide destruct!on of Chrl.stlan civllizatlon. and the Slovaks were another pawn In the game. Proof or that innuence and c!tations or those. who were lnstrumental In lntlict!ng that ruln on Centra! :E;urope. bave already been written tnto the publi<' records. Slovakia had enjoyed a measure of freedom only to have lt snatched away anrl her peopl~ consigned to oppression, spollatlon and deportation. far more ghastly than any they had endured in past bistory. But rbeir falth in God and their delermlnation to flght on has 1emalned. • • • WHO SAID IT? - "We are children or freedom. We cannot be s afe except in an environment of freedom. We belleve in freedom as fundamentally as we belleve anythlng In thls world. We belleve In it far everyone In our country. And we don't restrict thls belie! to freedom for ourselves. We belleve that all people in the world are entltled to as much freedom, to develop in thelr own way, as we want ourselves." - (Secretary of State, Dean Acheson, Aprll 22, 1950).  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource I Was in Slovakia Description An account of the resource Edward L. Delaney Slovakia, Vol. 2, No. 1 (3), March 1952 pp. 25-44 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Delaney, Edward L. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource March 1952 LCNAF https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/ccf1873d68d6bbc109cf0e0c93827068.pdf fb3f1fdee228aec2f6105f14134c17ac PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA 2019 55 IMAGINING A SEP ARA TE SLOVAK.IA: ANTICOMMUNIST SLOVAK EXILES' STRUGGLE FOR AN INDEPENDENT HOMELAND 1 Ellen L. Paul In January 1993, the principle of self-determination reigned supreme as the post-communist Czech and Slovak Federative Republic became Slovakia and the Czech Republic. In many ways, this peaceful separation was the logical outcome of decades of anti-communist Slovak emigre efforts. To be sure, Cold War exiles who left Czechoslovakia after 1945 and the February 1948 communist takeover had many disagreements amongst themselves, especially over leadership and direction of their numerous political organizations.2 Over time, however, many of the Slovak exile organizations arrived at some kind of consensus, and by the last two decades of the Cold War, the right of political self-determination provided Slovak emigres with a unifying theme. After all, in August 1968 when the Warsaw Pact armies quashed the Prague Spring, the Soviet Union brutally reminded the world of its firm control over Czechoslovakia. Yet, that event inspired two reasons for hope among Slovak exiles: l . the longpromised federalism of Czechoslovakia and 2. the creation in 1970 of a unifying new organization of Slovak exiles, the Slovak World Congress. As exiles in the free and democratic West, Cold War-era Slovak political exiles not only fought Soviet Communism and advocated for human rights in the homeland, they also defended the unique development of the Slovak nation in Central European history and informed the West about Slovakia, often refuting what many saw as misinformation spread by the Czechs. A recurring theme at the heart of the publications about Slovak history and culture was the dream of political independence for the Slovak nation. 1 A version of thi s paper was presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Historical Association, Polish American Historical Association panel on 7 January 2017 in Denver, Colorado. 2 Igor Lukes, "Czechoslovak Political Ex ile in the Cold War: the earl y years," Polish Review 47 , no. 3 (2002): 332-43. �56 SLOVAKIA 2019 From the early 20 th century, Slovaks in the West became convinced that democracy and the ethnic principle of self-determination went hand-in-hand with political independence. A small group of Slovak exiles favored political union with their Czech neighbors, but others insisted on autonomy and even independence based on the ethnic principle of self-determination. Throughout the Cold War, the groups favoring independence consistently fought for a separate Slovak identity and "equal rights with the other free and democratic nations of Europe and the world." 3 In 1993, the fruit of their struggles resulted in the peaceful split of the Czech and Slovak Federative Republic into Slovakia and the Czech Republic. Politically active Slovak exiles in Western Europe, the United States, and Canada can be roughly categorized into three basic groups. These categories are a helpful framework for understanding the issue of Slovak independence and especially the ways exiles aligned themselves in the early years of the Cold War. 1. Czechoslovakists: Slovaks who wanted a close union with the Czechs. 2. Federalists: moderate Slovak nationalists who pursued cooperation with the Czechs, but wanted recognition of a separate Slovak identity and political autonomy both for Slovakia and within the exile organizations. These included figures such as Stefan Osusky and Slovak Democratic Party members sent into exile after the communist coup in February 1948. 4 It is notable that the majority-but not all- of these first two groups came from Slovakia' s Lutheran minority. 3. Slovak autonomists : these Slovaks were decidedly nationalist and predominantly Catholic. They were also the most contentious. They supported Slovak independence, completely eschewing union with the Czechs-and rejecting the idea of a "Czechoslovak nation." They fled into exile right away in 1945, ahead of the Red Army and the returning Czechoslovak government. Among them were academics and journalists, such as historian Konstantin Culen, poet Mikulas Sprinc, and journalist Jozef 3 Joseph M. Kirschbaum, "Americki Slovaci a myslienka slovenskej samostatnosti," Kato/icky kalendar Jednota 87 (I 984), 177-84, 184. 4 The 1948 generation tended to be professionals or factory owners and, generally, among the most skilled and educated. In exile, many worked to resist Communism and return Czechoslovakia to democracy. �SLOVAKIA 2019 57 Pauco. In addition, the group featured several politicians and diplomats from the wartime Slovak state, such as Jozef Kirschbaum, Karol Sidor, and Ferdinand Durcansky. The majority of Slovak autonomists migrated to Canada, with some gaining entry into the United States. Although exact membership figures are unknown, there were far more Slovak autonomist and federalist exile groups in North America. This paper focuses almost exclusively on the autonomist and federalist Slovak exiles. Over time their differences faded, especially after the failed Prague Spring reform movement in 1968. Another reason for this shift was that as post-war emigres died, a younger generation of autonomists and federalists gradually united in their goals for self-determination and political independence for Slovakia. In 1958, linguist and Franciscan priest, Bonaventure S. Bue, categorized Slovak emigres into only two groups, lumping the federalists and autonomists into, simply, the autonomists . He explained the rift between the Czechoslovakists and the autonomists with a question: "Are we Czechs or are we Slovaks? To this question the Czechoslovak would answer: I am a Czech; the Autonomist: I am a Slovak." 5 Bue continued " ... the majority of Slovaks have always felt and professed to be an ethnographically, historically, and culturally distinct nation from the Czechs" and suggested that by the late 1950s the Czechoslovakist versus autonomist conflict was " losing its original raison d 'etre."6 In large part that was because even the Slovaks who wished to preserve the state of Czecho-Slovakia by then had "abandoned the highly disputed fiction of the 'Czechoslovak nation"' and agreed on the distinctness of the Slovaks. 7 The remaining issue was about the best alliance or political form for the nation's survival. Many historians trace the ethnogenesis of the Slovak nation back to the Great Moravian Empire of the ninth century, largely based on oral accounts and the Christianizing and linguistic legacy of Saints Cyril and Methodius. Solid documentary evidence of Slovak linguistic uniqueness harks back to the 1700s, when the Catholic intelli5 B. S. Bue, "Conflicts of Slovak Nationalism," Slovakia 8, no . 2 ( 1958), 1-1 7: 7 and 16. 6 Bue, 15. 7 Buc,16-17. �58 SLOVAK.IA 2019 gentsia in northern Hungary first suggested a separate identity for the Slovak language-as opposed to a Czech or Czechoslovak language. To them, it no longer made sense to use the more developed Czech language, and so Catholic clergy began writing in the Slovak vernacular even though the majority culture was distinctly Magyar. 8 In the 19 th century, language became "the center of the new national idea," but this was not enough to create a national identity for the Slovaks, who were under increasing pressure to assimi late to Magyar language and culture. In The Slovak National Awakening ( 1976), Peter Brock explains that as the intelligentsia began to promote the Slovak language and nation, and shift from using the Czech language, ideas about political unity with the Czechs also faded. 9 In 1848, I.',udovit Stur and other young Protestant intellectuals formed a short-lived Slavonic nation of their own, but thereafter the process of creating a Slovak political nation was interrupted by Magyarization, which meant the imposition of Magyar culture and language on young intellectuals in the Hungarian half of Austria-Hungary. The impetus to assert a separate Slovak identity with a language that was neither Czech nor Magyar had been well under way by the 1840s, involved both Catholics and Protestants, and was an important step toward declaring a distinct Slovak national identity. Toward that end, in the early 1860s the Matica slovenska (Slovak Cultural Institute) was founded to aid the continuing development of Slovak literature and culture. A political merger between Czechs and Slovaks came in 1918 following the breakup of Austria-Hungary and the calamity of the First World War, but that union was not predestined. Despite their linguistic similarities and geographical proximity, Czechs and Slovaks had very different histories and cultural influences. For hundreds of years, the Czech lands were part of the Holy Roman Empire, ruled by the House of Habsburg, and much influenced by German culture and the Reformation (and the Czech reformer Jan Hus). During that time, the Kingdom of Hungary ruled over the Slovak 8 Ismo Nurmi, Slovakia-a Playground for Nationalism and National Identity: Manifestations of National identity of the Slo vaks 191 8-1920, Biblioteca Historica 42 (Helsinki: Finnish Literature Society, 1999), 9-10, and Peter Brock, The Slovak National Awakening (Toronto and Buffalo: University of Toronto Press, 1976), 1837 and 53-4. 9 Brock, 7 & 20-37 . �SLOVAKIA 2019 59 lands, inside the boundaries of the Habsburg Monarchy. While both small nations struggled against strong neighbors, their nineteenth century trajectories to national awakening and political agency were distinctly different. Firstly, the Slovak lands remained largely agricultural while the Czech lands underwent industrialization. Secondly, the Czechs achieved some successes in gaining cultural and linguistic rights at home and a measure of political representation in Vienna. Whereas to the east, the Slovaks faced increasing Magyarization and the loss of their culture. Since the tenth century, the lands of Slovakia had been ruled by foreigners and what had kept the Slovaks from assimilating, disappearing, or dispersing were "language, geography, and tradition ." 10 Not surprisingly, these vastly divergent experiences dramatically shaped the outlook and soul of each nation. Although Slovak culture was repressed in the homeland, the impact of the efforts of the Matica slovenska, Catholic clergy, and Slovak intelligentsia to keep Slovak language and culture alive became apparent by the late 19 th century, when notable numbers of emigres began arriving in the United States and identified themselves as Slovak. By the early twentieth century, the U.S.A. was home to the most influential Slovak diaspora. 11 In 1890, they established two important early exile organizations: the National Slovak Society and the First Catholic Slovak Union. In 1907, the Slovak League of America formed and united all Slovak groups in America. While based "on a wide platform of love for [the] Slovak nation," the Slovak League of America's mission at the time was to cast off the Hungarian tyrant ruling over Slovaks in the homeland. 12 Unity among exiles, however, became much harder to achieve after the dissolution of AustriaHungary during the First World War and particularly after the declaration of the First Czechoslovak Republic in 1918. During World War I, politicians began deliberating the future of Central Europe. The most important negotiations regarding Czechoslovak statehood took place in North America among representatives of both the Czechs and Slovaks. The Czechs knew that Slovak par10 Stanislav J. Kirschbaum, A History of Slovakia: The Struggle for Survival (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1995), 37-8. 11 Jozef Pauco, " Slovaks Abroad and their Relationship with Slovakia," in Slovakia in th e 19th and 20th Centuries, 2 nd edition, ed. Jozef M. Kirschbaum (Toronto: Slovak World Congress, 1978), 415-24, 415. 12 Ibid., 417. �60 SLOVAK.IA 2019 ticipation was vital to their cause. With that knowledge, Slovaks were able to leverage some influence by demanding " recognition of an independent Slovak identity and Slovak political autonomy in exchange for their support." 13 Many Slovak exiles believed that "through their immigration to America ... they had helped preserve Slovak national identity" and that "American democracy provided them something they felt would prove beneficial" for Slovaks back home. 14 In the negotiations over Czechoslovakia and its constitution, the efforts of Slovak Stefan Osusky stand out. He worked closely with Tomas G. Masaryk for federalism and for Slovakia to be regarded "as an equal partner by the Czechs in the Czecho-Slovak state." 15 In 1918, the (First) Czechoslovak Republic was created with Masaryk as its president. Unfortunately, Masaryk- whose father was Slovak and mother was Moravian/Czech-did not believe the Slovaks to be a separate nation. In addition, "a fateful ambiguity crept into the very first political statement published by independent Slovak politicians, the Slovak National Council. .. " which although declaring Slovakia a "nation," also suggested Slovak as a "branch of the unified Czechoslovak nation ." 16 The confusion resulted in "misunderstandings, confused government policies, enmity, and even tragedy .. .. [And] politically, it led to all sorts of excesses, including Czech chauvinism and Slovak Czechophobia." 17 The final documents of the new combined state referred only to the "Czechoslovaks" and completely omitted any mention of autonomy for Slovakia. 13 Michael R. Cude, "The Imagined Exiles : Slovak-Ameri cans and the Slovak Question during the First Czechoslovak Republi c," in From Exsilium to Exile: Coercion in Migration, Studia Historica Gedanensia, vol. 5, ed . Anna Mazurkiewicz (Gdansk : University of Gdansk Historical Institute, 2014), 287-305 , 287. 14 Cude writes that Slovak exi les viewed "their experi ence in America" as proof "that the Slovaks could very much develop independently and did not need the strict oversight of the Czechs. As such , the Slovak-American activ ists gradually adopted a role as an 'ex iled' national voice aga inst Prague centra lism," 298 . 15 Joseph A. Mikus, "Comments," in Slovakia in th e l <J'h and 2dh Centuries, 97-100, 97 . 16 Peter Petro, A History of Slovak Literature, Montreal [Que.] : MQUP, 1995. Ebook Collection (EBSCO host), EBSCOhost (accessed 29 Nov. 2016), 13 1. 17 Petro, 131. �SLOVAKIA 2019 61 In dismissing the wishes of Slovak nationalists in America, and subsequently in Slovakia as well, Masaryk and his supporters were putting the new Republic into j eopardy. The various Czech-dominated governments that ruled the new Republic recruited Slovaks of the 'Czechoslovak ' persuasion (largely Lutherans) to join their ruling coalition. American Czechoslovaks approved of this arrangement. .. . Slovak nationalists, however, were left out in the cold. 18 The centralism 19 of the government in Prague during the First Czechoslovak Republic can be viewed as helping continue the defensive nature of the Slovak national movement, which had begun under the duress of Magyarization. 2° For example, Slovaks seldom felt like equal partners in the new state. Even though in 1918 "the very real existential problems caused by the attempted liquidation of Slovak culture through Magyarization [had] disappeared ... the positive aspect of this momentous change for liberated Slovak culture was somewhat tempered by a paternalistic attitude emanating from Prague." But it was not "always ill-meant and unjustified; from Prague also came tremendous support and help, particularly in the cultural and educational fields ." 21 The perception of inequality, however, became consequential in the late 1930s, when Czechoslovakia found itself under the heel of Nazi Germany. On 14 March 1939, several months after the Munich Pact gave Nazi Germany control over the Sudetenland (in a failed exchange for peace), Catholic Slovak leaders declared the Slovak Republic, albeit under Nazi influence. Six years later, the first Slovak state came to an end. The short-lived, authoritarian Slovak state caused much conflict among exiles in the early post-war years. Among the Catholic autonomists, the Slovak Republic inspired nostalgia and resolve to continue the fight for political independence. But the federalist and Czech18 M. Mark Stolarik, "The Role of Slovak Emigres in North America in the Emancipation of the Slovak Nation," Drustvena istrazivanja [Journal fo r General Social Issues ] 7, no. 1-2 (1998), 75-88, 78. 19 In Czechoslovakia, "centralism" refers to the concentration of political power in the capital, Prague. It often operated in opposition to regional desires for decentralization, self-administration, and autonomy. 20 Nurmi , 18 I. 21 Petro, 13 1. �62 SLOVAKIA 2019 oslovakist Slovak exiles generally condemned that group as, among other things, undemocratic.22 In turn, the Catholic autonomists condemned the federalists as having sold out the Slovaks to communist oppression after the war. The Catholic autonomists defended the wartime Slovak state as a rational decision done for national survival, as "the only way out under the given political circumstances" of Czechoslovakia having fallen under the rule of Nazi German~, and "as the logical conclusion of their former national endeavors." 3 Although controversial and brief, this experiment in political independence gave the Slovaks a new and lasting sense of worthiness among nations. While Masaryk had been a disappointment to many Slovaks, post-war Slovak emigres- autonomists and federalists alike-expressly despised the second Czechoslovak president and wartime leader of the Czechoslovak government-in-exi le in London, Edvard Benes (1935-38 & 1939-48). In a variety of publications during and after World War II, (federalist) politician Stefan Osusky blamed Benes for the breakup of Czecho-Slovakia in 1938 and for the postwar subjugation of Czecho-Slovakia by the Soviet Union. Former diplomat and historian Joseph A. Mikus (an autonomist) voiced similarly strong views of Benes, holding him responsible not only for the communist takeover in 1948 but also for the failure of the reform movement under Alexander Dubcek in 1968. 24 In general, the Slovak 22 Petro writes "The backlash that led to the super-nationalism of some writers during the existence of the Slovak Republic can be ascribed not to some inbred propensity for political extremism, but to a desperate desire for national self-assertion," 131 -32. 23 B.S. Bue, " Federative Tendencies of Slovak Nationalism," Slovakia 8, no. 3 ( 1958), 25-32, 30. "The short-lived existence of this independent state gave to Slovak nationalism what it had hitherto lacked, namely, a uniform will to live independently and a conviction that it will know how to stand its ground as an equally worthy member among the other nations." 24 Mikus, "Comments," in Slovakia in the 19th and 2dh Centuries, 400-405 . In response to a presentation by Kurt Glaser regarding the question of national states and federali sm in Central Europe, Mikus argued "The record of Czechoslovakia is particularly sad, since during World War II Benes had laid the comer-stone of his foreign policy out of collaboration with the Soviet Union, a non-Western and communist power. The guilt complex resulting from [Benes's] 1945 solution of the Sudeten German problem threw him into the arms of the Soviet Union . That embrace became so strong that [Alexander] Dubcek's effort to extricate Czecho- �SLOVAKIA 2019 63 exiles with close ties to the Catholic Slovak Republic felt particularly snubbed by Czechoslovakia's wartime representatives in London and Washington. Slovak politician, diplomat, and later prolific scholar Jozef M. Kirschbaum was unflinching both in his support for Slovak independence and in his criticism of the Czechs: "Unfortunately, Western diplomats displayed little understanding for the aspirations of the Slovak people and mostly adhered to the concept of the Czech exiled politicians" led by Benes. 25 In the late 1940s and early '50s, Slovak exile groups contacted a variety of governmental offices in the U.S. and Canada requesting freedom from Soviet domination and independence for Slovakia. 26 Bitterness and rivalries among the groups, however, limited their impact. 27 Ever since the declaration of Czechoslovakia in 1918, Slovak exiles had embraced the mission of speaking on behalf of the silenced Slovak people back home in Czechoslovakia. They resumed that role after World War II as Slovak exiles reacted to the "rigid centralism" imposed by the post-war Czechoslovak regime. In addition, Slovak exiles in the West were troubled by the ruthlessness of the Stalinist system, with its "political and religious persecution, economic discrimination, and prohibition of contacts with Western countries." 28 So, American and Canadian Slovaks responded to the new status quo by resuming their role as "interpreters of the aspirations of the Slovak people for freedom, democracy, and independence." 29 With a renewed sense of hope, a few dozen post-war exiles took up the challenge of informing the world about Slovakia and " .. .published hundreds of books and articles about the history of Slovakia and the Slovaks. [In the process, they] helped keep the 'Slovak cause ' in the public eye, as well as give it some credence in Slovakia from it was in vain. The occupation of Czecho-Slovakia has its roots in that fitiful pactomania of Benes with Moscow," 403. 5 J.M. Kirschbaum, " Diplomatic and Consular Relations of Slovakia with Neutral States," Slovakia 23 , 46 ( 1973), 111-22, 119. 26 Pauco, 423. 27 Stolarik, "The Role of Slovak Emigres in North America in the Emancipation of the Slovak Nation," 82 . 28 J.M. Kirschbaum, " Slovaks Abroad and their Role in Slovakia 's Struggle for Freedom," Slovakia 24, 47 (1974), 63-6, 63-4. 29 Ibid. 63-4. �64 SLOVAKIA 2019 the academic and intellectual circles in North America."30 One important publication with that goal was the academic journal, Slovakia, edited by Filip A. Hrobak and first published in 1951. The journal's purpose was twofold: to defend Slovak political rights and to publicize Slovak national and cultural activities.31 After 26 years as editor of the journal, the Slovak League of America lauded Hrobak as a defender of "the sacred cause of Slovak national freedom. " 32 Exiled Slovaks seldom agreed on what exactly comprised the Slovak cause but many believed that the West would be receptive to their homeland 's plight. The Slovak Question (i.e. rights to autonomy, self-determination, statehood, etc .) continually caused tension, especially among exile organizations consisting of both Czechs and Slovaks. One of the most influential of those, created one year after the communist coup of February 1948, was the Council of Free Czechoslovakia (CFC). The U.S. government relied on the Council for policy advice, but to the Slovaks' dismay Washington paid little attention to the Slovak Question. 33 The many feuds over Slovak autonomy led Slovaks such as Stefan Osusky to demand separate recognition in the Council of Free Czechoslovakia and parity in its leadership . However, achieving an equal voice in that organization 34 took over twenty years. In 1948 the Slovak National Council Abroad was founded by Karol Sidor, Jozef Kirschbaum, Peter Privdavok, and Konstantin Culen. The Slovak Leagues of America and Canada recognized the Slovak National Council as the representative body of Slovak politi30 M. Mark Stolarik, "Slovak Historians in Exile in North America, 1945- 1992," Human Affairs 6, no. I ( 1996), 34-44, 34. 31 Pauco, 422 32 Joseph C. Krajsa, ed., "First Catholic Slovak Union (Jednota) of the U.S. and Canada," in Slovaks in America: A Bicentennial Study (M iddletown, PA : Slovak League of America, 1978), IO 1-68, 128. 33 Michael R. Cude, Transatlantic Perspectives on th e Slo vak Question, /914-1948 (PhD Diss., Univers ity of Colorado-Boulder, 20 13) and Cude, "The Imagined Exiles." 34 The first reconciliation in 1952 attempted to address this issue by givi ng the Slovaks separate recognition with separate votes on programs within the CFC. In 1960, the moderate nationalists in the Council formed the Permanent Confe rence of Slovak Democratic Exiles and formally split from the CFC to join with other Czech dissenters to form the Committee of Free Czechoslovakia. The Czechoslovakists remained invo lved in the Counci l, and as part of its 1973 reorgani zation, the CFC established Czech-Slovak parity in its leadership. �SLOVAK.IA 2019 65 cal exiles. 35 Another exile group also promoted the nationalist cause. The Slovak Liberation Committee, led by Ferdinand Durcansly and others, defended "the right of self-determination for the Slovak nation." 36 Additionally, many smaller organizations and societies from Australia to Buenos Aires promoted the idea of political independence for Slovakia. 37 The inability of the various organizations to unite, however, hampered their overall impact on Western policy and understanding, especially in the first two and a half decades after the war . . The Prague Spring of 1968 was a turning point for many of the squabbling exiles. In the wake of the failed reform movement, thousands of the disappointed migrated out of Czechoslovakia. The newcomers were received with skepticism, and although there was little that unified Slovak emigres after 1968, Frantisek Braxator suggested that a common ideological platform might be that no compromise with Communism was possible, "human face" or otherwise. He reassuringly concluded that nobody wanted to resurrect the authoritarian wartime state. 38 In many ways, the diversity and energy of the new exiles added much to the cause of Slovak emigres in the West. Indeed, there is evidence that the last two decades of exile activity were more productive than the early decades of the Cold War. By then the political goals of Slovak-Americans and Slovak-Canadians were generally two-fold: continue heritage preservation and call attention in the West to the persecution of Slovaks under communist rule in Czechoslovakia. 39 After the Soviet invasion, the thousands of Prague Spring arrivals to North America and the earlier post-war political exiles from Slovakia, more than ever before, were able to find common purpose, even unity, in their identity as Slovaks. The unprecedented unity came in large part from a new umbrella organization, the Slovak World Congress (Svetovy kongres Slovakov), 35 Pauco, 423. Ibid. Some of the others included Stefan Polakovic, Alojz Macek, and Stanislav Meciar. 37 Ibid., 423-4. 38 Frantisek Braxator, " Slovaks Abroad and Their Relationship to Czechoslovakia," in Slovakia in th e 19th and 20'" Centuries, 425-33. He concluded that "there was "definitely no support for the idea that the majority of this emigration regards aid to Slovakia as taking the form of an effort to revive the Slovak Republic of 1939 to 1945 " 432 39 Kr;jsa, "First Catholic Slovak Union," in Slovaks in America, l O1-68, 126. 36 �66 SLOVAKIA 2019 founded in New York in June 1970. Between 1970 and 1989, the SWC brought together Slovak organizations from North and South America, Western Europe, and Oceania. It absorbed a wide variety of emigre Slovak organizations and individuals, from Catholics and Lutherans to a range of political figures , from the federalist-leaning Stefan Osusky to the ardent nationalist Ferdinand Durcansky. Leadership of the Slovak World Congress encompassed the diversity of Slovaks in exile as well. In addition to the old-guard leaders, 1968generation Slovak exiles such as the Lutheran pastor Dusan T6th and the Jewish ex-communist Eugen Lob! held high positions in the organization. The SWC aimed to resist Communism in the name of democracy, religious freedom , and the principle of self-determination, specifically meaning self-rule and political independence. In 1973, the Slovak World Congress published symposium proceedings to inform and update the West about Slovaks and their long history in Central Europe. Many contributors thought that too few histories of Europe had appreciated the Slovaks' ninth-century state organization. Furthermore, they had neglected to mention Slovak contributions to Slavic civi lizations, such as by Saints Cyril and Methodius. Slovak World Congress organizers were also concerned that when Slovak history was presented, it was "in a distorted light." 40 Founder and benefactor Stephen B. Roman noted the unith th queness of the symposium and resulting book on 19 and 20 century Slovak history: [A} fl the authors, including those of non-Slovak origin, subscribe to the thesis that the Slovaks developed through the centuries into a distin ct Central European nation, and that their language, literature and culture also developed independently of other Slavic nations. From this premise, the right to selfdetermination and equality of rights for the Slovak people be41 came a logical conclusion for all contributors. The Slovak World Congress' mission was to represent "the cultural, social, and political aspirations of the Slovak people in the Western hemisphere" and to "contribute to the search for historical 40 41 Stephen B. Roman, "Preface," Slovakia in th e 19th and 20th Centuries, 5. Roman, " Preface," 6. �SLOVAKIA 2019 67 truth about the Slovaks and thereby to help bring about better understanding and cooperation among the nations of Central Europe."42 Founder Roman declared that the SWC strongly believed "that peoples of that vital area" could "regain their political freedom and build their future through close cooperation and the recognition by each of the equal rights to independence of the others."43 Notably, the Slovak World Congress claimed to work toward freedom and independence not only for Slovakia but for other small European nations as well. In 1978 in the "Introduction to the Second Edition" of the Slovak World Congress proceedings, Slovakia in the 1911' and 20th Centuries, editor Joseph M. Kirschbaum further emphasized the balanced and informational nature of the volume: Until very recently Slovak history was presented to the West either by the adherents of the "Czechoslovak" school which denied the separate historical development of Slovakia, or by the historians of the Slovak nationalist school who insisted on the independent political and cultural development of Slovakia . ...By publishing this edition, the Slovak World Congress has no other aim but to help acquaint Western readers with Slovakia and [its} rise to nationhood, and to contribute to the search for freedom and cooperation among the nations of Central and Eastern Europe.44 Despite the Slovak World Congress' reputation as the leading late Cold War organization for Slovaks in the West, it was never completely successful in uniting the Slovak exiles. The Czechoslovakists and some of the moderate nationalists disavowed involvement because of the strong views of the Catholic autonomists, especially those with "unclean pasts.,,4s To accommodate the diversity of interests, the SWC comprised three factions regarding constitutional questions: federalization within Czechoslovakia, confederation, and independence. 46 On behalf of the Slovak diaspora, leader Roman had 42 Ibid. Ibid. 44 J.M . Kirschbaum, Slo vakia in the / 9th and 20th Centuries, 8. 45 Jozef Spetko, "Slovenska exilova a emigrantska politika v rokoch 1945-1989," Historicky casopis 39, no . 3 ( I99 I), 24 1-61: 256. 46 Ibid., 257-8. 43 �68 SLOVAK.IA 2019 wanted the organization to "speak as one voice and act according to a single plan" on behalf of the silenced Slovaks in the homeland. But achieving consensus among the exiles, especially about independence and resolution of the Slovak Question, was impossible from the very beginning of the SWC. 47 Nevertheless, the Slovak World Congress devised anti-communist propaganda campaigns, held scholarly conferences and cultural festivals , and even aided the protest movements in Slovakia in the 1980s.48 The organization collaborated with figures such as the Slovak-Canadian hockey player Marian St'astny and the Camogursky family-leading members of the organization-and even organized overseas protests to promote religious freedom in conjunction with the candlelight protests in Bratislava on March 25, 1988. In 1989, the Slovak World Congress officially supported the Velvet Revolution. However, "once the Communists surrendered power to Czech and Slovak dissidents ... the Slovak World Congress began to fracture ." 49 In the wake of the fall of the Czechoslovak communist regime, the SWC organized visits and programs in Slovakia. But relations between the SWC and the post-communist Czechoslovak government quickly became strained, mostly over the issue of Slovak autonomy, which most, but not all, members of the Slovak World Congress still very much supported. 50 Within weeks of the revolution, Secretary-General of the SWC Dusan T6th, who had fled Czechoslovakia after the Soviet invasion in 1968, visited his family in Slovakia and appeared at some political rallies in the capital, Bratislava. The " intoxicated crowds" welcomed him warmly and "listened intently as he told them about the [Slovak 47 Ibid. , 255. M. Mark Stolarik, Where is my Hom e? Slovak Immigration to North America (/870-20/0) (Bern: Peter Lang, 2012), 281-2. 49 Ibid., 287. The groups were the Civic Forum (Obcanske forum) and the Public Against Violence (Verejnost' proti nasiliu) in the Czech lands and Slovakia, respectively. 50 The Slovak World Congress began to decline after Roman's death in 1988, especially since he had bankrolled the organization. After the Velvet Divorce in I993, its functions declined even more, with its most notable achievement being to convince the U.S. and Slovak governments to allow dual citizenship. By 2000, the SWC was functionally gone. See Stolarik, Where ... , 279-95. 48 �SLOVAKIA 2019 69 World] Congress and its aspirations for freedom in Slovakia." 5 1 After all, the topic of political independence had been a taboo for forty years. For its part, the SWC tried to engage the Slovak government in talks about independence in early 1990, but Slovak politicians had more immediate concerns such as figuring out how to navigate the new political landscape. "Many were new politicians who faced the task of learning not only the art of political maneuvering, but above all that of public discourse in a democratic society. They were the ones who dealt with the issue of Czecho-Slovak relations which found resolution in the dissolution of Czechoslovakia. " 52 The first post-communist elections in Slovakia were for representatives to the Slovak National Council. Although results of the voting in early June 1990 demonstrated the predictable rejection of Communism, they also " indicated that ' the Slovak question' was still on the political agenda. " 53 The biggest surprise was the third place finish for the Slovak National Party (Slovenska narodna strana orSNS), the only party with independence in its platform. "It is quite likely that one particular event preceding the election contributed to the [SNS ' s] success" in the parliamentary elections.54 Trouble began in March 1990 in the Federal Assembly in Czechoslovakia. Vaclav Havel, who had recently become the new president, was a vocal proponent of federalism and continuing the Czech union with Slovakia. The dispute started when Slovak politicians wanted to return to the original ( 1918-1920) way of writing the country's name: Czecho-Slovakia. Tensions grew when the Czechs agreed that Slovakia could do so, but neither the Czechs nor the federal government of Czechoslovakia would hyphenate. The "hyphen war" showed "how very different were the Czech and Slovak conceptions of their common state and brought into the open the need to reexamine the state of Czech-Slovak relations." 55 For the next two years, the discourse around that reexamination exposed ever more disparities and decades-old animosities . 51 Anne C.R. Roman, "Slovak Expats Remember 1989, too," Slovak Spectator, 29 November 1999, https://spectator.sme.sk/c/20009411 /slovak-expats-remember1989-too.html. 52 S. Kirschbaum, A History of Slovakia, 251-2. 53 Ibid., 255. 54 Ibid. 55 Ibid . �70 SLOVAKIA 2019 Economic concerns took center stage, including the question of how quickly to move away from a socialist command economy to a capitalist market economy. While Slovaks feared a continuation of Prague centralism, including federal conduct and policies that favored Czech-and discounted Slovak- economic contributions, Czechs complained about subsidizing the Slovak economy. 56 The contrasting way the Slovaks and Czechs viewed this issue underscores some of the key reasons for their separation in 1993. One Czech-American historian argues that the peaceful separation of Czechs and Slovaks was a "necessity," based on their lack of "shared positive historical experience." 57 History and the "interplay of a series of factors" indeed influenced the breakup of Czechoslovakia. 58 Stanislav Kirschbaum suggests the root of the problem goes back to "the pursuit of [Slovak] national development in cooperation with the Czechs."59 From its inception in 1918 the "ultimate failure" of the Czechoslovak state was that it did not "provide an acceptable framework for Slovak national development," and despite all the benefits and progress, "the common state put Slovaks in a position of having to continue their struggle for survival." 60 In retrospect, the unraveling of Czechoslovakia in the early 1990s is not surprising; nor is the fact of its peaceful evolution. In the eyes of many Slovak exiles, the fall of Communism meant more than just getting rid of the Communists and returning to democracy. Indeed, " ... it was all of this plus home rule," commented M. Mark Stolarik, scholar and former president of the Canadian Slovak 56 S. Kirschbaum, 256-68. Igor Lukes, " Strangers in One House: Czechs and Slovaks, 1918-1992," Canadian Review of Studies in Nationalism/Revue Canadienne des Etudes sur le Nationalisme 27, 1-2 2000, 33-43 , 41 . 58 S. Kirschbaum, 270. The factors include the following: "The inability of the Czechoslovak state to solve certain social and constitutional problems since 1918; the legacy of the Communist regime; the adaptation crisis resulting from the passage of a single-party state to democratic pluralism ; the lack of experience of the leaders of the Velvet Revolution ; the absence of Czechoslovak parties in the postCommunist era; and the provision in the 1968 constitutional law that allowed Slovak deputies to block federal legislation that was not deemed to be in Slovakia's interest" so that the Slovaks could not be outvoted by the Czech majority." . 59 S. Kirschbaum, 270-71. 60 Ibid., 271. 57 �SLOVAK.IA 2019 71 League, on the tenth anniversary of the Velvet Revolution.6 1 In the United States and Canada, Slovak exiles' experiences of democracy and freedom guided them forward before and after the toppling of the hardline communist regime in Czechoslovakia. 62 Their influence on politics in the homeland has yet to be clearly documented, but it is quite possible that Slovak exiles and their endeavor to keep alive the drive for the self-determination and political independence of the Slovak nation provided not only legitimacy in the West, but also moral and political encouragement to their homeland as the nation moved toward independence in the early 1990s. 61 A. Roman, " Slovak Expats Remember 1989, too." Francis D. Raska, Long Road to Victory: A History or Czechoslovak Exile Organizations after I 968 (Boulder: East European Monographs, 20 12). Raska concludes that the influence of exile groups in the fa ll of Communism in Czechoslovakia "was unquestionabl y positive," 172. 62 � SLOVAKIA 2019 55 IMAGINING A SEP ARA TE SLOVAK.IA: ANTICOMMUNIST SLOVAK EXILES' STRUGGLE FOR AN INDEPENDENT HOMELAND 1 Ellen L. Paul In January 1993, the principle of self-determination reigned supreme as the post-communist Czech and Slovak Federative Republic became Slovakia and the Czech Republic. In many ways, this peaceful separation was the logical outcome of decades of anti-communist Slovak emigre efforts. To be sure, Cold War exiles who left Czechoslovakia after 1945 and the February 1948 communist takeover had many disagreements amongst themselves, especially over leadership and direction of their numerous political organizations.2 Over time, however, many of the Slovak exile organizations arrived at some kind of consensus, and by the last two decades of the Cold War, the right of political self-determination provided Slovak emigres with a unifying theme. After all, in August 1968 when the Warsaw Pact armies quashed the Prague Spring, the Soviet Union brutally reminded the world of its firm control over Czechoslovakia. Yet, that event inspired two reasons for hope among Slovak exiles: l . the longpromised federalism of Czechoslovakia and 2. the creation in 1970 of a unifying new organization of Slovak exiles, the Slovak World Congress. As exiles in the free and democratic West, Cold War-era Slovak political exiles not only fought Soviet Communism and advocated for human rights in the homeland, they also defended the unique development of the Slovak nation in Central European history and informed the West about Slovakia, often refuting what many saw as misinformation spread by the Czechs. A recurring theme at the heart of the publications about Slovak history and culture was the dream of political independence for the Slovak nation. 1 A version of thi s paper was presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Historical Association, Polish American Historical Association panel on 7 January 2017 in Denver, Colorado. 2 Igor Lukes, "Czechoslovak Political Ex ile in the Cold War: the earl y years," Polish Review 47 , no. 3 (2002): 332-43. �56 SLOVAKIA 2019 From the early 20 th century, Slovaks in the West became convinced that democracy and the ethnic principle of self-determination went hand-in-hand with political independence. A small group of Slovak exiles favored political union with their Czech neighbors, but others insisted on autonomy and even independence based on the ethnic principle of self-determination. Throughout the Cold War, the groups favoring independence consistently fought for a separate Slovak identity and "equal rights with the other free and democratic nations of Europe and the world." 3 In 1993, the fruit of their struggles resulted in the peaceful split of the Czech and Slovak Federative Republic into Slovakia and the Czech Republic. Politically active Slovak exiles in Western Europe, the United States, and Canada can be roughly categorized into three basic groups. These categories are a helpful framework for understanding the issue of Slovak independence and especially the ways exiles aligned themselves in the early years of the Cold War. 1. Czechoslovakists: Slovaks who wanted a close union with the Czechs. 2. Federalists: moderate Slovak nationalists who pursued cooperation with the Czechs, but wanted recognition of a separate Slovak identity and political autonomy both for Slovakia and within the exile organizations. These included figures such as Stefan Osusky and Slovak Democratic Party members sent into exile after the communist coup in February 1948. 4 It is notable that the majority-but not all- of these first two groups came from Slovakia' s Lutheran minority. 3. Slovak autonomists : these Slovaks were decidedly nationalist and predominantly Catholic. They were also the most contentious. They supported Slovak independence, completely eschewing union with the Czechs-and rejecting the idea of a "Czechoslovak nation." They fled into exile right away in 1945, ahead of the Red Army and the returning Czechoslovak government. Among them were academics and journalists, such as historian Konstantin Culen, poet Mikulas Sprinc, and journalist Jozef 3 Joseph M. Kirschbaum, "Americki Slovaci a myslienka slovenskej samostatnosti," Kato/icky kalendar Jednota 87 (I 984), 177-84, 184. 4 The 1948 generation tended to be professionals or factory owners and, generally, among the most skilled and educated. In exile, many worked to resist Communism and return Czechoslovakia to democracy. �SLOVAKIA 2019 57 Pauco. In addition, the group featured several politicians and diplomats from the wartime Slovak state, such as Jozef Kirschbaum, Karol Sidor, and Ferdinand Durcansky. The majority of Slovak autonomists migrated to Canada, with some gaining entry into the United States. Although exact membership figures are unknown, there were far more Slovak autonomist and federalist exile groups in North America. This paper focuses almost exclusively on the autonomist and federalist Slovak exiles. Over time their differences faded, especially after the failed Prague Spring reform movement in 1968. Another reason for this shift was that as post-war emigres died, a younger generation of autonomists and federalists gradually united in their goals for self-determination and political independence for Slovakia. In 1958, linguist and Franciscan priest, Bonaventure S. Bue, categorized Slovak emigres into only two groups, lumping the federalists and autonomists into, simply, the autonomists . He explained the rift between the Czechoslovakists and the autonomists with a question: "Are we Czechs or are we Slovaks? To this question the Czechoslovak would answer: I am a Czech; the Autonomist: I am a Slovak." 5 Bue continued " ... the majority of Slovaks have always felt and professed to be an ethnographically, historically, and culturally distinct nation from the Czechs" and suggested that by the late 1950s the Czechoslovakist versus autonomist conflict was " losing its original raison d 'etre."6 In large part that was because even the Slovaks who wished to preserve the state of Czecho-Slovakia by then had "abandoned the highly disputed fiction of the 'Czechoslovak nation"' and agreed on the distinctness of the Slovaks. 7 The remaining issue was about the best alliance or political form for the nation's survival. Many historians trace the ethnogenesis of the Slovak nation back to the Great Moravian Empire of the ninth century, largely based on oral accounts and the Christianizing and linguistic legacy of Saints Cyril and Methodius. Solid documentary evidence of Slovak linguistic uniqueness harks back to the 1700s, when the Catholic intelli5 B. S. Bue, "Conflicts of Slovak Nationalism," Slovakia 8, no . 2 ( 1958), 1-1 7: 7 and 16. 6 Bue, 15. 7 Buc,16-17. �58 SLOVAK.IA 2019 gentsia in northern Hungary first suggested a separate identity for the Slovak language-as opposed to a Czech or Czechoslovak language. To them, it no longer made sense to use the more developed Czech language, and so Catholic clergy began writing in the Slovak vernacular even though the majority culture was distinctly Magyar. 8 In the 19 th century, language became "the center of the new national idea," but this was not enough to create a national identity for the Slovaks, who were under increasing pressure to assimi late to Magyar language and culture. In The Slovak National Awakening ( 1976), Peter Brock explains that as the intelligentsia began to promote the Slovak language and nation, and shift from using the Czech language, ideas about political unity with the Czechs also faded. 9 In 1848, I.',udovit Stur and other young Protestant intellectuals formed a short-lived Slavonic nation of their own, but thereafter the process of creating a Slovak political nation was interrupted by Magyarization, which meant the imposition of Magyar culture and language on young intellectuals in the Hungarian half of Austria-Hungary. The impetus to assert a separate Slovak identity with a language that was neither Czech nor Magyar had been well under way by the 1840s, involved both Catholics and Protestants, and was an important step toward declaring a distinct Slovak national identity. Toward that end, in the early 1860s the Matica slovenska (Slovak Cultural Institute) was founded to aid the continuing development of Slovak literature and culture. A political merger between Czechs and Slovaks came in 1918 following the breakup of Austria-Hungary and the calamity of the First World War, but that union was not predestined. Despite their linguistic similarities and geographical proximity, Czechs and Slovaks had very different histories and cultural influences. For hundreds of years, the Czech lands were part of the Holy Roman Empire, ruled by the House of Habsburg, and much influenced by German culture and the Reformation (and the Czech reformer Jan Hus). During that time, the Kingdom of Hungary ruled over the Slovak 8 Ismo Nurmi, Slovakia-a Playground for Nationalism and National Identity: Manifestations of National identity of the Slo vaks 191 8-1920, Biblioteca Historica 42 (Helsinki: Finnish Literature Society, 1999), 9-10, and Peter Brock, The Slovak National Awakening (Toronto and Buffalo: University of Toronto Press, 1976), 1837 and 53-4. 9 Brock, 7 & 20-37 . �SLOVAKIA 2019 59 lands, inside the boundaries of the Habsburg Monarchy. While both small nations struggled against strong neighbors, their nineteenth century trajectories to national awakening and political agency were distinctly different. Firstly, the Slovak lands remained largely agricultural while the Czech lands underwent industrialization. Secondly, the Czechs achieved some successes in gaining cultural and linguistic rights at home and a measure of political representation in Vienna. Whereas to the east, the Slovaks faced increasing Magyarization and the loss of their culture. Since the tenth century, the lands of Slovakia had been ruled by foreigners and what had kept the Slovaks from assimilating, disappearing, or dispersing were "language, geography, and tradition ." 10 Not surprisingly, these vastly divergent experiences dramatically shaped the outlook and soul of each nation. Although Slovak culture was repressed in the homeland, the impact of the efforts of the Matica slovenska, Catholic clergy, and Slovak intelligentsia to keep Slovak language and culture alive became apparent by the late 19 th century, when notable numbers of emigres began arriving in the United States and identified themselves as Slovak. By the early twentieth century, the U.S.A. was home to the most influential Slovak diaspora. 11 In 1890, they established two important early exile organizations: the National Slovak Society and the First Catholic Slovak Union. In 1907, the Slovak League of America formed and united all Slovak groups in America. While based "on a wide platform of love for [the] Slovak nation," the Slovak League of America's mission at the time was to cast off the Hungarian tyrant ruling over Slovaks in the homeland. 12 Unity among exiles, however, became much harder to achieve after the dissolution of AustriaHungary during the First World War and particularly after the declaration of the First Czechoslovak Republic in 1918. During World War I, politicians began deliberating the future of Central Europe. The most important negotiations regarding Czechoslovak statehood took place in North America among representatives of both the Czechs and Slovaks. The Czechs knew that Slovak par10 Stanislav J. Kirschbaum, A History of Slovakia: The Struggle for Survival (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1995), 37-8. 11 Jozef Pauco, " Slovaks Abroad and their Relationship with Slovakia," in Slovakia in th e 19th and 20th Centuries, 2 nd edition, ed. Jozef M. Kirschbaum (Toronto: Slovak World Congress, 1978), 415-24, 415. 12 Ibid., 417. �60 SLOVAK.IA 2019 ticipation was vital to their cause. With that knowledge, Slovaks were able to leverage some influence by demanding " recognition of an independent Slovak identity and Slovak political autonomy in exchange for their support." 13 Many Slovak exiles believed that "through their immigration to America ... they had helped preserve Slovak national identity" and that "American democracy provided them something they felt would prove beneficial" for Slovaks back home. 14 In the negotiations over Czechoslovakia and its constitution, the efforts of Slovak Stefan Osusky stand out. He worked closely with Tomas G. Masaryk for federalism and for Slovakia to be regarded "as an equal partner by the Czechs in the Czecho-Slovak state." 15 In 1918, the (First) Czechoslovak Republic was created with Masaryk as its president. Unfortunately, Masaryk- whose father was Slovak and mother was Moravian/Czech-did not believe the Slovaks to be a separate nation. In addition, "a fateful ambiguity crept into the very first political statement published by independent Slovak politicians, the Slovak National Council. .. " which although declaring Slovakia a "nation," also suggested Slovak as a "branch of the unified Czechoslovak nation ." 16 The confusion resulted in "misunderstandings, confused government policies, enmity, and even tragedy .. .. [And] politically, it led to all sorts of excesses, including Czech chauvinism and Slovak Czechophobia." 17 The final documents of the new combined state referred only to the "Czechoslovaks" and completely omitted any mention of autonomy for Slovakia. 13 Michael R. Cude, "The Imagined Exiles : Slovak-Ameri cans and the Slovak Question during the First Czechoslovak Republi c," in From Exsilium to Exile: Coercion in Migration, Studia Historica Gedanensia, vol. 5, ed . Anna Mazurkiewicz (Gdansk : University of Gdansk Historical Institute, 2014), 287-305 , 287. 14 Cude writes that Slovak exi les viewed "their experi ence in America" as proof "that the Slovaks could very much develop independently and did not need the strict oversight of the Czechs. As such , the Slovak-American activ ists gradually adopted a role as an 'ex iled' national voice aga inst Prague centra lism," 298 . 15 Joseph A. Mikus, "Comments," in Slovakia in th e l <J'h and 2dh Centuries, 97-100, 97 . 16 Peter Petro, A History of Slovak Literature, Montreal [Que.] : MQUP, 1995. Ebook Collection (EBSCO host), EBSCOhost (accessed 29 Nov. 2016), 13 1. 17 Petro, 131. �SLOVAKIA 2019 61 In dismissing the wishes of Slovak nationalists in America, and subsequently in Slovakia as well, Masaryk and his supporters were putting the new Republic into j eopardy. The various Czech-dominated governments that ruled the new Republic recruited Slovaks of the 'Czechoslovak ' persuasion (largely Lutherans) to join their ruling coalition. American Czechoslovaks approved of this arrangement. .. . Slovak nationalists, however, were left out in the cold. 18 The centralism 19 of the government in Prague during the First Czechoslovak Republic can be viewed as helping continue the defensive nature of the Slovak national movement, which had begun under the duress of Magyarization. 2° For example, Slovaks seldom felt like equal partners in the new state. Even though in 1918 "the very real existential problems caused by the attempted liquidation of Slovak culture through Magyarization [had] disappeared ... the positive aspect of this momentous change for liberated Slovak culture was somewhat tempered by a paternalistic attitude emanating from Prague." But it was not "always ill-meant and unjustified; from Prague also came tremendous support and help, particularly in the cultural and educational fields ." 21 The perception of inequality, however, became consequential in the late 1930s, when Czechoslovakia found itself under the heel of Nazi Germany. On 14 March 1939, several months after the Munich Pact gave Nazi Germany control over the Sudetenland (in a failed exchange for peace), Catholic Slovak leaders declared the Slovak Republic, albeit under Nazi influence. Six years later, the first Slovak state came to an end. The short-lived, authoritarian Slovak state caused much conflict among exiles in the early post-war years. Among the Catholic autonomists, the Slovak Republic inspired nostalgia and resolve to continue the fight for political independence. But the federalist and Czech18 M. Mark Stolarik, "The Role of Slovak Emigres in North America in the Emancipation of the Slovak Nation," Drustvena istrazivanja [Journal fo r General Social Issues ] 7, no. 1-2 (1998), 75-88, 78. 19 In Czechoslovakia, "centralism" refers to the concentration of political power in the capital, Prague. It often operated in opposition to regional desires for decentralization, self-administration, and autonomy. 20 Nurmi , 18 I. 21 Petro, 13 1. �62 SLOVAKIA 2019 oslovakist Slovak exiles generally condemned that group as, among other things, undemocratic.22 In turn, the Catholic autonomists condemned the federalists as having sold out the Slovaks to communist oppression after the war. The Catholic autonomists defended the wartime Slovak state as a rational decision done for national survival, as "the only way out under the given political circumstances" of Czechoslovakia having fallen under the rule of Nazi German~, and "as the logical conclusion of their former national endeavors." 3 Although controversial and brief, this experiment in political independence gave the Slovaks a new and lasting sense of worthiness among nations. While Masaryk had been a disappointment to many Slovaks, post-war Slovak emigres- autonomists and federalists alike-expressly despised the second Czechoslovak president and wartime leader of the Czechoslovak government-in-exi le in London, Edvard Benes (1935-38 & 1939-48). In a variety of publications during and after World War II, (federalist) politician Stefan Osusky blamed Benes for the breakup of Czecho-Slovakia in 1938 and for the postwar subjugation of Czecho-Slovakia by the Soviet Union. Former diplomat and historian Joseph A. Mikus (an autonomist) voiced similarly strong views of Benes, holding him responsible not only for the communist takeover in 1948 but also for the failure of the reform movement under Alexander Dubcek in 1968. 24 In general, the Slovak 22 Petro writes "The backlash that led to the super-nationalism of some writers during the existence of the Slovak Republic can be ascribed not to some inbred propensity for political extremism, but to a desperate desire for national self-assertion," 131 -32. 23 B.S. Bue, " Federative Tendencies of Slovak Nationalism," Slovakia 8, no. 3 ( 1958), 25-32, 30. "The short-lived existence of this independent state gave to Slovak nationalism what it had hitherto lacked, namely, a uniform will to live independently and a conviction that it will know how to stand its ground as an equally worthy member among the other nations." 24 Mikus, "Comments," in Slovakia in the 19th and 2dh Centuries, 400-405 . In response to a presentation by Kurt Glaser regarding the question of national states and federali sm in Central Europe, Mikus argued "The record of Czechoslovakia is particularly sad, since during World War II Benes had laid the comer-stone of his foreign policy out of collaboration with the Soviet Union, a non-Western and communist power. The guilt complex resulting from [Benes's] 1945 solution of the Sudeten German problem threw him into the arms of the Soviet Union . That embrace became so strong that [Alexander] Dubcek's effort to extricate Czecho- �SLOVAKIA 2019 63 exiles with close ties to the Catholic Slovak Republic felt particularly snubbed by Czechoslovakia's wartime representatives in London and Washington. Slovak politician, diplomat, and later prolific scholar Jozef M. Kirschbaum was unflinching both in his support for Slovak independence and in his criticism of the Czechs: "Unfortunately, Western diplomats displayed little understanding for the aspirations of the Slovak people and mostly adhered to the concept of the Czech exiled politicians" led by Benes. 25 In the late 1940s and early '50s, Slovak exile groups contacted a variety of governmental offices in the U.S. and Canada requesting freedom from Soviet domination and independence for Slovakia. 26 Bitterness and rivalries among the groups, however, limited their impact. 27 Ever since the declaration of Czechoslovakia in 1918, Slovak exiles had embraced the mission of speaking on behalf of the silenced Slovak people back home in Czechoslovakia. They resumed that role after World War II as Slovak exiles reacted to the "rigid centralism" imposed by the post-war Czechoslovak regime. In addition, Slovak exiles in the West were troubled by the ruthlessness of the Stalinist system, with its "political and religious persecution, economic discrimination, and prohibition of contacts with Western countries." 28 So, American and Canadian Slovaks responded to the new status quo by resuming their role as "interpreters of the aspirations of the Slovak people for freedom, democracy, and independence." 29 With a renewed sense of hope, a few dozen post-war exiles took up the challenge of informing the world about Slovakia and " .. .published hundreds of books and articles about the history of Slovakia and the Slovaks. [In the process, they] helped keep the 'Slovak cause ' in the public eye, as well as give it some credence in Slovakia from it was in vain. The occupation of Czecho-Slovakia has its roots in that fitiful pactomania of Benes with Moscow," 403. 5 J.M. Kirschbaum, " Diplomatic and Consular Relations of Slovakia with Neutral States," Slovakia 23 , 46 ( 1973), 111-22, 119. 26 Pauco, 423. 27 Stolarik, "The Role of Slovak Emigres in North America in the Emancipation of the Slovak Nation," 82 . 28 J.M. Kirschbaum, " Slovaks Abroad and their Role in Slovakia 's Struggle for Freedom," Slovakia 24, 47 (1974), 63-6, 63-4. 29 Ibid. 63-4. �64 SLOVAKIA 2019 the academic and intellectual circles in North America."30 One important publication with that goal was the academic journal, Slovakia, edited by Filip A. Hrobak and first published in 1951. The journal's purpose was twofold: to defend Slovak political rights and to publicize Slovak national and cultural activities.31 After 26 years as editor of the journal, the Slovak League of America lauded Hrobak as a defender of "the sacred cause of Slovak national freedom. " 32 Exiled Slovaks seldom agreed on what exactly comprised the Slovak cause but many believed that the West would be receptive to their homeland 's plight. The Slovak Question (i.e. rights to autonomy, self-determination, statehood, etc .) continually caused tension, especially among exile organizations consisting of both Czechs and Slovaks. One of the most influential of those, created one year after the communist coup of February 1948, was the Council of Free Czechoslovakia (CFC). The U.S. government relied on the Council for policy advice, but to the Slovaks' dismay Washington paid little attention to the Slovak Question. 33 The many feuds over Slovak autonomy led Slovaks such as Stefan Osusky to demand separate recognition in the Council of Free Czechoslovakia and parity in its leadership . However, achieving an equal voice in that organization 34 took over twenty years. In 1948 the Slovak National Council Abroad was founded by Karol Sidor, Jozef Kirschbaum, Peter Privdavok, and Konstantin Culen. The Slovak Leagues of America and Canada recognized the Slovak National Council as the representative body of Slovak politi30 M. Mark Stolarik, "Slovak Historians in Exile in North America, 1945- 1992," Human Affairs 6, no. I ( 1996), 34-44, 34. 31 Pauco, 422 32 Joseph C. Krajsa, ed., "First Catholic Slovak Union (Jednota) of the U.S. and Canada," in Slovaks in America: A Bicentennial Study (M iddletown, PA : Slovak League of America, 1978), IO 1-68, 128. 33 Michael R. Cude, Transatlantic Perspectives on th e Slo vak Question, /914-1948 (PhD Diss., Univers ity of Colorado-Boulder, 20 13) and Cude, "The Imagined Exiles." 34 The first reconciliation in 1952 attempted to address this issue by givi ng the Slovaks separate recognition with separate votes on programs within the CFC. In 1960, the moderate nationalists in the Council formed the Permanent Confe rence of Slovak Democratic Exiles and formally split from the CFC to join with other Czech dissenters to form the Committee of Free Czechoslovakia. The Czechoslovakists remained invo lved in the Counci l, and as part of its 1973 reorgani zation, the CFC established Czech-Slovak parity in its leadership. �SLOVAK.IA 2019 65 cal exiles. 35 Another exile group also promoted the nationalist cause. The Slovak Liberation Committee, led by Ferdinand Durcansly and others, defended "the right of self-determination for the Slovak nation." 36 Additionally, many smaller organizations and societies from Australia to Buenos Aires promoted the idea of political independence for Slovakia. 37 The inability of the various organizations to unite, however, hampered their overall impact on Western policy and understanding, especially in the first two and a half decades after the war . . The Prague Spring of 1968 was a turning point for many of the squabbling exiles. In the wake of the failed reform movement, thousands of the disappointed migrated out of Czechoslovakia. The newcomers were received with skepticism, and although there was little that unified Slovak emigres after 1968, Frantisek Braxator suggested that a common ideological platform might be that no compromise with Communism was possible, "human face" or otherwise. He reassuringly concluded that nobody wanted to resurrect the authoritarian wartime state. 38 In many ways, the diversity and energy of the new exiles added much to the cause of Slovak emigres in the West. Indeed, there is evidence that the last two decades of exile activity were more productive than the early decades of the Cold War. By then the political goals of Slovak-Americans and Slovak-Canadians were generally two-fold: continue heritage preservation and call attention in the West to the persecution of Slovaks under communist rule in Czechoslovakia. 39 After the Soviet invasion, the thousands of Prague Spring arrivals to North America and the earlier post-war political exiles from Slovakia, more than ever before, were able to find common purpose, even unity, in their identity as Slovaks. The unprecedented unity came in large part from a new umbrella organization, the Slovak World Congress (Svetovy kongres Slovakov), 35 Pauco, 423. Ibid. Some of the others included Stefan Polakovic, Alojz Macek, and Stanislav Meciar. 37 Ibid., 423-4. 38 Frantisek Braxator, " Slovaks Abroad and Their Relationship to Czechoslovakia," in Slovakia in th e 19th and 20'" Centuries, 425-33. He concluded that "there was "definitely no support for the idea that the majority of this emigration regards aid to Slovakia as taking the form of an effort to revive the Slovak Republic of 1939 to 1945 " 432 39 Kr;jsa, "First Catholic Slovak Union," in Slovaks in America, l O1-68, 126. 36 �66 SLOVAKIA 2019 founded in New York in June 1970. Between 1970 and 1989, the SWC brought together Slovak organizations from North and South America, Western Europe, and Oceania. It absorbed a wide variety of emigre Slovak organizations and individuals, from Catholics and Lutherans to a range of political figures , from the federalist-leaning Stefan Osusky to the ardent nationalist Ferdinand Durcansky. Leadership of the Slovak World Congress encompassed the diversity of Slovaks in exile as well. In addition to the old-guard leaders, 1968generation Slovak exiles such as the Lutheran pastor Dusan T6th and the Jewish ex-communist Eugen Lob! held high positions in the organization. The SWC aimed to resist Communism in the name of democracy, religious freedom , and the principle of self-determination, specifically meaning self-rule and political independence. In 1973, the Slovak World Congress published symposium proceedings to inform and update the West about Slovaks and their long history in Central Europe. Many contributors thought that too few histories of Europe had appreciated the Slovaks' ninth-century state organization. Furthermore, they had neglected to mention Slovak contributions to Slavic civi lizations, such as by Saints Cyril and Methodius. Slovak World Congress organizers were also concerned that when Slovak history was presented, it was "in a distorted light." 40 Founder and benefactor Stephen B. Roman noted the unith th queness of the symposium and resulting book on 19 and 20 century Slovak history: [A} fl the authors, including those of non-Slovak origin, subscribe to the thesis that the Slovaks developed through the centuries into a distin ct Central European nation, and that their language, literature and culture also developed independently of other Slavic nations. From this premise, the right to selfdetermination and equality of rights for the Slovak people be41 came a logical conclusion for all contributors. The Slovak World Congress' mission was to represent "the cultural, social, and political aspirations of the Slovak people in the Western hemisphere" and to "contribute to the search for historical 40 41 Stephen B. Roman, "Preface," Slovakia in th e 19th and 20th Centuries, 5. Roman, " Preface," 6. �SLOVAKIA 2019 67 truth about the Slovaks and thereby to help bring about better understanding and cooperation among the nations of Central Europe."42 Founder Roman declared that the SWC strongly believed "that peoples of that vital area" could "regain their political freedom and build their future through close cooperation and the recognition by each of the equal rights to independence of the others."43 Notably, the Slovak World Congress claimed to work toward freedom and independence not only for Slovakia but for other small European nations as well. In 1978 in the "Introduction to the Second Edition" of the Slovak World Congress proceedings, Slovakia in the 1911' and 20th Centuries, editor Joseph M. Kirschbaum further emphasized the balanced and informational nature of the volume: Until very recently Slovak history was presented to the West either by the adherents of the "Czechoslovak" school which denied the separate historical development of Slovakia, or by the historians of the Slovak nationalist school who insisted on the independent political and cultural development of Slovakia . ...By publishing this edition, the Slovak World Congress has no other aim but to help acquaint Western readers with Slovakia and [its} rise to nationhood, and to contribute to the search for freedom and cooperation among the nations of Central and Eastern Europe.44 Despite the Slovak World Congress' reputation as the leading late Cold War organization for Slovaks in the West, it was never completely successful in uniting the Slovak exiles. The Czechoslovakists and some of the moderate nationalists disavowed involvement because of the strong views of the Catholic autonomists, especially those with "unclean pasts.,,4s To accommodate the diversity of interests, the SWC comprised three factions regarding constitutional questions: federalization within Czechoslovakia, confederation, and independence. 46 On behalf of the Slovak diaspora, leader Roman had 42 Ibid. Ibid. 44 J.M . Kirschbaum, Slo vakia in the / 9th and 20th Centuries, 8. 45 Jozef Spetko, "Slovenska exilova a emigrantska politika v rokoch 1945-1989," Historicky casopis 39, no . 3 ( I99 I), 24 1-61: 256. 46 Ibid., 257-8. 43 �68 SLOVAK.IA 2019 wanted the organization to "speak as one voice and act according to a single plan" on behalf of the silenced Slovaks in the homeland. But achieving consensus among the exiles, especially about independence and resolution of the Slovak Question, was impossible from the very beginning of the SWC. 47 Nevertheless, the Slovak World Congress devised anti-communist propaganda campaigns, held scholarly conferences and cultural festivals , and even aided the protest movements in Slovakia in the 1980s.48 The organization collaborated with figures such as the Slovak-Canadian hockey player Marian St'astny and the Camogursky family-leading members of the organization-and even organized overseas protests to promote religious freedom in conjunction with the candlelight protests in Bratislava on March 25, 1988. In 1989, the Slovak World Congress officially supported the Velvet Revolution. However, "once the Communists surrendered power to Czech and Slovak dissidents ... the Slovak World Congress began to fracture ." 49 In the wake of the fall of the Czechoslovak communist regime, the SWC organized visits and programs in Slovakia. But relations between the SWC and the post-communist Czechoslovak government quickly became strained, mostly over the issue of Slovak autonomy, which most, but not all, members of the Slovak World Congress still very much supported. 50 Within weeks of the revolution, Secretary-General of the SWC Dusan T6th, who had fled Czechoslovakia after the Soviet invasion in 1968, visited his family in Slovakia and appeared at some political rallies in the capital, Bratislava. The " intoxicated crowds" welcomed him warmly and "listened intently as he told them about the [Slovak 47 Ibid. , 255. M. Mark Stolarik, Where is my Hom e? Slovak Immigration to North America (/870-20/0) (Bern: Peter Lang, 2012), 281-2. 49 Ibid., 287. The groups were the Civic Forum (Obcanske forum) and the Public Against Violence (Verejnost' proti nasiliu) in the Czech lands and Slovakia, respectively. 50 The Slovak World Congress began to decline after Roman's death in 1988, especially since he had bankrolled the organization. After the Velvet Divorce in I993, its functions declined even more, with its most notable achievement being to convince the U.S. and Slovak governments to allow dual citizenship. By 2000, the SWC was functionally gone. See Stolarik, Where ... , 279-95. 48 �SLOVAKIA 2019 69 World] Congress and its aspirations for freedom in Slovakia." 5 1 After all, the topic of political independence had been a taboo for forty years. For its part, the SWC tried to engage the Slovak government in talks about independence in early 1990, but Slovak politicians had more immediate concerns such as figuring out how to navigate the new political landscape. "Many were new politicians who faced the task of learning not only the art of political maneuvering, but above all that of public discourse in a democratic society. They were the ones who dealt with the issue of Czecho-Slovak relations which found resolution in the dissolution of Czechoslovakia. " 52 The first post-communist elections in Slovakia were for representatives to the Slovak National Council. Although results of the voting in early June 1990 demonstrated the predictable rejection of Communism, they also " indicated that ' the Slovak question' was still on the political agenda. " 53 The biggest surprise was the third place finish for the Slovak National Party (Slovenska narodna strana orSNS), the only party with independence in its platform. "It is quite likely that one particular event preceding the election contributed to the [SNS ' s] success" in the parliamentary elections.54 Trouble began in March 1990 in the Federal Assembly in Czechoslovakia. Vaclav Havel, who had recently become the new president, was a vocal proponent of federalism and continuing the Czech union with Slovakia. The dispute started when Slovak politicians wanted to return to the original ( 1918-1920) way of writing the country's name: Czecho-Slovakia. Tensions grew when the Czechs agreed that Slovakia could do so, but neither the Czechs nor the federal government of Czechoslovakia would hyphenate. The "hyphen war" showed "how very different were the Czech and Slovak conceptions of their common state and brought into the open the need to reexamine the state of Czech-Slovak relations." 55 For the next two years, the discourse around that reexamination exposed ever more disparities and decades-old animosities . 51 Anne C.R. Roman, "Slovak Expats Remember 1989, too," Slovak Spectator, 29 November 1999, https://spectator.sme.sk/c/20009411 /slovak-expats-remember1989-too.html. 52 S. Kirschbaum, A History of Slovakia, 251-2. 53 Ibid., 255. 54 Ibid. 55 Ibid . �70 SLOVAKIA 2019 Economic concerns took center stage, including the question of how quickly to move away from a socialist command economy to a capitalist market economy. While Slovaks feared a continuation of Prague centralism, including federal conduct and policies that favored Czech-and discounted Slovak- economic contributions, Czechs complained about subsidizing the Slovak economy. 56 The contrasting way the Slovaks and Czechs viewed this issue underscores some of the key reasons for their separation in 1993. One Czech-American historian argues that the peaceful separation of Czechs and Slovaks was a "necessity," based on their lack of "shared positive historical experience." 57 History and the "interplay of a series of factors" indeed influenced the breakup of Czechoslovakia. 58 Stanislav Kirschbaum suggests the root of the problem goes back to "the pursuit of [Slovak] national development in cooperation with the Czechs."59 From its inception in 1918 the "ultimate failure" of the Czechoslovak state was that it did not "provide an acceptable framework for Slovak national development," and despite all the benefits and progress, "the common state put Slovaks in a position of having to continue their struggle for survival." 60 In retrospect, the unraveling of Czechoslovakia in the early 1990s is not surprising; nor is the fact of its peaceful evolution. In the eyes of many Slovak exiles, the fall of Communism meant more than just getting rid of the Communists and returning to democracy. Indeed, " ... it was all of this plus home rule," commented M. Mark Stolarik, scholar and former president of the Canadian Slovak 56 S. Kirschbaum, 256-68. Igor Lukes, " Strangers in One House: Czechs and Slovaks, 1918-1992," Canadian Review of Studies in Nationalism/Revue Canadienne des Etudes sur le Nationalisme 27, 1-2 2000, 33-43 , 41 . 58 S. Kirschbaum, 270. The factors include the following: "The inability of the Czechoslovak state to solve certain social and constitutional problems since 1918; the legacy of the Communist regime; the adaptation crisis resulting from the passage of a single-party state to democratic pluralism ; the lack of experience of the leaders of the Velvet Revolution ; the absence of Czechoslovak parties in the postCommunist era; and the provision in the 1968 constitutional law that allowed Slovak deputies to block federal legislation that was not deemed to be in Slovakia's interest" so that the Slovaks could not be outvoted by the Czech majority." . 59 S. Kirschbaum, 270-71. 60 Ibid., 271. 57 �SLOVAK.IA 2019 71 League, on the tenth anniversary of the Velvet Revolution.6 1 In the United States and Canada, Slovak exiles' experiences of democracy and freedom guided them forward before and after the toppling of the hardline communist regime in Czechoslovakia. 62 Their influence on politics in the homeland has yet to be clearly documented, but it is quite possible that Slovak exiles and their endeavor to keep alive the drive for the self-determination and political independence of the Slovak nation provided not only legitimacy in the West, but also moral and political encouragement to their homeland as the nation moved toward independence in the early 1990s. 61 A. Roman, " Slovak Expats Remember 1989, too." Francis D. Raska, Long Road to Victory: A History or Czechoslovak Exile Organizations after I 968 (Boulder: East European Monographs, 20 12). Raska concludes that the influence of exile groups in the fa ll of Communism in Czechoslovakia "was unquestionabl y positive," 172. 62 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to 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 55 IMAGINING A SEP ARA TE SLOVAK.IA: ANTICOMMUNIST SLOVAK EXILES' STRUGGLE FOR AN INDEPENDENT HOMELAND 1 Ellen L. Paul In January 1993, the principle of self-determination reigned supreme as the post-communist Czech and Slovak Federative Republic became Slovakia and the Czech Republic. In many ways, this peaceful separation was the logical outcome of decades of anti-communist Slovak emigre efforts. To be sure, Cold War exiles who left Czechoslovakia after 1945 and the February 1948 communist takeover had many disagreements amongst themselves, especially over leadership and direction of their numerous political organizations.2 Over time, however, many of the Slovak exile organizations arrived at some kind of consensus, and by the last two decades of the Cold War, the right of political self-determination provided Slovak emigres with a unifying theme. After all, in August 1968 when the Warsaw Pact armies quashed the Prague Spring, the Soviet Union brutally reminded the world of its firm control over Czechoslovakia. Yet, that event inspired two reasons for hope among Slovak exiles: l . the longpromised federalism of Czechoslovakia and 2. the creation in 1970 of a unifying new organization of Slovak exiles, the Slovak World Congress. As exiles in the free and democratic West, Cold War-era Slovak political exiles not only fought Soviet Communism and advocated for human rights in the homeland, they also defended the unique development of the Slovak nation in Central European history and informed the West about Slovakia, often refuting what many saw as misinformation spread by the Czechs. A recurring theme at the heart of the publications about Slovak history and culture was the dream of political independence for the Slovak nation. 1 A version of thi s paper was presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Historical Association, Polish American Historical Association panel on 7 January 2017 in Denver, Colorado. 2 Igor Lukes, "Czechoslovak Political Ex ile in the Cold War: the earl y years," Polish Review 47 , no. 3 (2002): 332-43. 56 SLOVAKIA 2019 From the early 20 th century, Slovaks in the West became convinced that democracy and the ethnic principle of self-determination went hand-in-hand with political independence. A small group of Slovak exiles favored political union with their Czech neighbors, but others insisted on autonomy and even independence based on the ethnic principle of self-determination. Throughout the Cold War, the groups favoring independence consistently fought for a separate Slovak identity and "equal rights with the other free and democratic nations of Europe and the world." 3 In 1993, the fruit of their struggles resulted in the peaceful split of the Czech and Slovak Federative Republic into Slovakia and the Czech Republic. Politically active Slovak exiles in Western Europe, the United States, and Canada can be roughly categorized into three basic groups. These categories are a helpful framework for understanding the issue of Slovak independence and especially the ways exiles aligned themselves in the early years of the Cold War. 1. Czechoslovakists: Slovaks who wanted a close union with the Czechs. 2. Federalists: moderate Slovak nationalists who pursued cooperation with the Czechs, but wanted recognition of a separate Slovak identity and political autonomy both for Slovakia and within the exile organizations. These included figures such as Stefan Osusky and Slovak Democratic Party members sent into exile after the communist coup in February 1948. 4 It is notable that the majority-but not all- of these first two groups came from Slovakia' s Lutheran minority. 3. Slovak autonomists : these Slovaks were decidedly nationalist and predominantly Catholic. They were also the most contentious. They supported Slovak independence, completely eschewing union with the Czechs-and rejecting the idea of a "Czechoslovak nation." They fled into exile right away in 1945, ahead of the Red Army and the returning Czechoslovak government. Among them were academics and journalists, such as historian Konstantin Culen, poet Mikulas Sprinc, and journalist Jozef 3 Joseph M. Kirschbaum, "Americki Slovaci a myslienka slovenskej samostatnosti," Kato/icky kalendar Jednota 87 (I 984), 177-84, 184. 4 The 1948 generation tended to be professionals or factory owners and, generally, among the most skilled and educated. In exile, many worked to resist Communism and return Czechoslovakia to democracy. SLOVAKIA 2019 57 Pauco. In addition, the group featured several politicians and diplomats from the wartime Slovak state, such as Jozef Kirschbaum, Karol Sidor, and Ferdinand Durcansky. The majority of Slovak autonomists migrated to Canada, with some gaining entry into the United States. Although exact membership figures are unknown, there were far more Slovak autonomist and federalist exile groups in North America. This paper focuses almost exclusively on the autonomist and federalist Slovak exiles. Over time their differences faded, especially after the failed Prague Spring reform movement in 1968. Another reason for this shift was that as post-war emigres died, a younger generation of autonomists and federalists gradually united in their goals for self-determination and political independence for Slovakia. In 1958, linguist and Franciscan priest, Bonaventure S. Bue, categorized Slovak emigres into only two groups, lumping the federalists and autonomists into, simply, the autonomists . He explained the rift between the Czechoslovakists and the autonomists with a question: "Are we Czechs or are we Slovaks? To this question the Czechoslovak would answer: I am a Czech; the Autonomist: I am a Slovak." 5 Bue continued " ... the majority of Slovaks have always felt and professed to be an ethnographically, historically, and culturally distinct nation from the Czechs" and suggested that by the late 1950s the Czechoslovakist versus autonomist conflict was " losing its original raison d 'etre."6 In large part that was because even the Slovaks who wished to preserve the state of Czecho-Slovakia by then had "abandoned the highly disputed fiction of the 'Czechoslovak nation"' and agreed on the distinctness of the Slovaks. 