9 50 763 https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/3a3b70e418e8fecabcbff543a4ab1131.pdf a1c42c72d6453d5e5b376d901fd1430c PDF Text Text 62 SLOVAKIA Michael Novak on White Ethnics As a reader of Michael Novak's books, author and scholar of Slovak origin, I had great pleasure in finding his article "White Ethnic" in the September 1971 issue of Harper's Magazine. There is wit, clarity and accuracy in it. It is delightful to see that someone can properly express the feeling of ethnics and immigrants in America who do not always find it easy to adjust themselves to. what is being offered to them as the American way of life. Even though I have spent the longest span of my mature age here, as an American citizen I am only a "teenager". Since my arrival in 1952, I have never ceased admiring the American federal system whose example might have solved the political problem of Central Europe where I was born. Yet, the human aspect of American life has been more puzzling. Technology and marketable values seem to have priority over human values. The abrupt homogeneization of society of diverse origins and civilizations implies as uprootal of individuals. Many Americans of non-Anglo-Saxon descent suffer from historical amnesia. They lack a larger trajectory, the wings which sustain human beings on their flight and add an important dimension to human life. The ethnics who came to America with strong religious background, like Poles, Slovaks, Lithuanians, etc., have found in religion a stabilizing factor of highest importance. Many white nativists who were reprived of those roots are slipping to the level of civil unconsciousness. They use drugs, regale themselves with pornography, indulge in swinging parties, draft card burning, and riots. The official doctrine which has relegated religion as an entirely private affair to a negligible corner of human endeavor, contributes without doubt to the state of restlessness, to the philosophy of nothingness that seems to have so much influenced the younger generation. This is all the more serious that the questionable writings of some fashionable, but ultramontane apostles, such as Jean Paul �SLOVAKIA 63 Sartre and Herbert Marcuse, will have an adverse effect on the future not only of that generation, but on the future of the country. However great and economically powerful the United States may be, it can ignore higher values and motivations only to its own detriment. We do not live on an exclusive planet. We are being exposed to the hostility and pressure of other, less liberal, systems. Consequently, those groups which stick to their traditional values, including religion, are more in agreement with the basic interests of the country than those which prefer to swim with the stream. A disturbing indifference to values is visible in some other fields. Pragmatism, that allegedly "typical" American philosophy, frequently allows our policy-makers to do with the right hand something different from what they try to do with their left hand. Examples? Our attitude to Pakistan. While we have been sending armaments to West Pakistan, we indulge in charities toward Bangladesh. Our Social Science is dominated by the school of "causalists". However, while causality a.s a method interpreting the interdependence of phenomena is proper in Natural Science, it is false in Social Science which since Aristotle and St. Thomas Aquinas has been the proper realm of teleology, i.e., of objectives and means. The lack of higher goals, metaphysical, international or simply national, is undoubtedly a result of this improper methodology. Legal Science in America is the guarded domain of the sociological school trying to explain criminality as a consequence of environmental conditions. Thus, the law has been losing its normative character. Not so much intentions, but statistics determine judicial sentences. More frequent crimes are being accepted as a sort of national fatality. Whereas in our economic system inflationary trends are being curbed by a higher interest-rate, inflationary trend in criminality are being acted by a more moderate sentencing. Who can see any logic in that? The freedom of judges under the common law system is excessive and, therefore arbitrary. The sentencing of Martin Luther King's assassin to 99 years in prison throws a doubt on the seriousness of our justice. The United States whose population �SLOVAKIA 64 is of various origins and cultures should have abandoned the common law many decades ago. This country needs codification more than an increase in the number of policemen. The second amendment to the Constitution, passed under different circumstances and allowing the individual to be judge in his own cause, is absolete. We need, consequently, to overcome the incipient "state of nature" by stricter, codified rules that would deter potential criminals. The law would then play its preventive and dissuasive role. The existing problem of ethnicity in America requires restatement of our philosophy and revision of our practices. Ethnic federalism would bring an improvement. Something has to be done to enhance the standing of some forgotten ethnic grounds; to put them on an equal footing with others; to render human dignity to them. "The Ethnic Heritage Studies Centers Act" of 1971, just passed by the Senate, may perhaps bring some remedy to the present situation. Washington, D. C. Prof. Joseph A . Mikus ' M .C.L.,J.D. Slovak Martyrs Father Anton salat lectured and wrote against the Communists. Consequently, the partisans caught him in the first week of the "uprising" in August 1944, at the rectory of Hajniky, and led him to the bridge on the River Hron. Father salat begged permission at least to go to confession, but his request was denied. The partisans shot him, took his gold watch and gold teeth, and cast the body into the Hron. Father Seda, in Liptov, suffered an even more agonizing death. The Communists, while he was still alive, cut belts of hide from his back, cut his privates, and left him to die a slow and inhuman death. � 62 SLOVAKIA Michael Novak on White Ethnics As a reader of Michael Novak's books, author and scholar of Slovak origin, I had great pleasure in finding his article "White Ethnic" in the September 1971 issue of Harper's Magazine. There is wit, clarity and accuracy in it. It is delightful to see that someone can properly express the feeling of ethnics and immigrants in America who do not always find it easy to adjust themselves to. what is being offered to them as the American way of life. Even though I have spent the longest span of my mature age here, as an American citizen I am only a "teenager". Since my arrival in 1952, I have never ceased admiring the American federal system whose example might have solved the political problem of Central Europe where I was born. Yet, the human aspect of American life has been more puzzling. Technology and marketable values seem to have priority over human values. The abrupt homogeneization of society of diverse origins and civilizations implies as uprootal of individuals. Many Americans of non-Anglo-Saxon descent suffer from historical amnesia. They lack a larger trajectory, the wings which sustain human beings on their flight and add an important dimension to human life. The ethnics who came to America with strong religious background, like Poles, Slovaks, Lithuanians, etc., have found in religion a stabilizing factor of highest importance. Many white nativists who were reprived of those roots are slipping to the level of civil unconsciousness. They use drugs, regale themselves with pornography, indulge in swinging parties, draft card burning, and riots. The official doctrine which has relegated religion as an entirely private affair to a negligible corner of human endeavor, contributes without doubt to the state of restlessness, to the philosophy of nothingness that seems to have so much influenced the younger generation. This is all the more serious that the questionable writings of some fashionable, but ultramontane apostles, such as Jean Paul �SLOVAKIA 63 Sartre and Herbert Marcuse, will have an adverse effect on the future not only of that generation, but on the future of the country. However great and economically powerful the United States may be, it can ignore higher values and motivations only to its own detriment. We do not live on an exclusive planet. We are being exposed to the hostility and pressure of other, less liberal, systems. Consequently, those groups which stick to their traditional values, including religion, are more in agreement with the basic interests of the country than those which prefer to swim with the stream. A disturbing indifference to values is visible in some other fields. Pragmatism, that allegedly "typical" American philosophy, frequently allows our policy-makers to do with the right hand something different from what they try to do with their left hand. Examples? Our attitude to Pakistan. While we have been sending armaments to West Pakistan, we indulge in charities toward Bangladesh. Our Social Science is dominated by the school of "causalists". However, while causality a.s a method interpreting the interdependence of phenomena is proper in Natural Science, it is false in Social Science which since Aristotle and St. Thomas Aquinas has been the proper realm of teleology, i.e., of objectives and means. The lack of higher goals, metaphysical, international or simply national, is undoubtedly a result of this improper methodology. Legal Science in America is the guarded domain of the sociological school trying to explain criminality as a consequence of environmental conditions. Thus, the law has been losing its normative character. Not so much intentions, but statistics determine judicial sentences. More frequent crimes are being accepted as a sort of national fatality. Whereas in our economic system inflationary trends are being curbed by a higher interest-rate, inflationary trend in criminality are being acted by a more moderate sentencing. Who can see any logic in that? The freedom of judges under the common law system is excessive and, therefore arbitrary. The sentencing of Martin Luther King's assassin to 99 years in prison throws a doubt on the seriousness of our justice. The United States whose population �SLOVAKIA 64 is of various origins and cultures should have abandoned the common law many decades ago. This country needs codification more than an increase in the number of policemen. The second amendment to the Constitution, passed under different circumstances and allowing the individual to be judge in his own cause, is absolete. We need, consequently, to overcome the incipient "state of nature" by stricter, codified rules that would deter potential criminals. The law would then play its preventive and dissuasive role. The existing problem of ethnicity in America requires restatement of our philosophy and revision of our practices. Ethnic federalism would bring an improvement. Something has to be done to enhance the standing of some forgotten ethnic grounds; to put them on an equal footing with others; to render human dignity to them. "The Ethnic Heritage Studies Centers Act" of 1971, just passed by the Senate, may perhaps bring some remedy to the present situation. Washington, D. C. Prof. Joseph A . Mikus ' M .C.L.,J.D. Slovak Martyrs Father Anton salat lectured and wrote against the Communists. Consequently, the partisans caught him in the first week of the "uprising" in August 1944, at the rectory of Hajniky, and led him to the bridge on the River Hron. Father salat begged permission at least to go to confession, but his request was denied. The partisans shot him, took his gold watch and gold teeth, and cast the body into the Hron. Father Seda, in Liptov, suffered an even more agonizing death. The Communists, while he was still alive, cut belts of hide from his back, cut his privates, and left him to die a slow and inhuman death. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1972, Vol. 22 Description An account of the resource Vol. 22 (No. 45), 1972. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1972 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document 62 SLOVAKIA Michael Novak on White Ethnics As a reader of Michael Novak's books, author and scholar of Slovak origin, I had great pleasure in finding his article "White Ethnic" in the September 1971 issue of Harper's Magazine. There is wit, clarity and accuracy in it. It is delightful to see that someone can properly express the feeling of ethnics and immigrants in America who do not always find it easy to adjust themselves to. what is being offered to them as the American way of life. Even though I have spent the longest span of my mature age here, as an American citizen I am only a "teenager". Since my arrival in 1952, I have never ceased admiring the American federal system whose example might have solved the political problem of Central Europe where I was born. Yet, the human aspect of American life has been more puzzling. Technology and marketable values seem to have priority over human values. The abrupt homogeneization of society of diverse origins and civilizations implies as uprootal of individuals. Many Americans of non-Anglo-Saxon descent suffer from historical amnesia. They lack a larger trajectory, the wings which sustain human beings on their flight and add an important dimension to human life. The ethnics who came to America with strong religious background, like Poles, Slovaks, Lithuanians, etc., have found in religion a stabilizing factor of highest importance. Many white nativists who were reprived of those roots are slipping to the level of civil unconsciousness. They use drugs, regale themselves with pornography, indulge in swinging parties, draft card burning, and riots. The official doctrine which has relegated religion as an entirely private affair to a negligible corner of human endeavor, contributes without doubt to the state of restlessness, to the philosophy of nothingness that seems to have so much influenced the younger generation. This is all the more serious that the questionable writings of some fashionable, but ultramontane apostles, such as Jean Paul SLOVAKIA 63 Sartre and Herbert Marcuse, will have an adverse effect on the future not only of that generation, but on the future of the country. However great and economically powerful the United States may be, it can ignore higher values and motivations only to its own detriment. We do not live on an exclusive planet. We are being exposed to the hostility and pressure of other, less liberal, systems. Consequently, those groups which stick to their traditional values, including religion, are more in agreement with the basic interests of the country than those which prefer to swim with the stream. A disturbing indifference to values is visible in some other fields. Pragmatism, that allegedly "typical" American philosophy, frequently allows our policy-makers to do with the right hand something different from what they try to do with their left hand. Examples? Our attitude to Pakistan. While we have been sending armaments to West Pakistan, we indulge in charities toward Bangladesh. Our Social Science is dominated by the school of "causalists". However, while causality a.s a method interpreting the interdependence of phenomena is proper in Natural Science, it is false in Social Science which since Aristotle and St. Thomas Aquinas has been the proper realm of teleology, i.e., of objectives and means. The lack of higher goals, metaphysical, international or simply national, is undoubtedly a result of this improper methodology. Legal Science in America is the guarded domain of the sociological school trying to explain criminality as a consequence of environmental conditions. Thus, the law has been losing its normative character. Not so much intentions, but statistics determine judicial sentences. More frequent crimes are being accepted as a sort of national fatality. Whereas in our economic system inflationary trends are being curbed by a higher interest-rate, inflationary trend in criminality are being acted by a more moderate sentencing. Who can see any logic in that? The freedom of judges under the common law system is excessive and, therefore arbitrary. The sentencing of Martin Luther King's assassin to 99 years in prison throws a doubt on the seriousness of our justice. The United States whose population SLOVAKIA 64 is of various origins and cultures should have abandoned the common law many decades ago. This country needs codification more than an increase in the number of policemen. The second amendment to the Constitution, passed under different circumstances and allowing the individual to be judge in his own cause, is absolete. We need, consequently, to overcome the incipient "state of nature" by stricter, codified rules that would deter potential criminals. The law would then play its preventive and dissuasive role. The existing problem of ethnicity in America requires restatement of our philosophy and revision of our practices. Ethnic federalism would bring an improvement. Something has to be done to enhance the standing of some forgotten ethnic grounds; to put them on an equal footing with others; to render human dignity to them. "The Ethnic Heritage Studies Centers Act" of 1971, just passed by the Senate, may perhaps bring some remedy to the present situation. Washington, D. C. Prof. Joseph A . Mikus ' M .C.L.,J.D. Slovak Martyrs Father Anton salat lectured and wrote against the Communists. Consequently, the partisans caught him in the first week of the "uprising" in August 1944, at the rectory of Hajniky, and led him to the bridge on the River Hron. Father salat begged permission at least to go to confession, but his request was denied. The partisans shot him, took his gold watch and gold teeth, and cast the body into the Hron. Father Seda, in Liptov, suffered an even more agonizing death. The Communists, while he was still alive, cut belts of hide from his back, cut his privates, and left him to die a slow and inhuman death.  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Michael Novak on White Ethnics Description An account of the resource Prof. Joseph A. Mikus, M.C.L., J.D. also: Slovak Martyrs, Fr. Anton Šalát Slovakia, Vol. 22 (No. 45), 1972 pp. 62-64 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Mikuš, Joseph A., 1909-2005 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1972 LCNAF https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/9ec0d1da160774fe570dfe22c6987e16.pdf 578dea45c029c313fbce23f37ad40cbe PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA 32 1939; Vefka Morava a Pofsko, rn33. Ungarns Volkerschaften im XI. Jahrhundert, Dr. I. Kn iesza, 1938. Zur Geschichte der ungarisch-slowakischen ethnischen Grenze, Dr. I. K niezsa, 19 41. Slovanske starozitnosti, P avel J . Safa rik, Vol. II, 2nd ed., 1863. Slovenske starozitnosti, Dr. I'..ubor Niederle, 1906, 1910. Narodopisni mapa Uher podle ured. lexikonu osad z r. 1n3, A . P e trov , 1924. Pribinovi Vermozi , Dr. J an Stanislav, 1939-40. Nehai'ite l'ud moj, Dr. Jo zef Skult ety, 1928 . • • • MICKIEWICZ IN SLOVAK POETRY AND TRANSLATIONS JOSEPH KIRSCHBAUM Ph.D. The University of California recently published an excellent symposium on the great Polish poet and patriot, Adam Mickiewicz, whose centenary has been commemorated throughout the world since 1955. Altogether 30 scholars and experts in Slavistics, representing over 20 nations and universities, contributed to this remarkable volume, edited by the eminent Polish scholar, professor Waclaw Lednicki. The volume has been published under the impressive title "Adam Mickiewicz in World Literature," and the editor actually succeeded in presenting Mickiewicz's influence on World literatures. Slovakia is represented by two contributions and is also mentioned in an article of a Czech scholar, who quite sincerely tried not to make the usual mistake of confusing Slovak and Czech poets and writers. The main article on Slovak literature in connection with Mickiekicz was written by the known expert in Slavic studies, professor Dimitry Cizevsky from Harvard, who in his scholarly study deals mainly with the poetry of two outstanding Slovak romantics: r..udovit Stur and Janka KraP. Cizevsky admits "that Mickiewicz's influence on Slovak literature was undoubtedly significant," but he warns at the same time against the "parallels" which are not parallels at all. This remark refers mainly to a Polish expert on Slovak poetry, Wladyslaw Bobek, whose work twenty-five years ago aimed to demonstrate the part which the poetry of Mickiewicz played in the works of - out of the theo- �SLOVAKIA 33 retical basis and in the poetic practice of Slovak poets above all, the Slovak romantic poets. In this respect Bobek succeeded according to Cizevsky. The second article on Slovak literature is a note on two modern Slovak translators of Mickiewicz, Hviezdoslav and Zarnov, contributed by this writer. Since on the Polish side also professor M. Majowski of the University of Montreal published sometime ago an interesting study on Polish-Slovak cultural relations in "Zew mlodych," we should not miss this occasion to demonstrate on Mickiewicz's example how extensive and important the cultural ties between Poland and Slovakia already were in the past century. The impact of Mickiewicz on Slovak literature was so strong that the Slovaks have not only all his works translated into the Slovak language, but we find two or three various translations. Three Slovak generations attempted to transplant the beauty of Mickiewicz's poetry into Slovak literary life. Since the first Mickiewicz's poems appeared, the generation of I?,udovit Stur, (1815-1856) recited and drew enthusiasm for the Slovak national cause from Mickiewicz's works. Slovak poets of the nineteenth century (Jan Botto, Janko Matuska, K. Kuzmany, Peter Bella- Horal etc.) translated Mickiewicz's ballads, the Ode to the Youth, his Forefather's Eve, Konrad Wallenrod, and other verses, though they preferred to read and recite the Polish original, as we shall see further. The following generation produced an admirer and translator in the person of the great Slovak poet, Pavo! 0. Hviezdoslav, and contemporary Slovak poetry was enriched by masterful translations of Andrej Zarnov, Matus Zjara, Rudo Brtaii, and Jan Holy. While we shall speak of Hviezdoslav's and Zarnov's translations extensively, it is worthwhile to mention that even very recently, in the martyrized Slovakia, there were translations and adequate commentaries of Mickiewicz's Books of the Polish Nation and Books of the Polish Pilgrimage by a persecuted Catholic priest-poet hidden behind the pseudonym Matus Zjara. A new translation of "Pan �SLOVAKIA Tadeusz" was prepared by Rudo Brtaii, and professor Jan Holy translated Jastrun's essay on Mickiewicz. We have, however, to point out that the quantity of Slovak translations from the various Slavic literatures has never adequately reflected either the popularity of the great Slavic writers and poets in Slovakia or Slovak interest in them. From the second half of the nineteenth century, when Slovakia made her contribution to the PanSlavic idea by producing its most famous exponents in the persons of Jan Kollar, P. J. Safarik, and Eudovit Stur, the Slovak "intelligentsia" expressed their Pan-Slavic sympathy and tendencies by reading Russian, Polish, Ukrainian, Czech, and Jugoslav authors in the original. The geographic situation of Slovakia and the central position of Slovak among the Slavic languages account for this peculiar phenomenon in Slovak cultural life. Under these circumstances, until recently we have had in Slovak literature a larger number of translations from non-Slavic languages (German, French, English, and Scandinavian) than from the Slavic, and this in spite of the fact that Slovak literature, especially in the nineteenth century, developed under the strong influence of the outstanding works of Russian, Polish, and other Slav authors. Again, being fundamentally national and romantic, Slovak poetry and fiction were marked, like Polish and Russian literature, by an extensive use of folk tradition and regionalism, and Slovakia's greatest poets drew on folklore and legend in the same way and to the same extent as did the other Slavs. Adam Mickiewicz, who influenced Slovak literature and cultural efforts more than any other Pole, offers an excellent illustration of the situation we have just described. A whole generation of Slovak writers drew enthusiasm, inspiration, and incentive from Mickiewicz's Ode to Youth(l) and his ballads, as well as from his Konrad Walenrod, Pan Tadeusz, and the Crimean Sonnets. For the Slovak contemporaries of Mickiewicz, namely, the group of Eudovit Stur, the Ode became "an armory of maxims, slogans, and appeals, which were used as mottoes for their collections of poetry, individual works, and publications on every possible �SLOVAKIA 35 occasion," and, according to W. Bobek, "not even in Poland has the Ode been so enthusiastically received as in Slovakia. "(2) However, with the exception of the ballads, translations of the Ode, as well as of other works of Mickiewicz that enjoyed a wide popularity among the Slovak writers of the nineteenth century, began to appear only in the twentieth century. Artistically, the best of these translations are without doubt those made by two outstanding Slovak poets, Pavol Orszagh Hviezdoslav and Andrej Zarnov . • • • P. 0. Hviezdoslav,(3) who "elevated Slovak literature to its highest peak, and gave it a true greatness and depth, and who in his national note comes near to Mickiewicz, in his artistry to the poetry of Vrchlicky, and in his strong love for his people and popular art to the works of Shevchenko, "(4) translated not only Miskiewicz's Crimean Sonnets, but also his Faris, Sages, Out of My Sight, and Girl at the Crossroads (the last mistakingly ascribed to Mickiewicz; Bobek identifies the author as J. Jezowski), thus completing the series of translations done by P . Bella-Horal, Janko Matuska, Stefan Krcmery, Botto, and others.(5) Although at first glance the translation of Polish poetry into Slovak may seem an easy task, owing to the close relationship between the two languages, this is far from being so. One reason is that, while Slovak verse bases its rhythm on the accent, Polish verse is syllabic. Another is that similar words in both languages are often not semantically equivalent.(6) It is a further difficulty to the translator of Mickiewicz that the author is a man of genius, with a style of his own, and a special variety of metaphors and peculiarities of expression. Hviezdoslav more than anyone else had, however, all the gifts needed, not only to overcome these difficulties, but at the same time to master the poetic forms and apprehend the spiritual greatness of Mickiewicz's poetry. Hviezdoslav was not only "the most important personality among the Slovak poets representing the transition from romanticism to realism"(7) and, therefore, suited spiritually to i~NS£.~lt:IBR'Jmy'epresentative of Polish ro- ~ !~~~~~VILLE STATE CO.LLEGr �36 SLOVAKIA manticism and messianism, whom he resembled by force of his own poetic visioin and prophetic sense and by his attachment to the national cause and his oppressed Slovak people; his poetic language, too - rich and varied, weighty, and filled with dialectical expressior,is and metaphors was sufficiently plastic and mature to convey the artistic brilliance of Mickiewicz's poetry. Translator of Goethe's Faust, Shakespeare's Hamlet and Midsummer Night's Dream, of Lermontov, Schiller, and Slowacki, as well as of the monumental work of Mada.ch - The Tragedy of Man, - and, in his original verse, a master of the most complicated forms, from distich and sestina to ghazel and ritornello, Hviezdoslav also possessed full technical equipment for the task of translating the Polish classics. It is not, therefore, mere courtesy when Professor Bobek writes that Hviezdoslav's translation of the Crimean Sonnets is really "masterful" and adds that the Eastern coloring of the language, so characteristic of the Sonnets, was not only preserved by Hviezdoslav but sometimes actually enriched through the use, in the translation, of the Eastern terms which Mickiewicz cited in his explanatory notes. And Bobek concludes that "on the whole, the translation of the Crimean Sonnets stands on an equal footing with the original work and can be considered as one of Hviezdoslav's best translations," (8) an opinion that is fully shared by the present writer and by many literary critics. Although Hviezdoslav's translation of Faris differs slightly in form from the original, it is nevertheless equally faithful, and artistically thorough. A comparison of texts, which unfortunately is not practicable here, would supply ample proof. In comparison with the earlier translations from Mickiewicz, especially those of i:;tur's group, the translations made by Hviezdoslav are not so close to the Polish original either in means of expression or in meter; they are poetical interpretation s, done in acordance with the rules of Slovak prosody. No influence of Mickiewicz's poetry on the original creative work of Hviezdoslav has so far been detected by an.y literary analyst or critic. W. Bobek notes that theories �SLOVAKIA 37 kave been brought forth to the effect that Pan Thadeusz influenced the composition of Hviezdoslav's longer epic poems, but that there is no supporting evidence. He adds, kowever, that Hviezdoslav's epic poems, such as The Forester's Wife, Ezo Vlkolinsky, and Gabor Vlkolinsky, form a counterpart, on Slovak soil, of the Polish epic.(9) We may conclude the comparison by stating that there was a strong spiritual affinity between the two poets and that Hviezdoslav, like Mickiewicz, by his own poetry as well as by his translations gave his fellow countrymen a vision of what they might long for and accomplish, and implemented the vision with practical and profound Christian maxims . • • • In the turmoil of the Second World War, Andrej Zarnov, (10) one of the best modern Slovak poets, prepared an entire book of translations from Mickiewicz. The volume was published "in order to transplant Mickiewicz's works to Slovak soil and thereby strengthen the structure of Slavic brotherhood in the cultural sector," and because "in world literature there are only a few great poets who in the works of their genius accumulate and present so universally, profoundly, and magnificently the history of the efforts , failures , and spiritual achievements of their own people as does Adam Mickiewicz, the greatest Polish and allSlavic poet."(11) The book appeared in 1948, published by the Slovak Catholic cultural institution the "Society of St. Adalbert." A. Zarnov, who was awarded a silver wreath by the Polish Academy of Literature in recognition of his earlier translations from Polish poetry (published in a volume entitled U pofskych basnikov), is an outstanding translator of lyrics, epics, and dramas. Of his original works Andrej Mraz, Professor of Slovak Literature at the University of Bratislava, writes: "By its fiery words and resounding verses Zarnov's poetry became an efficacious instrument in the Slovak national struggle; events of major national importance, reminiscences of history and its tragedies, find in him a militant and inflamed interpreter of the national aspirations and will-power of his people. Yet he also arrived, in his effort to find a harmony between the individual and the universe, at a lyrical as well as philosophical �38 SLOVAKIA poetry."(12) Let us add that he in fact became one of the Slovak poets who penetrated and stirred to the depths the spirit of his generation and especially of the young intelligentsia, helped to bring them to a strong awareness of their spiritual and national individuality, and successfully summoned them to the struggle for justice and freedom. Without exaggeration we can assert that 2arnov has been, in his generation, artistically and spiritually the best prepared to transmit the heritage of Mickiewicz's greatest and most beautiful poems into Slovak literature. And he did it with great artistic skill and brilliance. His volume Poezia contains not only the eighteen Crimean Sonnets, but also Konrad Wallenrod, the Ode to Youth, To a Polish Mother, To My Muscovite Friends, Sages, A Vision, The Master of Masters, Flight, and Out of My Sight, thus present• ing some valuable lyrics along with his patriotic verse tale about his fatherland. The Crimean Sonnets in 2arnov's Slovak translation remain "a wonder" and "some of the most beautiful pages in all European poetry of the century," since he has preserved to a great degree the "richness of beauty of the poetic expression which always takes us by surprise and makes us marvel at the audacity of thought and the moral courage which produce the special splendor of this colleclection."(13) 2arnov's poetic language is, naturally. more modern, his verse and rhythm more vivid, and the whole translation more audacious even than that of Hviezdoslav. Where Hviezdoslav tried to preserve not only the images and metaphors but also the expressions and rhymes, using words from the dialect of his native region, 2arnov found in his own rich poetical invention the metaphors and poetic visions to express Mickiewicz's ideas and colorful images. The translation of Konrad Wallenrod can be considered as standing not far behind the original in many respects. This poem (which was translated for the first time into Slovak in 1907 by Peter Bella-Horal) made a strong impact on the group of Sh1r's followers , who recited and imitated especially the Song of the Wajdoleta. 2arnov's translation is a poetical and genuine interpretation, equaling in beauty Mickiewicz's own work. 2arnov is certainly no romantic �SLOVAKIA 39 in the pattern of the last century, but still an enthusiastic patriot who sings in his poetry a hymn to his crucified country, dooming its traitors and fighting for justice, one who has consecrated his life and his heart to his fatherland. More than anyone else among modern Slovak poets he was, therefore, predestined to enrich modern Slovak literature by this Byronic work of great charm and poetic vision, which "of the many and often highly inspired types of Byronism in Polish poetry ranks highest."(14) .Zarnov's versions of the Ode to Youth and To My Muscovite Friends are to be remembered not only for brilliance of translation (which could be demonstrated only by quotations and comparisons of texts), but also for the purpose which the translator wished to serve. The volume Poezia was published after the tragic experiences which the Russian occupation of Slovakia brought to the people of Jan Kollar, P. J. Safarik, and Ludovit Stur, founders of the cultural as well as political Pan-Slavism of the last century . .Zarnov, to whom the national cause has always been a question of honor and personal dedication, addressed, in Mickiewicz's mordant verses, the new Muscovite rulers and sumoned Slovak youth to the dynamic faith which Mickiewicz, in the Ode to Youth, expressed for Poles under very similar circumstances. .Zarnov's translations were thus to serve after a century the same aim as Mickiewicz had assigned to his poetry. Through the literary works of Mickiewicz .Zarnov wished to teach the Slovaks, as Mickiewicz ha:d the Poles, "to regard as their personal affair the great questions of honor and dedication, truth and falsehood, nobility of ends and legitimacy of means for attaining them." .Zarnov attempted to convince his martyred people that "the national cause must become an autochthonous idea, the ultimate moral criterion around which the entire spiritual life of the nation is crystallized." The real function of .Zarnov's poetry and translation was, like that of Mickiewicz's, not "to provide artistic enjoyment or to refine aesthetic taste, but primarily to equip his people with the spiritual resources necessary to enable them to survive their enslavement and to fight for their freedom. (15) �40 · SLOVAKIA The Muscovite rulers in Slovakia grasped his intention and silenced the book. Zarnov, under constant threat of arrest and deportation, and many times in prison, made a dramatic flight from his country and now fights in exile for his ideas and those of Mickiewicz. (1) See Wladyslaw Bobek, Mickiewicz w literaturze slovackiej (Prague, 1931), pp. 9-10. (2) Ibid. (3) P. 0 . Hviezdoslav (1849-1921) is the pseudonym of Pavo! Orszagh. By occupation a lawyer, he published several volumes of lyrics, one of them (Bloody Sonnets) translated into English, dramas (Herodes a Herodias), epics (Hajnikova zena, Ezo Vlkolinsky, Gabor Vlkolinsky, Agar, Rachel, Kain), and four volumes of translations from world literature. Altogether his poetry was published in fifteen large volumes. (4) See W . Bobek, "Dzieje literatury slowackiej w zarysie," in Slowacja i Slowacy, edited by W. Semkowicz (Cracow, 1937), pp. 357 ff. (5) Among recent Slovak translations from Mickiewicz are his Books of the Polish Nation and Books of the Polish Pilgrimage, translated by Matus Zjara (Kosice, 1947). Jastrun's study of Mickiewicz, translated by Jan Holy, was published in 1950 by Tatran, in Bratislava. Professor R. Brtan has translated Pan Tadeusz, and Matus Zjara has published a penetrating study of Mickiewicz and his relations with Moscow. (6) Stefan Krcmery, outstanding essayist, translator, and poet, states that "Stu.r's group based its poetry on popular songs, Pushkin's and Mickiewicz's works" (Slovenske Pohl'ady, Vol. XLVII [1931], p. 132. W . Bobek has published a study on this subject in which he tries to prove that the metrics of Stu.r's group is based on the Polish poetry. See Kultura, Vol. V, No. 4, pp. 248-256. (7) See Otto Radl, in Handbook of Slavic Studies, edited by L I. Strakhovsky (Cambridge, Mass., 1949), p. 496. (8) See W. Bobek, Mickiewicz w literaturze slowackiej, p. 57. (9) Page 43. (10) Andrej Zarnov is the pseudonym of Frantisek Subik, former professor at the University of Bratislava, at present in Washington. He was born in 1903 in Slovakia. His main published works are Straz pri Morave (1925), Brazda cez Uhory (1929), Hlas krvi (1932), Stit (1940), and Mrtvy (1941). (11) Introduction to the volume Poezia, pp. 121-133. (12) Andreas Mraz, Die Literatur der Slowaken (Berlin-PragueVienna: Volk und Reich Verlag, 1943), pp. 187-188. �41 SLOVAKIA (13) See Waclaw Lednicki, Life and Culture of Poland (New York: Ray Publishers, 1944), p. 176 etc. (14) See Roman Dyboski, Poland in World Civilization (New York, 1950), p. 213. (15) See J . Nechon's essay on Stefan Zeronski in Harvard Slavic Studies, Vol. II, (Cambridge, Mass., 1954), pp. 323-324. • • • WF, MUST QUIT HELPING RED REGIMES (Address By Hon. William F. Knowland Before Inaugural Nationalities Banquet, January 20, 1957) It is most fitting that this banquet, held on the eve of the public inaugural ceremonies of the President and Vice President of the United States, should be under the sponsorship of the Nationalities Advisory Committee and the Inaugural Nationalities committee. Firstly, with the exception of American Indians, in this new world all of us ourse1ves or our parents, grandparent.a, or more distant forebears, came front the old worlds of Europe, Asia, or Africa. While as citizens of the United States our loyalty is to this great ·r epublic it is also natural that there remain ties of historic interests, family or racial connections, and religious beliefs, together with our natural humanitarian instincts, that makes what happens in Budapest, Berlin, London, Peiping, Cairo, or any other city large or small more than just newspaper datelines. Secondly, the naJtiona:lities groups throughout our country made notable contriibutions to the reelection of our great president Dwight D. Eisenhower a:nd our able and effective Vice President Rihard M. Nixon. Not only are you entitled to be here to witness the culmination of your individual and •c ollective constructive labors in the last campaign but you have earned the right to a respectful hearing to your recommendations. There are many great problems confronting our country domestic and foreign. The President in his address on the Middle East resolution, in his staite of ,t he Union message, in his inaugural address tomorrow, or in future special messaiges to the Congress will discuss them. � SLOVAKIA 32 1939; Vefka Morava a Pofsko, rn33. Ungarns Volkerschaften im XI. Jahrhundert, Dr. I. Kn iesza, 1938. Zur Geschichte der ungarisch-slowakischen ethnischen Grenze, Dr. I. K niezsa, 19 41. Slovanske starozitnosti, P avel J . Safa rik, Vol. II, 2nd ed., 1863. Slovenske starozitnosti, Dr. I'..ubor Niederle, 1906, 1910. Narodopisni mapa Uher podle ured. lexikonu osad z r. 1n3, A . P e trov , 1924. Pribinovi Vermozi , Dr. J an Stanislav, 1939-40. Nehai'ite l'ud moj, Dr. Jo zef Skult ety, 1928 . • • • MICKIEWICZ IN SLOVAK POETRY AND TRANSLATIONS JOSEPH KIRSCHBAUM Ph.D. The University of California recently published an excellent symposium on the great Polish poet and patriot, Adam Mickiewicz, whose centenary has been commemorated throughout the world since 1955. Altogether 30 scholars and experts in Slavistics, representing over 20 nations and universities, contributed to this remarkable volume, edited by the eminent Polish scholar, professor Waclaw Lednicki. The volume has been published under the impressive title "Adam Mickiewicz in World Literature," and the editor actually succeeded in presenting Mickiewicz's influence on World literatures. Slovakia is represented by two contributions and is also mentioned in an article of a Czech scholar, who quite sincerely tried not to make the usual mistake of confusing Slovak and Czech poets and writers. The main article on Slovak literature in connection with Mickiekicz was written by the known expert in Slavic studies, professor Dimitry Cizevsky from Harvard, who in his scholarly study deals mainly with the poetry of two outstanding Slovak romantics: r..udovit Stur and Janka KraP. Cizevsky admits "that Mickiewicz's influence on Slovak literature was undoubtedly significant," but he warns at the same time against the "parallels" which are not parallels at all. This remark refers mainly to a Polish expert on Slovak poetry, Wladyslaw Bobek, whose work twenty-five years ago aimed to demonstrate the part which the poetry of Mickiewicz played in the works of - out of the theo- �SLOVAKIA 33 retical basis and in the poetic practice of Slovak poets above all, the Slovak romantic poets. In this respect Bobek succeeded according to Cizevsky. The second article on Slovak literature is a note on two modern Slovak translators of Mickiewicz, Hviezdoslav and Zarnov, contributed by this writer. Since on the Polish side also professor M. Majowski of the University of Montreal published sometime ago an interesting study on Polish-Slovak cultural relations in "Zew mlodych," we should not miss this occasion to demonstrate on Mickiewicz's example how extensive and important the cultural ties between Poland and Slovakia already were in the past century. The impact of Mickiewicz on Slovak literature was so strong that the Slovaks have not only all his works translated into the Slovak language, but we find two or three various translations. Three Slovak generations attempted to transplant the beauty of Mickiewicz's poetry into Slovak literary life. Since the first Mickiewicz's poems appeared, the generation of I?,udovit Stur, (1815-1856) recited and drew enthusiasm for the Slovak national cause from Mickiewicz's works. Slovak poets of the nineteenth century (Jan Botto, Janko Matuska, K. Kuzmany, Peter Bella- Horal etc.) translated Mickiewicz's ballads, the Ode to the Youth, his Forefather's Eve, Konrad Wallenrod, and other verses, though they preferred to read and recite the Polish original, as we shall see further. The following generation produced an admirer and translator in the person of the great Slovak poet, Pavo! 0. Hviezdoslav, and contemporary Slovak poetry was enriched by masterful translations of Andrej Zarnov, Matus Zjara, Rudo Brtaii, and Jan Holy. While we shall speak of Hviezdoslav's and Zarnov's translations extensively, it is worthwhile to mention that even very recently, in the martyrized Slovakia, there were translations and adequate commentaries of Mickiewicz's Books of the Polish Nation and Books of the Polish Pilgrimage by a persecuted Catholic priest-poet hidden behind the pseudonym Matus Zjara. A new translation of "Pan �SLOVAKIA Tadeusz" was prepared by Rudo Brtaii, and professor Jan Holy translated Jastrun's essay on Mickiewicz. We have, however, to point out that the quantity of Slovak translations from the various Slavic literatures has never adequately reflected either the popularity of the great Slavic writers and poets in Slovakia or Slovak interest in them. From the second half of the nineteenth century, when Slovakia made her contribution to the PanSlavic idea by producing its most famous exponents in the persons of Jan Kollar, P. J. Safarik, and Eudovit Stur, the Slovak "intelligentsia" expressed their Pan-Slavic sympathy and tendencies by reading Russian, Polish, Ukrainian, Czech, and Jugoslav authors in the original. The geographic situation of Slovakia and the central position of Slovak among the Slavic languages account for this peculiar phenomenon in Slovak cultural life. Under these circumstances, until recently we have had in Slovak literature a larger number of translations from non-Slavic languages (German, French, English, and Scandinavian) than from the Slavic, and this in spite of the fact that Slovak literature, especially in the nineteenth century, developed under the strong influence of the outstanding works of Russian, Polish, and other Slav authors. Again, being fundamentally national and romantic, Slovak poetry and fiction were marked, like Polish and Russian literature, by an extensive use of folk tradition and regionalism, and Slovakia's greatest poets drew on folklore and legend in the same way and to the same extent as did the other Slavs. Adam Mickiewicz, who influenced Slovak literature and cultural efforts more than any other Pole, offers an excellent illustration of the situation we have just described. A whole generation of Slovak writers drew enthusiasm, inspiration, and incentive from Mickiewicz's Ode to Youth(l) and his ballads, as well as from his Konrad Walenrod, Pan Tadeusz, and the Crimean Sonnets. For the Slovak contemporaries of Mickiewicz, namely, the group of Eudovit Stur, the Ode became "an armory of maxims, slogans, and appeals, which were used as mottoes for their collections of poetry, individual works, and publications on every possible �SLOVAKIA 35 occasion," and, according to W. Bobek, "not even in Poland has the Ode been so enthusiastically received as in Slovakia. "(2) However, with the exception of the ballads, translations of the Ode, as well as of other works of Mickiewicz that enjoyed a wide popularity among the Slovak writers of the nineteenth century, began to appear only in the twentieth century. Artistically, the best of these translations are without doubt those made by two outstanding Slovak poets, Pavol Orszagh Hviezdoslav and Andrej Zarnov . • • • P. 0. Hviezdoslav,(3) who "elevated Slovak literature to its highest peak, and gave it a true greatness and depth, and who in his national note comes near to Mickiewicz, in his artistry to the poetry of Vrchlicky, and in his strong love for his people and popular art to the works of Shevchenko, "(4) translated not only Miskiewicz's Crimean Sonnets, but also his Faris, Sages, Out of My Sight, and Girl at the Crossroads (the last mistakingly ascribed to Mickiewicz; Bobek identifies the author as J. Jezowski), thus completing the series of translations done by P . Bella-Horal, Janko Matuska, Stefan Krcmery, Botto, and others.(5) Although at first glance the translation of Polish poetry into Slovak may seem an easy task, owing to the close relationship between the two languages, this is far from being so. One reason is that, while Slovak verse bases its rhythm on the accent, Polish verse is syllabic. Another is that similar words in both languages are often not semantically equivalent.(6) It is a further difficulty to the translator of Mickiewicz that the author is a man of genius, with a style of his own, and a special variety of metaphors and peculiarities of expression. Hviezdoslav more than anyone else had, however, all the gifts needed, not only to overcome these difficulties, but at the same time to master the poetic forms and apprehend the spiritual greatness of Mickiewicz's poetry. Hviezdoslav was not only "the most important personality among the Slovak poets representing the transition from romanticism to realism"(7) and, therefore, suited spiritually to i~NS£.~lt:IBR'Jmy'epresentative of Polish ro- ~ !~~~~~VILLE STATE CO.LLEGr �36 SLOVAKIA manticism and messianism, whom he resembled by force of his own poetic visioin and prophetic sense and by his attachment to the national cause and his oppressed Slovak people; his poetic language, too - rich and varied, weighty, and filled with dialectical expressior,is and metaphors was sufficiently plastic and mature to convey the artistic brilliance of Mickiewicz's poetry. Translator of Goethe's Faust, Shakespeare's Hamlet and Midsummer Night's Dream, of Lermontov, Schiller, and Slowacki, as well as of the monumental work of Mada.ch - The Tragedy of Man, - and, in his original verse, a master of the most complicated forms, from distich and sestina to ghazel and ritornello, Hviezdoslav also possessed full technical equipment for the task of translating the Polish classics. It is not, therefore, mere courtesy when Professor Bobek writes that Hviezdoslav's translation of the Crimean Sonnets is really "masterful" and adds that the Eastern coloring of the language, so characteristic of the Sonnets, was not only preserved by Hviezdoslav but sometimes actually enriched through the use, in the translation, of the Eastern terms which Mickiewicz cited in his explanatory notes. And Bobek concludes that "on the whole, the translation of the Crimean Sonnets stands on an equal footing with the original work and can be considered as one of Hviezdoslav's best translations," (8) an opinion that is fully shared by the present writer and by many literary critics. Although Hviezdoslav's translation of Faris differs slightly in form from the original, it is nevertheless equally faithful, and artistically thorough. A comparison of texts, which unfortunately is not practicable here, would supply ample proof. In comparison with the earlier translations from Mickiewicz, especially those of i:;tur's group, the translations made by Hviezdoslav are not so close to the Polish original either in means of expression or in meter; they are poetical interpretation s, done in acordance with the rules of Slovak prosody. No influence of Mickiewicz's poetry on the original creative work of Hviezdoslav has so far been detected by an.y literary analyst or critic. W. Bobek notes that theories �SLOVAKIA 37 kave been brought forth to the effect that Pan Thadeusz influenced the composition of Hviezdoslav's longer epic poems, but that there is no supporting evidence. He adds, kowever, that Hviezdoslav's epic poems, such as The Forester's Wife, Ezo Vlkolinsky, and Gabor Vlkolinsky, form a counterpart, on Slovak soil, of the Polish epic.(9) We may conclude the comparison by stating that there was a strong spiritual affinity between the two poets and that Hviezdoslav, like Mickiewicz, by his own poetry as well as by his translations gave his fellow countrymen a vision of what they might long for and accomplish, and implemented the vision with practical and profound Christian maxims . • • • In the turmoil of the Second World War, Andrej Zarnov, (10) one of the best modern Slovak poets, prepared an entire book of translations from Mickiewicz. The volume was published "in order to transplant Mickiewicz's works to Slovak soil and thereby strengthen the structure of Slavic brotherhood in the cultural sector," and because "in world literature there are only a few great poets who in the works of their genius accumulate and present so universally, profoundly, and magnificently the history of the efforts , failures , and spiritual achievements of their own people as does Adam Mickiewicz, the greatest Polish and allSlavic poet."(11) The book appeared in 1948, published by the Slovak Catholic cultural institution the "Society of St. Adalbert." A. Zarnov, who was awarded a silver wreath by the Polish Academy of Literature in recognition of his earlier translations from Polish poetry (published in a volume entitled U pofskych basnikov), is an outstanding translator of lyrics, epics, and dramas. Of his original works Andrej Mraz, Professor of Slovak Literature at the University of Bratislava, writes: "By its fiery words and resounding verses Zarnov's poetry became an efficacious instrument in the Slovak national struggle; events of major national importance, reminiscences of history and its tragedies, find in him a militant and inflamed interpreter of the national aspirations and will-power of his people. Yet he also arrived, in his effort to find a harmony between the individual and the universe, at a lyrical as well as philosophical �38 SLOVAKIA poetry."(12) Let us add that he in fact became one of the Slovak poets who penetrated and stirred to the depths the spirit of his generation and especially of the young intelligentsia, helped to bring them to a strong awareness of their spiritual and national individuality, and successfully summoned them to the struggle for justice and freedom. Without exaggeration we can assert that 2arnov has been, in his generation, artistically and spiritually the best prepared to transmit the heritage of Mickiewicz's greatest and most beautiful poems into Slovak literature. And he did it with great artistic skill and brilliance. His volume Poezia contains not only the eighteen Crimean Sonnets, but also Konrad Wallenrod, the Ode to Youth, To a Polish Mother, To My Muscovite Friends, Sages, A Vision, The Master of Masters, Flight, and Out of My Sight, thus present• ing some valuable lyrics along with his patriotic verse tale about his fatherland. The Crimean Sonnets in 2arnov's Slovak translation remain "a wonder" and "some of the most beautiful pages in all European poetry of the century," since he has preserved to a great degree the "richness of beauty of the poetic expression which always takes us by surprise and makes us marvel at the audacity of thought and the moral courage which produce the special splendor of this colleclection."(13) 2arnov's poetic language is, naturally. more modern, his verse and rhythm more vivid, and the whole translation more audacious even than that of Hviezdoslav. Where Hviezdoslav tried to preserve not only the images and metaphors but also the expressions and rhymes, using words from the dialect of his native region, 2arnov found in his own rich poetical invention the metaphors and poetic visions to express Mickiewicz's ideas and colorful images. The translation of Konrad Wallenrod can be considered as standing not far behind the original in many respects. This poem (which was translated for the first time into Slovak in 1907 by Peter Bella-Horal) made a strong impact on the group of Sh1r's followers , who recited and imitated especially the Song of the Wajdoleta. 2arnov's translation is a poetical and genuine interpretation, equaling in beauty Mickiewicz's own work. 2arnov is certainly no romantic �SLOVAKIA 39 in the pattern of the last century, but still an enthusiastic patriot who sings in his poetry a hymn to his crucified country, dooming its traitors and fighting for justice, one who has consecrated his life and his heart to his fatherland. More than anyone else among modern Slovak poets he was, therefore, predestined to enrich modern Slovak literature by this Byronic work of great charm and poetic vision, which "of the many and often highly inspired types of Byronism in Polish poetry ranks highest."(14) .Zarnov's versions of the Ode to Youth and To My Muscovite Friends are to be remembered not only for brilliance of translation (which could be demonstrated only by quotations and comparisons of texts), but also for the purpose which the translator wished to serve. The volume Poezia was published after the tragic experiences which the Russian occupation of Slovakia brought to the people of Jan Kollar, P. J. Safarik, and Ludovit Stur, founders of the cultural as well as political Pan-Slavism of the last century . .Zarnov, to whom the national cause has always been a question of honor and personal dedication, addressed, in Mickiewicz's mordant verses, the new Muscovite rulers and sumoned Slovak youth to the dynamic faith which Mickiewicz, in the Ode to Youth, expressed for Poles under very similar circumstances. .Zarnov's translations were thus to serve after a century the same aim as Mickiewicz had assigned to his poetry. Through the literary works of Mickiewicz .Zarnov wished to teach the Slovaks, as Mickiewicz ha:d the Poles, "to regard as their personal affair the great questions of honor and dedication, truth and falsehood, nobility of ends and legitimacy of means for attaining them." .Zarnov attempted to convince his martyred people that "the national cause must become an autochthonous idea, the ultimate moral criterion around which the entire spiritual life of the nation is crystallized." The real function of .Zarnov's poetry and translation was, like that of Mickiewicz's, not "to provide artistic enjoyment or to refine aesthetic taste, but primarily to equip his people with the spiritual resources necessary to enable them to survive their enslavement and to fight for their freedom. (15) �40 · SLOVAKIA The Muscovite rulers in Slovakia grasped his intention and silenced the book. Zarnov, under constant threat of arrest and deportation, and many times in prison, made a dramatic flight from his country and now fights in exile for his ideas and those of Mickiewicz. (1) See Wladyslaw Bobek, Mickiewicz w literaturze slovackiej (Prague, 1931), pp. 9-10. (2) Ibid. (3) P. 0 . Hviezdoslav (1849-1921) is the pseudonym of Pavo! Orszagh. By occupation a lawyer, he published several volumes of lyrics, one of them (Bloody Sonnets) translated into English, dramas (Herodes a Herodias), epics (Hajnikova zena, Ezo Vlkolinsky, Gabor Vlkolinsky, Agar, Rachel, Kain), and four volumes of translations from world literature. Altogether his poetry was published in fifteen large volumes. (4) See W . Bobek, "Dzieje literatury slowackiej w zarysie," in Slowacja i Slowacy, edited by W. Semkowicz (Cracow, 1937), pp. 357 ff. (5) Among recent Slovak translations from Mickiewicz are his Books of the Polish Nation and Books of the Polish Pilgrimage, translated by Matus Zjara (Kosice, 1947). Jastrun's study of Mickiewicz, translated by Jan Holy, was published in 1950 by Tatran, in Bratislava. Professor R. Brtan has translated Pan Tadeusz, and Matus Zjara has published a penetrating study of Mickiewicz and his relations with Moscow. (6) Stefan Krcmery, outstanding essayist, translator, and poet, states that "Stu.r's group based its poetry on popular songs, Pushkin's and Mickiewicz's works" (Slovenske Pohl'ady, Vol. XLVII [1931], p. 132. W . Bobek has published a study on this subject in which he tries to prove that the metrics of Stu.r's group is based on the Polish poetry. See Kultura, Vol. V, No. 4, pp. 248-256. (7) See Otto Radl, in Handbook of Slavic Studies, edited by L I. Strakhovsky (Cambridge, Mass., 1949), p. 496. (8) See W. Bobek, Mickiewicz w literaturze slowackiej, p. 57. (9) Page 43. (10) Andrej Zarnov is the pseudonym of Frantisek Subik, former professor at the University of Bratislava, at present in Washington. He was born in 1903 in Slovakia. His main published works are Straz pri Morave (1925), Brazda cez Uhory (1929), Hlas krvi (1932), Stit (1940), and Mrtvy (1941). (11) Introduction to the volume Poezia, pp. 121-133. (12) Andreas Mraz, Die Literatur der Slowaken (Berlin-PragueVienna: Volk und Reich Verlag, 1943), pp. 187-188. �41 SLOVAKIA (13) See Waclaw Lednicki, Life and Culture of Poland (New York: Ray Publishers, 1944), p. 176 etc. (14) See Roman Dyboski, Poland in World Civilization (New York, 1950), p. 213. (15) See J . Nechon's essay on Stefan Zeronski in Harvard Slavic Studies, Vol. II, (Cambridge, Mass., 1954), pp. 323-324. • • • WF, MUST QUIT HELPING RED REGIMES (Address By Hon. William F. Knowland Before Inaugural Nationalities Banquet, January 20, 1957) It is most fitting that this banquet, held on the eve of the public inaugural ceremonies of the President and Vice President of the United States, should be under the sponsorship of the Nationalities Advisory Committee and the Inaugural Nationalities committee. Firstly, with the exception of American Indians, in this new world all of us ourse1ves or our parents, grandparent.a, or more distant forebears, came front the old worlds of Europe, Asia, or Africa. While as citizens of the United States our loyalty is to this great ·r epublic it is also natural that there remain ties of historic interests, family or racial connections, and religious beliefs, together with our natural humanitarian instincts, that makes what happens in Budapest, Berlin, London, Peiping, Cairo, or any other city large or small more than just newspaper datelines. Secondly, the naJtiona:lities groups throughout our country made notable contriibutions to the reelection of our great president Dwight D. Eisenhower a:nd our able and effective Vice President Rihard M. Nixon. Not only are you entitled to be here to witness the culmination of your individual and •c ollective constructive labors in the last campaign but you have earned the right to a respectful hearing to your recommendations. There are many great problems confronting our country domestic and foreign. The President in his address on the Middle East resolution, in his staite of ,t he Union message, in his inaugural address tomorrow, or in future special messaiges to the Congress will discuss them. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to 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 SLOVAKIA 32 1939; Vefka Morava a Pofsko, rn33. Ungarns Volkerschaften im XI. Jahrhundert, Dr. I. Kn iesza, 1938. Zur Geschichte der ungarisch-slowakischen ethnischen Grenze, Dr. I. K niezsa, 19 41. Slovanske starozitnosti, P avel J . Safa rik, Vol. II, 2nd ed., 1863. Slovenske starozitnosti, Dr. I'..ubor Niederle, 1906, 1910. Narodopisni mapa Uher podle ured. lexikonu osad z r. 1n3, A . P e trov , 1924. Pribinovi Vermozi , Dr. J an Stanislav, 1939-40. Nehai'ite l'ud moj, Dr. Jo zef Skult ety, 1928 . • • • MICKIEWICZ IN SLOVAK POETRY AND TRANSLATIONS JOSEPH KIRSCHBAUM Ph.D. The University of California recently published an excellent symposium on the great Polish poet and patriot, Adam Mickiewicz, whose centenary has been commemorated throughout the world since 1955. Altogether 30 scholars and experts in Slavistics, representing over 20 nations and universities, contributed to this remarkable volume, edited by the eminent Polish scholar, professor Waclaw Lednicki. The volume has been published under the impressive title "Adam Mickiewicz in World Literature," and the editor actually succeeded in presenting Mickiewicz's influence on World literatures. Slovakia is represented by two contributions and is also mentioned in an article of a Czech scholar, who quite sincerely tried not to make the usual mistake of confusing Slovak and Czech poets and writers. The main article on Slovak literature in connection with Mickiekicz was written by the known expert in Slavic studies, professor Dimitry Cizevsky from Harvard, who in his scholarly study deals mainly with the poetry of two outstanding Slovak romantics: r..udovit Stur and Janka KraP. Cizevsky admits "that Mickiewicz's influence on Slovak literature was undoubtedly significant," but he warns at the same time against the "parallels" which are not parallels at all. This remark refers mainly to a Polish expert on Slovak poetry, Wladyslaw Bobek, whose work twenty-five years ago aimed to demonstrate the part which the poetry of Mickiewicz played in the works of - out of the theo- SLOVAKIA 33 retical basis and in the poetic practice of Slovak poets above all, the Slovak romantic poets. In this respect Bobek succeeded according to Cizevsky. The second article on Slovak literature is a note on two modern Slovak translators of Mickiewicz, Hviezdoslav and Zarnov, contributed by this writer. Since on the Polish side also professor M. Majowski of the University of Montreal published sometime ago an interesting study on Polish-Slovak cultural relations in "Zew mlodych," we should not miss this occasion to demonstrate on Mickiewicz's example how extensive and important the cultural ties between Poland and Slovakia already were in the past century. The impact of Mickiewicz on Slovak literature was so strong that the Slovaks have not only all his works translated into the Slovak language, but we find two or three various translations. Three Slovak generations attempted to transplant the beauty of Mickiewicz's poetry into Slovak literary life. Since the first Mickiewicz's poems appeared, the generation of I?,udovit Stur, (1815-1856) recited and drew enthusiasm for the Slovak national cause from Mickiewicz's works. Slovak poets of the nineteenth century (Jan Botto, Janko Matuska, K. Kuzmany, Peter Bella- Horal etc.) translated Mickiewicz's ballads, the Ode to the Youth, his Forefather's Eve, Konrad Wallenrod, and other verses, though they preferred to read and recite the Polish original, as we shall see further. The following generation produced an admirer and translator in the person of the great Slovak poet, Pavo! 0. Hviezdoslav, and contemporary Slovak poetry was enriched by masterful translations of Andrej Zarnov, Matus Zjara, Rudo Brtaii, and Jan Holy. While we shall speak of Hviezdoslav's and Zarnov's translations extensively, it is worthwhile to mention that even very recently, in the martyrized Slovakia, there were translations and adequate commentaries of Mickiewicz's Books of the Polish Nation and Books of the Polish Pilgrimage by a persecuted Catholic priest-poet hidden behind the pseudonym Matus Zjara. A new translation of "Pan SLOVAKIA Tadeusz" was prepared by Rudo Brtaii, and professor Jan Holy translated Jastrun's essay on Mickiewicz. We have, however, to point out that the quantity of Slovak translations from the various Slavic literatures has never adequately reflected either the popularity of the great Slavic writers and poets in Slovakia or Slovak interest in them. From the second half of the nineteenth century, when Slovakia made her contribution to the PanSlavic idea by producing its most famous exponents in the persons of Jan Kollar, P. J. Safarik, and Eudovit Stur, the Slovak "intelligentsia" expressed their Pan-Slavic sympathy and tendencies by reading Russian, Polish, Ukrainian, Czech, and Jugoslav authors in the original. The geographic situation of Slovakia and the central position of Slovak among the Slavic languages account for this peculiar phenomenon in Slovak cultural life. Under these circumstances, until recently we have had in Slovak literature a larger number of translations from non-Slavic languages (German, French, English, and Scandinavian) than from the Slavic, and this in spite of the fact that Slovak literature, especially in the nineteenth century, developed under the strong influence of the outstanding works of Russian, Polish, and other Slav authors. Again, being fundamentally national and romantic, Slovak poetry and fiction were marked, like Polish and Russian literature, by an extensive use of folk tradition and regionalism, and Slovakia's greatest poets drew on folklore and legend in the same way and to the same extent as did the other Slavs. Adam Mickiewicz, who influenced Slovak literature and cultural efforts more than any other Pole, offers an excellent illustration of the situation we have just described. A whole generation of Slovak writers drew enthusiasm, inspiration, and incentive from Mickiewicz's Ode to Youth(l) and his ballads, as well as from his Konrad Walenrod, Pan Tadeusz, and the Crimean Sonnets. For the Slovak contemporaries of Mickiewicz, namely, the group of Eudovit Stur, the Ode became "an armory of maxims, slogans, and appeals, which were used as mottoes for their collections of poetry, individual works, and publications on every possible SLOVAKIA 35 occasion," and, according to W. Bobek, "not even in Poland has the Ode been so enthusiastically received as in Slovakia. "(2) However, with the exception of the ballads, translations of the Ode, as well as of other works of Mickiewicz that enjoyed a wide popularity among the Slovak writers of the nineteenth century, began to appear only in the twentieth century. Artistically, the best of these translations are without doubt those made by two outstanding Slovak poets, Pavol Orszagh Hviezdoslav and Andrej Zarnov . • • • P. 0. Hviezdoslav,(3) who "elevated Slovak literature to its highest peak, and gave it a true greatness and depth, and who in his national note comes near to Mickiewicz, in his artistry to the poetry of Vrchlicky, and in his strong love for his people and popular art to the works of Shevchenko, "(4) translated not only Miskiewicz's Crimean Sonnets, but also his Faris, Sages, Out of My Sight, and Girl at the Crossroads (the last mistakingly ascribed to Mickiewicz; Bobek identifies the author as J. Jezowski), thus completing the series of translations done by P . Bella-Horal, Janko Matuska, Stefan Krcmery, Botto, and others.(5) Although at first glance the translation of Polish poetry into Slovak may seem an easy task, owing to the close relationship between the two languages, this is far from being so. One reason is that, while Slovak verse bases its rhythm on the accent, Polish verse is syllabic. Another is that similar words in both languages are often not semantically equivalent.(6) It is a further difficulty to the translator of Mickiewicz that the author is a man of genius, with a style of his own, and a special variety of metaphors and peculiarities of expression. Hviezdoslav more than anyone else had, however, all the gifts needed, not only to overcome these difficulties, but at the same time to master the poetic forms and apprehend the spiritual greatness of Mickiewicz's poetry. Hviezdoslav was not only "the most important personality among the Slovak poets representing the transition from romanticism to realism"(7) and, therefore, suited spiritually to i~NS£.~lt:IBR'Jmy'epresentative of Polish ro- ~ !~~~~~VILLE STATE CO.LLEGr 36 SLOVAKIA manticism and messianism, whom he resembled by force of his own poetic visioin and prophetic sense and by his attachment to the national cause and his oppressed Slovak people; his poetic language, too - rich and varied, weighty, and filled with dialectical expressior,is and metaphors was sufficiently plastic and mature to convey the artistic brilliance of Mickiewicz's poetry. Translator of Goethe's Faust, Shakespeare's Hamlet and Midsummer Night's Dream, of Lermontov, Schiller, and Slowacki, as well as of the monumental work of Mada.ch - The Tragedy of Man, - and, in his original verse, a master of the most complicated forms, from distich and sestina to ghazel and ritornello, Hviezdoslav also possessed full technical equipment for the task of translating the Polish classics. It is not, therefore, mere courtesy when Professor Bobek writes that Hviezdoslav's translation of the Crimean Sonnets is really "masterful" and adds that the Eastern coloring of the language, so characteristic of the Sonnets, was not only preserved by Hviezdoslav but sometimes actually enriched through the use, in the translation, of the Eastern terms which Mickiewicz cited in his explanatory notes. And Bobek concludes that "on the whole, the translation of the Crimean Sonnets stands on an equal footing with the original work and can be considered as one of Hviezdoslav's best translations," (8) an opinion that is fully shared by the present writer and by many literary critics. Although Hviezdoslav's translation of Faris differs slightly in form from the original, it is nevertheless equally faithful, and artistically thorough. A comparison of texts, which unfortunately is not practicable here, would supply ample proof. In comparison with the earlier translations from Mickiewicz, especially those of i:;tur's group, the translations made by Hviezdoslav are not so close to the Polish original either in means of expression or in meter; they are poetical interpretation s, done in acordance with the rules of Slovak prosody. No influence of Mickiewicz's poetry on the original creative work of Hviezdoslav has so far been detected by an.y literary analyst or critic. W. Bobek notes that theories SLOVAKIA 37 kave been brought forth to the effect that Pan Thadeusz influenced the composition of Hviezdoslav's longer epic poems, but that there is no supporting evidence. He adds, kowever, that Hviezdoslav's epic poems, such as The Forester's Wife, Ezo Vlkolinsky, and Gabor Vlkolinsky, form a counterpart, on Slovak soil, of the Polish epic.(9) We may conclude the comparison by stating that there was a strong spiritual affinity between the two poets and that Hviezdoslav, like Mickiewicz, by his own poetry as well as by his translations gave his fellow countrymen a vision of what they might long for and accomplish, and implemented the vision with practical and profound Christian maxims . • • • In the turmoil of the Second World War, Andrej Zarnov, (10) one of the best modern Slovak poets, prepared an entire book of translations from Mickiewicz. The volume was published "in order to transplant Mickiewicz's works to Slovak soil and thereby strengthen the structure of Slavic brotherhood in the cultural sector," and because "in world literature there are only a few great poets who in the works of their genius accumulate and present so universally, profoundly, and magnificently the history of the efforts , failures , and spiritual achievements of their own people as does Adam Mickiewicz, the greatest Polish and allSlavic poet."(11) The book appeared in 1948, published by the Slovak Catholic cultural institution the "Society of St. Adalbert." A. Zarnov, who was awarded a silver wreath by the Polish Academy of Literature in recognition of his earlier translations from Polish poetry (published in a volume entitled U pofskych basnikov), is an outstanding translator of lyrics, epics, and dramas. Of his original works Andrej Mraz, Professor of Slovak Literature at the University of Bratislava, writes: "By its fiery words and resounding verses Zarnov's poetry became an efficacious instrument in the Slovak national struggle; events of major national importance, reminiscences of history and its tragedies, find in him a militant and inflamed interpreter of the national aspirations and will-power of his people. Yet he also arrived, in his effort to find a harmony between the individual and the universe, at a lyrical as well as philosophical 38 SLOVAKIA poetry."(12) Let us add that he in fact became one of the Slovak poets who penetrated and stirred to the depths the spirit of his generation and especially of the young intelligentsia, helped to bring them to a strong awareness of their spiritual and national individuality, and successfully summoned them to the struggle for justice and freedom. Without exaggeration we can assert that 2arnov has been, in his generation, artistically and spiritually the best prepared to transmit the heritage of Mickiewicz's greatest and most beautiful poems into Slovak literature. And he did it with great artistic skill and brilliance. His volume Poezia contains not only the eighteen Crimean Sonnets, but also Konrad Wallenrod, the Ode to Youth, To a Polish Mother, To My Muscovite Friends, Sages, A Vision, The Master of Masters, Flight, and Out of My Sight, thus present• ing some valuable lyrics along with his patriotic verse tale about his fatherland. The Crimean Sonnets in 2arnov's Slovak translation remain "a wonder" and "some of the most beautiful pages in all European poetry of the century," since he has preserved to a great degree the "richness of beauty of the poetic expression which always takes us by surprise and makes us marvel at the audacity of thought and the moral courage which produce the special splendor of this colleclection."(13) 2arnov's poetic language is, naturally. more modern, his verse and rhythm more vivid, and the whole translation more audacious even than that of Hviezdoslav. Where Hviezdoslav tried to preserve not only the images and metaphors but also the expressions and rhymes, using words from the dialect of his native region, 2arnov found in his own rich poetical invention the metaphors and poetic visions to express Mickiewicz's ideas and colorful images. The translation of Konrad Wallenrod can be considered as standing not far behind the original in many respects. This poem (which was translated for the first time into Slovak in 1907 by Peter Bella-Horal) made a strong impact on the group of Sh1r's followers , who recited and imitated especially the Song of the Wajdoleta. 2arnov's translation is a poetical and genuine interpretation, equaling in beauty Mickiewicz's own work. 2arnov is certainly no romantic SLOVAKIA 39 in the pattern of the last century, but still an enthusiastic patriot who sings in his poetry a hymn to his crucified country, dooming its traitors and fighting for justice, one who has consecrated his life and his heart to his fatherland. More than anyone else among modern Slovak poets he was, therefore, predestined to enrich modern Slovak literature by this Byronic work of great charm and poetic vision, which "of the many and often highly inspired types of Byronism in Polish poetry ranks highest."(14) .Zarnov's versions of the Ode to Youth and To My Muscovite Friends are to be remembered not only for brilliance of translation (which could be demonstrated only by quotations and comparisons of texts), but also for the purpose which the translator wished to serve. The volume Poezia was published after the tragic experiences which the Russian occupation of Slovakia brought to the people of Jan Kollar, P. J. Safarik, and Ludovit Stur, founders of the cultural as well as political Pan-Slavism of the last century . .Zarnov, to whom the national cause has always been a question of honor and personal dedication, addressed, in Mickiewicz's mordant verses, the new Muscovite rulers and sumoned Slovak youth to the dynamic faith which Mickiewicz, in the Ode to Youth, expressed for Poles under very similar circumstances. .Zarnov's translations were thus to serve after a century the same aim as Mickiewicz had assigned to his poetry. Through the literary works of Mickiewicz .Zarnov wished to teach the Slovaks, as Mickiewicz ha:d the Poles, "to regard as their personal affair the great questions of honor and dedication, truth and falsehood, nobility of ends and legitimacy of means for attaining them." .Zarnov attempted to convince his martyred people that "the national cause must become an autochthonous idea, the ultimate moral criterion around which the entire spiritual life of the nation is crystallized." The real function of .Zarnov's poetry and translation was, like that of Mickiewicz's, not "to provide artistic enjoyment or to refine aesthetic taste, but primarily to equip his people with the spiritual resources necessary to enable them to survive their enslavement and to fight for their freedom. (15) 40 · SLOVAKIA The Muscovite rulers in Slovakia grasped his intention and silenced the book. Zarnov, under constant threat of arrest and deportation, and many times in prison, made a dramatic flight from his country and now fights in exile for his ideas and those of Mickiewicz. (1) See Wladyslaw Bobek, Mickiewicz w literaturze slovackiej (Prague, 1931), pp. 9-10. (2) Ibid. (3) P. 0 . Hviezdoslav (1849-1921) is the pseudonym of Pavo! Orszagh. By occupation a lawyer, he published several volumes of lyrics, one of them (Bloody Sonnets) translated into English, dramas (Herodes a Herodias), epics (Hajnikova zena, Ezo Vlkolinsky, Gabor Vlkolinsky, Agar, Rachel, Kain), and four volumes of translations from world literature. Altogether his poetry was published in fifteen large volumes. (4) See W . Bobek, "Dzieje literatury slowackiej w zarysie," in Slowacja i Slowacy, edited by W. Semkowicz (Cracow, 1937), pp. 357 ff. (5) Among recent Slovak translations from Mickiewicz are his Books of the Polish Nation and Books of the Polish Pilgrimage, translated by Matus Zjara (Kosice, 1947). Jastrun's study of Mickiewicz, translated by Jan Holy, was published in 1950 by Tatran, in Bratislava. Professor R. Brtan has translated Pan Tadeusz, and Matus Zjara has published a penetrating study of Mickiewicz and his relations with Moscow. (6) Stefan Krcmery, outstanding essayist, translator, and poet, states that "Stu.r's group based its poetry on popular songs, Pushkin's and Mickiewicz's works" (Slovenske Pohl'ady, Vol. XLVII [1931], p. 132. W . Bobek has published a study on this subject in which he tries to prove that the metrics of Stu.r's group is based on the Polish poetry. See Kultura, Vol. V, No. 4, pp. 248-256. (7) See Otto Radl, in Handbook of Slavic Studies, edited by L I. Strakhovsky (Cambridge, Mass., 1949), p. 496. (8) See W. Bobek, Mickiewicz w literaturze slowackiej, p. 57. (9) Page 43. (10) Andrej Zarnov is the pseudonym of Frantisek Subik, former professor at the University of Bratislava, at present in Washington. He was born in 1903 in Slovakia. His main published works are Straz pri Morave (1925), Brazda cez Uhory (1929), Hlas krvi (1932), Stit (1940), and Mrtvy (1941). (11) Introduction to the volume Poezia, pp. 121-133. (12) Andreas Mraz, Die Literatur der Slowaken (Berlin-PragueVienna: Volk und Reich Verlag, 1943), pp. 187-188. 41 SLOVAKIA (13) See Waclaw Lednicki, Life and Culture of Poland (New York: Ray Publishers, 1944), p. 176 etc. (14) See Roman Dyboski, Poland in World Civilization (New York, 1950), p. 213. (15) See J . Nechon's essay on Stefan Zeronski in Harvard Slavic Studies, Vol. II, (Cambridge, Mass., 1954), pp. 323-324. • • • WF, MUST QUIT HELPING RED REGIMES (Address By Hon. William F. Knowland Before Inaugural Nationalities Banquet, January 20, 1957) It is most fitting that this banquet, held on the eve of the public inaugural ceremonies of the President and Vice President of the United States, should be under the sponsorship of the Nationalities Advisory Committee and the Inaugural Nationalities committee. Firstly, with the exception of American Indians, in this new world all of us ourse1ves or our parents, grandparent.a, or more distant forebears, came front the old worlds of Europe, Asia, or Africa. While as citizens of the United States our loyalty is to this great ·r epublic it is also natural that there remain ties of historic interests, family or racial connections, and religious beliefs, together with our natural humanitarian instincts, that makes what happens in Budapest, Berlin, London, Peiping, Cairo, or any other city large or small more than just newspaper datelines. Secondly, the naJtiona:lities groups throughout our country made notable contriibutions to the reelection of our great president Dwight D. Eisenhower a:nd our able and effective Vice President Rihard M. Nixon. Not only are you entitled to be here to witness the culmination of your individual and •c ollective constructive labors in the last campaign but you have earned the right to a respectful hearing to your recommendations. There are many great problems confronting our country domestic and foreign. The President in his address on the Middle East resolution, in his staite of ,t he Union message, in his inaugural address tomorrow, or in future special messaiges to the Congress will discuss them.  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Mickiewicz in Slovak Poetry and Translations Description An account of the resource Joseph Kirschbaum Ph.D. Slovakia, Vol. 7, No. 1 (22), March 1957 pp. 32-41 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Kirschbaum, Jozef M., 1913-2001 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource March 1957 SNK https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/087ee42d27cbceeadc3364c8bed177a7.pdf e27f8bd5d3768bdaec78ee01b75d1158 PDF Text Text " Logan Place." September 26, 1935. All ey Dwellin g Authority. Nati onal Capital H ousin g Authorit y Collection . Library, D e pa rtm ent of H ou sin g and Com munit y D evelo pm ent. W as hin gto n, D .C . ► ► ;,::; ...... < 0 L' (/) 0::, �SLOVAKIA 9 Migrant Responses To The City: The Neighborhood, Case Studies in Black and White, 1870-1940* James Borchert and Susan Danziger-Borchert Th ey tend to reproduce spontaneously the home community and to live in it. L etters show that they frequently reply to inquiries from home for a description of America, " I have yet been able to see America." W.I. Thomas, "The Immigrant Community" Students of migration to American cities have, over the years, produ ced a large library of studies. The greatest outpouring of work has co ncentra ted on the migration of southern and eastern European immigrants during the years from 1880 to 1920, and the "great migrati o n " of blacks from the rural South. This profusion of work has not produced any final conclusions on the migrant experience, although there a re a number of schools of thought about what happen ed to migrants . Th e first group of scholars who considered European migrants of this pe riod concl uded that d espite efforts to re- establish their rural ways of life, the city proved too poor a soil for such institutions to ta ke root. Thus extended family , kinship network , neighborhood , and community 1 • A ve rsio n of this paper was prese nted a t th e Nin ety-Seve nth Annu al M ee tin g of th e Am eri ca n Hi sto ri cal Associa ti o n held in Washin gton, D .C. in D ece mb er 198 2. The authors are indebted to th e Am erican Hi to ri cal Associati on for a n Albert J. Beveridge M em o ri a l Fund Grant and the Smithson ian In sti tuti on for a fellowship, whi ch provided esse nti al fundin g in conn ec tion with th e preparation of th e original presenta tion. �10 SLOVAKIA withered ; a pe riod of disorde r a nd co nfu sion foll owed u nt il mi grant s discovered the " urba n way of life. " 1 Accordin g to the theory, thi s d iscovery , synonymous with the beginnings of assimil a tion a nd accultu ration, provided migrants with the form s of order a nd organization tha t would m ake success in America (and cities) possible and p rob able . After a n appropriate period of apprenticeship in the " zon e in transition " a nd the " zone of workingmen ' s homes, " the urba nized mi grant began to m ove to middle-class status a nd suburban h om es. 3 M ore recent scholars, a n alyzing a ggregate cen sus d a ta (fo r indi ces of di ssimil a rity) a nd city directories (for spa tial a nd occupa tional m obility), have questioned the notion that European mi gra nts spent mu ch tim e in the zon e in tran sition . Based on this d a ta, they contend tha t individu al m igra nts from diffe rent immi grant groups lived widely scattered acro ss workin g-class residential a reas . Few con centration s we re great e nou gh to permit the development of urba n vill ages or ghet toes. Where they ex isted, mi grant s passed through so quickl y th a t their importa n ce as a n institution was minimized for most. 4 In contrast , until recently , most observers of black migran ts in the city concluded tha t folk breakdown was extensive. Moreover , whil e new bl ack residents seem ed to m ove as frequ ently as white mi gra nts, they did so within a n increasingly restrictive ghetto area . 5 Thu s, whe re a disorganized ghetto confronted black migrants, white migrants ex peri en ced greater spa tial and (implicitly) m ore occupa tional mobility. Whi te migrants m elted to gether into a working cl ass div ided by reli gion (P rotestant , Catholi c, and J ew) , 6 while blacks confronted a n earl y caste-like experien ce. 7 The m ost recent work by students of Eu ro pean a nd bl ack mi gra nt s of the 1880 to 1930 period h as b egun to challen ge som e of these findin gs . Students of urba n bl ack communi ties h ave foc u sed on the exte nsive presen ce of fo rm al organi zati ons to dem onstra te the exten t of order in black life. 8 Simila rl y, studies of E u rop ean immi grant group s h ave demon stra ted the persisten ce of ethni c life in th e city throu gh the in stituti on s of church , b e nevolen t groups, lod ges, politi cal ac tivity, a nd a n active press. 9 M oreove r , both se ts of studi es presum e th e prese nce of a recogni zable geogra phical b ase upon whi ch these fo rm al or gani zations operate . In the case of black communities, the ghetto explicity fo rm s the b ounda ries; fo r white immi gra nt s, th e pa rish or" immi gran t n eighborhood " implicitly serves as the turf around which the story of organi za- �SLOVAKIA 11 tional life unfolds. Unfortunately, in either case, the empirical demonstration of this critical base and its role is often assumed as given. Few have sought to consider the role of neighborhood and community development as a crucial framework for their analyses. 10 • Because this literature provides little basis for analysis or comparison, it is necessary to turn to the work of sociologists for a framework. 11 While there is little work on scale and its impact on the nature of neighborhood, 11 more has been done on neighborhood typologies. Gerald Suttles suggests three: the defended neighborhood, the community oflimited liability, and the contrived community. The first is most pertinent to the discussion here: "a residential group which seals itself off through the efforts of delinquent gangs, . . . by sharp boundaries, or by forbidding reputation." 13 The elements of the defended community are: "a recognizable identity, a consensus among residents of a common fate, and a 'positive' and sentimental attachment to neighbors, local establishments, and local traditions to the exclusion of other persons, establishments, and traditions . '' 14 Another set of issues that the current literature ignores concerns the distinction between primary or informal groups (family, neighborhood, community) and formal organization. Historians' concentration on formal group life represents a great limitation on their work, since these groups represent only one level of response migrants made to the city. 15 In part, these formal groups reflect most fully the experiences of the most successful: those who are largely "a-typical" of the larger group's experience. 16 More importantly, informal groups played a critical role in the life of the folk migrants prior to their move to the city. 17 Their presence and roles in the city represent important elements to test to determine the nature and extent of changes that resulted from migration, urbanization, industrialization, and modernization. Since earlier observers pointed to these informal groups as the institutions that underwent the most complete and severe change, with formal groups replacing them, it seems central to the discussion of the persistency of ethnic group life that primary group life be given careful analysis. This is especially so since it is the family, neighborhood, and community that are so central for the socialization and identity of the young. 18 There are other reasons for considering the issue of informal group life. Recent studies of both European and black migrant areas have reported population turnover that was thought to undermine the develop- �12 SLOVAKIA ment and impact of ethnic enclaves; proximity to many other groups diminished European ethnicity to one of the three major religions. While recent studies demonstrate the importance of chain-migration for both black and white migrants, little effort has been made to determine what effect this chain migration had on the formation of groups in the city. 19 In contrast, the presence ( or absence) of a neighborhood in proximity to formal institutions of an ethnic group represents theoretically a very different experience than that postulated by studies of movement and mobility . Rather than seemingly random movement, it would be possible to hypothesize the informal neighborhood providing important sets of support for the church (parish), businesses, beneficial organizations, press, and national organizations. While it may be difficult to determine which came first, it seems likely that informal neighborhood lies at the base of the ethnic urban village. Moreover, despite the mobility, the presence of an ethnic village that provides important goods and services for "members," whatever the place of residence, plays an important role in the "maintenance" of ethnicity and identity. 20 Thus, while it may have have served every member of a given ethnic group in its particular part of the city, the neighborhood/urban village fostered important networks of institutions for migrants; dominance of a section of the city permitted residents a chance to be "themselves" within the confines of a turf dominated by persons from the same kin network, town, region, and country. In these neighborhoods, residents hammered out their own identities, consciousness, and relations with the larger world. Without this envelope, it is hard to imagine how so many informal and formal groups could have persisted and prospered . 21 It is the purpose of this article to examine the development of residential neighborhoods and communities by two different groups of migrants in different environments. While these are far from "random" selections, 22 we do feel that they represent two different kinds of migrant settlements, one very small, the other fairly large. Both neighborhoods conform roughly to Suttles' definition of a defended neighborhood; both represent an important migrant response to the urban environment, a response that has been passed over all too briefly by past work. The article focuses on the efforts of two different groups of folk migrants to establish a "turf" in the city: Black migrants settled in the inhabited alleys of Washington, D .C ., and the eastern European migrants settled in the "Bird's Nest" on the fringe of Cleveland, Ohio. �SLOVAKIA 13 In m a ny ways the social co nditions migrants faced in these two environments were dramatically different; each cam e with a different set of experie nces and cultural baggage, and each faced very different conditions in the cities they settled despite the fact that both entered the urban marketpl ace at the ' 'bottom .' ' 23 While these differences are critical to understand what happened to each group, it is also important to see in general term s what migrants shared in their struggle with the urban-industrial environment. The article begins with a consideration of similarities and differences between the two communities in terms of physical form , population , occupations, and living conditions. The major part of the article focuses on the development and form each neighborhood took . The conclusions seek to compa re these two experien ces and suggest their implicat ions for othe r migrant experien ces and for the study of migrants . II. Descriptive Comparison of Neighborhoods: Alley Communities and The Bird 's Nest Physical Form and Isolation . Alley communities of Washington, like their counterparts throughout the urban United States and Europe , were small, relatively circumscribed , and isola ted neighborhoods spread throu ghout the central city 24 (see Map 1) . In Washington , alley house co nstru ction fell largely in the period from the end of the Civil War until 1892, when Congress banned new construction. D eveloped on narrow st reets or alleys inside a large city block , the tiny, two-story fram e or brick row houses faced inwa rd onto the interior alley, while larger, more expensive row houses lined the outside of the block and faced onto the street (M ap 2). W ell-to-do residents of the street-front property were separated from their poor and often black, backyard neighbors physically, sociall y, and culturally. D evelopers and owne rs of alley property , often well to do , generally lived outside the immediate section of the city where their all ey property was located, thus furth er isolating the alley n eighborhood . 25 The Bird 's N est, a single neighborhood , was equ ally isolated , but shared much more in co mmon with the la rge ethnic enclaves in urban indu st ri al areas throu ghout the United States. In 1892 , a land company sub sidary (Pleasant Hill L and Company-PHLC) of the National Carbon Company laid out the eight n a rrow stree ts (five n a m ed for birds), a nd 424 lots to provide hous in g for workers at its new facto ry n earby. 26 �SLOVAKIA 14 INHABITED ALLEYS 1897 POPUATION 0 1- ,. 0 0 0 JOO - ... 0 RKE • • 0 MAP 1 - 1/l or mor, 81,il(: k 2/lormor,\Nhct C ommi ssione rs of the District of Columbia, Annual R eport (W ashin gton , 189 7), 195-202. 1897 �SLOVAKIA 15 N STREET [ fr" I l'Fif =! .J.Jo . a--1 II ' ' .. ~ • II - '-M STREET L STREET D BUILDINGS HEADS Of HOUSEHOLD Native Born Whites S.ablo Foreign Born \\'hites (born outside Ncw1h America or p,uenc~ born outside Othe<Buldir@ Store o, AmYm Shop North Amtfil:a) • •• !lacks ~ (when lhan l) more MAP 2 - Sanborn Map Publishin g Company, In surance M aps of Washington , D .C. (New York , N . Y., 1888) ; and Fed eral Populat ion Census Schedules, I 880 W ashington , D .C., V ol. 2 pan 2, R eco rd Group 29 National Archi ves. �SLOVAKIA 16 \~ PART Of" L.\I(E,ro on .>. ' -~ I I .A 11 LE 1 1 ROCKPORT TOWNSHIP. \~_. ~':. ~ \" \ ... ~7;:... MAP .3 - Pleasa nt Hill La nd C ompan y subdi vision of th e " Bird 's Nes t " a nd th e adjoining Na ti on al Ca rbon Facto r y, 1898 . Thom as Fl ynn , Ott o Ba rth el, R .H . Bunni ng , and Thomas H assa n , Atlas o[ th e Suburbs o[ Cleveland, Ohio ( Phil ad elphia , 1898), Plate 24 . �SLOVAKIA 17 The neighborhood was circumscribed by railroad tracks, th e factory , a nd a wood s (later d eveloped for a factory and park) on three sides; the fourth side, a secondary comme rcial artery, p ermitted some overflow into the immediate n eighborhood to the north (see Map 3). While Bird's Nest workers were able to gain ownership of the area, it remained isolated from the surrounding area which was developin g as a middl e-class suburb. 2 7 Like the inward facing alley, th e neighborhood also turned in ward with its " main street," Plover , being the most isol a ted of its streets. 28 Migration and Neighborhood Size. Black migrants from the surrounding states of Virginia and Maryland, coming largely in cha ins of family, fri ends , and neighbors, settled into the alley communities. 29 Predominantl y from rural areas, these mi grants mainta ined ties to the countryside a nd encouraged furth er m ove me nt from those areas . While rural migrants had a number of differe nt res id enti al environm e nts to chose from in the city, a nd often m oved b ack a nd forth betwee n these , m an y se ttled initially in the alleys . Alley popu lations varied co nsiderabl y in size within a given year and over tim e . The smallest held one or two famil ies, the largest ove r 400 peopl e (see Map 1). Most all eys fell so m ewhere in be tween , with the average all ey size in 1880 bein g 50 residents ; at the peak of alley population in 1897, when there were nearl y 20 ,000 all ey res idents living in 240 all eys, th e average all ey size was 73. Th ese were, th e n , very small , face-to-face co mmunities of bl ack rural migrants. 3° In contrast, migra nts to the Bird 's N es t cam e from rural a reas in Easte rn Europe; most id entifi ed th emselves as " Hun garian Slovaks ," alth ou gh some were from P ola nd a nd Ru ss ia . 31 Th ey also mi grated in cha in s of relat ives, fri end s, and n eighbors as well as by region. 32 Like bl ack mi gra ti on to th e all eys, th e re was cons iderab le movem ent back a nd forth betwee n th e Old W o rld a nd th e New. Un like th e all ey populat ion th at reached its peak in 1900 a nd began to drop off, with each alley being a small isola ted community onto itself, the Bird 's N est populati on of 429 in 1900 in creased fi ve -fold by 19 10 a nd then doubled by 1920 at its peak ( see T able 1.) Thi s represe nts a different kind of ethni c encl ave with pote nti al for m o re sub sta nti ve inst itu tion al d evelopme nt. Occupations and Workplace. Black residents of W ashin gton alleys co nfronted profound limita ti ons in their search for work. R ac ism limi ted �18 SLOVAKIA employment of black males largely to day labor and black women to dom estic or laundry work; none had access to the limited industrial occupations in Washington 33 (see Table 2). The employment open to alley dwell ers, then, represented the worst paid , least secure, and often the m ost physically demanding and dangerous positions available. Moreover, despite long residence in the ci ty, black alley dwellers experienced little if any upward occupational mobility ; a color bar en sured that any movem ent would be minimal. 3 4 In contrast , while migrants from Eastern Europe came with similar skills as rural blacks , they often found industrial employment available to them, even though it was nearly always at the bottom . In 1900, most male residents of the Bird 's Nest were laborers working at the adjacent National Carbon factory; by 1910, a number of residents had gained som e mobility by gaining access to semi-skilled industrial occupations. Moreover, a number of women were able to gain indu strial employment, although usually a t the lowest levels ; many others earn ed incom e by runnin g boarding houses or taking in boarders. While this work was long, hard , physically demanding , and often dangerous , it was also more secure and better paying than anything available to alley dwellers . By 1940 , em ployed male a nd female workers of the Bird 's Nest were concentrated in semi-skilled pos itions ( 44 percent), with another 10 percent skilled and 13 percent proprietarial or white collar employees; only a third remained as unskill ed or service workers 35 (see Table 3). Living Conditions. Living conditions in most D .C. alleys were far from wholesome; crowding, poorly maintained buildings and outhouses, piles of uncollected trash in alleys, and the co nstant d anger of contagious disease plagued residents. D espite the limited space inside the two-story 12x30 foot alley house, man y were shared by more than one hou sehold unit ; in some cases four family units lived in one small room each . 36 These crowded cond itions made residents m ore susceptible to di sease, while landl ord s' lack of co ncern for maintenance and the city's di sinterest in coll ect in g trash from the alleys exposed residents to di sease in other ways. Limited and unstable income restricted diets while d angerou s, outdoor work further taxed alley dwellers' health . Ultimately these cond iti ons led to death rates for alley dwell ers th at were twice th at for residents of the streets; the major causes were diseases that cou ld clearly be linked to socio-economic status . 3 7 Children under the age of one year acco unted for much of the high death rate. 38 �SLOVAKIA 19 While the Bird's Nest developed in a suburban setting and lacked the extreme density of the alley community, living conditions were little better. While outside the multi-family homes "everything was mud," inside the long, narrow two - and three-story buildings many families lived in tiny cold water flats 39 (see Map 4) . Whereas alley dwellers had to go outside for water and toilets, Bird's Nesters shared "indoor water closets .' ' 40 Residents of the latter community, however, were more likely to share their tiny apartments with boarders; 32 percent of households had boarders in 1910 (boarders made up one-fourth of the total population), 41 while only 13 percent of 1880 alley households were augmented. 41 The crowded living conditions in the Bird's Nest, along with the long hours at work and limited income, led to high death rates, especially for the very young. 43 In 1900, women reported over one-fourth of the children they had borne were dead, 44 a condition that continued in later years. There are, then, substantial similarities between the two populations; Both came into the urban marketplace at the bottom; both lived in housing conditions that were crowded and dangerous ; the "communities" were isolated physically and socially from the surrounding populations; both were made up of groups that had migrated in chains to the city. Nevertheless , residents of the Bird's Nest did have access to industrial jobs that were more stable and better paying; and these positions permitted some mobility from unskilled labor to semi- and eventually skilled jobs. In addition, where alley communities were largely limited in size by the number of houses built in each alley , and ultimately by the limited interior space of the block itself, the Bird's Nest faced less spatial constriction. This afforded the potential for more complete development. Finally, while alley dwellers seldom had the resources to purchase their alley homes from absentee landlords , res idents of the Bird's Nest were encouraged to do so by the industrial developer of their community . Where ownership always remained external to the alley community , the Bird 's N est quickly becam e locally owned. Despite these differences, each area developed a se ries of informal groups that provided the base for the formation of a neighborhood . That neighborhood , in turn , provided the foundation for the d evelopment of more formal organizations. Given the differe nt resources and scale, however, residents d eveloped different kinds of ne ighborhoods. �10 FAM ILY UNtTS .I H oward Whipple G ree n , Plan es of Living in C uyah oga County: as D epicted by th e R eal Property Survey (C leveland , 1940), 65. Bird ' s Nest = LW18 MAP 4 - e 6.5 o/o OF ALL FAMILY UNITS 2 1,953 IN COUNT Y COLD WATER FLATS ~ ► ~ < >- 0 r< (./J 0 �SLOVAKIA 21 III. Neighborhoods Alley Communities. Black migrants who came to Washington alleys re-established their kin and friendship networks in the alley; they continued to use these networks for emotional and financial support. Because their resources were so marginal, only reliance on these groups made survival more likely. Each alley then, had several or more such networks into which "fictive kin" were also drawn. They provided the most basic form of social organization, albeit informal, in the alley . 45 It was the alley neighborhood, itself, that brought these kin groups together into a loose , but cohesive unit . Since alleys were isolated from the surrounding neighborhood and often some distance from the emerging black enclaves of the city where the major institutions of black life were located, alley residents often had to fall back on themselves for help and support. Drawing on their rural experience, migrants constructed informal defended neighborhoods to provide for their needs. In many respects, however, this informal community became much more important in the city because residents were more dependent on each other, especially in the period just following their migration. Since migration to the city (and alleys) continued throughout the period, and since there were always some "native" alley residents as well as some migrants who had lived in a given alley for many years, new migrants did not have to confront the urban environment alone . New neighbors, kin, and old friends helped ease the transition from country to city. 46 The alley itself' 7 was the center of the alley community; residents congregated there, save in the worst weather, to meet with friends and neighbors. 48 A major location for informal meeting took place at the intersection of the two main alleys . All residents passed this point on their way into and out of the alleys; neighbors met each other here as they returned home from work each day, or hung out there during the day if there was no work available . In addition , residents generally sat in front of their homes and talked to neighbors who joined them on the steps, benches, or chairs set out for this purpose . 49 It is impossible to overestimate the value and import of this activity, for virtually every aspect of the alley community was based on this interaction . If neighboring provided an important element of entertainment, it also provided information on which neighbors needed help and where jobs were available. A critical function of the alley community �22 SLOVAKIA involved help and support for those in need; neighbors aided each other by providing money, food, and shelter while in some cases they took in friends' children and cared for them, in others they let neighborhood children sleep at their house '' because they had more room.'' 50 A third function neighboring and the alley community provided was the maintenance of internal social control. Part of this came as a result of the positive support neighbors gave each other; they also used gossip and more formal sanctions to maintain order. 51 Ultimately, these daily discussions about ' ' appropriate behavior'' by residents resulted in the hammering out of a common philosophy and world view; a world view that was shared by members of the community and differed from that of outsiders. 52 Finally, alley dwellers defended their neighborhood against outsiders . Part of this resulted from their intensive use of alley space for neighboring , thus discouraging others from entering the area . When outsiders did enter they were confronted by residents and watched throughout their alley visit, an experience that unnerved many observers of alley life. 53 Alley dwellers had good reason to watch "outsiders"; other Washingtonians, black and white, generally viewed residents of the alleys with great disdain. While the police were especially harsh in their attempts to control alley populations, other residents, though less overt in their actions, expressed nearly universal condemnation of alley dwellers. 54 This external hostility helped hold the alley community together, despite its internal dissension . Disputes over life style dominated these schisms, but the small scale of the neighborhood, the necessity to cooperate to survive, and the external threats effectively held residents together. Because of its small size and very limited resources, however, the alley community was not able to develop or support a very extensive set of formal organizations. It did provide an excellent medium for small alley churches, which were simply alley houses residents rented "for Jesus. " They were kept going by neighbors' contributions and the pastors ' earnings from "doing occasional laundry" or other work . 55 While most alleys seem to have had at least one of these churches, their small size - "Ten chairs and a pulpit, and an improvised altar" - makes the extent of participation problematic . 56 Alley businesses were equally marginal, and often involved in illegal activity. Like the semi-formal alley church, these businesses required conversion of part ofan alley house into a " speak-easy" or "fac- �SLOVAKIA 23 tory" for the m a nufacture of illegal alcohol , or oft en both . While these were cl early ill egal and we re often closed down by law e nforcem ent offi cia ls, th ey provided an importa nt service for the alley ne ighborhood in representin g a " proto " ne ighborhood tave rn a nd community ce nter where residents co uld m eet. 57 The Bird 's Nest. A s earl y as 1889 , Slovak mi gran ts b egan work on the construction of the n ew National Carbon factory . 58 After the factory was co mpl eted , these worke rs and their fri ends were hired to work in th e factory . 59 Like alley dwellers, initial settle rs in the Bird 's N est began a cha in mi gration , at first drawing from the oth er Slovak enclaves throughout the city and eventuall y reaching back to Hun gary. This process resu lted in ex tended kin n etworks bein g refo rmul a ted in th e n ew neighborhood . In a number of cases, this reformu la tion extended to Old World v ill age pa rishes. Within th e fir st few years, m a n y of the core famili es had m oved in and esta blished them selves. Fri end s, ne ighbors, a nd co -reli gionists followed . As o ne oral history repo rted, " m a n y times the m en came along first , leaving wives a nd children behind in Slovakia, until they h ad found work a nd could send back for th eir families. When they cam e first, they sought out others from the sam e village who were alread y" in the neighborhood . 60 The most criti cal form of organization , however, was the neighborhood it self. Like the all ey community , the n eighborhood rem a ined largely inform al; initiall y it w as a grouping of kin n etworks largely of Slovak a n cestry. Y e t this inform a l " institution " p rovided the precon dition s necessary for the con structio n of other aspects of the community. In large p a rt the migrants es tablished th eir co ntrol over th e ne ighborhood in the first years of settle m e nt , 1892- 1900 . A lthough the a rea was th en only sli ghtl y bigge r tha n th e largest all ey, these earl y migrants a nd th eir famili es esta blish ed a beachhead that was neve r chall en ged . Unlike alley dwell ers who neve r gained ow nership of th eir ne ighborhood , res idents of the Bird 's N est quickly bou ght up th e small parcels o f la nd (wheth er simpl y cl eared b y the PHLC, or built upon ) , 6 1 as soo n as th eir fin ances m ad e it possibl e. 61 A lon g Pl ove r , migrant s purch ased 43 perce nt of the lots prior to 1900; o nl y three of th e 35 lots o n the street m ay h ave been ini tiall y purchased by non-Sl avs. 63 R es id ent s gain ed ow ners hi p o f m ost of th e 424 lots in the subdi vion s on initi a l sale; w ith few exce ptio n s, th ey eve ntuall y ga in ed co ntrol ove r th e rem a ining o nes as well. �24 SLOVAKIA P e rhaps the most striking aspect of n eighborhood d evelopment is the extent to which residents drew on each other's skill s and resources to construct houses, stores, a nd shops. Of the 171 lots for which information is available on th e initial con struction , 92 perce nt of the owners were alread y residents of the neighborhood. While m a n y built their own hom e (or a building to rent), those owners who hired a builde r to co nstruct their houses overwhelmingly chose a resident of the neighborhood (64 percent). Many of the non-resident builders were also of Slavic origin , but lived in one of the other encl aves spread throughout the city. 64 T o an impressive ex tent , th en , residents bought up the neighbo rhood la nd, and per son ally built th eir own hom e or a home to sell to more rece nt migra nts ; when they did not do their own co nstru ction they hired neighbors . In doing so, they establi shed an impress ive investm ent upon which they could draw or build on in the future. 65 H av in g es tablish ed a turf a nd access to employ m ent , residents encouraged n ew migra nt s to join them. Whe reas the m ajo rity of th e first res idents ha d migrated to the United Sta tes in the ten years prior to the building of th e factory, the massive influx of n ew migrants in the fir st two d ecad es of the twenti eth century cam e direc tl y to the n eigh bo rhood. Slovaks continu ed their d omination of the n eighborhood (70 perce nt) , whil e Slovak was the most common la ngu age. 66 One of the key attractions of thi s N ew Slovak/ Slav ic village, in a d dition to the presen ce of fri ends , relatives, and an ethni c ne ighborhood , was the prese nce of employm ent possibilities in industry. H av ing mad e important inroads from th e beginnin g of the constru ction o f the new factory, Slovaks , a nd to a lesse r extent P oles a nd Ru ssians, dominated the lowest level of empl oym e nt in the facto ry. 67 Th ere is so m e indi cation th a t the original pl a nt o n the east side of Clevela nd may also h ave empl oyed workers from a nearb y Slovak e nclave. These employees m ay have been attrac ted to th e new factory b y the avail ab ilit y of la nd ; a disastrous fire a t the old e r pl a nt in 1893 m ay well have speed ed up this process. 68 Wh a teve r the initi a l co nnection, Slovaks a nd oth er Sl av ic mi gra nt s establi shed a beachh ead in th e factory from th e beginnin g b y drawin g o n th eir inform a l networks . 69 Jun e Alexand er found a similar co nditio n for Slovaks in Pittsburgh , namely that "factori es relied o n their fore m e n to hire workers and foreme n, in turn, reli ed o n th e ir workers as intermedi a ries to find la borers. " 70 As mi grants worked their way slowly up the ranks to semi-skilled a nd occasion all y forem en positions , th ey �SLOVAKIA 25 gain ed m ore direct access to the hiring process. With the informal neighborhood networks , Slovaks came to dominate both workplace and neighborhood . 7 1 Whil e info rm al social cont rol and aid permeated th e early years of the Bird's N est as it did in the alleys, the ra pid growth of the neighborhood in the first decade of the twentieth cen tury permitted the developme nt of m ore form al organiza tions . R esidents of different reli gious persuas ion s m et sepa rately; initially these m ee tings, like the alley church , were worshi p serv ices held in co-reli gioni sts' hom es. Eve ntu ally these m eetin gs led to the fo rmation of lod ges and other m ore form al organizations designed to bring about the formation of a parish and the building of a church . 72 The first parish , Sts. Peter and P aul Lutheran , was offi cially form ed in 1901 ( church building-1 902/school som e years later) ; it was followed by Sts. Cyril and M ethod ius R om an Catholic Church in 1903 (church building and school-1905); St. Gregory ' s Byzantine Rite Catholic Church in 1905 ( chu rch building 1906/school som e years later); and the C alvin Presbyterian C hurch in 19 17 (church buildin g-19 2 1) . Ca lvin Presbyte ri a n C h urch in th e foreg round occupi es th e first sit e of Sts. Pe te r a nd Pau l Luth era n C hurch . In th e b ac kg round is St . Grego ry's Byza nti e n Rit e Ca th oli c C hurch . (Ph ot0g ra ph by a ut ho rs, J a nu a ry , 1984). �26 SLOVAKIA Sts. Peter and Paul Luthera n. (Photograph by au thors, January, 1984). SS. Cyril a nd M eth odi us R om an Ca th oli c C hurch . (Ph otog raph by au th ors, J anua ry, I 984). �SLOVAKIA 27 These "predominantly" Slovak parishes were joined by those of the other ethnic groups sharing the neighborhood, the first of which was St. Hedwig's Church (Roman Catholic Polish Parish) in 1905 ( church building-l 914/school-1926). Because residents took the initiative in the formation of these parishes and schools, they often had considerable control over their direction, especially in the early years. 73 These parishes made the neighborhood even more attractive to potential migrants; their founding at the beginning of the decade undoubtedly encouraged many others to migrate. Religious schools provided another incentive, especially to Slovaks who witnessed their own schools closed or "converted for Magyarization" in the homeland. For residents in the Bird's Nest, these schools represented a way to avoid efforts at Americanization promoted by the public schools. As a result many children from the neighborhood attended these parochial schools. 74 Drawing on their growing neighborhood and its greater resources (compared to alley communities), residents of the Bird's Nest also started an incredible number of businesses. While most of these were small stores and shops that served the immediate neighborhood , several developed into substantial businesses that provided necessary goods and services for ethnic and religious needs . 75 Most important, however, was the formation of Eagle Building and Loan Company in 1911 . Controlled from within the neighborhood, residents built an institution that made possible complete acquisition and building of the area, and expansion beyond . 76 The building and loan was critical since over fifty percent of the neighborhood's lots were sold by the PHLC during the 1910s, while the period from 1912 to 191 7 was the period of greatest home construction. 77 Although the neighborhood was divided by ethnicity, religion, and class , as well as by very different attitudes on assimilation, 78 these divisions were subsumed by the needs of the neighborhood and the workings of informal groups. For some, the community revolved around the parish ; Peter Glovna remembered that "it was just like a little village, and the pillar was St. Cyril. " 79 Nevertheless , they were a series of co mmunity-wide activities that drew residents together. 80 Most important , " the first settlers tried to reconstruct , as closely as possible , the village system they were so accustomed to in Poland , Russia, and Slovakia. The close-knit warmth a nd familiarity of the village provided security and a sense of home to the recently displaced immigrants. " 81 �28 SLOVAKIA Ultimately , residents used the neighborhood as alley residents did theirs; everyone knew everyone else and interaction on the streets, front yards, and porches was extensive, especially in warm weather. 82 This neighboring activity , largely through informal, small groups of relatives and friends, made up a critical element in the neighborhood life . It provided the first level (past kin network) of organization, one that replicated itself as formal groups began in the churches, lodges, and benevolent associations as well as the workplace. These primary groups provided members with an immediate sense of belonging, a connection with larger, more formal organizations, and a way by which members of the primary group could collectively continue to co nstru ct a world view, maintain social control , and provide help and support for the needy. 83 Like the alley community, the Bird's Nest found that the external threat was often sufficient to contain internal conflict. Hostility , both formal (from police and other official sources) and informal (from personal prejudice directed at residents), was extensive throughout the period. Outsiders, as in the case of alley communities, targeted the neighborhood as an eyesore and danger to the rest of the community; and police exercised their authority to "maintain social control by overenforcing the law .' ' 84 IV. Conclusions Based on these examples, it seems clear that migrants, via chain migration and efforts to gain entry/control over admission to a j ob market , began to establish residential enclaves. 85 If the process of neighborhood formation appears to have begun almost unconsciously, its development was quite conscious. While the presence of such neighborhoods is taken as given to most studies, what stands out in these two examples is the extent to which migrants took over their respective turfs, defended them, and built informal and formal institutions around them. In fact , the clustering provided the necessary context for virtually every further institutional development. If some or many migrants eventually passed through and out of the neighborhood , it remained(s) an important focal point in the lives of many , even those who could "escape" to more affluent suburban settlements. 86 The neighborhood , then , must be taken more fully into account as one, if not the most critical, of migrant institutions. �SLOVAKI A 29 T hese neighborhood s provided the b ase fo r su rvival in the new urban en vironment. They were the source of housing, employm ent , mutual aid , p rotection , famil y, and friends . They permitted pa rents to raise their children in a n en v iro nment a nd throu gh in stitutio n s ove r w hich the fam ili es exerted som e co ntrol. They also provided a safe ha rbor from whi ch m igrants confro n ted the confu sin g city . M o reove r , ne ighbor s worked out their respo n ses to the issu es o f ethnicity, accultu ratio n , a nd ass im il at ion in this con text of everyd ay life. If n eighbo r s chose diver ging path s, they were n eve rtheless path s th a t d evelo ped w ithin the confines a nd con text of the ethnic en clave. R a ther th a n the stilted b ackwaters th a t R o bert P a rk a nd other s saw, th ese e ncl aves we re vibrant wi th conflicts over life style, ch a n gin g ethnic ide n tity, a d a pta tion , a nd eve n interna tio n al issu es . 8 7 T hu s, to under stand migrant organization s a nd the role they played in accul tu rat io n and et h nic ident ity, it is necessary to con sider th e first in st ituti on m igran ts created in th e city, th e neighbo rhood . 88 W hile these two n eigh borhood s were dram aticall y d ifferent, they both fi t well into Suttles' d efinition of a defended neighbo rhood . I t seem s q uite likely tha t m os t imm igrant e nclaves also fit thi s descri ption , even in cases where the areas was no t so highly segregated fro m the surroundin g city b y either physical ba rrier s or class differen ces. A number o f rece nt studies d em o n stra te tha t d efended n eighborhood s can hold up without these two elem ents. 89 H oweve r , wha t seem s m ost important here is the signifi cance of scale . Becau se alley neighbo rhood s we re sm all a nd u nable to develop ex ten sive for m al o rganizat io n s d oes no t m ean tha t they we re a n y less impor tant for m a inta inin g a nd d evelopin g a n e thnic consciousness and way of life. R a ther, wha t the alley neighborhood seem s to suggest is that smal l scale e nclaves, w hethe r hidden in alleys, or scatte red alo n g stree t fro nt s, co n tin ue to have fl ouri shin g p r im a ry group li fe : in tern al orde r and co n trol, social serv ice act ivities, a nd eve n som e p roto in stitu tio n al li fe. M oreove r , it is likely tha t ethnic identity is heigh te ned in those situ at io ns w hen other groups are in su ch close proxim ity . 90 In the case of the Bi rd 's Nest o r la rge r ethnic co mmuni ties,9 1 the sig nifi cance of the ne ighborhood is often overlooked because of the exte n t of ethni c organ izat io n al a nd b u siness li fe. H oweve r , it is the pop u la ti o n scale tha t makes poss ible this d evelopment. Nevert heless, these a reas con tinue to be marked by extensive informal groups ; their aggregate �30 SLOVAKIA makes the neighborhood and keeps it operating, althou gh formal associations play an important role. Ultimately, then , we should exp ect smalle r settlem ents to develop strong informal groups but few formal ones; the larger the co mmunity , the greater the potential for formal organizations to develop , although infor mal group life rema ins active and important. It may well be, as Fischer suggests, that ethnic ide ntity is greatest in these smaller areas, less able to adapt or adjust to the n ew world . In larger enclaves, migrants have more space to consider alternatives , to pick and chose from diverging paths, m ore a bility to ad a pt or adjust to things "Am e rican " b y in corporating them into their repertoire a nd making them " their own. " 91 Finally, in addition to the observations con ce rnin g the importance of neighborhood as a mi grant institution , it is worth noting the different conditions white and bl ack migrants confronted. The caste barrier blacks confronted in Washington as well as the severely restricted housing m arket limited the potential for comm unity d evelopment. Alley dwellers utilized highly creative methods to circumvent the nearly impossible conditions they confronted . To surv ive in this enviro nment was success. In contrast, Slovak men and women were able to gain e nt ry to more stable a nd be tte r paying industrial jobs; eventu ally they secured so me m ovemen t into semi- a nd even skilled positions as a resu lt of their tenacious hold over jobs in their neighborhood. By doing so, they es ta blished ethnic occupation al beachheads for their kin a nd progeny , whil e blacks we re limited to day la bor a nd positions in the secondary labor market. 93 Similarly, Slovaks a nd other white ethnics through considerable personal and fami ly sacrifice were able to purchase their turf; few black alley dwellers were ever so fort un a te. In short , Bird Nesters could use their ethnic ties to establish and maintain occupational and property turf; blacks were "permitted " those jobs and hou sin g no one else wanted. D ominance of these turfs, occupational and residential, were always transitory, requiring incred ible hum an effort to m ainta in th em or develop n ew ones. They seldom permitted a n opportunity to grow or expand. �SLOVAKIA 31 NOTES ' O scar Handlin concludes that "wherever the immigrants went , th ere was one com mon ex peri ence th ey shared: nowhere could they transplant the European village . Wh atever th e va riati ons among environments in America , none was familiar. The pressure of th at stran geness exe rted a dee p influence upon th e character of rese ttlement , upon the usual forms of behavior , and upon the notes of communal action th a t emerged as th e immigrants beca me Americans .'' Th e Uprooted (2nd edn., Boston, 1973) , 129 . ' Loui s Wirth noted that the "shift from a rural to a predominantly urban society .. has bee n acco mpa ni ed by profound changes in virtually every phase of social life, '' with th e "substituti on of seconda ry for primary contacts , th e weakening of bonds of kin ship , and the declining social significance of the famil y, the disappearance of the neighborhood , and th e undermining of the tradition al bas is of social solidarity." On Cities and Social Life , ed . by Albert R eiss, Jr . (Chicago, 1964) , 79-80. See also Wirth, " Urbanism as a Way of Life , " American Journal of Sociology, 44 Ouly , 1938) , 1-24 . ' Ernes t Burgess , who devised the co nce ntri c zone th eory from which this co mes, concluded th a t ' 'disorganization as preliminary to reorgani za ti on of attitud es and condu ct is almost invariably th e lot of th e newcomer to the cit y.'' ' ' The Growth of the City," in Robert E. Park a nd Ernest Burgess, Th e City (Chicago, 1967), 54, 47-62 . • Howa rd Chudacoff found th at while foreign born migrants " m ay have retained their social , eco nomic , and religious commun iti es, their incidence of move ment out of th e old neighborhoods and a round the city make residential coherence a ve ry temporary experience." " A New Look at Ethnic Neighborhoods: Residential Dispersion and th e Concept of Visibilit y in a M edium-Sized City,'' Journal of America n History , 60 Oune , 1973), 91. See also Chudacoff, Mobile Americans: Residential and Social Mobility in Om ah a, 1880- 1920 (New York , 1972), 154-55; Humbert S . N elli, The Italians in Chicago: 1880-1 930( N ew York, 1970), xi i-xiii; Sam Bass Warner and Colin B. Burke, " Cultural Change and th e Ghetto," Journal of Contempnrary History, 4 (O ctober , 1969) , 173 -88 ; David W ard, " The Internal Spatial Different iat ion of Immi grant R esiden ti al Distri cts ,'' in Geographic Perspectives on America's Past , ed. by Dav id Ward ( ew York , 1979) , 335 -43; and Ward , " The Emergence of Central Immi gra nt Ghettoes in American Cities: 1840-1920, " Annals of th e A ssociation of America n Geographers , 38 ( 1968) , 343-59. ' The most class ic stateme nt of this positi on was that of E . Franklin Fraz ier: Southern black mi gra nts to north ern cities los t " res tra ints imposed by a simple folk culture" and creat ed a "class of rovi ng Negroes who will li ve a lawless sex a nd quasi-family life ." " The Impac t of U rba n Civilization upon Negro Family Life, " American Sociological R el'iew , 2 (October , 1937), 6 18. See also Frazier's The Negro Family in the United States (Chicago, 1966), 207-92; Cl yd e Vernon Ki se r , Sea Island co City ( New York, 1968), 223; Gilbert O sofsky, H arlem : Th e Making of a Ghetro (N ew York , 1964) , 135-49 ; Allen H . Spear, Black Chicago: Th e M aking of a Negro Gherto (C hi cago , 1967), 167-80 , x; Constance M cLaughlin Green, Th e Secret Ciry �32 SLOVAKIA (Prince ton, 1967); a nd D av id K atzm a n , Befor e th e Gh etto (U rba na, 1973). 6 W a rn er notes that reli gious co nfli cts in Am eri ca n cities "forced a ll cit y dwellers to think of th em selves either as Protestant s o r Ca th olics ' ' o r J ews, not as members of spec ific ethni c group s. " Cu ltural Cha nge a nd Ghett o," 178. See also Will H erberg, Prot estant , Cath olic, J ew (New York , 1955). ' G ilbert O sofsky, " The Endurin g Ghetto," J ournal of Am erica n History, 55 (September , 1968). ' 8 K enn eth Ku smer , A Ghetto T ak es Shap e: Black C leveland 1870- 1930 (Urbana, Ill ., 1976); D ou glas D a ni els, Pioneer Urbanites: A Social and C ultural History of Black San Fran cisco (Philadelphi a, 1980); and Thomas Cox , Bla cks in T op ek a, K ansas : A Social History (Baton R ouge, La., 1982). 9 Josef J. Barton , Peasants and Strangers: Italians, Rumanians, and Slovaks in an Am erica n C ity, 1890-1950 (Cambrid ge , M ass. , 1975), 64-90 ; M . Mark Stola rik , " Immigration a nd Urban izati on: The Slova k Experi ence, 1870-1 9 18" (Ph .D . di sse rtat ion, Universit y of Minneso ta , 1974), 69 -109; Sylvia June G ranatir Al exander , "The Immi gra nt C hurch a nd Co mmunit y: The Forma ti o n of Pittsburgh 's Slova k R eli gio us In stitution s, 1880- 19 14" (Ph .D . disse rta ti on, Uni vers it y of Minneso ta , 1980), 209-355, 443-5 18 ; Al exa nder , " Stay in g Togeth er : Chain Mi gration and Pattern s of Slovak Settl em ent in Pittsburgh Prio r to World W ar I , '' J ournal of Am erican Echnic History, I (Fall, 198 1), 56-83; K athleen Neils Conze n, Immigrant Milwa ukee: 1836-1 860 (Cambridge, M ass., 19 76) , 154-191 ; and V irginia Vans-M cLaughlin , Family and Commu nicy: Italian Immigranc s in Buffalo, 1880- 1930 (Ith aca, N. Y ., 1977). 0 A numb er of studi es do develop th e role of famil y life in mi gra nt se ttlements; thi s wo rk represe nts a m ajo r co ntribution to th e a nalys is of " inform al" o r prim ary gro up life in th e cit y. For exa mple , see T ama ra K . H a reve n , " Th e Histo ri cal Study of th e Fa mil y in Urban Society , " J ourn al of Urba n History , I (M ay , 1975 ). Unfortuna tely, such studi es neglect th e relati on ship of fa mil y a nd extended kin netwo rk to other inform al-primary groups of neighbo rh ood a nd communit y. Wh at is mi ss in g here is a discussion of th e informal social organi zat ion that makes up the nei ghborh ood . Fo r m o re co mpl ete ana lyses of social netwo rk s, see J . C lyde Mit chell , ed. , Social N ecworks in Urban Situation (M anches ter, 1969); Eli zabet h Bott , Family and Social N etwork (N ew Yo rk , 197 1); and C la ud e S. Fischer, To Dwell Among Friends: Personal N etwo rk s in T own and Cicy (C hi cago, 1982). " For exa mp le, see K a thl ee n Neil s Co nze n , " Commentary: Immi grants , Im mi g ra nt Neighborhoods, and Ethni c Identit y: Histo ri cal Issues, " J ourn al or Am erica n History, 66 (D ece mbe r, 1979), 603 -15. " Su za nn e Keller , Th e Urba n N eig hborh ood (N ew Yo rk , 1968). " Gera ld Sut tl es , Tn e S ocial Constru ction or Communicies (C hi cago, I 972 ), 2 I , 3- I 07 . " R o m a n A. C ybri ws ky, "Soc ia l Aspec ts of Ne ighbo rh ood Change ," Annals or th e Associa tion of Am erica n Geograph ers, 68 ( I 978) , 2 7. In co ntras t , th e co nce pt of th e co mmunit y of limi ted liab ilit y, o ri ginall y developed by M o rri s j a now it z, emp hasizes " th e int enti o na l, vo lunt a ry, a nd es peciall y, th e pa rtial a nd d ifferenti ated in vo lve- �SLOVAKIA 33 ment of res ident s in th eir local comm uniti es.'' Suttles, Social Construction of Communities , 47 , 44-81. See also Morris J anow it z, Th e Community Press in an Urban Setting: The Social Elements of Urbanism (Chicago, 1952). The contrived community is one that is pla nn ed , at leas t in part, with a d es ign to prom ote a ce rt ain kind of co mmunit y. New towns probabl y fall most closely in to thi s catego ry. See Suttles, Social Constru ction of Commun ities, 82-107 . " Formal o rgan ization is an assoc iation th at " is more or less purposefully created for th e at ta inmen t of rela tiv ely specific and limi ted goals.'' M a rvin E. Olsen , Th e Process of Social Organization (New York , 1968) , 92. M em bers are only partiall y involved a nd co mmitted to such " limited-li a bilit y" o rga ni zati on s; th ey rela te to each oth er largely in terms of the organization and th eir spec ific interest in its goals. Whi le members m ay beco m e " fri end s, " impl yin g a mu ch m ore inten se relations hip , and perh aps the development of a prima ry group or netwo rk , thi s is not the goal of the formal o rgani zati on . Primary or inform al gro up s, on th e ot her hand , are " those characteri zed by intimate, face-to-face aswciati on and co-operation, " i.e., " the family , th e play-group of children , a nd th e neighbo rh ood o r co mmunit y of elders. ' ' C ha rl es Cooley, Social Organization (New Yo rk , 1923), 23, 24. Fo r a rev iew of th e significant roles of informal groups, see Elihu K atz and Paul Lazarsfeld , Personal Influen ces (New York, 1955), 3 1-42. 16 For a discussion of this point , see J am es Bo rchert , " Urban Neighborhood and Communit y: Informal Group Life, 1850-1970, ' ' Journ al of Interdisciplin ary History , 11 (Sprin g, 1981 ), 607-3 1; Floyd Dodson, " Pa tt ern s of Volu nta ry Association among W o rkin g-C lass Families," America n Sociological R evie w , 16 (1951), 687-93; and Benn ett Berge r , W orking Class Suburb (Berkeley, Ca. , 1971 ) , 59-73. " R obert R edfi eld , "The Folk Society ," America njournal of Sociology, 52 Qanua ry, 1947) , 293-308. Thi s is not to su gges t that mi gra nts had no experience with forma l groups prior to mi gra ti on. As Ba rt o n , Stola rik , and oth ers have demonstrated , migrants brought both forma l and in formal group s with them. Whil e few have m ade d irec t comp a ri so ns of formal group s in th eir two se ttings (Ba rt on is an importa nt pa rti al except io n here), virtua ll y no o ne has co mpared informal grou ps. " J a m es S. Pil an t, Th e Envelope: A Study of the Imp act of th e World upon th e C hild (New Yo rk , 1950); Suttles, Th e Social Constru ction of Communities, 2 1- 43. 19 C hain migrat ion has bee n defin ed as " th at m ove m ent in which prospecti ve mi grants lea rn of oppo rtuniti es, a re provided with transporta ti on , and have initi al accommodati on and employment a rranged by m ea ns of primary social relationships with previous migra nts" (aut hors' itali cs). J ohn S. M acdon ald a nd Leatri ce D. M acdonald , "Chain Mi gra ti on , Ethn ic Neighborhood Fo rm ati on , and Social Netwo rks," Milbank M emorial Fund Quart erly, 42 Q anu a ry, 1964) , 82. 0 T hese vary, of course , by ethni c gro ups, circum stances , a nd over time , as well as by cl ass. Specia l foods a nd restaurants a re probably th e most obviou s exa mpl es, but churches and lodges a re probably the m ost uni ve rsal ''se rvices. '' Profess ionals a nd ethni c bu siness a re also important elements of th e urba n village, especiall y fun eral homes; th ey con tinu e to draw former res idents a nd th eir children bac k to th e urba n ' �34 SLOVAKIA vi llage, a t leas t on special occasions. Finall y, ma ny wh o left th e "village" continu e to own buildings there; their rental income made "escape" easier; it di d nm , however, break th e ties. " See Suttles, T he Social C onstru ction of C ommunities, 2 1-43. " These environments a re strikin gly different ; th e two group s a re eve n more different in term s of their past ex peri ences, institutional life, and cultural baggage. Co mparison, th en , prese nts considerable problems; limited da ta make thi s eve n more problema ti c. " For oth er effort s to co mpa re th e bl ac k and white ex peri ence, see ta nl ey Lieberso n , A Piece of th e Pie: Black s and Whit e Immigranrs Since 1880 ( Berkeley, Ca ., 1980); J ohn Bodn a r , Michael W eber , and R oge r Simon , " Mi gra ti on , Kin ship , a nd U rba n Adjustm ent : Blac ks a nd Poles in Pitt sb urgh , 1900- 1930," j ournal o f America n History, 66 (Dece mber , 19 79) , 548-565; a nd Bodnar , Sim on , W eber , Lives o f th eir Own : Black s, Italians, and Poles in Piusburgh , 1900- 1960 (Urbana, Ill. , 1982). " For a more compl ete di scussion, ee Borchert, Alley Life in W ashing ton ( Urbana , Ill. , 1980) . For a d iscussion of alleys else wh ere, see 223-37 , 3 12- 17. " Ibid . , 1-56 . ' 6 C u yahoga C ount y Treasure r's Depa rtm ent T ax Duplica tes , I 894- 1923 . C uyahoga Count y Archi ves; M a rgare t M anor Bu tle r, Th e Lakewood tory ( ew York , 1949); 228 ; " City Plays Vital R ole," newspa per clipping-source unkn ow n , M ay 5, 1955 . Lakewood Historical Society; " ati onal Carbon C om pany," C leveland Plain D ealer , September 10, 19 77 . The neighbo rhood has been kn own by a se ri es of names; Bird's Nes t and Bird T own deri ve from th e predominance of stree t with bi rd na me . Other na mes suggest how th e neighborh ood has bee n viewed by outsid er : T he Settl ement, th e Village , " Dago Forum , " C a rbon T own , " Little Slova ki a," a nd th e Carbon Distri ct. John Fedor , "Ju st Loo k at th e Stree t Signs to Find Bird T own ," Lakewood L edger , Dece mber 14, 1967; Butler, Lakewood Story, 188, 228-29; Butler, R om ance in Lakewood Streets (C leve la nd , 1962), 41 ; C ynthi a A. Rud e r, " Th e Imprint of C ultura l V alues on Birdtow n , La kewood, Ohio, " un publi shed typesc ript , M ay 1, 1978. Lakewood Hi stori cal Society. " C uyahoga Count y Au d ito r's T ax M aps , Cuyahoga Coun ty Adm inistrat ion Bu ild ing. Vol. 35-C it y of La kewood. 1890- 1982. " Fed or , " Just Loo k a t th e tree t igns " R eco rd s of th e Distri ct of Colu mb ia , Reco rd Grou p 35 1. Na ti onal Archi ves. Boa rd of C hi ldren ' s Guardi ans, C hildren 's History , I ll : I 129, I 162 , 1392; IV: 158 1. See also Bo rchert , " Survivin g th e C it y: Persistence a nd C ha nge in Bl ac k Folkways of Life in a N ew Environment ," pa per prese nt ed a t th e Associa ti on for th e Stud y of Afro-Ameri ca n Life a nd Hi sto ry, O ctober 2 1- 24, 1982, Baltim ore, M a ryla nd, 8. '° 31 Federal Population Ce nsus Schedul es, 1880, W ashin gto n , D .C., R eco rd Group 29 . ati onal Archi ves; a nd Com missioner of th e Di trict of Colum bia , Ann ual R ep orc -1897 (W as hin gto n , 1897), 195-202. Fed eral Popul ati on C ensus ched ul es, 19 I 0 , La kewood, Ohio. at ional Archives . See also Fed eral Popula ti on Ce nsus Sched ul es, 1900 , Lakewood, Ohio . ational Ar- �SLOVAKIA 35 chi ves. The less precise category "country of origin" makes it impossible to know , oth er than Hun ga ry, where migra nts came from. The 1910 ce nsus clea rs this matter up through more precise desi gnati on ; in this case 70 perce nt listed th emselves as " Hunga rian Slovaks" rath er th a n merely" Hun gary," as in 1900 . "Language" also permit s more precise determination . " While J osef Barton has co ncluded that Slovak migration to C leveland was from more gene rall y dispersed areas in Slovakia, migrating more by district than personal or village chains, oth er studies report considerably more personal co ntacts in the migrati on process, both generally a mong lovak migra nts and specificall y for Cleveland. Peasa ncs and Strangers , 50-51, 54, 59, 63. Emily Greene Balch reports that nearly 99 percent of Slovaks en terin g the United States in 1907-1908 planned to join relatives or friends . Our Slavic Fellow Citizens (New York , 1910), 433. Al exander repo rts that whi le Slovak mi gran ts to Pittsburgh did mi grate in cha ins either by village, or by th e more loose " district" pattern Ba rton found, th e selecti on of one's res idence in a give n cit y was strongly influenced by fri end s and rela tives . " Th e Immi grant C hurch ," 55, 68. M a rk Stolarik also found "Slovaks in the Un ited States and Canada originall y reside(d) in distinct neighborhoods nea r their parish ch urches . most of these in each co ngregation ha iled from the same cluster of villages in the old country." " Immi grat ion a nd Urbanization, " 40. Stolarik a nd his co-authors of a st ud y of C leveland Slovaks reported simila r findings for th at cit y. Susi Megles, Mark Stolarik, and Martina Tybor, Slovak Americans and th eir Communities of Cleveland (C levela nd , 1979), 132. M ore importa nt for this study, Stolarik's analysis of parish reco rds of one Bird 's Nest church found 68 percent were from the ext reme end of one Slovak county; " nearly ha lf of the group was from . . three neighboring villages . " " Immi grat ion a nd Urbanization, " 41. For other informa ti on on chain mi gra ti on of Bird 's Nest residents, see Mary Towarni cky, " Helping One Another in the New Land: The Old Timers R emem ber," in SS. Cyril and M ethodius Church , Diamond Jubilee, 1903 -1 978 (La kewood, 1978), 67; and Common Pleas Court, Records of Declaration of Intention , Cuyahoga County Archives. Vo ls. 1- 30, Octobe r 10 , 1906-Sep tember 8, 19 13. " Lo renzo] . Greene and Myra Colso n Callis, The Employment of Negroes in th e District of Columbia (Washington, I 930), 65. " Borchert, Alley Life, 166-77. " Fed eral Popu lat ion Ce nsus Schedul es, I 900, 1910, La kewood, Ohio ; U.S . Bureau of th e Ce nsus, Population and H ousing- 1940: Cleveland, Ohio and Adjacent Area (Was hin gto n , 1942), 106. This is not to suggest that co nditions were easy o r wages hi gh. J an Pa nku ch notes that " during the first years their wages barely met their needs .'' Dejin y Clevelandskych a Lakewoodsk ych Slovakov (C leveland, 1930), 24. ' 6 Borchert, Alley Life, 85. " Ibid., l 83. The impact of a lley co nditions can be seen most clearly in co mparison to nati onal statisti cs. In 1910 the death rate for urban whit es was 14.6 per thousand ; for urba n blacks, 24.3. James H. Jones , Bad Blood ( ew York, 198 I), 37 . For street �36 SLOVAKIA dwelling W ashin gtoni an s (whit e and black), the dea th rate per thousand was 17 .56 ; for alley residents it was 30 .09 . Willia m H enry J ones, Th e H ousing of Negroes in W ashington , D.C. (Washington, 1929), 45 . " Borchert , Alley Life, 183 . 39 ' 0 41 Albina M olek, " Builders of the Spirit ," C leveland News, November 18, 1949 ; H oward Whipple Green , Plan es of Living in C uyah oga Co unty: as D epicted by th e Real Prop erty Survey (Cleveland , 1940), 65 . Green, Planes of Living, 58. Federal Population C ensu s Schedul es, 1910, Lakewood , Ohio. " Fed eral Population Census Schedul es, 1880, W as hin gton , D .C. See Borchert , Alley Life , 68. 43 Butler, Lakewood Story, 188. " Federal Populaton Census Schedul es, 19 10 , Lakewood, Ohio. In 1911 , residents of the larger community , led by a prominent member of the Rhodes family , established a clinic in the neighborhood becau se of the seve re health conditions, es peciall y the hi gh infant mortality . " Dispensary," in " History of Lakewood ," C lipping fil e, Lakewood Histo rical Society; a nd Butler , L ak ewood Story, 188-89. 45 Borchert , Alley Life , 69-85. •• It is important to note th a t the household unit , whi ch is usually considered th e base of the urban nei ghborh ood , was only part of a m ore important ex tend ed kin ship network whi ch included fi ctive kin adopted in the count rys ide or city. These ext ra- household units ti e re sidents of the alley together into " cliques" th at m ake up the large r alley communit y. Alley residents were linked together in other ways ; marriage of two alley residents linked two fa mil ies and kin networks together . After so me tim e , it is possible that mos t lon g-term residents in a given alley were linked by kinship to each ot her in multiple ways. 47 Becau se th e alley neighb orh ood/comm unity rema ined an informal inst itut ion with no " reco rd s" of its act ivities, it is ve ry difficult to determin e the full ex tent of neighborhood act ivities and their import . Nevertheless , some as pects do seem to stand out : neighborin g a nd ent erta inin g, a id to the needy, commo n action on com munit y need s, intern al social co nt rol, a nd defense of the neighborhood again st outsiders. 48 For a desc ription of the alley as meeting place , see W as hin gton National lnte1ligencer , Jul y 25, 1865; W ashington Times, Septembe r 11, 1904; Washington S tar , Jun e 6, 1930; W ashin gton D aily N ews, April 15, 1954; Charles W eller , Neglected Neighbors (Philadelphi a, 1909), 17 , 82; Wilbur V . Mallalieu , "A W ashin gton Alley," Survey , 28 (October 19, 19 12), 71; Gladys Sellew, A D eviant Social Situation: A Cou rr (Washin gton , 1938), 17 ; a nd D a ni el D. Swinney, " Alley Dwellings a nd H ousing R eform in the Di stri ct of Columbia " (M .A . th esis, University of C hi cago, 1938) , 141 -42. During the winter , several homes in a give n all ey see m to have se rved as mee ting spots. Dora Bessie Somerville , " A Study of a Group of Negro C hildren Li ving in an Alley C ulture" (M.A. th esis, Cat holic U ni ve rsit y of Ameri ca, 1941 ), 20. These homes usually di spensed liquor , oft en homemade , providing resid ents wit h a social �SLOVAKIA 37 ce nt er a nd tenants with a "second in co me . " For a discu ssio n based on a n a nalysis o f histori cal photog raphs , see " Photographs a nd th e Study of th e Pas t, " in Borchert, Alley Life , 291-93; Borche rt , "Analysis of Histo ri cal Photographs," Srudies in Visual Communication, 7 (Fall , 1981 ), 51-56; and Borchert , " Alley Landscapes of Washington, " Landscape , 23 (No. 3, 1979), 6-8. 0 ' Marion M . Ratigan, A Sociological Survey of Disease in Four Alleys in the National Capital (Was hin gton , 1946), 59 ; Mary R edempta Fores tall , "Trend s in Housing, Delinquency, and H ealth in the Central Northwest Area in Washington, D.C." (M.A . th es is , Catholic University of Ame ri ca, 1938), 32; Grace Vawter Bicknell , The Inhabited Alleys o f Washington, D .C. (W ashington , 1912), 31; Well er, Neglected Neighbors, 47 ; Leonise Ruth Aubry, "A mbitions of Youth in a Poo r Economic Status " (M.A. thes is , Catholic University of America, 1938), 3; Sellew, Deviant Social Siruarion, 46, 54; Sommerville, " Study of a Group of Negro Children," 24; Washington Daily News, Augu st 29, 1941; Swinney , "Alley Dwellings and Housin g R efo rm, " 50, 73; Leono r Enriquez Pablo , " The Housing Needs and Social Problems of Residen ts in a Deteriorated Area" (M .S.W. thesis , Catholic University of America , I 953), 56; Board of Children's Guardians , Children's History, I-VII (see especia ll y I:2 33-34 ; II : 657, 667, 801); Washington National R ep ublican , March 24 , 1862 ; a nd Washington Times , September 11, 1904 . " Whil e it is impossible to recreate co nversations between res idents from the ex isting hi sto ri cal records, it is clear from a large body of literatu re in sociology and anthropology that goss ip plays a critical role in the ma intena nce of order as well as the development of a commo n world view. Scholars of black rural and small town life in th e South noted th e importance of goss ip; CharlesJohnson found that "communit y gossi p exercises restraint . . There are limits ... and when th ese limits are reached violators a re treated with unmi stakable group disapproval.'' Shadow of the Plan cation (Chicago, I 94 1), 81, 82. Similarly , H ylan Lewis concluded that " gossip, or th e possibility of gossip " m a kes residents " more careful of th eir behavior." Blackways of Kent (New H ave n , Conn., 1962) , 193. " Those who show signs of group status de via tion . . are subject of a kind of gro up pressure marked by resentment and cri ti cism." Ibid ., 191 . " See Al. L. Epstein , " Gossip , Norms , a nd Social Network," in Social Networks in Urban Situ ations, 117-27. " For example , see Swinney , "Alley Dwellings and H ous in g R efo rm , " 136-37; and Pablo, " H ousin g Needs and Social Problems," 42. " Bo rchert , "U rban Neighborhood a nd Community," 615-18. " Swinney, " Alley Dwellings and H ousin g R eform, " 121 . " Ibid.; W ashington Post , D ece mber 26, 1948; Well er , Neglected Neighbors, 17, 22, 97 ; Mallalieu, " Washington Alley , " 71 ; a nd the R ev . Daniel O'Connell, "The Inhabit ed Alleys of Washington and the Early Social Hi story of One Alley" (M .A. thesis, Ca th oli c University of Ameri ca , 1953) , 110 . It is importa nt to note that attendan ce in the rural South does not seem to have been especially la rge based on Lewi s' findin gs for K ent . Lewis, B/ackways of Kent , 129-30. �38 SLOVAKIA " Borchert, Alley Life, 185-86. 58 Pankuch, Dejiny , 22. " Ibid .; Mary Towarnicky , "Slovak Newcomers to America, " in SS. Cyril and Methodius Church, Diamondjubilee, 1903-1978 (Lakewood, 1978), 66; Towarnicky , " Helping One Another," 67 . 60 Towarnicky, " Helping One Another," 67. 61 The Pleasant Hill Land Company was owned and run by Washington H. Lawrence, the president of the National Carbon Company. It seems clear that Lawrence purchased an extra large parcel ofland from the Case Estate with the intention of developing a residential area for workers . Butler, Lakewood Story, 228; "C ity Plays Vital Role, " "National Carbon Company," Plain Dealer; and G . Frederick Wright, Representative Citizens of Ohio: Memorial-Biographical (Cleveland, 1914) , 181-84. Since the factory was well outside the built-up parts of C leveland, Lawrence may well have considered this development a necessity to attract workers; he must also have planned to make a good return on his investment. The difficulty of the commute from in-city residences to the plant prior to the completion of a street car line in 1898 was incredible . For examples, see "City Plays a Vital Role" and Pankuch , Dejiny, 23. 61 Initially the early buildings were rented to workers; however, the PHLC sold off most of the improved lots within a couple years of construction. Cuyahoga County Treasurer's Tax Duplicates , 1894- 1923. There is some indication that the Na tional Carbon Company (via PHLC) "sold lots to ... immigrants on installments. " Loretta l vany, " 'Birdtown' Became C ity's Ethnic Center," Sun Post , Jun e 30, 1979 . •• Cuyahoga County Auditor's Tax Maps, Cuyahoga County Administration Building. Migrants bought up lots on Plover first because they were cheaper du e to their proximity to th e railroad tracks. Pankuch, Dejiny , 23. R esidents not only bought up land in the neighborhood as soon as they could afford to, they also held on to th e land, passing it on to relatives or selling it with in the community. Paul Wrobel found a sim ila r practice when he did an extensive participant-observation study of a Polish-American parish in D etroit. Our Way: Family, Parish and Neighborhood in a Polish-American Community (Notre Dame, Ind ., 1979), 5. 6 ' City of Lakewood, Building Department, Building Permits , 1900(?)-1982. It is interesting to note that no building permits a ppear to have been taken out by the PHLC, des pite the fact that they clea rl y improved and built on one-fifth of th e lots over the thirt y year period before the last lot was sold ( 1923). Although the city records are incomplete , and use of building permits seems to have been casual in the earl y years, as well as the fact th at many early reco rd s have not survived, it is strange that no PHLC perm its remain in the records. Insurance maps and descriptive sources do confirm the com pany 's activity in th is area prior to 1900. Thomas Flynn, Otto Barthel, R.H. Bunning, and Thomas H assan , Atlas of the Suburbs of Cleveland, Ohio (Philadelphia, 1898), Plate 24; M argaret Butler, R omance in Lakewood's Streets 41; lvany, " 'Birdtown' Became City's Ethnic Center"; and Cynthia A. Rud er , "The Imprint of Cultural Values.'' �SLOVAKIA 39 " As Stephan Thernstrom found in Newburyport , however, home ownership came a t a high price : " To cut family co nsumption expenditures to the bone was one such sac rifice. To withdraw the children from school and to put them to work at the age of ten or twelve was another.'' Poverty and Progress: Social Mobility in a Nin eteenth Century City (New York , 1969), 155. 66 Federal Population Census Schedules, 1910, Lakewood , Ohio. 67 Pankuch , D ejin y, 22; Towarnicky, "Slova k Newcomers to America," 66 ; Towarnicky, " H elping One An other," 67; and Ivany, " 'Birdtown' Became City's Ethnic Center . " 68 M egles, Stolarik , and T ybor, Slo vak Americans and their Communities, 132; Sts. Peter and Paul Lutheran Church , Seventy-Fifth Anniversary (Lakewood, 1976), 3; and Towarnicky , " H elping One Another," 67. 6 ' One of the first Slovak employees recalled th at he " ' got a job in the construction of the . factory. After I had worked th ere for a couple days, the boss told me to bring in a couple more men. I asked him how many I should bring; he answered as man y as I could, even a dozen would do, he said . So I called up my brothers: Juraj, and J an, also Jan andJuraj Nemec, A. Chovana and a bunch of others; Michael Urban and A. Goda all got hired. All the Scerbas; J an Scerba, Jan Scerba, Jr. , Adam Scerba, Andrej R yba nik and many others ca me in later.' " Andrej Babej, quoted in Pank uch, Dejin y, 22. ' 0 Alexander, "The Immigrant Church and Community, " 56-57. More importantl y she notes that "at tim es, when firms desperately needed labor, foremen promised jobs to employees' fri end s or relati ves if th ey would send for them." Ibid ., 57. " Ibid ., 57. She also notes that "Slovaks and other immigra nt groups came to rely on a sys tem of personal relationships in order to get jobs. '' Ibid. For more recent discussions of this process, see Ri chard M yer, " Interpersonal R elations in the Building Indu stry," Man , Work , and Society, ed . by Sigmond Nosow and William Form (New York , 1962) and William K ornblum , Blue Collar Community (C hi cago, 1974). " Sts . Pete r and Paul Lutheran Church, Seventy-Fifth Anniversary , 2-3; Megles , Stolarik , and Tybor, Slovak Americans and their Communities , 13 3; Peter M . Glovna, Sr., " Hi story of SS. Cyril and Methodius Pari sh ," in SS. Cyril and Methodius Church , Diamond Jubilee, 33; " Sts. Peter and Paul Russian Orthodox Church, " undat ed news paper clipping in Margaret Butler, " Hi story of Churches" fil e, Lakewood Hi storical Society; " Ukrainian Church Ded ication Is Set ," undated newspaper clipping in Butl er, ' ' Hi sto ry of Churches . ' ' " Stolarik , " Immigration and Urbanization, " 85-97. It is usefu l to note here that three of the first four Slovak churches in the neighborhood still have services in Slovak, althou gh the y have th em in English as well. " Ru de r , " Imprint of Cultural Values" ; Butler, Lakewood Story, 20,7. In a fine stud y of Slova k Cat holi c lead ers' at titud es toward public ed uca ti on , Mark Stolarik found th ey "valued parochial schools above all else worried mu ch m ore about their children 's moral a nd national upbringing th a n about social mobility . . had no u se �40 SLOVAKIA for publi c schools . . (which) ' den a ti onali ze ou r children . ' " " Immi gra ti on , Education, and the Social Mobilit y of Slova ks, 1870- 1930, " in R a nd all M. Mill e r a nd Thomas D . Marzik, ed s., Immigrants and R eligion in Urban America (Phil adelphia, 19 77) , 107 , 106 . Both Ba rton and Stolarik report th a t 60 to 80 percent of Slovak children a ttended parochi al schools. Ba rto n, Peasa nts and Strangers, 145-46; Stola rik , " Immi grati on and Urban ization ," 165-66. Th e public elem ent a ry school in th e Bird ' s Nest had no teachers wh o co uld speak Slovak ; of those children who did att end , few, if any , spoke Engli sh. Rud e r , "Imprint of C ultural V alu es." 75 The 1930 City Directory includes over 75 bu sinesses (17 local groce rs) and 16 profess ionals a nd se rvi ces avai lable to th e neighborh ood run by local res id ent s (or fo rme r resid ent s). C leveland Directory Compan y, C leveland, Ohio C ity Directory- I 930 (C levela nd , 1930). 76 Inspec to r , Building and Loa n Associat io n , 22nd Annual R ep ort far th e Y ea r Ending D ecember 31, 19 12 (Springfi eld , Ohio, 19 13) , 165 . Oro! Buildin g and Loa n Co. The founding preside nt a nd sec re tary both li ved on Plover , while o nl y th e treas ure r li ved outsid e th e immediat e neighborh ood. H e li ved , howeve r , ju st on th e o th e r sid e (north) of Madison Ave nu e, an a rea th a t Slova ks a nd other mi g ra nt s expand ed int o. Panku ch noted that th e Sav ings a nd Loa n wa s in ex ist ence by 1902 , so it may well have been operating to help res idents long before its offi cial cha rt er in 19 11 . D ejin y, 24. 77 Cuyahoga Count y Treasu re r 's Tax Duplica tes a nd Ci ty of La kewood, Building Permits. 78 For a n excellent discu ssion o n th e conflict be twee n "accult u ra ti o ni sts a nd tradition ali sts , " sec Howard F . Stein , " An Ethnohistory of Slova k-Am e ri ca n R eli gio us and Frate rnal Associations: A Study in Cultural M eanin g, Group Identit y, and Soc ial Instituti o ns," Slo va kia, 29 ( 1980-1 98 1) , 53 -101 . 19 Peter Glovna, as quoted in l vany, " ' Birdtown ' Beca me City 's Ethn ic Center ." G lovna's fath e r m oved to the neighborhood in 1893 a nd was a founder of SS. Cyril and M e thodius , whi le hi s son li ved on Plove r for 40 yea rs. D es pite hi s rece nt m ove out of the area, he still maint ains contacts and serves as pa rish hi sto ri a n . Glovna, "H istory of SS . Cyril and M e th odiu s Pa rish. " 0 " R esidents of Birdtown also enjoyed neighborh ood picnics a nd dancing to th e sound s of bands which were se t up on M a gee and M adison Av enu es.' ' l va ny , '' ' Birdt own ' Beca m e C ity's Ethnic Center.' ' 81 Ruder, " Im print of Cultural Valu es," 5. See also l van y , " ' Birdtown ' Beca me C it y's Ethni c Center ," and 1941 survey quoted extensively in Butler , L akewood St an ·, 229. ' " Rud e r, " Imprint of Cultural V alu es," 18. " Al exa nd e r ' s comment cit ed ea rli e r th a t Slovaks ca m e to rely o n a sys te m of pe rsonal relationships in order to get j obs (see not e 70) needs to be put in a la rge con text he re. Social scienti sts have not ed the impo rt a nce of informal groups in a variety of settings from factory, army, stree t co rn e r gang , a nd neighbo rh ood . Fo r exa mpl e , see F.j . R oet hli sberger a nd W.J . Dickson, M an agem ent and th e W orker (Cam bridge , M ass., 1939); Samuel A. Stoffe r , et. al . , Th e America n Soldier: Studies in Social Psvcholog1· �SLOVAKIA 41 in W orld W ar II , 2 vols (P rin ceto n , .J ., 1949); Edwa rd Shil s, " Prima ry Groups in th e Am eri can Arm y," in R obert M erton and Paul Laza rsfeld, ed s., Studies in ch e S cope and M ech od ofch e " Th e American Soldier " (Gl enoce, Ill. , 1951) ; W . Ll oyd Warn er and Paul S. Lunt , Th e S ocial Life of a M od ern C ommunicy (New H ave n , C onn . , 1941 ); Willi a m Foote Wh yte, Screet Com er Sociecy (Chicago, 1943); a nd K ornblum , Blue Collar Community. 14 Butler, Lakewood S cory , 228 , 188; C leveland Press , M ay 13 , 1947 ; and Rud er, " Imprint of Cultural V alues," 1, 3, 18 . " An impo rtant pa rt of th e p rocess, of course, invol ved co mpetiti o n for hou sing with oth er groups, a res tri cted housin g m a rket accessible to mi g rant s a nd their work . 16 M a ny form er res ident s of th e neighbo rh ood return a t least once a week fo r religious se rvices on Sunday; m a n y d o so m o re often . See al so Wrobel, Our Wa y. " R obert Park obse rved th at "certain urban neighborhoods suffer from isolation ." "The Ci ty," in Park and Burgess , Th e C it y, 8 . Fo r a different view, see Alfr ed Kazin , A W alk er in ch e C ic y (New Yo rk , 195 1). " The persistence of these a reas, outli vin g in som e cases th e in stituti ons th at ca m e aft er th em , att es ts to th eir vit alit y. " In th e Bird 's Nes t th e co ntinuin g prese nce of churches of eac h ethni c group suggests th e continuin g vit alit y of each group . Fo r other exampl es, see Cybriwsky, " Social Aspec ts of N eighbo rhood C ha nge"; Cybriwsky and D avid Ley, " Urba n Graffiti as T erri tori al M a rkers,'' Annals of ch e A ssociacion of American Geographers, 64 (1974) , 475-505; and K ornblum , Blue Collar Community . Some older studies infer the same conclu sion s: H elen L. Wilson and Eunice W . Smith , " Chicago H ou sin g Conditions, VIII : Am ong th e Slova ks in th e Twenti eth Ward ," America n j ourn al of S ociology, 20 (September , 19 14), 145-69 ; Emil y W. Dinwiddie, H ousing Condicions in Philadelphia (Philadelphi a, 1904); J a net K emp , R epore of ch e T en em enc H ouse Commission o f L ouisville (Loui sville, 1_909); Ulf H a nn erz, S ou/side ( ew Yo rk , 1969) ; and Wh yte, Scree/ Corn er Sociecy. •o Sec C la ud e Fi sc her , Th e Urban Experien ce ( ew Yo rk , 19 76) . In hi s m o re recent stud y, Fi sc her has fo un d th e current cit y '' a m osaic of inten se ethni c wo rld s rather th a n . . a la ndsca pe of ethni c di sintegra tion ." M o reo ver , " urba ni sm - or at least th e co nce ntrati o n of spec ific ethni c g roup s - m o re oft en bolsters th a n brea ks down ethni cit y. As the urbani sm of th e communit y increased , respo nd ent s were m ore likely to be ' ethni cs.' " T o Dwell Am ong Friends, 204 , 206 . " For example , H am tramck is an ex treme case where Polish-Am eri cans developed their ow n co mmunit y o n a m ass ive scale . In 1950 , 70 perce nt of th e 44 ,000 res idents of thi s inde pend ent co mmunit y in D etro it were of Poli sh-Am eri ca n ancestry. Arthur Eva ns W ood , H amcram ck : A S ociological Scudy of a Polish -America n Communicy (New H ave n , Conn ., 1955) , 13-28 . " Fisc her, T o D well Among Friends, 207 . See also Peter R ose, S crangers in Th eir Midsc: Small T own J ews and T h eir Neigh bors (M erri ck , New Yo rk , 1977). " Sec note 23. �SLOVAKIA 42 TABLE 1 Bird's Nest Population 1900-1940 Population i900· 1910 .. 429 2,186 1920 ± 4, 145 19.30t 3,729 1940# 3,125 •M a nusc ript Census- Federal Po pul atio n Census Sched ules , 1900 La kewood, O hio . '"Ma nuscript Census-Federal Popula ti o n Census Schedul es, 19 10 Lakewood , O hio . ± Federal Po pulation C ensus Schedules, 1920 Lakewood, O hio for census trac t LW 18. Unfo rtu na tely. the cen· su s tract leaves out one side of one stree t in the neighbo rh ood . tFede ral Po pul ati on C ensus Schedul es , 1930 La kewood, O hio fo r census tract LW1 8. U nfo rtun ately. the cen· sus tract leaves out one side Of one stree t in the neighborhood . #Bu rea u of the Census, Popula tion and H ousing - 1940: Cle,·eland. O hio and Adj acent Arca (Washingto n , 1941), 106. U nfo rtun a tely, the ce nsus trac t leaves out o ne side of one street in 1hc neighborhood . �SLOVAKIA 43 TABLE 2 Occupations of Alley Dwellers 1880 Federal Population Census Schedules , 1880 . Washington, D .C. Record Group 29. National Archives Occupations , 1880 • Adult Males (16 or older) Occupacion N % Unski lled Service Semi-skilled Skilled White-collar Proprieto r (and self-employed) Professional Agriculture/Fishing None 1,641 251 318 233 50 112 28 17 124 59 TOTAL 2,774 100 N % 9 12 8 2 4 4 Adule Females (16 or older) Occupacion Unskilled Service Semi-skilled Skilled White-collar Proprietor None (includes "at home ," "keeping house , " and "at school" ) TOTAL 4 1,742 70 6 10 8 49 1, 780 49 3 ,620 100 2 •Th e substanti al numbe rs of a lley d we ll ers in skilled throu gh professi onal ac tivities is th e res ult of a classifica1io n system th at is ma rk edl y diffe re nt fro m the ones ge nerall y used . It was used here to detec t " class" differen ces within the alley po pula ti on . Thu s, ba rbers a re class ified as skilled , while a number of " proprietors " a rc , in fac 1,ju nkmen . V irtu all y all the adult alley po pula ti o n sho uld fall in the unskilled , se rvice, o r semi- skilled a reas. See Bo rchert, Alley Life, 306-08 . �SLOVAKIA 44 TABLE 3 Occupations of Residents of the Bird 's Nest 1900 A. Adult Males - 15 yea rs of age or older. Occupation Unskill ed .. . . . . . . .. .. .. .. ........ . . . . ... .. ... .... . Service ............ . .... . ... . . . . .... . .. . .. .. .. . . . Semi-skilled .. . ... . . ... . . . . . . . . Skilled ... . . ... .. .... . . . White-collar Proprietor Professional Agricultural T otal B. Adult W omen - Number Percent 147 92 % 3 2 0 5 0 3 2 0 3 2 160 15 yea rs of age or older . Occupation Number 2 2 Unskilled Service ... Semi- skill ed Skill ed White-colla r Proprietor Agri cultural Percent 50 % 50 % 0 0 0 0 0 T otal 4 100 % TABLE 3 Occupations of Residents of the Bird's Nest 1910 A . Adult M ales - 15 yea rs of age or older. Occupation Number Un skill ed 79 1 Se rvice 19 Semi-skilled . .. .. . . .... .. ... . ...... . .. . ... ... .... . 38 Skill ed ...... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 White-co ll a r 10 P roprietor 11 P rofessional 1 Agri cul tural To tal 949 Percent 84 % 2 4 8 100 % �SLOVAKIA B. Ad u lt Wom en - 45 15 ye ars of age or olde r. Occupation Number 75 Un ski lled ....... . . Service Semi- ski lled Ski lled W hi te-coll ar P ro prieto r Profess io nal Agricultu ral 33 Percent 66 % 29 % 0 4 4 1 0 0 0 11 3 T otal 100 % TABLE 3 Occupations of Residents of the Bird 's Nest 1940 Occupations Number O cc u pa ti ons not repo rt ed U nskilled Service wo rkers D om es ti c se rvi ce wo rkers Opera ti ves a nd kind red wo rkers C ra ft sm en , fo rem en , a nd kindred wo rkers . ... . .... . . . .. . . . C leri cal, sales , and kind red wo rkers . .. . . P ro pri etors, m a nage rs, and offi cials . ... . .. . Se mi -pro fess io nal Pro fess ional T otal Percent 2 184 83 98 17% 8 9 478 44 105 10 9 3 96 29 4 13 1,092 100 % Bu reau of the Ce nsus, Populat ion and Housing - 1940: Cleveland , Ohio and Adjacent A rea (W as hin gton , 1942) , 106 . Ce nsus tract leaves o ut o ne side of one street of neighbo rhood . �� " Logan Place." September 26, 1935. All ey Dwellin g Authority. Nati onal Capital H ousin g Authorit y Collection . Library, D e pa rtm ent of H ou sin g and Com munit y D evelo pm ent. W as hin gto n, D .C . ► ► ;,::; ...... < 0 L' (/) 0::, �SLOVAKIA 9 Migrant Responses To The City: The Neighborhood, Case Studies in Black and White, 1870-1940* James Borchert and Susan Danziger-Borchert Th ey tend to reproduce spontaneously the home community and to live in it. L etters show that they frequently reply to inquiries from home for a description of America, " I have yet been able to see America." W.I. Thomas, "The Immigrant Community" Students of migration to American cities have, over the years, produ ced a large library of studies. The greatest outpouring of work has co ncentra ted on the migration of southern and eastern European immigrants during the years from 1880 to 1920, and the "great migrati o n " of blacks from the rural South. This profusion of work has not produced any final conclusions on the migrant experience, although there a re a number of schools of thought about what happen ed to migrants . Th e first group of scholars who considered European migrants of this pe riod concl uded that d espite efforts to re- establish their rural ways of life, the city proved too poor a soil for such institutions to ta ke root. Thus extended family , kinship network , neighborhood , and community 1 • A ve rsio n of this paper was prese nted a t th e Nin ety-Seve nth Annu al M ee tin g of th e Am eri ca n Hi sto ri cal Associa ti o n held in Washin gton, D .C. in D ece mb er 198 2. The authors are indebted to th e Am erican Hi to ri cal Associati on for a n Albert J. Beveridge M em o ri a l Fund Grant and the Smithson ian In sti tuti on for a fellowship, whi ch provided esse nti al fundin g in conn ec tion with th e preparation of th e original presenta tion. �10 SLOVAKIA withered ; a pe riod of disorde r a nd co nfu sion foll owed u nt il mi grant s discovered the " urba n way of life. " 1 Accordin g to the theory, thi s d iscovery , synonymous with the beginnings of assimil a tion a nd accultu ration, provided migrants with the form s of order a nd organization tha t would m ake success in America (and cities) possible and p rob able . After a n appropriate period of apprenticeship in the " zon e in transition " a nd the " zone of workingmen ' s homes, " the urba nized mi grant began to m ove to middle-class status a nd suburban h om es. 3 M ore recent scholars, a n alyzing a ggregate cen sus d a ta (fo r indi ces of di ssimil a rity) a nd city directories (for spa tial a nd occupa tional m obility), have questioned the notion that European mi gra nts spent mu ch tim e in the zon e in tran sition . Based on this d a ta, they contend tha t individu al m igra nts from diffe rent immi grant groups lived widely scattered acro ss workin g-class residential a reas . Few con centration s we re great e nou gh to permit the development of urba n vill ages or ghet toes. Where they ex isted, mi grant s passed through so quickl y th a t their importa n ce as a n institution was minimized for most. 4 In contrast , until recently , most observers of black migran ts in the city concluded tha t folk breakdown was extensive. Moreover , whil e new bl ack residents seem ed to m ove as frequ ently as white mi gra nts, they did so within a n increasingly restrictive ghetto area . 5 Thu s, whe re a disorganized ghetto confronted black migrants, white migrants ex peri en ced greater spa tial and (implicitly) m ore occupa tional mobility. Whi te migrants m elted to gether into a working cl ass div ided by reli gion (P rotestant , Catholi c, and J ew) , 6 while blacks confronted a n earl y caste-like experien ce. 7 The m ost recent work by students of Eu ro pean a nd bl ack mi gra nt s of the 1880 to 1930 period h as b egun to challen ge som e of these findin gs . Students of urba n bl ack communi ties h ave foc u sed on the exte nsive presen ce of fo rm al organi zati ons to dem onstra te the exten t of order in black life. 8 Simila rl y, studies of E u rop ean immi grant group s h ave demon stra ted the persisten ce of ethni c life in th e city throu gh the in stituti on s of church , b e nevolen t groups, lod ges, politi cal ac tivity, a nd a n active press. 9 M oreove r , both se ts of studi es presum e th e prese nce of a recogni zable geogra phical b ase upon whi ch these fo rm al or gani zations operate . In the case of black communities, the ghetto explicity fo rm s the b ounda ries; fo r white immi gra nt s, th e pa rish or" immi gran t n eighborhood " implicitly serves as the turf around which the story of organi za- �SLOVAKIA 11 tional life unfolds. Unfortunately, in either case, the empirical demonstration of this critical base and its role is often assumed as given. Few have sought to consider the role of neighborhood and community development as a crucial framework for their analyses. 10 • Because this literature provides little basis for analysis or comparison, it is necessary to turn to the work of sociologists for a framework. 11 While there is little work on scale and its impact on the nature of neighborhood, 11 more has been done on neighborhood typologies. Gerald Suttles suggests three: the defended neighborhood, the community oflimited liability, and the contrived community. The first is most pertinent to the discussion here: "a residential group which seals itself off through the efforts of delinquent gangs, . . . by sharp boundaries, or by forbidding reputation." 13 The elements of the defended community are: "a recognizable identity, a consensus among residents of a common fate, and a 'positive' and sentimental attachment to neighbors, local establishments, and local traditions to the exclusion of other persons, establishments, and traditions . '' 14 Another set of issues that the current literature ignores concerns the distinction between primary or informal groups (family, neighborhood, community) and formal organization. Historians' concentration on formal group life represents a great limitation on their work, since these groups represent only one level of response migrants made to the city. 15 In part, these formal groups reflect most fully the experiences of the most successful: those who are largely "a-typical" of the larger group's experience. 16 More importantly, informal groups played a critical role in the life of the folk migrants prior to their move to the city. 17 Their presence and roles in the city represent important elements to test to determine the nature and extent of changes that resulted from migration, urbanization, industrialization, and modernization. Since earlier observers pointed to these informal groups as the institutions that underwent the most complete and severe change, with formal groups replacing them, it seems central to the discussion of the persistency of ethnic group life that primary group life be given careful analysis. This is especially so since it is the family, neighborhood, and community that are so central for the socialization and identity of the young. 18 There are other reasons for considering the issue of informal group life. Recent studies of both European and black migrant areas have reported population turnover that was thought to undermine the develop- �12 SLOVAKIA ment and impact of ethnic enclaves; proximity to many other groups diminished European ethnicity to one of the three major religions. While recent studies demonstrate the importance of chain-migration for both black and white migrants, little effort has been made to determine what effect this chain migration had on the formation of groups in the city. 19 In contrast, the presence ( or absence) of a neighborhood in proximity to formal institutions of an ethnic group represents theoretically a very different experience than that postulated by studies of movement and mobility . Rather than seemingly random movement, it would be possible to hypothesize the informal neighborhood providing important sets of support for the church (parish), businesses, beneficial organizations, press, and national organizations. While it may be difficult to determine which came first, it seems likely that informal neighborhood lies at the base of the ethnic urban village. Moreover, despite the mobility, the presence of an ethnic village that provides important goods and services for "members," whatever the place of residence, plays an important role in the "maintenance" of ethnicity and identity. 20 Thus, while it may have have served every member of a given ethnic group in its particular part of the city, the neighborhood/urban village fostered important networks of institutions for migrants; dominance of a section of the city permitted residents a chance to be "themselves" within the confines of a turf dominated by persons from the same kin network, town, region, and country. In these neighborhoods, residents hammered out their own identities, consciousness, and relations with the larger world. Without this envelope, it is hard to imagine how so many informal and formal groups could have persisted and prospered . 21 It is the purpose of this article to examine the development of residential neighborhoods and communities by two different groups of migrants in different environments. While these are far from "random" selections, 22 we do feel that they represent two different kinds of migrant settlements, one very small, the other fairly large. Both neighborhoods conform roughly to Suttles' definition of a defended neighborhood; both represent an important migrant response to the urban environment, a response that has been passed over all too briefly by past work. The article focuses on the efforts of two different groups of folk migrants to establish a "turf" in the city: Black migrants settled in the inhabited alleys of Washington, D .C ., and the eastern European migrants settled in the "Bird's Nest" on the fringe of Cleveland, Ohio. �SLOVAKIA 13 In m a ny ways the social co nditions migrants faced in these two environments were dramatically different; each cam e with a different set of experie nces and cultural baggage, and each faced very different conditions in the cities they settled despite the fact that both entered the urban marketpl ace at the ' 'bottom .' ' 23 While these differences are critical to understand what happened to each group, it is also important to see in general term s what migrants shared in their struggle with the urban-industrial environment. The article begins with a consideration of similarities and differences between the two communities in terms of physical form , population , occupations, and living conditions. The major part of the article focuses on the development and form each neighborhood took . The conclusions seek to compa re these two experien ces and suggest their implicat ions for othe r migrant experien ces and for the study of migrants . II. Descriptive Comparison of Neighborhoods: Alley Communities and The Bird 's Nest Physical Form and Isolation . Alley communities of Washington, like their counterparts throughout the urban United States and Europe , were small, relatively circumscribed , and isola ted neighborhoods spread throu ghout the central city 24 (see Map 1) . In Washington , alley house co nstru ction fell largely in the period from the end of the Civil War until 1892, when Congress banned new construction. D eveloped on narrow st reets or alleys inside a large city block , the tiny, two-story fram e or brick row houses faced inwa rd onto the interior alley, while larger, more expensive row houses lined the outside of the block and faced onto the street (M ap 2). W ell-to-do residents of the street-front property were separated from their poor and often black, backyard neighbors physically, sociall y, and culturally. D evelopers and owne rs of alley property , often well to do , generally lived outside the immediate section of the city where their all ey property was located, thus furth er isolating the alley n eighborhood . 25 The Bird 's N est, a single neighborhood , was equ ally isolated , but shared much more in co mmon with the la rge ethnic enclaves in urban indu st ri al areas throu ghout the United States. In 1892 , a land company sub sidary (Pleasant Hill L and Company-PHLC) of the National Carbon Company laid out the eight n a rrow stree ts (five n a m ed for birds), a nd 424 lots to provide hous in g for workers at its new facto ry n earby. 26 �SLOVAKIA 14 INHABITED ALLEYS 1897 POPUATION 0 1- ,. 0 0 0 JOO - ... 0 RKE • • 0 MAP 1 - 1/l or mor, 81,il(: k 2/lormor,\Nhct C ommi ssione rs of the District of Columbia, Annual R eport (W ashin gton , 189 7), 195-202. 1897 �SLOVAKIA 15 N STREET [ fr" I l'Fif =! .J.Jo . a--1 II ' ' .. ~ • II - '-M STREET L STREET D BUILDINGS HEADS Of HOUSEHOLD Native Born Whites S.ablo Foreign Born \\'hites (born outside Ncw1h America or p,uenc~ born outside Othe<Buldir@ Store o, AmYm Shop North Amtfil:a) • •• !lacks ~ (when lhan l) more MAP 2 - Sanborn Map Publishin g Company, In surance M aps of Washington , D .C. (New York , N . Y., 1888) ; and Fed eral Populat ion Census Schedules, I 880 W ashington , D .C., V ol. 2 pan 2, R eco rd Group 29 National Archi ves. �SLOVAKIA 16 \~ PART Of" L.\I(E,ro on .>. ' -~ I I .A 11 LE 1 1 ROCKPORT TOWNSHIP. \~_. ~':. ~ \" \ ... ~7;:... MAP .3 - Pleasa nt Hill La nd C ompan y subdi vision of th e " Bird 's Nes t " a nd th e adjoining Na ti on al Ca rbon Facto r y, 1898 . Thom as Fl ynn , Ott o Ba rth el, R .H . Bunni ng , and Thomas H assa n , Atlas o[ th e Suburbs o[ Cleveland, Ohio ( Phil ad elphia , 1898), Plate 24 . �SLOVAKIA 17 The neighborhood was circumscribed by railroad tracks, th e factory , a nd a wood s (later d eveloped for a factory and park) on three sides; the fourth side, a secondary comme rcial artery, p ermitted some overflow into the immediate n eighborhood to the north (see Map 3). While Bird's Nest workers were able to gain ownership of the area, it remained isolated from the surrounding area which was developin g as a middl e-class suburb. 2 7 Like the inward facing alley, th e neighborhood also turned in ward with its " main street," Plover , being the most isol a ted of its streets. 28 Migration and Neighborhood Size. Black migrants from the surrounding states of Virginia and Maryland, coming largely in cha ins of family, fri ends , and neighbors, settled into the alley communities. 29 Predominantl y from rural areas, these mi grants mainta ined ties to the countryside a nd encouraged furth er m ove me nt from those areas . While rural migrants had a number of differe nt res id enti al environm e nts to chose from in the city, a nd often m oved b ack a nd forth betwee n these , m an y se ttled initially in the alleys . Alley popu lations varied co nsiderabl y in size within a given year and over tim e . The smallest held one or two famil ies, the largest ove r 400 peopl e (see Map 1). Most all eys fell so m ewhere in be tween , with the average all ey size in 1880 bein g 50 residents ; at the peak of alley population in 1897, when there were nearl y 20 ,000 all ey res idents living in 240 all eys, th e average all ey size was 73. Th ese were, th e n , very small , face-to-face co mmunities of bl ack rural migrants. 3° In contrast, migra nts to the Bird 's N es t cam e from rural a reas in Easte rn Europe; most id entifi ed th emselves as " Hun garian Slovaks ," alth ou gh some were from P ola nd a nd Ru ss ia . 31 Th ey also mi grated in cha in s of relat ives, fri end s, and n eighbors as well as by region. 32 Like bl ack mi gra ti on to th e all eys, th e re was cons iderab le movem ent back a nd forth betwee n th e Old W o rld a nd th e New. Un like th e all ey populat ion th at reached its peak in 1900 a nd began to drop off, with each alley being a small isola ted community onto itself, the Bird 's N est populati on of 429 in 1900 in creased fi ve -fold by 19 10 a nd then doubled by 1920 at its peak ( see T able 1.) Thi s represe nts a different kind of ethni c encl ave with pote nti al for m o re sub sta nti ve inst itu tion al d evelopme nt. Occupations and Workplace. Black residents of W ashin gton alleys co nfronted profound limita ti ons in their search for work. R ac ism limi ted �18 SLOVAKIA employment of black males largely to day labor and black women to dom estic or laundry work; none had access to the limited industrial occupations in Washington 33 (see Table 2). The employment open to alley dwell ers, then, represented the worst paid , least secure, and often the m ost physically demanding and dangerous positions available. Moreover, despite long residence in the ci ty, black alley dwellers experienced little if any upward occupational mobility ; a color bar en sured that any movem ent would be minimal. 3 4 In contrast , while migrants from Eastern Europe came with similar skills as rural blacks , they often found industrial employment available to them, even though it was nearly always at the bottom . In 1900, most male residents of the Bird 's Nest were laborers working at the adjacent National Carbon factory; by 1910, a number of residents had gained som e mobility by gaining access to semi-skilled industrial occupations. Moreover, a number of women were able to gain indu strial employment, although usually a t the lowest levels ; many others earn ed incom e by runnin g boarding houses or taking in boarders. While this work was long, hard , physically demanding , and often dangerous , it was also more secure and better paying than anything available to alley dwellers . By 1940 , em ployed male a nd female workers of the Bird 's Nest were concentrated in semi-skilled pos itions ( 44 percent), with another 10 percent skilled and 13 percent proprietarial or white collar employees; only a third remained as unskill ed or service workers 35 (see Table 3). Living Conditions. Living conditions in most D .C. alleys were far from wholesome; crowding, poorly maintained buildings and outhouses, piles of uncollected trash in alleys, and the co nstant d anger of contagious disease plagued residents. D espite the limited space inside the two-story 12x30 foot alley house, man y were shared by more than one hou sehold unit ; in some cases four family units lived in one small room each . 36 These crowded cond itions made residents m ore susceptible to di sease, while landl ord s' lack of co ncern for maintenance and the city's di sinterest in coll ect in g trash from the alleys exposed residents to di sease in other ways. Limited and unstable income restricted diets while d angerou s, outdoor work further taxed alley dwellers' health . Ultimately these cond iti ons led to death rates for alley dwell ers th at were twice th at for residents of the streets; the major causes were diseases that cou ld clearly be linked to socio-economic status . 3 7 Children under the age of one year acco unted for much of the high death rate. 38 �SLOVAKIA 19 While the Bird's Nest developed in a suburban setting and lacked the extreme density of the alley community, living conditions were little better. While outside the multi-family homes "everything was mud," inside the long, narrow two - and three-story buildings many families lived in tiny cold water flats 39 (see Map 4) . Whereas alley dwellers had to go outside for water and toilets, Bird's Nesters shared "indoor water closets .' ' 40 Residents of the latter community, however, were more likely to share their tiny apartments with boarders; 32 percent of households had boarders in 1910 (boarders made up one-fourth of the total population), 41 while only 13 percent of 1880 alley households were augmented. 41 The crowded living conditions in the Bird's Nest, along with the long hours at work and limited income, led to high death rates, especially for the very young. 43 In 1900, women reported over one-fourth of the children they had borne were dead, 44 a condition that continued in later years. There are, then, substantial similarities between the two populations; Both came into the urban marketplace at the bottom; both lived in housing conditions that were crowded and dangerous ; the "communities" were isolated physically and socially from the surrounding populations; both were made up of groups that had migrated in chains to the city. Nevertheless , residents of the Bird's Nest did have access to industrial jobs that were more stable and better paying; and these positions permitted some mobility from unskilled labor to semi- and eventually skilled jobs. In addition, where alley communities were largely limited in size by the number of houses built in each alley , and ultimately by the limited interior space of the block itself, the Bird's Nest faced less spatial constriction. This afforded the potential for more complete development. Finally, while alley dwellers seldom had the resources to purchase their alley homes from absentee landlords , res idents of the Bird's Nest were encouraged to do so by the industrial developer of their community . Where ownership always remained external to the alley community , the Bird 's N est quickly becam e locally owned. Despite these differences, each area developed a se ries of informal groups that provided the base for the formation of a neighborhood . That neighborhood , in turn , provided the foundation for the d evelopment of more formal organizations. Given the differe nt resources and scale, however, residents d eveloped different kinds of ne ighborhoods. �10 FAM ILY UNtTS .I H oward Whipple G ree n , Plan es of Living in C uyah oga County: as D epicted by th e R eal Property Survey (C leveland , 1940), 65. Bird ' s Nest = LW18 MAP 4 - e 6.5 o/o OF ALL FAMILY UNITS 2 1,953 IN COUNT Y COLD WATER FLATS ~ ► ~ < >- 0 r< (./J 0 �SLOVAKIA 21 III. Neighborhoods Alley Communities. Black migrants who came to Washington alleys re-established their kin and friendship networks in the alley; they continued to use these networks for emotional and financial support. Because their resources were so marginal, only reliance on these groups made survival more likely. Each alley then, had several or more such networks into which "fictive kin" were also drawn. They provided the most basic form of social organization, albeit informal, in the alley . 45 It was the alley neighborhood, itself, that brought these kin groups together into a loose , but cohesive unit . Since alleys were isolated from the surrounding neighborhood and often some distance from the emerging black enclaves of the city where the major institutions of black life were located, alley residents often had to fall back on themselves for help and support. Drawing on their rural experience, migrants constructed informal defended neighborhoods to provide for their needs. In many respects, however, this informal community became much more important in the city because residents were more dependent on each other, especially in the period just following their migration. Since migration to the city (and alleys) continued throughout the period, and since there were always some "native" alley residents as well as some migrants who had lived in a given alley for many years, new migrants did not have to confront the urban environment alone . New neighbors, kin, and old friends helped ease the transition from country to city. 46 The alley itself' 7 was the center of the alley community; residents congregated there, save in the worst weather, to meet with friends and neighbors. 48 A major location for informal meeting took place at the intersection of the two main alleys . All residents passed this point on their way into and out of the alleys; neighbors met each other here as they returned home from work each day, or hung out there during the day if there was no work available . In addition , residents generally sat in front of their homes and talked to neighbors who joined them on the steps, benches, or chairs set out for this purpose . 49 It is impossible to overestimate the value and import of this activity, for virtually every aspect of the alley community was based on this interaction . If neighboring provided an important element of entertainment, it also provided information on which neighbors needed help and where jobs were available. A critical function of the alley community �22 SLOVAKIA involved help and support for those in need; neighbors aided each other by providing money, food, and shelter while in some cases they took in friends' children and cared for them, in others they let neighborhood children sleep at their house '' because they had more room.'' 50 A third function neighboring and the alley community provided was the maintenance of internal social control. Part of this came as a result of the positive support neighbors gave each other; they also used gossip and more formal sanctions to maintain order. 51 Ultimately, these daily discussions about ' ' appropriate behavior'' by residents resulted in the hammering out of a common philosophy and world view; a world view that was shared by members of the community and differed from that of outsiders. 52 Finally, alley dwellers defended their neighborhood against outsiders . Part of this resulted from their intensive use of alley space for neighboring , thus discouraging others from entering the area . When outsiders did enter they were confronted by residents and watched throughout their alley visit, an experience that unnerved many observers of alley life. 53 Alley dwellers had good reason to watch "outsiders"; other Washingtonians, black and white, generally viewed residents of the alleys with great disdain. While the police were especially harsh in their attempts to control alley populations, other residents, though less overt in their actions, expressed nearly universal condemnation of alley dwellers. 54 This external hostility helped hold the alley community together, despite its internal dissension . Disputes over life style dominated these schisms, but the small scale of the neighborhood, the necessity to cooperate to survive, and the external threats effectively held residents together. Because of its small size and very limited resources, however, the alley community was not able to develop or support a very extensive set of formal organizations. It did provide an excellent medium for small alley churches, which were simply alley houses residents rented "for Jesus. " They were kept going by neighbors' contributions and the pastors ' earnings from "doing occasional laundry" or other work . 55 While most alleys seem to have had at least one of these churches, their small size - "Ten chairs and a pulpit, and an improvised altar" - makes the extent of participation problematic . 56 Alley businesses were equally marginal, and often involved in illegal activity. Like the semi-formal alley church, these businesses required conversion of part ofan alley house into a " speak-easy" or "fac- �SLOVAKIA 23 tory" for the m a nufacture of illegal alcohol , or oft en both . While these were cl early ill egal and we re often closed down by law e nforcem ent offi cia ls, th ey provided an importa nt service for the alley ne ighborhood in representin g a " proto " ne ighborhood tave rn a nd community ce nter where residents co uld m eet. 57 The Bird 's Nest. A s earl y as 1889 , Slovak mi gran ts b egan work on the construction of the n ew National Carbon factory . 58 After the factory was co mpl eted , these worke rs and their fri ends were hired to work in th e factory . 59 Like alley dwellers, initial settle rs in the Bird 's N est began a cha in mi gration , at first drawing from the oth er Slovak enclaves throughout the city and eventuall y reaching back to Hun gary. This process resu lted in ex tended kin n etworks bein g refo rmul a ted in th e n ew neighborhood . In a number of cases, this reformu la tion extended to Old World v ill age pa rishes. Within th e fir st few years, m a n y of the core famili es had m oved in and esta blished them selves. Fri end s, ne ighbors, a nd co -reli gionists followed . As o ne oral history repo rted, " m a n y times the m en came along first , leaving wives a nd children behind in Slovakia, until they h ad found work a nd could send back for th eir families. When they cam e first, they sought out others from the sam e village who were alread y" in the neighborhood . 60 The most criti cal form of organization , however, was the neighborhood it self. Like the all ey community , the n eighborhood rem a ined largely inform al; initiall y it w as a grouping of kin n etworks largely of Slovak a n cestry. Y e t this inform a l " institution " p rovided the precon dition s necessary for the con structio n of other aspects of the community. In large p a rt the migrants es tablished th eir co ntrol over th e ne ighborhood in the first years of settle m e nt , 1892- 1900 . A lthough the a rea was th en only sli ghtl y bigge r tha n th e largest all ey, these earl y migrants a nd th eir famili es esta blish ed a beachhead that was neve r chall en ged . Unlike alley dwell ers who neve r gained ow nership of th eir ne ighborhood , res idents of the Bird 's N est quickly bou ght up th e small parcels o f la nd (wheth er simpl y cl eared b y the PHLC, or built upon ) , 6 1 as soo n as th eir fin ances m ad e it possibl e. 61 A lon g Pl ove r , migrant s purch ased 43 perce nt of the lots prior to 1900; o nl y three of th e 35 lots o n the street m ay h ave been ini tiall y purchased by non-Sl avs. 63 R es id ent s gain ed ow ners hi p o f m ost of th e 424 lots in the subdi vion s on initi a l sale; w ith few exce ptio n s, th ey eve ntuall y ga in ed co ntrol ove r th e rem a ining o nes as well. �24 SLOVAKIA P e rhaps the most striking aspect of n eighborhood d evelopment is the extent to which residents drew on each other's skill s and resources to construct houses, stores, a nd shops. Of the 171 lots for which information is available on th e initial con struction , 92 perce nt of the owners were alread y residents of the neighborhood. While m a n y built their own hom e (or a building to rent), those owners who hired a builde r to co nstruct their houses overwhelmingly chose a resident of the neighborhood (64 percent). Many of the non-resident builders were also of Slavic origin , but lived in one of the other encl aves spread throughout the city. 64 T o an impressive ex tent , th en , residents bought up the neighbo rhood la nd, and per son ally built th eir own hom e or a home to sell to more rece nt migra nts ; when they did not do their own co nstru ction they hired neighbors . In doing so, they establi shed an impress ive investm ent upon which they could draw or build on in the future. 65 H av in g es tablish ed a turf a nd access to employ m ent , residents encouraged n ew migra nt s to join them. Whe reas the m ajo rity of th e first res idents ha d migrated to the United Sta tes in the ten years prior to the building of th e factory, the massive influx of n ew migrants in the fir st two d ecad es of the twenti eth century cam e direc tl y to the n eigh bo rhood. Slovaks continu ed their d omination of the n eighborhood (70 perce nt) , whil e Slovak was the most common la ngu age. 66 One of the key attractions of thi s N ew Slovak/ Slav ic village, in a d dition to the presen ce of fri ends , relatives, and an ethni c ne ighborhood , was the prese nce of employm ent possibilities in industry. H av ing mad e important inroads from th e beginnin g of the constru ction o f the new factory, Slovaks , a nd to a lesse r extent P oles a nd Ru ssians, dominated the lowest level of empl oym e nt in the facto ry. 67 Th ere is so m e indi cation th a t the original pl a nt o n the east side of Clevela nd may also h ave empl oyed workers from a nearb y Slovak e nclave. These employees m ay have been attrac ted to th e new factory b y the avail ab ilit y of la nd ; a disastrous fire a t the old e r pl a nt in 1893 m ay well have speed ed up this process. 68 Wh a teve r the initi a l co nnection, Slovaks a nd oth er Sl av ic mi gra nt s establi shed a beachh ead in th e factory from th e beginnin g b y drawin g o n th eir inform a l networks . 69 Jun e Alexand er found a similar co nditio n for Slovaks in Pittsburgh , namely that "factori es relied o n their fore m e n to hire workers and foreme n, in turn, reli ed o n th e ir workers as intermedi a ries to find la borers. " 70 As mi grants worked their way slowly up the ranks to semi-skilled a nd occasion all y forem en positions , th ey �SLOVAKIA 25 gain ed m ore direct access to the hiring process. With the informal neighborhood networks , Slovaks came to dominate both workplace and neighborhood . 7 1 Whil e info rm al social cont rol and aid permeated th e early years of the Bird's N est as it did in the alleys, the ra pid growth of the neighborhood in the first decade of the twentieth cen tury permitted the developme nt of m ore form al organiza tions . R esidents of different reli gious persuas ion s m et sepa rately; initially these m ee tings, like the alley church , were worshi p serv ices held in co-reli gioni sts' hom es. Eve ntu ally these m eetin gs led to the fo rmation of lod ges and other m ore form al organizations designed to bring about the formation of a parish and the building of a church . 72 The first parish , Sts. Peter and P aul Lutheran , was offi cially form ed in 1901 ( church building-1 902/school som e years later) ; it was followed by Sts. Cyril and M ethod ius R om an Catholic Church in 1903 (church building and school-1905); St. Gregory ' s Byzantine Rite Catholic Church in 1905 ( chu rch building 1906/school som e years later); and the C alvin Presbyterian C hurch in 19 17 (church buildin g-19 2 1) . Ca lvin Presbyte ri a n C h urch in th e foreg round occupi es th e first sit e of Sts. Pe te r a nd Pau l Luth era n C hurch . In th e b ac kg round is St . Grego ry's Byza nti e n Rit e Ca th oli c C hurch . (Ph ot0g ra ph by a ut ho rs, J a nu a ry , 1984). �26 SLOVAKIA Sts. Peter and Paul Luthera n. (Photograph by au thors, January, 1984). SS. Cyril a nd M eth odi us R om an Ca th oli c C hurch . (Ph otog raph by au th ors, J anua ry, I 984). �SLOVAKIA 27 These "predominantly" Slovak parishes were joined by those of the other ethnic groups sharing the neighborhood, the first of which was St. Hedwig's Church (Roman Catholic Polish Parish) in 1905 ( church building-l 914/school-1926). Because residents took the initiative in the formation of these parishes and schools, they often had considerable control over their direction, especially in the early years. 73 These parishes made the neighborhood even more attractive to potential migrants; their founding at the beginning of the decade undoubtedly encouraged many others to migrate. Religious schools provided another incentive, especially to Slovaks who witnessed their own schools closed or "converted for Magyarization" in the homeland. For residents in the Bird's Nest, these schools represented a way to avoid efforts at Americanization promoted by the public schools. As a result many children from the neighborhood attended these parochial schools. 74 Drawing on their growing neighborhood and its greater resources (compared to alley communities), residents of the Bird's Nest also started an incredible number of businesses. While most of these were small stores and shops that served the immediate neighborhood , several developed into substantial businesses that provided necessary goods and services for ethnic and religious needs . 75 Most important, however, was the formation of Eagle Building and Loan Company in 1911 . Controlled from within the neighborhood, residents built an institution that made possible complete acquisition and building of the area, and expansion beyond . 76 The building and loan was critical since over fifty percent of the neighborhood's lots were sold by the PHLC during the 1910s, while the period from 1912 to 191 7 was the period of greatest home construction. 77 Although the neighborhood was divided by ethnicity, religion, and class , as well as by very different attitudes on assimilation, 78 these divisions were subsumed by the needs of the neighborhood and the workings of informal groups. For some, the community revolved around the parish ; Peter Glovna remembered that "it was just like a little village, and the pillar was St. Cyril. " 79 Nevertheless , they were a series of co mmunity-wide activities that drew residents together. 80 Most important , " the first settlers tried to reconstruct , as closely as possible , the village system they were so accustomed to in Poland , Russia, and Slovakia. The close-knit warmth a nd familiarity of the village provided security and a sense of home to the recently displaced immigrants. " 81 �28 SLOVAKIA Ultimately , residents used the neighborhood as alley residents did theirs; everyone knew everyone else and interaction on the streets, front yards, and porches was extensive, especially in warm weather. 82 This neighboring activity , largely through informal, small groups of relatives and friends, made up a critical element in the neighborhood life . It provided the first level (past kin network) of organization, one that replicated itself as formal groups began in the churches, lodges, and benevolent associations as well as the workplace. These primary groups provided members with an immediate sense of belonging, a connection with larger, more formal organizations, and a way by which members of the primary group could collectively continue to co nstru ct a world view, maintain social control , and provide help and support for the needy. 83 Like the alley community, the Bird's Nest found that the external threat was often sufficient to contain internal conflict. Hostility , both formal (from police and other official sources) and informal (from personal prejudice directed at residents), was extensive throughout the period. Outsiders, as in the case of alley communities, targeted the neighborhood as an eyesore and danger to the rest of the community; and police exercised their authority to "maintain social control by overenforcing the law .' ' 84 IV. Conclusions Based on these examples, it seems clear that migrants, via chain migration and efforts to gain entry/control over admission to a j ob market , began to establish residential enclaves. 85 If the process of neighborhood formation appears to have begun almost unconsciously, its development was quite conscious. While the presence of such neighborhoods is taken as given to most studies, what stands out in these two examples is the extent to which migrants took over their respective turfs, defended them, and built informal and formal institutions around them. In fact , the clustering provided the necessary context for virtually every further institutional development. If some or many migrants eventually passed through and out of the neighborhood , it remained(s) an important focal point in the lives of many , even those who could "escape" to more affluent suburban settlements. 86 The neighborhood , then , must be taken more fully into account as one, if not the most critical, of migrant institutions. �SLOVAKI A 29 T hese neighborhood s provided the b ase fo r su rvival in the new urban en vironment. They were the source of housing, employm ent , mutual aid , p rotection , famil y, and friends . They permitted pa rents to raise their children in a n en v iro nment a nd throu gh in stitutio n s ove r w hich the fam ili es exerted som e co ntrol. They also provided a safe ha rbor from whi ch m igrants confro n ted the confu sin g city . M o reove r , ne ighbor s worked out their respo n ses to the issu es o f ethnicity, accultu ratio n , a nd ass im il at ion in this con text of everyd ay life. If n eighbo r s chose diver ging path s, they were n eve rtheless path s th a t d evelo ped w ithin the confines a nd con text of the ethnic en clave. R a ther th a n the stilted b ackwaters th a t R o bert P a rk a nd other s saw, th ese e ncl aves we re vibrant wi th conflicts over life style, ch a n gin g ethnic ide n tity, a d a pta tion , a nd eve n interna tio n al issu es . 8 7 T hu s, to under stand migrant organization s a nd the role they played in accul tu rat io n and et h nic ident ity, it is necessary to con sider th e first in st ituti on m igran ts created in th e city, th e neighbo rhood . 88 W hile these two n eigh borhood s were dram aticall y d ifferent, they both fi t well into Suttles' d efinition of a defended neighbo rhood . I t seem s q uite likely tha t m os t imm igrant e nclaves also fit thi s descri ption , even in cases where the areas was no t so highly segregated fro m the surroundin g city b y either physical ba rrier s or class differen ces. A number o f rece nt studies d em o n stra te tha t d efended n eighborhood s can hold up without these two elem ents. 89 H oweve r , wha t seem s m ost important here is the signifi cance of scale . Becau se alley neighbo rhood s we re sm all a nd u nable to develop ex ten sive for m al o rganizat io n s d oes no t m ean tha t they we re a n y less impor tant for m a inta inin g a nd d evelopin g a n e thnic consciousness and way of life. R a ther, wha t the alley neighborhood seem s to suggest is that smal l scale e nclaves, w hethe r hidden in alleys, or scatte red alo n g stree t fro nt s, co n tin ue to have fl ouri shin g p r im a ry group li fe : in tern al orde r and co n trol, social serv ice act ivities, a nd eve n som e p roto in stitu tio n al li fe. M oreove r , it is likely tha t ethnic identity is heigh te ned in those situ at io ns w hen other groups are in su ch close proxim ity . 90 In the case of the Bi rd 's Nest o r la rge r ethnic co mmuni ties,9 1 the sig nifi cance of the ne ighborhood is often overlooked because of the exte n t of ethni c organ izat io n al a nd b u siness li fe. H oweve r , it is the pop u la ti o n scale tha t makes poss ible this d evelopment. Nevert heless, these a reas con tinue to be marked by extensive informal groups ; their aggregate �30 SLOVAKIA makes the neighborhood and keeps it operating, althou gh formal associations play an important role. Ultimately, then , we should exp ect smalle r settlem ents to develop strong informal groups but few formal ones; the larger the co mmunity , the greater the potential for formal organizations to develop , although infor mal group life rema ins active and important. It may well be, as Fischer suggests, that ethnic ide ntity is greatest in these smaller areas, less able to adapt or adjust to the n ew world . In larger enclaves, migrants have more space to consider alternatives , to pick and chose from diverging paths, m ore a bility to ad a pt or adjust to things "Am e rican " b y in corporating them into their repertoire a nd making them " their own. " 91 Finally, in addition to the observations con ce rnin g the importance of neighborhood as a mi grant institution , it is worth noting the different conditions white and bl ack migrants confronted. The caste barrier blacks confronted in Washington as well as the severely restricted housing m arket limited the potential for comm unity d evelopment. Alley dwellers utilized highly creative methods to circumvent the nearly impossible conditions they confronted . To surv ive in this enviro nment was success. In contrast, Slovak men and women were able to gain e nt ry to more stable a nd be tte r paying industrial jobs; eventu ally they secured so me m ovemen t into semi- a nd even skilled positions as a resu lt of their tenacious hold over jobs in their neighborhood. By doing so, they es ta blished ethnic occupation al beachheads for their kin a nd progeny , whil e blacks we re limited to day la bor a nd positions in the secondary labor market. 93 Similarly, Slovaks a nd other white ethnics through considerable personal and fami ly sacrifice were able to purchase their turf; few black alley dwellers were ever so fort un a te. In short , Bird Nesters could use their ethnic ties to establish and maintain occupational and property turf; blacks were "permitted " those jobs and hou sin g no one else wanted. D ominance of these turfs, occupational and residential, were always transitory, requiring incred ible hum an effort to m ainta in th em or develop n ew ones. They seldom permitted a n opportunity to grow or expand. �SLOVAKIA 31 NOTES ' O scar Handlin concludes that "wherever the immigrants went , th ere was one com mon ex peri ence th ey shared: nowhere could they transplant the European village . Wh atever th e va riati ons among environments in America , none was familiar. The pressure of th at stran geness exe rted a dee p influence upon th e character of rese ttlement , upon the usual forms of behavior , and upon the notes of communal action th a t emerged as th e immigrants beca me Americans .'' Th e Uprooted (2nd edn., Boston, 1973) , 129 . ' Loui s Wirth noted that the "shift from a rural to a predominantly urban society .. has bee n acco mpa ni ed by profound changes in virtually every phase of social life, '' with th e "substituti on of seconda ry for primary contacts , th e weakening of bonds of kin ship , and the declining social significance of the famil y, the disappearance of the neighborhood , and th e undermining of the tradition al bas is of social solidarity." On Cities and Social Life , ed . by Albert R eiss, Jr . (Chicago, 1964) , 79-80. See also Wirth, " Urbanism as a Way of Life , " American Journal of Sociology, 44 Ouly , 1938) , 1-24 . ' Ernes t Burgess , who devised the co nce ntri c zone th eory from which this co mes, concluded th a t ' 'disorganization as preliminary to reorgani za ti on of attitud es and condu ct is almost invariably th e lot of th e newcomer to the cit y.'' ' ' The Growth of the City," in Robert E. Park a nd Ernest Burgess, Th e City (Chicago, 1967), 54, 47-62 . • Howa rd Chudacoff found th at while foreign born migrants " m ay have retained their social , eco nomic , and religious commun iti es, their incidence of move ment out of th e old neighborhoods and a round the city make residential coherence a ve ry temporary experience." " A New Look at Ethnic Neighborhoods: Residential Dispersion and th e Concept of Visibilit y in a M edium-Sized City,'' Journal of America n History , 60 Oune , 1973), 91. See also Chudacoff, Mobile Americans: Residential and Social Mobility in Om ah a, 1880- 1920 (New York , 1972), 154-55; Humbert S . N elli, The Italians in Chicago: 1880-1 930( N ew York, 1970), xi i-xiii; Sam Bass Warner and Colin B. Burke, " Cultural Change and th e Ghetto," Journal of Contempnrary History, 4 (O ctober , 1969) , 173 -88 ; David W ard, " The Internal Spatial Different iat ion of Immi grant R esiden ti al Distri cts ,'' in Geographic Perspectives on America's Past , ed. by Dav id Ward ( ew York , 1979) , 335 -43; and Ward , " The Emergence of Central Immi gra nt Ghettoes in American Cities: 1840-1920, " Annals of th e A ssociation of America n Geographers , 38 ( 1968) , 343-59. ' The most class ic stateme nt of this positi on was that of E . Franklin Fraz ier: Southern black mi gra nts to north ern cities los t " res tra ints imposed by a simple folk culture" and creat ed a "class of rovi ng Negroes who will li ve a lawless sex a nd quasi-family life ." " The Impac t of U rba n Civilization upon Negro Family Life, " American Sociological R el'iew , 2 (October , 1937), 6 18. See also Frazier's The Negro Family in the United States (Chicago, 1966), 207-92; Cl yd e Vernon Ki se r , Sea Island co City ( New York, 1968), 223; Gilbert O sofsky, H arlem : Th e Making of a Ghetro (N ew York , 1964) , 135-49 ; Allen H . Spear, Black Chicago: Th e M aking of a Negro Gherto (C hi cago , 1967), 167-80 , x; Constance M cLaughlin Green, Th e Secret Ciry �32 SLOVAKIA (Prince ton, 1967); a nd D av id K atzm a n , Befor e th e Gh etto (U rba na, 1973). 6 W a rn er notes that reli gious co nfli cts in Am eri ca n cities "forced a ll cit y dwellers to think of th em selves either as Protestant s o r Ca th olics ' ' o r J ews, not as members of spec ific ethni c group s. " Cu ltural Cha nge a nd Ghett o," 178. See also Will H erberg, Prot estant , Cath olic, J ew (New York , 1955). ' G ilbert O sofsky, " The Endurin g Ghetto," J ournal of Am erica n History, 55 (September , 1968). ' 8 K enn eth Ku smer , A Ghetto T ak es Shap e: Black C leveland 1870- 1930 (Urbana, Ill ., 1976); D ou glas D a ni els, Pioneer Urbanites: A Social and C ultural History of Black San Fran cisco (Philadelphi a, 1980); and Thomas Cox , Bla cks in T op ek a, K ansas : A Social History (Baton R ouge, La., 1982). 9 Josef J. Barton , Peasants and Strangers: Italians, Rumanians, and Slovaks in an Am erica n C ity, 1890-1950 (Cambrid ge , M ass. , 1975), 64-90 ; M . Mark Stola rik , " Immigration a nd Urban izati on: The Slova k Experi ence, 1870-1 9 18" (Ph .D . di sse rtat ion, Universit y of Minneso ta , 1974), 69 -109; Sylvia June G ranatir Al exander , "The Immi gra nt C hurch a nd Co mmunit y: The Forma ti o n of Pittsburgh 's Slova k R eli gio us In stitution s, 1880- 19 14" (Ph .D . disse rta ti on, Uni vers it y of Minneso ta , 1980), 209-355, 443-5 18 ; Al exa nder , " Stay in g Togeth er : Chain Mi gration and Pattern s of Slovak Settl em ent in Pittsburgh Prio r to World W ar I , '' J ournal of Am erican Echnic History, I (Fall, 198 1), 56-83; K athleen Neils Conze n, Immigrant Milwa ukee: 1836-1 860 (Cambridge, M ass., 19 76) , 154-191 ; and V irginia Vans-M cLaughlin , Family and Commu nicy: Italian Immigranc s in Buffalo, 1880- 1930 (Ith aca, N. Y ., 1977). 0 A numb er of studi es do develop th e role of famil y life in mi gra nt se ttlements; thi s wo rk represe nts a m ajo r co ntribution to th e a nalys is of " inform al" o r prim ary gro up life in th e cit y. For exa mple , see T ama ra K . H a reve n , " Th e Histo ri cal Study of th e Fa mil y in Urban Society , " J ourn al of Urba n History , I (M ay , 1975 ). Unfortuna tely, such studi es neglect th e relati on ship of fa mil y a nd extended kin netwo rk to other inform al-primary groups of neighbo rh ood a nd communit y. Wh at is mi ss in g here is a discussion of th e informal social organi zat ion that makes up the nei ghborh ood . Fo r m o re co mpl ete ana lyses of social netwo rk s, see J . C lyde Mit chell , ed. , Social N ecworks in Urban Situation (M anches ter, 1969); Eli zabet h Bott , Family and Social N etwork (N ew Yo rk , 197 1); and C la ud e S. Fischer, To Dwell Among Friends: Personal N etwo rk s in T own and Cicy (C hi cago, 1982). " For exa mp le, see K a thl ee n Neil s Co nze n , " Commentary: Immi grants , Im mi g ra nt Neighborhoods, and Ethni c Identit y: Histo ri cal Issues, " J ourn al or Am erica n History, 66 (D ece mbe r, 1979), 603 -15. " Su za nn e Keller , Th e Urba n N eig hborh ood (N ew Yo rk , 1968). " Gera ld Sut tl es , Tn e S ocial Constru ction or Communicies (C hi cago, I 972 ), 2 I , 3- I 07 . " R o m a n A. C ybri ws ky, "Soc ia l Aspec ts of Ne ighbo rh ood Change ," Annals or th e Associa tion of Am erica n Geograph ers, 68 ( I 978) , 2 7. In co ntras t , th e co nce pt of th e co mmunit y of limi ted liab ilit y, o ri ginall y developed by M o rri s j a now it z, emp hasizes " th e int enti o na l, vo lunt a ry, a nd es peciall y, th e pa rtial a nd d ifferenti ated in vo lve- �SLOVAKIA 33 ment of res ident s in th eir local comm uniti es.'' Suttles, Social Construction of Communities , 47 , 44-81. See also Morris J anow it z, Th e Community Press in an Urban Setting: The Social Elements of Urbanism (Chicago, 1952). The contrived community is one that is pla nn ed , at leas t in part, with a d es ign to prom ote a ce rt ain kind of co mmunit y. New towns probabl y fall most closely in to thi s catego ry. See Suttles, Social Constru ction of Commun ities, 82-107 . " Formal o rgan ization is an assoc iation th at " is more or less purposefully created for th e at ta inmen t of rela tiv ely specific and limi ted goals.'' M a rvin E. Olsen , Th e Process of Social Organization (New York , 1968) , 92. M em bers are only partiall y involved a nd co mmitted to such " limited-li a bilit y" o rga ni zati on s; th ey rela te to each oth er largely in terms of the organization and th eir spec ific interest in its goals. Whi le members m ay beco m e " fri end s, " impl yin g a mu ch m ore inten se relations hip , and perh aps the development of a prima ry group or netwo rk , thi s is not the goal of the formal o rgani zati on . Primary or inform al gro up s, on th e ot her hand , are " those characteri zed by intimate, face-to-face aswciati on and co-operation, " i.e., " the family , th e play-group of children , a nd th e neighbo rh ood o r co mmunit y of elders. ' ' C ha rl es Cooley, Social Organization (New Yo rk , 1923), 23, 24. Fo r a rev iew of th e significant roles of informal groups, see Elihu K atz and Paul Lazarsfeld , Personal Influen ces (New York, 1955), 3 1-42. 16 For a discussion of this point , see J am es Bo rchert , " Urban Neighborhood and Communit y: Informal Group Life, 1850-1970, ' ' Journ al of Interdisciplin ary History , 11 (Sprin g, 1981 ), 607-3 1; Floyd Dodson, " Pa tt ern s of Volu nta ry Association among W o rkin g-C lass Families," America n Sociological R evie w , 16 (1951), 687-93; and Benn ett Berge r , W orking Class Suburb (Berkeley, Ca. , 1971 ) , 59-73. " R obert R edfi eld , "The Folk Society ," America njournal of Sociology, 52 Qanua ry, 1947) , 293-308. Thi s is not to su gges t that mi gra nts had no experience with forma l groups prior to mi gra ti on. As Ba rt o n , Stola rik , and oth ers have demonstrated , migrants brought both forma l and in formal group s with them. Whil e few have m ade d irec t comp a ri so ns of formal group s in th eir two se ttings (Ba rt on is an importa nt pa rti al except io n here), virtua ll y no o ne has co mpared informal grou ps. " J a m es S. Pil an t, Th e Envelope: A Study of the Imp act of th e World upon th e C hild (New Yo rk , 1950); Suttles, Th e Social Constru ction of Communities, 2 1- 43. 19 C hain migrat ion has bee n defin ed as " th at m ove m ent in which prospecti ve mi grants lea rn of oppo rtuniti es, a re provided with transporta ti on , and have initi al accommodati on and employment a rranged by m ea ns of primary social relationships with previous migra nts" (aut hors' itali cs). J ohn S. M acdon ald a nd Leatri ce D. M acdonald , "Chain Mi gra ti on , Ethn ic Neighborhood Fo rm ati on , and Social Netwo rks," Milbank M emorial Fund Quart erly, 42 Q anu a ry, 1964) , 82. 0 T hese vary, of course , by ethni c gro ups, circum stances , a nd over time , as well as by cl ass. Specia l foods a nd restaurants a re probably th e most obviou s exa mpl es, but churches and lodges a re probably the m ost uni ve rsal ''se rvices. '' Profess ionals a nd ethni c bu siness a re also important elements of th e urba n village, especiall y fun eral homes; th ey con tinu e to draw former res idents a nd th eir children bac k to th e urba n ' �34 SLOVAKIA vi llage, a t leas t on special occasions. Finall y, ma ny wh o left th e "village" continu e to own buildings there; their rental income made "escape" easier; it di d nm , however, break th e ties. " See Suttles, T he Social C onstru ction of C ommunities, 2 1-43. " These environments a re strikin gly different ; th e two group s a re eve n more different in term s of their past ex peri ences, institutional life, and cultural baggage. Co mparison, th en , prese nts considerable problems; limited da ta make thi s eve n more problema ti c. " For oth er effort s to co mpa re th e bl ac k and white ex peri ence, see ta nl ey Lieberso n , A Piece of th e Pie: Black s and Whit e Immigranrs Since 1880 ( Berkeley, Ca ., 1980); J ohn Bodn a r , Michael W eber , and R oge r Simon , " Mi gra ti on , Kin ship , a nd U rba n Adjustm ent : Blac ks a nd Poles in Pitt sb urgh , 1900- 1930," j ournal o f America n History, 66 (Dece mber , 19 79) , 548-565; a nd Bodnar , Sim on , W eber , Lives o f th eir Own : Black s, Italians, and Poles in Piusburgh , 1900- 1960 (Urbana, Ill. , 1982). " For a more compl ete di scussion, ee Borchert, Alley Life in W ashing ton ( Urbana , Ill. , 1980) . For a d iscussion of alleys else wh ere, see 223-37 , 3 12- 17. " Ibid . , 1-56 . ' 6 C u yahoga C ount y Treasure r's Depa rtm ent T ax Duplica tes , I 894- 1923 . C uyahoga Count y Archi ves; M a rgare t M anor Bu tle r, Th e Lakewood tory ( ew York , 1949); 228 ; " City Plays Vital R ole," newspa per clipping-source unkn ow n , M ay 5, 1955 . Lakewood Historical Society; " ati onal Carbon C om pany," C leveland Plain D ealer , September 10, 19 77 . The neighbo rhood has been kn own by a se ri es of names; Bird's Nes t and Bird T own deri ve from th e predominance of stree t with bi rd na me . Other na mes suggest how th e neighborh ood has bee n viewed by outsid er : T he Settl ement, th e Village , " Dago Forum , " C a rbon T own , " Little Slova ki a," a nd th e Carbon Distri ct. John Fedor , "Ju st Loo k at th e Stree t Signs to Find Bird T own ," Lakewood L edger , Dece mber 14, 1967; Butler, Lakewood Story, 188, 228-29; Butler, R om ance in Lakewood Streets (C leve la nd , 1962), 41 ; C ynthi a A. Rud e r, " Th e Imprint of C ultura l V alues on Birdtow n , La kewood, Ohio, " un publi shed typesc ript , M ay 1, 1978. Lakewood Hi stori cal Society. " C uyahoga Count y Au d ito r's T ax M aps , Cuyahoga Coun ty Adm inistrat ion Bu ild ing. Vol. 35-C it y of La kewood. 1890- 1982. " Fed or , " Just Loo k a t th e tree t igns " R eco rd s of th e Distri ct of Colu mb ia , Reco rd Grou p 35 1. Na ti onal Archi ves. Boa rd of C hi ldren ' s Guardi ans, C hildren 's History , I ll : I 129, I 162 , 1392; IV: 158 1. See also Bo rchert , " Survivin g th e C it y: Persistence a nd C ha nge in Bl ac k Folkways of Life in a N ew Environment ," pa per prese nt ed a t th e Associa ti on for th e Stud y of Afro-Ameri ca n Life a nd Hi sto ry, O ctober 2 1- 24, 1982, Baltim ore, M a ryla nd, 8. '° 31 Federal Population Ce nsus Schedul es, 1880, W ashin gto n , D .C., R eco rd Group 29 . ati onal Archi ves; a nd Com missioner of th e Di trict of Colum bia , Ann ual R ep orc -1897 (W as hin gto n , 1897), 195-202. Fed eral Popul ati on C ensus ched ul es, 19 I 0 , La kewood, Ohio. at ional Archives . See also Fed eral Popula ti on Ce nsus Sched ul es, 1900 , Lakewood, Ohio . ational Ar- �SLOVAKIA 35 chi ves. The less precise category "country of origin" makes it impossible to know , oth er than Hun ga ry, where migra nts came from. The 1910 ce nsus clea rs this matter up through more precise desi gnati on ; in this case 70 perce nt listed th emselves as " Hunga rian Slovaks" rath er th a n merely" Hun gary," as in 1900 . "Language" also permit s more precise determination . " While J osef Barton has co ncluded that Slovak migration to C leveland was from more gene rall y dispersed areas in Slovakia, migrating more by district than personal or village chains, oth er studies report considerably more personal co ntacts in the migrati on process, both generally a mong lovak migra nts and specificall y for Cleveland. Peasa ncs and Strangers , 50-51, 54, 59, 63. Emily Greene Balch reports that nearly 99 percent of Slovaks en terin g the United States in 1907-1908 planned to join relatives or friends . Our Slavic Fellow Citizens (New York , 1910), 433. Al exander repo rts that whi le Slovak mi gran ts to Pittsburgh did mi grate in cha ins either by village, or by th e more loose " district" pattern Ba rton found, th e selecti on of one's res idence in a give n cit y was strongly influenced by fri end s and rela tives . " Th e Immi grant C hurch ," 55, 68. M a rk Stolarik also found "Slovaks in the Un ited States and Canada originall y reside(d) in distinct neighborhoods nea r their parish ch urches . most of these in each co ngregation ha iled from the same cluster of villages in the old country." " Immi grat ion a nd Urbanization, " 40. Stolarik a nd his co-authors of a st ud y of C leveland Slovaks reported simila r findings for th at cit y. Susi Megles, Mark Stolarik, and Martina Tybor, Slovak Americans and th eir Communities of Cleveland (C levela nd , 1979), 132. M ore importa nt for this study, Stolarik's analysis of parish reco rds of one Bird 's Nest church found 68 percent were from the ext reme end of one Slovak county; " nearly ha lf of the group was from . . three neighboring villages . " " Immi grat ion a nd Urbanization, " 41. For other informa ti on on chain mi gra ti on of Bird 's Nest residents, see Mary Towarni cky, " Helping One Another in the New Land: The Old Timers R emem ber," in SS. Cyril and M ethodius Church , Diamond Jubilee, 1903 -1 978 (La kewood, 1978), 67; and Common Pleas Court, Records of Declaration of Intention , Cuyahoga County Archives. Vo ls. 1- 30, Octobe r 10 , 1906-Sep tember 8, 19 13. " Lo renzo] . Greene and Myra Colso n Callis, The Employment of Negroes in th e District of Columbia (Washington, I 930), 65. " Borchert, Alley Life, 166-77. " Fed eral Popu lat ion Ce nsus Schedul es, I 900, 1910, La kewood, Ohio ; U.S . Bureau of th e Ce nsus, Population and H ousing- 1940: Cleveland, Ohio and Adjacent Area (Was hin gto n , 1942), 106. This is not to suggest that co nditions were easy o r wages hi gh. J an Pa nku ch notes that " during the first years their wages barely met their needs .'' Dejin y Clevelandskych a Lakewoodsk ych Slovakov (C leveland, 1930), 24. ' 6 Borchert, Alley Life, 85. " Ibid., l 83. The impact of a lley co nditions can be seen most clearly in co mparison to nati onal statisti cs. In 1910 the death rate for urban whit es was 14.6 per thousand ; for urba n blacks, 24.3. James H. Jones , Bad Blood ( ew York, 198 I), 37 . For street �36 SLOVAKIA dwelling W ashin gtoni an s (whit e and black), the dea th rate per thousand was 17 .56 ; for alley residents it was 30 .09 . Willia m H enry J ones, Th e H ousing of Negroes in W ashington , D.C. (Washington, 1929), 45 . " Borchert , Alley Life, 183 . 39 ' 0 41 Albina M olek, " Builders of the Spirit ," C leveland News, November 18, 1949 ; H oward Whipple Green , Plan es of Living in C uyah oga Co unty: as D epicted by th e Real Prop erty Survey (Cleveland , 1940), 65 . Green, Planes of Living, 58. Federal Population C ensu s Schedul es, 1910, Lakewood , Ohio. " Fed eral Population Census Schedul es, 1880, W as hin gton , D .C. See Borchert , Alley Life , 68. 43 Butler, Lakewood Story, 188. " Federal Populaton Census Schedul es, 19 10 , Lakewood, Ohio. In 1911 , residents of the larger community , led by a prominent member of the Rhodes family , established a clinic in the neighborhood becau se of the seve re health conditions, es peciall y the hi gh infant mortality . " Dispensary," in " History of Lakewood ," C lipping fil e, Lakewood Histo rical Society; a nd Butler , L ak ewood Story, 188-89. 45 Borchert , Alley Life , 69-85. •• It is important to note th a t the household unit , whi ch is usually considered th e base of the urban nei ghborh ood , was only part of a m ore important ex tend ed kin ship network whi ch included fi ctive kin adopted in the count rys ide or city. These ext ra- household units ti e re sidents of the alley together into " cliques" th at m ake up the large r alley communit y. Alley residents were linked together in other ways ; marriage of two alley residents linked two fa mil ies and kin networks together . After so me tim e , it is possible that mos t lon g-term residents in a given alley were linked by kinship to each ot her in multiple ways. 47 Becau se th e alley neighb orh ood/comm unity rema ined an informal inst itut ion with no " reco rd s" of its act ivities, it is ve ry difficult to determin e the full ex tent of neighborhood act ivities and their import . Nevertheless , some as pects do seem to stand out : neighborin g a nd ent erta inin g, a id to the needy, commo n action on com munit y need s, intern al social co nt rol, a nd defense of the neighborhood again st outsiders. 48 For a desc ription of the alley as meeting place , see W as hin gton National lnte1ligencer , Jul y 25, 1865; W ashington Times, Septembe r 11, 1904; Washington S tar , Jun e 6, 1930; W ashin gton D aily N ews, April 15, 1954; Charles W eller , Neglected Neighbors (Philadelphi a, 1909), 17 , 82; Wilbur V . Mallalieu , "A W ashin gton Alley," Survey , 28 (October 19, 19 12), 71; Gladys Sellew, A D eviant Social Situation: A Cou rr (Washin gton , 1938), 17 ; a nd D a ni el D. Swinney, " Alley Dwellings a nd H ousing R eform in the Di stri ct of Columbia " (M .A . th esis, University of C hi cago, 1938) , 141 -42. During the winter , several homes in a give n all ey see m to have se rved as mee ting spots. Dora Bessie Somerville , " A Study of a Group of Negro C hildren Li ving in an Alley C ulture" (M.A. th esis, Cat holic U ni ve rsit y of Ameri ca, 1941 ), 20. These homes usually di spensed liquor , oft en homemade , providing resid ents wit h a social �SLOVAKIA 37 ce nt er a nd tenants with a "second in co me . " For a discu ssio n based on a n a nalysis o f histori cal photog raphs , see " Photographs a nd th e Study of th e Pas t, " in Borchert, Alley Life , 291-93; Borche rt , "Analysis of Histo ri cal Photographs," Srudies in Visual Communication, 7 (Fall , 1981 ), 51-56; and Borchert , " Alley Landscapes of Washington, " Landscape , 23 (No. 3, 1979), 6-8. 0 ' Marion M . Ratigan, A Sociological Survey of Disease in Four Alleys in the National Capital (Was hin gton , 1946), 59 ; Mary R edempta Fores tall , "Trend s in Housing, Delinquency, and H ealth in the Central Northwest Area in Washington, D.C." (M.A . th es is , Catholic University of Ame ri ca, 1938), 32; Grace Vawter Bicknell , The Inhabited Alleys o f Washington, D .C. (W ashington , 1912), 31; Well er, Neglected Neighbors, 47 ; Leonise Ruth Aubry, "A mbitions of Youth in a Poo r Economic Status " (M.A. thes is , Catholic University of America, 1938), 3; Sellew, Deviant Social Siruarion, 46, 54; Sommerville, " Study of a Group of Negro Children," 24; Washington Daily News, Augu st 29, 1941; Swinney , "Alley Dwellings and Housin g R efo rm, " 50, 73; Leono r Enriquez Pablo , " The Housing Needs and Social Problems of Residen ts in a Deteriorated Area" (M .S.W. thesis , Catholic University of America , I 953), 56; Board of Children's Guardians , Children's History, I-VII (see especia ll y I:2 33-34 ; II : 657, 667, 801); Washington National R ep ublican , March 24 , 1862 ; a nd Washington Times , September 11, 1904 . " Whil e it is impossible to recreate co nversations between res idents from the ex isting hi sto ri cal records, it is clear from a large body of literatu re in sociology and anthropology that goss ip plays a critical role in the ma intena nce of order as well as the development of a commo n world view. Scholars of black rural and small town life in th e South noted th e importance of goss ip; CharlesJohnson found that "communit y gossi p exercises restraint . . There are limits ... and when th ese limits are reached violators a re treated with unmi stakable group disapproval.'' Shadow of the Plan cation (Chicago, I 94 1), 81, 82. Similarly , H ylan Lewis concluded that " gossip, or th e possibility of gossip " m a kes residents " more careful of th eir behavior." Blackways of Kent (New H ave n , Conn., 1962) , 193. " Those who show signs of group status de via tion . . are subject of a kind of gro up pressure marked by resentment and cri ti cism." Ibid ., 191 . " See Al. L. Epstein , " Gossip , Norms , a nd Social Network," in Social Networks in Urban Situ ations, 117-27. " For example , see Swinney , "Alley Dwellings and H ous in g R efo rm , " 136-37; and Pablo, " H ousin g Needs and Social Problems," 42. " Bo rchert , "U rban Neighborhood a nd Community," 615-18. " Swinney, " Alley Dwellings and H ousin g R eform, " 121 . " Ibid.; W ashington Post , D ece mber 26, 1948; Well er , Neglected Neighbors, 17, 22, 97 ; Mallalieu, " Washington Alley , " 71 ; a nd the R ev . Daniel O'Connell, "The Inhabit ed Alleys of Washington and the Early Social Hi story of One Alley" (M .A. thesis, Ca th oli c University of Ameri ca , 1953) , 110 . It is importa nt to note that attendan ce in the rural South does not seem to have been especially la rge based on Lewi s' findin gs for K ent . Lewis, B/ackways of Kent , 129-30. �38 SLOVAKIA " Borchert, Alley Life, 185-86. 58 Pankuch, Dejiny , 22. " Ibid .; Mary Towarnicky , "Slovak Newcomers to America, " in SS. Cyril and Methodius Church, Diamondjubilee, 1903-1978 (Lakewood, 1978), 66; Towarnicky , " Helping One Another," 67 . 60 Towarnicky, " Helping One Another," 67. 61 The Pleasant Hill Land Company was owned and run by Washington H. Lawrence, the president of the National Carbon Company. It seems clear that Lawrence purchased an extra large parcel ofland from the Case Estate with the intention of developing a residential area for workers . Butler, Lakewood Story, 228; "C ity Plays Vital Role, " "National Carbon Company," Plain Dealer; and G . Frederick Wright, Representative Citizens of Ohio: Memorial-Biographical (Cleveland, 1914) , 181-84. Since the factory was well outside the built-up parts of C leveland, Lawrence may well have considered this development a necessity to attract workers; he must also have planned to make a good return on his investment. The difficulty of the commute from in-city residences to the plant prior to the completion of a street car line in 1898 was incredible . For examples, see "City Plays a Vital Role" and Pankuch , Dejiny, 23. 61 Initially the early buildings were rented to workers; however, the PHLC sold off most of the improved lots within a couple years of construction. Cuyahoga County Treasurer's Tax Duplicates , 1894- 1923. There is some indication that the Na tional Carbon Company (via PHLC) "sold lots to ... immigrants on installments. " Loretta l vany, " 'Birdtown' Became C ity's Ethnic Center," Sun Post , Jun e 30, 1979 . •• Cuyahoga County Auditor's Tax Maps, Cuyahoga County Administration Building. Migrants bought up lots on Plover first because they were cheaper du e to their proximity to th e railroad tracks. Pankuch, Dejiny , 23. R esidents not only bought up land in the neighborhood as soon as they could afford to, they also held on to th e land, passing it on to relatives or selling it with in the community. Paul Wrobel found a sim ila r practice when he did an extensive participant-observation study of a Polish-American parish in D etroit. Our Way: Family, Parish and Neighborhood in a Polish-American Community (Notre Dame, Ind ., 1979), 5. 6 ' City of Lakewood, Building Department, Building Permits , 1900(?)-1982. It is interesting to note that no building permits a ppear to have been taken out by the PHLC, des pite the fact that they clea rl y improved and built on one-fifth of th e lots over the thirt y year period before the last lot was sold ( 1923). Although the city records are incomplete , and use of building permits seems to have been casual in the earl y years, as well as the fact th at many early reco rd s have not survived, it is strange that no PHLC perm its remain in the records. Insurance maps and descriptive sources do confirm the com pany 's activity in th is area prior to 1900. Thomas Flynn, Otto Barthel, R.H. Bunning, and Thomas H assan , Atlas of the Suburbs of Cleveland, Ohio (Philadelphia, 1898), Plate 24; M argaret Butler, R omance in Lakewood's Streets 41; lvany, " 'Birdtown' Became City's Ethnic Center"; and Cynthia A. Rud er , "The Imprint of Cultural Values.'' �SLOVAKIA 39 " As Stephan Thernstrom found in Newburyport , however, home ownership came a t a high price : " To cut family co nsumption expenditures to the bone was one such sac rifice. To withdraw the children from school and to put them to work at the age of ten or twelve was another.'' Poverty and Progress: Social Mobility in a Nin eteenth Century City (New York , 1969), 155. 66 Federal Population Census Schedules, 1910, Lakewood , Ohio. 67 Pankuch , D ejin y, 22; Towarnicky, "Slova k Newcomers to America," 66 ; Towarnicky, " H elping One An other," 67; and Ivany, " 'Birdtown' Became City's Ethnic Center . " 68 M egles, Stolarik , and T ybor, Slo vak Americans and their Communities, 132; Sts. Peter and Paul Lutheran Church , Seventy-Fifth Anniversary (Lakewood, 1976), 3; and Towarnicky , " H elping One Another," 67. 6 ' One of the first Slovak employees recalled th at he " ' got a job in the construction of the . factory. After I had worked th ere for a couple days, the boss told me to bring in a couple more men. I asked him how many I should bring; he answered as man y as I could, even a dozen would do, he said . So I called up my brothers: Juraj, and J an, also Jan andJuraj Nemec, A. Chovana and a bunch of others; Michael Urban and A. Goda all got hired. All the Scerbas; J an Scerba, Jan Scerba, Jr. , Adam Scerba, Andrej R yba nik and many others ca me in later.' " Andrej Babej, quoted in Pank uch, Dejin y, 22. ' 0 Alexander, "The Immigrant Church and Community, " 56-57. More importantl y she notes that "at tim es, when firms desperately needed labor, foremen promised jobs to employees' fri end s or relati ves if th ey would send for them." Ibid ., 57. " Ibid ., 57. She also notes that "Slovaks and other immigra nt groups came to rely on a sys tem of personal relationships in order to get jobs. '' Ibid. For more recent discussions of this process, see Ri chard M yer, " Interpersonal R elations in the Building Indu stry," Man , Work , and Society, ed . by Sigmond Nosow and William Form (New York , 1962) and William K ornblum , Blue Collar Community (C hi cago, 1974). " Sts . Pete r and Paul Lutheran Church, Seventy-Fifth Anniversary , 2-3; Megles , Stolarik , and Tybor, Slovak Americans and their Communities , 13 3; Peter M . Glovna, Sr., " Hi story of SS. Cyril and Methodius Pari sh ," in SS. Cyril and Methodius Church , Diamond Jubilee, 33; " Sts. Peter and Paul Russian Orthodox Church, " undat ed news paper clipping in Margaret Butler, " Hi story of Churches" fil e, Lakewood Hi storical Society; " Ukrainian Church Ded ication Is Set ," undated newspaper clipping in Butl er, ' ' Hi sto ry of Churches . ' ' " Stolarik , " Immigration and Urbanization, " 85-97. It is usefu l to note here that three of the first four Slovak churches in the neighborhood still have services in Slovak, althou gh the y have th em in English as well. " Ru de r , " Imprint of Cultural Values" ; Butler, Lakewood Story, 20,7. In a fine stud y of Slova k Cat holi c lead ers' at titud es toward public ed uca ti on , Mark Stolarik found th ey "valued parochial schools above all else worried mu ch m ore about their children 's moral a nd national upbringing th a n about social mobility . . had no u se �40 SLOVAKIA for publi c schools . . (which) ' den a ti onali ze ou r children . ' " " Immi gra ti on , Education, and the Social Mobilit y of Slova ks, 1870- 1930, " in R a nd all M. Mill e r a nd Thomas D . Marzik, ed s., Immigrants and R eligion in Urban America (Phil adelphia, 19 77) , 107 , 106 . Both Ba rton and Stolarik report th a t 60 to 80 percent of Slovak children a ttended parochi al schools. Ba rto n, Peasa nts and Strangers, 145-46; Stola rik , " Immi grati on and Urban ization ," 165-66. Th e public elem ent a ry school in th e Bird ' s Nest had no teachers wh o co uld speak Slovak ; of those children who did att end , few, if any , spoke Engli sh. Rud e r , "Imprint of C ultural V alu es." 75 The 1930 City Directory includes over 75 bu sinesses (17 local groce rs) and 16 profess ionals a nd se rvi ces avai lable to th e neighborh ood run by local res id ent s (or fo rme r resid ent s). C leveland Directory Compan y, C leveland, Ohio C ity Directory- I 930 (C levela nd , 1930). 76 Inspec to r , Building and Loa n Associat io n , 22nd Annual R ep ort far th e Y ea r Ending D ecember 31, 19 12 (Springfi eld , Ohio, 19 13) , 165 . Oro! Buildin g and Loa n Co. The founding preside nt a nd sec re tary both li ved on Plover , while o nl y th e treas ure r li ved outsid e th e immediat e neighborh ood. H e li ved , howeve r , ju st on th e o th e r sid e (north) of Madison Ave nu e, an a rea th a t Slova ks a nd other mi g ra nt s expand ed int o. Panku ch noted that th e Sav ings a nd Loa n wa s in ex ist ence by 1902 , so it may well have been operating to help res idents long before its offi cial cha rt er in 19 11 . D ejin y, 24. 77 Cuyahoga Count y Treasu re r 's Tax Duplica tes a nd Ci ty of La kewood, Building Permits. 78 For a n excellent discu ssion o n th e conflict be twee n "accult u ra ti o ni sts a nd tradition ali sts , " sec Howard F . Stein , " An Ethnohistory of Slova k-Am e ri ca n R eli gio us and Frate rnal Associations: A Study in Cultural M eanin g, Group Identit y, and Soc ial Instituti o ns," Slo va kia, 29 ( 1980-1 98 1) , 53 -101 . 19 Peter Glovna, as quoted in l vany, " ' Birdtown ' Beca me City 's Ethn ic Center ." G lovna's fath e r m oved to the neighborhood in 1893 a nd was a founder of SS. Cyril and M e thodius , whi le hi s son li ved on Plove r for 40 yea rs. D es pite hi s rece nt m ove out of the area, he still maint ains contacts and serves as pa rish hi sto ri a n . Glovna, "H istory of SS . Cyril and M e th odiu s Pa rish. " 0 " R esidents of Birdtown also enjoyed neighborh ood picnics a nd dancing to th e sound s of bands which were se t up on M a gee and M adison Av enu es.' ' l va ny , '' ' Birdt own ' Beca m e C ity's Ethnic Center.' ' 81 Ruder, " Im print of Cultural Valu es," 5. See also l van y , " ' Birdtown ' Beca me C it y's Ethni c Center ," and 1941 survey quoted extensively in Butler , L akewood St an ·, 229. ' " Rud e r, " Imprint of Cultural V alu es," 18. " Al exa nd e r ' s comment cit ed ea rli e r th a t Slovaks ca m e to rely o n a sys te m of pe rsonal relationships in order to get j obs (see not e 70) needs to be put in a la rge con text he re. Social scienti sts have not ed the impo rt a nce of informal groups in a variety of settings from factory, army, stree t co rn e r gang , a nd neighbo rh ood . Fo r exa mpl e , see F.j . R oet hli sberger a nd W.J . Dickson, M an agem ent and th e W orker (Cam bridge , M ass., 1939); Samuel A. Stoffe r , et. al . , Th e America n Soldier: Studies in Social Psvcholog1· �SLOVAKIA 41 in W orld W ar II , 2 vols (P rin ceto n , .J ., 1949); Edwa rd Shil s, " Prima ry Groups in th e Am eri can Arm y," in R obert M erton and Paul Laza rsfeld, ed s., Studies in ch e S cope and M ech od ofch e " Th e American Soldier " (Gl enoce, Ill. , 1951) ; W . Ll oyd Warn er and Paul S. Lunt , Th e S ocial Life of a M od ern C ommunicy (New H ave n , C onn . , 1941 ); Willi a m Foote Wh yte, Screet Com er Sociecy (Chicago, 1943); a nd K ornblum , Blue Collar Community. 14 Butler, Lakewood S cory , 228 , 188; C leveland Press , M ay 13 , 1947 ; and Rud er, " Imprint of Cultural V alues," 1, 3, 18 . " An impo rtant pa rt of th e p rocess, of course, invol ved co mpetiti o n for hou sing with oth er groups, a res tri cted housin g m a rket accessible to mi g rant s a nd their work . 16 M a ny form er res ident s of th e neighbo rh ood return a t least once a week fo r religious se rvices on Sunday; m a n y d o so m o re often . See al so Wrobel, Our Wa y. " R obert Park obse rved th at "certain urban neighborhoods suffer from isolation ." "The Ci ty," in Park and Burgess , Th e C it y, 8 . Fo r a different view, see Alfr ed Kazin , A W alk er in ch e C ic y (New Yo rk , 195 1). " The persistence of these a reas, outli vin g in som e cases th e in stituti ons th at ca m e aft er th em , att es ts to th eir vit alit y. " In th e Bird 's Nes t th e co ntinuin g prese nce of churches of eac h ethni c group suggests th e continuin g vit alit y of each group . Fo r other exampl es, see Cybriwsky, " Social Aspec ts of N eighbo rhood C ha nge"; Cybriwsky and D avid Ley, " Urba n Graffiti as T erri tori al M a rkers,'' Annals of ch e A ssociacion of American Geographers, 64 (1974) , 475-505; and K ornblum , Blue Collar Community . Some older studies infer the same conclu sion s: H elen L. Wilson and Eunice W . Smith , " Chicago H ou sin g Conditions, VIII : Am ong th e Slova ks in th e Twenti eth Ward ," America n j ourn al of S ociology, 20 (September , 19 14), 145-69 ; Emil y W. Dinwiddie, H ousing Condicions in Philadelphia (Philadelphi a, 1904); J a net K emp , R epore of ch e T en em enc H ouse Commission o f L ouisville (Loui sville, 1_909); Ulf H a nn erz, S ou/side ( ew Yo rk , 1969) ; and Wh yte, Scree/ Corn er Sociecy. •o Sec C la ud e Fi sc her , Th e Urban Experien ce ( ew Yo rk , 19 76) . In hi s m o re recent stud y, Fi sc her has fo un d th e current cit y '' a m osaic of inten se ethni c wo rld s rather th a n . . a la ndsca pe of ethni c di sintegra tion ." M o reo ver , " urba ni sm - or at least th e co nce ntrati o n of spec ific ethni c g roup s - m o re oft en bolsters th a n brea ks down ethni cit y. As the urbani sm of th e communit y increased , respo nd ent s were m ore likely to be ' ethni cs.' " T o Dwell Am ong Friends, 204 , 206 . " For example , H am tramck is an ex treme case where Polish-Am eri cans developed their ow n co mmunit y o n a m ass ive scale . In 1950 , 70 perce nt of th e 44 ,000 res idents of thi s inde pend ent co mmunit y in D etro it were of Poli sh-Am eri ca n ancestry. Arthur Eva ns W ood , H amcram ck : A S ociological Scudy of a Polish -America n Communicy (New H ave n , Conn ., 1955) , 13-28 . " Fisc her, T o D well Among Friends, 207 . See also Peter R ose, S crangers in Th eir Midsc: Small T own J ews and T h eir Neigh bors (M erri ck , New Yo rk , 1977). " Sec note 23. �SLOVAKIA 42 TABLE 1 Bird's Nest Population 1900-1940 Population i900· 1910 .. 429 2,186 1920 ± 4, 145 19.30t 3,729 1940# 3,125 •M a nusc ript Census- Federal Po pul atio n Census Sched ules , 1900 La kewood, O hio . '"Ma nuscript Census-Federal Popula ti o n Census Schedul es, 19 10 Lakewood , O hio . ± Federal Po pulation C ensus Schedules, 1920 Lakewood, O hio for census trac t LW 18. Unfo rtu na tely. the cen· su s tract leaves out one side of one stree t in the neighbo rh ood . tFede ral Po pul ati on C ensus Schedul es , 1930 La kewood, O hio fo r census tract LW1 8. U nfo rtun ately. the cen· sus tract leaves out one side Of one stree t in the neighborhood . #Bu rea u of the Census, Popula tion and H ousing - 1940: Cle,·eland. O hio and Adj acent Arca (Washingto n , 1941), 106. U nfo rtun a tely, the ce nsus trac t leaves out o ne side of one street in 1hc neighborhood . �SLOVAKIA 43 TABLE 2 Occupations of Alley Dwellers 1880 Federal Population Census Schedules , 1880 . Washington, D .C. Record Group 29. National Archives Occupations , 1880 • Adult Males (16 or older) Occupacion N % Unski lled Service Semi-skilled Skilled White-collar Proprieto r (and self-employed) Professional Agriculture/Fishing None 1,641 251 318 233 50 112 28 17 124 59 TOTAL 2,774 100 N % 9 12 8 2 4 4 Adule Females (16 or older) Occupacion Unskilled Service Semi-skilled Skilled White-collar Proprietor None (includes "at home ," "keeping house , " and "at school" ) TOTAL 4 1,742 70 6 10 8 49 1, 780 49 3 ,620 100 2 •Th e substanti al numbe rs of a lley d we ll ers in skilled throu gh professi onal ac tivities is th e res ult of a classifica1io n system th at is ma rk edl y diffe re nt fro m the ones ge nerall y used . It was used here to detec t " class" differen ces within the alley po pula ti on . Thu s, ba rbers a re class ified as skilled , while a number of " proprietors " a rc , in fac 1,ju nkmen . V irtu all y all the adult alley po pula ti o n sho uld fall in the unskilled , se rvice, o r semi- skilled a reas. See Bo rchert, Alley Life, 306-08 . �SLOVAKIA 44 TABLE 3 Occupations of Residents of the Bird 's Nest 1900 A. Adult Males - 15 yea rs of age or older. Occupation Unskill ed .. . . . . . . .. .. .. .. ........ . . . . ... .. ... .... . Service ............ . .... . ... . . . . .... . .. . .. .. .. . . . Semi-skilled .. . ... . . ... . . . . . . . . Skilled ... . . ... .. .... . . . White-collar Proprietor Professional Agricultural T otal B. Adult W omen - Number Percent 147 92 % 3 2 0 5 0 3 2 0 3 2 160 15 yea rs of age or older . Occupation Number 2 2 Unskilled Service ... Semi- skill ed Skill ed White-colla r Proprietor Agri cultural Percent 50 % 50 % 0 0 0 0 0 T otal 4 100 % TABLE 3 Occupations of Residents of the Bird's Nest 1910 A . Adult M ales - 15 yea rs of age or older. Occupation Number Un skill ed 79 1 Se rvice 19 Semi-skilled . .. .. . . .... .. ... . ...... . .. . ... ... .... . 38 Skill ed ...... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 White-co ll a r 10 P roprietor 11 P rofessional 1 Agri cul tural To tal 949 Percent 84 % 2 4 8 100 % �SLOVAKIA B. Ad u lt Wom en - 45 15 ye ars of age or olde r. Occupation Number 75 Un ski lled ....... . . Service Semi- ski lled Ski lled W hi te-coll ar P ro prieto r Profess io nal Agricultu ral 33 Percent 66 % 29 % 0 4 4 1 0 0 0 11 3 T otal 100 % TABLE 3 Occupations of Residents of the Bird 's Nest 1940 Occupations Number O cc u pa ti ons not repo rt ed U nskilled Service wo rkers D om es ti c se rvi ce wo rkers Opera ti ves a nd kind red wo rkers C ra ft sm en , fo rem en , a nd kindred wo rkers . ... . .... . . . .. . . . C leri cal, sales , and kind red wo rkers . .. . . P ro pri etors, m a nage rs, and offi cials . ... . .. . Se mi -pro fess io nal Pro fess ional T otal Percent 2 184 83 98 17% 8 9 478 44 105 10 9 3 96 29 4 13 1,092 100 % Bu reau of the Ce nsus, Populat ion and Housing - 1940: Cleveland , Ohio and Adjacent A rea (W as hin gton , 1942) , 106 . Ce nsus tract leaves o ut o ne side of one street of neighbo rhood . �� Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1984, Vol. 31 Description An account of the resource Vol. 31 (No. 57), 1984. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1984 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document " Logan Place." September 26, 1935. All ey Dwellin g Authority. Nati onal Capital H ousin g Authorit y Collection . Library, D e pa rtm ent of H ou sin g and Com munit y D evelo pm ent. W as hin gto n, D .C . ► ► ;,::; ...... < 0 L' (/) 0::, SLOVAKIA 9 Migrant Responses To The City: The Neighborhood, Case Studies in Black and White, 1870-1940* James Borchert and Susan Danziger-Borchert Th ey tend to reproduce spontaneously the home community and to live in it. L etters show that they frequently reply to inquiries from home for a description of America, " I have yet been able to see America." W.I. Thomas, "The Immigrant Community" Students of migration to American cities have, over the years, produ ced a large library of studies. The greatest outpouring of work has co ncentra ted on the migration of southern and eastern European immigrants during the years from 1880 to 1920, and the "great migrati o n " of blacks from the rural South. This profusion of work has not produced any final conclusions on the migrant experience, although there a re a number of schools of thought about what happen ed to migrants . Th e first group of scholars who considered European migrants of this pe riod concl uded that d espite efforts to re- establish their rural ways of life, the city proved too poor a soil for such institutions to ta ke root. Thus extended family , kinship network , neighborhood , and community 1 • A ve rsio n of this paper was prese nted a t th e Nin ety-Seve nth Annu al M ee tin g of th e Am eri ca n Hi sto ri cal Associa ti o n held in Washin gton, D .C. in D ece mb er 198 2. The authors are indebted to th e Am erican Hi to ri cal Associati on for a n Albert J. Beveridge M em o ri a l Fund Grant and the Smithson ian In sti tuti on for a fellowship, whi ch provided esse nti al fundin g in conn ec tion with th e preparation of th e original presenta tion. 10 SLOVAKIA withered ; a pe riod of disorde r a nd co nfu sion foll owed u nt il mi grant s discovered the " urba n way of life. " 1 Accordin g to the theory, thi s d iscovery , synonymous with the beginnings of assimil a tion a nd accultu ration, provided migrants with the form s of order a nd organization tha t would m ake success in America (and cities) possible and p rob able . After a n appropriate period of apprenticeship in the " zon e in transition " a nd the " zone of workingmen ' s homes, " the urba nized mi grant began to m ove to middle-class status a nd suburban h om es. 3 M ore recent scholars, a n alyzing a ggregate cen sus d a ta (fo r indi ces of di ssimil a rity) a nd city directories (for spa tial a nd occupa tional m obility), have questioned the notion that European mi gra nts spent mu ch tim e in the zon e in tran sition . Based on this d a ta, they contend tha t individu al m igra nts from diffe rent immi grant groups lived widely scattered acro ss workin g-class residential a reas . Few con centration s we re great e nou gh to permit the development of urba n vill ages or ghet toes. Where they ex isted, mi grant s passed through so quickl y th a t their importa n ce as a n institution was minimized for most. 4 In contrast , until recently , most observers of black migran ts in the city concluded tha t folk breakdown was extensive. Moreover , whil e new bl ack residents seem ed to m ove as frequ ently as white mi gra nts, they did so within a n increasingly restrictive ghetto area . 5 Thu s, whe re a disorganized ghetto confronted black migrants, white migrants ex peri en ced greater spa tial and (implicitly) m ore occupa tional mobility. Whi te migrants m elted to gether into a working cl ass div ided by reli gion (P rotestant , Catholi c, and J ew) , 6 while blacks confronted a n earl y caste-like experien ce. 7 The m ost recent work by students of Eu ro pean a nd bl ack mi gra nt s of the 1880 to 1930 period h as b egun to challen ge som e of these findin gs . Students of urba n bl ack communi ties h ave foc u sed on the exte nsive presen ce of fo rm al organi zati ons to dem onstra te the exten t of order in black life. 8 Simila rl y, studies of E u rop ean immi grant group s h ave demon stra ted the persisten ce of ethni c life in th e city throu gh the in stituti on s of church , b e nevolen t groups, lod ges, politi cal ac tivity, a nd a n active press. 9 M oreove r , both se ts of studi es presum e th e prese nce of a recogni zable geogra phical b ase upon whi ch these fo rm al or gani zations operate . In the case of black communities, the ghetto explicity fo rm s the b ounda ries; fo r white immi gra nt s, th e pa rish or" immi gran t n eighborhood " implicitly serves as the turf around which the story of organi za- SLOVAKIA 11 tional life unfolds. Unfortunately, in either case, the empirical demonstration of this critical base and its role is often assumed as given. Few have sought to consider the role of neighborhood and community development as a crucial framework for their analyses. 10 • Because this literature provides little basis for analysis or comparison, it is necessary to turn to the work of sociologists for a framework. 11 While there is little work on scale and its impact on the nature of neighborhood, 11 more has been done on neighborhood typologies. Gerald Suttles suggests three: the defended neighborhood, the community oflimited liability, and the contrived community. The first is most pertinent to the discussion here: "a residential group which seals itself off through the efforts of delinquent gangs, . . . by sharp boundaries, or by forbidding reputation." 13 The elements of the defended community are: "a recognizable identity, a consensus among residents of a common fate, and a 'positive' and sentimental attachment to neighbors, local establishments, and local traditions to the exclusion of other persons, establishments, and traditions . '' 14 Another set of issues that the current literature ignores concerns the distinction between primary or informal groups (family, neighborhood, community) and formal organization. Historians' concentration on formal group life represents a great limitation on their work, since these groups represent only one level of response migrants made to the city. 15 In part, these formal groups reflect most fully the experiences of the most successful: those who are largely "a-typical" of the larger group's experience. 16 More importantly, informal groups played a critical role in the life of the folk migrants prior to their move to the city. 17 Their presence and roles in the city represent important elements to test to determine the nature and extent of changes that resulted from migration, urbanization, industrialization, and modernization. Since earlier observers pointed to these informal groups as the institutions that underwent the most complete and severe change, with formal groups replacing them, it seems central to the discussion of the persistency of ethnic group life that primary group life be given careful analysis. This is especially so since it is the family, neighborhood, and community that are so central for the socialization and identity of the young. 18 There are other reasons for considering the issue of informal group life. Recent studies of both European and black migrant areas have reported population turnover that was thought to undermine the develop- 12 SLOVAKIA ment and impact of ethnic enclaves; proximity to many other groups diminished European ethnicity to one of the three major religions. While recent studies demonstrate the importance of chain-migration for both black and white migrants, little effort has been made to determine what effect this chain migration had on the formation of groups in the city. 19 In contrast, the presence ( or absence) of a neighborhood in proximity to formal institutions of an ethnic group represents theoretically a very different experience than that postulated by studies of movement and mobility . Rather than seemingly random movement, it would be possible to hypothesize the informal neighborhood providing important sets of support for the church (parish), businesses, beneficial organizations, press, and national organizations. While it may be difficult to determine which came first, it seems likely that informal neighborhood lies at the base of the ethnic urban village. Moreover, despite the mobility, the presence of an ethnic village that provides important goods and services for "members," whatever the place of residence, plays an important role in the "maintenance" of ethnicity and identity. 20 Thus, while it may have have served every member of a given ethnic group in its particular part of the city, the neighborhood/urban village fostered important networks of institutions for migrants; dominance of a section of the city permitted residents a chance to be "themselves" within the confines of a turf dominated by persons from the same kin network, town, region, and country. In these neighborhoods, residents hammered out their own identities, consciousness, and relations with the larger world. Without this envelope, it is hard to imagine how so many informal and formal groups could have persisted and prospered . 21 It is the purpose of this article to examine the development of residential neighborhoods and communities by two different groups of migrants in different environments. While these are far from "random" selections, 22 we do feel that they represent two different kinds of migrant settlements, one very small, the other fairly large. Both neighborhoods conform roughly to Suttles' definition of a defended neighborhood; both represent an important migrant response to the urban environment, a response that has been passed over all too briefly by past work. The article focuses on the efforts of two different groups of folk migrants to establish a "turf" in the city: Black migrants settled in the inhabited alleys of Washington, D .C ., and the eastern European migrants settled in the "Bird's Nest" on the fringe of Cleveland, Ohio. SLOVAKIA 13 In m a ny ways the social co nditions migrants faced in these two environments were dramatically different; each cam e with a different set of experie nces and cultural baggage, and each faced very different conditions in the cities they settled despite the fact that both entered the urban marketpl ace at the ' 'bottom .' ' 23 While these differences are critical to understand what happened to each group, it is also important to see in general term s what migrants shared in their struggle with the urban-industrial environment. The article begins with a consideration of similarities and differences between the two communities in terms of physical form , population , occupations, and living conditions. The major part of the article focuses on the development and form each neighborhood took . The conclusions seek to compa re these two experien ces and suggest their implicat ions for othe r migrant experien ces and for the study of migrants . II. Descriptive Comparison of Neighborhoods: Alley Communities and The Bird 's Nest Physical Form and Isolation . Alley communities of Washington, like their counterparts throughout the urban United States and Europe , were small, relatively circumscribed , and isola ted neighborhoods spread throu ghout the central city 24 (see Map 1) . In Washington , alley house co nstru ction fell largely in the period from the end of the Civil War until 1892, when Congress banned new construction. D eveloped on narrow st reets or alleys inside a large city block , the tiny, two-story fram e or brick row houses faced inwa rd onto the interior alley, while larger, more expensive row houses lined the outside of the block and faced onto the street (M ap 2). W ell-to-do residents of the street-front property were separated from their poor and often black, backyard neighbors physically, sociall y, and culturally. D evelopers and owne rs of alley property , often well to do , generally lived outside the immediate section of the city where their all ey property was located, thus furth er isolating the alley n eighborhood . 25 The Bird 's N est, a single neighborhood , was equ ally isolated , but shared much more in co mmon with the la rge ethnic enclaves in urban indu st ri al areas throu ghout the United States. In 1892 , a land company sub sidary (Pleasant Hill L and Company-PHLC) of the National Carbon Company laid out the eight n a rrow stree ts (five n a m ed for birds), a nd 424 lots to provide hous in g for workers at its new facto ry n earby. 26 SLOVAKIA 14 INHABITED ALLEYS 1897 POPUATION 0 1- ,. 0 0 0 JOO - ... 0 RKE • • 0 MAP 1 - 1/l or mor, 81,il(: k 2/lormor,\Nhct C ommi ssione rs of the District of Columbia, Annual R eport (W ashin gton , 189 7), 195-202. 1897 SLOVAKIA 15 N STREET [ fr" I l'Fif =! .J.Jo . a--1 II ' ' .. ~ • II - '-M STREET L STREET D BUILDINGS HEADS Of HOUSEHOLD Native Born Whites S.ablo Foreign Born \\'hites (born outside Ncw1h America or p,uenc~ born outside Othe<Buldir@ Store o, AmYm Shop North Amtfil:a) • •• !lacks ~ (when lhan l) more MAP 2 - Sanborn Map Publishin g Company, In surance M aps of Washington , D .C. (New York , N . Y., 1888) ; and Fed eral Populat ion Census Schedules, I 880 W ashington , D .C., V ol. 2 pan 2, R eco rd Group 29 National Archi ves. SLOVAKIA 16 \~ PART Of" L.\I(E,ro on .>. ' -~ I I .A 11 LE 1 1 ROCKPORT TOWNSHIP. \~_. ~':. ~ \" \ ... ~7;:... MAP .3 - Pleasa nt Hill La nd C ompan y subdi vision of th e " Bird 's Nes t " a nd th e adjoining Na ti on al Ca rbon Facto r y, 1898 . Thom as Fl ynn , Ott o Ba rth el, R .H . Bunni ng , and Thomas H assa n , Atlas o[ th e Suburbs o[ Cleveland, Ohio ( Phil ad elphia , 1898), Plate 24 . SLOVAKIA 17 The neighborhood was circumscribed by railroad tracks, th e factory , a nd a wood s (later d eveloped for a factory and park) on three sides; the fourth side, a secondary comme rcial artery, p ermitted some overflow into the immediate n eighborhood to the north (see Map 3). While Bird's Nest workers were able to gain ownership of the area, it remained isolated from the surrounding area which was developin g as a middl e-class suburb. 2 7 Like the inward facing alley, th e neighborhood also turned in ward with its " main street," Plover , being the most isol a ted of its streets. 28 Migration and Neighborhood Size. Black migrants from the surrounding states of Virginia and Maryland, coming largely in cha ins of family, fri ends , and neighbors, settled into the alley communities. 29 Predominantl y from rural areas, these mi grants mainta ined ties to the countryside a nd encouraged furth er m ove me nt from those areas . While rural migrants had a number of differe nt res id enti al environm e nts to chose from in the city, a nd often m oved b ack a nd forth betwee n these , m an y se ttled initially in the alleys . Alley popu lations varied co nsiderabl y in size within a given year and over tim e . The smallest held one or two famil ies, the largest ove r 400 peopl e (see Map 1). Most all eys fell so m ewhere in be tween , with the average all ey size in 1880 bein g 50 residents ; at the peak of alley population in 1897, when there were nearl y 20 ,000 all ey res idents living in 240 all eys, th e average all ey size was 73. Th ese were, th e n , very small , face-to-face co mmunities of bl ack rural migrants. 3° In contrast, migra nts to the Bird 's N es t cam e from rural a reas in Easte rn Europe; most id entifi ed th emselves as " Hun garian Slovaks ," alth ou gh some were from P ola nd a nd Ru ss ia . 31 Th ey also mi grated in cha in s of relat ives, fri end s, and n eighbors as well as by region. 32 Like bl ack mi gra ti on to th e all eys, th e re was cons iderab le movem ent back a nd forth betwee n th e Old W o rld a nd th e New. Un like th e all ey populat ion th at reached its peak in 1900 a nd began to drop off, with each alley being a small isola ted community onto itself, the Bird 's N est populati on of 429 in 1900 in creased fi ve -fold by 19 10 a nd then doubled by 1920 at its peak ( see T able 1.) Thi s represe nts a different kind of ethni c encl ave with pote nti al for m o re sub sta nti ve inst itu tion al d evelopme nt. Occupations and Workplace. Black residents of W ashin gton alleys co nfronted profound limita ti ons in their search for work. R ac ism limi ted 18 SLOVAKIA employment of black males largely to day labor and black women to dom estic or laundry work; none had access to the limited industrial occupations in Washington 33 (see Table 2). The employment open to alley dwell ers, then, represented the worst paid , least secure, and often the m ost physically demanding and dangerous positions available. Moreover, despite long residence in the ci ty, black alley dwellers experienced little if any upward occupational mobility ; a color bar en sured that any movem ent would be minimal. 3 4 In contrast , while migrants from Eastern Europe came with similar skills as rural blacks , they often found industrial employment available to them, even though it was nearly always at the bottom . In 1900, most male residents of the Bird 's Nest were laborers working at the adjacent National Carbon factory; by 1910, a number of residents had gained som e mobility by gaining access to semi-skilled industrial occupations. Moreover, a number of women were able to gain indu strial employment, although usually a t the lowest levels ; many others earn ed incom e by runnin g boarding houses or taking in boarders. While this work was long, hard , physically demanding , and often dangerous , it was also more secure and better paying than anything available to alley dwellers . By 1940 , em ployed male a nd female workers of the Bird 's Nest were concentrated in semi-skilled pos itions ( 44 percent), with another 10 percent skilled and 13 percent proprietarial or white collar employees; only a third remained as unskill ed or service workers 35 (see Table 3). Living Conditions. Living conditions in most D .C. alleys were far from wholesome; crowding, poorly maintained buildings and outhouses, piles of uncollected trash in alleys, and the co nstant d anger of contagious disease plagued residents. D espite the limited space inside the two-story 12x30 foot alley house, man y were shared by more than one hou sehold unit ; in some cases four family units lived in one small room each . 36 These crowded cond itions made residents m ore susceptible to di sease, while landl ord s' lack of co ncern for maintenance and the city's di sinterest in coll ect in g trash from the alleys exposed residents to di sease in other ways. Limited and unstable income restricted diets while d angerou s, outdoor work further taxed alley dwellers' health . Ultimately these cond iti ons led to death rates for alley dwell ers th at were twice th at for residents of the streets; the major causes were diseases that cou ld clearly be linked to socio-economic status . 3 7 Children under the age of one year acco unted for much of the high death rate. 38 SLOVAKIA 19 While the Bird's Nest developed in a suburban setting and lacked the extreme density of the alley community, living conditions were little better. While outside the multi-family homes "everything was mud," inside the long, narrow two - and three-story buildings many families lived in tiny cold water flats 39 (see Map 4) . Whereas alley dwellers had to go outside for water and toilets, Bird's Nesters shared "indoor water closets .' ' 40 Residents of the latter community, however, were more likely to share their tiny apartments with boarders; 32 percent of households had boarders in 1910 (boarders made up one-fourth of the total population), 41 while only 13 percent of 1880 alley households were augmented. 41 The crowded living conditions in the Bird's Nest, along with the long hours at work and limited income, led to high death rates, especially for the very young. 43 In 1900, women reported over one-fourth of the children they had borne were dead, 44 a condition that continued in later years. There are, then, substantial similarities between the two populations; Both came into the urban marketplace at the bottom; both lived in housing conditions that were crowded and dangerous ; the "communities" were isolated physically and socially from the surrounding populations; both were made up of groups that had migrated in chains to the city. Nevertheless , residents of the Bird's Nest did have access to industrial jobs that were more stable and better paying; and these positions permitted some mobility from unskilled labor to semi- and eventually skilled jobs. In addition, where alley communities were largely limited in size by the number of houses built in each alley , and ultimately by the limited interior space of the block itself, the Bird's Nest faced less spatial constriction. This afforded the potential for more complete development. Finally, while alley dwellers seldom had the resources to purchase their alley homes from absentee landlords , res idents of the Bird's Nest were encouraged to do so by the industrial developer of their community . Where ownership always remained external to the alley community , the Bird 's N est quickly becam e locally owned. Despite these differences, each area developed a se ries of informal groups that provided the base for the formation of a neighborhood . That neighborhood , in turn , provided the foundation for the d evelopment of more formal organizations. Given the differe nt resources and scale, however, residents d eveloped different kinds of ne ighborhoods. 10 FAM ILY UNtTS .I H oward Whipple G ree n , Plan es of Living in C uyah oga County: as D epicted by th e R eal Property Survey (C leveland , 1940), 65. Bird ' s Nest = LW18 MAP 4 - e 6.5 o/o OF ALL FAMILY UNITS 2 1,953 IN COUNT Y COLD WATER FLATS ~ ► ~ < >- 0 r< (./J 0 SLOVAKIA 21 III. Neighborhoods Alley Communities. Black migrants who came to Washington alleys re-established their kin and friendship networks in the alley; they continued to use these networks for emotional and financial support. Because their resources were so marginal, only reliance on these groups made survival more likely. Each alley then, had several or more such networks into which "fictive kin" were also drawn. They provided the most basic form of social organization, albeit informal, in the alley . 45 It was the alley neighborhood, itself, that brought these kin groups together into a loose , but cohesive unit . Since alleys were isolated from the surrounding neighborhood and often some distance from the emerging black enclaves of the city where the major institutions of black life were located, alley residents often had to fall back on themselves for help and support. Drawing on their rural experience, migrants constructed informal defended neighborhoods to provide for their needs. In many respects, however, this informal community became much more important in the city because residents were more dependent on each other, especially in the period just following their migration. Since migration to the city (and alleys) continued throughout the period, and since there were always some "native" alley residents as well as some migrants who had lived in a given alley for many years, new migrants did not have to confront the urban environment alone . New neighbors, kin, and old friends helped ease the transition from country to city. 46 The alley itself' 7 was the center of the alley community; residents congregated there, save in the worst weather, to meet with friends and neighbors. 48 A major location for informal meeting took place at the intersection of the two main alleys . All residents passed this point on their way into and out of the alleys; neighbors met each other here as they returned home from work each day, or hung out there during the day if there was no work available . In addition , residents generally sat in front of their homes and talked to neighbors who joined them on the steps, benches, or chairs set out for this purpose . 49 It is impossible to overestimate the value and import of this activity, for virtually every aspect of the alley community was based on this interaction . If neighboring provided an important element of entertainment, it also provided information on which neighbors needed help and where jobs were available. A critical function of the alley community 22 SLOVAKIA involved help and support for those in need; neighbors aided each other by providing money, food, and shelter while in some cases they took in friends' children and cared for them, in others they let neighborhood children sleep at their house '' because they had more room.'' 50 A third function neighboring and the alley community provided was the maintenance of internal social control. Part of this came as a result of the positive support neighbors gave each other; they also used gossip and more formal sanctions to maintain order. 51 Ultimately, these daily discussions about ' ' appropriate behavior'' by residents resulted in the hammering out of a common philosophy and world view; a world view that was shared by members of the community and differed from that of outsiders. 52 Finally, alley dwellers defended their neighborhood against outsiders . Part of this resulted from their intensive use of alley space for neighboring , thus discouraging others from entering the area . When outsiders did enter they were confronted by residents and watched throughout their alley visit, an experience that unnerved many observers of alley life. 53 Alley dwellers had good reason to watch "outsiders"; other Washingtonians, black and white, generally viewed residents of the alleys with great disdain. While the police were especially harsh in their attempts to control alley populations, other residents, though less overt in their actions, expressed nearly universal condemnation of alley dwellers. 54 This external hostility helped hold the alley community together, despite its internal dissension . Disputes over life style dominated these schisms, but the small scale of the neighborhood, the necessity to cooperate to survive, and the external threats effectively held residents together. Because of its small size and very limited resources, however, the alley community was not able to develop or support a very extensive set of formal organizations. It did provide an excellent medium for small alley churches, which were simply alley houses residents rented "for Jesus. " They were kept going by neighbors' contributions and the pastors ' earnings from "doing occasional laundry" or other work . 55 While most alleys seem to have had at least one of these churches, their small size - "Ten chairs and a pulpit, and an improvised altar" - makes the extent of participation problematic . 56 Alley businesses were equally marginal, and often involved in illegal activity. Like the semi-formal alley church, these businesses required conversion of part ofan alley house into a " speak-easy" or "fac- SLOVAKIA 23 tory" for the m a nufacture of illegal alcohol , or oft en both . While these were cl early ill egal and we re often closed down by law e nforcem ent offi cia ls, th ey provided an importa nt service for the alley ne ighborhood in representin g a " proto " ne ighborhood tave rn a nd community ce nter where residents co uld m eet. 57 The Bird 's Nest. A s earl y as 1889 , Slovak mi gran ts b egan work on the construction of the n ew National Carbon factory . 58 After the factory was co mpl eted , these worke rs and their fri ends were hired to work in th e factory . 59 Like alley dwellers, initial settle rs in the Bird 's N est began a cha in mi gration , at first drawing from the oth er Slovak enclaves throughout the city and eventuall y reaching back to Hun gary. This process resu lted in ex tended kin n etworks bein g refo rmul a ted in th e n ew neighborhood . In a number of cases, this reformu la tion extended to Old World v ill age pa rishes. Within th e fir st few years, m a n y of the core famili es had m oved in and esta blished them selves. Fri end s, ne ighbors, a nd co -reli gionists followed . As o ne oral history repo rted, " m a n y times the m en came along first , leaving wives a nd children behind in Slovakia, until they h ad found work a nd could send back for th eir families. When they cam e first, they sought out others from the sam e village who were alread y" in the neighborhood . 60 The most criti cal form of organization , however, was the neighborhood it self. Like the all ey community , the n eighborhood rem a ined largely inform al; initiall y it w as a grouping of kin n etworks largely of Slovak a n cestry. Y e t this inform a l " institution " p rovided the precon dition s necessary for the con structio n of other aspects of the community. In large p a rt the migrants es tablished th eir co ntrol over th e ne ighborhood in the first years of settle m e nt , 1892- 1900 . A lthough the a rea was th en only sli ghtl y bigge r tha n th e largest all ey, these earl y migrants a nd th eir famili es esta blish ed a beachhead that was neve r chall en ged . Unlike alley dwell ers who neve r gained ow nership of th eir ne ighborhood , res idents of the Bird 's N est quickly bou ght up th e small parcels o f la nd (wheth er simpl y cl eared b y the PHLC, or built upon ) , 6 1 as soo n as th eir fin ances m ad e it possibl e. 61 A lon g Pl ove r , migrant s purch ased 43 perce nt of the lots prior to 1900; o nl y three of th e 35 lots o n the street m ay h ave been ini tiall y purchased by non-Sl avs. 63 R es id ent s gain ed ow ners hi p o f m ost of th e 424 lots in the subdi vion s on initi a l sale; w ith few exce ptio n s, th ey eve ntuall y ga in ed co ntrol ove r th e rem a ining o nes as well. 24 SLOVAKIA P e rhaps the most striking aspect of n eighborhood d evelopment is the extent to which residents drew on each other's skill s and resources to construct houses, stores, a nd shops. Of the 171 lots for which information is available on th e initial con struction , 92 perce nt of the owners were alread y residents of the neighborhood. While m a n y built their own hom e (or a building to rent), those owners who hired a builde r to co nstruct their houses overwhelmingly chose a resident of the neighborhood (64 percent). Many of the non-resident builders were also of Slavic origin , but lived in one of the other encl aves spread throughout the city. 64 T o an impressive ex tent , th en , residents bought up the neighbo rhood la nd, and per son ally built th eir own hom e or a home to sell to more rece nt migra nts ; when they did not do their own co nstru ction they hired neighbors . In doing so, they establi shed an impress ive investm ent upon which they could draw or build on in the future. 65 H av in g es tablish ed a turf a nd access to employ m ent , residents encouraged n ew migra nt s to join them. Whe reas the m ajo rity of th e first res idents ha d migrated to the United Sta tes in the ten years prior to the building of th e factory, the massive influx of n ew migrants in the fir st two d ecad es of the twenti eth century cam e direc tl y to the n eigh bo rhood. Slovaks continu ed their d omination of the n eighborhood (70 perce nt) , whil e Slovak was the most common la ngu age. 66 One of the key attractions of thi s N ew Slovak/ Slav ic village, in a d dition to the presen ce of fri ends , relatives, and an ethni c ne ighborhood , was the prese nce of employm ent possibilities in industry. H av ing mad e important inroads from th e beginnin g of the constru ction o f the new factory, Slovaks , a nd to a lesse r extent P oles a nd Ru ssians, dominated the lowest level of empl oym e nt in the facto ry. 67 Th ere is so m e indi cation th a t the original pl a nt o n the east side of Clevela nd may also h ave empl oyed workers from a nearb y Slovak e nclave. These employees m ay have been attrac ted to th e new factory b y the avail ab ilit y of la nd ; a disastrous fire a t the old e r pl a nt in 1893 m ay well have speed ed up this process. 68 Wh a teve r the initi a l co nnection, Slovaks a nd oth er Sl av ic mi gra nt s establi shed a beachh ead in th e factory from th e beginnin g b y drawin g o n th eir inform a l networks . 69 Jun e Alexand er found a similar co nditio n for Slovaks in Pittsburgh , namely that "factori es relied o n their fore m e n to hire workers and foreme n, in turn, reli ed o n th e ir workers as intermedi a ries to find la borers. " 70 As mi grants worked their way slowly up the ranks to semi-skilled a nd occasion all y forem en positions , th ey SLOVAKIA 25 gain ed m ore direct access to the hiring process. With the informal neighborhood networks , Slovaks came to dominate both workplace and neighborhood . 7 1 Whil e info rm al social cont rol and aid permeated th e early years of the Bird's N est as it did in the alleys, the ra pid growth of the neighborhood in the first decade of the twentieth cen tury permitted the developme nt of m ore form al organiza tions . R esidents of different reli gious persuas ion s m et sepa rately; initially these m ee tings, like the alley church , were worshi p serv ices held in co-reli gioni sts' hom es. Eve ntu ally these m eetin gs led to the fo rmation of lod ges and other m ore form al organizations designed to bring about the formation of a parish and the building of a church . 72 The first parish , Sts. Peter and P aul Lutheran , was offi cially form ed in 1901 ( church building-1 902/school som e years later) ; it was followed by Sts. Cyril and M ethod ius R om an Catholic Church in 1903 (church building and school-1905); St. Gregory ' s Byzantine Rite Catholic Church in 1905 ( chu rch building 1906/school som e years later); and the C alvin Presbyterian C hurch in 19 17 (church buildin g-19 2 1) . Ca lvin Presbyte ri a n C h urch in th e foreg round occupi es th e first sit e of Sts. Pe te r a nd Pau l Luth era n C hurch . In th e b ac kg round is St . Grego ry's Byza nti e n Rit e Ca th oli c C hurch . (Ph ot0g ra ph by a ut ho rs, J a nu a ry , 1984). 26 SLOVAKIA Sts. Peter and Paul Luthera n. (Photograph by au thors, January, 1984). SS. Cyril a nd M eth odi us R om an Ca th oli c C hurch . (Ph otog raph by au th ors, J anua ry, I 984). SLOVAKIA 27 These "predominantly" Slovak parishes were joined by those of the other ethnic groups sharing the neighborhood, the first of which was St. Hedwig's Church (Roman Catholic Polish Parish) in 1905 ( church building-l 914/school-1926). Because residents took the initiative in the formation of these parishes and schools, they often had considerable control over their direction, especially in the early years. 73 These parishes made the neighborhood even more attractive to potential migrants; their founding at the beginning of the decade undoubtedly encouraged many others to migrate. Religious schools provided another incentive, especially to Slovaks who witnessed their own schools closed or "converted for Magyarization" in the homeland. For residents in the Bird's Nest, these schools represented a way to avoid efforts at Americanization promoted by the public schools. As a result many children from the neighborhood attended these parochial schools. 74 Drawing on their growing neighborhood and its greater resources (compared to alley communities), residents of the Bird's Nest also started an incredible number of businesses. While most of these were small stores and shops that served the immediate neighborhood , several developed into substantial businesses that provided necessary goods and services for ethnic and religious needs . 75 Most important, however, was the formation of Eagle Building and Loan Company in 1911 . Controlled from within the neighborhood, residents built an institution that made possible complete acquisition and building of the area, and expansion beyond . 76 The building and loan was critical since over fifty percent of the neighborhood's lots were sold by the PHLC during the 1910s, while the period from 1912 to 191 7 was the period of greatest home construction. 77 Although the neighborhood was divided by ethnicity, religion, and class , as well as by very different attitudes on assimilation, 78 these divisions were subsumed by the needs of the neighborhood and the workings of informal groups. For some, the community revolved around the parish ; Peter Glovna remembered that "it was just like a little village, and the pillar was St. Cyril. " 79 Nevertheless , they were a series of co mmunity-wide activities that drew residents together. 80 Most important , " the first settlers tried to reconstruct , as closely as possible , the village system they were so accustomed to in Poland , Russia, and Slovakia. The close-knit warmth a nd familiarity of the village provided security and a sense of home to the recently displaced immigrants. " 81 28 SLOVAKIA Ultimately , residents used the neighborhood as alley residents did theirs; everyone knew everyone else and interaction on the streets, front yards, and porches was extensive, especially in warm weather. 82 This neighboring activity , largely through informal, small groups of relatives and friends, made up a critical element in the neighborhood life . It provided the first level (past kin network) of organization, one that replicated itself as formal groups began in the churches, lodges, and benevolent associations as well as the workplace. These primary groups provided members with an immediate sense of belonging, a connection with larger, more formal organizations, and a way by which members of the primary group could collectively continue to co nstru ct a world view, maintain social control , and provide help and support for the needy. 83 Like the alley community, the Bird's Nest found that the external threat was often sufficient to contain internal conflict. Hostility , both formal (from police and other official sources) and informal (from personal prejudice directed at residents), was extensive throughout the period. Outsiders, as in the case of alley communities, targeted the neighborhood as an eyesore and danger to the rest of the community; and police exercised their authority to "maintain social control by overenforcing the law .' ' 84 IV. Conclusions Based on these examples, it seems clear that migrants, via chain migration and efforts to gain entry/control over admission to a j ob market , began to establish residential enclaves. 85 If the process of neighborhood formation appears to have begun almost unconsciously, its development was quite conscious. While the presence of such neighborhoods is taken as given to most studies, what stands out in these two examples is the extent to which migrants took over their respective turfs, defended them, and built informal and formal institutions around them. In fact , the clustering provided the necessary context for virtually every further institutional development. If some or many migrants eventually passed through and out of the neighborhood , it remained(s) an important focal point in the lives of many , even those who could "escape" to more affluent suburban settlements. 86 The neighborhood , then , must be taken more fully into account as one, if not the most critical, of migrant institutions. SLOVAKI A 29 T hese neighborhood s provided the b ase fo r su rvival in the new urban en vironment. They were the source of housing, employm ent , mutual aid , p rotection , famil y, and friends . They permitted pa rents to raise their children in a n en v iro nment a nd throu gh in stitutio n s ove r w hich the fam ili es exerted som e co ntrol. They also provided a safe ha rbor from whi ch m igrants confro n ted the confu sin g city . M o reove r , ne ighbor s worked out their respo n ses to the issu es o f ethnicity, accultu ratio n , a nd ass im il at ion in this con text of everyd ay life. If n eighbo r s chose diver ging path s, they were n eve rtheless path s th a t d evelo ped w ithin the confines a nd con text of the ethnic en clave. R a ther th a n the stilted b ackwaters th a t R o bert P a rk a nd other s saw, th ese e ncl aves we re vibrant wi th conflicts over life style, ch a n gin g ethnic ide n tity, a d a pta tion , a nd eve n interna tio n al issu es . 8 7 T hu s, to under stand migrant organization s a nd the role they played in accul tu rat io n and et h nic ident ity, it is necessary to con sider th e first in st ituti on m igran ts created in th e city, th e neighbo rhood . 88 W hile these two n eigh borhood s were dram aticall y d ifferent, they both fi t well into Suttles' d efinition of a defended neighbo rhood . I t seem s q uite likely tha t m os t imm igrant e nclaves also fit thi s descri ption , even in cases where the areas was no t so highly segregated fro m the surroundin g city b y either physical ba rrier s or class differen ces. A number o f rece nt studies d em o n stra te tha t d efended n eighborhood s can hold up without these two elem ents. 89 H oweve r , wha t seem s m ost important here is the signifi cance of scale . Becau se alley neighbo rhood s we re sm all a nd u nable to develop ex ten sive for m al o rganizat io n s d oes no t m ean tha t they we re a n y less impor tant for m a inta inin g a nd d evelopin g a n e thnic consciousness and way of life. R a ther, wha t the alley neighborhood seem s to suggest is that smal l scale e nclaves, w hethe r hidden in alleys, or scatte red alo n g stree t fro nt s, co n tin ue to have fl ouri shin g p r im a ry group li fe : in tern al orde r and co n trol, social serv ice act ivities, a nd eve n som e p roto in stitu tio n al li fe. M oreove r , it is likely tha t ethnic identity is heigh te ned in those situ at io ns w hen other groups are in su ch close proxim ity . 90 In the case of the Bi rd 's Nest o r la rge r ethnic co mmuni ties,9 1 the sig nifi cance of the ne ighborhood is often overlooked because of the exte n t of ethni c organ izat io n al a nd b u siness li fe. H oweve r , it is the pop u la ti o n scale tha t makes poss ible this d evelopment. Nevert heless, these a reas con tinue to be marked by extensive informal groups ; their aggregate 30 SLOVAKIA makes the neighborhood and keeps it operating, althou gh formal associations play an important role. Ultimately, then , we should exp ect smalle r settlem ents to develop strong informal groups but few formal ones; the larger the co mmunity , the greater the potential for formal organizations to develop , although infor mal group life rema ins active and important. It may well be, as Fischer suggests, that ethnic ide ntity is greatest in these smaller areas, less able to adapt or adjust to the n ew world . In larger enclaves, migrants have more space to consider alternatives , to pick and chose from diverging paths, m ore a bility to ad a pt or adjust to things "Am e rican " b y in corporating them into their repertoire a nd making them " their own. " 91 Finally, in addition to the observations con ce rnin g the importance of neighborhood as a mi grant institution , it is worth noting the different conditions white and bl ack migrants confronted. The caste barrier blacks confronted in Washington as well as the severely restricted housing m arket limited the potential for comm unity d evelopment. Alley dwellers utilized highly creative methods to circumvent the nearly impossible conditions they confronted . To surv ive in this enviro nment was success. In contrast, Slovak men and women were able to gain e nt ry to more stable a nd be tte r paying industrial jobs; eventu ally they secured so me m ovemen t into semi- a nd even skilled positions as a resu lt of their tenacious hold over jobs in their neighborhood. By doing so, they es ta blished ethnic occupation al beachheads for their kin a nd progeny , whil e blacks we re limited to day la bor a nd positions in the secondary labor market. 93 Similarly, Slovaks a nd other white ethnics through considerable personal and fami ly sacrifice were able to purchase their turf; few black alley dwellers were ever so fort un a te. In short , Bird Nesters could use their ethnic ties to establish and maintain occupational and property turf; blacks were "permitted " those jobs and hou sin g no one else wanted. D ominance of these turfs, occupational and residential, were always transitory, requiring incred ible hum an effort to m ainta in th em or develop n ew ones. They seldom permitted a n opportunity to grow or expand. SLOVAKIA 31 NOTES ' O scar Handlin concludes that "wherever the immigrants went , th ere was one com mon ex peri ence th ey shared: nowhere could they transplant the European village . Wh atever th e va riati ons among environments in America , none was familiar. The pressure of th at stran geness exe rted a dee p influence upon th e character of rese ttlement , upon the usual forms of behavior , and upon the notes of communal action th a t emerged as th e immigrants beca me Americans .'' Th e Uprooted (2nd edn., Boston, 1973) , 129 . ' Loui s Wirth noted that the "shift from a rural to a predominantly urban society .. has bee n acco mpa ni ed by profound changes in virtually every phase of social life, '' with th e "substituti on of seconda ry for primary contacts , th e weakening of bonds of kin ship , and the declining social significance of the famil y, the disappearance of the neighborhood , and th e undermining of the tradition al bas is of social solidarity." On Cities and Social Life , ed . by Albert R eiss, Jr . (Chicago, 1964) , 79-80. See also Wirth, " Urbanism as a Way of Life , " American Journal of Sociology, 44 Ouly , 1938) , 1-24 . ' Ernes t Burgess , who devised the co nce ntri c zone th eory from which this co mes, concluded th a t ' 'disorganization as preliminary to reorgani za ti on of attitud es and condu ct is almost invariably th e lot of th e newcomer to the cit y.'' ' ' The Growth of the City," in Robert E. Park a nd Ernest Burgess, Th e City (Chicago, 1967), 54, 47-62 . • Howa rd Chudacoff found th at while foreign born migrants " m ay have retained their social , eco nomic , and religious commun iti es, their incidence of move ment out of th e old neighborhoods and a round the city make residential coherence a ve ry temporary experience." " A New Look at Ethnic Neighborhoods: Residential Dispersion and th e Concept of Visibilit y in a M edium-Sized City,'' Journal of America n History , 60 Oune , 1973), 91. See also Chudacoff, Mobile Americans: Residential and Social Mobility in Om ah a, 1880- 1920 (New York , 1972), 154-55; Humbert S . N elli, The Italians in Chicago: 1880-1 930( N ew York, 1970), xi i-xiii; Sam Bass Warner and Colin B. Burke, " Cultural Change and th e Ghetto," Journal of Contempnrary History, 4 (O ctober , 1969) , 173 -88 ; David W ard, " The Internal Spatial Different iat ion of Immi grant R esiden ti al Distri cts ,'' in Geographic Perspectives on America's Past , ed. by Dav id Ward ( ew York , 1979) , 335 -43; and Ward , " The Emergence of Central Immi gra nt Ghettoes in American Cities: 1840-1920, " Annals of th e A ssociation of America n Geographers , 38 ( 1968) , 343-59. ' The most class ic stateme nt of this positi on was that of E . Franklin Fraz ier: Southern black mi gra nts to north ern cities los t " res tra ints imposed by a simple folk culture" and creat ed a "class of rovi ng Negroes who will li ve a lawless sex a nd quasi-family life ." " The Impac t of U rba n Civilization upon Negro Family Life, " American Sociological R el'iew , 2 (October , 1937), 6 18. See also Frazier's The Negro Family in the United States (Chicago, 1966), 207-92; Cl yd e Vernon Ki se r , Sea Island co City ( New York, 1968), 223; Gilbert O sofsky, H arlem : Th e Making of a Ghetro (N ew York , 1964) , 135-49 ; Allen H . Spear, Black Chicago: Th e M aking of a Negro Gherto (C hi cago , 1967), 167-80 , x; Constance M cLaughlin Green, Th e Secret Ciry 32 SLOVAKIA (Prince ton, 1967); a nd D av id K atzm a n , Befor e th e Gh etto (U rba na, 1973). 6 W a rn er notes that reli gious co nfli cts in Am eri ca n cities "forced a ll cit y dwellers to think of th em selves either as Protestant s o r Ca th olics ' ' o r J ews, not as members of spec ific ethni c group s. " Cu ltural Cha nge a nd Ghett o," 178. See also Will H erberg, Prot estant , Cath olic, J ew (New York , 1955). ' G ilbert O sofsky, " The Endurin g Ghetto," J ournal of Am erica n History, 55 (September , 1968). ' 8 K enn eth Ku smer , A Ghetto T ak es Shap e: Black C leveland 1870- 1930 (Urbana, Ill ., 1976); D ou glas D a ni els, Pioneer Urbanites: A Social and C ultural History of Black San Fran cisco (Philadelphi a, 1980); and Thomas Cox , Bla cks in T op ek a, K ansas : A Social History (Baton R ouge, La., 1982). 9 Josef J. Barton , Peasants and Strangers: Italians, Rumanians, and Slovaks in an Am erica n C ity, 1890-1950 (Cambrid ge , M ass. , 1975), 64-90 ; M . Mark Stola rik , " Immigration a nd Urban izati on: The Slova k Experi ence, 1870-1 9 18" (Ph .D . di sse rtat ion, Universit y of Minneso ta , 1974), 69 -109; Sylvia June G ranatir Al exander , "The Immi gra nt C hurch a nd Co mmunit y: The Forma ti o n of Pittsburgh 's Slova k R eli gio us In stitution s, 1880- 19 14" (Ph .D . disse rta ti on, Uni vers it y of Minneso ta , 1980), 209-355, 443-5 18 ; Al exa nder , " Stay in g Togeth er : Chain Mi gration and Pattern s of Slovak Settl em ent in Pittsburgh Prio r to World W ar I , '' J ournal of Am erican Echnic History, I (Fall, 198 1), 56-83; K athleen Neils Conze n, Immigrant Milwa ukee: 1836-1 860 (Cambridge, M ass., 19 76) , 154-191 ; and V irginia Vans-M cLaughlin , Family and Commu nicy: Italian Immigranc s in Buffalo, 1880- 1930 (Ith aca, N. Y ., 1977). 0 A numb er of studi es do develop th e role of famil y life in mi gra nt se ttlements; thi s wo rk represe nts a m ajo r co ntribution to th e a nalys is of " inform al" o r prim ary gro up life in th e cit y. For exa mple , see T ama ra K . H a reve n , " Th e Histo ri cal Study of th e Fa mil y in Urban Society , " J ourn al of Urba n History , I (M ay , 1975 ). Unfortuna tely, such studi es neglect th e relati on ship of fa mil y a nd extended kin netwo rk to other inform al-primary groups of neighbo rh ood a nd communit y. Wh at is mi ss in g here is a discussion of th e informal social organi zat ion that makes up the nei ghborh ood . Fo r m o re co mpl ete ana lyses of social netwo rk s, see J . C lyde Mit chell , ed. , Social N ecworks in Urban Situation (M anches ter, 1969); Eli zabet h Bott , Family and Social N etwork (N ew Yo rk , 197 1); and C la ud e S. Fischer, To Dwell Among Friends: Personal N etwo rk s in T own and Cicy (C hi cago, 1982). " For exa mp le, see K a thl ee n Neil s Co nze n , " Commentary: Immi grants , Im mi g ra nt Neighborhoods, and Ethni c Identit y: Histo ri cal Issues, " J ourn al or Am erica n History, 66 (D ece mbe r, 1979), 603 -15. " Su za nn e Keller , Th e Urba n N eig hborh ood (N ew Yo rk , 1968). " Gera ld Sut tl es , Tn e S ocial Constru ction or Communicies (C hi cago, I 972 ), 2 I , 3- I 07 . " R o m a n A. C ybri ws ky, "Soc ia l Aspec ts of Ne ighbo rh ood Change ," Annals or th e Associa tion of Am erica n Geograph ers, 68 ( I 978) , 2 7. In co ntras t , th e co nce pt of th e co mmunit y of limi ted liab ilit y, o ri ginall y developed by M o rri s j a now it z, emp hasizes " th e int enti o na l, vo lunt a ry, a nd es peciall y, th e pa rtial a nd d ifferenti ated in vo lve- SLOVAKIA 33 ment of res ident s in th eir local comm uniti es.'' Suttles, Social Construction of Communities , 47 , 44-81. See also Morris J anow it z, Th e Community Press in an Urban Setting: The Social Elements of Urbanism (Chicago, 1952). The contrived community is one that is pla nn ed , at leas t in part, with a d es ign to prom ote a ce rt ain kind of co mmunit y. New towns probabl y fall most closely in to thi s catego ry. See Suttles, Social Constru ction of Commun ities, 82-107 . " Formal o rgan ization is an assoc iation th at " is more or less purposefully created for th e at ta inmen t of rela tiv ely specific and limi ted goals.'' M a rvin E. Olsen , Th e Process of Social Organization (New York , 1968) , 92. M em bers are only partiall y involved a nd co mmitted to such " limited-li a bilit y" o rga ni zati on s; th ey rela te to each oth er largely in terms of the organization and th eir spec ific interest in its goals. Whi le members m ay beco m e " fri end s, " impl yin g a mu ch m ore inten se relations hip , and perh aps the development of a prima ry group or netwo rk , thi s is not the goal of the formal o rgani zati on . Primary or inform al gro up s, on th e ot her hand , are " those characteri zed by intimate, face-to-face aswciati on and co-operation, " i.e., " the family , th e play-group of children , a nd th e neighbo rh ood o r co mmunit y of elders. ' ' C ha rl es Cooley, Social Organization (New Yo rk , 1923), 23, 24. Fo r a rev iew of th e significant roles of informal groups, see Elihu K atz and Paul Lazarsfeld , Personal Influen ces (New York, 1955), 3 1-42. 16 For a discussion of this point , see J am es Bo rchert , " Urban Neighborhood and Communit y: Informal Group Life, 1850-1970, ' ' Journ al of Interdisciplin ary History , 11 (Sprin g, 1981 ), 607-3 1; Floyd Dodson, " Pa tt ern s of Volu nta ry Association among W o rkin g-C lass Families," America n Sociological R evie w , 16 (1951), 687-93; and Benn ett Berge r , W orking Class Suburb (Berkeley, Ca. , 1971 ) , 59-73. " R obert R edfi eld , "The Folk Society ," America njournal of Sociology, 52 Qanua ry, 1947) , 293-308. Thi s is not to su gges t that mi gra nts had no experience with forma l groups prior to mi gra ti on. As Ba rt o n , Stola rik , and oth ers have demonstrated , migrants brought both forma l and in formal group s with them. Whil e few have m ade d irec t comp a ri so ns of formal group s in th eir two se ttings (Ba rt on is an importa nt pa rti al except io n here), virtua ll y no o ne has co mpared informal grou ps. " J a m es S. Pil an t, Th e Envelope: A Study of the Imp act of th e World upon th e C hild (New Yo rk , 1950); Suttles, Th e Social Constru ction of Communities, 2 1- 43. 19 C hain migrat ion has bee n defin ed as " th at m ove m ent in which prospecti ve mi grants lea rn of oppo rtuniti es, a re provided with transporta ti on , and have initi al accommodati on and employment a rranged by m ea ns of primary social relationships with previous migra nts" (aut hors' itali cs). J ohn S. M acdon ald a nd Leatri ce D. M acdonald , "Chain Mi gra ti on , Ethn ic Neighborhood Fo rm ati on , and Social Netwo rks," Milbank M emorial Fund Quart erly, 42 Q anu a ry, 1964) , 82. 0 T hese vary, of course , by ethni c gro ups, circum stances , a nd over time , as well as by cl ass. Specia l foods a nd restaurants a re probably th e most obviou s exa mpl es, but churches and lodges a re probably the m ost uni ve rsal ''se rvices. '' Profess ionals a nd ethni c bu siness a re also important elements of th e urba n village, especiall y fun eral homes; th ey con tinu e to draw former res idents a nd th eir children bac k to th e urba n ' 34 SLOVAKIA vi llage, a t leas t on special occasions. Finall y, ma ny wh o left th e "village" continu e to own buildings there; their rental income made "escape" easier; it di d nm , however, break th e ties. " See Suttles, T he Social C onstru ction of C ommunities, 2 1-43. " These environments a re strikin gly different ; th e two group s a re eve n more different in term s of their past ex peri ences, institutional life, and cultural baggage. Co mparison, th en , prese nts considerable problems; limited da ta make thi s eve n more problema ti c. " For oth er effort s to co mpa re th e bl ac k and white ex peri ence, see ta nl ey Lieberso n , A Piece of th e Pie: Black s and Whit e Immigranrs Since 1880 ( Berkeley, Ca ., 1980); J ohn Bodn a r , Michael W eber , and R oge r Simon , " Mi gra ti on , Kin ship , a nd U rba n Adjustm ent : Blac ks a nd Poles in Pitt sb urgh , 1900- 1930," j ournal o f America n History, 66 (Dece mber , 19 79) , 548-565; a nd Bodnar , Sim on , W eber , Lives o f th eir Own : Black s, Italians, and Poles in Piusburgh , 1900- 1960 (Urbana, Ill. , 1982). " For a more compl ete di scussion, ee Borchert, Alley Life in W ashing ton ( Urbana , Ill. , 1980) . For a d iscussion of alleys else wh ere, see 223-37 , 3 12- 17. " Ibid . , 1-56 . ' 6 C u yahoga C ount y Treasure r's Depa rtm ent T ax Duplica tes , I 894- 1923 . C uyahoga Count y Archi ves; M a rgare t M anor Bu tle r, Th e Lakewood tory ( ew York , 1949); 228 ; " City Plays Vital R ole," newspa per clipping-source unkn ow n , M ay 5, 1955 . Lakewood Historical Society; " ati onal Carbon C om pany," C leveland Plain D ealer , September 10, 19 77 . The neighbo rhood has been kn own by a se ri es of names; Bird's Nes t and Bird T own deri ve from th e predominance of stree t with bi rd na me . Other na mes suggest how th e neighborh ood has bee n viewed by outsid er : T he Settl ement, th e Village , " Dago Forum , " C a rbon T own , " Little Slova ki a," a nd th e Carbon Distri ct. John Fedor , "Ju st Loo k at th e Stree t Signs to Find Bird T own ," Lakewood L edger , Dece mber 14, 1967; Butler, Lakewood Story, 188, 228-29; Butler, R om ance in Lakewood Streets (C leve la nd , 1962), 41 ; C ynthi a A. Rud e r, " Th e Imprint of C ultura l V alues on Birdtow n , La kewood, Ohio, " un publi shed typesc ript , M ay 1, 1978. Lakewood Hi stori cal Society. " C uyahoga Count y Au d ito r's T ax M aps , Cuyahoga Coun ty Adm inistrat ion Bu ild ing. Vol. 35-C it y of La kewood. 1890- 1982. " Fed or , " Just Loo k a t th e tree t igns " R eco rd s of th e Distri ct of Colu mb ia , Reco rd Grou p 35 1. Na ti onal Archi ves. Boa rd of C hi ldren ' s Guardi ans, C hildren 's History , I ll : I 129, I 162 , 1392; IV: 158 1. See also Bo rchert , " Survivin g th e C it y: Persistence a nd C ha nge in Bl ac k Folkways of Life in a N ew Environment ," pa per prese nt ed a t th e Associa ti on for th e Stud y of Afro-Ameri ca n Life a nd Hi sto ry, O ctober 2 1- 24, 1982, Baltim ore, M a ryla nd, 8. '° 31 Federal Population Ce nsus Schedul es, 1880, W ashin gto n , D .C., R eco rd Group 29 . ati onal Archi ves; a nd Com missioner of th e Di trict of Colum bia , Ann ual R ep orc -1897 (W as hin gto n , 1897), 195-202. Fed eral Popul ati on C ensus ched ul es, 19 I 0 , La kewood, Ohio. at ional Archives . See also Fed eral Popula ti on Ce nsus Sched ul es, 1900 , Lakewood, Ohio . ational Ar- SLOVAKIA 35 chi ves. The less precise category "country of origin" makes it impossible to know , oth er than Hun ga ry, where migra nts came from. The 1910 ce nsus clea rs this matter up through more precise desi gnati on ; in this case 70 perce nt listed th emselves as " Hunga rian Slovaks" rath er th a n merely" Hun gary," as in 1900 . "Language" also permit s more precise determination . " While J osef Barton has co ncluded that Slovak migration to C leveland was from more gene rall y dispersed areas in Slovakia, migrating more by district than personal or village chains, oth er studies report considerably more personal co ntacts in the migrati on process, both generally a mong lovak migra nts and specificall y for Cleveland. Peasa ncs and Strangers , 50-51, 54, 59, 63. Emily Greene Balch reports that nearly 99 percent of Slovaks en terin g the United States in 1907-1908 planned to join relatives or friends . Our Slavic Fellow Citizens (New York , 1910), 433. Al exander repo rts that whi le Slovak mi gran ts to Pittsburgh did mi grate in cha ins either by village, or by th e more loose " district" pattern Ba rton found, th e selecti on of one's res idence in a give n cit y was strongly influenced by fri end s and rela tives . " Th e Immi grant C hurch ," 55, 68. M a rk Stolarik also found "Slovaks in the Un ited States and Canada originall y reside(d) in distinct neighborhoods nea r their parish ch urches . most of these in each co ngregation ha iled from the same cluster of villages in the old country." " Immi grat ion a nd Urbanization, " 40. Stolarik a nd his co-authors of a st ud y of C leveland Slovaks reported simila r findings for th at cit y. Susi Megles, Mark Stolarik, and Martina Tybor, Slovak Americans and th eir Communities of Cleveland (C levela nd , 1979), 132. M ore importa nt for this study, Stolarik's analysis of parish reco rds of one Bird 's Nest church found 68 percent were from the ext reme end of one Slovak county; " nearly ha lf of the group was from . . three neighboring villages . " " Immi grat ion a nd Urbanization, " 41. For other informa ti on on chain mi gra ti on of Bird 's Nest residents, see Mary Towarni cky, " Helping One Another in the New Land: The Old Timers R emem ber," in SS. Cyril and M ethodius Church , Diamond Jubilee, 1903 -1 978 (La kewood, 1978), 67; and Common Pleas Court, Records of Declaration of Intention , Cuyahoga County Archives. Vo ls. 1- 30, Octobe r 10 , 1906-Sep tember 8, 19 13. " Lo renzo] . Greene and Myra Colso n Callis, The Employment of Negroes in th e District of Columbia (Washington, I 930), 65. " Borchert, Alley Life, 166-77. " Fed eral Popu lat ion Ce nsus Schedul es, I 900, 1910, La kewood, Ohio ; U.S . Bureau of th e Ce nsus, Population and H ousing- 1940: Cleveland, Ohio and Adjacent Area (Was hin gto n , 1942), 106. This is not to suggest that co nditions were easy o r wages hi gh. J an Pa nku ch notes that " during the first years their wages barely met their needs .'' Dejin y Clevelandskych a Lakewoodsk ych Slovakov (C leveland, 1930), 24. ' 6 Borchert, Alley Life, 85. " Ibid., l 83. The impact of a lley co nditions can be seen most clearly in co mparison to nati onal statisti cs. In 1910 the death rate for urban whit es was 14.6 per thousand ; for urba n blacks, 24.3. James H. Jones , Bad Blood ( ew York, 198 I), 37 . For street 36 SLOVAKIA dwelling W ashin gtoni an s (whit e and black), the dea th rate per thousand was 17 .56 ; for alley residents it was 30 .09 . Willia m H enry J ones, Th e H ousing of Negroes in W ashington , D.C. (Washington, 1929), 45 . " Borchert , Alley Life, 183 . 39 ' 0 41 Albina M olek, " Builders of the Spirit ," C leveland News, November 18, 1949 ; H oward Whipple Green , Plan es of Living in C uyah oga Co unty: as D epicted by th e Real Prop erty Survey (Cleveland , 1940), 65 . Green, Planes of Living, 58. Federal Population C ensu s Schedul es, 1910, Lakewood , Ohio. " Fed eral Population Census Schedul es, 1880, W as hin gton , D .C. See Borchert , Alley Life , 68. 43 Butler, Lakewood Story, 188. " Federal Populaton Census Schedul es, 19 10 , Lakewood, Ohio. In 1911 , residents of the larger community , led by a prominent member of the Rhodes family , established a clinic in the neighborhood becau se of the seve re health conditions, es peciall y the hi gh infant mortality . " Dispensary," in " History of Lakewood ," C lipping fil e, Lakewood Histo rical Society; a nd Butler , L ak ewood Story, 188-89. 45 Borchert , Alley Life , 69-85. •• It is important to note th a t the household unit , whi ch is usually considered th e base of the urban nei ghborh ood , was only part of a m ore important ex tend ed kin ship network whi ch included fi ctive kin adopted in the count rys ide or city. These ext ra- household units ti e re sidents of the alley together into " cliques" th at m ake up the large r alley communit y. Alley residents were linked together in other ways ; marriage of two alley residents linked two fa mil ies and kin networks together . After so me tim e , it is possible that mos t lon g-term residents in a given alley were linked by kinship to each ot her in multiple ways. 47 Becau se th e alley neighb orh ood/comm unity rema ined an informal inst itut ion with no " reco rd s" of its act ivities, it is ve ry difficult to determin e the full ex tent of neighborhood act ivities and their import . Nevertheless , some as pects do seem to stand out : neighborin g a nd ent erta inin g, a id to the needy, commo n action on com munit y need s, intern al social co nt rol, a nd defense of the neighborhood again st outsiders. 48 For a desc ription of the alley as meeting place , see W as hin gton National lnte1ligencer , Jul y 25, 1865; W ashington Times, Septembe r 11, 1904; Washington S tar , Jun e 6, 1930; W ashin gton D aily N ews, April 15, 1954; Charles W eller , Neglected Neighbors (Philadelphi a, 1909), 17 , 82; Wilbur V . Mallalieu , "A W ashin gton Alley," Survey , 28 (October 19, 19 12), 71; Gladys Sellew, A D eviant Social Situation: A Cou rr (Washin gton , 1938), 17 ; a nd D a ni el D. Swinney, " Alley Dwellings a nd H ousing R eform in the Di stri ct of Columbia " (M .A . th esis, University of C hi cago, 1938) , 141 -42. During the winter , several homes in a give n all ey see m to have se rved as mee ting spots. Dora Bessie Somerville , " A Study of a Group of Negro C hildren Li ving in an Alley C ulture" (M.A. th esis, Cat holic U ni ve rsit y of Ameri ca, 1941 ), 20. These homes usually di spensed liquor , oft en homemade , providing resid ents wit h a social SLOVAKIA 37 ce nt er a nd tenants with a "second in co me . " For a discu ssio n based on a n a nalysis o f histori cal photog raphs , see " Photographs a nd th e Study of th e Pas t, " in Borchert, Alley Life , 291-93; Borche rt , "Analysis of Histo ri cal Photographs," Srudies in Visual Communication, 7 (Fall , 1981 ), 51-56; and Borchert , " Alley Landscapes of Washington, " Landscape , 23 (No. 3, 1979), 6-8. 0 ' Marion M . Ratigan, A Sociological Survey of Disease in Four Alleys in the National Capital (Was hin gton , 1946), 59 ; Mary R edempta Fores tall , "Trend s in Housing, Delinquency, and H ealth in the Central Northwest Area in Washington, D.C." (M.A . th es is , Catholic University of Ame ri ca, 1938), 32; Grace Vawter Bicknell , The Inhabited Alleys o f Washington, D .C. (W ashington , 1912), 31; Well er, Neglected Neighbors, 47 ; Leonise Ruth Aubry, "A mbitions of Youth in a Poo r Economic Status " (M.A. thes is , Catholic University of America, 1938), 3; Sellew, Deviant Social Siruarion, 46, 54; Sommerville, " Study of a Group of Negro Children," 24; Washington Daily News, Augu st 29, 1941; Swinney , "Alley Dwellings and Housin g R efo rm, " 50, 73; Leono r Enriquez Pablo , " The Housing Needs and Social Problems of Residen ts in a Deteriorated Area" (M .S.W. thesis , Catholic University of America , I 953), 56; Board of Children's Guardians , Children's History, I-VII (see especia ll y I:2 33-34 ; II : 657, 667, 801); Washington National R ep ublican , March 24 , 1862 ; a nd Washington Times , September 11, 1904 . " Whil e it is impossible to recreate co nversations between res idents from the ex isting hi sto ri cal records, it is clear from a large body of literatu re in sociology and anthropology that goss ip plays a critical role in the ma intena nce of order as well as the development of a commo n world view. Scholars of black rural and small town life in th e South noted th e importance of goss ip; CharlesJohnson found that "communit y gossi p exercises restraint . . There are limits ... and when th ese limits are reached violators a re treated with unmi stakable group disapproval.'' Shadow of the Plan cation (Chicago, I 94 1), 81, 82. Similarly , H ylan Lewis concluded that " gossip, or th e possibility of gossip " m a kes residents " more careful of th eir behavior." Blackways of Kent (New H ave n , Conn., 1962) , 193. " Those who show signs of group status de via tion . . are subject of a kind of gro up pressure marked by resentment and cri ti cism." Ibid ., 191 . " See Al. L. Epstein , " Gossip , Norms , a nd Social Network," in Social Networks in Urban Situ ations, 117-27. " For example , see Swinney , "Alley Dwellings and H ous in g R efo rm , " 136-37; and Pablo, " H ousin g Needs and Social Problems," 42. " Bo rchert , "U rban Neighborhood a nd Community," 615-18. " Swinney, " Alley Dwellings and H ousin g R eform, " 121 . " Ibid.; W ashington Post , D ece mber 26, 1948; Well er , Neglected Neighbors, 17, 22, 97 ; Mallalieu, " Washington Alley , " 71 ; a nd the R ev . Daniel O'Connell, "The Inhabit ed Alleys of Washington and the Early Social Hi story of One Alley" (M .A. thesis, Ca th oli c University of Ameri ca , 1953) , 110 . It is importa nt to note that attendan ce in the rural South does not seem to have been especially la rge based on Lewi s' findin gs for K ent . Lewis, B/ackways of Kent , 129-30. 38 SLOVAKIA " Borchert, Alley Life, 185-86. 58 Pankuch, Dejiny , 22. " Ibid .; Mary Towarnicky , "Slovak Newcomers to America, " in SS. Cyril and Methodius Church, Diamondjubilee, 1903-1978 (Lakewood, 1978), 66; Towarnicky , " Helping One Another," 67 . 60 Towarnicky, " Helping One Another," 67. 61 The Pleasant Hill Land Company was owned and run by Washington H. Lawrence, the president of the National Carbon Company. It seems clear that Lawrence purchased an extra large parcel ofland from the Case Estate with the intention of developing a residential area for workers . Butler, Lakewood Story, 228; "C ity Plays Vital Role, " "National Carbon Company," Plain Dealer; and G . Frederick Wright, Representative Citizens of Ohio: Memorial-Biographical (Cleveland, 1914) , 181-84. Since the factory was well outside the built-up parts of C leveland, Lawrence may well have considered this development a necessity to attract workers; he must also have planned to make a good return on his investment. The difficulty of the commute from in-city residences to the plant prior to the completion of a street car line in 1898 was incredible . For examples, see "City Plays a Vital Role" and Pankuch , Dejiny, 23. 61 Initially the early buildings were rented to workers; however, the PHLC sold off most of the improved lots within a couple years of construction. Cuyahoga County Treasurer's Tax Duplicates , 1894- 1923. There is some indication that the Na tional Carbon Company (via PHLC) "sold lots to ... immigrants on installments. " Loretta l vany, " 'Birdtown' Became C ity's Ethnic Center," Sun Post , Jun e 30, 1979 . •• Cuyahoga County Auditor's Tax Maps, Cuyahoga County Administration Building. Migrants bought up lots on Plover first because they were cheaper du e to their proximity to th e railroad tracks. Pankuch, Dejiny , 23. R esidents not only bought up land in the neighborhood as soon as they could afford to, they also held on to th e land, passing it on to relatives or selling it with in the community. Paul Wrobel found a sim ila r practice when he did an extensive participant-observation study of a Polish-American parish in D etroit. Our Way: Family, Parish and Neighborhood in a Polish-American Community (Notre Dame, Ind ., 1979), 5. 6 ' City of Lakewood, Building Department, Building Permits , 1900(?)-1982. It is interesting to note that no building permits a ppear to have been taken out by the PHLC, des pite the fact that they clea rl y improved and built on one-fifth of th e lots over the thirt y year period before the last lot was sold ( 1923). Although the city records are incomplete , and use of building permits seems to have been casual in the earl y years, as well as the fact th at many early reco rd s have not survived, it is strange that no PHLC perm its remain in the records. Insurance maps and descriptive sources do confirm the com pany 's activity in th is area prior to 1900. Thomas Flynn, Otto Barthel, R.H. Bunning, and Thomas H assan , Atlas of the Suburbs of Cleveland, Ohio (Philadelphia, 1898), Plate 24; M argaret Butler, R omance in Lakewood's Streets 41; lvany, " 'Birdtown' Became City's Ethnic Center"; and Cynthia A. Rud er , "The Imprint of Cultural Values.'' SLOVAKIA 39 " As Stephan Thernstrom found in Newburyport , however, home ownership came a t a high price : " To cut family co nsumption expenditures to the bone was one such sac rifice. To withdraw the children from school and to put them to work at the age of ten or twelve was another.'' Poverty and Progress: Social Mobility in a Nin eteenth Century City (New York , 1969), 155. 66 Federal Population Census Schedules, 1910, Lakewood , Ohio. 67 Pankuch , D ejin y, 22; Towarnicky, "Slova k Newcomers to America," 66 ; Towarnicky, " H elping One An other," 67; and Ivany, " 'Birdtown' Became City's Ethnic Center . " 68 M egles, Stolarik , and T ybor, Slo vak Americans and their Communities, 132; Sts. Peter and Paul Lutheran Church , Seventy-Fifth Anniversary (Lakewood, 1976), 3; and Towarnicky , " H elping One Another," 67. 6 ' One of the first Slovak employees recalled th at he " ' got a job in the construction of the . factory. After I had worked th ere for a couple days, the boss told me to bring in a couple more men. I asked him how many I should bring; he answered as man y as I could, even a dozen would do, he said . So I called up my brothers: Juraj, and J an, also Jan andJuraj Nemec, A. Chovana and a bunch of others; Michael Urban and A. Goda all got hired. All the Scerbas; J an Scerba, Jan Scerba, Jr. , Adam Scerba, Andrej R yba nik and many others ca me in later.' " Andrej Babej, quoted in Pank uch, Dejin y, 22. ' 0 Alexander, "The Immigrant Church and Community, " 56-57. More importantl y she notes that "at tim es, when firms desperately needed labor, foremen promised jobs to employees' fri end s or relati ves if th ey would send for them." Ibid ., 57. " Ibid ., 57. She also notes that "Slovaks and other immigra nt groups came to rely on a sys tem of personal relationships in order to get jobs. '' Ibid. For more recent discussions of this process, see Ri chard M yer, " Interpersonal R elations in the Building Indu stry," Man , Work , and Society, ed . by Sigmond Nosow and William Form (New York , 1962) and William K ornblum , Blue Collar Community (C hi cago, 1974). " Sts . Pete r and Paul Lutheran Church, Seventy-Fifth Anniversary , 2-3; Megles , Stolarik , and Tybor, Slovak Americans and their Communities , 13 3; Peter M . Glovna, Sr., " Hi story of SS. Cyril and Methodius Pari sh ," in SS. Cyril and Methodius Church , Diamond Jubilee, 33; " Sts. Peter and Paul Russian Orthodox Church, " undat ed news paper clipping in Margaret Butler, " Hi story of Churches" fil e, Lakewood Hi storical Society; " Ukrainian Church Ded ication Is Set ," undated newspaper clipping in Butl er, ' ' Hi sto ry of Churches . ' ' " Stolarik , " Immigration and Urbanization, " 85-97. It is usefu l to note here that three of the first four Slovak churches in the neighborhood still have services in Slovak, althou gh the y have th em in English as well. " Ru de r , " Imprint of Cultural Values" ; Butler, Lakewood Story, 20,7. In a fine stud y of Slova k Cat holi c lead ers' at titud es toward public ed uca ti on , Mark Stolarik found th ey "valued parochial schools above all else worried mu ch m ore about their children 's moral a nd national upbringing th a n about social mobility . . had no u se 40 SLOVAKIA for publi c schools . . (which) ' den a ti onali ze ou r children . ' " " Immi gra ti on , Education, and the Social Mobilit y of Slova ks, 1870- 1930, " in R a nd all M. Mill e r a nd Thomas D . Marzik, ed s., Immigrants and R eligion in Urban America (Phil adelphia, 19 77) , 107 , 106 . Both Ba rton and Stolarik report th a t 60 to 80 percent of Slovak children a ttended parochi al schools. Ba rto n, Peasa nts and Strangers, 145-46; Stola rik , " Immi grati on and Urban ization ," 165-66. Th e public elem ent a ry school in th e Bird ' s Nest had no teachers wh o co uld speak Slovak ; of those children who did att end , few, if any , spoke Engli sh. Rud e r , "Imprint of C ultural V alu es." 75 The 1930 City Directory includes over 75 bu sinesses (17 local groce rs) and 16 profess ionals a nd se rvi ces avai lable to th e neighborh ood run by local res id ent s (or fo rme r resid ent s). C leveland Directory Compan y, C leveland, Ohio C ity Directory- I 930 (C levela nd , 1930). 76 Inspec to r , Building and Loa n Associat io n , 22nd Annual R ep ort far th e Y ea r Ending D ecember 31, 19 12 (Springfi eld , Ohio, 19 13) , 165 . Oro! Buildin g and Loa n Co. The founding preside nt a nd sec re tary both li ved on Plover , while o nl y th e treas ure r li ved outsid e th e immediat e neighborh ood. H e li ved , howeve r , ju st on th e o th e r sid e (north) of Madison Ave nu e, an a rea th a t Slova ks a nd other mi g ra nt s expand ed int o. Panku ch noted that th e Sav ings a nd Loa n wa s in ex ist ence by 1902 , so it may well have been operating to help res idents long before its offi cial cha rt er in 19 11 . D ejin y, 24. 77 Cuyahoga Count y Treasu re r 's Tax Duplica tes a nd Ci ty of La kewood, Building Permits. 78 For a n excellent discu ssion o n th e conflict be twee n "accult u ra ti o ni sts a nd tradition ali sts , " sec Howard F . Stein , " An Ethnohistory of Slova k-Am e ri ca n R eli gio us and Frate rnal Associations: A Study in Cultural M eanin g, Group Identit y, and Soc ial Instituti o ns," Slo va kia, 29 ( 1980-1 98 1) , 53 -101 . 19 Peter Glovna, as quoted in l vany, " ' Birdtown ' Beca me City 's Ethn ic Center ." G lovna's fath e r m oved to the neighborhood in 1893 a nd was a founder of SS. Cyril and M e thodius , whi le hi s son li ved on Plove r for 40 yea rs. D es pite hi s rece nt m ove out of the area, he still maint ains contacts and serves as pa rish hi sto ri a n . Glovna, "H istory of SS . Cyril and M e th odiu s Pa rish. " 0 " R esidents of Birdtown also enjoyed neighborh ood picnics a nd dancing to th e sound s of bands which were se t up on M a gee and M adison Av enu es.' ' l va ny , '' ' Birdt own ' Beca m e C ity's Ethnic Center.' ' 81 Ruder, " Im print of Cultural Valu es," 5. See also l van y , " ' Birdtown ' Beca me C it y's Ethni c Center ," and 1941 survey quoted extensively in Butler , L akewood St an ·, 229. ' " Rud e r, " Imprint of Cultural V alu es," 18. " Al exa nd e r ' s comment cit ed ea rli e r th a t Slovaks ca m e to rely o n a sys te m of pe rsonal relationships in order to get j obs (see not e 70) needs to be put in a la rge con text he re. Social scienti sts have not ed the impo rt a nce of informal groups in a variety of settings from factory, army, stree t co rn e r gang , a nd neighbo rh ood . Fo r exa mpl e , see F.j . R oet hli sberger a nd W.J . Dickson, M an agem ent and th e W orker (Cam bridge , M ass., 1939); Samuel A. Stoffe r , et. al . , Th e America n Soldier: Studies in Social Psvcholog1· SLOVAKIA 41 in W orld W ar II , 2 vols (P rin ceto n , .J ., 1949); Edwa rd Shil s, " Prima ry Groups in th e Am eri can Arm y," in R obert M erton and Paul Laza rsfeld, ed s., Studies in ch e S cope and M ech od ofch e " Th e American Soldier " (Gl enoce, Ill. , 1951) ; W . Ll oyd Warn er and Paul S. Lunt , Th e S ocial Life of a M od ern C ommunicy (New H ave n , C onn . , 1941 ); Willi a m Foote Wh yte, Screet Com er Sociecy (Chicago, 1943); a nd K ornblum , Blue Collar Community. 14 Butler, Lakewood S cory , 228 , 188; C leveland Press , M ay 13 , 1947 ; and Rud er, " Imprint of Cultural V alues," 1, 3, 18 . " An impo rtant pa rt of th e p rocess, of course, invol ved co mpetiti o n for hou sing with oth er groups, a res tri cted housin g m a rket accessible to mi g rant s a nd their work . 