7 The remaining issue was about the best alliance or political form for the nation's survival. Many historians trace the ethnogenesis of the Slovak nation back to the Great Moravian Empire of the ninth century, largely based on oral accounts and the Christianizing and linguistic legacy of Saints Cyril and Methodius. Solid documentary evidence of Slovak linguistic uniqueness harks back to the 1700s, when the Catholic intelli5 B. S. Bue, "Conflicts of Slovak Nationalism," Slovakia 8, no . 2 ( 1958), 1-1 7: 7 and 16. 6 Bue, 15. 7 Buc,16-17. 58 SLOVAK.IA 2019 gentsia in northern Hungary first suggested a separate identity for the Slovak language-as opposed to a Czech or Czechoslovak language. To them, it no longer made sense to use the more developed Czech language, and so Catholic clergy began writing in the Slovak vernacular even though the majority culture was distinctly Magyar. 8 In the 19 th century, language became "the center of the new national idea," but this was not enough to create a national identity for the Slovaks, who were under increasing pressure to assimi late to Magyar language and culture. In The Slovak National Awakening ( 1976), Peter Brock explains that as the intelligentsia began to promote the Slovak language and nation, and shift from using the Czech language, ideas about political unity with the Czechs also faded. 9 In 1848, I.',udovit Stur and other young Protestant intellectuals formed a short-lived Slavonic nation of their own, but thereafter the process of creating a Slovak political nation was interrupted by Magyarization, which meant the imposition of Magyar culture and language on young intellectuals in the Hungarian half of Austria-Hungary. The impetus to assert a separate Slovak identity with a language that was neither Czech nor Magyar had been well under way by the 1840s, involved both Catholics and Protestants, and was an important step toward declaring a distinct Slovak national identity. Toward that end, in the early 1860s the Matica slovenska (Slovak Cultural Institute) was founded to aid the continuing development of Slovak literature and culture. A political merger between Czechs and Slovaks came in 1918 following the breakup of Austria-Hungary and the calamity of the First World War, but that union was not predestined. Despite their linguistic similarities and geographical proximity, Czechs and Slovaks had very different histories and cultural influences. For hundreds of years, the Czech lands were part of the Holy Roman Empire, ruled by the House of Habsburg, and much influenced by German culture and the Reformation (and the Czech reformer Jan Hus). During that time, the Kingdom of Hungary ruled over the Slovak 8 Ismo Nurmi, Slovakia-a Playground for Nationalism and National Identity: Manifestations of National identity of the Slo vaks 191 8-1920, Biblioteca Historica 42 (Helsinki: Finnish Literature Society, 1999), 9-10, and Peter Brock, The Slovak National Awakening (Toronto and Buffalo: University of Toronto Press, 1976), 1837 and 53-4. 9 Brock, 7 & 20-37 . SLOVAKIA 2019 59 lands, inside the boundaries of the Habsburg Monarchy. While both small nations struggled against strong neighbors, their nineteenth century trajectories to national awakening and political agency were distinctly different. Firstly, the Slovak lands remained largely agricultural while the Czech lands underwent industrialization. Secondly, the Czechs achieved some successes in gaining cultural and linguistic rights at home and a measure of political representation in Vienna. Whereas to the east, the Slovaks faced increasing Magyarization and the loss of their culture. Since the tenth century, the lands of Slovakia had been ruled by foreigners and what had kept the Slovaks from assimilating, disappearing, or dispersing were "language, geography, and tradition ." 10 Not surprisingly, these vastly divergent experiences dramatically shaped the outlook and soul of each nation. Although Slovak culture was repressed in the homeland, the impact of the efforts of the Matica slovenska, Catholic clergy, and Slovak intelligentsia to keep Slovak language and culture alive became apparent by the late 19 th century, when notable numbers of emigres began arriving in the United States and identified themselves as Slovak. By the early twentieth century, the U.S.A. was home to the most influential Slovak diaspora. 11 In 1890, they established two important early exile organizations: the National Slovak Society and the First Catholic Slovak Union. In 1907, the Slovak League of America formed and united all Slovak groups in America. While based "on a wide platform of love for [the] Slovak nation," the Slovak League of America's mission at the time was to cast off the Hungarian tyrant ruling over Slovaks in the homeland. 12 Unity among exiles, however, became much harder to achieve after the dissolution of AustriaHungary during the First World War and particularly after the declaration of the First Czechoslovak Republic in 1918. During World War I, politicians began deliberating the future of Central Europe. The most important negotiations regarding Czechoslovak statehood took place in North America among representatives of both the Czechs and Slovaks. The Czechs knew that Slovak par10 Stanislav J. Kirschbaum, A History of Slovakia: The Struggle for Survival (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1995), 37-8. 11 Jozef Pauco, " Slovaks Abroad and their Relationship with Slovakia," in Slovakia in th e 19th and 20th Centuries, 2 nd edition, ed. Jozef M. Kirschbaum (Toronto: Slovak World Congress, 1978), 415-24, 415. 12 Ibid., 417. 60 SLOVAK.IA 2019 ticipation was vital to their cause. With that knowledge, Slovaks were able to leverage some influence by demanding " recognition of an independent Slovak identity and Slovak political autonomy in exchange for their support." 13 Many Slovak exiles believed that "through their immigration to America ... they had helped preserve Slovak national identity" and that "American democracy provided them something they felt would prove beneficial" for Slovaks back home. 14 In the negotiations over Czechoslovakia and its constitution, the efforts of Slovak Stefan Osusky stand out. He worked closely with Tomas G. Masaryk for federalism and for Slovakia to be regarded "as an equal partner by the Czechs in the Czecho-Slovak state." 15 In 1918, the (First) Czechoslovak Republic was created with Masaryk as its president. Unfortunately, Masaryk- whose father was Slovak and mother was Moravian/Czech-did not believe the Slovaks to be a separate nation. In addition, "a fateful ambiguity crept into the very first political statement published by independent Slovak politicians, the Slovak National Council. .. " which although declaring Slovakia a "nation," also suggested Slovak as a "branch of the unified Czechoslovak nation ." 16 The confusion resulted in "misunderstandings, confused government policies, enmity, and even tragedy .. .. [And] politically, it led to all sorts of excesses, including Czech chauvinism and Slovak Czechophobia." 17 The final documents of the new combined state referred only to the "Czechoslovaks" and completely omitted any mention of autonomy for Slovakia. 13 Michael R. Cude, "The Imagined Exiles : Slovak-Ameri cans and the Slovak Question during the First Czechoslovak Republi c," in From Exsilium to Exile: Coercion in Migration, Studia Historica Gedanensia, vol. 5, ed . Anna Mazurkiewicz (Gdansk : University of Gdansk Historical Institute, 2014), 287-305 , 287. 14 Cude writes that Slovak exi les viewed "their experi ence in America" as proof "that the Slovaks could very much develop independently and did not need the strict oversight of the Czechs. As such , the Slovak-American activ ists gradually adopted a role as an 'ex iled' national voice aga inst Prague centra lism," 298 . 15 Joseph A. Mikus, "Comments," in Slovakia in th e l <J'h and 2dh Centuries, 97-100, 97 . 16 Peter Petro, A History of Slovak Literature, Montreal [Que.] : MQUP, 1995. Ebook Collection (EBSCO host), EBSCOhost (accessed 29 Nov. 2016), 13 1. 17 Petro, 131. SLOVAKIA 2019 61 In dismissing the wishes of Slovak nationalists in America, and subsequently in Slovakia as well, Masaryk and his supporters were putting the new Republic into j eopardy. The various Czech-dominated governments that ruled the new Republic recruited Slovaks of the 'Czechoslovak ' persuasion (largely Lutherans) to join their ruling coalition. American Czechoslovaks approved of this arrangement. .. . Slovak nationalists, however, were left out in the cold. 18 The centralism 19 of the government in Prague during the First Czechoslovak Republic can be viewed as helping continue the defensive nature of the Slovak national movement, which had begun under the duress of Magyarization. 2° For example, Slovaks seldom felt like equal partners in the new state. Even though in 1918 "the very real existential problems caused by the attempted liquidation of Slovak culture through Magyarization [had] disappeared ... the positive aspect of this momentous change for liberated Slovak culture was somewhat tempered by a paternalistic attitude emanating from Prague." But it was not "always ill-meant and unjustified; from Prague also came tremendous support and help, particularly in the cultural and educational fields ." 21 The perception of inequality, however, became consequential in the late 1930s, when Czechoslovakia found itself under the heel of Nazi Germany. On 14 March 1939, several months after the Munich Pact gave Nazi Germany control over the Sudetenland (in a failed exchange for peace), Catholic Slovak leaders declared the Slovak Republic, albeit under Nazi influence. Six years later, the first Slovak state came to an end. The short-lived, authoritarian Slovak state caused much conflict among exiles in the early post-war years. Among the Catholic autonomists, the Slovak Republic inspired nostalgia and resolve to continue the fight for political independence. But the federalist and Czech18 M. Mark Stolarik, "The Role of Slovak Emigres in North America in the Emancipation of the Slovak Nation," Drustvena istrazivanja [Journal fo r General Social Issues ] 7, no. 1-2 (1998), 75-88, 78. 19 In Czechoslovakia, "centralism" refers to the concentration of political power in the capital, Prague. It often operated in opposition to regional desires for decentralization, self-administration, and autonomy. 20 Nurmi , 18 I. 21 Petro, 13 1. 62 SLOVAKIA 2019 oslovakist Slovak exiles generally condemned that group as, among other things, undemocratic.22 In turn, the Catholic autonomists condemned the federalists as having sold out the Slovaks to communist oppression after the war. The Catholic autonomists defended the wartime Slovak state as a rational decision done for national survival, as "the only way out under the given political circumstances" of Czechoslovakia having fallen under the rule of Nazi German~, and "as the logical conclusion of their former national endeavors." 3 Although controversial and brief, this experiment in political independence gave the Slovaks a new and lasting sense of worthiness among nations. While Masaryk had been a disappointment to many Slovaks, post-war Slovak emigres- autonomists and federalists alike-expressly despised the second Czechoslovak president and wartime leader of the Czechoslovak government-in-exi le in London, Edvard Benes (1935-38 & 1939-48). In a variety of publications during and after World War II, (federalist) politician Stefan Osusky blamed Benes for the breakup of Czecho-Slovakia in 1938 and for the postwar subjugation of Czecho-Slovakia by the Soviet Union. Former diplomat and historian Joseph A. Mikus (an autonomist) voiced similarly strong views of Benes, holding him responsible not only for the communist takeover in 1948 but also for the failure of the reform movement under Alexander Dubcek in 1968. 24 In general, the Slovak 22 Petro writes "The backlash that led to the super-nationalism of some writers during the existence of the Slovak Republic can be ascribed not to some inbred propensity for political extremism, but to a desperate desire for national self-assertion," 131 -32. 23 B.S. Bue, " Federative Tendencies of Slovak Nationalism," Slovakia 8, no. 3 ( 1958), 25-32, 30. "The short-lived existence of this independent state gave to Slovak nationalism what it had hitherto lacked, namely, a uniform will to live independently and a conviction that it will know how to stand its ground as an equally worthy member among the other nations." 24 Mikus, "Comments," in Slovakia in the 19th and 2dh Centuries, 400-405 . In response to a presentation by Kurt Glaser regarding the question of national states and federali sm in Central Europe, Mikus argued "The record of Czechoslovakia is particularly sad, since during World War II Benes had laid the comer-stone of his foreign policy out of collaboration with the Soviet Union, a non-Western and communist power. The guilt complex resulting from [Benes's] 1945 solution of the Sudeten German problem threw him into the arms of the Soviet Union . That embrace became so strong that [Alexander] Dubcek's effort to extricate Czecho- SLOVAKIA 2019 63 exiles with close ties to the Catholic Slovak Republic felt particularly snubbed by Czechoslovakia's wartime representatives in London and Washington. Slovak politician, diplomat, and later prolific scholar Jozef M. Kirschbaum was unflinching both in his support for Slovak independence and in his criticism of the Czechs: "Unfortunately, Western diplomats displayed little understanding for the aspirations of the Slovak people and mostly adhered to the concept of the Czech exiled politicians" led by Benes. 25 In the late 1940s and early '50s, Slovak exile groups contacted a variety of governmental offices in the U.S. and Canada requesting freedom from Soviet domination and independence for Slovakia. 26 Bitterness and rivalries among the groups, however, limited their impact. 27 Ever since the declaration of Czechoslovakia in 1918, Slovak exiles had embraced the mission of speaking on behalf of the silenced Slovak people back home in Czechoslovakia. They resumed that role after World War II as Slovak exiles reacted to the "rigid centralism" imposed by the post-war Czechoslovak regime. In addition, Slovak exiles in the West were troubled by the ruthlessness of the Stalinist system, with its "political and religious persecution, economic discrimination, and prohibition of contacts with Western countries." 28 So, American and Canadian Slovaks responded to the new status quo by resuming their role as "interpreters of the aspirations of the Slovak people for freedom, democracy, and independence." 29 With a renewed sense of hope, a few dozen post-war exiles took up the challenge of informing the world about Slovakia and " .. .published hundreds of books and articles about the history of Slovakia and the Slovaks. [In the process, they] helped keep the 'Slovak cause ' in the public eye, as well as give it some credence in Slovakia from it was in vain. The occupation of Czecho-Slovakia has its roots in that fitiful pactomania of Benes with Moscow," 403. 5 J.M. Kirschbaum, " Diplomatic and Consular Relations of Slovakia with Neutral States," Slovakia 23 , 46 ( 1973), 111-22, 119. 26 Pauco, 423. 27 Stolarik, "The Role of Slovak Emigres in North America in the Emancipation of the Slovak Nation," 82 . 28 J.M. Kirschbaum, " Slovaks Abroad and their Role in Slovakia 's Struggle for Freedom," Slovakia 24, 47 (1974), 63-6, 63-4. 29 Ibid. 63-4. 64 SLOVAKIA 2019 the academic and intellectual circles in North America."30 One important publication with that goal was the academic journal, Slovakia, edited by Filip A. Hrobak and first published in 1951. The journal's purpose was twofold: to defend Slovak political rights and to publicize Slovak national and cultural activities.31 After 26 years as editor of the journal, the Slovak League of America lauded Hrobak as a defender of "the sacred cause of Slovak national freedom. " 32 Exiled Slovaks seldom agreed on what exactly comprised the Slovak cause but many believed that the West would be receptive to their homeland 's plight. The Slovak Question (i.e. rights to autonomy, self-determination, statehood, etc .) continually caused tension, especially among exile organizations consisting of both Czechs and Slovaks. One of the most influential of those, created one year after the communist coup of February 1948, was the Council of Free Czechoslovakia (CFC). The U.S. government relied on the Council for policy advice, but to the Slovaks' dismay Washington paid little attention to the Slovak Question. 33 The many feuds over Slovak autonomy led Slovaks such as Stefan Osusky to demand separate recognition in the Council of Free Czechoslovakia and parity in its leadership . However, achieving an equal voice in that organization 34 took over twenty years. In 1948 the Slovak National Council Abroad was founded by Karol Sidor, Jozef Kirschbaum, Peter Privdavok, and Konstantin Culen. The Slovak Leagues of America and Canada recognized the Slovak National Council as the representative body of Slovak politi30 M. Mark Stolarik, "Slovak Historians in Exile in North America, 1945- 1992," Human Affairs 6, no. I ( 1996), 34-44, 34. 31 Pauco, 422 32 Joseph C. Krajsa, ed., "First Catholic Slovak Union (Jednota) of the U.S. and Canada," in Slovaks in America: A Bicentennial Study (M iddletown, PA : Slovak League of America, 1978), IO 1-68, 128. 33 Michael R. Cude, Transatlantic Perspectives on th e Slo vak Question, /914-1948 (PhD Diss., Univers ity of Colorado-Boulder, 20 13) and Cude, "The Imagined Exiles." 34 The first reconciliation in 1952 attempted to address this issue by givi ng the Slovaks separate recognition with separate votes on programs within the CFC. In 1960, the moderate nationalists in the Council formed the Permanent Confe rence of Slovak Democratic Exiles and formally split from the CFC to join with other Czech dissenters to form the Committee of Free Czechoslovakia. The Czechoslovakists remained invo lved in the Counci l, and as part of its 1973 reorgani zation, the CFC established Czech-Slovak parity in its leadership. SLOVAK.IA 2019 65 cal exiles. 35 Another exile group also promoted the nationalist cause. The Slovak Liberation Committee, led by Ferdinand Durcansly and others, defended "the right of self-determination for the Slovak nation." 36 Additionally, many smaller organizations and societies from Australia to Buenos Aires promoted the idea of political independence for Slovakia. 37 The inability of the various organizations to unite, however, hampered their overall impact on Western policy and understanding, especially in the first two and a half decades after the war . . The Prague Spring of 1968 was a turning point for many of the squabbling exiles. In the wake of the failed reform movement, thousands of the disappointed migrated out of Czechoslovakia. The newcomers were received with skepticism, and although there was little that unified Slovak emigres after 1968, Frantisek Braxator suggested that a common ideological platform might be that no compromise with Communism was possible, "human face" or otherwise. He reassuringly concluded that nobody wanted to resurrect the authoritarian wartime state. 38 In many ways, the diversity and energy of the new exiles added much to the cause of Slovak emigres in the West. Indeed, there is evidence that the last two decades of exile activity were more productive than the early decades of the Cold War. By then the political goals of Slovak-Americans and Slovak-Canadians were generally two-fold: continue heritage preservation and call attention in the West to the persecution of Slovaks under communist rule in Czechoslovakia. 39 After the Soviet invasion, the thousands of Prague Spring arrivals to North America and the earlier post-war political exiles from Slovakia, more than ever before, were able to find common purpose, even unity, in their identity as Slovaks. The unprecedented unity came in large part from a new umbrella organization, the Slovak World Congress (Svetovy kongres Slovakov), 35 Pauco, 423. Ibid. Some of the others included Stefan Polakovic, Alojz Macek, and Stanislav Meciar. 37 Ibid., 423-4. 38 Frantisek Braxator, " Slovaks Abroad and Their Relationship to Czechoslovakia," in Slovakia in th e 19th and 20'" Centuries, 425-33. He concluded that "there was "definitely no support for the idea that the majority of this emigration regards aid to Slovakia as taking the form of an effort to revive the Slovak Republic of 1939 to 1945 " 432 39 Kr;jsa, "First Catholic Slovak Union," in Slovaks in America, l O1-68, 126. 36 66 SLOVAKIA 2019 founded in New York in June 1970. Between 1970 and 1989, the SWC brought together Slovak organizations from North and South America, Western Europe, and Oceania. It absorbed a wide variety of emigre Slovak organizations and individuals, from Catholics and Lutherans to a range of political figures , from the federalist-leaning Stefan Osusky to the ardent nationalist Ferdinand Durcansky. Leadership of the Slovak World Congress encompassed the diversity of Slovaks in exile as well. In addition to the old-guard leaders, 1968generation Slovak exiles such as the Lutheran pastor Dusan T6th and the Jewish ex-communist Eugen Lob! held high positions in the organization. The SWC aimed to resist Communism in the name of democracy, religious freedom , and the principle of self-determination, specifically meaning self-rule and political independence. In 1973, the Slovak World Congress published symposium proceedings to inform and update the West about Slovaks and their long history in Central Europe. Many contributors thought that too few histories of Europe had appreciated the Slovaks' ninth-century state organization. Furthermore, they had neglected to mention Slovak contributions to Slavic civi lizations, such as by Saints Cyril and Methodius. Slovak World Congress organizers were also concerned that when Slovak history was presented, it was "in a distorted light." 40 Founder and benefactor Stephen B. Roman noted the unith th queness of the symposium and resulting book on 19 and 20 century Slovak history: [A} fl the authors, including those of non-Slovak origin, subscribe to the thesis that the Slovaks developed through the centuries into a distin ct Central European nation, and that their language, literature and culture also developed independently of other Slavic nations. From this premise, the right to selfdetermination and equality of rights for the Slovak people be41 came a logical conclusion for all contributors. The Slovak World Congress' mission was to represent "the cultural, social, and political aspirations of the Slovak people in the Western hemisphere" and to "contribute to the search for historical 40 41 Stephen B. Roman, "Preface," Slovakia in th e 19th and 20th Centuries, 5. Roman, " Preface," 6. SLOVAKIA 2019 67 truth about the Slovaks and thereby to help bring about better understanding and cooperation among the nations of Central Europe."42 Founder Roman declared that the SWC strongly believed "that peoples of that vital area" could "regain their political freedom and build their future through close cooperation and the recognition by each of the equal rights to independence of the others."43 Notably, the Slovak World Congress claimed to work toward freedom and independence not only for Slovakia but for other small European nations as well. In 1978 in the "Introduction to the Second Edition" of the Slovak World Congress proceedings, Slovakia in the 1911' and 20th Centuries, editor Joseph M. Kirschbaum further emphasized the balanced and informational nature of the volume: Until very recently Slovak history was presented to the West either by the adherents of the "Czechoslovak" school which denied the separate historical development of Slovakia, or by the historians of the Slovak nationalist school who insisted on the independent political and cultural development of Slovakia . ...By publishing this edition, the Slovak World Congress has no other aim but to help acquaint Western readers with Slovakia and [its} rise to nationhood, and to contribute to the search for freedom and cooperation among the nations of Central and Eastern Europe.44 Despite the Slovak World Congress' reputation as the leading late Cold War organization for Slovaks in the West, it was never completely successful in uniting the Slovak exiles. The Czechoslovakists and some of the moderate nationalists disavowed involvement because of the strong views of the Catholic autonomists, especially those with "unclean pasts.,,4s To accommodate the diversity of interests, the SWC comprised three factions regarding constitutional questions: federalization within Czechoslovakia, confederation, and independence. 46 On behalf of the Slovak diaspora, leader Roman had 42 Ibid. Ibid. 44 J.M . Kirschbaum, Slo vakia in the / 9th and 20th Centuries, 8. 45 Jozef Spetko, "Slovenska exilova a emigrantska politika v rokoch 1945-1989," Historicky casopis 39, no . 3 ( I99 I), 24 1-61: 256. 46 Ibid., 257-8. 43 68 SLOVAK.IA 2019 wanted the organization to "speak as one voice and act according to a single plan" on behalf of the silenced Slovaks in the homeland. But achieving consensus among the exiles, especially about independence and resolution of the Slovak Question, was impossible from the very beginning of the SWC. 47 Nevertheless, the Slovak World Congress devised anti-communist propaganda campaigns, held scholarly conferences and cultural festivals , and even aided the protest movements in Slovakia in the 1980s.48 The organization collaborated with figures such as the Slovak-Canadian hockey player Marian St'astny and the Camogursky family-leading members of the organization-and even organized overseas protests to promote religious freedom in conjunction with the candlelight protests in Bratislava on March 25, 1988. In 1989, the Slovak World Congress officially supported the Velvet Revolution. However, "once the Communists surrendered power to Czech and Slovak dissidents ... the Slovak World Congress began to fracture ." 49 In the wake of the fall of the Czechoslovak communist regime, the SWC organized visits and programs in Slovakia. But relations between the SWC and the post-communist Czechoslovak government quickly became strained, mostly over the issue of Slovak autonomy, which most, but not all, members of the Slovak World Congress still very much supported. 50 Within weeks of the revolution, Secretary-General of the SWC Dusan T6th, who had fled Czechoslovakia after the Soviet invasion in 1968, visited his family in Slovakia and appeared at some political rallies in the capital, Bratislava. The " intoxicated crowds" welcomed him warmly and "listened intently as he told them about the [Slovak 47 Ibid. , 255. M. Mark Stolarik, Where is my Hom e? Slovak Immigration to North America (/870-20/0) (Bern: Peter Lang, 2012), 281-2. 49 Ibid., 287. The groups were the Civic Forum (Obcanske forum) and the Public Against Violence (Verejnost' proti nasiliu) in the Czech lands and Slovakia, respectively. 50 The Slovak World Congress began to decline after Roman's death in 1988, especially since he had bankrolled the organization. After the Velvet Divorce in I993, its functions declined even more, with its most notable achievement being to convince the U.S. and Slovak governments to allow dual citizenship. By 2000, the SWC was functionally gone. See Stolarik, Where ... , 279-95. 48 SLOVAKIA 2019 69 World] Congress and its aspirations for freedom in Slovakia." 5 1 After all, the topic of political independence had been a taboo for forty years. For its part, the SWC tried to engage the Slovak government in talks about independence in early 1990, but Slovak politicians had more immediate concerns such as figuring out how to navigate the new political landscape. "Many were new politicians who faced the task of learning not only the art of political maneuvering, but above all that of public discourse in a democratic society. They were the ones who dealt with the issue of Czecho-Slovak relations which found resolution in the dissolution of Czechoslovakia. " 52 The first post-communist elections in Slovakia were for representatives to the Slovak National Council. Although results of the voting in early June 1990 demonstrated the predictable rejection of Communism, they also " indicated that ' the Slovak question' was still on the political agenda. " 53 The biggest surprise was the third place finish for the Slovak National Party (Slovenska narodna strana orSNS), the only party with independence in its platform. "It is quite likely that one particular event preceding the election contributed to the [SNS ' s] success" in the parliamentary elections.54 Trouble began in March 1990 in the Federal Assembly in Czechoslovakia. Vaclav Havel, who had recently become the new president, was a vocal proponent of federalism and continuing the Czech union with Slovakia. The dispute started when Slovak politicians wanted to return to the original ( 1918-1920) way of writing the country's name: Czecho-Slovakia. Tensions grew when the Czechs agreed that Slovakia could do so, but neither the Czechs nor the federal government of Czechoslovakia would hyphenate. The "hyphen war" showed "how very different were the Czech and Slovak conceptions of their common state and brought into the open the need to reexamine the state of Czech-Slovak relations." 55 For the next two years, the discourse around that reexamination exposed ever more disparities and decades-old animosities . 51 Anne C.R. Roman, "Slovak Expats Remember 1989, too," Slovak Spectator, 29 November 1999, https://spectator.sme.sk/c/20009411 /slovak-expats-remember1989-too.html. 52 S. Kirschbaum, A History of Slovakia, 251-2. 53 Ibid., 255. 54 Ibid. 55 Ibid . 70 SLOVAKIA 2019 Economic concerns took center stage, including the question of how quickly to move away from a socialist command economy to a capitalist market economy. While Slovaks feared a continuation of Prague centralism, including federal conduct and policies that favored Czech-and discounted Slovak- economic contributions, Czechs complained about subsidizing the Slovak economy. 56 The contrasting way the Slovaks and Czechs viewed this issue underscores some of the key reasons for their separation in 1993. One Czech-American historian argues that the peaceful separation of Czechs and Slovaks was a "necessity," based on their lack of "shared positive historical experience." 57 History and the "interplay of a series of factors" indeed influenced the breakup of Czechoslovakia. 58 Stanislav Kirschbaum suggests the root of the problem goes back to "the pursuit of [Slovak] national development in cooperation with the Czechs."59 From its inception in 1918 the "ultimate failure" of the Czechoslovak state was that it did not "provide an acceptable framework for Slovak national development," and despite all the benefits and progress, "the common state put Slovaks in a position of having to continue their struggle for survival." 60 In retrospect, the unraveling of Czechoslovakia in the early 1990s is not surprising; nor is the fact of its peaceful evolution. In the eyes of many Slovak exiles, the fall of Communism meant more than just getting rid of the Communists and returning to democracy. Indeed, " ... it was all of this plus home rule," commented M. Mark Stolarik, scholar and former president of the Canadian Slovak 56 S. Kirschbaum, 256-68. Igor Lukes, " Strangers in One House: Czechs and Slovaks, 1918-1992," Canadian Review of Studies in Nationalism/Revue Canadienne des Etudes sur le Nationalisme 27, 1-2 2000, 33-43 , 41 . 58 S. Kirschbaum, 270. The factors include the following: "The inability of the Czechoslovak state to solve certain social and constitutional problems since 1918; the legacy of the Communist regime; the adaptation crisis resulting from the passage of a single-party state to democratic pluralism ; the lack of experience of the leaders of the Velvet Revolution ; the absence of Czechoslovak parties in the postCommunist era; and the provision in the 1968 constitutional law that allowed Slovak deputies to block federal legislation that was not deemed to be in Slovakia's interest" so that the Slovaks could not be outvoted by the Czech majority." . 59 S. Kirschbaum, 270-71. 60 Ibid., 271. 57 SLOVAK.IA 2019 71 League, on the tenth anniversary of the Velvet Revolution.6 1 In the United States and Canada, Slovak exiles' experiences of democracy and freedom guided them forward before and after the toppling of the hardline communist regime in Czechoslovakia. 62 Their influence on politics in the homeland has yet to be clearly documented, but it is quite possible that Slovak exiles and their endeavor to keep alive the drive for the self-determination and political independence of the Slovak nation provided not only legitimacy in the West, but also moral and political encouragement to their homeland as the nation moved toward independence in the early 1990s. 61 A. Roman, " Slovak Expats Remember 1989, too." Francis D. Raska, Long Road to Victory: A History or Czechoslovak Exile Organizations after I 968 (Boulder: East European Monographs, 20 12). Raska concludes that the influence of exile groups in the fa ll of Communism in Czechoslovakia "was unquestionabl y positive," 172. 62  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Imagining a Separate Slovakia: Anti-Communist Slovak Exiles' Struggle for an Independent Homeland Description An account of the resource Ellen L. Paul Slovakia, Vol. 44 (No. 82-83), 2019 pp. 55-71 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Paul, Ellen L. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2019 name https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/675915bc9f7c8105845af9639076bf73.pdf 344aedb74161c78ddb173dbcaacff698 PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA 13 Immigration and Eastern Slovak Nationalism M. MARK STOLARIK The Cleve/,a,nd State University Nineteenth century nationalism affected Slovaks both in Europe and in the United States. In its early stages this movement gripped people in all parts of northern Hungary. Later, the center of gravity shifted to central Slovakia while the east seemed doomed to Magyarization. Many eastern Slovaks who had moved to America, however, rediscovered their ethnic identity here and joined the struggle for national survival. European nationalism, which had its roots in the early Romantic period of the late eighteenth century, received a tremendous, if unexpected, boost from the reforms of Emperor Joseph II of Austria. Joseph, "that Convention in a single man" (1) who ruled the empire from 1780 to 1790, tried to modernize his realm with various reforms, including one that established German as the sole administrative language in his lands . This reform, among others, aroused the Magyar element of the nobility of Hungary, over which Joseph ruled, and set them on the road to national revival. They rejected German as the administrative language of Hungary and, starting in 1791, enacted through their Diet a series of laws which, by 1843, made Magyar the official language of their part of the empire. (2) This ethno-centrism destroyed the "a-national" (3) Hungarian kingdom which had previously employed Latin as the official language and turned it into a Magyar state that began to wage war upon all non-Magyar nationalities. Slovaks resisted attempts to assimilate them from the start. Even before the Magyars started fostering their own language, the Reverend Anton Bernolak codified the Slovak language and urged his countrymen to use it . His codification, which first appeared in print in 1787, utilized the western Slovak dialect and won wide acceptance among Catholics for the next fifty years. (4) Not only did western and central Slovak Catholics adopt Bernolak's codification, but their eastern counterparts accepted it as well. As Imrich Sedlak has recently shown, a group of Bernolak's fellow-priests in 1789 sent out an appeal from the Bratislava seminary to all Slovak nationalists to unite in a " Slovenske ucene tovarysstvo" (Slovak Literary Guild) which would promote Bernolak's reforms . Western, central and eastern Slovaks joined in this movement. Main branches of this learned society, which had its headquarters in the western city of Trnava, sprang up immediately in eastern communities such as Solivar, �14 SLOVAKIA Saris, and in central communities such as Roznava, Gerner, and Jager, now in Hungary. (5) In the 1820s other branches appeared in the eastern cities of Spisske Podhradie, Spis and Kosice, Abauj. (6) In the 1830s, student societies for the promotion of Slovak nationalism appeared also at the gymnasiums of Levoca and Kezmarok, Spis and Presov, and Saris. (7) While Bernolak' s codification did help to promote nationalism among Catholic Slovaks, it did not win wide acceptance among the Lutheran minority, nor among easterners. Lutherans continued using Old Czech, as found in their Bible, throughout the Bernolak era. Eastern Slovaks, when confronted with the choice between the western and central dialects, preferred central because they could better comprehend it. Perceiving this linguistic disunity, I.:udovit Stur, a Lutheran minister and professor at the Bratislava lyceum, decided to re-codify Slovak using the central dialect. He completed his work in 1846 and the students at the Levoca gymnasium immediately accepted it. Other eastern Slovak centers soon followed suit, as did most central and western ones, including those run by Catholics and Lutherans. (8) Therefore, by the middle of the nineteenth century, most Slovak intellectuals, whether from the east, west or center, were united in their support of the central dialect as the literary language of all the people. Slovak nationalism suffered its first setback in the 1848 revolution and continued to lose ground thereafter. As Julius Mesaros has pointed out, the followers of Stur participated in the 1848 revolution by fighting on the side of Vienna against Hungary, but certain rivals of Stur, led by the poet Jan Kollar, managed to win the approval of Vienna for their own cause, which was the use of Czech by the Slovaks. Vienna sanctioned the use of Czech in Slovak districts but only as a second language because the repressive regime of Alexander Bach, which lasted from 1849 to 1859, preferred to use German on all occasions. As a result, all nine gymnasiums in Hungary which had used Slovak as the language of instruction were Germanized by 1857. (9) From 1859 to 1867, while Vienna negotiated with Budapest about a possible accord between the Habsburgs and the Magyars, Slovak leaders took advantage of the relative freedom that prevailed and demanded recognition as a nation. In 1861, over 5,000 nationalists from all parts of the country met in Turciansky Sviity Martin in central Slovakia and drafted a "Memorandum of the Slovak Nation" to the Budapest Parliament. Besides demanding certain civil rights, they asked for home rule in the region called "Upper Hungary" . However, nobles who had promised to present this Memorandum to the Parliament backed down when they realized that its acceptance would mean a loss of their special privileges . The Magyars then merely denounced the Memorandum as "separatism" and ignored it. The only tangible achievement during this period of calm was the founding in �SLOVAKIA 15 1863 of the 'Matica Slovenska', a literary and cultural society with headquarters in Martin. For the next decade, it published hundreds of books and periodicals and became the coordinator and center of national life. (10) \ Slovak leaders next took advantage of a new order which prevailed between 1867 and 1872. In 1867 the Habsburgs and Magyars reached the famous 'Ausgleich' (Compromise) which divided the empire between them and left the Magyars supreme in Hungary. Under the relatively enlightened leadership of Francis Deak and Joseph Eotvos, the Hungarian Parliament in 1868 passed a "Law of Nationalities" which permitted, among other things, that the citizenry in all nonMagyar districts might use their mother tongue. Slovak Catholics immediately built a new gymnasium in Klastor pod Znievom and Lutherans built one in Turciansky Svaty Martin and enlarged one in Revuca. In 1869 Catholic Slovaks also established, after ten years of effort, the Society of St. Vojtech in Trnava, dedicated to publishing Catholic books and periodicals in the national language. (11) In 1873, after a change of leadership, the Magyars began to persecute the Slovaks. Bela Grunwald, vice-governor of the county of Zvolen, helped set up a "Magyar szovetseg" (Magyar Union) to Magyarize the nationalities. In addition, Grunwald petitioned Budapest "on behalfof the Slovak people" to close the three Slovak gymnasiums because they were "bastions of pan-Slavism". Led by Prime Minister Koloman Tisza, who declared in 1875 that ''there is no Slovak nation'', the Hungarian government seized the three new gymnasiums in 18741875 and had the 'Matica Slovenska' sacked in 1874. (12) Using the control of county governments which the 1867 Compromise had guaranteed them, the Magyars next attacked nationalist students and tried to disrupt the unity of the Slovak nation. In the 1880s county governments expelled fifty Slovaks from their gymnasiums, including seven from the Levoca and seven from the Presov institutions. In 1881, the government of Saris decided to test Bela Grunwald's Magyarization plans on the people of that country. And, as Ladislav Tajtak has shown, county officials began publishing books in the Saris dialect in the hope that this act would break eastern Slovaks off from the rest of their nation and make them easier to Magyarize. The plan seemed to be working in the 1880s; western and central Slovaks could find few nationalist leaders, books or newspapers in the eastern counties. (13) While the future of Slovak identity and unity seemed thus in jeopardy in Hungary, nationalist leaders took heart from events in America. In 1886, they learned from an American Magyar publication that Slovaks in Pittsburgh had begun to publish a newspaper. (14) It catered to eastern Slovaks from Saris and Zemplin, who had not one single periodical of their own in the Old Country. (15) Nationalists in Martin were delighted to learn that Slovaks in �16 SLOVAKIA America had begun " to read and like newspapers ." (16) This good news was followed by more. In 1890 a Magyarone priest in the United States indignantly wrote to a Budapest newspaper that American Slovaks were turning into ' 'Pan-Slavs'', and that they were not heeding the call to stay loyal to Hungary which he expounded in his newspaper. (17) Eastern Slovaks in America became nationalists largely through the efforts of one man, Peter V. Rovnianek, a native of Trencin county, central Slovakia, who had studied theology at the Budapest Roman Catholic seminary before being expelled in 1887 for "Pan-Slavism". After having visited with national leaders in Turciansky Svaty Martin, Rovnianek made his way to America in response to a call by the Bishop of Cleveland for a priest for the local Slovak community. (18) Shortly after his acceptance into the Cleveland seminary in September of 1888, Rovnianek began to contribute articles to Nova Vlast' (New Homeland), a weekly publication in the central dialect by Edo Schwarz-Markovic, a former police captain of Levoca, who had become a nationalist in America. (19) Markovic, however, had strong competition from the much larger weekly Amerikansko-Slovenske Noviny (American Slovak News). Rovnianek realized that if he was to convert eastern Slovaks to nationalism, then he would have to do it in the larger and more popular newspaper. (20) The publishers of Amerikansko-Slovenske Noviny, the first Slovak newspaper in America, did not start out as nationalists. Jan Slovensky and Julius Wolf, cousins of mixed German-Slovak parentage from the county of Spis in the eastern region, came to America as loyal citizens of Hungary. They had both studied at the Magyarized teachers' college at Klastor pod Znievom in central Slovakia and, upon graduation in 1879, decided to go lion-hunting in Africa. Unscrupulous immigration agents placed them, instead, on a ship bound for New York and soon both men found themselves working in the coal mines of Pennsylvania. Very shortly thereafter Slovensky took a job as ''information officer'' at the Austro-Hungarian consulate in Pittsburgh while Julius Wolf worked in a grocery store. (21) At the consulate Slovensky came into daily contact with eastern Slovaks seeking news from the Old Country. He tired of answering their many questions and decided to post a weekly Bulletin of all the information that he had from home. So popular did this publication become that he began distributing it in the local saloons in order to keep Slovaks from swamping the consulate every week. Perceiving the possibility of financial rewards, Slovensky then joined Wolf in establishing in the fall of 1886 AmerikanskoSlovenske Noviny . The paper employed the eas'tern Slovak dialect and Magyar orthography because the editors had never studied central Slovak and they were not nationalists . (22) Ladislav Tajtak speculated that had Slovensky and Wolf not met P . V. Rovnianek and come into · financial difficulty in 1889, the newspaper might very well have �SLOVAKIA 17 retained its eastern dialect and its pro-Hungarian stance. (23) Rovnianek converted the publishers of Amerikcinsko-Slovenske Noviny to the Slovak national cause. He began by contributing articles in central Slovak, and, despite some protests in letters to the editor, Slovensky published the~ as submitted. Rovnianek then urged the editors to publish the entire newspaper in the literary language for the sake of national unity. Slovensky and Wolf remained unconvinced until 1889. That year their printery burned down and they needed a large sum of money to rebuild it. Rovnianek then left the seminary, contributed some money to the building fund and entered into partnership with Slovensky and Wolf. Finally, Rovnianek persuaded them to make him editor. From then on all articles in the newspaper appeared in central Slovak and the editorials persistently decried Magyar oppression in the homeland. (24) Hungarian government officials subsequently labeled him a "pernicious and dangerous Pan-Slav agitator". (25) After Rovnianek succeeded in converting Amerikcinsko-Slovenske Noviny to the literary language, most other Slovak newspapers in America followed suit. Leaders in the Old Country proudly observed in 1896 that American Slovaks, who had come from the most Magyarized counties of Hungary (eastern Slovakia), supported thirteen newspapers and not one appeared in the eastern dialect. (26) Certain American Slovak leaders, however, remained unconvinced and tried to foster the use of the outmoded dialect. The Magyarone priest Jozef Kossalko, for instance, published a weekly Zcistava (Flag) in eastern Slovakia in 1889 in order to combat the influence of Rovnianek' s paper. (27) Since he found very few subscribers, his paper folded after nine months. A group of Slovak socialists in Jersey City tried in 1892 to establish a weekly Robotnik (Worker) using the eastern dialect but it survived for only a few months. (28) The weekly Slebodni Orel (Free Eagle) of New York, published with the support of Father Imrich Haitinger of Passaic, a Magyarone colleague of Jozef Kossalko, also utilized the Saris dialect and had a shaky run of four years. It ceased publication in 1904. (29) Even Father Matus Jankola, president in 1900 of the First Catholic Slovak Union, and Albert Mamatey, president in 1918 of the Slovak League of America (both central Slovak nationalists), mistakenly believed that eastern Slovaks would rather read newspapers in their own dialect. (30) P. V. Rovnianek fought all such attempts, believing it would destroy the unity of the Slovak nation to publish in any other but the literary language. Rovnianek also opposed attempts at codifying eastern Slovak. (31) More importantly, eastern Slovak laymen in America also opposed writing in their own dialect . A certain "Malcicky from Zemplin" explained to his intellectual superiors that ''Germans have a large number of dialects and yet use only one literary form to preserve their unity;" therefore, "American editors are wrong in trying to publish in �18 SLOVAKIA eastern Slovak dialects." (32) Another even denounced his former schoolteacher in the village of Budimir, Saris, who had arrogantly written in eastern Slovak to accuse him of being a ''Pan-Slav scoundrel. '' Matik replied in central Slovak that his friends in Budimir would fight the Magyars and Magyarones to the bitter end and he bitingly asked this teacher how he could have forgotten his origins so quickly. (33) Besides affirming their nationalism, many from the eastern counties also acted it out. An immigrant from Liptov, one of the most nationalist of Slovak counties, reported that in 1890, three years after his arrival in America, a group of Saris natives persuaded him to join the National Slovak Society. (34) A little later a group of easterners in Passaic wrote a letter in their native dialect to the nationalists in Turciansky Svaty Martin and asked for central Slovak books and hymnals for their newly-established library. (35) Even more surprisingly, two lodges of Rockland Lake, New York, resolved to foster the literary form and sent money to N<irodne noviny (National News) in Martin to help their brethren do the same. And yet the officers communicated this information in eastern Slovak because they had not learned the dialect which had become the national symbol, but they promised to do so. (36) American-Slovak priests as well as the Hungarian government recognized the triumph of nationalism among eastern Slovaks in the United States. In 1903, at a meeting of the "Society of Slovak Roman Catholic Priests," in Philadelphia, delegates resolved to preach henceforth in the central dialect in order to keep the nation united. Such a resolution, passed in the presence of the Magyarone priest Imrich Haitinger, could never have succeeded had not the overwhelming number of eastern Slovak laymen supported it. (37) The Hungarian government concurred and unwittingly complimented easterners in the United States by declaring that "one stream of PanSlavism comes from Turciansky Svaty Martin and the other from America." (38) Slovak nationalism manifested itself, then, not only in Hungary but also in America; and it affected not only central and western but also eastern Slovaks. In the early stages of-its growth, leaders in all sections of northern Hungary presented a united front. In the second half of the nineteenth century, however, the Magyars concentrated upon splitting off eastern Slovakia from the movement and by the 1880's appeared to be winning .that objective, partly by publishing books in the regional dialect. However, eastern Slovaks who had migrated to America accepted P. V. Rovnianek's urgings to use central Slovak as their literary language. After 1890 they rejected Magyarone and even some misguided central Slovak suggestions to codify the eastern dialect and to publish in it. Therefore, while central Slovaks �SLOVAKIA 19 formed the bulwark against Magyarization in the Old Country, eastern Slovaks did so in America. FOOTNOTES \ (1) A. J . P . Taylor, The Habsburg Mnnarchy, 1809-1918 (New York, 1948), 19. (2) R. W. Seton-Watson, A History of the Czechs and Slovaks (London, 1943), 257-60. (3) George Barany, "Hoping against Hope: The Enlightened Age in Hungary," American Historical Review, 76 (April, 1971), 347. (4) Jan Tibensky, "Fonnovanie sa ideol6gie slovenskej feudalnej narodnosti a burzoazneho naroda " (The Forming of the Ideology of the Slovak Feudal Nation and of the Bougeois Nation), Historicky tasopis, XIX (No. 4, 1971), 585. (5) Imrich Sedlak, Strieborny uek: narodno-kulturny a literarny pohyb na u-jchodnom Slouensku u obdobi ntirodneho obrodenia (The Silver Age : The National Cultural and Literary Movement in Eastern Slovakia During the National Awakening), (2 Vols., Kosice, 1970) I, 33-46. (6) Ibid., 91-104. (7) Ibid., 135-51. (8) Ibid., 177-88 and 224-33; see also Seton-Watson, History of the Czechs and Slovaks, 259-61. (9) Julius Mesaros et. al., Dejiny Slouenska II: od roku 1848 do roku 1900 (A History of Slovakia, II: From 1848 to 1900) , (Bratislava, 1968) 102-112. (10) " Memorandum naroda slovenskeho k vysokemu snemu krajiny uhorskej ... " (Memorandum of the Slovak Nation to the High Parliament of Hungary .. . ), in Dr. Vacovsky (Milan Ivanka), Slouaci a Macfari: politicko-historicka uuaha (The Slovaks and the Magyars: A Politico-Historical Dissertation) , (Pittsburgh, 1914) 113-23; and Mesaros, Dejiny Slouenska II, 179-200. (11) Scotus Viator (R. W . Seton-Watson) , Racial Problems in Hungary (London, 1908), 136-56; Mesaros, Dejiny Slouenska II, 264; and Jan Poestenyi, Dejiny Spolku su. Vojtecha (History of the Society of St. Vojtech) , (Trnava, 1930) 5-17. (12) Scotus Viator, Racial Problems in Hungary, 167; Mesaros, Dejiny Slouenska II, 27281. (13) Narodnie nouiny (Martin), September 30, 1882, p . l; Ladislav Tajtak, "K otazke vydavania ucebnic vo vychodoslovenskom nareci" (Concerning the Question of the Publication of Textbooks in the Eastern Slovak Dialect), Noue Obzory, VI (1964), 4364; and Mesaros, Dejiny Slouenska II, 289-93. (14) Amerikai Nemzetoei, as quoted in Narodnie nouiny, October 26, 1886, p. 3. (15) Ntirodnie nouiny, November 3, 1886, p. 1. (16) Ibid., August 27, 1887, pp. 1-2 . (17) Jozef Kossalko in Budapesti Hirlap as reprinted in Narodnie nouiny, April 19, 1890, pp. 1-2. (18) P. V. Rovnianek, Zapisky za iiua pochouaneho (Notes of One Buried Alive), (Pittsburgh, 1924) 14-51. (19) J . A. Feriencik, "Slovenske prist'ahovalectvo a slovenska spisba v Amerike" (Slovak Immigration and Slovak Literature in America) , Sbornik Narodneho Slouenskeho Spolku, I (1915), 22. (20) Ibid., 22 and 24; and Konstantin Culen, J. Slouensk-j: Ziuotopis zakladatefapru-jch slouensk-jch nouin u Amerike (J. Slovensky: A Biography of the Founder of the First Slovak Newspaper in America), (Winnipeg, 1954) 105, 116-117. �20 SLOVAKIA (21) Culen, J. Slovensky, 16-88; and Feriencik, "Slovenske prist'ahovalectvo," 21-22. (22) Culen, J . Slovensky, 91-96; and Feriencik, ''Slovenske prist'ahovalectvo,'' 22. (23) Ladislav Tajtak , "K zaciatkom Amerik<insko-Slovenskych Navin" (Concerning the Beginnings of Amerik<insko-Slovenske Noviny), in Josef Polisensky, ed . , Zai!iatky i!eskej a slovenskej emigr<icie do USA (The beginnings of Czech and Slovak Emigration to the U.S .A.), (Bratislava, 1970) 189. (24) Ibid., 191; and Culen, J. Slovensky, 123-126. (25) Prime Minister of Hungary to the governor of Spis, August 28, 1902, Slovak State Archives , Levoca, hlavny zupan (governor), 43, 1902. (26) N<irodnie noviny, 1896, No. 25, p . 3. (27) Ibid., April 19, 1890, pp. 1-2. (28) Mesaros, Dejiny Slovenska II, p. 539. (29) Konstantin Culen , Slovenske i!asopisy v Amerike (Slovak Newspapers in America), (Cleveland, 1970) 167. (30) Stefan Furdek to Frantisek Sasinek, December 11, 1900, Literary Archives of the Matica Slovenska in Martin (hereafter LAMS), 37-045; and Obrana (Cleveland), November 27, 1918, pp. 6-7. (31) Obrana, November 27, 1918, p. 7; and Rovnianek, Z<ipisky, 111. (32) Slovak vAmerike (New York), June 14, 1907, p. 3. (33) Jednota (Middletown, Pa.), July 22, 1914, p . 2; and Kritika (Cleveland), May 6, 1914, p. 5. (34) Pavel Svihra, " Nasi pionieri" (Our Pioneers), N<irodny Kalend<ir, 1930, 169. (35) Jan Nemetz to N<irodnie noviny, May 17 and June 20, 1897, LAMS, 37-054 and 37056. (36) Slovaks of Rockland Lake, N.Y. to N<irodnie noviny, May 5, 1898, LAMS, 37-056. (37) Ms. Society of Slovak Roman Catholic Priests Under the Protection of Sts. Cyril and Methodius, Minutes (in Slovak), September 1, 1903, Society of St. Vojtech, Trnava, fasc . 299, C, No . 14 (on microfilm also at the Immigrant Archives of the University of Minnesota). (38) Governor of Abauj County to all his subordinates, notice on Pan-Slavism, Slovak State Archives, Kosice, podfopan (vice-governor), X, 13051, 1905. � SLOVAKIA 13 Immigration and Eastern Slovak Nationalism M. MARK STOLARIK The Cleve/,a,nd State University Nineteenth century nationalism affected Slovaks both in Europe and in the United States. In its early stages this movement gripped people in all parts of northern Hungary. Later, the center of gravity shifted to central Slovakia while the east seemed doomed to Magyarization. Many eastern Slovaks who had moved to America, however, rediscovered their ethnic identity here and joined the struggle for national survival. European nationalism, which had its roots in the early Romantic period of the late eighteenth century, received a tremendous, if unexpected, boost from the reforms of Emperor Joseph II of Austria. Joseph, "that Convention in a single man" (1) who ruled the empire from 1780 to 1790, tried to modernize his realm with various reforms, including one that established German as the sole administrative language in his lands . This reform, among others, aroused the Magyar element of the nobility of Hungary, over which Joseph ruled, and set them on the road to national revival. They rejected German as the administrative language of Hungary and, starting in 1791, enacted through their Diet a series of laws which, by 1843, made Magyar the official language of their part of the empire. (2) This ethno-centrism destroyed the "a-national" (3) Hungarian kingdom which had previously employed Latin as the official language and turned it into a Magyar state that began to wage war upon all non-Magyar nationalities. Slovaks resisted attempts to assimilate them from the start. Even before the Magyars started fostering their own language, the Reverend Anton Bernolak codified the Slovak language and urged his countrymen to use it . His codification, which first appeared in print in 1787, utilized the western Slovak dialect and won wide acceptance among Catholics for the next fifty years. (4) Not only did western and central Slovak Catholics adopt Bernolak's codification, but their eastern counterparts accepted it as well. As Imrich Sedlak has recently shown, a group of Bernolak's fellow-priests in 1789 sent out an appeal from the Bratislava seminary to all Slovak nationalists to unite in a " Slovenske ucene tovarysstvo" (Slovak Literary Guild) which would promote Bernolak's reforms . Western, central and eastern Slovaks joined in this movement. Main branches of this learned society, which had its headquarters in the western city of Trnava, sprang up immediately in eastern communities such as Solivar, �14 SLOVAKIA Saris, and in central communities such as Roznava, Gerner, and Jager, now in Hungary. (5) In the 1820s other branches appeared in the eastern cities of Spisske Podhradie, Spis and Kosice, Abauj. (6) In the 1830s, student societies for the promotion of Slovak nationalism appeared also at the gymnasiums of Levoca and Kezmarok, Spis and Presov, and Saris. (7) While Bernolak' s codification did help to promote nationalism among Catholic Slovaks, it did not win wide acceptance among the Lutheran minority, nor among easterners. Lutherans continued using Old Czech, as found in their Bible, throughout the Bernolak era. Eastern Slovaks, when confronted with the choice between the western and central dialects, preferred central because they could better comprehend it. Perceiving this linguistic disunity, I.:udovit Stur, a Lutheran minister and professor at the Bratislava lyceum, decided to re-codify Slovak using the central dialect. He completed his work in 1846 and the students at the Levoca gymnasium immediately accepted it. Other eastern Slovak centers soon followed suit, as did most central and western ones, including those run by Catholics and Lutherans. (8) Therefore, by the middle of the nineteenth century, most Slovak intellectuals, whether from the east, west or center, were united in their support of the central dialect as the literary language of all the people. Slovak nationalism suffered its first setback in the 1848 revolution and continued to lose ground thereafter. As Julius Mesaros has pointed out, the followers of Stur participated in the 1848 revolution by fighting on the side of Vienna against Hungary, but certain rivals of Stur, led by the poet Jan Kollar, managed to win the approval of Vienna for their own cause, which was the use of Czech by the Slovaks. Vienna sanctioned the use of Czech in Slovak districts but only as a second language because the repressive regime of Alexander Bach, which lasted from 1849 to 1859, preferred to use German on all occasions. As a result, all nine gymnasiums in Hungary which had used Slovak as the language of instruction were Germanized by 1857. (9) From 1859 to 1867, while Vienna negotiated with Budapest about a possible accord between the Habsburgs and the Magyars, Slovak leaders took advantage of the relative freedom that prevailed and demanded recognition as a nation. In 1861, over 5,000 nationalists from all parts of the country met in Turciansky Sviity Martin in central Slovakia and drafted a "Memorandum of the Slovak Nation" to the Budapest Parliament. Besides demanding certain civil rights, they asked for home rule in the region called "Upper Hungary" . However, nobles who had promised to present this Memorandum to the Parliament backed down when they realized that its acceptance would mean a loss of their special privileges . The Magyars then merely denounced the Memorandum as "separatism" and ignored it. The only tangible achievement during this period of calm was the founding in �SLOVAKIA 15 1863 of the 'Matica Slovenska', a literary and cultural society with headquarters in Martin. For the next decade, it published hundreds of books and periodicals and became the coordinator and center of national life. (10) \ Slovak leaders next took advantage of a new order which prevailed between 1867 and 1872. In 1867 the Habsburgs and Magyars reached the famous 'Ausgleich' (Compromise) which divided the empire between them and left the Magyars supreme in Hungary. Under the relatively enlightened leadership of Francis Deak and Joseph Eotvos, the Hungarian Parliament in 1868 passed a "Law of Nationalities" which permitted, among other things, that the citizenry in all nonMagyar districts might use their mother tongue. Slovak Catholics immediately built a new gymnasium in Klastor pod Znievom and Lutherans built one in Turciansky Svaty Martin and enlarged one in Revuca. In 1869 Catholic Slovaks also established, after ten years of effort, the Society of St. Vojtech in Trnava, dedicated to publishing Catholic books and periodicals in the national language. (11) In 1873, after a change of leadership, the Magyars began to persecute the Slovaks. Bela Grunwald, vice-governor of the county of Zvolen, helped set up a "Magyar szovetseg" (Magyar Union) to Magyarize the nationalities. In addition, Grunwald petitioned Budapest "on behalfof the Slovak people" to close the three Slovak gymnasiums because they were "bastions of pan-Slavism". Led by Prime Minister Koloman Tisza, who declared in 1875 that ''there is no Slovak nation'', the Hungarian government seized the three new gymnasiums in 18741875 and had the 'Matica Slovenska' sacked in 1874. (12) Using the control of county governments which the 1867 Compromise had guaranteed them, the Magyars next attacked nationalist students and tried to disrupt the unity of the Slovak nation. In the 1880s county governments expelled fifty Slovaks from their gymnasiums, including seven from the Levoca and seven from the Presov institutions. In 1881, the government of Saris decided to test Bela Grunwald's Magyarization plans on the people of that country. And, as Ladislav Tajtak has shown, county officials began publishing books in the Saris dialect in the hope that this act would break eastern Slovaks off from the rest of their nation and make them easier to Magyarize. The plan seemed to be working in the 1880s; western and central Slovaks could find few nationalist leaders, books or newspapers in the eastern counties. (13) While the future of Slovak identity and unity seemed thus in jeopardy in Hungary, nationalist leaders took heart from events in America. In 1886, they learned from an American Magyar publication that Slovaks in Pittsburgh had begun to publish a newspaper. (14) It catered to eastern Slovaks from Saris and Zemplin, who had not one single periodical of their own in the Old Country. (15) Nationalists in Martin were delighted to learn that Slovaks in �16 SLOVAKIA America had begun " to read and like newspapers ." (16) This good news was followed by more. In 1890 a Magyarone priest in the United States indignantly wrote to a Budapest newspaper that American Slovaks were turning into ' 'Pan-Slavs'', and that they were not heeding the call to stay loyal to Hungary which he expounded in his newspaper. (17) Eastern Slovaks in America became nationalists largely through the efforts of one man, Peter V. Rovnianek, a native of Trencin county, central Slovakia, who had studied theology at the Budapest Roman Catholic seminary before being expelled in 1887 for "Pan-Slavism". After having visited with national leaders in Turciansky Svaty Martin, Rovnianek made his way to America in response to a call by the Bishop of Cleveland for a priest for the local Slovak community. (18) Shortly after his acceptance into the Cleveland seminary in September of 1888, Rovnianek began to contribute articles to Nova Vlast' (New Homeland), a weekly publication in the central dialect by Edo Schwarz-Markovic, a former police captain of Levoca, who had become a nationalist in America. (19) Markovic, however, had strong competition from the much larger weekly Amerikansko-Slovenske Noviny (American Slovak News). Rovnianek realized that if he was to convert eastern Slovaks to nationalism, then he would have to do it in the larger and more popular newspaper. (20) The publishers of Amerikansko-Slovenske Noviny, the first Slovak newspaper in America, did not start out as nationalists. Jan Slovensky and Julius Wolf, cousins of mixed German-Slovak parentage from the county of Spis in the eastern region, came to America as loyal citizens of Hungary. They had both studied at the Magyarized teachers' college at Klastor pod Znievom in central Slovakia and, upon graduation in 1879, decided to go lion-hunting in Africa. Unscrupulous immigration agents placed them, instead, on a ship bound for New York and soon both men found themselves working in the coal mines of Pennsylvania. Very shortly thereafter Slovensky took a job as ''information officer'' at the Austro-Hungarian consulate in Pittsburgh while Julius Wolf worked in a grocery store. (21) At the consulate Slovensky came into daily contact with eastern Slovaks seeking news from the Old Country. He tired of answering their many questions and decided to post a weekly Bulletin of all the information that he had from home. So popular did this publication become that he began distributing it in the local saloons in order to keep Slovaks from swamping the consulate every week. Perceiving the possibility of financial rewards, Slovensky then joined Wolf in establishing in the fall of 1886 AmerikanskoSlovenske Noviny . The paper employed the eas'tern Slovak dialect and Magyar orthography because the editors had never studied central Slovak and they were not nationalists . (22) Ladislav Tajtak speculated that had Slovensky and Wolf not met P . V. Rovnianek and come into · financial difficulty in 1889, the newspaper might very well have �SLOVAKIA 17 retained its eastern dialect and its pro-Hungarian stance. (23) Rovnianek converted the publishers of Amerikcinsko-Slovenske Noviny to the Slovak national cause. He began by contributing articles in central Slovak, and, despite some protests in letters to the editor, Slovensky published the~ as submitted. Rovnianek then urged the editors to publish the entire newspaper in the literary language for the sake of national unity. Slovensky and Wolf remained unconvinced until 1889. That year their printery burned down and they needed a large sum of money to rebuild it. Rovnianek then left the seminary, contributed some money to the building fund and entered into partnership with Slovensky and Wolf. Finally, Rovnianek persuaded them to make him editor. From then on all articles in the newspaper appeared in central Slovak and the editorials persistently decried Magyar oppression in the homeland. (24) Hungarian government officials subsequently labeled him a "pernicious and dangerous Pan-Slav agitator". (25) After Rovnianek succeeded in converting Amerikcinsko-Slovenske Noviny to the literary language, most other Slovak newspapers in America followed suit. Leaders in the Old Country proudly observed in 1896 that American Slovaks, who had come from the most Magyarized counties of Hungary (eastern Slovakia), supported thirteen newspapers and not one appeared in the eastern dialect. (26) Certain American Slovak leaders, however, remained unconvinced and tried to foster the use of the outmoded dialect. The Magyarone priest Jozef Kossalko, for instance, published a weekly Zcistava (Flag) in eastern Slovakia in 1889 in order to combat the influence of Rovnianek' s paper. (27) Since he found very few subscribers, his paper folded after nine months. A group of Slovak socialists in Jersey City tried in 1892 to establish a weekly Robotnik (Worker) using the eastern dialect but it survived for only a few months. (28) The weekly Slebodni Orel (Free Eagle) of New York, published with the support of Father Imrich Haitinger of Passaic, a Magyarone colleague of Jozef Kossalko, also utilized the Saris dialect and had a shaky run of four years. It ceased publication in 1904. (29) Even Father Matus Jankola, president in 1900 of the First Catholic Slovak Union, and Albert Mamatey, president in 1918 of the Slovak League of America (both central Slovak nationalists), mistakenly believed that eastern Slovaks would rather read newspapers in their own dialect. (30) P. V. Rovnianek fought all such attempts, believing it would destroy the unity of the Slovak nation to publish in any other but the literary language. Rovnianek also opposed attempts at codifying eastern Slovak. (31) More importantly, eastern Slovak laymen in America also opposed writing in their own dialect . A certain "Malcicky from Zemplin" explained to his intellectual superiors that ''Germans have a large number of dialects and yet use only one literary form to preserve their unity;" therefore, "American editors are wrong in trying to publish in �18 SLOVAKIA eastern Slovak dialects." (32) Another even denounced his former schoolteacher in the village of Budimir, Saris, who had arrogantly written in eastern Slovak to accuse him of being a ''Pan-Slav scoundrel. '' Matik replied in central Slovak that his friends in Budimir would fight the Magyars and Magyarones to the bitter end and he bitingly asked this teacher how he could have forgotten his origins so quickly. (33) Besides affirming their nationalism, many from the eastern counties also acted it out. An immigrant from Liptov, one of the most nationalist of Slovak counties, reported that in 1890, three years after his arrival in America, a group of Saris natives persuaded him to join the National Slovak Society. (34) A little later a group of easterners in Passaic wrote a letter in their native dialect to the nationalists in Turciansky Svaty Martin and asked for central Slovak books and hymnals for their newly-established library. (35) Even more surprisingly, two lodges of Rockland Lake, New York, resolved to foster the literary form and sent money to N<irodne noviny (National News) in Martin to help their brethren do the same. And yet the officers communicated this information in eastern Slovak because they had not learned the dialect which had become the national symbol, but they promised to do so. (36) American-Slovak priests as well as the Hungarian government recognized the triumph of nationalism among eastern Slovaks in the United States. In 1903, at a meeting of the "Society of Slovak Roman Catholic Priests," in Philadelphia, delegates resolved to preach henceforth in the central dialect in order to keep the nation united. Such a resolution, passed in the presence of the Magyarone priest Imrich Haitinger, could never have succeeded had not the overwhelming number of eastern Slovak laymen supported it. (37) The Hungarian government concurred and unwittingly complimented easterners in the United States by declaring that "one stream of PanSlavism comes from Turciansky Svaty Martin and the other from America." (38) Slovak nationalism manifested itself, then, not only in Hungary but also in America; and it affected not only central and western but also eastern Slovaks. In the early stages of-its growth, leaders in all sections of northern Hungary presented a united front. In the second half of the nineteenth century, however, the Magyars concentrated upon splitting off eastern Slovakia from the movement and by the 1880's appeared to be winning .that objective, partly by publishing books in the regional dialect. However, eastern Slovaks who had migrated to America accepted P. V. Rovnianek's urgings to use central Slovak as their literary language. After 1890 they rejected Magyarone and even some misguided central Slovak suggestions to codify the eastern dialect and to publish in it. Therefore, while central Slovaks �SLOVAKIA 19 formed the bulwark against Magyarization in the Old Country, eastern Slovaks did so in America. FOOTNOTES \ (1) A. J . P . Taylor, The Habsburg Mnnarchy, 1809-1918 (New York, 1948), 19. (2) R. W. Seton-Watson, A History of the Czechs and Slovaks (London, 1943), 257-60. (3) George Barany, "Hoping against Hope: The Enlightened Age in Hungary," American Historical Review, 76 (April, 1971), 347. (4) Jan Tibensky, "Fonnovanie sa ideol6gie slovenskej feudalnej narodnosti a burzoazneho naroda " (The Forming of the Ideology of the Slovak Feudal Nation and of the Bougeois Nation), Historicky tasopis, XIX (No. 4, 1971), 585. (5) Imrich Sedlak, Strieborny uek: narodno-kulturny a literarny pohyb na u-jchodnom Slouensku u obdobi ntirodneho obrodenia (The Silver Age : The National Cultural and Literary Movement in Eastern Slovakia During the National Awakening), (2 Vols., Kosice, 1970) I, 33-46. (6) Ibid., 91-104. (7) Ibid., 135-51. (8) Ibid., 177-88 and 224-33; see also Seton-Watson, History of the Czechs and Slovaks, 259-61. (9) Julius Mesaros et. al., Dejiny Slouenska II: od roku 1848 do roku 1900 (A History of Slovakia, II: From 1848 to 1900) , (Bratislava, 1968) 102-112. (10) " Memorandum naroda slovenskeho k vysokemu snemu krajiny uhorskej ... " (Memorandum of the Slovak Nation to the High Parliament of Hungary .. . ), in Dr. Vacovsky (Milan Ivanka), Slouaci a Macfari: politicko-historicka uuaha (The Slovaks and the Magyars: A Politico-Historical Dissertation) , (Pittsburgh, 1914) 113-23; and Mesaros, Dejiny Slouenska II, 179-200. (11) Scotus Viator (R. W . Seton-Watson) , Racial Problems in Hungary (London, 1908), 136-56; Mesaros, Dejiny Slouenska II, 264; and Jan Poestenyi, Dejiny Spolku su. Vojtecha (History of the Society of St. Vojtech) , (Trnava, 1930) 5-17. (12) Scotus Viator, Racial Problems in Hungary, 167; Mesaros, Dejiny Slouenska II, 27281. (13) Narodnie nouiny (Martin), September 30, 1882, p . l; Ladislav Tajtak, "K otazke vydavania ucebnic vo vychodoslovenskom nareci" (Concerning the Question of the Publication of Textbooks in the Eastern Slovak Dialect), Noue Obzory, VI (1964), 4364; and Mesaros, Dejiny Slouenska II, 289-93. (14) Amerikai Nemzetoei, as quoted in Narodnie nouiny, October 26, 1886, p. 3. (15) Ntirodnie nouiny, November 3, 1886, p. 1. (16) Ibid., August 27, 1887, pp. 1-2 . (17) Jozef Kossalko in Budapesti Hirlap as reprinted in Narodnie nouiny, April 19, 1890, pp. 1-2. (18) P. V. Rovnianek, Zapisky za iiua pochouaneho (Notes of One Buried Alive), (Pittsburgh, 1924) 14-51. (19) J . A. Feriencik, "Slovenske prist'ahovalectvo a slovenska spisba v Amerike" (Slovak Immigration and Slovak Literature in America) , Sbornik Narodneho Slouenskeho Spolku, I (1915), 22. (20) Ibid., 22 and 24; and Konstantin Culen, J. Slouensk-j: Ziuotopis zakladatefapru-jch slouensk-jch nouin u Amerike (J. Slovensky: A Biography of the Founder of the First Slovak Newspaper in America), (Winnipeg, 1954) 105, 116-117. �20 SLOVAKIA (21) Culen, J. Slovensky, 16-88; and Feriencik, "Slovenske prist'ahovalectvo," 21-22. (22) Culen, J . Slovensky, 91-96; and Feriencik, ''Slovenske prist'ahovalectvo,'' 22. (23) Ladislav Tajtak , "K zaciatkom Amerik<insko-Slovenskych Navin" (Concerning the Beginnings of Amerik<insko-Slovenske Noviny), in Josef Polisensky, ed . , Zai!iatky i!eskej a slovenskej emigr<icie do USA (The beginnings of Czech and Slovak Emigration to the U.S .A.), (Bratislava, 1970) 189. (24) Ibid., 191; and Culen, J. Slovensky, 123-126. (25) Prime Minister of Hungary to the governor of Spis, August 28, 1902, Slovak State Archives , Levoca, hlavny zupan (governor), 43, 1902. (26) N<irodnie noviny, 1896, No. 25, p . 3. (27) Ibid., April 19, 1890, pp. 1-2. (28) Mesaros, Dejiny Slovenska II, p. 539. (29) Konstantin Culen , Slovenske i!asopisy v Amerike (Slovak Newspapers in America), (Cleveland, 1970) 167. (30) Stefan Furdek to Frantisek Sasinek, December 11, 1900, Literary Archives of the Matica Slovenska in Martin (hereafter LAMS), 37-045; and Obrana (Cleveland), November 27, 1918, pp. 6-7. (31) Obrana, November 27, 1918, p. 7; and Rovnianek, Z<ipisky, 111. (32) Slovak vAmerike (New York), June 14, 1907, p. 3. (33) Jednota (Middletown, Pa.), July 22, 1914, p . 2; and Kritika (Cleveland), May 6, 1914, p. 5. (34) Pavel Svihra, " Nasi pionieri" (Our Pioneers), N<irodny Kalend<ir, 1930, 169. (35) Jan Nemetz to N<irodnie noviny, May 17 and June 20, 1897, LAMS, 37-054 and 37056. (36) Slovaks of Rockland Lake, N.Y. to N<irodnie noviny, May 5, 1898, LAMS, 37-056. (37) Ms. Society of Slovak Roman Catholic Priests Under the Protection of Sts. Cyril and Methodius, Minutes (in Slovak), September 1, 1903, Society of St. Vojtech, Trnava, fasc . 299, C, No . 14 (on microfilm also at the Immigrant Archives of the University of Minnesota). (38) Governor of Abauj County to all his subordinates, notice on Pan-Slavism, Slovak State Archives, Kosice, podfopan (vice-governor), X, 13051, 1905. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1976, Vol. 26 Description An account of the resource Vol. 26 (No. 49), 1976. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1976 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document SLOVAKIA 13 Immigration and Eastern Slovak Nationalism M. MARK STOLARIK The Cleve/,a,nd State University Nineteenth century nationalism affected Slovaks both in Europe and in the United States. In its early stages this movement gripped people in all parts of northern Hungary. Later, the center of gravity shifted to central Slovakia while the east seemed doomed to Magyarization. Many eastern Slovaks who had moved to America, however, rediscovered their ethnic identity here and joined the struggle for national survival. European nationalism, which had its roots in the early Romantic period of the late eighteenth century, received a tremendous, if unexpected, boost from the reforms of Emperor Joseph II of Austria. Joseph, "that Convention in a single man" (1) who ruled the empire from 1780 to 1790, tried to modernize his realm with various reforms, including one that established German as the sole administrative language in his lands . This reform, among others, aroused the Magyar element of the nobility of Hungary, over which Joseph ruled, and set them on the road to national revival. They rejected German as the administrative language of Hungary and, starting in 1791, enacted through their Diet a series of laws which, by 1843, made Magyar the official language of their part of the empire. (2) This ethno-centrism destroyed the "a-national" (3) Hungarian kingdom which had previously employed Latin as the official language and turned it into a Magyar state that began to wage war upon all non-Magyar nationalities. Slovaks resisted attempts to assimilate them from the start. Even before the Magyars started fostering their own language, the Reverend Anton Bernolak codified the Slovak language and urged his countrymen to use it . His codification, which first appeared in print in 1787, utilized the western Slovak dialect and won wide acceptance among Catholics for the next fifty years. (4) Not only did western and central Slovak Catholics adopt Bernolak's codification, but their eastern counterparts accepted it as well. As Imrich Sedlak has recently shown, a group of Bernolak's fellow-priests in 1789 sent out an appeal from the Bratislava seminary to all Slovak nationalists to unite in a " Slovenske ucene tovarysstvo" (Slovak Literary Guild) which would promote Bernolak's reforms . Western, central and eastern Slovaks joined in this movement. Main branches of this learned society, which had its headquarters in the western city of Trnava, sprang up immediately in eastern communities such as Solivar, 14 SLOVAKIA Saris, and in central communities such as Roznava, Gerner, and Jager, now in Hungary. (5) In the 1820s other branches appeared in the eastern cities of Spisske Podhradie, Spis and Kosice, Abauj. (6) In the 1830s, student societies for the promotion of Slovak nationalism appeared also at the gymnasiums of Levoca and Kezmarok, Spis and Presov, and Saris. (7) While Bernolak' s codification did help to promote nationalism among Catholic Slovaks, it did not win wide acceptance among the Lutheran minority, nor among easterners. Lutherans continued using Old Czech, as found in their Bible, throughout the Bernolak era. Eastern Slovaks, when confronted with the choice between the western and central dialects, preferred central because they could better comprehend it. Perceiving this linguistic disunity, I.:udovit Stur, a Lutheran minister and professor at the Bratislava lyceum, decided to re-codify Slovak using the central dialect. He completed his work in 1846 and the students at the Levoca gymnasium immediately accepted it. Other eastern Slovak centers soon followed suit, as did most central and western ones, including those run by Catholics and Lutherans. (8) Therefore, by the middle of the nineteenth century, most Slovak intellectuals, whether from the east, west or center, were united in their support of the central dialect as the literary language of all the people. Slovak nationalism suffered its first setback in the 1848 revolution and continued to lose ground thereafter. As Julius Mesaros has pointed out, the followers of Stur participated in the 1848 revolution by fighting on the side of Vienna against Hungary, but certain rivals of Stur, led by the poet Jan Kollar, managed to win the approval of Vienna for their own cause, which was the use of Czech by the Slovaks. Vienna sanctioned the use of Czech in Slovak districts but only as a second language because the repressive regime of Alexander Bach, which lasted from 1849 to 1859, preferred to use German on all occasions. As a result, all nine gymnasiums in Hungary which had used Slovak as the language of instruction were Germanized by 1857. (9) From 1859 to 1867, while Vienna negotiated with Budapest about a possible accord between the Habsburgs and the Magyars, Slovak leaders took advantage of the relative freedom that prevailed and demanded recognition as a nation. In 1861, over 5,000 nationalists from all parts of the country met in Turciansky Sviity Martin in central Slovakia and drafted a "Memorandum of the Slovak Nation" to the Budapest Parliament. Besides demanding certain civil rights, they asked for home rule in the region called "Upper Hungary" . However, nobles who had promised to present this Memorandum to the Parliament backed down when they realized that its acceptance would mean a loss of their special privileges . The Magyars then merely denounced the Memorandum as "separatism" and ignored it. The only tangible achievement during this period of calm was the founding in SLOVAKIA 15 1863 of the 'Matica Slovenska', a literary and cultural society with headquarters in Martin. For the next decade, it published hundreds of books and periodicals and became the coordinator and center of national life. (10) \ Slovak leaders next took advantage of a new order which prevailed between 1867 and 1872. In 1867 the Habsburgs and Magyars reached the famous 'Ausgleich' (Compromise) which divided the empire between them and left the Magyars supreme in Hungary. Under the relatively enlightened leadership of Francis Deak and Joseph Eotvos, the Hungarian Parliament in 1868 passed a "Law of Nationalities" which permitted, among other things, that the citizenry in all nonMagyar districts might use their mother tongue. Slovak Catholics immediately built a new gymnasium in Klastor pod Znievom and Lutherans built one in Turciansky Svaty Martin and enlarged one in Revuca. In 1869 Catholic Slovaks also established, after ten years of effort, the Society of St. Vojtech in Trnava, dedicated to publishing Catholic books and periodicals in the national language. (11) In 1873, after a change of leadership, the Magyars began to persecute the Slovaks. Bela Grunwald, vice-governor of the county of Zvolen, helped set up a "Magyar szovetseg" (Magyar Union) to Magyarize the nationalities. In addition, Grunwald petitioned Budapest "on behalfof the Slovak people" to close the three Slovak gymnasiums because they were "bastions of pan-Slavism". Led by Prime Minister Koloman Tisza, who declared in 1875 that ''there is no Slovak nation'', the Hungarian government seized the three new gymnasiums in 18741875 and had the 'Matica Slovenska' sacked in 1874. (12) Using the control of county governments which the 1867 Compromise had guaranteed them, the Magyars next attacked nationalist students and tried to disrupt the unity of the Slovak nation. In the 1880s county governments expelled fifty Slovaks from their gymnasiums, including seven from the Levoca and seven from the Presov institutions. In 1881, the government of Saris decided to test Bela Grunwald's Magyarization plans on the people of that country. And, as Ladislav Tajtak has shown, county officials began publishing books in the Saris dialect in the hope that this act would break eastern Slovaks off from the rest of their nation and make them easier to Magyarize. The plan seemed to be working in the 1880s; western and central Slovaks could find few nationalist leaders, books or newspapers in the eastern counties. (13) While the future of Slovak identity and unity seemed thus in jeopardy in Hungary, nationalist leaders took heart from events in America. In 1886, they learned from an American Magyar publication that Slovaks in Pittsburgh had begun to publish a newspaper. (14) It catered to eastern Slovaks from Saris and Zemplin, who had not one single periodical of their own in the Old Country. (15) Nationalists in Martin were delighted to learn that Slovaks in 16 SLOVAKIA America had begun " to read and like newspapers ." (16) This good news was followed by more. In 1890 a Magyarone priest in the United States indignantly wrote to a Budapest newspaper that American Slovaks were turning into ' 'Pan-Slavs'', and that they were not heeding the call to stay loyal to Hungary which he expounded in his newspaper. (17) Eastern Slovaks in America became nationalists largely through the efforts of one man, Peter V. Rovnianek, a native of Trencin county, central Slovakia, who had studied theology at the Budapest Roman Catholic seminary before being expelled in 1887 for "Pan-Slavism". After having visited with national leaders in Turciansky Svaty Martin, Rovnianek made his way to America in response to a call by the Bishop of Cleveland for a priest for the local Slovak community. (18) Shortly after his acceptance into the Cleveland seminary in September of 1888, Rovnianek began to contribute articles to Nova Vlast' (New Homeland), a weekly publication in the central dialect by Edo Schwarz-Markovic, a former police captain of Levoca, who had become a nationalist in America. (19) Markovic, however, had strong competition from the much larger weekly Amerikansko-Slovenske Noviny (American Slovak News). Rovnianek realized that if he was to convert eastern Slovaks to nationalism, then he would have to do it in the larger and more popular newspaper. (20) The publishers of Amerikansko-Slovenske Noviny, the first Slovak newspaper in America, did not start out as nationalists. Jan Slovensky and Julius Wolf, cousins of mixed German-Slovak parentage from the county of Spis in the eastern region, came to America as loyal citizens of Hungary. They had both studied at the Magyarized teachers' college at Klastor pod Znievom in central Slovakia and, upon graduation in 1879, decided to go lion-hunting in Africa. Unscrupulous immigration agents placed them, instead, on a ship bound for New York and soon both men found themselves working in the coal mines of Pennsylvania. Very shortly thereafter Slovensky took a job as ''information officer'' at the Austro-Hungarian consulate in Pittsburgh while Julius Wolf worked in a grocery store. (21) At the consulate Slovensky came into daily contact with eastern Slovaks seeking news from the Old Country. He tired of answering their many questions and decided to post a weekly Bulletin of all the information that he had from home. So popular did this publication become that he began distributing it in the local saloons in order to keep Slovaks from swamping the consulate every week. Perceiving the possibility of financial rewards, Slovensky then joined Wolf in establishing in the fall of 1886 AmerikanskoSlovenske Noviny . The paper employed the eas'tern Slovak dialect and Magyar orthography because the editors had never studied central Slovak and they were not nationalists . (22) Ladislav Tajtak speculated that had Slovensky and Wolf not met P . V. Rovnianek and come into · financial difficulty in 1889, the newspaper might very well have SLOVAKIA 17 retained its eastern dialect and its pro-Hungarian stance. (23) Rovnianek converted the publishers of Amerikcinsko-Slovenske Noviny to the Slovak national cause. He began by contributing articles in central Slovak, and, despite some protests in letters to the editor, Slovensky published the~ as submitted. Rovnianek then urged the editors to publish the entire newspaper in the literary language for the sake of national unity. Slovensky and Wolf remained unconvinced until 1889. That year their printery burned down and they needed a large sum of money to rebuild it. Rovnianek then left the seminary, contributed some money to the building fund and entered into partnership with Slovensky and Wolf. Finally, Rovnianek persuaded them to make him editor. From then on all articles in the newspaper appeared in central Slovak and the editorials persistently decried Magyar oppression in the homeland. (24) Hungarian government officials subsequently labeled him a "pernicious and dangerous Pan-Slav agitator". (25) After Rovnianek succeeded in converting Amerikcinsko-Slovenske Noviny to the literary language, most other Slovak newspapers in America followed suit. Leaders in the Old Country proudly observed in 1896 that American Slovaks, who had come from the most Magyarized counties of Hungary (eastern Slovakia), supported thirteen newspapers and not one appeared in the eastern dialect. (26) Certain American Slovak leaders, however, remained unconvinced and tried to foster the use of the outmoded dialect. The Magyarone priest Jozef Kossalko, for instance, published a weekly Zcistava (Flag) in eastern Slovakia in 1889 in order to combat the influence of Rovnianek' s paper. (27) Since he found very few subscribers, his paper folded after nine months. A group of Slovak socialists in Jersey City tried in 1892 to establish a weekly Robotnik (Worker) using the eastern dialect but it survived for only a few months. (28) The weekly Slebodni Orel (Free Eagle) of New York, published with the support of Father Imrich Haitinger of Passaic, a Magyarone colleague of Jozef Kossalko, also utilized the Saris dialect and had a shaky run of four years. It ceased publication in 1904. (29) Even Father Matus Jankola, president in 1900 of the First Catholic Slovak Union, and Albert Mamatey, president in 1918 of the Slovak League of America (both central Slovak nationalists), mistakenly believed that eastern Slovaks would rather read newspapers in their own dialect. (30) P. V. Rovnianek fought all such attempts, believing it would destroy the unity of the Slovak nation to publish in any other but the literary language. Rovnianek also opposed attempts at codifying eastern Slovak. (31) More importantly, eastern Slovak laymen in America also opposed writing in their own dialect . A certain "Malcicky from Zemplin" explained to his intellectual superiors that ''Germans have a large number of dialects and yet use only one literary form to preserve their unity;" therefore, "American editors are wrong in trying to publish in 18 SLOVAKIA eastern Slovak dialects." (32) Another even denounced his former schoolteacher in the village of Budimir, Saris, who had arrogantly written in eastern Slovak to accuse him of being a ''Pan-Slav scoundrel. '' Matik replied in central Slovak that his friends in Budimir would fight the Magyars and Magyarones to the bitter end and he bitingly asked this teacher how he could have forgotten his origins so quickly. (33) Besides affirming their nationalism, many from the eastern counties also acted it out. An immigrant from Liptov, one of the most nationalist of Slovak counties, reported that in 1890, three years after his arrival in America, a group of Saris natives persuaded him to join the National Slovak Society. (34) A little later a group of easterners in Passaic wrote a letter in their native dialect to the nationalists in Turciansky Svaty Martin and asked for central Slovak books and hymnals for their newly-established library. (35) Even more surprisingly, two lodges of Rockland Lake, New York, resolved to foster the literary form and sent money to N<irodne noviny (National News) in Martin to help their brethren do the same. And yet the officers communicated this information in eastern Slovak because they had not learned the dialect which had become the national symbol, but they promised to do so. (36) American-Slovak priests as well as the Hungarian government recognized the triumph of nationalism among eastern Slovaks in the United States. In 1903, at a meeting of the "Society of Slovak Roman Catholic Priests," in Philadelphia, delegates resolved to preach henceforth in the central dialect in order to keep the nation united. Such a resolution, passed in the presence of the Magyarone priest Imrich Haitinger, could never have succeeded had not the overwhelming number of eastern Slovak laymen supported it. (37) The Hungarian government concurred and unwittingly complimented easterners in the United States by declaring that "one stream of PanSlavism comes from Turciansky Svaty Martin and the other from America." (38) Slovak nationalism manifested itself, then, not only in Hungary but also in America; and it affected not only central and western but also eastern Slovaks. In the early stages of-its growth, leaders in all sections of northern Hungary presented a united front. In the second half of the nineteenth century, however, the Magyars concentrated upon splitting off eastern Slovakia from the movement and by the 1880's appeared to be winning .that objective, partly by publishing books in the regional dialect. However, eastern Slovaks who had migrated to America accepted P. V. Rovnianek's urgings to use central Slovak as their literary language. After 1890 they rejected Magyarone and even some misguided central Slovak suggestions to codify the eastern dialect and to publish in it. Therefore, while central Slovaks SLOVAKIA 19 formed the bulwark against Magyarization in the Old Country, eastern Slovaks did so in America. FOOTNOTES \ (1) A. J . P . Taylor, The Habsburg Mnnarchy, 1809-1918 (New York, 1948), 19. (2) R. W. Seton-Watson, A History of the Czechs and Slovaks (London, 1943), 257-60. (3) George Barany, "Hoping against Hope: The Enlightened Age in Hungary," American Historical Review, 76 (April, 1971), 347. (4) Jan Tibensky, "Fonnovanie sa ideol6gie slovenskej feudalnej narodnosti a burzoazneho naroda " (The Forming of the Ideology of the Slovak Feudal Nation and of the Bougeois Nation), Historicky tasopis, XIX (No. 4, 1971), 585. (5) Imrich Sedlak, Strieborny uek: narodno-kulturny a literarny pohyb na u-jchodnom Slouensku u obdobi ntirodneho obrodenia (The Silver Age : The National Cultural and Literary Movement in Eastern Slovakia During the National Awakening), (2 Vols., Kosice, 1970) I, 33-46. (6) Ibid., 91-104. (7) Ibid., 135-51. (8) Ibid., 177-88 and 224-33; see also Seton-Watson, History of the Czechs and Slovaks, 259-61. (9) Julius Mesaros et. al., Dejiny Slouenska II: od roku 1848 do roku 1900 (A History of Slovakia, II: From 1848 to 1900) , (Bratislava, 1968) 102-112. (10) " Memorandum naroda slovenskeho k vysokemu snemu krajiny uhorskej ... " (Memorandum of the Slovak Nation to the High Parliament of Hungary .. . ), in Dr. Vacovsky (Milan Ivanka), Slouaci a Macfari: politicko-historicka uuaha (The Slovaks and the Magyars: A Politico-Historical Dissertation) , (Pittsburgh, 1914) 113-23; and Mesaros, Dejiny Slouenska II, 179-200. (11) Scotus Viator (R. W . Seton-Watson) , Racial Problems in Hungary (London, 1908), 136-56; Mesaros, Dejiny Slouenska II, 264; and Jan Poestenyi, Dejiny Spolku su. Vojtecha (History of the Society of St. Vojtech) , (Trnava, 1930) 5-17. (12) Scotus Viator, Racial Problems in Hungary, 167; Mesaros, Dejiny Slouenska II, 27281. (13) Narodnie nouiny (Martin), September 30, 1882, p . l; Ladislav Tajtak, "K otazke vydavania ucebnic vo vychodoslovenskom nareci" (Concerning the Question of the Publication of Textbooks in the Eastern Slovak Dialect), Noue Obzory, VI (1964), 4364; and Mesaros, Dejiny Slouenska II, 289-93. (14) Amerikai Nemzetoei, as quoted in Narodnie nouiny, October 26, 1886, p. 3. (15) Ntirodnie nouiny, November 3, 1886, p. 1. (16) Ibid., August 27, 1887, pp. 1-2 . (17) Jozef Kossalko in Budapesti Hirlap as reprinted in Narodnie nouiny, April 19, 1890, pp. 1-2. (18) P. V. Rovnianek, Zapisky za iiua pochouaneho (Notes of One Buried Alive), (Pittsburgh, 1924) 14-51. (19) J . A. Feriencik, "Slovenske prist'ahovalectvo a slovenska spisba v Amerike" (Slovak Immigration and Slovak Literature in America) , Sbornik Narodneho Slouenskeho Spolku, I (1915), 22. (20) Ibid., 22 and 24; and Konstantin Culen, J. Slouensk-j: Ziuotopis zakladatefapru-jch slouensk-jch nouin u Amerike (J. Slovensky: A Biography of the Founder of the First Slovak Newspaper in America), (Winnipeg, 1954) 105, 116-117. 20 SLOVAKIA (21) Culen, J. Slovensky, 16-88; and Feriencik, "Slovenske prist'ahovalectvo," 21-22. (22) Culen, J . Slovensky, 91-96; and Feriencik, ''Slovenske prist'ahovalectvo,'' 22. (23) Ladislav Tajtak , "K zaciatkom Amerik<insko-Slovenskych Navin" (Concerning the Beginnings of Amerik<insko-Slovenske Noviny), in Josef Polisensky, ed . , Zai!iatky i!eskej a slovenskej emigr<icie do USA (The beginnings of Czech and Slovak Emigration to the U.S .A.), (Bratislava, 1970) 189. (24) Ibid., 191; and Culen, J. Slovensky, 123-126. (25) Prime Minister of Hungary to the governor of Spis, August 28, 1902, Slovak State Archives , Levoca, hlavny zupan (governor), 43, 1902. (26) N<irodnie noviny, 1896, No. 25, p . 3. (27) Ibid., April 19, 1890, pp. 1-2. (28) Mesaros, Dejiny Slovenska II, p. 539. (29) Konstantin Culen , Slovenske i!asopisy v Amerike (Slovak Newspapers in America), (Cleveland, 1970) 167. (30) Stefan Furdek to Frantisek Sasinek, December 11, 1900, Literary Archives of the Matica Slovenska in Martin (hereafter LAMS), 37-045; and Obrana (Cleveland), November 27, 1918, pp. 6-7. (31) Obrana, November 27, 1918, p. 7; and Rovnianek, Z<ipisky, 111. (32) Slovak vAmerike (New York), June 14, 1907, p. 3. (33) Jednota (Middletown, Pa.), July 22, 1914, p . 2; and Kritika (Cleveland), May 6, 1914, p. 5. (34) Pavel Svihra, " Nasi pionieri" (Our Pioneers), N<irodny Kalend<ir, 1930, 169. (35) Jan Nemetz to N<irodnie noviny, May 17 and June 20, 1897, LAMS, 37-054 and 37056. (36) Slovaks of Rockland Lake, N.Y. to N<irodnie noviny, May 5, 1898, LAMS, 37-056. (37) Ms. Society of Slovak Roman Catholic Priests Under the Protection of Sts. Cyril and Methodius, Minutes (in Slovak), September 1, 1903, Society of St. Vojtech, Trnava, fasc . 299, C, No . 14 (on microfilm also at the Immigrant Archives of the University of Minnesota). (38) Governor of Abauj County to all his subordinates, notice on Pan-Slavism, Slovak State Archives, Kosice, podfopan (vice-governor), X, 13051, 1905.  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Immigration and Eastern Slovak Nationalism Description An account of the resource M . Mark Stolarik Slovakia, Vol. 26 (No. 49), 1976 pp. 13-20 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Stolarik, M. Mark, 1943- Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1976 LCNAF https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/293943c0b83f61cc8975d8cf3f6e79af.pdf 507d35d0db53abcb327341f0ff214eca PDF Text Text 80 SLOVAKIA Immigration, Education and the Social Mobility of Slovaks, 1870-1930* M. MARK STOLARIK In the last few decades the social mobility of ethnic groups in American society has drawn the attention of numerous scholars from a variety of disciplines. Their research has raised some important questions about the nature and meaning of this phenomenon. Particularly influential has been the work of the sociologists Seymour Martin Lipset and Reinhard Bendix. In their Social Mobility in Industrial Society, (1) Lipset and Bendix demonstrated that moving up or down the socio-economic ladder was an integral and continuing aspect of the process of industrialization. They did not explain, however, what caused some people to move up, others to remain where they were and others still to move down. Josef Barton, trained in both history and sociology, sought to answer these questions by comparing the relative rates of movement of three ethnic groups in Cleveland in Peasants and Strangers: Italians, Rumanians and Slovaks in an American City, 18901950. (2) Barton found that education, family size and the occupation of the father played a pivotal role in the traditional American '' success story." The Rumanians, who came from peasant backgrounds similar to that of the Slovaks and Italians, stressed extended public education for their children, they limited the size of their families and their fathers tended to move from blue-collar to white-collar occupations more often than did Italians or Slovaks. As a result, more than fifty per cent of Rumanian children moved from manual to non-manual employment in the period 1900-1950 while less than twenty per cent of Italians and Slovaks did so. (3) What Barton did not explain was why the Rumanians had such a strong commitment to education, to small families and why the fathers were so mobile in contrast to Italians and Slovaks. Part of the answer lies, I submit, in the Old World background of the various groups and • This paper was presented to the Bicentennial Symposium on "Religious Freedom: Churches and Ethnic Communities in the American City, " at Saint Joseph's College, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, September 21 , 1975. Reprinted from Immigrants and Religion in Urban America, (edited by Randall Miller and Thomas Marzik, copyright 1977) with the kind permission of the original publisher, Temple University Press, Philadelphia, Pa. �SLOVAKIA 81 in their attitude towards life as molded by their religions. To illustrate this hypothesis the Slovak experience will be examined in detail. Before the mass migration of Slovaks to America began in the 1880's, lay leaders in the Old World had stressed the value of education for social mobility and their people seemed to agree with them. As early as 1845, for example, Jan Cipka, a student at Vienna's polytechnic institute, anticipated the abolition of serfdom and urged his countrymen to prepare themselves for the approaching industrial age by sending their children to technical schools. (4) The editors of N arodni hlasnik agreed and in subsequent decades urged the founding of Slovak trade and high schools.(5) The editors of Obzor added the sobering comment that "knowledge is power." (6) Reacting to the urgings of their leaders, the Slovak people built and supported educational institutions whenever possible. By 1870 they had established three 'gymnasiums' (high schools) and operated 1,822 religious grammar schools, with the result that every second village had its own schoolhouse. So successful was the Slovak educational system that by 1885 it enrolled 88 percent of all children in its districts , the highest percentage in the entire Kingdom of Hungary.(7) The Hungarian government, rather than applauding such efforts, set out to thwart them because they conflicted with its official policy of Magyarization. Shortly after they reached the famous Compromise of 1867 with the Habsburgs, the Magyars of Hungary set out to assimilate their subject nationalities by attacking their school systems. Thus, they closed the three Slovak gymnasiums in 1874 on the pretext that they propagated "Pan-Slavism". Furthermore, the Minister of Education seized upon the fact that many village schools were primitive structures and over-crowded to nationalize them and turn them into public institutions. By 1905 the Slovaks of Hungary had only 241 schools left under their control.(8) Not only did the Magyars turn Slovak schools into public institutions but they also set out to eradicate the use of all non-Magyar languages in them. In 1877 the Budapest parliament banned all nonMagyar texts and two years later made the teaching of Magyar compulsory in all schools. Furthermore, starting in 1881 it paid teachers a bonus of 100 gold forints (equivalent to a year's wages) if they did a good job in Magyarizing their pupils. Those teachers who refused to cooperate were fired and students who balked at the new rules were expelled. The net result was a decline in Slovak literacy from 88 percent in 1885 to 76 percent in 1911. The Magyar public school system had virtually destroyed education in the Slovak language by the First World War.(9) While the Hungarian government worked at assimilating its subject nationalities in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, a very large section of the population began to emigrate to �82 SLOVAKIA America. Poor economic conditions in the Old World compelled hundreds of thousands of Slovaks to seek a livelihood in the New. By 1920 more than 600,000 of them lived in America, toiling in the mines, mills and refineries of the industrial Northeast. They were followed by a small group of intellectuals, both lay and religious, who fled national persecution in Hungary and who were determined to preserve Slovak life in the United States. Educational conditions in Hungary had a profound effect upon the thinking of those intellectuals who left for America. They brought with them an understandable contempt for public schools and they expressed these thoughts in their press. In an analysis of the nondenominational Amerik<insko-Slovenske Noviny, the largest and most influential Slovak newspaper in America before 1914, I found five articles concerned with education between the years 1893 and 1902 and these expressed nine discrete statements about it. Four declared the purpose of education to be the preservation of the children's language and nationality, three stressed the moral value of education and only one affirmed schooling to be a process of self improvement. Only once did the editors suggest that parents send their children to public schools if no parochial ones existed. The main complaint the editors made was that public schools "assimilate our children and turn them against their parents. " (10) In an analysis of the N<irodny Kalend<ir, the almanac of the secular National Slovak Society, I found similar opinions in four articles concerned with education between 1899 and 1917. Three of six ideas expressed in these articles stressed the need to preserve the children's language and heritage through schools, one emphasized the need to preserve the students' morals through schooling while only one each pointed to the value of education for self-improvement and social mobility.(11) Indeed, one contributor denounced public schools because "whether in America or in Hungary, (they) denationalize our children." (12) Thus, secular Slovak leaders in the United States no longer shared the enthusiasm for education that their colleagues back home had expressed in earlier decades. Religious leaders, on the other hand , stressed the moral value of education. In the old World even the Lutheran editors of Dom a Skala (Home and School) labelled public schools as •'bastard children of the church and state." They quite correctly charged the government with using state schools to "wage war upon the nationalities" and they demanded a return to good religious instruction because ••a moral unbringing is the chief aim of school and education is only a means of achieving this end."(13) Roman Catholic editors agreed that the chief aim of schooling was to instill "morality" in children. However, since most of their educational journals in Hungary were sponsored by the government, they extended this aim to include not only piety and good behavior but also loyalty to the Magyar state.(14) �SLOVAKIA 83 Slovak Catholic leaders in America , meanwhile, cared little about loyalty to the Magyar state but they did continue to stress the moral value of education. In an analysis of the leading Catholic Slovak newspaper Jednota over the years 1902-1911 , for instance, I found seventeen articles concerned with education and these contained thirtyone statements about its worth. Eleven times the editors praised parochial schools for cultivating their children's morality , and an equal numbe r of times they stressed the role of such institutions in preserving the next generation's ethnicity. Only three statements admitted the value of education for social mobility and only once did they speak of schooling as a means of self-improvement. And, while on three occasions the editors pointed to the good example set by other nationalities in parochial education, only twice did they suggest sending Slovak children to non-Slovak Catholic schools if they had none of their own.(15) The Jednota Kalend<ir , almanac of the First Catholic Slovak Union, meanwhile was even more emphatic about the moral value of education. This annual published eight articles about schooling between 1898 and 1917 and these contained fifteen statements about its worth. Eight of them stressed the role of Catholic institutions in cultivating a child's morality while four added that they also preserved the children's nationality . Only once did a statement appear which praised education as a vehicle for social mobility. Similarly , only once did an author suggest that children attend public schools or parochial schools of another nationality if they had none of their own. (16) Clearly, then, Catholic leaders valued parochial schools above all else, they worried much more about their children's moral and national upbringing than about social mobility and they had no use for public schools. Indeed, when one looks at the reaction of Slovak Roman Catholic priests towards state schools, one finds only the harshest condemnation of these institutions. The Reverend Andrej Pavco, for instance, blamed the supposed decline of morality in America at the turn of the century on the "anti-religious " nature of public schools which " made loafers of all girls who attended them. " (17) Father Stefan Furdek agreed and further charged that state schools provided "an anti-God education" with the result that America had the highest divorce rate in the world. (18) Father Jan Porubsky added that "life is a preparation for God" and American public schools ignored this, causing the United States to lead the world in immorality and crime. Porubsky especially singled out trade schools because they allegedly produced " illiterate " children and propagated "atheism." He added that " these are the places from which cities get their vagabonds, suburbs their tramps and murderers and the gallows their offerings. " (19) In a more subtle article the Reverend Stefan Furdek analyzed both school systems and, in condemning public institutions, revealed the �84 SLOVAKIA basis of his Catholic philosophy. Public schools , he pointed out, were free . They supplied books and clothes to poor children and had nurses to care for the sick. Classes consisted of only thirty to forty pupils taught by teachers with diplomas and a good command of English. Slovak parochial schools, on the other hand, required the parents to pay tuition, their classes were overcrowded and the teachers often lacked diplomas . In spite of these faults, Furdek found parochial schools superior to public ones because they taught catechism. He declared that ''the saving of souls is more important than a good secular education." In other words, schools did not exist to promote social mobility but to give the child a decent moral upbringing . He closed his argument with the revealing statement that "a Gypsy cannot read music, but he can sure play the violin!" (20) Since both secular and religious leaders of the Slovak community in America had such negative attitudes towards public schools, and since the majority of Slovaks (80 percent) were Roman Catholics, it became almost inevitable that they would build as many parochial schools as possible and that they would send their children to these or to other Catholic institutions. The first Slovak Catholic school was built in Streator, Illinois in 1889. By 1930, more than half of the 241 Slovak parishes in America had their own schools.(21) Furthermore, Josef Barton and I have discovered that wherever the Slovak community had its own school, as at St. Wendelin's parish in Cleveland or at St. Peter's in Fort William (now Thunder Bay, Ontario), the majority (between 60 percent and 80 percent) of eligible Slovak children did attend it. (22) Where they did not have their own school, as at St. Cyril's in Minneapolis before 1938, almost half of the children attended parochial schools of other nationalities. (23) Thus , whenever possible, Slovak parents heeded the advice of their leaders and sent their children to parochial schools. Slovak parents also seemed to agree with their priests' teachings that the chief aim of schooling was not necessarily to promote social mobility here on earth but to prepare for the afterlife . Thus, once one had acquired the "three R's" and knew one's catechism, extended schooling became superfluous . This was clearly evident in the school attendance records of Slovak children in Cleveland, Minneapolis and Thunder Bay. In all three cities more than 60 percent of these children dropped out between the sixth and ninth grades in the period 19101940. This contrasted with an average American drop-out rate of 44 percent over the same period . Only twenty percent graduated from high school.(24) A few lay leaders recognized this phenomenon and complained about it. Jozef Joscak, editor of N<irodne Noviny, accused his American countrymen of "caring less about education than had Slovaks in the Old Country."(25) Pavel Jamarik, a perceptive social critic, charged that American-Slovak parents "only sent their children to high school if they wanted them to become priests." (26) Finally, �SLOVAKIA 85 Michal Bosak , a banker and one of America's first Slovak millionaires, advised parents to at least send their youngsters to commerical schools instead of into the mines and factories, so as to enable them to compete in America' s capitalist society. (27) Such advice often fell on deaf ears, for, as Jozef Joscak had earlier concluded, American Slovaks "had their minds on other things . " (28) The '' other things '' that J oscak referred to were a way of life that rejected the basic tenets of the ''Protestant ethic.' ' The German sociologist Max Weber had observed that Catholic and Protestant peoples at the tum of the century had different attitudes towards life and he developed an elaborate theory to explain these differences. It appeared in his celebrated book The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. (29) Among other things, Weber theorized that the Protestant Reformation , especially its Calvinist branch , helped bring about the modem Capitalist world because Calvinists regarded work as a glorification of God rather than as a curse that followed the fall of Adam, as Medieval Catholics had believed. Furthermore , Weber continued, since Calvinists believed in predestination, they stressed self-discipline, education and a constant striving to improve one's position in life. If one did, indeed, improve oneself, the Calvinists believed, it was proof that one was saved because God ' s grace descended only upon the 'elect.' Weber's theory has caused quite a debate in academic circles , with some scholars arguing that he was correct and others denouncing his views. One of his most enthusiastic defenders has been Gerhard Lenski. In his Religious Factor: A Sociological Study of Religion's Impact on Politics, Economics and Family Life, (30) Lenski focused on 658 people of various religious persuasions in Detroit and sought to test the Weber thesis. He found that the Protestants in his sample constantly strove harder to succeed and to climb the socio-economic ladder than did Catholics , and they were successful in doing so much more often than Catholics and thus he concluded that Weber was essentially correct. The Catholics , Lenski added, were held back by an attitude that stressed the after-life rather than success in this world. While Lenski defended Weber, many more critics have attacked the latter's theories. Lipset and Bendix, for instance, argued that ethnicity was far more important than religious persuasion in American social mobility . They attributed the low rate of social mobility of Eastern Europeans as compared to White Anglo-Saxon Protestants to the later arrival of the former to this country. It was only a matter of time , they asserted, before third and fourth generation Poles , Italians and Slovaks caught up with British and Scandinavian peoples in the United States.(31) Similarly, Father Andrew Greeley, in Religion and Career: A Study of College Graduates(32) bent over backwards to try to disprove both Weber's and Lenski's theories . By using the resources of the National Opinion Research Center (NORC), which had ad- �86 SLOVAKIA ministered questionnaires to 33,000 college graduates in 1961 , Greeley tried to show that Catholics and Protestants had basically the same goals and aspirations in life and that one was as likely to be successful as the other. He did admit, however, that arriving Catholic immigrants may have been influenced by what he called a ''folk element'' which was anti-intellectual, but he saw this rapidly disappearing. (33) I see several flaws in Greeley's research. First of all, the sample he used tested only college graduates ' opinions, not their actual performances . Opinions do not necessarily reflect what people do after they graduate. Nor are the opinions of college graduates a good indicator of what the rest of their ethnic community may be thinking. Furthermore , these students may have answered the questions the way they guessed was expected of them by a society that worships social mobility . Greeley also did not differentiate enough between ethnic groups. I suspect that the vast majority of his Catholic students were German and Irish. These two peoples have been in America much longer than Eastern Europeans , they have had greater contact with White Anglo-Saxon Protestants in the past, both in the Old World and in the New, and they may even have begun to accept the "Protestant ethic" as they have gradually assimilated into American society. Finally , Greeley paid absolutely no attention to what the Catholic church has been teaching its people about the goal of life . Let us focus on the last point for the moment. Recall the advice of Father Porubsky that " life is a preparation for God" and Father Furdek 's pronouncement that " the saving of souls is much more important than a good secular education. '' (34) Should we dismiss these as the words of a couple of naive priests or do they represent official church teaching? The Baltimore Catechism which until Vatican II had been more important to most American Catholics than the Bible, since it was used in most Parochial schools, essentially repeats Porubsky's and Furdek's teachings . In the first lesson, dealing with the purpose of life, the question is asked, "Why did God make us?" The answer given is: "God made us to show forth His goodness and to share with us His everlasting happiness in heaven. " The next question asks, "What must we do to gain the happiness of heaven? ' ' and the reply is '' ... we must know, love and serve God in this world."(35) Nowhere does it say that we must strive to better ourselves on this earth, to work hard, to study and make money and to climb the social ladder. Indeed, the only mention of "work" that I could find in the Catechism is a derogatory one. In the lesson on the creation and fall of man, we read that because of Adam's original sin, " we have to die, to suffer, to study, to work .. . ! '' (36) In other words , studying and work are a curse that Adam brought upon us because of his disobedience to God. This teaching is the exact opposite of the ''Protestant ethic' ' and it has reached and influenced millions of Catholics over the last century. �SLOVAKIA 87 Having surveyed Slovak Catholic attitudes towards both education and work, and having discovered their negative attitudes towards both, we are now in a better position to explain their low rate of social mobility. ' 'Success'' in America has traditionally been viewed through White Anglo-Saxon Protestant eyes. Sociologists who measure success reflect such a bias. They always look for people moving up from bluecollar to white-collar and thence to professional occupations. A corollary is that once one ' 'succeeds,'' one moves out of the central city to the more affluent suburbs. This pattern of "up and out" is usually accepted as the only meaningful form of social mobility in America.(37) There is another approach to life, however, one seldom discussed by American scholars, which is typified by the Catholic Slovak experience. Josef Barton discovered it in his study of Rumanians, Italians and Slovaks in Cleveland, although he did not pursue the subject to its final conclusion. Thus, in looking at the ways in which the three immigrant groups reacted to the American situation, Barton found that almost half of the Slovak men in his sample became skilled workers and-or acquired some property in their original neighborhoods of settlement. Furthermore, they had large families which often lived in the extended form and this increased their overall family income. (38) Here , then was a different way of ''making it. '' It was all right to be a blue-collar worker, to drop out of school at an early age and to live in the same neighborhood all of your life. Stability, rather than movement, characterized the people of this community and they seemed to be satisfied with it. Even though Barton recognized that he had discovered a different approach to social mobility, he did not really approve of it. The Rumanian example of " up and out" impressed him as the " classic rise" of an immigrant group and he left us with the impression that somehow the Slovaks had made a mistake.(39) Whether or not they had, indeed, made a mistake depends largely upon their and the observer's perception of life. Is it one's goal to constantly strive to improve oneself through education, work and the accumulation of wealth here on earth? Or is it more important to lead a moral life, to accept one 's status, no matter how low, and strive for the higher goal of everlasting salvation? The answer is usually very personal but much depends on the teachings of one's church and on the religiosity of the individual. The majority of Slovak Catholics, I submit, were very religious and did heed the teachings of their leaders and the church, at least in the first two generations. Thus, they cared more for the moral upbringing of their children than for success here on earth and this was reflected in their condemnation of public schools, in their praise for Catholic education and in their acceptance of blue-collar work and life in ethnic neighborhoods. �88 SLOVAKIA But what of third and fourth generation American Slovaks? Do they perceive life in the same way as their parents and grandparents? Do they have the same attitudes towards work and school, family and neighborhood? We do not know because no one has yet researched this group . If Andrew Greeley' s studies of German and Irish Catholics are correct, then perhaps the " Protestant ethic " will eventually rub off on Slovak Catholics as they become more assimilated into American society. Perhaps the growing nationwide decline in parochial school attendance will aid in this process . Indeed, Catholic values generally may be changing across the land and the third and fourth generations may reflect such changes. These are questions which await further research . Should someone still be skeptical about the whole theory of the " Protestant ethic ," the various components of the Slovak community in America can be studied to provide a clearer answer. While 80 percent of Slovaks are Roman Catholics , about 15 percent are Lutherans and 2 percent are Calvinists. The latter two groups could be studied, and their attitudes towards life, work , education and their social mobility could be compared and contrasted with that of their Catholic counterparts. Such a study would supercede previous efforts because one would not have to control for ethnicity , time of arrival and other variables except religion. Such research could, hopefully , deal with the whole theory of the " Protestant ethic " to everyone 's satisfaction. Finally, the American concept of social mobility needs closer scrutiny. Should the majority of scholars continue to accept without question the ideal that everyone should constantly strive to move ''up and out ' '? What are the social consequences of such a philosophy? Is it good and necessary that everyone seek a higher education, for example? Who will sweep the streets, collect the garbage, fix the roads and man the factories if we continue to revere non-manual work so much? And, what are the consequences of an upwardly-mobile whitecollar worker moving from neighborhood to neighborhood and city to city all the time in order to keep climbing? Is this good for his family? Does it not in fact destroy extended family solidarity and breed an intense nuclear family that has no roots and no sense of community? (40) Indeed, the historian Rowland Berthoff has argued that America has in the past suffered from too much mobility and he predicted that this country 's many social ills would not disappear until a sense of community was restored in this land and this implied that Americans would have to stop moving around so much.(41) In this respect those Eastern Europeans who have stayed put and have tried to preserve their neighborhoods have been in the vanguard of social planning,. Perhaps Michael Novak is right. Perhaps we should stress extended family life, ethnic neighborhoods, stability and quietness again. (42) At least we should let those who prefer this way of life to live in peace , without bureaucratic harrassment. This would mean fighting �SLOVAKIA 89 "block-busting," "red-lining," freeway construction, and any other threats to community life that individuals or the government may pose. In short, it would call for respect for the pluralism of American life. It would mean toleration for the Catholic alternative to the ''Protestant ethic.'' FOOTNOTES (1) Berkeley , 1959. (2) Cambridge, Mass., 1975 . (3) Ibid ., pp. 99-100 . (4) Slouenskje narodiije nouini (Bratislava), November 18, 1845, p. 125. (5) N<i.rodni hl<i.snik (Martin), August 31, 1868, p . 178; October 31, 1868, p . 225; and May 31, 1871, p . 135 . (6) Obzor (Skalica), January 5, 1872 and January 5, 1881. (7) Julius Mesaros et al. , Dejiny Slouenska II: Od Roku 1848 do 1900 (A History of Slovakia , II: From 1848 to 1900) (Bratislava, 1968) , 264 ; and Dom a Skala (Ruzomberok), ill (1887) , 23-25. (8) Zipser Batte (Levoca), No. 29, 1905; and Jozef Gregor-Tajovsky , "Vychodne Slovensko " (Eastern Slovakia) , N<i.rodny Kalendar, 1913 (Pittsburgh), 243-4 . (9) Minister of Education to the School Inspector of Spis, Slovak State Archives in Levoca , county Spis , Executive Council, 420, KB, 1877 ; the same, 462, 1881; the same, II , 181 , 1898 and the same again, II , 183, 1902. See also William P. Dillingham, Chairman, Reports of the Immigration Commission, Volume 3, 61st Congress, 3rd Session, Senate Document No . 756 (Washington, 1911), 84 for literacy rates. (10) Amerik<i.nsko-Slouenske Nouiny (Pittsburgh), February 2, 1893, p . 6; December 8, 1894, p . 8; January 8, 1895 , p . l; July 13 , 1895 , p . 4 ; April 28, 1898, p. 8. The quotation is from the first article . (11) N<i.rodny Kalend<i.r, 1899, 44-5; 1911, 59-64 and 224-8; and 1917, 222-4 . (12) Ibid. , 1917, 222 . (13) Dom a Skala, II (1886), 194; and ill (1887), 73. (14) See for example Nafa Z<i.staua (Presov) September 20, 1908, p . 2 and October 4, 1908, p. 2; Eperjes (Presov), September 1, 1913, p . l; August 15, 1913, p . 2; October 15 , 1914 , p . 3; andEghy<i.z Es Iskola (Presov), February 15, 1918, p . 69 . (15) Jednota (Cleveland), September 17, 1902, p . 3 ; October 1, 1902, p . 4; August 31 , 1904, p . 4; July 12 , 1905 , p . 4; July 26, 1905, p . 4 ; August 9, 1905, p. 4; February 7, 1906, p. 4; July 1, 1908, p . 4; August 19, 1908, p. 4; September 8, 1909, p . 4; February 16, 1910, p . 4 ; March 23, 1910, p . 4; July 27, 1910, p . 4; August 17, 1910, p . 4; September 2, 1910, p . 4 ; April 5, 1911, p . 4; and August 23, 1911 , p . 4. (16) Kalend<i.r Jednota, 1898 (Cleveland), 133-4 ; 1899, 135-6; 1902, 128-36; 1907, 120-3; 1908, 177-8; 1911, 29-31; 1913, 123-8 ; 1917, 83-5. (17) Ibid., 1898, 133. (18) Jednota, July 12, 1905, p . 4. (19) Kalend<i.r J ednota, 1907, 120-3. (20) Jednota, August 19, 1908 , p . 4. (21) N<i.rodnie nouiny, October 5, 1889, p . 3 and October 23, 1890, p . 3; Kalendar Jednota, 1930, 193-201. �90 SLOVAKIA (22) Barton, Peasants and Strangers , 149-50; M. Mark Stolarik, "Immigration and Urbanization: the Slovak Experience, 1870-1918," Ph .D. dissertation, University of Minnesota, 1974, pp. 165-6. (23) Ibid., Stolarik, 165-6. (24) Barton, Peasants and Strangers, 132 , 137 and Stolarik , "Immigration and Urbanization," 170. (25) N<irodne Nouiny (Pittsburgh) , June 2, 1910, p . 4. (26) Pavel Jarnarik , Vychoua dietok: prakticke n<iuody pre Slouenskych rodic:ou (The Raising of Children : Practical Advice for Slovak Parents) (Author ' s publication, Disputant , Virginia, 1913), 22. (27) Kalend<ir J ednota 1917, 83-5. (28) N<irodne Nouiny , June 2, 1910, p. 4. (29) Translated by Talcott Parsons (London, 1930). (30) New York, 1961. (31) Social Mobility in Industrial Society, 49-52 . (32) New York, 1963. (33) Ibid., p . 134. (34) See above page 6. (35) Rev . Michael A. McGuire, The New Baltimore Catechism and Mass (No. 2, Official Revised Edition, New York, 1941), p. 14. (36) Ibid. , p. 29. (37) All the scholars cited above - Lipset and Bendix , Lenski, Greeley and even Barton - accept this pattern. One who questions its wisdom is Richard Sennett in Families Against the City: Middle Class Homes in Industrial Chicago, 1872-1890 (Cambridge, 1970) . (38) Barton , Peasants and Strangers, 143. (39) Ibid., 172-3. (40) This was part of Richard Sennet's argumentt in Families Against the City, cited above . (41) See his An Unsettled People; Social Order and Disorder in American History (New York , 1971). (42) Novak makes this argument in his Rise of the Unmeltable Ethnics: Politics and Culture in the Seventies (New York, 1972) and again in the two EMPAC! (Ethnic Millions Political Action Committee) statements of 1973 and 1975. � 80 SLOVAKIA Immigration, Education and the Social Mobility of Slovaks, 1870-1930* M. MARK STOLARIK In the last few decades the social mobility of ethnic groups in American society has drawn the attention of numerous scholars from a variety of disciplines. Their research has raised some important questions about the nature and meaning of this phenomenon. Particularly influential has been the work of the sociologists Seymour Martin Lipset and Reinhard Bendix. In their Social Mobility in Industrial Society, (1) Lipset and Bendix demonstrated that moving up or down the socio-economic ladder was an integral and continuing aspect of the process of industrialization. They did not explain, however, what caused some people to move up, others to remain where they were and others still to move down. Josef Barton, trained in both history and sociology, sought to answer these questions by comparing the relative rates of movement of three ethnic groups in Cleveland in Peasants and Strangers: Italians, Rumanians and Slovaks in an American City, 18901950. (2) Barton found that education, family size and the occupation of the father played a pivotal role in the traditional American '' success story." The Rumanians, who came from peasant backgrounds similar to that of the Slovaks and Italians, stressed extended public education for their children, they limited the size of their families and their fathers tended to move from blue-collar to white-collar occupations more often than did Italians or Slovaks. As a result, more than fifty per cent of Rumanian children moved from manual to non-manual employment in the period 1900-1950 while less than twenty per cent of Italians and Slovaks did so. (3) What Barton did not explain was why the Rumanians had such a strong commitment to education, to small families and why the fathers were so mobile in contrast to Italians and Slovaks. Part of the answer lies, I submit, in the Old World background of the various groups and • This paper was presented to the Bicentennial Symposium on "Religious Freedom: Churches and Ethnic Communities in the American City, " at Saint Joseph's College, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, September 21 , 1975. Reprinted from Immigrants and Religion in Urban America, (edited by Randall Miller and Thomas Marzik, copyright 1977) with the kind permission of the original publisher, Temple University Press, Philadelphia, Pa. �SLOVAKIA 81 in their attitude towards life as molded by their religions. To illustrate this hypothesis the Slovak experience will be examined in detail. Before the mass migration of Slovaks to America began in the 1880's, lay leaders in the Old World had stressed the value of education for social mobility and their people seemed to agree with them. As early as 1845, for example, Jan Cipka, a student at Vienna's polytechnic institute, anticipated the abolition of serfdom and urged his countrymen to prepare themselves for the approaching industrial age by sending their children to technical schools. (4) The editors of N arodni hlasnik agreed and in subsequent decades urged the founding of Slovak trade and high schools.(5) The editors of Obzor added the sobering comment that "knowledge is power." (6) Reacting to the urgings of their leaders, the Slovak people built and supported educational institutions whenever possible. By 1870 they had established three 'gymnasiums' (high schools) and operated 1,822 religious grammar schools, with the result that every second village had its own schoolhouse. So successful was the Slovak educational system that by 1885 it enrolled 88 percent of all children in its districts , the highest percentage in the entire Kingdom of Hungary.(7) The Hungarian government, rather than applauding such efforts, set out to thwart them because they conflicted with its official policy of Magyarization. Shortly after they reached the famous Compromise of 1867 with the Habsburgs, the Magyars of Hungary set out to assimilate their subject nationalities by attacking their school systems. Thus, they closed the three Slovak gymnasiums in 1874 on the pretext that they propagated "Pan-Slavism". Furthermore, the Minister of Education seized upon the fact that many village schools were primitive structures and over-crowded to nationalize them and turn them into public institutions. By 1905 the Slovaks of Hungary had only 241 schools left under their control.(8) Not only did the Magyars turn Slovak schools into public institutions but they also set out to eradicate the use of all non-Magyar languages in them. In 1877 the Budapest parliament banned all nonMagyar texts and two years later made the teaching of Magyar compulsory in all schools. Furthermore, starting in 1881 it paid teachers a bonus of 100 gold forints (equivalent to a year's wages) if they did a good job in Magyarizing their pupils. Those teachers who refused to cooperate were fired and students who balked at the new rules were expelled. The net result was a decline in Slovak literacy from 88 percent in 1885 to 76 percent in 1911. The Magyar public school system had virtually destroyed education in the Slovak language by the First World War.(9) While the Hungarian government worked at assimilating its subject nationalities in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, a very large section of the population began to emigrate to �82 SLOVAKIA America. Poor economic conditions in the Old World compelled hundreds of thousands of Slovaks to seek a livelihood in the New. By 1920 more than 600,000 of them lived in America, toiling in the mines, mills and refineries of the industrial Northeast. They were followed by a small group of intellectuals, both lay and religious, who fled national persecution in Hungary and who were determined to preserve Slovak life in the United States. Educational conditions in Hungary had a profound effect upon the thinking of those intellectuals who left for America. They brought with them an understandable contempt for public schools and they expressed these thoughts in their press. In an analysis of the nondenominational Amerik<insko-Slovenske Noviny, the largest and most influential Slovak newspaper in America before 1914, I found five articles concerned with education between the years 1893 and 1902 and these expressed nine discrete statements about it. Four declared the purpose of education to be the preservation of the children's language and nationality, three stressed the moral value of education and only one affirmed schooling to be a process of self improvement. Only once did the editors suggest that parents send their children to public schools if no parochial ones existed. The main complaint the editors made was that public schools "assimilate our children and turn them against their parents. " (10) In an analysis of the N<irodny Kalend<ir, the almanac of the secular National Slovak Society, I found similar opinions in four articles concerned with education between 1899 and 1917. Three of six ideas expressed in these articles stressed the need to preserve the children's language and heritage through schools, one emphasized the need to preserve the students' morals through schooling while only one each pointed to the value of education for self-improvement and social mobility.(11) Indeed, one contributor denounced public schools because "whether in America or in Hungary, (they) denationalize our children." (12) Thus, secular Slovak leaders in the United States no longer shared the enthusiasm for education that their colleagues back home had expressed in earlier decades. Religious leaders, on the other hand , stressed the moral value of education. In the old World even the Lutheran editors of Dom a Skala (Home and School) labelled public schools as •'bastard children of the church and state." They quite correctly charged the government with using state schools to "wage war upon the nationalities" and they demanded a return to good religious instruction because ••a moral unbringing is the chief aim of school and education is only a means of achieving this end."(13) Roman Catholic editors agreed that the chief aim of schooling was to instill "morality" in children. However, since most of their educational journals in Hungary were sponsored by the government, they extended this aim to include not only piety and good behavior but also loyalty to the Magyar state.(14) �SLOVAKIA 83 Slovak Catholic leaders in America , meanwhile, cared little about loyalty to the Magyar state but they did continue to stress the moral value of education. In an analysis of the leading Catholic Slovak newspaper Jednota over the years 1902-1911 , for instance, I found seventeen articles concerned with education and these contained thirtyone statements about its worth. Eleven times the editors praised parochial schools for cultivating their children's morality , and an equal numbe r of times they stressed the role of such institutions in preserving the next generation's ethnicity. Only three statements admitted the value of education for social mobility and only once did they speak of schooling as a means of self-improvement. And, while on three occasions the editors pointed to the good example set by other nationalities in parochial education, only twice did they suggest sending Slovak children to non-Slovak Catholic schools if they had none of their own.(15) The Jednota Kalend<ir , almanac of the First Catholic Slovak Union, meanwhile was even more emphatic about the moral value of education. This annual published eight articles about schooling between 1898 and 1917 and these contained fifteen statements about its worth. Eight of them stressed the role of Catholic institutions in cultivating a child's morality while four added that they also preserved the children's nationality . Only once did a statement appear which praised education as a vehicle for social mobility. Similarly , only once did an author suggest that children attend public schools or parochial schools of another nationality if they had none of their own. (16) Clearly, then, Catholic leaders valued parochial schools above all else, they worried much more about their children's moral and national upbringing than about social mobility and they had no use for public schools. Indeed, when one looks at the reaction of Slovak Roman Catholic priests towards state schools, one finds only the harshest condemnation of these institutions. The Reverend Andrej Pavco, for instance, blamed the supposed decline of morality in America at the turn of the century on the "anti-religious " nature of public schools which " made loafers of all girls who attended them. " (17) Father Stefan Furdek agreed and further charged that state schools provided "an anti-God education" with the result that America had the highest divorce rate in the world. (18) Father Jan Porubsky added that "life is a preparation for God" and American public schools ignored this, causing the United States to lead the world in immorality and crime. Porubsky especially singled out trade schools because they allegedly produced " illiterate " children and propagated "atheism." He added that " these are the places from which cities get their vagabonds, suburbs their tramps and murderers and the gallows their offerings. " (19) In a more subtle article the Reverend Stefan Furdek analyzed both school systems and, in condemning public institutions, revealed the �84 SLOVAKIA basis of his Catholic philosophy. Public schools , he pointed out, were free . They supplied books and clothes to poor children and had nurses to care for the sick. Classes consisted of only thirty to forty pupils taught by teachers with diplomas and a good command of English. Slovak parochial schools, on the other hand, required the parents to pay tuition, their classes were overcrowded and the teachers often lacked diplomas . In spite of these faults, Furdek found parochial schools superior to public ones because they taught catechism. He declared that ''the saving of souls is more important than a good secular education." In other words, schools did not exist to promote social mobility but to give the child a decent moral upbringing . He closed his argument with the revealing statement that "a Gypsy cannot read music, but he can sure play the violin!" (20) Since both secular and religious leaders of the Slovak community in America had such negative attitudes towards public schools, and since the majority of Slovaks (80 percent) were Roman Catholics, it became almost inevitable that they would build as many parochial schools as possible and that they would send their children to these or to other Catholic institutions. The first Slovak Catholic school was built in Streator, Illinois in 1889. By 1930, more than half of the 241 Slovak parishes in America had their own schools.(21) Furthermore, Josef Barton and I have discovered that wherever the Slovak community had its own school, as at St. Wendelin's parish in Cleveland or at St. Peter's in Fort William (now Thunder Bay, Ontario), the majority (between 60 percent and 80 percent) of eligible Slovak children did attend it. (22) Where they did not have their own school, as at St. Cyril's in Minneapolis before 1938, almost half of the children attended parochial schools of other nationalities. (23) Thus , whenever possible, Slovak parents heeded the advice of their leaders and sent their children to parochial schools. Slovak parents also seemed to agree with their priests' teachings that the chief aim of schooling was not necessarily to promote social mobility here on earth but to prepare for the afterlife . Thus, once one had acquired the "three R's" and knew one's catechism, extended schooling became superfluous . This was clearly evident in the school attendance records of Slovak children in Cleveland, Minneapolis and Thunder Bay. In all three cities more than 60 percent of these children dropped out between the sixth and ninth grades in the period 19101940. This contrasted with an average American drop-out rate of 44 percent over the same period . Only twenty percent graduated from high school.(24) A few lay leaders recognized this phenomenon and complained about it. Jozef Joscak, editor of N<irodne Noviny, accused his American countrymen of "caring less about education than had Slovaks in the Old Country."(25) Pavel Jamarik, a perceptive social critic, charged that American-Slovak parents "only sent their children to high school if they wanted them to become priests." (26) Finally, �SLOVAKIA 85 Michal Bosak , a banker and one of America's first Slovak millionaires, advised parents to at least send their youngsters to commerical schools instead of into the mines and factories, so as to enable them to compete in America' s capitalist society. (27) Such advice often fell on deaf ears, for, as Jozef Joscak had earlier concluded, American Slovaks "had their minds on other things . " (28) The '' other things '' that J oscak referred to were a way of life that rejected the basic tenets of the ''Protestant ethic.' ' The German sociologist Max Weber had observed that Catholic and Protestant peoples at the tum of the century had different attitudes towards life and he developed an elaborate theory to explain these differences. It appeared in his celebrated book The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. (29) Among other things, Weber theorized that the Protestant Reformation , especially its Calvinist branch , helped bring about the modem Capitalist world because Calvinists regarded work as a glorification of God rather than as a curse that followed the fall of Adam, as Medieval Catholics had believed. Furthermore , Weber continued, since Calvinists believed in predestination, they stressed self-discipline, education and a constant striving to improve one's position in life. If one did, indeed, improve oneself, the Calvinists believed, it was proof that one was saved because God ' s grace descended only upon the 'elect.' Weber's theory has caused quite a debate in academic circles , with some scholars arguing that he was correct and others denouncing his views. One of his most enthusiastic defenders has been Gerhard Lenski. In his Religious Factor: A Sociological Study of Religion's Impact on Politics, Economics and Family Life, (30) Lenski focused on 658 people of various religious persuasions in Detroit and sought to test the Weber thesis. He found that the Protestants in his sample constantly strove harder to succeed and to climb the socio-economic ladder than did Catholics , and they were successful in doing so much more often than Catholics and thus he concluded that Weber was essentially correct. The Catholics , Lenski added, were held back by an attitude that stressed the after-life rather than success in this world. While Lenski defended Weber, many more critics have attacked the latter's theories. Lipset and Bendix, for instance, argued that ethnicity was far more important than religious persuasion in American social mobility . They attributed the low rate of social mobility of Eastern Europeans as compared to White Anglo-Saxon Protestants to the later arrival of the former to this country. It was only a matter of time , they asserted, before third and fourth generation Poles , Italians and Slovaks caught up with British and Scandinavian peoples in the United States.(31) Similarly, Father Andrew Greeley, in Religion and Career: A Study of College Graduates(32) bent over backwards to try to disprove both Weber's and Lenski's theories . By using the resources of the National Opinion Research Center (NORC), which had ad- �86 SLOVAKIA ministered questionnaires to 33,000 college graduates in 1961 , Greeley tried to show that Catholics and Protestants had basically the same goals and aspirations in life and that one was as likely to be successful as the other. He did admit, however, that arriving Catholic immigrants may have been influenced by what he called a ''folk element'' which was anti-intellectual, but he saw this rapidly disappearing. (33) I see several flaws in Greeley's research. First of all, the sample he used tested only college graduates ' opinions, not their actual performances . Opinions do not necessarily reflect what people do after they graduate. Nor are the opinions of college graduates a good indicator of what the rest of their ethnic community may be thinking. Furthermore , these students may have answered the questions the way they guessed was expected of them by a society that worships social mobility . Greeley also did not differentiate enough between ethnic groups. I suspect that the vast majority of his Catholic students were German and Irish. These two peoples have been in America much longer than Eastern Europeans , they have had greater contact with White Anglo-Saxon Protestants in the past, both in the Old World and in the New, and they may even have begun to accept the "Protestant ethic" as they have gradually assimilated into American society. Finally , Greeley paid absolutely no attention to what the Catholic church has been teaching its people about the goal of life . Let us focus on the last point for the moment. Recall the advice of Father Porubsky that " life is a preparation for God" and Father Furdek 's pronouncement that " the saving of souls is much more important than a good secular education. '' (34) Should we dismiss these as the words of a couple of naive priests or do they represent official church teaching? The Baltimore Catechism which until Vatican II had been more important to most American Catholics than the Bible, since it was used in most Parochial schools, essentially repeats Porubsky's and Furdek's teachings . In the first lesson, dealing with the purpose of life, the question is asked, "Why did God make us?" The answer given is: "God made us to show forth His goodness and to share with us His everlasting happiness in heaven. " The next question asks, "What must we do to gain the happiness of heaven? ' ' and the reply is '' ... we must know, love and serve God in this world."(35) Nowhere does it say that we must strive to better ourselves on this earth, to work hard, to study and make money and to climb the social ladder. Indeed, the only mention of "work" that I could find in the Catechism is a derogatory one. In the lesson on the creation and fall of man, we read that because of Adam's original sin, " we have to die, to suffer, to study, to work .. . ! '' (36) In other words , studying and work are a curse that Adam brought upon us because of his disobedience to God. This teaching is the exact opposite of the ''Protestant ethic' ' and it has reached and influenced millions of Catholics over the last century. �SLOVAKIA 87 Having surveyed Slovak Catholic attitudes towards both education and work, and having discovered their negative attitudes towards both, we are now in a better position to explain their low rate of social mobility. ' 'Success'' in America has traditionally been viewed through White Anglo-Saxon Protestant eyes. Sociologists who measure success reflect such a bias. They always look for people moving up from bluecollar to white-collar and thence to professional occupations. A corollary is that once one ' 'succeeds,'' one moves out of the central city to the more affluent suburbs. This pattern of "up and out" is usually accepted as the only meaningful form of social mobility in America.(37) There is another approach to life, however, one seldom discussed by American scholars, which is typified by the Catholic Slovak experience. Josef Barton discovered it in his study of Rumanians, Italians and Slovaks in Cleveland, although he did not pursue the subject to its final conclusion. Thus, in looking at the ways in which the three immigrant groups reacted to the American situation, Barton found that almost half of the Slovak men in his sample became skilled workers and-or acquired some property in their original neighborhoods of settlement. Furthermore, they had large families which often lived in the extended form and this increased their overall family income. (38) Here , then was a different way of ''making it. '' It was all right to be a blue-collar worker, to drop out of school at an early age and to live in the same neighborhood all of your life. Stability, rather than movement, characterized the people of this community and they seemed to be satisfied with it. Even though Barton recognized that he had discovered a different approach to social mobility, he did not really approve of it. The Rumanian example of " up and out" impressed him as the " classic rise" of an immigrant group and he left us with the impression that somehow the Slovaks had made a mistake.(39) Whether or not they had, indeed, made a mistake depends largely upon their and the observer's perception of life. Is it one's goal to constantly strive to improve oneself through education, work and the accumulation of wealth here on earth? Or is it more important to lead a moral life, to accept one 's status, no matter how low, and strive for the higher goal of everlasting salvation? The answer is usually very personal but much depends on the teachings of one's church and on the religiosity of the individual. The majority of Slovak Catholics, I submit, were very religious and did heed the teachings of their leaders and the church, at least in the first two generations. Thus, they cared more for the moral upbringing of their children than for success here on earth and this was reflected in their condemnation of public schools, in their praise for Catholic education and in their acceptance of blue-collar work and life in ethnic neighborhoods. �88 SLOVAKIA But what of third and fourth generation American Slovaks? Do they perceive life in the same way as their parents and grandparents? Do they have the same attitudes towards work and school, family and neighborhood? We do not know because no one has yet researched this group . If Andrew Greeley' s studies of German and Irish Catholics are correct, then perhaps the " Protestant ethic " will eventually rub off on Slovak Catholics as they become more assimilated into American society. Perhaps the growing nationwide decline in parochial school attendance will aid in this process . Indeed, Catholic values generally may be changing across the land and the third and fourth generations may reflect such changes. These are questions which await further research . Should someone still be skeptical about the whole theory of the " Protestant ethic ," the various components of the Slovak community in America can be studied to provide a clearer answer. While 80 percent of Slovaks are Roman Catholics , about 15 percent are Lutherans and 2 percent are Calvinists. The latter two groups could be studied, and their attitudes towards life, work , education and their social mobility could be compared and contrasted with that of their Catholic counterparts. Such a study would supercede previous efforts because one would not have to control for ethnicity , time of arrival and other variables except religion. Such research could, hopefully , deal with the whole theory of the " Protestant ethic " to everyone 's satisfaction. Finally, the American concept of social mobility needs closer scrutiny. Should the majority of scholars continue to accept without question the ideal that everyone should constantly strive to move ''up and out ' '? What are the social consequences of such a philosophy? Is it good and necessary that everyone seek a higher education, for example? Who will sweep the streets, collect the garbage, fix the roads and man the factories if we continue to revere non-manual work so much? And, what are the consequences of an upwardly-mobile whitecollar worker moving from neighborhood to neighborhood and city to city all the time in order to keep climbing? Is this good for his family? Does it not in fact destroy extended family solidarity and breed an intense nuclear family that has no roots and no sense of community? (40) Indeed, the historian Rowland Berthoff has argued that America has in the past suffered from too much mobility and he predicted that this country 's many social ills would not disappear until a sense of community was restored in this land and this implied that Americans would have to stop moving around so much.(41) In this respect those Eastern Europeans who have stayed put and have tried to preserve their neighborhoods have been in the vanguard of social planning,. Perhaps Michael Novak is right. Perhaps we should stress extended family life, ethnic neighborhoods, stability and quietness again. (42) At least we should let those who prefer this way of life to live in peace , without bureaucratic harrassment. This would mean fighting �SLOVAKIA 89 "block-busting," "red-lining," freeway construction, and any other threats to community life that individuals or the government may pose. In short, it would call for respect for the pluralism of American life. It would mean toleration for the Catholic alternative to the ''Protestant ethic.'' FOOTNOTES (1) Berkeley , 1959. (2) Cambridge, Mass., 1975 . (3) Ibid ., pp. 99-100 . (4) Slouenskje narodiije nouini (Bratislava), November 18, 1845, p. 125. (5) N<i.rodni hl<i.snik (Martin), August 31, 1868, p . 178; October 31, 1868, p . 225; and May 31, 1871, p . 135 . (6) Obzor (Skalica), January 5, 1872 and January 5, 1881. (7) Julius Mesaros et al. , Dejiny Slouenska II: Od Roku 1848 do 1900 (A History of Slovakia , II: From 1848 to 1900) (Bratislava, 1968) , 264 ; and Dom a Skala (Ruzomberok), ill (1887) , 23-25. (8) Zipser Batte (Levoca), No. 29, 1905; and Jozef Gregor-Tajovsky , "Vychodne Slovensko " (Eastern Slovakia) , N<i.rodny Kalendar, 1913 (Pittsburgh), 243-4 . (9) Minister of Education to the School Inspector of Spis, Slovak State Archives in Levoca , county Spis , Executive Council, 420, KB, 1877 ; the same, 462, 1881; the same, II , 181 , 1898 and the same again, II , 183, 1902. See also William P. Dillingham, Chairman, Reports of the Immigration Commission, Volume 3, 61st Congress, 3rd Session, Senate Document No . 756 (Washington, 1911), 84 for literacy rates. (10) Amerik<i.nsko-Slouenske Nouiny (Pittsburgh), February 2, 1893, p . 6; December 8, 1894, p . 8; January 8, 1895 , p . l; July 13 , 1895 , p . 4 ; April 28, 1898, p. 8. The quotation is from the first article . (11) N<i.rodny Kalend<i.r, 1899, 44-5; 1911, 59-64 and 224-8; and 1917, 222-4 . (12) Ibid. , 1917, 222 . (13) Dom a Skala, II (1886), 194; and ill (1887), 73. (14) See for example Nafa Z<i.staua (Presov) September 20, 1908, p . 2 and October 4, 1908, p. 2; Eperjes (Presov), September 1, 1913, p . l; August 15, 1913, p . 2; October 15 , 1914 , p . 3; andEghy<i.z Es Iskola (Presov), February 15, 1918, p . 69 . (15) Jednota (Cleveland), September 17, 1902, p . 3 ; October 1, 1902, p . 4; August 31 , 1904, p . 4; July 12 , 1905 , p . 4; July 26, 1905, p . 4 ; August 9, 1905, p. 4; February 7, 1906, p. 4; July 1, 1908, p . 4; August 19, 1908, p. 4; September 8, 1909, p . 4; February 16, 1910, p . 4 ; March 23, 1910, p . 4; July 27, 1910, p . 4; August 17, 1910, p . 4; September 2, 1910, p . 4 ; April 5, 1911, p . 4; and August 23, 1911 , p . 4. (16) Kalend<i.r Jednota, 1898 (Cleveland), 133-4 ; 1899, 135-6; 1902, 128-36; 1907, 120-3; 1908, 177-8; 1911, 29-31; 1913, 123-8 ; 1917, 83-5. (17) Ibid., 1898, 133. (18) Jednota, July 12, 1905, p . 4. (19) Kalend<i.r J ednota, 1907, 120-3. (20) Jednota, August 19, 1908 , p . 4. (21) N<i.rodnie nouiny, October 5, 1889, p . 3 and October 23, 1890, p . 3; Kalendar Jednota, 1930, 193-201. �90 SLOVAKIA (22) Barton, Peasants and Strangers , 149-50; M. Mark Stolarik, "Immigration and Urbanization: the Slovak Experience, 1870-1918," Ph .D. dissertation, University of Minnesota, 1974, pp. 165-6. (23) Ibid., Stolarik, 165-6. (24) Barton, Peasants and Strangers, 132 , 137 and Stolarik , "Immigration and Urbanization," 170. (25) N<irodne Nouiny (Pittsburgh) , June 2, 1910, p . 4. (26) Pavel Jarnarik , Vychoua dietok: prakticke n<iuody pre Slouenskych rodic:ou (The Raising of Children : Practical Advice for Slovak Parents) (Author ' s publication, Disputant , Virginia, 1913), 22. (27) Kalend<ir J ednota 1917, 83-5. (28) N<irodne Nouiny , June 2, 1910, p. 4. (29) Translated by Talcott Parsons (London, 1930). (30) New York, 1961. (31) Social Mobility in Industrial Society, 49-52 . (32) New York, 1963. (33) Ibid., p . 134. (34) See above page 6. (35) Rev . Michael A. McGuire, The New Baltimore Catechism and Mass (No. 2, Official Revised Edition, New York, 1941), p. 14. (36) Ibid. , p. 29. (37) All the scholars cited above - Lipset and Bendix , Lenski, Greeley and even Barton - accept this pattern. One who questions its wisdom is Richard Sennett in Families Against the City: Middle Class Homes in Industrial Chicago, 1872-1890 (Cambridge, 1970) . (38) Barton , Peasants and Strangers, 143. (39) Ibid., 172-3. (40) This was part of Richard Sennet's argumentt in Families Against the City, cited above . (41) See his An Unsettled People; Social Order and Disorder in American History (New York , 1971). (42) Novak makes this argument in his Rise of the Unmeltable Ethnics: Politics and Culture in the Seventies (New York, 1972) and again in the two EMPAC! (Ethnic Millions Political Action Committee) statements of 1973 and 1975. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1977, Vol. 27 Description An account of the resource Vol. 27 (No. 50), 1977. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1977 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document 80 SLOVAKIA Immigration, Education and the Social Mobility of Slovaks, 1870-1930* M. MARK STOLARIK In the last few decades the social mobility of ethnic groups in American society has drawn the attention of numerous scholars from a variety of disciplines. Their research has raised some important questions about the nature and meaning of this phenomenon. Particularly influential has been the work of the sociologists Seymour Martin Lipset and Reinhard Bendix. In their Social Mobility in Industrial Society, (1) Lipset and Bendix demonstrated that moving up or down the socio-economic ladder was an integral and continuing aspect of the process of industrialization. They did not explain, however, what caused some people to move up, others to remain where they were and others still to move down. Josef Barton, trained in both history and sociology, sought to answer these questions by comparing the relative rates of movement of three ethnic groups in Cleveland in Peasants and Strangers: Italians, Rumanians and Slovaks in an American City, 18901950. (2) Barton found that education, family size and the occupation of the father played a pivotal role in the traditional American '' success story." The Rumanians, who came from peasant backgrounds similar to that of the Slovaks and Italians, stressed extended public education for their children, they limited the size of their families and their fathers tended to move from blue-collar to white-collar occupations more often than did Italians or Slovaks. As a result, more than fifty per cent of Rumanian children moved from manual to non-manual employment in the period 1900-1950 while less than twenty per cent of Italians and Slovaks did so. (3) What Barton did not explain was why the Rumanians had such a strong commitment to education, to small families and why the fathers were so mobile in contrast to Italians and Slovaks. Part of the answer lies, I submit, in the Old World background of the various groups and • This paper was presented to the Bicentennial Symposium on "Religious Freedom: Churches and Ethnic Communities in the American City, " at Saint Joseph's College, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, September 21 , 1975. Reprinted from Immigrants and Religion in Urban America, (edited by Randall Miller and Thomas Marzik, copyright 1977) with the kind permission of the original publisher, Temple University Press, Philadelphia, Pa. SLOVAKIA 81 in their attitude towards life as molded by their religions. To illustrate this hypothesis the Slovak experience will be examined in detail. Before the mass migration of Slovaks to America began in the 1880's, lay leaders in the Old World had stressed the value of education for social mobility and their people seemed to agree with them. As early as 1845, for example, Jan Cipka, a student at Vienna's polytechnic institute, anticipated the abolition of serfdom and urged his countrymen to prepare themselves for the approaching industrial age by sending their children to technical schools. (4) The editors of N arodni hlasnik agreed and in subsequent decades urged the founding of Slovak trade and high schools.(5) The editors of Obzor added the sobering comment that "knowledge is power." (6) Reacting to the urgings of their leaders, the Slovak people built and supported educational institutions whenever possible. By 1870 they had established three 'gymnasiums' (high schools) and operated 1,822 religious grammar schools, with the result that every second village had its own schoolhouse. So successful was the Slovak educational system that by 1885 it enrolled 88 percent of all children in its districts , the highest percentage in the entire Kingdom of Hungary.(7) The Hungarian government, rather than applauding such efforts, set out to thwart them because they conflicted with its official policy of Magyarization. Shortly after they reached the famous Compromise of 1867 with the Habsburgs, the Magyars of Hungary set out to assimilate their subject nationalities by attacking their school systems. Thus, they closed the three Slovak gymnasiums in 1874 on the pretext that they propagated "Pan-Slavism". Furthermore, the Minister of Education seized upon the fact that many village schools were primitive structures and over-crowded to nationalize them and turn them into public institutions. By 1905 the Slovaks of Hungary had only 241 schools left under their control.(8) Not only did the Magyars turn Slovak schools into public institutions but they also set out to eradicate the use of all non-Magyar languages in them. In 1877 the Budapest parliament banned all nonMagyar texts and two years later made the teaching of Magyar compulsory in all schools. Furthermore, starting in 1881 it paid teachers a bonus of 100 gold forints (equivalent to a year's wages) if they did a good job in Magyarizing their pupils. Those teachers who refused to cooperate were fired and students who balked at the new rules were expelled. The net result was a decline in Slovak literacy from 88 percent in 1885 to 76 percent in 1911. The Magyar public school system had virtually destroyed education in the Slovak language by the First World War.(9) While the Hungarian government worked at assimilating its subject nationalities in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, a very large section of the population began to emigrate to 82 SLOVAKIA America. Poor economic conditions in the Old World compelled hundreds of thousands of Slovaks to seek a livelihood in the New. By 1920 more than 600,000 of them lived in America, toiling in the mines, mills and refineries of the industrial Northeast. They were followed by a small group of intellectuals, both lay and religious, who fled national persecution in Hungary and who were determined to preserve Slovak life in the United States. Educational conditions in Hungary had a profound effect upon the thinking of those intellectuals who left for America. They brought with them an understandable contempt for public schools and they expressed these thoughts in their press. In an analysis of the nondenominational Amerik<insko-Slovenske Noviny, the largest and most influential Slovak newspaper in America before 1914, I found five articles concerned with education between the years 1893 and 1902 and these expressed nine discrete statements about it. Four declared the purpose of education to be the preservation of the children's language and nationality, three stressed the moral value of education and only one affirmed schooling to be a process of self improvement. Only once did the editors suggest that parents send their children to public schools if no parochial ones existed. The main complaint the editors made was that public schools "assimilate our children and turn them against their parents. " (10) In an analysis of the N<irodny Kalend<ir, the almanac of the secular National Slovak Society, I found similar opinions in four articles concerned with education between 1899 and 1917. Three of six ideas expressed in these articles stressed the need to preserve the children's language and heritage through schools, one emphasized the need to preserve the students' morals through schooling while only one each pointed to the value of education for self-improvement and social mobility.(11) Indeed, one contributor denounced public schools because "whether in America or in Hungary, (they) denationalize our children." (12) Thus, secular Slovak leaders in the United States no longer shared the enthusiasm for education that their colleagues back home had expressed in earlier decades. Religious leaders, on the other hand , stressed the moral value of education. In the old World even the Lutheran editors of Dom a Skala (Home and School) labelled public schools as •'bastard children of the church and state." They quite correctly charged the government with using state schools to "wage war upon the nationalities" and they demanded a return to good religious instruction because ••a moral unbringing is the chief aim of school and education is only a means of achieving this end."(13) Roman Catholic editors agreed that the chief aim of schooling was to instill "morality" in children. However, since most of their educational journals in Hungary were sponsored by the government, they extended this aim to include not only piety and good behavior but also loyalty to the Magyar state.(14) SLOVAKIA 83 Slovak Catholic leaders in America , meanwhile, cared little about loyalty to the Magyar state but they did continue to stress the moral value of education. In an analysis of the leading Catholic Slovak newspaper Jednota over the years 1902-1911 , for instance, I found seventeen articles concerned with education and these contained thirtyone statements about its worth. Eleven times the editors praised parochial schools for cultivating their children's morality , and an equal numbe r of times they stressed the role of such institutions in preserving the next generation's ethnicity. Only three statements admitted the value of education for social mobility and only once did they speak of schooling as a means of self-improvement. And, while on three occasions the editors pointed to the good example set by other nationalities in parochial education, only twice did they suggest sending Slovak children to non-Slovak Catholic schools if they had none of their own.