16 M a ny form er res ident s of th e neighbo rh ood return a t least once a week fo r religious se rvices on Sunday; m a n y d o so m o re often . See al so Wrobel, Our Wa y. " R obert Park obse rved th at "certain urban neighborhoods suffer from isolation ." "The Ci ty," in Park and Burgess , Th e C it y, 8 . Fo r a different view, see Alfr ed Kazin , A W alk er in ch e C ic y (New Yo rk , 195 1). " The persistence of these a reas, outli vin g in som e cases th e in stituti ons th at ca m e aft er th em , att es ts to th eir vit alit y. " In th e Bird 's Nes t th e co ntinuin g prese nce of churches of eac h ethni c group suggests th e continuin g vit alit y of each group . Fo r other exampl es, see Cybriwsky, " Social Aspec ts of N eighbo rhood C ha nge"; Cybriwsky and D avid Ley, " Urba n Graffiti as T erri tori al M a rkers,'' Annals of ch e A ssociacion of American Geographers, 64 (1974) , 475-505; and K ornblum , Blue Collar Community . Some older studies infer the same conclu sion s: H elen L. Wilson and Eunice W . Smith , " Chicago H ou sin g Conditions, VIII : Am ong th e Slova ks in th e Twenti eth Ward ," America n j ourn al of S ociology, 20 (September , 19 14), 145-69 ; Emil y W. Dinwiddie, H ousing Condicions in Philadelphia (Philadelphi a, 1904); J a net K emp , R epore of ch e T en em enc H ouse Commission o f L ouisville (Loui sville, 1_909); Ulf H a nn erz, S ou/side ( ew Yo rk , 1969) ; and Wh yte, Scree/ Corn er Sociecy. •o Sec C la ud e Fi sc her , Th e Urban Experien ce ( ew Yo rk , 19 76) . In hi s m o re recent stud y, Fi sc her has fo un d th e current cit y '' a m osaic of inten se ethni c wo rld s rather th a n . . a la ndsca pe of ethni c di sintegra tion ." M o reo ver , " urba ni sm - or at least th e co nce ntrati o n of spec ific ethni c g roup s - m o re oft en bolsters th a n brea ks down ethni cit y. As the urbani sm of th e communit y increased , respo nd ent s were m ore likely to be ' ethni cs.' " T o Dwell Am ong Friends, 204 , 206 . " For example , H am tramck is an ex treme case where Polish-Am eri cans developed their ow n co mmunit y o n a m ass ive scale . In 1950 , 70 perce nt of th e 44 ,000 res idents of thi s inde pend ent co mmunit y in D etro it were of Poli sh-Am eri ca n ancestry. Arthur Eva ns W ood , H amcram ck : A S ociological Scudy of a Polish -America n Communicy (New H ave n , Conn ., 1955) , 13-28 . " Fisc her, T o D well Among Friends, 207 . See also Peter R ose, S crangers in Th eir Midsc: Small T own J ews and T h eir Neigh bors (M erri ck , New Yo rk , 1977). " Sec note 23. SLOVAKIA 42 TABLE 1 Bird's Nest Population 1900-1940 Population i900· 1910 .. 429 2,186 1920 ± 4, 145 19.30t 3,729 1940# 3,125 •M a nusc ript Census- Federal Po pul atio n Census Sched ules , 1900 La kewood, O hio . '"Ma nuscript Census-Federal Popula ti o n Census Schedul es, 19 10 Lakewood , O hio . ± Federal Po pulation C ensus Schedules, 1920 Lakewood, O hio for census trac t LW 18. Unfo rtu na tely. the cen· su s tract leaves out one side of one stree t in the neighbo rh ood . tFede ral Po pul ati on C ensus Schedul es , 1930 La kewood, O hio fo r census tract LW1 8. U nfo rtun ately. the cen· sus tract leaves out one side Of one stree t in the neighborhood . #Bu rea u of the Census, Popula tion and H ousing - 1940: Cle,·eland. O hio and Adj acent Arca (Washingto n , 1941), 106. U nfo rtun a tely, the ce nsus trac t leaves out o ne side of one street in 1hc neighborhood . SLOVAKIA 43 TABLE 2 Occupations of Alley Dwellers 1880 Federal Population Census Schedules , 1880 . Washington, D .C. Record Group 29. National Archives Occupations , 1880 • Adult Males (16 or older) Occupacion N % Unski lled Service Semi-skilled Skilled White-collar Proprieto r (and self-employed) Professional Agriculture/Fishing None 1,641 251 318 233 50 112 28 17 124 59 TOTAL 2,774 100 N % 9 12 8 2 4 4 Adule Females (16 or older) Occupacion Unskilled Service Semi-skilled Skilled White-collar Proprietor None (includes "at home ," "keeping house , " and "at school" ) TOTAL 4 1,742 70 6 10 8 49 1, 780 49 3 ,620 100 2 •Th e substanti al numbe rs of a lley d we ll ers in skilled throu gh professi onal ac tivities is th e res ult of a classifica1io n system th at is ma rk edl y diffe re nt fro m the ones ge nerall y used . It was used here to detec t " class" differen ces within the alley po pula ti on . Thu s, ba rbers a re class ified as skilled , while a number of " proprietors " a rc , in fac 1,ju nkmen . V irtu all y all the adult alley po pula ti o n sho uld fall in the unskilled , se rvice, o r semi- skilled a reas. See Bo rchert, Alley Life, 306-08 . SLOVAKIA 44 TABLE 3 Occupations of Residents of the Bird 's Nest 1900 A. Adult Males - 15 yea rs of age or older. Occupation Unskill ed .. . . . . . . .. .. .. .. ........ . . . . ... .. ... .... . Service ............ . .... . ... . . . . .... . .. . .. .. .. . . . Semi-skilled .. . ... . . ... . . . . . . . . Skilled ... . . ... .. .... . . . White-collar Proprietor Professional Agricultural T otal B. Adult W omen - Number Percent 147 92 % 3 2 0 5 0 3 2 0 3 2 160 15 yea rs of age or older . Occupation Number 2 2 Unskilled Service ... Semi- skill ed Skill ed White-colla r Proprietor Agri cultural Percent 50 % 50 % 0 0 0 0 0 T otal 4 100 % TABLE 3 Occupations of Residents of the Bird's Nest 1910 A . Adult M ales - 15 yea rs of age or older. Occupation Number Un skill ed 79 1 Se rvice 19 Semi-skilled . .. .. . . .... .. ... . ...... . .. . ... ... .... . 38 Skill ed ...... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 White-co ll a r 10 P roprietor 11 P rofessional 1 Agri cul tural To tal 949 Percent 84 % 2 4 8 100 % SLOVAKIA B. Ad u lt Wom en - 45 15 ye ars of age or olde r. Occupation Number 75 Un ski lled ....... . . Service Semi- ski lled Ski lled W hi te-coll ar P ro prieto r Profess io nal Agricultu ral 33 Percent 66 % 29 % 0 4 4 1 0 0 0 11 3 T otal 100 % TABLE 3 Occupations of Residents of the Bird 's Nest 1940 Occupations Number O cc u pa ti ons not repo rt ed U nskilled Service wo rkers D om es ti c se rvi ce wo rkers Opera ti ves a nd kind red wo rkers C ra ft sm en , fo rem en , a nd kindred wo rkers . ... . .... . . . .. . . . C leri cal, sales , and kind red wo rkers . .. . . P ro pri etors, m a nage rs, and offi cials . ... . .. . Se mi -pro fess io nal Pro fess ional T otal Percent 2 184 83 98 17% 8 9 478 44 105 10 9 3 96 29 4 13 1,092 100 % Bu reau of the Ce nsus, Populat ion and Housing - 1940: Cleveland , Ohio and Adjacent A rea (W as hin gton , 1942) , 106 . Ce nsus tract leaves o ut o ne side of one street of neighbo rhood .  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Migrant Responses to the City: The Neighborhood, Case Studies in Black and White, 1870-1940 Description An account of the resource James and Susan Borchert Slovakia, Vol. 31 (No. 57), 1984 pp. 8-45 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Borchert, James, 1941- Borchert, Susan, 1947- Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1984 LCNAF https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/d5f7f6fa2d884fea026daa44c7d1ae64.pdf 3387c724a4bcb04334ba11fb8b611e73 PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA 33 MILAN RASTISLAV STEFA.NIK Stephanie 0. Husek This year mar,ks the thirty-sixth anniversary of two events which considerwbly changed the national developmeint of the Slo:vaJks both here and abroad. On May 30, 1918, the Pittsibwgh Pact was drawn up and on Noveimlber 14 was signed by Thomas Garrigue Masaryk, then President ad: the 0zecho-iSlo1V1ak Republic. This Slovruk Magna Carta suimmarirzed Sloivak rights in the newly fomied state amd formed the platform of the Slova;,k People's Party, the largest Slovalk political party in pre..war Cz~ho-Slova1da. On 0ctolber 28, 1918, the independence ad: 0zeeho--iSlovakia was pro:claimed and a new era oJf national development began for fue Slovak and Czech nations. Both these events were the result of the Czecho..,Slovak Relbellion, both at home and beyond the ,bo'UJildaries oif the Austro-Hungarian Kingdom. SlOIVaks and Czechs, no matter where they lived, joined in the struggle for independence and each groUJp contributed towaTds gaining the final victory. The cond'Ulot of the reibellion lay in the hands of the National 0zecho-1Slov.aik Committee in Paris of whicih Thomas G. Masaryk was president, Edward Benes secretairy, and Milan Rastislav Ste!anik represented the Sloivaks. No single factor carried so much weight with the Allies in favor of an independent Czecho-Slo,va.'kia as the organization and later suiocesses of the independent Czecllo.-B1ovalk Army. It was the a'I'!my which proved that the Sloivaks and Czechs were will.mg to, make the swpreme sacrifice in order that they and their children might liive independenrtl:y. It is to the glory of the Sl01Va,ks that the formation and organization of this army was the tfuought and wonk of Milan Rastislav Stefan.ilk who later ,b ecame the first Minister of War ill1 the Czecho-,Slova,k State. The movement for Czecho-Sloivalk independence was not begun at the ourt:Jbreruk -of the Wax. Years before, both individuals and organized giroups sought to alleviate conditions �34 SLOVAKIA existing in the Austro-HUI11garian Kingdom. Stefaniik already dreamed of an in.d.€4)00.dent Slovakia in 1914 when he arrived in F1rance as a young astronomer, soon to gain prominence there and become a memiber of the French A~adem.y. No ocicasion arose which Sted:anik d.i:d not use to acquaint those in influenice with Hu1nga,r.ian tyranny and to gain sympathy for the oppressed Slo;vruk nation. As soon as Austria dec1ared war on .Serbia, Stefaniik left Morocco, where he was engaged in astronomical observation, and returned to France. He joined the French Air Cor,ps in. January 191'5 and in March requested to be sent to Serbia. Having no contact as yet with Miresruryk, not even familiair with the latter's plans, he already thought of organh:ing a ~arate corps c_o nsisting of t.he ~ruvs fighting aigainst thefr convictions on the enemy,..s side and being gradually ooncoort~a;ted in prison camps. Due .t o, the Serbian retreat whii!ch began one day before Stefanik's arri;val in SeI'lbia, the thought of organizing this corps had to be abandoned. But Stefanik renewed his worlk upon his return to Paris where he became assOICiarted with Thomas G. Masacyk and Dr. ffidlward Benes: Soon the nucleus of the Ozeoho-,Slovak Legion was orgamzed in France and Stefruni,k extended his work to inlclude Rm.ssia, the United States, and Italy; in fact, aJ1l countries where Czechs and Sfovruk,s were to be found, either in prison camps OT as settlers. Thus, from Jrtill,,y 1916 until Mairch 1917 he was in Russia. While the.re he made a trip to Roucrnania. After returning from Russia he crume to. the United States, returned to France and then went to litaly. He met wirth many diftfioulties in organizing the Legion. Nevertheless, he succeeded i:n winning the. permission of government authorities and 'i n persuading moo to join. 1n the work orf Q!I'ganiizing the army Stefan:iik also did mooh to gain the sympartihy orf Allied statesmen and men ranking high in goiveirnment and military cincles and to convm:ce those with whom he came into contact of the necessity of breaking up the Austro-Hungaria:n Kingdom. Milan Rastislav Stefanik did much more- foir gaining �35 SLOVAKIA the independeince of Czetjio-Slovaikia than he is credited with doing. Benes and Ma:saryk boith wrote an account of the mOfVement for independence and tihe part which each played in it. Stefan.ilk, run.fortunately, was not given this O!plpOrtunity. But even from the sketchy references to his wo'l1k and the Sl1mprisingly meagre sources avaHaJble to the hisrtorian of today, it is dearly evident that in cowa:ge, in scl!f-saicrifice, in tact and wbility in diplomacy, in integrity, and in zeal for the ca:use of freedom of his people, he was not SUI'lpassed by anyone of the leaders in the OzeichoSlovaJk movement for independence . • • • • Stefanilk had exaggeirated hopes of his success in America. As stated in his report to the French Ministcy o!f Foreign Affairs, he 1b el ieved that they would gain around 20,000 volunteers for the Ozecho-,Slovruk Legion. It is not definitely known where he got his information, but there were many Czechs and Slovaks in America who cherished the same ho,pe and Stefaruk was certainly inforrmed b~ some of them. In the official newspaper of tihe First Catholic Slovak Union the "Jednota," it was estimated that if only ten per cent of the male memlbers of the Slo1va,k organizations joined the Czeicho-Slo:vak army, there would be 15,140 Slovak vnlunteers. One Slo,va'k reported to Steifani!k that among the Slovaks alone 25,000 ,volunteers could be, expected 0). Joseph 'Dvirziieky, Seciretary of the Ozech National Society in America, was also one of those, who, during the entire caimpaiign, added to Stef8iruk's optimism(2). The work of tile Poles at the same time and in the same direction facilitated Steifaniik's mission. O:n the other hand, America's entraJnce info the World War changed conditions existing here which were not favoraJble. Many American Czechs and Slorvarks joined the Canadian army e,ven beforre the United Staites entered the War and forty thousand Ozechs and SkwaJks joined the Amer.iJcaJD. 8!Imy in 1917 (3). The American government itself placed certain 1 (1) Karol Pergler: "Z ame1ic.ke fron.ty a naseho osvobozenskeho boje_ - Nase revoluce." Vol II, p. 318. (2) "Nase revoluce.." Vol. 1,1, P. 325. (3) Ibid. p. 325. �36 SLOVAKIA obstacles which made the fu1fillment of Stefani:k's mission more difficult. On the grounds that if special concessioo.s were granted the Czechs and Slovaiks othe,r nationality grOUJps would make. similar requests, the government was relUICtant to girve permission for recruiting soldiers for the Czecho~Slov~ Airmy in F1rance. America's entrance into the War was looked wpon by many groiups as an opportunity to be exploited toward the realimtion of their aim Olf corrnpletel,y Americanirzing the foreign national~ty groups living here. It presented an oppoI1tunity to unite all immigrants undeir one motto and for one ideal. America was to enter the Wax as one consolidated nation fighting a;gainst a single enemy. To add to the difrfic,u1ties, a mo;vement was started by Senator Hitchcoc,k of Nebraska to form a spe'cial Shw conps similar to the Foreign Legion of France. This was oontrary to the wishes and plans of General Stefanik and the Ozecho,-SlovaJk National Committee. Had it succeeded, the influence and the opportunity of the Czechs and Slovaks to aJCt independently would hruve been greatly minimized. IF'inally, it is impossible not to mention the large German and Austro-Hiung arian grolliPS who distributed pamphlets and used various other meains to carry on a continuous propaganda against the leaders Olf the Allied nations and against their appeals. Much time and effort was expended by Slovak national leaders to disclose these intrigues and to offset their effects. In March 1915 the German government aippealed to the America.n people not to manufacture powder shraipnels, and other arms, stating that this was ag:ainst the honoir of the American people and against the integrity of the nation; that it was neicessary to show once and for all that such things could not be bought with money dipped in human blood Even before this, Germany had sent an appeal to America, addressed to prominent men, in which she defended her position in the war, related the wrongs committed on her and denied all responsibility for the acts to which Ger,many had .b een forced (4). It is small wonder that this German propaganda gained ground (4) Karol Sidor: " Slovaci v zahranicnom odboji," pp, 44-4ii. �SLOVAKIA 37 in Ameri~. There were many Gernnan imrmgranits and EWen more citizens of Ger.rnan descent, financiaNy well estaJblished, who were sentimentally sympathetic to their native land. Edward Benes, as Secretary of the National Committee, requested the French goivernment to entrust Stefanik with the mission to deal with the American authorities for permission to. organize volunteers among the Ozechs and Slovaks for the army in France. The consent of Rebprt, ::Mlinister of Foreign Alffairs, was gained uh.rough Philip Berthelot and permission from the Ministry ad: Wiar was received, through the inter1cession of Franklirn--Bouillon, directly f.rom Minister PainlEWe with whOim both Benes and Stefanik were on good terms. Thi'S perunission was granted while Stefanik was still in Russia but he IPostjponed the trip in order to. complete his work in Roumania where he gained 1000 prisoners for the Czecho-SloiV'a'k army. The order for the j()IUJI'ney commissioning Stefanik wifu a special mission in the United States was issued May 20, 1917 and he arrived in America the following month. Before Stefamk's departure,. however, the French Government had aliready sent a spe:cial political commission headed 'by FrankJin-1Bouillon to gain the permission of the United States for recruiting volunteers. among the immigrants for Slav national arunies in France. This mission of F:raniklin-Bo:uillin, as well as his personal aid in the Czec<ho.-1Slova:k wrmy question, greatly helped Stefa.Mk. Stefanik qumkly adjusted himself to the conditions brougihrt rubout by America's entrance into the war and through the French Arrnlbassado•r , Jussocand, immediately contacted the go;vernment offfuia1s in Washington. He had a short 'but successif:ul conference with Lansing during which he also presented: him with a;n expression of loyalty of the Ozechs and 'Sloivruks to the United Srtates of Ameri~. Wirth the aid of the Frenlch Commissioner A. Tardieu, the French Mi•n ister Jussevam.d, and Franldin.J3ou:illon Stefan:iik gained his object and the Arrnerican government granted pemnission to al[ Czechs and SlovaJks not subject to military duty in the Am.errean M1IDY to join the Ozecho-,S1ovak Legion in France. On August 4, he already report.ea to his friends in �38 SLOVAKIA New Yorlc th~t he had received this perrmss1on and that 4,000 men oOIU!ld be sent to the French military school. After permission for recruiting was granted, negotiatiOllls were begun for the transipwtatio n of the Czec:ho-Sl'OVa;k soldiers to France and for obtaining the financial means necessary to keep them concentrated in camps in New Yonk and Boston where they awaited their depar-ture. Oonsideration was also given to the question of SU!pporting families deprived of wa;ge erurner,s and, later, to ca;ses of widowed wives Mld or,phaned children. In October, Stefanik uncovered some Austro-Hunga rian intdgues in Washing.ton. A telegram had been sent to Tardieu fram Paris suggesting that, due to difficulties in transportation, the Poles should be sent to France finst and the transpovtatio n of the Ozecho ..Slovak soldiers shO!Uld be postponed for a few months. Stefanik suicceede.d in defeating this attempt by uncovering its moUves and, on the basis of this 1nfoI1Ination, Tardieu telegraphed to his swperiors that the posbponemen t of the transport of the Ozecho-SlOIVak soldiers would mean the breaking of a promise and that he would have no part i.in such a disho:noraJble act (15). Other difficulties arose in the matterr of transporting trooips; fifty Czech and Slovak soldiers were detained in New Yonk in Decem~ because no exceptions were made foir Czechs and Slovaiks in the instructions sent by the American governmeil!t cOillCerniing kuistro-Hung arian su!bjects. At the intervention O(f the French Ambassador and of General Vignal this maJtter was also straightened out. Steifan:ik contacted American joUTrralists and wrote several articles on the cause for· the newsprupers. He aroused the interest orf F. H. Allen ("World"), Go,rdo:n Srruth am'd, at a dinner given in his honor on J,u ly 23 in New York, he gained the swpport of "The New Repu!blic." Stefanik used these oontaots for propaganda purposes. Early in September the "World" carried a long article on the Czecho~Slovak movement written by Stefanik and Pisecky and an account of the Battle of Halie by Stefani~ appeared later in Chicago news,paipers. (5) Karol Pergler : "Nase revolnce." Vol. II, p. 319 . �SLOVAKIA 39 Although Stefanik did not entirely trurst Wilson and did not rugree with his views, he ,g ained the good will of the ever popular Theodore Rooseivelit and of representative Frank L. Polle, who devoted much consideration to the Ozecho-4Slovak question when he later headed the American delegation at the Peace Oonrference after Lansing's departure from Paris. It is generally conceded that Stefanik achieved his greatest success in America by seicuring the cooperation of the Czechs and Slovaks in the Czecho-Slovak movement. Pisec'ky writes: "Stefanik did most in the United States in that he succeeded in convincing the Sloiva.ks of the necessity and the horrorableness of the Czecho-SlOIVak rebeU.ion, that he succeeded in paralyiZing autonomistic and opportunistic UJpshoots of persons of the character of Daxner, Bielelk, Panilmch and others and gained them for the common advance with the Czechs (6) . From this statement one could infer that the American Slo:va.ks resisted the movement for freedom. On the contrary, it was the Slovaiks who, with a few exceptions, first brought UJP the question of freedom from the Hungarian yoke, and who, long before the war, had organized to gaiin recognition of Slo:vak national rights. The Slovak League was founded in 1907 for the punpose of supporting and helping national leaders in the old country. In the year 1910 it requested the U. S. Census officials to list Slovaks, not as immigrants from Ausitria-iH kmgary, but according to their native, tongue. B efore the outbreak of the war, at the beginning o:f the year 1914, a memorandum, signed by representatives of 21 organizations, 23 newspaipers, by many Catholic priests and Protestant ministe,ns, was printed. in five languages in addition to English This memorandum, sent to i:nflmmtial diP'lomats and statesmen, descrilbed the sufferings of the Slova.l{s under Hungarian tyranny and demanded in the name o:f justice and humanity that Slovaks be given the rights which were ri!ghtfully tlheirs. Slovalk journalists and national leaders forll!ght unremittingly through newsprupers and brosuires against Austro,-,H ungarian and German propa(6) Ferdinand Pisecky: "M. R. i§tefanik," p . 81. �40 SLOVAKIA ganda. Moreover, they aided financially. Already in 1914 the Slov:aJk League started a Million Dollar Drive, the proceeds of which were to go to the sw£fering and war-,impoverished Slovaks a,broa<l. When their fellow SlaJVs, the Seribians, were fortced to retreat bef-ore the enemy in the winter of 1915 and felt hearvi1y t:he weight of defeat, the American Slova,ks rallied to their swpport. In a movement Which they themselrves financed they obtained more than a hundred Slovak priJsoners from prison crumps in Canada. Even from this very ibrieif sketch it is evident that the Slovaks in America were, from the very beginning, fully aware and prepared to ma,ke the most of the opportunities which the World Wax presented. They were well on their way in their wo11k for the Slovaks when the Ozecho-{Slovruk National Committee, headed by Masarytk, asked them for their cooperation. In rerviewing the rclations of the Ozechs and Slovaks in the early yea11s of t:he war, one lll/U!st bear in mind foat the creation of the Ozecho-,Slorva;k State was not a sine qua non for the realization of natitonal and cultural independ~e for the Slovruks. Neither were the Allied states determined at the beginning, upon the, dismem1be11ment oif the AustroHUil'garian Kingdom. The brea;k up of Austr.ia-HW11gary evo1ved from later dervefopments , and the Slo'V'ak1s seriously weighed all possilbilities beiforn deciding to cast their lot with the Ozechs. Dm-ing this period of indecision only one thing was cemain, that is, no matter under what form of government, no maitter with whom ailied, Slovak national autonomy had to be g,uiairanteed. In an open letter, pwbli'shed in the "Jednota," December 9, 19'14, Allbert Mamafoy, president of the Slovak Lea•g ue, wrote: "The American Czechs turned to me, as president of the Siov,aJk Lerugue, regarddng the Sltland that the Slovaks wish to taJke in this critical situation. . . . I answered that (ruocording to my convictions) we Slovaks would demand sclf-i:m1e, regardless of the tyipe of government to which we would belong as a result of this war, whether we would lwe UJI1der a Russian, or whether we would be left in old Hungary, (should it remain intact), or �SLOVAKIA 41 whether we would be pla,ced in the Ozecho-!Slo!Wlk State, which the Ozechs hoped would :be formed. In my opinion, we S1ovaks must demand ruutonomy from whomsoever we must, whether fiiom Hwrugary or Russia, or from the hoped.for Czech state. And whosoever should get us, irf peaice be desired in the counitry, care must be truken that our demands be satisfied." Reporting on the proceedings of the Congress of the Slovak LeaJgue, held in Pittsburgh, Fe!brua:riy 22, 1915, Joseph Huse'k, editor of the "Jednota," wrote in the March 3rd issue of that year: "One Czech acoused us of hating the Czechs. Thi1s is not true. We love our closest brother. Lf only they loved us as much as we love them. But to date, they have not given us any proof orf this. If matt~s sholl!ld lead to a change in the ,p olitical and governmental form of Austria-iHlwrngary, irf a federation will be formed composed of Bohemia, Moraivia, Silesia, and Slovll!kia, we will be satisfied. I:f they give us complete independence,, we ,vill. 1be sa,tis,. fied, rund, irf this later should not justify itself there will be time enough to joiin ourselves politically and gOivern.meintally more closely with the Bohemians and the Momv,i ans. However, if such a radical change does no,t ta:ke place after the war and we should 0/Illy be guaranteed independence within the limits of the Martin De:clairation, we will hiwe to be satisfied. Erven that woruld be a great concession. When we sha:H have our sc!hools, when we shall be master in our districrts, when we shall also hme representati1Ves, comparable to our nll!mbers, in parliament and a guarantee of free, ind~endent industrial development, we will not lose ourselrves. The rest we will then win by our own strength." And, agai~, in an article entitled "With the Czechs or Without the Ozechs," printed on March 24: "We are sincere and we e:m-phaisize again and again that we are supporteiI's. of the movement which aims to cu1tirv,a te Czecho-Slovak re:c1procity. But the reciprocity for whk,h we are so zealously working mrust be founded upon complete equality of rig1hts and equal value as pem;ains to our national, economic, and cuiltural interests." The first attempt to bring the Czechs and ,Slovaks to- �42 SLOVAKIA gether in America occurred in 1916. At the suggestion of Joseph Tvrzidky, Secretary of the Czech National Society, who was sUJm.rmoned to twke this step by Masaryk, a meeting of the Czech Society and of the Slo.vaik League was called at Cleveland, Ohio. On October 25, 191·5, a pact, proposed and written by Tvrzic:ky, was w0cepted. The conditions under which the SlovaJks were to accept cooperation with the Czechs were summari·z ed in this pact. Nati0J1.al autonomy of S1av8Jkia with an independent parliament, an independent state administration, and free oulrtusrial deveiloipment were guaranrteed. These demands were not the princi,p les Olf indi,vidiual autonormistic groups. This was the platiform of all American Slovaks, with very few exceptions, and the considerations under which they entered the struggle,; the aims they wanted to reali-ze. The extent to which the Slovaks and Czechs in America did not surcceed in reaching a colill'plete unde11standi.ng was deter.mined by the degree in which the American Czechs and the National Ozecho-;Slovak Committee deflected from these prmciples. Thus the Pact Olf Kiev, although signed by the representative of 1:Jhe Slova/k League, Gustav Kosik, incited consteirn:ation armong the American Slovaiks because it referred to "Ozecho,slova,ks," as an ethnic entity - a term not ac~ted by them. In li:ke manner, the newspaper "Czeichosloviak" was not warunly received. There were those among the Slovak leadeirs who, from the ve:r'Y beginning, opposed the use of the woro "Ozechoslo~ak" even in diplomatic agreements, holding to the opinion that the Sl~a!ks Sihould stand as an independent nation. The Parisian Czecho-,Slovak National Committee was looked lllpon wirth Sll!Slpicion by the Catho1ics who were uncertain of the status of religion in the, new state. These suspidoi!liSi, however, were not so strong that they could not be eliminated, and Masaryk himself, when he late:r came to Ameri1ca, quieted the Catholic Slovaks by his promise that there would be complete religious freedom in Ozecho-,Slova'kia. On July 1, 1917, Stefanik ar.ranged a meeting with the Slovaks and the Ozechs at the Congress Hall Hotel in �SLOVAKIA 43 Washington at which the following were present: Dr. Fisher, President of the Czech Nrutional Society; Albert Ma:matey, President of the Slova:k -Leag,ue; Emil Voska, ChaJrles Pergler, Dr. HrcHicika, Ivan Daxner, Iivan Bielek, and Ferdinad Pisecky. Stefani:k reported on conditions in Russia, 'but the main object of the meeting was to arrange for a mihtary o,r ga:nization and the cooipeTation of the Czechs and Slwaws. At this meeting Daxner raised the Czeicho-iS1ov,aJk question . .Aigainst his SO-!Called "aurtonomistic attibude" Stefani.ik emphaSlized the necessity of forming a politically inseparaJble state and not an ethnographically insepamble one (7). Con:cerning Stefani•k 's opinion relatirve to the Czechoslovak question and, especially, his oipimon as expressed in his dealings with the American .Slovaks, Poogler asse:rlts: "NaturaUy, the represerntatives of the Slova:k organiJZations of the foturre Czecho-tSlovak state often came to Stefanik. Stefanik al.ways insisted that it was the ooncern of the nation at hoime, that it alone must decide concerning its future origani1zrution, in short, that it is impossible to dictate firom beyond the bo~ders of the country and that every such ruttempt wou1d be futile Whenever the question of Sloivak autonomy aI'ose, he decidedly pointed out, that no guarantees could be demanded £ro:m those living outside of the new state" (8). But even if we should aioceipt this untoo•a ble position, it is impossilble to deny the fact that Stefanik, although he gave no written priomise, did reach an agreement with the America,n Slovaks and succeeded in gaining t'heir cooperation with the .American Cze~hs witlhouit the Slovaks relinquishing their demands. This was pr01Ved at the mooting held in New YoI'k, SeptembeT 20; 1914, where American Slovak priests were present with Stefanik and at which a resolution was a:doipted, stating that they stand on the platform orf the SlovaJk League. The pvograim of the Slovak League was the Cleveland Pact, tlhe · principles of whioh were incorporated into the Pittsburgh Pact which Masariyik (7) Ferdinand Pisecky: "M. R. S.teJanik," p, 72. (8) K. Pergler: "Z americke fronit.y naseho osvo'bozenskeho boje. Nase revoluce.'' Vol. II, pp. 313- 325. · · �44 SLOVAKIA himself drafted and signed with the American SlOIVruks a year later. Stefanik approved the program olf the Slovak Leaigue. With this rupproval he gained the confidence of the groups considered the most consoovative in the work for 0zecho-1Slovalk independence. Of this Benes writes : "The meeting with the Slovak priests was very important because at this meeting Stefanilk dispelled all sm,iprcion and unwillingness of the priests as regards the, movement for independence with which the drive for funds olf the Slovak League was strengthened (9). Because of his deli1cate health Stefanik did not ma:ke many public appearances but when he did speak, he succeeded in maJking a deep impression upon his listeners. He spoke in Slovak and in 0zech a:nd sometimes passed from one language, into another in the same speech. He gained the confidence of the 'Peorple by his enthusia,s m and his fascinating manner as well as with his firm and uncompromising atti1mde towards all righteous demands. In addition to the aJbove mentioned meetings, Stefanik met with the presidents of t!he Slovruk and 0zech organizations on July 1, 1917, in New Yo.rik where tihe misunderstaniling with Ho.nky pertaining to the Durich affaiT in Russia came to the forefront. Horiky especially critidzed Benes whom Stefarui,k defended, stating that he himself directed everything in Russia and Horky, therefore, should turn to him. On July 24 Stef2.ni1k received a deputation of Slovaks headed by Milan Getting w,ho later became the OzeichoSlo,v ak consul in Pittsburgh. On August 13 he was present at a meeting of 0zecho-.Slovak artists and in Seipte.miber he addressed the Cooch and SlovaJk women orf New Yo'I'ik. Between the 16th and 18th of October a large meeting was held in Chicago• at which the ques,t!ion cxf rooruiting was considered. Proceedings at this meeting were somewhat agitated since voices of t!hose who feared the final success of the military m01Vement were raised against Stefanik. A Owcho-Slo,valk mHitary committee was formed in order that the recruiting could proceed in an o:r,g,anized manner. Both (9) Edward Benes: "Sveto'Vii. vii.lka a nase revoluce." �45 SLOVAKIA Protestant and Catholic Ozechs and Sloivaks were r1~pre:sented in the Committee (10). After this meeting recruiting was begun by a proclamation for mdbilization by Stefaruk, coached in classical terms. Stefani1k also issued instnuiotions for the CzechoSlova!k soldiers in America. He divided the country into four districts, each with a separate reporter to which position the following were appointed: Milan Geitting, Gustav Kosik and su!b-;reporter Ivan Gess:a,y; J. Cermak and subreporter J. Tvr.z ioky; J. Stra;ka and swb-reporteir Vojta Benes. This plan, written under the impression of the Chicago comereTIJce, though not essentila:lly changed, had to be adjusted to existing conditions when the time came for actual work. For reasons already ex,plained the recruiting was not as successifiul as Stefanik haid hoped it would be. Despite all efforts the number of volunteers was not quite 2,500 men (11). Of great importance was the demonstration meeting held in Carnegie Hall in New York whl ch SterfanjJk arranged for September 1'6. Because of his friendship for Stefaruk, Fran:kHn...Bouillon accepted the in,Vitation to be the principal spea;ker just before his return to France as Minister of Bropaganda in the caJbinet of Painleve. John P. Mitchell, the may;or of New Yol'lk presided. This meeting, at which the repre,sen!batives of the Ailied armies were present, had a consideraible pro1p aganda significance since it broke the ice of indifference of American journalists. Franklin-Bouillon, who spdke in E':nglish, addressed the men of the "CzechoSlovak" nation and appealed to t:hem to join the Legion. He was the first influential sitatesman who pulblicly voiced the dismemberment of Austria~Hungary. This statement of Franklin-Bouillon created a sensation in Amer1can political circles; (12). 1 In order to facilitate contaict between our groups and government officials, Stefanik changed the Slav Press Bu(10) Vojta Benes: "Nase revoluce." Vol. II, PP. 46-49. (11) K. Pergler: "Nase revoluce." Vol. II ,p. 321. (12) Ar. Bares: "Stefanikuv memorial," p_ · 36. �46 SLOVAKIA reau, originally formed as a bureau of propaganda, into a branch of the Czecho-.Slo,v ak National Committee. He gave the authority to deal in political matters to Charles Pergler. Stefanik thus sucoeeded in realizing his pre-,war dream. of gaining his American countrymen in an armed r~bellion against Austria-Hungary although, in truth, not to the extent he had hoped for. Having completed his. worlk in Ame'l'ica he again turned his efforts and energies toward Europe where much still remained to be done. At the request presented on Octolber 14, 1917, to the War Ministry by General Vignal oif Washington in which he reported that Stefanik had aJbout completed his mission, Stefanik was granted permission to return to France. In November, Vignal telegraphed that Stefani!k would return with the first transport of Czecho""Slorvak troo'Ps and that he would be. free to organize the Czechs in France. In his reports to the Minister of Wa~, Vignal highly praised Stefaniik's work in America. I quote from the tefogirams sent on November 5 and December 5: "He proved to posse,s s the highest degree of tact, disciipline and sense :for orga.n ization. His pel'.'.sonal influence in all matters was such that no mis'OOderstanding arose during his stay and all the Cz~~h groll!ps followed his directions. . . . I aim not aJble to praise suffi~iently this great patriot, coolheaded and insipi:red 'by the most honest and highest feelings. F'ull of taot and wisdom, he gained the sympathies of the highest officials of the American Ministry of Foreign Affairs and he o:rganized with the greatest success the re:cnciting oif the Czecho-SlovaJks (13). Acc,o rding to Benes, Steifaniik :returned to Paris on Novemiber 16 whe:re he con;tinued in his wor,k of organizing the Czecho ...Slovak army. • Editor's Note: Today it is customar;y even for the Ozechs and so--called "Ozechoslovaks" to cl'aim and acclaim Stefanik But Stefanik was not a Czech, nor a "Orechoslovia:k" (a SlO'VaJk in the pay of the Czoohs), but a true Slovak paitriot. Had he lived, Stefanik undou!btedly would (13) From the "Fren,oh Military Archives." �SLOVAKIA 47 have fought for the liberation. of his people from all alien tyranny, including the Czech brand as represented by T. G. Masaryk an.d Benes. S,lo,vaJks eveTywhere commemorate May 4th as Stefani'k Day, because it was on May 4, 1919, that their beloved wair hero crashed to his death in a plaine which was "a~cidentally" shot down by a Czech garrison at Vajnory, Slovakia. Many Slovaiks even todiay will tell you 1:!hat Stefanik haid to die, because he never consented to his Slovakiia being a colony o,£ the imperialistic Czechs led by T. G. Masarylk and Benes. On May 4, 1954, Slova,ks everywhere will recall: "it was 35 yeaI'S ago thait Stefarnk was killed by the men who resented his warnings rugainst Bolshevism. " • • • SLOVAK FOLKLORE GOLDILOCKS Once UlpOn a time there was a very poor blacksmith. At one time 'he fared weH, but then hard times struck, he had little work to do., and his wiife and small children were always hungry. Finally he lost everything; at hOlme he had not!hing left but seven ,pennies. His undernourished children cried constantly for something to eat until the blacksmith could stand it no longer. In his despair he boU!ght a rope witlh his last seven ,p ennies and started out for the hills to end it all. When he came into the hills, he sought out a stout branch on a mighty tree to which he fixed the roipe. As the bla;cksmith was a;bout to tie the rope albout his neck, a ,pretty black maiden suddenly appeared .b efore him and pleaded wHJh him not to hang himself, 1b ecause that was not a nice thing to do and, then, it was also a sin. The b,lacksmith was stunned when the black maiden disappeared into the nowhere whence she had come. As he waliked along, his mind wandered baok home where misery and want ruled and again he became despondent. U!P went his rope onto another stout ,h ranch. .&gain the blaJCk maiden s,uddemy appeaired out of the blue and begged him not to commit such an ugly deed. In a quadary, the blactksmith shoo'k his head, bwt said nothing. He did not throw away his rope, but stood � SLOVAKIA 33 MILAN RASTISLAV STEFA.NIK Stephanie 0. Husek This year mar,ks the thirty-sixth anniversary of two events which considerwbly changed the national developmeint of the Slo:vaJks both here and abroad. On May 30, 1918, the Pittsibwgh Pact was drawn up and on Noveimlber 14 was signed by Thomas Garrigue Masaryk, then President ad: the 0zecho-iSlo1V1ak Republic. This Slovruk Magna Carta suimmarirzed Sloivak rights in the newly fomied state amd formed the platform of the Slova;,k People's Party, the largest Slovalk political party in pre..war Cz~ho-Slova1da. On 0ctolber 28, 1918, the independence ad: 0zeeho--iSlovakia was pro:claimed and a new era oJf national development began for fue Slovak and Czech nations. Both these events were the result of the Czecho..,Slovak Relbellion, both at home and beyond the ,bo'UJildaries oif the Austro-Hungarian Kingdom. SlOIVaks and Czechs, no matter where they lived, joined in the struggle for independence and each groUJp contributed towaTds gaining the final victory. The cond'Ulot of the reibellion lay in the hands of the National 0zecho-1Slov.aik Committee in Paris of whicih Thomas G. Masaryk was president, Edward Benes secretairy, and Milan Rastislav Ste!anik represented the Sloivaks. No single factor carried so much weight with the Allies in favor of an independent Czecho-Slo,va.'kia as the organization and later suiocesses of the independent Czecllo.-B1ovalk Army. It was the a'I'!my which proved that the Sloivaks and Czechs were will.mg to, make the swpreme sacrifice in order that they and their children might liive independenrtl:y. It is to the glory of the Sl01Va,ks that the formation and organization of this army was the tfuought and wonk of Milan Rastislav Stefan.ilk who later ,b ecame the first Minister of War ill1 the Czecho-,Slova,k State. The movement for Czecho-Sloivalk independence was not begun at the ourt:Jbreruk -of the Wax. Years before, both individuals and organized giroups sought to alleviate conditions �34 SLOVAKIA existing in the Austro-HUI11garian Kingdom. Stefaniik already dreamed of an in.d.€4)00.dent Slovakia in 1914 when he arrived in F1rance as a young astronomer, soon to gain prominence there and become a memiber of the French A~adem.y. No ocicasion arose which Sted:anik d.i:d not use to acquaint those in influenice with Hu1nga,r.ian tyranny and to gain sympathy for the oppressed Slo;vruk nation. As soon as Austria dec1ared war on .Serbia, Stefaniik left Morocco, where he was engaged in astronomical observation, and returned to France. He joined the French Air Cor,ps in. January 191'5 and in March requested to be sent to Serbia. Having no contact as yet with Miresruryk, not even familiair with the latter's plans, he already thought of organh:ing a ~arate corps c_o nsisting of t.he ~ruvs fighting aigainst thefr convictions on the enemy,..s side and being gradually ooncoort~a;ted in prison camps. Due .t o, the Serbian retreat whii!ch began one day before Stefanik's arri;val in SeI'lbia, the thought of organizing this corps had to be abandoned. But Stefanik renewed his worlk upon his return to Paris where he became assOICiarted with Thomas G. Masacyk and Dr. ffidlward Benes: Soon the nucleus of the Ozeoho-,Slovak Legion was orgamzed in France and Stefruni,k extended his work to inlclude Rm.ssia, the United States, and Italy; in fact, aJ1l countries where Czechs and Sfovruk,s were to be found, either in prison camps OT as settlers. Thus, from Jrtill,,y 1916 until Mairch 1917 he was in Russia. While the.re he made a trip to Roucrnania. After returning from Russia he crume to. the United States, returned to France and then went to litaly. He met wirth many diftfioulties in organizing the Legion. Nevertheless, he succeeded i:n winning the. permission of government authorities and 'i n persuading moo to join. 1n the work orf Q!I'ganiizing the army Stefan:iik also did mooh to gain the sympartihy orf Allied statesmen and men ranking high in goiveirnment and military cincles and to convm:ce those with whom he came into contact of the necessity of breaking up the Austro-Hungaria:n Kingdom. Milan Rastislav Stefanik did much more- foir gaining �35 SLOVAKIA the independeince of Czetjio-Slovaikia than he is credited with doing. Benes and Ma:saryk boith wrote an account of the mOfVement for independence and tihe part which each played in it. Stefan.ilk, run.fortunately, was not given this O!plpOrtunity. But even from the sketchy references to his wo'l1k and the Sl1mprisingly meagre sources avaHaJble to the hisrtorian of today, it is dearly evident that in cowa:ge, in scl!f-saicrifice, in tact and wbility in diplomacy, in integrity, and in zeal for the ca:use of freedom of his people, he was not SUI'lpassed by anyone of the leaders in the OzeichoSlovaJk movement for independence . • • • • Stefanilk had exaggeirated hopes of his success in America. As stated in his report to the French Ministcy o!f Foreign Affairs, he 1b el ieved that they would gain around 20,000 volunteers for the Ozecho-,Slovruk Legion. It is not definitely known where he got his information, but there were many Czechs and Slovaks in America who cherished the same ho,pe and Stefaruk was certainly inforrmed b~ some of them. In the official newspaper of tihe First Catholic Slovak Union the "Jednota," it was estimated that if only ten per cent of the male memlbers of the Slo1va,k organizations joined the Czeicho-Slo:vak army, there would be 15,140 Slovak vnlunteers. One Slo,va'k reported to Steifani!k that among the Slovaks alone 25,000 ,volunteers could be, expected 0). Joseph 'Dvirziieky, Seciretary of the Ozech National Society in America, was also one of those, who, during the entire caimpaiign, added to Stef8iruk's optimism(2). The work of tile Poles at the same time and in the same direction facilitated Steifaniik's mission. O:n the other hand, America's entraJnce info the World War changed conditions existing here which were not favoraJble. Many American Czechs and Slorvarks joined the Canadian army e,ven beforre the United Staites entered the War and forty thousand Ozechs and SkwaJks joined the Amer.iJcaJD. 8!Imy in 1917 (3). The American government itself placed certain 1 (1) Karol Pergler: "Z ame1ic.ke fron.ty a naseho osvobozenskeho boje_ - Nase revoluce." Vol II, p. 318. (2) "Nase revoluce.." Vol. 1,1, P. 325. (3) Ibid. p. 325. �36 SLOVAKIA obstacles which made the fu1fillment of Stefani:k's mission more difficult. On the grounds that if special concessioo.s were granted the Czechs and Slovaiks othe,r nationality grOUJps would make. similar requests, the government was relUICtant to girve permission for recruiting soldiers for the Czecho~Slov~ Airmy in F1rance. America's entrance into the War was looked wpon by many groiups as an opportunity to be exploited toward the realimtion of their aim Olf corrnpletel,y Americanirzing the foreign national~ty groups living here. It presented an oppoI1tunity to unite all immigrants undeir one motto and for one ideal. America was to enter the Wax as one consolidated nation fighting a;gainst a single enemy. To add to the difrfic,u1ties, a mo;vement was started by Senator Hitchcoc,k of Nebraska to form a spe'cial Shw conps similar to the Foreign Legion of France. This was oontrary to the wishes and plans of General Stefanik and the Ozecho,-SlovaJk National Committee. Had it succeeded, the influence and the opportunity of the Czechs and Slovaks to aJCt independently would hruve been greatly minimized. IF'inally, it is impossible not to mention the large German and Austro-Hiung arian grolliPS who distributed pamphlets and used various other meains to carry on a continuous propaganda against the leaders Olf the Allied nations and against their appeals. Much time and effort was expended by Slovak national leaders to disclose these intrigues and to offset their effects. In March 1915 the German government aippealed to the America.n people not to manufacture powder shraipnels, and other arms, stating that this was ag:ainst the honoir of the American people and against the integrity of the nation; that it was neicessary to show once and for all that such things could not be bought with money dipped in human blood Even before this, Germany had sent an appeal to America, addressed to prominent men, in which she defended her position in the war, related the wrongs committed on her and denied all responsibility for the acts to which Ger,many had .b een forced (4). It is small wonder that this German propaganda gained ground (4) Karol Sidor: " Slovaci v zahranicnom odboji," pp, 44-4ii. �SLOVAKIA 37 in Ameri~. There were many Gernnan imrmgranits and EWen more citizens of Ger.rnan descent, financiaNy well estaJblished, who were sentimentally sympathetic to their native land. Edward Benes, as Secretary of the National Committee, requested the French goivernment to entrust Stefanik with the mission to deal with the American authorities for permission to. organize volunteers among the Ozechs and Slovaks for the army in France. The consent of Rebprt, ::Mlinister of Foreign Alffairs, was gained uh.rough Philip Berthelot and permission from the Ministry ad: Wiar was received, through the inter1cession of Franklirn--Bouillon, directly f.rom Minister PainlEWe with whOim both Benes and Stefanik were on good terms. Thi'S perunission was granted while Stefanik was still in Russia but he IPostjponed the trip in order to. complete his work in Roumania where he gained 1000 prisoners for the Czecho-SloiV'a'k army. The order for the j()IUJI'ney commissioning Stefanik wifu a special mission in the United States was issued May 20, 1917 and he arrived in America the following month. Before Stefamk's departure,. however, the French Government had aliready sent a spe:cial political commission headed 'by FrankJin-1Bouillon to gain the permission of the United States for recruiting volunteers. among the immigrants for Slav national arunies in France. This mission of F:raniklin-Bo:uillin, as well as his personal aid in the Czec<ho.-1Slova:k wrmy question, greatly helped Stefa.Mk. Stefanik qumkly adjusted himself to the conditions brougihrt rubout by America's entrance into the war and through the French Arrnlbassado•r , Jussocand, immediately contacted the go;vernment offfuia1s in Washington. He had a short 'but successif:ul conference with Lansing during which he also presented: him with a;n expression of loyalty of the Ozechs and 'Sloivruks to the United Srtates of Ameri~. Wirth the aid of the Frenlch Commissioner A. Tardieu, the French Mi•n ister Jussevam.d, and Franldin.J3ou:illon Stefan:iik gained his object and the Arrnerican government granted pemnission to al[ Czechs and SlovaJks not subject to military duty in the Am.errean M1IDY to join the Ozecho-,S1ovak Legion in France. On August 4, he already report.ea to his friends in �38 SLOVAKIA New Yorlc th~t he had received this perrmss1on and that 4,000 men oOIU!ld be sent to the French military school. After permission for recruiting was granted, negotiatiOllls were begun for the transipwtatio n of the Czec:ho-Sl'OVa;k soldiers to France and for obtaining the financial means necessary to keep them concentrated in camps in New Yonk and Boston where they awaited their depar-ture. Oonsideration was also given to the question of SU!pporting families deprived of wa;ge erurner,s and, later, to ca;ses of widowed wives Mld or,phaned children. In October, Stefanik uncovered some Austro-Hunga rian intdgues in Washing.ton. A telegram had been sent to Tardieu fram Paris suggesting that, due to difficulties in transportation, the Poles should be sent to France finst and the transpovtatio n of the Ozecho ..Slovak soldiers shO!Uld be postponed for a few months. Stefanik suicceede.d in defeating this attempt by uncovering its moUves and, on the basis of this 1nfoI1Ination, Tardieu telegraphed to his swperiors that the posbponemen t of the transport of the Ozecho-SlOIVak soldiers would mean the breaking of a promise and that he would have no part i.in such a disho:noraJble act (15). Other difficulties arose in the matterr of transporting trooips; fifty Czech and Slovak soldiers were detained in New Yonk in Decem~ because no exceptions were made foir Czechs and Slovaiks in the instructions sent by the American governmeil!t cOillCerniing kuistro-Hung arian su!bjects. At the intervention O(f the French Ambassador and of General Vignal this maJtter was also straightened out. Steifan:ik contacted American joUTrralists and wrote several articles on the cause for· the newsprupers. He aroused the interest orf F. H. Allen ("World"), Go,rdo:n Srruth am'd, at a dinner given in his honor on J,u ly 23 in New York, he gained the swpport of "The New Repu!blic." Stefanik used these oontaots for propaganda purposes. Early in September the "World" carried a long article on the Czecho~Slovak movement written by Stefanik and Pisecky and an account of the Battle of Halie by Stefani~ appeared later in Chicago news,paipers. (5) Karol Pergler : "Nase revolnce." Vol. II, p. 319 . �SLOVAKIA 39 Although Stefanik did not entirely trurst Wilson and did not rugree with his views, he ,g ained the good will of the ever popular Theodore Rooseivelit and of representative Frank L. Polle, who devoted much consideration to the Ozecho-4Slovak question when he later headed the American delegation at the Peace Oonrference after Lansing's departure from Paris. It is generally conceded that Stefanik achieved his greatest success in America by seicuring the cooperation of the Czechs and Slovaks in the Czecho-Slovak movement. Pisec'ky writes: "Stefanik did most in the United States in that he succeeded in convincing the Sloiva.ks of the necessity and the horrorableness of the Czecho-SlOIVak rebeU.ion, that he succeeded in paralyiZing autonomistic and opportunistic UJpshoots of persons of the character of Daxner, Bielelk, Panilmch and others and gained them for the common advance with the Czechs (6) . From this statement one could infer that the American Slo:va.ks resisted the movement for freedom. On the contrary, it was the Slovaiks who, with a few exceptions, first brought UJP the question of freedom from the Hungarian yoke, and who, long before the war, had organized to gaiin recognition of Slo:vak national rights. The Slovak League was founded in 1907 for the punpose of supporting and helping national leaders in the old country. In the year 1910 it requested the U. S. Census officials to list Slovaks, not as immigrants from Ausitria-iH kmgary, but according to their native, tongue. B efore the outbreak of the war, at the beginning o:f the year 1914, a memorandum, signed by representatives of 21 organizations, 23 newspaipers, by many Catholic priests and Protestant ministe,ns, was printed. in five languages in addition to English This memorandum, sent to i:nflmmtial diP'lomats and statesmen, descrilbed the sufferings of the Slova.l{s under Hungarian tyranny and demanded in the name o:f justice and humanity that Slovaks be given the rights which were ri!ghtfully tlheirs. Slovalk journalists and national leaders forll!ght unremittingly through newsprupers and brosuires against Austro,-,H ungarian and German propa(6) Ferdinand Pisecky: "M. R. i§tefanik," p . 81. �40 SLOVAKIA ganda. Moreover, they aided financially. Already in 1914 the Slov:aJk League started a Million Dollar Drive, the proceeds of which were to go to the sw£fering and war-,impoverished Slovaks a,broa<l. When their fellow SlaJVs, the Seribians, were fortced to retreat bef-ore the enemy in the winter of 1915 and felt hearvi1y t:he weight of defeat, the American Slova,ks rallied to their swpport. In a movement Which they themselrves financed they obtained more than a hundred Slovak priJsoners from prison crumps in Canada. Even from this very ibrieif sketch it is evident that the Slovaks in America were, from the very beginning, fully aware and prepared to ma,ke the most of the opportunities which the World Wax presented. They were well on their way in their wo11k for the Slovaks when the Ozecho-{Slovruk National Committee, headed by Masarytk, asked them for their cooperation. In rerviewing the rclations of the Ozechs and Slovaks in the early yea11s of t:he war, one lll/U!st bear in mind foat the creation of the Ozecho-,Slorva;k State was not a sine qua non for the realization of natitonal and cultural independ~e for the Slovruks. Neither were the Allied states determined at the beginning, upon the, dismem1be11ment oif the AustroHUil'garian Kingdom. The brea;k up of Austr.ia-HW11gary evo1ved from later dervefopments , and the Slo'V'ak1s seriously weighed all possilbilities beiforn deciding to cast their lot with the Ozechs. Dm-ing this period of indecision only one thing was cemain, that is, no matter under what form of government, no maitter with whom ailied, Slovak national autonomy had to be g,uiairanteed. In an open letter, pwbli'shed in the "Jednota," December 9, 19'14, Allbert Mamafoy, president of the Slovak Lea•g ue, wrote: "The American Czechs turned to me, as president of the Siov,aJk Lerugue, regarddng the Sltland that the Slovaks wish to taJke in this critical situation. . . . I answered that (ruocording to my convictions) we Slovaks would demand sclf-i:m1e, regardless of the tyipe of government to which we would belong as a result of this war, whether we would lwe UJI1der a Russian, or whether we would be left in old Hungary, (should it remain intact), or �SLOVAKIA 41 whether we would be pla,ced in the Ozecho-!Slo!Wlk State, which the Ozechs hoped would :be formed. In my opinion, we S1ovaks must demand ruutonomy from whomsoever we must, whether fiiom Hwrugary or Russia, or from the hoped.for Czech state. And whosoever should get us, irf peaice be desired in the counitry, care must be truken that our demands be satisfied." Reporting on the proceedings of the Congress of the Slovak LeaJgue, held in Pittsburgh, Fe!brua:riy 22, 1915, Joseph Huse'k, editor of the "Jednota," wrote in the March 3rd issue of that year: "One Czech acoused us of hating the Czechs. Thi1s is not true. We love our closest brother. Lf only they loved us as much as we love them. But to date, they have not given us any proof orf this. If matt~s sholl!ld lead to a change in the ,p olitical and governmental form of Austria-iHlwrngary, irf a federation will be formed composed of Bohemia, Moraivia, Silesia, and Slovll!kia, we will be satisfied. I:f they give us complete independence,, we ,vill. 1be sa,tis,. fied, rund, irf this later should not justify itself there will be time enough to joiin ourselves politically and gOivern.meintally more closely with the Bohemians and the Momv,i ans. However, if such a radical change does no,t ta:ke place after the war and we should 0/Illy be guaranteed independence within the limits of the Martin De:clairation, we will hiwe to be satisfied. Erven that woruld be a great concession. When we sha:H have our sc!hools, when we shall be master in our districrts, when we shall also hme representati1Ves, comparable to our nll!mbers, in parliament and a guarantee of free, ind~endent industrial development, we will not lose ourselrves. The rest we will then win by our own strength." And, agai~, in an article entitled "With the Czechs or Without the Ozechs," printed on March 24: "We are sincere and we e:m-phaisize again and again that we are supporteiI's. of the movement which aims to cu1tirv,a te Czecho-Slovak re:c1procity. But the reciprocity for whk,h we are so zealously working mrust be founded upon complete equality of rig1hts and equal value as pem;ains to our national, economic, and cuiltural interests." The first attempt to bring the Czechs and ,Slovaks to- �42 SLOVAKIA gether in America occurred in 1916. At the suggestion of Joseph Tvrzidky, Secretary of the Czech National Society, who was sUJm.rmoned to twke this step by Masaryk, a meeting of the Czech Society and of the Slo.vaik League was called at Cleveland, Ohio. On October 25, 191·5, a pact, proposed and written by Tvrzic:ky, was w0cepted. The conditions under which the SlovaJks were to accept cooperation with the Czechs were summari·z ed in this pact. Nati0J1.al autonomy of S1av8Jkia with an independent parliament, an independent state administration, and free oulrtusrial deveiloipment were guaranrteed. These demands were not the princi,p les Olf indi,vidiual autonormistic groups. This was the platiform of all American Slovaks, with very few exceptions, and the considerations under which they entered the struggle,; the aims they wanted to reali-ze. The extent to which the Slovaks and Czechs in America did not surcceed in reaching a colill'plete unde11standi.ng was deter.mined by the degree in which the American Czechs and the National Ozecho-;Slovak Committee deflected from these prmciples. Thus the Pact Olf Kiev, although signed by the representative of 1:Jhe Slova/k League, Gustav Kosik, incited consteirn:ation armong the American Slovaiks because it referred to "Ozecho,slova,ks," as an ethnic entity - a term not ac~ted by them. In li:ke manner, the newspaper "Czeichosloviak" was not warunly received. There were those among the Slovak leadeirs who, from the ve:r'Y beginning, opposed the use of the woro "Ozechoslo~ak" even in diplomatic agreements, holding to the opinion that the Sl~a!ks Sihould stand as an independent nation. The Parisian Czecho-,Slovak National Committee was looked lllpon wirth Sll!Slpicion by the Catho1ics who were uncertain of the status of religion in the, new state. These suspidoi!liSi, however, were not so strong that they could not be eliminated, and Masaryk himself, when he late:r came to Ameri1ca, quieted the Catholic Slovaks by his promise that there would be complete religious freedom in Ozecho-,Slova'kia. On July 1, 1917, Stefanik ar.ranged a meeting with the Slovaks and the Ozechs at the Congress Hall Hotel in �SLOVAKIA 43 Washington at which the following were present: Dr. Fisher, President of the Czech Nrutional Society; Albert Ma:matey, President of the Slova:k -Leag,ue; Emil Voska, ChaJrles Pergler, Dr. HrcHicika, Ivan Daxner, Iivan Bielek, and Ferdinad Pisecky. Stefani:k reported on conditions in Russia, 'but the main object of the meeting was to arrange for a mihtary o,r ga:nization and the cooipeTation of the Czechs and Slwaws. At this meeting Daxner raised the Czeicho-iS1ov,aJk question . .Aigainst his SO-!Called "aurtonomistic attibude" Stefani.ik emphaSlized the necessity of forming a politically inseparaJble state and not an ethnographically insepamble one (7). Con:cerning Stefani•k 's opinion relatirve to the Czechoslovak question and, especially, his oipimon as expressed in his dealings with the American .Slovaks, Poogler asse:rlts: "NaturaUy, the represerntatives of the Slova:k organiJZations of the foturre Czecho-tSlovak state often came to Stefanik. Stefanik al.ways insisted that it was the ooncern of the nation at hoime, that it alone must decide concerning its future origani1zrution, in short, that it is impossible to dictate firom beyond the bo~ders of the country and that every such ruttempt wou1d be futile Whenever the question of Sloivak autonomy aI'ose, he decidedly pointed out, that no guarantees could be demanded £ro:m those living outside of the new state" (8). But even if we should aioceipt this untoo•a ble position, it is impossilble to deny the fact that Stefanik, although he gave no written priomise, did reach an agreement with the America,n Slovaks and succeeded in gaining t'heir cooperation with the .American Cze~hs witlhouit the Slovaks relinquishing their demands. This was pr01Ved at the mooting held in New YoI'k, SeptembeT 20; 1914, where American Slovak priests were present with Stefanik and at which a resolution was a:doipted, stating that they stand on the platform orf the SlovaJk League. The pvograim of the Slovak League was the Cleveland Pact, tlhe · principles of whioh were incorporated into the Pittsburgh Pact which Masariyik (7) Ferdinand Pisecky: "M. R. S.teJanik," p, 72. (8) K. Pergler: "Z americke fronit.y naseho osvo'bozenskeho boje. Nase revoluce.'' Vol. II, pp. 313- 325. · · �44 SLOVAKIA himself drafted and signed with the American SlOIVruks a year later. Stefanik approved the program olf the Slovak Leaigue. With this rupproval he gained the confidence of the groups considered the most consoovative in the work for 0zecho-1Slovalk independence. Of this Benes writes : "The meeting with the Slovak priests was very important because at this meeting Stefanilk dispelled all sm,iprcion and unwillingness of the priests as regards the, movement for independence with which the drive for funds olf the Slovak League was strengthened (9). Because of his deli1cate health Stefanik did not ma:ke many public appearances but when he did speak, he succeeded in maJking a deep impression upon his listeners. He spoke in Slovak and in 0zech a:nd sometimes passed from one language, into another in the same speech. He gained the confidence of the 'Peorple by his enthusia,s m and his fascinating manner as well as with his firm and uncompromising atti1mde towards all righteous demands. In addition to the aJbove mentioned meetings, Stefanik met with the presidents of t!he Slovruk and 0zech organizations on July 1, 1917, in New Yo.rik where tihe misunderstaniling with Ho.nky pertaining to the Durich affaiT in Russia came to the forefront. Horiky especially critidzed Benes whom Stefarui,k defended, stating that he himself directed everything in Russia and Horky, therefore, should turn to him. On July 24 Stef2.ni1k received a deputation of Slovaks headed by Milan Getting w,ho later became the OzeichoSlo,v ak consul in Pittsburgh. On August 13 he was present at a meeting of 0zecho-.Slovak artists and in Seipte.miber he addressed the Cooch and SlovaJk women orf New Yo'I'ik. Between the 16th and 18th of October a large meeting was held in Chicago• at which the ques,t!ion cxf rooruiting was considered. Proceedings at this meeting were somewhat agitated since voices of t!hose who feared the final success of the military m01Vement were raised against Stefanik. A Owcho-Slo,valk mHitary committee was formed in order that the recruiting could proceed in an o:r,g,anized manner. Both (9) Edward Benes: "Sveto'Vii. vii.lka a nase revoluce." �45 SLOVAKIA Protestant and Catholic Ozechs and Sloivaks were r1~pre:sented in the Committee (10). After this meeting recruiting was begun by a proclamation for mdbilization by Stefaruk, coached in classical terms. Stefani1k also issued instnuiotions for the CzechoSlova!k soldiers in America. He divided the country into four districts, each with a separate reporter to which position the following were appointed: Milan Geitting, Gustav Kosik and su!b-;reporter Ivan Gess:a,y; J. Cermak and subreporter J. Tvr.z ioky; J. Stra;ka and swb-reporteir Vojta Benes. This plan, written under the impression of the Chicago comereTIJce, though not essentila:lly changed, had to be adjusted to existing conditions when the time came for actual work. For reasons already ex,plained the recruiting was not as successifiul as Stefanik haid hoped it would be. Despite all efforts the number of volunteers was not quite 2,500 men (11). Of great importance was the demonstration meeting held in Carnegie Hall in New York whl ch SterfanjJk arranged for September 1'6. Because of his friendship for Stefaruk, Fran:kHn...Bouillon accepted the in,Vitation to be the principal spea;ker just before his return to France as Minister of Bropaganda in the caJbinet of Painleve. John P. Mitchell, the may;or of New Yol'lk presided. This meeting, at which the repre,sen!batives of the Ailied armies were present, had a consideraible pro1p aganda significance since it broke the ice of indifference of American journalists. Franklin-Bouillon, who spdke in E':nglish, addressed the men of the "CzechoSlovak" nation and appealed to t:hem to join the Legion. He was the first influential sitatesman who pulblicly voiced the dismemberment of Austria~Hungary. This statement of Franklin-Bouillon created a sensation in Amer1can political circles; (12). 1 In order to facilitate contaict between our groups and government officials, Stefanik changed the Slav Press Bu(10) Vojta Benes: "Nase revoluce." Vol. II, PP. 46-49. (11) K. Pergler: "Nase revoluce." Vol. II ,p. 321. (12) Ar. Bares: "Stefanikuv memorial," p_ · 36. �46 SLOVAKIA reau, originally formed as a bureau of propaganda, into a branch of the Czecho-.Slo,v ak National Committee. He gave the authority to deal in political matters to Charles Pergler. Stefanik thus sucoeeded in realizing his pre-,war dream. of gaining his American countrymen in an armed r~bellion against Austria-Hungary although, in truth, not to the extent he had hoped for. Having completed his. worlk in Ame'l'ica he again turned his efforts and energies toward Europe where much still remained to be done. At the request presented on Octolber 14, 1917, to the War Ministry by General Vignal oif Washington in which he reported that Stefanik had aJbout completed his mission, Stefanik was granted permission to return to France. In November, Vignal telegraphed that Stefani!k would return with the first transport of Czecho""Slorvak troo'Ps and that he would be. free to organize the Czechs in France. In his reports to the Minister of Wa~, Vignal highly praised Stefaniik's work in America. I quote from the tefogirams sent on November 5 and December 5: "He proved to posse,s s the highest degree of tact, disciipline and sense :for orga.n ization. His pel'.'.sonal influence in all matters was such that no mis'OOderstanding arose during his stay and all the Cz~~h groll!ps followed his directions. . . . I aim not aJble to praise suffi~iently this great patriot, coolheaded and insipi:red 'by the most honest and highest feelings. F'ull of taot and wisdom, he gained the sympathies of the highest officials of the American Ministry of Foreign Affairs and he o:rganized with the greatest success the re:cnciting oif the Czecho-SlovaJks (13). Acc,o rding to Benes, Steifaniik :returned to Paris on Novemiber 16 whe:re he con;tinued in his wor,k of organizing the Czecho ...Slovak army. • Editor's Note: Today it is customar;y even for the Ozechs and so--called "Ozechoslovaks" to cl'aim and acclaim Stefanik But Stefanik was not a Czech, nor a "Orechoslovia:k" (a SlO'VaJk in the pay of the Czoohs), but a true Slovak paitriot. Had he lived, Stefanik undou!btedly would (13) From the "Fren,oh Military Archives." �SLOVAKIA 47 have fought for the liberation. of his people from all alien tyranny, including the Czech brand as represented by T. G. Masaryk an.d Benes. S,lo,vaJks eveTywhere commemorate May 4th as Stefani'k Day, because it was on May 4, 1919, that their beloved wair hero crashed to his death in a plaine which was "a~cidentally" shot down by a Czech garrison at Vajnory, Slovakia. Many Slovaiks even todiay will tell you 1:!hat Stefanik haid to die, because he never consented to his Slovakiia being a colony o,£ the imperialistic Czechs led by T. G. Masarylk and Benes. On May 4, 1954, Slova,ks everywhere will recall: "it was 35 yeaI'S ago thait Stefarnk was killed by the men who resented his warnings rugainst Bolshevism. " • • • SLOVAK FOLKLORE GOLDILOCKS Once UlpOn a time there was a very poor blacksmith. At one time 'he fared weH, but then hard times struck, he had little work to do., and his wiife and small children were always hungry. Finally he lost everything; at hOlme he had not!hing left but seven ,pennies. His undernourished children cried constantly for something to eat until the blacksmith could stand it no longer. In his despair he boU!ght a rope witlh his last seven ,p ennies and started out for the hills to end it all. When he came into the hills, he sought out a stout branch on a mighty tree to which he fixed the roipe. As the bla;cksmith was a;bout to tie the rope albout his neck, a ,pretty black maiden suddenly appeared .b efore him and pleaded wHJh him not to hang himself, 1b ecause that was not a nice thing to do and, then, it was also a sin. The b,lacksmith was stunned when the black maiden disappeared into the nowhere whence she had come. As he waliked along, his mind wandered baok home where misery and want ruled and again he became despondent. U!P went his rope onto another stout ,h ranch. .&gain the blaJCk maiden s,uddemy appeaired out of the blue and begged him not to commit such an ugly deed. In a quadary, the blactksmith shoo'k his head, bwt said nothing. He did not throw away his rope, but stood � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to 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 33 MILAN RASTISLAV STEFA.NIK Stephanie 0. Husek This year mar,ks the thirty-sixth anniversary of two events which considerwbly changed the national developmeint of the Slo:vaJks both here and abroad. On May 30, 1918, the Pittsibwgh Pact was drawn up and on Noveimlber 14 was signed by Thomas Garrigue Masaryk, then President ad: the 0zecho-iSlo1V1ak Republic. This Slovruk Magna Carta suimmarirzed Sloivak rights in the newly fomied state amd formed the platform of the Slova;,k People's Party, the largest Slovalk political party in pre..war Cz~ho-Slova1da. On 0ctolber 28, 1918, the independence ad: 0zeeho--iSlovakia was pro:claimed and a new era oJf national development began for fue Slovak and Czech nations. Both these events were the result of the Czecho..,Slovak Relbellion, both at home and beyond the ,bo'UJildaries oif the Austro-Hungarian Kingdom. SlOIVaks and Czechs, no matter where they lived, joined in the struggle for independence and each groUJp contributed towaTds gaining the final victory. The cond'Ulot of the reibellion lay in the hands of the National 0zecho-1Slov.aik Committee in Paris of whicih Thomas G. Masaryk was president, Edward Benes secretairy, and Milan Rastislav Ste!anik represented the Sloivaks. No single factor carried so much weight with the Allies in favor of an independent Czecho-Slo,va.'kia as the organization and later suiocesses of the independent Czecllo.-B1ovalk Army. It was the a'I'!my which proved that the Sloivaks and Czechs were will.mg to, make the swpreme sacrifice in order that they and their children might liive independenrtl:y. It is to the glory of the Sl01Va,ks that the formation and organization of this army was the tfuought and wonk of Milan Rastislav Stefan.ilk who later ,b ecame the first Minister of War ill1 the Czecho-,Slova,k State. The movement for Czecho-Sloivalk independence was not begun at the ourt:Jbreruk -of the Wax. Years before, both individuals and organized giroups sought to alleviate conditions 34 SLOVAKIA existing in the Austro-HUI11garian Kingdom. Stefaniik already dreamed of an in.d.€4)00.dent Slovakia in 1914 when he arrived in F1rance as a young astronomer, soon to gain prominence there and become a memiber of the French A~adem.y. No ocicasion arose which Sted:anik d.i:d not use to acquaint those in influenice with Hu1nga,r.ian tyranny and to gain sympathy for the oppressed Slo;vruk nation. As soon as Austria dec1ared war on .Serbia, Stefaniik left Morocco, where he was engaged in astronomical observation, and returned to France. He joined the French Air Cor,ps in. January 191'5 and in March requested to be sent to Serbia. Having no contact as yet with Miresruryk, not even familiair with the latter's plans, he already thought of organh:ing a ~arate corps c_o nsisting of t.he ~ruvs fighting aigainst thefr convictions on the enemy,..s side and being gradually ooncoort~a;ted in prison camps. Due .t o, the Serbian retreat whii!ch began one day before Stefanik's arri;val in SeI'lbia, the thought of organizing this corps had to be abandoned. But Stefanik renewed his worlk upon his return to Paris where he became assOICiarted with Thomas G. Masacyk and Dr. ffidlward Benes: Soon the nucleus of the Ozeoho-,Slovak Legion was orgamzed in France and Stefruni,k extended his work to inlclude Rm.ssia, the United States, and Italy; in fact, aJ1l countries where Czechs and Sfovruk,s were to be found, either in prison camps OT as settlers. Thus, from Jrtill,,y 1916 until Mairch 1917 he was in Russia. While the.re he made a trip to Roucrnania. After returning from Russia he crume to. the United States, returned to France and then went to litaly. He met wirth many diftfioulties in organizing the Legion. Nevertheless, he succeeded i:n winning the. permission of government authorities and 'i n persuading moo to join. 1n the work orf Q!I'ganiizing the army Stefan:iik also did mooh to gain the sympartihy orf Allied statesmen and men ranking high in goiveirnment and military cincles and to convm:ce those with whom he came into contact of the necessity of breaking up the Austro-Hungaria:n Kingdom. Milan Rastislav Stefanik did much more- foir gaining 35 SLOVAKIA the independeince of Czetjio-Slovaikia than he is credited with doing. Benes and Ma:saryk boith wrote an account of the mOfVement for independence and tihe part which each played in it. Stefan.ilk, run.fortunately, was not given this O!plpOrtunity. But even from the sketchy references to his wo'l1k and the Sl1mprisingly meagre sources avaHaJble to the hisrtorian of today, it is dearly evident that in cowa:ge, in scl!f-saicrifice, in tact and wbility in diplomacy, in integrity, and in zeal for the ca:use of freedom of his people, he was not SUI'lpassed by anyone of the leaders in the OzeichoSlovaJk movement for independence . • • • • Stefanilk had exaggeirated hopes of his success in America. As stated in his report to the French Ministcy o!f Foreign Affairs, he 1b el ieved that they would gain around 20,000 volunteers for the Ozecho-,Slovruk Legion. It is not definitely known where he got his information, but there were many Czechs and Slovaks in America who cherished the same ho,pe and Stefaruk was certainly inforrmed b~ some of them. In the official newspaper of tihe First Catholic Slovak Union the "Jednota," it was estimated that if only ten per cent of the male memlbers of the Slo1va,k organizations joined the Czeicho-Slo:vak army, there would be 15,140 Slovak vnlunteers. One Slo,va'k reported to Steifani!k that among the Slovaks alone 25,000 ,volunteers could be, expected 0). Joseph 'Dvirziieky, Seciretary of the Ozech National Society in America, was also one of those, who, during the entire caimpaiign, added to Stef8iruk's optimism(2). The work of tile Poles at the same time and in the same direction facilitated Steifaniik's mission. O:n the other hand, America's entraJnce info the World War changed conditions existing here which were not favoraJble. Many American Czechs and Slorvarks joined the Canadian army e,ven beforre the United Staites entered the War and forty thousand Ozechs and SkwaJks joined the Amer.iJcaJD. 8!Imy in 1917 (3). The American government itself placed certain 1 (1) Karol Pergler: "Z ame1ic.ke fron.ty a naseho osvobozenskeho boje_ - Nase revoluce." Vol II, p. 318. (2) "Nase revoluce.." Vol. 1,1, P. 325. (3) Ibid. p. 325. 36 SLOVAKIA obstacles which made the fu1fillment of Stefani:k's mission more difficult. On the grounds that if special concessioo.s were granted the Czechs and Slovaiks othe,r nationality grOUJps would make. similar requests, the government was relUICtant to girve permission for recruiting soldiers for the Czecho~Slov~ Airmy in F1rance. America's entrance into the War was looked wpon by many groiups as an opportunity to be exploited toward the realimtion of their aim Olf corrnpletel,y Americanirzing the foreign national~ty groups living here. It presented an oppoI1tunity to unite all immigrants undeir one motto and for one ideal. America was to enter the Wax as one consolidated nation fighting a;gainst a single enemy. To add to the difrfic,u1ties, a mo;vement was started by Senator Hitchcoc,k of Nebraska to form a spe'cial Shw conps similar to the Foreign Legion of France. This was oontrary to the wishes and plans of General Stefanik and the Ozecho,-SlovaJk National Committee. Had it succeeded, the influence and the opportunity of the Czechs and Slovaks to aJCt independently would hruve been greatly minimized. IF'inally, it is impossible not to mention the large German and Austro-Hiung arian grolliPS who distributed pamphlets and used various other meains to carry on a continuous propaganda against the leaders Olf the Allied nations and against their appeals. Much time and effort was expended by Slovak national leaders to disclose these intrigues and to offset their effects. In March 1915 the German government aippealed to the America.n people not to manufacture powder shraipnels, and other arms, stating that this was ag:ainst the honoir of the American people and against the integrity of the nation; that it was neicessary to show once and for all that such things could not be bought with money dipped in human blood Even before this, Germany had sent an appeal to America, addressed to prominent men, in which she defended her position in the war, related the wrongs committed on her and denied all responsibility for the acts to which Ger,many had .b een forced (4). It is small wonder that this German propaganda gained ground (4) Karol Sidor: " Slovaci v zahranicnom odboji," pp, 44-4ii. SLOVAKIA 37 in Ameri~. There were many Gernnan imrmgranits and EWen more citizens of Ger.rnan descent, financiaNy well estaJblished, who were sentimentally sympathetic to their native land. Edward Benes, as Secretary of the National Committee, requested the French goivernment to entrust Stefanik with the mission to deal with the American authorities for permission to. organize volunteers among the Ozechs and Slovaks for the army in France. The consent of Rebprt, ::Mlinister of Foreign Alffairs, was gained uh.rough Philip Berthelot and permission from the Ministry ad: Wiar was received, through the inter1cession of Franklirn--Bouillon, directly f.rom Minister PainlEWe with whOim both Benes and Stefanik were on good terms. Thi'S perunission was granted while Stefanik was still in Russia but he IPostjponed the trip in order to. complete his work in Roumania where he gained 1000 prisoners for the Czecho-SloiV'a'k army. The order for the j()IUJI'ney commissioning Stefanik wifu a special mission in the United States was issued May 20, 1917 and he arrived in America the following month. Before Stefamk's departure,. however, the French Government had aliready sent a spe:cial political commission headed 'by FrankJin-1Bouillon to gain the permission of the United States for recruiting volunteers. among the immigrants for Slav national arunies in France. This mission of F:raniklin-Bo:uillin, as well as his personal aid in the Czec<ho.-1Slova:k wrmy question, greatly helped Stefa.Mk. Stefanik qumkly adjusted himself to the conditions brougihrt rubout by America's entrance into the war and through the French Arrnlbassado•r , Jussocand, immediately contacted the go;vernment offfuia1s in Washington. He had a short 'but successif:ul conference with Lansing during which he also presented: him with a;n expression of loyalty of the Ozechs and 'Sloivruks to the United Srtates of Ameri~. Wirth the aid of the Frenlch Commissioner A. Tardieu, the French Mi•n ister Jussevam.d, and Franldin.J3ou:illon Stefan:iik gained his object and the Arrnerican government granted pemnission to al[ Czechs and SlovaJks not subject to military duty in the Am.errean M1IDY to join the Ozecho-,S1ovak Legion in France. On August 4, he already report.ea to his friends in 38 SLOVAKIA New Yorlc th~t he had received this perrmss1on and that 4,000 men oOIU!ld be sent to the French military school. After permission for recruiting was granted, negotiatiOllls were begun for the transipwtatio n of the Czec:ho-Sl'OVa;k soldiers to France and for obtaining the financial means necessary to keep them concentrated in camps in New Yonk and Boston where they awaited their depar-ture. Oonsideration was also given to the question of SU!pporting families deprived of wa;ge erurner,s and, later, to ca;ses of widowed wives Mld or,phaned children. In October, Stefanik uncovered some Austro-Hunga rian intdgues in Washing.ton. A telegram had been sent to Tardieu fram Paris suggesting that, due to difficulties in transportation, the Poles should be sent to France finst and the transpovtatio n of the Ozecho ..Slovak soldiers shO!Uld be postponed for a few months. Stefanik suicceede.d in defeating this attempt by uncovering its moUves and, on the basis of this 1nfoI1Ination, Tardieu telegraphed to his swperiors that the posbponemen t of the transport of the Ozecho-SlOIVak soldiers would mean the breaking of a promise and that he would have no part i.in such a disho:noraJble act (15). Other difficulties arose in the matterr of transporting trooips; fifty Czech and Slovak soldiers were detained in New Yonk in Decem~ because no exceptions were made foir Czechs and Slovaiks in the instructions sent by the American governmeil!t cOillCerniing kuistro-Hung arian su!bjects. At the intervention O(f the French Ambassador and of General Vignal this maJtter was also straightened out. Steifan:ik contacted American joUTrralists and wrote several articles on the cause for· the newsprupers. He aroused the interest orf F. H. Allen ("World"), Go,rdo:n Srruth am'd, at a dinner given in his honor on J,u ly 23 in New York, he gained the swpport of "The New Repu!blic." Stefanik used these oontaots for propaganda purposes. Early in September the "World" carried a long article on the Czecho~Slovak movement written by Stefanik and Pisecky and an account of the Battle of Halie by Stefani~ appeared later in Chicago news,paipers. (5) Karol Pergler : "Nase revolnce." Vol. II, p. 319 . SLOVAKIA 39 Although Stefanik did not entirely trurst Wilson and did not rugree with his views, he ,g ained the good will of the ever popular Theodore Rooseivelit and of representative Frank L. Polle, who devoted much consideration to the Ozecho-4Slovak question when he later headed the American delegation at the Peace Oonrference after Lansing's departure from Paris. It is generally conceded that Stefanik achieved his greatest success in America by seicuring the cooperation of the Czechs and Slovaks in the Czecho-Slovak movement. Pisec'ky writes: "Stefanik did most in the United States in that he succeeded in convincing the Sloiva.ks of the necessity and the horrorableness of the Czecho-SlOIVak rebeU.ion, that he succeeded in paralyiZing autonomistic and opportunistic UJpshoots of persons of the character of Daxner, Bielelk, Panilmch and others and gained them for the common advance with the Czechs (6) . From this statement one could infer that the American Slo:va.ks resisted the movement for freedom. On the contrary, it was the Slovaiks who, with a few exceptions, first brought UJP the question of freedom from the Hungarian yoke, and who, long before the war, had organized to gaiin recognition of Slo:vak national rights. The Slovak League was founded in 1907 for the punpose of supporting and helping national leaders in the old country. In the year 1910 it requested the U. S. Census officials to list Slovaks, not as immigrants from Ausitria-iH kmgary, but according to their native, tongue. B efore the outbreak of the war, at the beginning o:f the year 1914, a memorandum, signed by representatives of 21 organizations, 23 newspaipers, by many Catholic priests and Protestant ministe,ns, was printed. in five languages in addition to English This memorandum, sent to i:nflmmtial diP'lomats and statesmen, descrilbed the sufferings of the Slova.l{s under Hungarian tyranny and demanded in the name o:f justice and humanity that Slovaks be given the rights which were ri!ghtfully tlheirs. Slovalk journalists and national leaders forll!ght unremittingly through newsprupers and brosuires against Austro,-,H ungarian and German propa(6) Ferdinand Pisecky: "M. R. i§tefanik," p . 81. 40 SLOVAKIA ganda. Moreover, they aided financially. Already in 1914 the Slov:aJk League started a Million Dollar Drive, the proceeds of which were to go to the sw£fering and war-,impoverished Slovaks a,broa<l. When their fellow SlaJVs, the Seribians, were fortced to retreat bef-ore the enemy in the winter of 1915 and felt hearvi1y t:he weight of defeat, the American Slova,ks rallied to their swpport. In a movement Which they themselrves financed they obtained more than a hundred Slovak priJsoners from prison crumps in Canada. Even from this very ibrieif sketch it is evident that the Slovaks in America were, from the very beginning, fully aware and prepared to ma,ke the most of the opportunities which the World Wax presented. They were well on their way in their wo11k for the Slovaks when the Ozecho-{Slovruk National Committee, headed by Masarytk, asked them for their cooperation. In rerviewing the rclations of the Ozechs and Slovaks in the early yea11s of t:he war, one lll/U!st bear in mind foat the creation of the Ozecho-,Slorva;k State was not a sine qua non for the realization of natitonal and cultural independ~e for the Slovruks. Neither were the Allied states determined at the beginning, upon the, dismem1be11ment oif the AustroHUil'garian Kingdom. The brea;k up of Austr.ia-HW11gary evo1ved from later dervefopments , and the Slo'V'ak1s seriously weighed all possilbilities beiforn deciding to cast their lot with the Ozechs. Dm-ing this period of indecision only one thing was cemain, that is, no matter under what form of government, no maitter with whom ailied, Slovak national autonomy had to be g,uiairanteed. In an open letter, pwbli'shed in the "Jednota," December 9, 19'14, Allbert Mamafoy, president of the Slovak Lea•g ue, wrote: "The American Czechs turned to me, as president of the Siov,aJk Lerugue, regarddng the Sltland that the Slovaks wish to taJke in this critical situation. . . . I answered that (ruocording to my convictions) we Slovaks would demand sclf-i:m1e, regardless of the tyipe of government to which we would belong as a result of this war, whether we would lwe UJI1der a Russian, or whether we would be left in old Hungary, (should it remain intact), or SLOVAKIA 41 whether we would be pla,ced in the Ozecho-!Slo!Wlk State, which the Ozechs hoped would :be formed. In my opinion, we S1ovaks must demand ruutonomy from whomsoever we must, whether fiiom Hwrugary or Russia, or from the hoped.for Czech state. And whosoever should get us, irf peaice be desired in the counitry, care must be truken that our demands be satisfied." Reporting on the proceedings of the Congress of the Slovak LeaJgue, held in Pittsburgh, Fe!brua:riy 22, 1915, Joseph Huse'k, editor of the "Jednota," wrote in the March 3rd issue of that year: "One Czech acoused us of hating the Czechs. Thi1s is not true. We love our closest brother. Lf only they loved us as much as we love them. But to date, they have not given us any proof orf this. If matt~s sholl!ld lead to a change in the ,p olitical and governmental form of Austria-iHlwrngary, irf a federation will be formed composed of Bohemia, Moraivia, Silesia, and Slovll!kia, we will be satisfied. I:f they give us complete independence,, we ,vill. 1be sa,tis,. fied, rund, irf this later should not justify itself there will be time enough to joiin ourselves politically and gOivern.meintally more closely with the Bohemians and the Momv,i ans. However, if such a radical change does no,t ta:ke place after the war and we should 0/Illy be guaranteed independence within the limits of the Martin De:clairation, we will hiwe to be satisfied. Erven that woruld be a great concession. When we sha:H have our sc!hools, when we shall be master in our districrts, when we shall also hme representati1Ves, comparable to our nll!mbers, in parliament and a guarantee of free, ind~endent industrial development, we will not lose ourselrves. The rest we will then win by our own strength." And, agai~, in an article entitled "With the Czechs or Without the Ozechs," printed on March 24: "We are sincere and we e:m-phaisize again and again that we are supporteiI's. of the movement which aims to cu1tirv,a te Czecho-Slovak re:c1procity. But the reciprocity for whk,h we are so zealously working mrust be founded upon complete equality of rig1hts and equal value as pem;ains to our national, economic, and cuiltural interests." The first attempt to bring the Czechs and ,Slovaks to- 42 SLOVAKIA gether in America occurred in 1916. At the suggestion of Joseph Tvrzidky, Secretary of the Czech National Society, who was sUJm.rmoned to twke this step by Masaryk, a meeting of the Czech Society and of the Slo.vaik League was called at Cleveland, Ohio. On October 25, 191·5, a pact, proposed and written by Tvrzic:ky, was w0cepted. The conditions under which the SlovaJks were to accept cooperation with the Czechs were summari·z ed in this pact. Nati0J1.al autonomy of S1av8Jkia with an independent parliament, an independent state administration, and free oulrtusrial deveiloipment were guaranrteed. These demands were not the princi,p les Olf indi,vidiual autonormistic groups. This was the platiform of all American Slovaks, with very few exceptions, and the considerations under which they entered the struggle,; the aims they wanted to reali-ze. The extent to which the Slovaks and Czechs in America did not surcceed in reaching a colill'plete unde11standi.ng was deter.mined by the degree in which the American Czechs and the National Ozecho-;Slovak Committee deflected from these prmciples. Thus the Pact Olf Kiev, although signed by the representative of 1:Jhe Slova/k League, Gustav Kosik, incited consteirn:ation armong the American Slovaiks because it referred to "Ozecho,slova,ks," as an ethnic entity - a term not ac~ted by them. In li:ke manner, the newspaper "Czeichosloviak" was not warunly received. There were those among the Slovak leadeirs who, from the ve:r'Y beginning, opposed the use of the woro "Ozechoslo~ak" even in diplomatic agreements, holding to the opinion that the Sl~a!ks Sihould stand as an independent nation. The Parisian Czecho-,Slovak National Committee was looked lllpon wirth Sll!Slpicion by the Catho1ics who were uncertain of the status of religion in the, new state. These suspidoi!liSi, however, were not so strong that they could not be eliminated, and Masaryk himself, when he late:r came to Ameri1ca, quieted the Catholic Slovaks by his promise that there would be complete religious freedom in Ozecho-,Slova'kia. On July 1, 1917, Stefanik ar.ranged a meeting with the Slovaks and the Ozechs at the Congress Hall Hotel in SLOVAKIA 43 Washington at which the following were present: Dr. Fisher, President of the Czech Nrutional Society; Albert Ma:matey, President of the Slova:k -Leag,ue; Emil Voska, ChaJrles Pergler, Dr. HrcHicika, Ivan Daxner, Iivan Bielek, and Ferdinad Pisecky. Stefani:k reported on conditions in Russia, 'but the main object of the meeting was to arrange for a mihtary o,r ga:nization and the cooipeTation of the Czechs and Slwaws. At this meeting Daxner raised the Czeicho-iS1ov,aJk question . .Aigainst his SO-!Called "aurtonomistic attibude" Stefani.ik emphaSlized the necessity of forming a politically inseparaJble state and not an ethnographically insepamble one (7). Con:cerning Stefani•k 's opinion relatirve to the Czechoslovak question and, especially, his oipimon as expressed in his dealings with the American .Slovaks, Poogler asse:rlts: "NaturaUy, the represerntatives of the Slova:k organiJZations of the foturre Czecho-tSlovak state often came to Stefanik. Stefanik al.ways insisted that it was the ooncern of the nation at hoime, that it alone must decide concerning its future origani1zrution, in short, that it is impossible to dictate firom beyond the bo~ders of the country and that every such ruttempt wou1d be futile Whenever the question of Sloivak autonomy aI'ose, he decidedly pointed out, that no guarantees could be demanded £ro:m those living outside of the new state" (8). But even if we should aioceipt this untoo•a ble position, it is impossilble to deny the fact that Stefanik, although he gave no written priomise, did reach an agreement with the America,n Slovaks and succeeded in gaining t'heir cooperation with the .American Cze~hs witlhouit the Slovaks relinquishing their demands. This was pr01Ved at the mooting held in New YoI'k, SeptembeT 20; 1914, where American Slovak priests were present with Stefanik and at which a resolution was a:doipted, stating that they stand on the platform orf the SlovaJk League. The pvograim of the Slovak League was the Cleveland Pact, tlhe · principles of whioh were incorporated into the Pittsburgh Pact which Masariyik (7) Ferdinand Pisecky: "M. R. S.teJanik," p, 72. (8) K. Pergler: "Z americke fronit.y naseho osvo'bozenskeho boje. Nase revoluce.'' Vol. II, pp. 313- 325. · · 44 SLOVAKIA himself drafted and signed with the American SlOIVruks a year later. Stefanik approved the program olf the Slovak Leaigue. With this rupproval he gained the confidence of the groups considered the most consoovative in the work for 0zecho-1Slovalk independence. Of this Benes writes : "The meeting with the Slovak priests was very important because at this meeting Stefanilk dispelled all sm,iprcion and unwillingness of the priests as regards the, movement for independence with which the drive for funds olf the Slovak League was strengthened (9). Because of his deli1cate health Stefanik did not ma:ke many public appearances but when he did speak, he succeeded in maJking a deep impression upon his listeners. He spoke in Slovak and in 0zech a:nd sometimes passed from one language, into another in the same speech. He gained the confidence of the 'Peorple by his enthusia,s m and his fascinating manner as well as with his firm and uncompromising atti1mde towards all righteous demands. In addition to the aJbove mentioned meetings, Stefanik met with the presidents of t!he Slovruk and 0zech organizations on July 1, 1917, in New Yo.rik where tihe misunderstaniling with Ho.nky pertaining to the Durich affaiT in Russia came to the forefront. Horiky especially critidzed Benes whom Stefarui,k defended, stating that he himself directed everything in Russia and Horky, therefore, should turn to him. On July 24 Stef2.ni1k received a deputation of Slovaks headed by Milan Getting w,ho later became the OzeichoSlo,v ak consul in Pittsburgh. On August 13 he was present at a meeting of 0zecho-.Slovak artists and in Seipte.miber he addressed the Cooch and SlovaJk women orf New Yo'I'ik. Between the 16th and 18th of October a large meeting was held in Chicago• at which the ques,t!ion cxf rooruiting was considered. Proceedings at this meeting were somewhat agitated since voices of t!hose who feared the final success of the military m01Vement were raised against Stefanik. A Owcho-Slo,valk mHitary committee was formed in order that the recruiting could proceed in an o:r,g,anized manner. Both (9) Edward Benes: "Sveto'Vii. vii.lka a nase revoluce." 45 SLOVAKIA Protestant and Catholic Ozechs and Sloivaks were r1~pre:sented in the Committee (10). After this meeting recruiting was begun by a proclamation for mdbilization by Stefaruk, coached in classical terms. Stefani1k also issued instnuiotions for the CzechoSlova!k soldiers in America. He divided the country into four districts, each with a separate reporter to which position the following were appointed: Milan Geitting, Gustav Kosik and su!b-;reporter Ivan Gess:a,y; J. Cermak and subreporter J. Tvr.z ioky; J. Stra;ka and swb-reporteir Vojta Benes. This plan, written under the impression of the Chicago comereTIJce, though not essentila:lly changed, had to be adjusted to existing conditions when the time came for actual work. For reasons already ex,plained the recruiting was not as successifiul as Stefanik haid hoped it would be. Despite all efforts the number of volunteers was not quite 2,500 men (11). Of great importance was the demonstration meeting held in Carnegie Hall in New York whl ch SterfanjJk arranged for September 1'6. Because of his friendship for Stefaruk, Fran:kHn...Bouillon accepted the in,Vitation to be the principal spea;ker just before his return to France as Minister of Bropaganda in the caJbinet of Painleve. John P. Mitchell, the may;or of New Yol'lk presided. This meeting, at which the repre,sen!batives of the Ailied armies were present, had a consideraible pro1p aganda significance since it broke the ice of indifference of American journalists. Franklin-Bouillon, who spdke in E':nglish, addressed the men of the "CzechoSlovak" nation and appealed to t:hem to join the Legion. He was the first influential sitatesman who pulblicly voiced the dismemberment of Austria~Hungary. This statement of Franklin-Bouillon created a sensation in Amer1can political circles; (12). 1 In order to facilitate contaict between our groups and government officials, Stefanik changed the Slav Press Bu(10) Vojta Benes: "Nase revoluce." Vol. II, PP. 46-49. (11) K. Pergler: "Nase revoluce." Vol. II ,p. 321. (12) Ar. Bares: "Stefanikuv memorial," p_ · 36. 46 SLOVAKIA reau, originally formed as a bureau of propaganda, into a branch of the Czecho-.Slo,v ak National Committee. He gave the authority to deal in political matters to Charles Pergler. Stefanik thus sucoeeded in realizing his pre-,war dream. of gaining his American countrymen in an armed r~bellion against Austria-Hungary although, in truth, not to the extent he had hoped for. Having completed his. worlk in Ame'l'ica he again turned his efforts and energies toward Europe where much still remained to be done. At the request presented on Octolber 14, 1917, to the War Ministry by General Vignal oif Washington in which he reported that Stefanik had aJbout completed his mission, Stefanik was granted permission to return to France. In November, Vignal telegraphed that Stefani!k would return with the first transport of Czecho""Slorvak troo'Ps and that he would be. free to organize the Czechs in France. In his reports to the Minister of Wa~, Vignal highly praised Stefaniik's work in America. I quote from the tefogirams sent on November 5 and December 5: "He proved to posse,s s the highest degree of tact, disciipline and sense :for orga.n ization. His pel'.'.sonal influence in all matters was such that no mis'OOderstanding arose during his stay and all the Cz~~h groll!ps followed his directions. . . . I aim not aJble to praise suffi~iently this great patriot, coolheaded and insipi:red 'by the most honest and highest feelings. F'ull of taot and wisdom, he gained the sympathies of the highest officials of the American Ministry of Foreign Affairs and he o:rganized with the greatest success the re:cnciting oif the Czecho-SlovaJks (13). Acc,o rding to Benes, Steifaniik :returned to Paris on Novemiber 16 whe:re he con;tinued in his wor,k of organizing the Czecho ...Slovak army. • Editor's Note: Today it is customar;y even for the Ozechs and so--called "Ozechoslovaks" to cl'aim and acclaim Stefanik But Stefanik was not a Czech, nor a "Orechoslovia:k" (a SlO'VaJk in the pay of the Czoohs), but a true Slovak paitriot. Had he lived, Stefanik undou!btedly would (13) From the "Fren,oh Military Archives." SLOVAKIA 47 have fought for the liberation. of his people from all alien tyranny, including the Czech brand as represented by T. G. Masaryk an.d Benes. S,lo,vaJks eveTywhere commemorate May 4th as Stefani'k Day, because it was on May 4, 1919, that their beloved wair hero crashed to his death in a plaine which was "a~cidentally" shot down by a Czech garrison at Vajnory, Slovakia. Many Slovaiks even todiay will tell you 1:!hat Stefanik haid to die, because he never consented to his Slovakiia being a colony o,£ the imperialistic Czechs led by T. G. Masarylk and Benes. On May 4, 1954, Slova,ks everywhere will recall: "it was 35 yeaI'S ago thait Stefarnk was killed by the men who resented his warnings rugainst Bolshevism. " • • • SLOVAK FOLKLORE GOLDILOCKS Once UlpOn a time there was a very poor blacksmith. At one time 'he fared weH, but then hard times struck, he had little work to do., and his wiife and small children were always hungry. Finally he lost everything; at hOlme he had not!hing left but seven ,pennies. His undernourished children cried constantly for something to eat until the blacksmith could stand it no longer. In his despair he boU!ght a rope witlh his last seven ,p ennies and started out for the hills to end it all. When he came into the hills, he sought out a stout branch on a mighty tree to which he fixed the roipe. As the bla;cksmith was a;bout to tie the rope albout his neck, a ,pretty black maiden suddenly appeared .b efore him and pleaded wHJh him not to hang himself, 1b ecause that was not a nice thing to do and, then, it was also a sin. The b,lacksmith was stunned when the black maiden disappeared into the nowhere whence she had come. As he waliked along, his mind wandered baok home where misery and want ruled and again he became despondent. U!P went his rope onto another stout ,h ranch. .&gain the blaJCk maiden s,uddemy appeaired out of the blue and begged him not to commit such an ugly deed. In a quadary, the blactksmith shoo'k his head, bwt said nothing. He did not throw away his rope, but stood  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Milan Rastislav Štefánik Description An account of the resource Stephanie O. Hušek Slovakia, Vol. 4, No. 1 (10), March 1954 pp. 33-47 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Hušek, Stephanie O. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource March 1954 name https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/8c532810a94976495b9931f97ec22776.pdf d3414a49ae71d586201a59257f6dbe41 PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA 2021 7 MILAN RASTISLAV STEFANIK (1880-1919) THE MAN WHO SPOKE TO THE STARS' Michal Ksinan 2 Outside of the Czech and Slovak Republics, people are fairly familiar with Tomas Garrigue Masaryk and Edvard Benes, two of the men responsible for the birth of Czechoslovakia in 1918 and who also served as its first presidents. However, another of the country's founders, Milan Rastislav Stefanik, is much less known , partly because his tragic death in 1919 prevented him from holding a key office for any length of time. Although he is relatively unknown to the wider international public, his contemporaries compared him to Pierre Choderlos de Laclos for the use of military tactics in love affairs, 3 to Lawrence of Arabia for vision, to Napoleon Bonaparte for ambition, to Jules Michelet" for patriotism, and to one of the apostles for conviction.5 Who was this man who charn1ed his surroundings all his life and still continues to charm people today? In order to answer this question , I will present this person to the Englishspeaking reader who is often unfamiliar with Stefanik by emphasising several key points in his life. 6 The Young Man Stefan ik was born on 2 1 July 1880 in the hamlet of Kosariska in today 's western Slovakia (Upper-Hungary at the time) to th e family 1 This article was supported by gran ts VEGA n° 2/0087/20 and APVV n° 17-0399. T he auth or works in the Institute of Hi story of the Slovak Academy of Sciences. 3 French genera l and novelist ( 174 1- 1803) best known for Les Liasons dangere11ses. ~ A famous French hi storian ( 1798- 1874 ). 5 Antoine Mares, Edvard Bene!i : Un drame entre Hitler et Staline (Paris, Perrin, 2015), 70. 6 This artic le is modified version of the texts published in the book: Michal Ksirian , Milan Rastisla v Stefanik, tran s. Julia Sherwood (Bratislava: Lindeni jointly with the Slovak National Archive, 20 19) . For more details, see the first scie ntifi c biography of Stefanik published in French : Michal Ksiri an, L 'homme qui parfait avec /es etoiles. Milan Rastislav Stefanik , heros ji·anco-slovaque de la Grande Guerre (Paris, EU R 'Orbem, 2019). Its Slovak translation will be published under the titl e Milan Rastislav Stefanik. Mui , ktm)i sa rozpraval s hviezdami by Slovart publi shing hou se and an Engli sh transla tion under the title Milan Ras/is/av S1efanik : The Slovak National Hero and Co-Founder of Czechoslovakia by Routledge publishing house. 2 �8 SLOVAKIA 2021 of a Lutheran pastor with strong national convictions. Rai sed in a deeply religious family, Milan Stefanik used to hold similar beliefs. However, during his student days in Prague he was confronted with many liberal views. Discussions in Jeronym, a Protestant c lub, gave him a new perspective on faith. Its members debated progressive theo logical issues and read foreign journals. Stefanik was particularly influenced by the professor of philosophy Masaryk, and in light of his lectures started to question his Christian faith and indeed the existence of God. Not only did Milan Stefanik reject the divine essence of Jesus C hrist, he went so far as to doubt the very existence of God . He rejected reli gion and believed only in science, something that was regarded as genuinely heretical in his environment; that is why hi s father threw the young rebel out of his house in the summer of 1900. Although this breach was not permanent, it demonstrated that young Milan Stefanik had embarked upon a new journey.7 In thi s respect Stefanik can serve as a typical example of the phenomenon of secularisation in the nineteenth century that one can describe as "a loss of orientation , of certain ty, of a single world-view, of a core of reality. " 8 Another key deci sion of the young Stefanik was to switch from studying civi l engineering at Prague's Imperial and Royal Czech Technical High School (1898- 1900) to a degree in astronomy in the Faculty of Arts at the Czec h Charles-Ferdinand University (today's Charles Univers ity) in 1900- 1904. Astronomical studies fit more his romantic nature, even though thi s led to further conflicts between him and his father. The Astronomer After finishing hi s studies in Prague in 1904, Stefanik decided to go to Paris. He took every possible step to embark on a career in science. He started by taking an unpaid job in the observatory in Meudon under professor Jules Janssen, but that came to an end in 1906 when the leading position at the observatory passed to Henri Deslandres, since neither of the men got along. 9 After that Stefanik was appo inted to the paid position 7 Jaromir Va vra. Vzpo minky na Milana Ste(anika [Remini scences on Milan Stefa nik] (Ceske Velenice, Pave l Nobis, 1930), 15- 16. 8 Jifi Hanus, Historie modern! doby [History of the Modem Age] (B rn o, Barrister & Principal, 2004), 80. 9 Fra ni;:oise La unay, Un globe-trotter de la physique celeste. L ·astronome Jules Janssen (Paris, l' Observa toire de Paris, Vuibert, 2008), 256. �SLOVAKIA 2021 9 of deputy director of the Mont Blanc Observatories Society, thi s time with the help of the daughter and widow of the then deceased Jules Janssen. After a year in this post, Stefanik found himself jobless again. Then he decided to establish his own observatory. He had to decide between North Africa and a certain island in French Polynesia. Stefanik settled on the much closer North Africa. He travelled around, mostly in Algeria and Tunisia, but failed to find a suitable location for an observatory. On behalf of the French Bureau des longitudes, Stefanik then tra vell ed to Tahiti to observe the passage of Halley's Comet and to conduct further astronomical observations on an island in French Polynes ia. 10 The plan to observe Halley's Comet fell through because cloud cover made observation impossible. However, Stefanik did manage to carry out the final part of his plan. He decided to extend his stay on Tahiti and explore the conditions for meteorological and astronomical observations, " Provided Tahiti is shown to offer good conditions for astronomical observations, I would be interested in building a permanent observatory (a scientific embassy) there." 11 For Stefanik building a permanent observatory with a functioning meteorological service on thi s island was hi s most important pre-war scientific project. Traveller, Artist and Collector One of the most common astronomical phenomena that Stefanik focused on was the solar ecli pse that forced him to travel all around the world. He observed thi s phenomenon in Spain ( 1905) where all astronomers who observed it were received by Spanish King Alfonso XIII , in Turkistan ( 1907), but his observations failed because of bad weather, and on hi s way back he met with Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy, on Vava'u Island ( 1911) where he had the best results among all sc ientific missions , and in Brazil ( 1912) where again his observations failed beca use of bad weather. Meanwhile, he took beautiful pictures during those journeys. Stefanik was not only interested in astronomica l observations, but also in the life and habits of the locals. During hi s stay in Tahiti , Stefanik bought a horse-drawn cart that he used primarily to check up 10 Rasti slav Rajc hl , Stefanikova paNiska feta [Stefanik 's Pari sian Yea rs] (Praha, Ev ropsk y literarni klub, 1937), 132. 11 Zapisniky M. R. Stefa nika [The Diari es o f M. R. Stefanik) ed . Jose f Bartiisek and Jaroslav Bohac (Praha, Pamatnik osvoboze ni, 1935), 172. �SLOVAKIA 2021 on the meteoro logical stations he had created and also to explore interesting parts of the island. He befriended French officers serving on a gunboat named Zelee and sailed with them to the lesser-known islands of French Pol ynesia. Here Stefanik di scovered and identified some Gaugin woodcuts in Puna'auia, owned by a Tahitian woman who may have been the painter's lover. Inspired by thi s discovery, he continued hi s search and found in her hut a carved wooden tobacco box with relief figures and, e lsewhere, a wooden relief ofa woman . 12 Exotic objects brought back from all five of the planet's inhabited continents formed the most interesting parts of Stefanik's collection. His friendly relations with the natives and hi s ability to develop a quick rapport with new people helped him to acquire these objects . Ivan Kmo remembered Stefanik's apartment thus : It was a strange kind of apartment. In fact, rather than an apartment, it was a small museum. It started in the hallway, which was full of drums, arrows and other weapons used by various indigenous peoples. And the tiny rooms were crammed with exotic objects. I was particularly impressed by the Oriental rugs and Gaugin's woodcuts from Tahiti. Hi s study boasted books, joumals, astronomical equipment and- a beautiful view of the rooftops of Paris. 13 Stefanik also enjoyed entertaining visitors to hi s apartment on the sixth floor at 6 Rue Leclerc with magic trick s. He mastered eighteen illusionist tricks, including cards emerging from a glass, flying and shrinking cards, and a magic wandering ring. 14 He had learned these tricks for a small fee at magicians' gatherings in Paris and bought his equipment from the Academy of Magic. 12 Franti sek Kele and Mi ros lav Musil , Navraty do Po~vnezie. Po S1efanikov1ich slopach [Returns to Polynes ia. Following in the Footsteps of Stefanik ) (OF PRI NT, 1996), 55. 13 Ivan Kmo , " Spomi enky na uj a Milana" [Memori es on Unc le Milan) in S1efanik . Kniha prva : 5pomienl,.y a pos/rehy [S tefanik . Boo k One: Memories and Observations] , ed . Stefan Osusky and Bohdan Pav lu (Praha, Svaz slovenskeho studen tstva v Bratislave, 1938), 38. 14 V ladimir Z uberec, " Za l\1by a zauj my Milana Rasti slava Stefanik a" [The Hobbies and Interests of Milan Rastis lav Stefanik ) in Zbornik Slovenskeho narodneho miizea - His16ria 32 (Martin, Osveta, 1992), I 13- 14. �SLOVAKIA 2021 11 A Worldwide Wireless Telegraph etwork To find suitable support fro m the French government for hi s observatory at Tahiti , Stefanik dev ised hi s own strategy. Through the Bureau des longitudes he planned to donate the observatory and all of its equipment and instruments to the state or the colony, which would cover its operating costs. 15 Willi am Mauri ce Fawtier, the French governor of the colonies in Oceania, asked Stefanik to identify a suitab le location for a wireless station on Tahiti , 16 and subseq uently to have it built and to run it. Stefa nik wanted to join the observatory and wireless station. Thank s to state subsid ies and profits generated by the stati on he would have had suffi cient materi al support. In those days France, the on ly country w ith po liti cal interests in Oceania, was not yet conn ected by wireless telegraph with these colonies, with the exception of New Caledonia. Contact with Tahiti was key, since the island's importance was ex pected to grow following the opening of the Panama Canal. In Jul y of 1912 a draft bill of the Law on an Intercontinenta l Wireless Telegraph Network, to connect the French co loni es scattered around the world with the mother country, was tabled in the French Parliament. Three branches were to radiate fro m Fra nce to the colonies : one w ith Coc hinchina (today the southern part of Vietnam), another w ith the island of Martinique and a third one in the Pac ifi c, with the station s in New Caledonia, th e Marquesas lslands and Tahiti. 17 One of the tasks Stefanik was supposed to fulfil during hi s mi ss ion in Ec uad or ( 1913) was to obtain permi ss ion to establi sh a wireless telegraph station on one of the Galapagos Islands, to facilitate comm unication with Papeete. In spite of the competition of German, Briti sh and America ns companies who had a strong position in these countri es, Stefanik succeeded. 18 Sometime earli er he had presented the French Senator and hi s protector Emil e C hautemps with the project of an 15 Slovensky narodn y archiv, Brati slava (S lovak National Arc hi ves, hereinafter SNA), OF : M. R. Stefanik, box 33, inv. no. I 06 1, Paris, 22 January 19 13, Letter of M. R. Stefan ik to an unknown person (perhaps E. Boutroux). 16 SNA , OF: M. R. Stefa nik, box 33 , inv. no. I 059, Papeete, 16 Octobe r 1913, letter of the governor of the French coloni es in French Pol ynesia W. Fawtier to M. R. Stefan ik . 17 Rasti slav Rajchl , M. R. Stefanik (Praha, Orb is, 194 7), 14- 16 . i x See more: Ekvadorsky zapisnik [Ecuadorian Diary], ed. Vl adimir Polivka (Bratislava, VSSS, 2005, I' ' editi on 1928) . �12 SLOVAKIA 2021 intercontinental telegraph network. Each station was to have an observatory and to provide a meteorological service . In Europe it was to be based on Mont Saleve near Geneva, in Asia its location was to be Hong Kong, in Africa in Morocco, and in Australia and Oceania in Tahiti. Stefanik also wanted to acquire the island of Floriana (Galapagos Islands) to reinforce the French influence in the region , but these projects were doomed because the officials at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs feared the USA's reaction . He did, however, succeed in strengthening France's influence in Ecuador. At the outbreak of the Great War, Stefanik returned to France. He was in Morocco when the news reached him that he had been made a knight of the Legion d'honneur, with this citation: "Having been entrusted with missions to Tahiti and the Republic of Ecuador in 1913 he exhibited outstanding skill and provided extraordinary service to the merchant navy and to French interests. He founded and estab1ished, at his own expense, an observatory on Tahiti and organised a comprehensive meteorological service on the islands of French Oceania." 19 Stefanik had an extraordinary talent for planning globa l projects. He thought in bold and broad strokes and was not content with partial or local solutions. This was undoubtedly one reason why he so often captivated his friends . On the other hand, he d id not always manage to bring his plans to fruition . Sometimes he seemed to bite off more than he could chew. Pilot, Soldier and Inventor Stefanik became a French citizen in 1912 and was drafted in August of 1914 when the First World War broke out. Because of health problems, Stefanik reported for duty in January of 1915 as a pilot and flew over the Western front. In this ro le he focused on so lving problems relating to military aviation . In those days a big problem was communications between pilots and their bases, which he wanted to solve by installing a radio transmitter in his Maurice Farman airplane. As this proved too heavy, he constructed a "parlophone" (from French parler "to speak") to enab le the pilot to communicate w ith his base. He also mulled over the idea of a vertical launch and landing and exp lored 19 Archi ves nati ona les, Paris, LH/2548/35 - M. R. Ste fanik . �SLOVAKIA 2021 13 the best possible use of binoculars.20 Although most of Stefanik's ideas and inventions were not accepted, his military superiors appreciated " his valuable scientific knowledge." 2 1 Stefanik was also interested in the use of meteorology for military aviation. After constructing a meteorological station in the commune of Brias, he tested various meteorological instruments for their possible use in aircraft at various heights. Weather forecasts could be exploited, not only in aviation, but also in the planning of military actions by the infantry. For this reason, General Ferdinand Foch entrusted him with estab li shing a meteorological service for the section of the front under his command. Stefanik refused to take command of this service and left for a mission in Serbia in order to fight the invading AustroH ungarian army.22 Later, Stefanik founded and organised a meteorological service for the Romanian army. He also planned to set up an inter-allied meteorological service for the armies of the Entente. 23 Stefanik's military career was truly exceptional. Mobilised as a rank-and-file soldier in August of 1914, he did not start serving until January of 1915 and three years later (June of 1918) had reached the rank of Brigadier-General. It should be noted, however, that Stefanik's meteoric rise through the ranks was mainly the result of his diplomatic activities, which French officials used to boost his prestige in the eyes of his compatriots, as well Allied soldiers, diplomats and politicians. He also received numerous military and civilian honours , such as the French army's Croix de guerre (w ith bronze palm), the Italian Military Cross, the Serbian Gold medal for bravery, as well as being made a Knight, Officer and Commander of the Legion d'honneur. 20 Zuberec, "Zal'uby a za ujm y Milana Rastis lava Stefanika", 109- 135. SNA , OF: M. R. Ste fanik, box 33 , in v. no. I 037, Pari s, 13 August I 9 I 5, Au suj et des fu sils- mitrailleurs LEWIS a venir d ' Ang leterre. 21 La memoire conservee du general Milan Rastisla v Stefanik dans /es archives du Service historique de la Defense, ed. Frederi c Gue lton, Emm anuelle Bra ud and Michal Ksinan (Paris, SHD, 2008), 26. See [Emile] Prat, " Vzpominky z roku 1915" [Memories from 1915), in Stefaniki,v memorial [Stefa nik 's Memori a l] , ed. Amost Bares (Praha, Pamatnik odboj e, I 929), 153. 23 Rasti slav Rajchl, " M. R. Ste fanik jako organisator vojenske meteorology" [M . R. Stefanik as Organiser o f Military Meteorol ogy], Ri.fr hvezd, 11° 5 (May 1948), I 00--104. 22 �14 SLOVAKIA 2021 The Beginnings of the Czechoslovak Movement During the First World War, the self-determination of nations became one of the principles of international relations. The union of the Czechs and Slovaks in a common state grew out of the close cooperation between leaders of the two nations that had developed in the nineteenth century, as the idea of Slavic mutuality gained ground, and also thanks to the linguistic proximity between Czech and Slovak, two distinct, but closely-related languages. From the geopolitical point of view, Czech and Slovak leaders abroad wanted to replace AustriaHungary as a barrier to German expansion to the East (Orang nach Oesten) by a chain of independent states (Poland, Czechoslovakia, Romania, and Yugoslavia) supported by the Entente. 24 But, the "Czechoslovak question" was completely unknown in the West. To fight this ignorance, the Czechoslovak National Council , the highest organ of the Czechoslovak liberation movement during the Great War, established in m id-1916 started a press propaganda campaign. Masaryk was its President, Josef Dtirich Vice-President, Edvard Benes General Secretary, and Stefanik representative of the Slovaks. After Dtirich's expulsion, he was replaced as Vice-President by Stefanik. Branches of the Czechoslovak National Council were established in several Entente countries, led by supporters of its political orientation.25 Political Seducer To gain support for the Czechoslovak movement among the Entente Powers, a lot of work behind the scenes was needed. Thanks to his astronomic and diplomatic missions before the war, Stefanik was in touch with the most important French politicians. Before going into Stefanik's powers of persuasion, we need first look at his image in French society. In the Third Republic scientists had a very positive image and a cult of science seemed to have become a new lay religion . We must never forget that Stefanik was an astronomer, mathema24 Tomas G. Masaryk, La Nouvelle Europe, ed. Alain Soubigou (Pari s, L ' Hannattan, 2002, 1st edition 191 8), 120, 11 5. 25 Edouard Benes, Souvenirs de guerre et de noire revolution (! 9/4-191 8) I vol. (Pari s, Ernest Lero ux, 1928), 128. Vojensky ustfedni archiv - Vojensky historicky archiv, Prague, f. CSNR - Pari s, CSNR Ill , box 22, correspondence of Benes with Masaryk, 20 June 191 6, Benes writin g to Masaryk. �SLOVAKIA 2021 15 tician, meteorologist, pilot, specialist in wireless telegraphy, and traveller etc. Such a person easily aroused interest in Parisian or Rome "salons" where the most important French or Italian politicians met. Stefanik often enjoyed the favour of women in these circles who were enchanted by him. Several people have written that Stefanik could win over diplomats and politicians with his sense of humour. Robert de Billy, a French diplomat in Rome, recounts the following: Stefanik was charged with observing the solar eclipse in Polynesia, where the visibility would be best. Without any hesitation, he travelled to a small remote island somewhere in the Polynesian archipelago. After disembarking with his telescope, he informed the native chief that the sun would soon disappear but that the government of the Republic (cognizant of its protective responsibilities) had sent Stefanik to ensure that sunlight would return. Everything happened as expected. The tribal chief, astoundded by the night in the middle of the day , and the return of the star on the exact day the magician had predicted, fell at the feet of this supernatural being, the master of magic.26 Many people, not least Stefanik himself, were aware of hi s propensity to exaggerate but everyone knew that his accounts were based on a wealth of true stories and experience. Stefanik suffered from ill health from an early age. He was of slender stature and General Maurice Jan in recalled that his frail bodily frame did not seem built for the enormous amount of energy it contained.27 One cause of Stefanik's poor health was the scale of his ambition, whether in his initial eagerness to make his mark as a scientist or, in later years, in his fight for the creation of Czechoslovakia . The constant nervous strain he was under, frequent travel across all five continents in pursuit of science and later on diplomatic and military missions, undoubtedly left their mark on his health. Recalling Stefanik's health problems, the writer Bertrand de Jouvenel described them as his sacrifice for the nation . "Stefanik never stopped travelling. We would encounter him as a major, we would encounter him as a General , ever 26 Archives du ministere des Affaires etrangeres, Pari s - La Coum euve (hereinafter AMA E), PA-AP 2 I, Robert de Billy, vol. 5, Le general Stefanik . 27 Dusan Kovac, S1efanik a Janin. Pribeh pria1e/'s1va [Stefanik and Janin. The Story o f a Friendship] (Brati slava, Dilema, 200 I), 63-65. �16 SLOVAKIA 2021 paler, ever more frantic , he would eat and speak less and less. One might say that the more he gives of his life to his country the less of it is left in him ." 28 In his attempts to persuade others, Stefanik never hesitated to play on their emotions, or cha ll enge the logic of his audience. His scientific work and travels equipped him with a huge arsena l of knowledge, experience and anecdotes. One of his great virtues was his ability to exploit all these to his benefit, or rather, for the benefit of the Czechoslovak liberation movement. The social recognition of these virtues afforded him high standing, which he was able to exploit. The Czechoslovak Army (Legions) in France and Italy The army formed an extremely important, if not the most important, part of the Czechoslovak liberation movement, and Stefanik was one of its chief organisers. From the very moment the war broke out, Czechs and Slovaks abroad began to organise into various combat units fighting alongside the Entente powers, to prove their loyalty to the Allies and to burnish their anti-Austrian credentials. The Czechoslovak National Council sought to unify and direct these various tendencies. A French presidential decree dated 16 December 1917 authorised the formation of a Czechoslovak army in France.29 However, the problem was that there were neither Czech or Slovak prisoners-ofwar, or a sizeable Czech nor Slovak community on French territory, since France was primarily involved in fighting German forces on the Western front. Bringing Czechoslovak volunteers to France became Stefanik ' s primary aim. The Czechoslovak National Counci l intended to recruit mainly in Italy, Russia and the United States. However, the volunteers were not expected to serve on ly in the army but rather, at their own discretion, could also be deployed in military factories. In an effort to find the vo lunteers for the Czechoslovak army in France Stefanik "Minister of Emergency Situations" went to Russia (1916- 1917), Romania (1916- 1917), the USA ( 1917), Italy (1918), 28 Bertrand de Jouvenel , Un voyageur dans le siec/e (Paris, Robert La fTont, 1979), 48-49. 29 AMA E, C PC 1896-191 8, Guerre 19 14- 191 8, Autriche-Hongri e, vo l. 157 , Pari s, 16 December 191 7, Report to the President of the French Republi c. �SLOVAKIA 2021 17 and Russia again ( 19 I 8- 1919). 30 With various successes in those countries, a Czechoslovak Legion with I 0,000 men was established in France and took part in battles on the Western front in the summer and autumn 1918. In Italy in 1918 there were a large number of Czech and Slovak prisoners-of-war. These had been assembled in separate camps in Padula, Santa Maria Capua Vetere, and Badia Sulmona. Stefanik wanted them to be deployed to France, but this was opposed by the Italian government. It was only prepared to authorise the formation of an auxiliary force to be deployed behind the lines, providing support for the Italian military. As this offer was not favourable to the Czechoslovak movement, Stefanik entered into talks with Italy's top officials. He negotiated with General Armando Diaz, the Minister of War, with King Victor Emmanuel III , with the Minister for Foreign Affairs Sidney Sonnino, and with Prime Minister Vittorio Orlando.31 Following these negotiations, which Stefanik had to handle with utmost sensitivity due to the country's internal political problems, an agreement was reached on 19 April 191 8. 32 The Czechoslovak Legion was to operate under the Italian supreme command but the political influence over its members would be held by the Czechoslovak National Council in Paris. The French Ambassador in Italy had a very positive view of the agreement: "It seems to me that these conditions represent the best we could have secured from the Italian government."33 Two days later, on 21 April , the anniversary of the foundation of Rome, Stefanik signed an agreement on behalf of the Czechoslovak National Council , while Orlando did so on behalf of the government ofltaly. The negotiations Stefanik conducted in Italy can be regarded as his most significant achievement. The Czechoslovak Legion was the first foreign an11y which received permission to operate on 3 ° Karel Pichlik, Bohumfr Klipa and Jitka Zabloudilova, Ceskosluvensti legionah (/914 - 1920) [The Czechos lovak Legionnaires ( 1914- 1920)] (Praha, Mlada fronta, 1996), 150- 59. Mark Corn wa ll, The Undermining of Austria-Hungary. The Battle fo r Hearts and Minds (Basingstoke, GB, Macmillan , 2000), 159. See also: Leo Val iani , The End of Austria-Hungmy (New York , A lfred A. Knopf, 1973). 32 Pavel He lan, " La Legione cecoslovacca," in // Patto di Roma e la Legione cecoslovacca. Tra Grande Guerra e Nuova Europa. ed. Francesco Leoncini (Vittorio Veneto, Kellermann Editore, 2014), 67- 72. 33 AMAE, C PC 1896-1918, Guerre 1914- 1918, Autriche-Hongrie, vol. 158, Rome, 19 April 19 18, Barrere writting to th e Minister of Foreign Affairs, no . 841-842. 31 �18 SLOVAKIA 2021 Italian soil. The creation of Polish and Romanian units followed much later. 34 Further important events connected to Stefanik and the Czechoslovak Army in Italy were placing the military flag of the Czec hoslovak Army on the Altar of the Fatherland in Rome on 24 May 1918, on the anniversary of Italy entering the war; this episode was of extraordinary propaganda importance. The Czech Amelie Posse- Brazdova recalled Stefanik's speech on this occasion: " Like a masterful and ingenious conductor, he played all our trembling heartstrings, leaving not one untouched ."35 Finally around 20,000 Czechoslovak so ldiers fought on the Italian front. The Legions in Russia Stefanik went on his first mission to Russ ia in 1916 and was busy dealing with the internal problems of the Czechoslovak movement. After the February Revolution of 19 17, the new Russian Provisional Government authorized the project of the Czechoslovak Legion in the country, but later changed its position . Only in July 19 I 7, after a successful battle at Zborov (in the frame of the Keren sky Offensive) of the Czechoslovak Brigade, composed mainly of Czechs and Slovaks from Ru ssia and thus Russian citizens, the government permitted recruitment among prisoners-of-war. The Legions in Russia grew quickly. Fol lowing the Bolshevik coup in October of I 9 I 7, the new government was intent on making peace with Germany. This put the Czechoslovak Army into a difficult position, since, in the aftermath of such an agreement, its members would no longer be in a territory that shared a front wi th Gemrnny or Austria-Hungary, and would thus have no enemy to fight. In addition, a number of factions were vying for power in Ru ss ia. Masaryk demanded strict neutrality with regard to internal Russian affairs, but in practice this was difficult to achieve. The orders received by the Czechoslovak Army were constantly changing. The Briti sh would have preferred to keep it in Russ ia under their command, while the French wanted to redeploy the Leg ion to the 34 Angelo Tamborra, L 'idea di nazinnalita e la guerra / 914-1918 (Trento, lnstituto per la storia de l Ri so rgimento ita liano, 1963), 37-43 . 35 Eva Kranz. Amelie Posse- Brazdnva. Zivot spjaty s Ceskoslovenskem [Amelie Posse- Brazdova. A Life Linked w ith Czechoslova ki a] ( Praha, Akropo li s, 20 11 ), 134. �SLOVAKIA 2021 19 Western front. 36 Soon, open conflict broke out between the Czechoslovak Legion and the Bolsheviks, who wanted to disarm them after an incident in Chelyabinsk. Czechoslovak Army representatives, meeting at a congress in Chelyabinsk, decided to prepare for their passage to France via Vladivostok and to resist any attempts to be stopped. The troops quickly captured the Trans-Siberian Railway and were soon openly fighting the Bolsheviks. Later, this capture changed its purpose- the Legions wanted to facilitate the invasion of Russia planned by the Allies. However, after initial successes on the part of the Czechoslovaks, the Bolsheviks gradually began to prevail. 37 Matters turned even more complicated following the coup led by the monarchist Admiral Alexander Kolchak in Siberia in November of 19 I 8. Most of the 60,000 Czechoslovak soldiers were left-leaning and were not eager to see the counter-revolution prevail. However, Kolchak was allied with the Entente, and thus also with Czechoslovakia. Jan Juricek portrayed the situation in Siberia as follows: The soldiers complained about the excessive demands of officers who, ambitious though they were, lacked in experience. The Czechoslovak commanders, in turn , lamented the fact that Russia's White Guard had no appetite for fighting , was prone to flee or to surrender to the enemy, demoralizing our soldiers. The local commanders of the Siberian anti-Bolshevik forces , on the other hand, complained (to General Janin) that the Czechoslovaks' meddling in Russian politics was inappropriate.38 By the time Stefanik arrived in Siberia in November of I 9 I 8 - he had left France in August of 19 I 8 - the Great War had ended and the soldiers did not understand the need for further fighting, as Czechoslovakia had already been established. At first Stefanik tried to convince the Legionnaires that they had to fight to ensure favourable 36 Karel Pichlik, Bez legend [Without Legends] ( Praha, Panorama, 199 1), 377. See: Betty Miller Unterberger, The United States, Revo/utionCIIJ' Russia, and the Rise of Czechoslovakia (Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina Press, 1989) and Victor S. Mamatey, The Un ited States and East Central Europe /914- 191 8. A Studv in Wilsonian Diplomacy and Propaganda ( Princeton, ew Jersey, Princeton University Press, 1957). 3~ Jan Jurfcek, Milan Rastisla v St~fanik (Bratislava, Q 111 , 2006, P' edi ti on 1968), 150. 37 �20 SLOVAKIA 2021 conditions for the peace treaties and the frontiers of Czechoslovakia. He hoped the Legion could fight its way across Russia to the newlyformed state in the heart of Europe. However, Stefanik changed hi s mind after visiting large numbers of Czechoslovak troops on the front. He and General Maurice Janin (the Commander-in-Chief of the Legion in Russia appointed by the Government of France with the consent of the Czechoslovak National Council) concluded that a withdrawal of the Czechoslovak army was inevitable. They would have to leave Russian forces to fight the Bolsheviks, while the Czechoslovak army was to focus on defending the Trans-Siberian railway. 39 Masaryk gave Stefanik powers of attorney to carry out an internal reorganisation of the army, as well as in matters of international policy. Thanks to their complex origin and development, the Legions in Russia were run democratically. The Legionnaires addressed each other as "brother" and the Legion was led by the branch of the Czechoslovak National Council in Russia through elected representatives. While this form of self-government was relatively acceptable in a volunteer army, following the creation of Czechoslovakia in 191 8, the Legion became a regular army that had to be subordinate to the government. Stefanik abolished the branch of the Czechoslovak National Council in Russia. 40 By order number 588, issued only after his departure, Stefanik banned the holding of the second Congress of the Czechoslovak Army and the committee's activities. However, Congress delegates had already been elected. The soldiers were unwilling to give up their elected bodies. Enforcing command number 588 turned out to be very difficult. The conflict between the military command and the soldiers grew to such an extent that a total rift in the army was imminent. 41 Stefanik realised that he would be unable to resolve the situation of the Czec hoslovak army in Siberia and returned to Paris, where he started talks with Allied military officials, Marshal Ferdinand Foch in particular. He demanded either an allied intervention or a complete withdrawal of the Czechoslovak army. In April of 1919 Stefanik sent the following note to T.G. Masaryk: "An inter-allied military 39 AMAE, CPC 1914-1940, Z-Europe, Tchecoslovaquie, vo l. 17, Omsk, 19 Apri l 1919, Jan in writi ng to the minister of war, no. 992. 40 AMAE, CPC 1914-1940, Z-Europe, Tchecoslovaquie, vo l. 16, Vladivostok, 27 December 191 8, Regnault and Martel writing to the Foreign Ministry, no. 18 I. 41 Pichlik, Klipa and Zabloudilova, Ceskoslovensti legionah 246-47. �SLOVAKIA 2021 21 intervention will not take place; our men are perishing in Siberia. Our allies do not always keep their promises because these are made thoughtlessly. There is political and moral chaos."42 The Birth of Czechoslovakia, the Death of Stefanik At the beginning of 1918, the military situation of the Entente Powers was very difficult. Serbia and most of the territory of Romania had been overrun by the enemy in 1915 and in 1916. In 1917 Italy suffered a great defeat at Caporetto and the Italian front moved I 00 km south. The next year Russia signed the Brest-Litovsk peace treaty with Germany, which allowed the Germans to move large numbers of soldiers to the Western front. The Central Powers wanted to win a decisive victory with a large offensive in the spring of 191 8, before the arrival of thousands of soldiers from the United States to Europe. In these complex circumstances the Entente powers were more wi lling to support any project that would weaken their enemies. That is why the movements of the nationalities of Austria-Hungary gained more ground. Thanks to their military efforts in France, Italy but mainly in Russia, the international position of the Czechoslovak National Counci l became stronger. It was step-by-step recognized as the Czechoslovak Provisional Government by the Entente Powers. When Czech and Slovak representtatives proclaimed the founding of Czechoslovakia on 28 October 1918 in Prague, and on October 30 in Turciansky Sv. Martin in Slovakia, its international position was assured thanks also to Stefaniks' activities. Stefanik died soon after the creation of Czechoslovakia. His last diplomatic task was to find a compromise between the Italian and French claims to command the Czechoslovak army in the new state, and he succeed where others cou ldn 't. 43 Stefanik decided fly in an Italian plane to his homeland but it crashed while landing at 4 May 1919. His death aroused a lot of suspicions and resulted in conspiracy theories bringing accusations against Benes, with whom Stefanik did 42 Archiv Ustavu T. G. Masaryka, Prague, f. TGM-R, box 424, Paris, 3 April I 919, M. R. Stefanik writing to T . G. Masaryk. 43 Laura Fortunato, " La Mi ssione militare italiana in Slovacchia: un tentativo di "diplomazia militare" fallito," in Per Rila Tolomeo, scrilli di amici sulfa Dalmazia e I 'Europa cen/ro-orienlale fl, ed . E. Capuzzo, B. C revato-Se lvaggi and F. Guida (Venez ia, La Musa Talia, 2014 ), 13 7- 205. �22 SLOVAKIA 2021 not get along, against freemasons, Czechs, Hungarians and so on . The sum total of the facts and evidence available to us today suggests that Stefanik's death was an accident. Of the many who have written on the subject, it was Pavo) Kanis and his documentary film Stefanik. A Hero 's Story, Homeland (20 I 0) that I find the most persuasive. The Memory of Stefanik One might say that the 20 1h century replacements of various statues in what is now L.:udovit Stur Square in Bratislava reflected the political situation in Czechoslovakia. Each change of reg ime in Czechoslovakia was also reflected in changes of statues. This kind of " marking" of territory is not unusual. Quite the contrary. Every reg ime is interested in erecting monuments to figures who represent ideas and va lues close to its heart and have in some way contributed to the development of a particular community or nation. As part of the celebrations of the Hungarian millennial arriva l in the Danube Valley in 1896, a competition was held in Bratislava (then known as Pozsony in Hunga rian and Pressburg in German) for the design of a monument commemorating the coronations of Habsburg rulers that had been held in the city. The competition was won by sculptor Jan Fadrusz with a sculptural group depicting Empress Maria Theresa's ascent to the throne in 1740. Maria Theresa was acceptable as a symbol both to the Hungarians, who revered , indeed idealised her for her pos itive attitude to Hungarian statehood, as well as, of course, to the Habsburgs, who had a forged a close bond with the city of Pressburg, where the coronations were held for centuries. The scu lpture of Maria Theresa was erected on 16 May 1897 on the Royal Hill Square, w hich was then renamed Coronation Hill Square. 44 The lnterwar Period and the Slovak State The newly-founded Czechoslovakia faced serious problems. It had to preserve its existence by forgin g the idea of a Czechoslovak nation while distancing itse lf from everything Habsburg and Hungarian . Soon after Bratislava was occupied by the Czechos lovak army in February of 1919, someone threw a sack over the head of Maria Theresa and the statue was later boarded up. Neith er the Hungarians nor 44 Pavel Dvorak, Zia ta kniha Bratislavv [Golden book of Brati slava] (Bratislava, Slovensky spi sova tel', 1993), 498- 506. �SLOVAKIA 2021 23 the Habsburgs were prepared to accept the fact that the monarchy had collapsed and did everything they could to bring the Slovaks back into Hungary's fold. King Charles I Habsburg wanted to return to Hungary in October of 1921, intending to ascend to throne. In response to this plan a partial mobilization was declared in Czechoslovakia, which also led to the removal of the statue. Local members of the Sokol, the Czech gymnastics organization, and former Legionnaires, destroyed the statue "as a symbol the oppressive regime. " Once the statue of Maria Theresa had been removed, the next problem arose: who should replace her? It was decided to replace her with a statue of General Stefanik. In 1927 the Committee for the Erection of a Monument of Milan Rastislav Stefanik announced a competition, but the winner wasn't selected so, it was repeated the following year. The winning design was by the Czech sculptor Bohumil Kafka's statue of Milan Stefanik surrounded by four lions g uarding the coats-of-arms of the constituent parts of Czechoslovakia - Bohemia; Moravia and Silesia; Slovakia; Subcarpathian Ruthenia. Kafka later modified his design , leaving a single lion presiding over the Czechoslovak coat-of-arms. The lion was originally to face the Danube River but, after Austria's Anschluss in March of 1938, it was turned to face towards the Slovak National Museum, allegedly to avoid irking Hitler. But the unveiling ceremony, planned for the twentieth anniversary of the foundation of Czechoslovakia never happened, because of the Munich Agreement. During demonstrations marking the proclamation of Slovakia's autonomy in October of 1938, protesters pelted the lion with stones. 45 From a brotherly point of view, this change could be characteristic of the situation in interwar Czechoslovakia. Stefanik was one of the most important founders of Czechoslovakia. His funeral in 1919 was reminiscent of a royal one. After his death a number of statues and memorials were erected across the country. The most monumental one is the memorial on Bradlo Hill in western Slovakia, by the renowned Slovak sculptor Dusan Jurkovic, erected between 1924 and 1928. This monument has become on May 4 th , the anniversary of his death, the site of something resembling an annual national pilgrimage (except for the Communist 45 Zdenek Hojda and Jifi Pokorn y, Pomniky a zapomniky [Memorial s and Anti-Memorials] (Praha, Paseka, 1996), 175- 182. �24 SLOVAKIA 2021 period with a short political detente in 1968- 1969).46 Czechoslovakia, a country in the heart of Europe, fell victim to the political turmoil of the twentieth century, as well as its own lack of internal stability. It failed to secure the loyalty of its minorities, especially the Germans and Hungarians and , ultimately, one of its constituent nations- the Slovaks. The state that was founded on 28 October 1918 ceased to exist twenty-one years later on March 14, 1939, when Slovakia, under pressure from Hitler's Germany, declared its independence. Adolf Hitler is said to have declared "Die katze muss weg", although it cannot be confirmed, when he saw the sculpture from a boat on the Danube. Other sources claim that it was another highranking Naz i who said that the cat (i.e. the Czech lion) had to go, but the pilot could stay. One part of the Slovak public was never too keen on the monument. Anyz, the company that had made the original cast of both statues, replaced the Czechoslovak coat-of-arms with the Slovak one, but that was not enough to save the "cat." In May of 1940, Slovak soldiers removed the lion from its base. From the Coup de Prague in 1948 until Today The end of the war brought about a restoration of Czechoslovakia and also the communist takeover of 1948. The Czechoslovak liberation movement of the First World War did not suit communist ideologues and their version of history. They set out to fight the "bourgeois" liberation legend of Masaryk , Stefanik and Benes. 47 Stefanik' s statues throughout Slovakia began to disappear, mostly at night. This new trend was bound to affect Bratislava as well, with respect to what was then Roosevelt (now Stur) Square and the statue that graced it. The statue of Stefanik was melted down in the early I 950s. 48 The name of the square proved to be equally unsuitable and changed from Roosevelt Square to Stur Square. However, 46 Peter Macho, "M. R. Stefanik - bohatier a muceni k?," [M. R. Stefanik - Hero and Martyr?] in Mvty na.fr slovenske [Our Slovak Myths] , ed. Eduard Krekovi c, Elena Mannova and Eva Krekovi cova (Bratislava, AEP, 2005), 172. 47 See L.:udo vi t Holotik, Stefciniko vska legenda a vznik CSR [The Stefanik Legend and the Fou ndin g of the Czec hoslovak Republic] (Bratislava, SAV, 1958). 48 Milan Varos, Stratene slovenske poklady 2 [Lost Slovak Treasures 2] (Ma rtin , Matica slovenska, 2007), 457- 6 1. �SLOVAKIA 2021 25 as it too k seve ral yea rs to ma ke, the statue of L.:udov ft Stur49 and hi s assoc iates was not placed in the square until th e ea rl y 1970s. De mand s for Stefa nik' s re habilitati o n began to be vo iced eve n before th e end of th e co mmuni st reg ime. 50 On th e occas io n o n the 70th anni ve rsa ry of th e fo undin g of Czec hoslova ki a, Ka fk a's lion was a lso pl aced o n th e plinth , a lbe it not on Stur Squ a re, wh ere it used to be befo re, but in fro nt of th e Sl ovak Nati o na l Muse um. It stood o n a py lo n 14.8 5 metres hi g h, 2 metres wid e and 4 me tres in length , bea rin g th e insc ripti o n " On 28 Octobe r 191 8 th e shared moth erl a nd of Czec hs and S lo vak s, th e Czec hos lova k Re publi c was fo und ed ." The fa ll of the communi st regime in 1989 with the Velvet Revolution, fo ll owed by the "ve lvet di vorce" in 1993, res ulted in the creati on of separate Czec h and S lova k Republics. Stefa nik now retoo k hi s place in the Slovak Pantheon of heroes and hi s memory is omnipresent in today's Slovaki a. If you travel to Bratislava by air, you will land at M. R. Stefanik Airport, while the scientific schedul e of Ivan Bella, Slovakia's first man in space, was known as the Stefanik Miss ion etc. The stori es of the Stur Square did not end , however. C urrently vo ices a re heard de ma ndin g that the sculpture o f L:udov ft Stur and hi s assoc iates be moved to ano th er loca ti o n, s uch as N a mes ti e slobody ( Freedo m Squ a re), and a re pli ca of th e statu e of Mari a Th eresa be mounted aga in o n the embankme nt. Th ese proposa ls have stirred up a li ve ly publi c debate - and po le mi cs . Mea nw hil e th e li o n, toge th er w ith a new ly-cas t Stefa nik , have bee n moved to an area in fro nt of th e new Slova k N ati o na l Th ea tre, betw ee n two buildings ofa shopping ce ntre. A noth er fo unde r o f th e first Czechos lova k Republi c - Masa ryk - now towers ove r th e squ are in front o f th e Nati o na l Mu se um . As observe d by th e hi sto ri an Pave l Dvora k : "The Stur statue is the fourth costl y monument erec ted on the fo rmer Co ronation Hill, a place that has had many names, ending as 49 th ( 18 15- 1856) one of the leaders of the S lova k movement in the I 9 centu ry and the ma in cod i11er of standard Slova k. 50 See Martin Mocko, " Yi liam Plevza a ,, rehab il itacia" M . R. Stefanika ( I)" [V iliam Plevza and '' Rehabi litation" of Stefa ni k ( I)], Nave slovo, 17 Septembe r 20 I 9, https://www.noves lovo.sk/c/V iliam Plevza a rehabilitac ia M R Stefanika I and its 2nd and 3'd cont inuati ons. �26 SLOVAKIA 2021 L:udovit Stur Square today. This small square is not where history was made, but it is where it has revealed its most grotesque face. " 51 51 Dvorak, Zlata kniha Bratislavy, 503 . � SLOVAKIA 2021 7 MILAN RASTISLAV STEFANIK (1880-1919) THE MAN WHO SPOKE TO THE STARS' Michal Ksinan 2 Outside of the Czech and Slovak Republics, people are fairly familiar with Tomas Garrigue Masaryk and Edvard Benes, two of the men responsible for the birth of Czechoslovakia in 1918 and who also served as its first presidents. However, another of the country's founders, Milan Rastislav Stefanik, is much less known , partly because his tragic death in 1919 prevented him from holding a key office for any length of time. Although he is relatively unknown to the wider international public, his contemporaries compared him to Pierre Choderlos de Laclos for the use of military tactics in love affairs, 3 to Lawrence of Arabia for vision, to Napoleon Bonaparte for ambition, to Jules Michelet" for patriotism, and to one of the apostles for conviction.5 Who was this man who charn1ed his surroundings all his life and still continues to charm people today? In order to answer this question , I will present this person to the Englishspeaking reader who is often unfamiliar with Stefanik by emphasising several key points in his life. 6 The Young Man Stefan ik was born on 2 1 July 1880 in the hamlet of Kosariska in today 's western Slovakia (Upper-Hungary at the time) to th e family 1 This article was supported by gran ts VEGA n° 2/0087/20 and APVV n° 17-0399. T he auth or works in the Institute of Hi story of the Slovak Academy of Sciences. 3 French genera l and novelist ( 174 1- 1803) best known for Les Liasons dangere11ses. ~ A famous French hi storian ( 1798- 1874 ). 5 Antoine Mares, Edvard Bene!i : Un drame entre Hitler et Staline (Paris, Perrin, 2015), 70. 6 This artic le is modified version of the texts published in the book: Michal Ksirian , Milan Rastisla v Stefanik, tran s. Julia Sherwood (Bratislava: Lindeni jointly with the Slovak National Archive, 20 19) . For more details, see the first scie ntifi c biography of Stefanik published in French : Michal Ksiri an, L 'homme qui parfait avec /es etoiles. Milan Rastislav Stefanik , heros ji·anco-slovaque de la Grande Guerre (Paris, EU R 'Orbem, 2019). Its Slovak translation will be published under the titl e Milan Rastislav Stefanik. Mui , ktm)i sa rozpraval s hviezdami by Slovart publi shing hou se and an Engli sh transla tion under the title Milan Ras/is/av S1efanik : The Slovak National Hero and Co-Founder of Czechoslovakia by Routledge publishing house. 2 �8 SLOVAKIA 2021 of a Lutheran pastor with strong national convictions. Rai sed in a deeply religious family, Milan Stefanik used to hold similar beliefs. However, during his student days in Prague he was confronted with many liberal views. Discussions in Jeronym, a Protestant c lub, gave him a new perspective on faith. Its members debated progressive theo logical issues and read foreign journals. Stefanik was particularly influenced by the professor of philosophy Masaryk, and in light of his lectures started to question his Christian faith and indeed the existence of God. Not only did Milan Stefanik reject the divine essence of Jesus C hrist, he went so far as to doubt the very existence of God . He rejected reli gion and believed only in science, something that was regarded as genuinely heretical in his environment; that is why hi s father threw the young rebel out of his house in the summer of 1900. Although this breach was not permanent, it demonstrated that young Milan Stefanik had embarked upon a new journey.7 In thi s respect Stefanik can serve as a typical example of the phenomenon of secularisation in the nineteenth century that one can describe as "a loss of orientation , of certain ty, of a single world-view, of a core of reality. " 8 Another key deci sion of the young Stefanik was to switch from studying civi l engineering at Prague's Imperial and Royal Czech Technical High School (1898- 1900) to a degree in astronomy in the Faculty of Arts at the Czec h Charles-Ferdinand University (today's Charles Univers ity) in 1900- 1904. Astronomical studies fit more his romantic nature, even though thi s led to further conflicts between him and his father. The Astronomer After finishing hi s studies in Prague in 1904, Stefanik decided to go to Paris. He took every possible step to embark on a career in science. He started by taking an unpaid job in the observatory in Meudon under professor Jules Janssen, but that came to an end in 1906 when the leading position at the observatory passed to Henri Deslandres, since neither of the men got along. 9 After that Stefanik was appo inted to the paid position 7 Jaromir Va vra. Vzpo minky na Milana Ste(anika [Remini scences on Milan Stefa nik] (Ceske Velenice, Pave l Nobis, 1930), 15- 16. 8 Jifi Hanus, Historie modern! doby [History of the Modem Age] (B rn o, Barrister & Principal, 2004), 80. 9 Fra ni;:oise La unay, Un globe-trotter de la physique celeste. L ·astronome Jules Janssen (Paris, l' Observa toire de Paris, Vuibert, 2008), 256. �SLOVAKIA 2021 9 of deputy director of the Mont Blanc Observatories Society, thi s time with the help of the daughter and widow of the then deceased Jules Janssen. After a year in this post, Stefanik found himself jobless again. Then he decided to establish his own observatory. He had to decide between North Africa and a certain island in French Polynesia. Stefanik settled on the much closer North Africa. He travelled around, mostly in Algeria and Tunisia, but failed to find a suitable location for an observatory. On behalf of the French Bureau des longitudes, Stefanik then tra vell ed to Tahiti to observe the passage of Halley's Comet and to conduct further astronomical observations on an island in French Polynes ia. 10 The plan to observe Halley's Comet fell through because cloud cover made observation impossible. However, Stefanik did manage to carry out the final part of his plan. He decided to extend his stay on Tahiti and explore the conditions for meteorological and astronomical observations, " Provided Tahiti is shown to offer good conditions for astronomical observations, I would be interested in building a permanent observatory (a scientific embassy) there." 11 For Stefanik building a permanent observatory with a functioning meteorological service on thi s island was hi s most important pre-war scientific project. Traveller, Artist and Collector One of the most common astronomical phenomena that Stefanik focused on was the solar ecli pse that forced him to travel all around the world. He observed thi s phenomenon in Spain ( 1905) where all astronomers who observed it were received by Spanish King Alfonso XIII , in Turkistan ( 1907), but his observations failed because of bad weather, and on hi s way back he met with Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy, on Vava'u Island ( 1911) where he had the best results among all sc ientific missions , and in Brazil ( 1912) where again his observations failed beca use of bad weather. Meanwhile, he took beautiful pictures during those journeys. Stefanik was not only interested in astronomica l observations, but also in the life and habits of the locals. During hi s stay in Tahiti , Stefanik bought a horse-drawn cart that he used primarily to check up 10 Rasti slav Rajc hl , Stefanikova paNiska feta [Stefanik 's Pari sian Yea rs] (Praha, Ev ropsk y literarni klub, 1937), 132. 11 Zapisniky M. R. Stefa nika [The Diari es o f M. R. Stefanik) ed . Jose f Bartiisek and Jaroslav Bohac (Praha, Pamatnik osvoboze ni, 1935), 172. �SLOVAKIA 2021 on the meteoro logical stations he had created and also to explore interesting parts of the island. He befriended French officers serving on a gunboat named Zelee and sailed with them to the lesser-known islands of French Pol ynesia. Here Stefanik di scovered and identified some Gaugin woodcuts in Puna'auia, owned by a Tahitian woman who may have been the painter's lover. Inspired by thi s discovery, he continued hi s search and found in her hut a carved wooden tobacco box with relief figures and, e lsewhere, a wooden relief ofa woman . 12 Exotic objects brought back from all five of the planet's inhabited continents formed the most interesting parts of Stefanik's collection. His friendly relations with the natives and hi s ability to develop a quick rapport with new people helped him to acquire these objects . Ivan Kmo remembered Stefanik's apartment thus : It was a strange kind of apartment. In fact, rather than an apartment, it was a small museum. It started in the hallway, which was full of drums, arrows and other weapons used by various indigenous peoples. And the tiny rooms were crammed with exotic objects. I was particularly impressed by the Oriental rugs and Gaugin's woodcuts from Tahiti. Hi s study boasted books, joumals, astronomical equipment and- a beautiful view of the rooftops of Paris. 13 Stefanik also enjoyed entertaining visitors to hi s apartment on the sixth floor at 6 Rue Leclerc with magic trick s. He mastered eighteen illusionist tricks, including cards emerging from a glass, flying and shrinking cards, and a magic wandering ring. 14 He had learned these tricks for a small fee at magicians' gatherings in Paris and bought his equipment from the Academy of Magic. 12 Franti sek Kele and Mi ros lav Musil , Navraty do Po~vnezie. Po S1efanikov1ich slopach [Returns to Polynes ia. Following in the Footsteps of Stefanik ) (OF PRI NT, 1996), 55. 13 Ivan Kmo , " Spomi enky na uj a Milana" [Memori es on Unc le Milan) in S1efanik . Kniha prva : 5pomienl,.y a pos/rehy [S tefanik . Boo k One: Memories and Observations] , ed . Stefan Osusky and Bohdan Pav lu (Praha, Svaz slovenskeho studen tstva v Bratislave, 1938), 38. 14 V ladimir Z uberec, " Za l\1by a zauj my Milana Rasti slava Stefanik a" [The Hobbies and Interests of Milan Rastis lav Stefanik ) in Zbornik Slovenskeho narodneho miizea - His16ria 32 (Martin, Osveta, 1992), I 13- 14. �SLOVAKIA 2021 11 A Worldwide Wireless Telegraph etwork To find suitable support fro m the French government for hi s observatory at Tahiti , Stefanik dev ised hi s own strategy. Through the Bureau des longitudes he planned to donate the observatory and all of its equipment and instruments to the state or the colony, which would cover its operating costs. 15 Willi am Mauri ce Fawtier, the French governor of the colonies in Oceania, asked Stefanik to identify a suitab le location for a wireless station on Tahiti , 16 and subseq uently to have it built and to run it. Stefa nik wanted to join the observatory and wireless station. Thank s to state subsid ies and profits generated by the stati on he would have had suffi cient materi al support. In those days France, the on ly country w ith po liti cal interests in Oceania, was not yet conn ected by wireless telegraph with these colonies, with the exception of New Caledonia. Contact with Tahiti was key, since the island's importance was ex pected to grow following the opening of the Panama Canal. In Jul y of 1912 a draft bill of the Law on an Intercontinenta l Wireless Telegraph Network, to connect the French co loni es scattered around the world with the mother country, was tabled in the French Parliament. Three branches were to radiate fro m Fra nce to the colonies : one w ith Coc hinchina (today the southern part of Vietnam), another w ith the island of Martinique and a third one in the Pac ifi c, with the station s in New Caledonia, th e Marquesas lslands and Tahiti. 17 One of the tasks Stefanik was supposed to fulfil during hi s mi ss ion in Ec uad or ( 1913) was to obtain permi ss ion to establi sh a wireless telegraph station on one of the Galapagos Islands, to facilitate comm unication with Papeete. In spite of the competition of German, Briti sh and America ns companies who had a strong position in these countri es, Stefanik succeeded. 18 Sometime earli er he had presented the French Senator and hi s protector Emil e C hautemps with the project of an 15 Slovensky narodn y archiv, Brati slava (S lovak National Arc hi ves, hereinafter SNA), OF : M. R. Stefanik, box 33, inv. no. I 06 1, Paris, 22 January 19 13, Letter of M. R. Stefan ik to an unknown person (perhaps E. Boutroux). 16 SNA , OF: M. R. Stefa nik, box 33 , inv. no. I 059, Papeete, 16 Octobe r 1913, letter of the governor of the French coloni es in French Pol ynesia W. Fawtier to M. R. Stefan ik . 17 Rasti slav Rajchl , M. R. Stefanik (Praha, Orb is, 194 7), 14- 16 . i x See more: Ekvadorsky zapisnik [Ecuadorian Diary], ed. Vl adimir Polivka (Bratislava, VSSS, 2005, I' ' editi on 1928) . �12 SLOVAKIA 2021 intercontinental telegraph network. Each station was to have an observatory and to provide a meteorological service . In Europe it was to be based on Mont Saleve near Geneva, in Asia its location was to be Hong Kong, in Africa in Morocco, and in Australia and Oceania in Tahiti. Stefanik also wanted to acquire the island of Floriana (Galapagos Islands) to reinforce the French influence in the region , but these projects were doomed because the officials at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs feared the USA's reaction . He did, however, succeed in strengthening France's influence in Ecuador. At the outbreak of the Great War, Stefanik returned to France. He was in Morocco when the news reached him that he had been made a knight of the Legion d'honneur, with this citation: "Having been entrusted with missions to Tahiti and the Republic of Ecuador in 1913 he exhibited outstanding skill and provided extraordinary service to the merchant navy and to French interests. He founded and estab1ished, at his own expense, an observatory on Tahiti and organised a comprehensive meteorological service on the islands of French Oceania." 19 Stefanik had an extraordinary talent for planning globa l projects. He thought in bold and broad strokes and was not content with partial or local solutions. This was undoubtedly one reason why he so often captivated his friends . On the other hand, he d id not always manage to bring his plans to fruition . Sometimes he seemed to bite off more than he could chew. Pilot, Soldier and Inventor Stefanik became a French citizen in 1912 and was drafted in August of 1914 when the First World War broke out. Because of health problems, Stefanik reported for duty in January of 1915 as a pilot and flew over the Western front. In this ro le he focused on so lving problems relating to military aviation . In those days a big problem was communications between pilots and their bases, which he wanted to solve by installing a radio transmitter in his Maurice Farman airplane. As this proved too heavy, he constructed a "parlophone" (from French parler "to speak") to enab le the pilot to communicate w ith his base. He also mulled over the idea of a vertical launch and landing and exp lored 19 Archi ves nati ona les, Paris, LH/2548/35 - M. R. Ste fanik . �SLOVAKIA 2021 13 the best possible use of binoculars.20 Although most of Stefanik's ideas and inventions were not accepted, his military superiors appreciated " his valuable scientific knowledge." 2 1 Stefanik was also interested in the use of meteorology for military aviation. After constructing a meteorological station in the commune of Brias, he tested various meteorological instruments for their possible use in aircraft at various heights. Weather forecasts could be exploited, not only in aviation, but also in the planning of military actions by the infantry. For this reason, General Ferdinand Foch entrusted him with estab li shing a meteorological service for the section of the front under his command. Stefanik refused to take command of this service and left for a mission in Serbia in order to fight the invading AustroH ungarian army.22 Later, Stefanik founded and organised a meteorological service for the Romanian army. He also planned to set up an inter-allied meteorological service for the armies of the Entente. 23 Stefanik's military career was truly exceptional. Mobilised as a rank-and-file soldier in August of 1914, he did not start serving until January of 1915 and three years later (June of 1918) had reached the rank of Brigadier-General. It should be noted, however, that Stefanik's meteoric rise through the ranks was mainly the result of his diplomatic activities, which French officials used to boost his prestige in the eyes of his compatriots, as well Allied soldiers, diplomats and politicians. He also received numerous military and civilian honours , such as the French army's Croix de guerre (w ith bronze palm), the Italian Military Cross, the Serbian Gold medal for bravery, as well as being made a Knight, Officer and Commander of the Legion d'honneur. 20 Zuberec, "Zal'uby a za ujm y Milana Rastis lava Stefanika", 109- 135. SNA , OF: M. R. Ste fanik, box 33 , in v. no. I 037, Pari s, 13 August I 9 I 5, Au suj et des fu sils- mitrailleurs LEWIS a venir d ' Ang leterre. 21 La memoire conservee du general Milan Rastisla v Stefanik dans /es archives du Service historique de la Defense, ed. Frederi c Gue lton, Emm anuelle Bra ud and Michal Ksinan (Paris, SHD, 2008), 26. See [Emile] Prat, " Vzpominky z roku 1915" [Memories from 1915), in Stefaniki,v memorial [Stefa nik 's Memori a l] , ed. Amost Bares (Praha, Pamatnik odboj e, I 929), 153. 23 Rasti slav Rajchl, " M. R. Ste fanik jako organisator vojenske meteorology" [M . R. Stefanik as Organiser o f Military Meteorol ogy], Ri.fr hvezd, 11° 5 (May 1948), I 00--104. 22 �14 SLOVAKIA 2021 The Beginnings of the Czechoslovak Movement During the First World War, the self-determination of nations became one of the principles of international relations. The union of the Czechs and Slovaks in a common state grew out of the close cooperation between leaders of the two nations that had developed in the nineteenth century, as the idea of Slavic mutuality gained ground, and also thanks to the linguistic proximity between Czech and Slovak, two distinct, but closely-related languages. From the geopolitical point of view, Czech and Slovak leaders abroad wanted to replace AustriaHungary as a barrier to German expansion to the East (Orang nach Oesten) by a chain of independent states (Poland, Czechoslovakia, Romania, and Yugoslavia) supported by the Entente. 24 But, the "Czechoslovak question" was completely unknown in the West. To fight this ignorance, the Czechoslovak National Council , the highest organ of the Czechoslovak liberation movement during the Great War, established in m id-1916 started a press propaganda campaign. Masaryk was its President, Josef Dtirich Vice-President, Edvard Benes General Secretary, and Stefanik representative of the Slovaks. After Dtirich's expulsion, he was replaced as Vice-President by Stefanik. Branches of the Czechoslovak National Council were established in several Entente countries, led by supporters of its political orientation.25 Political Seducer To gain support for the Czechoslovak movement among the Entente Powers, a lot of work behind the scenes was needed. Thanks to his astronomic and diplomatic missions before the war, Stefanik was in touch with the most important French politicians. Before going into Stefanik's powers of persuasion, we need first look at his image in French society. In the Third Republic scientists had a very positive image and a cult of science seemed to have become a new lay religion . We must never forget that Stefanik was an astronomer, mathema24 Tomas G. Masaryk, La Nouvelle Europe, ed. Alain Soubigou (Pari s, L ' Hannattan, 2002, 1st edition 191 8), 120, 11 5. 25 Edouard Benes, Souvenirs de guerre et de noire revolution (! 9/4-191 8) I vol. (Pari s, Ernest Lero ux, 1928), 128. Vojensky ustfedni archiv - Vojensky historicky archiv, Prague, f. CSNR - Pari s, CSNR Ill , box 22, correspondence of Benes with Masaryk, 20 June 191 6, Benes writin g to Masaryk. �SLOVAKIA 2021 15 tician, meteorologist, pilot, specialist in wireless telegraphy, and traveller etc. Such a person easily aroused interest in Parisian or Rome "salons" where the most important French or Italian politicians met. Stefanik often enjoyed the favour of women in these circles who were enchanted by him. Several people have written that Stefanik could win over diplomats and politicians with his sense of humour. Robert de Billy, a French diplomat in Rome, recounts the following: Stefanik was charged with observing the solar eclipse in Polynesia, where the visibility would be best. Without any hesitation, he travelled to a small remote island somewhere in the Polynesian archipelago. After disembarking with his telescope, he informed the native chief that the sun would soon disappear but that the government of the Republic (cognizant of its protective responsibilities) had sent Stefanik to ensure that sunlight would return. Everything happened as expected. The tribal chief, astoundded by the night in the middle of the day , and the return of the star on the exact day the magician had predicted, fell at the feet of this supernatural being, the master of magic.26 Many people, not least Stefanik himself, were aware of hi s propensity to exaggerate but everyone knew that his accounts were based on a wealth of true stories and experience. Stefanik suffered from ill health from an early age. He was of slender stature and General Maurice Jan in recalled that his frail bodily frame did not seem built for the enormous amount of energy it contained.27 One cause of Stefanik's poor health was the scale of his ambition, whether in his initial eagerness to make his mark as a scientist or, in later years, in his fight for the creation of Czechoslovakia . The constant nervous strain he was under, frequent travel across all five continents in pursuit of science and later on diplomatic and military missions, undoubtedly left their mark on his health. Recalling Stefanik's health problems, the writer Bertrand de Jouvenel described them as his sacrifice for the nation . "Stefanik never stopped travelling. We would encounter him as a major, we would encounter him as a General , ever 26 Archives du ministere des Affaires etrangeres, Pari s - La Coum euve (hereinafter AMA E), PA-AP 2 I, Robert de Billy, vol. 5, Le general Stefanik . 27 Dusan Kovac, S1efanik a Janin. Pribeh pria1e/'s1va [Stefanik and Janin. The Story o f a Friendship] (Brati slava, Dilema, 200 I), 63-65. �16 SLOVAKIA 2021 paler, ever more frantic , he would eat and speak less and less. One might say that the more he gives of his life to his country the less of it is left in him ." 28 In his attempts to persuade others, Stefanik never hesitated to play on their emotions, or cha ll enge the logic of his audience. His scientific work and travels equipped him with a huge arsena l of knowledge, experience and anecdotes. One of his great virtues was his ability to exploit all these to his benefit, or rather, for the benefit of the Czechoslovak liberation movement. The social recognition of these virtues afforded him high standing, which he was able to exploit. The Czechoslovak Army (Legions) in France and Italy The army formed an extremely important, if not the most important, part of the Czechoslovak liberation movement, and Stefanik was one of its chief organisers. From the very moment the war broke out, Czechs and Slovaks abroad began to organise into various combat units fighting alongside the Entente powers, to prove their loyalty to the Allies and to burnish their anti-Austrian credentials. The Czechoslovak National Council sought to unify and direct these various tendencies. A French presidential decree dated 16 December 1917 authorised the formation of a Czechoslovak army in France.29 However, the problem was that there were neither Czech or Slovak prisoners-ofwar, or a sizeable Czech nor Slovak community on French territory, since France was primarily involved in fighting German forces on the Western front. Bringing Czechoslovak volunteers to France became Stefanik ' s primary aim. The Czechoslovak National Counci l intended to recruit mainly in Italy, Russia and the United States. However, the volunteers were not expected to serve on ly in the army but rather, at their own discretion, could also be deployed in military factories. In an effort to find the vo lunteers for the Czechoslovak army in France Stefanik "Minister of Emergency Situations" went to Russia (1916- 1917), Romania (1916- 1917), the USA ( 1917), Italy (1918), 28 Bertrand de Jouvenel , Un voyageur dans le siec/e (Paris, Robert La fTont, 1979), 48-49. 29 AMA E, C PC 1896-191 8, Guerre 19 14- 191 8, Autriche-Hongri e, vo l. 157 , Pari s, 16 December 191 7, Report to the President of the French Republi c. �SLOVAKIA 2021 17 and Russia again ( 19 I 8- 1919). 30 With various successes in those countries, a Czechoslovak Legion with I 0,000 men was established in France and took part in battles on the Western front in the summer and autumn 1918. In Italy in 1918 there were a large number of Czech and Slovak prisoners-of-war. These had been assembled in separate camps in Padula, Santa Maria Capua Vetere, and Badia Sulmona. Stefanik wanted them to be deployed to France, but this was opposed by the Italian government. It was only prepared to authorise the formation of an auxiliary force to be deployed behind the lines, providing support for the Italian military. As this offer was not favourable to the Czechoslovak movement, Stefanik entered into talks with Italy's top officials. He negotiated with General Armando Diaz, the Minister of War, with King Victor Emmanuel III , with the Minister for Foreign Affairs Sidney Sonnino, and with Prime Minister Vittorio Orlando.31 Following these negotiations, which Stefanik had to handle with utmost sensitivity due to the country's internal political problems, an agreement was reached on 19 April 191 8. 32 The Czechoslovak Legion was to operate under the Italian supreme command but the political influence over its members would be held by the Czechoslovak National Council in Paris. The French Ambassador in Italy had a very positive view of the agreement: "It seems to me that these conditions represent the best we could have secured from the Italian government."33 Two days later, on 21 April , the anniversary of the foundation of Rome, Stefanik signed an agreement on behalf of the Czechoslovak National Council , while Orlando did so on behalf of the government ofltaly. The negotiations Stefanik conducted in Italy can be regarded as his most significant achievement. The Czechoslovak Legion was the first foreign an11y which received permission to operate on 3 ° Karel Pichlik, Bohumfr Klipa and Jitka Zabloudilova, Ceskosluvensti legionah (/914 - 1920) [The Czechos lovak Legionnaires ( 1914- 1920)] (Praha, Mlada fronta, 1996), 150- 59. Mark Corn wa ll, The Undermining of Austria-Hungary. The Battle fo r Hearts and Minds (Basingstoke, GB, Macmillan , 2000), 159. See also: Leo Val iani , The End of Austria-Hungmy (New York , A lfred A. Knopf, 1973). 32 Pavel He lan, " La Legione cecoslovacca," in // Patto di Roma e la Legione cecoslovacca. Tra Grande Guerra e Nuova Europa. ed. Francesco Leoncini (Vittorio Veneto, Kellermann Editore, 2014), 67- 72. 33 AMAE, C PC 1896-1918, Guerre 1914- 1918, Autriche-Hongrie, vol. 158, Rome, 19 April 19 18, Barrere writting to th e Minister of Foreign Affairs, no . 841-842. 31 �18 SLOVAKIA 2021 Italian soil. The creation of Polish and Romanian units followed much later. 34 Further important events connected to Stefanik and the Czechoslovak Army in Italy were placing the military flag of the Czec hoslovak Army on the Altar of the Fatherland in Rome on 24 May 1918, on the anniversary of Italy entering the war; this episode was of extraordinary propaganda importance. The Czech Amelie Posse- Brazdova recalled Stefanik's speech on this occasion: " Like a masterful and ingenious conductor, he played all our trembling heartstrings, leaving not one untouched ."35 Finally around 20,000 Czechoslovak so ldiers fought on the Italian front. The Legions in Russia Stefanik went on his first mission to Russ ia in 1916 and was busy dealing with the internal problems of the Czechoslovak movement. After the February Revolution of 19 17, the new Russian Provisional Government authorized the project of the Czechoslovak Legion in the country, but later changed its position . Only in July 19 I 7, after a successful battle at Zborov (in the frame of the Keren sky Offensive) of the Czechoslovak Brigade, composed mainly of Czechs and Slovaks from Ru ssia and thus Russian citizens, the government permitted recruitment among prisoners-of-war. The Legions in Russia grew quickly. Fol lowing the Bolshevik coup in October of I 9 I 7, the new government was intent on making peace with Germany. This put the Czechoslovak Army into a difficult position, since, in the aftermath of such an agreement, its members would no longer be in a territory that shared a front wi th Gemrnny or Austria-Hungary, and would thus have no enemy to fight. In addition, a number of factions were vying for power in Ru ss ia. Masaryk demanded strict neutrality with regard to internal Russian affairs, but in practice this was difficult to achieve. The orders received by the Czechoslovak Army were constantly changing. The Briti sh would have preferred to keep it in Russ ia under their command, while the French wanted to redeploy the Leg ion to the 34 Angelo Tamborra, L 'idea di nazinnalita e la guerra / 914-1918 (Trento, lnstituto per la storia de l Ri so rgimento ita liano, 1963), 37-43 . 35 Eva Kranz. Amelie Posse- Brazdnva. Zivot spjaty s Ceskoslovenskem [Amelie Posse- Brazdova. A Life Linked w ith Czechoslova ki a] ( Praha, Akropo li s, 20 11 ), 134. �SLOVAKIA 2021 19 Western front. 36 Soon, open conflict broke out between the Czechoslovak Legion and the Bolsheviks, who wanted to disarm them after an incident in Chelyabinsk. Czechoslovak Army representatives, meeting at a congress in Chelyabinsk, decided to prepare for their passage to France via Vladivostok and to resist any attempts to be stopped. The troops quickly captured the Trans-Siberian Railway and were soon openly fighting the Bolsheviks. Later, this capture changed its purpose- the Legions wanted to facilitate the invasion of Russia planned by the Allies. However, after initial successes on the part of the Czechoslovaks, the Bolsheviks gradually began to prevail. 37 Matters turned even more complicated following the coup led by the monarchist Admiral Alexander Kolchak in Siberia in November of 19 I 8. Most of the 60,000 Czechoslovak soldiers were left-leaning and were not eager to see the counter-revolution prevail. However, Kolchak was allied with the Entente, and thus also with Czechoslovakia. Jan Juricek portrayed the situation in Siberia as follows: The soldiers complained about the excessive demands of officers who, ambitious though they were, lacked in experience. The Czechoslovak commanders, in turn , lamented the fact that Russia's White Guard had no appetite for fighting , was prone to flee or to surrender to the enemy, demoralizing our soldiers. The local commanders of the Siberian anti-Bolshevik forces , on the other hand, complained (to General Janin) that the Czechoslovaks' meddling in Russian politics was inappropriate.38 By the time Stefanik arrived in Siberia in November of I 9 I 8 - he had left France in August of 19 I 8 - the Great War had ended and the soldiers did not understand the need for further fighting, as Czechoslovakia had already been established. At first Stefanik tried to convince the Legionnaires that they had to fight to ensure favourable 36 Karel Pichlik, Bez legend [Without Legends] ( Praha, Panorama, 199 1), 377. See: Betty Miller Unterberger, The United States, Revo/utionCIIJ' Russia, and the Rise of Czechoslovakia (Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina Press, 1989) and Victor S. Mamatey, The Un ited States and East Central Europe /914- 191 8. A Studv in Wilsonian Diplomacy and Propaganda ( Princeton, ew Jersey, Princeton University Press, 1957). 3~ Jan Jurfcek, Milan Rastisla v St~fanik (Bratislava, Q 111 , 2006, P' edi ti on 1968), 150. 37 �20 SLOVAKIA 2021 conditions for the peace treaties and the frontiers of Czechoslovakia. He hoped the Legion could fight its way across Russia to the newlyformed state in the heart of Europe. However, Stefanik changed hi s mind after visiting large numbers of Czechoslovak troops on the front. He and General Maurice Janin (the Commander-in-Chief of the Legion in Russia appointed by the Government of France with the consent of the Czechoslovak National Council) concluded that a withdrawal of the Czechoslovak army was inevitable. They would have to leave Russian forces to fight the Bolsheviks, while the Czechoslovak army was to focus on defending the Trans-Siberian railway. 39 Masaryk gave Stefanik powers of attorney to carry out an internal reorganisation of the army, as well as in matters of international policy. Thanks to their complex origin and development, the Legions in Russia were run democratically. The Legionnaires addressed each other as "brother" and the Legion was led by the branch of the Czechoslovak National Council in Russia through elected representatives. While this form of self-government was relatively acceptable in a volunteer army, following the creation of Czechoslovakia in 191 8, the Legion became a regular army that had to be subordinate to the government. Stefanik abolished the branch of the Czechoslovak National Council in Russia. 40 By order number 588, issued only after his departure, Stefanik banned the holding of the second Congress of the Czechoslovak Army and the committee's activities. However, Congress delegates had already been elected. The soldiers were unwilling to give up their elected bodies. Enforcing command number 588 turned out to be very difficult. The conflict between the military command and the soldiers grew to such an extent that a total rift in the army was imminent. 41 Stefanik realised that he would be unable to resolve the situation of the Czec hoslovak army in Siberia and returned to Paris, where he started talks with Allied military officials, Marshal Ferdinand Foch in particular. He demanded either an allied intervention or a complete withdrawal of the Czechoslovak army. In April of 1919 Stefanik sent the following note to T.G. Masaryk: "An inter-allied military 39 AMAE, CPC 1914-1940, Z-Europe, Tchecoslovaquie, vo l. 17, Omsk, 19 Apri l 1919, Jan in writi ng to the minister of war, no. 992. 40 AMAE, CPC 1914-1940, Z-Europe, Tchecoslovaquie, vo l. 16, Vladivostok, 27 December 191 8, Regnault and Martel writing to the Foreign Ministry, no. 18 I. 41 Pichlik, Klipa and Zabloudilova, Ceskoslovensti legionah 246-47. �SLOVAKIA 2021 21 intervention will not take place; our men are perishing in Siberia. Our allies do not always keep their promises because these are made thoughtlessly. There is political and moral chaos."42 The Birth of Czechoslovakia, the Death of Stefanik At the beginning of 1918, the military situation of the Entente Powers was very difficult. Serbia and most of the territory of Romania had been overrun by the enemy in 1915 and in 1916. In 1917 Italy suffered a great defeat at Caporetto and the Italian front moved I 00 km south. The next year Russia signed the Brest-Litovsk peace treaty with Germany, which allowed the Germans to move large numbers of soldiers to the Western front. The Central Powers wanted to win a decisive victory with a large offensive in the spring of 191 8, before the arrival of thousands of soldiers from the United States to Europe. In these complex circumstances the Entente powers were more wi lling to support any project that would weaken their enemies. That is why the movements of the nationalities of Austria-Hungary gained more ground. Thanks to their military efforts in France, Italy but mainly in Russia, the international position of the Czechoslovak National Counci l became stronger. It was step-by-step recognized as the Czechoslovak Provisional Government by the Entente Powers. When Czech and Slovak representtatives proclaimed the founding of Czechoslovakia on 28 October 1918 in Prague, and on October 30 in Turciansky Sv. Martin in Slovakia, its international position was assured thanks also to Stefaniks' activities. Stefanik died soon after the creation of Czechoslovakia. His last diplomatic task was to find a compromise between the Italian and French claims to command the Czechoslovak army in the new state, and he succeed where others cou ldn 't. 43 Stefanik decided fly in an Italian plane to his homeland but it crashed while landing at 4 May 1919. His death aroused a lot of suspicions and resulted in conspiracy theories bringing accusations against Benes, with whom Stefanik did 42 Archiv Ustavu T. G. Masaryka, Prague, f. TGM-R, box 424, Paris, 3 April I 919, M. R. Stefanik writing to T . G. Masaryk. 43 Laura Fortunato, " La Mi ssione militare italiana in Slovacchia: un tentativo di "diplomazia militare" fallito," in Per Rila Tolomeo, scrilli di amici sulfa Dalmazia e I 'Europa cen/ro-orienlale fl, ed . E. Capuzzo, B. C revato-Se lvaggi and F. Guida (Venez ia, La Musa Talia, 2014 ), 13 7- 205. �22 SLOVAKIA 2021 not get along, against freemasons, Czechs, Hungarians and so on . The sum total of the facts and evidence available to us today suggests that Stefanik's death was an accident. Of the many who have written on the subject, it was Pavo) Kanis and his documentary film Stefanik. A Hero 's Story, Homeland (20 I 0) that I find the most persuasive. The Memory of Stefanik One might say that the 20 1h century replacements of various statues in what is now L.:udovit Stur Square in Bratislava reflected the political situation in Czechoslovakia. Each change of reg ime in Czechoslovakia was also reflected in changes of statues. This kind of " marking" of territory is not unusual. Quite the contrary. Every reg ime is interested in erecting monuments to figures who represent ideas and va lues close to its heart and have in some way contributed to the development of a particular community or nation. As part of the celebrations of the Hungarian millennial arriva l in the Danube Valley in 1896, a competition was held in Bratislava (then known as Pozsony in Hunga rian and Pressburg in German) for the design of a monument commemorating the coronations of Habsburg rulers that had been held in the city. The competition was won by sculptor Jan Fadrusz with a sculptural group depicting Empress Maria Theresa's ascent to the throne in 1740. Maria Theresa was acceptable as a symbol both to the Hungarians, who revered , indeed idealised her for her pos itive attitude to Hungarian statehood, as well as, of course, to the Habsburgs, who had a forged a close bond with the city of Pressburg, where the coronations were held for centuries. The scu lpture of Maria Theresa was erected on 16 May 1897 on the Royal Hill Square, w hich was then renamed Coronation Hill Square. 44 The lnterwar Period and the Slovak State The newly-founded Czechoslovakia faced serious problems. It had to preserve its existence by forgin g the idea of a Czechoslovak nation while distancing itse lf from everything Habsburg and Hungarian . Soon after Bratislava was occupied by the Czechos lovak army in February of 1919, someone threw a sack over the head of Maria Theresa and the statue was later boarded up. Neith er the Hungarians nor 44 Pavel Dvorak, Zia ta kniha Bratislavv [Golden book of Brati slava] (Bratislava, Slovensky spi sova tel', 1993), 498- 506. �SLOVAKIA 2021 23 the Habsburgs were prepared to accept the fact that the monarchy had collapsed and did everything they could to bring the Slovaks back into Hungary's fold. King Charles I Habsburg wanted to return to Hungary in October of 1921, intending to ascend to throne. In response to this plan a partial mobilization was declared in Czechoslovakia, which also led to the removal of the statue. Local members of the Sokol, the Czech gymnastics organization, and former Legionnaires, destroyed the statue "as a symbol the oppressive regime. " Once the statue of Maria Theresa had been removed, the next problem arose: who should replace her? It was decided to replace her with a statue of General Stefanik. In 1927 the Committee for the Erection of a Monument of Milan Rastislav Stefanik announced a competition, but the winner wasn't selected so, it was repeated the following year. The winning design was by the Czech sculptor Bohumil Kafka's statue of Milan Stefanik surrounded by four lions g uarding the coats-of-arms of the constituent parts of Czechoslovakia - Bohemia; Moravia and Silesia; Slovakia; Subcarpathian Ruthenia. Kafka later modified his design , leaving a single lion presiding over the Czechoslovak coat-of-arms. The lion was originally to face the Danube River but, after Austria's Anschluss in March of 1938, it was turned to face towards the Slovak National Museum, allegedly to avoid irking Hitler. But the unveiling ceremony, planned for the twentieth anniversary of the foundation of Czechoslovakia never happened, because of the Munich Agreement. During demonstrations marking the proclamation of Slovakia's autonomy in October of 1938, protesters pelted the lion with stones. 45 From a brotherly point of view, this change could be characteristic of the situation in interwar Czechoslovakia. Stefanik was one of the most important founders of Czechoslovakia. His funeral in 1919 was reminiscent of a royal one. After his death a number of statues and memorials were erected across the country. The most monumental one is the memorial on Bradlo Hill in western Slovakia, by the renowned Slovak sculptor Dusan Jurkovic, erected between 1924 and 1928. This monument has become on May 4 th , the anniversary of his death, the site of something resembling an annual national pilgrimage (except for the Communist 45 Zdenek Hojda and Jifi Pokorn y, Pomniky a zapomniky [Memorial s and Anti-Memorials] (Praha, Paseka, 1996), 175- 182. �24 SLOVAKIA 2021 period with a short political detente in 1968- 1969).46 Czechoslovakia, a country in the heart of Europe, fell victim to the political turmoil of the twentieth century, as well as its own lack of internal stability. It failed to secure the loyalty of its minorities, especially the Germans and Hungarians and , ultimately, one of its constituent nations- the Slovaks. The state that was founded on 28 October 1918 ceased to exist twenty-one years later on March 14, 1939, when Slovakia, under pressure from Hitler's Germany, declared its independence. Adolf Hitler is said to have declared "Die katze muss weg", although it cannot be confirmed, when he saw the sculpture from a boat on the Danube. Other sources claim that it was another highranking Naz i who said that the cat (i.e. the Czech lion) had to go, but the pilot could stay. One part of the Slovak public was never too keen on the monument. Anyz, the company that had made the original cast of both statues, replaced the Czechoslovak coat-of-arms with the Slovak one, but that was not enough to save the "cat." In May of 1940, Slovak soldiers removed the lion from its base. From the Coup de Prague in 1948 until Today The end of the war brought about a restoration of Czechoslovakia and also the communist takeover of 1948. The Czechoslovak liberation movement of the First World War did not suit communist ideologues and their version of history. They set out to fight the "bourgeois" liberation legend of Masaryk , Stefanik and Benes. 47 Stefanik' s statues throughout Slovakia began to disappear, mostly at night. This new trend was bound to affect Bratislava as well, with respect to what was then Roosevelt (now Stur) Square and the statue that graced it. The statue of Stefanik was melted down in the early I 950s. 48 The name of the square proved to be equally unsuitable and changed from Roosevelt Square to Stur Square. However, 46 Peter Macho, "M. R. Stefanik - bohatier a muceni k?," [M. R. Stefanik - Hero and Martyr?] in Mvty na.fr slovenske [Our Slovak Myths] , ed. Eduard Krekovi c, Elena Mannova and Eva Krekovi cova (Bratislava, AEP, 2005), 172. 47 See L.:udo vi t Holotik, Stefciniko vska legenda a vznik CSR [The Stefanik Legend and the Fou ndin g of the Czec hoslovak Republic] (Bratislava, SAV, 1958). 48 Milan Varos, Stratene slovenske poklady 2 [Lost Slovak Treasures 2] (Ma rtin , Matica slovenska, 2007), 457- 6 1. �SLOVAKIA 2021 25 as it too k seve ral yea rs to ma ke, the statue of L.:udov ft Stur49 and hi s assoc iates was not placed in the square until th e ea rl y 1970s. De mand s for Stefa nik' s re habilitati o n began to be vo iced eve n before th e end of th e co mmuni st reg ime. 50 On th e occas io n o n the 70th anni ve rsa ry of th e fo undin g of Czec hoslova ki a, Ka fk a's lion was a lso pl aced o n th e plinth , a lbe it not on Stur Squ a re, wh ere it used to be befo re, but in fro nt of th e Sl ovak Nati o na l Muse um. It stood o n a py lo n 14.8 5 metres hi g h, 2 metres wid e and 4 me tres in length , bea rin g th e insc ripti o n " On 28 Octobe r 191 8 th e shared moth erl a nd of Czec hs and S lo vak s, th e Czec hos lova k Re publi c was fo und ed ." The fa ll of the communi st regime in 1989 with the Velvet Revolution, fo ll owed by the "ve lvet di vorce" in 1993, res ulted in the creati on of separate Czec h and S lova k Republics. Stefa nik now retoo k hi s place in the Slovak Pantheon of heroes and hi s memory is omnipresent in today's Slovaki a. If you travel to Bratislava by air, you will land at M. R. Stefanik Airport, while the scientific schedul e of Ivan Bella, Slovakia's first man in space, was known as the Stefanik Miss ion etc. The stori es of the Stur Square did not end , however. C urrently vo ices a re heard de ma ndin g that the sculpture o f L:udov ft Stur and hi s assoc iates be moved to ano th er loca ti o n, s uch as N a mes ti e slobody ( Freedo m Squ a re), and a re pli ca of th e statu e of Mari a Th eresa be mounted aga in o n the embankme nt. Th ese proposa ls have stirred up a li ve ly publi c debate - and po le mi cs . Mea nw hil e th e li o n, toge th er w ith a new ly-cas t Stefa nik , have bee n moved to an area in fro nt of th e new Slova k N ati o na l Th ea tre, betw ee n two buildings ofa shopping ce ntre. A noth er fo unde r o f th e first Czechos lova k Republi c - Masa ryk - now towers ove r th e squ are in front o f th e Nati o na l Mu se um . As observe d by th e hi sto ri an Pave l Dvora k : "The Stur statue is the fourth costl y monument erec ted on the fo rmer Co ronation Hill, a place that has had many names, ending as 49 th ( 18 15- 1856) one of the leaders of the S lova k movement in the I 9 centu ry and the ma in cod i11er of standard Slova k. 50 See Martin Mocko, " Yi liam Plevza a ,, rehab il itacia" M . R. Stefanika ( I)" [V iliam Plevza and '' Rehabi litation" of Stefa ni k ( I)], Nave slovo, 17 Septembe r 20 I 9, https://www.noves lovo.sk/c/V iliam Plevza a rehabilitac ia M R Stefanika I and its 2nd and 3'd cont inuati ons. �26 SLOVAKIA 2021 L:udovit Stur Square today. This small square is not where history was made, but it is where it has revealed its most grotesque face. " 51 51 Dvorak, Zlata kniha Bratislavy, 503 . � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 2021, Vol. 45 Description An account of the resource Vol. 45 (No. 84-85), 2021. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2021 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document SLOVAKIA 2021 7 MILAN RASTISLAV STEFANIK (1880-1919) THE MAN WHO SPOKE TO THE STARS' Michal Ksinan 2 Outside of the Czech and Slovak Republics, people are fairly familiar with Tomas Garrigue Masaryk and Edvard Benes, two of the men responsible for the birth of Czechoslovakia in 1918 and who also served as its first presidents. However, another of the country's founders, Milan Rastislav Stefanik, is much less known , partly because his tragic death in 1919 prevented him from holding a key office for any length of time. Although he is relatively unknown to the wider international public, his contemporaries compared him to Pierre Choderlos de Laclos for the use of military tactics in love affairs, 3 to Lawrence of Arabia for vision, to Napoleon Bonaparte for ambition, to Jules Michelet" for patriotism, and to one of the apostles for conviction.5 Who was this man who charn1ed his surroundings all his life and still continues to charm people today? In order to answer this question , I will present this person to the Englishspeaking reader who is often unfamiliar with Stefanik by emphasising several key points in his life. 6 The Young Man Stefan ik was born on 2 1 July 1880 in the hamlet of Kosariska in today 's western Slovakia (Upper-Hungary at the time) to th e family 1 This article was supported by gran ts VEGA n° 2/0087/20 and APVV n° 17-0399. T he auth or works in the Institute of Hi story of the Slovak Academy of Sciences. 3 French genera l and novelist ( 174 1- 1803) best known for Les Liasons dangere11ses. ~ A famous French hi storian ( 1798- 1874 ). 5 Antoine Mares, Edvard Bene!i : Un drame entre Hitler et Staline (Paris, Perrin, 2015), 70. 6 This artic le is modified version of the texts published in the book: Michal Ksirian , Milan Rastisla v Stefanik, tran s. Julia Sherwood (Bratislava: Lindeni jointly with the Slovak National Archive, 20 19) . For more details, see the first scie ntifi c biography of Stefanik published in French : Michal Ksiri an, L 'homme qui parfait avec /es etoiles. Milan Rastislav Stefanik , heros ji·anco-slovaque de la Grande Guerre (Paris, EU R 'Orbem, 2019). Its Slovak translation will be published under the titl e Milan Rastislav Stefanik. Mui , ktm)i sa rozpraval s hviezdami by Slovart publi shing hou se and an Engli sh transla tion under the title Milan Ras/is/av S1efanik : The Slovak National Hero and Co-Founder of Czechoslovakia by Routledge publishing house. 2 8 SLOVAKIA 2021 of a Lutheran pastor with strong national convictions. Rai sed in a deeply religious family, Milan Stefanik used to hold similar beliefs. However, during his student days in Prague he was confronted with many liberal views. Discussions in Jeronym, a Protestant c lub, gave him a new perspective on faith. Its members debated progressive theo logical issues and read foreign journals. Stefanik was particularly influenced by the professor of philosophy Masaryk, and in light of his lectures started to question his Christian faith and indeed the existence of God. Not only did Milan Stefanik reject the divine essence of Jesus C hrist, he went so far as to doubt the very existence of God . He rejected reli gion and believed only in science, something that was regarded as genuinely heretical in his environment; that is why hi s father threw the young rebel out of his house in the summer of 1900. Although this breach was not permanent, it demonstrated that young Milan Stefanik had embarked upon a new journey.7 In thi s respect Stefanik can serve as a typical example of the phenomenon of secularisation in the nineteenth century that one can describe as "a loss of orientation , of certain ty, of a single world-view, of a core of reality. " 8 Another key deci sion of the young Stefanik was to switch from studying civi l engineering at Prague's Imperial and Royal Czech Technical High School (1898- 1900) to a degree in astronomy in the Faculty of Arts at the Czec h Charles-Ferdinand University (today's Charles Univers ity) in 1900- 1904. Astronomical studies fit more his romantic nature, even though thi s led to further conflicts between him and his father. The Astronomer After finishing hi s studies in Prague in 1904, Stefanik decided to go to Paris. He took every possible step to embark on a career in science. He started by taking an unpaid job in the observatory in Meudon under professor Jules Janssen, but that came to an end in 1906 when the leading position at the observatory passed to Henri Deslandres, since neither of the men got along. 9 After that Stefanik was appo inted to the paid position 7 Jaromir Va vra. Vzpo minky na Milana Ste(anika [Remini scences on Milan Stefa nik] (Ceske Velenice, Pave l Nobis, 1930), 15- 16. 8 Jifi Hanus, Historie modern! doby [History of the Modem Age] (B rn o, Barrister & Principal, 2004), 80. 9 Fra ni;:oise La unay, Un globe-trotter de la physique celeste. L ·astronome Jules Janssen (Paris, l' Observa toire de Paris, Vuibert, 2008), 256. SLOVAKIA 2021 9 of deputy director of the Mont Blanc Observatories Society, thi s time with the help of the daughter and widow of the then deceased Jules Janssen. After a year in this post, Stefanik found himself jobless again. Then he decided to establish his own observatory. He had to decide between North Africa and a certain island in French Polynesia. Stefanik settled on the much closer North Africa. He travelled around, mostly in Algeria and Tunisia, but failed to find a suitable location for an observatory. On behalf of the French Bureau des longitudes, Stefanik then tra vell ed to Tahiti to observe the passage of Halley's Comet and to conduct further astronomical observations on an island in French Polynes ia. 10 The plan to observe Halley's Comet fell through because cloud cover made observation impossible. However, Stefanik did manage to carry out the final part of his plan. He decided to extend his stay on Tahiti and explore the conditions for meteorological and astronomical observations, " Provided Tahiti is shown to offer good conditions for astronomical observations, I would be interested in building a permanent observatory (a scientific embassy) there." 11 For Stefanik building a permanent observatory with a functioning meteorological service on thi s island was hi s most important pre-war scientific project. Traveller, Artist and Collector One of the most common astronomical phenomena that Stefanik focused on was the solar ecli pse that forced him to travel all around the world. He observed thi s phenomenon in Spain ( 1905) where all astronomers who observed it were received by Spanish King Alfonso XIII , in Turkistan ( 1907), but his observations failed because of bad weather, and on hi s way back he met with Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy, on Vava'u Island ( 1911) where he had the best results among all sc ientific missions , and in Brazil ( 1912) where again his observations failed beca use of bad weather. Meanwhile, he took beautiful pictures during those journeys. Stefanik was not only interested in astronomica l observations, but also in the life and habits of the locals. During hi s stay in Tahiti , Stefanik bought a horse-drawn cart that he used primarily to check up 10 Rasti slav Rajc hl , Stefanikova paNiska feta [Stefanik 's Pari sian Yea rs] (Praha, Ev ropsk y literarni klub, 1937), 132. 11 Zapisniky M. R. Stefa nika [The Diari es o f M. R. Stefanik) ed . Jose f Bartiisek and Jaroslav Bohac (Praha, Pamatnik osvoboze ni, 1935), 172. SLOVAKIA 2021 on the meteoro logical stations he had created and also to explore interesting parts of the island. He befriended French officers serving on a gunboat named Zelee and sailed with them to the lesser-known islands of French Pol ynesia. Here Stefanik di scovered and identified some Gaugin woodcuts in Puna'auia, owned by a Tahitian woman who may have been the painter's lover. Inspired by thi s discovery, he continued hi s search and found in her hut a carved wooden tobacco box with relief figures and, e lsewhere, a wooden relief ofa woman . 12 Exotic objects brought back from all five of the planet's inhabited continents formed the most interesting parts of Stefanik's collection. His friendly relations with the natives and hi s ability to develop a quick rapport with new people helped him to acquire these objects . Ivan Kmo remembered Stefanik's apartment thus : It was a strange kind of apartment. In fact, rather than an apartment, it was a small museum. It started in the hallway, which was full of drums, arrows and other weapons used by various indigenous peoples. And the tiny rooms were crammed with exotic objects. I was particularly impressed by the Oriental rugs and Gaugin's woodcuts from Tahiti. Hi s study boasted books, joumals, astronomical equipment and- a beautiful view of the rooftops of Paris. 13 Stefanik also enjoyed entertaining visitors to hi s apartment on the sixth floor at 6 Rue Leclerc with magic trick s. He mastered eighteen illusionist tricks, including cards emerging from a glass, flying and shrinking cards, and a magic wandering ring. 14 He had learned these tricks for a small fee at magicians' gatherings in Paris and bought his equipment from the Academy of Magic. 12 Franti sek Kele and Mi ros lav Musil , Navraty do Po~vnezie. Po S1efanikov1ich slopach [Returns to Polynes ia. Following in the Footsteps of Stefanik ) (OF PRI NT, 1996), 55. 13 Ivan Kmo , " Spomi enky na uj a Milana" [Memori es on Unc le Milan) in S1efanik . Kniha prva : 5pomienl,.y a pos/rehy [S tefanik . Boo k One: Memories and Observations] , ed . Stefan Osusky and Bohdan Pav lu (Praha, Svaz slovenskeho studen tstva v Bratislave, 1938), 38. 14 V ladimir Z uberec, " Za l\1by a zauj my Milana Rasti slava Stefanik a" [The Hobbies and Interests of Milan Rastis lav Stefanik ) in Zbornik Slovenskeho narodneho miizea - His16ria 32 (Martin, Osveta, 1992), I 13- 14. SLOVAKIA 2021 11 A Worldwide Wireless Telegraph etwork To find suitable support fro m the French government for hi s observatory at Tahiti , Stefanik dev ised hi s own strategy. Through the Bureau des longitudes he planned to donate the observatory and all of its equipment and instruments to the state or the colony, which would cover its operating costs. 15 Willi am Mauri ce Fawtier, the French governor of the colonies in Oceania, asked Stefanik to identify a suitab le location for a wireless station on Tahiti , 16 and subseq uently to have it built and to run it. Stefa nik wanted to join the observatory and wireless station. Thank s to state subsid ies and profits generated by the stati on he would have had suffi cient materi al support. In those days France, the on ly country w ith po liti cal interests in Oceania, was not yet conn ected by wireless telegraph with these colonies, with the exception of New Caledonia. Contact with Tahiti was key, since the island's importance was ex pected to grow following the opening of the Panama Canal. In Jul y of 1912 a draft bill of the Law on an Intercontinenta l Wireless Telegraph Network, to connect the French co loni es scattered around the world with the mother country, was tabled in the French Parliament. Three branches were to radiate fro m Fra nce to the colonies : one w ith Coc hinchina (today the southern part of Vietnam), another w ith the island of Martinique and a third one in the Pac ifi c, with the station s in New Caledonia, th e Marquesas lslands and Tahiti. 17 One of the tasks Stefanik was supposed to fulfil during hi s mi ss ion in Ec uad or ( 1913) was to obtain permi ss ion to establi sh a wireless telegraph station on one of the Galapagos Islands, to facilitate comm unication with Papeete. In spite of the competition of German, Briti sh and America ns companies who had a strong position in these countri es, Stefanik succeeded. 18 Sometime earli er he had presented the French Senator and hi s protector Emil e C hautemps with the project of an 15 Slovensky narodn y archiv, Brati slava (S lovak National Arc hi ves, hereinafter SNA), OF : M. R. Stefanik, box 33, inv. no. I 06 1, Paris, 22 January 19 13, Letter of M. R. Stefan ik to an unknown person (perhaps E. Boutroux). 16 SNA , OF: M. R. Stefa nik, box 33 , inv. no. I 059, Papeete, 16 Octobe r 1913, letter of the governor of the French coloni es in French Pol ynesia W. Fawtier to M. R. Stefan ik . 17 Rasti slav Rajchl , M. R. Stefanik (Praha, Orb is, 194 7), 14- 16 . i x See more: Ekvadorsky zapisnik [Ecuadorian Diary], ed. Vl adimir Polivka (Bratislava, VSSS, 2005, I' ' editi on 1928) . 12 SLOVAKIA 2021 intercontinental telegraph network. Each station was to have an observatory and to provide a meteorological service . In Europe it was to be based on Mont Saleve near Geneva, in Asia its location was to be Hong Kong, in Africa in Morocco, and in Australia and Oceania in Tahiti. Stefanik also wanted to acquire the island of Floriana (Galapagos Islands) to reinforce the French influence in the region , but these projects were doomed because the officials at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs feared the USA's reaction . He did, however, succeed in strengthening France's influence in Ecuador. At the outbreak of the Great War, Stefanik returned to France. He was in Morocco when the news reached him that he had been made a knight of the Legion d'honneur, with this citation: "Having been entrusted with missions to Tahiti and the Republic of Ecuador in 1913 he exhibited outstanding skill and provided extraordinary service to the merchant navy and to French interests. He founded and estab1ished, at his own expense, an observatory on Tahiti and organised a comprehensive meteorological service on the islands of French Oceania." 19 Stefanik had an extraordinary talent for planning globa l projects. He thought in bold and broad strokes and was not content with partial or local solutions. This was undoubtedly one reason why he so often captivated his friends . On the other hand, he d id not always manage to bring his plans to fruition . Sometimes he seemed to bite off more than he could chew. Pilot, Soldier and Inventor Stefanik became a French citizen in 1912 and was drafted in August of 1914 when the First World War broke out. Because of health problems, Stefanik reported for duty in January of 1915 as a pilot and flew over the Western front. In this ro le he focused on so lving problems relating to military aviation . In those days a big problem was communications between pilots and their bases, which he wanted to solve by installing a radio transmitter in his Maurice Farman airplane. As this proved too heavy, he constructed a "parlophone" (from French parler "to speak") to enab le the pilot to communicate w ith his base. He also mulled over the idea of a vertical launch and landing and exp lored 19 Archi ves nati ona les, Paris, LH/2548/35 - M. R. Ste fanik . SLOVAKIA 2021 13 the best possible use of binoculars.20 Although most of Stefanik's ideas and inventions were not accepted, his military superiors appreciated " his valuable scientific knowledge." 2 1 Stefanik was also interested in the use of meteorology for military aviation. After constructing a meteorological station in the commune of Brias, he tested various meteorological instruments for their possible use in aircraft at various heights. Weather forecasts could be exploited, not only in aviation, but also in the planning of military actions by the infantry. For this reason, General Ferdinand Foch entrusted him with estab li shing a meteorological service for the section of the front under his command. Stefanik refused to take command of this service and left for a mission in Serbia in order to fight the invading AustroH ungarian army.22 Later, Stefanik founded and organised a meteorological service for the Romanian army. He also planned to set up an inter-allied meteorological service for the armies of the Entente. 23 Stefanik's military career was truly exceptional. Mobilised as a rank-and-file soldier in August of 1914, he did not start serving until January of 1915 and three years later (June of 1918) had reached the rank of Brigadier-General. It should be noted, however, that Stefanik's meteoric rise through the ranks was mainly the result of his diplomatic activities, which French officials used to boost his prestige in the eyes of his compatriots, as well Allied soldiers, diplomats and politicians. He also received numerous military and civilian honours , such as the French army's Croix de guerre (w ith bronze palm), the Italian Military Cross, the Serbian Gold medal for bravery, as well as being made a Knight, Officer and Commander of the Legion d'honneur. 20 Zuberec, "Zal'uby a za ujm y Milana Rastis lava Stefanika", 109- 135. SNA , OF: M. R. Ste fanik, box 33 , in v. no. I 037, Pari s, 13 August I 9 I 5, Au suj et des fu sils- mitrailleurs LEWIS a venir d ' Ang leterre. 21 La memoire conservee du general Milan Rastisla v Stefanik dans /es archives du Service historique de la Defense, ed. Frederi c Gue lton, Emm anuelle Bra ud and Michal Ksinan (Paris, SHD, 2008), 26. See [Emile] Prat, " Vzpominky z roku 1915" [Memories from 1915), in Stefaniki,v memorial [Stefa nik 's Memori a l] , ed. Amost Bares (Praha, Pamatnik odboj e, I 929), 153. 23 Rasti slav Rajchl, " M. R. Ste fanik jako organisator vojenske meteorology" [M . R. Stefanik as Organiser o f Military Meteorol ogy], Ri.fr hvezd, 11° 5 (May 1948), I 00--104. 22 14 SLOVAKIA 2021 The Beginnings of the Czechoslovak Movement During the First World War, the self-determination of nations became one of the principles of international relations. The union of the Czechs and Slovaks in a common state grew out of the close cooperation between leaders of the two nations that had developed in the nineteenth century, as the idea of Slavic mutuality gained ground, and also thanks to the linguistic proximity between Czech and Slovak, two distinct, but closely-related languages. From the geopolitical point of view, Czech and Slovak leaders abroad wanted to replace AustriaHungary as a barrier to German expansion to the East (Orang nach Oesten) by a chain of independent states (Poland, Czechoslovakia, Romania, and Yugoslavia) supported by the Entente. 24 But, the "Czechoslovak question" was completely unknown in the West. To fight this ignorance, the Czechoslovak National Council , the highest organ of the Czechoslovak liberation movement during the Great War, established in m id-1916 started a press propaganda campaign. Masaryk was its President, Josef Dtirich Vice-President, Edvard Benes General Secretary, and Stefanik representative of the Slovaks. After Dtirich's expulsion, he was replaced as Vice-President by Stefanik. Branches of the Czechoslovak National Council were established in several Entente countries, led by supporters of its political orientation.25 Political Seducer To gain support for the Czechoslovak movement among the Entente Powers, a lot of work behind the scenes was needed. Thanks to his astronomic and diplomatic missions before the war, Stefanik was in touch with the most important French politicians. Before going into Stefanik's powers of persuasion, we need first look at his image in French society. In the Third Republic scientists had a very positive image and a cult of science seemed to have become a new lay religion . We must never forget that Stefanik was an astronomer, mathema24 Tomas G. Masaryk, La Nouvelle Europe, ed. Alain Soubigou (Pari s, L ' Hannattan, 2002, 1st edition 191 8), 120, 11 5. 25 Edouard Benes, Souvenirs de guerre et de noire revolution (! 9/4-191 8) I vol. (Pari s, Ernest Lero ux, 1928), 128. Vojensky ustfedni archiv - Vojensky historicky archiv, Prague, f. CSNR - Pari s, CSNR Ill , box 22, correspondence of Benes with Masaryk, 20 June 191 6, Benes writin g to Masaryk. SLOVAKIA 2021 15 tician, meteorologist, pilot, specialist in wireless telegraphy, and traveller etc. Such a person easily aroused interest in Parisian or Rome "salons" where the most important French or Italian politicians met. Stefanik often enjoyed the favour of women in these circles who were enchanted by him. Several people have written that Stefanik could win over diplomats and politicians with his sense of humour. Robert de Billy, a French diplomat in Rome, recounts the following: Stefanik was charged with observing the solar eclipse in Polynesia, where the visibility would be best. Without any hesitation, he travelled to a small remote island somewhere in the Polynesian archipelago. After disembarking with his telescope, he informed the native chief that the sun would soon disappear but that the government of the Republic (cognizant of its protective responsibilities) had sent Stefanik to ensure that sunlight would return. Everything happened as expected. The tribal chief, astoundded by the night in the middle of the day , and the return of the star on the exact day the magician had predicted, fell at the feet of this supernatural being, the master of magic.26 Many people, not least Stefanik himself, were aware of hi s propensity to exaggerate but everyone knew that his accounts were based on a wealth of true stories and experience. Stefanik suffered from ill health from an early age. He was of slender stature and General Maurice Jan in recalled that his frail bodily frame did not seem built for the enormous amount of energy it contained.27 One cause of Stefanik's poor health was the scale of his ambition, whether in his initial eagerness to make his mark as a scientist or, in later years, in his fight for the creation of Czechoslovakia . The constant nervous strain he was under, frequent travel across all five continents in pursuit of science and later on diplomatic and military missions, undoubtedly left their mark on his health. Recalling Stefanik's health problems, the writer Bertrand de Jouvenel described them as his sacrifice for the nation . "Stefanik never stopped travelling. We would encounter him as a major, we would encounter him as a General , ever 26 Archives du ministere des Affaires etrangeres, Pari s - La Coum euve (hereinafter AMA E), PA-AP 2 I, Robert de Billy, vol. 5, Le general Stefanik . 27 Dusan Kovac, S1efanik a Janin. Pribeh pria1e/'s1va [Stefanik and Janin. The Story o f a Friendship] (Brati slava, Dilema, 200 I), 63-65. 16 SLOVAKIA 2021 paler, ever more frantic , he would eat and speak less and less. One might say that the more he gives of his life to his country the less of it is left in him ." 28 In his attempts to persuade others, Stefanik never hesitated to play on their emotions, or cha ll enge the logic of his audience. His scientific work and travels equipped him with a huge arsena l of knowledge, experience and anecdotes. One of his great virtues was his ability to exploit all these to his benefit, or rather, for the benefit of the Czechoslovak liberation movement. The social recognition of these virtues afforded him high standing, which he was able to exploit. The Czechoslovak Army (Legions) in France and Italy The army formed an extremely important, if not the most important, part of the Czechoslovak liberation movement, and Stefanik was one of its chief organisers. From the very moment the war broke out, Czechs and Slovaks abroad began to organise into various combat units fighting alongside the Entente powers, to prove their loyalty to the Allies and to burnish their anti-Austrian credentials. The Czechoslovak National Council sought to unify and direct these various tendencies. A French presidential decree dated 16 December 1917 authorised the formation of a Czechoslovak army in France.29 However, the problem was that there were neither Czech or Slovak prisoners-ofwar, or a sizeable Czech nor Slovak community on French territory, since France was primarily involved in fighting German forces on the Western front. Bringing Czechoslovak volunteers to France became Stefanik ' s primary aim. The Czechoslovak National Counci l intended to recruit mainly in Italy, Russia and the United States. However, the volunteers were not expected to serve on ly in the army but rather, at their own discretion, could also be deployed in military factories. In an effort to find the vo lunteers for the Czechoslovak army in France Stefanik "Minister of Emergency Situations" went to Russia (1916- 1917), Romania (1916- 1917), the USA ( 1917), Italy (1918), 28 Bertrand de Jouvenel , Un voyageur dans le siec/e (Paris, Robert La fTont, 1979), 48-49. 29 AMA E, C PC 1896-191 8, Guerre 19 14- 191 8, Autriche-Hongri e, vo l. 157 , Pari s, 16 December 191 7, Report to the President of the French Republi c. SLOVAKIA 2021 17 and Russia again ( 19 I 8- 1919). 30 With various successes in those countries, a Czechoslovak Legion with I 0,000 men was established in France and took part in battles on the Western front in the summer and autumn 1918. In Italy in 1918 there were a large number of Czech and Slovak prisoners-of-war. These had been assembled in separate camps in Padula, Santa Maria Capua Vetere, and Badia Sulmona. Stefanik wanted them to be deployed to France, but this was opposed by the Italian government. It was only prepared to authorise the formation of an auxiliary force to be deployed behind the lines, providing support for the Italian military. As this offer was not favourable to the Czechoslovak movement, Stefanik entered into talks with Italy's top officials. He negotiated with General Armando Diaz, the Minister of War, with King Victor Emmanuel III , with the Minister for Foreign Affairs Sidney Sonnino, and with Prime Minister Vittorio Orlando.31 Following these negotiations, which Stefanik had to handle with utmost sensitivity due to the country's internal political problems, an agreement was reached on 19 April 191 8. 32 The Czechoslovak Legion was to operate under the Italian supreme command but the political influence over its members would be held by the Czechoslovak National Council in Paris. The French Ambassador in Italy had a very positive view of the agreement: "It seems to me that these conditions represent the best we could have secured from the Italian government."33 Two days later, on 21 April , the anniversary of the foundation of Rome, Stefanik signed an agreement on behalf of the Czechoslovak National Council , while Orlando did so on behalf of the government ofltaly. The negotiations Stefanik conducted in Italy can be regarded as his most significant achievement. The Czechoslovak Legion was the first foreign an11y which received permission to operate on 3 ° Karel Pichlik, Bohumfr Klipa and Jitka Zabloudilova, Ceskosluvensti legionah (/914 - 1920) [The Czechos lovak Legionnaires ( 1914- 1920)] (Praha, Mlada fronta, 1996), 150- 59. Mark Corn wa ll, The Undermining of Austria-Hungary. The Battle fo r Hearts and Minds (Basingstoke, GB, Macmillan , 2000), 159. See also: Leo Val iani , The End of Austria-Hungmy (New York , A lfred A. Knopf, 1973). 32 Pavel He lan, " La Legione cecoslovacca," in // Patto di Roma e la Legione cecoslovacca. Tra Grande Guerra e Nuova Europa. ed. Francesco Leoncini (Vittorio Veneto, Kellermann Editore, 2014), 67- 72. 33 AMAE, C PC 1896-1918, Guerre 1914- 1918, Autriche-Hongrie, vol. 158, Rome, 19 April 19 18, Barrere writting to th e Minister of Foreign Affairs, no . 841-842. 31 18 SLOVAKIA 2021 Italian soil. The creation of Polish and Romanian units followed much later. 34 Further important events connected to Stefanik and the Czechoslovak Army in Italy were placing the military flag of the Czec hoslovak Army on the Altar of the Fatherland in Rome on 24 May 1918, on the anniversary of Italy entering the war; this episode was of extraordinary propaganda importance. The Czech Amelie Posse- Brazdova recalled Stefanik's speech on this occasion: " Like a masterful and ingenious conductor, he played all our trembling heartstrings, leaving not one untouched ."35 Finally around 20,000 Czechoslovak so ldiers fought on the Italian front. The Legions in Russia Stefanik went on his first mission to Russ ia in 1916 and was busy dealing with the internal problems of the Czechoslovak movement. After the February Revolution of 19 17, the new Russian Provisional Government authorized the project of the Czechoslovak Legion in the country, but later changed its position . Only in July 19 I 7, after a successful battle at Zborov (in the frame of the Keren sky Offensive) of the Czechoslovak Brigade, composed mainly of Czechs and Slovaks from Ru ssia and thus Russian citizens, the government permitted recruitment among prisoners-of-war. The Legions in Russia grew quickly. Fol lowing the Bolshevik coup in October of I 9 I 7, the new government was intent on making peace with Germany. This put the Czechoslovak Army into a difficult position, since, in the aftermath of such an agreement, its members would no longer be in a territory that shared a front wi th Gemrnny or Austria-Hungary, and would thus have no enemy to fight. In addition, a number of factions were vying for power in Ru ss ia. Masaryk demanded strict neutrality with regard to internal Russian affairs, but in practice this was difficult to achieve. The orders received by the Czechoslovak Army were constantly changing. The Briti sh would have preferred to keep it in Russ ia under their command, while the French wanted to redeploy the Leg ion to the 34 Angelo Tamborra, L 'idea di nazinnalita e la guerra / 914-1918 (Trento, lnstituto per la storia de l Ri so rgimento ita liano, 1963), 37-43 . 35 Eva Kranz. Amelie Posse- Brazdnva. Zivot spjaty s Ceskoslovenskem [Amelie Posse- Brazdova. A Life Linked w ith Czechoslova ki a] ( Praha, Akropo li s, 20 11 ), 134. SLOVAKIA 2021 19 Western front. 36 Soon, open conflict broke out between the Czechoslovak Legion and the Bolsheviks, who wanted to disarm them after an incident in Chelyabinsk. Czechoslovak Army representatives, meeting at a congress in Chelyabinsk, decided to prepare for their passage to France via Vladivostok and to resist any attempts to be stopped. The troops quickly captured the Trans-Siberian Railway and were soon openly fighting the Bolsheviks. Later, this capture changed its purpose- the Legions wanted to facilitate the invasion of Russia planned by the Allies. However, after initial successes on the part of the Czechoslovaks, the Bolsheviks gradually began to prevail. 37 Matters turned even more complicated following the coup led by the monarchist Admiral Alexander Kolchak in Siberia in November of 19 I 8. Most of the 60,000 Czechoslovak soldiers were left-leaning and were not eager to see the counter-revolution prevail. However, Kolchak was allied with the Entente, and thus also with Czechoslovakia. Jan Juricek portrayed the situation in Siberia as follows: The soldiers complained about the excessive demands of officers who, ambitious though they were, lacked in experience. The Czechoslovak commanders, in turn , lamented the fact that Russia's White Guard had no appetite for fighting , was prone to flee or to surrender to the enemy, demoralizing our soldiers. The local commanders of the Siberian anti-Bolshevik forces , on the other hand, complained (to General Janin) that the Czechoslovaks' meddling in Russian politics was inappropriate.38 By the time Stefanik arrived in Siberia in November of I 9 I 8 - he had left France in August of 19 I 8 - the Great War had ended and the soldiers did not understand the need for further fighting, as Czechoslovakia had already been established. At first Stefanik tried to convince the Legionnaires that they had to fight to ensure favourable 36 Karel Pichlik, Bez legend [Without Legends] ( Praha, Panorama, 199 1), 377. See: Betty Miller Unterberger, The United States, Revo/utionCIIJ' Russia, and the Rise of Czechoslovakia (Chapel Hill, University of North Carolina Press, 1989) and Victor S. Mamatey, The Un ited States and East Central Europe /914- 191 8. A Studv in Wilsonian Diplomacy and Propaganda ( Princeton, ew Jersey, Princeton University Press, 1957). 3~ Jan Jurfcek, Milan Rastisla v St~fanik (Bratislava, Q 111 , 2006, P' edi ti on 1968), 150. 37 20 SLOVAKIA 2021 conditions for the peace treaties and the frontiers of Czechoslovakia. He hoped the Legion could fight its way across Russia to the newlyformed state in the heart of Europe. However, Stefanik changed hi s mind after visiting large numbers of Czechoslovak troops on the front. He and General Maurice Janin (the Commander-in-Chief of the Legion in Russia appointed by the Government of France with the consent of the Czechoslovak National Council) concluded that a withdrawal of the Czechoslovak army was inevitable. They would have to leave Russian forces to fight the Bolsheviks, while the Czechoslovak army was to focus on defending the Trans-Siberian railway. 39 Masaryk gave Stefanik powers of attorney to carry out an internal reorganisation of the army, as well as in matters of international policy. Thanks to their complex origin and development, the Legions in Russia were run democratically. The Legionnaires addressed each other as "brother" and the Legion was led by the branch of the Czechoslovak National Council in Russia through elected representatives. While this form of self-government was relatively acceptable in a volunteer army, following the creation of Czechoslovakia in 191 8, the Legion became a regular army that had to be subordinate to the government. Stefanik abolished the branch of the Czechoslovak National Council in Russia. 40 By order number 588, issued only after his departure, Stefanik banned the holding of the second Congress of the Czechoslovak Army and the committee's activities. However, Congress delegates had already been elected. The soldiers were unwilling to give up their elected bodies. Enforcing command number 588 turned out to be very difficult. The conflict between the military command and the soldiers grew to such an extent that a total rift in the army was imminent. 41 Stefanik realised that he would be unable to resolve the situation of the Czec hoslovak army in Siberia and returned to Paris, where he started talks with Allied military officials, Marshal Ferdinand Foch in particular. He demanded either an allied intervention or a complete withdrawal of the Czechoslovak army. In April of 1919 Stefanik sent the following note to T.G. Masaryk: "An inter-allied military 39 AMAE, CPC 1914-1940, Z-Europe, Tchecoslovaquie, vo l. 17, Omsk, 19 Apri l 1919, Jan in writi ng to the minister of war, no. 992. 40 AMAE, CPC 1914-1940, Z-Europe, Tchecoslovaquie, vo l. 16, Vladivostok, 27 December 191 8, Regnault and Martel writing to the Foreign Ministry, no. 18 I. 41 Pichlik, Klipa and Zabloudilova, Ceskoslovensti legionah 246-47. SLOVAKIA 2021 21 intervention will not take place; our men are perishing in Siberia. Our allies do not always keep their promises because these are made thoughtlessly. There is political and moral chaos."42 The Birth of Czechoslovakia, the Death of Stefanik At the beginning of 1918, the military situation of the Entente Powers was very difficult. Serbia and most of the territory of Romania had been overrun by the enemy in 1915 and in 1916. In 1917 Italy suffered a great defeat at Caporetto and the Italian front moved I 00 km south. The next year Russia signed the Brest-Litovsk peace treaty with Germany, which allowed the Germans to move large numbers of soldiers to the Western front. The Central Powers wanted to win a decisive victory with a large offensive in the spring of 191 8, before the arrival of thousands of soldiers from the United States to Europe. In these complex circumstances the Entente powers were more wi lling to support any project that would weaken their enemies. That is why the movements of the nationalities of Austria-Hungary gained more ground. Thanks to their military efforts in France, Italy but mainly in Russia, the international position of the Czechoslovak National Counci l became stronger. It was step-by-step recognized as the Czechoslovak Provisional Government by the Entente Powers. When Czech and Slovak representtatives proclaimed the founding of Czechoslovakia on 28 October 1918 in Prague, and on October 30 in Turciansky Sv. Martin in Slovakia, its international position was assured thanks also to Stefaniks' activities. Stefanik died soon after the creation of Czechoslovakia. His last diplomatic task was to find a compromise between the Italian and French claims to command the Czechoslovak army in the new state, and he succeed where others cou ldn 't. 43 Stefanik decided fly in an Italian plane to his homeland but it crashed while landing at 4 May 1919. His death aroused a lot of suspicions and resulted in conspiracy theories bringing accusations against Benes, with whom Stefanik did 42 Archiv Ustavu T. G. Masaryka, Prague, f. TGM-R, box 424, Paris, 3 April I 919, M. R. Stefanik writing to T . G. Masaryk. 43 Laura Fortunato, " La Mi ssione militare italiana in Slovacchia: un tentativo di "diplomazia militare" fallito," in Per Rila Tolomeo, scrilli di amici sulfa Dalmazia e I 'Europa cen/ro-orienlale fl, ed . E. Capuzzo, B. C revato-Se lvaggi and F. Guida (Venez ia, La Musa Talia, 2014 ), 13 7- 205. 22 SLOVAKIA 2021 not get along, against freemasons, Czechs, Hungarians and so on . The sum total of the facts and evidence available to us today suggests that Stefanik's death was an accident. Of the many who have written on the subject, it was Pavo) Kanis and his documentary film Stefanik. A Hero 's Story, Homeland (20 I 0) that I find the most persuasive. The Memory of Stefanik One might say that the 20 1h century replacements of various statues in what is now L.:udovit Stur Square in Bratislava reflected the political situation in Czechoslovakia. Each change of reg ime in Czechoslovakia was also reflected in changes of statues. This kind of " marking" of territory is not unusual. Quite the contrary. Every reg ime is interested in erecting monuments to figures who represent ideas and va lues close to its heart and have in some way contributed to the development of a particular community or nation. As part of the celebrations of the Hungarian millennial arriva l in the Danube Valley in 1896, a competition was held in Bratislava (then known as Pozsony in Hunga rian and Pressburg in German) for the design of a monument commemorating the coronations of Habsburg rulers that had been held in the city. The competition was won by sculptor Jan Fadrusz with a sculptural group depicting Empress Maria Theresa's ascent to the throne in 1740. Maria Theresa was acceptable as a symbol both to the Hungarians, who revered , indeed idealised her for her pos itive attitude to Hungarian statehood, as well as, of course, to the Habsburgs, who had a forged a close bond with the city of Pressburg, where the coronations were held for centuries. The scu lpture of Maria Theresa was erected on 16 May 1897 on the Royal Hill Square, w hich was then renamed Coronation Hill Square. 44 The lnterwar Period and the Slovak State The newly-founded Czechoslovakia faced serious problems. It had to preserve its existence by forgin g the idea of a Czechoslovak nation while distancing itse lf from everything Habsburg and Hungarian . Soon after Bratislava was occupied by the Czechos lovak army in February of 1919, someone threw a sack over the head of Maria Theresa and the statue was later boarded up. Neith er the Hungarians nor 44 Pavel Dvorak, Zia ta kniha Bratislavv [Golden book of Brati slava] (Bratislava, Slovensky spi sova tel', 1993), 498- 506. SLOVAKIA 2021 23 the Habsburgs were prepared to accept the fact that the monarchy had collapsed and did everything they could to bring the Slovaks back into Hungary's fold. King Charles I Habsburg wanted to return to Hungary in October of 1921, intending to ascend to throne. In response to this plan a partial mobilization was declared in Czechoslovakia, which also led to the removal of the statue. Local members of the Sokol, the Czech gymnastics organization, and former Legionnaires, destroyed the statue "as a symbol the oppressive regime. " Once the statue of Maria Theresa had been removed, the next problem arose: who should replace her? It was decided to replace her with a statue of General Stefanik. In 1927 the Committee for the Erection of a Monument of Milan Rastislav Stefanik announced a competition, but the winner wasn't selected so, it was repeated the following year. The winning design was by the Czech sculptor Bohumil Kafka's statue of Milan Stefanik surrounded by four lions g uarding the coats-of-arms of the constituent parts of Czechoslovakia - Bohemia; Moravia and Silesia; Slovakia; Subcarpathian Ruthenia. Kafka later modified his design , leaving a single lion presiding over the Czechoslovak coat-of-arms. The lion was originally to face the Danube River but, after Austria's Anschluss in March of 1938, it was turned to face towards the Slovak National Museum, allegedly to avoid irking Hitler. But the unveiling ceremony, planned for the twentieth anniversary of the foundation of Czechoslovakia never happened, because of the Munich Agreement. During demonstrations marking the proclamation of Slovakia's autonomy in October of 1938, protesters pelted the lion with stones. 45 From a brotherly point of view, this change could be characteristic of the situation in interwar Czechoslovakia. Stefanik was one of the most important founders of Czechoslovakia. His funeral in 1919 was reminiscent of a royal one. After his death a number of statues and memorials were erected across the country. The most monumental one is the memorial on Bradlo Hill in western Slovakia, by the renowned Slovak sculptor Dusan Jurkovic, erected between 1924 and 1928. This monument has become on May 4 th , the anniversary of his death, the site of something resembling an annual national pilgrimage (except for the Communist 45 Zdenek Hojda and Jifi Pokorn y, Pomniky a zapomniky [Memorial s and Anti-Memorials] (Praha, Paseka, 1996), 175- 182. 24 SLOVAKIA 2021 period with a short political detente in 1968- 1969).46 Czechoslovakia, a country in the heart of Europe, fell victim to the political turmoil of the twentieth century, as well as its own lack of internal stability. It failed to secure the loyalty of its minorities, especially the Germans and Hungarians and , ultimately, one of its constituent nations- the Slovaks. The state that was founded on 28 October 1918 ceased to exist twenty-one years later on March 14, 1939, when Slovakia, under pressure from Hitler's Germany, declared its independence. Adolf Hitler is said to have declared "Die katze muss weg", although it cannot be confirmed, when he saw the sculpture from a boat on the Danube. Other sources claim that it was another highranking Naz i who said that the cat (i.e. the Czech lion) had to go, but the pilot could stay. One part of the Slovak public was never too keen on the monument. Anyz, the company that had made the original cast of both statues, replaced the Czechoslovak coat-of-arms with the Slovak one, but that was not enough to save the "cat." In May of 1940, Slovak soldiers removed the lion from its base. From the Coup de Prague in 1948 until Today The end of the war brought about a restoration of Czechoslovakia and also the communist takeover of 1948. The Czechoslovak liberation movement of the First World War did not suit communist ideologues and their version of history. They set out to fight the "bourgeois" liberation legend of Masaryk , Stefanik and Benes. 47 Stefanik' s statues throughout Slovakia began to disappear, mostly at night. This new trend was bound to affect Bratislava as well, with respect to what was then Roosevelt (now Stur) Square and the statue that graced it. The statue of Stefanik was melted down in the early I 950s. 48 The name of the square proved to be equally unsuitable and changed from Roosevelt Square to Stur Square. However, 46 Peter Macho, "M. R. Stefanik - bohatier a muceni k?," [M. R. Stefanik - Hero and Martyr?] in Mvty na.fr slovenske [Our Slovak Myths] , ed. Eduard Krekovi c, Elena Mannova and Eva Krekovi cova (Bratislava, AEP, 2005), 172. 47 See L.:udo vi t Holotik, Stefciniko vska legenda a vznik CSR [The Stefanik Legend and the Fou ndin g of the Czec hoslovak Republic] (Bratislava, SAV, 1958). 48 Milan Varos, Stratene slovenske poklady 2 [Lost Slovak Treasures 2] (Ma rtin , Matica slovenska, 2007), 457- 6 1. SLOVAKIA 2021 25 as it too k seve ral yea rs to ma ke, the statue of L.:udov ft Stur49 and hi s assoc iates was not placed in the square until th e ea rl y 1970s. De mand s for Stefa nik' s re habilitati o n began to be vo iced eve n before th e end of th e co mmuni st reg ime. 50 On th e occas io n o n the 70th anni ve rsa ry of th e fo undin g of Czec hoslova ki a, Ka fk a's lion was a lso pl aced o n th e plinth , a lbe it not on Stur Squ a re, wh ere it used to be befo re, but in fro nt of th e Sl ovak Nati o na l Muse um. It stood o n a py lo n 14.8 5 metres hi g h, 2 metres wid e and 4 me tres in length , bea rin g th e insc ripti o n " On 28 Octobe r 191 8 th e shared moth erl a nd of Czec hs and S lo vak s, th e Czec hos lova k Re publi c was fo und ed ." The fa ll of the communi st regime in 1989 with the Velvet Revolution, fo ll owed by the "ve lvet di vorce" in 1993, res ulted in the creati on of separate Czec h and S lova k Republics. Stefa nik now retoo k hi s place in the Slovak Pantheon of heroes and hi s memory is omnipresent in today's Slovaki a. If you travel to Bratislava by air, you will land at M. R. Stefanik Airport, while the scientific schedul e of Ivan Bella, Slovakia's first man in space, was known as the Stefanik Miss ion etc. The stori es of the Stur Square did not end , however. C urrently vo ices a re heard de ma ndin g that the sculpture o f L:udov ft Stur and hi s assoc iates be moved to ano th er loca ti o n, s uch as N a mes ti e slobody ( Freedo m Squ a re), and a re pli ca of th e statu e of Mari a Th eresa be mounted aga in o n the embankme nt. Th ese proposa ls have stirred up a li ve ly publi c debate - and po le mi cs . Mea nw hil e th e li o n, toge th er w ith a new ly-cas t Stefa nik , have bee n moved to an area in fro nt of th e new Slova k N ati o na l Th ea tre, betw ee n two buildings ofa shopping ce ntre. A noth er fo unde r o f th e first Czechos lova k Republi c - Masa ryk - now towers ove r th e squ are in front o f th e Nati o na l Mu se um . As observe d by th e hi sto ri an Pave l Dvora k : "The Stur statue is the fourth costl y monument erec ted on the fo rmer Co ronation Hill, a place that has had many names, ending as 49 th ( 18 15- 1856) one of the leaders of the S lova k movement in the I 9 centu ry and the ma in cod i11er of standard Slova k. 50 See Martin Mocko, " Yi liam Plevza a ,, rehab il itacia" M . R. Stefanika ( I)" [V iliam Plevza and '' Rehabi litation" of Stefa ni k ( I)], Nave slovo, 17 Septembe r 20 I 9, https://www.noves lovo.sk/c/V iliam Plevza a rehabilitac ia M R Stefanika I and its 2nd and 3'd cont inuati ons. 26 SLOVAKIA 2021 L:udovit Stur Square today. This small square is not where history was made, but it is where it has revealed its most grotesque face. " 51 51 Dvorak, Zlata kniha Bratislavy, 503 .  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Milan Rastislav Štefánik (1880-1919): The Man Who Spoke to the Stars Description An account of the resource Michal Kšiňan Slovakia, Vol. 45 (No. 84-85), 2021 pp. 7-26 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Kšiňan, Michal, 1983- Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2021 SNK https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/d214f3f80aa0b5c207d8842334f93e61.pdf 8460ac2e169a4f2a38037c997f11957e PDF Text Text 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 �SLOVAKIA 169 appeared to be united, in actuality is became evident that both Austria and Hungary were really two separate states. Even though they shared a common ruler, a common foreign policy, a common army, and common finances 1 both parts of the Monarchy were totally independent. Slovakia and Slovak destiny was in the hands of the Hungarian or Magyar state. The new arrangement gave the Magyars absolute control over the 30 million Slavs and the other non-Magyar elements which constituted a majority of the Hungarian population. The Slovaks were one of those nationalities with unique cultural distinctions which would separate them from the Magyars. For a time the Magyars permitted the establishment of Slovak schools and cultural societies for the preservation of the Slovak heritage and history. On the surface at least, this seemed fairly liberal for the times. The crucial question of laws made to secure these schools and societies and their enforcement arose constantly and on this score the Slovaks couldn't be too hopeful. Indeed, Slovaks seemed to sense that the Austro-Hungarian settlement would bring nothing but new setbacks and humiliations. The long history of resisting domination from many different empires and peoples conditioned them for what was to come. The Magyars feared that if the Slovak people studied their history, language, and culture, they might eventually desire to become a free nation, separate from the Hungarian state. A half-hearted program of the Magyarization of the Slovak people had existed for some time but it was during the 1860's that this policy began to be strongly enforced. The Slovaks were denied the right of free speech and assembly. 2 Their literature and schools were suppressed and forbidden. They were forced to learn in a tongue-Magyar-which was completely alien to them. This "Magyarization" of the Slovaks was done primarily to quell any Slovak feelings of nationalism. Nonetheless, the Slovaks' inherent love of liberty, freedom, and justice was undaunted. Along with the many restrictions mentioned above, there was a constant struggle between the Slovaks (and other nationalities within the Empire) and the Hungarian government for representation in the Hungarian Diet. From time to time, a few Slovaks were elected but their national- �170 SLOVAKIA istic feelings brought them into constant conflict with the Magyars who at this time were striving to protect their state from rebellions from within. Any rumblings could eventually lead to the collapse of the Empire and this they would prevent at any cost. Therefore, Slovak political expression was weak and constantly suppressed. In the election of 1910, only three Slovak deputies 3 were chosen and these Slovaks combined spent twenty years of their lives between the Hungarian Diet and Magyar jails in defense of the Slovak people. The Slovaks continued to be divided into two differing groups; one favored Slovak autonomy, and the other advocated a federated republic of the Slovak and Czech peoples within the existing Hungarian Empire. The Magyars, of course, exploited these Slovak and Czech differences to serve their own ends. Out of this conflict (between the Slovak people and the Hungarian government just described) there arose a leader who would try to secure freedom for his people. This would eventually cost him his life. Such a man was General Milan Rastislav Stefanik, astronomer, mathematician, military leader, and political leader of the Slovak people and the focal point of this paper. Milan R. Stefanik was born in the Slovak village of Kosariska of Protestant parents in 1880. In Kosariska Stefanik acquired an interest in astronomy and mathematics, which he later pursued at the University of Prague. When war broke out in 1914 he was in his early thirties and in Morocco making astronomical observations.4 His patriotism for his country brought him away from his work as an astronomer and took him almost immediately to France where he joined the French army as a private. Stefanik was soon transferred to the young French air corps where he served as an observer in air tactics. He became convinced that the Slovak people would never be content fighting for the Monarchy. It was here that Stefanik began to make plans for the formation: of a Slovak foreign legion. Throughout the middle war years (1915-1916) Stefanik made it a point to travel wherever he could in Europe to recruit troops for the legion. He managed to recruit a total of 10,000 men made up of Slovaks, Serbs, Russians, and �SLOVAKIA 171 Rumanians for the allied cause. Many of these men that Stefanik recruited were prisoners of war taken with much resistance, and were fighting for a cause which was not their own. This was a very important contribution to the allied war effort and to his own people who looked to him as a true leader for now these POW's from the Austro-Hungarian armies would be fighting for a cause they believed in and for the eventual formation of free and independent countries for their own peoples. Because of his dynamic personality and military accomplishments, Stefanik quickly reached the rank of General and it became evident that being the only leader of the future Czecho-Slovakia with military experience, the task of providing the Czecho-Slovak divisions to fight with the allied armies fell to Stefanik. In 1917 Stefanik made a visit to the United States, a visit which can be understood as perhaps stefanik's most important contribution to the future of the Slovak people. There was also a strong nationalistic feeling in America among Slovak-Americans and Czech-Americans to actively promote the cause of a Czecho-Slovakia. stefanik's efforts in his 1917 United States visit may be best explained in his own words: I have come to America to set afoot among the Slovak people a movement toward a move perfect understanding of the fundamental conditions of independence, and to obtain permission from the government at Washington to form an independent Czech and Slovak army -in which every Czech and Slovak might take part-the final struggle for our freedom, and perform a cherished duty long deferred.5 At the time of stefanik's visit, General Vignal, who was also stationed in the United States, said of stefanik's work: I cannot praise sufficiently this great patriot, cool-headed and inspired by the highest ideals, full of tact and wisdom. He has won the sympathy of the officials of the American State Department, and organized with the greatest success, the recruiting of Czechs and Slovaks.6 The French government sent a special commission headed by Franklin-Bouillon to Washington to obtain approval from President Wilson for Stefanik to recruit Czechs and Slovaks with the idea of forming a Czecho-Slovak regiment within the allied forces. Stefanik greatly aided the success of this mission. He eventually recruited some 4,000 �172 SLOVAKIA able-bodied Czechs and Slovaks who were not subject to the Selective Service Laws in America due to the fact that many of these immigrants were not yet naturalized citizens. Recruitment of these troops was not easy. Stefanik had the difficult task of raising money for transportation and housing facilities for his "Legionnaires," as well as providing for funds to support the families of the recruited wage earners. But perhaps the most important single aspect of stefanik's visit to the United States was his relations with American Slovak and Czech leaders. He attempted to dispel Slovak doubts as to Slovakia's status in a proposed new state to be created from the Dual Monarchy after an allied victory. Stefanik had yet another important meeting on July 1, 1917, at the Congress Hall in Washington, D. C. Stefanik reported on the military situation on the Eastern front and also the condition of Slovak and Czech troops in Russia. The real purpose of this meeting, however, was two-fold. One was to arrange the organization of American Slovaks and Czechs into the legion and the most important point was to lay down the groundwork for Czecho-Slovak cooperation in the United States. Stefanik knew that without the continued financial support of the Americans and Slovak and Czech immigrants, the birth of their state would not be realized. For this reason Stefanik remained non-committed about the future state to the American Slovaks and Czechs. He stressed that the new state would not be "an ethnographically inseparable one." 7 By this he meant that the Czecho-Slovak state was to be a politically unified one, but as to whether he envisioned a separate Slovak assembly in Bratislava to handle Slovak domestic affairs is not all clear. Stefanik specifically stated to the American Slovaks that the Slovaks in the homeland must be set free to make their own decision on important issues and that no guarantee could be given to emigrant Slovaks in the United States. Even with this in mind the unselfish Slovak-Americans gave all of their cooperation to Stefanik and to the cause he fought for in the homeland of Czecho-Slovakia. One must remember that the recently emigrated Slovak-American �SLOVAKIA 173 was financially very poor for the most part, and, therefore, any financial support was a great sacrifice for him. stefanik's dedication to Slovak autonomy did not stop with the militaristic idea but he gave clear evidence of his dedication in regard to religious matters also. Slovak Catholics ( Catholicism being the majority religion in Slovakia), both in the homeland and in the United States, were suspicious that the leading Czechs associated with Masaryk, were clearly hostile to the Catholic Church. They feared that the Czechs' skepticism toward the existence of God would always be the dominant element in Czech political life. To rid the people of these fears, Masaryk had assured them that in the new Czecho-Slovakia, there would be complete religious freedom for all. Despite this assurance, the doubts still persisted. Therefore, it was up to Stefanik to assure the American Slovaks of religious freedom in the new state. It was at a meeting on September 20, 1917, that Stefanik sat down with a group of American Slovak Catholic clergymen to thrash out this problem. 8 There is no written record available of this very important meeting but, it is known that many fears were raised that Slovak Catholicism would suffer greatly at the hands of a completely Czechized nonCatholic or perhaps even an anti-Catholic government in Prague.9 Stefanik came to the conclusion that in order for the American Slovaks to support the revolution in Europe, the new state would have to guarantee religious freedom for Slovakia. "The meeting with the American Slovak clergymen," said Edward Benes, Masaryk's right-hand man, "was very important because here Stefanik dispelled all the suspicions and unwillingness of the priests as regards the movement for independence ... " 10 This statement made by Benes, dispelled any doubts that Stefanik would win the reassurance of the Catholic Slovak clergymen to continue the fight for a completely religious and culturally free state of Czecho-Slovakia. On September 16, 1917, Stefanik met with FranklinBouillon and John P. Mitchell, then mayor of New York City, at an important demonstration-meeting held at Carnegie Hall. This meeting, at which the representatives of the Allied armies were present, had a considerable propaganda �174 SLOVAKIA significance since it broke the ice of indifference of American journalists. At this meeting Stefanik told several thousand fellow patriots that "our fight against AustroHungary can end only when both our fraternal nations, the Czechs and the Slovaks, are united in an independent state free of Magyar-German domination." 11 Also speaking at the meeting was Franklin-Bouillon, who addressed the men of the "Czecho-Slovak" nation and appealed to them to join the Legion. He was the first influential statesman who publicly voiced a desire for the dismemberment of the Dual Mqnarchy. This statement of Franklin-Bouillon's caused a sensation in American political circles. For at no previous meeting was the dismemberment of Austria- Hungary publicly announced. For this reason one cannot but feel that the true stefanik came forth at the Carnegie Hall mass meeting. The success of stefanik's two-fold task of recruitment and securing Czech-Slovak solidarity in the United States seemed complete, and Stefanik sought permission to return to Paris. Vignal granted this permission for Stefanik to return to France on the first transport of Slovak and Czech troops. The General also added a few words of praise for the success of stefanik's mission. This mission contributed to the Slovak-Czech cause in another very tangible way. Urged by stefanik's great talent as an orator, his obvious patriotism, and tremendous personal magnitude, in the fall of 191 7, the American Slovaks organized their Million Dollar Drive to aid the cause for Slovak-Czech freedom abroad. The drive, headed by Father Joseph Murgas, sent well over $800,000 to Masaryk, Benes, theCzecho-Slovak National Council's office in Paris, Russia, and the United States. Stefanik won their respect and cooperation in his fight for Slovak autonomy. During stefanik's leave from the United States and his return to Paris, much was done behind his back toward the formation of the new Czecho-Slovak Republic. In May of 1918 Masaryk was in Pittsburgh meeting with American and Slovak and Czech leaders, explaining just how CzechoSlovakia would be administered and precisely what the status of Slovakia would be within the new state. He assured the Slovaks that Czecho-Slovakia would be an �SLOVAKIA 175 autonomous state. He also assured them that Slovakia would have its own schools, its own language, its own local administration, courts, and its own legislative assembly. And, to further appease Slovak sensibilities toward the new state, Masaryk drafted a document which has since been vehemently debated. The document came to be known as the Pittsburgh Pact. It contained all of the above legislation and it added that the Czecho-Slovak state shall be a republic, and its constitution shall be democratic. The irony surrounding the drafting of the Pittsburgh Pact was that Masaryk signed the Pact and did not abide by its stipulations. In his own book, The Making of a State, Masaryk skipped over the Pact as a mere scrap of paper noting that "it was concluded in order to appease a 'small Slovak faction' which was dreaming of God knows what sort of independent Slovakia ... the agreement was a local one ... among the Czechs and Slovaks of America." 12 Therefore, according to Masaryk, this Pact was not between the Slovak and Czech nations, but just an agreement "to satisfy a small Slovak faction:" Obviously, it was never meant to be considered in the planning of the foundation of the Czecho-Slovak state either by Masaryk or the Czechs themselves. Masaryk brushed aside the Slovaks rudely by this action, broke his word of honor and proclaimed his signature genuine but worthless, and in the same work (World Revolution, 1925, p. 105) he discounted the financial aid of the Slovaks as insignificant. 13 As can be seen, Masaryk treated the entire matter shabbily and deceitfully. More effective communications with Stefanik in Paris should certainly have been established, especially after stefanik's impressive visit to the United States. It should have been mandatory that Stefanik sign the Pact, thus binding the Czecho-Slovak National Council itself. Masaryk made very little effort at all to contact Stefanik and the other Slovak leaders. Masaryk then continued to make plans for the new state without stefanik's cognizance of the matter. I feel a moment must be taken here to mention the fact that there was an undertone of personality clashes, jealousy, and suspicion on the parts of Masaryk and especially the socialist Benes toward Stefanik. Mrs. Louise Weiss, editor of l' Europe Nouvelle in Paris and an intimate friend of �SLOVAKIA 176 stefanik's, wrote in her book Memoires d'une Europeenne (Memoirs of a European Woman): His (Stefanik's) differences with Benes were an obsession to him. Although he was overbusy, he found time to enlighten me within three minutes, about 'this first grade socialist, this paper revolutionary, this distorted diplomat.' As soon as he left, Benes settled down in my office, and for three hours expanded on this astronomer who thinks he is a soldier, this peasant who thinks he is an aristocrat, this politician who considers himself a genius, but who, in fact, is nothing but muddled up.14 Further she writes: When Stefanik returned from his expedition, he found Benes more and more firmly established with some Government Offices with whom he was negotiating (in the absence of Stefanik) and, in view of the circumstances, without informing Stefanik about it. Benes could not witness without envy the aura surrounding Milan (Stefanik) as a legendary hero.15 Benes and Masaryk, as well, I feel, were jealous and afraid of stefanik's overwhelming popularity. As opposed to them, Stefanik was a more "colorful" character with his ear attuned to the pulse of the Slovak people both in Slovakia and in the United States. The aim of Masaryk and Benes was to establish a predominantly Czech bureaucracy throughout the newly formed nation to fill the vacuum left by the Magyars with no real concern for the welfare and wishes of the Slovak people. As long as Stefanik, however, could serve their purpose in uniting the Slovaks with the Czechs (for pragmatic reasons only) to show the Allies a unified peoples so that they would grant independence, then Masaryk and Benes "tolerated" but ignored Stefanik whenever possible. When he finally realized their true intentions, he was no longer useful and, therefore, would have to be eliminated. On October 28, 1918, T. G. Masaryk proclaimed the Czecho-Slovak Republic while he was in Washington. Masaryk wrote the Declaration of Independence and presented it to Secretary of State Lansing to get his approval. Masaryk wrote in the declaration "that the rights of Bohemia might be united to those of the Slovak brethren in Slovakia, once a part of our (Czech) state ... " 16 This proclamation made Stefanik furious. He was perturbed that the proclamation was issued in Washington instead of Paris. He also added that the proclamation was �SLOVAKIA 177 issued without his previous knowledge and that Masaryk forged his signature to it without prior consultation. Stefanik then sent a telegram to Masaryk in Washington and Benes in Paris to voice his objections to the declaration. He sent the telegram on October 28, the same day that the declaration was released to the public. In stefanik's view, the Republic surely had gotten off on the wrong foot. 17 His misgivings were realized soon after his death when c-:echoSlovak policy, domestic and foreign, became strictly Czech policy. "The lure of might showed itself more powerful for the Czech majority than the ideals of nationalism, equality, and rights." 18 In the early part of 1919 Stefanik began his journey home where he was to be crowned with the appointment to the office of the Minister of National Defense in the new Republic. stefanik's love for his native Slovakia and the people dominated every interest he had in life, even that of attaining high personal fame. Stefanik once wrote to a friend: "I am a Slovak, body and soul; I know no divided affection." 19 After stefanik's inspection of his army in Italy he planned to make the trip home by plane. On May 4, 1919, General Milan Rastislav Stefanik, the war hero of all Slovakia, was killed under circumstances which have been suspect ever since. He was returning to Bratislava where a huge crowd had gathered to welcome him, where he was to take up duties as first Minister of Defense in the CzechoSlovak Republic he had helped create in Paris. A little after 11 a.m. on that fateful day, the Italian plane-Caproni No. 11,495-carrying Stefanik and an Italian pilot and co-pilot, circled the Vajnory Airport near Bratislava for a landing. All of a sudden the plane burst into flames and crashed to the ground below. s tefanik had been a victim of an anti-aircraft barrage of the Czecho-Slovak garrison whose orders were given to them by a Czech commanding officer. Prague tried to hush up the tragedy but it couldn't be suppressed. "It was all a mistake," said the commanding officer_, "I thought it was an enemy plane; the garrison didn't know Stefanik was· arriving in an Italian-made plane!" 20 Despite Czech propaganda, eye witnesses still alive today, as well as certain members of the military �178 SLOV A KIA garrison, insist that the shooting was willful, that Stefanik was deliberately murdered. There are even letters and sworn statements that exist to coincide with the charges. It was found that before an investigation board, a soldier named Joseph Mesko, confessed to shooting at stefanik's plane and stated that he had not known of such orders and had opened fire with the belief that the plane was a Magyar one. 21 One eyewitness, Rudolph Ruzicka stated: I was at my canon when I saw the arrival of the plane about which we had been pre,viously advised. I don't swear that we knew for sure it was Stefanik's plane; never theless, I do maintain, and still today, even if it could have been an enemy plane, that they shouldn't have fired so fearfully and heavily upon it.22 The death of Stefanik is still very unclear in the minds of all Slovaks. Stefanik knew that throughout history Czechs and Slovaks had formed distinct national and cultural differences and that, therefore, Pan-Czech references to "one Czechoslovak nation" were pure myth. Stefanik was a fierce Slovak patriot who would not stand still for the completion of a "Czechized" new state.23 Stefanik was an inconvenience to the Czechs and their plans to colonize Slovakia within the "great Czechoslovakia" that the National Council in Paris had dreamed of. Many Slovaks even today will tell you that Stefanik had to die, because he would never consent to Slovakia being a colony of the imperialistic Czechs led by T. G. Masaryk and Edward Benes. The shooting down of Caproni No. 11,495 served Prague well. In today's Slovakia, controlled by the Communists, Milan Rastislav Stefanik is remembered and looked to as an inspiration to all Slovak people.24 From the time of his death to the present day, Slovakia has suffered again and again from forces beyond her control. Stefanik had always been wary of Czech promises and his misgivings came to pass. The Czechs only used the Slovaks and their nationalistic aspirations as pawns at Paris to be appeased so that the allies would create a state for them out of the carved-up Austro-Hungarian Empire if they saw some semblance of unity between the two groups. The Czechs knew that once this was achieved, and they were independent from Allied control, they would then be the dominant force in the new state and not equal partners with the Slovak people. �SLOVAKIA 179 Even though Slovakia still is not free, Milan Rastislav titefanik and his dreams live on and serve as hope for a future Slovakia, free and self-governing someday. ( Second place - College) FOOTNOTES 1) Special committees elected from both the Austrian and Hungarian Diets were entrusted with the administration of these common departments-in all other matters, and what were left were called purely "domestic affairs." 2) Gilbert L. Oddo, Slovakia and Its People (New York : Robert Speller and Sons, Publishers, 1960) , p. 135. 3) These were Francis Skycak, Dr. Paul Blaho, and Ferdinand Juriga. 4) Milan S. !>urica, "Milan R. Stefanik and His Tragic Death in the Light of Italian Documents," Slovak Studies, Volume X, 1970, p. 148. 5) Peter P. Yurchak, The Slovaks (Indiana: Obrana Press, Inc., 1946), p . 196. 6) Yurchak, p. 196 plus. 7) Oddo, p. 167. 8) Oddo, p. 168. 9) Oddo, p. 169. 10 ) Oddo, p. 167. 11) Oddo, p. 167. 12) Joseph Pauco, Sixty Years of the Slovak League of America (Middletown, Pa.: Jednota Press, 1967), p. 53. 13) Pauco, p. 53. 14) Joseph M. Kirschbaum (ed.), Slovakia in the 19th and 20th Centuries (Toronto: Slovak World Congress, 1973), p. 84 plus. 15) Kirschbaum, p. 84 plus. 16) Oddo, p. 183. 17) Oddo, p. 183. 18) Reverend B. S. Bue, Slovak Nationalism (Middletown, Pa.: Jednota Press, 1960) , p. 38. 19) Yurchak, p. 202. 20) !>urica, p. 164. 21) !>urica, p. 165. 22) !>urica, p. 165. 23) Yurchak, p. 203. 24) A national monument has been erected' to the memory of Stefanik in Slovakia at Bradlo, near his native village, to which Slovaks make a yearly pilgrimage. A life-size statue has also been erected in the U.S. in Wade Park, Cleveland, Ohio. BIBLIOGRAPHY Bue, Reverend B. S., Slovak Nationalism, Middletown, Penna.: Slovak League of America, 1960. !>urica, Milan S., "Milan R. Stefanik and His Tragic Death in the Light of Italian Military Documents." Slovak Studies (Volume 10), 1970, pp. 147-182. �180 SLOVAKIA Rusek, Stephanie 0., ''Milan Rastislav Stefanik." Slovakia, March, 1954, pp. 33-47. Kirschbaum, Joseph M., Slovakia in the 19th and 20th Centuries. Toronto: Slovak World Congress 1973. Mikus, Joseph A. , Slovakia: A Political History, 1918-1950. Milwaukee: The Marquette University Press, 1963. Oddo, G. L. , Slovakia and Its People . New York: Robert Speller and Sons, Publishers, 1960. Paufo, Joseph , Six ty Years of the Slovak League of America. Middletown, Pa.: Slovak League of Ame-r ica, 1967. Woytko, Sister Mary Gabrielle, Sl-o vakia's Road to Statehood. Michigan : John J . Lach, Publisher, 1957. Yurchak, P., The Slovaks. Scranton, Pa.: Obrana Press, Inc., 1946. III. SLOVAKIA BEFORE THE CZECHS John Bert a The Slovaks are a Slavic people who settled in the land between the Danube River and the Carpathian Mountains some 1500 years ago. The area had formerly been held by the Marcommani, a Celtic people, who fled the land after several disastrous wars with the armies of the Roman Empire. The Slovaks were hunters turned farmers. Their main enterprises were blacksmithing and potterymaking, while business transactions were done by bartering. They lived in simple mud and wooden huts, and lived in family groupings called clans, of which the oldest was its head. The Slovak gods were as numerous and varied as those of the Greeks and Romans. When a Slovak died, if cremated, the ashes were placed in urns and buried in a mound. If the body was to be buried, food, wine, weapons and jewelry were placed in the grave. The size of the burial site determined the importance of the dead person. The first attempt of the Slavonic peoples, living along the Danube, to unite into a viable force, came after the Avars, a nomadic Asian people, conquered part of their land. In 624, Samo, a Frankish merchant, united the people and led them to victory against the Avars. This victory encouraged them to face the Germanic Franks, who were � 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 �SLOVAKIA 169 appeared to be united, in actuality is became evident that both Austria and Hungary were really two separate states. Even though they shared a common ruler, a common foreign policy, a common army, and common finances 1 both parts of the Monarchy were totally independent. Slovakia and Slovak destiny was in the hands of the Hungarian or Magyar state. The new arrangement gave the Magyars absolute control over the 30 million Slavs and the other non-Magyar elements which constituted a majority of the Hungarian population. The Slovaks were one of those nationalities with unique cultural distinctions which would separate them from the Magyars. For a time the Magyars permitted the establishment of Slovak schools and cultural societies for the preservation of the Slovak heritage and history. On the surface at least, this seemed fairly liberal for the times. The crucial question of laws made to secure these schools and societies and their enforcement arose constantly and on this score the Slovaks couldn't be too hopeful. Indeed, Slovaks seemed to sense that the Austro-Hungarian settlement would bring nothing but new setbacks and humiliations. The long history of resisting domination from many different empires and peoples conditioned them for what was to come. The Magyars feared that if the Slovak people studied their history, language, and culture, they might eventually desire to become a free nation, separate from the Hungarian state. A half-hearted program of the Magyarization of the Slovak people had existed for some time but it was during the 1860's that this policy began to be strongly enforced. The Slovaks were denied the right of free speech and assembly. 2 Their literature and schools were suppressed and forbidden. They were forced to learn in a tongue-Magyar-which was completely alien to them. This "Magyarization" of the Slovaks was done primarily to quell any Slovak feelings of nationalism. Nonetheless, the Slovaks' inherent love of liberty, freedom, and justice was undaunted. Along with the many restrictions mentioned above, there was a constant struggle between the Slovaks (and other nationalities within the Empire) and the Hungarian government for representation in the Hungarian Diet. From time to time, a few Slovaks were elected but their national- �170 SLOVAKIA istic feelings brought them into constant conflict with the Magyars who at this time were striving to protect their state from rebellions from within. Any rumblings could eventually lead to the collapse of the Empire and this they would prevent at any cost. Therefore, Slovak political expression was weak and constantly suppressed. In the election of 1910, only three Slovak deputies 3 were chosen and these Slovaks combined spent twenty years of their lives between the Hungarian Diet and Magyar jails in defense of the Slovak people. The Slovaks continued to be divided into two differing groups; one favored Slovak autonomy, and the other advocated a federated republic of the Slovak and Czech peoples within the existing Hungarian Empire. The Magyars, of course, exploited these Slovak and Czech differences to serve their own ends. Out of this conflict (between the Slovak people and the Hungarian government just described) there arose a leader who would try to secure freedom for his people. This would eventually cost him his life. Such a man was General Milan Rastislav Stefanik, astronomer, mathematician, military leader, and political leader of the Slovak people and the focal point of this paper. Milan R. Stefanik was born in the Slovak village of Kosariska of Protestant parents in 1880. In Kosariska Stefanik acquired an interest in astronomy and mathematics, which he later pursued at the University of Prague. When war broke out in 1914 he was in his early thirties and in Morocco making astronomical observations.4 His patriotism for his country brought him away from his work as an astronomer and took him almost immediately to France where he joined the French army as a private. Stefanik was soon transferred to the young French air corps where he served as an observer in air tactics. He became convinced that the Slovak people would never be content fighting for the Monarchy. It was here that Stefanik began to make plans for the formation: of a Slovak foreign legion. Throughout the middle war years (1915-1916) Stefanik made it a point to travel wherever he could in Europe to recruit troops for the legion. He managed to recruit a total of 10,000 men made up of Slovaks, Serbs, Russians, and �SLOVAKIA 171 Rumanians for the allied cause. Many of these men that Stefanik recruited were prisoners of war taken with much resistance, and were fighting for a cause which was not their own. This was a very important contribution to the allied war effort and to his own people who looked to him as a true leader for now these POW's from the Austro-Hungarian armies would be fighting for a cause they believed in and for the eventual formation of free and independent countries for their own peoples. Because of his dynamic personality and military accomplishments, Stefanik quickly reached the rank of General and it became evident that being the only leader of the future Czecho-Slovakia with military experience, the task of providing the Czecho-Slovak divisions to fight with the allied armies fell to Stefanik. In 1917 Stefanik made a visit to the United States, a visit which can be understood as perhaps stefanik's most important contribution to the future of the Slovak people. There was also a strong nationalistic feeling in America among Slovak-Americans and Czech-Americans to actively promote the cause of a Czecho-Slovakia. stefanik's efforts in his 1917 United States visit may be best explained in his own words: I have come to America to set afoot among the Slovak people a movement toward a move perfect understanding of the fundamental conditions of independence, and to obtain permission from the government at Washington to form an independent Czech and Slovak army -in which every Czech and Slovak might take part-the final struggle for our freedom, and perform a cherished duty long deferred.5 At the time of stefanik's visit, General Vignal, who was also stationed in the United States, said of stefanik's work: I cannot praise sufficiently this great patriot, cool-headed and inspired by the highest ideals, full of tact and wisdom. He has won the sympathy of the officials of the American State Department, and organized with the greatest success, the recruiting of Czechs and Slovaks.6 The French government sent a special commission headed by Franklin-Bouillon to Washington to obtain approval from President Wilson for Stefanik to recruit Czechs and Slovaks with the idea of forming a Czecho-Slovak regiment within the allied forces. Stefanik greatly aided the success of this mission. He eventually recruited some 4,000 �172 SLOVAKIA able-bodied Czechs and Slovaks who were not subject to the Selective Service Laws in America due to the fact that many of these immigrants were not yet naturalized citizens. Recruitment of these troops was not easy. Stefanik had the difficult task of raising money for transportation and housing facilities for his "Legionnaires," as well as providing for funds to support the families of the recruited wage earners. But perhaps the most important single aspect of stefanik's visit to the United States was his relations with American Slovak and Czech leaders. He attempted to dispel Slovak doubts as to Slovakia's status in a proposed new state to be created from the Dual Monarchy after an allied victory. Stefanik had yet another important meeting on July 1, 1917, at the Congress Hall in Washington, D. C. Stefanik reported on the military situation on the Eastern front and also the condition of Slovak and Czech troops in Russia. The real purpose of this meeting, however, was two-fold. One was to arrange the organization of American Slovaks and Czechs into the legion and the most important point was to lay down the groundwork for Czecho-Slovak cooperation in the United States. Stefanik knew that without the continued financial support of the Americans and Slovak and Czech immigrants, the birth of their state would not be realized. For this reason Stefanik remained non-committed about the future state to the American Slovaks and Czechs. He stressed that the new state would not be "an ethnographically inseparable one." 7 By this he meant that the Czecho-Slovak state was to be a politically unified one, but as to whether he envisioned a separate Slovak assembly in Bratislava to handle Slovak domestic affairs is not all clear. Stefanik specifically stated to the American Slovaks that the Slovaks in the homeland must be set free to make their own decision on important issues and that no guarantee could be given to emigrant Slovaks in the United States. Even with this in mind the unselfish Slovak-Americans gave all of their cooperation to Stefanik and to the cause he fought for in the homeland of Czecho-Slovakia. One must remember that the recently emigrated Slovak-American �SLOVAKIA 173 was financially very poor for the most part, and, therefore, any financial support was a great sacrifice for him. stefanik's dedication to Slovak autonomy did not stop with the militaristic idea but he gave clear evidence of his dedication in regard to religious matters also. Slovak Catholics ( Catholicism being the majority religion in Slovakia), both in the homeland and in the United States, were suspicious that the leading Czechs associated with Masaryk, were clearly hostile to the Catholic Church. They feared that the Czechs' skepticism toward the existence of God would always be the dominant element in Czech political life. To rid the people of these fears, Masaryk had assured them that in the new Czecho-Slovakia, there would be complete religious freedom for all. Despite this assurance, the doubts still persisted. Therefore, it was up to Stefanik to assure the American Slovaks of religious freedom in the new state. It was at a meeting on September 20, 1917, that Stefanik sat down with a group of American Slovak Catholic clergymen to thrash out this problem. 8 There is no written record available of this very important meeting but, it is known that many fears were raised that Slovak Catholicism would suffer greatly at the hands of a completely Czechized nonCatholic or perhaps even an anti-Catholic government in Prague.9 Stefanik came to the conclusion that in order for the American Slovaks to support the revolution in Europe, the new state would have to guarantee religious freedom for Slovakia. "The meeting with the American Slovak clergymen," said Edward Benes, Masaryk's right-hand man, "was very important because here Stefanik dispelled all the suspicions and unwillingness of the priests as regards the movement for independence ... " 10 This statement made by Benes, dispelled any doubts that Stefanik would win the reassurance of the Catholic Slovak clergymen to continue the fight for a completely religious and culturally free state of Czecho-Slovakia. On September 16, 1917, Stefanik met with FranklinBouillon and John P. Mitchell, then mayor of New York City, at an important demonstration-meeting held at Carnegie Hall. This meeting, at which the representatives of the Allied armies were present, had a considerable propaganda �174 SLOVAKIA significance since it broke the ice of indifference of American journalists. At this meeting Stefanik told several thousand fellow patriots that "our fight against AustroHungary can end only when both our fraternal nations, the Czechs and the Slovaks, are united in an independent state free of Magyar-German domination." 11 Also speaking at the meeting was Franklin-Bouillon, who addressed the men of the "Czecho-Slovak" nation and appealed to them to join the Legion. He was the first influential statesman who publicly voiced a desire for the dismemberment of the Dual Mqnarchy. This statement of Franklin-Bouillon's caused a sensation in American political circles. For at no previous meeting was the dismemberment of Austria- Hungary publicly announced. For this reason one cannot but feel that the true stefanik came forth at the Carnegie Hall mass meeting. The success of stefanik's two-fold task of recruitment and securing Czech-Slovak solidarity in the United States seemed complete, and Stefanik sought permission to return to Paris. Vignal granted this permission for Stefanik to return to France on the first transport of Slovak and Czech troops. The General also added a few words of praise for the success of stefanik's mission. This mission contributed to the Slovak-Czech cause in another very tangible way. Urged by stefanik's great talent as an orator, his obvious patriotism, and tremendous personal magnitude, in the fall of 191 7, the American Slovaks organized their Million Dollar Drive to aid the cause for Slovak-Czech freedom abroad. The drive, headed by Father Joseph Murgas, sent well over $800,000 to Masaryk, Benes, theCzecho-Slovak National Council's office in Paris, Russia, and the United States. Stefanik won their respect and cooperation in his fight for Slovak autonomy. During stefanik's leave from the United States and his return to Paris, much was done behind his back toward the formation of the new Czecho-Slovak Republic. In May of 1918 Masaryk was in Pittsburgh meeting with American and Slovak and Czech leaders, explaining just how CzechoSlovakia would be administered and precisely what the status of Slovakia would be within the new state. He assured the Slovaks that Czecho-Slovakia would be an �SLOVAKIA 175 autonomous state. He also assured them that Slovakia would have its own schools, its own language, its own local administration, courts, and its own legislative assembly. And, to further appease Slovak sensibilities toward the new state, Masaryk drafted a document which has since been vehemently debated. The document came to be known as the Pittsburgh Pact. It contained all of the above legislation and it added that the Czecho-Slovak state shall be a republic, and its constitution shall be democratic. The irony surrounding the drafting of the Pittsburgh Pact was that Masaryk signed the Pact and did not abide by its stipulations. In his own book, The Making of a State, Masaryk skipped over the Pact as a mere scrap of paper noting that "it was concluded in order to appease a 'small Slovak faction' which was dreaming of God knows what sort of independent Slovakia ... the agreement was a local one ... among the Czechs and Slovaks of America." 12 Therefore, according to Masaryk, this Pact was not between the Slovak and Czech nations, but just an agreement "to satisfy a small Slovak faction:" Obviously, it was never meant to be considered in the planning of the foundation of the Czecho-Slovak state either by Masaryk or the Czechs themselves. Masaryk brushed aside the Slovaks rudely by this action, broke his word of honor and proclaimed his signature genuine but worthless, and in the same work (World Revolution, 1925, p. 105) he discounted the financial aid of the Slovaks as insignificant. 13 As can be seen, Masaryk treated the entire matter shabbily and deceitfully. More effective communications with Stefanik in Paris should certainly have been established, especially after stefanik's impressive visit to the United States. It should have been mandatory that Stefanik sign the Pact, thus binding the Czecho-Slovak National Council itself. Masaryk made very little effort at all to contact Stefanik and the other Slovak leaders. Masaryk then continued to make plans for the new state without stefanik's cognizance of the matter. I feel a moment must be taken here to mention the fact that there was an undertone of personality clashes, jealousy, and suspicion on the parts of Masaryk and especially the socialist Benes toward Stefanik. Mrs. Louise Weiss, editor of l' Europe Nouvelle in Paris and an intimate friend of �SLOVAKIA 176 stefanik's, wrote in her book Memoires d'une Europeenne (Memoirs of a European Woman): His (Stefanik's) differences with Benes were an obsession to him. Although he was overbusy, he found time to enlighten me within three minutes, about 'this first grade socialist, this paper revolutionary, this distorted diplomat.' As soon as he left, Benes settled down in my office, and for three hours expanded on this astronomer who thinks he is a soldier, this peasant who thinks he is an aristocrat, this politician who considers himself a genius, but who, in fact, is nothing but muddled up.14 Further she writes: When Stefanik returned from his expedition, he found Benes more and more firmly established with some Government Offices with whom he was negotiating (in the absence of Stefanik) and, in view of the circumstances, without informing Stefanik about it. Benes could not witness without envy the aura surrounding Milan (Stefanik) as a legendary hero.15 Benes and Masaryk, as well, I feel, were jealous and afraid of stefanik's overwhelming popularity. As opposed to them, Stefanik was a more "colorful" character with his ear attuned to the pulse of the Slovak people both in Slovakia and in the United States. The aim of Masaryk and Benes was to establish a predominantly Czech bureaucracy throughout the newly formed nation to fill the vacuum left by the Magyars with no real concern for the welfare and wishes of the Slovak people. As long as Stefanik, however, could serve their purpose in uniting the Slovaks with the Czechs (for pragmatic reasons only) to show the Allies a unified peoples so that they would grant independence, then Masaryk and Benes "tolerated" but ignored Stefanik whenever possible. When he finally realized their true intentions, he was no longer useful and, therefore, would have to be eliminated. On October 28, 1918, T. G. Masaryk proclaimed the Czecho-Slovak Republic while he was in Washington. Masaryk wrote the Declaration of Independence and presented it to Secretary of State Lansing to get his approval. Masaryk wrote in the declaration "that the rights of Bohemia might be united to those of the Slovak brethren in Slovakia, once a part of our (Czech) state ... " 16 This proclamation made Stefanik furious. He was perturbed that the proclamation was issued in Washington instead of Paris. He also added that the proclamation was �SLOVAKIA 177 issued without his previous knowledge and that Masaryk forged his signature to it without prior consultation. Stefanik then sent a telegram to Masaryk in Washington and Benes in Paris to voice his objections to the declaration. He sent the telegram on October 28, the same day that the declaration was released to the public. In stefanik's view, the Republic surely had gotten off on the wrong foot. 17 His misgivings were realized soon after his death when c-:echoSlovak policy, domestic and foreign, became strictly Czech policy. "The lure of might showed itself more powerful for the Czech majority than the ideals of nationalism, equality, and rights." 18 In the early part of 1919 Stefanik began his journey home where he was to be crowned with the appointment to the office of the Minister of National Defense in the new Republic. stefanik's love for his native Slovakia and the people dominated every interest he had in life, even that of attaining high personal fame. Stefanik once wrote to a friend: "I am a Slovak, body and soul; I know no divided affection." 19 After stefanik's inspection of his army in Italy he planned to make the trip home by plane. On May 4, 1919, General Milan Rastislav Stefanik, the war hero of all Slovakia, was killed under circumstances which have been suspect ever since. He was returning to Bratislava where a huge crowd had gathered to welcome him, where he was to take up duties as first Minister of Defense in the CzechoSlovak Republic he had helped create in Paris. A little after 11 a.m. on that fateful day, the Italian plane-Caproni No. 11,495-carrying Stefanik and an Italian pilot and co-pilot, circled the Vajnory Airport near Bratislava for a landing. All of a sudden the plane burst into flames and crashed to the ground below. s tefanik had been a victim of an anti-aircraft barrage of the Czecho-Slovak garrison whose orders were given to them by a Czech commanding officer. Prague tried to hush up the tragedy but it couldn't be suppressed. "It was all a mistake," said the commanding officer_, "I thought it was an enemy plane; the garrison didn't know Stefanik was· arriving in an Italian-made plane!" 20 Despite Czech propaganda, eye witnesses still alive today, as well as certain members of the military �178 SLOV A KIA garrison, insist that the shooting was willful, that Stefanik was deliberately murdered. There are even letters and sworn statements that exist to coincide with the charges. It was found that before an investigation board, a soldier named Joseph Mesko, confessed to shooting at stefanik's plane and stated that he had not known of such orders and had opened fire with the belief that the plane was a Magyar one. 21 One eyewitness, Rudolph Ruzicka stated: I was at my canon when I saw the arrival of the plane about which we had been pre,viously advised. I don't swear that we knew for sure it was Stefanik's plane; never theless, I do maintain, and still today, even if it could have been an enemy plane, that they shouldn't have fired so fearfully and heavily upon it.22 The death of Stefanik is still very unclear in the minds of all Slovaks. Stefanik knew that throughout history Czechs and Slovaks had formed distinct national and cultural differences and that, therefore, Pan-Czech references to "one Czechoslovak nation" were pure myth. Stefanik was a fierce Slovak patriot who would not stand still for the completion of a "Czechized" new state.23 Stefanik was an inconvenience to the Czechs and their plans to colonize Slovakia within the "great Czechoslovakia" that the National Council in Paris had dreamed of. Many Slovaks even today will tell you that Stefanik had to die, because he would never consent to Slovakia being a colony of the imperialistic Czechs led by T. G. Masaryk and Edward Benes. The shooting down of Caproni No. 11,495 served Prague well. In today's Slovakia, controlled by the Communists, Milan Rastislav Stefanik is remembered and looked to as an inspiration to all Slovak people.24 From the time of his death to the present day, Slovakia has suffered again and again from forces beyond her control. Stefanik had always been wary of Czech promises and his misgivings came to pass. The Czechs only used the Slovaks and their nationalistic aspirations as pawns at Paris to be appeased so that the allies would create a state for them out of the carved-up Austro-Hungarian Empire if they saw some semblance of unity between the two groups. The Czechs knew that once this was achieved, and they were independent from Allied control, they would then be the dominant force in the new state and not equal partners with the Slovak people. �SLOVAKIA 179 Even though Slovakia still is not free, Milan Rastislav titefanik and his dreams live on and serve as hope for a future Slovakia, free and self-governing someday. ( Second place - College) FOOTNOTES 1) Special committees elected from both the Austrian and Hungarian Diets were entrusted with the administration of these common departments-in all other matters, and what were left were called purely "domestic affairs." 2) Gilbert L. Oddo, Slovakia and Its People (New York : Robert Speller and Sons, Publishers, 1960) , p. 135. 3) These were Francis Skycak, Dr. Paul Blaho, and Ferdinand Juriga. 4) Milan S. !>urica, "Milan R. Stefanik and His Tragic Death in the Light of Italian Documents," Slovak Studies, Volume X, 1970, p. 148. 5) Peter P. Yurchak, The Slovaks (Indiana: Obrana Press, Inc., 1946), p . 196. 6) Yurchak, p. 196 plus. 7) Oddo, p. 167. 8) Oddo, p. 168. 9) Oddo, p. 169. 10 ) Oddo, p. 167. 11) Oddo, p. 167. 12) Joseph Pauco, Sixty Years of the Slovak League of America (Middletown, Pa.: Jednota Press, 1967), p. 53. 13) Pauco, p. 53. 14) Joseph M. Kirschbaum (ed.), Slovakia in the 19th and 20th Centuries (Toronto: Slovak World Congress, 1973), p. 84 plus. 15) Kirschbaum, p. 84 plus. 16) Oddo, p. 183. 17) Oddo, p. 183. 18) Reverend B. S. Bue, Slovak Nationalism (Middletown, Pa.: Jednota Press, 1960) , p. 38. 19) Yurchak, p. 202. 20) !>urica, p. 164. 21) !>urica, p. 165. 22) !>urica, p. 165. 23) Yurchak, p. 203. 24) A national monument has been erected' to the memory of Stefanik in Slovakia at Bradlo, near his native village, to which Slovaks make a yearly pilgrimage. A life-size statue has also been erected in the U.S. in Wade Park, Cleveland, Ohio. BIBLIOGRAPHY Bue, Reverend B. S., Slovak Nationalism, Middletown, Penna.: Slovak League of America, 1960. !>urica, Milan S., "Milan R. Stefanik and His Tragic Death in the Light of Italian Military Documents." Slovak Studies (Volume 10), 1970, pp. 147-182. �180 SLOVAKIA Rusek, Stephanie 0., ''Milan Rastislav Stefanik." Slovakia, March, 1954, pp. 33-47. Kirschbaum, Joseph M., Slovakia in the 19th and 20th Centuries. Toronto: Slovak World Congress 1973. Mikus, Joseph A. , Slovakia: A Political History, 1918-1950. Milwaukee: The Marquette University Press, 1963. Oddo, G. L. , Slovakia and Its People . New York: Robert Speller and Sons, Publishers, 1960. Paufo, Joseph , Six ty Years of the Slovak League of America. Middletown, Pa.: Slovak League of Ame-r ica, 1967. Woytko, Sister Mary Gabrielle, Sl-o vakia's Road to Statehood. Michigan : John J . Lach, Publisher, 1957. Yurchak, P., The Slovaks. Scranton, Pa.: Obrana Press, Inc., 1946. III. SLOVAKIA BEFORE THE CZECHS John Bert a The Slovaks are a Slavic people who settled in the land between the Danube River and the Carpathian Mountains some 1500 years ago. The area had formerly been held by the Marcommani, a Celtic people, who fled the land after several disastrous wars with the armies of the Roman Empire. The Slovaks were hunters turned farmers. Their main enterprises were blacksmithing and potterymaking, while business transactions were done by bartering. They lived in simple mud and wooden huts, and lived in family groupings called clans, of which the oldest was its head. The Slovak gods were as numerous and varied as those of the Greeks and Romans. When a Slovak died, if cremated, the ashes were placed in urns and buried in a mound. If the body was to be buried, food, wine, weapons and jewelry were placed in the grave. The size of the burial site determined the importance of the dead person. The first attempt of the Slavonic peoples, living along the Danube, to unite into a viable force, came after the Avars, a nomadic Asian people, conquered part of their land. In 624, Samo, a Frankish merchant, united the people and led them to victory against the Avars. This victory encouraged them to face the Germanic Franks, who were � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to 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 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 SLOVAKIA 169 appeared to be united, in actuality is became evident that both Austria and Hungary were really two separate states. Even though they shared a common ruler, a common foreign policy, a common army, and common finances 1 both parts of the Monarchy were totally independent. Slovakia and Slovak destiny was in the hands of the Hungarian or Magyar state. The new arrangement gave the Magyars absolute control over the 30 million Slavs and the other non-Magyar elements which constituted a majority of the Hungarian population. The Slovaks were one of those nationalities with unique cultural distinctions which would separate them from the Magyars. For a time the Magyars permitted the establishment of Slovak schools and cultural societies for the preservation of the Slovak heritage and history. On the surface at least, this seemed fairly liberal for the times. The crucial question of laws made to secure these schools and societies and their enforcement arose constantly and on this score the Slovaks couldn't be too hopeful. Indeed, Slovaks seemed to sense that the Austro-Hungarian settlement would bring nothing but new setbacks and humiliations. The long history of resisting domination from many different empires and peoples conditioned them for what was to come. The Magyars feared that if the Slovak people studied their history, language, and culture, they might eventually desire to become a free nation, separate from the Hungarian state. A half-hearted program of the Magyarization of the Slovak people had existed for some time but it was during the 1860's that this policy began to be strongly enforced. The Slovaks were denied the right of free speech and assembly. 2 Their literature and schools were suppressed and forbidden. They were forced to learn in a tongue-Magyar-which was completely alien to them. This "Magyarization" of the Slovaks was done primarily to quell any Slovak feelings of nationalism. Nonetheless, the Slovaks' inherent love of liberty, freedom, and justice was undaunted. Along with the many restrictions mentioned above, there was a constant struggle between the Slovaks (and other nationalities within the Empire) and the Hungarian government for representation in the Hungarian Diet. From time to time, a few Slovaks were elected but their national- 170 SLOVAKIA istic feelings brought them into constant conflict with the Magyars who at this time were striving to protect their state from rebellions from within. Any rumblings could eventually lead to the collapse of the Empire and this they would prevent at any cost. Therefore, Slovak political expression was weak and constantly suppressed. In the election of 1910, only three Slovak deputies 3 were chosen and these Slovaks combined spent twenty years of their lives between the Hungarian Diet and Magyar jails in defense of the Slovak people. The Slovaks continued to be divided into two differing groups; one favored Slovak autonomy, and the other advocated a federated republic of the Slovak and Czech peoples within the existing Hungarian Empire. The Magyars, of course, exploited these Slovak and Czech differences to serve their own ends. Out of this conflict (between the Slovak people and the Hungarian government just described) there arose a leader who would try to secure freedom for his people. This would eventually cost him his life. Such a man was General Milan Rastislav Stefanik, astronomer, mathematician, military leader, and political leader of the Slovak people and the focal point of this paper. Milan R. Stefanik was born in the Slovak village of Kosariska of Protestant parents in 1880. In Kosariska Stefanik acquired an interest in astronomy and mathematics, which he later pursued at the University of Prague. When war broke out in 1914 he was in his early thirties and in Morocco making astronomical observations.4 His patriotism for his country brought him away from his work as an astronomer and took him almost immediately to France where he joined the French army as a private. Stefanik was soon transferred to the young French air corps where he served as an observer in air tactics. He became convinced that the Slovak people would never be content fighting for the Monarchy. It was here that Stefanik began to make plans for the formation: of a Slovak foreign legion. Throughout the middle war years (1915-1916) Stefanik made it a point to travel wherever he could in Europe to recruit troops for the legion. He managed to recruit a total of 10,000 men made up of Slovaks, Serbs, Russians, and SLOVAKIA 171 Rumanians for the allied cause. Many of these men that Stefanik recruited were prisoners of war taken with much resistance, and were fighting for a cause which was not their own. This was a very important contribution to the allied war effort and to his own people who looked to him as a true leader for now these POW's from the Austro-Hungarian armies would be fighting for a cause they believed in and for the eventual formation of free and independent countries for their own peoples. Because of his dynamic personality and military accomplishments, Stefanik quickly reached the rank of General and it became evident that being the only leader of the future Czecho-Slovakia with military experience, the task of providing the Czecho-Slovak divisions to fight with the allied armies fell to Stefanik. In 1917 Stefanik made a visit to the United States, a visit which can be understood as perhaps stefanik's most important contribution to the future of the Slovak people. There was also a strong nationalistic feeling in America among Slovak-Americans and Czech-Americans to actively promote the cause of a Czecho-Slovakia. stefanik's efforts in his 1917 United States visit may be best explained in his own words: I have come to America to set afoot among the Slovak people a movement toward a move perfect understanding of the fundamental conditions of independence, and to obtain permission from the government at Washington to form an independent Czech and Slovak army -in which every Czech and Slovak might take part-the final struggle for our freedom, and perform a cherished duty long deferred.5 At the time of stefanik's visit, General Vignal, who was also stationed in the United States, said of stefanik's work: I cannot praise sufficiently this great patriot, cool-headed and inspired by the highest ideals, full of tact and wisdom. He has won the sympathy of the officials of the American State Department, and organized with the greatest success, the recruiting of Czechs and Slovaks.6 The French government sent a special commission headed by Franklin-Bouillon to Washington to obtain approval from President Wilson for Stefanik to recruit Czechs and Slovaks with the idea of forming a Czecho-Slovak regiment within the allied forces. Stefanik greatly aided the success of this mission. He eventually recruited some 4,000 172 SLOVAKIA able-bodied Czechs and Slovaks who were not subject to the Selective Service Laws in America due to the fact that many of these immigrants were not yet naturalized citizens. Recruitment of these troops was not easy. Stefanik had the difficult task of raising money for transportation and housing facilities for his "Legionnaires," as well as providing for funds to support the families of the recruited wage earners. But perhaps the most important single aspect of stefanik's visit to the United States was his relations with American Slovak and Czech leaders. He attempted to dispel Slovak doubts as to Slovakia's status in a proposed new state to be created from the Dual Monarchy after an allied victory. Stefanik had yet another important meeting on July 1, 1917, at the Congress Hall in Washington, D. C. Stefanik reported on the military situation on the Eastern front and also the condition of Slovak and Czech troops in Russia. The real purpose of this meeting, however, was two-fold. One was to arrange the organization of American Slovaks and Czechs into the legion and the most important point was to lay down the groundwork for Czecho-Slovak cooperation in the United States. Stefanik knew that without the continued financial support of the Americans and Slovak and Czech immigrants, the birth of their state would not be realized. For this reason Stefanik remained non-committed about the future state to the American Slovaks and Czechs. He stressed that the new state would not be "an ethnographically inseparable one." 7 By this he meant that the Czecho-Slovak state was to be a politically unified one, but as to whether he envisioned a separate Slovak assembly in Bratislava to handle Slovak domestic affairs is not all clear. Stefanik specifically stated to the American Slovaks that the Slovaks in the homeland must be set free to make their own decision on important issues and that no guarantee could be given to emigrant Slovaks in the United States. Even with this in mind the unselfish Slovak-Americans gave all of their cooperation to Stefanik and to the cause he fought for in the homeland of Czecho-Slovakia. One must remember that the recently emigrated Slovak-American SLOVAKIA 173 was financially very poor for the most part, and, therefore, any financial support was a great sacrifice for him. stefanik's dedication to Slovak autonomy did not stop with the militaristic idea but he gave clear evidence of his dedication in regard to religious matters also. Slovak Catholics ( Catholicism being the majority religion in Slovakia), both in the homeland and in the United States, were suspicious that the leading Czechs associated with Masaryk, were clearly hostile to the Catholic Church. They feared that the Czechs' skepticism toward the existence of God would always be the dominant element in Czech political life. To rid the people of these fears, Masaryk had assured them that in the new Czecho-Slovakia, there would be complete religious freedom for all. Despite this assurance, the doubts still persisted. Therefore, it was up to Stefanik to assure the American Slovaks of religious freedom in the new state. It was at a meeting on September 20, 1917, that Stefanik sat down with a group of American Slovak Catholic clergymen to thrash out this problem. 8 There is no written record available of this very important meeting but, it is known that many fears were raised that Slovak Catholicism would suffer greatly at the hands of a completely Czechized nonCatholic or perhaps even an anti-Catholic government in Prague.9 Stefanik came to the conclusion that in order for the American Slovaks to support the revolution in Europe, the new state would have to guarantee religious freedom for Slovakia. "The meeting with the American Slovak clergymen," said Edward Benes, Masaryk's right-hand man, "was very important because here Stefanik dispelled all the suspicions and unwillingness of the priests as regards the movement for independence ... " 10 This statement made by Benes, dispelled any doubts that Stefanik would win the reassurance of the Catholic Slovak clergymen to continue the fight for a completely religious and culturally free state of Czecho-Slovakia. On September 16, 1917, Stefanik met with FranklinBouillon and John P. Mitchell, then mayor of New York City, at an important demonstration-meeting held at Carnegie Hall. This meeting, at which the representatives of the Allied armies were present, had a considerable propaganda 174 SLOVAKIA significance since it broke the ice of indifference of American journalists. At this meeting Stefanik told several thousand fellow patriots that "our fight against AustroHungary can end only when both our fraternal nations, the Czechs and the Slovaks, are united in an independent state free of Magyar-German domination." 11 Also speaking at the meeting was Franklin-Bouillon, who addressed the men of the "Czecho-Slovak" nation and appealed to them to join the Legion. He was the first influential statesman who publicly voiced a desire for the dismemberment of the Dual Mqnarchy. This statement of Franklin-Bouillon's caused a sensation in American political circles. For at no previous meeting was the dismemberment of Austria- Hungary publicly announced. For this reason one cannot but feel that the true stefanik came forth at the Carnegie Hall mass meeting. The success of stefanik's two-fold task of recruitment and securing Czech-Slovak solidarity in the United States seemed complete, and Stefanik sought permission to return to Paris. Vignal granted this permission for Stefanik to return to France on the first transport of Slovak and Czech troops. The General also added a few words of praise for the success of stefanik's mission. This mission contributed to the Slovak-Czech cause in another very tangible way. Urged by stefanik's great talent as an orator, his obvious patriotism, and tremendous personal magnitude, in the fall of 191 7, the American Slovaks organized their Million Dollar Drive to aid the cause for Slovak-Czech freedom abroad. The drive, headed by Father Joseph Murgas, sent well over $800,000 to Masaryk, Benes, theCzecho-Slovak National Council's office in Paris, Russia, and the United States. Stefanik won their respect and cooperation in his fight for Slovak autonomy. During stefanik's leave from the United States and his return to Paris, much was done behind his back toward the formation of the new Czecho-Slovak Republic. In May of 1918 Masaryk was in Pittsburgh meeting with American and Slovak and Czech leaders, explaining just how CzechoSlovakia would be administered and precisely what the status of Slovakia would be within the new state. He assured the Slovaks that Czecho-Slovakia would be an SLOVAKIA 175 autonomous state. He also assured them that Slovakia would have its own schools, its own language, its own local administration, courts, and its own legislative assembly. And, to further appease Slovak sensibilities toward the new state, Masaryk drafted a document which has since been vehemently debated. The document came to be known as the Pittsburgh Pact. It contained all of the above legislation and it added that the Czecho-Slovak state shall be a republic, and its constitution shall be democratic. The irony surrounding the drafting of the Pittsburgh Pact was that Masaryk signed the Pact and did not abide by its stipulations. In his own book, The Making of a State, Masaryk skipped over the Pact as a mere scrap of paper noting that "it was concluded in order to appease a 'small Slovak faction' which was dreaming of God knows what sort of independent Slovakia ... the agreement was a local one ... among the Czechs and Slovaks of America." 12 Therefore, according to Masaryk, this Pact was not between the Slovak and Czech nations, but just an agreement "to satisfy a small Slovak faction:" Obviously, it was never meant to be considered in the planning of the foundation of the Czecho-Slovak state either by Masaryk or the Czechs themselves. Masaryk brushed aside the Slovaks rudely by this action, broke his word of honor and proclaimed his signature genuine but worthless, and in the same work (World Revolution, 1925, p. 105) he discounted the financial aid of the Slovaks as insignificant. 13 As can be seen, Masaryk treated the entire matter shabbily and deceitfully. More effective communications with Stefanik in Paris should certainly have been established, especially after stefanik's impressive visit to the United States. It should have been mandatory that Stefanik sign the Pact, thus binding the Czecho-Slovak National Council itself. Masaryk made very little effort at all to contact Stefanik and the other Slovak leaders. Masaryk then continued to make plans for the new state without stefanik's cognizance of the matter. I feel a moment must be taken here to mention the fact that there was an undertone of personality clashes, jealousy, and suspicion on the parts of Masaryk and especially the socialist Benes toward Stefanik. Mrs. Louise Weiss, editor of l' Europe Nouvelle in Paris and an intimate friend of SLOVAKIA 176 stefanik's, wrote in her book Memoires d'une Europeenne (Memoirs of a European Woman): His (Stefanik's) differences with Benes were an obsession to him. Although he was overbusy, he found time to enlighten me within three minutes, about 'this first grade socialist, this paper revolutionary, this distorted diplomat.' As soon as he left, Benes settled down in my office, and for three hours expanded on this astronomer who thinks he is a soldier, this peasant who thinks he is an aristocrat, this politician who considers himself a genius, but who, in fact, is nothing but muddled up.14 Further she writes: When Stefanik returned from his expedition, he found Benes more and more firmly established with some Government Offices with whom he was negotiating (in the absence of Stefanik) and, in view of the circumstances, without informing Stefanik about it. Benes could not witness without envy the aura surrounding Milan (Stefanik) as a legendary hero.15 Benes and Masaryk, as well, I feel, were jealous and afraid of stefanik's overwhelming popularity. As opposed to them, Stefanik was a more "colorful" character with his ear attuned to the pulse of the Slovak people both in Slovakia and in the United States. The aim of Masaryk and Benes was to establish a predominantly Czech bureaucracy throughout the newly formed nation to fill the vacuum left by the Magyars with no real concern for the welfare and wishes of the Slovak people. As long as Stefanik, however, could serve their purpose in uniting the Slovaks with the Czechs (for pragmatic reasons only) to show the Allies a unified peoples so that they would grant independence, then Masaryk and Benes "tolerated" but ignored Stefanik whenever possible. When he finally realized their true intentions, he was no longer useful and, therefore, would have to be eliminated. On October 28, 1918, T. G. Masaryk proclaimed the Czecho-Slovak Republic while he was in Washington. Masaryk wrote the Declaration of Independence and presented it to Secretary of State Lansing to get his approval. Masaryk wrote in the declaration "that the rights of Bohemia might be united to those of the Slovak brethren in Slovakia, once a part of our (Czech) state ... " 16 This proclamation made Stefanik furious. He was perturbed that the proclamation was issued in Washington instead of Paris. He also added that the proclamation was SLOVAKIA 177 issued without his previous knowledge and that Masaryk forged his signature to it without prior consultation. Stefanik then sent a telegram to Masaryk in Washington and Benes in Paris to voice his objections to the declaration. He sent the telegram on October 28, the same day that the declaration was released to the public. In stefanik's view, the Republic surely had gotten off on the wrong foot. 17 His misgivings were realized soon after his death when c-:echoSlovak policy, domestic and foreign, became strictly Czech policy. "The lure of might showed itself more powerful for the Czech majority than the ideals of nationalism, equality, and rights." 18 In the early part of 1919 Stefanik began his journey home where he was to be crowned with the appointment to the office of the Minister of National Defense in the new Republic. stefanik's love for his native Slovakia and the people dominated every interest he had in life, even that of attaining high personal fame. Stefanik once wrote to a friend: "I am a Slovak, body and soul; I know no divided affection." 19 After stefanik's inspection of his army in Italy he planned to make the trip home by plane. On May 4, 1919, General Milan Rastislav Stefanik, the war hero of all Slovakia, was killed under circumstances which have been suspect ever since. He was returning to Bratislava where a huge crowd had gathered to welcome him, where he was to take up duties as first Minister of Defense in the CzechoSlovak Republic he had helped create in Paris. A little after 11 a.m. on that fateful day, the Italian plane-Caproni No. 11,495-carrying Stefanik and an Italian pilot and co-pilot, circled the Vajnory Airport near Bratislava for a landing. All of a sudden the plane burst into flames and crashed to the ground below. s tefanik had been a victim of an anti-aircraft barrage of the Czecho-Slovak garrison whose orders were given to them by a Czech commanding officer. Prague tried to hush up the tragedy but it couldn't be suppressed. "It was all a mistake," said the commanding officer_, "I thought it was an enemy plane; the garrison didn't know Stefanik was· arriving in an Italian-made plane!" 20 Despite Czech propaganda, eye witnesses still alive today, as well as certain members of the military 178 SLOV A KIA garrison, insist that the shooting was willful, that Stefanik was deliberately murdered. There are even letters and sworn statements that exist to coincide with the charges. It was found that before an investigation board, a soldier named Joseph Mesko, confessed to shooting at stefanik's plane and stated that he had not known of such orders and had opened fire with the belief that the plane was a Magyar one. 21 One eyewitness, Rudolph Ruzicka stated: I was at my canon when I saw the arrival of the plane about which we had been pre,viously advised. I don't swear that we knew for sure it was Stefanik's plane; never theless, I do maintain, and still today, even if it could have been an enemy plane, that they shouldn't have fired so fearfully and heavily upon it.22 The death of Stefanik is still very unclear in the minds of all Slovaks. Stefanik knew that throughout history Czechs and Slovaks had formed distinct national and cultural differences and that, therefore, Pan-Czech references to "one Czechoslovak nation" were pure myth. Stefanik was a fierce Slovak patriot who would not stand still for the completion of a "Czechized" new state.23 Stefanik was an inconvenience to the Czechs and their plans to colonize Slovakia within the "great Czechoslovakia" that the National Council in Paris had dreamed of. Many Slovaks even today will tell you that Stefanik had to die, because he would never consent to Slovakia being a colony of the imperialistic Czechs led by T. G. Masaryk and Edward Benes. The shooting down of Caproni No. 11,495 served Prague well. In today's Slovakia, controlled by the Communists, Milan Rastislav Stefanik is remembered and looked to as an inspiration to all Slovak people.24 From the time of his death to the present day, Slovakia has suffered again and again from forces beyond her control. Stefanik had always been wary of Czech promises and his misgivings came to pass. The Czechs only used the Slovaks and their nationalistic aspirations as pawns at Paris to be appeased so that the allies would create a state for them out of the carved-up Austro-Hungarian Empire if they saw some semblance of unity between the two groups. The Czechs knew that once this was achieved, and they were independent from Allied control, they would then be the dominant force in the new state and not equal partners with the Slovak people. SLOVAKIA 179 Even though Slovakia still is not free, Milan Rastislav titefanik and his dreams live on and serve as hope for a future Slovakia, free and self-governing someday. ( Second place - College) FOOTNOTES 1) Special committees elected from both the Austrian and Hungarian Diets were entrusted with the administration of these common departments-in all other matters, and what were left were called purely "domestic affairs." 2) Gilbert L. Oddo, Slovakia and Its People (New York : Robert Speller and Sons, Publishers, 1960) , p. 135. 3) These were Francis Skycak, Dr. Paul Blaho, and Ferdinand Juriga. 4) Milan S. !>urica, "Milan R. Stefanik and His Tragic Death in the Light of Italian Documents," Slovak Studies, Volume X, 1970, p. 148. 5) Peter P. Yurchak, The Slovaks (Indiana: Obrana Press, Inc., 1946), p . 196. 6) Yurchak, p. 196 plus. 7) Oddo, p. 167. 8) Oddo, p. 168. 9) Oddo, p. 169. 10 ) Oddo, p. 167. 11) Oddo, p. 167. 12) Joseph Pauco, Sixty Years of the Slovak League of America (Middletown, Pa.: Jednota Press, 1967), p. 53. 13) Pauco, p. 53. 14) Joseph M. Kirschbaum (ed.), Slovakia in the 19th and 20th Centuries (Toronto: Slovak World Congress, 1973), p. 84 plus. 15) Kirschbaum, p. 84 plus. 16) Oddo, p. 183. 17) Oddo, p. 183. 18) Reverend B. S. Bue, Slovak Nationalism (Middletown, Pa.: Jednota Press, 1960) , p. 38. 19) Yurchak, p. 202. 20) !>urica, p. 164. 21) !>urica, p. 165. 22) !>urica, p. 165. 23) Yurchak, p. 203. 24) A national monument has been erected' to the memory of Stefanik in Slovakia at Bradlo, near his native village, to which Slovaks make a yearly pilgrimage. A life-size statue has also been erected in the U.S. in Wade Park, Cleveland, Ohio. BIBLIOGRAPHY Bue, Reverend B. S., Slovak Nationalism, Middletown, Penna.: Slovak League of America, 1960. !>urica, Milan S., "Milan R. Stefanik and His Tragic Death in the Light of Italian Military Documents." Slovak Studies (Volume 10), 1970, pp. 147-182. 180 SLOVAKIA Rusek, Stephanie 0., ''Milan Rastislav Stefanik." Slovakia, March, 1954, pp. 33-47. Kirschbaum, Joseph M., Slovakia in the 19th and 20th Centuries. Toronto: Slovak World Congress 1973. Mikus, Joseph A. , Slovakia: A Political History, 1918-1950. Milwaukee: The Marquette University Press, 1963. Oddo, G. L. , Slovakia and Its People . New York: Robert Speller and Sons, Publishers, 1960. Paufo, Joseph , Six ty Years of the Slovak League of America. Middletown, Pa.: Slovak League of Ame-r ica, 1967. Woytko, Sister Mary Gabrielle, Sl-o vakia's Road to Statehood. Michigan : John J . Lach, Publisher, 1957. Yurchak, P., The Slovaks. Scranton, Pa.: Obrana Press, Inc., 1946. III. SLOVAKIA BEFORE THE CZECHS John Bert a The Slovaks are a Slavic people who settled in the land between the Danube River and the Carpathian Mountains some 1500 years ago. The area had formerly been held by the Marcommani, a Celtic people, who fled the land after several disastrous wars with the armies of the Roman Empire. The Slovaks were hunters turned farmers. Their main enterprises were blacksmithing and potterymaking, while business transactions were done by bartering. They lived in simple mud and wooden huts, and lived in family groupings called clans, of which the oldest was its head. The Slovak gods were as numerous and varied as those of the Greeks and Romans. When a Slovak died, if cremated, the ashes were placed in urns and buried in a mound. If the body was to be buried, food, wine, weapons and jewelry were placed in the grave. The size of the burial site determined the importance of the dead person. The first attempt of the Slavonic peoples, living along the Danube, to unite into a viable force, came after the Avars, a nomadic Asian people, conquered part of their land. In 624, Samo, a Frankish merchant, united the people and led them to victory against the Avars. This victory encouraged them to face the Germanic Franks, who were  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Milan Rastislav Štefánik and the Tragedy of the Slovak People Description An account of the resource Robert Pojer Slovakia, Vol. 25 (No. 48), 1975 pp. 168-180 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Pojer, Robert 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/c261397e85eed23c862735032fef621e.pdf 4100e82bdcd463eb507b52bc5b6fb54f PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA 13 MILESTONES OF SLOVAK HISTORY OCTOBER 6, 1938 The Slovaik nation, one olf the olde.st Christian nations in Central Europe, decided to fonm a c01mmon political state with the Czech nation during World War I. Equality in all matters ,w as the basis Ol:f that decision. Slovakia ,w as to be governed as a state of the Ozech-Slova:k federation by the Slovruks and the Czech lands by the Ozechs. The Pittsburgh Pact of May 30, 1918, drawn UJP and signed by T. G. Masarylk and irepresentati'Ves of the Czechs and the •S lovaks of America, guaranteed Sloivakia complete autonomy, i e., home rule or states rights. Unfortunately, T. G. Masaryk repudiated the pruct and condemned the very state he prop8!gated to premature ruin. For twenty years the. Slovaks kerpt clamoring for recognition of and respect for their inherent rights, for the fulfillment of the ,b argain they had concluded with T. G. Masaryk, but to .no avail. The Ruthe1I1ians,, who had voluntarily entered the political state of Czeicho~Slovakia on the basis of an autonomous region, were also sadly disaippointed by the regime olf T. G. Masaryik and his underst/Udy, Dr. Edward Benes. The forceful inchtsion of 3,500,000 Sudeten Germans in the Ozecho~lo:vaik Repulbliic did not help relieve the tensiOIIlS or to consolidate the state, burt rather aggravated the situation. The regimes of T. G. Masaryk and Dr. Edward Benes antrugonized the non-Czech majority of the population against the Czechs and doomed the Republic to an early death. When the first major crisis stmmk, there was no one to defend the ill~fated Ozecho~SlovaJkia and it collapsed like a house ibuilt of cards. On October 6, 193,8, the Slo1V1aiks mrude a great step forward toward urufiying their fOiI1Ces in their struggle for state independence. All paTties, except the .Social Democrats and the Communists, accepted the principle of an autonomous SlovaJkia in the spirit of the draft of a bill, which was prepared by the ID:inka Slovak People's Party and made pU!blic Jun€ 5, 1938. The result of the October meet~ �14 SLOVAKIA ing,s oif the representatives of all Slovak parties in Zilina,, S1ovalkia, was that "the Government of the Ozecho..slovalk Repulblic named, in the p1ruce of the President of the RepuJblic (a paragrruph of the Constitutional Document), deputy Dr. Joseph Tiso, the executive vice-president of the SlO'Vak POOlple's Party, as mii.nister for the administration of SloV'a!kia. By a supplement to this law, the Government requested Dr. Tiso to name other SlovaJk ministers to execute governmental power in Slovakia. From this it is evident that the Prague Government had accepted the fundamental propositions of the Slo:vaJk People's Party and the other participating parties" (A-l~ET, official organ of Dr. Benes's National Socialistic Party, Octolber 7, 1938). Dr. Edward Benes, as is iknown, resigned the presidency of the Republic V1oluntarily on Octolber 5, 1938. The first Slovak ruutonomous government oif Slova.kia was composed oif the following: Dr. Joseph Tiso, Premier and Minister O'f Interior; ,professor Matthew Cernak, Minister oif Education and National Enlightenment; Dr. Ferdinand DUT'canSlky, Minister of Justl!ce, Social Welfare and Health; Paul TeplanSlky, Minister of Agriculture,, Prublic WOTks, Commerce, Business and Finance; John Lichner, Minister of the Mail and the Railroads. ( Slovensky mas, Dr. Milan Hodza's 1pulblication, October 8, 1938). Dr. J,o seph Tiso, •CernaJk and :Dwcansky were representatives of the Hlinka Slovalk PeQple's Party, while Teplans:ky and Lkhner represented the party oif Slovak republicans, since there really were only two genuine Slovak parties in Slovakia - the People's Party and the National $loiv~k Party. All the other parties were only affiliates of the ;variOUJs Ozeich and so-<Called "Czechoslovak" ,p arties; the representatives of these parties sp0ike of the Slova;k coalition ,parties, as 1s attested to by the "A-~ET" article of Emil Boleslav Lukac orf October 7, 193'8. Analy~g and evaluating the Zilina events, LuJkac wrote: "It was ,plainly necessary that the Slovalk People's Party pass over from the ,position of opposition to a responsible position, one commensu,r ate with its strength, to a leading position. It was necessary that it use its strength �SLOVAKIA 15 especially today to protect Slovak national interests inside and outside its territory. Even the cbalition parties of Slova1da haJVe united on its main demand - the decentralization of pulbliic administraA:ion and a ,b road autonomy for SlovaJkia. And it was aecepted even by the Governrment of the Repulblic. SlovaJkia shall hruve its legislaitive assembly, a Slovruk government of all resorts, except finances , national defense, and ,f oreign affairs - whi-ch are common resorts. Today all S-loivaJk parties stand behind this agreement, behind this new arrangement of Slovruk afrfairs, and, hence, even our Nationai Socialistic Party in Slovakia. We shall stand by it loyally and responsibly." The republicans (agrarians) welcomed the first .SlovaJk Autonomous Government even more enthusiasticaH y. In their '"SLOVENSK Y TY~DEJNNfK." (Slovalk Weekly) of OctOlber 13, 1938, their leadiillg editorial "M8JIIle Slovensku Vladiu" (We Have a Sloivak Goivernment) , contained the following: "We recall that the ('IDinka Sl01VaJk) ·People's Party not so long ago thought and appeared to 1b e sufficient of itself for such a role. But when it actuaHy came to the brealking of bread, it realized what a great responstbility it is before the nation ·a nd how much woirk must 1b e aocompUshed to organize Slo.'V'aik statehood and an autonomous, independent Slovruk life. Under these circumstances and dtflficulties it was a real blessing that the Republican ,P arty of Slovakia was deternnined rwith all its forces to build a Slovak autonomous state unit. . . " SlovaJk centralists - the so~a,lled "Ozechoslova,ks" who had defended .and propagated a strong, centralized Prague government - openly and enthusiastkal ly spoke out not only for a;utonomy, but for SlovaJk statehood after October 6,. 1938. Their -w illingness to wor,k with the SloivaJk People's Party was not only evident, but also quite convincing, as demonstrawd by their manifestation s and the ,parti~ipation of the RepU'blican Party in the Slovak Government. Analyzing the whole brucikgro.und of these events, we find that the representative s of the political parties in Slovakia did nothing in 2ilina which was not approved of by �16 SLOVAKIA Prague. And the Prague leadership oif the coalition iparties even gaive pU!blic testimoniy of this on October 8, 193'8, by stating: ''The undersigned representatiive s of the Crech political parties declare that - in the sense of the 2ilina agreement of Octolber 6, 1938 - we adopt the ,proiposition of the Hlinika .SlovaJk People's Party to issue a Constitutiona l law in regard to the autonomy of SlovaJkia as ~t was presented in the .Asoornlbly of Deputies in 1938 and pulblished in the SLOVAK, No. 129, of Jrune 5, 1938, and we ibind ourselves that we shal,l endeavor to have it acted on and aoceipted as soon as possilble." The statement was, signed .by: Deputy Rudoliph Beran, chairman of the Repulbli<can Party; Deputy Anthony Hampl. chairman of the ,Social Democratic Party; Deputy Dr. Klaipka for the National Socialist Party; Deputy Monsignor Stasetk for the 0ze:ch Poople's Parly; Dr. Franicis Hodac. vice-ichairman oif the Party of Unity; and De:puty Rudolph Mlcoch, chail'lffian of Tradesman's Party. (!SLOVAK, October 9, 1938). Here we harve proof that even the leadership of the Social Democrati1c Party in Prague fully approrved the Zilina .A!greement, despite the fad that the Slovak Pe01ple's Party did not come to an:y agreement with the Slovruk Socialists. It is quite obvious, therefore, that October 6, 1938 Slova!k Autonomy Day - was baoked not only by the H1inka Slovak People's Party, but also the rest of the Slovak civk parties then in existence. All went along with the Peoiple's Party willingly and spontaneously and accepted the resiponsilbility for the future development of Sloiva!lda. Whether they were sincere 8'bout it or not is questionable in the light of what transpireid later, but the fact is that all ·political parties operating in Slova·k ia in 1938 - except the Social Demdcrats and the Communists - realized ,t he necessity od' uniting in the common interests oif .Slovakia, in fact in the interests of the national existence of the SlOIVruk nation itself. They were not re$ponsihle for the tense international political situation of that time, but were sufficiently intelligent to adapt themselves accordingly and save �SLOVAKIA 17 whatever could ,b e saved under the given cir~umstances. It was, in fact, the old Btory Oi:f history repeating its.elf all poJitioal leaders wo11king together for the benefit of all the people of Slovakia, or hanging separately. On October 6, 1938, the just demands of. the Slovak nation,; so aiptly e~ressed by the Pittsiburgh Pact of May 30, 191'8, were finally recognized and fulfilled by the recalcitrant gorvernment of Prague. As we looik bruclk in retrospect today, we can only say that lruok of foresi:ght, statesmansMp, Christian charity and democracy on the part of Dr. Edward Benes and his National Socialists and other Ozech leftist - so...called "progressive" - growps prevented the realization o;f Slovak autonomy sooner and ,p recipatated the collapse of the Czecho,. Slova:k Repll!blic. October 6, 1938, no matter how enemies o;f Slovaik freedom and indeipendenoe may look ,wpon it, was a milestone in Slovak history, maI1king another lap olf the march of the Slovak nation to free dom and complete political independence. • • • WHO SAID IT? "After the Turkish invasion came tile religious wars which many historians made the mistake orf regarding as manifestaJtions of nationaJ1. resistance against Germanism. Here in Cenltrai Europe the conflicts were identical with those taJking plaice in other prurts o:f the Continent at the same time. The struggle Oi:f the Huguenots against Henry IV was no more -a nationaJl. conflict than the share of the Czechs in the Thi.irty Years.' War was a radal fight against Germanism. They fought against the HaJbsboogs beeause the latter were Catholks, _and the Battle of the White Mountain (1620) the Ozechs, together with their German rully, Prince Frederick, Elector of the Palatinate, were !b eaten 1by the Catholic tro01ps of the Austrian emperor. The legend about the Mountain is an outstanding exMn.ple Off historical forgery, for it was. a purely religious and dynastic affaiir." (F. 0. Miksche - a Czech - in UNCONDITIONA L SURREND@R, p. 71; Faber and Fruber, Ltd., London). � SLOVAKIA 13 MILESTONES OF SLOVAK HISTORY OCTOBER 6, 1938 The Slovaik nation, one olf the olde.st Christian nations in Central Europe, decided to fonm a c01mmon political state with the Czech nation during World War I. Equality in all matters ,w as the basis Ol:f that decision. Slovakia ,w as to be governed as a state of the Ozech-Slova:k federation by the Slovruks and the Czech lands by the Ozechs. The Pittsburgh Pact of May 30, 1918, drawn UJP and signed by T. G. Masarylk and irepresentati'Ves of the Czechs and the •S lovaks of America, guaranteed Sloivakia complete autonomy, i e., home rule or states rights. Unfortunately, T. G. Masaryk repudiated the pruct and condemned the very state he prop8!gated to premature ruin. For twenty years the. Slovaks kerpt clamoring for recognition of and respect for their inherent rights, for the fulfillment of the ,b argain they had concluded with T. G. Masaryk, but to .no avail. The Ruthe1I1ians,, who had voluntarily entered the political state of Czeicho~Slovakia on the basis of an autonomous region, were also sadly disaippointed by the regime olf T. G. Masaryik and his underst/Udy, Dr. Edward Benes. The forceful inchtsion of 3,500,000 Sudeten Germans in the Ozecho~lo:vaik Repulbliic did not help relieve the tensiOIIlS or to consolidate the state, burt rather aggravated the situation. The regimes of T. G. Masaryk and Dr. Edward Benes antrugonized the non-Czech majority of the population against the Czechs and doomed the Republic to an early death. When the first major crisis stmmk, there was no one to defend the ill~fated Ozecho~SlovaJkia and it collapsed like a house ibuilt of cards. On October 6, 193,8, the Slo1V1aiks mrude a great step forward toward urufiying their fOiI1Ces in their struggle for state independence. All paTties, except the .Social Democrats and the Communists, accepted the principle of an autonomous SlovaJkia in the spirit of the draft of a bill, which was prepared by the ID:inka Slovak People's Party and made pU!blic Jun€ 5, 1938. The result of the October meet~ �14 SLOVAKIA ing,s oif the representatives of all Slovak parties in Zilina,, S1ovalkia, was that "the Government of the Ozecho..slovalk Repulblic named, in the p1ruce of the President of the RepuJblic (a paragrruph of the Constitutional Document), deputy Dr. Joseph Tiso, the executive vice-president of the SlO'Vak POOlple's Party, as mii.nister for the administration of SloV'a!kia. By a supplement to this law, the Government requested Dr. Tiso to name other SlovaJk ministers to execute governmental power in Slovakia. From this it is evident that the Prague Government had accepted the fundamental propositions of the Slo:vaJk People's Party and the other participating parties" (A-l~ET, official organ of Dr. Benes's National Socialistic Party, Octolber 7, 1938). Dr. Edward Benes, as is iknown, resigned the presidency of the Republic V1oluntarily on Octolber 5, 1938. The first Slovak ruutonomous government oif Slova.kia was composed oif the following: Dr. Joseph Tiso, Premier and Minister O'f Interior; ,professor Matthew Cernak, Minister oif Education and National Enlightenment; Dr. Ferdinand DUT'canSlky, Minister of Justl!ce, Social Welfare and Health; Paul TeplanSlky, Minister of Agriculture,, Prublic WOTks, Commerce, Business and Finance; John Lichner, Minister of the Mail and the Railroads. ( Slovensky mas, Dr. Milan Hodza's 1pulblication, October 8, 1938). Dr. J,o seph Tiso, •CernaJk and :Dwcansky were representatives of the Hlinka Slovalk PeQple's Party, while Teplans:ky and Lkhner represented the party oif Slovak republicans, since there really were only two genuine Slovak parties in Slovakia - the People's Party and the National $loiv~k Party. All the other parties were only affiliates of the ;variOUJs Ozeich and so-<Called "Czechoslovak" ,p arties; the representatives of these parties sp0ike of the Slova;k coalition ,parties, as 1s attested to by the "A-~ET" article of Emil Boleslav Lukac orf October 7, 193'8. Analy~g and evaluating the Zilina events, LuJkac wrote: "It was ,plainly necessary that the Slovalk People's Party pass over from the ,position of opposition to a responsible position, one commensu,r ate with its strength, to a leading position. It was necessary that it use its strength �SLOVAKIA 15 especially today to protect Slovak national interests inside and outside its territory. Even the cbalition parties of Slova1da haJVe united on its main demand - the decentralization of pulbliic administraA:ion and a ,b road autonomy for SlovaJkia. And it was aecepted even by the Governrment of the Repulblic. SlovaJkia shall hruve its legislaitive assembly, a Slovruk government of all resorts, except finances , national defense, and ,f oreign affairs - whi-ch are common resorts. Today all S-loivaJk parties stand behind this agreement, behind this new arrangement of Slovruk afrfairs, and, hence, even our Nationai Socialistic Party in Slovakia. We shall stand by it loyally and responsibly." The republicans (agrarians) welcomed the first .SlovaJk Autonomous Government even more enthusiasticaH y. In their '"SLOVENSK Y TY~DEJNNfK." (Slovalk Weekly) of OctOlber 13, 1938, their leadiillg editorial "M8JIIle Slovensku Vladiu" (We Have a Sloivak Goivernment) , contained the following: "We recall that the ('IDinka Sl01VaJk) ·People's Party not so long ago thought and appeared to 1b e sufficient of itself for such a role. But when it actuaHy came to the brealking of bread, it realized what a great responstbility it is before the nation ·a nd how much woirk must 1b e aocompUshed to organize Slo.'V'aik statehood and an autonomous, independent Slovruk life. Under these circumstances and dtflficulties it was a real blessing that the Republican ,P arty of Slovakia was deternnined rwith all its forces to build a Slovak autonomous state unit. . . " SlovaJk centralists - the so~a,lled "Ozechoslova,ks" who had defended .and propagated a strong, centralized Prague government - openly and enthusiastkal ly spoke out not only for a;utonomy, but for SlovaJk statehood after October 6,. 1938. Their -w illingness to wor,k with the SloivaJk People's Party was not only evident, but also quite convincing, as demonstrawd by their manifestation s and the ,parti~ipation of the RepU'blican Party in the Slovak Government. Analyzing the whole brucikgro.und of these events, we find that the representative s of the political parties in Slovakia did nothing in 2ilina which was not approved of by �16 SLOVAKIA Prague. And the Prague leadership oif the coalition iparties even gaive pU!blic testimoniy of this on October 8, 193'8, by stating: ''The undersigned representatiive s of the Crech political parties declare that - in the sense of the 2ilina agreement of Octolber 6, 1938 - we adopt the ,proiposition of the Hlinika .SlovaJk People's Party to issue a Constitutiona l law in regard to the autonomy of SlovaJkia as ~t was presented in the .Asoornlbly of Deputies in 1938 and pulblished in the SLOVAK, No. 129, of Jrune 5, 1938, and we ibind ourselves that we shal,l endeavor to have it acted on and aoceipted as soon as possilble." The statement was, signed .by: Deputy Rudoliph Beran, chairman of the Repulbli<can Party; Deputy Anthony Hampl. chairman of the ,Social Democratic Party; Deputy Dr. Klaipka for the National Socialist Party; Deputy Monsignor Stasetk for the 0ze:ch Poople's Parly; Dr. Franicis Hodac. vice-ichairman oif the Party of Unity; and De:puty Rudolph Mlcoch, chail'lffian of Tradesman's Party. (!SLOVAK, October 9, 1938). Here we harve proof that even the leadership of the Social Democrati1c Party in Prague fully approrved the Zilina .A!greement, despite the fad that the Slovak Pe01ple's Party did not come to an:y agreement with the Slovruk Socialists. It is quite obvious, therefore, that October 6, 1938 Slova!k Autonomy Day - was baoked not only by the H1inka Slovak People's Party, but also the rest of the Slovak civk parties then in existence. All went along with the Peoiple's Party willingly and spontaneously and accepted the resiponsilbility for the future development of Sloiva!lda. Whether they were sincere 8'bout it or not is questionable in the light of what transpireid later, but the fact is that all ·political parties operating in Slova·k ia in 1938 - except the Social Demdcrats and the Communists - realized ,t he necessity od' uniting in the common interests oif .Slovakia, in fact in the interests of the national existence of the SlOIVruk nation itself. They were not re$ponsihle for the tense international political situation of that time, but were sufficiently intelligent to adapt themselves accordingly and save �SLOVAKIA 17 whatever could ,b e saved under the given cir~umstances. It was, in fact, the old Btory Oi:f history repeating its.elf all poJitioal leaders wo11king together for the benefit of all the people of Slovakia, or hanging separately. On October 6, 1938, the just demands of. the Slovak nation,; so aiptly e~ressed by the Pittsiburgh Pact of May 30, 191'8, were finally recognized and fulfilled by the recalcitrant gorvernment of Prague. As we looik bruclk in retrospect today, we can only say that lruok of foresi:ght, statesmansMp, Christian charity and democracy on the part of Dr. Edward Benes and his National Socialists and other Ozech leftist - so...called "progressive" - growps prevented the realization o;f Slovak autonomy sooner and ,p recipatated the collapse of the Czecho,. Slova:k Repll!blic. October 6, 1938, no matter how enemies o;f Slovaik freedom and indeipendenoe may look ,wpon it, was a milestone in Slovak history, maI1king another lap olf the march of the Slovak nation to free dom and complete political independence. • • • WHO SAID IT? "After the Turkish invasion came tile religious wars which many historians made the mistake orf regarding as manifestaJtions of nationaJ1. resistance against Germanism. Here in Cenltrai Europe the conflicts were identical with those taJking plaice in other prurts o:f the Continent at the same time. The struggle Oi:f the Huguenots against Henry IV was no more -a nationaJl. conflict than the share of the Czechs in the Thi.irty Years.' War was a radal fight against Germanism. They fought against the HaJbsboogs beeause the latter were Catholks, _and the Battle of the White Mountain (1620) the Ozechs, together with their German rully, Prince Frederick, Elector of the Palatinate, were !b eaten 1by the Catholic tro01ps of the Austrian emperor. The legend about the Mountain is an outstanding exMn.ple Off historical forgery, for it was. a purely religious and dynastic affaiir." (F. 0. Miksche - a Czech - in UNCONDITIONA L SURREND@R, p. 71; Faber and Fruber, 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 SLOVAKIA 13 MILESTONES OF SLOVAK HISTORY OCTOBER 6, 1938 The Slovaik nation, one olf the olde.st Christian nations in Central Europe, decided to fonm a c01mmon political state with the Czech nation during World War I. Equality in all matters ,w as the basis Ol:f that decision. Slovakia ,w as to be governed as a state of the Ozech-Slova:k federation by the Slovruks and the Czech lands by the Ozechs. The Pittsburgh Pact of May 30, 1918, drawn UJP and signed by T. G. Masarylk and irepresentati'Ves of the Czechs and the •S lovaks of America, guaranteed Sloivakia complete autonomy, i e., home rule or states rights. Unfortunately, T. G. Masaryk repudiated the pruct and condemned the very state he prop8!gated to premature ruin. For twenty years the. Slovaks kerpt clamoring for recognition of and respect for their inherent rights, for the fulfillment of the ,b argain they had concluded with T. G. Masaryk, but to .no avail. The Ruthe1I1ians,, who had voluntarily entered the political state of Czeicho~Slovakia on the basis of an autonomous region, were also sadly disaippointed by the regime olf T. G. Masaryik and his underst/Udy, Dr. Edward Benes. The forceful inchtsion of 3,500,000 Sudeten Germans in the Ozecho~lo:vaik Repulbliic did not help relieve the tensiOIIlS or to consolidate the state, burt rather aggravated the situation. The regimes of T. G. Masaryk and Dr. Edward Benes antrugonized the non-Czech majority of the population against the Czechs and doomed the Republic to an early death. When the first major crisis stmmk, there was no one to defend the ill~fated Ozecho~SlovaJkia and it collapsed like a house ibuilt of cards. On October 6, 193,8, the Slo1V1aiks mrude a great step forward toward urufiying their fOiI1Ces in their struggle for state independence. All paTties, except the .Social Democrats and the Communists, accepted the principle of an autonomous SlovaJkia in the spirit of the draft of a bill, which was prepared by the ID:inka Slovak People's Party and made pU!blic Jun€ 5, 1938. The result of the October meet~ 14 SLOVAKIA ing,s oif the representatives of all Slovak parties in Zilina,, S1ovalkia, was that "the Government of the Ozecho..slovalk Repulblic named, in the p1ruce of the President of the RepuJblic (a paragrruph of the Constitutional Document), deputy Dr. Joseph Tiso, the executive vice-president of the SlO'Vak POOlple's Party, as mii.nister for the administration of SloV'a!kia. By a supplement to this law, the Government requested Dr. Tiso to name other SlovaJk ministers to execute governmental power in Slovakia. From this it is evident that the Prague Government had accepted the fundamental propositions of the Slo:vaJk People's Party and the other participating parties" (A-l~ET, official organ of Dr. Benes's National Socialistic Party, Octolber 7, 1938). Dr. Edward Benes, as is iknown, resigned the presidency of the Republic V1oluntarily on Octolber 5, 1938. The first Slovak ruutonomous government oif Slova.kia was composed oif the following: Dr. Joseph Tiso, Premier and Minister O'f Interior; ,professor Matthew Cernak, Minister oif Education and National Enlightenment; Dr. Ferdinand DUT'canSlky, Minister of Justl!ce, Social Welfare and Health; Paul TeplanSlky, Minister of Agriculture,, Prublic WOTks, Commerce, Business and Finance; John Lichner, Minister of the Mail and the Railroads. ( Slovensky mas, Dr. Milan Hodza's 1pulblication, October 8, 1938). Dr. J,o seph Tiso, •CernaJk and :Dwcansky were representatives of the Hlinka Slovalk PeQple's Party, while Teplans:ky and Lkhner represented the party oif Slovak republicans, since there really were only two genuine Slovak parties in Slovakia - the People's Party and the National $loiv~k Party. All the other parties were only affiliates of the ;variOUJs Ozeich and so-<Called "Czechoslovak" ,p arties; the representatives of these parties sp0ike of the Slova;k coalition ,parties, as 1s attested to by the "A-~ET" article of Emil Boleslav Lukac orf October 7, 193'8. Analy~g and evaluating the Zilina events, LuJkac wrote: "It was ,plainly necessary that the Slovalk People's Party pass over from the ,position of opposition to a responsible position, one commensu,r ate with its strength, to a leading position. It was necessary that it use its strength SLOVAKIA 15 especially today to protect Slovak national interests inside and outside its territory. Even the cbalition parties of Slova1da haJVe united on its main demand - the decentralization of pulbliic administraA:ion and a ,b road autonomy for SlovaJkia. And it was aecepted even by the Governrment of the Repulblic. SlovaJkia shall hruve its legislaitive assembly, a Slovruk government of all resorts, except finances , national defense, and ,f oreign affairs - whi-ch are common resorts. Today all S-loivaJk parties stand behind this agreement, behind this new arrangement of Slovruk afrfairs, and, hence, even our Nationai Socialistic Party in Slovakia. We shall stand by it loyally and responsibly." The republicans (agrarians) welcomed the first .SlovaJk Autonomous Government even more enthusiasticaH y. In their '"SLOVENSK Y TY~DEJNNfK." (Slovalk Weekly) of OctOlber 13, 1938, their leadiillg editorial "M8JIIle Slovensku Vladiu" (We Have a Sloivak Goivernment) , contained the following: "We recall that the ('IDinka Sl01VaJk) ·People's Party not so long ago thought and appeared to 1b e sufficient of itself for such a role. But when it actuaHy came to the brealking of bread, it realized what a great responstbility it is before the nation ·a nd how much woirk must 1b e aocompUshed to organize Slo.'V'aik statehood and an autonomous, independent Slovruk life. Under these circumstances and dtflficulties it was a real blessing that the Republican ,P arty of Slovakia was deternnined rwith all its forces to build a Slovak autonomous state unit. . . " SlovaJk centralists - the so~a,lled "Ozechoslova,ks" who had defended .and propagated a strong, centralized Prague government - openly and enthusiastkal ly spoke out not only for a;utonomy, but for SlovaJk statehood after October 6,. 1938. Their -w illingness to wor,k with the SloivaJk People's Party was not only evident, but also quite convincing, as demonstrawd by their manifestation s and the ,parti~ipation of the RepU'blican Party in the Slovak Government. Analyzing the whole brucikgro.und of these events, we find that the representative s of the political parties in Slovakia did nothing in 2ilina which was not approved of by 16 SLOVAKIA Prague. And the Prague leadership oif the coalition iparties even gaive pU!blic testimoniy of this on October 8, 193'8, by stating: ''The undersigned representatiive s of the Crech political parties declare that - in the sense of the 2ilina agreement of Octolber 6, 1938 - we adopt the ,proiposition of the Hlinika .SlovaJk People's Party to issue a Constitutiona l law in regard to the autonomy of SlovaJkia as ~t was presented in the .Asoornlbly of Deputies in 1938 and pulblished in the SLOVAK, No. 129, of Jrune 5, 1938, and we ibind ourselves that we shal,l endeavor to have it acted on and aoceipted as soon as possilble." The statement was, signed .by: Deputy Rudoliph Beran, chairman of the Repulbli<can Party; Deputy Anthony Hampl. chairman of the ,Social Democratic Party; Deputy Dr. Klaipka for the National Socialist Party; Deputy Monsignor Stasetk for the 0ze:ch Poople's Parly; Dr. Franicis Hodac. vice-ichairman oif the Party of Unity; and De:puty Rudolph Mlcoch, chail'lffian of Tradesman's Party. (!SLOVAK, October 9, 1938). Here we harve proof that even the leadership of the Social Democrati1c Party in Prague fully approrved the Zilina .A!greement, despite the fad that the Slovak Pe01ple's Party did not come to an:y agreement with the Slovruk Socialists. It is quite obvious, therefore, that October 6, 1938 Slova!k Autonomy Day - was baoked not only by the H1inka Slovak People's Party, but also the rest of the Slovak civk parties then in existence. All went along with the Peoiple's Party willingly and spontaneously and accepted the resiponsilbility for the future development of Sloiva!lda. Whether they were sincere 8'bout it or not is questionable in the light of what transpireid later, but the fact is that all ·political parties operating in Slova·k ia in 1938 - except the Social Demdcrats and the Communists - realized ,t he necessity od' uniting in the common interests oif .Slovakia, in fact in the interests of the national existence of the SlOIVruk nation itself. They were not re$ponsihle for the tense international political situation of that time, but were sufficiently intelligent to adapt themselves accordingly and save SLOVAKIA 17 whatever could ,b e saved under the given cir~umstances. It was, in fact, the old Btory Oi:f history repeating its.elf all poJitioal leaders wo11king together for the benefit of all the people of Slovakia, or hanging separately. On October 6, 1938, the just demands of. the Slovak nation,; so aiptly e~ressed by the Pittsiburgh Pact of May 30, 191'8, were finally recognized and fulfilled by the recalcitrant gorvernment of Prague. As we looik bruclk in retrospect today, we can only say that lruok of foresi:ght, statesmansMp, Christian charity and democracy on the part of Dr. Edward Benes and his National Socialists and other Ozech leftist - so...called "progressive" - growps prevented the realization o;f Slovak autonomy sooner and ,p recipatated the collapse of the Czecho,. Slova:k Repll!blic. October 6, 1938, no matter how enemies o;f Slovaik freedom and indeipendenoe may look ,wpon it, was a milestone in Slovak history, maI1king another lap olf the march of the Slovak nation to free dom and complete political independence. • • • WHO SAID IT? "After the Turkish invasion came tile religious wars which many historians made the mistake orf regarding as manifestaJtions of nationaJ1. resistance against Germanism. Here in Cenltrai Europe the conflicts were identical with those taJking plaice in other prurts o:f the Continent at the same time. The struggle Oi:f the Huguenots against Henry IV was no more -a nationaJl. conflict than the share of the Czechs in the Thi.irty Years.' War was a radal fight against Germanism. They fought against the HaJbsboogs beeause the latter were Catholks, _and the Battle of the White Mountain (1620) the Ozechs, together with their German rully, Prince Frederick, Elector of the Palatinate, were !b eaten 1by the Catholic tro01ps of the Austrian emperor. The legend about the Mountain is an outstanding exMn.ple Off historical forgery, for it was. a purely religious and dynastic affaiir." (F. 0. Miksche - a Czech - in UNCONDITIONA L SURREND@R, p. 71; Faber and Fruber, 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 Milestones of Slovak History: October 6, 1938 Description An account of the resource Slovakia, Vol. 3, No. 3 (8), September 1953 pp. 13-17 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource September 1953 https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/91bb2073abb8b07e12abe6e46955f225.pdf c706ea730e4f553db7404252c785bb38 PDF Text Text 22 SLOVAKIA MISCONCEPTIONS OF AMERICAN SLAVISTS ABOUT SLOVAK LITERATURE J. M. Kirschbaum, Ph.D. I American Slavists and Slovak Literature For the past two decades we have witnessed in America a fast growing interest in the Slavic world and Slavic culture. There is hardly a reputaJble American Uniiversi:ty which would not have organired a department of Slavic Studies, and the number of books published on Slavic subjects, as well as the number of periodicals('l) which deal entirely or pa:r,tly with the problems of East Centrial Europe, is without precedent in any other country. '.Dhere are, however, severa'l phenomena in this vast and fast development of Slavic Studies and in books and symposia about the Slavs, which indicate that American Slavic Studies may easily be pushed on a wrong track. American scholarship in this field of Slavic S:udies is predominantly in the hands of scholars, teachers or writers, who came from Europe during or after the Second World War, and who brought with them not only knowledge and a;bi-lities for academic work, but some of them brought also their prejudices, old rivalries, national prides and the nationa,l aspirations of their countries of origin. This is especially true with regard to some former politicians, diplomats, an!d civil servants from Eastern European countries who became teachers, lecturers, and professors at American universities or contrilbutors to periodicals and symposia published by universities. Institutions, books and periodicals deal1ing with Slavic Studies became for some of them new arenas for fighting lost cultural or political battles, for fostering cultural naitionalism or even poHtical chauvinism. They often use university positions or academic periodicals not for spreading objective scholarly knowledge about a very important area of the globe and about several vigorous peoples which represent the Slavic world, but rather try to prevent the �SLOVAKIA 23 truth to be known or ignorance and false propaganda to be exposed. This politkal element, though it is less apparent during the last yea-rs, certainly did some harm to American scholarshi,p in the field of Slavic Studies. How far unobjective and unscholarly some writers on Slavic subjeots can become, we can see best by anailyzing the contributions on Slovakia and on Slowk literature to the American symposia and books on Czecho-Slovakia(2). It is true that Slovak Hterature did not achieve a prominence such as some other Slavic literature did, but from various points of view it is an intereslting field for academic research. The history of Slovak literature did not begin in 1844, as some American symposia emphasize, but goes back to the ninth century to the Great Moravian Empire(3). After the collapse of the Great Moravian Empire in the ten'bh century, Slovakia became a part of the Central European cultura,l area in which a:11 peoples (Poles, Slovaks, Magyars, Czechs, Croats, etc.) used the Latin language as their literary medium and began to develop their cultures and literatures in their own vernacular only from the 17th or 18th century, if not later. And so did also the Slovaks, though we can find some literary writings or documents in the Slovak vernacular a long time before, and a Slovak professor at the University of Prague, Vavrinec Benedikti of Nedozery, reproached his Slovak countrymen for neglecting their Slovak language as early as in 1603. We can safely say that Slovakia and Silovak culture developed along the same pattern as the cultures and literatures of a!ll other Cenltra,l European peoples, mainly the Western Slavs, from Humanism to Olassi:cism, Romantism, Realism, and modern literary currents{4). Humanism found an early entry into Slovakia through the University of Bratislava (Academia Istropolitana, founlded in 1645), and through numerous students and professora studying or 'teaching abroad (Bologna, Padova, Prague, Cracow). It giave a meaningful impulse to 'literary production, especiaUy in. homiletic writings. The second university on the Slovak territory, the University of Trnava, founded in 1635, gave a strong impulse to the �24 SLOVAKIA cultural life in Slovakia both in the Latin and Slovak languages, but literary activities were mostly restrided to religion, history, geogrnphy, ma!thematics and jurisprudence(5). It was not before 1750 that a volume of original verses in the Slovak vernacufar was composed and published by Hugolin Gavlovic (1712-1787)). The first translation of the Bible was accomplished in 1756; the first LatinSlovak dictionary appeared in 1763; religious hymns were com posed by Jan Silvan in 1536 ; amd the first collection of religious songs, containing 227 iitems in the Slovak vernacu'lar, was published in the Cantus Catholici in 1655. Between this period and the date when the first novel in Slovak language appeared in 1783, there was more than a score of Slova,k scho'lars and writers who wrote grammars (V. Benedicti, D. Kriman), historical and apologetic works (D. Jacobeaus, D. Synapius Horcicka, J. Piscatoris Fischer, M. Szentivany, J. B. Magin, Samuel Timon, M. Bel, J. Severini, J. Fandly A. F. Kollar, etc) anld who defended in Latin 'the Slovak people,. its right to its own national life and nationail language, and developed also several theories on the past and origin of Slavs, on Slovak culture and the continuity of Slovakia with Great Moravia. The era of Enlightenment brought a general revival of national culture in Slovakia. The Protestants still used t he btblical Czech language also in secu[ar writings (besides German), but the Catholic Slovaks, abandoning Latin since the beginning of the Counter-Reformation, passed to 1:Jhe exclusive use of the Slovak vernacular, codified befor the end of the 18th century by Anton Bernolak in several scholarly works. Thus literature in the Slovak language was created continuously from the 17th century and produced, before the period of Romanticism, over 100 writers in Bernolak's school alone, among them the poet Jan Holly, whose genius according to many literary historians, was not surpassed by any Slovak poet except P. 0. Hviezdoslav in the 20th century. From the 18th century, Classicism, Romanticism, Realism, Symbolism, and aM dther literary currents which appeared in the European literatures, were represented also �SLOVAKIA 23 in Slovakia more or less in the same way as in other Slavic countrie s. Similar to other Slavic literatur es is also the dErvelopment under the impact of Soviet literatur e and Marxist theories on literary history(6 ). Despite the fact that this develop ment was for a long time scholarl y explored and support ed by a score of works in Slovak, as well as in foreign languag es, the history of Slovak literatur e has been an object of confuse d nad controversial interpre tations in books and symposi a publishe d by America n Slavis'~s . The best known America n and Canadia n symposi a are in basic disagree ment with this outline of Slovak literary history as we can see from the followin g: 1. Accordi ng to S. H. Thomso n, who in his book "Czechoslova kia in Europea n History" (?) attempt ed to give a fair picture of the Slovak past but was apparen tly misled by his sources, "The Slovaks had no opportu ity to develop (after the disappearance of the Great Moravian Empire in the 10th century ) their own culture, written languag e, political instituti ons or social concepts in any indepen dent way." This situation lasted for nine cen'turie s, accordin g to Prof. Thomso n's views. "A deli-bera te effort to substitute for the written Czech then in use in Slovakia a language based upon a local diailect came from the Ca-tholire camp only in 1790, when Anton Bernola k publishe d a Gramati ca Slavica. " But "about the onlly follower s Bernolak had were Catholic writers, and even among them the vogue for his gramma r and dictiona ry soon died out," writes Prof. Thomso n, stating that the year 1834-1835 is usually given as the date of the rise of written Slovak, although s':rictly speaking , ~tur did not make his first formal declarat ion until 1846." 2. The contribu ,~or to L. I. Strakho vsky's "Handbook of Slavic Studies"(B), the Czech writer Otto Radl, gives even a more inaccura te and incompl ete piicture of Slovak literature. On page 491 he writes that "As early as 1635 in Trnava books were still printed in differen t Slovak dialects, more than two hundred years before the introduc tion of Slovak as a separate literary languag e," but three pages. further he sta,tes: �26 SLOVAKIA "While the quantity of Roma,rutrc literature in the Czech lang uage •was growing in Bohemia and Morarvia,, an illllPoritant ch•a nge was taking place in Slovakia. The heretofore common written langua:ge, the Czech, was being replaced by a newly originated Slovak literary la,ruguage. This movement had begun a,t the end of the 1.S'th century ,by the learned Slovak p'hilologist Antonin Bernolak who pufblished sever-al woi,ks in Latin in which he tried to show that the Slovaks were a separate nation and that they should therefor•e use their own distinctive written la,ruguage based on dia'lect spoken in Western Slov>alkia. "Some of the mo·s t important writers• of Slo:vak origin, such as Kollar and Saifariik, were strong1y oppos·ed to this change. . . Opposing them stood siUICh S'lovak writers -as Stur and Hurban .. ... SlOIVak as a ·written language wa·s first introduced Ln, J r8 44." Slovak literatu~e begins for Ra-dl with I'... Stur in 1844, and no literary work or Slovak writer, except Bernonak, Kol,lar and Safarik (the :two later indluded by him in Czech literature) is mentioned in his study dea.Jing with Slovak literature for the periods preceeding Romanticism and Stu.r's reform of the Slovak literary language. 3. According to R. J. Kerner's "Czechoslovakia"(9) Slovak literature began only in 1845 anld that Slovak renaissance was linked with "what was going on in Bohemia and with the philosophy of Enlightenmen t and the Romanticism of Herder" and "had its center in Bratislava." "Catholic Slovaks under Bernolak tried to create, with indifferent success at the time, a written Slovak dialect," says the book. Trnava is not at all mentioned. KoNar and Safarik are mentioned as Slovaks, hurt placed among the Czech writers. Altogether three S1ovak poets are mentioned (Samo Chaluka, J anko Krar, and Jan Botto) in the whole chapter dealing with the period from the battle of White Mountain (1620) to World War I, and three others (A. Sladkovic (1820-1872), P. 0. Hv:ie~doselav (1849-1921) and Hurban Vajansky (1847-1916) - in the chapter on "Czechoslovak" literature. For the after-war period the book gives four names: Ivan Krasko, Martin Razus, E. B. Lukac, and J. Gregor-Tajov sky. 4. The most recent symposium, V. Busek-N. SpuJber's "Czechoslovakia" Cl-0), did not try to dispel confusion and complete the knowledge on Slovak literature, although the work was published in 1957 by the Mid-European Studies Center and one of the editors, Professor V. Busek, spent many years in Slovakia. �SLOVAKIA 27 While the Marxist literary historians produced a book of 320 pages on the older Slovak literature and a bibliography on Bernolak's movement ( 410 pages) shows over 100 writers, Busek-Spulber's symposium has only the fo1lowing to say in the chapter on Czech and Slovak literature: ... "the first attempts were made ~asid,e from earlier sporad'ic venrtures' to esta1blish a distinct Slovak literary language in the last decade of the 1'8th century by Anton Bernolak Cl 76Vlt81t3) who selected the Westenn, Slovak dialects as a basis of the new literary me• dium : his suggestions, not elaJborated Hn-guistically, did not taike permanent hold. "The decisiN"e step towards the estatbHshment of a Sl'orvak lite,rary language was undertaken through the initJiative of the ProteSlttants. Uudovit Stur selected the centra.l Slovak dialect for the Sl.ovak literary medium. Beginning in the 1840's, severa,l poets followed Stur a,n,d used the new literary language with great skHl." Jlt would appear from the above quotations that Amer- ican Slavists will have to revise many of their views and complete their knowledge{l l). It is evident that they generally regarid Slovak literature of the cen'turies preceding Sh'.ir's reform of the S'lovak literary language as not worth much attention. Outstanding figures of Slovak cultural life are eibher unknown or treated as quantite negligea'ble (Bernolak) by contributors to American or Canadian symposia. The periods of Baroque and Enlightenment, in whi~h erudite Slovaks wrote in their mother tongue besides Latin and biblical "Czech", were undoU'bted!ly important s tages in Slovak cultural life and national development. And yet, even the leading fitgures of the Slovak renaissance around Anton Bernolak and the poet Jan Ho'11y are either unknown or greatly underestimated if at all mentioned. Such is also the case with regard to writers and scholars who in previous periods published high:ly interesting works on the origin of Slavs in genera,1, and on the past of 'the Slovaks in particular, as well as on Slavic languages, Slavic culture, and the significance of the Sfavs in European civHization. It has been more or less generally accepted that, for instance, Paul J. Safarik's or John Kollar's Slavic consciousness were awakened by German philosophers during their studies in Jena and that t:he idea of Slavic unity and greatness became known mostly by the merits of Safarik and Kol'lar. In fact, Safarik and Kollar had several pre1 �28 SLOVAKIA decessors among Slovak writers and scholars who developed their theories on the origin of the Slavs, on Slavic linguistic and racial unity and the "glorious past" in voluminous Latin works in the 17th and 18th centuries(12), and Jan Holly described the "glorious past" of the Slavs in his great epic works, written in Slovak, much better and with greater poetic talent than Jan Kollar. Safarik wrote his volume of poetry "Muza Tatranska s lyrou slovanskou" (The Tatrean Muse With Slavic Lyra) also a long time before he went to Jena, because the Slovak writers of the 17th and 18th centuries created an a'tmosphere of Slavic patriotism and mutuaiJ.ity in S'lovakia. This will certainly be new to many American Slavists although it is not new .in Slovakia or in some S:lavic and West European works on Slavic literatures. Not only the so-called "nationalist" Slovak scholars published many works and st udies in which they outlined the continuous development of Slovak culture and literature, but also some Americans of Slovak descent tried to acqua..int American scholars with the true picture of Srl ovakia's literary development,(13). Most recently the "Marxist" Slovak literary historians published severa'1 comprehensive works which besides 'their "Marxist interpretation" make an interesting contribution to Slavic studies(14). In aH American symposia from which we have quoted, it is, however, Bernolak's movement which has been presented most superficially and most unobjectively. Contributors to these symposia are in this regard even far behind the "Marxist" literary historians who, forgetting their customary prejudices against Catlholic clergymen, present Bernolak's scho()l and his movement as "the largest organized movement of cultural and national character which existed in Slovakia before the end of the 18th cent ury," and expressed no doubts about the scholarly merits of Bernolak's linguistic works or Holly's poetic greatness. For this reason we feel that Bernolak's movement dzserves a more detailed ana'lysis in a separate chapter. �SLOVAKIA 29 II Bernolak's Movement and Its Importance In Slovak Literature Bernolak's movement is concurrent with the period of Enlightenmen't and represents a final phase of Slovak literary and national renaissance whfoh began in the seventeenth century. This has been recognized even by the Marxist literary historians who state that "the process of linguistic Slovakization in Slovak literature was on the upgrade mainly since the seventeenth century" and that the "nation-forming tendencies in the Slovak language and culture were best expressed in the movement led by Anton Bernolak (1763-1813) especially in his endeavor to raise to the status of a literary language the Western Slovak dialect"(l\5). Berno'lak's movement lasted over 60 years and comprised three genera1tions of writers who in their Slovak or Latin writings expressed comparatively strong Slovak and Slovanic (Slaviic) national consciousness. According to Jaroslav Vlcek, professor at the University of Prague, the literature of Bernolak's school "developed in al'l directions: it had scholarly and popular writers in the field of theology, it had linguists an!d aiuthors of diclJionaries, translators and editors of antiquities, successful popular writers and generous supporters. In Jan Holly the Bernolak school got also its poeta laureatus"(16). And it had also its historians. Vlcek wrote these lines on Bernolak's movement in 1890 and contemporary research proves that he was not overestimating its importance. According to Marxist histori'a ns, ,~he Slovak Learned Society, founded in Trnava in 1792 with numerous branches in Central and Eastern Slovakia, and even outside Slovakia, numlbered in Slovakia alone about 500 registered members, mainly Catholic clergymen, of whom about 100 were active authors and writers(l 7). Among its members and generous supporters was .Mexander Cardinal Rudnay, Primate of Hungary, who besides writing many sermons and translating Cicero into Slovak assisted the Society financially. Professor of theology Canon Jur Palkovic translated the Bible into Slo- �30 SLOVAKIA vak and financed Bernola.k's and Holly's works. Professors of theologic faculties from Ostrihom, Trnava, Nitra, also were members of the Learned Society. P. J. Safa.rik, who later favored a sort of a Slo,v ak lite,r ary language based on a Czech grammar, wrote in his first work, published in 1826~118), regarding Bernola.k's school: "their growing zeal for the development and advancement of Slovak literature cannot be praised enough." And Professor Vlcek wrote in 1890 that "what in literatures of all Slavic peoples appeared as an expression of an awakened national consciousness and nationail indivilduality, it logically appeared also aimong Slovaks. The firslt to express that as a firm literary principle was A. Bernola.k." Bernola.k "was not a literary revolutionary," continues Prof. Vlcek, "but a consequent codifier of what grew and ripened before him over one hundred years in the writings of Catholic Slovaks as a linguistic fact",('19). Of course, Prof. Vlcek does not share the opinion of American symposia stating that "Bernola.k's attempts to est31blish a distinct Slovak literary language were not elaiborated linguistically," or that he tried "with indif.ferent success to create a written Slovak dia~ec't." On the contrary, in his Dejiny literatiiry slovenskej, Prof. Vlcek states that Bernola.k was well acquainted with the work done in the field of linguistics by predecessors such as Matej Bel and Pavel Dolefal, both from the first half of the 18th century, as well as wiith the tendencies of Catholic writers associated with the University of Trnava. There can ha11dly be any doubt that Bernola.k's movement means an important stage in Sfovak cultural and national development. The first manifestation of this new era in the Slovak national life was the publication of Bernola.k's work Disser'tation Philologic<rCritica de Literis Slavorum (1787) in which Bernola.k formulated the principles of the Slovak literary language. His formal directives for the introduction of the Slovak language into literature Bernola.k gave in the same yeair in his work Linguae Slavonicae per Regnum Hungariae Usitatae Compendiosa simul et facilis Orthographia. In 1790 he published in Latin his grammar of the new Slovak Literary language, Gramatica �31 SLOVAKIA Slavica, which later appeared in two German translations; and in 1791 was published his work on the etymology of Slovak words, Ethymologia Vocum Slavicarum. Bernolak's main work Slowar Slovenski, Cesko-Latinsko..:Nemecko-Uherski, was published (1825-1827) after Bernolak's death by Canon Jur Palkovic in six volumes, 530 pp. The work, which reads in English translation "A Dictionary of the Slovak, Czech, Latin, German and Hungarian Tongues," contained also phraseology, etymology and synonyms of the new Slovak literary language. Bernolak's works "gave a stimulus to the development of modern Slovak literature growing up directly from the living sources of the Slovak people," as admitte'd even by Marxist critics, and his movement "was, on the whole, in agreement with similar contemporary trends current among the Ukrainians, the Bulgarians, the Serbs, the Croats and the Slovenes." His "Dissertatio" caused "a revolution in the development of Slovak language," says I. Kotvan, "and at the same time led to a desirable national advancement in the ideo1ogical development of Slovak nationa I consciousness; it also hastened the foundation of the Slovak Learned Society in 1792 which grouped in its ranks all ardent Slovaks, en'l:!husiastic for Slovak culture, social and economic progress and for the political and national fate of Slovakia"(20). 1 Bernolak and the members of hi's Slovak Learned Society, among whom most prominent were Juraj Fandly (1754-1811), Jozef Ignac Bajza (1755-1836), Jan Holly (1785-1849), Juraj Papanek (1738-1802), Juraj Sklenar (1746-1790), .A!lexander Cardinal Rudnay, Canon Jur Palkovic, were faithful adherents of Enlightenment, sincerely attached to the Slovak people and working for its progress. Juraj Fandly was the leading organizer of the Society, author of popular educational writings and editor of a miscellany dealing with the history of the Slovaks (Compendiata Historiae Gentis Slavae - 1793) . J. I. Bajza wrote the first Slovak novel and a col'leotion of Slovak epigrams; J. Papanek is the author of Historia Gentis Slavae - DeRegno Regibusque Slavorum (1780) ; Juraj Sklenar is the �32 SLOVAKIA author of Vetustissimus Magnae Moraviae Situs (1784); Jan Holly is until now the greatest of Slovak poets who alone "created nearly all poetic genres: the epos, the elegy, the ode and the song, and in whose hanlds the cold form of antique poetry had warmth enough to express strongly the modern idea of national consciousness," as stated Prof. Vlcek in 1890. Actually, all writers of Bernolak's school expressed in their works strong national feelings and their views regarding Slavs, Slavic languages and the plaice of the Slavs in the world; this makes of them precursors of Kollar's and Safarik's ideas of Slavdom. Berno1ak himself regarded the Slavs as one nation with one language divided into "dia~ects" which conception was developed by P. J. Safarik in Geschichte der Slawischen Sprache und Literatur nearly 40 years later. In the introdu~tion to his Gramatica Slavica, published in 1790, Bernolak regarded the Slovak vernacular as one of the Sfavic dialects and urged his countrymen to use it as a literary medium in the same way as the Czechs, the Russians, the Croats and Poles used t heir respective vernaculars. Juraj Papanek in his Historia Gentis Slavae, Fandly in his Compendiata Historiae Slavae an'd in his other writings, and Holly in his poetic works, manirfested also fiery Slovak and Slavic consciousness and national feelings, so that we may see in Bernolak's movement not only a connecting link between his school and Safarik's and Kollar's conceptions of Slavdom, but also an organic and close relation with Stu.r's reform of the Slovak literary language and his nationalist movement. In this respect we can fully agree with the Marxist literc1ry historians that both movements "grew up from the same process, 1'rom the process of formaJtion of the Slovak nation and are but two different phases of Slovak cultural and national development:Q21). Wh:ile Bernolak's linguistic works substantially influenced the final form of Stu.r's reform of the Slovak literary language which accepted many 'linguistic elements, used in all parts of Slovakia only because there existed Bernolak's literary language before, ideologically Stu.r's group was influenced mainly by the epics of Jan Holly, poet laureate of Bernolak's school. �SLOVAKIA 33 Stu,r himself acknowledged Holly's dominant influence on the formation of Slovak national ideology and so did until now the " nationalist" as well as the "Marxist" Slovak literary historians(22). Accordtng to Jaroslav Vlcek: "Holly means many things in Slovak literature. He achieved alone wha;t the Czech and the Hungarian poets of classicism worked on a'H togetherC23). For another literary historian "Holly has not been surpassed by any S,l ovak poet, and nowhere else is there to be found such depth of national consciousness and such glory. In crystallized form Holly vigorously enounced the modern idea of nationalism, and this already in the 1800's, and his unsurpassable expression of the national soul has made him and will continue t o make him the grea;test of the Slovak poets"(24). And he is so judged also by contemporary Marxist historians. "Holly is a great poet," says prof. A. Mraz, the main Marxist authority on Slovak literary history, " an:d a cultivated and excellent translator of antique poetry, who synthetized in his works an'tique influences with European Classicism and philosophy of Enlightenmen t. He awakened nationa1 consciousness of his countrymen combining Slavic and Slovak elements in his conception of the Slovak nation. His works prove that even in Bernolak's movement Slavic components were strongly represented. Slovak and Slav unite in harmoneous accord in Holly's ideology"~25). Holly deserves this praise and recognition not only for his own works but also for his masterful transiaJtions from practically all renowned poets from Virgil, Ovid, Theocritus, Horace to Homer. The first volume of his translations was published in 1824, the translation of Virgiil's Aeneid in 1828; these were highly commended even of Jungmann, Safarik and Niederle. After having enriched Slovak literatures by his translations, Holly composed in cfa:ssic mold anld with many overtones of 'bhe antique poetry his three epics in which he proved that his talent and erudition were outstanding and that the new Slovak literary language was rioh and flexible enough for complex poetic creations. At the same time he also demonstrated to the Slovaks and to the out side world thait the Slovak past was great and glorious and that there is, therefore, also a future for the Slovak people. �34 SLOVAKIA To achieve this, Holly created in his poetic works a new national ideology, anchored in the traditions of the Great Moravian Empire and in the cultural achievements of SS. Cyril and Methddius, the founders of Slovanic letters. In 1833 he published his Svatopluk, a heroic epic about the life and glory of the powerf.Ull ruler of Great Moravia, in twelve cantos. In 1835 his Cyrilo-Methodiada, a poetic account of the achievements of the Apostles of Slovaks, was published in Budapest in six cantos, and to complete the ima:ge of a heroic past of his people, Holly crea1~ed also an epic in seven cantos about a mythical forefather of the Slovaks, Slav, and in his Elegies he 'lamented over the desb-uction of the Great Moravian Empire, 'bhe first kingdom of the Slovaks, ruined by treachery, villainy, and perfidy. The national and ideological components of Holly's poetry are strong also in his Odes and Idylles (1835), which, together with his epics, a,wakened to life a new generation that broke with the past not only in linguistic division of Slovaks but also in cultural and political orientation. "At a time," says Mraz, "when the Slovaks mostly felt the need to strengthen their national ideology by historic consciousness, Holly came in a monumenta,1 way with his support." He created by his works not only a Slovak national poetry and ideology, but urging the Slovaks to regard their past with pride he revived the present and encouraged the Slovaks to look to the future with hope. Holly achieved this "w~t:h nothing more than a nonliterary, formless dialect at his disposa[ which he molded and shaped into a rich poetic language." His poetry was not much influenced by European pseudo-Classicism and contemporary Romanticism. He g.r ew up f<rom an antique culture and poetry, and ideologically only he interpreted . the feelings and aspirations of the Slovak people of the period oif Enlightenment and t he f.irst decades of Romanticism. While his contemporary Jan KoHar "wandered on the expansive meadows of Slavdom," Holly devoted his talents to building Slovak national consciousness, culture and ideology which made him a precursor anld: a spiritual leader also for the coming generation of C. Stt'.ir's na- �SLOVAKIA 35 tionalist and romantic school. "HoHy's message lived also in the generation to come which refused his classicist forms but creatively clung to his ideological heritage," admits the Marxist literary historian A. Mraz, and adds that "Bernolak's movement triumphed in Holly's achievements and greatness; it found in his works the most creative and ideological culmination"(26). III Marxist Evaluation of Bernolak's Movement Unlike the contributors to American symposia who be1ittled A. Bernolak and his movement, Marxist literary historians write about Bernolak and his followers with high esteem. Although the works of the members of Bernolak's school and his Learned Societies clearly indica!te the tendency to reflect the national struggle and the awakening of a national consciousness among Slovaks - which is in conflict with the "Czechoslovak" tendencies of the Communist party - the Marxist literary historians were allowed to publish scores of books and studies on Bernolak and his movement. Among the first works which dealt with this period in a suvprisingly tolerant way was "A History of Slovak Literature" (Dejiny sfovenskej literatury) by Prof. A. Mraz, who for his services to the present regime in Slovakia was promoted to the rank of an "akademik" (academician). Other valuable works and studies were published by Dr. Imrich Kotvan and Jan Tiibensky, who apparently specializes in this period "ex offo." Kotvan's work Bernolakovci (1948) and Bibliografia Bernolakovcov (Bibliography of Bernolak's School) published in 1957, together with T. Ti'bensky's book J. Papanek-J. SklenarC27), also published in 1957, as well as a series of his stu!dies in periodi'caJs, give the impression that Marxist literary historians try to evaluate Bernolak's movement without the customary prejudice against Catholic writers, and that in many respects :they agree with the views expressed before by the "bourgeois and nationalist" scholars and literary historians (J. Vlcek, J. �36 SLOVAKIA Skultety, S. Krcmery, J. Kacka, A. A . Banik, C. Lepacek, S. Jurovsky, etc.) . This is evident especiaHy in Ti'bensky's controversy with Prof. Wollmann's uncritical deprecation of Bernolak's movement(28), but also in some recen :: studies of Mraz and in the new History of Slovak Literature, compiled by a " coHective" of younger historians under the direction of Prof. M. Pisut. In a comprehensive explanatory note to Kotvan's Bibliography, which on 400 pages gives an interesting picture of Bernolak's movement, we can read that the Marxist scholars "consider the second half of :the eighteenth and the first half od: the nineteenth century, which is the period of Bernolak's activities, "one of the interesting , not yet thoroughly investigated periods forming a milestone in Sfovak history"{29). In the opinion of Prof. A. Mraz, who still remains the main authority in Marxist literary history in Slovakia, Anton Bernolak not only reformed and cddiified the Sfovak literary language and its orthography, but also started a vast national and cultural movement based on a t radition m,ore tJhan a hundred years old. Mraz regards the activity which originated around the Catholic University of Trnava (1635) as a starting point for introducing Slovak vernacular as a literary medium and stresses that the first manifestation of the new era in Slovak national life was the publication of Cantus Catholici by Benedict Szollossi in 1655. "The book Cantus Catholid," says Mraz, "laid the foundation on whioh the language used by Slovak Catholic writers, was formed into an in\dependent Slovak literary language. CrystallizaJtion of the language, which Slovak Catholic writers used during the period of the University of Trnava (1635-1777) , progressed so far in accordance with the spoken language in Western Slovakia that, when Bernolak and his foHowers came, at the end of the 18th century, with the idea of an independent literary language, t hey merely codified, in many respects, a language used and domesticated among the Catholic Slovak writers of the preceding period"(30). Mraz also recognizes Bernolak's merits in the whole �SLOVAKIA 37 of Slovak cultural life. "Bernolak did not stop at writing his s,c holarly works," says Mraz. "He used them to push ahead Slovak national and cultural life on new tracks, which he attained by his cu]tural and organizatory activities." According to Tibensky, who made some original research into this period, Bernolak's movement was "the largest organized movement of cultural and national character which existed in Slovakia before the end of the 18th century, and it undoubtedly played a progressive role in the Slovak naJtional development"1(®L). "There is no doubt whatsover," says Tibensky, "that Bernolak's literary language and his movement played a very important role in the Slovak national development. Their importance is far from being sufficiently explored and evaluated. Works published until now are merely the first step to the accomplishment of an imporitant task of Slovak scholarship." There is ndt, so far, much new in the Marxist writings on Bernolak's movement. The Marxist Academy of Sciences is merely compiling the scholaI"ly research which was going on for the last 25-30 years and in which scholars like A. A. Banik, C. Lepacek, S. Jurovsky, V. Gajdos and others, brought to light new manuscripts or additional information. 'Dhe Marxist literary historians, of course, at·tempt to give a new interpretation to what the "bourgeois" scholars said on Slovak literature, language, national consciousness and Slovak national aspirations. "While in the past !the researchers into the origin of Bernolak's movement and especialtly into its literary language considered in the first place ideological elements, for instance, the influence of the Counter-Reformation, the Marxist scholarship," says Ti1bensky, "endeavors to explain the origin of Bernolak's movement and of its literary medium in the context of the entire Slovak social and economic development in given centuries: it takes into account, in the first place, economic and pomico-cultural factors"(32). Ideological influences are considered by Marxist historians as seconldary in the formation of Bernolak's move- �38 SLOVAKIA ment. "The movement is an outstanding manifestation of 'the process of transformation of a feudal Slovak nationality into a modern bourgeois nation," conclu'des Tibensky. In view of this, Bernolak's movement is credited by Marxist historians also with the fact that, as a result of Bernolak's activities, "the process of the formation of the Slovak nation and cu~ture was entering a new stage, determined by the activities of r.. Stur (1815-1856), and by the creation, on the basis of a Central Slovak dialect, of the modern Slovak literary language"{G3). Prof. Eugen Pauliny, who apparently is regarded among contemporary Marxist Slovak phHologists as an authority on the history of the Slovak language, regards Bernolak's period as an important stage in the development of Slovak national life. "Bernolak's language and his conceptions of Slovak national life, conceptions in which his reform originated, mean an important milestone in Slovak nrubional development," says Pauliny in his "Dejiny spisovnej slovenciny" (A History of the Slovak Literary Language). "Bernolak's movement, even if represenlted only by Slovak Catholics, takes Slovak national individuality, in a clear and understandable formulation, as a fact and connects it with the whole of Slavdom in its contemporary as weH as historical context. As a tool of this ideology Bernolak brought his theoretically elaborated and practically tested Slovak literary language," continues Pauliny. According to Pauliny, Bernolak's language was not used only for religious purposes, as some Slavists assert. "There were in Bernolak's school also religious writings, but not of a polemic char8!Cter; they were didactic and, besides them, 'there was religious poetry and theological writings. However, the center of gravity of Bernolak's school lays in vafoable writings for the education of the large masses, and in poetry. Bernolak's language was a well elaborated literary language which the Catholic Slovaks useid for more than a ha:lf century, in fact, officially up to 1851, when unity was achieved in the literary language" (among CaJtholics and Protestants). From the philological point of view, Bernolak's re- �SLOVAKIA 39 form was based not only on the language, written and spoken by the educated Slovak strata in Western Slovakia and created in the cultural center of Trnava, but also on the dia'l ect of Bernolak's native province Orava, which belongs to the cenltral Slovak dialectical areas('36). In his contribution to a volume "0 vzajomnych vz€ahov Oechov a Slovakov," published in 1956 by the Slovak Academy of Sciences, Pauliny states: "Bernola:k codified a language which can be traced in the writings of the middle-class, the lower nobility and educated Slovaks back to the 15th century, and this in both Ca!bholic an!d. Protestant writings" (3r7). As for the connection of Bernolak'is school with Stiir's group, Pauliny agrees with the other Marxist literary historians and philologists. Stu.r's reform, which is erroneously presented by some American Slavists as the beginilling of tJhe Slovak literary language (in this respect even Jakobson is wrong), in Pauliny's view, is but a "younger branch of Bernolak's school," and he adds: "In Bernolak's school c,ulminates the older phase of Slovak natio nal diwelopment, but simultaneously it means also the beginning of a new epoch a,nd is very closely connected with the develo;pmen,t of nrutional consciousness of Stur's period. Bernolak''s movement tbuilds upon the feudail Slwak national con\Sdousness of the li8th century, but at the same time this movement enounces and consciously fo11mulates , for the first time, the modem Slovak nation,alism. "We find in the writings of the most important members oif Bernolak's Learned Society, Bernolak, Fandly, J HoMy, a compl~tely different ideology from that of the clergy of t he Gouniter-Uleformation of the 1"7:th and 18th century. It is an ideology of Slowk ,n,ationalism as derined and 11.mderstood by the Enlightenment, and it evci.1ved in bhe writings of the most out.Sitanding members of this group, Fan.dly an'd Jlolly, into the ideology of a modern Slovak nation. Stu.r's group used it as a foundation and developed it int o a mor•e modem conception in accordance with contemporary Euro·p ean ideological trends." 1 • Stur himself admitted this in his "Narecia slovenskuo," writing: "Our Catholic brothers did exactly what we are doing now and intend to do; they desired to a,chieve what we are desiring to achieve; they were concerned in their hearts a:bout the same matter that we cherish in our hearts''(3-8). �40 SLOVAKIA We hardly need any more convincing proof that Sb1r's group considered Bernolak's group as "older co-fighters on the same ideological battlefield," concludes Pauliny. To sum up, we can safely say that Bernolak's work and his school were an important factor in Slovak cultural and lilterary development and as such they deserve more attention and more objective anlaysis by scholars in the field of American Slavic studies. On the other hand, Slovak scholars in the free world have a moral duty to correct the mi,sconceptions which crept into Slavic studies largely because of a lack of English written studies on Slovak culture other than those supplied by Slavists of Czech origin and the works by Slovaks mentioned below. REFERENCE NOTES: '1. Journal of Central European Affairs, University of Colorado, The American Slavic and East European Review, Columbia University Press, The Slavic and East European Journal, Ln<liana UnLversity, Slavic and East European Studies, Un1versity of Montreal, Canadian Slavonic Pape.rs, University of Toronto Press. 2. Besides books edited· by Kerner, Strakhovsky, Busek-Spul1ber, and S. H. Thomson-, there are many misconceptions al-so in works w,rit-ten or edited by Prof. J. S. Rloucek, namely in his Cemral Entern Europe, or Slavonic Encyclopedi·a, by Felix Gross and C. E. BJ.ack. 3. The thesis that Great l\furarvian writings and culture belong to the cu1tural heritage of Slovaks has been sUJpported by both ,n.ationalist and Marxist Slovak literary ,h istorians. Cf. in English Jioseph Skultety: Sketches From Slovak History, Middletown, Pa., 1930, p. 229; J. M. Kirschbaum: Slovakia - Nation At the Crossroads of Cerwtral E·urope; and in the Slovak la,n guage: Dej iny star sei slovenskej literatury by M,axxist historfans (JI. MisianLk, J. Minarik, M. Mich'aloova, A. Melichercilk), Bratislava,, 1008, p. 3120. ,4. Cf. Dmitry Cizevsky: Outline of Comparative Slavic Literatures, AmerLcan Academy of Arts and Scienees, Boston, Mass., 1952; Lvalil J. Krarnoris: Chrono1ogic.al Outline of Slovak Literature and History, Passaic, 1946; Peter P. Yurchak : The SloYaks, J . J. Lach, Pulblications, Whiting, Indiiana•, 1947; J'. M. Kirschlbaum: Slovakia: Nation At the Crossroads of Central E-u rope, p. 35-00. 5. See University Traditions in Slovakia in J. M. · Kirsch:baUJm's op. cit.; and Stephen J. Palickar's Slovakian Culture in the Light of History, The Hampshire Press, Cambrid·ge, Mass., 1954. 6. Cf. Slovak Literature Under the Soviet Impact in The Slavic and East EuT.opean Sltudies, Montreal, 1956, Part I, p. 4>:x54. 7. Published by Princeton University Press, 1943, 390 pp. A critical review from the Slovak poi.n-t of view see in Slovak Review, Vol. I, Nio. 2., by Ivan, J. Kra,rnoris. 8. Published by HarvaTd University Press, Cambridge, Mas•s .• �SLOVAKIA 41 1949. Chapter on Slovak linguistics by A. Senn is more in line with scholarly research. 9. Published by University of Oalifornia Press, 1949. A critical review froon the Slovak point df view in quarterly Slovakiia, Middletown, Pa .. , Vol. v,v,r, by Philiip A. Hrobak. 10. P;u!blished by Mid,,European Stu<lies Ce,n,t er of the Free Europe Commi>ttee, Inc., New Yol'k, 1957. The chapter on Slovaik literaiture was wz,iflten by Czech writers H. Kucera and E. lfovtun, who are unknown in Slovak literary history. 'lil. American presentation of Slovak literature is strangely d<iffererut also from European evaluation as ev,i denced in the works: Ernest Denis: Le probleme de l'Autriche-Les Slovaques, Piaris, 1917; A. Fischel: Pa,nslavismus bis zum Weltkrieg, Stuttgart and• Berlin, 191•9; Bruno Meriggi, Storia delle letterature ceca e Slovacca, University of Florence, 195'9. 112. Of. J. J:~obeus: Vii:a Gentis Slavicae, published in '164Q; introduction to B. Szollossi's Cantus Catholici, pu1b li5hed in 16>55; D. Sinapius Horcicka, Neoforum Latino-Slovenicum, 1679; J. Piscatori-sFischer: De origine, inre ac utilitatae linguae slavonicae, pulblished in 1697; J . B. Magin: ·Murices .. sive Apologia, pulblished in 1728; S. Timon: Imago an,t ique Hunga,riae, 11735; J. Papanek: Historia gen•: is slavae, '1'7•80; J. Fandly: Compendiata Historiae Slavae, 17193. 13. See op. cit. by P. P. Yurt:hak, S. J. Palickar, I. J . Kramoris, as well as articles by C. Piotocek ifil; Slovak Review, by Philip A. Hro\bak in Slovakia, by E. Podikrivac!Jcy in Slovakia, Vol. m, 3, a,n d J. Pombsky's book K stemu vyrociu literarnej slovenciny (One Hundred Years of Literary Slovak), abrana Press, Scranlton, 1945, 290 pp. 'l><t. Cf. Prof. A. MTaz: Dejiny slovenskej literatury, S'1ovenska aikademia vied a umeni, Bratisla,va, 1948, Dejin.y star-lei slovenskej litel'a:u,ry, SA V, 1-959, Dejiny slovenskej Literatury, Osveta, Bratislava, 1960; as well as works by I. Kotvan, Jlan 'J1i1bens'ky, etc., quoted farther. 16. Cf. Dr. :Emrich Kotvan: Biblografia Bernolakovcov, Ma·tica sl-ovensika, Martin, 195'7', p. 403-404. 16. Cf. Jarosla;v Vlcek: Dejiny litera,t ury slovenskej, 1st edition, 1,890, second edition by .Miatica slovenska, Turc. Sv. Martin, 1923, p. 27-39, e tc. Prof. V'lcek's work is the first aicademic history of Slo;vak liternture and as such was incomplete. His views were, nevertheless, accepted by ma•n y contemporary histori-ans. Prof. V'lceik was born in Slovakia, but his main work is A History of Czech Literature. As a professor at the University of Prague he changed some of his views in favor of the official "Czechoslovak" thesis. 17. Cf. Dr. Imrich Kotvan, op. cit. p. 403-404. ·1.8. Geschichte der Slaiwischen Sprache und Literatur nach alien Mundar-ten, Offen, 1826, p. 373-300. ·w. Qp. cit. p 32-34. 20. Cf. limrich Kotvan: Bernol·a kovci, Spolok sv. Vojtecha, Trnaiva, 1'948, p. 4. '21. Cf. J·a n T~bensky's inrtrod-uc-tion to I. K,otvan's mbliografia Bernolaklovcov, p. 7-9. 22. Of. J. M. Kirschlbaum: l!udovit Stiur and His Place in the Sliavic World, Slavistica No. 32, Winnipeg, 1956. Alccordfog to M. Pisut, a Marxist expert on Sttir's period, the fina-1 sta•ge of Slovak eMorts to build an independent national culture had its roots in t,he wol'ks· of �42 SLOVAKIA P. J. Safm-ik, Jan Holly, Kollar, a1nd Kuzmar..y. Mraz stresses Holly's significan:Ce in connection wLth Stur's movement. Cf. Ceskoslovenske prednasky pro IV. Medzinarodni sjezd slavisitu v Moskve, Priaha, 1958, p. 3313-345 and 4l2:l-46~. 23. Op. cit. p. 80. 124. Cf. Jioz,ef ~acka: Dejin,y literatury slovenskej, Rufomberok, li92L, pUJblished in English translation by the Nation·al News, Pittsburgh, Pa., '119441, quoted from P. P. Yurchak, op. cit. p. 103Jl.04. '25. Of. his artfole in Ceskoslovenske prednasky pro IV. sjezd sla• vistu v Moskve. 26. ]bidem ,27. Cf. Jian T,ilbensky, J. Papanek-J. Sklenar: Obrancovia slovenskej narodnOS11i v 18. sitoroci, Osveta, Martin, 1958. 28. Of. K problemu hodnotenia bernolactiny a bernolakovskeho hnutia, Historicky cas()fpis, ViJ!I, 4, 1'959, p. 557~576. Tilbensky proves thia,t many views of Prof. WoUma,n n, in his Slovanstvi v ja11:ykovelite• rarnim obro11:eni Slovanu, Praha, 1'!)58, are prejudilced against S<Iovaiks and particularly a•g ainst Catho1ics. 29. Op. cit., p. 403-405. 3'0. Op. cit., p, 416-1108. :n. Historicky casqpis, ViII, 4, 574. 32. B~bUograd'ia bernolakoVICOV, p. 8. 3'3. ]bidem, p. 404. 34. Published: in '19418. 35. Eug,e n Paulin:y: Dejiny spisovnej slovenciny, p . 65. 3·6. ]bLdem, p. 63. 37. p. 111'3. 38. Eugen Pawliny: 0 vzajomnych vzt'ahov Cechov a Slovakov, Slovenska AkadiemLa Vied, Bra1t;islav,a, 1956; pp. 1)1.3, 11115. 3•9. Among periodicals pulblished •b y Universities it is only the Slavic and Ea·Slt European Studies (University of Miontreal, Quebec, Canada) which sy,steana:tically comments Slovalk literary and cultur,al topics in an objective mar.iner. ANONYMOUS LETTERS, wri.tten, to Red leader,s in Slo,vak,ia, are causing some concern to tihe regime. 'I1he Bra1tiislav,a RJadii,o recently reminded its listeners that writers of .s uch le•uters, if revealed, ar,e in for stiff filnes and long jail sentences. T·he reaction: more and still more anonymous letters to worry the collaborators of Red Prague. • • • IN THIE WOR<KERS' PAR.4.DISE, according to Radio Bratisfava: SI,ovakiia is behind in its milk quota 6,600,666 liiters (4'18-61,); the Trebisov district owes !!he S<tate 1,0815,000 lirter,s of milk this year (,3Jl0,6l'; Dolny Kubin, Cadca, Prievidza, and Zilina did n-Olt produce even a deciliter per COIW (3-9-61); in Braltislav,a (S.tiree't of the Defenders of Peace) women waited for meat from 2:00 to 6:3,0 p. m. (3~20.,61); there is a· great abUJnd'ance o:f feed for cattle and calves, 'but it's all r,ot,ten; the people work the ·farms, but ste,al over haif the prodootion (~20-GL); we have no tires, 'i>ut why,? I heard the explanation that t he reason, for this is the war in Lao-s (2-0.11,61 1) . � 22 SLOVAKIA MISCONCEPTIONS OF AMERICAN SLAVISTS ABOUT SLOVAK LITERATURE J. M. Kirschbaum, Ph.D. I American Slavists and Slovak Literature For the past two decades we have witnessed in America a fast growing interest in the Slavic world and Slavic culture. There is hardly a reputaJble American Uniiversi:ty which would not have organired a department of Slavic Studies, and the number of books published on Slavic subjects, as well as the number of periodicals('l) which deal entirely or pa:r,tly with the problems of East Centrial Europe, is without precedent in any other country. '.Dhere are, however, severa'l phenomena in this vast and fast development of Slavic Studies and in books and symposia about the Slavs, which indicate that American Slavic Studies may easily be pushed on a wrong track. American scholarship in this field of Slavic S:udies is predominantly in the hands of scholars, teachers or writers, who came from Europe during or after the Second World War, and who brought with them not only knowledge and a;bi-lities for academic work, but some of them brought also their prejudices, old rivalries, national prides and the nationa,l aspirations of their countries of origin. This is especially true with regard to some former politicians, diplomats, an!d civil servants from Eastern European countries who became teachers, lecturers, and professors at American universities or contrilbutors to periodicals and symposia published by universities. Institutions, books and periodicals deal1ing with Slavic Studies became for some of them new arenas for fighting lost cultural or political battles, for fostering cultural naitionalism or even poHtical chauvinism. They often use university positions or academic periodicals not for spreading objective scholarly knowledge about a very important area of the globe and about several vigorous peoples which represent the Slavic world, but rather try to prevent the �SLOVAKIA 23 truth to be known or ignorance and false propaganda to be exposed. This politkal element, though it is less apparent during the last yea-rs, certainly did some harm to American scholarshi,p in the field of Slavic Studies. How far unobjective and unscholarly some writers on Slavic subjeots can become, we can see best by anailyzing the contributions on Slovakia and on Slowk literature to the American symposia and books on Czecho-Slovakia(2). It is true that Slovak Hterature did not achieve a prominence such as some other Slavic literature did, but from various points of view it is an intereslting field for academic research. The history of Slovak literature did not begin in 1844, as some American symposia emphasize, but goes back to the ninth century to the Great Moravian Empire(3). After the collapse of the Great Moravian Empire in the ten'bh century, Slovakia became a part of the Central European cultura,l area in which a:11 peoples (Poles, Slovaks, Magyars, Czechs, Croats, etc.) used the Latin language as their literary medium and began to develop their cultures and literatures in their own vernacular only from the 17th or 18th century, if not later. And so did also the Slovaks, though we can find some literary writings or documents in the Slovak vernacular a long time before, and a Slovak professor at the University of Prague, Vavrinec Benedikti of Nedozery, reproached his Slovak countrymen for neglecting their Slovak language as early as in 1603. We can safely say that Slovakia and Silovak culture developed along the same pattern as the cultures and literatures of a!ll other Cenltra,l European peoples, mainly the Western Slavs, from Humanism to Olassi:cism, Romantism, Realism, and modern literary currents{4). Humanism found an early entry into Slovakia through the University of Bratislava (Academia Istropolitana, founlded in 1645), and through numerous students and professora studying or 'teaching abroad (Bologna, Padova, Prague, Cracow). It giave a meaningful impulse to 'literary production, especiaUy in. homiletic writings. The second university on the Slovak territory, the University of Trnava, founded in 1635, gave a strong impulse to the �24 SLOVAKIA cultural life in Slovakia both in the Latin and Slovak languages, but literary activities were mostly restrided to religion, history, geogrnphy, ma!thematics and jurisprudence(5). It was not before 1750 that a volume of original verses in the Slovak vernacufar was composed and published by Hugolin Gavlovic (1712-1787)). The first translation of the Bible was accomplished in 1756; the first LatinSlovak dictionary appeared in 1763; religious hymns were com posed by Jan Silvan in 1536 ; amd the first collection of religious songs, containing 227 iitems in the Slovak vernacu'lar, was published in the Cantus Catholici in 1655. Between this period and the date when the first novel in Slovak language appeared in 1783, there was more than a score of Slova,k scho'lars and writers who wrote grammars (V. Benedicti, D. Kriman), historical and apologetic works (D. Jacobeaus, D. Synapius Horcicka, J. Piscatoris Fischer, M. Szentivany, J. B. Magin, Samuel Timon, M. Bel, J. Severini, J. Fandly A. F. Kollar, etc) anld who defended in Latin 'the Slovak people,. its right to its own national life and nationail language, and developed also several theories on the past and origin of Slavs, on Slovak culture and the continuity of Slovakia with Great Moravia. The era of Enlightenment brought a general revival of national culture in Slovakia. The Protestants still used t he btblical Czech language also in secu[ar writings (besides German), but the Catholic Slovaks, abandoning Latin since the beginning of the Counter-Reformation, passed to 1:Jhe exclusive use of the Slovak vernacular, codified befor the end of the 18th century by Anton Bernolak in several scholarly works. Thus literature in the Slovak language was created continuously from the 17th century and produced, before the period of Romanticism, over 100 writers in Bernolak's school alone, among them the poet Jan Holly, whose genius according to many literary historians, was not surpassed by any Slovak poet except P. 0. Hviezdoslav in the 20th century. From the 18th century, Classicism, Romanticism, Realism, Symbolism, and aM dther literary currents which appeared in the European literatures, were represented also �SLOVAKIA 23 in Slovakia more or less in the same way as in other Slavic countrie s. Similar to other Slavic literatur es is also the dErvelopment under the impact of Soviet literatur e and Marxist theories on literary history(6 ). Despite the fact that this develop ment was for a long time scholarl y explored and support ed by a score of works in Slovak, as well as in foreign languag es, the history of Slovak literatur e has been an object of confuse d nad controversial interpre tations in books and symposi a publishe d by America n Slavis'~s . The best known America n and Canadia n symposi a are in basic disagree ment with this outline of Slovak literary history as we can see from the followin g: 1. Accordi ng to S. H. Thomso n, who in his book "Czechoslova kia in Europea n History" (?) attempt ed to give a fair picture of the Slovak past but was apparen tly misled by his sources, "The Slovaks had no opportu ity to develop (after the disappearance of the Great Moravian Empire in the 10th century ) their own culture, written languag e, political instituti ons or social concepts in any indepen dent way." This situation lasted for nine cen'turie s, accordin g to Prof. Thomso n's views. "A deli-bera te effort to substitute for the written Czech then in use in Slovakia a language based upon a local diailect came from the Ca-tholire camp only in 1790, when Anton Bernola k publishe d a Gramati ca Slavica. " But "about the onlly follower s Bernolak had were Catholic writers, and even among them the vogue for his gramma r and dictiona ry soon died out," writes Prof. Thomso n, stating that the year 1834-1835 is usually given as the date of the rise of written Slovak, although s':rictly speaking , ~tur did not make his first formal declarat ion until 1846." 2. The contribu ,~or to L. I. Strakho vsky's "Handbook of Slavic Studies"(B), the Czech writer Otto Radl, gives even a more inaccura te and incompl ete piicture of Slovak literature. On page 491 he writes that "As early as 1635 in Trnava books were still printed in differen t Slovak dialects, more than two hundred years before the introduc tion of Slovak as a separate literary languag e," but three pages. further he sta,tes: �26 SLOVAKIA "While the quantity of Roma,rutrc literature in the Czech lang uage •was growing in Bohemia and Morarvia,, an illllPoritant ch•a nge was taking place in Slovakia. The heretofore common written langua:ge, the Czech, was being replaced by a newly originated Slovak literary la,ruguage. This movement had begun a,t the end of the 1.S'th century ,by the learned Slovak p'hilologist Antonin Bernolak who pufblished sever-al woi,ks in Latin in which he tried to show that the Slovaks were a separate nation and that they should therefor•e use their own distinctive written la,ruguage based on dia'lect spoken in Western Slov>alkia. "Some of the mo·s t important writers• of Slo:vak origin, such as Kollar and Saifariik, were strong1y oppos·ed to this change. . . Opposing them stood siUICh S'lovak writers -as Stur and Hurban .. ... SlOIVak as a ·written language wa·s first introduced Ln, J r8 44." Slovak literatu~e begins for Ra-dl with I'... Stur in 1844, and no literary work or Slovak writer, except Bernonak, Kol,lar and Safarik (the :two later indluded by him in Czech literature) is mentioned in his study dea.Jing with Slovak literature for the periods preceeding Romanticism and Stu.r's reform of the Slovak literary language. 3. According to R. J. Kerner's "Czechoslovakia"(9) Slovak literature began only in 1845 anld that Slovak renaissance was linked with "what was going on in Bohemia and with the philosophy of Enlightenmen t and the Romanticism of Herder" and "had its center in Bratislava." "Catholic Slovaks under Bernolak tried to create, with indifferent success at the time, a written Slovak dialect," says the book. Trnava is not at all mentioned. KoNar and Safarik are mentioned as Slovaks, hurt placed among the Czech writers. Altogether three S1ovak poets are mentioned (Samo Chaluka, J anko Krar, and Jan Botto) in the whole chapter dealing with the period from the battle of White Mountain (1620) to World War I, and three others (A. Sladkovic (1820-1872), P. 0. Hv:ie~doselav (1849-1921) and Hurban Vajansky (1847-1916) - in the chapter on "Czechoslovak" literature. For the after-war period the book gives four names: Ivan Krasko, Martin Razus, E. B. Lukac, and J. Gregor-Tajov sky. 4. The most recent symposium, V. Busek-N. SpuJber's "Czechoslovakia" Cl-0), did not try to dispel confusion and complete the knowledge on Slovak literature, although the work was published in 1957 by the Mid-European Studies Center and one of the editors, Professor V. Busek, spent many years in Slovakia. �SLOVAKIA 27 While the Marxist literary historians produced a book of 320 pages on the older Slovak literature and a bibliography on Bernolak's movement ( 410 pages) shows over 100 writers, Busek-Spulber's symposium has only the fo1lowing to say in the chapter on Czech and Slovak literature: ... "the first attempts were made ~asid,e from earlier sporad'ic venrtures' to esta1blish a distinct Slovak literary language in the last decade of the 1'8th century by Anton Bernolak Cl 76Vlt81t3) who selected the Westenn, Slovak dialects as a basis of the new literary me• dium : his suggestions, not elaJborated Hn-guistically, did not taike permanent hold. "The decisiN"e step towards the estatbHshment of a Sl'orvak lite,rary language was undertaken through the initJiative of the ProteSlttants. Uudovit Stur selected the centra.l Slovak dialect for the Sl.ovak literary medium. Beginning in the 1840's, severa,l poets followed Stur a,n,d used the new literary language with great skHl." Jlt would appear from the above quotations that Amer- ican Slavists will have to revise many of their views and complete their knowledge{l l). It is evident that they generally regarid Slovak literature of the cen'turies preceding Sh'.ir's reform of the S'lovak literary language as not worth much attention. Outstanding figures of Slovak cultural life are eibher unknown or treated as quantite negligea'ble (Bernolak) by contributors to American or Canadian symposia. The periods of Baroque and Enlightenment, in whi~h erudite Slovaks wrote in their mother tongue besides Latin and biblical "Czech", were undoU'bted!ly important s tages in Slovak cultural life and national development. And yet, even the leading fitgures of the Slovak renaissance around Anton Bernolak and the poet Jan Ho'11y are either unknown or greatly underestimated if at all mentioned. Such is also the case with regard to writers and scholars who in previous periods published high:ly interesting works on the origin of Slavs in genera,1, and on the past of 'the Slovaks in particular, as well as on Slavic languages, Slavic culture, and the significance of the Sfavs in European civHization. It has been more or less generally accepted that, for instance, Paul J. Safarik's or John Kollar's Slavic consciousness were awakened by German philosophers during their studies in Jena and that t:he idea of Slavic unity and greatness became known mostly by the merits of Safarik and Kol'lar. In fact, Safarik and Kollar had several pre1 �28 SLOVAKIA decessors among Slovak writers and scholars who developed their theories on the origin of the Slavs, on Slavic linguistic and racial unity and the "glorious past" in voluminous Latin works in the 17th and 18th centuries(12), and Jan Holly described the "glorious past" of the Slavs in his great epic works, written in Slovak, much better and with greater poetic talent than Jan Kollar. Safarik wrote his volume of poetry "Muza Tatranska s lyrou slovanskou" (The Tatrean Muse With Slavic Lyra) also a long time before he went to Jena, because the Slovak writers of the 17th and 18th centuries created an a'tmosphere of Slavic patriotism and mutuaiJ.ity in S'lovakia. This will certainly be new to many American Slavists although it is not new .in Slovakia or in some S:lavic and West European works on Slavic literatures. Not only the so-called "nationalist" Slovak scholars published many works and st udies in which they outlined the continuous development of Slovak culture and literature, but also some Americans of Slovak descent tried to acqua..int American scholars with the true picture of Srl ovakia's literary development,(13). Most recently the "Marxist" Slovak literary historians published severa'1 comprehensive works which besides 'their "Marxist interpretation" make an interesting contribution to Slavic studies(14). In aH American symposia from which we have quoted, it is, however, Bernolak's movement which has been presented most superficially and most unobjectively. Contributors to these symposia are in this regard even far behind the "Marxist" literary historians who, forgetting their customary prejudices against Catlholic clergymen, present Bernolak's scho()l and his movement as "the largest organized movement of cultural and national character which existed in Slovakia before the end of the 18th cent ury," and expressed no doubts about the scholarly merits of Bernolak's linguistic works or Holly's poetic greatness. For this reason we feel that Bernolak's movement dzserves a more detailed ana'lysis in a separate chapter. �SLOVAKIA 29 II Bernolak's Movement and Its Importance In Slovak Literature Bernolak's movement is concurrent with the period of Enlightenmen't and represents a final phase of Slovak literary and national renaissance whfoh began in the seventeenth century. This has been recognized even by the Marxist literary historians who state that "the process of linguistic Slovakization in Slovak literature was on the upgrade mainly since the seventeenth century" and that the "nation-forming tendencies in the Slovak language and culture were best expressed in the movement led by Anton Bernolak (1763-1813) especially in his endeavor to raise to the status of a literary language the Western Slovak dialect"(l\5). Berno'lak's movement lasted over 60 years and comprised three genera1tions of writers who in their Slovak or Latin writings expressed comparatively strong Slovak and Slovanic (Slaviic) national consciousness. According to Jaroslav Vlcek, professor at the University of Prague, the literature of Bernolak's school "developed in al'l directions: it had scholarly and popular writers in the field of theology, it had linguists an!d aiuthors of diclJionaries, translators and editors of antiquities, successful popular writers and generous supporters. In Jan Holly the Bernolak school got also its poeta laureatus"(16). And it had also its historians. Vlcek wrote these lines on Bernolak's movement in 1890 and contemporary research proves that he was not overestimating its importance. According to Marxist histori'a ns, ,~he Slovak Learned Society, founded in Trnava in 1792 with numerous branches in Central and Eastern Slovakia, and even outside Slovakia, numlbered in Slovakia alone about 500 registered members, mainly Catholic clergymen, of whom about 100 were active authors and writers(l 7). Among its members and generous supporters was .Mexander Cardinal Rudnay, Primate of Hungary, who besides writing many sermons and translating Cicero into Slovak assisted the Society financially. Professor of theology Canon Jur Palkovic translated the Bible into Slo- �30 SLOVAKIA vak and financed Bernola.k's and Holly's works. Professors of theologic faculties from Ostrihom, Trnava, Nitra, also were members of the Learned Society. P. J. Safa.rik, who later favored a sort of a Slo,v ak lite,r ary language based on a Czech grammar, wrote in his first work, published in 1826~118), regarding Bernola.k's school: "their growing zeal for the development and advancement of Slovak literature cannot be praised enough." And Professor Vlcek wrote in 1890 that "what in literatures of all Slavic peoples appeared as an expression of an awakened national consciousness and nationail indivilduality, it logically appeared also aimong Slovaks. The firslt to express that as a firm literary principle was A. Bernola.k." Bernola.k "was not a literary revolutionary," continues Prof. Vlcek, "but a consequent codifier of what grew and ripened before him over one hundred years in the writings of Catholic Slovaks as a linguistic fact",('19). Of course, Prof. Vlcek does not share the opinion of American symposia stating that "Bernola.k's attempts to est31blish a distinct Slovak literary language were not elaiborated linguistically," or that he tried "with indif.ferent success to create a written Slovak dia~ec't." On the contrary, in his Dejiny literatiiry slovenskej, Prof. Vlcek states that Bernola.k was well acquainted with the work done in the field of linguistics by predecessors such as Matej Bel and Pavel Dolefal, both from the first half of the 18th century, as well as wiith the tendencies of Catholic writers associated with the University of Trnava. There can ha11dly be any doubt that Bernola.k's movement means an important stage in Sfovak cultural and national development. The first manifestation of this new era in the Slovak national life was the publication of Bernola.k's work Disser'tation Philologic<rCritica de Literis Slavorum (1787) in which Bernola.k formulated the principles of the Slovak literary language. His formal directives for the introduction of the Slovak language into literature Bernola.k gave in the same yeair in his work Linguae Slavonicae per Regnum Hungariae Usitatae Compendiosa simul et facilis Orthographia. In 1790 he published in Latin his grammar of the new Slovak Literary language, Gramatica �31 SLOVAKIA Slavica, which later appeared in two German translations; and in 1791 was published his work on the etymology of Slovak words, Ethymologia Vocum Slavicarum. Bernolak's main work Slowar Slovenski, Cesko-Latinsko..:Nemecko-Uherski, was published (1825-1827) after Bernolak's death by Canon Jur Palkovic in six volumes, 530 pp. The work, which reads in English translation "A Dictionary of the Slovak, Czech, Latin, German and Hungarian Tongues," contained also phraseology, etymology and synonyms of the new Slovak literary language. Bernolak's works "gave a stimulus to the development of modern Slovak literature growing up directly from the living sources of the Slovak people," as admitte'd even by Marxist critics, and his movement "was, on the whole, in agreement with similar contemporary trends current among the Ukrainians, the Bulgarians, the Serbs, the Croats and the Slovenes." His "Dissertatio" caused "a revolution in the development of Slovak language," says I. Kotvan, "and at the same time led to a desirable national advancement in the ideo1ogical development of Slovak nationa I consciousness; it also hastened the foundation of the Slovak Learned Society in 1792 which grouped in its ranks all ardent Slovaks, en'l:!husiastic for Slovak culture, social and economic progress and for the political and national fate of Slovakia"(20). 1 Bernolak and the members of hi's Slovak Learned Society, among whom most prominent were Juraj Fandly (1754-1811), Jozef Ignac Bajza (1755-1836), Jan Holly (1785-1849), Juraj Papanek (1738-1802), Juraj Sklenar (1746-1790), .A!lexander Cardinal Rudnay, Canon Jur Palkovic, were faithful adherents of Enlightenment, sincerely attached to the Slovak people and working for its progress. Juraj Fandly was the leading organizer of the Society, author of popular educational writings and editor of a miscellany dealing with the history of the Slovaks (Compendiata Historiae Gentis Slavae - 1793) . J. I. Bajza wrote the first Slovak novel and a col'leotion of Slovak epigrams; J. Papanek is the author of Historia Gentis Slavae - DeRegno Regibusque Slavorum (1780) ; Juraj Sklenar is the �32 SLOVAKIA author of Vetustissimus Magnae Moraviae Situs (1784); Jan Holly is until now the greatest of Slovak poets who alone "created nearly all poetic genres: the epos, the elegy, the ode and the song, and in whose hanlds the cold form of antique poetry had warmth enough to express strongly the modern idea of national consciousness," as stated Prof. Vlcek in 1890. Actually, all writers of Bernolak's school expressed in their works strong national feelings and their views regarding Slavs, Slavic languages and the plaice of the Slavs in the world; this makes of them precursors of Kollar's and Safarik's ideas of Slavdom. Berno1ak himself regarded the Slavs as one nation with one language divided into "dia~ects" which conception was developed by P. J. Safarik in Geschichte der Slawischen Sprache und Literatur nearly 40 years later. In the introdu~tion to his Gramatica Slavica, published in 1790, Bernolak regarded the Slovak vernacular as one of the Sfavic dialects and urged his countrymen to use it as a literary medium in the same way as the Czechs, the Russians, the Croats and Poles used t heir respective vernaculars. Juraj Papanek in his Historia Gentis Slavae, Fandly in his Compendiata Historiae Slavae an'd in his other writings, and Holly in his poetic works, manirfested also fiery Slovak and Slavic consciousness and national feelings, so that we may see in Bernolak's movement not only a connecting link between his school and Safarik's and Kollar's conceptions of Slavdom, but also an organic and close relation with Stu.r's reform of the Slovak literary language and his nationalist movement. In this respect we can fully agree with the Marxist literc1ry historians that both movements "grew up from the same process, 1'rom the process of formaJtion of the Slovak nation and are but two different phases of Slovak cultural and national development:Q21). Wh:ile Bernolak's linguistic works substantially influenced the final form of Stu.r's reform of the Slovak literary language which accepted many 'linguistic elements, used in all parts of Slovakia only because there existed Bernolak's literary language before, ideologically Stu.r's group was influenced mainly by the epics of Jan Holly, poet laureate of Bernolak's school. �SLOVAKIA 33 Stu,r himself acknowledged Holly's dominant influence on the formation of Slovak national ideology and so did until now the " nationalist" as well as the "Marxist" Slovak literary historians(22). Accordtng to Jaroslav Vlcek: "Holly means many things in Slovak literature. He achieved alone wha;t the Czech and the Hungarian poets of classicism worked on a'H togetherC23). For another literary historian "Holly has not been surpassed by any S,l ovak poet, and nowhere else is there to be found such depth of national consciousness and such glory. In crystallized form Holly vigorously enounced the modern idea of nationalism, and this already in the 1800's, and his unsurpassable expression of the national soul has made him and will continue t o make him the grea;test of the Slovak poets"(24). And he is so judged also by contemporary Marxist historians. "Holly is a great poet," says prof. A. Mraz, the main Marxist authority on Slovak literary history, " an:d a cultivated and excellent translator of antique poetry, who synthetized in his works an'tique influences with European Classicism and philosophy of Enlightenmen t. He awakened nationa1 consciousness of his countrymen combining Slavic and Slovak elements in his conception of the Slovak nation. His works prove that even in Bernolak's movement Slavic components were strongly represented. Slovak and Slav unite in harmoneous accord in Holly's ideology"~25). Holly deserves this praise and recognition not only for his own works but also for his masterful transiaJtions from practically all renowned poets from Virgil, Ovid, Theocritus, Horace to Homer. The first volume of his translations was published in 1824, the translation of Virgiil's Aeneid in 1828; these were highly commended even of Jungmann, Safarik and Niederle. After having enriched Slovak literatures by his translations, Holly composed in cfa:ssic mold anld with many overtones of 'bhe antique poetry his three epics in which he proved that his talent and erudition were outstanding and that the new Slovak literary language was rioh and flexible enough for complex poetic creations. At the same time he also demonstrated to the Slovaks and to the out side world thait the Slovak past was great and glorious and that there is, therefore, also a future for the Slovak people. �34 SLOVAKIA To achieve this, Holly created in his poetic works a new national ideology, anchored in the traditions of the Great Moravian Empire and in the cultural achievements of SS. Cyril and Methddius, the founders of Slovanic letters. In 1833 he published his Svatopluk, a heroic epic about the life and glory of the powerf.Ull ruler of Great Moravia, in twelve cantos. In 1835 his Cyrilo-Methodiada, a poetic account of the achievements of the Apostles of Slovaks, was published in Budapest in six cantos, and to complete the ima:ge of a heroic past of his people, Holly crea1~ed also an epic in seven cantos about a mythical forefather of the Slovaks, Slav, and in his Elegies he 'lamented over the desb-uction of the Great Moravian Empire, 'bhe first kingdom of the Slovaks, ruined by treachery, villainy, and perfidy. The national and ideological components of Holly's poetry are strong also in his Odes and Idylles (1835), which, together with his epics, a,wakened to life a new generation that broke with the past not only in linguistic division of Slovaks but also in cultural and political orientation. "At a time," says Mraz, "when the Slovaks mostly felt the need to strengthen their national ideology by historic consciousness, Holly came in a monumenta,1 way with his support." He created by his works not only a Slovak national poetry and ideology, but urging the Slovaks to regard their past with pride he revived the present and encouraged the Slovaks to look to the future with hope. Holly achieved this "w~t:h nothing more than a nonliterary, formless dialect at his disposa[ which he molded and shaped into a rich poetic language." His poetry was not much influenced by European pseudo-Classicism and contemporary Romanticism. He g.r ew up f<rom an antique culture and poetry, and ideologically only he interpreted . the feelings and aspirations of the Slovak people of the period oif Enlightenment and t he f.irst decades of Romanticism. While his contemporary Jan KoHar "wandered on the expansive meadows of Slavdom," Holly devoted his talents to building Slovak national consciousness, culture and ideology which made him a precursor anld: a spiritual leader also for the coming generation of C. Stt'.ir's na- �SLOVAKIA 35 tionalist and romantic school. "HoHy's message lived also in the generation to come which refused his classicist forms but creatively clung to his ideological heritage," admits the Marxist literary historian A. Mraz, and adds that "Bernolak's movement triumphed in Holly's achievements and greatness; it found in his works the most creative and ideological culmination"(26). III Marxist Evaluation of Bernolak's Movement Unlike the contributors to American symposia who be1ittled A. Bernolak and his movement, Marxist literary historians write about Bernolak and his followers with high esteem. Although the works of the members of Bernolak's school and his Learned Societies clearly indica!te the tendency to reflect the national struggle and the awakening of a national consciousness among Slovaks - which is in conflict with the "Czechoslovak" tendencies of the Communist party - the Marxist literary historians were allowed to publish scores of books and studies on Bernolak and his movement. Among the first works which dealt with this period in a suvprisingly tolerant way was "A History of Slovak Literature" (Dejiny sfovenskej literatury) by Prof. A. Mraz, who for his services to the present regime in Slovakia was promoted to the rank of an "akademik" (academician). Other valuable works and studies were published by Dr. Imrich Kotvan and Jan Tiibensky, who apparently specializes in this period "ex offo." Kotvan's work Bernolakovci (1948) and Bibliografia Bernolakovcov (Bibliography of Bernolak's School) published in 1957, together with T. Ti'bensky's book J. Papanek-J. SklenarC27), also published in 1957, as well as a series of his stu!dies in periodi'caJs, give the impression that Marxist literary historians try to evaluate Bernolak's movement without the customary prejudice against Catholic writers, and that in many respects :they agree with the views expressed before by the "bourgeois and nationalist" scholars and literary historians (J. Vlcek, J. �36 SLOVAKIA Skultety, S. Krcmery, J. Kacka, A. A . Banik, C. Lepacek, S. Jurovsky, etc.) . This is evident especiaHy in Ti'bensky's controversy with Prof. Wollmann's uncritical deprecation of Bernolak's movement(28), but also in some recen :: studies of Mraz and in the new History of Slovak Literature, compiled by a " coHective" of younger historians under the direction of Prof. M. Pisut. In a comprehensive explanatory note to Kotvan's Bibliography, which on 400 pages gives an interesting picture of Bernolak's movement, we can read that the Marxist scholars "consider the second half of :the eighteenth and the first half od: the nineteenth century, which is the period of Bernolak's activities, "one of the interesting , not yet thoroughly investigated periods forming a milestone in Sfovak history"{29). In the opinion of Prof. A. Mraz, who still remains the main authority in Marxist literary history in Slovakia, Anton Bernolak not only reformed and cddiified the Sfovak literary language and its orthography, but also started a vast national and cultural movement based on a t radition m,ore tJhan a hundred years old. Mraz regards the activity which originated around the Catholic University of Trnava (1635) as a starting point for introducing Slovak vernacular as a literary medium and stresses that the first manifestation of the new era in Slovak national life was the publication of Cantus Catholici by Benedict Szollossi in 1655. "The book Cantus Catholid," says Mraz, "laid the foundation on whioh the language used by Slovak Catholic writers, was formed into an in\dependent Slovak literary language. CrystallizaJtion of the language, which Slovak Catholic writers used during the period of the University of Trnava (1635-1777) , progressed so far in accordance with the spoken language in Western Slovakia that, when Bernolak and his foHowers came, at the end of the 18th century, with the idea of an independent literary language, t hey merely codified, in many respects, a language used and domesticated among the Catholic Slovak writers of the preceding period"(30). Mraz also recognizes Bernolak's merits in the whole �SLOVAKIA 37 of Slovak cultural life. "Bernolak did not stop at writing his s,c holarly works," says Mraz. "He used them to push ahead Slovak national and cultural life on new tracks, which he attained by his cu]tural and organizatory activities." According to Tibensky, who made some original research into this period, Bernolak's movement was "the largest organized movement of cultural and national character which existed in Slovakia before the end of the 18th century, and it undoubtedly played a progressive role in the Slovak naJtional development"1(®L). "There is no doubt whatsover," says Tibensky, "that Bernolak's literary language and his movement played a very important role in the Slovak national development. Their importance is far from being sufficiently explored and evaluated. Works published until now are merely the first step to the accomplishment of an imporitant task of Slovak scholarship." There is ndt, so far, much new in the Marxist writings on Bernolak's movement. The Marxist Academy of Sciences is merely compiling the scholaI"ly research which was going on for the last 25-30 years and in which scholars like A. A. Banik, C. Lepacek, S. Jurovsky, V. Gajdos and others, brought to light new manuscripts or additional information. 'Dhe Marxist literary historians, of course, at·tempt to give a new interpretation to what the "bourgeois" scholars said on Slovak literature, language, national consciousness and Slovak national aspirations. "While in the past !the researchers into the origin of Bernolak's movement and especialtly into its literary language considered in the first place ideological elements, for instance, the influence of the Counter-Reformation, the Marxist scholarship," says Ti1bensky, "endeavors to explain the origin of Bernolak's movement and of its literary medium in the context of the entire Slovak social and economic development in given centuries: it takes into account, in the first place, economic and pomico-cultural factors"(32). Ideological influences are considered by Marxist historians as seconldary in the formation of Bernolak's move- �38 SLOVAKIA ment. "The movement is an outstanding manifestation of 'the process of transformation of a feudal Slovak nationality into a modern bourgeois nation," conclu'des Tibensky. In view of this, Bernolak's movement is credited by Marxist historians also with the fact that, as a result of Bernolak's activities, "the process of the formation of the Slovak nation and cu~ture was entering a new stage, determined by the activities of r.. Stur (1815-1856), and by the creation, on the basis of a Central Slovak dialect, of the modern Slovak literary language"{G3). Prof. Eugen Pauliny, who apparently is regarded among contemporary Marxist Slovak phHologists as an authority on the history of the Slovak language, regards Bernolak's period as an important stage in the development of Slovak national life. "Bernolak's language and his conceptions of Slovak national life, conceptions in which his reform originated, mean an important milestone in Slovak nrubional development," says Pauliny in his "Dejiny spisovnej slovenciny" (A History of the Slovak Literary Language). "Bernolak's movement, even if represenlted only by Slovak Catholics, takes Slovak national individuality, in a clear and understandable formulation, as a fact and connects it with the whole of Slavdom in its contemporary as weH as historical context. As a tool of this ideology Bernolak brought his theoretically elaborated and practically tested Slovak literary language," continues Pauliny. According to Pauliny, Bernolak's language was not used only for religious purposes, as some Slavists assert. "There were in Bernolak's school also religious writings, but not of a polemic char8!Cter; they were didactic and, besides them, 'there was religious poetry and theological writings. However, the center of gravity of Bernolak's school lays in vafoable writings for the education of the large masses, and in poetry. Bernolak's language was a well elaborated literary language which the Catholic Slovaks useid for more than a ha:lf century, in fact, officially up to 1851, when unity was achieved in the literary language" (among CaJtholics and Protestants). From the philological point of view, Bernolak's re- �SLOVAKIA 39 form was based not only on the language, written and spoken by the educated Slovak strata in Western Slovakia and created in the cultural center of Trnava, but also on the dia'l ect of Bernolak's native province Orava, which belongs to the cenltral Slovak dialectical areas('36). In his contribution to a volume "0 vzajomnych vz€ahov Oechov a Slovakov," published in 1956 by the Slovak Academy of Sciences, Pauliny states: "Bernola:k codified a language which can be traced in the writings of the middle-class, the lower nobility and educated Slovaks back to the 15th century, and this in both Ca!bholic an!d. Protestant writings" (3r7). As for the connection of Bernolak'is school with Stiir's group, Pauliny agrees with the other Marxist literary historians and philologists. Stu.r's reform, which is erroneously presented by some American Slavists as the beginilling of tJhe Slovak literary language (in this respect even Jakobson is wrong), in Pauliny's view, is but a "younger branch of Bernolak's school," and he adds: "In Bernolak's school c,ulminates the older phase of Slovak natio nal diwelopment, but simultaneously it means also the beginning of a new epoch a,nd is very closely connected with the develo;pmen,t of nrutional consciousness of Stur's period. Bernolak''s movement tbuilds upon the feudail Slwak national con\Sdousness of the li8th century, but at the same time this movement enounces and consciously fo11mulates , for the first time, the modem Slovak nation,alism. "We find in the writings of the most important members oif Bernolak's Learned Society, Bernolak, Fandly, J HoMy, a compl~tely different ideology from that of the clergy of t he Gouniter-Uleformation of the 1"7:th and 18th century. It is an ideology of Slowk ,n,ationalism as derined and 11.mderstood by the Enlightenment, and it evci.1ved in bhe writings of the most out.Sitanding members of this group, Fan.dly an'd Jlolly, into the ideology of a modern Slovak nation. Stu.r's group used it as a foundation and developed it int o a mor•e modem conception in accordance with contemporary Euro·p ean ideological trends." 1 • Stur himself admitted this in his "Narecia slovenskuo," writing: "Our Catholic brothers did exactly what we are doing now and intend to do; they desired to a,chieve what we are desiring to achieve; they were concerned in their hearts a:bout the same matter that we cherish in our hearts''(3-8). �40 SLOVAKIA We hardly need any more convincing proof that Sb1r's group considered Bernolak's group as "older co-fighters on the same ideological battlefield," concludes Pauliny. To sum up, we can safely say that Bernolak's work and his school were an important factor in Slovak cultural and lilterary development and as such they deserve more attention and more objective anlaysis by scholars in the field of American Slavic studies. On the other hand, Slovak scholars in the free world have a moral duty to correct the mi,sconceptions which crept into Slavic studies largely because of a lack of English written studies on Slovak culture other than those supplied by Slavists of Czech origin and the works by Slovaks mentioned below. REFERENCE NOTES: '1. Journal of Central European Affairs, University of Colorado, The American Slavic and East European Review, Columbia University Press, The Slavic and East European Journal, Ln<liana UnLversity, Slavic and East European Studies, Un1versity of Montreal, Canadian Slavonic Pape.rs, University of Toronto Press. 2. Besides books edited· by Kerner, Strakhovsky, Busek-Spul1ber, and S. H. Thomson-, there are many misconceptions al-so in works w,rit-ten or edited by Prof. J. S. Rloucek, namely in his Cemral Entern Europe, or Slavonic Encyclopedi·a, by Felix Gross and C. E. BJ.ack. 3. The thesis that Great l\furarvian writings and culture belong to the cu1tural heritage of Slovaks has been sUJpported by both ,n.ationalist and Marxist Slovak literary ,h istorians. Cf. in English Jioseph Skultety: Sketches From Slovak History, Middletown, Pa., 1930, p. 229; J. M. Kirschbaum: Slovakia - Nation At the Crossroads of Cerwtral E·urope; and in the Slovak la,n guage: Dej iny star sei slovenskej literatury by M,axxist historfans (JI. MisianLk, J. Minarik, M. Mich'aloova, A. Melichercilk), Bratislava,, 1008, p. 3120. ,4. Cf. Dmitry Cizevsky: Outline of Comparative Slavic Literatures, AmerLcan Academy of Arts and Scienees, Boston, Mass., 1952; Lvalil J. Krarnoris: Chrono1ogic.al Outline of Slovak Literature and History, Passaic, 1946; Peter P. Yurchak : The SloYaks, J . J. Lach, Pulblications, Whiting, Indiiana•, 1947; J'. M. Kirschlbaum: Slovakia: Nation At the Crossroads of Central E-u rope, p. 35-00. 5. See University Traditions in Slovakia in J. M. · Kirsch:baUJm's op. cit.; and Stephen J. Palickar's Slovakian Culture in the Light of History, The Hampshire Press, Cambrid·ge, Mass., 1954. 6. Cf. Slovak Literature Under the Soviet Impact in The Slavic and East EuT.opean Sltudies, Montreal, 1956, Part I, p. 4>:x54. 7. Published by Princeton University Press, 1943, 390 pp. A critical review from the Slovak poi.n-t of view see in Slovak Review, Vol. I, Nio. 2., by Ivan, J. Kra,rnoris. 8. Published by HarvaTd University Press, Cambridge, Mas•s .• �SLOVAKIA 41 1949. Chapter on Slovak linguistics by A. Senn is more in line with scholarly research. 9. Published by University of Oalifornia Press, 1949. A critical review froon the Slovak point df view in quarterly Slovakiia, Middletown, Pa .. , Vol. v,v,r, by Philiip A. Hrobak. 10. P;u!blished by Mid,,European Stu<lies Ce,n,t er of the Free Europe Commi>ttee, Inc., New Yol'k, 1957. The chapter on Slovaik literaiture was wz,iflten by Czech writers H. Kucera and E. lfovtun, who are unknown in Slovak literary history. 'lil. American presentation of Slovak literature is strangely d<iffererut also from European evaluation as ev,i denced in the works: Ernest Denis: Le probleme de l'Autriche-Les Slovaques, Piaris, 1917; A. Fischel: Pa,nslavismus bis zum Weltkrieg, Stuttgart and• Berlin, 191•9; Bruno Meriggi, Storia delle letterature ceca e Slovacca, University of Florence, 195'9. 112. Of. J. J:~obeus: Vii:a Gentis Slavicae, published in '164Q; introduction to B. Szollossi's Cantus Catholici, pu1b li5hed in 16>55; D. Sinapius Horcicka, Neoforum Latino-Slovenicum, 1679; J. Piscatori-sFischer: De origine, inre ac utilitatae linguae slavonicae, pulblished in 1697; J . B. Magin: ·Murices .. sive Apologia, pulblished in 1728; S. Timon: Imago an,t ique Hunga,riae, 11735; J. Papanek: Historia gen•: is slavae, '1'7•80; J. Fandly: Compendiata Historiae Slavae, 17193. 13. See op. cit. by P. P. Yurt:hak, S. J. Palickar, I. J . Kramoris, as well as articles by C. Piotocek ifil; Slovak Review, by Philip A. Hro\bak in Slovakia, by E. Podikrivac!Jcy in Slovakia, Vol. m, 3, a,n d J. Pombsky's book K stemu vyrociu literarnej slovenciny (One Hundred Years of Literary Slovak), abrana Press, Scranlton, 1945, 290 pp. 'l><t. Cf. Prof. A. MTaz: Dejiny slovenskej literatury, S'1ovenska aikademia vied a umeni, Bratisla,va, 1948, Dejin.y star-lei slovenskej litel'a:u,ry, SA V, 1-959, Dejiny slovenskej Literatury, Osveta, Bratislava, 1960; as well as works by I. Kotvan, Jlan 'J1i1bens'ky, etc., quoted farther. 16. Cf. Dr. :Emrich Kotvan: Biblografia Bernolakovcov, Ma·tica sl-ovensika, Martin, 195'7', p. 403-404. 16. Cf. Jarosla;v Vlcek: Dejiny litera,t ury slovenskej, 1st edition, 1,890, second edition by .Miatica slovenska, Turc. Sv. Martin, 1923, p. 27-39, e tc. Prof. V'lcek's work is the first aicademic history of Slo;vak liternture and as such was incomplete. His views were, nevertheless, accepted by ma•n y contemporary histori-ans. Prof. V'lceik was born in Slovakia, but his main work is A History of Czech Literature. As a professor at the University of Prague he changed some of his views in favor of the official "Czechoslovak" thesis. 17. Cf. Dr. Imrich Kotvan, op. cit. p. 403-404. ·1.8. Geschichte der Slaiwischen Sprache und Literatur nach alien Mundar-ten, Offen, 1826, p. 373-300. ·w. Qp. cit. p 32-34. 20. Cf. limrich Kotvan: Bernol·a kovci, Spolok sv. Vojtecha, Trnaiva, 1'948, p. 4. '21. Cf. J·a n T~bensky's inrtrod-uc-tion to I. K,otvan's mbliografia Bernolaklovcov, p. 7-9. 22. Of. J. M. Kirschlbaum: l!udovit Stiur and His Place in the Sliavic World, Slavistica No. 32, Winnipeg, 1956. Alccordfog to M. Pisut, a Marxist expert on Sttir's period, the fina-1 sta•ge of Slovak eMorts to build an independent national culture had its roots in t,he wol'ks· of �42 SLOVAKIA P. J. Safm-ik, Jan Holly, Kollar, a1nd Kuzmar..y. Mraz stresses Holly's significan:Ce in connection wLth Stur's movement. Cf. Ceskoslovenske prednasky pro IV. Medzinarodni sjezd slavisitu v Moskve, Priaha, 1958, p. 3313-345 and 4l2:l-46~. 23. Op. cit. p. 80. 124. Cf. Jioz,ef ~acka: Dejin,y literatury slovenskej, Rufomberok, li92L, pUJblished in English translation by the Nation·al News, Pittsburgh, Pa., '119441, quoted from P. P. Yurchak, op. cit. p. 103Jl.04. '25. Of. his artfole in Ceskoslovenske prednasky pro IV. sjezd sla• vistu v Moskve. 26. ]bidem ,27. Cf. Jian T,ilbensky, J. Papanek-J. Sklenar: Obrancovia slovenskej narodnOS11i v 18. sitoroci, Osveta, Martin, 1958. 28. Of. K problemu hodnotenia bernolactiny a bernolakovskeho hnutia, Historicky cas()fpis, ViJ!I, 4, 1'959, p. 557~576. Tilbensky proves thia,t many views of Prof. WoUma,n n, in his Slovanstvi v ja11:ykovelite• rarnim obro11:eni Slovanu, Praha, 1'!)58, are prejudilced against S<Iovaiks and particularly a•g ainst Catho1ics. 29. Op. cit., p. 403-405. 3'0. Op. cit., p, 416-1108. :n. Historicky casqpis, ViII, 4, 574. 32. B~bUograd'ia bernolakoVICOV, p. 8. 3'3. ]bidem, p. 404. 34. Published: in '19418. 35. Eug,e n Paulin:y: Dejiny spisovnej slovenciny, p . 65. 3·6. ]bLdem, p. 63. 37. p. 111'3. 38. Eugen Pawliny: 0 vzajomnych vzt'ahov Cechov a Slovakov, Slovenska AkadiemLa Vied, Bra1t;islav,a, 1956; pp. 1)1.3, 11115. 3•9. Among periodicals pulblished •b y Universities it is only the Slavic and Ea·Slt European Studies (University of Miontreal, Quebec, Canada) which sy,steana:tically comments Slovalk literary and cultur,al topics in an objective mar.iner. ANONYMOUS LETTERS, wri.tten, to Red leader,s in Slo,vak,ia, are causing some concern to tihe regime. 'I1he Bra1tiislav,a RJadii,o recently reminded its listeners that writers of .s uch le•uters, if revealed, ar,e in for stiff filnes and long jail sentences. T·he reaction: more and still more anonymous letters to worry the collaborators of Red Prague. • • • IN THIE WOR<KERS' PAR.4.DISE, according to Radio Bratisfava: SI,ovakiia is behind in its milk quota 6,600,666 liiters (4'18-61,); the Trebisov district owes !!he S<tate 1,0815,000 lirter,s of milk this year (,3Jl0,6l'; Dolny Kubin, Cadca, Prievidza, and Zilina did n-Olt produce even a deciliter per COIW (3-9-61); in Braltislav,a (S.tiree't of the Defenders of Peace) women waited for meat from 2:00 to 6:3,0 p. m. (3~20.,61); there is a· great abUJnd'ance o:f feed for cattle and calves, 'but it's all r,ot,ten; the people work the ·farms, but ste,al over haif the prodootion (~20-GL); we have no tires, 'i>ut why,? I heard the explanation that t he reason, for this is the war in Lao-s (2-0.11,61 1) . � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 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 22 SLOVAKIA MISCONCEPTIONS OF AMERICAN SLAVISTS ABOUT SLOVAK LITERATURE J. M. Kirschbaum, Ph.D. I American Slavists and Slovak Literature For the past two decades we have witnessed in America a fast growing interest in the Slavic world and Slavic culture. There is hardly a reputaJble American Uniiversi:ty which would not have organired a department of Slavic Studies, and the number of books published on Slavic subjects, as well as the number of periodicals('l) which deal entirely or pa:r,tly with the problems of East Centrial Europe, is without precedent in any other country. '.Dhere are, however, severa'l phenomena in this vast and fast development of Slavic Studies and in books and symposia about the Slavs, which indicate that American Slavic Studies may easily be pushed on a wrong track. American scholarship in this field of Slavic S:udies is predominantly in the hands of scholars, teachers or writers, who came from Europe during or after the Second World War, and who brought with them not only knowledge and a;bi-lities for academic work, but some of them brought also their prejudices, old rivalries, national prides and the nationa,l aspirations of their countries of origin. This is especially true with regard to some former politicians, diplomats, an!d civil servants from Eastern European countries who became teachers, lecturers, and professors at American universities or contrilbutors to periodicals and symposia published by universities. Institutions, books and periodicals deal1ing with Slavic Studies became for some of them new arenas for fighting lost cultural or political battles, for fostering cultural naitionalism or even poHtical chauvinism. They often use university positions or academic periodicals not for spreading objective scholarly knowledge about a very important area of the globe and about several vigorous peoples which represent the Slavic world, but rather try to prevent the SLOVAKIA 23 truth to be known or ignorance and false propaganda to be exposed. This politkal element, though it is less apparent during the last yea-rs, certainly did some harm to American scholarshi,p in the field of Slavic Studies. How far unobjective and unscholarly some writers on Slavic subjeots can become, we can see best by anailyzing the contributions on Slovakia and on Slowk literature to the American symposia and books on Czecho-Slovakia(2). It is true that Slovak Hterature did not achieve a prominence such as some other Slavic literature did, but from various points of view it is an intereslting field for academic research. The history of Slovak literature did not begin in 1844, as some American symposia emphasize, but goes back to the ninth century to the Great Moravian Empire(3). After the collapse of the Great Moravian Empire in the ten'bh century, Slovakia became a part of the Central European cultura,l area in which a:11 peoples (Poles, Slovaks, Magyars, Czechs, Croats, etc.) used the Latin language as their literary medium and began to develop their cultures and literatures in their own vernacular only from the 17th or 18th century, if not later. And so did also the Slovaks, though we can find some literary writings or documents in the Slovak vernacular a long time before, and a Slovak professor at the University of Prague, Vavrinec Benedikti of Nedozery, reproached his Slovak countrymen for neglecting their Slovak language as early as in 1603. We can safely say that Slovakia and Silovak culture developed along the same pattern as the cultures and literatures of a!ll other Cenltra,l European peoples, mainly the Western Slavs, from Humanism to Olassi:cism, Romantism, Realism, and modern literary currents{4). Humanism found an early entry into Slovakia through the University of Bratislava (Academia Istropolitana, founlded in 1645), and through numerous students and professora studying or 'teaching abroad (Bologna, Padova, Prague, Cracow). It giave a meaningful impulse to 'literary production, especiaUy in. homiletic writings. The second university on the Slovak territory, the University of Trnava, founded in 1635, gave a strong impulse to the 24 SLOVAKIA cultural life in Slovakia both in the Latin and Slovak languages, but literary activities were mostly restrided to religion, history, geogrnphy, ma!thematics and jurisprudence(5). It was not before 1750 that a volume of original verses in the Slovak vernacufar was composed and published by Hugolin Gavlovic (1712-1787)). The first translation of the Bible was accomplished in 1756; the first LatinSlovak dictionary appeared in 1763; religious hymns were com posed by Jan Silvan in 1536 ; amd the first collection of religious songs, containing 227 iitems in the Slovak vernacu'lar, was published in the Cantus Catholici in 1655. Between this period and the date when the first novel in Slovak language appeared in 1783, there was more than a score of Slova,k scho'lars and writers who wrote grammars (V. Benedicti, D. Kriman), historical and apologetic works (D. Jacobeaus, D. Synapius Horcicka, J. Piscatoris Fischer, M. Szentivany, J. B. Magin, Samuel Timon, M. Bel, J. Severini, J. Fandly A. F. Kollar, etc) anld who defended in Latin 'the Slovak people,. its right to its own national life and nationail language, and developed also several theories on the past and origin of Slavs, on Slovak culture and the continuity of Slovakia with Great Moravia. The era of Enlightenment brought a general revival of national culture in Slovakia. The Protestants still used t he btblical Czech language also in secu[ar writings (besides German), but the Catholic Slovaks, abandoning Latin since the beginning of the Counter-Reformation, passed to 1:Jhe exclusive use of the Slovak vernacular, codified befor the end of the 18th century by Anton Bernolak in several scholarly works. Thus literature in the Slovak language was created continuously from the 17th century and produced, before the period of Romanticism, over 100 writers in Bernolak's school alone, among them the poet Jan Holly, whose genius according to many literary historians, was not surpassed by any Slovak poet except P. 0. Hviezdoslav in the 20th century. From the 18th century, Classicism, Romanticism, Realism, Symbolism, and aM dther literary currents which appeared in the European literatures, were represented also SLOVAKIA 23 in Slovakia more or less in the same way as in other Slavic countrie s. Similar to other Slavic literatur es is also the dErvelopment under the impact of Soviet literatur e and Marxist theories on literary history(6 ). Despite the fact that this develop ment was for a long time scholarl y explored and support ed by a score of works in Slovak, as well as in foreign languag es, the history of Slovak literatur e has been an object of confuse d nad controversial interpre tations in books and symposi a publishe d by America n Slavis'~s . The best known America n and Canadia n symposi a are in basic disagree ment with this outline of Slovak literary history as we can see from the followin g: 1. Accordi ng to S. H. Thomso n, who in his book "Czechoslova kia in Europea n History" (?) attempt ed to give a fair picture of the Slovak past but was apparen tly misled by his sources, "The Slovaks had no opportu ity to develop (after the disappearance of the Great Moravian Empire in the 10th century ) their own culture, written languag e, political instituti ons or social concepts in any indepen dent way." This situation lasted for nine cen'turie s, accordin g to Prof. Thomso n's views. "A deli-bera te effort to substitute for the written Czech then in use in Slovakia a language based upon a local diailect came from the Ca-tholire camp only in 1790, when Anton Bernola k publishe d a Gramati ca Slavica. " But "about the onlly follower s Bernolak had were Catholic writers, and even among them the vogue for his gramma r and dictiona ry soon died out," writes Prof. Thomso n, stating that the year 1834-1835 is usually given as the date of the rise of written Slovak, although s':rictly speaking , ~tur did not make his first formal declarat ion until 1846." 2. The contribu ,~or to L. I. Strakho vsky's "Handbook of Slavic Studies"(B), the Czech writer Otto Radl, gives even a more inaccura te and incompl ete piicture of Slovak literature. On page 491 he writes that "As early as 1635 in Trnava books were still printed in differen t Slovak dialects, more than two hundred years before the introduc tion of Slovak as a separate literary languag e," but three pages. further he sta,tes: 26 SLOVAKIA "While the quantity of Roma,rutrc literature in the Czech lang uage •was growing in Bohemia and Morarvia,, an illllPoritant ch•a nge was taking place in Slovakia. The heretofore common written langua:ge, the Czech, was being replaced by a newly originated Slovak literary la,ruguage. This movement had begun a,t the end of the 1.S'th century ,by the learned Slovak p'hilologist Antonin Bernolak who pufblished sever-al woi,ks in Latin in which he tried to show that the Slovaks were a separate nation and that they should therefor•e use their own distinctive written la,ruguage based on dia'lect spoken in Western Slov>alkia. "Some of the mo·s t important writers• of Slo:vak origin, such as Kollar and Saifariik, were strong1y oppos·ed to this change. . . Opposing them stood siUICh S'lovak writers -as Stur and Hurban .. ... SlOIVak as a ·written language wa·s first introduced Ln, J r8 44." Slovak literatu~e begins for Ra-dl with I'... Stur in 1844, and no literary work or Slovak writer, except Bernonak, Kol,lar and Safarik (the :two later indluded by him in Czech literature) is mentioned in his study dea.Jing with Slovak literature for the periods preceeding Romanticism and Stu.r's reform of the Slovak literary language. 3. According to R. J. Kerner's "Czechoslovakia"(9) Slovak literature began only in 1845 anld that Slovak renaissance was linked with "what was going on in Bohemia and with the philosophy of Enlightenmen t and the Romanticism of Herder" and "had its center in Bratislava." "Catholic Slovaks under Bernolak tried to create, with indifferent success at the time, a written Slovak dialect," says the book. Trnava is not at all mentioned. KoNar and Safarik are mentioned as Slovaks, hurt placed among the Czech writers. Altogether three S1ovak poets are mentioned (Samo Chaluka, J anko Krar, and Jan Botto) in the whole chapter dealing with the period from the battle of White Mountain (1620) to World War I, and three others (A. Sladkovic (1820-1872), P. 0. Hv:ie~doselav (1849-1921) and Hurban Vajansky (1847-1916) - in the chapter on "Czechoslovak" literature. For the after-war period the book gives four names: Ivan Krasko, Martin Razus, E. B. Lukac, and J. Gregor-Tajov sky. 4. The most recent symposium, V. Busek-N. SpuJber's "Czechoslovakia" Cl-0), did not try to dispel confusion and complete the knowledge on Slovak literature, although the work was published in 1957 by the Mid-European Studies Center and one of the editors, Professor V. Busek, spent many years in Slovakia. SLOVAKIA 27 While the Marxist literary historians produced a book of 320 pages on the older Slovak literature and a bibliography on Bernolak's movement ( 410 pages) shows over 100 writers, Busek-Spulber's symposium has only the fo1lowing to say in the chapter on Czech and Slovak literature: ... "the first attempts were made ~asid,e from earlier sporad'ic venrtures' to esta1blish a distinct Slovak literary language in the last decade of the 1'8th century by Anton Bernolak Cl 76Vlt81t3) who selected the Westenn, Slovak dialects as a basis of the new literary me• dium : his suggestions, not elaJborated Hn-guistically, did not taike permanent hold. "The decisiN"e step towards the estatbHshment of a Sl'orvak lite,rary language was undertaken through the initJiative of the ProteSlttants. Uudovit Stur selected the centra.l Slovak dialect for the Sl.ovak literary medium. Beginning in the 1840's, severa,l poets followed Stur a,n,d used the new literary language with great skHl." Jlt would appear from the above quotations that Amer- ican Slavists will have to revise many of their views and complete their knowledge{l l). It is evident that they generally regarid Slovak literature of the cen'turies preceding Sh'.ir's reform of the S'lovak literary language as not worth much attention. Outstanding figures of Slovak cultural life are eibher unknown or treated as quantite negligea'ble (Bernolak) by contributors to American or Canadian symposia. The periods of Baroque and Enlightenment, in whi~h erudite Slovaks wrote in their mother tongue besides Latin and biblical "Czech", were undoU'bted!ly important s tages in Slovak cultural life and national development. And yet, even the leading fitgures of the Slovak renaissance around Anton Bernolak and the poet Jan Ho'11y are either unknown or greatly underestimated if at all mentioned. Such is also the case with regard to writers and scholars who in previous periods published high:ly interesting works on the origin of Slavs in genera,1, and on the past of 'the Slovaks in particular, as well as on Slavic languages, Slavic culture, and the significance of the Sfavs in European civHization. It has been more or less generally accepted that, for instance, Paul J. Safarik's or John Kollar's Slavic consciousness were awakened by German philosophers during their studies in Jena and that t:he idea of Slavic unity and greatness became known mostly by the merits of Safarik and Kol'lar. In fact, Safarik and Kollar had several pre1 28 SLOVAKIA decessors among Slovak writers and scholars who developed their theories on the origin of the Slavs, on Slavic linguistic and racial unity and the "glorious past" in voluminous Latin works in the 17th and 18th centuries(12), and Jan Holly described the "glorious past" of the Slavs in his great epic works, written in Slovak, much better and with greater poetic talent than Jan Kollar. Safarik wrote his volume of poetry "Muza Tatranska s lyrou slovanskou" (The Tatrean Muse With Slavic Lyra) also a long time before he went to Jena, because the Slovak writers of the 17th and 18th centuries created an a'tmosphere of Slavic patriotism and mutuaiJ.ity in S'lovakia. This will certainly be new to many American Slavists although it is not new .in Slovakia or in some S:lavic and West European works on Slavic literatures. Not only the so-called "nationalist" Slovak scholars published many works and st udies in which they outlined the continuous development of Slovak culture and literature, but also some Americans of Slovak descent tried to acqua..int American scholars with the true picture of Srl ovakia's literary development,(13). Most recently the "Marxist" Slovak literary historians published severa'1 comprehensive works which besides 'their "Marxist interpretation" make an interesting contribution to Slavic studies(14). In aH American symposia from which we have quoted, it is, however, Bernolak's movement which has been presented most superficially and most unobjectively. Contributors to these symposia are in this regard even far behind the "Marxist" literary historians who, forgetting their customary prejudices against Catlholic clergymen, present Bernolak's scho()l and his movement as "the largest organized movement of cultural and national character which existed in Slovakia before the end of the 18th cent ury," and expressed no doubts about the scholarly merits of Bernolak's linguistic works or Holly's poetic greatness. For this reason we feel that Bernolak's movement dzserves a more detailed ana'lysis in a separate chapter. SLOVAKIA 29 II Bernolak's Movement and Its Importance In Slovak Literature Bernolak's movement is concurrent with the period of Enlightenmen't and represents a final phase of Slovak literary and national renaissance whfoh began in the seventeenth century. This has been recognized even by the Marxist literary historians who state that "the process of linguistic Slovakization in Slovak literature was on the upgrade mainly since the seventeenth century" and that the "nation-forming tendencies in the Slovak language and culture were best expressed in the movement led by Anton Bernolak (1763-1813) especially in his endeavor to raise to the status of a literary language the Western Slovak dialect"(l\5). Berno'lak's movement lasted over 60 years and comprised three genera1tions of writers who in their Slovak or Latin writings expressed comparatively strong Slovak and Slovanic (Slaviic) national consciousness. According to Jaroslav Vlcek, professor at the University of Prague, the literature of Bernolak's school "developed in al'l directions: it had scholarly and popular writers in the field of theology, it had linguists an!d aiuthors of diclJionaries, translators and editors of antiquities, successful popular writers and generous supporters. In Jan Holly the Bernolak school got also its poeta laureatus"(16). And it had also its historians. Vlcek wrote these lines on Bernolak's movement in 1890 and contemporary research proves that he was not overestimating its importance. According to Marxist histori'a ns, ,~he Slovak Learned Society, founded in Trnava in 1792 with numerous branches in Central and Eastern Slovakia, and even outside Slovakia, numlbered in Slovakia alone about 500 registered members, mainly Catholic clergymen, of whom about 100 were active authors and writers(l 7). Among its members and generous supporters was .Mexander Cardinal Rudnay, Primate of Hungary, who besides writing many sermons and translating Cicero into Slovak assisted the Society financially. Professor of theology Canon Jur Palkovic translated the Bible into Slo- 30 SLOVAKIA vak and financed Bernola.k's and Holly's works. Professors of theologic faculties from Ostrihom, Trnava, Nitra, also were members of the Learned Society. P. J. Safa.rik, who later favored a sort of a Slo,v ak lite,r ary language based on a Czech grammar, wrote in his first work, published in 1826~118), regarding Bernola.k's school: "their growing zeal for the development and advancement of Slovak literature cannot be praised enough." And Professor Vlcek wrote in 1890 that "what in literatures of all Slavic peoples appeared as an expression of an awakened national consciousness and nationail indivilduality, it logically appeared also aimong Slovaks. The firslt to express that as a firm literary principle was A. Bernola.k." Bernola.k "was not a literary revolutionary," continues Prof. Vlcek, "but a consequent codifier of what grew and ripened before him over one hundred years in the writings of Catholic Slovaks as a linguistic fact",('19). Of course, Prof. Vlcek does not share the opinion of American symposia stating that "Bernola.k's attempts to est31blish a distinct Slovak literary language were not elaiborated linguistically," or that he tried "with indif.ferent success to create a written Slovak dia~ec't." On the contrary, in his Dejiny literatiiry slovenskej, Prof. Vlcek states that Bernola.k was well acquainted with the work done in the field of linguistics by predecessors such as Matej Bel and Pavel Dolefal, both from the first half of the 18th century, as well as wiith the tendencies of Catholic writers associated with the University of Trnava. There can ha11dly be any doubt that Bernola.k's movement means an important stage in Sfovak cultural and national development. The first manifestation of this new era in the Slovak national life was the publication of Bernola.k's work Disser'tation Philologic<rCritica de Literis Slavorum (1787) in which Bernola.k formulated the principles of the Slovak literary language. His formal directives for the introduction of the Slovak language into literature Bernola.k gave in the same yeair in his work Linguae Slavonicae per Regnum Hungariae Usitatae Compendiosa simul et facilis Orthographia. In 1790 he published in Latin his grammar of the new Slovak Literary language, Gramatica 31 SLOVAKIA Slavica, which later appeared in two German translations; and in 1791 was published his work on the etymology of Slovak words, Ethymologia Vocum Slavicarum. Bernolak's main work Slowar Slovenski, Cesko-Latinsko..:Nemecko-Uherski, was published (1825-1827) after Bernolak's death by Canon Jur Palkovic in six volumes, 530 pp. The work, which reads in English translation "A Dictionary of the Slovak, Czech, Latin, German and Hungarian Tongues," contained also phraseology, etymology and synonyms of the new Slovak literary language. Bernolak's works "gave a stimulus to the development of modern Slovak literature growing up directly from the living sources of the Slovak people," as admitte'd even by Marxist critics, and his movement "was, on the whole, in agreement with similar contemporary trends current among the Ukrainians, the Bulgarians, the Serbs, the Croats and the Slovenes." His "Dissertatio" caused "a revolution in the development of Slovak language," says I. Kotvan, "and at the same time led to a desirable national advancement in the ideo1ogical development of Slovak nationa I consciousness; it also hastened the foundation of the Slovak Learned Society in 1792 which grouped in its ranks all ardent Slovaks, en'l:!husiastic for Slovak culture, social and economic progress and for the political and national fate of Slovakia"(20). 1 Bernolak and the members of hi's Slovak Learned Society, among whom most prominent were Juraj Fandly (1754-1811), Jozef Ignac Bajza (1755-1836), Jan Holly (1785-1849), Juraj Papanek (1738-1802), Juraj Sklenar (1746-1790), .A!lexander Cardinal Rudnay, Canon Jur Palkovic, were faithful adherents of Enlightenment, sincerely attached to the Slovak people and working for its progress. Juraj Fandly was the leading organizer of the Society, author of popular educational writings and editor of a miscellany dealing with the history of the Slovaks (Compendiata Historiae Gentis Slavae - 1793) . J. I. Bajza wrote the first Slovak novel and a col'leotion of Slovak epigrams; J. Papanek is the author of Historia Gentis Slavae - DeRegno Regibusque Slavorum (1780) ; Juraj Sklenar is the 32 SLOVAKIA author of Vetustissimus Magnae Moraviae Situs (1784); Jan Holly is until now the greatest of Slovak poets who alone "created nearly all poetic genres: the epos, the elegy, the ode and the song, and in whose hanlds the cold form of antique poetry had warmth enough to express strongly the modern idea of national consciousness," as stated Prof. Vlcek in 1890. Actually, all writers of Bernolak's school expressed in their works strong national feelings and their views regarding Slavs, Slavic languages and the plaice of the Slavs in the world; this makes of them precursors of Kollar's and Safarik's ideas of Slavdom. Berno1ak himself regarded the Slavs as one nation with one language divided into "dia~ects" which conception was developed by P. J. Safarik in Geschichte der Slawischen Sprache und Literatur nearly 40 years later. In the introdu~tion to his Gramatica Slavica, published in 1790, Bernolak regarded the Slovak vernacular as one of the Sfavic dialects and urged his countrymen to use it as a literary medium in the same way as the Czechs, the Russians, the Croats and Poles used t heir respective vernaculars. Juraj Papanek in his Historia Gentis Slavae, Fandly in his Compendiata Historiae Slavae an'd in his other writings, and Holly in his poetic works, manirfested also fiery Slovak and Slavic consciousness and national feelings, so that we may see in Bernolak's movement not only a connecting link between his school and Safarik's and Kollar's conceptions of Slavdom, but also an organic and close relation with Stu.r's reform of the Slovak literary language and his nationalist movement. In this respect we can fully agree with the Marxist literc1ry historians that both movements "grew up from the same process, 1'rom the process of formaJtion of the Slovak nation and are but two different phases of Slovak cultural and national development:Q21). Wh:ile Bernolak's linguistic works substantially influenced the final form of Stu.r's reform of the Slovak literary language which accepted many 'linguistic elements, used in all parts of Slovakia only because there existed Bernolak's literary language before, ideologically Stu.r's group was influenced mainly by the epics of Jan Holly, poet laureate of Bernolak's school. SLOVAKIA 33 Stu,r himself acknowledged Holly's dominant influence on the formation of Slovak national ideology and so did until now the " nationalist" as well as the "Marxist" Slovak literary historians(22). Accordtng to Jaroslav Vlcek: "Holly means many things in Slovak literature. He achieved alone wha;t the Czech and the Hungarian poets of classicism worked on a'H togetherC23). For another literary historian "Holly has not been surpassed by any S,l ovak poet, and nowhere else is there to be found such depth of national consciousness and such glory. In crystallized form Holly vigorously enounced the modern idea of nationalism, and this already in the 1800's, and his unsurpassable expression of the national soul has made him and will continue t o make him the grea;test of the Slovak poets"(24). And he is so judged also by contemporary Marxist historians. "Holly is a great poet," says prof. A. Mraz, the main Marxist authority on Slovak literary history, " an:d a cultivated and excellent translator of antique poetry, who synthetized in his works an'tique influences with European Classicism and philosophy of Enlightenmen t. He awakened nationa1 consciousness of his countrymen combining Slavic and Slovak elements in his conception of the Slovak nation. His works prove that even in Bernolak's movement Slavic components were strongly represented. Slovak and Slav unite in harmoneous accord in Holly's ideology"~25). Holly deserves this praise and recognition not only for his own works but also for his masterful transiaJtions from practically all renowned poets from Virgil, Ovid, Theocritus, Horace to Homer. The first volume of his translations was published in 1824, the translation of Virgiil's Aeneid in 1828; these were highly commended even of Jungmann, Safarik and Niederle. After having enriched Slovak literatures by his translations, Holly composed in cfa:ssic mold anld with many overtones of 'bhe antique poetry his three epics in which he proved that his talent and erudition were outstanding and that the new Slovak literary language was rioh and flexible enough for complex poetic creations. At the same time he also demonstrated to the Slovaks and to the out side world thait the Slovak past was great and glorious and that there is, therefore, also a future for the Slovak people. 34 SLOVAKIA To achieve this, Holly created in his poetic works a new national ideology, anchored in the traditions of the Great Moravian Empire and in the cultural achievements of SS. Cyril and Methddius, the founders of Slovanic letters. In 1833 he published his Svatopluk, a heroic epic about the life and glory of the powerf.Ull ruler of Great Moravia, in twelve cantos. In 1835 his Cyrilo-Methodiada, a poetic account of the achievements of the Apostles of Slovaks, was published in Budapest in six cantos, and to complete the ima:ge of a heroic past of his people, Holly crea1~ed also an epic in seven cantos about a mythical forefather of the Slovaks, Slav, and in his Elegies he 'lamented over the desb-uction of the Great Moravian Empire, 'bhe first kingdom of the Slovaks, ruined by treachery, villainy, and perfidy. The national and ideological components of Holly's poetry are strong also in his Odes and Idylles (1835), which, together with his epics, a,wakened to life a new generation that broke with the past not only in linguistic division of Slovaks but also in cultural and political orientation. "At a time," says Mraz, "when the Slovaks mostly felt the need to strengthen their national ideology by historic consciousness, Holly came in a monumenta,1 way with his support." He created by his works not only a Slovak national poetry and ideology, but urging the Slovaks to regard their past with pride he revived the present and encouraged the Slovaks to look to the future with hope. Holly achieved this "w~t:h nothing more than a nonliterary, formless dialect at his disposa[ which he molded and shaped into a rich poetic language." His poetry was not much influenced by European pseudo-Classicism and contemporary Romanticism. He g.r ew up f<rom an antique culture and poetry, and ideologically only he interpreted . the feelings and aspirations of the Slovak people of the period oif Enlightenment and t he f.irst decades of Romanticism. While his contemporary Jan KoHar "wandered on the expansive meadows of Slavdom," Holly devoted his talents to building Slovak national consciousness, culture and ideology which made him a precursor anld: a spiritual leader also for the coming generation of C. Stt'.ir's na- SLOVAKIA 35 tionalist and romantic school. "HoHy's message lived also in the generation to come which refused his classicist forms but creatively clung to his ideological heritage," admits the Marxist literary historian A. Mraz, and adds that "Bernolak's movement triumphed in Holly's achievements and greatness; it found in his works the most creative and ideological culmination"(26). III Marxist Evaluation of Bernolak's Movement Unlike the contributors to American symposia who be1ittled A. Bernolak and his movement, Marxist literary historians write about Bernolak and his followers with high esteem. Although the works of the members of Bernolak's school and his Learned Societies clearly indica!te the tendency to reflect the national struggle and the awakening of a national consciousness among Slovaks - which is in conflict with the "Czechoslovak" tendencies of the Communist party - the Marxist literary historians were allowed to publish scores of books and studies on Bernolak and his movement. Among the first works which dealt with this period in a suvprisingly tolerant way was "A History of Slovak Literature" (Dejiny sfovenskej literatury) by Prof. A. Mraz, who for his services to the present regime in Slovakia was promoted to the rank of an "akademik" (academician). Other valuable works and studies were published by Dr. Imrich Kotvan and Jan Tiibensky, who apparently specializes in this period "ex offo." Kotvan's work Bernolakovci (1948) and Bibliografia Bernolakovcov (Bibliography of Bernolak's School) published in 1957, together with T. Ti'bensky's book J. Papanek-J. SklenarC27), also published in 1957, as well as a series of his stu!dies in periodi'caJs, give the impression that Marxist literary historians try to evaluate Bernolak's movement without the customary prejudice against Catholic writers, and that in many respects :they agree with the views expressed before by the "bourgeois and nationalist" scholars and literary historians (J. Vlcek, J. 36 SLOVAKIA Skultety, S. Krcmery, J. Kacka, A. A . Banik, C. Lepacek, S. Jurovsky, etc.) . This is evident especiaHy in Ti'bensky's controversy with Prof. Wollmann's uncritical deprecation of Bernolak's movement(28), but also in some recen :: studies of Mraz and in the new History of Slovak Literature, compiled by a " coHective" of younger historians under the direction of Prof. M. Pisut. In a comprehensive explanatory note to Kotvan's Bibliography, which on 400 pages gives an interesting picture of Bernolak's movement, we can read that the Marxist scholars "consider the second half of :the eighteenth and the first half od: the nineteenth century, which is the period of Bernolak's activities, "one of the interesting , not yet thoroughly investigated periods forming a milestone in Sfovak history"{29). In the opinion of Prof. A. Mraz, who still remains the main authority in Marxist literary history in Slovakia, Anton Bernolak not only reformed and cddiified the Sfovak literary language and its orthography, but also started a vast national and cultural movement based on a t radition m,ore tJhan a hundred years old. Mraz regards the activity which originated around the Catholic University of Trnava (1635) as a starting point for introducing Slovak vernacular as a literary medium and stresses that the first manifestation of the new era in Slovak national life was the publication of Cantus Catholici by Benedict Szollossi in 1655. "The book Cantus Catholid," says Mraz, "laid the foundation on whioh the language used by Slovak Catholic writers, was formed into an in\dependent Slovak literary language. CrystallizaJtion of the language, which Slovak Catholic writers used during the period of the University of Trnava (1635-1777) , progressed so far in accordance with the spoken language in Western Slovakia that, when Bernolak and his foHowers came, at the end of the 18th century, with the idea of an independent literary language, t hey merely codified, in many respects, a language used and domesticated among the Catholic Slovak writers of the preceding period"(30). Mraz also recognizes Bernolak's merits in the whole SLOVAKIA 37 of Slovak cultural life. "Bernolak did not stop at writing his s,c holarly works," says Mraz. "He used them to push ahead Slovak national and cultural life on new tracks, which he attained by his cu]tural and organizatory activities." According to Tibensky, who made some original research into this period, Bernolak's movement was "the largest organized movement of cultural and national character which existed in Slovakia before the end of the 18th century, and it undoubtedly played a progressive role in the Slovak naJtional development"1(®L). "There is no doubt whatsover," says Tibensky, "that Bernolak's literary language and his movement played a very important role in the Slovak national development. Their importance is far from being sufficiently explored and evaluated. Works published until now are merely the first step to the accomplishment of an imporitant task of Slovak scholarship." There is ndt, so far, much new in the Marxist writings on Bernolak's movement. The Marxist Academy of Sciences is merely compiling the scholaI"ly research which was going on for the last 25-30 years and in which scholars like A. A. Banik, C. Lepacek, S. Jurovsky, V. Gajdos and others, brought to light new manuscripts or additional information. 'Dhe Marxist literary historians, of course, at·tempt to give a new interpretation to what the "bourgeois" scholars said on Slovak literature, language, national consciousness and Slovak national aspirations. "While in the past !the researchers into the origin of Bernolak's movement and especialtly into its literary language considered in the first place ideological elements, for instance, the influence of the Counter-Reformation, the Marxist scholarship," says Ti1bensky, "endeavors to explain the origin of Bernolak's movement and of its literary medium in the context of the entire Slovak social and economic development in given centuries: it takes into account, in the first place, economic and pomico-cultural factors"(32). Ideological influences are considered by Marxist historians as seconldary in the formation of Bernolak's move- 38 SLOVAKIA ment. "The movement is an outstanding manifestation of 'the process of transformation of a feudal Slovak nationality into a modern bourgeois nation," conclu'des Tibensky. In view of this, Bernolak's movement is credited by Marxist historians also with the fact that, as a result of Bernolak's activities, "the process of the formation of the Slovak nation and cu~ture was entering a new stage, determined by the activities of r.. Stur (1815-1856), and by the creation, on the basis of a Central Slovak dialect, of the modern Slovak literary language"{G3). Prof. Eugen Pauliny, who apparently is regarded among contemporary Marxist Slovak phHologists as an authority on the history of the Slovak language, regards Bernolak's period as an important stage in the development of Slovak national life. "Bernolak's language and his conceptions of Slovak national life, conceptions in which his reform originated, mean an important milestone in Slovak nrubional development," says Pauliny in his "Dejiny spisovnej slovenciny" (A History of the Slovak Literary Language). "Bernolak's movement, even if represenlted only by Slovak Catholics, takes Slovak national individuality, in a clear and understandable formulation, as a fact and connects it with the whole of Slavdom in its contemporary as weH as historical context. As a tool of this ideology Bernolak brought his theoretically elaborated and practically tested Slovak literary language," continues Pauliny. According to Pauliny, Bernolak's language was not used only for religious purposes, as some Slavists assert. "There were in Bernolak's school also religious writings, but not of a polemic char8!Cter; they were didactic and, besides them, 'there was religious poetry and theological writings. However, the center of gravity of Bernolak's school lays in vafoable writings for the education of the large masses, and in poetry. Bernolak's language was a well elaborated literary language which the Catholic Slovaks useid for more than a ha:lf century, in fact, officially up to 1851, when unity was achieved in the literary language" (among CaJtholics and Protestants). From the philological point of view, Bernolak's re- SLOVAKIA 39 form was based not only on the language, written and spoken by the educated Slovak strata in Western Slovakia and created in the cultural center of Trnava, but also on the dia'l ect of Bernolak's native province Orava, which belongs to the cenltral Slovak dialectical areas('36). In his contribution to a volume "0 vzajomnych vz€ahov Oechov a Slovakov," published in 1956 by the Slovak Academy of Sciences, Pauliny states: "Bernola:k codified a language which can be traced in the writings of the middle-class, the lower nobility and educated Slovaks back to the 15th century, and this in both Ca!bholic an!d. Protestant writings" (3r7). As for the connection of Bernolak'is school with Stiir's group, Pauliny agrees with the other Marxist literary historians and philologists. Stu.r's reform, which is erroneously presented by some American Slavists as the beginilling of tJhe Slovak literary language (in this respect even Jakobson is wrong), in Pauliny's view, is but a "younger branch of Bernolak's school," and he adds: "In Bernolak's school c,ulminates the older phase of Slovak natio nal diwelopment, but simultaneously it means also the beginning of a new epoch a,nd is very closely connected with the develo;pmen,t of nrutional consciousness of Stur's period. Bernolak''s movement tbuilds upon the feudail Slwak national con\Sdousness of the li8th century, but at the same time this movement enounces and consciously fo11mulates , for the first time, the modem Slovak nation,alism. "We find in the writings of the most important members oif Bernolak's Learned Society, Bernolak, Fandly, J HoMy, a compl~tely different ideology from that of the clergy of t he Gouniter-Uleformation of the 1"7:th and 18th century. It is an ideology of Slowk ,n,ationalism as derined and 11.mderstood by the Enlightenment, and it evci.1ved in bhe writings of the most out.Sitanding members of this group, Fan.dly an'd Jlolly, into the ideology of a modern Slovak nation. Stu.r's group used it as a foundation and developed it int o a mor•e modem conception in accordance with contemporary Euro·p ean ideological trends." 1 • Stur himself admitted this in his "Narecia slovenskuo," writing: "Our Catholic brothers did exactly what we are doing now and intend to do; they desired to a,chieve what we are desiring to achieve; they were concerned in their hearts a:bout the same matter that we cherish in our hearts''(3-8). 40 SLOVAKIA We hardly need any more convincing proof that Sb1r's group considered Bernolak's group as "older co-fighters on the same ideological battlefield," concludes Pauliny. To sum up, we can safely say that Bernolak's work and his school were an important factor in Slovak cultural and lilterary development and as such they deserve more attention and more objective anlaysis by scholars in the field of American Slavic studies. On the other hand, Slovak scholars in the free world have a moral duty to correct the mi,sconceptions which crept into Slavic studies largely because of a lack of English written studies on Slovak culture other than those supplied by Slavists of Czech origin and the works by Slovaks mentioned below. REFERENCE NOTES: '1. Journal of Central European Affairs, University of Colorado, The American Slavic and East European Review, Columbia University Press, The Slavic and East European Journal, Ln<liana UnLversity, Slavic and East European Studies, Un1versity of Montreal, Canadian Slavonic Pape.rs, University of Toronto Press. 2. Besides books edited· by Kerner, Strakhovsky, Busek-Spul1ber, and S. H. Thomson-, there are many misconceptions al-so in works w,rit-ten or edited by Prof. J. S. Rloucek, namely in his Cemral Entern Europe, or Slavonic Encyclopedi·a, by Felix Gross and C. E. BJ.ack. 3. The thesis that Great l\furarvian writings and culture belong to the cu1tural heritage of Slovaks has been sUJpported by both ,n.ationalist and Marxist Slovak literary ,h istorians. Cf. in English Jioseph Skultety: Sketches From Slovak History, Middletown, Pa., 1930, p. 229; J. M. Kirschbaum: Slovakia - Nation At the Crossroads of Cerwtral E·urope; and in the Slovak la,n guage: Dej iny star sei slovenskej literatury by M,axxist historfans (JI. MisianLk, J. Minarik, M. Mich'aloova, A. Melichercilk), Bratislava,, 1008, p. 3120. ,4. Cf. Dmitry Cizevsky: Outline of Comparative Slavic Literatures, AmerLcan Academy of Arts and Scienees, Boston, Mass., 1952; Lvalil J. Krarnoris: Chrono1ogic.al Outline of Slovak Literature and History, Passaic, 1946; Peter P. Yurchak : The SloYaks, J . J. Lach, Pulblications, Whiting, Indiiana•, 1947; J'. M. Kirschlbaum: Slovakia: Nation At the Crossroads of Central E-u rope, p. 35-00. 5. See University Traditions in Slovakia in J. M. · Kirsch:baUJm's op. cit.; and Stephen J. Palickar's Slovakian Culture in the Light of History, The Hampshire Press, Cambrid·ge, Mass., 1954. 6. Cf. Slovak Literature Under the Soviet Impact in The Slavic and East EuT.opean Sltudies, Montreal, 1956, Part I, p. 4>:x54. 7. Published by Princeton University Press, 1943, 390 pp. A critical review from the Slovak poi.n-t of view see in Slovak Review, Vol. I, Nio. 2., by Ivan, J. Kra,rnoris. 8. Published by HarvaTd University Press, Cambridge, Mas•s .• SLOVAKIA 41 1949. Chapter on Slovak linguistics by A. Senn is more in line with scholarly research. 9. Published by University of Oalifornia Press, 1949. A critical review froon the Slovak point df view in quarterly Slovakiia, Middletown, Pa .. , Vol. v,v,r, by Philiip A. Hrobak. 10. P;u!blished by Mid,,European Stu<lies Ce,n,t er of the Free Europe Commi>ttee, Inc., New Yol'k, 1957. The chapter on Slovaik literaiture was wz,iflten by Czech writers H. Kucera and E. lfovtun, who are unknown in Slovak literary history. 'lil. American presentation of Slovak literature is strangely d<iffererut also from European evaluation as ev,i denced in the works: Ernest Denis: Le probleme de l'Autriche-Les Slovaques, Piaris, 1917; A. Fischel: Pa,nslavismus bis zum Weltkrieg, Stuttgart and• Berlin, 191•9; Bruno Meriggi, Storia delle letterature ceca e Slovacca, University of Florence, 195'9. 112. Of. J. J:~obeus: Vii:a Gentis Slavicae, published in '164Q; introduction to B. Szollossi's Cantus Catholici, pu1b li5hed in 16>55; D. Sinapius Horcicka, Neoforum Latino-Slovenicum, 1679; J. Piscatori-sFischer: De origine, inre ac utilitatae linguae slavonicae, pulblished in 1697; J . B. Magin: ·Murices .. sive Apologia, pulblished in 1728; S. Timon: Imago an,t ique Hunga,riae, 11735; J. Papanek: Historia gen•: is slavae, '1'7•80; J. Fandly: Compendiata Historiae Slavae, 17193. 13. See op. cit. by P. P. Yurt:hak, S. J. Palickar, I. J . Kramoris, as well as articles by C. Piotocek ifil; Slovak Review, by Philip A. Hro\bak in Slovakia, by E. Podikrivac!Jcy in Slovakia, Vol. m, 3, a,n d J. Pombsky's book K stemu vyrociu literarnej slovenciny (One Hundred Years of Literary Slovak), abrana Press, Scranlton, 1945, 290 pp. 'l><t. Cf. Prof. A. MTaz: Dejiny slovenskej literatury, S'1ovenska aikademia vied a umeni, Bratisla,va, 1948, Dejin.y star-lei slovenskej litel'a:u,ry, SA V, 1-959, Dejiny slovenskej Literatury, Osveta, Bratislava, 1960; as well as works by I. Kotvan, Jlan 'J1i1bens'ky, etc., quoted farther. 16. Cf. Dr. :Emrich Kotvan: Biblografia Bernolakovcov, Ma·tica sl-ovensika, Martin, 195'7', p. 403-404. 16. Cf. Jarosla;v Vlcek: Dejiny litera,t ury slovenskej, 1st edition, 1,890, second edition by .Miatica slovenska, Turc. Sv. Martin, 1923, p. 27-39, e tc. Prof. V'lcek's work is the first aicademic history of Slo;vak liternture and as such was incomplete. His views were, nevertheless, accepted by ma•n y contemporary histori-ans. Prof. V'lceik was born in Slovakia, but his main work is A History of Czech Literature. As a professor at the University of Prague he changed some of his views in favor of the official "Czechoslovak" thesis. 17. Cf. Dr. Imrich Kotvan, op. cit. p. 403-404. ·1.8. Geschichte der Slaiwischen Sprache und Literatur nach alien Mundar-ten, Offen, 1826, p. 373-300. ·w. Qp. cit. p 32-34. 20. Cf. limrich Kotvan: Bernol·a kovci, Spolok sv. Vojtecha, Trnaiva, 1'948, p. 4. '21. Cf. J·a n T~bensky's inrtrod-uc-tion to I. K,otvan's mbliografia Bernolaklovcov, p. 7-9. 22. Of. J. M. Kirschlbaum: l!udovit Stiur and His Place in the Sliavic World, Slavistica No. 32, Winnipeg, 1956. Alccordfog to M. Pisut, a Marxist expert on Sttir's period, the fina-1 sta•ge of Slovak eMorts to build an independent national culture had its roots in t,he wol'ks· of 42 SLOVAKIA P. J. Safm-ik, Jan Holly, Kollar, a1nd Kuzmar..y. Mraz stresses Holly's significan:Ce in connection wLth Stur's movement. Cf. Ceskoslovenske prednasky pro IV. Medzinarodni sjezd slavisitu v Moskve, Priaha, 1958, p. 3313-345 and 4l2:l-46~. 23. Op. cit. p. 80. 124. Cf. Jioz,ef ~acka: Dejin,y literatury slovenskej, Rufomberok, li92L, pUJblished in English translation by the Nation·al News, Pittsburgh, Pa., '119441, quoted from P. P. Yurchak, op. cit. p. 103Jl.04. '25. Of. his artfole in Ceskoslovenske prednasky pro IV. sjezd sla• vistu v Moskve. 26. ]bidem ,27. Cf. Jian T,ilbensky, J. Papanek-J. Sklenar: Obrancovia slovenskej narodnOS11i v 18. sitoroci, Osveta, Martin, 1958. 28. Of. K problemu hodnotenia bernolactiny a bernolakovskeho hnutia, Historicky cas()fpis, ViJ!I, 4, 1'959, p. 557~576. Tilbensky proves thia,t many views of Prof. WoUma,n n, in his Slovanstvi v ja11:ykovelite• rarnim obro11:eni Slovanu, Praha, 1'!)58, are prejudilced against S<Iovaiks and particularly a•g ainst Catho1ics. 29. Op. cit., p. 403-405. 3'0. Op. cit., p, 416-1108. :n. Historicky casqpis, ViII, 4, 574. 32. B~bUograd'ia bernolakoVICOV, p. 8. 3'3. ]bidem, p. 404. 34. Published: in '19418. 35. Eug,e n Paulin:y: Dejiny spisovnej slovenciny, p . 65. 3·6. ]bLdem, p. 63. 37. p. 111'3. 38. Eugen Pawliny: 0 vzajomnych vzt'ahov Cechov a Slovakov, Slovenska AkadiemLa Vied, Bra1t;islav,a, 1956; pp. 1)1.3, 11115. 3•9. Among periodicals pulblished •b y Universities it is only the Slavic and Ea·Slt European Studies (University of Miontreal, Quebec, Canada) which sy,steana:tically comments Slovalk literary and cultur,al topics in an objective mar.iner. ANONYMOUS LETTERS, wri.tten, to Red leader,s in Slo,vak,ia, are causing some concern to tihe regime. 'I1he Bra1tiislav,a RJadii,o recently reminded its listeners that writers of .s uch le•uters, if revealed, ar,e in for stiff filnes and long jail sentences. T·he reaction: more and still more anonymous letters to worry the collaborators of Red Prague. • • • IN THIE WOR<KERS' PAR.4.DISE, according to Radio Bratisfava: SI,ovakiia is behind in its milk quota 6,600,666 liiters (4'18-61,); the Trebisov district owes !!he S<tate 1,0815,000 lirter,s of milk this year (,3Jl0,6l'; Dolny Kubin, Cadca, Prievidza, and Zilina did n-Olt produce even a deciliter per COIW (3-9-61); in Braltislav,a (S.tiree't of the Defenders of Peace) women waited for meat from 2:00 to 6:3,0 p. m. (3~20.,61); there is a· great abUJnd'ance o:f feed for cattle and calves, 'but it's all r,ot,ten; the people work the ·farms, but ste,al over haif the prodootion (~20-GL); we have no tires, 'i>ut why,? I heard the explanation that t he reason, for this is the war in Lao-s (2-0.11,61 1) .  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Misconceptions of American Slavists About Slovak Literature Description An account of the resource J. M. Kirschbaum, Ph.D.<br />Slovakia, Vol. 11, No. 1 (33), March-June 1961<br />pp. 22-42<br /><ol type="I"><li>American Slavists and Slovak Literature</li> <li>Bernolák's Movement and Its Importance In Slovak Literature</li> <li>Marxist Evaluation of Bernolák's Movement</li> </ol> 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-June 1961 SNK https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/ebc83039c98c623e2ca1b8866838a176.pdf 2ba2ac3809f4d9acc9d737f9f01a7379 PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA 25 MISCONCEPTIONS OF AMERICAN SLAVISTS ON THE SLOVAK LANGUAGE Joseph M. Kirschbaum, Ph.D. I Misconceptions of American Slavists on Slovak literature which have been discussed here previously <1 > had been caused to a great extent by the confusion of views regarding the Slovak language. The confusion was created, on the one hand, by Slavists and literary historians who failed to draw a proper distinction between the native or spoken language of the Slovaks and their written or literary language, which, as we have seen, was first the Old Church Slovanic, afterwards t he Latin language, then Biblical Czech, used mainly by the Slovak Protestant minority, and then the literary Slovak based on Slovak western dialects, and finally the revised present form, based on central Slovak dialects. On the other hand, the misconceptions have been intentionally spread by some Czech Philologists and literary historians who were influenced by political views and aspirations, which the American Slavists accepted without the necessary caution required in scholarly works. As a result, we find in many American symposia on the Slavic peoples or in works on philology and Slavic languages either the Czech thesis that the Slovak language is merely a dialect of the Czech, or that Slovak became a literary language only at the beginning or in the second half of the nineteenth century. We also find that the sources of information or reference used by American Slavists are rather scarce and obsolete and that the subject has been treated by scholars who hardly had an opportunity to be thoroughly acquainted with the history and development of the Slovak literary language and its position among Sla-wc languages. Before pointing out the misconceptions in American symposia and surveys of Slavic languages, we may perhaps say that the claim that Slovak is but a dialect of the �26 SLOVAKIA Czech language was not based on facts of history or philology. It was a biased opinion of those who tried to give a scholarly basis to political aspirations denying to the Slovaks the right to their independent national and cultural life. And there rest also the origins of the erroneous thesis that Slovak began to be used a·s a literary language only from the second half of the nineteenth century. In the views of European Slavists, including the Russian and Czech philologists, it is clear, as we shall see, tha't the Slovak language is by every right of its origin and development an independent tongue, having its rightful place of equality among Slavic languages. And it has also been accepted that Slovak has been used as the language of literature from the sixteenth century, and was codified before the end of the eighteenth century. Slovak philologists and linguists (Bernolak, Safarik, Czambel, Skultety, Bartek, Stanislav, Novak, Pauliny) rejected, during the last two centuries, Czech theories and looked for linguistic criteria to determine the origin and the main characteristics of the Slovak language. They reviewed the historic forms of the Slovak tongue and by scholarly methods and comparative study of Slavic languages they arrived at conclusions which were ultimately accepted by the present-day Czech as well as other Slavic philologists and linguists. Misconceptions of American Slavists refer, as we have said, to the relation of the Slovak and Czech, to the history of the Slovak literary language and to the role of foreign languages in Slovak literature. In this respect we -read not without surprise that even the well-known Roman Jakobson helped to spread the erroneous views. In his study Slavic Languages, he writes: ''Toward the middle of the same (i.e., the 19th) century, the Slo¥aks, who had used literary Czech (somewhat adapted to their own habits) inaugurated their own literary language based on the central Slovak dialect but patterned after standard Czech" <2>. We shall also see that even Czech philologists recognize today that Slovaks "-inaugurated" their own literary language long before the middle of the 19th century, and �SLOVAKIA 27 that we can speak only about a reform of the Slovak literary language in the nineteenth century <3 >. Secondly, the 19th century reform, linked with the name of r..udovit Stur, was "not based on the dialect of any single area, but represented a kind of "koine" ('Cultural Slovak), based on the central Slovak dialects, eschewing features from both the eastern and western dialects <4 >. As for the usage of the Czech language, "Czech was sporadically used (with certain local modification) for administrative and still more occasionally, literary purposes," says correctly R. Auty <5 >. The reasons for this will be explained later. Prof. Alfred Senn, in Strakhovsky's Handbook of Slavic Studies, gives a more detailed and more ela:borate description of the Slovak literary language. His classification of Slovak is certainly correct, but we could hardly agree with all parts of his definition. Prof. Senn says: "Slovak ... forms a connecting link with the South Slavic Slovenian and is more archa,ic than Czech. Otherwise differen:ces between Czec.h and Slovak are not very great. Slovak became a literary language at the beginning of the nineteenth century .. . Czec.h and Slovak form the Czechoslovak group" <s>. In the same symposium another contributor, Otto Radl, admitted that "as early as 1635 in Trnava books were printed in different Slovak dialects,," but he states that it was only in 1844, in the period of Romanticism, that "the therefore common written language, the Czech, was being replaced by a newly-originated Slovak literary language." According to Radl "this ·m ovement had been begun at the end of the 18th century by the learned Slovak philologist Anton Bernolak who published several works in Latin in which he tried to show that the Slovaks were a separate nation and that they should therefore use thir own distinctive written language based on dialects spoken in western Slovakia" <7 >. A similar version can be found in Prof. S. Harrison Thomson's book "Czechoslovakia in European History," who says that "a deliberate effort to substitute for the written Czech then in use in Slovakia a language based upon a local dialect came from the "Catholic camp" only in 1790, when Anton Bernolak published a Grammatica slavica. However, �28 SLOVAKIA Prof. Thomson asserts, that " about the only followers Ber nolak had were Catholic writers, and even among them the vogue for his grammar and dictionary soon died out ... The year 1834-1835 is usually given," concludes Thomson, "as the date of the rise of written Slovak, although strictly speaking, Stur did not make his first formal declaration until 1856" ( R ) . In Prof. Robert J. K erner's symposium Czechoslovakia and in V. Busek-N. Spulber's Czechoslovakia Under Communism, we find only slightly modified or re-worded versions of the theses mentioned above. "Catholic Slovaks under Bernolak tried to create with indifferent success a written Slovak dialect," we read in Kerner's symposium <9 >, and Busek-Spulber's symposium gives the following genesis of the Slovak literary language: ... "the firs,t attempts were made (aside from earlier sporadic ventures) to establish a distinct Slovak literary language in the last decade of the 18th century by Anton Bernolak (1762-1813) who selected the western Slovak dialects as a basis of the new literary medium; his suggestions, not elaborate linguistically, did not take permanent hold. "The decisive step towards the establishment of a Slovak litera.ry language was undertaken through the initiative of the Protestants. tudovit Shir selected the central Slovak dialect for the Slovak literary medium. Beginning in the 1840's, several poets followed Shir and usEd the new literary language with great skill" r 10 J. This version admits "sporadic ventures to establish a distinct Slovak literary language" before the last decade of the 18th century, but considers Bernolak's "suggestions not elaborated linguistically" and credits the Protestants with the merits, while Radl says the opposite! All these misconceptions seem to be due, as we have mentioned before, in the first place to the uncritical acceptance of the politically motivated thesee of Czech or at the Prague University educated Slavists. In the second place, the use of sources either long before superseded by new works or unilaterally selected, might have misled those Slavists who were trying to be scholarly objective. In this respect even Prof. R. Jakobson's bibliography leaves much to be desired. We find in his bibliography only four works, two written by Slovaks and two by Czechs, �SLOVAKIA 29 but none of them dealing with the history of Slovak language or with the problem of its relation to the Czech language. To a Slavist of Jako'bson's renome the fact could not be unknown that already Paul. J. Safarik in 1826 wrote on the Slovak language and Slovak literature as being distinct from the Czech or other Slavic languages and literatures. Consequen tly the Slovaks could not "inaugurat e" their own literary language "toward the middle of the 19th century." Sources used by Prof. Senn, who undoubtedl y tried to be objective, were better selected, but three of them favor the Czech thesis of "one Czechoslov ak unit." He shows in his literature and references the following books: J. Victorin: Gramatik der Slowakisch en Sprache, 4th edition, Budapest, 1878; K. Meznik: Die Slowakisch e Spaltung, Euphorion, 1927; R. J ak~bson: Sur fhistoire et sur Jes relations mutuelles du tcheque et du slovaque, Le Monde Slave, XIV, 1937, 353-366; V. Vazny: Slovak Dialects, Ceskoslovens ka vlastiveda, Vol. III, 1934. Otto Radl, who contributed to Strakhovsk y's Handbook of Slavic Studies a chapter on Slovak literature, did not show in his bibliograph y any work in Slovak or in foreign languages which he used or in which the reader could check Rad-l's opinions or complete his knowledge. Closing our remarks we perhaps may say that not many American Slavists who wrote during the post 40 years on the Slovak language and literature speak or write Slovak or ever read Slovak literary works in the original. Some of them merely rephrased mistaken views published by Czech scholars and politicians; and several contributio ns to American symposia on Slovaks were written by Czechs. Reviewing the names of the Czech contriibutor s we could not, however, say that any of them made his name as as expert on Slovak language or literature before coming to the United States. II LITERARY SLOVAK AND THE SLAVIC LANGUAG ES Scholarly studies of phonology, etymology, lexicology and grammar show that the Slovak language is distinct �30 SLOVAKIA from any other Slavic tongue. Even though this was not so clear and evident to Slavists of the 19th century when philology was in its infancy and used primitive methods, Slovak philologists and linguists always maintained this point of view. After a century of clashes and discussions between the Czech linguists and - first the Slovak Catholic erudites who began to replace the Latin with Slovak already in the seventeenth century, and from the 1840's a-lso with the Protestant leaders - the Slovak language has been properly classified as the real and original national tongue of the inhabitants of Slovakia since the dawn of history. The historical development of Slovakia and geographical factors account for the fact that the Slovak language not only conserved many archaic forms and expressions common to all Slavs, but, remaining for centuries only a spoken vernacular of the people, it was affected merely by the influence of neighboring Slavic peoples. When it was codified, this happened in the era of the revival of Slovanic peoples, and the Slovak cultural and political leaders saw to it that the Slovak language might conserve its central position and Slavic purity. Kollar himself argued, and some Slavists of that time accepted his idea, that the Slovak language "stands grammatically and geographically in the center of all Slav dialects," and the Tatra mountains are the "nest and cradle of all Slavs," which, of course, the modern science of history, archeology and ethnography challenges. However, the central position of the Slovak language, geographically or linguistically, is accepted to a great extent even by modern philology. Slovak is more archaic than Czech, which in turn is more archaic than Polish. Since Russian is considered the least removed from the primitive Slavic prototype, both Slovak and Russian are the most archaic and nearest to the common primitive Slavic. In fact, the Slovaks - either educated or common _people ..:..:_ do not experience much difficulty in communicating in Slovak with Poles, Ukrainians, Czechs, Russians, or Slovenes and Croats, as has been proven on the American. Con- �SLOVAKIA 31 tinent, since basica:lily there are no great dif.ferences among the Slavic languages, and, in the case of the Slovak language, history and geography made it close not only to Pole and Czech, but also to Ukrainian and South Sfavic Slovenian and Croat. Slovak intellectuals of the nineteenth century read not only Polish or Czech poets and writers in the original, but also in Russian and Ukrainian, Croat and Slovenian. Modern scientific and literary development drifts the twelve Slavic langua,ges apart. Nevertheless, even if we cannot agree with the nineteenth century poet that, . "with the Slovak language you may the earth's four corne;rs travel," the fact remains that Slovaks are able to communicate in their own vernacular with the majority of Slavic peoples. Linguistic analysis of the fundamental roots of the Czech and Slovak languages and a comparative study of their developments showed that the Slovak language never was a part of the Czech or so-cailled "Czechoslovak" language. If we accept the thesis, supported by Trubecko <m, that in the ninth century the Old Sfavonic still was the common tongue of the Slavs with a unified phonology, and that from the ninrth century different dialects _· developed into distinct Slavic languages, there is no historical or philological reason why it should not be claimed that at the time of disintegration of the Old Slavonic and of the rise of new independent Slavic languages, Slovak was among them and that its development cannot be identified with that of the Czech language. This thesis is strengthened also by the fact that the Slovak territory was annexed by Hungary after the collapse of Great Moravia, and, hence the only contact the Slovaks had with Czechs, was through Moravians who have continued to speak a Slovak dialect <12 > in spite of the pressure of the Czechs from the West, and to the present time they have retained their own phonological structure. The relation between the Czech and Slovak languages became a matter of controversy because of political a:·s pirations of some Czech politiciap.s and scholars and not because of philological reasons. As early as the 16th century, �32 SLOVAKIA Vavrinec Benedikti of Nedozery (1555-1615), a learned Slovak philologist and professor at the Prague University, exhorted his Slovak countrymen to cultivate their native tongue. He wrote his appeal in a grammar he composed for Czechs, which makes it clear that already for him there were two different languages ( l 3 >. From the si:x;teenth century on, there are numerous proofs that Slovak erudites, with a few exceptions, considered the Slovaks as one of the "tribes" of the Slavic nation, but speaking their own "dialect" different from the Czech, Polish or Russian, using the word dialect for our term language. Slovak was used not only in homiletic writings but also in scholarly works and poetry especially since the middle of the 17th century around the University of Trnava (founded 1635). At the end of the 18th century, Anton Bernolak only codified, in his linguistic works Dissertatio Orthographia, Gramatica slavica, and in his huge pentalingual Dictionary, a language in use for more than a century <14>. The well-known Slavist P. J. Safarik, and initiailly also Jan Kollar, were aware of the fact that there had been a Slovak language and Slovak literature, different from the Czech or the other Slavic languages and literatures. Safarik gave testimony to it in his Geschichte der Slawischen Sprache und Literatur in alien Mundarten (1826), and when some Czech leaders reproached Nm for his s·cholavly objectivity, Safarik indignantly announced that he would go even farther in stressing the differences than he did in his book <15 >. Jan Kollar was origina:lly also instrumental in preparing Stur's reform and later changed his mind and became an advocate of a common literary lamguage with the Czechs (which he called "old Slovak") because of reasons which Slovak literary historians avoid to discuss. The great poet of Pan-Slavism had also some human deficiencies like very high personal pride and a terrible temper, and took it as an insult that Stur and his group dared to do something in Slovak cultural life without consulting him or without his patronage ( lG>. This "crimen lesae majestatis" moved Kollar to oppose Stur's reform and the final acceptance of the Slovak �SLOVAKIA 33 literary language also by Slovak Protestants. Safarik did not change his scholarly views which he expressed in his Geschichte, but being employed in Prague and financially supported by Czech patriots, he tried to convince his Slovak countrymen that they should not move too far from the Czechs and suggested that the Czech should be adjusted to the Slovak linguistic phenomena and peculiarities. "The will of the Slovak groups to assert their own national individuality was, however, too strong," as admitted by Radl <17 >, and Stu.r's reform was victorious over Kollar's protests and Safarik's advices, because it was in line with the linguistic facts and centuries long Slovak national development. The reasons for the sporadic use of the Czech language for administrative and partly a:lso for literary purposes (mainly by the Slovak Protestants) have been recently reconsidered by several "Marxist" philologists and literary historians. There are at least three theories on the penetration of the Czech language into the Slovak territory. One refers to the continuation of relations between Slovaks and Moravians (who adopted the Czech language) from the time of Great Moravia, which relations survived the collapse of that state and developed between the Moravian cultural center Olomouc and Slovak religious centers. More acceptable and also more elaborated is the theory ascribing the use of the Czech language to the fact that Czech was a sort of diplomatic language and that Czech clerks were used at certain periods (the XV-XVIth century) not only in Slovak territory but also in Hungary and Poland, in state and city administration na>. In Slovakia, the use of Czech, adapted to local dialects, survived because of the Reformation which penetrated among Slovaks from Bohemia with the Bible and religious books written in the old Czech, and because during the Counter-Reformation "many Protestant Czechs found shelter in Slovakia and even printed books in Czech for the purpose of smuggling them into Bohemia" <19 >. Settled in Slovakia, the Czech refugees tried to keep all Slovak Protestants linked to Bohemia by language also in s ecular writings. Being a minority, the Protestants looked �34 SLOVAKIA to the Czechs first for he1p in religious and later also in literary and political matters <20 >. Around 1840, it became clear, however, to the leaders of the Protestant minority in Slovakia that the Czech language was not intelligible to the common people, that their writings could not reach the Slovak population and for reasons which r... Stur explained in his Narecia slovenskuo and other writings, they agreed with Catholics, on the reform, which based the literary language on the central Slovak dialects, and on the exclusive use of Slovak in Slovak literature. Stur's reform, by which the Slovak language was finally esta·b lished as a literary medium of all Slovaks, "has been accepted by the Slovak intelligentsia within a very short space of time" as correctly stated by Auty. By this reform, which received its final linguistic form in the grammar of a Catholic priest, Martin Hattala, the peculiar situation of bi-lingualism in modern Slovak literature was changed. As it is accepted now also by foreign Slavists, the first literary language (or language of literature) used by Slovaks was the Old Church Slavonic <21 >, and the Slovaks rightly claim the writings of the Great Moravian period as a part of their cultural heritage. Then for centuries Slovaks used Latin also in secular writings; and from the 16th century Slovak Catholics began to replace Latin with the Slovak vernacular, which Slovak Protestants replaced with Czech, adapted to local use. During all these centuries, the Slovak people spoke, of course, their own Slovak dialects which developed from the Old Slavonk after its disintegration into the modern Slovak language. History of the Slovak language and history of Slovak literature began at the same time, in the IXth century, but in literature Slovaks used various media (Church Slavonic, Latin, Czech and Slovak), while their native tongue was used in daily life until it was lifted to the position of a literary medium, which happened more or less at the same time at which other central European peoples began to use vernacular for literary purposes. On the position of Slovak among Slavic languages: foreign and Slovak philologists expressed various opinions .. �SLOVAKIA 35 V. J agic in his book Entstehungsgeschichte der Kirchenslawischen Sprache wrote: "in Great Moravia people must have spoken in the ninth century a tongue which in its fundamentals was identical with the Slovak language of today." J. Dobrovsky admitted that certain linguistic phenomena linked Slovak with South Slavic languages <22 >; and S. Czamlbel el~borated linguistic~lly a theory to prove that the questions as to whether Slovak is closer to western Slavic or to the southern Slavic group of languages deserved to be reconsidered by philologists. Stur viewed the position of the Slovak language as a central clearing house mainly because he was conscious of many of its similarities with the Slavic tongues of the East, West, North, and South, especially noting the South Slavic dialects with which Slovak came into intimate contact during long centuries <23 >. III VIEWS OF CANADIAN AND EUROPEAN SLAVISTS Among European Slavists, including present-day Czech philologists, the erroneous views regarding the relation between Slovak and Czech, and the origin of the Slovak literary language, have been mostly corrected. Modern techniques in linguistics have thrown new light on the subject and have been instrumental in giving us modified views that are advanced far beyond the htasty unwarranted conclusions of the amateur philologists or linguists influenced by political aspirations. For truth's sake we have to point out that also on the American continent we find Slavists who expressed correct views, and some of them did that before Slavic studies acquired the 'prominence which they enjoy now in the United States and in Canada. The well-known Canadian Slavist, Prof. W. Kirkconnell, wrote, for example, already in 1940, that the differences between Czech and Slovak are about as great as those between the similarly related languages, Dutch and German. "I have," says Kirkconnell, "on my shelves Miroslav KaJal's Slovak-Czech Dictionary (published in 1924), in which there are 35,000 Slovak words that were �36 SLOVAKIA apparently unintelligible to a Czech and hence required definition" <24 >. Prof. Roman Smal-Stocki in his paper Discrimination and Bias in Two UNESCO Publications raised his voice against treating Slovak ,a nd Czech "as one unit." "From the linguistic point of view," says Prof. Sma.'l-Stocki, "it is inadmissible to mix state units with existing languages and to treat 'as one unit' Czech and Slovak, because the linguistic fact is that in existence are two separate units, Czech and Slovak" <25 >. Among European Slavists, the Polish scholar T. LehrSplawinski came with a new approach to the history of the Slovak literary language. He dates back the beginnings of the Slovak literary language to the IXth century which view has been held also by some other Slavists in recent years. "The beginnings of the literary language in Slovakia are connected with the period of activities of ConstantineCyril and Methodius in the Moravian state," says LehrSplawinski. "As the whole of Slovakia was, without any doUJbt, a part of that state, and the important centres of its political and cultural life were situated on the Slovak territory, writings in the old Church-Slavonic language must have been undoubtedly developed among the Slovaks in the last quarter of the IX th century" <26 >. R. Auty, from the University of Cambridge, in the pahe presented to the VIIIth Congress of the Inwhich per ternational Federation of Modern Languages and Literatures at Liege, August 1960, corrected misconceptions on Bernolak and Stur and their reforms. "Anton Bernolak codified in 1870" a language which was already in use, and urrlike the American S1avists who minimized Bernolak's importance, Auty writes that "in the following fifty or sixty years a considera:ble number of literary and other works were published or written in this (Bernolak's) form of Slovak. The remarkable extent of the literature published in Bernolak's language has recently been revealed," says Auty, " by I. Kotvan, Bibliografia bernolakovcov, Martin, 1957"<27 >. The Czech language was, according to Auty, "spora- �SLOVAKIA 37 dically used in Slovakia (with certain local modification) for administrative and, still more occasionally, literary purposes." The reasons for this sporadic usage of Czech for administrative and "more occasionally" also for literary purposes, were explained by Auty only indirectly. He mentions that "since the Reformation the Czech had been the language of the Lutheran scriptures and Church Services in Slovakia," but he didn't say that as a result of this situation t he biblical Czech was used by the Slovak Protestant minority also in secular writings in the same way as the Catholics used the Latin, and that Czech was used for administrative purposes also in Hungary and Poland, the reason being the Monarchy, in which all those countries were included. Stur, Protestant though he was, acted against what he regarded as an unnatural linguistic situation which had been brought about by the hazards orf history. "His reaction was radical," says Auty, and gives a detailed picture of the changes which were brought about in the Slovak language by the agreement of the Catholics and Protestants in order to end bi-lingualism in Slovak literature. Auty's views on the reform of the Slovak literary language which took place in the 1840's, are fairly in line with the historical truth and recent research. .A!ccording to him "Catholic and Protestant Slovaks agreed to accept a new written form of their language for all purposes; this had been worked out by r... Stur in discussion with other Slovak intetlectual leaders in the period 1842-44 and was somewhat modified by M. M. Hodza and M. Hattala in subsequent years." Stur "on more than one occasion praised the work of Bernolak, and, above all, the poetry of Jan Holly and fully accepted one element of Bernolak's linguistic reform - the orthographical system" - continues Auty. "The general pattern of the language, as fashioned by Stur, was in accordance with the needs of Slovak Society and has proven itself - and Stur's genius - by its survival" <28 >. The contri-butors to the Encyclopedia Britannica published some correct and some incorrect views, but they �38 SLOVAKIA grasped the essential points of difference between the Czech and Slovak. "The Czech, as spoken and written today in Bohemia, diverges consideraibly from Slovak," says the Encyclopedia. "The disagreement is least marked in vocwbulary but ap• pears prominently in the phonetics; in particular the itacism so distinct a characteristic of Czech, is non-existant in Slovak, which has preserved the fuller diphthongs (ia, ie, iu, etc.) of the Slavonic languages; a further smaller point is the dz, from common Slav dj, is used (as in Polish) where Czech has z. In one point only is there a divergence which goes back beyond the time of the common ancestry of the two languages; S1ovak has not developed the f, which is characteristic of Czech and in that language occurs since the beginning of its literature. The Slovak palatalization of n, d, t and 1 aifter e, which does not occur in modern literary Czech, is a further point of disagreement, although this woU'.ld not be o:bvious from Slovak spelling which does not find it necessary to distinguish by diacritics; consonants are always softened in this position." The main contriibutor to the Encyclopedia, Prof. C. A. Macartney, refers also to a better selected bibliography than American Slavists and points out to the relation of Slovak with other Slavie languages as follows: "The dialectical development," says Macartney, "shows some characteristics identical with those in South Slavonic and Russian. Not everywhere, for example, have C.S. u and i been confused, and instead of the e, which is the norma:l result in Slovak as in Czech, we find in Eastern dialects an o from the u, thus agreeing with Russian. An agreement with South Slavonic is the occurrence of raz- and la- and lo-. Because of these and other phonetic and morphological reasons the grammarian Czambel, a keen opponent of the identity of Czech and Slovak, has asserted that Slovak should rightly be associated with South Slavonic"' 29 >. On Slovak literature Macartney says: "Slovak literature, which previously had only a local importance, bid fair to take a worthy place alongside that of its better known partner. The Survey of Modern Slovak Literature, by S. �SLOVAKIA 39 Krcmery, in Vol. vii, No. 19, pp. 160-170, of the Slavonic Review (London), gives useful literature statistics and a good account of the literature of the present century." His Bibliography shows the following works: Dictionaries J. Loos: Worterbuch der Slovakischen, Ungarischen and Magyarischen Sprache (Budapest, 1871) ; M. Kalal, Slovensky Slovnik, etc (1924), written for Czechs, is most valuable as dialect words are included. Grammar - S. Czambel: Rukovat spisovnej reci slovenskej (1919). This Handbook of Literary Slovak is the standard work. Czambel's other works, e.g.,Slovaci a ich rec, (Buda:pest 1903) and Slovenska rec a jej miesto v rodine slovanskych jazykov (1906) are important for the dialects, but are ,biased; C. Dixon has written a Slovak Grammar For English Speaking Students (Pittsburgh, 1896). IV "MARXIST" CONCEPTIONS ON LITERARY SLOVAK AND THE ORIGINS OF THE SLOVAK LANGUAGE From the published works of the "Marxist" philologists and literary historians it is obvious that the Czech theses on the Slovak language, on the history of the Slovak literary language, and on the function of some foreign languages (Czech, "Czechoslovak") in Slovak literature, which theses were intended to support the political theory of a single "Czechoslovak" nation, have been definitely buried <30 >. In this respect, some contemporary works of Czech philologists helped to support the scholarly conclusions which have long been defended by the Slovak philologists. Particularly noteworthy of the Czech school is the work of the University Professor A. Dostal, and of the Slovak school, Professor Eugene Pauliny's Dejiny spisovnej slovenciny (History of Literary Slovak, Bratislava, 1948) , and Andrew Mra.z's Dejiny slovenskej literatury (History of Slovak Literature, Bratislava, 1948), as well as the pa'pers read at the Moscow Fourth International Congress of Slavists in 1958. In this respect, the paper of Professor Pauliny on bilingualism in the history of the Slovak literary language de- �40 SLOVAKIA serves particular attention. Pauliny tries to explain the function of the Czech language in Slovakia in the XVth and following centuries on the basis of social and economic phenomena and changes. He has arrived, nevertheless, at the same conclusions as the philologists who d'id not apply "Marxist criteria" in phi'lology, i.e., that the Czech language was a foreign language in Slovakia and could not withstand competition of the Slovak vernacu1ar when the Slovak ethnicum evolved in its national consciousness. Literary Slovak won out despite the fact that the Protestant minority, predominantly of Czech origin, tried to maintain it even in the XIXth century when the Slovak literary language was established by the Catholic majority (80 % ) over a century ago. The relation between the Czech and Slovak is, therefore, according to Pauliny, that of bilingua'lism. In his contribution to a volume "0 vzajomnych vzt:ahoch Cechov a Slovakov," published in 1956 by the S1lovak Academy of Sciences, Pauliny states: "Bernolak codified a language which can be traced in the writings of the middleclass, the lower nobility and educaited Slovaks back to the 15th century, and this in both Catholic and Protestant writings." As for the connection of Bernolak's school with Stur's group, Pauliny agrees with the other Marxi,s t literary historians and philologists. Stur's reform, which is erroneously presented by some American Slavists as the beginning of the Siovak literary language (in this respect even Jakdbson is mistaken), in Pauliny's view, is but a "younger branch of Bernolak's school." In the opinion of Professor A. Mraz, who still remains the main authority in Marxist literary history in Slovakia, Anton Bernolak reformed and codified the Slovak literary language and its orthography. Mraz regards the activity which originated around the Catholic University of Trnava (1635) as a starting point for introducing Slovak vernacular as a literary medium and stresses that the first manifestation of the new era in Slovak national life was the publication of the Cantus Catholici by Benedict Szolossi in 1655. �SLOVAKIA 41 The book Cantus Catholici," says Mraz, "laid the foundation on which the language used by Slovak Catholic writers, was formed into an independent Slovak literary language. Crystallization of the language, which Slovak Catholic writers used during the period of the University of Trnava (1635-1777), progressed so far in accordance w'ith the spoken language in Western Slovakia that, when Bernolak and his followers came, at the end of the 18th century, with the idea of an independent literary language, they merely codified, in many respects, a language used and domesticated among the Catholic Slovak writers of the preceding period ' 31 l . In the introduction to his Dejiny spisovnej slovenciny, Pauliny understands the history of the language as the history of the origin, disappearance and changes of its individual styles. However, in the book itself, he divided the history of the Slovak literary language according to the languages which were used by the Slovaks as literary languages in addition to the spoken vernacular from the time of Greater Moravia. H e writes: "Although, in this case, the period of the actua~ Slov.ak literary language can <begiin only wi'th Bernolak, or with the period shortly before Bern1-0lak, nevertheless it is not possible to !begin the hi&tocy of the literary language of t he Slovaks either with Bernolaik or Stoc, lbult ilt is netessa~y to go deep 'into the past, aM the way -to the vecy beginnings oif the •h istorical period of our nation in the Great Moravian epoch, nay, 1in certain imat:ters, it is necessary to go eiven further, into the prehistoric pe;riod, when- our ancestQil's were not yet bapti:z,ed and did not participate in the European culture which was introduced to us 1by Ohristianity"< 32). Professor A. Dostal, in his work "Nastin dejin ceskeho a slovenskeho jazyka," published in Prague in 1954, developed the following thesis on the Slovak literary language: "The Slovak language, whose development goes iback to ancienlt times, was ,estaf!Jlished as a literary language 'in connection with the formation of the Slovaks into a nation .. . the estalbH-s.hment oif the literary Slovak language can in no way be viewed as a sepa·r ation from ,t he literary Cze ch lang,uage, 1but ,only as a long, slow d evelopment towards a literairy language . .. " C33 l . Prof. Dostal goes even farther and says that the attempts to impose the Czech language upon Slovaks as a �42 SLOVAKIA literary medium must be considered "as a negation of hundreds of years long developmen t which in the 1840's was already a historical fact in Slovakia ... " A century-lon g debate, as to whether Slovak is a dialect of the older Czech language or a distinct Slavonic tongue, has thus been "officially" closed by the recognition on both Czech and Slovak sides that, from its earliest beginnings, the Slovak language has always manifested a distinct identity as a Slavonic tongue of the inha:bitants of Slovakia. By a careful anaiysis of the fundament al roots of both languages, Slovak and Czech, as well as through a comparativ e study of their later developmen ts, even the "Marxist" scholars, trained in philology have properly classified the Slovak language as one of the distinct Slavonic languages which developed after the disappearan ce of the Old Slavonic language. As a result of this developmen t the relation between the two literary languages of today's Czecho-Slovakia is now officially accepted as a relation between two Slavic but distinct languages. Czech poetry and prose are translated into Slovak and vice versa, as the Polish and Russian have always been. Life and historical facts prevailed over artificial tendencies and theories a long time ago and finally they have prevailed even over the reluctance of some politicians and philologists to recognize their victory. NOTES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY 1. Slovakia, Vol. XI, No. 1, (33), 1'961; pp. 22-42. 2. Roman J,ako'bson: Slavic Languages, Columbia Utn,iversity, De- partment oo Slavic Studies, 1~; p. 10. 3 . .See relference to the wol.1k oo Prof. A. Dostal: Nastin dejin ceskeho a slovenskeho jazyka, P!laha, 11954. 4. Eug.eni Pauliny: Dej iny spisovnej slovenciny, Bra'tislava, 1948; p. 7'2; and Robert Auty: Dialect, Koine and Tradition in the Fo.rmation of Literary Slovak, in T.he Slavonic and East European R-eview, Vol. 39, No. 93, London, 1961. 5. ]bidem: p . 34'2. 6. L. I. Strll!khovsky: Handbook of Slavic Studies; pp. 51-52. 7. ]bidem: p . 4194. 8. S. H. Thomson: Czechoslovakia in European History; pp. 258, 263. 9. ,pp. 36-3'9. l'O. V. Bu§ek•N. Spulber: Czechoslovakia Under Communism; pp. 173-197. �SLOVAKIA 43 11. Grundzuge der Phonologie, Pr'aigue, 1939. 12. J. Dolbrovsky and P. J. Saif{u:,ik dTew the dialectical l1ine sep•araitin,g SlQlVa'k and Czech d'i.al-ects in the middle cxf Moravm. Of. J. Skultety: SketchH From Slovak History, and his book S,todvadsat'pat' rokov zo slovenskeho iivota. 13. E. Pauliiniy: Dej iny spisovnej slovenciny, p. 41. Benedicti wro•te: "Neque tamen ego hie •e os ·ad Bohemicam linguam cogo, sed ad exeroitatJionem et cwltur-am iipsocum i<liiomatis i'llvito: presertim cum '110n tantum in eivitaiti:bus et oppidis, se<l etim in pagis scholis albundenlt." (GTammaticae Bohemicae lilbri duo. 1603). 141. E. Pauliny, Op. cit, p. 57 and 1'13; and A . Mraz: Dejiny slo• venskej literatury, p. 108. Flirst transratioo, of tfhe Bible dates from 1763, and -also the fir!lt dilctionaey was compiled at that time. 15. J. Skulitety, Op. cit.; and J,a roslav Vlceik : Medzi Vahom a Vltavou, pp. 228-234. 116. J. Skultety, Op. cit., pp. 20-30. 17. Op. cit., pp. 494-495. 18. E. Palllliny, Op. cit. , pp. 30-36. 19. 0. Radrr in Handbook of Slavic Studies, p. 491. 20. E. Pawliny, Op. cit., pp. 36-3,71 and '53. Pauliny is Off the opiniion that the occupation cxf Hungacy •b y the Turks (1526) he·bped the penetTation cxf the Cz,ech la1mguage since there was a sort of common border between Slova:kia and Moravia in the Habsburg Monarchy. 2r. T. LehraSlpla,winski: Przeglad i charakterystyka jaykow slo• wianskych, p. 71. 22. J . Dolbrovsky in 1875 wrote that Slovak is close to the Croat and Slovene languages in several respects. Zd. Stieber considers certain charaidteristics cxf tfhe S1'ovalk langua:g e as southerm- Slaivic e>lements (juhoslavizmy). Clf. Jan Starnislav: Dejiny slovenskeho jazyka, p. 387. 23. J. M. Wirschlbaum : l!udovit Stur and His Place in the Slavic World, pp. 13°17; and S. Czamlbel: Slovenska rec a jej miesto v rodine slova.nskych jazykov, '!iurc. Sv. Martin, '1'906. 24. Watson Kirk'co nnel: Canada, E•urope, and Hitler, pp. 43-4.14. 25. •P•roif. R!om'a,n Sm al-Oto•c ki: Papers Dopovidi, Sevcenko Slcienbific Society,, Ne,w York, 1961. .26. Op. cit., p. 71. 27. iR01bert Aulty: Dialect, Koi•ne, and Tradition in the Formation of Literary Slovak, The Slavoni:c and East European Review, Vol. 39, No. 93, Lo.ndon, 1'961. 28. ]bidem, .p p. 3'42-346. 29. Encyclopedia Britannica, Vol. 20, 1959, pp. 799-800. 30. J. M. Ki.r,schlbaum: Cont&mporary Tendencies in Slovak Philology, Slavic and Ea·st European Studies, Vol. W, No. 3-4, Monitrea,l , 11960; also in Offiprilrut. 31. Op. cit., pp. 46-108. 32. Op. cit., p. 5. ~- Op. cit., pp. 200-201. �44 SLOVAKIA BIBLIOGRAPHY of select.ed works in English, French, German, and Italian AUlty, Robert: The Evolution of Literary Slovak, Oambr'idlge, 1953. Reprinlt fr()IIIl Transadioru; of the P.hilologilcal Society, pp. 143-1:60. Dialect, Koine and Tradition in the Formation of Literary Slovak. Waper preseir.:ted to the V]]lth Congress of the International Federa1Ji,on of Modern Languages and Literatures at Liege, August 1,960, published in the Slavonic and East European Review, Vol. 39, No. 93, London, 19611). Berndlak, A1nton: Slowakische Grammatik, Aus dem Lateinischein, ins Deutsche iibers·etzt, ,gedr. mit konigl. ung. Universitatsschriiten, O.lifen, 1817. Bok•es, Frantisek: Literarische iibersicht des geschichtlichen Schaffens in der Slowakei, Leipziger Viertelja,hrsohr.iift fiir Siidost•europa 4, Leipzig, 1940. Cizevsky, Dmitr,y: Outline of Compara,t ive Slavic Literatures, American Academy of Arts and Scier.,ces, Boston, Mass., 1952. On Romanticism in Slavic Literatures, Gravenhage, Monton a.nd Co ., 1957. Aus Zwei Welten, Beitrage zur Geschieht-e der Slaiwischwes·thchen literarisohen Bezi•e hungen, 1956 Mickiewicz, Stur and Kral', in W. Lednicki's Adam Mickiewicz in World Literature, Be:r,keley, 1'9516. A Bibliography of the Publica,t ions of' Dr. Dmitry Ciievsky in the Fields of Literature, Language, Philosophy and Culture, Gamlbridg·e, Mass., 1952. De Bray, R. G. A.:Guide to the Slavonic Languages, J. M. Denlt and Sons, Ltd., London, 1S31. ,Denis, Ernest: La question d'Autriche - Les Slovaques, Parus, 191'7, Ubrairie Delagrave. One of the best books on Slovaks before the •e nd of the Firrst Wo-11ld War. His views on. Bernolak, Stur, etc., are s1igh'Uy distorted by the id•e a olf the na,t ional and cultural unity of Czechs a nd Slovaks. Dixon, Oharlton: Slovak Grammar for English Speaking Students, 'Middll.etown, Pa., Jednota Printery, 11935. Fischel, Alfred: Pansl•avismus bis zum Weltkrieg, Stuttgart and BerJin, 19119. One of the best documented works on Pan-SlaviS'm in the German languag,e. Giusti, Wolrfgango: II Panslavismo, Mhlano, 194'1!, InstitUlto per gli studi di politica internazional-e. More a politi1Cal than scholarly :r,eview of the idea of Pan-Slavli-sm among Slavic peoples. Gross, Felix (•ed.): European Ideologies, New York, 194!8, Philosophicail. Lilbrary, W. Lednicki:'s chapter on Pan,Slavi·s m. Schola,rl(Y wriitten ltfleatise from the Polish point of view. Hrobak, Philip A.: Hrobak's English-Slovak Dictionary, Jednota Priintecry, MiiddleitC1wn, Pa., 1944. Slovak Lessons, Lakewood, Ohio, Middletown, Pa., Jednota Printeriy, 1'935, 1•94'9. Slovak For Beginners, Books, I, H, Ifil, Middletown, Pa., Jednota Printery, 1952. ·Let's Learn Slovak, Mrddlletown, Pa., 1'959. 1 �SLOVAKIA 45 Hrusovsky, Frantisek: Geschichte der Slowakei, Brati>sla'V'a, 1'942. This Is Slovakia, Scranton, Pa., 1953. J•akofbson, Roman: Sur l'histoire et sur les .re•lations mu,t uelles du· tcheque et du slovaque, Le Monde Slave, xmv, '19317, 3·5 3-366. Slavic Langu•a ges, Columbia Univ,ersity Press, 1949. ~fo:sch1baum, J. M.: Slovakia - N·a tion At the Crossroads of Central Europe, New York, Speller and Sons, 1960. Slovak Literature Under the Soviet lmpaGt, The Slaivic and East-(Euroipean Studi·es, Monltr,eail, 1956, Part 1, pp. 45{}4, l!udovit Stur and His Place in the Slavic World, Sla'Vli~tica No. 3•2, Winnipeg-Cleveland, 1'956. Contemporary Tendencies in Slovak Philology, An Offiprint from Slavic a.n d East~ropean Studies, Vol. liV, No. 3-4, Montreal, 1960. A Note On Two Slowak Translators of Mickiewicz in W. Led1J1;icki's Adam Mickiewicz in World Litertaure, Berkeley, Ca.Jiif., lt956. La Grand,Moravie et son heritage culture(, Etud,es slaves et est-europeeL-:•nes, Montreal, Viol. fil. 1957 pp. 694M>. Le centen•a ire d'un grand slaviste: P. J. ~afarik, Etudes slaves et est-eurorp eennes, Montreal, Vol. V, 1960, prp. 189-!1'99. Kni,ezsa, Stefan: Zur Geschichte der Jugoslawismen im Mittelslowakischen, Budapest, 1948, uire a part d~ Etudes slaves ·e t roumaines, V01l. 1, Fasc. 3. Kohn, Hans: Pan-Slavism, Its History and Ideology, University of Notre Dame Press. 1953. One of th,e most Olbjective books on Pa.n-Slavism . Konus, Joseph: Practical Slovak Grammar. A te!Xtbook; for hi,gh s.chooils, colleges and adult ,private students, Pirotsburgh, Pa., 1939. Slovak-English Dictionary, Mi·ddletOWIJJ,, Pa., 1930. New English-Slovak Dictionary, Pitts<burg,h, Pa., 1941. Kramoris, Iva•n J.: An Anthology of Slovak Poetry, Scranton, 194'7,. A selection of lJyric and narrative poems indludimrg some member~ rnf stur's group. Slovakia and Slovak Litera,t ure. Reprinted :firoon the Caltholic Encydopedia, New Yo,rk, 1960. A Chronological Outline of Slovak Literature and History, Pass.air::, N. J ., 1S4~. Krcmery, Stefan: A Survey of Modern Slovak Literature, Of,fiprint from The Slavonic ReVliew, Viol. v.m:, N~. 19, 1-928"1929. Lednicki, Waiclaiw (ed.): Adam Mickiewicz in Wo.rld Literature, University of Calilfornia Press, 1956. Articles by D. Cirevsky aind J . M. Kirschbaum. Leger, Louis: Le panslavisme et l'interet francais, Parris, 1917', Ernest F1lammarion. A rellatJively Olbjec'tiv,e study of Pan.Slavism and Slovak contribution. French ipoint of view. Locher, T. J.: Die nationale Differenzierung und lntegrierunrg der Slowaken und Tschechen in ihrem geschichtlichen Verlauf bis 1848, Harlem, 1931. Macartney, C. A.: Hungary and Her Successors, London-<Nerw York- T-0ronito, 1937. �SLOVAKIA 46 Maruniim,g, Claren'Ce A. (ed.): An Anthology of Czech and Slovak Poetry, New York, 11929, Oolumbia Uniiversity Press. Oontains translaibions by Prof. Ktln-kccmnell, Kramoris, Gallik, Manning, Slaibey, Ifotouc, etc. Merrigi,, Bruno: Storia delle letterature ceca e slovacca.~Univ,ersity of Florence, 1,959. Mikus, Joseph: La Slovaquie dans le drame de !'Europe, P.aris, Les Iles d'Or. 11955. La Slovaquie, lndividualite politi11ue de l'Europe Centrale, Paris, 11952. Mraz, Amdreas: Die Literatur der Slowaken, Wien-stu'ttgart, 194!3. A History olf Slovak lJiteralture by a contemporary scholar and professor at the Un1iviersity cif Bratislava. The work, comple'ted and edited in the Slova,k language in 11Hl8 by The S'lovak Academy df Sci1ences and All"ts, presents one oif the best works on the histo11y of Slovak liiterarture. Pastrnek, Fr.: Beitrage zur Lautlehre der Slowakischen Sprache in Ungarn (Aus d,eri, Sitzurugsberichten der philos.-hist. KJ.asse der K. Akademie der Wi.ssenschalften), Wien, 1888. Petrowch, Michael! B.: The Emergence of Russian Panslavism, Oolumbia Univ,ersity Press, 11956. Scotus, Viator (IR. W. Seton-WaJtson): Racial Problems in Hungary, Archilbaild Oonsta:ble and Oo., Ltd., London, 1908. Seton-Watson, R. W.: A History of the Czechs and Slovaks, London, 119413'.A schola1rl<y written history by one of the best de:t:enders of tlhe Slovak people at rthe beg~n,nimg of this centpcy (see his Racial Problems in Hungary) who later turned .i,gainst the Slovak mo•v,ement for autonomy and independence, being influenced by his Czedh friends. Slovak Studies 1, Hiistorica 11, Slovak InstiJtute, 'Rome, 1961. Salfarik, P. J .: Geschichte der Slawischen Sprache und Liter&tur nach alien Mundarten, Mit koni~l. ung. Universitatsschrid'ten, Ofifen, 1826. Sku!Jt:ety, Joseph: Sketches From Slovak History, Middletown, Pa., 1930, J 1ednota Press. Translation from the Slovak by 0. D. Koreff. Skluitety was professor at the University of Bratishwa and on,e of the m06t outstanding figures in the Slovak cultl.l['al lilfe Jn the first ha1f of tlhe 20th cen!tur,y. Stefanek, Anton: Zur Soziograph,ie der geistigen Kultur in der Slowakei, Bratislava, 11944. Strakihovsky, L. I. (ed.): A Ha,ndbook of Slavic Studies, Harv,a rd University Rriess, 1949, dhaipters by A. Senn and Otto Radl. Both artidles re.fleldt reicent research, though Radl's contnilbution is strongly pl'lo-Czech. Tourtzer, H.: Louis Stur et l'idee de !'independence slovaque, Cahors et Al-ehcon, Pari,s, 11913. Trobetzkoy, N. S.: Grundzuge der Phonolo9ie, Prag, 1939, (.on Slov.aik language, pp. 1117-UB, 1'36, 14!1, 1143, 16lt, 167, 170, 175, 208, 245). Vajda, Jiaroslav: Bloody Sonnets, transl. irom Hviezdoslav, P . 0 ., Scra1nton, Pa., 1900. Viktorin, J. K.: Grammatik de.r Slowakischen Sprache. Zurn Schul.:.. und SelJbst,untilvricht, Budapest, 1002. �SLOVAKIA 47 Yurchak, P,eiter P.: The Slovaks, Wh'iting, Ind., 1947, Lach editions, c,h,apters fu-om Slovak History and litemture for Americam·s Olf Slovak ortgin. BIBLIOGRAPHY IN SLAVIC LANGUAGES iBartek, Heinrich: Anton Bernolak, Trnarva, 1,937. l!udovit Shir a slovencina, Turc. Sv. Martin, 194i3. Krest'anstvo a slovencin,a, Nad,ej vit'azna, Scranton, Pa., 1947. Slovensky pravopis s gramatickymi pouckami a slovnikom, Whiting, Ind., Lach Publications, 1956. Spravn,a vyslovnost' slovenska, Braltislava, 194J. Blanar, Vincerut: Bibliografia jazykovedy na, Slovensku v rokoch 19391947. Slovenska akademia vied a umeni, Bratislava, 1950. Bolbek, W.: Prehl'adne dejiny slovenskej literatury, Bratislava, 1939. Mickiewicz v literaturze slowackiej, Praha, lJ93il. Dzieje literatury slowackiej w arysie. A'Il annprint firom Slowacja i Sl'owlicy, Edit. W. Semkoiwica;, Krakow, 1008. Czamlbel, Samo: Prfspevky k dejinam jazyka slovenskeho, Budapest, 1887. Slovenska rec a jej miesto v rodine slovanskych ja:z:ykov, '!1urc. Sv. MartLn,, 1906. Slovensky pravopis. Historiok-OJkriticky nmes. Bud,a pest, 1890. [)vonc, Ladislav: Bibliografia slovenskej ja:z:ykovedy :z:a roky 19481952, Matilca Slov-enska, 1'957. Gajdo§, V. J .: Slovenske glosy v latinskom missa,li zo XVI. storoci'a, Historica slovacca I-11, BratisJ.ava, 1'940-lMt pp. 241-24'3. Gralbowski, T. S. : Dwaja Slowaccy pioner:z:y oswiecenia i post&pu, Bernolak a Fandly, 195ll. Hl"'ltta!1a, Martin: Kratka mluvnica slovenska, Bratislava, 1:852. Grammatica linguae slovenicae, Schemnicii, 1850. Hodza, Michal M.: Vetin o slovencine, Levoca, 164!8. ,Isaceniko, A. V.: Zaciatky vzdelanosti vo Vel'komoravskej rili, Jazykovedny sbornik, I.JI, 1947', 137-17'8. Jia,gic, I. V.: lstorija slavianskoj filologii, S. Petersburg, 1910, Jlankovic, V.: Prvy slovensky preklad celeho Pisma svateho, Ver.bum I, 19416-1947. Kondra§ov, N. A.: Kategoriia licnosti i nelicnosti v slovackom ja:z:yku, MGU, 11949. Programma po istoriji slovackogo jazyka. Programma po sovremennom slovackom ja:z:yku, Izdatelstvo Moskovsko,go univerziite'ta, '1001'. Slavinaskaja filologia, Stafi i monogrrufiji, Izdaltelstvo Mostkovskogo univerzfteta, 1951. Kotvam,, rmrich: Jozef lgnac Baiza a slovenska rec, Linguistica slovaca Ilil, 1'9411. Ju.l"aj Fandly, Trnava, 1946. Juraj Fandly a slovensky ja:z:yk, Linguistiea slovaca I-m, 1939. Be,rnolakovci, T\rnarva, 19418. Bibliografia bernolakovcov, Miati'&! Slovenska, Martin, 1957·_ Lehr-Sp}aiwin ski, T.: Pr:z:eglad i eharakterystyka je:z:ykow slowianskich, Warszaiwa, li9154·. 1 �48 SLOVAKIA Magnuszewski, J.: Mickiewicz wsrod Slowakow, Wir,oclaJW, 1956. Magiera, J.: Literatul"a czeska i slowacka, Obraz pismienniictwa. Warszawa, 1929. Misianik, Jan: Dejiny starsej slovenskei lite.ratury, SAN, Bratislava, 1958; Marxiisticky vy,kla,d st,arsej slov. litera'tury. Stran 320. Mraz, Andrej: Gavlovicova skola krest'anska. Prispev,ok k slov,enskemu literarnemu barolm, Bratislava, 11940. Dejiny slovenskej literatury, Slov. akad. v1ed a umeni, Bratislava, 194<8. Novak, I.!udovit: Cestina na Slovensku a vznik spisovnej slovenciny, Odtlafok zo Slovenskych pohl'adov, LEV, 193!8. Jazykovedne glosy k ceskoslovenskej otazke, Turc. Sv. Martin,, 11935. l!udovit Stur ako jazykovedec, Slovenske ipohl'ady, LiiI, 1936. Pastrnek, Fr.: Stara jazykova pamatka slovenska, Slbornik :liilologicky, ViIII, 1922. Pauliny, Eugen: Na okrai kama•ldulskeho Pisma, Vetibwm I, 1946-1947. Kulturnohistoricke podmienky a spolocenske funkcie biling.uizmu y dej inach spisovnej slovenciny, C-sl. prednaslcy pro sjezd slavistu v Mioskve, 11958. Glosy k pomeru: bernolactina a sturovcina, Kultura, XiJlV, 1942. Dejiny spisovnej slovenciny, Slovenska akademia vied a umeni, Bratislava, 1948. Pisut, Miilan (ed.): Dej iny slovenskej literatury, Osveta, Bratislava, 1960, p. 680. ContrilbUltors J . Miisiia-niik, P. Petrus, J. Gregor~, P . Stevc,ek, (A Mairxist evaluation). Litera,tura narodneho obrodenia, SAY, Bratisla,V'a, 1'960, p. 490. Slovensky literarny romantizmus, C-sl. prednaslcy pro mezinarodni sj-ezd slavistu v Moslwe, 1'958. Sobolevskij, A. I.: Cerkovno-slavianskije texty moravskogo proischozd,e nija, Ruskij filoloigicesk!j vestnik, 1•900. Stanislav, Jan: K jazykovednemu dielu A. Bernolaka, Bratislava, 194/1. Pribinovi vel'moii, Linguistica slovaca I-II, 193·9-11940. Slovanski apostoli Cyril a Metod a ich cinnost' vo Vel'komoravskej risi, Bratislava, 1945. Spisovny jazyk slovensky, v sborir.,i ku Slovanske jazy,ky v dobe pfitomne, Praha, 1937. Dejiny slovenskeho jazyka, Slovenska akademia wed, Bratislava, 1958. Stitibr, Zdisl'aiw: Zarys dialektologii jezykow zachodnio-slowanskich, W,arszarwa, 1'956. Skultety, Jozef: Stodvadsat'pat' rokov zo slovenskeho iivota 17901•914, Turc. Sv. Ma-rtin, 1920. 0 Slovakoch, Turc. Sv. M!a.rtin, 1928. Stur, I.!udovit: Nauka reci slovenskej, Bratislava, 1,846. Narecia slovenskuo, Bratislava, 1846. Slovo na case, (V uprav,e J . AIIIlibriusa), Bratislava, 1943. 'I1i!bensky, Jan: J. Papanek-J. Sklenar: Obr.incovia slovenskej narodnosti v XVlm. storoci, Osveta, Martin, 19.58. K problemu hodnotenia bernolactiny a bernolakovskeho IYm.,tia, Histod'C'ky casopis, Vfil, 4, 1959. �49 SLOVAKIA Vznik, vyvoj a vyznam vel'komoraV5kej trad icie v s lovenskom narodnom obrodeni, Sbornik O vzajomnych vzt'ahodh Cechov a Slov:ikov, SAV, 1956. Vairsik, BranisJav: Slovaci na praiskej univerzite do konca stredoveku, 1Bratislava, 1926. Kulturne vzt'ahy Cechov a Slovakov v 16. a 17. storoc: i, Bratislava, 1956. Narodnostny problem trnavskej univerzity, Bratislava, 1,9 38. VH~ovsky, Jan : Cantus Catholici, Biratislava IX, 193'5. Vilcek, J·aToslav: Dejiny literatury slovenske j, Turc. Sv. Martin, 1923. Medzi Vahom a Vl tavou, Slov. vyd .. krasnej literatury, Brabislava, 11957. Weingart, Milos: 0 nej starsich jazykovych pamatkach slovenskych, OMF, 1935. Rev. Milan Durica, SIXB, partici- j who made the arrangements. T\he pated in the sessions of the prepa- prayer was purblished in the Conrator,y commission for discipline gressiona1l Record of March 14. llt! llt! llt! of the ole11gy and fait,hiful for the I n. Vatican, Ecdlesiastical Assemlbly. I Bishop Andrew G. Grutka of Father Durica, a native Olf S1()1Va- 1 bhe diocese of Gary, Indiana, ackia, acts in an advisory capacito/. 1companied by the Rt. Rev. Msgr. M .K. Mlynarovic, president of the The meeting was early in Slovak Callholic Federation of ruary. Amenica, traveled to Rome early :!€! llt! :!€! Dr. John Novotny, a native Olf , in April (6-15) to review the plans Slovakia now res•idin,g im, London, : for the Slovak Institute which will successfully passed the medical be bui11t there. Plans were also examinations to !become a Memlber made for the celebration of the of the Royal College of Physi- l'lOOth anniversary of the advent of the saintly brothers Cyril an,d cians. Methodius to the ancient homeland llt! llt! llt! According to Radio Bratislava of the Slovaks, Slovakia, in 1963, (Feb:mary 3', '1962), the exposition by Slovaks in the free world. Biof Czech~ovak bodks in Rome shop Grutka had an audience with was a great success. Our friends Pope John XXIIil!I on Aipril 14. The in Rome, however, inform us that Slovak Institute will cost rubout a it was far from being successful. halif million dollars, most of which And Slovak books were conspicu- is exipected to be donated by the ous by their albsence, only a/bout Slovaks in America. Almost half the amount is already pledged. te·n being displayed. Feb-I' I )lg )lg )lg )lg )lg )lg Rev. John E. ~englar, pastor of The Holy See, early in Apr:I, Sacred Heart Church, Phoenixville, Pa., opened bhe session of bhe U. S. Senate on 'March 14, 1962' - the -23'rd anniv,ersacy of the .pro>clamation rnf S1ov•aik Independence - with a special prayer. He was atccompanied to Washington by P . A. Hl.'obak, president o'f the Slovak League of America, 1962, appointed the Rev. Rudolph KOibela, C.,M., miss,i onary for t,he Slovaks in England, parUoolarly for the several hundred who reside in London and viiicinity. F,ather Kdbela had been attending to the spiritual needs of the Slova'ks in London, for several years prior to that time. � SLOVAKIA 25 MISCONCEPTIONS OF AMERICAN SLAVISTS ON THE SLOVAK LANGUAGE Joseph M. Kirschbaum, Ph.D. I Misconceptions of American Slavists on Slovak literature which have been discussed here previously <1 > had been caused to a great extent by the confusion of views regarding the Slovak language. The confusion was created, on the one hand, by Slavists and literary historians who failed to draw a proper distinction between the native or spoken language of the Slovaks and their written or literary language, which, as we have seen, was first the Old Church Slovanic, afterwards t he Latin language, then Biblical Czech, used mainly by the Slovak Protestant minority, and then the literary Slovak based on Slovak western dialects, and finally the revised present form, based on central Slovak dialects. On the other hand, the misconceptions have been intentionally spread by some Czech Philologists and literary historians who were influenced by political views and aspirations, which the American Slavists accepted without the necessary caution required in scholarly works. As a result, we find in many American symposia on the Slavic peoples or in works on philology and Slavic languages either the Czech thesis that the Slovak language is merely a dialect of the Czech, or that Slovak became a literary language only at the beginning or in the second half of the nineteenth century. We also find that the sources of information or reference used by American Slavists are rather scarce and obsolete and that the subject has been treated by scholars who hardly had an opportunity to be thoroughly acquainted with the history and development of the Slovak literary language and its position among Sla-wc languages. Before pointing out the misconceptions in American symposia and surveys of Slavic languages, we may perhaps say that the claim that Slovak is but a dialect of the �26 SLOVAKIA Czech language was not based on facts of history or philology. It was a biased opinion of those who tried to give a scholarly basis to political aspirations denying to the Slovaks the right to their independent national and cultural life. And there rest also the origins of the erroneous thesis that Slovak began to be used a·s a literary language only from the second half of the nineteenth century. In the views of European Slavists, including the Russian and Czech philologists, it is clear, as we shall see, tha't the Slovak language is by every right of its origin and development an independent tongue, having its rightful place of equality among Slavic languages. And it has also been accepted that Slovak has been used as the language of literature from the sixteenth century, and was codified before the end of the eighteenth century. Slovak philologists and linguists (Bernolak, Safarik, Czambel, Skultety, Bartek, Stanislav, Novak, Pauliny) rejected, during the last two centuries, Czech theories and looked for linguistic criteria to determine the origin and the main characteristics of the Slovak language. They reviewed the historic forms of the Slovak tongue and by scholarly methods and comparative study of Slavic languages they arrived at conclusions which were ultimately accepted by the present-day Czech as well as other Slavic philologists and linguists. Misconceptions of American Slavists refer, as we have said, to the relation of the Slovak and Czech, to the history of the Slovak literary language and to the role of foreign languages in Slovak literature. In this respect we -read not without surprise that even the well-known Roman Jakobson helped to spread the erroneous views. In his study Slavic Languages, he writes: ''Toward the middle of the same (i.e., the 19th) century, the Slo¥aks, who had used literary Czech (somewhat adapted to their own habits) inaugurated their own literary language based on the central Slovak dialect but patterned after standard Czech" <2>. We shall also see that even Czech philologists recognize today that Slovaks "-inaugurated" their own literary language long before the middle of the 19th century, and �SLOVAKIA 27 that we can speak only about a reform of the Slovak literary language in the nineteenth century <3 >. Secondly, the 19th century reform, linked with the name of r..udovit Stur, was "not based on the dialect of any single area, but represented a kind of "koine" ('Cultural Slovak), based on the central Slovak dialects, eschewing features from both the eastern and western dialects <4 >. As for the usage of the Czech language, "Czech was sporadically used (with certain local modification) for administrative and still more occasionally, literary purposes," says correctly R. Auty <5 >. The reasons for this will be explained later. Prof. Alfred Senn, in Strakhovsky's Handbook of Slavic Studies, gives a more detailed and more ela:borate description of the Slovak literary language. His classification of Slovak is certainly correct, but we could hardly agree with all parts of his definition. Prof. Senn says: "Slovak ... forms a connecting link with the South Slavic Slovenian and is more archa,ic than Czech. Otherwise differen:ces between Czec.h and Slovak are not very great. Slovak became a literary language at the beginning of the nineteenth century .. . Czec.h and Slovak form the Czechoslovak group" <s>. In the same symposium another contributor, Otto Radl, admitted that "as early as 1635 in Trnava books were printed in different Slovak dialects,," but he states that it was only in 1844, in the period of Romanticism, that "the therefore common written language, the Czech, was being replaced by a newly-originated Slovak literary language." According to Radl "this ·m ovement had been begun at the end of the 18th century by the learned Slovak philologist Anton Bernolak who published several works in Latin in which he tried to show that the Slovaks were a separate nation and that they should therefore use thir own distinctive written language based on dialects spoken in western Slovakia" <7 >. A similar version can be found in Prof. S. Harrison Thomson's book "Czechoslovakia in European History," who says that "a deliberate effort to substitute for the written Czech then in use in Slovakia a language based upon a local dialect came from the "Catholic camp" only in 1790, when Anton Bernolak published a Grammatica slavica. However, �28 SLOVAKIA Prof. Thomson asserts, that " about the only followers Ber nolak had were Catholic writers, and even among them the vogue for his grammar and dictionary soon died out ... The year 1834-1835 is usually given," concludes Thomson, "as the date of the rise of written Slovak, although strictly speaking, Stur did not make his first formal declaration until 1856" ( R ) . In Prof. Robert J. K erner's symposium Czechoslovakia and in V. Busek-N. Spulber's Czechoslovakia Under Communism, we find only slightly modified or re-worded versions of the theses mentioned above. "Catholic Slovaks under Bernolak tried to create with indifferent success a written Slovak dialect," we read in Kerner's symposium <9 >, and Busek-Spulber's symposium gives the following genesis of the Slovak literary language: ... "the firs,t attempts were made (aside from earlier sporadic ventures) to establish a distinct Slovak literary language in the last decade of the 18th century by Anton Bernolak (1762-1813) who selected the western Slovak dialects as a basis of the new literary medium; his suggestions, not elaborate linguistically, did not take permanent hold. "The decisive step towards the establishment of a Slovak litera.ry language was undertaken through the initiative of the Protestants. tudovit Shir selected the central Slovak dialect for the Slovak literary medium. Beginning in the 1840's, several poets followed Shir and usEd the new literary language with great skill" r 10 J. This version admits "sporadic ventures to establish a distinct Slovak literary language" before the last decade of the 18th century, but considers Bernolak's "suggestions not elaborated linguistically" and credits the Protestants with the merits, while Radl says the opposite! All these misconceptions seem to be due, as we have mentioned before, in the first place to the uncritical acceptance of the politically motivated thesee of Czech or at the Prague University educated Slavists. In the second place, the use of sources either long before superseded by new works or unilaterally selected, might have misled those Slavists who were trying to be scholarly objective. In this respect even Prof. R. Jakobson's bibliography leaves much to be desired. We find in his bibliography only four works, two written by Slovaks and two by Czechs, �SLOVAKIA 29 but none of them dealing with the history of Slovak language or with the problem of its relation to the Czech language. To a Slavist of Jako'bson's renome the fact could not be unknown that already Paul. J. Safarik in 1826 wrote on the Slovak language and Slovak literature as being distinct from the Czech or other Slavic languages and literatures. Consequen tly the Slovaks could not "inaugurat e" their own literary language "toward the middle of the 19th century." Sources used by Prof. Senn, who undoubtedl y tried to be objective, were better selected, but three of them favor the Czech thesis of "one Czechoslov ak unit." He shows in his literature and references the following books: J. Victorin: Gramatik der Slowakisch en Sprache, 4th edition, Budapest, 1878; K. Meznik: Die Slowakisch e Spaltung, Euphorion, 1927; R. J ak~bson: Sur fhistoire et sur Jes relations mutuelles du tcheque et du slovaque, Le Monde Slave, XIV, 1937, 353-366; V. Vazny: Slovak Dialects, Ceskoslovens ka vlastiveda, Vol. III, 1934. Otto Radl, who contributed to Strakhovsk y's Handbook of Slavic Studies a chapter on Slovak literature, did not show in his bibliograph y any work in Slovak or in foreign languages which he used or in which the reader could check Rad-l's opinions or complete his knowledge. Closing our remarks we perhaps may say that not many American Slavists who wrote during the post 40 years on the Slovak language and literature speak or write Slovak or ever read Slovak literary works in the original. Some of them merely rephrased mistaken views published by Czech scholars and politicians; and several contributio ns to American symposia on Slovaks were written by Czechs. Reviewing the names of the Czech contriibutor s we could not, however, say that any of them made his name as as expert on Slovak language or literature before coming to the United States. II LITERARY SLOVAK AND THE SLAVIC LANGUAG ES Scholarly studies of phonology, etymology, lexicology and grammar show that the Slovak language is distinct �30 SLOVAKIA from any other Slavic tongue. Even though this was not so clear and evident to Slavists of the 19th century when philology was in its infancy and used primitive methods, Slovak philologists and linguists always maintained this point of view. After a century of clashes and discussions between the Czech linguists and - first the Slovak Catholic erudites who began to replace the Latin with Slovak already in the seventeenth century, and from the 1840's a-lso with the Protestant leaders - the Slovak language has been properly classified as the real and original national tongue of the inhabitants of Slovakia since the dawn of history. The historical development of Slovakia and geographical factors account for the fact that the Slovak language not only conserved many archaic forms and expressions common to all Slavs, but, remaining for centuries only a spoken vernacular of the people, it was affected merely by the influence of neighboring Slavic peoples. When it was codified, this happened in the era of the revival of Slovanic peoples, and the Slovak cultural and political leaders saw to it that the Slovak language might conserve its central position and Slavic purity. Kollar himself argued, and some Slavists of that time accepted his idea, that the Slovak language "stands grammatically and geographically in the center of all Slav dialects," and the Tatra mountains are the "nest and cradle of all Slavs," which, of course, the modern science of history, archeology and ethnography challenges. However, the central position of the Slovak language, geographically or linguistically, is accepted to a great extent even by modern philology. Slovak is more archaic than Czech, which in turn is more archaic than Polish. Since Russian is considered the least removed from the primitive Slavic prototype, both Slovak and Russian are the most archaic and nearest to the common primitive Slavic. In fact, the Slovaks - either educated or common _people ..:..:_ do not experience much difficulty in communicating in Slovak with Poles, Ukrainians, Czechs, Russians, or Slovenes and Croats, as has been proven on the American. Con- �SLOVAKIA 31 tinent, since basica:lily there are no great dif.ferences among the Slavic languages, and, in the case of the Slovak language, history and geography made it close not only to Pole and Czech, but also to Ukrainian and South Sfavic Slovenian and Croat. Slovak intellectuals of the nineteenth century read not only Polish or Czech poets and writers in the original, but also in Russian and Ukrainian, Croat and Slovenian. Modern scientific and literary development drifts the twelve Slavic langua,ges apart. Nevertheless, even if we cannot agree with the nineteenth century poet that, . "with the Slovak language you may the earth's four corne;rs travel," the fact remains that Slovaks are able to communicate in their own vernacular with the majority of Slavic peoples. Linguistic analysis of the fundamental roots of the Czech and Slovak languages and a comparative study of their developments showed that the Slovak language never was a part of the Czech or so-cailled "Czechoslovak" language. If we accept the thesis, supported by Trubecko <m, that in the ninth century the Old Sfavonic still was the common tongue of the Slavs with a unified phonology, and that from the ninrth century different dialects _· developed into distinct Slavic languages, there is no historical or philological reason why it should not be claimed that at the time of disintegration of the Old Slavonic and of the rise of new independent Slavic languages, Slovak was among them and that its development cannot be identified with that of the Czech language. This thesis is strengthened also by the fact that the Slovak territory was annexed by Hungary after the collapse of Great Moravia, and, hence the only contact the Slovaks had with Czechs, was through Moravians who have continued to speak a Slovak dialect <12 > in spite of the pressure of the Czechs from the West, and to the present time they have retained their own phonological structure. The relation between the Czech and Slovak languages became a matter of controversy because of political a:·s pirations of some Czech politiciap.s and scholars and not because of philological reasons. As early as the 16th century, �32 SLOVAKIA Vavrinec Benedikti of Nedozery (1555-1615), a learned Slovak philologist and professor at the Prague University, exhorted his Slovak countrymen to cultivate their native tongue. He wrote his appeal in a grammar he composed for Czechs, which makes it clear that already for him there were two different languages ( l 3 >. From the si:x;teenth century on, there are numerous proofs that Slovak erudites, with a few exceptions, considered the Slovaks as one of the "tribes" of the Slavic nation, but speaking their own "dialect" different from the Czech, Polish or Russian, using the word dialect for our term language. Slovak was used not only in homiletic writings but also in scholarly works and poetry especially since the middle of the 17th century around the University of Trnava (founded 1635). At the end of the 18th century, Anton Bernolak only codified, in his linguistic works Dissertatio Orthographia, Gramatica slavica, and in his huge pentalingual Dictionary, a language in use for more than a century <14>. The well-known Slavist P. J. Safarik, and initiailly also Jan Kollar, were aware of the fact that there had been a Slovak language and Slovak literature, different from the Czech or the other Slavic languages and literatures. Safarik gave testimony to it in his Geschichte der Slawischen Sprache und Literatur in alien Mundarten (1826), and when some Czech leaders reproached Nm for his s·cholavly objectivity, Safarik indignantly announced that he would go even farther in stressing the differences than he did in his book <15 >. Jan Kollar was origina:lly also instrumental in preparing Stur's reform and later changed his mind and became an advocate of a common literary lamguage with the Czechs (which he called "old Slovak") because of reasons which Slovak literary historians avoid to discuss. The great poet of Pan-Slavism had also some human deficiencies like very high personal pride and a terrible temper, and took it as an insult that Stur and his group dared to do something in Slovak cultural life without consulting him or without his patronage ( lG>. This "crimen lesae majestatis" moved Kollar to oppose Stur's reform and the final acceptance of the Slovak �SLOVAKIA 33 literary language also by Slovak Protestants. Safarik did not change his scholarly views which he expressed in his Geschichte, but being employed in Prague and financially supported by Czech patriots, he tried to convince his Slovak countrymen that they should not move too far from the Czechs and suggested that the Czech should be adjusted to the Slovak linguistic phenomena and peculiarities. "The will of the Slovak groups to assert their own national individuality was, however, too strong," as admitted by Radl <17 >, and Stu.r's reform was victorious over Kollar's protests and Safarik's advices, because it was in line with the linguistic facts and centuries long Slovak national development. The reasons for the sporadic use of the Czech language for administrative and partly a:lso for literary purposes (mainly by the Slovak Protestants) have been recently reconsidered by several "Marxist" philologists and literary historians. There are at least three theories on the penetration of the Czech language into the Slovak territory. One refers to the continuation of relations between Slovaks and Moravians (who adopted the Czech language) from the time of Great Moravia, which relations survived the collapse of that state and developed between the Moravian cultural center Olomouc and Slovak religious centers. More acceptable and also more elaborated is the theory ascribing the use of the Czech language to the fact that Czech was a sort of diplomatic language and that Czech clerks were used at certain periods (the XV-XVIth century) not only in Slovak territory but also in Hungary and Poland, in state and city administration na>. In Slovakia, the use of Czech, adapted to local dialects, survived because of the Reformation which penetrated among Slovaks from Bohemia with the Bible and religious books written in the old Czech, and because during the Counter-Reformation "many Protestant Czechs found shelter in Slovakia and even printed books in Czech for the purpose of smuggling them into Bohemia" <19 >. Settled in Slovakia, the Czech refugees tried to keep all Slovak Protestants linked to Bohemia by language also in s ecular writings. Being a minority, the Protestants looked �34 SLOVAKIA to the Czechs first for he1p in religious and later also in literary and political matters <20 >. Around 1840, it became clear, however, to the leaders of the Protestant minority in Slovakia that the Czech language was not intelligible to the common people, that their writings could not reach the Slovak population and for reasons which r... Stur explained in his Narecia slovenskuo and other writings, they agreed with Catholics, on the reform, which based the literary language on the central Slovak dialects, and on the exclusive use of Slovak in Slovak literature. Stur's reform, by which the Slovak language was finally esta·b lished as a literary medium of all Slovaks, "has been accepted by the Slovak intelligentsia within a very short space of time" as correctly stated by Auty. By this reform, which received its final linguistic form in the grammar of a Catholic priest, Martin Hattala, the peculiar situation of bi-lingualism in modern Slovak literature was changed. As it is accepted now also by foreign Slavists, the first literary language (or language of literature) used by Slovaks was the Old Church Slavonic <21 >, and the Slovaks rightly claim the writings of the Great Moravian period as a part of their cultural heritage. Then for centuries Slovaks used Latin also in secular writings; and from the 16th century Slovak Catholics began to replace Latin with the Slovak vernacular, which Slovak Protestants replaced with Czech, adapted to local use. During all these centuries, the Slovak people spoke, of course, their own Slovak dialects which developed from the Old Slavonk after its disintegration into the modern Slovak language. History of the Slovak language and history of Slovak literature began at the same time, in the IXth century, but in literature Slovaks used various media (Church Slavonic, Latin, Czech and Slovak), while their native tongue was used in daily life until it was lifted to the position of a literary medium, which happened more or less at the same time at which other central European peoples began to use vernacular for literary purposes. On the position of Slovak among Slavic languages: foreign and Slovak philologists expressed various opinions .. �SLOVAKIA 35 V. J agic in his book Entstehungsgeschichte der Kirchenslawischen Sprache wrote: "in Great Moravia people must have spoken in the ninth century a tongue which in its fundamentals was identical with the Slovak language of today." J. Dobrovsky admitted that certain linguistic phenomena linked Slovak with South Slavic languages <22 >; and S. Czamlbel el~borated linguistic~lly a theory to prove that the questions as to whether Slovak is closer to western Slavic or to the southern Slavic group of languages deserved to be reconsidered by philologists. Stur viewed the position of the Slovak language as a central clearing house mainly because he was conscious of many of its similarities with the Slavic tongues of the East, West, North, and South, especially noting the South Slavic dialects with which Slovak came into intimate contact during long centuries <23 >. III VIEWS OF CANADIAN AND EUROPEAN SLAVISTS Among European Slavists, including present-day Czech philologists, the erroneous views regarding the relation between Slovak and Czech, and the origin of the Slovak literary language, have been mostly corrected. Modern techniques in linguistics have thrown new light on the subject and have been instrumental in giving us modified views that are advanced far beyond the htasty unwarranted conclusions of the amateur philologists or linguists influenced by political aspirations. For truth's sake we have to point out that also on the American continent we find Slavists who expressed correct views, and some of them did that before Slavic studies acquired the 'prominence which they enjoy now in the United States and in Canada. The well-known Canadian Slavist, Prof. W. Kirkconnell, wrote, for example, already in 1940, that the differences between Czech and Slovak are about as great as those between the similarly related languages, Dutch and German. "I have," says Kirkconnell, "on my shelves Miroslav KaJal's Slovak-Czech Dictionary (published in 1924), in which there are 35,000 Slovak words that were �36 SLOVAKIA apparently unintelligible to a Czech and hence required definition" <24 >. Prof. Roman Smal-Stocki in his paper Discrimination and Bias in Two UNESCO Publications raised his voice against treating Slovak ,a nd Czech "as one unit." "From the linguistic point of view," says Prof. Sma.'l-Stocki, "it is inadmissible to mix state units with existing languages and to treat 'as one unit' Czech and Slovak, because the linguistic fact is that in existence are two separate units, Czech and Slovak" <25 >. Among European Slavists, the Polish scholar T. LehrSplawinski came with a new approach to the history of the Slovak literary language. He dates back the beginnings of the Slovak literary language to the IXth century which view has been held also by some other Slavists in recent years. "The beginnings of the literary language in Slovakia are connected with the period of activities of ConstantineCyril and Methodius in the Moravian state," says LehrSplawinski. "As the whole of Slovakia was, without any doUJbt, a part of that state, and the important centres of its political and cultural life were situated on the Slovak territory, writings in the old Church-Slavonic language must have been undoubtedly developed among the Slovaks in the last quarter of the IX th century" <26 >. R. Auty, from the University of Cambridge, in the pahe presented to the VIIIth Congress of the Inwhich per ternational Federation of Modern Languages and Literatures at Liege, August 1960, corrected misconceptions on Bernolak and Stur and their reforms. "Anton Bernolak codified in 1870" a language which was already in use, and urrlike the American S1avists who minimized Bernolak's importance, Auty writes that "in the following fifty or sixty years a considera:ble number of literary and other works were published or written in this (Bernolak's) form of Slovak. The remarkable extent of the literature published in Bernolak's language has recently been revealed," says Auty, " by I. Kotvan, Bibliografia bernolakovcov, Martin, 1957"<27 >. The Czech language was, according to Auty, "spora- �SLOVAKIA 37 dically used in Slovakia (with certain local modification) for administrative and, still more occasionally, literary purposes." The reasons for this sporadic usage of Czech for administrative and "more occasionally" also for literary purposes, were explained by Auty only indirectly. He mentions that "since the Reformation the Czech had been the language of the Lutheran scriptures and Church Services in Slovakia," but he didn't say that as a result of this situation t he biblical Czech was used by the Slovak Protestant minority also in secular writings in the same way as the Catholics used the Latin, and that Czech was used for administrative purposes also in Hungary and Poland, the reason being the Monarchy, in which all those countries were included. Stur, Protestant though he was, acted against what he regarded as an unnatural linguistic situation which had been brought about by the hazards orf history. "His reaction was radical," says Auty, and gives a detailed picture of the changes which were brought about in the Slovak language by the agreement of the Catholics and Protestants in order to end bi-lingualism in Slovak literature. Auty's views on the reform of the Slovak literary language which took place in the 1840's, are fairly in line with the historical truth and recent research. .A!ccording to him "Catholic and Protestant Slovaks agreed to accept a new written form of their language for all purposes; this had been worked out by r... Stur in discussion with other Slovak intetlectual leaders in the period 1842-44 and was somewhat modified by M. M. Hodza and M. Hattala in subsequent years." Stur "on more than one occasion praised the work of Bernolak, and, above all, the poetry of Jan Holly and fully accepted one element of Bernolak's linguistic reform - the orthographical system" - continues Auty. "The general pattern of the language, as fashioned by Stur, was in accordance with the needs of Slovak Society and has proven itself - and Stur's genius - by its survival" <28 >. The contri-butors to the Encyclopedia Britannica published some correct and some incorrect views, but they �38 SLOVAKIA grasped the essential points of difference between the Czech and Slovak. "The Czech, as spoken and written today in Bohemia, diverges consideraibly from Slovak," says the Encyclopedia. "The disagreement is least marked in vocwbulary but ap• pears prominently in the phonetics; in particular the itacism so distinct a characteristic of Czech, is non-existant in Slovak, which has preserved the fuller diphthongs (ia, ie, iu, etc.) of the Slavonic languages; a further smaller point is the dz, from common Slav dj, is used (as in Polish) where Czech has z. In one point only is there a divergence which goes back beyond the time of the common ancestry of the two languages; S1ovak has not developed the f, which is characteristic of Czech and in that language occurs since the beginning of its literature. The Slovak palatalization of n, d, t and 1 aifter e, which does not occur in modern literary Czech, is a further point of disagreement, although this woU'.ld not be o:bvious from Slovak spelling which does not find it necessary to distinguish by diacritics; consonants are always softened in this position." The main contriibutor to the Encyclopedia, Prof. C. A. Macartney, refers also to a better selected bibliography than American Slavists and points out to the relation of Slovak with other Slavie languages as follows: "The dialectical development," says Macartney, "shows some characteristics identical with those in South Slavonic and Russian. Not everywhere, for example, have C.S. u and i been confused, and instead of the e, which is the norma:l result in Slovak as in Czech, we find in Eastern dialects an o from the u, thus agreeing with Russian. An agreement with South Slavonic is the occurrence of raz- and la- and lo-. Because of these and other phonetic and morphological reasons the grammarian Czambel, a keen opponent of the identity of Czech and Slovak, has asserted that Slovak should rightly be associated with South Slavonic"' 29 >. On Slovak literature Macartney says: "Slovak literature, which previously had only a local importance, bid fair to take a worthy place alongside that of its better known partner. The Survey of Modern Slovak Literature, by S. �SLOVAKIA 39 Krcmery, in Vol. vii, No. 19, pp. 160-170, of the Slavonic Review (London), gives useful literature statistics and a good account of the literature of the present century." His Bibliography shows the following works: Dictionaries J. Loos: Worterbuch der Slovakischen, Ungarischen and Magyarischen Sprache (Budapest, 1871) ; M. Kalal, Slovensky Slovnik, etc (1924), written for Czechs, is most valuable as dialect words are included. Grammar - S. Czambel: Rukovat spisovnej reci slovenskej (1919). This Handbook of Literary Slovak is the standard work. Czambel's other works, e.g.,Slovaci a ich rec, (Buda:pest 1903) and Slovenska rec a jej miesto v rodine slovanskych jazykov (1906) are important for the dialects, but are ,biased; C. Dixon has written a Slovak Grammar For English Speaking Students (Pittsburgh, 1896). IV "MARXIST" CONCEPTIONS ON LITERARY SLOVAK AND THE ORIGINS OF THE SLOVAK LANGUAGE From the published works of the "Marxist" philologists and literary historians it is obvious that the Czech theses on the Slovak language, on the history of the Slovak literary language, and on the function of some foreign languages (Czech, "Czechoslovak") in Slovak literature, which theses were intended to support the political theory of a single "Czechoslovak" nation, have been definitely buried <30 >. In this respect, some contemporary works of Czech philologists helped to support the scholarly conclusions which have long been defended by the Slovak philologists. Particularly noteworthy of the Czech school is the work of the University Professor A. Dostal, and of the Slovak school, Professor Eugene Pauliny's Dejiny spisovnej slovenciny (History of Literary Slovak, Bratislava, 1948) , and Andrew Mra.z's Dejiny slovenskej literatury (History of Slovak Literature, Bratislava, 1948), as well as the pa'pers read at the Moscow Fourth International Congress of Slavists in 1958. In this respect, the paper of Professor Pauliny on bilingualism in the history of the Slovak literary language de- �40 SLOVAKIA serves particular attention. Pauliny tries to explain the function of the Czech language in Slovakia in the XVth and following centuries on the basis of social and economic phenomena and changes. He has arrived, nevertheless, at the same conclusions as the philologists who d'id not apply "Marxist criteria" in phi'lology, i.e., that the Czech language was a foreign language in Slovakia and could not withstand competition of the Slovak vernacu1ar when the Slovak ethnicum evolved in its national consciousness. Literary Slovak won out despite the fact that the Protestant minority, predominantly of Czech origin, tried to maintain it even in the XIXth century when the Slovak literary language was established by the Catholic majority (80 % ) over a century ago. The relation between the Czech and Slovak is, therefore, according to Pauliny, that of bilingua'lism. In his contribution to a volume "0 vzajomnych vzt:ahoch Cechov a Slovakov," published in 1956 by the S1lovak Academy of Sciences, Pauliny states: "Bernolak codified a language which can be traced in the writings of the middleclass, the lower nobility and educaited Slovaks back to the 15th century, and this in both Catholic and Protestant writings." As for the connection of Bernolak's school with Stur's group, Pauliny agrees with the other Marxi,s t literary historians and philologists. Stur's reform, which is erroneously presented by some American Slavists as the beginning of the Siovak literary language (in this respect even Jakdbson is mistaken), in Pauliny's view, is but a "younger branch of Bernolak's school." In the opinion of Professor A. Mraz, who still remains the main authority in Marxist literary history in Slovakia, Anton Bernolak reformed and codified the Slovak literary language and its orthography. Mraz regards the activity which originated around the Catholic University of Trnava (1635) as a starting point for introducing Slovak vernacular as a literary medium and stresses that the first manifestation of the new era in Slovak national life was the publication of the Cantus Catholici by Benedict Szolossi in 1655. �SLOVAKIA 41 The book Cantus Catholici," says Mraz, "laid the foundation on which the language used by Slovak Catholic writers, was formed into an independent Slovak literary language. Crystallization of the language, which Slovak Catholic writers used during the period of the University of Trnava (1635-1777), progressed so far in accordance w'ith the spoken language in Western Slovakia that, when Bernolak and his followers came, at the end of the 18th century, with the idea of an independent literary language, they merely codified, in many respects, a language used and domesticated among the Catholic Slovak writers of the preceding period ' 31 l . In the introduction to his Dejiny spisovnej slovenciny, Pauliny understands the history of the language as the history of the origin, disappearance and changes of its individual styles. However, in the book itself, he divided the history of the Slovak literary language according to the languages which were used by the Slovaks as literary languages in addition to the spoken vernacular from the time of Greater Moravia. H e writes: "Although, in this case, the period of the actua~ Slov.ak literary language can <begiin only wi'th Bernolak, or with the period shortly before Bern1-0lak, nevertheless it is not possible to !begin the hi&tocy of the literary language of t he Slovaks either with Bernolaik or Stoc, lbult ilt is netessa~y to go deep 'into the past, aM the way -to the vecy beginnings oif the •h istorical period of our nation in the Great Moravian epoch, nay, 1in certain imat:ters, it is necessary to go eiven further, into the prehistoric pe;riod, when- our ancestQil's were not yet bapti:z,ed and did not participate in the European culture which was introduced to us 1by Ohristianity"< 32). Professor A. Dostal, in his work "Nastin dejin ceskeho a slovenskeho jazyka," published in Prague in 1954, developed the following thesis on the Slovak literary language: "The Slovak language, whose development goes iback to ancienlt times, was ,estaf!Jlished as a literary language 'in connection with the formation of the Slovaks into a nation .. . the estalbH-s.hment oif the literary Slovak language can in no way be viewed as a sepa·r ation from ,t he literary Cze ch lang,uage, 1but ,only as a long, slow d evelopment towards a literairy language . .. " C33 l . Prof. Dostal goes even farther and says that the attempts to impose the Czech language upon Slovaks as a �42 SLOVAKIA literary medium must be considered "as a negation of hundreds of years long developmen t which in the 1840's was already a historical fact in Slovakia ... " A century-lon g debate, as to whether Slovak is a dialect of the older Czech language or a distinct Slavonic tongue, has thus been "officially" closed by the recognition on both Czech and Slovak sides that, from its earliest beginnings, the Slovak language has always manifested a distinct identity as a Slavonic tongue of the inha:bitants of Slovakia. By a careful anaiysis of the fundament al roots of both languages, Slovak and Czech, as well as through a comparativ e study of their later developmen ts, even the "Marxist" scholars, trained in philology have properly classified the Slovak language as one of the distinct Slavonic languages which developed after the disappearan ce of the Old Slavonic language. As a result of this developmen t the relation between the two literary languages of today's Czecho-Slovakia is now officially accepted as a relation between two Slavic but distinct languages. Czech poetry and prose are translated into Slovak and vice versa, as the Polish and Russian have always been. Life and historical facts prevailed over artificial tendencies and theories a long time ago and finally they have prevailed even over the reluctance of some politicians and philologists to recognize their victory. NOTES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY 1. Slovakia, Vol. XI, No. 1, (33), 1'961; pp. 22-42. 2. Roman J,ako'bson: Slavic Languages, Columbia Utn,iversity, De- partment oo Slavic Studies, 1~; p. 10. 3 . .See relference to the wol.1k oo Prof. A. Dostal: Nastin dejin ceskeho a slovenskeho jazyka, P!laha, 11954. 4. Eug.eni Pauliny: Dej iny spisovnej slovenciny, Bra'tislava, 1948; p. 7'2; and Robert Auty: Dialect, Koine and Tradition in the Fo.rmation of Literary Slovak, in T.he Slavonic and East European R-eview, Vol. 39, No. 93, London, 1961. 5. ]bidem: p . 34'2. 6. L. I. Strll!khovsky: Handbook of Slavic Studies; pp. 51-52. 7. ]bidem: p . 4194. 8. S. H. Thomson: Czechoslovakia in European History; pp. 258, 263. 9. ,pp. 36-3'9. l'O. V. Bu§ek•N. Spulber: Czechoslovakia Under Communism; pp. 173-197. �SLOVAKIA 43 11. Grundzuge der Phonologie, Pr'aigue, 1939. 12. J. Dolbrovsky and P. J. Saif{u:,ik dTew the dialectical l1ine sep•araitin,g SlQlVa'k and Czech d'i.al-ects in the middle cxf Moravm. Of. J. Skultety: SketchH From Slovak History, and his book S,todvadsat'pat' rokov zo slovenskeho iivota. 13. E. Pauliiniy: Dej iny spisovnej slovenciny, p. 41. Benedicti wro•te: "Neque tamen ego hie •e os ·ad Bohemicam linguam cogo, sed ad exeroitatJionem et cwltur-am iipsocum i<liiomatis i'llvito: presertim cum '110n tantum in eivitaiti:bus et oppidis, se<l etim in pagis scholis albundenlt." (GTammaticae Bohemicae lilbri duo. 1603). 141. E. Pauliny, Op. cit, p. 57 and 1'13; and A . Mraz: Dejiny slo• venskej literatury, p. 108. Flirst transratioo, of tfhe Bible dates from 1763, and -also the fir!lt dilctionaey was compiled at that time. 15. J. Skulitety, Op. cit.; and J,a roslav Vlceik : Medzi Vahom a Vltavou, pp. 228-234. 116. J. Skultety, Op. cit., pp. 20-30. 17. Op. cit., pp. 494-495. 18. E. Palllliny, Op. cit. , pp. 30-36. 19. 0. Radrr in Handbook of Slavic Studies, p. 491. 20. E. Pawliny, Op. cit., pp. 36-3,71 and '53. Pauliny is Off the opiniion that the occupation cxf Hungacy •b y the Turks (1526) he·bped the penetTation cxf the Cz,ech la1mguage since there was a sort of common border between Slova:kia and Moravia in the Habsburg Monarchy. 2r. T. LehraSlpla,winski: Przeglad i charakterystyka jaykow slo• wianskych, p. 71. 22. J . Dolbrovsky in 1875 wrote that Slovak is close to the Croat and Slovene languages in several respects. Zd. Stieber considers certain charaidteristics cxf tfhe S1'ovalk langua:g e as southerm- Slaivic e>lements (juhoslavizmy). Clf. Jan Starnislav: Dejiny slovenskeho jazyka, p. 387. 23. J. M. Wirschlbaum : l!udovit Stur and His Place in the Slavic World, pp. 13°17; and S. Czamlbel: Slovenska rec a jej miesto v rodine slova.nskych jazykov, '!iurc. Sv. Martin, '1'906. 24. Watson Kirk'co nnel: Canada, E•urope, and Hitler, pp. 43-4.14. 25. •P•roif. R!om'a,n Sm al-Oto•c ki: Papers Dopovidi, Sevcenko Slcienbific Society,, Ne,w York, 1961. .26. Op. cit., p. 71. 27. iR01bert Aulty: Dialect, Koi•ne, and Tradition in the Formation of Literary Slovak, The Slavoni:c and East European Review, Vol. 39, No. 93, Lo.ndon, 1'961. 28. ]bidem, .p p. 3'42-346. 29. Encyclopedia Britannica, Vol. 20, 1959, pp. 799-800. 30. J. M. Ki.r,schlbaum: Cont&mporary Tendencies in Slovak Philology, Slavic and Ea·st European Studies, Vol. W, No. 3-4, Monitrea,l , 11960; also in Offiprilrut. 31. Op. cit., pp. 46-108. 32. Op. cit., p. 5. ~- Op. cit., pp. 200-201. �44 SLOVAKIA BIBLIOGRAPHY of select.ed works in English, French, German, and Italian AUlty, Robert: The Evolution of Literary Slovak, Oambr'idlge, 1953. Reprinlt fr()IIIl Transadioru; of the P.hilologilcal Society, pp. 143-1:60. Dialect, Koine and Tradition in the Formation of Literary Slovak. Waper preseir.:ted to the V]]lth Congress of the International Federa1Ji,on of Modern Languages and Literatures at Liege, August 1,960, published in the Slavonic and East European Review, Vol. 39, No. 93, London, 19611). Berndlak, A1nton: Slowakische Grammatik, Aus dem Lateinischein, ins Deutsche iibers·etzt, ,gedr. mit konigl. ung. Universitatsschriiten, O.lifen, 1817. Bok•es, Frantisek: Literarische iibersicht des geschichtlichen Schaffens in der Slowakei, Leipziger Viertelja,hrsohr.iift fiir Siidost•europa 4, Leipzig, 1940. Cizevsky, Dmitr,y: Outline of Compara,t ive Slavic Literatures, American Academy of Arts and Scier.,ces, Boston, Mass., 1952. On Romanticism in Slavic Literatures, Gravenhage, Monton a.nd Co ., 1957. Aus Zwei Welten, Beitrage zur Geschieht-e der Slaiwischwes·thchen literarisohen Bezi•e hungen, 1956 Mickiewicz, Stur and Kral', in W. Lednicki's Adam Mickiewicz in World Literature, Be:r,keley, 1'9516. A Bibliography of the Publica,t ions of' Dr. Dmitry Ciievsky in the Fields of Literature, Language, Philosophy and Culture, Gamlbridg·e, Mass., 1952. De Bray, R. G. A.:Guide to the Slavonic Languages, J. M. Denlt and Sons, Ltd., London, 1S31. ,Denis, Ernest: La question d'Autriche - Les Slovaques, Parus, 191'7, Ubrairie Delagrave. One of the best books on Slovaks before the •e nd of the Firrst Wo-11ld War. His views on. Bernolak, Stur, etc., are s1igh'Uy distorted by the id•e a olf the na,t ional and cultural unity of Czechs a nd Slovaks. Dixon, Oharlton: Slovak Grammar for English Speaking Students, 'Middll.etown, Pa., Jednota Printery, 11935. Fischel, Alfred: Pansl•avismus bis zum Weltkrieg, Stuttgart and BerJin, 19119. One of the best documented works on Pan-SlaviS'm in the German languag,e. Giusti, Wolrfgango: II Panslavismo, Mhlano, 194'1!, InstitUlto per gli studi di politica internazional-e. More a politi1Cal than scholarly :r,eview of the idea of Pan-Slavli-sm among Slavic peoples. Gross, Felix (•ed.): European Ideologies, New York, 194!8, Philosophicail. Lilbrary, W. Lednicki:'s chapter on Pan,Slavi·s m. Schola,rl(Y wriitten ltfleatise from the Polish point of view. Hrobak, Philip A.: Hrobak's English-Slovak Dictionary, Jednota Priintecry, MiiddleitC1wn, Pa., 1944. Slovak Lessons, Lakewood, Ohio, Middletown, Pa., Jednota Printeriy, 1'935, 1•94'9. Slovak For Beginners, Books, I, H, Ifil, Middletown, Pa., Jednota Printery, 1952. ·Let's Learn Slovak, Mrddlletown, Pa., 1'959. 1 �SLOVAKIA 45 Hrusovsky, Frantisek: Geschichte der Slowakei, Brati>sla'V'a, 1'942. This Is Slovakia, Scranton, Pa., 1953. J•akofbson, Roman: Sur l'histoire et sur les .re•lations mu,t uelles du· tcheque et du slovaque, Le Monde Slave, xmv, '19317, 3·5 3-366. Slavic Langu•a ges, Columbia Univ,ersity Press, 1949. ~fo:sch1baum, J. M.: Slovakia - N·a tion At the Crossroads of Central Europe, New York, Speller and Sons, 1960. Slovak Literature Under the Soviet lmpaGt, The Slaivic and East-(Euroipean Studi·es, Monltr,eail, 1956, Part 1, pp. 45{}4, l!udovit Stur and His Place in the Slavic World, Sla'Vli~tica No. 3•2, Winnipeg-Cleveland, 1'956. Contemporary Tendencies in Slovak Philology, An Offiprint from Slavic a.n d East~ropean Studies, Vol. liV, No. 3-4, Montreal, 1960. A Note On Two Slowak Translators of Mickiewicz in W. Led1J1;icki's Adam Mickiewicz in World Litertaure, Berkeley, Ca.Jiif., lt956. La Grand,Moravie et son heritage culture(, Etud,es slaves et est-europeeL-:•nes, Montreal, Viol. fil. 1957 pp. 694M>. Le centen•a ire d'un grand slaviste: P. J. ~afarik, Etudes slaves et est-eurorp eennes, Montreal, Vol. V, 1960, prp. 189-!1'99. Kni,ezsa, Stefan: Zur Geschichte der Jugoslawismen im Mittelslowakischen, Budapest, 1948, uire a part d~ Etudes slaves ·e t roumaines, V01l. 1, Fasc. 3. Kohn, Hans: Pan-Slavism, Its History and Ideology, University of Notre Dame Press. 1953. One of th,e most Olbjective books on Pa.n-Slavism . Konus, Joseph: Practical Slovak Grammar. A te!Xtbook; for hi,gh s.chooils, colleges and adult ,private students, Pirotsburgh, Pa., 1939. Slovak-English Dictionary, Mi·ddletOWIJJ,, Pa., 1930. New English-Slovak Dictionary, Pitts<burg,h, Pa., 1941. Kramoris, Iva•n J.: An Anthology of Slovak Poetry, Scranton, 194'7,. A selection of lJyric and narrative poems indludimrg some member~ rnf stur's group. Slovakia and Slovak Litera,t ure. Reprinted :firoon the Caltholic Encydopedia, New Yo,rk, 1960. A Chronological Outline of Slovak Literature and History, Pass.air::, N. J ., 1S4~. Krcmery, Stefan: A Survey of Modern Slovak Literature, Of,fiprint from The Slavonic ReVliew, Viol. v.m:, N~. 19, 1-928"1929. Lednicki, Waiclaiw (ed.): Adam Mickiewicz in Wo.rld Literature, University of Calilfornia Press, 1956. Articles by D. Cirevsky aind J . M. Kirschbaum. Leger, Louis: Le panslavisme et l'interet francais, Parris, 1917', Ernest F1lammarion. A rellatJively Olbjec'tiv,e study of Pan.Slavism and Slovak contribution. French ipoint of view. Locher, T. J.: Die nationale Differenzierung und lntegrierunrg der Slowaken und Tschechen in ihrem geschichtlichen Verlauf bis 1848, Harlem, 1931. Macartney, C. A.: Hungary and Her Successors, London-<Nerw York- T-0ronito, 1937. �SLOVAKIA 46 Maruniim,g, Claren'Ce A. (ed.): An Anthology of Czech and Slovak Poetry, New York, 11929, Oolumbia Uniiversity Press. Oontains translaibions by Prof. Ktln-kccmnell, Kramoris, Gallik, Manning, Slaibey, Ifotouc, etc. Merrigi,, Bruno: Storia delle letterature ceca e slovacca.~Univ,ersity of Florence, 1,959. Mikus, Joseph: La Slovaquie dans le drame de !'Europe, P.aris, Les Iles d'Or. 11955. La Slovaquie, lndividualite politi11ue de l'Europe Centrale, Paris, 11952. Mraz, Amdreas: Die Literatur der Slowaken, Wien-stu'ttgart, 194!3. A History olf Slovak lJiteralture by a contemporary scholar and professor at the Un1iviersity cif Bratislava. The work, comple'ted and edited in the Slova,k language in 11Hl8 by The S'lovak Academy df Sci1ences and All"ts, presents one oif the best works on the histo11y of Slovak liiterarture. Pastrnek, Fr.: Beitrage zur Lautlehre der Slowakischen Sprache in Ungarn (Aus d,eri, Sitzurugsberichten der philos.-hist. KJ.asse der K. Akademie der Wi.ssenschalften), Wien, 1888. Petrowch, Michael! B.: The Emergence of Russian Panslavism, Oolumbia Univ,ersity Press, 11956. Scotus, Viator (IR. W. Seton-WaJtson): Racial Problems in Hungary, Archilbaild Oonsta:ble and Oo., Ltd., London, 1908. Seton-Watson, R. W.: A History of the Czechs and Slovaks, London, 119413'.A schola1rl<y written history by one of the best de:t:enders of tlhe Slovak people at rthe beg~n,nimg of this centpcy (see his Racial Problems in Hungary) who later turned .i,gainst the Slovak mo•v,ement for autonomy and independence, being influenced by his Czedh friends. Slovak Studies 1, Hiistorica 11, Slovak InstiJtute, 'Rome, 1961. Salfarik, P. J .: Geschichte der Slawischen Sprache und Liter&tur nach alien Mundarten, Mit koni~l. ung. Universitatsschrid'ten, Ofifen, 1826. Sku!Jt:ety, Joseph: Sketches From Slovak History, Middletown, Pa., 1930, J 1ednota Press. Translation from the Slovak by 0. D. Koreff. Skluitety was professor at the University of Bratishwa and on,e of the m06t outstanding figures in the Slovak cultl.l['al lilfe Jn the first ha1f of tlhe 20th cen!tur,y. Stefanek, Anton: Zur Soziograph,ie der geistigen Kultur in der Slowakei, Bratislava, 11944. Strakihovsky, L. I. (ed.): A Ha,ndbook of Slavic Studies, Harv,a rd University Rriess, 1949, dhaipters by A. Senn and Otto Radl. Both artidles re.fleldt reicent research, though Radl's contnilbution is strongly pl'lo-Czech. Tourtzer, H.: Louis Stur et l'idee de !'independence slovaque, Cahors et Al-ehcon, Pari,s, 11913. Trobetzkoy, N. S.: Grundzuge der Phonolo9ie, Prag, 1939, (.on Slov.aik language, pp. 1117-UB, 1'36, 14!1, 1143, 16lt, 167, 170, 175, 208, 245). Vajda, Jiaroslav: Bloody Sonnets, transl. irom Hviezdoslav, P . 0 ., Scra1nton, Pa., 1900. Viktorin, J. K.: Grammatik de.r Slowakischen Sprache. Zurn Schul.:.. und SelJbst,untilvricht, Budapest, 1002. �SLOVAKIA 47 Yurchak, P,eiter P.: The Slovaks, Wh'iting, Ind., 1947, Lach editions, c,h,apters fu-om Slovak History and litemture for Americam·s Olf Slovak ortgin. BIBLIOGRAPHY IN SLAVIC LANGUAGES iBartek, Heinrich: Anton Bernolak, Trnarva, 1,937. l!udovit Shir a slovencina, Turc. Sv. Martin, 194i3. Krest'anstvo a slovencin,a, Nad,ej vit'azna, Scranton, Pa., 1947. Slovensky pravopis s gramatickymi pouckami a slovnikom, Whiting, Ind., Lach Publications, 1956. Spravn,a vyslovnost' slovenska, Braltislava, 194J. Blanar, Vincerut: Bibliografia jazykovedy na, Slovensku v rokoch 19391947. Slovenska akademia vied a umeni, Bratislava, 1950. Bolbek, W.: Prehl'adne dejiny slovenskej literatury, Bratislava, 1939. Mickiewicz v literaturze slowackiej, Praha, lJ93il. Dzieje literatury slowackiej w arysie. A'Il annprint firom Slowacja i Sl'owlicy, Edit. W. Semkoiwica;, Krakow, 1008. Czamlbel, Samo: Prfspevky k dejinam jazyka slovenskeho, Budapest, 1887. Slovenska rec a jej miesto v rodine slovanskych ja:z:ykov, '!1urc. Sv. MartLn,, 1906. Slovensky pravopis. Historiok-OJkriticky nmes. Bud,a pest, 1890. [)vonc, Ladislav: Bibliografia slovenskej ja:z:ykovedy :z:a roky 19481952, Matilca Slov-enska, 1'957. Gajdo§, V. J .: Slovenske glosy v latinskom missa,li zo XVI. storoci'a, Historica slovacca I-11, BratisJ.ava, 1'940-lMt pp. 241-24'3. Gralbowski, T. S. : Dwaja Slowaccy pioner:z:y oswiecenia i post&pu, Bernolak a Fandly, 195ll. Hl"'ltta!1a, Martin: Kratka mluvnica slovenska, Bratislava, 1:852. Grammatica linguae slovenicae, Schemnicii, 1850. Hodza, Michal M.: Vetin o slovencine, Levoca, 164!8. ,Isaceniko, A. V.: Zaciatky vzdelanosti vo Vel'komoravskej rili, Jazykovedny sbornik, I.JI, 1947', 137-17'8. Jia,gic, I. V.: lstorija slavianskoj filologii, S. Petersburg, 1910, Jlankovic, V.: Prvy slovensky preklad celeho Pisma svateho, Ver.bum I, 19416-1947. Kondra§ov, N. A.: Kategoriia licnosti i nelicnosti v slovackom ja:z:yku, MGU, 11949. Programma po istoriji slovackogo jazyka. Programma po sovremennom slovackom ja:z:yku, Izdatelstvo Moskovsko,go univerziite'ta, '1001'. Slavinaskaja filologia, Stafi i monogrrufiji, Izdaltelstvo Mostkovskogo univerzfteta, 1951. Kotvam,, rmrich: Jozef lgnac Baiza a slovenska rec, Linguistica slovaca Ilil, 1'9411. Ju.l"aj Fandly, Trnava, 1946. Juraj Fandly a slovensky ja:z:yk, Linguistiea slovaca I-m, 1939. Be,rnolakovci, T\rnarva, 19418. Bibliografia bernolakovcov, Miati'&! Slovenska, Martin, 1957·_ Lehr-Sp}aiwin ski, T.: Pr:z:eglad i eharakterystyka je:z:ykow slowianskich, Warszaiwa, li9154·. 1 �48 SLOVAKIA Magnuszewski, J.: Mickiewicz wsrod Slowakow, Wir,oclaJW, 1956. Magiera, J.: Literatul"a czeska i slowacka, Obraz pismienniictwa. Warszawa, 1929. Misianik, Jan: Dejiny starsej slovenskei lite.ratury, SAN, Bratislava, 1958; Marxiisticky vy,kla,d st,arsej slov. litera'tury. Stran 320. Mraz, Andrej: Gavlovicova skola krest'anska. Prispev,ok k slov,enskemu literarnemu barolm, Bratislava, 11940. Dejiny slovenskej literatury, Slov. akad. v1ed a umeni, Bratislava, 194<8. Novak, I.!udovit: Cestina na Slovensku a vznik spisovnej slovenciny, Odtlafok zo Slovenskych pohl'adov, LEV, 193!8. Jazykovedne glosy k ceskoslovenskej otazke, Turc. Sv. Martin,, 11935. l!udovit Stur ako jazykovedec, Slovenske ipohl'ady, LiiI, 1936. Pastrnek, Fr.: Stara jazykova pamatka slovenska, Slbornik :liilologicky, ViIII, 1922. Pauliny, Eugen: Na okrai kama•ldulskeho Pisma, Vetibwm I, 1946-1947. Kulturnohistoricke podmienky a spolocenske funkcie biling.uizmu y dej inach spisovnej slovenciny, C-sl. prednaslcy pro sjezd slavistu v Mioskve, 11958. Glosy k pomeru: bernolactina a sturovcina, Kultura, XiJlV, 1942. Dejiny spisovnej slovenciny, Slovenska akademia vied a umeni, Bratislava, 1948. Pisut, Miilan (ed.): Dej iny slovenskej literatury, Osveta, Bratislava, 1960, p. 680. ContrilbUltors J . Miisiia-niik, P. Petrus, J. Gregor~, P . Stevc,ek, (A Mairxist evaluation). Litera,tura narodneho obrodenia, SAY, Bratisla,V'a, 1'960, p. 490. Slovensky literarny romantizmus, C-sl. prednaslcy pro mezinarodni sj-ezd slavistu v Moslwe, 1'958. Sobolevskij, A. I.: Cerkovno-slavianskije texty moravskogo proischozd,e nija, Ruskij filoloigicesk!j vestnik, 1•900. Stanislav, Jan: K jazykovednemu dielu A. Bernolaka, Bratislava, 194/1. Pribinovi vel'moii, Linguistica slovaca I-II, 193·9-11940. Slovanski apostoli Cyril a Metod a ich cinnost' vo Vel'komoravskej risi, Bratislava, 1945. Spisovny jazyk slovensky, v sborir.,i ku Slovanske jazy,ky v dobe pfitomne, Praha, 1937. Dejiny slovenskeho jazyka, Slovenska akademia wed, Bratislava, 1958. Stitibr, Zdisl'aiw: Zarys dialektologii jezykow zachodnio-slowanskich, W,arszarwa, 1'956. Skultety, Jozef: Stodvadsat'pat' rokov zo slovenskeho iivota 17901•914, Turc. Sv. Ma-rtin, 1920. 0 Slovakoch, Turc. Sv. M!a.rtin, 1928. Stur, I.!udovit: Nauka reci slovenskej, Bratislava, 1,846. Narecia slovenskuo, Bratislava, 1846. Slovo na case, (V uprav,e J . AIIIlibriusa), Bratislava, 1943. 'I1i!bensky, Jan: J. Papanek-J. Sklenar: Obr.incovia slovenskej narodnosti v XVlm. storoci, Osveta, Martin, 19.58. K problemu hodnotenia bernolactiny a bernolakovskeho IYm.,tia, Histod'C'ky casopis, Vfil, 4, 1959. �49 SLOVAKIA Vznik, vyvoj a vyznam vel'komoraV5kej trad icie v s lovenskom narodnom obrodeni, Sbornik O vzajomnych vzt'ahodh Cechov a Slov:ikov, SAV, 1956. Vairsik, BranisJav: Slovaci na praiskej univerzite do konca stredoveku, 1Bratislava, 1926. Kulturne vzt'ahy Cechov a Slovakov v 16. a 17. storoc: i, Bratislava, 1956. Narodnostny problem trnavskej univerzity, Bratislava, 1,9 38. VH~ovsky, Jan : Cantus Catholici, Biratislava IX, 193'5. Vilcek, J·aToslav: Dejiny literatury slovenske j, Turc. Sv. Martin, 1923. Medzi Vahom a Vl tavou, Slov. vyd .. krasnej literatury, Brabislava, 11957. Weingart, Milos: 0 nej starsich jazykovych pamatkach slovenskych, OMF, 1935. Rev. Milan Durica, SIXB, partici- j who made the arrangements. T\he pated in the sessions of the prepa- prayer was purblished in the Conrator,y commission for discipline gressiona1l Record of March 14. llt! llt! llt! of the ole11gy and fait,hiful for the I n. Vatican, Ecdlesiastical Assemlbly. I Bishop Andrew G. Grutka of Father Durica, a native Olf S1()1Va- 1 bhe diocese of Gary, Indiana, ackia, acts in an advisory capacito/. 1companied by the Rt. Rev. Msgr. M .K. Mlynarovic, president of the The meeting was early in Slovak Callholic Federation of ruary. Amenica, traveled to Rome early :!€! llt! :!€! Dr. John Novotny, a native Olf , in April (6-15) to review the plans Slovakia now res•idin,g im, London, : for the Slovak Institute which will successfully passed the medical be bui11t there. Plans were also examinations to !become a Memlber made for the celebration of the of the Royal College of Physi- l'lOOth anniversary of the advent of the saintly brothers Cyril an,d cians. Methodius to the ancient homeland llt! llt! llt! According to Radio Bratislava of the Slovaks, Slovakia, in 1963, (Feb:mary 3', '1962), the exposition by Slovaks in the free world. Biof Czech~ovak bodks in Rome shop Grutka had an audience with was a great success. Our friends Pope John XXIIil!I on Aipril 14. The in Rome, however, inform us that Slovak Institute will cost rubout a it was far from being successful. halif million dollars, most of which And Slovak books were conspicu- is exipected to be donated by the ous by their albsence, only a/bout Slovaks in America. Almost half the amount is already pledged. te·n being displayed. Feb-I' I )lg )lg )lg )lg )lg )lg Rev. John E. ~englar, pastor of The Holy See, early in Apr:I, Sacred Heart Church, Phoenixville, Pa., opened bhe session of bhe U. S. Senate on 'March 14, 1962' - the -23'rd anniv,ersacy of the .pro>clamation rnf S1ov•aik Independence - with a special prayer. He was atccompanied to Washington by P . A. Hl.'obak, president o'f the Slovak League of America, 1962, appointed the Rev. Rudolph KOibela, C.,M., miss,i onary for t,he Slovaks in England, parUoolarly for the several hundred who reside in London and viiicinity. F,ather Kdbela had been attending to the spiritual needs of the Slova'ks in London, for several years prior to that time. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1962, Vol. 12 Description An account of the resource Issue 1 (No. 35), March-June 1962. 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 1962 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 25 MISCONCEPTIONS OF AMERICAN SLAVISTS ON THE SLOVAK LANGUAGE Joseph M. Kirschbaum, Ph.D. I Misconceptions of American Slavists on Slovak literature which have been discussed here previously <1 > had been caused to a great extent by the confusion of views regarding the Slovak language. The confusion was created, on the one hand, by Slavists and literary historians who failed to draw a proper distinction between the native or spoken language of the Slovaks and their written or literary language, which, as we have seen, was first the Old Church Slovanic, afterwards t he Latin language, then Biblical Czech, used mainly by the Slovak Protestant minority, and then the literary Slovak based on Slovak western dialects, and finally the revised present form, based on central Slovak dialects. On the other hand, the misconceptions have been intentionally spread by some Czech Philologists and literary historians who were influenced by political views and aspirations, which the American Slavists accepted without the necessary caution required in scholarly works. As a result, we find in many American symposia on the Slavic peoples or in works on philology and Slavic languages either the Czech thesis that the Slovak language is merely a dialect of the Czech, or that Slovak became a literary language only at the beginning or in the second half of the nineteenth century. We also find that the sources of information or reference used by American Slavists are rather scarce and obsolete and that the subject has been treated by scholars who hardly had an opportunity to be thoroughly acquainted with the history and development of the Slovak literary language and its position among Sla-wc languages. Before pointing out the misconceptions in American symposia and surveys of Slavic languages, we may perhaps say that the claim that Slovak is but a dialect of the 26 SLOVAKIA Czech language was not based on facts of history or philology. It was a biased opinion of those who tried to give a scholarly basis to political aspirations denying to the Slovaks the right to their independent national and cultural life. And there rest also the origins of the erroneous thesis that Slovak began to be used a·s a literary language only from the second half of the nineteenth century. In the views of European Slavists, including the Russian and Czech philologists, it is clear, as we shall see, tha't the Slovak language is by every right of its origin and development an independent tongue, having its rightful place of equality among Slavic languages. And it has also been accepted that Slovak has been used as the language of literature from the sixteenth century, and was codified before the end of the eighteenth century. Slovak philologists and linguists (Bernolak, Safarik, Czambel, Skultety, Bartek, Stanislav, Novak, Pauliny) rejected, during the last two centuries, Czech theories and looked for linguistic criteria to determine the origin and the main characteristics of the Slovak language. They reviewed the historic forms of the Slovak tongue and by scholarly methods and comparative study of Slavic languages they arrived at conclusions which were ultimately accepted by the present-day Czech as well as other Slavic philologists and linguists. Misconceptions of American Slavists refer, as we have said, to the relation of the Slovak and Czech, to the history of the Slovak literary language and to the role of foreign languages in Slovak literature. In this respect we -read not without surprise that even the well-known Roman Jakobson helped to spread the erroneous views. In his study Slavic Languages, he writes: ''Toward the middle of the same (i.e., the 19th) century, the Slo¥aks, who had used literary Czech (somewhat adapted to their own habits) inaugurated their own literary language based on the central Slovak dialect but patterned after standard Czech" <2>. We shall also see that even Czech philologists recognize today that Slovaks "-inaugurated" their own literary language long before the middle of the 19th century, and SLOVAKIA 27 that we can speak only about a reform of the Slovak literary language in the nineteenth century <3 >. Secondly, the 19th century reform, linked with the name of r..udovit Stur, was "not based on the dialect of any single area, but represented a kind of "koine" ('Cultural Slovak), based on the central Slovak dialects, eschewing features from both the eastern and western dialects <4 >. As for the usage of the Czech language, "Czech was sporadically used (with certain local modification) for administrative and still more occasionally, literary purposes," says correctly R. Auty <5 >. The reasons for this will be explained later. Prof. Alfred Senn, in Strakhovsky's Handbook of Slavic Studies, gives a more detailed and more ela:borate description of the Slovak literary language. His classification of Slovak is certainly correct, but we could hardly agree with all parts of his definition. Prof. Senn says: "Slovak ... forms a connecting link with the South Slavic Slovenian and is more archa,ic than Czech. Otherwise differen:ces between Czec.h and Slovak are not very great. Slovak became a literary language at the beginning of the nineteenth century .. . Czec.h and Slovak form the Czechoslovak group" <s>. In the same symposium another contributor, Otto Radl, admitted that "as early as 1635 in Trnava books were printed in different Slovak dialects,," but he states that it was only in 1844, in the period of Romanticism, that "the therefore common written language, the Czech, was being replaced by a newly-originated Slovak literary language." According to Radl "this ·m ovement had been begun at the end of the 18th century by the learned Slovak philologist Anton Bernolak who published several works in Latin in which he tried to show that the Slovaks were a separate nation and that they should therefore use thir own distinctive written language based on dialects spoken in western Slovakia" <7 >. A similar version can be found in Prof. S. Harrison Thomson's book "Czechoslovakia in European History," who says that "a deliberate effort to substitute for the written Czech then in use in Slovakia a language based upon a local dialect came from the "Catholic camp" only in 1790, when Anton Bernolak published a Grammatica slavica. However, 28 SLOVAKIA Prof. Thomson asserts, that " about the only followers Ber nolak had were Catholic writers, and even among them the vogue for his grammar and dictionary soon died out ... The year 1834-1835 is usually given," concludes Thomson, "as the date of the rise of written Slovak, although strictly speaking, Stur did not make his first formal declaration until 1856" ( R ) . In Prof. Robert J. K erner's symposium Czechoslovakia and in V. Busek-N. Spulber's Czechoslovakia Under Communism, we find only slightly modified or re-worded versions of the theses mentioned above. "Catholic Slovaks under Bernolak tried to create with indifferent success a written Slovak dialect," we read in Kerner's symposium <9 >, and Busek-Spulber's symposium gives the following genesis of the Slovak literary language: ... "the firs,t attempts were made (aside from earlier sporadic ventures) to establish a distinct Slovak literary language in the last decade of the 18th century by Anton Bernolak (1762-1813) who selected the western Slovak dialects as a basis of the new literary medium; his suggestions, not elaborate linguistically, did not take permanent hold. "The decisive step towards the establishment of a Slovak litera.ry language was undertaken through the initiative of the Protestants. tudovit Shir selected the central Slovak dialect for the Slovak literary medium. Beginning in the 1840's, several poets followed Shir and usEd the new literary language with great skill" r 10 J. This version admits "sporadic ventures to establish a distinct Slovak literary language" before the last decade of the 18th century, but considers Bernolak's "suggestions not elaborated linguistically" and credits the Protestants with the merits, while Radl says the opposite! All these misconceptions seem to be due, as we have mentioned before, in the first place to the uncritical acceptance of the politically motivated thesee of Czech or at the Prague University educated Slavists. In the second place, the use of sources either long before superseded by new works or unilaterally selected, might have misled those Slavists who were trying to be scholarly objective. In this respect even Prof. R. Jakobson's bibliography leaves much to be desired. We find in his bibliography only four works, two written by Slovaks and two by Czechs, SLOVAKIA 29 but none of them dealing with the history of Slovak language or with the problem of its relation to the Czech language. To a Slavist of Jako'bson's renome the fact could not be unknown that already Paul. J. Safarik in 1826 wrote on the Slovak language and Slovak literature as being distinct from the Czech or other Slavic languages and literatures. Consequen tly the Slovaks could not "inaugurat e" their own literary language "toward the middle of the 19th century." Sources used by Prof. Senn, who undoubtedl y tried to be objective, were better selected, but three of them favor the Czech thesis of "one Czechoslov ak unit." He shows in his literature and references the following books: J. Victorin: Gramatik der Slowakisch en Sprache, 4th edition, Budapest, 1878; K. Meznik: Die Slowakisch e Spaltung, Euphorion, 1927; R. J ak~bson: Sur fhistoire et sur Jes relations mutuelles du tcheque et du slovaque, Le Monde Slave, XIV, 1937, 353-366; V. Vazny: Slovak Dialects, Ceskoslovens ka vlastiveda, Vol. III, 1934. Otto Radl, who contributed to Strakhovsk y's Handbook of Slavic Studies a chapter on Slovak literature, did not show in his bibliograph y any work in Slovak or in foreign languages which he used or in which the reader could check Rad-l's opinions or complete his knowledge. Closing our remarks we perhaps may say that not many American Slavists who wrote during the post 40 years on the Slovak language and literature speak or write Slovak or ever read Slovak literary works in the original. Some of them merely rephrased mistaken views published by Czech scholars and politicians; and several contributio ns to American symposia on Slovaks were written by Czechs. Reviewing the names of the Czech contriibutor s we could not, however, say that any of them made his name as as expert on Slovak language or literature before coming to the United States. II LITERARY SLOVAK AND THE SLAVIC LANGUAG ES Scholarly studies of phonology, etymology, lexicology and grammar show that the Slovak language is distinct 30 SLOVAKIA from any other Slavic tongue. Even though this was not so clear and evident to Slavists of the 19th century when philology was in its infancy and used primitive methods, Slovak philologists and linguists always maintained this point of view. After a century of clashes and discussions between the Czech linguists and - first the Slovak Catholic erudites who began to replace the Latin with Slovak already in the seventeenth century, and from the 1840's a-lso with the Protestant leaders - the Slovak language has been properly classified as the real and original national tongue of the inhabitants of Slovakia since the dawn of history. The historical development of Slovakia and geographical factors account for the fact that the Slovak language not only conserved many archaic forms and expressions common to all Slavs, but, remaining for centuries only a spoken vernacular of the people, it was affected merely by the influence of neighboring Slavic peoples. When it was codified, this happened in the era of the revival of Slovanic peoples, and the Slovak cultural and political leaders saw to it that the Slovak language might conserve its central position and Slavic purity. Kollar himself argued, and some Slavists of that time accepted his idea, that the Slovak language "stands grammatically and geographically in the center of all Slav dialects," and the Tatra mountains are the "nest and cradle of all Slavs," which, of course, the modern science of history, archeology and ethnography challenges. However, the central position of the Slovak language, geographically or linguistically, is accepted to a great extent even by modern philology. Slovak is more archaic than Czech, which in turn is more archaic than Polish. Since Russian is considered the least removed from the primitive Slavic prototype, both Slovak and Russian are the most archaic and nearest to the common primitive Slavic. In fact, the Slovaks - either educated or common _people ..:..:_ do not experience much difficulty in communicating in Slovak with Poles, Ukrainians, Czechs, Russians, or Slovenes and Croats, as has been proven on the American. Con- SLOVAKIA 31 tinent, since basica:lily there are no great dif.ferences among the Slavic languages, and, in the case of the Slovak language, history and geography made it close not only to Pole and Czech, but also to Ukrainian and South Sfavic Slovenian and Croat. Slovak intellectuals of the nineteenth century read not only Polish or Czech poets and writers in the original, but also in Russian and Ukrainian, Croat and Slovenian. Modern scientific and literary development drifts the twelve Slavic langua,ges apart. Nevertheless, even if we cannot agree with the nineteenth century poet that, . "with the Slovak language you may the earth's four corne;rs travel," the fact remains that Slovaks are able to communicate in their own vernacular with the majority of Slavic peoples. Linguistic analysis of the fundamental roots of the Czech and Slovak languages and a comparative study of their developments showed that the Slovak language never was a part of the Czech or so-cailled "Czechoslovak" language. If we accept the thesis, supported by Trubecko <m, that in the ninth century the Old Sfavonic still was the common tongue of the Slavs with a unified phonology, and that from the ninrth century different dialects _· developed into distinct Slavic languages, there is no historical or philological reason why it should not be claimed that at the time of disintegration of the Old Slavonic and of the rise of new independent Slavic languages, Slovak was among them and that its development cannot be identified with that of the Czech language. This thesis is strengthened also by the fact that the Slovak territory was annexed by Hungary after the collapse of Great Moravia, and, hence the only contact the Slovaks had with Czechs, was through Moravians who have continued to speak a Slovak dialect <12 > in spite of the pressure of the Czechs from the West, and to the present time they have retained their own phonological structure. The relation between the Czech and Slovak languages became a matter of controversy because of political a:·s pirations of some Czech politiciap.s and scholars and not because of philological reasons. As early as the 16th century, 32 SLOVAKIA Vavrinec Benedikti of Nedozery (1555-1615), a learned Slovak philologist and professor at the Prague University, exhorted his Slovak countrymen to cultivate their native tongue. He wrote his appeal in a grammar he composed for Czechs, which makes it clear that already for him there were two different languages ( l 3 >. From the si:x;teenth century on, there are numerous proofs that Slovak erudites, with a few exceptions, considered the Slovaks as one of the "tribes" of the Slavic nation, but speaking their own "dialect" different from the Czech, Polish or Russian, using the word dialect for our term language. Slovak was used not only in homiletic writings but also in scholarly works and poetry especially since the middle of the 17th century around the University of Trnava (founded 1635). At the end of the 18th century, Anton Bernolak only codified, in his linguistic works Dissertatio Orthographia, Gramatica slavica, and in his huge pentalingual Dictionary, a language in use for more than a century <14>. The well-known Slavist P. J. Safarik, and initiailly also Jan Kollar, were aware of the fact that there had been a Slovak language and Slovak literature, different from the Czech or the other Slavic languages and literatures. Safarik gave testimony to it in his Geschichte der Slawischen Sprache und Literatur in alien Mundarten (1826), and when some Czech leaders reproached Nm for his s·cholavly objectivity, Safarik indignantly announced that he would go even farther in stressing the differences than he did in his book <15 >. Jan Kollar was origina:lly also instrumental in preparing Stur's reform and later changed his mind and became an advocate of a common literary lamguage with the Czechs (which he called "old Slovak") because of reasons which Slovak literary historians avoid to discuss. The great poet of Pan-Slavism had also some human deficiencies like very high personal pride and a terrible temper, and took it as an insult that Stur and his group dared to do something in Slovak cultural life without consulting him or without his patronage ( lG>. This "crimen lesae majestatis" moved Kollar to oppose Stur's reform and the final acceptance of the Slovak SLOVAKIA 33 literary language also by Slovak Protestants. Safarik did not change his scholarly views which he expressed in his Geschichte, but being employed in Prague and financially supported by Czech patriots, he tried to convince his Slovak countrymen that they should not move too far from the Czechs and suggested that the Czech should be adjusted to the Slovak linguistic phenomena and peculiarities. "The will of the Slovak groups to assert their own national individuality was, however, too strong," as admitted by Radl <17 >, and Stu.r's reform was victorious over Kollar's protests and Safarik's advices, because it was in line with the linguistic facts and centuries long Slovak national development. The reasons for the sporadic use of the Czech language for administrative and partly a:lso for literary purposes (mainly by the Slovak Protestants) have been recently reconsidered by several "Marxist" philologists and literary historians. There are at least three theories on the penetration of the Czech language into the Slovak territory. One refers to the continuation of relations between Slovaks and Moravians (who adopted the Czech language) from the time of Great Moravia, which relations survived the collapse of that state and developed between the Moravian cultural center Olomouc and Slovak religious centers. More acceptable and also more elaborated is the theory ascribing the use of the Czech language to the fact that Czech was a sort of diplomatic language and that Czech clerks were used at certain periods (the XV-XVIth century) not only in Slovak territory but also in Hungary and Poland, in state and city administration na>. In Slovakia, the use of Czech, adapted to local dialects, survived because of the Reformation which penetrated among Slovaks from Bohemia with the Bible and religious books written in the old Czech, and because during the Counter-Reformation "many Protestant Czechs found shelter in Slovakia and even printed books in Czech for the purpose of smuggling them into Bohemia" <19 >. Settled in Slovakia, the Czech refugees tried to keep all Slovak Protestants linked to Bohemia by language also in s ecular writings. Being a minority, the Protestants looked 34 SLOVAKIA to the Czechs first for he1p in religious and later also in literary and political matters <20 >. Around 1840, it became clear, however, to the leaders of the Protestant minority in Slovakia that the Czech language was not intelligible to the common people, that their writings could not reach the Slovak population and for reasons which r... Stur explained in his Narecia slovenskuo and other writings, they agreed with Catholics, on the reform, which based the literary language on the central Slovak dialects, and on the exclusive use of Slovak in Slovak literature. Stur's reform, by which the Slovak language was finally esta·b lished as a literary medium of all Slovaks, "has been accepted by the Slovak intelligentsia within a very short space of time" as correctly stated by Auty. By this reform, which received its final linguistic form in the grammar of a Catholic priest, Martin Hattala, the peculiar situation of bi-lingualism in modern Slovak literature was changed. As it is accepted now also by foreign Slavists, the first literary language (or language of literature) used by Slovaks was the Old Church Slavonic <21 >, and the Slovaks rightly claim the writings of the Great Moravian period as a part of their cultural heritage. Then for centuries Slovaks used Latin also in secular writings; and from the 16th century Slovak Catholics began to replace Latin with the Slovak vernacular, which Slovak Protestants replaced with Czech, adapted to local use. During all these centuries, the Slovak people spoke, of course, their own Slovak dialects which developed from the Old Slavonk after its disintegration into the modern Slovak language. History of the Slovak language and history of Slovak literature began at the same time, in the IXth century, but in literature Slovaks used various media (Church Slavonic, Latin, Czech and Slovak), while their native tongue was used in daily life until it was lifted to the position of a literary medium, which happened more or less at the same time at which other central European peoples began to use vernacular for literary purposes. On the position of Slovak among Slavic languages: foreign and Slovak philologists expressed various opinions .. SLOVAKIA 35 V. J agic in his book Entstehungsgeschichte der Kirchenslawischen Sprache wrote: "in Great Moravia people must have spoken in the ninth century a tongue which in its fundamentals was identical with the Slovak language of today." J. Dobrovsky admitted that certain linguistic phenomena linked Slovak with South Slavic languages <22 >; and S. Czamlbel el~borated linguistic~lly a theory to prove that the questions as to whether Slovak is closer to western Slavic or to the southern Slavic group of languages deserved to be reconsidered by philologists. Stur viewed the position of the Slovak language as a central clearing house mainly because he was conscious of many of its similarities with the Slavic tongues of the East, West, North, and South, especially noting the South Slavic dialects with which Slovak came into intimate contact during long centuries <23 >. III VIEWS OF CANADIAN AND EUROPEAN SLAVISTS Among European Slavists, including present-day Czech philologists, the erroneous views regarding the relation between Slovak and Czech, and the origin of the Slovak literary language, have been mostly corrected. Modern techniques in linguistics have thrown new light on the subject and have been instrumental in giving us modified views that are advanced far beyond the htasty unwarranted conclusions of the amateur philologists or linguists influenced by political aspirations. For truth's sake we have to point out that also on the American continent we find Slavists who expressed correct views, and some of them did that before Slavic studies acquired the 'prominence which they enjoy now in the United States and in Canada. The well-known Canadian Slavist, Prof. W. Kirkconnell, wrote, for example, already in 1940, that the differences between Czech and Slovak are about as great as those between the similarly related languages, Dutch and German. "I have," says Kirkconnell, "on my shelves Miroslav KaJal's Slovak-Czech Dictionary (published in 1924), in which there are 35,000 Slovak words that were 36 SLOVAKIA apparently unintelligible to a Czech and hence required definition" <24 >. Prof. Roman Smal-Stocki in his paper Discrimination and Bias in Two UNESCO Publications raised his voice against treating Slovak ,a nd Czech "as one unit." "From the linguistic point of view," says Prof. Sma.'l-Stocki, "it is inadmissible to mix state units with existing languages and to treat 'as one unit' Czech and Slovak, because the linguistic fact is that in existence are two separate units, Czech and Slovak" <25 >. Among European Slavists, the Polish scholar T. LehrSplawinski came with a new approach to the history of the Slovak literary language. He dates back the beginnings of the Slovak literary language to the IXth century which view has been held also by some other Slavists in recent years. "The beginnings of the literary language in Slovakia are connected with the period of activities of ConstantineCyril and Methodius in the Moravian state," says LehrSplawinski. "As the whole of Slovakia was, without any doUJbt, a part of that state, and the important centres of its political and cultural life were situated on the Slovak territory, writings in the old Church-Slavonic language must have been undoubtedly developed among the Slovaks in the last quarter of the IX th century" <26 >. R. Auty, from the University of Cambridge, in the pahe presented to the VIIIth Congress of the Inwhich per ternational Federation of Modern Languages and Literatures at Liege, August 1960, corrected misconceptions on Bernolak and Stur and their reforms. "Anton Bernolak codified in 1870" a language which was already in use, and urrlike the American S1avists who minimized Bernolak's importance, Auty writes that "in the following fifty or sixty years a considera:ble number of literary and other works were published or written in this (Bernolak's) form of Slovak. The remarkable extent of the literature published in Bernolak's language has recently been revealed," says Auty, " by I. Kotvan, Bibliografia bernolakovcov, Martin, 1957"<27 >. The Czech language was, according to Auty, "spora- SLOVAKIA 37 dically used in Slovakia (with certain local modification) for administrative and, still more occasionally, literary purposes." The reasons for this sporadic usage of Czech for administrative and "more occasionally" also for literary purposes, were explained by Auty only indirectly. He mentions that "since the Reformation the Czech had been the language of the Lutheran scriptures and Church Services in Slovakia," but he didn't say that as a result of this situation t he biblical Czech was used by the Slovak Protestant minority also in secular writings in the same way as the Catholics used the Latin, and that Czech was used for administrative purposes also in Hungary and Poland, the reason being the Monarchy, in which all those countries were included. Stur, Protestant though he was, acted against what he regarded as an unnatural linguistic situation which had been brought about by the hazards orf history. "His reaction was radical," says Auty, and gives a detailed picture of the changes which were brought about in the Slovak language by the agreement of the Catholics and Protestants in order to end bi-lingualism in Slovak literature. Auty's views on the reform of the Slovak literary language which took place in the 1840's, are fairly in line with the historical truth and recent research. .A!ccording to him "Catholic and Protestant Slovaks agreed to accept a new written form of their language for all purposes; this had been worked out by r... Stur in discussion with other Slovak intetlectual leaders in the period 1842-44 and was somewhat modified by M. M. Hodza and M. Hattala in subsequent years." Stur "on more than one occasion praised the work of Bernolak, and, above all, the poetry of Jan Holly and fully accepted one element of Bernolak's linguistic reform - the orthographical system" - continues Auty. "The general pattern of the language, as fashioned by Stur, was in accordance with the needs of Slovak Society and has proven itself - and Stur's genius - by its survival" <28 >. The contri-butors to the Encyclopedia Britannica published some correct and some incorrect views, but they 38 SLOVAKIA grasped the essential points of difference between the Czech and Slovak. "The Czech, as spoken and written today in Bohemia, diverges consideraibly from Slovak," says the Encyclopedia. "The disagreement is least marked in vocwbulary but ap• pears prominently in the phonetics; in particular the itacism so distinct a characteristic of Czech, is non-existant in Slovak, which has preserved the fuller diphthongs (ia, ie, iu, etc.) of the Slavonic languages; a further smaller point is the dz, from common Slav dj, is used (as in Polish) where Czech has z. In one point only is there a divergence which goes back beyond the time of the common ancestry of the two languages; S1ovak has not developed the f, which is characteristic of Czech and in that language occurs since the beginning of its literature. The Slovak palatalization of n, d, t and 1 aifter e, which does not occur in modern literary Czech, is a further point of disagreement, although this woU'.ld not be o:bvious from Slovak spelling which does not find it necessary to distinguish by diacritics; consonants are always softened in this position." The main contriibutor to the Encyclopedia, Prof. C. A. Macartney, refers also to a better selected bibliography than American Slavists and points out to the relation of Slovak with other Slavie languages as follows: "The dialectical development," says Macartney, "shows some characteristics identical with those in South Slavonic and Russian. Not everywhere, for example, have C.S. u and i been confused, and instead of the e, which is the norma:l result in Slovak as in Czech, we find in Eastern dialects an o from the u, thus agreeing with Russian. An agreement with South Slavonic is the occurrence of raz- and la- and lo-. Because of these and other phonetic and morphological reasons the grammarian Czambel, a keen opponent of the identity of Czech and Slovak, has asserted that Slovak should rightly be associated with South Slavonic"' 29 >. On Slovak literature Macartney says: "Slovak literature, which previously had only a local importance, bid fair to take a worthy place alongside that of its better known partner. The Survey of Modern Slovak Literature, by S. SLOVAKIA 39 Krcmery, in Vol. vii, No. 19, pp. 160-170, of the Slavonic Review (London), gives useful literature statistics and a good account of the literature of the present century." His Bibliography shows the following works: Dictionaries J. Loos: Worterbuch der Slovakischen, Ungarischen and Magyarischen Sprache (Budapest, 1871) ; M. Kalal, Slovensky Slovnik, etc (1924), written for Czechs, is most valuable as dialect words are included. Grammar - S. Czambel: Rukovat spisovnej reci slovenskej (1919). This Handbook of Literary Slovak is the standard work. Czambel's other works, e.g.,Slovaci a ich rec, (Buda:pest 1903) and Slovenska rec a jej miesto v rodine slovanskych jazykov (1906) are important for the dialects, but are ,biased; C. Dixon has written a Slovak Grammar For English Speaking Students (Pittsburgh, 1896). IV "MARXIST" CONCEPTIONS ON LITERARY SLOVAK AND THE ORIGINS OF THE SLOVAK LANGUAGE From the published works of the "Marxist" philologists and literary historians it is obvious that the Czech theses on the Slovak language, on the history of the Slovak literary language, and on the function of some foreign languages (Czech, "Czechoslovak") in Slovak literature, which theses were intended to support the political theory of a single "Czechoslovak" nation, have been definitely buried <30 >. In this respect, some contemporary works of Czech philologists helped to support the scholarly conclusions which have long been defended by the Slovak philologists. Particularly noteworthy of the Czech school is the work of the University Professor A. Dostal, and of the Slovak school, Professor Eugene Pauliny's Dejiny spisovnej slovenciny (History of Literary Slovak, Bratislava, 1948) , and Andrew Mra.z's Dejiny slovenskej literatury (History of Slovak Literature, Bratislava, 1948), as well as the pa'pers read at the Moscow Fourth International Congress of Slavists in 1958. In this respect, the paper of Professor Pauliny on bilingualism in the history of the Slovak literary language de- 40 SLOVAKIA serves particular attention. Pauliny tries to explain the function of the Czech language in Slovakia in the XVth and following centuries on the basis of social and economic phenomena and changes. He has arrived, nevertheless, at the same conclusions as the philologists who d'id not apply "Marxist criteria" in phi'lology, i.e., that the Czech language was a foreign language in Slovakia and could not withstand competition of the Slovak vernacu1ar when the Slovak ethnicum evolved in its national consciousness. Literary Slovak won out despite the fact that the Protestant minority, predominantly of Czech origin, tried to maintain it even in the XIXth century when the Slovak literary language was established by the Catholic majority (80 % ) over a century ago. The relation between the Czech and Slovak is, therefore, according to Pauliny, that of bilingua'lism. In his contribution to a volume "0 vzajomnych vzt:ahoch Cechov a Slovakov," published in 1956 by the S1lovak Academy of Sciences, Pauliny states: "Bernolak codified a language which can be traced in the writings of the middleclass, the lower nobility and educaited Slovaks back to the 15th century, and this in both Catholic and Protestant writings." As for the connection of Bernolak's school with Stur's group, Pauliny agrees with the other Marxi,s t literary historians and philologists. Stur's reform, which is erroneously presented by some American Slavists as the beginning of the Siovak literary language (in this respect even Jakdbson is mistaken), in Pauliny's view, is but a "younger branch of Bernolak's school." In the opinion of Professor A. Mraz, who still remains the main authority in Marxist literary history in Slovakia, Anton Bernolak reformed and codified the Slovak literary language and its orthography. Mraz regards the activity which originated around the Catholic University of Trnava (1635) as a starting point for introducing Slovak vernacular as a literary medium and stresses that the first manifestation of the new era in Slovak national life was the publication of the Cantus Catholici by Benedict Szolossi in 1655. SLOVAKIA 41 The book Cantus Catholici," says Mraz, "laid the foundation on which the language used by Slovak Catholic writers, was formed into an independent Slovak literary language. Crystallization of the language, which Slovak Catholic writers used during the period of the University of Trnava (1635-1777), progressed so far in accordance w'ith the spoken language in Western Slovakia that, when Bernolak and his followers came, at the end of the 18th century, with the idea of an independent literary language, they merely codified, in many respects, a language used and domesticated among the Catholic Slovak writers of the preceding period ' 31 l . In the introduction to his Dejiny spisovnej slovenciny, Pauliny understands the history of the language as the history of the origin, disappearance and changes of its individual styles. However, in the book itself, he divided the history of the Slovak literary language according to the languages which were used by the Slovaks as literary languages in addition to the spoken vernacular from the time of Greater Moravia. H e writes: "Although, in this case, the period of the actua~ Slov.ak literary language can <begiin only wi'th Bernolak, or with the period shortly before Bern1-0lak, nevertheless it is not possible to !begin the hi&tocy of the literary language of t he Slovaks either with Bernolaik or Stoc, lbult ilt is netessa~y to go deep 'into the past, aM the way -to the vecy beginnings oif the •h istorical period of our nation in the Great Moravian epoch, nay, 1in certain imat:ters, it is necessary to go eiven further, into the prehistoric pe;riod, when- our ancestQil's were not yet bapti:z,ed and did not participate in the European culture which was introduced to us 1by Ohristianity"< 32). Professor A. Dostal, in his work "Nastin dejin ceskeho a slovenskeho jazyka," published in Prague in 1954, developed the following thesis on the Slovak literary language: "The Slovak language, whose development goes iback to ancienlt times, was ,estaf!Jlished as a literary language 'in connection with the formation of the Slovaks into a nation .. . the estalbH-s.hment oif the literary Slovak language can in no way be viewed as a sepa·r ation from ,t he literary Cze ch lang,uage, 1but ,only as a long, slow d evelopment towards a literairy language . .. " C33 l . Prof. Dostal goes even farther and says that the attempts to impose the Czech language upon Slovaks as a 42 SLOVAKIA literary medium must be considered "as a negation of hundreds of years long developmen t which in the 1840's was already a historical fact in Slovakia ... " A century-lon g debate, as to whether Slovak is a dialect of the older Czech language or a distinct Slavonic tongue, has thus been "officially" closed by the recognition on both Czech and Slovak sides that, from its earliest beginnings, the Slovak language has always manifested a distinct identity as a Slavonic tongue of the inha:bitants of Slovakia. By a careful anaiysis of the fundament al roots of both languages, Slovak and Czech, as well as through a comparativ e study of their later developmen ts, even the "Marxist" scholars, trained in philology have properly classified the Slovak language as one of the distinct Slavonic languages which developed after the disappearan ce of the Old Slavonic language. As a result of this developmen t the relation between the two literary languages of today's Czecho-Slovakia is now officially accepted as a relation between two Slavic but distinct languages. Czech poetry and prose are translated into Slovak and vice versa, as the Polish and Russian have always been. Life and historical facts prevailed over artificial tendencies and theories a long time ago and finally they have prevailed even over the reluctance of some politicians and philologists to recognize their victory. NOTES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY 1. Slovakia, Vol. XI, No. 1, (33), 1'961; pp. 22-42. 2. Roman J,ako'bson: Slavic Languages, Columbia Utn,iversity, De- partment oo Slavic Studies, 1~; p. 10. 3 . .See relference to the wol.1k oo Prof. A. Dostal: Nastin dejin ceskeho a slovenskeho jazyka, P!laha, 11954. 4. Eug.eni Pauliny: Dej iny spisovnej slovenciny, Bra'tislava, 1948; p. 7'2; and Robert Auty: Dialect, Koine and Tradition in the Fo.rmation of Literary Slovak, in T.he Slavonic and East European R-eview, Vol. 39, No. 93, London, 1961. 5. ]bidem: p . 34'2. 6. L. I. Strll!khovsky: Handbook of Slavic Studies; pp. 51-52. 7. ]bidem: p . 4194. 8. S. H. Thomson: Czechoslovakia in European History; pp. 258, 263. 9. ,pp. 36-3'9. l'O. V. Bu§ek•N. Spulber: Czechoslovakia Under Communism; pp. 173-197. SLOVAKIA 43 11. Grundzuge der Phonologie, Pr'aigue, 1939. 12. J. Dolbrovsky and P. J. Saif{u:,ik dTew the dialectical l1ine sep•araitin,g SlQlVa'k and Czech d'i.al-ects in the middle cxf Moravm. Of. J. Skultety: SketchH From Slovak History, and his book S,todvadsat'pat' rokov zo slovenskeho iivota. 13. E. Pauliiniy: Dej iny spisovnej slovenciny, p. 41. Benedicti wro•te: "Neque tamen ego hie •e os ·ad Bohemicam linguam cogo, sed ad exeroitatJionem et cwltur-am iipsocum i<liiomatis i'llvito: presertim cum '110n tantum in eivitaiti:bus et oppidis, se<l etim in pagis scholis albundenlt." (GTammaticae Bohemicae lilbri duo. 1603). 141. E. Pauliny, Op. cit, p. 57 and 1'13; and A . Mraz: Dejiny slo• venskej literatury, p. 108. Flirst transratioo, of tfhe Bible dates from 1763, and -also the fir!lt dilctionaey was compiled at that time. 15. J. Skulitety, Op. cit.; and J,a roslav Vlceik : Medzi Vahom a Vltavou, pp. 228-234. 116. J. Skultety, Op. cit., pp. 20-30. 17. Op. cit., pp. 494-495. 18. E. Palllliny, Op. cit. , pp. 30-36. 19. 0. Radrr in Handbook of Slavic Studies, p. 491. 20. E. Pawliny, Op. cit., pp. 36-3,71 and '53. Pauliny is Off the opiniion that the occupation cxf Hungacy •b y the Turks (1526) he·bped the penetTation cxf the Cz,ech la1mguage since there was a sort of common border between Slova:kia and Moravia in the Habsburg Monarchy. 2r. T. LehraSlpla,winski: Przeglad i charakterystyka jaykow slo• wianskych, p. 71. 22. J . Dolbrovsky in 1875 wrote that Slovak is close to the Croat and Slovene languages in several respects. Zd. Stieber considers certain charaidteristics cxf tfhe S1'ovalk langua:g e as southerm- Slaivic e>lements (juhoslavizmy). Clf. Jan Starnislav: Dejiny slovenskeho jazyka, p. 387. 23. J. M. Wirschlbaum : l!udovit Stur and His Place in the Slavic World, pp. 13°17; and S. Czamlbel: Slovenska rec a jej miesto v rodine slova.nskych jazykov, '!iurc. Sv. Martin, '1'906. 24. Watson Kirk'co nnel: Canada, E•urope, and Hitler, pp. 43-4.14. 25. •P•roif. R!om'a,n Sm al-Oto•c ki: Papers Dopovidi, Sevcenko Slcienbific Society,, Ne,w York, 1961. .26. Op. cit., p. 71. 27. iR01bert Aulty: Dialect, Koi•ne, and Tradition in the Formation of Literary Slovak, The Slavoni:c and East European Review, Vol. 39, No. 93, Lo.ndon, 1'961. 28. ]bidem, .p p. 3'42-346. 29. Encyclopedia Britannica, Vol. 20, 1959, pp. 799-800. 30. J. M. Ki.r,schlbaum: Cont&mporary Tendencies in Slovak Philology, Slavic and Ea·st European Studies, Vol. W, No. 3-4, Monitrea,l , 11960; also in Offiprilrut. 31. Op. cit., pp. 46-108. 32. Op. cit., p. 5. ~- Op. cit., pp. 200-201. 44 SLOVAKIA BIBLIOGRAPHY of select.ed works in English, French, German, and Italian AUlty, Robert: The Evolution of Literary Slovak, Oambr'idlge, 1953. Reprinlt fr()IIIl Transadioru; of the P.hilologilcal Society, pp. 143-1:60. Dialect, Koine and Tradition in the Formation of Literary Slovak. Waper preseir.:ted to the V]]lth Congress of the International Federa1Ji,on of Modern Languages and Literatures at Liege, August 1,960, published in the Slavonic and East European Review, Vol. 39, No. 93, London, 19611). Berndlak, A1nton: Slowakische Grammatik, Aus dem Lateinischein, ins Deutsche iibers·etzt, ,gedr. mit konigl. ung. Universitatsschriiten, O.lifen, 1817. Bok•es, Frantisek: Literarische iibersicht des geschichtlichen Schaffens in der Slowakei, Leipziger Viertelja,hrsohr.iift fiir Siidost•europa 4, Leipzig, 1940. Cizevsky, Dmitr,y: Outline of Compara,t ive Slavic Literatures, American Academy of Arts and Scier.,ces, Boston, Mass., 1952. On Romanticism in Slavic Literatures, Gravenhage, Monton a.nd Co ., 1957. Aus Zwei Welten, Beitrage zur Geschieht-e der Slaiwischwes·thchen literarisohen Bezi•e hungen, 1956 Mickiewicz, Stur and Kral', in W. Lednicki's Adam Mickiewicz in World Literature, Be:r,keley, 1'9516. A Bibliography of the Publica,t ions of' Dr. Dmitry Ciievsky in the Fields of Literature, Language, Philosophy and Culture, Gamlbridg·e, Mass., 1952. De Bray, R. G. A.:Guide to the Slavonic Languages, J. M. Denlt and Sons, Ltd., London, 1S31. ,Denis, Ernest: La question d'Autriche - Les Slovaques, Parus, 191'7, Ubrairie Delagrave. One of the best books on Slovaks before the •e nd of the Firrst Wo-11ld War. His views on. Bernolak, Stur, etc., are s1igh'Uy distorted by the id•e a olf the na,t ional and cultural unity of Czechs a nd Slovaks. Dixon, Oharlton: Slovak Grammar for English Speaking Students, 'Middll.etown, Pa., Jednota Printery, 11935. Fischel, Alfred: Pansl•avismus bis zum Weltkrieg, Stuttgart and BerJin, 19119. One of the best documented works on Pan-SlaviS'm in the German languag,e. Giusti, Wolrfgango: II Panslavismo, Mhlano, 194'1!, InstitUlto per gli studi di politica internazional-e. More a politi1Cal than scholarly :r,eview of the idea of Pan-Slavli-sm among Slavic peoples. Gross, Felix (•ed.): European Ideologies, New York, 194!8, Philosophicail. Lilbrary, W. Lednicki:'s chapter on Pan,Slavi·s m. Schola,rl(Y wriitten ltfleatise from the Polish point of view. Hrobak, Philip A.: Hrobak's English-Slovak Dictionary, Jednota Priintecry, MiiddleitC1wn, Pa., 1944. Slovak Lessons, Lakewood, Ohio, Middletown, Pa., Jednota Printeriy, 1'935, 1•94'9. Slovak For Beginners, Books, I, H, Ifil, Middletown, Pa., Jednota Printery, 1952. ·Let's Learn Slovak, Mrddlletown, Pa., 1'959. 1 SLOVAKIA 45 Hrusovsky, Frantisek: Geschichte der Slowakei, Brati>sla'V'a, 1'942. This Is Slovakia, Scranton, Pa., 1953. J•akofbson, Roman: Sur l'histoire et sur les .re•lations mu,t uelles du· tcheque et du slovaque, Le Monde Slave, xmv, '19317, 3·5 3-366. Slavic Langu•a ges, Columbia Univ,ersity Press, 1949. ~fo:sch1baum, J. M.: Slovakia - N·a tion At the Crossroads of Central Europe, New York, Speller and Sons, 1960. Slovak Literature Under the Soviet lmpaGt, The Slaivic and East-(Euroipean Studi·es, Monltr,eail, 1956, Part 1, pp. 45{}4, l!udovit Stur and His Place in the Slavic World, Sla'Vli~tica No. 3•2, Winnipeg-Cleveland, 1'956. Contemporary Tendencies in Slovak Philology, An Offiprint from Slavic a.n d East~ropean Studies, Vol. liV, No. 3-4, Montreal, 1960. A Note On Two Slowak Translators of Mickiewicz in W. Led1J1;icki's Adam Mickiewicz in World Litertaure, Berkeley, Ca.Jiif., lt956. La Grand,Moravie et son heritage culture(, Etud,es slaves et est-europeeL-:•nes, Montreal, Viol. fil. 1957 pp. 694M>. Le centen•a ire d'un grand slaviste: P. J. ~afarik, Etudes slaves et est-eurorp eennes, Montreal, Vol. V, 1960, prp. 189-!1'99. Kni,ezsa, Stefan: Zur Geschichte der Jugoslawismen im Mittelslowakischen, Budapest, 1948, uire a part d~ Etudes slaves ·e t roumaines, V01l. 1, Fasc. 3. Kohn, Hans: Pan-Slavism, Its History and Ideology, University of Notre Dame Press. 1953. One of th,e most Olbjective books on Pa.n-Slavism . Konus, Joseph: Practical Slovak Grammar. A te!Xtbook; for hi,gh s.chooils, colleges and adult ,private students, Pirotsburgh, Pa., 1939. Slovak-English Dictionary, Mi·ddletOWIJJ,, Pa., 1930. New English-Slovak Dictionary, Pitts<burg,h, Pa., 1941. Kramoris, Iva•n J.: An Anthology of Slovak Poetry, Scranton, 194'7,. A selection of lJyric and narrative poems indludimrg some member~ rnf stur's group. Slovakia and Slovak Litera,t ure. Reprinted :firoon the Caltholic Encydopedia, New Yo,rk, 1960. A Chronological Outline of Slovak Literature and History, Pass.air::, N. J ., 1S4~. Krcmery, Stefan: A Survey of Modern Slovak Literature, Of,fiprint from The Slavonic ReVliew, Viol. v.m:, N~. 19, 1-928"1929. Lednicki, Waiclaiw (ed.): Adam Mickiewicz in Wo.rld Literature, University of Calilfornia Press, 1956. Articles by D. Cirevsky aind J . M. Kirschbaum. Leger, Louis: Le panslavisme et l'interet francais, Parris, 1917', Ernest F1lammarion. A rellatJively Olbjec'tiv,e study of Pan.Slavism and Slovak contribution. French ipoint of view. Locher, T. J.: Die nationale Differenzierung und lntegrierunrg der Slowaken und Tschechen in ihrem geschichtlichen Verlauf bis 1848, Harlem, 1931. Macartney, C. A.: Hungary and Her Successors, London-<Nerw York- T-0ronito, 1937. SLOVAKIA 46 Maruniim,g, Claren'Ce A. (ed.): An Anthology of Czech and Slovak Poetry, New York, 11929, Oolumbia Uniiversity Press. Oontains translaibions by Prof. Ktln-kccmnell, Kramoris, Gallik, Manning, Slaibey, Ifotouc, etc. Merrigi,, Bruno: Storia delle letterature ceca e slovacca.~Univ,ersity of Florence, 1,959. Mikus, Joseph: La Slovaquie dans le drame de !'Europe, P.aris, Les Iles d'Or. 11955. La Slovaquie, lndividualite politi11ue de l'Europe Centrale, Paris, 11952. Mraz, Amdreas: Die Literatur der Slowaken, Wien-stu'ttgart, 194!3. A History olf Slovak lJiteralture by a contemporary scholar and professor at the Un1iviersity cif Bratislava. The work, comple'ted and edited in the Slova,k language in 11Hl8 by The S'lovak Academy df Sci1ences and All"ts, presents one oif the best works on the histo11y of Slovak liiterarture. Pastrnek, Fr.: Beitrage zur Lautlehre der Slowakischen Sprache in Ungarn (Aus d,eri, Sitzurugsberichten der philos.-hist. KJ.asse der K. Akademie der Wi.ssenschalften), Wien, 1888. Petrowch, Michael! B.: The Emergence of Russian Panslavism, Oolumbia Univ,ersity Press, 11956. Scotus, Viator (IR. W. Seton-WaJtson): Racial Problems in Hungary, Archilbaild Oonsta:ble and Oo., Ltd., London, 1908. Seton-Watson, R. W.: A History of the Czechs and Slovaks, London, 119413'.A schola1rl<y written history by one of the best de:t:enders of tlhe Slovak people at rthe beg~n,nimg of this centpcy (see his Racial Problems in Hungary) who later turned .i,gainst the Slovak mo•v,ement for autonomy and independence, being influenced by his Czedh friends. Slovak Studies 1, Hiistorica 11, Slovak InstiJtute, 'Rome, 1961. Salfarik, P. J .: Geschichte der Slawischen Sprache und Liter&tur nach alien Mundarten, Mit koni~l. ung. Universitatsschrid'ten, Ofifen, 1826. Sku!Jt:ety, Joseph: Sketches From Slovak History, Middletown, Pa., 1930, J 1ednota Press. Translation from the Slovak by 0. D. Koreff. Skluitety was professor at the University of Bratishwa and on,e of the m06t outstanding figures in the Slovak cultl.l['al lilfe Jn the first ha1f of tlhe 20th cen!tur,y. Stefanek, Anton: Zur Soziograph,ie der geistigen Kultur in der Slowakei, Bratislava, 11944. Strakihovsky, L. I. (ed.): A Ha,ndbook of Slavic Studies, Harv,a rd University Rriess, 1949, dhaipters by A. Senn and Otto Radl. Both artidles re.fleldt reicent research, though Radl's contnilbution is strongly pl'lo-Czech. Tourtzer, H.: Louis Stur et l'idee de !'independence slovaque, Cahors et Al-ehcon, Pari,s, 11913. Trobetzkoy, N. S.: Grundzuge der Phonolo9ie, Prag, 1939, (.on Slov.aik language, pp. 1117-UB, 1'36, 14!1, 1143, 16lt, 167, 170, 175, 208, 245). Vajda, Jiaroslav: Bloody Sonnets, transl. irom Hviezdoslav, P . 0 ., Scra1nton, Pa., 1900. Viktorin, J. K.: Grammatik de.r Slowakischen Sprache. Zurn Schul.:.. und SelJbst,untilvricht, Budapest, 1002. SLOVAKIA 47 Yurchak, P,eiter P.: The Slovaks, Wh'iting, Ind., 1947, Lach editions, c,h,apters fu-om Slovak History and litemture for Americam·s Olf Slovak ortgin. BIBLIOGRAPHY IN SLAVIC LANGUAGES iBartek, Heinrich: Anton Bernolak, Trnarva, 1,937. l!udovit Shir a slovencina, Turc. Sv. Martin, 194i3. Krest'anstvo a slovencin,a, Nad,ej vit'azna, Scranton, Pa., 1947. Slovensky pravopis s gramatickymi pouckami a slovnikom, Whiting, Ind., Lach Publications, 1956. Spravn,a vyslovnost' slovenska, Braltislava, 194J. Blanar, Vincerut: Bibliografia jazykovedy na, Slovensku v rokoch 19391947. Slovenska akademia vied a umeni, Bratislava, 1950. Bolbek, W.: Prehl'adne dejiny slovenskej literatury, Bratislava, 1939. Mickiewicz v literaturze slowackiej, Praha, lJ93il. Dzieje literatury slowackiej w arysie. A'Il annprint firom Slowacja i Sl'owlicy, Edit. W. Semkoiwica;, Krakow, 1008. Czamlbel, Samo: Prfspevky k dejinam jazyka slovenskeho, Budapest, 1887. Slovenska rec a jej miesto v rodine slovanskych ja:z:ykov, '!1urc. Sv. MartLn,, 1906. Slovensky pravopis. Historiok-OJkriticky nmes. Bud,a pest, 1890. [)vonc, Ladislav: Bibliografia slovenskej ja:z:ykovedy :z:a roky 19481952, Matilca Slov-enska, 1'957. Gajdo§, V. J .: Slovenske glosy v latinskom missa,li zo XVI. storoci'a, Historica slovacca I-11, BratisJ.ava, 1'940-lMt pp. 241-24'3. Gralbowski, T. S. : Dwaja Slowaccy pioner:z:y oswiecenia i post&pu, Bernolak a Fandly, 195ll. Hl"'ltta!1a, Martin: Kratka mluvnica slovenska, Bratislava, 1:852. Grammatica linguae slovenicae, Schemnicii, 1850. Hodza, Michal M.: Vetin o slovencine, Levoca, 164!8. ,Isaceniko, A. V.: Zaciatky vzdelanosti vo Vel'komoravskej rili, Jazykovedny sbornik, I.JI, 1947', 137-17'8. Jia,gic, I. V.: lstorija slavianskoj filologii, S. Petersburg, 1910, Jlankovic, V.: Prvy slovensky preklad celeho Pisma svateho, Ver.bum I, 19416-1947. Kondra§ov, N. A.: Kategoriia licnosti i nelicnosti v slovackom ja:z:yku, MGU, 11949. Programma po istoriji slovackogo jazyka. Programma po sovremennom slovackom ja:z:yku, Izdatelstvo Moskovsko,go univerziite'ta, '1001'. Slavinaskaja filologia, Stafi i monogrrufiji, Izdaltelstvo Mostkovskogo univerzfteta, 1951. Kotvam,, rmrich: Jozef lgnac Baiza a slovenska rec, Linguistica slovaca Ilil, 1'9411. Ju.l"aj Fandly, Trnava, 1946. Juraj Fandly a slovensky ja:z:yk, Linguistiea slovaca I-m, 1939. Be,rnolakovci, T\rnarva, 19418. Bibliografia bernolakovcov, Miati'&! Slovenska, Martin, 1957·_ Lehr-Sp}aiwin ski, T.: Pr:z:eglad i eharakterystyka je:z:ykow slowianskich, Warszaiwa, li9154·. 