(15) The Jednota Kalend<ir , almanac of the First Catholic Slovak Union, meanwhile was even more emphatic about the moral value of education. This annual published eight articles about schooling between 1898 and 1917 and these contained fifteen statements about its worth. Eight of them stressed the role of Catholic institutions in cultivating a child's morality while four added that they also preserved the children's nationality . Only once did a statement appear which praised education as a vehicle for social mobility. Similarly , only once did an author suggest that children attend public schools or parochial schools of another nationality if they had none of their own. (16) Clearly, then, Catholic leaders valued parochial schools above all else, they worried much more about their children's moral and national upbringing than about social mobility and they had no use for public schools. Indeed, when one looks at the reaction of Slovak Roman Catholic priests towards state schools, one finds only the harshest condemnation of these institutions. The Reverend Andrej Pavco, for instance, blamed the supposed decline of morality in America at the turn of the century on the "anti-religious " nature of public schools which " made loafers of all girls who attended them. " (17) Father Stefan Furdek agreed and further charged that state schools provided "an anti-God education" with the result that America had the highest divorce rate in the world. (18) Father Jan Porubsky added that "life is a preparation for God" and American public schools ignored this, causing the United States to lead the world in immorality and crime. Porubsky especially singled out trade schools because they allegedly produced " illiterate " children and propagated "atheism." He added that " these are the places from which cities get their vagabonds, suburbs their tramps and murderers and the gallows their offerings. " (19) In a more subtle article the Reverend Stefan Furdek analyzed both school systems and, in condemning public institutions, revealed the 84 SLOVAKIA basis of his Catholic philosophy. Public schools , he pointed out, were free . They supplied books and clothes to poor children and had nurses to care for the sick. Classes consisted of only thirty to forty pupils taught by teachers with diplomas and a good command of English. Slovak parochial schools, on the other hand, required the parents to pay tuition, their classes were overcrowded and the teachers often lacked diplomas . In spite of these faults, Furdek found parochial schools superior to public ones because they taught catechism. He declared that ''the saving of souls is more important than a good secular education." In other words, schools did not exist to promote social mobility but to give the child a decent moral upbringing . He closed his argument with the revealing statement that "a Gypsy cannot read music, but he can sure play the violin!" (20) Since both secular and religious leaders of the Slovak community in America had such negative attitudes towards public schools, and since the majority of Slovaks (80 percent) were Roman Catholics, it became almost inevitable that they would build as many parochial schools as possible and that they would send their children to these or to other Catholic institutions. The first Slovak Catholic school was built in Streator, Illinois in 1889. By 1930, more than half of the 241 Slovak parishes in America had their own schools.(21) Furthermore, Josef Barton and I have discovered that wherever the Slovak community had its own school, as at St. Wendelin's parish in Cleveland or at St. Peter's in Fort William (now Thunder Bay, Ontario), the majority (between 60 percent and 80 percent) of eligible Slovak children did attend it. (22) Where they did not have their own school, as at St. Cyril's in Minneapolis before 1938, almost half of the children attended parochial schools of other nationalities. (23) Thus , whenever possible, Slovak parents heeded the advice of their leaders and sent their children to parochial schools. Slovak parents also seemed to agree with their priests' teachings that the chief aim of schooling was not necessarily to promote social mobility here on earth but to prepare for the afterlife . Thus, once one had acquired the "three R's" and knew one's catechism, extended schooling became superfluous . This was clearly evident in the school attendance records of Slovak children in Cleveland, Minneapolis and Thunder Bay. In all three cities more than 60 percent of these children dropped out between the sixth and ninth grades in the period 19101940. This contrasted with an average American drop-out rate of 44 percent over the same period . Only twenty percent graduated from high school.(24) A few lay leaders recognized this phenomenon and complained about it. Jozef Joscak, editor of N<irodne Noviny, accused his American countrymen of "caring less about education than had Slovaks in the Old Country."(25) Pavel Jamarik, a perceptive social critic, charged that American-Slovak parents "only sent their children to high school if they wanted them to become priests." (26) Finally, SLOVAKIA 85 Michal Bosak , a banker and one of America's first Slovak millionaires, advised parents to at least send their youngsters to commerical schools instead of into the mines and factories, so as to enable them to compete in America' s capitalist society. (27) Such advice often fell on deaf ears, for, as Jozef Joscak had earlier concluded, American Slovaks "had their minds on other things . " (28) The '' other things '' that J oscak referred to were a way of life that rejected the basic tenets of the ''Protestant ethic.' ' The German sociologist Max Weber had observed that Catholic and Protestant peoples at the tum of the century had different attitudes towards life and he developed an elaborate theory to explain these differences. It appeared in his celebrated book The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. (29) Among other things, Weber theorized that the Protestant Reformation , especially its Calvinist branch , helped bring about the modem Capitalist world because Calvinists regarded work as a glorification of God rather than as a curse that followed the fall of Adam, as Medieval Catholics had believed. Furthermore , Weber continued, since Calvinists believed in predestination, they stressed self-discipline, education and a constant striving to improve one's position in life. If one did, indeed, improve oneself, the Calvinists believed, it was proof that one was saved because God ' s grace descended only upon the 'elect.' Weber's theory has caused quite a debate in academic circles , with some scholars arguing that he was correct and others denouncing his views. One of his most enthusiastic defenders has been Gerhard Lenski. In his Religious Factor: A Sociological Study of Religion's Impact on Politics, Economics and Family Life, (30) Lenski focused on 658 people of various religious persuasions in Detroit and sought to test the Weber thesis. He found that the Protestants in his sample constantly strove harder to succeed and to climb the socio-economic ladder than did Catholics , and they were successful in doing so much more often than Catholics and thus he concluded that Weber was essentially correct. The Catholics , Lenski added, were held back by an attitude that stressed the after-life rather than success in this world. While Lenski defended Weber, many more critics have attacked the latter's theories. Lipset and Bendix, for instance, argued that ethnicity was far more important than religious persuasion in American social mobility . They attributed the low rate of social mobility of Eastern Europeans as compared to White Anglo-Saxon Protestants to the later arrival of the former to this country. It was only a matter of time , they asserted, before third and fourth generation Poles , Italians and Slovaks caught up with British and Scandinavian peoples in the United States.(31) Similarly, Father Andrew Greeley, in Religion and Career: A Study of College Graduates(32) bent over backwards to try to disprove both Weber's and Lenski's theories . By using the resources of the National Opinion Research Center (NORC), which had ad- 86 SLOVAKIA ministered questionnaires to 33,000 college graduates in 1961 , Greeley tried to show that Catholics and Protestants had basically the same goals and aspirations in life and that one was as likely to be successful as the other. He did admit, however, that arriving Catholic immigrants may have been influenced by what he called a ''folk element'' which was anti-intellectual, but he saw this rapidly disappearing. (33) I see several flaws in Greeley's research. First of all, the sample he used tested only college graduates ' opinions, not their actual performances . Opinions do not necessarily reflect what people do after they graduate. Nor are the opinions of college graduates a good indicator of what the rest of their ethnic community may be thinking. Furthermore , these students may have answered the questions the way they guessed was expected of them by a society that worships social mobility . Greeley also did not differentiate enough between ethnic groups. I suspect that the vast majority of his Catholic students were German and Irish. These two peoples have been in America much longer than Eastern Europeans , they have had greater contact with White Anglo-Saxon Protestants in the past, both in the Old World and in the New, and they may even have begun to accept the "Protestant ethic" as they have gradually assimilated into American society. Finally , Greeley paid absolutely no attention to what the Catholic church has been teaching its people about the goal of life . Let us focus on the last point for the moment. Recall the advice of Father Porubsky that " life is a preparation for God" and Father Furdek 's pronouncement that " the saving of souls is much more important than a good secular education. '' (34) Should we dismiss these as the words of a couple of naive priests or do they represent official church teaching? The Baltimore Catechism which until Vatican II had been more important to most American Catholics than the Bible, since it was used in most Parochial schools, essentially repeats Porubsky's and Furdek's teachings . In the first lesson, dealing with the purpose of life, the question is asked, "Why did God make us?" The answer given is: "God made us to show forth His goodness and to share with us His everlasting happiness in heaven. " The next question asks, "What must we do to gain the happiness of heaven? ' ' and the reply is '' ... we must know, love and serve God in this world."(35) Nowhere does it say that we must strive to better ourselves on this earth, to work hard, to study and make money and to climb the social ladder. Indeed, the only mention of "work" that I could find in the Catechism is a derogatory one. In the lesson on the creation and fall of man, we read that because of Adam's original sin, " we have to die, to suffer, to study, to work .. . ! '' (36) In other words , studying and work are a curse that Adam brought upon us because of his disobedience to God. This teaching is the exact opposite of the ''Protestant ethic' ' and it has reached and influenced millions of Catholics over the last century. SLOVAKIA 87 Having surveyed Slovak Catholic attitudes towards both education and work, and having discovered their negative attitudes towards both, we are now in a better position to explain their low rate of social mobility. ' 'Success'' in America has traditionally been viewed through White Anglo-Saxon Protestant eyes. Sociologists who measure success reflect such a bias. They always look for people moving up from bluecollar to white-collar and thence to professional occupations. A corollary is that once one ' 'succeeds,'' one moves out of the central city to the more affluent suburbs. This pattern of "up and out" is usually accepted as the only meaningful form of social mobility in America.(37) There is another approach to life, however, one seldom discussed by American scholars, which is typified by the Catholic Slovak experience. Josef Barton discovered it in his study of Rumanians, Italians and Slovaks in Cleveland, although he did not pursue the subject to its final conclusion. Thus, in looking at the ways in which the three immigrant groups reacted to the American situation, Barton found that almost half of the Slovak men in his sample became skilled workers and-or acquired some property in their original neighborhoods of settlement. Furthermore, they had large families which often lived in the extended form and this increased their overall family income. (38) Here , then was a different way of ''making it. '' It was all right to be a blue-collar worker, to drop out of school at an early age and to live in the same neighborhood all of your life. Stability, rather than movement, characterized the people of this community and they seemed to be satisfied with it. Even though Barton recognized that he had discovered a different approach to social mobility, he did not really approve of it. The Rumanian example of " up and out" impressed him as the " classic rise" of an immigrant group and he left us with the impression that somehow the Slovaks had made a mistake.(39) Whether or not they had, indeed, made a mistake depends largely upon their and the observer's perception of life. Is it one's goal to constantly strive to improve oneself through education, work and the accumulation of wealth here on earth? Or is it more important to lead a moral life, to accept one 's status, no matter how low, and strive for the higher goal of everlasting salvation? The answer is usually very personal but much depends on the teachings of one's church and on the religiosity of the individual. The majority of Slovak Catholics, I submit, were very religious and did heed the teachings of their leaders and the church, at least in the first two generations. Thus, they cared more for the moral upbringing of their children than for success here on earth and this was reflected in their condemnation of public schools, in their praise for Catholic education and in their acceptance of blue-collar work and life in ethnic neighborhoods. 88 SLOVAKIA But what of third and fourth generation American Slovaks? Do they perceive life in the same way as their parents and grandparents? Do they have the same attitudes towards work and school, family and neighborhood? We do not know because no one has yet researched this group . If Andrew Greeley' s studies of German and Irish Catholics are correct, then perhaps the " Protestant ethic " will eventually rub off on Slovak Catholics as they become more assimilated into American society. Perhaps the growing nationwide decline in parochial school attendance will aid in this process . Indeed, Catholic values generally may be changing across the land and the third and fourth generations may reflect such changes. These are questions which await further research . Should someone still be skeptical about the whole theory of the " Protestant ethic ," the various components of the Slovak community in America can be studied to provide a clearer answer. While 80 percent of Slovaks are Roman Catholics , about 15 percent are Lutherans and 2 percent are Calvinists. The latter two groups could be studied, and their attitudes towards life, work , education and their social mobility could be compared and contrasted with that of their Catholic counterparts. Such a study would supercede previous efforts because one would not have to control for ethnicity , time of arrival and other variables except religion. Such research could, hopefully , deal with the whole theory of the " Protestant ethic " to everyone 's satisfaction. Finally, the American concept of social mobility needs closer scrutiny. Should the majority of scholars continue to accept without question the ideal that everyone should constantly strive to move ''up and out ' '? What are the social consequences of such a philosophy? Is it good and necessary that everyone seek a higher education, for example? Who will sweep the streets, collect the garbage, fix the roads and man the factories if we continue to revere non-manual work so much? And, what are the consequences of an upwardly-mobile whitecollar worker moving from neighborhood to neighborhood and city to city all the time in order to keep climbing? Is this good for his family? Does it not in fact destroy extended family solidarity and breed an intense nuclear family that has no roots and no sense of community? (40) Indeed, the historian Rowland Berthoff has argued that America has in the past suffered from too much mobility and he predicted that this country 's many social ills would not disappear until a sense of community was restored in this land and this implied that Americans would have to stop moving around so much.(41) In this respect those Eastern Europeans who have stayed put and have tried to preserve their neighborhoods have been in the vanguard of social planning,. Perhaps Michael Novak is right. Perhaps we should stress extended family life, ethnic neighborhoods, stability and quietness again. (42) At least we should let those who prefer this way of life to live in peace , without bureaucratic harrassment. This would mean fighting SLOVAKIA 89 "block-busting," "red-lining," freeway construction, and any other threats to community life that individuals or the government may pose. In short, it would call for respect for the pluralism of American life. It would mean toleration for the Catholic alternative to the ''Protestant ethic.'' FOOTNOTES (1) Berkeley , 1959. (2) Cambridge, Mass., 1975 . (3) Ibid ., pp. 99-100 . (4) Slouenskje narodiije nouini (Bratislava), November 18, 1845, p. 125. (5) N<i.rodni hl<i.snik (Martin), August 31, 1868, p . 178; October 31, 1868, p . 225; and May 31, 1871, p . 135 . (6) Obzor (Skalica), January 5, 1872 and January 5, 1881. (7) Julius Mesaros et al. , Dejiny Slouenska II: Od Roku 1848 do 1900 (A History of Slovakia , II: From 1848 to 1900) (Bratislava, 1968) , 264 ; and Dom a Skala (Ruzomberok), ill (1887) , 23-25. (8) Zipser Batte (Levoca), No. 29, 1905; and Jozef Gregor-Tajovsky , "Vychodne Slovensko " (Eastern Slovakia) , N<i.rodny Kalendar, 1913 (Pittsburgh), 243-4 . (9) Minister of Education to the School Inspector of Spis, Slovak State Archives in Levoca , county Spis , Executive Council, 420, KB, 1877 ; the same, 462, 1881; the same, II , 181 , 1898 and the same again, II , 183, 1902. See also William P. Dillingham, Chairman, Reports of the Immigration Commission, Volume 3, 61st Congress, 3rd Session, Senate Document No . 756 (Washington, 1911), 84 for literacy rates. (10) Amerik<i.nsko-Slouenske Nouiny (Pittsburgh), February 2, 1893, p . 6; December 8, 1894, p . 8; January 8, 1895 , p . l; July 13 , 1895 , p . 4 ; April 28, 1898, p. 8. The quotation is from the first article . (11) N<i.rodny Kalend<i.r, 1899, 44-5; 1911, 59-64 and 224-8; and 1917, 222-4 . (12) Ibid. , 1917, 222 . (13) Dom a Skala, II (1886), 194; and ill (1887), 73. (14) See for example Nafa Z<i.staua (Presov) September 20, 1908, p . 2 and October 4, 1908, p. 2; Eperjes (Presov), September 1, 1913, p . l; August 15, 1913, p . 2; October 15 , 1914 , p . 3; andEghy<i.z Es Iskola (Presov), February 15, 1918, p . 69 . (15) Jednota (Cleveland), September 17, 1902, p . 3 ; October 1, 1902, p . 4; August 31 , 1904, p . 4; July 12 , 1905 , p . 4; July 26, 1905, p . 4 ; August 9, 1905, p. 4; February 7, 1906, p. 4; July 1, 1908, p . 4; August 19, 1908, p. 4; September 8, 1909, p . 4; February 16, 1910, p . 4 ; March 23, 1910, p . 4; July 27, 1910, p . 4; August 17, 1910, p . 4; September 2, 1910, p . 4 ; April 5, 1911, p . 4; and August 23, 1911 , p . 4. (16) Kalend<i.r Jednota, 1898 (Cleveland), 133-4 ; 1899, 135-6; 1902, 128-36; 1907, 120-3; 1908, 177-8; 1911, 29-31; 1913, 123-8 ; 1917, 83-5. (17) Ibid., 1898, 133. (18) Jednota, July 12, 1905, p . 4. (19) Kalend<i.r J ednota, 1907, 120-3. (20) Jednota, August 19, 1908 , p . 4. (21) N<i.rodnie nouiny, October 5, 1889, p . 3 and October 23, 1890, p . 3; Kalendar Jednota, 1930, 193-201. 90 SLOVAKIA (22) Barton, Peasants and Strangers , 149-50; M. Mark Stolarik, "Immigration and Urbanization: the Slovak Experience, 1870-1918," Ph .D. dissertation, University of Minnesota, 1974, pp. 165-6. (23) Ibid., Stolarik, 165-6. (24) Barton, Peasants and Strangers, 132 , 137 and Stolarik , "Immigration and Urbanization," 170. (25) N<irodne Nouiny (Pittsburgh) , June 2, 1910, p . 4. (26) Pavel Jarnarik , Vychoua dietok: prakticke n<iuody pre Slouenskych rodic:ou (The Raising of Children : Practical Advice for Slovak Parents) (Author ' s publication, Disputant , Virginia, 1913), 22. (27) Kalend<ir J ednota 1917, 83-5. (28) N<irodne Nouiny , June 2, 1910, p. 4. (29) Translated by Talcott Parsons (London, 1930). (30) New York, 1961. (31) Social Mobility in Industrial Society, 49-52 . (32) New York, 1963. (33) Ibid., p . 134. (34) See above page 6. (35) Rev . Michael A. McGuire, The New Baltimore Catechism and Mass (No. 2, Official Revised Edition, New York, 1941), p. 14. (36) Ibid. , p. 29. (37) All the scholars cited above - Lipset and Bendix , Lenski, Greeley and even Barton - accept this pattern. One who questions its wisdom is Richard Sennett in Families Against the City: Middle Class Homes in Industrial Chicago, 1872-1890 (Cambridge, 1970) . (38) Barton , Peasants and Strangers, 143. (39) Ibid., 172-3. (40) This was part of Richard Sennet's argumentt in Families Against the City, cited above . (41) See his An Unsettled People; Social Order and Disorder in American History (New York , 1971). (42) Novak makes this argument in his Rise of the Unmeltable Ethnics: Politics and Culture in the Seventies (New York, 1972) and again in the two EMPAC! (Ethnic Millions Political Action Committee) statements of 1973 and 1975.  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Immigration, Education, and the Social Mobility of Slovaks, 1870-1930 Description An account of the resource M. Mark Stolarik Slovakia, Vol. 27 (No. 50), 1977 pp. 80-90 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Stolarik, M. Mark, 1943- Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1977 LCNAF https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/30c56c8a95838a4763469288f1e094a8.pdf f6e50684afa4f401d71637881e954353 PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA 99 HOMELAND AND HEAVEN: Incarnation and Resurrection in the Last Poems of Milos K. Mlynarovic The published form of Zlata koruna: Rozhovor s anjelom smrti (The Golden Crown: Dialogue with the Angel of Death), the poetic last will and testament of Milos K. Mlynarovic, is a bilingual edition in which the reverend monsignor's original Slovak poems stand sideby-side with their English translation by Sister M. Martina Tybor, SS.C.M. Sister Martina's work is faithful to the expression and metrics of the Slovak but also admirably sensitive to the American English idiom and artistic in its own right for its rendering of metaphor and contemporary diction. Thus , these final poems by Monsignor Mlynarovic, with their fine tribute to native land, freedom, and, above all, the faith, are fittingly available to both the reader who can enjoy the music and language of the original Slovak and the reader who is accustomed to the modes of current American poetry. 1 am the son of a Slovak mother; I am he whom the Statue of Liberty welcomed , and thankful am I, I, a world citizen who now walks through the world with Christ J esus. (Whose Voice is This, p. 16)'' It is not simply an accident of placement that puts the brief verse, "Ci je to hlas?" ("Whose Voice is This?"), first in The Golden Crown. In joining love of homeland, love of freedom, and love of life as a "world citizen" with a deep faith in the abiding presence of the Lord Jesus and a sense ,:, All quotations of poems are from Milos K. Mlynarovic, Zlata koruna / The Golden Crown, translated by Sister M. Martina Tybor, SS.C.M. (Middletown, Pa.: J ednota Printery, 1972) . �100 SLOVAKIA of intimate fellowship with Him, the poet and priest announces in "Whose Voice is This" the religious perspective which all the poems in this volume take . As we read and reread this holy man's Dialogue with the Angel of Death, we see more and more clearly that Monsignor Mlynarovic's spirituality is deeply grounded in his faith in the Incarnation and the Resurrection. As he squarely faces his own dying and assents to the summons of the Angel of Death, Monsignor Mlynarovic grows more, rather than less, in love with the world. There is nothing of unhealthy "attachment" about this love, however. He exults in seedlings and trees, golden grain, land and sea, the sunset, moon and stars, the flames of beeswax candles, the flight of the skylark, shuttered windows , the table set for a meal, bookshelves, the ticking and cuckooing of a clock-enjoying and celebrating them for themselves, for the Creator whose artistry they proclaim, and also for the truths they have to tell. All living things and all arts and crafts are, for this poet, a sign, a reminder , that God has indeed visited His people and invested man's handiwork with holiness. Despite the fact that "derisive laughter taunts: there is no God, and if there ever was, he is dead now," despite the fact that modern man is sorely tempted to an ungodly egotism as he prides himself on his accomplishments and powers, the Angel of Death insists that man's life and work have been-and still are-sanctified: Hold fa st your faith ! The flame of truth fr eshly jets out of a living source. It pli 2s its busy tasks in labora tories, fi ssioning a nd splicing; it hull s away the secrets of being and , like sprightl y skylarks, pours out thanks for creation . Whe re there is life and growth there will be upheaval, too. Dynamos pressure th e mind of man into tomorrow where , triumphantl y, confidently, he builds a world to ward the tomorrow of tomorro ws in which he will arise resurrect ed from the dead. ("Dialogue with the Angel of Death," p. 22) How can a man who has lived to see his native countrymen oppressed and his adopted land slowly overtaken by a kind of technological paganism still retain hope in the sacredness of this life? By this one assurance alone-that �SLOVAKIA 101 in the midst of the tug-of-war between good and evil there is still One who has come, who still "invites," who will r eturn: Som eone did li ve he re. one who spoke mightily and th e \rnrd beca me the fl esh of the cosmos. Th e fi elds unfold and bl ossom . Someone has sown them and continu es to sow them fruitfully, effectively . . . And one da y there will h2 a return; a wearied wayfarer will call , exha usted beyond recognition, fa in t wit h hunger and thi rs t. cage r to know all about our h 3rvests a nd a bout ourselves. Seatin g him se lf. he will join us. drink of our water and break our fra grant bread. ('· Dialogue with the Angel of Death," p. 24) Thus, notwithstanding his own heartbreak, homesickness, and pain, Monsignor Mlynarovic finds in the approach of death an ever-increasing ability to see through the smoke-screen of present evil and sorrow to a vision of great hope. Because of his profound personal conviction that the Word-made-flesh continues to dwell among us, the dying pastor finds himself overwhelmed with a love of the earth which is derived directly from his faith in God's love for His creatures. Monsignor Mlynarovic expresses this abounding Father-fostered love in his fondness for the simplest of things: "garments of rye" and "oak-forested tracts" ("My Slovak People"), "the breath of twilight's billowing clouds" and night "as intense as the cyclamen" ("The Wayfarer"). Because he himself is so truly a man who is "salt of the earth" in the most Christ-like way, Monsignor Mlynarovic cherishes his Slovak heritage religiously. One could never accuse him of mere nationalism or of undue ethnic pride in his praise of the Slovak people who, "clutching life," are "determined not to die" ("My Slovak People," p. 62). He is not just speaking of the preservation of a culture; rather, he is revealing his belief that the life of God seems to him to be especially embodied, enfleshed, in the Slovak folk. The simplicity and purity of lived faith, the spontaneity of prayer, the acceptance of God's will in the daily circumstances of home and family, the capacity for endurance of endless trials, and the humble closeness to the earth which are all characteristic of the Slovaks seem to �102 SLOVAKIA the poet a unique and blessed expression of the impact of the Incarnation of a people. We see that in his Christian optimism the poet is far from blind to suffering. He observes that "pain saturates the ocean; agony bursts out of the hills / and all the domestic brood shields its face and flees in desperation" ("The Wayfarer," p. 28). At the same time, he believes without hesitation that "man is no slave; / even in its bleakest moments life has always been a gratuitous gift / not a mere bone grudgingly thrown you by some tyrant and left lying there" (p. 30). For this priest-poet, pain and delight are simultaneous. We can understand this seeming paradox somewhat better if we recognize that man's participation in the Incarnation, his living of the present Christlife, also means following through the Lord's passion and death. So we read in "He is Not Here" the aged monsignor appealing to Christ: - Do not unfasten, I beg! Nail back again that ugly nail in its place. A5 long as the face of humanity is befouled let this be my resting place . . . (p. 46 ) In "The Mandate" he asks the angel, "Rest the crucifix upon my breast" (p. 44), and in "The Resurrection Station" he avers, "There has always been and there will always be a cross as long as earth can hear the bell-tones of the heart" (p. 54 ). What we find, in short, is that from his utterly joyful belief in the Incarnation Monsignor Mlynarovic is prompted to bring that Good News to others; having been so moved, he commits himself to crucifixion: Tim e ticks the counsel : Give of yourself. That is the only way to assure your own increase. Help man toward the everlasting; help God; in this way only will God shine through all things. Even th ro ugh us. ("Timepieces," p. 38) Just as his love of the world is inspired by his faith in the Incarnation, Monsignor Mlynarovic's generous and complete self-surrender is motivated by his hope in the Resurrection. As a result, these deathwatch poems are never finally unhappy, though they candidly admit that the �SLOVAKIA 103 process of letting-go is far from easy. There are regrets and longings and daydreams: One final flight took him back to greet his native land once more: fr agra nce of wine and bread ; no one suffers want here. and n ot a dove, nor the cross crowning the spire, in fact, not even the dog whose baying shatters the night, nothing was alien to him here. He wished to catch again the sounding evening bell and the sir en's wail, the light of tender eyes in the cradle, the tread of tottering years-oh, so pain-filled now. And he moved along the range, gladdened by a skylark welcome and sat at the lakeside with streaming tears, weeping with the swan that pour s out a final song. ("Before Parting," p. 32 ) All these longings, lingering as they are, are overcome by the promise of the Pasch, by his conviction that dying does not really mean giving up anything. He can still regard his people, his homeland, birds, flowering plants, and all God's goods with tenderness and affection because he is certain that all are moving into a transformation and glorification: "like the Tatry, I too await resurrection" ("Upon the Bier," p. 34). He does not look forward to a disembodied otherworld but to the realization of a new earth and a new heaven. For himself, for his people, for all mankind toiling with the creatures of land, sea, and sky, he prophesies an immortality of united bodies and souls, of matter and spirit drawn together in the pattern of the Resurrection and, we might add, our Lady's Assumption. "Whoever once had the gift of life / cannot ever not live again," he declares ("He is Not Here," p. 48). Monsignor Mlynarovic turns to the image of the dove - with all its rich symbolic associations for Christians-to depict his own soul and his destiny in dying: 0 fai thful dove, now you can claim your everlasting nesting place. No storm or flood can ever touch it now. Yours is the shari ng of the seed, the partaking of the very tree of life. You shall wing yo ur flight in majesty, wheeling into the inner court of God �104 SLOVAKIA where multitudes of the r edee med who call to you gently sou nd t he dithyram b of God's creation. (" The Mandate," p. 44 ) This dying, this letting-loose of the dove, is no leavetaking, he is sure. It is, rather, a liberation from a cage and an occasion of homecoming: I lea\·e but I shall be go ne onl y fo r a time. The dove sh all return to i ts cote and I sha ll return to you wit h vehemence and ardor (fo r now a growi ng fain t ness hinders me) a nd once again I shall be one of you . I know t ha t in eternity no one clips the wings of love, so I sh all fr eely wing a re turn flight to my homeland ; I shall kiss and be kissed , I shall come again to plant boxwood hedges once more. ("I Shall Come to You," p. 50 ) A contemporary American poet, Richard Wilbur, has said that "Love calls us to the things of this world." In considering the poems of Milos Mlynarovic's Golden Crown we can see how profoundly meaningful such a statement is for the Christian. As the beloved monsignor so gracefully gives himself over to his own death, he shows that for the man of faith dying is really an intensification of life. As he prepares for a total union with God-in whose unseen company he has spent his years-the dying man comes to r ealize that he is not going away, not ending one life to begin another, but that he is being set free to experience fully-at last-the life with God that is. The Incarnation, Christ's coming, has already opened the way to communion between God and man; it is only by consenting to die and rise witµ Christ, however, that man can begin to experience the reality of this presence of himself and God to one another . For Monsignor Mlynarovic the y es to the call of Angel of Death springs him free as a high-flying dove. And this freedom , the freedom of Easter (which dawns on us gradually, not merely at the moment when we can officially be pronounced dead), draws us, he assures, to a deeper, fuller , and holier love of the dovecote . Sister M . Pamela S mi t h. SS.C.M. � SLOVAKIA 99 HOMELAND AND HEAVEN: Incarnation and Resurrection in the Last Poems of Milos K. Mlynarovic The published form of Zlata koruna: Rozhovor s anjelom smrti (The Golden Crown: Dialogue with the Angel of Death), the poetic last will and testament of Milos K. Mlynarovic, is a bilingual edition in which the reverend monsignor's original Slovak poems stand sideby-side with their English translation by Sister M. Martina Tybor, SS.C.M. Sister Martina's work is faithful to the expression and metrics of the Slovak but also admirably sensitive to the American English idiom and artistic in its own right for its rendering of metaphor and contemporary diction. Thus , these final poems by Monsignor Mlynarovic, with their fine tribute to native land, freedom, and, above all, the faith, are fittingly available to both the reader who can enjoy the music and language of the original Slovak and the reader who is accustomed to the modes of current American poetry. 1 am the son of a Slovak mother; I am he whom the Statue of Liberty welcomed , and thankful am I, I, a world citizen who now walks through the world with Christ J esus. (Whose Voice is This, p. 16)'' It is not simply an accident of placement that puts the brief verse, "Ci je to hlas?" ("Whose Voice is This?"), first in The Golden Crown. In joining love of homeland, love of freedom, and love of life as a "world citizen" with a deep faith in the abiding presence of the Lord Jesus and a sense ,:, All quotations of poems are from Milos K. Mlynarovic, Zlata koruna / The Golden Crown, translated by Sister M. Martina Tybor, SS.C.M. (Middletown, Pa.: J ednota Printery, 1972) . �100 SLOVAKIA of intimate fellowship with Him, the poet and priest announces in "Whose Voice is This" the religious perspective which all the poems in this volume take . As we read and reread this holy man's Dialogue with the Angel of Death, we see more and more clearly that Monsignor Mlynarovic's spirituality is deeply grounded in his faith in the Incarnation and the Resurrection. As he squarely faces his own dying and assents to the summons of the Angel of Death, Monsignor Mlynarovic grows more, rather than less, in love with the world. There is nothing of unhealthy "attachment" about this love, however. He exults in seedlings and trees, golden grain, land and sea, the sunset, moon and stars, the flames of beeswax candles, the flight of the skylark, shuttered windows , the table set for a meal, bookshelves, the ticking and cuckooing of a clock-enjoying and celebrating them for themselves, for the Creator whose artistry they proclaim, and also for the truths they have to tell. All living things and all arts and crafts are, for this poet, a sign, a reminder , that God has indeed visited His people and invested man's handiwork with holiness. Despite the fact that "derisive laughter taunts: there is no God, and if there ever was, he is dead now," despite the fact that modern man is sorely tempted to an ungodly egotism as he prides himself on his accomplishments and powers, the Angel of Death insists that man's life and work have been-and still are-sanctified: Hold fa st your faith ! The flame of truth fr eshly jets out of a living source. It pli 2s its busy tasks in labora tories, fi ssioning a nd splicing; it hull s away the secrets of being and , like sprightl y skylarks, pours out thanks for creation . Whe re there is life and growth there will be upheaval, too. Dynamos pressure th e mind of man into tomorrow where , triumphantl y, confidently, he builds a world to ward the tomorrow of tomorro ws in which he will arise resurrect ed from the dead. ("Dialogue with the Angel of Death," p. 22) How can a man who has lived to see his native countrymen oppressed and his adopted land slowly overtaken by a kind of technological paganism still retain hope in the sacredness of this life? By this one assurance alone-that �SLOVAKIA 101 in the midst of the tug-of-war between good and evil there is still One who has come, who still "invites," who will r eturn: Som eone did li ve he re. one who spoke mightily and th e \rnrd beca me the fl esh of the cosmos. Th e fi elds unfold and bl ossom . Someone has sown them and continu es to sow them fruitfully, effectively . . . And one da y there will h2 a return; a wearied wayfarer will call , exha usted beyond recognition, fa in t wit h hunger and thi rs t. cage r to know all about our h 3rvests a nd a bout ourselves. Seatin g him se lf. he will join us. drink of our water and break our fra grant bread. ('· Dialogue with the Angel of Death," p. 24) Thus, notwithstanding his own heartbreak, homesickness, and pain, Monsignor Mlynarovic finds in the approach of death an ever-increasing ability to see through the smoke-screen of present evil and sorrow to a vision of great hope. Because of his profound personal conviction that the Word-made-flesh continues to dwell among us, the dying pastor finds himself overwhelmed with a love of the earth which is derived directly from his faith in God's love for His creatures. Monsignor Mlynarovic expresses this abounding Father-fostered love in his fondness for the simplest of things: "garments of rye" and "oak-forested tracts" ("My Slovak People"), "the breath of twilight's billowing clouds" and night "as intense as the cyclamen" ("The Wayfarer"). Because he himself is so truly a man who is "salt of the earth" in the most Christ-like way, Monsignor Mlynarovic cherishes his Slovak heritage religiously. One could never accuse him of mere nationalism or of undue ethnic pride in his praise of the Slovak people who, "clutching life," are "determined not to die" ("My Slovak People," p. 62). He is not just speaking of the preservation of a culture; rather, he is revealing his belief that the life of God seems to him to be especially embodied, enfleshed, in the Slovak folk. The simplicity and purity of lived faith, the spontaneity of prayer, the acceptance of God's will in the daily circumstances of home and family, the capacity for endurance of endless trials, and the humble closeness to the earth which are all characteristic of the Slovaks seem to �102 SLOVAKIA the poet a unique and blessed expression of the impact of the Incarnation of a people. We see that in his Christian optimism the poet is far from blind to suffering. He observes that "pain saturates the ocean; agony bursts out of the hills / and all the domestic brood shields its face and flees in desperation" ("The Wayfarer," p. 28). At the same time, he believes without hesitation that "man is no slave; / even in its bleakest moments life has always been a gratuitous gift / not a mere bone grudgingly thrown you by some tyrant and left lying there" (p. 30). For this priest-poet, pain and delight are simultaneous. We can understand this seeming paradox somewhat better if we recognize that man's participation in the Incarnation, his living of the present Christlife, also means following through the Lord's passion and death. So we read in "He is Not Here" the aged monsignor appealing to Christ: - Do not unfasten, I beg! Nail back again that ugly nail in its place. A5 long as the face of humanity is befouled let this be my resting place . . . (p. 46 ) In "The Mandate" he asks the angel, "Rest the crucifix upon my breast" (p. 44), and in "The Resurrection Station" he avers, "There has always been and there will always be a cross as long as earth can hear the bell-tones of the heart" (p. 54 ). What we find, in short, is that from his utterly joyful belief in the Incarnation Monsignor Mlynarovic is prompted to bring that Good News to others; having been so moved, he commits himself to crucifixion: Tim e ticks the counsel : Give of yourself. That is the only way to assure your own increase. Help man toward the everlasting; help God; in this way only will God shine through all things. Even th ro ugh us. ("Timepieces," p. 38) Just as his love of the world is inspired by his faith in the Incarnation, Monsignor Mlynarovic's generous and complete self-surrender is motivated by his hope in the Resurrection. As a result, these deathwatch poems are never finally unhappy, though they candidly admit that the �SLOVAKIA 103 process of letting-go is far from easy. There are regrets and longings and daydreams: One final flight took him back to greet his native land once more: fr agra nce of wine and bread ; no one suffers want here. and n ot a dove, nor the cross crowning the spire, in fact, not even the dog whose baying shatters the night, nothing was alien to him here. He wished to catch again the sounding evening bell and the sir en's wail, the light of tender eyes in the cradle, the tread of tottering years-oh, so pain-filled now. And he moved along the range, gladdened by a skylark welcome and sat at the lakeside with streaming tears, weeping with the swan that pour s out a final song. ("Before Parting," p. 32 ) All these longings, lingering as they are, are overcome by the promise of the Pasch, by his conviction that dying does not really mean giving up anything. He can still regard his people, his homeland, birds, flowering plants, and all God's goods with tenderness and affection because he is certain that all are moving into a transformation and glorification: "like the Tatry, I too await resurrection" ("Upon the Bier," p. 34). He does not look forward to a disembodied otherworld but to the realization of a new earth and a new heaven. For himself, for his people, for all mankind toiling with the creatures of land, sea, and sky, he prophesies an immortality of united bodies and souls, of matter and spirit drawn together in the pattern of the Resurrection and, we might add, our Lady's Assumption. "Whoever once had the gift of life / cannot ever not live again," he declares ("He is Not Here," p. 48). Monsignor Mlynarovic turns to the image of the dove - with all its rich symbolic associations for Christians-to depict his own soul and his destiny in dying: 0 fai thful dove, now you can claim your everlasting nesting place. No storm or flood can ever touch it now. Yours is the shari ng of the seed, the partaking of the very tree of life. You shall wing yo ur flight in majesty, wheeling into the inner court of God �104 SLOVAKIA where multitudes of the r edee med who call to you gently sou nd t he dithyram b of God's creation. (" The Mandate," p. 44 ) This dying, this letting-loose of the dove, is no leavetaking, he is sure. It is, rather, a liberation from a cage and an occasion of homecoming: I lea\·e but I shall be go ne onl y fo r a time. The dove sh all return to i ts cote and I sha ll return to you wit h vehemence and ardor (fo r now a growi ng fain t ness hinders me) a nd once again I shall be one of you . I know t ha t in eternity no one clips the wings of love, so I sh all fr eely wing a re turn flight to my homeland ; I shall kiss and be kissed , I shall come again to plant boxwood hedges once more. ("I Shall Come to You," p. 50 ) A contemporary American poet, Richard Wilbur, has said that "Love calls us to the things of this world." In considering the poems of Milos Mlynarovic's Golden Crown we can see how profoundly meaningful such a statement is for the Christian. As the beloved monsignor so gracefully gives himself over to his own death, he shows that for the man of faith dying is really an intensification of life. As he prepares for a total union with God-in whose unseen company he has spent his years-the dying man comes to r ealize that he is not going away, not ending one life to begin another, but that he is being set free to experience fully-at last-the life with God that is. The Incarnation, Christ's coming, has already opened the way to communion between God and man; it is only by consenting to die and rise witµ Christ, however, that man can begin to experience the reality of this presence of himself and God to one another . For Monsignor Mlynarovic the y es to the call of Angel of Death springs him free as a high-flying dove. And this freedom , the freedom of Easter (which dawns on us gradually, not merely at the moment when we can officially be pronounced dead), draws us, he assures, to a deeper, fuller , and holier love of the dovecote . Sister M . Pamela S mi t h. SS.C.M. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 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 SLOVAKIA 99 HOMELAND AND HEAVEN: Incarnation and Resurrection in the Last Poems of Milos K. Mlynarovic The published form of Zlata koruna: Rozhovor s anjelom smrti (The Golden Crown: Dialogue with the Angel of Death), the poetic last will and testament of Milos K. Mlynarovic, is a bilingual edition in which the reverend monsignor's original Slovak poems stand sideby-side with their English translation by Sister M. Martina Tybor, SS.C.M. Sister Martina's work is faithful to the expression and metrics of the Slovak but also admirably sensitive to the American English idiom and artistic in its own right for its rendering of metaphor and contemporary diction. Thus , these final poems by Monsignor Mlynarovic, with their fine tribute to native land, freedom, and, above all, the faith, are fittingly available to both the reader who can enjoy the music and language of the original Slovak and the reader who is accustomed to the modes of current American poetry. 1 am the son of a Slovak mother; I am he whom the Statue of Liberty welcomed , and thankful am I, I, a world citizen who now walks through the world with Christ J esus. (Whose Voice is This, p. 16)'' It is not simply an accident of placement that puts the brief verse, "Ci je to hlas?" ("Whose Voice is This?"), first in The Golden Crown. In joining love of homeland, love of freedom, and love of life as a "world citizen" with a deep faith in the abiding presence of the Lord Jesus and a sense ,:, All quotations of poems are from Milos K. Mlynarovic, Zlata koruna / The Golden Crown, translated by Sister M. Martina Tybor, SS.C.M. (Middletown, Pa.: J ednota Printery, 1972) . 100 SLOVAKIA of intimate fellowship with Him, the poet and priest announces in "Whose Voice is This" the religious perspective which all the poems in this volume take . As we read and reread this holy man's Dialogue with the Angel of Death, we see more and more clearly that Monsignor Mlynarovic's spirituality is deeply grounded in his faith in the Incarnation and the Resurrection. As he squarely faces his own dying and assents to the summons of the Angel of Death, Monsignor Mlynarovic grows more, rather than less, in love with the world. There is nothing of unhealthy "attachment" about this love, however. He exults in seedlings and trees, golden grain, land and sea, the sunset, moon and stars, the flames of beeswax candles, the flight of the skylark, shuttered windows , the table set for a meal, bookshelves, the ticking and cuckooing of a clock-enjoying and celebrating them for themselves, for the Creator whose artistry they proclaim, and also for the truths they have to tell. All living things and all arts and crafts are, for this poet, a sign, a reminder , that God has indeed visited His people and invested man's handiwork with holiness. Despite the fact that "derisive laughter taunts: there is no God, and if there ever was, he is dead now," despite the fact that modern man is sorely tempted to an ungodly egotism as he prides himself on his accomplishments and powers, the Angel of Death insists that man's life and work have been-and still are-sanctified: Hold fa st your faith ! The flame of truth fr eshly jets out of a living source. It pli 2s its busy tasks in labora tories, fi ssioning a nd splicing; it hull s away the secrets of being and , like sprightl y skylarks, pours out thanks for creation . Whe re there is life and growth there will be upheaval, too. Dynamos pressure th e mind of man into tomorrow where , triumphantl y, confidently, he builds a world to ward the tomorrow of tomorro ws in which he will arise resurrect ed from the dead. ("Dialogue with the Angel of Death," p. 22) How can a man who has lived to see his native countrymen oppressed and his adopted land slowly overtaken by a kind of technological paganism still retain hope in the sacredness of this life? By this one assurance alone-that SLOVAKIA 101 in the midst of the tug-of-war between good and evil there is still One who has come, who still "invites," who will r eturn: Som eone did li ve he re. one who spoke mightily and th e \rnrd beca me the fl esh of the cosmos. Th e fi elds unfold and bl ossom . Someone has sown them and continu es to sow them fruitfully, effectively . . . And one da y there will h2 a return; a wearied wayfarer will call , exha usted beyond recognition, fa in t wit h hunger and thi rs t. cage r to know all about our h 3rvests a nd a bout ourselves. Seatin g him se lf. he will join us. drink of our water and break our fra grant bread. ('· Dialogue with the Angel of Death," p. 24) Thus, notwithstanding his own heartbreak, homesickness, and pain, Monsignor Mlynarovic finds in the approach of death an ever-increasing ability to see through the smoke-screen of present evil and sorrow to a vision of great hope. Because of his profound personal conviction that the Word-made-flesh continues to dwell among us, the dying pastor finds himself overwhelmed with a love of the earth which is derived directly from his faith in God's love for His creatures. Monsignor Mlynarovic expresses this abounding Father-fostered love in his fondness for the simplest of things: "garments of rye" and "oak-forested tracts" ("My Slovak People"), "the breath of twilight's billowing clouds" and night "as intense as the cyclamen" ("The Wayfarer"). Because he himself is so truly a man who is "salt of the earth" in the most Christ-like way, Monsignor Mlynarovic cherishes his Slovak heritage religiously. One could never accuse him of mere nationalism or of undue ethnic pride in his praise of the Slovak people who, "clutching life," are "determined not to die" ("My Slovak People," p. 62). He is not just speaking of the preservation of a culture; rather, he is revealing his belief that the life of God seems to him to be especially embodied, enfleshed, in the Slovak folk. The simplicity and purity of lived faith, the spontaneity of prayer, the acceptance of God's will in the daily circumstances of home and family, the capacity for endurance of endless trials, and the humble closeness to the earth which are all characteristic of the Slovaks seem to 102 SLOVAKIA the poet a unique and blessed expression of the impact of the Incarnation of a people. We see that in his Christian optimism the poet is far from blind to suffering. He observes that "pain saturates the ocean; agony bursts out of the hills / and all the domestic brood shields its face and flees in desperation" ("The Wayfarer," p. 28). At the same time, he believes without hesitation that "man is no slave; / even in its bleakest moments life has always been a gratuitous gift / not a mere bone grudgingly thrown you by some tyrant and left lying there" (p. 30). For this priest-poet, pain and delight are simultaneous. We can understand this seeming paradox somewhat better if we recognize that man's participation in the Incarnation, his living of the present Christlife, also means following through the Lord's passion and death. So we read in "He is Not Here" the aged monsignor appealing to Christ: - Do not unfasten, I beg! Nail back again that ugly nail in its place. A5 long as the face of humanity is befouled let this be my resting place . . . (p. 46 ) In "The Mandate" he asks the angel, "Rest the crucifix upon my breast" (p. 44), and in "The Resurrection Station" he avers, "There has always been and there will always be a cross as long as earth can hear the bell-tones of the heart" (p. 54 ). What we find, in short, is that from his utterly joyful belief in the Incarnation Monsignor Mlynarovic is prompted to bring that Good News to others; having been so moved, he commits himself to crucifixion: Tim e ticks the counsel : Give of yourself. That is the only way to assure your own increase. Help man toward the everlasting; help God; in this way only will God shine through all things. Even th ro ugh us. ("Timepieces," p. 38) Just as his love of the world is inspired by his faith in the Incarnation, Monsignor Mlynarovic's generous and complete self-surrender is motivated by his hope in the Resurrection. As a result, these deathwatch poems are never finally unhappy, though they candidly admit that the SLOVAKIA 103 process of letting-go is far from easy. There are regrets and longings and daydreams: One final flight took him back to greet his native land once more: fr agra nce of wine and bread ; no one suffers want here. and n ot a dove, nor the cross crowning the spire, in fact, not even the dog whose baying shatters the night, nothing was alien to him here. He wished to catch again the sounding evening bell and the sir en's wail, the light of tender eyes in the cradle, the tread of tottering years-oh, so pain-filled now. And he moved along the range, gladdened by a skylark welcome and sat at the lakeside with streaming tears, weeping with the swan that pour s out a final song. ("Before Parting," p. 32 ) All these longings, lingering as they are, are overcome by the promise of the Pasch, by his conviction that dying does not really mean giving up anything. He can still regard his people, his homeland, birds, flowering plants, and all God's goods with tenderness and affection because he is certain that all are moving into a transformation and glorification: "like the Tatry, I too await resurrection" ("Upon the Bier," p. 34). He does not look forward to a disembodied otherworld but to the realization of a new earth and a new heaven. For himself, for his people, for all mankind toiling with the creatures of land, sea, and sky, he prophesies an immortality of united bodies and souls, of matter and spirit drawn together in the pattern of the Resurrection and, we might add, our Lady's Assumption. "Whoever once had the gift of life / cannot ever not live again," he declares ("He is Not Here," p. 48). Monsignor Mlynarovic turns to the image of the dove - with all its rich symbolic associations for Christians-to depict his own soul and his destiny in dying: 0 fai thful dove, now you can claim your everlasting nesting place. No storm or flood can ever touch it now. Yours is the shari ng of the seed, the partaking of the very tree of life. You shall wing yo ur flight in majesty, wheeling into the inner court of God 104 SLOVAKIA where multitudes of the r edee med who call to you gently sou nd t he dithyram b of God's creation. (" The Mandate," p. 44 ) This dying, this letting-loose of the dove, is no leavetaking, he is sure. It is, rather, a liberation from a cage and an occasion of homecoming: I lea\·e but I shall be go ne onl y fo r a time. The dove sh all return to i ts cote and I sha ll return to you wit h vehemence and ardor (fo r now a growi ng fain t ness hinders me) a nd once again I shall be one of you . I know t ha t in eternity no one clips the wings of love, so I sh all fr eely wing a re turn flight to my homeland ; I shall kiss and be kissed , I shall come again to plant boxwood hedges once more. ("I Shall Come to You," p. 50 ) A contemporary American poet, Richard Wilbur, has said that "Love calls us to the things of this world." In considering the poems of Milos Mlynarovic's Golden Crown we can see how profoundly meaningful such a statement is for the Christian. As the beloved monsignor so gracefully gives himself over to his own death, he shows that for the man of faith dying is really an intensification of life. As he prepares for a total union with God-in whose unseen company he has spent his years-the dying man comes to r ealize that he is not going away, not ending one life to begin another, but that he is being set free to experience fully-at last-the life with God that is. The Incarnation, Christ's coming, has already opened the way to communion between God and man; it is only by consenting to die and rise witµ Christ, however, that man can begin to experience the reality of this presence of himself and God to one another . For Monsignor Mlynarovic the y es to the call of Angel of Death springs him free as a high-flying dove. And this freedom , the freedom of Easter (which dawns on us gradually, not merely at the moment when we can officially be pronounced dead), draws us, he assures, to a deeper, fuller , and holier love of the dovecote . Sister M . Pamela S mi t h. SS.C.M.  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Incarnation and Resurrection in the Last Poems of Miloš K. Mlynarovič Description An account of the resource Sister M. Pamela Smith, SS.C.M. Slovakia, Vol. 25 (No. 48), 1975 pp. 99-104 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Smith, Sister M. Pamela, SS.C.M. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1975 name https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/da02577accbe70499210de9cbe8d3295.pdf 8f437d2b75d1c5147c376ac14c6e27f6 PDF Text Text 44 SLOVAKIA the basic principle of human freedom. Let us never give our moral or legal blessing to the enslavement oif millions behind the J.ron Curtain who long to be free. Nor should we permit any international organization of which we are a member to compromise us in this regard. How can any nation ignore the moral issue involved in Roviet destruction of freedom in Hungary and subsequently want sanctions applied in the case of trouble in the Middle East? What organization can survive such a double standard? Either we have a system of law and order or the doctrine of might makes right is recognized. Communism cannot 1b e allowed to place itself above international law or God-gi,v en moral law. Our first Republican President Abraham Lincoln, said: "Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history. • • • The fiery trial thvough which we pass will light us down to the latest generation. • • * We, yes even we, have the power and bear the responsibility. • • * In giving freedom to the slave we assure freedom to the free. * * • We shall nobly save or meanly lose this last best ho.p e on earth." • • • INDEPENDENCE AN D THE SLOVAK PAST ,Joseph Kirschbaum, LL. D., Ph. D. The question of the national existence of the Slovak nation, the efforts expended by the Slovaks for national and state independence, are treated in various works of political writers. In their analysis of the problems of Central Europe, writers try to be objective, but their literary efforts demonstrate that they answer the question only partially and usually incorr-ectly. Not taking into account the use of tendencious sources, it appears that the fault lies particularly in the approach to the problem of Slovak efforts for independence from the downfall of the first state of the Slovaks, Great Moravia. !Many political writers identify creations of dynasties with creations of nations, especially in multi--national states, and overlooik the universalistir tendencies of Europe in the early centuries of the Middle Ages and the Modern Age. �SLOVAKIA 45 Ailly search of the question of the efforts of the Slovaks :fior independence in the course of the centuries requires that we take into consideration the whole series of actualities, which directly or indirectly created or affected the destinies of the SlovaJk and had any influence on Slovak political tendencies. We must necessarily take into accownt especially the following actualities : 1. Slovakia was and still is a component part of the European continent ·and, therefore, the spiritual and political development in Slovakia can be judged only by comparing it with the over-all EU.Topean development or evolution. At the same time, of course, we must taike. into account the fact that the territory of the Slovaks in the past was situated more than it is now on the border of western civilization, and that with this border...position there occurred automatica!lly a definite retardation of the spiritual and political cur:rents which emanated from the centers of European ciivilization. 2. In judging Slovak political development of the past, it is no less important to be mindful of the fact that the Slovaks, after the downfall of Great Moravia, their first state, got themselves into a supranational and later into a multi-national Hungary and the Hlabsburg Empire, and that they got into these ,political creations or formations not as a ruling or co-governing element, or voluntarily, as was the case with the Croatians and Czechs, but as inhabitants of a territory that was overcome by arms. 3. We must also bear in mind the special historical, geopolitical, and social conditions prevailing in Central Europe which via facti brought the individual and substantially delayed development of the nations lirving there m the direction of national independence and state independenc~. It is only when we bear in mind these three actualities, which determined Slovak life m the past, that we can correctly comprehend and evaluate the political evolution of Slovakia and the Slovaks. And it is understandable because, while the adherence of the SlovaJks to western civilization ::toes determine the source and the ya'l'dstick for the spiritual and political devel'Olpment of the Slovaks in the past, �46 SLOVAKIA the fact of the adherence of the Sl01Vaks to the ~ulturalpolitical area of Central Europe and to the aibove- mentioned state formations Hungary, Austria, and AustriaHungary - eX!plains why the concept ·o f national and political independence was realized later by the Slovaks than by other European nations. So that we might avoid confusion and incorrect conclusions, it is further necessary to distinguish between the idea of independence and the concept of statehood, the ex,istence of a state in some nation, because the state in its development passed through staiges :in which it had nothmg in comm()IJl with the nation as a bearer or carrier of political tpower. By the concept of independence we understand a free political determination of a nation as an informed subject of political power about its own affairs. In view of the fact that a modern state today has a nation for iti:; substratum and is not the patrimony of a ruler or the joint property of Estates, as it rhaippened to be up to the French Revolution, the distinction between the concept of independence and statehood today in no way appears prominently in current language. But even today it can haippen that a nation enjoys independence, as it happens, for example, in the case of a federation .. In analyzing the idea of independence in the Slovak past it is necessary, therefore, to bear in mind the efforts of the Slovaks as a politic-ally informed individuality, to manage their own affairs, to live and develop their own cultural and political life, regarding the question of statehood as a modern form of realizing these efforts. By inquiring objectively into the Slovak past, even on the basis of only those sources which have thus far b.een unc()IVered, we can safely ascertain the fact that Slovakia and the Slovaiks, even after the ·l oss of their first state independence in the tenth century, did go through their own development and preserved, even in limited form , the character of a separate territorial and ethnic unit. The disappeaTance of the Great Moravian Empire of which Slovakia indisputably was the territorial nucleus 1 �SLOVAKIA 47 and its inhabitants were the forefathers of present-day Slovaks to such an extent that we can safely include this first Slovanic ( SlaJVic) state in the history of the Slovaksdid not mean, as unfavo.raible tendencies tried to persuade the Slovaks, also the disappearance of the individuality of Slovak territory and its inhabitants. From the relatively meagre historical sources, which have thusfar been unc01vered and investigated, we know that it took almost two centuries before Slovakia was incorporated organizationally into Hungary, Furthermore it is scientifically ascertained that, up to the fall of Matthew Cak of Trencin I 1821), even in the framework of Hungary, she remained more or less an independent administrative unit, with her own administration and military and financial autonomy. Matthew Cak himself acted as an independent ruler of the Slovak territory. If from that time Slovakia, the land of the Slovaks, was indicated by the label ''Partes regi superiores," later as "Pannonia superior" or "Hungaria superior," this also means that Slovakia was regarded as a separate administrative unit. In the fifteenth century and during the 1'50 years of Tu~kish hegemony in Central Europe this character of the individual administrative unit was strengthened to such an extent that the Czech historian, V. Chaloupecky, who is in no way inclined to the Slovak nation, said that Slovakia was in a certain sense an "independent state"(l). Of course, it would not be correct, already in this early period, to talk about the Slovak nation in a political sense and about any 'kind of national political endeavors of the Slovaks. The Medieval Age :knew no national individualities in the political sense and, threfo.re, there was neither a Slovak national, political individuality, which could have been the bearer of the national poiitical efforts of the Slovaks. In Europe this entire era was governed by Christian universalism and the bearer of political power was the rnlcr and the nobility, and not the "nation.'' A nation, in the political sense, is in Europe, and therefore even in Slovall da, a product of the French Revolution and German romanticism. Even Louis XIV thought and stated that the French nation "residait entierement en la �48 SLOVAKIA personne du roi" (was incorpora ted in the person oif the king). De Maistre defended the thesis that the naJtion was made up of the lking and the ndbililty ("la nation compren.tl le chef et la noblesse" ). Up to the nineteent h century the concept of "nation" denoted a "linguisti c and ethnic (racial) group and had no political significan ce; it was only from. the nineteent h century that the doctrine began to prevail that such groups had the right to be politically independe Rt and to create states"(2). Jean-Jacq ues Rousseau repudiate d the idea that the nation is incorpora ted in the person of the king or in thle nobility and identifies and places on an equal basis the "people" and the "nation." It was this identifica tion of the people and the nation which, on the one hand, made Rousseau the founder of modern nationalis m and, on the other, became the fundamen tal principle of the American and French revolutio ns, which out of the "people" as subjects of the king, and later of the king and the nobility - made the nation the subject of political power - for a time together with the king and the nobility, later more often wihout the king - in democrat ic republics. Up to the French Revolutio n we can speak about people and nation in a sociological, but not political sense. This importan t differenc e between the concept "people" and "nation" is frequentl y not distinguis hed; in some cases "nation" (natio) is taken in the political sense, or, as for example in the English language , it acquires a significan ce identical with the concept of "state." A far-reach ing change in the outlook on "people" and its political rights, brought about by the French Revolution, was carried over into the rest of Europe. From that time on, without exception , we can therefore talk about "nation" in the political sense even with regard to other countries. The French, Italians, Germans , and others, only from the French Revolutio n are, or began to develop into a nation, the same as the other smaller nations of Europe, and particula rly in Central Europe. In the latter, with regard to special historical and social condition s, this evolution was retarded and that not only centripeta lly, to the crystalizi ng of national conscious ness, but also centrifu- �SLOVAKIA. 49 gally, to the formation of proper national states, namely, toward statehood. In the analysis of the concept of independence with the Slovaks, its origin and evolution, we must unconditionally issue forth from this European ideological and political stream and, therefore, we must ask whether from the time of identifying people and nation, from the time when other nations, in the ethnic and sociological sense of the word, began to be conscious of their right to participate in political power and to create national states, whether any such endeavors manifested themselves among Slovak people. • • • In this regard, what does scientific research tell us about the Slovak past? By what documents can we support the thesis that the Slovaks simultaneously with the rest of the nations of Europe, and especially those of Central Europe, began to feel as a nation and fought for the recognition of their own national individuality, including political participation in power and self-administration? Scholars who have looked into the matter of national consciousness of the Slovak nation during the past twenty years have brought to light many notable findings. These definitely prove that all theses, scientific and pseudoscientific, which tend to demonstrate that the Slovaks were not nationally conscious are absurd. Recent findings of the University of Bratislava are notable too(3). On the other hand, there are so many proofs for the concept of independence that one must wonder how any one could doubt about it or support the opposite thesis in the twentieth century. Unbiased research of the Slovak past tells us that in the course of the centuries the Slovaks: 1. were conscious of the continuity with the Great Moravian Empire which they regarded as the first Slovak Kingdom. One of the significant proofs is the introduction to the "Canthus Catholici" (1655), in which the author, Benedict Sz616si, recalls with emphasis, after the Slovaks accepted Christianity, what had happened during the reign of King Svatopluk by the merit of Saints Cyril and Metho- �50 SLOVAKIA dius: that his nation excelled in piety and loved to sing religious hymns in its national tongue (4); 2. were conscious of not only their linguistic but also national individuality, about which there is a whole series of written documents especially from the 18th century (Macsay(5), Timon, Adam F. Kollar, Hadbavny, etc.), in first half, and the followers of Bernolak in the second half of the 18th century), of which noteworthy is particularly the work "Murices - sive Apologia" from J. B. Magin(6), published in 1728, in which the author shows that the Slovaks with their past in no respect were behind other nations of Hungary, that their history was just as great and respectable as that of others and, therefore, historical equality entitled the Slovaks to enjoy the same rights in Hungary as the other nations; 3. just about the same time as other nations of Central Europe, the Slovaks began to replace the Latin literary medium with their own literary Slovak language with the tendency stressing their national individuality and to create their own national literature and culture. This important step in Slovak national life, according to scientific workers of the present Bratislava University, is connected with the Catholic University of Trnava(7) from the 17th century (1635) and definitely with the end of the 18th century, because the often-referred to year 1842 is the year of the reform, that is the establishment of Central Slovak as a uniform literary medium and not the beginning of writing in Slovak; 4. at about the same time as the other nations of Central Europe, the Slovaks fought for the recognition of their national rights, including independence, not only with political means (memoranda and demands), but also with weapons. The fact that the Slovak language replaced Latin and "Biblical" Czech (used only by the Protestants for religious services), and then the fact that the Slovaks undertook political action systematically from 1848 to give expression to their national individuality, these are indisputably the most important circumstances for proving the concept of independence in the Slovak past. �SLOVAKIA 51 In the light of the idea of the era they mean the passage from "people" to "nation" in the political sense and, if the evolution of the Slovaks to statehood was retarded by special conditions, or if these manifestations for independence did not always have equal intensity, this does not substantially change anything in the matter. In Central Europe up to 1918 there were quite a few nations that did not have their own political state. And objective study leads to doubts whether, even in 1918, the multi-national Habsburg Monarchy was broken up by the will of the nations within it, or rather by foreign intervention. Of course, the question always remains whether it would not have been to the greater benefit of the nations concerned and all of Europe if the nations had been reorganized on a federative basis as national units instead of being more or less forced to become so-called "successor" states or members thereof. There are many proofs to back the claim that the Slovaks consciously fought for the recognition of national independence, including statehood, particularly from 1848, when the Slovaks resorted to arms and formally declared their independence from Hungary. Both in Slovakia itself, as well as in the United States (8), where political conditions permitted free expression. Louis Stur said: "So that we might take over the spot in history which belongs to us according to our strength and abilities, we must once and for all time free ourselves from this unbearable foreign thraldom and gain state independence for ourselves." When Stur made that declaration, he simply formulated the sentiments and thoughts of his contemporaries. In 1918, in the Budapest Parliament, Dr. F. Juriga proclaimed: "We demand the righ to organize our own and separate state community and territory which we inhabit." This, too, was a manifestation for the right of self-determination, which Juriga demanded to be applied in regard to the Slovak nation and which, later, Dr. Vojtech Tuka formulated even more clearly.(9). The fight of the Slovaks for political independence reached its climax in 1939 with the establishment of the independent Slovak Republic, which meant the logical con- �52 SLOVAKIA clusion of Slovak political development. The conditions or circumstances under which this happened can have only a subordinate significance, inasmuch as all the states of this and the past century originated in Central and Southeastern Europe only with the help of, if not by the will of, the great powers(lO). (1) V. Chaloupecky: STARE SLOVENSKO, p. 13. (2) E. H. Carr said that a nation denoted " un group racial ou linguistique et n'avait pas de signification politique avant le XIX-me siecle, quand commenca a prevaloir progressivement cette doctrine que de tels groups avaient un droit d'etre politiquement independants et de constituer des Etats" (Nationalisme et apres, p. 4). (3) Even though present professors of the Bratislava University use Marxistic terminology and endeavor to see the Slovak past from the viewpoint of historic materialism, it is significant that in the question of Slovakness they confirm and adopt the conclusions of the scientific researches of "bourgeois nationalists." Worthy of attention in this regard is especially the work of Dr. J . Dekan about the beginnings of Slovak history, who adopts the theses of Fr. Hrusovsky and others, and in literary history an interesting book is the one of prof. Andrew Mraz. The latter was extremely unjust to many living Slovak poets and writers (Hronsky, Zarnov, Culen, etc.), but even now when he deals with the Slovak past Mraz is amazingly objective in his views. (4) Andrew Mraz in his "Dejiny slovenskej literatury" (Bratislava, 1948) wrote that "it is safe to hold the opinion that the aim of Cantus Catholici was determined also by the traditional knowledge of the historical continuity of the Slovaks with the events of Great Moravia" (p. 44). (5) A. Macsay, in the introduction to his work which was published on 856 pages in 1718, wrote that he was publishing it because many Slovaks were complaining about the dirth of such books, while other nations had such books; among the "other nations" he mentioned the Czechs, Poles and Croatians. (6) A. A. Banik explained Magin's significance in several works; his most valuable contributions possibly are: "Jan Baltazar Magin a jeho politicka, narodna i kulturna obrana Slovakov r. 1728" (Trnava, 1936) and "Novsie udaje na poznanie J . B. Magina, jeho diela i doby" (Trnava, 1937). (7) A. Mraz highly evaluates the work of the University of Trnava in the field of education and Slovak culture, stating that it was "the support of the Slovak national renaissance" (p. 35). (8) Konstantin Culen: "DEJINY AMERICKYCH SLOVAKOV"; and his articles in the "JEDNOTA" (Middletown, Pa., Nov. 1946). �SLOVAKIA 53 (9) Dr. E. Zatko published three volumes regarding the endeavors of Tuka for Slovak independence. (10) About the origin of national states in Central Europe see: C. A. Macartney, " NATIONAL STATES AND NATIONAL MINORITIES" (London, 1935), also his "HUNGARY AND HER SUCCESSORS" (London, 1937), in which he devotes some 100 pages to Slovakia. • • • The History of Slovakia: By PHILIP A. HROBAK (Continued from last issue) ME'l'HODIUS AGAIN JiN ROME In the meantime Pope John VIII effected the liberation of Arclibishop Methodius and punished the Bavarian bishops. To put a stop to the wars between Germany and the Great Moravian Empire, the Pope forbade the use of the Slovanic liturgy and ordered Methodius to come to Rome. Methodius learned that the German hierarchy had accused him of preaching heresy. Svatopluk sent his personal messenger (Zemezizeii) along with Archbishop Methodius to Rome, because he wanted to place his country under the protection of the Holy See. When Methodius reached Rome, he proved to the Pope's satisfaction that the charges placed against him were without foundation. Pope John VIII approved the apostolic work of Methodius and his priests. He gave the Archbishop a letter for Svatopluk which stated that he again permits the use of the Slovanic liturgy in Svatopluk's country and accepted King Svatopluk and his whole nation under the protection of St. Peter. When Archbishop Methodius returned to the land of the Slovaks, he and his priests labored zealously in the vineyard of the Lord to gain all the people of Svatopluk's country for the kingdom of Christ. But this mission, as we shall see, was soon to be hindered by Svatopluk himself. Svatopluk had accepted Christianity and had begged the Pope to protect the territory of the Slovak people, yet his life was not that of a true Christian. Svatopluk was a � 44 SLOVAKIA the basic principle of human freedom. Let us never give our moral or legal blessing to the enslavement oif millions behind the J.ron Curtain who long to be free. Nor should we permit any international organization of which we are a member to compromise us in this regard. How can any nation ignore the moral issue involved in Roviet destruction of freedom in Hungary and subsequently want sanctions applied in the case of trouble in the Middle East? What organization can survive such a double standard? Either we have a system of law and order or the doctrine of might makes right is recognized. Communism cannot 1b e allowed to place itself above international law or God-gi,v en moral law. Our first Republican President Abraham Lincoln, said: "Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history. • • • The fiery trial thvough which we pass will light us down to the latest generation. • • * We, yes even we, have the power and bear the responsibility. • • * In giving freedom to the slave we assure freedom to the free. * * • We shall nobly save or meanly lose this last best ho.p e on earth." • • • INDEPENDENCE AN D THE SLOVAK PAST ,Joseph Kirschbaum, LL. D., Ph. D. The question of the national existence of the Slovak nation, the efforts expended by the Slovaks for national and state independence, are treated in various works of political writers. In their analysis of the problems of Central Europe, writers try to be objective, but their literary efforts demonstrate that they answer the question only partially and usually incorr-ectly. Not taking into account the use of tendencious sources, it appears that the fault lies particularly in the approach to the problem of Slovak efforts for independence from the downfall of the first state of the Slovaks, Great Moravia. !Many political writers identify creations of dynasties with creations of nations, especially in multi--national states, and overlooik the universalistir tendencies of Europe in the early centuries of the Middle Ages and the Modern Age. �SLOVAKIA 45 Ailly search of the question of the efforts of the Slovaks :fior independence in the course of the centuries requires that we take into consideration the whole series of actualities, which directly or indirectly created or affected the destinies of the SlovaJk and had any influence on Slovak political tendencies. We must necessarily take into accownt especially the following actualities : 1. Slovakia was and still is a component part of the European continent ·and, therefore, the spiritual and political development in Slovakia can be judged only by comparing it with the over-all EU.Topean development or evolution. At the same time, of course, we must taike. into account the fact that the territory of the Slovaks in the past was situated more than it is now on the border of western civilization, and that with this border...position there occurred automatica!lly a definite retardation of the spiritual and political cur:rents which emanated from the centers of European ciivilization. 