1 48 SLOVAKIA Magnuszewski, J.: Mickiewicz wsrod Slowakow, Wir,oclaJW, 1956. Magiera, J.: Literatul"a czeska i slowacka, Obraz pismienniictwa. Warszawa, 1929. Misianik, Jan: Dejiny starsej slovenskei lite.ratury, SAN, Bratislava, 1958; Marxiisticky vy,kla,d st,arsej slov. litera'tury. Stran 320. Mraz, Andrej: Gavlovicova skola krest'anska. Prispev,ok k slov,enskemu literarnemu barolm, Bratislava, 11940. Dejiny slovenskej literatury, Slov. akad. v1ed a umeni, Bratislava, 194<8. Novak, I.!udovit: Cestina na Slovensku a vznik spisovnej slovenciny, Odtlafok zo Slovenskych pohl'adov, LEV, 193!8. Jazykovedne glosy k ceskoslovenskej otazke, Turc. Sv. Martin,, 11935. l!udovit Stur ako jazykovedec, Slovenske ipohl'ady, LiiI, 1936. Pastrnek, Fr.: Stara jazykova pamatka slovenska, Slbornik :liilologicky, ViIII, 1922. Pauliny, Eugen: Na okrai kama•ldulskeho Pisma, Vetibwm I, 1946-1947. Kulturnohistoricke podmienky a spolocenske funkcie biling.uizmu y dej inach spisovnej slovenciny, C-sl. prednaslcy pro sjezd slavistu v Mioskve, 11958. Glosy k pomeru: bernolactina a sturovcina, Kultura, XiJlV, 1942. Dejiny spisovnej slovenciny, Slovenska akademia vied a umeni, Bratislava, 1948. Pisut, Miilan (ed.): Dej iny slovenskej literatury, Osveta, Bratislava, 1960, p. 680. ContrilbUltors J . Miisiia-niik, P. Petrus, J. Gregor~, P . Stevc,ek, (A Mairxist evaluation). Litera,tura narodneho obrodenia, SAY, Bratisla,V'a, 1'960, p. 490. Slovensky literarny romantizmus, C-sl. prednaslcy pro mezinarodni sj-ezd slavistu v Moslwe, 1'958. Sobolevskij, A. I.: Cerkovno-slavianskije texty moravskogo proischozd,e nija, Ruskij filoloigicesk!j vestnik, 1•900. Stanislav, Jan: K jazykovednemu dielu A. Bernolaka, Bratislava, 194/1. Pribinovi vel'moii, Linguistica slovaca I-II, 193·9-11940. Slovanski apostoli Cyril a Metod a ich cinnost' vo Vel'komoravskej risi, Bratislava, 1945. Spisovny jazyk slovensky, v sborir.,i ku Slovanske jazy,ky v dobe pfitomne, Praha, 1937. Dejiny slovenskeho jazyka, Slovenska akademia wed, Bratislava, 1958. Stitibr, Zdisl'aiw: Zarys dialektologii jezykow zachodnio-slowanskich, W,arszarwa, 1'956. Skultety, Jozef: Stodvadsat'pat' rokov zo slovenskeho iivota 17901•914, Turc. Sv. Ma-rtin, 1920. 0 Slovakoch, Turc. Sv. M!a.rtin, 1928. Stur, I.!udovit: Nauka reci slovenskej, Bratislava, 1,846. Narecia slovenskuo, Bratislava, 1846. Slovo na case, (V uprav,e J . AIIIlibriusa), Bratislava, 1943. 'I1i!bensky, Jan: J. Papanek-J. Sklenar: Obr.incovia slovenskej narodnosti v XVlm. storoci, Osveta, Martin, 19.58. K problemu hodnotenia bernolactiny a bernolakovskeho IYm.,tia, Histod'C'ky casopis, Vfil, 4, 1959. 49 SLOVAKIA Vznik, vyvoj a vyznam vel'komoraV5kej trad icie v s lovenskom narodnom obrodeni, Sbornik O vzajomnych vzt'ahodh Cechov a Slov:ikov, SAV, 1956. Vairsik, BranisJav: Slovaci na praiskej univerzite do konca stredoveku, 1Bratislava, 1926. Kulturne vzt'ahy Cechov a Slovakov v 16. a 17. storoc: i, Bratislava, 1956. Narodnostny problem trnavskej univerzity, Bratislava, 1,9 38. VH~ovsky, Jan : Cantus Catholici, Biratislava IX, 193'5. Vilcek, J·aToslav: Dejiny literatury slovenske j, Turc. Sv. Martin, 1923. Medzi Vahom a Vl tavou, Slov. vyd .. krasnej literatury, Brabislava, 11957. Weingart, Milos: 0 nej starsich jazykovych pamatkach slovenskych, OMF, 1935. Rev. Milan Durica, SIXB, partici- j who made the arrangements. T\he pated in the sessions of the prepa- prayer was purblished in the Conrator,y commission for discipline gressiona1l Record of March 14. llt! llt! llt! of the ole11gy and fait,hiful for the I n. Vatican, Ecdlesiastical Assemlbly. I Bishop Andrew G. Grutka of Father Durica, a native Olf S1()1Va- 1 bhe diocese of Gary, Indiana, ackia, acts in an advisory capacito/. 1companied by the Rt. Rev. Msgr. M .K. Mlynarovic, president of the The meeting was early in Slovak Callholic Federation of ruary. Amenica, traveled to Rome early :!€! llt! :!€! Dr. John Novotny, a native Olf , in April (6-15) to review the plans Slovakia now res•idin,g im, London, : for the Slovak Institute which will successfully passed the medical be bui11t there. Plans were also examinations to !become a Memlber made for the celebration of the of the Royal College of Physi- l'lOOth anniversary of the advent of the saintly brothers Cyril an,d cians. Methodius to the ancient homeland llt! llt! llt! According to Radio Bratislava of the Slovaks, Slovakia, in 1963, (Feb:mary 3', '1962), the exposition by Slovaks in the free world. Biof Czech~ovak bodks in Rome shop Grutka had an audience with was a great success. Our friends Pope John XXIIil!I on Aipril 14. The in Rome, however, inform us that Slovak Institute will cost rubout a it was far from being successful. halif million dollars, most of which And Slovak books were conspicu- is exipected to be donated by the ous by their albsence, only a/bout Slovaks in America. Almost half the amount is already pledged. te·n being displayed. Feb-I' I )lg )lg )lg )lg )lg )lg Rev. John E. ~englar, pastor of The Holy See, early in Apr:I, Sacred Heart Church, Phoenixville, Pa., opened bhe session of bhe U. S. Senate on 'March 14, 1962' - the -23'rd anniv,ersacy of the .pro>clamation rnf S1ov•aik Independence - with a special prayer. He was atccompanied to Washington by P . A. Hl.'obak, president o'f the Slovak League of America, 1962, appointed the Rev. Rudolph KOibela, C.,M., miss,i onary for t,he Slovaks in England, parUoolarly for the several hundred who reside in London and viiicinity. F,ather Kdbela had been attending to the spiritual needs of the Slova'ks in London, for several years prior to that time.  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Misconceptions of American Slavists on the Slovak Language Description An account of the resource Joseph M. Kirschbaum, Ph.D. Slovakia, Vol. 12, No. 1 (35), March-June 1962 pp. 25-49 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-June 1962 SNK https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/799b5c7c131b6084f79b53afed77cefa.pdf d174f9ebf9e39c37f43eb11bc0bbfca8 PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA 153 Modern Slovak Fiction: The Sixties, A Decade of Experimentation Peter Petro During the l 960's literatures of the Eastern European countries experienced a revival. On the one hand this revival became possible by the gradual relaxation of political control over literature; on the other hand it was spurred on by literary developments in the West as well as in the East. I t would be difficult to overestimate this foreign factor in the general revival. Nor was it always a case of the local application of some hitherto unavailabl e literary techniques of experimental character. Very often it was simply the act of rediscovering authors whose reputations had already been made some decades ago. This was the case with Proust , Joyce , Hemingway, T.S. Eliot, Babel , Pilnyak, Platonov, and many , many others. Franz Kafka held a special position among these rediscovered authors. His appearance in print was hailed as a symbolic, liberating event of major proportion in the literary ( and cultural) history of both the Czech and Slovak nations. As for the experimental impulses emanating from the West, the anti-novel or nouveau-roman (of Alain Robbe-Grillet, Nathalie Sarraute) , and the thea tre of the absurd (not only oflonesco, but of the mu ch older Alfred Jarry) quickly found willing practitioners as well. Not the least among these factors was the re-evaluation of native authors rehabilitated and brought back from oblivion, or rather from a literary limbo (in Slovakia they were Milo Urban , J.C. Hronsk y, Tido J. Gaspar, and others). In Slovakia, as indeed in the entire Eastern Europe, the important mileposts were the years 1956 and 1962. We can get an insight into what went on after 1956 and 1962 in Czech literature from a recently published work edited by William E. Harkins and Paul I. Trensky . 1 But here, too, the center of grav ity lies in the sixties and the reader's atten tion is directed to some half a dozen names that became known , not only in Bohemia , but also abroad. Slovak literary developments, inasmuch as these were influ en ced by political events occurring in the power cen- �154 SLOV AKI A te rs of P ragu e a nd Mosco w, to which Sl ovak literatu re h ad b ee n di rectly o r indirectly subo rdin a ted , could n ot bu t foll ow a path simil a r to the Czech d evelo pments . However , thi s d oes n ot m ean tha t th ey d evelop ed in the sam e directio n , o r even a t the sam e p ace. U po n examina ti o n of som e re p rese nta tive wo rks of Slovak a u th o r s who a ppea red durin g the p e ri od of th e revival of the six ti es, o n e is impressed b y the varie t y a nd quality of th e literature if compa red to the d ecades tha t preced e a nd follow it. Th a t so m e m as te rpieces p rodu ced a t the t im e still re m a in unkno wn in the W es t is p e rh a p s n o t e n t irely th e fa ult of write r s; the lack of tra n sla tion s is equ ally crippling. F o r this reaso n a look a t some examples of the ex perime ntal fictio n of the sixties could be o f som e help . Tha t decad e was a n ew b eginnin g in Slovak litearture; its accomplishme nts will help us to o rientate ou rselves in co ntemporary Slovak lite ra ture a nd they will help u s, in all proba bility, in the future a s well . If the six ties wer e indeed the n e w b eginnin g, what is really m eant b y thi s " n e wness" and al so b y "expe rime nt " in the context of the six ties? To start w ith , the conte xt o f the sixties w as the coll a pse of the d octrine, concept , or m e thod of socialist realism . 2 Of course, socialist realism h ad n o t b ee n re tired b y a n a dminist ra ti ve fi a t ; it h a d b ee n re -defin ed . But the sp ell h ad b een b ro ke n a nd the ch a n ges in theor y we re follo wed b y ch a n ges in p ractice. E ver yon e still p a id lip service to socialist realism but wh a t matte red m ost to p a rt y offi cials, namely the control of lite rature, was gradually slippin g from the ir h a nds, a nd their periodic a ttempts to re-establi sh con trol we re n ot su ccess ful : they h a d le t the genie out of the b o ttle. And so, whil e th e critics still p e nned th e ir tribu te s to su ch model a u th o r s as F ra n t isek H eck o (b . 190 5), P e te r Jile mnick y (b . 1901 ) , a nd Frano Kral' (b . 1903), the new w rite rs th at b egan to ap pear in print w rote in a w ay th a t w as ofte n e ntirely alie n to th ese " cl assics," som e t im es eve n to the exte nt of u sin g th e sociali st realist m od els in a w ay th at parod ied th e o ri ginal. T h e n ewn ess o f th e li teratu re of th e sixties, th e n , li es in breaki ng with th e p ast, o r rath e r with th e im m edi a te past of socialist real ist literat ure of b uildin g a nd co n stru c tin g, o f o p timi sm, of tr a n spare nt sch e m e a nd ideological or phil osophi cal m o n och rome. H owever , w h en we com e to th e "exp e rim e n t ," we fi n d th at m atters are much more complex tha n th at. F irs t o f a ll , at th e b eginnin g of th e decade (an d already in th e seco nd h alf o f th e fifti es), a n y veerin g off th e established model h ad to b e co n sidered a n experiment. For this reason , o n e h as to take "experi men t" �SLOVAKIA 155 in our con text quite liberally and broadly as meaning a wide variety of writing, from that which merely joins an already established prose current to that which attempts at importing certain contemporary western literary techniques . Most importantly , we have to understand it as the development of a genuine, new literary voice with its own style, its own original seeing of the world. It would hardly be possible for new, unknown writers simply to appear with their new work and displace the established authors overnight. What happened instead was a transition period when the next literary generation of authors following Hecko , Jil emnicky, Kral', and others - namely Vladimfr Minac (b.1922), Ladislav Mnacko (b.1919), Dominik Tata rko (b.1913), and Peter Karvas (b.1920), among others - abandoned their orthodoxy to such an extent that further experiments along the same lines seemed no longer astonishing. Even here one would like to stress that the authors of the sixties were by no means readily accepted. There was first a struggle. There was very often harsh criticism; and , objectively spea king, such criticism was sometimes quite ju stified. On the whole , however, any criticism had to be fundamentally unfair if we take into consideration the still limited freedom to write as the author pleased. Thus , we witness the sorry spectacle of compromised literature criticized by compromised critics. A good example would be the case ofjaroslava Blazkova's Nylonovy mesiac (Nylon Moon, 1961 ). Jozef Kot attacked it by saying: "I do not know why, but Slovak prose has suddenly discovered ero ticism , and Sagan and others," adding a statement difficult to challenge: " Bratislava will never be a Paris and Slovaks will never be erotomaniacs. " 3 Of course, Kot knows full well why was it that there was no erot icism before. It simply was not allowed. Nor were any modern western authors pe rmitted to serve as model s, before. Kot perceives the change and his reaction is a good, though mild , sign of his bewilderment. Alas, in a very few years, by Kot 's standards, Bratislava was teeming with erotomaniac authors as socialist puritanism fizzl ed out. In fact, the standards used to measure the quality of lite rary production in Slovakia were high. P erhaps too high , and that led to contradictions . Thus , J an Rozner took the young writers Blazkova and Anton H ykisch to task: "We can not call that which is being done by the young prose writers experime ntin g. It is ceaseless searching, learning , testing, but not experimenting" (SP, September 1961 , 17) . In the case �156 SLOVAKIA of Hykisch , he was take n to task for using the inte rnal monologu e or strea m of consciousness technique , and it was pointed out to him that this was not new at all , as it h ad been used by mode rnist authors a long time ago. Again the crit ic pretended to be unaware of the fact that even su ch a basic and harmless technique h ad been very suspect just recently. And Hykisch was reacting to the literature immediately preceding him , even though , pe rhaps unconsciously , he actuall y returned to the interrupted modernist line of Slovak prose. " Modernism " - a word of opprobrium only rece ntly - became th e most desired aim in the ge neral atmosphe re of catching up with the W est. But H ykisch would not stop experimenting. Here is the conclusion of his sho rt novel Nad'a (SP August-Dece mbe r 1963): Who is guilty of the librarian 's d eath? Who ? I ? H e? Nadia , you are a merciful Samaritan, should you try to save people who were hurt ? ... The door to the washroom banged shut. They always bang, someone shouted feebly from the next room. Dreaming. At the other end it started to ring . I started. I began to run, the doors are lea ping a t my side and are running b ehind me, there is ringing, a seco nd alarm clock. A third . A fourth. Simultaneously. Voices, banging , slippers , fee t , the first door, a person . Woma n. I closed m y eyes a nd eve rything around m e vibrated, unknown sounds a nd voices, something securely lived here. I stood for a mome nt in front of our room, I heard Liz . I quickly ente red , Good morning , girls . Hi , Nadia, why a re you h a untin g here? I opened the window, hun g the towel on the bed and started to dress quickly. The girls were still sleepy and watched me in surprise . I hurried . It seem ed to m e that it was late for eve rything . It would not be difficult to prove how Hyki sch 's style differs from the more orthodox styles of th e forties a nd fifti es - the sudde n cha nges of voice, the economy , the dynamism , the palpa ble presence of the furniture of life, the reali a, in short, the mode rn shorthand, telegraphic style is here clearly represe nted. But the experime ntal ch a racter of this novel lies in the implications of the plot , in the introduction of a characte r �SLOVAKIA 157 out of favo r with the P arty, a nd the int rodu ctory device of qu ota ti on s from au thors su ch as Campa n ella (his Th e City of the S un ), H. G . W ells (Th e Sh ap e of Thin gs to Com e), qu otation s th at pro m oted qu estionin g, skep ti cism a nd pess imi sm . These qu ota ti on s co m e from Robert, th e m an in di sfavor with wh om adi a, th e hero in e, fall s in love . W e are led to believe th a t R obe rt 's difficulti es ste m from the fact th a t he is a thinker, not a careerist , and also a man of p rinciple. N adi a, a n intellige nt but slightl y fri volou s econ omics student , does n ot measure up to the strictures a nd u tter seriou sn ess of Robert , a libraria n by p ro fession , but a philosoph er b y callin g. Of interest , too, is the sett in g , th e urban se tt in g - Brati slava - which will come to be the set tin g of man y works of the decade. But it is th e city see n throu gh the eyes of a n out sider , N adi a, who com es to Brati slava to study . Th e ambi gu ou s endin g (Robert commits sui cide, but h ove rs b etwee n life an~ death) is also som ethin g new . ot becau se of the a mbi guity , but again fo r su ggestin g (by impli cation) th a t perh aps N adi a was n ot entirely to bl am e for R obert 's sui cide. It woul d not be enti rely in a ppropria te to call R obert a m odern Slovak in carna tion of th e "supe rflu ou s m a n " known to u s from Russian litera ture . The isolated individual , the m a n against the world , against a K afk aesqu e bureau cracy: su ch is th e un co m fo rta bl e situ a tion of the new Slovak literary ch a rac te r of the sixties. In a nothe r urba n writer , J a n J oh a nides, the ch a racte r is isol ated without the h elp of politi cs . R a th er , h e is pressed a nd tried sorely b y the existential choice , by lack of com munication , a nd b y the alien world from which he seem s so woefull y estra n ged . C a mu s a nd Sartre a re the two m ost obviou s m en tors ofj oh a nides, especially the latter, according to Mil a n H amad a (SP , O ctob er 1963 , 134). L ack of co mmunication is the them e of an impressive story entitled Potapaca prit'ahuju pram ene m ora (A Di ve r I s Attracted by O cean Sprin gs). I qu ote from the co nclu sion : Everybody loves hi s wi fe fo r som e m ore or less co ncrete reason , b u t the re a re some who love fo r a less ce rta in , or eve n un ce rtain reason . And th at reaso n could b e the fact that he saw h er, th at they h ave me t a t all , th at sh e too exis ts. It seems tha t I loved Marth a for a sim il a r reason. I saw her, I looked at her w ith these my eyes a n d she wanted me to marry her. And that "more certain " reason fo r whi ch , if I ca n say so, m y love multi pli ed , was her beautiful a r rogan ce. T h a t is �158 SLOVAKIA wha t I would call he r in sisten t d esire to be h appy . Perh a ps she co uld gu ess a t the beginnin g that I could secure her existen ce and would make no claims on her. I call her desire for happiness beautiful a rrogance because she d a red to turn m e into a spring board to aims tha t she thou ght would m a ke h er ha ppy. This a r rogance - of wh a tever kind - I find interestin g; I do n ot judge h er for it. It p roves tha t M a rtha had to be profoundl y unha ppy a nd alone. Little things that I could furnish for her were designed to suggest to he r that this was not the way to ha ppiness. I do not know if she unde rstood . (SP, July 196 1, 111 ) Now the sen sitive n a rrator-hu sb a nd is him self d yin g of cance r , but still goin g a bout hi s tasks, unworried ab out his a pproaching end . Hi s profession is rather prosaic: he is a chef in a resta ura nt . Whe n he find s out a bout his wife ' s unfaithfuln ess, he fail s to ge t a n gry. When he learns a bou t her death of sudden heart failure while drivin g with her love r , he still m a intains his equ animity. Thu s he is almost superna turally calm a nd ra tion al, or em o tion ally defici e nt - a judgem ent th a t is sys tem a tically contradicted by his superior sen sitivity of perception and un d erstandin g . Still , hi s sta nce is suspicious to his fri end s who find him too stran ge for their compa n y . All thi s would b e new and unu su al in Slovak lite rature, but the essenti al experimental feature of J oha nides is his stress on th e private space of the individu al; n ot only his in ne r world tha t he so carefull y sketches, but the ou te r world as well. H owever , it is a highly individu al, private world tha t his cha racte rs see. And for that reaso n th ey are u nabl e to share it wi th an yon e. Con sequ entl y, these wo rlds often clash . Such a cl ash is described by the obj ective n arrator of a title story in J oha nides' s Sukromie (Privacy, 1963). During the fun e ral of a ve ry act ive wo rke r a nd Pa r ty m em ber, the orato r addresses the deceased: I d o n ot know h ow to tha nk you fra nkl y fo r all your effort a nd pe rso nal in volve m en t in our facto ry's cl ub of the R evolutio na ry U nion Move m e nt. You we re a good union m embe r , we deeply honor yo ur wo rk. W e knew yo u , we tru sted you . Bu t d id we really know you ? The wind lifted the red fl ag that covered the coffin, and som eo ne fro m the crowd p assed a n open bottle of soda water �SLOVAKIA 15 9 to the cl a rinet pl aye r . H e put it in to th e condu ctor's h a nd. - But w hy did you leave so su dd enl y? The bo ttle of soda water was ta ken by a sm all m a n in a gray sui t w ith a wart ri ght un der hi s eye. H e was holdin g the wife of the deceased in hi s arms, pou r in g the sod a water o n he r face th rou gh the veil , but som e wom a n too k th e bo ttle away from him a nd lifted the ve il . - Why did you leave so sudde nl y? 4 Two activities are in progress simultan eou sly. T he world of the deceased is no m o re; to who m , then , is th e orator a ddressing hi s m ela ncholy m essage? To him self, fo r th e widow h as fa inted , a nd people a re busy ta king care of h er. The commo tio n of the world " out the re" cl ashes w ith the wo rld of the o rator whose speech a nd qu estion s give the scen e an a b su rd a ir a t first ; it will turn out tha t n o on e, n ot eve n his wife, really kn ew the d eceased . Jan J oh a nid es b a ffl ed hi s critics and div id ed them sh a rply into two groups . Fo r the first group , here is Mila n H am ad a: '' The failure of intellect in J ohanides caused the loss of spiritual and artistic tran scendence " (SP , Au gu st 1966 , 9). For the second , Fra nti sek Miko: "The stren gth of J oh a nides ' s style I see m a inly in w h a t I would like to call indep enden ce. It shows itself in the a n alys is, con cretely in the sh a rp , m a tter -offact an alyti cal to ne. This tone was always very rare h e re, a nd the refore always desirable a nd n ew" (SP , D ecember 1966, 15). In this m a tter-of-fact tone a nd in hi s som etim es excess ive a ttention to detail J oh anides was bested by P eter J aros, who brings into Slovak litera ture perh ap s the m ost experim ental features th a t we associa te with the a nti-n ovel or n ou vea u rom an. H e is playing with ti me, "coll apsing" it , d iffu sin g o ur a ttenti o n in paren thetical deta il s that seem to be la rgely irrelevant to the main action , which itself is ve ry difficult to de fin e . H ere is an example from hi s work Vah y (Scales, 1966): (Some movemen ts attract by the ir u nexpected vigorou sness or their unusual character. Ri gh t now a hu ge clou d mu st have fl ow n away a nd uncove red th e settin g su n , for it su ddenl y brightened up .) We move away carefu ll y from the door , hi t somethin g ge ntl y a nd feel behind our b ack the wall ( eve n the sitting man can be seen mo re clearly). Sudde nl y , as if by m iracle, we e n ter the room w he re the man is sitti ng , and we �160 SLOVAKIA stay there even after the sun sets and the twilight turns to darkness. (The room is a spacious one, from the armchair in which the man is sitting, one can see, n ear the glass door, a double chest of brown walnut wood. There is nothing on the rear wall , although be tween the doo r a nd the chest there is sufficie nt space to fit a big elongated vase that would moderate the sudden transition between the chest and the door. )5 Und erstanda bly , we a re dealing here with literature heavily influenced by foreign models; the expe rime ntatio n does not seem to follow a native model, unless we see J a ros as a follower ofjohanides . Even so , there is injohanides's work also a lyricism which is missing fromjaros's work. Lyricism or rather " lyrical prose " is the main accomplishment of perhaps the most talented writer of the new generation, Vincent Sikula. H ere, for example, is the conclusion of Sikula' s story Dlhe tyzdne sjasnymi n ocami pred odletmi st'ahovavych vtakov (Long Weeks with Bright Nights befo re the Flights of Birds). A boy , Rudko , befriends a village idiot , Viktor, who attracts the boy with his ri ch imagination and asks him to join him secretly at night. Outside, th ey observe the m ysteriou s n a ture, crawl in the wet grass, a nd th en Viktor blindfolds the boy: Rudko, maybe I lied to you, h e said. I told you an hour ago that it 's beginning to d awn , but you could have seen that this was not so. Is the ni gh t bright? I took a mirror with m e, maybe I wanted to confuse you with it . I 've thrown it away, a nd you didn't even notice it. T ell m e, Rudko , what do I n eed a mirror fo r? M aybe yo u really are sick a nd maybe yo u feel like slee ping . But how could you slee p when the ni gh t is so bright? I p rom ised to give you a handke rchief, I didn ' t make a parachute out of it , because I would be sorry to see it go . H e told me th a t he would talk to m e un til I fall asleep. H e m entioned thin gs abo ut which he u sed to talk to me all summ er lo n g, that is, th e merry-go-round , the du ck , ... but also the gander , m aybe it will b e a wild gander and it will take off, lift itself off th e gro und, fl y over Koligram, it will avo id the poplars, it will disa ppear over the fi eld s ... �SLOVAKIA 161 Rudko, can you still see me? I can't. They found me in the morning with my head in the ditch. On my back, there was a heavy stone that was supposed to kill me. 6 Sikula admits that he is a follower of the outstanding village prose writers of the older generation, Jozef Ciger-Hronsky and Milo Urban, but his arrival on the literary scene with his lyricism was still an experiment under the circumstances. He does not flinch from horror when he shows the destruction of the village by sudden change brought on by war or revolution. But the violence of war has been more strikingly portrayed in the work of Ladislav Tazky, especially in his work Amenmaria: Sam[ dobrf vojaci (Amenmaria: All the Good Soldiers, 1964). H ere we see a conscious departure from the older socialist realist depiction of war, such as the schematic picture of the resistance and the horrors of the uprising against the Germans that we find in Jilemnicky' s Kronika (Chronicle, 1947) , where everything is simple and clear. On the one side the partisans, on the other - Germans. In Tazky we find a difference . The experiment lies in introducing to the reader a hero who is a soldier of the Slovak Army fighting in the Ukraine against the Red Army and on the side of the Germans . Although , to be sure, the narrator is a communist, the difficult period, the ambiguities, the different pulls and demands on soldiers, the hell of war, are all rendered in a striking style that lacks comforting simplicity and bewilders us by its provocative character. What follows is a description of a German attack on a hut harboring deserters: Why do the Germans keep the light on at D aytim e and How Come they don 't Shout " H eil "? What are you doing, soldier-boys? At this time they h ave to be near the hut and the officer is commanding them to hit the snow and crawl towards the bark bunker. Boys , how long will you be playing this game? You've done it once before. Do you remember, we answered you then, and now the hut stays mum , it is waiting for you , so break �162 SLOVAKIA her waist, who will fire into he r warmth smelling of human warmth? Nobody will leave the grave, nobody will a nswer, the dead do not fear death , you are death , only the living are afraid of you, those whose waist is still unbroken (SP, June 1965, 154) . But lest I leave the impression that m ost of the n ew prose of the sixties was so depressing and utterly serious, let me turn to humor. Clearly, the most talented practitioners at the time were Milan Lasica and Julius Satinsky : humorists, satirists, p arodists and performers of their work. But I would like to turn to Milan Zelinka instead, because of the allusive character of Lasica and Satinsky's work . Zelinka's work , from which I will quote, won the competition organized by the prestigious journal Slovenske Pohl'ady in 1968 . The story is a pseudo-historical take-off on folklore and infirmities of the age reminiscent of Alfred Jarry' s Ubu . A kingdom is harrassed by a robber whom no one is able to stop. Finally , after cau sing the death of the king, the robber engages the n ew king in correspondence. H ere then is an exchange of letters from Povest' o strasnom zbojnfkovi Folstynskom a nest'astnom katovi Holcusko vi (The Story about the T errible Robber Folstynsky and the Unfortunate Executio n er Holcuska) . After the capture of the robber , who finds out that he is about to be shown to tourists instead of being executed , the robber fires a letter of protest to the king: D ear Sir, I thought tha t you h ad character , but today I found out otherwise . I a m a nnouncing thereby that I protest again st being put on a show for tourists just because you lack good economists! It is against my con science. I swear that if you force m e to do what I hate with all m y soul , I sh all spit upon the tourists and haran gu e them with u gly words to su ch an effe ct that they will be unable to sleep in our guest h ou ses not only because of the fleas, bu t also b ecause of the horror cau sed b y my tongue . Folstynsky �SLOVAKIA 163 The king answered the robber: Dear buddy, I think you are being unfair . Even though I do believe that the postponement of your execution has disappointed you deeply, there's nothing to be done, you'll have to go on living for some time ye t. As for the tourists , don't forget that our country needs money badly . It is partly and mainly your own fault that we find ourselves in a deep economic crisis. You should not forget that . Who was zipping up and down our country causing mischief, but you alone? After all, if I published your opinions in the press, our young people would laugh at you. And you do not want to appear ridiculous to them , do you? Your friend , King Bazulfk P .S . Finally, have no fear . It is not going to be so bad with those tourists. They are generous, I experienced it personally . You ' ll get lots of chewing gum. (SP, March 1968 , 154) . It would be difficult to pretend that anything except broad currents of the variety found in Slovak literature of the sixties were mentioned here. Peter Balgha and Rudolf Slaboda should have been and Vlado Bednar could have been m entioned as well. But rather than piling up a great number of names and titles, it seemed more appropriate to communicate the special flavor of the new prose . Moreover , it is also the special excitem ent that greeted the new experiments, the new works, the new names in the sixties that one would want to evoke here. And that excitem ent was, as is only natural , the property of those who had a good knowledge of the standard , or older socialist realist literature , those who could see how much this new literature differed from the older one. They could see how , quite co nsciously , the new authors began to displace the old rules, the schemata, and above all, the fear. When these were pushed away, the experimenting began . In some cases it was a modest kind of experim ent : the author wanted to see if he could write the way people used to write in the thirties or even twenties. Other writers wanted to bring in forbidde n topics: repressed people, eroticism, foreign philosoph y. Others still concentrated on the style, the form, th e structure of their work. Taken together , the effor ts of youn g Slovak authors (and som e not so you n g) made the decade of the sixties a veritable liter- �164 SLOVAKIA ary revival. That it happened at all is a miracle , despite the ready explanations . One wonders how right Thomas Merton was when he said that "tomorrow the abstract paintings will be on the walls of the Commissars.' ' 8 NOTES ' Czech Literature since 1956: A Symposium , ed . William E . Harkins a nd Paul I. Trensky (New York: Bohemica, 1980). ' Frantisek Vnuk ' ~ Sedemnast' neurodnych rokov (Middletown: Slovak v Amerike , 1965) discusses literary developments after 1956 and into 1962. It is pa rticularly valuable for its description of the infertile period of the reign of socialist realism , as the fertile period of the sixties is mostly outside th e com pass of his work . 3 Jozef Kot , " Ako dalej ," Slovenske pohl'ady, 78 Oanuary 1962), 136-3 7. This journal will hence appear in the text as SP. Translations a re mine . • JanJohanides, Sukromie (Bratislava: Slovensky Spisovatel' , 1963), p. 118 . ' Peter Jaros , Vahy (Bratislava: Slovensky Spisovatel', 1968), p. 1011 . 6 Vincent Sikula, Povetrie (Bratislava: Slovensky Spisovatel', 1968) , p . 13. 7 Thomas Merton, Raids on the Unspeakable (New York : New Directions , 1965), p. 168). Presented in Panel 128, '' Slovak Literature as a Mirror of the National Awakening, ' ' at the AAASS co nventi on in Philadelphia on 8 November 1980. � SLOVAKIA 153 Modern Slovak Fiction: The Sixties, A Decade of Experimentation Peter Petro During the l 960's literatures of the Eastern European countries experienced a revival. On the one hand this revival became possible by the gradual relaxation of political control over literature; on the other hand it was spurred on by literary developments in the West as well as in the East. I t would be difficult to overestimate this foreign factor in the general revival. Nor was it always a case of the local application of some hitherto unavailabl e literary techniques of experimental character. Very often it was simply the act of rediscovering authors whose reputations had already been made some decades ago. This was the case with Proust , Joyce , Hemingway, T.S. Eliot, Babel , Pilnyak, Platonov, and many , many others. Franz Kafka held a special position among these rediscovered authors. His appearance in print was hailed as a symbolic, liberating event of major proportion in the literary ( and cultural) history of both the Czech and Slovak nations. As for the experimental impulses emanating from the West, the anti-novel or nouveau-roman (of Alain Robbe-Grillet, Nathalie Sarraute) , and the thea tre of the absurd (not only oflonesco, but of the mu ch older Alfred Jarry) quickly found willing practitioners as well. Not the least among these factors was the re-evaluation of native authors rehabilitated and brought back from oblivion, or rather from a literary limbo (in Slovakia they were Milo Urban , J.C. Hronsk y, Tido J. Gaspar, and others). In Slovakia, as indeed in the entire Eastern Europe, the important mileposts were the years 1956 and 1962. We can get an insight into what went on after 1956 and 1962 in Czech literature from a recently published work edited by William E. Harkins and Paul I. Trensky . 1 But here, too, the center of grav ity lies in the sixties and the reader's atten tion is directed to some half a dozen names that became known , not only in Bohemia , but also abroad. Slovak literary developments, inasmuch as these were influ en ced by political events occurring in the power cen- �154 SLOV AKI A te rs of P ragu e a nd Mosco w, to which Sl ovak literatu re h ad b ee n di rectly o r indirectly subo rdin a ted , could n ot bu t foll ow a path simil a r to the Czech d evelo pments . However , thi s d oes n ot m ean tha t th ey d evelop ed in the sam e directio n , o r even a t the sam e p ace. U po n examina ti o n of som e re p rese nta tive wo rks of Slovak a u th o r s who a ppea red durin g the p e ri od of th e revival of the six ti es, o n e is impressed b y the varie t y a nd quality of th e literature if compa red to the d ecades tha t preced e a nd follow it. Th a t so m e m as te rpieces p rodu ced a t the t im e still re m a in unkno wn in the W es t is p e rh a p s n o t e n t irely th e fa ult of write r s; the lack of tra n sla tion s is equ ally crippling. F o r this reaso n a look a t some examples of the ex perime ntal fictio n of the sixties could be o f som e help . Tha t decad e was a n ew b eginnin g in Slovak litearture; its accomplishme nts will help us to o rientate ou rselves in co ntemporary Slovak lite ra ture a nd they will help u s, in all proba bility, in the future a s well . If the six ties wer e indeed the n e w b eginnin g, what is really m eant b y thi s " n e wness" and al so b y "expe rime nt " in the context of the six ties? To start w ith , the conte xt o f the sixties w as the coll a pse of the d octrine, concept , or m e thod of socialist realism . 2 Of course, socialist realism h ad n o t b ee n re tired b y a n a dminist ra ti ve fi a t ; it h a d b ee n re -defin ed . But the sp ell h ad b een b ro ke n a nd the ch a n ges in theor y we re follo wed b y ch a n ges in p ractice. E ver yon e still p a id lip service to socialist realism but wh a t matte red m ost to p a rt y offi cials, namely the control of lite rature, was gradually slippin g from the ir h a nds, a nd their periodic a ttempts to re-establi sh con trol we re n ot su ccess ful : they h a d le t the genie out of the b o ttle. And so, whil e th e critics still p e nned th e ir tribu te s to su ch model a u th o r s as F ra n t isek H eck o (b . 190 5), P e te r Jile mnick y (b . 1901 ) , a nd Frano Kral' (b . 1903), the new w rite rs th at b egan to ap pear in print w rote in a w ay th a t w as ofte n e ntirely alie n to th ese " cl assics," som e t im es eve n to the exte nt of u sin g th e sociali st realist m od els in a w ay th at parod ied th e o ri ginal. T h e n ewn ess o f th e li teratu re of th e sixties, th e n , li es in breaki ng with th e p ast, o r rath e r with th e im m edi a te past of socialist real ist literat ure of b uildin g a nd co n stru c tin g, o f o p timi sm, of tr a n spare nt sch e m e a nd ideological or phil osophi cal m o n och rome. H owever , w h en we com e to th e "exp e rim e n t ," we fi n d th at m atters are much more complex tha n th at. F irs t o f a ll , at th e b eginnin g of th e decade (an d already in th e seco nd h alf o f th e fifti es), a n y veerin g off th e established model h ad to b e co n sidered a n experiment. For this reason , o n e h as to take "experi men t" �SLOVAKIA 155 in our con text quite liberally and broadly as meaning a wide variety of writing, from that which merely joins an already established prose current to that which attempts at importing certain contemporary western literary techniques . Most importantly , we have to understand it as the development of a genuine, new literary voice with its own style, its own original seeing of the world. It would hardly be possible for new, unknown writers simply to appear with their new work and displace the established authors overnight. What happened instead was a transition period when the next literary generation of authors following Hecko , Jil emnicky, Kral', and others - namely Vladimfr Minac (b.1922), Ladislav Mnacko (b.1919), Dominik Tata rko (b.1913), and Peter Karvas (b.1920), among others - abandoned their orthodoxy to such an extent that further experiments along the same lines seemed no longer astonishing. Even here one would like to stress that the authors of the sixties were by no means readily accepted. There was first a struggle. There was very often harsh criticism; and , objectively spea king, such criticism was sometimes quite ju stified. On the whole , however, any criticism had to be fundamentally unfair if we take into consideration the still limited freedom to write as the author pleased. Thus , we witness the sorry spectacle of compromised literature criticized by compromised critics. A good example would be the case ofjaroslava Blazkova's Nylonovy mesiac (Nylon Moon, 1961 ). Jozef Kot attacked it by saying: "I do not know why, but Slovak prose has suddenly discovered ero ticism , and Sagan and others," adding a statement difficult to challenge: " Bratislava will never be a Paris and Slovaks will never be erotomaniacs. " 3 Of course, Kot knows full well why was it that there was no erot icism before. It simply was not allowed. Nor were any modern western authors pe rmitted to serve as model s, before. Kot perceives the change and his reaction is a good, though mild , sign of his bewilderment. Alas, in a very few years, by Kot 's standards, Bratislava was teeming with erotomaniac authors as socialist puritanism fizzl ed out. In fact, the standards used to measure the quality of lite rary production in Slovakia were high. P erhaps too high , and that led to contradictions . Thus , J an Rozner took the young writers Blazkova and Anton H ykisch to task: "We can not call that which is being done by the young prose writers experime ntin g. It is ceaseless searching, learning , testing, but not experimenting" (SP, September 1961 , 17) . In the case �156 SLOVAKIA of Hykisch , he was take n to task for using the inte rnal monologu e or strea m of consciousness technique , and it was pointed out to him that this was not new at all , as it h ad been used by mode rnist authors a long time ago. Again the crit ic pretended to be unaware of the fact that even su ch a basic and harmless technique h ad been very suspect just recently. And Hykisch was reacting to the literature immediately preceding him , even though , pe rhaps unconsciously , he actuall y returned to the interrupted modernist line of Slovak prose. " Modernism " - a word of opprobrium only rece ntly - became th e most desired aim in the ge neral atmosphe re of catching up with the W est. But H ykisch would not stop experimenting. Here is the conclusion of his sho rt novel Nad'a (SP August-Dece mbe r 1963): Who is guilty of the librarian 's d eath? Who ? I ? H e? Nadia , you are a merciful Samaritan, should you try to save people who were hurt ? ... The door to the washroom banged shut. They always bang, someone shouted feebly from the next room. Dreaming. At the other end it started to ring . I started. I began to run, the doors are lea ping a t my side and are running b ehind me, there is ringing, a seco nd alarm clock. A third . A fourth. Simultaneously. Voices, banging , slippers , fee t , the first door, a person . Woma n. I closed m y eyes a nd eve rything around m e vibrated, unknown sounds a nd voices, something securely lived here. I stood for a mome nt in front of our room, I heard Liz . I quickly ente red , Good morning , girls . Hi , Nadia, why a re you h a untin g here? I opened the window, hun g the towel on the bed and started to dress quickly. The girls were still sleepy and watched me in surprise . I hurried . It seem ed to m e that it was late for eve rything . It would not be difficult to prove how Hyki sch 's style differs from the more orthodox styles of th e forties a nd fifti es - the sudde n cha nges of voice, the economy , the dynamism , the palpa ble presence of the furniture of life, the reali a, in short, the mode rn shorthand, telegraphic style is here clearly represe nted. But the experime ntal ch a racter of this novel lies in the implications of the plot , in the introduction of a characte r �SLOVAKIA 157 out of favo r with the P arty, a nd the int rodu ctory device of qu ota ti on s from au thors su ch as Campa n ella (his Th e City of the S un ), H. G . W ells (Th e Sh ap e of Thin gs to Com e), qu otation s th at pro m oted qu estionin g, skep ti cism a nd pess imi sm . These qu ota ti on s co m e from Robert, th e m an in di sfavor with wh om adi a, th e hero in e, fall s in love . W e are led to believe th a t R obe rt 's difficulti es ste m from the fact th a t he is a thinker, not a careerist , and also a man of p rinciple. N adi a, a n intellige nt but slightl y fri volou s econ omics student , does n ot measure up to the strictures a nd u tter seriou sn ess of Robert , a libraria n by p ro fession , but a philosoph er b y callin g. Of interest , too, is the sett in g , th e urban se tt in g - Brati slava - which will come to be the set tin g of man y works of the decade. But it is th e city see n throu gh the eyes of a n out sider , N adi a, who com es to Brati slava to study . Th e ambi gu ou s endin g (Robert commits sui cide, but h ove rs b etwee n life an~ death) is also som ethin g new . ot becau se of the a mbi guity , but again fo r su ggestin g (by impli cation) th a t perh aps N adi a was n ot entirely to bl am e for R obert 's sui cide. It woul d not be enti rely in a ppropria te to call R obert a m odern Slovak in carna tion of th e "supe rflu ou s m a n " known to u s from Russian litera ture . The isolated individual , the m a n against the world , against a K afk aesqu e bureau cracy: su ch is th e un co m fo rta bl e situ a tion of the new Slovak literary ch a rac te r of the sixties. In a nothe r urba n writer , J a n J oh a nides, the ch a racte r is isol ated without the h elp of politi cs . R a th er , h e is pressed a nd tried sorely b y the existential choice , by lack of com munication , a nd b y the alien world from which he seem s so woefull y estra n ged . C a mu s a nd Sartre a re the two m ost obviou s m en tors ofj oh a nides, especially the latter, according to Mil a n H amad a (SP , O ctob er 1963 , 134). L ack of co mmunication is the them e of an impressive story entitled Potapaca prit'ahuju pram ene m ora (A Di ve r I s Attracted by O cean Sprin gs). I qu ote from the co nclu sion : Everybody loves hi s wi fe fo r som e m ore or less co ncrete reason , b u t the re a re some who love fo r a less ce rta in , or eve n un ce rtain reason . And th at reaso n could b e the fact that he saw h er, th at they h ave me t a t all , th at sh e too exis ts. It seems tha t I loved Marth a for a sim il a r reason. I saw her, I looked at her w ith these my eyes a n d she wanted me to marry her. And that "more certain " reason fo r whi ch , if I ca n say so, m y love multi pli ed , was her beautiful a r rogan ce. T h a t is �158 SLOVAKIA wha t I would call he r in sisten t d esire to be h appy . Perh a ps she co uld gu ess a t the beginnin g that I could secure her existen ce and would make no claims on her. I call her desire for happiness beautiful a rrogance because she d a red to turn m e into a spring board to aims tha t she thou ght would m a ke h er ha ppy. This a r rogance - of wh a tever kind - I find interestin g; I do n ot judge h er for it. It p roves tha t M a rtha had to be profoundl y unha ppy a nd alone. Little things that I could furnish for her were designed to suggest to he r that this was not the way to ha ppiness. I do not know if she unde rstood . (SP, July 196 1, 111 ) Now the sen sitive n a rrator-hu sb a nd is him self d yin g of cance r , but still goin g a bout hi s tasks, unworried ab out his a pproaching end . Hi s profession is rather prosaic: he is a chef in a resta ura nt . Whe n he find s out a bout his wife ' s unfaithfuln ess, he fail s to ge t a n gry. When he learns a bou t her death of sudden heart failure while drivin g with her love r , he still m a intains his equ animity. Thu s he is almost superna turally calm a nd ra tion al, or em o tion ally defici e nt - a judgem ent th a t is sys tem a tically contradicted by his superior sen sitivity of perception and un d erstandin g . Still , hi s sta nce is suspicious to his fri end s who find him too stran ge for their compa n y . All thi s would b e new and unu su al in Slovak lite rature, but the essenti al experimental feature of J oha nides is his stress on th e private space of the individu al; n ot only his in ne r world tha t he so carefull y sketches, but the ou te r world as well. H owever , it is a highly individu al, private world tha t his cha racte rs see. And for that reaso n th ey are u nabl e to share it wi th an yon e. Con sequ entl y, these wo rlds often clash . Such a cl ash is described by the obj ective n arrator of a title story in J oha nides' s Sukromie (Privacy, 1963). During the fun e ral of a ve ry act ive wo rke r a nd Pa r ty m em ber, the orato r addresses the deceased: I d o n ot know h ow to tha nk you fra nkl y fo r all your effort a nd pe rso nal in volve m en t in our facto ry's cl ub of the R evolutio na ry U nion Move m e nt. You we re a good union m embe r , we deeply honor yo ur wo rk. W e knew yo u , we tru sted you . Bu t d id we really know you ? The wind lifted the red fl ag that covered the coffin, and som eo ne fro m the crowd p assed a n open bottle of soda water �SLOVAKIA 15 9 to the cl a rinet pl aye r . H e put it in to th e condu ctor's h a nd. - But w hy did you leave so su dd enl y? The bo ttle of soda water was ta ken by a sm all m a n in a gray sui t w ith a wart ri ght un der hi s eye. H e was holdin g the wife of the deceased in hi s arms, pou r in g the sod a water o n he r face th rou gh the veil , but som e wom a n too k th e bo ttle away from him a nd lifted the ve il . - Why did you leave so sudde nl y? 4 Two activities are in progress simultan eou sly. T he world of the deceased is no m o re; to who m , then , is th e orator a ddressing hi s m ela ncholy m essage? To him self, fo r th e widow h as fa inted , a nd people a re busy ta king care of h er. The commo tio n of the world " out the re" cl ashes w ith the wo rld of the o rator whose speech a nd qu estion s give the scen e an a b su rd a ir a t first ; it will turn out tha t n o on e, n ot eve n his wife, really kn ew the d eceased . Jan J oh a nid es b a ffl ed hi s critics and div id ed them sh a rply into two groups . Fo r the first group , here is Mila n H am ad a: '' The failure of intellect in J ohanides caused the loss of spiritual and artistic tran scendence " (SP , Au gu st 1966 , 9). For the second , Fra nti sek Miko: "The stren gth of J oh a nides ' s style I see m a inly in w h a t I would like to call indep enden ce. It shows itself in the a n alys is, con cretely in the sh a rp , m a tter -offact an alyti cal to ne. This tone was always very rare h e re, a nd the refore always desirable a nd n ew" (SP , D ecember 1966, 15). In this m a tter-of-fact tone a nd in hi s som etim es excess ive a ttention to detail J oh anides was bested by P eter J aros, who brings into Slovak litera ture perh ap s the m ost experim ental features th a t we associa te with the a nti-n ovel or n ou vea u rom an. H e is playing with ti me, "coll apsing" it , d iffu sin g o ur a ttenti o n in paren thetical deta il s that seem to be la rgely irrelevant to the main action , which itself is ve ry difficult to de fin e . H ere is an example from hi s work Vah y (Scales, 1966): (Some movemen ts attract by the ir u nexpected vigorou sness or their unusual character. Ri gh t now a hu ge clou d mu st have fl ow n away a nd uncove red th e settin g su n , for it su ddenl y brightened up .) We move away carefu ll y from the door , hi t somethin g ge ntl y a nd feel behind our b ack the wall ( eve n the sitting man can be seen mo re clearly). Sudde nl y , as if by m iracle, we e n ter the room w he re the man is sitti ng , and we �160 SLOVAKIA stay there even after the sun sets and the twilight turns to darkness. (The room is a spacious one, from the armchair in which the man is sitting, one can see, n ear the glass door, a double chest of brown walnut wood. There is nothing on the rear wall , although be tween the doo r a nd the chest there is sufficie nt space to fit a big elongated vase that would moderate the sudden transition between the chest and the door. )5 Und erstanda bly , we a re dealing here with literature heavily influenced by foreign models; the expe rime ntatio n does not seem to follow a native model, unless we see J a ros as a follower ofjohanides . Even so , there is injohanides's work also a lyricism which is missing fromjaros's work. Lyricism or rather " lyrical prose " is the main accomplishment of perhaps the most talented writer of the new generation, Vincent Sikula. H ere, for example, is the conclusion of Sikula' s story Dlhe tyzdne sjasnymi n ocami pred odletmi st'ahovavych vtakov (Long Weeks with Bright Nights befo re the Flights of Birds). A boy , Rudko , befriends a village idiot , Viktor, who attracts the boy with his ri ch imagination and asks him to join him secretly at night. Outside, th ey observe the m ysteriou s n a ture, crawl in the wet grass, a nd th en Viktor blindfolds the boy: Rudko, maybe I lied to you, h e said. I told you an hour ago that it 's beginning to d awn , but you could have seen that this was not so. Is the ni gh t bright? I took a mirror with m e, maybe I wanted to confuse you with it . I 've thrown it away, a nd you didn't even notice it. T ell m e, Rudko , what do I n eed a mirror fo r? M aybe yo u really are sick a nd maybe yo u feel like slee ping . But how could you slee p when the ni gh t is so bright? I p rom ised to give you a handke rchief, I didn ' t make a parachute out of it , because I would be sorry to see it go . H e told me th a t he would talk to m e un til I fall asleep. H e m entioned thin gs abo ut which he u sed to talk to me all summ er lo n g, that is, th e merry-go-round , the du ck , ... but also the gander , m aybe it will b e a wild gander and it will take off, lift itself off th e gro und, fl y over Koligram, it will avo id the poplars, it will disa ppear over the fi eld s ... �SLOVAKIA 161 Rudko, can you still see me? I can't. They found me in the morning with my head in the ditch. On my back, there was a heavy stone that was supposed to kill me. 6 Sikula admits that he is a follower of the outstanding village prose writers of the older generation, Jozef Ciger-Hronsky and Milo Urban, but his arrival on the literary scene with his lyricism was still an experiment under the circumstances. He does not flinch from horror when he shows the destruction of the village by sudden change brought on by war or revolution. But the violence of war has been more strikingly portrayed in the work of Ladislav Tazky, especially in his work Amenmaria: Sam[ dobrf vojaci (Amenmaria: All the Good Soldiers, 1964). H ere we see a conscious departure from the older socialist realist depiction of war, such as the schematic picture of the resistance and the horrors of the uprising against the Germans that we find in Jilemnicky' s Kronika (Chronicle, 1947) , where everything is simple and clear. On the one side the partisans, on the other - Germans. In Tazky we find a difference . The experiment lies in introducing to the reader a hero who is a soldier of the Slovak Army fighting in the Ukraine against the Red Army and on the side of the Germans . Although , to be sure, the narrator is a communist, the difficult period, the ambiguities, the different pulls and demands on soldiers, the hell of war, are all rendered in a striking style that lacks comforting simplicity and bewilders us by its provocative character. What follows is a description of a German attack on a hut harboring deserters: Why do the Germans keep the light on at D aytim e and How Come they don 't Shout " H eil "? What are you doing, soldier-boys? At this time they h ave to be near the hut and the officer is commanding them to hit the snow and crawl towards the bark bunker. Boys , how long will you be playing this game? You've done it once before. Do you remember, we answered you then, and now the hut stays mum , it is waiting for you , so break �162 SLOVAKIA her waist, who will fire into he r warmth smelling of human warmth? Nobody will leave the grave, nobody will a nswer, the dead do not fear death , you are death , only the living are afraid of you, those whose waist is still unbroken (SP, June 1965, 154) . But lest I leave the impression that m ost of the n ew prose of the sixties was so depressing and utterly serious, let me turn to humor. Clearly, the most talented practitioners at the time were Milan Lasica and Julius Satinsky : humorists, satirists, p arodists and performers of their work. But I would like to turn to Milan Zelinka instead, because of the allusive character of Lasica and Satinsky's work . Zelinka's work , from which I will quote, won the competition organized by the prestigious journal Slovenske Pohl'ady in 1968 . The story is a pseudo-historical take-off on folklore and infirmities of the age reminiscent of Alfred Jarry' s Ubu . A kingdom is harrassed by a robber whom no one is able to stop. Finally , after cau sing the death of the king, the robber engages the n ew king in correspondence. H ere then is an exchange of letters from Povest' o strasnom zbojnfkovi Folstynskom a nest'astnom katovi Holcusko vi (The Story about the T errible Robber Folstynsky and the Unfortunate Executio n er Holcuska) . After the capture of the robber , who finds out that he is about to be shown to tourists instead of being executed , the robber fires a letter of protest to the king: D ear Sir, I thought tha t you h ad character , but today I found out otherwise . I a m a nnouncing thereby that I protest again st being put on a show for tourists just because you lack good economists! It is against my con science. I swear that if you force m e to do what I hate with all m y soul , I sh all spit upon the tourists and haran gu e them with u gly words to su ch an effe ct that they will be unable to sleep in our guest h ou ses not only because of the fleas, bu t also b ecause of the horror cau sed b y my tongue . Folstynsky �SLOVAKIA 163 The king answered the robber: Dear buddy, I think you are being unfair . Even though I do believe that the postponement of your execution has disappointed you deeply, there's nothing to be done, you'll have to go on living for some time ye t. As for the tourists , don't forget that our country needs money badly . It is partly and mainly your own fault that we find ourselves in a deep economic crisis. You should not forget that . Who was zipping up and down our country causing mischief, but you alone? After all, if I published your opinions in the press, our young people would laugh at you. And you do not want to appear ridiculous to them , do you? Your friend , King Bazulfk P .S . Finally, have no fear . It is not going to be so bad with those tourists. They are generous, I experienced it personally . You ' ll get lots of chewing gum. (SP, March 1968 , 154) . It would be difficult to pretend that anything except broad currents of the variety found in Slovak literature of the sixties were mentioned here. Peter Balgha and Rudolf Slaboda should have been and Vlado Bednar could have been m entioned as well. But rather than piling up a great number of names and titles, it seemed more appropriate to communicate the special flavor of the new prose . Moreover , it is also the special excitem ent that greeted the new experiments, the new works, the new names in the sixties that one would want to evoke here. And that excitem ent was, as is only natural , the property of those who had a good knowledge of the standard , or older socialist realist literature , those who could see how much this new literature differed from the older one. They could see how , quite co nsciously , the new authors began to displace the old rules, the schemata, and above all, the fear. When these were pushed away, the experimenting began . In some cases it was a modest kind of experim ent : the author wanted to see if he could write the way people used to write in the thirties or even twenties. Other writers wanted to bring in forbidde n topics: repressed people, eroticism, foreign philosoph y. Others still concentrated on the style, the form, th e structure of their work. Taken together , the effor ts of youn g Slovak authors (and som e not so you n g) made the decade of the sixties a veritable liter- �164 SLOVAKIA ary revival. That it happened at all is a miracle , despite the ready explanations . One wonders how right Thomas Merton was when he said that "tomorrow the abstract paintings will be on the walls of the Commissars.' ' 8 NOTES ' Czech Literature since 1956: A Symposium , ed . William E . Harkins a nd Paul I. Trensky (New York: Bohemica, 1980). ' Frantisek Vnuk ' ~ Sedemnast' neurodnych rokov (Middletown: Slovak v Amerike , 1965) discusses literary developments after 1956 and into 1962. It is pa rticularly valuable for its description of the infertile period of the reign of socialist realism , as the fertile period of the sixties is mostly outside th e com pass of his work . 3 Jozef Kot , " Ako dalej ," Slovenske pohl'ady, 78 Oanuary 1962), 136-3 7. This journal will hence appear in the text as SP. Translations a re mine . • JanJohanides, Sukromie (Bratislava: Slovensky Spisovatel' , 1963), p. 118 . ' Peter Jaros , Vahy (Bratislava: Slovensky Spisovatel', 1968), p. 1011 . 6 Vincent Sikula, Povetrie (Bratislava: Slovensky Spisovatel', 1968) , p . 13. 7 Thomas Merton, Raids on the Unspeakable (New York : New Directions , 1965), p. 168). Presented in Panel 128, '' Slovak Literature as a Mirror of the National Awakening, ' ' at the AAASS co nventi on in Philadelphia 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 SLOVAKIA 153 Modern Slovak Fiction: The Sixties, A Decade of Experimentation Peter Petro During the l 960's literatures of the Eastern European countries experienced a revival. On the one hand this revival became possible by the gradual relaxation of political control over literature; on the other hand it was spurred on by literary developments in the West as well as in the East. I t would be difficult to overestimate this foreign factor in the general revival. Nor was it always a case of the local application of some hitherto unavailabl e literary techniques of experimental character. Very often it was simply the act of rediscovering authors whose reputations had already been made some decades ago. This was the case with Proust , Joyce , Hemingway, T.S. Eliot, Babel , Pilnyak, Platonov, and many , many others. Franz Kafka held a special position among these rediscovered authors. His appearance in print was hailed as a symbolic, liberating event of major proportion in the literary ( and cultural) history of both the Czech and Slovak nations. As for the experimental impulses emanating from the West, the anti-novel or nouveau-roman (of Alain Robbe-Grillet, Nathalie Sarraute) , and the thea tre of the absurd (not only oflonesco, but of the mu ch older Alfred Jarry) quickly found willing practitioners as well. Not the least among these factors was the re-evaluation of native authors rehabilitated and brought back from oblivion, or rather from a literary limbo (in Slovakia they were Milo Urban , J.C. Hronsk y, Tido J. Gaspar, and others). In Slovakia, as indeed in the entire Eastern Europe, the important mileposts were the years 1956 and 1962. We can get an insight into what went on after 1956 and 1962 in Czech literature from a recently published work edited by William E. Harkins and Paul I. Trensky . 1 But here, too, the center of grav ity lies in the sixties and the reader's atten tion is directed to some half a dozen names that became known , not only in Bohemia , but also abroad. Slovak literary developments, inasmuch as these were influ en ced by political events occurring in the power cen- 154 SLOV AKI A te rs of P ragu e a nd Mosco w, to which Sl ovak literatu re h ad b ee n di rectly o r indirectly subo rdin a ted , could n ot bu t foll ow a path simil a r to the Czech d evelo pments . However , thi s d oes n ot m ean tha t th ey d evelop ed in the sam e directio n , o r even a t the sam e p ace. U po n examina ti o n of som e re p rese nta tive wo rks of Slovak a u th o r s who a ppea red durin g the p e ri od of th e revival of the six ti es, o n e is impressed b y the varie t y a nd quality of th e literature if compa red to the d ecades tha t preced e a nd follow it. Th a t so m e m as te rpieces p rodu ced a t the t im e still re m a in unkno wn in the W es t is p e rh a p s n o t e n t irely th e fa ult of write r s; the lack of tra n sla tion s is equ ally crippling. F o r this reaso n a look a t some examples of the ex perime ntal fictio n of the sixties could be o f som e help . Tha t decad e was a n ew b eginnin g in Slovak litearture; its accomplishme nts will help us to o rientate ou rselves in co ntemporary Slovak lite ra ture a nd they will help u s, in all proba bility, in the future a s well . If the six ties wer e indeed the n e w b eginnin g, what is really m eant b y thi s " n e wness" and al so b y "expe rime nt " in the context of the six ties? To start w ith , the conte xt o f the sixties w as the coll a pse of the d octrine, concept , or m e thod of socialist realism . 2 Of course, socialist realism h ad n o t b ee n re tired b y a n a dminist ra ti ve fi a t ; it h a d b ee n re -defin ed . But the sp ell h ad b een b ro ke n a nd the ch a n ges in theor y we re follo wed b y ch a n ges in p ractice. E ver yon e still p a id lip service to socialist realism but wh a t matte red m ost to p a rt y offi cials, namely the control of lite rature, was gradually slippin g from the ir h a nds, a nd their periodic a ttempts to re-establi sh con trol we re n ot su ccess ful : they h a d le t the genie out of the b o ttle. And so, whil e th e critics still p e nned th e ir tribu te s to su ch model a u th o r s as F ra n t isek H eck o (b . 190 5), P e te r Jile mnick y (b . 1901 ) , a nd Frano Kral' (b . 1903), the new w rite rs th at b egan to ap pear in print w rote in a w ay th a t w as ofte n e ntirely alie n to th ese " cl assics," som e t im es eve n to the exte nt of u sin g th e sociali st realist m od els in a w ay th at parod ied th e o ri ginal. T h e n ewn ess o f th e li teratu re of th e sixties, th e n , li es in breaki ng with th e p ast, o r rath e r with th e im m edi a te past of socialist real ist literat ure of b uildin g a nd co n stru c tin g, o f o p timi sm, of tr a n spare nt sch e m e a nd ideological or phil osophi cal m o n och rome. H owever , w h en we com e to th e "exp e rim e n t ," we fi n d th at m atters are much more complex tha n th at. F irs t o f a ll , at th e b eginnin g of th e decade (an d already in th e seco nd h alf o f th e fifti es), a n y veerin g off th e established model h ad to b e co n sidered a n experiment. For this reason , o n e h as to take "experi men t" SLOVAKIA 155 in our con text quite liberally and broadly as meaning a wide variety of writing, from that which merely joins an already established prose current to that which attempts at importing certain contemporary western literary techniques . Most importantly , we have to understand it as the development of a genuine, new literary voice with its own style, its own original seeing of the world. It would hardly be possible for new, unknown writers simply to appear with their new work and displace the established authors overnight. What happened instead was a transition period when the next literary generation of authors following Hecko , Jil emnicky, Kral', and others - namely Vladimfr Minac (b.1922), Ladislav Mnacko (b.1919), Dominik Tata rko (b.1913), and Peter Karvas (b.1920), among others - abandoned their orthodoxy to such an extent that further experiments along the same lines seemed no longer astonishing. Even here one would like to stress that the authors of the sixties were by no means readily accepted. There was first a struggle. There was very often harsh criticism; and , objectively spea king, such criticism was sometimes quite ju stified. On the whole , however, any criticism had to be fundamentally unfair if we take into consideration the still limited freedom to write as the author pleased. Thus , we witness the sorry spectacle of compromised literature criticized by compromised critics. A good example would be the case ofjaroslava Blazkova's Nylonovy mesiac (Nylon Moon, 1961 ). Jozef Kot attacked it by saying: "I do not know why, but Slovak prose has suddenly discovered ero ticism , and Sagan and others," adding a statement difficult to challenge: " Bratislava will never be a Paris and Slovaks will never be erotomaniacs. " 3 Of course, Kot knows full well why was it that there was no erot icism before. It simply was not allowed. Nor were any modern western authors pe rmitted to serve as model s, before. Kot perceives the change and his reaction is a good, though mild , sign of his bewilderment. Alas, in a very few years, by Kot 's standards, Bratislava was teeming with erotomaniac authors as socialist puritanism fizzl ed out. In fact, the standards used to measure the quality of lite rary production in Slovakia were high. P erhaps too high , and that led to contradictions . Thus , J an Rozner took the young writers Blazkova and Anton H ykisch to task: "We can not call that which is being done by the young prose writers experime ntin g. It is ceaseless searching, learning , testing, but not experimenting" (SP, September 1961 , 17) . In the case 156 SLOVAKIA of Hykisch , he was take n to task for using the inte rnal monologu e or strea m of consciousness technique , and it was pointed out to him that this was not new at all , as it h ad been used by mode rnist authors a long time ago. Again the crit ic pretended to be unaware of the fact that even su ch a basic and harmless technique h ad been very suspect just recently. And Hykisch was reacting to the literature immediately preceding him , even though , pe rhaps unconsciously , he actuall y returned to the interrupted modernist line of Slovak prose. " Modernism " - a word of opprobrium only rece ntly - became th e most desired aim in the ge neral atmosphe re of catching up with the W est. But H ykisch would not stop experimenting. Here is the conclusion of his sho rt novel Nad'a (SP August-Dece mbe r 1963): Who is guilty of the librarian 's d eath? Who ? I ? H e? Nadia , you are a merciful Samaritan, should you try to save people who were hurt ? ... The door to the washroom banged shut. They always bang, someone shouted feebly from the next room. Dreaming. At the other end it started to ring . I started. I began to run, the doors are lea ping a t my side and are running b ehind me, there is ringing, a seco nd alarm clock. A third . A fourth. Simultaneously. Voices, banging , slippers , fee t , the first door, a person . Woma n. I closed m y eyes a nd eve rything around m e vibrated, unknown sounds a nd voices, something securely lived here. I stood for a mome nt in front of our room, I heard Liz . I quickly ente red , Good morning , girls . Hi , Nadia, why a re you h a untin g here? I opened the window, hun g the towel on the bed and started to dress quickly. The girls were still sleepy and watched me in surprise . I hurried . It seem ed to m e that it was late for eve rything . It would not be difficult to prove how Hyki sch 's style differs from the more orthodox styles of th e forties a nd fifti es - the sudde n cha nges of voice, the economy , the dynamism , the palpa ble presence of the furniture of life, the reali a, in short, the mode rn shorthand, telegraphic style is here clearly represe nted. But the experime ntal ch a racter of this novel lies in the implications of the plot , in the introduction of a characte r SLOVAKIA 157 out of favo r with the P arty, a nd the int rodu ctory device of qu ota ti on s from au thors su ch as Campa n ella (his Th e City of the S un ), H. G . W ells (Th e Sh ap e of Thin gs to Com e), qu otation s th at pro m oted qu estionin g, skep ti cism a nd pess imi sm . These qu ota ti on s co m e from Robert, th e m an in di sfavor with wh om adi a, th e hero in e, fall s in love . W e are led to believe th a t R obe rt 's difficulti es ste m from the fact th a t he is a thinker, not a careerist , and also a man of p rinciple. N adi a, a n intellige nt but slightl y fri volou s econ omics student , does n ot measure up to the strictures a nd u tter seriou sn ess of Robert , a libraria n by p ro fession , but a philosoph er b y callin g. Of interest , too, is the sett in g , th e urban se tt in g - Brati slava - which will come to be the set tin g of man y works of the decade. But it is th e city see n throu gh the eyes of a n out sider , N adi a, who com es to Brati slava to study . Th e ambi gu ou s endin g (Robert commits sui cide, but h ove rs b etwee n life an~ death) is also som ethin g new . ot becau se of the a mbi guity , but again fo r su ggestin g (by impli cation) th a t perh aps N adi a was n ot entirely to bl am e for R obert 's sui cide. It woul d not be enti rely in a ppropria te to call R obert a m odern Slovak in carna tion of th e "supe rflu ou s m a n " known to u s from Russian litera ture . The isolated individual , the m a n against the world , against a K afk aesqu e bureau cracy: su ch is th e un co m fo rta bl e situ a tion of the new Slovak literary ch a rac te r of the sixties. In a nothe r urba n writer , J a n J oh a nides, the ch a racte r is isol ated without the h elp of politi cs . R a th er , h e is pressed a nd tried sorely b y the existential choice , by lack of com munication , a nd b y the alien world from which he seem s so woefull y estra n ged . C a mu s a nd Sartre a re the two m ost obviou s m en tors ofj oh a nides, especially the latter, according to Mil a n H amad a (SP , O ctob er 1963 , 134). L ack of co mmunication is the them e of an impressive story entitled Potapaca prit'ahuju pram ene m ora (A Di ve r I s Attracted by O cean Sprin gs). I qu ote from the co nclu sion : Everybody loves hi s wi fe fo r som e m ore or less co ncrete reason , b u t the re a re some who love fo r a less ce rta in , or eve n un ce rtain reason . And th at reaso n could b e the fact that he saw h er, th at they h ave me t a t all , th at sh e too exis ts. It seems tha t I loved Marth a for a sim il a r reason. I saw her, I looked at her w ith these my eyes a n d she wanted me to marry her. And that "more certain " reason fo r whi ch , if I ca n say so, m y love multi pli ed , was her beautiful a r rogan ce. T h a t is 158 SLOVAKIA wha t I would call he r in sisten t d esire to be h appy . Perh a ps she co uld gu ess a t the beginnin g that I could secure her existen ce and would make no claims on her. I call her desire for happiness beautiful a rrogance because she d a red to turn m e into a spring board to aims tha t she thou ght would m a ke h er ha ppy. This a r rogance - of wh a tever kind - I find interestin g; I do n ot judge h er for it. It p roves tha t M a rtha had to be profoundl y unha ppy a nd alone. Little things that I could furnish for her were designed to suggest to he r that this was not the way to ha ppiness. I do not know if she unde rstood . (SP, July 196 1, 111 ) Now the sen sitive n a rrator-hu sb a nd is him self d yin g of cance r , but still goin g a bout hi s tasks, unworried ab out his a pproaching end . Hi s profession is rather prosaic: he is a chef in a resta ura nt . Whe n he find s out a bout his wife ' s unfaithfuln ess, he fail s to ge t a n gry. When he learns a bou t her death of sudden heart failure while drivin g with her love r , he still m a intains his equ animity. Thu s he is almost superna turally calm a nd ra tion al, or em o tion ally defici e nt - a judgem ent th a t is sys tem a tically contradicted by his superior sen sitivity of perception and un d erstandin g . Still , hi s sta nce is suspicious to his fri end s who find him too stran ge for their compa n y . All thi s would b e new and unu su al in Slovak lite rature, but the essenti al experimental feature of J oha nides is his stress on th e private space of the individu al; n ot only his in ne r world tha t he so carefull y sketches, but the ou te r world as well. H owever , it is a highly individu al, private world tha t his cha racte rs see. And for that reaso n th ey are u nabl e to share it wi th an yon e. Con sequ entl y, these wo rlds often clash . Such a cl ash is described by the obj ective n arrator of a title story in J oha nides' s Sukromie (Privacy, 1963). During the fun e ral of a ve ry act ive wo rke r a nd Pa r ty m em ber, the orato r addresses the deceased: I d o n ot know h ow to tha nk you fra nkl y fo r all your effort a nd pe rso nal in volve m en t in our facto ry's cl ub of the R evolutio na ry U nion Move m e nt. You we re a good union m embe r , we deeply honor yo ur wo rk. W e knew yo u , we tru sted you . Bu t d id we really know you ? The wind lifted the red fl ag that covered the coffin, and som eo ne fro m the crowd p assed a n open bottle of soda water SLOVAKIA 15 9 to the cl a rinet pl aye r . H e put it in to th e condu ctor's h a nd. - But w hy did you leave so su dd enl y? The bo ttle of soda water was ta ken by a sm all m a n in a gray sui t w ith a wart ri ght un der hi s eye. H e was holdin g the wife of the deceased in hi s arms, pou r in g the sod a water o n he r face th rou gh the veil , but som e wom a n too k th e bo ttle away from him a nd lifted the ve il . - Why did you leave so sudde nl y? 4 Two activities are in progress simultan eou sly. T he world of the deceased is no m o re; to who m , then , is th e orator a ddressing hi s m ela ncholy m essage? To him self, fo r th e widow h as fa inted , a nd people a re busy ta king care of h er. The commo tio n of the world " out the re" cl ashes w ith the wo rld of the o rator whose speech a nd qu estion s give the scen e an a b su rd a ir a t first ; it will turn out tha t n o on e, n ot eve n his wife, really kn ew the d eceased . Jan J oh a nid es b a ffl ed hi s critics and div id ed them sh a rply into two groups . Fo r the first group , here is Mila n H am ad a: '' The failure of intellect in J ohanides caused the loss of spiritual and artistic tran scendence " (SP , Au gu st 1966 , 9). For the second , Fra nti sek Miko: "The stren gth of J oh a nides ' s style I see m a inly in w h a t I would like to call indep enden ce. It shows itself in the a n alys is, con cretely in the sh a rp , m a tter -offact an alyti cal to ne. This tone was always very rare h e re, a nd the refore always desirable a nd n ew" (SP , D ecember 1966, 15). In this m a tter-of-fact tone a nd in hi s som etim es excess ive a ttention to detail J oh anides was bested by P eter J aros, who brings into Slovak litera ture perh ap s the m ost experim ental features th a t we associa te with the a nti-n ovel or n ou vea u rom an. H e is playing with ti me, "coll apsing" it , d iffu sin g o ur a ttenti o n in paren thetical deta il s that seem to be la rgely irrelevant to the main action , which itself is ve ry difficult to de fin e . H ere is an example from hi s work Vah y (Scales, 1966): (Some movemen ts attract by the ir u nexpected vigorou sness or their unusual character. Ri gh t now a hu ge clou d mu st have fl ow n away a nd uncove red th e settin g su n , for it su ddenl y brightened up .) We move away carefu ll y from the door , hi t somethin g ge ntl y a nd feel behind our b ack the wall ( eve n the sitting man can be seen mo re clearly). Sudde nl y , as if by m iracle, we e n ter the room w he re the man is sitti ng , and we 160 SLOVAKIA stay there even after the sun sets and the twilight turns to darkness. (The room is a spacious one, from the armchair in which the man is sitting, one can see, n ear the glass door, a double chest of brown walnut wood. There is nothing on the rear wall , although be tween the doo r a nd the chest there is sufficie nt space to fit a big elongated vase that would moderate the sudden transition between the chest and the door. )5 Und erstanda bly , we a re dealing here with literature heavily influenced by foreign models; the expe rime ntatio n does not seem to follow a native model, unless we see J a ros as a follower ofjohanides . Even so , there is injohanides's work also a lyricism which is missing fromjaros's work. Lyricism or rather " lyrical prose " is the main accomplishment of perhaps the most talented writer of the new generation, Vincent Sikula. H ere, for example, is the conclusion of Sikula' s story Dlhe tyzdne sjasnymi n ocami pred odletmi st'ahovavych vtakov (Long Weeks with Bright Nights befo re the Flights of Birds). A boy , Rudko , befriends a village idiot , Viktor, who attracts the boy with his ri ch imagination and asks him to join him secretly at night. Outside, th ey observe the m ysteriou s n a ture, crawl in the wet grass, a nd th en Viktor blindfolds the boy: Rudko, maybe I lied to you, h e said. I told you an hour ago that it 's beginning to d awn , but you could have seen that this was not so. Is the ni gh t bright? I took a mirror with m e, maybe I wanted to confuse you with it . I 've thrown it away, a nd you didn't even notice it. T ell m e, Rudko , what do I n eed a mirror fo r? M aybe yo u really are sick a nd maybe yo u feel like slee ping . But how could you slee p when the ni gh t is so bright? I p rom ised to give you a handke rchief, I didn ' t make a parachute out of it , because I would be sorry to see it go . H e told me th a t he would talk to m e un til I fall asleep. H e m entioned thin gs abo ut which he u sed to talk to me all summ er lo n g, that is, th e merry-go-round , the du ck , ... but also the gander , m aybe it will b e a wild gander and it will take off, lift itself off th e gro und, fl y over Koligram, it will avo id the poplars, it will disa ppear over the fi eld s ... SLOVAKIA 161 Rudko, can you still see me? I can't. They found me in the morning with my head in the ditch. On my back, there was a heavy stone that was supposed to kill me. 6 Sikula admits that he is a follower of the outstanding village prose writers of the older generation, Jozef Ciger-Hronsky and Milo Urban, but his arrival on the literary scene with his lyricism was still an experiment under the circumstances. He does not flinch from horror when he shows the destruction of the village by sudden change brought on by war or revolution. But the violence of war has been more strikingly portrayed in the work of Ladislav Tazky, especially in his work Amenmaria: Sam[ dobrf vojaci (Amenmaria: All the Good Soldiers, 1964). H ere we see a conscious departure from the older socialist realist depiction of war, such as the schematic picture of the resistance and the horrors of the uprising against the Germans that we find in Jilemnicky' s Kronika (Chronicle, 1947) , where everything is simple and clear. On the one side the partisans, on the other - Germans. In Tazky we find a difference . The experiment lies in introducing to the reader a hero who is a soldier of the Slovak Army fighting in the Ukraine against the Red Army and on the side of the Germans . Although , to be sure, the narrator is a communist, the difficult period, the ambiguities, the different pulls and demands on soldiers, the hell of war, are all rendered in a striking style that lacks comforting simplicity and bewilders us by its provocative character. What follows is a description of a German attack on a hut harboring deserters: Why do the Germans keep the light on at D aytim e and How Come they don 't Shout " H eil "? What are you doing, soldier-boys? At this time they h ave to be near the hut and the officer is commanding them to hit the snow and crawl towards the bark bunker. Boys , how long will you be playing this game? You've done it once before. Do you remember, we answered you then, and now the hut stays mum , it is waiting for you , so break 162 SLOVAKIA her waist, who will fire into he r warmth smelling of human warmth? Nobody will leave the grave, nobody will a nswer, the dead do not fear death , you are death , only the living are afraid of you, those whose waist is still unbroken (SP, June 1965, 154) . But lest I leave the impression that m ost of the n ew prose of the sixties was so depressing and utterly serious, let me turn to humor. Clearly, the most talented practitioners at the time were Milan Lasica and Julius Satinsky : humorists, satirists, p arodists and performers of their work. But I would like to turn to Milan Zelinka instead, because of the allusive character of Lasica and Satinsky's work . Zelinka's work , from which I will quote, won the competition organized by the prestigious journal Slovenske Pohl'ady in 1968 . The story is a pseudo-historical take-off on folklore and infirmities of the age reminiscent of Alfred Jarry' s Ubu . A kingdom is harrassed by a robber whom no one is able to stop. Finally , after cau sing the death of the king, the robber engages the n ew king in correspondence. H ere then is an exchange of letters from Povest' o strasnom zbojnfkovi Folstynskom a nest'astnom katovi Holcusko vi (The Story about the T errible Robber Folstynsky and the Unfortunate Executio n er Holcuska) . After the capture of the robber , who finds out that he is about to be shown to tourists instead of being executed , the robber fires a letter of protest to the king: D ear Sir, I thought tha t you h ad character , but today I found out otherwise . I a m a nnouncing thereby that I protest again st being put on a show for tourists just because you lack good economists! It is against my con science. I swear that if you force m e to do what I hate with all m y soul , I sh all spit upon the tourists and haran gu e them with u gly words to su ch an effe ct that they will be unable to sleep in our guest h ou ses not only because of the fleas, bu t also b ecause of the horror cau sed b y my tongue . Folstynsky SLOVAKIA 163 The king answered the robber: Dear buddy, I think you are being unfair . Even though I do believe that the postponement of your execution has disappointed you deeply, there's nothing to be done, you'll have to go on living for some time ye t. As for the tourists , don't forget that our country needs money badly . It is partly and mainly your own fault that we find ourselves in a deep economic crisis. You should not forget that . Who was zipping up and down our country causing mischief, but you alone? After all, if I published your opinions in the press, our young people would laugh at you. And you do not want to appear ridiculous to them , do you? Your friend , King Bazulfk P .S . Finally, have no fear . It is not going to be so bad with those tourists. They are generous, I experienced it personally . You ' ll get lots of chewing gum. (SP, March 1968 , 154) . It would be difficult to pretend that anything except broad currents of the variety found in Slovak literature of the sixties were mentioned here. Peter Balgha and Rudolf Slaboda should have been and Vlado Bednar could have been m entioned as well. But rather than piling up a great number of names and titles, it seemed more appropriate to communicate the special flavor of the new prose . Moreover , it is also the special excitem ent that greeted the new experiments, the new works, the new names in the sixties that one would want to evoke here. And that excitem ent was, as is only natural , the property of those who had a good knowledge of the standard , or older socialist realist literature , those who could see how much this new literature differed from the older one. They could see how , quite co nsciously , the new authors began to displace the old rules, the schemata, and above all, the fear. When these were pushed away, the experimenting began . In some cases it was a modest kind of experim ent : the author wanted to see if he could write the way people used to write in the thirties or even twenties. Other writers wanted to bring in forbidde n topics: repressed people, eroticism, foreign philosoph y. Others still concentrated on the style, the form, th e structure of their work. Taken together , the effor ts of youn g Slovak authors (and som e not so you n g) made the decade of the sixties a veritable liter- 164 SLOVAKIA ary revival. That it happened at all is a miracle , despite the ready explanations . One wonders how right Thomas Merton was when he said that "tomorrow the abstract paintings will be on the walls of the Commissars.' ' 8 NOTES ' Czech Literature since 1956: A Symposium , ed . William E . Harkins a nd Paul I. Trensky (New York: Bohemica, 1980). ' Frantisek Vnuk ' ~ Sedemnast' neurodnych rokov (Middletown: Slovak v Amerike , 1965) discusses literary developments after 1956 and into 1962. It is pa rticularly valuable for its description of the infertile period of the reign of socialist realism , as the fertile period of the sixties is mostly outside th e com pass of his work . 3 Jozef Kot , " Ako dalej ," Slovenske pohl'ady, 78 Oanuary 1962), 136-3 7. This journal will hence appear in the text as SP. Translations a re mine . • JanJohanides, Sukromie (Bratislava: Slovensky Spisovatel' , 1963), p. 118 . ' Peter Jaros , Vahy (Bratislava: Slovensky Spisovatel', 1968), p. 1011 . 6 Vincent Sikula, Povetrie (Bratislava: Slovensky Spisovatel', 1968) , p . 13. 7 Thomas Merton, Raids on the Unspeakable (New York : New Directions , 1965), p. 168). Presented in Panel 128, '' Slovak Literature as a Mirror of the National Awakening, ' ' at the AAASS co nventi on in Philadelphia 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 Modern Slovak Fiction: The Sixties, a Decade of Experimentation Description An account of the resource Peter Petro Slovakia, Vol. 30 (No. 55-56), 1982-83 pp. 153-164 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Petro, Peter Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1982-83 LCNAF https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/49378d5a099dfe61c26faeae31bbfda6.pdf 84f2a8cbb7560e0f3580292b2413ae76 PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA 15 MONSIGNOR JOZEF TISO - CONTROVERSIAL PERSONALITY By Th. J. Zubek, 0.F.M., S.T.D. The name of Msgr. Jozef Tiso, S.T.D., the executed president of the Slovak Republic, is generally known . .However, his ,p ersonality is not sufficiently recognized and understood in the Western world. The concept of a priest as an active politician and high state functionary is today somewhat unusual in Western Europe, more so in the United States. Too, it is generally ,k nown that the standpoint of the Holy See is against Catholic priests actively engaging in political activity. Moreover, cwtain gr,o ups present Msgr. Tiso as a disrupter of the Czecho..:Slova;k Repuiblic, a traitor, Nazi, Quisling, and a lackey of Adolf Hitler. This i:s done solely for the political motiives of presenting Sl()IVaks, their political aspirations, and their leaders in an unfavorable light. It is not strange, then, that in the Western world the .p ersonality of Msgir. T-iso appem-s Olbscured, incomprehensi'ble, controversial. To reach a true understanding and evaluation of Jozef Tiso, it is necessary to look upon his persona1ity and activities in the environment in which he lived and wo:riked; it is necessary to delve mo'l:'e deeply into the inner man, into his motiva·t ions and ideological ,bac:kground. Slovaik Clergy and Politics The Slovak nation lived for many centuries in the Hungarian Kingdom. The awaikening to national conscious.ness by the nations of Hungary brought a!bout nationalistic struggles among these nations. The national consciousness of the MaJgyars, the leading nation in Hungary, culminated in the idea of a great Magyar state, politically, culturally and lingu~tically hornogenous. The Ma. gyars wished to Magyarize the non~Magyar nations of Hungary, namely, the Slovaks, Roumanians, Croats, and Germans. The first victims of the forced Magyarization were 1 �16 SLOVAKIA the Slovaks. The overwhelming majority of the intelligent.. sia of Slovak origin succumbed to Magyar pressure and followed the official Magyar line, for .this was a prerequisite in the furtherance of one's career. Of the inteMigentsia it was almost exclusively the clerigy who remained loyal to the Slovak nation. The clergy became bearers of the Slovak populace with religious instruction and cultural and social enlightenment. They were Catholic priests and Lutheran minister s. Outstanding among the priests were Anton Bernolak (1762-1813), formulator of the Slovak literary language; Juraj Fandly (17514~1810) , social educator and popular writer on husbandry; Jan Holly (1785--1849), a poet who wrote heroic epics about the Slovaik past; Bishop Stephen Moyses (1797-1869) , founder and first .president of the cultural institute, Matica Sloven.ska; Andrej RadlinSlky (1818.---1879) , founder of St. Adalbert Society, a Catholic publishing house ; Ferdis Juriga (1874- 1953), an excellent orator and political leader,1 and Andrej Hlinka, (1864 -1938), a fiery defender orf Slova:k rights and founder of the Slovak People's Party. Of the Lutheran ministers~patriots there were Michal M. Hodza (1811-1880) and J ozef M. Hurban (1817-1888), writers who ,o rganized and led the armed uprising of thB SlovaJks against the 'Magyars in 1'948; Karol iKuzmany (1806-1866) , poet and ,c o-founder of the Matica Sloven.ska, and Martin Razus (1888-1937), poet and politica1 leader. Upon the basis of solidifying the Slovaks against Magyarization and fighting for their political and social rights, the clergy entered into the politcal life of Hungary. Jozef Tiso in the Parliament at Prague Wllen, in 1918, Slovakia became a part •o f the CzechoSlovak Republic, it appeared at first that more favorable conditions ,w ould prevail for the Slovaks. However, it soon became apparent that the Czechs had much the same conceptions as the !Magyars. The Czechs, too, dreamed of a great Czechoslovak national state, with a politically insignificant minority of Germans and Magyars. The Slovaks were to cede their national individuality and merge with �SLOVAKIA 17 the Czechs to create a new Czechoslovak nationality and to become Czechs eventually. The Slovaks, however, had long ago developed the consciousness of a distinct nationality and had no intention of ceding their national individuality in the interest of the Czechs. The Slovaks also felt the impact of the economic exploitation which the Czechs initiated imrne4iately after 1918 when they practically made Slovakia their colony. It was almost impossible for a ~ovak to enter civil service, since almost all civil positions and important economic functions in SlorvaJkia weTe occupied by the Czechs. Further, the Slorvaks, as a deeply religious Catholic nation (80 %- ), resented the anti-religious acts of the Czechs, which were also provocatively perpetrated in Slovaikia. In the struggle against Ozechization of the Slov,alks and in defense of Slovak rights, the Slovak People's Party, founded and led by Msgr. Andrej Hlinka, took the lead. Hlinka and Juriga, even as they had fought Magyar machinations,, began to fight Czech improprieties in the parliament at Prague, in the 1press, and through political campaigns among the people. The ,p olitical pla;tform of the S10vak People's Party was autonomy for Slovakia as guaran_ teed by the pact between American Slov.aks and the representative of Czecho-Slovakia, Professor Thomas G. Masaryk, in ·P ittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1918. 'I'he Slovak People's Party with its program and motto, "·F or God and Nation," aippealed to the feelings of the Slovaik populace, and soon became the most important political party in Slovakia. The autonomistic program was also foUowed by the Slorvak National Party of Martin Razus, a Lutheran minister. From the beginning of Czecho-Slovakia (1918), Jozef Tiso, a young a;nd zeailous priest, spiritual director and professor at the diocesan ·s eminary in Nitra, joined the autonomistic movement of Hlinka's Slovak Peoiple's Party. In 1925, Tiso became a member oif the Czecho--1Slovak par_ liament and then vice-president of the Slo,vaJk People's Party. When the Slorvak People's Party entered the government, he became Minister of Health (1927-1929). Tiso �18 SLOV.A!KIA. evolved soon into the staunchest e~ponent of Slovak autonomistic policies. Tiso as President of the Slovak People's Party Andrej iHlinka died in August of the critical year of 1938. At that time the Slovak People's Party was the most powerful. political group in SlovaJkia. It had in its ranks many young workers of the Slovaik inteHigentsia. None compared to Msgr. Tiso in moral and in political acumen and in expeTience. Commanding great esteem among the Slovaik populace and clergy, Tiso logically became the successor of Msgr. Hilinka in the leadership of the Slovak People's Party. Under the pressuxe of Hitler's driive, following H!Linka's death in 1938, events in CzechC>-iSlovakfa and in Europe moved quickly. That which the Czechs were loathe to grant the Slorvaiks under nonnal oonditions, they were foreed to grant in the enfeebled post-Munich Czecho...Slov-a kia. On October 6, 1938, the Slovaiks gained their political autonomy; they became the masters in Slorvakia. Msgr. 'l"iso, as the president of the Poople',s Party became the premier of the Slovak autonomous government, with the permission of his Bishop and the Vatican. Even :when Slovakia suffered by ceding territory to Hung,ary as a result of the Vienna A11bitration on Novem•b er 2, 1938, the ,Slovaiks were hruppy with the newly-gained autonomy. The Czechs left Slorva!kia; the Slovaiks began to manage their own affairs in the ·b est interests of the nation. It appeared that with the attainment of autonomy the aspirations of the Slovaiks were fulfilled and that the staJbilization of conditions in Slovakia would ·b e enduring. Tiso, President of the Republic Hitler was not satisfied with the dismemberment an.d neutralization of Czecho-Slovakia. When he decided to wa-ge war aigainst Poland, he wanted Ozecho-,SloviaJkia oom,p letcly under his control, particularly the western part (Bdhemia and Moravia) which was heavil'Y industriaJUzed and entirely encircled by the German Reich. On March 13, 1939, !H itler summoned Tiso• to Berlin �SLOVAKIA 19 and confronted him with the German decision regarding Slrovakia : Either secede from the Czechs and proclaim an independent Slorvak State or suffer the oonsequence of partition between Germany and Hungary. On IMa.Tch 14, 1939, Tiso presented the German proposition to the Slovak pavliament for decision. 'Ehe Slovak parliament voted for independence of !Slovakia. Msgr. Tiso became the ,p re. sident of the Slovak Republic.2 Msgr. Tiso and other Slovak political [eaders were somewhat hesitant to proclaim Slovak independence. Said Tiso, in his defense before the National Court in Bratislava (1947) : "Were it not for Hitler's pressure, the Slo:vak parliament would never have proclaimed indeipendence. "3 The MaJgyars amd the Czechs, to justify their claims upon Slo:va,kia, ha,d in the past repeatedly asserted that Siovllikia, for economic reasons, was incapable of independence. Slovak politica:l lea,ders, suddenly confronted with the question of independence for Sl01V,a kia, were aipprehensive of the future. But rather than have their country partitioned and occupied, they logi,cally chose the attempt at independence. And after this decision, they strove for the economic prosperity and cultural development of Slova,kia, permanently to integrate Slovakia into the family of European nations. It can be said that the Slovruk attempt was successful. The wave of naJtional enthusiasm engulfed the coll'Iltry, and Siovaikia's eoonomi:c and cultural standards flourished. The Slovaks. even those who at first were reserved, warmed to the Slorva!k .State and ha,d faith in its chief, Msgr. Jozef Tiso. 4 Even the most bitter enemies of the Slovaks had to acknowledge that the Slova;k Republic was capable of existence. That which Slovakia had proved in the years 1939-1945 is in no small measure ithe result of the political activity of Msgr. Tiso. But it is also the most controversial period of his political career. 1 The Fundamentals and Components of Tiso's Policies Msgr. Tiso's defense plea before the National COU'rt at Bratislava, encompasses many noteworthy ,p ronouncements �20 SLOVAKIA that point out the principles of his political activity. Con. sider but a few characteristic quotations. The key to the evaluation of my activity is my character of the priest with its motivations and regulations, established by Christian teaching for public activity. 5 Tiso as president of the Slovak Republic tried to lead his nation like a solicitous father according to Christian principles,, to which, as a priest, he consecrated his life. Politically I only did that which the well-being and inter est of the Slovak n::.ttion dictated. What I did, I always did according to, the best dictates of my knowledge and conscience, ... always guided by the rules of morality ... I fought evil with all my power, yielding to evil only when a greater evil threatened the nation. G 'In this light, Msgr. Tiso explained his aHeged collaboration with the Nazis. Msgr. Tiso• stated that some collaboration with Germany was at that time a necessity dictated by Slovakia 's geographic position, the develorpment of European events and the law of self..preservation. Slovakia did not have its own foreign policy, but neither did other larger nations in Hitleir-controUed Europe. Tiso pleaded that he was so concerned with the internal consolidation and development of Slovakia that he wa,s unruble to study the problems of international politics, including the war, upon which, because of his position, he could wield no influence. Slovak participation in the war against Russia, with two divisions, was merely symbolic, Tiso explained. 7 According to Msgr. Tiso, his paramount ;po'1icy was t o secure the maximum of internal freedom and independence within the German sphere. Outwardly it was necessary to yield somewhat to German pressure, to keep them apart, thus avoiding armed intervention. For this reason it was necessary to ban the Communist Party (one of the main accusations against Tiso) ; it was necessary to participate in the war against Russia, and it was necessary to institute some elements of a totalitarian regime. All this was done , however, to pull wool over the eyes of the Germans. Inter- �SLOVAKIA 21 nally, pleaded Tiso, Slovrukia was governed democratically - and there was freedom. & In this light -Msgr. Tiso aJ,s,o ex;plained anti-semitic activity in Slovakia. Msgr. 'Di.so stated that the rationalization of the Jewish problem was <based on a percentual partic1pation in the nation's economy. There were aibout 100,000 Jews in Sloivakia, or 4 % of the total .p opulation. Therefore only 4 % of the nation's economy was pe:mnitted to Jews. Jewish ,b usinesses were being aryanized, that is, a non-Jew would buy 51 % of a business, at an officially esta:blished rate, and the former Jewish proprietor would remain as a partrn~r. Later, at the dictate of the Gernnans, Jews were put into con centration camps and e vacuated into Poland under the pretext that land would be ,p rovided for them so that they wou!ld be able to Hve under their own ru:le. Tiso justified his position ·b y saying that he did not know at that time that the evacuated Jews would be exterminated in Polish and German concentration camps.9 A Weak Defense Herein In regard to the Jewish question, Msgr. Giuseppe Burzio, r epresentative of the Holy See in Slovakia, intervened with President Tiso in behalf of the Jews. It was rumored that Msigr. Tiso, 'a s a Catholic priest, should have resigned from the presidency, since he was unable to curtail the antisemitic campaign dictated by the Germans and waged by Slovak extremists unde r the direction of Premier Dr. Vojtech Tuka. Concerning the possibility o.f his resignation, let Tiso speak: I did not resign because I felt a moral obligation to fulfill. the duty that I had undertaken until I had been released from it by lega1ly constituted functionaries ... My action would have been egotistica,l had I left my nation in those difficult times and entered ;pri.., vate life. My action would haive been irresponsible and against the nation had I not truken into private life the moral values that I felt I represented 10 He stated further that had he received an official request from his ecclesiastical authorities, he would ha,ve re. �22 SLOV.i\KIA signed, for then there would have been no- decision to maJke, the responsibility would have been the Church authorities'. It is generally known that even repre sentatiives of the Jews had begged him to remain in office, for it would have been a total catastrophe for the Jews if someone else would have ,b een president oif the Slovak Republic. Tiso managed to insert into- ithe anti.Jewish law a provision to exempt some Jews. He wa:s a:ble to qualify a Jew as indispensa:ble to Slovak economy and thus save him from deportation. About 9,000 such exemptions were made. Despite this, howeveT, the Jewish question was really a weak point of Tiso's policy and of his defense. The End of Msgr. Tiso Msgr. Tiso's trial beg,an at the end of 1946 and lasted until April of 1947. On April 17, 1947, the jury of the Naticmal Court at Bratisla'Va brought forth the verdict of death by hanging, and the sentence was carried out on the following morning. Msgr. Tiso died peacefully, committing himself to God. His body was either destroyed or buried secretly to iprevent the SloIVaks from paying their respects. The standpoint of the Holy See, dissuading priests from participating directly in political actirvity and not identifying the Church with any particular politicail system or party, ,proved itself very much correct during the trial. Ev~ though Msgr. Tiso was tried as a politcian, it was difficult to separate his priesthood from his political function. Through Msg,r. Tiso's trial the Catholic Church of Slovakia was pilloried, ,altho'll!g'h unjustly. From the Church's point of view, it would ha.ve been 'b etter if, during the years of 1939 to 1945, the political life of Slovakia had been headed by a layman rather than a C'lex,gyman. On the other hand, it is certain that Tiso had been unj,u stly condemned. Under German ·control it was imposs1ble oo conduct a 'better policy in the interests of Slovakia than the one Tiso im:Plemented. Outright collaboration with Nazism, whkh Dr. 'Iuka attempted, would have �SLOVAKIA 23 done an immeasurably greater harm to Slovrukia. Msgr. Tiso constantly thwarted TU!ka's attempts. Msgr. Tiso's trial cuhninated. during Lent when Chris... tians are reminded. of the trial and death of Christ. Slovaks openly compared. Tiso's trial with the trial of Ohrist. Tiso, too, in his defense, alluded to this circumstance. The court that sentenced Tiso was dominated by Communists. The president of the court, Dr. Ivan Daxner and the state prosecutors, Dr. Juraj Sujan and Dr. Anton Rasla, were die-hard Communists. Furthermore, it seemed that the first two mentioned were predisposed against Msgr. Tiso, the Catholic priest, on religious grounds. Msgr. Tiso in his testament to the nation, written an hour before his death, rightfully sitated: ". . . I consider myself, in the first place a martyr in the defense of Christianity against Communism."11 "Martyr of Love" Msgr. Tiso was a victim of political revenge. It was expected. that even if he were condemned, he would be granted amnesty ,b y Dr. IDdward Benes, President of the new Czecho-Slo:v akia. Benes refused. "Osservatore Romano," of April 28, 1947, wrote that in the event of Msgr. Tiso's condemnation "political discretion would make it necessary to grant amnesty, even though in self interest ... " to amelfo,r ate the tense situation ·b etween S1-ovaiks and Czechs. "As a martyr of love toward his homeland, Dr. Tiso will live on in the Slovaik Catholic nation," "Osservatore Romano," concluded. Although Dr. Benes had rid himself of Msgr. Tiso, it is certain that Tiso in death is a greater pro'b lem in the relationship between Czechs and Slova:ks than Tiso would have boon in life. Msgr. Tiso lives in the Sl01Vak nation as a hero and martyr. To the SlOIVruks he is a symbol of a crusader for the God.given rights 'Of the Slovak nation. The Slovak Republic, with its six years of successful existence, is an actuality that ca:nnot be eradicated from history. The SlavaJks at home and wbroad. in the absolute majority stand �24 SLOVAKIA behind the ideals for which Msgr. Tiso, .p resident of the "The Homiletic and Slovak R epublic, Lived and died. 1955. Pastoral Review," N 01Vember, 1. Coura,geous member of the Hungarian Parliament (1905-1918). 2. In parall el, Msgr. J an Sram ek, a Czech priest, becam e premier of the Czecho-Slovak governm ent in exile. 3. Dr. J ozef Tiso Abou t Him self, Edited by Dr. J oseph Pauco, Passaic, N. J . 4. As the war-front b egan to app roach Slo vakia, certain grou ps within the country, inspi.red d'rom a broad, provoked an u pri-sin g in August of 1944. T o ga_in the support of the Slovak populace, t h ey spread r umors that Tiso had been imprisoned by the Germ ans and, therefore, it was necessary to fight Ge rmany. 5. Op. cit., p. 121. 6. Op. cit., p. 111. 7. Op. cit., p. 37, 277 . 8. Op. cit., p . 213 ss., 199, 201. 9. Op. ci t., p. 313 ss. 10. Op. cit., p . 21. 11. Op. cit., p. 8. • • • WHO SAID IT? "The relations of today and tomorro,w between Cze,c hoSloivaikia and the Sorviet Union a.re defined in the treaty of Deceim:be.r 1'2, 1943, . . It proclaims the lasting friMdshir, of the two nations, for the future whic h will be, strengthened by widespread economic cooperation af t e r the war. The fu hire general collaJboratiion is defined as that of two ftree alilld independent ,s tates, in whi ch there wrn be no inter1fore111ce (Jan Papane k , Interin the internrul affairs of either.'' York, 19415 ) New Inc., Press, nati-onrul Universities 1 • • • "Norvemlber 7, 1917, is t he day thaJt is ma:riked in history as the beginning of a new era, which sought the guarantee of happiness to mankind by means of a new me1Jhod of equalling differences among people and th.us achi&ving contentment on earth. Today it is- stNa too eaJI'ly from thaJt epochal occasion to judge objootively the consequences of that great deed. One thing, however, is certain: it was the beginndng of an enormous process full of ideas bo:rn of idealism." - (Dr. Joseph Lettrich, V ~ of the Executive Conu:mttee of the "Council of Free OzecboslolV'a:kia," NOW PR.ODY, Novemiber 18, 1946). � SLOVAKIA 15 MONSIGNOR JOZEF TISO - CONTROVERSIAL PERSONALITY By Th. J. Zubek, 0.F.M., S.T.D. The name of Msgr. Jozef Tiso, S.T.D., the executed president of the Slovak Republic, is generally known . .However, his ,p ersonality is not sufficiently recognized and understood in the Western world. The concept of a priest as an active politician and high state functionary is today somewhat unusual in Western Europe, more so in the United States. Too, it is generally ,k nown that the standpoint of the Holy See is against Catholic priests actively engaging in political activity. Moreover, cwtain gr,o ups present Msgr. Tiso as a disrupter of the Czecho..:Slova;k Repuiblic, a traitor, Nazi, Quisling, and a lackey of Adolf Hitler. This i:s done solely for the political motiives of presenting Sl()IVaks, their political aspirations, and their leaders in an unfavorable light. It is not strange, then, that in the Western world the .p ersonality of Msgir. T-iso appem-s Olbscured, incomprehensi'ble, controversial. To reach a true understanding and evaluation of Jozef Tiso, it is necessary to look upon his persona1ity and activities in the environment in which he lived and wo:riked; it is necessary to delve mo'l:'e deeply into the inner man, into his motiva·t ions and ideological ,bac:kground. Slovaik Clergy and Politics The Slovak nation lived for many centuries in the Hungarian Kingdom. The awaikening to national conscious.ness by the nations of Hungary brought a!bout nationalistic struggles among these nations. The national consciousness of the MaJgyars, the leading nation in Hungary, culminated in the idea of a great Magyar state, politically, culturally and lingu~tically hornogenous. The Ma. gyars wished to Magyarize the non~Magyar nations of Hungary, namely, the Slovaks, Roumanians, Croats, and Germans. The first victims of the forced Magyarization were 1 �16 SLOVAKIA the Slovaks. The overwhelming majority of the intelligent.. sia of Slovak origin succumbed to Magyar pressure and followed the official Magyar line, for .this was a prerequisite in the furtherance of one's career. Of the inteMigentsia it was almost exclusively the clerigy who remained loyal to the Slovak nation. The clergy became bearers of the Slovak populace with religious instruction and cultural and social enlightenment. They were Catholic priests and Lutheran minister s. Outstanding among the priests were Anton Bernolak (1762-1813), formulator of the Slovak literary language; Juraj Fandly (17514~1810) , social educator and popular writer on husbandry; Jan Holly (1785--1849), a poet who wrote heroic epics about the Slovaik past; Bishop Stephen Moyses (1797-1869) , founder and first .president of the cultural institute, Matica Sloven.ska; Andrej RadlinSlky (1818.---1879) , founder of St. Adalbert Society, a Catholic publishing house ; Ferdis Juriga (1874- 1953), an excellent orator and political leader,1 and Andrej Hlinka, (1864 -1938), a fiery defender orf Slova:k rights and founder of the Slovak People's Party. Of the Lutheran ministers~patriots there were Michal M. Hodza (1811-1880) and J ozef M. Hurban (1817-1888), writers who ,o rganized and led the armed uprising of thB SlovaJks against the 'Magyars in 1'948; Karol iKuzmany (1806-1866) , poet and ,c o-founder of the Matica Sloven.ska, and Martin Razus (1888-1937), poet and politica1 leader. Upon the basis of solidifying the Slovaks against Magyarization and fighting for their political and social rights, the clergy entered into the politcal life of Hungary. Jozef Tiso in the Parliament at Prague Wllen, in 1918, Slovakia became a part •o f the CzechoSlovak Republic, it appeared at first that more favorable conditions ,w ould prevail for the Slovaks. However, it soon became apparent that the Czechs had much the same conceptions as the !Magyars. The Czechs, too, dreamed of a great Czechoslovak national state, with a politically insignificant minority of Germans and Magyars. The Slovaks were to cede their national individuality and merge with �SLOVAKIA 17 the Czechs to create a new Czechoslovak nationality and to become Czechs eventually. The Slovaks, however, had long ago developed the consciousness of a distinct nationality and had no intention of ceding their national individuality in the interest of the Czechs. The Slovaks also felt the impact of the economic exploitation which the Czechs initiated imrne4iately after 1918 when they practically made Slovakia their colony. It was almost impossible for a ~ovak to enter civil service, since almost all civil positions and important economic functions in SlorvaJkia weTe occupied by the Czechs. Further, the Slorvaks, as a deeply religious Catholic nation (80 %- ), resented the anti-religious acts of the Czechs, which were also provocatively perpetrated in Slovaikia. In the struggle against Ozechization of the Slov,alks and in defense of Slovak rights, the Slovak People's Party, founded and led by Msgr. Andrej Hlinka, took the lead. Hlinka and Juriga, even as they had fought Magyar machinations,, began to fight Czech improprieties in the parliament at Prague, in the 1press, and through political campaigns among the people. The ,p olitical pla;tform of the S10vak People's Party was autonomy for Slovakia as guaran_ teed by the pact between American Slov.aks and the representative of Czecho-Slovakia, Professor Thomas G. Masaryk, in ·P ittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1918. 'I'he Slovak People's Party with its program and motto, "·F or God and Nation," aippealed to the feelings of the Slovaik populace, and soon became the most important political party in Slovakia. The autonomistic program was also foUowed by the Slorvak National Party of Martin Razus, a Lutheran minister. From the beginning of Czecho-Slovakia (1918), Jozef Tiso, a young a;nd zeailous priest, spiritual director and professor at the diocesan ·s eminary in Nitra, joined the autonomistic movement of Hlinka's Slovak Peoiple's Party. In 1925, Tiso became a member oif the Czecho--1Slovak par_ liament and then vice-president of the Slo,vaJk People's Party. When the Slorvak People's Party entered the government, he became Minister of Health (1927-1929). Tiso �18 SLOV.A!KIA. evolved soon into the staunchest e~ponent of Slovak autonomistic policies. Tiso as President of the Slovak People's Party Andrej iHlinka died in August of the critical year of 1938. At that time the Slovak People's Party was the most powerful. political group in SlovaJkia. It had in its ranks many young workers of the Slovaik inteHigentsia. None compared to Msgr. Tiso in moral and in political acumen and in expeTience. Commanding great esteem among the Slovaik populace and clergy, Tiso logically became the successor of Msgr. Hilinka in the leadership of the Slovak People's Party. Under the pressuxe of Hitler's driive, following H!Linka's death in 1938, events in CzechC>-iSlovakfa and in Europe moved quickly. That which the Czechs were loathe to grant the Slorvaiks under nonnal oonditions, they were foreed to grant in the enfeebled post-Munich Czecho...Slov-a kia. On October 6, 1938, the Slovaiks gained their political autonomy; they became the masters in Slorvakia. Msgr. 'l"iso, as the president of the Poople',s Party became the premier of the Slovak autonomous government, with the permission of his Bishop and the Vatican. Even :when Slovakia suffered by ceding territory to Hung,ary as a result of the Vienna A11bitration on Novem•b er 2, 1938, the ,Slovaiks were hruppy with the newly-gained autonomy. The Czechs left Slorva!kia; the Slovaiks began to manage their own affairs in the ·b est interests of the nation. It appeared that with the attainment of autonomy the aspirations of the Slovaiks were fulfilled and that the staJbilization of conditions in Slovakia would ·b e enduring. Tiso, President of the Republic Hitler was not satisfied with the dismemberment an.d neutralization of Czecho-Slovakia. When he decided to wa-ge war aigainst Poland, he wanted Ozecho-,SloviaJkia oom,p letcly under his control, particularly the western part (Bdhemia and Moravia) which was heavil'Y industriaJUzed and entirely encircled by the German Reich. On March 13, 1939, !H itler summoned Tiso• to Berlin �SLOVAKIA 19 and confronted him with the German decision regarding Slrovakia : Either secede from the Czechs and proclaim an independent Slorvak State or suffer the oonsequence of partition between Germany and Hungary. On IMa.Tch 14, 1939, Tiso presented the German proposition to the Slovak pavliament for decision. 'Ehe Slovak parliament voted for independence of !Slovakia. Msgr. Tiso became the ,p re. sident of the Slovak Republic.2 Msgr. Tiso and other Slovak political [eaders were somewhat hesitant to proclaim Slovak independence. Said Tiso, in his defense before the National Court in Bratislava (1947) : "Were it not for Hitler's pressure, the Slo:vak parliament would never have proclaimed indeipendence. "3 The MaJgyars amd the Czechs, to justify their claims upon Slo:va,kia, ha,d in the past repeatedly asserted that Siovllikia, for economic reasons, was incapable of independence. Slovak politica:l lea,ders, suddenly confronted with the question of independence for Sl01V,a kia, were aipprehensive of the future. But rather than have their country partitioned and occupied, they logi,cally chose the attempt at independence. And after this decision, they strove for the economic prosperity and cultural development of Slova,kia, permanently to integrate Slovakia into the family of European nations. It can be said that the Slovruk attempt was successful. The wave of naJtional enthusiasm engulfed the coll'Iltry, and Siovaikia's eoonomi:c and cultural standards flourished. The Slovaks. even those who at first were reserved, warmed to the Slorva!k .State and ha,d faith in its chief, Msgr. Jozef Tiso. 4 Even the most bitter enemies of the Slovaks had to acknowledge that the Slova;k Republic was capable of existence. That which Slovakia had proved in the years 1939-1945 is in no small measure ithe result of the political activity of Msgr. Tiso. But it is also the most controversial period of his political career. 1 The Fundamentals and Components of Tiso's Policies Msgr. Tiso's defense plea before the National COU'rt at Bratislava, encompasses many noteworthy ,p ronouncements �20 SLOVAKIA that point out the principles of his political activity. Con. sider but a few characteristic quotations. The key to the evaluation of my activity is my character of the priest with its motivations and regulations, established by Christian teaching for public activity. 5 Tiso as president of the Slovak Republic tried to lead his nation like a solicitous father according to Christian principles,, to which, as a priest, he consecrated his life. Politically I only did that which the well-being and inter est of the Slovak n::.ttion dictated. What I did, I always did according to, the best dictates of my knowledge and conscience, ... always guided by the rules of morality ... I fought evil with all my power, yielding to evil only when a greater evil threatened the nation. G 'In this light, Msgr. Tiso explained his aHeged collaboration with the Nazis. Msgr. Tiso• stated that some collaboration with Germany was at that time a necessity dictated by Slovakia 's geographic position, the develorpment of European events and the law of self..preservation. Slovakia did not have its own foreign policy, but neither did other larger nations in Hitleir-controUed Europe. Tiso pleaded that he was so concerned with the internal consolidation and development of Slovakia that he wa,s unruble to study the problems of international politics, including the war, upon which, because of his position, he could wield no influence. Slovak participation in the war against Russia, with two divisions, was merely symbolic, Tiso explained. 7 According to Msgr. Tiso, his paramount ;po'1icy was t o secure the maximum of internal freedom and independence within the German sphere. Outwardly it was necessary to yield somewhat to German pressure, to keep them apart, thus avoiding armed intervention. For this reason it was necessary to ban the Communist Party (one of the main accusations against Tiso) ; it was necessary to participate in the war against Russia, and it was necessary to institute some elements of a totalitarian regime. All this was done , however, to pull wool over the eyes of the Germans. Inter- �SLOVAKIA 21 nally, pleaded Tiso, Slovrukia was governed democratically - and there was freedom. & In this light -Msgr. Tiso aJ,s,o ex;plained anti-semitic activity in Slovakia. Msgr. 'Di.so stated that the rationalization of the Jewish problem was <based on a percentual partic1pation in the nation's economy. There were aibout 100,000 Jews in Sloivakia, or 4 % of the total .p opulation. Therefore only 4 % of the nation's economy was pe:mnitted to Jews. Jewish ,b usinesses were being aryanized, that is, a non-Jew would buy 51 % of a business, at an officially esta:blished rate, and the former Jewish proprietor would remain as a partrn~r. Later, at the dictate of the Gernnans, Jews were put into con centration camps and e vacuated into Poland under the pretext that land would be ,p rovided for them so that they wou!ld be able to Hve under their own ru:le. Tiso justified his position ·b y saying that he did not know at that time that the evacuated Jews would be exterminated in Polish and German concentration camps.9 A Weak Defense Herein In regard to the Jewish question, Msgr. Giuseppe Burzio, r epresentative of the Holy See in Slovakia, intervened with President Tiso in behalf of the Jews. It was rumored that Msigr. Tiso, 'a s a Catholic priest, should have resigned from the presidency, since he was unable to curtail the antisemitic campaign dictated by the Germans and waged by Slovak extremists unde r the direction of Premier Dr. Vojtech Tuka. Concerning the possibility o.f his resignation, let Tiso speak: I did not resign because I felt a moral obligation to fulfill. the duty that I had undertaken until I had been released from it by lega1ly constituted functionaries ... My action would have been egotistica,l had I left my nation in those difficult times and entered ;pri.., vate life. My action would haive been irresponsible and against the nation had I not truken into private life the moral values that I felt I represented 10 He stated further that had he received an official request from his ecclesiastical authorities, he would ha,ve re. �22 SLOV.i\KIA signed, for then there would have been no- decision to maJke, the responsibility would have been the Church authorities'. It is generally known that even repre sentatiives of the Jews had begged him to remain in office, for it would have been a total catastrophe for the Jews if someone else would have ,b een president oif the Slovak Republic. Tiso managed to insert into- ithe anti.Jewish law a provision to exempt some Jews. He wa:s a:ble to qualify a Jew as indispensa:ble to Slovak economy and thus save him from deportation. About 9,000 such exemptions were made. Despite this, howeveT, the Jewish question was really a weak point of Tiso's policy and of his defense. The End of Msgr. Tiso Msgr. Tiso's trial beg,an at the end of 1946 and lasted until April of 1947. On April 17, 1947, the jury of the Naticmal Court at Bratisla'Va brought forth the verdict of death by hanging, and the sentence was carried out on the following morning. Msgr. Tiso died peacefully, committing himself to God. His body was either destroyed or buried secretly to iprevent the SloIVaks from paying their respects. The standpoint of the Holy See, dissuading priests from participating directly in political actirvity and not identifying the Church with any particular politicail system or party, ,proved itself very much correct during the trial. Ev~ though Msgr. Tiso was tried as a politcian, it was difficult to separate his priesthood from his political function. Through Msg,r. Tiso's trial the Catholic Church of Slovakia was pilloried, ,altho'll!g'h unjustly. From the Church's point of view, it would ha.ve been 'b etter if, during the years of 1939 to 1945, the political life of Slovakia had been headed by a layman rather than a C'lex,gyman. On the other hand, it is certain that Tiso had been unj,u stly condemned. Under German ·control it was imposs1ble oo conduct a 'better policy in the interests of Slovakia than the one Tiso im:Plemented. Outright collaboration with Nazism, whkh Dr. 'Iuka attempted, would have �SLOVAKIA 23 done an immeasurably greater harm to Slovrukia. Msgr. Tiso constantly thwarted TU!ka's attempts. Msgr. Tiso's trial cuhninated. during Lent when Chris... tians are reminded. of the trial and death of Christ. Slovaks openly compared. Tiso's trial with the trial of Ohrist. Tiso, too, in his defense, alluded to this circumstance. The court that sentenced Tiso was dominated by Communists. The president of the court, Dr. Ivan Daxner and the state prosecutors, Dr. Juraj Sujan and Dr. Anton Rasla, were die-hard Communists. Furthermore, it seemed that the first two mentioned were predisposed against Msgr. Tiso, the Catholic priest, on religious grounds. Msgr. Tiso in his testament to the nation, written an hour before his death, rightfully sitated: ". . . I consider myself, in the first place a martyr in the defense of Christianity against Communism."11 "Martyr of Love" Msgr. Tiso was a victim of political revenge. It was expected. that even if he were condemned, he would be granted amnesty ,b y Dr. IDdward Benes, President of the new Czecho-Slo:v akia. Benes refused. "Osservatore Romano," of April 28, 1947, wrote that in the event of Msgr. Tiso's condemnation "political discretion would make it necessary to grant amnesty, even though in self interest ... " to amelfo,r ate the tense situation ·b etween S1-ovaiks and Czechs. "As a martyr of love toward his homeland, Dr. Tiso will live on in the Slovaik Catholic nation," "Osservatore Romano," concluded. Although Dr. Benes had rid himself of Msgr. Tiso, it is certain that Tiso in death is a greater pro'b lem in the relationship between Czechs and Slova:ks than Tiso would have boon in life. Msgr. Tiso lives in the Sl01Vak nation as a hero and martyr. To the SlOIVruks he is a symbol of a crusader for the God.given rights 'Of the Slovak nation. The Slovak Republic, with its six years of successful existence, is an actuality that ca:nnot be eradicated from history. The SlavaJks at home and wbroad. in the absolute majority stand �24 SLOVAKIA behind the ideals for which Msgr. Tiso, .p resident of the "The Homiletic and Slovak R epublic, Lived and died. 1955. Pastoral Review," N 01Vember, 1. Coura,geous member of the Hungarian Parliament (1905-1918). 2. In parall el, Msgr. J an Sram ek, a Czech priest, becam e premier of the Czecho-Slovak governm ent in exile. 3. Dr. J ozef Tiso Abou t Him self, Edited by Dr. J oseph Pauco, Passaic, N. J . 4. As the war-front b egan to app roach Slo vakia, certain grou ps within the country, inspi.red d'rom a broad, provoked an u pri-sin g in August of 1944. T o ga_in the support of the Slovak populace, t h ey spread r umors that Tiso had been imprisoned by the Germ ans and, therefore, it was necessary to fight Ge rmany. 5. Op. cit., p. 121. 6. Op. cit., p. 111. 7. Op. cit., p. 37, 277 . 8. Op. cit., p . 213 ss., 199, 201. 9. Op. ci t., p. 313 ss. 10. Op. cit., p . 21. 11. Op. cit., p. 8. • • • WHO SAID IT? "The relations of today and tomorro,w between Cze,c hoSloivaikia and the Sorviet Union a.re defined in the treaty of Deceim:be.r 1'2, 1943, . . It proclaims the lasting friMdshir, of the two nations, for the future whic h will be, strengthened by widespread economic cooperation af t e r the war. The fu hire general collaJboratiion is defined as that of two ftree alilld independent ,s tates, in whi ch there wrn be no inter1fore111ce (Jan Papane k , Interin the internrul affairs of either.'' York, 19415 ) New Inc., Press, nati-onrul Universities 1 • • • "Norvemlber 7, 1917, is t he day thaJt is ma:riked in history as the beginning of a new era, which sought the guarantee of happiness to mankind by means of a new me1Jhod of equalling differences among people and th.us achi&ving contentment on earth. Today it is- stNa too eaJI'ly from thaJt epochal occasion to judge objootively the consequences of that great deed. One thing, however, is certain: it was the beginndng of an enormous process full of ideas bo:rn of idealism." - (Dr. Joseph Lettrich, V ~ of the Executive Conu:mttee of the "Council of Free OzecboslolV'a:kia," NOW PR.ODY, Novemiber 18, 1946). � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1956, Vol. 6 Description An account of the resource <ul><li>Issue 1 (No. 18), March 1956.</li> <li>Issue 2 (No. 19), June 1956.</li> <li>Issue 3-4 (No. 20-21), September-December 1956.</li> </ul> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1956 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document SLOVAKIA 15 MONSIGNOR JOZEF TISO - CONTROVERSIAL PERSONALITY By Th. J. Zubek, 0.F.M., S.T.D. The name of Msgr. Jozef Tiso, S.T.D., the executed president of the Slovak Republic, is generally known . .However, his ,p ersonality is not sufficiently recognized and understood in the Western world. The concept of a priest as an active politician and high state functionary is today somewhat unusual in Western Europe, more so in the United States. Too, it is generally ,k nown that the standpoint of the Holy See is against Catholic priests actively engaging in political activity. Moreover, cwtain gr,o ups present Msgr. Tiso as a disrupter of the Czecho..:Slova;k Repuiblic, a traitor, Nazi, Quisling, and a lackey of Adolf Hitler. This i:s done solely for the political motiives of presenting Sl()IVaks, their political aspirations, and their leaders in an unfavorable light. It is not strange, then, that in the Western world the .p ersonality of Msgir. T-iso appem-s Olbscured, incomprehensi'ble, controversial. To reach a true understanding and evaluation of Jozef Tiso, it is necessary to look upon his persona1ity and activities in the environment in which he lived and wo:riked; it is necessary to delve mo'l:'e deeply into the inner man, into his motiva·t ions and ideological ,bac:kground. Slovaik Clergy and Politics The Slovak nation lived for many centuries in the Hungarian Kingdom. The awaikening to national conscious.ness by the nations of Hungary brought a!bout nationalistic struggles among these nations. The national consciousness of the MaJgyars, the leading nation in Hungary, culminated in the idea of a great Magyar state, politically, culturally and lingu~tically hornogenous. The Ma. gyars wished to Magyarize the non~Magyar nations of Hungary, namely, the Slovaks, Roumanians, Croats, and Germans. The first victims of the forced Magyarization were 1 16 SLOVAKIA the Slovaks. The overwhelming majority of the intelligent.. sia of Slovak origin succumbed to Magyar pressure and followed the official Magyar line, for .this was a prerequisite in the furtherance of one's career. Of the inteMigentsia it was almost exclusively the clerigy who remained loyal to the Slovak nation. The clergy became bearers of the Slovak populace with religious instruction and cultural and social enlightenment. They were Catholic priests and Lutheran minister s. Outstanding among the priests were Anton Bernolak (1762-1813), formulator of the Slovak literary language; Juraj Fandly (17514~1810) , social educator and popular writer on husbandry; Jan Holly (1785--1849), a poet who wrote heroic epics about the Slovaik past; Bishop Stephen Moyses (1797-1869) , founder and first .president of the cultural institute, Matica Sloven.ska; Andrej RadlinSlky (1818.---1879) , founder of St. Adalbert Society, a Catholic publishing house ; Ferdis Juriga (1874- 1953), an excellent orator and political leader,1 and Andrej Hlinka, (1864 -1938), a fiery defender orf Slova:k rights and founder of the Slovak People's Party. Of the Lutheran ministers~patriots there were Michal M. Hodza (1811-1880) and J ozef M. Hurban (1817-1888), writers who ,o rganized and led the armed uprising of thB SlovaJks against the 'Magyars in 1'948; Karol iKuzmany (1806-1866) , poet and ,c o-founder of the Matica Sloven.ska, and Martin Razus (1888-1937), poet and politica1 leader. Upon the basis of solidifying the Slovaks against Magyarization and fighting for their political and social rights, the clergy entered into the politcal life of Hungary. Jozef Tiso in the Parliament at Prague Wllen, in 1918, Slovakia became a part •o f the CzechoSlovak Republic, it appeared at first that more favorable conditions ,w ould prevail for the Slovaks. However, it soon became apparent that the Czechs had much the same conceptions as the !Magyars. The Czechs, too, dreamed of a great Czechoslovak national state, with a politically insignificant minority of Germans and Magyars. The Slovaks were to cede their national individuality and merge with SLOVAKIA 17 the Czechs to create a new Czechoslovak nationality and to become Czechs eventually. The Slovaks, however, had long ago developed the consciousness of a distinct nationality and had no intention of ceding their national individuality in the interest of the Czechs. The Slovaks also felt the impact of the economic exploitation which the Czechs initiated imrne4iately after 1918 when they practically made Slovakia their colony. It was almost impossible for a ~ovak to enter civil service, since almost all civil positions and important economic functions in SlorvaJkia weTe occupied by the Czechs. Further, the Slorvaks, as a deeply religious Catholic nation (80 %- ), resented the anti-religious acts of the Czechs, which were also provocatively perpetrated in Slovaikia. In the struggle against Ozechization of the Slov,alks and in defense of Slovak rights, the Slovak People's Party, founded and led by Msgr. Andrej Hlinka, took the lead. Hlinka and Juriga, even as they had fought Magyar machinations,, began to fight Czech improprieties in the parliament at Prague, in the 1press, and through political campaigns among the people. The ,p olitical pla;tform of the S10vak People's Party was autonomy for Slovakia as guaran_ teed by the pact between American Slov.aks and the representative of Czecho-Slovakia, Professor Thomas G. Masaryk, in ·P ittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1918. 'I'he Slovak People's Party with its program and motto, "·F or God and Nation," aippealed to the feelings of the Slovaik populace, and soon became the most important political party in Slovakia. The autonomistic program was also foUowed by the Slorvak National Party of Martin Razus, a Lutheran minister. From the beginning of Czecho-Slovakia (1918), Jozef Tiso, a young a;nd zeailous priest, spiritual director and professor at the diocesan ·s eminary in Nitra, joined the autonomistic movement of Hlinka's Slovak Peoiple's Party. In 1925, Tiso became a member oif the Czecho--1Slovak par_ liament and then vice-president of the Slo,vaJk People's Party. When the Slorvak People's Party entered the government, he became Minister of Health (1927-1929). Tiso 18 SLOV.A!KIA. evolved soon into the staunchest e~ponent of Slovak autonomistic policies. Tiso as President of the Slovak People's Party Andrej iHlinka died in August of the critical year of 1938. At that time the Slovak People's Party was the most powerful. political group in SlovaJkia. It had in its ranks many young workers of the Slovaik inteHigentsia. None compared to Msgr. Tiso in moral and in political acumen and in expeTience. Commanding great esteem among the Slovaik populace and clergy, Tiso logically became the successor of Msgr. Hilinka in the leadership of the Slovak People's Party. Under the pressuxe of Hitler's driive, following H!Linka's death in 1938, events in CzechC>-iSlovakfa and in Europe moved quickly. That which the Czechs were loathe to grant the Slorvaiks under nonnal oonditions, they were foreed to grant in the enfeebled post-Munich Czecho...Slov-a kia. On October 6, 1938, the Slovaiks gained their political autonomy; they became the masters in Slorvakia. Msgr. 'l"iso, as the president of the Poople',s Party became the premier of the Slovak autonomous government, with the permission of his Bishop and the Vatican. Even :when Slovakia suffered by ceding territory to Hung,ary as a result of the Vienna A11bitration on Novem•b er 2, 1938, the ,Slovaiks were hruppy with the newly-gained autonomy. The Czechs left Slorva!kia; the Slovaiks began to manage their own affairs in the ·b est interests of the nation. It appeared that with the attainment of autonomy the aspirations of the Slovaiks were fulfilled and that the staJbilization of conditions in Slovakia would ·b e enduring. Tiso, President of the Republic Hitler was not satisfied with the dismemberment an.d neutralization of Czecho-Slovakia. When he decided to wa-ge war aigainst Poland, he wanted Ozecho-,SloviaJkia oom,p letcly under his control, particularly the western part (Bdhemia and Moravia) which was heavil'Y industriaJUzed and entirely encircled by the German Reich. On March 13, 1939, !H itler summoned Tiso• to Berlin SLOVAKIA 19 and confronted him with the German decision regarding Slrovakia : Either secede from the Czechs and proclaim an independent Slorvak State or suffer the oonsequence of partition between Germany and Hungary. On IMa.Tch 14, 1939, Tiso presented the German proposition to the Slovak pavliament for decision. 'Ehe Slovak parliament voted for independence of !Slovakia. Msgr. Tiso became the ,p re. sident of the Slovak Republic.2 Msgr. Tiso and other Slovak political [eaders were somewhat hesitant to proclaim Slovak independence. Said Tiso, in his defense before the National Court in Bratislava (1947) : "Were it not for Hitler's pressure, the Slo:vak parliament would never have proclaimed indeipendence. "3 The MaJgyars amd the Czechs, to justify their claims upon Slo:va,kia, ha,d in the past repeatedly asserted that Siovllikia, for economic reasons, was incapable of independence. Slovak politica:l lea,ders, suddenly confronted with the question of independence for Sl01V,a kia, were aipprehensive of the future. But rather than have their country partitioned and occupied, they logi,cally chose the attempt at independence. And after this decision, they strove for the economic prosperity and cultural development of Slova,kia, permanently to integrate Slovakia into the family of European nations. It can be said that the Slovruk attempt was successful. The wave of naJtional enthusiasm engulfed the coll'Iltry, and Siovaikia's eoonomi:c and cultural standards flourished. The Slovaks. even those who at first were reserved, warmed to the Slorva!k .State and ha,d faith in its chief, Msgr. Jozef Tiso. 4 Even the most bitter enemies of the Slovaks had to acknowledge that the Slova;k Republic was capable of existence. That which Slovakia had proved in the years 1939-1945 is in no small measure ithe result of the political activity of Msgr. Tiso. But it is also the most controversial period of his political career. 1 The Fundamentals and Components of Tiso's Policies Msgr. Tiso's defense plea before the National COU'rt at Bratislava, encompasses many noteworthy ,p ronouncements 20 SLOVAKIA that point out the principles of his political activity. Con. sider but a few characteristic quotations. The key to the evaluation of my activity is my character of the priest with its motivations and regulations, established by Christian teaching for public activity. 5 Tiso as president of the Slovak Republic tried to lead his nation like a solicitous father according to Christian principles,, to which, as a priest, he consecrated his life. Politically I only did that which the well-being and inter est of the Slovak n::.ttion dictated. What I did, I always did according to, the best dictates of my knowledge and conscience, ... always guided by the rules of morality ... I fought evil with all my power, yielding to evil only when a greater evil threatened the nation. G 'In this light, Msgr. Tiso explained his aHeged collaboration with the Nazis. Msgr. Tiso• stated that some collaboration with Germany was at that time a necessity dictated by Slovakia 's geographic position, the develorpment of European events and the law of self..preservation. Slovakia did not have its own foreign policy, but neither did other larger nations in Hitleir-controUed Europe. Tiso pleaded that he was so concerned with the internal consolidation and development of Slovakia that he wa,s unruble to study the problems of international politics, including the war, upon which, because of his position, he could wield no influence. Slovak participation in the war against Russia, with two divisions, was merely symbolic, Tiso explained. 7 According to Msgr. Tiso, his paramount ;po'1icy was t o secure the maximum of internal freedom and independence within the German sphere. Outwardly it was necessary to yield somewhat to German pressure, to keep them apart, thus avoiding armed intervention. For this reason it was necessary to ban the Communist Party (one of the main accusations against Tiso) ; it was necessary to participate in the war against Russia, and it was necessary to institute some elements of a totalitarian regime. All this was done , however, to pull wool over the eyes of the Germans. Inter- SLOVAKIA 21 nally, pleaded Tiso, Slovrukia was governed democratically - and there was freedom. & In this light -Msgr. Tiso aJ,s,o ex;plained anti-semitic activity in Slovakia. Msgr. 'Di.so stated that the rationalization of the Jewish problem was <based on a percentual partic1pation in the nation's economy. There were aibout 100,000 Jews in Sloivakia, or 4 % of the total .p opulation. Therefore only 4 % of the nation's economy was pe:mnitted to Jews. Jewish ,b usinesses were being aryanized, that is, a non-Jew would buy 51 % of a business, at an officially esta:blished rate, and the former Jewish proprietor would remain as a partrn~r. Later, at the dictate of the Gernnans, Jews were put into con centration camps and e vacuated into Poland under the pretext that land would be ,p rovided for them so that they wou!ld be able to Hve under their own ru:le. Tiso justified his position ·b y saying that he did not know at that time that the evacuated Jews would be exterminated in Polish and German concentration camps.9 A Weak Defense Herein In regard to the Jewish question, Msgr. Giuseppe Burzio, r epresentative of the Holy See in Slovakia, intervened with President Tiso in behalf of the Jews. It was rumored that Msigr. Tiso, 'a s a Catholic priest, should have resigned from the presidency, since he was unable to curtail the antisemitic campaign dictated by the Germans and waged by Slovak extremists unde r the direction of Premier Dr. Vojtech Tuka. Concerning the possibility o.f his resignation, let Tiso speak: I did not resign because I felt a moral obligation to fulfill. the duty that I had undertaken until I had been released from it by lega1ly constituted functionaries ... My action would have been egotistica,l had I left my nation in those difficult times and entered ;pri.., vate life. My action would haive been irresponsible and against the nation had I not truken into private life the moral values that I felt I represented 10 He stated further that had he received an official request from his ecclesiastical authorities, he would ha,ve re. 22 SLOV.i\KIA signed, for then there would have been no- decision to maJke, the responsibility would have been the Church authorities'. It is generally known that even repre sentatiives of the Jews had begged him to remain in office, for it would have been a total catastrophe for the Jews if someone else would have ,b een president oif the Slovak Republic. Tiso managed to insert into- ithe anti.Jewish law a provision to exempt some Jews. He wa:s a:ble to qualify a Jew as indispensa:ble to Slovak economy and thus save him from deportation. About 9,000 such exemptions were made. Despite this, howeveT, the Jewish question was really a weak point of Tiso's policy and of his defense. The End of Msgr. Tiso Msgr. Tiso's trial beg,an at the end of 1946 and lasted until April of 1947. On April 17, 1947, the jury of the Naticmal Court at Bratisla'Va brought forth the verdict of death by hanging, and the sentence was carried out on the following morning. Msgr. Tiso died peacefully, committing himself to God. His body was either destroyed or buried secretly to iprevent the SloIVaks from paying their respects. The standpoint of the Holy See, dissuading priests from participating directly in political actirvity and not identifying the Church with any particular politicail system or party, ,proved itself very much correct during the trial. Ev~ though Msgr. Tiso was tried as a politcian, it was difficult to separate his priesthood from his political function. Through Msg,r. Tiso's trial the Catholic Church of Slovakia was pilloried, ,altho'll!g'h unjustly. From the Church's point of view, it would ha.ve been 'b etter if, during the years of 1939 to 1945, the political life of Slovakia had been headed by a layman rather than a C'lex,gyman. On the other hand, it is certain that Tiso had been unj,u stly condemned. Under German ·control it was imposs1ble oo conduct a 'better policy in the interests of Slovakia than the one Tiso im:Plemented. Outright collaboration with Nazism, whkh Dr. 'Iuka attempted, would have SLOVAKIA 23 done an immeasurably greater harm to Slovrukia. Msgr. Tiso constantly thwarted TU!ka's attempts. Msgr. Tiso's trial cuhninated. during Lent when Chris... tians are reminded. of the trial and death of Christ. Slovaks openly compared. Tiso's trial with the trial of Ohrist. Tiso, too, in his defense, alluded to this circumstance. The court that sentenced Tiso was dominated by Communists. The president of the court, Dr. Ivan Daxner and the state prosecutors, Dr. Juraj Sujan and Dr. Anton Rasla, were die-hard Communists. Furthermore, it seemed that the first two mentioned were predisposed against Msgr. Tiso, the Catholic priest, on religious grounds. Msgr. Tiso in his testament to the nation, written an hour before his death, rightfully sitated: ". . . I consider myself, in the first place a martyr in the defense of Christianity against Communism."11 "Martyr of Love" Msgr. Tiso was a victim of political revenge. It was expected. that even if he were condemned, he would be granted amnesty ,b y Dr. IDdward Benes, President of the new Czecho-Slo:v akia. Benes refused. "Osservatore Romano," of April 28, 1947, wrote that in the event of Msgr. Tiso's condemnation "political discretion would make it necessary to grant amnesty, even though in self interest ... " to amelfo,r ate the tense situation ·b etween S1-ovaiks and Czechs. "As a martyr of love toward his homeland, Dr. Tiso will live on in the Slovaik Catholic nation," "Osservatore Romano," concluded. Although Dr. Benes had rid himself of Msgr. Tiso, it is certain that Tiso in death is a greater pro'b lem in the relationship between Czechs and Slova:ks than Tiso would have boon in life. Msgr. Tiso lives in the Sl01Vak nation as a hero and martyr. To the SlOIVruks he is a symbol of a crusader for the God.given rights 'Of the Slovak nation. The Slovak Republic, with its six years of successful existence, is an actuality that ca:nnot be eradicated from history. The SlavaJks at home and wbroad. in the absolute majority stand 24 SLOVAKIA behind the ideals for which Msgr. Tiso, .p resident of the "The Homiletic and Slovak R epublic, Lived and died. 1955. Pastoral Review," N 01Vember, 1. Coura,geous member of the Hungarian Parliament (1905-1918). 2. In parall el, Msgr. J an Sram ek, a Czech priest, becam e premier of the Czecho-Slovak governm ent in exile. 3. Dr. J ozef Tiso Abou t Him self, Edited by Dr. J oseph Pauco, Passaic, N. J . 4. As the war-front b egan to app roach Slo vakia, certain grou ps within the country, inspi.red d'rom a broad, provoked an u pri-sin g in August of 1944. T o ga_in the support of the Slovak populace, t h ey spread r umors that Tiso had been imprisoned by the Germ ans and, therefore, it was necessary to fight Ge rmany. 5. Op. cit., p. 121. 6. Op. cit., p. 111. 7. Op. cit., p. 37, 277 . 8. Op. cit., p . 213 ss., 199, 201. 9. Op. ci t., p. 313 ss. 10. Op. cit., p . 21. 11. Op. cit., p. 8. • • • WHO SAID IT? "The relations of today and tomorro,w between Cze,c hoSloivaikia and the Sorviet Union a.re defined in the treaty of Deceim:be.r 1'2, 1943, . . It proclaims the lasting friMdshir, of the two nations, for the future whic h will be, strengthened by widespread economic cooperation af t e r the war. The fu hire general collaJboratiion is defined as that of two ftree alilld independent ,s tates, in whi ch there wrn be no inter1fore111ce (Jan Papane k , Interin the internrul affairs of either.'' York, 19415 ) New Inc., Press, nati-onrul Universities 1 • • • "Norvemlber 7, 1917, is t he day thaJt is ma:riked in history as the beginning of a new era, which sought the guarantee of happiness to mankind by means of a new me1Jhod of equalling differences among people and th.us achi&ving contentment on earth. Today it is- stNa too eaJI'ly from thaJt epochal occasion to judge objootively the consequences of that great deed. One thing, however, is certain: it was the beginndng of an enormous process full of ideas bo:rn of idealism." - (Dr. Joseph Lettrich, V ~ of the Executive Conu:mttee of the "Council of Free OzecboslolV'a:kia," NOW PR.ODY, Novemiber 18, 1946).  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Monsignor Jozef Tiso - Controversial Personality Description An account of the resource Th. J. Zubek, O.F.M., S.T.D. Slovakia, Vol. 6, No. 3-4 (20-21), September-December 1956 pp. 15-24 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 September-December 1956 SNK https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/d3aa6fe4c51573bc23c71490b485e7e8.pdf b5bb0c6a3fd49ab79860c5e6af26aeff PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA-2017 7 MORE SLOVAKS IN THE U.S. THAN CZECHS? WHO SAYS? WHEN AND WHERE? 1 Kenneth Janda Born in Chicago, Illinois, I am a third-generation Czech-American married to a second-generation Slovak-American, born Anna Mozolak in New York City. Ann's grandfather, Samuel Mozolak, is the peasant in my forthcoming book, The Emperor and the Peasant: The Start of the Great War and End of a Great Empire. 2 The emperor is, of course, Franz Joseph of Austria-Hungary. The peasant, Samuel Mozolak, lived in Krajne, a Slovak village in Hungary, the eastern half of the Dual Monarchy of Austria-Hungary. Although they never met, Franz Joseph's life profoundly affected Samuel's. It is inconceivable that the peasant ever did anything to harm the emperor, but the emperor, did much to harm him. By declaring war against Serbia, Franz Joseph personally made the decision that led to Samuel's death. So began World War I, innocently known then as the Great War-the war to end all wars. Franz Joseph resided in his Austrian palaces and visited Hungary as little as possible. Living in different places and with no common acquaintances, the two men traveled together on non-intersecting paths toward World War I. The story about Franz Joseph is based entirely on historical records. Samuel Mozolak's story is based on family documents, histories of Slovaks in Hungary, reports of Slovaks emigrating to the United States, immigrants' personal accounts, and novels of the era. His story threads together the description of Slovaks' lives as subjects in Hungary and as immigrants in America. Chapter 1 begins the emperor's story, which continues over the odd-numbered chapters. Chapter 2 and subsequent even-numbered 1 Revision of a paper prepared for delivery at the 28th World Congress of the Czechoslovak Society of Arts & Sciences (SVU),Vysoka skola zdravotnictva a socialnej prace, sv. Alzbety, Bratislava, Slovakia, September 1-4, 2016 ,_M. Mark Stolarik improved this paper with several useful suggestions . 2 Forthcoming in 2017 by McFarland Books, Box 611 , Jefferson, NC 28640, http: //www.mcfarlandbooks.com �8 SLOVAKIA-2017 chapters tell about the Slovak peasant who crossed the ocean at twenty years of age to work in New York City and who returned to Slovakia in time to serve the emperor. Those chapters also tell why hundreds of thousands of Slovaks fled the empire, how they traveled to the United States, and where they settled. In writing my manuscript, I learned far more about Ann's Slovak heritage than I did about my own Czech family background. My mother and father were first-generation bilingual Bohemians who impressed on me-who foolishly resisted learning Czech- that I was Bohemian too. I attended many events in Chicago's numerous Sokol halls, but I do not recall my parents ever saying that they had Slovak friends or even talking about Slovaks. When I met Ann Mozo lak in graduate school at Indiana University, she was the first genuine Slovak-American that I ever recall meeting. So imagine my surprise when I learned that the 1990 Census found 1.9 million United States residents professing Slovak ancestry compared with about 1.3 claiming Czech roots, whi le approximately 315,000 considering themselves "Czechoslovaks." How could that be? Did more Slovaks than Czechs really immigrate to the United States? What's the evidence? When did the immigration waves occur? Where did the Czechs and Slovaks settle in America? How could it be that I do not remember m~eting any Slovaks in Chicago? These are questions that I grappled with while writing The Emperor and the Peasant, and ones addressed more comprehensively in this paper. Anyone researching Czech and Slovak emigration from Austria-Hungary to the United States during the 19th century and the first two decades of the 20 th century encounters several facts: 1. Statistics on emigration from Austria-Hungary and immigra3 tion to the United States are seriously incomplete. Emigration statistics from Austria-Hungary had to be compiled from fragmentary government data on exit permits and from 4 more complete data on ships sailing from European ports. Immigration data in the United States came almost completely from 3 See Walter F. Willcox, (ed.), International Migrations, Volume I: Statistics (Washington: National Bureau of Economic Research, 1929), 55. 4 Wilcox, 89-90. �SLOVAKIA-2017 9 5 passenger lists of ship companies. 2. Over the years, the United States defined "immigrant" diff erently . From 1820 to 1867, data were reported for alien passengers ; from 1868 to 1900 for alien immigrants-those who intended to reside in the U.S. (including only third class passengers, not first or second class, until 1903); after 1906 for immigrant aliens admitted, excluding "all aliens admitted who avowed an intention not to settle in the United States, and all returning to resume domiciles formerly acquired in this country. 11 6 3. The U.S. Census Bureau did not separately classify residents fro m Austria-Hungary as Czechs or Slovaks until 1910, when it began asking p eople of ''foreign stock" about their "mother tongue." That year, Slovak leaders persuaded President Taft and Congress to add "mother tongue" to the 1910 Census a month before 7 it took the field on April 15. The Bureau hastily trained censustakers in asking people of foreign stock for their mother tongue-"that is, the language of customary speech in the home prior to immigration." "Foreign stock" included "the foreign-born white, the native white of foreign parentage (both parents foreign born), and the native white of mixed parentage (one parent native and the other foreign born).118 4. In 1924, the U. S. Congress imposed quotas on immigrants fro m central and southern Europe, which drastically reduced the number from the former Austria-Hungary. Whereas from 1904 to 1911 , Austria-Hungary accounted for 28 percent of millions of immigrants who poured into the United Sta9 tes, Congress set the 1925 immigration quota at only 785 for Austria 5 Wilcox, 374. Ibid. 7 Konstant in Cul en, Dejiny Slowikov v Amerike (Bratislava: Slovak League Publishing House, 1942) was translated by Daniel C. Necas and published as History of Slovaks in America (St. Paul : Czechoslovak Genealogical Society International, 2007), 329-33. 8 Fifteenth Census of the United States - 1930 - Population, Vo lume JI: General Report, Statistics by Subject (Washington: U.S . Bureau of the Census, 1933), Chapter 6, p. 263 . 9 Willcox, Walter F. (ed.), International Migrations, Vo lum e JI: Interpretations (Washington: Nati onal Bureau of Economic Research, I 93 1), 400. 6 �10 SLOVAKIA-2017 10 and 473 for Hungary. 5. In 1930, the U.S. Census Bureau switched from asking residents of ''foreign stock" about their mother tongue to asking it only of residents who were ''foreign born." The 1930 Census reported 38,727,693 of foreign stock but only 13 ,366,407 foreign born-about one-third as many. These facts complicated estimating the numbers of Czech and Slovak immigrants to the United States. Historical Trend oflmmigration from Austria-Hungary, 1869-1924 What do we know generally about immigration from AustriaHungary? Imre Ferenczi in 1925 supervised an international effort in Europe at collecting migration data that was published in 1929 in the 11 United States under the general editorship of Walter F. Willcox. Thanks to that source, we have detailed estimates for Austro-Hungarian immigration to the United States by year from 1869 to 1924and often by country within the empire. These data are presented in Figure 1, which reports the place of origin for years when available. Certain years are marked by pronounced surges in immigration. The researchers contended that these surges coincided more with views of good economic ref otts in America than with poor conditions in Austria-Hungary. 1 Felix Klez! wrote, "There was a striking parallelism between Austrian emigration and the economic conditions in the United States," while Gustav Thirring said, "In Hungary, American business conditions also were of decisive influence." The data extend beyond the end of the empire to 1924, after which U.S. national quotas throttled the flow of immigrants. According to the data in Figure 1, immigration from Austria and Bohemia long preceded any substantial immigration from Hungary. 10 Ibid. , 410 and 433 . See Walter F. Willcox, (ed.), International Migrations, Volum e I: Statistics and International Migrations (Washington: National Bureau of Economic Research, 1929). 12 Felix Klez!, "Austria," in Willcox, Volum e !I, p. 403 ; and Gustave Thirring, "Hungarian Migration of Modern Times," in Willcox, Volum e 11, p. 411 . 11 �11 SLOVAKIA-2017 Figure 1: Austro-Hungarian Immigration by Place of Origin, 1869-1924 350,000 300,000 Czechoslovakia 250,000 200,000 150,000 100,000 50,000 1874 1879 1884 1889 1894 1899 1904 1909 1914 191 9 1924 SOURCE: Walter F. Willcox, (ed.), International Migrations, Volum e I: Statistics (Washington : National Bureau of Economic Research, 1929), Tables II and III, pp. 384-393. Anecdotal evidence tells of Czechs immigrating earlier. Czech historian Stephanie Saxon-Ford said, "Bohemian intellectuals who had participated in the nationalist revival of the 1840s and 1850s . .. left their homeland by the score to escape the repression of Hapsburg �12 SLOVAKIA-2017 13 rule." By 1850 about 500 members of the Czech intelligentsiadoctors, professors, composers, and journalists-immigrated to the United States, and Czechs formed the Cesko-Slovanska Podporujici Spolecnost, or C.S.P.S., (the Czech-Slavic Protective Society) in St. 14 Louis in 1854. Furthermore, in volume II of International Migration, Felix Klez! referred to substantial immigration of Bohemians to California sparked by news of the 1849 gold strike. He wrote, "The movement was confined almost entirely to Bohemia. Of the 58,000 emigrants who registered in the years 1850-68, not less than 15 44,000, or 76 per cent, were from Bohemia. The evidence is less clear about emigration from Hungary after its 1848-49 revolution. Gustav Thirring said that any Hungarian arrivals in the United States before 1861 were "not treated in American statistics as immigration," saying "the first two immigrants from 16 Hungary being reported in 1861." Although Gregory Ference noted that a Slovak named Andrej Jelik arrived in the mid-1 s1h century and that Slovaks immigrated more frequently by the 1850s, "these immigrants usually were isolated cases ... . The beginnings of the mass 17 migration started around 1880." John Kosa agreed that Hungarian emigration was small prior to 1880, but then: "In the period from 1886 to 1890 an average of 22,000 persons left the country annually 18 for overseas, and the trend was increasing." Kosa continued: The total number of emigrants who left Hungary in the period from 1850 to 1920 is variously estimated as being between 2,500,000 and 3,000,000; the overseas emigration alone can be put between 2,200,000 13 Stephanie Saxon-Ford, The Czech Americans (New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1989), p. 47. 14 Gregory C. Ference, Sixteen months of indecision: Slovak American Viewpoints toward Compatriots and the Homeland from I 9 I 4 to I 915 as Viewed by the Slovak Language Press in Pennsylvania. (Selinsgrove, PA: Susquehanna University Press, 1995), 36. 15 Felix Klez! , "Austria," in Willcox, Volume 11, 399. 16 Gustave Thirring, "Hungarian Migration of Modern Times," in Willcox, Volum e II, 411. 17 Gregory C. Ference, "Slovak Immigration to the United States in Light of American, Czech, and Slovak History," Nebraska. History, 74 (Fall/Winter 1993): 13035 at p. 131. 18 John Kosa, "A Century of Hungarian Emigration, I 850-1950," The American Slavic and East European Review, 16 (December, I 957) : 501-514 at 504. �13 SLOVAKIA-2017 and 2,600,000 persons. For several reasons it seems to be almost impossible to reach an exact figure or to tie in the Hungarian data with the statistical figures supplied by the different countries of immigration. Thirring found that 98.5 percent of the overseas Hungarian emigrants went to the United States. 19 He estimated total Hungarian emigration from 1898 to 1913 at 1,391,000, of which 31 percent (432,000) were Slovaks. Thirring also stated, "[E]migration from Hungary was almost entirely Slovak during the early years, 1120 and from 1905 to 1913, Slovaks still had the highest emigration rate of all Hungarians- 98 .2 per 1,000. That was more than three times the Magyar rate and amounted to almost 10 percent of the Slovak popu. m . Hungary. 21 1atlon U.S. Census Data on Czechs and Slovaks in America What do U.S. Census data tell about Czech and Slovak presence in America? The evidence above in Figure 1 implies three conclusions: (1) Substantial Czech immigration from Austria-Hungary began in the 1850s; (2) Substantial Slovak immigration from AustriaHungary began later, in the 1880s; therefore (3) many thousands of Czech immigrants settled in the United States at least a full generation before comparable numbers of Slovaks. Moreover, those Czechs immigrants gave birth to many more thousands of Czech-Americans. It is not surprising that the 1910 Census reported far more residents of Czech "foreign stock" than Slovak. Those data are reported in Figure 2. Figure 2: 1910 U.S. Census of Foreign Stock: Czechs and Slovaks 1910 ~ - ~ 0 100,000 200,000 300,000 400,000 500,000 531 ,193 I I I 600,000 700,000 However, the very next census of foreign stock in 1920 revealed 19 Thirring, 419. Thirring, 424. 21 Thirring, 426. 20 �14 SLOVAKIA-2017 the surprising-even astounding- fact that the number of Slovaks in America was virtually tied with the number of Czechs! In just ten short years between the two Census counts, the number of Slovak residents in the United States jumped more than 338,000- an increase greater than all Slovaks counted in the 1910 Census. Moreover, this enormous increase occurred despite the nearly complete shutdown of immigration during the four-and-a-half years of World War I, as shown in Figure 1. Figure 3: 1910 and 1920 U.S. Censuses of Foreign Stock: Czechs and Slovaks What accounted for the huge increase in Slovaks between the 1910 and 1920 Censuses? Recall that Slovak leaders succeeded in adding the "mother tongue" question to the 1910 Census just one month before the count began. A U.S. Census website states: "Because the questionnaires had already been printed, enumerators were instructed to add this information to column 12 (birthplace) of the 22 form." The census-takers- many of whom were unfamiliar with Slavic groups in central Europe- had trouble recording responses to the question. That was admitted in the explanatory text of the I 920 Census, which stated that "contrary to the instructions given the enumerators" some persons who said they were 'Slavs,' 'Slavic,' 'Slavish," or 'Slavonian,' ... should doubtless have been reported as Slovak or Slovenian." 23 Apparently, the census-takers had less trouble accurately recording responses from Czechs or Bohemians, who had started settling in the United States sixty years earlier, had quickly affected American life, and were widely recognized. The Czech-Slavic Protective Society was founded in 1854; Budweiser Beer was imported in 1871 (Bohemian Crystal even earlier); and Antonin Dvorak wrote his New 22 U. S. Census, "History," at https: //www.census.gov/history/www/through the decades/overview/ 19 I O.htm I. 23 U.S. Census Bureau, Fourteenth Census of the United States, 1920, Volum e II: General Report and Analytical Tables (Washington, DC : 1921), Chapter 12, p. 968. �15 SLOVAKIA-2017 World Symphony in 1893 . The Slovak newcomers were not known to Americarls for their beer, their crystal, or their symphonies. Slovaks were not generally familiar to Europeans either. In 1916, according to MacMillan, Britain's Prime Minister Lloyd George (not known to be up on his geography) asked, "Who are the Slovaks? I can't seem 24 to place them. " So the leap in Slovak speakers in 1920 appears to have come from better field procedures returning a more accurate count. Additional evidence that the 1910 Census erred in counting Slovaks comes from the 1930 Census, which switched to ask the "mother tongue" question of those only who were "foreign born." Retaining the original data from the two earlier Censuses, the Bureau of the Census in 1930 recalculated its 1910 and 1920 data to report as well on "foreign born." Later Censuses to 1970 continued asking those foreign born for their mother tongue. The full set of relevant data are portrayed in Figure 4. Figure 4: Slovak and Czech as "Mother Tongue" in Censuses, 1910-1970 700 ,000 Mother Tongues of Foreign Stock 619,866 600,000 S lovak S tock 500,000 Czech S tock S lovak Born 400 ,000 - Czech Born 274,948 300 ,000 200 ,000 166,474 100 ,000 Mother Tongue• of Foreign Born 70,564 O + - - - - ~ - - ~ - - - ~ - - - , - - - - - - - , - - - - - r -- - - - , 1910 1920 1930 1 940 1950 1960 1970 U.S . Census Bureau, "Mother Tongue of the Foreign-Born Population: 1910 to 1940, 1960, and 1970," (March 9, 1999), at https://www.census.go~opulation/www/documentation/twps0029/tab06.html. Figure 4 shows a much smaller difference between foreign born 24 Margaret MacMillan, Paris 1919: Six Months That Changed the World (New York: Random House, 2002), 42 . �16 SLOVAKIA-2017 Czech or Slovak speakers and those of foreign stock. Czech immigration, which occurred earlier, certainly accounted for the preponderance of Czech foreign stock. Given the flawed nature of the 1910 count of Slovak speakers, one wonders whether the Bureau of the Census in 1930 corrected the counts of Slovak speakers when recalculating the 1910 data. In any event, Figure 4 clearly shows that in every Census from I 920 through 1970 there were more Slovak than Czech speakers among the foreign born. Because the 1920s immigration quotas virtually ended mass immigration of both Czechs and Slovaks, the downward slope of the mother tongue lines for both languages reflects the mortality rates of the foreign born. Other Data on Czech and Slovak Immigration to America As noted, the U.S. Census has severe shortcomings concerning Czech and Slovak ethnicity prior to World War I. Fortunately, there were other sources of information on immigration to the United States prior to the 1930s, and these were consulted in preparing the two-volumes of International Migrations. Imre Ferenczi, chief of the Migration Section of the International Labour Office in Geneva, wrote, The statistics for the United States have been compiled in European libraries supplemented by all the important American publications, including Bromwell, Young, the Monthly Summary of Comm erce and Finance for the United States and the Annual Reports of the Commissioner General of Immigration. With the assistance of the numerous documents which have been collected, the present series of American migration statistics is probably more nearly complete than any heretofore published in the United States . 25 Thanks to these additional sources, Volume I of International Migrations printed a twelve-page table on the "Distribution of Immi26 grant Aliens Admitted, by Sex and Race or People, 1899-1924." This remarkable table counted immigrants in forty different categories, including separate lines for "Bohemian and Moravian" and 25 Imre Ferenczi , "International Migration Statistics" in Willcox, International Mi- f[ ations, Volume I, 59. 6 - International Migrations, Volume !: Statistics, Table X, 432-43. �SLOVAKIA-2017 17 "Slovak." These data, rarely reported in accounts of Czech and Slovak immigration, were extracted for presentation in Figure 5. Figure 5: Czech and Slovak Immigrants to the U.S., 1899-1924 60 ,000 Slovak lmmlgranta: 524,348 total 52,368 50,000 40 ,000 36,934 38,221 32,41 6 Source: International Migrations, Vo lume I: Statistics, Table X, 432-43. Summing the annual data in Figure 5 over 26 years results in 524,348 Slovak versus 150,294 Czech immigrants arriving from 1899 through 1924. These annual counts are reassuringly consistent with Figure 1's data on annual immigration from Austria-Hungary, as Figure S's spikes in immigration for 1905-07, 1910, and 1913-14 match the spikes in Figure 1. While Czech immigrants to the United States certainly outnumbered Slovak immigrants throughout most of the 19 th century, the annual immigration data in Figure 5 establish that over three times as many Slovaks as Czechs immigrated to the U.S. in the first quarter of the 20 th . However, the data in Figure 5 are not comparable to U.S. Census data in Figure 4, even for the same years, 1910 and 1920. Figure 5 counted only annual immigrant arrivals. Both Censuses counted all residents of foreign stock and of foreign birth, classifying them as Czech or Slovak according to their mother tongues. By simple logic, �18 SLOVAKIA-2017 the number of Czech/Slovak of foreign stock counted in any Census year should exceed the number of Czech/Slovak who were foreign born. So too, the number of foreign born in 1910 should exceed the sum total of immigrants for the available years 1899 to 1910, and the number of foreign born in 1920 should exceed the total of immigrants from 1899 to 1920. Figure 6, which reprises the relevant foreign stock and foreign born data along with summed immigration data for 1899 to 1910 and for 1899 to 1920, shows those relationships hold for the Czech data, but not for the Slovak data. Figure 6: Comparing 1910 and 1920 U.S. Censuses with 18991924 Immigration Data 700,000 619,866 600,000 Czech stock 531, 193 500,000 Slovak Immigrants 1899-1920 400,000 1899-1910 300,000 Slovak stock C,ech bom 281 70 274,948 22 ,', 73 , r -34,564 200,000 Slovak born 166,474 100,000 Czech Immigrants 1899-1910 .-123,836 91 , 164 _______...-.---- Czech Immigrants 1899-1920 0---+-----------------~ 1910 1920 When comparing 1910 and 1920 U.S. Censuses with 1899-1924 immigration data, one should understand two facts and their implycations: �SLOVAKIA-2017 19 I . The data come from very different sources collected by very different methods. Do not expect exact matches; look instead for consistencies and impossibilities. 2. Caveat: summing annual immigrants overstates their counts in the Censuses. After arriving, many immigrants returned home. Concerning fact #1: All data for Czech foreign stock, foreign born, and immigrants are indeed logically consistent for 1910 and 1920. In both years, there were more residents of Czech foreign stock than those foreign born and those who immigrated since 1899. The Slovak figures for foreign stock and foreign born are also logically consistent. However, the data for Slovak foreign born are inconsistent with the number who immigrated in years preceding both Censuses. It is not possible for 358,056 Slovaks to arrive between 1899 and 1910 and yet have only 166,474 foreign born Slovaks in the 1910 Census. It is not possible for 460,530 Slovaks to immigrate between 1899 and 1920 and yet have only 274,948 Slovaks of foreign birth in 1920. Concerning fact #2: That immigrants often returned home requires some adjustment to the data summed from 1899 to 1910 and from 1899 to 1920. One source for 1908 to 1913 estimated that, respectively, 40 percent and 38 percent of Austrian and Hungarian 27 immigrants to the United States returned home. Other sources give 28 much lower repatriation percentages, almost half. Let us assume the highest figure, that 40 percent of the Slovak immigrants who came in the 12 years prior to 1910, returned home. That would still leave almost 215,000 immigrants, far more than the 166,000 Slovaks the 1910 Census counted as foreign born. Of course, many thousands who came before 1899 were also foreign born and still alive. Applying the same repatriation assumption to Slovak immigrants from 1899 to 1920 lowers the number to around 276,000-which is 27 Willcox, Volume I, 90 and 92. Culen estimated that about 25 percent of all Slovaks who left eventually returned (p. 42); Seton-Watson reported that Slovaks who returned in 1905 were 10 percent of those who left, and that returnees were 20 percent of emigrants in 1906, in R. W. Seton-Watson, Racial Problems in Hungary (New York: Howard Fertig, 1972 edition, original ly published 1908) Appendix XIII, 470. 28 �20 SLOVAKIA-2017 close to the 1920 Census count of about 275,000 born abroad. Although the 1899-1920 count still does not include those who immigrated earlier, the much closer fit to the I 920 Census count supports the contention that the 1910 Census woefully undercounted Slovaks. More Slovaks than Czechs in America, Then and Now? To recap, the 1920 Census of foreign stock counted almost identical numbers of Czechs and Slovaks in the United States: 622,796 and 619,866 respectively. Without doubt, the Bureau of the Census had improved its counting of Slovaks substantially since the 1910 Census, but annual counts of Czech and Slovak immigration from 1899 to 1920 suggest that even the 1920 Census underestimated the number of Slovaks, given that large scale Slovak immigration oc29 curred two decades earlier. " By the 1930 Census, which asked mother tongue only for the foreign born, there were more Slovak than Czech speakers, 240,196 to 201,138. As census-takers recorded more familiar with Slovaks as an ethnic group, perhaps they found more Slovaks to count. In any event, it is reasonable to assume that by 1930 there were actually more United States residents of Slovak than Czech ancestry. Despite the fact that Slovak speakers equaled or exceeded Czech speakers by 1920, Slovaks remained largely invisible to the American public. In Francis Clark's 1913 book, Old Homes of New Americans, he reported on a conversation with "an intelligent American lady, who had traveled widely and was not unacquainted with the history and nationality of Austria-Hungary." He asked her to guess how many Slovaks were in the United States; she guessed twenty thousand. He wrote, "She was only five hundred and eighty thousand out of the way, but I have no doubt her guess was quite as near the truth as would be that of most of her countrywomen, or countrymen 30 either, for that matter. " Although the U.S. Census Bureau apparently stopped asking for the mother tongue of foreign born in 1970, the 1980 and 1990 Cen- 29 Ference, p. 131. ° Francis E. C lark, Old Homes of New Americans: The Country and the People of 3 the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy and Their Contribution to the New World (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1913), 212-13 . �SLOVAKIA-2017 21 31 suses did attempt to measure ancestry. In 1990, the census-taker filled in a box for Question 13: "What is this person's ancestry or 32 ethnic origin?" Appendix B explained: The question was based on self-identification; the data on ancestry represent self-classification by people according to the ancestry group(s) with which they most closely identify. Ancestry refers to a person's ethnic origin or descent, "roots," or heritage or the place of birth of the person or the person's parents or ancestors before their arrival in the United States .. .. The ancestry question allowed respondents to report one or more ancestry groups. While a large number of respondents listed a single ancestry, the majority of answers included more than one ethnic entry. Generally, only the first two responses reported were coded in 1990. Based on both responses to the ancestry question, the 1990 Cen33 sus produced these estimates: Slovak 1,882,897 Czech 1,296,411 Czechoslovakian 315,285 Of course, feelings of ancestry fade across generations as marriages occur across ethnic groups. Given that Czechs immigrated a generation earlier than Slovaks, their self-identification in 1990 as Czech-American or Bohemian-American should have faded somewhat more than Slovak-American. The exact numbers for ancestry in 1990 are less significant than their relative magnitudes. These data, even with their imperfections, support the case that Slovak immigrants outnumbered Czechs in the first quarter of the 20 th century, 31 Bureau of the Census, Census '90.- The Foreign-Born Population in the United States (Washington, DC: I 990 CP-3- I), 8-4. 32 Ibid. , E- 14. 33 Based on only people's first response for ancestry, the counts were lower: 1,2 10,652 Slovaks, 772,087 Czechs, and 240,489 Czechoslovakians. Only 3,781 people cited Moravian ancestry. See Bureau of the Census, Census '90: Ancestry of the Population in the United States (Washington, DC: 1990 CP-3-2), Table I: "General Characteristics of Selected Ancestry Groups by Nativity, Citizenship, and Year of Entry." �22 SLOVAKIA-2017 even including Moravians. That seems to be true as well today. In 2013, the Department of Homeland Security reported the persons obtaining lawful permanent resident status by region and country of birth from fiscal years 2004 to 2013. The trend continued: 7,165 people from Slovakia soufht resident status in the U.S. versus 3,783 from the Czech Republic.3 Where Did Czechs and Slovak Settle in the United States? We do not inquire why immigrants chose where they settled in the United States. We look only at where they settled in the first decades of the 20 th century. To determine that, we rely on the 1920 Census, which asked for mother tongue of foreign white stockaccepting its likely undercount of Slovaks. Recall that the 1920 Census counted 622,796 Czechs and 619,866 Slovaks for a combined total of 1,242,662. Given that the amounts are essentially the same, readers can compare the counts directly, without converting them to percentages. Figure 7 displays where they chose to settle in nine Census regions of the United States, ranked by total number of Czechs and Slovaks. Figure 7: Distribution of Czech and Slovak Speakers in Census Regions, 1920• Total Czech• & Slovaka In each region Middle Atlantic 1 ~ 7 3,574 East North Central 425,623 These three regions had 1 , 140,043 of all Czechs & Slovaks (87% ) 180,483 West North Central 13,006 Texas a lone had 84% of all Czechs & Slovaks in this region West South Central 8,306 New England Only 8% of Czechs & Slovaks settled in the rest of the country; except for Texas , very few settled in southern states, 13 ,6 11 South Atlantic 14,996 Pacific Czechs= 622,786 • Slovaks'"' 619,866 Total Czechs & Slovaks = 1 ,242 ,662 934 East South Central 1 ,252 0 34 • 2,186 100,000 200,000 300,000 400,000 500,000 Department of Homeland Security," Yearbook of Immigration Statistics: 2013 Lawful Permanent Residents," https://www.dhs.gov/yearbook-immigration-statistics-2013-lawful-permanent-residents. �SLOVAKIA-2017 23 Fourteenth Census of the United State, 1920: Volume II, General Report and Analytical Tables, Table 7. The comments to the right of Figure 7 draw attention to three major conclusions: (1) almost 90% of all Czechs and Slovaks lived in relatively few states running westward from the Atlantic seaboard into the North Central region; (2) nearly all those in the West South Central region lived in Texas; and (3) relatively few Czechs and Slovaks ventured north to New England, west toward the Mountain and Pacific regions, or south-except for Texas, entering at Galveston. (One source estimated that some 200,000 immigrants entered there 5 between 1865 and 1924.)3 One last comment on Texas: according to the 1920 Census, Czechs outnumbered Slovaks 49,929 to 83 3 ! Figure 8 provides information on the states within three regions in which they settled. Figure 8: Distribution of Czech and Slovak Speakers by States within Regions (See next page) Figure 8 lists all fifteen states in 1920 having the most Czechs and Slovaks within the three regions . Only four of the fifteenPennsylvania, New Jersey, Ohio, and Indiana-had more Slovaks than Czechs. Pennsylvania stands out as the most extraordinary: Slovaks outnumbered Czechs 296,219 to 19,839, and Pennsylvania-by itself- had 48 percent of all Slovaks counted in the 1920 Census! Pennsylvania drew so many Slovaks that some explanation is needed. In his History of Slovaks in America, Culen wrote: Most of the early Slovak immigrants settled in the industrial and mining areas of Pennsylvania. Here, two main centers developed. One was in the hard coal (anthracite) mining region (or in the Slovak slang "v tvardouholtnej okolici"- '"the hard coal circle"), the other in the soft coal mining region . The first settlements formed around the mines. Later, they formed around large industrial complexes, particularly around iron and steel mills. 36 35 See htt ://wv1w.chron.com/li fe/artic le/Waves-of-mi rants-made-Galveston-intoT~2(i!§_-L73)_~}?Jl'1p_. 36 Konstantin Culen, History of Slovaks in America [Translated from the 1942 Slovak edition by Daniel C. Necas] (St. Paul , MN: Czechoslovak Genealogical Society International, 2007), p. 67. �24 SLOVAKIA-2017 M. Mark Stolarik's more recent research found that Slovaks 316,058 Pennsylvania New York MIDDLE An.ANTIC New Jersey 184,021 Illinois 138,188 Ohio EAST NORTH CENTRAL 58,217 Wisconsin Michigan Indiana Nebraska 41 ,872 Minnesota 34,739 Iowa WEST NORTH CENTRAL 16,277 Missouri 13 ,263 Kansas 11 ,203 South Dakota ■ Czechs ■ Slovaks North Dakota 0 50,000 100,000 150,000 200,000 250,000 300,000 350,000 accounted for 13.1 percent of all steel workers in America and 12.8 37 percent of bituminous coal miners. New Jersey also had a preponderance of Slovaks over Czechs, as did Ohio, but neither rivaled Pennsylvania. Indiana also had more Slovaks than Czechs, but few of each. 37 Marian Mark Stolarik, Immigration and Urbanization: The Slovak Experience, 1870-1918 (New York: AMS Press, 1989), pp. 111-112, �SLOVAKIA-2017 25 The other eleven states had Czech majorities- often overwhelming majorities. Nebraska was home to 54,024 Czechs but only 281 Slovaks! That ratio even exceeded Texas' Czech majority. My home state of Illinois had-after Pennsylvania-the second largest number of Czech and Slovak immigrants. Where in Illinois did those Czechs and Slovaks live? Did they live in urban or rural areas? The 1920 Census did not classify the foreign stock by urban rural residence, but the 1930 Census did report urban-rural location for the foreign born, which means the more recent immigrants. At that time, "urban" meant incorporated areas of 2,500 or more inhabitants-places that we would not call urban today. Nevertheless, only 56 percent of the U.S. population lived in urban areas in 1930. 38 Although they had emigrated from rural lands, both Czechs (66 percent) and Slovaks (72 percent) gravitated to urban areas. 39 Only in certain states did Czechs and Slovaks congregate in large cities. The United States had only 73 cities with 100,000 or more population in 1920. Ten were in the three states with the largest number of Czechs and Slovaks combined-Pennsylvania, Illinois, and Ohio. Because most mines and mills were located outside of Pennsylvania's large cities- Philadelphia, Scranton, and Pittsburgh. -merely 8 percent of its Czechs and Slovaks lived in its big cities. Ohio, with six cities over 100,000, presented a different case. Only Cleveland- a major steel and manufacturing center-attracted Czechs and Slovaks in droves, accounting for 52 percent of them, more Czechs than Slovaks. My home state of Illinois had only one city over 100,000 population-Chicago-and 72 percent of all Czechs and Slovaks in Illinois in 1920 lived in Chicago. The breakdown was 106,428 Czechs and 25 ,720 Slovaks. Given that Czechs outnumbered Slovaks by nearly 4 to 1 in Chicago, perhaps that explains why I never met any. Conclusion: Slovaks as the Silent Majority Certainly the preponderance of Czechs in Chicago partly explains why I was unaware of them. Probably more important was 38 Fifteenth Census of the United State, 1920: Volume II, General Report, Statistics b{ Subject, Chapter 1, Table 1. 3 Ibid. , Chapter 7, Table I. �26 SLOVAKIA-2017 that Slovaks were more silent than Czechs, so got little press compared to Czechs who- like the Irish in Boston and Italians in New York- soon became a force in city politics. Anton Cermak (originally Cermak) became a Chicago alderman, then president of the county board (1922), head of the county Democratic Party (1928), and mayor of the city (1931 ). His prominence allowed him to stand next to president-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt in Miami, where Cermak was killed by a bullet presumably aimed at the president. Slovaks also made less news than Czechs nationwide. Figure 9 shows how often articles in the Tim es, the leading newspaper in the nation's biggest city, mentioned either "Czechs" or "Slovaks.1140 From 1901 to 1910, the New York Times paid little attention to either group . Of only 88 articles during that decade that mentioned either, 75 percent were about Czechs. In the next decade, encompassing World War I and the creation of Czechoslovakia, the number of stories in the Times increased tenfold to 890, and the percentage mentioning Czechs increased to 81. By 1920, when Slovak equaled Czech as a mother tongue in census statistics, the Czech advantage in 689 Tim es' stories climbed to 84 percent. The Czech penumbra extended far over the Slovaks especially in the metropolitan media. Figure 9: "Czechs" and "Slovaks" in the News, 1900-1930 300 Number of articles in New York Tiines 250 Number mentioning Czechs 200 150 100 50 1905 40 1910 1915 1920 1925 1930 "CHRONICLE. Visualizing language usage in New York Times news coverage throughout its history," at http ://chronicle.nvtlabs.com/. �SLOVAKIA-2017 27 Cermak's visible political career in Chicago, Tomas Masaryk's tireless campaigning across the country for the existence of Czechoslovakia as an independent nation, the nation's creation after World War I, and Edvard Benes' presidency, all, no doubt contributed to the many articles mentioning Czechs in the New York Times during this period. Slovaks lacked comparable political celebrities or events to gamer publicity. Finally, the fact that almost one-half of all Slovak immigrants to the United States settled in one state, Pennsylvania and outside its large cities no doubt contributed to Slovaks' neglect by the national press and to their invisibility to people living in other states. Despite the fact that Slovaks were often unrecognized and undercounted by census-takers, the 1990 Census confirmed that more Americans claimed Slovak than Czech ancestry. Even today, that fact surprises many people. � SLOVAKIA-2017 7 MORE SLOVAKS IN THE U.S. THAN CZECHS? WHO SAYS? WHEN AND WHERE? 1 Kenneth Janda Born in Chicago, Illinois, I am a third-generation Czech-American married to a second-generation Slovak-American, born Anna Mozolak in New York City. Ann's grandfather, Samuel Mozolak, is the peasant in my forthcoming book, The Emperor and the Peasant: The Start of the Great War and End of a Great Empire. 2 The emperor is, of course, Franz Joseph of Austria-Hungary. The peasant, Samuel Mozolak, lived in Krajne, a Slovak village in Hungary, the eastern half of the Dual Monarchy of Austria-Hungary. Although they never met, Franz Joseph's life profoundly affected Samuel's. It is inconceivable that the peasant ever did anything to harm the emperor, but the emperor, did much to harm him. By declaring war against Serbia, Franz Joseph personally made the decision that led to Samuel's death. So began World War I, innocently known then as the Great War-the war to end all wars. Franz Joseph resided in his Austrian palaces and visited Hungary as little as possible. Living in different places and with no common acquaintances, the two men traveled together on non-intersecting paths toward World War I. The story about Franz Joseph is based entirely on historical records. Samuel Mozolak's story is based on family documents, histories of Slovaks in Hungary, reports of Slovaks emigrating to the United States, immigrants' personal accounts, and novels of the era. His story threads together the description of Slovaks' lives as subjects in Hungary and as immigrants in America. Chapter 1 begins the emperor's story, which continues over the odd-numbered chapters. Chapter 2 and subsequent even-numbered 1 Revision of a paper prepared for delivery at the 28th World Congress of the Czechoslovak Society of Arts & Sciences (SVU),Vysoka skola zdravotnictva a socialnej prace, sv. Alzbety, Bratislava, Slovakia, September 1-4, 2016 ,_M. Mark Stolarik improved this paper with several useful suggestions . 2 Forthcoming in 2017 by McFarland Books, Box 611 , Jefferson, NC 28640, http: //www.mcfarlandbooks.com �8 SLOVAKIA-2017 chapters tell about the Slovak peasant who crossed the ocean at twenty years of age to work in New York City and who returned to Slovakia in time to serve the emperor. Those chapters also tell why hundreds of thousands of Slovaks fled the empire, how they traveled to the United States, and where they settled. In writing my manuscript, I learned far more about Ann's Slovak heritage than I did about my own Czech family background. My mother and father were first-generation bilingual Bohemians who impressed on me-who foolishly resisted learning Czech- that I was Bohemian too. I attended many events in Chicago's numerous Sokol halls, but I do not recall my parents ever saying that they had Slovak friends or even talking about Slovaks. When I met Ann Mozo lak in graduate school at Indiana University, she was the first genuine Slovak-American that I ever recall meeting. So imagine my surprise when I learned that the 1990 Census found 1.9 million United States residents professing Slovak ancestry compared with about 1.3 claiming Czech roots, whi le approximately 315,000 considering themselves "Czechoslovaks." How could that be? Did more Slovaks than Czechs really immigrate to the United States? What's the evidence? When did the immigration waves occur? Where did the Czechs and Slovaks settle in America? How could it be that I do not remember m~eting any Slovaks in Chicago? These are questions that I grappled with while writing The Emperor and the Peasant, and ones addressed more comprehensively in this paper. Anyone researching Czech and Slovak emigration from Austria-Hungary to the United States during the 19th century and the first two decades of the 20 th century encounters several facts: 1. Statistics on emigration from Austria-Hungary and immigra3 tion to the United States are seriously incomplete. Emigration statistics from Austria-Hungary had to be compiled from fragmentary government data on exit permits and from 4 more complete data on ships sailing from European ports. Immigration data in the United States came almost completely from 3 See Walter F. Willcox, (ed.), International Migrations, Volume I: Statistics (Washington: National Bureau of Economic Research, 1929), 55. 4 Wilcox, 89-90. �SLOVAKIA-2017 9 5 passenger lists of ship companies. 2. Over the years, the United States defined "immigrant" diff erently . From 1820 to 1867, data were reported for alien passengers ; from 1868 to 1900 for alien immigrants-those who intended to reside in the U.S. (including only third class passengers, not first or second class, until 1903); after 1906 for immigrant aliens admitted, excluding "all aliens admitted who avowed an intention not to settle in the United States, and all returning to resume domiciles formerly acquired in this country. 11 6 3. The U.S. Census Bureau did not separately classify residents fro m Austria-Hungary as Czechs or Slovaks until 1910, when it began asking p eople of ''foreign stock" about their "mother tongue." That year, Slovak leaders persuaded President Taft and Congress to add "mother tongue" to the 1910 Census a month before 7 it took the field on April 15. The Bureau hastily trained censustakers in asking people of foreign stock for their mother tongue-"that is, the language of customary speech in the home prior to immigration." "Foreign stock" included "the foreign-born white, the native white of foreign parentage (both parents foreign born), and the native white of mixed parentage (one parent native and the other foreign born).118 4. In 1924, the U. S. Congress imposed quotas on immigrants fro m central and southern Europe, which drastically reduced the number from the former Austria-Hungary. Whereas from 1904 to 1911 , Austria-Hungary accounted for 28 percent of millions of immigrants who poured into the United Sta9 tes, Congress set the 1925 immigration quota at only 785 for Austria 5 Wilcox, 374. Ibid. 7 Konstant in Cul en, Dejiny Slowikov v Amerike (Bratislava: Slovak League Publishing House, 1942) was translated by Daniel C. Necas and published as History of Slovaks in America (St. Paul : Czechoslovak Genealogical Society International, 2007), 329-33. 8 Fifteenth Census of the United States - 1930 - Population, Vo lume JI: General Report, Statistics by Subject (Washington: U.S . Bureau of the Census, 1933), Chapter 6, p. 263 . 9 Willcox, Walter F. (ed.), International Migrations, Vo lum e JI: Interpretations (Washington: Nati onal Bureau of Economic Research, I 93 1), 400. 6 �10 SLOVAKIA-2017 10 and 473 for Hungary. 5. In 1930, the U.S. Census Bureau switched from asking residents of ''foreign stock" about their mother tongue to asking it only of residents who were ''foreign born." The 1930 Census reported 38,727,693 of foreign stock but only 13 ,366,407 foreign born-about one-third as many. These facts complicated estimating the numbers of Czech and Slovak immigrants to the United States. Historical Trend oflmmigration from Austria-Hungary, 1869-1924 What do we know generally about immigration from AustriaHungary? Imre Ferenczi in 1925 supervised an international effort in Europe at collecting migration data that was published in 1929 in the 11 United States under the general editorship of Walter F. Willcox. Thanks to that source, we have detailed estimates for Austro-Hungarian immigration to the United States by year from 1869 to 1924and often by country within the empire. These data are presented in Figure 1, which reports the place of origin for years when available. Certain years are marked by pronounced surges in immigration. The researchers contended that these surges coincided more with views of good economic ref otts in America than with poor conditions in Austria-Hungary. 1 Felix Klez! wrote, "There was a striking parallelism between Austrian emigration and the economic conditions in the United States," while Gustav Thirring said, "In Hungary, American business conditions also were of decisive influence." The data extend beyond the end of the empire to 1924, after which U.S. national quotas throttled the flow of immigrants. According to the data in Figure 1, immigration from Austria and Bohemia long preceded any substantial immigration from Hungary. 10 Ibid. , 410 and 433 . See Walter F. Willcox, (ed.), International Migrations, Volum e I: Statistics and International Migrations (Washington: National Bureau of Economic Research, 1929). 12 Felix Klez!, "Austria," in Willcox, Volum e !I, p. 403 ; and Gustave Thirring, "Hungarian Migration of Modern Times," in Willcox, Volum e 11, p. 411 . 11 �11 SLOVAKIA-2017 Figure 1: Austro-Hungarian Immigration by Place of Origin, 1869-1924 350,000 300,000 Czechoslovakia 250,000 200,000 150,000 100,000 50,000 1874 1879 1884 1889 1894 1899 1904 1909 1914 191 9 1924 SOURCE: Walter F. Willcox, (ed.), International Migrations, Volum e I: Statistics (Washington : National Bureau of Economic Research, 1929), Tables II and III, pp. 384-393. Anecdotal evidence tells of Czechs immigrating earlier. Czech historian Stephanie Saxon-Ford said, "Bohemian intellectuals who had participated in the nationalist revival of the 1840s and 1850s . .. left their homeland by the score to escape the repression of Hapsburg �12 SLOVAKIA-2017 13 rule." By 1850 about 500 members of the Czech intelligentsiadoctors, professors, composers, and journalists-immigrated to the United States, and Czechs formed the Cesko-Slovanska Podporujici Spolecnost, or C.S.P.S., (the Czech-Slavic Protective Society) in St. 14 Louis in 1854. Furthermore, in volume II of International Migration, Felix Klez! referred to substantial immigration of Bohemians to California sparked by news of the 1849 gold strike. He wrote, "The movement was confined almost entirely to Bohemia. Of the 58,000 emigrants who registered in the years 1850-68, not less than 15 44,000, or 76 per cent, were from Bohemia. The evidence is less clear about emigration from Hungary after its 1848-49 revolution. Gustav Thirring said that any Hungarian arrivals in the United States before 1861 were "not treated in American statistics as immigration," saying "the first two immigrants from 16 Hungary being reported in 1861." Although Gregory Ference noted that a Slovak named Andrej Jelik arrived in the mid-1 s1h century and that Slovaks immigrated more frequently by the 1850s, "these immigrants usually were isolated cases ... . The beginnings of the mass 17 migration started around 1880." John Kosa agreed that Hungarian emigration was small prior to 1880, but then: "In the period from 1886 to 1890 an average of 22,000 persons left the country annually 18 for overseas, and the trend was increasing." Kosa continued: The total number of emigrants who left Hungary in the period from 1850 to 1920 is variously estimated as being between 2,500,000 and 3,000,000; the overseas emigration alone can be put between 2,200,000 13 Stephanie Saxon-Ford, The Czech Americans (New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1989), p. 47. 14 Gregory C. Ference, Sixteen months of indecision: Slovak American Viewpoints toward Compatriots and the Homeland from I 9 I 4 to I 915 as Viewed by the Slovak Language Press in Pennsylvania. (Selinsgrove, PA: Susquehanna University Press, 1995), 36. 15 Felix Klez! , "Austria," in Willcox, Volume 11, 399. 16 Gustave Thirring, "Hungarian Migration of Modern Times," in Willcox, Volum e II, 411. 17 Gregory C. Ference, "Slovak Immigration to the United States in Light of American, Czech, and Slovak History," Nebraska. History, 74 (Fall/Winter 1993): 13035 at p. 131. 18 John Kosa, "A Century of Hungarian Emigration, I 850-1950," The American Slavic and East European Review, 16 (December, I 957) : 501-514 at 504. �13 SLOVAKIA-2017 and 2,600,000 persons. For several reasons it seems to be almost impossible to reach an exact figure or to tie in the Hungarian data with the statistical figures supplied by the different countries of immigration. Thirring found that 98.5 percent of the overseas Hungarian emigrants went to the United States. 19 He estimated total Hungarian emigration from 1898 to 1913 at 1,391,000, of which 31 percent (432,000) were Slovaks. Thirring also stated, "[E]migration from Hungary was almost entirely Slovak during the early years, 1120 and from 1905 to 1913, Slovaks still had the highest emigration rate of all Hungarians- 98 .2 per 1,000. That was more than three times the Magyar rate and amounted to almost 10 percent of the Slovak popu. m . Hungary. 21 1atlon U.S. Census Data on Czechs and Slovaks in America What do U.S. Census data tell about Czech and Slovak presence in America? The evidence above in Figure 1 implies three conclusions: (1) Substantial Czech immigration from Austria-Hungary began in the 1850s; (2) Substantial Slovak immigration from AustriaHungary began later, in the 1880s; therefore (3) many thousands of Czech immigrants settled in the United States at least a full generation before comparable numbers of Slovaks. Moreover, those Czechs immigrants gave birth to many more thousands of Czech-Americans. It is not surprising that the 1910 Census reported far more residents of Czech "foreign stock" than Slovak. Those data are reported in Figure 2. Figure 2: 1910 U.S. Census of Foreign Stock: Czechs and Slovaks 1910 ~ - ~ 0 100,000 200,000 300,000 400,000 500,000 531 ,193 I I I 600,000 700,000 However, the very next census of foreign stock in 1920 revealed 19 Thirring, 419. Thirring, 424. 21 Thirring, 426. 20 �14 SLOVAKIA-2017 the surprising-even astounding- fact that the number of Slovaks in America was virtually tied with the number of Czechs! In just ten short years between the two Census counts, the number of Slovak residents in the United States jumped more than 338,000- an increase greater than all Slovaks counted in the 1910 Census. Moreover, this enormous increase occurred despite the nearly complete shutdown of immigration during the four-and-a-half years of World War I, as shown in Figure 1. Figure 3: 1910 and 1920 U.S. Censuses of Foreign Stock: Czechs and Slovaks What accounted for the huge increase in Slovaks between the 1910 and 1920 Censuses? Recall that Slovak leaders succeeded in adding the "mother tongue" question to the 1910 Census just one month before the count began. A U.S. Census website states: "Because the questionnaires had already been printed, enumerators were instructed to add this information to column 12 (birthplace) of the 22 form." The census-takers- many of whom were unfamiliar with Slavic groups in central Europe- had trouble recording responses to the question. That was admitted in the explanatory text of the I 920 Census, which stated that "contrary to the instructions given the enumerators" some persons who said they were 'Slavs,' 'Slavic,' 'Slavish," or 'Slavonian,' ... should doubtless have been reported as Slovak or Slovenian." 23 Apparently, the census-takers had less trouble accurately recording responses from Czechs or Bohemians, who had started settling in the United States sixty years earlier, had quickly affected American life, and were widely recognized. The Czech-Slavic Protective Society was founded in 1854; Budweiser Beer was imported in 1871 (Bohemian Crystal even earlier); and Antonin Dvorak wrote his New 22 U. S. Census, "History," at https: //www.census.gov/history/www/through the decades/overview/ 19 I O.htm I. 23 U.S. Census Bureau, Fourteenth Census of the United States, 1920, Volum e II: General Report and Analytical Tables (Washington, DC : 1921), Chapter 12, p. 968. �15 SLOVAKIA-2017 World Symphony in 1893 . The Slovak newcomers were not known to Americarls for their beer, their crystal, or their symphonies. Slovaks were not generally familiar to Europeans either. In 1916, according to MacMillan, Britain's Prime Minister Lloyd George (not known to be up on his geography) asked, "Who are the Slovaks? I can't seem 24 to place them. " So the leap in Slovak speakers in 1920 appears to have come from better field procedures returning a more accurate count. Additional evidence that the 1910 Census erred in counting Slovaks comes from the 1930 Census, which switched to ask the "mother tongue" question of those only who were "foreign born." Retaining the original data from the two earlier Censuses, the Bureau of the Census in 1930 recalculated its 1910 and 1920 data to report as well on "foreign born." Later Censuses to 1970 continued asking those foreign born for their mother tongue. The full set of relevant data are portrayed in Figure 4. Figure 4: Slovak and Czech as "Mother Tongue" in Censuses, 1910-1970 700 ,000 Mother Tongues of Foreign Stock 619,866 600,000 S lovak S tock 500,000 Czech S tock S lovak Born 400 ,000 - Czech Born 274,948 300 ,000 200 ,000 166,474 100 ,000 Mother Tongue• of Foreign Born 70,564 O + - - - - ~ - - ~ - - - ~ - - - , - - - - - - - , - - - - - r -- - - - , 1910 1920 1930 1 940 1950 1960 1970 U.S . Census Bureau, "Mother Tongue of the Foreign-Born Population: 1910 to 1940, 1960, and 1970," (March 9, 1999), at https://www.census.go~opulation/www/documentation/twps0029/tab06.html. Figure 4 shows a much smaller difference between foreign born 24 Margaret MacMillan, Paris 1919: Six Months That Changed the World (New York: Random House, 2002), 42 . �16 SLOVAKIA-2017 Czech or Slovak speakers and those of foreign stock. Czech immigration, which occurred earlier, certainly accounted for the preponderance of Czech foreign stock. Given the flawed nature of the 1910 count of Slovak speakers, one wonders whether the Bureau of the Census in 1930 corrected the counts of Slovak speakers when recalculating the 1910 data. In any event, Figure 4 clearly shows that in every Census from I 920 through 1970 there were more Slovak than Czech speakers among the foreign born. Because the 1920s immigration quotas virtually ended mass immigration of both Czechs and Slovaks, the downward slope of the mother tongue lines for both languages reflects the mortality rates of the foreign born. Other Data on Czech and Slovak Immigration to America As noted, the U.S. Census has severe shortcomings concerning Czech and Slovak ethnicity prior to World War I. Fortunately, there were other sources of information on immigration to the United States prior to the 1930s, and these were consulted in preparing the two-volumes of International Migrations. Imre Ferenczi, chief of the Migration Section of the International Labour Office in Geneva, wrote, The statistics for the United States have been compiled in European libraries supplemented by all the important American publications, including Bromwell, Young, the Monthly Summary of Comm erce and Finance for the United States and the Annual Reports of the Commissioner General of Immigration. With the assistance of the numerous documents which have been collected, the present series of American migration statistics is probably more nearly complete than any heretofore published in the United States . 25 Thanks to these additional sources, Volume I of International Migrations printed a twelve-page table on the "Distribution of Immi26 grant Aliens Admitted, by Sex and Race or People, 1899-1924." This remarkable table counted immigrants in forty different categories, including separate lines for "Bohemian and Moravian" and 25 Imre Ferenczi , "International Migration Statistics" in Willcox, International Mi- f[ ations, Volume I, 59. 6 - International Migrations, Volume !: Statistics, Table X, 432-43. �SLOVAKIA-2017 17 "Slovak." These data, rarely reported in accounts of Czech and Slovak immigration, were extracted for presentation in Figure 5. Figure 5: Czech and Slovak Immigrants to the U.S., 1899-1924 60 ,000 Slovak lmmlgranta: 524,348 total 52,368 50,000 40 ,000 36,934 38,221 32,41 6 Source: International Migrations, Vo lume I: Statistics, Table X, 432-43. Summing the annual data in Figure 5 over 26 years results in 524,348 Slovak versus 150,294 Czech immigrants arriving from 1899 through 1924. These annual counts are reassuringly consistent with Figure 1's data on annual immigration from Austria-Hungary, as Figure S's spikes in immigration for 1905-07, 1910, and 1913-14 match the spikes in Figure 1. While Czech immigrants to the United States certainly outnumbered Slovak immigrants throughout most of the 19 th century, the annual immigration data in Figure 5 establish that over three times as many Slovaks as Czechs immigrated to the U.S. in the first quarter of the 20 th . However, the data in Figure 5 are not comparable to U.S. Census data in Figure 4, even for the same years, 1910 and 1920. Figure 5 counted only annual immigrant arrivals. Both Censuses counted all residents of foreign stock and of foreign birth, classifying them as Czech or Slovak according to their mother tongues. By simple logic, �18 SLOVAKIA-2017 the number of Czech/Slovak of foreign stock counted in any Census year should exceed the number of Czech/Slovak who were foreign born. So too, the number of foreign born in 1910 should exceed the sum total of immigrants for the available years 1899 to 1910, and the number of foreign born in 1920 should exceed the total of immigrants from 1899 to 1920. Figure 6, which reprises the relevant foreign stock and foreign born data along with summed immigration data for 1899 to 1910 and for 1899 to 1920, shows those relationships hold for the Czech data, but not for the Slovak data. Figure 6: Comparing 1910 and 1920 U.S. Censuses with 18991924 Immigration Data 700,000 619,866 600,000 Czech stock 531, 193 500,000 Slovak Immigrants 1899-1920 400,000 1899-1910 300,000 Slovak stock C,ech bom 281 70 274,948 22 ,', 73 , r -34,564 200,000 Slovak born 166,474 100,000 Czech Immigrants 1899-1910 .-123,836 91 , 164 _______...-.---- Czech Immigrants 1899-1920 0---+-----------------~ 1910 1920 When comparing 1910 and 1920 U.S. Censuses with 1899-1924 immigration data, one should understand two facts and their implycations: �SLOVAKIA-2017 19 I . The data come from very different sources collected by very different methods. Do not expect exact matches; look instead for consistencies and impossibilities. 2. Caveat: summing annual immigrants overstates their counts in the Censuses. After arriving, many immigrants returned home. Concerning fact #1: All data for Czech foreign stock, foreign born, and immigrants are indeed logically consistent for 1910 and 1920. In both years, there were more residents of Czech foreign stock than those foreign born and those who immigrated since 1899. The Slovak figures for foreign stock and foreign born are also logically consistent. However, the data for Slovak foreign born are inconsistent with the number who immigrated in years preceding both Censuses. It is not possible for 358,056 Slovaks to arrive between 1899 and 1910 and yet have only 166,474 foreign born Slovaks in the 1910 Census. It is not possible for 460,530 Slovaks to immigrate between 1899 and 1920 and yet have only 274,948 Slovaks of foreign birth in 1920. Concerning fact #2: That immigrants often returned home requires some adjustment to the data summed from 1899 to 1910 and from 1899 to 1920. One source for 1908 to 1913 estimated that, respectively, 40 percent and 38 percent of Austrian and Hungarian 27 immigrants to the United States returned home. Other sources give 28 much lower repatriation percentages, almost half. Let us assume the highest figure, that 40 percent of the Slovak immigrants who came in the 12 years prior to 1910, returned home. That would still leave almost 215,000 immigrants, far more than the 166,000 Slovaks the 1910 Census counted as foreign born. Of course, many thousands who came before 1899 were also foreign born and still alive. Applying the same repatriation assumption to Slovak immigrants from 1899 to 1920 lowers the number to around 276,000-which is 27 Willcox, Volume I, 90 and 92. Culen estimated that about 25 percent of all Slovaks who left eventually returned (p. 42); Seton-Watson reported that Slovaks who returned in 1905 were 10 percent of those who left, and that returnees were 20 percent of emigrants in 1906, in R. W. Seton-Watson, Racial Problems in Hungary (New York: Howard Fertig, 1972 edition, original ly published 1908) Appendix XIII, 470. 28 �20 SLOVAKIA-2017 close to the 1920 Census count of about 275,000 born abroad. Although the 1899-1920 count still does not include those who immigrated earlier, the much closer fit to the I 920 Census count supports the contention that the 1910 Census woefully undercounted Slovaks. More Slovaks than Czechs in America, Then and Now? To recap, the 1920 Census of foreign stock counted almost identical numbers of Czechs and Slovaks in the United States: 622,796 and 619,866 respectively. Without doubt, the Bureau of the Census had improved its counting of Slovaks substantially since the 1910 Census, but annual counts of Czech and Slovak immigration from 1899 to 1920 suggest that even the 1920 Census underestimated the number of Slovaks, given that large scale Slovak immigration oc29 curred two decades earlier. " By the 1930 Census, which asked mother tongue only for the foreign born, there were more Slovak than Czech speakers, 240,196 to 201,138. As census-takers recorded more familiar with Slovaks as an ethnic group, perhaps they found more Slovaks to count. In any event, it is reasonable to assume that by 1930 there were actually more United States residents of Slovak than Czech ancestry. Despite the fact that Slovak speakers equaled or exceeded Czech speakers by 1920, Slovaks remained largely invisible to the American public. In Francis Clark's 1913 book, Old Homes of New Americans, he reported on a conversation with "an intelligent American lady, who had traveled widely and was not unacquainted with the history and nationality of Austria-Hungary." He asked her to guess how many Slovaks were in the United States; she guessed twenty thousand. He wrote, "She was only five hundred and eighty thousand out of the way, but I have no doubt her guess was quite as near the truth as would be that of most of her countrywomen, or countrymen 30 either, for that matter. " Although the U.S. Census Bureau apparently stopped asking for the mother tongue of foreign born in 1970, the 1980 and 1990 Cen- 29 Ference, p. 131. ° Francis E. C lark, Old Homes of New Americans: The Country and the People of 3 the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy and Their Contribution to the New World (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1913), 212-13 . �SLOVAKIA-2017 21 31 suses did attempt to measure ancestry. In 1990, the census-taker filled in a box for Question 13: "What is this person's ancestry or 32 ethnic origin?" Appendix B explained: The question was based on self-identification; the data on ancestry represent self-classification by people according to the ancestry group(s) with which they most closely identify. Ancestry refers to a person's ethnic origin or descent, "roots," or heritage or the place of birth of the person or the person's parents or ancestors before their arrival in the United States .. .. The ancestry question allowed respondents to report one or more ancestry groups. While a large number of respondents listed a single ancestry, the majority of answers included more than one ethnic entry. Generally, only the first two responses reported were coded in 1990. Based on both responses to the ancestry question, the 1990 Cen33 sus produced these estimates: Slovak 1,882,897 Czech 1,296,411 Czechoslovakian 315,285 Of course, feelings of ancestry fade across generations as marriages occur across ethnic groups. Given that Czechs immigrated a generation earlier than Slovaks, their self-identification in 1990 as Czech-American or Bohemian-American should have faded somewhat more than Slovak-American. The exact numbers for ancestry in 1990 are less significant than their relative magnitudes. These data, even with their imperfections, support the case that Slovak immigrants outnumbered Czechs in the first quarter of the 20 th century, 31 Bureau of the Census, Census '90.- The Foreign-Born Population in the United States (Washington, DC: I 990 CP-3- I), 8-4. 32 Ibid. , E- 14. 33 Based on only people's first response for ancestry, the counts were lower: 1,2 10,652 Slovaks, 772,087 Czechs, and 240,489 Czechoslovakians. Only 3,781 people cited Moravian ancestry. See Bureau of the Census, Census '90: Ancestry of the Population in the United States (Washington, DC: 1990 CP-3-2), Table I: "General Characteristics of Selected Ancestry Groups by Nativity, Citizenship, and Year of Entry." �22 SLOVAKIA-2017 even including Moravians. That seems to be true as well today. In 2013, the Department of Homeland Security reported the persons obtaining lawful permanent resident status by region and country of birth from fiscal years 2004 to 2013. The trend continued: 7,165 people from Slovakia soufht resident status in the U.S. versus 3,783 from the Czech Republic.3 Where Did Czechs and Slovak Settle in the United States? We do not inquire why immigrants chose where they settled in the United States. We look only at where they settled in the first decades of the 20 th century. To determine that, we rely on the 1920 Census, which asked for mother tongue of foreign white stockaccepting its likely undercount of Slovaks. Recall that the 1920 Census counted 622,796 Czechs and 619,866 Slovaks for a combined total of 1,242,662. Given that the amounts are essentially the same, readers can compare the counts directly, without converting them to percentages. Figure 7 displays where they chose to settle in nine Census regions of the United States, ranked by total number of Czechs and Slovaks. Figure 7: Distribution of Czech and Slovak Speakers in Census Regions, 1920• Total Czech• & Slovaka In each region Middle Atlantic 1 ~ 7 3,574 East North Central 425,623 These three regions had 1 , 140,043 of all Czechs & Slovaks (87% ) 180,483 West North Central 13,006 Texas a lone had 84% of all Czechs & Slovaks in this region West South Central 8,306 New England Only 8% of Czechs & Slovaks settled in the rest of the country; except for Texas , very few settled in southern states, 13 ,6 11 South Atlantic 14,996 Pacific Czechs= 622,786 • Slovaks'"' 619,866 Total Czechs & Slovaks = 1 ,242 ,662 934 East South Central 1 ,252 0 34 • 2,186 100,000 200,000 300,000 400,000 500,000 Department of Homeland Security," Yearbook of Immigration Statistics: 2013 Lawful Permanent Residents," https://www.dhs.gov/yearbook-immigration-statistics-2013-lawful-permanent-residents. �SLOVAKIA-2017 23 Fourteenth Census of the United State, 1920: Volume II, General Report and Analytical Tables, Table 7. The comments to the right of Figure 7 draw attention to three major conclusions: (1) almost 90% of all Czechs and Slovaks lived in relatively few states running westward from the Atlantic seaboard into the North Central region; (2) nearly all those in the West South Central region lived in Texas; and (3) relatively few Czechs and Slovaks ventured north to New England, west toward the Mountain and Pacific regions, or south-except for Texas, entering at Galveston. (One source estimated that some 200,000 immigrants entered there 5 between 1865 and 1924.)3 One last comment on Texas: according to the 1920 Census, Czechs outnumbered Slovaks 49,929 to 83 3 ! Figure 8 provides information on the states within three regions in which they settled. Figure 8: Distribution of Czech and Slovak Speakers by States within Regions (See next page) Figure 8 lists all fifteen states in 1920 having the most Czechs and Slovaks within the three regions . Only four of the fifteenPennsylvania, New Jersey, Ohio, and Indiana-had more Slovaks than Czechs. Pennsylvania stands out as the most extraordinary: Slovaks outnumbered Czechs 296,219 to 19,839, and Pennsylvania-by itself- had 48 percent of all Slovaks counted in the 1920 Census! Pennsylvania drew so many Slovaks that some explanation is needed. In his History of Slovaks in America, Culen wrote: Most of the early Slovak immigrants settled in the industrial and mining areas of Pennsylvania. Here, two main centers developed. One was in the hard coal (anthracite) mining region (or in the Slovak slang "v tvardouholtnej okolici"- '"the hard coal circle"), the other in the soft coal mining region . The first settlements formed around the mines. Later, they formed around large industrial complexes, particularly around iron and steel mills. 36 35 See htt ://wv1w.chron.com/li fe/artic le/Waves-of-mi rants-made-Galveston-intoT~2(i!§_-L73)_~}?Jl'1p_. 36 Konstantin Culen, History of Slovaks in America [Translated from the 1942 Slovak edition by Daniel C. Necas] (St. Paul , MN: Czechoslovak Genealogical Society International, 2007), p. 67. �24 SLOVAKIA-2017 M. Mark Stolarik's more recent research found that Slovaks 316,058 Pennsylvania New York MIDDLE An.ANTIC New Jersey 184,021 Illinois 138,188 Ohio EAST NORTH CENTRAL 58,217 Wisconsin Michigan Indiana Nebraska 41 ,872 Minnesota 34,739 Iowa WEST NORTH CENTRAL 16,277 Missouri 13 ,263 Kansas 11 ,203 South Dakota ■ Czechs ■ Slovaks North Dakota 0 50,000 100,000 150,000 200,000 250,000 300,000 350,000 accounted for 13.1 percent of all steel workers in America and 12.8 37 percent of bituminous coal miners. New Jersey also had a preponderance of Slovaks over Czechs, as did Ohio, but neither rivaled Pennsylvania. Indiana also had more Slovaks than Czechs, but few of each. 37 Marian Mark Stolarik, Immigration and Urbanization: The Slovak Experience, 1870-1918 (New York: AMS Press, 1989), pp. 111-112, �SLOVAKIA-2017 25 The other eleven states had Czech majorities- often overwhelming majorities. Nebraska was home to 54,024 Czechs but only 281 Slovaks! That ratio even exceeded Texas' Czech majority. My home state of Illinois had-after Pennsylvania-the second largest number of Czech and Slovak immigrants. Where in Illinois did those Czechs and Slovaks live? Did they live in urban or rural areas? The 1920 Census did not classify the foreign stock by urban rural residence, but the 1930 Census did report urban-rural location for the foreign born, which means the more recent immigrants. At that time, "urban" meant incorporated areas of 2,500 or more inhabitants-places that we would not call urban today. Nevertheless, only 56 percent of the U.S. population lived in urban areas in 1930. 38 Although they had emigrated from rural lands, both Czechs (66 percent) and Slovaks (72 percent) gravitated to urban areas. 39 Only in certain states did Czechs and Slovaks congregate in large cities. The United States had only 73 cities with 100,000 or more population in 1920. Ten were in the three states with the largest number of Czechs and Slovaks combined-Pennsylvania, Illinois, and Ohio. Because most mines and mills were located outside of Pennsylvania's large cities- Philadelphia, Scranton, and Pittsburgh. -merely 8 percent of its Czechs and Slovaks lived in its big cities. Ohio, with six cities over 100,000, presented a different case. Only Cleveland- a major steel and manufacturing center-attracted Czechs and Slovaks in droves, accounting for 52 percent of them, more Czechs than Slovaks. My home state of Illinois had only one city over 100,000 population-Chicago-and 72 percent of all Czechs and Slovaks in Illinois in 1920 lived in Chicago. The breakdown was 106,428 Czechs and 25 ,720 Slovaks. Given that Czechs outnumbered Slovaks by nearly 4 to 1 in Chicago, perhaps that explains why I never met any. Conclusion: Slovaks as the Silent Majority Certainly the preponderance of Czechs in Chicago partly explains why I was unaware of them. Probably more important was 38 Fifteenth Census of the United State, 1920: Volume II, General Report, Statistics b{ Subject, Chapter 1, Table 1. 3 Ibid. , Chapter 7, Table I. �26 SLOVAKIA-2017 that Slovaks were more silent than Czechs, so got little press compared to Czechs who- like the Irish in Boston and Italians in New York- soon became a force in city politics. Anton Cermak (originally Cermak) became a Chicago alderman, then president of the county board (1922), head of the county Democratic Party (1928), and mayor of the city (1931 ). His prominence allowed him to stand next to president-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt in Miami, where Cermak was killed by a bullet presumably aimed at the president. Slovaks also made less news than Czechs nationwide. Figure 9 shows how often articles in the Tim es, the leading newspaper in the nation's biggest city, mentioned either "Czechs" or "Slovaks.1140 From 1901 to 1910, the New York Times paid little attention to either group . Of only 88 articles during that decade that mentioned either, 75 percent were about Czechs. In the next decade, encompassing World War I and the creation of Czechoslovakia, the number of stories in the Times increased tenfold to 890, and the percentage mentioning Czechs increased to 81. By 1920, when Slovak equaled Czech as a mother tongue in census statistics, the Czech advantage in 689 Tim es' stories climbed to 84 percent. The Czech penumbra extended far over the Slovaks especially in the metropolitan media. Figure 9: "Czechs" and "Slovaks" in the News, 1900-1930 300 Number of articles in New York Tiines 250 Number mentioning Czechs 200 150 100 50 1905 40 1910 1915 1920 1925 1930 "CHRONICLE. Visualizing language usage in New York Times news coverage throughout its history," at http ://chronicle.nvtlabs.com/. �SLOVAKIA-2017 27 Cermak's visible political career in Chicago, Tomas Masaryk's tireless campaigning across the country for the existence of Czechoslovakia as an independent nation, the nation's creation after World War I, and Edvard Benes' presidency, all, no doubt contributed to the many articles mentioning Czechs in the New York Times during this period. Slovaks lacked comparable political celebrities or events to gamer publicity. Finally, the fact that almost one-half of all Slovak immigrants to the United States settled in one state, Pennsylvania and outside its large cities no doubt contributed to Slovaks' neglect by the national press and to their invisibility to people living in other states. Despite the fact that Slovaks were often unrecognized and undercounted by census-takers, the 1990 Census confirmed that more Americans claimed Slovak than Czech ancestry. Even today, that fact surprises many people. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 2017, Vol. 43 Description An account of the resource Vol. 43 (No. 80-81), 2017. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2017 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document SLOVAKIA-2017 7 MORE SLOVAKS IN THE U.S. THAN CZECHS? WHO SAYS? WHEN AND WHERE? 1 Kenneth Janda Born in Chicago, Illinois, I am a third-generation Czech-American married to a second-generation Slovak-American, born Anna Mozolak in New York City. Ann's grandfather, Samuel Mozolak, is the peasant in my forthcoming book, The Emperor and the Peasant: The Start of the Great War and End of a Great Empire. 2 The emperor is, of course, Franz Joseph of Austria-Hungary. The peasant, Samuel Mozolak, lived in Krajne, a Slovak village in Hungary, the eastern half of the Dual Monarchy of Austria-Hungary. Although they never met, Franz Joseph's life profoundly affected Samuel's. It is inconceivable that the peasant ever did anything to harm the emperor, but the emperor, did much to harm him. By declaring war against Serbia, Franz Joseph personally made the decision that led to Samuel's death. So began World War I, innocently known then as the Great War-the war to end all wars. Franz Joseph resided in his Austrian palaces and visited Hungary as little as possible. Living in different places and with no common acquaintances, the two men traveled together on non-intersecting paths toward World War I. The story about Franz Joseph is based entirely on historical records. Samuel Mozolak's story is based on family documents, histories of Slovaks in Hungary, reports of Slovaks emigrating to the United States, immigrants' personal accounts, and novels of the era. His story threads together the description of Slovaks' lives as subjects in Hungary and as immigrants in America. Chapter 1 begins the emperor's story, which continues over the odd-numbered chapters. Chapter 2 and subsequent even-numbered 1 Revision of a paper prepared for delivery at the 28th World Congress of the Czechoslovak Society of Arts & Sciences (SVU),Vysoka skola zdravotnictva a socialnej prace, sv. Alzbety, Bratislava, Slovakia, September 1-4, 2016 ,_M. Mark Stolarik improved this paper with several useful suggestions . 2 Forthcoming in 2017 by McFarland Books, Box 611 , Jefferson, NC 28640, http: //www.mcfarlandbooks.com 8 SLOVAKIA-2017 chapters tell about the Slovak peasant who crossed the ocean at twenty years of age to work in New York City and who returned to Slovakia in time to serve the emperor. Those chapters also tell why hundreds of thousands of Slovaks fled the empire, how they traveled to the United States, and where they settled. In writing my manuscript, I learned far more about Ann's Slovak heritage than I did about my own Czech family background. My mother and father were first-generation bilingual Bohemians who impressed on me-who foolishly resisted learning Czech- that I was Bohemian too. I attended many events in Chicago's numerous Sokol halls, but I do not recall my parents ever saying that they had Slovak friends or even talking about Slovaks. When I met Ann Mozo lak in graduate school at Indiana University, she was the first genuine Slovak-American that I ever recall meeting. So imagine my surprise when I learned that the 1990 Census found 1.9 million United States residents professing Slovak ancestry compared with about 1.3 claiming Czech roots, whi le approximately 315,000 considering themselves "Czechoslovaks." How could that be? Did more Slovaks than Czechs really immigrate to the United States? What's the evidence? When did the immigration waves occur? Where did the Czechs and Slovaks settle in America? How could it be that I do not remember m~eting any Slovaks in Chicago? These are questions that I grappled with while writing The Emperor and the Peasant, and ones addressed more comprehensively in this paper. Anyone researching Czech and Slovak emigration from Austria-Hungary to the United States during the 19th century and the first two decades of the 20 th century encounters several facts: 1. Statistics on emigration from Austria-Hungary and immigra3 tion to the United States are seriously incomplete. Emigration statistics from Austria-Hungary had to be compiled from fragmentary government data on exit permits and from 4 more complete data on ships sailing from European ports. Immigration data in the United States came almost completely from 3 See Walter F. Willcox, (ed.), International Migrations, Volume I: Statistics (Washington: National Bureau of Economic Research, 1929), 55. 4 Wilcox, 89-90. SLOVAKIA-2017 9 5 passenger lists of ship companies. 2. Over the years, the United States defined "immigrant" diff erently . From 1820 to 1867, data were reported for alien passengers ; from 1868 to 1900 for alien immigrants-those who intended to reside in the U.S. (including only third class passengers, not first or second class, until 1903); after 1906 for immigrant aliens admitted, excluding "all aliens admitted who avowed an intention not to settle in the United States, and all returning to resume domiciles formerly acquired in this country. 11 6 3. The U.S. Census Bureau did not separately classify residents fro m Austria-Hungary as Czechs or Slovaks until 1910, when it began asking p eople of ''foreign stock" about their "mother tongue." That year, Slovak leaders persuaded President Taft and Congress to add "mother tongue" to the 1910 Census a month before 7 it took the field on April 15. The Bureau hastily trained censustakers in asking people of foreign stock for their mother tongue-"that is, the language of customary speech in the home prior to immigration." "Foreign stock" included "the foreign-born white, the native white of foreign parentage (both parents foreign born), and the native white of mixed parentage (one parent native and the other foreign born).118 4. In 1924, the U. S. Congress imposed quotas on immigrants fro m central and southern Europe, which drastically reduced the number from the former Austria-Hungary. Whereas from 1904 to 1911 , Austria-Hungary accounted for 28 percent of millions of immigrants who poured into the United Sta9 tes, Congress set the 1925 immigration quota at only 785 for Austria 5 Wilcox, 374. Ibid. 7 Konstant in Cul en, Dejiny Slowikov v Amerike (Bratislava: Slovak League Publishing House, 1942) was translated by Daniel C. Necas and published as History of Slovaks in America (St. Paul : Czechoslovak Genealogical Society International, 2007), 329-33. 8 Fifteenth Census of the United States - 1930 - Population, Vo lume JI: General Report, Statistics by Subject (Washington: U.S . Bureau of the Census, 1933), Chapter 6, p. 263 . 9 Willcox, Walter F. (ed.), International Migrations, Vo lum e JI: Interpretations (Washington: Nati onal Bureau of Economic Research, I 93 1), 400. 6 10 SLOVAKIA-2017 10 and 473 for Hungary. 5. In 1930, the U.S. Census Bureau switched from asking residents of ''foreign stock" about their mother tongue to asking it only of residents who were ''foreign born." The 1930 Census reported 38,727,693 of foreign stock but only 13 ,366,407 foreign born-about one-third as many. These facts complicated estimating the numbers of Czech and Slovak immigrants to the United States. Historical Trend oflmmigration from Austria-Hungary, 1869-1924 What do we know generally about immigration from AustriaHungary? Imre Ferenczi in 1925 supervised an international effort in Europe at collecting migration data that was published in 1929 in the 11 United States under the general editorship of Walter F. Willcox. Thanks to that source, we have detailed estimates for Austro-Hungarian immigration to the United States by year from 1869 to 1924and often by country within the empire. These data are presented in Figure 1, which reports the place of origin for years when available. Certain years are marked by pronounced surges in immigration. The researchers contended that these surges coincided more with views of good economic ref otts in America than with poor conditions in Austria-Hungary. 1 Felix Klez! wrote, "There was a striking parallelism between Austrian emigration and the economic conditions in the United States," while Gustav Thirring said, "In Hungary, American business conditions also were of decisive influence." The data extend beyond the end of the empire to 1924, after which U.S. national quotas throttled the flow of immigrants. According to the data in Figure 1, immigration from Austria and Bohemia long preceded any substantial immigration from Hungary. 10 Ibid. , 410 and 433 . See Walter F. Willcox, (ed.), International Migrations, Volum e I: Statistics and International Migrations (Washington: National Bureau of Economic Research, 1929). 12 Felix Klez!, "Austria," in Willcox, Volum e !I, p. 403 ; and Gustave Thirring, "Hungarian Migration of Modern Times," in Willcox, Volum e 11, p. 411 . 11 11 SLOVAKIA-2017 Figure 1: Austro-Hungarian Immigration by Place of Origin, 1869-1924 350,000 300,000 Czechoslovakia 250,000 200,000 150,000 100,000 50,000 1874 1879 1884 1889 1894 1899 1904 1909 1914 191 9 1924 SOURCE: Walter F. Willcox, (ed.), International Migrations, Volum e I: Statistics (Washington : National Bureau of Economic Research, 1929), Tables II and III, pp. 384-393. Anecdotal evidence tells of Czechs immigrating earlier. Czech historian Stephanie Saxon-Ford said, "Bohemian intellectuals who had participated in the nationalist revival of the 1840s and 1850s . .. left their homeland by the score to escape the repression of Hapsburg 12 SLOVAKIA-2017 13 rule." By 1850 about 500 members of the Czech intelligentsiadoctors, professors, composers, and journalists-immigrated to the United States, and Czechs formed the Cesko-Slovanska Podporujici Spolecnost, or C.S.P.S., (the Czech-Slavic Protective Society) in St. 14 Louis in 1854. Furthermore, in volume II of International Migration, Felix Klez! referred to substantial immigration of Bohemians to California sparked by news of the 1849 gold strike. He wrote, "The movement was confined almost entirely to Bohemia. Of the 58,000 emigrants who registered in the years 1850-68, not less than 15 44,000, or 76 per cent, were from Bohemia. The evidence is less clear about emigration from Hungary after its 1848-49 revolution. Gustav Thirring said that any Hungarian arrivals in the United States before 1861 were "not treated in American statistics as immigration," saying "the first two immigrants from 16 Hungary being reported in 1861." Although Gregory Ference noted that a Slovak named Andrej Jelik arrived in the mid-1 s1h century and that Slovaks immigrated more frequently by the 1850s, "these immigrants usually were isolated cases ... . The beginnings of the mass 17 migration started around 1880." John Kosa agreed that Hungarian emigration was small prior to 1880, but then: "In the period from 1886 to 1890 an average of 22,000 persons left the country annually 18 for overseas, and the trend was increasing." Kosa continued: The total number of emigrants who left Hungary in the period from 1850 to 1920 is variously estimated as being between 2,500,000 and 3,000,000; the overseas emigration alone can be put between 2,200,000 13 Stephanie Saxon-Ford, The Czech Americans (New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1989), p. 47. 14 Gregory C. Ference, Sixteen months of indecision: Slovak American Viewpoints toward Compatriots and the Homeland from I 9 I 4 to I 915 as Viewed by the Slovak Language Press in Pennsylvania. (Selinsgrove, PA: Susquehanna University Press, 1995), 36. 15 Felix Klez! , "Austria," in Willcox, Volume 11, 399. 16 Gustave Thirring, "Hungarian Migration of Modern Times," in Willcox, Volum e II, 411. 17 Gregory C. Ference, "Slovak Immigration to the United States in Light of American, Czech, and Slovak History," Nebraska. History, 74 (Fall/Winter 1993): 13035 at p. 131. 18 John Kosa, "A Century of Hungarian Emigration, I 850-1950," The American Slavic and East European Review, 16 (December, I 957) : 501-514 at 504. 13 SLOVAKIA-2017 and 2,600,000 persons. For several reasons it seems to be almost impossible to reach an exact figure or to tie in the Hungarian data with the statistical figures supplied by the different countries of immigration. Thirring found that 98.5 percent of the overseas Hungarian emigrants went to the United States. 19 He estimated total Hungarian emigration from 1898 to 1913 at 1,391,000, of which 31 percent (432,000) were Slovaks. Thirring also stated, "[E]migration from Hungary was almost entirely Slovak during the early years, 1120 and from 1905 to 1913, Slovaks still had the highest emigration rate of all Hungarians- 98 .2 per 1,000. That was more than three times the Magyar rate and amounted to almost 10 percent of the Slovak popu. m . Hungary. 21 1atlon U.S. Census Data on Czechs and Slovaks in America What do U.S. Census data tell about Czech and Slovak presence in America? The evidence above in Figure 1 implies three conclusions: (1) Substantial Czech immigration from Austria-Hungary began in the 1850s; (2) Substantial Slovak immigration from AustriaHungary began later, in the 1880s; therefore (3) many thousands of Czech immigrants settled in the United States at least a full generation before comparable numbers of Slovaks. Moreover, those Czechs immigrants gave birth to many more thousands of Czech-Americans. It is not surprising that the 1910 Census reported far more residents of Czech "foreign stock" than Slovak. Those data are reported in Figure 2. Figure 2: 1910 U.S. Census of Foreign Stock: Czechs and Slovaks 1910 ~ - ~ 0 100,000 200,000 300,000 400,000 500,000 531 ,193 I I I 600,000 700,000 However, the very next census of foreign stock in 1920 revealed 19 Thirring, 419. Thirring, 424. 21 Thirring, 426. 20 14 SLOVAKIA-2017 the surprising-even astounding- fact that the number of Slovaks in America was virtually tied with the number of Czechs! In just ten short years between the two Census counts, the number of Slovak residents in the United States jumped more than 338,000- an increase greater than all Slovaks counted in the 1910 Census. Moreover, this enormous increase occurred despite the nearly complete shutdown of immigration during the four-and-a-half years of World War I, as shown in Figure 1. Figure 3: 1910 and 1920 U.S. Censuses of Foreign Stock: Czechs and Slovaks What accounted for the huge increase in Slovaks between the 1910 and 1920 Censuses? Recall that Slovak leaders succeeded in adding the "mother tongue" question to the 1910 Census just one month before the count began. A U.S. Census website states: "Because the questionnaires had already been printed, enumerators were instructed to add this information to column 12 (birthplace) of the 22 form." The census-takers- many of whom were unfamiliar with Slavic groups in central Europe- had trouble recording responses to the question. That was admitted in the explanatory text of the I 920 Census, which stated that "contrary to the instructions given the enumerators" some persons who said they were 'Slavs,' 'Slavic,' 'Slavish," or 'Slavonian,' ... should doubtless have been reported as Slovak or Slovenian." 23 Apparently, the census-takers had less trouble accurately recording responses from Czechs or Bohemians, who had started settling in the United States sixty years earlier, had quickly affected American life, and were widely recognized. The Czech-Slavic Protective Society was founded in 1854; Budweiser Beer was imported in 1871 (Bohemian Crystal even earlier); and Antonin Dvorak wrote his New 22 U. S. Census, "History," at https: //www.census.gov/history/www/through the decades/overview/ 19 I O.htm I. 23 U.S. Census Bureau, Fourteenth Census of the United States, 1920, Volum e II: General Report and Analytical Tables (Washington, DC : 1921), Chapter 12, p. 968. 15 SLOVAKIA-2017 World Symphony in 1893 . The Slovak newcomers were not known to Americarls for their beer, their crystal, or their symphonies. Slovaks were not generally familiar to Europeans either. In 1916, according to MacMillan, Britain's Prime Minister Lloyd George (not known to be up on his geography) asked, "Who are the Slovaks? I can't seem 24 to place them. " So the leap in Slovak speakers in 1920 appears to have come from better field procedures returning a more accurate count. Additional evidence that the 1910 Census erred in counting Slovaks comes from the 1930 Census, which switched to ask the "mother tongue" question of those only who were "foreign born." Retaining the original data from the two earlier Censuses, the Bureau of the Census in 1930 recalculated its 1910 and 1920 data to report as well on "foreign born." Later Censuses to 1970 continued asking those foreign born for their mother tongue. The full set of relevant data are portrayed in Figure 4. Figure 4: Slovak and Czech as "Mother Tongue" in Censuses, 1910-1970 700 ,000 Mother Tongues of Foreign Stock 619,866 600,000 S lovak S tock 500,000 Czech S tock S lovak Born 400 ,000 - Czech Born 274,948 300 ,000 200 ,000 166,474 100 ,000 Mother Tongue• of Foreign Born 70,564 O + - - - - ~ - - ~ - - - ~ - - - , - - - - - - - , - - - - - r -- - - - , 1910 1920 1930 1 940 1950 1960 1970 U.S . Census Bureau, "Mother Tongue of the Foreign-Born Population: 1910 to 1940, 1960, and 1970," (March 9, 1999), at https://www.census.go~opulation/www/documentation/twps0029/tab06.html. Figure 4 shows a much smaller difference between foreign born 24 Margaret MacMillan, Paris 1919: Six Months That Changed the World (New York: Random House, 2002), 42 . 16 SLOVAKIA-2017 Czech or Slovak speakers and those of foreign stock. Czech immigration, which occurred earlier, certainly accounted for the preponderance of Czech foreign stock. Given the flawed nature of the 1910 count of Slovak speakers, one wonders whether the Bureau of the Census in 1930 corrected the counts of Slovak speakers when recalculating the 1910 data. In any event, Figure 4 clearly shows that in every Census from I 920 through 1970 there were more Slovak than Czech speakers among the foreign born. Because the 1920s immigration quotas virtually ended mass immigration of both Czechs and Slovaks, the downward slope of the mother tongue lines for both languages reflects the mortality rates of the foreign born. Other Data on Czech and Slovak Immigration to America As noted, the U.S. Census has severe shortcomings concerning Czech and Slovak ethnicity prior to World War I. Fortunately, there were other sources of information on immigration to the United States prior to the 1930s, and these were consulted in preparing the two-volumes of International Migrations. Imre Ferenczi, chief of the Migration Section of the International Labour Office in Geneva, wrote, The statistics for the United States have been compiled in European libraries supplemented by all the important American publications, including Bromwell, Young, the Monthly Summary of Comm erce and Finance for the United States and the Annual Reports of the Commissioner General of Immigration. With the assistance of the numerous documents which have been collected, the present series of American migration statistics is probably more nearly complete than any heretofore published in the United States . 25 Thanks to these additional sources, Volume I of International Migrations printed a twelve-page table on the "Distribution of Immi26 grant Aliens Admitted, by Sex and Race or People, 1899-1924." This remarkable table counted immigrants in forty different categories, including separate lines for "Bohemian and Moravian" and 25 Imre Ferenczi , "International Migration Statistics" in Willcox, International Mi- f[ ations, Volume I, 59. 6 - International Migrations, Volume !: Statistics, Table X, 432-43. SLOVAKIA-2017 17 "Slovak." These data, rarely reported in accounts of Czech and Slovak immigration, were extracted for presentation in Figure 5. Figure 5: Czech and Slovak Immigrants to the U.S., 1899-1924 60 ,000 Slovak lmmlgranta: 524,348 total 52,368 50,000 40 ,000 36,934 38,221 32,41 6 Source: International Migrations, Vo lume I: Statistics, Table X, 432-43. Summing the annual data in Figure 5 over 26 years results in 524,348 Slovak versus 150,294 Czech immigrants arriving from 1899 through 1924. These annual counts are reassuringly consistent with Figure 1's data on annual immigration from Austria-Hungary, as Figure S's spikes in immigration for 1905-07, 1910, and 1913-14 match the spikes in Figure 1. While Czech immigrants to the United States certainly outnumbered Slovak immigrants throughout most of the 19 th century, the annual immigration data in Figure 5 establish that over three times as many Slovaks as Czechs immigrated to the U.S. in the first quarter of the 20 th . However, the data in Figure 5 are not comparable to U.S. Census data in Figure 4, even for the same years, 1910 and 1920. Figure 5 counted only annual immigrant arrivals. Both Censuses counted all residents of foreign stock and of foreign birth, classifying them as Czech or Slovak according to their mother tongues. By simple logic, 18 SLOVAKIA-2017 the number of Czech/Slovak of foreign stock counted in any Census year should exceed the number of Czech/Slovak who were foreign born. So too, the number of foreign born in 1910 should exceed the sum total of immigrants for the available years 1899 to 1910, and the number of foreign born in 1920 should exceed the total of immigrants from 1899 to 1920. Figure 6, which reprises the relevant foreign stock and foreign born data along with summed immigration data for 1899 to 1910 and for 1899 to 1920, shows those relationships hold for the Czech data, but not for the Slovak data. Figure 6: Comparing 1910 and 1920 U.S. Censuses with 18991924 Immigration Data 700,000 619,866 600,000 Czech stock 531, 193 500,000 Slovak Immigrants 1899-1920 400,000 1899-1910 300,000 Slovak stock C,ech bom 281 70 274,948 22 ,', 73 , r -34,564 200,000 Slovak born 166,474 100,000 Czech Immigrants 1899-1910 .-123,836 91 , 164 _______...-.---- Czech Immigrants 1899-1920 0---+-----------------~ 1910 1920 When comparing 1910 and 1920 U.S. Censuses with 1899-1924 immigration data, one should understand two facts and their implycations: SLOVAKIA-2017 19 I . The data come from very different sources collected by very different methods. Do not expect exact matches; look instead for consistencies and impossibilities. 2. Caveat: summing annual immigrants overstates their counts in the Censuses. After arriving, many immigrants returned home. Concerning fact #1: All data for Czech foreign stock, foreign born, and immigrants are indeed logically consistent for 1910 and 1920. In both years, there were more residents of Czech foreign stock than those foreign born and those who immigrated since 1899. The Slovak figures for foreign stock and foreign born are also logically consistent. However, the data for Slovak foreign born are inconsistent with the number who immigrated in years preceding both Censuses. It is not possible for 358,056 Slovaks to arrive between 1899 and 1910 and yet have only 166,474 foreign born Slovaks in the 1910 Census. It is not possible for 460,530 Slovaks to immigrate between 1899 and 1920 and yet have only 274,948 Slovaks of foreign birth in 1920. Concerning fact #2: That immigrants often returned home requires some adjustment to the data summed from 1899 to 1910 and from 1899 to 1920. One source for 1908 to 1913 estimated that, respectively, 40 percent and 38 percent of Austrian and Hungarian 27 immigrants to the United States returned home. Other sources give 28 much lower repatriation percentages, almost half. Let us assume the highest figure, that 40 percent of the Slovak immigrants who came in the 12 years prior to 1910, returned home. That would still leave almost 215,000 immigrants, far more than the 166,000 Slovaks the 1910 Census counted as foreign born. Of course, many thousands who came before 1899 were also foreign born and still alive. Applying the same repatriation assumption to Slovak immigrants from 1899 to 1920 lowers the number to around 276,000-which is 27 Willcox, Volume I, 90 and 92. Culen estimated that about 25 percent of all Slovaks who left eventually returned (p. 42); Seton-Watson reported that Slovaks who returned in 1905 were 10 percent of those who left, and that returnees were 20 percent of emigrants in 1906, in R. W. Seton-Watson, Racial Problems in Hungary (New York: Howard Fertig, 1972 edition, original ly published 1908) Appendix XIII, 470. 28 20 SLOVAKIA-2017 close to the 1920 Census count of about 275,000 born abroad. Although the 1899-1920 count still does not include those who immigrated earlier, the much closer fit to the I 920 Census count supports the contention that the 1910 Census woefully undercounted Slovaks. More Slovaks than Czechs in America, Then and Now? To recap, the 1920 Census of foreign stock counted almost identical numbers of Czechs and Slovaks in the United States: 622,796 and 619,866 respectively. Without doubt, the Bureau of the Census had improved its counting of Slovaks substantially since the 1910 Census, but annual counts of Czech and Slovak immigration from 1899 to 1920 suggest that even the 1920 Census underestimated the number of Slovaks, given that large scale Slovak immigration oc29 curred two decades earlier. " By the 1930 Census, which asked mother tongue only for the foreign born, there were more Slovak than Czech speakers, 240,196 to 201,138. As census-takers recorded more familiar with Slovaks as an ethnic group, perhaps they found more Slovaks to count. In any event, it is reasonable to assume that by 1930 there were actually more United States residents of Slovak than Czech ancestry. Despite the fact that Slovak speakers equaled or exceeded Czech speakers by 1920, Slovaks remained largely invisible to the American public. In Francis Clark's 1913 book, Old Homes of New Americans, he reported on a conversation with "an intelligent American lady, who had traveled widely and was not unacquainted with the history and nationality of Austria-Hungary." He asked her to guess how many Slovaks were in the United States; she guessed twenty thousand. He wrote, "She was only five hundred and eighty thousand out of the way, but I have no doubt her guess was quite as near the truth as would be that of most of her countrywomen, or countrymen 30 either, for that matter. " Although the U.S. Census Bureau apparently stopped asking for the mother tongue of foreign born in 1970, the 1980 and 1990 Cen- 29 Ference, p. 131. ° Francis E. C lark, Old Homes of New Americans: The Country and the People of 3 the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy and Their Contribution to the New World (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1913), 212-13 . SLOVAKIA-2017 21 31 suses did attempt to measure ancestry. In 1990, the census-taker filled in a box for Question 13: "What is this person's ancestry or 32 ethnic origin?" Appendix B explained: The question was based on self-identification; the data on ancestry represent self-classification by people according to the ancestry group(s) with which they most closely identify. Ancestry refers to a person's ethnic origin or descent, "roots," or heritage or the place of birth of the person or the person's parents or ancestors before their arrival in the United States .. .. The ancestry question allowed respondents to report one or more ancestry groups. While a large number of respondents listed a single ancestry, the majority of answers included more than one ethnic entry. Generally, only the first two responses reported were coded in 1990. Based on both responses to the ancestry question, the 1990 Cen33 sus produced these estimates: Slovak 1,882,897 Czech 1,296,411 Czechoslovakian 315,285 Of course, feelings of ancestry fade across generations as marriages occur across ethnic groups. Given that Czechs immigrated a generation earlier than Slovaks, their self-identification in 1990 as Czech-American or Bohemian-American should have faded somewhat more than Slovak-American. The exact numbers for ancestry in 1990 are less significant than their relative magnitudes. These data, even with their imperfections, support the case that Slovak immigrants outnumbered Czechs in the first quarter of the 20 th century, 31 Bureau of the Census, Census '90.- The Foreign-Born Population in the United States (Washington, DC: I 990 CP-3- I), 8-4. 32 Ibid. , E- 14. 33 Based on only people's first response for ancestry, the counts were lower: 1,2 10,652 Slovaks, 772,087 Czechs, and 240,489 Czechoslovakians. Only 3,781 people cited Moravian ancestry. See Bureau of the Census, Census '90: Ancestry of the Population in the United States (Washington, DC: 1990 CP-3-2), Table I: "General Characteristics of Selected Ancestry Groups by Nativity, Citizenship, and Year of Entry." 22 SLOVAKIA-2017 even including Moravians. That seems to be true as well today. In 2013, the Department of Homeland Security reported the persons obtaining lawful permanent resident status by region and country of birth from fiscal years 2004 to 2013. The trend continued: 7,165 people from Slovakia soufht resident status in the U.S. versus 3,783 from the Czech Republic.3 Where Did Czechs and Slovak Settle in the United States? We do not inquire why immigrants chose where they settled in the United States. We look only at where they settled in the first decades of the 20 th century. To determine that, we rely on the 1920 Census, which asked for mother tongue of foreign white stockaccepting its likely undercount of Slovaks. Recall that the 1920 Census counted 622,796 Czechs and 619,866 Slovaks for a combined total of 1,242,662. Given that the amounts are essentially the same, readers can compare the counts directly, without converting them to percentages. Figure 7 displays where they chose to settle in nine Census regions of the United States, ranked by total number of Czechs and Slovaks. Figure 7: Distribution of Czech and Slovak Speakers in Census Regions, 1920• Total Czech• & Slovaka In each region Middle Atlantic 1 ~ 7 3,574 East North Central 425,623 These three regions had 1 , 140,043 of all Czechs & Slovaks (87% ) 180,483 West North Central 13,006 Texas a lone had 84% of all Czechs & Slovaks in this region West South Central 8,306 New England Only 8% of Czechs & Slovaks settled in the rest of the country; except for Texas , very few settled in southern states, 13 ,6 11 South Atlantic 14,996 Pacific Czechs= 622,786 • Slovaks'"' 619,866 Total Czechs & Slovaks = 1 ,242 ,662 934 East South Central 1 ,252 0 34 • 2,186 100,000 200,000 300,000 400,000 500,000 Department of Homeland Security," Yearbook of Immigration Statistics: 2013 Lawful Permanent Residents," https://www.dhs.gov/yearbook-immigration-statistics-2013-lawful-permanent-residents. SLOVAKIA-2017 23 Fourteenth Census of the United State, 1920: Volume II, General Report and Analytical Tables, Table 7. The comments to the right of Figure 7 draw attention to three major conclusions: (1) almost 90% of all Czechs and Slovaks lived in relatively few states running westward from the Atlantic seaboard into the North Central region; (2) nearly all those in the West South Central region lived in Texas; and (3) relatively few Czechs and Slovaks ventured north to New England, west toward the Mountain and Pacific regions, or south-except for Texas, entering at Galveston. (One source estimated that some 200,000 immigrants entered there 5 between 1865 and 1924.)3 One last comment on Texas: according to the 1920 Census, Czechs outnumbered Slovaks 49,929 to 83 3 ! Figure 8 provides information on the states within three regions in which they settled. Figure 8: Distribution of Czech and Slovak Speakers by States within Regions (See next page) Figure 8 lists all fifteen states in 1920 having the most Czechs and Slovaks within the three regions . Only four of the fifteenPennsylvania, New Jersey, Ohio, and Indiana-had more Slovaks than Czechs. Pennsylvania stands out as the most extraordinary: Slovaks outnumbered Czechs 296,219 to 19,839, and Pennsylvania-by itself- had 48 percent of all Slovaks counted in the 1920 Census! Pennsylvania drew so many Slovaks that some explanation is needed. In his History of Slovaks in America, Culen wrote: Most of the early Slovak immigrants settled in the industrial and mining areas of Pennsylvania. Here, two main centers developed. One was in the hard coal (anthracite) mining region (or in the Slovak slang "v tvardouholtnej okolici"- '"the hard coal circle"), the other in the soft coal mining region . The first settlements formed around the mines. Later, they formed around large industrial complexes, particularly around iron and steel mills. 36 35 See htt ://wv1w.chron.com/li fe/artic le/Waves-of-mi rants-made-Galveston-intoT~2(i!§_-L73)_~}?Jl'1p_. 36 Konstantin Culen, History of Slovaks in America [Translated from the 1942 Slovak edition by Daniel C. Necas] (St. Paul , MN: Czechoslovak Genealogical Society International, 2007), p. 67. 24 SLOVAKIA-2017 M. Mark Stolarik's more recent research found that Slovaks 316,058 Pennsylvania New York MIDDLE An.ANTIC New Jersey 184,021 Illinois 138,188 Ohio EAST NORTH CENTRAL 58,217 Wisconsin Michigan Indiana Nebraska 41 ,872 Minnesota 34,739 Iowa WEST NORTH CENTRAL 16,277 Missouri 13 ,263 Kansas 11 ,203 South Dakota ■ Czechs ■ Slovaks North Dakota 0 50,000 100,000 150,000 200,000 250,000 300,000 350,000 accounted for 13.1 percent of all steel workers in America and 12.8 37 percent of bituminous coal miners. New Jersey also had a preponderance of Slovaks over Czechs, as did Ohio, but neither rivaled Pennsylvania. Indiana also had more Slovaks than Czechs, but few of each. 37 Marian Mark Stolarik, Immigration and Urbanization: The Slovak Experience, 1870-1918 (New York: AMS Press, 1989), pp. 111-112, SLOVAKIA-2017 25 The other eleven states had Czech majorities- often overwhelming majorities. Nebraska was home to 54,024 Czechs but only 281 Slovaks! That ratio even exceeded Texas' Czech majority. My home state of Illinois had-after Pennsylvania-the second largest number of Czech and Slovak immigrants. Where in Illinois did those Czechs and Slovaks live? Did they live in urban or rural areas? The 1920 Census did not classify the foreign stock by urban rural residence, but the 1930 Census did report urban-rural location for the foreign born, which means the more recent immigrants. At that time, "urban" meant incorporated areas of 2,500 or more inhabitants-places that we would not call urban today. Nevertheless, only 56 percent of the U.S. population lived in urban areas in 1930. 38 Although they had emigrated from rural lands, both Czechs (66 percent) and Slovaks (72 percent) gravitated to urban areas. 39 Only in certain states did Czechs and Slovaks congregate in large cities. The United States had only 73 cities with 100,000 or more population in 1920. Ten were in the three states with the largest number of Czechs and Slovaks combined-Pennsylvania, Illinois, and Ohio. Because most mines and mills were located outside of Pennsylvania's large cities- Philadelphia, Scranton, and Pittsburgh. -merely 8 percent of its Czechs and Slovaks lived in its big cities. Ohio, with six cities over 100,000, presented a different case. Only Cleveland- a major steel and manufacturing center-attracted Czechs and Slovaks in droves, accounting for 52 percent of them, more Czechs than Slovaks. My home state of Illinois had only one city over 100,000 population-Chicago-and 72 percent of all Czechs and Slovaks in Illinois in 1920 lived in Chicago. The breakdown was 106,428 Czechs and 25 ,720 Slovaks. Given that Czechs outnumbered Slovaks by nearly 4 to 1 in Chicago, perhaps that explains why I never met any. Conclusion: Slovaks as the Silent Majority Certainly the preponderance of Czechs in Chicago partly explains why I was unaware of them. Probably more important was 38 Fifteenth Census of the United State, 1920: Volume II, General Report, Statistics b{ Subject, Chapter 1, Table 1. 3 Ibid. , Chapter 7, Table I. 26 SLOVAKIA-2017 that Slovaks were more silent than Czechs, so got little press compared to Czechs who- like the Irish in Boston and Italians in New York- soon became a force in city politics. Anton Cermak (originally Cermak) became a Chicago alderman, then president of the county board (1922), head of the county Democratic Party (1928), and mayor of the city (1931 ). His prominence allowed him to stand next to president-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt in Miami, where Cermak was killed by a bullet presumably aimed at the president. Slovaks also made less news than Czechs nationwide. Figure 9 shows how often articles in the Tim es, the leading newspaper in the nation's biggest city, mentioned either "Czechs" or "Slovaks.1140 From 1901 to 1910, the New York Times paid little attention to either group . Of only 88 articles during that decade that mentioned either, 75 percent were about Czechs. In the next decade, encompassing World War I and the creation of Czechoslovakia, the number of stories in the Times increased tenfold to 890, and the percentage mentioning Czechs increased to 81. By 1920, when Slovak equaled Czech as a mother tongue in census statistics, the Czech advantage in 689 Tim es' stories climbed to 84 percent. The Czech penumbra extended far over the Slovaks especially in the metropolitan media. Figure 9: "Czechs" and "Slovaks" in the News, 1900-1930 300 Number of articles in New York Tiines 250 Number mentioning Czechs 200 150 100 50 1905 40 1910 1915 1920 1925 1930 "CHRONICLE. Visualizing language usage in New York Times news coverage throughout its history," at http ://chronicle.nvtlabs.com/. SLOVAKIA-2017 27 Cermak's visible political career in Chicago, Tomas Masaryk's tireless campaigning across the country for the existence of Czechoslovakia as an independent nation, the nation's creation after World War I, and Edvard Benes' presidency, all, no doubt contributed to the many articles mentioning Czechs in the New York Times during this period. Slovaks lacked comparable political celebrities or events to gamer publicity. Finally, the fact that almost one-half of all Slovak immigrants to the United States settled in one state, Pennsylvania and outside its large cities no doubt contributed to Slovaks' neglect by the national press and to their invisibility to people living in other states. Despite the fact that Slovaks were often unrecognized and undercounted by census-takers, the 1990 Census confirmed that more Americans claimed Slovak than Czech ancestry. Even today, that fact surprises many people.  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource More Slovaks in the U.S. than Czechs? Who Says? When and Where? Description An account of the resource Kenneth Janda Slovakia, Vol. 43 (No. 80-81), 2017 pp. 7-27 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Janda, Kenneth Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2017 LCNAF https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/a5c6cc732827ec9522ab7d3b1d052402.pdf 68bf469ebbb26599233137aedddc8107 PDF Text Text 18 SLOVAKIA MOSOOW'S SMOKE SCREEN IN SWVAKIA Heinrich Kuhn Slovakia and .the Sudetenland were ever a thorn in the side of the Prague government. After the Sudeten German problem appeared to have been settled by the expulsions of 1945-46, Slovakia striving for autonomy remained the only threat to the integrity of a Communist-ruled CzechoSlovakia. It is obvious from the Soviet Union's plans for Slovakia for 1961 to 1965 that the question of a Slovak Soviet Republic is no utopian dream. Even prior to the implementation of this plan an industrial potential is supposed to arise in Slovakia, designed to overshadow the economic and industrial supremacy of the historic Bohemian countries as they relate to Slovakia. All this is at the express behest of Moscow. Dr. Henrick Kuhn is Secret,a,ry-General of the Sudeten German Archive in Munich and Associate Editor of the "Sudeten Bulletin," a monthly central European review. In East Slovakia a steel and iron coittbinate is planned, near Trnava an atomic energy plant, on the Vah River a large petroleum refinery, and a nitrogen plant based on natural gas in the south Slovakian town of Sara. It is noteworthy in this connection that natural gas is to be piped in from the gas field of Zwerndorf on the AustrianCzecho-Slovak border. It is a known fact that only 1/ 7 of the natural gas supplies lie within Czech territory. This means that the proposed nitrogen plant will of necessity draw on supplies of natural gas that are actually reserved for use by Austria. Of extreme economic importance is the iron and steel combinate in East Slovakia, known in the West as the Huko Project. Steel production here should reach - according to plan - more than three million tons by 1965. The struggle for this project has long been going on for ten long years. In 1948 under the first secretary of the Communist Party, Rudolf Slansky, work was begun on · �SLOVAKIA 19 this gigantic project with the setting up of a housing project completed in 1952. With Slansky's arrest in 1950 the work was suspended, Slansky was even accused in the course of a mock trial of a "utopian plan" namely, the erecting of the steel and iron combinate which was termed responsible for the disorganization of the Czecho-Slovak economy. Moscow instructions for forced economic development in Slovakia have led to violent discord within leading circles of the Communist Party in Prague. Moscow has officially justified these plans by saying it chose Slovakia for economic expansion because of that country's advantageous traffic connections with .the rest of the east block States, in particular with the Soviet Union, and because of a greater Slovak labor reservoir. The "Czechoslovak" wing within the Communist Party is very skeptical as to the Moscow proposition, fearing rightly that this intensive expansion of Slovakia will mean the beginning of the end of Czecho-Slovakia and the first step toward a Slovak Soviet Republic. Czecho-Slovakia is the only StaJte in the people's democratic sphere with two Communist parties - the Communist Party of Czecho-Slovakia and the Slovak Communist Party - which are united only at a top echelon level. There has been autonomist and separatist agitation Slovakia ever since ,t he founding of Czecho-Slovakia and these tendencies have not decreased. They have continued on through the Hlinka and Tiso era and "glorified memories of a Slovak uprising," down to the present. Not until very recent times has Prague voiced severe opposition to this Slovak agitation. During the Christmas season of 1957 a group of Slovak Communists, while calling on party general-secretary Antonin Novotny at the Hradcany in Prague, simply disappeared. No trace of them has been found to this very day. Even Karel Bacilek, a Czech, presently secretary of the Communist Party of Slovakia, let loose such a barrage of deprecatory remarks against his separatist compatriots that one might have thought Slovak revolution was imminent. Another sign of the Prague government's fear of Slovak popular opposi- �20 SLOVAKIA tion is reflected in the earlier mentioned mock trials against "Slovak fascists" accused of having murdered Communist partisans thiriteen years previously. To be sure Prague has accepted without visible opposition the economic instructions handed them by Moscow, but at the same time has intensified the developmenit of nuclear industries which serves at least as an economic coun:terpoise to a strongly growing Slovak industrial potential. A series of atomic energy plants are planned by 1967 with a capacity capable of pushing heavy industry to such a point that Czecho-Slovakia will become the second most important industrial factor within the Soviet sphere nexit to China. Evidence of the progress being made by Czecho-Slovak nuclear research is mirrored in the fact that Czech nuclear physicists have devised a new industrially practical method of isolating natural uranium. They make use of ionic exchange in highly molecular insoluble matter which was developed in the Institute for Synthetic Resins and Varnishes in Pardubice. The purity of the uranium derived by this method is said to be even greater. The uranium slated for use for the new atomic energy plants is derived from the native mines of St. Joachimsthal and Pfibram. First, however, it goes to the Soviet Union where Moscow decides how much shall stay there and how much shall go abroad, including Czecho-Slovakia. Thus Prague is kept under constant economic pressure, with Moscow's political plans becoming more and more obvious despite the smoke screen of economic camouflage . • • • WHO SAID IT? "Today more than ever before, I cannot stop believing that a free and independent Czecho-Slovakia CaJD exist only in Europe that is brought to balance, where the West and Russia find a proper agreement to collaborate. Even the evenis of February 1948 could not shake me from this conviction, which remains the basis of my whole conception of national politics." - (The late Dr. Hubert Ripka, right-hand man of Dr. Edward Benes, FIGARO, Paris, April 4, 1949.) � 18 SLOVAKIA MOSOOW'S SMOKE SCREEN IN SWVAKIA Heinrich Kuhn Slovakia and .the Sudetenland were ever a thorn in the side of the Prague government. After the Sudeten German problem appeared to have been settled by the expulsions of 1945-46, Slovakia striving for autonomy remained the only threat to the integrity of a Communist-ruled CzechoSlovakia. It is obvious from the Soviet Union's plans for Slovakia for 1961 to 1965 that the question of a Slovak Soviet Republic is no utopian dream. Even prior to the implementation of this plan an industrial potential is supposed to arise in Slovakia, designed to overshadow the economic and industrial supremacy of the historic Bohemian countries as they relate to Slovakia. All this is at the express behest of Moscow. Dr. Henrick Kuhn is Secret,a,ry-General of the Sudeten German Archive in Munich and Associate Editor of the "Sudeten Bulletin," a monthly central European review. In East Slovakia a steel and iron coittbinate is planned, near Trnava an atomic energy plant, on the Vah River a large petroleum refinery, and a nitrogen plant based on natural gas in the south Slovakian town of Sara. It is noteworthy in this connection that natural gas is to be piped in from the gas field of Zwerndorf on the AustrianCzecho-Slovak border. It is a known fact that only 1/ 7 of the natural gas supplies lie within Czech territory. This means that the proposed nitrogen plant will of necessity draw on supplies of natural gas that are actually reserved for use by Austria. Of extreme economic importance is the iron and steel combinate in East Slovakia, known in the West as the Huko Project. Steel production here should reach - according to plan - more than three million tons by 1965. The struggle for this project has long been going on for ten long years. In 1948 under the first secretary of the Communist Party, Rudolf Slansky, work was begun on · �SLOVAKIA 19 this gigantic project with the setting up of a housing project completed in 1952. With Slansky's arrest in 1950 the work was suspended, Slansky was even accused in the course of a mock trial of a "utopian plan" namely, the erecting of the steel and iron combinate which was termed responsible for the disorganization of the Czecho-Slovak economy. Moscow instructions for forced economic development in Slovakia have led to violent discord within leading circles of the Communist Party in Prague. Moscow has officially justified these plans by saying it chose Slovakia for economic expansion because of that country's advantageous traffic connections with .the rest of the east block States, in particular with the Soviet Union, and because of a greater Slovak labor reservoir. The "Czechoslovak" wing within the Communist Party is very skeptical as to the Moscow proposition, fearing rightly that this intensive expansion of Slovakia will mean the beginning of the end of Czecho-Slovakia and the first step toward a Slovak Soviet Republic. Czecho-Slovakia is the only StaJte in the people's democratic sphere with two Communist parties - the Communist Party of Czecho-Slovakia and the Slovak Communist Party - which are united only at a top echelon level. There has been autonomist and separatist agitation Slovakia ever since ,t he founding of Czecho-Slovakia and these tendencies have not decreased. They have continued on through the Hlinka and Tiso era and "glorified memories of a Slovak uprising," down to the present. Not until very recent times has Prague voiced severe opposition to this Slovak agitation. During the Christmas season of 1957 a group of Slovak Communists, while calling on party general-secretary Antonin Novotny at the Hradcany in Prague, simply disappeared. No trace of them has been found to this very day. Even Karel Bacilek, a Czech, presently secretary of the Communist Party of Slovakia, let loose such a barrage of deprecatory remarks against his separatist compatriots that one might have thought Slovak revolution was imminent. Another sign of the Prague government's fear of Slovak popular opposi- �20 SLOVAKIA tion is reflected in the earlier mentioned mock trials against "Slovak fascists" accused of having murdered Communist partisans thiriteen years previously. To be sure Prague has accepted without visible opposition the economic instructions handed them by Moscow, but at the same time has intensified the developmenit of nuclear industries which serves at least as an economic coun:terpoise to a strongly growing Slovak industrial potential. A series of atomic energy plants are planned by 1967 with a capacity capable of pushing heavy industry to such a point that Czecho-Slovakia will become the second most important industrial factor within the Soviet sphere nexit to China. Evidence of the progress being made by Czecho-Slovak nuclear research is mirrored in the fact that Czech nuclear physicists have devised a new industrially practical method of isolating natural uranium. They make use of ionic exchange in highly molecular insoluble matter which was developed in the Institute for Synthetic Resins and Varnishes in Pardubice. The purity of the uranium derived by this method is said to be even greater. The uranium slated for use for the new atomic energy plants is derived from the native mines of St. Joachimsthal and Pfibram. First, however, it goes to the Soviet Union where Moscow decides how much shall stay there and how much shall go abroad, including Czecho-Slovakia. Thus Prague is kept under constant economic pressure, with Moscow's political plans becoming more and more obvious despite the smoke screen of economic camouflage . • • • WHO SAID IT? "Today more than ever before, I cannot stop believing that a free and independent Czecho-Slovakia CaJD exist only in Europe that is brought to balance, where the West and Russia find a proper agreement to collaborate. Even the evenis of February 1948 could not shake me from this conviction, which remains the basis of my whole conception of national politics." - (The late Dr. Hubert Ripka, right-hand man of Dr. Edward Benes, FIGARO, Paris, April 4, 1949.) � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to 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 18 SLOVAKIA MOSOOW'S SMOKE SCREEN IN SWVAKIA Heinrich Kuhn Slovakia and .the Sudetenland were ever a thorn in the side of the Prague government. After the Sudeten German problem appeared to have been settled by the expulsions of 1945-46, Slovakia striving for autonomy remained the only threat to the integrity of a Communist-ruled CzechoSlovakia. It is obvious from the Soviet Union's plans for Slovakia for 1961 to 1965 that the question of a Slovak Soviet Republic is no utopian dream. Even prior to the implementation of this plan an industrial potential is supposed to arise in Slovakia, designed to overshadow the economic and industrial supremacy of the historic Bohemian countries as they relate to Slovakia. All this is at the express behest of Moscow. Dr. Henrick Kuhn is Secret,a,ry-General of the Sudeten German Archive in Munich and Associate Editor of the "Sudeten Bulletin," a monthly central European review. In East Slovakia a steel and iron coittbinate is planned, near Trnava an atomic energy plant, on the Vah River a large petroleum refinery, and a nitrogen plant based on natural gas in the south Slovakian town of Sara. It is noteworthy in this connection that natural gas is to be piped in from the gas field of Zwerndorf on the AustrianCzecho-Slovak border. It is a known fact that only 1/ 7 of the natural gas supplies lie within Czech territory. This means that the proposed nitrogen plant will of necessity draw on supplies of natural gas that are actually reserved for use by Austria. Of extreme economic importance is the iron and steel combinate in East Slovakia, known in the West as the Huko Project. Steel production here should reach - according to plan - more than three million tons by 1965. The struggle for this project has long been going on for ten long years. In 1948 under the first secretary of the Communist Party, Rudolf Slansky, work was begun on · SLOVAKIA 19 this gigantic project with the setting up of a housing project completed in 1952. With Slansky's arrest in 1950 the work was suspended, Slansky was even accused in the course of a mock trial of a "utopian plan" namely, the erecting of the steel and iron combinate which was termed responsible for the disorganization of the Czecho-Slovak economy. Moscow instructions for forced economic development in Slovakia have led to violent discord within leading circles of the Communist Party in Prague. Moscow has officially justified these plans by saying it chose Slovakia for economic expansion because of that country's advantageous traffic connections with .the rest of the east block States, in particular with the Soviet Union, and because of a greater Slovak labor reservoir. The "Czechoslovak" wing within the Communist Party is very skeptical as to the Moscow proposition, fearing rightly that this intensive expansion of Slovakia will mean the beginning of the end of Czecho-Slovakia and the first step toward a Slovak Soviet Republic. Czecho-Slovakia is the only StaJte in the people's democratic sphere with two Communist parties - the Communist Party of Czecho-Slovakia and the Slovak Communist Party - which are united only at a top echelon level. There has been autonomist and separatist agitation Slovakia ever since ,t he founding of Czecho-Slovakia and these tendencies have not decreased. They have continued on through the Hlinka and Tiso era and "glorified memories of a Slovak uprising," down to the present. Not until very recent times has Prague voiced severe opposition to this Slovak agitation. During the Christmas season of 1957 a group of Slovak Communists, while calling on party general-secretary Antonin Novotny at the Hradcany in Prague, simply disappeared. No trace of them has been found to this very day. Even Karel Bacilek, a Czech, presently secretary of the Communist Party of Slovakia, let loose such a barrage of deprecatory remarks against his separatist compatriots that one might have thought Slovak revolution was imminent. Another sign of the Prague government's fear of Slovak popular opposi- 20 SLOVAKIA tion is reflected in the earlier mentioned mock trials against "Slovak fascists" accused of having murdered Communist partisans thiriteen years previously. To be sure Prague has accepted without visible opposition the economic instructions handed them by Moscow, but at the same time has intensified the developmenit of nuclear industries which serves at least as an economic coun:terpoise to a strongly growing Slovak industrial potential. A series of atomic energy plants are planned by 1967 with a capacity capable of pushing heavy industry to such a point that Czecho-Slovakia will become the second most important industrial factor within the Soviet sphere nexit to China. Evidence of the progress being made by Czecho-Slovak nuclear research is mirrored in the fact that Czech nuclear physicists have devised a new industrially practical method of isolating natural uranium. They make use of ionic exchange in highly molecular insoluble matter which was developed in the Institute for Synthetic Resins and Varnishes in Pardubice. The purity of the uranium derived by this method is said to be even greater. The uranium slated for use for the new atomic energy plants is derived from the native mines of St. Joachimsthal and Pfibram. First, however, it goes to the Soviet Union where Moscow decides how much shall stay there and how much shall go abroad, including Czecho-Slovakia. Thus Prague is kept under constant economic pressure, with Moscow's political plans becoming more and more obvious despite the smoke screen of economic camouflage . • • • WHO SAID IT? "Today more than ever before, I cannot stop believing that a free and independent Czecho-Slovakia CaJD exist only in Europe that is brought to balance, where the West and Russia find a proper agreement to collaborate. Even the evenis of February 1948 could not shake me from this conviction, which remains the basis of my whole conception of national politics." - (The late Dr. Hubert Ripka, right-hand man of Dr. Edward Benes, FIGARO, Paris, April 4, 1949.)  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Moscow's Smoke Screen in Slovakia Description An account of the resource Heinrich Kuhn Slovakia, Vol. 10, No. 6 (31), March-June 1960 pp. 18-20 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Kuhn, Heinrich, 1922-1997 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource March-June 1960 LCNAF+dates https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/e3569cb39642c1458214630235f9ad14.pdf 6fd201ce24bc640b190ad23c869dc039 PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA 123 BEACON IN AMERICAN-SLOVAK LIFE Mother M. Emerentia Petrasek The uniquely fruitful life of a modest American-Slovak Sister-educator came to a regrettable close on January 30, 1973 when the deeply esteemed Mother Emerentia Petrasek quietly died in Danville, Pa., following a heart attack. Up until a few days before her death she was characteristically busy with the kind of work to which she was singularly devoted all through her life, even in her retirement: writing, promoting Slovak cultural interests, translating, encouraging others in cultural projects, and offering seasoned and reliable counsel in many instances. Through it all she kept close to God, the Fount of all wisdom and grace, and like the prudent virgins of the parable, she too, kept her lamp of watchful waiting and prayerfulness trimmed and filled as she prepared for the unannounced coming of the Bridegroom to Whom she had dedicated her life by religious vows lived in convent discipline for 58 years since her first formal profession of religious dedication. Mother Emerentia was born in a Pennsylvania hamlet called Sugar Notch. Her parents were of the God-fearing immigrant class that belonged to the Slovak parish of Our Lady of the Rosary in Ashley, Pa. They provided for Mother Emerentia and for her brother, who is now Monsignor Charles Petrasek, a sound Christian home training. After her elementary schooling in Ashley, Mary Petrasek was enrolled at Mt. St. Mary's in Scranton and later at Marywood College. She was among the early candidates who had responded to Father Jankola's efforts to provide for the education of children of Slovak immigrants even at the cost of establishing a new religious community for this purpose. This American-Slovak congregation is known as the Sisters of Saints Cyril and Methodius, and Mother Erner- �124 SLOVAKIA entia has certainly made remarkable contributions to its spirit and accomplishments. Whether she gave her service as teacher, writer, planner or administrator, serving in various capacities up to the rank of Superior General of over four hundred Sisters, Mother Emerentia always manifested the marks of inspired leadership and she discharged her responsibilities - great and small - with effective devotion. If one were to single out an outstanding talent or characteristic of Mother Emerentia, it would be her wholehearted devotion to the spiritual and cultural heritage of her Slovak ancestry, coupled with a strong sense of devotion to the Holy See and to American patriotism. With her it was a matter of honor, a basic expression o! justice and a conscience-binding fact of life to appreciate with filial gratitude all the gifts which the past offers us so that we might be able to enjoy the blessings and benefits of the present in which we live and progress. Hers was a clear-eyed vision of who we are, where our roots are, and what we can become. In her role as teacher, Mother Emerentia effectively inculcated these attitudes in hundreds of her students who esteemed and practically idolized her. Although her sphere of action seemed to be confined to convent-life dimensions, her teaching and her philosophical outlook upon life and living touched countless other lives. Under the inspiration and impulse of the Holy Spirit this dedicated Sister achieved for God and nation and for fellowman so remarkable a harvest that an exhaustive study could and should be made in at least an appreciative volume summarizini her contributions to Slovak culture. When Mother Emerentia assumed the office of Superior General in 1934, the Sisters of SS. Cyril and Methodius were already a firmly established congregation but it was essential to take steps for the assured growth of the community and for general participation in all the commitments and interests of the Sisters. This consideration prompted her to devote much attention to St. Cyril Academy, the community's first high school which was housed at Danville and with whose foundation she had been intimately associated. Her first object of interest was the school's �SLOVAKIA 125 bilingual literary magazine Fialky which she had initiated in the first year of the school's foundation. Under her guidance the students had produced an exceptionally creditable school journal and she had always inspired them to cultivate in it a wholesome degree of Slovak orientation. This was evidenced not only by the bilingual aspect o! the publication but also by its selective content. Many o! i~ articles are devoted not only to scholastic and academic interest but also to the interests of the American-Slovak community and to topics of Slovak history and culture. The Academy, however, is but one of the schools under the direction of these Sisters who are engaged primarily in parochial schools, that were founded by Slovak immigrants in America. Over the years these schools have been !ulfilling the mission that had fired the zealous ardor of Father Jankola. Mother Emerentia knew Father Jankola personally and she cherished the ideals to which he had dedicated his priestly li!e. In her capacity as leader and administrator of a teaching body of Sisters, Mother Emerentia was led by the realization that the schools of American-Slovak parishes needed effective teachers who, in turn, needed effective tools like practical textbooks and teaching aids. In this awareness, she conti.Rued and she expanded the training of all teachers not only to meet state certification standards but also to include suitable instruction in the Slovak language and an appreciation of Slovak history and culture. She set a personal example in these respects, for she herself interacted with her Sisters in these fields, right from the early days of her secondary education, through her B.A. and M.A. college degrees from Marywood as well as through her subsequent professional growth. Out 0! practical situations and well-motivated discussions she embodied such useful material in several Slovak texts that she prepared for the schools. In 1929 Mother Emerentia published her first formal Slovak grammar titled Ucebnica slovenskej reci. About twenty years later she had an updated version of Slovak grammar called Steps in Elementary Slovak. From time to time she supplemented and revised these texts as the needs of the times and newer developments in grammar �126 SLOVAKIA and in language arts required. For the benefit of interested teachers and adults, Mother Emerentia developed and conducted a Slovak Correspondence Course. Her language books and lesson sheets thus became handbooks for instruction in Slovak. But she had also noted that there was a need for books of Slovak hymns and folk songs and with diligent int.erest she compiled several editions of the Spevnicek, a substantial collection of Slovak, Latin and English hymn texts suited for religious services. She also edited a Spevnicek of Slovak folk songs. These collections of sacred and secular songs delighted many school children and they were also welcomed by their teachers and by many congregati0ns and pastors as well. When there was a noticeable decline in the study of Slovak in the schools, Mother Emerentia tried to meet the new challenge by undertaking a project to preserve at least some of the Slovak cultural heritage in America even though the language itself was dying out. With the cooperation of other interested Sisters, a number of Slovak religious songs were tranlated into singable English versions and they appeared with voice notation in two publications sponsored by the community. These publications are Alleluia and Bethlehem Carols (1967). Her book length projects as well as her many articles, studies and reviews which Mother Emerentia contributed to a number of representative American-Slovak publications Oargerly to the Jednota weekly and the Jednota Annual) appear to have been but forerunners of her major work: history of the Sisters of Saints Cyril and Methodius which is now completed and ready in manuscript form. When the work is published, it will be the crowning achievement of this distinguished Sister. An abridgment of the community history, which was released as A Brief History of the Sisters of Saints Cyril and Methodius, proves that Mother Emerentia has prepared these annals with total devotion to her sisterhood and that, with the talent of a gifted historian. she was able to delineat.e in them all the forces and all the facets of development that marked the destinies of the Sisters of Saints Cyril and Methodius throughout their a:postolate among Americans of Slovak �SLOVAKIA 127 extraction, especially in their teaching endeavors and works of charity on behalf of the orphaned and the aged. The Slovak language as well as Slovak literature and history were Mother Emerentia's cultural predilection to her dying day. Even in her advanced years and in spite of impaired health, she devoted herself to the interests of the Slovak Book Department in Danville, where she filled orders for those who wished to purchase various kinds of Slovak books, and she maintained vital contacts with many Sisters with whom she continued to share much of her knowledge and information on current topics as well on Slovakia's cultural and historic past. Two traits mark the life history of Mother Emerentia: her boundless modesty and her boundless love which is embodied in the master project that symbolizes her greatness in life-the exquisite architectural gem and the jewel of symbolic richness that are the unique features of the monastic church under her direction at Villa Sacred Heart. Visiting with Mother Emerentia was much like encountering a religious from long bygone days. She personified humility and modesty of a rare degree. Hers was the spirit of prayer, of unfaltering diligence, of recognition of the worth of others and utter self-effacement. As many times as I had tried to turn a conversation to what she had already achieved or was endeavoring to do, she skillfuly managed to re-direct our discussion to some other subject just to avoid drawing attention to herself. Most of her peer Sisters as well as younger members of the community considered her to be the leading intellectual among the Sisters of Saints Cyril and Methodius and the outstanding educator in the specialized field of Slovak interests, yet she herself once pointed out a younger co-worker and remarked with unconcealed admiration, "There's the real intellectual of the Community." This puts me very much in mind of Msgr. Andrew Hlinka who once made precisely the same kind of statement about Dr. Joseph Tiso and his place in the Slovak Populist Party. The great are always ready to recognize and to credit the merits of others. The Sisters' convent church (which Mother Emerentia �12i SLOVAKIA modestly called a convent chapel) is one of the most artistic Slovak edifice in the United States, as is the entire complex of St. Cyril Academy and the motherhouse unit in Danville. In this church are housed all the exquisite religious features that bring inspiration to the visiting faithful and to the Sisters there. In it is also found a wealth of symbolic and stained glass pictorial representation that captures significant highlights of Slovak as well as American-Slovak history. In some respects, this church is a kind of supplement to the written history of the community that is also the product of Mother Emerentia's inspiration and talented skill. Only a spirit as deeply steeped in eternal truth and benignly drawn to Slovakia and the Slovak people as was Mother Emerentia's could have created so rich a contribution to Slovak history preserved in art forms . And this she was able to bring about because of her conviction that such a union of valid values is pleasing both to God and nation, and gratifying to her own community which she tried with all her abilities to build and develop, a community that had prospered and burgeoned so promisingly under her understanding direction. Mother Emerentia has earned herself a lasting place in the history of Slovak culture, for she has been chosen by God to make the shining splendor of her life a brilliant beacon that can lead others on to greater things. From the hights of eternal glory may she continue to shed much light upon her Sisters of Saints Cyril and Methodius as well as upon countless other Slovaks in all walks of life who knew her or who knew of her, and who found in her diversified sphere of activity much inspiration and a unique sense of stability and security. May she be an ideal to many! THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA is dedicated to works of charity, materially and morally aids Slovaks, here and abr oad, who may be in need of such aid; it supports the American Red Cross, United Fund Campaigns and other American charitable pr ojects. � SLOVAKIA 123 BEACON IN AMERICAN-SLOVAK LIFE Mother M. Emerentia Petrasek The uniquely fruitful life of a modest American-Slovak Sister-educator came to a regrettable close on January 30, 1973 when the deeply esteemed Mother Emerentia Petrasek quietly died in Danville, Pa., following a heart attack. Up until a few days before her death she was characteristically busy with the kind of work to which she was singularly devoted all through her life, even in her retirement: writing, promoting Slovak cultural interests, translating, encouraging others in cultural projects, and offering seasoned and reliable counsel in many instances. Through it all she kept close to God, the Fount of all wisdom and grace, and like the prudent virgins of the parable, she too, kept her lamp of watchful waiting and prayerfulness trimmed and filled as she prepared for the unannounced coming of the Bridegroom to Whom she had dedicated her life by religious vows lived in convent discipline for 58 years since her first formal profession of religious dedication. Mother Emerentia was born in a Pennsylvania hamlet called Sugar Notch. Her parents were of the God-fearing immigrant class that belonged to the Slovak parish of Our Lady of the Rosary in Ashley, Pa. They provided for Mother Emerentia and for her brother, who is now Monsignor Charles Petrasek, a sound Christian home training. After her elementary schooling in Ashley, Mary Petrasek was enrolled at Mt. St. Mary's in Scranton and later at Marywood College. She was among the early candidates who had responded to Father Jankola's efforts to provide for the education of children of Slovak immigrants even at the cost of establishing a new religious community for this purpose. This American-Slovak congregation is known as the Sisters of Saints Cyril and Methodius, and Mother Erner- �124 SLOVAKIA entia has certainly made remarkable contributions to its spirit and accomplishments. Whether she gave her service as teacher, writer, planner or administrator, serving in various capacities up to the rank of Superior General of over four hundred Sisters, Mother Emerentia always manifested the marks of inspired leadership and she discharged her responsibilities - great and small - with effective devotion. If one were to single out an outstanding talent or characteristic of Mother Emerentia, it would be her wholehearted devotion to the spiritual and cultural heritage of her Slovak ancestry, coupled with a strong sense of devotion to the Holy See and to American patriotism. With her it was a matter of honor, a basic expression o! justice and a conscience-binding fact of life to appreciate with filial gratitude all the gifts which the past offers us so that we might be able to enjoy the blessings and benefits of the present in which we live and progress. Hers was a clear-eyed vision of who we are, where our roots are, and what we can become. In her role as teacher, Mother Emerentia effectively inculcated these attitudes in hundreds of her students who esteemed and practically idolized her. Although her sphere of action seemed to be confined to convent-life dimensions, her teaching and her philosophical outlook upon life and living touched countless other lives. Under the inspiration and impulse of the Holy Spirit this dedicated Sister achieved for God and nation and for fellowman so remarkable a harvest that an exhaustive study could and should be made in at least an appreciative volume summarizini her contributions to Slovak culture. When Mother Emerentia assumed the office of Superior General in 1934, the Sisters of SS. Cyril and Methodius were already a firmly established congregation but it was essential to take steps for the assured growth of the community and for general participation in all the commitments and interests of the Sisters. This consideration prompted her to devote much attention to St. Cyril Academy, the community's first high school which was housed at Danville and with whose foundation she had been intimately associated. Her first object of interest was the school's �SLOVAKIA 125 bilingual literary magazine Fialky which she had initiated in the first year of the school's foundation. Under her guidance the students had produced an exceptionally creditable school journal and she had always inspired them to cultivate in it a wholesome degree of Slovak orientation. This was evidenced not only by the bilingual aspect o! the publication but also by its selective content. Many o! i~ articles are devoted not only to scholastic and academic interest but also to the interests of the American-Slovak community and to topics of Slovak history and culture. The Academy, however, is but one of the schools under the direction of these Sisters who are engaged primarily in parochial schools, that were founded by Slovak immigrants in America. Over the years these schools have been !ulfilling the mission that had fired the zealous ardor of Father Jankola. Mother Emerentia knew Father Jankola personally and she cherished the ideals to which he had dedicated his priestly li!e. In her capacity as leader and administrator of a teaching body of Sisters, Mother Emerentia was led by the realization that the schools of American-Slovak parishes needed effective teachers who, in turn, needed effective tools like practical textbooks and teaching aids. In this awareness, she conti.Rued and she expanded the training of all teachers not only to meet state certification standards but also to include suitable instruction in the Slovak language and an appreciation of Slovak history and culture. She set a personal example in these respects, for she herself interacted with her Sisters in these fields, right from the early days of her secondary education, through her B.A. and M.A. college degrees from Marywood as well as through her subsequent professional growth. Out 0! practical situations and well-motivated discussions she embodied such useful material in several Slovak texts that she prepared for the schools. In 1929 Mother Emerentia published her first formal Slovak grammar titled Ucebnica slovenskej reci. About twenty years later she had an updated version of Slovak grammar called Steps in Elementary Slovak. From time to time she supplemented and revised these texts as the needs of the times and newer developments in grammar �126 SLOVAKIA and in language arts required. For the benefit of interested teachers and adults, Mother Emerentia developed and conducted a Slovak Correspondence Course. Her language books and lesson sheets thus became handbooks for instruction in Slovak. But she had also noted that there was a need for books of Slovak hymns and folk songs and with diligent int.erest she compiled several editions of the Spevnicek, a substantial collection of Slovak, Latin and English hymn texts suited for religious services. She also edited a Spevnicek of Slovak folk songs. These collections of sacred and secular songs delighted many school children and they were also welcomed by their teachers and by many congregati0ns and pastors as well. When there was a noticeable decline in the study of Slovak in the schools, Mother Emerentia tried to meet the new challenge by undertaking a project to preserve at least some of the Slovak cultural heritage in America even though the language itself was dying out. With the cooperation of other interested Sisters, a number of Slovak religious songs were tranlated into singable English versions and they appeared with voice notation in two publications sponsored by the community. These publications are Alleluia and Bethlehem Carols (1967). Her book length projects as well as her many articles, studies and reviews which Mother Emerentia contributed to a number of representative American-Slovak publications Oargerly to the Jednota weekly and the Jednota Annual) appear to have been but forerunners of her major work: history of the Sisters of Saints Cyril and Methodius which is now completed and ready in manuscript form. When the work is published, it will be the crowning achievement of this distinguished Sister. An abridgment of the community history, which was released as A Brief History of the Sisters of Saints Cyril and Methodius, proves that Mother Emerentia has prepared these annals with total devotion to her sisterhood and that, with the talent of a gifted historian. she was able to delineat.e in them all the forces and all the facets of development that marked the destinies of the Sisters of Saints Cyril and Methodius throughout their a:postolate among Americans of Slovak �SLOVAKIA 127 extraction, especially in their teaching endeavors and works of charity on behalf of the orphaned and the aged. The Slovak language as well as Slovak literature and history were Mother Emerentia's cultural predilection to her dying day. Even in her advanced years and in spite of impaired health, she devoted herself to the interests of the Slovak Book Department in Danville, where she filled orders for those who wished to purchase various kinds of Slovak books, and she maintained vital contacts with many Sisters with whom she continued to share much of her knowledge and information on current topics as well on Slovakia's cultural and historic past. Two traits mark the life history of Mother Emerentia: her boundless modesty and her boundless love which is embodied in the master project that symbolizes her greatness in life-the exquisite architectural gem and the jewel of symbolic richness that are the unique features of the monastic church under her direction at Villa Sacred Heart. Visiting with Mother Emerentia was much like encountering a religious from long bygone days. She personified humility and modesty of a rare degree. Hers was the spirit of prayer, of unfaltering diligence, of recognition of the worth of others and utter self-effacement. As many times as I had tried to turn a conversation to what she had already achieved or was endeavoring to do, she skillfuly managed to re-direct our discussion to some other subject just to avoid drawing attention to herself. Most of her peer Sisters as well as younger members of the community considered her to be the leading intellectual among the Sisters of Saints Cyril and Methodius and the outstanding educator in the specialized field of Slovak interests, yet she herself once pointed out a younger co-worker and remarked with unconcealed admiration, "There's the real intellectual of the Community." This puts me very much in mind of Msgr. Andrew Hlinka who once made precisely the same kind of statement about Dr. Joseph Tiso and his place in the Slovak Populist Party. The great are always ready to recognize and to credit the merits of others. The Sisters' convent church (which Mother Emerentia �12i SLOVAKIA modestly called a convent chapel) is one of the most artistic Slovak edifice in the United States, as is the entire complex of St. Cyril Academy and the motherhouse unit in Danville. In this church are housed all the exquisite religious features that bring inspiration to the visiting faithful and to the Sisters there. In it is also found a wealth of symbolic and stained glass pictorial representation that captures significant highlights of Slovak as well as American-Slovak history. In some respects, this church is a kind of supplement to the written history of the community that is also the product of Mother Emerentia's inspiration and talented skill. Only a spirit as deeply steeped in eternal truth and benignly drawn to Slovakia and the Slovak people as was Mother Emerentia's could have created so rich a contribution to Slovak history preserved in art forms . And this she was able to bring about because of her conviction that such a union of valid values is pleasing both to God and nation, and gratifying to her own community which she tried with all her abilities to build and develop, a community that had prospered and burgeoned so promisingly under her understanding direction. Mother Emerentia has earned herself a lasting place in the history of Slovak culture, for she has been chosen by God to make the shining splendor of her life a brilliant beacon that can lead others on to greater things. From the hights of eternal glory may she continue to shed much light upon her Sisters of Saints Cyril and Methodius as well as upon countless other Slovaks in all walks of life who knew her or who knew of her, and who found in her diversified sphere of activity much inspiration and a unique sense of stability and security. May she be an ideal to many! THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA is dedicated to works of charity, materially and morally aids Slovaks, here and abr oad, who may be in need of such aid; it supports the American Red Cross, United Fund Campaigns and other American charitable pr ojects. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1973, Vol. 23 Description An account of the resource Vol. 23 (No. 46), 1973. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1973 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document SLOVAKIA 123 BEACON IN AMERICAN-SLOVAK LIFE Mother M. Emerentia Petrasek The uniquely fruitful life of a modest American-Slovak Sister-educator came to a regrettable close on January 30, 1973 when the deeply esteemed Mother Emerentia Petrasek quietly died in Danville, Pa., following a heart attack. Up until a few days before her death she was characteristically busy with the kind of work to which she was singularly devoted all through her life, even in her retirement: writing, promoting Slovak cultural interests, translating, encouraging others in cultural projects, and offering seasoned and reliable counsel in many instances. Through it all she kept close to God, the Fount of all wisdom and grace, and like the prudent virgins of the parable, she too, kept her lamp of watchful waiting and prayerfulness trimmed and filled as she prepared for the unannounced coming of the Bridegroom to Whom she had dedicated her life by religious vows lived in convent discipline for 58 years since her first formal profession of religious dedication. Mother Emerentia was born in a Pennsylvania hamlet called Sugar Notch. Her parents were of the God-fearing immigrant class that belonged to the Slovak parish of Our Lady of the Rosary in Ashley, Pa. They provided for Mother Emerentia and for her brother, who is now Monsignor Charles Petrasek, a sound Christian home training. After her elementary schooling in Ashley, Mary Petrasek was enrolled at Mt. St. Mary's in Scranton and later at Marywood College. She was among the early candidates who had responded to Father Jankola's efforts to provide for the education of children of Slovak immigrants even at the cost of establishing a new religious community for this purpose. This American-Slovak congregation is known as the Sisters of Saints Cyril and Methodius, and Mother Erner- 124 SLOVAKIA entia has certainly made remarkable contributions to its spirit and accomplishments. Whether she gave her service as teacher, writer, planner or administrator, serving in various capacities up to the rank of Superior General of over four hundred Sisters, Mother Emerentia always manifested the marks of inspired leadership and she discharged her responsibilities - great and small - with effective devotion. If one were to single out an outstanding talent or characteristic of Mother Emerentia, it would be her wholehearted devotion to the spiritual and cultural heritage of her Slovak ancestry, coupled with a strong sense of devotion to the Holy See and to American patriotism. With her it was a matter of honor, a basic expression o! justice and a conscience-binding fact of life to appreciate with filial gratitude all the gifts which the past offers us so that we might be able to enjoy the blessings and benefits of the present in which we live and progress. Hers was a clear-eyed vision of who we are, where our roots are, and what we can become. In her role as teacher, Mother Emerentia effectively inculcated these attitudes in hundreds of her students who esteemed and practically idolized her. Although her sphere of action seemed to be confined to convent-life dimensions, her teaching and her philosophical outlook upon life and living touched countless other lives. Under the inspiration and impulse of the Holy Spirit this dedicated Sister achieved for God and nation and for fellowman so remarkable a harvest that an exhaustive study could and should be made in at least an appreciative volume summarizini her contributions to Slovak culture. When Mother Emerentia assumed the office of Superior General in 1934, the Sisters of SS. Cyril and Methodius were already a firmly established congregation but it was essential to take steps for the assured growth of the community and for general participation in all the commitments and interests of the Sisters. This consideration prompted her to devote much attention to St. Cyril Academy, the community's first high school which was housed at Danville and with whose foundation she had been intimately associated. Her first object of interest was the school's SLOVAKIA 125 bilingual literary magazine Fialky which she had initiated in the first year of the school's foundation. Under her guidance the students had produced an exceptionally creditable school journal and she had always inspired them to cultivate in it a wholesome degree of Slovak orientation. This was evidenced not only by the bilingual aspect o! the publication but also by its selective content. Many o! i~ articles are devoted not only to scholastic and academic interest but also to the interests of the American-Slovak community and to topics of Slovak history and culture. The Academy, however, is but one of the schools under the direction of these Sisters who are engaged primarily in parochial schools, that were founded by Slovak immigrants in America. Over the years these schools have been !ulfilling the mission that had fired the zealous ardor of Father Jankola. Mother Emerentia knew Father Jankola personally and she cherished the ideals to which he had dedicated his priestly li!e. In her capacity as leader and administrator of a teaching body of Sisters, Mother Emerentia was led by the realization that the schools of American-Slovak parishes needed effective teachers who, in turn, needed effective tools like practical textbooks and teaching aids. In this awareness, she conti.Rued and she expanded the training of all teachers not only to meet state certification standards but also to include suitable instruction in the Slovak language and an appreciation of Slovak history and culture. She set a personal example in these respects, for she herself interacted with her Sisters in these fields, right from the early days of her secondary education, through her B.A. and M.A. college degrees from Marywood as well as through her subsequent professional growth. Out 0! practical situations and well-motivated discussions she embodied such useful material in several Slovak texts that she prepared for the schools. In 1929 Mother Emerentia published her first formal Slovak grammar titled Ucebnica slovenskej reci. About twenty years later she had an updated version of Slovak grammar called Steps in Elementary Slovak. From time to time she supplemented and revised these texts as the needs of the times and newer developments in grammar 126 SLOVAKIA and in language arts required. For the benefit of interested teachers and adults, Mother Emerentia developed and conducted a Slovak Correspondence Course. Her language books and lesson sheets thus became handbooks for instruction in Slovak. But she had also noted that there was a need for books of Slovak hymns and folk songs and with diligent int.erest she compiled several editions of the Spevnicek, a substantial collection of Slovak, Latin and English hymn texts suited for religious services. She also edited a Spevnicek of Slovak folk songs. These collections of sacred and secular songs delighted many school children and they were also welcomed by their teachers and by many congregati0ns and pastors as well. When there was a noticeable decline in the study of Slovak in the schools, Mother Emerentia tried to meet the new challenge by undertaking a project to preserve at least some of the Slovak cultural heritage in America even though the language itself was dying out. With the cooperation of other interested Sisters, a number of Slovak religious songs were tranlated into singable English versions and they appeared with voice notation in two publications sponsored by the community. These publications are Alleluia and Bethlehem Carols (1967). Her book length projects as well as her many articles, studies and reviews which Mother Emerentia contributed to a number of representative American-Slovak publications Oargerly to the Jednota weekly and the Jednota Annual) appear to have been but forerunners of her major work: history of the Sisters of Saints Cyril and Methodius which is now completed and ready in manuscript form. When the work is published, it will be the crowning achievement of this distinguished Sister. An abridgment of the community history, which was released as A Brief History of the Sisters of Saints Cyril and Methodius, proves that Mother Emerentia has prepared these annals with total devotion to her sisterhood and that, with the talent of a gifted historian. she was able to delineat.e in them all the forces and all the facets of development that marked the destinies of the Sisters of Saints Cyril and Methodius throughout their a:postolate among Americans of Slovak SLOVAKIA 127 extraction, especially in their teaching endeavors and works of charity on behalf of the orphaned and the aged. The Slovak language as well as Slovak literature and history were Mother Emerentia's cultural predilection to her dying day. Even in her advanced years and in spite of impaired health, she devoted herself to the interests of the Slovak Book Department in Danville, where she filled orders for those who wished to purchase various kinds of Slovak books, and she maintained vital contacts with many Sisters with whom she continued to share much of her knowledge and information on current topics as well on Slovakia's cultural and historic past. Two traits mark the life history of Mother Emerentia: her boundless modesty and her boundless love which is embodied in the master project that symbolizes her greatness in life-the exquisite architectural gem and the jewel of symbolic richness that are the unique features of the monastic church under her direction at Villa Sacred Heart. Visiting with Mother Emerentia was much like encountering a religious from long bygone days. She personified humility and modesty of a rare degree. Hers was the spirit of prayer, of unfaltering diligence, of recognition of the worth of others and utter self-effacement. As many times as I had tried to turn a conversation to what she had already achieved or was endeavoring to do, she skillfuly managed to re-direct our discussion to some other subject just to avoid drawing attention to herself. Most of her peer Sisters as well as younger members of the community considered her to be the leading intellectual among the Sisters of Saints Cyril and Methodius and the outstanding educator in the specialized field of Slovak interests, yet she herself once pointed out a younger co-worker and remarked with unconcealed admiration, "There's the real intellectual of the Community." This puts me very much in mind of Msgr. Andrew Hlinka who once made precisely the same kind of statement about Dr. Joseph Tiso and his place in the Slovak Populist Party. The great are always ready to recognize and to credit the merits of others. The Sisters' convent church (which Mother Emerentia 12i SLOVAKIA modestly called a convent chapel) is one of the most artistic Slovak edifice in the United States, as is the entire complex of St. Cyril Academy and the motherhouse unit in Danville. In this church are housed all the exquisite religious features that bring inspiration to the visiting faithful and to the Sisters there. In it is also found a wealth of symbolic and stained glass pictorial representation that captures significant highlights of Slovak as well as American-Slovak history. In some respects, this church is a kind of supplement to the written history of the community that is also the product of Mother Emerentia's inspiration and talented skill. Only a spirit as deeply steeped in eternal truth and benignly drawn to Slovakia and the Slovak people as was Mother Emerentia's could have created so rich a contribution to Slovak history preserved in art forms . And this she was able to bring about because of her conviction that such a union of valid values is pleasing both to God and nation, and gratifying to her own community which she tried with all her abilities to build and develop, a community that had prospered and burgeoned so promisingly under her understanding direction. Mother Emerentia has earned herself a lasting place in the history of Slovak culture, for she has been chosen by God to make the shining splendor of her life a brilliant beacon that can lead others on to greater things. From the hights of eternal glory may she continue to shed much light upon her Sisters of Saints Cyril and Methodius as well as upon countless other Slovaks in all walks of life who knew her or who knew of her, and who found in her diversified sphere of activity much inspiration and a unique sense of stability and security. May she be an ideal to many! THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA is dedicated to works of charity, materially and morally aids Slovaks, here and abr oad, who may be in need of such aid; it supports the American Red Cross, United Fund Campaigns and other American charitable pr ojects.  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Mother M. Emerentia Petrášek Description An account of the resource Slovakia, Vol. 23 (No. 46), 1973 pp. 123-128 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1973 https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/12fbcd8e208aada60c83b04755363215.pdf adece9da441311731c67bae9a61dec0e PDF Text Text 26 SLOVAKIA Msgr. Joseph Tiso By Fran{;Ois d 'O r Ci Val ( This is the English translation of Mr. FranQois d'Orcival's article originally published in French, in the July 1971 issue of the magazine "Miroir de l'Histoire", Paris. The young French political writer has dealt with the cause of Slovak independence in his book " Le Danube etait noir" (The Danube was black), La Table Ronde, Paris 1968. In France, he represents a realistic trend seeking to de-mythologize European history. Ed.) At dawn on April 18, 1947 the bridge over the Danube was shrouded in fog as Msgr. Joseph Tiso concluded his prayer in the central prison of Bratislava and donned his black serge robe with the prisoner's red armband and the churchman's white collar. He had been condemned to death on April 15 and on April 17 reprieve had been denied. A Franciscan father had been sent to accompany him on his final journey. Msgr. Tiso was 59. He had been born in Bytca in the valley of the Vah, which cuts through the Carpathians and where the mountains and the forest always wear autumn color. He was a sturdy, well-built man with broad shoulders, closely-cropped hair and a serene expression, with the rough-hewn features of a solid man of the people. He had been the leader of an autonomous Slovak government from October 6, 1938 to March 10, 1939, then head of independent Slovakia from March 14, 1939 to Easter of 1945. That year when spring returned to the Tatras the bells of Rome were silent. Malinovsky's forces were scouring the countryside. In Bohemia the Wehrmacht was retreating. Msgr. Tiso and his government distributed to their people the flour remaining in the state granaries, then went into exile. The Americans arrested Msgr. Tiso in October 1945, extradited him from Austria and turned him over to Dr. Edward Benes, who had once again become Czecho-Slovakia's leader. �SLOVAKIA 27 The preliminary examination in the Tiso trial began December 3. The bill of indictment contained 230 pages and was prepared by three attorneys specializing in general matters, political guestions and military affairs. 42 witnesses were subpoenaed by the prosecution. Igor Daxner, a Protestant Slovak communist, was selected to preside over the people's court, assisted by Bedrna, a Czech communist. Five of the seven members of the court were communists. The first day of the hearing the authorities, fearing street demonstratio ns and riots, ringed Bratislava with soldiers; they also controlled access to public buildings and took strong security precautions at the Palace of Justice. At first the press was allowed to report the testimony of witnesses and some of Msgr. Tiso's statements but soon, realizing that popular sentiment remained too favorable to the former president of independent Slovakia, the government censored all news reports of the trial. The Catholic bishops, evidencing outstanding courage, published on January 3, 1946 a petition in the prisoner's behalf. "His fate", they declared, "will strongly influence a portion of the Slovak population in its attitude towards the reconstituted Czecho-Slovak Republic." The majority of the nation concurs with its bishops in believing Dr. Tiso's intentions to have been pure and good. The prosecutor summoned Karol Kmet'ko, archbishop of Slovakia, who paused to shake hands with the defendant on his way to the witness stand to answer the prosecutor's questions. "What did the Slovak state accomplish for the people?" he was asked. "Can you think of any nation which does not long for independence ?" replied archbishop Kmet'ko and continued: "Can you imagine an unfortunate people who would not rather have their own homes than depend on others?" "But", the prosecutor insisted, "this independence was actually dependence!" "No!" replied archbishop Kmet'ko. "It was ten times less damaging than the Protectorate ( of Bohemia and Moravia)!" "How could you approve of Msgr. Tiso's assumption of office?" the prosecutor then asked, and the archbishop �28 SLOVAKIA responded: "When the independence of the Slovak state was proclaimed I can affirm that the country and its people were 90 % in favor of it. We rediscovered the independence and the freedom which had been lost since the time of King Svatopluk." For those with the borders of the German and Slovak world that story goes back to the early period of the Middle Ages. In a study entitled "The Slovaks: A People; A Nation" Professor Joseph A. Mikus, one of the youngest diplomats of the independent Slovak state and currently professor in an American college, writes: It was Prince Pribina in the year 830 iwho conquered the West Slovak tribes and governed them from his castle in Nitra. His successors, Mojmir, Rastislav and Svatopluk extended their rule over the neighboring ,t erritories. In the second half of the ninth century the Czech lands (Bohemia and Moravia) were also subjugated by the Slovak king, Svatopluk. However, shortly thereafter the Czechs appealed to the German monarchs for help and were able to free themselves from Greater Moravia. After a c,o alition of Germans and Hungarians had defeated Mojmir II near Bratislava in 906, Slovakia was occupied by the Hungarians while the Czechs full under the domination of the Germans. Although Slovakia became an integral part of the Hungarian realm, the Premyslides rwere able to elevate the principality of Bohemia to a kingdom whose ruler became one of the electors of the German Empire. During the Turkish invasions Slovakia or Upper Hungary became the impregnable fortress of the realm. The Hungarian parliaments were still meeting in Bratislava during the first half of the nineteenth century. It was here, too, in Saint Martin's cathedral that the coronation of the Hungarian kings took place. On the other hand, after the defeat of the Czech Protestants at the White Mountain in 1620, the kingdom of Bohemia became an integral part of Austria's hereditary possessions. Even after the Austro-Hungarian Compromise in 1867, the Czechs remained under Austrian control and the Slovaks under Hungarian rule. Thus Czechs and Slovaks had never been united under one government before 1918. They were separated by the Carpathians. Bohemia was Protestant; Slovakia Catholic. The Czechs and the Germans had made Prague, the Bohemian capitol, one of the most cultured cities of Europe. The Slovaks, by contrast, boasted neither elite nor aristocracy; they were peasants and good soldiers. Although they lacked lords and commanders, the Slovaks nevertheless had their churchmen. One of these, �SLOVAKIA 29 Father Hlinka, born in 1864, was pastor at Ruzomberok, a big market-town situated in northern Slovakia between the Fatras and the Lower Tatras. He began his political ministry in 1905, fought for the autonomy of Slovakia, and founded the Slovak Populist party. In Sarajevo on June 28, 1914 a Belgrade high school student assassinated Archduke Franz-Ferdinand, heir to the imperial throne. On the same day in Prague the cry arose: "Down with the Hapsburgs! Down with AustriaHungary!" This was the cry of two atheist Czech socialists: the first a sociology professor at the University of Prague and leftist deputy to the Diet of Vienna, 64 year old Thomas Masaryk and the second, his 30 year old disciple, Edward Benes, doctor of laws. Of the 534 deputies representing all the nationalities of the empire the Czechs numbered 107, yet not one took up the cry of Masaryk and Benes. Repudiated, the two delegates left Prague secretly for Paris and London, where they founded a Czech National Committee, which in 1917 was transformed into a provisional government. A year later the Austro-Hungarian Empire collapsed, attacked from within. In Slovakia Father Hlinka declared in 1918: "Our thousand-year marriage with the Magyars is ending in disaster. We must sever our ties with them!" The Slovaks were welcomed by the Czechs, who promised them freedom. The official birth of Czecho-Slovakia was proclaimed on October 28, 1918. It was the triumph of Masaryk and Benes after four years of exile. According to international law Czecho-Slovakia did not come into being until the treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, September 10, 1919. Comprising Bohemia and Moravia in the west, Slovakia and Lower Subcarpathian Ukraine in the east, the country had an area of 140,000 square kilometers. The population was 13.6 million, of whom 6.5 million were Czech, 2.5 million Slovak, 3.3 million German and the rest Magyar, Ukrainian and Polish minorities. It was a mosaic of nationalities. In dismembering Austria-Hungary the western diplomats at Saint-Germain-en-Laye hoped to isolate Germany from Russia by a "cordon sanitaire" composed of newly allied states: Poland, Czecho-Slovakia, Rumania, Jugoslavia. But the Hapsburg dynasty, the unifying influence over all these states, was gone; the Danube countries of Europe �30 SLOVAKIA were destined once again to become the battleground of endless struggles. Masaryk and Benes had another plan. Realizing that they could not expect to found an independent Bohemia with only 6.5 million Czechs in a territory including 3.3 million Germans, they invented the fiction of a state which joined together the Czechs and Slovaks, a Czecho-Slovak state with 9 million inhabitants, who counterbalanced the 3 million Germans. The Slovaks accepted the new state on condition that it be federated and Benes assured them: "The Czecho-Slovakia of tomorrow will be the Switzerland of Central Europe. I guarantee it." However, from late 1918 onward Czech soldiers occupied Slovak territory to maintain order and Slovakia was not federated but annexed. After the soldiers came the bureaucrats. All the former Czech officials of the Empire, dismissed from Vienna and Budapest, descended on Bratislava. New teachers appeared in Slovak schools to teach Czech, which incited antiCatholic demonstrations in the villages. In September 1919 Father Hlinka, leader of the Catholic Populist party, went to the Paris peace conference with a long memorandum which began with these words: "Never has a nation been so cruelly deceived in its hopes as the Slovak nation." The Czech army also intervened energetically in Bohemia, but against the Sudeten Germans this time. (The Sudeten mountains are located in northern BohemiaMoravia.) As in Slovakia the Czech central government proceeded with an intense "czechization" of the administration, the economy, the schools and the police of the German regions. In the elections of 1935 the autonomists polled a majority in Slovakia, while in Bohemia the Germans had organized their own party. Their leader, Henlein, made contact with Hitler, who soon used the Sudeten Germans as one of the principal points of the propaganda. The German action and the diplomatic intervention of the British brought about a meeting in Munich of the four great powers of the time (Germany, Italy, Britain and France) on the Sudeten question. Through the Munich agreement the Germans of Czecho-Slovakia obtained on September 30, 1938 the right to regain their German �SLOVAKIA 31 fatherland. This development caused the loss of a strip of 25,000 square kilometers on the north-west frontier of the Czecho-Slovak state and a simultaneous loss of nearly 4 million inhabitants. As a consequence of this defeat Dr. Edward Benes, leader of the Czech government, resigned on October 5, 1938 and left Prague. The next day, October 6, at zilina, a little town situated in western Slovakia quite far from Prague, the leaders of Slovak parties assembled to proclaim the autonomy of their land, claiming the right defined in the Munich agreement-the right of nations to determine their own destiny. Father Hlinka's successor as head of the Populist and Autonomist party announced: "The Munich agreement has profoundly altered the political positions and the relations of the different states of central Europe. We Slovaks desire the freedom to determine our future, particularly in respect to the administration of our state." That very evening the first autonomous Slovak government was formed and its presidency entrusted to the new leader of the autonomous Populist party, Msgr. Tiso. zilina was a town Msgr. Tiso knew well, for in its schools he had learned to read and write. He had then enrolled in the seminary at Nitra, where in the year 833 Prince Pribina had erected the first Christian Church in Slovakia at the base of the Slovak central mountains. Joseph Tiso had completed his studies of ethics and theology at the University of Vienna. He was ordained July 14, 1910 and the same year received the degree of doctor of theology. In 1914 he became military chaplain. The following year he wa.s called back to Nitra to teach during the absence of professors who had gone to war. About 1920 he joined Father Hlinka, the founder of the Autonomist party and was assigned to the parish at Banovce, which is on the Bebrava river at the southern point of the hills of the Patras. Here began his public life. He was always to be a man of his word, loyal to his faith and to his land. To his parishioners he was a protector against the devil, as in ancient times. General Sirovy, head of the central government of Prague since the departure of Dr. Benes, assented to the setting-up of the Slovak cabinet. For Msgr. Tiso the most �32 SLOVAKIA difficult problem involved the frontiers, for the Magyars were making claims, as were the Poles and the Germans. On November 2, 1938 in Vienna an agreement was signed. The Magyars received the regions of Slovakia where the majority of the people were Magyar, the Poles received Teschen, and the Germans received a suburb of Petrzalka near Bratislava on the Danube. Elections took place in Slovakia on November 18, 1938 and the Autonomist candidates received 97 .5 ~c of the vote. The first Czecho-Slovak Republic having died at Munich two months previously, a second Republic came into being on November 30, federated and under the presidency of Dr. Ha.cha, a slight, 66 year old man in delicate health, who spoke with a marked Bohemian accent. In spite of the creation of a federated Republic, the relations between the Czechs and the Slovaks did not improve. A latent crisis kept them in conflict until February 1939, when the real crisis began. The Slovaks needed credit, but the Czechs refused it on the pretext that the Slovaks were disloyal to the republic. Finally on March 9, 1939 Dr. Ha.cha ousted Msgr. Tiso and his colleagues from their positions and at dawn on March 10, 1939 Slovakia was occupied by Czech police and soldiers-that is, by the "federals". Martial law was proclaimed; the local militia was dissolved. Msgr. Tiso withdrew to his rectory in Banovce and waited. German diplomacy, which had been very active since the departure of Dr. Benes, intervened, trying to crush the Czech coup in Slovakia so that the Slovaks would clearly separate themselves from the Czechs and put an end to the existence of this unified country situated in the heart of the German Reich. After several vain attempts the Reich representatives in Vienna, Seyss-Inquart and Buerckel, made contact with Msgr. Tiso; two of their secret agents came to Banovce the night of March 12 to 13, 1939 to extend an invitation from Hitler. Msgr . Tiso, waking with a start, was at first stunned, suspecting a trap. Then he acquiesced but requested a delay. Hitler frightened him and yet he knew that Berlin was the city of destiny at that moment. Finally, after conferring with his friends, he flew to Berlin. Even after 6 months of heading an �SLOVAKIA 33 autonomous government he had remained essentially a fighter-priest of the country and now resembled a Poujadist cleric on his way to see Dracula. On the evening of March 13 Hitler and Tiso agreed that Slovakia would declare her independence the next day. Hitler, moreover, convinced of an impending assault by Benes to regain power in Prague, had already decided to invade Bohemia on March 15. Msgr. Tiso hesitated at length before being convinced. He returned to Bratislava, convened the Assembly and formed a new cabinet. His cabinet ministers were not appointed by the Reich ambassadors but were simply those who had been Autonomist Slovak leaders for the previous ten or twenty years. At noon on Tuesday, March 14 the Assembly by unanimous vote severed Slovakia from the rest of Czech nation. This declaration had been accelerated by the German action but would have been less effective without the Czech coup on March 10. Dr. Ha.cha reached Berlin the same day in a state of exhaustion to entreat the Fuhrer on behalf of his people but the Fuhrer did not yield. On March 15, two hours before the first columns of the Wehrmacht re '.:'.ched Bohemia, President Ha.cha signed the capitulation: "The president of the Czecho-Slovak Republic has confidently placed the destiny of the Czech people and the Czech lands in the hands of the Fuhrer of the German Reich ... " On March 16, while the German protectorate was being established in Bohemia-Moravia, Msgr. Tiso, leader of independent Slovakia, sought the protection of the Reich and signed a treaty which, without specifying occupation of Slovak territory, rendered the country a satellite. Hungary, with the support of Italy, invaded Subcarpathian Ukraine and a strip along the eastern border of Slovakia. Thus was the Czecho-Slovakia of 1919 stricken from the map. During the 5 years of the war Msgr. Tiso did not involve the country in the conflict ( except for sending volunteers to the Polish front). He declared his sympathy for the Reich while pursuing a neutral policy in Rome in order to protect his exports and his country's uncertain future. Msgr. Tiso's Slovakia was a curiously sad spectacle, encircled by Germany, protected by the Vatican, never �34 SLOVAKIA truly free but never quite occupied. Until 1944 she was indeed the Switzerland of the Danube basin, the "marketplace of Provence" of the Carpathian region. In August 1944 the internal calm was shattered by ill-matched squads, who set in motion an insurrection against the presence of the Germans. One group was directed from Moscow, the other (by Benes) from London. Armed bands were in conflict everywhere, but the Germans put down the rebellion within two months. The red army to the east looked on idly, reasoning that the Germans would suppress the entire Slovak resistance movement, which would facilitate an eventual communist takeover . Six months after the uprising the reds entered Slovakia and Slovak independence was at an end. On April 5, 1945 Dr. Edward Benes in company with the communist. Klement Gottwald, came to Kosice on the Slovak border, where he was met by Gustav Husak, a 32 year old communist leader. Husak said: "The first Czecho-Slovak Republic is dead. Gone is its centralism as well as its false political democracy. The new Republic will be a socialist federation of two nations equal under the law, the Czech nation and the Slovak nation." But the voice of Gustav Husak was not heard; it was the Czech communists who were in power. On March 17 and 18 in 1947 Msgr. Tiso's trial was coming to an end. The former head of the Slovak government drew up his own defense. "Mine was an unusual policy because the man who executed it was a priest", he began. "I had prepared for and intended to follow the duties of holy priesthood, not those of public office. As a priest I was committed to the service of God, the Church and the country of my birth, in which I was serving my ministry. Hence the mottoes 'for God, for country', 'with the people, for the people', were the expression of a guiding principle valid everywhere and under all conditions. They were not political slogans invented later to suit the circumstances." The death sentence was pronounced April 15, 1947 and was received calmly by Msgr. Joseph Tiso. The recital of the bill of indictment had lasted several hours. The communist jury had found the Slovak leader guilty on 97 �SLOVAKIA 35 out of 113 counts. The two principal crimes were: collaboration with Germany and the dissolution of Czecho-Slovakia. Dr. Benes and Klement Gottwald refused clemency. "I promise to intercede before God, the supreme master of this world", wrote Msgr. Tiso in his final message to the Slovaks, "that He keep the Slovak nation forever in His holy care, that He bless her in her struggle and that He grant she remain forever faithful to the Church of Christ." No one knows where the priest is buried. The interment was carried out in secrecy to prevent memorial demonstrations. But in St. Martin's cemetery a tomb was discovered where the earth was still loose and it was soon covered with the fowers of the faithful. There is an epilogue to this story. At the end of August 1968 the Russians began to speculate on whether or not they should separate Slovakia from Bohemia again. They decided against it but later, for greater security, they appointed Gustav Husak, the Slovak communist, to the leadership of the central government. Bratislava. - Dr. Joseph Tiso, former president of Siovakia, who is now on trial for his life before the Slovak People's Court here, gave startling testimony to the effect that early in 1945 he rejected a written suggestion submitted to him by an agent to proclaim Slovakia as a Soviet republic. He also disclaimed any personal responsibility for Slovakia 's participation in the war against Poland and Russia and the alleged maltreatment of political and war prisoners. - Jan Mauthner, Special Correspondent, N.C.W.C. News Service, January 11 , 1947 . . Tiso's attorney was prevented from defending his client. Tiso was not allowed to make any notes on the trial. Tiso was accused on 113 counts, each of which carried the death sentence. No one is surprised that the final verdict of this long trial is death by hanging for Dr. Tiso. Try to imagine a similar situation in this country: Put President Truman on trial by order of Gromyko and let Gerard Eisler be the judge. Let Truman have no attorney and let both Gromyko and Eisler state publicly before the trial that the defendant will be hanged . - WGAR Clevelan d Radio Station, April 20, 1947, by Commentator Rev. Francis F ergus, Professor at St. Mary's Seminary, Cleveland, Ohio. � 26 SLOVAKIA Msgr. Joseph Tiso By Fran{;Ois d 'O r Ci Val ( This is the English translation of Mr. FranQois d'Orcival's article originally published in French, in the July 1971 issue of the magazine "Miroir de l'Histoire", Paris. The young French political writer has dealt with the cause of Slovak independence in his book " Le Danube etait noir" (The Danube was black), La Table Ronde, Paris 1968. In France, he represents a realistic trend seeking to de-mythologize European history. Ed.) At dawn on April 18, 1947 the bridge over the Danube was shrouded in fog as Msgr. Joseph Tiso concluded his prayer in the central prison of Bratislava and donned his black serge robe with the prisoner's red armband and the churchman's white collar. He had been condemned to death on April 15 and on April 17 reprieve had been denied. A Franciscan father had been sent to accompany him on his final journey. Msgr. Tiso was 59. He had been born in Bytca in the valley of the Vah, which cuts through the Carpathians and where the mountains and the forest always wear autumn color. He was a sturdy, well-built man with broad shoulders, closely-cropped hair and a serene expression, with the rough-hewn features of a solid man of the people. He had been the leader of an autonomous Slovak government from October 6, 1938 to March 10, 1939, then head of independent Slovakia from March 14, 1939 to Easter of 1945. That year when spring returned to the Tatras the bells of Rome were silent. Malinovsky's forces were scouring the countryside. In Bohemia the Wehrmacht was retreating. Msgr. Tiso and his government distributed to their people the flour remaining in the state granaries, then went into exile. The Americans arrested Msgr. Tiso in October 1945, extradited him from Austria and turned him over to Dr. Edward Benes, who had once again become Czecho-Slovakia's leader. �SLOVAKIA 27 The preliminary examination in the Tiso trial began December 3. The bill of indictment contained 230 pages and was prepared by three attorneys specializing in general matters, political guestions and military affairs. 42 witnesses were subpoenaed by the prosecution. Igor Daxner, a Protestant Slovak communist, was selected to preside over the people's court, assisted by Bedrna, a Czech communist. Five of the seven members of the court were communists. The first day of the hearing the authorities, fearing street demonstratio ns and riots, ringed Bratislava with soldiers; they also controlled access to public buildings and took strong security precautions at the Palace of Justice. At first the press was allowed to report the testimony of witnesses and some of Msgr. Tiso's statements but soon, realizing that popular sentiment remained too favorable to the former president of independent Slovakia, the government censored all news reports of the trial. The Catholic bishops, evidencing outstanding courage, published on January 3, 1946 a petition in the prisoner's behalf. "His fate", they declared, "will strongly influence a portion of the Slovak population in its attitude towards the reconstituted Czecho-Slovak Republic." The majority of the nation concurs with its bishops in believing Dr. Tiso's intentions to have been pure and good. The prosecutor summoned Karol Kmet'ko, archbishop of Slovakia, who paused to shake hands with the defendant on his way to the witness stand to answer the prosecutor's questions. "What did the Slovak state accomplish for the people?" he was asked. "Can you think of any nation which does not long for independence ?" replied archbishop Kmet'ko and continued: "Can you imagine an unfortunate people who would not rather have their own homes than depend on others?" "But", the prosecutor insisted, "this independence was actually dependence!" "No!" replied archbishop Kmet'ko. "It was ten times less damaging than the Protectorate ( of Bohemia and Moravia)!" "How could you approve of Msgr. Tiso's assumption of office?" the prosecutor then asked, and the archbishop �28 SLOVAKIA responded: "When the independence of the Slovak state was proclaimed I can affirm that the country and its people were 90 % in favor of it. We rediscovered the independence and the freedom which had been lost since the time of King Svatopluk." For those with the borders of the German and Slovak world that story goes back to the early period of the Middle Ages. In a study entitled "The Slovaks: A People; A Nation" Professor Joseph A. Mikus, one of the youngest diplomats of the independent Slovak state and currently professor in an American college, writes: It was Prince Pribina in the year 830 iwho conquered the West Slovak tribes and governed them from his castle in Nitra. His successors, Mojmir, Rastislav and Svatopluk extended their rule over the neighboring ,t erritories. In the second half of the ninth century the Czech lands (Bohemia and Moravia) were also subjugated by the Slovak king, Svatopluk. However, shortly thereafter the Czechs appealed to the German monarchs for help and were able to free themselves from Greater Moravia. After a c,o alition of Germans and Hungarians had defeated Mojmir II near Bratislava in 906, Slovakia was occupied by the Hungarians while the Czechs full under the domination of the Germans. Although Slovakia became an integral part of the Hungarian realm, the Premyslides rwere able to elevate the principality of Bohemia to a kingdom whose ruler became one of the electors of the German Empire. During the Turkish invasions Slovakia or Upper Hungary became the impregnable fortress of the realm. The Hungarian parliaments were still meeting in Bratislava during the first half of the nineteenth century. It was here, too, in Saint Martin's cathedral that the coronation of the Hungarian kings took place. On the other hand, after the defeat of the Czech Protestants at the White Mountain in 1620, the kingdom of Bohemia became an integral part of Austria's hereditary possessions. Even after the Austro-Hungarian Compromise in 1867, the Czechs remained under Austrian control and the Slovaks under Hungarian rule. Thus Czechs and Slovaks had never been united under one government before 1918. They were separated by the Carpathians. Bohemia was Protestant; Slovakia Catholic. The Czechs and the Germans had made Prague, the Bohemian capitol, one of the most cultured cities of Europe. The Slovaks, by contrast, boasted neither elite nor aristocracy; they were peasants and good soldiers. Although they lacked lords and commanders, the Slovaks nevertheless had their churchmen. One of these, �SLOVAKIA 29 Father Hlinka, born in 1864, was pastor at Ruzomberok, a big market-town situated in northern Slovakia between the Fatras and the Lower Tatras. He began his political ministry in 1905, fought for the autonomy of Slovakia, and founded the Slovak Populist party. In Sarajevo on June 28, 1914 a Belgrade high school student assassinated Archduke Franz-Ferdinand, heir to the imperial throne. On the same day in Prague the cry arose: "Down with the Hapsburgs! Down with AustriaHungary!" This was the cry of two atheist Czech socialists: the first a sociology professor at the University of Prague and leftist deputy to the Diet of Vienna, 64 year old Thomas Masaryk and the second, his 30 year old disciple, Edward Benes, doctor of laws. Of the 534 deputies representing all the nationalities of the empire the Czechs numbered 107, yet not one took up the cry of Masaryk and Benes. Repudiated, the two delegates left Prague secretly for Paris and London, where they founded a Czech National Committee, which in 1917 was transformed into a provisional government. A year later the Austro-Hungarian Empire collapsed, attacked from within. In Slovakia Father Hlinka declared in 1918: "Our thousand-year marriage with the Magyars is ending in disaster. We must sever our ties with them!" The Slovaks were welcomed by the Czechs, who promised them freedom. The official birth of Czecho-Slovakia was proclaimed on October 28, 1918. It was the triumph of Masaryk and Benes after four years of exile. According to international law Czecho-Slovakia did not come into being until the treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, September 10, 1919. Comprising Bohemia and Moravia in the west, Slovakia and Lower Subcarpathian Ukraine in the east, the country had an area of 140,000 square kilometers. The population was 13.6 million, of whom 6.5 million were Czech, 2.5 million Slovak, 3.3 million German and the rest Magyar, Ukrainian and Polish minorities. It was a mosaic of nationalities. In dismembering Austria-Hungary the western diplomats at Saint-Germain-en-Laye hoped to isolate Germany from Russia by a "cordon sanitaire" composed of newly allied states: Poland, Czecho-Slovakia, Rumania, Jugoslavia. But the Hapsburg dynasty, the unifying influence over all these states, was gone; the Danube countries of Europe �30 SLOVAKIA were destined once again to become the battleground of endless struggles. Masaryk and Benes had another plan. Realizing that they could not expect to found an independent Bohemia with only 6.5 million Czechs in a territory including 3.3 million Germans, they invented the fiction of a state which joined together the Czechs and Slovaks, a Czecho-Slovak state with 9 million inhabitants, who counterbalanced the 3 million Germans. The Slovaks accepted the new state on condition that it be federated and Benes assured them: "The Czecho-Slovakia of tomorrow will be the Switzerland of Central Europe. I guarantee it." However, from late 1918 onward Czech soldiers occupied Slovak territory to maintain order and Slovakia was not federated but annexed. After the soldiers came the bureaucrats. All the former Czech officials of the Empire, dismissed from Vienna and Budapest, descended on Bratislava. New teachers appeared in Slovak schools to teach Czech, which incited antiCatholic demonstrations in the villages. In September 1919 Father Hlinka, leader of the Catholic Populist party, went to the Paris peace conference with a long memorandum which began with these words: "Never has a nation been so cruelly deceived in its hopes as the Slovak nation." The Czech army also intervened energetically in Bohemia, but against the Sudeten Germans this time. (The Sudeten mountains are located in northern BohemiaMoravia.) As in Slovakia the Czech central government proceeded with an intense "czechization" of the administration, the economy, the schools and the police of the German regions. In the elections of 1935 the autonomists polled a majority in Slovakia, while in Bohemia the Germans had organized their own party. Their leader, Henlein, made contact with Hitler, who soon used the Sudeten Germans as one of the principal points of the propaganda. The German action and the diplomatic intervention of the British brought about a meeting in Munich of the four great powers of the time (Germany, Italy, Britain and France) on the Sudeten question. Through the Munich agreement the Germans of Czecho-Slovakia obtained on September 30, 1938 the right to regain their German �SLOVAKIA 31 fatherland. This development caused the loss of a strip of 25,000 square kilometers on the north-west frontier of the Czecho-Slovak state and a simultaneous loss of nearly 4 million inhabitants. As a consequence of this defeat Dr. Edward Benes, leader of the Czech government, resigned on October 5, 1938 and left Prague. The next day, October 6, at zilina, a little town situated in western Slovakia quite far from Prague, the leaders of Slovak parties assembled to proclaim the autonomy of their land, claiming the right defined in the Munich agreement-the right of nations to determine their own destiny. Father Hlinka's successor as head of the Populist and Autonomist party announced: "The Munich agreement has profoundly altered the political positions and the relations of the different states of central Europe. We Slovaks desire the freedom to determine our future, particularly in respect to the administration of our state." That very evening the first autonomous Slovak government was formed and its presidency entrusted to the new leader of the autonomous Populist party, Msgr. Tiso. zilina was a town Msgr. Tiso knew well, for in its schools he had learned to read and write. He had then enrolled in the seminary at Nitra, where in the year 833 Prince Pribina had erected the first Christian Church in Slovakia at the base of the Slovak central mountains. Joseph Tiso had completed his studies of ethics and theology at the University of Vienna. He was ordained July 14, 1910 and the same year received the degree of doctor of theology. In 1914 he became military chaplain. The following year he wa.s called back to Nitra to teach during the absence of professors who had gone to war. About 1920 he joined Father Hlinka, the founder of the Autonomist party and was assigned to the parish at Banovce, which is on the Bebrava river at the southern point of the hills of the Patras. Here began his public life. He was always to be a man of his word, loyal to his faith and to his land. To his parishioners he was a protector against the devil, as in ancient times. General Sirovy, head of the central government of Prague since the departure of Dr. Benes, assented to the setting-up of the Slovak cabinet. For Msgr. Tiso the most �32 SLOVAKIA difficult problem involved the frontiers, for the Magyars were making claims, as were the Poles and the Germans. On November 2, 1938 in Vienna an agreement was signed. The Magyars received the regions of Slovakia where the majority of the people were Magyar, the Poles received Teschen, and the Germans received a suburb of Petrzalka near Bratislava on the Danube. Elections took place in Slovakia on November 18, 1938 and the Autonomist candidates received 97 .5 ~c of the vote. The first Czecho-Slovak Republic having died at Munich two months previously, a second Republic came into being on November 30, federated and under the presidency of Dr. Ha.cha, a slight, 66 year old man in delicate health, who spoke with a marked Bohemian accent. In spite of the creation of a federated Republic, the relations between the Czechs and the Slovaks did not improve. A latent crisis kept them in conflict until February 1939, when the real crisis began. The Slovaks needed credit, but the Czechs refused it on the pretext that the Slovaks were disloyal to the republic. Finally on March 9, 1939 Dr. Ha.cha ousted Msgr. Tiso and his colleagues from their positions and at dawn on March 10, 1939 Slovakia was occupied by Czech police and soldiers-that is, by the "federals". Martial law was proclaimed; the local militia was dissolved. Msgr. Tiso withdrew to his rectory in Banovce and waited. German diplomacy, which had been very active since the departure of Dr. Benes, intervened, trying to crush the Czech coup in Slovakia so that the Slovaks would clearly separate themselves from the Czechs and put an end to the existence of this unified country situated in the heart of the German Reich. After several vain attempts the Reich representatives in Vienna, Seyss-Inquart and Buerckel, made contact with Msgr. Tiso; two of their secret agents came to Banovce the night of March 12 to 13, 1939 to extend an invitation from Hitler. Msgr . Tiso, waking with a start, was at first stunned, suspecting a trap. Then he acquiesced but requested a delay. Hitler frightened him and yet he knew that Berlin was the city of destiny at that moment. Finally, after conferring with his friends, he flew to Berlin. Even after 6 months of heading an �SLOVAKIA 33 autonomous government he had remained essentially a fighter-priest of the country and now resembled a Poujadist cleric on his way to see Dracula. On the evening of March 13 Hitler and Tiso agreed that Slovakia would declare her independence the next day. Hitler, moreover, convinced of an impending assault by Benes to regain power in Prague, had already decided to invade Bohemia on March 15. Msgr. Tiso hesitated at length before being convinced. He returned to Bratislava, convened the Assembly and formed a new cabinet. His cabinet ministers were not appointed by the Reich ambassadors but were simply those who had been Autonomist Slovak leaders for the previous ten or twenty years. At noon on Tuesday, March 14 the Assembly by unanimous vote severed Slovakia from the rest of Czech nation. This declaration had been accelerated by the German action but would have been less effective without the Czech coup on March 10. Dr. Ha.cha reached Berlin the same day in a state of exhaustion to entreat the Fuhrer on behalf of his people but the Fuhrer did not yield. On March 15, two hours before the first columns of the Wehrmacht re '.:'.ched Bohemia, President Ha.cha signed the capitulation: "The president of the Czecho-Slovak Republic has confidently placed the destiny of the Czech people and the Czech lands in the hands of the Fuhrer of the German Reich ... " On March 16, while the German protectorate was being established in Bohemia-Moravia, Msgr. Tiso, leader of independent Slovakia, sought the protection of the Reich and signed a treaty which, without specifying occupation of Slovak territory, rendered the country a satellite. Hungary, with the support of Italy, invaded Subcarpathian Ukraine and a strip along the eastern border of Slovakia. Thus was the Czecho-Slovakia of 1919 stricken from the map. During the 5 years of the war Msgr. Tiso did not involve the country in the conflict ( except for sending volunteers to the Polish front). He declared his sympathy for the Reich while pursuing a neutral policy in Rome in order to protect his exports and his country's uncertain future. Msgr. Tiso's Slovakia was a curiously sad spectacle, encircled by Germany, protected by the Vatican, never �34 SLOVAKIA truly free but never quite occupied. Until 1944 she was indeed the Switzerland of the Danube basin, the "marketplace of Provence" of the Carpathian region. In August 1944 the internal calm was shattered by ill-matched squads, who set in motion an insurrection against the presence of the Germans. One group was directed from Moscow, the other (by Benes) from London. Armed bands were in conflict everywhere, but the Germans put down the rebellion within two months. The red army to the east looked on idly, reasoning that the Germans would suppress the entire Slovak resistance movement, which would facilitate an eventual communist takeover . Six months after the uprising the reds entered Slovakia and Slovak independence was at an end. On April 5, 1945 Dr. Edward Benes in company with the communist. Klement Gottwald, came to Kosice on the Slovak border, where he was met by Gustav Husak, a 32 year old communist leader. Husak said: "The first Czecho-Slovak Republic is dead. Gone is its centralism as well as its false political democracy. The new Republic will be a socialist federation of two nations equal under the law, the Czech nation and the Slovak nation." But the voice of Gustav Husak was not heard; it was the Czech communists who were in power. On March 17 and 18 in 1947 Msgr. Tiso's trial was coming to an end. The former head of the Slovak government drew up his own defense. "Mine was an unusual policy because the man who executed it was a priest", he began. "I had prepared for and intended to follow the duties of holy priesthood, not those of public office. As a priest I was committed to the service of God, the Church and the country of my birth, in which I was serving my ministry. Hence the mottoes 'for God, for country', 'with the people, for the people', were the expression of a guiding principle valid everywhere and under all conditions. They were not political slogans invented later to suit the circumstances." The death sentence was pronounced April 15, 1947 and was received calmly by Msgr. Joseph Tiso. The recital of the bill of indictment had lasted several hours. The communist jury had found the Slovak leader guilty on 97 �SLOVAKIA 35 out of 113 counts. The two principal crimes were: collaboration with Germany and the dissolution of Czecho-Slovakia. Dr. Benes and Klement Gottwald refused clemency. "I promise to intercede before God, the supreme master of this world", wrote Msgr. Tiso in his final message to the Slovaks, "that He keep the Slovak nation forever in His holy care, that He bless her in her struggle and that He grant she remain forever faithful to the Church of Christ." No one knows where the priest is buried. The interment was carried out in secrecy to prevent memorial demonstrations. But in St. Martin's cemetery a tomb was discovered where the earth was still loose and it was soon covered with the fowers of the faithful. There is an epilogue to this story. At the end of August 1968 the Russians began to speculate on whether or not they should separate Slovakia from Bohemia again. They decided against it but later, for greater security, they appointed Gustav Husak, the Slovak communist, to the leadership of the central government. Bratislava. - Dr. Joseph Tiso, former president of Siovakia, who is now on trial for his life before the Slovak People's Court here, gave startling testimony to the effect that early in 1945 he rejected a written suggestion submitted to him by an agent to proclaim Slovakia as a Soviet republic. He also disclaimed any personal responsibility for Slovakia 's participation in the war against Poland and Russia and the alleged maltreatment of political and war prisoners. - Jan Mauthner, Special Correspondent, N.C.W.C. News Service, January 11 , 1947 . . Tiso's attorney was prevented from defending his client. Tiso was not allowed to make any notes on the trial. Tiso was accused on 113 counts, each of which carried the death sentence. No one is surprised that the final verdict of this long trial is death by hanging for Dr. Tiso. Try to imagine a similar situation in this country: Put President Truman on trial by order of Gromyko and let Gerard Eisler be the judge. Let Truman have no attorney and let both Gromyko and Eisler state publicly before the trial that the defendant will be hanged . - WGAR Clevelan d Radio Station, April 20, 1947, by Commentator Rev. Francis F ergus, Professor at St. Mary's Seminary, Cleveland, Ohio. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1972, Vol. 22 Description An account of the resource Vol. 22 (No. 45), 1972. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1972 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document 26 SLOVAKIA Msgr. Joseph Tiso By Fran{;Ois d 'O r Ci Val ( This is the English translation of Mr. FranQois d'Orcival's article originally published in French, in the July 1971 issue of the magazine "Miroir de l'Histoire", Paris. The young French political writer has dealt with the cause of Slovak independence in his book " Le Danube etait noir" (The Danube was black), La Table Ronde, Paris 1968. In France, he represents a realistic trend seeking to de-mythologize European history. Ed.) At dawn on April 18, 1947 the bridge over the Danube was shrouded in fog as Msgr. Joseph Tiso concluded his prayer in the central prison of Bratislava and donned his black serge robe with the prisoner's red armband and the churchman's white collar. He had been condemned to death on April 15 and on April 17 reprieve had been denied. A Franciscan father had been sent to accompany him on his final journey. Msgr. Tiso was 59. He had been born in Bytca in the valley of the Vah, which cuts through the Carpathians and where the mountains and the forest always wear autumn color. He was a sturdy, well-built man with broad shoulders, closely-cropped hair and a serene expression, with the rough-hewn features of a solid man of the people. He had been the leader of an autonomous Slovak government from October 6, 1938 to March 10, 1939, then head of independent Slovakia from March 14, 1939 to Easter of 1945. That year when spring returned to the Tatras the bells of Rome were silent. Malinovsky's forces were scouring the countryside. In Bohemia the Wehrmacht was retreating. Msgr. Tiso and his government distributed to their people the flour remaining in the state granaries, then went into exile. The Americans arrested Msgr. Tiso in October 1945, extradited him from Austria and turned him over to Dr. Edward Benes, who had once again become Czecho-Slovakia's leader. SLOVAKIA 27 The preliminary examination in the Tiso trial began December 3. The bill of indictment contained 230 pages and was prepared by three attorneys specializing in general matters, political guestions and military affairs. 42 witnesses were subpoenaed by the prosecution. Igor Daxner, a Protestant Slovak communist, was selected to preside over the people's court, assisted by Bedrna, a Czech communist. Five of the seven members of the court were communists. The first day of the hearing the authorities, fearing street demonstratio ns and riots, ringed Bratislava with soldiers; they also controlled access to public buildings and took strong security precautions at the Palace of Justice. At first the press was allowed to report the testimony of witnesses and some of Msgr. Tiso's statements but soon, realizing that popular sentiment remained too favorable to the former president of independent Slovakia, the government censored all news reports of the trial. The Catholic bishops, evidencing outstanding courage, published on January 3, 1946 a petition in the prisoner's behalf. "His fate", they declared, "will strongly influence a portion of the Slovak population in its attitude towards the reconstituted Czecho-Slovak Republic." The majority of the nation concurs with its bishops in believing Dr. Tiso's intentions to have been pure and good. The prosecutor summoned Karol Kmet'ko, archbishop of Slovakia, who paused to shake hands with the defendant on his way to the witness stand to answer the prosecutor's questions. "What did the Slovak state accomplish for the people?" he was asked. "Can you think of any nation which does not long for independence ?" replied archbishop Kmet'ko and continued: "Can you imagine an unfortunate people who would not rather have their own homes than depend on others?" "But", the prosecutor insisted, "this independence was actually dependence!" "No!" replied archbishop Kmet'ko. "It was ten times less damaging than the Protectorate ( of Bohemia and Moravia)!" "How could you approve of Msgr. Tiso's assumption of office?" the prosecutor then asked, and the archbishop 28 SLOVAKIA responded: "When the independence of the Slovak state was proclaimed I can affirm that the country and its people were 90 % in favor of it. We rediscovered the independence and the freedom which had been lost since the time of King Svatopluk." For those with the borders of the German and Slovak world that story goes back to the early period of the Middle Ages. In a study entitled "The Slovaks: A People; A Nation" Professor Joseph A. Mikus, one of the youngest diplomats of the independent Slovak state and currently professor in an American college, writes: It was Prince Pribina in the year 830 iwho conquered the West Slovak tribes and governed them from his castle in Nitra. His successors, Mojmir, Rastislav and Svatopluk extended their rule over the neighboring ,t erritories. In the second half of the ninth century the Czech lands (Bohemia and Moravia) were also subjugated by the Slovak king, Svatopluk. However, shortly thereafter the Czechs appealed to the German monarchs for help and were able to free themselves from Greater Moravia. After a c,o alition of Germans and Hungarians had defeated Mojmir II near Bratislava in 906, Slovakia was occupied by the Hungarians while the Czechs full under the domination of the Germans. Although Slovakia became an integral part of the Hungarian realm, the Premyslides rwere able to elevate the principality of Bohemia to a kingdom whose ruler became one of the electors of the German Empire. During the Turkish invasions Slovakia or Upper Hungary became the impregnable fortress of the realm. The Hungarian parliaments were still meeting in Bratislava during the first half of the nineteenth century. It was here, too, in Saint Martin's cathedral that the coronation of the Hungarian kings took place. On the other hand, after the defeat of the Czech Protestants at the White Mountain in 1620, the kingdom of Bohemia became an integral part of Austria's hereditary possessions. Even after the Austro-Hungarian Compromise in 1867, the Czechs remained under Austrian control and the Slovaks under Hungarian rule. Thus Czechs and Slovaks had never been united under one government before 1918. They were separated by the Carpathians. Bohemia was Protestant; Slovakia Catholic. The Czechs and the Germans had made Prague, the Bohemian capitol, one of the most cultured cities of Europe. The Slovaks, by contrast, boasted neither elite nor aristocracy; they were peasants and good soldiers. Although they lacked lords and commanders, the Slovaks nevertheless had their churchmen. One of these, SLOVAKIA 29 Father Hlinka, born in 1864, was pastor at Ruzomberok, a big market-town situated in northern Slovakia between the Fatras and the Lower Tatras. He began his political ministry in 1905, fought for the autonomy of Slovakia, and founded the Slovak Populist party. In Sarajevo on June 28, 1914 a Belgrade high school student assassinated Archduke Franz-Ferdinand, heir to the imperial throne. On the same day in Prague the cry arose: "Down with the Hapsburgs! Down with AustriaHungary!" This was the cry of two atheist Czech socialists: the first a sociology professor at the University of Prague and leftist deputy to the Diet of Vienna, 64 year old Thomas Masaryk and the second, his 30 year old disciple, Edward Benes, doctor of laws. Of the 534 deputies representing all the nationalities of the empire the Czechs numbered 107, yet not one took up the cry of Masaryk and Benes. Repudiated, the two delegates left Prague secretly for Paris and London, where they founded a Czech National Committee, which in 1917 was transformed into a provisional government. A year later the Austro-Hungarian Empire collapsed, attacked from within. In Slovakia Father Hlinka declared in 1918: "Our thousand-year marriage with the Magyars is ending in disaster. We must sever our ties with them!" The Slovaks were welcomed by the Czechs, who promised them freedom. The official birth of Czecho-Slovakia was proclaimed on October 28, 1918. It was the triumph of Masaryk and Benes after four years of exile. According to international law Czecho-Slovakia did not come into being until the treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, September 10, 1919. Comprising Bohemia and Moravia in the west, Slovakia and Lower Subcarpathian Ukraine in the east, the country had an area of 140,000 square kilometers. The population was 13.6 million, of whom 6.5 million were Czech, 2.5 million Slovak, 3.3 million German and the rest Magyar, Ukrainian and Polish minorities. It was a mosaic of nationalities. In dismembering Austria-Hungary the western diplomats at Saint-Germain-en-Laye hoped to isolate Germany from Russia by a "cordon sanitaire" composed of newly allied states: Poland, Czecho-Slovakia, Rumania, Jugoslavia. But the Hapsburg dynasty, the unifying influence over all these states, was gone; the Danube countries of Europe 30 SLOVAKIA were destined once again to become the battleground of endless struggles. Masaryk and Benes had another plan. Realizing that they could not expect to found an independent Bohemia with only 6.5 million Czechs in a territory including 3.3 million Germans, they invented the fiction of a state which joined together the Czechs and Slovaks, a Czecho-Slovak state with 9 million inhabitants, who counterbalanced the 3 million Germans. The Slovaks accepted the new state on condition that it be federated and Benes assured them: "The Czecho-Slovakia of tomorrow will be the Switzerland of Central Europe. I guarantee it." However, from late 1918 onward Czech soldiers occupied Slovak territory to maintain order and Slovakia was not federated but annexed. After the soldiers came the bureaucrats. All the former Czech officials of the Empire, dismissed from Vienna and Budapest, descended on Bratislava. New teachers appeared in Slovak schools to teach Czech, which incited antiCatholic demonstrations in the villages. In September 1919 Father Hlinka, leader of the Catholic Populist party, went to the Paris peace conference with a long memorandum which began with these words: "Never has a nation been so cruelly deceived in its hopes as the Slovak nation." The Czech army also intervened energetically in Bohemia, but against the Sudeten Germans this time. (The Sudeten mountains are located in northern BohemiaMoravia.) As in Slovakia the Czech central government proceeded with an intense "czechization" of the administration, the economy, the schools and the police of the German regions. In the elections of 1935 the autonomists polled a majority in Slovakia, while in Bohemia the Germans had organized their own party. Their leader, Henlein, made contact with Hitler, who soon used the Sudeten Germans as one of the principal points of the propaganda. The German action and the diplomatic intervention of the British brought about a meeting in Munich of the four great powers of the time (Germany, Italy, Britain and France) on the Sudeten question. Through the Munich agreement the Germans of Czecho-Slovakia obtained on September 30, 1938 the right to regain their German SLOVAKIA 31 fatherland. This development caused the loss of a strip of 25,000 square kilometers on the north-west frontier of the Czecho-Slovak state and a simultaneous loss of nearly 4 million inhabitants. As a consequence of this defeat Dr. Edward Benes, leader of the Czech government, resigned on October 5, 1938 and left Prague. The next day, October 6, at zilina, a little town situated in western Slovakia quite far from Prague, the leaders of Slovak parties assembled to proclaim the autonomy of their land, claiming the right defined in the Munich agreement-the right of nations to determine their own destiny. Father Hlinka's successor as head of the Populist and Autonomist party announced: "The Munich agreement has profoundly altered the political positions and the relations of the different states of central Europe. We Slovaks desire the freedom to determine our future, particularly in respect to the administration of our state." That very evening the first autonomous Slovak government was formed and its presidency entrusted to the new leader of the autonomous Populist party, Msgr. Tiso. zilina was a town Msgr. Tiso knew well, for in its schools he had learned to read and write. He had then enrolled in the seminary at Nitra, where in the year 833 Prince Pribina had erected the first Christian Church in Slovakia at the base of the Slovak central mountains. Joseph Tiso had completed his studies of ethics and theology at the University of Vienna. He was ordained July 14, 1910 and the same year received the degree of doctor of theology. In 1914 he became military chaplain. The following year he wa.s called back to Nitra to teach during the absence of professors who had gone to war. About 1920 he joined Father Hlinka, the founder of the Autonomist party and was assigned to the parish at Banovce, which is on the Bebrava river at the southern point of the hills of the Patras. Here began his public life. He was always to be a man of his word, loyal to his faith and to his land. To his parishioners he was a protector against the devil, as in ancient times. General Sirovy, head of the central government of Prague since the departure of Dr. Benes, assented to the setting-up of the Slovak cabinet. For Msgr. Tiso the most 32 SLOVAKIA difficult problem involved the frontiers, for the Magyars were making claims, as were the Poles and the Germans. On November 2, 1938 in Vienna an agreement was signed. The Magyars received the regions of Slovakia where the majority of the people were Magyar, the Poles received Teschen, and the Germans received a suburb of Petrzalka near Bratislava on the Danube. Elections took place in Slovakia on November 18, 1938 and the Autonomist candidates received 97 .5 ~c of the vote. The first Czecho-Slovak Republic having died at Munich two months previously, a second Republic came into being on November 30, federated and under the presidency of Dr. Ha.cha, a slight, 66 year old man in delicate health, who spoke with a marked Bohemian accent. In spite of the creation of a federated Republic, the relations between the Czechs and the Slovaks did not improve. A latent crisis kept them in conflict until February 1939, when the real crisis began. The Slovaks needed credit, but the Czechs refused it on the pretext that the Slovaks were disloyal to the republic. Finally on March 9, 1939 Dr. Ha.cha ousted Msgr. Tiso and his colleagues from their positions and at dawn on March 10, 1939 Slovakia was occupied by Czech police and soldiers-that is, by the "federals". Martial law was proclaimed; the local militia was dissolved. Msgr. Tiso withdrew to his rectory in Banovce and waited. German diplomacy, which had been very active since the departure of Dr. Benes, intervened, trying to crush the Czech coup in Slovakia so that the Slovaks would clearly separate themselves from the Czechs and put an end to the existence of this unified country situated in the heart of the German Reich. After several vain attempts the Reich representatives in Vienna, Seyss-Inquart and Buerckel, made contact with Msgr. Tiso; two of their secret agents came to Banovce the night of March 12 to 13, 1939 to extend an invitation from Hitler. Msgr . Tiso, waking with a start, was at first stunned, suspecting a trap. Then he acquiesced but requested a delay. Hitler frightened him and yet he knew that Berlin was the city of destiny at that moment. Finally, after conferring with his friends, he flew to Berlin. Even after 6 months of heading an SLOVAKIA 33 autonomous government he had remained essentially a fighter-priest of the country and now resembled a Poujadist cleric on his way to see Dracula. On the evening of March 13 Hitler and Tiso agreed that Slovakia would declare her independence the next day. Hitler, moreover, convinced of an impending assault by Benes to regain power in Prague, had already decided to invade Bohemia on March 15. Msgr. Tiso hesitated at length before being convinced. He returned to Bratislava, convened the Assembly and formed a new cabinet. His cabinet ministers were not appointed by the Reich ambassadors but were simply those who had been Autonomist Slovak leaders for the previous ten or twenty years. At noon on Tuesday, March 14 the Assembly by unanimous vote severed Slovakia from the rest of Czech nation. This declaration had been accelerated by the German action but would have been less effective without the Czech coup on March 10. Dr. Ha.cha reached Berlin the same day in a state of exhaustion to entreat the Fuhrer on behalf of his people but the Fuhrer did not yield. On March 15, two hours before the first columns of the Wehrmacht re '.:'.ched Bohemia, President Ha.cha signed the capitulation: "The president of the Czecho-Slovak Republic has confidently placed the destiny of the Czech people and the Czech lands in the hands of the Fuhrer of the German Reich ... " On March 16, while the German protectorate was being established in Bohemia-Moravia, Msgr. Tiso, leader of independent Slovakia, sought the protection of the Reich and signed a treaty which, without specifying occupation of Slovak territory, rendered the country a satellite. Hungary, with the support of Italy, invaded Subcarpathian Ukraine and a strip along the eastern border of Slovakia. Thus was the Czecho-Slovakia of 1919 stricken from the map. During the 5 years of the war Msgr. Tiso did not involve the country in the conflict ( except for sending volunteers to the Polish front). He declared his sympathy for the Reich while pursuing a neutral policy in Rome in order to protect his exports and his country's uncertain future. Msgr. Tiso's Slovakia was a curiously sad spectacle, encircled by Germany, protected by the Vatican, never 34 SLOVAKIA truly free but never quite occupied. Until 1944 she was indeed the Switzerland of the Danube basin, the "marketplace of Provence" of the Carpathian region. In August 1944 the internal calm was shattered by ill-matched squads, who set in motion an insurrection against the presence of the Germans. One group was directed from Moscow, the other (by Benes) from London. Armed bands were in conflict everywhere, but the Germans put down the rebellion within two months. The red army to the east looked on idly, reasoning that the Germans would suppress the entire Slovak resistance movement, which would facilitate an eventual communist takeover . Six months after the uprising the reds entered Slovakia and Slovak independence was at an end. On April 5, 1945 Dr. Edward Benes in company with the communist. Klement Gottwald, came to Kosice on the Slovak border, where he was met by Gustav Husak, a 32 year old communist leader. Husak said: "The first Czecho-Slovak Republic is dead. Gone is its centralism as well as its false political democracy. The new Republic will be a socialist federation of two nations equal under the law, the Czech nation and the Slovak nation." But the voice of Gustav Husak was not heard; it was the Czech communists who were in power. On March 17 and 18 in 1947 Msgr. Tiso's trial was coming to an end. The former head of the Slovak government drew up his own defense. "Mine was an unusual policy because the man who executed it was a priest", he began. "I had prepared for and intended to follow the duties of holy priesthood, not those of public office. As a priest I was committed to the service of God, the Church and the country of my birth, in which I was serving my ministry. Hence the mottoes 'for God, for country', 'with the people, for the people', were the expression of a guiding principle valid everywhere and under all conditions. They were not political slogans invented later to suit the circumstances." The death sentence was pronounced April 15, 1947 and was received calmly by Msgr. Joseph Tiso. The recital of the bill of indictment had lasted several hours. The communist jury had found the Slovak leader guilty on 97 SLOVAKIA 35 out of 113 counts. The two principal crimes were: collaboration with Germany and the dissolution of Czecho-Slovakia. Dr. Benes and Klement Gottwald refused clemency. "I promise to intercede before God, the supreme master of this world", wrote Msgr. Tiso in his final message to the Slovaks, "that He keep the Slovak nation forever in His holy care, that He bless her in her struggle and that He grant she remain forever faithful to the Church of Christ." No one knows where the priest is buried. The interment was carried out in secrecy to prevent memorial demonstrations. But in St. Martin's cemetery a tomb was discovered where the earth was still loose and it was soon covered with the fowers of the faithful. There is an epilogue to this story. At the end of August 1968 the Russians began to speculate on whether or not they should separate Slovakia from Bohemia again. They decided against it but later, for greater security, they appointed Gustav Husak, the Slovak communist, to the leadership of the central government. Bratislava. - Dr. Joseph Tiso, former president of Siovakia, who is now on trial for his life before the Slovak People's Court here, gave startling testimony to the effect that early in 1945 he rejected a written suggestion submitted to him by an agent to proclaim Slovakia as a Soviet republic. He also disclaimed any personal responsibility for Slovakia 's participation in the war against Poland and Russia and the alleged maltreatment of political and war prisoners. - Jan Mauthner, Special Correspondent, N.C.W.C. News Service, January 11 , 1947 . . Tiso's attorney was prevented from defending his client. Tiso was not allowed to make any notes on the trial. Tiso was accused on 113 counts, each of which carried the death sentence. No one is surprised that the final verdict of this long trial is death by hanging for Dr. Tiso. Try to imagine a similar situation in this country: Put President Truman on trial by order of Gromyko and let Gerard Eisler be the judge. Let Truman have no attorney and let both Gromyko and Eisler state publicly before the trial that the defendant will be hanged . - WGAR Clevelan d Radio Station, April 20, 1947, by Commentator Rev. Francis F ergus, Professor at St. Mary's Seminary, Cleveland, Ohio.  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Msgr. Joseph Tiso Description An account of the resource François d'Orcival orig. in French, publ. in Miroir de l'Histoire, July 1971 Slovakia, Vol. 22 (No. 45), 1972 pp. 26-35 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Orcival, François d' Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1972 LCNAF https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/4ec8e11c8b1fc6f94ef01661cfe32a13.pdf 52ccc3d69708367c24a03977de30ef70 PDF Text Text 36 SLOVAKIA - - - - - - - - - -- -- - - - - - - - - - - - - Murder in Slovakia SPEECH OF HON. ALVINE. O'KONSKI OF WISCONSIN IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES Wednesday, April 23, 1947 Mr. O'KONSKI. Mr. Speaker, the recent hanging by the Communists of Czecho-Slovakia of the brave and gallant Monsignor Joseph Tiso was murder in its most ghastly and shameful form. The brave and gallant Monsignor Joseph Tiso went the way of the immortal General Mihailovitch and the immortal Archbishop Stepinac, of Yugoslavia. On trumped-up charges, the Communists disposed of these brave men because they dared to oppose communism among their respective people. These murders will set the pattern of what will happen to all who have opposed communism wherever communism takes over. On trumped-up charges, they held a farce of a trial and sentenced Monsignor Tiso to be hanged. Imagine the joy in the hearts of the Communists when they succeeded and used the Czechoslovakian Government as a puppet to do their dirty murder for them. Yes; this is a modem tragedy, but there will be more like it as time goes on. But the hanging of Monsignor Tiso itself is not the greatest tragedy. The greatest tragedy is the silence by our American President and by our American State Department while this murder was going on. Our Government gave the Czecho-Slovak Government hundreds of millions of dollars in the past two years. We are going to give them millions of dollars more. Yet, with this giving of millions of dollars to the Government of Czecho-Slovakia, our President and our State Department are not even men enough to stand up and protest against the murder by the Soviets. All of this leads me to believe that the leaders of our country in the White House and in our State Department no longer understand the meaning of the term "honor". Monsignor Tiso is dead. He was murdered. While he was murdered America was silent. The day is not very distant when these American leaders will regret their �SLOVAKIA 37 silence. The day may come and may be too soon when these leaders who were so shamefully silent will be treated the same way that Monsignor Tiso and Archbishop Stepinac and General Mihailovitch were treated. Then maybe there will be protests. But then it will be too late. Frankly, I do not think America could have saved the life of Monsignor Tiso. But I am ashamed that my country did not even have the decency and honor to file a protest - just for the record. By some miracle such a protest might have at least postponed the execution. Here in America our officials grant our basest criminals a stay of execution. The least that our national leaders could have done is file a plea for the same consideration for a Christian lover of freedom - Monsignor Tiso - whose only crime was that he hated communism just as he hated nazism. But America remains silent and murder has free sway. SPEECH OF HON. RAY J. MADDEN OF INDIANA IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES Monday, March 31, 1947 Mr. MADDEN. Mr. Speaker, America and all libertyloving nations should at this time concentrate against international situations which might bring about war in the future. I have, on several occasions, stated on the floor of Congress that the application of the principles of the Atlantic Charter is our greatest antidote for future peace. Self-government, freedom of thought, freedom of speech, and freedom of religion is as essential for smaller countries as it is for the larger nations. Our Nation, during World War II, spent billions of dollars and sacrificed in lives and casualties to preserve the above principles in order to insure liberty and future peace. Since VJ-day, aggression and tyranny has again been launched in certain areas of Europe. The latest example of persecution, unfair trial, and threatened execution for political belief is that of Dr. Joseph Tiso, former President of the Interim Republic of Slovakia. Dr. Tiso has been acclaimed a hero in the eyes of nearly all the people of Slovakia and the prevailing majority of Americans of Slovak ancestry. My attention has been called to the fact that over 80 percent of the Slovak American fraternal �38 SLOVAKIA organizations have forthrightly declared themselves to be of the opinion that Tiso was a hero in the defense of the best interests of the Slovak people. During his presidency, Slovakia thrived, progressed, and developed internally more than it had during any five years of the existence of the Czecho-Slovak Republic. The communistic control now over the country of Slovakia will execute Dr. Tiso, a political prisoner, 1,1nless our Government intervenes. This communistic control is inflicted upon the people of Slovakia in spite of the fact that the election of May 26, 1946, gave over 64 percent of the total vote cast against the present government. The press is likewise controlled, at least to the extent that the newspapers cannot publish what they think. This is evidenced in the fact that four American newpapers have been barred in Slovakia. The present communistic government will brook no freedom of political thought; though the people voted for Christian democracy, they received totalitarian communism. The archbishop of Slovakia testified at the trial of Dr . Tiso. He is and has been a respected member not only of the hierarchy in Czecho-Slovakia, but of the official family of Czecho-Slovakia, including its President, Edward Benes. Appearing as a witness for Dr. Tiso, the archbishop testified that: "Tiso acted and worked in the interest of Slovakia and was never a traitor, and that his election as President of Slovakia was the will of 90 percent of the Slovaks at that time and was acclaimed by the bishops, priests, and ministers of both the Catholic and Protestant churches." It is apparent that Czecho-Slovakia has been re-created with the aid of Moscow and that Moscow will unboubtedly demand the extinction of Slovak national leaders of ability and high intellect. The ways of the Communists are devious and it behooves us to understand more of the Slovakian situation. In the meantime, the least that freedom loving nations can aisk is that the so-called peoples courts in the Communist-dominated countries in eastern Europe, refrain from any further political executions or from liquidating political opposition by long-term imprisonment as in the case of Archbishop Stepinac. All of this adds up to the price we will have to pay to aid in the establishing of true democracy in the countries of eastern Europe to insure world peace. �SLOVAKIA 39 In supporting President Truman's International program, we cannot be unmindful of what is happening throughout this region in Europe, comprising over 100 million Christians who have nothing in common with communism. We have heard of political executions, imprisonment, and banishment of outstanding citizens in Poland, Lithuania, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, and other small countries. Thousands of brave Polish soldiers who fought to stamp out fascism are now prohibited from returning to their native Poland by a communistic controlled government. Americans are asking the question "do we not have at least a moral obligation to voice our protest against such trials and executions?" The judge who presided at the .trial of Dr. Tiso, previous to the trial , vowed personal vengeance on Tiso and was provided the opportunity by being placed in charge of the case. These facts, though not appearing in the American press releases, are not disputed. Almost upanimously, the people of Slovak descent in America, are rising in protest to the impending execution of Dr. Tiso. I ask the Members of Congress to join with me in protesting this unjust conviction by interceding with President Truman and Secretary Marshall to use their good offices to prevent this. injustice. We might well apply the words of the Honorable Judge Robert H . Jackson: "All experience teaches that there are certain things you cannot do under the guise of judicial trial. • • • You must put no man on trial before anything that is called a court, if you are not prepared to establish his personal guilt. * * * If you are determined to execute a man in any case, there is no occasion for trial. The world yields no respect to courts that are merely organized to convict." "The execution of Msgr. Joseph Tiso of Slovakia is an attempt to execute the principles of Christian democracy. It is supposed to be the death knell :for Slovak freedom. Msgr. Tiso was executed for defending the inherent rights of his people. Tiso shall go down in history as a martyr and Dr. Bene~ as a modern Pilate." - Rt. Rev. Msgr. F. J . D u bosh, Lakewood , Ohio, April 30, 1947. � 36 SLOVAKIA - - - - - - - - - -- -- - - - - - - - - - - - - Murder in Slovakia SPEECH OF HON. ALVINE. O'KONSKI OF WISCONSIN IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES Wednesday, April 23, 1947 Mr. O'KONSKI. Mr. Speaker, the recent hanging by the Communists of Czecho-Slovakia of the brave and gallant Monsignor Joseph Tiso was murder in its most ghastly and shameful form. The brave and gallant Monsignor Joseph Tiso went the way of the immortal General Mihailovitch and the immortal Archbishop Stepinac, of Yugoslavia. On trumped-up charges, the Communists disposed of these brave men because they dared to oppose communism among their respective people. These murders will set the pattern of what will happen to all who have opposed communism wherever communism takes over. On trumped-up charges, they held a farce of a trial and sentenced Monsignor Tiso to be hanged. Imagine the joy in the hearts of the Communists when they succeeded and used the Czechoslovakian Government as a puppet to do their dirty murder for them. Yes; this is a modem tragedy, but there will be more like it as time goes on. But the hanging of Monsignor Tiso itself is not the greatest tragedy. The greatest tragedy is the silence by our American President and by our American State Department while this murder was going on. Our Government gave the Czecho-Slovak Government hundreds of millions of dollars in the past two years. We are going to give them millions of dollars more. Yet, with this giving of millions of dollars to the Government of Czecho-Slovakia, our President and our State Department are not even men enough to stand up and protest against the murder by the Soviets. All of this leads me to believe that the leaders of our country in the White House and in our State Department no longer understand the meaning of the term "honor". Monsignor Tiso is dead. He was murdered. While he was murdered America was silent. The day is not very distant when these American leaders will regret their �SLOVAKIA 37 silence. The day may come and may be too soon when these leaders who were so shamefully silent will be treated the same way that Monsignor Tiso and Archbishop Stepinac and General Mihailovitch were treated. Then maybe there will be protests. But then it will be too late. Frankly, I do not think America could have saved the life of Monsignor Tiso. But I am ashamed that my country did not even have the decency and honor to file a protest - just for the record. By some miracle such a protest might have at least postponed the execution. Here in America our officials grant our basest criminals a stay of execution. The least that our national leaders could have done is file a plea for the same consideration for a Christian lover of freedom - Monsignor Tiso - whose only crime was that he hated communism just as he hated nazism. But America remains silent and murder has free sway. SPEECH OF HON. RAY J. MADDEN OF INDIANA IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES Monday, March 31, 1947 Mr. MADDEN. Mr. Speaker, America and all libertyloving nations should at this time concentrate against international situations which might bring about war in the future. I have, on several occasions, stated on the floor of Congress that the application of the principles of the Atlantic Charter is our greatest antidote for future peace. Self-government, freedom of thought, freedom of speech, and freedom of religion is as essential for smaller countries as it is for the larger nations. Our Nation, during World War II, spent billions of dollars and sacrificed in lives and casualties to preserve the above principles in order to insure liberty and future peace. Since VJ-day, aggression and tyranny has again been launched in certain areas of Europe. The latest example of persecution, unfair trial, and threatened execution for political belief is that of Dr. Joseph Tiso, former President of the Interim Republic of Slovakia. Dr. Tiso has been acclaimed a hero in the eyes of nearly all the people of Slovakia and the prevailing majority of Americans of Slovak ancestry. My attention has been called to the fact that over 80 percent of the Slovak American fraternal �38 SLOVAKIA organizations have forthrightly declared themselves to be of the opinion that Tiso was a hero in the defense of the best interests of the Slovak people. During his presidency, Slovakia thrived, progressed, and developed internally more than it had during any five years of the existence of the Czecho-Slovak Republic. The communistic control now over the country of Slovakia will execute Dr. Tiso, a political prisoner, 1,1nless our Government intervenes. This communistic control is inflicted upon the people of Slovakia in spite of the fact that the election of May 26, 1946, gave over 64 percent of the total vote cast against the present government. The press is likewise controlled, at least to the extent that the newspapers cannot publish what they think. This is evidenced in the fact that four American newpapers have been barred in Slovakia. The present communistic government will brook no freedom of political thought; though the people voted for Christian democracy, they received totalitarian communism. The archbishop of Slovakia testified at the trial of Dr . Tiso. He is and has been a respected member not only of the hierarchy in Czecho-Slovakia, but of the official family of Czecho-Slovakia, including its President, Edward Benes. Appearing as a witness for Dr. Tiso, the archbishop testified that: "Tiso acted and worked in the interest of Slovakia and was never a traitor, and that his election as President of Slovakia was the will of 90 percent of the Slovaks at that time and was acclaimed by the bishops, priests, and ministers of both the Catholic and Protestant churches." It is apparent that Czecho-Slovakia has been re-created with the aid of Moscow and that Moscow will unboubtedly demand the extinction of Slovak national leaders of ability and high intellect. The ways of the Communists are devious and it behooves us to understand more of the Slovakian situation. In the meantime, the least that freedom loving nations can aisk is that the so-called peoples courts in the Communist-dominated countries in eastern Europe, refrain from any further political executions or from liquidating political opposition by long-term imprisonment as in the case of Archbishop Stepinac. All of this adds up to the price we will have to pay to aid in the establishing of true democracy in the countries of eastern Europe to insure world peace. �SLOVAKIA 39 In supporting President Truman's International program, we cannot be unmindful of what is happening throughout this region in Europe, comprising over 100 million Christians who have nothing in common with communism. We have heard of political executions, imprisonment, and banishment of outstanding citizens in Poland, Lithuania, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, and other small countries. Thousands of brave Polish soldiers who fought to stamp out fascism are now prohibited from returning to their native Poland by a communistic controlled government. Americans are asking the question "do we not have at least a moral obligation to voice our protest against such trials and executions?" The judge who presided at the .trial of Dr. Tiso, previous to the trial , vowed personal vengeance on Tiso and was provided the opportunity by being placed in charge of the case. These facts, though not appearing in the American press releases, are not disputed. Almost upanimously, the people of Slovak descent in America, are rising in protest to the impending execution of Dr. Tiso. I ask the Members of Congress to join with me in protesting this unjust conviction by interceding with President Truman and Secretary Marshall to use their good offices to prevent this. injustice. We might well apply the words of the Honorable Judge Robert H . Jackson: "All experience teaches that there are certain things you cannot do under the guise of judicial trial. • • • You must put no man on trial before anything that is called a court, if you are not prepared to establish his personal guilt. * * * If you are determined to execute a man in any case, there is no occasion for trial. The world yields no respect to courts that are merely organized to convict." "The execution of Msgr. Joseph Tiso of Slovakia is an attempt to execute the principles of Christian democracy. It is supposed to be the death knell :for Slovak freedom. Msgr. Tiso was executed for defending the inherent rights of his people. Tiso shall go down in history as a martyr and Dr. Bene~ as a modern Pilate." - Rt. Rev. Msgr. F. J . D u bosh, Lakewood , Ohio, April 30, 1947. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1972, Vol. 22 Description An account of the resource Vol. 22 (No. 45), 1972. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1972 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document 36 SLOVAKIA - - - - - - - - - -- -- - - - - - - - - - - - - Murder in Slovakia SPEECH OF HON. ALVINE. O'KONSKI OF WISCONSIN IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES Wednesday, April 23, 1947 Mr. O'KONSKI. Mr. Speaker, the recent hanging by the Communists of Czecho-Slovakia of the brave and gallant Monsignor Joseph Tiso was murder in its most ghastly and shameful form. The brave and gallant Monsignor Joseph Tiso went the way of the immortal General Mihailovitch and the immortal Archbishop Stepinac, of Yugoslavia. On trumped-up charges, the Communists disposed of these brave men because they dared to oppose communism among their respective people. These murders will set the pattern of what will happen to all who have opposed communism wherever communism takes over. On trumped-up charges, they held a farce of a trial and sentenced Monsignor Tiso to be hanged. Imagine the joy in the hearts of the Communists when they succeeded and used the Czechoslovakian Government as a puppet to do their dirty murder for them. Yes; this is a modem tragedy, but there will be more like it as time goes on. But the hanging of Monsignor Tiso itself is not the greatest tragedy. The greatest tragedy is the silence by our American President and by our American State Department while this murder was going on. Our Government gave the Czecho-Slovak Government hundreds of millions of dollars in the past two years. We are going to give them millions of dollars more. Yet, with this giving of millions of dollars to the Government of Czecho-Slovakia, our President and our State Department are not even men enough to stand up and protest against the murder by the Soviets. All of this leads me to believe that the leaders of our country in the White House and in our State Department no longer understand the meaning of the term "honor". Monsignor Tiso is dead. He was murdered. While he was murdered America was silent. The day is not very distant when these American leaders will regret their SLOVAKIA 37 silence. The day may come and may be too soon when these leaders who were so shamefully silent will be treated the same way that Monsignor Tiso and Archbishop Stepinac and General Mihailovitch were treated. Then maybe there will be protests. But then it will be too late. Frankly, I do not think America could have saved the life of Monsignor Tiso. But I am ashamed that my country did not even have the decency and honor to file a protest - just for the record. By some miracle such a protest might have at least postponed the execution. Here in America our officials grant our basest criminals a stay of execution. The least that our national leaders could have done is file a plea for the same consideration for a Christian lover of freedom - Monsignor Tiso - whose only crime was that he hated communism just as he hated nazism. But America remains silent and murder has free sway. SPEECH OF HON. RAY J. MADDEN OF INDIANA IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES Monday, March 31, 1947 Mr. MADDEN. Mr. Speaker, America and all libertyloving nations should at this time concentrate against international situations which might bring about war in the future. I have, on several occasions, stated on the floor of Congress that the application of the principles of the Atlantic Charter is our greatest antidote for future peace. Self-government, freedom of thought, freedom of speech, and freedom of religion is as essential for smaller countries as it is for the larger nations. Our Nation, during World War II, spent billions of dollars and sacrificed in lives and casualties to preserve the above principles in order to insure liberty and future peace. Since VJ-day, aggression and tyranny has again been launched in certain areas of Europe. The latest example of persecution, unfair trial, and threatened execution for political belief is that of Dr. Joseph Tiso, former President of the Interim Republic of Slovakia. Dr. Tiso has been acclaimed a hero in the eyes of nearly all the people of Slovakia and the prevailing majority of Americans of Slovak ancestry. My attention has been called to the fact that over 80 percent of the Slovak American fraternal 38 SLOVAKIA organizations have forthrightly declared themselves to be of the opinion that Tiso was a hero in the defense of the best interests of the Slovak people. During his presidency, Slovakia thrived, progressed, and developed internally more than it had during any five years of the existence of the Czecho-Slovak Republic. The communistic control now over the country of Slovakia will execute Dr. Tiso, a political prisoner, 1,1nless our Government intervenes. This communistic control is inflicted upon the people of Slovakia in spite of the fact that the election of May 26, 1946, gave over 64 percent of the total vote cast against the present government. The press is likewise controlled, at least to the extent that the newspapers cannot publish what they think. This is evidenced in the fact that four American newpapers have been barred in Slovakia. The present communistic government will brook no freedom of political thought; though the people voted for Christian democracy, they received totalitarian communism. The archbishop of Slovakia testified at the trial of Dr . Tiso. He is and has been a respected member not only of the hierarchy in Czecho-Slovakia, but of the official family of Czecho-Slovakia, including its President, Edward Benes. Appearing as a witness for Dr. Tiso, the archbishop testified that: "Tiso acted and worked in the interest of Slovakia and was never a traitor, and that his election as President of Slovakia was the will of 90 percent of the Slovaks at that time and was acclaimed by the bishops, priests, and ministers of both the Catholic and Protestant churches." It is apparent that Czecho-Slovakia has been re-created with the aid of Moscow and that Moscow will unboubtedly demand the extinction of Slovak national leaders of ability and high intellect. The ways of the Communists are devious and it behooves us to understand more of the Slovakian situation. In the meantime, the least that freedom loving nations can aisk is that the so-called peoples courts in the Communist-dominated countries in eastern Europe, refrain from any further political executions or from liquidating political opposition by long-term imprisonment as in the case of Archbishop Stepinac. All of this adds up to the price we will have to pay to aid in the establishing of true democracy in the countries of eastern Europe to insure world peace. SLOVAKIA 39 In supporting President Truman's International program, we cannot be unmindful of what is happening throughout this region in Europe, comprising over 100 million Christians who have nothing in common with communism. We have heard of political executions, imprisonment, and banishment of outstanding citizens in Poland, Lithuania, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, and other small countries. Thousands of brave Polish soldiers who fought to stamp out fascism are now prohibited from returning to their native Poland by a communistic controlled government. Americans are asking the question "do we not have at least a moral obligation to voice our protest against such trials and executions?" The judge who presided at the .trial of Dr. Tiso, previous to the trial , vowed personal vengeance on Tiso and was provided the opportunity by being placed in charge of the case. These facts, though not appearing in the American press releases, are not disputed. Almost upanimously, the people of Slovak descent in America, are rising in protest to the impending execution of Dr. Tiso. I ask the Members of Congress to join with me in protesting this unjust conviction by interceding with President Truman and Secretary Marshall to use their good offices to prevent this. injustice. We might well apply the words of the Honorable Judge Robert H . Jackson: "All experience teaches that there are certain things you cannot do under the guise of judicial trial. • • • You must put no man on trial before anything that is called a court, if you are not prepared to establish his personal guilt. * * * If you are determined to execute a man in any case, there is no occasion for trial. The world yields no respect to courts that are merely organized to convict." "The execution of Msgr. Joseph Tiso of Slovakia is an attempt to execute the principles of Christian democracy. It is supposed to be the death knell :for Slovak freedom. Msgr. Tiso was executed for defending the inherent rights of his people. Tiso shall go down in history as a martyr and Dr. Bene~ as a modern Pilate." - Rt. Rev. Msgr. F. J . D u bosh, Lakewood , Ohio, April 30, 1947.  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Murder in Slovakia Description An account of the resource Speech of Hon. Alvin E. O'Konski of Wisconsin in the House of Representatives, April 23, 1947; Speech of Hon. Ray J. Madden of Indiana in the House of Representatives, March 31, 1947 Slovakia, Vol. 22 (No. 45), 1972 pp. 36-39 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource O'Konski, Alvin E. (Alvin Edward), 1904-1987 Madden, Ray J. (Ray John), 1892-1987 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1972 LCNAF https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/1246d85d021543acb464bfff70daf251.pdf 0c1947d1937f921a4b513ed0ba6c9322 PDF Text Text BLOVAKIA 27 violence and preventing the cooperatlon of the European natlons. Centra! Europe wlll need peace and a harmonlous cohabltatlon of natlons to recover from the wounds infllcted by the war and the Russlan occupation. Czech-oslovakla has definltely shown - as up to 1938, so even after 1945 - that it cannot flnd a positlve relatlonshlp toward lts neighbors, that lts exlstence evokes an atmosphere of dlstrust and revlslonism and violates the natural order of the Central-European area. Therefore, there can be no place for the Czechoslovak State In that area. • • • MUSEUMS OF SLOVAKIA The three Jeading museums of Slovakia are in Bratislava, TurSvätý Martin, and Košice. The Agrlcultural Museum In Bratislava, seriously damaged by bombs in 1944, 1s devoted principally to geology, soil, t he cultlvatlon or plants, lncluding frult trees and vegetables, animal husbandry, forestry, and zoology_ The museum iu the capital or Slovakia has In its program to present as complete a plcture as possible of the archaeology, of the creatlve arts, and of the Natural Hlstory of the land, with spe<:ial emphasls on Western Slovak1a. Its ethnographic collect!ons are not as extensive as those at Turčiansky Svätý Martin whlch was establlshed iJl 1896 by local patrlots and was maintalned by them. Ln a.ddltion to the aforemeniioned unu-sually rich e thnogra,phic materlal, the museum possesses a noteworthy collectlon o! models of typical Slovak wooden bulldings. Slnce the city was the prlnclpal headquarters of Slovak natlonal and cultural actlvity, there is assembled here also invaluable source material concernlng the literary progress of the !and. The Eastern Slovakla Museum at Košice possesses a valuable library of over thirty thousand volumes and interestlng collectlons of archeologloal and Natural History Qlbjects. The paintings, whlcb the museum had, were taken to Budapest In 1918. Local museums are organlzed territorlally elther as regional or city lnstltutions. To the former group belong the museums at Trenčín, Nitra, Banská Štiavnica, Komarno, Banská Bystrica, Ružomberok, Bardlov, Levoča, and Rimavská Sobota. The leadlng city museums are at Bratislava and at Kremnica. Speclalized museums are the Agricultural Museum at Bratislava, the Tatra Museums at Poprad and Veľká, and the Jewlsh Museum at Prešov. čiansky • • • WHO SAID IT?: - "Durlng my stay in the Unlted States, I spoke with almost all the leaders of Amerlcan democracy, and, as I expected. l found they all had a full understandlng of our just cause. Dr. Benei'a journey to Moacow and ita hiatorical aignificance la a pproved and recognized in Amerlca. Of course, there are a few reactlonarles there who nurse thelr selfish lnterests with exaggerated fear 'of Bolshevism. I dld not even try to convlnce them." -- (Jan Masaryk: l :.ondon Broadcast, February 16, 1944). � BLOVAKIA 27 violence and preventing the cooperatlon of the European natlons. Centra! Europe wlll need peace and a harmonlous cohabltatlon of natlons to recover from the wounds infllcted by the war and the Russlan occupation. Czech-oslovakla has definltely shown - as up to 1938, so even after 1945 - that it cannot flnd a positlve relatlonshlp toward lts neighbors, that lts exlstence evokes an atmosphere of dlstrust and revlslonism and violates the natural order of the Central-European area. Therefore, there can be no place for the Czechoslovak State In that area. • • • MUSEUMS OF SLOVAKIA The three Jeading museums of Slovakia are in Bratislava, TurSvätý Martin, and Košice. The Agrlcultural Museum In Bratislava, seriously damaged by bombs in 1944, 1s devoted principally to geology, soil, t he cultlvatlon or plants, lncluding frult trees and vegetables, animal husbandry, forestry, and zoology_ The museum iu the capital or Slovakia has In its program to present as complete a plcture as possible of the archaeology, of the creatlve arts, and of the Natural Hlstory of the land, with spe<:ial emphasls on Western Slovak1a. Its ethnographic collect!ons are not as extensive as those at Turčiansky Svätý Martin whlch was establlshed iJl 1896 by local patrlots and was maintalned by them. Ln a.ddltion to the aforemeniioned unu-sually rich e thnogra,phic materlal, the museum possesses a noteworthy collectlon o! models of typical Slovak wooden bulldings. Slnce the city was the prlnclpal headquarters of Slovak natlonal and cultural actlvity, there is assembled here also invaluable source material concernlng the literary progress of the !and. The Eastern Slovakla Museum at Košice possesses a valuable library of over thirty thousand volumes and interestlng collectlons of archeologloal and Natural History Qlbjects. The paintings, whlcb the museum had, were taken to Budapest In 1918. Local museums are organlzed territorlally elther as regional or city lnstltutions. To the former group belong the museums at Trenčín, Nitra, Banská Štiavnica, Komarno, Banská Bystrica, Ružomberok, Bardlov, Levoča, and Rimavská Sobota. The leadlng city museums are at Bratislava and at Kremnica. Speclalized museums are the Agricultural Museum at Bratislava, the Tatra Museums at Poprad and Veľká, and the Jewlsh Museum at Prešov. čiansky • • • WHO SAID IT?: - "Durlng my stay in the Unlted States, I spoke with almost all the leaders of Amerlcan democracy, and, as I expected. l found they all had a full understandlng of our just cause. Dr. Benei'a journey to Moacow and ita hiatorical aignificance la a pproved and recognized in Amerlca. Of course, there are a few reactlonarles there who nurse thelr selfish lnterests with exaggerated fear 'of Bolshevism. I dld not even try to convlnce them." -- (Jan Masaryk: l :.ondon Broadcast, February 16, 1944). � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to 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 BLOVAKIA 27 violence and preventing the cooperatlon of the European natlons. Centra! Europe wlll need peace and a harmonlous cohabltatlon of natlons to recover from the wounds infllcted by the war and the Russlan occupation. Czech-oslovakla has definltely shown - as up to 1938, so even after 1945 - that it cannot flnd a positlve relatlonshlp toward lts neighbors, that lts exlstence evokes an atmosphere of dlstrust and revlslonism and violates the natural order of the Central-European area. Therefore, there can be no place for the Czechoslovak State In that area. • • • MUSEUMS OF SLOVAKIA The three Jeading museums of Slovakia are in Bratislava, TurSvätý Martin, and Košice. The Agrlcultural Museum In Bratislava, seriously damaged by bombs in 1944, 1s devoted principally to geology, soil, t he cultlvatlon or plants, lncluding frult trees and vegetables, animal husbandry, forestry, and zoology_ The museum iu the capital or Slovakia has In its program to present as complete a plcture as possible of the archaeology, of the creatlve arts, and of the Natural Hlstory of the land, with spe<:ial emphasls on Western Slovak1a. Its ethnographic collect!ons are not as extensive as those at Turčiansky Svätý Martin whlch was establlshed iJl 1896 by local patrlots and was maintalned by them. Ln a.ddltion to the aforemeniioned unu-sually rich e thnogra,phic materlal, the museum possesses a noteworthy collectlon o! models of typical Slovak wooden bulldings. Slnce the city was the prlnclpal headquarters of Slovak natlonal and cultural actlvity, there is assembled here also invaluable source material concernlng the literary progress of the !and. The Eastern Slovakla Museum at Košice possesses a valuable library of over thirty thousand volumes and interestlng collectlons of archeologloal and Natural History Qlbjects. The paintings, whlcb the museum had, were taken to Budapest In 1918. Local museums are organlzed territorlally elther as regional or city lnstltutions. To the former group belong the museums at Trenčín, Nitra, Banská Štiavnica, Komarno, Banská Bystrica, Ružomberok, Bardlov, Levoča, and Rimavská Sobota. The leadlng city museums are at Bratislava and at Kremnica. Speclalized museums are the Agricultural Museum at Bratislava, the Tatra Museums at Poprad and Veľká, and the Jewlsh Museum at Prešov. čiansky • • • WHO SAID IT?: - "Durlng my stay in the Unlted States, I spoke with almost all the leaders of Amerlcan democracy, and, as I expected. l found they all had a full understandlng of our just cause. Dr. Benei'a journey to Moacow and ita hiatorical aignificance la a pproved and recognized in Amerlca. Of course, there are a few reactlonarles there who nurse thelr selfish lnterests with exaggerated fear 'of Bolshevism. I dld not even try to convlnce them." -- (Jan Masaryk: l :.ondon Broadcast, February 16, 1944).  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Museums of Slovakia Description An account of the resource Slovakia, Vol. 1, No. 2 (2), December 1951 p. 27 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/c2ccecd0d7d53397979426c363fe5b0e.pdf beeb45e1f1c66541021756a65dc22283 PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA 45 Music S~hools: A Chapter in the Cultural History of lnterwar Slovakia* OWEN V. JOHNSON One of the blankest pages in the history of Slovak education between the First and Second World Wars belongs to the area of music education. Although the Ministry of Education had supervisory control over these schools, it was not involved with day to day inspections and other such activities. Even now, no one is sure exactly how many music schools there were. This article will summarize present knowledge about them and attempt to evaluate their importance. One thing is certain: the Slovak people had no tradition of professional music schools and had no resources to begin establishing them after World War I. The authors of one of the few books or articles about the subject, after noting the meager research output, point out, " ... (M)usic education in Slovakia in the period of the first Czechoslovak Republic was fully in the hands of Czech music pedagogues."! Teachers in Slovakia wishing to obtain qualification to teach music in the middle schools had to pass a test in music and singing before the State Examination Commissions in Prague (established 1919) or Brno (established 1920) or at the conservatory in Prague. Examination commissions for singing were finally set up in Slovakia in 1935 at Bratislava, Banska Bystrica, and Presov, but music exams could only be taken at Bratislava.2 The most important music institution in Slovakia was located in Bratislava. It grew out of discussions held at Matica slovenska and at the General Assembly of the Union of Music Professionals (Jednota hudebnich stavov), which gathered in August 19193 in Zilina to consider a proposal (originally made in Moscow in 1915) by Milos Ruppeldt • Financial support from a Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Grant and the James and Helen Hovorka Foundation assisted the preparation of this article. The research was also facilitated by my recognition by the International Research and Exchanges Board as a "Scholar-without-Stipend." �46 SLOVAKIA for the establishment of a ''Music School for Slovakia'' with the rank of a conservatory. By November, the school was a reality and Ruppeldt had become its first director. More than two-fifths of the first year's enrollment was Czech, one-quarter Slovak, one-fifth German, and oneseventh Hungarian (See Table 1).4 Although the state made a modest subvention to the school, Gustav Habrman, the Minister of Education at the time of its founding, decided it would be essentially a private institution. Its finances and legal obligations were handled by the curia of the Music Association (Hudobny spolok) for Slovakia, on which sat two government representatives, the composer Dobroslav Orel and Moravian high school principal Alojs Kolisek. In 1922, the school divided into two divisions: the conservatory, for persons planning professional careers; and a music school, for expected amateurs. The latter had instrumental, piano, and singing sections. We will return to it later. After a lengthy struggle (in which the public took little interest) and the establishment in 1924 of a drama section, the conservatory was changed in 1926 to a public institution, called the Music and Drama Academy for Slovakia. Two years later it gained conservatory rank, a recognition which boosted the school's standing across Slovakia. By 1931-32, the number of students from outside Bratislava had exceeded the number from within the city.5 Temporarily the school was financially secure, but the Depression restored its precarious state, partially because the populace could not afford to stay interested. Enrollment remained constant at just over 200 persons . Although in many ways a small operation, the Academy 's accomplishments are one of the most distinct in the post World War II era. Many of Slovakia's composers and concert artists of the quarter century after the war were graduates of the school. In spite of enormous efforts by the public and by school officials, however, the Academy remained largely a private institution during the First Republic, a condition which a number of Slovaks considered an affront since both the conservatories in Brno and Prague were operated by the state. 6 The female students at the Academy \Were concentrated in two of the three major sections - piano and singing, where they made up about eighty percent of the student body. The males were largely in the instrumental section. The other sections - organ, composition, and drama - each had only a handful of students. As long as Czech and Slovak were considered as separate categories (until 1926-27), the number of Czechs exceeded the number of Slovaks. Other aspects of interest concerning the composition of the student body were the relative absence of Hungarians and Germans in the singing division, the �Year : 149 2 25 1 3 21 6 133 2 25 1 6 27 12 8 7 2 7 1 1 8 22 7 5 6 22 21 135 3 23 2 U2 28 25 6 201 56.2 1931 -32 147 1 25 2 1 5 U3 37 2, 55 .7 210 1930-31 153 2 32 U9 42 27 5 53.-4 223 1929-30 1 7 1.48 4 23 2 8 18 5 156 2, 26 211 53.6 1932-33 1 7 18 7 19 3 5 1.40 1 153 21 23 3 201 -45.3 1933-3.4 1.40 3 22 2 6 17 6 7 150 15 . 26 198 "8 .5 193-4-35 153 20 32_ _., 1 1 1 2 210 "8.1 1935-36 Slovaks Czechs 1919-20 61 100 55 1924-25 34 56 63 1925-26 63 1926-27 53 Source : Official government publications. According to the yearly repcrts of the Academy, the following figures delineate the numbers of Czechs and Slovaks: None Orthodox Other Jewish Roman Catholic Czech Brethren Lutheran Reformed Czechoslovak 159 2 27 1 6 25 1 1 3 35 1 60 7 203 9 228 5"-8 1928-29 18 19 121 206 55 .3 1927-28 Ul 45 35 98 46 59 58 .0 207 1926-27 "° 301 47 .2 1921 -22 215 46.3 309 1920-21 German 61 Hungar ian 8 Jewish 25 Russian, Ruthen ian , Ukrainian Polish Other Religion Czechoslovak Nationality Total students Pct . women TABLE 1 Musical and Dramatic Academy- Bratislava . 0 1 0 2 28 156 30 46.5 217 1936-37 'I "' > > i\ < Vl r 0 �48 SLOVAKIA heavy concentration of Jewish students in the piano division, and the not infrequent attendance by students in their thirties and forties. Efforts to establish an institution for the study of creative arts which would operate on the same level as the Music and Drama Academy were unsuccessful. It is the city music schools in Slovakia about which very little is known. According to Gregor and Sedlicky, there were six in existence in 1921, and by the end of the First Republic's existence, "about" ten. The first was established in November 1919 at Zvolen as a three-year school, with a three-year preparatory attached. 7 There were also schools at Brezno, Bardejov, Kosice, Presov, Nitra, Zilina, and Martin (which had a branch in Vrutky).8 The Zilina school might be considered typical for all these schools. Established in 1927, it had three sections - for violin, piano, and solo singing. It was supported in part by tuition, and in part by a subvention from the city. 9 A new school in Bratislava assumed responsibility for the musical education of those who could not devote full time to such studies at the Academy, either because they were attending another secondary school or they already had jobs. Plans to establish a school at Nitra were first reported in the local press in November 1927, but it was not until two years later that a governing curatorium was set up by the city and teaching was begun. The Ministry of Education gave its official approval to the school a year later. Nitra 's first two teachers, who were graduates of the Bratislava Academy, began by offering piano, violin, and solo singing, then later added cello. In 1935, music theory and history, as well as composition, were added to the curriculum. In-house concerts were given during the year with a public concert at year's end serving as the graduation recital for students in their final year .10 In addition to functioning as centers of cultural enrichment, until 1928 the music schools could provide teacher candidates with an education adequate for passing the examination for competence in music instruction.11 After that date, they developed. their role as "feeders" for the Academy. \ The school at Presov was a more specia1 case, because a similar school had existed during the reign of the Hungarians. After the establishment of Czechoslovak control over the city in 1919, the composer Mikulas Moyzes was commissioned with the administration of the school. However, for two years his actions were hindered by the fact that the Szechenyi Circle, on which the school was organizationally dependent, was not allowed to operate because of its pro-Hungarian bias . In late 1919, Pavel Gallo, the school inspector for the Presov area, �SLOVAKIA 49 asked the Ministry of Edu ation under what conditions the school could obtain direct state aid: the archives are silent on the Ministry's response.12 In 1920, the Presov City Council, in an effort to breach the impasse , contacted the city of Zvolen to gain budget and organizational information about the school there. Meanwhile , the establishment of the Music School for Slovakia in Bratislava dealt the efforts in Presov a setback. Even though Presov was thinking more in terms of establishing a conservatory only for eastern Slovakia, the concept that Bratislava was serving the whole of Slovakia dampened such hopes. Some hope was still entertained in Presov that an arrangement in which Bratislava would serve the west, Zvolen the central territories, and Presov the east, could be arranged. But it did not materialize. Presov was also engaged in a rivalry with Kosice to the south over who had the greater right to establish a music school for eastern Slovakia. The far more Hungarian nature of the school in Kosice strengthened Presov' s argument for a Czechoslovak school. The contention that the Kosice school remained Hungarian is verified by the continued presence of a majority of Hungarians in the upper professional grades (IX-XIl), as Table 2 covering the period 1920-21-1935 shows: TABLE2 Kosice Music School: Nationality of Upper Division Students (1920-21-1935) Hungarians 6-4-2-2-2-2-9-8-9-10-9-9-16-13-12-8 Czechoslovaks 1 1-1-1- 2-.2-2- 5- 5- 6-6 Jews 1-1- 3- 3- 1-1 A declaration of 1924 said all teachers in Kosice were Hungarian.13 The classes were composed almost entirely of girls. In the latter years there was a significant portion of the student body which was Jewish (by religion). In the first years, most of the students hailed from the city, then for a period of six years, students from rural homes predominated, with a return to the original domination by the city in 1935-36.14 The first shift to rural dominance took place in 1928-29, which indicates these were students who had begun their training after the founding of the Republic and took advantage of the suddenly greater access to the city. The shift back again in 1935-36 would reflect the reduced flow from the countryside to the city which began in the mid-twenties. This pattern parallels the similar trend in the regular secondary schools.15 An article in Slovensky vychod, the only daily newspaper in eastern Slovakia, in November 1919 downplayed the national question in the Presov-Kosice controversy, stressing rather the centrality of Kosice and the need to make it a vital center. �50 SLOVAKIA " It's obvious to everyone that Kosice is and will be the center of Eastern Slovakia, and thus must be so equipped .... It must concentrate all offices and schools.'' 16 The partisans of Presov were proved somewhat correct in their assertions about the non-Czechoslovak strength of the city of Kosice since the cultural representatives of Kosice were unable to organize adequately to combat the Presov campaign. Eventually the Presov school solved its problem of state recognition when the City Council offered to detach the school from the Szechenyi Circle and attach it to the Local Branch of Matica slovenska (Miestny odbor Matice slovenskej MOMS) . According to an agreement of May 1921, the teaching language of the school was to be Slovak, although Hungarian could be used temporarily as an "assisting understanding language" for students who were attending the Hungarian classes at the local Lutheran gymnasium. The national importance of the school is clear from its new mission, which included: - the propagation of music culture in Slovakia - the education of Slovak youth in music in all its valuable and serious cultural-historical direction - the development of Slovak, or Slavic, vocal and instrumental music - the education of the Slovak music public in greater dimensions , and later the education of Slovak artists and specialists.17 · Teachers either had to be graduates of a state conservatory or to have passed the relevant exams before the State Examination Commission. Although Kosice had a more complete curriculum, the more pronounced Hungarian involvement remained . Presov offered five divisions: violin, piano, solo singing, theory, and composition. All qualified students had to be accepted, paying an average fee of 40 Kc per month. There was no age limitation. Temporary problems arose when a state inspection in 1925 recommended certain reforms. When these reforms were not instituted, the Ministry of Education temporarily suspended the school's subsidy. Things were turned around in Presov by the arrival of the capable Stanislav Treybal, who became the new Pri\lcipal of one of the city's gymnazium. By 1935-36, the school had qu~fied to give state exams for private (but not public) music teachers. It also opened two branches, one about 1936 in Bardejov, which gave instruction in piano and violin and which seems to have become independent in February 1939, and another in Sabinov, which seems to have lasted for two or three months. �SLOVAKIA 51 ' The school did not produce any great number of composers, soloists, or teachers, or at least it had less success in that regard than other schools in Slovakia. The most important fact concerning the school was its existence as a Slovak cultural center, attaining an importance in the period 1926-38 which has not since been equalled.18 Little scholarship aid was available to students in the music schools. After all, the music schools were a supplementary specialized form of education. The 229 students at Presov in 1936-37 shared only 4,550 Kc in fee reductions.19 This combination of factors - the lack of scholarships, the monthly tuition fees, and the requirement of at least modest talent made these music schools into institutions for the "better situated. "20 And like so much of the rest of the cultural history of interwar Slovakia, they were an investment in the future.* • The author would welcome comments and recollections on this subject from readers. NOTES 1 Vladimir Gregor & Tibor Sedlicky, Dejiny hudebn{ vychovy v teskych zemtch a na Slcvensku (Prague: Editio Supraphon, 1973), p. 162. 2 Jbid. , pp. 167-8. 3 Masaryk, Anton Stefanek, Karol Medvecky (Secretary of Slovak National Council) , and two other politicians, Milan Ivanka and Komel Stodola, had already indicated their support for the idea. Yearly report, Hudobna §kola pre Slovensko, 1919-20, p . 3. 4 Literamy archiv Matice slovenskej ('LAMS) 42 XIV 91, "Skoly hudobne," p. 1. 6 Jan Strelec, " Hudobna a dramaticka akademia pre Slovensko v Bratislava, " in A.S. 2itavsky, Pamatnik slcvenskeho Akolstva za u.tinkovania Prezidenta T. G. Masaryka (Bratislava: Vydvatel'stvo pamii.tnika slovenskeho §kolstva, 1936-7), Vol. I, p. 100. 6 Gregor & Sedlicky, Dejiny , p. 168. This also made study more expensive, shutting out those from lower social and economic levels. Strelec, "Hudobna, " p . 104. The 192627 school budget of 868,000 Kt included grants of 226,000 Kt from the state and 210,000 Kt from Bratislava County. The rest had to be raised privately or from governments of other counties or districts . This helps to explain the increasing number of students from outside Bratislava. Based on school's letter of 26 February 1927 in Podtatranska zupa 9043-1927 adm. If-Statny archiv (SA)-Bytta. 7 LAMS 42 XIV 91 , "Skoly hudobne," p . 4. 8 Adolf Cmiral, "Hudebni §koly v Ceskoslovenske Republice," Ceskoslcvenskci vlastiveda-Vol. 8-Umeni (Prague : Sfinx, 1936), p. 666 . The Zvolen school's existence is confirmed as early as November 1919. Zvolen zupa 72-1920 adm.-SA-Banska Bystrica. 9 Gregor & Sedlicky , Dejiny , p . 168. 10 Helena Stantekova & Richard Rybarit, " Z hudobneho iivota Nitry v minulosti a �52 SLOVAKIA sucasnosti ," in Alexander Csanda, ed ., Kapitoly z dejln Nitry (Bratislava: SPN, 1963) , p. 26. 11 Povazska zupa 9766-28-SA-Bytca. From this time on, seven semesters of conservatory attendance were required for credentialing. 12 The discussion is based on Maria Potemrova, '' Prispevok k dejinam hudobnej §koly v Pre§ove ," Nove obzory, Vol. 10 (1968) , pp. 119-43. 13 Odbo&a spravodajskej ustredne v Kosiciach. ZUS-66, SA-Ko§ice. 14 Yearly reports, Ko§ice Mestska hudobna skola, 1920-21-1935-36. 15 See Owen V. Johnson , "Sociocultural and National Development in Slovakia, 19181938: Education and Its Impact," Unpublished Ph.D . dissertation , University of Michigan, 1978, pp. 251-7. 16 Slovensky vyckod, 18 November 1919, as quoted by Potemrova, " Prispevok, " p . 124. 17 Potemrova, " Prlspevok, " p. 127. 18 Ibid., p. 142. 19 Yearly report, Pre§ov Mestska hudobna §kola, 1936-37, p. 10. 20 Gustav Valkovit, '' Skolstvo v Nitre ,'' Sbomik pedagogickeho in§titutu v Nitre-Spolo~enske vedy 2 (1963), p. 28. � SLOVAKIA 45 Music S~hools: A Chapter in the Cultural History of lnterwar Slovakia* OWEN V. JOHNSON One of the blankest pages in the history of Slovak education between the First and Second World Wars belongs to the area of music education. Although the Ministry of Education had supervisory control over these schools, it was not involved with day to day inspections and other such activities. Even now, no one is sure exactly how many music schools there were. This article will summarize present knowledge about them and attempt to evaluate their importance. One thing is certain: the Slovak people had no tradition of professional music schools and had no resources to begin establishing them after World War I. The authors of one of the few books or articles about the subject, after noting the meager research output, point out, " ... (M)usic education in Slovakia in the period of the first Czechoslovak Republic was fully in the hands of Czech music pedagogues."! Teachers in Slovakia wishing to obtain qualification to teach music in the middle schools had to pass a test in music and singing before the State Examination Commissions in Prague (established 1919) or Brno (established 1920) or at the conservatory in Prague. Examination commissions for singing were finally set up in Slovakia in 1935 at Bratislava, Banska Bystrica, and Presov, but music exams could only be taken at Bratislava.2 The most important music institution in Slovakia was located in Bratislava. It grew out of discussions held at Matica slovenska and at the General Assembly of the Union of Music Professionals (Jednota hudebnich stavov), which gathered in August 19193 in Zilina to consider a proposal (originally made in Moscow in 1915) by Milos Ruppeldt • Financial support from a Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Grant and the James and Helen Hovorka Foundation assisted the preparation of this article. The research was also facilitated by my recognition by the International Research and Exchanges Board as a "Scholar-without-Stipend." �46 SLOVAKIA for the establishment of a ''Music School for Slovakia'' with the rank of a conservatory. By November, the school was a reality and Ruppeldt had become its first director. More than two-fifths of the first year's enrollment was Czech, one-quarter Slovak, one-fifth German, and oneseventh Hungarian (See Table 1).4 Although the state made a modest subvention to the school, Gustav Habrman, the Minister of Education at the time of its founding, decided it would be essentially a private institution. Its finances and legal obligations were handled by the curia of the Music Association (Hudobny spolok) for Slovakia, on which sat two government representatives, the composer Dobroslav Orel and Moravian high school principal Alojs Kolisek. In 1922, the school divided into two divisions: the conservatory, for persons planning professional careers; and a music school, for expected amateurs. The latter had instrumental, piano, and singing sections. We will return to it later. After a lengthy struggle (in which the public took little interest) and the establishment in 1924 of a drama section, the conservatory was changed in 1926 to a public institution, called the Music and Drama Academy for Slovakia. Two years later it gained conservatory rank, a recognition which boosted the school's standing across Slovakia. By 1931-32, the number of students from outside Bratislava had exceeded the number from within the city.5 Temporarily the school was financially secure, but the Depression restored its precarious state, partially because the populace could not afford to stay interested. Enrollment remained constant at just over 200 persons . Although in many ways a small operation, the Academy 's accomplishments are one of the most distinct in the post World War II era. Many of Slovakia's composers and concert artists of the quarter century after the war were graduates of the school. In spite of enormous efforts by the public and by school officials, however, the Academy remained largely a private institution during the First Republic, a condition which a number of Slovaks considered an affront since both the conservatories in Brno and Prague were operated by the state. 6 The female students at the Academy \Were concentrated in two of the three major sections - piano and singing, where they made up about eighty percent of the student body. The males were largely in the instrumental section. The other sections - organ, composition, and drama - each had only a handful of students. As long as Czech and Slovak were considered as separate categories (until 1926-27), the number of Czechs exceeded the number of Slovaks. Other aspects of interest concerning the composition of the student body were the relative absence of Hungarians and Germans in the singing division, the �Year : 149 2 25 1 3 21 6 133 2 25 1 6 27 12 8 7 2 7 1 1 8 22 7 5 6 22 21 135 3 23 2 U2 28 25 6 201 56.2 1931 -32 147 1 25 2 1 5 U3 37 2, 55 .7 210 1930-31 153 2 32 U9 42 27 5 53.-4 223 1929-30 1 7 1.48 4 23 2 8 18 5 156 2, 26 211 53.6 1932-33 1 7 18 7 19 3 5 1.40 1 153 21 23 3 201 -45.3 1933-3.4 1.40 3 22 2 6 17 6 7 150 15 . 26 198 "8 .5 193-4-35 153 20 32_ _., 1 1 1 2 210 "8.1 1935-36 Slovaks Czechs 1919-20 61 100 55 1924-25 34 56 63 1925-26 63 1926-27 53 Source : Official government publications. According to the yearly repcrts of the Academy, the following figures delineate the numbers of Czechs and Slovaks: None Orthodox Other Jewish Roman Catholic Czech Brethren Lutheran Reformed Czechoslovak 159 2 27 1 6 25 1 1 3 35 1 60 7 203 9 228 5"-8 1928-29 18 19 121 206 55 .3 1927-28 Ul 45 35 98 46 59 58 .0 207 1926-27 "° 301 47 .2 1921 -22 215 46.3 309 1920-21 German 61 Hungar ian 8 Jewish 25 Russian, Ruthen ian , Ukrainian Polish Other Religion Czechoslovak Nationality Total students Pct . women TABLE 1 Musical and Dramatic Academy- Bratislava . 0 1 0 2 28 156 30 46.5 217 1936-37 'I "' > > i\ < Vl r 0 �48 SLOVAKIA heavy concentration of Jewish students in the piano division, and the not infrequent attendance by students in their thirties and forties. Efforts to establish an institution for the study of creative arts which would operate on the same level as the Music and Drama Academy were unsuccessful. It is the city music schools in Slovakia about which very little is known. According to Gregor and Sedlicky, there were six in existence in 1921, and by the end of the First Republic's existence, "about" ten. The first was established in November 1919 at Zvolen as a three-year school, with a three-year preparatory attached. 7 There were also schools at Brezno, Bardejov, Kosice, Presov, Nitra, Zilina, and Martin (which had a branch in Vrutky).8 The Zilina school might be considered typical for all these schools. Established in 1927, it had three sections - for violin, piano, and solo singing. It was supported in part by tuition, and in part by a subvention from the city. 9 A new school in Bratislava assumed responsibility for the musical education of those who could not devote full time to such studies at the Academy, either because they were attending another secondary school or they already had jobs. Plans to establish a school at Nitra were first reported in the local press in November 1927, but it was not until two years later that a governing curatorium was set up by the city and teaching was begun. The Ministry of Education gave its official approval to the school a year later. Nitra 's first two teachers, who were graduates of the Bratislava Academy, began by offering piano, violin, and solo singing, then later added cello. In 1935, music theory and history, as well as composition, were added to the curriculum. In-house concerts were given during the year with a public concert at year's end serving as the graduation recital for students in their final year .10 In addition to functioning as centers of cultural enrichment, until 1928 the music schools could provide teacher candidates with an education adequate for passing the examination for competence in music instruction.11 After that date, they developed. their role as "feeders" for the Academy. \ The school at Presov was a more specia1 case, because a similar school had existed during the reign of the Hungarians. After the establishment of Czechoslovak control over the city in 1919, the composer Mikulas Moyzes was commissioned with the administration of the school. However, for two years his actions were hindered by the fact that the Szechenyi Circle, on which the school was organizationally dependent, was not allowed to operate because of its pro-Hungarian bias . In late 1919, Pavel Gallo, the school inspector for the Presov area, �SLOVAKIA 49 asked the Ministry of Edu ation under what conditions the school could obtain direct state aid: the archives are silent on the Ministry's response.12 In 1920, the Presov City Council, in an effort to breach the impasse , contacted the city of Zvolen to gain budget and organizational information about the school there. Meanwhile , the establishment of the Music School for Slovakia in Bratislava dealt the efforts in Presov a setback. Even though Presov was thinking more in terms of establishing a conservatory only for eastern Slovakia, the concept that Bratislava was serving the whole of Slovakia dampened such hopes. Some hope was still entertained in Presov that an arrangement in which Bratislava would serve the west, Zvolen the central territories, and Presov the east, could be arranged. But it did not materialize. Presov was also engaged in a rivalry with Kosice to the south over who had the greater right to establish a music school for eastern Slovakia. The far more Hungarian nature of the school in Kosice strengthened Presov' s argument for a Czechoslovak school. The contention that the Kosice school remained Hungarian is verified by the continued presence of a majority of Hungarians in the upper professional grades (IX-XIl), as Table 2 covering the period 1920-21-1935 shows: TABLE2 Kosice Music School: Nationality of Upper Division Students (1920-21-1935) Hungarians 6-4-2-2-2-2-9-8-9-10-9-9-16-13-12-8 Czechoslovaks 1 1-1-1- 2-.2-2- 5- 5- 6-6 Jews 1-1- 3- 3- 1-1 A declaration of 1924 said all teachers in Kosice were Hungarian.13 The classes were composed almost entirely of girls. In the latter years there was a significant portion of the student body which was Jewish (by religion). In the first years, most of the students hailed from the city, then for a period of six years, students from rural homes predominated, with a return to the original domination by the city in 1935-36.14 The first shift to rural dominance took place in 1928-29, which indicates these were students who had begun their training after the founding of the Republic and took advantage of the suddenly greater access to the city. The shift back again in 1935-36 would reflect the reduced flow from the countryside to the city which began in the mid-twenties. This pattern parallels the similar trend in the regular secondary schools.15 An article in Slovensky vychod, the only daily newspaper in eastern Slovakia, in November 1919 downplayed the national question in the Presov-Kosice controversy, stressing rather the centrality of Kosice and the need to make it a vital center. �50 SLOVAKIA " It's obvious to everyone that Kosice is and will be the center of Eastern Slovakia, and thus must be so equipped .... It must concentrate all offices and schools.'' 16 The partisans of Presov were proved somewhat correct in their assertions about the non-Czechoslovak strength of the city of Kosice since the cultural representatives of Kosice were unable to organize adequately to combat the Presov campaign. Eventually the Presov school solved its problem of state recognition when the City Council offered to detach the school from the Szechenyi Circle and attach it to the Local Branch of Matica slovenska (Miestny odbor Matice slovenskej MOMS) . According to an agreement of May 1921, the teaching language of the school was to be Slovak, although Hungarian could be used temporarily as an "assisting understanding language" for students who were attending the Hungarian classes at the local Lutheran gymnasium. The national importance of the school is clear from its new mission, which included: - the propagation of music culture in Slovakia - the education of Slovak youth in music in all its valuable and serious cultural-historical direction - the development of Slovak, or Slavic, vocal and instrumental music - the education of the Slovak music public in greater dimensions , and later the education of Slovak artists and specialists.17 · Teachers either had to be graduates of a state conservatory or to have passed the relevant exams before the State Examination Commission. Although Kosice had a more complete curriculum, the more pronounced Hungarian involvement remained . Presov offered five divisions: violin, piano, solo singing, theory, and composition. All qualified students had to be accepted, paying an average fee of 40 Kc per month. There was no age limitation. Temporary problems arose when a state inspection in 1925 recommended certain reforms. When these reforms were not instituted, the Ministry of Education temporarily suspended the school's subsidy. Things were turned around in Presov by the arrival of the capable Stanislav Treybal, who became the new Pri\lcipal of one of the city's gymnazium. By 1935-36, the school had qu~fied to give state exams for private (but not public) music teachers. It also opened two branches, one about 1936 in Bardejov, which gave instruction in piano and violin and which seems to have become independent in February 1939, and another in Sabinov, which seems to have lasted for two or three months. �SLOVAKIA 51 ' The school did not produce any great number of composers, soloists, or teachers, or at least it had less success in that regard than other schools in Slovakia. The most important fact concerning the school was its existence as a Slovak cultural center, attaining an importance in the period 1926-38 which has not since been equalled.18 Little scholarship aid was available to students in the music schools. After all, the music schools were a supplementary specialized form of education. The 229 students at Presov in 1936-37 shared only 4,550 Kc in fee reductions.19 This combination of factors - the lack of scholarships, the monthly tuition fees, and the requirement of at least modest talent made these music schools into institutions for the "better situated. "20 And like so much of the rest of the cultural history of interwar Slovakia, they were an investment in the future.* • The author would welcome comments and recollections on this subject from readers. NOTES 1 Vladimir Gregor & Tibor Sedlicky, Dejiny hudebn{ vychovy v teskych zemtch a na Slcvensku (Prague: Editio Supraphon, 1973), p. 162. 2 Jbid. , pp. 167-8. 3 Masaryk, Anton Stefanek, Karol Medvecky (Secretary of Slovak National Council) , and two other politicians, Milan Ivanka and Komel Stodola, had already indicated their support for the idea. Yearly report, Hudobna §kola pre Slovensko, 1919-20, p . 3. 4 Literamy archiv Matice slovenskej ('LAMS) 42 XIV 91, "Skoly hudobne," p. 1. 6 Jan Strelec, " Hudobna a dramaticka akademia pre Slovensko v Bratislava, " in A.S. 2itavsky, Pamatnik slcvenskeho Akolstva za u.tinkovania Prezidenta T. G. Masaryka (Bratislava: Vydvatel'stvo pamii.tnika slovenskeho §kolstva, 1936-7), Vol. I, p. 100. 6 Gregor & Sedlicky, Dejiny , p. 168. This also made study more expensive, shutting out those from lower social and economic levels. Strelec, "Hudobna, " p . 104. The 192627 school budget of 868,000 Kt included grants of 226,000 Kt from the state and 210,000 Kt from Bratislava County. The rest had to be raised privately or from governments of other counties or districts . This helps to explain the increasing number of students from outside Bratislava. Based on school's letter of 26 February 1927 in Podtatranska zupa 9043-1927 adm. If-Statny archiv (SA)-Bytta. 7 LAMS 42 XIV 91 , "Skoly hudobne," p . 4. 8 Adolf Cmiral, "Hudebni §koly v Ceskoslovenske Republice," Ceskoslcvenskci vlastiveda-Vol. 8-Umeni (Prague : Sfinx, 1936), p. 666 . The Zvolen school's existence is confirmed as early as November 1919. Zvolen zupa 72-1920 adm.-SA-Banska Bystrica. 9 Gregor & Sedlicky , Dejiny , p . 168. 10 Helena Stantekova & Richard Rybarit, " Z hudobneho iivota Nitry v minulosti a �52 SLOVAKIA sucasnosti ," in Alexander Csanda, ed ., Kapitoly z dejln Nitry (Bratislava: SPN, 1963) , p. 26. 11 Povazska zupa 9766-28-SA-Bytca. From this time on, seven semesters of conservatory attendance were required for credentialing. 12 The discussion is based on Maria Potemrova, '' Prispevok k dejinam hudobnej §koly v Pre§ove ," Nove obzory, Vol. 10 (1968) , pp. 119-43. 13 Odbo&a spravodajskej ustredne v Kosiciach. ZUS-66, SA-Ko§ice. 14 Yearly reports, Ko§ice Mestska hudobna skola, 1920-21-1935-36. 15 See Owen V. Johnson , "Sociocultural and National Development in Slovakia, 19181938: Education and Its Impact," Unpublished Ph.D . dissertation , University of Michigan, 1978, pp. 251-7. 16 Slovensky vyckod, 18 November 1919, as quoted by Potemrova, " Prispevok, " p . 124. 17 Potemrova, " Prlspevok, " p. 127. 18 Ibid., p. 142. 19 Yearly report, Pre§ov Mestska hudobna §kola, 1936-37, p. 10. 20 Gustav Valkovit, '' Skolstvo v Nitre ,'' Sbomik pedagogickeho in§titutu v Nitre-Spolo~enske vedy 2 (1963), p. 28. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1980-81, Vol. 29 Description An account of the resource Vol. 29 (No. 53-54), 1980-81. 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 1980-81 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 45 Music S~hools: A Chapter in the Cultural History of lnterwar Slovakia* OWEN V. JOHNSON One of the blankest pages in the history of Slovak education between the First and Second World Wars belongs to the area of music education. Although the Ministry of Education had supervisory control over these schools, it was not involved with day to day inspections and other such activities. Even now, no one is sure exactly how many music schools there were. This article will summarize present knowledge about them and attempt to evaluate their importance. One thing is certain: the Slovak people had no tradition of professional music schools and had no resources to begin establishing them after World War I. The authors of one of the few books or articles about the subject, after noting the meager research output, point out, " ... (M)usic education in Slovakia in the period of the first Czechoslovak Republic was fully in the hands of Czech music pedagogues."! Teachers in Slovakia wishing to obtain qualification to teach music in the middle schools had to pass a test in music and singing before the State Examination Commissions in Prague (established 1919) or Brno (established 1920) or at the conservatory in Prague. Examination commissions for singing were finally set up in Slovakia in 1935 at Bratislava, Banska Bystrica, and Presov, but music exams could only be taken at Bratislava.2 The most important music institution in Slovakia was located in Bratislava. It grew out of discussions held at Matica slovenska and at the General Assembly of the Union of Music Professionals (Jednota hudebnich stavov), which gathered in August 19193 in Zilina to consider a proposal (originally made in Moscow in 1915) by Milos Ruppeldt • Financial support from a Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Grant and the James and Helen Hovorka Foundation assisted the preparation of this article. The research was also facilitated by my recognition by the International Research and Exchanges Board as a "Scholar-without-Stipend." 46 SLOVAKIA for the establishment of a ''Music School for Slovakia'' with the rank of a conservatory. By November, the school was a reality and Ruppeldt had become its first director. More than two-fifths of the first year's enrollment was Czech, one-quarter Slovak, one-fifth German, and oneseventh Hungarian (See Table 1).4 Although the state made a modest subvention to the school, Gustav Habrman, the Minister of Education at the time of its founding, decided it would be essentially a private institution. Its finances and legal obligations were handled by the curia of the Music Association (Hudobny spolok) for Slovakia, on which sat two government representatives, the composer Dobroslav Orel and Moravian high school principal Alojs Kolisek. In 1922, the school divided into two divisions: the conservatory, for persons planning professional careers; and a music school, for expected amateurs. The latter had instrumental, piano, and singing sections. We will return to it later. After a lengthy struggle (in which the public took little interest) and the establishment in 1924 of a drama section, the conservatory was changed in 1926 to a public institution, called the Music and Drama Academy for Slovakia. Two years later it gained conservatory rank, a recognition which boosted the school's standing across Slovakia. By 1931-32, the number of students from outside Bratislava had exceeded the number from within the city.5 Temporarily the school was financially secure, but the Depression restored its precarious state, partially because the populace could not afford to stay interested. Enrollment remained constant at just over 200 persons . Although in many ways a small operation, the Academy 's accomplishments are one of the most distinct in the post World War II era. Many of Slovakia's composers and concert artists of the quarter century after the war were graduates of the school. In spite of enormous efforts by the public and by school officials, however, the Academy remained largely a private institution during the First Republic, a condition which a number of Slovaks considered an affront since both the conservatories in Brno and Prague were operated by the state. 6 The female students at the Academy \Were concentrated in two of the three major sections - piano and singing, where they made up about eighty percent of the student body. The males were largely in the instrumental section. The other sections - organ, composition, and drama - each had only a handful of students. As long as Czech and Slovak were considered as separate categories (until 1926-27), the number of Czechs exceeded the number of Slovaks. Other aspects of interest concerning the composition of the student body were the relative absence of Hungarians and Germans in the singing division, the Year : 149 2 25 1 3 21 6 133 2 25 1 6 27 12 8 7 2 7 1 1 8 22 7 5 6 22 21 135 3 23 2 U2 28 25 6 201 56.2 1931 -32 147 1 25 2 1 5 U3 37 2, 55 .7 210 1930-31 153 2 32 U9 42 27 5 53.-4 223 1929-30 1 7 1.48 4 23 2 8 18 5 156 2, 26 211 53.6 1932-33 1 7 18 7 19 3 5 1.40 1 153 21 23 3 201 -45.3 1933-3.4 1.40 3 22 2 6 17 6 7 150 15 . 26 198 "8 .5 193-4-35 153 20 32_ _., 1 1 1 2 210 "8.1 1935-36 Slovaks Czechs 1919-20 61 100 55 1924-25 34 56 63 1925-26 63 1926-27 53 Source : Official government publications. According to the yearly repcrts of the Academy, the following figures delineate the numbers of Czechs and Slovaks: None Orthodox Other Jewish Roman Catholic Czech Brethren Lutheran Reformed Czechoslovak 159 2 27 1 6 25 1 1 3 35 1 60 7 203 9 228 5"-8 1928-29 18 19 121 206 55 .3 1927-28 Ul 45 35 98 46 59 58 .0 207 1926-27 "° 301 47 .2 1921 -22 215 46.3 309 1920-21 German 61 Hungar ian 8 Jewish 25 Russian, Ruthen ian , Ukrainian Polish Other Religion Czechoslovak Nationality Total students Pct . women TABLE 1 Musical and Dramatic Academy- Bratislava . 0 1 0 2 28 156 30 46.5 217 1936-37 'I "' > > i\ < Vl r 0 48 SLOVAKIA heavy concentration of Jewish students in the piano division, and the not infrequent attendance by students in their thirties and forties. Efforts to establish an institution for the study of creative arts which would operate on the same level as the Music and Drama Academy were unsuccessful. It is the city music schools in Slovakia about which very little is known. According to Gregor and Sedlicky, there were six in existence in 1921, and by the end of the First Republic's existence, "about" ten. The first was established in November 1919 at Zvolen as a three-year school, with a three-year preparatory attached. 7 There were also schools at Brezno, Bardejov, Kosice, Presov, Nitra, Zilina, and Martin (which had a branch in Vrutky).8 The Zilina school might be considered typical for all these schools. Established in 1927, it had three sections - for violin, piano, and solo singing. It was supported in part by tuition, and in part by a subvention from the city. 9 A new school in Bratislava assumed responsibility for the musical education of those who could not devote full time to such studies at the Academy, either because they were attending another secondary school or they already had jobs. Plans to establish a school at Nitra were first reported in the local press in November 1927, but it was not until two years later that a governing curatorium was set up by the city and teaching was begun. The Ministry of Education gave its official approval to the school a year later. Nitra 's first two teachers, who were graduates of the Bratislava Academy, began by offering piano, violin, and solo singing, then later added cello. In 1935, music theory and history, as well as composition, were added to the curriculum. In-house concerts were given during the year with a public concert at year's end serving as the graduation recital for students in their final year .10 In addition to functioning as centers of cultural enrichment, until 1928 the music schools could provide teacher candidates with an education adequate for passing the examination for competence in music instruction.11 After that date, they developed. their role as "feeders" for the Academy. \ The school at Presov was a more specia1 case, because a similar school had existed during the reign of the Hungarians. After the establishment of Czechoslovak control over the city in 1919, the composer Mikulas Moyzes was commissioned with the administration of the school. However, for two years his actions were hindered by the fact that the Szechenyi Circle, on which the school was organizationally dependent, was not allowed to operate because of its pro-Hungarian bias . In late 1919, Pavel Gallo, the school inspector for the Presov area, SLOVAKIA 49 asked the Ministry of Edu ation under what conditions the school could obtain direct state aid: the archives are silent on the Ministry's response.12 In 1920, the Presov City Council, in an effort to breach the impasse , contacted the city of Zvolen to gain budget and organizational information about the school there. Meanwhile , the establishment of the Music School for Slovakia in Bratislava dealt the efforts in Presov a setback. Even though Presov was thinking more in terms of establishing a conservatory only for eastern Slovakia, the concept that Bratislava was serving the whole of Slovakia dampened such hopes. Some hope was still entertained in Presov that an arrangement in which Bratislava would serve the west, Zvolen the central territories, and Presov the east, could be arranged. But it did not materialize. Presov was also engaged in a rivalry with Kosice to the south over who had the greater right to establish a music school for eastern Slovakia. The far more Hungarian nature of the school in Kosice strengthened Presov' s argument for a Czechoslovak school. The contention that the Kosice school remained Hungarian is verified by the continued presence of a majority of Hungarians in the upper professional grades (IX-XIl), as Table 2 covering the period 1920-21-1935 shows: TABLE2 Kosice Music School: Nationality of Upper Division Students (1920-21-1935) Hungarians 6-4-2-2-2-2-9-8-9-10-9-9-16-13-12-8 Czechoslovaks 1 1-1-1- 2-.2-2- 5- 5- 6-6 Jews 1-1- 3- 3- 1-1 A declaration of 1924 said all teachers in Kosice were Hungarian.13 The classes were composed almost entirely of girls. In the latter years there was a significant portion of the student body which was Jewish (by religion). In the first years, most of the students hailed from the city, then for a period of six years, students from rural homes predominated, with a return to the original domination by the city in 1935-36.14 The first shift to rural dominance took place in 1928-29, which indicates these were students who had begun their training after the founding of the Republic and took advantage of the suddenly greater access to the city. The shift back again in 1935-36 would reflect the reduced flow from the countryside to the city which began in the mid-twenties. This pattern parallels the similar trend in the regular secondary schools.15 An article in Slovensky vychod, the only daily newspaper in eastern Slovakia, in November 1919 downplayed the national question in the Presov-Kosice controversy, stressing rather the centrality of Kosice and the need to make it a vital center. 50 SLOVAKIA " It's obvious to everyone that Kosice is and will be the center of Eastern Slovakia, and thus must be so equipped .... It must concentrate all offices and schools.'' 16 The partisans of Presov were proved somewhat correct in their assertions about the non-Czechoslovak strength of the city of Kosice since the cultural representatives of Kosice were unable to organize adequately to combat the Presov campaign. Eventually the Presov school solved its problem of state recognition when the City Council offered to detach the school from the Szechenyi Circle and attach it to the Local Branch of Matica slovenska (Miestny odbor Matice slovenskej MOMS) . According to an agreement of May 1921, the teaching language of the school was to be Slovak, although Hungarian could be used temporarily as an "assisting understanding language" for students who were attending the Hungarian classes at the local Lutheran gymnasium. The national importance of the school is clear from its new mission, which included: - the propagation of music culture in Slovakia - the education of Slovak youth in music in all its valuable and serious cultural-historical direction - the development of Slovak, or Slavic, vocal and instrumental music - the education of the Slovak music public in greater dimensions , and later the education of Slovak artists and specialists.17 · Teachers either had to be graduates of a state conservatory or to have passed the relevant exams before the State Examination Commission. Although Kosice had a more complete curriculum, the more pronounced Hungarian involvement remained . Presov offered five divisions: violin, piano, solo singing, theory, and composition. All qualified students had to be accepted, paying an average fee of 40 Kc per month. There was no age limitation. Temporary problems arose when a state inspection in 1925 recommended certain reforms. When these reforms were not instituted, the Ministry of Education temporarily suspended the school's subsidy. Things were turned around in Presov by the arrival of the capable Stanislav Treybal, who became the new Pri\lcipal of one of the city's gymnazium. By 1935-36, the school had qu~fied to give state exams for private (but not public) music teachers. It also opened two branches, one about 1936 in Bardejov, which gave instruction in piano and violin and which seems to have become independent in February 1939, and another in Sabinov, which seems to have lasted for two or three months. SLOVAKIA 51 ' The school did not produce any great number of composers, soloists, or teachers, or at least it had less success in that regard than other schools in Slovakia. The most important fact concerning the school was its existence as a Slovak cultural center, attaining an importance in the period 1926-38 which has not since been equalled.18 Little scholarship aid was available to students in the music schools. After all, the music schools were a supplementary specialized form of education. The 229 students at Presov in 1936-37 shared only 4,550 Kc in fee reductions.19 This combination of factors - the lack of scholarships, the monthly tuition fees, and the requirement of at least modest talent made these music schools into institutions for the "better situated. "20 And like so much of the rest of the cultural history of interwar Slovakia, they were an investment in the future.* • The author would welcome comments and recollections on this subject from readers. NOTES 1 Vladimir Gregor & Tibor Sedlicky, Dejiny hudebn{ vychovy v teskych zemtch a na Slcvensku (Prague: Editio Supraphon, 1973), p. 162. 2 Jbid. , pp. 167-8. 3 Masaryk, Anton Stefanek, Karol Medvecky (Secretary of Slovak National Council) , and two other politicians, Milan Ivanka and Komel Stodola, had already indicated their support for the idea. Yearly report, Hudobna §kola pre Slovensko, 1919-20, p . 3. 4 Literamy archiv Matice slovenskej ('LAMS) 42 XIV 91, "Skoly hudobne," p. 1. 6 Jan Strelec, " Hudobna a dramaticka akademia pre Slovensko v Bratislava, " in A.S. 2itavsky, Pamatnik slcvenskeho Akolstva za u.tinkovania Prezidenta T. G. Masaryka (Bratislava: Vydvatel'stvo pamii.tnika slovenskeho §kolstva, 1936-7), Vol. I, p. 100. 6 Gregor & Sedlicky, Dejiny , p. 168. This also made study more expensive, shutting out those from lower social and economic levels. Strelec, "Hudobna, " p . 104. The 192627 school budget of 868,000 Kt included grants of 226,000 Kt from the state and 210,000 Kt from Bratislava County. The rest had to be raised privately or from governments of other counties or districts . This helps to explain the increasing number of students from outside Bratislava. Based on school's letter of 26 February 1927 in Podtatranska zupa 9043-1927 adm. If-Statny archiv (SA)-Bytta. 7 LAMS 42 XIV 91 , "Skoly hudobne," p . 4. 8 Adolf Cmiral, "Hudebni §koly v Ceskoslovenske Republice," Ceskoslcvenskci vlastiveda-Vol. 8-Umeni (Prague : Sfinx, 1936), p. 666 . The Zvolen school's existence is confirmed as early as November 1919. Zvolen zupa 72-1920 adm.-SA-Banska Bystrica. 9 Gregor & Sedlicky , Dejiny , p . 168. 10 Helena Stantekova & Richard Rybarit, " Z hudobneho iivota Nitry v minulosti a 52 SLOVAKIA sucasnosti ," in Alexander Csanda, ed ., Kapitoly z dejln Nitry (Bratislava: SPN, 1963) , p. 26. 11 Povazska zupa 9766-28-SA-Bytca. From this time on, seven semesters of conservatory attendance were required for credentialing. 12 The discussion is based on Maria Potemrova, '' Prispevok k dejinam hudobnej §koly v Pre§ove ," Nove obzory, Vol. 10 (1968) , pp. 119-43. 13 Odbo&a spravodajskej ustredne v Kosiciach. ZUS-66, SA-Ko§ice. 14 Yearly reports, Ko§ice Mestska hudobna skola, 1920-21-1935-36. 15 See Owen V. Johnson , "Sociocultural and National Development in Slovakia, 19181938: Education and Its Impact," Unpublished Ph.D . dissertation , University of Michigan, 1978, pp. 251-7. 16 Slovensky vyckod, 18 November 1919, as quoted by Potemrova, " Prispevok, " p . 124. 17 Potemrova, " Prlspevok, " p. 127. 18 Ibid., p. 142. 19 Yearly report, Pre§ov Mestska hudobna §kola, 1936-37, p. 10. 20 Gustav Valkovit, '' Skolstvo v Nitre ,'' Sbomik pedagogickeho in§titutu v Nitre-Spolo~enske vedy 2 (1963), p. 28.  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Music Schools: A Chapter in the Cultural History of Interwar Slovakia Description An account of the resource Owen V. Johnson Slovakia, Vol. 29 (No. 53-54), 1980-81 pp. 45-52 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Johnson, Owen V. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1980-81 LCNAF https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/7dc170348b1d1a6659e0e439571dabde.pdf f9c3aa85e2df22ad286ed5861f4ee185 PDF Text Text SLOVA KIA 101 My Grandfather's Silence Patricia Ondek Laurence* Before m y current academic interest in Slovaks and their view of work - gleaned from books - arose, there was " Dzedo ," my grandfather. H e died fourteen years ago, leaving only other people 's stories about him . Joseph P ancurak was a m an possessed with a quality that often characterizes immigrant Slovaks with their ability to shrug, to live to themselves; he offered little ancestral help with words, preferring to reap hi s life in silence . This stoical ability was not passed on to m e , and my eager questions about life in Slovakia and Pennsylvania in the first half of this century were m et with a stubborn silence. Or, the splat of tobacco juice in the spittoon near hi s favorite wicker chair which he used to ward off still the miner's thirst' and now the curious new-world children . " Butz tzicho," " be quiet , " he invariably said . But how could I learn from what had largely been a silent tradition ? Silent becau se of the distance between a grandfather and a granddau ghter who could barely speak each other's languages; silent because , by the time I had grown to articulate my own questions about m y grandparents' lives , they were too tired to answer with anything but a sigh and " ah, jaj, jaj, Maticka, " " Mother of God"; silent becau se of a tradition of quiet suffering more exp ressive of its endurance than articulate of compla int. From others, I had heard stories about my grandfather , who, they say, was a teller of tales when youn g. From them, I learned about his enterprisin g, inventive, and colorful ways. Never having spent a day in school, D zedo would always make a point of "rem emberin g, " and • I would like to th a nk my moth er , Ann Pancurak Ondek of Sa nj ose, California ; m y uncle, George Pence r of Palm Springs, C aliforni a; a nd m y aunt , M ary Pancurak Stetts of Linden , New J ersey, for telling me stories about m y gra ndfather. �102 SLOVAKIA would tell stories to his " krajania ," close friends and relatives, for hours . Uncle George remembers : Here is one thing Dad had . Something he had that we don't. We'd say, "Dad, tell us a story," and he would settle down with his pipe and tell us the most beautiful story. He could go on and on and fit the story to the occasion. A story about a mule giving a farmer a problem, or he would sing us a song about the neighborhood cat: "Oh, don't get married, who's going to catch our mice . ... '' Dzedo would tell them of Ruska Nova Yes, Slovakia, where he lived on a farm and worked in the forests, logging for the squire of the town, to earn money toward the yearned-for trip to America. Starting out across central Europe at the age of twenty-three in 1905 with John Hrobak, they walked three days and nights (fortified by a slab of bacon and a bottle of whiskey) through hills and mountains to escape the Austrian draft. Dzedo wore out a pair of new shoes, only to miss the boat from Hamburg, Germany, to America. A few weeks later, he found passage on another ship, and arrived, finally, in Mahanoy City, Pennsylvania, a booming town with a population of 18,000, the heart of the anthracite coal region. Here he went to work in the Reading Coal Company mines - hazardous and strenuous work in 1906. During these years, Dzedo lived with a bruised , lacerated back earned as he crawled through narrow mining spaces, a back that ''Baba,'' my grandmother, would bathe each day as he sat in a wooden tub in the basement , a back that "never seemed to heal ." Dzedo earned $5.50 a day . He also worked part-time for a butcher, Mr . Gablik, who was crushed to death one day while loosening a log on a large timber pile . Purchase of the butcher business enabled Dzedo to escape the mines and "miner' s asthma," now called black lung disease, which, along with mining accidents, killed most of his mining friends before they were fifty . Always enterprising, he expanded the business in a short time by delivering meat to the outlying patches of houses in Gilberton, Maze! , and Frankfurt with a horse and buggy. Business flourished . One day his temper flared when a woman questioned the price and quality ofa slab of meat. Dzedo raised his large butcher's knife , slashed open a one-hundred pound sack of flour standing nearby, and created �SLOVAKIA 103 a cloud of dust and fear which sent the women customers flying. That made his prices stick. His business continued to expand, and his family grew . But tragedy struck. His young wife, Anna , had a heart condition and was rushed off to Ashland Hospital where she died a few weeks later. After a home wake - the deceased was packed in ice and placed on view in the home parlor for rel atives and fri ends - and a decent interval of time , Dzedo, according to Eastern European custom, married his wife's sister, Ilona . She cared for his two sons, George and Joe, and bore him nine children in her lifetime . Aunt Mary always says, " Boze moj!," "oh, my God!" "Dzedo had ideas and was always handy with machines ." When he could afford it , about 1916, he bought a Model-T Ford. He loved cars and would . proudly ride to church on Sundays in a carefully ironed , starched white shirt with his growing family beside him . But one d ay when putting gasoline in his Model-T , under the front seat, the car caught fire and all of the upholstery was burned. Instead of rebuilding the car , Dzedo decided to put a butcher wagon fram e over the chassis , and inventively converted the car into a butcher truck for his business and retired his horses to pasture . My mother says, " There wasn't anything that he couldn't do ." The day before the christening of my Aunt Mary in 1914, Baba told Dzedo that a larger table was needed for the specially prepared foods and the forty expected guests. That night Dzedo made a twenty-foot table , which was fill ed the next day with klobasy and ham from the butcher shop , and m y grandmother's piroh y, halusky, and kolace the u sual Slovak generosity with food. But in 1919 during a miner's strike when people seldom paid in cash , my grandfather overexte nded credit to cu stom ers in the butcher shop; he lost everythin g. Next, Dzedo bought a fifteen-acre farm in Locu st Valley, P ennsylvan ia, which had no barn and no running water. Uncle G eo rge rem embers this period from 191 9- 1925 v ividly a nd d esc ribes Dzedo as a master craftsman who rebu ilt the barn: H e was a master with hi s ha nd s, a nd could take a log, a tree, a nd with a double bit ax , just mark it a nd what we call hew it , a nd cut one sid e as if he cut it with a saw - th at's how accurate he was. �104 SLOVAKIA Dzedo was a patient man . One d ay when my grandfather and my Uncle George ("Jurko") were taking some timber to the saw mill to be cut into boards, the horse trailed off the road. The wheel of the wagon broke, and all the timber fell into a ditch . Uncle George, then eight years old , was upset , but my grandfather patiently explained that they would pick some of the timber and carry it to the mill and pick up the rest over the next few days . Dzedo told his son, in his broken English, " R emember, Jurko , through your lifetime you have many days like this. " After the barn was rebuilt , Dzedo bought two horses from Kayser 's Brewery and taught them how to plow. H e set up a small forge in the basement of the house, and made chains for the horses ' halters which were attached to the plow. Using the same forge, he also repaired a used furnace he found and installed pipes to heat the house for his family and pipes to irrigate his crops. Harvesting wheat, rye, and hay, and tending his cherry trees , he successfully built up the farm, but then , as the Depression approached, he was forced from his farm into industry. He returned to the mines and took part in the organization of the unions outside of Mahanoy City with Mr. Maholage. D zedo stayed until the late 1930s when most of the mines closed because the nation began using gas and oil for fuel. Then, looking for new work, he moved to New Jersey, and there, at the age of sixty-eight, became the last smithy in Linden , something he h ad always wanted to be . He forged horseshoes for fire, sanitation , and police department horses : a new trade for this logger, farmer, inventor , butcher, miner , union organizer, and now father of eleven n ew-world children . As a child , I remember trailing after Dzedo, somehow always watching him from behind . H e would enter Baba's warm kitchen , heated by the large cast-iron stove, where the chicken soup with the homem ade noodles and the piroh y were steaming. I see him stamping his feet from the cold , the cuffs of his baggy pants dragging; I hear the splat of tobacco in the spittoon near the door. H e reaches out to take the shot of whiskey and then the glass of beer that Ba ba hands him . Then he looks at me and says gruffly, " Dones moje susi," "get me my slippers," a phrase that my mother has duly taught m e sin ce D zedo had scolded her for not teachin g m e Slovak. I bring hi s slippers. H e si ts down in his wicker ch air and takes out his handkerchi ef. H e twi sts it and makes it jump for m e. It 's a rabbit . H e teaches me to watch his silent hands. �SLOVAKIA 105 NOTE Grandfather was a coal miner , and chewing a quid of tobacco was a habit in the mines and at home . Because of the amount of coal dust in the air in the mines, miners had dusty throats and were always thirsty: Chewing tobacco helped them to clear their throats, salivate, and expectorate . �� SLOVA KIA 101 My Grandfather's Silence Patricia Ondek Laurence* Before m y current academic interest in Slovaks and their view of work - gleaned from books - arose, there was " Dzedo ," my grandfather. H e died fourteen years ago, leaving only other people 's stories about him . Joseph P ancurak was a m an possessed with a quality that often characterizes immigrant Slovaks with their ability to shrug, to live to themselves; he offered little ancestral help with words, preferring to reap hi s life in silence . This stoical ability was not passed on to m e , and my eager questions about life in Slovakia and Pennsylvania in the first half of this century were m et with a stubborn silence. Or, the splat of tobacco juice in the spittoon near hi s favorite wicker chair which he used to ward off still the miner's thirst' and now the curious new-world children . " Butz tzicho," " be quiet , " he invariably said . But how could I learn from what had largely been a silent tradition ? Silent becau se of the distance between a grandfather and a granddau ghter who could barely speak each other's languages; silent because , by the time I had grown to articulate my own questions about m y grandparents' lives , they were too tired to answer with anything but a sigh and " ah, jaj, jaj, Maticka, " " Mother of God"; silent becau se of a tradition of quiet suffering more exp ressive of its endurance than articulate of compla int. From others, I had heard stories about my grandfather , who, they say, was a teller of tales when youn g. From them, I learned about his enterprisin g, inventive, and colorful ways. Never having spent a day in school, D zedo would always make a point of "rem emberin g, " and • I would like to th a nk my moth er , Ann Pancurak Ondek of Sa nj ose, California ; m y uncle, George Pence r of Palm Springs, C aliforni a; a nd m y aunt , M ary Pancurak Stetts of Linden , New J ersey, for telling me stories about m y gra ndfather. �102 SLOVAKIA would tell stories to his " krajania ," close friends and relatives, for hours . Uncle George remembers : Here is one thing Dad had . Something he had that we don't. We'd say, "Dad, tell us a story," and he would settle down with his pipe and tell us the most beautiful story. He could go on and on and fit the story to the occasion. A story about a mule giving a farmer a problem, or he would sing us a song about the neighborhood cat: "Oh, don't get married, who's going to catch our mice . ... '' Dzedo would tell them of Ruska Nova Yes, Slovakia, where he lived on a farm and worked in the forests, logging for the squire of the town, to earn money toward the yearned-for trip to America. Starting out across central Europe at the age of twenty-three in 1905 with John Hrobak, they walked three days and nights (fortified by a slab of bacon and a bottle of whiskey) through hills and mountains to escape the Austrian draft. Dzedo wore out a pair of new shoes, only to miss the boat from Hamburg, Germany, to America. A few weeks later, he found passage on another ship, and arrived, finally, in Mahanoy City, Pennsylvania, a booming town with a population of 18,000, the heart of the anthracite coal region. Here he went to work in the Reading Coal Company mines - hazardous and strenuous work in 1906. During these years, Dzedo lived with a bruised , lacerated back earned as he crawled through narrow mining spaces, a back that ''Baba,'' my grandmother, would bathe each day as he sat in a wooden tub in the basement , a back that "never seemed to heal ." Dzedo earned $5.50 a day . He also worked part-time for a butcher, Mr . Gablik, who was crushed to death one day while loosening a log on a large timber pile . Purchase of the butcher business enabled Dzedo to escape the mines and "miner' s asthma," now called black lung disease, which, along with mining accidents, killed most of his mining friends before they were fifty . Always enterprising, he expanded the business in a short time by delivering meat to the outlying patches of houses in Gilberton, Maze! , and Frankfurt with a horse and buggy. Business flourished . One day his temper flared when a woman questioned the price and quality ofa slab of meat. Dzedo raised his large butcher's knife , slashed open a one-hundred pound sack of flour standing nearby, and created �SLOVAKIA 103 a cloud of dust and fear which sent the women customers flying. That made his prices stick. His business continued to expand, and his family grew . But tragedy struck. His young wife, Anna , had a heart condition and was rushed off to Ashland Hospital where she died a few weeks later. After a home wake - the deceased was packed in ice and placed on view in the home parlor for rel atives and fri ends - and a decent interval of time , Dzedo, according to Eastern European custom, married his wife's sister, Ilona . She cared for his two sons, George and Joe, and bore him nine children in her lifetime . Aunt Mary always says, " Boze moj!," "oh, my God!" "Dzedo had ideas and was always handy with machines ." When he could afford it , about 1916, he bought a Model-T Ford. He loved cars and would . proudly ride to church on Sundays in a carefully ironed , starched white shirt with his growing family beside him . But one d ay when putting gasoline in his Model-T , under the front seat, the car caught fire and all of the upholstery was burned. Instead of rebuilding the car , Dzedo decided to put a butcher wagon fram e over the chassis , and inventively converted the car into a butcher truck for his business and retired his horses to pasture . My mother says, " There wasn't anything that he couldn't do ." The day before the christening of my Aunt Mary in 1914, Baba told Dzedo that a larger table was needed for the specially prepared foods and the forty expected guests. That night Dzedo made a twenty-foot table , which was fill ed the next day with klobasy and ham from the butcher shop , and m y grandmother's piroh y, halusky, and kolace the u sual Slovak generosity with food. But in 1919 during a miner's strike when people seldom paid in cash , my grandfather overexte nded credit to cu stom ers in the butcher shop; he lost everythin g. Next, Dzedo bought a fifteen-acre farm in Locu st Valley, P ennsylvan ia, which had no barn and no running water. Uncle G eo rge rem embers this period from 191 9- 1925 v ividly a nd d esc ribes Dzedo as a master craftsman who rebu ilt the barn: H e was a master with hi s ha nd s, a nd could take a log, a tree, a nd with a double bit ax , just mark it a nd what we call hew it , a nd cut one sid e as if he cut it with a saw - th at's how accurate he was. �104 SLOVAKIA Dzedo was a patient man . One d ay when my grandfather and my Uncle George ("Jurko") were taking some timber to the saw mill to be cut into boards, the horse trailed off the road. The wheel of the wagon broke, and all the timber fell into a ditch . Uncle George, then eight years old , was upset , but my grandfather patiently explained that they would pick some of the timber and carry it to the mill and pick up the rest over the next few days . Dzedo told his son, in his broken English, " R emember, Jurko , through your lifetime you have many days like this. " After the barn was rebuilt , Dzedo bought two horses from Kayser 's Brewery and taught them how to plow. H e set up a small forge in the basement of the house, and made chains for the horses ' halters which were attached to the plow. Using the same forge, he also repaired a used furnace he found and installed pipes to heat the house for his family and pipes to irrigate his crops. Harvesting wheat, rye, and hay, and tending his cherry trees , he successfully built up the farm, but then , as the Depression approached, he was forced from his farm into industry. He returned to the mines and took part in the organization of the unions outside of Mahanoy City with Mr. Maholage. D zedo stayed until the late 1930s when most of the mines closed because the nation began using gas and oil for fuel. Then, looking for new work, he moved to New Jersey, and there, at the age of sixty-eight, became the last smithy in Linden , something he h ad always wanted to be . He forged horseshoes for fire, sanitation , and police department horses : a new trade for this logger, farmer, inventor , butcher, miner , union organizer, and now father of eleven n ew-world children . As a child , I remember trailing after Dzedo, somehow always watching him from behind . H e would enter Baba's warm kitchen , heated by the large cast-iron stove, where the chicken soup with the homem ade noodles and the piroh y were steaming. I see him stamping his feet from the cold , the cuffs of his baggy pants dragging; I hear the splat of tobacco in the spittoon near the door. H e reaches out to take the shot of whiskey and then the glass of beer that Ba ba hands him . Then he looks at me and says gruffly, " Dones moje susi," "get me my slippers," a phrase that my mother has duly taught m e sin ce D zedo had scolded her for not teachin g m e Slovak. I bring hi s slippers. H e si ts down in his wicker ch air and takes out his handkerchi ef. H e twi sts it and makes it jump for m e. It 's a rabbit . H e teaches me to watch his silent hands. �SLOVAKIA 105 NOTE Grandfather was a coal miner , and chewing a quid of tobacco was a habit in the mines and at home . Because of the amount of coal dust in the air in the mines, miners had dusty throats and were always thirsty: Chewing tobacco helped them to clear their throats, salivate, and expectorate . �� Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1984, Vol. 31 Description An account of the resource Vol. 31 (No. 57), 1984. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1984 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document SLOVA KIA 101 My Grandfather's Silence Patricia Ondek Laurence* Before m y current academic interest in Slovaks and their view of work - gleaned from books - arose, there was " Dzedo ," my grandfather. H e died fourteen years ago, leaving only other people 's stories about him . Joseph P ancurak was a m an possessed with a quality that often characterizes immigrant Slovaks with their ability to shrug, to live to themselves; he offered little ancestral help with words, preferring to reap hi s life in silence . This stoical ability was not passed on to m e , and my eager questions about life in Slovakia and Pennsylvania in the first half of this century were m et with a stubborn silence. Or, the splat of tobacco juice in the spittoon near hi s favorite wicker chair which he used to ward off still the miner's thirst' and now the curious new-world children . " Butz tzicho," " be quiet , " he invariably said . But how could I learn from what had largely been a silent tradition ? Silent becau se of the distance between a grandfather and a granddau ghter who could barely speak each other's languages; silent because , by the time I had grown to articulate my own questions about m y grandparents' lives , they were too tired to answer with anything but a sigh and " ah, jaj, jaj, Maticka, " " Mother of God"; silent becau se of a tradition of quiet suffering more exp ressive of its endurance than articulate of compla int. From others, I had heard stories about my grandfather , who, they say, was a teller of tales when youn g. From them, I learned about his enterprisin g, inventive, and colorful ways. Never having spent a day in school, D zedo would always make a point of "rem emberin g, " and • I would like to th a nk my moth er , Ann Pancurak Ondek of Sa nj ose, California ; m y uncle, George Pence r of Palm Springs, C aliforni a; a nd m y aunt , M ary Pancurak Stetts of Linden , New J ersey, for telling me stories about m y gra ndfather. 102 SLOVAKIA would tell stories to his " krajania ," close friends and relatives, for hours . Uncle George remembers : Here is one thing Dad had . Something he had that we don't. We'd say, "Dad, tell us a story," and he would settle down with his pipe and tell us the most beautiful story. He could go on and on and fit the story to the occasion. A story about a mule giving a farmer a problem, or he would sing us a song about the neighborhood cat: "Oh, don't get married, who's going to catch our mice . ... '' Dzedo would tell them of Ruska Nova Yes, Slovakia, where he lived on a farm and worked in the forests, logging for the squire of the town, to earn money toward the yearned-for trip to America. Starting out across central Europe at the age of twenty-three in 1905 with John Hrobak, they walked three days and nights (fortified by a slab of bacon and a bottle of whiskey) through hills and mountains to escape the Austrian draft. Dzedo wore out a pair of new shoes, only to miss the boat from Hamburg, Germany, to America. A few weeks later, he found passage on another ship, and arrived, finally, in Mahanoy City, Pennsylvania, a booming town with a population of 18,000, the heart of the anthracite coal region. Here he went to work in the Reading Coal Company mines - hazardous and strenuous work in 1906. During these years, Dzedo lived with a bruised , lacerated back earned as he crawled through narrow mining spaces, a back that ''Baba,'' my grandmother, would bathe each day as he sat in a wooden tub in the basement , a back that "never seemed to heal ." Dzedo earned $5.50 a day . He also worked part-time for a butcher, Mr . Gablik, who was crushed to death one day while loosening a log on a large timber pile . Purchase of the butcher business enabled Dzedo to escape the mines and "miner' s asthma," now called black lung disease, which, along with mining accidents, killed most of his mining friends before they were fifty . Always enterprising, he expanded the business in a short time by delivering meat to the outlying patches of houses in Gilberton, Maze! , and Frankfurt with a horse and buggy. Business flourished . One day his temper flared when a woman questioned the price and quality ofa slab of meat. Dzedo raised his large butcher's knife , slashed open a one-hundred pound sack of flour standing nearby, and created SLOVAKIA 103 a cloud of dust and fear which sent the women customers flying. That made his prices stick. His business continued to expand, and his family grew . But tragedy struck. His young wife, Anna , had a heart condition and was rushed off to Ashland Hospital where she died a few weeks later. After a home wake - the deceased was packed in ice and placed on view in the home parlor for rel atives and fri ends - and a decent interval of time , Dzedo, according to Eastern European custom, married his wife's sister, Ilona . She cared for his two sons, George and Joe, and bore him nine children in her lifetime . Aunt Mary always says, " Boze moj!," "oh, my God!" "Dzedo had ideas and was always handy with machines ." When he could afford it , about 1916, he bought a Model-T Ford. He loved cars and would . proudly ride to church on Sundays in a carefully ironed , starched white shirt with his growing family beside him . But one d ay when putting gasoline in his Model-T , under the front seat, the car caught fire and all of the upholstery was burned. Instead of rebuilding the car , Dzedo decided to put a butcher wagon fram e over the chassis , and inventively converted the car into a butcher truck for his business and retired his horses to pasture . My mother says, " There wasn't anything that he couldn't do ." The day before the christening of my Aunt Mary in 1914, Baba told Dzedo that a larger table was needed for the specially prepared foods and the forty expected guests. That night Dzedo made a twenty-foot table , which was fill ed the next day with klobasy and ham from the butcher shop , and m y grandmother's piroh y, halusky, and kolace the u sual Slovak generosity with food. But in 1919 during a miner's strike when people seldom paid in cash , my grandfather overexte nded credit to cu stom ers in the butcher shop; he lost everythin g. Next, Dzedo bought a fifteen-acre farm in Locu st Valley, P ennsylvan ia, which had no barn and no running water. Uncle G eo rge rem embers this period from 191 9- 1925 v ividly a nd d esc ribes Dzedo as a master craftsman who rebu ilt the barn: H e was a master with hi s ha nd s, a nd could take a log, a tree, a nd with a double bit ax , just mark it a nd what we call hew it , a nd cut one sid e as if he cut it with a saw - th at's how accurate he was. 104 SLOVAKIA Dzedo was a patient man . One d ay when my grandfather and my Uncle George ("Jurko") were taking some timber to the saw mill to be cut into boards, the horse trailed off the road. The wheel of the wagon broke, and all the timber fell into a ditch . Uncle George, then eight years old , was upset , but my grandfather patiently explained that they would pick some of the timber and carry it to the mill and pick up the rest over the next few days . Dzedo told his son, in his broken English, " R emember, Jurko , through your lifetime you have many days like this. " After the barn was rebuilt , Dzedo bought two horses from Kayser 's Brewery and taught them how to plow. H e set up a small forge in the basement of the house, and made chains for the horses ' halters which were attached to the plow. Using the same forge, he also repaired a used furnace he found and installed pipes to heat the house for his family and pipes to irrigate his crops. Harvesting wheat, rye, and hay, and tending his cherry trees , he successfully built up the farm, but then , as the Depression approached, he was forced from his farm into industry. He returned to the mines and took part in the organization of the unions outside of Mahanoy City with Mr. Maholage. D zedo stayed until the late 1930s when most of the mines closed because the nation began using gas and oil for fuel. Then, looking for new work, he moved to New Jersey, and there, at the age of sixty-eight, became the last smithy in Linden , something he h ad always wanted to be . He forged horseshoes for fire, sanitation , and police department horses : a new trade for this logger, farmer, inventor , butcher, miner , union organizer, and now father of eleven n ew-world children . As a child , I remember trailing after Dzedo, somehow always watching him from behind . H e would enter Baba's warm kitchen , heated by the large cast-iron stove, where the chicken soup with the homem ade noodles and the piroh y were steaming. I see him stamping his feet from the cold , the cuffs of his baggy pants dragging; I hear the splat of tobacco in the spittoon near the door. H e reaches out to take the shot of whiskey and then the glass of beer that Ba ba hands him . Then he looks at me and says gruffly, " Dones moje susi," "get me my slippers," a phrase that my mother has duly taught m e sin ce D zedo had scolded her for not teachin g m e Slovak. I bring hi s slippers. H e si ts down in his wicker ch air and takes out his handkerchi ef. H e twi sts it and makes it jump for m e. It 's a rabbit . H e teaches me to watch his silent hands. SLOVAKIA 105 NOTE Grandfather was a coal miner , and chewing a quid of tobacco was a habit in the mines and at home . Because of the amount of coal dust in the air in the mines, miners had dusty throats and were always thirsty: Chewing tobacco helped them to clear their throats, salivate, and expectorate .  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource My Grandfather's Silence Description An account of the resource Patricia Ondek Laurence Slovakia, Vol. 31 (No. 57), 1984 pp. 101-105 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Laurence, Patricia Ondek, 1942- Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1984 LCNAF https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/5daeb5886d2db173574ea0230273ca70.pdf 811db6938405321f6af578fbb5e18ef3 PDF Text Text SLOV AKIA-2015 87 MY ROCKY RELATIONSHIP WITH THE MATICA SLOVENSKA. DURING THE SECOND ERA OF COMMUNISM IN CZECHOSLOVAKIA, 1970-1989: A PERSONAL MEMOIR M. Mark Stolarik When I first visited Slovakia in the summer of 1968, I established friendly contacts with the Matica slovenska in Martin . 1 Never did I dream that, a short while later, one of its employees would publicly attack me. This happened because the political situation in Czechoslovakia changed as a result of the Warsaw Pact invasion of August, 1968. The so-called "Prague Spring," led by the Slovak reformer Alexander Dubcek, who wished to transform Czech and Slovak society into "socialism with a human face," was crushed under the weight of Warsaw Pact tanks. Less than a year later, Dubcek was replaced as First Secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia by the turncoat Gustav Husak, who proceeded to "normalize" the state. What started out as a year of high hopes turned into one of great disappointment. 2 Even though I was born in Slovakia in 1943, my parents decided to evacuate the whole family into Austria before the Russian front came through in January of 1945 . I did not return to my home town of Martin until July of 1968. 3 Dr. Jozef Telgarsky, the Director of the National Library, which then belonged to the Matica slovenska, 1 A shorter, Slovak version of this article first appeared as "Matica slovenska pod dohl'adom Statnej bezpecnosti," in Matica slovenska v narodnych dejinach, ed. by Imrich Sedlak (Martin : Matica slovenska, 2013), 174-78. I initially described this trip in greater detail as "My Memories of Slovakia under Communism (S ummer of 1968)," in Narodny kalendar CVII (Pittsburgh, 1999), 96-99 . 2 For the latest scholarship on the " Prague Spring" see The Prague Spring and the Warsaw Pact Invasion of Czechoslovakia, 1968: Forty Years Later, ed. by M. Mark Stolarik (Mundelein, IL: Bolchazi-Carducci, 2010). For the period of "normalization" in Slovakia see Norbert Kmet' and Juraj Marusiak, comp., S/ovensko a reiim normalizacii (Presov: Michal Vasko, 2002). 3 1 described my family's Odyssey, as well as Slovak emigration in general, in Where is my Home? Slovak Emigration to North America (1870-2010) (Bern: Peter Lang, 2012). �88 SLOV AKIA-2015 heartily welcomed me. He was delighted that, after so many years of being cut off from the West, he could once again establish contacts with Slovaks in the West. 4 I had come to Slovakia in the summer of 1968 as a Ph.D. student from the University of Minnesota in order to study the villaie origins of Slovak emigration to North America in the 19 th and 20 centuries. I had already studied the parish records of various Slovak communities in the United States and Canada and wished to link them with those in Slovakia. At the same time, I had started to collect archival materials for the newly-established Immigrant Archives at the University of Minnesota. When I finished my research in Slovakia in September of 1968, I promised Telgarsky, that I would begin to send duplicate archival and library materials concerning Slovaks in the USA and Canada to the Slovak National Library in return for the SNL sending me the latest publications of historians in Slovakia. 5 After I finished my doctoral studies at the University of Minnesota, I was employed by several professional institutions but never lost contact with the Matica slovenska. At first I was employed by the Cleveland State University as a Lecturer and Assistant Professor (1972-76), then as an Historical Researcher at the National Museum of Man in Ottawa (1977-78), then as President and CEO of the Balch Institute for Ethnic Studies in Philadelphia (1979-91) and finally as Professor and Chairholder of the only Chair in Slovak History and Culture in the Western World at the University of Ottawa (1992 to the present). During all of these years I continued my program of exchange with the Matica slovenska. I wish that I could say that our relations were always good, but it was not to be. While I worked at the National Museum of Man in Ottawa, I took the initiative to establish a new scholarly organization. In 1975 a Czechoslovak History Conference had been founded by a group of historians in the United States. 6 From my study of Czech and Slovak history, I knew that, as always, Slovak history, and Slovak scholars, 4 When I returned to the USA, it occurred to me that Jozef Telgarsky was the author of my favorite children's book - Zirafa [The Giraffe] (Martin: Matica slovenska, 1946). While we were refugees in Austria from 1945-1950, my mother often read me sections of this book. I still have it and cherish it. 5 JozefTelgarsky to Marian Stolarik, May 13, 1969, NK 289 20/69-St. See Appendix 1, page 97. 6The history of this organization can be found in its Czechoslovak History Ne wsletter, founded in 1979. �SLOV AKIA-2015 89 would play "second fiddle" in such an organization. Therefore, at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies in Washington, D.C. in October of 1977, I persuaded half a dozen scholars in the USA and Canada to create our own Slovak Studies Association. Since I took the initiative in founding this organization, I was elected its first Secretary-Treasurer and Newsletter Editor. I then contacted as many scholars as I knew had an interest in Slovak studies and invited them to join. By 1983 our ranks had grown to 120 members. Meanwhile, the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies accepted us as an affiliated organization and the officers and I organized regular sessions of the Slovak Studies Association at the annual meetings of the AAASS. 7 As Newsletter Editor, I also informed our members of recent scholarly developments in Slovakia, as well as of the activities and publications of our members. Meanwhile, in 1968 the Matica slovenska began to publish a semi-weekly newspaper entitled Maticne citanie and put me on its mailing list. 8 At the beginning this newspaper reflected a good dose of Slovak nationalism and on its masthead carried a stylized Slovak national emblem, which had been banned by the Communists. 9 However, under the weight of Gustav Husak's, "normalization" campaign, in 1973 the Slovak emblem disappeared from the Matica's letterhead and in 1978 the Maticne citanie folded . It was then replaced by the glossy monthly Slovensko. At the same time, Jozef Telgarsky no longer corresponded with me. Instead, two hard-line Communists, at first Jaroslav Celko and later Stefan Krivus, both Directors of the Matica, continued the correspondence. The masthead of their letters no longer carried the Slovak emblem; it was replaced by the letters MS , for the Matica slovenska. 10 It was clear from these changes that the Matica was being purged . Nevertheless, I kept exchanging materials with the Matica and hoped for the best. 7 The history of the Slovak Studies Association can be found in the Newsletter of the Slovak Studies Association, published since October, 1977. Recently the AAASS changed its name to the American Association for Slavic and Eurasian Studies. 8 A complete run of this newspaper can be found in the Slovak Archives, Archives and Special Collections, University of Ottawa. 9 See the first issue of Maticne citanie dated October 28, 1968, Appendix 2, pages 98-99. 10 See the letters of Jaroslav Celko, dated March 27, 1973 and Stefan Krivus, dated October 23, 1974 to Mark Stolarik, Appendices 3, page 100, and App 4, page 10 I. �90 SLOV AKIA-2015 Unfortunately, in the 1980's my relations with the Matica slovenska took a tum for the worse. The first sign that something was amiss came in 1980 when the "Oddelenie pre zahranicnych Slovakov" (the Department for Slovaks Abroad) of the Matica slovenska sponsored an international scholarly conference on "Vyst'ahovalectvo a zivot krajanov vo svete" (Emigration and the Life of Countrymen Abroad) and published the papers.11 Even though I had met and befriended Jan Siracky, the Director, and Frantisek Bielek, one of their researchers in 1968 when the Department was established in Bratislava, and they knew that I specialized in the history of the immigration of Slovaks to North America, they did not invite me to this conference. Instead, they invited my good friend and colleague Thomas D. Marzik (originally Mrazik), an Associate Professor of history at St. Joseph's University in Philadelphia. A scholar of Central Europe, Marzik specialized on T.G. Masaryk and the Slovakophile Czech Karel Kalal. He had done no archival research on Slovak immigration. Nevertheless, the conference organizers asked him to present a paper on "The State of American Scholarly Research on Slovak Emigration and on American Slovaks," which he read in English, since he could not speak Slovak. He must have taken the conference organizers by surprise when he asserted, among other things, that "M. Mark Stolarik is currently the most productive scholar concerning the history American Slovaks," and then added, "currently, he is the Executive Director of the Balch Institute for Ethnic Studies in Philadelphia... .In this capacity, he can be very helpful in encouraging further research on American Slovaks." 12 When I received a copy of the Proceedings of this conference, I no longer regretted not having been invited. As I leafed through the book, I noticed that the conference had been opened by Viliam Salgovic, at that time the Chairman of the Slovak National Council, but formerly the Deputy Minister of the Interior in 1968, who betrayed his colleagues in the "Prague Spring" by collaborating with the invading Warsaw Pact forces . It turns out that Salgovic had been an agent of the Soviet KGB and was one of the most hated individu11 Vyst'ahova/ectvo a iivot krajanov vo svete. K storocnici masoveho vyst'ahova/ectva s/ovenskeho /'udu do zamoria. Zbornik prispevkov k vedeckej konferencii. Zost. Frantisek Bielik, Jan Siracky a Claude Balaz (Martin: Matica slovenska, 1982). 12 Ibid., 131-32. The compilers arranged for Marzik's article to be translated into Slovak. �SLOVAKIA-2015 91 als in Slovakia. 13 Furthermore, the conference organizers also invited the retired grade-school teacher and communist activist Helen Vrabel-Saunders of Los Angeles and the Canadian Slovak communist activist Jan Rumisek to present papers on the Slovak communities in their respective countries. 14 These individuals reflected poorly on the scholarly level of this conference. When Marzik returned to Philadelphia and described the conference to me, he mocked the presentations of these so-called "experts." However, when the Proceedings arrived in the mail in 1982, I mocked Marzik for the company he had kept. The second bad sign from Czechoslovakia came in 1982. At that time my wife and I had decided that, even though the Matica did not invite me to its scholarly conference, we would visit our native Slovakia on our own. As was required at that time, we applied for a visitor 's visa to Czechoslovakia, but, much to our surprise, the Czechoslovak Embassy in Washington denied our application, without any explanation. 15 When we had visited Czechoslovakia in the summers of 1968 and 1970, we had acquired visas without any difficulty. The third bad sign occurred in 1983 when, to my great surprise, a certain writer for the Matica's monthly Slovensko, began to attack me. Even though he signed his articles as Milos Biel, he was, in fact, Miroslav Andreansky, a collaborator of the STB (State Security), who edited the Cudzojazicnu prilohu (Foreign-Language Supplement) of Slovensko. 16 In the 1970's, using the cover name Tacovsky, he had served a spy for the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic in West Germany. 17 13 For Salgovic's welcoming remarks see Ibid., 12-16. For his role in the "Prague Spring" see William Shawcross, Dubcek (London: Weidenfeld and Nicholson, 1970), 154. Soon after the Communists relinquished power during the "Velvet Revolution" in I 989, Salgovic committed suicide. 14 For their papers see Vyst'ahova/ectvo, 270-87 and 340-42. 15 Chief of the Visa Section (unreadable signature), Embassy of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic to Mark Stolarik, June 4, 1982 (in author's personal papers) . 16 Dr. Tomas Klubert, an employee of the Ustav pamdti naroda (The Nation 's Memory Institute) of the Slovak Republic, in a reply to my query dated September 3, 2010, confirmed that Andreansky was indeed a collaborator of the STB. His cover name was "Korunka." Unfortunately, his file was shredded on October 8t11, 1988. 17 See the article"Co na to pan Prokes?" published in the monthly Svedectvo: Casopis politickych vdznov na Slovensku, I, no. 4 (April 1992), page 18. �92 SLOV AKIA-2015 Andreansky/Biel had learned about the Slovak Studies Association from Thomas D. Marzik. The Matica slovenska had invited the latter to another international conference in Martin on July 5-7, 1983, on the occasion of the Matica's 120th anniversary. Knowing that the Matica had once again failed to invite Stolarik to this conference, Marzik urged it to establish formal relations with the Slovak Studies Association and also to invite "more American experts" to future conferences.18 Andreansky/Biel replied to Marzik's appeal in the Foreign Language Supplement of the August issue of Slovensko. In an article entitled "?Slovak Studies Association?" Andreansky/Biel wrote: "Direct contact with such leading personalities in the SSA as Stanislav J. Kirschbaum, M. Mark Stolarik and Renee Mikus, because of their hostility [towards the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic] are, at the moment, impossible." 19 This reply was laughable, because neither Stanislav J. Kirschbaum, nor Renee Mikus, held any office in the SSA! I suspect that Stan Kirschbaum was on the "black list" of Czechoslovak authorities because he was the son of Jozef Kirschbaum, who at that time was one of the Executive VicePresidents of the Slovak World Congress and Renee Mikus was married to Jozef Mikus, who also held a high office in the SWC. Indeed, both the elderly Kirschbaum and his colleague Mikus were former diplomats in the service of the first Slovak Republic (1939-1945) as well as members of the Slovak People 's Party, and, as such, supporters of Slovak independence. 20 Thus, they were anathema to the Husak regime. Andreansky/Biel probably did not like Mark Stolarik because he was the son of Imrich Stolarik, also a former member of the Slovak People's Party and, therefore a "separatist" who often wrote articles advocating Slovak independence in the weekly 18 Thomas D. Marzik, "K problematike Slovensko-americkych akademickych vzt'ahov," in Zahranicni S/ovaci a narodne kulturne dedictvo: Zbornik prispevkov z vedeckeho seminara k 120. vyrociu zaloienia Matice s/ovenskej, compiled by Frantisek Bielik, Jan Siracky and Claude Balaz (Martin : Matica slovenska, 1984), 10109. Once again, the Matica arranged to translate Marzik' s article into Slovak. 19 Slovensko, 8 (August, 1983), Foreign Language Supplement. See Appendix 5, gage 102. °For the history of the first ten years of the Slovak World Congress, see Desat' rokov cinnosti SKS, comp . by JozefM. Kirschbaum (Toronto: Slovak World Congress, 1981). For the struggle for Slovak independence, see J. M . Kirschbaum, Nas boj o samostatnost' Slovensko (Cleveland: Slovak Institute, 1958; reprinted by the Matica slovenska, Martin, 2000). �SLOVAKIA-2015 93 Kanadsky Slovak. For this reason Andreansky/Biel wrote to Mark Stolarik on November 14, 1983 and asked the latter to repudiate an article written by his father in Kanadsky Slovak on September 24, 1983, which had criticized the August issue of Slovensko.2 1 Andreansky/Biel even promised to publish Stolarik' s reply in the next issue of Slovensko! Instead, Mark Stolarik wrote to Andreansky/Biel as follows : "I will not polemicize with you . Your job is to create propaganda. Mine is to write history. In this instance, I will have the last word." 22 Andreansky/Biel ' s letter showed that, at that time he had more power in the Matica slovenska than its president, the "Narodny umelec" (national artist) and writer Vladimir Mi nae, a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Slovakia. After having read Andrensky/Biel's attack upon me in Slovensko, I complained to Mi nae in a letter dated September 3, 1983 .23 In his reply of October 4, 1983, Minac wrote the following: "I am sorry about what happened in the periodical Slovensko . I have no direct control over the editorial content of the magazine, but, as much as I can, I will try to prevent such future misunderstandings." 24 Meanwhile, Victor S. Mamatey, considered the "dean" of Czech and Slovak historians in the United States, also reacted to the machinations of the Matica slovenska. In the Slovak monthly Horizont, published by emigres in Switzerland, he wrote the following: Slovaks abroad need cultural contacts with their homeland and Slovakia needs contacts with Slovaks abroad . Unfortunately, at the moment such contacts are weak and inadequate. The Matica and the entire regime need to understand that not they, but Slovaks abroad have the right to decide who will represent them at conferences and who will properly interpret their needs. 25 Vladimir Minac could not have been sincere in his reply to Mark Stolarik's complaint because, as indicated above, Andreansky/Biel wrote me again on November 141\ Furthermore, in 1988, during the 21 Milos Biel to Mark Stolarik, November 14, 1983 . See Appendix 6, page 103 . See also Appendix 7, page I 04, for the article in Kanadsky Slowik, September 24, 1983 . 22 Mark Stolarik to Milos Biel, November 29, 1983. See Appendix 8, page 105 . 23 Mark Stolarik to Vladimir Mimic, September 3, 1983 . See Appendix 9, pages 106 and 107. 24 Vladimir Minac to Mark Stolarik, October 4, 1983 . See Appendix 10, page 108. 25 Horizon/ (Zurich), September-October, 1983. �94 SLOV AKIA-2015 era of "Glasnost" and "Perestrojka," as promoted in the Soviet Union and its satellites by General Secretary Mikhail Goobachev in the late 1980's,2.6 I was finally invited to attend another Matica conference in Bratislava. There I met Vladimir Mimic at a Matica-sponsored reception at Bratislava Castle. After the opening ceremonies ended, a tipsy Mimic approached me and asked in a voice reeking of wine "ci vas otec stale serie do toho Kanadskeho Slovaka?" (Is your father still crapping into Kanadsky Slovak?) .27 This vulgar question revealed what was really bothering Minac (and Andreansky/Biel): that my father was freely advocating independence for Slovakia in Kanadsky Slovak. Another reason why Andreansky/Biel attacked me in Slovensko is that I revealed the truth about how it was published. When Tom Marzik returned from the second Matica conference in 1983, he promptly informed me that Slovensko was published in two versions : one for domestic consumption and one for Slovaks abroad. Only the foreign version contained a "Foreign Language Supplement," which carried news about the activities of Slovaks in the wider world. I informed the readers of the Newsletter of the Slovak Studies Association of these two versions in the June, I 984 issue.28 In its August 22 nd issue, the largest-circulation Slovak-American newspaper, the Jednota, official organ of the First Catholic Slovak Union, congratulated me for having provided this information. It pointed out that the Matica slovenska was sending Slovensko for free to Slovaks all over the world, and they had no idea that it was published in two versions.29 This information so infuriated Andreansky/Biel that he reacted with a full-page response in the January, 1985 issue of Slovensko. The jist of his response was that the publishers of Slovensko did not have enough paper to offer the "Foreign Language Supplement" to domestic readers.30 The best reaction to this absurd excuse came from Juraj Virsik, editor of the Slovak-Australian Monitor. In an article beginning with the Slovak proverb "Trafena hus zagaga," (A Struck Goose 26 For the Gorbachev era see Angus Roxburgh, The Second Russian Revolution: The Struggle for Power in the Kremlin (London : BBC Books, 1991). 27 1 described this episode in greater detail under the pseudonym Leo Carpenter in "Looking for Mr. Glasnost in Today ' s Czechoslovakia," in the monthly Crisis: A Journal of Lay Catholic Opinion, 7, no. 7 (July-August, 1989), 33-39. 28 "Slovensko for Two Audiences," SSA Newsletter, 8, no. 1 (June, 1984), p. 13. 29 Jednota (Middletown, PA), August 22, 1984. 30 Slovensko, 1 (1985), "Cudzojazycna priloha.," Appendix 11 , pages 109 and 110. �SLOVAKIA-2015 95 will Squawk), Virsik provocatively suggested that, if Slovakia indeed suffered from a shortage of paper, it could easily turn to the Bulletin of the Slovak World Congress, published in Canada, which had an abundance of newsprint, and the Bulletin would willingly publish any news that the Matica might send it. 31 Andreansky-Biel did not react to Virsik's article. Finally, in 1988, probably as a result of Mikhail Gorbachev's "Glasnost," which also penetrated into the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, the Matica slovenska invited Mark Stolarik to another of its scholarly conferences, this time to be held in Bratislava on July 46. When I arrived in Bratislava and met with Frantisek Bielik, whom I had not seen since 1970, I asked him who was Miloslav Andreansky/Milos Biel? A surprised Bielik answered, "Don't you know?" "No, I don ' t," I replied. "But, you must know, he continued ." "No I don ' t, I answered." He was still afraid to openly tell me. I then asked where was Andreansky/Biel? Bielik answered, "in Martin." Perhaps Andreansky/ Biel did not attend the conference for fear that I would confront him . As a result, I never met him. After the fall of Communism in Czechoslovakia, I inquired about his whereabouts and discovered that Andreansky/ Biel had left the Matica and was living in Vrutky, a small railroad town north of Martin. He had apparently joined the ultra-nationalist Slovak National Party and was its representative in that town. Since I had met and befriended Jozef Prokes, one of the founders of the Slovak National Party, when he had visited Canada in 1992, I wrote to Prokes and asked him how it was that a former collaborator of the STB was now working for the Slovak National Party?32 Prokes did not answer my letter. Meanwhile, many interesting individuals attended the Bratislava conference. After I presented my paper on the declining use of the Slovak language in the United States, 33 an elderly gentleman ap31 Slovak-Australian Monitor (March, 1985). See Appendix 12, page 111. Mark Stolarik to Jozef Prokes, August 27, 1992 (author's archive). When I visited the Matica at another conference in February of 2013, and once again inquired about the whereabouts of Andreansky/Biel, the older employees, who had known him, sheepishly answered that a few years earlier he had passed away. 33 "A Historical Perspective on the Declining Use of the Slovak Language in the United States of America," in Zahranicni Slowici a materinsky jazyk. Zbornik prispevkov z vedeckeho symposia k 125. vyrociu zaloienia Matice slovenskej, " comp. by Frantisek Bielik and Claude Balaz (Martin : Matica slovenska, 1990), I 7277. 32 �96 SLOVAKIA-2015 proached me. He was Dr. Belo Polla, an employee of the Matica in the l 940's, who had been purged and later found himself working for the Archaeological Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences in Nitra, approached me. He was delighted that, in my presentation, I had mentioned his former colleagues at the Matica such as its director J.C. Hronsky and the publicist Konstantin Culen, as well as the historian Frantisek Hrusovsky and the journalist Jozef Pauco. He added that those names had been "taboo" in Czechoslovakia in the previous years. He was also delighted that emigres such as the linguist I:ubomir Durovic of Sweden and the political scientist Milan Durica of Italy were able to participate in the conference. Such was the influence of Mikhail Gorbachev's "Glasnost," which would eventually lead to the collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe during the summer and fall of 1989.34 After the fall of Communism in Czechoslovakia in November of 1989, the situation in the Matica slovenska immediately improved. The "old guard" either retired or was fired and the new leaders of the Matica immediately re-established friendly contacts with Slovaks in the West. There were no longer any attacks in the monthly Slovensko against me or any other members of the Slovak Studies Association. Indeed, in 1991 the Matica signed a formal agreement between the University of Ottawa and itself in which it pledged to supply the newly-established Chair in Slovak History and Culture all the books that it needed in order to properly function .35 As a result, in January, 1992, the Chair received hundreds of recently-published books from the Matica and this program of exchange continues to this day. Thus, since 1989 the Chair in Slovak History and Culture at the University of Ottawa and the Matica slovenska (and its National Library, which split off in 2000), continue to have good relations. 36 34 For the "Velvet Revolution" in Czechoslovakia see Jozef Zatkuliak et. al., Nove mber '89: Medznik vo vyvoji slovenskej spolocnosti a jeho medzinarodny kontext (Bratislava: Historicky ustav SA V vo vydavatel'stve Prodama, 2009). 35 Agreement between the Matica slovenska in Martin and the University of Ottawa (Chair in Slovak History and Culture), signed by Marcel Hamelin, Rector, University of Ottawa, September 4, 1991 and Imrich Sedlak, Director, Matica slovenska, November 18, 1991 (author's archive). 36 The National Library of Slovakia split off from the Matica slovenska on July 1, 2000. E-mail from Maria Kurhajcova to Mark Stolarik, July 21, 2000 (author's archive). �SLOV AKIA-2015 97 APPENDIX 1 L C V C: N S K A ,'J • )S1;'ELK A A AOU RE P UHLth Y M A ls1:TIN. Mudrol"lova ,e . 3:i. t e lefOn 2348. 2347 , 2340, :it34Q , 3 197 University of Minnesota, College of Liberal ArtsDepartment of History, Mr. M. St O l 8 r i k M_i_n_n_e_a_e_o_l_i_s Minnesota 55455 - US A v•l i l:111 :rn.a.6k,y1:a, o d,'\.-. 30.III.1969 Na" :an•~k.:i r:r:""maja 1969 l>'K .t.'7 20/69-St Voe Vazen:f pan Stolarik, Na VaA list z 30. marca 1969, ktory ate p!sali Dr . Sir ackemu , oznamujeme V!lm, l!e mikrofillll.Y lfosopisov "Obzor" a "Dom a 1!kol'l" sa ul! r-obia a koncom ~ Vam ich po!!leme. Obzor od roku 1863 do roku 1905 /41 ro~n!kov/ a Dom a Akola od roku 1885 do roku 1897 /13 ro~nikov/. Z ~asopisu Dom a §kola Vam zasielame 4 ro~n!lcy ~ascpisu, kedze mame viac exemplarov. Dufame, l!e Vam to vyhovie. PokiaY ide o pletenie, snhlasime a tym, aby ate nam poslsli mikrofil111.Y: Amerikansko-Slovenske noviny, Slovak v Amerike, Jednota a Narodne noviny, pretol!e ni~ v uplnosti nemAme. MOzete nam tiel! oznami t, kde v USA sa tieto ~asopisy na.cMdzaju v uplnosti. Sme radi, ze ste sa ohlasili a ponukame Vam aj dal§iu spolupracu. Ochotne Vam yoaleme zo Slovenska vAetko, ~o potrebujete z novej literatucy a mOze prist do uvahy aj star§ia literatllra, pretoze mame dost dubletov. Boli by sme radi, keby sa na University of Minnesota vybudovalo slu§ne oddelenie slovenskej historickej /alebo inej, podYa potreby/ literatllry. Te§ime ea ns spolupracu s Vsmi a srde~ne Vas pozdravujeme .J ,;R I 1} /lflftl,,\ riadi teY ,N&J-.~nej ' knHnice Ma ti,ce i-'~ lovenske j Dr. J. 'Telgarslcy ~ List bol vrateny, dl\a 27. VI.1969! neznemy �~ \ 1 ~, ' j •t . 1 t ► rr-• .-.... 1..-.••........~-, }:,.\,,_" ·, 1 .. -~·\·.t Propa1atd i!lslo ~"i'darr ... -- J} •~\i ~ · ,, ... .,i\ 1-, ~.c 1·1 •• -~ '; ::;, ' {:,:~ ."1'. •%·"'" ,, __ ~~. • -~ \l ' if ::, ,_ l.;.t.•~~·~ ! ,, '... . · f }If n•Yhno1U 1141- • n« lrult6ru v61:»c, l kullt\rn, ,1:1tvrat ma• .:.zmi. ~~:,,,d:.n.tuh~':!~:.!P~I~,,f ~6,an11 T~PI opqitl~ -,:a b ~ I ,tart JJlllOd' f:111V1tov1J price, • luqttry, lap ako J,)q-lSWCn61µt ~tDltela. lkO ntitro)a. 1, aOC(&llatlc);QIZ\ n•dt-ln,U •Yte' Jebb dobr<d. tradld u, rw n11 t'.'!: =:r.u~~:mi:"!4~• 9!:-=~~::;~ •:~;VJ~~, J• to ~~•~~,b(~~~•v:d;:,,:i=!t~1 = I ~ ron9J1 1l4rodMt, U1f6rr, na prOdeate dn1f ill'1Mtt d.lliliom• fta,ahl1 • napokon l • llltwtdfctou D6~J\:-:a~·":iii!:;,:*..:r::r.' ~~~=·~l: :~~~ • _,,1 ' OT,VA·RAM.E\J,i:\i- ~l, T MeM ~• ''f'iW'• Hu If VfcW..o p,~ ftf'1 chr4'f"M ,q .t~ •.rl#ttf• ~awo po~o, .Jl«)fjatqj ~J\lt~ tUl&V, pred'Htn4lt# 4 mu 6-u,,:Ericuc/1'«/l ~' I ~ ltc&1ic ~,ut OfH'.:UjN Mprifie' ,o. N-.i6~ ho ~,=~~~.;::; ,1,ottt P"lhl¥• 100/•j ,uutl o ptttflduoei• •"' tu4tlto«I t4t, •••,-. :i:siltf~i!'"~:~ ntl11pr())flrtotnf; ,,aop; ml tltlm~Hftw k,. Off llocl 11 opak. ·'Ct potort r>0ff t•Jto irdnU &it =:::r:~~,,. bot, Cn. tr~ dt•"" ·no.:iptllf~ hdllj 01'D~QBIE ~-., l · .& -· ·1 ..•t<,., ~~ ,:.•m ·~t.·~c .j '!Ii~. h l'udslwstt,,. ,,: .. ---- N0,V;£ · l ·- . ,' . -__:_ - ...,.. t l . --= U P I , .-,/J ~ ~ ••~___..,...:..,.. ~- 0'i.~~, Uv~pk ,1,, 'l VY_D(,..VA, MATICA SLOVENS"f V M ' "';~ ~·z., N ~ 0 z --= --= tr! > I (ll .... N 0 < > e:> 0 t""' r:,, '° = �SLOV AKIA-2015 99 APPENDIX2 Za prava ,slo,enciny okrecov dfla e. 10. 19et •yledaJ• •• taJto bttl. nojbo dr.tmla prlaclp Ttato Lueencl praeanf YO . .reJaal runkctl arladiC fu.akcla •lc•prHldan · OceftuJema. te \I 10vls.l ta • tuakclu prdbo pod • •l•bo • 6ra.de., Polladnky tederActou nOho At , aa s1ov,a1 .. a.by Maduo•, .. by ktor6 •IUJ, predHdu ktortl k 50. vtroCJu CSR to ■ t• ta:■Jllf atllf ( •I .. aJoobsahoull podobae aka H • tame, iloat4ve H na progt H ■at"fdl 1Jrol6cb) po mad'■ r• •tnhu itlan6bo dko ■ a ■ awrbuJ• ob1■ daova.al• t-■ kel• •kJ~ •Y d01taU afton.a1 -ped- •I othb postavenla nar noltl. Konltatujema v1ek , kl••· mJ ■ lalra • tt6taaho tajoaud• ~.1K• •,~~:r:1.!:~~~n~;f.~U• na Jkodu vecl n,hrh IA.k1 VycbHsa•• a dotereJlfch Ila. n·ebol vopred pred uvere) ufml trpkfcb ak6Hao1U Slo4. Poprl hlatorlclry a•HI• · L S6b1Hfm■ so He ■lm ti. Y6kov • tobto A•em.Ja. Ul ,Ill.a- nlm 1Dterne konzultovanf I. ala pokl ■ dime ae newy- a fcb a6nocb 'Slovenaki ••· l.rajlla daada • d!ollasyt■ oa- organlUlcleml N•rod. tro1 haulnA doplal( ho b ■ ltalo • rodnl rad• a Cnll:6 ••rodal ti H prett SlovUom aeutf• Term.Io vereJn•J dlskusle rad• l nalogld:y podra lafch n ■ fm, I ■ ..• CSSR .. •16 eet15. 10. 198& Ja prfllJ kri Hl■ tat, la ◄ 6 povlnDf nlln a a 1lonntlaa tlob11 ro•· ■ •now Cl1tno1 dd CSSR. na to, abJ n mohll nlekt dla( po matfanlrf, t,yt tda 116taych )HJ' · vlld• Sloveaalr■ I 1oclallatlc■ oprh ■ ycb kGY ... naJasn~ mlesla n•vrhu nl dvojJ ■ aytaf. Kedle ahtb 6 kel republllry, wllda Cukaj 1CuU.be stllooa • t!I. ◄ IZ u - 11te vysvttllt u kompetl ■oclall•llclr■ J rapubllkJ ( Ire• nych mletaach. Tfmto kooltatonalm .. be • 1 ■ -te dltoaa poulluf lraz■ J• nblC ■ ltl•k aa n6 • IH potwrdzoj■ skul0Cao1f, alto oflcl61ae n6ny \Nirodnfl Predodetkfw Ide o f rodaosU • •m•,.. odllirodttio.-aala lllllllle a■ lo Dripecl• nhrhu zJikona, ktorf hov ktod objektl-ue Je1h,1je, I• rada Sloun•kel ■oc lall1Ucltal fllruje, taUe H m6h delltotlt Jnykml lt6taJcb ora• · rapubllky ■ Nlrodn6 rada 0 prhach prlslu!n"lkov 101 na vzdelanlt nArodnostt n6tlalr) takfto u •Jb16tlt eo repullll• aoclell1llclcaJ CeskaJ ••• 11 tdll•• • •alowneloa, svoJom jnyku a O poutJv SlovUov nlj ■ kf dkon • alto M to koolt ■ taje •I • ti. kf. tohto Juyka v styku • Qr, pt.. takfmto nflllakom vf· S. Uplalnlt • celo,n dkoae I ■hrhu flttHnlho dkona. ml bei akfihOkotvek da lll( 'tittlDJml 1 ■ s1kmJ led■ ai ■ d o fader•Udcll CSSR 1.hatlu, alov ■- ■-cbri.D1, je ta N!l'1ne urCenla. Sme toho nboru, aebe1petanstwo, l• Slodcl tH1kJ nirodaosU jlf6cich • -te •letlry n•tanonnl• tfk•· f6ce u arlad'ovnla federil • , oa tomto 6aemf, ktorf an•• , prho na vrdelenle u m, essa.. die aleb11 aa oeneutl■ per konkrettzovaf na ,1upel\ l Z. NHrbuJean ■, ahy .. prl nycb orahoY, lch komp■ l ■a· ly 1 ,oeesne u mall staJ mad'anlry, aiel1111.h u nebu pliant atuu n ■ l■ I republlky, cl• • unlu lch organh:lcl• vlt podmlenky, za akfch m a prhomocl n mHu menlt dO mGcf doma vo •ereJ011j 1polo•nflt fC&1ko· poulf• ■ l t:l ■ aostl uplatolt, ala bud6 Slonn1kol ; to plall ■ I o pl· Iba oa Uklad• d'allfcb 61ln• 00 uladovaf !koly vyUle ako Uklad.n~ho typu. 1 w,-ranlll •J bez-treala6mu IJ~ prfshalnfbo prfdantbo ofch 1'ko110-... n ■I mH ■ f be1ko-1lovell&kf: Cu• U. I( ni't'rhu 6atua6bo al - kauovaalu. Stovky raaol6CII lsto u1 ~ v 1omto nivrhu t ko .. lonnsk, republlka, t:H• Ilona • a6rodao,tlacb : be konlm:itlzovat, akfm SJ • ,talnoat[. lrtori polltlckfm • 11'taJ• l!laltafom • or1• · sobom sa mA uplatnlt 'l>ti pod.J. ko-alon- ■ lrf lltc • menttnovfch n8.rodnostf %iada111e, ■ bJ H • ■ hrbu ao• SloY6cl • toblo 6.nmla ,.;~:.~D•;::111,~:.:~b\ed::-:.~ VJ'PU&tll ,ad, v kloro ■ •• vlastoibo Jazy poutfvaole po1lelaJ6.. d •«llml ,.,Ntl!afm J•I•• arladlt funkci• pradH- bo•or1, la atrodao1II m•l6 v st_yFu s dradml. n;~:.,.~:- .. undHt bod lllu • podpn ...du, lrllrri by .,prho poalfnf nol Juyk • Tleto ltyllzicle n8.\'rhu .a dkooa VJ"••ch, aHaka •• obudaouU alternaU••• dradnom 1tyku". auje u poutl-..ote • mad'artl • s1avn6ho zakona sQ v roz1 Uthapcom C•sbJ aoc:la.Uatlc· re •J s akentm program1 rato pr•vo by utml pre ■J t• laayko• ltltnych "'· kll r1pub1Jky aJtbo Slo•en • Ov KSS. lebo n4vrb z6ko Slodkov lijliclcb • 1111lela· rodnoaU) • lllradnom ,tylta. ebJ eoclall•tiek•I repu•UlrJ, 511 nez.mleftuJe o povtnno v alJku H nojlml prad•t• · 1lovao1ko•m ■ dar1kfch prltom tty aa afrodn6 nsli· a:fcb n6rodnostof vllarml ,. pollllckfch • ltit• prtslu~nrkov peoie v tfchlo fankdich oblutlach malo nfml ••· aby s ! pomocou t mentin, • nirod m.lH:u uycb orgjnocb priualv6 d6tledkJ. Praklicky atrltdalo podf• funktnfch znaloatJ. osvoJo,'all v~erko t 081 u poull-...C not IHJk. No by soemol6ou1o Slodkom r obdobt. ,:iemolao _ doko ■ ca dko - hatstvo ees kej II slovens• • ttm prlsplev kulrGry .aoru _ n6Uf Slodko• uClf k -\ldjomn6mu s1>0z.ntvar ■a po mad'llhk.) , aby M•cf•rl ,. ■lyku • aJml mohli upl•t · • spolutll1u nirodov • r ubaapeCe11A rodno1H v CSSR . dfJoaom alt Konlunu1eme. ta Slov6cl prflu. Moho tu mlmocbo• IOChtO oblbtlach, kde stl dom upuoralC na krlkfno odchodd poataY■nie Slod • n61 v memlln e, mohll by doataf podra do1erejleJ p1 lrov • Mad'araku, ktort• u xe • poclporou dstavn6ho , • podobnfch prhacb a ■ I 1- ■ kona ' do 11tuAcle, ktora ,, k .o1 .. t nnmia. mo dbsledkoch Tole 1tale •t ■ aoviako ■ a- neentch aaaff. ta by •m• boll proll vlHf k odn6rodf'iovaolu p prfiv a,.ro4aostf, aluJnfkov llitotvorn6bo n.61 :a■ ru~a■ la •I• aem&hme a6bl•alf I poi- da, prfpad ne k lcb 1lteku kodzonnlm Slodkov, lclol"f tfc bto iUemf ■ IovensUbo o , by malo by1 dO.lellltom ale• roda. -. kforjtb _prt• urul!e ■ fch ••- • .J)rginy, lriorf ad nlnter tovan6 na pTlpr,\'e Qstevn .rodaostiHn .,. predlolenom bo zalcooa, by mall uvUlf. ahrbu d•tndbo dkona. by nebolo vbodn6 ,,yhlheci .. tobto Ukona Casove navl * Pracovalcl Matice slovenskej ut na ust1nov11n1e zAkoaa ate · ho odlol federallrAcll. v Martine dt'Ja 8. 10. 196'1 vyslovlU k vl4dnemu ntvrhu • ltylldcle dOsledneftle pr • prekonzultowaf • myallef o postavent nirod• Ukon■ nostl v C:SSR Ueto prlpo• vtetkfcb zlotktch N• rodn ho tronru. mleoky: Publtktcle nivrhu astavntMatt e• slovenska ako c ho Ulkooa -vyvolalo n1Jml v lon4rodn.6 ustanovl.Zeft al p mlestnycb odboroch Matice ldada u morllnu povtnno 1lovenskt1J 01 futnom Sloven- ur,ozornlf na tao.to probl61 sku a.naent ohlaa. Vframe ut •I preto, lebo se 01 ru sa to l)teJavtlo •I ·n, porade v teJto vttel obraceJO tlensl ■ Joie/ Smrhoikj L /Ulo 196& no ndolteoc v Uortln~. m1111tn~bo ~~~1~~. oraanlz.tde 1 cel61 predstavltefov v Mahci ,tovenskeJ, ,nwe:I odpoot.4111 no aktwtlne: otdik~. l'I~"~"'" " ,.............. - .. .. - ~ Foto: A. V. H•id• (Vrouo sprduca MS 4r. Jd,t Mart4k.J Jaqko,adaf '"•• tudowft• lt6ta SAV prlJal k abrbu dkOH O flNf•nlldcH .CS51 ■ atnba filtHatbo dkDDI • ■ trodaC¥,tlacb 1taoo•lako, _. ktorAllo ')'llertme. �SLOVAKIA-2015 100 APPENDIX3 , MATICA SLOVENSK A 1863 1973 NOS!Tlr.RA IADtl IIPl11tlltY The Cleveland Stete University DepArtment of History - College of Arts et Sciences Mr . Marien St olarik C 1 e_v_e_l_ a_n_d_, Ohio 44115 U.S. A. VU li,t anatlty Vee: 10 d6a 26/II/73 Na la I natlta 4-63/1157/35 4/73 - St Martin 27. marca 1973 Vaieny pan Stolarik, ~akuje me za Va§ list, ktory nam umoihuje nadvi azat medzinarodny vymenny styk s The Cleveland State University , Department of History , Cleveland, Ohio prostrednictvom Va§ej pOaobnosti na tejto univerzi te. Avizovam1 publikaciu sme este zatial' ned ostali, nakol'ko doru~enie zasielky trva v priemere tri mesiace. Matice slovenska, Martin s radostou pr!jme predpletne na ~asopis v ramci vymeny "The International Migration Review", ako aj vybavenie na§ich objednavok ns publikacie, ktore Vam budeme postupne, taktiez v remci vymeny posiela t, Vyme nn~ rekepitulacie si budeme viest individuelne na zaklade Va si ch zasielok s cenemi a prip ! §eme v prospech Va§ho vymenneho konte , ako aj z naAej strany zasielane potvrdenky s uvedenim cien pre Va§u evidenciu. Zatial' sme Varn po slali 9 publikacii z oblasti historie su~~snej produkcie podl'a Va§ej po~iadavky dha 15.III,1973 a dal'sie publikacie , tykajuce sa tejto obla sti Vam postupne po~leme, Dufame , te s tymto postu~om budete s uhlbsit a roz s!ri sa fond o slovacika na Va§ej univerzite, ako aj f ond Matice slovenskej s publika ciami , o ktore bud eme ziadat na zaklsde excerpt z Cumulative Book Index s zoznamov vydani j ednotlivych vydavatel'ov. Tymto by sme pokladali dohodu z nasej strany za uzavretu a prosime Vas o pisomny suhlas, Te§ime sa na Va §u odpoved ~ sme / s pozdravom ~ -=- Prof.dr.Ing . Jarosl ov .~ELKO , CSc, / Spravco Matice slovenskej v,b .. •i" Stuchlikova Tclt:r6n 2Sf6, 2547, 2548, 25+9, 5197 Oalekopi1 0755:SI 0)6 5 2Martin, Mud ro6ova M �SLOVAKIA-2015 101 APPENDIX4 , MATICA SLOVENSKA NOSIT£t K A RADU RIP U B LIKY Kr. Ph. D. KarU.n Stol6rii: The Cleveland State Univereity CLEVELAND, Ohio 44115 U SA V' j Ii SI I.oa t ")' zo d na Ma r tin Nala znal': K a 5-63 /1JtlJ/Ff l14-U Vee: 23.10.1974 ~ai:)lje■ e Vma Ba list a vr,ten,y ponui:ovy zozJ:lUl. Poaielee Vo !iadan4 knihy a! na tri tituly, i:tor4 eu •! rocobra• n41 1. Ju!n4 Slovenako 2. Ratkoil1 Pra■ ene k dejinmn Vel'kej Koravy 3e Sedla1 Preilovek4 kolegium v elovenekych dejin,ch Dll:fame, !e oetatn4 knihy dostanete ~o najekar av poriadku. ~akujeme Vu aj za aaaopia "Ethnicity•. Sudame ve:rmi r~ di, ked ho pre n,a objean,te. S pozdravo■ / ~f~ Stefan Krivuil spr,vca Matice slovenakej Vy b ovujec Ulbr ichtov, Kiria Tcler6n 2346, 2347, 2548, 2349, 3197 Oalek.opi1 0753,1 0'652 Mar tin, Mu d r ufi ova 35 �102 SLOV AKIA-2015 APPENDIXS a Cudzojazycnci priloha Sefredali:to, Stefan Hovlo r. Zosto vi l M iloslo v And re6nsky Vydalo Mati ce slo.,en 1k6 v Ma rti ne. Tlotili TSNP, z6 v< Neogrofla , Martin, CSSR v m6Ji 1983. fllowcnal:o a 1983 roku u ma konat' 14. d: 17. okt6bra vo Washing• tone, na budud rok v Kansas City). Madzl elenml SSA je I nlalcorko vyznamnych 7 SLOVAK STUDIES ASSOCIATION 7 Tato apoloalosf ui 120 vedec:kych p.-.covnikov s1ov..-.. p6vodu a priatefov slovenekef vedy, lwttury • umenla nielen z USA• Kanady, ale I z cfalilch lblitov ..,_ zlskava prootrednfo. tvom The Balch lnstitut vo Phlladelphll, USA, od Matice olovaMkef, Slovenakej akademle vied a cfalilch . - k y c h kultumych inititudl e.aoplsy, zbomlky a knlhy. VosvoJom ,,Newsletter", ktory ut po 8 rolcov vyd6va dvakrU do roka, oboznamuje avofich Benov • prostrednk:tvom nlch I sV9tOvu vect.cku verejnosf • knlhaml ■ zbomflcml a upozoffluje na zaujfm■Ye ~Hinley v tasoplsoch. Okrem toho Jnfonnuje •J o knihKfl a - - V 6uopi9och O Slovikoch, a alovenakef problematlke, ktore vytll v cudzlne. Bohutlar napriek evidentnaJ snahe po objekttvnom, nezaujatom rwferovanf prmu len pravlida zimer uprlamlf pozomosf na publlkacle a ttanky a obuhom niilmu lblitu a zrladenlu naprlatersky orlentovanych. SSA mi •I vl■-u edialu l!lnnosf preva!ne V apolupr6cl - ao Slovanakjm Ustavom v Clevelande, oriento-v■ nU nepri■tal'slry voa n,m. Zatlar eo predaada a elenovla vyboru sa vprlebehu rokov - pokier am■ to mall mofnost ■ ledovat menlli, trvalU pozldu ta)omnfka a pokladnlka od r. 1978 mi M . Marl< Stolarik. ktory je aj Ndalctorom .,Newsletter" . SSA je lnltttucionlilnym aenom American Assoclation for Advenc:ement of Slavic Studies • aktivne aa zututiluje na Jej nirodnych konvandich (toho kn)anakych vadeckych p.-.covnlkov, lctori ma)u s Matlcou alovenskou dobre kontalcty. Medzl inyml Mrs. Nonna Rudlnski, Gerald J . Sabo, June Alexander, John Berta, Saly Staruch, Tom Marzik • d'alif z USA.. prof. Peter Petro a Yvonne Grabowski z Kanady ako I J . M. Rydlo zo avajaarska a dalil. AJctfvna Bnn~ tychto k spoluprild • Maticou lllovenskou na kuttumom poff ochotnych llanov SSA, vytvira perapektivu, le v buducnostf aa bude m6ct' celkom aeri6zne uva!ovaf I o konkretnej prlamej apoluprid Matice alovenekej ao Slovak Studies Anoclatlon v oblastl propagicle vyaledkov alovanokef vacly, kultury • umenla vo . - .. Zatlar, • vyhradou propagide nim naprlat.rokej litera• tury, pozltlvna hodnotima snahu SSA oboznamovat svetoW vededc:U vsejnost o nallch uspechoch v oblutl vedy, literatury • umanla. Priame kontalctyvtak vzhradom na neprlat.rsky postoj preclovtetkym takych vplyvnych oaobnostf v SSA ako SU Stanislav J . IOrachbaum, M. Mark Stolarik ■ Renee Mikus, nie SU v SUbsnoatl mOZ"'. Je to aamozrejme na ikodu vecf, ktor.6 nim je opolol!ni: propagidl slovan■kaj vacly. lfteratury a umenla na svatovom f6rw. MILOS BIEL �SLOV AKIA-2015 103 APPENDIX6 VYD/..VA MA.TICA SLOVlNSK/.. no&luil'b bdu repubUky MARTIN 14. Dovembra 1983. VAS LIST ZNA<'!KY Valent pe p~. lla.rlc K. Stolarik The i!lalch lMtit~te 18 S., 1th Street ZO Di'IA N~A ZNA<'!KA Philadelphia, Pa. 19106 VYBAVUJE Kiloll Bie]l. VEC: Vll!eny pain pro:f'e aorl V pr:!10118 Vllm zasielam :f'otokopiu a aajho l!lilnlcu, a SSA v nallom l!aeopiae Slovenako l!.6/83 a :f'otokopiu replilcy z Kanadak4ho Sloviika l!.37, rot. 42 z 24.9.1983, hoci J>Nldpoklaau, !e ich ob11ah d poznate. Ak oba l!llllllcy poromllte a apoaeaiete ei na to1 l!o ate nap1aali predaedovi Matice alovenalcej DIU'o 111119lcovi Vlatia!rovi Kinal!ovi i na jeho odpoved, bude Vu zre,im4, !e Vu Va6i priatelia z Kanadak4ho SlovlUca (Vall otec??) poalcytli aedvadiu alu!bu. Ol!akav.,._, !a ea nad oboma l!lllnkud zllJIIYalite, najd nad ich doaahoa v elovenalalj varejnoati za hranicaai, zaujaete jednoznaln4 a pravde zodpovedaj uce etanoviako a po!iadate redalcciu Kanadak4ho Sloviika o opravu. Ky v Slovensku ame tie! oohotn1 Valle atanoviako publikova~. �SLOVAKIA-2015 104 APPENDIX 7 kor..ne s mojfm prt,dpllllnym . Zarove~ pr1p•J11m MO na 23 dolarov, t. J. 20 11ko predplatne 11 3 na podporu. Zarovel\ m1pr11vde , ktor4 oko!0 nM 11li:1(l _ _______ _ ne. No to si pocnete s eecno- _ ........_,,.;,;._..;..,.....;...,._,,.. slovakm i a podobnymi pobhi- nerobl dobru slufbu medzl sh,denymi oveckami? . venskyml vyst'ahovalcaml na amerlckom konllnente. To by . sl mall uvedomll' af II, ktorl 1:: chcli hfadaf spolupracu so I~sJovenskym exllom v slobod- r-----------------------7 , Mm citatelia opiitovne Vas chceme poprosit', aby ste si prezreli zaznam pri Vasej adrese. Ak mate este stale na konci dvojku (2). tak Vase predplatne vyprsalo. Nedavno sme poslali cfalsfch vyse sto (100) iiadosti o vyrovnanie si predplatneho. Prosfme aj tych, ktori maju na konci trojku (3) a mesiac ai po okt6ber, nech si laskavo vyrovnaju predplatne, lebo im sa uz t' · k c ·1 UI' h • a •d k 1ez s on_ '. o a . c1 1e nam pr cu a vy a_v Y na znamky t1ez. riakureme Varn za porozum~nie Admin1strac1a K . S. I nom svete. I Je zfavne, fe reflm na SloI vensku podnlk6 11 bude podI' nlkaf kroky, aby potupoval sloI venskych ntlrodovcov v exlle a 1' aby podryvallch f"dnotu a akll- J I vltu " 11 kafdom poN. Bolo by ., pod nalu d0stofnosl', aby sme 115 komunlstlckyml ldeol6gml debatovall II vledll s nlml dla16gy. Tym bysme Im roblll sluf- -------------------------• - bu, uzn6vall lch za parlnerov, s kloryml stofl ZII lo sedl ..t' ZII USA a pollllkov sa nezaobera. PIie vedecke prtlce O sloven• skom vyst'ahov,.1lectve do USA _-_·-- •-=;-- ' ~ 11 fe uzntivanou uutorltou medzl amerlckyml hlstorlkml II vedeckyml lnAlllliclaml Podra Andrnansk~ho-Blela Pod tltulom .Ohlasy" uverejnl,. ~ b._g.rof. Sto"rlka,.Je.Jt lo ,.Slovensko'", klore mt! byt' f ·srov ~Sludle._!. kulllirno-spolotenskym s _~ c 18 11 0 ,. 11 b y t 8 t •0 mesatnlkom a je vydavane Ma- ";iiofot!nosr mor.t'a reprezentollcou slovenskou v Turtlan- ,vat' Slovakov medzl amerlckyskom Svlltom Marline, vo svo- ml hlstorlkml a v Slavic Stujom tlsle z flila 1983 naslrane6 dies Association 8 teda Slov,icl utok na Msgr. F. Fugu , ktory je n e b O II p O ne ch an I p O d slovenskym narodovcom a patronatom ,.Czechoslovak predsedom Zahranltnef Mall- Studies Assoclnllon'". Ide O tisce slovenskej, ktora nle je mar- te vedeckli spolotnosl" hlstoxlsllcka ako hi na Slovensku. rlkov slovensl<eho p0vodu, Clanok .Kio klame a dezlnfor- ktorl sa hlasla k slovenskemu muje'" naplsal Mlloslav Andre- rodu a pf§u o slovenskef otazansky. ke vedeckym spOsobom, teda Ten lsty Mlloslav Andretln- objektlvne. sky (alias MIiot Blel) v augusToto sa pravdafe, M. Andretovom tisle Slovenska uveref- tlnskemu-Blelovl nep6tl, lebo nil znova lltok na dr. M. Stoia- sa tam nechvall techoslovaklzrlka, klory fe najkvallflkovanef- mus a marx-lenlnlzmus. !Im slovenskym hlslorlkom v Taketo plsanle Sloyenska spolotnym stolom. J" nam Nto, fe na amerlc• kom konllnenle mtl komunls!Icky reflm na Slovensku svoflch obdlvovatel'ov a kolaborantov, ale tych my anl nepresvedtlme, anl neziskame. Tleto litoky, krltlky, alebo I za. lletanl■ tasoplsu Slovensko nas e§te vlac upevnla v tom, f~ budeme mOcr dOsledne br6nlt a chranlt' mravne a narodne hodnoty slovenskeho exllu a P.rllva slov:en~ e~~9 , .n_a,[.(1da pra~ neAl'astna_~~ ! slovenska v Tufe1anskom Svlltom Martine t~k ne~_f.!)eba Z[pdlla a zre_d.,u. Y m me vel'a svojlch vlaslnej§lch a nallehavejAlch liloh. (R) s/itort �SLOV AKIA-2015 105 APPENDIX8 lHE BALCH INSTITLJrE for ElHNIC STUDIES 18 South Seventh Street, Philadelphia, PA. Or M. Men STOlorik Uecutive Director Boord cJ Trustees Samuel H 8olklm. .k Ch011mon .JohnC Hoen ViceCr'\Otlmon AlexO:"'1010 8 Goloslu 19106 November 29, 1983 P4'n MiloS Biel Reda'kcia Slovensko 036 52 M a ~ Mudroifo va 35 Czechoslovakia Europe DrahY pcln Biel: Secrelo,y v.f$ .John F White heosu16' wo11er ~ Afooe, t0w1ence J 9ornh0'\T r, oc:e,1 C Cho01n MOn Beo111ce K Chemock lh90CJOl8 H Cov11 Th0m01 J F111oei-010 list zo dn'a 14 . novembra, 1983, som dO.e s obdrZal. Mlt~ yravdu ,/ed p{sete Z\ pozn~ obsah ~lo":,enskfch C:asop1;sov. Ako h isto ri k c!tam vsetke Slovenske tasopisy ktore vychadzaju na zapade. Aj niektore' zo Slovenska. Mam tiez' p{somne sty'ky zo Slovak.mi po celom svete. Pre mXa ti e to tasopisy a li s t y su pramene pre deji ny Slova'kov v 20. storoc'i. Lis t y od v;{s pa tt:i a mc dz i nima. Or Muffov J:.11eomon WdhOmL GfolO Dr Roso Bo~e Green Pl"Ol A W~liom Hogiuno Rooe,tM HOwe Moue A ledeler Corv L8Ylnson. Esci Mri- Fronk P louchheln'\ Set C Mo-npon MictlOel Novak Vrvion W Piosoc:k1 Mrs Meve, P Potomlun Em11vC m1ev Prof Timothy l. Smith Consiontine S. Sosongells Dr Jomes Ton11 1-1on Pou! A TroncMellO hOn Mno Cibott1 Ve,no Dr tv'torvin Wocnmon Ho~, Notnan1e1Wos.,1ngton c ec,110 Mov veo Polemizovaf s valmi neb1;,dem. \'1Sa tfloha je robi'! '!,ropa gandu . Mo'ja j e p{sal de jiny. V tomto pripade budem ~ ma'E posledne slovo. Ked chcete da~o uverejni'f v c!as opise Sl ovensk o , zasi ela'm vfm Clanok z Horizontu, o semin.iri v Martine. Vi k t or M.amatey , n.JS by'vali predseda, ho napisal a celkom s nlm s\Jhlasim. P{sat mOtete Co chcete. Historici budu vSetko posudzo vat. "Pravda vitazi," ako hovoril Masaryk. S k rajansk[m pozdrav om , /~ Emet1tu1 Prot fo.....o'O p HuTC""l1nson / (215) 925-8090 /-r?'i / v -~ Maria'n Stolclri k 0-< �SLOV AKIA-2015 106 APPENDIX 9 Slovak Studies Association Affiliated with the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies 700 Pe nfie ld Ave. , Havertown , PA 19083 Septemb e r 3 , 1983 Dr . Vladimfr !tinll! Predseda Matice slovenakej 812 51 Bratislava Pugai!"evova 2 Czechoslovakia 1968, I have of scholarly asked for my agreed . Over thousands of exchange. Since my first research tri p to Slovakia in the summe r of actively cooperated with the Matica elovensk8 in the exchange materials . Dr. Jan Martak and Dr. ~tefan Krivulf wrote me and cooperation in this program of cultural exchange and I gladly the last fifteen years I have sent the Mat i ca slovenska dollars worth of book.a and periodicals as a part of this You can imagine what a s hock and aurprise it was to me, therefore , to open your monthly magazine Slovensko (No.8, 1983) and to find, on page 6 of your supplement, 11 Slovensko krajanom, 11 an attack upon me by a certain MiloJ Biel. He accuses me, aa editor of the Slovak Studies Newsletter , of bringing to people's attention articles and publications "whose contents are hostile to our state I a political system," of working "in cooperation 11 with the Slovak Institute in Cleveland, 11 and of taking an unfriendly s tand" towards Slovakia. Cont'd on page 107 �SLOV AKIA-2015 107 APPENDIX9 Besides being false, these charges betray a certain naivte by Mr. Biel about historical scholarship and conditions in the West. You, as a scholar and poet, must realize that serious historians have to consider all sources when writing their history, not just those that a certain political philosophy calls for. That i s the very essence of objectivity. Furthermore, it is the duty of true scholars to have contacts with all institutions that contain historical meterials, whether they be located ~Slovakia or in the United States. Finally, we in the West believe in openness and pluralism. For instance, the Slovak Studies Association, of which I am the founder and Secretary-Treasurer, has among its members Slovak Catholics, Lutherans, Calvinists, Greek Catholics, Jews, nationalis ts, 'Czechoslovaks' and Marxists. We do not exclude people because of their religion or political orientation. We are open to all scholars who are interested in promoting Slovak studies the world over . Therefore, Mr. Biel' s clumsy attempt to list 1 'friendly 11 and "unfriendly" members of the Slovak Studies Association is going to backfire and hurt the good contacts that the Hatica slovenska has developed with Slovaks in the West over the last several years. I s uggest that you have Mr. Biel retract his crude and unwarranted attack upon me in the next issue of Slovensko . If he does not, I have a feeling that most of the goodwill that the Hatica slovensklhas built up with young scholars in the Western World will very quickly disappear. Yours Sincerely, l ·f i~ �108 SLOV AKIA-2015 APPENDIX 10 Bratislava, 4,10,1983 Vazeny pan Stolarik! Iste Vas nemusfm ubezpe ~ovaf o tom, ako Matici slovenskej zalezf na vsetkom, co sa aotyka dejin i su~asnosti slovenskej narodnej kultury, ako nam teda zalezi aj na kazdom, kto s nami chce v mene buducnosti tejto kultury spo lupracovaf, To sa dotyka aj Slovak Studies newsletter i Vas osobne, Mrzf ma to, co sa stale v ~asopise Slovensko, Nemam priam_y vplyv na redigovania ~asopisu, ale pokia! to bude v mojich silach., zabranim v buducnosti moznym nedorozumeniam . Rozumia sa, za mame rozliCne nazory na zivot spolocnosti a na jej buducnost . Ale mame aj spoloCnu starost, ktorou je slovenska narodna kultura, jej dejiey a osudy - na celom svete, Dufam teda, ze nam v oalse.j spolupraci nezabrania malichernosti a ostavam so srdeCnym pozaravom dJ.l~-t~~ / t/ • Vazeny pan M,Mark Stolarik 7U0 Penfiela Ave. Havertown, ~A 19083 ~~~U Narodny umelec Vladimir Minal! �SLOV AKIA-2015 109 APPENDIX 11 - s--!.. =■ ~ S:io'-'6,1,~Ko t /tJ.,~f. HIOll4CIIKl:1:t c::==s ilowc11td::~ ► --. 5: Slovensko pre ,,dva druhy citatefov" Pod tymto Hver•vr•vnYffl .. l&IVom uv--tnM p6n M...Wn Mtt Stolarik. tajomnlk • po-. ......· - - • e t ipolotnOfll (Slovak StudlN \Noc:Ultion) v USA vo •vojom "MWUetter rot. I , tWo 1/iun 1114, str. I . nuledujUCU pomemku : ,Sloven•ko, oflcialny meu~ "Ilk M•tH» •lov•n•k• J vych'· dz.a vo dvoch veni,ch, p,-. dv• r,dliln4 titat•l•k4 ve,.jna.rl. Predpok/adal aom, I • ..,,•tci nd i ~novla to vedill, • I• n• d4vn o .am zlstil l e to tak nle ,._ Vlalna 1. v,. J. v domienk•. h Slo~o. tron dost'"'• t• Vy ■Jja, jetenl•tvtuop/a, lrto,Y cirltulu}9 ,,. Slowm•ku. f•li•. Aku pozome adlv■ t• n• lcror,hofvek 8•/o V"h o U•ooi•u SloVM1•ko, vlimnite al, le mtKUi 16. • 17. atranou hlevnej t..•ti ~nopi•u je Cudzofuytn' prf/ohe, r,ro Cudzoj•~n, prlloha znaman, oval• vlec n#Jl vyzer,. ObuhuJ• tiel ~,,,.. ky v •loventine, ilu•troven4 ,, Toho tuu ,,.jchUlo•tiwjjoo ....cou je otbb •lav•n•k•J prl• lo hy Sloven.Ice. v,1ho m • ~ nib, wnov• MJ Jcr• Janom v u hr•ni8, ,,. ktof'U m• upozornlll •i vlac»rl )ednotllvcl. PodobM elco Stol• rilc v Slov• lc Studi• ._ Pouvelu;t• a WICI, uda t•ru ul r,ro prlloh• v •lowrwt.•f rKi b y mohl• by( •U~•fou rl•dM otlaloven'(Ch .rr, n Slovt1M ka, • to •i pre 6it•t• l ov v • t•rom kr•JI. Cudzojuytry prllohe by u moh/M vloli( do ~•oplsu Hp■ r,rne. Predillo by u zbytotn•J krltilce, nedtr wre, yYSmelnYm • ultll)«:nYm pozn,mlcem • Jcont,..ver• zil, I• u Ju ,ob4v• t• uUnf titetefom dome '. S.m ozre/m, w c, Je potombyste melivybe,..f • pr'vy od 01db v,m pr!Jat111nych.,, Ne dldede tohoto llstu sm• pochopHI, le naM nepriatalls v auf•l•J sneh• dlskredftova! n'6 tasopls. c:hytaJU N kaJdel prildfto.tl, aby naMI Umlen• 2) bu<f vy va ml moriadtis!■ Sk>vensb 2 X do roka • ru u rok Magufn, ako •m• to uroblll v rokoch 1811 s 1NZ. 3) elebo prUollt NmostatnU prflohu ku kald,mu tulu Slovenska, 1rtor• bud• ••· pedov•n• U.,enom. Bolo n,m Ja.sn',, le form• pristupu ku luajanom vytadu}11. ■by ttat.M slovo, ktorym .. bud•m• obraca! ku krajaq_om. bolo vy,obeM najmodern9llou tachn.lkou • na kv■• litnom ps.,...-1. preto.le all.nm toho, le bude plnft' nu-odnouvedomovadu • fflformKnU funk.du, bude slutff •J ako ,.._ pruenUda nai•J SUtesnosd. Preto rozhoduJUdml taktorml, ~ urtlll tretlu alt.emaUvu ako opdmilnu • reelb.ovstel'nU, boll: pridal kvalhMho pa• piera a Aulomberka, ftnentn. prostriedky poa«ytovan, Ml• nlst.erstvom lwlturf SSA. pwaoniln• ubupet:enl• redak• tn't'ch pnc bu zvylenla at.aw redaktorov • konetne 11..padta tlatlarM. NaN Slovensko •ko Matupc:a MatitMho ffianlll vych6du ul 6smy roll. Ptvyc:h I rokov vyc:hadulo i.k ako teraz n• 32 stnMc:h, ale z toho Ian na I farebnych. Nlekol'ko stovik vytlatkov Slov•nslta :uslelalo byval4 Oddelenle MS ~ U· hranltnjch Slov,kov I n■JJm knjanom predovletkym do Fnl'tCUului, Juhosljvle • Kanady. 11M I do USA• Auatr611e. 0d roku 1813, v a&JvlslMtl • I► ho vlalm umeranhn do uhran~•• rodlriM sme fa,.bnU ten' n11 11 atrin. bez avylenla cany Ka 5, - :u a.Jo. To ale znamenelo t1atH oety tuopfs na kvalftnom ,,..,_... Nale tov,,.I\ v Rulombertc.u vyr6ba skutotne kv•lltnY pepler, ktory Je yYZ.namnYffl exportn,;m ;rovania • udriovania kontak tov • lu■janml • v ""•ha po m6d im v kh Ualll o udrianll sloven~o n,rodn~ pov• dornla a podtu •~upatrit nosd • Jedrom n6rods P04 T atraml, alto I umo.t:ntr Im YU )omn, poznanl• krsjan~ livota v r6znyc:h tastiac:h sva ta Itek ako sma to uv&edl v 1/14 Bale Slov•nslui). Ak by sm• chcall dod6v• prilohu Slovansko krajanon I na domic:I trh, potrebovaU b• ame prlnajmen9' o 30 % vyt.t pridel p,aJNer•. to u daneJ vj robne4 sftuKM v n.&J:ombe, • k•J tov6rni nle }e moln4i. Tak ti&I by sme muMII ;rvyi,lt' cani tasopisu na dom6com trhu, 6t tlel v sutasnoati Ne Je ul.alM TNI• •ko vldlta, m ill luaja nl a, calkom proukk6 flnant " '• ma....Ulna • techrdck, d6 vody Mt pntinou, pre&t tj ta.Slovenaka, ktor6 Ja ur6en6 kni janom • :uoberi N prevs.tn. luajanskou problematikou nil Je k dlt,poddl I domkam1 Btat.rovl. Cudzojuyl"' priloha J• tla 6an, na obytajnom 1.-.bnon novl novom pepl■ rt, aby ZyY ru.nlla a oddelllll prlohu 0< ostat,,..,o taxtu . Talrto nie J4 ponJien6 kontlnulta taxtu pr1 domidch tltatelov • kr■J•n sky at.atel' dOSUva svoj u prflo hu komp,aktnU. Konettla treba p. Mar5'nov Stolarikovl prlpomenut', h pr avojef vedlajiej tinnostl altc r.dsktor • vydav■tel' Nawalet• tar al mohol (ubudol alebo nec:hcel1) Yilmnuf, le sko oudzolazytni prilohe, tak I Slo· vansko lu■Janom majU NmoatatnU tlril. to v novin6rskej praxl anama"'-, la hod Je Jedan vydav■ W I Ufr.daktor. prMaa to, to do.Uvs, SU vlast• ne tri Nmostatn4i periodlld (hod I spolu zoliU). ktor6 m~ tu byf upedov•M • rodlro• Cont'd on page 110 �SLOV AKIA-2015 110 APPENDIX 11 • ~ • to priMU a , nky o s1ov, lcoch na UpatH. Slovkl dom• tuto prllohu niltdy navkl~ . Vla•tMUwry .iurobteMml." Nepovdov•II •m• dopot,lal' uWM ,-govat' na alee dot.. .nultov•n&i. ... pNdu len U'9jmU domyeel'noet' uv.. defMlpmNlmlryvNew.iett:•. Medd6uo,n u I\U v I.ta opjul llnjan a NSR. pr.ea nedoetaf v CSSR i!uopla SbveMlco • prilohou 8&ovenako lulljanom. Odpovadal am• mu p&.omne pnllmo • on naM vywetaenieakoeptoval. Oo.teM ..,... vlak d'.U 19t a USA od vjzn,amrwho krajanakMto kutbimeho Bnltel'-. v ktorom bol nuledufQd od- u ......, dWttod &u ndavnutomli, PN koho taeopl• vycUvama ■ v ■ tom rouahu, roahod.W .me N podllf ilrokej knjanilk•J Y«9jnoatl vywedanie. 0 d6vodoch, ktcri nN • nM nadrtadenf Ol'Pn - Mlnlnera:tvo 11.ulb;ry 8SR - vleclll le tomu, ■by am• vycMv■ II tlHMM alovo pre lualanov, MM plull oblim• ne tomto m'-te v 9/M a.le Slovanaka. Tu tr..bll objaantt' Iba technldw .trinJa.i rulldde. Z Uvah, ■ ko rHll.zov■t i.nto dme,, vykryttall.zovall J ■har­ t111tfvy: 1) bud' vydjvaf Nmo.tab'tf fuopl■ pre knjaftOV (kvr(.-O<J. vyN>ba, Ide na uport. Napatr"' Ullf' aoaUiva pre, tuumsko ■ ,. prfen■ llmH.ovan6. N•t tuopq doetaval tie.I urtfty prid.a tohoto papi.,.. (n■ I _,.n). 0d roku 1N3 bol prklel r,ylent na pokrytM I farebnych strin (d'.tlkh) ■ I rilin prflohy PN lu■Janov. baopta 810¥'9ftN0 I• WWnY' ..........................ho atatel'■ : 70 % Nlldadu Ide na dom'4:il trh ■ len 25 % ,. prilohou) pre lnjanov ■ I % pre on.atnu GUdzlnu. Tyoh 21 "' "'ldadu. apolu • c:uckoluy6nou p,9ohou • prlohou Slownako kntrlanom IMnC:1Ujeme a~Matloe.aov.n•uJ dotovaMho ~om kuhury &SR v UUJm• Na UV..- .. t ied.a podotknUf, ta ,ri..,.a tych rucMckofaM.tkkych luuhov, kto" •ita necMvno qltovall, aby Mm lln)ani• Slovenako vrac.all Cnapr. tt.nadaky Slodk), .. aruu DZYV• fartzajsk.6 atarost• lfvo.t o nilho do""oeho tltaWa. la nav&dl iu.JaN116 priohu. :Um..- Je fun'i' • jednoanat:nj . Cheu Mm polllodK, otrevovaf vzfahy nwwdal narnl • krajanml. lrtoN .. 1 naprielc lch lntria'm .,.,.,.. • Ua,pe,tn• roMJaJ'I . .... anahy hod~ nflnonn, • hod I n• Cpeaudo) ved41Ckej Oroml aem,ow"' prukn6 alto myclo"' bubllna. pr.tole pr■ vda )e ,.. n-■J nadvA- Cud1oja1yCnd prnoha Rlowcnallo ~ S...- Htl.i.., Z -fll M ,i.,1 .. A ~,t--AOI V~MMl1lcaoi...-U• • " " ' -· 'i.t.llTS""'.••"' .w(- "-9,_fJa. MolniA, (l.$a • - 1,n . . . , . �SLOV AKIA-2015 111 APPENDIX 12 TRAFENA HUS ZAGAGA is a Slovak saying meaning literally •the goose that is hit will maJce a loud cackle• . .I t caoos to one's mind when reading the article in SLOVENSKO *) ,tbe.:.official monthly publication of'Hatica slovenska (Czecho-Slovakia) attacking Hark H. Stolarik, Secretary-Treasurer of the SlovaJc Studies' Asscr ciation (USA) far his brief remark in the Association's Newsletter (June 1984, see also SM 5 &6, p.28). Stolarik informed about the non-availability of SLCNENSKO' s supplement SLDIENSKO XRAJANOH (aimed at Slovaks outside Sl~ vakia) to readers in J;lovakia. According to SLOIENSXO,the re~ sons f.or this non-availability are econcmi c : paper . shortage• •though no mention •is made of the fact that they are flooding the West with 'canplimentary copies' of their books printed on very expensive paper. I t takes them the best part of a page to say this, when a simple ,sentence •because of economic reasQllS we cannot supply the Supplement for no extra cost to readers in Slovakia, however they can obtain i t· ·e asily for an additional subscription . & . Kcs ... • would have been sufficient. But ·this they dia ..cot want tD say! By the way, one is concerned~ bout access to SLCNENSKO KRAJANOH not as i f this was the best way to inform people in Slovakia . - about Slovak life in the West, but because Hatica slovenska herself has been encouraging Slovaks in the -west to establish contactJwith their old homeland through h'Z"iting ·to SLCNENSKO. I f the only obstacles to establishing such contacts were economic , a simple solution would be this : The BULI£TIN of the SLCNAX WCRLD CONGRESS states that it: "is available to readers in Slovakia free of charge• (there is no paper shortage in Canada !J. Why does not Hatica slovenska undertaJce to distribute the BULI£TIN free .of charge among the subscribers of SLOVENSKO in .Slovakia, and have in exchange the Slovak World Congress distribute SWVENSKO KRAJANOH free of charge to the readers of their BULLETIN in the West. Nobody could then canplain about lack of contacts : •I t was too much of a temptation to resist, namely to present to our readers the final part of the article in SWVENSKO with ·al:1 -its orwellian beauty (their English sUD1Dary contains neither this nor the vitriolic attaak .on H. Stolarik) : Those who dared to question the availability of SLOVENSKO KRAJANOH are •fascists• and "pharisees• (what a combination !) who "want to damage and poison the r~ lationship between us [i.e. Hatica] and our countrymen, which shows a premising and successful development despite their [i. e. the fascists' and pharisees' J intrigues. Their attempts, though cunning and presented on a {pseudo) scientific level .will burst like a soap bubble because .the truth is on our side.• � SLOV AKIA-2015 87 MY ROCKY RELATIONSHIP WITH THE MATICA SLOVENSKA. DURING THE SECOND ERA OF COMMUNISM IN CZECHOSLOVAKIA, 1970-1989: A PERSONAL MEMOIR M. Mark Stolarik When I first visited Slovakia in the summer of 1968, I established friendly contacts with the Matica slovenska in Martin . 1 Never did I dream that, a short while later, one of its employees would publicly attack me. This happened because the political situation in Czechoslovakia changed as a result of the Warsaw Pact invasion of August, 1968. The so-called "Prague Spring," led by the Slovak reformer Alexander Dubcek, who wished to transform Czech and Slovak society into "socialism with a human face," was crushed under the weight of Warsaw Pact tanks. Less than a year later, Dubcek was replaced as First Secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia by the turncoat Gustav Husak, who proceeded to "normalize" the state. What started out as a year of high hopes turned into one of great disappointment. 2 Even though I was born in Slovakia in 1943, my parents decided to evacuate the whole family into Austria before the Russian front came through in January of 1945 . I did not return to my home town of Martin until July of 1968. 3 Dr. Jozef Telgarsky, the Director of the National Library, which then belonged to the Matica slovenska, 1 A shorter, Slovak version of this article first appeared as "Matica slovenska pod dohl'adom Statnej bezpecnosti," in Matica slovenska v narodnych dejinach, ed. by Imrich Sedlak (Martin : Matica slovenska, 2013), 174-78. I initially described this trip in greater detail as "My Memories of Slovakia under Communism (S ummer of 1968)," in Narodny kalendar CVII (Pittsburgh, 1999), 96-99 . 2 For the latest scholarship on the " Prague Spring" see The Prague Spring and the Warsaw Pact Invasion of Czechoslovakia, 1968: Forty Years Later, ed. by M. Mark Stolarik (Mundelein, IL: Bolchazi-Carducci, 2010). For the period of "normalization" in Slovakia see Norbert Kmet' and Juraj Marusiak, comp., S/ovensko a reiim normalizacii (Presov: Michal Vasko, 2002). 3 1 described my family's Odyssey, as well as Slovak emigration in general, in Where is my Home? Slovak Emigration to North America (1870-2010) (Bern: Peter Lang, 2012). �88 SLOV AKIA-2015 heartily welcomed me. He was delighted that, after so many years of being cut off from the West, he could once again establish contacts with Slovaks in the West. 4 I had come to Slovakia in the summer of 1968 as a Ph.D. student from the University of Minnesota in order to study the villaie origins of Slovak emigration to North America in the 19 th and 20 centuries. I had already studied the parish records of various Slovak communities in the United States and Canada and wished to link them with those in Slovakia. At the same time, I had started to collect archival materials for the newly-established Immigrant Archives at the University of Minnesota. When I finished my research in Slovakia in September of 1968, I promised Telgarsky, that I would begin to send duplicate archival and library materials concerning Slovaks in the USA and Canada to the Slovak National Library in return for the SNL sending me the latest publications of historians in Slovakia. 5 After I finished my doctoral studies at the University of Minnesota, I was employed by several professional institutions but never lost contact with the Matica slovenska. At first I was employed by the Cleveland State University as a Lecturer and Assistant Professor (1972-76), then as an Historical Researcher at the National Museum of Man in Ottawa (1977-78), then as President and CEO of the Balch Institute for Ethnic Studies in Philadelphia (1979-91) and finally as Professor and Chairholder of the only Chair in Slovak History and Culture in the Western World at the University of Ottawa (1992 to the present). During all of these years I continued my program of exchange with the Matica slovenska. I wish that I could say that our relations were always good, but it was not to be. While I worked at the National Museum of Man in Ottawa, I took the initiative to establish a new scholarly organization. In 1975 a Czechoslovak History Conference had been founded by a group of historians in the United States. 6 From my study of Czech and Slovak history, I knew that, as always, Slovak history, and Slovak scholars, 4 When I returned to the USA, it occurred to me that Jozef Telgarsky was the author of my favorite children's book - Zirafa [The Giraffe] (Martin: Matica slovenska, 1946). While we were refugees in Austria from 1945-1950, my mother often read me sections of this book. I still have it and cherish it. 5 JozefTelgarsky to Marian Stolarik, May 13, 1969, NK 289 20/69-St. See Appendix 1, page 97. 6The history of this organization can be found in its Czechoslovak History Ne wsletter, founded in 1979. �SLOV AKIA-2015 89 would play "second fiddle" in such an organization. Therefore, at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies in Washington, D.C. in October of 1977, I persuaded half a dozen scholars in the USA and Canada to create our own Slovak Studies Association. Since I took the initiative in founding this organization, I was elected its first Secretary-Treasurer and Newsletter Editor. I then contacted as many scholars as I knew had an interest in Slovak studies and invited them to join. By 1983 our ranks had grown to 120 members. Meanwhile, the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies accepted us as an affiliated organization and the officers and I organized regular sessions of the Slovak Studies Association at the annual meetings of the AAASS. 7 As Newsletter Editor, I also informed our members of recent scholarly developments in Slovakia, as well as of the activities and publications of our members. Meanwhile, in 1968 the Matica slovenska began to publish a semi-weekly newspaper entitled Maticne citanie and put me on its mailing list. 8 At the beginning this newspaper reflected a good dose of Slovak nationalism and on its masthead carried a stylized Slovak national emblem, which had been banned by the Communists. 9 However, under the weight of Gustav Husak's, "normalization" campaign, in 1973 the Slovak emblem disappeared from the Matica's letterhead and in 1978 the Maticne citanie folded . It was then replaced by the glossy monthly Slovensko. At the same time, Jozef Telgarsky no longer corresponded with me. Instead, two hard-line Communists, at first Jaroslav Celko and later Stefan Krivus, both Directors of the Matica, continued the correspondence. The masthead of their letters no longer carried the Slovak emblem; it was replaced by the letters MS , for the Matica slovenska. 10 It was clear from these changes that the Matica was being purged . Nevertheless, I kept exchanging materials with the Matica and hoped for the best. 7 The history of the Slovak Studies Association can be found in the Newsletter of the Slovak Studies Association, published since October, 1977. Recently the AAASS changed its name to the American Association for Slavic and Eurasian Studies. 8 A complete run of this newspaper can be found in the Slovak Archives, Archives and Special Collections, University of Ottawa. 9 See the first issue of Maticne citanie dated October 28, 1968, Appendix 2, pages 98-99. 10 See the letters of Jaroslav Celko, dated March 27, 1973 and Stefan Krivus, dated October 23, 1974 to Mark Stolarik, Appendices 3, page 100, and App 4, page 10 I. �90 SLOV AKIA-2015 Unfortunately, in the 1980's my relations with the Matica slovenska took a tum for the worse. The first sign that something was amiss came in 1980 when the "Oddelenie pre zahranicnych Slovakov" (the Department for Slovaks Abroad) of the Matica slovenska sponsored an international scholarly conference on "Vyst'ahovalectvo a zivot krajanov vo svete" (Emigration and the Life of Countrymen Abroad) and published the papers.11 Even though I had met and befriended Jan Siracky, the Director, and Frantisek Bielek, one of their researchers in 1968 when the Department was established in Bratislava, and they knew that I specialized in the history of the immigration of Slovaks to North America, they did not invite me to this conference. Instead, they invited my good friend and colleague Thomas D. Marzik (originally Mrazik), an Associate Professor of history at St. Joseph's University in Philadelphia. A scholar of Central Europe, Marzik specialized on T.G. Masaryk and the Slovakophile Czech Karel Kalal. He had done no archival research on Slovak immigration. Nevertheless, the conference organizers asked him to present a paper on "The State of American Scholarly Research on Slovak Emigration and on American Slovaks," which he read in English, since he could not speak Slovak. He must have taken the conference organizers by surprise when he asserted, among other things, that "M. Mark Stolarik is currently the most productive scholar concerning the history American Slovaks," and then added, "currently, he is the Executive Director of the Balch Institute for Ethnic Studies in Philadelphia... .In this capacity, he can be very helpful in encouraging further research on American Slovaks." 12 When I received a copy of the Proceedings of this conference, I no longer regretted not having been invited. As I leafed through the book, I noticed that the conference had been opened by Viliam Salgovic, at that time the Chairman of the Slovak National Council, but formerly the Deputy Minister of the Interior in 1968, who betrayed his colleagues in the "Prague Spring" by collaborating with the invading Warsaw Pact forces . It turns out that Salgovic had been an agent of the Soviet KGB and was one of the most hated individu11 Vyst'ahova/ectvo a iivot krajanov vo svete. K storocnici masoveho vyst'ahova/ectva s/ovenskeho /'udu do zamoria. Zbornik prispevkov k vedeckej konferencii. Zost. Frantisek Bielik, Jan Siracky a Claude Balaz (Martin: Matica slovenska, 1982). 12 Ibid., 131-32. The compilers arranged for Marzik's article to be translated into Slovak. �SLOVAKIA-2015 91 als in Slovakia. 13 Furthermore, the conference organizers also invited the retired grade-school teacher and communist activist Helen Vrabel-Saunders of Los Angeles and the Canadian Slovak communist activist Jan Rumisek to present papers on the Slovak communities in their respective countries. 14 These individuals reflected poorly on the scholarly level of this conference. When Marzik returned to Philadelphia and described the conference to me, he mocked the presentations of these so-called "experts." However, when the Proceedings arrived in the mail in 1982, I mocked Marzik for the company he had kept. The second bad sign from Czechoslovakia came in 1982. At that time my wife and I had decided that, even though the Matica did not invite me to its scholarly conference, we would visit our native Slovakia on our own. As was required at that time, we applied for a visitor 's visa to Czechoslovakia, but, much to our surprise, the Czechoslovak Embassy in Washington denied our application, without any explanation. 15 When we had visited Czechoslovakia in the summers of 1968 and 1970, we had acquired visas without any difficulty. The third bad sign occurred in 1983 when, to my great surprise, a certain writer for the Matica's monthly Slovensko, began to attack me. Even though he signed his articles as Milos Biel, he was, in fact, Miroslav Andreansky, a collaborator of the STB (State Security), who edited the Cudzojazicnu prilohu (Foreign-Language Supplement) of Slovensko. 16 In the 1970's, using the cover name Tacovsky, he had served a spy for the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic in West Germany. 17 13 For Salgovic's welcoming remarks see Ibid., 12-16. For his role in the "Prague Spring" see William Shawcross, Dubcek (London: Weidenfeld and Nicholson, 1970), 154. Soon after the Communists relinquished power during the "Velvet Revolution" in I 989, Salgovic committed suicide. 14 For their papers see Vyst'ahova/ectvo, 270-87 and 340-42. 15 Chief of the Visa Section (unreadable signature), Embassy of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic to Mark Stolarik, June 4, 1982 (in author's personal papers) . 16 Dr. Tomas Klubert, an employee of the Ustav pamdti naroda (The Nation 's Memory Institute) of the Slovak Republic, in a reply to my query dated September 3, 2010, confirmed that Andreansky was indeed a collaborator of the STB. His cover name was "Korunka." Unfortunately, his file was shredded on October 8t11, 1988. 17 See the article"Co na to pan Prokes?" published in the monthly Svedectvo: Casopis politickych vdznov na Slovensku, I, no. 4 (April 1992), page 18. �92 SLOV AKIA-2015 Andreansky/Biel had learned about the Slovak Studies Association from Thomas D. Marzik. The Matica slovenska had invited the latter to another international conference in Martin on July 5-7, 1983, on the occasion of the Matica's 120th anniversary. Knowing that the Matica had once again failed to invite Stolarik to this conference, Marzik urged it to establish formal relations with the Slovak Studies Association and also to invite "more American experts" to future conferences.18 Andreansky/Biel replied to Marzik's appeal in the Foreign Language Supplement of the August issue of Slovensko. In an article entitled "?Slovak Studies Association?" Andreansky/Biel wrote: "Direct contact with such leading personalities in the SSA as Stanislav J. Kirschbaum, M. Mark Stolarik and Renee Mikus, because of their hostility [towards the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic] are, at the moment, impossible." 19 This reply was laughable, because neither Stanislav J. Kirschbaum, nor Renee Mikus, held any office in the SSA! I suspect that Stan Kirschbaum was on the "black list" of Czechoslovak authorities because he was the son of Jozef Kirschbaum, who at that time was one of the Executive VicePresidents of the Slovak World Congress and Renee Mikus was married to Jozef Mikus, who also held a high office in the SWC. Indeed, both the elderly Kirschbaum and his colleague Mikus were former diplomats in the service of the first Slovak Republic (1939-1945) as well as members of the Slovak People 's Party, and, as such, supporters of Slovak independence. 20 Thus, they were anathema to the Husak regime. Andreansky/Biel probably did not like Mark Stolarik because he was the son of Imrich Stolarik, also a former member of the Slovak People's Party and, therefore a "separatist" who often wrote articles advocating Slovak independence in the weekly 18 Thomas D. Marzik, "K problematike Slovensko-americkych akademickych vzt'ahov," in Zahranicni S/ovaci a narodne kulturne dedictvo: Zbornik prispevkov z vedeckeho seminara k 120. vyrociu zaloienia Matice s/ovenskej, compiled by Frantisek Bielik, Jan Siracky and Claude Balaz (Martin : Matica slovenska, 1984), 10109. Once again, the Matica arranged to translate Marzik' s article into Slovak. 19 Slovensko, 8 (August, 1983), Foreign Language Supplement. See Appendix 5, gage 102. °For the history of the first ten years of the Slovak World Congress, see Desat' rokov cinnosti SKS, comp . by JozefM. Kirschbaum (Toronto: Slovak World Congress, 1981). For the struggle for Slovak independence, see J. M . Kirschbaum, Nas boj o samostatnost' Slovensko (Cleveland: Slovak Institute, 1958; reprinted by the Matica slovenska, Martin, 2000). �SLOVAKIA-2015 93 Kanadsky Slovak. For this reason Andreansky/Biel wrote to Mark Stolarik on November 14, 1983 and asked the latter to repudiate an article written by his father in Kanadsky Slovak on September 24, 1983, which had criticized the August issue of Slovensko.2 1 Andreansky/Biel even promised to publish Stolarik' s reply in the next issue of Slovensko! Instead, Mark Stolarik wrote to Andreansky/Biel as follows : "I will not polemicize with you . Your job is to create propaganda. Mine is to write history. In this instance, I will have the last word." 22 Andreansky/Biel ' s letter showed that, at that time he had more power in the Matica slovenska than its president, the "Narodny umelec" (national artist) and writer Vladimir Mi nae, a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Slovakia. After having read Andrensky/Biel's attack upon me in Slovensko, I complained to Mi nae in a letter dated September 3, 1983 .23 In his reply of October 4, 1983, Minac wrote the following: "I am sorry about what happened in the periodical Slovensko . I have no direct control over the editorial content of the magazine, but, as much as I can, I will try to prevent such future misunderstandings." 24 Meanwhile, Victor S. Mamatey, considered the "dean" of Czech and Slovak historians in the United States, also reacted to the machinations of the Matica slovenska. In the Slovak monthly Horizont, published by emigres in Switzerland, he wrote the following: Slovaks abroad need cultural contacts with their homeland and Slovakia needs contacts with Slovaks abroad . Unfortunately, at the moment such contacts are weak and inadequate. The Matica and the entire regime need to understand that not they, but Slovaks abroad have the right to decide who will represent them at conferences and who will properly interpret their needs. 25 Vladimir Minac could not have been sincere in his reply to Mark Stolarik's complaint because, as indicated above, Andreansky/Biel wrote me again on November 141\ Furthermore, in 1988, during the 21 Milos Biel to Mark Stolarik, November 14, 1983 . See Appendix 6, page 103 . See also Appendix 7, page I 04, for the article in Kanadsky Slowik, September 24, 1983 . 22 Mark Stolarik to Milos Biel, November 29, 1983. See Appendix 8, page 105 . 23 Mark Stolarik to Vladimir Mimic, September 3, 1983 . See Appendix 9, pages 106 and 107. 24 Vladimir Minac to Mark Stolarik, October 4, 1983 . See Appendix 10, page 108. 25 Horizon/ (Zurich), September-October, 1983. �94 SLOV AKIA-2015 era of "Glasnost" and "Perestrojka," as promoted in the Soviet Union and its satellites by General Secretary Mikhail Goobachev in the late 1980's,2.6 I was finally invited to attend another Matica conference in Bratislava. There I met Vladimir Mimic at a Matica-sponsored reception at Bratislava Castle. After the opening ceremonies ended, a tipsy Mimic approached me and asked in a voice reeking of wine "ci vas otec stale serie do toho Kanadskeho Slovaka?" (Is your father still crapping into Kanadsky Slovak?) .27 This vulgar question revealed what was really bothering Minac (and Andreansky/Biel): that my father was freely advocating independence for Slovakia in Kanadsky Slovak. Another reason why Andreansky/Biel attacked me in Slovensko is that I revealed the truth about how it was published. When Tom Marzik returned from the second Matica conference in 1983, he promptly informed me that Slovensko was published in two versions : one for domestic consumption and one for Slovaks abroad. Only the foreign version contained a "Foreign Language Supplement," which carried news about the activities of Slovaks in the wider world. I informed the readers of the Newsletter of the Slovak Studies Association of these two versions in the June, I 984 issue.28 In its August 22 nd issue, the largest-circulation Slovak-American newspaper, the Jednota, official organ of the First Catholic Slovak Union, congratulated me for having provided this information. It pointed out that the Matica slovenska was sending Slovensko for free to Slovaks all over the world, and they had no idea that it was published in two versions.29 This information so infuriated Andreansky/Biel that he reacted with a full-page response in the January, 1985 issue of Slovensko. The jist of his response was that the publishers of Slovensko did not have enough paper to offer the "Foreign Language Supplement" to domestic readers.30 The best reaction to this absurd excuse came from Juraj Virsik, editor of the Slovak-Australian Monitor. In an article beginning with the Slovak proverb "Trafena hus zagaga," (A Struck Goose 26 For the Gorbachev era see Angus Roxburgh, The Second Russian Revolution: The Struggle for Power in the Kremlin (London : BBC Books, 1991). 27 1 described this episode in greater detail under the pseudonym Leo Carpenter in "Looking for Mr. Glasnost in Today ' s Czechoslovakia," in the monthly Crisis: A Journal of Lay Catholic Opinion, 7, no. 7 (July-August, 1989), 33-39. 28 "Slovensko for Two Audiences," SSA Newsletter, 8, no. 1 (June, 1984), p. 13. 29 Jednota (Middletown, PA), August 22, 1984. 30 Slovensko, 1 (1985), "Cudzojazycna priloha.," Appendix 11 , pages 109 and 110. �SLOVAKIA-2015 95 will Squawk), Virsik provocatively suggested that, if Slovakia indeed suffered from a shortage of paper, it could easily turn to the Bulletin of the Slovak World Congress, published in Canada, which had an abundance of newsprint, and the Bulletin would willingly publish any news that the Matica might send it. 31 Andreansky-Biel did not react to Virsik's article. Finally, in 1988, probably as a result of Mikhail Gorbachev's "Glasnost," which also penetrated into the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, the Matica slovenska invited Mark Stolarik to another of its scholarly conferences, this time to be held in Bratislava on July 46. When I arrived in Bratislava and met with Frantisek Bielik, whom I had not seen since 1970, I asked him who was Miloslav Andreansky/Milos Biel? A surprised Bielik answered, "Don't you know?" "No, I don ' t," I replied. "But, you must know, he continued ." "No I don ' t, I answered." He was still afraid to openly tell me. I then asked where was Andreansky/Biel? Bielik answered, "in Martin." Perhaps Andreansky/ Biel did not attend the conference for fear that I would confront him . As a result, I never met him. After the fall of Communism in Czechoslovakia, I inquired about his whereabouts and discovered that Andreansky/ Biel had left the Matica and was living in Vrutky, a small railroad town north of Martin. He had apparently joined the ultra-nationalist Slovak National Party and was its representative in that town. Since I had met and befriended Jozef Prokes, one of the founders of the Slovak National Party, when he had visited Canada in 1992, I wrote to Prokes and asked him how it was that a former collaborator of the STB was now working for the Slovak National Party?32 Prokes did not answer my letter. Meanwhile, many interesting individuals attended the Bratislava conference. After I presented my paper on the declining use of the Slovak language in the United States, 33 an elderly gentleman ap31 Slovak-Australian Monitor (March, 1985). See Appendix 12, page 111. Mark Stolarik to Jozef Prokes, August 27, 1992 (author's archive). When I visited the Matica at another conference in February of 2013, and once again inquired about the whereabouts of Andreansky/Biel, the older employees, who had known him, sheepishly answered that a few years earlier he had passed away. 33 "A Historical Perspective on the Declining Use of the Slovak Language in the United States of America," in Zahranicni Slowici a materinsky jazyk. Zbornik prispevkov z vedeckeho symposia k 125. vyrociu zaloienia Matice slovenskej, " comp. by Frantisek Bielik and Claude Balaz (Martin : Matica slovenska, 1990), I 7277. 32 �96 SLOVAKIA-2015 proached me. He was Dr. Belo Polla, an employee of the Matica in the l 940's, who had been purged and later found himself working for the Archaeological Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences in Nitra, approached me. He was delighted that, in my presentation, I had mentioned his former colleagues at the Matica such as its director J.C. Hronsky and the publicist Konstantin Culen, as well as the historian Frantisek Hrusovsky and the journalist Jozef Pauco. He added that those names had been "taboo" in Czechoslovakia in the previous years. He was also delighted that emigres such as the linguist I:ubomir Durovic of Sweden and the political scientist Milan Durica of Italy were able to participate in the conference. Such was the influence of Mikhail Gorbachev's "Glasnost," which would eventually lead to the collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe during the summer and fall of 1989.34 After the fall of Communism in Czechoslovakia in November of 1989, the situation in the Matica slovenska immediately improved. The "old guard" either retired or was fired and the new leaders of the Matica immediately re-established friendly contacts with Slovaks in the West. There were no longer any attacks in the monthly Slovensko against me or any other members of the Slovak Studies Association. Indeed, in 1991 the Matica signed a formal agreement between the University of Ottawa and itself in which it pledged to supply the newly-established Chair in Slovak History and Culture all the books that it needed in order to properly function .35 As a result, in January, 1992, the Chair received hundreds of recently-published books from the Matica and this program of exchange continues to this day. Thus, since 1989 the Chair in Slovak History and Culture at the University of Ottawa and the Matica slovenska (and its National Library, which split off in 2000), continue to have good relations. 36 34 For the "Velvet Revolution" in Czechoslovakia see Jozef Zatkuliak et. al., Nove mber '89: Medznik vo vyvoji slovenskej spolocnosti a jeho medzinarodny kontext (Bratislava: Historicky ustav SA V vo vydavatel'stve Prodama, 2009). 35 Agreement between the Matica slovenska in Martin and the University of Ottawa (Chair in Slovak History and Culture), signed by Marcel Hamelin, Rector, University of Ottawa, September 4, 1991 and Imrich Sedlak, Director, Matica slovenska, November 18, 1991 (author's archive). 36 The National Library of Slovakia split off from the Matica slovenska on July 1, 2000. E-mail from Maria Kurhajcova to Mark Stolarik, July 21, 2000 (author's archive). �SLOV AKIA-2015 97 APPENDIX 1 L C V C: N S K A ,'J • )S1;'ELK A A AOU RE P UHLth Y M A ls1:TIN. Mudrol"lova ,e . 3:i. t e lefOn 2348. 2347 , 2340, :it34Q , 3 197 University of Minnesota, College of Liberal ArtsDepartment of History, Mr. M. St O l 8 r i k M_i_n_n_e_a_e_o_l_i_s Minnesota 55455 - US A v•l i l:111 :rn.a.6k,y1:a, o d,'\.-. 30.III.1969 Na" :an•~k.:i r:r:""maja 1969 l>'K .t.'7 20/69-St Voe Vazen:f pan Stolarik, Na VaA list z 30. marca 1969, ktory ate p!sali Dr . Sir ackemu , oznamujeme V!lm, l!e mikrofillll.Y lfosopisov "Obzor" a "Dom a 1!kol'l" sa ul! r-obia a koncom ~ Vam ich po!!leme. Obzor od roku 1863 do roku 1905 /41 ro~n!kov/ a Dom a Akola od roku 1885 do roku 1897 /13 ro~nikov/. Z ~asopisu Dom a §kola Vam zasielame 4 ro~n!lcy ~ascpisu, kedze mame viac exemplarov. Dufame, l!e Vam to vyhovie. PokiaY ide o pletenie, snhlasime a tym, aby ate nam poslsli mikrofil111.Y: Amerikansko-Slovenske noviny, Slovak v Amerike, Jednota a Narodne noviny, pretol!e ni~ v uplnosti nemAme. MOzete nam tiel! oznami t, kde v USA sa tieto ~asopisy na.cMdzaju v uplnosti. Sme radi, ze ste sa ohlasili a ponukame Vam aj dal§iu spolupracu. Ochotne Vam yoaleme zo Slovenska vAetko, ~o potrebujete z novej literatucy a mOze prist do uvahy aj star§ia literatllra, pretoze mame dost dubletov. Boli by sme radi, keby sa na University of Minnesota vybudovalo slu§ne oddelenie slovenskej historickej /alebo inej, podYa potreby/ literatllry. Te§ime ea ns spolupracu s Vsmi a srde~ne Vas pozdravujeme .J ,;R I 1} /lflftl,,\ riadi teY ,N&J-.~nej ' knHnice Ma ti,ce i-'~ lovenske j Dr. J. 'Telgarslcy ~ List bol vrateny, dl\a 27. VI.1969! neznemy �~ \ 1 ~, ' j •t . 1 t ► rr-• .-.... 1..-.••........~-, }:,.\,,_" ·, 1 .. -~·\·.t Propa1atd i!lslo ~"i'darr ... -- J} •~\i ~ · ,, ... .,i\ 1-, ~.c 1·1 •• -~ '; ::;, ' {:,:~ ."1'. •%·"'" ,, __ ~~. • -~ \l ' if ::, ,_ l.;.t.•~~·~ ! ,, '... . · f }If n•Yhno1U 1141- • n« lrult6ru v61:»c, l kullt\rn, ,1:1tvrat ma• .:.zmi. ~~:,,,d:.n.tuh~':!~:.!P~I~,,f ~6,an11 T~PI opqitl~ -,:a b ~ I ,tart JJlllOd' f:111V1tov1J price, • luqttry, lap ako J,)q-lSWCn61µt ~tDltela. lkO ntitro)a. 1, aOC(&llatlc);QIZ\ n•dt-ln,U •Yte' Jebb dobr<d. tradld u, rw n11 t'.'!: =:r.u~~:mi:"!4~• 9!:-=~~::;~ •:~;VJ~~, J• to ~~•~~,b(~~~•v:d;:,,:i=!t~1 = I ~ ron9J1 1l4rodMt, U1f6rr, na prOdeate dn1f ill'1Mtt d.lliliom• fta,ahl1 • napokon l • llltwtdfctou D6~J\:-:a~·":iii!:;,:*..:r::r.' ~~~=·~l: :~~~ • _,,1 ' OT,VA·RAM.E\J,i:\i- ~l, T MeM ~• ''f'iW'• Hu If VfcW..o p,~ ftf'1 chr4'f"M ,q .t~ •.rl#ttf• ~awo po~o, .Jl«)fjatqj ~J\lt~ tUl&V, pred'Htn4lt# 4 mu 6-u,,:Ericuc/1'«/l ~' I ~ ltc&1ic ~,ut OfH'.:UjN Mprifie' ,o. N-.i6~ ho ~,=~~~.;::; ,1,ottt P"lhl¥• 100/•j ,uutl o ptttflduoei• •"' tu4tlto«I t4t, •••,-. :i:siltf~i!'"~:~ ntl11pr())flrtotnf; ,,aop; ml tltlm~Hftw k,. Off llocl 11 opak. ·'Ct potort r>0ff t•Jto irdnU &it =:::r:~~,,. bot, Cn. tr~ dt•"" ·no.:iptllf~ hdllj 01'D~QBIE ~-., l · .& -· ·1 ..•t<,., ~~ ,:.•m ·~t.·~c .j '!Ii~. h l'udslwstt,,. ,,: .. ---- N0,V;£ · l ·- . ,' . -__:_ - ...,.. t l . --= U P I , .-,/J ~ ~ ••~___..,...:..,.. ~- 0'i.~~, Uv~pk ,1,, 'l VY_D(,..VA, MATICA SLOVENS"f V M ' "';~ ~·z., N ~ 0 z --= --= tr! > I (ll .... N 0 < > e:> 0 t""' r:,, '° = �SLOV AKIA-2015 99 APPENDIX2 Za prava ,slo,enciny okrecov dfla e. 10. 19et •yledaJ• •• taJto bttl. nojbo dr.tmla prlaclp Ttato Lueencl praeanf YO . .reJaal runkctl arladiC fu.akcla •lc•prHldan · OceftuJema. te \I 10vls.l ta • tuakclu prdbo pod • •l•bo • 6ra.de., Polladnky tederActou nOho At , aa s1ov,a1 .. a.by Maduo•, .. by ktor6 •IUJ, predHdu ktortl k 50. vtroCJu CSR to ■ t• ta:■Jllf atllf ( •I .. aJoobsahoull podobae aka H • tame, iloat4ve H na progt H ■at"fdl 1Jrol6cb) po mad'■ r• •tnhu itlan6bo dko ■ a ■ awrbuJ• ob1■ daova.al• t-■ kel• •kJ~ •Y d01taU afton.a1 -ped- •I othb postavenla nar noltl. Konltatujema v1ek , kl••· mJ ■ lalra • tt6taaho tajoaud• ~.1K• •,~~:r:1.!:~~~n~;f.~U• na Jkodu vecl n,hrh IA.k1 VycbHsa•• a dotereJlfch Ila. n·ebol vopred pred uvere) ufml trpkfcb ak6Hao1U Slo4. Poprl hlatorlclry a•HI• · L S6b1Hfm■ so He ■lm ti. Y6kov • tobto A•em.Ja. Ul ,Ill.a- nlm 1Dterne konzultovanf I. ala pokl ■ dime ae newy- a fcb a6nocb 'Slovenaki ••· l.rajlla daada • d!ollasyt■ oa- organlUlcleml N•rod. tro1 haulnA doplal( ho b ■ ltalo • rodnl rad• a Cnll:6 ••rodal ti H prett SlovUom aeutf• Term.Io vereJn•J dlskusle rad• l nalogld:y podra lafch n ■ fm, I ■ ..• CSSR .. •16 eet15. 10. 198& Ja prfllJ kri Hl■ tat, la ◄ 6 povlnDf nlln a a 1lonntlaa tlob11 ro•· ■ •now Cl1tno1 dd CSSR. na to, abJ n mohll nlekt dla( po matfanlrf, t,yt tda 116taych )HJ' · vlld• Sloveaalr■ I 1oclallatlc■ oprh ■ ycb kGY ... naJasn~ mlesla n•vrhu nl dvojJ ■ aytaf. Kedle ahtb 6 kel republllry, wllda Cukaj 1CuU.be stllooa • t!I. ◄ IZ u - 11te vysvttllt u kompetl ■oclall•llclr■ J rapubllkJ ( Ire• nych mletaach. Tfmto kooltatonalm .. be • 1 ■ -te dltoaa poulluf lraz■ J• nblC ■ ltl•k aa n6 • IH potwrdzoj■ skul0Cao1f, alto oflcl61ae n6ny \Nirodnfl Predodetkfw Ide o f rodaosU • •m•,.. odllirodttio.-aala lllllllle a■ lo Dripecl• nhrhu zJikona, ktorf hov ktod objektl-ue Je1h,1je, I• rada Sloun•kel ■oc lall1Ucltal fllruje, taUe H m6h delltotlt Jnykml lt6taJcb ora• · rapubllky ■ Nlrodn6 rada 0 prhach prlslu!n"lkov 101 na vzdelanlt nArodnostt n6tlalr) takfto u •Jb16tlt eo repullll• aoclell1llclcaJ CeskaJ ••• 11 tdll•• • •alowneloa, svoJom jnyku a O poutJv SlovUov nlj ■ kf dkon • alto M to koolt ■ taje •I • ti. kf. tohto Juyka v styku • Qr, pt.. takfmto nflllakom vf· S. Uplalnlt • celo,n dkoae I ■hrhu flttHnlho dkona. ml bei akfihOkotvek da lll( 'tittlDJml 1 ■ s1kmJ led■ ai ■ d o fader•Udcll CSSR 1.hatlu, alov ■- ■-cbri.D1, je ta N!l'1ne urCenla. Sme toho nboru, aebe1petanstwo, l• Slodcl tH1kJ nirodaosU jlf6cich • -te •letlry n•tanonnl• tfk•· f6ce u arlad'ovnla federil • , oa tomto 6aemf, ktorf an•• , prho na vrdelenle u m, essa.. die aleb11 aa oeneutl■ per konkrettzovaf na ,1upel\ l Z. NHrbuJean ■, ahy .. prl nycb orahoY, lch komp■ l ■a· ly 1 ,oeesne u mall staJ mad'anlry, aiel1111.h u nebu pliant atuu n ■ l■ I republlky, cl• • unlu lch organh:lcl• vlt podmlenky, za akfch m a prhomocl n mHu menlt dO mGcf doma vo •ereJ011j 1polo•nflt fC&1ko· poulf• ■ l t:l ■ aostl uplatolt, ala bud6 Slonn1kol ; to plall ■ I o pl· Iba oa Uklad• d'allfcb 61ln• 00 uladovaf !koly vyUle ako Uklad.n~ho typu. 1 w,-ranlll •J bez-treala6mu IJ~ prfshalnfbo prfdantbo ofch 1'ko110-... n ■I mH ■ f be1ko-1lovell&kf: Cu• U. I( ni't'rhu 6atua6bo al - kauovaalu. Stovky raaol6CII lsto u1 ~ v 1omto nivrhu t ko .. lonnsk, republlka, t:H• Ilona • a6rodao,tlacb : be konlm:itlzovat, akfm SJ • ,talnoat[. lrtori polltlckfm • 11'taJ• l!laltafom • or1• · sobom sa mA uplatnlt 'l>ti pod.J. ko-alon- ■ lrf lltc • menttnovfch n8.rodnostf %iada111e, ■ bJ H • ■ hrbu ao• SloY6cl • toblo 6.nmla ,.;~:.~D•;::111,~:.:~b\ed::-:.~ VJ'PU&tll ,ad, v kloro ■ •• vlastoibo Jazy poutfvaole po1lelaJ6.. d •«llml ,.,Ntl!afm J•I•• arladlt funkci• pradH- bo•or1, la atrodao1II m•l6 v st_yFu s dradml. n;~:.,.~:- .. undHt bod lllu • podpn ...du, lrllrri by .,prho poalfnf nol Juyk • Tleto ltyllzicle n8.\'rhu .a dkooa VJ"••ch, aHaka •• obudaouU alternaU••• dradnom 1tyku". auje u poutl-..ote • mad'artl • s1avn6ho zakona sQ v roz1 Uthapcom C•sbJ aoc:la.Uatlc· re •J s akentm program1 rato pr•vo by utml pre ■J t• laayko• ltltnych "'· kll r1pub1Jky aJtbo Slo•en • Ov KSS. lebo n4vrb z6ko Slodkov lijliclcb • 1111lela· rodnoaU) • lllradnom ,tylta. ebJ eoclall•tiek•I repu•UlrJ, 511 nez.mleftuJe o povtnno v alJku H nojlml prad•t• · 1lovao1ko•m ■ dar1kfch prltom tty aa afrodn6 nsli· a:fcb n6rodnostof vllarml ,. pollllckfch • ltit• prtslu~nrkov peoie v tfchlo fankdich oblutlach malo nfml ••· aby s ! pomocou t mentin, • nirod m.lH:u uycb orgjnocb priualv6 d6tledkJ. Praklicky atrltdalo podf• funktnfch znaloatJ. osvoJo,'all v~erko t 081 u poull-...C not IHJk. No by soemol6ou1o Slodkom r obdobt. ,:iemolao _ doko ■ ca dko - hatstvo ees kej II slovens• • ttm prlsplev kulrGry .aoru _ n6Uf Slodko• uClf k -\ldjomn6mu s1>0z.ntvar ■a po mad'llhk.) , aby M•cf•rl ,. ■lyku • aJml mohli upl•t · • spolutll1u nirodov • r ubaapeCe11A rodno1H v CSSR . dfJoaom alt Konlunu1eme. ta Slov6cl prflu. Moho tu mlmocbo• IOChtO oblbtlach, kde stl dom upuoralC na krlkfno odchodd poataY■nie Slod • n61 v memlln e, mohll by doataf podra do1erejleJ p1 lrov • Mad'araku, ktort• u xe • poclporou dstavn6ho , • podobnfch prhacb a ■ I 1- ■ kona ' do 11tuAcle, ktora ,, k .o1 .. t nnmia. mo dbsledkoch Tole 1tale •t ■ aoviako ■ a- neentch aaaff. ta by •m• boll proll vlHf k odn6rodf'iovaolu p prfiv a,.ro4aostf, aluJnfkov llitotvorn6bo n.61 :a■ ru~a■ la •I• aem&hme a6bl•alf I poi- da, prfpad ne k lcb 1lteku kodzonnlm Slodkov, lclol"f tfc bto iUemf ■ IovensUbo o , by malo by1 dO.lellltom ale• roda. -. kforjtb _prt• urul!e ■ fch ••- • .J)rginy, lriorf ad nlnter tovan6 na pTlpr,\'e Qstevn .rodaostiHn .,. predlolenom bo zalcooa, by mall uvUlf. ahrbu d•tndbo dkona. by nebolo vbodn6 ,,yhlheci .. tobto Ukona Casove navl * Pracovalcl Matice slovenskej ut na ust1nov11n1e zAkoaa ate · ho odlol federallrAcll. v Martine dt'Ja 8. 10. 196'1 vyslovlU k vl4dnemu ntvrhu • ltylldcle dOsledneftle pr • prekonzultowaf • myallef o postavent nirod• Ukon■ nostl v C:SSR Ueto prlpo• vtetkfcb zlotktch N• rodn ho tronru. mleoky: Publtktcle nivrhu astavntMatt e• slovenska ako c ho Ulkooa -vyvolalo n1Jml v lon4rodn.6 ustanovl.Zeft al p mlestnycb odboroch Matice ldada u morllnu povtnno 1lovenskt1J 01 futnom Sloven- ur,ozornlf na tao.to probl61 sku a.naent ohlaa. Vframe ut •I preto, lebo se 01 ru sa to l)teJavtlo •I ·n, porade v teJto vttel obraceJO tlensl ■ Joie/ Smrhoikj L /Ulo 196& no ndolteoc v Uortln~. m1111tn~bo ~~~1~~. oraanlz.tde 1 cel61 predstavltefov v Mahci ,tovenskeJ, ,nwe:I odpoot.4111 no aktwtlne: otdik~. l'I~"~"'" " ,.............. - .. .. - ~ Foto: A. V. H•id• (Vrouo sprduca MS 4r. Jd,t Mart4k.J Jaqko,adaf '"•• tudowft• lt6ta SAV prlJal k abrbu dkOH O flNf•nlldcH .CS51 ■ atnba filtHatbo dkDDI • ■ trodaC¥,tlacb 1taoo•lako, _. ktorAllo ')'llertme. �SLOVAKIA-2015 100 APPENDIX3 , MATICA SLOVENSK A 1863 1973 NOS!Tlr.RA IADtl IIPl11tlltY The Cleveland Stete University DepArtment of History - College of Arts et Sciences Mr . Marien St olarik C 1 e_v_e_l_ a_n_d_, Ohio 44115 U.S. A. VU li,t anatlty Vee: 10 d6a 26/II/73 Na la I natlta 4-63/1157/35 4/73 - St Martin 27. marca 1973 Vaieny pan Stolarik, ~akuje me za Va§ list, ktory nam umoihuje nadvi azat medzinarodny vymenny styk s The Cleveland State University , Department of History , Cleveland, Ohio prostrednictvom Va§ej pOaobnosti na tejto univerzi te. Avizovam1 publikaciu sme este zatial' ned ostali, nakol'ko doru~enie zasielky trva v priemere tri mesiace. Matice slovenska, Martin s radostou pr!jme predpletne na ~asopis v ramci vymeny "The International Migration Review", ako aj vybavenie na§ich objednavok ns publikacie, ktore Vam budeme postupne, taktiez v remci vymeny posiela t, Vyme nn~ rekepitulacie si budeme viest individuelne na zaklade Va si ch zasielok s cenemi a prip ! §eme v prospech Va§ho vymenneho konte , ako aj z naAej strany zasielane potvrdenky s uvedenim cien pre Va§u evidenciu. Zatial' sme Varn po slali 9 publikacii z oblasti historie su~~snej produkcie podl'a Va§ej po~iadavky dha 15.III,1973 a dal'sie publikacie , tykajuce sa tejto obla sti Vam postupne po~leme, Dufame , te s tymto postu~om budete s uhlbsit a roz s!ri sa fond o slovacika na Va§ej univerzite, ako aj f ond Matice slovenskej s publika ciami , o ktore bud eme ziadat na zaklsde excerpt z Cumulative Book Index s zoznamov vydani j ednotlivych vydavatel'ov. Tymto by sme pokladali dohodu z nasej strany za uzavretu a prosime Vas o pisomny suhlas, Te§ime sa na Va §u odpoved ~ sme / s pozdravom ~ -=- Prof.dr.Ing . Jarosl ov .~ELKO , CSc, / Spravco Matice slovenskej v,b .. •i" Stuchlikova Tclt:r6n 2Sf6, 2547, 2548, 25+9, 5197 Oalekopi1 0755:SI 0)6 5 2Martin, Mud ro6ova M �SLOVAKIA-2015 101 APPENDIX4 , MATICA SLOVENSKA NOSIT£t K A RADU RIP U B LIKY Kr. Ph. D. KarU.n Stol6rii: The Cleveland State Univereity CLEVELAND, Ohio 44115 U SA V' j Ii SI I.oa t ")' zo d na Ma r tin Nala znal': K a 5-63 /1JtlJ/Ff l14-U Vee: 23.10.1974 ~ai:)lje■ e Vma Ba list a vr,ten,y ponui:ovy zozJ:lUl. Poaielee Vo !iadan4 knihy a! na tri tituly, i:tor4 eu •! rocobra• n41 1. Ju!n4 Slovenako 2. Ratkoil1 Pra■ ene k dejinmn Vel'kej Koravy 3e Sedla1 Preilovek4 kolegium v elovenekych dejin,ch Dll:fame, !e oetatn4 knihy dostanete ~o najekar av poriadku. ~akujeme Vu aj za aaaopia "Ethnicity•. Sudame ve:rmi r~ di, ked ho pre n,a objean,te. S pozdravo■ / ~f~ Stefan Krivuil spr,vca Matice slovenakej Vy b ovujec Ulbr ichtov, Kiria Tcler6n 2346, 2347, 2548, 2349, 3197 Oalek.opi1 0753,1 0'652 Mar tin, Mu d r ufi ova 35 �102 SLOV AKIA-2015 APPENDIXS a Cudzojazycnci priloha Sefredali:to, Stefan Hovlo r. Zosto vi l M iloslo v And re6nsky Vydalo Mati ce slo.,en 1k6 v Ma rti ne. Tlotili TSNP, z6 v< Neogrofla , Martin, CSSR v m6Ji 1983. fllowcnal:o a 1983 roku u ma konat' 14. d: 17. okt6bra vo Washing• tone, na budud rok v Kansas City). Madzl elenml SSA je I nlalcorko vyznamnych 7 SLOVAK STUDIES ASSOCIATION 7 Tato apoloalosf ui 120 vedec:kych p.-.covnikov s1ov..-.. p6vodu a priatefov slovenekef vedy, lwttury • umenla nielen z USA• Kanady, ale I z cfalilch lblitov ..,_ zlskava prootrednfo. tvom The Balch lnstitut vo Phlladelphll, USA, od Matice olovaMkef, Slovenakej akademle vied a cfalilch . - k y c h kultumych inititudl e.aoplsy, zbomlky a knlhy. VosvoJom ,,Newsletter", ktory ut po 8 rolcov vyd6va dvakrU do roka, oboznamuje avofich Benov • prostrednk:tvom nlch I sV9tOvu vect.cku verejnosf • knlhaml ■ zbomflcml a upozoffluje na zaujfm■Ye ~Hinley v tasoplsoch. Okrem toho Jnfonnuje •J o knihKfl a - - V 6uopi9och O Slovikoch, a alovenakef problematlke, ktore vytll v cudzlne. Bohutlar napriek evidentnaJ snahe po objekttvnom, nezaujatom rwferovanf prmu len pravlida zimer uprlamlf pozomosf na publlkacle a ttanky a obuhom niilmu lblitu a zrladenlu naprlatersky orlentovanych. SSA mi •I vl■-u edialu l!lnnosf preva!ne V apolupr6cl - ao Slovanakjm Ustavom v Clevelande, oriento-v■ nU nepri■tal'slry voa n,m. Zatlar eo predaada a elenovla vyboru sa vprlebehu rokov - pokier am■ to mall mofnost ■ ledovat menlli, trvalU pozldu ta)omnfka a pokladnlka od r. 1978 mi M . Marl< Stolarik. ktory je aj Ndalctorom .,Newsletter" . SSA je lnltttucionlilnym aenom American Assoclation for Advenc:ement of Slavic Studies • aktivne aa zututiluje na Jej nirodnych konvandich (toho kn)anakych vadeckych p.-.covnlkov, lctori ma)u s Matlcou alovenskou dobre kontalcty. Medzl inyml Mrs. Nonna Rudlnski, Gerald J . Sabo, June Alexander, John Berta, Saly Staruch, Tom Marzik • d'alif z USA.. prof. Peter Petro a Yvonne Grabowski z Kanady ako I J . M. Rydlo zo avajaarska a dalil. AJctfvna Bnn~ tychto k spoluprild • Maticou lllovenskou na kuttumom poff ochotnych llanov SSA, vytvira perapektivu, le v buducnostf aa bude m6ct' celkom aeri6zne uva!ovaf I o konkretnej prlamej apoluprid Matice alovenekej ao Slovak Studies Anoclatlon v oblastl propagicle vyaledkov alovanokef vacly, kultury • umenla vo . - .. Zatlar, • vyhradou propagide nim naprlat.rokej litera• tury, pozltlvna hodnotima snahu SSA oboznamovat svetoW vededc:U vsejnost o nallch uspechoch v oblutl vedy, literatury • umanla. Priame kontalctyvtak vzhradom na neprlat.rsky postoj preclovtetkym takych vplyvnych oaobnostf v SSA ako SU Stanislav J . IOrachbaum, M. Mark Stolarik ■ Renee Mikus, nie SU v SUbsnoatl mOZ"'. Je to aamozrejme na ikodu vecf, ktor.6 nim je opolol!ni: propagidl slovan■kaj vacly. lfteratury a umenla na svatovom f6rw. MILOS BIEL �SLOV AKIA-2015 103 APPENDIX6 VYD/..VA MA.TICA SLOVlNSK/.. no&luil'b bdu repubUky MARTIN 14. Dovembra 1983. VAS LIST ZNA<'!KY Valent pe p~. lla.rlc K. Stolarik The i!lalch lMtit~te 18 S., 1th Street ZO Di'IA N~A ZNA<'!KA Philadelphia, Pa. 19106 VYBAVUJE Kiloll Bie]l. VEC: Vll!eny pain pro:f'e aorl V pr:!10118 Vllm zasielam :f'otokopiu a aajho l!lilnlcu, a SSA v nallom l!aeopiae Slovenako l!.6/83 a :f'otokopiu replilcy z Kanadak4ho Sloviika l!.37, rot. 42 z 24.9.1983, hoci J>Nldpoklaau, !e ich ob11ah d poznate. Ak oba l!llllllcy poromllte a apoaeaiete ei na to1 l!o ate nap1aali predaedovi Matice alovenalcej DIU'o 111119lcovi Vlatia!rovi Kinal!ovi i na jeho odpoved, bude Vu zre,im4, !e Vu Va6i priatelia z Kanadak4ho SlovlUca (Vall otec??) poalcytli aedvadiu alu!bu. Ol!akav.,._, !a ea nad oboma l!lllnkud zllJIIYalite, najd nad ich doaahoa v elovenalalj varejnoati za hranicaai, zaujaete jednoznaln4 a pravde zodpovedaj uce etanoviako a po!iadate redalcciu Kanadak4ho Sloviika o opravu. Ky v Slovensku ame tie! oohotn1 Valle atanoviako publikova~. �SLOVAKIA-2015 104 APPENDIX 7 kor..ne s mojfm prt,dpllllnym . Zarove~ pr1p•J11m MO na 23 dolarov, t. J. 20 11ko predplatne 11 3 na podporu. Zarovel\ m1pr11vde , ktor4 oko!0 nM 11li:1(l _ _______ _ ne. No to si pocnete s eecno- _ ........_,,.;,;._..;..,.....;...,._,,.. slovakm i a podobnymi pobhi- nerobl dobru slufbu medzl sh,denymi oveckami? . venskyml vyst'ahovalcaml na amerlckom konllnente. To by . sl mall uvedomll' af II, ktorl 1:: chcli hfadaf spolupracu so I~sJovenskym exllom v slobod- r-----------------------7 , Mm citatelia opiitovne Vas chceme poprosit', aby ste si prezreli zaznam pri Vasej adrese. Ak mate este stale na konci dvojku (2). tak Vase predplatne vyprsalo. Nedavno sme poslali cfalsfch vyse sto (100) iiadosti o vyrovnanie si predplatneho. Prosfme aj tych, ktori maju na konci trojku (3) a mesiac ai po okt6ber, nech si laskavo vyrovnaju predplatne, lebo im sa uz t' · k c ·1 UI' h • a •d k 1ez s on_ '. o a . c1 1e nam pr cu a vy a_v Y na znamky t1ez. riakureme Varn za porozum~nie Admin1strac1a K . S. I nom svete. I Je zfavne, fe reflm na SloI vensku podnlk6 11 bude podI' nlkaf kroky, aby potupoval sloI venskych ntlrodovcov v exlle a 1' aby podryvallch f"dnotu a akll- J I vltu " 11 kafdom poN. Bolo by ., pod nalu d0stofnosl', aby sme 115 komunlstlckyml ldeol6gml debatovall II vledll s nlml dla16gy. Tym bysme Im roblll sluf- -------------------------• - bu, uzn6vall lch za parlnerov, s kloryml stofl ZII lo sedl ..t' ZII USA a pollllkov sa nezaobera. PIie vedecke prtlce O sloven• skom vyst'ahov,.1lectve do USA _-_·-- •-=;-- ' ~ 11 fe uzntivanou uutorltou medzl amerlckyml hlstorlkml II vedeckyml lnAlllliclaml Podra Andrnansk~ho-Blela Pod tltulom .Ohlasy" uverejnl,. ~ b._g.rof. Sto"rlka,.Je.Jt lo ,.Slovensko'", klore mt! byt' f ·srov ~Sludle._!. kulllirno-spolotenskym s _~ c 18 11 0 ,. 11 b y t 8 t •0 mesatnlkom a je vydavane Ma- ";iiofot!nosr mor.t'a reprezentollcou slovenskou v Turtlan- ,vat' Slovakov medzl amerlckyskom Svlltom Marline, vo svo- ml hlstorlkml a v Slavic Stujom tlsle z flila 1983 naslrane6 dies Association 8 teda Slov,icl utok na Msgr. F. Fugu , ktory je n e b O II p O ne ch an I p O d slovenskym narodovcom a patronatom ,.Czechoslovak predsedom Zahranltnef Mall- Studies Assoclnllon'". Ide O tisce slovenskej, ktora nle je mar- te vedeckli spolotnosl" hlstoxlsllcka ako hi na Slovensku. rlkov slovensl<eho p0vodu, Clanok .Kio klame a dezlnfor- ktorl sa hlasla k slovenskemu muje'" naplsal Mlloslav Andre- rodu a pf§u o slovenskef otazansky. ke vedeckym spOsobom, teda Ten lsty Mlloslav Andretln- objektlvne. sky (alias MIiot Blel) v augusToto sa pravdafe, M. Andretovom tisle Slovenska uveref- tlnskemu-Blelovl nep6tl, lebo nil znova lltok na dr. M. Stoia- sa tam nechvall techoslovaklzrlka, klory fe najkvallflkovanef- mus a marx-lenlnlzmus. !Im slovenskym hlslorlkom v Taketo plsanle Sloyenska spolotnym stolom. J" nam Nto, fe na amerlc• kom konllnenle mtl komunls!Icky reflm na Slovensku svoflch obdlvovatel'ov a kolaborantov, ale tych my anl nepresvedtlme, anl neziskame. Tleto litoky, krltlky, alebo I za. lletanl■ tasoplsu Slovensko nas e§te vlac upevnla v tom, f~ budeme mOcr dOsledne br6nlt a chranlt' mravne a narodne hodnoty slovenskeho exllu a P.rllva slov:en~ e~~9 , .n_a,[.(1da pra~ neAl'astna_~~ ! slovenska v Tufe1anskom Svlltom Martine t~k ne~_f.!)eba Z[pdlla a zre_d.,u. Y m me vel'a svojlch vlaslnej§lch a nallehavejAlch liloh. (R) s/itort �SLOV AKIA-2015 105 APPENDIX8 lHE BALCH INSTITLJrE for ElHNIC STUDIES 18 South Seventh Street, Philadelphia, PA. Or M. Men STOlorik Uecutive Director Boord cJ Trustees Samuel H 8olklm. .k Ch011mon .JohnC Hoen ViceCr'\Otlmon AlexO:"'1010 8 Goloslu 19106 November 29, 1983 P4'n MiloS Biel Reda'kcia Slovensko 036 52 M a ~ Mudroifo va 35 Czechoslovakia Europe DrahY pcln Biel: Secrelo,y v.f$ .John F White heosu16' wo11er ~ Afooe, t0w1ence J 9ornh0'\T r, oc:e,1 C Cho01n MOn Beo111ce K Chemock lh90CJOl8 H Cov11 Th0m01 J F111oei-010 list zo dn'a 14 . novembra, 1983, som dO.e s obdrZal. Mlt~ yravdu ,/ed p{sete Z\ pozn~ obsah ~lo":,enskfch C:asop1;sov. Ako h isto ri k c!tam vsetke Slovenske tasopisy ktore vychadzaju na zapade. Aj niektore' zo Slovenska. Mam tiez' p{somne sty'ky zo Slovak.mi po celom svete. Pre mXa ti e to tasopisy a li s t y su pramene pre deji ny Slova'kov v 20. storoc'i. Lis t y od v;{s pa tt:i a mc dz i nima. Or Muffov J:.11eomon WdhOmL GfolO Dr Roso Bo~e Green Pl"Ol A W~liom Hogiuno Rooe,tM HOwe Moue A ledeler Corv L8Ylnson. Esci Mri- Fronk P louchheln'\ Set C Mo-npon MictlOel Novak Vrvion W Piosoc:k1 Mrs Meve, P Potomlun Em11vC m1ev Prof Timothy l. Smith Consiontine S. Sosongells Dr Jomes Ton11 1-1on Pou! A TroncMellO hOn Mno Cibott1 Ve,no Dr tv'torvin Wocnmon Ho~, Notnan1e1Wos.,1ngton c ec,110 Mov veo Polemizovaf s valmi neb1;,dem. \'1Sa tfloha je robi'! '!,ropa gandu . Mo'ja j e p{sal de jiny. V tomto pripade budem ~ ma'E posledne slovo. Ked chcete da~o uverejni'f v c!as opise Sl ovensk o , zasi ela'm vfm Clanok z Horizontu, o semin.iri v Martine. Vi k t or M.amatey , n.JS by'vali predseda, ho napisal a celkom s nlm s\Jhlasim. P{sat mOtete Co chcete. Historici budu vSetko posudzo vat. "Pravda vitazi," ako hovoril Masaryk. S k rajansk[m pozdrav om , /~ Emet1tu1 Prot fo.....o'O p HuTC""l1nson / (215) 925-8090 /-r?'i / v -~ Maria'n Stolclri k 0-< �SLOV AKIA-2015 106 APPENDIX 9 Slovak Studies Association Affiliated with the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies 700 Pe nfie ld Ave. , Havertown , PA 19083 Septemb e r 3 , 1983 Dr . Vladimfr !tinll! Predseda Matice slovenakej 812 51 Bratislava Pugai!"evova 2 Czechoslovakia 1968, I have of scholarly asked for my agreed . Over thousands of exchange. Since my first research tri p to Slovakia in the summe r of actively cooperated with the Matica elovensk8 in the exchange materials . Dr. Jan Martak and Dr. ~tefan Krivulf wrote me and cooperation in this program of cultural exchange and I gladly the last fifteen years I have sent the Mat i ca slovenska dollars worth of book.a and periodicals as a part of this You can imagine what a s hock and aurprise it was to me, therefore , to open your monthly magazine Slovensko (No.8, 1983) and to find, on page 6 of your supplement, 11 Slovensko krajanom, 11 an attack upon me by a certain MiloJ Biel. He accuses me, aa editor of the Slovak Studies Newsletter , of bringing to people's attention articles and publications "whose contents are hostile to our state I a political system," of working "in cooperation 11 with the Slovak Institute in Cleveland, 11 and of taking an unfriendly s tand" towards Slovakia. Cont'd on page 107 �SLOV AKIA-2015 107 APPENDIX9 Besides being false, these charges betray a certain naivte by Mr. Biel about historical scholarship and conditions in the West. You, as a scholar and poet, must realize that serious historians have to consider all sources when writing their history, not just those that a certain political philosophy calls for. That i s the very essence of objectivity. Furthermore, it is the duty of true scholars to have contacts with all institutions that contain historical meterials, whether they be located ~Slovakia or in the United States. Finally, we in the West believe in openness and pluralism. For instance, the Slovak Studies Association, of which I am the founder and Secretary-Treasurer, has among its members Slovak Catholics, Lutherans, Calvinists, Greek Catholics, Jews, nationalis ts, 'Czechoslovaks' and Marxists. We do not exclude people because of their religion or political orientation. We are open to all scholars who are interested in promoting Slovak studies the world over . Therefore, Mr. Biel' s clumsy attempt to list 1 'friendly 11 and "unfriendly" members of the Slovak Studies Association is going to backfire and hurt the good contacts that the Hatica slovenska has developed with Slovaks in the West over the last several years. I s uggest that you have Mr. Biel retract his crude and unwarranted attack upon me in the next issue of Slovensko . If he does not, I have a feeling that most of the goodwill that the Hatica slovensklhas built up with young scholars in the Western World will very quickly disappear. Yours Sincerely, l ·f i~ �108 SLOV AKIA-2015 APPENDIX 10 Bratislava, 4,10,1983 Vazeny pan Stolarik! Iste Vas nemusfm ubezpe ~ovaf o tom, ako Matici slovenskej zalezf na vsetkom, co sa aotyka dejin i su~asnosti slovenskej narodnej kultury, ako nam teda zalezi aj na kazdom, kto s nami chce v mene buducnosti tejto kultury spo lupracovaf, To sa dotyka aj Slovak Studies newsletter i Vas osobne, Mrzf ma to, co sa stale v ~asopise Slovensko, Nemam priam_y vplyv na redigovania ~asopisu, ale pokia! to bude v mojich silach., zabranim v buducnosti moznym nedorozumeniam . Rozumia sa, za mame rozliCne nazory na zivot spolocnosti a na jej buducnost . Ale mame aj spoloCnu starost, ktorou je slovenska narodna kultura, jej dejiey a osudy - na celom svete, Dufam teda, ze nam v oalse.j spolupraci nezabrania malichernosti a ostavam so srdeCnym pozaravom dJ.l~-t~~ / t/ • Vazeny pan M,Mark Stolarik 7U0 Penfiela Ave. Havertown, ~A 19083 ~~~U Narodny umelec Vladimir Minal! �SLOV AKIA-2015 109 APPENDIX 11 - s--!.. =■ ~ S:io'-'6,1,~Ko t /tJ.,~f. HIOll4CIIKl:1:t c::==s ilowc11td::~ ► --. 5: Slovensko pre ,,dva druhy citatefov" Pod tymto Hver•vr•vnYffl .. l&IVom uv--tnM p6n M...Wn Mtt Stolarik. tajomnlk • po-. ......· - - • e t ipolotnOfll (Slovak StudlN \Noc:Ultion) v USA vo •vojom "MWUetter rot. I , tWo 1/iun 1114, str. I . nuledujUCU pomemku : ,Sloven•ko, oflcialny meu~ "Ilk M•tH» •lov•n•k• J vych'· dz.a vo dvoch veni,ch, p,-. dv• r,dliln4 titat•l•k4 ve,.jna.rl. Predpok/adal aom, I • ..,,•tci nd i ~novla to vedill, • I• n• d4vn o .am zlstil l e to tak nle ,._ Vlalna 1. v,. J. v domienk•. h Slo~o. tron dost'"'• t• Vy ■Jja, jetenl•tvtuop/a, lrto,Y cirltulu}9 ,,. Slowm•ku. f•li•. Aku pozome adlv■ t• n• lcror,hofvek 8•/o V"h o U•ooi•u SloVM1•ko, vlimnite al, le mtKUi 16. • 17. atranou hlevnej t..•ti ~nopi•u je Cudzofuytn' prf/ohe, r,ro Cudzoj•~n, prlloha znaman, oval• vlec n#Jl vyzer,. ObuhuJ• tiel ~,,,.. ky v •loventine, ilu•troven4 ,, Toho tuu ,,.jchUlo•tiwjjoo ....cou je otbb •lav•n•k•J prl• lo hy Sloven.Ice. v,1ho m • ~ nib, wnov• MJ Jcr• Janom v u hr•ni8, ,,. ktof'U m• upozornlll •i vlac»rl )ednotllvcl. PodobM elco Stol• rilc v Slov• lc Studi• ._ Pouvelu;t• a WICI, uda t•ru ul r,ro prlloh• v •lowrwt.•f rKi b y mohl• by( •U~•fou rl•dM otlaloven'(Ch .rr, n Slovt1M ka, • to •i pre 6it•t• l ov v • t•rom kr•JI. Cudzojuytry prllohe by u moh/M vloli( do ~•oplsu Hp■ r,rne. Predillo by u zbytotn•J krltilce, nedtr wre, yYSmelnYm • ultll)«:nYm pozn,mlcem • Jcont,..ver• zil, I• u Ju ,ob4v• t• uUnf titetefom dome '. S.m ozre/m, w c, Je potombyste melivybe,..f • pr'vy od 01db v,m pr!Jat111nych.,, Ne dldede tohoto llstu sm• pochopHI, le naM nepriatalls v auf•l•J sneh• dlskredftova! n'6 tasopls. c:hytaJU N kaJdel prildfto.tl, aby naMI Umlen• 2) bu<f vy va ml moriadtis!■ Sk>vensb 2 X do roka • ru u rok Magufn, ako •m• to uroblll v rokoch 1811 s 1NZ. 3) elebo prUollt NmostatnU prflohu ku kald,mu tulu Slovenska, 1rtor• bud• ••· pedov•n• U.,enom. Bolo n,m Ja.sn',, le form• pristupu ku luajanom vytadu}11. ■by ttat.M slovo, ktorym .. bud•m• obraca! ku krajaq_om. bolo vy,obeM najmodern9llou tachn.lkou • na kv■• litnom ps.,...-1. preto.le all.nm toho, le bude plnft' nu-odnouvedomovadu • fflformKnU funk.du, bude slutff •J ako ,.._ pruenUda nai•J SUtesnosd. Preto rozhoduJUdml taktorml, ~ urtlll tretlu alt.emaUvu ako opdmilnu • reelb.ovstel'nU, boll: pridal kvalhMho pa• piera a Aulomberka, ftnentn. prostriedky poa«ytovan, Ml• nlst.erstvom lwlturf SSA. pwaoniln• ubupet:enl• redak• tn't'ch pnc bu zvylenla at.aw redaktorov • konetne 11..padta tlatlarM. NaN Slovensko •ko Matupc:a MatitMho ffianlll vych6du ul 6smy roll. Ptvyc:h I rokov vyc:hadulo i.k ako teraz n• 32 stnMc:h, ale z toho Ian na I farebnych. Nlekol'ko stovik vytlatkov Slov•nslta :uslelalo byval4 Oddelenle MS ~ U· hranltnjch Slov,kov I n■JJm knjanom predovletkym do Fnl'tCUului, Juhosljvle • Kanady. 11M I do USA• Auatr611e. 0d roku 1813, v a&JvlslMtl • I► ho vlalm umeranhn do uhran~•• rodlriM sme fa,.bnU ten' n11 11 atrin. bez avylenla cany Ka 5, - :u a.Jo. To ale znamenelo t1atH oety tuopfs na kvalftnom ,,..,_... Nale tov,,.I\ v Rulombertc.u vyr6ba skutotne kv•lltnY pepler, ktory Je yYZ.namnYffl exportn,;m ;rovania • udriovania kontak tov • lu■janml • v ""•ha po m6d im v kh Ualll o udrianll sloven~o n,rodn~ pov• dornla a podtu •~upatrit nosd • Jedrom n6rods P04 T atraml, alto I umo.t:ntr Im YU )omn, poznanl• krsjan~ livota v r6znyc:h tastiac:h sva ta Itek ako sma to uv&edl v 1/14 Bale Slov•nslui). Ak by sm• chcall dod6v• prilohu Slovansko krajanon I na domic:I trh, potrebovaU b• ame prlnajmen9' o 30 % vyt.t pridel p,aJNer•. to u daneJ vj robne4 sftuKM v n.&J:ombe, • k•J tov6rni nle }e moln4i. Tak ti&I by sme muMII ;rvyi,lt' cani tasopisu na dom6com trhu, 6t tlel v sutasnoati Ne Je ul.alM TNI• •ko vldlta, m ill luaja nl a, calkom proukk6 flnant " '• ma....Ulna • techrdck, d6 vody Mt pntinou, pre&t tj ta.Slovenaka, ktor6 Ja ur6en6 kni janom • :uoberi N prevs.tn. luajanskou problematikou nil Je k dlt,poddl I domkam1 Btat.rovl. Cudzojuyl"' priloha J• tla 6an, na obytajnom 1.-.bnon novl novom pepl■ rt, aby ZyY ru.nlla a oddelllll prlohu 0< ostat,,..,o taxtu . Talrto nie J4 ponJien6 kontlnulta taxtu pr1 domidch tltatelov • kr■J•n sky at.atel' dOSUva svoj u prflo hu komp,aktnU. Konettla treba p. Mar5'nov Stolarikovl prlpomenut', h pr avojef vedlajiej tinnostl altc r.dsktor • vydav■tel' Nawalet• tar al mohol (ubudol alebo nec:hcel1) Yilmnuf, le sko oudzolazytni prilohe, tak I Slo· vansko lu■Janom majU NmoatatnU tlril. to v novin6rskej praxl anama"'-, la hod Je Jedan vydav■ W I Ufr.daktor. prMaa to, to do.Uvs, SU vlast• ne tri Nmostatn4i periodlld (hod I spolu zoliU). ktor6 m~ tu byf upedov•M • rodlro• Cont'd on page 110 �SLOV AKIA-2015 110 APPENDIX 11 • ~ • to priMU a , nky o s1ov, lcoch na UpatH. Slovkl dom• tuto prllohu niltdy navkl~ . Vla•tMUwry .iurobteMml." Nepovdov•II •m• dopot,lal' uWM ,-govat' na alee dot.. .nultov•n&i. ... pNdu len U'9jmU domyeel'noet' uv.. defMlpmNlmlryvNew.iett:•. Medd6uo,n u I\U v I.ta opjul llnjan a NSR. pr.ea nedoetaf v CSSR i!uopla SbveMlco • prilohou 8&ovenako lulljanom. Odpovadal am• mu p&.omne pnllmo • on naM vywetaenieakoeptoval. Oo.teM ..,... vlak d'.U 19t a USA od vjzn,amrwho krajanakMto kutbimeho Bnltel'-. v ktorom bol nuledufQd od- u ......, dWttod &u ndavnutomli, PN koho taeopl• vycUvama ■ v ■ tom rouahu, roahod.W .me N podllf ilrokej knjanilk•J Y«9jnoatl vywedanie. 0 d6vodoch, ktcri nN • nM nadrtadenf Ol'Pn - Mlnlnera:tvo 11.ulb;ry 8SR - vleclll le tomu, ■by am• vycMv■ II tlHMM alovo pre lualanov, MM plull oblim• ne tomto m'-te v 9/M a.le Slovanaka. Tu tr..bll objaantt' Iba technldw .trinJa.i rulldde. Z Uvah, ■ ko rHll.zov■t i.nto dme,, vykryttall.zovall J ■har­ t111tfvy: 1) bud' vydjvaf Nmo.tab'tf fuopl■ pre knjaftOV (kvr(.-O<J. vyN>ba, Ide na uport. Napatr"' Ullf' aoaUiva pre, tuumsko ■ ,. prfen■ llmH.ovan6. N•t tuopq doetaval tie.I urtfty prid.a tohoto papi.,.. (n■ I _,.n). 0d roku 1N3 bol prklel r,ylent na pokrytM I farebnych strin (d'.tlkh) ■ I rilin prflohy PN lu■Janov. baopta 810¥'9ftN0 I• WWnY' ..........................ho atatel'■ : 70 % Nlldadu Ide na dom'4:il trh ■ len 25 % ,. prilohou) pre lnjanov ■ I % pre on.atnu GUdzlnu. Tyoh 21 "' "'ldadu. apolu • c:uckoluy6nou p,9ohou • prlohou Slownako kntrlanom IMnC:1Ujeme a~Matloe.aov.n•uJ dotovaMho ~om kuhury &SR v UUJm• Na UV..- .. t ied.a podotknUf, ta ,ri..,.a tych rucMckofaM.tkkych luuhov, kto" •ita necMvno qltovall, aby Mm lln)ani• Slovenako vrac.all Cnapr. tt.nadaky Slodk), .. aruu DZYV• fartzajsk.6 atarost• lfvo.t o nilho do""oeho tltaWa. la nav&dl iu.JaN116 priohu. :Um..- Je fun'i' • jednoanat:nj . Cheu Mm polllodK, otrevovaf vzfahy nwwdal narnl • krajanml. lrtoN .. 1 naprielc lch lntria'm .,.,.,.. • Ua,pe,tn• roMJaJ'I . .... anahy hod~ nflnonn, • hod I n• Cpeaudo) ved41Ckej Oroml aem,ow"' prukn6 alto myclo"' bubllna. pr.tole pr■ vda )e ,.. n-■J nadvA- Cud1oja1yCnd prnoha Rlowcnallo ~ S...- Htl.i.., Z -fll M ,i.,1 .. A ~,t--AOI V~MMl1lcaoi...-U• • " " ' -· 'i.t.llTS""'.••"' .w(- "-9,_fJa. MolniA, (l.$a • - 1,n . . . , . �SLOV AKIA-2015 111 APPENDIX 12 TRAFENA HUS ZAGAGA is a Slovak saying meaning literally •the goose that is hit will maJce a loud cackle• . .I t caoos to one's mind when reading the article in SLOVENSKO *) ,tbe.:.official monthly publication of'Hatica slovenska (Czecho-Slovakia) attacking Hark H. Stolarik, Secretary-Treasurer of the SlovaJc Studies' Asscr ciation (USA) far his brief remark in the Association's Newsletter (June 1984, see also SM 5 &6, p.28). Stolarik informed about the non-availability of SLCNENSKO' s supplement SLDIENSKO XRAJANOH (aimed at Slovaks outside Sl~ vakia) to readers in J;lovakia. According to SLOIENSXO,the re~ sons f.or this non-availability are econcmi c : paper . shortage• •though no mention •is made of the fact that they are flooding the West with 'canplimentary copies' of their books printed on very expensive paper. I t takes them the best part of a page to say this, when a simple ,sentence •because of economic reasQllS we cannot supply the Supplement for no extra cost to readers in Slovakia, however they can obtain i t· ·e asily for an additional subscription . & . Kcs ... • would have been sufficient. But ·this they dia ..cot want tD say! By the way, one is concerned~ bout access to SLCNENSKO KRAJANOH not as i f this was the best way to inform people in Slovakia . - about Slovak life in the West, but because Hatica slovenska herself has been encouraging Slovaks in the -west to establish contactJwith their old homeland through h'Z"iting ·to SLCNENSKO. I f the only obstacles to establishing such contacts were economic , a simple solution would be this : The BULI£TIN of the SLCNAX WCRLD CONGRESS states that it: "is available to readers in Slovakia free of charge• (there is no paper shortage in Canada !J. Why does not Hatica slovenska undertaJce to distribute the BULI£TIN free .of charge among the subscribers of SLOVENSKO in .Slovakia, and have in exchange the Slovak World Congress distribute SWVENSKO KRAJANOH free of charge to the readers of their BULLETIN in the West. Nobody could then canplain about lack of contacts : •I t was too much of a temptation to resist, namely to present to our readers the final part of the article in SWVENSKO with ·al:1 -its orwellian beauty (their English sUD1Dary contains neither this nor the vitriolic attaak .on H. Stolarik) : Those who dared to question the availability of SLOVENSKO KRAJANOH are •fascists• and "pharisees• (what a combination !) who "want to damage and poison the r~ lationship between us [i.e. Hatica] and our countrymen, which shows a premising and successful development despite their [i. e. the fascists' and pharisees' J intrigues. Their attempts, though cunning and presented on a {pseudo) scientific level .will burst like a soap bubble because .the truth is on our side.• � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 2015, Vol. 42 Description An account of the resource Vol. 42 (No. 78-79), 2015. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2015 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document SLOV AKIA-2015 87 MY ROCKY RELATIONSHIP WITH THE MATICA SLOVENSKA. DURING THE SECOND ERA OF COMMUNISM IN CZECHOSLOVAKIA, 1970-1989: A PERSONAL MEMOIR M. Mark Stolarik When I first visited Slovakia in the summer of 1968, I established friendly contacts with the Matica slovenska in Martin . 1 Never did I dream that, a short while later, one of its employees would publicly attack me. This happened because the political situation in Czechoslovakia changed as a result of the Warsaw Pact invasion of August, 1968. The so-called "Prague Spring," led by the Slovak reformer Alexander Dubcek, who wished to transform Czech and Slovak society into "socialism with a human face," was crushed under the weight of Warsaw Pact tanks. Less than a year later, Dubcek was replaced as First Secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia by the turncoat Gustav Husak, who proceeded to "normalize" the state. What started out as a year of high hopes turned into one of great disappointment. 2 Even though I was born in Slovakia in 1943, my parents decided to evacuate the whole family into Austria before the Russian front came through in January of 1945 . I did not return to my home town of Martin until July of 1968. 3 Dr. Jozef Telgarsky, the Director of the National Library, which then belonged to the Matica slovenska, 1 A shorter, Slovak version of this article first appeared as "Matica slovenska pod dohl'adom Statnej bezpecnosti," in Matica slovenska v narodnych dejinach, ed. by Imrich Sedlak (Martin : Matica slovenska, 2013), 174-78. I initially described this trip in greater detail as "My Memories of Slovakia under Communism (S ummer of 1968)," in Narodny kalendar CVII (Pittsburgh, 1999), 96-99 . 2 For the latest scholarship on the " Prague Spring" see The Prague Spring and the Warsaw Pact Invasion of Czechoslovakia, 1968: Forty Years Later, ed. by M. Mark Stolarik (Mundelein, IL: Bolchazi-Carducci, 2010). For the period of "normalization" in Slovakia see Norbert Kmet' and Juraj Marusiak, comp., S/ovensko a reiim normalizacii (Presov: Michal Vasko, 2002). 3 1 described my family's Odyssey, as well as Slovak emigration in general, in Where is my Home? Slovak Emigration to North America (1870-2010) (Bern: Peter Lang, 2012). 88 SLOV AKIA-2015 heartily welcomed me. He was delighted that, after so many years of being cut off from the West, he could once again establish contacts with Slovaks in the West. 4 I had come to Slovakia in the summer of 1968 as a Ph.D. student from the University of Minnesota in order to study the villaie origins of Slovak emigration to North America in the 19 th and 20 centuries. I had already studied the parish records of various Slovak communities in the United States and Canada and wished to link them with those in Slovakia. At the same time, I had started to collect archival materials for the newly-established Immigrant Archives at the University of Minnesota. When I finished my research in Slovakia in September of 1968, I promised Telgarsky, that I would begin to send duplicate archival and library materials concerning Slovaks in the USA and Canada to the Slovak National Library in return for the SNL sending me the latest publications of historians in Slovakia. 5 After I finished my doctoral studies at the University of Minnesota, I was employed by several professional institutions but never lost contact with the Matica slovenska. At first I was employed by the Cleveland State University as a Lecturer and Assistant Professor (1972-76), then as an Historical Researcher at the National Museum of Man in Ottawa (1977-78), then as President and CEO of the Balch Institute for Ethnic Studies in Philadelphia (1979-91) and finally as Professor and Chairholder of the only Chair in Slovak History and Culture in the Western World at the University of Ottawa (1992 to the present). During all of these years I continued my program of exchange with the Matica slovenska. I wish that I could say that our relations were always good, but it was not to be. While I worked at the National Museum of Man in Ottawa, I took the initiative to establish a new scholarly organization. In 1975 a Czechoslovak History Conference had been founded by a group of historians in the United States. 6 From my study of Czech and Slovak history, I knew that, as always, Slovak history, and Slovak scholars, 4 When I returned to the USA, it occurred to me that Jozef Telgarsky was the author of my favorite children's book - Zirafa [The Giraffe] (Martin: Matica slovenska, 1946). While we were refugees in Austria from 1945-1950, my mother often read me sections of this book. I still have it and cherish it. 5 JozefTelgarsky to Marian Stolarik, May 13, 1969, NK 289 20/69-St. See Appendix 1, page 97. 6The history of this organization can be found in its Czechoslovak History Ne wsletter, founded in 1979. SLOV AKIA-2015 89 would play "second fiddle" in such an organization. Therefore, at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies in Washington, D.C. in October of 1977, I persuaded half a dozen scholars in the USA and Canada to create our own Slovak Studies Association. Since I took the initiative in founding this organization, I was elected its first Secretary-Treasurer and Newsletter Editor. I then contacted as many scholars as I knew had an interest in Slovak studies and invited them to join. By 1983 our ranks had grown to 120 members. Meanwhile, the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies accepted us as an affiliated organization and the officers and I organized regular sessions of the Slovak Studies Association at the annual meetings of the AAASS. 7 As Newsletter Editor, I also informed our members of recent scholarly developments in Slovakia, as well as of the activities and publications of our members. Meanwhile, in 1968 the Matica slovenska began to publish a semi-weekly newspaper entitled Maticne citanie and put me on its mailing list. 8 At the beginning this newspaper reflected a good dose of Slovak nationalism and on its masthead carried a stylized Slovak national emblem, which had been banned by the Communists. 9 However, under the weight of Gustav Husak's, "normalization" campaign, in 1973 the Slovak emblem disappeared from the Matica's letterhead and in 1978 the Maticne citanie folded . It was then replaced by the glossy monthly Slovensko. At the same time, Jozef Telgarsky no longer corresponded with me. Instead, two hard-line Communists, at first Jaroslav Celko and later Stefan Krivus, both Directors of the Matica, continued the correspondence. The masthead of their letters no longer carried the Slovak emblem; it was replaced by the letters MS , for the Matica slovenska. 10 It was clear from these changes that the Matica was being purged . Nevertheless, I kept exchanging materials with the Matica and hoped for the best. 7 The history of the Slovak Studies Association can be found in the Newsletter of the Slovak Studies Association, published since October, 1977. Recently the AAASS changed its name to the American Association for Slavic and Eurasian Studies. 8 A complete run of this newspaper can be found in the Slovak Archives, Archives and Special Collections, University of Ottawa. 9 See the first issue of Maticne citanie dated October 28, 1968, Appendix 2, pages 98-99. 10 See the letters of Jaroslav Celko, dated March 27, 1973 and Stefan Krivus, dated October 23, 1974 to Mark Stolarik, Appendices 3, page 100, and App 4, page 10 I. 90 SLOV AKIA-2015 Unfortunately, in the 1980's my relations with the Matica slovenska took a tum for the worse. The first sign that something was amiss came in 1980 when the "Oddelenie pre zahranicnych Slovakov" (the Department for Slovaks Abroad) of the Matica slovenska sponsored an international scholarly conference on "Vyst'ahovalectvo a zivot krajanov vo svete" (Emigration and the Life of Countrymen Abroad) and published the papers.11 Even though I had met and befriended Jan Siracky, the Director, and Frantisek Bielek, one of their researchers in 1968 when the Department was established in Bratislava, and they knew that I specialized in the history of the immigration of Slovaks to North America, they did not invite me to this conference. Instead, they invited my good friend and colleague Thomas D. Marzik (originally Mrazik), an Associate Professor of history at St. Joseph's University in Philadelphia. A scholar of Central Europe, Marzik specialized on T.G. Masaryk and the Slovakophile Czech Karel Kalal. He had done no archival research on Slovak immigration. Nevertheless, the conference organizers asked him to present a paper on "The State of American Scholarly Research on Slovak Emigration and on American Slovaks," which he read in English, since he could not speak Slovak. He must have taken the conference organizers by surprise when he asserted, among other things, that "M. Mark Stolarik is currently the most productive scholar concerning the history American Slovaks," and then added, "currently, he is the Executive Director of the Balch Institute for Ethnic Studies in Philadelphia... .In this capacity, he can be very helpful in encouraging further research on American Slovaks." 12 When I received a copy of the Proceedings of this conference, I no longer regretted not having been invited. As I leafed through the book, I noticed that the conference had been opened by Viliam Salgovic, at that time the Chairman of the Slovak National Council, but formerly the Deputy Minister of the Interior in 1968, who betrayed his colleagues in the "Prague Spring" by collaborating with the invading Warsaw Pact forces . It turns out that Salgovic had been an agent of the Soviet KGB and was one of the most hated individu11 Vyst'ahova/ectvo a iivot krajanov vo svete. K storocnici masoveho vyst'ahova/ectva s/ovenskeho /'udu do zamoria. Zbornik prispevkov k vedeckej konferencii. Zost. Frantisek Bielik, Jan Siracky a Claude Balaz (Martin: Matica slovenska, 1982). 12 Ibid., 131-32. The compilers arranged for Marzik's article to be translated into Slovak. SLOVAKIA-2015 91 als in Slovakia. 13 Furthermore, the conference organizers also invited the retired grade-school teacher and communist activist Helen Vrabel-Saunders of Los Angeles and the Canadian Slovak communist activist Jan Rumisek to present papers on the Slovak communities in their respective countries. 14 These individuals reflected poorly on the scholarly level of this conference. When Marzik returned to Philadelphia and described the conference to me, he mocked the presentations of these so-called "experts." However, when the Proceedings arrived in the mail in 1982, I mocked Marzik for the company he had kept. The second bad sign from Czechoslovakia came in 1982. At that time my wife and I had decided that, even though the Matica did not invite me to its scholarly conference, we would visit our native Slovakia on our own. As was required at that time, we applied for a visitor 's visa to Czechoslovakia, but, much to our surprise, the Czechoslovak Embassy in Washington denied our application, without any explanation. 15 When we had visited Czechoslovakia in the summers of 1968 and 1970, we had acquired visas without any difficulty. The third bad sign occurred in 1983 when, to my great surprise, a certain writer for the Matica's monthly Slovensko, began to attack me. Even though he signed his articles as Milos Biel, he was, in fact, Miroslav Andreansky, a collaborator of the STB (State Security), who edited the Cudzojazicnu prilohu (Foreign-Language Supplement) of Slovensko. 16 In the 1970's, using the cover name Tacovsky, he had served a spy for the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic in West Germany. 17 13 For Salgovic's welcoming remarks see Ibid., 12-16. For his role in the "Prague Spring" see William Shawcross, Dubcek (London: Weidenfeld and Nicholson, 1970), 154. Soon after the Communists relinquished power during the "Velvet Revolution" in I 989, Salgovic committed suicide. 14 For their papers see Vyst'ahova/ectvo, 270-87 and 340-42. 15 Chief of the Visa Section (unreadable signature), Embassy of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic to Mark Stolarik, June 4, 1982 (in author's personal papers) . 16 Dr. Tomas Klubert, an employee of the Ustav pamdti naroda (The Nation 's Memory Institute) of the Slovak Republic, in a reply to my query dated September 3, 2010, confirmed that Andreansky was indeed a collaborator of the STB. His cover name was "Korunka." Unfortunately, his file was shredded on October 8t11, 1988. 17 See the article"Co na to pan Prokes?" published in the monthly Svedectvo: Casopis politickych vdznov na Slovensku, I, no. 4 (April 1992), page 18. 92 SLOV AKIA-2015 Andreansky/Biel had learned about the Slovak Studies Association from Thomas D. Marzik. The Matica slovenska had invited the latter to another international conference in Martin on July 5-7, 1983, on the occasion of the Matica's 120th anniversary. Knowing that the Matica had once again failed to invite Stolarik to this conference, Marzik urged it to establish formal relations with the Slovak Studies Association and also to invite "more American experts" to future conferences.18 Andreansky/Biel replied to Marzik's appeal in the Foreign Language Supplement of the August issue of Slovensko. In an article entitled "?Slovak Studies Association?" Andreansky/Biel wrote: "Direct contact with such leading personalities in the SSA as Stanislav J. Kirschbaum, M. Mark Stolarik and Renee Mikus, because of their hostility [towards the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic] are, at the moment, impossible." 19 This reply was laughable, because neither Stanislav J. Kirschbaum, nor Renee Mikus, held any office in the SSA! I suspect that Stan Kirschbaum was on the "black list" of Czechoslovak authorities because he was the son of Jozef Kirschbaum, who at that time was one of the Executive VicePresidents of the Slovak World Congress and Renee Mikus was married to Jozef Mikus, who also held a high office in the SWC. Indeed, both the elderly Kirschbaum and his colleague Mikus were former diplomats in the service of the first Slovak Republic (1939-1945) as well as members of the Slovak People 's Party, and, as such, supporters of Slovak independence. 20 Thus, they were anathema to the Husak regime. Andreansky/Biel probably did not like Mark Stolarik because he was the son of Imrich Stolarik, also a former member of the Slovak People's Party and, therefore a "separatist" who often wrote articles advocating Slovak independence in the weekly 18 Thomas D. Marzik, "K problematike Slovensko-americkych akademickych vzt'ahov," in Zahranicni S/ovaci a narodne kulturne dedictvo: Zbornik prispevkov z vedeckeho seminara k 120. vyrociu zaloienia Matice s/ovenskej, compiled by Frantisek Bielik, Jan Siracky and Claude Balaz (Martin : Matica slovenska, 1984), 10109. Once again, the Matica arranged to translate Marzik' s article into Slovak. 19 Slovensko, 8 (August, 1983), Foreign Language Supplement. See Appendix 5, gage 102. °For the history of the first ten years of the Slovak World Congress, see Desat' rokov cinnosti SKS, comp . by JozefM. Kirschbaum (Toronto: Slovak World Congress, 1981). For the struggle for Slovak independence, see J. M . Kirschbaum, Nas boj o samostatnost' Slovensko (Cleveland: Slovak Institute, 1958; reprinted by the Matica slovenska, Martin, 2000). SLOVAKIA-2015 93 Kanadsky Slovak. For this reason Andreansky/Biel wrote to Mark Stolarik on November 14, 1983 and asked the latter to repudiate an article written by his father in Kanadsky Slovak on September 24, 1983, which had criticized the August issue of Slovensko.2 1 Andreansky/Biel even promised to publish Stolarik' s reply in the next issue of Slovensko! Instead, Mark Stolarik wrote to Andreansky/Biel as follows : "I will not polemicize with you . Your job is to create propaganda. Mine is to write history. In this instance, I will have the last word." 22 Andreansky/Biel ' s letter showed that, at that time he had more power in the Matica slovenska than its president, the "Narodny umelec" (national artist) and writer Vladimir Mi nae, a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Slovakia. After having read Andrensky/Biel's attack upon me in Slovensko, I complained to Mi nae in a letter dated September 3, 1983 .23 In his reply of October 4, 1983, Minac wrote the following: "I am sorry about what happened in the periodical Slovensko . I have no direct control over the editorial content of the magazine, but, as much as I can, I will try to prevent such future misunderstandings." 24 Meanwhile, Victor S. Mamatey, considered the "dean" of Czech and Slovak historians in the United States, also reacted to the machinations of the Matica slovenska. In the Slovak monthly Horizont, published by emigres in Switzerland, he wrote the following: Slovaks abroad need cultural contacts with their homeland and Slovakia needs contacts with Slovaks abroad . Unfortunately, at the moment such contacts are weak and inadequate. The Matica and the entire regime need to understand that not they, but Slovaks abroad have the right to decide who will represent them at conferences and who will properly interpret their needs. 25 Vladimir Minac could not have been sincere in his reply to Mark Stolarik's complaint because, as indicated above, Andreansky/Biel wrote me again on November 141\ Furthermore, in 1988, during the 21 Milos Biel to Mark Stolarik, November 14, 1983 . See Appendix 6, page 103 . See also Appendix 7, page I 04, for the article in Kanadsky Slowik, September 24, 1983 . 22 Mark Stolarik to Milos Biel, November 29, 1983. See Appendix 8, page 105 . 23 Mark Stolarik to Vladimir Mimic, September 3, 1983 . See Appendix 9, pages 106 and 107. 24 Vladimir Minac to Mark Stolarik, October 4, 1983 . See Appendix 10, page 108. 25 Horizon/ (Zurich), September-October, 1983. 94 SLOV AKIA-2015 era of "Glasnost" and "Perestrojka," as promoted in the Soviet Union and its satellites by General Secretary Mikhail Goobachev in the late 1980's,2.6 I was finally invited to attend another Matica conference in Bratislava. There I met Vladimir Mimic at a Matica-sponsored reception at Bratislava Castle. After the opening ceremonies ended, a tipsy Mimic approached me and asked in a voice reeking of wine "ci vas otec stale serie do toho Kanadskeho Slovaka?" (Is your father still crapping into Kanadsky Slovak?) .27 This vulgar question revealed what was really bothering Minac (and Andreansky/Biel): that my father was freely advocating independence for Slovakia in Kanadsky Slovak. Another reason why Andreansky/Biel attacked me in Slovensko is that I revealed the truth about how it was published. When Tom Marzik returned from the second Matica conference in 1983, he promptly informed me that Slovensko was published in two versions : one for domestic consumption and one for Slovaks abroad. Only the foreign version contained a "Foreign Language Supplement," which carried news about the activities of Slovaks in the wider world. I informed the readers of the Newsletter of the Slovak Studies Association of these two versions in the June, I 984 issue.28 In its August 22 nd issue, the largest-circulation Slovak-American newspaper, the Jednota, official organ of the First Catholic Slovak Union, congratulated me for having provided this information. It pointed out that the Matica slovenska was sending Slovensko for free to Slovaks all over the world, and they had no idea that it was published in two versions.29 This information so infuriated Andreansky/Biel that he reacted with a full-page response in the January, 1985 issue of Slovensko. The jist of his response was that the publishers of Slovensko did not have enough paper to offer the "Foreign Language Supplement" to domestic readers.30 The best reaction to this absurd excuse came from Juraj Virsik, editor of the Slovak-Australian Monitor. In an article beginning with the Slovak proverb "Trafena hus zagaga," (A Struck Goose 26 For the Gorbachev era see Angus Roxburgh, The Second Russian Revolution: The Struggle for Power in the Kremlin (London : BBC Books, 1991). 27 1 described this episode in greater detail under the pseudonym Leo Carpenter in "Looking for Mr. Glasnost in Today ' s Czechoslovakia," in the monthly Crisis: A Journal of Lay Catholic Opinion, 7, no. 7 (July-August, 1989), 33-39. 28 "Slovensko for Two Audiences," SSA Newsletter, 8, no. 1 (June, 1984), p. 13. 29 Jednota (Middletown, PA), August 22, 1984. 30 Slovensko, 1 (1985), "Cudzojazycna priloha.," Appendix 11 , pages 109 and 110. SLOVAKIA-2015 95 will Squawk), Virsik provocatively suggested that, if Slovakia indeed suffered from a shortage of paper, it could easily turn to the Bulletin of the Slovak World Congress, published in Canada, which had an abundance of newsprint, and the Bulletin would willingly publish any news that the Matica might send it. 31 Andreansky-Biel did not react to Virsik's article. Finally, in 1988, probably as a result of Mikhail Gorbachev's "Glasnost," which also penetrated into the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, the Matica slovenska invited Mark Stolarik to another of its scholarly conferences, this time to be held in Bratislava on July 46. When I arrived in Bratislava and met with Frantisek Bielik, whom I had not seen since 1970, I asked him who was Miloslav Andreansky/Milos Biel? A surprised Bielik answered, "Don't you know?" "No, I don ' t," I replied. "But, you must know, he continued ." "No I don ' t, I answered." He was still afraid to openly tell me. I then asked where was Andreansky/Biel? Bielik answered, "in Martin." Perhaps Andreansky/ Biel did not attend the conference for fear that I would confront him . As a result, I never met him. After the fall of Communism in Czechoslovakia, I inquired about his whereabouts and discovered that Andreansky/ Biel had left the Matica and was living in Vrutky, a small railroad town north of Martin. He had apparently joined the ultra-nationalist Slovak National Party and was its representative in that town. Since I had met and befriended Jozef Prokes, one of the founders of the Slovak National Party, when he had visited Canada in 1992, I wrote to Prokes and asked him how it was that a former collaborator of the STB was now working for the Slovak National Party?32 Prokes did not answer my letter. Meanwhile, many interesting individuals attended the Bratislava conference. After I presented my paper on the declining use of the Slovak language in the United States, 33 an elderly gentleman ap31 Slovak-Australian Monitor (March, 1985). See Appendix 12, page 111. Mark Stolarik to Jozef Prokes, August 27, 1992 (author's archive). When I visited the Matica at another conference in February of 2013, and once again inquired about the whereabouts of Andreansky/Biel, the older employees, who had known him, sheepishly answered that a few years earlier he had passed away. 33 "A Historical Perspective on the Declining Use of the Slovak Language in the United States of America," in Zahranicni Slowici a materinsky jazyk. Zbornik prispevkov z vedeckeho symposia k 125. vyrociu zaloienia Matice slovenskej, " comp. by Frantisek Bielik and Claude Balaz (Martin : Matica slovenska, 1990), I 7277. 32 96 SLOVAKIA-2015 proached me. He was Dr. Belo Polla, an employee of the Matica in the l 940's, who had been purged and later found himself working for the Archaeological Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences in Nitra, approached me. He was delighted that, in my presentation, I had mentioned his former colleagues at the Matica such as its director J.C. Hronsky and the publicist Konstantin Culen, as well as the historian Frantisek Hrusovsky and the journalist Jozef Pauco. He added that those names had been "taboo" in Czechoslovakia in the previous years. He was also delighted that emigres such as the linguist I:ubomir Durovic of Sweden and the political scientist Milan Durica of Italy were able to participate in the conference. Such was the influence of Mikhail Gorbachev's "Glasnost," which would eventually lead to the collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe during the summer and fall of 1989.34 After the fall of Communism in Czechoslovakia in November of 1989, the situation in the Matica slovenska immediately improved. The "old guard" either retired or was fired and the new leaders of the Matica immediately re-established friendly contacts with Slovaks in the West. There were no longer any attacks in the monthly Slovensko against me or any other members of the Slovak Studies Association. Indeed, in 1991 the Matica signed a formal agreement between the University of Ottawa and itself in which it pledged to supply the newly-established Chair in Slovak History and Culture all the books that it needed in order to properly function .35 As a result, in January, 1992, the Chair received hundreds of recently-published books from the Matica and this program of exchange continues to this day. Thus, since 1989 the Chair in Slovak History and Culture at the University of Ottawa and the Matica slovenska (and its National Library, which split off in 2000), continue to have good relations. 36 34 For the "Velvet Revolution" in Czechoslovakia see Jozef Zatkuliak et. al., Nove mber '89: Medznik vo vyvoji slovenskej spolocnosti a jeho medzinarodny kontext (Bratislava: Historicky ustav SA V vo vydavatel'stve Prodama, 2009). 35 Agreement between the Matica slovenska in Martin and the University of Ottawa (Chair in Slovak History and Culture), signed by Marcel Hamelin, Rector, University of Ottawa, September 4, 1991 and Imrich Sedlak, Director, Matica slovenska, November 18, 1991 (author's archive). 36 The National Library of Slovakia split off from the Matica slovenska on July 1, 2000. E-mail from Maria Kurhajcova to Mark Stolarik, July 21, 2000 (author's archive). SLOV AKIA-2015 97 APPENDIX 1 L C V C: N S K A ,'J • )S1;'ELK A A AOU RE P UHLth Y M A ls1:TIN. Mudrol"lova ,e . 3:i. t e lefOn 2348. 2347 , 2340, :it34Q , 3 197 University of Minnesota, College of Liberal ArtsDepartment of History, Mr. M. St O l 8 r i k M_i_n_n_e_a_e_o_l_i_s Minnesota 55455 - US A v•l i l:111 :rn.a.6k,y1:a, o d,'\.-. 30.III.1969 Na" :an•~k.:i r:r:""maja 1969 l>'K .t.'7 20/69-St Voe Vazen:f pan Stolarik, Na VaA list z 30. marca 1969, ktory ate p!sali Dr . Sir ackemu , oznamujeme V!lm, l!e mikrofillll.Y lfosopisov "Obzor" a "Dom a 1!kol'l" sa ul! r-obia a koncom ~ Vam ich po!!leme. Obzor od roku 1863 do roku 1905 /41 ro~n!kov/ a Dom a Akola od roku 1885 do roku 1897 /13 ro~nikov/. Z ~asopisu Dom a §kola Vam zasielame 4 ro~n!lcy ~ascpisu, kedze mame viac exemplarov. Dufame, l!e Vam to vyhovie. PokiaY ide o pletenie, snhlasime a tym, aby ate nam poslsli mikrofil111.Y: Amerikansko-Slovenske noviny, Slovak v Amerike, Jednota a Narodne noviny, pretol!e ni~ v uplnosti nemAme. MOzete nam tiel! oznami t, kde v USA sa tieto ~asopisy na.cMdzaju v uplnosti. Sme radi, ze ste sa ohlasili a ponukame Vam aj dal§iu spolupracu. Ochotne Vam yoaleme zo Slovenska vAetko, ~o potrebujete z novej literatucy a mOze prist do uvahy aj star§ia literatllra, pretoze mame dost dubletov. Boli by sme radi, keby sa na University of Minnesota vybudovalo slu§ne oddelenie slovenskej historickej /alebo inej, podYa potreby/ literatllry. Te§ime ea ns spolupracu s Vsmi a srde~ne Vas pozdravujeme .J ,;R I 1} /lflftl,,\ riadi teY ,N&J-.~nej ' knHnice Ma ti,ce i-'~ lovenske j Dr. J. 'Telgarslcy ~ List bol vrateny, dl\a 27. VI.1969! neznemy ~ \ 1 ~, ' j •t . 1 t ► rr-• .-.... 1..-.••........~-, }:,.\,,_" ·, 1 .. -~·\·.t Propa1atd i!lslo ~"i'darr ... -- J} •~\i ~ · ,, ... .,i\ 1-, ~.c 1·1 •• -~ '; ::;, ' {:,:~ ."1'. •%·"'" ,, __ ~~. • -~ \l ' if ::, ,_ l.;.t.•~~·~ ! ,, '... . · f }If n•Yhno1U 1141- • n« lrult6ru v61:»c, l kullt\rn, ,1:1tvrat ma• .:.zmi. ~~:,,,d:.n.tuh~':!~:.!P~I~,,f ~6,an11 T~PI opqitl~ -,:a b ~ I ,tart JJlllOd' f:111V1tov1J price, • luqttry, lap ako J,)q-lSWCn61µt ~tDltela. lkO ntitro)a. 1, aOC(&llatlc);QIZ\ n•dt-ln,U •Yte' Jebb dobr<d. tradld u, rw n11 t'.'!: =:r.u~~:mi:"!4~• 9!:-=~~::;~ •:~;VJ~~, J• to ~~•~~,b(~~~•v:d;:,,:i=!t~1 = I ~ ron9J1 1l4rodMt, U1f6rr, na prOdeate dn1f ill'1Mtt d.lliliom• fta,ahl1 • napokon l • llltwtdfctou D6~J\:-:a~·":iii!:;,:*..:r::r.' ~~~=·~l: :~~~ • _,,1 ' OT,VA·RAM.E\J,i:\i- ~l, T MeM ~• ''f'iW'• Hu If VfcW..o p,~ ftf'1 chr4'f"M ,q .t~ •.rl#ttf• ~awo po~o, .Jl«)fjatqj ~J\lt~ tUl&V, pred'Htn4lt# 4 mu 6-u,,:Ericuc/1'«/l ~' I ~ ltc&1ic ~,ut OfH'.:UjN Mprifie' ,o. N-.i6~ ho ~,=~~~.;::; ,1,ottt P"lhl¥• 100/•j ,uutl o ptttflduoei• •"' tu4tlto«I t4t, •••,-. :i:siltf~i!'"~:~ ntl11pr())flrtotnf; ,,aop; ml tltlm~Hftw k,. Off llocl 11 opak. ·'Ct potort r>0ff t•Jto irdnU &it =:::r:~~,,. bot, Cn. tr~ dt•"" ·no.:iptllf~ hdllj 01'D~QBIE ~-., l · .& -· ·1 ..•t<,., ~~ ,:.•m ·~t.·~c .j '!Ii~. h l'udslwstt,,. ,,: .. ---- N0,V;£ · l ·- . ,' . -__:_ - ...,.. t l . --= U P I , .-,/J ~ ~ ••~___..,...:..,.. ~- 0'i.~~, Uv~pk ,1,, 'l VY_D(,..VA, MATICA SLOVENS"f V M ' "';~ ~·z., N ~ 0 z --= --= tr! > I (ll .... N 0 < > e:> 0 t""' r:,, '° = SLOV AKIA-2015 99 APPENDIX2 Za prava ,slo,enciny okrecov dfla e. 10. 19et •yledaJ• •• taJto bttl. nojbo dr.tmla prlaclp Ttato Lueencl praeanf YO . .reJaal runkctl arladiC fu.akcla •lc•prHldan · OceftuJema. te \I 10vls.l ta • tuakclu prdbo pod • •l•bo • 6ra.de., Polladnky tederActou nOho At , aa s1ov,a1 .. a.by Maduo•, .. by ktor6 •IUJ, predHdu ktortl k 50. vtroCJu CSR to ■ t• ta:■Jllf atllf ( •I .. aJoobsahoull podobae aka H • tame, iloat4ve H na progt H ■at"fdl 1Jrol6cb) po mad'■ r• •tnhu itlan6bo dko ■ a ■ awrbuJ• ob1■ daova.al• t-■ kel• •kJ~ •Y d01taU afton.a1 -ped- •I othb postavenla nar noltl. Konltatujema v1ek , kl••· mJ ■ lalra • tt6taaho tajoaud• ~.1K• •,~~:r:1.!:~~~n~;f.~U• na Jkodu vecl n,hrh IA.k1 VycbHsa•• a dotereJlfch Ila. n·ebol vopred pred uvere) ufml trpkfcb ak6Hao1U Slo4. Poprl hlatorlclry a•HI• · L S6b1Hfm■ so He ■lm ti. Y6kov • tobto A•em.Ja. Ul ,Ill.a- nlm 1Dterne konzultovanf I. ala pokl ■ dime ae newy- a fcb a6nocb 'Slovenaki ••· l.rajlla daada • d!ollasyt■ oa- organlUlcleml N•rod. tro1 haulnA doplal( ho b ■ ltalo • rodnl rad• a Cnll:6 ••rodal ti H prett SlovUom aeutf• Term.Io vereJn•J dlskusle rad• l nalogld:y podra lafch n ■ fm, I ■ ..• CSSR .. •16 eet15. 10. 198& Ja prfllJ kri Hl■ tat, la ◄ 6 povlnDf nlln a a 1lonntlaa tlob11 ro•· ■ •now Cl1tno1 dd CSSR. na to, abJ n mohll nlekt dla( po matfanlrf, t,yt tda 116taych )HJ' · vlld• Sloveaalr■ I 1oclallatlc■ oprh ■ ycb kGY ... naJasn~ mlesla n•vrhu nl dvojJ ■ aytaf. Kedle ahtb 6 kel republllry, wllda Cukaj 1CuU.be stllooa • t!I. ◄ IZ u - 11te vysvttllt u kompetl ■oclall•llclr■ J rapubllkJ ( Ire• nych mletaach. Tfmto kooltatonalm .. be • 1 ■ -te dltoaa poulluf lraz■ J• nblC ■ ltl•k aa n6 • IH potwrdzoj■ skul0Cao1f, alto oflcl61ae n6ny \Nirodnfl Predodetkfw Ide o f rodaosU • •m•,.. odllirodttio.-aala lllllllle a■ lo Dripecl• nhrhu zJikona, ktorf hov ktod objektl-ue Je1h,1je, I• rada Sloun•kel ■oc lall1Ucltal fllruje, taUe H m6h delltotlt Jnykml lt6taJcb ora• · rapubllky ■ Nlrodn6 rada 0 prhach prlslu!n"lkov 101 na vzdelanlt nArodnostt n6tlalr) takfto u •Jb16tlt eo repullll• aoclell1llclcaJ CeskaJ ••• 11 tdll•• • •alowneloa, svoJom jnyku a O poutJv SlovUov nlj ■ kf dkon • alto M to koolt ■ taje •I • ti. kf. tohto Juyka v styku • Qr, pt.. takfmto nflllakom vf· S. Uplalnlt • celo,n dkoae I ■hrhu flttHnlho dkona. ml bei akfihOkotvek da lll( 'tittlDJml 1 ■ s1kmJ led■ ai ■ d o fader•Udcll CSSR 1.hatlu, alov ■- ■-cbri.D1, je ta N!l'1ne urCenla. Sme toho nboru, aebe1petanstwo, l• Slodcl tH1kJ nirodaosU jlf6cich • -te •letlry n•tanonnl• tfk•· f6ce u arlad'ovnla federil • , oa tomto 6aemf, ktorf an•• , prho na vrdelenle u m, essa.. die aleb11 aa oeneutl■ per konkrettzovaf na ,1upel\ l Z. NHrbuJean ■, ahy .. prl nycb orahoY, lch komp■ l ■a· ly 1 ,oeesne u mall staJ mad'anlry, aiel1111.h u nebu pliant atuu n ■ l■ I republlky, cl• • unlu lch organh:lcl• vlt podmlenky, za akfch m a prhomocl n mHu menlt dO mGcf doma vo •ereJ011j 1polo•nflt fC&1ko· poulf• ■ l t:l ■ aostl uplatolt, ala bud6 Slonn1kol ; to plall ■ I o pl· Iba oa Uklad• d'allfcb 61ln• 00 uladovaf !koly vyUle ako Uklad.n~ho typu. 1 w,-ranlll •J bez-treala6mu IJ~ prfshalnfbo prfdantbo ofch 1'ko110-... n ■I mH ■ f be1ko-1lovell&kf: Cu• U. I( ni't'rhu 6atua6bo al - kauovaalu. Stovky raaol6CII lsto u1 ~ v 1omto nivrhu t ko .. lonnsk, republlka, t:H• Ilona • a6rodao,tlacb : be konlm:itlzovat, akfm SJ • ,talnoat[. lrtori polltlckfm • 11'taJ• l!laltafom • or1• · sobom sa mA uplatnlt 'l>ti pod.J. ko-alon- ■ lrf lltc • menttnovfch n8.rodnostf %iada111e, ■ bJ H • ■ hrbu ao• SloY6cl • toblo 6.nmla ,.;~:.~D•;::111,~:.:~b\ed::-:.~ VJ'PU&tll ,ad, v kloro ■ •• vlastoibo Jazy poutfvaole po1lelaJ6.. d •«llml ,.,Ntl!afm J•I•• arladlt funkci• pradH- bo•or1, la atrodao1II m•l6 v st_yFu s dradml. n;~:.,.~:- .. undHt bod lllu • podpn ...du, lrllrri by .,prho poalfnf nol Juyk • Tleto ltyllzicle n8.\'rhu .a dkooa VJ"••ch, aHaka •• obudaouU alternaU••• dradnom 1tyku". auje u poutl-..ote • mad'artl • s1avn6ho zakona sQ v roz1 Uthapcom C•sbJ aoc:la.Uatlc· re •J s akentm program1 rato pr•vo by utml pre ■J t• laayko• ltltnych "'· kll r1pub1Jky aJtbo Slo•en • Ov KSS. lebo n4vrb z6ko Slodkov lijliclcb • 1111lela· rodnoaU) • lllradnom ,tylta. ebJ eoclall•tiek•I repu•UlrJ, 511 nez.mleftuJe o povtnno v alJku H nojlml prad•t• · 1lovao1ko•m ■ dar1kfch prltom tty aa afrodn6 nsli· a:fcb n6rodnostof vllarml ,. pollllckfch • ltit• prtslu~nrkov peoie v tfchlo fankdich oblutlach malo nfml ••· aby s ! pomocou t mentin, • nirod m.lH:u uycb orgjnocb priualv6 d6tledkJ. Praklicky atrltdalo podf• funktnfch znaloatJ. osvoJo,'all v~erko t 081 u poull-...C not IHJk. No by soemol6ou1o Slodkom r obdobt. ,:iemolao _ doko ■ ca dko - hatstvo ees kej II slovens• • ttm prlsplev kulrGry .aoru _ n6Uf Slodko• uClf k -\ldjomn6mu s1>0z.ntvar ■a po mad'llhk.) , aby M•cf•rl ,. ■lyku • aJml mohli upl•t · • spolutll1u nirodov • r ubaapeCe11A rodno1H v CSSR . dfJoaom alt Konlunu1eme. ta Slov6cl prflu. Moho tu mlmocbo• IOChtO oblbtlach, kde stl dom upuoralC na krlkfno odchodd poataY■nie Slod • n61 v memlln e, mohll by doataf podra do1erejleJ p1 lrov • Mad'araku, ktort• u xe • poclporou dstavn6ho , • podobnfch prhacb a ■ I 1- ■ kona ' do 11tuAcle, ktora ,, k .o1 .. t nnmia. mo dbsledkoch Tole 1tale •t ■ aoviako ■ a- neentch aaaff. ta by •m• boll proll vlHf k odn6rodf'iovaolu p prfiv a,.ro4aostf, aluJnfkov llitotvorn6bo n.61 :a■ ru~a■ la •I• aem&hme a6bl•alf I poi- da, prfpad ne k lcb 1lteku kodzonnlm Slodkov, lclol"f tfc bto iUemf ■ IovensUbo o , by malo by1 dO.lellltom ale• roda. -. kforjtb _prt• urul!e ■ fch ••- • .J)rginy, lriorf ad nlnter tovan6 na pTlpr,\'e Qstevn .rodaostiHn .,. predlolenom bo zalcooa, by mall uvUlf. ahrbu d•tndbo dkona. by nebolo vbodn6 ,,yhlheci .. tobto Ukona Casove navl * Pracovalcl Matice slovenskej ut na ust1nov11n1e zAkoaa ate · ho odlol federallrAcll. v Martine dt'Ja 8. 10. 196'1 vyslovlU k vl4dnemu ntvrhu • ltylldcle dOsledneftle pr • prekonzultowaf • myallef o postavent nirod• Ukon■ nostl v C:SSR Ueto prlpo• vtetkfcb zlotktch N• rodn ho tronru. mleoky: Publtktcle nivrhu astavntMatt e• slovenska ako c ho Ulkooa -vyvolalo n1Jml v lon4rodn.6 ustanovl.Zeft al p mlestnycb odboroch Matice ldada u morllnu povtnno 1lovenskt1J 01 futnom Sloven- ur,ozornlf na tao.to probl61 sku a.naent ohlaa. Vframe ut •I preto, lebo se 01 ru sa to l)teJavtlo •I ·n, porade v teJto vttel obraceJO tlensl ■ Joie/ Smrhoikj L /Ulo 196& no ndolteoc v Uortln~. m1111tn~bo ~~~1~~. oraanlz.tde 1 cel61 predstavltefov v Mahci ,tovenskeJ, ,nwe:I odpoot.4111 no aktwtlne: otdik~. l'I~"~"'" " ,.............. - .. .. - ~ Foto: A. V. H•id• (Vrouo sprduca MS 4r. Jd,t Mart4k.J Jaqko,adaf '"•• tudowft• lt6ta SAV prlJal k abrbu dkOH O flNf•nlldcH .CS51 ■ atnba filtHatbo dkDDI • ■ trodaC¥,tlacb 1taoo•lako, _. ktorAllo ')'llertme. SLOVAKIA-2015 100 APPENDIX3 , MATICA SLOVENSK A 1863 1973 NOS!Tlr.RA IADtl IIPl11tlltY The Cleveland Stete University DepArtment of History - College of Arts et Sciences Mr . Marien St olarik C 1 e_v_e_l_ a_n_d_, Ohio 44115 U.S. A. VU li,t anatlty Vee: 10 d6a 26/II/73 Na la I natlta 4-63/1157/35 4/73 - St Martin 27. marca 1973 Vaieny pan Stolarik, ~akuje me za Va§ list, ktory nam umoihuje nadvi azat medzinarodny vymenny styk s The Cleveland State University , Department of History , Cleveland, Ohio prostrednictvom Va§ej pOaobnosti na tejto univerzi te. Avizovam1 publikaciu sme este zatial' ned ostali, nakol'ko doru~enie zasielky trva v priemere tri mesiace. Matice slovenska, Martin s radostou pr!jme predpletne na ~asopis v ramci vymeny "The International Migration Review", ako aj vybavenie na§ich objednavok ns publikacie, ktore Vam budeme postupne, taktiez v remci vymeny posiela t, Vyme nn~ rekepitulacie si budeme viest individuelne na zaklade Va si ch zasielok s cenemi a prip ! §eme v prospech Va§ho vymenneho konte , ako aj z naAej strany zasielane potvrdenky s uvedenim cien pre Va§u evidenciu. Zatial' sme Varn po slali 9 publikacii z oblasti historie su~~snej produkcie podl'a Va§ej po~iadavky dha 15.III,1973 a dal'sie publikacie , tykajuce sa tejto obla sti Vam postupne po~leme, Dufame , te s tymto postu~om budete s uhlbsit a roz s!ri sa fond o slovacika na Va§ej univerzite, ako aj f ond Matice slovenskej s publika ciami , o ktore bud eme ziadat na zaklsde excerpt z Cumulative Book Index s zoznamov vydani j ednotlivych vydavatel'ov. Tymto by sme pokladali dohodu z nasej strany za uzavretu a prosime Vas o pisomny suhlas, Te§ime sa na Va §u odpoved ~ sme / s pozdravom ~ -=- Prof.dr.Ing . Jarosl ov .