2. In judging Slovak political development of the past, it is no less important to be mindful of the fact that the Slovaks, after the downfall of Great Moravia, their first state, got themselves into a supranational and later into a multi-national Hungary and the Hlabsburg Empire, and that they got into these ,political creations or formations not as a ruling or co-governing element, or voluntarily, as was the case with the Croatians and Czechs, but as inhabitants of a territory that was overcome by arms. 3. We must also bear in mind the special historical, geopolitical, and social conditions prevailing in Central Europe which via facti brought the individual and substantially delayed development of the nations lirving there m the direction of national independence and state independenc~. It is only when we bear in mind these three actualities, which determined Slovak life m the past, that we can correctly comprehend and evaluate the political evolution of Slovakia and the Slovaks. And it is understandable because, while the adherence of the SlovaJks to western civilization ::toes determine the source and the ya'l'dstick for the spiritual and political devel'Olpment of the Slovaks in the past, �46 SLOVAKIA the fact of the adherence of the Sl01Vaks to the ~ulturalpolitical area of Central Europe and to the aibove- mentioned state formations Hungary, Austria, and AustriaHungary - eX!plains why the concept ·o f national and political independence was realized later by the Slovaks than by other European nations. So that we might avoid confusion and incorrect conclusions, it is further necessary to distinguish between the idea of independence and the concept of statehood, the ex,istence of a state in some nation, because the state in its development passed through staiges :in which it had nothmg in comm()IJl with the nation as a bearer or carrier of political tpower. By the concept of independence we understand a free political determination of a nation as an informed subject of political power about its own affairs. In view of the fact that a modern state today has a nation for iti:; substratum and is not the patrimony of a ruler or the joint property of Estates, as it rhaippened to be up to the French Revolution, the distinction between the concept of independence and statehood today in no way appears prominently in current language. But even today it can haippen that a nation enjoys independence, as it happens, for example, in the case of a federation .. In analyzing the idea of independence in the Slovak past it is necessary, therefore, to bear in mind the efforts of the Slovaks as a politic-ally informed individuality, to manage their own affairs, to live and develop their own cultural and political life, regarding the question of statehood as a modern form of realizing these efforts. By inquiring objectively into the Slovak past, even on the basis of only those sources which have thus far b.een unc()IVered, we can safely ascertain the fact that Slovakia and the Slovaiks, even after the ·l oss of their first state independence in the tenth century, did go through their own development and preserved, even in limited form , the character of a separate territorial and ethnic unit. The disappeaTance of the Great Moravian Empire of which Slovakia indisputably was the territorial nucleus 1 �SLOVAKIA 47 and its inhabitants were the forefathers of present-day Slovaks to such an extent that we can safely include this first Slovanic ( SlaJVic) state in the history of the Slovaksdid not mean, as unfavo.raible tendencies tried to persuade the Slovaks, also the disappearance of the individuality of Slovak territory and its inhabitants. From the relatively meagre historical sources, which have thusfar been unc01vered and investigated, we know that it took almost two centuries before Slovakia was incorporated organizationally into Hungary, Furthermore it is scientifically ascertained that, up to the fall of Matthew Cak of Trencin I 1821), even in the framework of Hungary, she remained more or less an independent administrative unit, with her own administration and military and financial autonomy. Matthew Cak himself acted as an independent ruler of the Slovak territory. If from that time Slovakia, the land of the Slovaks, was indicated by the label ''Partes regi superiores," later as "Pannonia superior" or "Hungaria superior," this also means that Slovakia was regarded as a separate administrative unit. In the fifteenth century and during the 1'50 years of Tu~kish hegemony in Central Europe this character of the individual administrative unit was strengthened to such an extent that the Czech historian, V. Chaloupecky, who is in no way inclined to the Slovak nation, said that Slovakia was in a certain sense an "independent state"(l). Of course, it would not be correct, already in this early period, to talk about the Slovak nation in a political sense and about any 'kind of national political endeavors of the Slovaks. The Medieval Age :knew no national individualities in the political sense and, threfo.re, there was neither a Slovak national, political individuality, which could have been the bearer of the national poiitical efforts of the Slovaks. In Europe this entire era was governed by Christian universalism and the bearer of political power was the rnlcr and the nobility, and not the "nation.'' A nation, in the political sense, is in Europe, and therefore even in Slovall da, a product of the French Revolution and German romanticism. Even Louis XIV thought and stated that the French nation "residait entierement en la �48 SLOVAKIA personne du roi" (was incorpora ted in the person oif the king). De Maistre defended the thesis that the naJtion was made up of the lking and the ndbililty ("la nation compren.tl le chef et la noblesse" ). Up to the nineteent h century the concept of "nation" denoted a "linguisti c and ethnic (racial) group and had no political significan ce; it was only from. the nineteent h century that the doctrine began to prevail that such groups had the right to be politically independe Rt and to create states"(2). Jean-Jacq ues Rousseau repudiate d the idea that the nation is incorpora ted in the person of the king or in thle nobility and identifies and places on an equal basis the "people" and the "nation." It was this identifica tion of the people and the nation which, on the one hand, made Rousseau the founder of modern nationalis m and, on the other, became the fundamen tal principle of the American and French revolutio ns, which out of the "people" as subjects of the king, and later of the king and the nobility - made the nation the subject of political power - for a time together with the king and the nobility, later more often wihout the king - in democrat ic republics. Up to the French Revolutio n we can speak about people and nation in a sociological, but not political sense. This importan t differenc e between the concept "people" and "nation" is frequentl y not distinguis hed; in some cases "nation" (natio) is taken in the political sense, or, as for example in the English language , it acquires a significan ce identical with the concept of "state." A far-reach ing change in the outlook on "people" and its political rights, brought about by the French Revolution, was carried over into the rest of Europe. From that time on, without exception , we can therefore talk about "nation" in the political sense even with regard to other countries. The French, Italians, Germans , and others, only from the French Revolutio n are, or began to develop into a nation, the same as the other smaller nations of Europe, and particula rly in Central Europe. In the latter, with regard to special historical and social condition s, this evolution was retarded and that not only centripeta lly, to the crystalizi ng of national conscious ness, but also centrifu- �SLOVAKIA. 49 gally, to the formation of proper national states, namely, toward statehood. In the analysis of the concept of independence with the Slovaks, its origin and evolution, we must unconditionally issue forth from this European ideological and political stream and, therefore, we must ask whether from the time of identifying people and nation, from the time when other nations, in the ethnic and sociological sense of the word, began to be conscious of their right to participate in political power and to create national states, whether any such endeavors manifested themselves among Slovak people. • • • In this regard, what does scientific research tell us about the Slovak past? By what documents can we support the thesis that the Slovaks simultaneously with the rest of the nations of Europe, and especially those of Central Europe, began to feel as a nation and fought for the recognition of their own national individuality, including political participation in power and self-administration? Scholars who have looked into the matter of national consciousness of the Slovak nation during the past twenty years have brought to light many notable findings. These definitely prove that all theses, scientific and pseudoscientific, which tend to demonstrate that the Slovaks were not nationally conscious are absurd. Recent findings of the University of Bratislava are notable too(3). On the other hand, there are so many proofs for the concept of independence that one must wonder how any one could doubt about it or support the opposite thesis in the twentieth century. Unbiased research of the Slovak past tells us that in the course of the centuries the Slovaks: 1. were conscious of the continuity with the Great Moravian Empire which they regarded as the first Slovak Kingdom. One of the significant proofs is the introduction to the "Canthus Catholici" (1655), in which the author, Benedict Sz616si, recalls with emphasis, after the Slovaks accepted Christianity, what had happened during the reign of King Svatopluk by the merit of Saints Cyril and Metho- �50 SLOVAKIA dius: that his nation excelled in piety and loved to sing religious hymns in its national tongue (4); 2. were conscious of not only their linguistic but also national individuality, about which there is a whole series of written documents especially from the 18th century (Macsay(5), Timon, Adam F. Kollar, Hadbavny, etc.), in first half, and the followers of Bernolak in the second half of the 18th century), of which noteworthy is particularly the work "Murices - sive Apologia" from J. B. Magin(6), published in 1728, in which the author shows that the Slovaks with their past in no respect were behind other nations of Hungary, that their history was just as great and respectable as that of others and, therefore, historical equality entitled the Slovaks to enjoy the same rights in Hungary as the other nations; 3. just about the same time as other nations of Central Europe, the Slovaks began to replace the Latin literary medium with their own literary Slovak language with the tendency stressing their national individuality and to create their own national literature and culture. This important step in Slovak national life, according to scientific workers of the present Bratislava University, is connected with the Catholic University of Trnava(7) from the 17th century (1635) and definitely with the end of the 18th century, because the often-referred to year 1842 is the year of the reform, that is the establishment of Central Slovak as a uniform literary medium and not the beginning of writing in Slovak; 4. at about the same time as the other nations of Central Europe, the Slovaks fought for the recognition of their national rights, including independence, not only with political means (memoranda and demands), but also with weapons. The fact that the Slovak language replaced Latin and "Biblical" Czech (used only by the Protestants for religious services), and then the fact that the Slovaks undertook political action systematically from 1848 to give expression to their national individuality, these are indisputably the most important circumstances for proving the concept of independence in the Slovak past. �SLOVAKIA 51 In the light of the idea of the era they mean the passage from "people" to "nation" in the political sense and, if the evolution of the Slovaks to statehood was retarded by special conditions, or if these manifestations for independence did not always have equal intensity, this does not substantially change anything in the matter. In Central Europe up to 1918 there were quite a few nations that did not have their own political state. And objective study leads to doubts whether, even in 1918, the multi-national Habsburg Monarchy was broken up by the will of the nations within it, or rather by foreign intervention. Of course, the question always remains whether it would not have been to the greater benefit of the nations concerned and all of Europe if the nations had been reorganized on a federative basis as national units instead of being more or less forced to become so-called "successor" states or members thereof. There are many proofs to back the claim that the Slovaks consciously fought for the recognition of national independence, including statehood, particularly from 1848, when the Slovaks resorted to arms and formally declared their independence from Hungary. Both in Slovakia itself, as well as in the United States (8), where political conditions permitted free expression. Louis Stur said: "So that we might take over the spot in history which belongs to us according to our strength and abilities, we must once and for all time free ourselves from this unbearable foreign thraldom and gain state independence for ourselves." When Stur made that declaration, he simply formulated the sentiments and thoughts of his contemporaries. In 1918, in the Budapest Parliament, Dr. F. Juriga proclaimed: "We demand the righ to organize our own and separate state community and territory which we inhabit." This, too, was a manifestation for the right of self-determination, which Juriga demanded to be applied in regard to the Slovak nation and which, later, Dr. Vojtech Tuka formulated even more clearly.(9). The fight of the Slovaks for political independence reached its climax in 1939 with the establishment of the independent Slovak Republic, which meant the logical con- �52 SLOVAKIA clusion of Slovak political development. The conditions or circumstances under which this happened can have only a subordinate significance, inasmuch as all the states of this and the past century originated in Central and Southeastern Europe only with the help of, if not by the will of, the great powers(lO). (1) V. Chaloupecky: STARE SLOVENSKO, p. 13. (2) E. H. Carr said that a nation denoted " un group racial ou linguistique et n'avait pas de signification politique avant le XIX-me siecle, quand commenca a prevaloir progressivement cette doctrine que de tels groups avaient un droit d'etre politiquement independants et de constituer des Etats" (Nationalisme et apres, p. 4). (3) Even though present professors of the Bratislava University use Marxistic terminology and endeavor to see the Slovak past from the viewpoint of historic materialism, it is significant that in the question of Slovakness they confirm and adopt the conclusions of the scientific researches of "bourgeois nationalists." Worthy of attention in this regard is especially the work of Dr. J . Dekan about the beginnings of Slovak history, who adopts the theses of Fr. Hrusovsky and others, and in literary history an interesting book is the one of prof. Andrew Mraz. The latter was extremely unjust to many living Slovak poets and writers (Hronsky, Zarnov, Culen, etc.), but even now when he deals with the Slovak past Mraz is amazingly objective in his views. (4) Andrew Mraz in his "Dejiny slovenskej literatury" (Bratislava, 1948) wrote that "it is safe to hold the opinion that the aim of Cantus Catholici was determined also by the traditional knowledge of the historical continuity of the Slovaks with the events of Great Moravia" (p. 44). (5) A. Macsay, in the introduction to his work which was published on 856 pages in 1718, wrote that he was publishing it because many Slovaks were complaining about the dirth of such books, while other nations had such books; among the "other nations" he mentioned the Czechs, Poles and Croatians. (6) A. A. Banik explained Magin's significance in several works; his most valuable contributions possibly are: "Jan Baltazar Magin a jeho politicka, narodna i kulturna obrana Slovakov r. 1728" (Trnava, 1936) and "Novsie udaje na poznanie J . B. Magina, jeho diela i doby" (Trnava, 1937). (7) A. Mraz highly evaluates the work of the University of Trnava in the field of education and Slovak culture, stating that it was "the support of the Slovak national renaissance" (p. 35). (8) Konstantin Culen: "DEJINY AMERICKYCH SLOVAKOV"; and his articles in the "JEDNOTA" (Middletown, Pa., Nov. 1946). �SLOVAKIA 53 (9) Dr. E. Zatko published three volumes regarding the endeavors of Tuka for Slovak independence. (10) About the origin of national states in Central Europe see: C. A. Macartney, " NATIONAL STATES AND NATIONAL MINORITIES" (London, 1935), also his "HUNGARY AND HER SUCCESSORS" (London, 1937), in which he devotes some 100 pages to Slovakia. • • • The History of Slovakia: By PHILIP A. HROBAK (Continued from last issue) ME'l'HODIUS AGAIN JiN ROME In the meantime Pope John VIII effected the liberation of Arclibishop Methodius and punished the Bavarian bishops. To put a stop to the wars between Germany and the Great Moravian Empire, the Pope forbade the use of the Slovanic liturgy and ordered Methodius to come to Rome. Methodius learned that the German hierarchy had accused him of preaching heresy. Svatopluk sent his personal messenger (Zemezizeii) along with Archbishop Methodius to Rome, because he wanted to place his country under the protection of the Holy See. When Methodius reached Rome, he proved to the Pope's satisfaction that the charges placed against him were without foundation. Pope John VIII approved the apostolic work of Methodius and his priests. He gave the Archbishop a letter for Svatopluk which stated that he again permits the use of the Slovanic liturgy in Svatopluk's country and accepted King Svatopluk and his whole nation under the protection of St. Peter. When Archbishop Methodius returned to the land of the Slovaks, he and his priests labored zealously in the vineyard of the Lord to gain all the people of Svatopluk's country for the kingdom of Christ. But this mission, as we shall see, was soon to be hindered by Svatopluk himself. Svatopluk had accepted Christianity and had begged the Pope to protect the territory of the Slovak people, yet his life was not that of a true Christian. Svatopluk was a � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 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 44 SLOVAKIA the basic principle of human freedom. Let us never give our moral or legal blessing to the enslavement oif millions behind the J.ron Curtain who long to be free. Nor should we permit any international organization of which we are a member to compromise us in this regard. How can any nation ignore the moral issue involved in Roviet destruction of freedom in Hungary and subsequently want sanctions applied in the case of trouble in the Middle East? What organization can survive such a double standard? Either we have a system of law and order or the doctrine of might makes right is recognized. Communism cannot 1b e allowed to place itself above international law or God-gi,v en moral law. Our first Republican President Abraham Lincoln, said: "Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history. • • • The fiery trial thvough which we pass will light us down to the latest generation. • • * We, yes even we, have the power and bear the responsibility. • • * In giving freedom to the slave we assure freedom to the free. * * • We shall nobly save or meanly lose this last best ho.p e on earth." • • • INDEPENDENCE AN D THE SLOVAK PAST ,Joseph Kirschbaum, LL. D., Ph. D. The question of the national existence of the Slovak nation, the efforts expended by the Slovaks for national and state independence, are treated in various works of political writers. In their analysis of the problems of Central Europe, writers try to be objective, but their literary efforts demonstrate that they answer the question only partially and usually incorr-ectly. Not taking into account the use of tendencious sources, it appears that the fault lies particularly in the approach to the problem of Slovak efforts for independence from the downfall of the first state of the Slovaks, Great Moravia. !Many political writers identify creations of dynasties with creations of nations, especially in multi--national states, and overlooik the universalistir tendencies of Europe in the early centuries of the Middle Ages and the Modern Age. SLOVAKIA 45 Ailly search of the question of the efforts of the Slovaks :fior independence in the course of the centuries requires that we take into consideration the whole series of actualities, which directly or indirectly created or affected the destinies of the SlovaJk and had any influence on Slovak political tendencies. We must necessarily take into accownt especially the following actualities : 1. Slovakia was and still is a component part of the European continent ·and, therefore, the spiritual and political development in Slovakia can be judged only by comparing it with the over-all EU.Topean development or evolution. At the same time, of course, we must taike. into account the fact that the territory of the Slovaks in the past was situated more than it is now on the border of western civilization, and that with this border...position there occurred automatica!lly a definite retardation of the spiritual and political cur:rents which emanated from the centers of European ciivilization. 2. In judging Slovak political development of the past, it is no less important to be mindful of the fact that the Slovaks, after the downfall of Great Moravia, their first state, got themselves into a supranational and later into a multi-national Hungary and the Hlabsburg Empire, and that they got into these ,political creations or formations not as a ruling or co-governing element, or voluntarily, as was the case with the Croatians and Czechs, but as inhabitants of a territory that was overcome by arms. 3. We must also bear in mind the special historical, geopolitical, and social conditions prevailing in Central Europe which via facti brought the individual and substantially delayed development of the nations lirving there m the direction of national independence and state independenc~. It is only when we bear in mind these three actualities, which determined Slovak life m the past, that we can correctly comprehend and evaluate the political evolution of Slovakia and the Slovaks. And it is understandable because, while the adherence of the SlovaJks to western civilization ::toes determine the source and the ya'l'dstick for the spiritual and political devel'Olpment of the Slovaks in the past, 46 SLOVAKIA the fact of the adherence of the Sl01Vaks to the ~ulturalpolitical area of Central Europe and to the aibove- mentioned state formations Hungary, Austria, and AustriaHungary - eX!plains why the concept ·o f national and political independence was realized later by the Slovaks than by other European nations. So that we might avoid confusion and incorrect conclusions, it is further necessary to distinguish between the idea of independence and the concept of statehood, the ex,istence of a state in some nation, because the state in its development passed through staiges :in which it had nothmg in comm()IJl with the nation as a bearer or carrier of political tpower. By the concept of independence we understand a free political determination of a nation as an informed subject of political power about its own affairs. In view of the fact that a modern state today has a nation for iti:; substratum and is not the patrimony of a ruler or the joint property of Estates, as it rhaippened to be up to the French Revolution, the distinction between the concept of independence and statehood today in no way appears prominently in current language. But even today it can haippen that a nation enjoys independence, as it happens, for example, in the case of a federation .. In analyzing the idea of independence in the Slovak past it is necessary, therefore, to bear in mind the efforts of the Slovaks as a politic-ally informed individuality, to manage their own affairs, to live and develop their own cultural and political life, regarding the question of statehood as a modern form of realizing these efforts. By inquiring objectively into the Slovak past, even on the basis of only those sources which have thus far b.een unc()IVered, we can safely ascertain the fact that Slovakia and the Slovaiks, even after the ·l oss of their first state independence in the tenth century, did go through their own development and preserved, even in limited form , the character of a separate territorial and ethnic unit. The disappeaTance of the Great Moravian Empire of which Slovakia indisputably was the territorial nucleus 1 SLOVAKIA 47 and its inhabitants were the forefathers of present-day Slovaks to such an extent that we can safely include this first Slovanic ( SlaJVic) state in the history of the Slovaksdid not mean, as unfavo.raible tendencies tried to persuade the Slovaks, also the disappearance of the individuality of Slovak territory and its inhabitants. From the relatively meagre historical sources, which have thusfar been unc01vered and investigated, we know that it took almost two centuries before Slovakia was incorporated organizationally into Hungary, Furthermore it is scientifically ascertained that, up to the fall of Matthew Cak of Trencin I 1821), even in the framework of Hungary, she remained more or less an independent administrative unit, with her own administration and military and financial autonomy. Matthew Cak himself acted as an independent ruler of the Slovak territory. If from that time Slovakia, the land of the Slovaks, was indicated by the label ''Partes regi superiores," later as "Pannonia superior" or "Hungaria superior," this also means that Slovakia was regarded as a separate administrative unit. In the fifteenth century and during the 1'50 years of Tu~kish hegemony in Central Europe this character of the individual administrative unit was strengthened to such an extent that the Czech historian, V. Chaloupecky, who is in no way inclined to the Slovak nation, said that Slovakia was in a certain sense an "independent state"(l). Of course, it would not be correct, already in this early period, to talk about the Slovak nation in a political sense and about any 'kind of national political endeavors of the Slovaks. The Medieval Age :knew no national individualities in the political sense and, threfo.re, there was neither a Slovak national, political individuality, which could have been the bearer of the national poiitical efforts of the Slovaks. In Europe this entire era was governed by Christian universalism and the bearer of political power was the rnlcr and the nobility, and not the "nation.'' A nation, in the political sense, is in Europe, and therefore even in Slovall da, a product of the French Revolution and German romanticism. Even Louis XIV thought and stated that the French nation "residait entierement en la 48 SLOVAKIA personne du roi" (was incorpora ted in the person oif the king). De Maistre defended the thesis that the naJtion was made up of the lking and the ndbililty ("la nation compren.tl le chef et la noblesse" ). Up to the nineteent h century the concept of "nation" denoted a "linguisti c and ethnic (racial) group and had no political significan ce; it was only from. the nineteent h century that the doctrine began to prevail that such groups had the right to be politically independe Rt and to create states"(2). Jean-Jacq ues Rousseau repudiate d the idea that the nation is incorpora ted in the person of the king or in thle nobility and identifies and places on an equal basis the "people" and the "nation." It was this identifica tion of the people and the nation which, on the one hand, made Rousseau the founder of modern nationalis m and, on the other, became the fundamen tal principle of the American and French revolutio ns, which out of the "people" as subjects of the king, and later of the king and the nobility - made the nation the subject of political power - for a time together with the king and the nobility, later more often wihout the king - in democrat ic republics. Up to the French Revolutio n we can speak about people and nation in a sociological, but not political sense. This importan t differenc e between the concept "people" and "nation" is frequentl y not distinguis hed; in some cases "nation" (natio) is taken in the political sense, or, as for example in the English language , it acquires a significan ce identical with the concept of "state." A far-reach ing change in the outlook on "people" and its political rights, brought about by the French Revolution, was carried over into the rest of Europe. From that time on, without exception , we can therefore talk about "nation" in the political sense even with regard to other countries. The French, Italians, Germans , and others, only from the French Revolutio n are, or began to develop into a nation, the same as the other smaller nations of Europe, and particula rly in Central Europe. In the latter, with regard to special historical and social condition s, this evolution was retarded and that not only centripeta lly, to the crystalizi ng of national conscious ness, but also centrifu- SLOVAKIA. 49 gally, to the formation of proper national states, namely, toward statehood. In the analysis of the concept of independence with the Slovaks, its origin and evolution, we must unconditionally issue forth from this European ideological and political stream and, therefore, we must ask whether from the time of identifying people and nation, from the time when other nations, in the ethnic and sociological sense of the word, began to be conscious of their right to participate in political power and to create national states, whether any such endeavors manifested themselves among Slovak people. • • • In this regard, what does scientific research tell us about the Slovak past? By what documents can we support the thesis that the Slovaks simultaneously with the rest of the nations of Europe, and especially those of Central Europe, began to feel as a nation and fought for the recognition of their own national individuality, including political participation in power and self-administration? Scholars who have looked into the matter of national consciousness of the Slovak nation during the past twenty years have brought to light many notable findings. These definitely prove that all theses, scientific and pseudoscientific, which tend to demonstrate that the Slovaks were not nationally conscious are absurd. Recent findings of the University of Bratislava are notable too(3). On the other hand, there are so many proofs for the concept of independence that one must wonder how any one could doubt about it or support the opposite thesis in the twentieth century. Unbiased research of the Slovak past tells us that in the course of the centuries the Slovaks: 1. were conscious of the continuity with the Great Moravian Empire which they regarded as the first Slovak Kingdom. One of the significant proofs is the introduction to the "Canthus Catholici" (1655), in which the author, Benedict Sz616si, recalls with emphasis, after the Slovaks accepted Christianity, what had happened during the reign of King Svatopluk by the merit of Saints Cyril and Metho- 50 SLOVAKIA dius: that his nation excelled in piety and loved to sing religious hymns in its national tongue (4); 2. were conscious of not only their linguistic but also national individuality, about which there is a whole series of written documents especially from the 18th century (Macsay(5), Timon, Adam F. Kollar, Hadbavny, etc.), in first half, and the followers of Bernolak in the second half of the 18th century), of which noteworthy is particularly the work "Murices - sive Apologia" from J. B. Magin(6), published in 1728, in which the author shows that the Slovaks with their past in no respect were behind other nations of Hungary, that their history was just as great and respectable as that of others and, therefore, historical equality entitled the Slovaks to enjoy the same rights in Hungary as the other nations; 3. just about the same time as other nations of Central Europe, the Slovaks began to replace the Latin literary medium with their own literary Slovak language with the tendency stressing their national individuality and to create their own national literature and culture. This important step in Slovak national life, according to scientific workers of the present Bratislava University, is connected with the Catholic University of Trnava(7) from the 17th century (1635) and definitely with the end of the 18th century, because the often-referred to year 1842 is the year of the reform, that is the establishment of Central Slovak as a uniform literary medium and not the beginning of writing in Slovak; 4. at about the same time as the other nations of Central Europe, the Slovaks fought for the recognition of their national rights, including independence, not only with political means (memoranda and demands), but also with weapons. The fact that the Slovak language replaced Latin and "Biblical" Czech (used only by the Protestants for religious services), and then the fact that the Slovaks undertook political action systematically from 1848 to give expression to their national individuality, these are indisputably the most important circumstances for proving the concept of independence in the Slovak past. SLOVAKIA 51 In the light of the idea of the era they mean the passage from "people" to "nation" in the political sense and, if the evolution of the Slovaks to statehood was retarded by special conditions, or if these manifestations for independence did not always have equal intensity, this does not substantially change anything in the matter. In Central Europe up to 1918 there were quite a few nations that did not have their own political state. And objective study leads to doubts whether, even in 1918, the multi-national Habsburg Monarchy was broken up by the will of the nations within it, or rather by foreign intervention. Of course, the question always remains whether it would not have been to the greater benefit of the nations concerned and all of Europe if the nations had been reorganized on a federative basis as national units instead of being more or less forced to become so-called "successor" states or members thereof. There are many proofs to back the claim that the Slovaks consciously fought for the recognition of national independence, including statehood, particularly from 1848, when the Slovaks resorted to arms and formally declared their independence from Hungary. Both in Slovakia itself, as well as in the United States (8), where political conditions permitted free expression. Louis Stur said: "So that we might take over the spot in history which belongs to us according to our strength and abilities, we must once and for all time free ourselves from this unbearable foreign thraldom and gain state independence for ourselves." When Stur made that declaration, he simply formulated the sentiments and thoughts of his contemporaries. In 1918, in the Budapest Parliament, Dr. F. Juriga proclaimed: "We demand the righ to organize our own and separate state community and territory which we inhabit." This, too, was a manifestation for the right of self-determination, which Juriga demanded to be applied in regard to the Slovak nation and which, later, Dr. Vojtech Tuka formulated even more clearly.(9). The fight of the Slovaks for political independence reached its climax in 1939 with the establishment of the independent Slovak Republic, which meant the logical con- 52 SLOVAKIA clusion of Slovak political development. The conditions or circumstances under which this happened can have only a subordinate significance, inasmuch as all the states of this and the past century originated in Central and Southeastern Europe only with the help of, if not by the will of, the great powers(lO). (1) V. Chaloupecky: STARE SLOVENSKO, p. 13. (2) E. H. Carr said that a nation denoted " un group racial ou linguistique et n'avait pas de signification politique avant le XIX-me siecle, quand commenca a prevaloir progressivement cette doctrine que de tels groups avaient un droit d'etre politiquement independants et de constituer des Etats" (Nationalisme et apres, p. 4). (3) Even though present professors of the Bratislava University use Marxistic terminology and endeavor to see the Slovak past from the viewpoint of historic materialism, it is significant that in the question of Slovakness they confirm and adopt the conclusions of the scientific researches of "bourgeois nationalists." Worthy of attention in this regard is especially the work of Dr. J . Dekan about the beginnings of Slovak history, who adopts the theses of Fr. Hrusovsky and others, and in literary history an interesting book is the one of prof. Andrew Mraz. The latter was extremely unjust to many living Slovak poets and writers (Hronsky, Zarnov, Culen, etc.), but even now when he deals with the Slovak past Mraz is amazingly objective in his views. (4) Andrew Mraz in his "Dejiny slovenskej literatury" (Bratislava, 1948) wrote that "it is safe to hold the opinion that the aim of Cantus Catholici was determined also by the traditional knowledge of the historical continuity of the Slovaks with the events of Great Moravia" (p. 44). (5) A. Macsay, in the introduction to his work which was published on 856 pages in 1718, wrote that he was publishing it because many Slovaks were complaining about the dirth of such books, while other nations had such books; among the "other nations" he mentioned the Czechs, Poles and Croatians. (6) A. A. Banik explained Magin's significance in several works; his most valuable contributions possibly are: "Jan Baltazar Magin a jeho politicka, narodna i kulturna obrana Slovakov r. 1728" (Trnava, 1936) and "Novsie udaje na poznanie J . B. Magina, jeho diela i doby" (Trnava, 1937). (7) A. Mraz highly evaluates the work of the University of Trnava in the field of education and Slovak culture, stating that it was "the support of the Slovak national renaissance" (p. 35). (8) Konstantin Culen: "DEJINY AMERICKYCH SLOVAKOV"; and his articles in the "JEDNOTA" (Middletown, Pa., Nov. 1946). SLOVAKIA 53 (9) Dr. E. Zatko published three volumes regarding the endeavors of Tuka for Slovak independence. (10) About the origin of national states in Central Europe see: C. A. Macartney, " NATIONAL STATES AND NATIONAL MINORITIES" (London, 1935), also his "HUNGARY AND HER SUCCESSORS" (London, 1937), in which he devotes some 100 pages to Slovakia. • • • The History of Slovakia: By PHILIP A. HROBAK (Continued from last issue) ME'l'HODIUS AGAIN JiN ROME In the meantime Pope John VIII effected the liberation of Arclibishop Methodius and punished the Bavarian bishops. To put a stop to the wars between Germany and the Great Moravian Empire, the Pope forbade the use of the Slovanic liturgy and ordered Methodius to come to Rome. Methodius learned that the German hierarchy had accused him of preaching heresy. Svatopluk sent his personal messenger (Zemezizeii) along with Archbishop Methodius to Rome, because he wanted to place his country under the protection of the Holy See. When Methodius reached Rome, he proved to the Pope's satisfaction that the charges placed against him were without foundation. Pope John VIII approved the apostolic work of Methodius and his priests. He gave the Archbishop a letter for Svatopluk which stated that he again permits the use of the Slovanic liturgy in Svatopluk's country and accepted King Svatopluk and his whole nation under the protection of St. Peter. When Archbishop Methodius returned to the land of the Slovaks, he and his priests labored zealously in the vineyard of the Lord to gain all the people of Svatopluk's country for the kingdom of Christ. But this mission, as we shall see, was soon to be hindered by Svatopluk himself. Svatopluk had accepted Christianity and had begged the Pope to protect the territory of the Slovak people, yet his life was not that of a true Christian. Svatopluk was a  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Independence and the Slovak Past Description An account of the resource Joseph Kirschbaum, LL.D., Ph.D. Slovakia, Vol. 7, No. 1 (22), March 1957 pp. 44-53 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Kirschbaum, Jozef M., 1913-2001 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource March 1957 SNK https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/6db964469e40c6a82c1dc4ccd8616824.pdf 60da0c84711338aeaf96dbd2056f4382 PDF Text Text 6Z SLOVAKIA INDEPENDENT SLOVAKJA SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN DFSTBOYED BLUNDERING POLICIES RESPONSIBLE FOR TERRIBLE PLIGHT OF SLOVAKS AND OTHER IRON CURTAIN COUNTRIES.... TRUE REPRESENTATIVES OF SLOVAK NATION SHOULD BE HEARD AND RECOGNIZED. (Speech of the Hon. Charles J. Kersten, Delivered at the Conference of Americans of Slovak descent sponsored by the Slovak League of Amerlca, Mal 23, 1952, Hotel Washington, Washington, D. C.) The Slovak League of America, a civte and cultural organlzatlon rounded In 1907 by Americans of Slovak descent, has made some fine contributlons to the Amerlcan way of llfe. And so have the Slovak organlzatlons afflllated with it. I am perfectly satisfied that the people in the League and the organizations affiliated with it are God· fearlng people, loyal citizens of the United States of Amerlca, who are ready and wllling to make any sacrlflce for the welfare and securlty ot our Country. I appreciate the fact that Americans or Slovak de· scent are interested in the fate of the nation from wbich they are de· s.cended, because lt is only natural that they should be. The terrible plight of the Slovak nation today - just as that or other nations of Centra! and Eastern Europe who had b een "Uber· ated" in 1945 - - is In a Jarge measure due to the blunderlng, undemocratic policies adopted and prosecuted and the secret agreements conC'luded by men of so-called democratlc governments. Our Government. or more correctly the present Admlnistratlon In Washington, cannot escape its measure of responsibillty for the inhumanlties suffered by the natlons behlnd the Iron Curtaln And slnce the present Admlnlstration in Washington bas lnltlated a campaign of truth to offset the vlcious campaign of lies of the Soviet Union, let us be- honest wltb ourselves and the rest of lhe world and admlt that it was morally wrong and contrary to every democratlc and Chrlstian pr!nc!ple to surrender the Slovaks and the other peoples of Centra! and Eastern E urope to the men of the Kremlln. Representatlves of thf' Slovak League ot Ameriťa made many trips to Washington to vlslt p_eople in the present Adminlstration· and teli them the truth about the Slovak nation. about the righteous struggle or the Slovak people for freedom and lndependence. .EMdently lt avalled them nothlng. Desplte the claim or our State Department that the Unltec\ States bas never opposed the aspiratlons of any p eople In Europe to determlne by thelr own free choice t he state or form or political organlzatlon under whlcb tbey wlsbed to live. tbe fact ls that tbe presi>nt Adminlstratlon never recognlzec\ or respected the rlght of self-<leterm!natlon fn the case of tbe Slovak peoole. If lt dld, tbf' inc\ependent Republic of Slovakia. establlsbed by tbe Slovak people tbrongh thf'ir duly elerte<l representatlves on Mar<'h 14. 1939, woulrl not bave bf'en wantonly destroyec\ in 1945 with tbe belp of our Administratlon! The Slovak Republiť was recognized by 27 variou~ government~. inclnding t he governments or Oreat Rritain Rnc\ the Soviet Union. Why wRs lt not recognized by the Government or thf' tlnitec\ Stalf's �SLOVAKIA 63 oť America? Il was not recognized, because F. D. Roosevelt and hLs Administratlon believed Dr. Edward Benes, the leader of the Czech 1\ational Soclalists and reslgned presldent o-f Czecho•Slovakía, who was violently opposed to Slovak treeJom and lndependence. And the present Administratlon stlll tavors the followers of Benes, many of wbom were members of Gottwalďs regime and, therefore, collabo• rated with the Reds in the Prague Government. Birds of a featber flock togetber! No matter what the circumstances uncler wblcb the Slovaks galned their independence, tbe Republic of Slovakia never s hould have been destroyed agalnst the will of the Slovak people. Tbe rigbt of political asylum has always been regarded as soma. lbing sacred by the people of the United States. Why was this rlght violated by our Administration in the case of Dr. Joseph Tiso, pre• s ldent of the Slovak Republic? Did our State Department do the human t hlng, did lt act in accordance wlth Christian and democratlc prln• ciples when lt ordered our Army to surrender Tiso to hls political e nemies - and certaln death? Tbe S lovak L eague of America, repres enting the overwhelmlng majority of organlzed Amerlcans of Slovak d escelllt, protested strongly against the order, but this again availed lt nothing. Then it requested tbe present occupant of the Whlte House to protes t against the banging of Tiso, but even this decent thlng he refused to do. Slnce the calamity of 1945, the present Adminlstratlon has eon• s istently ignored the just demands of Americans of Slovak descent to grant a hearing to Slovak patrjots, the true representatlves of the Hlovak natlon. But it did glve ear and ald to tbe Slovak renegades and others from Czecho-:Slovakla wbo a.lways were and stm are op· posed to Slovak freedom and independence. You can tind them in the VOICE OF AMERICA and other government agencles; and these Slovak renegades and enemles of Slovak freedom and independence, mind you. are being paid witb your money, wltb the money of Ameri• can taxpayers. It 1s hlgh tlme that people In government and the general public of the United States reallze at long last something that the Czechs and Slovaks tbemselves have known for centuries, that 1s, that the Czec hs never were. are not. and do not want to be Slovaks - and the Slovaks never were, are not, and do not want to be Czechs. Thls bas been clearly demons trated by the two natlons especlally durlng the past 34 years . that 1s slnce the establishment of Czecho-Slovakia. Why, tben, s hould t he present Adminlstratlon. or any administratlon for that matter, inslst that the Slovak n a tlon and the terrltory it has inhabited for the past 1500 years must contlnue to be explolted by another nation? Such a pollcy certainly !s not \Jl acco1d w!tb our beliefs and !s absolutely oppos ed and contrary to all Chrlstian and democ- ratic princlples. In short lt ls immoral and crlmlnal. You, my fellow•clt!zens, and your organlzatlons have been sl!ghted and !nsulted for many years by people In Government who are sup• posed to represent you. Your people In Slovakia In all their h!story have never suffered more than they have slnce thelr "llberatlon" by Benes and the Red armles In 1945. or course, it never should have happened, just as it should not have happened to the Poles, the Pkralnlans, Llthuanlans, Estonlans. Latvlans. and many others. But �64 SLOVAKlA the tact is that it did. All because ot tbe blundering polic!es ot govern ments, inctudlng our own. The Slovaks have ever opposed Commun!sm: and tbey strongly reslst lt today. Slovakia should not have been wantonly destroyed. because it could have served us in good stead today on the slde or the democratic world. It i.s in tbe interest or Amerlca tba1 all natlon!< or the earth, !nclnding the Slovak nation, bave the rigbt to setrcletermination and, it tbey so deslre, to he (ree and independent lt ls io tbe interests or justice and peace that even the Slovak natlon be rree to cboose the form of government under whlcb it shall live, so t hat tbe Slovaks, too, might enjoy t he blesslngs o! a government or tbeir own people, by their own people, and for their own people. My dear people, durlng the past two decades tbe people In Ameriran Government - and I mean speci!!cally our admlnlstratlons have wandered rar trom the straight and narrow path of rlghteousness. the road marked out by our ConstitutiÔn and the Ten Corumandments. You can help rlght the s ituation in November. For tbe sake or America and tor the sake or the nation you are descended r•·om, see to it tbat you do! • • • WHO SAI D IT? \ ' " T he -days of Soviet Ruuia's exc:lusion from Europe's affairs are w e r and, let us hope, will never return. It has not been an ea.sy task to bring tbree great powers into collaboration and to the point o! presentlng a common war front against the common German enemy. ílut In London, Washington, and Moscow. there are leaders who are hOld in enterprise, broad in thelr range of perceptlon, supported ny powerful opinion, and eager to face every change that ma.y help ,,s to banlsh the specter of war from our contlne nt. .. . We are In a :·..rtain .sense, a link between Europe and the East. We can never be ,nly western or only eastern. Nothing now will prevent the Soviet llnlon !rom playlng its part as a great oower In Europe'c. _atfa.irs. Aut this c:ertainly does mean that the Soviet t..,.,lon intends .o áom in-• ~te Europe. lt was not for such a purpose that Marahal Stalln met i>resident Rooaevelt and Churc:hill in Tehe ral' ' - (Edward Bene§, London, 2-29-44 ). • "We believe that freedom and t h e indepe,.,Je.-c. • of the Czechoslovak Republic: ar e guaranteed by the alllance w,t• t'le great U n ion of Soviet Socialist Rep ,blics and the rest of the Slovan ie natlona who, flnally, found themselves and established an a!lsoclatlon ot Slovanlc blood. This is our unalterable belier. enrooterl in ouŕ mlnd!I an d hearts; it is not t he re11ult of a temporary world cons tellatlon, but tbe result of the historic mission of the Slovanic natlons. Just as our loyalty to the Republic 1s not to be abandoned in good or bar! tima11. jusť so rto we comprehenrl also onr loyalty to our 11:reat ally. a.nd varlous idi>ologies cannot itland in the way ot that loyalty." - (Ing. ·K. Fllo, l)Pputy of Lettrlcb's Demn,..ratic Party, in the P rágue Paŕ­ ·liamen1. 'H'ťo rrling to ČAS of Deci>mber 16,. 19-47.) � 6Z SLOVAKIA INDEPENDENT SLOVAKJA SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN DFSTBOYED BLUNDERING POLICIES RESPONSIBLE FOR TERRIBLE PLIGHT OF SLOVAKS AND OTHER IRON CURTAIN COUNTRIES.... TRUE REPRESENTATIVES OF SLOVAK NATION SHOULD BE HEARD AND RECOGNIZED. (Speech of the Hon. Charles J. Kersten, Delivered at the Conference of Americans of Slovak descent sponsored by the Slovak League of Amerlca, Mal 23, 1952, Hotel Washington, Washington, D. C.) The Slovak League of America, a civte and cultural organlzatlon rounded In 1907 by Americans of Slovak descent, has made some fine contributlons to the Amerlcan way of llfe. And so have the Slovak organlzatlons afflllated with it. I am perfectly satisfied that the people in the League and the organizations affiliated with it are God· fearlng people, loyal citizens of the United States of Amerlca, who are ready and wllling to make any sacrlflce for the welfare and securlty ot our Country. I appreciate the fact that Americans or Slovak de· scent are interested in the fate of the nation from wbich they are de· s.cended, because lt is only natural that they should be. The terrible plight of the Slovak nation today - just as that or other nations of Centra! and Eastern Europe who had b een "Uber· ated" in 1945 - - is In a Jarge measure due to the blunderlng, undemocratic policies adopted and prosecuted and the secret agreements conC'luded by men of so-called democratlc governments. Our Government. or more correctly the present Admlnistratlon In Washington, cannot escape its measure of responsibillty for the inhumanlties suffered by the natlons behlnd the Iron Curtaln And slnce the present Admlnlstration in Washington bas lnltlated a campaign of truth to offset the vlcious campaign of lies of the Soviet Union, let us be- honest wltb ourselves and the rest of lhe world and admlt that it was morally wrong and contrary to every democratlc and Chrlstian pr!nc!ple to surrender the Slovaks and the other peoples of Centra! and Eastern E urope to the men of the Kremlln. Representatlves of thf' Slovak League ot Ameriťa made many trips to Washington to vlslt p_eople in the present Adminlstration· and teli them the truth about the Slovak nation. about the righteous struggle or the Slovak people for freedom and lndependence. .EMdently lt avalled them nothlng. Desplte the claim or our State Department that the Unltec\ States bas never opposed the aspiratlons of any p eople In Europe to determlne by thelr own free choice t he state or form or political organlzatlon under whlcb tbey wlsbed to live. tbe fact ls that tbe presi>nt Adminlstratlon never recognlzec\ or respected the rlght of self-<leterm!natlon fn the case of tbe Slovak peoole. If lt dld, tbf' inc\ependent Republic of Slovakia. establlsbed by tbe Slovak people tbrongh thf'ir duly elerte<l representatlves on Mar<'h 14. 1939, woulrl not bave bf'en wantonly destroyec\ in 1945 with tbe belp of our Administratlon! The Slovak Republiť was recognized by 27 variou~ government~. inclnding t he governments or Oreat Rritain Rnc\ the Soviet Union. Why wRs lt not recognized by the Government or thf' tlnitec\ Stalf's �SLOVAKIA 63 oť America? Il was not recognized, because F. D. Roosevelt and hLs Administratlon believed Dr. Edward Benes, the leader of the Czech 1\ational Soclalists and reslgned presldent o-f Czecho•Slovakía, who was violently opposed to Slovak treeJom and lndependence. And the present Administratlon stlll tavors the followers of Benes, many of wbom were members of Gottwalďs regime and, therefore, collabo• rated with the Reds in the Prague Government. Birds of a featber flock togetber! No matter what the circumstances uncler wblcb the Slovaks galned their independence, tbe Republic of Slovakia never s hould have been destroyed agalnst the will of the Slovak people. Tbe rigbt of political asylum has always been regarded as soma. lbing sacred by the people of the United States. Why was this rlght violated by our Administration in the case of Dr. Joseph Tiso, pre• s ldent of the Slovak Republic? Did our State Department do the human t hlng, did lt act in accordance wlth Christian and democratlc prln• ciples when lt ordered our Army to surrender Tiso to hls political e nemies - and certaln death? Tbe S lovak L eague of America, repres enting the overwhelmlng majority of organlzed Amerlcans of Slovak d escelllt, protested strongly against the order, but this again availed lt nothing. Then it requested tbe present occupant of the Whlte House to protes t against the banging of Tiso, but even this decent thlng he refused to do. Slnce the calamity of 1945, the present Adminlstratlon has eon• s istently ignored the just demands of Americans of Slovak descent to grant a hearing to Slovak patrjots, the true representatlves of the Hlovak natlon. But it did glve ear and ald to tbe Slovak renegades and others from Czecho-:Slovakla wbo a.lways were and stm are op· posed to Slovak freedom and independence. You can tind them in the VOICE OF AMERICA and other government agencles; and these Slovak renegades and enemles of Slovak freedom and independence, mind you. are being paid witb your money, wltb the money of Ameri• can taxpayers. It 1s hlgh tlme that people In government and the general public of the United States reallze at long last something that the Czechs and Slovaks tbemselves have known for centuries, that 1s, that the Czec hs never were. are not. and do not want to be Slovaks - and the Slovaks never were, are not, and do not want to be Czechs. Thls bas been clearly demons trated by the two natlons especlally durlng the past 34 years . that 1s slnce the establishment of Czecho-Slovakia. Why, tben, s hould t he present Adminlstratlon. or any administratlon for that matter, inslst that the Slovak n a tlon and the terrltory it has inhabited for the past 1500 years must contlnue to be explolted by another nation? Such a pollcy certainly !s not \Jl acco1d w!tb our beliefs and !s absolutely oppos ed and contrary to all Chrlstian and democ- ratic princlples. In short lt ls immoral and crlmlnal. You, my fellow•clt!zens, and your organlzatlons have been sl!ghted and !nsulted for many years by people In Government who are sup• posed to represent you. Your people In Slovakia In all their h!story have never suffered more than they have slnce thelr "llberatlon" by Benes and the Red armles In 1945. or course, it never should have happened, just as it should not have happened to the Poles, the Pkralnlans, Llthuanlans, Estonlans. Latvlans. and many others. But �64 SLOVAKlA the tact is that it did. All because ot tbe blundering polic!es ot govern ments, inctudlng our own. The Slovaks have ever opposed Commun!sm: and tbey strongly reslst lt today. Slovakia should not have been wantonly destroyed. because it could have served us in good stead today on the slde or the democratic world. It i.s in tbe interest or Amerlca tba1 all natlon!< or the earth, !nclnding the Slovak nation, bave the rigbt to setrcletermination and, it tbey so deslre, to he (ree and independent lt ls io tbe interests or justice and peace that even the Slovak natlon be rree to cboose the form of government under whlcb it shall live, so t hat tbe Slovaks, too, might enjoy t he blesslngs o! a government or tbeir own people, by their own people, and for their own people. My dear people, durlng the past two decades tbe people In Ameriran Government - and I mean speci!!cally our admlnlstratlons have wandered rar trom the straight and narrow path of rlghteousness. the road marked out by our ConstitutiÔn and the Ten Corumandments. You can help rlght the s ituation in November. For tbe sake or America and tor the sake or the nation you are descended r•·om, see to it tbat you do! • • • WHO SAI D IT? \ ' " T he -days of Soviet Ruuia's exc:lusion from Europe's affairs are w e r and, let us hope, will never return. It has not been an ea.sy task to bring tbree great powers into collaboration and to the point o! presentlng a common war front against the common German enemy. ílut In London, Washington, and Moscow. there are leaders who are hOld in enterprise, broad in thelr range of perceptlon, supported ny powerful opinion, and eager to face every change that ma.y help ,,s to banlsh the specter of war from our contlne nt. .. . We are In a :·..rtain .sense, a link between Europe and the East. We can never be ,nly western or only eastern. Nothing now will prevent the Soviet llnlon !rom playlng its part as a great oower In Europe'c. _atfa.irs. Aut this c:ertainly does mean that the Soviet t..,.,lon intends .o áom in-• ~te Europe. lt was not for such a purpose that Marahal Stalln met i>resident Rooaevelt and Churc:hill in Tehe ral' ' - (Edward Bene§, London, 2-29-44 ). • "We believe that freedom and t h e indepe,.,Je.-c. • of the Czechoslovak Republic: ar e guaranteed by the alllance w,t• t'le great U n ion of Soviet Socialist Rep ,blics and the rest of the Slovan ie natlona who, flnally, found themselves and established an a!lsoclatlon ot Slovanlc blood. This is our unalterable belier. enrooterl in ouŕ mlnd!I an d hearts; it is not t he re11ult of a temporary world cons tellatlon, but tbe result of the historic mission of the Slovanic natlons. Just as our loyalty to the Republic 1s not to be abandoned in good or bar! tima11. jusť so rto we comprehenrl also onr loyalty to our 11:reat ally. a.nd varlous idi>ologies cannot itland in the way ot that loyalty." - (Ing. ·K. Fllo, l)Pputy of Lettrlcb's Demn,..ratic Party, in the P rágue Paŕ­ ·liamen1. 'H'ťo rrling to ČAS of Deci>mber 16,. 19-47.) � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 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 6Z SLOVAKIA INDEPENDENT SLOVAKJA SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN DFSTBOYED BLUNDERING POLICIES RESPONSIBLE FOR TERRIBLE PLIGHT OF SLOVAKS AND OTHER IRON CURTAIN COUNTRIES.... TRUE REPRESENTATIVES OF SLOVAK NATION SHOULD BE HEARD AND RECOGNIZED. (Speech of the Hon. Charles J. Kersten, Delivered at the Conference of Americans of Slovak descent sponsored by the Slovak League of Amerlca, Mal 23, 1952, Hotel Washington, Washington, D. C.) The Slovak League of America, a civte and cultural organlzatlon rounded In 1907 by Americans of Slovak descent, has made some fine contributlons to the Amerlcan way of llfe. And so have the Slovak organlzatlons afflllated with it. I am perfectly satisfied that the people in the League and the organizations affiliated with it are God· fearlng people, loyal citizens of the United States of Amerlca, who are ready and wllling to make any sacrlflce for the welfare and securlty ot our Country. I appreciate the fact that Americans or Slovak de· scent are interested in the fate of the nation from wbich they are de· s.cended, because lt is only natural that they should be. The terrible plight of the Slovak nation today - just as that or other nations of Centra! and Eastern Europe who had b een "Uber· ated" in 1945 - - is In a Jarge measure due to the blunderlng, undemocratic policies adopted and prosecuted and the secret agreements conC'luded by men of so-called democratlc governments. Our Government. or more correctly the present Admlnistratlon In Washington, cannot escape its measure of responsibillty for the inhumanlties suffered by the natlons behlnd the Iron Curtaln And slnce the present Admlnlstration in Washington bas lnltlated a campaign of truth to offset the vlcious campaign of lies of the Soviet Union, let us be- honest wltb ourselves and the rest of lhe world and admlt that it was morally wrong and contrary to every democratlc and Chrlstian pr!nc!ple to surrender the Slovaks and the other peoples of Centra! and Eastern E urope to the men of the Kremlln. Representatlves of thf' Slovak League ot Ameriťa made many trips to Washington to vlslt p_eople in the present Adminlstration· and teli them the truth about the Slovak nation. about the righteous struggle or the Slovak people for freedom and lndependence. .EMdently lt avalled them nothlng. Desplte the claim or our State Department that the Unltec\ States bas never opposed the aspiratlons of any p eople In Europe to determlne by thelr own free choice t he state or form or political organlzatlon under whlcb tbey wlsbed to live. tbe fact ls that tbe presi>nt Adminlstratlon never recognlzec\ or respected the rlght of self-<leterm!natlon fn the case of tbe Slovak peoole. If lt dld, tbf' inc\ependent Republic of Slovakia. establlsbed by tbe Slovak people tbrongh thf'ir duly elerte<l representatlves on Mar<'h 14. 1939, woulrl not bave bf'en wantonly destroyec\ in 1945 with tbe belp of our Administratlon! The Slovak Republiť was recognized by 27 variou~ government~. inclnding t he governments or Oreat Rritain Rnc\ the Soviet Union. Why wRs lt not recognized by the Government or thf' tlnitec\ Stalf's SLOVAKIA 63 oť America? Il was not recognized, because F. D. Roosevelt and hLs Administratlon believed Dr. Edward Benes, the leader of the Czech 1\ational Soclalists and reslgned presldent o-f Czecho•Slovakía, who was violently opposed to Slovak treeJom and lndependence. And the present Administratlon stlll tavors the followers of Benes, many of wbom were members of Gottwalďs regime and, therefore, collabo• rated with the Reds in the Prague Government. Birds of a featber flock togetber! No matter what the circumstances uncler wblcb the Slovaks galned their independence, tbe Republic of Slovakia never s hould have been destroyed agalnst the will of the Slovak people. Tbe rigbt of political asylum has always been regarded as soma. lbing sacred by the people of the United States. Why was this rlght violated by our Administration in the case of Dr. Joseph Tiso, pre• s ldent of the Slovak Republic? Did our State Department do the human t hlng, did lt act in accordance wlth Christian and democratlc prln• ciples when lt ordered our Army to surrender Tiso to hls political e nemies - and certaln death? Tbe S lovak L eague of America, repres enting the overwhelmlng majority of organlzed Amerlcans of Slovak d escelllt, protested strongly against the order, but this again availed lt nothing. Then it requested tbe present occupant of the Whlte House to protes t against the banging of Tiso, but even this decent thlng he refused to do. Slnce the calamity of 1945, the present Adminlstratlon has eon• s istently ignored the just demands of Americans of Slovak descent to grant a hearing to Slovak patrjots, the true representatlves of the Hlovak natlon. But it did glve ear and ald to tbe Slovak renegades and others from Czecho-:Slovakla wbo a.lways were and stm are op· posed to Slovak freedom and independence. You can tind them in the VOICE OF AMERICA and other government agencles; and these Slovak renegades and enemles of Slovak freedom and independence, mind you. are being paid witb your money, wltb the money of Ameri• can taxpayers. It 1s hlgh tlme that people In government and the general public of the United States reallze at long last something that the Czechs and Slovaks tbemselves have known for centuries, that 1s, that the Czec hs never were. are not. and do not want to be Slovaks - and the Slovaks never were, are not, and do not want to be Czechs. Thls bas been clearly demons trated by the two natlons especlally durlng the past 34 years . that 1s slnce the establishment of Czecho-Slovakia. Why, tben, s hould t he present Adminlstratlon. or any administratlon for that matter, inslst that the Slovak n a tlon and the terrltory it has inhabited for the past 1500 years must contlnue to be explolted by another nation? Such a pollcy certainly !s not \Jl acco1d w!tb our beliefs and !s absolutely oppos ed and contrary to all Chrlstian and democ- ratic princlples. In short lt ls immoral and crlmlnal. You, my fellow•clt!zens, and your organlzatlons have been sl!ghted and !nsulted for many years by people In Government who are sup• posed to represent you. Your people In Slovakia In all their h!story have never suffered more than they have slnce thelr "llberatlon" by Benes and the Red armles In 1945. or course, it never should have happened, just as it should not have happened to the Poles, the Pkralnlans, Llthuanlans, Estonlans. Latvlans. and many others. But 64 SLOVAKlA the tact is that it did. All because ot tbe blundering polic!es ot govern ments, inctudlng our own. The Slovaks have ever opposed Commun!sm: and tbey strongly reslst lt today. Slovakia should not have been wantonly destroyed. because it could have served us in good stead today on the slde or the democratic world. It i.s in tbe interest or Amerlca tba1 all natlon!< or the earth, !nclnding the Slovak nation, bave the rigbt to setrcletermination and, it tbey so deslre, to he (ree and independent lt ls io tbe interests or justice and peace that even the Slovak natlon be rree to cboose the form of government under whlcb it shall live, so t hat tbe Slovaks, too, might enjoy t he blesslngs o! a government or tbeir own people, by their own people, and for their own people. My dear people, durlng the past two decades tbe people In Ameriran Government - and I mean speci!!cally our admlnlstratlons have wandered rar trom the straight and narrow path of rlghteousness. the road marked out by our ConstitutiÔn and the Ten Corumandments. You can help rlght the s ituation in November. For tbe sake or America and tor the sake or the nation you are descended r•·om, see to it tbat you do! • • • WHO SAI D IT? \ ' " T he -days of Soviet Ruuia's exc:lusion from Europe's affairs are w e r and, let us hope, will never return. It has not been an ea.sy task to bring tbree great powers into collaboration and to the point o! presentlng a common war front against the common German enemy. ílut In London, Washington, and Moscow. there are leaders who are hOld in enterprise, broad in thelr range of perceptlon, supported ny powerful opinion, and eager to face every change that ma.y help ,,s to banlsh the specter of war from our contlne nt. .. . We are In a :·..rtain .sense, a link between Europe and the East. We can never be ,nly western or only eastern. Nothing now will prevent the Soviet llnlon !rom playlng its part as a great oower In Europe'c. _atfa.irs. Aut this c:ertainly does mean that the Soviet t..,.,lon intends .o áom in-• ~te Europe. lt was not for such a purpose that Marahal Stalln met i>resident Rooaevelt and Churc:hill in Tehe ral' ' - (Edward Bene§, London, 2-29-44 ). • "We believe that freedom and t h e indepe,.,Je.-c. • of the Czechoslovak Republic: ar e guaranteed by the alllance w,t• t'le great U n ion of Soviet Socialist Rep ,blics and the rest of the Slovan ie natlona who, flnally, found themselves and established an a!lsoclatlon ot Slovanlc blood. This is our unalterable belier. enrooterl in ouŕ mlnd!I an d hearts; it is not t he re11ult of a temporary world cons tellatlon, but tbe result of the historic mission of the Slovanic natlons. Just as our loyalty to the Republic 1s not to be abandoned in good or bar! tima11. jusť so rto we comprehenrl also onr loyalty to our 11:reat ally. a.nd varlous idi>ologies cannot itland in the way ot that loyalty." - (Ing. ·K. Fllo, l)Pputy of Lettrlcb's Demn,..ratic Party, in the P rágue Paŕ­ ·liamen1. 'H'ťo rrling to ČAS of Deci>mber 16,. 19-47.)  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Independent Slovakia Should Not Have Been Destroyed Description An account of the resource Hon. Charles J. Kersten Slovakia, Vol. 2, No. 2 (4), August 1952 pp. 62-64 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Kersten, Charles J., 1902-1972 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource August 1952 https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/6394be7187e3ab8f7c136ae6bea94f28.pdf 9ba5b71db2ea2fc1783abb5eab2fc013 PDF Text Text DECEMBER, 1953 SLOVAKIA 1 INFLUENCE OF AMERICAN DEMOCRACY ON SWVAK LIFE Dr. Francis Hrusovsky Actual living conditions of the Slovak immigrants in the new warild, especially in the United States oif America, were very much different from those in hi1s homeland which was under the domination of Hungary until the end of the first world war. The natural temperament of the average Slovak was determined, to some degree, by the circumstances of his life in a land that had been under foreign nrle for centuries. Economically, the native of Slovakia found life hard and difficult; socially, his lot was unprogressive; politically, freedom and equality had no practical meaning for him. His energies were drained by the relentless struggle for survival. Not infrequently, he suffered from want; his entire life was spent in misery and poverty. The downtrodden Slovak peasant, though inwardly protesting against social inequality and injustice, had not suffi. cient strength and vitality to break the chains of his servitude. He resigned hims~lf to his misfortune, concluding that unkind fate decreed that misery was to be his n a tural lot on earth. Under such adverse circumstances, it was extremely difficult to arouse and maintain a feeling of Slovak national patriotism ; and it was doubly difficult to organize a Slovak society that would espouse the idea of Slovak nationalism, because the average Slovak was hampered at every step by his enemies who tenaciously held to the age-old concept of Magyar feudalism, a way of life that was contrary to the idea of Slovak nationalism. Every Slovak knew that he was not a Magyar but a Slovak; yet, this consciousness of nationalism was never allowed to develop freely. Patriotism and loyalty in the Hugarian State was only one: all had to acknowledge their adherence to the Crown of St. Stephen and Magyar hegemony. It is not surprising, therefore, that the peasant in Slovaikia had no clearcut understanding of the meaning of nationalism ; that he failed to aspire to national emancipation is manifestly an indication that he �2 SLOVA-IHA failed to grasp the glorious meaning of having one's own government in power and one's own native language as the official tongue of the land. And, hence, at first, the aver age Slovak was not inclined to partici,pate in political gatherings that were designe'd· to bring his own country ultimate freedom and democra;cy. Weighed . down ,b y the burdens of life as an oppressed human being, the Slovak's paJtience and endurance were truly remarkable. In the long succession of centuries of political servitude and 'tymnny, he had become resigned to his unchanging misery, injustice, humiliation and serfdom, for to him it seemed that this was decreed by fate, or a higher power. This was, then, the average Slova,k immigrant who came to America. Imagine how great was his amazement upon discovering that living an:d social conditions in the New World were so diametrically different from his life in the land of his birth, his Slova:kia beneath the Tatras. He was amazed by the vast difference between life at home in Slovakia and here in America and the unlimited opportunities offered the immigrant, provided he was willing to work. And since hard work was practica,lly s~cond nature to the Slovak immigra,nrt, he found his new home to his liking. At home, his sphere of activity ha,d been limited, while here, in his new home land, unlimited opportunities presented themselves on all sides, so that a man of inte1ligence, ingenuity and industry just could not fail to become a success in America. At hame, the Slovak could only hope to eke out a bare existence with hardly a chance for improvement; here in America he could look forward to a steady improvement of his social conditions. Here, in the new world, his .progress was not impeded by circumstances, on the contrary, the conditions for his advancement exceeded his fondest dreams. No doubt the primary motive for Slovak emigration was to seek a solution for financial difficulties; the Slovak went abroad chiefly to secure economic advantages which were lacking at home. He envisioned the day when he would rise above his lowly station in life with the help of his incr:eased earning power. Hence, there was no job, no matter �SLOVAKIA 3 how strenuorus or dangerous, that he shirked S'O long as ft promised him immediate returns. There is little doubt that tlhe Slovak immigrant in America worked harder than he had ever worked at home, •b ut t:Jhis was a sacrifice well worthwhile, in his estimation, if it helped his loved one$ in the old country and improved his own condition. America attracted the simple peaJsant from the hills and villages throughout Slovakfa. He was uneducated, though generally not illiterate, but equirpped with the natural gifts of remarkahle stamina, courage, ingenuity, industry and native intelligence. Possessing unusual powers of observation, sound judgment and ability to assimilate new ways of life, as well as being blessed witJh a good moral training, the Slov,a k found America a fertile field for his endeavors. He learned much in the new land of freedom and opportunity; and though he received much from it, he ailso gave much in return. He put his heart and will in his work, employed his mind in developing new tech:. niques, spared no effort, time and energy to produce an unending stream of goods for human consumption and welfare. Thus, the Slovak, who had been held in political bondage and who had lapsed into a state of social and economic retrogression, suddenly found a dynamic release for his pent-up energies in a land that was forever dedicated to freedom and equality, a land which offered him constant inspiration for his enterprising spirit and proved to be a never-ending source of visions of a great destiny. The de_~ mocratic atmosphere of America was to him a tonic, an elixir of magical powers that turned him into a veritable giant who feared no undertaking, avoided no difficulty. Consequently, many of his kind, working doggedly and persistently with indomitable energy, achieved comparative success in America. The typical American immigr ant from Slovakia was confronted with the difficulties of language, strange cus~ toms and new surroundings, and the immedi•a te necessity of employment. After securing a job, he quickly adjusted · himself to his new emrironment, acquired vaJ1uaJble expe~ riences over a period of years, steadHy increased his earnings and saved his money. He soon perceived that he, too, �4 SLOVAKIA ·was a human being with natural aspirations, desires and ideals which he knew could be realized if he worked for their attainment. It wa;s in America that he found himself as an ind!iividual, no:t only with civic responstbilites, but with personal rights as weH. As a full-fledged naturalized citizen of hi:s adopted country, he became acutely aware of his added dignity as a free man. This both satisfied him and aLso aroused in him the determination to emulate his fellow-citizens in the fullest a;ppreciation of his precious inheritance. Of course, there were some unfortunate exceptions to the general respon:se of the typical Slovak to his Ameriican surroundings; but on the whole, the great majority reacted favorably to the stimulating influences of a democratic way of life in the United States. Life's vicissitudes make human existence a constant struggle with obstacles strewn on the path that ,l eads to the ultimaJte goal. The SlovaJk lras never been without hardships and, therefore, he has never been afraid of the future. At home, all his efforts to overcome the handicaps of his lowly station in life were to no avail. He was doomed to remain in the same social caiste into which he was born. If he was born in poverty, he was destined to a lifelong struggle for a mere livelhood. There was no opportunity for him to rise above his station, being inextricably bound by ties of an outmoded feudal ,s ystem which kept him hopelessly mired in a bog of caste-privileged society. But his patient endurance and peritina;city, his indefatigable industry, which had helped him to survive under the most adverse conditions, served him well in the new land; and his ingrained habits of determination, dependability and native ingenuity were qualities which gave him the impetus to succeed when he was suddenly thrust into the fresh atmosphere of American free enterpr1se and democracy. The a;ma:zing discovery that he was on a plane of political and social equality with men of more than a score of nationa-lities, enjoy}ng freedom under one flag, the Stars and Stripes, made him feel that he had accomplished something worthwhile; and the consciousness of his abilities and achievements inspired him to work even harder to advance further on the road to Americanization, a process that �SLOVAKIA 5 brought out the native powers of the Slovak to adopt himself to new surroundings and to assimilate without losing his identity as a new American of Slovak ancestry. The immigrant Slovak's contacts with men of various races made him conscious of his own distinctness as a national figure, for he was unable to converse with them and he did not understand their ways. This factor affected him in two ways: 1) he was inclined to keep aloof from "strangers" and, 2) he was instinctively drawn to follow Slovaks who spoke his language and who knew his ways. Thus, it was but natural for him to draw closer to men of his own kind for companionship and understanding. All Slovak immigrants came together wherever they went, being drawn to each other by their common longing for the homes they had but recently left behind across the sea. Following the example of other nationalities, they organized societies and founded churches thaJt soon became the centers of their activities. This association kept them closely united and helped them to protect and enhance their common interests. Moreover, the feeling of national consciousness grew stronger among them as they sought refuge and comfort in these islands of Slovak memories and realities in the midst of a sea of representatives of every nation on earth. Slovaks in their homeland could not publicly express their national aspirations without reprisals, but here in America they were free to profess their patriotism and write about their ideals of nationhood. Every American of Slovak parentage could acknowledge his Slovak heritage publicly, and no one took it amiss, nobody was suspicious of his motives, no one insulted him for it. Moreover, his fellow-citizens of other national origins, in business and politics, accepted the new Americans as equals without regard to national origins. A Slovak immigrant who became a naturalized American citizen soon realized that he not only had civic responsibilities but personal rights, too, and the fact that 'he did · not have to renounce his Slovak heritage as such, while pledging loyalty to his new homeland, became the source �SLOVAKIA of his national pride of being a descendant of Slovak an~estors who had not been able to call their ancient hearths their own for many centuries. They cherished the national traditions of their forefathers and soon gave voice to them in this new land of freedom. In a comparatively short time, the Slovak in America · teaHzed that he, too, could voice his opinions freely, that he could have convictions wiithout fear of repression. Slovak organizations gave him ample opportunities to express himself; and hls newspapers were for him mediums of information, instruction and inspiration. These <:!orrstituted the keystone of Slovak unity for all fellow Americans of Slovak ancestry. From the stand,point of individual advancement, any Slovak, no matter how humble his origin, could ·air his views in his own newspapers. This was a veritable school for many simple, uneducated Slovaks who became well-informed and law-abiding citizens of their •a dopted -country, but who, nevertheless, spoke proudly of their native Slovakia, the land in which they had been born, the ·land of their forefathers. The Slovak immigrant found it impossible to forget the land of his birth; he fondly recalled the scenes of Ms childhood, and often spolke of the relatives and friends beyond the sea. This was perfectly natural, for despite 1:!he hard lot and misery •o f his oTiginal home, yet he longed to be with his parents and friends, if only for a little whHe. He could see the village church wit'h its cross uplifted to the sky, as an eternal sign of salvation, a symbol of the deep faith in God that was in his soul, a symbol at once of his own pain and suffering, of his strength and hope. The church, located in the center of Slovak village life, with spires rising high above the simple peasant huts in whose shadow they reclined, stood out in sharp relief in his memory, for religion was the keystone of his existence. The church was his fortress in time of danger, his solace in time of grief, his hope in time of despair. Without his qhurch, his village priest, without prayer, his life would, indeed, be empty and forelorn. The Slovak has been able to bear life's burdens because he staunchly believes in Di- �SLOVAKIA 7 vine Providence and because he seeks resources in prayer at all times. Abroad, in foreign lands, the church with its Slovak prayers and hymns, has been the bulwaTk of the Slovak immigrant. It has been his ,anchor on a foreign shore, a compass in an uncharted sea. Because the church is all hnportant in his life, the Slovak has invariably built a church, then school. With a ,s trong religious and social foundation, the Slovak in America maintained his national character and expanded his cultural endeavors as the years went by. It was his faith that kept him loyal to his sacred traditions, preserved his language, and made him cherish his nationality. On Sundays, he joined his fellow countrymen in Slovak prayers and hymns; this, perhaps, more than any ot'her single factor, perpetuated the most sacred and treasured memories of Slovakia. Imposing Slovak churches, modern parish and school buildings, and office building,s· of the Slovak societies are. concrete expressions of the deep religious convictions a:nd· cultural aspirations of the Slovak immigrant. They are monuments of self-sacrifice and devotion to time-honored institutions, permeated with the same fervent spirit of his forefathers who cherished their Christian traditions be·neath the Tatras since time immemorial. At home, unfortunately, genuine Slovaik societies and organizations did not exist, and the few that functioned were -p rimarily designed to serve elements and interests that were alien to the Slovak cause. Even ibhe churcih, in some instances, became an agency for these forces. But · in America, Slovak churches, organizations and schools became the centers of Slovak national culture. Moreover, the .spark of nationalism which was barely kept alight ait home, burst into a bright flame in the new Land of freedom. The Slovak immigrant caught t:Jhe spirit of American democracy whose blessings he had personally experienced in his daily life. He accepted these with a deep sense of gratitude. He was proud of his new status of citizenship, an'd now · tlia.t he was content, he yearned to have his folks back home· enjoy these self-same rights and advantages of the democratic way of life. �8 SLOVAKIA Slovak poets and writers, keenly aware of this stifling atmosphere in which their people were slowly expiring, made every effort to arouse the masses out of their lethargy. Although their voices were unheeded in their native land, where the people were submissive and demoralized, nevertheless, a small but determined minority of patriaticminded Slovaks organized political clubs to fight for their nation's inherent rights and to formulate a program for an active political movement. The Slovaks had leadership, but failed to support their leaders efficiently, and on various occasions some of their leaders joined the opposition to work against the best interests and welfare of their nat,ion. Before the first World War Slovakia's national life was caught in a nut-cracker net-wor'k of political and social intrigue and seemed doomed. National extinction was. indeed, a grave danger which had to be averted. The Slovaks were helpless in the fa:ce of the opposition whi•c h prevented them from developing their native culture and realizing their right to self-government and independence. Internally, the Slovak nation was vitally sound-physically, biologically and morally it was sound - and it possessed untapped natural resources, but needed an external force to set it free. And this dynamic force came from America. Actual statistics are not available to indicate to what extent the American Slovaks influenced various developments in their ancient homeland, but, perhaps, in the future this vital information will be gathered and compiled in order to determine approximately, if nat precisely, to what measure they affected the social and political progress of their native country. Even without this material, however, w~ are able to mention the beginnings of the movements that were inspired and inaugurated by the Slorvaks in America. Naturally, a considerable number of Slovak emigrants returned home after spending several years abroad. These had. fulfilled. their goal to attain sufficient funds for their particular needs; but a large number, the majority as a matter of fact, remained in America and made their permanent home in the land of their adoption. These had overcome the almost irresistable desire to return to their native land �SLOVAKIA 9 and, though they never returned, during their entire life-time they nevertheless maintained close contaet with their relatives and friends in Slovakia. Even those, who brdke their ties with Europe irrevoc~bly, sti'll remained in touch w.iith their fellow-countrymen and, consequently, ma.de some contribution to the S'lovak cause indirectly. Actual instances of individua1s who broke completely wi1:Jh their past and lost contact wii!h their fellow Slovaks in Amerka were so rare that they can be d1scounted in our attempts to evaluate the destiny of the Slovaks in America and to arrive at a realistic analysis of the influence of American Slovaks on Slovia'k life in the country of their birtJh. The American phase of Slovak life, with its democratic texture and blend, effected several significant changes on home life in their native land. S,i nce the impeUing force of ~heir emigration in many cases was economic, there is no doubt whatsoever that corresponding returns from their labors abroad became the direct and immediate source of a relatiivelly large national income in Slovakia. The amount of new capital that was brought in by returning , Slovak emigrants is, perhaps, impossible to determine even approximately, but the fact remains that it was a windfall which gave Slovakia a new lease on its economic life. Foremost among the effec,ts of this influx of new capital to Slova'kia, was the ability of the average Slovak to own his own land by redeeming it if he hia,d lost it, and to purchase the necessary equiipment and livestock to insure his future economically. This gave him a chance to live as a free man to a large degree, for he was no longer subject completely to the whims and caprice's of his overlords in a smaill country, where the steadily increasing population made it imperative for the native Slovak to have .his plot of land, if he hoped to survive. The emergence of a growing number of debt-free, well-equipped arrd wellstocked small landowners marked the estalblishment, imperceptrbly but none-the-less surely, of a sound well-balanced economic unit in Slovakia's clhanging social order, Sma!ll landowners formed the nucleus of Slovakia's national life, for now they not only inha;bited the land of their forefathers, but they aetually owned it. Economic power, though �10 SLOVAKIA lllodest, indeed, had nevertheless enabled them to effect their social emancipation. Their improved status i'S readily ~derstood and appreciaited if we realize to what extent it freed them from the dead-weight of an oppressive feudal system stHl in vogue throughout Hungary and its domination - a feudal inheritance that had put most of Slovakia's ;forests and ara!ble soil, its rivers and la:kes, a'S weH as its ,l)O\litica1 control, into the ha,nds of an exclusively foreigz:i aristocracy. Under this system the Slovaks were nothing more than servants in their own homes and the fruits of their labors were plucked by usur,peTS who had seized control of tlheiir household. Originally, Slovakia's nobility was largely Slovak by birth, but in the course of time it degenerated by wholesale pesertion to a foreign cause. In this · way, large tracts of Jand passed into the hand'S of those who no longer were Slovak by temperament or nature and, hence, their policies were not designed to benefit the Slovaks. Moreover, in modern times, many large estates came into the hands of fore1gners whose policies were injurious to Slovak interests and whose political al'ignment with ,parties hostile to the Slovaks constituted· a positive menace to the national ex,i stence of the Slovaks in their own country. There is no doubt that the loss of ownership by the majority of the Slovak gentry, which was the backbone of the nation, put the national destiny of Slovakia into a most precarious posit!i:on. Moreover, the necessity of brea:king up their smal>l estates, because of the increasing population, :I'65ttlted in reducing the land to such small units as to make them unprofitable. 