~ELKO , CSc, / Spravco Matice slovenskej v,b .. •i" Stuchlikova Tclt:r6n 2Sf6, 2547, 2548, 25+9, 5197 Oalekopi1 0755:SI 0)6 5 2Martin, Mud ro6ova M SLOVAKIA-2015 101 APPENDIX4 , MATICA SLOVENSKA NOSIT£t K A RADU RIP U B LIKY Kr. Ph. D. KarU.n Stol6rii: The Cleveland State Univereity CLEVELAND, Ohio 44115 U SA V' j Ii SI I.oa t ")' zo d na Ma r tin Nala znal': K a 5-63 /1JtlJ/Ff l14-U Vee: 23.10.1974 ~ai:)lje■ e Vma Ba list a vr,ten,y ponui:ovy zozJ:lUl. Poaielee Vo !iadan4 knihy a! na tri tituly, i:tor4 eu •! rocobra• n41 1. Ju!n4 Slovenako 2. Ratkoil1 Pra■ ene k dejinmn Vel'kej Koravy 3e Sedla1 Preilovek4 kolegium v elovenekych dejin,ch Dll:fame, !e oetatn4 knihy dostanete ~o najekar av poriadku. ~akujeme Vu aj za aaaopia "Ethnicity•. Sudame ve:rmi r~ di, ked ho pre n,a objean,te. S pozdravo■ / ~f~ Stefan Krivuil spr,vca Matice slovenakej Vy b ovujec Ulbr ichtov, Kiria Tcler6n 2346, 2347, 2548, 2349, 3197 Oalek.opi1 0753,1 0'652 Mar tin, Mu d r ufi ova 35 102 SLOV AKIA-2015 APPENDIXS a Cudzojazycnci priloha Sefredali:to, Stefan Hovlo r. Zosto vi l M iloslo v And re6nsky Vydalo Mati ce slo.,en 1k6 v Ma rti ne. Tlotili TSNP, z6 v< Neogrofla , Martin, CSSR v m6Ji 1983. fllowcnal:o a 1983 roku u ma konat' 14. d: 17. okt6bra vo Washing• tone, na budud rok v Kansas City). Madzl elenml SSA je I nlalcorko vyznamnych 7 SLOVAK STUDIES ASSOCIATION 7 Tato apoloalosf ui 120 vedec:kych p.-.covnikov s1ov..-.. p6vodu a priatefov slovenekef vedy, lwttury • umenla nielen z USA• Kanady, ale I z cfalilch lblitov ..,_ zlskava prootrednfo. tvom The Balch lnstitut vo Phlladelphll, USA, od Matice olovaMkef, Slovenakej akademle vied a cfalilch . - k y c h kultumych inititudl e.aoplsy, zbomlky a knlhy. VosvoJom ,,Newsletter", ktory ut po 8 rolcov vyd6va dvakrU do roka, oboznamuje avofich Benov • prostrednk:tvom nlch I sV9tOvu vect.cku verejnosf • knlhaml ■ zbomflcml a upozoffluje na zaujfm■Ye ~Hinley v tasoplsoch. Okrem toho Jnfonnuje •J o knihKfl a - - V 6uopi9och O Slovikoch, a alovenakef problematlke, ktore vytll v cudzlne. Bohutlar napriek evidentnaJ snahe po objekttvnom, nezaujatom rwferovanf prmu len pravlida zimer uprlamlf pozomosf na publlkacle a ttanky a obuhom niilmu lblitu a zrladenlu naprlatersky orlentovanych. SSA mi •I vl■-u edialu l!lnnosf preva!ne V apolupr6cl - ao Slovanakjm Ustavom v Clevelande, oriento-v■ nU nepri■tal'slry voa n,m. Zatlar eo predaada a elenovla vyboru sa vprlebehu rokov - pokier am■ to mall mofnost ■ ledovat menlli, trvalU pozldu ta)omnfka a pokladnlka od r. 1978 mi M . Marl< Stolarik. ktory je aj Ndalctorom .,Newsletter" . SSA je lnltttucionlilnym aenom American Assoclation for Advenc:ement of Slavic Studies • aktivne aa zututiluje na Jej nirodnych konvandich (toho kn)anakych vadeckych p.-.covnlkov, lctori ma)u s Matlcou alovenskou dobre kontalcty. Medzl inyml Mrs. Nonna Rudlnski, Gerald J . Sabo, June Alexander, John Berta, Saly Staruch, Tom Marzik • d'alif z USA.. prof. Peter Petro a Yvonne Grabowski z Kanady ako I J . M. Rydlo zo avajaarska a dalil. AJctfvna Bnn~ tychto k spoluprild • Maticou lllovenskou na kuttumom poff ochotnych llanov SSA, vytvira perapektivu, le v buducnostf aa bude m6ct' celkom aeri6zne uva!ovaf I o konkretnej prlamej apoluprid Matice alovenekej ao Slovak Studies Anoclatlon v oblastl propagicle vyaledkov alovanokef vacly, kultury • umenla vo . - .. Zatlar, • vyhradou propagide nim naprlat.rokej litera• tury, pozltlvna hodnotima snahu SSA oboznamovat svetoW vededc:U vsejnost o nallch uspechoch v oblutl vedy, literatury • umanla. Priame kontalctyvtak vzhradom na neprlat.rsky postoj preclovtetkym takych vplyvnych oaobnostf v SSA ako SU Stanislav J . IOrachbaum, M. Mark Stolarik ■ Renee Mikus, nie SU v SUbsnoatl mOZ"'. Je to aamozrejme na ikodu vecf, ktor.6 nim je opolol!ni: propagidl slovan■kaj vacly. lfteratury a umenla na svatovom f6rw. MILOS BIEL SLOV AKIA-2015 103 APPENDIX6 VYD/..VA MA.TICA SLOVlNSK/.. no&luil'b bdu repubUky MARTIN 14. Dovembra 1983. VAS LIST ZNA<'!KY Valent pe p~. lla.rlc K. Stolarik The i!lalch lMtit~te 18 S., 1th Street ZO Di'IA N~A ZNA<'!KA Philadelphia, Pa. 19106 VYBAVUJE Kiloll Bie]l. VEC: Vll!eny pain pro:f'e aorl V pr:!10118 Vllm zasielam :f'otokopiu a aajho l!lilnlcu, a SSA v nallom l!aeopiae Slovenako l!.6/83 a :f'otokopiu replilcy z Kanadak4ho Sloviika l!.37, rot. 42 z 24.9.1983, hoci J>Nldpoklaau, !e ich ob11ah d poznate. Ak oba l!llllllcy poromllte a apoaeaiete ei na to1 l!o ate nap1aali predaedovi Matice alovenalcej DIU'o 111119lcovi Vlatia!rovi Kinal!ovi i na jeho odpoved, bude Vu zre,im4, !e Vu Va6i priatelia z Kanadak4ho SlovlUca (Vall otec??) poalcytli aedvadiu alu!bu. Ol!akav.,._, !a ea nad oboma l!lllnkud zllJIIYalite, najd nad ich doaahoa v elovenalalj varejnoati za hranicaai, zaujaete jednoznaln4 a pravde zodpovedaj uce etanoviako a po!iadate redalcciu Kanadak4ho Sloviika o opravu. Ky v Slovensku ame tie! oohotn1 Valle atanoviako publikova~. SLOVAKIA-2015 104 APPENDIX 7 kor..ne s mojfm prt,dpllllnym . Zarove~ pr1p•J11m MO na 23 dolarov, t. J. 20 11ko predplatne 11 3 na podporu. Zarovel\ m1pr11vde , ktor4 oko!0 nM 11li:1(l _ _______ _ ne. No to si pocnete s eecno- _ ........_,,.;,;._..;..,.....;...,._,,.. slovakm i a podobnymi pobhi- nerobl dobru slufbu medzl sh,denymi oveckami? . venskyml vyst'ahovalcaml na amerlckom konllnente. To by . sl mall uvedomll' af II, ktorl 1:: chcli hfadaf spolupracu so I~sJovenskym exllom v slobod- r-----------------------7 , Mm citatelia opiitovne Vas chceme poprosit', aby ste si prezreli zaznam pri Vasej adrese. Ak mate este stale na konci dvojku (2). tak Vase predplatne vyprsalo. Nedavno sme poslali cfalsfch vyse sto (100) iiadosti o vyrovnanie si predplatneho. Prosfme aj tych, ktori maju na konci trojku (3) a mesiac ai po okt6ber, nech si laskavo vyrovnaju predplatne, lebo im sa uz t' · k c ·1 UI' h • a •d k 1ez s on_ '. o a . c1 1e nam pr cu a vy a_v Y na znamky t1ez. riakureme Varn za porozum~nie Admin1strac1a K . S. I nom svete. I Je zfavne, fe reflm na SloI vensku podnlk6 11 bude podI' nlkaf kroky, aby potupoval sloI venskych ntlrodovcov v exlle a 1' aby podryvallch f"dnotu a akll- J I vltu " 11 kafdom poN. Bolo by ., pod nalu d0stofnosl', aby sme 115 komunlstlckyml ldeol6gml debatovall II vledll s nlml dla16gy. Tym bysme Im roblll sluf- -------------------------• - bu, uzn6vall lch za parlnerov, s kloryml stofl ZII lo sedl ..t' ZII USA a pollllkov sa nezaobera. PIie vedecke prtlce O sloven• skom vyst'ahov,.1lectve do USA _-_·-- •-=;-- ' ~ 11 fe uzntivanou uutorltou medzl amerlckyml hlstorlkml II vedeckyml lnAlllliclaml Podra Andrnansk~ho-Blela Pod tltulom .Ohlasy" uverejnl,. ~ b._g.rof. Sto"rlka,.Je.Jt lo ,.Slovensko'", klore mt! byt' f ·srov ~Sludle._!. kulllirno-spolotenskym s _~ c 18 11 0 ,. 11 b y t 8 t •0 mesatnlkom a je vydavane Ma- ";iiofot!nosr mor.t'a reprezentollcou slovenskou v Turtlan- ,vat' Slovakov medzl amerlckyskom Svlltom Marline, vo svo- ml hlstorlkml a v Slavic Stujom tlsle z flila 1983 naslrane6 dies Association 8 teda Slov,icl utok na Msgr. F. Fugu , ktory je n e b O II p O ne ch an I p O d slovenskym narodovcom a patronatom ,.Czechoslovak predsedom Zahranltnef Mall- Studies Assoclnllon'". Ide O tisce slovenskej, ktora nle je mar- te vedeckli spolotnosl" hlstoxlsllcka ako hi na Slovensku. rlkov slovensl<eho p0vodu, Clanok .Kio klame a dezlnfor- ktorl sa hlasla k slovenskemu muje'" naplsal Mlloslav Andre- rodu a pf§u o slovenskef otazansky. ke vedeckym spOsobom, teda Ten lsty Mlloslav Andretln- objektlvne. sky (alias MIiot Blel) v augusToto sa pravdafe, M. Andretovom tisle Slovenska uveref- tlnskemu-Blelovl nep6tl, lebo nil znova lltok na dr. M. Stoia- sa tam nechvall techoslovaklzrlka, klory fe najkvallflkovanef- mus a marx-lenlnlzmus. !Im slovenskym hlslorlkom v Taketo plsanle Sloyenska spolotnym stolom. J" nam Nto, fe na amerlc• kom konllnenle mtl komunls!Icky reflm na Slovensku svoflch obdlvovatel'ov a kolaborantov, ale tych my anl nepresvedtlme, anl neziskame. Tleto litoky, krltlky, alebo I za. lletanl■ tasoplsu Slovensko nas e§te vlac upevnla v tom, f~ budeme mOcr dOsledne br6nlt a chranlt' mravne a narodne hodnoty slovenskeho exllu a P.rllva slov:en~ e~~9 , .n_a,[.(1da pra~ neAl'astna_~~ ! slovenska v Tufe1anskom Svlltom Martine t~k ne~_f.!)eba Z[pdlla a zre_d.,u. Y m me vel'a svojlch vlaslnej§lch a nallehavejAlch liloh. (R) s/itort SLOV AKIA-2015 105 APPENDIX8 lHE BALCH INSTITLJrE for ElHNIC STUDIES 18 South Seventh Street, Philadelphia, PA. Or M. Men STOlorik Uecutive Director Boord cJ Trustees Samuel H 8olklm. .k Ch011mon .JohnC Hoen ViceCr'\Otlmon AlexO:"'1010 8 Goloslu 19106 November 29, 1983 P4'n MiloS Biel Reda'kcia Slovensko 036 52 M a ~ Mudroifo va 35 Czechoslovakia Europe DrahY pcln Biel: Secrelo,y v.f$ .John F White heosu16' wo11er ~ Afooe, t0w1ence J 9ornh0'\T r, oc:e,1 C Cho01n MOn Beo111ce K Chemock lh90CJOl8 H Cov11 Th0m01 J F111oei-010 list zo dn'a 14 . novembra, 1983, som dO.e s obdrZal. Mlt~ yravdu ,/ed p{sete Z\ pozn~ obsah ~lo":,enskfch C:asop1;sov. Ako h isto ri k c!tam vsetke Slovenske tasopisy ktore vychadzaju na zapade. Aj niektore' zo Slovenska. Mam tiez' p{somne sty'ky zo Slovak.mi po celom svete. Pre mXa ti e to tasopisy a li s t y su pramene pre deji ny Slova'kov v 20. storoc'i. Lis t y od v;{s pa tt:i a mc dz i nima. Or Muffov J:.11eomon WdhOmL GfolO Dr Roso Bo~e Green Pl"Ol A W~liom Hogiuno Rooe,tM HOwe Moue A ledeler Corv L8Ylnson. Esci Mri- Fronk P louchheln'\ Set C Mo-npon MictlOel Novak Vrvion W Piosoc:k1 Mrs Meve, P Potomlun Em11vC m1ev Prof Timothy l. Smith Consiontine S. Sosongells Dr Jomes Ton11 1-1on Pou! A TroncMellO hOn Mno Cibott1 Ve,no Dr tv'torvin Wocnmon Ho~, Notnan1e1Wos.,1ngton c ec,110 Mov veo Polemizovaf s valmi neb1;,dem. \'1Sa tfloha je robi'! '!,ropa gandu . Mo'ja j e p{sal de jiny. V tomto pripade budem ~ ma'E posledne slovo. Ked chcete da~o uverejni'f v c!as opise Sl ovensk o , zasi ela'm vfm Clanok z Horizontu, o semin.iri v Martine. Vi k t or M.amatey , n.JS by'vali predseda, ho napisal a celkom s nlm s\Jhlasim. P{sat mOtete Co chcete. Historici budu vSetko posudzo vat. "Pravda vitazi," ako hovoril Masaryk. S k rajansk[m pozdrav om , /~ Emet1tu1 Prot fo.....o'O p HuTC""l1nson / (215) 925-8090 /-r?'i / v -~ Maria'n Stolclri k 0-< SLOV AKIA-2015 106 APPENDIX 9 Slovak Studies Association Affiliated with the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies 700 Pe nfie ld Ave. , Havertown , PA 19083 Septemb e r 3 , 1983 Dr . Vladimfr !tinll! Predseda Matice slovenakej 812 51 Bratislava Pugai!"evova 2 Czechoslovakia 1968, I have of scholarly asked for my agreed . Over thousands of exchange. Since my first research tri p to Slovakia in the summe r of actively cooperated with the Matica elovensk8 in the exchange materials . Dr. Jan Martak and Dr. ~tefan Krivulf wrote me and cooperation in this program of cultural exchange and I gladly the last fifteen years I have sent the Mat i ca slovenska dollars worth of book.a and periodicals as a part of this You can imagine what a s hock and aurprise it was to me, therefore , to open your monthly magazine Slovensko (No.8, 1983) and to find, on page 6 of your supplement, 11 Slovensko krajanom, 11 an attack upon me by a certain MiloJ Biel. He accuses me, aa editor of the Slovak Studies Newsletter , of bringing to people's attention articles and publications "whose contents are hostile to our state I a political system," of working "in cooperation 11 with the Slovak Institute in Cleveland, 11 and of taking an unfriendly s tand" towards Slovakia. Cont'd on page 107 SLOV AKIA-2015 107 APPENDIX9 Besides being false, these charges betray a certain naivte by Mr. Biel about historical scholarship and conditions in the West. You, as a scholar and poet, must realize that serious historians have to consider all sources when writing their history, not just those that a certain political philosophy calls for. That i s the very essence of objectivity. Furthermore, it is the duty of true scholars to have contacts with all institutions that contain historical meterials, whether they be located ~Slovakia or in the United States. Finally, we in the West believe in openness and pluralism. For instance, the Slovak Studies Association, of which I am the founder and Secretary-Treasurer, has among its members Slovak Catholics, Lutherans, Calvinists, Greek Catholics, Jews, nationalis ts, 'Czechoslovaks' and Marxists. We do not exclude people because of their religion or political orientation. We are open to all scholars who are interested in promoting Slovak studies the world over . Therefore, Mr. Biel' s clumsy attempt to list 1 'friendly 11 and "unfriendly" members of the Slovak Studies Association is going to backfire and hurt the good contacts that the Hatica slovenska has developed with Slovaks in the West over the last several years. I s uggest that you have Mr. Biel retract his crude and unwarranted attack upon me in the next issue of Slovensko . If he does not, I have a feeling that most of the goodwill that the Hatica slovensklhas built up with young scholars in the Western World will very quickly disappear. Yours Sincerely, l ·f i~ 108 SLOV AKIA-2015 APPENDIX 10 Bratislava, 4,10,1983 Vazeny pan Stolarik! Iste Vas nemusfm ubezpe ~ovaf o tom, ako Matici slovenskej zalezf na vsetkom, co sa aotyka dejin i su~asnosti slovenskej narodnej kultury, ako nam teda zalezi aj na kazdom, kto s nami chce v mene buducnosti tejto kultury spo lupracovaf, To sa dotyka aj Slovak Studies newsletter i Vas osobne, Mrzf ma to, co sa stale v ~asopise Slovensko, Nemam priam_y vplyv na redigovania ~asopisu, ale pokia! to bude v mojich silach., zabranim v buducnosti moznym nedorozumeniam . Rozumia sa, za mame rozliCne nazory na zivot spolocnosti a na jej buducnost . Ale mame aj spoloCnu starost, ktorou je slovenska narodna kultura, jej dejiey a osudy - na celom svete, Dufam teda, ze nam v oalse.j spolupraci nezabrania malichernosti a ostavam so srdeCnym pozaravom dJ.l~-t~~ / t/ • Vazeny pan M,Mark Stolarik 7U0 Penfiela Ave. Havertown, ~A 19083 ~~~U Narodny umelec Vladimir Minal! SLOV AKIA-2015 109 APPENDIX 11 - s--!.. =■ ~ S:io'-'6,1,~Ko t /tJ.,~f. HIOll4CIIKl:1:t c::==s ilowc11td::~ ► --. 5: Slovensko pre ,,dva druhy citatefov" Pod tymto Hver•vr•vnYffl .. l&IVom uv--tnM p6n M...Wn Mtt Stolarik. tajomnlk • po-. ......· - - • e t ipolotnOfll (Slovak StudlN \Noc:Ultion) v USA vo •vojom "MWUetter rot. I , tWo 1/iun 1114, str. I . nuledujUCU pomemku : ,Sloven•ko, oflcialny meu~ "Ilk M•tH» •lov•n•k• J vych'· dz.a vo dvoch veni,ch, p,-. dv• r,dliln4 titat•l•k4 ve,.jna.rl. Predpok/adal aom, I • ..,,•tci nd i ~novla to vedill, • I• n• d4vn o .am zlstil l e to tak nle ,._ Vlalna 1. v,. J. v domienk•. h Slo~o. tron dost'"'• t• Vy ■Jja, jetenl•tvtuop/a, lrto,Y cirltulu}9 ,,. Slowm•ku. f•li•. Aku pozome adlv■ t• n• lcror,hofvek 8•/o V"h o U•ooi•u SloVM1•ko, vlimnite al, le mtKUi 16. • 17. atranou hlevnej t..•ti ~nopi•u je Cudzofuytn' prf/ohe, r,ro Cudzoj•~n, prlloha znaman, oval• vlec n#Jl vyzer,. ObuhuJ• tiel ~,,,.. ky v •loventine, ilu•troven4 ,, Toho tuu ,,.jchUlo•tiwjjoo ....cou je otbb •lav•n•k•J prl• lo hy Sloven.Ice. v,1ho m • ~ nib, wnov• MJ Jcr• Janom v u hr•ni8, ,,. ktof'U m• upozornlll •i vlac»rl )ednotllvcl. PodobM elco Stol• rilc v Slov• lc Studi• ._ Pouvelu;t• a WICI, uda t•ru ul r,ro prlloh• v •lowrwt.•f rKi b y mohl• by( •U~•fou rl•dM otlaloven'(Ch .rr, n Slovt1M ka, • to •i pre 6it•t• l ov v • t•rom kr•JI. Cudzojuytry prllohe by u moh/M vloli( do ~•oplsu Hp■ r,rne. Predillo by u zbytotn•J krltilce, nedtr wre, yYSmelnYm • ultll)«:nYm pozn,mlcem • Jcont,..ver• zil, I• u Ju ,ob4v• t• uUnf titetefom dome '. S.m ozre/m, w c, Je potombyste melivybe,..f • pr'vy od 01db v,m pr!Jat111nych.,, Ne dldede tohoto llstu sm• pochopHI, le naM nepriatalls v auf•l•J sneh• dlskredftova! n'6 tasopls. c:hytaJU N kaJdel prildfto.tl, aby naMI Umlen• 2) bu<f vy va ml moriadtis!■ Sk>vensb 2 X do roka • ru u rok Magufn, ako •m• to uroblll v rokoch 1811 s 1NZ. 3) elebo prUollt NmostatnU prflohu ku kald,mu tulu Slovenska, 1rtor• bud• ••· pedov•n• U.,enom. Bolo n,m Ja.sn',, le form• pristupu ku luajanom vytadu}11. ■by ttat.M slovo, ktorym .. bud•m• obraca! ku krajaq_om. bolo vy,obeM najmodern9llou tachn.lkou • na kv■• litnom ps.,...-1. preto.le all.nm toho, le bude plnft' nu-odnouvedomovadu • fflformKnU funk.du, bude slutff •J ako ,.._ pruenUda nai•J SUtesnosd. Preto rozhoduJUdml taktorml, ~ urtlll tretlu alt.emaUvu ako opdmilnu • reelb.ovstel'nU, boll: pridal kvalhMho pa• piera a Aulomberka, ftnentn. prostriedky poa«ytovan, Ml• nlst.erstvom lwlturf SSA. pwaoniln• ubupet:enl• redak• tn't'ch pnc bu zvylenla at.aw redaktorov • konetne 11..padta tlatlarM. NaN Slovensko •ko Matupc:a MatitMho ffianlll vych6du ul 6smy roll. Ptvyc:h I rokov vyc:hadulo i.k ako teraz n• 32 stnMc:h, ale z toho Ian na I farebnych. Nlekol'ko stovik vytlatkov Slov•nslta :uslelalo byval4 Oddelenle MS ~ U· hranltnjch Slov,kov I n■JJm knjanom predovletkym do Fnl'tCUului, Juhosljvle • Kanady. 11M I do USA• Auatr611e. 0d roku 1813, v a&JvlslMtl • I► ho vlalm umeranhn do uhran~•• rodlriM sme fa,.bnU ten' n11 11 atrin. bez avylenla cany Ka 5, - :u a.Jo. To ale znamenelo t1atH oety tuopfs na kvalftnom ,,..,_... Nale tov,,.I\ v Rulombertc.u vyr6ba skutotne kv•lltnY pepler, ktory Je yYZ.namnYffl exportn,;m ;rovania • udriovania kontak tov • lu■janml • v ""•ha po m6d im v kh Ualll o udrianll sloven~o n,rodn~ pov• dornla a podtu •~upatrit nosd • Jedrom n6rods P04 T atraml, alto I umo.t:ntr Im YU )omn, poznanl• krsjan~ livota v r6znyc:h tastiac:h sva ta Itek ako sma to uv&edl v 1/14 Bale Slov•nslui). Ak by sm• chcall dod6v• prilohu Slovansko krajanon I na domic:I trh, potrebovaU b• ame prlnajmen9' o 30 % vyt.t pridel p,aJNer•. to u daneJ vj robne4 sftuKM v n.&J:ombe, • k•J tov6rni nle }e moln4i. Tak ti&I by sme muMII ;rvyi,lt' cani tasopisu na dom6com trhu, 6t tlel v sutasnoati Ne Je ul.alM TNI• •ko vldlta, m ill luaja nl a, calkom proukk6 flnant " '• ma....Ulna • techrdck, d6 vody Mt pntinou, pre&t tj ta.Slovenaka, ktor6 Ja ur6en6 kni janom • :uoberi N prevs.tn. luajanskou problematikou nil Je k dlt,poddl I domkam1 Btat.rovl. Cudzojuyl"' priloha J• tla 6an, na obytajnom 1.-.bnon novl novom pepl■ rt, aby ZyY ru.nlla a oddelllll prlohu 0< ostat,,..,o taxtu . Talrto nie J4 ponJien6 kontlnulta taxtu pr1 domidch tltatelov • kr■J•n sky at.atel' dOSUva svoj u prflo hu komp,aktnU. Konettla treba p. Mar5'nov Stolarikovl prlpomenut', h pr avojef vedlajiej tinnostl altc r.dsktor • vydav■tel' Nawalet• tar al mohol (ubudol alebo nec:hcel1) Yilmnuf, le sko oudzolazytni prilohe, tak I Slo· vansko lu■Janom majU NmoatatnU tlril. to v novin6rskej praxl anama"'-, la hod Je Jedan vydav■ W I Ufr.daktor. prMaa to, to do.Uvs, SU vlast• ne tri Nmostatn4i periodlld (hod I spolu zoliU). ktor6 m~ tu byf upedov•M • rodlro• Cont'd on page 110 SLOV AKIA-2015 110 APPENDIX 11 • ~ • to priMU a , nky o s1ov, lcoch na UpatH. Slovkl dom• tuto prllohu niltdy navkl~ . Vla•tMUwry .iurobteMml." Nepovdov•II •m• dopot,lal' uWM ,-govat' na alee dot.. .nultov•n&i. ... pNdu len U'9jmU domyeel'noet' uv.. defMlpmNlmlryvNew.iett:•. Medd6uo,n u I\U v I.ta opjul llnjan a NSR. pr.ea nedoetaf v CSSR i!uopla SbveMlco • prilohou 8&ovenako lulljanom. Odpovadal am• mu p&.omne pnllmo • on naM vywetaenieakoeptoval. Oo.teM ..,... vlak d'.U 19t a USA od vjzn,amrwho krajanakMto kutbimeho Bnltel'-. v ktorom bol nuledufQd od- u ......, dWttod &u ndavnutomli, PN koho taeopl• vycUvama ■ v ■ tom rouahu, roahod.W .me N podllf ilrokej knjanilk•J Y«9jnoatl vywedanie. 0 d6vodoch, ktcri nN • nM nadrtadenf Ol'Pn - Mlnlnera:tvo 11.ulb;ry 8SR - vleclll le tomu, ■by am• vycMv■ II tlHMM alovo pre lualanov, MM plull oblim• ne tomto m'-te v 9/M a.le Slovanaka. Tu tr..bll objaantt' Iba technldw .trinJa.i rulldde. Z Uvah, ■ ko rHll.zov■t i.nto dme,, vykryttall.zovall J ■har­ t111tfvy: 1) bud' vydjvaf Nmo.tab'tf fuopl■ pre knjaftOV (kvr(.-O<J. vyN>ba, Ide na uport. Napatr"' Ullf' aoaUiva pre, tuumsko ■ ,. prfen■ llmH.ovan6. N•t tuopq doetaval tie.I urtfty prid.a tohoto papi.,.. (n■ I _,.n). 0d roku 1N3 bol prklel r,ylent na pokrytM I farebnych strin (d'.tlkh) ■ I rilin prflohy PN lu■Janov. baopta 810¥'9ftN0 I• WWnY' ..........................ho atatel'■ : 70 % Nlldadu Ide na dom'4:il trh ■ len 25 % ,. prilohou) pre lnjanov ■ I % pre on.atnu GUdzlnu. Tyoh 21 "' "'ldadu. apolu • c:uckoluy6nou p,9ohou • prlohou Slownako kntrlanom IMnC:1Ujeme a~Matloe.aov.n•uJ dotovaMho ~om kuhury &SR v UUJm• Na UV..- .. t ied.a podotknUf, ta ,ri..,.a tych rucMckofaM.tkkych luuhov, kto" •ita necMvno qltovall, aby Mm lln)ani• Slovenako vrac.all Cnapr. tt.nadaky Slodk), .. aruu DZYV• fartzajsk.6 atarost• lfvo.t o nilho do""oeho tltaWa. la nav&dl iu.JaN116 priohu. :Um..- Je fun'i' • jednoanat:nj . Cheu Mm polllodK, otrevovaf vzfahy nwwdal narnl • krajanml. lrtoN .. 1 naprielc lch lntria'm .,.,.,.. • Ua,pe,tn• roMJaJ'I . .... anahy hod~ nflnonn, • hod I n• Cpeaudo) ved41Ckej Oroml aem,ow"' prukn6 alto myclo"' bubllna. pr.tole pr■ vda )e ,.. n-■J nadvA- Cud1oja1yCnd prnoha Rlowcnallo ~ S...- Htl.i.., Z -fll M ,i.,1 .. A ~,t--AOI V~MMl1lcaoi...-U• • " " ' -· 'i.t.llTS""'.••"' .w(- "-9,_fJa. MolniA, (l.$a • - 1,n . . . , . SLOV AKIA-2015 111 APPENDIX 12 TRAFENA HUS ZAGAGA is a Slovak saying meaning literally •the goose that is hit will maJce a loud cackle• . .I t caoos to one's mind when reading the article in SLOVENSKO *) ,tbe.:.official monthly publication of'Hatica slovenska (Czecho-Slovakia) attacking Hark H. Stolarik, Secretary-Treasurer of the SlovaJc Studies' Asscr ciation (USA) far his brief remark in the Association's Newsletter (June 1984, see also SM 5 &6, p.28). Stolarik informed about the non-availability of SLCNENSKO' s supplement SLDIENSKO XRAJANOH (aimed at Slovaks outside Sl~ vakia) to readers in J;lovakia. According to SLOIENSXO,the re~ sons f.or this non-availability are econcmi c : paper . shortage• •though no mention •is made of the fact that they are flooding the West with 'canplimentary copies' of their books printed on very expensive paper. I t takes them the best part of a page to say this, when a simple ,sentence •because of economic reasQllS we cannot supply the Supplement for no extra cost to readers in Slovakia, however they can obtain i t· ·e asily for an additional subscription . & . Kcs ... • would have been sufficient. But ·this they dia ..cot want tD say! By the way, one is concerned~ bout access to SLCNENSKO KRAJANOH not as i f this was the best way to inform people in Slovakia . - about Slovak life in the West, but because Hatica slovenska herself has been encouraging Slovaks in the -west to establish contactJwith their old homeland through h'Z"iting ·to SLCNENSKO. I f the only obstacles to establishing such contacts were economic , a simple solution would be this : The BULI£TIN of the SLCNAX WCRLD CONGRESS states that it: "is available to readers in Slovakia free of charge• (there is no paper shortage in Canada !J. Why does not Hatica slovenska undertaJce to distribute the BULI£TIN free .of charge among the subscribers of SLOVENSKO in .Slovakia, and have in exchange the Slovak World Congress distribute SWVENSKO KRAJANOH free of charge to the readers of their BULLETIN in the West. Nobody could then canplain about lack of contacts : •I t was too much of a temptation to resist, namely to present to our readers the final part of the article in SWVENSKO with ·al:1 -its orwellian beauty (their English sUD1Dary contains neither this nor the vitriolic attaak .on H. Stolarik) : Those who dared to question the availability of SLOVENSKO KRAJANOH are •fascists• and "pharisees• (what a combination !) who "want to damage and poison the r~ lationship between us [i.e. Hatica] and our countrymen, which shows a premising and successful development despite their [i. e. the fascists' and pharisees' J intrigues. Their attempts, though cunning and presented on a {pseudo) scientific level .will burst like a soap bubble because .the truth is on our side.•  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource My Rocky Relationship with the Matica slovenská During the Second Era of Communism in Czechoslovakia, 1970-1989: A Personal Memoir Description An account of the resource M. Mark Stolarik Slovakia, Vol. 42 (No. 78-79), 2015 pp. 87-111 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 2015 LCNAF https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/4b1065536d042f64530048acc0e18dd7.pdf 11f6405210b8e969acee1fcd584bbede PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA 81 MYTHS REGARDING THE ANTI-COMMUNIST RESISTANCE IN SLOV AKIA 1 Jan Carnogursky The preparation and course of the Velvet Revolution in Slovakia has gradually become known. The response to the fall of Communism across Europe has shown that the participation and contribution to the overthrow of Communism and the establishment of democracy is part of the legitimacy of Europe today, and a starting point for confident behaviour. The overthrow of Communism was a prerequisite for the unification of Europe in general and the unification of Germany in particular. After the fall of the Iron Curtain, it was shown that Eastern Europe did not have any objections to the unification of Germany, unlike Great Britain and France. But that is not the point any more. The media 's revelation of the anti-Communist resistance in Slovakia created many myths which still distort our knowledge about the anti-Communist resistance in Slovakia. I will try to correct at least some of them. I have to note that some of the myths are positive, some negative. 1. Few Chartists in Slovakia. Almost every report on the anti-Communist resistance in Slovakia, specifically on the Velvet Revolution, begins with the statement that there were only a few Chartists (Members of Charter 77) in Slovakia. Indeed, there were not even ten of them . The myth is that there should have been many more. The reason is simple: Charter 77 reflected the Czech, and especially Prague ' s, terms of resistance against Communism. It did not represent the Slovak. Charter 77 included legalistically-conceived demands to respect human rights, which referred to Czechoslovak Decree No. 120/1 976 on the "Covenant on Human Rights." Its provisions were based on the conclusions 1 Speech delivered to th e Eco nomi c C lub of Bra ti slava on October 29, 2009. �82 SLOVAKIA of the Helsinki Conference of 197 5. Charter 77 could count on media and diplomatic support from the West throughout its existence. Charter 77 had existed for less than three months when the Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hans van der Broek, during his visit to Prague, received the spokesman of the Charter, Professor Jan Patocka. Subsequently, Jan Patocka suffered from a heart attack and died during an interrogation by State Security (StB) - the secret police, but that's another story. Whenever the police arrested or detained a signatory of the Charter, the Western media reported it within a few hours . Slovakia could not count on similar media support. There were no Western correspondents in Bratislava. They were accredited only in Prague. Similarly, Bratislava had no Western diplomatic offices . The US Consulate General was closed most of the time, and only once a month or two American diplomats from Prague commuted for the day to their building in Bratislava. Let me illustrate. The Candle Demonstration on Hviezdoslav Square in March of 1988, with 5,000 participants, was a much greater manifestation against the communist regime than Charter 77. However, in the following days, the western press reported only a few lines about it. It could not be compared with the constant news about Charter 77. The internal structure of Charter 77 reflected the social situation in the Czech Republic. Among three spokesmen of the Charter, one was a purged Communist, one a practicing Christian, and one was a secular intellectual. Until November of 1989, purged Communists in Slovakia were unable to form their own resistance group against Communism. Alexander Dubcek was isolated. The creative intelligentsia also failed to form any significant alignment against the regime. The centre of resistance against Communism in Slovakia was in the Christian church, with all of its particularities. Until 1989, Charter 77 was signed by about 1,300 to 2,000 people, 200 to 300 of whom were active. The underground Catholic church in Slovakia involved much larger numbers of people. The Candle Demonstration was attended by thousands, while Charter 77 was never able to organize such a massive public demonstration . Charter 77 played an important role in the opposition against Communism, as it influenced the trends and forms of resistance. It was also able to give legitimacy to other forms of resistance and, in �SLOVAKIA 83 such a case, foreign observers did not have any doubts despite communist propaganda (e.g. Ivan Polansky's case in Slovakia). Resistance against a continental dictatorial regime, such as Communism, always had to be based on the deepest national traditions of any society. Using theoretical and political criteria for evaluating resistance against Communism is ridiculous. Such resistance could be easily suppressed by the StB . Slovak resistance against Communism was, therefore, based on Slovak national traditions and historical experience. Czech resistance, on the other hand, was based on Czech national traditions and historical experience. Czech forms of resistance against Communism could not, therefore, be mechanically transferred to Slovakia and used to compare the intensity of Slovak resistance. If we were to proceed in the same way, for example, when comparing and assessing Polish and Czech resistance against Communism, Czech resistance would come out as negligibly weak. 2. Milder "Normalization" in Slovakia. Another myth claims that "normalization" in Slovakia was milder than in the Czech Republic. It is based on the same unscientific observation as the previous claim that there were only few Chartists in Slovakia. Yes, many Party members were purged from cultural institutions and were forced to work in various research institutions where they were stuck, and could only do office work, and were expected to keep quiet. That is how, after having been purged from the Party, the Ideological Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Slovakia, Miroslav Kusy, could work in some sort of research institute and the historian Jozef Jablonicky in a local historical institute. And the list could be continued. When they did not obey, the regime went further and sent them to do manual work, as happened to Miroslav Kusy. This, however, only concerned a numerically insignificant group of excluded Party members, formerly of high rank which, by the way, they received through their membership in the Party, and who had no social support in Slovakia. The regime knew that it did not have to fear them and, therefore, pushed them further. This was the major difference with the Czech Republic, where purged Party members represented a greater threat, and the regime had more to fear. It must not be forgotten that in the Czech Republic �84 SLOVAKIA there was a group of more conservative Communists grouped around Antonin Kapek, Alois Indra and later Miroslav Stepan and others, who knew their former colleagues well and let them feel it. This becomes obvious after reading just a few issues of the daily Tribuna, which started publication after the Warsaw pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in the autumn of 1968 by the Bureau for the Management of Party Activity in the Czech Republic. In Slovakia, the regime mostly feared the Christian underground network, and particularly the underground church. It showed it no mercy. Jan Chryzostom Cardinal Korec, who was an underground bishop, was forced to work as an elevator repairman until his retirement. The present Archbishop of Kosice, Alojz Tkac, operated a streetcar. Bishop Rudolf Balaz of Banska Bystrica was a teamster. Trials for obstructing StB surveillance of churches occurred in Slovakia throughout the 1970s and 1980s, with unconditional sentences meted out. Furthermore, doctors and teachers were fired because of their church attendance. The myth of milder "normalization" in Slovakia does not take any of this into account. 3. The Candle Demonstration. The Candle Demonstration on March 25 , 1988, was the first mass public protest since 1969 against the regime in the former Czechoslovakia. It was organized on the initiative of Marian St'astny, then the President of the Slovak World Congress. His intention was to organize demonstrations on the 25th of March 1988 in front of Czechoslovak embassies in several Western countries as an appeal to respect the civil rights of his people. In the end, the only demonstration that took place was in Bratislava. However, it was based on completely different principles compared to those applicable in the Czech Republic or in Western Europe. The demonstrators demanded three things: allowing the Pope to appoint Catholic bishops in Slovakia, full religious freedom, and respect for human rights . This combination is unimaginable in the Czech Republic or in any Western country. But just such a combination was demanded by simple believers on the one hand, and by the urban intelligentsia on the other. This becomes clear after one reads Martin Simecka's report on the participants in the Candle Demonstration for the samizdat press shortly thereafter. The demonstration did not require any �SLOVAKIA 85 leading speaker, as he would have been immediately arrested by the police. The demonstration itself did not give any excuse to the police to intervene and when, despite that, the police sprayed the demonstrators with water cannons and arrested them, the illegality of the reaction was even more evident. In his book A Carnival of Revolution (also published in Czech), the American historian Padraic Kenney charted a time-table of events in Eastern Europe from 1975 until 1989. The table shows that the Candle Demonstration in Bratislava and a demonstration in Budapest on the 15th of March 1988 were the first mass demonstrations in the former Eastern Bloc. I will return later to the Budapest demonstration. Of course, the Candle Demonstration evoked responses in the Czech and Slovak samizdat press, setting a standard for other manifestations against the regime. As to the number of participants, the Candle Demonstration was not outnumbered until demonstrations in Prague took place in October of 1988 in honour of the anniversary of the Republic . The Candle Demonstration, however, has been mentioned only marginally in scholarly works, especially in the Czech Republic, and in the evaluation of the antiCommunist resistance in Czechoslovakia as a whole. 4. State Symbols and Anniversaries. Anniversaries commemorating national and state history have the greatest mobilizing potential in any society. Perhaps some of them are emblazoned with legends, but they are able to attract people to commemorate, and, on the other hand to demonstrate against a ruling regime if they think that it flouts tradition. They are associated with patriotism in the best sense of the word. The opposition in the surrounding countries, as well as in the Czech Republic, used such anniversaries to organize demonstrations against the ruling communist regimes. In Budapest, there was a demonstration on the 15th of March, which hearkened back to the Revolution of 1848. In Prague, October 28 was the anniversary of the creation of the Czechoslovak Republic in 1918, and in Poland there are many such anniversaries. The taking of one ' s life for the common good also has a great potential to mobilize people. The self-immolation of Jan Palach in Prague in January of 1969 is a good example. In November of 1989, a false rumor circulated in Prague about the death of a student during �86 SLOVAKIA a demonstration on the 17th of November, commemorating the Nazi suppression of a student demonstration in 1939. It was sufficient to spark demonstrations across the country. Slovakia did not have such an anniversary. Slovakia also does not perceive the establishment of the Czechoslovak Republic in 1918 as being a historical event with significant mobilization potential. But this is not the place to discuss the causes . State traditions could only apply to the Slovak Republic which existed from 1939 to 1945, and which was allied with Nazi Germany. Those traditions could not be used. The Slovak National Uprising of 1944 did not leave any clear message - again this is not the place to discuss the reasons - and its message was in any case attributed to the communist regime. The death of General M. R. Stefanik had a certain mobilizing potential in itself, which was used by the Slovak opposition at Brad lo in May of 1989. Mobilizing impulses which had the greatest potential in the surrounding countries and nations could not be applied in Slovakia. Slovak resistance against Communism, therefore, had to be based on some other mobilizing principle. And that, in every society, is religion. However, it is a more abstract principle compared to significant national and state anniversaries. To organize opposition around religion is, therefore, more difficult. On the other hand, the mobilizing potential of religion does have distortions that are threatened by national and state anniversaries. So far, no one has appreciated that the Candle Demonstration outshone public demonstrations throughout Europe against oppressive regimes based on national and state anniversaries. 5. Velehrad, The Petition of Moravian Catholics. In 1985, a commemoration was held in Moravian Velehrad on the occasion of the 1100th anniversary of the death of Saint Methodius in Great Moravia. The ceremony was attended by about 150,000 - 200,000 believers, most of them from Slovakia. The Vatican State Secretary, Cardinal Cassaroli, attended. It was a significant anniversary, generally recognized by the people and, of course, remembered in Catholic churches throughout the country. For that reason, the communist regime could not ignore it and sent to Velehrad the Minister of Culture of the Czech Republic, Milan Klusak. In his speech, the minister tried to diminish the mission of Saints Cyril and Methodius to simply that of a linguistic and cultural mission. For example, �SLOVAKIA 87 he did not call them Saints Cyril and Methodius, but only Cyril and Methodius . The audience booed him, shouting "Saints Cyril and Methodius" and the gathering turned into a demonstration against the regime. In the autumn 1987, a Moravian farmer, Augustin Navratil, addressed to the communist authorities 31 requests of Moravian Catholics pertaining to religious freedom. The requests were written in simple, understandable language. After being supported by Cardinal Frantisek Tomasek of Prague, Navratil began to collect signatures for his petition. By the beginning of 1988, half a million people had signed the petition, two thirds of them from Slovakia. This petition was the largest in the Communist Bloc. The signatures revealed that the underground church was active in all of Slovakia and that it had a clear leadership. Of course, such leadership had to remain underground, and could not, for example, emulate Charter 77. However, the number of signatures and their method of collection sent a signal to the regime that there was an invisible enemy which could, under certain circumstances, rise up and become uncontrollable. Velehrad, as well as the petition of the Moravian Catholics, are also only marginally mentioned in the analysis of anti-Communist resistance in the whole of Czechoslovakia. 6. Cooperation of Dissenters. During "normalization," dissent against the regime developed simultaneously in Slovakia and in the Czech Republic . In Slovakia, it was specifically Christian dissent and so-called "civil" dissent. Each of them was based on its own conditions and initially operated only internally. From the end of the 1970s, the StB in Slovakia had concluded that there was a risk of a major strengthening of dissenters if the Christian dissidents were to join with civil dissidents in Slovakia and the Slovak and Czech di ssidents within Czechoslovakia. Within its capabilities, the StB tried to maintain the isolation of individual dissident movements. There was some interaction between them, but it was too weak to unite them. In the mid 1980' s, contacts and mutual assistance intensified so much that it finally allowed the coordination of such dissident movements. In Slovakia, the newly-born Green Movement, as well as independent artists, began to partake in civil and Christian dissent. Christian activists began to meet on �88 SLOVAKIA a regular basis with purged Party members. The now-deceased Milan Simecka, a Moravian living in Bratislava, connected the Slovak and Czech dissents and encouraged many activists from Slovakia to travel to meetings in Prague. It must be said that the connection between the Czech and Slovak Catholic dissents had existed for a long time, following the message of the Croatian Jesuit priest Tomislav Poglajen - Kolakovic in the l 940 's . Very little has been written about Kolakovic. His followers spent many years in Slovak and Czech prisons. After having been released, they used to meet regularly and maintained the Slovak-Czech dialogue, which has lasted until the present day. The cooperation of dissidents in the 1980's helped to prepare the way for the November, 1989 revolution in Slovakia. 7. The Assistance of Czech Dissents. The appearance of Charter 77 was a milestone in the anti-Communist movement in Czechoslovakia. The Charter showed that public opposition against a regime is possible, but at the price of great sacrifice. Samizdat journals began to appear as a result. Petitions were organized for the freeing of political prisoners, and so on. The samizdat periodical press in Slovakia followed the lead of samizdat periodical press in the Czech Republic. Czech forms of resistance against Communism, which were transferable to Slovakia, became a source of inspiration. The State Security in Slovakia tried to label any opposition as a continuation of the Slovak People 's Party, clerical fascism and so on. For foreign defenders of dissdents, it was difficult to tell when communist propaganda was truthful and when it was lying. That was also the case with Ivan Polansky, who was arrested in 1987 and accused of supporting and spreading fascism. Ivan Polansky had prepared a samizdat volume on the Reverend Andrej Hlinka, founder of the Slovak People's Party, and a police search of Polansky's house also revealed materials concerning Jozef Tiso, president of the wartime Slovak Republic. In the end, Charter 77 stood up for Ivan Polansky and the publishers of the Czech samizdat press signed a declaration in which they dared the police to arrest them for carrying out the same activities as Polansky. Whether Ivan Polansky was a clerical fascist or not, it was enough for Wes tern publicists to believe that he was not, and they gave him full publicity �SLOVAKIA 89 and diplomatic support. This was similar to events in February of 1988, when the communist daily Pravda in Bratislava and its counterpart Rude Pravo in Prague published a series of articles denouncing Pavo) Camogursky, the author's father. The articles focused on the activities of Pavo! Carnogursky during the first Slovak Republic. Vaclav Havel, the most prominent of the Czech dissidents, persuaded his followers to sign a declaration in support of Pavo! Camogursky. Havel also used his contacts to transmit messages about Pavo! Carnogursky through various channels in the Prague diplomatic corps. In Slovakia, none of that was possible. The assistance of the Czech dissents significantly improved the chances of the defense of Slovak dissidents in case they were arrested. 8. The Speed of the Fall of Communism in Czechoslovakia. The comparison of the speed of the fall of the communist regime in Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary and, perhaps in other countries, has also become mythical. Based on such comparisons, Czechoslovakia comes out the best since the regime fell in about two weeks. Perhaps it would be useful to have a closer look at the reality. The regime fell quickly in Czechoslovakia for two reasons, one external and one internal. The external reason was that by the 17th of November, 1989 the Berlin wall had already fallen in Eastern Germany, the non-communist government of Tadeusz Mazowiecki was already established in Poland, Mikhail Gorbachev's perestroika was already working in the Soviet Union and Hungary was allowing East Germans to escape into Austria. Thus, Czechoslovakia was already de facto surrounded by non-Communist Poland and countries with qualitatively different styles of Communism (the Democratic Republic of Germany, the Soviet Union and Hungary). In geopolitical terms, there was nothing the Czechoslovak communist regime could do than to give up. Furthermore, the communist regime in Czechoslovakia could not rely on internal support, because it had none. Communists were also not willing to fight for their regime. Resistance would mean ineviable defeat for the Communists, followed by their imprisonment and punishment. None of them was willing to take such a risk. The internal reason was the unity of the opposition. This unity consisted in the fact that the opposition in Slovakia and in the Czech Republic wan- �90 SLOVAKIA ted only free elections, a parliamentary democracy, a market economy and European integration. The Slovak opposition did not demand a change in Slovakia's national status. The only small difference lay in its support of Alexander Dubcek' s candidacy for the post of the President of the Republic. The Slovak opposition however, represented by VPN (Public Against Violence), supported Vaclav Havel 's candidacy. Opposition in Czechoslovakia in November and December 1989 was almost exclusively based on demonstrations in cities that were attended by thousands of people. Had any media reports on major differences in the attitude of Czech and Slovak oppositions penetrated the public, it could have significantly reduced the willingness of people to demonstrate in city squares. It was also important that Vaclav Havel was adopted as a generally-recognized symbol of the Velvet Revolution. If any other groups had made other demands, for example purged Slovak Party members pushing Dubcek' s candidacy for the post of the President, they would have failed. Their position was weak because, in previous years, they had not joined in the resistance against the communist regime. Later proponents of the independence of Slovakia had no record of showing resistance against Communism in the form of samizdat or other ways. Therefore, they were ignored in the first few months following the revolution. Prematurely raising requirements for a change in the national status of Czechoslovakia could have significantly weakened the pressure on the communist regime and, in fact, would have given it new legitimacy. The main challenge in November and December of 1989 was to overthrow Communism. Harmonization and balancing of the national form of resistance against Communism in the Czech Republic and Slovakia also contributed to the rapidity of the fall of Communism. After the creation of Charter 77, the Czech opposition against Communism took the lead in the Republic. Based on future analyses, historians will perhaps come to the conclusion that a certain balance was established sometime around 1987 between the Slovak and Czech opposition. In Slovakia, the Greens came out with the publication Bratislava nahlas (Bratislava Aloud), which preceded the results of the Green Movement in the Czech Republic. This was followed by the petition of Moravian Catholics and the Candle Demonstration. American historian Padraic Kenney wrote that in the mid 1980's an exhaustion and weariness of the original anti-Communist movements occurred in �SLOVAKIA 91 several former communist countries and the initiative was then taken by new, emerging, movements . This finding could perhaps also apply to Czechoslovakia. Czechoslovakia has a complicated history because it consisted of two founding nations which were linguistically close, but differed culturally . The course of the resistance against Communism, and eventually the breakdown of the Republic, have created new, and seemingly better, relations between the Slovaks and the Czechs. However, these remain to be tested during future crises. ��REVIEW ESSAY �� SLOVAKIA 81 MYTHS REGARDING THE ANTI-COMMUNIST RESISTANCE IN SLOV AKIA 1 Jan Carnogursky The preparation and course of the Velvet Revolution in Slovakia has gradually become known. The response to the fall of Communism across Europe has shown that the participation and contribution to the overthrow of Communism and the establishment of democracy is part of the legitimacy of Europe today, and a starting point for confident behaviour. The overthrow of Communism was a prerequisite for the unification of Europe in general and the unification of Germany in particular. After the fall of the Iron Curtain, it was shown that Eastern Europe did not have any objections to the unification of Germany, unlike Great Britain and France. But that is not the point any more. The media 's revelation of the anti-Communist resistance in Slovakia created many myths which still distort our knowledge about the anti-Communist resistance in Slovakia. I will try to correct at least some of them. I have to note that some of the myths are positive, some negative. 1. Few Chartists in Slovakia. Almost every report on the anti-Communist resistance in Slovakia, specifically on the Velvet Revolution, begins with the statement that there were only a few Chartists (Members of Charter 77) in Slovakia. Indeed, there were not even ten of them . The myth is that there should have been many more. The reason is simple: Charter 77 reflected the Czech, and especially Prague ' s, terms of resistance against Communism. It did not represent the Slovak. Charter 77 included legalistically-conceived demands to respect human rights, which referred to Czechoslovak Decree No. 120/1 976 on the "Covenant on Human Rights." Its provisions were based on the conclusions 1 Speech delivered to th e Eco nomi c C lub of Bra ti slava on October 29, 2009. �82 SLOVAKIA of the Helsinki Conference of 197 5. Charter 77 could count on media and diplomatic support from the West throughout its existence. Charter 77 had existed for less than three months when the Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hans van der Broek, during his visit to Prague, received the spokesman of the Charter, Professor Jan Patocka. Subsequently, Jan Patocka suffered from a heart attack and died during an interrogation by State Security (StB) - the secret police, but that's another story. Whenever the police arrested or detained a signatory of the Charter, the Western media reported it within a few hours . Slovakia could not count on similar media support. There were no Western correspondents in Bratislava. They were accredited only in Prague. Similarly, Bratislava had no Western diplomatic offices . The US Consulate General was closed most of the time, and only once a month or two American diplomats from Prague commuted for the day to their building in Bratislava. Let me illustrate. The Candle Demonstration on Hviezdoslav Square in March of 1988, with 5,000 participants, was a much greater manifestation against the communist regime than Charter 77. However, in the following days, the western press reported only a few lines about it. It could not be compared with the constant news about Charter 77. The internal structure of Charter 77 reflected the social situation in the Czech Republic. Among three spokesmen of the Charter, one was a purged Communist, one a practicing Christian, and one was a secular intellectual. Until November of 1989, purged Communists in Slovakia were unable to form their own resistance group against Communism. Alexander Dubcek was isolated. The creative intelligentsia also failed to form any significant alignment against the regime. The centre of resistance against Communism in Slovakia was in the Christian church, with all of its particularities. Until 1989, Charter 77 was signed by about 1,300 to 2,000 people, 200 to 300 of whom were active. The underground Catholic church in Slovakia involved much larger numbers of people. The Candle Demonstration was attended by thousands, while Charter 77 was never able to organize such a massive public demonstration . Charter 77 played an important role in the opposition against Communism, as it influenced the trends and forms of resistance. It was also able to give legitimacy to other forms of resistance and, in �SLOVAKIA 83 such a case, foreign observers did not have any doubts despite communist propaganda (e.g. Ivan Polansky's case in Slovakia). Resistance against a continental dictatorial regime, such as Communism, always had to be based on the deepest national traditions of any society. Using theoretical and political criteria for evaluating resistance against Communism is ridiculous. Such resistance could be easily suppressed by the StB . Slovak resistance against Communism was, therefore, based on Slovak national traditions and historical experience. Czech resistance, on the other hand, was based on Czech national traditions and historical experience. Czech forms of resistance against Communism could not, therefore, be mechanically transferred to Slovakia and used to compare the intensity of Slovak resistance. If we were to proceed in the same way, for example, when comparing and assessing Polish and Czech resistance against Communism, Czech resistance would come out as negligibly weak. 2. Milder "Normalization" in Slovakia. Another myth claims that "normalization" in Slovakia was milder than in the Czech Republic. It is based on the same unscientific observation as the previous claim that there were only few Chartists in Slovakia. Yes, many Party members were purged from cultural institutions and were forced to work in various research institutions where they were stuck, and could only do office work, and were expected to keep quiet. That is how, after having been purged from the Party, the Ideological Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Slovakia, Miroslav Kusy, could work in some sort of research institute and the historian Jozef Jablonicky in a local historical institute. And the list could be continued. When they did not obey, the regime went further and sent them to do manual work, as happened to Miroslav Kusy. This, however, only concerned a numerically insignificant group of excluded Party members, formerly of high rank which, by the way, they received through their membership in the Party, and who had no social support in Slovakia. The regime knew that it did not have to fear them and, therefore, pushed them further. This was the major difference with the Czech Republic, where purged Party members represented a greater threat, and the regime had more to fear. It must not be forgotten that in the Czech Republic �84 SLOVAKIA there was a group of more conservative Communists grouped around Antonin Kapek, Alois Indra and later Miroslav Stepan and others, who knew their former colleagues well and let them feel it. This becomes obvious after reading just a few issues of the daily Tribuna, which started publication after the Warsaw pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in the autumn of 1968 by the Bureau for the Management of Party Activity in the Czech Republic. In Slovakia, the regime mostly feared the Christian underground network, and particularly the underground church. It showed it no mercy. Jan Chryzostom Cardinal Korec, who was an underground bishop, was forced to work as an elevator repairman until his retirement. The present Archbishop of Kosice, Alojz Tkac, operated a streetcar. Bishop Rudolf Balaz of Banska Bystrica was a teamster. Trials for obstructing StB surveillance of churches occurred in Slovakia throughout the 1970s and 1980s, with unconditional sentences meted out. Furthermore, doctors and teachers were fired because of their church attendance. The myth of milder "normalization" in Slovakia does not take any of this into account. 3. The Candle Demonstration. The Candle Demonstration on March 25 , 1988, was the first mass public protest since 1969 against the regime in the former Czechoslovakia. It was organized on the initiative of Marian St'astny, then the President of the Slovak World Congress. His intention was to organize demonstrations on the 25th of March 1988 in front of Czechoslovak embassies in several Western countries as an appeal to respect the civil rights of his people. In the end, the only demonstration that took place was in Bratislava. However, it was based on completely different principles compared to those applicable in the Czech Republic or in Western Europe. The demonstrators demanded three things: allowing the Pope to appoint Catholic bishops in Slovakia, full religious freedom, and respect for human rights . This combination is unimaginable in the Czech Republic or in any Western country. But just such a combination was demanded by simple believers on the one hand, and by the urban intelligentsia on the other. This becomes clear after one reads Martin Simecka's report on the participants in the Candle Demonstration for the samizdat press shortly thereafter. The demonstration did not require any �SLOVAKIA 85 leading speaker, as he would have been immediately arrested by the police. The demonstration itself did not give any excuse to the police to intervene and when, despite that, the police sprayed the demonstrators with water cannons and arrested them, the illegality of the reaction was even more evident. In his book A Carnival of Revolution (also published in Czech), the American historian Padraic Kenney charted a time-table of events in Eastern Europe from 1975 until 1989. The table shows that the Candle Demonstration in Bratislava and a demonstration in Budapest on the 15th of March 1988 were the first mass demonstrations in the former Eastern Bloc. I will return later to the Budapest demonstration. Of course, the Candle Demonstration evoked responses in the Czech and Slovak samizdat press, setting a standard for other manifestations against the regime. As to the number of participants, the Candle Demonstration was not outnumbered until demonstrations in Prague took place in October of 1988 in honour of the anniversary of the Republic . The Candle Demonstration, however, has been mentioned only marginally in scholarly works, especially in the Czech Republic, and in the evaluation of the antiCommunist resistance in Czechoslovakia as a whole. 4. State Symbols and Anniversaries. Anniversaries commemorating national and state history have the greatest mobilizing potential in any society. Perhaps some of them are emblazoned with legends, but they are able to attract people to commemorate, and, on the other hand to demonstrate against a ruling regime if they think that it flouts tradition. They are associated with patriotism in the best sense of the word. The opposition in the surrounding countries, as well as in the Czech Republic, used such anniversaries to organize demonstrations against the ruling communist regimes. In Budapest, there was a demonstration on the 15th of March, which hearkened back to the Revolution of 1848. In Prague, October 28 was the anniversary of the creation of the Czechoslovak Republic in 1918, and in Poland there are many such anniversaries. The taking of one ' s life for the common good also has a great potential to mobilize people. The self-immolation of Jan Palach in Prague in January of 1969 is a good example. In November of 1989, a false rumor circulated in Prague about the death of a student during �86 SLOVAKIA a demonstration on the 17th of November, commemorating the Nazi suppression of a student demonstration in 1939. It was sufficient to spark demonstrations across the country. Slovakia did not have such an anniversary. Slovakia also does not perceive the establishment of the Czechoslovak Republic in 1918 as being a historical event with significant mobilization potential. But this is not the place to discuss the causes . State traditions could only apply to the Slovak Republic which existed from 1939 to 1945, and which was allied with Nazi Germany. Those traditions could not be used. The Slovak National Uprising of 1944 did not leave any clear message - again this is not the place to discuss the reasons - and its message was in any case attributed to the communist regime. The death of General M. R. Stefanik had a certain mobilizing potential in itself, which was used by the Slovak opposition at Brad lo in May of 1989. Mobilizing impulses which had the greatest potential in the surrounding countries and nations could not be applied in Slovakia. Slovak resistance against Communism, therefore, had to be based on some other mobilizing principle. And that, in every society, is religion. However, it is a more abstract principle compared to significant national and state anniversaries. To organize opposition around religion is, therefore, more difficult. On the other hand, the mobilizing potential of religion does have distortions that are threatened by national and state anniversaries. So far, no one has appreciated that the Candle Demonstration outshone public demonstrations throughout Europe against oppressive regimes based on national and state anniversaries. 5. Velehrad, The Petition of Moravian Catholics. In 1985, a commemoration was held in Moravian Velehrad on the occasion of the 1100th anniversary of the death of Saint Methodius in Great Moravia. The ceremony was attended by about 150,000 - 200,000 believers, most of them from Slovakia. The Vatican State Secretary, Cardinal Cassaroli, attended. It was a significant anniversary, generally recognized by the people and, of course, remembered in Catholic churches throughout the country. For that reason, the communist regime could not ignore it and sent to Velehrad the Minister of Culture of the Czech Republic, Milan Klusak. In his speech, the minister tried to diminish the mission of Saints Cyril and Methodius to simply that of a linguistic and cultural mission. For example, �SLOVAKIA 87 he did not call them Saints Cyril and Methodius, but only Cyril and Methodius . The audience booed him, shouting "Saints Cyril and Methodius" and the gathering turned into a demonstration against the regime. In the autumn 1987, a Moravian farmer, Augustin Navratil, addressed to the communist authorities 31 requests of Moravian Catholics pertaining to religious freedom. The requests were written in simple, understandable language. After being supported by Cardinal Frantisek Tomasek of Prague, Navratil began to collect signatures for his petition. By the beginning of 1988, half a million people had signed the petition, two thirds of them from Slovakia. This petition was the largest in the Communist Bloc. The signatures revealed that the underground church was active in all of Slovakia and that it had a clear leadership. Of course, such leadership had to remain underground, and could not, for example, emulate Charter 77. However, the number of signatures and their method of collection sent a signal to the regime that there was an invisible enemy which could, under certain circumstances, rise up and become uncontrollable. Velehrad, as well as the petition of the Moravian Catholics, are also only marginally mentioned in the analysis of anti-Communist resistance in the whole of Czechoslovakia. 6. Cooperation of Dissenters. During "normalization," dissent against the regime developed simultaneously in Slovakia and in the Czech Republic . In Slovakia, it was specifically Christian dissent and so-called "civil" dissent. Each of them was based on its own conditions and initially operated only internally. From the end of the 1970s, the StB in Slovakia had concluded that there was a risk of a major strengthening of dissenters if the Christian dissidents were to join with civil dissidents in Slovakia and the Slovak and Czech di ssidents within Czechoslovakia. Within its capabilities, the StB tried to maintain the isolation of individual dissident movements. There was some interaction between them, but it was too weak to unite them. In the mid 1980' s, contacts and mutual assistance intensified so much that it finally allowed the coordination of such dissident movements. In Slovakia, the newly-born Green Movement, as well as independent artists, began to partake in civil and Christian dissent. Christian activists began to meet on �88 SLOVAKIA a regular basis with purged Party members. The now-deceased Milan Simecka, a Moravian living in Bratislava, connected the Slovak and Czech dissents and encouraged many activists from Slovakia to travel to meetings in Prague. It must be said that the connection between the Czech and Slovak Catholic dissents had existed for a long time, following the message of the Croatian Jesuit priest Tomislav Poglajen - Kolakovic in the l 940 's . Very little has been written about Kolakovic. His followers spent many years in Slovak and Czech prisons. After having been released, they used to meet regularly and maintained the Slovak-Czech dialogue, which has lasted until the present day. The cooperation of dissidents in the 1980's helped to prepare the way for the November, 1989 revolution in Slovakia. 7. The Assistance of Czech Dissents. The appearance of Charter 77 was a milestone in the anti-Communist movement in Czechoslovakia. The Charter showed that public opposition against a regime is possible, but at the price of great sacrifice. Samizdat journals began to appear as a result. Petitions were organized for the freeing of political prisoners, and so on. The samizdat periodical press in Slovakia followed the lead of samizdat periodical press in the Czech Republic. Czech forms of resistance against Communism, which were transferable to Slovakia, became a source of inspiration. The State Security in Slovakia tried to label any opposition as a continuation of the Slovak People 's Party, clerical fascism and so on. For foreign defenders of dissdents, it was difficult to tell when communist propaganda was truthful and when it was lying. That was also the case with Ivan Polansky, who was arrested in 1987 and accused of supporting and spreading fascism. Ivan Polansky had prepared a samizdat volume on the Reverend Andrej Hlinka, founder of the Slovak People's Party, and a police search of Polansky's house also revealed materials concerning Jozef Tiso, president of the wartime Slovak Republic. In the end, Charter 77 stood up for Ivan Polansky and the publishers of the Czech samizdat press signed a declaration in which they dared the police to arrest them for carrying out the same activities as Polansky. Whether Ivan Polansky was a clerical fascist or not, it was enough for Wes tern publicists to believe that he was not, and they gave him full publicity �SLOVAKIA 89 and diplomatic support. This was similar to events in February of 1988, when the communist daily Pravda in Bratislava and its counterpart Rude Pravo in Prague published a series of articles denouncing Pavo) Camogursky, the author's father. The articles focused on the activities of Pavo! Carnogursky during the first Slovak Republic. Vaclav Havel, the most prominent of the Czech dissidents, persuaded his followers to sign a declaration in support of Pavo! Camogursky. Havel also used his contacts to transmit messages about Pavo! Carnogursky through various channels in the Prague diplomatic corps. In Slovakia, none of that was possible. The assistance of the Czech dissents significantly improved the chances of the defense of Slovak dissidents in case they were arrested. 8. The Speed of the Fall of Communism in Czechoslovakia. The comparison of the speed of the fall of the communist regime in Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary and, perhaps in other countries, has also become mythical. Based on such comparisons, Czechoslovakia comes out the best since the regime fell in about two weeks. Perhaps it would be useful to have a closer look at the reality. The regime fell quickly in Czechoslovakia for two reasons, one external and one internal. The external reason was that by the 17th of November, 1989 the Berlin wall had already fallen in Eastern Germany, the non-communist government of Tadeusz Mazowiecki was already established in Poland, Mikhail Gorbachev's perestroika was already working in the Soviet Union and Hungary was allowing East Germans to escape into Austria. Thus, Czechoslovakia was already de facto surrounded by non-Communist Poland and countries with qualitatively different styles of Communism (the Democratic Republic of Germany, the Soviet Union and Hungary). In geopolitical terms, there was nothing the Czechoslovak communist regime could do than to give up. Furthermore, the communist regime in Czechoslovakia could not rely on internal support, because it had none. Communists were also not willing to fight for their regime. Resistance would mean ineviable defeat for the Communists, followed by their imprisonment and punishment. None of them was willing to take such a risk. The internal reason was the unity of the opposition. This unity consisted in the fact that the opposition in Slovakia and in the Czech Republic wan- �90 SLOVAKIA ted only free elections, a parliamentary democracy, a market economy and European integration. The Slovak opposition did not demand a change in Slovakia's national status. The only small difference lay in its support of Alexander Dubcek' s candidacy for the post of the President of the Republic. The Slovak opposition however, represented by VPN (Public Against Violence), supported Vaclav Havel 's candidacy. Opposition in Czechoslovakia in November and December 1989 was almost exclusively based on demonstrations in cities that were attended by thousands of people. Had any media reports on major differences in the attitude of Czech and Slovak oppositions penetrated the public, it could have significantly reduced the willingness of people to demonstrate in city squares. It was also important that Vaclav Havel was adopted as a generally-recognized symbol of the Velvet Revolution. If any other groups had made other demands, for example purged Slovak Party members pushing Dubcek' s candidacy for the post of the President, they would have failed. Their position was weak because, in previous years, they had not joined in the resistance against the communist regime. Later proponents of the independence of Slovakia had no record of showing resistance against Communism in the form of samizdat or other ways. Therefore, they were ignored in the first few months following the revolution. Prematurely raising requirements for a change in the national status of Czechoslovakia could have significantly weakened the pressure on the communist regime and, in fact, would have given it new legitimacy. The main challenge in November and December of 1989 was to overthrow Communism. Harmonization and balancing of the national form of resistance against Communism in the Czech Republic and Slovakia also contributed to the rapidity of the fall of Communism. After the creation of Charter 77, the Czech opposition against Communism took the lead in the Republic. Based on future analyses, historians will perhaps come to the conclusion that a certain balance was established sometime around 1987 between the Slovak and Czech opposition. In Slovakia, the Greens came out with the publication Bratislava nahlas (Bratislava Aloud), which preceded the results of the Green Movement in the Czech Republic. This was followed by the petition of Moravian Catholics and the Candle Demonstration. American historian Padraic Kenney wrote that in the mid 1980's an exhaustion and weariness of the original anti-Communist movements occurred in �SLOVAKIA 91 several former communist countries and the initiative was then taken by new, emerging, movements . This finding could perhaps also apply to Czechoslovakia. Czechoslovakia has a complicated history because it consisted of two founding nations which were linguistically close, but differed culturally . The course of the resistance against Communism, and eventually the breakdown of the Republic, have created new, and seemingly better, relations between the Slovaks and the Czechs. However, these remain to be tested during future crises. ��REVIEW ESSAY �� Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 2010, Vol. 40 Description An account of the resource Vol. 40 (No. 74-75), 2010. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2010 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document SLOVAKIA 81 MYTHS REGARDING THE ANTI-COMMUNIST RESISTANCE IN SLOV AKIA 1 Jan Carnogursky The preparation and course of the Velvet Revolution in Slovakia has gradually become known. The response to the fall of Communism across Europe has shown that the participation and contribution to the overthrow of Communism and the establishment of democracy is part of the legitimacy of Europe today, and a starting point for confident behaviour. The overthrow of Communism was a prerequisite for the unification of Europe in general and the unification of Germany in particular. After the fall of the Iron Curtain, it was shown that Eastern Europe did not have any objections to the unification of Germany, unlike Great Britain and France. But that is not the point any more. The media 's revelation of the anti-Communist resistance in Slovakia created many myths which still distort our knowledge about the anti-Communist resistance in Slovakia. I will try to correct at least some of them. I have to note that some of the myths are positive, some negative. 1. Few Chartists in Slovakia. Almost every report on the anti-Communist resistance in Slovakia, specifically on the Velvet Revolution, begins with the statement that there were only a few Chartists (Members of Charter 77) in Slovakia. Indeed, there were not even ten of them . The myth is that there should have been many more. The reason is simple: Charter 77 reflected the Czech, and especially Prague ' s, terms of resistance against Communism. It did not represent the Slovak. Charter 77 included legalistically-conceived demands to respect human rights, which referred to Czechoslovak Decree No. 120/1 976 on the "Covenant on Human Rights." Its provisions were based on the conclusions 1 Speech delivered to th e Eco nomi c C lub of Bra ti slava on October 29, 2009. 82 SLOVAKIA of the Helsinki Conference of 197 5. Charter 77 could count on media and diplomatic support from the West throughout its existence. Charter 77 had existed for less than three months when the Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hans van der Broek, during his visit to Prague, received the spokesman of the Charter, Professor Jan Patocka. Subsequently, Jan Patocka suffered from a heart attack and died during an interrogation by State Security (StB) - the secret police, but that's another story. Whenever the police arrested or detained a signatory of the Charter, the Western media reported it within a few hours . Slovakia could not count on similar media support. There were no Western correspondents in Bratislava. They were accredited only in Prague. Similarly, Bratislava had no Western diplomatic offices . The US Consulate General was closed most of the time, and only once a month or two American diplomats from Prague commuted for the day to their building in Bratislava. Let me illustrate. The Candle Demonstration on Hviezdoslav Square in March of 1988, with 5,000 participants, was a much greater manifestation against the communist regime than Charter 77. However, in the following days, the western press reported only a few lines about it. It could not be compared with the constant news about Charter 77. The internal structure of Charter 77 reflected the social situation in the Czech Republic. Among three spokesmen of the Charter, one was a purged Communist, one a practicing Christian, and one was a secular intellectual. Until November of 1989, purged Communists in Slovakia were unable to form their own resistance group against Communism. Alexander Dubcek was isolated. The creative intelligentsia also failed to form any significant alignment against the regime. The centre of resistance against Communism in Slovakia was in the Christian church, with all of its particularities. Until 1989, Charter 77 was signed by about 1,300 to 2,000 people, 200 to 300 of whom were active. The underground Catholic church in Slovakia involved much larger numbers of people. The Candle Demonstration was attended by thousands, while Charter 77 was never able to organize such a massive public demonstration . Charter 77 played an important role in the opposition against Communism, as it influenced the trends and forms of resistance. It was also able to give legitimacy to other forms of resistance and, in SLOVAKIA 83 such a case, foreign observers did not have any doubts despite communist propaganda (e.g. Ivan Polansky's case in Slovakia). Resistance against a continental dictatorial regime, such as Communism, always had to be based on the deepest national traditions of any society. Using theoretical and political criteria for evaluating resistance against Communism is ridiculous. Such resistance could be easily suppressed by the StB . Slovak resistance against Communism was, therefore, based on Slovak national traditions and historical experience. Czech resistance, on the other hand, was based on Czech national traditions and historical experience. Czech forms of resistance against Communism could not, therefore, be mechanically transferred to Slovakia and used to compare the intensity of Slovak resistance. If we were to proceed in the same way, for example, when comparing and assessing Polish and Czech resistance against Communism, Czech resistance would come out as negligibly weak. 2. Milder "Normalization" in Slovakia. Another myth claims that "normalization" in Slovakia was milder than in the Czech Republic. It is based on the same unscientific observation as the previous claim that there were only few Chartists in Slovakia. Yes, many Party members were purged from cultural institutions and were forced to work in various research institutions where they were stuck, and could only do office work, and were expected to keep quiet. That is how, after having been purged from the Party, the Ideological Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Slovakia, Miroslav Kusy, could work in some sort of research institute and the historian Jozef Jablonicky in a local historical institute. And the list could be continued. When they did not obey, the regime went further and sent them to do manual work, as happened to Miroslav Kusy. This, however, only concerned a numerically insignificant group of excluded Party members, formerly of high rank which, by the way, they received through their membership in the Party, and who had no social support in Slovakia. The regime knew that it did not have to fear them and, therefore, pushed them further. This was the major difference with the Czech Republic, where purged Party members represented a greater threat, and the regime had more to fear. It must not be forgotten that in the Czech Republic 84 SLOVAKIA there was a group of more conservative Communists grouped around Antonin Kapek, Alois Indra and later Miroslav Stepan and others, who knew their former colleagues well and let them feel it. This becomes obvious after reading just a few issues of the daily Tribuna, which started publication after the Warsaw pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in the autumn of 1968 by the Bureau for the Management of Party Activity in the Czech Republic. In Slovakia, the regime mostly feared the Christian underground network, and particularly the underground church. It showed it no mercy. Jan Chryzostom Cardinal Korec, who was an underground bishop, was forced to work as an elevator repairman until his retirement. The present Archbishop of Kosice, Alojz Tkac, operated a streetcar. Bishop Rudolf Balaz of Banska Bystrica was a teamster. Trials for obstructing StB surveillance of churches occurred in Slovakia throughout the 1970s and 1980s, with unconditional sentences meted out. Furthermore, doctors and teachers were fired because of their church attendance. The myth of milder "normalization" in Slovakia does not take any of this into account. 3. The Candle Demonstration. The Candle Demonstration on March 25 , 1988, was the first mass public protest since 1969 against the regime in the former Czechoslovakia. It was organized on the initiative of Marian St'astny, then the President of the Slovak World Congress. His intention was to organize demonstrations on the 25th of March 1988 in front of Czechoslovak embassies in several Western countries as an appeal to respect the civil rights of his people. In the end, the only demonstration that took place was in Bratislava. However, it was based on completely different principles compared to those applicable in the Czech Republic or in Western Europe. The demonstrators demanded three things: allowing the Pope to appoint Catholic bishops in Slovakia, full religious freedom, and respect for human rights . This combination is unimaginable in the Czech Republic or in any Western country. But just such a combination was demanded by simple believers on the one hand, and by the urban intelligentsia on the other. This becomes clear after one reads Martin Simecka's report on the participants in the Candle Demonstration for the samizdat press shortly thereafter. The demonstration did not require any SLOVAKIA 85 leading speaker, as he would have been immediately arrested by the police. The demonstration itself did not give any excuse to the police to intervene and when, despite that, the police sprayed the demonstrators with water cannons and arrested them, the illegality of the reaction was even more evident. In his book A Carnival of Revolution (also published in Czech), the American historian Padraic Kenney charted a time-table of events in Eastern Europe from 1975 until 1989. The table shows that the Candle Demonstration in Bratislava and a demonstration in Budapest on the 15th of March 1988 were the first mass demonstrations in the former Eastern Bloc. I will return later to the Budapest demonstration. Of course, the Candle Demonstration evoked responses in the Czech and Slovak samizdat press, setting a standard for other manifestations against the regime. As to the number of participants, the Candle Demonstration was not outnumbered until demonstrations in Prague took place in October of 1988 in honour of the anniversary of the Republic . The Candle Demonstration, however, has been mentioned only marginally in scholarly works, especially in the Czech Republic, and in the evaluation of the antiCommunist resistance in Czechoslovakia as a whole. 4. State Symbols and Anniversaries. Anniversaries commemorating national and state history have the greatest mobilizing potential in any society. Perhaps some of them are emblazoned with legends, but they are able to attract people to commemorate, and, on the other hand to demonstrate against a ruling regime if they think that it flouts tradition. They are associated with patriotism in the best sense of the word. The opposition in the surrounding countries, as well as in the Czech Republic, used such anniversaries to organize demonstrations against the ruling communist regimes. In Budapest, there was a demonstration on the 15th of March, which hearkened back to the Revolution of 1848. In Prague, October 28 was the anniversary of the creation of the Czechoslovak Republic in 1918, and in Poland there are many such anniversaries. The taking of one ' s life for the common good also has a great potential to mobilize people. The self-immolation of Jan Palach in Prague in January of 1969 is a good example. In November of 1989, a false rumor circulated in Prague about the death of a student during 86 SLOVAKIA a demonstration on the 17th of November, commemorating the Nazi suppression of a student demonstration in 1939. It was sufficient to spark demonstrations across the country. Slovakia did not have such an anniversary. Slovakia also does not perceive the establishment of the Czechoslovak Republic in 1918 as being a historical event with significant mobilization potential. But this is not the place to discuss the causes . State traditions could only apply to the Slovak Republic which existed from 1939 to 1945, and which was allied with Nazi Germany. Those traditions could not be used. The Slovak National Uprising of 1944 did not leave any clear message - again this is not the place to discuss the reasons - and its message was in any case attributed to the communist regime. The death of General M. R. Stefanik had a certain mobilizing potential in itself, which was used by the Slovak opposition at Brad lo in May of 1989. Mobilizing impulses which had the greatest potential in the surrounding countries and nations could not be applied in Slovakia. Slovak resistance against Communism, therefore, had to be based on some other mobilizing principle. And that, in every society, is religion. However, it is a more abstract principle compared to significant national and state anniversaries. To organize opposition around religion is, therefore, more difficult. On the other hand, the mobilizing potential of religion does have distortions that are threatened by national and state anniversaries. So far, no one has appreciated that the Candle Demonstration outshone public demonstrations throughout Europe against oppressive regimes based on national and state anniversaries. 5. Velehrad, The Petition of Moravian Catholics. In 1985, a commemoration was held in Moravian Velehrad on the occasion of the 1100th anniversary of the death of Saint Methodius in Great Moravia. The ceremony was attended by about 150,000 - 200,000 believers, most of them from Slovakia. The Vatican State Secretary, Cardinal Cassaroli, attended. It was a significant anniversary, generally recognized by the people and, of course, remembered in Catholic churches throughout the country. For that reason, the communist regime could not ignore it and sent to Velehrad the Minister of Culture of the Czech Republic, Milan Klusak. In his speech, the minister tried to diminish the mission of Saints Cyril and Methodius to simply that of a linguistic and cultural mission. For example, SLOVAKIA 87 he did not call them Saints Cyril and Methodius, but only Cyril and Methodius . The audience booed him, shouting "Saints Cyril and Methodius" and the gathering turned into a demonstration against the regime. In the autumn 1987, a Moravian farmer, Augustin Navratil, addressed to the communist authorities 31 requests of Moravian Catholics pertaining to religious freedom. The requests were written in simple, understandable language. After being supported by Cardinal Frantisek Tomasek of Prague, Navratil began to collect signatures for his petition. By the beginning of 1988, half a million people had signed the petition, two thirds of them from Slovakia. This petition was the largest in the Communist Bloc. The signatures revealed that the underground church was active in all of Slovakia and that it had a clear leadership. Of course, such leadership had to remain underground, and could not, for example, emulate Charter 77. However, the number of signatures and their method of collection sent a signal to the regime that there was an invisible enemy which could, under certain circumstances, rise up and become uncontrollable. Velehrad, as well as the petition of the Moravian Catholics, are also only marginally mentioned in the analysis of anti-Communist resistance in the whole of Czechoslovakia. 6. Cooperation of Dissenters. During "normalization," dissent against the regime developed simultaneously in Slovakia and in the Czech Republic . In Slovakia, it was specifically Christian dissent and so-called "civil" dissent. Each of them was based on its own conditions and initially operated only internally. From the end of the 1970s, the StB in Slovakia had concluded that there was a risk of a major strengthening of dissenters if the Christian dissidents were to join with civil dissidents in Slovakia and the Slovak and Czech di ssidents within Czechoslovakia. Within its capabilities, the StB tried to maintain the isolation of individual dissident movements. There was some interaction between them, but it was too weak to unite them. In the mid 1980' s, contacts and mutual assistance intensified so much that it finally allowed the coordination of such dissident movements. In Slovakia, the newly-born Green Movement, as well as independent artists, began to partake in civil and Christian dissent. Christian activists began to meet on 88 SLOVAKIA a regular basis with purged Party members. The now-deceased Milan Simecka, a Moravian living in Bratislava, connected the Slovak and Czech dissents and encouraged many activists from Slovakia to travel to meetings in Prague. It must be said that the connection between the Czech and Slovak Catholic dissents had existed for a long time, following the message of the Croatian Jesuit priest Tomislav Poglajen - Kolakovic in the l 940 's . Very little has been written about Kolakovic. His followers spent many years in Slovak and Czech prisons. After having been released, they used to meet regularly and maintained the Slovak-Czech dialogue, which has lasted until the present day. The cooperation of dissidents in the 1980's helped to prepare the way for the November, 1989 revolution in Slovakia. 7. The Assistance of Czech Dissents. The appearance of Charter 77 was a milestone in the anti-Communist movement in Czechoslovakia. The Charter showed that public opposition against a regime is possible, but at the price of great sacrifice. Samizdat journals began to appear as a result. Petitions were organized for the freeing of political prisoners, and so on. The samizdat periodical press in Slovakia followed the lead of samizdat periodical press in the Czech Republic. Czech forms of resistance against Communism, which were transferable to Slovakia, became a source of inspiration. The State Security in Slovakia tried to label any opposition as a continuation of the Slovak People 's Party, clerical fascism and so on. For foreign defenders of dissdents, it was difficult to tell when communist propaganda was truthful and when it was lying. That was also the case with Ivan Polansky, who was arrested in 1987 and accused of supporting and spreading fascism. Ivan Polansky had prepared a samizdat volume on the Reverend Andrej Hlinka, founder of the Slovak People's Party, and a police search of Polansky's house also revealed materials concerning Jozef Tiso, president of the wartime Slovak Republic. In the end, Charter 77 stood up for Ivan Polansky and the publishers of the Czech samizdat press signed a declaration in which they dared the police to arrest them for carrying out the same activities as Polansky. Whether Ivan Polansky was a clerical fascist or not, it was enough for Wes tern publicists to believe that he was not, and they gave him full publicity SLOVAKIA 89 and diplomatic support. This was similar to events in February of 1988, when the communist daily Pravda in Bratislava and its counterpart Rude Pravo in Prague published a series of articles denouncing Pavo) Camogursky, the author's father. The articles focused on the activities of Pavo! Carnogursky during the first Slovak Republic. Vaclav Havel, the most prominent of the Czech dissidents, persuaded his followers to sign a declaration in support of Pavo! Camogursky. Havel also used his contacts to transmit messages about Pavo! Carnogursky through various channels in the Prague diplomatic corps. In Slovakia, none of that was possible. The assistance of the Czech dissents significantly improved the chances of the defense of Slovak dissidents in case they were arrested. 8. The Speed of the Fall of Communism in Czechoslovakia. The comparison of the speed of the fall of the communist regime in Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary and, perhaps in other countries, has also become mythical. Based on such comparisons, Czechoslovakia comes out the best since the regime fell in about two weeks. Perhaps it would be useful to have a closer look at the reality. The regime fell quickly in Czechoslovakia for two reasons, one external and one internal. The external reason was that by the 17th of November, 1989 the Berlin wall had already fallen in Eastern Germany, the non-communist government of Tadeusz Mazowiecki was already established in Poland, Mikhail Gorbachev's perestroika was already working in the Soviet Union and Hungary was allowing East Germans to escape into Austria. Thus, Czechoslovakia was already de facto surrounded by non-Communist Poland and countries with qualitatively different styles of Communism (the Democratic Republic of Germany, the Soviet Union and Hungary). In geopolitical terms, there was nothing the Czechoslovak communist regime could do than to give up. Furthermore, the communist regime in Czechoslovakia could not rely on internal support, because it had none. Communists were also not willing to fight for their regime. Resistance would mean ineviable defeat for the Communists, followed by their imprisonment and punishment. None of them was willing to take such a risk. The internal reason was the unity of the opposition. This unity consisted in the fact that the opposition in Slovakia and in the Czech Republic wan- 90 SLOVAKIA ted only free elections, a parliamentary democracy, a market economy and European integration. The Slovak opposition did not demand a change in Slovakia's national status. The only small difference lay in its support of Alexander Dubcek' s candidacy for the post of the President of the Republic. The Slovak opposition however, represented by VPN (Public Against Violence), supported Vaclav Havel 's candidacy. Opposition in Czechoslovakia in November and December 1989 was almost exclusively based on demonstrations in cities that were attended by thousands of people. Had any media reports on major differences in the attitude of Czech and Slovak oppositions penetrated the public, it could have significantly reduced the willingness of people to demonstrate in city squares. It was also important that Vaclav Havel was adopted as a generally-recognized symbol of the Velvet Revolution. If any other groups had made other demands, for example purged Slovak Party members pushing Dubcek' s candidacy for the post of the President, they would have failed. Their position was weak because, in previous years, they had not joined in the resistance against the communist regime. Later proponents of the independence of Slovakia had no record of showing resistance against Communism in the form of samizdat or other ways. Therefore, they were ignored in the first few months following the revolution. Prematurely raising requirements for a change in the national status of Czechoslovakia could have significantly weakened the pressure on the communist regime and, in fact, would have given it new legitimacy. The main challenge in November and December of 1989 was to overthrow Communism. Harmonization and balancing of the national form of resistance against Communism in the Czech Republic and Slovakia also contributed to the rapidity of the fall of Communism. After the creation of Charter 77, the Czech opposition against Communism took the lead in the Republic. Based on future analyses, historians will perhaps come to the conclusion that a certain balance was established sometime around 1987 between the Slovak and Czech opposition. In Slovakia, the Greens came out with the publication Bratislava nahlas (Bratislava Aloud), which preceded the results of the Green Movement in the Czech Republic. This was followed by the petition of Moravian Catholics and the Candle Demonstration. American historian Padraic Kenney wrote that in the mid 1980's an exhaustion and weariness of the original anti-Communist movements occurred in SLOVAKIA 91 several former communist countries and the initiative was then taken by new, emerging, movements . This finding could perhaps also apply to Czechoslovakia. Czechoslovakia has a complicated history because it consisted of two founding nations which were linguistically close, but differed culturally . The course of the resistance against Communism, and eventually the breakdown of the Republic, have created new, and seemingly better, relations between the Slovaks and the Czechs. However, these remain to be tested during future crises. REVIEW ESSAY  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Myths Regarding the Anti-Communist Resistance in Slovakia Description An account of the resource Ján Čarnogurský Slovakia, Vol. 40 (No. 74-75), 2010 pp. 81-91 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Čarnogurský, Ján, 1944- Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2010 SNK https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/75eb07a548c0c77c60cfb3f202c9cbe0.pdf ddecf2530d55a511fc06bdc628e03714 PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA 23 NATIONALISM VS INTERNATIONALISM By Michael A. Feighan, Member of U.S. Congress The sulbject of N aJtionalism vs. Internationalism has been a wpic of heated debate for well aver half a century. Vollllmes ,hSJVe been written on the sui})ject. Political pa.rti~ and ideological movements have based their platform on one or the other side of the issue. Yet today there is greaJt confusion and misunderstanding on just what these political terms mean. That is - there is great COil!.fusion in · the non..,communist world in general and among a considerable element of the non-<Xllllmlunist intellectuals in parbicular. It can be said with certainty that tltis confusi01I1 does not exist in the ideological Marx.:.st camp or among its multicolored agents. This confusion results mainly from a perversion of both political terms which -has taiken place in the last quarter of a century. The 1.mha;ppy practice of fixing an e'Vil and all inclusive meruning to words, a practice which received unusual impetus during the World War fil, has also added to this confusion. In this atmosphere the advocates of Marxism have been enjoy.i.ng an undisturbed political holiday. Their formula for maintaining an unchallenged right orf way is to occasionally stir up the false ,b eliefs they have created aibout nationalism while devoting a constant effort at promotin1g the ty,p e of internationalism best calculated to lead the way to world communism. There is a healthy nationalism and a healthy internationalism - !both of which are mortal enemies of Marxism in any form. When they are healthy they in no way conflict with one another, but in reality co.mpliment each other. Properly nurtured and ~loited. these two political forces could lead the way in lifting the heavy chains of Russian Communism which now enslave a minimum of 29 nations and part oif 4 other nations. As a first .s tep we must understand the component parts of healthy nationalism.. The te:rm na.tion:alisrrn is derived from and related to the term nation. The nation is best defined a;s a people having a common and distinctive heritage, culture, tradition, folklore and language whioh �24 SLOVAKIA is supported by a geographical oontiguity. When these basic factors are S1timulated by one or several of the ,great inspirational forces of religion, freedom or independence, the flower of nationhood blooms. Healthy n:ationaJ.ism places loy,alty to one's nation very high on the scale of human values. In a poprnar sense it is best descrilbed iby the inspiring phrase "Lorve of God and Couliltry." The American revolutionary war which gave birth to our nation has long lbeen regarded as the first major demonstration of healthy nationalism. The deep political impaJCt upon the world of our 'Victorious st:mgigle for national independence caused historiams to refer to the 19th Ce:ntuTy as the "century of niationalism." We as a nation and the policy we pursued in the conduct of our foreign affairs, frcan the birth of our nation up to 1920, associated OlUlr destiny with the f ovces of na;tionalism at work in the wor-ld. We had noithi!Ilg in common with the imperialists OT the autocrats of that period and ,i n reality we were coveted by all of them. Standing a:s the solitary republic in a world di:vided by empires which oOIIllStantly sought to extend their reailm, we survived and grew to our pres,ent stature in the world arena by sU1pporung the farces of healit:ihy nationalism. The MonToe Doctrine is a classic example of the manner in which our d'oreign policy welded the forces of nationalism. against the .predatory schemes of empires. World Wair I opened at a point in history when nationalism wa,s the most ·c01mpe1Hng force in world politics. The era rnf empires Wl3JS coming to a close as the popular demands of many !Ilations bound within them called out forr national sovereignty. 'Tihe Russian Tsarist empire, a,p propriately calloo. the prison of nations, was seething with discontent. The Austro~ungarian empire had already made many concessions to the variOl.lis national elements within the realm in an effort to stern the tide. The Ott01man empire wias tottering from the same internal pressures. As the w.aJr ,progressed into its, final stages it became increas. ingly 3!pparent that the demands of nationalism would hiwe to ibe faced up to in the p ~ a r settlements. It was in these circumstances that President Woodrow Wilson advanced the political princ1ple of national self-determin- �SLOVAKIA 25 ation as the only just formula for bringing order out of the ruins of those ibrolken empires. It is important to note that Wilson, in truking this ,position, wcted in accord with the ,b asic ,p rinciple which had guided our foreign policy for over 140 years. Iwen before the end ()If Wo:rld War I national independence movements sprrung UJP throughout central and eastern Europe and Eurasia. The non-1Russian nations of the Russian 'Dsarist Empire, long held captive by the autocrats of Muscovy, lost no time in proclaiming their national independence The Ukrainian Il!ation, the largest of these captirve nations, was in the 'Vianguard of this movement. By the time the statesmen of the gr.e at powers gathered in Paris for the peace conference, the era of empires was dead and had already 1b een replaced by the young but vig'Orous era of national sovereignty. But that golden era which held so much hope for suffering mamk.ind was short lived. Preside111t Wilson soon learned that the European statesmen were unconcerned with the popular movements supporting his principle of self-determina tioo. They rwere more concerned with settlements based UJPOil power politics, the cornerstone of which called for the estalblishment of a cordon srunitaire in eastern EurOipe. Wlhile paying lip service to the iprog,r am advanced by President Wilson, tJhe European statesmen reshaiped the map of central and eastern Europe to fit their selfish and shortsighted notions of contemporary peace. The peace settlements following World War I set the stage for the events which inevitalbly led the westeTIIl world to its present .precarious positon. ln the period between the great wars, the Uruited States pU!rsued a policy of isolationism. The hard disaippointmenits brought aJbout lby the power ,politics settlements after World War I played a major role in the estaJb1ishment of that policy. Meanwhile the Bolshevi!ks had estaJblished total power in Moscow. After creating the Russian Fedemted Socialist Republic of Soviets they then emlbar.ked upon a series m aggressive newly erected cordon sanitaire. They were engaged in those a:ggressive wars as late as 1923. It is an. estarblished fact that the Bolshevik masters of Musoovy met with all-out �26 SLOVAKIA resist:am.ce from the people of the reborn non-Russian nations whi!Ch sprang up uipon the 11uins of the feudal Tsarist empire. War in the traditional sense was not in itself sufficient to .p ut down .fille spirit of I11ationaJl independence which swept 1i1ke wildifire tfrom t!he Baltic Sea to the areas east of the Caspian 1Sea. The 'brutal tactics of forced sta11vation, forced population transfers and the vast networlr of slave l:aJbor camps follOIWed quickly on the heels of the Russian occ111pation of these reJbor.n na;tions. It was in these circumstances that the masters of the Kremlin announced to the world in 1922 the formation of the Union of Sov.iet !Socialist Repu!blics. After they ihad managed by armed ag;gression and the crime of genocide to reestaJblish the largest portion of the Russian empire, they found it necessary to create a caver name in order to hide the terrible events which had taiken place east of the Euroipean created cordon samtaire. Moreover, the iMusco~ vites were anxious to aivoid the charge ·o f a resurgence of Russian super-racism and to retain the support of the advocates oif wm-ld oociallism. Thus the high sounding and cleverly misleading cover of U.,S.1S.iR. was lall!lliched in the international ,p olitical -arena. Shortly thereafter a new political force was injected into the saim.e political a;rena. It lbeca.me known as national socialism, then as NaJz:iism, or Fascism, and :fi.nally as super-racism. .Some asturte political obseIWers of that period were quicik to recognize the i,nherenit anomaly in the po'litical laJbel ''national socialism." How was it possible to have the ingredients of nationalism and socialism mixed in the same politi~l movement? Obviously it was i,mpossilble to mix two diametrically opposed political theories. It w.as noit long 'before the one rworld propa;gandists worked out the formula to resolve the anomaly. Nationalism equalled Na!ZiiSIIn - Nazi.ism equalled everything that was evil therefore Nationalism equaUed everything that was evil. But what of socialism? By a queer turn of the 1propagM1dists pen, Socialism became the bulwarlc of democra·ey. Socialism was the politcal system of the U.iS.S.R - therefore the U.S.S.R. was a democracy. By this process the experts in the use of weasel words put an evil CU'l1se upon Il!ation- �SLOVAKIA 27 alism in any form, while at the same time manufacturing a d.ynamically effective co;yer for the Muscovite -plan of world conquest We entered World War fil the victims of tbis diabolical iperversion of political terms. The same must be said a:bout the other sovereign nations of the West which entered the struggle against the axis powers. This accounts, in large measure, for our failure to devekllp a positive plan for the reconstruction of the post-war world along truly democratic lines, with gQIVernments representatiive of the will of tJhe people. In lwger measure it accounts for the success af the masters of the Kremlin in extending their empire of ruthless control over 800 milliOIIl. people wvering an area encompassing a.l:most one-ithird of the earth's surface. It is in this context that we can best understand the "new internationalism" ,p eddled by the multi-colored agents of Moscow. Only a fool oc the Ivory Tower Theoreticians will fail to recognme that the dominant school of internationalism operating in the world today is completely pos• sessed iby the Russian communists. To ibe sure there are other schools of internationalism ~ing adhex:-en,ts and supporters which aTe not attached to the Moscow oribit. Unfortunately none of these competing schools ·p ossess any real polWcal dyniamics af a magnitude comparaJble to the Russian-Communist movement. Moreover, none of them are backed by aggressive military forces such as clearly support the "new internationalism" promoted by the Mus• covites in their age long drive for world empire. Fram this analysis one might too quiokly conclude that the Ruissian imperialists haive discredited and killed off hoolthy nationalism and healthy intemiaticmalism. So far as healthy nationalism is concerned, just the contra.Ty in the case. The clhaitwinistic practices of the Russians have tremendously in:creased healthy national.ism ,w ithin the Russian-Comrl)..unist empire. Within the past year the civilized world has had ample proof to swpport this conten· tion. These two exa:mples bear -O'Ut the point. 1. Shortly :after Stalin was elim.i,nated, MalenJmv and Beria became enga;ged m a life and death struggle fOT total �28 SLOVAKIA power. Mialenkov, a Russian, chose the course of support,. ing the historic cause of Russian super--racism. Beria, a renegade Geor,gian, attempted to ,harness the p01Werful nationalist forces of the non-<Russiam. nations of the U. S. S. R. to his side. Beria, as head of the dread secret police and oommissar of the slaive la,'bor system, certainly knew the most dynamic political forces at woiik within the U. S. S. R. Since 'he was in a liife and death struggle, he naturally wanted these forces in his camp. Malenkov on the other hand was the darlinrg of the Russian burea,ucracy and he had to cast his lot with traiditional Russ ian super-racism. Thi,s struggle raged for months during which time Beria was replacing the <Russian pro...consuls in the non~Rus:siian nations with natives of those nations. To be su:re ,t hose natives. were tied to communism ibut they opposed Russian dominratiorn of the a,ffairs of their nation. Beria eame very close to winnin'g that struggle the effect of which might haJVe well caused a great revolutionary outbrealk throughout the U .ISJS.R. Only a deal between the Russian bureaucracy and the Jea,ders of the Red Army saved the day for Russian super-racism. Beria was arrested iby the Red Army and executed, but the seeds of internal revolt weire increased in consequence af his struggle for power. 2. This year ma:riks the 300tfu a.n.niiversary of the Treaty of Pereyaslaiv - the instrument .by which the Russians enslaved the Ukrainians. The !Russians are using this occasion lfoir a never ending series of pronouncements and celebrations, all of which seeik to prove that the Russians are the true friends of the Uikraintains. The official announcement of the Kremlin inaugurating these celebrations admitted that every decent Ukranian down through history ha,d struggled for the goal of national independence . It also claimed that the Utkraill'ian n 1ation had finally attained its long struggle for national independ€!Il1Ce - "thanks to the Russians ,and the Communist Party." But what kind of national ,i ndependence? They define it as natjornia.1 in form and socialist in SU!bstance. This of course means no independence at all. IHowever it is important to note the manner in which the Muscoivites are associating nationalism with socialiSIID. Thi s is most reminiscent of the tactics of 1 1 �SLOVAKIA 29 Adolph Hitler. Healthy nationalism is very much alive in the world today. It is more vigorous within the Russian communist empire than elsewhere in the world. This fact must be understood and exiploited by the leaders of the free world if we are going to hawe .peace and freedom throughout the warild while a,voiding World War IiLI. Unfortunately the same crurmot 'be said aJbout healthy internationalism. Internationalism as a t'heocy- and a;s a po- · litical ipractice has boon thoroughly infected by the goals of world Manci,sm. The Russd.an Communist con1Spiracy has taken over the leadershlp in this field. Movements free from this infection have :neitlher the internal dynamics nor the military 'Sllllpport necessary to offiset those- sponsored or controlled by the Russian communists. Buit rwe can build a healthy internationalism and one that would be far more ,p owerful in the political arena than the Moscorw brand. To accomplish this goal we must understand healthy nationalism. Then we must foster and support it as a counteracting force to World Communism. Having done thi-s we will harve taken the first step in creating a healthy internationalism. The second step in this ,process calls for the development and support oif free regional federations. These regio1rml federations would he colffi!prised of a numlber of sovereign and independent n:ations which freely elected to become party to .the regi01I1al federation. The economic, political and security adlvantages of the regiona,l federation concept would lead the way in gaining the support of the memlber states. This pattern is completely consistent with .the charter of the United Nations. Indeed it springs from the basic idea whioh created the associatio,n of Ame.rican States which stands as a regional arrangement of the nations of the Western Hemisphere. It is a ,sollilld pattern because it recognizes that healthy internatiootalism must lbe 'based upon full recognition of healthy nationalism. Moreover it supports a political philosophy which is consistent with the American way of life and therefore the antithesis of World Communism. � SLOVAKIA 23 NATIONALISM VS INTERNATIONALISM By Michael A. Feighan, Member of U.S. Congress The sulbject of N aJtionalism vs. Internationalism has been a wpic of heated debate for well aver half a century. Vollllmes ,hSJVe been written on the sui})ject. Political pa.rti~ and ideological movements have based their platform on one or the other side of the issue. Yet today there is greaJt confusion and misunderstanding on just what these political terms mean. That is - there is great COil!.fusion in · the non..,communist world in general and among a considerable element of the non-<Xllllmlunist intellectuals in parbicular. It can be said with certainty that tltis confusi01I1 does not exist in the ideological Marx.:.st camp or among its multicolored agents. This confusion results mainly from a perversion of both political terms which -has taiken place in the last quarter of a century. The 1.mha;ppy practice of fixing an e'Vil and all inclusive meruning to words, a practice which received unusual impetus during the World War fil, has also added to this confusion. In this atmosphere the advocates of Marxism have been enjoy.i.ng an undisturbed political holiday. Their formula for maintaining an unchallenged right orf way is to occasionally stir up the false ,b eliefs they have created aibout nationalism while devoting a constant effort at promotin1g the ty,p e of internationalism best calculated to lead the way to world communism. There is a healthy nationalism and a healthy internationalism - !both of which are mortal enemies of Marxism in any form. When they are healthy they in no way conflict with one another, but in reality co.mpliment each other. Properly nurtured and ~loited. these two political forces could lead the way in lifting the heavy chains of Russian Communism which now enslave a minimum of 29 nations and part oif 4 other nations. As a first .s tep we must understand the component parts of healthy nationalism.. The te:rm na.tion:alisrrn is derived from and related to the term nation. The nation is best defined a;s a people having a common and distinctive heritage, culture, tradition, folklore and language whioh �24 SLOVAKIA is supported by a geographical oontiguity. When these basic factors are S1timulated by one or several of the ,great inspirational forces of religion, freedom or independence, the flower of nationhood blooms. Healthy n:ationaJ.ism places loy,alty to one's nation very high on the scale of human values. In a poprnar sense it is best descrilbed iby the inspiring phrase "Lorve of God and Couliltry." The American revolutionary war which gave birth to our nation has long lbeen regarded as the first major demonstration of healthy nationalism. The deep political impaJCt upon the world of our 'Victorious st:mgigle for national independence caused historiams to refer to the 19th Ce:ntuTy as the "century of niationalism." We as a nation and the policy we pursued in the conduct of our foreign affairs, frcan the birth of our nation up to 1920, associated OlUlr destiny with the f ovces of na;tionalism at work in the wor-ld. We had noithi!Ilg in common with the imperialists OT the autocrats of that period and ,i n reality we were coveted by all of them. Standing a:s the solitary republic in a world di:vided by empires which oOIIllStantly sought to extend their reailm, we survived and grew to our pres,ent stature in the world arena by sU1pporung the farces of healit:ihy nationalism. The MonToe Doctrine is a classic example of the manner in which our d'oreign policy welded the forces of nationalism. against the .predatory schemes of empires. World Wair I opened at a point in history when nationalism wa,s the most ·c01mpe1Hng force in world politics. The era rnf empires Wl3JS coming to a close as the popular demands of many !Ilations bound within them called out forr national sovereignty. 'Tihe Russian Tsarist empire, a,p propriately calloo. the prison of nations, was seething with discontent. The Austro~ungarian empire had already made many concessions to the variOl.lis national elements within the realm in an effort to stern the tide. The Ott01man empire wias tottering from the same internal pressures. As the w.aJr ,progressed into its, final stages it became increas. ingly 3!pparent that the demands of nationalism would hiwe to ibe faced up to in the p ~ a r settlements. It was in these circumstances that President Woodrow Wilson advanced the political princ1ple of national self-determin- �SLOVAKIA 25 ation as the only just formula for bringing order out of the ruins of those ibrolken empires. It is important to note that Wilson, in truking this ,position, wcted in accord with the ,b asic ,p rinciple which had guided our foreign policy for over 140 years. Iwen before the end ()If Wo:rld War I national independence movements sprrung UJP throughout central and eastern Europe and Eurasia. The non-1Russian nations of the Russian 'Dsarist Empire, long held captive by the autocrats of Muscovy, lost no time in proclaiming their national independence The Ukrainian Il!ation, the largest of these captirve nations, was in the 'Vianguard of this movement. By the time the statesmen of the gr.e at powers gathered in Paris for the peace conference, the era of empires was dead and had already 1b een replaced by the young but vig'Orous era of national sovereignty. But that golden era which held so much hope for suffering mamk.ind was short lived. Preside111t Wilson soon learned that the European statesmen were unconcerned with the popular movements supporting his principle of self-determina tioo. They rwere more concerned with settlements based UJPOil power politics, the cornerstone of which called for the estalblishment of a cordon srunitaire in eastern EurOipe. Wlhile paying lip service to the iprog,r am advanced by President Wilson, tJhe European statesmen reshaiped the map of central and eastern Europe to fit their selfish and shortsighted notions of contemporary peace. The peace settlements following World War I set the stage for the events which inevitalbly led the westeTIIl world to its present .precarious positon. ln the period between the great wars, the Uruited States pU!rsued a policy of isolationism. The hard disaippointmenits brought aJbout lby the power ,politics settlements after World War I played a major role in the estaJb1ishment of that policy. Meanwhile the Bolshevi!ks had estaJblished total power in Moscow. After creating the Russian Fedemted Socialist Republic of Soviets they then emlbar.ked upon a series m aggressive newly erected cordon sanitaire. They were engaged in those a:ggressive wars as late as 1923. It is an. estarblished fact that the Bolshevik masters of Musoovy met with all-out �26 SLOVAKIA resist:am.ce from the people of the reborn non-Russian nations whi!Ch sprang up uipon the 11uins of the feudal Tsarist empire. War in the traditional sense was not in itself sufficient to .p ut down .fille spirit of I11ationaJl independence which swept 1i1ke wildifire tfrom t!he Baltic Sea to the areas east of the Caspian 1Sea. The 'brutal tactics of forced sta11vation, forced population transfers and the vast networlr of slave l:aJbor camps follOIWed quickly on the heels of the Russian occ111pation of these reJbor.n na;tions. It was in these circumstances that the masters of the Kremlin announced to the world in 1922 the formation of the Union of Sov.iet !Socialist Repu!blics. After they ihad managed by armed ag;gression and the crime of genocide to reestaJblish the largest portion of the Russian empire, they found it necessary to create a caver name in order to hide the terrible events which had taiken place east of the Euroipean created cordon samtaire. Moreover, the iMusco~ vites were anxious to aivoid the charge ·o f a resurgence of Russian super-racism and to retain the support of the advocates oif wm-ld oociallism. Thus the high sounding and cleverly misleading cover of U.,S.1S.iR. was lall!lliched in the international ,p olitical -arena. Shortly thereafter a new political force was injected into the saim.e political a;rena. It lbeca.me known as national socialism, then as NaJz:iism, or Fascism, and :fi.nally as super-racism. .Some asturte political obseIWers of that period were quicik to recognize the i,nherenit anomaly in the po'litical laJbel ''national socialism." How was it possible to have the ingredients of nationalism and socialism mixed in the same politi~l movement? Obviously it was i,mpossilble to mix two diametrically opposed political theories. It w.as noit long 'before the one rworld propa;gandists worked out the formula to resolve the anomaly. Nationalism equalled Na!ZiiSIIn - Nazi.ism equalled everything that was evil therefore Nationalism equaUed everything that was evil. But what of socialism? By a queer turn of the 1propagM1dists pen, Socialism became the bulwarlc of democra·ey. Socialism was the politcal system of the U.iS.S.R - therefore the U.S.S.R. was a democracy. By this process the experts in the use of weasel words put an evil CU'l1se upon Il!ation- �SLOVAKIA 27 alism in any form, while at the same time manufacturing a d.ynamically effective co;yer for the Muscovite -plan of world conquest We entered World War fil the victims of tbis diabolical iperversion of political terms. The same must be said a:bout the other sovereign nations of the West which entered the struggle against the axis powers. This accounts, in large measure, for our failure to devekllp a positive plan for the reconstruction of the post-war world along truly democratic lines, with gQIVernments representatiive of the will of tJhe people. In lwger measure it accounts for the success af the masters of the Kremlin in extending their empire of ruthless control over 800 milliOIIl. people wvering an area encompassing a.l:most one-ithird of the earth's surface. It is in this context that we can best understand the "new internationalism" ,p eddled by the multi-colored agents of Moscow. Only a fool oc the Ivory Tower Theoreticians will fail to recognme that the dominant school of internationalism operating in the world today is completely pos• sessed iby the Russian communists. To ibe sure there are other schools of internationalism ~ing adhex:-en,ts and supporters which aTe not attached to the Moscow oribit. Unfortunately none of these competing schools ·p ossess any real polWcal dyniamics af a magnitude comparaJble to the Russian-Communist movement. Moreover, none of them are backed by aggressive military forces such as clearly support the "new internationalism" promoted by the Mus• covites in their age long drive for world empire. Fram this analysis one might too quiokly conclude that the Ruissian imperialists haive discredited and killed off hoolthy nationalism and healthy intemiaticmalism. So far as healthy nationalism is concerned, just the contra.Ty in the case. The clhaitwinistic practices of the Russians have tremendously in:creased healthy national.ism ,w ithin the Russian-Comrl)..unist empire. Within the past year the civilized world has had ample proof to swpport this conten· tion. These two exa:mples bear -O'Ut the point. 1. Shortly :after Stalin was elim.i,nated, MalenJmv and Beria became enga;ged m a life and death struggle fOT total �28 SLOVAKIA power. Mialenkov, a Russian, chose the course of support,. ing the historic cause of Russian super--racism. Beria, a renegade Geor,gian, attempted to ,harness the p01Werful nationalist forces of the non-<Russiam. nations of the U. S. S. R. to his side. Beria, as head of the dread secret police and oommissar of the slaive la,'bor system, certainly knew the most dynamic political forces at woiik within the U. S. S. R. Since 'he was in a liife and death struggle, he naturally wanted these forces in his camp. Malenkov on the other hand was the darlinrg of the Russian burea,ucracy and he had to cast his lot with traiditional Russ ian super-racism. Thi,s struggle raged for months during which time Beria was replacing the <Russian pro...consuls in the non~Rus:siian nations with natives of those nations. To be su:re ,t hose natives. were tied to communism ibut they opposed Russian dominratiorn of the a,ffairs of their nation. Beria eame very close to winnin'g that struggle the effect of which might haJVe well caused a great revolutionary outbrealk throughout the U .ISJS.R. Only a deal between the Russian bureaucracy and the Jea,ders of the Red Army saved the day for Russian super-racism. Beria was arrested iby the Red Army and executed, but the seeds of internal revolt weire increased in consequence af his struggle for power. 2. This year ma:riks the 300tfu a.n.niiversary of the Treaty of Pereyaslaiv - the instrument .by which the Russians enslaved the Ukrainians. The !Russians are using this occasion lfoir a never ending series of pronouncements and celebrations, all of which seeik to prove that the Russians are the true friends of the Uikraintains. The official announcement of the Kremlin inaugurating these celebrations admitted that every decent Ukranian down through history ha,d struggled for the goal of national independence . It also claimed that the Utkraill'ian n 1ation had finally attained its long struggle for national independ€!Il1Ce - "thanks to the Russians ,and the Communist Party." But what kind of national ,i ndependence? They define it as natjornia.1 in form and socialist in SU!bstance. This of course means no independence at all. IHowever it is important to note the manner in which the Muscoivites are associating nationalism with socialiSIID. Thi s is most reminiscent of the tactics of 1 1 �SLOVAKIA 29 Adolph Hitler. Healthy nationalism is very much alive in the world today. It is more vigorous within the Russian communist empire than elsewhere in the world. This fact must be understood and exiploited by the leaders of the free world if we are going to hawe .peace and freedom throughout the warild while a,voiding World War IiLI. Unfortunately the same crurmot 'be said aJbout healthy internationalism. Internationalism as a t'heocy- and a;s a po- · litical ipractice has boon thoroughly infected by the goals of world Manci,sm. The Russd.an Communist con1Spiracy has taken over the leadershlp in this field. Movements free from this infection have :neitlher the internal dynamics nor the military 'Sllllpport necessary to offiset those- sponsored or controlled by the Russian communists. Buit rwe can build a healthy internationalism and one that would be far more ,p owerful in the political arena than the Moscorw brand. To accomplish this goal we must understand healthy nationalism. Then we must foster and support it as a counteracting force to World Communism. Having done thi-s we will harve taken the first step in creating a healthy internationalism. The second step in this ,process calls for the development and support oif free regional federations. These regio1rml federations would he colffi!prised of a numlber of sovereign and independent n:ations which freely elected to become party to .the regi01I1al federation. The economic, political and security adlvantages of the regiona,l federation concept would lead the way in gaining the support of the memlber states. This pattern is completely consistent with .the charter of the United Nations. Indeed it springs from the basic idea whioh created the associatio,n of Ame.rican States which stands as a regional arrangement of the nations of the Western Hemisphere. It is a ,sollilld pattern because it recognizes that healthy internatiootalism must lbe 'based upon full recognition of healthy nationalism. Moreover it supports a political philosophy which is consistent with the American way of life and therefore the antithesis of World 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 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 23 NATIONALISM VS INTERNATIONALISM By Michael A. Feighan, Member of U.S. Congress The sulbject of N aJtionalism vs. Internationalism has been a wpic of heated debate for well aver half a century. Vollllmes ,hSJVe been written on the sui})ject. Political pa.rti~ and ideological movements have based their platform on one or the other side of the issue. Yet today there is greaJt confusion and misunderstanding on just what these political terms mean. That is - there is great COil!.fusion in · the non..,communist world in general and among a considerable element of the non-<Xllllmlunist intellectuals in parbicular. It can be said with certainty that tltis confusi01I1 does not exist in the ideological Marx.:.st camp or among its multicolored agents. This confusion results mainly from a perversion of both political terms which -has taiken place in the last quarter of a century. The 1.mha;ppy practice of fixing an e'Vil and all inclusive meruning to words, a practice which received unusual impetus during the World War fil, has also added to this confusion. In this atmosphere the advocates of Marxism have been enjoy.i.ng an undisturbed political holiday. Their formula for maintaining an unchallenged right orf way is to occasionally stir up the false ,b eliefs they have created aibout nationalism while devoting a constant effort at promotin1g the ty,p e of internationalism best calculated to lead the way to world communism. There is a healthy nationalism and a healthy internationalism - !both of which are mortal enemies of Marxism in any form. When they are healthy they in no way conflict with one another, but in reality co.mpliment each other. Properly nurtured and ~loited. these two political forces could lead the way in lifting the heavy chains of Russian Communism which now enslave a minimum of 29 nations and part oif 4 other nations. As a first .s tep we must understand the component parts of healthy nationalism.. The te:rm na.tion:alisrrn is derived from and related to the term nation. The nation is best defined a;s a people having a common and distinctive heritage, culture, tradition, folklore and language whioh 24 SLOVAKIA is supported by a geographical oontiguity. When these basic factors are S1timulated by one or several of the ,great inspirational forces of religion, freedom or independence, the flower of nationhood blooms. Healthy n:ationaJ.ism places loy,alty to one's nation very high on the scale of human values. In a poprnar sense it is best descrilbed iby the inspiring phrase "Lorve of God and Couliltry." The American revolutionary war which gave birth to our nation has long lbeen regarded as the first major demonstration of healthy nationalism. The deep political impaJCt upon the world of our 'Victorious st:mgigle for national independence caused historiams to refer to the 19th Ce:ntuTy as the "century of niationalism." We as a nation and the policy we pursued in the conduct of our foreign affairs, frcan the birth of our nation up to 1920, associated OlUlr destiny with the f ovces of na;tionalism at work in the wor-ld. We had noithi!Ilg in common with the imperialists OT the autocrats of that period and ,i n reality we were coveted by all of them. Standing a:s the solitary republic in a world di:vided by empires which oOIIllStantly sought to extend their reailm, we survived and grew to our pres,ent stature in the world arena by sU1pporung the farces of healit:ihy nationalism. The MonToe Doctrine is a classic example of the manner in which our d'oreign policy welded the forces of nationalism. against the .predatory schemes of empires. World Wair I opened at a point in history when nationalism wa,s the most ·c01mpe1Hng force in world politics. The era rnf empires Wl3JS coming to a close as the popular demands of many !Ilations bound within them called out forr national sovereignty. 'Tihe Russian Tsarist empire, a,p propriately calloo. the prison of nations, was seething with discontent. The Austro~ungarian empire had already made many concessions to the variOl.lis national elements within the realm in an effort to stern the tide. The Ott01man empire wias tottering from the same internal pressures. As the w.aJr ,progressed into its, final stages it became increas. ingly 3!pparent that the demands of nationalism would hiwe to ibe faced up to in the p ~ a r settlements. It was in these circumstances that President Woodrow Wilson advanced the political princ1ple of national self-determin- SLOVAKIA 25 ation as the only just formula for bringing order out of the ruins of those ibrolken empires. It is important to note that Wilson, in truking this ,position, wcted in accord with the ,b asic ,p rinciple which had guided our foreign policy for over 140 years. Iwen before the end ()If Wo:rld War I national independence movements sprrung UJP throughout central and eastern Europe and Eurasia. The non-1Russian nations of the Russian 'Dsarist Empire, long held captive by the autocrats of Muscovy, lost no time in proclaiming their national independence The Ukrainian Il!ation, the largest of these captirve nations, was in the 'Vianguard of this movement. By the time the statesmen of the gr.e at powers gathered in Paris for the peace conference, the era of empires was dead and had already 1b een replaced by the young but vig'Orous era of national sovereignty. But that golden era which held so much hope for suffering mamk.ind was short lived. Preside111t Wilson soon learned that the European statesmen were unconcerned with the popular movements supporting his principle of self-determina tioo. They rwere more concerned with settlements based UJPOil power politics, the cornerstone of which called for the estalblishment of a cordon srunitaire in eastern EurOipe. Wlhile paying lip service to the iprog,r am advanced by President Wilson, tJhe European statesmen reshaiped the map of central and eastern Europe to fit their selfish and shortsighted notions of contemporary peace. The peace settlements following World War I set the stage for the events which inevitalbly led the westeTIIl world to its present .precarious positon. ln the period between the great wars, the Uruited States pU!rsued a policy of isolationism. The hard disaippointmenits brought aJbout lby the power ,politics settlements after World War I played a major role in the estaJb1ishment of that policy. Meanwhile the Bolshevi!ks had estaJblished total power in Moscow. After creating the Russian Fedemted Socialist Republic of Soviets they then emlbar.ked upon a series m aggressive newly erected cordon sanitaire. They were engaged in those a:ggressive wars as late as 1923. It is an. estarblished fact that the Bolshevik masters of Musoovy met with all-out 26 SLOVAKIA resist:am.ce from the people of the reborn non-Russian nations whi!Ch sprang up uipon the 11uins of the feudal Tsarist empire. War in the traditional sense was not in itself sufficient to .p ut down .fille spirit of I11ationaJl independence which swept 1i1ke wildifire tfrom t!he Baltic Sea to the areas east of the Caspian 1Sea. The 'brutal tactics of forced sta11vation, forced population transfers and the vast networlr of slave l:aJbor camps follOIWed quickly on the heels of the Russian occ111pation of these reJbor.n na;tions. It was in these circumstances that the masters of the Kremlin announced to the world in 1922 the formation of the Union of Sov.iet !Socialist Repu!blics. After they ihad managed by armed ag;gression and the crime of genocide to reestaJblish the largest portion of the Russian empire, they found it necessary to create a caver name in order to hide the terrible events which had taiken place east of the Euroipean created cordon samtaire. Moreover, the iMusco~ vites were anxious to aivoid the charge ·o f a resurgence of Russian super-racism and to retain the support of the advocates oif wm-ld oociallism. Thus the high sounding and cleverly misleading cover of U.,S.1S.iR. was lall!lliched in the international ,p olitical -arena. Shortly thereafter a new political force was injected into the saim.e political a;rena. It lbeca.me known as national socialism, then as NaJz:iism, or Fascism, and :fi.nally as super-racism. .Some asturte political obseIWers of that period were quicik to recognize the i,nherenit anomaly in the po'litical laJbel ''national socialism." How was it possible to have the ingredients of nationalism and socialism mixed in the same politi~l movement? Obviously it was i,mpossilble to mix two diametrically opposed political theories. It w.as noit long 'before the one rworld propa;gandists worked out the formula to resolve the anomaly. Nationalism equalled Na!ZiiSIIn - Nazi.ism equalled everything that was evil therefore Nationalism equaUed everything that was evil. But what of socialism? By a queer turn of the 1propagM1dists pen, Socialism became the bulwarlc of democra·ey. Socialism was the politcal system of the U.iS.S.R - therefore the U.S.S.R. was a democracy. By this process the experts in the use of weasel words put an evil CU'l1se upon Il!ation- SLOVAKIA 27 alism in any form, while at the same time manufacturing a d.ynamically effective co;yer for the Muscovite -plan of world conquest We entered World War fil the victims of tbis diabolical iperversion of political terms. The same must be said a:bout the other sovereign nations of the West which entered the struggle against the axis powers. This accounts, in large measure, for our failure to devekllp a positive plan for the reconstruction of the post-war world along truly democratic lines, with gQIVernments representatiive of the will of tJhe people. In lwger measure it accounts for the success af the masters of the Kremlin in extending their empire of ruthless control over 800 milliOIIl. people wvering an area encompassing a.l:most one-ithird of the earth's surface. It is in this context that we can best understand the "new internationalism" ,p eddled by the multi-colored agents of Moscow. Only a fool oc the Ivory Tower Theoreticians will fail to recognme that the dominant school of internationalism operating in the world today is completely pos• sessed iby the Russian communists. To ibe sure there are other schools of internationalism ~ing adhex:-en,ts and supporters which aTe not attached to the Moscow oribit. Unfortunately none of these competing schools ·p ossess any real polWcal dyniamics af a magnitude comparaJble to the Russian-Communist movement. Moreover, none of them are backed by aggressive military forces such as clearly support the "new internationalism" promoted by the Mus• covites in their age long drive for world empire. Fram this analysis one might too quiokly conclude that the Ruissian imperialists haive discredited and killed off hoolthy nationalism and healthy intemiaticmalism. So far as healthy nationalism is concerned, just the contra.Ty in the case. The clhaitwinistic practices of the Russians have tremendously in:creased healthy national.ism ,w ithin the Russian-Comrl)..unist empire. Within the past year the civilized world has had ample proof to swpport this conten· tion. These two exa:mples bear -O'Ut the point. 1. Shortly :after Stalin was elim.i,nated, MalenJmv and Beria became enga;ged m a life and death struggle fOT total 28 SLOVAKIA power. Mialenkov, a Russian, chose the course of support,. ing the historic cause of Russian super--racism. Beria, a renegade Geor,gian, attempted to ,harness the p01Werful nationalist forces of the non-<Russiam. nations of the U. S. S. R. to his side. Beria, as head of the dread secret police and oommissar of the slaive la,'bor system, certainly knew the most dynamic political forces at woiik within the U. S. S. R. Since 'he was in a liife and death struggle, he naturally wanted these forces in his camp. Malenkov on the other hand was the darlinrg of the Russian burea,ucracy and he had to cast his lot with traiditional Russ ian super-racism. Thi,s struggle raged for months during which time Beria was replacing the <Russian pro...consuls in the non~Rus:siian nations with natives of those nations. To be su:re ,t hose natives. were tied to communism ibut they opposed Russian dominratiorn of the a,ffairs of their nation. Beria eame very close to winnin'g that struggle the effect of which might haJVe well caused a great revolutionary outbrealk throughout the U .ISJS.R. Only a deal between the Russian bureaucracy and the Jea,ders of the Red Army saved the day for Russian super-racism. Beria was arrested iby the Red Army and executed, but the seeds of internal revolt weire increased in consequence af his struggle for power. 2. This year ma:riks the 300tfu a.n.niiversary of the Treaty of Pereyaslaiv - the instrument .by which the Russians enslaved the Ukrainians. The !Russians are using this occasion lfoir a never ending series of pronouncements and celebrations, all of which seeik to prove that the Russians are the true friends of the Uikraintains. The official announcement of the Kremlin inaugurating these celebrations admitted that every decent Ukranian down through history ha,d struggled for the goal of national independence . It also claimed that the Utkraill'ian n 1ation had finally attained its long struggle for national independ€!Il1Ce - "thanks to the Russians ,and the Communist Party." But what kind of national ,i ndependence? They define it as natjornia.1 in form and socialist in SU!bstance. This of course means no independence at all. IHowever it is important to note the manner in which the Muscoivites are associating nationalism with socialiSIID. Thi s is most reminiscent of the tactics of 1 1 SLOVAKIA 29 Adolph Hitler. Healthy nationalism is very much alive in the world today. It is more vigorous within the Russian communist empire than elsewhere in the world. This fact must be understood and exiploited by the leaders of the free world if we are going to hawe .peace and freedom throughout the warild while a,voiding World War IiLI. Unfortunately the same crurmot 'be said aJbout healthy internationalism. Internationalism as a t'heocy- and a;s a po- · litical ipractice has boon thoroughly infected by the goals of world Manci,sm. The Russd.an Communist con1Spiracy has taken over the leadershlp in this field. Movements free from this infection have :neitlher the internal dynamics nor the military 'Sllllpport necessary to offiset those- sponsored or controlled by the Russian communists. Buit rwe can build a healthy internationalism and one that would be far more ,p owerful in the political arena than the Moscorw brand. To accomplish this goal we must understand healthy nationalism. Then we must foster and support it as a counteracting force to World Communism. Having done thi-s we will harve taken the first step in creating a healthy internationalism. The second step in this ,process calls for the development and support oif free regional federations. These regio1rml federations would he colffi!prised of a numlber of sovereign and independent n:ations which freely elected to become party to .the regi01I1al federation. The economic, political and security adlvantages of the regiona,l federation concept would lead the way in gaining the support of the memlber states. This pattern is completely consistent with .the charter of the United Nations. Indeed it springs from the basic idea whioh created the associatio,n of Ame.rican States which stands as a regional arrangement of the nations of the Western Hemisphere. It is a ,sollilld pattern because it recognizes that healthy internatiootalism must lbe 'based upon full recognition of healthy nationalism. Moreover it supports a political philosophy which is consistent with the American way of life and therefore the antithesis of World 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 Nationalism vs. Internationalism Description An account of the resource Michael A. Feighan, Member of U. S. Congress Slovakia, Vol. 4, No. 3-4 (12-13), Sept.-Dec. 1954 pp. 23-29 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Feighan, Michael Aloysius, 1905- 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/c7b94e33444b94b1e95528aea4079592.pdf 5eabc43874f7bfa7f0a988807692c463 PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA 44 U. S. Information Agency (Voice of America), the Free Europe Committee (Radio Free Europe) and other American institutions still try to salvage them? Why insist that such 0 political dupes" ( ?) represent the political will of the Slovak nation? They never did and never shall! • RECOMMENDED $3.00; SWVAK FOR (the set); "Hirdbak's "S'IJOVAK LffiSSONS" • • BOOKS: "The Slovaks" (Jwrchak BEGINNERS" (Books I-III) $1.50 Eniglish-,Sl{)IVa;k Dictionary" $4.00; (iHrolbak) $3.50 . • • • NATIONALIZATION OF PRIVATE PROPERTY IN SLOVAKIA Andrej Gemersky When Edward Benes signed the governmental decree in 1945 to nationalize '.key (heavy) indrustry, the Communists in Slovakia and the Czech lands became the masters of the economic situation. By signing that decree Benes sealed the fate not only of heaJVy industry, Wihich thereto was owned for the most part rb y share-holders' associations, 1b ut also the industry which was owned by indirviduals. Benes's decree nationali0ed all industrial enterprises which employed: more than 50 persons. For the time bemg, therefore, enterprises with u:p to 50 emptoyees were not affeded by the decree. Bwt only for a short time. The Co1mmunists are rk nown for their consistent stand on a!bolishing all rprivaJte ownership. They ibelieve in the prinrciple that man s'hould not exiploit man, that man must not be ex!ploited 'by the bourgeois, the capitalists, who. according to the Communists are represented by private OIWltlers withO'llt regard to the iltind and ~tent of prirvate ownership. The Communists, therefore, once they were in key positliooo in SlovaJki1a , sought to nationalilze every private enter.prise, large and small. I had said that enterprises with up to 50 employees were not nationalized at the outset (1945). These the �SLOVAKIA 45 Communists first ibegan to combine into larger productiive units, into so-called maniwfacturing and selling combines or cooperatives; they !began to co1lectilvi1ze production or manufacture. They said that collectiivization was a neces-sary an:d inevitruble degree of socialistic, progressiive undertaiking and, therefore, W'ihoeiver opposed co'.hlectiivization was not priogressive but reactionary, an enemy af socialism which spelled the "good and welfare" of the ,people. Such a person, of course, was an enemy of the State and, hence, coulq ,be ,punished accoroing to existing laws. TailoTs were o,r.garuzed in the cooperatiive called "Vw~ rodev" ; ha;berdashers, merchants with mixed merchandise in the "Jednorba" and "Buducnoof"; shoemrukers in the "V'zoro!buv," lbut s1hoesihops with three employees were not affected. The latter, however, were not allowed to make new shoes, lbut only to repair old ones; their shops had to carry the sign "iidrzbar." It was thus that all manufacturing plants and selling outlets in 1Sl01Vakia were oollectiivized. Later, larger cooperati<ves fbecame so-.called "national" enterprises; \but national entffil)rises are also State enter.prises, !because the profits belong to the Strute exclusicvely, that is, to the Communists. Former "priV1ate" enterprises were given a neiw name; original trade names, carrying the names of ipri-vate entrepreneurs and owners, had to go. Now, for example, we read ,t he names of "na;tional" enterprises, such as, "Teohnokov, Masin.a, Ob111Va, Popper, Mlieicne speciaJlity," etc. Ln a word all ,business is under State control. When the Communists :niationa:li'Zed or collectivized entenprises, they allowed the former prwate OIWillera to run them for the State as "managers." But they had one of their tried men in eiveiry business place, whose duty it was to learn all the triciks of the trade. In time the original owner-mam.ager lbecame unnecessary and W&S transferred to some other enter,prise ·a s a lruborer. His understudy, classed as "aJbsolutely reliable," took 01Ver the jdb of managing the business. In many in.stances, ,private owners opposed collecticvization. In such cases the Oomm'U.Ilists simply too:k amay �46 SLOVAKIA their business permits, or closed their shops as economically unnecessary. So a person practically had to join the Red cooperatives if he wanted to live and have a roof over his head. Most of the small operators ha<l their shops in their ho.mes and could easily be dispossessed in the "public interest" - meaning of course in the interest otf the Communist Party. In Slovakia the Communists did not collectivize all prilvate enterprises at one time. At first the Reds would call the owner to attend a trade meeting of this or that national oomimittee and try to conivince him how he would benefit by joining a cooperative. :tf he could not be convinced, they would tell him that they would have to review his trade permit and ascertain whether his shop was necessary to f wfill the economic plan. Miter the lboss, the Reds would tackle ,his employees to convince them that they are not very bright if they ,let ,prirvate owners, the bourgeois, to exploit them. Why should the wo'I1kers help the owners to wax richer at their expense, the Reds would easily say, when they can work in cooperative shops and get better pay? In many cases that is how the Communists operated in their own !benefit. IDm.iplo.yees quit their old employers to wonk in the cooperatives, where they actually receirved better pay. When the Reds had all producing enterprises nationalized aJnd collectirvired, they later introduced socalled rproductitve norms, which had to be met, if the workers were to, reiceirve the pay they were getting. These norms could never be met, so the workers actually got less pay than they did f,r,om prirvate owners. This, according to the Communists, is not exploitation of the wonkers, but a co111scientioU1S and patriotic building~up of socialism. Getting control of agricultural production caused the greates~ concern to, the Communists, !because all people therefore eiven those who lirve in the communistic "paradise" - have to eat. 'Ilhe Communists knew that a ,s carcity of food would not helip them COIIlSOlidate their power in the State; they also !knew that a hungry perso:n could not work and slave for them effectively. So tliey begMl to col- �SLOVAKIA 47 lectiv1ze aigricultural units, the fazms. That is how the socalled "Uniform A,gricultuiral Cooperatives" (Jednotne rofrofnicke druzstva - JRD) originated in :SlovaJdia. 1Slovaik farmers refused to jOlin the cooiperaUves (,kolchozes) and openly resisted the Communists. They told them ,b luntly that they did not want kolchozes like those in the USISR, !because they were not prosiperous agric'l.lltural mstitutions. Official pro;pagato,rs orf the [Red Party, however, exip1ained thaJt .t hey weire not concerned about kolcho:zes, but aJbout co~ra:Uve farming, which must meet Slwalk conditions and demands which are different than those existing in the USSR and, therefore, they said, the Slovalk farm cooperatives do not have and will not have anything in cOllllmO!n with the Soiviet kolchozes. It so h:aJppened that many Slovruk faTIIners let themselves be deceived by the Red lullaJbies of the Communist agitators and joined the cooperatiives. Soon after, they learned to thek .sorr,ow that the cooperatives were nothing else but Soiviet !kol'chozes, which depri,v ed the formers of 99 per cent of their property. No· longer were they masters of their own household, but slaves of t'he Communist Party. Of course, the Ooimmunists would haJVe forced their plans OIJ1 the Slovalk farmers even though all of them would have refused to join the ikolchoizes; they prolbaibly would harve kno clked tJhem afif one 1b y one, ivilla1ge by village, .b ecause they were the l31W, they were in po,weir. Natuirrully, the Slo1w1Jk farmers, true to their Christian democvatic tradition, struck !baic'.k, even though it meaJI1t persec:ultion, prison, or eiven deportation. They figured the Reds co'l.lld not :kill, imprison o;r depO!rt all oif them without starving themselves out. Just how the Slo;valk farmer felt about ,t he situation soon made itselif felt in the whole of Sloivakia: the faruners under the new system were producing much }ess than they did before the adrvent of the kolchozes. The Red lbos:ses cursed and threatened the farmers , but to no :wail ; a lbad year was followed by a worse year. Wor.kers everyiW'here complained loudly. After years of stubborn Slovak resistance, the Reds decided to change their tactics to improve the agricultur.a:l. �48 SLOVAKIA situ3ition in Slovaikia. and increase the amount of meat, flowr, vegetable.s, eitc. m 1003 they suddenly began to ,proclaim that no one wa;s swpposed. to be forced into the oooperativesi and anyone who wished to quit them could do so and begin to farm priivately on his OIWil ,p roperty. President Zapotooky himself annou:nred the new, surpristing course of the Communists in a speech in which he hypocritically condemned all iviolence and terro~tion of the farmers, saying that they were "violations olf a local character" for which the guilty parties shall bear the responsibility. This complete turnalbout -Of ,policy may hruve surprised many innocents, ,b ut it rwas really nothing new in Communist tactics and str.ategy. It was not the first time or the last .that they reversed their policies. '!'hey did it before and shall conrtinue to do it ·a s long as it serves their interests, the interests of ,t he Communist Party and the interests of the UISSIR. Those who do not understand Communist methods and their constant goals might see in this tarna:bout of the Oommunists, their weakne.ss. This, howe;ver, would be a fundamental error, which would aNenge itself in a brutal manner. We must remember that the very same thing haJppened even in the "exemplary" Soviet Union more than once. After the Communists seii-zed the government in Russia, even during the lifetime of Lenin, the Communists began to collecti~ on a grand scale, brutally persecuting every one who opposed them. After a time they found themselves in an economic crisis; the peaSlant fairmers quit ,p roducing the necessary quotas of farm products. It did not truke Len!in long to figure ·h is way out of the impending crisis. He proclaimed a "new economic pol,ircy" (Novaja NEP), which returned the Ekonomiceskaja Politika they might work them prithat o s , farms to the farmers vately. Five years later, however, Lenin ordered the dissolution orf NIDP in the UiSSiR and a general collectiviization of all farms. isovhozes and lk:olclwzes ,w ere ag,a in formed. Sovhiozes are state aigricultural properties in which pri¥ate ownership is completely exc1uded, while kolcll01Zes al1 �SLOVAKIA 49 low about 1 per cent ownership in a farm project, as mentioned a:oove in reference to JRD. After a complete turnaJbout af policy in Sl01Vrukia, in 1953, mruny farmers welcomed the chance to quit the JiRD and begin farming pri'Vately. Many see in this move, a wealkness of the Communists and are thus guilty Olf a serious er.ror, 1because the same thing is hO'Ulld to hruppen in Slovakia that haJppened in the lJISIS'R and wherever the Reds are in pOIWer: general collecti,vi,z ation is bound to come. It is unfortunate that so many people still do not understand how Communism woI"ks, the tactics 1:Jhe Communists use to attain their ends. In Slovakia, all the farmers who quit the 'kolchooes are m'3.11ked men. As soon as the economic situation improives and a surplus of farm products is lblri.lt up in Slo.vrukia, the farmers will be compelled to join the kolchooes and Sovhozes. Those who refuse to join will be lalbe-led "enemies" of the !State and dealt with accordingly . • • • SLOVAK FOLKLORE TI-IE MAN WHO NEVER SINNED In a certain village there once lived a poor but upright and devout man. Althoogh as gray as a pigeon, he had never, not even once, c<mmritted sin. He never hurt any one by word o:r deed, nor did he ever offend a siingle person in any way. This, Oif course, irritated the devil in hell, who said, scratching behind his ears : '"I1his is certainly exasperating with this man. Other persons, no matter how upright, render me a service at least once during their lifetime. This fellow, however, Slhall die today oir tomorro.w and as yet has not done my ibidding even Oll1Ce. But just wait, mister, I'll show you uip yet!" Not knowing of the trap the devil was setting for him, the poor man lirved ;peacefully in his shack, praying to God daily, never offending any one, CO'Veting not another's possessions, and conducting himself in an things according to God's commandments. � SLOVAKIA 44 U. S. Information Agency (Voice of America), the Free Europe Committee (Radio Free Europe) and other American institutions still try to salvage them? Why insist that such 0 political dupes" ( ?) represent the political will of the Slovak nation? They never did and never shall! • RECOMMENDED $3.00; SWVAK FOR (the set); "Hirdbak's "S'IJOVAK LffiSSONS" • • BOOKS: "The Slovaks" (Jwrchak BEGINNERS" (Books I-III) $1.50 Eniglish-,Sl{)IVa;k Dictionary" $4.00; (iHrolbak) $3.50 . • • • NATIONALIZATION OF PRIVATE PROPERTY IN SLOVAKIA Andrej Gemersky When Edward Benes signed the governmental decree in 1945 to nationalize '.key (heavy) indrustry, the Communists in Slovakia and the Czech lands became the masters of the economic situation. By signing that decree Benes sealed the fate not only of heaJVy industry, Wihich thereto was owned for the most part rb y share-holders' associations, 1b ut also the industry which was owned by indirviduals. Benes's decree nationali0ed all industrial enterprises which employed: more than 50 persons. For the time bemg, therefore, enterprises with u:p to 50 emptoyees were not affeded by the decree. Bwt only for a short time. The Co1mmunists are rk nown for their consistent stand on a!bolishing all rprivaJte ownership. They ibelieve in the prinrciple that man s'hould not exiploit man, that man must not be ex!ploited 'by the bourgeois, the capitalists, who. according to the Communists are represented by private OIWltlers withO'llt regard to the iltind and ~tent of prirvate ownership. The Communists, therefore, once they were in key positliooo in SlovaJki1a , sought to nationalilze every private enter.prise, large and small. I had said that enterprises with up to 50 employees were not nationalized at the outset (1945). These the �SLOVAKIA 45 Communists first ibegan to combine into larger productiive units, into so-called maniwfacturing and selling combines or cooperatives; they !began to co1lectilvi1ze production or manufacture. They said that collectiivization was a neces-sary an:d inevitruble degree of socialistic, progressiive undertaiking and, therefore, W'ihoeiver opposed co'.hlectiivization was not priogressive but reactionary, an enemy af socialism which spelled the "good and welfare" of the ,people. Such a person, of course, was an enemy of the State and, hence, coulq ,be ,punished accoroing to existing laws. TailoTs were o,r.garuzed in the cooperatiive called "Vw~ rodev" ; ha;berdashers, merchants with mixed merchandise in the "Jednorba" and "Buducnoof"; shoemrukers in the "V'zoro!buv," lbut s1hoesihops with three employees were not affected. The latter, however, were not allowed to make new shoes, lbut only to repair old ones; their shops had to carry the sign "iidrzbar." It was thus that all manufacturing plants and selling outlets in 1Sl01Vakia were oollectiivized. Later, larger cooperati<ves fbecame so-.called "national" enterprises; \but national entffil)rises are also State enter.prises, !because the profits belong to the Strute exclusicvely, that is, to the Communists. Former "priV1ate" enterprises were given a neiw name; original trade names, carrying the names of ipri-vate entrepreneurs and owners, had to go. Now, for example, we read ,t he names of "na;tional" enterprises, such as, "Teohnokov, Masin.a, Ob111Va, Popper, Mlieicne speciaJlity," etc. Ln a word all ,business is under State control. When the Communists :niationa:li'Zed or collectivized entenprises, they allowed the former prwate OIWillera to run them for the State as "managers." But they had one of their tried men in eiveiry business place, whose duty it was to learn all the triciks of the trade. In time the original owner-mam.ager lbecame unnecessary and W&S transferred to some other enter,prise ·a s a lruborer. His understudy, classed as "aJbsolutely reliable," took 01Ver the jdb of managing the business. In many in.stances, ,private owners opposed collecticvization. In such cases the Oomm'U.Ilists simply too:k amay �46 SLOVAKIA their business permits, or closed their shops as economically unnecessary. So a person practically had to join the Red cooperatives if he wanted to live and have a roof over his head. Most of the small operators ha<l their shops in their ho.mes and could easily be dispossessed in the "public interest" - meaning of course in the interest otf the Communist Party. In Slovakia the Communists did not collectivize all prilvate enterprises at one time. At first the Reds would call the owner to attend a trade meeting of this or that national oomimittee and try to conivince him how he would benefit by joining a cooperative. :tf he could not be convinced, they would tell him that they would have to review his trade permit and ascertain whether his shop was necessary to f wfill the economic plan. Miter the lboss, the Reds would tackle ,his employees to convince them that they are not very bright if they ,let ,prirvate owners, the bourgeois, to exploit them. Why should the wo'I1kers help the owners to wax richer at their expense, the Reds would easily say, when they can work in cooperative shops and get better pay? In many cases that is how the Communists operated in their own !benefit. IDm.iplo.yees quit their old employers to wonk in the cooperatives, where they actually receirved better pay. When the Reds had all producing enterprises nationalized aJnd collectirvired, they later introduced socalled rproductitve norms, which had to be met, if the workers were to, reiceirve the pay they were getting. These norms could never be met, so the workers actually got less pay than they did f,r,om prirvate owners. This, according to the Communists, is not exploitation of the wonkers, but a co111scientioU1S and patriotic building~up of socialism. Getting control of agricultural production caused the greates~ concern to, the Communists, !because all people therefore eiven those who lirve in the communistic "paradise" - have to eat. 'Ilhe Communists knew that a ,s carcity of food would not helip them COIIlSOlidate their power in the State; they also !knew that a hungry perso:n could not work and slave for them effectively. So tliey begMl to col- �SLOVAKIA 47 lectiv1ze aigricultural units, the fazms. That is how the socalled "Uniform A,gricultuiral Cooperatives" (Jednotne rofrofnicke druzstva - JRD) originated in :SlovaJdia. 1Slovaik farmers refused to jOlin the cooiperaUves (,kolchozes) and openly resisted the Communists. They told them ,b luntly that they did not want kolchozes like those in the USISR, !because they were not prosiperous agric'l.lltural mstitutions. Official pro;pagato,rs orf the [Red Party, however, exip1ained thaJt .t hey weire not concerned about kolcho:zes, but aJbout co~ra:Uve farming, which must meet Slwalk conditions and demands which are different than those existing in the USSR and, therefore, they said, the Slovalk farm cooperatives do not have and will not have anything in cOllllmO!n with the Soiviet kolchozes. It so h:aJppened that many Slovruk faTIIners let themselves be deceived by the Red lullaJbies of the Communist agitators and joined the cooperatiives. Soon after, they learned to thek .sorr,ow that the cooperatives were nothing else but Soiviet !kol'chozes, which depri,v ed the formers of 99 per cent of their property. No· longer were they masters of their own household, but slaves of t'he Communist Party. Of course, the Ooimmunists would haJVe forced their plans OIJ1 the Slovalk farmers even though all of them would have refused to join the ikolchoizes; they prolbaibly would harve kno clked tJhem afif one 1b y one, ivilla1ge by village, .b ecause they were the l31W, they were in po,weir. Natuirrully, the Slo1w1Jk farmers, true to their Christian democvatic tradition, struck !baic'.k, even though it meaJI1t persec:ultion, prison, or eiven deportation. They figured the Reds co'l.lld not :kill, imprison o;r depO!rt all oif them without starving themselves out. Just how the Slo;valk farmer felt about ,t he situation soon made itselif felt in the whole of Sloivakia: the faruners under the new system were producing much }ess than they did before the adrvent of the kolchozes. The Red lbos:ses cursed and threatened the farmers , but to no :wail ; a lbad year was followed by a worse year. Wor.kers everyiW'here complained loudly. After years of stubborn Slovak resistance, the Reds decided to change their tactics to improve the agricultur.a:l. �48 SLOVAKIA situ3ition in Slovaikia. and increase the amount of meat, flowr, vegetable.s, eitc. m 1003 they suddenly began to ,proclaim that no one wa;s swpposed. to be forced into the oooperativesi and anyone who wished to quit them could do so and begin to farm priivately on his OIWil ,p roperty. President Zapotooky himself annou:nred the new, surpristing course of the Communists in a speech in which he hypocritically condemned all iviolence and terro~tion of the farmers, saying that they were "violations olf a local character" for which the guilty parties shall bear the responsibility. This complete turnalbout -Of ,policy may hruve surprised many innocents, ,b ut it rwas really nothing new in Communist tactics and str.ategy. It was not the first time or the last .that they reversed their policies. '!'hey did it before and shall conrtinue to do it ·a s long as it serves their interests, the interests of ,t he Communist Party and the interests of the UISSIR. Those who do not understand Communist methods and their constant goals might see in this tarna:bout of the Oommunists, their weakne.ss. This, howe;ver, would be a fundamental error, which would aNenge itself in a brutal manner. We must remember that the very same thing haJppened even in the "exemplary" Soviet Union more than once. After the Communists seii-zed the government in Russia, even during the lifetime of Lenin, the Communists began to collecti~ on a grand scale, brutally persecuting every one who opposed them. After a time they found themselves in an economic crisis; the peaSlant fairmers quit ,p roducing the necessary quotas of farm products. It did not truke Len!in long to figure ·h is way out of the impending crisis. He proclaimed a "new economic pol,ircy" (Novaja NEP), which returned the Ekonomiceskaja Politika they might work them prithat o s , farms to the farmers vately. Five years later, however, Lenin ordered the dissolution orf NIDP in the UiSSiR and a general collectiviization of all farms. isovhozes and lk:olclwzes ,w ere ag,a in formed. Sovhiozes are state aigricultural properties in which pri¥ate ownership is completely exc1uded, while kolcll01Zes al1 �SLOVAKIA 49 low about 1 per cent ownership in a farm project, as mentioned a:oove in reference to JRD. After a complete turnaJbout af policy in Sl01Vrukia, in 1953, mruny farmers welcomed the chance to quit the JiRD and begin farming pri'Vately. Many see in this move, a wealkness of the Communists and are thus guilty Olf a serious er.ror, 1because the same thing is hO'Ulld to hruppen in Slovakia that haJppened in the lJISIS'R and wherever the Reds are in pOIWer: general collecti,vi,z ation is bound to come. It is unfortunate that so many people still do not understand how Communism woI"ks, the tactics 1:Jhe Communists use to attain their ends. In Slovakia, all the farmers who quit the 'kolchooes are m'3.11ked men. As soon as the economic situation improives and a surplus of farm products is lblri.lt up in Slo.vrukia, the farmers will be compelled to join the kolchooes and Sovhozes. Those who refuse to join will be lalbe-led "enemies" of the !State and dealt with accordingly . • • • SLOVAK FOLKLORE TI-IE MAN WHO NEVER SINNED In a certain village there once lived a poor but upright and devout man. Althoogh as gray as a pigeon, he had never, not even once, c<mmritted sin. He never hurt any one by word o:r deed, nor did he ever offend a siingle person in any way. This, Oif course, irritated the devil in hell, who said, scratching behind his ears : '"I1his is certainly exasperating with this man. Other persons, no matter how upright, render me a service at least once during their lifetime. This fellow, however, Slhall die today oir tomorro.w and as yet has not done my ibidding even Oll1Ce. But just wait, mister, I'll show you uip yet!" Not knowing of the trap the devil was setting for him, the poor man lirved ;peacefully in his shack, praying to God daily, never offending any one, CO'Veting not another's possessions, and conducting himself in an things according to God's commandments. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to 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 44 U. S. Information Agency (Voice of America), the Free Europe Committee (Radio Free Europe) and other American institutions still try to salvage them? Why insist that such 0 political dupes" ( ?) represent the political will of the Slovak nation? They never did and never shall! • RECOMMENDED $3.00; SWVAK FOR (the set); "Hirdbak's "S'IJOVAK LffiSSONS" • • BOOKS: "The Slovaks" (Jwrchak BEGINNERS" (Books I-III) $1.50 Eniglish-,Sl{)IVa;k Dictionary" $4.00; (iHrolbak) $3.50 . • • • NATIONALIZATION OF PRIVATE PROPERTY IN SLOVAKIA Andrej Gemersky When Edward Benes signed the governmental decree in 1945 to nationalize '.key (heavy) indrustry, the Communists in Slovakia and the Czech lands became the masters of the economic situation. By signing that decree Benes sealed the fate not only of heaJVy industry, Wihich thereto was owned for the most part rb y share-holders' associations, 1b ut also the industry which was owned by indirviduals. Benes's decree nationali0ed all industrial enterprises which employed: more than 50 persons. For the time bemg, therefore, enterprises with u:p to 50 emptoyees were not affeded by the decree. Bwt only for a short time. The Co1mmunists are rk nown for their consistent stand on a!bolishing all rprivaJte ownership. They ibelieve in the prinrciple that man s'hould not exiploit man, that man must not be ex!ploited 'by the bourgeois, the capitalists, who. according to the Communists are represented by private OIWltlers withO'llt regard to the iltind and ~tent of prirvate ownership. The Communists, therefore, once they were in key positliooo in SlovaJki1a , sought to nationalilze every private enter.prise, large and small. I had said that enterprises with up to 50 employees were not nationalized at the outset (1945). These the SLOVAKIA 45 Communists first ibegan to combine into larger productiive units, into so-called maniwfacturing and selling combines or cooperatives; they !began to co1lectilvi1ze production or manufacture. They said that collectiivization was a neces-sary an:d inevitruble degree of socialistic, progressiive undertaiking and, therefore, W'ihoeiver opposed co'.hlectiivization was not priogressive but reactionary, an enemy af socialism which spelled the "good and welfare" of the ,people. Such a person, of course, was an enemy of the State and, hence, coulq ,be ,punished accoroing to existing laws. TailoTs were o,r.garuzed in the cooperatiive called "Vw~ rodev" ; ha;berdashers, merchants with mixed merchandise in the "Jednorba" and "Buducnoof"; shoemrukers in the "V'zoro!buv," lbut s1hoesihops with three employees were not affected. The latter, however, were not allowed to make new shoes, lbut only to repair old ones; their shops had to carry the sign "iidrzbar." It was thus that all manufacturing plants and selling outlets in 1Sl01Vakia were oollectiivized. Later, larger cooperati<ves fbecame so-.called "national" enterprises; \but national entffil)rises are also State enter.prises, !because the profits belong to the Strute exclusicvely, that is, to the Communists. Former "priV1ate" enterprises were given a neiw name; original trade names, carrying the names of ipri-vate entrepreneurs and owners, had to go. Now, for example, we read ,t he names of "na;tional" enterprises, such as, "Teohnokov, Masin.a, Ob111Va, Popper, Mlieicne speciaJlity," etc. Ln a word all ,business is under State control. When the Communists :niationa:li'Zed or collectivized entenprises, they allowed the former prwate OIWillera to run them for the State as "managers." But they had one of their tried men in eiveiry business place, whose duty it was to learn all the triciks of the trade. In time the original owner-mam.ager lbecame unnecessary and W&S transferred to some other enter,prise ·a s a lruborer. His understudy, classed as "aJbsolutely reliable," took 01Ver the jdb of managing the business. In many in.stances, ,private owners opposed collecticvization. In such cases the Oomm'U.Ilists simply too:k amay 46 SLOVAKIA their business permits, or closed their shops as economically unnecessary. So a person practically had to join the Red cooperatives if he wanted to live and have a roof over his head. Most of the small operators ha<l their shops in their ho.mes and could easily be dispossessed in the "public interest" - meaning of course in the interest otf the Communist Party. In Slovakia the Communists did not collectivize all prilvate enterprises at one time. At first the Reds would call the owner to attend a trade meeting of this or that national oomimittee and try to conivince him how he would benefit by joining a cooperative. :tf he could not be convinced, they would tell him that they would have to review his trade permit and ascertain whether his shop was necessary to f wfill the economic plan. Miter the lboss, the Reds would tackle ,his employees to convince them that they are not very bright if they ,let ,prirvate owners, the bourgeois, to exploit them. Why should the wo'I1kers help the owners to wax richer at their expense, the Reds would easily say, when they can work in cooperative shops and get better pay? In many cases that is how the Communists operated in their own !benefit. IDm.iplo.yees quit their old employers to wonk in the cooperatives, where they actually receirved better pay. When the Reds had all producing enterprises nationalized aJnd collectirvired, they later introduced socalled rproductitve norms, which had to be met, if the workers were to, reiceirve the pay they were getting. These norms could never be met, so the workers actually got less pay than they did f,r,om prirvate owners. This, according to the Communists, is not exploitation of the wonkers, but a co111scientioU1S and patriotic building~up of socialism. Getting control of agricultural production caused the greates~ concern to, the Communists, !because all people therefore eiven those who lirve in the communistic "paradise" - have to eat. 'Ilhe Communists knew that a ,s carcity of food would not helip them COIIlSOlidate their power in the State; they also !knew that a hungry perso:n could not work and slave for them effectively. So tliey begMl to col- SLOVAKIA 47 lectiv1ze aigricultural units, the fazms. That is how the socalled "Uniform A,gricultuiral Cooperatives" (Jednotne rofrofnicke druzstva - JRD) originated in :SlovaJdia. 1Slovaik farmers refused to jOlin the cooiperaUves (,kolchozes) and openly resisted the Communists. They told them ,b luntly that they did not want kolchozes like those in the USISR, !because they were not prosiperous agric'l.lltural mstitutions. Official pro;pagato,rs orf the [Red Party, however, exip1ained thaJt .t hey weire not concerned about kolcho:zes, but aJbout co~ra:Uve farming, which must meet Slwalk conditions and demands which are different than those existing in the USSR and, therefore, they said, the Slovalk farm cooperatives do not have and will not have anything in cOllllmO!n with the Soiviet kolchozes. It so h:aJppened that many Slovruk faTIIners let themselves be deceived by the Red lullaJbies of the Communist agitators and joined the cooperatiives. Soon after, they learned to thek .sorr,ow that the cooperatives were nothing else but Soiviet !kol'chozes, which depri,v ed the formers of 99 per cent of their property. No· longer were they masters of their own household, but slaves of t'he Communist Party. Of course, the Ooimmunists would haJVe forced their plans OIJ1 the Slovalk farmers even though all of them would have refused to join the ikolchoizes; they prolbaibly would harve kno clked tJhem afif one 1b y one, ivilla1ge by village, .b ecause they were the l31W, they were in po,weir. Natuirrully, the Slo1w1Jk farmers, true to their Christian democvatic tradition, struck !baic'.k, even though it meaJI1t persec:ultion, prison, or eiven deportation. They figured the Reds co'l.lld not :kill, imprison o;r depO!rt all oif them without starving themselves out. Just how the Slo;valk farmer felt about ,t he situation soon made itselif felt in the whole of Sloivakia: the faruners under the new system were producing much }ess than they did before the adrvent of the kolchozes. The Red lbos:ses cursed and threatened the farmers , but to no :wail ; a lbad year was followed by a worse year. Wor.kers everyiW'here complained loudly. After years of stubborn Slovak resistance, the Reds decided to change their tactics to improve the agricultur.a:l. 48 SLOVAKIA situ3ition in Slovaikia. and increase the amount of meat, flowr, vegetable.s, eitc. m 1003 they suddenly began to ,proclaim that no one wa;s swpposed. to be forced into the oooperativesi and anyone who wished to quit them could do so and begin to farm priivately on his OIWil ,p roperty. President Zapotooky himself annou:nred the new, surpristing course of the Communists in a speech in which he hypocritically condemned all iviolence and terro~tion of the farmers, saying that they were "violations olf a local character" for which the guilty parties shall bear the responsibility. This complete turnalbout -Of ,policy may hruve surprised many innocents, ,b ut it rwas really nothing new in Communist tactics and str.ategy. It was not the first time or the last .that they reversed their policies. '!'hey did it before and shall conrtinue to do it ·a s long as it serves their interests, the interests of ,t he Communist Party and the interests of the UISSIR. Those who do not understand Communist methods and their constant goals might see in this tarna:bout of the Oommunists, their weakne.ss. This, howe;ver, would be a fundamental error, which would aNenge itself in a brutal manner. We must remember that the very same thing haJppened even in the "exemplary" Soviet Union more than once. After the Communists seii-zed the government in Russia, even during the lifetime of Lenin, the Communists began to collecti~ on a grand scale, brutally persecuting every one who opposed them. After a time they found themselves in an economic crisis; the peaSlant fairmers quit ,p roducing the necessary quotas of farm products. It did not truke Len!in long to figure ·h is way out of the impending crisis. He proclaimed a "new economic pol,ircy" (Novaja NEP), which returned the Ekonomiceskaja Politika they might work them prithat o s , farms to the farmers vately. Five years later, however, Lenin ordered the dissolution orf NIDP in the UiSSiR and a general collectiviization of all farms. isovhozes and lk:olclwzes ,w ere ag,a in formed. Sovhiozes are state aigricultural properties in which pri¥ate ownership is completely exc1uded, while kolcll01Zes al1 SLOVAKIA 49 low about 1 per cent ownership in a farm project, as mentioned a:oove in reference to JRD. After a complete turnaJbout af policy in Sl01Vrukia, in 1953, mruny farmers welcomed the chance to quit the JiRD and begin farming pri'Vately. Many see in this move, a wealkness of the Communists and are thus guilty Olf a serious er.ror, 1because the same thing is hO'Ulld to hruppen in Slovakia that haJppened in the lJISIS'R and wherever the Reds are in pOIWer: general collecti,vi,z ation is bound to come. It is unfortunate that so many people still do not understand how Communism woI"ks, the tactics 1:Jhe Communists use to attain their ends. In Slovakia, all the farmers who quit the 'kolchooes are m'3.11ked men. As soon as the economic situation improives and a surplus of farm products is lblri.lt up in Slo.vrukia, the farmers will be compelled to join the kolchooes and Sovhozes. Those who refuse to join will be lalbe-led "enemies" of the !State and dealt with accordingly . • • • SLOVAK FOLKLORE TI-IE MAN WHO NEVER SINNED In a certain village there once lived a poor but upright and devout man. Althoogh as gray as a pigeon, he had never, not even once, c<mmritted sin. He never hurt any one by word o:r deed, nor did he ever offend a siingle person in any way. This, Oif course, irritated the devil in hell, who said, scratching behind his ears : '"I1his is certainly exasperating with this man. Other persons, no matter how upright, render me a service at least once during their lifetime. This fellow, however, Slhall die today oir tomorro.w and as yet has not done my ibidding even Oll1Ce. But just wait, mister, I'll show you uip yet!" Not knowing of the trap the devil was setting for him, the poor man lirved ;peacefully in his shack, praying to God daily, never offending any one, CO'Veting not another's possessions, and conducting himself in an things according to God's commandments.  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Nationalization of Private Property in Slovakia Description An account of the resource Andrej Gemerský Slovakia, Vol. 4, No. 3-4 (12-13), Sept.-Dec. 1954 pp. 44-49 Note from frontmatter: "Andrew Gemerský is the pseudonym of a Slovak who escaped from Slovakia just several months ago, ..." Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Gemerský, Andrej Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource Sept.-Dec. 1954 name pseudonym https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/c3f59e7ccb975d9ac93cafcf6e82b3e2.pdf 73303a198b6cff05e4d97911f95a6382 PDF Text Text 22 SLOVAKIA Once the Reds succeeded in liquidating the "unteachables," those who refused to follow the Party line, the remaining mmisters and priests had three paths to choose f.rom: (1) They could become ideological and practical collaborators with Communism, the road traveled by Jan Plojhar, a Catholic priest who, it is said, never wanted to be a priest in the first place, or Josef Hromadka, a Lutheran minister and Vice-President of the World Council of Reformed Churches (2). Like Archbishop Beran, having learned that compromise cannot work, this growp have become members of a resistance movement, (3) are those who have fallen in line with tfhe masses and when in Rome, do as the Romans do. Down through history persecutions have led to a deepening of religious life. In Czecho-Slovakia the government has had little success with its efforts to promote a substitute for religious activity in the form of youth initiation ceremonies, name-giving and the like. Perhaps an old Czech adage is again proving to be right: "When the spirit is drunk, God is forgotten. Only when trouble comes do we really learn to know Him." • • • NEW STRICTURES ON BENES Karl Kem Even outside Sudeten German circles Edward Benes' political genius is gradually being recognized for tfhe mere legend that it was. Czech hisltorians, too, are beginning to contribute to the truth. Josef Korbel's report "The Communist Subversion of Czechoslovakia 1938-1945" is additional proof to that effect. The book has received much publicity. MaJlmo's leading Swedish newspa,per Arbetet has published a lengthy review of it. 'l'lhe Neue Zurcher Zeitung takes ponderous stock of some of the mistakes made by Benes, "that shrewd diplomat," at a time when judicious people clearly foresaw "where friendship with Moscow would lead him and his country." The review in Arbetet was written by the young Fm.n Jorn Donner. The author who spent some weeks in Prague �SLOVAKIA 23 in spring 1959, where he ,rubbed elbows with the popufaition, was able to draw on personal observations. In evaluating the latest phase of Czech history, however, he does not rely solely on Czech sources. Being familiar, too, with Wenzel Jaksch's "Europe's Road to Potsdam," Donner knows that in 1948 the Communists merely gave the finishing touch to the Czech tragedy. It was initiated by the utterly shortsighted policy of the "shrewd diplomat" and is rooted in the events of 1918, namely, tJhe Peace Treaty of Saint Germain. This self-evident fact has long been recognized by observers genuinely conversant with Central European history. However, when historians living on the outskirts of the continent presently penetrate to the heart of the matter, such elucidation must be considered well-nigh sensational, particularly in lig'ht of Benes' hitherto spotless reputation in Scandinavia. Benes has been regarded - and still is throug1hout Norway and Denmark - as the upright standard-'bearer of European democracy until he was tricked by the contempti:ble Sudeten Germans and then by the vicious Communists. Though his policy is not usually examined, his fate is still deplored. Anyone who wants objectively to analyze recent Czech or Slovak history must study Jaksch's book. Unfortunately, when it comes to deflating the Benes legend, many historians silently circumvent certain significant events in Czech history. Jorn Donner is no exception in that respect. Yet tJhe fact is, that Czecho..:Slovakia was beyond salvage in 1948. The middle class and social democratic parties still in existence at that time were simply not equal to the task. Even had they possessed greater capa:bility, they could not have stemmed the tide. True, the mistakes made in 1948 were of a tactical nature. But no tactics, however clever, could have undone the basic failure of Benes in the wake of his trip to Moscow in May 1943 and even earlier. It is well-known that the trip resulted in the CzechSoviet alliance and in Moscow's approval to expropriate and drive out the 3,500,000 Sudeten German citizens of CzechoSlovakia. In 1919 at the Peace Conference of Saint Germain these citizens had been "allocated" to the CSR against their �24 SLOVAKIA wish; the right of self-determination , demanded by Benes and Masaryk for their own people, had rashly been refused the Sudeten Germans. Notwithstanding superficial assertions to the contrary, the truth is that during no phase of soi-disant Czecho-Slovak history did the majority of the Sudeten Germans aspire to "return home to the Reich"; they wanted self-administration , that natural right, held inalienable today even by the most primitive tribes in Africa or Asia, ( except for the Communist-domin ated areas, where such right is definitely tabu). However, the decisive conclusion is that Benes' politics quite logically had to terminate in Moscow's claws. Quite logically, for the 1918 establishment of the first Czech republic and its subsequent collapse (lies and deception being no stable foundation) were sponsored by, and were the inevitable outcome of that same Macchiavellism which later became Benes' ultimate wisdom. His pact with the Beelzebub of Moscow was therefore only a step consistent with his design for power to square accounts with t!he Devil of Sudeten Germandom "once and for all." The expulsion of 3,500,000 people from their ancient homeland, the brutal robbery perpetrated on all these unfortunates, was the final collapse of what had been left of Czech democracy. A state based upon deceit and intrigue, above all, on a denial to :three and one-half million of its citizens of the rig,ht of self-determination and se1f-administration, could not possibly be saved by means of robbery, without undermining the foundation of Czech liberty itself. • • • WHO SAID IT? "At this fatef.ul time, when the Reel. Army and the armies O'f the United States and other United Nations are figh:ting on German soiil, we can look foT1Ward with even greater confidence to the early defeat of the Nruzi aggressors and the atitruinment of our common go.al - a dUTa.ble a:nd just peace and a co:ntinuaruce of close coliaiboration between aJl the United Nations.'' - F. D. Roosevelt's oaJblegram, Noiv. 6, 1944, to the Soviet President on the occasion of the 27•th ainntversary of the foU1J1d!ing of the USSR. � 22 SLOVAKIA Once the Reds succeeded in liquidating the "unteachables," those who refused to follow the Party line, the remaining mmisters and priests had three paths to choose f.rom: (1) They could become ideological and practical collaborators with Communism, the road traveled by Jan Plojhar, a Catholic priest who, it is said, never wanted to be a priest in the first place, or Josef Hromadka, a Lutheran minister and Vice-President of the World Council of Reformed Churches (2). Like Archbishop Beran, having learned that compromise cannot work, this growp have become members of a resistance movement, (3) are those who have fallen in line with tfhe masses and when in Rome, do as the Romans do. Down through history persecutions have led to a deepening of religious life. In Czecho-Slovakia the government has had little success with its efforts to promote a substitute for religious activity in the form of youth initiation ceremonies, name-giving and the like. Perhaps an old Czech adage is again proving to be right: "When the spirit is drunk, God is forgotten. Only when trouble comes do we really learn to know Him." • • • NEW STRICTURES ON BENES Karl Kem Even outside Sudeten German circles Edward Benes' political genius is gradually being recognized for tfhe mere legend that it was. Czech hisltorians, too, are beginning to contribute to the truth. Josef Korbel's report "The Communist Subversion of Czechoslovakia 1938-1945" is additional proof to that effect. The book has received much publicity. MaJlmo's leading Swedish newspa,per Arbetet has published a lengthy review of it. 'l'lhe Neue Zurcher Zeitung takes ponderous stock of some of the mistakes made by Benes, "that shrewd diplomat," at a time when judicious people clearly foresaw "where friendship with Moscow would lead him and his country." The review in Arbetet was written by the young Fm.n Jorn Donner. The author who spent some weeks in Prague �SLOVAKIA 23 in spring 1959, where he ,rubbed elbows with the popufaition, was able to draw on personal observations. In evaluating the latest phase of Czech history, however, he does not rely solely on Czech sources. Being familiar, too, with Wenzel Jaksch's "Europe's Road to Potsdam," Donner knows that in 1948 the Communists merely gave the finishing touch to the Czech tragedy. It was initiated by the utterly shortsighted policy of the "shrewd diplomat" and is rooted in the events of 1918, namely, tJhe Peace Treaty of Saint Germain. This self-evident fact has long been recognized by observers genuinely conversant with Central European history. However, when historians living on the outskirts of the continent presently penetrate to the heart of the matter, such elucidation must be considered well-nigh sensational, particularly in lig'ht of Benes' hitherto spotless reputation in Scandinavia. Benes has been regarded - and still is throug1hout Norway and Denmark - as the upright standard-'bearer of European democracy until he was tricked by the contempti:ble Sudeten Germans and then by the vicious Communists. Though his policy is not usually examined, his fate is still deplored. Anyone who wants objectively to analyze recent Czech or Slovak history must study Jaksch's book. Unfortunately, when it comes to deflating the Benes legend, many historians silently circumvent certain significant events in Czech history. Jorn Donner is no exception in that respect. Yet tJhe fact is, that Czecho..:Slovakia was beyond salvage in 1948. The middle class and social democratic parties still in existence at that time were simply not equal to the task. Even had they possessed greater capa:bility, they could not have stemmed the tide. True, the mistakes made in 1948 were of a tactical nature. But no tactics, however clever, could have undone the basic failure of Benes in the wake of his trip to Moscow in May 1943 and even earlier. It is well-known that the trip resulted in the CzechSoviet alliance and in Moscow's approval to expropriate and drive out the 3,500,000 Sudeten German citizens of CzechoSlovakia. In 1919 at the Peace Conference of Saint Germain these citizens had been "allocated" to the CSR against their �24 SLOVAKIA wish; the right of self-determination , demanded by Benes and Masaryk for their own people, had rashly been refused the Sudeten Germans. Notwithstanding superficial assertions to the contrary, the truth is that during no phase of soi-disant Czecho-Slovak history did the majority of the Sudeten Germans aspire to "return home to the Reich"; they wanted self-administration , that natural right, held inalienable today even by the most primitive tribes in Africa or Asia, ( except for the Communist-domin ated areas, where such right is definitely tabu). However, the decisive conclusion is that Benes' politics quite logically had to terminate in Moscow's claws. Quite logically, for the 1918 establishment of the first Czech republic and its subsequent collapse (lies and deception being no stable foundation) were sponsored by, and were the inevitable outcome of that same Macchiavellism which later became Benes' ultimate wisdom. His pact with the Beelzebub of Moscow was therefore only a step consistent with his design for power to square accounts with t!he Devil of Sudeten Germandom "once and for all." The expulsion of 3,500,000 people from their ancient homeland, the brutal robbery perpetrated on all these unfortunates, was the final collapse of what had been left of Czech democracy. A state based upon deceit and intrigue, above all, on a denial to :three and one-half million of its citizens of the rig,ht of self-determination and se1f-administration, could not possibly be saved by means of robbery, without undermining the foundation of Czech liberty itself. • • • WHO SAID IT? "At this fatef.ul time, when the Reel. Army and the armies O'f the United States and other United Nations are figh:ting on German soiil, we can look foT1Ward with even greater confidence to the early defeat of the Nruzi aggressors and the atitruinment of our common go.al - a dUTa.ble a:nd just peace and a co:ntinuaruce of close coliaiboration between aJl the United Nations.'' - F. D. Roosevelt's oaJblegram, Noiv. 6, 1944, to the Soviet President on the occasion of the 27•th ainntversary of the foU1J1d!ing of the USSR. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to 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 22 SLOVAKIA Once the Reds succeeded in liquidating the "unteachables," those who refused to follow the Party line, the remaining mmisters and priests had three paths to choose f.rom: (1) They could become ideological and practical collaborators with Communism, the road traveled by Jan Plojhar, a Catholic priest who, it is said, never wanted to be a priest in the first place, or Josef Hromadka, a Lutheran minister and Vice-President of the World Council of Reformed Churches (2). Like Archbishop Beran, having learned that compromise cannot work, this growp have become members of a resistance movement, (3) are those who have fallen in line with tfhe masses and when in Rome, do as the Romans do. Down through history persecutions have led to a deepening of religious life. In Czecho-Slovakia the government has had little success with its efforts to promote a substitute for religious activity in the form of youth initiation ceremonies, name-giving and the like. Perhaps an old Czech adage is again proving to be right: "When the spirit is drunk, God is forgotten. Only when trouble comes do we really learn to know Him." • • • NEW STRICTURES ON BENES Karl Kem Even outside Sudeten German circles Edward Benes' political genius is gradually being recognized for tfhe mere legend that it was. Czech hisltorians, too, are beginning to contribute to the truth. Josef Korbel's report "The Communist Subversion of Czechoslovakia 1938-1945" is additional proof to that effect. The book has received much publicity. MaJlmo's leading Swedish newspa,per Arbetet has published a lengthy review of it. 'l'lhe Neue Zurcher Zeitung takes ponderous stock of some of the mistakes made by Benes, "that shrewd diplomat," at a time when judicious people clearly foresaw "where friendship with Moscow would lead him and his country." The review in Arbetet was written by the young Fm.n Jorn Donner. The author who spent some weeks in Prague SLOVAKIA 23 in spring 1959, where he ,rubbed elbows with the popufaition, was able to draw on personal observations. In evaluating the latest phase of Czech history, however, he does not rely solely on Czech sources. Being familiar, too, with Wenzel Jaksch's "Europe's Road to Potsdam," Donner knows that in 1948 the Communists merely gave the finishing touch to the Czech tragedy. It was initiated by the utterly shortsighted policy of the "shrewd diplomat" and is rooted in the events of 1918, namely, tJhe Peace Treaty of Saint Germain. This self-evident fact has long been recognized by observers genuinely conversant with Central European history. However, when historians living on the outskirts of the continent presently penetrate to the heart of the matter, such elucidation must be considered well-nigh sensational, particularly in lig'ht of Benes' hitherto spotless reputation in Scandinavia. Benes has been regarded - and still is throug1hout Norway and Denmark - as the upright standard-'bearer of European democracy until he was tricked by the contempti:ble Sudeten Germans and then by the vicious Communists. Though his policy is not usually examined, his fate is still deplored. Anyone who wants objectively to analyze recent Czech or Slovak history must study Jaksch's book. Unfortunately, when it comes to deflating the Benes legend, many historians silently circumvent certain significant events in Czech history. Jorn Donner is no exception in that respect. Yet tJhe fact is, that Czecho..:Slovakia was beyond salvage in 1948. The middle class and social democratic parties still in existence at that time were simply not equal to the task. Even had they possessed greater capa:bility, they could not have stemmed the tide. True, the mistakes made in 1948 were of a tactical nature. But no tactics, however clever, could have undone the basic failure of Benes in the wake of his trip to Moscow in May 1943 and even earlier. It is well-known that the trip resulted in the CzechSoviet alliance and in Moscow's approval to expropriate and drive out the 3,500,000 Sudeten German citizens of CzechoSlovakia. In 1919 at the Peace Conference of Saint Germain these citizens had been "allocated" to the CSR against their 24 SLOVAKIA wish; the right of self-determination , demanded by Benes and Masaryk for their own people, had rashly been refused the Sudeten Germans. Notwithstanding superficial assertions to the contrary, the truth is that during no phase of soi-disant Czecho-Slovak history did the majority of the Sudeten Germans aspire to "return home to the Reich"; they wanted self-administration , that natural right, held inalienable today even by the most primitive tribes in Africa or Asia, ( except for the Communist-domin ated areas, where such right is definitely tabu). However, the decisive conclusion is that Benes' politics quite logically had to terminate in Moscow's claws. Quite logically, for the 1918 establishment of the first Czech republic and its subsequent collapse (lies and deception being no stable foundation) were sponsored by, and were the inevitable outcome of that same Macchiavellism which later became Benes' ultimate wisdom. His pact with the Beelzebub of Moscow was therefore only a step consistent with his design for power to square accounts with t!he Devil of Sudeten Germandom "once and for all." The expulsion of 3,500,000 people from their ancient homeland, the brutal robbery perpetrated on all these unfortunates, was the final collapse of what had been left of Czech democracy. A state based upon deceit and intrigue, above all, on a denial to :three and one-half million of its citizens of the rig,ht of self-determination and se1f-administration, could not possibly be saved by means of robbery, without undermining the foundation of Czech liberty itself. • • • WHO SAID IT? "At this fatef.ul time, when the Reel. Army and the armies O'f the United States and other United Nations are figh:ting on German soiil, we can look foT1Ward with even greater confidence to the early defeat of the Nruzi aggressors and the atitruinment of our common go.al - a dUTa.ble a:nd just peace and a co:ntinuaruce of close coliaiboration between aJl the United Nations.'' - F. D. Roosevelt's oaJblegram, Noiv. 6, 1944, to the Soviet President on the occasion of the 27•th ainntversary of the foU1J1d!ing of the USSR.  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource New Strictures on Beneš Description An account of the resource Karl Kern Slovakia, Vol. 10, No. 7 (32), September-December 1960 pp. 22-24 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Kern, Karl 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/445e73f92086848920fa0e59b230ac7f.pdf 95ca621af0286949d3bcf9d53f14cadb PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA 49 NO AGRE EMENT WJTH 'rHE CZECHS D R. JO SEPH KIR SCHBAU M 'ťhe group of Czech emlgres, which still has on its program the -ene wal of the Versailles organlzation of Centra! Europe and thereby .ilso holdiag its overrule over Slovakia, recently declared to the lnternatlonal public that the Czechs have come to an agreement wlth the -Slovaks on a joint polltlcal program. AU such statements are in conflict wlth the truth. To make it ring true, the statement was made to tbe American press by a Czech politlcian of Slovak orlgin, Dr. Juraj Slá.vlk, and In other lands tbe same announcement was made by persona who date their political careers from 1945 - when they were unexpectedly pusbed to the top by a wave of collaboration wlth the Communists and then in 1948 under suspicious circumstances came to tbe western world. In the ínterest of truth and decency, it ls necessary that this willful and consclous deceptlon of the interuational public be exposed, because in polillcs the princi ple "do not resist evil" does not hold and sllence does not remove responsibility. W HO CA M E T O AN A GREE M E N T ? From in[orme.:1 places reports have become public that an agreemen t ot a fraction of Czech emigres, beaded by Dr. Peter Zenkl. was reached with a still sma11er and politlca11y more insignificant group ot Slovak emigres, headed by Dr. Joseph Letlrich and Dr. John Pa-pá.nek. This was painted up as an "agreement ot the Ctechs a•1:1 Slovaks." Actually such an agreement does not exist. The statement that such au egreement was concluded had w other purpose, according to informed persons, than lo get furt.ber financial aid from The Natlonal Committee for a Free Europe and tbtc prorongatlon of visitors' vlza from American authorlties. Tbis was polnted out very clearly by a former deputy of the Slovak Democratic Party, Dr. Michael Zibrin, who is very well acquainted with the persons and the condltions in the camp of the so-called "CZECHO· SLOVAK" emlgratlon because of his long collaboratlon wlth thestpeople In the Prague parliament and also in exile. But even if tbese tractions of Czech and Slovak emigres did conclude an agreement ancl succeecled in getting Dr. Stephen Osu,iky to head the Centra) Committee, to designate this as an "agreement ol the Czechs and Slovaks" with a claim to speak ln the name of the Czech and Slovak nations, is at best an attempt to deceive the international public. After an, the right to conclude polltical agreements, whlch would be. binding on Czechs and Slovaks a.l!ke, is not had by Dr. Zenkľs g:roup and is not Pven had by the several S lovak emigres. who are wandering about the western world defending the idea of ::i Czeehoslovak state, because they do not represent the free will or the Slovak nation, but only themselves, or as Colonel Miksche so aptly put it la.st November in the World Review: "The few Slovak „:nigrants wanderlng about tbe West and advocatlng the Idea of a ;r;echoslovak State do not represent the free wlll of the Slovak people; · hey do not represent anythlng but thernselves," �óO SLOVAKIA. Tbere are several thousands of each group of emlgres - Slovak and Ozecb - whicb are represented by varlous politlcal partles and polltical tendencies of the Czech and Slovak natlons. Without error and deceptlon lt 1s imposslble to prove by any mathema.tlcal rules that the Zenkl and the Lettrlch groups really represent the ma,Jority of polltlcal representa.tlves in the Czech and the ,Slovak emlgratlon, and so much the less such a politlca.l representa.tion whlch would reflect at least to a marked degree the polltica.l efforts and interests of the Slovaks. At the same tlme the adherents of these groups are without exceptlon morally and politlcally disquallfled not only In the eyes of the Slova.ks, but even in the eyes of the Czechs. They are "the men who brought Communism to Czechoalovakia, who are responaible for the plight of the Czec h and S lovak natlons" and, there. fore, "people are very annoyed whe n they hear of emigré pollciea and the Czech Rada ( Counci l) in America" (Intelllgence Digest, May, 1952). TH E PROBLEM OF THE EXISTENCE OF CZECHO-SLOVAKIA At the quest1on of any kind of agreement of Czech and Slovak emigrant groups regarding the contlnued exlstence of Czecho,Siova.kia after the liberation of Centra! Europe we must, however, Jook !rom another angle. Does the exlstence of the State, which was "an art!• !lcial product of a peace conference - a child of propaganda - and 50 per cent of whose inhabitants was In oppositlon against its existence" (World Review), have any polltlcal motivatlon? Over 80 per cent of the Slovak emigratlon, and certainly no less of the inhabitants of Slovakia, wlll answer in the negatlve under any and all condltlons. "The Slovak people are today at least to the extent of 80 per cent fanatlcally antt-<:zech," states Colonel Miksche. And even on the Czech side today, lt 1s not only the group around General Lev P rchala, but even Prof. Bohdan Chudoba, C-01. Miksche and - lf we can belleve the NEW YORKSKÝ DENNÍK, which ls the most fana.tlcal supporter of the renewal of Czecho-Slovakla - even many members of the Councll of F\ree Czechoslovakla place a question mark after the problem ot the future of the Czecho-.Slovak Republic. Not so long ago nelther Dr. Stephen Osuský, nor Dr. Stránsky did not deny In their wrltten ma.ni· festatlons that Centra! Europe needs a dlfferent organlzation than that given it by the Versailles statute. Wlth the Versallles statute, however, loglcally must fall also the Czecho-Slovak State, whlch was the creation and piliar of the Versallles organlzatlon In the Danuhe Basin. THE SLOVAK CONCEPTION OF DANUBE COOPERATION No matter hpw much Czecb or other groups mlght deslre it, there can be no talk a.bout any klnd of an agreement between the Czechs and the Slova.ks In regard to the future of both natlons In the Czecho-Slovak State. For the overwhelml_ng majority ot the Slovak natlon, the Czechoslovak State was a definlte evolutionary station, after whlch the present Slovak generatlon has deflnltely pla.ced a perlod. It ls flnlshed buslness. And that not only because Czech polltlcs was unjust and shortslgbted towa.rd the Slova.ks In ma.ny respects, but above all else because the Slovaks know that the Czecbs ťannot guarantee thelr future. The contemporary Slovak generatlon �SLOVAKIA 61 belleves that economic prosperity and national security can better be sa;fei uarded only in t he broader framework of a Centro-E uropean confederatlon composed of eth nic member States and by Slovak lndepende nce. This conceptlon has already been presented in detail on dlfferent occasions -b y Slovak polltlcal represenetatlves; 1t was prompted not on ly by Slovak lnterests, but also by the hlstorical development or t he Danub e Basin, lts natural geopolltical Jaws an d European lnterests. lf the Czech emigratlon accepts t his basis, certalnly t here shall be no opposition trom the Slovaks to conclude a federal agreement even wlth the Czech natlon, e ven though tbe Slovaks bave thus far a sad experience with three political agreements, concluded with Czech politlclans in -the past 35 years. "Pacta sunt servanda" !s somethlng unkn5>wn In Czech polltics as far as the Slovaks are concerned. Any other solution of t he Slovak question than that noted here would have to be forc ed on the Slovak nation. How Jong would 1t last, however, in the nelghborhood of Germany and Russla, an d in face of th'e oppositlon of not only th e Slovaks, but also tbe rest of the nat ions of t he Danube Basin of which not a single one deslres a renewal of the Versal))es order? In accord with the truth, therefore, it can be said in regard to the n ew attempt of the Czec h amigration to decelve t he lnternatlona l public with pronouncements about an agreemen t between the Czechs and the Slovaks, that "to t a lk about the reatoration of Czec hoelovakia ·n·owadays ia p lai n nonsense" {World Review) . • • • DR. BENES SOLD OUT TO TIIE KREMLJN R. UMIASTOWSKI (The following is an extract from the book " POLANiD, RUSSIA \ ND OREAT BRITAIN 1941- 1945" - a study of evidence - by R Umiastowski, which was published in November 1946 by Hollls and Carter, London. The author shows that Benes coJlaborated wlth tbe Stalinmen even against P oland.) • * • * T he results of the Moscow and Teheran Conferences and the s ubs'equent resolutions concerning the territorial changes about to be e ffected, were not pub llshed and only filtered slowly through the Press. It was a few months before it became generaJly known for 1nstance, that after the war Europe - not only Germany, but a\1 Europe (except, perhaps, the few neutrals on ber outskirts) - was to come under the occupation of the three Great Powers The Russians were to stay in Poland, Rumania, Hungary, Czecho-Slovakia and In Germany as far as the rlver Oder, or perhaps the Elbe; the Americans would occupy navaria, Wurtemburg and Saxony and the British the remalnder of Germany. It could not be clearer -· Poland after the war was to be in the hands of the Kremlin. The secret agreements at Moscow a1td Teheran were explained by the subsequent policy of the Powers, or rather by tbe policy of t he .SO;v,iets, As prevlously mentioned, the details o! the dec•is ions were still � SLOVAKIA 49 NO AGRE EMENT WJTH 'rHE CZECHS D R. JO SEPH KIR SCHBAU M 'ťhe group of Czech emlgres, which still has on its program the -ene wal of the Versailles organlzation of Centra! Europe and thereby .ilso holdiag its overrule over Slovakia, recently declared to the lnternatlonal public that the Czechs have come to an agreement wlth the -Slovaks on a joint polltlcal program. AU such statements are in conflict wlth the truth. To make it ring true, the statement was made to tbe American press by a Czech politlcian of Slovak orlgin, Dr. Juraj Slá.vlk, and In other lands tbe same announcement was made by persona who date their political careers from 1945 - when they were unexpectedly pusbed to the top by a wave of collaboration wlth the Communists and then in 1948 under suspicious circumstances came to tbe western world. In the ínterest of truth and decency, it ls necessary that this willful and consclous deceptlon of the interuational public be exposed, because in polillcs the princi ple "do not resist evil" does not hold and sllence does not remove responsibility. W HO CA M E T O AN A GREE M E N T ? From in[orme.:1 places reports have become public that an agreemen t ot a fraction of Czech emigres, beaded by Dr. Peter Zenkl. was reached with a still sma11er and politlca11y more insignificant group ot Slovak emigres, headed by Dr. Joseph Letlrich and Dr. John Pa-pá.nek. This was painted up as an "agreement ot the Ctechs a•1:1 Slovaks." Actually such an agreement does not exist. The statement that such au egreement was concluded had w other purpose, according to informed persons, than lo get furt.ber financial aid from The Natlonal Committee for a Free Europe and tbtc prorongatlon of visitors' vlza from American authorlties. Tbis was polnted out very clearly by a former deputy of the Slovak Democratic Party, Dr. Michael Zibrin, who is very well acquainted with the persons and the condltions in the camp of the so-called "CZECHO· SLOVAK" emlgratlon because of his long collaboratlon wlth thestpeople In the Prague parliament and also in exile. But even if tbese tractions of Czech and Slovak emigres did conclude an agreement ancl succeecled in getting Dr. Stephen Osu,iky to head the Centra) Committee, to designate this as an "agreement ol the Czechs and Slovaks" with a claim to speak ln the name of the Czech and Slovak nations, is at best an attempt to deceive the international public. After an, the right to conclude polltical agreements, whlch would be. binding on Czechs and Slovaks a.l!ke, is not had by Dr. Zenkľs g:roup and is not Pven had by the several S lovak emigres. who are wandering about the western world defending the idea of ::i Czeehoslovak state, because they do not represent the free will or the Slovak nation, but only themselves, or as Colonel Miksche so aptly put it la.st November in the World Review: "The few Slovak „:nigrants wanderlng about tbe West and advocatlng the Idea of a ;r;echoslovak State do not represent the free wlll of the Slovak people; · hey do not represent anythlng but thernselves," �óO SLOVAKIA. Tbere are several thousands of each group of emlgres - Slovak and Ozecb - whicb are represented by varlous politlcal partles and polltical tendencies of the Czech and Slovak natlons. Without error and deceptlon lt 1s imposslble to prove by any mathema.tlcal rules that the Zenkl and the Lettrlch groups really represent the ma,Jority of polltlcal representa.tlves in the Czech and the ,Slovak emlgratlon, and so much the less such a politlca.l representa.tion whlch would reflect at least to a marked degree the polltica.l efforts and interests of the Slovaks. At the same tlme the adherents of these groups are without exceptlon morally and politlcally disquallfled not only In the eyes of the Slova.ks, but even in the eyes of the Czechs. They are "the men who brought Communism to Czechoalovakia, who are responaible for the plight of the Czec h and S lovak natlons" and, there. fore, "people are very annoyed whe n they hear of emigré pollciea and the Czech Rada ( Counci l) in America" (Intelllgence Digest, May, 1952). TH E PROBLEM OF THE EXISTENCE OF CZECHO-SLOVAKIA At the quest1on of any kind of agreement of Czech and Slovak emigrant groups regarding the contlnued exlstence of Czecho,Siova.kia after the liberation of Centra! Europe we must, however, Jook !rom another angle. Does the exlstence of the State, which was "an art!• !lcial product of a peace conference - a child of propaganda - and 50 per cent of whose inhabitants was In oppositlon against its existence" (World Review), have any polltlcal motivatlon? Over 80 per cent of the Slovak emigratlon, and certainly no less of the inhabitants of Slovakia, wlll answer in the negatlve under any and all condltlons. "The Slovak people are today at least to the extent of 80 per cent fanatlcally antt-<:zech," states Colonel Miksche. And even on the Czech side today, lt 1s not only the group around General Lev P rchala, but even Prof. Bohdan Chudoba, C-01. Miksche and - lf we can belleve the NEW YORKSKÝ DENNÍK, which ls the most fana.tlcal supporter of the renewal of Czecho-Slovakla - even many members of the Councll of F\ree Czechoslovakla place a question mark after the problem ot the future of the Czecho-.Slovak Republic. Not so long ago nelther Dr. Stephen Osuský, nor Dr. Stránsky did not deny In their wrltten ma.ni· festatlons that Centra! Europe needs a dlfferent organlzation than that given it by the Versailles statute. Wlth the Versallles statute, however, loglcally must fall also the Czecho-Slovak State, whlch was the creation and piliar of the Versallles organlzatlon In the Danuhe Basin. THE SLOVAK CONCEPTION OF DANUBE COOPERATION No matter hpw much Czecb or other groups mlght deslre it, there can be no talk a.bout any klnd of an agreement between the Czechs and the Slova.ks In regard to the future of both natlons In the Czecho-Slovak State. For the overwhelml_ng majority ot the Slovak natlon, the Czechoslovak State was a definlte evolutionary station, after whlch the present Slovak generatlon has deflnltely pla.ced a perlod. It ls flnlshed buslness. And that not only because Czech polltlcs was unjust and shortslgbted towa.rd the Slova.ks In ma.ny respects, but above all else because the Slovaks know that the Czecbs ťannot guarantee thelr future. The contemporary Slovak generatlon �SLOVAKIA 61 belleves that economic prosperity and national security can better be sa;fei uarded only in t he broader framework of a Centro-E uropean confederatlon composed of eth nic member States and by Slovak lndepende nce. This conceptlon has already been presented in detail on dlfferent occasions -b y Slovak polltlcal represenetatlves; 1t was prompted not on ly by Slovak lnterests, but also by the hlstorical development or t he Danub e Basin, lts natural geopolltical Jaws an d European lnterests. lf the Czech emigratlon accepts t his basis, certalnly t here shall be no opposition trom the Slovaks to conclude a federal agreement even wlth the Czech natlon, e ven though tbe Slovaks bave thus far a sad experience with three political agreements, concluded with Czech politlclans in -the past 35 years. "Pacta sunt servanda" !s somethlng unkn5>wn In Czech polltics as far as the Slovaks are concerned. Any other solution of t he Slovak question than that noted here would have to be forc ed on the Slovak nation. How Jong would 1t last, however, in the nelghborhood of Germany and Russla, an d in face of th'e oppositlon of not only th e Slovaks, but also tbe rest of the nat ions of t he Danube Basin of which not a single one deslres a renewal of the Versal))es order? In accord with the truth, therefore, it can be said in regard to the n ew attempt of the Czec h amigration to decelve t he lnternatlona l public with pronouncements about an agreemen t between the Czechs and the Slovaks, that "to t a lk about the reatoration of Czec hoelovakia ·n·owadays ia p lai n nonsense" {World Review) . • • • DR. BENES SOLD OUT TO TIIE KREMLJN R. UMIASTOWSKI (The following is an extract from the book " POLANiD, RUSSIA \ ND OREAT BRITAIN 1941- 1945" - a study of evidence - by R Umiastowski, which was published in November 1946 by Hollls and Carter, London. The author shows that Benes coJlaborated wlth tbe Stalinmen even against P oland.) • * • * T he results of the Moscow and Teheran Conferences and the s ubs'equent resolutions concerning the territorial changes about to be e ffected, were not pub llshed and only filtered slowly through the Press. It was a few months before it became generaJly known for 1nstance, that after the war Europe - not only Germany, but a\1 Europe (except, perhaps, the few neutrals on ber outskirts) - was to come under the occupation of the three Great Powers The Russians were to stay in Poland, Rumania, Hungary, Czecho-Slovakia and In Germany as far as the rlver Oder, or perhaps the Elbe; the Americans would occupy navaria, Wurtemburg and Saxony and the British the remalnder of Germany. It could not be clearer -· Poland after the war was to be in the hands of the Kremlin. The secret agreements at Moscow a1td Teheran were explained by the subsequent policy of the Powers, or rather by tbe policy of t he .SO;v,iets, As prevlously mentioned, the details o! the dec•is ions were still � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to 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 49 NO AGRE EMENT WJTH 'rHE CZECHS D R. JO SEPH KIR SCHBAU M 'ťhe group of Czech emlgres, which still has on its program the -ene wal of the Versailles organlzation of Centra! Europe and thereby .ilso holdiag its overrule over Slovakia, recently declared to the lnternatlonal public that the Czechs have come to an agreement wlth the -Slovaks on a joint polltlcal program. AU such statements are in conflict wlth the truth. To make it ring true, the statement was made to tbe American press by a Czech politlcian of Slovak orlgin, Dr. Juraj Slá.vlk, and In other lands tbe same announcement was made by persona who date their political careers from 1945 - when they were unexpectedly pusbed to the top by a wave of collaboration wlth the Communists and then in 1948 under suspicious circumstances came to tbe western world. In the ínterest of truth and decency, it ls necessary that this willful and consclous deceptlon of the interuational public be exposed, because in polillcs the princi ple "do not resist evil" does not hold and sllence does not remove responsibility. W HO CA M E T O AN A GREE M E N T ? From in[orme.:1 places reports have become public that an agreemen t ot a fraction of Czech emigres, beaded by Dr. Peter Zenkl. was reached with a still sma11er and politlca11y more insignificant group ot Slovak emigres, headed by Dr. Joseph Letlrich and Dr. John Pa-pá.nek. This was painted up as an "agreement ot the Ctechs a•1:1 Slovaks." Actually such an agreement does not exist. The statement that such au egreement was concluded had w other purpose, according to informed persons, than lo get furt.ber financial aid from The Natlonal Committee for a Free Europe and tbtc prorongatlon of visitors' vlza from American authorlties. Tbis was polnted out very clearly by a former deputy of the Slovak Democratic Party, Dr. Michael Zibrin, who is very well acquainted with the persons and the condltions in the camp of the so-called "CZECHO· SLOVAK" emlgratlon because of his long collaboratlon wlth thestpeople In the Prague parliament and also in exile. But even if tbese tractions of Czech and Slovak emigres did conclude an agreement ancl succeecled in getting Dr. Stephen Osu,iky to head the Centra) Committee, to designate this as an "agreement ol the Czechs and Slovaks" with a claim to speak ln the name of the Czech and Slovak nations, is at best an attempt to deceive the international public. After an, the right to conclude polltical agreements, whlch would be. binding on Czechs and Slovaks a.l!ke, is not had by Dr. Zenkľs g:roup and is not Pven had by the several S lovak emigres. who are wandering about the western world defending the idea of ::i Czeehoslovak state, because they do not represent the free will or the Slovak nation, but only themselves, or as Colonel Miksche so aptly put it la.st November in the World Review: "The few Slovak „:nigrants wanderlng about tbe West and advocatlng the Idea of a ;r;echoslovak State do not represent the free wlll of the Slovak people; · hey do not represent anythlng but thernselves," óO SLOVAKIA. Tbere are several thousands of each group of emlgres - Slovak and Ozecb - whicb are represented by varlous politlcal partles and polltical tendencies of the Czech and Slovak natlons. Without error and deceptlon lt 1s imposslble to prove by any mathema.tlcal rules that the Zenkl and the Lettrlch groups really represent the ma,Jority of polltlcal representa.tlves in the Czech and the ,Slovak emlgratlon, and so much the less such a politlca.l representa.tion whlch would reflect at least to a marked degree the polltica.l efforts and interests of the Slovaks. At the same tlme the adherents of these groups are without exceptlon morally and politlcally disquallfled not only In the eyes of the Slova.ks, but even in the eyes of the Czechs. They are "the men who brought Communism to Czechoalovakia, who are responaible for the plight of the Czec h and S lovak natlons" and, there. fore, "people are very annoyed whe n they hear of emigré pollciea and the Czech Rada ( Counci l) in America" (Intelllgence Digest, May, 1952). TH E PROBLEM OF THE EXISTENCE OF CZECHO-SLOVAKIA At the quest1on of any kind of agreement of Czech and Slovak emigrant groups regarding the contlnued exlstence of Czecho,Siova.kia after the liberation of Centra! Europe we must, however, Jook !rom another angle. Does the exlstence of the State, which was "an art!• !lcial product of a peace conference - a child of propaganda - and 50 per cent of whose inhabitants was In oppositlon against its existence" (World Review), have any polltlcal motivatlon? Over 80 per cent of the Slovak emigratlon, and certainly no less of the inhabitants of Slovakia, wlll answer in the negatlve under any and all condltlons. "The Slovak people are today at least to the extent of 80 per cent fanatlcally antt-<:zech," states Colonel Miksche. And even on the Czech side today, lt 1s not only the group around General Lev P rchala, but even Prof. Bohdan Chudoba, C-01. Miksche and - lf we can belleve the NEW YORKSKÝ DENNÍK, which ls the most fana.tlcal supporter of the renewal of Czecho-Slovakla - even many members of the Councll of F\ree Czechoslovakla place a question mark after the problem ot the future of the Czecho-.Slovak Republic. Not so long ago nelther Dr. Stephen Osuský, nor Dr. Stránsky did not deny In their wrltten ma.ni· festatlons that Centra! Europe needs a dlfferent organlzation than that given it by the Versailles statute. Wlth the Versallles statute, however, loglcally must fall also the Czecho-Slovak State, whlch was the creation and piliar of the Versallles organlzatlon In the Danuhe Basin. THE SLOVAK CONCEPTION OF DANUBE COOPERATION No matter hpw much Czecb or other groups mlght deslre it, there can be no talk a.bout any klnd of an agreement between the Czechs and the Slova.ks In regard to the future of both natlons In the Czecho-Slovak State. For the overwhelml_ng majority ot the Slovak natlon, the Czechoslovak State was a definlte evolutionary station, after whlch the present Slovak generatlon has deflnltely pla.ced a perlod. It ls flnlshed buslness. And that not only because Czech polltlcs was unjust and shortslgbted towa.rd the Slova.ks In ma.ny respects, but above all else because the Slovaks know that the Czecbs ťannot guarantee thelr future. The contemporary Slovak generatlon SLOVAKIA 61 belleves that economic prosperity and national security can better be sa;fei uarded only in t he broader framework of a Centro-E uropean confederatlon composed of eth nic member States and by Slovak lndepende nce. This conceptlon has already been presented in detail on dlfferent occasions -b y Slovak polltlcal represenetatlves; 1t was prompted not on ly by Slovak lnterests, but also by the hlstorical development or t he Danub e Basin, lts natural geopolltical Jaws an d European lnterests. lf the Czech emigratlon accepts t his basis, certalnly t here shall be no opposition trom the Slovaks to conclude a federal agreement even wlth the Czech natlon, e ven though tbe Slovaks bave thus far a sad experience with three political agreements, concluded with Czech politlclans in -the past 35 years. "Pacta sunt servanda" !s somethlng unkn5>wn In Czech polltics as far as the Slovaks are concerned. Any other solution of t he Slovak question than that noted here would have to be forc ed on the Slovak nation. How Jong would 1t last, however, in the nelghborhood of Germany and Russla, an d in face of th'e oppositlon of not only th e Slovaks, but also tbe rest of the nat ions of t he Danube Basin of which not a single one deslres a renewal of the Versal))es order? In accord with the truth, therefore, it can be said in regard to the n ew attempt of the Czec h amigration to decelve t he lnternatlona l public with pronouncements about an agreemen t between the Czechs and the Slovaks, that "to t a lk about the reatoration of Czec hoelovakia ·n·owadays ia p lai n nonsense" {World Review) . • • • DR. BENES SOLD OUT TO TIIE KREMLJN R. UMIASTOWSKI (The following is an extract from the book " POLANiD, RUSSIA \ ND OREAT BRITAIN 1941- 1945" - a study of evidence - by R Umiastowski, which was published in November 1946 by Hollls and Carter, London. The author shows that Benes coJlaborated wlth tbe Stalinmen even against P oland.) • * • * T he results of the Moscow and Teheran Conferences and the s ubs'equent resolutions concerning the territorial changes about to be e ffected, were not pub llshed and only filtered slowly through the Press. It was a few months before it became generaJly known for 1nstance, that after the war Europe - not only Germany, but a\1 Europe (except, perhaps, the few neutrals on ber outskirts) - was to come under the occupation of the three Great Powers The Russians were to stay in Poland, Rumania, Hungary, Czecho-Slovakia and In Germany as far as the rlver Oder, or perhaps the Elbe; the Americans would occupy navaria, Wurtemburg and Saxony and the British the remalnder of Germany. It could not be clearer -· Poland after the war was to be in the hands of the Kremlin. The secret agreements at Moscow a1td Teheran were explained by the subsequent policy of the Powers, or rather by tbe policy of t he .SO;v,iets, As prevlously mentioned, the details o! the dec•is ions were still  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource No Agreement with the Czechs Description An account of the resource Dr. Joseph Kirschbaum Slovakia, Vol. 2, No. 2 (4), August 1952 pp. 49-51 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 August 1952 SNK https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/329328bd44102fc8e3fc31826c3d7211.pdf ada238b3dd98531f7a084d213a4f9584 PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA 181 ,J.. M. Ki rs ch b au m, Ph.D.: Noted Slovak Jubilarians Andrej Z a r n o v "Les elites emigrees vivent tragiquement. Elles sont contraintes a une vie hasardeuse, solitaire, humiliee. Elles sont amenees par l'exil a l'epreuve a reviser leurs valeurs, et a en connaitre ou a en creer d'autres ... " Albert Thibaudet, Histoire de la litterature fra~aise de 1780 a nos jours, Paris, 1936. Since 1945, when Slovakia was overrun by the Soviet armies and subject to communist rule, a number of poets and writers left their native land in protest against political oppression in their homeland and with the intention of working in the free world for freedom and independence of their country. This political mission is especially true with regard to the emigre writers and poets who left Slovakia in 1945-1949 among whom were several of the leading Slovak writers and poets. A similar example can be found mutatis mutandis only in 19th century Poland, when after the revolution of 1830 the best Polish poets (Mickiewicz, Krasinski, Slowacki) and a number of writers and intellectuals escaped the Russians and made Paris the center of Polish literature. The fate of Slovak poets and writers was, of course, not as favorable as that of Polish "grande emigration." Some of the more prominent Slovak writers were soon captured in Austria and brought back to Slovakia and imprisoned (Milo Urban, A. zarnov, Tido J. Gaspar) while others had to fight against false denunciations and other pressures, in order to survive and create. In spite of this, "the 50 odd Slovak men of letters living on this side of the Iron Curtain kept the lights of Slovak culture burning while they were out of their native country. This may sound emotional or sentimental, yet it is a sad truth that in the years 1950-55 there hardly appeared in Slovakia a single book worthy of reading. In those years indeed the emigre literature was the contemporary Slovak literature." 1 �182 SLOVAKIA Slovak poets and writers in exile continued to play especially the role of the "conscience of the nation" and that of interpreters of the aspirations of the Slovak people, traditionally assumed by Slovak poets and writers. More than in any other nation, not only the national rebirth was the work of Slovak poets and writers, but also the struggle for political rights and social justice; the first national rebellion was led by them, and they kept the national spirit alive in time of despair. Since the time when the poet Jan Holly (1785-1849) awakened the Slovak intelligentsia by unveiling to them the glorious past of Slovak ancestors in the Great Moravian period, and by giving them hope for a better future, Slovak poetry was an instrument of the national struggle, an expression of the national ideals and hopes, of national sufferings and joy. The poets and writers were the heralds and prophets of a new and better world, often being also social revolutionary leaders. This tradition was cultivated in Slovak literature over the past one hundred and fifty years and was even strengthened during the crucial years of Slovakia's national struggle in this century. Slovak poets and writers in exile have not considered themselves exempt from this special mission. On the contrary, exile made them more patriotic and the sufferings of the Slovak people more conscious of their duty to be the "conscience" of their nation and the interpreters of the aspiration of the Slovak people. In the countryside of New York State, one of the best contemporary Slovak poets, Andrej zarnov (by his own name Prof. Frantisek subik), attained on November 19, 1973 the prestigous age of 70. If the present Slovak generations owe a tribute to any poet for his participation in the struggle for national rights and equality with other nations, Andrej zarnov deserves such recognition from Slovaks abroad as well as in Slovakia. Born in 1903 in the village of Kuklov in Western Slovakia, zarnov remained proud of his rural heritage even when he achieved the position of University Professor of Pathology and high recognition from critics and readers for his literary work. He made his secondary studies in Skalica and Trnava and his study of medicine in Bratislava where he was active in student organizations and became �SLOVAKIA 183 well-known for his fiery verses already during his university years. In 1926, :2:arnov accompanied Msgr. Andrej Hlinka on the triumphant journey around the United States. At that time neither zarnov nor the American Slovaks could expect that after the dramatic events of the Second World War, he would return to the United States as an exile, persecuted for his patriotism and his part in the International Red Cross Commission which examined during the Second World War the brutal massacre of 10,000 Polish officers by the Soviets in Katyn. zarnov left Slovakia in 1945, but he was forcibly "repatriated" from Austria, arrested and jailed. In 1952 he left Slovakia in a dramatic flight and settled first near Washington and later at Wingdale, N. Y. where he lives presently with his family. 2 ZARNOV'S WORK AND PLACE IN SLOVAK LITERATURE Perhaps to no other country more than to Slovakia is the statement of historians applicable, that in Central and Eastern European national movements were the concern of poets, writers and scholars and that they created the nationalities. Not only was the national rebirth the work of Slovak poets and writers, but also the struggle for political rights and social justice; the first national rebellion was led by them, and they kept the national spirit alive in time of despair. Since the first great Slovak poet, Jan Holly (1785-1849) awakened the Slovak intelligentsia by unveiling to them the glorious past of Slovak ancestors and by giving them a strong faith in a better future of the Slovak people, Slovak poetry was an instrument of national struggle, an expression of the national idea, national sufferings, joys, and hopes. The poets and writers were the heralds and prophets of a new and better world; they were social revolutionaries and national leaders. This tradition was respected in Slovak literature over the past one hundred years, and during the crucial years of Slovak national struggle in this century the role was played by Andrej :2:arnov more prominently than by any other Slovak poet, except for Martin Razus. Andrej :2:arnov appeared in Slovak literature in a period when the Slovak people fought their harsh struggle (against �184 SLOVAKIA the Czech assimilatory tendencies) for preserving their language, national identity and cultural heritage. It was the period of the 20's and 30's of this century, when on one hand Slovakia experienced a strong cultural development, but was at the same time forced into an uneven struggle for her national future, for social justice and political and economic equality. The danger of this situation was not only in the preponderance of means and political power or in the fact that Slovaks were far outnumbered by Czechs, but also in the fact that the masses of the Slovak people were going through the final phase of the process of maturing politically and the Slovak intelligentsia was in cultural and ideological ferment. In this national struggle Zarnov came with his fiery verses full of faith in the Slovak people and his vitality, adYocating national solidarity and protesting against the Czech attempts to rule, exploit and denationalize the Slovak people. At the same time, his poetry dared Slovaks to defend themselves, to stand firmly on their feet and not bow, not to yield. It was a revolutionary call for political and social justice, for national pride and honor which very soon found a favorable echo among the young Slovak intelligentsia and made Zarnov, since he identified himself with his nation's aspirations, sorrows and sufferings, the poet of the Slovak national struggle, and of Slovak patriotism. There was an outburst of poetic production in Slovakia between the two wars, but only Zarnov (besides M. Razus) stood on the barricades of Slovak national struggle with his patriotic poems, his forceful indignation, with his spiritual roots in the national tradition and fervent belief in the victory of the Slovak cause. Zarnov's fiery poetry, after being largely recited and published in periodicals and dailies, had been edited in several volumes. The first one, Strdz pri Morave (The Guard on Morava, 1925) was composed of verses expressing the poet's and his generation's political and spiritual orientation and provoked even the political censors to intervene. The second volwne Brdzda cez uhory (The Furrow Through Fallows, 1929) contained rather meditative and lyrical poetry enquiring into the spiritual ferment and restlessness of the poet's generation. While in the first volwne Zarnov created of his poetry an effective instrument for Slovak �SLOVAKIA 185 national struggle, in the second volume he turned his eyes to the soul of the people he inflamed to struggle and bitterly analyzed its conscience. The third volume Hlas krvi (The Call of the Blood, 1932) and the following volume stit (The Shield, 1940) still contained verses of patriotic inspirations; his last volume Mftvy (The Dead, 1941) contains, however, poetry of deep personal sorrow and refine lyrics inspired by the untimely death of his young son. The profile of a patriotic revolutionary and interpreter of the nation's aspirations and struggle was thus completed in z arnov's last volume by poetry of deep human feelings and meditations. In all his volumes, zarnov preferred rather simple poetic forms, including the free verse. The rhythm of his poetry and his vocabulary were of great effectiveness and from the very beginning it indicated a strong talent. His books are, of course, on the index in Slovakia, but some of his verses are among the most recited by Slovaks in the free world, in which zarnov found refuge after the Communists seized power in Slovakia. ZARNOV'S TRANSLATIONS FROM WORLD LITERATURES zarnov enriched, however, Slovak literature also by many masterful translations of lyrics, epics and dramas. His first translations go back to 1933-34 at which time zarnov published in Slovak dailies and periodicals his version of Przerwa-Tetmajer Jdnosikove motivy (Janosik's Motives). In 1936 zarnov translated for the Slovak National Theatre the well-known play from the life of F. Chopin and Georges Sand Leto v Nohante (The Summer in Nohant) by J. Iwaszkiewicz. A year after, Matica slovenska published Sophocles' Antigona in zarnov's translation and in 1941 King Oedipus. The same year zarnov translated for the Slovak National Theatre the libretto of the opera Rusalka and in 1943 his translation of Zygmunt Krasinski's Nebozskd komedia (The Undivine Comedy) was published by Matica slovenska. After the Second World War, in the oppressive atmosphere of the Communist and Czech domination of Slovakia, zarnov was not allowed to publish his own poetry, but he did not cease creating and talking to his countrymen. In �186 SLOVAKIA 1949 the Society of St. Adalbert published his translation of Murphy's novel on Mary Magdalene The Scarlet Lily, in 1950 appeared the volume of translations from Adam Mickiewicz Poeezia, and in 1951 Hymny (The Hymns) of Jan Kasprowicz. The Communist regime did not, however, allow zarnov to use his pen-name on Kasprowicz's Hymns. They were published as translations by Francis ~ubik. Before his dramatic flight from Slovakia, zarnov prepared for publication his translation of Dante's Peklo (The Hell) and selections of poems by Leopold Staff Vyber z poezie (Selected Poems), but they remained in manusscript. zarnov's masterful translations were highly regarded by Slovak literary critics and by the readers and contributed especially to useful cultural relations of Slovakia with Poland. He received a Silver wreath from the Polish Academy of Literature for his pre-war translation U pol'sk'!}ch b<isnikov ( Among Polish Poets) and during the Second World War he prepared an entire book of translations from Adam Mickiewicz's works. 3 The volume was published "in order to transplant Mickiewicz's works to Slovak soil and thereby strengthen the structure of Slavic brotherhood in the cultural sector," and because "in world literature there are only a few great poets who in the work of their genius accumulate and present so universally, profoundly, and magnificently the history of the efforts, failures and spiritual achievements of their own people as does Adam Mickiewicz, the greatest Polish and all-Slavic poet." The book appeared in 1948, published by the Slovak Catholic cultural institution the "Society of St. Adalbert." We can say without exaggeration that zarnov has been, in his generation, artistically and spiritually the best prepared to transmit the heritage of Mickiewicz's most beautiful poems into Slovak literature. And he did it with great artistic skill and brilliance. His volume Poezia contains not only the eighteen Crimean Sonnets, but also Konrad Wallenrod, the Ode to Youth, To a Polish Mother, To My Muscovite Friends, Sages, A Vision, The Master of Masters, Flight and Out of My Sight, thus presenting some valuable lyrics along with his patriotic verse tale about his fatherland. The Crimean Sonnets in zarnov's translation remain �SLOVAKIA 187 "a wonder," since he has preserved to a great degree the richness of beauty of the poetic expression which always takes us by surprise and makes us marvel at the audacity of thought and the moral courage which produce the special splendor of this collection. zarnov's poetic language is, naturally, modern, his verse and rhythm vivid, and the whole translation audacious. zarnov found in his own rich poetical invention the metaphors and poetic visions to express Mickiewicz's ideas and colorful images. The translation of Konrad Wallenrod is a poetical and genuine interpretation, equalling in beauty Mickiewicz's own work. zarnov is certainly no romantic in the pattern of the last century, but still an enthusiastic patriot who sings in his poetry a hymn to his crucified country, dooming its traitors and fighting for justice, one who has consecrated his life and his heart to his fatherland. More than anyone else among modern Slovak poets he was, therefore predestined to enrich modern Slovak literature by this Byronic work of great charm and poetic vision, which "of the many and often highly inspired types of Byronism in Polish poetry ranks highest." zarnov's versions of the Ode to Youth and To My Muscovite Friends are to be remembered not only for brilliance of translation ( which could be demonstrated only by quotations and comparisons of texts), but also for the purpose which the translator wished to serve. The volume Poezia was published after the tragic experiences with the Russian occupation of Slovakia. zarnov, to whom the national cause has always been a question of honor and personal dedication, addressed, in Mickiewicz's mordant verses, the new Muscovite rulers and summoned Slovak youth to the dynamic faith which Mickiewicz, in the Ode to Youth, expressed for Poles under very similar circumstances. zarnov's translations were thus to serve after a century the same aim as Mickiewicz had assigned to his poetry. Through the literary works of Mickiewicz zarnov wished to teach the Slovaks, as Mickiewicz had the Poles, "to regard as their personal affair the great question of honor and dedication, truth and falsehood, nobility of ends and legitimacy of means for attaining them." zarnov attemped to convince his martyred people that "the national cause must become an autochthonous idea, the ultimate �188 SLOVAKIA moral criterion around which the entire spiritual life of the nation is crystalized." The real function of zarnov's poetry and translation was, like that of Mickiewicz's, not only to provide artistic enjoyment or to refine aesthetic taste, but primarily to equip his people with the spiritual resources necessary to enable them to survive their enslavement and to fight for their freedom. The Muscovite rulers in Slovakia grasped his intention and silenced the book. zarnov, under constant threat of arrest and deportation, and many times in prison, made a dramatic flight from his country and now fights in exile for his ideas. In exile he published a number of patriotic verses and a masterful transcription of several poems by Jan Holly into a modern Slovak language, to remind the Slovaks of their spiritual roots and national heritage, and to confirm once more that he was one of the Slovak poets who penetrated and stirred to the depths the spirits of his generation and especially of the young intelligentsia, helped to bring them to a strong awareness of their spiritual and national individuality, and successfully summoned them to the struggle for justice and freedom. On behalf of that generation, we are sending to the quiet countryside near New York our grateful: Ad multos annos. F OOTNOTES 1) See F. Vnuk, Sedemnast' neurodnych ro kov . N acrt slovenske j li t eratury v rokoch 1945-62. (Middletown, Pa., 1965) , p . 277. 2) F or more details on 2arnov's work and life, see J . Pauco (ed .), L iterarny Almanach Slovaka v Amerike, Middletown, Pa. 1967. 3) On 2arnov's translations from Mickiewicz, see W. Lednicki, Adam . Micki ewicz in W orld Literature, University of California Press, 1956i contribution by J . M. Kirschbaum. lmrich K r u f I i a k The prose and poetry of Slovak emigre writers is varied in themes and literary styles and strongly reflects a deep sadness over the loss of their native country and over the treatment of their people under communism. This is especially characteristic of the writings of poets and writers who had played a prominent role in Slovak literary life before they left their native land. Strong national feelings and "heimweh''; however, can also be found in the works �SLOVAKIA 189 of poets who developed their talents far away from their native country. Prominent in this group of Slovak intellectuals is Dr. Imrich Kruzliak whose 60th birthday we will commemorate on December 8, 1974. Born in the romantic Detva, Kruzliak followed the path of educated Slovaks of his generation from villages and towns who went through secondary schools and universities by their own efforts and talents and, after helping the struggle for national independence, had to pay in jails or in exile for their patriotism. Kruzliak did not leave his native Slovakia in 1945. He decided to stay and fight with other Catholic intellectuals for the preservation of Slovak national traditions and for a place for Catholics in the post-war political life. When in 1947, the Communists began their persecution of Catholic intellectuals, he was arrested, tortured, and kept in jail for a year. To avoid a new arrest, he escaped in 1949 to Austria and in 1951 settled in Munich where he became employed by Radio Free Europe as a commentator on Slovak cultural matters. Writing mostly under the pen-name Marian ziar and initials I. K., mz, Dr. Kruzliak contributed in exile to emigre literature either in poetry or in literary criticism. Although Kruzliak had published verses and literary essays already before and during the war, it was in exile that he became known as a poet and mainly as a cultivated commentator and critic of Slovak literary and cultural life at home and abroad. His essays, comments and book reviews have been published mostly in the quarterly Most, Literdr ny Almanach, Rozhl'ady, but also in annuals and newspapers Jednota, Slovak v Amerike and for the past two years in Horizont of which he has been the editor in chief. His writings have been among the best in Slovak empire literature. We would mention especially his survey of Slovak literature under Communism (Most, 1958), anci essay "Shakespeare and Slovaks" (Most, 1964), a study on the "Literary and artistic cult of Sts. Cyril and Methodius among Slovaks" (Most, 1963) and ":C. stur" (Most, 1965) . In scores of book reviews, Kruzliak enriched Slovak emigre literature with new ideas, well-balanced opinions, and by an effort to keep Slovak cultural life abroad on a European level. �190 SLOVAKIA He also deserves recognition for editing and publishing two volumes of poetry of poets in communist jails Modlitby v putdch (Prayers in Shackles, Munich, 1955) and translations from Polish, Magyar and Russian poets of the period of "thaw" Podaj ndm ruku, Eur6pa ( Give us Helping Hand, Europe, Munich, 1957). One of his extensive surveys of Slovak culture under Communism was published in mimeographed book form and his contribution on Slovak culture since 1945 appeared in the symposium Slovakia in the 19th and 20th Centuries, published by the Slovak World Congress (Toronto, 1973). He also edited special volume of Arena (Vol. 16, 3-4) which the P.E.N. Centre for Writers in Exile published on Slovak literature in London, England in 1963. Dr. Kruzliak does not belong, however, to literary life alone. Since his university years he was among the most active intellectuals in the Slovak public life and a leading figure in the generation which dedicated talents and energies to the struggle of the Slovak people for an equal place among European nations. His literary beginnings are connected with students periodicals (Rozvoj, Svojet') in the 1930's, while his participation in public life began before he obtained his Ph.D. summa cum laude at the Bratislava University. As many members of his generation, he also was inspired by the idealism of ~udovit t5tur, represented in 1920's and 1930's in Slovak national struggle by Andrej Hlinka. Idealism and dedication of those years marked Dr. Kruzliak's whole life in Slovakia as well as in exile. On the threshold of his 60th birthday he continues his life struggle in the Slovak World Congress as the head of the cultural section. The upheavals and tragedies experienced by his generation, marked also his life, but did not break his spirit. Hardly any Slovak generation had to go through such trials. There were, however, also victories and uncomparable cultural and spiritual growth of the Slovak nation to' which that generation contributed at home and in exile. And no other generation had such opportunities to see the world, to learn foreign languages and to absorb cultural values of the most advanced nations. It is on behalf of those who from that generation survived the persecutions of the tyrannical regimes in �191 SLOVAKIA Slovakia and the trials of exile, that we cordially greet Dr. Kruzliak on the threshold of his 60th birthday, wishing him that the Lord may fulfill his desires to see Slovakia free, democratic and equal to other nations. Mikulas sp r i n C For the past 25 years, perhaps the most important role in the Slovak literary life in exile was played by the highly cultivated and sensitive poet, Rev. Mikulas sprinc, whose 60th birthday Slovaks abroad will commemorate on November 30th, 1974. Like Dilong and Strmen, sprinc also came from the "Catholic Moderna" group and was well-known in Slovakia as Secretary and later Director of the Slovak Catholic Academy and organizer of many cultural activities before and during the War. He published during the War two collections of his own poetry and four collections of translations : from Rilke, from several Italian poets, as well as from the works of P. Lippert and Giovanni Papini. At the same time he contributed to nearly all Slovak literary journals and periodicals, in addition to being the editor of the main Slovak Catholic literary monthly Kultiira <19431945 ). s princ left Slovakia later than other Slovak emigre poets and writers, and reached Rome through Austria and Germany. He was named by the Vatican a delegate for helping the Slovak refugees in Austria and Germany, but in 1946 he obtained a visa for the United States where he developed not only extensive organizational cultural activities, but also his talent so that he became one of the leading Slovak Catholic poets in Diaspora. A professor of modern languages and philosophy of arts by vocation, he deserves credit for keeping alive the Slovak literary journal Most , of which he has been editor since 1954, as well as for founding the Association of Slovak Writers and Artists, whose President has been the poet Andrej zarnov. sprinc was also one of the founders of the Slovak Institute in Cleveland, and edited several symposia in addition to his own prolific and varied literary activities. Altogether sprinc published 18 collections of musical and highly cultivated poetry, and an English collection �192 SLOVAKIA Driftwood ( 1969), partly translated by himself and partly by one of his students and a well-known translator of Slovak poetry, Jaroslav Vajda. Those who appreciate a poetry rooted in the strong belief in the Creator without sounding too religious, and those who like the beauty of life in the song of birds, in the colors of flowers, in the sound of the wind, and blue skies or the colors of the rainbow, can find great enjoyment in sprinc's poetry. In his lyrical verses, sprinc echoes the art of Paul Verlaine and the spirit of St. Francis of Assissi. The musical and rhythmical quality of his poetry is rarely equalled by other Slovak emigre poets, except probably Gorazd Zvonicky. The translations of sprinc's verses are not an easy task for translators. Many of his volumes also contain fine poems with patriotic overtones, expressing his love for his lost and oppressed Slovakia. Recent volumes of sprinc's poetry have been artistically illustrated and carefully published, reflecting high artistic quality also in their technical presentation. As a result, reading his beautifully published collections is a double pleasure; they are written by a sensitive and gifted poet but, even more, by a man humbly and joyfully believing in God whose faith and glorification of the Creator sounds so natural and full of hope that one longs for the same beautiful world and the author's joyful soul and spirit. Even though Paul Verlaine seems to be his preferred poet (he wrote his M.A . thesis in French on Verlaine), sprinc is very well versed in Italian, German and Spanish poetry, and contributed to Slovak emigre literature by several excellent translations. To his large and varied cultural activities he has added more than 300 articles, book reviews, comments and contributions to Slovak periodicals, almanacs and newspapers. More than any other poet or writer, sprinc deserves credit for keeping Slovak culture abroad not only alive, but also reflecting the best Slovak national traditions. In spite of his many activities as professor, editor and secretary of the Association of Slovak Writers and Artists, sprinc was able during the past two decades to publish nearly every year a volume of his poetry or a book in prose. Among his published works we find: Ozveny v samotdch (1940), Tak umieral bdsnik Pal'o Oliva (1942), 0 ldske �SLOVAKIA a bolesti (1942), Duinske elegie (1942), O Tebe spieva zem idc sdm 0943), K slobodnym pobreziam (1950), Na r:"•rFlo 'l J () • polnopi 'ti· · poludnfa Z (1955), slnku proti (1953), Tvdrou ')s'ted6~ putnie~±{~ moje Oci (1962), orla (1960), Mladost' a ffPk k?J s _ Brat~la'8 (1967), Andante (1952), kovia utrpenia ,a ~- ~1 • S'! 1 JI ora· ll:170 Palidora, z Piesne (1969), (1968), Driftwood 11 "' · j rn JC lovy ostrov (1973) etc.* t'f" : 'iOr.?.910 I'l Among his translation s we should metftionfGidva:aru Papini's work Witnesses of Suffering (Scraiitott CFA-{J'1i95!!) and among his foreign language writings hi M~..fthesi t Paul Verlaine: Etude de sa poesie religieuse,Wil'i-100',i stiill u v[ ,, , 1 ;. ,.... in manuscrip t. I 'di _Jj(,· ~-II sprinc also published an interesting narra,J;;':vp1!n,:prose about his escape and journey from Slovakia ~f?' ,1i0:Yr'l1Il,~9 States in a volume K slobodnym pobreziam ('J;R>t~'rr r;;~1e Shores), a book on St. Andrew Svorad as vv,:e, ~r~~d l. p~~lf dedicated to the Virgin Mary. For the llth -1 0~~t[;npial<: 0J Christianit y in Slovakia, he edited a collectiop."r~ ~!:5e-? by several Slovak poets under the title Zdravic0-; sp-"'qy j!oRi a Metodovi (Rome, 1963). He also contributec l:11f?: 1aurn~smr~ fully illustrated anthology Odkaz (The Legacy.., 197Jp in f.eJfg~ehte~. which leading Slovak poets and writers are ro "¼o"'"' 10· ""i In prose, he edited the memoirs of Msgr. Joze · KaB3-i a prominent Slovak diplomat at the Vatican du¥fh§ \ .war Spod Rohdcov po Vatikdn (From Rohace M9tiRtim to? · e Vatican, 1973) as well as two symposia comp.~~~ ,cif 'qop; C~ictrfn_tributions by Slovak emigre writers: Ndde7· vit'azria 1J 'R? 'fJf U?'f • -. ::;;_ 1939-1-.~4(} republika Slovenskd and 1947) Hope, ous ' ,.., Republic 1939-1949, Scranton, Pa., 1949). 9.i · V)\1)')1Sh'1 ·i•h ai 1~f'd2 c( aii~ Literary work of this envergure and 1 we -Iiifre > ; case; a does not need to be praised. It is again 1 • if'tceW!. Laudat'·a'¥f have to repeat the Latin dictum: Opus fivities It was a blessing for Slovak literature and cultubr-a~i abroad that sprinc left Slovakia. Therefore, ori~he~ooa §i6n of his 60th birthday, we cannot be more sincer.e"1wlierfJ,we - :>.r. ,h,i< say: Ad multos annos! 1 (JJ Jy3c-riqz~t{ :llC J *) :r-r::;m For more details on Sprinc and his work, see Literltrfi'y 11.lrMnbcn for 1967, p. 232-234, and Most, Vol. I, 2, 1954, and Vol. 13~ 4;-1956!!') �194 SLOVAKIA Teodorik Zubek To the ranks of prominent Slovak intellectuals in exile whose 60th birthday we will commemorate in 1974, also belongs Prof. T. J. Zubek, oustanding member of the Slovak Franciscan Order in Slovakia and the United States, who was born on April 4, 1914 in Malacky, Western Slovakia. Professor Zubek filled an important gap in exile activities by his theological writings and mainly by presenting the religious situation in post war Slovakia to the Western World. At the same time he deserves recognition for reviving the Order of Slovak Franciscan Fathers in the United States who under his leadership become active not only in the religious field but also in education and cultural life. Well educated at Slovak and foreign Universities (Zagreb, Croatia; Fribourg, Switzerland), Dr. Zubek played leading role in his Order in Slovakia, and had to pay under the Communist regime for his patriotism and service to God by detention in the concentration camp for priests in Svaty Benadik. After his escape in 1951, he found refuge in Austria and Rome, Italy, from where he came to the United States in 1952. Soon after his arrival to the U.S.A. Dr. Zubek became Professor of Theology at Seton Hall University, Newark, N. J. and published an authoritative work on the Communist persecution of religion in his native country Church of Silence in Slovakia (J. Lach Publ., Whiting, Ind., 1956). This book and his scholarly contributions to American religious and academic periodicals (Homiletic and Pastoral Review, Jurist, Ameri can Ecclesiastical Review, The Catholic Educator and others) performed an important service to the Slovak cause among Western intellectuals. Some of his studies rank among the best writings on contemporary theological and educational topics. From the Slovak point of view, of great importance among his English writings is also his presentation of the case of Msgr. Tiso and the fate of Slovak bishops (Slovak Bishops - Martyrs of Christ, 1963) to Western readers. Exposed to hostile propaganda during the War and after, many people in the free world maintained biased attitudes towards Slovakia even among clergy and in academic circles. Dr. Zubek was among the first Slovak emigre �SLOVAKIA 195 intellectuals who grasped the need for writing on Slovakia in English and in non-Slovak periodicals, and for doing it in a much more reserved manner than we can afford in our Slovak publications. Dr. Zubek contributed at the same time to Slovak periodicals and newspapers, to Slovak Studies, and edited the religious monthly Listy Sv. Frantiska (Leaflets of St. Francis) published by his Order of which he was the head as Provincial Delegate. He also took part in Slovak emigre cultural and organizational activities aiming at the unity and co-operation, namely in Slovak Liberation Council and Slovak World Congress, at the Conference on Slovakia held in Toronto in 1971 and elsewhere. From the very beginning of his exile has been considered as one of the most distinguished representatives of Slovak clergymen abroad. By his activities, high education and devotion to the work for God and bonum commune, Dr. Zubek upheld the noble tradition of the Franciscan Order in Slovakia, whose members belonged to the best educators, historians, writers and poets in the centuries of Slovak national revival as well as in this century. It is with sincere admiration for his work and great human qualities that we greet him on his sixtieth birthday with a heartfelt: Ad multos annos! Jozef Pa u co For more than a century, journalists and editors played in Slovak national life a role going far beyond their profession. Starting with Eudovit stur in the middle of the 19th century, leading Slovak journalists were also political leaders, poets, writers, historians, grammarians and organizers of cultural and political institutions. This phenomenon appeared in Slovakia as well as among Slovaks abroad, especially in the United States and Canada. After stur, S. H . Vajansky was an outstanding example of a journalist, who also was a prominent poet, novelist and fighter for the Slovak cause. In the following generation Karol Sidor and Konstantin Culen remained faithful to that tradition in Slovakia and on the American continent. Both of them were journalists by profession, but they also wrote a �[96 SLOVAKIA am lil,erary works and books dealing with the ofoSI~aks and their struggle for freedom. h'eq>ast 25 years, an austanding example of journalist who became a historian, political writer and organizer • .Joll!uraI &F.~ political activities, was Dr. Jozef Pauco, ~ '1We .1 2¥thday was celebrated by Slovaks abroad on ~ 8f.f9 r¥R~L 1974. Pauco's admiration for E. stur goes Bi~ 1t2,1r.. ,years when he wrote his Ph.D. thesis at the I}, ·1-ffi ·1i v~c13ratislava, which was later published under 9} yt • {,1J{!,OJJYChova u sturovcov (Popular Education in nt) . Since that time Dr. Pauco also followed ~ ' x' MB, ~ f8o}§jeps of K. Sidor and K. culen in his work as ~n !n eing a political exile, in his dedication to the ~ ~.HJ.Iijijle:iJer2 freecto111: , and independence for Slovakia and i - fillfp,tjfj>_n with American Slovaks and Slovak-American organizations. bibliography listed below indicates, Dr. As thej seJect ' ' r[J J)l [IQ[ f y Hjj r(~mgs are not only extensive, but also cover e.vera1' ~ cfs9!rom history to political science and belles 12t ,nw .fil~S.V O II . pub1·ished works . part of his 1l 1 :e~ . .tS s19.a y, th e maJor . t ct· f d t S {:_!(, ''IS I'I .'11 ' hJfiIH~W . , rAR?"ever, a e en mg he Slovak cause. This :a cr1°fsB~afiW even his works on American Slovaks, which !fh~ Y#1 ~9 ~fo~);'o his best writings and in their method and $I&»Jay flDif compare with standard works on the subj~cf.'."'i frer fof. F. Hrusovsky and K. culen, he actually deserves main credit for systematic research into the past and present of American Slovaks. His books on their history atest to his great love for jjl_jz~ i 9_mt branch of the Slovak people. In addition, lzli-l ~ftlltl.futijsplayed in his works on American Slovaks, of Wlli.Plb :ti~cY~mninous history of the First Catholic Slovak ~smrubip rrecent book on Slovak Pioneers in America 4%fill:YJ O ~fkteular attention, that history was the field W~fttmt~ ld use his academic education and thorough fmID'{fflP.g.f~mf@lovak American organizational structure and ~ ~g:njfl~J:?.g ~ of individual leaders. As a result, whoever }Y!UsiYfOOl ~(tc,::omplete history of American Slovak~, will lff)lUiffifHfliiO.l:Wlfite authoritatively without ~sing Dr. Pauco's , ~f4J!!g)}V~rks. 110Ui-Bi¥unMjgl,lly, a larger number of books, essays an(\ MMtje b&;ia . Pauco deals, however, with Slova~a•s strugglaj::Rf!~~p.filldence l;l,nd with the _defense of leading Slovak h'i&j t> n; b~ �SLOVAKIA 197 personalities, especially Dr. Jozef Tiso, against whom many incorrect views and misconceptions were spread in the West during and after the Second World War. Slovakia and Slovaks suffered not only under Communism. There was a lot of injustice and descrimination against Slovaks also before the War and during the short period after the War when the Communists ruled together with their Czech and Slovak fellow-travelers from the non-communist parties. In his writings, Dr. Pauco endeavored to fight the falsehood and injustice of· both. It was, however, the communist misrule in Slovakia and the communist ideology which he exposed and fiercely criticized in his writings, advocating Christian democracy and the independence of Slovakia. Besides his own books, essays and thousands of articles, Dr. Pauco also published-as editor-the valuable documentary work Dr. Jozef Tiso o sebe (Dr. Jozef Tiso About Himself), containing the defense of the President of the Slovak Republic at his trial by the communist court, and a number of symposia on leading Slovak exiles (K. Sidor, J.C. Hronsky,· etc.). Furthermore, he deserves recognition for publishing and editing the Literdrny Almanach and the weekly Slovak v Amerike, both of which would have disappeared several years ago without his dedication and sacrifice as well that of his literary active wife. Last but not least, Dr. Pauco has rendered great service to the Slovak cause as the editor of the English periodical dealing with Slovak cultural and political matters, Slovakia. founded by Philip Hrobak. This editorial part of Dr. Pauco's work is of far reaching importance for the activities of Slovaks abroad and can be evaluated adequately only if we imagine how much poorer Slovak cultural life and the struggle for independence would be without these publications. In view of the fact that the historical and geopolitical situation of Slovakia made the Slovak cause a matter of controversy, Dr. Pauco's writings were bol,lild to provoke a strong reaction from the adversaries of the Slovak struggle for independence. His militant spirit, uncompromising attitude and fervor incited them to make denunciations, accusations and . undeserved attacks, but Pauco remained, in spite of all attacks on his person, one of 'the most dedicated defenders of the Slovak cause in his generation. �198 SLOVAKIA He also continues to be the most prolific Slovak journalist and writer on politics and history who remained faithful to stur's tradition and Hlinka-Tiso's ideology of Christian democracy and self-determination for the Slovaks. SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY IN SLOVAK Popular Education ). Matica slovenska. Turciansky Sv. Martin, 1943, pp. 151. Politicko-narodny program Hsns (Political Program of the Slovak People's Party ). Andrej uc. spol. Bratislava, 1944, pp. 96. co po komunizme? (After Communism What?) . Jednota, Middletown, Pa., 1952, pp. 29. Dr. Jozef Ti so o sebe (Dr. Joseph Tiso About Himself) . Slovensky Katolicky Sokol, Passaic, N. J., 1952, pp. 359. (Ed.) Tisov odkaz (Tiso's Message). Jednota, Middletown, Pa., 1953, pp. 89. Stefan Furdek a slovenske prist'ahovalectvo (Stephen Furdek and Slovak Immigration ). J ednota, Middletown, Pa., 1955, pp. 190. Slovcici a komunizmus (The Slovaks and Communism ). Rev. Jan Lach, Whiting, Ind., 1957, pp. 318. P-0d zcistavou krest'anskej demokracie (Under the Banner of the Christian Democracy). Slovenski krest'anski demokrati v Spojenych Statoch, Middletown, Pa. , 1957, pp. 30. Slovenskci rehol'a Sestier sv. Cyrila a Metoda (Slovak Order of the Sisters of SS. Cyril and Methodius). Slovensky .Zensky Spolok sv. Anny, Wyoming Valley, Pa., 1957, pp. 32. Matus Jankola - knaz a ncirodovec (Matus Jankola - A Priest and Patriot). Rad sestier sv. Cyrila a Metoda, Danville, Pa., 1959, pp. 174. Pamiatke Jozefa Cigra Hronskeho (In Memoriam Jozef Cig-er Hronsky) . Literarny Almanach Slovaka v Amerike, Middletown, Pa., 1960, pp. 46. (Ed.) Martin Kopunek) . Laicky apostol Martin Kopunek (Lay Apostle Vychodna Oblast' Sdruzenia Slovenskych Katolikov, Bethlehem, Pa., 1961, pp. 67. (Ed.) Neporazitel'ni (Unconquerables). Prva Katolicka Slovenska Jednota, Middletown, Pa., 1961, pp. 190. Karol Sidor - politik novincir, spisovatel' (Karol Sidor - Politician, Newspaperman, and Writer) . Literarny Almanach Slovaka v Amerike, Middletown, Pa., 1962, pp. 148. (Ed.) Piit'desiatnik Dr. J-0zef Kirschbaum (Dr. Jozef Kirschbaum - Fifty Years Old). Literarny Almanach Slovaka v Amerike, Middletown, Pa., 1963, pp. 171. (Ed.) Prvej Katolickej Slovenskej Jednoty (75 Years of the First rokov 75 Catholic Slovak Union). Prva Katolicka Slovenska Jednota, Cleveland, Ohio, 1965, pp. 560 and XIV. 80 pages of pictures. Na uteku (Flight to Wonderland; serialized in the Weekly Jednota) . Middletown, Pa., 1965. l}udovychova u sturovcov (Stur's Movement - �SLOVAKIA 199 Tak sme sa poznali (So Have We Known One Another). Literarny Almanach Slovaka v Amerike, Middletown, Pa., 1967, pp. 281. Illustra- tions. Slovenski priekopnici v Amerike (Slovak Pioneers in America). First Catholic Slovak Union, Cleveland, Ohio, 1972, pp. 358. Illustrations. IN ENGLISH Unconquerables, Vantage Press, New York, N. Y., 1958, pp. 225. Christian Slovakia Under Communism. The Slovak Catholic Federation, Valparaiso, Ind., 1959, pp. 31. Flight to Wonderland. Robert Speller and Sons, New York, N. Y., 1963, pp. 334. 'i0 Years of the Slovak League of America. Middletown, Pa., 1967, pp. 146. (Ed.) IN GERMAN Dr. Jozef Tiso: Die Wahrheit uber die Slowakei (The Truth About Slovakia). Tisovo Tovarisstvo, in the Emigration, 1948, pp. 187. Illustrated. ARTICLES IN ENGLISH The Practi cal Aspect of a Federation. Slovakia, III, No. 2, 1953, p. 26-36. American Slovaks and March 14, 1939. Slovakia, IV, No. 1, 1954, p. 17-22. The Slovak Republic and Communism. Slovakia, IV, No. 3-4, 1954, p. 35-38. Slovakia Viewed By American Historians. Most, I. No. 4, 1954, p . 17-25. The Failures of Communist Politics in Slovakia, Slovakia, V, No. 4, 1955, p. 3-20. Stu.r's Group in the Service of the People. Slovakia, VI, No. 1, 1956, p. 11-16. I Was Editor of President Tiso's Newspaper. Slovakia, VII, No. 1, 1957, p. 9-12. Dr. Joseph Tiso : Christian Democrat. Slovakia, VII, No. 2, 1957, p. 37-50. The Stirring Days of March 1939. Slovakia, IX, No. 4, 1959, p. 24-32. Slovakia Under Communism. Slovakia, IX, N-0. 5, 1959, p. 1-5; Slovakia, X, No. 6, 1960, p. 62-73 ; Slovakia, XI, No. 1, 1961, p. 13-21. Slovakia's Mid-Nineteenth Century Struggle for National Life. Slovak Studies I, 1961, p. 69-83. The Matica Slovenskd in America. Slovakia, XIII, No. 1, 1963, p. 77-82. American Slovaks and the Beginnings of Czecho-Slovakia. Slovakia, XVI, No. 39, 1966, p. 63-75. Slovak Pioneers in America. Slovakia, XIX, No. 42, 1969, p. l0S-124. Under Dynamic Leadership. 60 Years of the Slovak League of America, 1967, p. 112-146. The Slovak Benedictines Review 50 Years in Cleveland, Ohio. Slovakia, XXII, No. 45, 1972, p. 92-97. Twenty Years of the Slovak Institute in Cleveland. Slovakia, XXIII, No. 46, 1973, p. 16-23. Cultural Revival of American and Canadian Slovaks. Slovakia, XXIII, No. 46, 1973, p. 72-81. Mother M. Emerentia Petrasek. Slovakia, XXIII, No. 46, 1973, p. 123-128. �200 SLOVAKIA EVALUATION OF DR. PAUCO'S WRITINGS BY REVIEWERS The number of book reviews published on individual Pauco's works is too large to be listed in this survey. In general, we can say that extensive reviews and commentaries, written by known Slovak authors, scholars, poets and cultural workers, were published not only in newspapers, but also in literary and cultural periodicals (Most, Furdek, Slovakia) and almanacs. Book reviews in Slovak language prevail, but his major writings were evaluated and commented upon also in English, mostly by reviewers born or educated on the American continent. The majority of reviewers of Dr. Pauco's books evaluated his writings favorably not only because of their ideological contents and usefulness for preservation of Slovak cultural heritage but also for their literary, and in many instances, scholarly value, thorough research and vast knowledge of the Slovak past and present. Deeply involved in Slovak political and cultural life since his students years, Dr. Pauco was a participant in historical events or closely associated with persons he writes about in a majority of his books, which gives to some of his works particular significance. On the other hand, his books on the history of American Slovaks fill an important gap and therefore the reviewers valued them for their contribution to the neglected history of American Slovaks as well as for their documentation and objectivity with which Pauco approached his subjects. Among the reviewers of Dr. Pauco's books and publications edited by him were K. culen, Prof. F. Hrusovsky, J . E. Bor, M. Jankovsky, J. M. Kirschbaum, J. C. Krajsa, M. K. Mlynarovic, J. Mest'ancik, Prof. K. Murin, Rev. Andrew Pier, O.S.B., Dr. B. Pissko, Dr. J. Rekem, Dr. J. Stasko, Rev. Mother Emerentia, Rev. Sister Tarcisia and many others. The book 75 Years of the FCSU was reviewed by 15 and his recent book Slovak Pioneers in America by 9 reviewers. All reviews were favorable . The evaluation by American born reviewers deserves, however special mention. Prof. V. R. Greene of the Kansas State University, who has learned to read and understand Slovak and wrote his �SLOVAKIA 201 Ph.D. thesis on East European immigrants in Pennsylvania , said on Pauco's 75 Years of the First Catholic Slovak Union: "Not only is it a complete and most comprehensiv e history of the Jednota and the Slovaks in America, but its many references, footnotes and bibliography will satisfy any serious reader and research historian." Mother M. Emerentia, SS.C.M. in her extensive review published in Jednota (June 30, 1965) referred to Matthew Arnold's statement that "Great creative works in literature result from happy concurence of two notable powers, the power of the man and the power of the moment," and wrote on Pauco's book: "Such a happy concurence of two notable powers has been strikingly exemplified before our eyes this year. For the power of the moment there was the 75th anniversary of the First Catholic Slovak Union in 1965, calling for the writing of the history of this remarkable organization. For the power of the man there was Joseph Pauco, Ph.D., a gifted author, historian and scholar, capable and willing to assume the task of writing this history. The result is a truly monumental contribution to Slovak history and literature, entitled 75 rokov Prvej Katolickej Slovenskej Jednoty." The book Tak sme sa poznali (So Have We Known One Another, 1967) attracted the attention of Slovak exiles as well as of American born Slovak intellectuals. "Dr. J. Pauco's Memoirs encompass - according to Sister M. Tarcisia - multiple and varied personal contacts as well as deep insight, broad vision and a skillful pen. The author is a scholar, a man of the people, an editor, a journalist, a lecturer, a politcian. The era he portrays was at once shatteringly disruptive and marvelously formative in its application to Central Europe and specifically to Slovakia. The men who played the leading roles in the drama of the Slovak Republic (1939-1945) were true to human nature: some giants, some midgets, some heroes, some traitors. Tak sme sa poznali is a tremendously vital book. In recounting his experience in the Slovak Republic - all of which he saw, part of which he was - Dr. Pauco has written authentic history. As such it will live and flourish." �202 SLOVAKIA Pauco's last book Slovenskt priekopnici v Amerike (Slovak Pioneers in America, 1972) was favorably reviewed and welcome as a valuable contribution to the history of American Slovaks by a dozen of Slovak writers, scholars, journalists and cultural workers. In the opinion of the American born editor of Jednota, J. C. Krajsa, "Pauco's work required serious research and documentation. In an objective manner he credits the life and work of the pioneers and categorizes them in their proper niche in the history of the American Slovaks, in America and the Slovak nation. He presents those leading pioneers who played the greatest role in the cultural field; those who organized fraternal societies, parishes, schools, and religious orders; those who preserved the literary culture with the publication of newspapers and books; and those who were fired with the ideal of liberty that even permeated to Slovakia." The book is in Krajsa's view "in itself a pioneer book. Nothing to date has been published in such documentary detail about American Slovak pioneers. The First Catholic Slovak Union is proud to publish this vital literary work of Dr. Joseph Pauco." According to another prominent American Slovak, Fr. J. A. Gajdosik "Pauco's book is one sure way to arousing interest in the Slovak heritage on a personal and individual basis, especially among our younger people. Hopefully, an English translation will be made in the near future, so that devotion to the Slovak ethnicity will be fostered. "The book should bolster Dr. Joseph Pauco's strong thoughts about the termination and death of the Slovak language in the United States. The book is also a warning to our fair-weather-Slovaks, who claim that they received little if anything from their Slovak ancestors, for it teaches that much Slovak affluence and prestige is directly the result of the conduct and work of our pioneers. "It behooves our brethren who are ashamed of their Slovak ethnicity, to study their history, and learn how everything they have was given to them, and that they should give themselves for others as our pioneers did. The ultimate lesson is that we, American of Slovak ancestry, should foster and serve the Slovak cause and ideal, at least as much, if not better than our pioneers in early America." �203 SLOVAKIA REVIEWS OF PAUCO'S WRITINGS IN LEADING PERIODICALS MOST co po komunizme? (I, 1, 1954, p . 44) Tisov odkaz (I, 2, 1954, p. 39-40. Dr. Karol Murin) Dr. Jozef Tiso o sebe (I, 3, 1954, p. 41-43. F. Hrusovsky) Stefan Furdek a slovenske prist'ahovalectvo (II, 2, 1955, p. 136-137) Mest'ancik) Slovcici a komunizmus (IV, 3, 1957, p. 132-133. Unconquerables (VI, 1-2, 1959, p. 83-85. Andrew Pier, O.S.B.) Christian Slovakia Under Communism (VI, 3, 1959, p. 186-187. Andrew Jan Pier, O.S.B. ) Pi:it'desiatnik Dr. Jozef Kirschbaum (XI, 3-4, 1964, p. 181) Slovakia (XI, 3-4, 1964, p. 182-183) Litercirny Almanach Slovcika v Amerike na rok 1965 (XII, 1-2, 1965, p. 82-83) Slovakia (XII, 3-4, 1965, p. 189) SLOVAKIA 75 rokov Prvej Katolickej Slovenskej Jednoty (XV, 38, 1965, p . 152-155. Mother M. Emerentia, SS.C.M.) Litercirny Almanach Slovcika v Amerike 1967 (XVII, 40, 1967, p. 190-192. Sister M. Tarcisia Gregorovic, SS.C.M.) Tak sme sa poznali (XVIII, 41, 1968, p . 159-164. Sister M. Tarcisia, SS. C.M.) Slovenski priekopnici v Amerike ( XXIII , 46, 1973, p. 196-197. Joseph C. Krajsa) F URD EK All writings by Dr. Pauco on the history of American Slovaks are evaluated by J . M. Kirschbaum in his article Dr. Pauco' s W ritings and the History of American Slovaks (Furdek, 1974, p. 75-80) . Francis V n u k : A BIOGRAPHICAL VALEDICTION In spite of the fact that the Slovaks are among the oldest inhabitants of the Central European region their efforts to secure a fully independent life has been seldom appreciated and rarely understood. But frustrations and disappointments can never deter a nation from its ultimate aim, and where one generation fails another will rise to continue the struggle. The natural aspirations of a nature and self-respecting nation cannot be suppressed by terror, nor silenced by bribes, nor extinguished by an apparent � SLOVAKIA 181 ,J.. M. Ki rs ch b au m, Ph.D.: Noted Slovak Jubilarians Andrej Z a r n o v "Les elites emigrees vivent tragiquement. Elles sont contraintes a une vie hasardeuse, solitaire, humiliee. Elles sont amenees par l'exil a l'epreuve a reviser leurs valeurs, et a en connaitre ou a en creer d'autres ... " Albert Thibaudet, Histoire de la litterature fra~aise de 1780 a nos jours, Paris, 1936. Since 1945, when Slovakia was overrun by the Soviet armies and subject to communist rule, a number of poets and writers left their native land in protest against political oppression in their homeland and with the intention of working in the free world for freedom and independence of their country. This political mission is especially true with regard to the emigre writers and poets who left Slovakia in 1945-1949 among whom were several of the leading Slovak writers and poets. A similar example can be found mutatis mutandis only in 19th century Poland, when after the revolution of 1830 the best Polish poets (Mickiewicz, Krasinski, Slowacki) and a number of writers and intellectuals escaped the Russians and made Paris the center of Polish literature. The fate of Slovak poets and writers was, of course, not as favorable as that of Polish "grande emigration." Some of the more prominent Slovak writers were soon captured in Austria and brought back to Slovakia and imprisoned (Milo Urban, A. zarnov, Tido J. Gaspar) while others had to fight against false denunciations and other pressures, in order to survive and create. In spite of this, "the 50 odd Slovak men of letters living on this side of the Iron Curtain kept the lights of Slovak culture burning while they were out of their native country. This may sound emotional or sentimental, yet it is a sad truth that in the years 1950-55 there hardly appeared in Slovakia a single book worthy of reading. In those years indeed the emigre literature was the contemporary Slovak literature." 1 �182 SLOVAKIA Slovak poets and writers in exile continued to play especially the role of the "conscience of the nation" and that of interpreters of the aspirations of the Slovak people, traditionally assumed by Slovak poets and writers. More than in any other nation, not only the national rebirth was the work of Slovak poets and writers, but also the struggle for political rights and social justice; the first national rebellion was led by them, and they kept the national spirit alive in time of despair. Since the time when the poet Jan Holly (1785-1849) awakened the Slovak intelligentsia by unveiling to them the glorious past of Slovak ancestors in the Great Moravian period, and by giving them hope for a better future, Slovak poetry was an instrument of the national struggle, an expression of the national ideals and hopes, of national sufferings and joy. The poets and writers were the heralds and prophets of a new and better world, often being also social revolutionary leaders. This tradition was cultivated in Slovak literature over the past one hundred and fifty years and was even strengthened during the crucial years of Slovakia's national struggle in this century. Slovak poets and writers in exile have not considered themselves exempt from this special mission. On the contrary, exile made them more patriotic and the sufferings of the Slovak people more conscious of their duty to be the "conscience" of their nation and the interpreters of the aspiration of the Slovak people. In the countryside of New York State, one of the best contemporary Slovak poets, Andrej zarnov (by his own name Prof. Frantisek subik), attained on November 19, 1973 the prestigous age of 70. If the present Slovak generations owe a tribute to any poet for his participation in the struggle for national rights and equality with other nations, Andrej zarnov deserves such recognition from Slovaks abroad as well as in Slovakia. Born in 1903 in the village of Kuklov in Western Slovakia, zarnov remained proud of his rural heritage even when he achieved the position of University Professor of Pathology and high recognition from critics and readers for his literary work. He made his secondary studies in Skalica and Trnava and his study of medicine in Bratislava where he was active in student organizations and became �SLOVAKIA 183 well-known for his fiery verses already during his university years. In 1926, :2:arnov accompanied Msgr. Andrej Hlinka on the triumphant journey around the United States. At that time neither zarnov nor the American Slovaks could expect that after the dramatic events of the Second World War, he would return to the United States as an exile, persecuted for his patriotism and his part in the International Red Cross Commission which examined during the Second World War the brutal massacre of 10,000 Polish officers by the Soviets in Katyn. zarnov left Slovakia in 1945, but he was forcibly "repatriated" from Austria, arrested and jailed. In 1952 he left Slovakia in a dramatic flight and settled first near Washington and later at Wingdale, N. Y. where he lives presently with his family. 2 ZARNOV'S WORK AND PLACE IN SLOVAK LITERATURE Perhaps to no other country more than to Slovakia is the statement of historians applicable, that in Central and Eastern European national movements were the concern of poets, writers and scholars and that they created the nationalities. Not only was the national rebirth the work of Slovak poets and writers, but also the struggle for political rights and social justice; the first national rebellion was led by them, and they kept the national spirit alive in time of despair. Since the first great Slovak poet, Jan Holly (1785-1849) awakened the Slovak intelligentsia by unveiling to them the glorious past of Slovak ancestors and by giving them a strong faith in a better future of the Slovak people, Slovak poetry was an instrument of national struggle, an expression of the national idea, national sufferings, joys, and hopes. The poets and writers were the heralds and prophets of a new and better world; they were social revolutionaries and national leaders. This tradition was respected in Slovak literature over the past one hundred years, and during the crucial years of Slovak national struggle in this century the role was played by Andrej :2:arnov more prominently than by any other Slovak poet, except for Martin Razus. Andrej :2:arnov appeared in Slovak literature in a period when the Slovak people fought their harsh struggle (against �184 SLOVAKIA the Czech assimilatory tendencies) for preserving their language, national identity and cultural heritage. It was the period of the 20's and 30's of this century, when on one hand Slovakia experienced a strong cultural development, but was at the same time forced into an uneven struggle for her national future, for social justice and political and economic equality. The danger of this situation was not only in the preponderance of means and political power or in the fact that Slovaks were far outnumbered by Czechs, but also in the fact that the masses of the Slovak people were going through the final phase of the process of maturing politically and the Slovak intelligentsia was in cultural and ideological ferment. In this national struggle Zarnov came with his fiery verses full of faith in the Slovak people and his vitality, adYocating national solidarity and protesting against the Czech attempts to rule, exploit and denationalize the Slovak people. At the same time, his poetry dared Slovaks to defend themselves, to stand firmly on their feet and not bow, not to yield. It was a revolutionary call for political and social justice, for national pride and honor which very soon found a favorable echo among the young Slovak intelligentsia and made Zarnov, since he identified himself with his nation's aspirations, sorrows and sufferings, the poet of the Slovak national struggle, and of Slovak patriotism. There was an outburst of poetic production in Slovakia between the two wars, but only Zarnov (besides M. Razus) stood on the barricades of Slovak national struggle with his patriotic poems, his forceful indignation, with his spiritual roots in the national tradition and fervent belief in the victory of the Slovak cause. Zarnov's fiery poetry, after being largely recited and published in periodicals and dailies, had been edited in several volumes. The first one, Strdz pri Morave (The Guard on Morava, 1925) was composed of verses expressing the poet's and his generation's political and spiritual orientation and provoked even the political censors to intervene. The second volwne Brdzda cez uhory (The Furrow Through Fallows, 1929) contained rather meditative and lyrical poetry enquiring into the spiritual ferment and restlessness of the poet's generation. While in the first volwne Zarnov created of his poetry an effective instrument for Slovak �SLOVAKIA 185 national struggle, in the second volume he turned his eyes to the soul of the people he inflamed to struggle and bitterly analyzed its conscience. The third volume Hlas krvi (The Call of the Blood, 1932) and the following volume stit (The Shield, 1940) still contained verses of patriotic inspirations; his last volume Mftvy (The Dead, 1941) contains, however, poetry of deep personal sorrow and refine lyrics inspired by the untimely death of his young son. The profile of a patriotic revolutionary and interpreter of the nation's aspirations and struggle was thus completed in z arnov's last volume by poetry of deep human feelings and meditations. In all his volumes, zarnov preferred rather simple poetic forms, including the free verse. The rhythm of his poetry and his vocabulary were of great effectiveness and from the very beginning it indicated a strong talent. His books are, of course, on the index in Slovakia, but some of his verses are among the most recited by Slovaks in the free world, in which zarnov found refuge after the Communists seized power in Slovakia. ZARNOV'S TRANSLATIONS FROM WORLD LITERATURES zarnov enriched, however, Slovak literature also by many masterful translations of lyrics, epics and dramas. His first translations go back to 1933-34 at which time zarnov published in Slovak dailies and periodicals his version of Przerwa-Tetmajer Jdnosikove motivy (Janosik's Motives). In 1936 zarnov translated for the Slovak National Theatre the well-known play from the life of F. Chopin and Georges Sand Leto v Nohante (The Summer in Nohant) by J. Iwaszkiewicz. A year after, Matica slovenska published Sophocles' Antigona in zarnov's translation and in 1941 King Oedipus. The same year zarnov translated for the Slovak National Theatre the libretto of the opera Rusalka and in 1943 his translation of Zygmunt Krasinski's Nebozskd komedia (The Undivine Comedy) was published by Matica slovenska. After the Second World War, in the oppressive atmosphere of the Communist and Czech domination of Slovakia, zarnov was not allowed to publish his own poetry, but he did not cease creating and talking to his countrymen. In �186 SLOVAKIA 1949 the Society of St. Adalbert published his translation of Murphy's novel on Mary Magdalene The Scarlet Lily, in 1950 appeared the volume of translations from Adam Mickiewicz Poeezia, and in 1951 Hymny (The Hymns) of Jan Kasprowicz. The Communist regime did not, however, allow zarnov to use his pen-name on Kasprowicz's Hymns. They were published as translations by Francis ~ubik. Before his dramatic flight from Slovakia, zarnov prepared for publication his translation of Dante's Peklo (The Hell) and selections of poems by Leopold Staff Vyber z poezie (Selected Poems), but they remained in manusscript. zarnov's masterful translations were highly regarded by Slovak literary critics and by the readers and contributed especially to useful cultural relations of Slovakia with Poland. He received a Silver wreath from the Polish Academy of Literature for his pre-war translation U pol'sk'!}ch b<isnikov ( Among Polish Poets) and during the Second World War he prepared an entire book of translations from Adam Mickiewicz's works. 3 The volume was published "in order to transplant Mickiewicz's works to Slovak soil and thereby strengthen the structure of Slavic brotherhood in the cultural sector," and because "in world literature there are only a few great poets who in the work of their genius accumulate and present so universally, profoundly, and magnificently the history of the efforts, failures and spiritual achievements of their own people as does Adam Mickiewicz, the greatest Polish and all-Slavic poet." The book appeared in 1948, published by the Slovak Catholic cultural institution the "Society of St. Adalbert." We can say without exaggeration that zarnov has been, in his generation, artistically and spiritually the best prepared to transmit the heritage of Mickiewicz's most beautiful poems into Slovak literature. And he did it with great artistic skill and brilliance. His volume Poezia contains not only the eighteen Crimean Sonnets, but also Konrad Wallenrod, the Ode to Youth, To a Polish Mother, To My Muscovite Friends, Sages, A Vision, The Master of Masters, Flight and Out of My Sight, thus presenting some valuable lyrics along with his patriotic verse tale about his fatherland. The Crimean Sonnets in zarnov's translation remain �SLOVAKIA 187 "a wonder," since he has preserved to a great degree the richness of beauty of the poetic expression which always takes us by surprise and makes us marvel at the audacity of thought and the moral courage which produce the special splendor of this collection. zarnov's poetic language is, naturally, modern, his verse and rhythm vivid, and the whole translation audacious. zarnov found in his own rich poetical invention the metaphors and poetic visions to express Mickiewicz's ideas and colorful images. The translation of Konrad Wallenrod is a poetical and genuine interpretation, equalling in beauty Mickiewicz's own work. zarnov is certainly no romantic in the pattern of the last century, but still an enthusiastic patriot who sings in his poetry a hymn to his crucified country, dooming its traitors and fighting for justice, one who has consecrated his life and his heart to his fatherland. More than anyone else among modern Slovak poets he was, therefore predestined to enrich modern Slovak literature by this Byronic work of great charm and poetic vision, which "of the many and often highly inspired types of Byronism in Polish poetry ranks highest." zarnov's versions of the Ode to Youth and To My Muscovite Friends are to be remembered not only for brilliance of translation ( which could be demonstrated only by quotations and comparisons of texts), but also for the purpose which the translator wished to serve. The volume Poezia was published after the tragic experiences with the Russian occupation of Slovakia. zarnov, to whom the national cause has always been a question of honor and personal dedication, addressed, in Mickiewicz's mordant verses, the new Muscovite rulers and summoned Slovak youth to the dynamic faith which Mickiewicz, in the Ode to Youth, expressed for Poles under very similar circumstances. zarnov's translations were thus to serve after a century the same aim as Mickiewicz had assigned to his poetry. Through the literary works of Mickiewicz zarnov wished to teach the Slovaks, as Mickiewicz had the Poles, "to regard as their personal affair the great question of honor and dedication, truth and falsehood, nobility of ends and legitimacy of means for attaining them." zarnov attemped to convince his martyred people that "the national cause must become an autochthonous idea, the ultimate �188 SLOVAKIA moral criterion around which the entire spiritual life of the nation is crystalized." The real function of zarnov's poetry and translation was, like that of Mickiewicz's, not only to provide artistic enjoyment or to refine aesthetic taste, but primarily to equip his people with the spiritual resources necessary to enable them to survive their enslavement and to fight for their freedom. The Muscovite rulers in Slovakia grasped his intention and silenced the book. zarnov, under constant threat of arrest and deportation, and many times in prison, made a dramatic flight from his country and now fights in exile for his ideas. In exile he published a number of patriotic verses and a masterful transcription of several poems by Jan Holly into a modern Slovak language, to remind the Slovaks of their spiritual roots and national heritage, and to confirm once more that he was one of the Slovak poets who penetrated and stirred to the depths the spirits of his generation and especially of the young intelligentsia, helped to bring them to a strong awareness of their spiritual and national individuality, and successfully summoned them to the struggle for justice and freedom. On behalf of that generation, we are sending to the quiet countryside near New York our grateful: Ad multos annos. F OOTNOTES 1) See F. Vnuk, Sedemnast' neurodnych ro kov . N acrt slovenske j li t eratury v rokoch 1945-62. (Middletown, Pa., 1965) , p . 277. 2) F or more details on 2arnov's work and life, see J . Pauco (ed .), L iterarny Almanach Slovaka v Amerike, Middletown, Pa. 1967. 3) On 2arnov's translations from Mickiewicz, see W. Lednicki, Adam . Micki ewicz in W orld Literature, University of California Press, 1956i contribution by J . M. Kirschbaum. lmrich K r u f I i a k The prose and poetry of Slovak emigre writers is varied in themes and literary styles and strongly reflects a deep sadness over the loss of their native country and over the treatment of their people under communism. This is especially characteristic of the writings of poets and writers who had played a prominent role in Slovak literary life before they left their native land. Strong national feelings and "heimweh''; however, can also be found in the works �SLOVAKIA 189 of poets who developed their talents far away from their native country. Prominent in this group of Slovak intellectuals is Dr. Imrich Kruzliak whose 60th birthday we will commemorate on December 8, 1974. Born in the romantic Detva, Kruzliak followed the path of educated Slovaks of his generation from villages and towns who went through secondary schools and universities by their own efforts and talents and, after helping the struggle for national independence, had to pay in jails or in exile for their patriotism. Kruzliak did not leave his native Slovakia in 1945. He decided to stay and fight with other Catholic intellectuals for the preservation of Slovak national traditions and for a place for Catholics in the post-war political life. When in 1947, the Communists began their persecution of Catholic intellectuals, he was arrested, tortured, and kept in jail for a year. To avoid a new arrest, he escaped in 1949 to Austria and in 1951 settled in Munich where he became employed by Radio Free Europe as a commentator on Slovak cultural matters. Writing mostly under the pen-name Marian ziar and initials I. K., mz, Dr. Kruzliak contributed in exile to emigre literature either in poetry or in literary criticism. Although Kruzliak had published verses and literary essays already before and during the war, it was in exile that he became known as a poet and mainly as a cultivated commentator and critic of Slovak literary and cultural life at home and abroad. His essays, comments and book reviews have been published mostly in the quarterly Most, Literdr ny Almanach, Rozhl'ady, but also in annuals and newspapers Jednota, Slovak v Amerike and for the past two years in Horizont of which he has been the editor in chief. His writings have been among the best in Slovak empire literature. We would mention especially his survey of Slovak literature under Communism (Most, 1958), anci essay "Shakespeare and Slovaks" (Most, 1964), a study on the "Literary and artistic cult of Sts. Cyril and Methodius among Slovaks" (Most, 1963) and ":C. stur" (Most, 1965) . In scores of book reviews, Kruzliak enriched Slovak emigre literature with new ideas, well-balanced opinions, and by an effort to keep Slovak cultural life abroad on a European level. �190 SLOVAKIA He also deserves recognition for editing and publishing two volumes of poetry of poets in communist jails Modlitby v putdch (Prayers in Shackles, Munich, 1955) and translations from Polish, Magyar and Russian poets of the period of "thaw" Podaj ndm ruku, Eur6pa ( Give us Helping Hand, Europe, Munich, 1957). One of his extensive surveys of Slovak culture under Communism was published in mimeographed book form and his contribution on Slovak culture since 1945 appeared in the symposium Slovakia in the 19th and 20th Centuries, published by the Slovak World Congress (Toronto, 1973). He also edited special volume of Arena (Vol. 16, 3-4) which the P.E.N. Centre for Writers in Exile published on Slovak literature in London, England in 1963. Dr. Kruzliak does not belong, however, to literary life alone. Since his university years he was among the most active intellectuals in the Slovak public life and a leading figure in the generation which dedicated talents and energies to the struggle of the Slovak people for an equal place among European nations. His literary beginnings are connected with students periodicals (Rozvoj, Svojet') in the 1930's, while his participation in public life began before he obtained his Ph.D. summa cum laude at the Bratislava University. As many members of his generation, he also was inspired by the idealism of ~udovit t5tur, represented in 1920's and 1930's in Slovak national struggle by Andrej Hlinka. Idealism and dedication of those years marked Dr. Kruzliak's whole life in Slovakia as well as in exile. On the threshold of his 60th birthday he continues his life struggle in the Slovak World Congress as the head of the cultural section. The upheavals and tragedies experienced by his generation, marked also his life, but did not break his spirit. Hardly any Slovak generation had to go through such trials. There were, however, also victories and uncomparable cultural and spiritual growth of the Slovak nation to' which that generation contributed at home and in exile. And no other generation had such opportunities to see the world, to learn foreign languages and to absorb cultural values of the most advanced nations. It is on behalf of those who from that generation survived the persecutions of the tyrannical regimes in �191 SLOVAKIA Slovakia and the trials of exile, that we cordially greet Dr. Kruzliak on the threshold of his 60th birthday, wishing him that the Lord may fulfill his desires to see Slovakia free, democratic and equal to other nations. Mikulas sp r i n C For the past 25 years, perhaps the most important role in the Slovak literary life in exile was played by the highly cultivated and sensitive poet, Rev. Mikulas sprinc, whose 60th birthday Slovaks abroad will commemorate on November 30th, 1974. Like Dilong and Strmen, sprinc also came from the "Catholic Moderna" group and was well-known in Slovakia as Secretary and later Director of the Slovak Catholic Academy and organizer of many cultural activities before and during the War. He published during the War two collections of his own poetry and four collections of translations : from Rilke, from several Italian poets, as well as from the works of P. Lippert and Giovanni Papini. At the same time he contributed to nearly all Slovak literary journals and periodicals, in addition to being the editor of the main Slovak Catholic literary monthly Kultiira <19431945 ). s princ left Slovakia later than other Slovak emigre poets and writers, and reached Rome through Austria and Germany. He was named by the Vatican a delegate for helping the Slovak refugees in Austria and Germany, but in 1946 he obtained a visa for the United States where he developed not only extensive organizational cultural activities, but also his talent so that he became one of the leading Slovak Catholic poets in Diaspora. A professor of modern languages and philosophy of arts by vocation, he deserves credit for keeping alive the Slovak literary journal Most , of which he has been editor since 1954, as well as for founding the Association of Slovak Writers and Artists, whose President has been the poet Andrej zarnov. sprinc was also one of the founders of the Slovak Institute in Cleveland, and edited several symposia in addition to his own prolific and varied literary activities. Altogether sprinc published 18 collections of musical and highly cultivated poetry, and an English collection �192 SLOVAKIA Driftwood ( 1969), partly translated by himself and partly by one of his students and a well-known translator of Slovak poetry, Jaroslav Vajda. Those who appreciate a poetry rooted in the strong belief in the Creator without sounding too religious, and those who like the beauty of life in the song of birds, in the colors of flowers, in the sound of the wind, and blue skies or the colors of the rainbow, can find great enjoyment in sprinc's poetry. In his lyrical verses, sprinc echoes the art of Paul Verlaine and the spirit of St. Francis of Assissi. The musical and rhythmical quality of his poetry is rarely equalled by other Slovak emigre poets, except probably Gorazd Zvonicky. The translations of sprinc's verses are not an easy task for translators. Many of his volumes also contain fine poems with patriotic overtones, expressing his love for his lost and oppressed Slovakia. Recent volumes of sprinc's poetry have been artistically illustrated and carefully published, reflecting high artistic quality also in their technical presentation. As a result, reading his beautifully published collections is a double pleasure; they are written by a sensitive and gifted poet but, even more, by a man humbly and joyfully believing in God whose faith and glorification of the Creator sounds so natural and full of hope that one longs for the same beautiful world and the author's joyful soul and spirit. Even though Paul Verlaine seems to be his preferred poet (he wrote his M.A . thesis in French on Verlaine), sprinc is very well versed in Italian, German and Spanish poetry, and contributed to Slovak emigre literature by several excellent translations. To his large and varied cultural activities he has added more than 300 articles, book reviews, comments and contributions to Slovak periodicals, almanacs and newspapers. More than any other poet or writer, sprinc deserves credit for keeping Slovak culture abroad not only alive, but also reflecting the best Slovak national traditions. In spite of his many activities as professor, editor and secretary of the Association of Slovak Writers and Artists, sprinc was able during the past two decades to publish nearly every year a volume of his poetry or a book in prose. Among his published works we find: Ozveny v samotdch (1940), Tak umieral bdsnik Pal'o Oliva (1942), 0 ldske �SLOVAKIA a bolesti (1942), Duinske elegie (1942), O Tebe spieva zem idc sdm 0943), K slobodnym pobreziam (1950), Na r:"•rFlo 'l J () • polnopi 'ti· · poludnfa Z (1955), slnku proti (1953), Tvdrou ')s'ted6~ putnie~±{~ moje Oci (1962), orla (1960), Mladost' a ffPk k?J s _ Brat~la'8 (1967), Andante (1952), kovia utrpenia ,a ~- ~1 • S'! 1 JI ora· ll:170 Palidora, z Piesne (1969), (1968), Driftwood 11 "' · j rn JC lovy ostrov (1973) etc.* t'f" : 'iOr.?.910 I'l Among his translation s we should metftionfGidva:aru Papini's work Witnesses of Suffering (Scraiitott CFA-{J'1i95!!) and among his foreign language writings hi M~..fthesi t Paul Verlaine: Etude de sa poesie religieuse,Wil'i-100',i stiill u v[ ,, , 1 ;. ,.... in manuscrip t. I 'di _Jj(,· ~-II sprinc also published an interesting narra,J;;':vp1!n,:prose about his escape and journey from Slovakia ~f?' ,1i0:Yr'l1Il,~9 States in a volume K slobodnym pobreziam ('J;R>t~'rr r;;~1e Shores), a book on St. Andrew Svorad as vv,:e, ~r~~d l. p~~lf dedicated to the Virgin Mary. For the llth -1 0~~t[;npial<: 0J Christianit y in Slovakia, he edited a collectiop."r~ ~!:5e-? by several Slovak poets under the title Zdravic0-; sp-"'qy j!oRi a Metodovi (Rome, 1963). He also contributec l:11f?: 1aurn~smr~ fully illustrated anthology Odkaz (The Legacy.., 197Jp in f.eJfg~ehte~. which leading Slovak poets and writers are ro "¼o"'"' 10· ""i In prose, he edited the memoirs of Msgr. Joze · KaB3-i a prominent Slovak diplomat at the Vatican du¥fh§ \ .war Spod Rohdcov po Vatikdn (From Rohace M9tiRtim to? · e Vatican, 1973) as well as two symposia comp.~~~ ,cif 'qop; C~ictrfn_tributions by Slovak emigre writers: Ndde7· vit'azria 1J 'R? 'fJf U?'f • -. ::;;_ 1939-1-.~4(} republika Slovenskd and 1947) Hope, ous ' ,.., Republic 1939-1949, Scranton, Pa., 1949). 9.i · V)\1)')1Sh'1 ·i•h ai 1~f'd2 c( aii~ Literary work of this envergure and 1 we -Iiifre > ; case; a does not need to be praised. It is again 1 • if'tceW!. Laudat'·a'¥f have to repeat the Latin dictum: Opus fivities It was a blessing for Slovak literature and cultubr-a~i abroad that sprinc left Slovakia. Therefore, ori~he~ooa §i6n of his 60th birthday, we cannot be more sincer.e"1wlierfJ,we - :>.r. ,h,i< say: Ad multos annos! 1 (JJ Jy3c-riqz~t{ :llC J *) :r-r::;m For more details on Sprinc and his work, see Literltrfi'y 11.lrMnbcn for 1967, p. 232-234, and Most, Vol. I, 2, 1954, and Vol. 13~ 4;-1956!!') �194 SLOVAKIA Teodorik Zubek To the ranks of prominent Slovak intellectuals in exile whose 60th birthday we will commemorate in 1974, also belongs Prof. T. J. Zubek, oustanding member of the Slovak Franciscan Order in Slovakia and the United States, who was born on April 4, 1914 in Malacky, Western Slovakia. Professor Zubek filled an important gap in exile activities by his theological writings and mainly by presenting the religious situation in post war Slovakia to the Western World. At the same time he deserves recognition for reviving the Order of Slovak Franciscan Fathers in the United States who under his leadership become active not only in the religious field but also in education and cultural life. Well educated at Slovak and foreign Universities (Zagreb, Croatia; Fribourg, Switzerland), Dr. Zubek played leading role in his Order in Slovakia, and had to pay under the Communist regime for his patriotism and service to God by detention in the concentration camp for priests in Svaty Benadik. After his escape in 1951, he found refuge in Austria and Rome, Italy, from where he came to the United States in 1952. Soon after his arrival to the U.S.A. Dr. Zubek became Professor of Theology at Seton Hall University, Newark, N. J. and published an authoritative work on the Communist persecution of religion in his native country Church of Silence in Slovakia (J. Lach Publ., Whiting, Ind., 1956). This book and his scholarly contributions to American religious and academic periodicals (Homiletic and Pastoral Review, Jurist, Ameri can Ecclesiastical Review, The Catholic Educator and others) performed an important service to the Slovak cause among Western intellectuals. Some of his studies rank among the best writings on contemporary theological and educational topics. From the Slovak point of view, of great importance among his English writings is also his presentation of the case of Msgr. Tiso and the fate of Slovak bishops (Slovak Bishops - Martyrs of Christ, 1963) to Western readers. Exposed to hostile propaganda during the War and after, many people in the free world maintained biased attitudes towards Slovakia even among clergy and in academic circles. Dr. Zubek was among the first Slovak emigre �SLOVAKIA 195 intellectuals who grasped the need for writing on Slovakia in English and in non-Slovak periodicals, and for doing it in a much more reserved manner than we can afford in our Slovak publications. Dr. Zubek contributed at the same time to Slovak periodicals and newspapers, to Slovak Studies, and edited the religious monthly Listy Sv. Frantiska (Leaflets of St. Francis) published by his Order of which he was the head as Provincial Delegate. He also took part in Slovak emigre cultural and organizational activities aiming at the unity and co-operation, namely in Slovak Liberation Council and Slovak World Congress, at the Conference on Slovakia held in Toronto in 1971 and elsewhere. From the very beginning of his exile has been considered as one of the most distinguished representatives of Slovak clergymen abroad. By his activities, high education and devotion to the work for God and bonum commune, Dr. Zubek upheld the noble tradition of the Franciscan Order in Slovakia, whose members belonged to the best educators, historians, writers and poets in the centuries of Slovak national revival as well as in this century. It is with sincere admiration for his work and great human qualities that we greet him on his sixtieth birthday with a heartfelt: Ad multos annos! Jozef Pa u co For more than a century, journalists and editors played in Slovak national life a role going far beyond their profession. Starting with Eudovit stur in the middle of the 19th century, leading Slovak journalists were also political leaders, poets, writers, historians, grammarians and organizers of cultural and political institutions. This phenomenon appeared in Slovakia as well as among Slovaks abroad, especially in the United States and Canada. After stur, S. H . Vajansky was an outstanding example of a journalist, who also was a prominent poet, novelist and fighter for the Slovak cause. In the following generation Karol Sidor and Konstantin Culen remained faithful to that tradition in Slovakia and on the American continent. Both of them were journalists by profession, but they also wrote a �[96 SLOVAKIA am lil,erary works and books dealing with the ofoSI~aks and their struggle for freedom. h'eq>ast 25 years, an austanding example of journalist who became a historian, political writer and organizer • .Joll!uraI &F.~ political activities, was Dr. Jozef Pauco, ~ '1We .1 2¥thday was celebrated by Slovaks abroad on ~ 8f.f9 r¥R~L 1974. Pauco's admiration for E. stur goes Bi~ 1t2,1r.. ,years when he wrote his Ph.D. thesis at the I}, ·1-ffi ·1i v~c13ratislava, which was later published under 9} yt • {,1J{!,OJJYChova u sturovcov (Popular Education in nt) . Since that time Dr. Pauco also followed ~ ' x' MB, ~ f8o}§jeps of K. Sidor and K. culen in his work as ~n !n eing a political exile, in his dedication to the ~ ~.HJ.Iijijle:iJer2 freecto111: , and independence for Slovakia and i - fillfp,tjfj>_n with American Slovaks and Slovak-American organizations. bibliography listed below indicates, Dr. As thej seJect ' ' r[J J)l [IQ[ f y Hjj r(~mgs are not only extensive, but also cover e.vera1' ~ cfs9!rom history to political science and belles 12t ,nw .fil~S.V O II . pub1·ished works . part of his 1l 1 :e~ . .tS s19.a y, th e maJor . t ct· f d t S {:_!(, ''IS I'I .'11 ' hJfiIH~W . , rAR?"ever, a e en mg he Slovak cause. This :a cr1°fsB~afiW even his works on American Slovaks, which !fh~ Y#1 ~9 ~fo~);'o his best writings and in their method and $I&»Jay flDif compare with standard works on the subj~cf.'."'i frer fof. F. Hrusovsky and K. culen, he actually deserves main credit for systematic research into the past and present of American Slovaks. His books on their history atest to his great love for jjl_jz~ i 9_mt branch of the Slovak people. In addition, lzli-l ~ftlltl.futijsplayed in his works on American Slovaks, of Wlli.Plb :ti~cY~mninous history of the First Catholic Slovak ~smrubip rrecent book on Slovak Pioneers in America 4%fill:YJ O ~fkteular attention, that history was the field W~fttmt~ ld use his academic education and thorough fmID'{fflP.g.f~mf@lovak American organizational structure and ~ ~g:njfl~J:?.g ~ of individual leaders. As a result, whoever }Y!UsiYfOOl ~(tc,::omplete history of American Slovak~, will lff)lUiffifHfliiO.l:Wlfite authoritatively without ~sing Dr. Pauco's , ~f4J!!g)}V~rks. 110Ui-Bi¥unMjgl,lly, a larger number of books, essays an(\ MMtje b&;ia . Pauco deals, however, with Slova~a•s strugglaj::Rf!~~p.filldence l;l,nd with the _defense of leading Slovak h'i&j t> n; b~ �SLOVAKIA 197 personalities, especially Dr. Jozef Tiso, against whom many incorrect views and misconceptions were spread in the West during and after the Second World War. Slovakia and Slovaks suffered not only under Communism. There was a lot of injustice and descrimination against Slovaks also before the War and during the short period after the War when the Communists ruled together with their Czech and Slovak fellow-travelers from the non-communist parties. In his writings, Dr. Pauco endeavored to fight the falsehood and injustice of· both. It was, however, the communist misrule in Slovakia and the communist ideology which he exposed and fiercely criticized in his writings, advocating Christian democracy and the independence of Slovakia. Besides his own books, essays and thousands of articles, Dr. Pauco also published-as editor-the valuable documentary work Dr. Jozef Tiso o sebe (Dr. Jozef Tiso About Himself), containing the defense of the President of the Slovak Republic at his trial by the communist court, and a number of symposia on leading Slovak exiles (K. Sidor, J.C. Hronsky,· etc.). Furthermore, he deserves recognition for publishing and editing the Literdrny Almanach and the weekly Slovak v Amerike, both of which would have disappeared several years ago without his dedication and sacrifice as well that of his literary active wife. Last but not least, Dr. Pauco has rendered great service to the Slovak cause as the editor of the English periodical dealing with Slovak cultural and political matters, Slovakia. founded by Philip Hrobak. This editorial part of Dr. Pauco's work is of far reaching importance for the activities of Slovaks abroad and can be evaluated adequately only if we imagine how much poorer Slovak cultural life and the struggle for independence would be without these publications. In view of the fact that the historical and geopolitical situation of Slovakia made the Slovak cause a matter of controversy, Dr. Pauco's writings were bol,lild to provoke a strong reaction from the adversaries of the Slovak struggle for independence. His militant spirit, uncompromising attitude and fervor incited them to make denunciations, accusations and . undeserved attacks, but Pauco remained, in spite of all attacks on his person, one of 'the most dedicated defenders of the Slovak cause in his generation. �198 SLOVAKIA He also continues to be the most prolific Slovak journalist and writer on politics and history who remained faithful to stur's tradition and Hlinka-Tiso's ideology of Christian democracy and self-determination for the Slovaks. SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY IN SLOVAK Popular Education ). Matica slovenska. Turciansky Sv. Martin, 1943, pp. 151. Politicko-narodny program Hsns (Political Program of the Slovak People's Party ). Andrej uc. spol. Bratislava, 1944, pp. 96. co po komunizme? (After Communism What?) . Jednota, Middletown, Pa., 1952, pp. 29. Dr. Jozef Ti so o sebe (Dr. Joseph Tiso About Himself) . Slovensky Katolicky Sokol, Passaic, N. J., 1952, pp. 359. (Ed.) Tisov odkaz (Tiso's Message). Jednota, Middletown, Pa., 1953, pp. 89. Stefan Furdek a slovenske prist'ahovalectvo (Stephen Furdek and Slovak Immigration ). J ednota, Middletown, Pa., 1955, pp. 190. Slovcici a komunizmus (The Slovaks and Communism ). Rev. Jan Lach, Whiting, Ind., 1957, pp. 318. P-0d zcistavou krest'anskej demokracie (Under the Banner of the Christian Democracy). Slovenski krest'anski demokrati v Spojenych Statoch, Middletown, Pa. , 1957, pp. 30. Slovenskci rehol'a Sestier sv. Cyrila a Metoda (Slovak Order of the Sisters of SS. Cyril and Methodius). Slovensky .Zensky Spolok sv. Anny, Wyoming Valley, Pa., 1957, pp. 32. Matus Jankola - knaz a ncirodovec (Matus Jankola - A Priest and Patriot). Rad sestier sv. Cyrila a Metoda, Danville, Pa., 1959, pp. 174. Pamiatke Jozefa Cigra Hronskeho (In Memoriam Jozef Cig-er Hronsky) . Literarny Almanach Slovaka v Amerike, Middletown, Pa., 1960, pp. 46. (Ed.) Martin Kopunek) . Laicky apostol Martin Kopunek (Lay Apostle Vychodna Oblast' Sdruzenia Slovenskych Katolikov, Bethlehem, Pa., 1961, pp. 67. (Ed.) Neporazitel'ni (Unconquerables). Prva Katolicka Slovenska Jednota, Middletown, Pa., 1961, pp. 190. Karol Sidor - politik novincir, spisovatel' (Karol Sidor - Politician, Newspaperman, and Writer) . Literarny Almanach Slovaka v Amerike, Middletown, Pa., 1962, pp. 148. (Ed.) Piit'desiatnik Dr. J-0zef Kirschbaum (Dr. Jozef Kirschbaum - Fifty Years Old). Literarny Almanach Slovaka v Amerike, Middletown, Pa., 1963, pp. 171. (Ed.) Prvej Katolickej Slovenskej Jednoty (75 Years of the First rokov 75 Catholic Slovak Union). Prva Katolicka Slovenska Jednota, Cleveland, Ohio, 1965, pp. 560 and XIV. 80 pages of pictures. Na uteku (Flight to Wonderland; serialized in the Weekly Jednota) . Middletown, Pa., 1965. l}udovychova u sturovcov (Stur's Movement - �SLOVAKIA 199 Tak sme sa poznali (So Have We Known One Another). Literarny Almanach Slovaka v Amerike, Middletown, Pa., 1967, pp. 281. Illustra- tions. Slovenski priekopnici v Amerike (Slovak Pioneers in America). First Catholic Slovak Union, Cleveland, Ohio, 1972, pp. 358. Illustrations. IN ENGLISH Unconquerables, Vantage Press, New York, N. Y., 1958, pp. 225. Christian Slovakia Under Communism. The Slovak Catholic Federation, Valparaiso, Ind., 1959, pp. 31. Flight to Wonderland. Robert Speller and Sons, New York, N. Y., 1963, pp. 334. 'i0 Years of the Slovak League of America. Middletown, Pa., 1967, pp. 146. (Ed.) IN GERMAN Dr. Jozef Tiso: Die Wahrheit uber die Slowakei (The Truth About Slovakia). Tisovo Tovarisstvo, in the Emigration, 1948, pp. 187. Illustrated. ARTICLES IN ENGLISH The Practi cal Aspect of a Federation. Slovakia, III, No. 2, 1953, p. 26-36. American Slovaks and March 14, 1939. Slovakia, IV, No. 1, 1954, p. 17-22. The Slovak Republic and Communism. Slovakia, IV, No. 3-4, 1954, p. 35-38. Slovakia Viewed By American Historians. Most, I. No. 4, 1954, p . 17-25. The Failures of Communist Politics in Slovakia, Slovakia, V, No. 4, 1955, p. 3-20. Stu.r's Group in the Service of the People. Slovakia, VI, No. 1, 1956, p. 11-16. I Was Editor of President Tiso's Newspaper. Slovakia, VII, No. 1, 1957, p. 9-12. Dr. Joseph Tiso : Christian Democrat. Slovakia, VII, No. 2, 1957, p. 37-50. The Stirring Days of March 1939. Slovakia, IX, No. 4, 1959, p. 24-32. Slovakia Under Communism. Slovakia, IX, N-0. 5, 1959, p. 1-5; Slovakia, X, No. 6, 1960, p. 62-73 ; Slovakia, XI, No. 1, 1961, p. 13-21. Slovakia's Mid-Nineteenth Century Struggle for National Life. Slovak Studies I, 1961, p. 69-83. The Matica Slovenskd in America. Slovakia, XIII, No. 1, 1963, p. 77-82. American Slovaks and the Beginnings of Czecho-Slovakia. Slovakia, XVI, No. 39, 1966, p. 63-75. Slovak Pioneers in America. Slovakia, XIX, No. 42, 1969, p. l0S-124. Under Dynamic Leadership. 60 Years of the Slovak League of America, 1967, p. 112-146. The Slovak Benedictines Review 50 Years in Cleveland, Ohio. Slovakia, XXII, No. 45, 1972, p. 92-97. Twenty Years of the Slovak Institute in Cleveland. Slovakia, XXIII, No. 46, 1973, p. 16-23. Cultural Revival of American and Canadian Slovaks. Slovakia, XXIII, No. 46, 1973, p. 72-81. Mother M. Emerentia Petrasek. Slovakia, XXIII, No. 46, 1973, p. 123-128. �200 SLOVAKIA EVALUATION OF DR. PAUCO'S WRITINGS BY REVIEWERS The number of book reviews published on individual Pauco's works is too large to be listed in this survey. In general, we can say that extensive reviews and commentaries, written by known Slovak authors, scholars, poets and cultural workers, were published not only in newspapers, but also in literary and cultural periodicals (Most, Furdek, Slovakia) and almanacs. Book reviews in Slovak language prevail, but his major writings were evaluated and commented upon also in English, mostly by reviewers born or educated on the American continent. The majority of reviewers of Dr. Pauco's books evaluated his writings favorably not only because of their ideological contents and usefulness for preservation of Slovak cultural heritage but also for their literary, and in many instances, scholarly value, thorough research and vast knowledge of the Slovak past and present. Deeply involved in Slovak political and cultural life since his students years, Dr. Pauco was a participant in historical events or closely associated with persons he writes about in a majority of his books, which gives to some of his works particular significance. On the other hand, his books on the history of American Slovaks fill an important gap and therefore the reviewers valued them for their contribution to the neglected history of American Slovaks as well as for their documentation and objectivity with which Pauco approached his subjects. Among the reviewers of Dr. Pauco's books and publications edited by him were K. culen, Prof. F. Hrusovsky, J . E. Bor, M. Jankovsky, J. M. Kirschbaum, J. C. Krajsa, M. K. Mlynarovic, J. Mest'ancik, Prof. K. Murin, Rev. Andrew Pier, O.S.B., Dr. B. Pissko, Dr. J. Rekem, Dr. J. Stasko, Rev. Mother Emerentia, Rev. Sister Tarcisia and many others. The book 75 Years of the FCSU was reviewed by 15 and his recent book Slovak Pioneers in America by 9 reviewers. All reviews were favorable . The evaluation by American born reviewers deserves, however special mention. Prof. V. R. Greene of the Kansas State University, who has learned to read and understand Slovak and wrote his �SLOVAKIA 201 Ph.D. thesis on East European immigrants in Pennsylvania , said on Pauco's 75 Years of the First Catholic Slovak Union: "Not only is it a complete and most comprehensiv e history of the Jednota and the Slovaks in America, but its many references, footnotes and bibliography will satisfy any serious reader and research historian." Mother M. Emerentia, SS.C.M. in her extensive review published in Jednota (June 30, 1965) referred to Matthew Arnold's statement that "Great creative works in literature result from happy concurence of two notable powers, the power of the man and the power of the moment," and wrote on Pauco's book: "Such a happy concurence of two notable powers has been strikingly exemplified before our eyes this year. For the power of the moment there was the 75th anniversary of the First Catholic Slovak Union in 1965, calling for the writing of the history of this remarkable organization. For the power of the man there was Joseph Pauco, Ph.D., a gifted author, historian and scholar, capable and willing to assume the task of writing this history. The result is a truly monumental contribution to Slovak history and literature, entitled 75 rokov Prvej Katolickej Slovenskej Jednoty." The book Tak sme sa poznali (So Have We Known One Another, 1967) attracted the attention of Slovak exiles as well as of American born Slovak intellectuals. "Dr. J. Pauco's Memoirs encompass - according to Sister M. Tarcisia - multiple and varied personal contacts as well as deep insight, broad vision and a skillful pen. The author is a scholar, a man of the people, an editor, a journalist, a lecturer, a politcian. The era he portrays was at once shatteringly disruptive and marvelously formative in its application to Central Europe and specifically to Slovakia. The men who played the leading roles in the drama of the Slovak Republic (1939-1945) were true to human nature: some giants, some midgets, some heroes, some traitors. Tak sme sa poznali is a tremendously vital book. In recounting his experience in the Slovak Republic - all of which he saw, part of which he was - Dr. Pauco has written authentic history. As such it will live and flourish." �202 SLOVAKIA Pauco's last book Slovenskt priekopnici v Amerike (Slovak Pioneers in America, 1972) was favorably reviewed and welcome as a valuable contribution to the history of American Slovaks by a dozen of Slovak writers, scholars, journalists and cultural workers. In the opinion of the American born editor of Jednota, J. C. Krajsa, "Pauco's work required serious research and documentation. In an objective manner he credits the life and work of the pioneers and categorizes them in their proper niche in the history of the American Slovaks, in America and the Slovak nation. He presents those leading pioneers who played the greatest role in the cultural field; those who organized fraternal societies, parishes, schools, and religious orders; those who preserved the literary culture with the publication of newspapers and books; and those who were fired with the ideal of liberty that even permeated to Slovakia." The book is in Krajsa's view "in itself a pioneer book. Nothing to date has been published in such documentary detail about American Slovak pioneers. The First Catholic Slovak Union is proud to publish this vital literary work of Dr. Joseph Pauco." According to another prominent American Slovak, Fr. J. A. Gajdosik "Pauco's book is one sure way to arousing interest in the Slovak heritage on a personal and individual basis, especially among our younger people. Hopefully, an English translation will be made in the near future, so that devotion to the Slovak ethnicity will be fostered. "The book should bolster Dr. Joseph Pauco's strong thoughts about the termination and death of the Slovak language in the United States. The book is also a warning to our fair-weather-Slovaks, who claim that they received little if anything from their Slovak ancestors, for it teaches that much Slovak affluence and prestige is directly the result of the conduct and work of our pioneers. "It behooves our brethren who are ashamed of their Slovak ethnicity, to study their history, and learn how everything they have was given to them, and that they should give themselves for others as our pioneers did. The ultimate lesson is that we, American of Slovak ancestry, should foster and serve the Slovak cause and ideal, at least as much, if not better than our pioneers in early America." �203 SLOVAKIA REVIEWS OF PAUCO'S WRITINGS IN LEADING PERIODICALS MOST co po komunizme? (I, 1, 1954, p . 44) Tisov odkaz (I, 2, 1954, p. 39-40. Dr. Karol Murin) Dr. Jozef Tiso o sebe (I, 3, 1954, p. 41-43. F. Hrusovsky) Stefan Furdek a slovenske prist'ahovalectvo (II, 2, 1955, p. 136-137) Mest'ancik) Slovcici a komunizmus (IV, 3, 1957, p. 132-133. Unconquerables (VI, 1-2, 1959, p. 83-85. Andrew Pier, O.S.B.) Christian Slovakia Under Communism (VI, 3, 1959, p. 186-187. Andrew Jan Pier, O.S.B. ) Pi:it'desiatnik Dr. Jozef Kirschbaum (XI, 3-4, 1964, p. 181) Slovakia (XI, 3-4, 1964, p. 182-183) Litercirny Almanach Slovcika v Amerike na rok 1965 (XII, 1-2, 1965, p. 82-83) Slovakia (XII, 3-4, 1965, p. 189) SLOVAKIA 75 rokov Prvej Katolickej Slovenskej Jednoty (XV, 38, 1965, p . 152-155. Mother M. Emerentia, SS.C.M.) Litercirny Almanach Slovcika v Amerike 1967 (XVII, 40, 1967, p. 190-192. Sister M. Tarcisia Gregorovic, SS.C.M.) Tak sme sa poznali (XVIII, 41, 1968, p . 159-164. Sister M. Tarcisia, SS. C.M.) Slovenski priekopnici v Amerike ( XXIII , 46, 1973, p. 196-197. Joseph C. Krajsa) F URD EK All writings by Dr. Pauco on the history of American Slovaks are evaluated by J . M. Kirschbaum in his article Dr. Pauco' s W ritings and the History of American Slovaks (Furdek, 1974, p. 75-80) . Francis V n u k : A BIOGRAPHICAL VALEDICTION In spite of the fact that the Slovaks are among the oldest inhabitants of the Central European region their efforts to secure a fully independent life has been seldom appreciated and rarely understood. But frustrations and disappointments can never deter a nation from its ultimate aim, and where one generation fails another will rise to continue the struggle. The natural aspirations of a nature and self-respecting nation cannot be suppressed by terror, nor silenced by bribes, nor extinguished by an apparent � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1974, Vol. 24 Description An account of the resource Vol. 24 (No. 47), 1974. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1974 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document SLOVAKIA 181 ,J.. M. Ki rs ch b au m, Ph.D.: Noted Slovak Jubilarians Andrej Z a r n o v "Les elites emigrees vivent tragiquement. Elles sont contraintes a une vie hasardeuse, solitaire, humiliee. Elles sont amenees par l'exil a l'epreuve a reviser leurs valeurs, et a en connaitre ou a en creer d'autres ... " Albert Thibaudet, Histoire de la litterature fra~aise de 1780 a nos jours, Paris, 1936. Since 1945, when Slovakia was overrun by the Soviet armies and subject to communist rule, a number of poets and writers left their native land in protest against political oppression in their homeland and with the intention of working in the free world for freedom and independence of their country. This political mission is especially true with regard to the emigre writers and poets who left Slovakia in 1945-1949 among whom were several of the leading Slovak writers and poets. A similar example can be found mutatis mutandis only in 19th century Poland, when after the revolution of 1830 the best Polish poets (Mickiewicz, Krasinski, Slowacki) and a number of writers and intellectuals escaped the Russians and made Paris the center of Polish literature. The fate of Slovak poets and writers was, of course, not as favorable as that of Polish "grande emigration." Some of the more prominent Slovak writers were soon captured in Austria and brought back to Slovakia and imprisoned (Milo Urban, A. zarnov, Tido J. Gaspar) while others had to fight against false denunciations and other pressures, in order to survive and create. In spite of this, "the 50 odd Slovak men of letters living on this side of the Iron Curtain kept the lights of Slovak culture burning while they were out of their native country. This may sound emotional or sentimental, yet it is a sad truth that in the years 1950-55 there hardly appeared in Slovakia a single book worthy of reading. In those years indeed the emigre literature was the contemporary Slovak literature." 1 182 SLOVAKIA Slovak poets and writers in exile continued to play especially the role of the "conscience of the nation" and that of interpreters of the aspirations of the Slovak people, traditionally assumed by Slovak poets and writers. More than in any other nation, not only the national rebirth was the work of Slovak poets and writers, but also the struggle for political rights and social justice; the first national rebellion was led by them, and they kept the national spirit alive in time of despair. Since the time when the poet Jan Holly (1785-1849) awakened the Slovak intelligentsia by unveiling to them the glorious past of Slovak ancestors in the Great Moravian period, and by giving them hope for a better future, Slovak poetry was an instrument of the national struggle, an expression of the national ideals and hopes, of national sufferings and joy. The poets and writers were the heralds and prophets of a new and better world, often being also social revolutionary leaders. This tradition was cultivated in Slovak literature over the past one hundred and fifty years and was even strengthened during the crucial years of Slovakia's national struggle in this century. Slovak poets and writers in exile have not considered themselves exempt from this special mission. On the contrary, exile made them more patriotic and the sufferings of the Slovak people more conscious of their duty to be the "conscience" of their nation and the interpreters of the aspiration of the Slovak people. In the countryside of New York State, one of the best contemporary Slovak poets, Andrej zarnov (by his own name Prof. Frantisek subik), attained on November 19, 1973 the prestigous age of 70. If the present Slovak generations owe a tribute to any poet for his participation in the struggle for national rights and equality with other nations, Andrej zarnov deserves such recognition from Slovaks abroad as well as in Slovakia. Born in 1903 in the village of Kuklov in Western Slovakia, zarnov remained proud of his rural heritage even when he achieved the position of University Professor of Pathology and high recognition from critics and readers for his literary work. He made his secondary studies in Skalica and Trnava and his study of medicine in Bratislava where he was active in student organizations and became SLOVAKIA 183 well-known for his fiery verses already during his university years. In 1926, :2:arnov accompanied Msgr. Andrej Hlinka on the triumphant journey around the United States. At that time neither zarnov nor the American Slovaks could expect that after the dramatic events of the Second World War, he would return to the United States as an exile, persecuted for his patriotism and his part in the International Red Cross Commission which examined during the Second World War the brutal massacre of 10,000 Polish officers by the Soviets in Katyn. zarnov left Slovakia in 1945, but he was forcibly "repatriated" from Austria, arrested and jailed. In 1952 he left Slovakia in a dramatic flight and settled first near Washington and later at Wingdale, N. Y. where he lives presently with his family. 2 ZARNOV'S WORK AND PLACE IN SLOVAK LITERATURE Perhaps to no other country more than to Slovakia is the statement of historians applicable, that in Central and Eastern European national movements were the concern of poets, writers and scholars and that they created the nationalities. Not only was the national rebirth the work of Slovak poets and writers, but also the struggle for political rights and social justice; the first national rebellion was led by them, and they kept the national spirit alive in time of despair. Since the first great Slovak poet, Jan Holly (1785-1849) awakened the Slovak intelligentsia by unveiling to them the glorious past of Slovak ancestors and by giving them a strong faith in a better future of the Slovak people, Slovak poetry was an instrument of national struggle, an expression of the national idea, national sufferings, joys, and hopes. The poets and writers were the heralds and prophets of a new and better world; they were social revolutionaries and national leaders. This tradition was respected in Slovak literature over the past one hundred years, and during the crucial years of Slovak national struggle in this century the role was played by Andrej :2:arnov more prominently than by any other Slovak poet, except for Martin Razus. Andrej :2:arnov appeared in Slovak literature in a period when the Slovak people fought their harsh struggle (against 184 SLOVAKIA the Czech assimilatory tendencies) for preserving their language, national identity and cultural heritage. It was the period of the 20's and 30's of this century, when on one hand Slovakia experienced a strong cultural development, but was at the same time forced into an uneven struggle for her national future, for social justice and political and economic equality. The danger of this situation was not only in the preponderance of means and political power or in the fact that Slovaks were far outnumbered by Czechs, but also in the fact that the masses of the Slovak people were going through the final phase of the process of maturing politically and the Slovak intelligentsia was in cultural and ideological ferment. In this national struggle Zarnov came with his fiery verses full of faith in the Slovak people and his vitality, adYocating national solidarity and protesting against the Czech attempts to rule, exploit and denationalize the Slovak people. At the same time, his poetry dared Slovaks to defend themselves, to stand firmly on their feet and not bow, not to yield. It was a revolutionary call for political and social justice, for national pride and honor which very soon found a favorable echo among the young Slovak intelligentsia and made Zarnov, since he identified himself with his nation's aspirations, sorrows and sufferings, the poet of the Slovak national struggle, and of Slovak patriotism. There was an outburst of poetic production in Slovakia between the two wars, but only Zarnov (besides M. Razus) stood on the barricades of Slovak national struggle with his patriotic poems, his forceful indignation, with his spiritual roots in the national tradition and fervent belief in the victory of the Slovak cause. Zarnov's fiery poetry, after being largely recited and published in periodicals and dailies, had been edited in several volumes. The first one, Strdz pri Morave (The Guard on Morava, 1925) was composed of verses expressing the poet's and his generation's political and spiritual orientation and provoked even the political censors to intervene. The second volwne Brdzda cez uhory (The Furrow Through Fallows, 1929) contained rather meditative and lyrical poetry enquiring into the spiritual ferment and restlessness of the poet's generation. While in the first volwne Zarnov created of his poetry an effective instrument for Slovak SLOVAKIA 185 national struggle, in the second volume he turned his eyes to the soul of the people he inflamed to struggle and bitterly analyzed its conscience. The third volume Hlas krvi (The Call of the Blood, 1932) and the following volume stit (The Shield, 1940) still contained verses of patriotic inspirations; his last volume Mftvy (The Dead, 1941) contains, however, poetry of deep personal sorrow and refine lyrics inspired by the untimely death of his young son. The profile of a patriotic revolutionary and interpreter of the nation's aspirations and struggle was thus completed in z arnov's last volume by poetry of deep human feelings and meditations. In all his volumes, zarnov preferred rather simple poetic forms, including the free verse. The rhythm of his poetry and his vocabulary were of great effectiveness and from the very beginning it indicated a strong talent. His books are, of course, on the index in Slovakia, but some of his verses are among the most recited by Slovaks in the free world, in which zarnov found refuge after the Communists seized power in Slovakia. ZARNOV'S TRANSLATIONS FROM WORLD LITERATURES zarnov enriched, however, Slovak literature also by many masterful translations of lyrics, epics and dramas. His first translations go back to 1933-34 at which time zarnov published in Slovak dailies and periodicals his version of Przerwa-Tetmajer Jdnosikove motivy (Janosik's Motives). In 1936 zarnov translated for the Slovak National Theatre the well-known play from the life of F. Chopin and Georges Sand Leto v Nohante (The Summer in Nohant) by J. Iwaszkiewicz. A year after, Matica slovenska published Sophocles' Antigona in zarnov's translation and in 1941 King Oedipus. The same year zarnov translated for the Slovak National Theatre the libretto of the opera Rusalka and in 1943 his translation of Zygmunt Krasinski's Nebozskd komedia (The Undivine Comedy) was published by Matica slovenska. After the Second World War, in the oppressive atmosphere of the Communist and Czech domination of Slovakia, zarnov was not allowed to publish his own poetry, but he did not cease creating and talking to his countrymen. In 186 SLOVAKIA 1949 the Society of St. Adalbert published his translation of Murphy's novel on Mary Magdalene The Scarlet Lily, in 1950 appeared the volume of translations from Adam Mickiewicz Poeezia, and in 1951 Hymny (The Hymns) of Jan Kasprowicz. The Communist regime did not, however, allow zarnov to use his pen-name on Kasprowicz's Hymns. They were published as translations by Francis ~ubik. Before his dramatic flight from Slovakia, zarnov prepared for publication his translation of Dante's Peklo (The Hell) and selections of poems by Leopold Staff Vyber z poezie (Selected Poems), but they remained in manusscript. zarnov's masterful translations were highly regarded by Slovak literary critics and by the readers and contributed especially to useful cultural relations of Slovakia with Poland. He received a Silver wreath from the Polish Academy of Literature for his pre-war translation U pol'sk'!}ch b<isnikov ( Among Polish Poets) and during the Second World War he prepared an entire book of translations from Adam Mickiewicz's works. 3 The volume was published "in order to transplant Mickiewicz's works to Slovak soil and thereby strengthen the structure of Slavic brotherhood in the cultural sector," and because "in world literature there are only a few great poets who in the work of their genius accumulate and present so universally, profoundly, and magnificently the history of the efforts, failures and spiritual achievements of their own people as does Adam Mickiewicz, the greatest Polish and all-Slavic poet." The book appeared in 1948, published by the Slovak Catholic cultural institution the "Society of St. Adalbert." We can say without exaggeration that zarnov has been, in his generation, artistically and spiritually the best prepared to transmit the heritage of Mickiewicz's most beautiful poems into Slovak literature. And he did it with great artistic skill and brilliance. His volume Poezia contains not only the eighteen Crimean Sonnets, but also Konrad Wallenrod, the Ode to Youth, To a Polish Mother, To My Muscovite Friends, Sages, A Vision, The Master of Masters, Flight and Out of My Sight, thus presenting some valuable lyrics along with his patriotic verse tale about his fatherland. The Crimean Sonnets in zarnov's translation remain SLOVAKIA 187 "a wonder," since he has preserved to a great degree the richness of beauty of the poetic expression which always takes us by surprise and makes us marvel at the audacity of thought and the moral courage which produce the special splendor of this collection. zarnov's poetic language is, naturally, modern, his verse and rhythm vivid, and the whole translation audacious. zarnov found in his own rich poetical invention the metaphors and poetic visions to express Mickiewicz's ideas and colorful images. The translation of Konrad Wallenrod is a poetical and genuine interpretation, equalling in beauty Mickiewicz's own work. zarnov is certainly no romantic in the pattern of the last century, but still an enthusiastic patriot who sings in his poetry a hymn to his crucified country, dooming its traitors and fighting for justice, one who has consecrated his life and his heart to his fatherland. More than anyone else among modern Slovak poets he was, therefore predestined to enrich modern Slovak literature by this Byronic work of great charm and poetic vision, which "of the many and often highly inspired types of Byronism in Polish poetry ranks highest." zarnov's versions of the Ode to Youth and To My Muscovite Friends are to be remembered not only for brilliance of translation ( which could be demonstrated only by quotations and comparisons of texts), but also for the purpose which the translator wished to serve. The volume Poezia was published after the tragic experiences with the Russian occupation of Slovakia. zarnov, to whom the national cause has always been a question of honor and personal dedication, addressed, in Mickiewicz's mordant verses, the new Muscovite rulers and summoned Slovak youth to the dynamic faith which Mickiewicz, in the Ode to Youth, expressed for Poles under very similar circumstances. zarnov's translations were thus to serve after a century the same aim as Mickiewicz had assigned to his poetry. Through the literary works of Mickiewicz zarnov wished to teach the Slovaks, as Mickiewicz had the Poles, "to regard as their personal affair the great question of honor and dedication, truth and falsehood, nobility of ends and legitimacy of means for attaining them." zarnov attemped to convince his martyred people that "the national cause must become an autochthonous idea, the ultimate 188 SLOVAKIA moral criterion around which the entire spiritual life of the nation is crystalized." The real function of zarnov's poetry and translation was, like that of Mickiewicz's, not only to provide artistic enjoyment or to refine aesthetic taste, but primarily to equip his people with the spiritual resources necessary to enable them to survive their enslavement and to fight for their freedom. The Muscovite rulers in Slovakia grasped his intention and silenced the book. zarnov, under constant threat of arrest and deportation, and many times in prison, made a dramatic flight from his country and now fights in exile for his ideas. In exile he published a number of patriotic verses and a masterful transcription of several poems by Jan Holly into a modern Slovak language, to remind the Slovaks of their spiritual roots and national heritage, and to confirm once more that he was one of the Slovak poets who penetrated and stirred to the depths the spirits of his generation and especially of the young intelligentsia, helped to bring them to a strong awareness of their spiritual and national individuality, and successfully summoned them to the struggle for justice and freedom. On behalf of that generation, we are sending to the quiet countryside near New York our grateful: Ad multos annos. F OOTNOTES 1) See F. Vnuk, Sedemnast' neurodnych ro kov . N acrt slovenske j li t eratury v rokoch 1945-62. (Middletown, Pa., 1965) , p . 277. 2) F or more details on 2arnov's work and life, see J . Pauco (ed .), L iterarny Almanach Slovaka v Amerike, Middletown, Pa. 1967. 3) On 2arnov's translations from Mickiewicz, see W. Lednicki, Adam . Micki ewicz in W orld Literature, University of California Press, 1956i contribution by J . M. Kirschbaum. lmrich K r u f I i a k The prose and poetry of Slovak emigre writers is varied in themes and literary styles and strongly reflects a deep sadness over the loss of their native country and over the treatment of their people under communism. This is especially characteristic of the writings of poets and writers who had played a prominent role in Slovak literary life before they left their native land. Strong national feelings and "heimweh''; however, can also be found in the works SLOVAKIA 189 of poets who developed their talents far away from their native country. Prominent in this group of Slovak intellectuals is Dr. Imrich Kruzliak whose 60th birthday we will commemorate on December 8, 1974. Born in the romantic Detva, Kruzliak followed the path of educated Slovaks of his generation from villages and towns who went through secondary schools and universities by their own efforts and talents and, after helping the struggle for national independence, had to pay in jails or in exile for their patriotism. Kruzliak did not leave his native Slovakia in 1945. He decided to stay and fight with other Catholic intellectuals for the preservation of Slovak national traditions and for a place for Catholics in the post-war political life. When in 1947, the Communists began their persecution of Catholic intellectuals, he was arrested, tortured, and kept in jail for a year. To avoid a new arrest, he escaped in 1949 to Austria and in 1951 settled in Munich where he became employed by Radio Free Europe as a commentator on Slovak cultural matters. Writing mostly under the pen-name Marian ziar and initials I. K., mz, Dr. Kruzliak contributed in exile to emigre literature either in poetry or in literary criticism. Although Kruzliak had published verses and literary essays already before and during the war, it was in exile that he became known as a poet and mainly as a cultivated commentator and critic of Slovak literary and cultural life at home and abroad. His essays, comments and book reviews have been published mostly in the quarterly Most, Literdr ny Almanach, Rozhl'ady, but also in annuals and newspapers Jednota, Slovak v Amerike and for the past two years in Horizont of which he has been the editor in chief. His writings have been among the best in Slovak empire literature. We would mention especially his survey of Slovak literature under Communism (Most, 1958), anci essay "Shakespeare and Slovaks" (Most, 1964), a study on the "Literary and artistic cult of Sts. Cyril and Methodius among Slovaks" (Most, 1963) and ":C. stur" (Most, 1965) . In scores of book reviews, Kruzliak enriched Slovak emigre literature with new ideas, well-balanced opinions, and by an effort to keep Slovak cultural life abroad on a European level. 190 SLOVAKIA He also deserves recognition for editing and publishing two volumes of poetry of poets in communist jails Modlitby v putdch (Prayers in Shackles, Munich, 1955) and translations from Polish, Magyar and Russian poets of the period of "thaw" Podaj ndm ruku, Eur6pa ( Give us Helping Hand, Europe, Munich, 1957). One of his extensive surveys of Slovak culture under Communism was published in mimeographed book form and his contribution on Slovak culture since 1945 appeared in the symposium Slovakia in the 19th and 20th Centuries, published by the Slovak World Congress (Toronto, 1973). He also edited special volume of Arena (Vol. 16, 3-4) which the P.E.N. Centre for Writers in Exile published on Slovak literature in London, England in 1963. Dr. Kruzliak does not belong, however, to literary life alone. Since his university years he was among the most active intellectuals in the Slovak public life and a leading figure in the generation which dedicated talents and energies to the struggle of the Slovak people for an equal place among European nations. His literary beginnings are connected with students periodicals (Rozvoj, Svojet') in the 1930's, while his participation in public life began before he obtained his Ph.D. summa cum laude at the Bratislava University. As many members of his generation, he also was inspired by the idealism of ~udovit t5tur, represented in 1920's and 1930's in Slovak national struggle by Andrej Hlinka. Idealism and dedication of those years marked Dr. Kruzliak's whole life in Slovakia as well as in exile. On the threshold of his 60th birthday he continues his life struggle in the Slovak World Congress as the head of the cultural section. The upheavals and tragedies experienced by his generation, marked also his life, but did not break his spirit. Hardly any Slovak generation had to go through such trials. There were, however, also victories and uncomparable cultural and spiritual growth of the Slovak nation to' which that generation contributed at home and in exile. And no other generation had such opportunities to see the world, to learn foreign languages and to absorb cultural values of the most advanced nations. It is on behalf of those who from that generation survived the persecutions of the tyrannical regimes in 191 SLOVAKIA Slovakia and the trials of exile, that we cordially greet Dr. Kruzliak on the threshold of his 60th birthday, wishing him that the Lord may fulfill his desires to see Slovakia free, democratic and equal to other nations. Mikulas sp r i n C For the past 25 years, perhaps the most important role in the Slovak literary life in exile was played by the highly cultivated and sensitive poet, Rev. Mikulas sprinc, whose 60th birthday Slovaks abroad will commemorate on November 30th, 1974. Like Dilong and Strmen, sprinc also came from the "Catholic Moderna" group and was well-known in Slovakia as Secretary and later Director of the Slovak Catholic Academy and organizer of many cultural activities before and during the War. He published during the War two collections of his own poetry and four collections of translations : from Rilke, from several Italian poets, as well as from the works of P. Lippert and Giovanni Papini. At the same time he contributed to nearly all Slovak literary journals and periodicals, in addition to being the editor of the main Slovak Catholic literary monthly Kultiira <19431945 ). s princ left Slovakia later than other Slovak emigre poets and writers, and reached Rome through Austria and Germany. He was named by the Vatican a delegate for helping the Slovak refugees in Austria and Germany, but in 1946 he obtained a visa for the United States where he developed not only extensive organizational cultural activities, but also his talent so that he became one of the leading Slovak Catholic poets in Diaspora. A professor of modern languages and philosophy of arts by vocation, he deserves credit for keeping alive the Slovak literary journal Most , of which he has been editor since 1954, as well as for founding the Association of Slovak Writers and Artists, whose President has been the poet Andrej zarnov. sprinc was also one of the founders of the Slovak Institute in Cleveland, and edited several symposia in addition to his own prolific and varied literary activities. Altogether sprinc published 18 collections of musical and highly cultivated poetry, and an English collection 192 SLOVAKIA Driftwood ( 1969), partly translated by himself and partly by one of his students and a well-known translator of Slovak poetry, Jaroslav Vajda. Those who appreciate a poetry rooted in the strong belief in the Creator without sounding too religious, and those who like the beauty of life in the song of birds, in the colors of flowers, in the sound of the wind, and blue skies or the colors of the rainbow, can find great enjoyment in sprinc's poetry. In his lyrical verses, sprinc echoes the art of Paul Verlaine and the spirit of St. Francis of Assissi. The musical and rhythmical quality of his poetry is rarely equalled by other Slovak emigre poets, except probably Gorazd Zvonicky. The translations of sprinc's verses are not an easy task for translators. Many of his volumes also contain fine poems with patriotic overtones, expressing his love for his lost and oppressed Slovakia. Recent volumes of sprinc's poetry have been artistically illustrated and carefully published, reflecting high artistic quality also in their technical presentation. As a result, reading his beautifully published collections is a double pleasure; they are written by a sensitive and gifted poet but, even more, by a man humbly and joyfully believing in God whose faith and glorification of the Creator sounds so natural and full of hope that one longs for the same beautiful world and the author's joyful soul and spirit. Even though Paul Verlaine seems to be his preferred poet (he wrote his M.A . thesis in French on Verlaine), sprinc is very well versed in Italian, German and Spanish poetry, and contributed to Slovak emigre literature by several excellent translations. To his large and varied cultural activities he has added more than 300 articles, book reviews, comments and contributions to Slovak periodicals, almanacs and newspapers. More than any other poet or writer, sprinc deserves credit for keeping Slovak culture abroad not only alive, but also reflecting the best Slovak national traditions. In spite of his many activities as professor, editor and secretary of the Association of Slovak Writers and Artists, sprinc was able during the past two decades to publish nearly every year a volume of his poetry or a book in prose. Among his published works we find: Ozveny v samotdch (1940), Tak umieral bdsnik Pal'o Oliva (1942), 0 ldske SLOVAKIA a bolesti (1942), Duinske elegie (1942), O Tebe spieva zem idc sdm 0943), K slobodnym pobreziam (1950), Na r:"•rFlo 'l J () • polnopi 'ti· · poludnfa Z (1955), slnku proti (1953), Tvdrou ')s'ted6~ putnie~±{~ moje Oci (1962), orla (1960), Mladost' a ffPk k?J s _ Brat~la'8 (1967), Andante (1952), kovia utrpenia ,a ~- ~1 • S'! 1 JI ora· ll:170 Palidora, z Piesne (1969), (1968), Driftwood 11 "' · j rn JC lovy ostrov (1973) etc.* t'f" : 'iOr.?.910 I'l Among his translation s we should metftionfGidva:aru Papini's work Witnesses of Suffering (Scraiitott CFA-{J'1i95!!) and among his foreign language writings hi M~..fthesi t Paul Verlaine: Etude de sa poesie religieuse,Wil'i-100',i stiill u v[ ,, , 1 ;. ,.... in manuscrip t. I 'di _Jj(,· ~-II sprinc also published an interesting narra,J;;':vp1!n,:prose about his escape and journey from Slovakia ~f?' ,1i0:Yr'l1Il,~9 States in a volume K slobodnym pobreziam ('J;R>t~'rr r;;~1e Shores), a book on St. Andrew Svorad as vv,:e, ~r~~d l. p~~lf dedicated to the Virgin Mary. For the llth -1 0~~t[;npial<: 0J Christianit y in Slovakia, he edited a collectiop."r~ ~!:5e-? by several Slovak poets under the title Zdravic0-; sp-"'qy j!oRi a Metodovi (Rome, 1963). He also contributec l:11f?: 1aurn~smr~ fully illustrated anthology Odkaz (The Legacy.., 197Jp in f.eJfg~ehte~. which leading Slovak poets and writers are ro "¼o"'"' 10· ""i In prose, he edited the memoirs of Msgr. Joze · KaB3-i a prominent Slovak diplomat at the Vatican du¥fh§ \ .war Spod Rohdcov po Vatikdn (From Rohace M9tiRtim to? · e Vatican, 1973) as well as two symposia comp.~~~ ,cif 'qop; C~ictrfn_tributions by Slovak emigre writers: Ndde7· vit'azria 1J 'R? 'fJf U?'f • -. ::;;_ 1939-1-.~4(} republika Slovenskd and 1947) Hope, ous ' ,.., Republic 1939-1949, Scranton, Pa., 1949). 9.i · V)\1)')1Sh'1 ·i•h ai 1~f'd2 c( aii~ Literary work of this envergure and 1 we -Iiifre > ; case; a does not need to be praised. It is again 1 • if'tceW!. Laudat'·a'¥f have to repeat the Latin dictum: Opus fivities It was a blessing for Slovak literature and cultubr-a~i abroad that sprinc left Slovakia. Therefore, ori~he~ooa §i6n of his 60th birthday, we cannot be more sincer.e"1wlierfJ,we - :>.r. ,h,i< say: Ad multos annos! 1 (JJ Jy3c-riqz~t{ :llC J *) :r-r::;m For more details on Sprinc and his work, see Literltrfi'y 11.lrMnbcn for 1967, p. 232-234, and Most, Vol. I, 2, 1954, and Vol. 13~ 4;-1956!!') 194 SLOVAKIA Teodorik Zubek To the ranks of prominent Slovak intellectuals in exile whose 60th birthday we will commemorate in 1974, also belongs Prof. T. J. Zubek, oustanding member of the Slovak Franciscan Order in Slovakia and the United States, who was born on April 4, 1914 in Malacky, Western Slovakia. Professor Zubek filled an important gap in exile activities by his theological writings and mainly by presenting the religious situation in post war Slovakia to the Western World. At the same time he deserves recognition for reviving the Order of Slovak Franciscan Fathers in the United States who under his leadership become active not only in the religious field but also in education and cultural life. Well educated at Slovak and foreign Universities (Zagreb, Croatia; Fribourg, Switzerland), Dr. Zubek played leading role in his Order in Slovakia, and had to pay under the Communist regime for his patriotism and service to God by detention in the concentration camp for priests in Svaty Benadik. After his escape in 1951, he found refuge in Austria and Rome, Italy, from where he came to the United States in 1952. Soon after his arrival to the U.S.A. Dr. Zubek became Professor of Theology at Seton Hall University, Newark, N. J. and published an authoritative work on the Communist persecution of religion in his native country Church of Silence in Slovakia (J. Lach Publ., Whiting, Ind., 1956). This book and his scholarly contributions to American religious and academic periodicals (Homiletic and Pastoral Review, Jurist, Ameri can Ecclesiastical Review, The Catholic Educator and others) performed an important service to the Slovak cause among Western intellectuals. Some of his studies rank among the best writings on contemporary theological and educational topics. From the Slovak point of view, of great importance among his English writings is also his presentation of the case of Msgr. Tiso and the fate of Slovak bishops (Slovak Bishops - Martyrs of Christ, 1963) to Western readers. Exposed to hostile propaganda during the War and after, many people in the free world maintained biased attitudes towards Slovakia even among clergy and in academic circles. Dr. Zubek was among the first Slovak emigre SLOVAKIA 195 intellectuals who grasped the need for writing on Slovakia in English and in non-Slovak periodicals, and for doing it in a much more reserved manner than we can afford in our Slovak publications. Dr. Zubek contributed at the same time to Slovak periodicals and newspapers, to Slovak Studies, and edited the religious monthly Listy Sv. Frantiska (Leaflets of St. Francis) published by his Order of which he was the head as Provincial Delegate. He also took part in Slovak emigre cultural and organizational activities aiming at the unity and co-operation, namely in Slovak Liberation Council and Slovak World Congress, at the Conference on Slovakia held in Toronto in 1971 and elsewhere. From the very beginning of his exile has been considered as one of the most distinguished representatives of Slovak clergymen abroad. By his activities, high education and devotion to the work for God and bonum commune, Dr. Zubek upheld the noble tradition of the Franciscan Order in Slovakia, whose members belonged to the best educators, historians, writers and poets in the centuries of Slovak national revival as well as in this century. It is with sincere admiration for his work and great human qualities that we greet him on his sixtieth birthday with a heartfelt: Ad multos annos! Jozef Pa u co For more than a century, journalists and editors played in Slovak national life a role going far beyond their profession. Starting with Eudovit stur in the middle of the 19th century, leading Slovak journalists were also political leaders, poets, writers, historians, grammarians and organizers of cultural and political institutions. This phenomenon appeared in Slovakia as well as among Slovaks abroad, especially in the United States and Canada. After stur, S. H . Vajansky was an outstanding example of a journalist, who also was a prominent poet, novelist and fighter for the Slovak cause. In the following generation Karol Sidor and Konstantin Culen remained faithful to that tradition in Slovakia and on the American continent. Both of them were journalists by profession, but they also wrote a [96 SLOVAKIA am lil,erary works and books dealing with the ofoSI~aks and their struggle for freedom. h'eq>ast 25 years, an austanding example of journalist who became a historian, political writer and organizer • .Joll!uraI &F.~ political activities, was Dr. Jozef Pauco, ~ '1We .1 2¥thday was celebrated by Slovaks abroad on ~ 8f.f9 r¥R~L 1974. Pauco's admiration for E. stur goes Bi~ 1t2,1r.. ,years when he wrote his Ph.D. thesis at the I}, ·1-ffi ·1i v~c13ratislava, which was later published under 9} yt • {,1J{!,OJJYChova u sturovcov (Popular Education in nt) . Since that time Dr. Pauco also followed ~ ' x' MB, ~ f8o}§jeps of K. Sidor and K. culen in his work as ~n !n eing a political exile, in his dedication to the ~ ~.HJ.Iijijle:iJer2 freecto111: , and independence for Slovakia and i - fillfp,tjfj>_n with American Slovaks and Slovak-American organizations. bibliography listed below indicates, Dr. As thej seJect ' ' r[J J)l [IQ[ f y Hjj r(~mgs are not only extensive, but also cover e.vera1' ~ cfs9!rom history to political science and belles 12t ,nw .fil~S.V O II . pub1·ished works . part of his 1l 1 :e~ . .tS s19.a y, th e maJor . t ct· f d t S {:_!(, ''IS I'I .'11 ' hJfiIH~W . , rAR?"ever, a e en mg he Slovak cause. This :a cr1°fsB~afiW even his works on American Slovaks, which !fh~ Y#1 ~9 ~fo~);'o his best writings and in their method and $I&»Jay flDif compare with standard works on the subj~cf.'."'i frer fof. F. Hrusovsky and K. culen, he actually deserves main credit for systematic research into the past and present of American Slovaks. His books on their history atest to his great love for jjl_jz~ i 9_mt branch of the Slovak people. In addition, lzli-l ~ftlltl.futijsplayed in his works on American Slovaks, of Wlli.Plb :ti~cY~mninous history of the First Catholic Slovak ~smrubip rrecent book on Slovak Pioneers in America 4%fill:YJ O ~fkteular attention, that history was the field W~fttmt~ ld use his academic education and thorough fmID'{fflP.g.f~mf@lovak American organizational structure and ~ ~g:njfl~J:?.g ~ of individual leaders. As a result, whoever }Y!UsiYfOOl ~(tc,::omplete history of American Slovak~, will lff)lUiffifHfliiO.l:Wlfite authoritatively without ~sing Dr. Pauco's , ~f4J!!g)}V~rks. 110Ui-Bi¥unMjgl,lly, a larger number of books, essays an(\ MMtje b&;ia . Pauco deals, however, with Slova~a•s strugglaj::Rf!~~p.filldence l;l,nd with the _defense of leading Slovak h'i&j t> n; b~ SLOVAKIA 197 personalities, especially Dr. Jozef Tiso, against whom many incorrect views and misconceptions were spread in the West during and after the Second World War. Slovakia and Slovaks suffered not only under Communism. There was a lot of injustice and descrimination against Slovaks also before the War and during the short period after the War when the Communists ruled together with their Czech and Slovak fellow-travelers from the non-communist parties. In his writings, Dr. Pauco endeavored to fight the falsehood and injustice of· both. It was, however, the communist misrule in Slovakia and the communist ideology which he exposed and fiercely criticized in his writings, advocating Christian democracy and the independence of Slovakia. Besides his own books, essays and thousands of articles, Dr. Pauco also published-as editor-the valuable documentary work Dr. Jozef Tiso o sebe (Dr. Jozef Tiso About Himself), containing the defense of the President of the Slovak Republic at his trial by the communist court, and a number of symposia on leading Slovak exiles (K. Sidor, J.C. Hronsky,· etc.). Furthermore, he deserves recognition for publishing and editing the Literdrny Almanach and the weekly Slovak v Amerike, both of which would have disappeared several years ago without his dedication and sacrifice as well that of his literary active wife. Last but not least, Dr. Pauco has rendered great service to the Slovak cause as the editor of the English periodical dealing with Slovak cultural and political matters, Slovakia. founded by Philip Hrobak. This editorial part of Dr. Pauco's work is of far reaching importance for the activities of Slovaks abroad and can be evaluated adequately only if we imagine how much poorer Slovak cultural life and the struggle for independence would be without these publications. In view of the fact that the historical and geopolitical situation of Slovakia made the Slovak cause a matter of controversy, Dr. Pauco's writings were bol,lild to provoke a strong reaction from the adversaries of the Slovak struggle for independence. His militant spirit, uncompromising attitude and fervor incited them to make denunciations, accusations and . undeserved attacks, but Pauco remained, in spite of all attacks on his person, one of 'the most dedicated defenders of the Slovak cause in his generation. 198 SLOVAKIA He also continues to be the most prolific Slovak journalist and writer on politics and history who remained faithful to stur's tradition and Hlinka-Tiso's ideology of Christian democracy and self-determination for the Slovaks. SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY IN SLOVAK Popular Education ). Matica slovenska. Turciansky Sv. Martin, 1943, pp. 151. Politicko-narodny program Hsns (Political Program of the Slovak People's Party ). Andrej uc. spol. Bratislava, 1944, pp. 96. co po komunizme? (After Communism What?) . Jednota, Middletown, Pa., 1952, pp. 29. Dr. Jozef Ti so o sebe (Dr. Joseph Tiso About Himself) . Slovensky Katolicky Sokol, Passaic, N. J., 1952, pp. 359. (Ed.) Tisov odkaz (Tiso's Message). Jednota, Middletown, Pa., 1953, pp. 89. Stefan Furdek a slovenske prist'ahovalectvo (Stephen Furdek and Slovak Immigration ). J ednota, Middletown, Pa., 1955, pp. 190. Slovcici a komunizmus (The Slovaks and Communism ). Rev. Jan Lach, Whiting, Ind., 1957, pp. 318. P-0d zcistavou krest'anskej demokracie (Under the Banner of the Christian Democracy). Slovenski krest'anski demokrati v Spojenych Statoch, Middletown, Pa. , 1957, pp. 30. Slovenskci rehol'a Sestier sv. Cyrila a Metoda (Slovak Order of the Sisters of SS. Cyril and Methodius). Slovensky .Zensky Spolok sv. Anny, Wyoming Valley, Pa., 1957, pp. 32. Matus Jankola - knaz a ncirodovec (Matus Jankola - A Priest and Patriot). Rad sestier sv. Cyrila a Metoda, Danville, Pa., 1959, pp. 174. Pamiatke Jozefa Cigra Hronskeho (In Memoriam Jozef Cig-er Hronsky) . Literarny Almanach Slovaka v Amerike, Middletown, Pa., 1960, pp. 46. (Ed.) Martin Kopunek) . Laicky apostol Martin Kopunek (Lay Apostle Vychodna Oblast' Sdruzenia Slovenskych Katolikov, Bethlehem, Pa., 1961, pp. 67. (Ed.) Neporazitel'ni (Unconquerables). Prva Katolicka Slovenska Jednota, Middletown, Pa., 1961, pp. 190. Karol Sidor - politik novincir, spisovatel' (Karol Sidor - Politician, Newspaperman, and Writer) . Literarny Almanach Slovaka v Amerike, Middletown, Pa., 1962, pp. 148. (Ed.) Piit'desiatnik Dr. J-0zef Kirschbaum (Dr. Jozef Kirschbaum - Fifty Years Old). Literarny Almanach Slovaka v Amerike, Middletown, Pa., 1963, pp. 171. (Ed.) Prvej Katolickej Slovenskej Jednoty (75 Years of the First rokov 75 Catholic Slovak Union). Prva Katolicka Slovenska Jednota, Cleveland, Ohio, 1965, pp. 560 and XIV. 80 pages of pictures. Na uteku (Flight to Wonderland; serialized in the Weekly Jednota) . Middletown, Pa., 1965. l}udovychova u sturovcov (Stur's Movement - SLOVAKIA 199 Tak sme sa poznali (So Have We Known One Another). Literarny Almanach Slovaka v Amerike, Middletown, Pa., 1967, pp. 281. Illustra- tions. Slovenski priekopnici v Amerike (Slovak Pioneers in America). First Catholic Slovak Union, Cleveland, Ohio, 1972, pp. 358. Illustrations. IN ENGLISH Unconquerables, Vantage Press, New York, N. Y., 1958, pp. 225. Christian Slovakia Under Communism. The Slovak Catholic Federation, Valparaiso, Ind., 1959, pp. 31. Flight to Wonderland. Robert Speller and Sons, New York, N. Y., 1963, pp. 334. 'i0 Years of the Slovak League of America. Middletown, Pa., 1967, pp. 146. (Ed.) IN GERMAN Dr. Jozef Tiso: Die Wahrheit uber die Slowakei (The Truth About Slovakia). Tisovo Tovarisstvo, in the Emigration, 1948, pp. 187. Illustrated. ARTICLES IN ENGLISH The Practi cal Aspect of a Federation. Slovakia, III, No. 2, 1953, p. 26-36. American Slovaks and March 14, 1939. Slovakia, IV, No. 1, 1954, p. 17-22. The Slovak Republic and Communism. Slovakia, IV, No. 3-4, 1954, p. 35-38. Slovakia Viewed By American Historians. Most, I. No. 4, 1954, p . 17-25. The Failures of Communist Politics in Slovakia, Slovakia, V, No. 4, 1955, p. 3-20. Stu.r's Group in the Service of the People. Slovakia, VI, No. 1, 1956, p. 11-16. I Was Editor of President Tiso's Newspaper. Slovakia, VII, No. 1, 1957, p. 9-12. Dr. Joseph Tiso : Christian Democrat. Slovakia, VII, No. 2, 1957, p. 37-50. The Stirring Days of March 1939. Slovakia, IX, No. 4, 1959, p. 24-32. Slovakia Under Communism. Slovakia, IX, N-0. 5, 1959, p. 1-5; Slovakia, X, No. 6, 1960, p. 62-73 ; Slovakia, XI, No. 1, 1961, p. 13-21. Slovakia's Mid-Nineteenth Century Struggle for National Life. Slovak Studies I, 1961, p. 69-83. The Matica Slovenskd in America. Slovakia, XIII, No. 1, 1963, p. 77-82. American Slovaks and the Beginnings of Czecho-Slovakia. Slovakia, XVI, No. 39, 1966, p. 63-75. Slovak Pioneers in America. Slovakia, XIX, No. 42, 1969, p. l0S-124. Under Dynamic Leadership. 60 Years of the Slovak League of America, 1967, p. 112-146. The Slovak Benedictines Review 50 Years in Cleveland, Ohio. Slovakia, XXII, No. 45, 1972, p. 92-97. Twenty Years of the Slovak Institute in Cleveland. Slovakia, XXIII, No. 46, 1973, p. 16-23. Cultural Revival of American and Canadian Slovaks. Slovakia, XXIII, No. 46, 1973, p. 72-81. Mother M. Emerentia Petrasek. Slovakia, XXIII, No. 46, 1973, p. 123-128. 200 SLOVAKIA EVALUATION OF DR. PAUCO'S WRITINGS BY REVIEWERS The number of book reviews published on individual Pauco's works is too large to be listed in this survey. In general, we can say that extensive reviews and commentaries, written by known Slovak authors, scholars, poets and cultural workers, were published not only in newspapers, but also in literary and cultural periodicals (Most, Furdek, Slovakia) and almanacs. Book reviews in Slovak language prevail, but his major writings were evaluated and commented upon also in English, mostly by reviewers born or educated on the American continent. The majority of reviewers of Dr. Pauco's books evaluated his writings favorably not only because of their ideological contents and usefulness for preservation of Slovak cultural heritage but also for their literary, and in many instances, scholarly value, thorough research and vast knowledge of the Slovak past and present. Deeply involved in Slovak political and cultural life since his students years, Dr. Pauco was a participant in historical events or closely associated with persons he writes about in a majority of his books, which gives to some of his works particular significance. On the other hand, his books on the history of American Slovaks fill an important gap and therefore the reviewers valued them for their contribution to the neglected history of American Slovaks as well as for their documentation and objectivity with which Pauco approached his subjects. Among the reviewers of Dr. Pauco's books and publications edited by him were K. culen, Prof. F. Hrusovsky, J . E. Bor, M. Jankovsky, J. M. Kirschbaum, J. C. Krajsa, M. K. Mlynarovic, J. Mest'ancik, Prof. K. Murin, Rev. Andrew Pier, O.S.B., Dr. B. Pissko, Dr. J. Rekem, Dr. J. Stasko, Rev. Mother Emerentia, Rev. Sister Tarcisia and many others. The book 75 Years of the FCSU was reviewed by 15 and his recent book Slovak Pioneers in America by 9 reviewers. All reviews were favorable . The evaluation by American born reviewers deserves, however special mention. Prof. V. R. Greene of the Kansas State University, who has learned to read and understand Slovak and wrote his SLOVAKIA 201 Ph.D. thesis on East European immigrants in Pennsylvania , said on Pauco's 75 Years of the First Catholic Slovak Union: "Not only is it a complete and most comprehensiv e history of the Jednota and the Slovaks in America, but its many references, footnotes and bibliography will satisfy any serious reader and research historian." Mother M. Emerentia, SS.C.M. in her extensive review published in Jednota (June 30, 1965) referred to Matthew Arnold's statement that "Great creative works in literature result from happy concurence of two notable powers, the power of the man and the power of the moment," and wrote on Pauco's book: "Such a happy concurence of two notable powers has been strikingly exemplified before our eyes this year. For the power of the moment there was the 75th anniversary of the First Catholic Slovak Union in 1965, calling for the writing of the history of this remarkable organization. For the power of the man there was Joseph Pauco, Ph.D., a gifted author, historian and scholar, capable and willing to assume the task of writing this history. The result is a truly monumental contribution to Slovak history and literature, entitled 75 rokov Prvej Katolickej Slovenskej Jednoty." The book Tak sme sa poznali (So Have We Known One Another, 1967) attracted the attention of Slovak exiles as well as of American born Slovak intellectuals. "Dr. J. Pauco's Memoirs encompass - according to Sister M. Tarcisia - multiple and varied personal contacts as well as deep insight, broad vision and a skillful pen. The author is a scholar, a man of the people, an editor, a journalist, a lecturer, a politcian. The era he portrays was at once shatteringly disruptive and marvelously formative in its application to Central Europe and specifically to Slovakia. The men who played the leading roles in the drama of the Slovak Republic (1939-1945) were true to human nature: some giants, some midgets, some heroes, some traitors. Tak sme sa poznali is a tremendously vital book. In recounting his experience in the Slovak Republic - all of which he saw, part of which he was - Dr. Pauco has written authentic history. As such it will live and flourish." 202 SLOVAKIA Pauco's last book Slovenskt priekopnici v Amerike (Slovak Pioneers in America, 1972) was favorably reviewed and welcome as a valuable contribution to the history of American Slovaks by a dozen of Slovak writers, scholars, journalists and cultural workers. In the opinion of the American born editor of Jednota, J. C. Krajsa, "Pauco's work required serious research and documentation. In an objective manner he credits the life and work of the pioneers and categorizes them in their proper niche in the history of the American Slovaks, in America and the Slovak nation. He presents those leading pioneers who played the greatest role in the cultural field; those who organized fraternal societies, parishes, schools, and religious orders; those who preserved the literary culture with the publication of newspapers and books; and those who were fired with the ideal of liberty that even permeated to Slovakia." The book is in Krajsa's view "in itself a pioneer book. Nothing to date has been published in such documentary detail about American Slovak pioneers. The First Catholic Slovak Union is proud to publish this vital literary work of Dr. Joseph Pauco." According to another prominent American Slovak, Fr. J. A. Gajdosik "Pauco's book is one sure way to arousing interest in the Slovak heritage on a personal and individual basis, especially among our younger people. Hopefully, an English translation will be made in the near future, so that devotion to the Slovak ethnicity will be fostered. "The book should bolster Dr. Joseph Pauco's strong thoughts about the termination and death of the Slovak language in the United States. The book is also a warning to our fair-weather-Slovaks, who claim that they received little if anything from their Slovak ancestors, for it teaches that much Slovak affluence and prestige is directly the result of the conduct and work of our pioneers. "It behooves our brethren who are ashamed of their Slovak ethnicity, to study their history, and learn how everything they have was given to them, and that they should give themselves for others as our pioneers did. The ultimate lesson is that we, American of Slovak ancestry, should foster and serve the Slovak cause and ideal, at least as much, if not better than our pioneers in early America." 203 SLOVAKIA REVIEWS OF PAUCO'S WRITINGS IN LEADING PERIODICALS MOST co po komunizme? (I, 1, 1954, p . 44) Tisov odkaz (I, 2, 1954, p. 39-40. Dr. Karol Murin) Dr. Jozef Tiso o sebe (I, 3, 1954, p. 41-43. F. Hrusovsky) Stefan Furdek a slovenske prist'ahovalectvo (II, 2, 1955, p. 136-137) Mest'ancik) Slovcici a komunizmus (IV, 3, 1957, p. 132-133. Unconquerables (VI, 1-2, 1959, p. 83-85. Andrew Pier, O.S.B.) Christian Slovakia Under Communism (VI, 3, 1959, p. 186-187. Andrew Jan Pier, O.S.B. ) Pi:it'desiatnik Dr. Jozef Kirschbaum (XI, 3-4, 1964, p. 181) Slovakia (XI, 3-4, 1964, p. 182-183) Litercirny Almanach Slovcika v Amerike na rok 1965 (XII, 1-2, 1965, p. 82-83) Slovakia (XII, 3-4, 1965, p. 189) SLOVAKIA 75 rokov Prvej Katolickej Slovenskej Jednoty (XV, 38, 1965, p . 152-155. Mother M. Emerentia, SS.C.M.) Litercirny Almanach Slovcika v Amerike 1967 (XVII, 40, 1967, p. 190-192. Sister M. Tarcisia Gregorovic, SS.C.M.) Tak sme sa poznali (XVIII, 41, 1968, p . 159-164. Sister M. Tarcisia, SS. C.M.) Slovenski priekopnici v Amerike ( XXIII , 46, 1973, p. 196-197. Joseph C. Krajsa) F URD EK All writings by Dr. Pauco on the history of American Slovaks are evaluated by J . M. Kirschbaum in his article Dr. Pauco' s W ritings and the History of American Slovaks (Furdek, 1974, p. 75-80) . Francis V n u k : A BIOGRAPHICAL VALEDICTION In spite of the fact that the Slovaks are among the oldest inhabitants of the Central European region their efforts to secure a fully independent life has been seldom appreciated and rarely understood. But frustrations and disappointments can never deter a nation from its ultimate aim, and where one generation fails another will rise to continue the struggle. The natural aspirations of a nature and self-respecting nation cannot be suppressed by terror, nor silenced by bribes, nor extinguished by an apparent  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Noted Slovak Jubilarians Description An account of the resource covers ndrej Žarnov, Imrich Kružliak, Mikuláš Šprinc, Teodorik Zúbek, Jozef Paučo incl. "Evaluation of Dr. Paučo's Writings by Reviewers" and "Reviews of Paučo's Writings in Leading Periodicals" J. M. Kirschbaum Slovakia, Vol. 24 (No. 47), 1974 pp. 181-203 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 1974 SNK https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/d08701c8de6e3c1ea34737b7b5cef77e.pdf 2c4af5a0cc090f418b94aeb049bd6779 PDF Text Text 70 SLOVAKIA 2021 ON THE ROAD TO NATIONALIST TOTALITARIANISM: SLOVAKIA IN THE TURMOIL OF 1938 AS SEEN BY THE UNITED ST ATES FOREIGN SERVICE Roman Licko In the autumn of 2018 I set myself the task of assessing the significance of the year 1938 in Slovak hi story. This was in response to a conference call which invited scholars to address, among other themes, milestones in Czech and Slovak history in which the year happens to have a number eight in it. 1 When I set about preparing my presentation, I had two thoughts about the subj ect. First, I was struck by several historic parallels between 2018 and 1938. No attempt will be made in thi s paper to argue that 2018 was as fateful for Slovakia as the year 1938 was for the inhabitants of Czechoslovakia. Yet, given the rise of far-right political extremism in Central Europe, tacitly encouraged by a large authoritarian neighbour to the east, it may be instructive to re-examine the rise of Slovak nationalism in the late 1930s. 2 Then, extreme Slovak nationalists had also been spurred on by an aggressive totalitari an neighbour. 3 The second idea that occurred to me was that 1938 has been somewhat neglected when it came to 1 The paper entitled "From Fledging Democracy to Nationalist Authoritarianism: Slovakia in the Tunnoil of 1938 as Seen by the United States Foreign Service" was presented at the 50th Convention of the Associati on for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies in December of 20 18 in Boston. 2 The large authoritarian neighbour is Russia. Its support for the far-right nationa lists in Centra l European cou ntri es is explained and well documented in Timothy Snyder's book The Road to Unfi·eedom. By supporti ng ex treme nationalist movements in coun tries such as Slovaki a, Russia hopes to weaken their resolve to stay w ithin the European Union. Putin's alternative to th e EU is the Eurasian Union, a trade and political bloc stretching from Chin a to the border of the EU. Timothy Snyder, Th e Road tu Unf,-eedom: Russia. Europe. America. (New York : Crown/ Archetype, 20 18), I 00. The reference to the extreme nationalists in today 's Slovakia is directed towards l 'udovri strana na.iie S/ovensko-The People's Party Our Slovakia. Just two months before Slovakia ' s parliamentary elections in February of 2020, the far-rig ht nationali st party came second in a popul ari ty poll cond ucted by the Focus polling Agency in December of 2019. Historically speaking, leaders of the party, including its leaderMarian Kotleba, subscribe to the ideology of the war-time Slovak Republic. 3 Then it was Nazi Germany. �SLOVAKIA 2021 71 turning points in Slovak history.4 By this, I don ' t mean the fact that Slovaks gained their autonomy in that year. What changed quite dramatically in 1938 was the way in which the country was governed. After a relatively brief experience with a democratic form of government in the first Czechoslovak Republic, Slovak leaders set about dismantling the democratic institutions upon which the foundations of their state were built. By the end of the year Slovakia was well on the road to becoming a nationalist totalitarian state. This paper examines political developments in Slovakia in that year from the point of view of an independent observer- the United States Foreign Service. At that time, American diplomats in Czechoslovakia gathered and evaluated intelligence which in tum informed the United States' foreign policy towards Central Europe. Their reports and analyses, despite their limitations, help us understand what went wrong with the process of Slovak national emancipation in 1938. They may also serve as an insight into how easily a Central European democracy may tum into a totalitarian state if extreme nationalism becomes the dominant ideology of its political leaders. 1938 was a critical year in European history. Powerful forces of European nationalism were the driving engine of politics in both totalitarian Germany as well as democratic Czechoslovakia. Because of its large and restive German minority, Czechoslovakia had become vulnerable to the aggressive foreign policy of its large totalitarian neighbour to the west. Adolph Hitler's ambition in Central Europe was to annex ethnic Germans living in foreign territories into his Third Reich . In March of 1938 Germany had annexed Austria. In September, the Gen11an Chancellor achieved the pinnacle of his pre-war diplomatic offensive. As a result of the Munich Agreement, Czechoslovakia had to cede the German-speaking areas of Sudetenland to Germany. The rejection of the Versailles system and the intention by the Nazi s to destroy its eastern democratic neighbour brought the problem of minorities in Czechoslovakia to a head in 1938. The issue had been simmering in Czechoslovak politics since the last parliamentary elections in 1935, whose results changed the political map of the republic. In Slovakia, an alliance of nationalist parties, known as the Autono4 1948 and 1968, of course, were more fateful. The former because the coup d 'etat in February brought about a complete regime change, the latter beca use the crushing of the Prague Spring in August was the res ult of a fo rei gn in vasion. �72 SLOVAKIA 2021 mist Bloc, emerged as the most powerful political force in the country.5 The Sudeten German Party became one of the strongest political parties in Czechoslovakia. 6 By the end of 1938, the problem of the constitutional relationship between Czechs and Slovaks had been temporarily resolved. The Declaration of Slovak autonomy on October the 6th marked the beginning of the short-lived period known as the Second Czechoslovak Republic. It ended with the final destruction of Czechoslovakia in March of 1939. In 1938 the American government did not have a centralised agency that wou ld gather, coordinate and evaluate political intelligence from foreign countries. Instead, its main source of information about developments abroad came from the U.S. diplomatic missions based in countries' capital cities. Thus, the quality of political intelligence from Europe dispatched to Washington depended on the political acumen of individual diplomats, not all of whom were professionally trained. In this respect, Czechoslovakia was a notable exception. In June 1937, President Franklin D. Roosevelt instructed the Department of State to appoint Wilbur John Carr as the new U.S. Minister in Prague. 7 As Assistant Secretary of State, Carr had been one of the most 5 In the electoral campa ign, the stron gest nationali st party in Slovakia - Hlinka 's Slovak People ' s Party - joined forces with the Slovak National Party. Both parties advocated autonomy for Slovakia within the Czechoslovak Republic. They were backed by the parties of Ruthenian and Poli sh minorities, demandin g autonomy for thei r own regions. Collect ive ly the Autonomist Bloc secured 30.1 % of the Slovak vote. The coalition of Magyar parties in Slovakia gained 14.2%. Alena Bartl ova, " Posledne parlamen tn e vol'by v maj i 1935," in V Medzivojnovom Ceskoslovensku 1918- 1939, (Bratislava : Veda, 20 12), 439. 6 The Sudeten Party polled 15. 2% in the 1935 e lection . Natalia Kraj covifova, "Slovakia in Czechoslova kia, 191 8- 1938," in Slovakia in Histo,y, ed. Mikulas Teich, Dusan Kovac, and Martin D. Brown (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 20 I I), 154. 7 Wilbur John Carr is often refe rred to as the father of the American Foreign Service. He entered the Department of State as a young clerk in 1892 . He went on to serve in various capac ities, including Assistant Secretary of State between 1924 and 1937. Carr was th e driving force behind th e reform of th e U.S. Foreign Service in the interwar period. In his view, all American ambassadors and mini sters abroad should be professionals - i.e. career diplomats, not political appointees. In June 193 7, after fortyfive yea rs in Washington, Carr was called upon by the President to head the U.S. diplomatic mission in Prague. According to Cordell Hull , Carr was one of the most capable ass istant secretari es in th e history of the department. At the time of his appointment as U.S. Minister to Czechoslovakia, Carr was sixty-s ix years old . Peter �SLOVAKIA 2021 73 senior government officials ever to represent the United States in its foreign service. This reflected Washington's growing concerns about developments in Central Europe, at the heart of which lay the uneasy relations between Germany and Czechoslovakia. 8 In August of 1938, American Secretary of State Cordell Hull decided to increase his diplomatic staff in Prague with the appointment of George Kennan.9 The choice was not coincidental. Kennan had been an experienced career diplomat and a specialist on Russian and East European affairs. His main task at the Prague legation was political reporting. Part of hi s duties consisted of making regular visits to Bratislava, where he gathered information about developments in Slovakia. Carr's diplomatic dispatches from Prague and Kennan 's reports on conditions in Slovakia shaped the views of American policymakers at the Department of State on the eve of WWII. 10 Their writings remained the only source of political intelligence from the region until the establishment of the OSS in 1942. 11 Bridges, "Mr. Carr Goes to Prague," American Diplomacy, accessed December 20, 20 19, http://americandiplomacy.web.unc.edu/ 1998/09/mr-carr-goes-to-prague/. 8 Bridges points out that Carr' s predecessor - Butler Wright - had underestimated German innuence on Czechoslovak affairs in 1930. This view was expressed by both Secretary of State Hull as well as Undersecretary Sumner Welles. Peter Bridges, "Mr. Carr Goes to Prague," Part I. 9 Best known as an advocate of the U.S. policy of containment after WWII , George Frost Kennan spent 193 8 and 1939 as a diplomat at the American legation in Prague. He served as Secretary of the Legation until the breakout of war in September of 1939. He was nuent in Russian and German, and during his serv ice in Prague he learned to read Czech and Slovak as we ll. George Kennan, From Prague After Munich: Diplomatic Papers, 1938- 1940 (Princeton, N.J .: Princeton University Press, 1968), vi. 10 Wilbur J. Carr 's diplomatic correspondence from Prague is deposited in the Library of Congress, the Manuscript Division in Washington D.C. Some of Carr's reports are now part of the collections of the National Archives, entitled "Records of the U.S . Department of State Relating to the Interna l Affairs of Czechoslovakia I 9 10-1944". Some of Kennan ' s reports on the conditions in Slovak ia are in Decimal File 860f. Collecti ve ly, they were published in a book in 1968 . Kennan, From Prague A/ier Munich, 1968. 11 The OSS (Office of Strategic Services) was establi shed by the military order issued by President Roosevelt on Jun e 13, 1942 . A predecessor of the modem CIA, the OSS mandate was to collect and ana lyse intelligence required by U.S. foreign-pol icy makers and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Barry M. Katz, "Office of Strategic Services," in The Oxford Companion to World War II, ed . I.C.B . Dear (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995), 650. �74 SLOVAKIA 2021 The road to totalitarianism in Slovak politics started in September of 1936. On the 19th of that month, the leaders of Hlinka 's Slovak Peop le's Party (Hlinkova slovenska /'udova strana, or HSL:S) met at a congress in Piest'any to discuss the polic ies and future direction of the party. 12 Leaders of the moderate wing, led by Monsignor Joseph Tiso, were tempted to join the ruling coalition in the Czechoslovak Parliament. Chances were not unreali stic, as the government was headed by Milan Hodfa, Czechoslovakia's first Slovak Prime Minister, who was determined to solve the Slovak question once and for all. 13 In opposition to the moderates stood the young radicals, led by Karol Sidor. 14 For them, cooperation with Hodfa's cabinet was categorically rejected, unless the party's demands were met in full , without any reservations. 15 Whether moderate or radical , all members of the HSL:S were convinced that their party held the so le political mandate to represent Slovaks as a whole. Distrustful of the democratic government in Prague and increasingly authoritarian, the young nationalists had the ear of the old, but charismatic leader of the party - Andrej Hlinka. Hi s ambitions to lead Slovaks as a single nation found expression in one of hi s speeches at the congress, where Hlinka compared himself to Mussolini in Italy and Hitler in Germany. As far as the future political 12 The Piest'any Congress has been described in detail by Robert Arpas. For a comprehensive accou nt of the party ' s policies in the interwa r period see Robert Arpas, Vitazsrvo alebo prehra: Vyvrcho lenie politickeho zapasu HSt.;S o alllonomiu S/ovenska. (Brati slava: Veda, 20 11 ). 13 Hodza was convi nced that settling Czechoslovak ia's nationality problem hin ged upon finding a solution to the Czech- Slovak question. Natalia Kraj covicova, "Slova kia in Czec hoslovakia, 191 8- 1938," in Slovakia in Histo,y, ed. Mikulas Teich , Dusan Kovac, and Martin D. Brown (Cambridge: Ca mbridge University Press, 20 11 ). 155. 14 Apart from Sidor, the most prominent representatives of the youn g generation of Slovak nati onali sts were Ferdinand Durcansky and Alexander Mach . The views of these intellectuals and academics on society and government had been shaped by the risin g ri ght-wi ng nationalist ideologies of 1930s Europe. Ad mirers of nati onalist totalitaria ni sm, they questioned democracy, whi ch in thei r view was no longer capab le of offerin g solutions to the mountin g problems o f the time. The only remedy, according to them, was a unity of the nation coupl ed with un swerving loya lty to its omni scient leader. They were strongly anti -Se miti c . Robert Arpas, Vit"azstvo alebo prehra, 52 . 15 Sidor, alongs ide wi th Ferdinand Durcansky and Alexander Mach, pushed for complete autonomy, part of which was the demand to recogni ze the Slovaks as a separate nati on. Slova k was to become the o ffi c ial language in Slova kia, and the proposed Slovak Di et was to have broad legislative powers. �SLOVAKIA 2021 75 line of the party was concerned, the radicals he ld sway. Tiso's demand that the congress express loya lty to the embattled Czechoslovak Republic was swept away. Instead, the closing plenary adopted a resolution which condemned "representatives of international materialistic ideology" and "Jewi sh-Bol shev ik anarchy". 16 The following day, Tiso himself proclaimed the principle of"one nation , one leader, one party" to a public rally of party supporters in Piest'any. In 1938 Slovak Americans were once again about to play an active role in the politics of their mother country. For more than half a century, the Slovak diaspora in the United States had been an important voice in the country's plea for national self-determination. 17 One reason for that was the sheer scale of Slovak emigration to the New World. By 1914 as many as one fifth of Slovaks had come to reside in the United States. 18 The other reason was the completely different political and economic environment of their new home country. Unfettered by oppression from the state, politica lly minded and commerciall y successful Slovaks cultivated, in democratic America, a strong feeling of national identity outside Slovakia. 19 As leaders of fraternal societies they campaigned vigorously for Slovak self-dete1mination in the Old World. 20 The patriotic fervour of these Slovak Americans 16 Robert Arpas, " Piest'ansky zjazd ako medznik HSL'.S k totalite," Clovek a 5polocnost', no. 3, vo l 7 (2004): 166, http ://www.clovekaspolocnost.sk/sk/rocn ik-7rok-2004/3/studi e-a-c lanky/piestansky-zjazd-ako-medzn ik-na-ceste- hsls- k-tota lite/. 17 Sil via Mihalikova, " Slovakia Pathways to a Democrati c Community," in Democracv and Political Culture in Eastern Europe, ed. Hans- Dieter Klingeman n, Dieter Fuchs and Jan Zielonka (London: Routledge, Taylor & Franc is Group, 2006), 175. 18 Large-scale em igration of Slovaks to the United States bega n in the late 18 70s. On the eve of WWI , when the Slovak exodus to America peaked, the Slovak-America n comm unity was in per-capita term s the largest among the Centra l Europea n nations and second onl y to the community of Irish-Ameri ca ns among all immigrant peoples in the U.S. Mark Stolari k, "S lovaks in Canada and the United States, 1880- 1990, Similarities and Differences," in Chair in Slovak History and Culture Occasional Papers, no. I ( 1992): 14. 19 In Mark Stolarik 's words - "The principal centre of Slovak nationalism before and during World War I was not the Slovak homeland, but the United States of America." Mark Stolarik , "S lova ks in Ca nada and the United States," 14. 20 The primary reason why Slovaks in America estab li shed fratemals was mutual support. This often happened along confessional lines, reflecting the divi sions among religious denomin ati ons in Slovakia. Interest in mother-country politics was of secondary importance to Slovak Americans, and it was often the domain of a few politically mi nded fraterna l leaders and newspaper editors . �76 SLOVAKIA 2021 found expression first in the Cleveland Agreement of 1915 and then in the Pittsburgh Agreement of 1918. In these, Slovak and Czech expatriate communities in the United States pledged their support for the establishment of a common state on the ruins of Austria-Hungary after the Great War. In the former, Slovak Americans sought the creation of a federative union with the Czechs. In the latter, they agreed that Slovakia would have home rule. 2 1 The reason why they settled for somewhat less at Pittsburgh was the opposition to the idea of federation from Tomas Garrigue Masaryk, the most important of Czechoslovakia's founding fathers. Thus, the Slovak-American nationalists, allied primarily in the Slovak League of America, supported the creation of their Czecho-Slovakia, in October 1918, albeit with caution .22 Despite some internal disagreements among the leaders of the League in the I 920s, demand for autonomy remained the League's top political priority in its dealings with the old country until October 1938. In late Apri l 1938, at the 20th convention of the Slovak League in Pittsburgh, a decision was made to send a delegation to Slovakia. The visit was to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Pittsburgh Agreement and the delegation was to take the original copy of the agreement with them. 23 Peter Hletko, the President of the Slovak League, was appointed head of the American delegation and its official spokesman. Another notable member of the delegation was Jozef Husek, former editor-in-chief of the Slovak-American newspaper Jednota and one of the signatories of the Pittsburgh Agreement. The ori ginal idea for a visit by Slovak Americans came from the leadership of 21 The word home-rule itself was not used in the phrasing of th e agreement. Slovakia was to have " its own administration , its Diet and its courts". Slovak was to be " the officia l language in schools and in public life in general". Dav id Grinnell , "Land A Treasures: The Pittsburgh Agreement; Czecho-Slovak Agreement," Western Pennsylvania Hi story 90 (Winter 2007- 08): 8. 22 The Pittsburgh Agreement bore the signatures of members of two Slovak fraternal organ isations - the Slovak League of America and the Slovak Evange lical Society. In I 9 I 8, the Slovak League was an umbrella organisation, comprising the majority of fraternal-benefit societies in the United States, including both Catholics and Lutherans, though th e former predominated. 23 A year before, at th e meeting of the Hlinka Party in Ruzomberok in July, Andrej Hlinka had described th e Pittsburgh Agreement as the "Magna Carta of th e Slovak nation ." Milan Olejnik, "The visit of delegates of the American Slovak League to Slovak ia (June- August 1938) and their effort to implement the Pittsburgh Agreement into th e Czechoslovak Constitution ," Clo vek a spolocnos( 20, no. 3 (2017): 50. �SLOVAKIA 2021 77 the Hlinka Party, which was planning to hold a congress in Bratislava on June 4th. The intention of the party officials was to increase the pressure on the central government in Prague to implement the party 's demand for autonomy. The public showing of the Pittsburgh Agreement to a rally of loyal supporters the following day was part of the plan. 24 ln the atmosphere of heightened international tensions, ratcheted up by the Czechoslovak crisis earlier that month, the visit of the American delegation was closely followed by the pro-Czechoslovak press throughout the country. 25 A party of Slovak Americans about a hundred strong - arrived at the Polish port of Gdyni a on May 26th, 1938. 26 There, they were greeted by two separate delegations: one, headed by Karol Sidor, who was sent to Poland by the leaders of the Hlinka Party; the other was the diplomatic retinue of Juraj Slav ik, the Czechoslovak Minister to Poland.27 The Slovak Americans then proceeded to Warsaw, from where they were scheduled to travel to Prague. 28 At the instigation of Karol Sidor, however, four members of the League were persuaded to trave l to Rufomberok first , to pay a visit to the ai Iing leader of the party, Andrej Hlinka. 29 24 The party offic ials were thu s responding to various rumours, e.g. that the Pittsburgh Agreement was a fabricati on , or that Masaryk's signature on it was not genuine. Stefan Kucf k, "Americki Slovaci a autonom isti cke hnutie na Slovensku ( 19 181938)," Dvacate sto/eti, no. 2 (2013 ): I 06. 25 The May Cri sis was caused by fa lse reports of German troop movements on the 19th around Czechos lova ki a ' s western borders, raising fea rs th at the country was about to be attacked by Germany. A lthough the reports later proved unsubstantiated, the inc ident contributed to the subseque nt resolve by France and Britain to increase pressure on Czechoslovakia to make concessions to the Sudeten German Party. 26 Milan O lej nik, "The visit of delegates of the American Slovak League to Slovakia," 51. 27 Although the two delegati ons had travelled to Gdynia by the sa me train, both part ies made the ir way to Gdynia separate ly, as Sidor' s party re fused to jo in the Czechoslovak delegation from Warsaw. Stefan Kucf k, " Americk i Slovac i a autonomi sticke hnutie," I 05 . 28 In Warsaw the Slovak Americans were g iven the red-carpet treatment by representat ives of the muni cipa l authoriti es. They never mention ed Czechoslovak ia in their speec hes. Stefan Kucfk , "Americki Slovaci a autonomisticke hnuti e," I 05. 29 Because of the di sagreements among the leaders of the League ' s delegation, on ly fo ur of them went to Ruzomberok . Andrej Ro lik, a Lutheran pastor fro m Johnstown, refused to trave l to Slovakia first. Stefan Kucik , "Americki Slovac i a autonomisticke hnutie," I 05 . �78 SLOVAKIA 2021 The U.S. Minister to Czechoslovakia watched the developments from his legation in Prague.Jo On May 31st he informed the Secretary of State of the arrival of the League's representatives in the Czechoslovak capital and their intention to meet both the President and the Prime Minister.JI The day after their arrival in Prague, the leaders of the League paid a courtesy visit to the American Legation . Carr noted that the Slovak Americans stressed in one of their public announcements that their visit was "not to be regarded as interference in the internal affairs of the Republic".J 2 Having spoken to an official from the Czechoslovak Ministry of Foreign Affairs, however, Carr came to the conclusion that Prague's government felt uneasy about the visit, wishing it had taken place at some other time.JJ This made the American diplomat feel that the red-carpet treatment accorded to the Slovak Americans in Prague somehow "lacked a ring of sinceri ty." The fee ling of skepticism in his mind was reinforced when he spoke privately to Hletko. According to Carr, the president of the League admitted that their visit to Prague was inopportune, regretting the fact that it had coincided with the minority dispute. In order to make his American readers appreciate the complexity of the circumstances surrounding the visit, Carr factored in the reactions of the press. He noted that the newspapers in Germany had been for some time speaking of the united front between the Hlinka Party and the Sudeten German Party aimed against the Czechs.J4 The pro-Czechoslovak press, for their part, had been accusing Slovak nationalists of collusion with the Germans.J 5 As to the specific results of the talks between the League's representatives 30 Since 1925, the United States' diplomatic mission in Prague had resided at the Schonbom Palace on Mala stran a. Peter Bridges, " Mr. Carr Goes to Prague," Part I. 31 In mid-June Carr wrote to Washington again, giving a detailed account of the League's participation in th e Hlinka Party congress. 32 National Archives, Washington, 860f.00/5 I 0, Telegram, W. J. Carr to the Secretary of State, May 31 , p. I . 33 This was told to Ca rr by an unspecified official from the Czechoslovak Mini stry of Fore ign Affairs on the 3 1st. The Czechoslovak government feared that the visit would be used by the minorities to advance their own political agendas. 860 f.00/589, W. J. Carr to the Secretary of State, p. 2. 34 NA, 860f.00/534, Di spatch No. 176, W. J. Carr to the Secretary of State, Jun e 6, p. 2. 35 According to the Police Directory in Bratislava, the Sudeten Party did send a congratulatory telegram to the HSL.:S on the occasion of its party congress on June the 4th. Milan Olej nik, "The visit of de legates of the American Slovak League to Slovaki a," 55. �SLOVAKIA 2021 79 and the Czechoslovak statesmen, Carr echoed Slovak, the press organ of the HSCS. 36 It reported that the discussions bore no concrete results, liut it was agreed that, after a month's study of the conditions in Slovakia, the League's representatives would return for more talks with the Prime Minister. 37 The public proclamations by the League ' s representati ves in support of Slovak autonomy prompted the U.S. Minister to examine the extent of popular support for the Slovak nationalists. In their plans 1938 was to be the crucial year, by the end of which the Slovak question in Czechoslovakia was to be settled once and for all. With the support of their American compatriots, the Slovak nationali sts claimed that the majority of Slovaks in 1938 - whether at home or abroad, were in favour of autonomy. To this purpose, Hletko repeatedly claimed that autonomy was supported by as many as 90% of Slovaks in the United States. 38 The proposed change in the status of Slovakia was also the main order of business at the Party Congress that convened on June 4th in Bratislava. With the League's delegates in attendance, the Party passed a resolution, setting out the details of the new Autonomy Bill. 39 Its text was published in full the following day in Slovak. Carr had it translated for his June 6th report and supplemented it with his commentary. The bid to amend the Czechoslovak Constitution was viewed critically by the U.S. Minister, hi s main reservation being the lack of political mandate to demand such a constitutional change. Drawing on the statistics from the last parliamentary election of 1936, he observed that the HSCS had only polled 30.1 % of the votes cast in Slovakia. 40 The right to speak for all Slovaks was further dimini shed, 36 Hletko and his party urged the Czechoslovak statesmen to recogni ze Slovaks as a sovereign nati on and to grant Slovak ia autonomy as it was sti pulated in the Pittsburgh Agreement. Both Hodza and Benes ex pressed their general agreement, but refused to talk about autonomy. What they wanted to promote, first and foremost, was Czechoslovak unity. Hletko later summarised the outcome of the talks in the phrase "Nothing positive was achi eved." Stefan Kucik, "Ameri cki Slovaci a autonomisticke hnutie na Slovensku," I 07 . 37 NA, 860f.00/534, Carr to the Secretary of State, June 6, p. 2. 38 NA, 860f.00/534, Carr to the Secretary of State, June 6, p. 7. 39 It demanded the creation of a separate Slovak Diet and governmen t, a long with the introduction of Slovak as the official language on the basis of recognition of the separate identity of the Slovak nation. 40 Of a ll the parliamentary votes cast in Czechos lovakia, Carr po ints out, this was 6.86%. NA , 860f.00/534, Carr to the Secretary of State, June 6, p. 4. �80 SLOVAKIA 2021 in Carr's view, by the fact that the party did not put up its own candidates, but campaigned as part of the Autonomist Bloc.41 Even the recent successes of the HSCS in the communal elections did not alter the fact that Slovak autonomists had never commanded the required 50% of the voting majority in Slovakia. Moreover, Carr argued, all of the HSCS 's former allies "now cooperate with the coalition parties." As far as the capability of the party to mobilise its supporters was concerned, the American estimate in June 1938 was slightly higher the one made by the Czechoslovak authorities. According to an American source, the turnout at the public rally on June 5th - the same day when the Autonomy Bill was published - was around 50,000.42 This was twice as much as the official figure given by the Bratislava police department. 43 To strike a balanced view, Carr devoted an equal amount of space in his reporting to those who opposed the Slovak autonomists. In 1938, this was a group of nationwide Czechoslovak parties - members of the ruling coalition which operated separate branches in Slovakia. The HSCS 's staunchest opponent was the Agrarian Party, led by Prime Minister Hodza. To solve the nationality problem his cabinet drafted, in the early summer of 1938, a constitutional amendment, referred to as the Nationality Statute. 44 Another Slovak in the government who opposed autonomists was Minister of Justice [van Derer, who was also head of the Slovak section of the Czechoslovak Social Democratic Workers ' Party. 45 In 1938 both politicians rejected the idea of Slovaks as a sovereign nation, struggling to maintain Czechoslovak unity in 41 This consisted of the Rutheni an Soj uz Party, the Polish Socia list Party and the Slovak National Party. 42 This was based on th e estimate by Associated Press reporter 0. E. Werner. NA, 860f.00/53 I, Carr to the Secretary of State, June I 0, 1938, p. 2. O lejnfk, referring to the police records, puts the number of participants at 25,000 at a maximum . 43 Milan Olejnik, "The visit of delegates of the American Slovak League to Slovakia," 55 . 44 The measure proposed to divide the republi c into four autonomous lands: Bohemia, Moravia, Slovakia and Subcarpathian Ruthenia. Eac h land was to be a legal entity in the eyes of public and private law. Land Diets with curias representing every nationality were envisaged, as was the creation of land governments. President Benes had actively participated in the preparation of the statute. The negotiations between the HSL.:S and President Benes about the Nationality Statute in September 1938 were unsuccessfu l. Natalia Krajcovicova, "Slovakia in Czechoslovakia, 19 I 8- 1938," 156. 45 Ivan Derer was the Minister of Justice of the Czechoslovak government from Jul y 193 7 until September 1938. �SLOVAKIA 2021 81 the face of mounting demands from the Sudeten Party. Carr reported on the activities of the pro-Czechoslovak movement, gauging its political clout and public support. On June I 0th he sent a di spatch in which he looked at the rally organized by the opponents of Slovak autonomy on June 6th . Agrarian Day, as it was officially called, followed close on the heels of the rally organised by th e Hlinka Party the previous day. According to Carr, the turnout at the Czechoslovak demonstration was I 00,000, about twice as large as the previous day 's demon stration.46 Hodza and Derer were among the main speakers, and the President of the Slovak League addressed the crowds in hi s turn. Judging by the American report, the tone of Hletko 's speec h was much less belligerent than hi s speech the day before. 47 Comparing the two rallies, Carr related in hi s report an interesting fact observed by an Associated Press journalist. It concerned the proclaimed loyalty to the common state - or rather the lack thereof, on th e part of Slovak autonomists. When the national anthem was sung at the Hlinka demonstration, there was practically no response from the crowd to the first, i.e. the Czech part of it. For the second - the Slovak part - however, the crowd joined in with " tremendous vigor". The emblems used at the rallies told the same story. The decorations used at Agrarian Day consisted entirely of Czechoslovak flags, while those used by Hlinka's supporters featured exc lusive ly the party's red double cross on a white background.48 The di smem berment of the last democratic state in Central Europe began on September 30th, 1938. At Munich, the European powers decided the fate of Czechoslovakia in her absence.49 The catastrophe 46 Carr 's estimate of th e tu rnout at the Hlinka' s ra ll y was 50,000. NA, 860f.00/53 I, Carr to the Secretary of State, June I 0, 1938, p. 2. 47 According to 0. E. Wern er, " Hletk o declared that the Slovaks in the Un ited States wis h nothin g more than that the Slovaks defend th e Republic which they have he lped to establish and th at they remain true Slovaks in free, beautiful and prosperous Czechoslovak ia." NA, 860f. 00/53 I, Carr to the Secretary of State, June I 0, 1938, p. 4. 48 The onl y exception was the use of the American fla g decorating the rostrum where, among oth er speakers, Hletko gave hi s speech. NA, 860f.00/53 I, Carr to the Secretary of State, June I 0, 1938, p. 5. 49 The agreement was signed by the government leaders of Germany, France, th e United Kingdom and Ita ly. Czechoslova ki a's leaders were not invited, save two diplomats who we re summoned to receive what the great powers had negotiated. Michael R. D. Foot, " Munich agree ment," in The Oxford Companion to World War If, ed. I.C. B. Dea r (New York: Oxford Uni vers ity Press, I 995), 597. �82 SLOVAKIA 2021 could not have been averted by Czechoslovak leaders, but internal factors contributed to it.so What had played into Hitler's hands were the aspirations of the nationalist movements within the country. Democratic powers of the West had either looked on or followed a policy of active appeasement, so as to avoid a war with Germany.s 1 In an effort to satisfy Hitler's demands, Britain and France acquiesced to the annexation of the German-speaking territories of Czechoslovakia. In so doing, they sanctioned the principle whereby individuals exercised their rights in a state collectively, through belonging to a legally recognized national entity. Such recognition in law went hand-in-hand with the demand for a geographically defined national territory. This ran contrary to Czechoslovakia's liberal constitution, by which members of national minorities had their rights guaranteed as individual citizens. The Nationality Statute proposed by Hodza 's cabinet went a long way towards satisfying the demands of the nationalist movements. It attempted to solve the problem by giving Czechoslovak nationalities territorial and administrative autonomy, but it refused to recognise them as legal entities. In the run-up to Munich, Britain and France had stepped up the pressure on the Czechoslovak government not to implement the Nationality Statute. After the failure of negotiations between the Sudeten German Party and the Czechoslovak government, on September 22 nd the Slovak nationalists rejected the Nationality Statute.s2 In the wake of the Munich Agreement, in an atmosphere of heightened political uncertainty, leaders of the Hlinka Party summoned representatives of the other Slovak political parties to Zilina. The declaration of Slovak autonomy of October 6th was supported by all of them except the Communists and Social Democrats.s3 50 The genera l consensus among hi storians is that "the Czechs had to capitulate". Thomas Paterson, et al., eds. , Americanforeign relations. Vo lume 2. (Lexington MA : Heath and Company, 2014), 153. 51 On September 25th President Benes appealed to Roosevelt with a view to urging Britain and France to stand by Czechoslovaki a. Two days after that, Roosevelt wrote to Chancellor Hitler: "The government of the United States has no political involvements in Europe, and will assume no obligations in the conduct of the present negotiations." Matilda Axton et al., eds., Foreign relations of the United States. 1938. Vo lume I, Washin gton : United States Government Printing Office, 1955. 52 Natalia Krajcovicova, "Slovakia in Czechoslovakia, 191 8- 1938," 156. 53 The result of the meeting was the Zilina Agreement, by which its signatories pledged their support for the passage of a constitutional act providing for Slovak autonomy in the Czechoslovak Parliament. The next day Jozef Tiso was appointed head �SLOVAKIA 2021 83 By that time Poland had occupied a territory in the north of Czechoslovakia and Hungary had laid claims to Hungarian-speaking territories in the south of Slovakia. 54 After Munich the Czech Lands were perceived by the United States with considerable sympathy as a small democratic country in peril , resisting the pressures of a totalitarian aggressor. Looking back on the aftermath of Munich in December, Carr appreciated the grav ity of the situation in which the recently reconstructed Czechoslovak government found itself. He noted that after President Benes had resigned on October 5th, not only was the country left without its leader, but "the bottom dropped out of the entire political system through which it had been governed for twenty years." 55 The interim Prime Minister General Jan Syrovy faced the task of preserving "order and di scipline through a period of indescribable difficulty," having to " remake the constitution" so that "a wholly new civil regime may be set up to which power could be turned over. " 56 The appointment of Frantisek Chvalkovsky as Czechoslovak Foreign Mini ster drew particular praise from the American diplomat. With hi s friendly attitude towards the United States, the Czech Minister was considered a "strong advocate of democratic form of government" while, at the same time, "a reali st with regard to the necessity of a new orientation in the foreign affairs of hi s country." 57 Despite overt signs of the Czech political system of the Slovak autonomous govern ment. Valerian Bystricky, Od auton6mie k vzniku Slovenskeho statu (Bratislava: Prodama, 2008), 273. 54 Carpatho-U krai ne' s autonomy became a reality a lmost at the same time. On October 11th the Czechoslovak government in Prague appoi nted its first autonomous government. Frantisek Capka, "Leta prvni i druhe republiky a protektoratu," Dejiny zemi koruny ceske v datech, accessed Janua ry 16, 2020, http://www .libri.cz/databaze/dejiny/text/t84 .html. 55 NA, 860f.00/589, Carr to th e Secretary of State, December 20, 1938, p. 2- 3. 56 NA, 860f.00/589, Ca rr to the Secretary of State, December 20, 1938, p. 3. 57 Carr's assessmen t of Chva lkovsky's political integrity and his attitudes towards Germany is particul arl y interesting in the light of his subseq uent acti ons and fu rther diplomatic career. Hi s last directive, as the Foreign Minister issued in the wake of the German occupat ion of Bohemia-Moravia in March of 1939, instructed the Czechoslovak ambassadors abroad to close their embassies and hand them over to the Nazis. Many patriotic Czechoslovak diplomats - some of them Slovak by birth - such as Stefa n Osusky, Czechoslovak Ambassador in Paris, or Juraj Slavik, head of the country's diplomatic mission in Po land, refused to do so. After the breakup of Czechoslova kia Chvalkovsk y became Envoy of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia in Ge m1any. He di ed during an allied ai r ra id on Berlin in 1945 . "Frantisek �84 SLOVAKIA 2021 leaning towards authoritarian rule, Carr had little doubt that the federal government would continue to be "a strictly democratic form of government," though admitting "it will undoubtedly incorporate such features of totalitarianism as are compatible with democracy. " Its main desire after Munich, thought the American diplomat, was to "dispel any idea that there is any 'Fascist' tinge to the state yet for obvious reason [they] do not wish to damn Fascist methods ." 58 The plight of Bohemia after Munich contrasted sharply with the American description of the situation in Slovakia. The political leaders of the autonomous region known as Slovenska krajina were seen by American diplomats as unpatriotic and irresponsible individuals who drove one nail after another into the coffin of Czechoslovak democracy. 59 Commenting on the immediate aftermath of Munich and the challenges faced by the Czechoslovak government, Carr expected Slovak leaders "out of common patriotism to set aside domestic political differences until these dangerous problems have been settled." Instead, he observed di sappointingly, "S lovaks - now represented exclusively by the Hlinka extremists - took advantage of the catastrophic difficulties of the Prague Government to demand complete autonomy."60 Questioning where the loyalty of Slovakia's leaders stood during the crisis, the American diplomat came to the conclusion that "S lovak sympathies have throughout this period appeared to lean more strongly toward the Germans, than toward the Czechs." From the American perspective, the unity of the Republic stood paramount, and in times of danger it should definitely prevail over local interest. Carr expressed this sentiment several times, in an unequivocal tone. " If the three principal component parts of the Czechoslovak Republic are linked together by any common bonds of loyalty and patriotism," he argued emphatically, " there has been nothing in the actions of the Chvalkovsky," Historie a osobnosti diplomacie. Ministerstvo zahranicnich veci Ceske republiky, accessed December 20, 20 19, https://www. mzv.cz/jnp/cz/o_ministerstvu/histori e_a_osobnosti_ ceske_ diplomacie/ministri_a_ ministerstvo_ v_ histori i/frantisek _ chva lkovsky .html . 58 NA, 860f.00/57 I, Telegram, W. J. Carr to the Secretary of State, October 26, 1938, p. 3. 59 Slo venska krajina - in English ' the Slovak Land', was the official name used to refer to Slovakia during the First and Second Czechoslovak Republi cs, between 191 8 and 1939. 60 NA, 860f.00/589, Carr to th e Secretary of State, December 20, 1938, p. 3. �SLOVAKIA 2021 85 Slovak leaders during the last few weeks to indicate it." The image of two different worlds - that of the brave Czechs struggling to save the Republic and the unpatriotic Slovaks sympathising with Nazi aggressors - created by the American Legation in Prague after Munich, persisted for a long time on the other side of the Atlantic. In 1942, when the OSS took over from the American foreign service as the primary intelligence gatherer, a report on Slovakia claimed that the pro-Nazi orientation of the Tiso-Tuka leadership had long been apparent before Munich. 61 After it, the report went on, "these leaders came out open ly against the republic, against democracy generally, and for a new world order in Europe. " 62 The pace and complexity of the developments in Czechoslovakia in the closing months of 1938 were overwhelming, and the American Legation in Prague struggled to keep the Department of State fully informed. Reports in this period were mostly factua l, and the U.S. Minister in Prague complained that they had little time to put the rapidly unfolding events into general perspective. Only in the latter part of December did his superiors in Washington receive a comprehensive report on the situation in the Czech Lands and Slovakia. In the first weeks after Munich there was an "unavoidable preoccupation with the foreign" taking precedence over everything e lse. The whole country was in a state of utter turmoil. The report went on to recapitulate the challenges the country had to grapple with in an extremely short space of time. Satisfying the Polish territorial demands in the north was followed by the negotiations with Germany about Czechoslovakia's new borders in the west. The negotiations with Hungary about the cession 61 This was a com prehensive, I 06-page report on the Czechs, Slovaks and Carpath ian Rutheni ans. NA, Washington, Office of Strategic Servi ces, RG 226 E I 00, Box 3, p. 25. 62 Strictly speaki ng, thi s was not true. Throughout th e whole of 1938 the Party was led by Jozef Tiso. Tuka on ly came to prominence in 1940, when he became Foreign Minister of th e wartime Slovak Republic, following the Salzburg negotiations with Gem1any. As the principal representative of the moderate wing, Tiso became leader of the Party after Hlinka 's death in August of 1938. He spearheaded Slovak autonomy in October of 1938, but was opposed to the break up of Czechosl ovak ia in March of 1939. The probable reason why the OSS did not have more precise information about the period was the fact that the main source of its information on the situation in Slovakia during WWII was the Czechoslovak Information Service. This a was a special propaganda bureau set up in th e Un ited States by the Czechoslovak govemment-inex ile, controlled by ex- President Benes from London. �86 SLOVAKIA 2021 of Hungari an-speaking territories in Slovakia 's so uth came to nought, and the matter had to be resolved through international arbitration in early November. It was only then that the crippled Republic could turn its attention to its domesti c problems. What followed, according to the author of the report, was a " period of profound change and adjustment in the internal political life of Czechoslovakia." The most pressing of the problems, needing immediate attention in November, were the election of a new President and the passage of an enabling act. Progress in this direction, Carr noted, was " blocked by the Slovaks." They demanded that no presidential election could take place before the Constitution was amended to enact the proposed Autonomy Bill. The U.S. Mini ster in Prague believed that the conditions in the country were " hardly such as to make it a favourable time for the enactment of constitutional leg islation ." The Prague government, however, " had no other choice but to comply with it. " The Autonomy Act and the presidential elections of 1938 were both scrutini sed in the Legation 's report from December 2 1st. The Czechoslovak National Assembly passed the constitutional amendment on November 22nd and elected Czechoslovakia's new president on the 30th. 63 The constitutional arrangement provided, among other things, for an autonomous Slovak government and a Diet of the Slovak Land based in Bratislava. The new relationship between the Czechs and Slovaks was also reflected in the altered spelling of the country's name, which was changed to Czecho-Slovakia. Th e asymmetrical model of the state drew criticism from the U.S. Minister in Prague.64 According to him, " the privileges henceforth to be enjoyed by the Slovaks in the national parliament" were far too extensive and thus "entirel y disproportionate to the population and actual importance of Slovakia" as well as " its ability, thus far, unproven , to govern itself 63 Drafted by Ferdinand Durcansky, it was based on th e Autonomy Bill published by Hlinka 's Party on June 6th . 64 The Nati ona l Assembly in Prague retained legislative power fo r the whole of Czechoslovaki a wit h regard to matters of the constituti on, fo reign policy, nat ional defence, citizenship, currency, customs and some oth er areas. Since the Czech Lands did not have their ow n parliament, Czecho-Slovakia became in effect an asymmetrical federa l state. Valerian Bystricky, "Slovakia from the Munich Confere nce to the declaration of independence," in Slovakia in Histo,y, ed. Mikulas Teich, Dusan Kovac, and Martin D. Brown (Cambridge: Cambridge Uni versity Press, 20 11 ), I 60. �SLOVAKIA 2021 87 alone." 65 Slovaks were also criticised in another report for their approach to the election of the President. Originally, the parliament was to vote on an Enabling Act first, but "this was again blocked by the opposition of the Slovaks." who refused to do so " until they might know who the next president was to be."66 Alluding to the American tradition of presidential elections, Carr commented on the undemocratic nature of the procedure: "It is characteristic of political thought in this part of the world," he wrote sarcastically, "that it seems to have occurred to no one that it would have been possible to have a presidential election without all doubts as to its results having been removed well in advance." As for the candidate himself, Carr favoured Frantisek Chvalkovsky, preferred by most of the Czech deputies. In the end, however, the parliament elected Emil Hacha, former President of the Supreme Court. The American diplomat believed that Chvalkovsky's main disadvantages in the eyes of the Slovaks were his Protestantism, along with the fact that he was divorced.67 The Autonomy Act of November 22nd also provided for elections to the Slovak Diet in the following month . They were held on December 18th, 1938 and, historically, they were the first elections ever to take place in Slovakia for that country's self-governing legislative body. Judging by the Americans, however, it was a missed opportunity. The Legation's report from December 21st commented on a lack of democratic procedure as well the dubiousness of their results. As far as the former was concerned, the U.S. Minister in Prague saw "a pronounced Nazi influence."68 This was a reference to the fact that Slovak voters were presented with only one list of candidates. The sole political entity on the 1938 ballot - Hlinka 's Slovak People's Party, with a subtitle to its name - the Party of Slovak National Unity - was an amalgamation of the Agrarian, National Unity, National Socialist 65 Carr points out the Czechs had no say whatsoever in the Slovak Parliament. As a further example of the favoured position that Slovakia occupied in the matters of the Republi c was the provision according to which a motion of no confidence might be moved by one-thi rd of the Slovak deputies, i.e. 12 as compared with a total of 226 members of the chamber. NA, 860f.00/588, Dispatch No. 302, W. J. Carr to the Secretary of State, December 2 1, 1938, p. 2- 3. 66 NA, 860f.00/589, Carr to the Secretary of State, December 20, 1938, p. 7. 67 NA, 860f.00/589, Carr to the Secretary of State, December 20, 1938, p. 7- 9. 68 NA, 860f.00/588, Carr to the Secretary of State, December 2 1, 1938, p. 4. �88 SLOVAKIA 2021 and Fascist Parties. 69 Carr had little doubt that the 98% of the votes cast in its favour was due to the fact that the voters were given no alternative. This bore "striking resemblance to the results achieved in recent German plebiscites." Here, the author of the report reminded the State Department that the bloc of Slovak Autonomists had polled as low as 30.1 % of the Slovak vote in the previous parliamentary elections of 1935. "Fear of recrimination", speculated Carr, may have had "a decided influence on the votes cast by many individuals." Gauging the reactions to the Slovak elections in Prague, Carr noticed a parliamentary objection raised by the former Minister of Social Welfare, then a deputy of the Czecho-Slovak Parliament. The criticism was unlikely to be heeded in Bratislava, concluded Carr disparagingly "when the Slovaks are taking what resembles a child-like delight in playing with a new toy." 70 Part of the image of Slovakia created by the American Foreign Service in 1938 concerned Slovak attitudes towards the Jews. At that time U.S. diplomats in Czechoslovakia concentrated mainly on understanding the roots Slovak antisemitism, analysing its popular as we ll as political manifestations. Somewhat subjective - or even biased were the American comparisons of the anti-Jewish sentiments among the Czechs and the Slovaks. For a Czech, it was thought, nationality was a matter of language, rather than race. In other words, animosity was only likely to be felt towards the Jews who spoke German. Apart from a small minority, however, the mass of the Czech people had "very little interest in anti-Semitism." 7 1 In Slovakia, the popular resentment of the Jews was said to be widespread and "deep-seated." 72 The main reason for this was believed to be economic. According to George Kennan, then Secretary of the American Legation in Prague, the Jews of Bohemia li ved mainly in urban areas, whereas those 69 The Communist Party was banned by the autonomous govern ment on October 9th, the Social Democrats on November 16th. The destruction of the other political parties in Slovakia came about on November 8th, when they were all forced to merge with the HSL.:S . Representatives of the ama lgamated political entities did not receive any positions in the autonomous government, being left with a few seats in th e Slovak Diet. Valerian Bystricky, "S lovaki a from the Munich Conference to the declaration of independence," 161. 70 NA, 860f.00/588, Carr to the Secretary of State, December 21 , 1938, p. 4- 5. 71 George Kennan, From Prague After Munich, 45. 72 George Kennan , From Prague After Munich, 22 . �SLOVAKIA 2021 89 residing in Slovakia were more evenly spread throughout the country. 73 Slovak Jews plied their trades in smaller towns and the countryside as merchants, saloon keepers, druggists, or lawyers. In these professions, Kennan argued, the Jews "played a dominant part," largely because of their "superior intelligence." The Slovaks felt differently about this, being convinced that the Jews owed their success to their "trickiness, unscrupulousness, incurable clannishness and nepotism." This was not the case in in Bohemia, according to Kennan , because the " industry and shrewdness of the Czechs as petty traders and artisans" had been such that the Czech countryside " had never presented a Jew with such attractive possi bilities as the villages in Slovakia. 74 Finally, Kennan identified the lack of social assimilation as another factor why the cultural distinctiveness of the Slovak Jewry was more pronounced than it was in Bohemia. 75 From the American perspective, anti-Semitism in Slovak politics had both historic and religious origins. According to Kennan , many of the educated Jews " have traditionally looked to Budapest for cultural inspiration." In addition, there was a smaller, but influential community of Jews "with a German cultural orientation." In the former Austro-Hungarian Empire, both nationalities were associated with the ruling classes, whereas the Slovak-speaking population had been one of the oppressed nations. Thus, in the Slovak mind, the Jews had always sided with the oppressors. In other words, when the country was under Hungarian rule, "the Slovak Jews made common cause with the Hungarians in exploiting the Slovaks;" when the country found itself in Czechoslovakia, "the Jews joined with the more liberal Czechs in opposi ng Slovak autonomy." 76 To illustrate his theory, Kennan referred his American readership to the pogrom-like operation ordered by Tiso in early November. At that time, Slovak authorities attempted to deport 7,600 Slovak Jews to Hungary, following the announcement of 73 As Secretary of the American Legation in Prague, Kennan made severa l trips to Slovakia in late 1938. In January 1939 he wrote a special report on the conditions in Slovakia. This was followed by a comprehensive despatch in February on the Jewish problem in Czechoslovakia. 74 George Kennan, From Prague After Munich, 44. 75 Kennan mentions a greater degree of racial intermarriage in Bohemia, especia ll y in upper-class Czech society. 76 George Kennan, From Prague Ajier Munich, 23. �90 SLOVAKIA 2021 the First Vienna Award. 77 In order to establish how Slovakia's Jews were going to be treated in the future , Kennan approached Jozef Tiso. In a personal conversation with the American diplomat, Tiso said that "the Slovak government intended to take measures toward the solution of the Jewish question independently of Prague." The Slovak Prime Minister also expressed his conviction that the planned measures "would probably go farther in scope than any that might be taken by the Prague regime." 78 As far as the religious component of Slovak anti-Semitism was concerned, Kennan pointed out that an important factor in the attitude of the Slovak authorities to the Jews was the position of the Catholi c Church . Tiso was himself a Catholic priest, and the Church had made its position on the matter clear through various officials. One of those, according to Kennan, was Father Rudolf Mikus, Provincial of the Jesuit Order in Slovakia. 79 Speaking for the newspaper Slovak, Mikus advocated elimination of the Jewish influence in political and economic life. This would include, among other things, public segregation. 80 The statements made by the Church convinced Kennan that the Slovak government wou ld face little opposition in the promulgation of its anti-Semitic policies in the future .8 1 As the momentous events of 1938 unfolded in Central Europe, diplomats of the American Foreign Service at the Legation in Prague watched the situation in Czechoslovakia, and took a close interest in political developments in Slovakia. Throughout 1938 the country was perceived by American diplomats as a politically vo latile province, 77 This was a pogrom-like operation ordered by HSI..:S to deport around 7,500 Jews to the territory ceded by Slovakia to Hungary. Kenn an argues that the forced ex pul sion took place as a retaliatory measure for an alleged petition by the leaders of the Bratislava Jews to incorporate the city of Bratislava into the ceded territory. The operation was accompanied by anti-Sem itic ri ots in Brati slava. James Mace Ward, "The 1938 First Vienna Award and the Holocaust in Slovakia," Holocaust and Genocide Studies 29, no. I (2015): 92 . doi: I 0.1093/hgs/dcv004. ISSN 8756-65 83. 78 George Kennan, From Prague Afier Munich, 51. 79 A full translation of the statement by Mikus was attached at the end of Kenn an' s report. 80 George Kennan, From Prague Afier Munich, 51 - 52. 81 The institutional persecution of th e Jews in Slovakia began the following year, after Slovak ia gained its nominal independence. On April the 18th , the Slovak Parliament passed its first anti -Semitic law. This was Ordinance 63 which established a lega l definition of a Jew based on a religious principle. Ladislav Lipscher, "The Jews of Slovakia : 1939- 1945," in The Jews ofCzechoslovakia Volume Ill, ed . Avigdor Dagan et al. (Phi ladelphia: The Jewish Publication Society, 1984), 165. �SLOVAKIA 2021 91 one whose nationalist leaders took advantage of the central government's difficulties after Munich, driving the last democracy in the region into destruction. Slovakia's slide towards totalitarianism in 1938 was perceived by Americans as a consequence of that country's extreme nationalism and its disrespect for the values of the democratic republic established in 1918 . In contrast, tran sition to totalitarian rule in the Czech Lands was viewed by the Americans as a process of necessary accommodation, a sensible political reaction to the external pressures exerted by Nazi Germany. Although American observers did not deny the Slovak right to national self-determination in principle, they considered Slovak demands for autonomy in 1938 as inopportune and highly unpatriotic. They saw the rise of the autonomist movement as a function of Nazi foreign policy, whose sole intention was to use Slovak nationalism in its quest to dismember the Czechoslovak state. Against the backdrop of ri sing international tensions, the visit of the Slovak League of America in the summer appeared to American observers more as an embarrassment than an attempt to save the Republic. Watching the Hlinka Party's push for autonomy, the U.S. Minister in Prague kept reminding the Department of State that the Party lacked a democratic mandate to represent the Slovaks as a whole. In the aftermath of the Munich Agreement, the Americans openly scolded the behaviour of the Slovak nationalists, reproaching them for a lack of loyalty to the common state. The Slovak declaration of autonomy in October was not seen as a measure to consolidate the embattled state, but as another step to weaken it. American reports between November and December provide an account of the gradual dismantling of the multi-party political system by the government in Bratislava. In contrast to Bohemia, Americans saw anti-Semitism among the Slovak population as deep-seated, with specific - mainly economic - underpinnings. The anti-Semitic policies of the Slovak government, condoned by some representatives of the Catholic Church, were to become more severe and extensive in the foreseeable future . � 70 SLOVAKIA 2021 ON THE ROAD TO NATIONALIST TOTALITARIANISM: SLOVAKIA IN THE TURMOIL OF 1938 AS SEEN BY THE UNITED ST ATES FOREIGN SERVICE Roman Licko In the autumn of 2018 I set myself the task of assessing the significance of the year 1938 in Slovak hi story. This was in response to a conference call which invited scholars to address, among other themes, milestones in Czech and Slovak history in which the year happens to have a number eight in it. 1 When I set about preparing my presentation, I had two thoughts about the subj ect. First, I was struck by several historic parallels between 2018 and 1938. No attempt will be made in thi s paper to argue that 2018 was as fateful for Slovakia as the year 1938 was for the inhabitants of Czechoslovakia. Yet, given the rise of far-right political extremism in Central Europe, tacitly encouraged by a large authoritarian neighbour to the east, it may be instructive to re-examine the rise of Slovak nationalism in the late 1930s. 2 Then, extreme Slovak nationalists had also been spurred on by an aggressive totalitari an neighbour. 3 The second idea that occurred to me was that 1938 has been somewhat neglected when it came to 1 The paper entitled "From Fledging Democracy to Nationalist Authoritarianism: Slovakia in the Tunnoil of 1938 as Seen by the United States Foreign Service" was presented at the 50th Convention of the Associati on for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies in December of 20 18 in Boston. 2 The large authoritarian neighbour is Russia. Its support for the far-right nationa lists in Centra l European cou ntri es is explained and well documented in Timothy Snyder's book The Road to Unfi·eedom. By supporti ng ex treme nationalist movements in coun tries such as Slovaki a, Russia hopes to weaken their resolve to stay w ithin the European Union. Putin's alternative to th e EU is the Eurasian Union, a trade and political bloc stretching from Chin a to the border of the EU. Timothy Snyder, Th e Road tu Unf,-eedom: Russia. Europe. America. (New York : Crown/ Archetype, 20 18), I 00. The reference to the extreme nationalists in today 's Slovakia is directed towards l 'udovri strana na.iie S/ovensko-The People's Party Our Slovakia. Just two months before Slovakia ' s parliamentary elections in February of 2020, the far-rig ht nationali st party came second in a popul ari ty poll cond ucted by the Focus polling Agency in December of 2019. Historically speaking, leaders of the party, including its leaderMarian Kotleba, subscribe to the ideology of the war-time Slovak Republic. 3 Then it was Nazi Germany. �SLOVAKIA 2021 71 turning points in Slovak history.4 By this, I don ' t mean the fact that Slovaks gained their autonomy in that year. What changed quite dramatically in 1938 was the way in which the country was governed. After a relatively brief experience with a democratic form of government in the first Czechoslovak Republic, Slovak leaders set about dismantling the democratic institutions upon which the foundations of their state were built. By the end of the year Slovakia was well on the road to becoming a nationalist totalitarian state. This paper examines political developments in Slovakia in that year from the point of view of an independent observer- the United States Foreign Service. At that time, American diplomats in Czechoslovakia gathered and evaluated intelligence which in tum informed the United States' foreign policy towards Central Europe. Their reports and analyses, despite their limitations, help us understand what went wrong with the process of Slovak national emancipation in 1938. They may also serve as an insight into how easily a Central European democracy may tum into a totalitarian state if extreme nationalism becomes the dominant ideology of its political leaders. 1938 was a critical year in European history. Powerful forces of European nationalism were the driving engine of politics in both totalitarian Germany as well as democratic Czechoslovakia. Because of its large and restive German minority, Czechoslovakia had become vulnerable to the aggressive foreign policy of its large totalitarian neighbour to the west. Adolph Hitler's ambition in Central Europe was to annex ethnic Germans living in foreign territories into his Third Reich . In March of 1938 Germany had annexed Austria. In September, the Gen11an Chancellor achieved the pinnacle of his pre-war diplomatic offensive. As a result of the Munich Agreement, Czechoslovakia had to cede the German-speaking areas of Sudetenland to Germany. The rejection of the Versailles system and the intention by the Nazi s to destroy its eastern democratic neighbour brought the problem of minorities in Czechoslovakia to a head in 1938. The issue had been simmering in Czechoslovak politics since the last parliamentary elections in 1935, whose results changed the political map of the republic. In Slovakia, an alliance of nationalist parties, known as the Autono4 1948 and 1968, of course, were more fateful. The former because the coup d 'etat in February brought about a complete regime change, the latter beca use the crushing of the Prague Spring in August was the res ult of a fo rei gn in vasion. �72 SLOVAKIA 2021 mist Bloc, emerged as the most powerful political force in the country.5 The Sudeten German Party became one of the strongest political parties in Czechoslovakia. 6 By the end of 1938, the problem of the constitutional relationship between Czechs and Slovaks had been temporarily resolved. The Declaration of Slovak autonomy on October the 6th marked the beginning of the short-lived period known as the Second Czechoslovak Republic. It ended with the final destruction of Czechoslovakia in March of 1939. In 1938 the American government did not have a centralised agency that wou ld gather, coordinate and evaluate political intelligence from foreign countries. Instead, its main source of information about developments abroad came from the U.S. diplomatic missions based in countries' capital cities. Thus, the quality of political intelligence from Europe dispatched to Washington depended on the political acumen of individual diplomats, not all of whom were professionally trained. In this respect, Czechoslovakia was a notable exception. In June 1937, President Franklin D. Roosevelt instructed the Department of State to appoint Wilbur John Carr as the new U.S. Minister in Prague. 7 As Assistant Secretary of State, Carr had been one of the most 5 In the electoral campa ign, the stron gest nationali st party in Slovakia - Hlinka 's Slovak People ' s Party - joined forces with the Slovak National Party. Both parties advocated autonomy for Slovakia within the Czechoslovak Republic. They were backed by the parties of Ruthenian and Poli sh minorities, demandin g autonomy for thei r own regions. Collect ive ly the Autonomist Bloc secured 30.1 % of the Slovak vote. The coalition of Magyar parties in Slovakia gained 14.2%. Alena Bartl ova, " Posledne parlamen tn e vol'by v maj i 1935," in V Medzivojnovom Ceskoslovensku 1918- 1939, (Bratislava : Veda, 20 12), 439. 6 The Sudeten Party polled 15. 2% in the 1935 e lection . Natalia Kraj covifova, "Slovakia in Czechoslova kia, 191 8- 1938," in Slovakia in Histo,y, ed. Mikulas Teich, Dusan Kovac, and Martin D. Brown (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 20 I I), 154. 7 Wilbur John Carr is often refe rred to as the father of the American Foreign Service. He entered the Department of State as a young clerk in 1892 . He went on to serve in various capac ities, including Assistant Secretary of State between 1924 and 1937. Carr was th e driving force behind th e reform of th e U.S. Foreign Service in the interwar period. In his view, all American ambassadors and mini sters abroad should be professionals - i.e. career diplomats, not political appointees. In June 193 7, after fortyfive yea rs in Washington, Carr was called upon by the President to head the U.S. diplomatic mission in Prague. According to Cordell Hull , Carr was one of the most capable ass istant secretari es in th e history of the department. At the time of his appointment as U.S. Minister to Czechoslovakia, Carr was sixty-s ix years old . Peter �SLOVAKIA 2021 73 senior government officials ever to represent the United States in its foreign service. This reflected Washington's growing concerns about developments in Central Europe, at the heart of which lay the uneasy relations between Germany and Czechoslovakia. 8 In August of 1938, American Secretary of State Cordell Hull decided to increase his diplomatic staff in Prague with the appointment of George Kennan.9 The choice was not coincidental. Kennan had been an experienced career diplomat and a specialist on Russian and East European affairs. His main task at the Prague legation was political reporting. Part of hi s duties consisted of making regular visits to Bratislava, where he gathered information about developments in Slovakia. Carr's diplomatic dispatches from Prague and Kennan 's reports on conditions in Slovakia shaped the views of American policymakers at the Department of State on the eve of WWII. 10 Their writings remained the only source of political intelligence from the region until the establishment of the OSS in 1942. 11 Bridges, "Mr. Carr Goes to Prague," American Diplomacy, accessed December 20, 20 19, http://americandiplomacy.web.unc.edu/ 1998/09/mr-carr-goes-to-prague/. 8 Bridges points out that Carr' s predecessor - Butler Wright - had underestimated German innuence on Czechoslovak affairs in 1930. This view was expressed by both Secretary of State Hull as well as Undersecretary Sumner Welles. Peter Bridges, "Mr. Carr Goes to Prague," Part I. 9 Best known as an advocate of the U.S. policy of containment after WWII , George Frost Kennan spent 193 8 and 1939 as a diplomat at the American legation in Prague. He served as Secretary of the Legation until the breakout of war in September of 1939. He was nuent in Russian and German, and during his serv ice in Prague he learned to read Czech and Slovak as we ll. George Kennan, From Prague After Munich: Diplomatic Papers, 1938- 1940 (Princeton, N.J .: Princeton University Press, 1968), vi. 10 Wilbur J. Carr 's diplomatic correspondence from Prague is deposited in the Library of Congress, the Manuscript Division in Washington D.C. Some of Carr's reports are now part of the collections of the National Archives, entitled "Records of the U.S . Department of State Relating to the Interna l Affairs of Czechoslovakia I 9 10-1944". Some of Kennan ' s reports on the conditions in Slovak ia are in Decimal File 860f. Collecti ve ly, they were published in a book in 1968 . Kennan, From Prague A/ier Munich, 1968. 11 The OSS (Office of Strategic Services) was establi shed by the military order issued by President Roosevelt on Jun e 13, 1942 . A predecessor of the modem CIA, the OSS mandate was to collect and ana lyse intelligence required by U.S. foreign-pol icy makers and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Barry M. Katz, "Office of Strategic Services," in The Oxford Companion to World War II, ed . I.C.B . Dear (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995), 650. �74 SLOVAKIA 2021 The road to totalitarianism in Slovak politics started in September of 1936. On the 19th of that month, the leaders of Hlinka 's Slovak Peop le's Party (Hlinkova slovenska /'udova strana, or HSL:S) met at a congress in Piest'any to discuss the polic ies and future direction of the party. 12 Leaders of the moderate wing, led by Monsignor Joseph Tiso, were tempted to join the ruling coalition in the Czechoslovak Parliament. Chances were not unreali stic, as the government was headed by Milan Hodfa, Czechoslovakia's first Slovak Prime Minister, who was determined to solve the Slovak question once and for all. 13 In opposition to the moderates stood the young radicals, led by Karol Sidor. 14 For them, cooperation with Hodfa's cabinet was categorically rejected, unless the party's demands were met in full , without any reservations. 15 Whether moderate or radical , all members of the HSL:S were convinced that their party held the so le political mandate to represent Slovaks as a whole. Distrustful of the democratic government in Prague and increasingly authoritarian, the young nationalists had the ear of the old, but charismatic leader of the party - Andrej Hlinka. Hi s ambitions to lead Slovaks as a single nation found expression in one of hi s speeches at the congress, where Hlinka compared himself to Mussolini in Italy and Hitler in Germany. As far as the future political 12 The Piest'any Congress has been described in detail by Robert Arpas. For a comprehensive accou nt of the party ' s policies in the interwa r period see Robert Arpas, Vitazsrvo alebo prehra: Vyvrcho lenie politickeho zapasu HSt.;S o alllonomiu S/ovenska. (Brati slava: Veda, 20 11 ). 13 Hodza was convi nced that settling Czechoslovak ia's nationality problem hin ged upon finding a solution to the Czech- Slovak question. Natalia Kraj covicova, "Slova kia in Czec hoslovakia, 191 8- 1938," in Slovakia in Histo,y, ed. Mikulas Teich , Dusan Kovac, and Martin D. Brown (Cambridge: Ca mbridge University Press, 20 11 ). 155. 14 Apart from Sidor, the most prominent representatives of the youn g generation of Slovak nati onali sts were Ferdinand Durcansky and Alexander Mach . The views of these intellectuals and academics on society and government had been shaped by the risin g ri ght-wi ng nationalist ideologies of 1930s Europe. Ad mirers of nati onalist totalitaria ni sm, they questioned democracy, whi ch in thei r view was no longer capab le of offerin g solutions to the mountin g problems o f the time. The only remedy, according to them, was a unity of the nation coupl ed with un swerving loya lty to its omni scient leader. They were strongly anti -Se miti c . Robert Arpas, Vit"azstvo alebo prehra, 52 . 15 Sidor, alongs ide wi th Ferdinand Durcansky and Alexander Mach, pushed for complete autonomy, part of which was the demand to recogni ze the Slovaks as a separate nati on. Slova k was to become the o ffi c ial language in Slova kia, and the proposed Slovak Di et was to have broad legislative powers. �SLOVAKIA 2021 75 line of the party was concerned, the radicals he ld sway. Tiso's demand that the congress express loya lty to the embattled Czechoslovak Republic was swept away. Instead, the closing plenary adopted a resolution which condemned "representatives of international materialistic ideology" and "Jewi sh-Bol shev ik anarchy". 16 The following day, Tiso himself proclaimed the principle of"one nation , one leader, one party" to a public rally of party supporters in Piest'any. In 1938 Slovak Americans were once again about to play an active role in the politics of their mother country. For more than half a century, the Slovak diaspora in the United States had been an important voice in the country's plea for national self-determination. 17 One reason for that was the sheer scale of Slovak emigration to the New World. By 1914 as many as one fifth of Slovaks had come to reside in the United States. 18 The other reason was the completely different political and economic environment of their new home country. Unfettered by oppression from the state, politica lly minded and commerciall y successful Slovaks cultivated, in democratic America, a strong feeling of national identity outside Slovakia. 19 As leaders of fraternal societies they campaigned vigorously for Slovak self-dete1mination in the Old World. 20 The patriotic fervour of these Slovak Americans 16 Robert Arpas, " Piest'ansky zjazd ako medznik HSL'.S k totalite," Clovek a 5polocnost', no. 3, vo l 7 (2004): 166, http ://www.clovekaspolocnost.sk/sk/rocn ik-7rok-2004/3/studi e-a-c lanky/piestansky-zjazd-ako-medzn ik-na-ceste- hsls- k-tota lite/. 17 Sil via Mihalikova, " Slovakia Pathways to a Democrati c Community," in Democracv and Political Culture in Eastern Europe, ed. Hans- Dieter Klingeman n, Dieter Fuchs and Jan Zielonka (London: Routledge, Taylor & Franc is Group, 2006), 175. 18 Large-scale em igration of Slovaks to the United States bega n in the late 18 70s. On the eve of WWI , when the Slovak exodus to America peaked, the Slovak-America n comm unity was in per-capita term s the largest among the Centra l Europea n nations and second onl y to the community of Irish-Ameri ca ns among all immigrant peoples in the U.S. Mark Stolari k, "S lovaks in Canada and the United States, 1880- 1990, Similarities and Differences," in Chair in Slovak History and Culture Occasional Papers, no. I ( 1992): 14. 19 In Mark Stolarik 's words - "The principal centre of Slovak nationalism before and during World War I was not the Slovak homeland, but the United States of America." Mark Stolarik , "S lova ks in Ca nada and the United States," 14. 20 The primary reason why Slovaks in America estab li shed fratemals was mutual support. This often happened along confessional lines, reflecting the divi sions among religious denomin ati ons in Slovakia. Interest in mother-country politics was of secondary importance to Slovak Americans, and it was often the domain of a few politically mi nded fraterna l leaders and newspaper editors . �76 SLOVAKIA 2021 found expression first in the Cleveland Agreement of 1915 and then in the Pittsburgh Agreement of 1918. In these, Slovak and Czech expatriate communities in the United States pledged their support for the establishment of a common state on the ruins of Austria-Hungary after the Great War. In the former, Slovak Americans sought the creation of a federative union with the Czechs. In the latter, they agreed that Slovakia would have home rule. 2 1 The reason why they settled for somewhat less at Pittsburgh was the opposition to the idea of federation from Tomas Garrigue Masaryk, the most important of Czechoslovakia's founding fathers. Thus, the Slovak-American nationalists, allied primarily in the Slovak League of America, supported the creation of their Czecho-Slovakia, in October 1918, albeit with caution .22 Despite some internal disagreements among the leaders of the League in the I 920s, demand for autonomy remained the League's top political priority in its dealings with the old country until October 1938. In late Apri l 1938, at the 20th convention of the Slovak League in Pittsburgh, a decision was made to send a delegation to Slovakia. The visit was to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Pittsburgh Agreement and the delegation was to take the original copy of the agreement with them. 23 Peter Hletko, the President of the Slovak League, was appointed head of the American delegation and its official spokesman. Another notable member of the delegation was Jozef Husek, former editor-in-chief of the Slovak-American newspaper Jednota and one of the signatories of the Pittsburgh Agreement. The ori ginal idea for a visit by Slovak Americans came from the leadership of 21 The word home-rule itself was not used in the phrasing of th e agreement. Slovakia was to have " its own administration , its Diet and its courts". Slovak was to be " the officia l language in schools and in public life in general". Dav id Grinnell , "Land A Treasures: The Pittsburgh Agreement; Czecho-Slovak Agreement," Western Pennsylvania Hi story 90 (Winter 2007- 08): 8. 22 The Pittsburgh Agreement bore the signatures of members of two Slovak fraternal organ isations - the Slovak League of America and the Slovak Evange lical Society. In I 9 I 8, the Slovak League was an umbrella organisation, comprising the majority of fraternal-benefit societies in the United States, including both Catholics and Lutherans, though th e former predominated. 23 A year before, at th e meeting of the Hlinka Party in Ruzomberok in July, Andrej Hlinka had described th e Pittsburgh Agreement as the "Magna Carta of th e Slovak nation ." Milan Olejnik, "The visit of delegates of the American Slovak League to Slovak ia (June- August 1938) and their effort to implement the Pittsburgh Agreement into th e Czechoslovak Constitution ," Clo vek a spolocnos( 20, no. 3 (2017): 50. �SLOVAKIA 2021 77 the Hlinka Party, which was planning to hold a congress in Bratislava on June 4th. The intention of the party officials was to increase the pressure on the central government in Prague to implement the party 's demand for autonomy. The public showing of the Pittsburgh Agreement to a rally of loyal supporters the following day was part of the plan. 24 ln the atmosphere of heightened international tensions, ratcheted up by the Czechoslovak crisis earlier that month, the visit of the American delegation was closely followed by the pro-Czechoslovak press throughout the country. 25 A party of Slovak Americans about a hundred strong - arrived at the Polish port of Gdyni a on May 26th, 1938. 26 There, they were greeted by two separate delegations: one, headed by Karol Sidor, who was sent to Poland by the leaders of the Hlinka Party; the other was the diplomatic retinue of Juraj Slav ik, the Czechoslovak Minister to Poland.27 The Slovak Americans then proceeded to Warsaw, from where they were scheduled to travel to Prague. 28 At the instigation of Karol Sidor, however, four members of the League were persuaded to trave l to Rufomberok first , to pay a visit to the ai Iing leader of the party, Andrej Hlinka. 29 24 The party offic ials were thu s responding to various rumours, e.g. that the Pittsburgh Agreement was a fabricati on , or that Masaryk's signature on it was not genuine. Stefan Kucf k, "Americki Slovaci a autonom isti cke hnutie na Slovensku ( 19 181938)," Dvacate sto/eti, no. 2 (2013 ): I 06. 25 The May Cri sis was caused by fa lse reports of German troop movements on the 19th around Czechos lova ki a ' s western borders, raising fea rs th at the country was about to be attacked by Germany. A lthough the reports later proved unsubstantiated, the inc ident contributed to the subseque nt resolve by France and Britain to increase pressure on Czechoslovakia to make concessions to the Sudeten German Party. 26 Milan O lej nik, "The visit of delegates of the American Slovak League to Slovakia," 51. 27 Although the two delegati ons had travelled to Gdynia by the sa me train, both part ies made the ir way to Gdynia separate ly, as Sidor' s party re fused to jo in the Czechoslovak delegation from Warsaw. Stefan Kucf k, " Americk i Slovac i a autonomi sticke hnutie," I 05 . 28 In Warsaw the Slovak Americans were g iven the red-carpet treatment by representat ives of the muni cipa l authoriti es. They never mention ed Czechoslovak ia in their speec hes. Stefan Kucfk , "Americki Slovaci a autonomisticke hnuti e," I 05. 29 Because of the di sagreements among the leaders of the League ' s delegation, on ly fo ur of them went to Ruzomberok . Andrej Ro lik, a Lutheran pastor fro m Johnstown, refused to trave l to Slovakia first. Stefan Kucik , "Americki Slovac i a autonomisticke hnutie," I 05 . �78 SLOVAKIA 2021 The U.S. Minister to Czechoslovakia watched the developments from his legation in Prague.Jo On May 31st he informed the Secretary of State of the arrival of the League's representatives in the Czechoslovak capital and their intention to meet both the President and the Prime Minister.JI The day after their arrival in Prague, the leaders of the League paid a courtesy visit to the American Legation . Carr noted that the Slovak Americans stressed in one of their public announcements that their visit was "not to be regarded as interference in the internal affairs of the Republic".J 2 Having spoken to an official from the Czechoslovak Ministry of Foreign Affairs, however, Carr came to the conclusion that Prague's government felt uneasy about the visit, wishing it had taken place at some other time.JJ This made the American diplomat feel that the red-carpet treatment accorded to the Slovak Americans in Prague somehow "lacked a ring of sinceri ty." The fee ling of skepticism in his mind was reinforced when he spoke privately to Hletko. According to Carr, the president of the League admitted that their visit to Prague was inopportune, regretting the fact that it had coincided with the minority dispute. In order to make his American readers appreciate the complexity of the circumstances surrounding the visit, Carr factored in the reactions of the press. He noted that the newspapers in Germany had been for some time speaking of the united front between the Hlinka Party and the Sudeten German Party aimed against the Czechs.J4 The pro-Czechoslovak press, for their part, had been accusing Slovak nationalists of collusion with the Germans.J 5 As to the specific results of the talks between the League's representatives 30 Since 1925, the United States' diplomatic mission in Prague had resided at the Schonbom Palace on Mala stran a. Peter Bridges, " Mr. Carr Goes to Prague," Part I. 31 In mid-June Carr wrote to Washington again, giving a detailed account of the League's participation in th e Hlinka Party congress. 32 National Archives, Washington, 860f.00/5 I 0, Telegram, W. J. Carr to the Secretary of State, May 31 , p. I . 33 This was told to Ca rr by an unspecified official from the Czechoslovak Mini stry of Fore ign Affairs on the 3 1st. The Czechoslovak government feared that the visit would be used by the minorities to advance their own political agendas. 860 f.00/589, W. J. Carr to the Secretary of State, p. 2. 34 NA, 860f.00/534, Di spatch No. 176, W. J. Carr to the Secretary of State, Jun e 6, p. 2. 35 According to the Police Directory in Bratislava, the Sudeten Party did send a congratulatory telegram to the HSL.:S on the occasion of its party congress on June the 4th. Milan Olej nik, "The visit of de legates of the American Slovak League to Slovaki a," 55. �SLOVAKIA 2021 79 and the Czechoslovak statesmen, Carr echoed Slovak, the press organ of the HSCS. 36 It reported that the discussions bore no concrete results, liut it was agreed that, after a month's study of the conditions in Slovakia, the League's representatives would return for more talks with the Prime Minister. 37 The public proclamations by the League ' s representati ves in support of Slovak autonomy prompted the U.S. Minister to examine the extent of popular support for the Slovak nationalists. In their plans 1938 was to be the crucial year, by the end of which the Slovak question in Czechoslovakia was to be settled once and for all. With the support of their American compatriots, the Slovak nationali sts claimed that the majority of Slovaks in 1938 - whether at home or abroad, were in favour of autonomy. To this purpose, Hletko repeatedly claimed that autonomy was supported by as many as 90% of Slovaks in the United States. 38 The proposed change in the status of Slovakia was also the main order of business at the Party Congress that convened on June 4th in Bratislava. With the League's delegates in attendance, the Party passed a resolution, setting out the details of the new Autonomy Bill. 39 Its text was published in full the following day in Slovak. Carr had it translated for his June 6th report and supplemented it with his commentary. The bid to amend the Czechoslovak Constitution was viewed critically by the U.S. Minister, hi s main reservation being the lack of political mandate to demand such a constitutional change. Drawing on the statistics from the last parliamentary election of 1936, he observed that the HSCS had only polled 30.1 % of the votes cast in Slovakia. 40 The right to speak for all Slovaks was further dimini shed, 36 Hletko and his party urged the Czechoslovak statesmen to recogni ze Slovaks as a sovereign nati on and to grant Slovak ia autonomy as it was sti pulated in the Pittsburgh Agreement. Both Hodza and Benes ex pressed their general agreement, but refused to talk about autonomy. What they wanted to promote, first and foremost, was Czechoslovak unity. Hletko later summarised the outcome of the talks in the phrase "Nothing positive was achi eved." Stefan Kucik, "Ameri cki Slovaci a autonomisticke hnutie na Slovensku," I 07 . 37 NA, 860f.00/534, Carr to the Secretary of State, June 6, p. 2. 38 NA, 860f.00/534, Carr to the Secretary of State, June 6, p. 7. 39 It demanded the creation of a separate Slovak Diet and governmen t, a long with the introduction of Slovak as the official language on the basis of recognition of the separate identity of the Slovak nation. 40 Of a ll the parliamentary votes cast in Czechos lovakia, Carr po ints out, this was 6.86%. NA , 860f.00/534, Carr to the Secretary of State, June 6, p. 4. �80 SLOVAKIA 2021 in Carr's view, by the fact that the party did not put up its own candidates, but campaigned as part of the Autonomist Bloc.41 Even the recent successes of the HSCS in the communal elections did not alter the fact that Slovak autonomists had never commanded the required 50% of the voting majority in Slovakia. Moreover, Carr argued, all of the HSCS 's former allies "now cooperate with the coalition parties." As far as the capability of the party to mobilise its supporters was concerned, the American estimate in June 1938 was slightly higher the one made by the Czechoslovak authorities. According to an American source, the turnout at the public rally on June 5th - the same day when the Autonomy Bill was published - was around 50,000.42 This was twice as much as the official figure given by the Bratislava police department. 43 To strike a balanced view, Carr devoted an equal amount of space in his reporting to those who opposed the Slovak autonomists. In 1938, this was a group of nationwide Czechoslovak parties - members of the ruling coalition which operated separate branches in Slovakia. The HSCS 's staunchest opponent was the Agrarian Party, led by Prime Minister Hodza. To solve the nationality problem his cabinet drafted, in the early summer of 1938, a constitutional amendment, referred to as the Nationality Statute. 44 Another Slovak in the government who opposed autonomists was Minister of Justice [van Derer, who was also head of the Slovak section of the Czechoslovak Social Democratic Workers ' Party. 45 In 1938 both politicians rejected the idea of Slovaks as a sovereign nation, struggling to maintain Czechoslovak unity in 41 This consisted of the Rutheni an Soj uz Party, the Polish Socia list Party and the Slovak National Party. 42 This was based on th e estimate by Associated Press reporter 0. E. Werner. NA, 860f.00/53 I, Carr to the Secretary of State, June I 0, 1938, p. 2. O lejnfk, referring to the police records, puts the number of participants at 25,000 at a maximum . 43 Milan Olejnik, "The visit of delegates of the American Slovak League to Slovakia," 55 . 44 The measure proposed to divide the republi c into four autonomous lands: Bohemia, Moravia, Slovakia and Subcarpathian Ruthenia. Eac h land was to be a legal entity in the eyes of public and private law. Land Diets with curias representing every nationality were envisaged, as was the creation of land governments. President Benes had actively participated in the preparation of the statute. The negotiations between the HSL.:S and President Benes about the Nationality Statute in September 1938 were unsuccessfu l. Natalia Krajcovicova, "Slovakia in Czechoslovakia, 19 I 8- 1938," 156. 45 Ivan Derer was the Minister of Justice of the Czechoslovak government from Jul y 193 7 until September 1938. �SLOVAKIA 2021 81 the face of mounting demands from the Sudeten Party. Carr reported on the activities of the pro-Czechoslovak movement, gauging its political clout and public support. On June I 0th he sent a di spatch in which he looked at the rally organized by the opponents of Slovak autonomy on June 6th . Agrarian Day, as it was officially called, followed close on the heels of the rally organised by th e Hlinka Party the previous day. According to Carr, the turnout at the Czechoslovak demonstration was I 00,000, about twice as large as the previous day 's demon stration.46 Hodza and Derer were among the main speakers, and the President of the Slovak League addressed the crowds in hi s turn. Judging by the American report, the tone of Hletko 's speec h was much less belligerent than hi s speech the day before. 47 Comparing the two rallies, Carr related in hi s report an interesting fact observed by an Associated Press journalist. It concerned the proclaimed loyalty to the common state - or rather the lack thereof, on th e part of Slovak autonomists. When the national anthem was sung at the Hlinka demonstration, there was practically no response from the crowd to the first, i.e. the Czech part of it. For the second - the Slovak part - however, the crowd joined in with " tremendous vigor". The emblems used at the rallies told the same story. The decorations used at Agrarian Day consisted entirely of Czechoslovak flags, while those used by Hlinka's supporters featured exc lusive ly the party's red double cross on a white background.48 The di smem berment of the last democratic state in Central Europe began on September 30th, 1938. At Munich, the European powers decided the fate of Czechoslovakia in her absence.49 The catastrophe 46 Carr 's estimate of th e tu rnout at the Hlinka' s ra ll y was 50,000. NA, 860f.00/53 I, Carr to the Secretary of State, June I 0, 1938, p. 2. 47 According to 0. E. Wern er, " Hletk o declared that the Slovaks in the Un ited States wis h nothin g more than that the Slovaks defend th e Republic which they have he lped to establish and th at they remain true Slovaks in free, beautiful and prosperous Czechoslovak ia." NA, 860f. 00/53 I, Carr to the Secretary of State, June I 0, 1938, p. 4. 48 The onl y exception was the use of the American fla g decorating the rostrum where, among oth er speakers, Hletko gave hi s speech. NA, 860f.00/53 I, Carr to the Secretary of State, June I 0, 1938, p. 5. 49 The agreement was signed by the government leaders of Germany, France, th e United Kingdom and Ita ly. Czechoslova ki a's leaders were not invited, save two diplomats who we re summoned to receive what the great powers had negotiated. Michael R. D. Foot, " Munich agree ment," in The Oxford Companion to World War If, ed. I.C. B. Dea r (New York: Oxford Uni vers ity Press, I 995), 597. �82 SLOVAKIA 2021 could not have been averted by Czechoslovak leaders, but internal factors contributed to it.so What had played into Hitler's hands were the aspirations of the nationalist movements within the country. Democratic powers of the West had either looked on or followed a policy of active appeasement, so as to avoid a war with Germany.s 1 In an effort to satisfy Hitler's demands, Britain and France acquiesced to the annexation of the German-speaking territories of Czechoslovakia. In so doing, they sanctioned the principle whereby individuals exercised their rights in a state collectively, through belonging to a legally recognized national entity. Such recognition in law went hand-in-hand with the demand for a geographically defined national territory. This ran contrary to Czechoslovakia's liberal constitution, by which members of national minorities had their rights guaranteed as individual citizens. The Nationality Statute proposed by Hodza 's cabinet went a long way towards satisfying the demands of the nationalist movements. It attempted to solve the problem by giving Czechoslovak nationalities territorial and administrative autonomy, but it refused to recognise them as legal entities. In the run-up to Munich, Britain and France had stepped up the pressure on the Czechoslovak government not to implement the Nationality Statute. After the failure of negotiations between the Sudeten German Party and the Czechoslovak government, on September 22 nd the Slovak nationalists rejected the Nationality Statute.s2 In the wake of the Munich Agreement, in an atmosphere of heightened political uncertainty, leaders of the Hlinka Party summoned representatives of the other Slovak political parties to Zilina. The declaration of Slovak autonomy of October 6th was supported by all of them except the Communists and Social Democrats.s3 50 The genera l consensus among hi storians is that "the Czechs had to capitulate". Thomas Paterson, et al., eds. , Americanforeign relations. Vo lume 2. (Lexington MA : Heath and Company, 2014), 153. 51 On September 25th President Benes appealed to Roosevelt with a view to urging Britain and France to stand by Czechoslovaki a. Two days after that, Roosevelt wrote to Chancellor Hitler: "The government of the United States has no political involvements in Europe, and will assume no obligations in the conduct of the present negotiations." Matilda Axton et al., eds., Foreign relations of the United States. 1938. Vo lume I, Washin gton : United States Government Printing Office, 1955. 52 Natalia Krajcovicova, "Slovakia in Czechoslovakia, 191 8- 1938," 156. 53 The result of the meeting was the Zilina Agreement, by which its signatories pledged their support for the passage of a constitutional act providing for Slovak autonomy in the Czechoslovak Parliament. The next day Jozef Tiso was appointed head �SLOVAKIA 2021 83 By that time Poland had occupied a territory in the north of Czechoslovakia and Hungary had laid claims to Hungarian-speaking territories in the south of Slovakia. 54 After Munich the Czech Lands were perceived by the United States with considerable sympathy as a small democratic country in peril , resisting the pressures of a totalitarian aggressor. Looking back on the aftermath of Munich in December, Carr appreciated the grav ity of the situation in which the recently reconstructed Czechoslovak government found itself. He noted that after President Benes had resigned on October 5th, not only was the country left without its leader, but "the bottom dropped out of the entire political system through which it had been governed for twenty years." 55 The interim Prime Minister General Jan Syrovy faced the task of preserving "order and di scipline through a period of indescribable difficulty," having to " remake the constitution" so that "a wholly new civil regime may be set up to which power could be turned over. " 56 The appointment of Frantisek Chvalkovsky as Czechoslovak Foreign Mini ster drew particular praise from the American diplomat. With hi s friendly attitude towards the United States, the Czech Minister was considered a "strong advocate of democratic form of government" while, at the same time, "a reali st with regard to the necessity of a new orientation in the foreign affairs of hi s country." 57 Despite overt signs of the Czech political system of the Slovak autonomous govern ment. Valerian Bystricky, Od auton6mie k vzniku Slovenskeho statu (Bratislava: Prodama, 2008), 273. 54 Carpatho-U krai ne' s autonomy became a reality a lmost at the same time. On October 11th the Czechoslovak government in Prague appoi nted its first autonomous government. Frantisek Capka, "Leta prvni i druhe republiky a protektoratu," Dejiny zemi koruny ceske v datech, accessed Janua ry 16, 2020, http://www .libri.cz/databaze/dejiny/text/t84 .html. 55 NA, 860f.00/589, Carr to th e Secretary of State, December 20, 1938, p. 2- 3. 56 NA, 860f.00/589, Ca rr to the Secretary of State, December 20, 1938, p. 3. 57 Carr's assessmen t of Chva lkovsky's political integrity and his attitudes towards Germany is particul arl y interesting in the light of his subseq uent acti ons and fu rther diplomatic career. Hi s last directive, as the Foreign Minister issued in the wake of the German occupat ion of Bohemia-Moravia in March of 1939, instructed the Czechoslovak ambassadors abroad to close their embassies and hand them over to the Nazis. Many patriotic Czechoslovak diplomats - some of them Slovak by birth - such as Stefa n Osusky, Czechoslovak Ambassador in Paris, or Juraj Slavik, head of the country's diplomatic mission in Po land, refused to do so. After the breakup of Czechoslova kia Chvalkovsk y became Envoy of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia in Ge m1any. He di ed during an allied ai r ra id on Berlin in 1945 . "Frantisek �84 SLOVAKIA 2021 leaning towards authoritarian rule, Carr had little doubt that the federal government would continue to be "a strictly democratic form of government," though admitting "it will undoubtedly incorporate such features of totalitarianism as are compatible with democracy. " Its main desire after Munich, thought the American diplomat, was to "dispel any idea that there is any 'Fascist' tinge to the state yet for obvious reason [they] do not wish to damn Fascist methods ." 58 The plight of Bohemia after Munich contrasted sharply with the American description of the situation in Slovakia. The political leaders of the autonomous region known as Slovenska krajina were seen by American diplomats as unpatriotic and irresponsible individuals who drove one nail after another into the coffin of Czechoslovak democracy. 59 Commenting on the immediate aftermath of Munich and the challenges faced by the Czechoslovak government, Carr expected Slovak leaders "out of common patriotism to set aside domestic political differences until these dangerous problems have been settled." Instead, he observed di sappointingly, "S lovaks - now represented exclusively by the Hlinka extremists - took advantage of the catastrophic difficulties of the Prague Government to demand complete autonomy."60 Questioning where the loyalty of Slovakia's leaders stood during the crisis, the American diplomat came to the conclusion that "S lovak sympathies have throughout this period appeared to lean more strongly toward the Germans, than toward the Czechs." From the American perspective, the unity of the Republic stood paramount, and in times of danger it should definitely prevail over local interest. Carr expressed this sentiment several times, in an unequivocal tone. " If the three principal component parts of the Czechoslovak Republic are linked together by any common bonds of loyalty and patriotism," he argued emphatically, " there has been nothing in the actions of the Chvalkovsky," Historie a osobnosti diplomacie. Ministerstvo zahranicnich veci Ceske republiky, accessed December 20, 20 19, https://www. mzv.cz/jnp/cz/o_ministerstvu/histori e_a_osobnosti_ ceske_ diplomacie/ministri_a_ ministerstvo_ v_ histori i/frantisek _ chva lkovsky .html . 58 NA, 860f.00/57 I, Telegram, W. J. Carr to the Secretary of State, October 26, 1938, p. 3. 59 Slo venska krajina - in English ' the Slovak Land', was the official name used to refer to Slovakia during the First and Second Czechoslovak Republi cs, between 191 8 and 1939. 60 NA, 860f.00/589, Carr to th e Secretary of State, December 20, 1938, p. 3. �SLOVAKIA 2021 85 Slovak leaders during the last few weeks to indicate it." The image of two different worlds - that of the brave Czechs struggling to save the Republic and the unpatriotic Slovaks sympathising with Nazi aggressors - created by the American Legation in Prague after Munich, persisted for a long time on the other side of the Atlantic. In 1942, when the OSS took over from the American foreign service as the primary intelligence gatherer, a report on Slovakia claimed that the pro-Nazi orientation of the Tiso-Tuka leadership had long been apparent before Munich. 61 After it, the report went on, "these leaders came out open ly against the republic, against democracy generally, and for a new world order in Europe. " 62 The pace and complexity of the developments in Czechoslovakia in the closing months of 1938 were overwhelming, and the American Legation in Prague struggled to keep the Department of State fully informed. Reports in this period were mostly factua l, and the U.S. Minister in Prague complained that they had little time to put the rapidly unfolding events into general perspective. Only in the latter part of December did his superiors in Washington receive a comprehensive report on the situation in the Czech Lands and Slovakia. In the first weeks after Munich there was an "unavoidable preoccupation with the foreign" taking precedence over everything e lse. The whole country was in a state of utter turmoil. The report went on to recapitulate the challenges the country had to grapple with in an extremely short space of time. Satisfying the Polish territorial demands in the north was followed by the negotiations with Germany about Czechoslovakia's new borders in the west. The negotiations with Hungary about the cession 61 This was a com prehensive, I 06-page report on the Czechs, Slovaks and Carpath ian Rutheni ans. NA, Washington, Office of Strategic Servi ces, RG 226 E I 00, Box 3, p. 25. 62 Strictly speaki ng, thi s was not true. Throughout th e whole of 1938 the Party was led by Jozef Tiso. Tuka on ly came to prominence in 1940, when he became Foreign Minister of th e wartime Slovak Republic, following the Salzburg negotiations with Gem1any. As the principal representative of the moderate wing, Tiso became leader of the Party after Hlinka 's death in August of 1938. He spearheaded Slovak autonomy in October of 1938, but was opposed to the break up of Czechosl ovak ia in March of 1939. The probable reason why the OSS did not have more precise information about the period was the fact that the main source of its information on the situation in Slovakia during WWII was the Czechoslovak Information Service. This a was a special propaganda bureau set up in th e Un ited States by the Czechoslovak govemment-inex ile, controlled by ex- President Benes from London. �86 SLOVAKIA 2021 of Hungari an-speaking territories in Slovakia 's so uth came to nought, and the matter had to be resolved through international arbitration in early November. It was only then that the crippled Republic could turn its attention to its domesti c problems. What followed, according to the author of the report, was a " period of profound change and adjustment in the internal political life of Czechoslovakia." The most pressing of the problems, needing immediate attention in November, were the election of a new President and the passage of an enabling act. Progress in this direction, Carr noted, was " blocked by the Slovaks." They demanded that no presidential election could take place before the Constitution was amended to enact the proposed Autonomy Bill. The U.S. Mini ster in Prague believed that the conditions in the country were " hardly such as to make it a favourable time for the enactment of constitutional leg islation ." The Prague government, however, " had no other choice but to comply with it. " The Autonomy Act and the presidential elections of 1938 were both scrutini sed in the Legation 's report from December 2 1st. The Czechoslovak National Assembly passed the constitutional amendment on November 22nd and elected Czechoslovakia's new president on the 30th. 63 The constitutional arrangement provided, among other things, for an autonomous Slovak government and a Diet of the Slovak Land based in Bratislava. The new relationship between the Czechs and Slovaks was also reflected in the altered spelling of the country's name, which was changed to Czecho-Slovakia. Th e asymmetrical model of the state drew criticism from the U.S. Minister in Prague.64 According to him, " the privileges henceforth to be enjoyed by the Slovaks in the national parliament" were far too extensive and thus "entirel y disproportionate to the population and actual importance of Slovakia" as well as " its ability, thus far, unproven , to govern itself 63 Drafted by Ferdinand Durcansky, it was based on th e Autonomy Bill published by Hlinka 's Party on June 6th . 64 The Nati ona l Assembly in Prague retained legislative power fo r the whole of Czechoslovaki a wit h regard to matters of the constituti on, fo reign policy, nat ional defence, citizenship, currency, customs and some oth er areas. Since the Czech Lands did not have their ow n parliament, Czecho-Slovakia became in effect an asymmetrical federa l state. Valerian Bystricky, "Slovakia from the Munich Confere nce to the declaration of independence," in Slovakia in Histo,y, ed. Mikulas Teich, Dusan Kovac, and Martin D. Brown (Cambridge: Cambridge Uni versity Press, 20 11 ), I 60. �SLOVAKIA 2021 87 alone." 65 Slovaks were also criticised in another report for their approach to the election of the President. Originally, the parliament was to vote on an Enabling Act first, but "this was again blocked by the opposition of the Slovaks." who refused to do so " until they might know who the next president was to be."66 Alluding to the American tradition of presidential elections, Carr commented on the undemocratic nature of the procedure: "It is characteristic of political thought in this part of the world," he wrote sarcastically, "that it seems to have occurred to no one that it would have been possible to have a presidential election without all doubts as to its results having been removed well in advance." As for the candidate himself, Carr favoured Frantisek Chvalkovsky, preferred by most of the Czech deputies. In the end, however, the parliament elected Emil Hacha, former President of the Supreme Court. The American diplomat believed that Chvalkovsky's main disadvantages in the eyes of the Slovaks were his Protestantism, along with the fact that he was divorced.67 The Autonomy Act of November 22nd also provided for elections to the Slovak Diet in the following month . They were held on December 18th, 1938 and, historically, they were the first elections ever to take place in Slovakia for that country's self-governing legislative body. Judging by the Americans, however, it was a missed opportunity. The Legation's report from December 21st commented on a lack of democratic procedure as well the dubiousness of their results. As far as the former was concerned, the U.S. Minister in Prague saw "a pronounced Nazi influence."68 This was a reference to the fact that Slovak voters were presented with only one list of candidates. The sole political entity on the 1938 ballot - Hlinka 's Slovak People's Party, with a subtitle to its name - the Party of Slovak National Unity - was an amalgamation of the Agrarian, National Unity, National Socialist 65 Carr points out the Czechs had no say whatsoever in the Slovak Parliament. As a further example of the favoured position that Slovakia occupied in the matters of the Republi c was the provision according to which a motion of no confidence might be moved by one-thi rd of the Slovak deputies, i.e. 12 as compared with a total of 226 members of the chamber. NA, 860f.00/588, Dispatch No. 302, W. J. Carr to the Secretary of State, December 2 1, 1938, p. 2- 3. 66 NA, 860f.00/589, Carr to the Secretary of State, December 20, 1938, p. 7. 67 NA, 860f.00/589, Carr to the Secretary of State, December 20, 1938, p. 7- 9. 68 NA, 860f.00/588, Carr to the Secretary of State, December 2 1, 1938, p. 4. �88 SLOVAKIA 2021 and Fascist Parties. 69 Carr had little doubt that the 98% of the votes cast in its favour was due to the fact that the voters were given no alternative. This bore "striking resemblance to the results achieved in recent German plebiscites." Here, the author of the report reminded the State Department that the bloc of Slovak Autonomists had polled as low as 30.1 % of the Slovak vote in the previous parliamentary elections of 1935. "Fear of recrimination", speculated Carr, may have had "a decided influence on the votes cast by many individuals." Gauging the reactions to the Slovak elections in Prague, Carr noticed a parliamentary objection raised by the former Minister of Social Welfare, then a deputy of the Czecho-Slovak Parliament. The criticism was unlikely to be heeded in Bratislava, concluded Carr disparagingly "when the Slovaks are taking what resembles a child-like delight in playing with a new toy." 70 Part of the image of Slovakia created by the American Foreign Service in 1938 concerned Slovak attitudes towards the Jews. At that time U.S. diplomats in Czechoslovakia concentrated mainly on understanding the roots Slovak antisemitism, analysing its popular as we ll as political manifestations. Somewhat subjective - or even biased were the American comparisons of the anti-Jewish sentiments among the Czechs and the Slovaks. For a Czech, it was thought, nationality was a matter of language, rather than race. In other words, animosity was only likely to be felt towards the Jews who spoke German. Apart from a small minority, however, the mass of the Czech people had "very little interest in anti-Semitism." 7 1 In Slovakia, the popular resentment of the Jews was said to be widespread and "deep-seated." 72 The main reason for this was believed to be economic. According to George Kennan, then Secretary of the American Legation in Prague, the Jews of Bohemia li ved mainly in urban areas, whereas those 69 The Communist Party was banned by the autonomous govern ment on October 9th, the Social Democrats on November 16th. The destruction of the other political parties in Slovakia came about on November 8th, when they were all forced to merge with the HSL.:S . Representatives of the ama lgamated political entities did not receive any positions in the autonomous government, being left with a few seats in th e Slovak Diet. Valerian Bystricky, "S lovaki a from the Munich Conference to the declaration of independence," 161. 70 NA, 860f.00/588, Carr to the Secretary of State, December 21 , 1938, p. 4- 5. 71 George Kennan, From Prague After Munich, 45. 72 George Kennan , From Prague After Munich, 22 . �SLOVAKIA 2021 89 residing in Slovakia were more evenly spread throughout the country. 73 Slovak Jews plied their trades in smaller towns and the countryside as merchants, saloon keepers, druggists, or lawyers. In these professions, Kennan argued, the Jews "played a dominant part," largely because of their "superior intelligence." The Slovaks felt differently about this, being convinced that the Jews owed their success to their "trickiness, unscrupulousness, incurable clannishness and nepotism." This was not the case in in Bohemia, according to Kennan , because the " industry and shrewdness of the Czechs as petty traders and artisans" had been such that the Czech countryside " had never presented a Jew with such attractive possi bilities as the villages in Slovakia. 74 Finally, Kennan identified the lack of social assimilation as another factor why the cultural distinctiveness of the Slovak Jewry was more pronounced than it was in Bohemia. 75 From the American perspective, anti-Semitism in Slovak politics had both historic and religious origins. According to Kennan , many of the educated Jews " have traditionally looked to Budapest for cultural inspiration." In addition, there was a smaller, but influential community of Jews "with a German cultural orientation." In the former Austro-Hungarian Empire, both nationalities were associated with the ruling classes, whereas the Slovak-speaking population had been one of the oppressed nations. Thus, in the Slovak mind, the Jews had always sided with the oppressors. In other words, when the country was under Hungarian rule, "the Slovak Jews made common cause with the Hungarians in exploiting the Slovaks;" when the country found itself in Czechoslovakia, "the Jews joined with the more liberal Czechs in opposi ng Slovak autonomy." 76 To illustrate his theory, Kennan referred his American readership to the pogrom-like operation ordered by Tiso in early November. At that time, Slovak authorities attempted to deport 7,600 Slovak Jews to Hungary, following the announcement of 73 As Secretary of the American Legation in Prague, Kennan made severa l trips to Slovakia in late 1938. In January 1939 he wrote a special report on the conditions in Slovakia. This was followed by a comprehensive despatch in February on the Jewish problem in Czechoslovakia. 74 George Kennan, From Prague After Munich, 44. 75 Kennan mentions a greater degree of racial intermarriage in Bohemia, especia ll y in upper-class Czech society. 76 George Kennan, From Prague Ajier Munich, 23. �90 SLOVAKIA 2021 the First Vienna Award. 77 In order to establish how Slovakia's Jews were going to be treated in the future , Kennan approached Jozef Tiso. In a personal conversation with the American diplomat, Tiso said that "the Slovak government intended to take measures toward the solution of the Jewish question independently of Prague." The Slovak Prime Minister also expressed his conviction that the planned measures "would probably go farther in scope than any that might be taken by the Prague regime." 78 As far as the religious component of Slovak anti-Semitism was concerned, Kennan pointed out that an important factor in the attitude of the Slovak authorities to the Jews was the position of the Catholi c Church . Tiso was himself a Catholic priest, and the Church had made its position on the matter clear through various officials. One of those, according to Kennan, was Father Rudolf Mikus, Provincial of the Jesuit Order in Slovakia. 79 Speaking for the newspaper Slovak, Mikus advocated elimination of the Jewish influence in political and economic life. This would include, among other things, public segregation. 80 The statements made by the Church convinced Kennan that the Slovak government wou ld face little opposition in the promulgation of its anti-Semitic policies in the future .8 1 As the momentous events of 1938 unfolded in Central Europe, diplomats of the American Foreign Service at the Legation in Prague watched the situation in Czechoslovakia, and took a close interest in political developments in Slovakia. Throughout 1938 the country was perceived by American diplomats as a politically vo latile province, 77 This was a pogrom-like operation ordered by HSI..:S to deport around 7,500 Jews to the territory ceded by Slovakia to Hungary. Kenn an argues that the forced ex pul sion took place as a retaliatory measure for an alleged petition by the leaders of the Bratislava Jews to incorporate the city of Bratislava into the ceded territory. The operation was accompanied by anti-Sem itic ri ots in Brati slava. James Mace Ward, "The 1938 First Vienna Award and the Holocaust in Slovakia," Holocaust and Genocide Studies 29, no. I (2015): 92 . doi: I 0.1093/hgs/dcv004. ISSN 8756-65 83. 78 George Kennan, From Prague Afier Munich, 51. 79 A full translation of the statement by Mikus was attached at the end of Kenn an' s report. 80 George Kennan, From Prague Afier Munich, 51 - 52. 81 The institutional persecution of th e Jews in Slovakia began the following year, after Slovak ia gained its nominal independence. On April the 18th , the Slovak Parliament passed its first anti -Semitic law. This was Ordinance 63 which established a lega l definition of a Jew based on a religious principle. Ladislav Lipscher, "The Jews of Slovakia : 1939- 1945," in The Jews ofCzechoslovakia Volume Ill, ed . Avigdor Dagan et al. (Phi ladelphia: The Jewish Publication Society, 1984), 165. �SLOVAKIA 2021 91 one whose nationalist leaders took advantage of the central government's difficulties after Munich, driving the last democracy in the region into destruction. Slovakia's slide towards totalitarianism in 1938 was perceived by Americans as a consequence of that country's extreme nationalism and its disrespect for the values of the democratic republic established in 1918 . In contrast, tran sition to totalitarian rule in the Czech Lands was viewed by the Americans as a process of necessary accommodation, a sensible political reaction to the external pressures exerted by Nazi Germany. Although American observers did not deny the Slovak right to national self-determination in principle, they considered Slovak demands for autonomy in 1938 as inopportune and highly unpatriotic. They saw the rise of the autonomist movement as a function of Nazi foreign policy, whose sole intention was to use Slovak nationalism in its quest to dismember the Czechoslovak state. Against the backdrop of ri sing international tensions, the visit of the Slovak League of America in the summer appeared to American observers more as an embarrassment than an attempt to save the Republic. Watching the Hlinka Party's push for autonomy, the U.S. Minister in Prague kept reminding the Department of State that the Party lacked a democratic mandate to represent the Slovaks as a whole. In the aftermath of the Munich Agreement, the Americans openly scolded the behaviour of the Slovak nationalists, reproaching them for a lack of loyalty to the common state. The Slovak declaration of autonomy in October was not seen as a measure to consolidate the embattled state, but as another step to weaken it. American reports between November and December provide an account of the gradual dismantling of the multi-party political system by the government in Bratislava. In contrast to Bohemia, Americans saw anti-Semitism among the Slovak population as deep-seated, with specific - mainly economic - underpinnings. The anti-Semitic policies of the Slovak government, condoned by some representatives of the Catholic Church, were to become more severe and extensive in the foreseeable future . � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 2021, Vol. 45 Description An account of the resource Vol. 45 (No. 84-85), 2021. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2021 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document 70 SLOVAKIA 2021 ON THE ROAD TO NATIONALIST TOTALITARIANISM: SLOVAKIA IN THE TURMOIL OF 1938 AS SEEN BY THE UNITED ST ATES FOREIGN SERVICE Roman Licko In the autumn of 2018 I set myself the task of assessing the significance of the year 1938 in Slovak hi story. This was in response to a conference call which invited scholars to address, among other themes, milestones in Czech and Slovak history in which the year happens to have a number eight in it. 1 When I set about preparing my presentation, I had two thoughts about the subj ect. First, I was struck by several historic parallels between 2018 and 1938. No attempt will be made in thi s paper to argue that 2018 was as fateful for Slovakia as the year 1938 was for the inhabitants of Czechoslovakia. Yet, given the rise of far-right political extremism in Central Europe, tacitly encouraged by a large authoritarian neighbour to the east, it may be instructive to re-examine the rise of Slovak nationalism in the late 1930s. 2 Then, extreme Slovak nationalists had also been spurred on by an aggressive totalitari an neighbour. 3 The second idea that occurred to me was that 1938 has been somewhat neglected when it came to 1 The paper entitled "From Fledging Democracy to Nationalist Authoritarianism: Slovakia in the Tunnoil of 1938 as Seen by the United States Foreign Service" was presented at the 50th Convention of the Associati on for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies in December of 20 18 in Boston. 2 The large authoritarian neighbour is Russia. Its support for the far-right nationa lists in Centra l European cou ntri es is explained and well documented in Timothy Snyder's book The Road to Unfi·eedom. By supporti ng ex treme nationalist movements in coun tries such as Slovaki a, Russia hopes to weaken their resolve to stay w ithin the European Union. Putin's alternative to th e EU is the Eurasian Union, a trade and political bloc stretching from Chin a to the border of the EU. Timothy Snyder, Th e Road tu Unf,-eedom: Russia. Europe. America. (New York : Crown/ Archetype, 20 18), I 00. The reference to the extreme nationalists in today 's Slovakia is directed towards l 'udovri strana na.iie S/ovensko-The People's Party Our Slovakia. Just two months before Slovakia ' s parliamentary elections in February of 2020, the far-rig ht nationali st party came second in a popul ari ty poll cond ucted by the Focus polling Agency in December of 2019. Historically speaking, leaders of the party, including its leaderMarian Kotleba, subscribe to the ideology of the war-time Slovak Republic. 3 Then it was Nazi Germany. SLOVAKIA 2021 71 turning points in Slovak history.4 By this, I don ' t mean the fact that Slovaks gained their autonomy in that year. What changed quite dramatically in 1938 was the way in which the country was governed. After a relatively brief experience with a democratic form of government in the first Czechoslovak Republic, Slovak leaders set about dismantling the democratic institutions upon which the foundations of their state were built. By the end of the year Slovakia was well on the road to becoming a nationalist totalitarian state. This paper examines political developments in Slovakia in that year from the point of view of an independent observer- the United States Foreign Service. At that time, American diplomats in Czechoslovakia gathered and evaluated intelligence which in tum informed the United States' foreign policy towards Central Europe. Their reports and analyses, despite their limitations, help us understand what went wrong with the process of Slovak national emancipation in 1938. They may also serve as an insight into how easily a Central European democracy may tum into a totalitarian state if extreme nationalism becomes the dominant ideology of its political leaders. 1938 was a critical year in European history. Powerful forces of European nationalism were the driving engine of politics in both totalitarian Germany as well as democratic Czechoslovakia. Because of its large and restive German minority, Czechoslovakia had become vulnerable to the aggressive foreign policy of its large totalitarian neighbour to the west. Adolph Hitler's ambition in Central Europe was to annex ethnic Germans living in foreign territories into his Third Reich . In March of 1938 Germany had annexed Austria. In September, the Gen11an Chancellor achieved the pinnacle of his pre-war diplomatic offensive. As a result of the Munich Agreement, Czechoslovakia had to cede the German-speaking areas of Sudetenland to Germany. The rejection of the Versailles system and the intention by the Nazi s to destroy its eastern democratic neighbour brought the problem of minorities in Czechoslovakia to a head in 1938. The issue had been simmering in Czechoslovak politics since the last parliamentary elections in 1935, whose results changed the political map of the republic. In Slovakia, an alliance of nationalist parties, known as the Autono4 1948 and 1968, of course, were more fateful. The former because the coup d 'etat in February brought about a complete regime change, the latter beca use the crushing of the Prague Spring in August was the res ult of a fo rei gn in vasion. 72 SLOVAKIA 2021 mist Bloc, emerged as the most powerful political force in the country.5 The Sudeten German Party became one of the strongest political parties in Czechoslovakia. 6 By the end of 1938, the problem of the constitutional relationship between Czechs and Slovaks had been temporarily resolved. The Declaration of Slovak autonomy on October the 6th marked the beginning of the short-lived period known as the Second Czechoslovak Republic. It ended with the final destruction of Czechoslovakia in March of 1939. In 1938 the American government did not have a centralised agency that wou ld gather, coordinate and evaluate political intelligence from foreign countries. Instead, its main source of information about developments abroad came from the U.S. diplomatic missions based in countries' capital cities. Thus, the quality of political intelligence from Europe dispatched to Washington depended on the political acumen of individual diplomats, not all of whom were professionally trained. In this respect, Czechoslovakia was a notable exception. In June 1937, President Franklin D. Roosevelt instructed the Department of State to appoint Wilbur John Carr as the new U.S. Minister in Prague. 7 As Assistant Secretary of State, Carr had been one of the most 5 In the electoral campa ign, the stron gest nationali st party in Slovakia - Hlinka 's Slovak People ' s Party - joined forces with the Slovak National Party. Both parties advocated autonomy for Slovakia within the Czechoslovak Republic. They were backed by the parties of Ruthenian and Poli sh minorities, demandin g autonomy for thei r own regions. Collect ive ly the Autonomist Bloc secured 30.1 % of the Slovak vote. The coalition of Magyar parties in Slovakia gained 14.2%. Alena Bartl ova, " Posledne parlamen tn e vol'by v maj i 1935," in V Medzivojnovom Ceskoslovensku 1918- 1939, (Bratislava : Veda, 20 12), 439. 6 The Sudeten Party polled 15. 2% in the 1935 e lection . Natalia Kraj covifova, "Slovakia in Czechoslova kia, 191 8- 1938," in Slovakia in Histo,y, ed. Mikulas Teich, Dusan Kovac, and Martin D. Brown (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 20 I I), 154. 7 Wilbur John Carr is often refe rred to as the father of the American Foreign Service. He entered the Department of State as a young clerk in 1892 . He went on to serve in various capac ities, including Assistant Secretary of State between 1924 and 1937. Carr was th e driving force behind th e reform of th e U.S. Foreign Service in the interwar period. In his view, all American ambassadors and mini sters abroad should be professionals - i.e. career diplomats, not political appointees. In June 193 7, after fortyfive yea rs in Washington, Carr was called upon by the President to head the U.S. diplomatic mission in Prague. According to Cordell Hull , Carr was one of the most capable ass istant secretari es in th e history of the department. At the time of his appointment as U.S. Minister to Czechoslovakia, Carr was sixty-s ix years old . Peter SLOVAKIA 2021 73 senior government officials ever to represent the United States in its foreign service. This reflected Washington's growing concerns about developments in Central Europe, at the heart of which lay the uneasy relations between Germany and Czechoslovakia. 8 In August of 1938, American Secretary of State Cordell Hull decided to increase his diplomatic staff in Prague with the appointment of George Kennan.9 The choice was not coincidental. Kennan had been an experienced career diplomat and a specialist on Russian and East European affairs. His main task at the Prague legation was political reporting. Part of hi s duties consisted of making regular visits to Bratislava, where he gathered information about developments in Slovakia. Carr's diplomatic dispatches from Prague and Kennan 's reports on conditions in Slovakia shaped the views of American policymakers at the Department of State on the eve of WWII. 10 Their writings remained the only source of political intelligence from the region until the establishment of the OSS in 1942. 11 Bridges, "Mr. Carr Goes to Prague," American Diplomacy, accessed December 20, 20 19, http://americandiplomacy.web.unc.edu/ 1998/09/mr-carr-goes-to-prague/. 8 Bridges points out that Carr' s predecessor - Butler Wright - had underestimated German innuence on Czechoslovak affairs in 1930. This view was expressed by both Secretary of State Hull as well as Undersecretary Sumner Welles. Peter Bridges, "Mr. Carr Goes to Prague," Part I. 9 Best known as an advocate of the U.S. policy of containment after WWII , George Frost Kennan spent 193 8 and 1939 as a diplomat at the American legation in Prague. He served as Secretary of the Legation until the breakout of war in September of 1939. He was nuent in Russian and German, and during his serv ice in Prague he learned to read Czech and Slovak as we ll. George Kennan, From Prague After Munich: Diplomatic Papers, 1938- 1940 (Princeton, N.J .: Princeton University Press, 1968), vi. 10 Wilbur J. Carr 's diplomatic correspondence from Prague is deposited in the Library of Congress, the Manuscript Division in Washington D.C. Some of Carr's reports are now part of the collections of the National Archives, entitled "Records of the U.S . Department of State Relating to the Interna l Affairs of Czechoslovakia I 9 10-1944". Some of Kennan ' s reports on the conditions in Slovak ia are in Decimal File 860f. Collecti ve ly, they were published in a book in 1968 . Kennan, From Prague A/ier Munich, 1968. 11 The OSS (Office of Strategic Services) was establi shed by the military order issued by President Roosevelt on Jun e 13, 1942 . A predecessor of the modem CIA, the OSS mandate was to collect and ana lyse intelligence required by U.S. foreign-pol icy makers and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Barry M. Katz, "Office of Strategic Services," in The Oxford Companion to World War II, ed . I.C.B . Dear (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995), 650. 74 SLOVAKIA 2021 The road to totalitarianism in Slovak politics started in September of 1936. On the 19th of that month, the leaders of Hlinka 's Slovak Peop le's Party (Hlinkova slovenska /'udova strana, or HSL:S) met at a congress in Piest'any to discuss the polic ies and future direction of the party. 12 Leaders of the moderate wing, led by Monsignor Joseph Tiso, were tempted to join the ruling coalition in the Czechoslovak Parliament. Chances were not unreali stic, as the government was headed by Milan Hodfa, Czechoslovakia's first Slovak Prime Minister, who was determined to solve the Slovak question once and for all. 13 In opposition to the moderates stood the young radicals, led by Karol Sidor. 14 For them, cooperation with Hodfa's cabinet was categorically rejected, unless the party's demands were met in full , without any reservations. 15 Whether moderate or radical , all members of the HSL:S were convinced that their party held the so le political mandate to represent Slovaks as a whole. Distrustful of the democratic government in Prague and increasingly authoritarian, the young nationalists had the ear of the old, but charismatic leader of the party - Andrej Hlinka. Hi s ambitions to lead Slovaks as a single nation found expression in one of hi s speeches at the congress, where Hlinka compared himself to Mussolini in Italy and Hitler in Germany. As far as the future political 12 The Piest'any Congress has been described in detail by Robert Arpas. For a comprehensive accou nt of the party ' s policies in the interwa r period see Robert Arpas, Vitazsrvo alebo prehra: Vyvrcho lenie politickeho zapasu HSt.;S o alllonomiu S/ovenska. (Brati slava: Veda, 20 11 ). 13 Hodza was convi nced that settling Czechoslovak ia's nationality problem hin ged upon finding a solution to the Czech- Slovak question. Natalia Kraj covicova, "Slova kia in Czec hoslovakia, 191 8- 1938," in Slovakia in Histo,y, ed. Mikulas Teich , Dusan Kovac, and Martin D. Brown (Cambridge: Ca mbridge University Press, 20 11 ). 155. 14 Apart from Sidor, the most prominent representatives of the youn g generation of Slovak nati onali sts were Ferdinand Durcansky and Alexander Mach . The views of these intellectuals and academics on society and government had been shaped by the risin g ri ght-wi ng nationalist ideologies of 1930s Europe. Ad mirers of nati onalist totalitaria ni sm, they questioned democracy, whi ch in thei r view was no longer capab le of offerin g solutions to the mountin g problems o f the time. The only remedy, according to them, was a unity of the nation coupl ed with un swerving loya lty to its omni scient leader. They were strongly anti -Se miti c . Robert Arpas, Vit"azstvo alebo prehra, 52 . 15 Sidor, alongs ide wi th Ferdinand Durcansky and Alexander Mach, pushed for complete autonomy, part of which was the demand to recogni ze the Slovaks as a separate nati on. Slova k was to become the o ffi c ial language in Slova kia, and the proposed Slovak Di et was to have broad legislative powers. SLOVAKIA 2021 75 line of the party was concerned, the radicals he ld sway. Tiso's demand that the congress express loya lty to the embattled Czechoslovak Republic was swept away. Instead, the closing plenary adopted a resolution which condemned "representatives of international materialistic ideology" and "Jewi sh-Bol shev ik anarchy". 16 The following day, Tiso himself proclaimed the principle of"one nation , one leader, one party" to a public rally of party supporters in Piest'any. In 1938 Slovak Americans were once again about to play an active role in the politics of their mother country. For more than half a century, the Slovak diaspora in the United States had been an important voice in the country's plea for national self-determination. 17 One reason for that was the sheer scale of Slovak emigration to the New World. By 1914 as many as one fifth of Slovaks had come to reside in the United States. 18 The other reason was the completely different political and economic environment of their new home country. Unfettered by oppression from the state, politica lly minded and commerciall y successful Slovaks cultivated, in democratic America, a strong feeling of national identity outside Slovakia. 19 As leaders of fraternal societies they campaigned vigorously for Slovak self-dete1mination in the Old World. 20 The patriotic fervour of these Slovak Americans 16 Robert Arpas, " Piest'ansky zjazd ako medznik HSL'.S k totalite," Clovek a 5polocnost', no. 3, vo l 7 (2004): 166, http ://www.clovekaspolocnost.sk/sk/rocn ik-7rok-2004/3/studi e-a-c lanky/piestansky-zjazd-ako-medzn ik-na-ceste- hsls- k-tota lite/. 17 Sil via Mihalikova, " Slovakia Pathways to a Democrati c Community," in Democracv and Political Culture in Eastern Europe, ed. Hans- Dieter Klingeman n, Dieter Fuchs and Jan Zielonka (London: Routledge, Taylor & Franc is Group, 2006), 175. 18 Large-scale em igration of Slovaks to the United States bega n in the late 18 70s. On the eve of WWI , when the Slovak exodus to America peaked, the Slovak-America n comm unity was in per-capita term s the largest among the Centra l Europea n nations and second onl y to the community of Irish-Ameri ca ns among all immigrant peoples in the U.S. Mark Stolari k, "S lovaks in Canada and the United States, 1880- 1990, Similarities and Differences," in Chair in Slovak History and Culture Occasional Papers, no. I ( 1992): 14. 19 In Mark Stolarik 's words - "The principal centre of Slovak nationalism before and during World War I was not the Slovak homeland, but the United States of America." Mark Stolarik , "S lova ks in Ca nada and the United States," 14. 20 The primary reason why Slovaks in America estab li shed fratemals was mutual support. This often happened along confessional lines, reflecting the divi sions among religious denomin ati ons in Slovakia. Interest in mother-country politics was of secondary importance to Slovak Americans, and it was often the domain of a few politically mi nded fraterna l leaders and newspaper editors . 76 SLOVAKIA 2021 found expression first in the Cleveland Agreement of 1915 and then in the Pittsburgh Agreement of 1918. In these, Slovak and Czech expatriate communities in the United States pledged their support for the establishment of a common state on the ruins of Austria-Hungary after the Great War. In the former, Slovak Americans sought the creation of a federative union with the Czechs. In the latter, they agreed that Slovakia would have home rule. 2 1 The reason why they settled for somewhat less at Pittsburgh was the opposition to the idea of federation from Tomas Garrigue Masaryk, the most important of Czechoslovakia's founding fathers. Thus, the Slovak-American nationalists, allied primarily in the Slovak League of America, supported the creation of their Czecho-Slovakia, in October 1918, albeit with caution .22 Despite some internal disagreements among the leaders of the League in the I 920s, demand for autonomy remained the League's top political priority in its dealings with the old country until October 1938. In late Apri l 1938, at the 20th convention of the Slovak League in Pittsburgh, a decision was made to send a delegation to Slovakia. The visit was to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Pittsburgh Agreement and the delegation was to take the original copy of the agreement with them. 23 Peter Hletko, the President of the Slovak League, was appointed head of the American delegation and its official spokesman. Another notable member of the delegation was Jozef Husek, former editor-in-chief of the Slovak-American newspaper Jednota and one of the signatories of the Pittsburgh Agreement. The ori ginal idea for a visit by Slovak Americans came from the leadership of 21 The word home-rule itself was not used in the phrasing of th e agreement. Slovakia was to have " its own administration , its Diet and its courts". Slovak was to be " the officia l language in schools and in public life in general". Dav id Grinnell , "Land A Treasures: The Pittsburgh Agreement; Czecho-Slovak Agreement," Western Pennsylvania Hi story 90 (Winter 2007- 08): 8. 22 The Pittsburgh Agreement bore the signatures of members of two Slovak fraternal organ isations - the Slovak League of America and the Slovak Evange lical Society. In I 9 I 8, the Slovak League was an umbrella organisation, comprising the majority of fraternal-benefit societies in the United States, including both Catholics and Lutherans, though th e former predominated. 23 A year before, at th e meeting of the Hlinka Party in Ruzomberok in July, Andrej Hlinka had described th e Pittsburgh Agreement as the "Magna Carta of th e Slovak nation ." Milan Olejnik, "The visit of delegates of the American Slovak League to Slovak ia (June- August 1938) and their effort to implement the Pittsburgh Agreement into th e Czechoslovak Constitution ," Clo vek a spolocnos( 20, no. 3 (2017): 50. SLOVAKIA 2021 77 the Hlinka Party, which was planning to hold a congress in Bratislava on June 4th. The intention of the party officials was to increase the pressure on the central government in Prague to implement the party 's demand for autonomy. The public showing of the Pittsburgh Agreement to a rally of loyal supporters the following day was part of the plan. 24 ln the atmosphere of heightened international tensions, ratcheted up by the Czechoslovak crisis earlier that month, the visit of the American delegation was closely followed by the pro-Czechoslovak press throughout the country. 25 A party of Slovak Americans about a hundred strong - arrived at the Polish port of Gdyni a on May 26th, 1938. 26 There, they were greeted by two separate delegations: one, headed by Karol Sidor, who was sent to Poland by the leaders of the Hlinka Party; the other was the diplomatic retinue of Juraj Slav ik, the Czechoslovak Minister to Poland.27 The Slovak Americans then proceeded to Warsaw, from where they were scheduled to travel to Prague. 28 At the instigation of Karol Sidor, however, four members of the League were persuaded to trave l to Rufomberok first , to pay a visit to the ai Iing leader of the party, Andrej Hlinka. 29 24 The party offic ials were thu s responding to various rumours, e.g. that the Pittsburgh Agreement was a fabricati on , or that Masaryk's signature on it was not genuine. Stefan Kucf k, "Americki Slovaci a autonom isti cke hnutie na Slovensku ( 19 181938)," Dvacate sto/eti, no. 2 (2013 ): I 06. 25 The May Cri sis was caused by fa lse reports of German troop movements on the 19th around Czechos lova ki a ' s western borders, raising fea rs th at the country was about to be attacked by Germany. A lthough the reports later proved unsubstantiated, the inc ident contributed to the subseque nt resolve by France and Britain to increase pressure on Czechoslovakia to make concessions to the Sudeten German Party. 26 Milan O lej nik, "The visit of delegates of the American Slovak League to Slovakia," 51. 27 Although the two delegati ons had travelled to Gdynia by the sa me train, both part ies made the ir way to Gdynia separate ly, as Sidor' s party re fused to jo in the Czechoslovak delegation from Warsaw. Stefan Kucf k, " Americk i Slovac i a autonomi sticke hnutie," I 05 . 28 In Warsaw the Slovak Americans were g iven the red-carpet treatment by representat ives of the muni cipa l authoriti es. They never mention ed Czechoslovak ia in their speec hes. Stefan Kucfk , "Americki Slovaci a autonomisticke hnuti e," I 05. 29 Because of the di sagreements among the leaders of the League ' s delegation, on ly fo ur of them went to Ruzomberok . Andrej Ro lik, a Lutheran pastor fro m Johnstown, refused to trave l to Slovakia first. Stefan Kucik , "Americki Slovac i a autonomisticke hnutie," I 05 . 78 SLOVAKIA 2021 The U.S. Minister to Czechoslovakia watched the developments from his legation in Prague.Jo On May 31st he informed the Secretary of State of the arrival of the League's representatives in the Czechoslovak capital and their intention to meet both the President and the Prime Minister.JI The day after their arrival in Prague, the leaders of the League paid a courtesy visit to the American Legation . Carr noted that the Slovak Americans stressed in one of their public announcements that their visit was "not to be regarded as interference in the internal affairs of the Republic".J 2 Having spoken to an official from the Czechoslovak Ministry of Foreign Affairs, however, Carr came to the conclusion that Prague's government felt uneasy about the visit, wishing it had taken place at some other time.JJ This made the American diplomat feel that the red-carpet treatment accorded to the Slovak Americans in Prague somehow "lacked a ring of sinceri ty." The fee ling of skepticism in his mind was reinforced when he spoke privately to Hletko. According to Carr, the president of the League admitted that their visit to Prague was inopportune, regretting the fact that it had coincided with the minority dispute. In order to make his American readers appreciate the complexity of the circumstances surrounding the visit, Carr factored in the reactions of the press. He noted that the newspapers in Germany had been for some time speaking of the united front between the Hlinka Party and the Sudeten German Party aimed against the Czechs.J4 The pro-Czechoslovak press, for their part, had been accusing Slovak nationalists of collusion with the Germans.J 5 As to the specific results of the talks between the League's representatives 30 Since 1925, the United States' diplomatic mission in Prague had resided at the Schonbom Palace on Mala stran a. Peter Bridges, " Mr. Carr Goes to Prague," Part I. 31 In mid-June Carr wrote to Washington again, giving a detailed account of the League's participation in th e Hlinka Party congress. 32 National Archives, Washington, 860f.00/5 I 0, Telegram, W. J. Carr to the Secretary of State, May 31 , p. I . 33 This was told to Ca rr by an unspecified official from the Czechoslovak Mini stry of Fore ign Affairs on the 3 1st. The Czechoslovak government feared that the visit would be used by the minorities to advance their own political agendas. 860 f.00/589, W. J. Carr to the Secretary of State, p. 2. 34 NA, 860f.00/534, Di spatch No. 176, W. J. Carr to the Secretary of State, Jun e 6, p. 2. 35 According to the Police Directory in Bratislava, the Sudeten Party did send a congratulatory telegram to the HSL.:S on the occasion of its party congress on June the 4th. Milan Olej nik, "The visit of de legates of the American Slovak League to Slovaki a," 55. SLOVAKIA 2021 79 and the Czechoslovak statesmen, Carr echoed Slovak, the press organ of the HSCS. 36 It reported that the discussions bore no concrete results, liut it was agreed that, after a month's study of the conditions in Slovakia, the League's representatives would return for more talks with the Prime Minister. 37 The public proclamations by the League ' s representati ves in support of Slovak autonomy prompted the U.S. Minister to examine the extent of popular support for the Slovak nationalists. In their plans 1938 was to be the crucial year, by the end of which the Slovak question in Czechoslovakia was to be settled once and for all. With the support of their American compatriots, the Slovak nationali sts claimed that the majority of Slovaks in 1938 - whether at home or abroad, were in favour of autonomy. To this purpose, Hletko repeatedly claimed that autonomy was supported by as many as 90% of Slovaks in the United States. 38 The proposed change in the status of Slovakia was also the main order of business at the Party Congress that convened on June 4th in Bratislava. With the League's delegates in attendance, the Party passed a resolution, setting out the details of the new Autonomy Bill. 39 Its text was published in full the following day in Slovak. Carr had it translated for his June 6th report and supplemented it with his commentary. The bid to amend the Czechoslovak Constitution was viewed critically by the U.S. Minister, hi s main reservation being the lack of political mandate to demand such a constitutional change. Drawing on the statistics from the last parliamentary election of 1936, he observed that the HSCS had only polled 30.1 % of the votes cast in Slovakia. 40 The right to speak for all Slovaks was further dimini shed, 36 Hletko and his party urged the Czechoslovak statesmen to recogni ze Slovaks as a sovereign nati on and to grant Slovak ia autonomy as it was sti pulated in the Pittsburgh Agreement. Both Hodza and Benes ex pressed their general agreement, but refused to talk about autonomy. What they wanted to promote, first and foremost, was Czechoslovak unity. Hletko later summarised the outcome of the talks in the phrase "Nothing positive was achi eved." Stefan Kucik, "Ameri cki Slovaci a autonomisticke hnutie na Slovensku," I 07 . 37 NA, 860f.00/534, Carr to the Secretary of State, June 6, p. 2. 38 NA, 860f.00/534, Carr to the Secretary of State, June 6, p. 7. 39 It demanded the creation of a separate Slovak Diet and governmen t, a long with the introduction of Slovak as the official language on the basis of recognition of the separate identity of the Slovak nation. 40 Of a ll the parliamentary votes cast in Czechos lovakia, Carr po ints out, this was 6.86%. NA , 860f.00/534, Carr to the Secretary of State, June 6, p. 4. 80 SLOVAKIA 2021 in Carr's view, by the fact that the party did not put up its own candidates, but campaigned as part of the Autonomist Bloc.41 Even the recent successes of the HSCS in the communal elections did not alter the fact that Slovak autonomists had never commanded the required 50% of the voting majority in Slovakia. Moreover, Carr argued, all of the HSCS 's former allies "now cooperate with the coalition parties." As far as the capability of the party to mobilise its supporters was concerned, the American estimate in June 1938 was slightly higher the one made by the Czechoslovak authorities. According to an American source, the turnout at the public rally on June 5th - the same day when the Autonomy Bill was published - was around 50,000.42 This was twice as much as the official figure given by the Bratislava police department. 43 To strike a balanced view, Carr devoted an equal amount of space in his reporting to those who opposed the Slovak autonomists. In 1938, this was a group of nationwide Czechoslovak parties - members of the ruling coalition which operated separate branches in Slovakia. The HSCS 's staunchest opponent was the Agrarian Party, led by Prime Minister Hodza. To solve the nationality problem his cabinet drafted, in the early summer of 1938, a constitutional amendment, referred to as the Nationality Statute. 44 Another Slovak in the government who opposed autonomists was Minister of Justice [van Derer, who was also head of the Slovak section of the Czechoslovak Social Democratic Workers ' Party. 45 In 1938 both politicians rejected the idea of Slovaks as a sovereign nation, struggling to maintain Czechoslovak unity in 41 This consisted of the Rutheni an Soj uz Party, the Polish Socia list Party and the Slovak National Party. 42 This was based on th e estimate by Associated Press reporter 0. E. Werner. NA, 860f.00/53 I, Carr to the Secretary of State, June I 0, 1938, p. 2. O lejnfk, referring to the police records, puts the number of participants at 25,000 at a maximum . 43 Milan Olejnik, "The visit of delegates of the American Slovak League to Slovakia," 55 . 44 The measure proposed to divide the republi c into four autonomous lands: Bohemia, Moravia, Slovakia and Subcarpathian Ruthenia. Eac h land was to be a legal entity in the eyes of public and private law. Land Diets with curias representing every nationality were envisaged, as was the creation of land governments. President Benes had actively participated in the preparation of the statute. The negotiations between the HSL.:S and President Benes about the Nationality Statute in September 1938 were unsuccessfu l. Natalia Krajcovicova, "Slovakia in Czechoslovakia, 19 I 8- 1938," 156. 45 Ivan Derer was the Minister of Justice of the Czechoslovak government from Jul y 193 7 until September 1938. SLOVAKIA 2021 81 the face of mounting demands from the Sudeten Party. Carr reported on the activities of the pro-Czechoslovak movement, gauging its political clout and public support. On June I 0th he sent a di spatch in which he looked at the rally organized by the opponents of Slovak autonomy on June 6th . Agrarian Day, as it was officially called, followed close on the heels of the rally organised by th e Hlinka Party the previous day. According to Carr, the turnout at the Czechoslovak demonstration was I 00,000, about twice as large as the previous day 's demon stration.46 Hodza and Derer were among the main speakers, and the President of the Slovak League addressed the crowds in hi s turn. Judging by the American report, the tone of Hletko 's speec h was much less belligerent than hi s speech the day before. 47 Comparing the two rallies, Carr related in hi s report an interesting fact observed by an Associated Press journalist. It concerned the proclaimed loyalty to the common state - or rather the lack thereof, on th e part of Slovak autonomists. When the national anthem was sung at the Hlinka demonstration, there was practically no response from the crowd to the first, i.e. the Czech part of it. For the second - the Slovak part - however, the crowd joined in with " tremendous vigor". The emblems used at the rallies told the same story. The decorations used at Agrarian Day consisted entirely of Czechoslovak flags, while those used by Hlinka's supporters featured exc lusive ly the party's red double cross on a white background.48 The di smem berment of the last democratic state in Central Europe began on September 30th, 1938. At Munich, the European powers decided the fate of Czechoslovakia in her absence.49 The catastrophe 46 Carr 's estimate of th e tu rnout at the Hlinka' s ra ll y was 50,000. NA, 860f.00/53 I, Carr to the Secretary of State, June I 0, 1938, p. 2. 47 According to 0. E. Wern er, " Hletk o declared that the Slovaks in the Un ited States wis h nothin g more than that the Slovaks defend th e Republic which they have he lped to establish and th at they remain true Slovaks in free, beautiful and prosperous Czechoslovak ia." NA, 860f. 00/53 I, Carr to the Secretary of State, June I 0, 1938, p. 4. 48 The onl y exception was the use of the American fla g decorating the rostrum where, among oth er speakers, Hletko gave hi s speech. NA, 860f.00/53 I, Carr to the Secretary of State, June I 0, 1938, p. 5. 49 The agreement was signed by the government leaders of Germany, France, th e United Kingdom and Ita ly. Czechoslova ki a's leaders were not invited, save two diplomats who we re summoned to receive what the great powers had negotiated. Michael R. D. Foot, " Munich agree ment," in The Oxford Companion to World War If, ed. I.C. B. Dea r (New York: Oxford Uni vers ity Press, I 995), 597. 82 SLOVAKIA 2021 could not have been averted by Czechoslovak leaders, but internal factors contributed to it.so What had played into Hitler's hands were the aspirations of the nationalist movements within the country. Democratic powers of the West had either looked on or followed a policy of active appeasement, so as to avoid a war with Germany.s 1 In an effort to satisfy Hitler's demands, Britain and France acquiesced to the annexation of the German-speaking territories of Czechoslovakia. In so doing, they sanctioned the principle whereby individuals exercised their rights in a state collectively, through belonging to a legally recognized national entity. Such recognition in law went hand-in-hand with the demand for a geographically defined national territory. This ran contrary to Czechoslovakia's liberal constitution, by which members of national minorities had their rights guaranteed as individual citizens. The Nationality Statute proposed by Hodza 's cabinet went a long way towards satisfying the demands of the nationalist movements. It attempted to solve the problem by giving Czechoslovak nationalities territorial and administrative autonomy, but it refused to recognise them as legal entities. In the run-up to Munich, Britain and France had stepped up the pressure on the Czechoslovak government not to implement the Nationality Statute. After the failure of negotiations between the Sudeten German Party and the Czechoslovak government, on September 22 nd the Slovak nationalists rejected the Nationality Statute.s2 In the wake of the Munich Agreement, in an atmosphere of heightened political uncertainty, leaders of the Hlinka Party summoned representatives of the other Slovak political parties to Zilina. The declaration of Slovak autonomy of October 6th was supported by all of them except the Communists and Social Democrats.s3 50 The genera l consensus among hi storians is that "the Czechs had to capitulate". Thomas Paterson, et al., eds. , Americanforeign relations. Vo lume 2. (Lexington MA : Heath and Company, 2014), 153. 51 On September 25th President Benes appealed to Roosevelt with a view to urging Britain and France to stand by Czechoslovaki a. Two days after that, Roosevelt wrote to Chancellor Hitler: "The government of the United States has no political involvements in Europe, and will assume no obligations in the conduct of the present negotiations." Matilda Axton et al., eds., Foreign relations of the United States. 1938. Vo lume I, Washin gton : United States Government Printing Office, 1955. 52 Natalia Krajcovicova, "Slovakia in Czechoslovakia, 191 8- 1938," 156. 53 The result of the meeting was the Zilina Agreement, by which its signatories pledged their support for the passage of a constitutional act providing for Slovak autonomy in the Czechoslovak Parliament. The next day Jozef Tiso was appointed head SLOVAKIA 2021 83 By that time Poland had occupied a territory in the north of Czechoslovakia and Hungary had laid claims to Hungarian-speaking territories in the south of Slovakia. 54 After Munich the Czech Lands were perceived by the United States with considerable sympathy as a small democratic country in peril , resisting the pressures of a totalitarian aggressor. Looking back on the aftermath of Munich in December, Carr appreciated the grav ity of the situation in which the recently reconstructed Czechoslovak government found itself. He noted that after President Benes had resigned on October 5th, not only was the country left without its leader, but "the bottom dropped out of the entire political system through which it had been governed for twenty years." 55 The interim Prime Minister General Jan Syrovy faced the task of preserving "order and di scipline through a period of indescribable difficulty," having to " remake the constitution" so that "a wholly new civil regime may be set up to which power could be turned over. " 56 The appointment of Frantisek Chvalkovsky as Czechoslovak Foreign Mini ster drew particular praise from the American diplomat. With hi s friendly attitude towards the United States, the Czech Minister was considered a "strong advocate of democratic form of government" while, at the same time, "a reali st with regard to the necessity of a new orientation in the foreign affairs of hi s country." 57 Despite overt signs of the Czech political system of the Slovak autonomous govern ment. Valerian Bystricky, Od auton6mie k vzniku Slovenskeho statu (Bratislava: Prodama, 2008), 273. 54 Carpatho-U krai ne' s autonomy became a reality a lmost at the same time. On October 11th the Czechoslovak government in Prague appoi nted its first autonomous government. Frantisek Capka, "Leta prvni i druhe republiky a protektoratu," Dejiny zemi koruny ceske v datech, accessed Janua ry 16, 2020, http://www .libri.cz/databaze/dejiny/text/t84 .html. 55 NA, 860f.00/589, Carr to th e Secretary of State, December 20, 1938, p. 2- 3. 56 NA, 860f.00/589, Ca rr to the Secretary of State, December 20, 1938, p. 3. 57 Carr's assessmen t of Chva lkovsky's political integrity and his attitudes towards Germany is particul arl y interesting in the light of his subseq uent acti ons and fu rther diplomatic career. Hi s last directive, as the Foreign Minister issued in the wake of the German occupat ion of Bohemia-Moravia in March of 1939, instructed the Czechoslovak ambassadors abroad to close their embassies and hand them over to the Nazis. Many patriotic Czechoslovak diplomats - some of them Slovak by birth - such as Stefa n Osusky, Czechoslovak Ambassador in Paris, or Juraj Slavik, head of the country's diplomatic mission in Po land, refused to do so. After the breakup of Czechoslova kia Chvalkovsk y became Envoy of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia in Ge m1any. He di ed during an allied ai r ra id on Berlin in 1945 . "Frantisek 84 SLOVAKIA 2021 leaning towards authoritarian rule, Carr had little doubt that the federal government would continue to be "a strictly democratic form of government," though admitting "it will undoubtedly incorporate such features of totalitarianism as are compatible with democracy. " Its main desire after Munich, thought the American diplomat, was to "dispel any idea that there is any 'Fascist' tinge to the state yet for obvious reason [they] do not wish to damn Fascist methods ." 58 The plight of Bohemia after Munich contrasted sharply with the American description of the situation in Slovakia. The political leaders of the autonomous region known as Slovenska krajina were seen by American diplomats as unpatriotic and irresponsible individuals who drove one nail after another into the coffin of Czechoslovak democracy. 59 Commenting on the immediate aftermath of Munich and the challenges faced by the Czechoslovak government, Carr expected Slovak leaders "out of common patriotism to set aside domestic political differences until these dangerous problems have been settled." Instead, he observed di sappointingly, "S lovaks - now represented exclusively by the Hlinka extremists - took advantage of the catastrophic difficulties of the Prague Government to demand complete autonomy."60 Questioning where the loyalty of Slovakia's leaders stood during the crisis, the American diplomat came to the conclusion that "S lovak sympathies have throughout this period appeared to lean more strongly toward the Germans, than toward the Czechs." From the American perspective, the unity of the Republic stood paramount, and in times of danger it should definitely prevail over local interest. Carr expressed this sentiment several times, in an unequivocal tone. " If the three principal component parts of the Czechoslovak Republic are linked together by any common bonds of loyalty and patriotism," he argued emphatically, " there has been nothing in the actions of the Chvalkovsky," Historie a osobnosti diplomacie. Ministerstvo zahranicnich veci Ceske republiky, accessed December 20, 20 19, https://www. mzv.cz/jnp/cz/o_ministerstvu/histori e_a_osobnosti_ ceske_ diplomacie/ministri_a_ ministerstvo_ v_ histori i/frantisek _ chva lkovsky .html . 58 NA, 860f.00/57 I, Telegram, W. J. Carr to the Secretary of State, October 26, 1938, p. 3. 59 Slo venska krajina - in English ' the Slovak Land', was the official name used to refer to Slovakia during the First and Second Czechoslovak Republi cs, between 191 8 and 1939. 60 NA, 860f.00/589, Carr to th e Secretary of State, December 20, 1938, p. 3. SLOVAKIA 2021 85 Slovak leaders during the last few weeks to indicate it." The image of two different worlds - that of the brave Czechs struggling to save the Republic and the unpatriotic Slovaks sympathising with Nazi aggressors - created by the American Legation in Prague after Munich, persisted for a long time on the other side of the Atlantic. In 1942, when the OSS took over from the American foreign service as the primary intelligence gatherer, a report on Slovakia claimed that the pro-Nazi orientation of the Tiso-Tuka leadership had long been apparent before Munich. 61 After it, the report went on, "these leaders came out open ly against the republic, against democracy generally, and for a new world order in Europe. " 62 The pace and complexity of the developments in Czechoslovakia in the closing months of 1938 were overwhelming, and the American Legation in Prague struggled to keep the Department of State fully informed. Reports in this period were mostly factua l, and the U.S. Minister in Prague complained that they had little time to put the rapidly unfolding events into general perspective. Only in the latter part of December did his superiors in Washington receive a comprehensive report on the situation in the Czech Lands and Slovakia. In the first weeks after Munich there was an "unavoidable preoccupation with the foreign" taking precedence over everything e lse. The whole country was in a state of utter turmoil. The report went on to recapitulate the challenges the country had to grapple with in an extremely short space of time. Satisfying the Polish territorial demands in the north was followed by the negotiations with Germany about Czechoslovakia's new borders in the west. The negotiations with Hungary about the cession 61 This was a com prehensive, I 06-page report on the Czechs, Slovaks and Carpath ian Rutheni ans. NA, Washington, Office of Strategic Servi ces, RG 226 E I 00, Box 3, p. 25. 62 Strictly speaki ng, thi s was not true. Throughout th e whole of 1938 the Party was led by Jozef Tiso. Tuka on ly came to prominence in 1940, when he became Foreign Minister of th e wartime Slovak Republic, following the Salzburg negotiations with Gem1any. As the principal representative of the moderate wing, Tiso became leader of the Party after Hlinka 's death in August of 1938. He spearheaded Slovak autonomy in October of 1938, but was opposed to the break up of Czechosl ovak ia in March of 1939. The probable reason why the OSS did not have more precise information about the period was the fact that the main source of its information on the situation in Slovakia during WWII was the Czechoslovak Information Service. This a was a special propaganda bureau set up in th e Un ited States by the Czechoslovak govemment-inex ile, controlled by ex- President Benes from London. 86 SLOVAKIA 2021 of Hungari an-speaking territories in Slovakia 's so uth came to nought, and the matter had to be resolved through international arbitration in early November. It was only then that the crippled Republic could turn its attention to its domesti c problems. What followed, according to the author of the report, was a " period of profound change and adjustment in the internal political life of Czechoslovakia." The most pressing of the problems, needing immediate attention in November, were the election of a new President and the passage of an enabling act. Progress in this direction, Carr noted, was " blocked by the Slovaks." They demanded that no presidential election could take place before the Constitution was amended to enact the proposed Autonomy Bill. The U.S. Mini ster in Prague believed that the conditions in the country were " hardly such as to make it a favourable time for the enactment of constitutional leg islation ." The Prague government, however, " had no other choice but to comply with it. " The Autonomy Act and the presidential elections of 1938 were both scrutini sed in the Legation 's report from December 2 1st. The Czechoslovak National Assembly passed the constitutional amendment on November 22nd and elected Czechoslovakia's new president on the 30th. 63 The constitutional arrangement provided, among other things, for an autonomous Slovak government and a Diet of the Slovak Land based in Bratislava. The new relationship between the Czechs and Slovaks was also reflected in the altered spelling of the country's name, which was changed to Czecho-Slovakia. Th e asymmetrical model of the state drew criticism from the U.S. Minister in Prague.64 According to him, " the privileges henceforth to be enjoyed by the Slovaks in the national parliament" were far too extensive and thus "entirel y disproportionate to the population and actual importance of Slovakia" as well as " its ability, thus far, unproven , to govern itself 63 Drafted by Ferdinand Durcansky, it was based on th e Autonomy Bill published by Hlinka 's Party on June 6th . 64 The Nati ona l Assembly in Prague retained legislative power fo r the whole of Czechoslovaki a wit h regard to matters of the constituti on, fo reign policy, nat ional defence, citizenship, currency, customs and some oth er areas. Since the Czech Lands did not have their ow n parliament, Czecho-Slovakia became in effect an asymmetrical federa l state. Valerian Bystricky, "Slovakia from the Munich Confere nce to the declaration of independence," in Slovakia in Histo,y, ed. Mikulas Teich, Dusan Kovac, and Martin D. Brown (Cambridge: Cambridge Uni versity Press, 20 11 ), I 60. SLOVAKIA 2021 87 alone." 65 Slovaks were also criticised in another report for their approach to the election of the President. Originally, the parliament was to vote on an Enabling Act first, but "this was again blocked by the opposition of the Slovaks." who refused to do so " until they might know who the next president was to be."66 Alluding to the American tradition of presidential elections, Carr commented on the undemocratic nature of the procedure: "It is characteristic of political thought in this part of the world," he wrote sarcastically, "that it seems to have occurred to no one that it would have been possible to have a presidential election without all doubts as to its results having been removed well in advance." As for the candidate himself, Carr favoured Frantisek Chvalkovsky, preferred by most of the Czech deputies. In the end, however, the parliament elected Emil Hacha, former President of the Supreme Court. The American diplomat believed that Chvalkovsky's main disadvantages in the eyes of the Slovaks were his Protestantism, along with the fact that he was divorced.67 The Autonomy Act of November 22nd also provided for elections to the Slovak Diet in the following month . They were held on December 18th, 1938 and, historically, they were the first elections ever to take place in Slovakia for that country's self-governing legislative body. Judging by the Americans, however, it was a missed opportunity. The Legation's report from December 21st commented on a lack of democratic procedure as well the dubiousness of their results. As far as the former was concerned, the U.S. Minister in Prague saw "a pronounced Nazi influence."68 This was a reference to the fact that Slovak voters were presented with only one list of candidates. The sole political entity on the 1938 ballot - Hlinka 's Slovak People's Party, with a subtitle to its name - the Party of Slovak National Unity - was an amalgamation of the Agrarian, National Unity, National Socialist 65 Carr points out the Czechs had no say whatsoever in the Slovak Parliament. As a further example of the favoured position that Slovakia occupied in the matters of the Republi c was the provision according to which a motion of no confidence might be moved by one-thi rd of the Slovak deputies, i.e. 12 as compared with a total of 226 members of the chamber. NA, 860f.00/588, Dispatch No. 302, W. J. Carr to the Secretary of State, December 2 1, 1938, p. 2- 3. 66 NA, 860f.00/589, Carr to the Secretary of State, December 20, 1938, p. 7. 67 NA, 860f.00/589, Carr to the Secretary of State, December 20, 1938, p. 7- 9. 68 NA, 860f.00/588, Carr to the Secretary of State, December 2 1, 1938, p. 4. 88 SLOVAKIA 2021 and Fascist Parties. 69 Carr had little doubt that the 98% of the votes cast in its favour was due to the fact that the voters were given no alternative. This bore "striking resemblance to the results achieved in recent German plebiscites." Here, the author of the report reminded the State Department that the bloc of Slovak Autonomists had polled as low as 30.1 % of the Slovak vote in the previous parliamentary elections of 1935. "Fear of recrimination", speculated Carr, may have had "a decided influence on the votes cast by many individuals." Gauging the reactions to the Slovak elections in Prague, Carr noticed a parliamentary objection raised by the former Minister of Social Welfare, then a deputy of the Czecho-Slovak Parliament. The criticism was unlikely to be heeded in Bratislava, concluded Carr disparagingly "when the Slovaks are taking what resembles a child-like delight in playing with a new toy." 70 Part of the image of Slovakia created by the American Foreign Service in 1938 concerned Slovak attitudes towards the Jews. At that time U.S. diplomats in Czechoslovakia concentrated mainly on understanding the roots Slovak antisemitism, analysing its popular as we ll as political manifestations. Somewhat subjective - or even biased were the American comparisons of the anti-Jewish sentiments among the Czechs and the Slovaks. For a Czech, it was thought, nationality was a matter of language, rather than race. In other words, animosity was only likely to be felt towards the Jews who spoke German. Apart from a small minority, however, the mass of the Czech people had "very little interest in anti-Semitism." 7 1 In Slovakia, the popular resentment of the Jews was said to be widespread and "deep-seated." 72 The main reason for this was believed to be economic. According to George Kennan, then Secretary of the American Legation in Prague, the Jews of Bohemia li ved mainly in urban areas, whereas those 69 The Communist Party was banned by the autonomous govern ment on October 9th, the Social Democrats on November 16th. The destruction of the other political parties in Slovakia came about on November 8th, when they were all forced to merge with the HSL.:S . Representatives of the ama lgamated political entities did not receive any positions in the autonomous government, being left with a few seats in th e Slovak Diet. Valerian Bystricky, "S lovaki a from the Munich Conference to the declaration of independence," 161. 70 NA, 860f.00/588, Carr to the Secretary of State, December 21 , 1938, p. 4- 5. 71 George Kennan, From Prague After Munich, 45. 72 George Kennan , From Prague After Munich, 22 . SLOVAKIA 2021 89 residing in Slovakia were more evenly spread throughout the country. 73 Slovak Jews plied their trades in smaller towns and the countryside as merchants, saloon keepers, druggists, or lawyers. In these professions, Kennan argued, the Jews "played a dominant part," largely because of their "superior intelligence." The Slovaks felt differently about this, being convinced that the Jews owed their success to their "trickiness, unscrupulousness, incurable clannishness and nepotism." This was not the case in in Bohemia, according to Kennan , because the " industry and shrewdness of the Czechs as petty traders and artisans" had been such that the Czech countryside " had never presented a Jew with such attractive possi bilities as the villages in Slovakia. 74 Finally, Kennan identified the lack of social assimilation as another factor why the cultural distinctiveness of the Slovak Jewry was more pronounced than it was in Bohemia. 75 From the American perspective, anti-Semitism in Slovak politics had both historic and religious origins. According to Kennan , many of the educated Jews " have traditionally looked to Budapest for cultural inspiration." In addition, there was a smaller, but influential community of Jews "with a German cultural orientation." In the former Austro-Hungarian Empire, both nationalities were associated with the ruling classes, whereas the Slovak-speaking population had been one of the oppressed nations. Thus, in the Slovak mind, the Jews had always sided with the oppressors. In other words, when the country was under Hungarian rule, "the Slovak Jews made common cause with the Hungarians in exploiting the Slovaks;" when the country found itself in Czechoslovakia, "the Jews joined with the more liberal Czechs in opposi ng Slovak autonomy." 76 To illustrate his theory, Kennan referred his American readership to the pogrom-like operation ordered by Tiso in early November. At that time, Slovak authorities attempted to deport 7,600 Slovak Jews to Hungary, following the announcement of 73 As Secretary of the American Legation in Prague, Kennan made severa l trips to Slovakia in late 1938. In January 1939 he wrote a special report on the conditions in Slovakia. This was followed by a comprehensive despatch in February on the Jewish problem in Czechoslovakia. 74 George Kennan, From Prague After Munich, 44. 75 Kennan mentions a greater degree of racial intermarriage in Bohemia, especia ll y in upper-class Czech society. 76 George Kennan, From Prague Ajier Munich, 23. 90 SLOVAKIA 2021 the First Vienna Award. 77 In order to establish how Slovakia's Jews were going to be treated in the future , Kennan approached Jozef Tiso. In a personal conversation with the American diplomat, Tiso said that "the Slovak government intended to take measures toward the solution of the Jewish question independently of Prague." The Slovak Prime Minister also expressed his conviction that the planned measures "would probably go farther in scope than any that might be taken by the Prague regime." 78 As far as the religious component of Slovak anti-Semitism was concerned, Kennan pointed out that an important factor in the attitude of the Slovak authorities to the Jews was the position of the Catholi c Church . Tiso was himself a Catholic priest, and the Church had made its position on the matter clear through various officials. One of those, according to Kennan, was Father Rudolf Mikus, Provincial of the Jesuit Order in Slovakia. 79 Speaking for the newspaper Slovak, Mikus advocated elimination of the Jewish influence in political and economic life. This would include, among other things, public segregation. 80 The statements made by the Church convinced Kennan that the Slovak government wou ld face little opposition in the promulgation of its anti-Semitic policies in the future .8 1 As the momentous events of 1938 unfolded in Central Europe, diplomats of the American Foreign Service at the Legation in Prague watched the situation in Czechoslovakia, and took a close interest in political developments in Slovakia. Throughout 1938 the country was perceived by American diplomats as a politically vo latile province, 77 This was a pogrom-like operation ordered by HSI..:S to deport around 7,500 Jews to the territory ceded by Slovakia to Hungary. Kenn an argues that the forced ex pul sion took place as a retaliatory measure for an alleged petition by the leaders of the Bratislava Jews to incorporate the city of Bratislava into the ceded territory. The operation was accompanied by anti-Sem itic ri ots in Brati slava. James Mace Ward, "The 1938 First Vienna Award and the Holocaust in Slovakia," Holocaust and Genocide Studies 29, no. I (2015): 92 . doi: I 0.1093/hgs/dcv004. ISSN 8756-65 83. 78 George Kennan, From Prague Afier Munich, 51. 79 A full translation of the statement by Mikus was attached at the end of Kenn an' s report. 80 George Kennan, From Prague Afier Munich, 51 - 52. 81 The institutional persecution of th e Jews in Slovakia began the following year, after Slovak ia gained its nominal independence. On April the 18th , the Slovak Parliament passed its first anti -Semitic law. This was Ordinance 63 which established a lega l definition of a Jew based on a religious principle. Ladislav Lipscher, "The Jews of Slovakia : 1939- 1945," in The Jews ofCzechoslovakia Volume Ill, ed . Avigdor Dagan et al. (Phi ladelphia: The Jewish Publication Society, 1984), 165. SLOVAKIA 2021 91 one whose nationalist leaders took advantage of the central government's difficulties after Munich, driving the last democracy in the region into destruction. Slovakia's slide towards totalitarianism in 1938 was perceived by Americans as a consequence of that country's extreme nationalism and its disrespect for the values of the democratic republic established in 1918 . In contrast, tran sition to totalitarian rule in the Czech Lands was viewed by the Americans as a process of necessary accommodation, a sensible political reaction to the external pressures exerted by Nazi Germany. Although American observers did not deny the Slovak right to national self-determination in principle, they considered Slovak demands for autonomy in 1938 as inopportune and highly unpatriotic. They saw the rise of the autonomist movement as a function of Nazi foreign policy, whose sole intention was to use Slovak nationalism in its quest to dismember the Czechoslovak state. Against the backdrop of ri sing international tensions, the visit of the Slovak League of America in the summer appeared to American observers more as an embarrassment than an attempt to save the Republic. Watching the Hlinka Party's push for autonomy, the U.S. Minister in Prague kept reminding the Department of State that the Party lacked a democratic mandate to represent the Slovaks as a whole. In the aftermath of the Munich Agreement, the Americans openly scolded the behaviour of the Slovak nationalists, reproaching them for a lack of loyalty to the common state. The Slovak declaration of autonomy in October was not seen as a measure to consolidate the embattled state, but as another step to weaken it. American reports between November and December provide an account of the gradual dismantling of the multi-party political system by the government in Bratislava. In contrast to Bohemia, Americans saw anti-Semitism among the Slovak population as deep-seated, with specific - mainly economic - underpinnings. The anti-Semitic policies of the Slovak government, condoned by some representatives of the Catholic Church, were to become more severe and extensive in the foreseeable future .  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource On the Road to Nationalist Totalitarianism: Slovakia in the Turmoil of 1938 as Seen by the United States Foreign Service Description An account of the resource Roman Ličko Slovakia, Vol. 45 (No. 84-85), 2021 pp. 70-91 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Ličko, Roman Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2021 name https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/1df83948b28be53f41f1a49d27467cd0.pdf 64cadc0dbdfe4aaeb00fb33597bbf71f PDF Text Text 96 SLOVAKIA One Species, Many Cultures Michael N ov ak Bounded by the slow Danube River on the south and by the rugged Carpathian Mountains on the north, the ancestral land of the Slovak people lies at the axis of Westem lcivilization. For centuries, the vast armies of Attila, Genghis Khan, the Turks, the Germans and the Russians have risen like a tide toward Europe and in due course have been broken in or near the mountains of Slovakia. In the ninth century, Saints Cyril and Methodius established there the Byzantine influence of the Cyrillic alphabet and the Old Slavonic liturgy; but ambitious German rulers later imposed the Latin language, in order to draw Slovakia back toward the West. The rivers of Slovakia run southward and the cultivation of grapes makes Slovakia a wine-drinking nation; the sensibility pf the Slovaks is partly Mediterranean and partly Nordic. For two thousand years, the Slovak people, often to their woe, have abhorred large governmental units and preferred local rule. For a thousand years they have endured almost unbroken political oppression. Just before the Johnstown flood of 1889, one of my grandfathers came from Slovakia to the United States; within a few years, all three of my other grandparents had done the same. During the thirty-nine years from 1875 to 1914, nearly a third of the population of Slovakia emigrated. They left from sheer hunger, to escape military conscription in the h~ted Hungarian army, to find some was to break the political oppression of Hungarian "magyarization," "" and to 'fulfill the ancient Slovak legends and myths of freedom. The Slovaks, like many other Slavs, tend to be suspicious of governments, activism and politicians. "Every official has a tail, to sweep in goods," runs a Slovak proverb. Better to concentrate on home, family and work. No other Slavic people is so inventive in song; over fifteen thousand folk songs Qf the Slovaks have been catalogued, and a Slavic saying goes: "See. a Slovak, hear a song." Nearly all the arts of the Slovaks focus on the home. �SLOVAKIA 97 The great Slovak names Svatopluk, Janosik, Benovsky and Stefanik mean little to most Americans. But this is only to say that an ordinary American education is remarkably ethnocentric. About one-third of our population is of Anglo-Saxon ancestry. Yet so far is our nation from fulfilling its own pluralistic destiny that our education is almost entirely Anglo-American. (Indeed, not even all social classes, religious traditions, or regions of Anglo-Americans are equally represented in our educational cultures-"rednecks," evangelicals, Appalachians, for example.) Perhaps the dominance of Anglo-Saxon ethnocentrism in the past necessitates its continued dominance; it has shaped our history. Every American should learn about and, to some extent, assimilate English political history and literature. But is a virtually total concentration on the upper-class culture based in the northeastern section of the nation a sufficient intellectual guide to actual American life, or to the character of the other cultures on this planet? Not long ago, "the humanities" meant, not humanity, but "Western civilization." More than that, it meant "Western civilization as seen through English, Protestant, upperclass eyes." Not many of the graduates of Harvard, Princeton and Yale now in their fifties learned very much in their college days about the other cultures of the world - about Buddhism, or Slavic history, or Jewish family life, or Chinese civilization, or Latin America, or the history of slavery. What they were instructed in as "liberal arts" was not quite fully liberating; what passed before their eyes as "the humanities" was, rather astonishingly, a mirror image of their own ethnicity. The phrase "our common culture" has in recent years been used with more glibness than hard reflection. A culture is not put on like a suit of clothes. One can mimic a culture, absorb it, even use it as a vehicle of one's own self-expression. If, however, the culture does not flow out of one's own tutored instincts and aspirations, it is not yet one's own and does not yet exhaust one's own intelligence, perceptions or dreams. So for many millions of immigrants and their descendants-for a majority of Americans-what is currently available as "mainstream culture" does not spring from the heart. Hundreds of thousands of freshmen tapping their feet in classrooms in Providence, Buffalo, �98 SLOVAKIA Pittsburgh, Detroit, Miami, Houston and Los Angeles do not hear, in the voice of their professors, their own voices - and this is not only because of television, or a generation gap, or the collapsing of "the great tradition." The great tradition itself has been in America too narrowly, too ethnocentrically, perceived. I concur, there is a great tradition. There is a "common" Western culture, distinct from other cultures. But ever since Kant, scholars have sought this tradition in a premature and inaccurately projected "universality." They have tried to emphasize what is common in all men, what is universal, those qualities in which we all share and are alike, those characteristics that do not divide, but rather unite us. A laudable but grievously mistaken impulse. A profound irony is involved in our common identity as members of the human species. The species to which we belong in a historical species; it possesses consciousness, and this consciousness is at once symbolic and concrete. That is, our species lives not only within the physical atmosphere surrounding this blue green planet but also within a variety of concrete, historical cultures. We are the species that lives within cultures - within spheres of meaning, sensibility, selective perception and patterned action. What we have in common is that we are diverse. Our diversity is proof that we are human. We are not so many ants crawling on a soundless orb, nor so many apes obeying laws of natural selection. We generate distinctive cultures. Within cultures, we develop endlessly complex, distinctive individuals. We live within symbolic worlds all our own, both as individuals and as cultures. In the twentieth century (which is itself, a friend reminds me, a somewhat "culture-bound" concept), the relativity of each of our identities is borne in upon us because we inescapably encounter so many who differ from us. In this relativity we meet a second and novel kind of common identity. What we have in common are our finitude and interdependence. Our diversity does not mean we are intrinsically divided from each other, only that we are intrinsically different from each other. Our future unity lies not in "overcoming our differences" but in seeing how they are analogous: in learning to see that my struggle to become a moral human being is rather like (not the same �SLOVAKIA 99 as, only analogous to) your struggle to become a moral human being. In a word, the way to become moral is not to become universal, but to become concrete. I need not become the same as you. But my struggle to realize my own moral identity - solely my own, concrete, unique - has many parallels to your struggle to realize your own identity. We face, for example, many similar obstacles: social inequities, ill fortune, self-deception, aging, death. How you face these obstacles in your life illuminates possibilities by which I may, allowing for our differences, conduct my life as well. A nun may define her life around her chastity, as a chosen symbol of God's transcendent love; whereas I, a sensual man, may see in her struggles to protect virginity (of spirit and of flesh) illumination for the perplexities surrounding the central value by which I define my life. The world's literature opens up for me a world of analogy, where flashes of illumination ricochet in unpredictable patterns off a thousand mirrors. The critic of literature who reads Nietzsche after having learned Goethe may catch different reflections from one who reads him after studying Russell, Hare and Austin. What "the great tradition" concerns is wisdom, the voyages individuals take toward moral maturity and moral growth, and the analogous "stages on the way," the analogous "moves," the analogous "dilemmas," "ironies" and "tragedies" they encounter. These words, of course, are already heavy with cultural specificity; they conjure up Aeschylus, Kierkegaard, Hesse and a hundred German scholars. Still, every human life is a structuring of time; each begins with birth, each ends. "Voyage," therefore, is a universal motif. It is the kind of motif that allows for infinite variation, for concrete diversity, for cultural and personal uniqueness. Cultures structure time quite differently. Cultures imagine the model of human fulfillment differently. Yet in every culture individuals voyage from birth to death, and from moral beginnings to moral development. Many of our present perplexities arise from two confusions: one is a misperception of class, the other a misperception of culture. Some young blacks from Hough may not be literate, but that does not mean that the basic human voyage is closed to them. Both the Autobiography �100 SLOVAKIA of Malcolm X and Sou l on Ice are classically Greek and Christian in the metanoia they narrate, and in the structure of decision and liberation they exhibit. (Note even their chapter headings.) It is a mistake to hold that the fundamental moral struggle is restricted to upper-class AngloSaxons - or to the "oppressed." Whatever one's social class, the struggle against self-deception (never decisively won), the struggle for clear vision, and the struggle to respect concrete human persons different from oneself is always present. Bourgeois morality, the morality of appearances and proprieties, must be distinguished from fundamental human morality. "The habit doth not make the monk." One may be an attorney general of the United States without becoming a moral hero to whom others look for illumination on how to become a moral man. It is not easy to be moral simply because one is wellborn, nor simply because one is born in a slum. The voyage toward moral development in either case is analogous to the others - essentially different, yet sufficiently parallel to cast mutual illumination. No human life is so different from all others that it cannot shed morally profitable light; thus the fascination of stories even about moral monsters. When a culture is highly articulated, a "cultivated" person is skilled both in discerning movements of the soul and in giving names to them. He will have a full range of references and allusions with which to speak of what he feels. It is not enough, for example, to be "an atheist." Like Sartre? Or like Merleau-Ponty? Or like Malraux? Or like Camus? Like John Dewey? Or like Corliss Lamont? Or like some churchgoer going through empty motions? The state of soul is remarkably various in every case. Nevertheless, a lack of words does not necessarily indicate an incapacity of soul. It is true (it certainly seems true) that many persons are indeed shallow of soul and contemptuous of introspection. It does not necessarily follow that an abundance of words indicates greatness of soul, or poverty of words powerty of spirit. There are some professors, disdainful of the "cultural deprivation" of those they are obliged to instruct, who are sterile of soul; and in some of their students there are depths untongued. Among some of the Indian chiefs of American history, �SLOVAKIA 101 for example, there is an eloquence, dignity and precision of speech worthy of the ancient Greeks. Or, to state the matter differently, some of the heroes of Homer utter sentiments worthy of the Indian nations. Want of reading does not disbar human beings from profound moral insight or from classical eloquence. One does not have to read Greek to encounter ancient wisdom. (The American Indians produced no Aristotle; neither has New York.) On the other hand, a university education in the humanities today is not aimed at profound moral insight or classical eloquence. They are lucky indeed whose insight and eloquence are not destroyed by a university education today. For the culture of the universities today is not the culture of "the great tradition," not the culture of Western civilization, not even the culture of upper-class Anglo-Americans. In some few persons, it may be these things. In most administrators, professors, teaching assistants and students a university education exhibits a different culture altogether. Let me call it "the culture of the professionals" and attempt to draw attention to its pervasiveness. Not long ago, a major corporation took an ad in the Wall Street Journal to honor one of its employees. Above his picture was a single word, "Professionalism ... " and below it a definition: "More than education ... More than experience . . . More than training ... it's a state of mind." Who today are proud to call themselves professionals? Football players, stockbrockers, doctors, lawyers, journal• ists, gangsters and professors of literature, philosophy and other fields. "Professionalism. " "State of Mind." These are terms of considerable power. Implied are choices, special• izations, narrowings down for purposes of efficiency and effect. Implied, indeed, is the disciplining of an entire life, a concentration upon a limited field of expertise. "A state of mind." "A way of life." A major, driving, powerful culture in our midst is the culture of professionals. Football is its major public liturgy, its dramatic expression, its mirror-image festival. In the daily world of politics, the word "professional" is used in fascinating ways. Of some lifelong politicians, an informed opinion of their performance is "hack" or "fake." By contrast, the most sober and comforting praise �102 SLOVAKIA for a public figure or for this or that person on his staff is, "He's a real pro." An intermediate word of praise, spoken with a faintly baffled sort of affection, is the phrase, "an old pro." The meaning is that the person in question - Senator Sam Ervin, let us say - lacks some of the technical sophistication and scientific art of modern professionalism, but is, so to speak, an artist of an older style, in a different sort of way, and by God, admirable nevertheless. He "knows his way around," "knows what he's doing," and so one "shouldn't be fooled" by his apparent naivete or folksy style. There are some jobs, among some constituencies, that maybe "the old pro" tackles with a surer grasp that "the real pro." It's a very good feeling to be called by one's peers "a pro." Certification (college degrees, a tough job assignment) confers the objective status. But not all who have the certification are truly considered by their peers to be "the real pros." Such hints suggest that an accurate discussion of culture must move on several levels. The first meaning of culture applies to the "state of mind," or the "way of life," of our professional classes. This is the class that manages our institutions of certification the schools, the universities, the media and the new institutes of research, development and consultantship. This same class also manages many of our traditional institutions - business corporations, government, foundations, churches and national organizations. By no means a majority of Americans experiences the culture of professionalizatio n. But most of the high-salaried and/or organizing, articulating, managing and "influential" people do. "Above" the level of the professional culture lies the "high culture" of family tradition, and/or money, and/ or dedication to the classical, recognized arts. Nurture in a certain kind of family tradition - children of Cabots or Lodges, or of concert violinists or professors of the clasics - sometimes provides the requisite sensibility. Money that can buy a new generation the education denied its parents may provide it. (There are many "middle-brow" participants in high culture who enjoy its fruits without being creators.) Finally, sheer talent and desire, an "innate" capacity for the flowering of one's spirit, and the good �SLOVAKIA 103 fortune of schooling of some sort may provide it. Thus, not a few of our ablest artists and scholars today, like Abraham Lincoln and William Shakespeare, although not "wellborn," have advanced the reaches of the human spirit. It is true that the "high culture," once it has been achieved, is in some respects more accessible to the wealthy than to the poor. The wealthy can travel. They have leisure. They are provided with instruction. They finance artists and scholars. They buy the materials, the time spent and the fruits of artistic endeavor; they are the patrons of art and learning. Yet by their nature the achievements of high culture speak to - and belong to - the human spirit, not to wealth. Instrumentally both a society and individuals require sufficient wealth to gain that freedom from necessity without which there are no liberal arts. Such wealth can be very modest. Even in the caves, humans began to draw, and already by the fireside the spirit of Lincoln was being forged. High culture, nonetheless, requires a culture in which leisure is available; it requires wealth. This instrumental tie between wealth and high culture occasions a certain embarrassment in a ruthlessly egalitarian society. Common speech, we recall, distinguishes several kinds of professional performance. The main force of the word "professional" points toward a specialized commitment: one professes one line of work rather than another. A "hack" is a fellow who has not really mastered all the skills he needs, or else does not really commit the whole of himself to the skills does possess. A "slick professional," or "operator," or apparatchik is a fellow who has the skills but no larger commitment to the whole reality of the world within which he operates, he is "a gun for hire." We respect his skills, but not the spirit of their use. When we say "real pro," however, we mean that the person has not been distorted by his specialized techniques. We mean that his intelligence and instincts reach out for all the complex, ambiguous, even mysterious elements of the social realities within which he operates. We mean that, both regarding himself and regarding the world of his activities, he maintains a certain realism. He is "in touch." His professionalism is an instrument of his commitment to reality, not a defense against that reality. He is neither an operator, nor a hack, nor a mere specialist. �104 SLOVAKIA Hacks are easy to understand but what is the culture of the operator? We are afflicted with operators in America. As testimony to their "cultivation," they may take homemovies, or become amateur photographers, or be buffs of considerable artistic skill in one field or another. They may attend concerts or go to all the arty flicks. They may be articulate and even, in some sense, well and broadly educated. Yet there is a sense in which, used in this context, the word "culture" gives off a tinny ring. No doubt anthropologists should study their "culture," too; in a perfectly neutral scene, they represent a "state of mind," a "way of life," as surely as do primitive tribes in New Guinea. But in some way they are rootless, rudderless, without depth. They have made themselves rather into instruments than into ends. The phrase "new barbarians" points to their shallowness. It suggests that smooth, civil persons, persons of considerable education and articulateness, are somehow empty and lacking. Empty of what? Lacking what? No tradition, it seems, lives in them; no long-range, virtually unchangeable, perennial values guide them; their moral universe is without a center; no passionate inwardness directs them. They are, in a sense, larger than David Riesman intended, "other-directed." Success, power, expertise - their guides are extrinsic, changeable, consulted for the short term. The social realities of our "temporary society" do not discourage the flexibility such men exemplify. The state, as Plato says, is man writ large; so men are often their society writ small. Operators, then, are quintessentially American; their role has been mythically established in Huck Finn and in Melville's The Confidence Man. They are outsiders, from the city (or the university), traveling salesmen, "experts." But what about the local cultures, those millions who admire and understand "the old pros" but dislike operators? When Senator Sam Ervin quotes the Bible and Shakespeare, he makes reverberate a network of trustworthy and illuminating traditions. He plays on symbolic strings that have shaped the consciousness of perhaps eightly million Americans. Many, indeed, find the language of a "country lawyer" a good deal more persuasive than the language of the new professionals. Many, indeed, can scarcely discriminate among the several languages of the new professionals. To �SLOVAKIA 105 them, they are all the same: the smooth articulateness of John Dean and Gary Hart, of David Brinkley and Professor Galbraith, of Doctor Kildare and Doctor Spock, of Jeb Stuart Magruder and William Coffin. Often today ideology does not divide people (liberal versus conservative) so much as cultural style does. The old pros remain connected to the symbolic worlds of this nation's many diverse cultures; the operators leave and "do not go home again." Region, ethnicity, religion, race and other cultural factors shape symbolic consciousness in different ways. The Irish of Boston are not exactly like those of Minnesota or Texas; contrasts among John Kennedy, Eugene McCarthy, Joseph McCarthy, Richard Daley and John Connally suggest several of the most significant Irish traditions in the nation. Both George McGovern and George Wallace spring from fundamentalist Scotch-Irish traditions, but in regions whose history has been profoundly different. The symbolic worlds within which they speak set off intense but opposite vibrations. Of the French-Canadians of New Hampshire and Maine; the Appalachians of West Virginia and Kentucky, the poor whites of Alabama and the Florida Panhandle; the AngloAmericans of Wyoming and Idaho; the Oregonians; the Mormons of Utah; the Slavic farmers of Illinois and Nebraska, contrasted with the Slavic miners and millworkers of Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan; the Italians contrasted with the upper-class and the lower-class Jews of New York City; the Anglo-American Protestants who supported George Wallace in the 1968 Indiana primary in proportions far heavier than did German-American Protestants of similar economic class - of such diverse and crisscross variety is this nation composed. Among blacks, there are differences depending on origins in Africa: on the generations of colonial experience whether in the West Indies, or rural Mississippi, or the cities of the South; and on length of time in the urban North. The Spanish-speaking population of Miami, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Antonio and Albuquerque are significantly different. The experiences of Oriental Americans - including, without benefit of "Protestant ethic," their astonishing capacity for work and for success - are better admitted into consciousness if one approaches �106 SLOVAKIA American pluralism from Hawaii and California, than from Boston and New York. The variety of cultural worlds in the United States is a powerful, subterranean influence in our national life. It remains subterranean because it is often repressed, as thought it were something "dirty," disfunctional, and doomed to disappear. In its place, a "national" ideology has been created, divided into three parts. First, there is the ideology of "the American way of life," popular, patriotic, capitalistic, chauvinistic. Second, there is the ideology of the mobile, educated, "committed," professional classes what one writer has called "the ideocracy." Third, there is the ideology of the neutral, meritocratic, incommitted, objective professional classes, neither conservative nor liberal, but comfortably in charge. All three of these ideologies, for their own various purposes, try to eliminate cultural diversity. Each carries with it its own ethnic and regional biases. Some, for example, make provision for black, Hispanic and Indian diversity - and, pressed a little, perhaps, they might expand the list. But the terms of their analyses do not give cultural diversity the prominence reality demands. It is true, we have seen, that there is a "common culture" in the West, a set of achievements that represents the most profound insights, wrested from suffering, that Western peoples for some five millennia have attained. But it is not true that even highly educated people in any part of the West are well versed in all the subtraditions of this "common culture." A young Italian from New Jersey who attends the University of Notre Dame will have as part of the furniture of his mind and sensibility materials that the young Jew from Brooklyn who attends City College of New York will not share, and vice versa. When I compare, for example, my years of reading in St. Augustine, St. Bernard, Thomas Aquinas, Cardinal Newman and others, my virtual neglect of Marx, and my dislike of Enlightenment writers like Kant and Mill, with the reading patterns exhibited by, say, Irving Howe, it is vividly clear to me that American intellectual life is profoundly diverse. So it is also with Protestant colleagues of mine in philosophy and religious studies who respond in significantly different ways to materials we jointly consider. Other colleagues have �SLOVAKIA 107 interests and training in the sciences or social sciences; their symbolic world is, again, quite different from mine. "Where did you grow up? Where did you go to school? What is your religious and ethnic background? What do these mean to you?" These are important questions, not for purpose of stereotyping, but for intelligent and sensitive perception. In order to come to learn and to appreciate the cultural background within which the words of others gain their full and familiar meaning, we must be able to answer such questions. What we have most to gain from each other is generated by our mutual differences. The different horizon, standpoint and way of perceiving we each bring to our common world are instruments of spiritual wealth. Consider the following propositions: 1. There is a common Western culture of high intellectual and humanizing potency, instructing all who journey into it in inexhaustible wisdom, insight and spiritual depth. 2. This common culture is composed of many related but divergent traditions, and no one can master all of them. 3. Beyond the boundaries of Western culture, there are also other "common cultures" of great complexity and diversity. In some of these non-Western riches, westerners are also beginning to share in ways both superficial and serious. 4. In higher education and in museums and other instrumentalities of culture in the United States, Protestant traditions within the common culture have been favored over Catholic and Jewish traditions. English literature and philosophy have been favored over Continental literatures and philosophies. Post-Enlightenment materials have virtually driven pre-Enlightenment materials from the field. Agnostic or atheistic materials are favored over religious materials. A rather positivistic ideology of the modern, the progressive and the "factual" has dominated our dictionaries and encyclopedias, as well as our schools, our journalism and our business world. (Dictionaries do not list under "rose" one of its most important cultural meanings: that it is the flower of love, fate and war.) 5. Education is commonly regarded, not as a device for strengthening and benefiting by local, regional, ethnic and religious differences but for "overcoming" them, �108 SLOVAKIA for replacing them with a more or less universal culture. The underlying model for this "universal" ideological outlook is not perfectly neutral as regards those who enter into it. Even if they are of equal talent, some will find cultural models, heroes, texts and materials related to their own cultural background, and others will not. 6. The preferred and most prestigious model for the "high culture" in the United States coincides with the background of our most wealthy and powerful citizens. This model illustrates the history of some, at least, of our major institutions, and partially grounds the dominant language of the land. Hence even though it is biased, it cannot be ignored. Let us attend, first, to proposition 6. Andover, Groton, Milton, Choate and the other prestigious private schools nurture a good part of one major wing of the nation's financial and governmental elites. Yet with every year that passes, in order to understand American reality, students have to go further beyond the limits of Anglo-American traditions. How can one understand Mailer, Malamud, Trilling, Chomsky or Howe without understanding the Jewish traditions of Eastern Europe and America? How can one understand Kennedy, McCarthy or Daley without learning about the Irish experience in America? Will anyone comprehend Detroit without learning about black history in America and Polish history in America - two out of every three citizens of that city being either black or Polish, while virtually all the wealth and power of the city's elites remain Anglo-American and Jewish? Power in America is essentially Anglo-American, hence it is a condition of survival (and of eventual justice) that all the others penetrate the intricacies of the Anglo-American mind. The Yankee pride in "candor," fo example, has generated unique deceptions, especially self-deceptions, whose routes must be painfully traced and plainly marked Yankee appeals to "morality" and leadership" and "integrity" require most careful scrutiny; these are the banners of the most powerful elites. Thus those whose heritage is not Anglo-American, have every right (and duty) both to assimilate all that is good in Anglo-American culture, and to be clear-eyed about what assimilation entails. Two years ago, Irving Howe quoted in these pages �SLOVAKIA 109 the argument of Louis Kampf that "initiating the 'underpriviledged' to the cultural treasures of the West could be a form of oppression - a weapon in the hands of those who rule . .. High culture itself ... tends to reinforce the given alignments of powers within the society." Against Kampf, Howe is able to quote Trotsky: "Mastery of the art of the past is ... a necessary precondition not only for the creation of new art but also for the building of a new society . . . If we were groundlessly to repudiate the art of the past, we should at once become poorer spiritually." Cultural backwardness is not required for political advance. And yet, what is meant by "backwardness"? In order to be fully moral man must one be a professor, or at minimum a college graduate? Is it necessary to have read many books? "Man is not saved by dialectics," a Christian aphorism insists. The simple, too, have their own precious wisdom and the learned their patent foolishness. It is not necessary to romanticize either side in order to recognize that there are analogies between the life stories of the uneducated and those of the college trained. A democracy needs an early discernment system, to spot young persons of talent in every social condition. But it also needs a way to encourage young persons of talent to remain (if they so wish) in living contact with their own roots. They should encouraged not to be parochial, and yet to be rooted. Neither our egalitarians nor our meritocrats, it seems, have a sufficiently cultural perspective; both proceed somewhat atomically, somewhat mechanically. According to egalitarian sentimentality, any student admitted to college through "open admissions" has within him the makings of a student. According to meritocratic arrogance, each student should be judged according to his own performance. The egalitarian forgets that a university is an institution not all citizens are graced with the talent to appreciate; perhaps not one person in ten ought to be admitted to a genuine university. The meritocrat forgets that persons are not individuals merely but also creatures of culture, and that the institutions of high culture in the United States are inequitably and inhumanely ethnocentric. When as a young Slovak-American I read ( with eagerness and delight) "English literature," I learned as well �110 SLOVAKIA a latent message: "These are the kinds of people literature is about; not about families like yours, feeling like yours, dilemmas like yours." Literature was not (except by analogy) about myself; it was about those fascinating, foreign "others." In our part of town, when I was very young, we called them "the Americans." (With less than accurate perception, we included the Irish among "the Americans." We seldom dealt directly with Anglo-Americans.) The heart of the matter comes down to this. There are three main locations of culture. The actual ways of life of ordinary people, in their diverse, loose and permeable communities are one location. The humanities are, in this sense, not primarily what is written down in books, or celebrated in works of art, but what is lived. Those relatively few artists, scholars and critical persons in whom a genuinely high culture is alive are a second location. The swarming army of professionals, highly educated but not necessarily in tune with the high traditions of the past, are a third location. Among these new professionals are many who call themselves humanists . Each of these groups is to be taken seriously. Each enhances our own identity. We need, in America, a public and popular humanities - a pluralism of stories, myths, accurate histories, detailed studies that touch our various peopl8 in all their variety. As a boy, I wish I had learned of the exploits of Janosik as well as of Robin Hood, and had been taught in public and parochial school of the democratic traditions of the early Slovak tribes. I wish I had learned that, after the origins of feudalism, my ancestors endured a thousand-year struggle against oppression that is not yet complete. I wish I had learned officially and fully of the bitter deaths of so many of my countrymen in the mills and mines and strikes of Pennsylvania. (The murder of the Jablonski.s of the United Mine Workers is a recent episode in a hundredyear war.) My sense of injustice and untruth in America would have come earlier than it did. I would have learned earlier both a tragic sense of life and fierce desire to remedy injustice. I would have had a way to discern what made me culturally different, and what my peculiar contribution might have been. I would have had personal parallels by which to judge more accurately what America had done to the Indians, blacks and others in Amei:ica. (What was �SLOVAKIA 111 I doing, cheering for Custer in They Died with Their Boots On?) We also need, of course, a high culture. We need continuity with the visions and sources of judgment upon us that derive from the great spiritual achievements of our past. In many American towns, counties and cities, one family or a small number of families controls the politics, economics and media of communication. Against their vulgar power, the arts and critical skills of the high culture are as powerful a threat as human beings have. Indeed even our highest national elites, our best and our brightest, suffer embarrassment compared to the best our race has seen before. I recognize that our elites sometimes use "taste" and "culture" as weapon of intimidation, which only proves their own vulgarity. The proof that a person has attained a genuine high culture in his unselfconscious respect for the moral analogies between his life and those of others. Portrayed in myth and narrative as the nobleman at home with peasants, the saint with sinners, the learned doctor with children and the ignorant, the political leader sharing his people's crusts of bread, this is the excellence by which our culture measures us. It is not exactly an egalitarian standard, for differences of station and talent are not blurred, but it is, at least, a standard of fraternity, and of the human spirit's radical equality in the eyes of God. Finally, we need the professionals. It is true that concerning the large and important issues, they are almost always wrong. But this is exactly what we should expect; it is their profession to attend scrupulously to a part of the whole; they almost necessarily distort. Yet specialization is no cause for excommunication. Professionals are our brothers, too. We need their powerful skills. One could wish that more of them would turn their skills toward many neglected problems. To mention but one: toward the history and culture of each of the diverse peoples of the United States. Toward an accurate history of our actual pluralism. '' From 1896 to 1908, 508 Slovaks were arrested and convicted for using the Slovak language in public. (Reprinted from The American Scholar, Volume 43, Number 1, Winter, 1973-74. Copyright 1973 by the United Chapters of Phi Beta Kappa. By permission of the publishers.) � 96 SLOVAKIA One Species, Many Cultures Michael N ov ak Bounded by the slow Danube River on the south and by the rugged Carpathian Mountains on the north, the ancestral land of the Slovak people lies at the axis of Westem lcivilization. For centuries, the vast armies of Attila, Genghis Khan, the Turks, the Germans and the Russians have risen like a tide toward Europe and in due course have been broken in or near the mountains of Slovakia. In the ninth century, Saints Cyril and Methodius established there the Byzantine influence of the Cyrillic alphabet and the Old Slavonic liturgy; but ambitious German rulers later imposed the Latin language, in order to draw Slovakia back toward the West. The rivers of Slovakia run southward and the cultivation of grapes makes Slovakia a wine-drinking nation; the sensibility pf the Slovaks is partly Mediterranean and partly Nordic. For two thousand years, the Slovak people, often to their woe, have abhorred large governmental units and preferred local rule. For a thousand years they have endured almost unbroken political oppression. Just before the Johnstown flood of 1889, one of my grandfathers came from Slovakia to the United States; within a few years, all three of my other grandparents had done the same. During the thirty-nine years from 1875 to 1914, nearly a third of the population of Slovakia emigrated. They left from sheer hunger, to escape military conscription in the h~ted Hungarian army, to find some was to break the political oppression of Hungarian "magyarization," "" and to 'fulfill the ancient Slovak legends and myths of freedom. The Slovaks, like many other Slavs, tend to be suspicious of governments, activism and politicians. "Every official has a tail, to sweep in goods," runs a Slovak proverb. Better to concentrate on home, family and work. No other Slavic people is so inventive in song; over fifteen thousand folk songs Qf the Slovaks have been catalogued, and a Slavic saying goes: "See. a Slovak, hear a song." Nearly all the arts of the Slovaks focus on the home. �SLOVAKIA 97 The great Slovak names Svatopluk, Janosik, Benovsky and Stefanik mean little to most Americans. But this is only to say that an ordinary American education is remarkably ethnocentric. About one-third of our population is of Anglo-Saxon ancestry. Yet so far is our nation from fulfilling its own pluralistic destiny that our education is almost entirely Anglo-American. (Indeed, not even all social classes, religious traditions, or regions of Anglo-Americans are equally represented in our educational cultures-"rednecks," evangelicals, Appalachians, for example.) Perhaps the dominance of Anglo-Saxon ethnocentrism in the past necessitates its continued dominance; it has shaped our history. Every American should learn about and, to some extent, assimilate English political history and literature. But is a virtually total concentration on the upper-class culture based in the northeastern section of the nation a sufficient intellectual guide to actual American life, or to the character of the other cultures on this planet? Not long ago, "the humanities" meant, not humanity, but "Western civilization." More than that, it meant "Western civilization as seen through English, Protestant, upperclass eyes." Not many of the graduates of Harvard, Princeton and Yale now in their fifties learned very much in their college days about the other cultures of the world - about Buddhism, or Slavic history, or Jewish family life, or Chinese civilization, or Latin America, or the history of slavery. What they were instructed in as "liberal arts" was not quite fully liberating; what passed before their eyes as "the humanities" was, rather astonishingly, a mirror image of their own ethnicity. The phrase "our common culture" has in recent years been used with more glibness than hard reflection. A culture is not put on like a suit of clothes. One can mimic a culture, absorb it, even use it as a vehicle of one's own self-expression. If, however, the culture does not flow out of one's own tutored instincts and aspirations, it is not yet one's own and does not yet exhaust one's own intelligence, perceptions or dreams. So for many millions of immigrants and their descendants-for a majority of Americans-what is currently available as "mainstream culture" does not spring from the heart. Hundreds of thousands of freshmen tapping their feet in classrooms in Providence, Buffalo, �98 SLOVAKIA Pittsburgh, Detroit, Miami, Houston and Los Angeles do not hear, in the voice of their professors, their own voices - and this is not only because of television, or a generation gap, or the collapsing of "the great tradition." The great tradition itself has been in America too narrowly, too ethnocentrically, perceived. I concur, there is a great tradition. There is a "common" Western culture, distinct from other cultures. But ever since Kant, scholars have sought this tradition in a premature and inaccurately projected "universality." They have tried to emphasize what is common in all men, what is universal, those qualities in which we all share and are alike, those characteristics that do not divide, but rather unite us. A laudable but grievously mistaken impulse. A profound irony is involved in our common identity as members of the human species. The species to which we belong in a historical species; it possesses consciousness, and this consciousness is at once symbolic and concrete. That is, our species lives not only within the physical atmosphere surrounding this blue green planet but also within a variety of concrete, historical cultures. We are the species that lives within cultures - within spheres of meaning, sensibility, selective perception and patterned action. What we have in common is that we are diverse. Our diversity is proof that we are human. We are not so many ants crawling on a soundless orb, nor so many apes obeying laws of natural selection. We generate distinctive cultures. Within cultures, we develop endlessly complex, distinctive individuals. We live within symbolic worlds all our own, both as individuals and as cultures. In the twentieth century (which is itself, a friend reminds me, a somewhat "culture-bound" concept), the relativity of each of our identities is borne in upon us because we inescapably encounter so many who differ from us. In this relativity we meet a second and novel kind of common identity. What we have in common are our finitude and interdependence. Our diversity does not mean we are intrinsically divided from each other, only that we are intrinsically different from each other. Our future unity lies not in "overcoming our differences" but in seeing how they are analogous: in learning to see that my struggle to become a moral human being is rather like (not the same �SLOVAKIA 99 as, only analogous to) your struggle to become a moral human being. In a word, the way to become moral is not to become universal, but to become concrete. I need not become the same as you. But my struggle to realize my own moral identity - solely my own, concrete, unique - has many parallels to your struggle to realize your own identity. We face, for example, many similar obstacles: social inequities, ill fortune, self-deception, aging, death. How you face these obstacles in your life illuminates possibilities by which I may, allowing for our differences, conduct my life as well. A nun may define her life around her chastity, as a chosen symbol of God's transcendent love; whereas I, a sensual man, may see in her struggles to protect virginity (of spirit and of flesh) illumination for the perplexities surrounding the central value by which I define my life. The world's literature opens up for me a world of analogy, where flashes of illumination ricochet in unpredictable patterns off a thousand mirrors. The critic of literature who reads Nietzsche after having learned Goethe may catch different reflections from one who reads him after studying Russell, Hare and Austin. What "the great tradition" concerns is wisdom, the voyages individuals take toward moral maturity and moral growth, and the analogous "stages on the way," the analogous "moves," the analogous "dilemmas," "ironies" and "tragedies" they encounter. These words, of course, are already heavy with cultural specificity; they conjure up Aeschylus, Kierkegaard, Hesse and a hundred German scholars. Still, every human life is a structuring of time; each begins with birth, each ends. "Voyage," therefore, is a universal motif. It is the kind of motif that allows for infinite variation, for concrete diversity, for cultural and personal uniqueness. Cultures structure time quite differently. Cultures imagine the model of human fulfillment differently. Yet in every culture individuals voyage from birth to death, and from moral beginnings to moral development. Many of our present perplexities arise from two confusions: one is a misperception of class, the other a misperception of culture. Some young blacks from Hough may not be literate, but that does not mean that the basic human voyage is closed to them. Both the Autobiography �100 SLOVAKIA of Malcolm X and Sou l on Ice are classically Greek and Christian in the metanoia they narrate, and in the structure of decision and liberation they exhibit. (Note even their chapter headings.) It is a mistake to hold that the fundamental moral struggle is restricted to upper-class AngloSaxons - or to the "oppressed." Whatever one's social class, the struggle against self-deception (never decisively won), the struggle for clear vision, and the struggle to respect concrete human persons different from oneself is always present. Bourgeois morality, the morality of appearances and proprieties, must be distinguished from fundamental human morality. "The habit doth not make the monk." One may be an attorney general of the United States without becoming a moral hero to whom others look for illumination on how to become a moral man. It is not easy to be moral simply because one is wellborn, nor simply because one is born in a slum. The voyage toward moral development in either case is analogous to the others - essentially different, yet sufficiently parallel to cast mutual illumination. No human life is so different from all others that it cannot shed morally profitable light; thus the fascination of stories even about moral monsters. When a culture is highly articulated, a "cultivated" person is skilled both in discerning movements of the soul and in giving names to them. He will have a full range of references and allusions with which to speak of what he feels. It is not enough, for example, to be "an atheist." Like Sartre? Or like Merleau-Ponty? Or like Malraux? Or like Camus? Like John Dewey? Or like Corliss Lamont? Or like some churchgoer going through empty motions? The state of soul is remarkably various in every case. Nevertheless, a lack of words does not necessarily indicate an incapacity of soul. It is true (it certainly seems true) that many persons are indeed shallow of soul and contemptuous of introspection. It does not necessarily follow that an abundance of words indicates greatness of soul, or poverty of words powerty of spirit. There are some professors, disdainful of the "cultural deprivation" of those they are obliged to instruct, who are sterile of soul; and in some of their students there are depths untongued. Among some of the Indian chiefs of American history, �SLOVAKIA 101 for example, there is an eloquence, dignity and precision of speech worthy of the ancient Greeks. Or, to state the matter differently, some of the heroes of Homer utter sentiments worthy of the Indian nations. Want of reading does not disbar human beings from profound moral insight or from classical eloquence. One does not have to read Greek to encounter ancient wisdom. (The American Indians produced no Aristotle; neither has New York.) On the other hand, a university education in the humanities today is not aimed at profound moral insight or classical eloquence. They are lucky indeed whose insight and eloquence are not destroyed by a university education today. For the culture of the universities today is not the culture of "the great tradition," not the culture of Western civilization, not even the culture of upper-class Anglo-Americans. In some few persons, it may be these things. In most administrators, professors, teaching assistants and students a university education exhibits a different culture altogether. Let me call it "the culture of the professionals" and attempt to draw attention to its pervasiveness. Not long ago, a major corporation took an ad in the Wall Street Journal to honor one of its employees. Above his picture was a single word, "Professionalism ... " and below it a definition: "More than education ... More than experience . . . More than training ... it's a state of mind." Who today are proud to call themselves professionals? Football players, stockbrockers, doctors, lawyers, journal• ists, gangsters and professors of literature, philosophy and other fields. "Professionalism. " "State of Mind." These are terms of considerable power. Implied are choices, special• izations, narrowings down for purposes of efficiency and effect. Implied, indeed, is the disciplining of an entire life, a concentration upon a limited field of expertise. "A state of mind." "A way of life." A major, driving, powerful culture in our midst is the culture of professionals. Football is its major public liturgy, its dramatic expression, its mirror-image festival. In the daily world of politics, the word "professional" is used in fascinating ways. Of some lifelong politicians, an informed opinion of their performance is "hack" or "fake." By contrast, the most sober and comforting praise �102 SLOVAKIA for a public figure or for this or that person on his staff is, "He's a real pro." An intermediate word of praise, spoken with a faintly baffled sort of affection, is the phrase, "an old pro." The meaning is that the person in question - Senator Sam Ervin, let us say - lacks some of the technical sophistication and scientific art of modern professionalism, but is, so to speak, an artist of an older style, in a different sort of way, and by God, admirable nevertheless. He "knows his way around," "knows what he's doing," and so one "shouldn't be fooled" by his apparent naivete or folksy style. There are some jobs, among some constituencies, that maybe "the old pro" tackles with a surer grasp that "the real pro." It's a very good feeling to be called by one's peers "a pro." Certification (college degrees, a tough job assignment) confers the objective status. But not all who have the certification are truly considered by their peers to be "the real pros." Such hints suggest that an accurate discussion of culture must move on several levels. The first meaning of culture applies to the "state of mind," or the "way of life," of our professional classes. This is the class that manages our institutions of certification the schools, the universities, the media and the new institutes of research, development and consultantship. This same class also manages many of our traditional institutions - business corporations, government, foundations, churches and national organizations. By no means a majority of Americans experiences the culture of professionalizatio n. But most of the high-salaried and/or organizing, articulating, managing and "influential" people do. "Above" the level of the professional culture lies the "high culture" of family tradition, and/or money, and/ or dedication to the classical, recognized arts. Nurture in a certain kind of family tradition - children of Cabots or Lodges, or of concert violinists or professors of the clasics - sometimes provides the requisite sensibility. Money that can buy a new generation the education denied its parents may provide it. (There are many "middle-brow" participants in high culture who enjoy its fruits without being creators.) Finally, sheer talent and desire, an "innate" capacity for the flowering of one's spirit, and the good �SLOVAKIA 103 fortune of schooling of some sort may provide it. Thus, not a few of our ablest artists and scholars today, like Abraham Lincoln and William Shakespeare, although not "wellborn," have advanced the reaches of the human spirit. It is true that the "high culture," once it has been achieved, is in some respects more accessible to the wealthy than to the poor. The wealthy can travel. They have leisure. They are provided with instruction. They finance artists and scholars. They buy the materials, the time spent and the fruits of artistic endeavor; they are the patrons of art and learning. Yet by their nature the achievements of high culture speak to - and belong to - the human spirit, not to wealth. Instrumentally both a society and individuals require sufficient wealth to gain that freedom from necessity without which there are no liberal arts. Such wealth can be very modest. Even in the caves, humans began to draw, and already by the fireside the spirit of Lincoln was being forged. High culture, nonetheless, requires a culture in which leisure is available; it requires wealth. This instrumental tie between wealth and high culture occasions a certain embarrassment in a ruthlessly egalitarian society. Common speech, we recall, distinguishes several kinds of professional performance. The main force of the word "professional" points toward a specialized commitment: one professes one line of work rather than another. A "hack" is a fellow who has not really mastered all the skills he needs, or else does not really commit the whole of himself to the skills does possess. A "slick professional," or "operator," or apparatchik is a fellow who has the skills but no larger commitment to the whole reality of the world within which he operates, he is "a gun for hire." We respect his skills, but not the spirit of their use. When we say "real pro," however, we mean that the person has not been distorted by his specialized techniques. We mean that his intelligence and instincts reach out for all the complex, ambiguous, even mysterious elements of the social realities within which he operates. We mean that, both regarding himself and regarding the world of his activities, he maintains a certain realism. He is "in touch." His professionalism is an instrument of his commitment to reality, not a defense against that reality. He is neither an operator, nor a hack, nor a mere specialist. �104 SLOVAKIA Hacks are easy to understand but what is the culture of the operator? We are afflicted with operators in America. As testimony to their "cultivation," they may take homemovies, or become amateur photographers, or be buffs of considerable artistic skill in one field or another. They may attend concerts or go to all the arty flicks. They may be articulate and even, in some sense, well and broadly educated. Yet there is a sense in which, used in this context, the word "culture" gives off a tinny ring. No doubt anthropologists should study their "culture," too; in a perfectly neutral scene, they represent a "state of mind," a "way of life," as surely as do primitive tribes in New Guinea. But in some way they are rootless, rudderless, without depth. They have made themselves rather into instruments than into ends. The phrase "new barbarians" points to their shallowness. It suggests that smooth, civil persons, persons of considerable education and articulateness, are somehow empty and lacking. Empty of what? Lacking what? No tradition, it seems, lives in them; no long-range, virtually unchangeable, perennial values guide them; their moral universe is without a center; no passionate inwardness directs them. They are, in a sense, larger than David Riesman intended, "other-directed." Success, power, expertise - their guides are extrinsic, changeable, consulted for the short term. The social realities of our "temporary society" do not discourage the flexibility such men exemplify. The state, as Plato says, is man writ large; so men are often their society writ small. Operators, then, are quintessentially American; their role has been mythically established in Huck Finn and in Melville's The Confidence Man. They are outsiders, from the city (or the university), traveling salesmen, "experts." But what about the local cultures, those millions who admire and understand "the old pros" but dislike operators? When Senator Sam Ervin quotes the Bible and Shakespeare, he makes reverberate a network of trustworthy and illuminating traditions. He plays on symbolic strings that have shaped the consciousness of perhaps eightly million Americans. Many, indeed, find the language of a "country lawyer" a good deal more persuasive than the language of the new professionals. Many, indeed, can scarcely discriminate among the several languages of the new professionals. To �SLOVAKIA 105 them, they are all the same: the smooth articulateness of John Dean and Gary Hart, of David Brinkley and Professor Galbraith, of Doctor Kildare and Doctor Spock, of Jeb Stuart Magruder and William Coffin. Often today ideology does not divide people (liberal versus conservative) so much as cultural style does. The old pros remain connected to the symbolic worlds of this nation's many diverse cultures; the operators leave and "do not go home again." Region, ethnicity, religion, race and other cultural factors shape symbolic consciousness in different ways. The Irish of Boston are not exactly like those of Minnesota or Texas; contrasts among John Kennedy, Eugene McCarthy, Joseph McCarthy, Richard Daley and John Connally suggest several of the most significant Irish traditions in the nation. Both George McGovern and George Wallace spring from fundamentalist Scotch-Irish traditions, but in regions whose history has been profoundly different. The symbolic worlds within which they speak set off intense but opposite vibrations. Of the French-Canadians of New Hampshire and Maine; the Appalachians of West Virginia and Kentucky, the poor whites of Alabama and the Florida Panhandle; the AngloAmericans of Wyoming and Idaho; the Oregonians; the Mormons of Utah; the Slavic farmers of Illinois and Nebraska, contrasted with the Slavic miners and millworkers of Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan; the Italians contrasted with the upper-class and the lower-class Jews of New York City; the Anglo-American Protestants who supported George Wallace in the 1968 Indiana primary in proportions far heavier than did German-American Protestants of similar economic class - of such diverse and crisscross variety is this nation composed. Among blacks, there are differences depending on origins in Africa: on the generations of colonial experience whether in the West Indies, or rural Mississippi, or the cities of the South; and on length of time in the urban North. The Spanish-speaking population of Miami, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Antonio and Albuquerque are significantly different. The experiences of Oriental Americans - including, without benefit of "Protestant ethic," their astonishing capacity for work and for success - are better admitted into consciousness if one approaches �106 SLOVAKIA American pluralism from Hawaii and California, than from Boston and New York. The variety of cultural worlds in the United States is a powerful, subterranean influence in our national life. It remains subterranean because it is often repressed, as thought it were something "dirty," disfunctional, and doomed to disappear. In its place, a "national" ideology has been created, divided into three parts. First, there is the ideology of "the American way of life," popular, patriotic, capitalistic, chauvinistic. Second, there is the ideology of the mobile, educated, "committed," professional classes what one writer has called "the ideocracy." Third, there is the ideology of the neutral, meritocratic, incommitted, objective professional classes, neither conservative nor liberal, but comfortably in charge. All three of these ideologies, for their own various purposes, try to eliminate cultural diversity. Each carries with it its own ethnic and regional biases. Some, for example, make provision for black, Hispanic and Indian diversity - and, pressed a little, perhaps, they might expand the list. But the terms of their analyses do not give cultural diversity the prominence reality demands. It is true, we have seen, that there is a "common culture" in the West, a set of achievements that represents the most profound insights, wrested from suffering, that Western peoples for some five millennia have attained. But it is not true that even highly educated people in any part of the West are well versed in all the subtraditions of this "common culture." A young Italian from New Jersey who attends the University of Notre Dame will have as part of the furniture of his mind and sensibility materials that the young Jew from Brooklyn who attends City College of New York will not share, and vice versa. When I compare, for example, my years of reading in St. Augustine, St. Bernard, Thomas Aquinas, Cardinal Newman and others, my virtual neglect of Marx, and my dislike of Enlightenment writers like Kant and Mill, with the reading patterns exhibited by, say, Irving Howe, it is vividly clear to me that American intellectual life is profoundly diverse. So it is also with Protestant colleagues of mine in philosophy and religious studies who respond in significantly different ways to materials we jointly consider. Other colleagues have �SLOVAKIA 107 interests and training in the sciences or social sciences; their symbolic world is, again, quite different from mine. "Where did you grow up? Where did you go to school? What is your religious and ethnic background? What do these mean to you?" These are important questions, not for purpose of stereotyping, but for intelligent and sensitive perception. In order to come to learn and to appreciate the cultural background within which the words of others gain their full and familiar meaning, we must be able to answer such questions. What we have most to gain from each other is generated by our mutual differences. The different horizon, standpoint and way of perceiving we each bring to our common world are instruments of spiritual wealth. Consider the following propositions: 1. There is a common Western culture of high intellectual and humanizing potency, instructing all who journey into it in inexhaustible wisdom, insight and spiritual depth. 2. This common culture is composed of many related but divergent traditions, and no one can master all of them. 3. Beyond the boundaries of Western culture, there are also other "common cultures" of great complexity and diversity. In some of these non-Western riches, westerners are also beginning to share in ways both superficial and serious. 4. In higher education and in museums and other instrumentalities of culture in the United States, Protestant traditions within the common culture have been favored over Catholic and Jewish traditions. English literature and philosophy have been favored over Continental literatures and philosophies. Post-Enlightenment materials have virtually driven pre-Enlightenment materials from the field. Agnostic or atheistic materials are favored over religious materials. A rather positivistic ideology of the modern, the progressive and the "factual" has dominated our dictionaries and encyclopedias, as well as our schools, our journalism and our business world. (Dictionaries do not list under "rose" one of its most important cultural meanings: that it is the flower of love, fate and war.) 5. Education is commonly regarded, not as a device for strengthening and benefiting by local, regional, ethnic and religious differences but for "overcoming" them, �108 SLOVAKIA for replacing them with a more or less universal culture. The underlying model for this "universal" ideological outlook is not perfectly neutral as regards those who enter into it. Even if they are of equal talent, some will find cultural models, heroes, texts and materials related to their own cultural background, and others will not. 6. The preferred and most prestigious model for the "high culture" in the United States coincides with the background of our most wealthy and powerful citizens. This model illustrates the history of some, at least, of our major institutions, and partially grounds the dominant language of the land. Hence even though it is biased, it cannot be ignored. Let us attend, first, to proposition 6. Andover, Groton, Milton, Choate and the other prestigious private schools nurture a good part of one major wing of the nation's financial and governmental elites. Yet with every year that passes, in order to understand American reality, students have to go further beyond the limits of Anglo-American traditions. How can one understand Mailer, Malamud, Trilling, Chomsky or Howe without understanding the Jewish traditions of Eastern Europe and America? How can one understand Kennedy, McCarthy or Daley without learning about the Irish experience in America? Will anyone comprehend Detroit without learning about black history in America and Polish history in America - two out of every three citizens of that city being either black or Polish, while virtually all the wealth and power of the city's elites remain Anglo-American and Jewish? Power in America is essentially Anglo-American, hence it is a condition of survival (and of eventual justice) that all the others penetrate the intricacies of the Anglo-American mind. The Yankee pride in "candor," fo example, has generated unique deceptions, especially self-deceptions, whose routes must be painfully traced and plainly marked Yankee appeals to "morality" and leadership" and "integrity" require most careful scrutiny; these are the banners of the most powerful elites. Thus those whose heritage is not Anglo-American, have every right (and duty) both to assimilate all that is good in Anglo-American culture, and to be clear-eyed about what assimilation entails. Two years ago, Irving Howe quoted in these pages �SLOVAKIA 109 the argument of Louis Kampf that "initiating the 'underpriviledged' to the cultural treasures of the West could be a form of oppression - a weapon in the hands of those who rule . .. High culture itself ... tends to reinforce the given alignments of powers within the society." Against Kampf, Howe is able to quote Trotsky: "Mastery of the art of the past is ... a necessary precondition not only for the creation of new art but also for the building of a new society . . . If we were groundlessly to repudiate the art of the past, we should at once become poorer spiritually." Cultural backwardness is not required for political advance. And yet, what is meant by "backwardness"? In order to be fully moral man must one be a professor, or at minimum a college graduate? Is it necessary to have read many books? "Man is not saved by dialectics," a Christian aphorism insists. The simple, too, have their own precious wisdom and the learned their patent foolishness. It is not necessary to romanticize either side in order to recognize that there are analogies between the life stories of the uneducated and those of the college trained. A democracy needs an early discernment system, to spot young persons of talent in every social condition. But it also needs a way to encourage young persons of talent to remain (if they so wish) in living contact with their own roots. They should encouraged not to be parochial, and yet to be rooted. Neither our egalitarians nor our meritocrats, it seems, have a sufficiently cultural perspective; both proceed somewhat atomically, somewhat mechanically. According to egalitarian sentimentality, any student admitted to college through "open admissions" has within him the makings of a student. According to meritocratic arrogance, each student should be judged according to his own performance. The egalitarian forgets that a university is an institution not all citizens are graced with the talent to appreciate; perhaps not one person in ten ought to be admitted to a genuine university. The meritocrat forgets that persons are not individuals merely but also creatures of culture, and that the institutions of high culture in the United States are inequitably and inhumanely ethnocentric. When as a young Slovak-American I read ( with eagerness and delight) "English literature," I learned as well �110 SLOVAKIA a latent message: "These are the kinds of people literature is about; not about families like yours, feeling like yours, dilemmas like yours." Literature was not (except by analogy) about myself; it was about those fascinating, foreign "others." In our part of town, when I was very young, we called them "the Americans." (With less than accurate perception, we included the Irish among "the Americans." We seldom dealt directly with Anglo-Americans.) The heart of the matter comes down to this. There are three main locations of culture. The actual ways of life of ordinary people, in their diverse, loose and permeable communities are one location. The humanities are, in this sense, not primarily what is written down in books, or celebrated in works of art, but what is lived. Those relatively few artists, scholars and critical persons in whom a genuinely high culture is alive are a second location. The swarming army of professionals, highly educated but not necessarily in tune with the high traditions of the past, are a third location. Among these new professionals are many who call themselves humanists . Each of these groups is to be taken seriously. Each enhances our own identity. We need, in America, a public and popular humanities - a pluralism of stories, myths, accurate histories, detailed studies that touch our various peopl8 in all their variety. As a boy, I wish I had learned of the exploits of Janosik as well as of Robin Hood, and had been taught in public and parochial school of the democratic traditions of the early Slovak tribes. I wish I had learned that, after the origins of feudalism, my ancestors endured a thousand-year struggle against oppression that is not yet complete. I wish I had learned officially and fully of the bitter deaths of so many of my countrymen in the mills and mines and strikes of Pennsylvania. (The murder of the Jablonski.s of the United Mine Workers is a recent episode in a hundredyear war.) My sense of injustice and untruth in America would have come earlier than it did. I would have learned earlier both a tragic sense of life and fierce desire to remedy injustice. I would have had a way to discern what made me culturally different, and what my peculiar contribution might have been. I would have had personal parallels by which to judge more accurately what America had done to the Indians, blacks and others in Amei:ica. (What was �SLOVAKIA 111 I doing, cheering for Custer in They Died with Their Boots On?) We also need, of course, a high culture. We need continuity with the visions and sources of judgment upon us that derive from the great spiritual achievements of our past. In many American towns, counties and cities, one family or a small number of families controls the politics, economics and media of communication. Against their vulgar power, the arts and critical skills of the high culture are as powerful a threat as human beings have. Indeed even our highest national elites, our best and our brightest, suffer embarrassment compared to the best our race has seen before. I recognize that our elites sometimes use "taste" and "culture" as weapon of intimidation, which only proves their own vulgarity. The proof that a person has attained a genuine high culture in his unselfconscious respect for the moral analogies between his life and those of others. Portrayed in myth and narrative as the nobleman at home with peasants, the saint with sinners, the learned doctor with children and the ignorant, the political leader sharing his people's crusts of bread, this is the excellence by which our culture measures us. It is not exactly an egalitarian standard, for differences of station and talent are not blurred, but it is, at least, a standard of fraternity, and of the human spirit's radical equality in the eyes of God. Finally, we need the professionals. It is true that concerning the large and important issues, they are almost always wrong. But this is exactly what we should expect; it is their profession to attend scrupulously to a part of the whole; they almost necessarily distort. Yet specialization is no cause for excommunication. Professionals are our brothers, too. We need their powerful skills. One could wish that more of them would turn their skills toward many neglected problems. To mention but one: toward the history and culture of each of the diverse peoples of the United States. Toward an accurate history of our actual pluralism. '' From 1896 to 1908, 508 Slovaks were arrested and convicted for using the Slovak language in public. (Reprinted from The American Scholar, Volume 43, Number 1, Winter, 1973-74. Copyright 1973 by the United Chapters of Phi Beta Kappa. By permission of the publishers.) � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to 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 96 SLOVAKIA One Species, Many Cultures Michael N ov ak Bounded by the slow Danube River on the south and by the rugged Carpathian Mountains on the north, the ancestral land of the Slovak people lies at the axis of Westem lcivilization. For centuries, the vast armies of Attila, Genghis Khan, the Turks, the Germans and the Russians have risen like a tide toward Europe and in due course have been broken in or near the mountains of Slovakia. In the ninth century, Saints Cyril and Methodius established there the Byzantine influence of the Cyrillic alphabet and the Old Slavonic liturgy; but ambitious German rulers later imposed the Latin language, in order to draw Slovakia back toward the West. The rivers of Slovakia run southward and the cultivation of grapes makes Slovakia a wine-drinking nation; the sensibility pf the Slovaks is partly Mediterranean and partly Nordic. For two thousand years, the Slovak people, often to their woe, have abhorred large governmental units and preferred local rule. For a thousand years they have endured almost unbroken political oppression. Just before the Johnstown flood of 1889, one of my grandfathers came from Slovakia to the United States; within a few years, all three of my other grandparents had done the same. During the thirty-nine years from 1875 to 1914, nearly a third of the population of Slovakia emigrated. They left from sheer hunger, to escape military conscription in the h~ted Hungarian army, to find some was to break the political oppression of Hungarian "magyarization," "" and to 'fulfill the ancient Slovak legends and myths of freedom. The Slovaks, like many other Slavs, tend to be suspicious of governments, activism and politicians. "Every official has a tail, to sweep in goods," runs a Slovak proverb. Better to concentrate on home, family and work. No other Slavic people is so inventive in song; over fifteen thousand folk songs Qf the Slovaks have been catalogued, and a Slavic saying goes: "See. a Slovak, hear a song." Nearly all the arts of the Slovaks focus on the home. SLOVAKIA 97 The great Slovak names Svatopluk, Janosik, Benovsky and Stefanik mean little to most Americans. But this is only to say that an ordinary American education is remarkably ethnocentric. About one-third of our population is of Anglo-Saxon ancestry. Yet so far is our nation from fulfilling its own pluralistic destiny that our education is almost entirely Anglo-American. (Indeed, not even all social classes, religious traditions, or regions of Anglo-Americans are equally represented in our educational cultures-"rednecks," evangelicals, Appalachians, for example.) Perhaps the dominance of Anglo-Saxon ethnocentrism in the past necessitates its continued dominance; it has shaped our history. Every American should learn about and, to some extent, assimilate English political history and literature. But is a virtually total concentration on the upper-class culture based in the northeastern section of the nation a sufficient intellectual guide to actual American life, or to the character of the other cultures on this planet? Not long ago, "the humanities" meant, not humanity, but "Western civilization." More than that, it meant "Western civilization as seen through English, Protestant, upperclass eyes." Not many of the graduates of Harvard, Princeton and Yale now in their fifties learned very much in their college days about the other cultures of the world - about Buddhism, or Slavic history, or Jewish family life, or Chinese civilization, or Latin America, or the history of slavery. What they were instructed in as "liberal arts" was not quite fully liberating; what passed before their eyes as "the humanities" was, rather astonishingly, a mirror image of their own ethnicity. The phrase "our common culture" has in recent years been used with more glibness than hard reflection. A culture is not put on like a suit of clothes. One can mimic a culture, absorb it, even use it as a vehicle of one's own self-expression. If, however, the culture does not flow out of one's own tutored instincts and aspirations, it is not yet one's own and does not yet exhaust one's own intelligence, perceptions or dreams. So for many millions of immigrants and their descendants-for a majority of Americans-what is currently available as "mainstream culture" does not spring from the heart. Hundreds of thousands of freshmen tapping their feet in classrooms in Providence, Buffalo, 98 SLOVAKIA Pittsburgh, Detroit, Miami, Houston and Los Angeles do not hear, in the voice of their professors, their own voices - and this is not only because of television, or a generation gap, or the collapsing of "the great tradition." The great tradition itself has been in America too narrowly, too ethnocentrically, perceived. I concur, there is a great tradition. There is a "common" Western culture, distinct from other cultures. But ever since Kant, scholars have sought this tradition in a premature and inaccurately projected "universality." They have tried to emphasize what is common in all men, what is universal, those qualities in which we all share and are alike, those characteristics that do not divide, but rather unite us. A laudable but grievously mistaken impulse. A profound irony is involved in our common identity as members of the human species. The species to which we belong in a historical species; it possesses consciousness, and this consciousness is at once symbolic and concrete. That is, our species lives not only within the physical atmosphere surrounding this blue green planet but also within a variety of concrete, historical cultures. We are the species that lives within cultures - within spheres of meaning, sensibility, selective perception and patterned action. What we have in common is that we are diverse. Our diversity is proof that we are human. We are not so many ants crawling on a soundless orb, nor so many apes obeying laws of natural selection. We generate distinctive cultures. Within cultures, we develop endlessly complex, distinctive individuals. We live within symbolic worlds all our own, both as individuals and as cultures. In the twentieth century (which is itself, a friend reminds me, a somewhat "culture-bound" concept), the relativity of each of our identities is borne in upon us because we inescapably encounter so many who differ from us. In this relativity we meet a second and novel kind of common identity. What we have in common are our finitude and interdependence. Our diversity does not mean we are intrinsically divided from each other, only that we are intrinsically different from each other. Our future unity lies not in "overcoming our differences" but in seeing how they are analogous: in learning to see that my struggle to become a moral human being is rather like (not the same SLOVAKIA 99 as, only analogous to) your struggle to become a moral human being. In a word, the way to become moral is not to become universal, but to become concrete. I need not become the same as you. But my struggle to realize my own moral identity - solely my own, concrete, unique - has many parallels to your struggle to realize your own identity. We face, for example, many similar obstacles: social inequities, ill fortune, self-deception, aging, death. How you face these obstacles in your life illuminates possibilities by which I may, allowing for our differences, conduct my life as well. A nun may define her life around her chastity, as a chosen symbol of God's transcendent love; whereas I, a sensual man, may see in her struggles to protect virginity (of spirit and of flesh) illumination for the perplexities surrounding the central value by which I define my life. The world's literature opens up for me a world of analogy, where flashes of illumination ricochet in unpredictable patterns off a thousand mirrors. The critic of literature who reads Nietzsche after having learned Goethe may catch different reflections from one who reads him after studying Russell, Hare and Austin. What "the great tradition" concerns is wisdom, the voyages individuals take toward moral maturity and moral growth, and the analogous "stages on the way," the analogous "moves," the analogous "dilemmas," "ironies" and "tragedies" they encounter. These words, of course, are already heavy with cultural specificity; they conjure up Aeschylus, Kierkegaard, Hesse and a hundred German scholars. Still, every human life is a structuring of time; each begins with birth, each ends. "Voyage," therefore, is a universal motif. It is the kind of motif that allows for infinite variation, for concrete diversity, for cultural and personal uniqueness. Cultures structure time quite differently. Cultures imagine the model of human fulfillment differently. Yet in every culture individuals voyage from birth to death, and from moral beginnings to moral development. Many of our present perplexities arise from two confusions: one is a misperception of class, the other a misperception of culture. Some young blacks from Hough may not be literate, but that does not mean that the basic human voyage is closed to them. Both the Autobiography 100 SLOVAKIA of Malcolm X and Sou l on Ice are classically Greek and Christian in the metanoia they narrate, and in the structure of decision and liberation they exhibit. (Note even their chapter headings.) It is a mistake to hold that the fundamental moral struggle is restricted to upper-class AngloSaxons - or to the "oppressed." Whatever one's social class, the struggle against self-deception (never decisively won), the struggle for clear vision, and the struggle to respect concrete human persons different from oneself is always present. Bourgeois morality, the morality of appearances and proprieties, must be distinguished from fundamental human morality. "The habit doth not make the monk." One may be an attorney general of the United States without becoming a moral hero to whom others look for illumination on how to become a moral man. It is not easy to be moral simply because one is wellborn, nor simply because one is born in a slum. The voyage toward moral development in either case is analogous to the others - essentially different, yet sufficiently parallel to cast mutual illumination. No human life is so different from all others that it cannot shed morally profitable light; thus the fascination of stories even about moral monsters. When a culture is highly articulated, a "cultivated" person is skilled both in discerning movements of the soul and in giving names to them. He will have a full range of references and allusions with which to speak of what he feels. It is not enough, for example, to be "an atheist." Like Sartre? Or like Merleau-Ponty? Or like Malraux? Or like Camus? Like John Dewey? Or like Corliss Lamont? Or like some churchgoer going through empty motions? The state of soul is remarkably various in every case. Nevertheless, a lack of words does not necessarily indicate an incapacity of soul. It is true (it certainly seems true) that many persons are indeed shallow of soul and contemptuous of introspection. It does not necessarily follow that an abundance of words indicates greatness of soul, or poverty of words powerty of spirit. There are some professors, disdainful of the "cultural deprivation" of those they are obliged to instruct, who are sterile of soul; and in some of their students there are depths untongued. Among some of the Indian chiefs of American history, SLOVAKIA 101 for example, there is an eloquence, dignity and precision of speech worthy of the ancient Greeks. Or, to state the matter differently, some of the heroes of Homer utter sentiments worthy of the Indian nations. Want of reading does not disbar human beings from profound moral insight or from classical eloquence. One does not have to read Greek to encounter ancient wisdom. (The American Indians produced no Aristotle; neither has New York.) On the other hand, a university education in the humanities today is not aimed at profound moral insight or classical eloquence. They are lucky indeed whose insight and eloquence are not destroyed by a university education today. For the culture of the universities today is not the culture of "the great tradition," not the culture of Western civilization, not even the culture of upper-class Anglo-Americans. In some few persons, it may be these things. In most administrators, professors, teaching assistants and students a university education exhibits a different culture altogether. Let me call it "the culture of the professionals" and attempt to draw attention to its pervasiveness. Not long ago, a major corporation took an ad in the Wall Street Journal to honor one of its employees. Above his picture was a single word, "Professionalism ... " and below it a definition: "More than education ... More than experience . . . More than training ... it's a state of mind." Who today are proud to call themselves professionals? Football players, stockbrockers, doctors, lawyers, journal• ists, gangsters and professors of literature, philosophy and other fields. "Professionalism. " "State of Mind." These are terms of considerable power. Implied are choices, special• izations, narrowings down for purposes of efficiency and effect. Implied, indeed, is the disciplining of an entire life, a concentration upon a limited field of expertise. "A state of mind." "A way of life." A major, driving, powerful culture in our midst is the culture of professionals. Football is its major public liturgy, its dramatic expression, its mirror-image festival. In the daily world of politics, the word "professional" is used in fascinating ways. Of some lifelong politicians, an informed opinion of their performance is "hack" or "fake." By contrast, the most sober and comforting praise 102 SLOVAKIA for a public figure or for this or that person on his staff is, "He's a real pro." An intermediate word of praise, spoken with a faintly baffled sort of affection, is the phrase, "an old pro." The meaning is that the person in question - Senator Sam Ervin, let us say - lacks some of the technical sophistication and scientific art of modern professionalism, but is, so to speak, an artist of an older style, in a different sort of way, and by God, admirable nevertheless. He "knows his way around," "knows what he's doing," and so one "shouldn't be fooled" by his apparent naivete or folksy style. There are some jobs, among some constituencies, that maybe "the old pro" tackles with a surer grasp that "the real pro." It's a very good feeling to be called by one's peers "a pro." Certification (college degrees, a tough job assignment) confers the objective status. But not all who have the certification are truly considered by their peers to be "the real pros." Such hints suggest that an accurate discussion of culture must move on several levels. The first meaning of culture applies to the "state of mind," or the "way of life," of our professional classes. This is the class that manages our institutions of certification the schools, the universities, the media and the new institutes of research, development and consultantship. This same class also manages many of our traditional institutions - business corporations, government, foundations, churches and national organizations. By no means a majority of Americans experiences the culture of professionalizatio n. But most of the high-salaried and/or organizing, articulating, managing and "influential" people do. "Above" the level of the professional culture lies the "high culture" of family tradition, and/or money, and/ or dedication to the classical, recognized arts. Nurture in a certain kind of family tradition - children of Cabots or Lodges, or of concert violinists or professors of the clasics - sometimes provides the requisite sensibility. Money that can buy a new generation the education denied its parents may provide it. (There are many "middle-brow" participants in high culture who enjoy its fruits without being creators.) Finally, sheer talent and desire, an "innate" capacity for the flowering of one's spirit, and the good SLOVAKIA 103 fortune of schooling of some sort may provide it. Thus, not a few of our ablest artists and scholars today, like Abraham Lincoln and William Shakespeare, although not "wellborn," have advanced the reaches of the human spirit. It is true that the "high culture," once it has been achieved, is in some respects more accessible to the wealthy than to the poor. The wealthy can travel. They have leisure. They are provided with instruction. They finance artists and scholars. They buy the materials, the time spent and the fruits of artistic endeavor; they are the patrons of art and learning. Yet by their nature the achievements of high culture speak to - and belong to - the human spirit, not to wealth. Instrumentally both a society and individuals require sufficient wealth to gain that freedom from necessity without which there are no liberal arts. Such wealth can be very modest. Even in the caves, humans began to draw, and already by the fireside the spirit of Lincoln was being forged. High culture, nonetheless, requires a culture in which leisure is available; it requires wealth. This instrumental tie between wealth and high culture occasions a certain embarrassment in a ruthlessly egalitarian society. Common speech, we recall, distinguishes several kinds of professional performance. The main force of the word "professional" points toward a specialized commitment: one professes one line of work rather than another. A "hack" is a fellow who has not really mastered all the skills he needs, or else does not really commit the whole of himself to the skills does possess. A "slick professional," or "operator," or apparatchik is a fellow who has the skills but no larger commitment to the whole reality of the world within which he operates, he is "a gun for hire." We respect his skills, but not the spirit of their use. When we say "real pro," however, we mean that the person has not been distorted by his specialized techniques. We mean that his intelligence and instincts reach out for all the complex, ambiguous, even mysterious elements of the social realities within which he operates. We mean that, both regarding himself and regarding the world of his activities, he maintains a certain realism. He is "in touch." His professionalism is an instrument of his commitment to reality, not a defense against that reality. He is neither an operator, nor a hack, nor a mere specialist. 104 SLOVAKIA Hacks are easy to understand but what is the culture of the operator? We are afflicted with operators in America. As testimony to their "cultivation," they may take homemovies, or become amateur photographers, or be buffs of considerable artistic skill in one field or another. They may attend concerts or go to all the arty flicks. They may be articulate and even, in some sense, well and broadly educated. Yet there is a sense in which, used in this context, the word "culture" gives off a tinny ring. No doubt anthropologists should study their "culture," too; in a perfectly neutral scene, they represent a "state of mind," a "way of life," as surely as do primitive tribes in New Guinea. But in some way they are rootless, rudderless, without depth. They have made themselves rather into instruments than into ends. The phrase "new barbarians" points to their shallowness. It suggests that smooth, civil persons, persons of considerable education and articulateness, are somehow empty and lacking. Empty of what? Lacking what? No tradition, it seems, lives in them; no long-range, virtually unchangeable, perennial values guide them; their moral universe is without a center; no passionate inwardness directs them. They are, in a sense, larger than David Riesman intended, "other-directed." Success, power, expertise - their guides are extrinsic, changeable, consulted for the short term. The social realities of our "temporary society" do not discourage the flexibility such men exemplify. The state, as Plato says, is man writ large; so men are often their society writ small. Operators, then, are quintessentially American; their role has been mythically established in Huck Finn and in Melville's The Confidence Man. They are outsiders, from the city (or the university), traveling salesmen, "experts." But what about the local cultures, those millions who admire and understand "the old pros" but dislike operators? When Senator Sam Ervin quotes the Bible and Shakespeare, he makes reverberate a network of trustworthy and illuminating traditions. He plays on symbolic strings that have shaped the consciousness of perhaps eightly million Americans. Many, indeed, find the language of a "country lawyer" a good deal more persuasive than the language of the new professionals. Many, indeed, can scarcely discriminate among the several languages of the new professionals. To SLOVAKIA 105 them, they are all the same: the smooth articulateness of John Dean and Gary Hart, of David Brinkley and Professor Galbraith, of Doctor Kildare and Doctor Spock, of Jeb Stuart Magruder and William Coffin. Often today ideology does not divide people (liberal versus conservative) so much as cultural style does. The old pros remain connected to the symbolic worlds of this nation's many diverse cultures; the operators leave and "do not go home again." Region, ethnicity, religion, race and other cultural factors shape symbolic consciousness in different ways. The Irish of Boston are not exactly like those of Minnesota or Texas; contrasts among John Kennedy, Eugene McCarthy, Joseph McCarthy, Richard Daley and John Connally suggest several of the most significant Irish traditions in the nation. Both George McGovern and George Wallace spring from fundamentalist Scotch-Irish traditions, but in regions whose history has been profoundly different. The symbolic worlds within which they speak set off intense but opposite vibrations. Of the French-Canadians of New Hampshire and Maine; the Appalachians of West Virginia and Kentucky, the poor whites of Alabama and the Florida Panhandle; the AngloAmericans of Wyoming and Idaho; the Oregonians; the Mormons of Utah; the Slavic farmers of Illinois and Nebraska, contrasted with the Slavic miners and millworkers of Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan; the Italians contrasted with the upper-class and the lower-class Jews of New York City; the Anglo-American Protestants who supported George Wallace in the 1968 Indiana primary in proportions far heavier than did German-American Protestants of similar economic class - of such diverse and crisscross variety is this nation composed. Among blacks, there are differences depending on origins in Africa: on the generations of colonial experience whether in the West Indies, or rural Mississippi, or the cities of the South; and on length of time in the urban North. The Spanish-speaking population of Miami, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Antonio and Albuquerque are significantly different. The experiences of Oriental Americans - including, without benefit of "Protestant ethic," their astonishing capacity for work and for success - are better admitted into consciousness if one approaches 106 SLOVAKIA American pluralism from Hawaii and California, than from Boston and New York. The variety of cultural worlds in the United States is a powerful, subterranean influence in our national life. It remains subterranean because it is often repressed, as thought it were something "dirty," disfunctional, and doomed to disappear. In its place, a "national" ideology has been created, divided into three parts. First, there is the ideology of "the American way of life," popular, patriotic, capitalistic, chauvinistic. Second, there is the ideology of the mobile, educated, "committed," professional classes what one writer has called "the ideocracy." Third, there is the ideology of the neutral, meritocratic, incommitted, objective professional classes, neither conservative nor liberal, but comfortably in charge. All three of these ideologies, for their own various purposes, try to eliminate cultural diversity. Each carries with it its own ethnic and regional biases. Some, for example, make provision for black, Hispanic and Indian diversity - and, pressed a little, perhaps, they might expand the list. But the terms of their analyses do not give cultural diversity the prominence reality demands. It is true, we have seen, that there is a "common culture" in the West, a set of achievements that represents the most profound insights, wrested from suffering, that Western peoples for some five millennia have attained. But it is not true that even highly educated people in any part of the West are well versed in all the subtraditions of this "common culture." A young Italian from New Jersey who attends the University of Notre Dame will have as part of the furniture of his mind and sensibility materials that the young Jew from Brooklyn who attends City College of New York will not share, and vice versa. When I compare, for example, my years of reading in St. Augustine, St. Bernard, Thomas Aquinas, Cardinal Newman and others, my virtual neglect of Marx, and my dislike of Enlightenment writers like Kant and Mill, with the reading patterns exhibited by, say, Irving Howe, it is vividly clear to me that American intellectual life is profoundly diverse. So it is also with Protestant colleagues of mine in philosophy and religious studies who respond in significantly different ways to materials we jointly consider. Other colleagues have SLOVAKIA 107 interests and training in the sciences or social sciences; their symbolic world is, again, quite different from mine. "Where did you grow up? Where did you go to school? What is your religious and ethnic background? What do these mean to you?" These are important questions, not for purpose of stereotyping, but for intelligent and sensitive perception. In order to come to learn and to appreciate the cultural background within which the words of others gain their full and familiar meaning, we must be able to answer such questions. What we have most to gain from each other is generated by our mutual differences. The different horizon, standpoint and way of perceiving we each bring to our common world are instruments of spiritual wealth. Consider the following propositions: 1. There is a common Western culture of high intellectual and humanizing potency, instructing all who journey into it in inexhaustible wisdom, insight and spiritual depth. 2. This common culture is composed of many related but divergent traditions, and no one can master all of them. 3. Beyond the boundaries of Western culture, there are also other "common cultures" of great complexity and diversity. In some of these non-Western riches, westerners are also beginning to share in ways both superficial and serious. 