'J.ihis inevitably forced the s·m all land-holders to go into debt whenever there was the least mi:sca}Jeulation in their p1ans, or when there was a crop fai-lure. Improvements, or an expansion of one's holdings, were out of the question, for there was seldom a:ny surplus which the Slovalk could use · as an investment in a new enterprise. As a matter of fact, iit often ha:rppened thiat a landpwner was unable to meet his interest, not to speak of reducing the principal on his loan. Eventually, therefore, mahy estates fell into the hands of receivers, arid ·1ater were �SLOVAKIA 11 1bought up by non-Slovaks. As a result, the Slovaks suffered. in a twofold manner: 1) native land-owners dmlinished greatly in numbers, and 2) many diispossessed Slovaks emigrated to o1!her lands where, having settled chiefly in industrial areas, they no longer cared to return to the land and, consequently, they and their children were lost to their country forever. The continual drain of human resources from the n_a ti.onal reservoi'I' of Slovakia weakened the country economica'1ly, morrully and poliitically, because non-Slovaks replaced. the original Slovaks in their native homeland. Under such conditions, Slovak life, as su~h, suffered a sharp decline. Without a doubt, the most essential unit of the Slovalk nation, w'hich gave it permanent character, solidarity and stability, was its independent gentry which had been close .to the sdil for centuries. It was imperative that this group be ,p reserved in its pristine strength and vigor if Slova'kia was to survive as a distinct race in its original niationrul domain. The land-holdings, instead of being sub_ject to di,visions, must be held intact - otherwise, a complete economic breakdown would result and national dissolution would inevitably follow. This was their fear, a well-founded one, of which the Slovaks were acutely aware. 1 America -came to the rescue in this national crisis. The many opportunities for work and good pay in the new world offered a solution to the problems of economic reihabili~ tion at home. Accordingly, t:Jhousands of debt-r:idden and almost destitute Slovaks departed. for American shores with high hopes for the future. And that they were not disillusioned is attested to by the fact that, in a few years, many returned home again with savings which reestablishe d their fortunes in thcir homeland. New homes a.ppeared, old ones were repaired, new equipment and livestock were purchased, old debts were liquidated and Slova'kia's national economy was once more in the hands of iits own native population. ParadoxicaUy enough, the emigration on a large scale from Slovakia which threatened to destroy the nation irre- �12 SLOVAKIA :voca;bly beyond revival, actually restored it to its rightful ownership and renewed vigor. The returning emigrants manifested remarkable energy and enthusiasm in this national restoration. Moreover, many former workers and tenants upon their return were a)ble to buy sufficient parcels pf land to insure a preponderantly Slovak ownership. Others, profiting from their varied experiences abroad, established some sort of business by buying a sawmill, a flour mill, a tavern, etc., and thereby reenforced Slovakia's eco-, nomy by their initiative in founding diversified enterprises. These manifold activities by a thoroughly-awakened Slovak populace were greeted with keen competition by alien interlopers who had established a monopoly in many fields, but the returning Slovaks, having had the advantages of rich experience in the new world, proved to be a match for them. Of tantamount importance was the need for wider education, so that their children might have the opportunity to acquire a high school and college training. The need was both soci'a.'l and political, for they needed Slovak leaders in public Hfe and industry. It was a serious menace, indeed, to have a large percentage of their sons desert to an alien camp and serve a foreign cause stmply because of their training in the anti-Slovak schools sponsored by chauvinistic Magyar regimes which produced countless renegades. Fortunately, not all the Slovak graduates of these schools turned against their Slovak nation. The blessings of American capital became aga,in apparent in the struggle of the Slovak nationalists to maintain the Slovak spirit of loyalty in their ~hildren by providing speciali>zed training for them. Thus, Slovak fathers in America secured the funds necessary for the task of educating their sons in Slovakia for the common welfare of their own countrymen. In homes that had an Ameri'c an background, the spirit of democracy and patriotism kept alive the national life of Slovakia. This is to be .attribulted to Amerka as her gift of freedom to a small nation which was struggling to emancipate itself from foreign domination. An essentia~ element in directing the destiny of a nation is undoubtedly the press, for newspapers, magazines �SLOVAKIA 13 and books provide an index for the spiritual condition of a people. In this respect, the situation in Slovakia was really ~ploralble, because. only a fow Slovak neiwspaipers were published, and these did not enjoy wide circulation. The masses, as yet, had:·not acquired the habit of reading, because they did not feel the need of it. Moreover, they were impoverished and, hence, bought few boolks. For a long time, the only reading they had at hand was limited to their praye:tibodks, religious .bulletins and an occasional publication of the Spalok sv. Vojtecha (St. Adalbert's Society). The average Slovak showed l.ittle or no interest in politics, for he had become accustomed to the view that this was a game, or hobby, exclusively reserved for the nobility. The Americanized Slovaik, however, adopted a different view, and even native-born Slovaks, who had never been outside the confines of their country, gradually cihanged their attitude by reading Slovak newspapers which were sent to them from across the sea. From their pages they learned for the first time how grave the situation was in reality in their own b'ac'k yards. It was truly paradoxical that they were informed of things that happened right at home by receiving newspapers, published in their own language and spirit, more than three thousand miles away. They learned to defend their rights by a unified public opinion which was being crysta1Uzed largely through the influence of publications from foreign lands. And returning emigi.·ants strengthened this movement by keeping up their subscriptions to American newspapers. Many of them kept in close touch with their brother Slovaks abroad by retaining their membership in American Slovak societies for several years after coming back to Slovakia. Perhaps the most precious gift that America presented to Slovakia were the Slovaks who returned to their na.tive country, not only because they brought their savings, but also because these men had learned much by their new experiences whirch had matured them in many ways and which were to help Slovakia on the way towards winning her national freedom. Men who had left their country, dejected and despirrited, now returned refreshed and revivified by the atmosphere of American democracy. �14 SLOVAKIA In America, the Slovak who became a naturalized citizen lost his inferiority complex and acquired a healthy selfconfidence. He felt important once more as an individual, for he was proud of his new staJtus as a full-fledged citi'zeri of a great, democratic country. He respected the rights of others, While his own rights were a'liso respected. Moreover, as a member of free Slovak organizations, he learned to work not only in his own, but also in other's !interests. In fulfilling his responsibilities, as well as in insisting on his own rights, he was doing his work well in the spirit of true democracy. Although he became a vital part of American democratic life, the new citizen of S'lovak ancestry did not forget his native counrtrymen who lived in the land of his fathers in the Slovaik hills and woodlands and fields that stretched from the Low Carpathians in the West to the High Carpathians in the East. The Slovak language became a golden bond by whkh he was united to his fellow-countrymen beyond the seas ; and the concept ·of a wider extention of these rights to his people back home inspired him to work for the realrization of that idea!. Thus America became the fertile soil for the growth of Siovak national consciousness and freedom. Every Slovak town and village felt the impact of American democracy. The returning emigrant did not remain aloof from affairs of public welfare, but plunged 'into the thick of thfogs. Polirt:fos was no longer the here noire of the common man, for, after learning the democratic technique of American life, the Slovak entered into the arena of political struggles for his rights. He had both the courage and confidence to carry on the fight for his country's freedom as well as for his rights as a free man. While tracing 1:he direct influence of American democratic elements on Slovakia, we ought to reca:11 tha,t there was a strong cross-current that was felt in Slovak circles in America. This mutual assistance was ruppreciaited by leading Slovaks on both sides of the Atlantic, and they tried to establish closer ties of rela1Jionshilp with ea:ch other in order to achieve their goal of freedom. Communications �SLOVAKIA 15 betw~n leading Slovak thinkers in Slovakia and America were mruintained through · personal messages, · writings in the mag~ines a,nd,_ newsipapers, annuals and almanacs in which the freedom-lov,ing Slovaks at home kept in touch with their brothers across the sea. Americans of Slovak descent, former immigrants from Slovakia, learned the iJ.esson of democracy and freedom well in Ameri'Ca. Freedom, they learned, is the natural birthright of all mankind. If and when the Slovak nation wins its fight for fireedom and complete pwitical independenrce, the Slovak people will have America to tJhank for it. Am~ rica was, and still is, a constant source of insipiration and hope for the Slovaks in their hom~land, despite what has happened in 1945. 'I1he Slovaks shall remain eternally grateful to Ameri'ca and Americans of Slo,va'k ancestry for the priceless contributions to their struggle for freedom and independence, for the many sacrifices made so that true democracy once may rule not only in Slovakia, butt in an countries of the world. The roots of democracy and freedom in .Slovalk,i a had their beginnings in America, and Slovaks everywhere, at home and aJbroad in foreign lands, firmly believe that America will not abandon Slovakia in her darkest hour. The Slovaks look longingly to America for liberat ion from the scourge of manlkind, the greatest enemy of the democratic way of life - Communism . 1 • • • WHO SAID IT? "We lay pa;roiooJar stress on ithe fadt that the few Slovaik rei:f.ugees wandering about in the we:sit, adwooating the idea of a Ozooh.os!lova!k State, do not r~resent the Slovalk people, who are today fanat~ca'lly anti-Czeoh. Ozeohoslovakia can only be restored against the wi:H of the S-loivaks. Concerning the Czeicihs, they s'hould wnderstand that onJy the federation suggested aJbQlVe (!the Da.nulbian federation) can protect theisr nation from new adventures." - (F. 0. Miksche - a Czech - in UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER, p. 216 ; Faber and Faber Ltd .. London). � DECEMBER, 1953 SLOVAKIA 1 INFLUENCE OF AMERICAN DEMOCRACY ON SWVAK LIFE Dr. Francis Hrusovsky Actual living conditions of the Slovak immigrants in the new warild, especially in the United States oif America, were very much different from those in hi1s homeland which was under the domination of Hungary until the end of the first world war. The natural temperament of the average Slovak was determined, to some degree, by the circumstances of his life in a land that had been under foreign nrle for centuries. Economically, the native of Slovakia found life hard and difficult; socially, his lot was unprogressive; politically, freedom and equality had no practical meaning for him. His energies were drained by the relentless struggle for survival. Not infrequently, he suffered from want; his entire life was spent in misery and poverty. The downtrodden Slovak peasant, though inwardly protesting against social inequality and injustice, had not suffi. cient strength and vitality to break the chains of his servitude. He resigned hims~lf to his misfortune, concluding that unkind fate decreed that misery was to be his n a tural lot on earth. Under such adverse circumstances, it was extremely difficult to arouse and maintain a feeling of Slovak national patriotism ; and it was doubly difficult to organize a Slovak society that would espouse the idea of Slovak nationalism, because the average Slovak was hampered at every step by his enemies who tenaciously held to the age-old concept of Magyar feudalism, a way of life that was contrary to the idea of Slovak nationalism. Every Slovak knew that he was not a Magyar but a Slovak; yet, this consciousness of nationalism was never allowed to develop freely. Patriotism and loyalty in the Hugarian State was only one: all had to acknowledge their adherence to the Crown of St. Stephen and Magyar hegemony. It is not surprising, therefore, that the peasant in Slovaikia had no clearcut understanding of the meaning of nationalism ; that he failed to aspire to national emancipation is manifestly an indication that he �2 SLOVA-IHA failed to grasp the glorious meaning of having one's own government in power and one's own native language as the official tongue of the land. And, hence, at first, the aver age Slovak was not inclined to partici,pate in political gatherings that were designe'd· to bring his own country ultimate freedom and democra;cy. Weighed . down ,b y the burdens of life as an oppressed human being, the Slovak's paJtience and endurance were truly remarkable. In the long succession of centuries of political servitude and 'tymnny, he had become resigned to his unchanging misery, injustice, humiliation and serfdom, for to him it seemed that this was decreed by fate, or a higher power. This was, then, the average Slova,k immigrant who came to America. Imagine how great was his amazement upon discovering that living an:d social conditions in the New World were so diametrically different from his life in the land of his birth, his Slova:kia beneath the Tatras. He was amazed by the vast difference between life at home in Slovakia and here in America and the unlimited opportunities offered the immigrant, provided he was willing to work. And since hard work was practica,lly s~cond nature to the Slovak immigra,nrt, he found his new home to his liking. At home, his sphere of activity ha,d been limited, while here, in his new home land, unlimited opportunities presented themselves on all sides, so that a man of inte1ligence, ingenuity and industry just could not fail to become a success in America. At hame, the Slovak could only hope to eke out a bare existence with hardly a chance for improvement; here in America he could look forward to a steady improvement of his social conditions. Here, in the new world, his .progress was not impeded by circumstances, on the contrary, the conditions for his advancement exceeded his fondest dreams. No doubt the primary motive for Slovak emigration was to seek a solution for financial difficulties; the Slovak went abroad chiefly to secure economic advantages which were lacking at home. He envisioned the day when he would rise above his lowly station in life with the help of his incr:eased earning power. Hence, there was no job, no matter �SLOVAKIA 3 how strenuorus or dangerous, that he shirked S'O long as ft promised him immediate returns. There is little doubt that tlhe Slovak immigrant in America worked harder than he had ever worked at home, •b ut t:Jhis was a sacrifice well worthwhile, in his estimation, if it helped his loved one$ in the old country and improved his own condition. America attracted the simple peaJsant from the hills and villages throughout Slovakfa. He was uneducated, though generally not illiterate, but equirpped with the natural gifts of remarkahle stamina, courage, ingenuity, industry and native intelligence. Possessing unusual powers of observation, sound judgment and ability to assimilate new ways of life, as well as being blessed witJh a good moral training, the Slov,a k found America a fertile field for his endeavors. He learned much in the new land of freedom and opportunity; and though he received much from it, he ailso gave much in return. He put his heart and will in his work, employed his mind in developing new tech:. niques, spared no effort, time and energy to produce an unending stream of goods for human consumption and welfare. Thus, the Slovak, who had been held in political bondage and who had lapsed into a state of social and economic retrogression, suddenly found a dynamic release for his pent-up energies in a land that was forever dedicated to freedom and equality, a land which offered him constant inspiration for his enterprising spirit and proved to be a never-ending source of visions of a great destiny. The de_~ mocratic atmosphere of America was to him a tonic, an elixir of magical powers that turned him into a veritable giant who feared no undertaking, avoided no difficulty. Consequently, many of his kind, working doggedly and persistently with indomitable energy, achieved comparative success in America. The typical American immigr ant from Slovakia was confronted with the difficulties of language, strange cus~ toms and new surroundings, and the immedi•a te necessity of employment. After securing a job, he quickly adjusted · himself to his new emrironment, acquired vaJ1uaJble expe~ riences over a period of years, steadHy increased his earnings and saved his money. He soon perceived that he, too, �4 SLOVAKIA ·was a human being with natural aspirations, desires and ideals which he knew could be realized if he worked for their attainment. It wa;s in America that he found himself as an ind!iividual, no:t only with civic responstbilites, but with personal rights as weH. As a full-fledged naturalized citizen of hi:s adopted country, he became acutely aware of his added dignity as a free man. This both satisfied him and aLso aroused in him the determination to emulate his fellow-citizens in the fullest a;ppreciation of his precious inheritance. Of course, there were some unfortunate exceptions to the general respon:se of the typical Slovak to his Ameriican surroundings; but on the whole, the great majority reacted favorably to the stimulating influences of a democratic way of life in the United States. Life's vicissitudes make human existence a constant struggle with obstacles strewn on the path that ,l eads to the ultimaJte goal. The SlovaJk lras never been without hardships and, therefore, he has never been afraid of the future. At home, all his efforts to overcome the handicaps of his lowly station in life were to no avail. He was doomed to remain in the same social caiste into which he was born. If he was born in poverty, he was destined to a lifelong struggle for a mere livelhood. There was no opportunity for him to rise above his station, being inextricably bound by ties of an outmoded feudal ,s ystem which kept him hopelessly mired in a bog of caste-privileged society. But his patient endurance and peritina;city, his indefatigable industry, which had helped him to survive under the most adverse conditions, served him well in the new land; and his ingrained habits of determination, dependability and native ingenuity were qualities which gave him the impetus to succeed when he was suddenly thrust into the fresh atmosphere of American free enterpr1se and democracy. The a;ma:zing discovery that he was on a plane of political and social equality with men of more than a score of nationa-lities, enjoy}ng freedom under one flag, the Stars and Stripes, made him feel that he had accomplished something worthwhile; and the consciousness of his abilities and achievements inspired him to work even harder to advance further on the road to Americanization, a process that �SLOVAKIA 5 brought out the native powers of the Slovak to adopt himself to new surroundings and to assimilate without losing his identity as a new American of Slovak ancestry. The immigrant Slovak's contacts with men of various races made him conscious of his own distinctness as a national figure, for he was unable to converse with them and he did not understand their ways. This factor affected him in two ways: 1) he was inclined to keep aloof from "strangers" and, 2) he was instinctively drawn to follow Slovaks who spoke his language and who knew his ways. Thus, it was but natural for him to draw closer to men of his own kind for companionship and understanding. All Slovak immigrants came together wherever they went, being drawn to each other by their common longing for the homes they had but recently left behind across the sea. Following the example of other nationalities, they organized societies and founded churches thaJt soon became the centers of their activities. This association kept them closely united and helped them to protect and enhance their common interests. Moreover, the feeling of national consciousness grew stronger among them as they sought refuge and comfort in these islands of Slovak memories and realities in the midst of a sea of representatives of every nation on earth. Slovaks in their homeland could not publicly express their national aspirations without reprisals, but here in America they were free to profess their patriotism and write about their ideals of nationhood. Every American of Slovak parentage could acknowledge his Slovak heritage publicly, and no one took it amiss, nobody was suspicious of his motives, no one insulted him for it. Moreover, his fellow-citizens of other national origins, in business and politics, accepted the new Americans as equals without regard to national origins. A Slovak immigrant who became a naturalized American citizen soon realized that he not only had civic responsibilities but personal rights, too, and the fact that 'he did · not have to renounce his Slovak heritage as such, while pledging loyalty to his new homeland, became the source �SLOVAKIA of his national pride of being a descendant of Slovak an~estors who had not been able to call their ancient hearths their own for many centuries. They cherished the national traditions of their forefathers and soon gave voice to them in this new land of freedom. In a comparatively short time, the Slovak in America · teaHzed that he, too, could voice his opinions freely, that he could have convictions wiithout fear of repression. Slovak organizations gave him ample opportunities to express himself; and hls newspapers were for him mediums of information, instruction and inspiration. These <:!orrstituted the keystone of Slovak unity for all fellow Americans of Slovak ancestry. From the stand,point of individual advancement, any Slovak, no matter how humble his origin, could ·air his views in his own newspapers. This was a veritable school for many simple, uneducated Slovaks who became well-informed and law-abiding citizens of their •a dopted -country, but who, nevertheless, spoke proudly of their native Slovakia, the land in which they had been born, the ·land of their forefathers. The Slovak immigrant found it impossible to forget the land of his birth; he fondly recalled the scenes of Ms childhood, and often spolke of the relatives and friends beyond the sea. This was perfectly natural, for despite 1:!he hard lot and misery •o f his oTiginal home, yet he longed to be with his parents and friends, if only for a little whHe. He could see the village church wit'h its cross uplifted to the sky, as an eternal sign of salvation, a symbol of the deep faith in God that was in his soul, a symbol at once of his own pain and suffering, of his strength and hope. The church, located in the center of Slovak village life, with spires rising high above the simple peasant huts in whose shadow they reclined, stood out in sharp relief in his memory, for religion was the keystone of his existence. The church was his fortress in time of danger, his solace in time of grief, his hope in time of despair. Without his qhurch, his village priest, without prayer, his life would, indeed, be empty and forelorn. The Slovak has been able to bear life's burdens because he staunchly believes in Di- �SLOVAKIA 7 vine Providence and because he seeks resources in prayer at all times. Abroad, in foreign lands, the church with its Slovak prayers and hymns, has been the bulwaTk of the Slovak immigrant. It has been his ,anchor on a foreign shore, a compass in an uncharted sea. Because the church is all hnportant in his life, the Slovak has invariably built a church, then school. With a ,s trong religious and social foundation, the Slovak in America maintained his national character and expanded his cultural endeavors as the years went by. It was his faith that kept him loyal to his sacred traditions, preserved his language, and made him cherish his nationality. On Sundays, he joined his fellow countrymen in Slovak prayers and hymns; this, perhaps, more than any ot'her single factor, perpetuated the most sacred and treasured memories of Slovakia. Imposing Slovak churches, modern parish and school buildings, and office building,s· of the Slovak societies are. concrete expressions of the deep religious convictions a:nd· cultural aspirations of the Slovak immigrant. They are monuments of self-sacrifice and devotion to time-honored institutions, permeated with the same fervent spirit of his forefathers who cherished their Christian traditions be·neath the Tatras since time immemorial. At home, unfortunately, genuine Slovaik societies and organizations did not exist, and the few that functioned were -p rimarily designed to serve elements and interests that were alien to the Slovak cause. Even ibhe churcih, in some instances, became an agency for these forces. But · in America, Slovak churches, organizations and schools became the centers of Slovak national culture. Moreover, the .spark of nationalism which was barely kept alight ait home, burst into a bright flame in the new Land of freedom. The Slovak immigrant caught t:Jhe spirit of American democracy whose blessings he had personally experienced in his daily life. He accepted these with a deep sense of gratitude. He was proud of his new status of citizenship, an'd now · tlia.t he was content, he yearned to have his folks back home· enjoy these self-same rights and advantages of the democratic way of life. �8 SLOVAKIA Slovak poets and writers, keenly aware of this stifling atmosphere in which their people were slowly expiring, made every effort to arouse the masses out of their lethargy. Although their voices were unheeded in their native land, where the people were submissive and demoralized, nevertheless, a small but determined minority of patriaticminded Slovaks organized political clubs to fight for their nation's inherent rights and to formulate a program for an active political movement. The Slovaks had leadership, but failed to support their leaders efficiently, and on various occasions some of their leaders joined the opposition to work against the best interests and welfare of their nat,ion. Before the first World War Slovakia's national life was caught in a nut-cracker net-wor'k of political and social intrigue and seemed doomed. National extinction was. indeed, a grave danger which had to be averted. The Slovaks were helpless in the fa:ce of the opposition whi•c h prevented them from developing their native culture and realizing their right to self-government and independence. Internally, the Slovak nation was vitally sound-physically, biologically and morally it was sound - and it possessed untapped natural resources, but needed an external force to set it free. And this dynamic force came from America. Actual statistics are not available to indicate to what extent the American Slovaks influenced various developments in their ancient homeland, but, perhaps, in the future this vital information will be gathered and compiled in order to determine approximately, if nat precisely, to what measure they affected the social and political progress of their native country. Even without this material, however, w~ are able to mention the beginnings of the movements that were inspired and inaugurated by the Slorvaks in America. Naturally, a considerable number of Slovak emigrants returned home after spending several years abroad. These had. fulfilled. their goal to attain sufficient funds for their particular needs; but a large number, the majority as a matter of fact, remained in America and made their permanent home in the land of their adoption. These had overcome the almost irresistable desire to return to their native land �SLOVAKIA 9 and, though they never returned, during their entire life-time they nevertheless maintained close contaet with their relatives and friends in Slovakia. Even those, who brdke their ties with Europe irrevoc~bly, sti'll remained in touch w.iith their fellow-countrymen and, consequently, ma.de some contribution to the S'lovak cause indirectly. Actual instances of individua1s who broke completely wi1:Jh their past and lost contact wii!h their fellow Slovaks in Amerka were so rare that they can be d1scounted in our attempts to evaluate the destiny of the Slovaks in America and to arrive at a realistic analysis of the influence of American Slovaks on Slovia'k life in the country of their birtJh. The American phase of Slovak life, with its democratic texture and blend, effected several significant changes on home life in their native land. S,i nce the impeUing force of ~heir emigration in many cases was economic, there is no doubt whatsoever that corresponding returns from their labors abroad became the direct and immediate source of a relatiivelly large national income in Slovakia. The amount of new capital that was brought in by returning , Slovak emigrants is, perhaps, impossible to determine even approximately, but the fact remains that it was a windfall which gave Slovakia a new lease on its economic life. Foremost among the effec,ts of this influx of new capital to Slova'kia, was the ability of the average Slovak to own his own land by redeeming it if he hia,d lost it, and to purchase the necessary equiipment and livestock to insure his future economically. This gave him a chance to live as a free man to a large degree, for he was no longer subject completely to the whims and caprice's of his overlords in a smaill country, where the steadily increasing population made it imperative for the native Slovak to have .his plot of land, if he hoped to survive. The emergence of a growing number of debt-free, well-equipped arrd wellstocked small landowners marked the estalblishment, imperceptrbly but none-the-less surely, of a sound well-balanced economic unit in Slovakia's clhanging social order, Sma!ll landowners formed the nucleus of Slovakia's national life, for now they not only inha;bited the land of their forefathers, but they aetually owned it. Economic power, though �10 SLOVAKIA lllodest, indeed, had nevertheless enabled them to effect their social emancipation. Their improved status i'S readily ~derstood and appreciaited if we realize to what extent it freed them from the dead-weight of an oppressive feudal system stHl in vogue throughout Hungary and its domination - a feudal inheritance that had put most of Slovakia's ;forests and ara!ble soil, its rivers and la:kes, a'S weH as its ,l)O\litica1 control, into the ha,nds of an exclusively foreigz:i aristocracy. Under this system the Slovaks were nothing more than servants in their own homes and the fruits of their labors were plucked by usur,peTS who had seized control of tlheiir household. Originally, Slovakia's nobility was largely Slovak by birth, but in the course of time it degenerated by wholesale pesertion to a foreign cause. In this · way, large tracts of Jand passed into the hand'S of those who no longer were Slovak by temperament or nature and, hence, their policies were not designed to benefit the Slovaks. Moreover, in modern times, many large estates came into the hands of fore1gners whose policies were injurious to Slovak interests and whose political al'ignment with ,parties hostile to the Slovaks constituted· a positive menace to the national ex,i stence of the Slovaks in their own country. There is no doubt that the loss of ownership by the majority of the Slovak gentry, which was the backbone of the nation, put the national destiny of Slovakia into a most precarious posit!i:on. Moreover, the necessity of brea:king up their smal>l estates, because of the increasing population, :I'65ttlted in reducing the land to such small units as to make them unprofitable. 'J.ihis inevitably forced the s·m all land-holders to go into debt whenever there was the least mi:sca}Jeulation in their p1ans, or when there was a crop fai-lure. Improvements, or an expansion of one's holdings, were out of the question, for there was seldom a:ny surplus which the Slovalk could use · as an investment in a new enterprise. As a matter of fact, iit often ha:rppened thiat a landpwner was unable to meet his interest, not to speak of reducing the principal on his loan. Eventually, therefore, mahy estates fell into the hands of receivers, arid ·1ater were �SLOVAKIA 11 1bought up by non-Slovaks. As a result, the Slovaks suffered. in a twofold manner: 1) native land-owners dmlinished greatly in numbers, and 2) many diispossessed Slovaks emigrated to o1!her lands where, having settled chiefly in industrial areas, they no longer cared to return to the land and, consequently, they and their children were lost to their country forever. The continual drain of human resources from the n_a ti.onal reservoi'I' of Slovakia weakened the country economica'1ly, morrully and poliitically, because non-Slovaks replaced. the original Slovaks in their native homeland. Under such conditions, Slovak life, as su~h, suffered a sharp decline. Without a doubt, the most essential unit of the Slovalk nation, w'hich gave it permanent character, solidarity and stability, was its independent gentry which had been close .to the sdil for centuries. It was imperative that this group be ,p reserved in its pristine strength and vigor if Slova'kia was to survive as a distinct race in its original niationrul domain. The land-holdings, instead of being sub_ject to di,visions, must be held intact - otherwise, a complete economic breakdown would result and national dissolution would inevitably follow. This was their fear, a well-founded one, of which the Slovaks were acutely aware. 1 America -came to the rescue in this national crisis. The many opportunities for work and good pay in the new world offered a solution to the problems of economic reihabili~ tion at home. Accordingly, t:Jhousands of debt-r:idden and almost destitute Slovaks departed. for American shores with high hopes for the future. And that they were not disillusioned is attested to by the fact that, in a few years, many returned home again with savings which reestablishe d their fortunes in thcir homeland. New homes a.ppeared, old ones were repaired, new equipment and livestock were purchased, old debts were liquidated and Slova'kia's national economy was once more in the hands of iits own native population. ParadoxicaUy enough, the emigration on a large scale from Slovakia which threatened to destroy the nation irre- �12 SLOVAKIA :voca;bly beyond revival, actually restored it to its rightful ownership and renewed vigor. The returning emigrants manifested remarkable energy and enthusiasm in this national restoration. Moreover, many former workers and tenants upon their return were a)ble to buy sufficient parcels pf land to insure a preponderantly Slovak ownership. Others, profiting from their varied experiences abroad, established some sort of business by buying a sawmill, a flour mill, a tavern, etc., and thereby reenforced Slovakia's eco-, nomy by their initiative in founding diversified enterprises. These manifold activities by a thoroughly-awakened Slovak populace were greeted with keen competition by alien interlopers who had established a monopoly in many fields, but the returning Slovaks, having had the advantages of rich experience in the new world, proved to be a match for them. Of tantamount importance was the need for wider education, so that their children might have the opportunity to acquire a high school and college training. The need was both soci'a.'l and political, for they needed Slovak leaders in public Hfe and industry. It was a serious menace, indeed, to have a large percentage of their sons desert to an alien camp and serve a foreign cause stmply because of their training in the anti-Slovak schools sponsored by chauvinistic Magyar regimes which produced countless renegades. Fortunately, not all the Slovak graduates of these schools turned against their Slovak nation. The blessings of American capital became aga,in apparent in the struggle of the Slovak nationalists to maintain the Slovak spirit of loyalty in their ~hildren by providing speciali>zed training for them. Thus, Slovak fathers in America secured the funds necessary for the task of educating their sons in Slovakia for the common welfare of their own countrymen. In homes that had an Ameri'c an background, the spirit of democracy and patriotism kept alive the national life of Slovakia. This is to be .attribulted to Amerka as her gift of freedom to a small nation which was struggling to emancipate itself from foreign domination. An essentia~ element in directing the destiny of a nation is undoubtedly the press, for newspapers, magazines �SLOVAKIA 13 and books provide an index for the spiritual condition of a people. In this respect, the situation in Slovakia was really ~ploralble, because. only a fow Slovak neiwspaipers were published, and these did not enjoy wide circulation. The masses, as yet, had:·not acquired the habit of reading, because they did not feel the need of it. Moreover, they were impoverished and, hence, bought few boolks. For a long time, the only reading they had at hand was limited to their praye:tibodks, religious .bulletins and an occasional publication of the Spalok sv. Vojtecha (St. Adalbert's Society). The average Slovak showed l.ittle or no interest in politics, for he had become accustomed to the view that this was a game, or hobby, exclusively reserved for the nobility. The Americanized Slovaik, however, adopted a different view, and even native-born Slovaks, who had never been outside the confines of their country, gradually cihanged their attitude by reading Slovak newspapers which were sent to them from across the sea. From their pages they learned for the first time how grave the situation was in reality in their own b'ac'k yards. It was truly paradoxical that they were informed of things that happened right at home by receiving newspapers, published in their own language and spirit, more than three thousand miles away. They learned to defend their rights by a unified public opinion which was being crysta1Uzed largely through the influence of publications from foreign lands. And returning emigi.·ants strengthened this movement by keeping up their subscriptions to American newspapers. Many of them kept in close touch with their brother Slovaks abroad by retaining their membership in American Slovak societies for several years after coming back to Slovakia. Perhaps the most precious gift that America presented to Slovakia were the Slovaks who returned to their na.tive country, not only because they brought their savings, but also because these men had learned much by their new experiences whirch had matured them in many ways and which were to help Slovakia on the way towards winning her national freedom. Men who had left their country, dejected and despirrited, now returned refreshed and revivified by the atmosphere of American democracy. �14 SLOVAKIA In America, the Slovak who became a naturalized citizen lost his inferiority complex and acquired a healthy selfconfidence. He felt important once more as an individual, for he was proud of his new staJtus as a full-fledged citi'zeri of a great, democratic country. He respected the rights of others, While his own rights were a'liso respected. Moreover, as a member of free Slovak organizations, he learned to work not only in his own, but also in other's !interests. In fulfilling his responsibilities, as well as in insisting on his own rights, he was doing his work well in the spirit of true democracy. Although he became a vital part of American democratic life, the new citizen of S'lovak ancestry did not forget his native counrtrymen who lived in the land of his fathers in the Slovaik hills and woodlands and fields that stretched from the Low Carpathians in the West to the High Carpathians in the East. The Slovak language became a golden bond by whkh he was united to his fellow-countrymen beyond the seas ; and the concept ·of a wider extention of these rights to his people back home inspired him to work for the realrization of that idea!. Thus America became the fertile soil for the growth of Siovak national consciousness and freedom. Every Slovak town and village felt the impact of American democracy. The returning emigrant did not remain aloof from affairs of public welfare, but plunged 'into the thick of thfogs. Polirt:fos was no longer the here noire of the common man, for, after learning the democratic technique of American life, the Slovak entered into the arena of political struggles for his rights. He had both the courage and confidence to carry on the fight for his country's freedom as well as for his rights as a free man. While tracing 1:he direct influence of American democratic elements on Slovakia, we ought to reca:11 tha,t there was a strong cross-current that was felt in Slovak circles in America. This mutual assistance was ruppreciaited by leading Slovaks on both sides of the Atlantic, and they tried to establish closer ties of rela1Jionshilp with ea:ch other in order to achieve their goal of freedom. Communications �SLOVAKIA 15 betw~n leading Slovak thinkers in Slovakia and America were mruintained through · personal messages, · writings in the mag~ines a,nd,_ newsipapers, annuals and almanacs in which the freedom-lov,ing Slovaks at home kept in touch with their brothers across the sea. Americans of Slovak descent, former immigrants from Slovakia, learned the iJ.esson of democracy and freedom well in Ameri'Ca. Freedom, they learned, is the natural birthright of all mankind. If and when the Slovak nation wins its fight for fireedom and complete pwitical independenrce, the Slovak people will have America to tJhank for it. Am~ rica was, and still is, a constant source of insipiration and hope for the Slovaks in their hom~land, despite what has happened in 1945. 'I1he Slovaks shall remain eternally grateful to Ameri'ca and Americans of Slo,va'k ancestry for the priceless contributions to their struggle for freedom and independence, for the many sacrifices made so that true democracy once may rule not only in Slovakia, butt in an countries of the world. The roots of democracy and freedom in .Slovalk,i a had their beginnings in America, and Slovaks everywhere, at home and aJbroad in foreign lands, firmly believe that America will not abandon Slovakia in her darkest hour. The Slovaks look longingly to America for liberat ion from the scourge of manlkind, the greatest enemy of the democratic way of life - Communism . 1 • • • WHO SAID IT? "We lay pa;roiooJar stress on ithe fadt that the few Slovaik rei:f.ugees wandering about in the we:sit, adwooating the idea of a Ozooh.os!lova!k State, do not r~resent the Slovalk people, who are today fanat~ca'lly anti-Czeoh. Ozeohoslovakia can only be restored against the wi:H of the S-loivaks. Concerning the Czeicihs, they s'hould wnderstand that onJy the federation suggested aJbQlVe (!the Da.nulbian federation) can protect theisr nation from new adventures." - (F. 0. Miksche - a Czech - in UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER, p. 216 ; Faber and Faber Ltd .. London). � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1953, Vol. 3 Description An account of the resource <ul><li>Issue 1 (No. 6), April 1953.</li> <li>Issue 2 (No. 7), July 1953.</li> <li>Issue 3 (No. 8), September 1953.</li> <li>Issue 4 (No. 9), December 1953.</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 1953 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 DECEMBER, 1953 SLOVAKIA 1 INFLUENCE OF AMERICAN DEMOCRACY ON SWVAK LIFE Dr. Francis Hrusovsky Actual living conditions of the Slovak immigrants in the new warild, especially in the United States oif America, were very much different from those in hi1s homeland which was under the domination of Hungary until the end of the first world war. The natural temperament of the average Slovak was determined, to some degree, by the circumstances of his life in a land that had been under foreign nrle for centuries. Economically, the native of Slovakia found life hard and difficult; socially, his lot was unprogressive; politically, freedom and equality had no practical meaning for him. His energies were drained by the relentless struggle for survival. Not infrequently, he suffered from want; his entire life was spent in misery and poverty. The downtrodden Slovak peasant, though inwardly protesting against social inequality and injustice, had not suffi. cient strength and vitality to break the chains of his servitude. He resigned hims~lf to his misfortune, concluding that unkind fate decreed that misery was to be his n a tural lot on earth. Under such adverse circumstances, it was extremely difficult to arouse and maintain a feeling of Slovak national patriotism ; and it was doubly difficult to organize a Slovak society that would espouse the idea of Slovak nationalism, because the average Slovak was hampered at every step by his enemies who tenaciously held to the age-old concept of Magyar feudalism, a way of life that was contrary to the idea of Slovak nationalism. Every Slovak knew that he was not a Magyar but a Slovak; yet, this consciousness of nationalism was never allowed to develop freely. Patriotism and loyalty in the Hugarian State was only one: all had to acknowledge their adherence to the Crown of St. Stephen and Magyar hegemony. It is not surprising, therefore, that the peasant in Slovaikia had no clearcut understanding of the meaning of nationalism ; that he failed to aspire to national emancipation is manifestly an indication that he 2 SLOVA-IHA failed to grasp the glorious meaning of having one's own government in power and one's own native language as the official tongue of the land. And, hence, at first, the aver age Slovak was not inclined to partici,pate in political gatherings that were designe'd· to bring his own country ultimate freedom and democra;cy. Weighed . down ,b y the burdens of life as an oppressed human being, the Slovak's paJtience and endurance were truly remarkable. In the long succession of centuries of political servitude and 'tymnny, he had become resigned to his unchanging misery, injustice, humiliation and serfdom, for to him it seemed that this was decreed by fate, or a higher power. This was, then, the average Slova,k immigrant who came to America. Imagine how great was his amazement upon discovering that living an:d social conditions in the New World were so diametrically different from his life in the land of his birth, his Slova:kia beneath the Tatras. He was amazed by the vast difference between life at home in Slovakia and here in America and the unlimited opportunities offered the immigrant, provided he was willing to work. And since hard work was practica,lly s~cond nature to the Slovak immigra,nrt, he found his new home to his liking. At home, his sphere of activity ha,d been limited, while here, in his new home land, unlimited opportunities presented themselves on all sides, so that a man of inte1ligence, ingenuity and industry just could not fail to become a success in America. At hame, the Slovak could only hope to eke out a bare existence with hardly a chance for improvement; here in America he could look forward to a steady improvement of his social conditions. Here, in the new world, his .progress was not impeded by circumstances, on the contrary, the conditions for his advancement exceeded his fondest dreams. No doubt the primary motive for Slovak emigration was to seek a solution for financial difficulties; the Slovak went abroad chiefly to secure economic advantages which were lacking at home. He envisioned the day when he would rise above his lowly station in life with the help of his incr:eased earning power. Hence, there was no job, no matter SLOVAKIA 3 how strenuorus or dangerous, that he shirked S'O long as ft promised him immediate returns. There is little doubt that tlhe Slovak immigrant in America worked harder than he had ever worked at home, •b ut t:Jhis was a sacrifice well worthwhile, in his estimation, if it helped his loved one$ in the old country and improved his own condition. America attracted the simple peaJsant from the hills and villages throughout Slovakfa. He was uneducated, though generally not illiterate, but equirpped with the natural gifts of remarkahle stamina, courage, ingenuity, industry and native intelligence. Possessing unusual powers of observation, sound judgment and ability to assimilate new ways of life, as well as being blessed witJh a good moral training, the Slov,a k found America a fertile field for his endeavors. He learned much in the new land of freedom and opportunity; and though he received much from it, he ailso gave much in return. He put his heart and will in his work, employed his mind in developing new tech:. niques, spared no effort, time and energy to produce an unending stream of goods for human consumption and welfare. Thus, the Slovak, who had been held in political bondage and who had lapsed into a state of social and economic retrogression, suddenly found a dynamic release for his pent-up energies in a land that was forever dedicated to freedom and equality, a land which offered him constant inspiration for his enterprising spirit and proved to be a never-ending source of visions of a great destiny. The de_~ mocratic atmosphere of America was to him a tonic, an elixir of magical powers that turned him into a veritable giant who feared no undertaking, avoided no difficulty. Consequently, many of his kind, working doggedly and persistently with indomitable energy, achieved comparative success in America. The typical American immigr ant from Slovakia was confronted with the difficulties of language, strange cus~ toms and new surroundings, and the immedi•a te necessity of employment. After securing a job, he quickly adjusted · himself to his new emrironment, acquired vaJ1uaJble expe~ riences over a period of years, steadHy increased his earnings and saved his money. He soon perceived that he, too, 4 SLOVAKIA ·was a human being with natural aspirations, desires and ideals which he knew could be realized if he worked for their attainment. It wa;s in America that he found himself as an ind!iividual, no:t only with civic responstbilites, but with personal rights as weH. As a full-fledged naturalized citizen of hi:s adopted country, he became acutely aware of his added dignity as a free man. This both satisfied him and aLso aroused in him the determination to emulate his fellow-citizens in the fullest a;ppreciation of his precious inheritance. Of course, there were some unfortunate exceptions to the general respon:se of the typical Slovak to his Ameriican surroundings; but on the whole, the great majority reacted favorably to the stimulating influences of a democratic way of life in the United States. Life's vicissitudes make human existence a constant struggle with obstacles strewn on the path that ,l eads to the ultimaJte goal. The SlovaJk lras never been without hardships and, therefore, he has never been afraid of the future. At home, all his efforts to overcome the handicaps of his lowly station in life were to no avail. He was doomed to remain in the same social caiste into which he was born. If he was born in poverty, he was destined to a lifelong struggle for a mere livelhood. There was no opportunity for him to rise above his station, being inextricably bound by ties of an outmoded feudal ,s ystem which kept him hopelessly mired in a bog of caste-privileged society. But his patient endurance and peritina;city, his indefatigable industry, which had helped him to survive under the most adverse conditions, served him well in the new land; and his ingrained habits of determination, dependability and native ingenuity were qualities which gave him the impetus to succeed when he was suddenly thrust into the fresh atmosphere of American free enterpr1se and democracy. The a;ma:zing discovery that he was on a plane of political and social equality with men of more than a score of nationa-lities, enjoy}ng freedom under one flag, the Stars and Stripes, made him feel that he had accomplished something worthwhile; and the consciousness of his abilities and achievements inspired him to work even harder to advance further on the road to Americanization, a process that SLOVAKIA 5 brought out the native powers of the Slovak to adopt himself to new surroundings and to assimilate without losing his identity as a new American of Slovak ancestry. The immigrant Slovak's contacts with men of various races made him conscious of his own distinctness as a national figure, for he was unable to converse with them and he did not understand their ways. This factor affected him in two ways: 1) he was inclined to keep aloof from "strangers" and, 2) he was instinctively drawn to follow Slovaks who spoke his language and who knew his ways. Thus, it was but natural for him to draw closer to men of his own kind for companionship and understanding. All Slovak immigrants came together wherever they went, being drawn to each other by their common longing for the homes they had but recently left behind across the sea. Following the example of other nationalities, they organized societies and founded churches thaJt soon became the centers of their activities. This association kept them closely united and helped them to protect and enhance their common interests. Moreover, the feeling of national consciousness grew stronger among them as they sought refuge and comfort in these islands of Slovak memories and realities in the midst of a sea of representatives of every nation on earth. Slovaks in their homeland could not publicly express their national aspirations without reprisals, but here in America they were free to profess their patriotism and write about their ideals of nationhood. Every American of Slovak parentage could acknowledge his Slovak heritage publicly, and no one took it amiss, nobody was suspicious of his motives, no one insulted him for it. Moreover, his fellow-citizens of other national origins, in business and politics, accepted the new Americans as equals without regard to national origins. A Slovak immigrant who became a naturalized American citizen soon realized that he not only had civic responsibilities but personal rights, too, and the fact that 'he did · not have to renounce his Slovak heritage as such, while pledging loyalty to his new homeland, became the source SLOVAKIA of his national pride of being a descendant of Slovak an~estors who had not been able to call their ancient hearths their own for many centuries. They cherished the national traditions of their forefathers and soon gave voice to them in this new land of freedom. In a comparatively short time, the Slovak in America · teaHzed that he, too, could voice his opinions freely, that he could have convictions wiithout fear of repression. Slovak organizations gave him ample opportunities to express himself; and hls newspapers were for him mediums of information, instruction and inspiration. These <:!orrstituted the keystone of Slovak unity for all fellow Americans of Slovak ancestry. From the stand,point of individual advancement, any Slovak, no matter how humble his origin, could ·air his views in his own newspapers. This was a veritable school for many simple, uneducated Slovaks who became well-informed and law-abiding citizens of their •a dopted -country, but who, nevertheless, spoke proudly of their native Slovakia, the land in which they had been born, the ·land of their forefathers. The Slovak immigrant found it impossible to forget the land of his birth; he fondly recalled the scenes of Ms childhood, and often spolke of the relatives and friends beyond the sea. This was perfectly natural, for despite 1:!he hard lot and misery •o f his oTiginal home, yet he longed to be with his parents and friends, if only for a little whHe. He could see the village church wit'h its cross uplifted to the sky, as an eternal sign of salvation, a symbol of the deep faith in God that was in his soul, a symbol at once of his own pain and suffering, of his strength and hope. The church, located in the center of Slovak village life, with spires rising high above the simple peasant huts in whose shadow they reclined, stood out in sharp relief in his memory, for religion was the keystone of his existence. The church was his fortress in time of danger, his solace in time of grief, his hope in time of despair. Without his qhurch, his village priest, without prayer, his life would, indeed, be empty and forelorn. The Slovak has been able to bear life's burdens because he staunchly believes in Di- SLOVAKIA 7 vine Providence and because he seeks resources in prayer at all times. Abroad, in foreign lands, the church with its Slovak prayers and hymns, has been the bulwaTk of the Slovak immigrant. It has been his ,anchor on a foreign shore, a compass in an uncharted sea. Because the church is all hnportant in his life, the Slovak has invariably built a church, then school. With a ,s trong religious and social foundation, the Slovak in America maintained his national character and expanded his cultural endeavors as the years went by. It was his faith that kept him loyal to his sacred traditions, preserved his language, and made him cherish his nationality. On Sundays, he joined his fellow countrymen in Slovak prayers and hymns; this, perhaps, more than any ot'her single factor, perpetuated the most sacred and treasured memories of Slovakia. Imposing Slovak churches, modern parish and school buildings, and office building,s· of the Slovak societies are. concrete expressions of the deep religious convictions a:nd· cultural aspirations of the Slovak immigrant. They are monuments of self-sacrifice and devotion to time-honored institutions, permeated with the same fervent spirit of his forefathers who cherished their Christian traditions be·neath the Tatras since time immemorial. At home, unfortunately, genuine Slovaik societies and organizations did not exist, and the few that functioned were -p rimarily designed to serve elements and interests that were alien to the Slovak cause. Even ibhe churcih, in some instances, became an agency for these forces. But · in America, Slovak churches, organizations and schools became the centers of Slovak national culture. Moreover, the .spark of nationalism which was barely kept alight ait home, burst into a bright flame in the new Land of freedom. The Slovak immigrant caught t:Jhe spirit of American democracy whose blessings he had personally experienced in his daily life. He accepted these with a deep sense of gratitude. He was proud of his new status of citizenship, an'd now · tlia.t he was content, he yearned to have his folks back home· enjoy these self-same rights and advantages of the democratic way of life. 8 SLOVAKIA Slovak poets and writers, keenly aware of this stifling atmosphere in which their people were slowly expiring, made every effort to arouse the masses out of their lethargy. Although their voices were unheeded in their native land, where the people were submissive and demoralized, nevertheless, a small but determined minority of patriaticminded Slovaks organized political clubs to fight for their nation's inherent rights and to formulate a program for an active political movement. The Slovaks had leadership, but failed to support their leaders efficiently, and on various occasions some of their leaders joined the opposition to work against the best interests and welfare of their nat,ion. Before the first World War Slovakia's national life was caught in a nut-cracker net-wor'k of political and social intrigue and seemed doomed. National extinction was. indeed, a grave danger which had to be averted. The Slovaks were helpless in the fa:ce of the opposition whi•c h prevented them from developing their native culture and realizing their right to self-government and independence. Internally, the Slovak nation was vitally sound-physically, biologically and morally it was sound - and it possessed untapped natural resources, but needed an external force to set it free. And this dynamic force came from America. Actual statistics are not available to indicate to what extent the American Slovaks influenced various developments in their ancient homeland, but, perhaps, in the future this vital information will be gathered and compiled in order to determine approximately, if nat precisely, to what measure they affected the social and political progress of their native country. Even without this material, however, w~ are able to mention the beginnings of the movements that were inspired and inaugurated by the Slorvaks in America. Naturally, a considerable number of Slovak emigrants returned home after spending several years abroad. These had. fulfilled. their goal to attain sufficient funds for their particular needs; but a large number, the majority as a matter of fact, remained in America and made their permanent home in the land of their adoption. These had overcome the almost irresistable desire to return to their native land SLOVAKIA 9 and, though they never returned, during their entire life-time they nevertheless maintained close contaet with their relatives and friends in Slovakia. Even those, who brdke their ties with Europe irrevoc~bly, sti'll remained in touch w.iith their fellow-countrymen and, consequently, ma.de some contribution to the S'lovak cause indirectly. Actual instances of individua1s who broke completely wi1:Jh their past and lost contact wii!h their fellow Slovaks in Amerka were so rare that they can be d1scounted in our attempts to evaluate the destiny of the Slovaks in America and to arrive at a realistic analysis of the influence of American Slovaks on Slovia'k life in the country of their birtJh. The American phase of Slovak life, with its democratic texture and blend, effected several significant changes on home life in their native land. S,i nce the impeUing force of ~heir emigration in many cases was economic, there is no doubt whatsoever that corresponding returns from their labors abroad became the direct and immediate source of a relatiivelly large national income in Slovakia. The amount of new capital that was brought in by returning , Slovak emigrants is, perhaps, impossible to determine even approximately, but the fact remains that it was a windfall which gave Slovakia a new lease on its economic life. Foremost among the effec,ts of this influx of new capital to Slova'kia, was the ability of the average Slovak to own his own land by redeeming it if he hia,d lost it, and to purchase the necessary equiipment and livestock to insure his future economically. This gave him a chance to live as a free man to a large degree, for he was no longer subject completely to the whims and caprice's of his overlords in a smaill country, where the steadily increasing population made it imperative for the native Slovak to have .his plot of land, if he hoped to survive. The emergence of a growing number of debt-free, well-equipped arrd wellstocked small landowners marked the estalblishment, imperceptrbly but none-the-less surely, of a sound well-balanced economic unit in Slovakia's clhanging social order, Sma!ll landowners formed the nucleus of Slovakia's national life, for now they not only inha;bited the land of their forefathers, but they aetually owned it. Economic power, though 10 SLOVAKIA lllodest, indeed, had nevertheless enabled them to effect their social emancipation. Their improved status i'S readily ~derstood and appreciaited if we realize to what extent it freed them from the dead-weight of an oppressive feudal system stHl in vogue throughout Hungary and its domination - a feudal inheritance that had put most of Slovakia's ;forests and ara!ble soil, its rivers and la:kes, a'S weH as its ,l)O\litica1 control, into the ha,nds of an exclusively foreigz:i aristocracy. Under this system the Slovaks were nothing more than servants in their own homes and the fruits of their labors were plucked by usur,peTS who had seized control of tlheiir household. Originally, Slovakia's nobility was largely Slovak by birth, but in the course of time it degenerated by wholesale pesertion to a foreign cause. In this · way, large tracts of Jand passed into the hand'S of those who no longer were Slovak by temperament or nature and, hence, their policies were not designed to benefit the Slovaks. Moreover, in modern times, many large estates came into the hands of fore1gners whose policies were injurious to Slovak interests and whose political al'ignment with ,parties hostile to the Slovaks constituted· a positive menace to the national ex,i stence of the Slovaks in their own country. There is no doubt that the loss of ownership by the majority of the Slovak gentry, which was the backbone of the nation, put the national destiny of Slovakia into a most precarious posit!i:on. Moreover, the necessity of brea:king up their smal>l estates, because of the increasing population, :I'65ttlted in reducing the land to such small units as to make them unprofitable. 'J.ihis inevitably forced the s·m all land-holders to go into debt whenever there was the least mi:sca}Jeulation in their p1ans, or when there was a crop fai-lure. Improvements, or an expansion of one's holdings, were out of the question, for there was seldom a:ny surplus which the Slovalk could use · as an investment in a new enterprise. As a matter of fact, iit often ha:rppened thiat a landpwner was unable to meet his interest, not to speak of reducing the principal on his loan. Eventually, therefore, mahy estates fell into the hands of receivers, arid ·1ater were SLOVAKIA 11 1bought up by non-Slovaks. As a result, the Slovaks suffered. in a twofold manner: 1) native land-owners dmlinished greatly in numbers, and 2) many diispossessed Slovaks emigrated to o1!her lands where, having settled chiefly in industrial areas, they no longer cared to return to the land and, consequently, they and their children were lost to their country forever. The continual drain of human resources from the n_a ti.onal reservoi'I' of Slovakia weakened the country economica'1ly, morrully and poliitically, because non-Slovaks replaced. the original Slovaks in their native homeland. Under such conditions, Slovak life, as su~h, suffered a sharp decline. Without a doubt, the most essential unit of the Slovalk nation, w'hich gave it permanent character, solidarity and stability, was its independent gentry which had been close .to the sdil for centuries. It was imperative that this group be ,p reserved in its pristine strength and vigor if Slova'kia was to survive as a distinct race in its original niationrul domain. The land-holdings, instead of being sub_ject to di,visions, must be held intact - otherwise, a complete economic breakdown would result and national dissolution would inevitably follow. This was their fear, a well-founded one, of which the Slovaks were acutely aware. 1 America -came to the rescue in this national crisis. The many opportunities for work and good pay in the new world offered a solution to the problems of economic reihabili~ tion at home. Accordingly, t:Jhousands of debt-r:idden and almost destitute Slovaks departed. for American shores with high hopes for the future. And that they were not disillusioned is attested to by the fact that, in a few years, many returned home again with savings which reestablishe d their fortunes in thcir homeland. New homes a.ppeared, old ones were repaired, new equipment and livestock were purchased, old debts were liquidated and Slova'kia's national economy was once more in the hands of iits own native population. ParadoxicaUy enough, the emigration on a large scale from Slovakia which threatened to destroy the nation irre- 12 SLOVAKIA :voca;bly beyond revival, actually restored it to its rightful ownership and renewed vigor. The returning emigrants manifested remarkable energy and enthusiasm in this national restoration. Moreover, many former workers and tenants upon their return were a)ble to buy sufficient parcels pf land to insure a preponderantly Slovak ownership. Others, profiting from their varied experiences abroad, established some sort of business by buying a sawmill, a flour mill, a tavern, etc., and thereby reenforced Slovakia's eco-, nomy by their initiative in founding diversified enterprises. These manifold activities by a thoroughly-awakened Slovak populace were greeted with keen competition by alien interlopers who had established a monopoly in many fields, but the returning Slovaks, having had the advantages of rich experience in the new world, proved to be a match for them. Of tantamount importance was the need for wider education, so that their children might have the opportunity to acquire a high school and college training. The need was both soci'a.'l and political, for they needed Slovak leaders in public Hfe and industry. It was a serious menace, indeed, to have a large percentage of their sons desert to an alien camp and serve a foreign cause stmply because of their training in the anti-Slovak schools sponsored by chauvinistic Magyar regimes which produced countless renegades. Fortunately, not all the Slovak graduates of these schools turned against their Slovak nation. The blessings of American capital became aga,in apparent in the struggle of the Slovak nationalists to maintain the Slovak spirit of loyalty in their ~hildren by providing speciali>zed training for them. Thus, Slovak fathers in America secured the funds necessary for the task of educating their sons in Slovakia for the common welfare of their own countrymen. In homes that had an Ameri'c an background, the spirit of democracy and patriotism kept alive the national life of Slovakia. This is to be .attribulted to Amerka as her gift of freedom to a small nation which was struggling to emancipate itself from foreign domination. An essentia~ element in directing the destiny of a nation is undoubtedly the press, for newspapers, magazines SLOVAKIA 13 and books provide an index for the spiritual condition of a people. In this respect, the situation in Slovakia was really ~ploralble, because. only a fow Slovak neiwspaipers were published, and these did not enjoy wide circulation. The masses, as yet, had:·not acquired the habit of reading, because they did not feel the need of it. Moreover, they were impoverished and, hence, bought few boolks. For a long time, the only reading they had at hand was limited to their praye:tibodks, religious .bulletins and an occasional publication of the Spalok sv. Vojtecha (St. Adalbert's Society). The average Slovak showed l.ittle or no interest in politics, for he had become accustomed to the view that this was a game, or hobby, exclusively reserved for the nobility. The Americanized Slovaik, however, adopted a different view, and even native-born Slovaks, who had never been outside the confines of their country, gradually cihanged their attitude by reading Slovak newspapers which were sent to them from across the sea. From their pages they learned for the first time how grave the situation was in reality in their own b'ac'k yards. It was truly paradoxical that they were informed of things that happened right at home by receiving newspapers, published in their own language and spirit, more than three thousand miles away. They learned to defend their rights by a unified public opinion which was being crysta1Uzed largely through the influence of publications from foreign lands. And returning emigi.·ants strengthened this movement by keeping up their subscriptions to American newspapers. Many of them kept in close touch with their brother Slovaks abroad by retaining their membership in American Slovak societies for several years after coming back to Slovakia. Perhaps the most precious gift that America presented to Slovakia were the Slovaks who returned to their na.tive country, not only because they brought their savings, but also because these men had learned much by their new experiences whirch had matured them in many ways and which were to help Slovakia on the way towards winning her national freedom. Men who had left their country, dejected and despirrited, now returned refreshed and revivified by the atmosphere of American democracy. 14 SLOVAKIA In America, the Slovak who became a naturalized citizen lost his inferiority complex and acquired a healthy selfconfidence. He felt important once more as an individual, for he was proud of his new staJtus as a full-fledged citi'zeri of a great, democratic country. He respected the rights of others, While his own rights were a'liso respected. Moreover, as a member of free Slovak organizations, he learned to work not only in his own, but also in other's !interests. In fulfilling his responsibilities, as well as in insisting on his own rights, he was doing his work well in the spirit of true democracy. Although he became a vital part of American democratic life, the new citizen of S'lovak ancestry did not forget his native counrtrymen who lived in the land of his fathers in the Slovaik hills and woodlands and fields that stretched from the Low Carpathians in the West to the High Carpathians in the East. The Slovak language became a golden bond by whkh he was united to his fellow-countrymen beyond the seas ; and the concept ·of a wider extention of these rights to his people back home inspired him to work for the realrization of that idea!. Thus America became the fertile soil for the growth of Siovak national consciousness and freedom. Every Slovak town and village felt the impact of American democracy. The returning emigrant did not remain aloof from affairs of public welfare, but plunged 'into the thick of thfogs. Polirt:fos was no longer the here noire of the common man, for, after learning the democratic technique of American life, the Slovak entered into the arena of political struggles for his rights. He had both the courage and confidence to carry on the fight for his country's freedom as well as for his rights as a free man. While tracing 1:he direct influence of American democratic elements on Slovakia, we ought to reca:11 tha,t there was a strong cross-current that was felt in Slovak circles in America. This mutual assistance was ruppreciaited by leading Slovaks on both sides of the Atlantic, and they tried to establish closer ties of rela1Jionshilp with ea:ch other in order to achieve their goal of freedom. Communications SLOVAKIA 15 betw~n leading Slovak thinkers in Slovakia and America were mruintained through · personal messages, · writings in the mag~ines a,nd,_ newsipapers, annuals and almanacs in which the freedom-lov,ing Slovaks at home kept in touch with their brothers across the sea. Americans of Slovak descent, former immigrants from Slovakia, learned the iJ.esson of democracy and freedom well in Ameri'Ca. Freedom, they learned, is the natural birthright of all mankind. If and when the Slovak nation wins its fight for fireedom and complete pwitical independenrce, the Slovak people will have America to tJhank for it. Am~ rica was, and still is, a constant source of insipiration and hope for the Slovaks in their hom~land, despite what has happened in 1945. 'I1he Slovaks shall remain eternally grateful to Ameri'ca and Americans of Slo,va'k ancestry for the priceless contributions to their struggle for freedom and independence, for the many sacrifices made so that true democracy once may rule not only in Slovakia, butt in an countries of the world. The roots of democracy and freedom in .Slovalk,i a had their beginnings in America, and Slovaks everywhere, at home and aJbroad in foreign lands, firmly believe that America will not abandon Slovakia in her darkest hour. The Slovaks look longingly to America for liberat ion from the scourge of manlkind, the greatest enemy of the democratic way of life - Communism . 1 • • • WHO SAID IT? "We lay pa;roiooJar stress on ithe fadt that the few Slovaik rei:f.ugees wandering about in the we:sit, adwooating the idea of a Ozooh.os!lova!k State, do not r~resent the Slovalk people, who are today fanat~ca'lly anti-Czeoh. Ozeohoslovakia can only be restored against the wi:H of the S-loivaks. Concerning the Czeicihs, they s'hould wnderstand that onJy the federation suggested aJbQlVe (!the Da.nulbian federation) can protect theisr nation from new adventures." - (F. 0. Miksche - a Czech - in UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER, p. 216 ; Faber and Faber Ltd .. London).  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Influence of American Democracy on Slovak Life Description An account of the resource Dr. Francis Hrušovský Slovakia, Vol. 3, No. 4 (9), December 1953 pp. 1-15 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Hrušovský, František, 1903-1956 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource December 1953 LCNAF https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/f43bd8cfd70fb8336671ddd436b87d4d.pdf a8df0a4e7cf4c85f4d2625e04f1db0b0 PDF Text Text INTERNATIONAL RECOGNITION OF THE SLOVAK REPUBLIC DR. JOSEPH KIRSCHBAUM Because of years of relentless propaganda by Czech emigres and the renewal of the Czechoslovak Republic by the merits of the Soviet Union, the origin of the Slovak Republic and its incorporation into the European organization is often placed in a bad light even by persons and nations who a priori do not have an unfavorable opinion of the Slovak efforts for independence. In the interest of the truth, it will not be amiss to answer the question of how European public opinion and the governments of European states received the proclamation of Slovak independence. The question is all the more significant when we consider that changes of the map of Europe are not and never were indifferent to the European nations and especially to the great powers, and that the Slovak Republic was proclaimed in a period of peace. European nations, therefore, had an unhindered opportunity of taking a stand to the newly established State and that in a two-fold manner: 1. By not recognizing the new State and refusing to establish diplomatic contacts with the Slovak Republic. 2. All States, and especially those which guaranteed the independence and integrity of the Czechoslovak Republic after Munich, had the opportunity, by peaceful means or by war, of making the existence of the Slovak State impossible and renewing the old state of affairs. What happened In the case of Slovakia? There was not a single state in Europe or elsewhere which did that in 1939. There was no protest against the origin of the State of Slovakia even from some of the great powers that were in some way obligated to Czechoslovakia. But there were protests only against the occupation of Bohemia and Moravia by the Germans. Even President Roosevelt, answering Dr. Beneš's telegram (March 16, 1939), wrote in his letter March 27, 1939, that "even though the Government of the United States is aware that the lands of Bohemia and Moravia were occupied by the German military forces and are now factually under German authority, it has not recognized this situation as a legal condition." (Beneš: Memoirs, 1947). As far as Slovakia was concerned, practically every European State recognized Slovakia and established diplomatic contacts with lt. England and Soviet Russia not excepted. Just about two months after the proclamation of Slovakia’s independence the Foreign Minister of Great Britain ordered the following note delivered to the first Foreign Minister of the Slovak Republic: Bratislava, May 4th, 1989. Your Excellency: On the instruction of the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs I have the honour to Inform you that His Majesty’s Government ln the United Kingdom propose to appoint me as Consul for Slovakia with residence in Bratislava. Pending preparation of my Commission I have the honour to request provisional recognition by the Slovak Government of myself as His Majesty's Consul for Slovakia. I avail myself of this opportunity to express to your Excellency the assurance of my highest consideration. PARES, M. P., H. M. Consul. The Slovaks in turn sent Ing. Harminc as General Consul to London to represent the Slovak Republic. The exchange of diplomatic representatives between London and Bratislava was prevented only by war which broke out six months after the proclamation of Slovak independence. Soviet Russia, which did not enter the war against Germany on September 1, 1939, set up one of the largest embassies in Bratislava, and the first Russian ambassador, G. Puškin, upon presenting his credentials to the President of the Slovak Republic, Dr. Joseph Tiso, said among other things: "Presenting to you the documents which accredit me as Extra­ordinary Ambassador and Minister Plenipotentiary, appointed by the Presidency of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, I can announce to you with joy that the nations of the Soviet Union have taken cognizance of the establishment of diplomatic contacts between the Soviet Union and the Slovak Republic with deep satisfaction. Because of the war in Europe the establishment of these contacts oversteps the framework of mutual interests of both our states." Before Moscow sent its ambassador to Bratislava, however, the Soviet Government had notified the diplomatic representative of the Czechoslovak Republic, Dr. Zdenek Fierlinger, that it no longer regards him as a diplomatic character. Fierlinger himself wrote about this as follows: "On December 14, I was called to the Foreign Commissariat by Mr. Barkov, the Chief of the Protocol. Barkov told me that the Soviet Government regrets that it can no longer acknowledge my diplomatic character. He added that I could remain in Moscow with my officials and their families as a private individual." Barkov, according to Fierlinger, even "refused to mediate a visit with the Commissar of Foreign Affairs" as he had also refused to send any written report for the Commissariat or any other official person. So it was only by a private letter that Fierlinger could write to the representative of Foreign Affairs: "I understand fully the stand taken by your Government and I am grateful for the permission to remain in Moscow as a private individual." (Z. Fierlinger: "Ve službách ČSR," Prague, 1947, pgs. 313-314). Pre-war France readily recognized the new State in the heart of Europe, but formal diplomatic contacts could not be established, because war had broken out. In the case of France, which recog­nized the Slovak Republic de facto on July 14. 1939, and de jure on April 25, 1942, an interesting detail bas been noted. While the French Foreign Minister, M. Dalladier, refused to see Dr. Beneš and negotiate with him, the French General Consul in Bratislava was trying to convince the Slovak Government that an exchange of ambassadors had not taken place immediately after March 14, 1939, only because of the previous relationship between France and Czechoslovakia. The reasons concerned prestige. However, he con­sidered an exchange of ambassadors in the near future as a self-evident matter. As the General Secretary of the Hlinka Slovak Peo­ple's Party, even I had acted personally as mediator between Dalladier and the Slovak Government. Beneš referred to the incident in his MEMOIRS: "Dalladier - when I asked for an audience -refused to see me and refused to discuss any political matters with me. Later he brought this matter up before the Government and supported his action with reasons for doing so." (Beneš: MEMOIRS, 1947, pg. 139). Germany and Italy also recognized Slovakia. The Slovak Republic was recognized by all great powers which were deciding the fate of Europe. It was recognized even by the Vatican. The western powers, who got into the conflict against Germany in September 1939, did not change their stand toward Slovakia even after the war began, but only several years later (1942-1943). The decision of the western powers, of course, had no influence on the actual or legal existence of the Slovak State as far as international law was concerned. For that reason the Vatican and the other neutral States did not change their relationship with Slovakia during the entire war-time period. The neighbors of Slovakia likewise did not oppose her inde­pendent status. Poland recognized Slovakia March 16, 1939, and Hungary on March 15, 1939. And this is especially significant in the light of the conditions and tendencies which appeared in centra) Europe after the break-up of Austria-Hungary. The changes effected by the proclamation of Slovak independence concerned, in the first place, the neighbors of Slovakia from the economic and strategic point of view. By its historical development, its position and natu­ral resources the central European area has its own laws, needs and demands. The individual nations of that area jealously watch so that no single nation among them might grow at the expense of the others and so disturb the natural balance of military and economic forces. The Slovak Republic, however, fitted into this area not as a disturbing element, but, conversely, as a fulfillment of conditions of balance and the removal of one of the significant causes of instability of the Centro-European organization. That is why even Yugoslavia and Rumania, which until 1938 together with the Czechoslovak Republic within the framework of the Little Entente had been the pillars of the post-war organization in the Danube basin, made regular diplomatic contacts and collaborated economically with the Slovak Republic soon after it was established. Bulgaria did likewise. Among the neutral States, besides the Vatican, which recognized the Slovak State and made diplomatic and economic contacts with it were Switzerland and Sweden. Spain, which had declared itself neutral later, recognized Slovakia on May 4, 1939, and sent its ambassador to Slovakia forthwith. Belgium accorded de facto recognition to Slovakia. Other European States, thus far not mentioned, which recognized Slovakia were: Finland, Denmark, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, and Croatia. And States outside of Europe: Japan, Manchuria, China (Nanking), Siam, Costa Rica, and Ecuador. Slovakia, then, was recognized by a total of 27 countries: by great powers and small powers, by neutral States and by powers of both warring camps. It is interesting to note that the majority or the States which granted recognition to Slovakia as an independent State was on the side of Anglo-Russian coalition. The claim that Slovakia was recognized only by Germany and its satellites is, therefore, a willful deception of the international public. Seventeen of the 27 States recognizing Slovakia fought against Germany or were neutral. This comparison is significant not only because it uproots the falsehoods of the propaganda which presented Slovakia to the Allies as a State recognized only by Germany and its satellites, but because it also confirms - as has been shown - that European States without exception recognized the right of the Slovaks to an inde­pendent existence, an Independent State. Furthermore, it also confirms the fact that these European States did not see anything unnatural or disturbing in the establishment of Independent Slova­kia, even though they did see it in the occupation of Bohemia and Moravia. In this connection it is interesting to note how the League of Nations regarded the collapse of Czechoslovakia. In his MEMOIRS, Beneš himself complained that the General Secretary, J. Avenol, refused to place his protest before the League of Nations for official discussion with the argument that the protest was not placed before the body the regular way, but my a "private individual." (Pg. 109). The fact that no European States protested against the existence of the independent State of Slovakia is important, especially when we consider that Central Europe was the way out of two World Wars and that its organization after World War I made a powder keg out of this area, the explosion of which was feared for twenty years. From the Slovak standpoint this recognition of the Slovak Republic by such a large number of States has the significance that the Slovaks can always point to it when demanding Slovak independence. And it is important to remember, too, that the Slovak Republic was proclaimed six months before the start of World War II which at the outset divided the nations of the world into two camps. This fact and the fact that Slovakia was placed into the German-Italian sphere because of her geographical position, prevented many other nations from recognizing her diplomatically, nations which undoubtedly would have recognized her under more favorable conditions. Considering the spontaneity and speed with which the individual States responded to the notification of the proclamation of Slovak independence and arranged diplomatic or consular offices in Bratislava, it can be correctly assumed that the Slovak Republic would have been recognized universally if the war had been delayed only a year or two. Slovakia., then, was accepted into the family of independent nations not only by central European States, but also by the great European powers. European, and especially Central European interests correctly comprehended, could not, of course, permit the denial of this right to one of the oldest Central European nations, when this right today is acknowledged even to colonial nations and without the validation of which there can hardly be any sensible talk about justice or even a guaranteed peace. II The recognition of the Slovak Republic by such a large number of European and non-European States, despite the tense international situation, was in a great measure the merit of the young Slovak diplomacy. In order to have a complete picture of the international position of the Slovak Republic, it would be well to list not only the States which recognized Slovakia and established regular diplomatic relations with her, but also the individuals who represented the Slovak nation in the international forum and point out the tendencies represented by the first Slovak diplomats. And, of course, it is also necessary to mention the countries which did not recognize the Slovak State. As a result of the international recognition of the Slovak Republic, the Slovak flag - so ignored and trampled upon previously - for the first time in Slovak history waved proudly over the Slovak diplomatic and consular offices In the capitols of almost every European State. In eternal Rome, as well as in Moscow; in the proud city of Albion, as well as in Berlin; in Warsaw, Belgrade, Sophia, Bucharest, Budapest, Berne, and Stockholm; in Helsinki, Vienna and even over the general consulate in Prague. And in all these places, the Slovak emblem hung independently for the first time: it was not attached to the emblem of St. Stephen's Crown, nor to the Czech Lion. For those who harbor a respect for the symbols of nations, this reality can hardly be a sentimental one only. It has its own deep political and moral meaning. We can evidence this fact best from the time that the Slovak flag had to be hauled down temporarily. As far as the diplomatic representatives of the Slovak Republic are concerned, not all were trained for the task, because in the Czechoslovak Republic out of 1246 officials in the Foreign Service only 33 were Slovak, and only a few of these were diplomats. However, in the Slovak nature there are certain talents for this kind of service, so that even in this field much of what the past did not allow to be done was caught up with shortly. Altogether there were three categories among Slovak diplomatic representatives in leading positions: Six former officials from Prague (Dr. Ivan Milecz, Dr. Joseph Cleker, Dr. Joseph Mlkuš, Dr. Plssko, Dr. Radlinský and Dr. Szatmáry); three from internal politics (Karol Sidor, Matthew Černak and Dr. Joseph Kirschbaum); and the others came from various professions (Francis Tiso. Dr. Spišiak, Dr. J. Šimko, Dr. Zvrškovec, Tido J. Gašpar, Dr. Galvánek, Dr. Becko, etc). The majority of these, therefore were men who had prepared for other tasks in life. But even large states, which have a sufficient number of diplomatic personnel, place persona of other professions in leading diplomatic positions. Keeping in mind the tense situation of the world at that Ume and the reality that Slovakia was practically unknown in foreign lands and was consistently being presented in a bad light by anti=Slovak propaganda, we must admit that the tasks facing the diplomatic representatives of the newly established Slovak Republic were by no means easy. And yet, the Slovak diplomatic representatives -excepting Dr. Szatmáry - defended the right of the Slovak nation to its own State to the end and performed their tasks well in the diplomatic, cultural and propaganda fields. There was one task they had, however, failed to do, and that one was probably the most important one: they did not prepare for the transfer of Slovakia to the side of the Allies at the right time. However, it is a bit premature to pass judgment in this matter ln view of the world situation and the present position of Slovakia, and especially in view of the fact that all Slovak diplomatic representatives in neutral countries, upon whom this task fell, have not as yet been heard from. For the present we can make several general remarks and logical conclusions which emanate from the over-all situation existing at the end of the war and from the tendencies that made themselves apparent with the Allies in general, and in the relation to Slovakia in particular. And from this, then, we can learn what alternatives presented themselves to the Slovaks. After considering all the circumstances under which the war was waged and those under which the so-called "National Uprising" in Slovakia was organized later, this problem looks decidedly different than it appeared to be at first sight. But aside from the fact that diplomacy always only prepares the way for the policies of a government and is in itself only an executive organ, no other nation had to contend with such impediments as the Slovak nation in the matter of transferring to the Allies. Let us consider only one: When the Anglo-Saxon Allies (in 1941-1942) and the Soviet Union (1943) came out for the renewal of the Czechoslovak Republic and even concluded agreements with the Government of Dr. Beneš, the joining of the Slovak Government and the Slovak diplomats with the Allies would have meant the acceptance of Czechoslovakia - already recognized by the Allies - and the renouncing of independence. Slovak political leaders at home and Slovak diplomats abroad had to decide the dilemma: Either to remain loyal to the right to independence and defend it to the end even at the cost of great personal sacrifices, or to join those who did not recognize the right of the Slovak nation to its own State and thus secure tor themselves definite personal interests. That is how the problem looked when the "Slovak Revolt" broke out in August 1944. While the Italians, Rumanians, Magyars and Bulgarians joined the Allies to safeguard their independence, the leaders of the rebellion in Slovakia were proclaiming the annexation of Slovakia to the Czech lands, renewing the Czechoslovak Republic and ridding their own nation of its independent State. The position of Slovakia in the war and, therefore, even the actions of Slovak diplomats, were determined in the over-all framework by the policy of the Allies themselves and in the narrower framework by the alms of the "rebellion" in Slovakia. If it were not for this situation, there would have been among the Slovak politicians, as well as among the Slovak diplomats. representatives in the individual states of Europe who would have had the political and moral Legitimacy to speak in the name of the Slovak nation. In the Vatican, one of the most important centers of world diplomacy, Slovakia was represented by Karol Sidor, whose anti-German stand cannot be disputed. The General Secretary of the Hlinka Slovak People's Party, ousted from his office by Nazi pressure, was sent to Switzerland to represent Slovakia. In Sweden Slovakia had the career diplomat, Dr. Pissko, and in Spain Dr. Mikuš and Dr. Cieker, both of whom were not only first-class diplomats, but were outstanding in their generation. It is evident, then, that the Slovak Republic did have people in important places abroad who were predetermined to prepare the transfer of the Slovaks to the victorious camp. And undoubtedly it shall once become known that these Slovak representatives did not lack the initiative, either. But there were no real possibilities for such a policy, if the Slovaks themselves were not to surrender their right to independence. This they could not do, because they knew that the rights which were taken away by force could always be regained, but the rights which a nation once surrendered could never be regained. A policy that redeems apparent, temporary advantages by surrendering natural rights never did end up well. And conversely, history was wont to reward with victory the fight which had an upright aim. Whether the Slovak Government and the Slovak diplomats did right by consistently holding to their anti-communist stand and defending the inalienable rights of their nation, history and probably even the near future shall render a definite verdict. That they acted honorably and did not pursue their personal interests is already clear today. III Dr. Edward Beneš and his followers always denied the individuality of the Slovak nation and were always opposed to Slovak autonomy. This group of Czech politicians and several individuals of Slovak origin, who subscribed to the ideology of a "Czechoslovak nation," stubbornly refused to recognize the right of the Slovaks to their own State and the acceptance of the Slovak Republic into the international community. They used all means at their disposal to misrepresent the Slovak question before the Allies to effect the destruction of the Slovak Republic and force its annexation to the Czech lands. Dr. Edward Beneš even attempted to deceive the Vatican, but did not fare so well. In a Memorandum, sent to the Holy See on May 12, 1943, through President Roosevelt, Dr. Edward Beneš stated among other things: "The Slovak people, in its great majority, today stands without any reservations behind the present Czechoslovak Government. In Slovakia political, social, economical and moral conditions are extremely sad. The majority of the Slovak people considers the present regime in Bratislava responsible for this situation and as a traitor of the Slovak people and the Czechoslovak Republic. Former governmental Slovak parties (the Agrarians, Liberals, Socialists) are almost completely behind the Czechoslovak Government and against the present regime in Slovakia, while the former Catholic People's Party, which took over the rule of Slovak affairs from the hands of the Germans in 1939, today stands - according to our reports - at least 60 per cent against the present regime." (Beneš: MEMOIRS, Documents). Of course, the Vatican knew what the actual situation in Slovakia was. The Slovak Government was represented at the Vatican, and the Holy See had its representative in Bratislava. Beneš was fully aware of that fact, but he thought he might persuade the Holy See to see things his way, since it was pretty evident at that time that he would be back in the driver's seat when the war ended. The Vatican’s refusal to recognize him and his London Government made Beneš furious. Because of the war situation and the fact that Slovakia fell into the Axis bloc because of its geographical position, the actions of Dr. Beneš and the Czech Slovaks (Czechoslovaks) was more successful than that of the Magyars after World War I who also tried to mobilize world opinion for the return of Slovakia to the Magyar State. The Magyar action was also supported by several renegade politicians of Slovak descent and yet it failed because the Slovak nation was determined to live its own life. History itself tells us that it is only logical for every nation to strive for an independent State. The temporary victory of Dr. Beneš will not reverse the logic of history. The Slovaks firmly believe that in the end their natural rights to an independent State shall be recognized, as they have been recognized in the case of other nations. It is only a question of time and an appropriate international situation. If the revisionist efforts of Dr. Beneš seem to have found a greater response in Slovakia than Magyar revision, that certainly cannot be considered as proof that the Slovak nation in its entirety, or even in its greater part, has renounced its right to an independent State. The Slovak nation was not given the opportunity to say whether it wants to live in its own State or in a comon State with the Czechs. The Slovaks who accepted the Czechoslovak solution did so out of fear emanating from the fate of a vanquished State, under the pressure of military events, and in the endeavor to assure themselves of an advantageous position to rule over Slovakia with the help of the Czechs, because they had no chance of getting into leading positions any other way. That this solution was accepted even by the small group only out of opportunism is attested to by the fact that already toward the end of 1943, when the outcome of the war was known, this group went into action for the renewal of the Czechoslovak Republic, stressing at the same time that the renewed State would be a federation and the question of the individuality of the Slovak nation was a reality which would not be debated. The Czechoslovak Republic, therefore, was forced on the Slovak nation not only by the opportunism of a negligible minority of the Slovak nation which followed its own egotistic aims and served Czech imperialism, but also by the international situation. On such foundations, however, no State can exist permanently and must perish unconditionally when the causes and circumstances responsible for its existence disappear. And so, just as the recognition of the conception of Dr. Beneš by the western powers had a fatal influence on the politics of the Slovak Republic during the war, just so the fact that the Slovak Republic was Incorporated in the Czechoslovak Republic without regard for the will of the Slovak nation and without regard for the proclamation of the Atlantic Charter and the Charter of the United Nations has its influence on the stand of the Slovaks in the con­temporary world struggle. If the Allies would have promised to preserve Slovak independ­ence, as they did in the case of the Italians, Magyars, Rumanians, Bulgarians, Finns and Australians - who also fought on the side of the Axis - then it would have been possible to expect that the Slovaks, too, would have found their place at the right time on their side. None of the aforementioned peoples lost their independent States or were forced to become members of other States, but the Slovak State was annexed to Bohemia-Moravia. It is, therefore, self-evident that the Slovak nation considers the present condition as an occupation and together with its emigration is fighting simultaneously for the victory of democracy over communism and the liberation of the Slovak Republic from Soviet-Czech occupation. WHO SAID IT? "We shall be eternally grateful to those who helped us, above all our great Slav brother, the SOVIET UNION. This gratitude, however, must not permit us into believing all is won because we have so powerful an ally. We must arrange our lives in such a way that we may never become a burden to those who are bound to us by alliance or friendship. On the contrary our friends must be made to feel that they have gained a loyal and effective ally worthy or such an alliance." - (Jaroslav Stránsky, Minister of Justice, Mass meeting in Most, June 19, 1945). • "Personally I trust the Russians; they think as they speak. I believe that they will cooperate fully with England and America. They will hold strictly to the decisions of the Teheran Conference to guarantee the peace for several generations. I do not believe that Russia will interfere in the internal affairs of its neighbors. I assure you that Stalin is willing to confirm his statement that he is completely against all efforts to force communistic principles on the Danubian countries." - (Dr. Beneš, Interview with Charles Goley, London "DAILY EXPRIDSS," 3-13-44). • "Our position in Europe is different from that in 1918. Today we are approaching far-reaching revolution. Our whole world is changing. This war has formed a solid and impregnable bloc of Slav nations and states. Today there is the RED ARMY, the army of Marshall TITO, brave Polish divisions and the Czechoslovak PEOPLE'S army, and if all those forces are put together we shall have SOME SAY in Europe." - (Zdenek Nejedlý Minister of Education, Address to Physical Training Societies, Prague, May 31, 1945). • The belief that Czechoslovakia is a part of Russia or that the Russians are DICTATING to us is not true. And you don't find a Russian soldier in our whole country." - Stanislav Novak, Czech Consul, CLEVELAND PRESS, 8-19-46). SLOVAKIA 23 INTERNATIONAL RECOGNITION OF THE SLOVAK REPUBLIC DR. JOSEPH KIRSCHBAUM Because of years of relentless propaganda by Czech emigrés and the renewal of the Czechoslovak Republic by the merlts of the Soviet Union, the orlgln of the Slovak Republlc and lts lncorporation lnto the European organizatlon ls often placed In a bad llght even by persons and nations who a priori do not have an unfavorable oplnlon of the Slovak efforts for lndependence. In the interest of the truth, lt wllJ not be amlss to answer the questlon of how European public oplnlon and the governments of European states recelved the proclamatlon of Slovak lndependence. The questlon !s au the more slgnlflcant when we conslder that changes of the map of Europe are not and never were in· different to the European natlons and especla11y to the great powers, and that the Slovak Republlc was proclalmed In a period of peace. European natlons, therefore, had an unhlndered opportunlty of tak• Ing a stand to the newly establlshed State and that In a two-fold manner: 1. By not recognlzlng the new State and refuslng to establlsh diplomatlc contacts w!th the Slovak Republlc. 2. AU States, and especlally those whlch guaranteed the lndependence and integrity of the Czechoslovak Republlc after Munich, had the opportunlty, by peaceful means or by war, of maklng the exlstence of the Slovak State lmposslble and renewlng the old state of affalrs. What happened In the case of Slovakla? There was not a slngle state in Europe or elsewhere which dld that in 1939. There was no protest agalnst the orlgln of the State of Slovakla even from some of the great powers that were in some way obllgated to Czechoslovakla. But there were protests only agalnat the occupation of Bohemia and Moravla by the Germans. Even Presldent Roosevelt, answerlng Dr. Beneš's telegram (March 16, 1939), wrote In his letter March 27, 1939, that "even though the Government of the United States is aware that the lands of Bohemla and Moravia were eccupled by the German milltary forces and are now factually under German authorlty, lt has not recognlzed thls situatlon a.s a legal condltlon." (Beneš: Memolrs, 1947). As far as Slovakla was concerned, practlcally every European State recognized Slovakia and establlshed dlplomatlc contacts wlth lt. England and Soviet Russla not excepted. Just about two montbs after the proclamatlon of Slovakla's independence the Forelgn Minister of Great Brltain ordered the fo11owlng note dellvered to the flrst Forelgn Minister ot the Slovak Republlc: Bratislava, May 4th, 1989. Your Excellency: On the lnstructlon of the Secretary of State for Forelgn Affalrs I have the honour to Inform you that Hls Majesfy's Government ln �24 SLOVAKIA the United Kingdom propose to appoint me as Consul for Slovak.ia with residence in Bratis lava. Pendlng preparation of my Commlssion I have the honour to request provlsional recognitlon by the Slovak Government of myself as His Majesty's Consul for Slovakia. I avail myself of this opportunlty to express to your Excellency the assurance of my hlghest consideration. PARES, M. P., H. M. Consul. The Slovaks in turn sent Ing. Harminc as General Consul to London to represent the Slovak Republic. The exchange of dlplomatic representatives between London and Bratislava was prevented only by war which b roke out six months after the proclamatlon of Slovak independence. Soviet Russia, wbich did not enter the war against Germany on September 1, 1939, set u p one of tbe largest embassies in Bratislava, and the flrst Russlan ambassador, G. Puškin, upon presentlng his credentials to the Presldent of the Slovak Republic, Dr. Joseph Tlso, sald among other thlngs: "Presentlng to you the documents which accredit me as Extraordinary Ambassador and Minister Plenipotentiary, appointed by the Presidency of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, I can announce to you with joy that the nations of the Soviet Union have taken cognizance of the establishment of dlplomatic contac:ts between the Soviet Union and the Slovak Republic with deep satlsfaction. Because of the war in Europe the establishment of these contacts oversteps the framework of mutual interests of both our states." Before Moscow sent lts ambassador to Bratislava, however, the Soviet Government had notified the dlplomatic representatlve of the Czechoslovak Republic, Dr. Zdenek Fierlinger, that lt no longer regards him as a dlplomatic character. Fierlinger bimselt wrote about this as follows: "On December 14, I was called to the Forelgn Commissariat by Mr. Barkov, the Chief of the Protocol. Barkov told me that the Soviet Government regrets that it can no longer acknowledge my dlplomatic character. He added that I could remain in Moscow with my officials and their families as a private indivldual." Barkov, accor dlng to Flerlinger, even "refused to mediate a visit wlth the Commissar of Foreign Affairs" as he had also refused to send any written report for the Commissariat or any other offlcial person. So it was only by a prlvate Jetter that Fierllnger could write to the representative of Forelgn Affairs: "1 understand fully the stand taken by your Government and I am grateful for the permlssion to remaln in Moscow as a prlvate individual." (Z. Fierlinger: "Ve službách ČSR," Prague, 1947, pgs. 313-314). Pre-war France readlly recognlzed the new State in the heart of Europe, but forma! diplomatic contacts could not be established, because war had broken out. In the case or France, which recognized the Slovak Republic de facto on July 14. 1939, and de jure on April 25, 1942, an interesting detail bas been noted. Whlle the French Foreign Minister, M. Dalladler, refused to see Dr. Bene§ and negotlate wlth bim, the French General Consul in Bratislava �SLOVAKIA 25 was trying to convince the Slovak Government that an exchange of ambassadors had not taken place immediately after March 14, 1939, only because of the previous relationship between France and Czechoslovakia. The reasons concerned prestige. However, he considered an exchange of ambassadors in the near future as a selfevident matter. As the General Secretary of the Hlinka Slovak People's Party, even I had acted personally as mediator between Dalladier and the Slovak Government. Beneš referred to the incident in his MEMOIRS: • " Dalladier - when I asked for an audience - refused to see me and refused to discuss any polltical matters with me. Later he brought this matter up before the Government and supported his action with reasons for doing so." (Beneš: MEMOIRS, 1947, pg. 139). Germany and Italy also recognized Slovak.ia. The Slovak Republic was recognized by all great powers which were deciding the fate of Europe. It was recognized even by the Vatican. The western powers, who got into the conflict against Germany in September 1939, did not change thelr s tand toward Slovakia even after the war began, but only several years later (1942-1943). The decision of the western powers, of course, had no influence on the actual or legal existence of the Slovak State as far as lnternational law was concerned. For that reason the Vatican and the other neutral States did not change their relationship with Slovakia during the ent!re war-t!me perlod. The neighbors of Slovak.ia likewise did not oppose her independent status. Poland recognlzed Slovakia March 16, 1939, and Hungary on March 15, 1939. And this is espec!ally significant in the light of the conditions and tendenc!es which appeared in centra) Europe after the break-up of Austr!a-Hungary. The changes effected by the proclamation of Slovak independence concerued, in the first place, the neighbors of Slovakia from the econom!c and strategic point of view. By its hlstorical development, its position and natural resources the central European area has its own laws, needs and demands. The lndividual nat!ons of that area jealously watch so that no single nation among them might grow at the expense of the others and so disturb the natural balanc e of mllitary and economic forces. The Slovak Republic, however, f!tted into this area not as a disturbing element, but, conversely, as a fulfillment of conditions of balance and the removal of one of the s!gniflcant causes of lnstabllity of the Centro-European organizatlon. That is why even Yugoslavla and Rumania, which untll 1938 together with the Czechoslovak Republic within the framework of the Little Entente had been the pillars of the post-war organization in the Danube basin, made regular diplomatic contacts and collaborated economically with the Slovak Republic soon after it was establlshed. Bulgaria did likewlse. Among the neutra) States, besides the Vatican, which recognized the Slovak State and made diplomatlc and economlc contacts with it were Sw!tzerland and Sweden. Spaln, whlch had declared itself neutra) later, recognlzed Slovakia on May 4, 1939, and sent lts ambassador to Slovakia forthwith. Belgium accorded de facto recognition to Slovakla. �26 SLOVAKIA Other European States, thus far not mentioned, whlch recog• nlzed Slovakla were: Flnland, Denmark, Latvia, Estonla, Lithuanla, and Croatia. And States outslde of Europe: Japan, Manchuria, Chlna (Nankfag), Siam, Costa Rlca, and Ecuador. Slovakia, then, was recogn!zed by a total of 27 countries: by great powers and small powers, by neutra! States and by powers of both warrlng camps. It !s lnteresting to note that the majority or the States which granted recognitlon to Slovak!a as an inde• pendent State was on the s!de of Anglo•Russian coalltlon. The clalm that Slovakia was recognized only by Germany and its satel• lites !s, therefore, a w!llful deceptlon o! the lnternat!onal public. Seventeen of the 27 States recognizlng Slovakia fought against Germany or were neutra!. Th!s comparison is slgnlflcant not only because it uproots the falsehoods of the propaganda which presented Slovakla to the Allles as a State recognlzed only by Germany and lts satellites, but because it also conflrms - as has been shown - that F,uropean States w!thout exceptlon recognized the right of the Slovaks to an Independent existence, an Independent State. Furthermore, lt also confirms the fact that these European States did not see anything unnatural or dlsturblng in the establishment of Independent Slovakia, even though they dld see lt in the occupation of Bohemla and Moravla. In this connectlon lt !s lnterestlng to note how the League of Nat!ons regarded the collapse of Czechoslovakia. In h!s MEMOIRS, Beneš himself complalned that the General Secretary, J. Avenol, refused to 11Jace h!s protest before the League of Natlons for ortlc!al dlscusslon wlth the argument that the protest was not placed before the body the regular way, but my a "prlvate !ndlvldual." (Pg. 109). The fact that no European States protested against the existence of the independent State of Slovakia 1s lmportant, especlally when we consider that Centra! Europe was the way out of two World Wars and that its organizat!on after World War I made a powder keg out of this area, the explosl~n of which was feared for twenty years. From the Slovak standpolnt thls recognit!on of the Slovak Republic by such a Jarge number of States has the significance that the Slovaks can always point to it when demanding Slovak independence. And it 1s lmportant to remember, too, that the Slovak Republlc was proclaimed six months before the start of World War II which at the outset dlvlded the natlons of the world lnto two camps. This fact and the fact that Slovakia was placed lnto the German-Itallan sphere because of her geographlcal posltlon, prevented many other natlons from recognlzlng her dlplomatlcally, natlons which undoubtedly would have recognlzed her under more favorable condltlons. Conslderlng the spontaneity and speed wlth whlch the lndividual States re• sponded to the notlflcatlon of the proclamatlon ot Slovak lndependence and arranged d!plomatlc or consular offlces in Bratislava, tt can be correctly assumed that the Slovak Republlc would have been recognized unlversally lf the war had been delayed only a yea.r or two. Slovakia., then, was a.ccepted into the fa.mlly ot independent na• tions not only by centra! European States, but also by the great European powers. European, and especlaJJy Centra! European lnterests, correctly comprehended, could not, ot course, permit the denlal �SLOVAKIA 27 or thls rlght to one or the oldest Centra! European natlons, when thls rlght today is acknowledged even to colonlal nations and without the valldation or whlch there can hardly be any sensible talk about justlce or even a guaranteed peace. II The recognltlon ot the Slovak Republlc by such a large number of European and non-European States, desplte the tense international sltuation, was in a great measure the merit of the young Slovak dlplomacy. In order to have a complete plcture ot the internatlonal posltion ot the Slovak Republlc, lt would be well to list not only the States whlch recognlzed Slovakia and established regular diplomatlc relatlons wlth her, but also the lndlviduals who represented the Slovak natlon in the lnternatlonal forum and point out the tendencles represented by the flrst Slovak diplomata. And, of course, it ls also necessary to mention the countrles whlch did not recognize the Slovak State. As a result ot the internatlonal recognitlon of the Slovak Republic, the Slovak nag - so lgnored and trampled upon previously - for the flrst tlme in Slovak hlstory waved proudly over the Slovak dlplomatlc and consular offlces In the capltols ot almost every European State. In eternal Rome, as well as in Moscow; in the proud city of Albion, as well as In Berlin; In Warsaw, Belgrade, Sophia, Bucharest, Budapest, Berne, and Stockholm; In Helsinki, Vlenna and even over the general consulate in Prague. And in all these places, the Slovak emblem hung lndependently for the flrst tlme: lt was not attached to the emblem of St. Stephen's Crown, nor to the Czech Llon. For those who harbor a respect for the symbols of nations, thls reallty can hardly be a sentlmental one only. It has lts own deep polltlcal and moral meantng. We can evldence th!s fact best from the tlme that the Slovak flag had to be hauled down temporarily. As far as the dlplomatic representatives of the Slovak Republlc are concerned, not all were tralned for the task, because in the Czecboslovak Republlc out of 1246 offlclals In the Forelgn Service only 33 were Slovak, and only a few ot these were diplomata. HowP.ver, In the Slovak nature there are certa!n talents for th!s kind of servlce, so that even in thls fleld much ot what the past dld not allow to be done was caught up with shortly. Altogether there were three categories among Slovak dlplomatlc representatlves In leadlng posltlons: Slx former otflclals from Prague (Dr. Ivan Milecz, Dr. Joseph Cleker, Dr. Joseph Mlku!í, Dr. Plssko, Dr. Radllnský and Dr. Szatmáry); three !rom interna! polltics (Karol Sldor, Matthew Cernák and Dr. Joseph Klrschbaum); and the others came from varlous protesslons (l<'rancls Tlso. Dr. Spišiak, Dr. J. Šlmko, Dr. Zvrškovec, Tldo J . Gašpar, Dr. Galvánek, Dr. Bečko, etc). The majority ot these, therefore were men who had prepared for other tasks in llfe. But even large states, wh!ch bave a sufrlclent number of dlplomatic personnel, place persona ot other protesslons In leadlng dlplomatlc posltlons. Keeplng In mlnd the tense sltuatlon of the world at that Ume and the reality that Slovakla was practically unknown In forelgn lands and was conslstently belng presented in a bad light by anti• �28 SLOVAKIA Slovak propaganda, we must admlt that the tasks faclng the dlplomatlc representatlves of the newly establlsbed Slovak Republic were by no means easy. And yet, the Slovak diplomatic representatives - exceptlng Dr. Szatmáry - defended the rlgbt of tbe Slovak nation to its own State to the end and performed thelr tasks well in the dlplomatlc, cultural and propaganda flelds. There was one task tbey had, bowever, failed to do, and that one was probably the most lmportant one: they dld not prepare for the transfer of Slovakla to the slde of the Allles at the right time. However, lt is a bit premature to pass judgment In this matter ln view of the world sltuatlon and the present posltion of Slovakia, and especlally In view of the fact that all Slovak dlplomatlc representatives In neutra! countries, upon whom thls task fell, have not as yet been heard from. For the present we can make several general remarks and loglcal conclusions whlch emanate !rom the over-al! situation exlstlng at the end of the war and trom the tendencles that made themselves apparent wlth the All!es In general, and In the rela• tlon to Slovakla in partlcular. And from this, then, we can learn what alternatlves presented themselves to the Slovaks. After considerlng all the clrcumstances under whlch the war was waged and those under which the so•called "Natlonal Uprlslng" In Slovakia was organized Jater, thls problem looks decldedly dlfferent than lt appeared to be at flrst slght. But aslde trom tbe fact that diplomacy always only prepares the way for the pollcles of a government and is in ltself only an execut!ve organ, no other natlon had to contend with such impedlments as the Slovak natlon in the matter of transferrlng to the Allles. Let us conslder only one: When the Anglo-Saxon Allies (in 1941-1942) and the Soviet Union (1943) came out for the renewal of the Czechoslovak Republic and even concluded agreements wlth the Government of Dr. Beneš, the jolnlng of the Slovak Government and the Slovak diplomata wlth the Allles would have meant the acceptance ot Czechoslovakia - already recognized by the Allles - and the renouncing of independence. Slovak political leaders at horne and Slovak dlplomats abroad had to declde the dllemma: Elther to remain loyal to the rlght to lndependence and defend lt to the end even at the cost of great persona) sacrlflces, or to joln those who dld not recogn!ze the right of the Slovak nation to lts own State and thus secure tor themselves definlte persona! lnterests. That ls how the problem Jooked when the "Slovak Revolt" broke out in August 1944. Whlle the Itallans, Rumanians, Magyars and Bulgarlans jolned the Allles to safeguard thelr lndependence, the Jeaders of the rebelllon In Slovakla were proclalmlng the annexation of Slovakla to the Czech lands, renewlng the Czechoslovak Republic and riddlng thelr own nation of lts Independent State. The posltion of Slovakla In the war and, therefore, even the actions of Slovak dlplomats, were determlned In the over-all framework by the pollcy of the Allles themselves and in the narrower framework by the alms of the "rebelllon" In Slovakla. If it were not for thls situatlon, there would have been among the Slovak polltlcians, as well as among the Slovak dlplomats. rep• resentatlves In the lndlvldual states of Europe who would have had the polltlcal and moral Iegltimacy to speak In the name of the Slo- �SLOVAKIA 29 vak natlon. In the Vatican, one of the most important centers of world diplomacy, Slovakia was represented by Karol Sidor, whose antl-German stand cannot be disputed. The General Secretary ot the Hlinka Slovak People's Party, ousted from his off!ce by Nazl pressure, was sent to Swltzerland to represent Slovakia. In Sweden Slovakla had the career diplomat, Dr. Pissko, and In Spaln Dr. Mikuš and Dr. Cieker, both of whom were not only first-class dlplomats, but were outstandlng In their generation. It 1s evident, then, that the Slovak Republic did have people in important places abroad who were predetermined to prepare the transfer of the Slovaks to the vlctorlous camp. And undoubtedly it shall once become known that these Slovak representatlves did not lack the initlatlve, either. But there were no real possibllit!es for such a policy, if the Slovaks themselves were not to surrender their right to independence. This they could not do, because they knew that the rlghts whlch were taken away by force could always be regained, but the r!ghts which a nat!on once surrendered could never be regained. A policy that redeems apparent, temporary advantages by surrendering natural rights never did end up well. And conversely, history was wont to reward with victory the fight whlch had an upright alm. Whether the Slovak Government and the Slovak dlplomats did right by conslstently holding to their ant!-communist stand and defend!ng the lnal!enable rights of their nation, history and probably even the near future shall render a deflnite verdict. That they acted honorably and did not pursue their persona! lnterests !s already clear today. III Dr. Edward Beneš and his fo\lowers always denied the individuality of the Slovak natlon and were always opposed to Slovak autonomy. This group of Czech pol!t!clans and several indlvlduals of Slovak orlgin, who subscrlbed to the ideology of a "Czechoslovak natlon," stubbornly refused to recognize the right of the Slovaks to thelr own State and the acceptance of the Slovak Republ!c into the internat!onal commu11ity. They used all means at their disposal to misrepresent the Slovak questlon before the Allies to effect the destniction of the Slovak Republ!c and force its annexatlon to the Czech lands. Dr. Edward Beneš even attempted to deceive the Vatlcan, but did not fare s o well. In a Memorandum, sent to the Holy See on May 12, 1943, through President Roosevelt, Dr. Edward Beneš stated among other things: "The Slovak people, in its great majority, today stands without any reservations behlnd the present Czecho· slovak Government. In Slovakia pol!tical, social, economlcal and moral condlt!ons are extremely sad. The majority of the Slovak people considers the present reglme In Bratislava responsible for thls sltuatlon and as a traltor of the Slovak people and the Czechoslovak Republ!c. Former governmental Slovak parties (the Agrarians, Llberals, Soclalists) are almost completely behlnd the Czechoslovak Government and agalnst the present reglme in Slovakia, whlle the former Cathollc People's Party, which took over the rule of Slovak affalrs from the hands of the Germans In 1939, today stands - according to our reports - at least 60 per cent agalnst the present regime." (Beneš: MEMOIRS, Documents). �30 SLOVAKIA Of course, the Vatlcan knew what the actual situatlon in Slovakia was. The Slovak Government was represented at the Vatlcan, and the Holy See had its representatlve In Bratislava. Benelí was fully aware of that fact, but he thought he mlght persuade the Holy See to see things bis way, slnce lt was pretty evident at t hat tlme that he would be back in the driver's seat when the war ended. The Vatlcan's refusal to recognize bim and bis London Government made Beneš furlous. Because of the war sltuation and the fact that Slovakia fell into the Axis bloc because of its geographical posltion, the actlons of Dr. Beneš and the Czech Slovaks (Czechoslovaks l was more suc• cessful than that of the Magyars a!ter World War I who also tried to mobllize world oplnion for the return ot SlovakJa to the Magyar State. The Magyar actlon was also supported by several renegade politlcians of Slovak descent and yet it falled because the Slovak natlon was determined to live its own life. History ltself tells us that lt is only loglcal for every natlon to strive for an Independent State. The temporary victory of Dr. Beneš will not reverse the loglc of blstory. The Slovaks firmly belleve that in the end their natural rights to an independent State shall be recognlzed, as they have been recognlzed In the case of other nations. It ls only a question ot tlme and an approprlate internatlonal situatlon. If the revlslonlstlc efforts of Dr. Beneš seem to have found a greater response In Slovakla than Magyar revlsion, that certainly cannot be consldered as proof that the Slovak natlon in lts entirety, or even In lts greater part, has renounced lts right to an Independent State. The Slovak natlon was not glven the opportunlty to say whether it wants to live in lts own State or In a comon State wlth the Czechs. The Slovaks who accepted the Czechoslovak solutlon dld so out of fear emanatlng from the fate of a vanqulshed State, under the pressure of mllltary events, and In the endeavor to assure them• selves of an advantageous positlon to rule over Slovakla wlth the help of the Czechs, because they had no chance of gettlng lnto leading posltlons any other way. That thls solutlou was accepted even by the small group only out of opportunlsm !s attested to by the fact that already toward the end of 1943, when the outcome of the war was known, thls group went lnto actlon for the renewal of the Czechoslovak Republlc, stresslng at the same Ume that the renewed State would be a federatlon and the questlon of the lndl· vlduality of the Slovak nation was a reality whlch would not be debated. The Czechoslovak Republlc, therefore, was forced on the Slovak nation not only by the opportunlsm of a negliglble minority ot the· Slovak natlon whlch followed lts own egotlstlc aims and served Czech imperlallsm, but also by the lnternatlonal sltuatlon. On such foun• datlons, however, no State can exlst permanently and must perlsh uncondltlonally when the causes and clrcumstances responslble for lts exlstence dlsappear. And so, just as the recognltlon of the conception of Dr. Beneš by the western powers had a fatal lnfluence on the polltlcs of the Slovak Republ!c durlng the war, just so the fact that the Slovak Republlc was Incorporated In the Czechoslovak Republlc without �SLOVAKIA 31 regard for the will of the Slovak nation and without regard for the proclamation of the Atlantic Charter and the Charter of the United Nations has its influence on the stand of the Slovaks in the contemporary world struggle. If the Allies would have promlsed to preserve Slovak independence, as they did In the case of the Itallans, Magyars, Rumanians, Bulgarians, Finns and Austrlans - who also fought on the side of the Axis - then it would have been possible to expect that the Slovaks, too, would have found their place at the rlght time on their side. None of the aforementioned peoples lost their independent States or were forced to become members of other States, but the Slovak State was annexed to Bohemla-Moravla. It ls, therefore, self-evident that the Slovak natlon conslders the present condition as an occupation and together with lts emlgration is fighting slmultaneously for the victory of democracy over communism and the libe'ration of the Slovak Republic from SovietCzech occupation. • • • WHO SAID IT? "We shaU be eternally gra,teful to those who helped us, above all our great Slav brother, the SOVIET UNION. This gra,titude, bow• ever, must not permit us mto belleving all ls won because we have so powerful an ally. We must arrange our lives in such a way that we may never become a burden to those who are bound to us by alliance or friend&hlp. On the contrary our frien ds must be ma'de to feel that they have galned a loyal and effectíve ally worthy or sucb an alllance." - (Jaroslav Stränsky, Minister ot J ustlce, Mass meeting In Most, June 19, 1945). • • "Personally I trust the Russdans; they thin k as they apeak. I oelieve that they wiH cooperate fully wlth England and Amerlca. They will hold strlctly to the declsions of the Teheran Conference to guarant&e the peace for several genera,tions. I do not bel!eve that Russia wili lnterfere in the interna! aftail'S of tts neighbors. 1 a ssure you that Stalin ia w illing to confirm his statement t hat he ia completely against all efforts t o force communistic pri nci ples on the Danublan countri es." (Dr. Benes, Interview with Charles Goley, London "DAIL Y EXPRIDSS," 3-13-44). • "Our pos!tion in Europe 1s ditferent from that m 1918. Today we are approaching far-reaching revolution. Our whole world is changlng. This war has formed a solid and impregnable bloc of Slav nations and states. T oday there ia t he RED A RM Y, the a rm y of Marahall TITO, b rave Pollsh dlvlalons a nd the Czechoslovak P EOP L E'S a rmy, a nd lf all t hoae forcea a re put t ogethe r we s ha ll ha ve SOM E SAY in Europe." - (2ldenek Nejedlý, Minister of Educ811.ion, Address to Physlcal Trainlng Soclet!es, Prague, May 31, 1945) . • The bellef that Czechoslovakla la a part of Russla or t hat t he Russiana a re DICTATING t o ua la not t rue. And you do n't flnd a Rua. sian soldier In our whole c ountry." - Stanislav Novak, Czech Consul, CLEVELAND PRESS, 8-19-46). � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1951, Vol. 1 Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1951 Description An account of the resource <ul><li>Issue 1 (No. 1), May 1951.</li> <li>Issue 2 (No. 2), December 1951.</li> </ul> Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context <ul><li><a href="https://n2t.net/ark:/13960/s261hfmshm7" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><span>ark:/13960/s261hfmshm7</span></a></li> <li><a href="https://n2t.net/ark:/13960/s21tk2wkzj4" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><span>ark:/13960/s21tk2wkzj4</span></a></li> </ul> Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document INTERNATIONAL RECOGNITION OF THE SLOVAK REPUBLIC DR. JOSEPH KIRSCHBAUM Because of years of relentless propaganda by Czech emigres and the renewal of the Czechoslovak Republic by the merits of the Soviet Union, the origin of the Slovak Republic and its incorporation into the European organization is often placed in a bad light even by persons and nations who a priori do not have an unfavorable opinion of the Slovak efforts for independence. In the interest of the truth, it will not be amiss to answer the question of how European public opinion and the governments of European states received the proclamation of Slovak independence. The question is all the more significant when we consider that changes of the map of Europe are not and never were indifferent to the European nations and especially to the great powers, and that the Slovak Republic was proclaimed in a period of peace. European nations, therefore, had an unhindered opportunity of taking a stand to the newly established State and that in a two-fold manner: 1. By not recognizing the new State and refusing to establish diplomatic contacts with the Slovak Republic. 2. All States, and especially those which guaranteed the independence and integrity of the Czechoslovak Republic after Munich, had the opportunity, by peaceful means or by war, of making the existence of the Slovak State impossible and renewing the old state of affairs. What happened In the case of Slovakia? There was not a single state in Europe or elsewhere which did that in 1939. There was no protest against the origin of the State of Slovakia even from some of the great powers that were in some way obligated to Czechoslovakia. But there were protests only against the occupation of Bohemia and Moravia by the Germans. Even President Roosevelt, answering Dr. Beneš's telegram (March 16, 1939), wrote in his letter March 27, 1939, that "even though the Government of the United States is aware that the lands of Bohemia and Moravia were occupied by the German military forces and are now factually under German authority, it has not recognized this situation as a legal condition." (Beneš: Memoirs, 1947). As far as Slovakia was concerned, practically every European State recognized Slovakia and established diplomatic contacts with lt. England and Soviet Russia not excepted. Just about two months after the proclamation of Slovakia’s independence the Foreign Minister of Great Britain ordered the following note delivered to the first Foreign Minister of the Slovak Republic: Bratislava, May 4th, 1989. Your Excellency: On the instruction of the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs I have the honour to Inform you that His Majesty’s Government ln the United Kingdom propose to appoint me as Consul for Slovakia with residence in Bratislava. Pending preparation of my Commission I have the honour to request provisional recognition by the Slovak Government of myself as His Majesty's Consul for Slovakia. I avail myself of this opportunity to express to your Excellency the assurance of my highest consideration. PARES, M. P., H. M. Consul. The Slovaks in turn sent Ing. Harminc as General Consul to London to represent the Slovak Republic. The exchange of diplomatic representatives between London and Bratislava was prevented only by war which broke out six months after the proclamation of Slovak independence. Soviet Russia, which did not enter the war against Germany on September 1, 1939, set up one of the largest embassies in Bratislava, and the first Russian ambassador, G. Puškin, upon presenting his credentials to the President of the Slovak Republic, Dr. Joseph Tiso, said among other things: "Presenting to you the documents which accredit me as Extra­ordinary Ambassador and Minister Plenipotentiary, appointed by the Presidency of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, I can announce to you with joy that the nations of the Soviet Union have taken cognizance of the establishment of diplomatic contacts between the Soviet Union and the Slovak Republic with deep satisfaction. Because of the war in Europe the establishment of these contacts oversteps the framework of mutual interests of both our states." Before Moscow sent its ambassador to Bratislava, however, the Soviet Government had notified the diplomatic representative of the Czechoslovak Republic, Dr. Zdenek Fierlinger, that it no longer regards him as a diplomatic character. Fierlinger himself wrote about this as follows: "On December 14, I was called to the Foreign Commissariat by Mr. Barkov, the Chief of the Protocol. Barkov told me that the Soviet Government regrets that it can no longer acknowledge my diplomatic character. He added that I could remain in Moscow with my officials and their families as a private individual." Barkov, according to Fierlinger, even "refused to mediate a visit with the Commissar of Foreign Affairs" as he had also refused to send any written report for the Commissariat or any other official person. So it was only by a private letter that Fierlinger could write to the representative of Foreign Affairs: "I understand fully the stand taken by your Government and I am grateful for the permission to remain in Moscow as a private individual." (Z. Fierlinger: "Ve službách ČSR," Prague, 1947, pgs. 313-314). Pre-war France readily recognized the new State in the heart of Europe, but formal diplomatic contacts could not be established, because war had broken out. In the case of France, which recog­nized the Slovak Republic de facto on July 14. 1939, and de jure on April 25, 1942, an interesting detail bas been noted. While the French Foreign Minister, M. Dalladier, refused to see Dr. Beneš and negotiate with him, the French General Consul in Bratislava was trying to convince the Slovak Government that an exchange of ambassadors had not taken place immediately after March 14, 1939, only because of the previous relationship between France and Czechoslovakia. The reasons concerned prestige. However, he con­sidered an exchange of ambassadors in the near future as a self-evident matter. As the General Secretary of the Hlinka Slovak Peo­ple's Party, even I had acted personally as mediator between Dalladier and the Slovak Government. Beneš referred to the incident in his MEMOIRS: "Dalladier - when I asked for an audience -refused to see me and refused to discuss any political matters with me. Later he brought this matter up before the Government and supported his action with reasons for doing so." (Beneš: MEMOIRS, 1947, pg. 139). Germany and Italy also recognized Slovakia. The Slovak Republic was recognized by all great powers which were deciding the fate of Europe. It was recognized even by the Vatican. The western powers, who got into the conflict against Germany in September 1939, did not change their stand toward Slovakia even after the war began, but only several years later (1942-1943). The decision of the western powers, of course, had no influence on the actual or legal existence of the Slovak State as far as international law was concerned. For that reason the Vatican and the other neutral States did not change their relationship with Slovakia during the entire war-time period. The neighbors of Slovakia likewise did not oppose her inde­pendent status. Poland recognized Slovakia March 16, 1939, and Hungary on March 15, 1939. And this is especially significant in the light of the conditions and tendencies which appeared in centra) Europe after the break-up of Austria-Hungary. The changes effected by the proclamation of Slovak independence concerned, in the first place, the neighbors of Slovakia from the economic and strategic point of view. By its historical development, its position and natu­ral resources the central European area has its own laws, needs and demands. The individual nations of that area jealously watch so that no single nation among them might grow at the expense of the others and so disturb the natural balance of military and economic forces. The Slovak Republic, however, fitted into this area not as a disturbing element, but, conversely, as a fulfillment of conditions of balance and the removal of one of the significant causes of instability of the Centro-European organization. That is why even Yugoslavia and Rumania, which until 1938 together with the Czechoslovak Republic within the framework of the Little Entente had been the pillars of the post-war organization in the Danube basin, made regular diplomatic contacts and collaborated economically with the Slovak Republic soon after it was established. Bulgaria did likewise. Among the neutral States, besides the Vatican, which recognized the Slovak State and made diplomatic and economic contacts with it were Switzerland and Sweden. Spain, which had declared itself neutral later, recognized Slovakia on May 4, 1939, and sent its ambassador to Slovakia forthwith. Belgium accorded de facto recognition to Slovakia. Other European States, thus far not mentioned, which recognized Slovakia were: Finland, Denmark, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, and Croatia. And States outside of Europe: Japan, Manchuria, China (Nanking), Siam, Costa Rica, and Ecuador. Slovakia, then, was recognized by a total of 27 countries: by great powers and small powers, by neutral States and by powers of both warring camps. It is interesting to note that the majority or the States which granted recognition to Slovakia as an independent State was on the side of Anglo-Russian coalition. The claim that Slovakia was recognized only by Germany and its satellites is, therefore, a willful deception of the international public. Seventeen of the 27 States recognizing Slovakia fought against Germany or were neutral. This comparison is significant not only because it uproots the falsehoods of the propaganda which presented Slovakia to the Allies as a State recognized only by Germany and its satellites, but because it also confirms - as has been shown - that European States without exception recognized the right of the Slovaks to an inde­pendent existence, an Independent State. Furthermore, it also confirms the fact that these European States did not see anything unnatural or disturbing in the establishment of Independent Slova­kia, even though they did see it in the occupation of Bohemia and Moravia. In this connection it is interesting to note how the League of Nations regarded the collapse of Czechoslovakia. In his MEMOIRS, Beneš himself complained that the General Secretary, J. Avenol, refused to place his protest before the League of Nations for official discussion with the argument that the protest was not placed before the body the regular way, but my a "private individual." (Pg. 109). The fact that no European States protested against the existence of the independent State of Slovakia is important, especially when we consider that Central Europe was the way out of two World Wars and that its organization after World War I made a powder keg out of this area, the explosion of which was feared for twenty years. From the Slovak standpoint this recognition of the Slovak Republic by such a large number of States has the significance that the Slovaks can always point to it when demanding Slovak independence. And it is important to remember, too, that the Slovak Republic was proclaimed six months before the start of World War II which at the outset divided the nations of the world into two camps. This fact and the fact that Slovakia was placed into the German-Italian sphere because of her geographical position, prevented many other nations from recognizing her diplomatically, nations which undoubtedly would have recognized her under more favorable conditions. Considering the spontaneity and speed with which the individual States responded to the notification of the proclamation of Slovak independence and arranged diplomatic or consular offices in Bratislava, it can be correctly assumed that the Slovak Republic would have been recognized universally if the war had been delayed only a year or two. Slovakia., then, was accepted into the family of independent nations not only by central European States, but also by the great European powers. European, and especially Central European interests correctly comprehended, could not, of course, permit the denial of this right to one of the oldest Central European nations, when this right today is acknowledged even to colonial nations and without the validation of which there can hardly be any sensible talk about justice or even a guaranteed peace. II The recognition of the Slovak Republic by such a large number of European and non-European States, despite the tense international situation, was in a great measure the merit of the young Slovak diplomacy. In order to have a complete picture of the international position of the Slovak Republic, it would be well to list not only the States which recognized Slovakia and established regular diplomatic relations with her, but also the individuals who represented the Slovak nation in the international forum and point out the tendencies represented by the first Slovak diplomats. And, of course, it is also necessary to mention the countries which did not recognize the Slovak State. As a result of the international recognition of the Slovak Republic, the Slovak flag - so ignored and trampled upon previously - for the first time in Slovak history waved proudly over the Slovak diplomatic and consular offices In the capitols of almost every European State. In eternal Rome, as well as in Moscow; in the proud city of Albion, as well as in Berlin; in Warsaw, Belgrade, Sophia, Bucharest, Budapest, Berne, and Stockholm; in Helsinki, Vienna and even over the general consulate in Prague. And in all these places, the Slovak emblem hung independently for the first time: it was not attached to the emblem of St. Stephen's Crown, nor to the Czech Lion. For those who harbor a respect for the symbols of nations, this reality can hardly be a sentimental one only. It has its own deep political and moral meaning. We can evidence this fact best from the time that the Slovak flag had to be hauled down temporarily. As far as the diplomatic representatives of the Slovak Republic are concerned, not all were trained for the task, because in the Czechoslovak Republic out of 1246 officials in the Foreign Service only 33 were Slovak, and only a few of these were diplomats. However, in the Slovak nature there are certain talents for this kind of service, so that even in this field much of what the past did not allow to be done was caught up with shortly. Altogether there were three categories among Slovak diplomatic representatives in leading positions: Six former officials from Prague (Dr. Ivan Milecz, Dr. Joseph Cleker, Dr. Joseph Mlkuš, Dr. Plssko, Dr. Radlinský and Dr. Szatmáry); three from internal politics (Karol Sidor, Matthew Černak and Dr. Joseph Kirschbaum); and the others came from various professions (Francis Tiso. Dr. Spišiak, Dr. J. Šimko, Dr. Zvrškovec, Tido J. Gašpar, Dr. Galvánek, Dr. Becko, etc). The majority of these, therefore were men who had prepared for other tasks in life. But even large states, which have a sufficient number of diplomatic personnel, place persona of other professions in leading diplomatic positions. Keeping in mind the tense situation of the world at that Ume and the reality that Slovakia was practically unknown in foreign lands and was consistently being presented in a bad light by anti=Slovak propaganda, we must admit that the tasks facing the diplomatic representatives of the newly established Slovak Republic were by no means easy. And yet, the Slovak diplomatic representatives -excepting Dr. Szatmáry - defended the right of the Slovak nation to its own State to the end and performed their tasks well in the diplomatic, cultural and propaganda fields. There was one task they had, however, failed to do, and that one was probably the most important one: they did not prepare for the transfer of Slovakia to the side of the Allies at the right time. However, it is a bit premature to pass judgment in this matter ln view of the world situation and the present position of Slovakia, and especially in view of the fact that all Slovak diplomatic representatives in neutral countries, upon whom this task fell, have not as yet been heard from. For the present we can make several general remarks and logical conclusions which emanate from the over-all situation existing at the end of the war and from the tendencies that made themselves apparent with the Allies in general, and in the relation to Slovakia in particular. And from this, then, we can learn what alternatives presented themselves to the Slovaks. After considering all the circumstances under which the war was waged and those under which the so-called "National Uprising" in Slovakia was organized later, this problem looks decidedly different than it appeared to be at first sight. But aside from the fact that diplomacy always only prepares the way for the policies of a government and is in itself only an executive organ, no other nation had to contend with such impediments as the Slovak nation in the matter of transferring to the Allies. Let us consider only one: When the Anglo-Saxon Allies (in 1941-1942) and the Soviet Union (1943) came out for the renewal of the Czechoslovak Republic and even concluded agreements with the Government of Dr. Beneš, the joining of the Slovak Government and the Slovak diplomats with the Allies would have meant the acceptance of Czechoslovakia - already recognized by the Allies - and the renouncing of independence. Slovak political leaders at home and Slovak diplomats abroad had to decide the dilemma: Either to remain loyal to the right to independence and defend it to the end even at the cost of great personal sacrifices, or to join those who did not recognize the right of the Slovak nation to its own State and thus secure tor themselves definite personal interests. That is how the problem looked when the "Slovak Revolt" broke out in August 1944. While the Italians, Rumanians, Magyars and Bulgarians joined the Allies to safeguard their independence, the leaders of the rebellion in Slovakia were proclaiming the annexation of Slovakia to the Czech lands, renewing the Czechoslovak Republic and ridding their own nation of its independent State. The position of Slovakia in the war and, therefore, even the actions of Slovak diplomats, were determined in the over-all framework by the policy of the Allies themselves and in the narrower framework by the alms of the "rebellion" in Slovakia. If it were not for this situation, there would have been among the Slovak politicians, as well as among the Slovak diplomats. representatives in the individual states of Europe who would have had the political and moral Legitimacy to speak in the name of the Slovak nation. In the Vatican, one of the most important centers of world diplomacy, Slovakia was represented by Karol Sidor, whose anti-German stand cannot be disputed. The General Secretary of the Hlinka Slovak People's Party, ousted from his office by Nazi pressure, was sent to Switzerland to represent Slovakia. In Sweden Slovakia had the career diplomat, Dr. Pissko, and in Spain Dr. Mikuš and Dr. Cieker, both of whom were not only first-class diplomats, but were outstanding in their generation. It is evident, then, that the Slovak Republic did have people in important places abroad who were predetermined to prepare the transfer of the Slovaks to the victorious camp. And undoubtedly it shall once become known that these Slovak representatives did not lack the initiative, either. But there were no real possibilities for such a policy, if the Slovaks themselves were not to surrender their right to independence. This they could not do, because they knew that the rights which were taken away by force could always be regained, but the rights which a nation once surrendered could never be regained. A policy that redeems apparent, temporary advantages by surrendering natural rights never did end up well. And conversely, history was wont to reward with victory the fight which had an upright aim. Whether the Slovak Government and the Slovak diplomats did right by consistently holding to their anti-communist stand and defending the inalienable rights of their nation, history and probably even the near future shall render a definite verdict. That they acted honorably and did not pursue their personal interests is already clear today. III Dr. Edward Beneš and his followers always denied the individuality of the Slovak nation and were always opposed to Slovak autonomy. This group of Czech politicians and several individuals of Slovak origin, who subscribed to the ideology of a "Czechoslovak nation," stubbornly refused to recognize the right of the Slovaks to their own State and the acceptance of the Slovak Republic into the international community. They used all means at their disposal to misrepresent the Slovak question before the Allies to effect the destruction of the Slovak Republic and force its annexation to the Czech lands. Dr. Edward Beneš even attempted to deceive the Vatican, but did not fare so well. In a Memorandum, sent to the Holy See on May 12, 1943, through President Roosevelt, Dr. Edward Beneš stated among other things: "The Slovak people, in its great majority, today stands without any reservations behind the present Czechoslovak Government. In Slovakia political, social, economical and moral conditions are extremely sad. The majority of the Slovak people considers the present regime in Bratislava responsible for this situation and as a traitor of the Slovak people and the Czechoslovak Republic. Former governmental Slovak parties (the Agrarians, Liberals, Socialists) are almost completely behind the Czechoslovak Government and against the present regime in Slovakia, while the former Catholic People's Party, which took over the rule of Slovak affairs from the hands of the Germans in 1939, today stands - according to our reports - at least 60 per cent against the present regime." (Beneš: MEMOIRS, Documents). Of course, the Vatican knew what the actual situation in Slovakia was. The Slovak Government was represented at the Vatican, and the Holy See had its representative in Bratislava. Beneš was fully aware of that fact, but he thought he might persuade the Holy See to see things his way, since it was pretty evident at that time that he would be back in the driver's seat when the war ended. The Vatican’s refusal to recognize him and his London Government made Beneš furious. Because of the war situation and the fact that Slovakia fell into the Axis bloc because of its geographical position, the actions of Dr. Beneš and the Czech Slovaks (Czechoslovaks) was more successful than that of the Magyars after World War I who also tried to mobilize world opinion for the return of Slovakia to the Magyar State. The Magyar action was also supported by several renegade politicians of Slovak descent and yet it failed because the Slovak nation was determined to live its own life. History itself tells us that it is only logical for every nation to strive for an independent State. The temporary victory of Dr. Beneš will not reverse the logic of history. The Slovaks firmly believe that in the end their natural rights to an independent State shall be recognized, as they have been recognized in the case of other nations. It is only a question of time and an appropriate international situation. If the revisionist efforts of Dr. Beneš seem to have found a greater response in Slovakia than Magyar revision, that certainly cannot be considered as proof that the Slovak nation in its entirety, or even in its greater part, has renounced its right to an independent State. The Slovak nation was not given the opportunity to say whether it wants to live in its own State or in a comon State with the Czechs. The Slovaks who accepted the Czechoslovak solution did so out of fear emanating from the fate of a vanquished State, under the pressure of military events, and in the endeavor to assure themselves of an advantageous position to rule over Slovakia with the help of the Czechs, because they had no chance of getting into leading positions any other way. That this solution was accepted even by the small group only out of opportunism is attested to by the fact that already toward the end of 1943, when the outcome of the war was known, this group went into action for the renewal of the Czechoslovak Republic, stressing at the same time that the renewed State would be a federation and the question of the individuality of the Slovak nation was a reality which would not be debated. The Czechoslovak Republic, therefore, was forced on the Slovak nation not only by the opportunism of a negligible minority of the Slovak nation which followed its own egotistic aims and served Czech imperialism, but also by the international situation. On such foundations, however, no State can exist permanently and must perish unconditionally when the causes and circumstances responsible for its existence disappear. And so, just as the recognition of the conception of Dr. Beneš by the western powers had a fatal influence on the politics of the Slovak Republic during the war, just so the fact that the Slovak Republic was Incorporated in the Czechoslovak Republic without regard for the will of the Slovak nation and without regard for the proclamation of the Atlantic Charter and the Charter of the United Nations has its influence on the stand of the Slovaks in the con­temporary world struggle. If the Allies would have promised to preserve Slovak independ­ence, as they did in the case of the Italians, Magyars, Rumanians, Bulgarians, Finns and Australians - who also fought on the side of the Axis - then it would have been possible to expect that the Slovaks, too, would have found their place at the right time on their side. None of the aforementioned peoples lost their independent States or were forced to become members of other States, but the Slovak State was annexed to Bohemia-Moravia. It is, therefore, self-evident that the Slovak nation considers the present condition as an occupation and together with its emigration is fighting simultaneously for the victory of democracy over communism and the liberation of the Slovak Republic from Soviet-Czech occupation. WHO SAID IT? "We shall be eternally grateful to those who helped us, above all our great Slav brother, the SOVIET UNION. This gratitude, however, must not permit us into believing all is won because we have so powerful an ally. We must arrange our lives in such a way that we may never become a burden to those who are bound to us by alliance or friendship. On the contrary our friends must be made to feel that they have gained a loyal and effective ally worthy or such an alliance." - (Jaroslav Stránsky, Minister of Justice, Mass meeting in Most, June 19, 1945). • "Personally I trust the Russians; they think as they speak. I believe that they will cooperate fully with England and America. They will hold strictly to the decisions of the Teheran Conference to guarantee the peace for several generations. I do not believe that Russia will interfere in the internal affairs of its neighbors. I assure you that Stalin is willing to confirm his statement that he is completely against all efforts to force communistic principles on the Danubian countries." - (Dr. Beneš, Interview with Charles Goley, London "DAILY EXPRIDSS," 3-13-44). • "Our position in Europe is different from that in 1918. Today we are approaching far-reaching revolution. Our whole world is changing. This war has formed a solid and impregnable bloc of Slav nations and states. Today there is the RED ARMY, the army of Marshall TITO, brave Polish divisions and the Czechoslovak PEOPLE'S army, and if all those forces are put together we shall have SOME SAY in Europe." - (Zdenek Nejedlý Minister of Education, Address to Physical Training Societies, Prague, May 31, 1945). • The belief that Czechoslovakia is a part of Russia or that the Russians are DICTATING to us is not true. And you don't find a Russian soldier in our whole country." - Stanislav Novak, Czech Consul, CLEVELAND PRESS, 8-19-46). Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource International Recognition of the Slovak Republic Description An account of the resource Dr. Joseph Kirschbaum Slovakia, Vol. 1, No. 1 (1), May 1951 pp. 23-31 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource May 1951 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Kirschbaum, Jozef M., 1913-2001 SNK https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/47327409e105ee97510413943ee0b6bd.pdf 64c0f2e60d8bfad4e4f2c47e3eab6e1b PDF Text Text 24 SLOVAKIA vakia. The editor of the Czech periodical had the opportunity to learn how the Slovaks in Rome felt about the matter. They held no ill will for the Archbishop of London, but they did for the Czechs associated with Novy Zivot, the editor of which certainly knows better. The Czechs apparently have learned little or nothing from the past. They keep parroting listlessly the slogan "truth will prevail" - a la Masaryk and Benes - while they spread false propaganda even about those who are supposed to be "closely related" to them. It is obvious that the Czech periodical "Novy Zivot" (New Life) is still following the old life which brought ruin to the Slovak and Czech nations. • • • INTERNATIONAL SOCIAL JUSTICE Rev. William A. Kaschmitter, M.N. Due to the scientific and technological revolutions of the past century, the world has become international in spite of itself and does not know what to do about this new situation. The number of international organizations created since 1860 to cope with specific international problems is simply phenomenal. The first global attempt made to grapple with all of these problems in general was made after World War I when the League of Nations was formally erected. The League failed but its failure did not kill the sense of need :for such an organization and after World War II another attempt was made in the creation of the United Nations Organization. Unfortunately, many people today fear that the United Nations Organization will go the way of the League unless it can "grow up" and mature to the point where it can command not only the respect but also the confidence of all nations, great and small. Justice - Not Merely Charity There are good-hearted people who think that charity alone will suffice to cure the ills of our world. It is true that love for God and neighbor are the two greatest commandments and that acording to St. Paul, Charity is the �SLOVAKIA 25 fulfillment of the law. We must remember, however, that obligations of justice take precedence over the obligations of charity and that where justice is lacking there can be no true charity. To give to our neighbor in charity what is due to him in justice would be sordid mockery. Those of us who have seen Communists at close range know how violently they oppose charity as a substitute for justice but unfortunately they seem to know little about what justice really is and what it demands. It is equally unfortunate that many of our anti-Communist statesmen seem to know just as little as the Communists do about what justice demands in the international sphere. The Charter of the United Nations in its Preamble speaks of justice for all nations, and President Eisenhower in a recent television address declared that justice and peace are only two faces of the same coin. These declarations would not only be admirable but supremely important if they were accompanied by a clear-cut and sound definition of what justice between nations is and what it demands. Even without a precise definition of justice and its demands, such declarations would be truly precious if we could assume that the present world order is just; for then every one of us could easily supply a definition merely by saying that justice demands the preservation of the status quo, the observance of international treaties, international agreements, etc. Here, the crucial question is: Is Our Present World Order Just? Many good people seem to think that the only thing that's wrong with our world is that we have too many Communists and that if we could only be rid of Communism the whole world could be happy. They think that the ogre of Communism is kept alive only by the lying propaganda of a few self-seeking tyrants who keep their dupes in line with the most savage terrorism. I hold no brief for Communism. I could not defend Communism without betraying my own friends who suffered exquisite torture at Communist hands and without betraying all of the Christians in China, some of whom were buried alive by the Communists while I was; still in Peking. �26 SLOVAKIA Without excusing the horrors and abuses of the Communists, let us admit here and now that it is precisely the injustice of our present unbalanced and unhealthy world order that provides the Communist propaganda machine with its best ammunition. I hope within the next few minutes to cite some facts and statistics to prove that our present world is unjust but before taking up that point I'd like to call your attention to a few of the glaring failures and mistakes of the Free World in its fight against Communism. The Free World is placing great emphasis on military preparedness as a means of combatting the Communist threat. That, of course, is necessary. It's a mistake, however, to think that bombs and bullets can ever be an antidote to an ideology - especially the kind of ideology which Pope Pius XI has described as a kind of mysticism - a false mysticism, it is true, but still a mysticism. There are Communists who would be willing to fight with stones and stick;; if necessary and are willing to die rather than give up that pseudo-mysticism of theirs. MQst people in the Free World admit that bombs and bullets are no real antidote to the Communist ideology and they are therefore stressing the idea of freedom as an anti-dote to Communistic ideals and practices. Freedom is, of course, one of God's greatest natural gifts to man. History has also proven over and over again that an atmosphere of freedom is most conducive not only to sound political life but also to healthy economic development. This freedom, however, must be real; it must be for all; above all, it must be in harmony with justice. When I was directing the Catholic news service in Peking I got reports of a million people starving to death in China. These people were "free" to eat - if they could find the necessary food. They couldn't find it - and hence they were not really free to eat. The liberalistic ideas of John Locke, John Hobbes and Jean Jacques Rosseau as applied in the nineteenth century led to economic anarchy and all kinds of injustice. That kind of liberty gave birth to the monstrosity that we know as Communism today and it is still provid- �SLOVAKIA 27 ing ammunition for the Communist propaganda machine in the hungry countries today. Liberty of that kind is as closely related to Communism as a grandfather is related to his grandson. Liberty if joined together with justice can indeed serve as a splendid antidote to the Communist ideology and there are many good men who are making it so today. On the other hand, there are others who are loud in condemning Communism, but who are afraid even to whisper that the hungry people in other countries have a real right to human existence. That kind of anti-communism is ineffectual if not actually harmful. Let us then have liberty - but let it be a liberty that is eternally wedded to JUSTICE FOR ALL MEN! It is only on this kind of justice, coupled with liberty, that we will be ruble to provide an effective antidote to the Communist ideology. The biggest job ahead of us is to create a system of social thought that will provide for real justice for all men. If that justice is wedded to the truth that makes men free, this combination of justice and truth and freedom will give birth to an ideology that will be more effective than all of the "A" and "H" bombs in the world. If, on the other hand, we continue to tolerate a world order in which more than half of humanity is deprived of its right to a truly human existence, our bombs may prove to be nothing but the instruments of a wholesale destruction in which democracy itself will perish and we ourselves will go down to ultimate defeat. Our Unjust World Order Providing enough food for everybody is certainly one of the most basic requirements for a healty world order. There are many prophets of doom who fear that the day will soon come when the earth simply cannot provide food for all. It is certainly true that half of the world's population today is undernourished if not actualJy starving. Some say that no less than 70 percent of the human race is undernourished. �28 SLOVAKIA The question for us to consider is this: is all this hunger really due to over-population or is it due to mismanagement in our conduct of world affairs? Experts of our Department of Agriculture in Washington are quoted as saying that 16,000,000,000 acres could be used by modern methods throughout the world for food production. On the other hand, the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations declared in its 1956 Yearbook that at present less than 3,340,000,000 acres are under cultivation. If these figures are accurate, it means that 79 percent of the land that could be used for food production, is now simply going to waste. These statistics certainly indicate that there is still a great deal of land that we could use and are not using. Other facts seem to indicate that we are not using our Godgiven brains either. Alluding to the great progress made by the agricultural scientists in recent years, the Daily News in New York declared editorially on August 7, 1952 that if we really put our scientific know-how and technical skill to work in this country, the Mississippi Basin alone could provide food for a population of 500,000,000 or approximately three times the present total population of this whole country. Reader's Digest in its issue for September, 1952, carried an article in which it was stated that Brazil alone could support a total population of one billion or nearly twenty times its present population. These estimates are based on the present findings of agricultural science and we must remember that the scientists are constantly finding ways of increasing production. As one of them declared : "The big harvest is still ahead." Another scientist, Professor Rosin, who is not interested in agriculture but in chemistry, has declared that if we devoted only as much money to chemical research as w spend in one month on military preparedness, the chemists could find ways of producing so much food artificially that we could turn all our farms into parks and flowerbeds and still feed humanity more adequately than it is being fed today. A sad but effective commentary on the statistics quoted above is provided by the "plague" of agricultural over- �SLOVAKIA 29 production which is giving farmers and statesmen such a headache in various countries. During his campaign speech on agriculture last fall, President Eisenhower told us that our Government has spent $9,000,000,000 for the purchase of agricultural surplus products merely to keep them off the market and is storing them at the cost of $1,000,000 a day. In 1957 our Government had paid farmers 260 million dollars for not cultivating 12,000,000 acres and, according to the President's campaign speech,. the planning called for the immobilization of from forty to fifty million acres in 1958. Agricultral producers of about 25 countries who met in Nairobi, Africa, a few years ago, complained that the most serious problem confronting world agriculture today is the fact that "effective demand" cannot keep up with productive capacity. Time does not permit of any detailed discussion of natural resources of our earth in so far as these things industry, trade and finance or of the still undeveloped have a bearing on hunger and the world's other ills. Suffice it to say that industry in some areas is forced to curtail production and lay off workers simply because people in other areas, some of which are enormously rich in undeveloped resources, are too poor to buy what they really need or what they would like to have. The facts and figures which I have just quoted seem to prove conclusively that if half of the human race is still hungry, the blame is not to be placed on poor old mother earth. Neither are our agricultural scientists to blame. The blame is rather to be placed on the immaturity of our international politics and our international economics. Our science is indeed worthy of the twentieth century but our international economics and our international politics seem to be stuck somewhere in the nineteenth, the eighteenth, the seventeenth or the sixteenth century. The tragic significance of the agricultural statistics which I have just quoted is punctuated and accentuated when they are compared with conditions in the hungry nations. Japan, with a population of more than 90,000,000 �30 SLOVAKIA today has less farm land than is actually under cultivation in the little State of New York. With more than six million farm families, the country has only 14,000,000 acres of food producing land. Let us remember that according to the experts quoted by Josue de Castro, there are still nearly 13,000,000,000 acres throughout the world that could be used for food production but are actually lying idle. If these figures are even approximately correct, it means that throughout the world there are more than 900 arable acres lying idle for every acre that Japan has at her disposal for food production. In the cities of Japan, a better than average wage is sufficient only to keep a man, his wife and one child in comfort. With two children the situation is no longer comfortable and with three children, a man with even a better than average wage is apt to go into debt. Three million people in Japan are suffering from tuberculosis and 1,300,000 are more or less mentally deranged, largely due to economic worries. Under such circumstances, is it surprising that this Abortion has been legalized for economic reasons so that non-Christian nation is going all-out for birth-control? a family that is too poor to support another child can legally have an abortion. In 1955 abortions in Japan equalled the number of births - 1,700,000 of each. The Japanese know the horrors connected with abortions and for that reason 30,000 experts have been trained in the use of contraceptives so as to teach people everywhere how to use them. Shall we ,b lame the Japanese for these practices or shall we place the blame on the insane world order that makes such things necessary? It would take too long to give the corresponding data concerning India, Java, Egypt, China and many other crowded sectors of the globe. I have already told you that when I was in Peking I received reports of 1,000,000 deaths by starvation in China at a time when my own brothers in Idaho were being paid for not cultivating their fields. Need I remind you that China is today the second greatest stronghold of Communism in the world? �SLOVAKIA 31 Where Is The Solution? Many of you may remember that certain spokesmen for the World Health Organization of the United Nations hoped to solve the world's problems by starting all-out birth control movements in the crowded areas of the globe. Some of the Catholic representatives in the World Health Organization opposed this plan so bitterly that the others dared not go on openly with their plan for fear that the whole Organizatiofl would be destroyed. Though the Catholic representatnves in the World Health Organization opposed birth control they did not succeed in bringing forward any real solution. During a violent controversy I had in Tokyo eight years ago .on the subject of birth control, I too was challenged to bring forward a positive solution. The challenge seemed reasonable so a number of us began to study not only the effects of the world's population and its resources but also contemporary social theory. After several years we arrived at the conclusion that contemporary social theory - at least our Catholic social teaching - is mature anough to INDICATE solutions for social and economic problems WITHIN a nation but that even our Catholic social doctrine has not matured to the point where it can effectively grapple with INTERNATIONAL social and economic problems. It was obvious to all of us that we could not find the talent in Japan that would be needed to extend our social teaching to the international sphere so I gave up my press work on the first of January last year in order to go looking for the needed talent. During this year and a half I have contacted a large number of Catholic specialists in economics, sociology, international law, moral theology, natural law, etc. In Asia and Europe as well as in the United States I found general agreement among the scholars I consulted to the effect that our failure to extend our social teaching to the international sphere has: a) greatly weakened our position in the face of international Communism; b) defeated many of our efforts for world peace. These specialists also agree that it is imperative to mobil- �32 SLOVAKIA ize the best talent of the whole world for the creation of a new science of international social justice. A Science Of International Social Justice It is of the essence of a science that it should include all of the related principles underlying a specified field of knowledge along with the conclusions logically drawn from those principles. The history of all of our sciences shows that no science has ever grown up over night but in many cases the principles were shown and accepted long before they were coordinated into a system and before most of the conclusions had been drawn. In the matter of international social justice, we have a few basic principles which can now be affirmed though the scholars have not as yet drawn up any system of conclusions from them. Perhaps the most basic of these principles is that every human being has a real right to a human existence. That does not mean that every one is entitled to a Cadillac or a Ford. Perhaps not to a bicycle. But every human being does have a right to enough to eat, enough to wear, enough to feed, clothe and house his children. People also have a right to found a family and therefore also the right to enough of this world's goods so that they can observe the natural law in family life. The correlative of a "right" is not charity or handouts, but justice. It cannot be said that this or that individual has an obligation in justice to provide this or that stranger with all that is needed for a human existence. It can, however, be said that society has an obligation in justice to set up such a social and economic order as will enable all men, under the proper conditions, to secure for themselves what is needed for a truly human existence. It can also be said that all of the members of society have an obligation in justice to do their share in order that society as a whole can create such a social and economic order. A second principle that can be affirmed is the one enunciated by Pope Pius XII on June 1, 1941, when he pointed to all of the land now going to waste throughout �SLOVAKIA 33 the world and declared that it had been "created and prepared" by God "for the use of all .. " His Holiness did not, of course say: "for the OWNERSHIP of all." It is to be expected that any attempt to reduce this principle to practice will meet with bitter opposition on the part of that liberalistic school of thought which seeks absolute freedom of action in the economic sphere and refuses to face the responsibilities which are correlative to every right. Perhaps the best answer for people who take this stand is the well known fact that a mistake in a chemical laboratory can blow up not only the laboratory but all of the workers who are in it. History shows many cases in which mistakes in politics or economics have also led to explosions that are far more disastrous than can occur in any laboratory. Communism might be referred to as one such explosion - and it has already engulfed nations with a total population of some 800,000,000. You may remember that Pope Pius XII on December 24, 1941, only two and a half weeks after Pearl Harbor, called for a "new order, based on moral principles" which would enable "nations less favored by nature" to have access to resources beyond their borders, resources which, His Holiness declared, were "destined for all." In the same paragraph, His Holiness warned that if nothing were done in the future peace treaty to create such an order, there would remain in the relations between peoples a deep and far reaching root of dissension which would eventually "lead to new conflicts." It was, perhaps, fear of such new conflicts which prompted the authors of the Atlantic Charter to make a similar plea or pledge earlier that year. Unfortunately, little has been done so far as to implement the pleas and pledges of the Holy Father or the Atlantic Charter. That the Pope's warning about "future conflicts" was well-grounded is proven by the many danger spots that exist in our world today. There is no need to cite more than one example - that of Japan: Hoping to solve their naitonal prdblems in a peaceful way, a group of Japanese business men suggested a few �34 SLOVAKIA years ago that Japan buy the whole island of New Guinea and thought $8,000,000,000 would be a fair price. The island has a population of less than 2,000,000 but an American population expert estimated in 1929 that it could support about 125,000,000 Orientals. If the proposition had reached the discussion stage, all of the nations involved could have insisted on conditions that would guarantee their own security but refusal on the part of Australia and England was so instantaneous and blunt, that it never did reach the discussion stage. According to Anton Zischka in his book Japan in der Welt, Portugal was willing to sell her part of Tim.or to Japan several decades ago but was forbidden to do so by England to which Portugal owed a great deal of money. If Japan had been able to buy New Guinea, her people would have new hope for the future and would be kept so busy with development work that radicals and war-mongers would get little or no hearing and Japan would today be a strong, steadying influence for the whole Far East. As it is, most of the foreigners I met in Tokyo feel that if nothing is done soon and in a big way to remedy Japan's economic condition, no moderate Government will be able to remain in power in Tokyo 15 or 20 years from now. These people fear that if nothing is done to give the J apanase people real hope, the country will be forced by economic necessity to go either to the extreme right of more militarism or to the extreme left of Communism. The probability is in favor of Communism and this view is confirmed by a report concerning the Japanese Federation of Student Autonomous Organizations published in the New York Times on July 18, 1957. According to the Times article,, the Federation has 270,000 members out of a total of 680,000 College and University students and its official magazine recently published an article which spoke of the "heavy responsibilities" the members would have in carrying out their "special mission" when the Democratic revolution comes. A leading Australian Catholic who visited me in Tokyo several years ago summed up the situation as follows: If Japan goes Communist, the United States will have to withdraw from Okinawa and that will mean that Australia, �SLOVAKIA 35 Indonesia, the Philippines, Burma, Siam and what is left of Korea and Indochina will all be surrendered to Communism. Developments of this sort would certainly bring World War III much closer. If such a war does break out, many will cry out again in a frenzy against "War Criminals." It is logical to ask, however, whether the real "War Criminal" will not be that unhealthy and insane world order which leaves half of humanity hungry in a world of potential plenty. Appeal to the Universities I have referred to two principles which could serve as foundations for a new science of international social justice. One of these principles is that every human being has a real right to a human existence. The other is that the land now going to waste was created and prepared by God for the use of all. I have also referred to the pleas of Pope Pius XII and the Atlantic Charter for a world order which would give hungry nations access to resources beyond their borders. To build up such a science and blueprint this new world order will require the best talent the world has to offer. While this science would provide guidance for statesmen, we must recognize that the statesmen are too busy to undertake this kind of an assignment which requires the quiet study that is possible only for university men and private research workers. The new science will have to be based on natural law but if it is to be of practical value it will have to be integrated with all of the social sciences. For this reason, the cooperation of economists, sociologists and specialists in international law, etc., will be needed as well as that of moralists and specialists in natural law. Objections It might be objected that even the most perfect science of international social justice will be of no use unless we get international laws passed to back up the findings of such a science. This is a real objection but an answer to it is to be found in the relationship between the ideas of law and justice. While laws are enacted to guarantee a regime of justice, it is absolutely impossible even to draft a �36 SLOVAKIA good law until our notions of justice are clear. Within nations where people have been rubbing shoulders for century after century, our notions of what is fair for everybody are fairly clear and it is for this reason that the nations have been a:ble to draft many god laws. In the international sphere, however, practically no progress has been made in the notion of justice and its demands since the days of Francisco de Vitoria 400 years ago and Hugo Grotius 300 years ago. This is one of the main reasons why our international law is ,s till so inadequate and there is no hope of developing a really effective system of international law or of ending our era of virtual international anarchy until our notions of justice between nations are clarified. Another objection which some might raise is that any attempt to introduce real international social justice would simply rob the rich without helping the poor. To this the answer is obvious. The fact that most farmers and workers in the United States today have enough money to buy automobiles has not hurt our automobile industry in the least. If an era of international social justice could raise the living standards of another billion and a half of human beings, their added buying power would open up such markets and inaugurate such a period of general prosperity as the world has never dared to envision even in its fondest dreams. Last Argument in Favor As a final argument in favor of international social justice we might say that there is no real hope of world peace as long as large segments of the human race have every reason to feel that they are not being treated justly. This feeling is the stuff of which wars are made and promoted with the plea of "self defense." World War II cost us 20,000,000 dead and 30,000,000 wounded. Financial costs, including war damages and war costs amounted to $1,340,000,000,000 or about $520 for every man, woman and child in the whole world - a total of $2,600 for every family of five persons. Not included in these items are the tears and heartaches of hundreds of millions of human beings who lost a father, a brother or a son during the war. If we are pushed into an atomic World War III, the cost of World �SLOVAKIA 37 War II will look like peanuts. It has been well said that the next war will be fought with atomic power and the one after that with bows and arrows. I remember that when I started to study history some 47 years ago, I congratulated myself on having been born in an age that is civilized and no longer wages war. I was just old enough to register for service when World War I ended, but, during World War II, I had ample time in J:ipanese Concentration Camps to think over the kind of civilization we have today and the result has been a very, very sad disillusionment. Millions of others, soldiers with their wives, their parents and their children have been similarly disillusioned and if one of our Catholic organizations can spearhead a movement in favor of such justice as will prevent wars in the future it will have millions of followers . • • • WHO SAID IT? "The United States passed a law against Communists. This law is giving the gentlemen from the Central Action Committee of the (Czechoslovak) National Front - who now shamelessly appear under the name the Council of Free Czechoslovakia - quite a headache. The new law is made to order for all Socialists, but also for many Czech Populists and Slovak Democrats who helped to destroy the economical structure of Czecho-:Slovakia, to suppress political freedom and who otherwise cleared the road for the complete victory of Communism. Of course, it is altogether possible that the gentlemen will try to dodge the consequences of their past by denying and lying about it. But it is not only the National Socialists who are appearing under a false flag. (Lettrich's) Slovak DemocFats are doing the same thing: without notifying their members or asking them for their assent, they have now changed to "Slovak Agrarians." Of course, income from the Agrarian International is connected with this and the gentlemen, who never before were agriculturists by vocation, have nevertheless become professional Slovak Agrarians." - (NAROD, Czech Bulletin, London, Nov. 1950). � 24 SLOVAKIA vakia. The editor of the Czech periodical had the opportunity to learn how the Slovaks in Rome felt about the matter. They held no ill will for the Archbishop of London, but they did for the Czechs associated with Novy Zivot, the editor of which certainly knows better. The Czechs apparently have learned little or nothing from the past. They keep parroting listlessly the slogan "truth will prevail" - a la Masaryk and Benes - while they spread false propaganda even about those who are supposed to be "closely related" to them. It is obvious that the Czech periodical "Novy Zivot" (New Life) is still following the old life which brought ruin to the Slovak and Czech nations. • • • INTERNATIONAL SOCIAL JUSTICE Rev. William A. Kaschmitter, M.N. Due to the scientific and technological revolutions of the past century, the world has become international in spite of itself and does not know what to do about this new situation. The number of international organizations created since 1860 to cope with specific international problems is simply phenomenal. The first global attempt made to grapple with all of these problems in general was made after World War I when the League of Nations was formally erected. The League failed but its failure did not kill the sense of need :for such an organization and after World War II another attempt was made in the creation of the United Nations Organization. Unfortunately, many people today fear that the United Nations Organization will go the way of the League unless it can "grow up" and mature to the point where it can command not only the respect but also the confidence of all nations, great and small. Justice - Not Merely Charity There are good-hearted people who think that charity alone will suffice to cure the ills of our world. It is true that love for God and neighbor are the two greatest commandments and that acording to St. Paul, Charity is the �SLOVAKIA 25 fulfillment of the law. We must remember, however, that obligations of justice take precedence over the obligations of charity and that where justice is lacking there can be no true charity. To give to our neighbor in charity what is due to him in justice would be sordid mockery. Those of us who have seen Communists at close range know how violently they oppose charity as a substitute for justice but unfortunately they seem to know little about what justice really is and what it demands. It is equally unfortunate that many of our anti-Communist statesmen seem to know just as little as the Communists do about what justice demands in the international sphere. The Charter of the United Nations in its Preamble speaks of justice for all nations, and President Eisenhower in a recent television address declared that justice and peace are only two faces of the same coin. These declarations would not only be admirable but supremely important if they were accompanied by a clear-cut and sound definition of what justice between nations is and what it demands. Even without a precise definition of justice and its demands, such declarations would be truly precious if we could assume that the present world order is just; for then every one of us could easily supply a definition merely by saying that justice demands the preservation of the status quo, the observance of international treaties, international agreements, etc. Here, the crucial question is: Is Our Present World Order Just? Many good people seem to think that the only thing that's wrong with our world is that we have too many Communists and that if we could only be rid of Communism the whole world could be happy. They think that the ogre of Communism is kept alive only by the lying propaganda of a few self-seeking tyrants who keep their dupes in line with the most savage terrorism. I hold no brief for Communism. I could not defend Communism without betraying my own friends who suffered exquisite torture at Communist hands and without betraying all of the Christians in China, some of whom were buried alive by the Communists while I was; still in Peking. �26 SLOVAKIA Without excusing the horrors and abuses of the Communists, let us admit here and now that it is precisely the injustice of our present unbalanced and unhealthy world order that provides the Communist propaganda machine with its best ammunition. I hope within the next few minutes to cite some facts and statistics to prove that our present world is unjust but before taking up that point I'd like to call your attention to a few of the glaring failures and mistakes of the Free World in its fight against Communism. The Free World is placing great emphasis on military preparedness as a means of combatting the Communist threat. That, of course, is necessary. It's a mistake, however, to think that bombs and bullets can ever be an antidote to an ideology - especially the kind of ideology which Pope Pius XI has described as a kind of mysticism - a false mysticism, it is true, but still a mysticism. There are Communists who would be willing to fight with stones and stick;; if necessary and are willing to die rather than give up that pseudo-mysticism of theirs. MQst people in the Free World admit that bombs and bullets are no real antidote to the Communist ideology and they are therefore stressing the idea of freedom as an anti-dote to Communistic ideals and practices. Freedom is, of course, one of God's greatest natural gifts to man. History has also proven over and over again that an atmosphere of freedom is most conducive not only to sound political life but also to healthy economic development. This freedom, however, must be real; it must be for all; above all, it must be in harmony with justice. When I was directing the Catholic news service in Peking I got reports of a million people starving to death in China. These people were "free" to eat - if they could find the necessary food. They couldn't find it - and hence they were not really free to eat. The liberalistic ideas of John Locke, John Hobbes and Jean Jacques Rosseau as applied in the nineteenth century led to economic anarchy and all kinds of injustice. That kind of liberty gave birth to the monstrosity that we know as Communism today and it is still provid- �SLOVAKIA 27 ing ammunition for the Communist propaganda machine in the hungry countries today. Liberty of that kind is as closely related to Communism as a grandfather is related to his grandson. Liberty if joined together with justice can indeed serve as a splendid antidote to the Communist ideology and there are many good men who are making it so today. On the other hand, there are others who are loud in condemning Communism, but who are afraid even to whisper that the hungry people in other countries have a real right to human existence. That kind of anti-communism is ineffectual if not actually harmful. Let us then have liberty - but let it be a liberty that is eternally wedded to JUSTICE FOR ALL MEN! It is only on this kind of justice, coupled with liberty, that we will be ruble to provide an effective antidote to the Communist ideology. The biggest job ahead of us is to create a system of social thought that will provide for real justice for all men. If that justice is wedded to the truth that makes men free, this combination of justice and truth and freedom will give birth to an ideology that will be more effective than all of the "A" and "H" bombs in the world. If, on the other hand, we continue to tolerate a world order in which more than half of humanity is deprived of its right to a truly human existence, our bombs may prove to be nothing but the instruments of a wholesale destruction in which democracy itself will perish and we ourselves will go down to ultimate defeat. Our Unjust World Order Providing enough food for everybody is certainly one of the most basic requirements for a healty world order. There are many prophets of doom who fear that the day will soon come when the earth simply cannot provide food for all. It is certainly true that half of the world's population today is undernourished if not actualJy starving. Some say that no less than 70 percent of the human race is undernourished. �28 SLOVAKIA The question for us to consider is this: is all this hunger really due to over-population or is it due to mismanagement in our conduct of world affairs? Experts of our Department of Agriculture in Washington are quoted as saying that 16,000,000,000 acres could be used by modern methods throughout the world for food production. On the other hand, the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations declared in its 1956 Yearbook that at present less than 3,340,000,000 acres are under cultivation. If these figures are accurate, it means that 79 percent of the land that could be used for food production, is now simply going to waste. These statistics certainly indicate that there is still a great deal of land that we could use and are not using. Other facts seem to indicate that we are not using our Godgiven brains either. Alluding to the great progress made by the agricultural scientists in recent years, the Daily News in New York declared editorially on August 7, 1952 that if we really put our scientific know-how and technical skill to work in this country, the Mississippi Basin alone could provide food for a population of 500,000,000 or approximately three times the present total population of this whole country. Reader's Digest in its issue for September, 1952, carried an article in which it was stated that Brazil alone could support a total population of one billion or nearly twenty times its present population. These estimates are based on the present findings of agricultural science and we must remember that the scientists are constantly finding ways of increasing production. As one of them declared : "The big harvest is still ahead." Another scientist, Professor Rosin, who is not interested in agriculture but in chemistry, has declared that if we devoted only as much money to chemical research as w spend in one month on military preparedness, the chemists could find ways of producing so much food artificially that we could turn all our farms into parks and flowerbeds and still feed humanity more adequately than it is being fed today. A sad but effective commentary on the statistics quoted above is provided by the "plague" of agricultural over- �SLOVAKIA 29 production which is giving farmers and statesmen such a headache in various countries. During his campaign speech on agriculture last fall, President Eisenhower told us that our Government has spent $9,000,000,000 for the purchase of agricultural surplus products merely to keep them off the market and is storing them at the cost of $1,000,000 a day. In 1957 our Government had paid farmers 260 million dollars for not cultivating 12,000,000 acres and, according to the President's campaign speech,. the planning called for the immobilization of from forty to fifty million acres in 1958. Agricultral producers of about 25 countries who met in Nairobi, Africa, a few years ago, complained that the most serious problem confronting world agriculture today is the fact that "effective demand" cannot keep up with productive capacity. Time does not permit of any detailed discussion of natural resources of our earth in so far as these things industry, trade and finance or of the still undeveloped have a bearing on hunger and the world's other ills. Suffice it to say that industry in some areas is forced to curtail production and lay off workers simply because people in other areas, some of which are enormously rich in undeveloped resources, are too poor to buy what they really need or what they would like to have. The facts and figures which I have just quoted seem to prove conclusively that if half of the human race is still hungry, the blame is not to be placed on poor old mother earth. Neither are our agricultural scientists to blame. The blame is rather to be placed on the immaturity of our international politics and our international economics. Our science is indeed worthy of the twentieth century but our international economics and our international politics seem to be stuck somewhere in the nineteenth, the eighteenth, the seventeenth or the sixteenth century. The tragic significance of the agricultural statistics which I have just quoted is punctuated and accentuated when they are compared with conditions in the hungry nations. Japan, with a population of more than 90,000,000 �30 SLOVAKIA today has less farm land than is actually under cultivation in the little State of New York. With more than six million farm families, the country has only 14,000,000 acres of food producing land. Let us remember that according to the experts quoted by Josue de Castro, there are still nearly 13,000,000,000 acres throughout the world that could be used for food production but are actually lying idle. If these figures are even approximately correct, it means that throughout the world there are more than 900 arable acres lying idle for every acre that Japan has at her disposal for food production. In the cities of Japan, a better than average wage is sufficient only to keep a man, his wife and one child in comfort. With two children the situation is no longer comfortable and with three children, a man with even a better than average wage is apt to go into debt. Three million people in Japan are suffering from tuberculosis and 1,300,000 are more or less mentally deranged, largely due to economic worries. Under such circumstances, is it surprising that this Abortion has been legalized for economic reasons so that non-Christian nation is going all-out for birth-control? a family that is too poor to support another child can legally have an abortion. In 1955 abortions in Japan equalled the number of births - 1,700,000 of each. The Japanese know the horrors connected with abortions and for that reason 30,000 experts have been trained in the use of contraceptives so as to teach people everywhere how to use them. Shall we ,b lame the Japanese for these practices or shall we place the blame on the insane world order that makes such things necessary? It would take too long to give the corresponding data concerning India, Java, Egypt, China and many other crowded sectors of the globe. I have already told you that when I was in Peking I received reports of 1,000,000 deaths by starvation in China at a time when my own brothers in Idaho were being paid for not cultivating their fields. Need I remind you that China is today the second greatest stronghold of Communism in the world? �SLOVAKIA 31 Where Is The Solution? Many of you may remember that certain spokesmen for the World Health Organization of the United Nations hoped to solve the world's problems by starting all-out birth control movements in the crowded areas of the globe. Some of the Catholic representatives in the World Health Organization opposed this plan so bitterly that the others dared not go on openly with their plan for fear that the whole Organizatiofl would be destroyed. Though the Catholic representatnves in the World Health Organization opposed birth control they did not succeed in bringing forward any real solution. During a violent controversy I had in Tokyo eight years ago .on the subject of birth control, I too was challenged to bring forward a positive solution. The challenge seemed reasonable so a number of us began to study not only the effects of the world's population and its resources but also contemporary social theory. After several years we arrived at the conclusion that contemporary social theory - at least our Catholic social teaching - is mature anough to INDICATE solutions for social and economic problems WITHIN a nation but that even our Catholic social doctrine has not matured to the point where it can effectively grapple with INTERNATIONAL social and economic problems. It was obvious to all of us that we could not find the talent in Japan that would be needed to extend our social teaching to the international sphere so I gave up my press work on the first of January last year in order to go looking for the needed talent. During this year and a half I have contacted a large number of Catholic specialists in economics, sociology, international law, moral theology, natural law, etc. In Asia and Europe as well as in the United States I found general agreement among the scholars I consulted to the effect that our failure to extend our social teaching to the international sphere has: a) greatly weakened our position in the face of international Communism; b) defeated many of our efforts for world peace. These specialists also agree that it is imperative to mobil- �32 SLOVAKIA ize the best talent of the whole world for the creation of a new science of international social justice. A Science Of International Social Justice It is of the essence of a science that it should include all of the related principles underlying a specified field of knowledge along with the conclusions logically drawn from those principles. The history of all of our sciences shows that no science has ever grown up over night but in many cases the principles were shown and accepted long before they were coordinated into a system and before most of the conclusions had been drawn. In the matter of international social justice, we have a few basic principles which can now be affirmed though the scholars have not as yet drawn up any system of conclusions from them. Perhaps the most basic of these principles is that every human being has a real right to a human existence. That does not mean that every one is entitled to a Cadillac or a Ford. Perhaps not to a bicycle. But every human being does have a right to enough to eat, enough to wear, enough to feed, clothe and house his children. People also have a right to found a family and therefore also the right to enough of this world's goods so that they can observe the natural law in family life. The correlative of a "right" is not charity or handouts, but justice. It cannot be said that this or that individual has an obligation in justice to provide this or that stranger with all that is needed for a human existence. It can, however, be said that society has an obligation in justice to set up such a social and economic order as will enable all men, under the proper conditions, to secure for themselves what is needed for a truly human existence. It can also be said that all of the members of society have an obligation in justice to do their share in order that society as a whole can create such a social and economic order. A second principle that can be affirmed is the one enunciated by Pope Pius XII on June 1, 1941, when he pointed to all of the land now going to waste throughout �SLOVAKIA 33 the world and declared that it had been "created and prepared" by God "for the use of all .. " His Holiness did not, of course say: "for the OWNERSHIP of all." It is to be expected that any attempt to reduce this principle to practice will meet with bitter opposition on the part of that liberalistic school of thought which seeks absolute freedom of action in the economic sphere and refuses to face the responsibilities which are correlative to every right. Perhaps the best answer for people who take this stand is the well known fact that a mistake in a chemical laboratory can blow up not only the laboratory but all of the workers who are in it. History shows many cases in which mistakes in politics or economics have also led to explosions that are far more disastrous than can occur in any laboratory. Communism might be referred to as one such explosion - and it has already engulfed nations with a total population of some 800,000,000. You may remember that Pope Pius XII on December 24, 1941, only two and a half weeks after Pearl Harbor, called for a "new order, based on moral principles" which would enable "nations less favored by nature" to have access to resources beyond their borders, resources which, His Holiness declared, were "destined for all." In the same paragraph, His Holiness warned that if nothing were done in the future peace treaty to create such an order, there would remain in the relations between peoples a deep and far reaching root of dissension which would eventually "lead to new conflicts." It was, perhaps, fear of such new conflicts which prompted the authors of the Atlantic Charter to make a similar plea or pledge earlier that year. Unfortunately, little has been done so far as to implement the pleas and pledges of the Holy Father or the Atlantic Charter. That the Pope's warning about "future conflicts" was well-grounded is proven by the many danger spots that exist in our world today. There is no need to cite more than one example - that of Japan: Hoping to solve their naitonal prdblems in a peaceful way, a group of Japanese business men suggested a few �34 SLOVAKIA years ago that Japan buy the whole island of New Guinea and thought $8,000,000,000 would be a fair price. The island has a population of less than 2,000,000 but an American population expert estimated in 1929 that it could support about 125,000,000 Orientals. If the proposition had reached the discussion stage, all of the nations involved could have insisted on conditions that would guarantee their own security but refusal on the part of Australia and England was so instantaneous and blunt, that it never did reach the discussion stage. According to Anton Zischka in his book Japan in der Welt, Portugal was willing to sell her part of Tim.or to Japan several decades ago but was forbidden to do so by England to which Portugal owed a great deal of money. If Japan had been able to buy New Guinea, her people would have new hope for the future and would be kept so busy with development work that radicals and war-mongers would get little or no hearing and Japan would today be a strong, steadying influence for the whole Far East. As it is, most of the foreigners I met in Tokyo feel that if nothing is done soon and in a big way to remedy Japan's economic condition, no moderate Government will be able to remain in power in Tokyo 15 or 20 years from now. These people fear that if nothing is done to give the J apanase people real hope, the country will be forced by economic necessity to go either to the extreme right of more militarism or to the extreme left of Communism. The probability is in favor of Communism and this view is confirmed by a report concerning the Japanese Federation of Student Autonomous Organizations published in the New York Times on July 18, 1957. According to the Times article,, the Federation has 270,000 members out of a total of 680,000 College and University students and its official magazine recently published an article which spoke of the "heavy responsibilities" the members would have in carrying out their "special mission" when the Democratic revolution comes. A leading Australian Catholic who visited me in Tokyo several years ago summed up the situation as follows: If Japan goes Communist, the United States will have to withdraw from Okinawa and that will mean that Australia, �SLOVAKIA 35 Indonesia, the Philippines, Burma, Siam and what is left of Korea and Indochina will all be surrendered to Communism. Developments of this sort would certainly bring World War III much closer. If such a war does break out, many will cry out again in a frenzy against "War Criminals." It is logical to ask, however, whether the real "War Criminal" will not be that unhealthy and insane world order which leaves half of humanity hungry in a world of potential plenty. Appeal to the Universities I have referred to two principles which could serve as foundations for a new science of international social justice. One of these principles is that every human being has a real right to a human existence. The other is that the land now going to waste was created and prepared by God for the use of all. I have also referred to the pleas of Pope Pius XII and the Atlantic Charter for a world order which would give hungry nations access to resources beyond their borders. To build up such a science and blueprint this new world order will require the best talent the world has to offer. While this science would provide guidance for statesmen, we must recognize that the statesmen are too busy to undertake this kind of an assignment which requires the quiet study that is possible only for university men and private research workers. The new science will have to be based on natural law but if it is to be of practical value it will have to be integrated with all of the social sciences. For this reason, the cooperation of economists, sociologists and specialists in international law, etc., will be needed as well as that of moralists and specialists in natural law. Objections It might be objected that even the most perfect science of international social justice will be of no use unless we get international laws passed to back up the findings of such a science. This is a real objection but an answer to it is to be found in the relationship between the ideas of law and justice. While laws are enacted to guarantee a regime of justice, it is absolutely impossible even to draft a �36 SLOVAKIA good law until our notions of justice are clear. Within nations where people have been rubbing shoulders for century after century, our notions of what is fair for everybody are fairly clear and it is for this reason that the nations have been a:ble to draft many god laws. In the international sphere, however, practically no progress has been made in the notion of justice and its demands since the days of Francisco de Vitoria 400 years ago and Hugo Grotius 300 years ago. This is one of the main reasons why our international law is ,s till so inadequate and there is no hope of developing a really effective system of international law or of ending our era of virtual international anarchy until our notions of justice between nations are clarified. Another objection which some might raise is that any attempt to introduce real international social justice would simply rob the rich without helping the poor. To this the answer is obvious. The fact that most farmers and workers in the United States today have enough money to buy automobiles has not hurt our automobile industry in the least. If an era of international social justice could raise the living standards of another billion and a half of human beings, their added buying power would open up such markets and inaugurate such a period of general prosperity as the world has never dared to envision even in its fondest dreams. Last Argument in Favor As a final argument in favor of international social justice we might say that there is no real hope of world peace as long as large segments of the human race have every reason to feel that they are not being treated justly. This feeling is the stuff of which wars are made and promoted with the plea of "self defense." World War II cost us 20,000,000 dead and 30,000,000 wounded. Financial costs, including war damages and war costs amounted to $1,340,000,000,000 or about $520 for every man, woman and child in the whole world - a total of $2,600 for every family of five persons. Not included in these items are the tears and heartaches of hundreds of millions of human beings who lost a father, a brother or a son during the war. If we are pushed into an atomic World War III, the cost of World �SLOVAKIA 37 War II will look like peanuts. It has been well said that the next war will be fought with atomic power and the one after that with bows and arrows. I remember that when I started to study history some 47 years ago, I congratulated myself on having been born in an age that is civilized and no longer wages war. I was just old enough to register for service when World War I ended, but, during World War II, I had ample time in J:ipanese Concentration Camps to think over the kind of civilization we have today and the result has been a very, very sad disillusionment. Millions of others, soldiers with their wives, their parents and their children have been similarly disillusioned and if one of our Catholic organizations can spearhead a movement in favor of such justice as will prevent wars in the future it will have millions of followers . • • • WHO SAID IT? "The United States passed a law against Communists. This law is giving the gentlemen from the Central Action Committee of the (Czechoslovak) National Front - who now shamelessly appear under the name the Council of Free Czechoslovakia - quite a headache. The new law is made to order for all Socialists, but also for many Czech Populists and Slovak Democrats who helped to destroy the economical structure of Czecho-:Slovakia, to suppress political freedom and who otherwise cleared the road for the complete victory of Communism. Of course, it is altogether possible that the gentlemen will try to dodge the consequences of their past by denying and lying about it. But it is not only the National Socialists who are appearing under a false flag. (Lettrich's) Slovak DemocFats are doing the same thing: without notifying their members or asking them for their assent, they have now changed to "Slovak Agrarians." Of course, income from the Agrarian International is connected with this and the gentlemen, who never before were agriculturists by vocation, have nevertheless become professional Slovak Agrarians." - (NAROD, Czech Bulletin, London, Nov. 1950). � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to 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 24 SLOVAKIA vakia. The editor of the Czech periodical had the opportunity to learn how the Slovaks in Rome felt about the matter. They held no ill will for the Archbishop of London, but they did for the Czechs associated with Novy Zivot, the editor of which certainly knows better. The Czechs apparently have learned little or nothing from the past. They keep parroting listlessly the slogan "truth will prevail" - a la Masaryk and Benes - while they spread false propaganda even about those who are supposed to be "closely related" to them. It is obvious that the Czech periodical "Novy Zivot" (New Life) is still following the old life which brought ruin to the Slovak and Czech nations. • • • INTERNATIONAL SOCIAL JUSTICE Rev. William A. Kaschmitter, M.N. Due to the scientific and technological revolutions of the past century, the world has become international in spite of itself and does not know what to do about this new situation. The number of international organizations created since 1860 to cope with specific international problems is simply phenomenal. The first global attempt made to grapple with all of these problems in general was made after World War I when the League of Nations was formally erected. The League failed but its failure did not kill the sense of need :for such an organization and after World War II another attempt was made in the creation of the United Nations Organization. Unfortunately, many people today fear that the United Nations Organization will go the way of the League unless it can "grow up" and mature to the point where it can command not only the respect but also the confidence of all nations, great and small. Justice - Not Merely Charity There are good-hearted people who think that charity alone will suffice to cure the ills of our world. It is true that love for God and neighbor are the two greatest commandments and that acording to St. Paul, Charity is the SLOVAKIA 25 fulfillment of the law. We must remember, however, that obligations of justice take precedence over the obligations of charity and that where justice is lacking there can be no true charity. To give to our neighbor in charity what is due to him in justice would be sordid mockery. Those of us who have seen Communists at close range know how violently they oppose charity as a substitute for justice but unfortunately they seem to know little about what justice really is and what it demands. It is equally unfortunate that many of our anti-Communist statesmen seem to know just as little as the Communists do about what justice demands in the international sphere. The Charter of the United Nations in its Preamble speaks of justice for all nations, and President Eisenhower in a recent television address declared that justice and peace are only two faces of the same coin. These declarations would not only be admirable but supremely important if they were accompanied by a clear-cut and sound definition of what justice between nations is and what it demands. Even without a precise definition of justice and its demands, such declarations would be truly precious if we could assume that the present world order is just; for then every one of us could easily supply a definition merely by saying that justice demands the preservation of the status quo, the observance of international treaties, international agreements, etc. Here, the crucial question is: Is Our Present World Order Just? Many good people seem to think that the only thing that's wrong with our world is that we have too many Communists and that if we could only be rid of Communism the whole world could be happy. They think that the ogre of Communism is kept alive only by the lying propaganda of a few self-seeking tyrants who keep their dupes in line with the most savage terrorism. I hold no brief for Communism. I could not defend Communism without betraying my own friends who suffered exquisite torture at Communist hands and without betraying all of the Christians in China, some of whom were buried alive by the Communists while I was; still in Peking. 26 SLOVAKIA Without excusing the horrors and abuses of the Communists, let us admit here and now that it is precisely the injustice of our present unbalanced and unhealthy world order that provides the Communist propaganda machine with its best ammunition. I hope within the next few minutes to cite some facts and statistics to prove that our present world is unjust but before taking up that point I'd like to call your attention to a few of the glaring failures and mistakes of the Free World in its fight against Communism. The Free World is placing great emphasis on military preparedness as a means of combatting the Communist threat. That, of course, is necessary. It's a mistake, however, to think that bombs and bullets can ever be an antidote to an ideology - especially the kind of ideology which Pope Pius XI has described as a kind of mysticism - a false mysticism, it is true, but still a mysticism. There are Communists who would be willing to fight with stones and stick;; if necessary and are willing to die rather than give up that pseudo-mysticism of theirs. MQst people in the Free World admit that bombs and bullets are no real antidote to the Communist ideology and they are therefore stressing the idea of freedom as an anti-dote to Communistic ideals and practices. Freedom is, of course, one of God's greatest natural gifts to man. History has also proven over and over again that an atmosphere of freedom is most conducive not only to sound political life but also to healthy economic development. This freedom, however, must be real; it must be for all; above all, it must be in harmony with justice. When I was directing the Catholic news service in Peking I got reports of a million people starving to death in China. These people were "free" to eat - if they could find the necessary food. They couldn't find it - and hence they were not really free to eat. The liberalistic ideas of John Locke, John Hobbes and Jean Jacques Rosseau as applied in the nineteenth century led to economic anarchy and all kinds of injustice. That kind of liberty gave birth to the monstrosity that we know as Communism today and it is still provid- SLOVAKIA 27 ing ammunition for the Communist propaganda machine in the hungry countries today. Liberty of that kind is as closely related to Communism as a grandfather is related to his grandson. Liberty if joined together with justice can indeed serve as a splendid antidote to the Communist ideology and there are many good men who are making it so today. On the other hand, there are others who are loud in condemning Communism, but who are afraid even to whisper that the hungry people in other countries have a real right to human existence. That kind of anti-communism is ineffectual if not actually harmful. Let us then have liberty - but let it be a liberty that is eternally wedded to JUSTICE FOR ALL MEN! It is only on this kind of justice, coupled with liberty, that we will be ruble to provide an effective antidote to the Communist ideology. The biggest job ahead of us is to create a system of social thought that will provide for real justice for all men. If that justice is wedded to the truth that makes men free, this combination of justice and truth and freedom will give birth to an ideology that will be more effective than all of the "A" and "H" bombs in the world. If, on the other hand, we continue to tolerate a world order in which more than half of humanity is deprived of its right to a truly human existence, our bombs may prove to be nothing but the instruments of a wholesale destruction in which democracy itself will perish and we ourselves will go down to ultimate defeat. Our Unjust World Order Providing enough food for everybody is certainly one of the most basic requirements for a healty world order. There are many prophets of doom who fear that the day will soon come when the earth simply cannot provide food for all. It is certainly true that half of the world's population today is undernourished if not actualJy starving. Some say that no less than 70 percent of the human race is undernourished. 28 SLOVAKIA The question for us to consider is this: is all this hunger really due to over-population or is it due to mismanagement in our conduct of world affairs? Experts of our Department of Agriculture in Washington are quoted as saying that 16,000,000,000 acres could be used by modern methods throughout the world for food production. On the other hand, the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations declared in its 1956 Yearbook that at present less than 3,340,000,000 acres are under cultivation. If these figures are accurate, it means that 79 percent of the land that could be used for food production, is now simply going to waste. These statistics certainly indicate that there is still a great deal of land that we could use and are not using. Other facts seem to indicate that we are not using our Godgiven brains either. Alluding to the great progress made by the agricultural scientists in recent years, the Daily News in New York declared editorially on August 7, 1952 that if we really put our scientific know-how and technical skill to work in this country, the Mississippi Basin alone could provide food for a population of 500,000,000 or approximately three times the present total population of this whole country. Reader's Digest in its issue for September, 1952, carried an article in which it was stated that Brazil alone could support a total population of one billion or nearly twenty times its present population. These estimates are based on the present findings of agricultural science and we must remember that the scientists are constantly finding ways of increasing production. As one of them declared : "The big harvest is still ahead." Another scientist, Professor Rosin, who is not interested in agriculture but in chemistry, has declared that if we devoted only as much money to chemical research as w spend in one month on military preparedness, the chemists could find ways of producing so much food artificially that we could turn all our farms into parks and flowerbeds and still feed humanity more adequately than it is being fed today. A sad but effective commentary on the statistics quoted above is provided by the "plague" of agricultural over- SLOVAKIA 29 production which is giving farmers and statesmen such a headache in various countries. During his campaign speech on agriculture last fall, President Eisenhower told us that our Government has spent $9,000,000,000 for the purchase of agricultural surplus products merely to keep them off the market and is storing them at the cost of $1,000,000 a day. In 1957 our Government had paid farmers 260 million dollars for not cultivating 12,000,000 acres and, according to the President's campaign speech,. the planning called for the immobilization of from forty to fifty million acres in 1958. Agricultral producers of about 25 countries who met in Nairobi, Africa, a few years ago, complained that the most serious problem confronting world agriculture today is the fact that "effective demand" cannot keep up with productive capacity. Time does not permit of any detailed discussion of natural resources of our earth in so far as these things industry, trade and finance or of the still undeveloped have a bearing on hunger and the world's other ills. Suffice it to say that industry in some areas is forced to curtail production and lay off workers simply because people in other areas, some of which are enormously rich in undeveloped resources, are too poor to buy what they really need or what they would like to have. The facts and figures which I have just quoted seem to prove conclusively that if half of the human race is still hungry, the blame is not to be placed on poor old mother earth. Neither are our agricultural scientists to blame. The blame is rather to be placed on the immaturity of our international politics and our international economics. Our science is indeed worthy of the twentieth century but our international economics and our international politics seem to be stuck somewhere in the nineteenth, the eighteenth, the seventeenth or the sixteenth century. The tragic significance of the agricultural statistics which I have just quoted is punctuated and accentuated when they are compared with conditions in the hungry nations. Japan, with a population of more than 90,000,000 30 SLOVAKIA today has less farm land than is actually under cultivation in the little State of New York. With more than six million farm families, the country has only 14,000,000 acres of food producing land. Let us remember that according to the experts quoted by Josue de Castro, there are still nearly 13,000,000,000 acres throughout the world that could be used for food production but are actually lying idle. If these figures are even approximately correct, it means that throughout the world there are more than 900 arable acres lying idle for every acre that Japan has at her disposal for food production. In the cities of Japan, a better than average wage is sufficient only to keep a man, his wife and one child in comfort. With two children the situation is no longer comfortable and with three children, a man with even a better than average wage is apt to go into debt. Three million people in Japan are suffering from tuberculosis and 1,300,000 are more or less mentally deranged, largely due to economic worries. Under such circumstances, is it surprising that this Abortion has been legalized for economic reasons so that non-Christian nation is going all-out for birth-control? a family that is too poor to support another child can legally have an abortion. In 1955 abortions in Japan equalled the number of births - 1,700,000 of each. The Japanese know the horrors connected with abortions and for that reason 30,000 experts have been trained in the use of contraceptives so as to teach people everywhere how to use them. Shall we ,b lame the Japanese for these practices or shall we place the blame on the insane world order that makes such things necessary? It would take too long to give the corresponding data concerning India, Java, Egypt, China and many other crowded sectors of the globe. I have already told you that when I was in Peking I received reports of 1,000,000 deaths by starvation in China at a time when my own brothers in Idaho were being paid for not cultivating their fields. Need I remind you that China is today the second greatest stronghold of Communism in the world? SLOVAKIA 31 Where Is The Solution? Many of you may remember that certain spokesmen for the World Health Organization of the United Nations hoped to solve the world's problems by starting all-out birth control movements in the crowded areas of the globe. Some of the Catholic representatives in the World Health Organization opposed this plan so bitterly that the others dared not go on openly with their plan for fear that the whole Organizatiofl would be destroyed. Though the Catholic representatnves in the World Health Organization opposed birth control they did not succeed in bringing forward any real solution. During a violent controversy I had in Tokyo eight years ago .on the subject of birth control, I too was challenged to bring forward a positive solution. The challenge seemed reasonable so a number of us began to study not only the effects of the world's population and its resources but also contemporary social theory. After several years we arrived at the conclusion that contemporary social theory - at least our Catholic social teaching - is mature anough to INDICATE solutions for social and economic problems WITHIN a nation but that even our Catholic social doctrine has not matured to the point where it can effectively grapple with INTERNATIONAL social and economic problems. It was obvious to all of us that we could not find the talent in Japan that would be needed to extend our social teaching to the international sphere so I gave up my press work on the first of January last year in order to go looking for the needed talent. During this year and a half I have contacted a large number of Catholic specialists in economics, sociology, international law, moral theology, natural law, etc. In Asia and Europe as well as in the United States I found general agreement among the scholars I consulted to the effect that our failure to extend our social teaching to the international sphere has: a) greatly weakened our position in the face of international Communism; b) defeated many of our efforts for world peace. These specialists also agree that it is imperative to mobil- 32 SLOVAKIA ize the best talent of the whole world for the creation of a new science of international social justice. A Science Of International Social Justice It is of the essence of a science that it should include all of the related principles underlying a specified field of knowledge along with the conclusions logically drawn from those principles. The history of all of our sciences shows that no science has ever grown up over night but in many cases the principles were shown and accepted long before they were coordinated into a system and before most of the conclusions had been drawn. In the matter of international social justice, we have a few basic principles which can now be affirmed though the scholars have not as yet drawn up any system of conclusions from them. Perhaps the most basic of these principles is that every human being has a real right to a human existence. That does not mean that every one is entitled to a Cadillac or a Ford. Perhaps not to a bicycle. But every human being does have a right to enough to eat, enough to wear, enough to feed, clothe and house his children. People also have a right to found a family and therefore also the right to enough of this world's goods so that they can observe the natural law in family life. The correlative of a "right" is not charity or handouts, but justice. It cannot be said that this or that individual has an obligation in justice to provide this or that stranger with all that is needed for a human existence. It can, however, be said that society has an obligation in justice to set up such a social and economic order as will enable all men, under the proper conditions, to secure for themselves what is needed for a truly human existence. It can also be said that all of the members of society have an obligation in justice to do their share in order that society as a whole can create such a social and economic order. A second principle that can be affirmed is the one enunciated by Pope Pius XII on June 1, 1941, when he pointed to all of the land now going to waste throughout SLOVAKIA 33 the world and declared that it had been "created and prepared" by God "for the use of all .. " His Holiness did not, of course say: "for the OWNERSHIP of all." It is to be expected that any attempt to reduce this principle to practice will meet with bitter opposition on the part of that liberalistic school of thought which seeks absolute freedom of action in the economic sphere and refuses to face the responsibilities which are correlative to every right. Perhaps the best answer for people who take this stand is the well known fact that a mistake in a chemical laboratory can blow up not only the laboratory but all of the workers who are in it. History shows many cases in which mistakes in politics or economics have also led to explosions that are far more disastrous than can occur in any laboratory. Communism might be referred to as one such explosion - and it has already engulfed nations with a total population of some 800,000,000. You may remember that Pope Pius XII on December 24, 1941, only two and a half weeks after Pearl Harbor, called for a "new order, based on moral principles" which would enable "nations less favored by nature" to have access to resources beyond their borders, resources which, His Holiness declared, were "destined for all." In the same paragraph, His Holiness warned that if nothing were done in the future peace treaty to create such an order, there would remain in the relations between peoples a deep and far reaching root of dissension which would eventually "lead to new conflicts." It was, perhaps, fear of such new conflicts which prompted the authors of the Atlantic Charter to make a similar plea or pledge earlier that year. Unfortunately, little has been done so far as to implement the pleas and pledges of the Holy Father or the Atlantic Charter. That the Pope's warning about "future conflicts" was well-grounded is proven by the many danger spots that exist in our world today. There is no need to cite more than one example - that of Japan: Hoping to solve their naitonal prdblems in a peaceful way, a group of Japanese business men suggested a few 34 SLOVAKIA years ago that Japan buy the whole island of New Guinea and thought $8,000,000,000 would be a fair price. The island has a population of less than 2,000,000 but an American population expert estimated in 1929 that it could support about 125,000,000 Orientals. If the proposition had reached the discussion stage, all of the nations involved could have insisted on conditions that would guarantee their own security but refusal on the part of Australia and England was so instantaneous and blunt, that it never did reach the discussion stage. According to Anton Zischka in his book Japan in der Welt, Portugal was willing to sell her part of Tim.or to Japan several decades ago but was forbidden to do so by England to which Portugal owed a great deal of money. If Japan had been able to buy New Guinea, her people would have new hope for the future and would be kept so busy with development work that radicals and war-mongers would get little or no hearing and Japan would today be a strong, steadying influence for the whole Far East. As it is, most of the foreigners I met in Tokyo feel that if nothing is done soon and in a big way to remedy Japan's economic condition, no moderate Government will be able to remain in power in Tokyo 15 or 20 years from now. These people fear that if nothing is done to give the J apanase people real hope, the country will be forced by economic necessity to go either to the extreme right of more militarism or to the extreme left of Communism. The probability is in favor of Communism and this view is confirmed by a report concerning the Japanese Federation of Student Autonomous Organizations published in the New York Times on July 18, 1957. According to the Times article,, the Federation has 270,000 members out of a total of 680,000 College and University students and its official magazine recently published an article which spoke of the "heavy responsibilities" the members would have in carrying out their "special mission" when the Democratic revolution comes. A leading Australian Catholic who visited me in Tokyo several years ago summed up the situation as follows: If Japan goes Communist, the United States will have to withdraw from Okinawa and that will mean that Australia, SLOVAKIA 35 Indonesia, the Philippines, Burma, Siam and what is left of Korea and Indochina will all be surrendered to Communism. Developments of this sort would certainly bring World War III much closer. If such a war does break out, many will cry out again in a frenzy against "War Criminals." It is logical to ask, however, whether the real "War Criminal" will not be that unhealthy and insane world order which leaves half of humanity hungry in a world of potential plenty. Appeal to the Universities I have referred to two principles which could serve as foundations for a new science of international social justice. One of these principles is that every human being has a real right to a human existence. The other is that the land now going to waste was created and prepared by God for the use of all. I have also referred to the pleas of Pope Pius XII and the Atlantic Charter for a world order which would give hungry nations access to resources beyond their borders. To build up such a science and blueprint this new world order will require the best talent the world has to offer. While this science would provide guidance for statesmen, we must recognize that the statesmen are too busy to undertake this kind of an assignment which requires the quiet study that is possible only for university men and private research workers. The new science will have to be based on natural law but if it is to be of practical value it will have to be integrated with all of the social sciences. For this reason, the cooperation of economists, sociologists and specialists in international law, etc., will be needed as well as that of moralists and specialists in natural law. Objections It might be objected that even the most perfect science of international social justice will be of no use unless we get international laws passed to back up the findings of such a science. This is a real objection but an answer to it is to be found in the relationship between the ideas of law and justice. While laws are enacted to guarantee a regime of justice, it is absolutely impossible even to draft a 36 SLOVAKIA good law until our notions of justice are clear. Within nations where people have been rubbing shoulders for century after century, our notions of what is fair for everybody are fairly clear and it is for this reason that the nations have been a:ble to draft many god laws. In the international sphere, however, practically no progress has been made in the notion of justice and its demands since the days of Francisco de Vitoria 400 years ago and Hugo Grotius 300 years ago. This is one of the main reasons why our international law is ,s till so inadequate and there is no hope of developing a really effective system of international law or of ending our era of virtual international anarchy until our notions of justice between nations are clarified. Another objection which some might raise is that any attempt to introduce real international social justice would simply rob the rich without helping the poor. To this the answer is obvious. The fact that most farmers and workers in the United States today have enough money to buy automobiles has not hurt our automobile industry in the least. If an era of international social justice could raise the living standards of another billion and a half of human beings, their added buying power would open up such markets and inaugurate such a period of general prosperity as the world has never dared to envision even in its fondest dreams. Last Argument in Favor As a final argument in favor of international social justice we might say that there is no real hope of world peace as long as large segments of the human race have every reason to feel that they are not being treated justly. This feeling is the stuff of which wars are made and promoted with the plea of "self defense." World War II cost us 20,000,000 dead and 30,000,000 wounded. Financial costs, including war damages and war costs amounted to $1,340,000,000,000 or about $520 for every man, woman and child in the whole world - a total of $2,600 for every family of five persons. Not included in these items are the tears and heartaches of hundreds of millions of human beings who lost a father, a brother or a son during the war. If we are pushed into an atomic World War III, the cost of World SLOVAKIA 37 War II will look like peanuts. It has been well said that the next war will be fought with atomic power and the one after that with bows and arrows. I remember that when I started to study history some 47 years ago, I congratulated myself on having been born in an age that is civilized and no longer wages war. I was just old enough to register for service when World War I ended, but, during World War II, I had ample time in J:ipanese Concentration Camps to think over the kind of civilization we have today and the result has been a very, very sad disillusionment. Millions of others, soldiers with their wives, their parents and their children have been similarly disillusioned and if one of our Catholic organizations can spearhead a movement in favor of such justice as will prevent wars in the future it will have millions of followers . • • • WHO SAID IT? "The United States passed a law against Communists. This law is giving the gentlemen from the Central Action Committee of the (Czechoslovak) National Front - who now shamelessly appear under the name the Council of Free Czechoslovakia - quite a headache. The new law is made to order for all Socialists, but also for many Czech Populists and Slovak Democrats who helped to destroy the economical structure of Czecho-:Slovakia, to suppress political freedom and who otherwise cleared the road for the complete victory of Communism. Of course, it is altogether possible that the gentlemen will try to dodge the consequences of their past by denying and lying about it. But it is not only the National Socialists who are appearing under a false flag. (Lettrich's) Slovak DemocFats are doing the same thing: without notifying their members or asking them for their assent, they have now changed to "Slovak Agrarians." Of course, income from the Agrarian International is connected with this and the gentlemen, who never before were agriculturists by vocation, have nevertheless become professional Slovak Agrarians." - (NAROD, Czech Bulletin, London, Nov. 1950).  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource International Social Justice Description An account of the resource Rev. William A. Kaschmitter, M.N. Slovakia, Vol. 9, No. 5 (30), June-December 1959 pp. 24-37 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Kaschmitter, William A. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource June-December 1959 LCNAF https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/c7aebf31e593b016ebcfff30a963df96.pdf 7c8e9ae006c5b22b862fe39c50c61eb8 PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA Introduction Slovak Literature: What, Where From, and Whither? F . W. Galan If the nineteenth century was the age of grand (that is, imperial) unification, the twentieth century, by contrast, appears as the age of unceasing fragmentation. Nowadays everyone wants to be a master and very much a mistress too - of his or her house . The same situation prevails in literature . The idea of one supranational Weltliteratur is now a badly tarnished remnant of a bygone era. Comparative literature flounders as well. The only approach to literary study that is still effective to a degree is along national lines. The literature of Slovakia, though inspired by the rising tide of nationalism that swept Europe after the revolution of 1848, has not yet found its rightful place in world literature, its proper voice in the concert of nations. Seen in an international (particularly American) perspective, Slovak literature does not exist at all - not, I would submit, because of the poor quality of writing, but because of its minority status. Incontrovertibly, Slovak literature is a literature of a minority, indeed, of a minority of a minority. Even within the field of Slavic studies, literatures other than Russian suffer considerable neglect. Czech literatu re, mainly thanks to recent recognition of exiled writers, however, is beginning to gain ground . Unfortunately, contemporary Slovak literature has not produced any controversial political and literary figures, although it could boast a whole pleiade of distinguished writers, especially in so-called lyrical prose , between the two wars. Thus , even though the prospects of Slovak literature are problematic in the present-day social �SLOVAKIA 11 and literary context, it amply merits our attention on literary rather than merely "ethnic" grounds . The following studies should be assessed in these terms . Abstract of commentary presented in Pa nel 65 , " The Village in Slovak Literature ," a t th e AAASS convention in Asiloma r , California on 21 September 1981. � SLOVAKIA Introduction Slovak Literature: What, Where From, and Whither? F . W. Galan If the nineteenth century was the age of grand (that is, imperial) unification, the twentieth century, by contrast, appears as the age of unceasing fragmentation. Nowadays everyone wants to be a master and very much a mistress too - of his or her house . The same situation prevails in literature . The idea of one supranational Weltliteratur is now a badly tarnished remnant of a bygone era. Comparative literature flounders as well. The only approach to literary study that is still effective to a degree is along national lines. The literature of Slovakia, though inspired by the rising tide of nationalism that swept Europe after the revolution of 1848, has not yet found its rightful place in world literature, its proper voice in the concert of nations. Seen in an international (particularly American) perspective, Slovak literature does not exist at all - not, I would submit, because of the poor quality of writing, but because of its minority status. Incontrovertibly, Slovak literature is a literature of a minority, indeed, of a minority of a minority. Even within the field of Slavic studies, literatures other than Russian suffer considerable neglect. Czech literatu re, mainly thanks to recent recognition of exiled writers, however, is beginning to gain ground . Unfortunately, contemporary Slovak literature has not produced any controversial political and literary figures, although it could boast a whole pleiade of distinguished writers, especially in so-called lyrical prose , between the two wars. Thus , even though the prospects of Slovak literature are problematic in the present-day social �SLOVAKIA 11 and literary context, it amply merits our attention on literary rather than merely "ethnic" grounds . The following studies should be assessed in these terms . Abstract of commentary presented in Pa nel 65 , " The Village in Slovak Literature ," a t th e AAASS convention in Asiloma r , California on 21 September 1981. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1982-83, Vol. 30 Description An account of the resource Vol. 30 (No. 55-56), 1982-83. 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 1982-83 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 Introduction Slovak Literature: What, Where From, and Whither? F . W. Galan If the nineteenth century was the age of grand (that is, imperial) unification, the twentieth century, by contrast, appears as the age of unceasing fragmentation. Nowadays everyone wants to be a master and very much a mistress too - of his or her house . The same situation prevails in literature . The idea of one supranational Weltliteratur is now a badly tarnished remnant of a bygone era. Comparative literature flounders as well. The only approach to literary study that is still effective to a degree is along national lines. The literature of Slovakia, though inspired by the rising tide of nationalism that swept Europe after the revolution of 1848, has not yet found its rightful place in world literature, its proper voice in the concert of nations. Seen in an international (particularly American) perspective, Slovak literature does not exist at all - not, I would submit, because of the poor quality of writing, but because of its minority status. Incontrovertibly, Slovak literature is a literature of a minority, indeed, of a minority of a minority. Even within the field of Slavic studies, literatures other than Russian suffer considerable neglect. Czech literatu re, mainly thanks to recent recognition of exiled writers, however, is beginning to gain ground . Unfortunately, contemporary Slovak literature has not produced any controversial political and literary figures, although it could boast a whole pleiade of distinguished writers, especially in so-called lyrical prose , between the two wars. Thus , even though the prospects of Slovak literature are problematic in the present-day social SLOVAKIA 11 and literary context, it amply merits our attention on literary rather than merely "ethnic" grounds . The following studies should be assessed in these terms . Abstract of commentary presented in Pa nel 65 , " The Village in Slovak Literature ," a t th e AAASS convention in Asiloma r , California on 21 September 1981.  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Introduction - Slovak Literature: What, Where from, and Whither? Description An account of the resource F. W . Galan Slovakia, Vol. 30 (No. 55-56), 1982-83 pp. 10-11 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Galan, F. W. (František William), 1947- Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1982-83 LCNAF