4. In higher education and in museums and other instrumentalities of culture in the United States, Protestant traditions within the common culture have been favored over Catholic and Jewish traditions. English literature and philosophy have been favored over Continental literatures and philosophies. Post-Enlightenment materials have virtually driven pre-Enlightenment materials from the field. Agnostic or atheistic materials are favored over religious materials. A rather positivistic ideology of the modern, the progressive and the "factual" has dominated our dictionaries and encyclopedias, as well as our schools, our journalism and our business world. (Dictionaries do not list under "rose" one of its most important cultural meanings: that it is the flower of love, fate and war.) 5. Education is commonly regarded, not as a device for strengthening and benefiting by local, regional, ethnic and religious differences but for "overcoming" them, 108 SLOVAKIA for replacing them with a more or less universal culture. The underlying model for this "universal" ideological outlook is not perfectly neutral as regards those who enter into it. Even if they are of equal talent, some will find cultural models, heroes, texts and materials related to their own cultural background, and others will not. 6. The preferred and most prestigious model for the "high culture" in the United States coincides with the background of our most wealthy and powerful citizens. This model illustrates the history of some, at least, of our major institutions, and partially grounds the dominant language of the land. Hence even though it is biased, it cannot be ignored. Let us attend, first, to proposition 6. Andover, Groton, Milton, Choate and the other prestigious private schools nurture a good part of one major wing of the nation's financial and governmental elites. Yet with every year that passes, in order to understand American reality, students have to go further beyond the limits of Anglo-American traditions. How can one understand Mailer, Malamud, Trilling, Chomsky or Howe without understanding the Jewish traditions of Eastern Europe and America? How can one understand Kennedy, McCarthy or Daley without learning about the Irish experience in America? Will anyone comprehend Detroit without learning about black history in America and Polish history in America - two out of every three citizens of that city being either black or Polish, while virtually all the wealth and power of the city's elites remain Anglo-American and Jewish? Power in America is essentially Anglo-American, hence it is a condition of survival (and of eventual justice) that all the others penetrate the intricacies of the Anglo-American mind. The Yankee pride in "candor," fo example, has generated unique deceptions, especially self-deceptions, whose routes must be painfully traced and plainly marked Yankee appeals to "morality" and leadership" and "integrity" require most careful scrutiny; these are the banners of the most powerful elites. Thus those whose heritage is not Anglo-American, have every right (and duty) both to assimilate all that is good in Anglo-American culture, and to be clear-eyed about what assimilation entails. Two years ago, Irving Howe quoted in these pages SLOVAKIA 109 the argument of Louis Kampf that "initiating the 'underpriviledged' to the cultural treasures of the West could be a form of oppression - a weapon in the hands of those who rule . .. High culture itself ... tends to reinforce the given alignments of powers within the society." Against Kampf, Howe is able to quote Trotsky: "Mastery of the art of the past is ... a necessary precondition not only for the creation of new art but also for the building of a new society . . . If we were groundlessly to repudiate the art of the past, we should at once become poorer spiritually." Cultural backwardness is not required for political advance. And yet, what is meant by "backwardness"? In order to be fully moral man must one be a professor, or at minimum a college graduate? Is it necessary to have read many books? "Man is not saved by dialectics," a Christian aphorism insists. The simple, too, have their own precious wisdom and the learned their patent foolishness. It is not necessary to romanticize either side in order to recognize that there are analogies between the life stories of the uneducated and those of the college trained. A democracy needs an early discernment system, to spot young persons of talent in every social condition. But it also needs a way to encourage young persons of talent to remain (if they so wish) in living contact with their own roots. They should encouraged not to be parochial, and yet to be rooted. Neither our egalitarians nor our meritocrats, it seems, have a sufficiently cultural perspective; both proceed somewhat atomically, somewhat mechanically. According to egalitarian sentimentality, any student admitted to college through "open admissions" has within him the makings of a student. According to meritocratic arrogance, each student should be judged according to his own performance. The egalitarian forgets that a university is an institution not all citizens are graced with the talent to appreciate; perhaps not one person in ten ought to be admitted to a genuine university. The meritocrat forgets that persons are not individuals merely but also creatures of culture, and that the institutions of high culture in the United States are inequitably and inhumanely ethnocentric. When as a young Slovak-American I read ( with eagerness and delight) "English literature," I learned as well 110 SLOVAKIA a latent message: "These are the kinds of people literature is about; not about families like yours, feeling like yours, dilemmas like yours." Literature was not (except by analogy) about myself; it was about those fascinating, foreign "others." In our part of town, when I was very young, we called them "the Americans." (With less than accurate perception, we included the Irish among "the Americans." We seldom dealt directly with Anglo-Americans.) The heart of the matter comes down to this. There are three main locations of culture. The actual ways of life of ordinary people, in their diverse, loose and permeable communities are one location. The humanities are, in this sense, not primarily what is written down in books, or celebrated in works of art, but what is lived. Those relatively few artists, scholars and critical persons in whom a genuinely high culture is alive are a second location. The swarming army of professionals, highly educated but not necessarily in tune with the high traditions of the past, are a third location. Among these new professionals are many who call themselves humanists . Each of these groups is to be taken seriously. Each enhances our own identity. We need, in America, a public and popular humanities - a pluralism of stories, myths, accurate histories, detailed studies that touch our various peopl8 in all their variety. As a boy, I wish I had learned of the exploits of Janosik as well as of Robin Hood, and had been taught in public and parochial school of the democratic traditions of the early Slovak tribes. I wish I had learned that, after the origins of feudalism, my ancestors endured a thousand-year struggle against oppression that is not yet complete. I wish I had learned officially and fully of the bitter deaths of so many of my countrymen in the mills and mines and strikes of Pennsylvania. (The murder of the Jablonski.s of the United Mine Workers is a recent episode in a hundredyear war.) My sense of injustice and untruth in America would have come earlier than it did. I would have learned earlier both a tragic sense of life and fierce desire to remedy injustice. I would have had a way to discern what made me culturally different, and what my peculiar contribution might have been. I would have had personal parallels by which to judge more accurately what America had done to the Indians, blacks and others in Amei:ica. (What was SLOVAKIA 111 I doing, cheering for Custer in They Died with Their Boots On?) We also need, of course, a high culture. We need continuity with the visions and sources of judgment upon us that derive from the great spiritual achievements of our past. In many American towns, counties and cities, one family or a small number of families controls the politics, economics and media of communication. Against their vulgar power, the arts and critical skills of the high culture are as powerful a threat as human beings have. Indeed even our highest national elites, our best and our brightest, suffer embarrassment compared to the best our race has seen before. I recognize that our elites sometimes use "taste" and "culture" as weapon of intimidation, which only proves their own vulgarity. The proof that a person has attained a genuine high culture in his unselfconscious respect for the moral analogies between his life and those of others. Portrayed in myth and narrative as the nobleman at home with peasants, the saint with sinners, the learned doctor with children and the ignorant, the political leader sharing his people's crusts of bread, this is the excellence by which our culture measures us. It is not exactly an egalitarian standard, for differences of station and talent are not blurred, but it is, at least, a standard of fraternity, and of the human spirit's radical equality in the eyes of God. Finally, we need the professionals. It is true that concerning the large and important issues, they are almost always wrong. But this is exactly what we should expect; it is their profession to attend scrupulously to a part of the whole; they almost necessarily distort. Yet specialization is no cause for excommunication. Professionals are our brothers, too. We need their powerful skills. One could wish that more of them would turn their skills toward many neglected problems. To mention but one: toward the history and culture of each of the diverse peoples of the United States. Toward an accurate history of our actual pluralism. '' From 1896 to 1908, 508 Slovaks were arrested and convicted for using the Slovak language in public. (Reprinted from The American Scholar, Volume 43, Number 1, Winter, 1973-74. Copyright 1973 by the United Chapters of Phi Beta Kappa. By permission of the publishers.)  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource One Species, Many Cultures Description An account of the resource Michael Novak Slovakia, Vol. 24 (No. 47), 1974 pp. 96-111 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Novak, Michael, 1933-2017 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1974 LCNAF+dates https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/c6066799d2c648d30601272429b42647.pdf 191697fac20fdcca6f1a5954187f5822 PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA 69 OSUSKY AFTER MARCH 14, 1939 Constantine Colen I have read Vnuk's article on Osusky in the Slovak press and believe it in the interest of historians to enlarge upon it, since I have quite a file on Osusky, the man who was delegated by the Slovak League of America to do a certain job for it in 1916 (to get the story in Europe of what was to be done with Austria-Hungary at the end of World War 1 and, particularly, to see what could be done to liberate the Slovaks from the hegemony of Budapest), but thusfar has failed to report his findings to the League. Now, how did Osusky, a Slovak who found favorwith T. G.Masaryk, protect the interests of his fellowSlovaks in France? Let me tell you how he tried to make cannon fodder of them for the French in the last war. After Germany attacked France, Osusky began to organize a new Czecho~Slovak army in France, knowing that some 50,000 Slovaks had settled there. In the years w:hen thousands upon thousands of Czechs poured into Slovakia to help the "backward, primitive" Slovaks, thousands upon thousands of Slovaks were forced to seek their bread in foreign lands. France was one of the countries where the Slovaks settled in larger numbers. Osusky was a politician who had two irons in th fire. Thus he began his political career, and thus he ended it. Whenever he made one of his rare appearences in Slovakia, his "homeland," Osusky would turn radical and make a speech on how the Slovaks were being mistreated by Prague. On to Prague he would then go and do some smooth explaining so that his Prague boss would not be angry with him. In the fall of 1938, Osusky same to Prague and sought the favor of the deputies of the Slovak People's Party. He delivered a long address to the Club of Deputies and Senators in which he did not treat Eduard Benes and Milan Hodza too kindly. Osusky was the protege of Masaryk, while Hodza, also of Slovak origin, was in favor with Benes. It was no secret that Osusky had hoped to become the Foreign Minister of Czecho-Slovakia. The address, how- �70 SLOVAKIA ever, fell short of its mark. After Osusky left the Club, Tiso, later President of the Slovak Republic, remarked amusingly: "The discharged maid came to complain about her mistress." The Populists agreed tha Hodza could answer Osusky in the Club. Hodza, however, let one of his friends answer Osusky. Osusky and the Czechs Stephen Osusky remained in Paris where he began to organize the "liberation" movement, but behind the scenes he was also opposed to Benes. With the Czechs under Benes, Osusky was a member of Benes's "Czecho-Slovak National Committee," and yet he intervened with French authorities so that Daladier would not accept Benes as the head of the movement. Benes was furious. And it was Benes who told an American correspondent that Osusky is a link between Daladier and the Habsburg Otto. As a result, Czech emigrants turned against Osusky, calling him a traitor, a contemptible man, and a careerist who had, they said, "thrown himself out of the liberation movement." Did France Betray Czecho-Slovakia? Osusky lived so long in France that he finally became a Frenchman in spirit. After Munich, leading Czech personalities unhesitatingly declared that France had betrayed Czecho-'Slovakia. When the Czechs and Slovaks in France let it be known that they felt the same way, the French Government warned Osusky that it had enough of such "bad conduct." Osusky replied publicly in the newspapers, berating his countrymen for their "unbecoming" conduct. "In one's awn home," Osusky said, "no one allows himself to be called a traitor. A traitor is an enemy. To call the French enemies and at the same time live among them and accept their hospitality, this is something that cannot be borne well. lt simply was not true," concluded Osusky, "and France is the Mother of our freedom and independence." The First "State Act" Of course, Osusky had to show his appreciation to the French Government for letting him keep the Czecho- �SLOVAKIA 71 Slovak Embassy. Fr-ance needed soldiers. There were thousands of Slovak workers in France, and Osusky gave them the choice of sacrificing themselves for France or going to a concentration camp. In his press, of course, 0susky said this "diplomatically" thusly: "Czecho-'Slovak citizens here in France have the right to think and to give expression to their thoughts. They have a right to look after their own livelihood and to care for their own welfare." A "Proclamation" form was then issued in Czech, which the Slovak and Czechs were supposed to sign and return to 0susky's office. This was to be proof that the men were signing up "voluntavily" and without reservations for a Czecho-Slovak army, and the women for whatever duties mig,ht be ,a ssigned to them by the Czecho-lSlovak Foreign Center. As one Slovak put it: "They are forcing us to die for something that is foreign but even this verdict of death cannot be published in Slovak, but in Czech!" The Slovaks in France· Argenteuil, a suburb of Paris, was a center of Slovak national and cultural life. Over 1,000 Slovaks lived there. They were "stubborn" Slovaks, who would not be influenced by Czech or "Czechoslovak" propaganda. They had their own Slovak school. Prague tried unsuccessfuly to place a Czech teacher. Finally a Slovak was appointed. Of course, he was not an autonomist. All the Argenteuil Slovaks, however, backed the right of the Slovaks to autonomy, that is, to home rule or to states' rights. They never had any trouble with the French authorities before Germany invaded Bohemia and Moravia. But plenty after Benes, Jan Masaryk and other 0zech "patriots" with their Slovak helpers went into exile. 'Dhe cry went out to organize a "Czechoslovak" resistance. The chief problem was to organize an army in France. After months of agitation among the Slovaks, five volunteered to join the Czecho-:Slovak Legion in Fance. A roundup of Slovaks began; all capable of bearing arms were brought by the police to the Police Commissioner where they were ordered to sign up with the Czecho-Slovak Le- �72 SLOVAKIA gion. Excepting the five mentioned, all other refused to do so. Those that were citizens of France were willing to answer the call from the authorities when it was issued, but refused to sign up for the Czecho-Slovak Legion. The result was that some were jailed, while many others were placed in concentration camps at Rolland Garros, Buffalo Bill, and still others were relegated to forced labor on the Spanish frontier. Fathers of families were not excepted. Benes and Osusky had to have an army. The hapless Slovaks were then visited by agents of the Paris Czecho-Slovak Office who urged them to "get smart" and si•g n up for the Legion. The Slovaks. however, resisted stubbornly, asking: "for what?" Letters, sent to relatives in Slovakia, told of the suffering they undergo because they refused to fight against their brethren in Slovakia who had as much rig,ht to freedom and independence as Benes and his Czechs. Their attitude was like that of the French in Quebec, Canada. That is how they began to organize the Czecho-Slovak Legion in France. Much was said about it. Czech propaganda wrote about thousands and tens of thousands joining up "voluntarily and enthusiastically." The periodical "Cesko~Slovensky boj" (,T he Czecho-'S lovak Struggle) reported on the "Departure of our First Defenders": 160 men and ten officers under the command of Captain Kratky; three companies headed by two battalions. In the meantime Prchala and Snejdarek, both Czech Generals, were waiting for something to do. Osusky Vs. Benes After Slovakia proclaimed her independence on March 14, 1939, and the Czech lands were occupied by the Germans, it seemed that Osusky and Benes would become reconciled. In America Benes praised Osusky for organizing the new resistance movement in France. But Osusky apparently did not want to be a subordinate of Benes who had capitulated to Hitler at Munich. Backed by the French, who wanted Benes to lose himself, Osusky wanted the No. �73 SLOVAKIA 1 spot as far as Czecho-Slovak leadership abroad was concerned. On July 29, 1939, the "Cesko-Slovensky Boj" published th€ July 10th resolution of "Osusky's countrymen" who had settled in Grand Combe, wherein they acknowledged the leadership of Osusky and expressed full confidence in him. The Ruthenians followed suit. Pamphlets sharply critical of Benes were circulated among the Slovaks in France. In his propaganda organ, Osusky began to write a bout the need of a new and different Czecho-Slovakia, unlike the old one. He said that generals who lost the war do have the obligation to continue working, but that they did not have any right at all to lead the Slovaks and Czechs into a new fight. He did not consider himself as one of the generals who lost the war. The new resistance, it was said, must be imbued with a new spirit and must be lead by new leaders (''Slovensky I:.ud" - Buenos Aires, May 18, 1939). 1 In the "Cesko-Slovensky Boj" of June 10, 1939, he wrote about the situation and feelings of the Slovaks in Ozecho-Slovakia. "The fact is," Osusky said, "that many Slovaks do not believe in the ,l egal continuity of the CzeohoS1ovak Republic and in its restoration, because some Slovaks and Czechs threaten the Slovak with even a tougher and more ruthless centralism that the one they lived under for twenty years." Osusky recalled that he had protested against the policy followed in Slovakia. "I recall that in the fall of 1937, a year before the catastrophe," Osusky dec,Iared, "I had foretold in official places the end of the Republic if a radical change and improvement did not take place." Rigid centralism - the cause of so many quarrels between the Slovaks and Czechs - is hurried and dead, and "I hereby publicly state that I shall never agree to have the Slovak nation robbed of its sacred rights ... We are here concerned with the existence and the future of the Czecho-Slovak Republic," continued Osusky, and "whosoever threatens the Slovaks with centralism is an enemy of the restoration of the Republic. and that for the reason that without the Slovaks Czecho- �74 SLOVAKIA Slovakia cannot be and sha11 not be restored." Diplomatic double talk! Osusky in London After the fall of France, Osusky, like Hodza before him, was given the "Benes treatment" for faithful services rendered: first he was vilified and then dropped. Among other things, Benes and his political entourage accused 0susky of: using :State finances for "other purposes;" sabota·g ing the evacuation of Czecho-Slovaks from France; helping Hitler to divide the "Ozechoslovak nation" even before Munich; favoring French policy in Munich; and repudiating the "president's" conception of the second resistance movement, according to which Benes was still president of Czecho~Slovakia which legally did not cease to exist, and Benes, therefore is "the sole source of constitutional rights and State sovereignty of Masaryk's f.irst Republic." The Czech press in America, which up to that time wrote highly of Osusky and his "occomplishments," now turned against him. Osusky now became a Habsburg monarchist, a reactionary, a collaborator of Germans, and declared that he must never be allowed to return to "liberated" Czecho-'Slovakia. In his MEMOIDS, Benes referred to ()Busky and others as "malcontents who, when they wanted to extort something for their personal benefit, used to threaten or attack me (sometimes with extreme lack of decency or political propriety" (p. 1'21). Benes expe1led Osusky from his London "government-in-exile" in March, 1942, stating, however, that Osusky had "resigned." "But I did not resign," Osusky hurried to reply, "I was simply dismissed." Not being able to get his side of the story to the West, Osusky published several pamphlets to exonerate himself and indict Benes and his "illegal" political clique. As far as Osusky was concerned, "Dr. Edward Benes had resigned from the office of president of the Czecllo-,Slovak Republic," and Dr. EmH Ha.cha was elected according to the Constitution in his stead and, therefore, "legally and in fact Dr. Edward Benes ceased to ·b e president of the Ozecho-Slovak Republic." Benes, however, had the right connections in London and Washington. In the end he, and not Osusky, prevailed. �SLOVAKIA 75 In politics it seldom pays to to sit on two chairs. OsuS'ky began his career when the Slovak League sent him to Europe to Masaryk to work for the establishment of Czecho-,Slovakia and to see to it that Slovakia was granted autonomy. Osusky found it convenient and profitable to forget the League and the rights of his Slovak people to freedom, freedom from a1ien domination. He preferred to serve Masaryk and his senseless concept of "Czechoslovakism." At one time it was said that Osusky claimed "credit" for the fact that the Pittsburgh Pact was not even mentioned dunng the Paris Peace Conference negotiations. Osusky served as a Prague ambassador for over twenty years. He did a commendable job of it. Today, perhaps as he writes his memoirs in Washington, the Czechs don't want him - and the Slovaks, his own people, won't ·have him. • • • ibe History of Slovakia: By PHILIP A. HROBAK 1Continu ed) Slovakia played an important role in the relations of the kingdom which developed between Hungary and Poland during the reign of the Anjous. Louis the Great wanted to ,b ecome Polish king after the death of Casimir the Great, the last male descendant of the Piastov Clan. The agreements by which this union of Poland and Hungary was to be realized, were concluded in Slovak cities, especially in ,Kosice which was on the Cracow-Budin highway. It was at Kosice, after several meetings, that it was decided to have t!he daughter of Louis the Great, succeed him to the cP olish throne after his death. The reign of the Anjous brought Slovakia a notable contribution especially in the field of culture. G001HIC ClJiL'NJRE IN SLOVAKIA Medieval culture is a Christian culture. The Church concerned itself not only with the advancement of Christian faith and morals among the uncivilized nations of Europe, � SLOVAKIA 69 OSUSKY AFTER MARCH 14, 1939 Constantine Colen I have read Vnuk's article on Osusky in the Slovak press and believe it in the interest of historians to enlarge upon it, since I have quite a file on Osusky, the man who was delegated by the Slovak League of America to do a certain job for it in 1916 (to get the story in Europe of what was to be done with Austria-Hungary at the end of World War 1 and, particularly, to see what could be done to liberate the Slovaks from the hegemony of Budapest), but thusfar has failed to report his findings to the League. Now, how did Osusky, a Slovak who found favorwith T. G.Masaryk, protect the interests of his fellowSlovaks in France? Let me tell you how he tried to make cannon fodder of them for the French in the last war. After Germany attacked France, Osusky began to organize a new Czecho~Slovak army in France, knowing that some 50,000 Slovaks had settled there. In the years w:hen thousands upon thousands of Czechs poured into Slovakia to help the "backward, primitive" Slovaks, thousands upon thousands of Slovaks were forced to seek their bread in foreign lands. France was one of the countries where the Slovaks settled in larger numbers. Osusky was a politician who had two irons in th fire. Thus he began his political career, and thus he ended it. Whenever he made one of his rare appearences in Slovakia, his "homeland," Osusky would turn radical and make a speech on how the Slovaks were being mistreated by Prague. On to Prague he would then go and do some smooth explaining so that his Prague boss would not be angry with him. In the fall of 1938, Osusky same to Prague and sought the favor of the deputies of the Slovak People's Party. He delivered a long address to the Club of Deputies and Senators in which he did not treat Eduard Benes and Milan Hodza too kindly. Osusky was the protege of Masaryk, while Hodza, also of Slovak origin, was in favor with Benes. It was no secret that Osusky had hoped to become the Foreign Minister of Czecho-Slovakia. The address, how- �70 SLOVAKIA ever, fell short of its mark. After Osusky left the Club, Tiso, later President of the Slovak Republic, remarked amusingly: "The discharged maid came to complain about her mistress." The Populists agreed tha Hodza could answer Osusky in the Club. Hodza, however, let one of his friends answer Osusky. Osusky and the Czechs Stephen Osusky remained in Paris where he began to organize the "liberation" movement, but behind the scenes he was also opposed to Benes. With the Czechs under Benes, Osusky was a member of Benes's "Czecho-Slovak National Committee," and yet he intervened with French authorities so that Daladier would not accept Benes as the head of the movement. Benes was furious. And it was Benes who told an American correspondent that Osusky is a link between Daladier and the Habsburg Otto. As a result, Czech emigrants turned against Osusky, calling him a traitor, a contemptible man, and a careerist who had, they said, "thrown himself out of the liberation movement." Did France Betray Czecho-Slovakia? Osusky lived so long in France that he finally became a Frenchman in spirit. After Munich, leading Czech personalities unhesitatingly declared that France had betrayed Czecho-'Slovakia. When the Czechs and Slovaks in France let it be known that they felt the same way, the French Government warned Osusky that it had enough of such "bad conduct." Osusky replied publicly in the newspapers, berating his countrymen for their "unbecoming" conduct. "In one's awn home," Osusky said, "no one allows himself to be called a traitor. A traitor is an enemy. To call the French enemies and at the same time live among them and accept their hospitality, this is something that cannot be borne well. lt simply was not true," concluded Osusky, "and France is the Mother of our freedom and independence." The First "State Act" Of course, Osusky had to show his appreciation to the French Government for letting him keep the Czecho- �SLOVAKIA 71 Slovak Embassy. Fr-ance needed soldiers. There were thousands of Slovak workers in France, and Osusky gave them the choice of sacrificing themselves for France or going to a concentration camp. In his press, of course, 0susky said this "diplomatically" thusly: "Czecho-'Slovak citizens here in France have the right to think and to give expression to their thoughts. They have a right to look after their own livelihood and to care for their own welfare." A "Proclamation" form was then issued in Czech, which the Slovak and Czechs were supposed to sign and return to 0susky's office. This was to be proof that the men were signing up "voluntavily" and without reservations for a Czecho-Slovak army, and the women for whatever duties mig,ht be ,a ssigned to them by the Czecho-lSlovak Foreign Center. As one Slovak put it: "They are forcing us to die for something that is foreign but even this verdict of death cannot be published in Slovak, but in Czech!" The Slovaks in France· Argenteuil, a suburb of Paris, was a center of Slovak national and cultural life. Over 1,000 Slovaks lived there. They were "stubborn" Slovaks, who would not be influenced by Czech or "Czechoslovak" propaganda. They had their own Slovak school. Prague tried unsuccessfuly to place a Czech teacher. Finally a Slovak was appointed. Of course, he was not an autonomist. All the Argenteuil Slovaks, however, backed the right of the Slovaks to autonomy, that is, to home rule or to states' rights. They never had any trouble with the French authorities before Germany invaded Bohemia and Moravia. But plenty after Benes, Jan Masaryk and other 0zech "patriots" with their Slovak helpers went into exile. 'Dhe cry went out to organize a "Czechoslovak" resistance. The chief problem was to organize an army in France. After months of agitation among the Slovaks, five volunteered to join the Czecho-:Slovak Legion in Fance. A roundup of Slovaks began; all capable of bearing arms were brought by the police to the Police Commissioner where they were ordered to sign up with the Czecho-Slovak Le- �72 SLOVAKIA gion. Excepting the five mentioned, all other refused to do so. Those that were citizens of France were willing to answer the call from the authorities when it was issued, but refused to sign up for the Czecho-Slovak Legion. The result was that some were jailed, while many others were placed in concentration camps at Rolland Garros, Buffalo Bill, and still others were relegated to forced labor on the Spanish frontier. Fathers of families were not excepted. Benes and Osusky had to have an army. The hapless Slovaks were then visited by agents of the Paris Czecho-Slovak Office who urged them to "get smart" and si•g n up for the Legion. The Slovaks. however, resisted stubbornly, asking: "for what?" Letters, sent to relatives in Slovakia, told of the suffering they undergo because they refused to fight against their brethren in Slovakia who had as much rig,ht to freedom and independence as Benes and his Czechs. Their attitude was like that of the French in Quebec, Canada. That is how they began to organize the Czecho-Slovak Legion in France. Much was said about it. Czech propaganda wrote about thousands and tens of thousands joining up "voluntarily and enthusiastically." The periodical "Cesko~Slovensky boj" (,T he Czecho-'S lovak Struggle) reported on the "Departure of our First Defenders": 160 men and ten officers under the command of Captain Kratky; three companies headed by two battalions. In the meantime Prchala and Snejdarek, both Czech Generals, were waiting for something to do. Osusky Vs. Benes After Slovakia proclaimed her independence on March 14, 1939, and the Czech lands were occupied by the Germans, it seemed that Osusky and Benes would become reconciled. In America Benes praised Osusky for organizing the new resistance movement in France. But Osusky apparently did not want to be a subordinate of Benes who had capitulated to Hitler at Munich. Backed by the French, who wanted Benes to lose himself, Osusky wanted the No. �73 SLOVAKIA 1 spot as far as Czecho-Slovak leadership abroad was concerned. On July 29, 1939, the "Cesko-Slovensky Boj" published th€ July 10th resolution of "Osusky's countrymen" who had settled in Grand Combe, wherein they acknowledged the leadership of Osusky and expressed full confidence in him. The Ruthenians followed suit. Pamphlets sharply critical of Benes were circulated among the Slovaks in France. In his propaganda organ, Osusky began to write a bout the need of a new and different Czecho-Slovakia, unlike the old one. He said that generals who lost the war do have the obligation to continue working, but that they did not have any right at all to lead the Slovaks and Czechs into a new fight. He did not consider himself as one of the generals who lost the war. The new resistance, it was said, must be imbued with a new spirit and must be lead by new leaders (''Slovensky I:.ud" - Buenos Aires, May 18, 1939). 1 In the "Cesko-Slovensky Boj" of June 10, 1939, he wrote about the situation and feelings of the Slovaks in Ozecho-Slovakia. "The fact is," Osusky said, "that many Slovaks do not believe in the ,l egal continuity of the CzeohoS1ovak Republic and in its restoration, because some Slovaks and Czechs threaten the Slovak with even a tougher and more ruthless centralism that the one they lived under for twenty years." Osusky recalled that he had protested against the policy followed in Slovakia. "I recall that in the fall of 1937, a year before the catastrophe," Osusky dec,Iared, "I had foretold in official places the end of the Republic if a radical change and improvement did not take place." Rigid centralism - the cause of so many quarrels between the Slovaks and Czechs - is hurried and dead, and "I hereby publicly state that I shall never agree to have the Slovak nation robbed of its sacred rights ... We are here concerned with the existence and the future of the Czecho-Slovak Republic," continued Osusky, and "whosoever threatens the Slovaks with centralism is an enemy of the restoration of the Republic. and that for the reason that without the Slovaks Czecho- �74 SLOVAKIA Slovakia cannot be and sha11 not be restored." Diplomatic double talk! Osusky in London After the fall of France, Osusky, like Hodza before him, was given the "Benes treatment" for faithful services rendered: first he was vilified and then dropped. Among other things, Benes and his political entourage accused 0susky of: using :State finances for "other purposes;" sabota·g ing the evacuation of Czecho-Slovaks from France; helping Hitler to divide the "Ozechoslovak nation" even before Munich; favoring French policy in Munich; and repudiating the "president's" conception of the second resistance movement, according to which Benes was still president of Czecho~Slovakia which legally did not cease to exist, and Benes, therefore is "the sole source of constitutional rights and State sovereignty of Masaryk's f.irst Republic." The Czech press in America, which up to that time wrote highly of Osusky and his "occomplishments," now turned against him. Osusky now became a Habsburg monarchist, a reactionary, a collaborator of Germans, and declared that he must never be allowed to return to "liberated" Czecho-'Slovakia. In his MEMOIDS, Benes referred to ()Busky and others as "malcontents who, when they wanted to extort something for their personal benefit, used to threaten or attack me (sometimes with extreme lack of decency or political propriety" (p. 1'21). Benes expe1led Osusky from his London "government-in-exile" in March, 1942, stating, however, that Osusky had "resigned." "But I did not resign," Osusky hurried to reply, "I was simply dismissed." Not being able to get his side of the story to the West, Osusky published several pamphlets to exonerate himself and indict Benes and his "illegal" political clique. As far as Osusky was concerned, "Dr. Edward Benes had resigned from the office of president of the Czecllo-,Slovak Republic," and Dr. EmH Ha.cha was elected according to the Constitution in his stead and, therefore, "legally and in fact Dr. Edward Benes ceased to ·b e president of the Ozecho-Slovak Republic." Benes, however, had the right connections in London and Washington. In the end he, and not Osusky, prevailed. �SLOVAKIA 75 In politics it seldom pays to to sit on two chairs. OsuS'ky began his career when the Slovak League sent him to Europe to Masaryk to work for the establishment of Czecho-,Slovakia and to see to it that Slovakia was granted autonomy. Osusky found it convenient and profitable to forget the League and the rights of his Slovak people to freedom, freedom from a1ien domination. He preferred to serve Masaryk and his senseless concept of "Czechoslovakism." At one time it was said that Osusky claimed "credit" for the fact that the Pittsburgh Pact was not even mentioned dunng the Paris Peace Conference negotiations. Osusky served as a Prague ambassador for over twenty years. He did a commendable job of it. Today, perhaps as he writes his memoirs in Washington, the Czechs don't want him - and the Slovaks, his own people, won't ·have him. • • • ibe History of Slovakia: By PHILIP A. HROBAK 1Continu ed) Slovakia played an important role in the relations of the kingdom which developed between Hungary and Poland during the reign of the Anjous. Louis the Great wanted to ,b ecome Polish king after the death of Casimir the Great, the last male descendant of the Piastov Clan. The agreements by which this union of Poland and Hungary was to be realized, were concluded in Slovak cities, especially in ,Kosice which was on the Cracow-Budin highway. It was at Kosice, after several meetings, that it was decided to have t!he daughter of Louis the Great, succeed him to the cP olish throne after his death. The reign of the Anjous brought Slovakia a notable contribution especially in the field of culture. G001HIC ClJiL'NJRE IN SLOVAKIA Medieval culture is a Christian culture. The Church concerned itself not only with the advancement of Christian faith and morals among the uncivilized nations of Europe, � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 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 SLOVAKIA 69 OSUSKY AFTER MARCH 14, 1939 Constantine Colen I have read Vnuk's article on Osusky in the Slovak press and believe it in the interest of historians to enlarge upon it, since I have quite a file on Osusky, the man who was delegated by the Slovak League of America to do a certain job for it in 1916 (to get the story in Europe of what was to be done with Austria-Hungary at the end of World War 1 and, particularly, to see what could be done to liberate the Slovaks from the hegemony of Budapest), but thusfar has failed to report his findings to the League. Now, how did Osusky, a Slovak who found favorwith T. G.Masaryk, protect the interests of his fellowSlovaks in France? Let me tell you how he tried to make cannon fodder of them for the French in the last war. After Germany attacked France, Osusky began to organize a new Czecho~Slovak army in France, knowing that some 50,000 Slovaks had settled there. In the years w:hen thousands upon thousands of Czechs poured into Slovakia to help the "backward, primitive" Slovaks, thousands upon thousands of Slovaks were forced to seek their bread in foreign lands. France was one of the countries where the Slovaks settled in larger numbers. Osusky was a politician who had two irons in th fire. Thus he began his political career, and thus he ended it. Whenever he made one of his rare appearences in Slovakia, his "homeland," Osusky would turn radical and make a speech on how the Slovaks were being mistreated by Prague. On to Prague he would then go and do some smooth explaining so that his Prague boss would not be angry with him. In the fall of 1938, Osusky same to Prague and sought the favor of the deputies of the Slovak People's Party. He delivered a long address to the Club of Deputies and Senators in which he did not treat Eduard Benes and Milan Hodza too kindly. Osusky was the protege of Masaryk, while Hodza, also of Slovak origin, was in favor with Benes. It was no secret that Osusky had hoped to become the Foreign Minister of Czecho-Slovakia. The address, how- 70 SLOVAKIA ever, fell short of its mark. After Osusky left the Club, Tiso, later President of the Slovak Republic, remarked amusingly: "The discharged maid came to complain about her mistress." The Populists agreed tha Hodza could answer Osusky in the Club. Hodza, however, let one of his friends answer Osusky. Osusky and the Czechs Stephen Osusky remained in Paris where he began to organize the "liberation" movement, but behind the scenes he was also opposed to Benes. With the Czechs under Benes, Osusky was a member of Benes's "Czecho-Slovak National Committee," and yet he intervened with French authorities so that Daladier would not accept Benes as the head of the movement. Benes was furious. And it was Benes who told an American correspondent that Osusky is a link between Daladier and the Habsburg Otto. As a result, Czech emigrants turned against Osusky, calling him a traitor, a contemptible man, and a careerist who had, they said, "thrown himself out of the liberation movement." Did France Betray Czecho-Slovakia? Osusky lived so long in France that he finally became a Frenchman in spirit. After Munich, leading Czech personalities unhesitatingly declared that France had betrayed Czecho-'Slovakia. When the Czechs and Slovaks in France let it be known that they felt the same way, the French Government warned Osusky that it had enough of such "bad conduct." Osusky replied publicly in the newspapers, berating his countrymen for their "unbecoming" conduct. "In one's awn home," Osusky said, "no one allows himself to be called a traitor. A traitor is an enemy. To call the French enemies and at the same time live among them and accept their hospitality, this is something that cannot be borne well. lt simply was not true," concluded Osusky, "and France is the Mother of our freedom and independence." The First "State Act" Of course, Osusky had to show his appreciation to the French Government for letting him keep the Czecho- SLOVAKIA 71 Slovak Embassy. Fr-ance needed soldiers. There were thousands of Slovak workers in France, and Osusky gave them the choice of sacrificing themselves for France or going to a concentration camp. In his press, of course, 0susky said this "diplomatically" thusly: "Czecho-'Slovak citizens here in France have the right to think and to give expression to their thoughts. They have a right to look after their own livelihood and to care for their own welfare." A "Proclamation" form was then issued in Czech, which the Slovak and Czechs were supposed to sign and return to 0susky's office. This was to be proof that the men were signing up "voluntavily" and without reservations for a Czecho-Slovak army, and the women for whatever duties mig,ht be ,a ssigned to them by the Czecho-lSlovak Foreign Center. As one Slovak put it: "They are forcing us to die for something that is foreign but even this verdict of death cannot be published in Slovak, but in Czech!" The Slovaks in France· Argenteuil, a suburb of Paris, was a center of Slovak national and cultural life. Over 1,000 Slovaks lived there. They were "stubborn" Slovaks, who would not be influenced by Czech or "Czechoslovak" propaganda. They had their own Slovak school. Prague tried unsuccessfuly to place a Czech teacher. Finally a Slovak was appointed. Of course, he was not an autonomist. All the Argenteuil Slovaks, however, backed the right of the Slovaks to autonomy, that is, to home rule or to states' rights. They never had any trouble with the French authorities before Germany invaded Bohemia and Moravia. But plenty after Benes, Jan Masaryk and other 0zech "patriots" with their Slovak helpers went into exile. 'Dhe cry went out to organize a "Czechoslovak" resistance. The chief problem was to organize an army in France. After months of agitation among the Slovaks, five volunteered to join the Czecho-:Slovak Legion in Fance. A roundup of Slovaks began; all capable of bearing arms were brought by the police to the Police Commissioner where they were ordered to sign up with the Czecho-Slovak Le- 72 SLOVAKIA gion. Excepting the five mentioned, all other refused to do so. Those that were citizens of France were willing to answer the call from the authorities when it was issued, but refused to sign up for the Czecho-Slovak Legion. The result was that some were jailed, while many others were placed in concentration camps at Rolland Garros, Buffalo Bill, and still others were relegated to forced labor on the Spanish frontier. Fathers of families were not excepted. Benes and Osusky had to have an army. The hapless Slovaks were then visited by agents of the Paris Czecho-Slovak Office who urged them to "get smart" and si•g n up for the Legion. The Slovaks. however, resisted stubbornly, asking: "for what?" Letters, sent to relatives in Slovakia, told of the suffering they undergo because they refused to fight against their brethren in Slovakia who had as much rig,ht to freedom and independence as Benes and his Czechs. Their attitude was like that of the French in Quebec, Canada. That is how they began to organize the Czecho-Slovak Legion in France. Much was said about it. Czech propaganda wrote about thousands and tens of thousands joining up "voluntarily and enthusiastically." The periodical "Cesko~Slovensky boj" (,T he Czecho-'S lovak Struggle) reported on the "Departure of our First Defenders": 160 men and ten officers under the command of Captain Kratky; three companies headed by two battalions. In the meantime Prchala and Snejdarek, both Czech Generals, were waiting for something to do. Osusky Vs. Benes After Slovakia proclaimed her independence on March 14, 1939, and the Czech lands were occupied by the Germans, it seemed that Osusky and Benes would become reconciled. In America Benes praised Osusky for organizing the new resistance movement in France. But Osusky apparently did not want to be a subordinate of Benes who had capitulated to Hitler at Munich. Backed by the French, who wanted Benes to lose himself, Osusky wanted the No. 73 SLOVAKIA 1 spot as far as Czecho-Slovak leadership abroad was concerned. On July 29, 1939, the "Cesko-Slovensky Boj" published th€ July 10th resolution of "Osusky's countrymen" who had settled in Grand Combe, wherein they acknowledged the leadership of Osusky and expressed full confidence in him. The Ruthenians followed suit. Pamphlets sharply critical of Benes were circulated among the Slovaks in France. In his propaganda organ, Osusky began to write a bout the need of a new and different Czecho-Slovakia, unlike the old one. He said that generals who lost the war do have the obligation to continue working, but that they did not have any right at all to lead the Slovaks and Czechs into a new fight. He did not consider himself as one of the generals who lost the war. The new resistance, it was said, must be imbued with a new spirit and must be lead by new leaders (''Slovensky I:.ud" - Buenos Aires, May 18, 1939). 1 In the "Cesko-Slovensky Boj" of June 10, 1939, he wrote about the situation and feelings of the Slovaks in Ozecho-Slovakia. "The fact is," Osusky said, "that many Slovaks do not believe in the ,l egal continuity of the CzeohoS1ovak Republic and in its restoration, because some Slovaks and Czechs threaten the Slovak with even a tougher and more ruthless centralism that the one they lived under for twenty years." Osusky recalled that he had protested against the policy followed in Slovakia. "I recall that in the fall of 1937, a year before the catastrophe," Osusky dec,Iared, "I had foretold in official places the end of the Republic if a radical change and improvement did not take place." Rigid centralism - the cause of so many quarrels between the Slovaks and Czechs - is hurried and dead, and "I hereby publicly state that I shall never agree to have the Slovak nation robbed of its sacred rights ... We are here concerned with the existence and the future of the Czecho-Slovak Republic," continued Osusky, and "whosoever threatens the Slovaks with centralism is an enemy of the restoration of the Republic. and that for the reason that without the Slovaks Czecho- 74 SLOVAKIA Slovakia cannot be and sha11 not be restored." Diplomatic double talk! Osusky in London After the fall of France, Osusky, like Hodza before him, was given the "Benes treatment" for faithful services rendered: first he was vilified and then dropped. Among other things, Benes and his political entourage accused 0susky of: using :State finances for "other purposes;" sabota·g ing the evacuation of Czecho-Slovaks from France; helping Hitler to divide the "Ozechoslovak nation" even before Munich; favoring French policy in Munich; and repudiating the "president's" conception of the second resistance movement, according to which Benes was still president of Czecho~Slovakia which legally did not cease to exist, and Benes, therefore is "the sole source of constitutional rights and State sovereignty of Masaryk's f.irst Republic." The Czech press in America, which up to that time wrote highly of Osusky and his "occomplishments," now turned against him. Osusky now became a Habsburg monarchist, a reactionary, a collaborator of Germans, and declared that he must never be allowed to return to "liberated" Czecho-'Slovakia. In his MEMOIDS, Benes referred to ()Busky and others as "malcontents who, when they wanted to extort something for their personal benefit, used to threaten or attack me (sometimes with extreme lack of decency or political propriety" (p. 1'21). Benes expe1led Osusky from his London "government-in-exile" in March, 1942, stating, however, that Osusky had "resigned." "But I did not resign," Osusky hurried to reply, "I was simply dismissed." Not being able to get his side of the story to the West, Osusky published several pamphlets to exonerate himself and indict Benes and his "illegal" political clique. As far as Osusky was concerned, "Dr. Edward Benes had resigned from the office of president of the Czecllo-,Slovak Republic," and Dr. EmH Ha.cha was elected according to the Constitution in his stead and, therefore, "legally and in fact Dr. Edward Benes ceased to ·b e president of the Ozecho-Slovak Republic." Benes, however, had the right connections in London and Washington. In the end he, and not Osusky, prevailed. SLOVAKIA 75 In politics it seldom pays to to sit on two chairs. OsuS'ky began his career when the Slovak League sent him to Europe to Masaryk to work for the establishment of Czecho-,Slovakia and to see to it that Slovakia was granted autonomy. Osusky found it convenient and profitable to forget the League and the rights of his Slovak people to freedom, freedom from a1ien domination. He preferred to serve Masaryk and his senseless concept of "Czechoslovakism." At one time it was said that Osusky claimed "credit" for the fact that the Pittsburgh Pact was not even mentioned dunng the Paris Peace Conference negotiations. Osusky served as a Prague ambassador for over twenty years. He did a commendable job of it. Today, perhaps as he writes his memoirs in Washington, the Czechs don't want him - and the Slovaks, his own people, won't ·have him. • • • ibe History of Slovakia: By PHILIP A. HROBAK 1Continu ed) Slovakia played an important role in the relations of the kingdom which developed between Hungary and Poland during the reign of the Anjous. Louis the Great wanted to ,b ecome Polish king after the death of Casimir the Great, the last male descendant of the Piastov Clan. The agreements by which this union of Poland and Hungary was to be realized, were concluded in Slovak cities, especially in ,Kosice which was on the Cracow-Budin highway. It was at Kosice, after several meetings, that it was decided to have t!he daughter of Louis the Great, succeed him to the cP olish throne after his death. The reign of the Anjous brought Slovakia a notable contribution especially in the field of culture. G001HIC ClJiL'NJRE IN SLOVAKIA Medieval culture is a Christian culture. The Church concerned itself not only with the advancement of Christian faith and morals among the uncivilized nations of Europe,  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Osuský After March 14, 1939 Description An account of the resource Constantine Čulen Slovakia, Vol. 9, No. 5 (30), June-December 1959 pp. 69-75 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Čulen, Konštantín, 1904-1964 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource June-December 1959 SNK https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/076c0becfb8ddb04f20fab1757680249.pdf 40dfe516a506f1adc73d3519afc189e2 PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA 17 OUR BLUNDERING CZECHO-SLOVAH.IA POLICY By Kurt Gl.a ser " Dea·1 ing w.iith his Mos'Cow journey, Dr. Benes said it could be regarded in the future as t·h e logi cal culmination of an ancient policy." News Flashes from Czechoslovakia, Chicago, F e,b ruary 21, 1944. "He who rules Bohemia rules Europe" is an old saying. In this vital area, American policy has been built around a myth, spread by a public-relations program for which the Czecho-Slovak Government spent millions of dollars from 1918 to 1938. To understand what this myth has done to American interests, we must study the true story of Czecho-Slovakia, the story which the Administration has never told us. When founded in 1918 by Masaryk and Benes, who gained support for the idea at home only after they had sold it to the Allies, Czecho-Slovakia had six different nationalities. As of the end of World War II, there were six and one-half million Czechs in Bohemia and Moravia, and three and one-half million Sudeten Germans, mostly in a crescent north, west and southwest of the Czech core, but with large German colonies in Prague, Bruenn and other centers. The Teschen district, predominantly Polish, had been ceded to Poland in 1938. Slovakia, to the east, had more than three million Slovaks, 700,000 Hungarians and some Germans. The extreme eastern province was Ruthenia, with a population of about 700,000, ceded to the U.S.S.R. in 1945. The Slovaks were induced to join with the Czechs by the so-called "Pittsburgh Agreement" which promised them absolute equality: Czecho-Slovakia would be "like Switzerland," as Benes put it. The Sudetens wanted to stay with Austria, but they were not asked, and Czech troops overthrew their elected provincial government in March 1919. Masaryk and Benes did not keep their promise of equal rights. Instead, they set up a centralized government in Prague, gave preference to Czechs in the civil service, in business and in finance, undertook to "Czechify" the edu- �18 SLOVAKIA cational system and refused to allow Slovak autonomy. Although the Sudeten region furnished the bulk of CzechoSlovak exports, Prague economic policies kept the area in a state of perpetual depression. It was inevitable that Slovaks, Sudetens and Hungarians should become increasingly anxious to "get out from under". All this time Czech professors and journalists in America, and Americans paid by them (Hitler had a list compiled from Czechs archives) were telling the wonders of "Czechoslovak" democracy. The original aim of Henlein's Sudeten-German Party was simply to gain equal rights for the Sudetens within Czecho-Slovakia. Only after 1935, when the Party won a majority in the German-speaking area, offered to cooperate with Benes and was rebuffed, did pro-Nazi elements become dominant. When the Czech-Sudeten crisis became acute in 1938, the British Government sent Lord Runciman to mediate. The refusal of Benes to make timely concessions led Lord Runciman to recommend cession of the Sudeten areas to Germany. Slovak pressure during and after the Munich crisis forced the Prague Government to grant autonomy to Slovakia on October 6, 1938. In March 1939, however, the Czech President Hacha deposed Slovak Prime Minister Tiso, occupied Bratislava with Czech troops and installed a new Slovak Government. This intervention was used by Hitler as an excuse for marching into Prague, an action which the Slovaks neither requested or suggested. It is true that Hitler seizure of Bohemia made possible the establishment of the Slovak Republic. But this did not make it a Nazi sta.te any more than German aid to Finland nazified that country. The Slovak Republic was what the Slovak people wanted, and it was recognized by 27 countries, including Great Britain, France and even the Soviet Union. In spite of intense Nazi pressure, President Tiso and the Slovak Government did their best to protect the Jews of Slovakia until 1944, when a "rebellion" organized by Communist parachutists led Hitler to install a reign of terror. Slovakia declared war on the Soviet Union in 1941, but it was never at war with the United States. Slovaks �SLOVAKIA 19 repeatedly protected American airmen forced down over their country. Although President Benes, who had resigned after the Munich Agreement in 1938, had recognized his successor Hacha, he decided after the dismemberment of Czecho-Slovakia in 1939 to work toward a political come-back. He and his followers formed the Czechoslovakian Liberation Movement in Paris in 1939, and moved it to London in 1940, later securing Allied recognition as the "Czechoslovak Democratic Government." It was necessary to face the fact that the Czech population at home was not particularly anti-German. Of all the territories under Nazi control, the Czech Protectorate had the highest standard of living. Official rations were the same as in Germany, and since they were actually distributed (which was not always the case in the Reich) the Czechs actually had more to eat than the Germans. Czech industry gave adive support to the German war effort, and large numbers of Czechs volunteered for the German Army. As Kenneth de Courcey (Review of World Affairs, April 28, 1944) pointed out, there was "almost no resistance movement at all" so that it was necessary to parachute in territories to assasinate the Nazi Commissioner Heydrich and provoke the Lidice atrocity with which Hitler was stupid enough to oblige. Since Benes and his followers were determined to pursue their policy of Czech ultra-nationalism, it was evident that they could not count on Czech support at home, let alone the allegiance of the Slovaks. The anti-Nazi Sudeten Germans were willing to reach a settlement, but Benes decided instead to expel them from Czecho-Slovakia. This policy could only be executed with outside assistance, and the only government which could give effective support was that of the Soviet Union. The "Czechoslovakist" policy of Benes and his followers was, therefore, bound to make their government permanently dependent on Russia. The blunder of American policy is that we supported Soviet policy, recognized the Benes "Government" and even now (December 1952) accept those of Benes' followers who broke with Gottwald in 1948 as "democratic exiles" even though they have not changed their policies in the slightest. �20 SLOVAKIA The policy of the "Czechoslovak Democratic Government," which supplied the "non-Commun ist" politicians in the "National Front" which governed Czecho-Slovakia from 1945 to 1948 and whose members are now mostly in the United States under State Department protection, was that of absolute adherence to the Soviet Union. As Dr. Peter Zenkl, today President of the "Council of Free Czechoslovakia" with headquarters in Washington, explained to the temporary parliament in November 1945: "The nationally conscious Czechs and Slovaks have no doubt that in their own interest, as well as in international interests, permanent collaboration with the USSR is necessary. Never without the USSR, never against the USSR, always at its side!" Hubert Ripka, who in 1939 hid the Soviet agent SimonKatz from the French police, later became Minister of Information in the London "Government " and who is now a professor at the New School for Social Research in New York, summarizes the policy in more details in his book East and West (London, 1944): "Since, in the new situation, it was impo,s sible to collaborate officially with the Sovielt Union, we ... did nothing which might prejudice or preven1t the renewal of co-operation at the earliest possible moment; I need only recall how strong ly OUT aJttitude contrasted with that of many others during the Soviet-Finnish War. Moreover, even in that period, there was no inilerruption of the personal contacts and exchange of informrution between ourselves and important Soviet representatives in London, Paris, Washington and elsewhere." Apparently both the British and United States Governments were willing to accept as a "Czechoslovak democratic exile" anyone with a passport from the Czech "Governmentin-exile." The London "Czechoslovak s" took advantage of this fact to infiltrate a large number of Soviet agents, who were in the direct service of the Kremlin, into both the United Kingdom and the United States. The "Czech-Slovak " service of the British Broadcasting Company was taken over by Communists; others worked for the Communist party paper Daily Worker, the two staffs being for operating purposes interchangeab le. Douglas Hyde, a former Communist, relates in his book I Believe (London, 1951) a typical example of infiltration �SLOVAKIA 21 involving one Ludwig Freund•, a German Communist masquerading as a Czech. Freund was assigned to the Daily Worker but his salary was paid by the "Czechoslovak Democratic Government" with British funds. Hyde tells us: "Freund a.c hieved considera,ble standing with member.s of the Benes Government and was ruble to put us (the Communist Party) in touch with them at any time. He was able, also, of course, to keep us mfo.rmed of most of whwt was going on in Czech Government circles. "Freund in co-operation with members of our Editorial Foreign Departmerut would write articles Ito which -non-Communist members of his Government would willing put their names." • The Ludwig Freund mentioned here is not the s·aime person as the Chicago professor of rthat name. The effectiveness of this arrangement is suggested by Minister Ripka's speech of November 7, 1942, over the British Broadcasting Company, in which he said: " ... the Russian November Revolurtion not only increased the strength of the Russian Soviet State, it a,lso raised to greater heighrts than ever ,before the standard of -civilizalt.ion, culture and living of the wide masses of the Soviet peoples ... "Bolshevism is a supe,r -national ideal, an eternal ideal, a human ideal, an ideal which has kindled the mind·s of the noblest of men from the time of Plato and through the Christian era, through the French Revolution and until today ... Just as the French Revolution strove to realize the ideal of freedOllll, so did the Russian Revolution try 1to reali'ze :the ideal of equality." The "non-Communist" politicians in London, whom the State Department has since 1948 undertaken to palm off on the American public as anti-Communists, planned with Stalin during the war to destroy the Slovak Republic and to expel the German-speaking minority. The price exacted by the Kremlin was the complete Sovietization of CzechoSlovakia, which became a Communist satellite in 1945, not in 1948. To assure that the sell-out would work, the "nonCommunists" agreed with the Kremlin to allow only those political parties which would join a United Front under Communist domination, a procedure which General Eisenhower rejected for the U. S. Zone of Germany as undemocratic (New York Times, October 17, 1945). Other parties were prohibited and their leaders thrown into concentration camps. The true policies of the "non-Communist" CzechoSlovak politicians can best be shown by their public statements made between 1945 and 1948. �22 SLOVAKJA "Our alliance with the Soviet Union is the main pillar of our foreign policy (applau se) . . . Our alliance with the Sovie;t Union gu arantees u s immediate he1p of Soviet armies in case of emergency." Dr. Ivo Duchacek, President of the Foreign Com:milbtee of the National Assembly, speech oif March 8, 1946. "Let us declare war against fear of bolshevi•sm and forbid , at the same time, the t'onm,a,tliolJ'l of an,y an1ti,Oommuntst front whaltever." Pravo lidu, organ of Social Democratic Party. "Centrifugal forces shall be jailed ... Centrifugal force,s are ,today eradicated and liquidaited." - Dr. Jozef Le ttri ch , writing in Cas, B rati slava, o. 130, 194G. Question: "Why does no opposition party ex,ist in Czecho-Slovakia ?" Answer: "The need for an opposition party in reality has not yet arisen in our coun1try." - Pavel Viboch at press conference in England, May 1947. "Never in hi sto ry was Russia so mighty, never were the forces of socialism so colossally forged together. This is a new historical epoch. Neve11theless some people think in a stick-in-the-mud fashion. It has not yet •been possible to convince everyone of the necessity of the oventhrow of capitalism ... " Ferdinand Peroutka, Tak nebo tak ("So or so"), Prague, 1947, p. 8. "In Ozech politics, in Czech .national life, it is urgent that we come to an understanding with the Commun ist Party. .. The Communist Party shall remain the greatest force in our p olitical scheme even a!ter the elections are over; and socialism shall remain t he foundation of our national life ... Coming to terms with the Oommunists is t h e golden theme of our political philosophy." - Ferdinand Peroutka, writing In Dnesek, Prague, February 9, rn48. Together with Communist "partisans," the "non-Communist" politicians of the National Front supervised the wholesale murder of more than 300,000 innocent people. They voted unanimously the Communist-drafted Kosice Program which wiped out private business, they set up a system of "People's Courts" on the Soviet model and in Slovakia they established forced labor camps, to which confinement could be imposed without trial for persons "who profess an ideology inimical to the State". And then one day Stalin and Gottwald decided they needed their "liberal allies no longer - because the Sovietization of Czecho-Slovakia had been completed. After the so-called "Gottwald Putsch" of 1948, the leading Communist collaborators and fellow-travellers - including all those quoted above - came to the United States. �SLOVAKIA 23 The State Department received them as "democratic exiles" and set them up in the research business, partly with taxpayers' money. Mr. Duchacek, who once claimed credit for helping to negotiate the Czech-Soviet Treaty of 1943, was employed by the Voice of America. Ferdinand Peroutka, who had written as late as December 1947 that it would be "unthinkable" to take the side of the United States in a war with the Soviet Union, was placed in charge of the "Czechoslovak" operations of Radio Free Europe, financed by the Crusade for Freedom. Two of his principal assistants were Pavel Tigrid and Joseph Kodicek, both forme:· members of the BBC's Communist-dominated "Czech-Slovak" staff. Tigrid was a member of the Communist Party until 1945, when he joined the "Catholic" Party headed by the "Red Monsignor" Sramek under circumstances which are to say the least equivocal. All the other Czecho-Slovak politicians favored by the State Department (up to December 1952) meet the same standard of (,pro-Soviet) loyalty. The "Council for Free Czechoslovakia," headed by Peter Zenkl, boasted in a pamphlet (In Search of Havens, Washington, 1950) that the State Department takes its advice on which Czech and Slovak refugees to admit to the United States and which to exclude. It is well known in Europe even though American newspapers maintaining correspondents in Germany have for some reason never seen fit to publish the facts - that pro-Communists and left-wing socialists get preference for immigration, whereas known anti-Communists are put on a blacklist. The attitude of those favored by the Council is illustrated by the f.arewell speech of one Rostislav Foukal, who before leaving for America told his comrades in Germany: "Every democraticthinking person must recognize that the present economic system in America is rotten to the core, the workers are exploited by their employers and stifled by Taft and Company ... We Czechoslovakian socialists ... will help America to escape from the claws of the capitalists ... We will help the Americans to reshape their history!" As for Slovakia, the overwhelming majority of the nation was and remains today firmly anti-Communist. The �24 SLOVAKIA Slovaks hoped fervently that the end of World War II would not destroy their Republic, but would bring them liberation so that they could govern themselves without German, Russian or Czech interference. But the "Czechoslovak" Government in London had already made its deal with the Kremlin, a deal explicitly sanctioned by an American Administration. The Slovak Republic was liquidated. In spite of asylum granted to the Slovak Cabinet by General Walton H. Walker at Kremsmuenster, Austria, the State Department ordered the surrender of Father Tiso and his government to the "Czechoslovak War Crimes Commission" without even the formality of an extradiction hearing. The kangaroo trial of Father Tiso - conducted before a judge who had sworn in advance "I will hang Tiso!" - is a classic case of judicial murder. After the Slovak Republic had been wantonly destroyed by the Red Armies by pre-arrangement between the Kremlin and the "Czechoslovak Democratic Government," the Communist-dominated government of Dr. Benes mobilized '. 'people's courts" on the Soviet model for a drive against patriotic Slovaks. The Catholic Bishops John Vojtassak and Michael Buzalka were incarcerated, church institutions were nationalized and private and corporate property was confiscated arbitrarily. Up to 1948, during a period when Ambassador Steinhardt assured the American public that "there is definitely no iron curtain in Czechoslovakia" (New York Times, Febrµary 1, 1947), over 100,000 Slovaks were jailed, about 30,000 deported to Russia and over a hundred executed. Slovakia was placed under the joint rule of the Communist Party and the so-called "Slovak Democratic Party" headed by Dr. Joseph Lettrich, now a member of the "Council of Free Czechoslovakia." The "Democratic Party" was created arbitrarily to provide an ostensibly "non-Communist" partner for the Bolshevists, since the Slovak parties with popular support refused to cooperate with the Communists and were therefore liquidated. Government positions were divided by the two parties on a 50-50 basis. In the May 1946 elections the Democratic Party (for which �SLOVAKIA 25 non-Communists felt constrained to vote, fault de mieux) received 62 per cent of the votes, two minor parties 8 per cent and the Communist Party 30 per cent. The Communists continued, however, to enjoy key positions in the provincial government of Slovakia out of all proportion to their actual strength. Their collaborators and supporters, such as Messrs. Lettrich, Kvetko, Viboch, Slavik, Kocvara and Ferjencik, are all in the United States, where they pose as "anti-Communist democratic exiles" from Czecho-Slovakia. The tensions created by the brutal expropriation of the Sudeten Germans and by the rape of Slovakia are factors which perpetuate the Soviet Russian stranglehold on Czecho-Slovakia. It is the aim of the "Czechoslovak" politicians in the United States to re.turn to power with American assistance. But if they succeed, they will again be dependent on Russian support, since the majority of citizens of Czecho-Slovakia (including vast numbers of Czechs who object to socialism and were revolted by the atrocities and the police terror) are strongly opposed to them. As long as the United States Government maintains its unholy alliance with this group, it will never be able to pursue a firm or consistent anti-Communist policy in Central Europe. (Reprinted by permission from the author's "The Iron Curtain and American Policy," Public Affairs Press, 2153 Florida Avenue, Washington 8, D. C.) • • • WHO SAID IT? "THE SLOVAK PEOPLE is one of the great Christian nations of central Europe. History tells us that the forefathers of the Slovaks inhabited their present territory s ince about the fifth century. The Slo· vaks are a plain, humorous, intelligent, song-loving, industrious and religious peo,ple, devoted to the peaceful development of their national life and their national culture. They did not seek domination over other peoples, but only sought to safeguard their own national existence. No other nation of Europe suffered longer under alien domination than the Slovaks. The recognition and respect of their Inherent right to free development and political independence will be a corner stone of peace and coo peration among nations. It is necessary and right for Americans, including Americans of Slovak descent who wish all nationa of the earth as mu ch freedom and independence as they themselves enjoy in our blesesd Country, to show at least an equal amount of love and sympathy for the Slovak people in its long struggle for freedom and independence." (P. A. Hrobak, M!lwaukee, Wis., 10-28-51) � SLOVAKIA 17 OUR BLUNDERING CZECHO-SLOVAH.IA POLICY By Kurt Gl.a ser " Dea·1 ing w.iith his Mos'Cow journey, Dr. Benes said it could be regarded in the future as t·h e logi cal culmination of an ancient policy." News Flashes from Czechoslovakia, Chicago, F e,b ruary 21, 1944. "He who rules Bohemia rules Europe" is an old saying. In this vital area, American policy has been built around a myth, spread by a public-relations program for which the Czecho-Slovak Government spent millions of dollars from 1918 to 1938. To understand what this myth has done to American interests, we must study the true story of Czecho-Slovakia, the story which the Administration has never told us. When founded in 1918 by Masaryk and Benes, who gained support for the idea at home only after they had sold it to the Allies, Czecho-Slovakia had six different nationalities. As of the end of World War II, there were six and one-half million Czechs in Bohemia and Moravia, and three and one-half million Sudeten Germans, mostly in a crescent north, west and southwest of the Czech core, but with large German colonies in Prague, Bruenn and other centers. The Teschen district, predominantly Polish, had been ceded to Poland in 1938. Slovakia, to the east, had more than three million Slovaks, 700,000 Hungarians and some Germans. The extreme eastern province was Ruthenia, with a population of about 700,000, ceded to the U.S.S.R. in 1945. The Slovaks were induced to join with the Czechs by the so-called "Pittsburgh Agreement" which promised them absolute equality: Czecho-Slovakia would be "like Switzerland," as Benes put it. The Sudetens wanted to stay with Austria, but they were not asked, and Czech troops overthrew their elected provincial government in March 1919. Masaryk and Benes did not keep their promise of equal rights. Instead, they set up a centralized government in Prague, gave preference to Czechs in the civil service, in business and in finance, undertook to "Czechify" the edu- �18 SLOVAKIA cational system and refused to allow Slovak autonomy. Although the Sudeten region furnished the bulk of CzechoSlovak exports, Prague economic policies kept the area in a state of perpetual depression. It was inevitable that Slovaks, Sudetens and Hungarians should become increasingly anxious to "get out from under". All this time Czech professors and journalists in America, and Americans paid by them (Hitler had a list compiled from Czechs archives) were telling the wonders of "Czechoslovak" democracy. The original aim of Henlein's Sudeten-German Party was simply to gain equal rights for the Sudetens within Czecho-Slovakia. Only after 1935, when the Party won a majority in the German-speaking area, offered to cooperate with Benes and was rebuffed, did pro-Nazi elements become dominant. When the Czech-Sudeten crisis became acute in 1938, the British Government sent Lord Runciman to mediate. The refusal of Benes to make timely concessions led Lord Runciman to recommend cession of the Sudeten areas to Germany. Slovak pressure during and after the Munich crisis forced the Prague Government to grant autonomy to Slovakia on October 6, 1938. In March 1939, however, the Czech President Hacha deposed Slovak Prime Minister Tiso, occupied Bratislava with Czech troops and installed a new Slovak Government. This intervention was used by Hitler as an excuse for marching into Prague, an action which the Slovaks neither requested or suggested. It is true that Hitler seizure of Bohemia made possible the establishment of the Slovak Republic. But this did not make it a Nazi sta.te any more than German aid to Finland nazified that country. The Slovak Republic was what the Slovak people wanted, and it was recognized by 27 countries, including Great Britain, France and even the Soviet Union. In spite of intense Nazi pressure, President Tiso and the Slovak Government did their best to protect the Jews of Slovakia until 1944, when a "rebellion" organized by Communist parachutists led Hitler to install a reign of terror. Slovakia declared war on the Soviet Union in 1941, but it was never at war with the United States. Slovaks �SLOVAKIA 19 repeatedly protected American airmen forced down over their country. Although President Benes, who had resigned after the Munich Agreement in 1938, had recognized his successor Hacha, he decided after the dismemberment of Czecho-Slovakia in 1939 to work toward a political come-back. He and his followers formed the Czechoslovakian Liberation Movement in Paris in 1939, and moved it to London in 1940, later securing Allied recognition as the "Czechoslovak Democratic Government." It was necessary to face the fact that the Czech population at home was not particularly anti-German. Of all the territories under Nazi control, the Czech Protectorate had the highest standard of living. Official rations were the same as in Germany, and since they were actually distributed (which was not always the case in the Reich) the Czechs actually had more to eat than the Germans. Czech industry gave adive support to the German war effort, and large numbers of Czechs volunteered for the German Army. As Kenneth de Courcey (Review of World Affairs, April 28, 1944) pointed out, there was "almost no resistance movement at all" so that it was necessary to parachute in territories to assasinate the Nazi Commissioner Heydrich and provoke the Lidice atrocity with which Hitler was stupid enough to oblige. Since Benes and his followers were determined to pursue their policy of Czech ultra-nationalism, it was evident that they could not count on Czech support at home, let alone the allegiance of the Slovaks. The anti-Nazi Sudeten Germans were willing to reach a settlement, but Benes decided instead to expel them from Czecho-Slovakia. This policy could only be executed with outside assistance, and the only government which could give effective support was that of the Soviet Union. The "Czechoslovakist" policy of Benes and his followers was, therefore, bound to make their government permanently dependent on Russia. The blunder of American policy is that we supported Soviet policy, recognized the Benes "Government" and even now (December 1952) accept those of Benes' followers who broke with Gottwald in 1948 as "democratic exiles" even though they have not changed their policies in the slightest. �20 SLOVAKIA The policy of the "Czechoslovak Democratic Government," which supplied the "non-Commun ist" politicians in the "National Front" which governed Czecho-Slovakia from 1945 to 1948 and whose members are now mostly in the United States under State Department protection, was that of absolute adherence to the Soviet Union. As Dr. Peter Zenkl, today President of the "Council of Free Czechoslovakia" with headquarters in Washington, explained to the temporary parliament in November 1945: "The nationally conscious Czechs and Slovaks have no doubt that in their own interest, as well as in international interests, permanent collaboration with the USSR is necessary. Never without the USSR, never against the USSR, always at its side!" Hubert Ripka, who in 1939 hid the Soviet agent SimonKatz from the French police, later became Minister of Information in the London "Government " and who is now a professor at the New School for Social Research in New York, summarizes the policy in more details in his book East and West (London, 1944): "Since, in the new situation, it was impo,s sible to collaborate officially with the Sovielt Union, we ... did nothing which might prejudice or preven1t the renewal of co-operation at the earliest possible moment; I need only recall how strong ly OUT aJttitude contrasted with that of many others during the Soviet-Finnish War. Moreover, even in that period, there was no inilerruption of the personal contacts and exchange of informrution between ourselves and important Soviet representatives in London, Paris, Washington and elsewhere." Apparently both the British and United States Governments were willing to accept as a "Czechoslovak democratic exile" anyone with a passport from the Czech "Governmentin-exile." The London "Czechoslovak s" took advantage of this fact to infiltrate a large number of Soviet agents, who were in the direct service of the Kremlin, into both the United Kingdom and the United States. The "Czech-Slovak " service of the British Broadcasting Company was taken over by Communists; others worked for the Communist party paper Daily Worker, the two staffs being for operating purposes interchangeab le. Douglas Hyde, a former Communist, relates in his book I Believe (London, 1951) a typical example of infiltration �SLOVAKIA 21 involving one Ludwig Freund•, a German Communist masquerading as a Czech. Freund was assigned to the Daily Worker but his salary was paid by the "Czechoslovak Democratic Government" with British funds. Hyde tells us: "Freund a.c hieved considera,ble standing with member.s of the Benes Government and was ruble to put us (the Communist Party) in touch with them at any time. He was able, also, of course, to keep us mfo.rmed of most of whwt was going on in Czech Government circles. "Freund in co-operation with members of our Editorial Foreign Departmerut would write articles Ito which -non-Communist members of his Government would willing put their names." • The Ludwig Freund mentioned here is not the s·aime person as the Chicago professor of rthat name. The effectiveness of this arrangement is suggested by Minister Ripka's speech of November 7, 1942, over the British Broadcasting Company, in which he said: " ... the Russian November Revolurtion not only increased the strength of the Russian Soviet State, it a,lso raised to greater heighrts than ever ,before the standard of -civilizalt.ion, culture and living of the wide masses of the Soviet peoples ... "Bolshevism is a supe,r -national ideal, an eternal ideal, a human ideal, an ideal which has kindled the mind·s of the noblest of men from the time of Plato and through the Christian era, through the French Revolution and until today ... Just as the French Revolution strove to realize the ideal of freedOllll, so did the Russian Revolution try 1to reali'ze :the ideal of equality." The "non-Communist" politicians in London, whom the State Department has since 1948 undertaken to palm off on the American public as anti-Communists, planned with Stalin during the war to destroy the Slovak Republic and to expel the German-speaking minority. The price exacted by the Kremlin was the complete Sovietization of CzechoSlovakia, which became a Communist satellite in 1945, not in 1948. To assure that the sell-out would work, the "nonCommunists" agreed with the Kremlin to allow only those political parties which would join a United Front under Communist domination, a procedure which General Eisenhower rejected for the U. S. Zone of Germany as undemocratic (New York Times, October 17, 1945). Other parties were prohibited and their leaders thrown into concentration camps. The true policies of the "non-Communist" CzechoSlovak politicians can best be shown by their public statements made between 1945 and 1948. �22 SLOVAKJA "Our alliance with the Soviet Union is the main pillar of our foreign policy (applau se) . . . Our alliance with the Sovie;t Union gu arantees u s immediate he1p of Soviet armies in case of emergency." Dr. Ivo Duchacek, President of the Foreign Com:milbtee of the National Assembly, speech oif March 8, 1946. "Let us declare war against fear of bolshevi•sm and forbid , at the same time, the t'onm,a,tliolJ'l of an,y an1ti,Oommuntst front whaltever." Pravo lidu, organ of Social Democratic Party. "Centrifugal forces shall be jailed ... Centrifugal force,s are ,today eradicated and liquidaited." - Dr. Jozef Le ttri ch , writing in Cas, B rati slava, o. 130, 194G. Question: "Why does no opposition party ex,ist in Czecho-Slovakia ?" Answer: "The need for an opposition party in reality has not yet arisen in our coun1try." - Pavel Viboch at press conference in England, May 1947. "Never in hi sto ry was Russia so mighty, never were the forces of socialism so colossally forged together. This is a new historical epoch. Neve11theless some people think in a stick-in-the-mud fashion. It has not yet •been possible to convince everyone of the necessity of the oventhrow of capitalism ... " Ferdinand Peroutka, Tak nebo tak ("So or so"), Prague, 1947, p. 8. "In Ozech politics, in Czech .national life, it is urgent that we come to an understanding with the Commun ist Party. .. The Communist Party shall remain the greatest force in our p olitical scheme even a!ter the elections are over; and socialism shall remain t he foundation of our national life ... Coming to terms with the Oommunists is t h e golden theme of our political philosophy." - Ferdinand Peroutka, writing In Dnesek, Prague, February 9, rn48. Together with Communist "partisans," the "non-Communist" politicians of the National Front supervised the wholesale murder of more than 300,000 innocent people. They voted unanimously the Communist-drafted Kosice Program which wiped out private business, they set up a system of "People's Courts" on the Soviet model and in Slovakia they established forced labor camps, to which confinement could be imposed without trial for persons "who profess an ideology inimical to the State". And then one day Stalin and Gottwald decided they needed their "liberal allies no longer - because the Sovietization of Czecho-Slovakia had been completed. After the so-called "Gottwald Putsch" of 1948, the leading Communist collaborators and fellow-travellers - including all those quoted above - came to the United States. �SLOVAKIA 23 The State Department received them as "democratic exiles" and set them up in the research business, partly with taxpayers' money. Mr. Duchacek, who once claimed credit for helping to negotiate the Czech-Soviet Treaty of 1943, was employed by the Voice of America. Ferdinand Peroutka, who had written as late as December 1947 that it would be "unthinkable" to take the side of the United States in a war with the Soviet Union, was placed in charge of the "Czechoslovak" operations of Radio Free Europe, financed by the Crusade for Freedom. Two of his principal assistants were Pavel Tigrid and Joseph Kodicek, both forme:· members of the BBC's Communist-dominated "Czech-Slovak" staff. Tigrid was a member of the Communist Party until 1945, when he joined the "Catholic" Party headed by the "Red Monsignor" Sramek under circumstances which are to say the least equivocal. All the other Czecho-Slovak politicians favored by the State Department (up to December 1952) meet the same standard of (,pro-Soviet) loyalty. The "Council for Free Czechoslovakia," headed by Peter Zenkl, boasted in a pamphlet (In Search of Havens, Washington, 1950) that the State Department takes its advice on which Czech and Slovak refugees to admit to the United States and which to exclude. It is well known in Europe even though American newspapers maintaining correspondents in Germany have for some reason never seen fit to publish the facts - that pro-Communists and left-wing socialists get preference for immigration, whereas known anti-Communists are put on a blacklist. The attitude of those favored by the Council is illustrated by the f.arewell speech of one Rostislav Foukal, who before leaving for America told his comrades in Germany: "Every democraticthinking person must recognize that the present economic system in America is rotten to the core, the workers are exploited by their employers and stifled by Taft and Company ... We Czechoslovakian socialists ... will help America to escape from the claws of the capitalists ... We will help the Americans to reshape their history!" As for Slovakia, the overwhelming majority of the nation was and remains today firmly anti-Communist. The �24 SLOVAKIA Slovaks hoped fervently that the end of World War II would not destroy their Republic, but would bring them liberation so that they could govern themselves without German, Russian or Czech interference. But the "Czechoslovak" Government in London had already made its deal with the Kremlin, a deal explicitly sanctioned by an American Administration. The Slovak Republic was liquidated. In spite of asylum granted to the Slovak Cabinet by General Walton H. Walker at Kremsmuenster, Austria, the State Department ordered the surrender of Father Tiso and his government to the "Czechoslovak War Crimes Commission" without even the formality of an extradiction hearing. The kangaroo trial of Father Tiso - conducted before a judge who had sworn in advance "I will hang Tiso!" - is a classic case of judicial murder. After the Slovak Republic had been wantonly destroyed by the Red Armies by pre-arrangement between the Kremlin and the "Czechoslovak Democratic Government," the Communist-dominated government of Dr. Benes mobilized '. 'people's courts" on the Soviet model for a drive against patriotic Slovaks. The Catholic Bishops John Vojtassak and Michael Buzalka were incarcerated, church institutions were nationalized and private and corporate property was confiscated arbitrarily. Up to 1948, during a period when Ambassador Steinhardt assured the American public that "there is definitely no iron curtain in Czechoslovakia" (New York Times, Febrµary 1, 1947), over 100,000 Slovaks were jailed, about 30,000 deported to Russia and over a hundred executed. Slovakia was placed under the joint rule of the Communist Party and the so-called "Slovak Democratic Party" headed by Dr. Joseph Lettrich, now a member of the "Council of Free Czechoslovakia." The "Democratic Party" was created arbitrarily to provide an ostensibly "non-Communist" partner for the Bolshevists, since the Slovak parties with popular support refused to cooperate with the Communists and were therefore liquidated. Government positions were divided by the two parties on a 50-50 basis. In the May 1946 elections the Democratic Party (for which �SLOVAKIA 25 non-Communists felt constrained to vote, fault de mieux) received 62 per cent of the votes, two minor parties 8 per cent and the Communist Party 30 per cent. The Communists continued, however, to enjoy key positions in the provincial government of Slovakia out of all proportion to their actual strength. Their collaborators and supporters, such as Messrs. Lettrich, Kvetko, Viboch, Slavik, Kocvara and Ferjencik, are all in the United States, where they pose as "anti-Communist democratic exiles" from Czecho-Slovakia. The tensions created by the brutal expropriation of the Sudeten Germans and by the rape of Slovakia are factors which perpetuate the Soviet Russian stranglehold on Czecho-Slovakia. It is the aim of the "Czechoslovak" politicians in the United States to re.turn to power with American assistance. But if they succeed, they will again be dependent on Russian support, since the majority of citizens of Czecho-Slovakia (including vast numbers of Czechs who object to socialism and were revolted by the atrocities and the police terror) are strongly opposed to them. As long as the United States Government maintains its unholy alliance with this group, it will never be able to pursue a firm or consistent anti-Communist policy in Central Europe. (Reprinted by permission from the author's "The Iron Curtain and American Policy," Public Affairs Press, 2153 Florida Avenue, Washington 8, D. C.) • • • WHO SAID IT? "THE SLOVAK PEOPLE is one of the great Christian nations of central Europe. History tells us that the forefathers of the Slovaks inhabited their present territory s ince about the fifth century. The Slo· vaks are a plain, humorous, intelligent, song-loving, industrious and religious peo,ple, devoted to the peaceful development of their national life and their national culture. They did not seek domination over other peoples, but only sought to safeguard their own national existence. No other nation of Europe suffered longer under alien domination than the Slovaks. The recognition and respect of their Inherent right to free development and political independence will be a corner stone of peace and coo peration among nations. It is necessary and right for Americans, including Americans of Slovak descent who wish all nationa of the earth as mu ch freedom and independence as they themselves enjoy in our blesesd Country, to show at least an equal amount of love and sympathy for the Slovak people in its long struggle for freedom and independence." (P. A. Hrobak, M!lwaukee, Wis., 10-28-51) � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to 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 SLOVAKIA 17 OUR BLUNDERING CZECHO-SLOVAH.IA POLICY By Kurt Gl.a ser " Dea·1 ing w.iith his Mos'Cow journey, Dr. Benes said it could be regarded in the future as t·h e logi cal culmination of an ancient policy." News Flashes from Czechoslovakia, Chicago, F e,b ruary 21, 1944. "He who rules Bohemia rules Europe" is an old saying. In this vital area, American policy has been built around a myth, spread by a public-relations program for which the Czecho-Slovak Government spent millions of dollars from 1918 to 1938. To understand what this myth has done to American interests, we must study the true story of Czecho-Slovakia, the story which the Administration has never told us. When founded in 1918 by Masaryk and Benes, who gained support for the idea at home only after they had sold it to the Allies, Czecho-Slovakia had six different nationalities. As of the end of World War II, there were six and one-half million Czechs in Bohemia and Moravia, and three and one-half million Sudeten Germans, mostly in a crescent north, west and southwest of the Czech core, but with large German colonies in Prague, Bruenn and other centers. The Teschen district, predominantly Polish, had been ceded to Poland in 1938. Slovakia, to the east, had more than three million Slovaks, 700,000 Hungarians and some Germans. The extreme eastern province was Ruthenia, with a population of about 700,000, ceded to the U.S.S.R. in 1945. The Slovaks were induced to join with the Czechs by the so-called "Pittsburgh Agreement" which promised them absolute equality: Czecho-Slovakia would be "like Switzerland," as Benes put it. The Sudetens wanted to stay with Austria, but they were not asked, and Czech troops overthrew their elected provincial government in March 1919. Masaryk and Benes did not keep their promise of equal rights. Instead, they set up a centralized government in Prague, gave preference to Czechs in the civil service, in business and in finance, undertook to "Czechify" the edu- 18 SLOVAKIA cational system and refused to allow Slovak autonomy. Although the Sudeten region furnished the bulk of CzechoSlovak exports, Prague economic policies kept the area in a state of perpetual depression. It was inevitable that Slovaks, Sudetens and Hungarians should become increasingly anxious to "get out from under". All this time Czech professors and journalists in America, and Americans paid by them (Hitler had a list compiled from Czechs archives) were telling the wonders of "Czechoslovak" democracy. The original aim of Henlein's Sudeten-German Party was simply to gain equal rights for the Sudetens within Czecho-Slovakia. Only after 1935, when the Party won a majority in the German-speaking area, offered to cooperate with Benes and was rebuffed, did pro-Nazi elements become dominant. When the Czech-Sudeten crisis became acute in 1938, the British Government sent Lord Runciman to mediate. The refusal of Benes to make timely concessions led Lord Runciman to recommend cession of the Sudeten areas to Germany. Slovak pressure during and after the Munich crisis forced the Prague Government to grant autonomy to Slovakia on October 6, 1938. In March 1939, however, the Czech President Hacha deposed Slovak Prime Minister Tiso, occupied Bratislava with Czech troops and installed a new Slovak Government. This intervention was used by Hitler as an excuse for marching into Prague, an action which the Slovaks neither requested or suggested. It is true that Hitler seizure of Bohemia made possible the establishment of the Slovak Republic. But this did not make it a Nazi sta.te any more than German aid to Finland nazified that country. The Slovak Republic was what the Slovak people wanted, and it was recognized by 27 countries, including Great Britain, France and even the Soviet Union. In spite of intense Nazi pressure, President Tiso and the Slovak Government did their best to protect the Jews of Slovakia until 1944, when a "rebellion" organized by Communist parachutists led Hitler to install a reign of terror. Slovakia declared war on the Soviet Union in 1941, but it was never at war with the United States. Slovaks SLOVAKIA 19 repeatedly protected American airmen forced down over their country. Although President Benes, who had resigned after the Munich Agreement in 1938, had recognized his successor Hacha, he decided after the dismemberment of Czecho-Slovakia in 1939 to work toward a political come-back. He and his followers formed the Czechoslovakian Liberation Movement in Paris in 1939, and moved it to London in 1940, later securing Allied recognition as the "Czechoslovak Democratic Government." It was necessary to face the fact that the Czech population at home was not particularly anti-German. Of all the territories under Nazi control, the Czech Protectorate had the highest standard of living. Official rations were the same as in Germany, and since they were actually distributed (which was not always the case in the Reich) the Czechs actually had more to eat than the Germans. Czech industry gave adive support to the German war effort, and large numbers of Czechs volunteered for the German Army. As Kenneth de Courcey (Review of World Affairs, April 28, 1944) pointed out, there was "almost no resistance movement at all" so that it was necessary to parachute in territories to assasinate the Nazi Commissioner Heydrich and provoke the Lidice atrocity with which Hitler was stupid enough to oblige. Since Benes and his followers were determined to pursue their policy of Czech ultra-nationalism, it was evident that they could not count on Czech support at home, let alone the allegiance of the Slovaks. The anti-Nazi Sudeten Germans were willing to reach a settlement, but Benes decided instead to expel them from Czecho-Slovakia. This policy could only be executed with outside assistance, and the only government which could give effective support was that of the Soviet Union. The "Czechoslovakist" policy of Benes and his followers was, therefore, bound to make their government permanently dependent on Russia. The blunder of American policy is that we supported Soviet policy, recognized the Benes "Government" and even now (December 1952) accept those of Benes' followers who broke with Gottwald in 1948 as "democratic exiles" even though they have not changed their policies in the slightest. 20 SLOVAKIA The policy of the "Czechoslovak Democratic Government," which supplied the "non-Commun ist" politicians in the "National Front" which governed Czecho-Slovakia from 1945 to 1948 and whose members are now mostly in the United States under State Department protection, was that of absolute adherence to the Soviet Union. As Dr. Peter Zenkl, today President of the "Council of Free Czechoslovakia" with headquarters in Washington, explained to the temporary parliament in November 1945: "The nationally conscious Czechs and Slovaks have no doubt that in their own interest, as well as in international interests, permanent collaboration with the USSR is necessary. Never without the USSR, never against the USSR, always at its side!" Hubert Ripka, who in 1939 hid the Soviet agent SimonKatz from the French police, later became Minister of Information in the London "Government " and who is now a professor at the New School for Social Research in New York, summarizes the policy in more details in his book East and West (London, 1944): "Since, in the new situation, it was impo,s sible to collaborate officially with the Sovielt Union, we ... did nothing which might prejudice or preven1t the renewal of co-operation at the earliest possible moment; I need only recall how strong ly OUT aJttitude contrasted with that of many others during the Soviet-Finnish War. Moreover, even in that period, there was no inilerruption of the personal contacts and exchange of informrution between ourselves and important Soviet representatives in London, Paris, Washington and elsewhere." Apparently both the British and United States Governments were willing to accept as a "Czechoslovak democratic exile" anyone with a passport from the Czech "Governmentin-exile." The London "Czechoslovak s" took advantage of this fact to infiltrate a large number of Soviet agents, who were in the direct service of the Kremlin, into both the United Kingdom and the United States. The "Czech-Slovak " service of the British Broadcasting Company was taken over by Communists; others worked for the Communist party paper Daily Worker, the two staffs being for operating purposes interchangeab le. Douglas Hyde, a former Communist, relates in his book I Believe (London, 1951) a typical example of infiltration SLOVAKIA 21 involving one Ludwig Freund•, a German Communist masquerading as a Czech. Freund was assigned to the Daily Worker but his salary was paid by the "Czechoslovak Democratic Government" with British funds. Hyde tells us: "Freund a.c hieved considera,ble standing with member.s of the Benes Government and was ruble to put us (the Communist Party) in touch with them at any time. He was able, also, of course, to keep us mfo.rmed of most of whwt was going on in Czech Government circles. "Freund in co-operation with members of our Editorial Foreign Departmerut would write articles Ito which -non-Communist members of his Government would willing put their names." • The Ludwig Freund mentioned here is not the s·aime person as the Chicago professor of rthat name. The effectiveness of this arrangement is suggested by Minister Ripka's speech of November 7, 1942, over the British Broadcasting Company, in which he said: " ... the Russian November Revolurtion not only increased the strength of the Russian Soviet State, it a,lso raised to greater heighrts than ever ,before the standard of -civilizalt.ion, culture and living of the wide masses of the Soviet peoples ... "Bolshevism is a supe,r -national ideal, an eternal ideal, a human ideal, an ideal which has kindled the mind·s of the noblest of men from the time of Plato and through the Christian era, through the French Revolution and until today ... Just as the French Revolution strove to realize the ideal of freedOllll, so did the Russian Revolution try 1to reali'ze :the ideal of equality." The "non-Communist" politicians in London, whom the State Department has since 1948 undertaken to palm off on the American public as anti-Communists, planned with Stalin during the war to destroy the Slovak Republic and to expel the German-speaking minority. The price exacted by the Kremlin was the complete Sovietization of CzechoSlovakia, which became a Communist satellite in 1945, not in 1948. To assure that the sell-out would work, the "nonCommunists" agreed with the Kremlin to allow only those political parties which would join a United Front under Communist domination, a procedure which General Eisenhower rejected for the U. S. Zone of Germany as undemocratic (New York Times, October 17, 1945). Other parties were prohibited and their leaders thrown into concentration camps. The true policies of the "non-Communist" CzechoSlovak politicians can best be shown by their public statements made between 1945 and 1948. 22 SLOVAKJA "Our alliance with the Soviet Union is the main pillar of our foreign policy (applau se) . . . Our alliance with the Sovie;t Union gu arantees u s immediate he1p of Soviet armies in case of emergency." Dr. Ivo Duchacek, President of the Foreign Com:milbtee of the National Assembly, speech oif March 8, 1946. "Let us declare war against fear of bolshevi•sm and forbid , at the same time, the t'onm,a,tliolJ'l of an,y an1ti,Oommuntst front whaltever." Pravo lidu, organ of Social Democratic Party. "Centrifugal forces shall be jailed ... Centrifugal force,s are ,today eradicated and liquidaited." - Dr. Jozef Le ttri ch , writing in Cas, B rati slava, o. 130, 194G. Question: "Why does no opposition party ex,ist in Czecho-Slovakia ?" Answer: "The need for an opposition party in reality has not yet arisen in our coun1try." - Pavel Viboch at press conference in England, May 1947. "Never in hi sto ry was Russia so mighty, never were the forces of socialism so colossally forged together. This is a new historical epoch. Neve11theless some people think in a stick-in-the-mud fashion. It has not yet •been possible to convince everyone of the necessity of the oventhrow of capitalism ... " Ferdinand Peroutka, Tak nebo tak ("So or so"), Prague, 1947, p. 8. "In Ozech politics, in Czech .national life, it is urgent that we come to an understanding with the Commun ist Party. .. The Communist Party shall remain the greatest force in our p olitical scheme even a!ter the elections are over; and socialism shall remain t he foundation of our national life ... Coming to terms with the Oommunists is t h e golden theme of our political philosophy." - Ferdinand Peroutka, writing In Dnesek, Prague, February 9, rn48. Together with Communist "partisans," the "non-Communist" politicians of the National Front supervised the wholesale murder of more than 300,000 innocent people. They voted unanimously the Communist-drafted Kosice Program which wiped out private business, they set up a system of "People's Courts" on the Soviet model and in Slovakia they established forced labor camps, to which confinement could be imposed without trial for persons "who profess an ideology inimical to the State". And then one day Stalin and Gottwald decided they needed their "liberal allies no longer - because the Sovietization of Czecho-Slovakia had been completed. After the so-called "Gottwald Putsch" of 1948, the leading Communist collaborators and fellow-travellers - including all those quoted above - came to the United States. SLOVAKIA 23 The State Department received them as "democratic exiles" and set them up in the research business, partly with taxpayers' money. Mr. Duchacek, who once claimed credit for helping to negotiate the Czech-Soviet Treaty of 1943, was employed by the Voice of America. Ferdinand Peroutka, who had written as late as December 1947 that it would be "unthinkable" to take the side of the United States in a war with the Soviet Union, was placed in charge of the "Czechoslovak" operations of Radio Free Europe, financed by the Crusade for Freedom. Two of his principal assistants were Pavel Tigrid and Joseph Kodicek, both forme:· members of the BBC's Communist-dominated "Czech-Slovak" staff. Tigrid was a member of the Communist Party until 1945, when he joined the "Catholic" Party headed by the "Red Monsignor" Sramek under circumstances which are to say the least equivocal. All the other Czecho-Slovak politicians favored by the State Department (up to December 1952) meet the same standard of (,pro-Soviet) loyalty. The "Council for Free Czechoslovakia," headed by Peter Zenkl, boasted in a pamphlet (In Search of Havens, Washington, 1950) that the State Department takes its advice on which Czech and Slovak refugees to admit to the United States and which to exclude. It is well known in Europe even though American newspapers maintaining correspondents in Germany have for some reason never seen fit to publish the facts - that pro-Communists and left-wing socialists get preference for immigration, whereas known anti-Communists are put on a blacklist. The attitude of those favored by the Council is illustrated by the f.arewell speech of one Rostislav Foukal, who before leaving for America told his comrades in Germany: "Every democraticthinking person must recognize that the present economic system in America is rotten to the core, the workers are exploited by their employers and stifled by Taft and Company ... We Czechoslovakian socialists ... will help America to escape from the claws of the capitalists ... We will help the Americans to reshape their history!" As for Slovakia, the overwhelming majority of the nation was and remains today firmly anti-Communist. The 24 SLOVAKIA Slovaks hoped fervently that the end of World War II would not destroy their Republic, but would bring them liberation so that they could govern themselves without German, Russian or Czech interference. But the "Czechoslovak" Government in London had already made its deal with the Kremlin, a deal explicitly sanctioned by an American Administration. The Slovak Republic was liquidated. In spite of asylum granted to the Slovak Cabinet by General Walton H. Walker at Kremsmuenster, Austria, the State Department ordered the surrender of Father Tiso and his government to the "Czechoslovak War Crimes Commission" without even the formality of an extradiction hearing. The kangaroo trial of Father Tiso - conducted before a judge who had sworn in advance "I will hang Tiso!" - is a classic case of judicial murder. After the Slovak Republic had been wantonly destroyed by the Red Armies by pre-arrangement between the Kremlin and the "Czechoslovak Democratic Government," the Communist-dominated government of Dr. Benes mobilized '. 'people's courts" on the Soviet model for a drive against patriotic Slovaks. The Catholic Bishops John Vojtassak and Michael Buzalka were incarcerated, church institutions were nationalized and private and corporate property was confiscated arbitrarily. Up to 1948, during a period when Ambassador Steinhardt assured the American public that "there is definitely no iron curtain in Czechoslovakia" (New York Times, Febrµary 1, 1947), over 100,000 Slovaks were jailed, about 30,000 deported to Russia and over a hundred executed. Slovakia was placed under the joint rule of the Communist Party and the so-called "Slovak Democratic Party" headed by Dr. Joseph Lettrich, now a member of the "Council of Free Czechoslovakia." The "Democratic Party" was created arbitrarily to provide an ostensibly "non-Communist" partner for the Bolshevists, since the Slovak parties with popular support refused to cooperate with the Communists and were therefore liquidated. Government positions were divided by the two parties on a 50-50 basis. In the May 1946 elections the Democratic Party (for which SLOVAKIA 25 non-Communists felt constrained to vote, fault de mieux) received 62 per cent of the votes, two minor parties 8 per cent and the Communist Party 30 per cent. The Communists continued, however, to enjoy key positions in the provincial government of Slovakia out of all proportion to their actual strength. Their collaborators and supporters, such as Messrs. Lettrich, Kvetko, Viboch, Slavik, Kocvara and Ferjencik, are all in the United States, where they pose as "anti-Communist democratic exiles" from Czecho-Slovakia. The tensions created by the brutal expropriation of the Sudeten Germans and by the rape of Slovakia are factors which perpetuate the Soviet Russian stranglehold on Czecho-Slovakia. It is the aim of the "Czechoslovak" politicians in the United States to re.turn to power with American assistance. But if they succeed, they will again be dependent on Russian support, since the majority of citizens of Czecho-Slovakia (including vast numbers of Czechs who object to socialism and were revolted by the atrocities and the police terror) are strongly opposed to them. As long as the United States Government maintains its unholy alliance with this group, it will never be able to pursue a firm or consistent anti-Communist policy in Central Europe. (Reprinted by permission from the author's "The Iron Curtain and American Policy," Public Affairs Press, 2153 Florida Avenue, Washington 8, D. C.) • • • WHO SAID IT? "THE SLOVAK PEOPLE is one of the great Christian nations of central Europe. History tells us that the forefathers of the Slovaks inhabited their present territory s ince about the fifth century. The Slo· vaks are a plain, humorous, intelligent, song-loving, industrious and religious peo,ple, devoted to the peaceful development of their national life and their national culture. They did not seek domination over other peoples, but only sought to safeguard their own national existence. No other nation of Europe suffered longer under alien domination than the Slovaks. The recognition and respect of their Inherent right to free development and political independence will be a corner stone of peace and coo peration among nations. It is necessary and right for Americans, including Americans of Slovak descent who wish all nationa of the earth as mu ch freedom and independence as they themselves enjoy in our blesesd Country, to show at least an equal amount of love and sympathy for the Slovak people in its long struggle for freedom and independence." (P. A. Hrobak, M!lwaukee, Wis., 10-28-51)  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Our Blundering Czecho-Slovakia Policy Description An account of the resource Kurt Glaser Slovakia, Vol. 3, No. 2 (7), July 1953 pp. 17-25 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 July 1953 LCNAF https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/270c93e3e60f065f6181d508cce0626e.pdf de49570fc8bc753fe01d7b451ec8e72a PDF Text Text 116 SLOVAKIA education were just as comprehensive. Its headquarters and branches arranged thousands of lectures, entertainments, and celebrations; giving numerous courses and about five thousand amateur theatrical performances every year. It has founded or helped to keep up local libraries in more than 3,500 towns and parishes. In all these activities, the Matica has always maintained friendly relations with other countries, particularly with the United States, where over one million Slovaks reside. Thus, Matica Slovenska has passed from its foundation in 1863 through a complicated evolution. It was the only state cultural association of the Slovaks in the years of national and social oppression which later evolved into a scientific and cultural institution and expanded widely its activity. After 1945, with the new divisions of tasks in Slovak national science and culture, Matica ceased to be an association and became a state scientific institution which was charged with the function of the national library and bibliographic institute. Although the history of the Matica Slovenska and especially its activity since 1945 was misinterpreted, the Matica Slovenska will always be remembered for the progressive task which it has played in the Slovak history. Joseph S. Kos t Our C_vrilo-)Iethodiau 1-Ieritagc ( Third Prize Award) "The heritage of our ancestors preserve for us O Lord" unites the Slovak's love of God and his love of the Slovak nation. This Cyrilo-Methodian invocation reflects the accomplishments of Saints Cyril and Methodius that have affected Slovak life from its beginnings in Slovak Great Moravia in the ninth century to the present twentieth century. The missionary endeavors of the Holy Brothers were significant not only in promoting the Catholic faith among Slovak forefathers; equally important were their accomplishments on behalf of the cultural and political �SLOVAKIA 117 heritage of Slovakia. The Cyrilo-Methodian tradition has helped to revitalize Slovak national consciousness and to inspire hope for a better future for the Slovaks. This hope and faith in the future can best be understood and appreciated by journeying back in time to Great Moravia under the leadership of Rastislav. This Slovak monarch was at that time, 860, already devoted to the Christian faith and realized fully Christianity's effect on the moral and cultural fibre of his people. But he also realized the danger of his country's falling under the complete domination of alien rule. He noted the influence of the Bavarian Church's organization and activities and the political strength of the Frankish empire. Therefore , Rastislav initiated his religious-political plan for establishing the foundation for the Slovak people to offset the Frankish-Bavarian coalition. In 862 Rastislav sent a special delegation to Byzantium requesting Emperor Michael III to send a bishop and teacher to the Slovak kingdom. He was not merely asking for regular missionary priests to aid his plan. And he was not, as is often stated, asking only for missionaries who spoke the Slovak language. German (Frankish) missionaries were already ministering to his people, and no doubt . some of them spoke Slavic. Furthermore, the Catholic faith was sufficiently widespread throughout his kingdom . What he really needed was a bishop who could carry out plans for a new religious-political system. Although he had first made this same request of Pope Nicholas in Rome, he has not turning from Rome in his special mission to Byzantium. The schism between Rome and the Byzantine world was not actually in effect at this time. The Byzantine Church was united with Rome and professed the same Catholic faith as well as allegiance to Rome. Acceding to Rastislav's request, Emperor Michael III sent the Holy Brothers, Cyril and Methodius of Thessalonica. In the ninth century this city was the center of a major Byzantine district and the second largest city in the Byzantine empire. There was a large Slav population around Thessalonica. Some authorities believe the family of Cyril and Methodius were "Graecized Slavs" . They were educated �118 SLOVA KIA in Greek school s and religio usly trained in the Byzant ine Rite of the Cathol ic Church accord ing to Byzant ine life and custom s. At any rate, these brothe rs of a socially disting uished family of the Byzant ine Imperi al Court spoke the Slavon ic tongue since the majori ty of inhabit ants in the outlyin g distric ts were Slavs. No better qualifi ed individ uals than tlley could have been chosen by Emper or Michae l III for the missio nary work among the Slovak s. Althou gh Cyril had prepar ed for missio nary work and the priesth ood, Method ius had prepar ed for law and politica l office in the service of the empero r. Method ius, tutored in law by his father in Thessa lonica, had been appoin ted by the empero r as admin istrato r of a certain distric t in the Byzant ine empire where the majori ty of inhabi tants were Slavs. The Life of Saint Method ius comme nts: "The Emper or appoin ted him admin istrato r of this distric t . . . as though he already foresaw that later he would send him to the Slavs as their teache r and first archbis hop." Here Method ius had an opport unity to learn all the custom s of the Slavs and to adapt himsel f to them. After ten years as govern or of this distric t, he sudden ly left politica l office to enter a monas tery on Mt. Olymp us. Here he studied theolog y, thf' scriptu res, paintin g, and later was ordain ed to the priesth ood. Cyril, on the other hand, devote d his life from its very beginn ing to acquiri ng wisdom by the study of philoso phy and theolog y. From his earlies t youth, he chose as his patron in studies the great Father of the Church , the belove d theolog ian, Saint Gregor y Nazian zen. After leaving his positio n as profes sor of philoso phy at the imperi al school in Consta ntinopl e, he remain ed in solitar y seclusi on and later joined Method ius on Mt. Olymp us, very likely as a guest at the monas tery, not as a monk. Realizi ng how import ant it is for missio naries to have the Sacred Scriptu res in the langua ge of the people to whom they were ministe ring, Cyril began to constru ct and organiz e a Slavon ic alphab et and to transla te and put into Slavon ic written form the essenti al liturgic al books. The alphab et which he devised (the Glagol itic) was based on the Greek alphab et and accoun ts for the use of Church Slavon ic in the liturgy of Easter n Rite church es, �SLOVAKIA 119 one numbering 150,000,000 faithful. This Glagolitic alphabet is the most important cultural achieveme nt of the brothers for, in one form or another, it has endured throughou t time and was one capital factor in maintainin g spiritual sustenance for large numbers of Slovaks. After their arrival in Slovak Great Moravia, Cyril envisioned the training of young Slavs for the priesthood as one of his major responsibil ities, for it would take a native clergy to perpetuate their work. For this task, he organized an educationa l program and school to train young Slovaks in their national culture as a preliminar y to advanced study. The Life of Saint Cyril reads: "Soon be translated the entire Ecclesiasti cal Order and taught them (his young disciples) Matins, the Little Hours, Vespers, Compline, and the Eucharisti c Liturgy. And the ears of the deaf were opened, according to the words of the prophet, to hear the words of Scripture, and the tongue of the stutterer was loosened." And Nestor in his Chronicle says: "When they arrived (in Great Moravia) they began to write with Slavonic letters and translated the 'Apostol' (Acts and Epistles of the Apostles) and the Gospel. And the Sloveni (Slovaks) rejoiced that they heard the praise of God in their own language." His teaching of these ritual texts and offices of th~ Byzantine Rite to the young men was so well organized that in only forty months the young disciples were prepared to be ordained. The Eulogy o t Saint Cyril says: "Having translated the entire liturgical ritual into Slavonic, he went to Rome, taking with him chosen ones of his flock for perfection (to be ordained ) and he ended his course (of life) with joy, because it pleased God that here (in Rome) his venerable body should rest." Following Cyril's death in 869, the newly consecrate d Bishop Methodius continued his missionary endeavors in Slovak Great Moravia and was later imprisoned by Bavarian bishops. They opposed the independe nt Slavonic hierarchy, responsible directly to Rome, that Saint Cyril and Methodius achieved along with the Slavonic liturgy. Although he was later released, Methodius ' suffering and humiliatio n for the sake of the independen ce of Slovaks has served as an inspiration for all suppressed Slovaks from the ninth century to the present twentieth century. �120 SLOVAKIA At the beginning of the twentieth century the political situation in Slovakia again suppressed any cultural and political activities aimed at keeping alive Slovak national consciousness and historical traditions. Budapest officialdom and Magyar nationalists viewed the Cyrilo-Methodian tradition as an anti-Hungarian and Pan-Slav conspiracy and often used oppressive and repressive measures to destroy cultural and political activities in Slovakia and even to thwart religious manifestations among the people. In spite of persecution and pressure, the dawning of the twentieth century brought a new generation of dedicated men who did not hesitate to accept at great personal cost and anguish the leading role of allegiance to their cultural heritage and Slovak national life. With the creation of Czecho-Slovakia in 1918, this spirit whetted the desire of Slovak patriots to serve their country as qualified statesmen and leaders and to prevent Czech shemers from asserting themselves as the ruling element of the Slovak nation. They were likewise determined not to permit the socialist government of Prague to impose foreign Czech traditions in place of cherished Slovak Cyrilo-Methodian and Catholic traditions. The first Slovak bishops in new Slovakia were consecrated in Nitra in 1921. The Slovak people at home and abroad viewed this great event as the fruit of devotion and patience which finally matured for them as the true heirs of the magnificent works of SS. Cyril and Methodius. The declaration of Slovakia's independence in 1939 by the Slovak Parliament was considered yet another revival of the first Slovak statehood of the ninth century. The Cyrilo-Methodian tradition was the keystone in the arch which the Slovak nation has built within the temple of its national life founded on authentic spiritual principles. Slovaks again under the cross of oppression since the 1968 August invasion of Czecho-Slovakia by the Soviets must again rely upon the Christian national past of Slovakia to support them through these dark days and to build anew their Slovak state in a happier time for which we fervently pray. The spirit of true religious freedom and the Slovak �SLOVAKIA 121 political and cultural autonomy established in the CyriloMethodian tradition cannot be lost sight of today. It is especially essential to all of us, Slovaks by birth and by ancestry, at this crucial time when Slovakia is threatened by godless and God-defiant Communists. Our vital and vitalizing tradition must become actively operative to promote a wise and intrepid manifestation of Slovak national consciousness both in Slovakia and in America. Saints Cyril and Methodius valiantly labored and heroically suffered for Slovak independence both in ecclesiastical and political spheres. They laid for us the foundations of our Catholic faith and national culture. United in love of God and our Slovak nation we humbly pray- "The heritage of our ancestors preserve for us 0 Lord!" Patricia Revetta BIBLIOGRAPHY Kirschbaum, Joseph. Slovakia: Nation at the Crossroads of Central Europe. New York, 1960. Kirschbaum, Joseph. "The Role of the Cyrilo-Methodian Tradition in Slovak National and Political Life," Slovak Studies, III (1963), 153-173. Lacko, Michael. "The Cyrilo-Methodian Origin of the Byzantine-Slavonic and the Roman-Slavonic Liturgy," Slovak Studies, m (1963), 79-89. Lacko, Michael. "The Cyrilo-Methodian Mission and Slovakia," Slovak Studies, I (1961) , 23-47. Oddo, Gilbert. Slovakia and Its People. New York, 1960. Palickar, Stephen. Slovakia: From Hungarian Despotism to Atheistic Czech Communism. Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1948. Skultety, Joseph. Sketches from Slovak History. Middletown, Pennsylvania, 1930. Yurchak, Peter. The Slovaks: Their History and Traditions. Whiting, Indiana, 1947. THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA is interested primarily in promoting the welfare and security of the United States of America. � 116 SLOVAKIA education were just as comprehensive. Its headquarters and branches arranged thousands of lectures, entertainments, and celebrations; giving numerous courses and about five thousand amateur theatrical performances every year. It has founded or helped to keep up local libraries in more than 3,500 towns and parishes. In all these activities, the Matica has always maintained friendly relations with other countries, particularly with the United States, where over one million Slovaks reside. Thus, Matica Slovenska has passed from its foundation in 1863 through a complicated evolution. It was the only state cultural association of the Slovaks in the years of national and social oppression which later evolved into a scientific and cultural institution and expanded widely its activity. After 1945, with the new divisions of tasks in Slovak national science and culture, Matica ceased to be an association and became a state scientific institution which was charged with the function of the national library and bibliographic institute. Although the history of the Matica Slovenska and especially its activity since 1945 was misinterpreted, the Matica Slovenska will always be remembered for the progressive task which it has played in the Slovak history. Joseph S. Kos t Our C_vrilo-)Iethodiau 1-Ieritagc ( Third Prize Award) "The heritage of our ancestors preserve for us O Lord" unites the Slovak's love of God and his love of the Slovak nation. This Cyrilo-Methodian invocation reflects the accomplishments of Saints Cyril and Methodius that have affected Slovak life from its beginnings in Slovak Great Moravia in the ninth century to the present twentieth century. The missionary endeavors of the Holy Brothers were significant not only in promoting the Catholic faith among Slovak forefathers; equally important were their accomplishments on behalf of the cultural and political �SLOVAKIA 117 heritage of Slovakia. The Cyrilo-Methodian tradition has helped to revitalize Slovak national consciousness and to inspire hope for a better future for the Slovaks. This hope and faith in the future can best be understood and appreciated by journeying back in time to Great Moravia under the leadership of Rastislav. This Slovak monarch was at that time, 860, already devoted to the Christian faith and realized fully Christianity's effect on the moral and cultural fibre of his people. But he also realized the danger of his country's falling under the complete domination of alien rule. He noted the influence of the Bavarian Church's organization and activities and the political strength of the Frankish empire. Therefore , Rastislav initiated his religious-political plan for establishing the foundation for the Slovak people to offset the Frankish-Bavarian coalition. In 862 Rastislav sent a special delegation to Byzantium requesting Emperor Michael III to send a bishop and teacher to the Slovak kingdom. He was not merely asking for regular missionary priests to aid his plan. And he was not, as is often stated, asking only for missionaries who spoke the Slovak language. German (Frankish) missionaries were already ministering to his people, and no doubt . some of them spoke Slavic. Furthermore, the Catholic faith was sufficiently widespread throughout his kingdom . What he really needed was a bishop who could carry out plans for a new religious-political system. Although he had first made this same request of Pope Nicholas in Rome, he has not turning from Rome in his special mission to Byzantium. The schism between Rome and the Byzantine world was not actually in effect at this time. The Byzantine Church was united with Rome and professed the same Catholic faith as well as allegiance to Rome. Acceding to Rastislav's request, Emperor Michael III sent the Holy Brothers, Cyril and Methodius of Thessalonica. In the ninth century this city was the center of a major Byzantine district and the second largest city in the Byzantine empire. There was a large Slav population around Thessalonica. Some authorities believe the family of Cyril and Methodius were "Graecized Slavs" . They were educated �118 SLOVA KIA in Greek school s and religio usly trained in the Byzant ine Rite of the Cathol ic Church accord ing to Byzant ine life and custom s. At any rate, these brothe rs of a socially disting uished family of the Byzant ine Imperi al Court spoke the Slavon ic tongue since the majori ty of inhabit ants in the outlyin g distric ts were Slavs. No better qualifi ed individ uals than tlley could have been chosen by Emper or Michae l III for the missio nary work among the Slovak s. Althou gh Cyril had prepar ed for missio nary work and the priesth ood, Method ius had prepar ed for law and politica l office in the service of the empero r. Method ius, tutored in law by his father in Thessa lonica, had been appoin ted by the empero r as admin istrato r of a certain distric t in the Byzant ine empire where the majori ty of inhabi tants were Slavs. The Life of Saint Method ius comme nts: "The Emper or appoin ted him admin istrato r of this distric t . . . as though he already foresaw that later he would send him to the Slavs as their teache r and first archbis hop." Here Method ius had an opport unity to learn all the custom s of the Slavs and to adapt himsel f to them. After ten years as govern or of this distric t, he sudden ly left politica l office to enter a monas tery on Mt. Olymp us. Here he studied theolog y, thf' scriptu res, paintin g, and later was ordain ed to the priesth ood. Cyril, on the other hand, devote d his life from its very beginn ing to acquiri ng wisdom by the study of philoso phy and theolog y. From his earlies t youth, he chose as his patron in studies the great Father of the Church , the belove d theolog ian, Saint Gregor y Nazian zen. After leaving his positio n as profes sor of philoso phy at the imperi al school in Consta ntinopl e, he remain ed in solitar y seclusi on and later joined Method ius on Mt. Olymp us, very likely as a guest at the monas tery, not as a monk. Realizi ng how import ant it is for missio naries to have the Sacred Scriptu res in the langua ge of the people to whom they were ministe ring, Cyril began to constru ct and organiz e a Slavon ic alphab et and to transla te and put into Slavon ic written form the essenti al liturgic al books. The alphab et which he devised (the Glagol itic) was based on the Greek alphab et and accoun ts for the use of Church Slavon ic in the liturgy of Easter n Rite church es, �SLOVAKIA 119 one numbering 150,000,000 faithful. This Glagolitic alphabet is the most important cultural achieveme nt of the brothers for, in one form or another, it has endured throughou t time and was one capital factor in maintainin g spiritual sustenance for large numbers of Slovaks. After their arrival in Slovak Great Moravia, Cyril envisioned the training of young Slavs for the priesthood as one of his major responsibil ities, for it would take a native clergy to perpetuate their work. For this task, he organized an educationa l program and school to train young Slovaks in their national culture as a preliminar y to advanced study. The Life of Saint Cyril reads: "Soon be translated the entire Ecclesiasti cal Order and taught them (his young disciples) Matins, the Little Hours, Vespers, Compline, and the Eucharisti c Liturgy. And the ears of the deaf were opened, according to the words of the prophet, to hear the words of Scripture, and the tongue of the stutterer was loosened." And Nestor in his Chronicle says: "When they arrived (in Great Moravia) they began to write with Slavonic letters and translated the 'Apostol' (Acts and Epistles of the Apostles) and the Gospel. And the Sloveni (Slovaks) rejoiced that they heard the praise of God in their own language." His teaching of these ritual texts and offices of th~ Byzantine Rite to the young men was so well organized that in only forty months the young disciples were prepared to be ordained. The Eulogy o t Saint Cyril says: "Having translated the entire liturgical ritual into Slavonic, he went to Rome, taking with him chosen ones of his flock for perfection (to be ordained ) and he ended his course (of life) with joy, because it pleased God that here (in Rome) his venerable body should rest." Following Cyril's death in 869, the newly consecrate d Bishop Methodius continued his missionary endeavors in Slovak Great Moravia and was later imprisoned by Bavarian bishops. They opposed the independe nt Slavonic hierarchy, responsible directly to Rome, that Saint Cyril and Methodius achieved along with the Slavonic liturgy. Although he was later released, Methodius ' suffering and humiliatio n for the sake of the independen ce of Slovaks has served as an inspiration for all suppressed Slovaks from the ninth century to the present twentieth century. �120 SLOVAKIA At the beginning of the twentieth century the political situation in Slovakia again suppressed any cultural and political activities aimed at keeping alive Slovak national consciousness and historical traditions. Budapest officialdom and Magyar nationalists viewed the Cyrilo-Methodian tradition as an anti-Hungarian and Pan-Slav conspiracy and often used oppressive and repressive measures to destroy cultural and political activities in Slovakia and even to thwart religious manifestations among the people. In spite of persecution and pressure, the dawning of the twentieth century brought a new generation of dedicated men who did not hesitate to accept at great personal cost and anguish the leading role of allegiance to their cultural heritage and Slovak national life. With the creation of Czecho-Slovakia in 1918, this spirit whetted the desire of Slovak patriots to serve their country as qualified statesmen and leaders and to prevent Czech shemers from asserting themselves as the ruling element of the Slovak nation. They were likewise determined not to permit the socialist government of Prague to impose foreign Czech traditions in place of cherished Slovak Cyrilo-Methodian and Catholic traditions. The first Slovak bishops in new Slovakia were consecrated in Nitra in 1921. The Slovak people at home and abroad viewed this great event as the fruit of devotion and patience which finally matured for them as the true heirs of the magnificent works of SS. Cyril and Methodius. The declaration of Slovakia's independence in 1939 by the Slovak Parliament was considered yet another revival of the first Slovak statehood of the ninth century. The Cyrilo-Methodian tradition was the keystone in the arch which the Slovak nation has built within the temple of its national life founded on authentic spiritual principles. Slovaks again under the cross of oppression since the 1968 August invasion of Czecho-Slovakia by the Soviets must again rely upon the Christian national past of Slovakia to support them through these dark days and to build anew their Slovak state in a happier time for which we fervently pray. The spirit of true religious freedom and the Slovak �SLOVAKIA 121 political and cultural autonomy established in the CyriloMethodian tradition cannot be lost sight of today. It is especially essential to all of us, Slovaks by birth and by ancestry, at this crucial time when Slovakia is threatened by godless and God-defiant Communists. Our vital and vitalizing tradition must become actively operative to promote a wise and intrepid manifestation of Slovak national consciousness both in Slovakia and in America. Saints Cyril and Methodius valiantly labored and heroically suffered for Slovak independence both in ecclesiastical and political spheres. They laid for us the foundations of our Catholic faith and national culture. United in love of God and our Slovak nation we humbly pray- "The heritage of our ancestors preserve for us 0 Lord!" Patricia Revetta BIBLIOGRAPHY Kirschbaum, Joseph. Slovakia: Nation at the Crossroads of Central Europe. New York, 1960. Kirschbaum, Joseph. "The Role of the Cyrilo-Methodian Tradition in Slovak National and Political Life," Slovak Studies, III (1963), 153-173. Lacko, Michael. "The Cyrilo-Methodian Origin of the Byzantine-Slavonic and the Roman-Slavonic Liturgy," Slovak Studies, m (1963), 79-89. Lacko, Michael. "The Cyrilo-Methodian Mission and Slovakia," Slovak Studies, I (1961) , 23-47. Oddo, Gilbert. Slovakia and Its People. New York, 1960. Palickar, Stephen. Slovakia: From Hungarian Despotism to Atheistic Czech Communism. Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1948. Skultety, Joseph. Sketches from Slovak History. Middletown, Pennsylvania, 1930. Yurchak, Peter. The Slovaks: Their History and Traditions. Whiting, Indiana, 1947. THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA is interested primarily in promoting the welfare and security of the United States of America. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 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 116 SLOVAKIA education were just as comprehensive. Its headquarters and branches arranged thousands of lectures, entertainments, and celebrations; giving numerous courses and about five thousand amateur theatrical performances every year. It has founded or helped to keep up local libraries in more than 3,500 towns and parishes. In all these activities, the Matica has always maintained friendly relations with other countries, particularly with the United States, where over one million Slovaks reside. Thus, Matica Slovenska has passed from its foundation in 1863 through a complicated evolution. It was the only state cultural association of the Slovaks in the years of national and social oppression which later evolved into a scientific and cultural institution and expanded widely its activity. After 1945, with the new divisions of tasks in Slovak national science and culture, Matica ceased to be an association and became a state scientific institution which was charged with the function of the national library and bibliographic institute. Although the history of the Matica Slovenska and especially its activity since 1945 was misinterpreted, the Matica Slovenska will always be remembered for the progressive task which it has played in the Slovak history. Joseph S. Kos t Our C_vrilo-)Iethodiau 1-Ieritagc ( Third Prize Award) "The heritage of our ancestors preserve for us O Lord" unites the Slovak's love of God and his love of the Slovak nation. This Cyrilo-Methodian invocation reflects the accomplishments of Saints Cyril and Methodius that have affected Slovak life from its beginnings in Slovak Great Moravia in the ninth century to the present twentieth century. The missionary endeavors of the Holy Brothers were significant not only in promoting the Catholic faith among Slovak forefathers; equally important were their accomplishments on behalf of the cultural and political SLOVAKIA 117 heritage of Slovakia. The Cyrilo-Methodian tradition has helped to revitalize Slovak national consciousness and to inspire hope for a better future for the Slovaks. This hope and faith in the future can best be understood and appreciated by journeying back in time to Great Moravia under the leadership of Rastislav. This Slovak monarch was at that time, 860, already devoted to the Christian faith and realized fully Christianity's effect on the moral and cultural fibre of his people. But he also realized the danger of his country's falling under the complete domination of alien rule. He noted the influence of the Bavarian Church's organization and activities and the political strength of the Frankish empire. Therefore , Rastislav initiated his religious-political plan for establishing the foundation for the Slovak people to offset the Frankish-Bavarian coalition. In 862 Rastislav sent a special delegation to Byzantium requesting Emperor Michael III to send a bishop and teacher to the Slovak kingdom. He was not merely asking for regular missionary priests to aid his plan. And he was not, as is often stated, asking only for missionaries who spoke the Slovak language. German (Frankish) missionaries were already ministering to his people, and no doubt . some of them spoke Slavic. Furthermore, the Catholic faith was sufficiently widespread throughout his kingdom . What he really needed was a bishop who could carry out plans for a new religious-political system. Although he had first made this same request of Pope Nicholas in Rome, he has not turning from Rome in his special mission to Byzantium. The schism between Rome and the Byzantine world was not actually in effect at this time. The Byzantine Church was united with Rome and professed the same Catholic faith as well as allegiance to Rome. Acceding to Rastislav's request, Emperor Michael III sent the Holy Brothers, Cyril and Methodius of Thessalonica. In the ninth century this city was the center of a major Byzantine district and the second largest city in the Byzantine empire. There was a large Slav population around Thessalonica. Some authorities believe the family of Cyril and Methodius were "Graecized Slavs" . They were educated 118 SLOVA KIA in Greek school s and religio usly trained in the Byzant ine Rite of the Cathol ic Church accord ing to Byzant ine life and custom s. At any rate, these brothe rs of a socially disting uished family of the Byzant ine Imperi al Court spoke the Slavon ic tongue since the majori ty of inhabit ants in the outlyin g distric ts were Slavs. No better qualifi ed individ uals than tlley could have been chosen by Emper or Michae l III for the missio nary work among the Slovak s. Althou gh Cyril had prepar ed for missio nary work and the priesth ood, Method ius had prepar ed for law and politica l office in the service of the empero r. Method ius, tutored in law by his father in Thessa lonica, had been appoin ted by the empero r as admin istrato r of a certain distric t in the Byzant ine empire where the majori ty of inhabi tants were Slavs. The Life of Saint Method ius comme nts: "The Emper or appoin ted him admin istrato r of this distric t . . . as though he already foresaw that later he would send him to the Slavs as their teache r and first archbis hop." Here Method ius had an opport unity to learn all the custom s of the Slavs and to adapt himsel f to them. After ten years as govern or of this distric t, he sudden ly left politica l office to enter a monas tery on Mt. Olymp us. Here he studied theolog y, thf' scriptu res, paintin g, and later was ordain ed to the priesth ood. Cyril, on the other hand, devote d his life from its very beginn ing to acquiri ng wisdom by the study of philoso phy and theolog y. From his earlies t youth, he chose as his patron in studies the great Father of the Church , the belove d theolog ian, Saint Gregor y Nazian zen. After leaving his positio n as profes sor of philoso phy at the imperi al school in Consta ntinopl e, he remain ed in solitar y seclusi on and later joined Method ius on Mt. Olymp us, very likely as a guest at the monas tery, not as a monk. Realizi ng how import ant it is for missio naries to have the Sacred Scriptu res in the langua ge of the people to whom they were ministe ring, Cyril began to constru ct and organiz e a Slavon ic alphab et and to transla te and put into Slavon ic written form the essenti al liturgic al books. The alphab et which he devised (the Glagol itic) was based on the Greek alphab et and accoun ts for the use of Church Slavon ic in the liturgy of Easter n Rite church es, SLOVAKIA 119 one numbering 150,000,000 faithful. This Glagolitic alphabet is the most important cultural achieveme nt of the brothers for, in one form or another, it has endured throughou t time and was one capital factor in maintainin g spiritual sustenance for large numbers of Slovaks. After their arrival in Slovak Great Moravia, Cyril envisioned the training of young Slavs for the priesthood as one of his major responsibil ities, for it would take a native clergy to perpetuate their work. For this task, he organized an educationa l program and school to train young Slovaks in their national culture as a preliminar y to advanced study. The Life of Saint Cyril reads: "Soon be translated the entire Ecclesiasti cal Order and taught them (his young disciples) Matins, the Little Hours, Vespers, Compline, and the Eucharisti c Liturgy. And the ears of the deaf were opened, according to the words of the prophet, to hear the words of Scripture, and the tongue of the stutterer was loosened." And Nestor in his Chronicle says: "When they arrived (in Great Moravia) they began to write with Slavonic letters and translated the 'Apostol' (Acts and Epistles of the Apostles) and the Gospel. And the Sloveni (Slovaks) rejoiced that they heard the praise of God in their own language." His teaching of these ritual texts and offices of th~ Byzantine Rite to the young men was so well organized that in only forty months the young disciples were prepared to be ordained. The Eulogy o t Saint Cyril says: "Having translated the entire liturgical ritual into Slavonic, he went to Rome, taking with him chosen ones of his flock for perfection (to be ordained ) and he ended his course (of life) with joy, because it pleased God that here (in Rome) his venerable body should rest." Following Cyril's death in 869, the newly consecrate d Bishop Methodius continued his missionary endeavors in Slovak Great Moravia and was later imprisoned by Bavarian bishops. They opposed the independe nt Slavonic hierarchy, responsible directly to Rome, that Saint Cyril and Methodius achieved along with the Slavonic liturgy. Although he was later released, Methodius ' suffering and humiliatio n for the sake of the independen ce of Slovaks has served as an inspiration for all suppressed Slovaks from the ninth century to the present twentieth century. 120 SLOVAKIA At the beginning of the twentieth century the political situation in Slovakia again suppressed any cultural and political activities aimed at keeping alive Slovak national consciousness and historical traditions. Budapest officialdom and Magyar nationalists viewed the Cyrilo-Methodian tradition as an anti-Hungarian and Pan-Slav conspiracy and often used oppressive and repressive measures to destroy cultural and political activities in Slovakia and even to thwart religious manifestations among the people. In spite of persecution and pressure, the dawning of the twentieth century brought a new generation of dedicated men who did not hesitate to accept at great personal cost and anguish the leading role of allegiance to their cultural heritage and Slovak national life. With the creation of Czecho-Slovakia in 1918, this spirit whetted the desire of Slovak patriots to serve their country as qualified statesmen and leaders and to prevent Czech shemers from asserting themselves as the ruling element of the Slovak nation. They were likewise determined not to permit the socialist government of Prague to impose foreign Czech traditions in place of cherished Slovak Cyrilo-Methodian and Catholic traditions. The first Slovak bishops in new Slovakia were consecrated in Nitra in 1921. The Slovak people at home and abroad viewed this great event as the fruit of devotion and patience which finally matured for them as the true heirs of the magnificent works of SS. Cyril and Methodius. The declaration of Slovakia's independence in 1939 by the Slovak Parliament was considered yet another revival of the first Slovak statehood of the ninth century. The Cyrilo-Methodian tradition was the keystone in the arch which the Slovak nation has built within the temple of its national life founded on authentic spiritual principles. Slovaks again under the cross of oppression since the 1968 August invasion of Czecho-Slovakia by the Soviets must again rely upon the Christian national past of Slovakia to support them through these dark days and to build anew their Slovak state in a happier time for which we fervently pray. The spirit of true religious freedom and the Slovak SLOVAKIA 121 political and cultural autonomy established in the CyriloMethodian tradition cannot be lost sight of today. It is especially essential to all of us, Slovaks by birth and by ancestry, at this crucial time when Slovakia is threatened by godless and God-defiant Communists. Our vital and vitalizing tradition must become actively operative to promote a wise and intrepid manifestation of Slovak national consciousness both in Slovakia and in America. Saints Cyril and Methodius valiantly labored and heroically suffered for Slovak independence both in ecclesiastical and political spheres. They laid for us the foundations of our Catholic faith and national culture. United in love of God and our Slovak nation we humbly pray- "The heritage of our ancestors preserve for us 0 Lord!" Patricia Revetta BIBLIOGRAPHY Kirschbaum, Joseph. Slovakia: Nation at the Crossroads of Central Europe. New York, 1960. Kirschbaum, Joseph. "The Role of the Cyrilo-Methodian Tradition in Slovak National and Political Life," Slovak Studies, III (1963), 153-173. Lacko, Michael. "The Cyrilo-Methodian Origin of the Byzantine-Slavonic and the Roman-Slavonic Liturgy," Slovak Studies, m (1963), 79-89. Lacko, Michael. "The Cyrilo-Methodian Mission and Slovakia," Slovak Studies, I (1961) , 23-47. Oddo, Gilbert. Slovakia and Its People. New York, 1960. Palickar, Stephen. Slovakia: From Hungarian Despotism to Atheistic Czech Communism. Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1948. Skultety, Joseph. Sketches from Slovak History. Middletown, Pennsylvania, 1930. Yurchak, Peter. The Slovaks: Their History and Traditions. Whiting, Indiana, 1947. THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA is interested primarily in promoting the welfare and security of the United States of America.  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Our Cyrilo-Methodian Heritage Description An account of the resource Patricia Revetta Slovakia, Vol. 20 (No. 43), 1970 pp. 116-121 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Revetta, Patricia Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1970 name https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/2bff1fbc3d972fb941760624552ad0bb.pdf 3426d624405905543431722dd095a2bf PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA 25 OUR EXPERTS: THE CZECH SOCIALISTS! P.A. HROBAK When Dr. Edward Benes returned to Czecho-Slovakia in 1945, after deserting her in 1938, he became "president" again, but this time not by the will of the people of that hapless country, but by the grace of Stalin, the strong man of the Kremlin. Of course, not unconditionally: he became titular head, because he had promised to do a job for Stalin. This is the only plausible explanation of why the people of Czecho-Slovakia tolerated the man who cowardly fled his responsibilities in 1938, after selling out the Slovaks and the Czechs to Hitler without even consulting the Czecho-Slovak Parliament. Even before his return to Prague, Dr. Edward Benes, Czech Nazi No. 1, handpicked members of his government very carefully: no anti-socialists and anti-Communists were allowed. They lost no time in getting down to the job Benes had promised Stalin to do : eliminate all anti-Soviet elements from public life. The government controlled all political parties, the radio, press, schools, and industry; ecclesiastical properties were "nationalized" in Slovakia as early as 1945, and, later, in 1947-1948, also in Bohemia and Moravia. The Communist-dominated NATIONAL FRONT government of the Benes-Gottwald coalition would not tolerate any opposition; it ruled by decrees which were issued by Benes and approved and signed by members of his government. Thousands of Slovaks and Czechs were disfranchised, dispossessed and deported, hundreds were put to death by the "people's courts," many more thousands were persecuted and deported, and hundreds of thousands were confined to jails and concentration camps. All this was done in the name of "people's democracy" and T. G. Masaryk's "liberalism and humanitarianism''! Stalin appreciated that and so did the Czech Reds. When all "undesirable" elements had just about been purged from public life and over three million Sudeten Germans were transferred to Germany in a "humanely and orderly" manner, hundreds of thousands dying in the transfer, Stalin wanted to show his "appreciation" to Benes and his followers, so he ordered Gottwald, the leading Czech Red, to take over all power in Czecho-Slovakia and buzz the Benes Czechs to get, while the going was good. Gottwald had little trouble taking over on February 25, 1948, in fact, no trouble at all. And because the Benes Czechs had shown such a great eagerness to collaborate, with Moscow and the Czech Reds during the foregoing three years, Gottwald even allowed most of them to escape with their families to the West. The Benes Czechs exclusively were allowed to influence the Western Powers, particularly the United States, England and France; they were the sole authorities and the only "reliable" sources of information in matters Czecho-Slovakian during the war and after 1945; they served as "expert" advisors to the United States (Roosevelt), England (Churchill), and Soviet Russia (Stalin). Benes and his group, who had deserted their country in 1938 and surrendered the great war potential of Czecho-Slovakia to Hitler, did their �56 SLOVAKIA jobs well in IRO, OWI, the CIA, CIC, UNRRA, the military, etc., smearing all their political enemies and making it as miserable for them as they possibly could. The Slovaks, who always adamantly opposed Marxistic socialism and the pro-Soviet policy of Dr. Edward Benes, suffered most. After February 25, 1948, however, the Benes Czechs and their hirelings, the Lettrich Slovak "democrats," found themselves out in the cold, when Gottwald and his Czech Reds told them to get, or else. So to the West they went as fast as they possibly could, experiencing little or no difficulty, and bewailing the "rough" treatCZECHOSLOVAK COUNCIL IN WASHINGTON "New National Councils are being formed in this country to represent the silenced people behind the Iron Curtain. They are being built up from the ever-increasing number of political emigrants who are arriving in the United States. Immense help can be given to the Western democracies by these councils. They can keep up communication through underground channels with the forces at home still fighting for freedom. They can inform the Voice of America of the most effective form of broadcast for their respective countries. They can become useful centers of help to DP's and can contribute greatly to employment and resettlement schemes. They can build up a close cooperation among themselves and thus prepare for a future federated Europe. Along with these possibilities comes a corresponding responsibility resting upon our own Government as to the choice of members for these councils. In certain instances, such as that of the Czechoslovak Council now being formed in Washington under the leadership of Dr. Peter Zenkl, the former Mayor of Prague, it is not quite clear how much evidence of this responsibility our State Department is showing. If there is to be but one council, and not two - Czech and Slovak separately - then the Slovaks should be represented by men acceptable to the people at home, men who represent not only the Lutheran minority but also the large Catholic majority in Slovakia. The most important prerequisite for eligibility to the Council should certainly be a clear-cut opposition to communism. Such a record can be seriously questioned in the case of at least one of the ten Czech politicians recently invited by the State Department to come to this country, since he is known for obstructing the opposition to communism in the past. The query naturally arises: just how accurately is our State Department informed as to the previous history of all the men whom it is inviting to our shores?" - (AMERICA, Feb. 19, 1949). ment they received from the Czech Reds after they performed so many invaluable services for them, as well as for Stalin. That's gratitude for you, they said, just as if things like that had never happened before. We know they did, and they should have known , too, because such is always the net result of collaborating with the Reds ·and Moscow. We are still waiting to hear or see a public statement by the Benes Czechs to the effect that they regret their collaboration with �SLOVAKIA 27 the Czech Reds and Moscow. All their public statements thus far are marked by the same tendency: an attempt to whitewash · and cover up their willing collaboration with the Reds. They . are not sorry for selling out the Slovaks and Czechs to the Czech Reds and Moscow, but they rather mourn the fact that the Reds threw them out of government, i.e., repudiated further collaboration! But the Benes Czechs and their Slovak hirelings, the Lettrich Slovak "democrats" were not finished yet, not by a long shot. Thanks to Socialist Benes, they had good connections in the West. How could the West abandon them now, after they had rendered so many fine services for the Czech "progressive and liberal" ideals of T. G. Masaryk's "humanitarian" democracy and the pro-Soviet policy of Dr. Edward Benes? And they reckoned correctly; they were adopted by the West. The promoters of Czech National Socialism and their hirelings, the Lettrich Slovak "democrats," claimed themselves "anti-communist, democratic" exiles from Czecho-Slovakia and posed as victims of communist tyranny. Shortly thereafter they were sitting in judgment over Slovak and Czech exiles in the West, advising the Western Powers exactly who was or was not "reliable" among those who had fled from Czecho-Slovakia prior to 1948, and pretending that only they were the "true" representatives of the Slovak and Czech nations and, hence, entitled to speak for them in the free world. We know that the gullible West, particularly the United States, rushed legislation to make it possible for the Benes Czechs and their Slovak hirelings, former members of the communist-dominated National Front government of Prague, to emigrate to the United States, England, and other free countries. The very people who, until February 25, 1948, sang praises to Stalin, the invincible Red liberators and the great achievements of Soviet Russia; the very same people who, unt~l February 25, 1948, blatantly insisted that the Soviet Union was not interfering in the internal affairs of Czecho-Slovakia, and that there was nothing so "democratic" as the new order promoted by the Kremlin, the new order of "people's" democracies! In November, 1948, the Benes Czechs and their Slovak hirelings prepared a "memorandum" on the political structure and activities of Slovak and Czech exiles, which was a grand effort to smear and vilify all true opponents of Communism, its handmaid Czech National Socialism, and the Soviet system, particularly the Catholic Slovaks and Czechs and the Roman Catholic Church (Vatican). At the same time, however, it does reveal the perverted hypocritical mind of the Benes Czechs and their Slovak hirelings, though I doubt it was intended to do so. The document, a copy of which was sent to me by a patriotic Czech whose conscience made him break with the Benes clique, has never been published or referred to publicly, to my knowledge, because all concerned wanted it to be kept "secret and confidential" by all recipients and particularly the State Department of the United States of America: According to my Czech informant, the "Memorandum" was sent to the mo, various U. S. departments of government, including the State Department, CIA, CIC, and :. also to some "very important and influential persons in America .and England. Here it is published in full for the first time for the edification of the American public and students of history. � SLOVAKIA 25 OUR EXPERTS: THE CZECH SOCIALISTS! P.A. HROBAK When Dr. Edward Benes returned to Czecho-Slovakia in 1945, after deserting her in 1938, he became "president" again, but this time not by the will of the people of that hapless country, but by the grace of Stalin, the strong man of the Kremlin. Of course, not unconditionally: he became titular head, because he had promised to do a job for Stalin. This is the only plausible explanation of why the people of Czecho-Slovakia tolerated the man who cowardly fled his responsibilities in 1938, after selling out the Slovaks and the Czechs to Hitler without even consulting the Czecho-Slovak Parliament. Even before his return to Prague, Dr. Edward Benes, Czech Nazi No. 1, handpicked members of his government very carefully: no anti-socialists and anti-Communists were allowed. They lost no time in getting down to the job Benes had promised Stalin to do : eliminate all anti-Soviet elements from public life. The government controlled all political parties, the radio, press, schools, and industry; ecclesiastical properties were "nationalized" in Slovakia as early as 1945, and, later, in 1947-1948, also in Bohemia and Moravia. The Communist-dominated NATIONAL FRONT government of the Benes-Gottwald coalition would not tolerate any opposition; it ruled by decrees which were issued by Benes and approved and signed by members of his government. Thousands of Slovaks and Czechs were disfranchised, dispossessed and deported, hundreds were put to death by the "people's courts," many more thousands were persecuted and deported, and hundreds of thousands were confined to jails and concentration camps. All this was done in the name of "people's democracy" and T. G. Masaryk's "liberalism and humanitarianism''! Stalin appreciated that and so did the Czech Reds. When all "undesirable" elements had just about been purged from public life and over three million Sudeten Germans were transferred to Germany in a "humanely and orderly" manner, hundreds of thousands dying in the transfer, Stalin wanted to show his "appreciation" to Benes and his followers, so he ordered Gottwald, the leading Czech Red, to take over all power in Czecho-Slovakia and buzz the Benes Czechs to get, while the going was good. Gottwald had little trouble taking over on February 25, 1948, in fact, no trouble at all. And because the Benes Czechs had shown such a great eagerness to collaborate, with Moscow and the Czech Reds during the foregoing three years, Gottwald even allowed most of them to escape with their families to the West. The Benes Czechs exclusively were allowed to influence the Western Powers, particularly the United States, England and France; they were the sole authorities and the only "reliable" sources of information in matters Czecho-Slovakian during the war and after 1945; they served as "expert" advisors to the United States (Roosevelt), England (Churchill), and Soviet Russia (Stalin). Benes and his group, who had deserted their country in 1938 and surrendered the great war potential of Czecho-Slovakia to Hitler, did their �56 SLOVAKIA jobs well in IRO, OWI, the CIA, CIC, UNRRA, the military, etc., smearing all their political enemies and making it as miserable for them as they possibly could. The Slovaks, who always adamantly opposed Marxistic socialism and the pro-Soviet policy of Dr. Edward Benes, suffered most. After February 25, 1948, however, the Benes Czechs and their hirelings, the Lettrich Slovak "democrats," found themselves out in the cold, when Gottwald and his Czech Reds told them to get, or else. So to the West they went as fast as they possibly could, experiencing little or no difficulty, and bewailing the "rough" treatCZECHOSLOVAK COUNCIL IN WASHINGTON "New National Councils are being formed in this country to represent the silenced people behind the Iron Curtain. They are being built up from the ever-increasing number of political emigrants who are arriving in the United States. Immense help can be given to the Western democracies by these councils. They can keep up communication through underground channels with the forces at home still fighting for freedom. They can inform the Voice of America of the most effective form of broadcast for their respective countries. They can become useful centers of help to DP's and can contribute greatly to employment and resettlement schemes. They can build up a close cooperation among themselves and thus prepare for a future federated Europe. Along with these possibilities comes a corresponding responsibility resting upon our own Government as to the choice of members for these councils. In certain instances, such as that of the Czechoslovak Council now being formed in Washington under the leadership of Dr. Peter Zenkl, the former Mayor of Prague, it is not quite clear how much evidence of this responsibility our State Department is showing. If there is to be but one council, and not two - Czech and Slovak separately - then the Slovaks should be represented by men acceptable to the people at home, men who represent not only the Lutheran minority but also the large Catholic majority in Slovakia. The most important prerequisite for eligibility to the Council should certainly be a clear-cut opposition to communism. Such a record can be seriously questioned in the case of at least one of the ten Czech politicians recently invited by the State Department to come to this country, since he is known for obstructing the opposition to communism in the past. The query naturally arises: just how accurately is our State Department informed as to the previous history of all the men whom it is inviting to our shores?" - (AMERICA, Feb. 19, 1949). ment they received from the Czech Reds after they performed so many invaluable services for them, as well as for Stalin. That's gratitude for you, they said, just as if things like that had never happened before. We know they did, and they should have known , too, because such is always the net result of collaborating with the Reds ·and Moscow. We are still waiting to hear or see a public statement by the Benes Czechs to the effect that they regret their collaboration with �SLOVAKIA 27 the Czech Reds and Moscow. All their public statements thus far are marked by the same tendency: an attempt to whitewash · and cover up their willing collaboration with the Reds. They . are not sorry for selling out the Slovaks and Czechs to the Czech Reds and Moscow, but they rather mourn the fact that the Reds threw them out of government, i.e., repudiated further collaboration! But the Benes Czechs and their Slovak hirelings, the Lettrich Slovak "democrats" were not finished yet, not by a long shot. Thanks to Socialist Benes, they had good connections in the West. How could the West abandon them now, after they had rendered so many fine services for the Czech "progressive and liberal" ideals of T. G. Masaryk's "humanitarian" democracy and the pro-Soviet policy of Dr. Edward Benes? And they reckoned correctly; they were adopted by the West. The promoters of Czech National Socialism and their hirelings, the Lettrich Slovak "democrats," claimed themselves "anti-communist, democratic" exiles from Czecho-Slovakia and posed as victims of communist tyranny. Shortly thereafter they were sitting in judgment over Slovak and Czech exiles in the West, advising the Western Powers exactly who was or was not "reliable" among those who had fled from Czecho-Slovakia prior to 1948, and pretending that only they were the "true" representatives of the Slovak and Czech nations and, hence, entitled to speak for them in the free world. We know that the gullible West, particularly the United States, rushed legislation to make it possible for the Benes Czechs and their Slovak hirelings, former members of the communist-dominated National Front government of Prague, to emigrate to the United States, England, and other free countries. The very people who, until February 25, 1948, sang praises to Stalin, the invincible Red liberators and the great achievements of Soviet Russia; the very same people who, unt~l February 25, 1948, blatantly insisted that the Soviet Union was not interfering in the internal affairs of Czecho-Slovakia, and that there was nothing so "democratic" as the new order promoted by the Kremlin, the new order of "people's" democracies! In November, 1948, the Benes Czechs and their Slovak hirelings prepared a "memorandum" on the political structure and activities of Slovak and Czech exiles, which was a grand effort to smear and vilify all true opponents of Communism, its handmaid Czech National Socialism, and the Soviet system, particularly the Catholic Slovaks and Czechs and the Roman Catholic Church (Vatican). At the same time, however, it does reveal the perverted hypocritical mind of the Benes Czechs and their Slovak hirelings, though I doubt it was intended to do so. The document, a copy of which was sent to me by a patriotic Czech whose conscience made him break with the Benes clique, has never been published or referred to publicly, to my knowledge, because all concerned wanted it to be kept "secret and confidential" by all recipients and particularly the State Department of the United States of America: According to my Czech informant, the "Memorandum" was sent to the mo, various U. S. departments of government, including the State Department, CIA, CIC, and :. also to some "very important and influential persons in America .and England. Here it is published in full for the first time for the edification of the American public and students of history. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1958, Vol. 8 Description An account of the resource <ul><li>Issue 1 (No. 26), March 1958.</li> <li>Issue 2 (No. 27), June 1958.</li> <li>Issue 3 (No. 28), December 1958.</li> </ul> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1958 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document SLOVAKIA 25 OUR EXPERTS: THE CZECH SOCIALISTS! P.A. HROBAK When Dr. Edward Benes returned to Czecho-Slovakia in 1945, after deserting her in 1938, he became "president" again, but this time not by the will of the people of that hapless country, but by the grace of Stalin, the strong man of the Kremlin. Of course, not unconditionally: he became titular head, because he had promised to do a job for Stalin. This is the only plausible explanation of why the people of Czecho-Slovakia tolerated the man who cowardly fled his responsibilities in 1938, after selling out the Slovaks and the Czechs to Hitler without even consulting the Czecho-Slovak Parliament. Even before his return to Prague, Dr. Edward Benes, Czech Nazi No. 1, handpicked members of his government very carefully: no anti-socialists and anti-Communists were allowed. They lost no time in getting down to the job Benes had promised Stalin to do : eliminate all anti-Soviet elements from public life. The government controlled all political parties, the radio, press, schools, and industry; ecclesiastical properties were "nationalized" in Slovakia as early as 1945, and, later, in 1947-1948, also in Bohemia and Moravia. The Communist-dominated NATIONAL FRONT government of the Benes-Gottwald coalition would not tolerate any opposition; it ruled by decrees which were issued by Benes and approved and signed by members of his government. Thousands of Slovaks and Czechs were disfranchised, dispossessed and deported, hundreds were put to death by the "people's courts," many more thousands were persecuted and deported, and hundreds of thousands were confined to jails and concentration camps. All this was done in the name of "people's democracy" and T. G. Masaryk's "liberalism and humanitarianism''! Stalin appreciated that and so did the Czech Reds. When all "undesirable" elements had just about been purged from public life and over three million Sudeten Germans were transferred to Germany in a "humanely and orderly" manner, hundreds of thousands dying in the transfer, Stalin wanted to show his "appreciation" to Benes and his followers, so he ordered Gottwald, the leading Czech Red, to take over all power in Czecho-Slovakia and buzz the Benes Czechs to get, while the going was good. Gottwald had little trouble taking over on February 25, 1948, in fact, no trouble at all. And because the Benes Czechs had shown such a great eagerness to collaborate, with Moscow and the Czech Reds during the foregoing three years, Gottwald even allowed most of them to escape with their families to the West. The Benes Czechs exclusively were allowed to influence the Western Powers, particularly the United States, England and France; they were the sole authorities and the only "reliable" sources of information in matters Czecho-Slovakian during the war and after 1945; they served as "expert" advisors to the United States (Roosevelt), England (Churchill), and Soviet Russia (Stalin). Benes and his group, who had deserted their country in 1938 and surrendered the great war potential of Czecho-Slovakia to Hitler, did their 56 SLOVAKIA jobs well in IRO, OWI, the CIA, CIC, UNRRA, the military, etc., smearing all their political enemies and making it as miserable for them as they possibly could. The Slovaks, who always adamantly opposed Marxistic socialism and the pro-Soviet policy of Dr. Edward Benes, suffered most. After February 25, 1948, however, the Benes Czechs and their hirelings, the Lettrich Slovak "democrats," found themselves out in the cold, when Gottwald and his Czech Reds told them to get, or else. So to the West they went as fast as they possibly could, experiencing little or no difficulty, and bewailing the "rough" treatCZECHOSLOVAK COUNCIL IN WASHINGTON "New National Councils are being formed in this country to represent the silenced people behind the Iron Curtain. They are being built up from the ever-increasing number of political emigrants who are arriving in the United States. Immense help can be given to the Western democracies by these councils. They can keep up communication through underground channels with the forces at home still fighting for freedom. They can inform the Voice of America of the most effective form of broadcast for their respective countries. They can become useful centers of help to DP's and can contribute greatly to employment and resettlement schemes. They can build up a close cooperation among themselves and thus prepare for a future federated Europe. Along with these possibilities comes a corresponding responsibility resting upon our own Government as to the choice of members for these councils. In certain instances, such as that of the Czechoslovak Council now being formed in Washington under the leadership of Dr. Peter Zenkl, the former Mayor of Prague, it is not quite clear how much evidence of this responsibility our State Department is showing. If there is to be but one council, and not two - Czech and Slovak separately - then the Slovaks should be represented by men acceptable to the people at home, men who represent not only the Lutheran minority but also the large Catholic majority in Slovakia. The most important prerequisite for eligibility to the Council should certainly be a clear-cut opposition to communism. Such a record can be seriously questioned in the case of at least one of the ten Czech politicians recently invited by the State Department to come to this country, since he is known for obstructing the opposition to communism in the past. The query naturally arises: just how accurately is our State Department informed as to the previous history of all the men whom it is inviting to our shores?" - (AMERICA, Feb. 19, 1949). ment they received from the Czech Reds after they performed so many invaluable services for them, as well as for Stalin. That's gratitude for you, they said, just as if things like that had never happened before. We know they did, and they should have known , too, because such is always the net result of collaborating with the Reds ·and Moscow. We are still waiting to hear or see a public statement by the Benes Czechs to the effect that they regret their collaboration with SLOVAKIA 27 the Czech Reds and Moscow. All their public statements thus far are marked by the same tendency: an attempt to whitewash · and cover up their willing collaboration with the Reds. They . are not sorry for selling out the Slovaks and Czechs to the Czech Reds and Moscow, but they rather mourn the fact that the Reds threw them out of government, i.e., repudiated further collaboration! But the Benes Czechs and their Slovak hirelings, the Lettrich Slovak "democrats" were not finished yet, not by a long shot. Thanks to Socialist Benes, they had good connections in the West. How could the West abandon them now, after they had rendered so many fine services for the Czech "progressive and liberal" ideals of T. G. Masaryk's "humanitarian" democracy and the pro-Soviet policy of Dr. Edward Benes? And they reckoned correctly; they were adopted by the West. The promoters of Czech National Socialism and their hirelings, the Lettrich Slovak "democrats," claimed themselves "anti-communist, democratic" exiles from Czecho-Slovakia and posed as victims of communist tyranny. Shortly thereafter they were sitting in judgment over Slovak and Czech exiles in the West, advising the Western Powers exactly who was or was not "reliable" among those who had fled from Czecho-Slovakia prior to 1948, and pretending that only they were the "true" representatives of the Slovak and Czech nations and, hence, entitled to speak for them in the free world. We know that the gullible West, particularly the United States, rushed legislation to make it possible for the Benes Czechs and their Slovak hirelings, former members of the communist-dominated National Front government of Prague, to emigrate to the United States, England, and other free countries. The very people who, until February 25, 1948, sang praises to Stalin, the invincible Red liberators and the great achievements of Soviet Russia; the very same people who, unt~l February 25, 1948, blatantly insisted that the Soviet Union was not interfering in the internal affairs of Czecho-Slovakia, and that there was nothing so "democratic" as the new order promoted by the Kremlin, the new order of "people's" democracies! In November, 1948, the Benes Czechs and their Slovak hirelings prepared a "memorandum" on the political structure and activities of Slovak and Czech exiles, which was a grand effort to smear and vilify all true opponents of Communism, its handmaid Czech National Socialism, and the Soviet system, particularly the Catholic Slovaks and Czechs and the Roman Catholic Church (Vatican). At the same time, however, it does reveal the perverted hypocritical mind of the Benes Czechs and their Slovak hirelings, though I doubt it was intended to do so. The document, a copy of which was sent to me by a patriotic Czech whose conscience made him break with the Benes clique, has never been published or referred to publicly, to my knowledge, because all concerned wanted it to be kept "secret and confidential" by all recipients and particularly the State Department of the United States of America: According to my Czech informant, the "Memorandum" was sent to the mo, various U. S. departments of government, including the State Department, CIA, CIC, and :. also to some "very important and influential persons in America .and England. Here it is published in full for the first time for the edification of the American public and students of history.  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Our Experts: The Czech Socialists! Description An account of the resource P. A. Hrobak Slovakia, Vol. 8, No. 1 (26), March 1958 pp. 25-27 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 1958 LCNAF https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/0e288919931653c213b5dfb2bc8b66b7.pdf 5ecf60cf00d39a547b0345c02ae54c5a PDF Text Text 56 SLOVAKIA must ever oppose the creatlon ot a free and independent Slovakla. Well, the Slovaks flgure they shall have somethlng to say about the matter, as rightly they should have. And no one can blame them for wantlng to live thelr own 11ves and belng masters of thelr destlny. The Slovaks know, too, that the "Czech Slovaks" - the Slovak traltors - are no less dangerous than the lmperlalistlc Beneli C:techs. They are the Janlssarles. The Slovaks do not underestlmate the Czechs, who have been and stm are pJytng a systematlc politlco· dlplomatlc game, the goal ot whJch 1s the denlal and suppresslon of the natural and fundamental rlghts of the Slovak natlon. One day world CÔmmunlsm shall be llquldated. And Czechoslovaklsm, the handmald or Communlsm, must be llquldated also. The fiction of an ethnlcal "Czechoslovak natlon" must be dlscarded for all tlmes. Czechoslovakla was a mlstake, an llluslon, politlcally and mo• rally an unprofltable creatlon, but for the Czechs lt stm ls a reality and an Idea!. The Slovaks are aware of thls and are just as determlned that they shall never again be subject to the rule of the Czechs when the plague or Communlsm ls vanquished. • • • OUR FIGHT FOR DEMOORACY AND INDEPENDENCE DR. JOSEPH KIRSCHBAUM Slnce 1945 Slovaks In emlgratlon have frequently stated that the goal of thelr struggle ls a democratlc and Independent Slovakla. The leaders of Slovak exlles can support thelr declaratlons not only by thelr IJfetlme flght agalnst communlsm, but also by thelr reslstance to eftorts to lntroduce the nazl system in Slovakla. The group whlch later collaborated wlth the communlsts - the so-called "Czechoslovaks" (Czech Slovaks ! ) - cannot and should not be counted among t.he patrlotlc Slovaks who opposed the nazl avalanche from 194Q. Hllnka's Slovak Peoples Party, headed by Presldent Joseph Tlso, fought agalnst nazlsm and communlsm then, and today the members of that party in exile form the flrst flghting line agalnst communlsm. lt ls a fact that after the meeting ln Salzburg In 1940, when the group around Prof. Tuka attempted to force Natlonal Soclallsm on the Slovaks In the attempt to prevent drastlc interventlon by the Cermans In Slovak public llfe, lt was not the present adherents ot Czechoslavakla (the so-called "Czechoslovaks") - later the self-styled "antl-fasclst warrlors" - who lost thelr hlgh posltlons, but the leaders ot Slovak natlonal emigratlon. That the attempt to force Natlonal Soclallsm on the Slovaks falled, that, too, cannot be credlted to those who today denounce Slovaks In exlle as fasclsts and nazls. At that Ume most ot the "Czech Slovaks" were busy gettlng fat jobs, waxing rich and llving In luxury. Thelr maln worry was not to !ose the favor ot the reglme. Thelr tlrst attempts to "revolt" dld not happen In 1939 or 1940, but only In 1944, when the outcome of the war was pretty clear. But even then they were not lnterested In flghtlng tor democracy, but rather In flghtlng to retaln the rlches and the high functlons they had attalned In the Slovak State. The few persons among them who fought for democracy and Slovak lnterests are even today flghtlng, at home and abroad, for an Independent, democratlc Slovak republlc. �SLOVAKIA 57 Many Slovaks In varlous Iands may be tempted to ask: How, then, 1s lt posslble to explaln thls relentless campalgn agalnst Slovak na· tlonals In emlgratlon, the attempts to smear and dlscredlt them In the eyes of the world? The answer 1s slmple. Thls whole undemocratlc assault agalnst patrlotlc Slovaks, flght• Ing In exile for an Independent Slovak State, emanates baslcally from two causes: 1. The "Czechoslovaks," servlng Czech imperlal lnterests by be• traylng the highest lnterests of thelr own people, wlsh to divert attention from thelr collaboratlon wlth communlsm by smearlng and vllifylng patrlotlc Slovaks. 2. By accuslng patrlotlc Slovaks In democratlc countrles of nazlsm and fascism, a part of the Czech emlgrants and the Slovak renegades collaboratlng wlth them, flgure that they can neutralize thelr flght for an Independent Slovak State and force the Slovaks agaln under Czech rule. Those Czech and Slovak emlgrants who clalm that Slovak na• tionals want a fasclst or nazl state know very well that 1s not true. They propagate thls Ile lntentlonally and systematlcally In the hope that by repeatlng lt thousands of tlmes they shall agaln succeed In convlnclng the world that the Slovak natlon does not want to live in a state of lts own, but only In thelr Czecho-Slovakia. They are '4etermined that the Slovaks shall be vlctlms of Czech lmperiallstic efforts and Slovakla shall be a colony of Bohemla. In short: al! Slovaks who belleve that Slovakla has a rlght to be free and Independent and seek to bave that rlght recognlzed and respected by all clvillzed natlons of the earth are, according to the Beneš Czechs and Czech Slovaks, "nazis, traltors, fasclsts, enemles or democracy," etc. In 1946, Dr. Edward Beneš frankly told a Slovak delegatlon why the Czechs are fightlng agalnst Slovak lndependence, when he sald: "The Czechs cannot accept under any circum1tance1 an independent Slovakla in the future . . . . The Czechs, having on the one side 70 million Germans, must on the other aide have Ru11ia as their neighbor. Therefore, they could not accept an independent Slovakia. Thia ia a vital problem for the exiatence of the Czechs as a nation and a state and that ia also the le11on of Munich..•." Czech emlgratlon, holding to thls polltlcal legacy of Beneš, reallzes that the greatest lmpedlment to lts efforts are patrlotlc Slo· vaks In exile. Slovaks can appreciate Benei's concern for the Czecha, but they, too, are concerned about thelr own national existence. The statement made by Beneš certalnly has nothlng In common with democracy. It remlnds us of Adolph Hitler who thought that all natlons of centra) and eastern Europe should be deprlved of freedom and In• dependence and forced to serve the lnterests of the German natlon. It also remlnds us of Stalln who would enslave the whole world and force all natlons to serve the lnterests of godless communlsm. Slovak patrlots stand In the way of thls Czech lmperlallst dream. so the followers or Beneš are determlned to annlhllate them at all costs. That explalns why they accuse the Slovaks of belng nazls and fasclsts. That also explains thelr rldlculous accus atlon that the Slo- �58 SLOVA:KIA vaks in exile are not fighting for democracy, but for the renewal ot fasclsm In centra! Europe. Undoubtedly it is not necessary to stress that thls flght agalnst Slovak emigrants 1s immoral and undemocratlc, because lts goal is immoral and undemocratlc. To want to deprive the S lovak nation of the right to freedom and independence because the interests of the Czechs "as a nation and a state" demand it, that is a manifestatlon of the most brutal lmperialism - such as even the Germans did not perpetrate against the Slovaks. Can anyone of sane mind expect the Slovaks In exile to agree to commit national sulclde? It !s not so much the past that separates the Slovaks and Czechs in emigration as the fact that while the Slovak exiles are fighting for freedom and democracy In centra! Europe, the Czech exlles headed by Zenkl, Ripka and Papánek are fighting, in the first place, to prevent the Slovaks from attaining freedom and independence. The main task of the Czech exiles is not the fight against Communism, but the fight against the Slovaks, who want the Slovak natlon to be fully free and happy in lts own democratic state. • • • WHO SAID IT ? "Slmul<taneously we accepted the principle tha,t only our people e.t home have the righit to dedde the maln problems o! our Interne.! policy, and Lhat also the relation between the Cechs and Slovaks be decided in the future state only a,t home, based on the princíple of C.OMPLETE EQUALITY Of both Czechs and Slove.ka and that it be done in a free, democratic way and In complete brotherly agreement. These were the maln prlnciples on whlch we have bullt our movement for liberation. This ideology of our struggle !or Jiberat!on, CONNECTED WITH OUR COMPLETE PRO-SOVIET ORIENTATION, and our ideology or the second World War In general was one of the main causes !or the success or the entire 81.ruggle." - (Dr. Beneš, Broadcaat to the Czechoslovak people, Prague, May 16, 1946) . • There 1s no Russian "iron curtain" in Czechoslovakia. . . . Every. one is free to enter Czechoslovakia and to come and go as he pleases, to see what he wants to see and hear what he wants to hear. Further. more Czechs and Slovaks are MAST ERS in their own country. T here is no Russlan army on Czechoslovak soil and Moscow IS NOT INTERFERING with Czechoslovak interna! affairs. . . . The press, radio, the school and the church are FREE to carry on their activities AS BEFORE." - (Dr. Kenneth D. Milier, president o! the New Yvrk City Mlsslon Society, In an address at the weekly church nlght dinner at the First Presb)"tertan Church, 124 Henry Street, New York City, published In tihe BROOKLYN DAILY EAGLE, Nov. 12, 1947) . • "I agree wlth you rully that our alllance with the SOVIET UNION will belp us to a better secur ity or FREEDOM in t he future, and I am happy to have seen our politlcal orlentatir FROM THE BEGINNING OF THIS WAR and to have acted accordlngly." - (Dr. Beneš, Reply to a message from the Slov-ak Natlonal Council In Košice, London, March 2, 1946). � 56 SLOVAKIA must ever oppose the creatlon ot a free and independent Slovakla. Well, the Slovaks flgure they shall have somethlng to say about the matter, as rightly they should have. And no one can blame them for wantlng to live thelr own 11ves and belng masters of thelr destlny. The Slovaks know, too, that the "Czech Slovaks" - the Slovak traltors - are no less dangerous than the lmperlalistlc Beneli C:techs. They are the Janlssarles. The Slovaks do not underestlmate the Czechs, who have been and stm are pJytng a systematlc politlco· dlplomatlc game, the goal ot whJch 1s the denlal and suppresslon of the natural and fundamental rlghts of the Slovak natlon. One day world CÔmmunlsm shall be llquldated. And Czechoslovaklsm, the handmald or Communlsm, must be llquldated also. The fiction of an ethnlcal "Czechoslovak natlon" must be dlscarded for all tlmes. Czechoslovakla was a mlstake, an llluslon, politlcally and mo• rally an unprofltable creatlon, but for the Czechs lt stm ls a reality and an Idea!. The Slovaks are aware of thls and are just as determlned that they shall never again be subject to the rule of the Czechs when the plague or Communlsm ls vanquished. • • • OUR FIGHT FOR DEMOORACY AND INDEPENDENCE DR. JOSEPH KIRSCHBAUM Slnce 1945 Slovaks In emlgratlon have frequently stated that the goal of thelr struggle ls a democratlc and Independent Slovakla. The leaders of Slovak exlles can support thelr declaratlons not only by thelr IJfetlme flght agalnst communlsm, but also by thelr reslstance to eftorts to lntroduce the nazl system in Slovakla. The group whlch later collaborated wlth the communlsts - the so-called "Czechoslovaks" (Czech Slovaks ! ) - cannot and should not be counted among t.he patrlotlc Slovaks who opposed the nazl avalanche from 194Q. Hllnka's Slovak Peoples Party, headed by Presldent Joseph Tlso, fought agalnst nazlsm and communlsm then, and today the members of that party in exile form the flrst flghting line agalnst communlsm. lt ls a fact that after the meeting ln Salzburg In 1940, when the group around Prof. Tuka attempted to force Natlonal Soclallsm on the Slovaks In the attempt to prevent drastlc interventlon by the Cermans In Slovak public llfe, lt was not the present adherents ot Czechoslavakla (the so-called "Czechoslovaks") - later the self-styled "antl-fasclst warrlors" - who lost thelr hlgh posltlons, but the leaders ot Slovak natlonal emigratlon. That the attempt to force Natlonal Soclallsm on the Slovaks falled, that, too, cannot be credlted to those who today denounce Slovaks In exlle as fasclsts and nazls. At that Ume most ot the "Czech Slovaks" were busy gettlng fat jobs, waxing rich and llving In luxury. Thelr maln worry was not to !ose the favor ot the reglme. Thelr tlrst attempts to "revolt" dld not happen In 1939 or 1940, but only In 1944, when the outcome of the war was pretty clear. But even then they were not lnterested In flghtlng tor democracy, but rather In flghtlng to retaln the rlches and the high functlons they had attalned In the Slovak State. The few persons among them who fought for democracy and Slovak lnterests are even today flghtlng, at home and abroad, for an Independent, democratlc Slovak republlc. �SLOVAKIA 57 Many Slovaks In varlous Iands may be tempted to ask: How, then, 1s lt posslble to explaln thls relentless campalgn agalnst Slovak na· tlonals In emlgratlon, the attempts to smear and dlscredlt them In the eyes of the world? The answer 1s slmple. Thls whole undemocratlc assault agalnst patrlotlc Slovaks, flght• Ing In exile for an Independent Slovak State, emanates baslcally from two causes: 1. The "Czechoslovaks," servlng Czech imperlal lnterests by be• traylng the highest lnterests of thelr own people, wlsh to divert attention from thelr collaboratlon wlth communlsm by smearlng and vllifylng patrlotlc Slovaks. 2. By accuslng patrlotlc Slovaks In democratlc countrles of nazlsm and fascism, a part of the Czech emlgrants and the Slovak renegades collaboratlng wlth them, flgure that they can neutralize thelr flght for an Independent Slovak State and force the Slovaks agaln under Czech rule. Those Czech and Slovak emlgrants who clalm that Slovak na• tionals want a fasclst or nazl state know very well that 1s not true. They propagate thls Ile lntentlonally and systematlcally In the hope that by repeatlng lt thousands of tlmes they shall agaln succeed In convlnclng the world that the Slovak natlon does not want to live in a state of lts own, but only In thelr Czecho-Slovakia. They are '4etermined that the Slovaks shall be vlctlms of Czech lmperiallstic efforts and Slovakla shall be a colony of Bohemla. In short: al! Slovaks who belleve that Slovakla has a rlght to be free and Independent and seek to bave that rlght recognlzed and respected by all clvillzed natlons of the earth are, according to the Beneš Czechs and Czech Slovaks, "nazis, traltors, fasclsts, enemles or democracy," etc. In 1946, Dr. Edward Beneš frankly told a Slovak delegatlon why the Czechs are fightlng agalnst Slovak lndependence, when he sald: "The Czechs cannot accept under any circum1tance1 an independent Slovakla in the future . . . . The Czechs, having on the one side 70 million Germans, must on the other aide have Ru11ia as their neighbor. Therefore, they could not accept an independent Slovakia. Thia ia a vital problem for the exiatence of the Czechs as a nation and a state and that ia also the le11on of Munich..•." Czech emlgratlon, holding to thls polltlcal legacy of Beneš, reallzes that the greatest lmpedlment to lts efforts are patrlotlc Slo· vaks In exile. Slovaks can appreciate Benei's concern for the Czecha, but they, too, are concerned about thelr own national existence. The statement made by Beneš certalnly has nothlng In common with democracy. It remlnds us of Adolph Hitler who thought that all natlons of centra) and eastern Europe should be deprlved of freedom and In• dependence and forced to serve the lnterests of the German natlon. It also remlnds us of Stalln who would enslave the whole world and force all natlons to serve the lnterests of godless communlsm. Slovak patrlots stand In the way of thls Czech lmperlallst dream. so the followers or Beneš are determlned to annlhllate them at all costs. That explalns why they accuse the Slovaks of belng nazls and fasclsts. That also explains thelr rldlculous accus atlon that the Slo- �58 SLOVA:KIA vaks in exile are not fighting for democracy, but for the renewal ot fasclsm In centra! Europe. Undoubtedly it is not necessary to stress that thls flght agalnst Slovak emigrants 1s immoral and undemocratlc, because lts goal is immoral and undemocratlc. To want to deprive the S lovak nation of the right to freedom and independence because the interests of the Czechs "as a nation and a state" demand it, that is a manifestatlon of the most brutal lmperialism - such as even the Germans did not perpetrate against the Slovaks. Can anyone of sane mind expect the Slovaks In exile to agree to commit national sulclde? It !s not so much the past that separates the Slovaks and Czechs in emigration as the fact that while the Slovak exiles are fighting for freedom and democracy In centra! Europe, the Czech exlles headed by Zenkl, Ripka and Papánek are fighting, in the first place, to prevent the Slovaks from attaining freedom and independence. The main task of the Czech exiles is not the fight against Communism, but the fight against the Slovaks, who want the Slovak natlon to be fully free and happy in lts own democratic state. • • • WHO SAID IT ? "Slmul<taneously we accepted the principle tha,t only our people e.t home have the righit to dedde the maln problems o! our Interne.! policy, and Lhat also the relation between the Cechs and Slovaks be decided in the future state only a,t home, based on the princíple of C.OMPLETE EQUALITY Of both Czechs and Slove.ka and that it be done in a free, democratic way and In complete brotherly agreement. These were the maln prlnciples on whlch we have bullt our movement for liberation. This ideology of our struggle !or Jiberat!on, CONNECTED WITH OUR COMPLETE PRO-SOVIET ORIENTATION, and our ideology or the second World War In general was one of the main causes !or the success or the entire 81.ruggle." - (Dr. Beneš, Broadcaat to the Czechoslovak people, Prague, May 16, 1946) . • There 1s no Russian "iron curtain" in Czechoslovakia. . . . Every. one is free to enter Czechoslovakia and to come and go as he pleases, to see what he wants to see and hear what he wants to hear. Further. more Czechs and Slovaks are MAST ERS in their own country. T here is no Russlan army on Czechoslovak soil and Moscow IS NOT INTERFERING with Czechoslovak interna! affairs. . . . The press, radio, the school and the church are FREE to carry on their activities AS BEFORE." - (Dr. Kenneth D. Milier, president o! the New Yvrk City Mlsslon Society, In an address at the weekly church nlght dinner at the First Presb)"tertan Church, 124 Henry Street, New York City, published In tihe BROOKLYN DAILY EAGLE, Nov. 12, 1947) . • "I agree wlth you rully that our alllance with the SOVIET UNION will belp us to a better secur ity or FREEDOM in t he future, and I am happy to have seen our politlcal orlentatir FROM THE BEGINNING OF THIS WAR and to have acted accordlngly." - (Dr. Beneš, Reply to a message from the Slov-ak Natlonal Council In Košice, London, March 2, 1946). � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to 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 56 SLOVAKIA must ever oppose the creatlon ot a free and independent Slovakla. Well, the Slovaks flgure they shall have somethlng to say about the matter, as rightly they should have. And no one can blame them for wantlng to live thelr own 11ves and belng masters of thelr destlny. The Slovaks know, too, that the "Czech Slovaks" - the Slovak traltors - are no less dangerous than the lmperlalistlc Beneli C:techs. They are the Janlssarles. The Slovaks do not underestlmate the Czechs, who have been and stm are pJytng a systematlc politlco· dlplomatlc game, the goal ot whJch 1s the denlal and suppresslon of the natural and fundamental rlghts of the Slovak natlon. One day world CÔmmunlsm shall be llquldated. And Czechoslovaklsm, the handmald or Communlsm, must be llquldated also. The fiction of an ethnlcal "Czechoslovak natlon" must be dlscarded for all tlmes. Czechoslovakla was a mlstake, an llluslon, politlcally and mo• rally an unprofltable creatlon, but for the Czechs lt stm ls a reality and an Idea!. The Slovaks are aware of thls and are just as determlned that they shall never again be subject to the rule of the Czechs when the plague or Communlsm ls vanquished. • • • OUR FIGHT FOR DEMOORACY AND INDEPENDENCE DR. JOSEPH KIRSCHBAUM Slnce 1945 Slovaks In emlgratlon have frequently stated that the goal of thelr struggle ls a democratlc and Independent Slovakla. The leaders of Slovak exlles can support thelr declaratlons not only by thelr IJfetlme flght agalnst communlsm, but also by thelr reslstance to eftorts to lntroduce the nazl system in Slovakla. The group whlch later collaborated wlth the communlsts - the so-called "Czechoslovaks" (Czech Slovaks ! ) - cannot and should not be counted among t.he patrlotlc Slovaks who opposed the nazl avalanche from 194Q. Hllnka's Slovak Peoples Party, headed by Presldent Joseph Tlso, fought agalnst nazlsm and communlsm then, and today the members of that party in exile form the flrst flghting line agalnst communlsm. lt ls a fact that after the meeting ln Salzburg In 1940, when the group around Prof. Tuka attempted to force Natlonal Soclallsm on the Slovaks In the attempt to prevent drastlc interventlon by the Cermans In Slovak public llfe, lt was not the present adherents ot Czechoslavakla (the so-called "Czechoslovaks") - later the self-styled "antl-fasclst warrlors" - who lost thelr hlgh posltlons, but the leaders ot Slovak natlonal emigratlon. That the attempt to force Natlonal Soclallsm on the Slovaks falled, that, too, cannot be credlted to those who today denounce Slovaks In exlle as fasclsts and nazls. At that Ume most ot the "Czech Slovaks" were busy gettlng fat jobs, waxing rich and llving In luxury. Thelr maln worry was not to !ose the favor ot the reglme. Thelr tlrst attempts to "revolt" dld not happen In 1939 or 1940, but only In 1944, when the outcome of the war was pretty clear. But even then they were not lnterested In flghtlng tor democracy, but rather In flghtlng to retaln the rlches and the high functlons they had attalned In the Slovak State. The few persons among them who fought for democracy and Slovak lnterests are even today flghtlng, at home and abroad, for an Independent, democratlc Slovak republlc. SLOVAKIA 57 Many Slovaks In varlous Iands may be tempted to ask: How, then, 1s lt posslble to explaln thls relentless campalgn agalnst Slovak na· tlonals In emlgratlon, the attempts to smear and dlscredlt them In the eyes of the world? The answer 1s slmple. Thls whole undemocratlc assault agalnst patrlotlc Slovaks, flght• Ing In exile for an Independent Slovak State, emanates baslcally from two causes: 1. The "Czechoslovaks," servlng Czech imperlal lnterests by be• traylng the highest lnterests of thelr own people, wlsh to divert attention from thelr collaboratlon wlth communlsm by smearlng and vllifylng patrlotlc Slovaks. 2. By accuslng patrlotlc Slovaks In democratlc countrles of nazlsm and fascism, a part of the Czech emlgrants and the Slovak renegades collaboratlng wlth them, flgure that they can neutralize thelr flght for an Independent Slovak State and force the Slovaks agaln under Czech rule. Those Czech and Slovak emlgrants who clalm that Slovak na• tionals want a fasclst or nazl state know very well that 1s not true. They propagate thls Ile lntentlonally and systematlcally In the hope that by repeatlng lt thousands of tlmes they shall agaln succeed In convlnclng the world that the Slovak natlon does not want to live in a state of lts own, but only In thelr Czecho-Slovakia. They are '4etermined that the Slovaks shall be vlctlms of Czech lmperiallstic efforts and Slovakla shall be a colony of Bohemla. In short: al! Slovaks who belleve that Slovakla has a rlght to be free and Independent and seek to bave that rlght recognlzed and respected by all clvillzed natlons of the earth are, according to the Beneš Czechs and Czech Slovaks, "nazis, traltors, fasclsts, enemles or democracy," etc. In 1946, Dr. Edward Beneš frankly told a Slovak delegatlon why the Czechs are fightlng agalnst Slovak lndependence, when he sald: "The Czechs cannot accept under any circum1tance1 an independent Slovakla in the future . . . . The Czechs, having on the one side 70 million Germans, must on the other aide have Ru11ia as their neighbor. Therefore, they could not accept an independent Slovakia. Thia ia a vital problem for the exiatence of the Czechs as a nation and a state and that ia also the le11on of Munich..•." Czech emlgratlon, holding to thls polltlcal legacy of Beneš, reallzes that the greatest lmpedlment to lts efforts are patrlotlc Slo· vaks In exile. Slovaks can appreciate Benei's concern for the Czecha, but they, too, are concerned about thelr own national existence. The statement made by Beneš certalnly has nothlng In common with democracy. It remlnds us of Adolph Hitler who thought that all natlons of centra) and eastern Europe should be deprlved of freedom and In• dependence and forced to serve the lnterests of the German natlon. It also remlnds us of Stalln who would enslave the whole world and force all natlons to serve the lnterests of godless communlsm. Slovak patrlots stand In the way of thls Czech lmperlallst dream. so the followers or Beneš are determlned to annlhllate them at all costs. That explalns why they accuse the Slovaks of belng nazls and fasclsts. That also explains thelr rldlculous accus atlon that the Slo- 58 SLOVA:KIA vaks in exile are not fighting for democracy, but for the renewal ot fasclsm In centra! Europe. Undoubtedly it is not necessary to stress that thls flght agalnst Slovak emigrants 1s immoral and undemocratlc, because lts goal is immoral and undemocratlc. To want to deprive the S lovak nation of the right to freedom and independence because the interests of the Czechs "as a nation and a state" demand it, that is a manifestatlon of the most brutal lmperialism - such as even the Germans did not perpetrate against the Slovaks. Can anyone of sane mind expect the Slovaks In exile to agree to commit national sulclde? It !s not so much the past that separates the Slovaks and Czechs in emigration as the fact that while the Slovak exiles are fighting for freedom and democracy In centra! Europe, the Czech exlles headed by Zenkl, Ripka and Papánek are fighting, in the first place, to prevent the Slovaks from attaining freedom and independence. The main task of the Czech exiles is not the fight against Communism, but the fight against the Slovaks, who want the Slovak natlon to be fully free and happy in lts own democratic state. • • • WHO SAID IT ? "Slmul<taneously we accepted the principle tha,t only our people e.t home have the righit to dedde the maln problems o! our Interne.! policy, and Lhat also the relation between the Cechs and Slovaks be decided in the future state only a,t home, based on the princíple of C.OMPLETE EQUALITY Of both Czechs and Slove.ka and that it be done in a free, democratic way and In complete brotherly agreement. These were the maln prlnciples on whlch we have bullt our movement for liberation. This ideology of our struggle !or Jiberat!on, CONNECTED WITH OUR COMPLETE PRO-SOVIET ORIENTATION, and our ideology or the second World War In general was one of the main causes !or the success or the entire 81.ruggle." - (Dr. Beneš, Broadcaat to the Czechoslovak people, Prague, May 16, 1946) . • There 1s no Russian "iron curtain" in Czechoslovakia. . . . Every. one is free to enter Czechoslovakia and to come and go as he pleases, to see what he wants to see and hear what he wants to hear. Further. more Czechs and Slovaks are MAST ERS in their own country. T here is no Russlan army on Czechoslovak soil and Moscow IS NOT INTERFERING with Czechoslovak interna! affairs. . . . The press, radio, the school and the church are FREE to carry on their activities AS BEFORE." - (Dr. Kenneth D. Milier, president o! the New Yvrk City Mlsslon Society, In an address at the weekly church nlght dinner at the First Presb)"tertan Church, 124 Henry Street, New York City, published In tihe BROOKLYN DAILY EAGLE, Nov. 12, 1947) . • "I agree wlth you rully that our alllance with the SOVIET UNION will belp us to a better secur ity or FREEDOM in t he future, and I am happy to have seen our politlcal orlentatir FROM THE BEGINNING OF THIS WAR and to have acted accordlngly." - (Dr. Beneš, Reply to a message from the Slov-ak Natlonal Council In Košice, London, March 2, 1946).  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Our Fight for Democracy and Independence Description An account of the resource Dr. Joseph Kirschbaum Slovakia, Vol. 1, No. 1 (1), May 1951 pp. 56-58 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/c294e5ccfbf584d028c86c4182083db3.pdf a61128d1470173608cc44e2ea8090b8d PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA 37 OUR PLEA FOR SLOVAKIA TEXT OF ADDRESS BY STEPHEN B. ROMAN, K.C.S.G. Presented in Cl eveland, Ohio, at the 25th Anniversary of Slovak Independence The problems that confronts the world today brings into sharp focus the history of all civilized nations in their struggle for selfpreservation; self-determination and self-government. The fast evolving world that we are living rn, makes us, at times, forget the historical circumstances that are always so necessary t-o judge, from a proper perspective. ambition vs. rights. I mention Ambition vs. Rights because ambition looms through history, in the affairs of nations that are large and strong; on most instances , conquering nations interfering with the rights of peaceful and smaller nations . That is the story of the Slovak nation since the destruction of the Great Moravian empire. Since Bratislava, we have suffered; we have struggled; we have worked; we have hoped for the day 'when our nation can be free. The right of Slovakia to independence was cherished however by many generations who, Ir:. one form or another, fought and sacrificed for the day when Slovakia would become free of foreign rulo and enjoy equality of rights among civilized peoples . The realization ot this struggle dawn ed on us 25 years ago when, from the chaos that shook Europe, the Slovak nation, on March 14th, 1939 by unanimous vote of its parliament declared Slovakia's Independence. We gather here, today, to commemorate with all the Slovaks in the free world, this 25th Anniversary of Slovakia's declaration of Ind ependence. We, American and Canadian, Slovaks were not in Slovakia when on March 14th, 1939, the Slovak Parliament proclaimed Slovakia's ind e pendence, and the country of our fathers and forefathers r egained. after many centuries of foreign domination. the status of an independen.t nation. For many of us were watching from a dista nce, realiza ti on of our peoples dream . For this, as well as for oth er reasons, it does not become to us to pass judgmenlt on the circumstances which allowed the Slovaks to exercise their right to seH-determinat!on, or on the policy of the Slovak government, which -:ould not escape the pressures of the neighboring powers and the consequences of the geography and geopolitics As I have mentioned, the Slovaks manifested, through long centuries, their desire to be free and to develop according to their old Christian and ethnic traditions. Geography and stronger neighbors prevented, however, th e Slovaks from achieving this goal. It was only in the spring of 1939 that the international situation allowed the Slova k people to apply their right of self-determination and to r enew their Statehood which they had lost in the 10th Century. Should we not rememb er the day when our nation, one of the oldest of the Slavic nations . r egainad its independence, just because It happened in sp ecific international eircumstances that were beyond the control of a four million nation? Or should we not remember it jusc because those that domin ate Slovakia today are against such commemorations? No Ladies and Gentlemen, we must in a �38 SLOVAKIA posit.ive, constructive and vigorous way show the world that we are not against anybody else's rights; that we are not asking for anything that does not belong to us . We are, however, pursuing the hopes of any self-respecting nation that wants to be the master of its own destiny. Today, under foreign domination. Slovaks are not asking for anything more than this application of self-determination and self-government. For the past 150 years, under the impact of the French and American revolutions, Europe and other countris have fundamentally been transformed in the name of polltlc:al philosophy which rec,ognized for every people the inherent right to form national state of its own. to be politically independent, and to shape its life and institutions in accordance with its own national purpose. All free European nations and over 45 former colonies created their own states on the basis of this political doctrine, which President Wilson called self-determination. It appears that Slovakia bas not only older civilization but has also larger territory than some 15 of thos e nations and a larger population than some 45 of them. 1Should the same right not also apply to the Slovak people? In my humble opinion, any histor ian that can learn from the past advocate the right lo self-determination. Self-determination for every people regardless of its territory; regardless of its population, because God gave equal rights to freedom, and happiness to every individual and to all peopl es. As we all know the numan spirit revolts against discrimination. This country, today is the champion for the cause of freedom. It is championing the cause against discrimination and, as -such, I am sure, although at limes it appears to condone the present state of affairs in the world - is basically for freedom - for justice - and self-government of all the nations. The world was plungPd into difficulties, resulting in the cold war, because ()f the confused slate of affairs in which some nations remained free. and the otheri:;, against their will and the violation of their God-given rights, are deni ed self-determination and selfgovernment. On one hand we are today proclaiming the freedom and, on the other, condoning the tyranny and injustice. The fact that the Slovak Republic was incorporated into Czechoslovakia in 1945, without regard for the will of the people and, in violation of basic human principles, would indicate only today - that the right of the individual, the sacred right of a nation to determine its own course, to create its own destiny, is still over-ridden by the selfish motivations of the stronger and more ambitious nations . After World War II the Western Allies, in all good faith to create a better world, were taken in by the diabolical schemes of Communist imperialists . As we look back to the years 1944 and 1945 and ask ourselves what way the world would have progressed had we, instead of vehemently pursuing the decision of unconditional surrender, applied the basic Christian virtures of Love and Charity. Today, of course, there is only one definite and sure way from the intolerable situation, and that Is to apply the principles of self-determination to all people who are capable to govern themselves. We must, as free people, proclaim that right to self-determina- �SLOVAKIA 39 tion and self-government, as a basic principle that we stand for; that we fight for; and that we, in necessity, must die for. Self-governing people, In my humble opinion, in today's world must have their own way to create their regional spheres among free peoples - free nations -- in order to safeguard their security and their economic prosperity. The liberation of those nations that suffer under the colonial rule of the Soviet imperialists, and the assurance ano help from our side to the people that are threatened by Communist expansion in other parts of the world, is the only safe road towards the termination of the cold war, and also the gure way and the only way to prevent apocalyptic extinction which ~-ould result from the atomic warfare. Al:I for Slovakia, we believe that the Slovak nation, which under the protection of Almighty God, survived many centuries on the territory destined for its national development should not have been robbed of its independent status and should not be prevented from exercising its right to self-determination We commemorate, therefore, March 14th, 1939, as a historic date. The date that made the rest of the world realize that over four million Slovaks have an inherent right to be free and independet. l for one, wuuld not argue with anybody about Slovakia's war policy, but rather than believe the adversaries of Slovakia's independence, I trust the Slovak patriots, who sacrificed their lives for the people and we accept the opinion of the Special Committee of the American Congress which, in 1958, said: "Even though the Slovak state was largely the result of a tense international situation, it nevertheless corresponded to the aspirations of the Slovak people tor freedom and the principle of SP.If-determination and self-government. "It reflected a compromise between the past and the present, between an old tradition and a temporarily determined political dynamism of tne self-preservation Instinct of the Slovak nation." Slovakia, one of many nations, is dominated by ruthless Communists imperialists. We are hoping that the free world will not 111eglect thP nations behind the Iron Curtain, and will not let Communist oppressors destroy the Christian quality that Slovakia and the other nations hold rearly as their tradl tion . Slovakia's consciousness of the evolving and political interdependence of the European peoples are not catering to narrow nationalism or resentments, but with other vigorous peoples of Europe are trying to forget the past, and build the future for a better, stronger, more just Europe and the world . American and Canadian Slovaks hopes of freedom for the country ot our origin are, however. not based on any form of government or ideology, past or present, in Slovakia. We appeal to the Free World for justice and initependence for Slovakia because we believe In the eternal validity of the famous words of the American Declaration of Independence: "We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal, that they are endowed, by their Creator, with certain unallen lable rights, that among these are life - liberty - and the pursuit of happiness." This, ladies and gentlemen, is all we are asking for for !Slovakia. � SLOVAKIA 37 OUR PLEA FOR SLOVAKIA TEXT OF ADDRESS BY STEPHEN B. ROMAN, K.C.S.G. Presented in Cl eveland, Ohio, at the 25th Anniversary of Slovak Independence The problems that confronts the world today brings into sharp focus the history of all civilized nations in their struggle for selfpreservation; self-determination and self-government. The fast evolving world that we are living rn, makes us, at times, forget the historical circumstances that are always so necessary t-o judge, from a proper perspective. ambition vs. rights. I mention Ambition vs. Rights because ambition looms through history, in the affairs of nations that are large and strong; on most instances , conquering nations interfering with the rights of peaceful and smaller nations . That is the story of the Slovak nation since the destruction of the Great Moravian empire. Since Bratislava, we have suffered; we have struggled; we have worked; we have hoped for the day 'when our nation can be free. The right of Slovakia to independence was cherished however by many generations who, Ir:. one form or another, fought and sacrificed for the day when Slovakia would become free of foreign rulo and enjoy equality of rights among civilized peoples . The realization ot this struggle dawn ed on us 25 years ago when, from the chaos that shook Europe, the Slovak nation, on March 14th, 1939 by unanimous vote of its parliament declared Slovakia's Independence. We gather here, today, to commemorate with all the Slovaks in the free world, this 25th Anniversary of Slovakia's declaration of Ind ependence. We, American and Canadian, Slovaks were not in Slovakia when on March 14th, 1939, the Slovak Parliament proclaimed Slovakia's ind e pendence, and the country of our fathers and forefathers r egained. after many centuries of foreign domination. the status of an independen.t nation. For many of us were watching from a dista nce, realiza ti on of our peoples dream . For this, as well as for oth er reasons, it does not become to us to pass judgmenlt on the circumstances which allowed the Slovaks to exercise their right to seH-determinat!on, or on the policy of the Slovak government, which -:ould not escape the pressures of the neighboring powers and the consequences of the geography and geopolitics As I have mentioned, the Slovaks manifested, through long centuries, their desire to be free and to develop according to their old Christian and ethnic traditions. Geography and stronger neighbors prevented, however, th e Slovaks from achieving this goal. It was only in the spring of 1939 that the international situation allowed the Slova k people to apply their right of self-determination and to r enew their Statehood which they had lost in the 10th Century. Should we not rememb er the day when our nation, one of the oldest of the Slavic nations . r egainad its independence, just because It happened in sp ecific international eircumstances that were beyond the control of a four million nation? Or should we not remember it jusc because those that domin ate Slovakia today are against such commemorations? No Ladies and Gentlemen, we must in a �38 SLOVAKIA posit.ive, constructive and vigorous way show the world that we are not against anybody else's rights; that we are not asking for anything that does not belong to us . We are, however, pursuing the hopes of any self-respecting nation that wants to be the master of its own destiny. Today, under foreign domination. Slovaks are not asking for anything more than this application of self-determination and self-government. For the past 150 years, under the impact of the French and American revolutions, Europe and other countris have fundamentally been transformed in the name of polltlc:al philosophy which rec,ognized for every people the inherent right to form national state of its own. to be politically independent, and to shape its life and institutions in accordance with its own national purpose. All free European nations and over 45 former colonies created their own states on the basis of this political doctrine, which President Wilson called self-determination. It appears that Slovakia bas not only older civilization but has also larger territory than some 15 of thos e nations and a larger population than some 45 of them. 1Should the same right not also apply to the Slovak people? In my humble opinion, any histor ian that can learn from the past advocate the right lo self-determination. Self-determination for every people regardless of its territory; regardless of its population, because God gave equal rights to freedom, and happiness to every individual and to all peopl es. As we all know the numan spirit revolts against discrimination. This country, today is the champion for the cause of freedom. It is championing the cause against discrimination and, as -such, I am sure, although at limes it appears to condone the present state of affairs in the world - is basically for freedom - for justice - and self-government of all the nations. The world was plungPd into difficulties, resulting in the cold war, because ()f the confused slate of affairs in which some nations remained free. and the otheri:;, against their will and the violation of their God-given rights, are deni ed self-determination and selfgovernment. On one hand we are today proclaiming the freedom and, on the other, condoning the tyranny and injustice. The fact that the Slovak Republic was incorporated into Czechoslovakia in 1945, without regard for the will of the people and, in violation of basic human principles, would indicate only today - that the right of the individual, the sacred right of a nation to determine its own course, to create its own destiny, is still over-ridden by the selfish motivations of the stronger and more ambitious nations . After World War II the Western Allies, in all good faith to create a better world, were taken in by the diabolical schemes of Communist imperialists . As we look back to the years 1944 and 1945 and ask ourselves what way the world would have progressed had we, instead of vehemently pursuing the decision of unconditional surrender, applied the basic Christian virtures of Love and Charity. Today, of course, there is only one definite and sure way from the intolerable situation, and that Is to apply the principles of self-determination to all people who are capable to govern themselves. We must, as free people, proclaim that right to self-determina- �SLOVAKIA 39 tion and self-government, as a basic principle that we stand for; that we fight for; and that we, in necessity, must die for. Self-governing people, In my humble opinion, in today's world must have their own way to create their regional spheres among free peoples - free nations -- in order to safeguard their security and their economic prosperity. The liberation of those nations that suffer under the colonial rule of the Soviet imperialists, and the assurance ano help from our side to the people that are threatened by Communist expansion in other parts of the world, is the only safe road towards the termination of the cold war, and also the gure way and the only way to prevent apocalyptic extinction which ~-ould result from the atomic warfare. Al:I for Slovakia, we believe that the Slovak nation, which under the protection of Almighty God, survived many centuries on the territory destined for its national development should not have been robbed of its independent status and should not be prevented from exercising its right to self-determination We commemorate, therefore, March 14th, 1939, as a historic date. The date that made the rest of the world realize that over four million Slovaks have an inherent right to be free and independet. l for one, wuuld not argue with anybody about Slovakia's war policy, but rather than believe the adversaries of Slovakia's independence, I trust the Slovak patriots, who sacrificed their lives for the people and we accept the opinion of the Special Committee of the American Congress which, in 1958, said: "Even though the Slovak state was largely the result of a tense international situation, it nevertheless corresponded to the aspirations of the Slovak people tor freedom and the principle of SP.If-determination and self-government. "It reflected a compromise between the past and the present, between an old tradition and a temporarily determined political dynamism of tne self-preservation Instinct of the Slovak nation." Slovakia, one of many nations, is dominated by ruthless Communists imperialists. We are hoping that the free world will not 111eglect thP nations behind the Iron Curtain, and will not let Communist oppressors destroy the Christian quality that Slovakia and the other nations hold rearly as their tradl tion . Slovakia's consciousness of the evolving and political interdependence of the European peoples are not catering to narrow nationalism or resentments, but with other vigorous peoples of Europe are trying to forget the past, and build the future for a better, stronger, more just Europe and the world . American and Canadian Slovaks hopes of freedom for the country ot our origin are, however. not based on any form of government or ideology, past or present, in Slovakia. We appeal to the Free World for justice and initependence for Slovakia because we believe In the eternal validity of the famous words of the American Declaration of Independence: "We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal, that they are endowed, by their Creator, with certain unallen lable rights, that among these are life - liberty - and the pursuit of happiness." This, ladies and gentlemen, is all we are asking for for !Slovakia. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1964, Vol. 14 Description An account of the resource Vol. 14 (No. 37), 1964. 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 1964 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 37 OUR PLEA FOR SLOVAKIA TEXT OF ADDRESS BY STEPHEN B. ROMAN, K.C.S.G. Presented in Cl eveland, Ohio, at the 25th Anniversary of Slovak Independence The problems that confronts the world today brings into sharp focus the history of all civilized nations in their struggle for selfpreservation; self-determination and self-government. The fast evolving world that we are living rn, makes us, at times, forget the historical circumstances that are always so necessary t-o judge, from a proper perspective. ambition vs. rights. I mention Ambition vs. Rights because ambition looms through history, in the affairs of nations that are large and strong; on most instances , conquering nations interfering with the rights of peaceful and smaller nations . That is the story of the Slovak nation since the destruction of the Great Moravian empire. Since Bratislava, we have suffered; we have struggled; we have worked; we have hoped for the day 'when our nation can be free. The right of Slovakia to independence was cherished however by many generations who, Ir:. one form or another, fought and sacrificed for the day when Slovakia would become free of foreign rulo and enjoy equality of rights among civilized peoples . The realization ot this struggle dawn ed on us 25 years ago when, from the chaos that shook Europe, the Slovak nation, on March 14th, 1939 by unanimous vote of its parliament declared Slovakia's Independence. We gather here, today, to commemorate with all the Slovaks in the free world, this 25th Anniversary of Slovakia's declaration of Ind ependence. We, American and Canadian, Slovaks were not in Slovakia when on March 14th, 1939, the Slovak Parliament proclaimed Slovakia's ind e pendence, and the country of our fathers and forefathers r egained. after many centuries of foreign domination. the status of an independen.t nation. For many of us were watching from a dista nce, realiza ti on of our peoples dream . For this, as well as for oth er reasons, it does not become to us to pass judgmenlt on the circumstances which allowed the Slovaks to exercise their right to seH-determinat!on, or on the policy of the Slovak government, which -:ould not escape the pressures of the neighboring powers and the consequences of the geography and geopolitics As I have mentioned, the Slovaks manifested, through long centuries, their desire to be free and to develop according to their old Christian and ethnic traditions. Geography and stronger neighbors prevented, however, th e Slovaks from achieving this goal. It was only in the spring of 1939 that the international situation allowed the Slova k people to apply their right of self-determination and to r enew their Statehood which they had lost in the 10th Century. Should we not rememb er the day when our nation, one of the oldest of the Slavic nations . r egainad its independence, just because It happened in sp ecific international eircumstances that were beyond the control of a four million nation? Or should we not remember it jusc because those that domin ate Slovakia today are against such commemorations? No Ladies and Gentlemen, we must in a 38 SLOVAKIA posit.ive, constructive and vigorous way show the world that we are not against anybody else's rights; that we are not asking for anything that does not belong to us . We are, however, pursuing the hopes of any self-respecting nation that wants to be the master of its own destiny. Today, under foreign domination. Slovaks are not asking for anything more than this application of self-determination and self-government. For the past 150 years, under the impact of the French and American revolutions, Europe and other countris have fundamentally been transformed in the name of polltlc:al philosophy which rec,ognized for every people the inherent right to form national state of its own. to be politically independent, and to shape its life and institutions in accordance with its own national purpose. All free European nations and over 45 former colonies created their own states on the basis of this political doctrine, which President Wilson called self-determination. It appears that Slovakia bas not only older civilization but has also larger territory than some 15 of thos e nations and a larger population than some 45 of them. 1Should the same right not also apply to the Slovak people? In my humble opinion, any histor ian that can learn from the past advocate the right lo self-determination. Self-determination for every people regardless of its territory; regardless of its population, because God gave equal rights to freedom, and happiness to every individual and to all peopl es. As we all know the numan spirit revolts against discrimination. This country, today is the champion for the cause of freedom. It is championing the cause against discrimination and, as -such, I am sure, although at limes it appears to condone the present state of affairs in the world - is basically for freedom - for justice - and self-government of all the nations. The world was plungPd into difficulties, resulting in the cold war, because ()f the confused slate of affairs in which some nations remained free. and the otheri:;, against their will and the violation of their God-given rights, are deni ed self-determination and selfgovernment. On one hand we are today proclaiming the freedom and, on the other, condoning the tyranny and injustice. The fact that the Slovak Republic was incorporated into Czechoslovakia in 1945, without regard for the will of the people and, in violation of basic human principles, would indicate only today - that the right of the individual, the sacred right of a nation to determine its own course, to create its own destiny, is still over-ridden by the selfish motivations of the stronger and more ambitious nations . After World War II the Western Allies, in all good faith to create a better world, were taken in by the diabolical schemes of Communist imperialists . As we look back to the years 1944 and 1945 and ask ourselves what way the world would have progressed had we, instead of vehemently pursuing the decision of unconditional surrender, applied the basic Christian virtures of Love and Charity. Today, of course, there is only one definite and sure way from the intolerable situation, and that Is to apply the principles of self-determination to all people who are capable to govern themselves. We must, as free people, proclaim that right to self-determina- SLOVAKIA 39 tion and self-government, as a basic principle that we stand for; that we fight for; and that we, in necessity, must die for. Self-governing people, In my humble opinion, in today's world must have their own way to create their regional spheres among free peoples - free nations -- in order to safeguard their security and their economic prosperity. The liberation of those nations that suffer under the colonial rule of the Soviet imperialists, and the assurance ano help from our side to the people that are threatened by Communist expansion in other parts of the world, is the only safe road towards the termination of the cold war, and also the gure way and the only way to prevent apocalyptic extinction which ~-ould result from the atomic warfare. Al:I for Slovakia, we believe that the Slovak nation, which under the protection of Almighty God, survived many centuries on the territory destined for its national development should not have been robbed of its independent status and should not be prevented from exercising its right to self-determination We commemorate, therefore, March 14th, 1939, as a historic date. The date that made the rest of the world realize that over four million Slovaks have an inherent right to be free and independet. l for one, wuuld not argue with anybody about Slovakia's war policy, but rather than believe the adversaries of Slovakia's independence, I trust the Slovak patriots, who sacrificed their lives for the people and we accept the opinion of the Special Committee of the American Congress which, in 1958, said: "Even though the Slovak state was largely the result of a tense international situation, it nevertheless corresponded to the aspirations of the Slovak people tor freedom and the principle of SP.If-determination and self-government. "It reflected a compromise between the past and the present, between an old tradition and a temporarily determined political dynamism of tne self-preservation Instinct of the Slovak nation." Slovakia, one of many nations, is dominated by ruthless Communists imperialists. We are hoping that the free world will not 111eglect thP nations behind the Iron Curtain, and will not let Communist oppressors destroy the Christian quality that Slovakia and the other nations hold rearly as their tradl tion . Slovakia's consciousness of the evolving and political interdependence of the European peoples are not catering to narrow nationalism or resentments, but with other vigorous peoples of Europe are trying to forget the past, and build the future for a better, stronger, more just Europe and the world . American and Canadian Slovaks hopes of freedom for the country ot our origin are, however. not based on any form of government or ideology, past or present, in Slovakia. We appeal to the Free World for justice and initependence for Slovakia because we believe In the eternal validity of the famous words of the American Declaration of Independence: "We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal, that they are endowed, by their Creator, with certain unallen lable rights, that among these are life - liberty - and the pursuit of happiness." This, ladies and gentlemen, is all we are asking for for !Slovakia.  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Our Plea for Slovakia Description An account of the resource Text of Address by Stephen B. Roman, K.C.S.G., presented in Cleveland, Ohio, at the 25th Anniversary of Slovak Independence Slovakia, Vol. 14 (No. 37), 1964 pp. 37-39 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Roman, Stephen, 1921-1988 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1964 LCNAF https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/85484dbd56e950bd9572ff275ec66832.pdf e7dfeab06556ebc829abc9b02f8e7f15 PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA 3 OUR TRADITION AND WUIS STUR Dr. Henrich Bartek The significance of Louis Stur in the evolution of oUII' national life is so g,rea,t amd far-reaching :bhat it is only slowly that we a.re coming to a dooper understanding ()If this extraordinary perso111Mity, of this genial creator of the modem national Sl,O'V'ak d.deo1ogy. Once you delve into his life's work, yoru become permaIDently fascinated and cannot be freed of its charms, -s o strong is the attraction of Stur even today, a hundred years after his death. The iphilologist, philosopher, ,p edagogue, historian, po~ litician, statesman, writer, journalist, nay even the artist - once they have become acquainted witfu. the entire work and activity of .s tur - moot once ask the question how it was even possible that in the times of the greatest national decadence, at the time that Magyarization of the Slova;ks had really begun, there was found among the abandoned· ,Slovruk people a young m1an who, despite all plots and! difficuUies, built the spkitual fol.l!IldaJtions of the modern life of our nation. How that woo possible, that is a question wJiioh .perha,ps science will be ruble to answer at some time ~n the furtuire. Right now, however, it can only assert that in one generation, measwring genius in the strictest sense, only Ol!le extraordinary persOIIl OT genius appear:s among approximately two million people. There is no doubt that Stur was endowed with extraordinary natural capacity for creative and original conceptions. lit is the ma,rlk of a genius to, create woriks of lasting value which live iJ.ong ages after Ms death. Stur was a ge:nius; am.d not only witJhin the Slovak ifrrumewol1k. So it is only natUTal that we return to him and that even future Slovak generations will find their support in him until a greater .spirit apperurs to show the Slova.ks more and ~tter things tJian did Stur. To date, however, Stuir standg ouit as the greatest Slo:vak of all times. We are mindfuil. of, are eternally gratefuil to, and haive the greatest respect and admir,ation. for Vaja:nsky, �4 SLOVAKIA Hviezdoslav, Hli.nka, Tiso, SkuJJtety, and many, many other outstanding Slovak pe71sonalities, even many unknown peOi)le and martyrs, who saorifiiced everythirn.g for Slova:kdom. !But all of these, consdoooly oir lll!Ile◊nsciously, only continued to work for the reaJization of the spiritual plan of Slovak li!fe whlc:h was ~efit us by Stur in his wor:ks aJild in his pupils. Slovak life was given expression thr-o ugh the Slovaik language. According to 'S tur, it could not be otherwise. But Stur hlmself saw :to it that he became its eminent representati'Ve, an example to hi,s compeers and follo,wililg generations: he gave expression to, the irighteous des.ires and demands of his .Slovak nation and became its greatest and thUJS far unsurpassed model in spkituaJ and puiblic acti'Vity. Nations with '1ong state traditions, in which individual generations could develop without hindrance and without regard to age, ha,d the advantage of the experience of thei:r matuire ipeople and &e creativeness of their young peop1e, who always bxought something new, something better into the world and passed it on .to succeeding generations. The Slovak nabion, however, was not aJS fortunate. Having lost their great Moravian E)mpire at the turn of the tenth century, the Slova,ks were ruled iby foreigrn.ers for over a thousamd years. Without its own state traditions the Slovak nation had to rely almost entirely on compruratively young men, youths between 20~30 years old, for new ideas and new aims. In a word, SlovaJk youth was the ,c reator of a new dawn and future ,g oals, because the difficult iltife of the Slovruks undeir foreigrn. political domination did not allow the elders to build a strong national life. A gla,nce at the Slov:a!k past, from the time of Josephinism to the present, shows us tihis picture of Slovak generations: :Bermolak and his g,roup stirred the nation witlt ,theirr new idea wihen they were between 20-30 yea11s old; Holly, Kollar, and Safarik, who came after Bernolak, in the same yeara,, formed a firm outlook of the world; then StuT's generation also formed its national program �SLOVAKIA 5 in its youthful years and it was no different with the generation of ¥ajans:ky a;nd Hviezdosla;v. FoUowing the latter, iit is easier to talk ab{)ll.lt mdirviduiaJs thian generations. Considea:-, if y!()IU wi11, the yews in which the cihaxacters of Hlinka, Stefanik, Razus, and of other Slovaks, who foUowed Hvieooio:s!av's gen.eratioo, developed, and, behold, you will obser:ve that they, too, were between 20-30 years of age wlhen they began theiir creative life for theirr natrian. A :single idea and a single conviction, however, dom~naJted all Slorva·k generations amd eminent individuals: the !Slov3Jk nation coll'ld secl.ll'e and safeguaTd its nation.al existence best onJy if it gained political independence, only if it were free to ruJ.e its own homeland and develop its nation~ Hfe without foreign interference . .Am.d so it was with <YUT generation, which made itself heard .a:t th•e Slova k Institute (Matica Sloivenska) conclave on 'Ma,y 12, 1932, and then again. immediately after at the congress ~ill Trenciansike TepHce, where unanimously and without •r egard ,t o party considerations and con'Victions it declared itselif for a duialistic soJution of Slovak-Czech relatio111Js. Of cowrse, ouir generation came out with nothing new at that time, but ornly strong,l y reiterated what Bernolak and Stur and the1r followers frlad initiated much earlier. For a hundred years, therefore, not,h ing new, nothing moire rulblime apipea,red tiha;n what Stur had e:,opressed and lived for. So it is only natuiral that we must and shall have to .retuvn to. him, !beca;use it is self-evident that every new, Jet U!S say, great plan of Slova,k life must fiTst pass the aqua ,r egi·a test ,o f Stur's thinking. Even today Stuir still is the criter:ion of the life of our rratiOill; a;nd only those aims wihi-ch are in agreement with Stu.r's conception haive any hope and outlook for rea:lizatiolil. Whatever i•s againsit Stur, i,s also a,gainist the vital interests of OU!r nation. Stuir was not quite thmy years old when 'he b,egain to ,u:nite his people . by advocating a uniform language 1 1 1 �6 SLOVAKl1A for Slova,k literature. His wonk bore muoh ,g aod fruit. StUT's ca1l was answered by Sladkovic, ChaJ.upka, Botto, Kirar, Kalinciak, HUTban, and many others. lt Wll)S as if SlOIVak was resurrected by a magk wand. A.ind even though the central Slovak diail.ect is the most divergent of ail Slovak dialects, nevertheless it ri.s the least contaminated by foreigm influences. The Slovaks, therefore, felt ,tJhat the proper cou:rse had been taken in regaird to their literary language. Even John HoHy, not only the greatest 'Slovak poet of that time but a:}so the greatest ideologist of his nation, gave Stu.r's action his blessing, and, therefore, Stur was joined by the Catholics, representing five-sixths, the absolute majority, cl the SlovaJk nation. W1hat is the literary medium of the Italiams today? Is it not the classical ftalian - the Tuscan dialect of Dante and Petrarch - even though in many particulars it diffurs fa·om the other Italian dialects more than does <'entra1 Slovak from the other SlovaJk dialects? But the Itailian of Tuscany is certainly least contaminated by foreign influences and :most ex;pressive of the Railiam. spirit and, hence, the rest of the lta1.ia.n:s accepted it and stand by it. And so it was with the language of central SlwaJkia. It ,i s the most native of all Slovak dia!lects and therefore directly the most appropriate to express the spiiritua,l life of the Slovaks. ·Situr was clearly aware of the fiact that unity in tJhe liteTa,ry laJI1guage was not the uJtimate goal of hiis nation, but only a medium ,o f further national develoipment - of course, an inevitaible medium, if a higher cuiltu.rral level of the broad masses was to be attained and thereby also a proper support for national equality in Hungary. To rea,ch it:he broad masses of the Slo1Vak people and rouse them nationally, Stur published a newspaper in Slovak, Mter waiting some four years for permissri.on from the Hungariain government to do so. The influence of the paper was great; the Slorvaks gave it theiir full. support, while the MagyarSJ, aware of its influence, saon began scheming to suppress it. ,E lected b,y the royail city of �SLOVAKIA 'J Zvoilen to the Hungarian Diet, Stur insisted that the righteous demands of the Slovak nation for free national development ,b e fulf·illed. Before the revo,lution of 1'848 he demanded the DieJt to free the people fr:om the feudalistic Robot system, 1a;bor rent, so that the culture of the country might increase by the foundation of schoo~s in the naJt;ional tO!Ilgue ; he Tecommended the iindusbriali:zation of the land of the Slovaks and the adoption of laws in the huma,nitarian spirit which would enable the development of the country and! for all the nations inhabiting Hungary and ihe fought for a federalistic system in Hungary, whereby taJlJ. natio.n:s mi:ght work as equals for the common weal of the State. Stur appe,a led to the macgnates to give attention to the development of the State and to maJke it possible in the spirit of the modern devellopment of Eurrope. Stur was not a rebel; he did not advocate the destruction of the Hungarlam State aJS long as there wa:i any hope o;f ;s ettlement with the iMagy.aJrs. In the Hunga;rian Diet, •S tur proved himselif .a,s a farsighted politicran and statesmam; he saw and realized what was happening in the coU!Iltries around Hungary. He warned the Magyars that they ,c ould not forever igno,r e and suppress the inherent rights .of natio.ns,, that they couJd not forever e~ploit the Slov:aiks and otlher nations of H'lllilgatry without expecting them to stri1ke baok with their righteous demands for a f,r ee national life, for the same rights the Magyars were resolved to fight for in the Habsb'lliI"g Empire. Stu.r's admonitions, however, hit upon deruf eairs; the Magyam stUJbbor:n,l y amd ignoramtly refused to give ear to a;ny demands for any kind of settlement with the 1t10n~Ma;gyar rnations of Hungacy. The reS1Ult was the revolution of 1848-49, in which the S!l,o vaks also :prurtiiciipated, wihom S·t w togetlieir wi:th Hlurban ,a nd iHodza led in armed resi,s tance against the revoluti()(Il of .the Ma,g yar aristocrats. That the Ha:bsburgs were ung,ratefiul to the Slooaks, that they rfina:Hy settled wtth the Magyairs at the expense of the non-Magyrur natiOIIlS, does not alter the facts, at all. The set- �8 SLOVAKIA tlement of 1867, referred to as Austro~Hungaria,n but in rea.lity Au:stro-iMagyar, became the ,grave of the 'MOIIlarchy which coll!1d haive 'been a miglhty confederation in Central E}ul"ope. Louis Stur, and not 1:Jhe Slovak and M:agyair chauvilll'ist 1Lorui,s Ko,s ut. was the genuine democrat. Sttir and the SIOivak Language As a student at the Bratislmva lyceum and later as a professor, Stur became convinced that Sloiva:k Lutherans would never ,l earn Czech welil enough to oreate worthy scienltific works iirJ. that liangwage and so much more the less artistic ones. From the standpoint of the present and the future, therefore, it made no sense to persevere in Biblical Czech. 'Dhis 'Practical motive,, ·of course, was not enough forr :S tur and, therefore, he made it his business to learn as well as po,s sible all Siova,nic languages and to study comparative phHology. After a tho,r01Ugh reseaTch of the sy:stem of the S[rovalk language, Stur was convinced that the ,Sloivaik [am,g,uiage was not a dira lect of the Czech, but an indepedent Slovanic language and, by the sarrne token, thait the SlO'Vaks were not a part of the Czech nation but am ii.ndependent and individual people. StuT was thairoug,hly fami,l iar with not O!D.ly the w.ritings of the BernolaJk group, not only with the poetkal compO!sitions of John Ho1ly and the works of Bajza and Fandli, but aiso esipecially with the philological works of Anton iBernola.k. Stu,r , therefore, accepted the phonetic orthography of [Bernolak, which from the philologiral and piracticaJ standpoint best answered the purpose, but foc scientific a1r1d ideological rea:sorns decided to adopt the language of central Slovaikia. If Bernolak was it.he first codifier of literary Sloiv:ruk, who set the rules for speaJk:ing and writing Slova:k correctily, then Stur can rightfwlily be c:alled the fiirst reformer of iliterary Slovak, because he really replaced the S1ovaik of western Slovrukia with that of -c entral Slovakia. In the few years after iit was adopted as the literary medii.um of the Slov:aks, the language of central Sl01Vakia developed more talents tha,n were developed during several hundred years �SLOVAKIA 9 by literary Czech. The poems of Slad'kovic, especia!lly his "Marina," the poetical iprodUICtions orf Botto, Ohailuipka, Kral', and many others, pro·v ed that Stur's presuppositions about the sp:uritm1a,l development through the medium of central Slovalk were fuUy justified. In 1943, a: think il was successful in proving, in my work "I'... Stur a slorvenoina" (L. Stur and the SlorvaJk Language), that in !his time Stur was an extraordinarily good ph.ilofogist, who i.lJltuitively often correctly came upo:n certain individurul char.acteiristics of tJhe Slovalk language, so that even a modern philological analysis of his work will confirm the ,c orrectness of many of ,S tur's linguistic findings, the justification for which science ·i n that period could not prove. Stur, howerver, ga!Ve co.rrect judgments not OIIll.y i.lJl philology, but also ,i:n other scientific disciplines, for exaJmple, in history, statecraflt, etc. Stur and Philosophy It is generally said that Stur had aid.opted Hegel's philoso~hy. The maJtter is presented in such a Hght as irf Stur had blindly adopted Hegel's thinking and simply applied lit to Slovak and Slovank life. Philosoiphioal researches with us Slova!ks are, alas, very murch disliked and, therefore, it is ino wonder that S1ov:a1k phi[osophy is incorrectly evaluated. Prior to the war, Profesor Dmitrij Cyzevski, fo:rmerly of the universd.ties orf Hall amd J.einna ibut presently of CoJrunnbia Uni;veTSity, ;in a conversation with me called my attention to the significance of StUT and his followers for phillosophy in general. According to him Stur's generation had seveiraJl t1hin'kers w'.ho tried to create thek own philosophical system and who, in those times, amQIIllg ahl Slovam.ic nations excelled in originality of thinking in philosophy. Cyz.evski later prorved a part of his statement in his excellent book "Sturo•v a :f.ilozofia ziivota" tStur's .Philosophy of Life), which the Slovak Academy orf Sciences published du.ring the war .a nd wlhich, I say regretfully, I do not have today. Even though Cyzevs:ki's book does not deal fuHy with Stur's philosophy neverthe- �10 SLOVAKIA less it did ,p rove that Stur was not a simple student of Hegel's in iphiilosophy, but that he formed an mdependent philosophical system which in many ways differs f.rom that of Hegel. And thus we could gradually consider the political, social, pedagogical, statecraft, and artistic o,pinions of Stur and come to 1:Jhe conclusion that we hia:ve !before us an extremely wealthy personality, which had drawn from native traditions 13Jild in rbhe spirit ()If Slovak needs had formulated !ideas from varioUiS regions into one whole into the ination13Jl ideology of the Slovak nation. To 1UD:derstand Stur •and his wol'lk thoroughly, we must ma.Ike a proper study of all his activities ·amd literary achievements, so that we imi,g ht be able to define accu<!'ately what is .h l,s own, what is domestic tradition, and what has cOIIIle to us .from 01:Jher,s. If we do not ma,ke t'hat study, then we shall not completely understand this greatest phenomenon of Slovruk life of the nineteenth century. The Slovalks, especially recent political emigrants, will have to ,r eturn to Stur firequoot!ly, since for them in many thin:gs he is an excellent example, especially in polilti'cs. For exia.mple, when we t ruke Stur's views on the life of our nation, when his ideas about independent Slovruk national life are taken as the aqua regia of Slovll!k politics from 1918 to the 'Present, then it •s hall not be dificult to ascertain tJhrut, from the Slovak strundpoint, Hlinka's Slovak People's Party and the Slovak National 1P arty of Razus continued to work for the realization of Stur's program, and that they, an:d not a single SlovaJk affiliate of centralistic parties, were the b~arers of traditional Slorvak ideology. Today in 'S}()(Vruk.ia. a foreign 1regime is peTsecuiting and crushing rull elements of the Bernolak-Stur-lHilinka-Razu s tra·d itions, because it is albove all else concerned with the extermination of the !Slovak traditions which in his time Louis Stur had recreated rund reformed in such a manner .that they remain a pernnanent ,bas.is of our national development. � SLOVAKIA 3 OUR TRADITION AND WUIS STUR Dr. Henrich Bartek The significance of Louis Stur in the evolution of oUII' national life is so g,rea,t amd far-reaching :bhat it is only slowly that we a.re coming to a dooper understanding ()If this extraordinary perso111Mity, of this genial creator of the modem national Sl,O'V'ak d.deo1ogy. Once you delve into his life's work, yoru become permaIDently fascinated and cannot be freed of its charms, -s o strong is the attraction of Stur even today, a hundred years after his death. The iphilologist, philosopher, ,p edagogue, historian, po~ litician, statesman, writer, journalist, nay even the artist - once they have become acquainted witfu. the entire work and activity of .s tur - moot once ask the question how it was even possible that in the times of the greatest national decadence, at the time that Magyarization of the Slova;ks had really begun, there was found among the abandoned· ,Slovruk people a young m1an who, despite all plots and! difficuUies, built the spkitual fol.l!IldaJtions of the modern life of our nation. How that woo possible, that is a question wJiioh .perha,ps science will be ruble to answer at some time ~n the furtuire. Right now, however, it can only assert that in one generation, measwring genius in the strictest sense, only Ol!le extraordinary persOIIl OT genius appear:s among approximately two million people. There is no doubt that Stur was endowed with extraordinary natural capacity for creative and original conceptions. lit is the ma,rlk of a genius to, create woriks of lasting value which live iJ.ong ages after Ms death. Stur was a ge:nius; am.d not only witJhin the Slovak ifrrumewol1k. So it is only natUTal that we return to him and that even future Slovak generations will find their support in him until a greater .spirit apperurs to show the Slova.ks more and ~tter things tJian did Stur. To date, however, Stuir standg ouit as the greatest Slo:vak of all times. We are mindfuil. of, are eternally gratefuil to, and haive the greatest respect and admir,ation. for Vaja:nsky, �4 SLOVAKIA Hviezdoslav, Hli.nka, Tiso, SkuJJtety, and many, many other outstanding Slovak pe71sonalities, even many unknown peOi)le and martyrs, who saorifiiced everythirn.g for Slova:kdom. !But all of these, consdoooly oir lll!Ile◊nsciously, only continued to work for the reaJization of the spiritual plan of Slovak li!fe whlc:h was ~efit us by Stur in his wor:ks aJild in his pupils. Slovak life was given expression thr-o ugh the Slovaik language. According to 'S tur, it could not be otherwise. But Stur hlmself saw :to it that he became its eminent representati'Ve, an example to hi,s compeers and follo,wililg generations: he gave expression to, the irighteous des.ires and demands of his .Slovak nation and became its greatest and thUJS far unsurpassed model in spkituaJ and puiblic acti'Vity. Nations with '1ong state traditions, in which individual generations could develop without hindrance and without regard to age, ha,d the advantage of the experience of thei:r matuire ipeople and &e creativeness of their young peop1e, who always bxought something new, something better into the world and passed it on .to succeeding generations. The Slovak nabion, however, was not aJS fortunate. Having lost their great Moravian E)mpire at the turn of the tenth century, the Slova,ks were ruled iby foreigrn.ers for over a thousamd years. Without its own state traditions the Slovak nation had to rely almost entirely on compruratively young men, youths between 20~30 years old, for new ideas and new aims. In a word, SlovaJk youth was the ,c reator of a new dawn and future ,g oals, because the difficult iltife of the Slovruks undeir foreigrn. political domination did not allow the elders to build a strong national life. A gla,nce at the Slov:a!k past, from the time of Josephinism to the present, shows us tihis picture of Slovak generations: :Bermolak and his g,roup stirred the nation witlt ,theirr new idea wihen they were between 20-30 yea11s old; Holly, Kollar, and Safarik, who came after Bernolak, in the same yeara,, formed a firm outlook of the world; then StuT's generation also formed its national program �SLOVAKIA 5 in its youthful years and it was no different with the generation of ¥ajans:ky a;nd Hviezdosla;v. FoUowing the latter, iit is easier to talk ab{)ll.lt mdirviduiaJs thian generations. Considea:-, if y!()IU wi11, the yews in which the cihaxacters of Hlinka, Stefanik, Razus, and of other Slovaks, who foUowed Hvieooio:s!av's gen.eratioo, developed, and, behold, you will obser:ve that they, too, were between 20-30 years of age wlhen they began theiir creative life for theirr natrian. A :single idea and a single conviction, however, dom~naJted all Slorva·k generations amd eminent individuals: the !Slov3Jk nation coll'ld secl.ll'e and safeguaTd its nation.al existence best onJy if it gained political independence, only if it were free to ruJ.e its own homeland and develop its nation~ Hfe without foreign interference . .Am.d so it was with <YUT generation, which made itself heard .a:t th•e Slova k Institute (Matica Sloivenska) conclave on 'Ma,y 12, 1932, and then again. immediately after at the congress ~ill Trenciansike TepHce, where unanimously and without •r egard ,t o party considerations and con'Victions it declared itselif for a duialistic soJution of Slovak-Czech relatio111Js. Of cowrse, ouir generation came out with nothing new at that time, but ornly strong,l y reiterated what Bernolak and Stur and the1r followers frlad initiated much earlier. For a hundred years, therefore, not,h ing new, nothing moire rulblime apipea,red tiha;n what Stur had e:,opressed and lived for. So it is only natuiral that we must and shall have to .retuvn to. him, !beca;use it is self-evident that every new, Jet U!S say, great plan of Slova,k life must fiTst pass the aqua ,r egi·a test ,o f Stur's thinking. Even today Stuir still is the criter:ion of the life of our rratiOill; a;nd only those aims wihi-ch are in agreement with Stu.r's conception haive any hope and outlook for rea:lizatiolil. Whatever i•s againsit Stur, i,s also a,gainist the vital interests of OU!r nation. Stuir was not quite thmy years old when 'he b,egain to ,u:nite his people . by advocating a uniform language 1 1 1 �6 SLOVAKl1A for Slova,k literature. His wonk bore muoh ,g aod fruit. StUT's ca1l was answered by Sladkovic, ChaJ.upka, Botto, Kirar, Kalinciak, HUTban, and many others. lt Wll)S as if SlOIVak was resurrected by a magk wand. A.ind even though the central Slovak diail.ect is the most divergent of ail Slovak dialects, nevertheless it ri.s the least contaminated by foreigm influences. The Slovaks, therefore, felt ,tJhat the proper cou:rse had been taken in regaird to their literary language. Even John HoHy, not only the greatest 'Slovak poet of that time but a:}so the greatest ideologist of his nation, gave Stu.r's action his blessing, and, therefore, Stur was joined by the Catholics, representing five-sixths, the absolute majority, cl the SlovaJk nation. W1hat is the literary medium of the Italiams today? Is it not the classical ftalian - the Tuscan dialect of Dante and Petrarch - even though in many particulars it diffurs fa·om the other Italian dialects more than does <'entra1 Slovak from the other SlovaJk dialects? But the Itailian of Tuscany is certainly least contaminated by foreign influences and :most ex;pressive of the Railiam. spirit and, hence, the rest of the lta1.ia.n:s accepted it and stand by it. And so it was with the language of central SlwaJkia. It ,i s the most native of all Slovak dia!lects and therefore directly the most appropriate to express the spiiritua,l life of the Slovaks. ·Situr was clearly aware of the fiact that unity in tJhe liteTa,ry laJI1guage was not the uJtimate goal of hiis nation, but only a medium ,o f further national develoipment - of course, an inevitaible medium, if a higher cuiltu.rral level of the broad masses was to be attained and thereby also a proper support for national equality in Hungary. To rea,ch it:he broad masses of the Slo1Vak people and rouse them nationally, Stur published a newspaper in Slovak, Mter waiting some four years for permissri.on from the Hungariain government to do so. The influence of the paper was great; the Slorvaks gave it theiir full. support, while the MagyarSJ, aware of its influence, saon began scheming to suppress it. ,E lected b,y the royail city of �SLOVAKIA 'J Zvoilen to the Hungarian Diet, Stur insisted that the righteous demands of the Slovak nation for free national development ,b e fulf·illed. Before the revo,lution of 1'848 he demanded the DieJt to free the people fr:om the feudalistic Robot system, 1a;bor rent, so that the culture of the country might increase by the foundation of schoo~s in the naJt;ional tO!Ilgue ; he Tecommended the iindusbriali:zation of the land of the Slovaks and the adoption of laws in the huma,nitarian spirit which would enable the development of the country and! for all the nations inhabiting Hungary and ihe fought for a federalistic system in Hungary, whereby taJlJ. natio.n:s mi:ght work as equals for the common weal of the State. Stur appe,a led to the macgnates to give attention to the development of the State and to maJke it possible in the spirit of the modern devellopment of Eurrope. Stur was not a rebel; he did not advocate the destruction of the Hungarlam State aJS long as there wa:i any hope o;f ;s ettlement with the iMagy.aJrs. In the Hunga;rian Diet, •S tur proved himselif .a,s a farsighted politicran and statesmam; he saw and realized what was happening in the coU!Iltries around Hungary. He warned the Magyars that they ,c ould not forever igno,r e and suppress the inherent rights .of natio.ns,, that they couJd not forever e~ploit the Slov:aiks and otlher nations of H'lllilgatry without expecting them to stri1ke baok with their righteous demands for a f,r ee national life, for the same rights the Magyars were resolved to fight for in the Habsb'lliI"g Empire. Stu.r's admonitions, however, hit upon deruf eairs; the Magyam stUJbbor:n,l y amd ignoramtly refused to give ear to a;ny demands for any kind of settlement with the 1t10n~Ma;gyar rnations of Hungacy. The reS1Ult was the revolution of 1848-49, in which the S!l,o vaks also :prurtiiciipated, wihom S·t w togetlieir wi:th Hlurban ,a nd iHodza led in armed resi,s tance against the revoluti()(Il of .the Ma,g yar aristocrats. That the Ha:bsburgs were ung,ratefiul to the Slooaks, that they rfina:Hy settled wtth the Magyairs at the expense of the non-Magyrur natiOIIlS, does not alter the facts, at all. The set- �8 SLOVAKIA tlement of 1867, referred to as Austro~Hungaria,n but in rea.lity Au:stro-iMagyar, became the ,grave of the 'MOIIlarchy which coll!1d haive 'been a miglhty confederation in Central E}ul"ope. Louis Stur, and not 1:Jhe Slovak and M:agyair chauvilll'ist 1Lorui,s Ko,s ut. was the genuine democrat. Sttir and the SIOivak Language As a student at the Bratislmva lyceum and later as a professor, Stur became convinced that Sloiva:k Lutherans would never ,l earn Czech welil enough to oreate worthy scienltific works iirJ. that liangwage and so much more the less artistic ones. From the standpoint of the present and the future, therefore, it made no sense to persevere in Biblical Czech. 'Dhis 'Practical motive,, ·of course, was not enough forr :S tur and, therefore, he made it his business to learn as well as po,s sible all Siova,nic languages and to study comparative phHology. After a tho,r01Ugh reseaTch of the sy:stem of the S[rovalk language, Stur was convinced that the ,Sloivaik [am,g,uiage was not a dira lect of the Czech, but an indepedent Slovanic language and, by the sarrne token, thait the SlO'Vaks were not a part of the Czech nation but am ii.ndependent and individual people. StuT was thairoug,hly fami,l iar with not O!D.ly the w.ritings of the BernolaJk group, not only with the poetkal compO!sitions of John Ho1ly and the works of Bajza and Fandli, but aiso esipecially with the philological works of Anton iBernola.k. Stu,r , therefore, accepted the phonetic orthography of [Bernolak, which from the philologiral and piracticaJ standpoint best answered the purpose, but foc scientific a1r1d ideological rea:sorns decided to adopt the language of central Slovaikia. If Bernolak was it.he first codifier of literary Sloiv:ruk, who set the rules for speaJk:ing and writing Slova:k correctily, then Stur can rightfwlily be c:alled the fiirst reformer of iliterary Slovak, because he really replaced the S1ovaik of western Slovrukia with that of -c entral Slovakia. In the few years after iit was adopted as the literary medii.um of the Slov:aks, the language of central Sl01Vakia developed more talents tha,n were developed during several hundred years �SLOVAKIA 9 by literary Czech. The poems of Slad'kovic, especia!lly his "Marina," the poetical iprodUICtions orf Botto, Ohailuipka, Kral', and many others, pro·v ed that Stur's presuppositions about the sp:uritm1a,l development through the medium of central Slovalk were fuUy justified. In 1943, a: think il was successful in proving, in my work "I'... Stur a slorvenoina" (L. Stur and the SlorvaJk Language), that in !his time Stur was an extraordinarily good ph.ilofogist, who i.lJltuitively often correctly came upo:n certain individurul char.acteiristics of tJhe Slovalk language, so that even a modern philological analysis of his work will confirm the ,c orrectness of many of ,S tur's linguistic findings, the justification for which science ·i n that period could not prove. Stur, howerver, ga!Ve co.rrect judgments not OIIll.y i.lJl philology, but also ,i:n other scientific disciplines, for exaJmple, in history, statecraflt, etc. Stur and Philosophy It is generally said that Stur had aid.opted Hegel's philoso~hy. The maJtter is presented in such a Hght as irf Stur had blindly adopted Hegel's thinking and simply applied lit to Slovak and Slovank life. Philosoiphioal researches with us Slova!ks are, alas, very murch disliked and, therefore, it is ino wonder that S1ov:a1k phi[osophy is incorrectly evaluated. Prior to the war, Profesor Dmitrij Cyzevski, fo:rmerly of the universd.ties orf Hall amd J.einna ibut presently of CoJrunnbia Uni;veTSity, ;in a conversation with me called my attention to the significance of StUT and his followers for phillosophy in general. According to him Stur's generation had seveiraJl t1hin'kers w'.ho tried to create thek own philosophical system and who, in those times, amQIIllg ahl Slovam.ic nations excelled in originality of thinking in philosophy. Cyz.evski later prorved a part of his statement in his excellent book "Sturo•v a :f.ilozofia ziivota" tStur's .Philosophy of Life), which the Slovak Academy orf Sciences published du.ring the war .a nd wlhich, I say regretfully, I do not have today. Even though Cyzevs:ki's book does not deal fuHy with Stur's philosophy neverthe- �10 SLOVAKIA less it did ,p rove that Stur was not a simple student of Hegel's in iphiilosophy, but that he formed an mdependent philosophical system which in many ways differs f.rom that of Hegel. And thus we could gradually consider the political, social, pedagogical, statecraft, and artistic o,pinions of Stur and come to 1:Jhe conclusion that we hia:ve !before us an extremely wealthy personality, which had drawn from native traditions 13Jild in rbhe spirit ()If Slovak needs had formulated !ideas from varioUiS regions into one whole into the ination13Jl ideology of the Slovak nation. To 1UD:derstand Stur •and his wol'lk thoroughly, we must ma.Ike a proper study of all his activities ·amd literary achievements, so that we imi,g ht be able to define accu<!'ately what is .h l,s own, what is domestic tradition, and what has cOIIIle to us .from 01:Jher,s. If we do not ma,ke t'hat study, then we shall not completely understand this greatest phenomenon of Slovruk life of the nineteenth century. The Slovalks, especially recent political emigrants, will have to ,r eturn to Stur firequoot!ly, since for them in many thin:gs he is an excellent example, especially in polilti'cs. For exia.mple, when we t ruke Stur's views on the life of our nation, when his ideas about independent Slovruk national life are taken as the aqua regia of Slovll!k politics from 1918 to the 'Present, then it •s hall not be dificult to ascertain tJhrut, from the Slovak strundpoint, Hlinka's Slovak People's Party and the Slovak National 1P arty of Razus continued to work for the realization of Stur's program, and that they, an:d not a single SlovaJk affiliate of centralistic parties, were the b~arers of traditional Slorvak ideology. Today in 'S}()(Vruk.ia. a foreign 1regime is peTsecuiting and crushing rull elements of the Bernolak-Stur-lHilinka-Razu s tra·d itions, because it is albove all else concerned with the extermination of the !Slovak traditions which in his time Louis Stur had recreated rund reformed in such a manner .that they remain a pernnanent ,bas.is of our national development. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1956, Vol. 6 Description An account of the resource <ul><li>Issue 1 (No. 18), March 1956.</li> <li>Issue 2 (No. 19), June 1956.</li> <li>Issue 3-4 (No. 20-21), September-December 1956.</li> </ul> Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1956 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document SLOVAKIA 3 OUR TRADITION AND WUIS STUR Dr. Henrich Bartek The significance of Louis Stur in the evolution of oUII' national life is so g,rea,t amd far-reaching :bhat it is only slowly that we a.re coming to a dooper understanding ()If this extraordinary perso111Mity, of this genial creator of the modem national Sl,O'V'ak d.deo1ogy. Once you delve into his life's work, yoru become permaIDently fascinated and cannot be freed of its charms, -s o strong is the attraction of Stur even today, a hundred years after his death. The iphilologist, philosopher, ,p edagogue, historian, po~ litician, statesman, writer, journalist, nay even the artist - once they have become acquainted witfu. the entire work and activity of .s tur - moot once ask the question how it was even possible that in the times of the greatest national decadence, at the time that Magyarization of the Slova;ks had really begun, there was found among the abandoned· ,Slovruk people a young m1an who, despite all plots and! difficuUies, built the spkitual fol.l!IldaJtions of the modern life of our nation. How that woo possible, that is a question wJiioh .perha,ps science will be ruble to answer at some time ~n the furtuire. Right now, however, it can only assert that in one generation, measwring genius in the strictest sense, only Ol!le extraordinary persOIIl OT genius appear:s among approximately two million people. There is no doubt that Stur was endowed with extraordinary natural capacity for creative and original conceptions. lit is the ma,rlk of a genius to, create woriks of lasting value which live iJ.ong ages after Ms death. Stur was a ge:nius; am.d not only witJhin the Slovak ifrrumewol1k. So it is only natUTal that we return to him and that even future Slovak generations will find their support in him until a greater .spirit apperurs to show the Slova.ks more and ~tter things tJian did Stur. To date, however, Stuir standg ouit as the greatest Slo:vak of all times. We are mindfuil. of, are eternally gratefuil to, and haive the greatest respect and admir,ation. for Vaja:nsky, 4 SLOVAKIA Hviezdoslav, Hli.nka, Tiso, SkuJJtety, and many, many other outstanding Slovak pe71sonalities, even many unknown peOi)le and martyrs, who saorifiiced everythirn.g for Slova:kdom. !But all of these, consdoooly oir lll!Ile◊nsciously, only continued to work for the reaJization of the spiritual plan of Slovak li!fe whlc:h was ~efit us by Stur in his wor:ks aJild in his pupils. Slovak life was given expression thr-o ugh the Slovaik language. According to 'S tur, it could not be otherwise. But Stur hlmself saw :to it that he became its eminent representati'Ve, an example to hi,s compeers and follo,wililg generations: he gave expression to, the irighteous des.ires and demands of his .Slovak nation and became its greatest and thUJS far unsurpassed model in spkituaJ and puiblic acti'Vity. Nations with '1ong state traditions, in which individual generations could develop without hindrance and without regard to age, ha,d the advantage of the experience of thei:r matuire ipeople and &e creativeness of their young peop1e, who always bxought something new, something better into the world and passed it on .to succeeding generations. The Slovak nabion, however, was not aJS fortunate. Having lost their great Moravian E)mpire at the turn of the tenth century, the Slova,ks were ruled iby foreigrn.ers for over a thousamd years. Without its own state traditions the Slovak nation had to rely almost entirely on compruratively young men, youths between 20~30 years old, for new ideas and new aims. In a word, SlovaJk youth was the ,c reator of a new dawn and future ,g oals, because the difficult iltife of the Slovruks undeir foreigrn. political domination did not allow the elders to build a strong national life. A gla,nce at the Slov:a!k past, from the time of Josephinism to the present, shows us tihis picture of Slovak generations: :Bermolak and his g,roup stirred the nation witlt ,theirr new idea wihen they were between 20-30 yea11s old; Holly, Kollar, and Safarik, who came after Bernolak, in the same yeara,, formed a firm outlook of the world; then StuT's generation also formed its national program SLOVAKIA 5 in its youthful years and it was no different with the generation of ¥ajans:ky a;nd Hviezdosla;v. FoUowing the latter, iit is easier to talk ab{)ll.lt mdirviduiaJs thian generations. Considea:-, if y!()IU wi11, the yews in which the cihaxacters of Hlinka, Stefanik, Razus, and of other Slovaks, who foUowed Hvieooio:s!av's gen.eratioo, developed, and, behold, you will obser:ve that they, too, were between 20-30 years of age wlhen they began theiir creative life for theirr natrian. A :single idea and a single conviction, however, dom~naJted all Slorva·k generations amd eminent individuals: the !Slov3Jk nation coll'ld secl.ll'e and safeguaTd its nation.al existence best onJy if it gained political independence, only if it were free to ruJ.e its own homeland and develop its nation~ Hfe without foreign interference . .Am.d so it was with <YUT generation, which made itself heard .a:t th•e Slova k Institute (Matica Sloivenska) conclave on 'Ma,y 12, 1932, and then again. immediately after at the congress ~ill Trenciansike TepHce, where unanimously and without •r egard ,t o party considerations and con'Victions it declared itselif for a duialistic soJution of Slovak-Czech relatio111Js. Of cowrse, ouir generation came out with nothing new at that time, but ornly strong,l y reiterated what Bernolak and Stur and the1r followers frlad initiated much earlier. For a hundred years, therefore, not,h ing new, nothing moire rulblime apipea,red tiha;n what Stur had e:,opressed and lived for. So it is only natuiral that we must and shall have to .retuvn to. him, !beca;use it is self-evident that every new, Jet U!S say, great plan of Slova,k life must fiTst pass the aqua ,r egi·a test ,o f Stur's thinking. Even today Stuir still is the criter:ion of the life of our rratiOill; a;nd only those aims wihi-ch are in agreement with Stu.r's conception haive any hope and outlook for rea:lizatiolil. Whatever i•s againsit Stur, i,s also a,gainist the vital interests of OU!r nation. Stuir was not quite thmy years old when 'he b,egain to ,u:nite his people . by advocating a uniform language 1 1 1 6 SLOVAKl1A for Slova,k literature. His wonk bore muoh ,g aod fruit. StUT's ca1l was answered by Sladkovic, ChaJ.upka, Botto, Kirar, Kalinciak, HUTban, and many others. lt Wll)S as if SlOIVak was resurrected by a magk wand. A.ind even though the central Slovak diail.ect is the most divergent of ail Slovak dialects, nevertheless it ri.s the least contaminated by foreigm influences. The Slovaks, therefore, felt ,tJhat the proper cou:rse had been taken in regaird to their literary language. Even John HoHy, not only the greatest 'Slovak poet of that time but a:}so the greatest ideologist of his nation, gave Stu.r's action his blessing, and, therefore, Stur was joined by the Catholics, representing five-sixths, the absolute majority, cl the SlovaJk nation. W1hat is the literary medium of the Italiams today? Is it not the classical ftalian - the Tuscan dialect of Dante and Petrarch - even though in many particulars it diffurs fa·om the other Italian dialects more than does <'entra1 Slovak from the other SlovaJk dialects? But the Itailian of Tuscany is certainly least contaminated by foreign influences and :most ex;pressive of the Railiam. spirit and, hence, the rest of the lta1.ia.n:s accepted it and stand by it. And so it was with the language of central SlwaJkia. It ,i s the most native of all Slovak dia!lects and therefore directly the most appropriate to express the spiiritua,l life of the Slovaks. ·Situr was clearly aware of the fiact that unity in tJhe liteTa,ry laJI1guage was not the uJtimate goal of hiis nation, but only a medium ,o f further national develoipment - of course, an inevitaible medium, if a higher cuiltu.rral level of the broad masses was to be attained and thereby also a proper support for national equality in Hungary. To rea,ch it:he broad masses of the Slo1Vak people and rouse them nationally, Stur published a newspaper in Slovak, Mter waiting some four years for permissri.on from the Hungariain government to do so. The influence of the paper was great; the Slorvaks gave it theiir full. support, while the MagyarSJ, aware of its influence, saon began scheming to suppress it. ,E lected b,y the royail city of SLOVAKIA 'J Zvoilen to the Hungarian Diet, Stur insisted that the righteous demands of the Slovak nation for free national development ,b e fulf·illed. Before the revo,lution of 1'848 he demanded the DieJt to free the people fr:om the feudalistic Robot system, 1a;bor rent, so that the culture of the country might increase by the foundation of schoo~s in the naJt;ional tO!Ilgue ; he Tecommended the iindusbriali:zation of the land of the Slovaks and the adoption of laws in the huma,nitarian spirit which would enable the development of the country and! for all the nations inhabiting Hungary and ihe fought for a federalistic system in Hungary, whereby taJlJ. natio.n:s mi:ght work as equals for the common weal of the State. Stur appe,a led to the macgnates to give attention to the development of the State and to maJke it possible in the spirit of the modern devellopment of Eurrope. Stur was not a rebel; he did not advocate the destruction of the Hungarlam State aJS long as there wa:i any hope o;f ;s ettlement with the iMagy.aJrs. In the Hunga;rian Diet, •S tur proved himselif .a,s a farsighted politicran and statesmam; he saw and realized what was happening in the coU!Iltries around Hungary. He warned the Magyars that they ,c ould not forever igno,r e and suppress the inherent rights .of natio.ns,, that they couJd not forever e~ploit the Slov:aiks and otlher nations of H'lllilgatry without expecting them to stri1ke baok with their righteous demands for a f,r ee national life, for the same rights the Magyars were resolved to fight for in the Habsb'lliI"g Empire. Stu.r's admonitions, however, hit upon deruf eairs; the Magyam stUJbbor:n,l y amd ignoramtly refused to give ear to a;ny demands for any kind of settlement with the 1t10n~Ma;gyar rnations of Hungacy. The reS1Ult was the revolution of 1848-49, in which the S!l,o vaks also :prurtiiciipated, wihom S·t w togetlieir wi:th Hlurban ,a nd iHodza led in armed resi,s tance against the revoluti()(Il of .the Ma,g yar aristocrats. That the Ha:bsburgs were ung,ratefiul to the Slooaks, that they rfina:Hy settled wtth the Magyairs at the expense of the non-Magyrur natiOIIlS, does not alter the facts, at all. The set- 8 SLOVAKIA tlement of 1867, referred to as Austro~Hungaria,n but in rea.lity Au:stro-iMagyar, became the ,grave of the 'MOIIlarchy which coll!1d haive 'been a miglhty confederation in Central E}ul"ope. Louis Stur, and not 1:Jhe Slovak and M:agyair chauvilll'ist 1Lorui,s Ko,s ut. was the genuine democrat. Sttir and the SIOivak Language As a student at the Bratislmva lyceum and later as a professor, Stur became convinced that Sloiva:k Lutherans would never ,l earn Czech welil enough to oreate worthy scienltific works iirJ. that liangwage and so much more the less artistic ones. From the standpoint of the present and the future, therefore, it made no sense to persevere in Biblical Czech. 'Dhis 'Practical motive,, ·of course, was not enough forr :S tur and, therefore, he made it his business to learn as well as po,s sible all Siova,nic languages and to study comparative phHology. After a tho,r01Ugh reseaTch of the sy:stem of the S[rovalk language, Stur was convinced that the ,Sloivaik [am,g,uiage was not a dira lect of the Czech, but an indepedent Slovanic language and, by the sarrne token, thait the SlO'Vaks were not a part of the Czech nation but am ii.ndependent and individual people. StuT was thairoug,hly fami,l iar with not O!D.ly the w.ritings of the BernolaJk group, not only with the poetkal compO!sitions of John Ho1ly and the works of Bajza and Fandli, but aiso esipecially with the philological works of Anton iBernola.k. Stu,r , therefore, accepted the phonetic orthography of [Bernolak, which from the philologiral and piracticaJ standpoint best answered the purpose, but foc scientific a1r1d ideological rea:sorns decided to adopt the language of central Slovaikia. If Bernolak was it.he first codifier of literary Sloiv:ruk, who set the rules for speaJk:ing and writing Slova:k correctily, then Stur can rightfwlily be c:alled the fiirst reformer of iliterary Slovak, because he really replaced the S1ovaik of western Slovrukia with that of -c entral Slovakia. In the few years after iit was adopted as the literary medii.um of the Slov:aks, the language of central Sl01Vakia developed more talents tha,n were developed during several hundred years SLOVAKIA 9 by literary Czech. The poems of Slad'kovic, especia!lly his "Marina," the poetical iprodUICtions orf Botto, Ohailuipka, Kral', and many others, pro·v ed that Stur's presuppositions about the sp:uritm1a,l development through the medium of central Slovalk were fuUy justified. In 1943, a: think il was successful in proving, in my work "I'... Stur a slorvenoina" (L. Stur and the SlorvaJk Language), that in !his time Stur was an extraordinarily good ph.ilofogist, who i.lJltuitively often correctly came upo:n certain individurul char.acteiristics of tJhe Slovalk language, so that even a modern philological analysis of his work will confirm the ,c orrectness of many of ,S tur's linguistic findings, the justification for which science ·i n that period could not prove. Stur, howerver, ga!Ve co.rrect judgments not OIIll.y i.lJl philology, but also ,i:n other scientific disciplines, for exaJmple, in history, statecraflt, etc. Stur and Philosophy It is generally said that Stur had aid.opted Hegel's philoso~hy. The maJtter is presented in such a Hght as irf Stur had blindly adopted Hegel's thinking and simply applied lit to Slovak and Slovank life. Philosoiphioal researches with us Slova!ks are, alas, very murch disliked and, therefore, it is ino wonder that S1ov:a1k phi[osophy is incorrectly evaluated. Prior to the war, Profesor Dmitrij Cyzevski, fo:rmerly of the universd.ties orf Hall amd J.einna ibut presently of CoJrunnbia Uni;veTSity, ;in a conversation with me called my attention to the significance of StUT and his followers for phillosophy in general. According to him Stur's generation had seveiraJl t1hin'kers w'.ho tried to create thek own philosophical system and who, in those times, amQIIllg ahl Slovam.ic nations excelled in originality of thinking in philosophy. Cyz.evski later prorved a part of his statement in his excellent book "Sturo•v a :f.ilozofia ziivota" tStur's .Philosophy of Life), which the Slovak Academy orf Sciences published du.ring the war .a nd wlhich, I say regretfully, I do not have today. Even though Cyzevs:ki's book does not deal fuHy with Stur's philosophy neverthe- 10 SLOVAKIA less it did ,p rove that Stur was not a simple student of Hegel's in iphiilosophy, but that he formed an mdependent philosophical system which in many ways differs f.rom that of Hegel. And thus we could gradually consider the political, social, pedagogical, statecraft, and artistic o,pinions of Stur and come to 1:Jhe conclusion that we hia:ve !before us an extremely wealthy personality, which had drawn from native traditions 13Jild in rbhe spirit ()If Slovak needs had formulated !ideas from varioUiS regions into one whole into the ination13Jl ideology of the Slovak nation. To 1UD:derstand Stur •and his wol'lk thoroughly, we must ma.Ike a proper study of all his activities ·amd literary achievements, so that we imi,g ht be able to define accu<!'ately what is .h l,s own, what is domestic tradition, and what has cOIIIle to us .from 01:Jher,s. If we do not ma,ke t'hat study, then we shall not completely understand this greatest phenomenon of Slovruk life of the nineteenth century. The Slovalks, especially recent political emigrants, will have to ,r eturn to Stur firequoot!ly, since for them in many thin:gs he is an excellent example, especially in polilti'cs. For exia.mple, when we t ruke Stur's views on the life of our nation, when his ideas about independent Slovruk national life are taken as the aqua regia of Slovll!k politics from 1918 to the 'Present, then it •s hall not be dificult to ascertain tJhrut, from the Slovak strundpoint, Hlinka's Slovak People's Party and the Slovak National 1P arty of Razus continued to work for the realization of Stur's program, and that they, an:d not a single SlovaJk affiliate of centralistic parties, were the b~arers of traditional Slorvak ideology. Today in 'S}()(Vruk.ia. a foreign 1regime is peTsecuiting and crushing rull elements of the Bernolak-Stur-lHilinka-Razu s tra·d itions, because it is albove all else concerned with the extermination of the !Slovak traditions which in his time Louis Stur had recreated rund reformed in such a manner .that they remain a pernnanent ,bas.is of our national development.  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Our Tradition and Louis Štúr Description An account of the resource Dr. Henrich Bartek Slovakia, Vol. 6, No. 2 (19), June 1956 pp. 3-10 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Bartek, Henrich, 1907-1986 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource June 1956 LCNAF https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/a6b5b447ac77a477ba858b0858c52bd7.pdf 36c06838ceb2978564eaacc8adb3cfa4 PDF Text Text 4 SLOVAKIA Paean to Integrity Who goes into battle in defense of truth, For the rights of people sacrifices youth: When oppression rages, who will mercy bring, Him my voice will honor and his glory sing. When the cannon thunder, when the eagles soar, Who will shed his lifeblood freedom to restore, Who will shield his nation from the Dragon's sting, Him my voice will honor and his glory sing. He who keeps his pledges though the heavens fall , Who regards his honor as the crown of all; Whom no threat can cower, bribe can never swing, Him my voice will honor and glory sing. Evil cannot conquer, God had cursed its part, As he built a Heaven for the noble heart; He who keeps His mandates, to His truth will cling, Him my voice will honor and glory sing. Karol Kuzmany's "Kto za pravdu hori" translated in 1943 by George A. Ga Ii k, in collaboration with his sister, Cecilia G. Kennedy. � 4 SLOVAKIA Paean to Integrity Who goes into battle in defense of truth, For the rights of people sacrifices youth: When oppression rages, who will mercy bring, Him my voice will honor and his glory sing. When the cannon thunder, when the eagles soar, Who will shed his lifeblood freedom to restore, Who will shield his nation from the Dragon's sting, Him my voice will honor and his glory sing. He who keeps his pledges though the heavens fall , Who regards his honor as the crown of all; Whom no threat can cower, bribe can never swing, Him my voice will honor and glory sing. Evil cannot conquer, God had cursed its part, As he built a Heaven for the noble heart; He who keeps His mandates, to His truth will cling, Him my voice will honor and glory sing. Karol Kuzmany's "Kto za pravdu hori" translated in 1943 by George A. Ga Ii k, in collaboration with his sister, Cecilia G. Kennedy. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to 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 4 SLOVAKIA Paean to Integrity Who goes into battle in defense of truth, For the rights of people sacrifices youth: When oppression rages, who will mercy bring, Him my voice will honor and his glory sing. When the cannon thunder, when the eagles soar, Who will shed his lifeblood freedom to restore, Who will shield his nation from the Dragon's sting, Him my voice will honor and his glory sing. He who keeps his pledges though the heavens fall , Who regards his honor as the crown of all; Whom no threat can cower, bribe can never swing, Him my voice will honor and glory sing. Evil cannot conquer, God had cursed its part, As he built a Heaven for the noble heart; He who keeps His mandates, to His truth will cling, Him my voice will honor and glory sing. Karol Kuzmany's "Kto za pravdu hori" translated in 1943 by George A. Ga Ii k, in collaboration with his sister, Cecilia G. Kennedy.  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Paean to Integrity (Kto za pravdu horí) Description An account of the resource Karol Kuzmány trans. George A. Galik Slovakia, Vol. 22 (No. 45), 1972 p. 4 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Kuzmány, Karol, 1806-1866 Galik, George A. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1972 LCNAF name https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/0f66e5a174a7be747db7d3ffc4b50cbe.pdf 1c7c2c0082cd8e3046bfa21c1c960bfd PDF Text Text People's Courts in Czechoslovakia As a result at Teheran and Yalta, so-called People's Courts were immediately organized in the countries that were "liber­ated" by the Soviet armies. Naturally these courts were set up on the pattern on those in the Soviet countries. In Bulgaria, for example, they were set up in September 1944 and in Hungary In January 1945, even though the war was still on and there were no governments elected by the people in those respective countries. These two states are still under Soviet occupation (Paris Peace Conference) and so it actually was not possible to conduct free and demo­cratic elections there. People's Courts, then, were established on the incentive of out­side countries. This proves the veracity of the statement: "might makes right." These courts quite obviously rendered such verdicts as were prescribed by, the power of the state or by the power of the foreign state to which the state in question was subject. Beneš, as the president of Czechoslovakia, Immediately after the "liberation" ruled the state on the basis of the decrees he himself issued. He received the authority to rule by decrees from the State Council which he personally appointed in London. So that these decrees might have a legal color, the National Assembly in Prague was elected in 1946 and its deputies approved all of the "presidential" decrees of Beneš. It is doubtful, however, whether these decrees were constitutional and whether the elected Constitutional National Assembly was actually elected democratically in 1946. The system of People's Courts developed independently of each other in the so-called historic lands (Bohemia and Moravia) and In Slovakia. As president of the state, Beneš Issued the decree No. 16/1945 for Bohemia and Moravia on June 19, 1945. With this decree Beneš established the People's Courts in Bohemia and Moravia. It is interesting to note here that this decree carries the signa­ture not only of the President, but also the signatures of several Czech ministers, who today are proclaiming in free America that they are democrats, that they "fought" against dictatorship, etc. These same pseudodemocrats had the audacity to form the Council of Free Czechoslovakia. The names of the ministers on that decree, are: Dr. Hubert Ripka, Dr. Jaroslav Stránsky, General Hasal, Dr. Ferjenčik and Minister Majer. According to that presidential decree a People's Court con­sisted of five members: one was a judge by profession and the other four members were "from the people." President Beneš re­served the right for himself to personally appoint the president and the vice-president of the People's Court, while the whole Prague government appointed the other members. Of course, Beneš and his government named only such people to the People's Court on whom they could fully rely to carry out their bidding in the court. The decree stated that in rendering the verdict the members "from the people" shall vote first. According to the decree only a citizen who was a member of one of the four political parties that were allowed by Beneš and his government could become a judge in the People's Courts. The parties prepared a list of candidates for the People's Courts; the government then named the judges of the People's Courts from these lists. The decree made It possible in many cases to appoint as People's Judge a person who was punished at various times for var­ious transgressions and crimes. State prosecutors for these People’s Courts were appointed by the Minister of Justice, Dr. Jaroslav Stránsky. They were selected by him from a list prepared by the District People's Courts. It so happened that people without a Jaw degree were named as represen­tatives and prosecutors, and their ignorance of the law was responsible for many injustices. The most interesting provision of the decree was the paragraph that allowed a person freed by the People's Court to be tried on the same score by the regular process of law. Later a so-called Honor­ary Court was established before which could be tried all those who were freed. The State Attorney General and prosecutor had the right to try within three months any person who was freed by the Courts. So a person that was freed by the Courts had to wait three whole months to find out whether he was actually cleared of all charges or whether he shall be put on trial again. The procedure in a People's Court began with a speech by the state prosecutor, who reminded the members of the Court what the state demanded in the case. The president of the People's Court had the right only to read the testimony of the witnesses and ex­perts, as well as the testimony of the accused from the police rec­ords; this was done so that the accused and the witnesses could not say anything else during the opening hearing but what had already been said at the police station. There was no appeal from a verdict of the People's Court. When the verdict of death was rendered, the order was to be exe­cuted within two hours. Beneš did not want to be bothered with appeals for mercy from condemned people. He thus sanctioned all judicial murders by not wanting to use his constitutional right to change a verdict of death to one of life sentence. On June 19, 1945, Beneš and his ministers also Issued Decree No. 17/1945, whereby the so-called National Court was Instituted. It consisted of seven members and took care of the biggest "war criminals." But Beneš and his ministers were no.t satisfied with just the People's Courts and the National Court. On October 27, 1945, Beneš issued a new decree In which he gave the District National Committee the right to try all citizens that had sinned against so-called "national honor." Before this court were tried all persons wh.om the regular court, the People's Court and the National Court had no cause to prosecute. In Slovakia in 1945, Dr. Joseph Lettrich's Slovak National Coun­cil was the body supreme in all legislative, judicial and executive matters. There Is no mention of this Council in the Constitution of Czechoslovakia. The Slovak National Council consisted of members of the political parties allowed by Prague. All the ordinances of Lettrich's Council were without constitutional foundation and yet thousands of persons were thrown into jail, placed against the wall or hanged because of them. The ordinance of Lettrich's National Council about the estab­lishment of the People's Courts was issued on May 16, 1945, under the number 33/1945. Under this Illegal ordinance we find the signature of the great "democrat," who today is living a free life In America: Dr. Joseph Lettrich. On the basis of this Illegal ordinance there were three kinds of People's Courts established In Slovakia: the National Court in Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia; the District People's Court in every administrative district; and the Common People's Courts in every Slovak community. Any citizen and any office could place a complaint against any citizen. No objections were allowed against the accusation, and no appeal was possible against a verdict of the People's Courts. The National Court In Bratislava was composed of seven mem­bers, and only the president of the court had to be a judge by calling. The members of the National Court were named by Lettrich's National Council on motion made by the legal political parties. Political parties also named the members of the district and common courts. A legal defense counsel could only be a lawyer whom the Com­missar of Justice In Bratislava recognized. An accused person could not freely select his counsel. To this ordinance of Lettrlch's National Council, the Board of Commissars issued articles of procedure (No. 56/1945), and these, too, were signed the great "democrat" Lettrlch. The People's Courts In Slovakia were valid until December 31, 1947. After that date only the regularly Instituted courts could handle the remaining cases, keeping In line, of course, with the regulations concerning the People's Courts. In February 1948, the Parliament at Prague-elected In 1946 unanimously approved a law, whereby all regulations concerning Czech and Slovak National Courts and People's Courts were again In force. President Beneš sanctioned even this law; It may be found In the Czechoslovak legal code under No. 33/1948. On the basis of this Jaw, persecution began anew and very many of those citizens who were released by the courts found themselves once again before the People's Courts. This is in short a description of the legal structure of the People's Courts in Czechoslovakia. We must regard the whole People's judicial system as an act of revenge of people, who took over Slovakia, Bohemia and Moravia in 1945. Beneš placed all his personal opponents before the court. Rudolph Beran, premier of Czechoslovakia, spent four years in a Ger­man concentration camp. That did not save him. He was given 20 years and his party was outlawed. Beneš thought that by outlaw­ing the Agrarian Party, all Agrarians would join his party, the Czech National Socialist Party (often referred to as the Czech Nazi Party), and so his party would become the largest in the Republic. The condemnation of Beran created a great scandal in the whole of Czechoslovakia. No one doubted that Beran was dealt with contrary to all principles of justice. The chairman of Beneš's party, Dr. Peter Zenkl, also was a min­ister in the two post-Munich governments, and yet he was not tried by the People's Court. Until recently he headed the Council of Free Czechoslovakia and together with Lettrich still poses as a great "democrat." According to the regulations governing the People's Courts, only Beneš had the right to grant mercy. Yet he did not grant mercy to any one of his political opponents. Nor did he show any mercy to the president of the Slovak Republic, Dr. Joseph Tiso. He ex­plained clumsily that Lettrich's Slovak National Council had sent the Tiso matter to Prague without a motion or recommendation. The ministerial council in Prague gave the appeal for mercy to Beneš, but he preferred not to use his power of mercy and, as a result, the Catholic priest and first president of the Slovak Republic, Dr. Jo­seph Tiso, was hung. But even that was not enough for Beneš and his government. The Church strictly forbids the cremation of corpses. Reports had it that the dead body of Dr. Tiso was burnt in the crematory at Brno. Beneš had his propaganda give him a nice name: "President-Builder." But in Bohemia and in Slovakia as well Beneš is called: "The President-Avenger." That is how the people judge Beneš and his political companions. In this case the voice of the people is truly the voice of God. - (S. O.-'49) WHO SAID IT? "I am against any sort of totalitarianism, and I won't serve any cause that would mean that in the long run.... We hear a great deal about the Iron Curtain. I assure you there is no iron Curtain We are living next to a great power. We cooperate with them as much as we can. But we are keeping ourselves free. That's my final plea, or whatever you want to call it.... I am not frightened by economic changes in Czechoslovakia. But I am terribly interested in the Inner freedom. That's what I am trying to devote the remaining days of my life to. It's the freedom of the individual, immortal, human soul." - (Ján Masaryk, Address before the Chamber of Commerce of the State of New York, Jan. 9, 1947; NEW YORK TIMES, 1-10-47). SLOVAKIA 3 blood of. their nation. Finally they were overcome by the superior forces of the enemy the Germans and the Magyars - at the be­ ginning of the tenth century and Slovakia lost its Independence. At the b eginning of the 11th century the Slovak territory became a part of the Hungarian state. Slovakla lost its independence in the tenth century, but the Slovak nation did not lose its rights to a free life. The picture of the Slovak state of the ninth century has been preserved throughout the long centuries in the mind of the Slovak nation and, revived In the works of Slovak writers and poets, has maintained in all S lovak generations the hope that Slovakia once again shall be an independent state and the free homeland of all S lovaks. • • • PEOPLE'S COURTS IN CZECHOSLOVAKIA As a result at Teheran and Yalta, so-called People's Courts were immediately organized in the countries that were "liber­ ated" by the Soviet armies. Naturally these courts were set up on the pattern on those in the Soviet countries. In Bulgaria, for example, th ey were set up in September 1944 and in Hungary In January 1945, even though the war was still on and t h ere were no governments elected by the people in those respective countries. These two states are still under Soviet occupation (P aris Peace Con• ference) and so it actually was not possible to conduct free and demo­ cratic elections there. People's Courts, then, were established on the incentive of out­ side countries. This proves the veracity of the statement: "might makes right." These courts quite obviously rendered such verdicts as were prescribed by ,the power of the state or by the power of the foreign state to which the state in question was subject. Bene, as the president of Czechoslovakia, Immediately after the "liberation" ruled t he state on the basis of the decrees h e himself issued. He received the authority to rule by decrees from the State Council which he personally appointed in London. So that these decrees might have a legal color, the National Assembly in Prague was elected in 1946 and its deputies approved all of the "presidential" decrees of Bene. It is doubtful, however, whether these decrees were constitutional and whether the elected Constitutional National Assembly was actually elected democratically in 1946. The system of People's Courts developed independently of each other in the so-called historic lands (Bohemia and Moravia) and In Slovakia. As president of the state, Bene Issu ed the decree No. 16/1945 for Bohemia and Moravia on June 19, 1945. With •this decree Bene established the People's Courts in Bohemia and Moravia. It is interesting to note here that this decree carries the signa­ ture not only of the Pesident, but also the signatures of several Czech ministers, who today are proclaiming in free America that they are democrats, that they "fought" against dictatorship, etc. These same pseudodemocrats had the audacity to form the Council of Free Czechoslovakia. The names of the ministers on that decree, �43 SLOVAKI A are: Dr. Hubert Ripka, Dr. Jaroslav Stransky, Ge neral Ferjencik and Minister Majer. Hasal, Dr, According to that presidential decree a People's Court con­ sisted of five member,s: one was a ju dge by frofession and the other four members were "from t he people." President Bene re­ served the right for himself to personally appoint t h e president and the vice-president of the People's Court, while the whole Prague government appointed the other members. Of course, Bene and his government named only such p eople to the People's Court on whom they could fully rely to carry ou t their bidding in the cou rt. The decree stated that in rendering the verdict the members "from the people" shall vote first. According to the decree only a citizen who was a member of one of the four political parties tha t were al lowed by Bene and his government could become a judge in the P eople's Courts. The parties prepared a list of candidates for the People's Cou rts; the government then named the judges of the P eople's Courts from these lists. The decree made It possible in many cases to appoint as P eople's Judge a person who was punished at various times for various transgressions and crimes. State prosecutors for these People'.s Cour.ts were appointed by the Minister of Justice, Dr. Jaroslav Stransky. They were selected by h im from a list prepared by the Distr ict People's Courts. It so happened that people without a Jaw degree were named as represen­ tatives and prosecutors, and their ignorance of the law was re• sponslble for many injustices. The most interesting provision of the decree was the paragraph that allowed a person freed by the P eople's Cou rt to be tried on the same score by the regular process of law. Later a so-called Honor­ ary Court was established before which could be ,tried all those who were freed. The State Attorney General and prosecutor had the right to try within three months any person who was freed by the Courts. So a person that was freed by the Courts had to wait three whole month s to find out whether he was actually cleared of a ll charges or whether he shall be put on trial again. The procedure in a People's Court began with a speech by the state prosecutor, who reminded the members of the Court what the state demanded in the case. The president of the People's Court had the right only to read the testimony of the witnesses and ex­ perts, as well as the testimony of the accused from the police rec­ ords; this was done so that the accused and the witnesses could not say anything else during the opening hearing but what had already been said at the police station. There was no appeal from a verdict of the People's Court. When the verdict of death was rendered, the order was to be exe­ cuted within two hours. Bene did not want to be bothered with appeals for mercy from condemned people. H e thus sanctioned all judicial murders by not wanting to use his constitutional right to change a verdict of death to one of life sentence. On J une 19, 1945, Bene and his ministers also Issued Decree No. 17/1945, whereby the so-called National Court was Instituted. It consisted of seven members and took care of the biggest "war c riminals." �SLOVAKIA 5 But Bene and his ministers were no.t satisfied with just t he People's Courts and the National Court. On October 27, 1945, Bene issued a new decree In which he gave the District National Committee the right to try all citizens that had sinned against socalled "national honor." Before this court were tried all persons wh.om the regular court, the P eople's Court and the National Court had no cause to prosecute. In Slovakia in 1945, D r. Joseph L ettrich's Slovak National Coun­ cil was the body supreme in all legislative, judicial and executive matters. There Is no mention of this Council in the Constitution of Czechoslovakia. The Slovak National Council consisted of members of the political parties allowed by Prague. All the ordinances of Lettrich's Council were without constitutional f oundation and yet thousands of persons were thrown into jail, placed against the wall or hanged because of them. The ordinance of Lettrich's National Council about the estab­ lishment of the People's Courts was issued on May •16, 1945, under t he number 33/1945. Under this Illegal ordinance we find the signature of .the great "democrat," who today ls living a free life In America: Dr. J oseph Lettrich. On the basis of this Illegal ordinance there were three kinds of People's Courts established In Slovakia: the National Court in Bra• tlslava, the capital of Slovakia; the District People's Court In every administrative distriot; and the Common People's Courts In every Slovak community. Any citizen and any office could place a complaint against any citizen. No objections were allowed a.galnst the accusation, and no appeal was ,possible against a verdict of the People's Courts. The National Court In Bratislava was composed of seven mem­ bers, and only the president of the cour.t had to be a judge by call. ing. The members of the National Court were named by Lettrich's National Council on motion made by the l egal political parties. Political parties also named the members of the district and common courts. A legal defense counsel could only be a lawyer whom the Com­ missar of Justice In Bratislava recognized. An accused person could not freely select his counsel. To this ordinance of Lettrlch's National Council, the Board of Commissars issued articles of procedure (No. 56/1945), and these, too, were signed the great "democrat" Lettrlch. The People's Courts In Slovakia were valid until December 31, 1947. After that date only the regularly Instituted courts could handle the remaining cases, keeping In line, of cou rse, with the regulations concerning the People's Courts. In February 1948, the Parliament at Prague - elected In 1946 unanimously approved a la.w, whereby all regulations concerning Czech and Slova,k National Courts and People'·s Courts were again In force. President Bene sanctioned even .this law ; It may be found In the Czechoslovak legal code under No. 33/1948. On the basis of this Jaw, persecution began anew and very many of those citizens who were released by the courts found themselves once again before the People's Courts. �6 S LOVAKI A This is in short a description of the legal structure of the Peo­ ple's Courts in Czechoslovakia. We must regard the whole P eople's judicial sy stem as an act of revenge of people, who took over Slovakia, Bohemia and Moravia in 1945. Bene placed all his ,personal opponents before the court. Ru­ dolph Beran, premier of Czechoslova kia, spent fou r years in a Ger­ man concentration camp. That did not save him. He was given 20 years and his party was ou tlawed. Bene thought that by ou tlaw­ ing the Agr ar ian P arty, all Agr arians would join his party, the Czech Nation al Socialist P arty (often referred to as the Czech Nazi Party ), and so his party would become the largest in the Repu blic. T he condem­ nation of Beran created a great scandal in the whole of Czechoslovak la. No one doub ted that Beran was dealt with contrary t o all principles of justice. T he cha irm an of Bene's iste r in the two post-Munich by the People' s Court. Until Czechoslovakia and together "democrat." party, Dr. Pe ter Zenkl, a lso was a min­ governments, and yet he was not tried recently he headed the Counci l of Free with Lettrich still poses as a great According to the regulations governing the P eople's Courts, only Bene h ad the right to grant mercy. Yet he did not grant mercy to any one of his political opponents. Nor did he show a ny mercy to the president of the Slovak Republic, Dr. Joseph T iso. He ex­ pla ined clumsily that Lettrich's Slovak National Council had sent the Tiso matter to Prague without a motion or recommendation. The ministerial council in Prague gave the appeal for mercy to Bene, but he preferred not to use his power of mercy and, as a resul t, th e Catholic priest and first president of the Slovak Re public, Dr. J o­ seph Tiso, was hung. But even that was not enough for Bene and his government. The Church strictly forbids the cremation of corpses. Reports had it that the dead body of Dr. Tiso was bu rnt in the crematory at Brno. Bene had his propaganda give h im a nice name: "President­ Builder." But in Bohemia and in Slovakia as well Bene is called: "The P resident-Avenger." That is how t he people judge Bene and his political compan ions. In this case the voice of the people ls truty the voice of God.-( S. 0.-'49 ) • • • W H O SAID IT? "I am against any sort of totalitarianism, and I won't serve any cause that would mean that in the long run . . •. We hear a great deal a bout the Iron Curtain. I assure you there is no iron Curtain We a r e llvlng next to a great power. We coope rate with them as much as we can. But we a re keeping ourselves f ree. T hat's my final plea, or whatever you want to call it. . . . I am not frighte ned by economic changes in Czechoslovakia. But I am terribly interested in the Inner freedo m . T hat's what 1 am trying to devote the remaining days of my life to. It's the freedom of the lndlvidai, immortal, human soul." - (Ján Masaryk, Address before the Chamber of Com merce of the State of New York, Jan. 9, 1947; NEW YORK TIMES , 1-10-47). � 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 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 People's Courts in Czechoslovakia As a result at Teheran and Yalta, so-called People's Courts were immediately organized in the countries that were "liber­ated" by the Soviet armies. Naturally these courts were set up on the pattern on those in the Soviet countries. In Bulgaria, for example, they were set up in September 1944 and in Hungary In January 1945, even though the war was still on and there were no governments elected by the people in those respective countries. These two states are still under Soviet occupation (Paris Peace Conference) and so it actually was not possible to conduct free and demo­cratic elections there. People's Courts, then, were established on the incentive of out­side countries. This proves the veracity of the statement: "might makes right." These courts quite obviously rendered such verdicts as were prescribed by, the power of the state or by the power of the foreign state to which the state in question was subject. Beneš, as the president of Czechoslovakia, Immediately after the "liberation" ruled the state on the basis of the decrees he himself issued. He received the authority to rule by decrees from the State Council which he personally appointed in London. So that these decrees might have a legal color, the National Assembly in Prague was elected in 1946 and its deputies approved all of the "presidential" decrees of Beneš. It is doubtful, however, whether these decrees were constitutional and whether the elected Constitutional National Assembly was actually elected democratically in 1946. The system of People's Courts developed independently of each other in the so-called historic lands (Bohemia and Moravia) and In Slovakia. As president of the state, Beneš Issued the decree No. 16/1945 for Bohemia and Moravia on June 19, 1945. With this decree Beneš established the People's Courts in Bohemia and Moravia. It is interesting to note here that this decree carries the signa­ture not only of the President, but also the signatures of several Czech ministers, who today are proclaiming in free America that they are democrats, that they "fought" against dictatorship, etc. These same pseudodemocrats had the audacity to form the Council of Free Czechoslovakia. The names of the ministers on that decree, are: Dr. Hubert Ripka, Dr. Jaroslav Stránsky, General Hasal, Dr. Ferjenčik and Minister Majer. According to that presidential decree a People's Court con­sisted of five members: one was a judge by profession and the other four members were "from the people." President Beneš re­served the right for himself to personally appoint the president and the vice-president of the People's Court, while the whole Prague government appointed the other members. Of course, Beneš and his government named only such people to the People's Court on whom they could fully rely to carry out their bidding in the court. The decree stated that in rendering the verdict the members "from the people" shall vote first. According to the decree only a citizen who was a member of one of the four political parties that were allowed by Beneš and his government could become a judge in the People's Courts. The parties prepared a list of candidates for the People's Courts; the government then named the judges of the People's Courts from these lists. The decree made It possible in many cases to appoint as People's Judge a person who was punished at various times for var­ious transgressions and crimes. State prosecutors for these People’s Courts were appointed by the Minister of Justice, Dr. Jaroslav Stránsky. They were selected by him from a list prepared by the District People's Courts. It so happened that people without a Jaw degree were named as represen­tatives and prosecutors, and their ignorance of the law was responsible for many injustices. The most interesting provision of the decree was the paragraph that allowed a person freed by the People's Court to be tried on the same score by the regular process of law. Later a so-called Honor­ary Court was established before which could be tried all those who were freed. The State Attorney General and prosecutor had the right to try within three months any person who was freed by the Courts. So a person that was freed by the Courts had to wait three whole months to find out whether he was actually cleared of all charges or whether he shall be put on trial again. The procedure in a People's Court began with a speech by the state prosecutor, who reminded the members of the Court what the state demanded in the case. The president of the People's Court had the right only to read the testimony of the witnesses and ex­perts, as well as the testimony of the accused from the police rec­ords; this was done so that the accused and the witnesses could not say anything else during the opening hearing but what had already been said at the police station. There was no appeal from a verdict of the People's Court. When the verdict of death was rendered, the order was to be exe­cuted within two hours. Beneš did not want to be bothered with appeals for mercy from condemned people. He thus sanctioned all judicial murders by not wanting to use his constitutional right to change a verdict of death to one of life sentence. On June 19, 1945, Beneš and his ministers also Issued Decree No. 17/1945, whereby the so-called National Court was Instituted. It consisted of seven members and took care of the biggest "war criminals." But Beneš and his ministers were no.t satisfied with just the People's Courts and the National Court. On October 27, 1945, Beneš issued a new decree In which he gave the District National Committee the right to try all citizens that had sinned against so-called "national honor." Before this court were tried all persons wh.om the regular court, the People's Court and the National Court had no cause to prosecute. In Slovakia in 1945, Dr. Joseph Lettrich's Slovak National Coun­cil was the body supreme in all legislative, judicial and executive matters. There Is no mention of this Council in the Constitution of Czechoslovakia. The Slovak National Council consisted of members of the political parties allowed by Prague. All the ordinances of Lettrich's Council were without constitutional foundation and yet thousands of persons were thrown into jail, placed against the wall or hanged because of them. The ordinance of Lettrich's National Council about the estab­lishment of the People's Courts was issued on May 16, 1945, under the number 33/1945. Under this Illegal ordinance we find the signature of the great "democrat," who today is living a free life In America: Dr. Joseph Lettrich. On the basis of this Illegal ordinance there were three kinds of People's Courts established In Slovakia: the National Court in Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia; the District People's Court in every administrative district; and the Common People's Courts in every Slovak community. Any citizen and any office could place a complaint against any citizen. No objections were allowed against the accusation, and no appeal was possible against a verdict of the People's Courts. The National Court In Bratislava was composed of seven mem­bers, and only the president of the court had to be a judge by calling. The members of the National Court were named by Lettrich's National Council on motion made by the legal political parties. Political parties also named the members of the district and common courts. A legal defense counsel could only be a lawyer whom the Com­missar of Justice In Bratislava recognized. An accused person could not freely select his counsel. To this ordinance of Lettrlch's National Council, the Board of Commissars issued articles of procedure (No. 56/1945), and these, too, were signed the great "democrat" Lettrlch. The People's Courts In Slovakia were valid until December 31, 1947. After that date only the regularly Instituted courts could handle the remaining cases, keeping In line, of course, with the regulations concerning the People's Courts. In February 1948, the Parliament at Prague-elected In 1946 unanimously approved a law, whereby all regulations concerning Czech and Slovak National Courts and People's Courts were again In force. President Beneš sanctioned even this law; It may be found In the Czechoslovak legal code under No. 33/1948. On the basis of this Jaw, persecution began anew and very many of those citizens who were released by the courts found themselves once again before the People's Courts. This is in short a description of the legal structure of the People's Courts in Czechoslovakia. We must regard the whole People's judicial system as an act of revenge of people, who took over Slovakia, Bohemia and Moravia in 1945. Beneš placed all his personal opponents before the court. Rudolph Beran, premier of Czechoslovakia, spent four years in a Ger­man concentration camp. That did not save him. He was given 20 years and his party was outlawed. Beneš thought that by outlaw­ing the Agrarian Party, all Agrarians would join his party, the Czech National Socialist Party (often referred to as the Czech Nazi Party), and so his party would become the largest in the Republic. The condemnation of Beran created a great scandal in the whole of Czechoslovakia. No one doubted that Beran was dealt with contrary to all principles of justice. The chairman of Beneš's party, Dr. Peter Zenkl, also was a min­ister in the two post-Munich governments, and yet he was not tried by the People's Court. Until recently he headed the Council of Free Czechoslovakia and together with Lettrich still poses as a great "democrat." According to the regulations governing the People's Courts, only Beneš had the right to grant mercy. Yet he did not grant mercy to any one of his political opponents. Nor did he show any mercy to the president of the Slovak Republic, Dr. Joseph Tiso. He ex­plained clumsily that Lettrich's Slovak National Council had sent the Tiso matter to Prague without a motion or recommendation. The ministerial council in Prague gave the appeal for mercy to Beneš, but he preferred not to use his power of mercy and, as a result, the Catholic priest and first president of the Slovak Republic, Dr. Jo­seph Tiso, was hung. But even that was not enough for Beneš and his government. The Church strictly forbids the cremation of corpses. Reports had it that the dead body of Dr. Tiso was burnt in the crematory at Brno. Beneš had his propaganda give him a nice name: "President-Builder." But in Bohemia and in Slovakia as well Beneš is called: "The President-Avenger." That is how the people judge Beneš and his political companions. In this case the voice of the people is truly the voice of God. - (S. O.-'49) WHO SAID IT? "I am against any sort of totalitarianism, and I won't serve any cause that would mean that in the long run.... We hear a great deal about the Iron Curtain. I assure you there is no iron Curtain We are living next to a great power. We cooperate with them as much as we can. But we are keeping ourselves free. That's my final plea, or whatever you want to call it.... I am not frightened by economic changes in Czechoslovakia. But I am terribly interested in the Inner freedom. That's what I am trying to devote the remaining days of my life to. It's the freedom of the individual, immortal, human soul." - (Ján Masaryk, Address before the Chamber of Commerce of the State of New York, Jan. 9, 1947; NEW YORK TIMES, 1-10-47). 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 People's Courts in Czechoslovakia Description An account of the resource Slovakia, Vol. 1, No. 1 (1), May 1951 pp. 3-6 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource May 1951 https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/8255f67ae9326bbaccfa1149b4eb8341.pdf 5dd7297cebc2e0a57e099b2be6b7a886 PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA 137 PETER V. ROVNIANEK (1867-1967) He sat in his room at St. Mary's College in Cleveland, Ohio, and looked upon groups of seminarians who were out for a bit of relaxation. Spring quickened the air. It was the spring of 1889 and memories thronged upon him, and prospects and promise burned in his soul. But problems lay heavy upon his heart. It is likely that you have never heard of him although he had been a striking personality and a powerful leader of men in his day. He was Peter Victor Rovnianek. God blessed him with many gifts: a mind that was keener than average, a strong body and distinguished appearance, noble idealism and energetic force, unusual qualities for leadership and organization, and apparently a vocation to the priesthood. He was born in Dolny Hricov, Trencin County, Slovakia, on June 27, 1867 and had come to America on September 5, 1888, one of many hopeful immigrants brought tram the port of Bremen, Germany, on the ship Adler (Eagle). Here he hoped to find freedom to assert his Slovak nationalism, the opportunity to complete his priestly studies without oppression or political interference, and a pastorate among Slovak immigrants. All this he wished to do, vibrant with patriotism and fortified by the religious training of a good Catholic mother and father. He seemed to be filled with eagerness almost beyond control. "Studying your lecture notes?" It was his friend Vaclav Panuska who addressed him. "Don't need to," Peter answered. "I've studied most of this before I reached America, so it comes easily. Besides, I think I've completed the prescribed studies." He had been terribly lonely in this new country but he had gradually adjusted himself. "You're gifted anyway," commented Vaclav with admiration. He knew of Peter's brilliant achievements in Europe, of his prizes for scholarship and writing and pub- �138 SLOVAKIA lie speaking. "Then what do you do with all your spare time?" Vaclav asked. "O, I follow the schedule of prayers and meditations, and then the rest of the time is for something like this," answered Peter as he pointed to his much loved collection of Slovak books. "I read, I think, and I write." Vaclav Panuska noticed that among the Slovak books there were other volumes, works by Dostojevsky, Lermontov, Turgenev, and Tolstoj. He may have commented that French writers were missing on the shelves, for Peter observed that he had studied French literature but considered it frivolous. Neither did he care for German literary influence because he found it materialistic in comparison with Slav culture. The Slavs respect the soul. He had long cultivated a taste for foreign writers and he was fond of translating stories from his favorite works. Often he sent translations out for newspaper publication, using the pen name of Rovinov. In this capacity of free lance writer he gradually became associated with several Catholic newspapers as well as with the non-sectarian Ndrodne Noviny abroad. In America he had made close connections with Novd Vlast' of Streator, Illinois, and even closer bonds with the Amerikdnsko-Slovenske Noviny founded by Julius Wolf and Janko Slovensky in Pittsburgh. Just at this moment Wolf and Slovensky were pleading with him for the benefit of his talents. For a moment Peter's racing thoughts turned to the past and he recalled that in the course of time he had, as Rovinov, varied the tone of his writings. His first contributions had been entertaining stories. Later he wrote essays of various sorts, then instructive and religious articles. As time went on, however, he became more and more carried away by nationalism. The spirit of freedom that America offered to all comers inspired him to work with unbounded energies in behalf of his countrymen living here in a land of opportunity. Now he began to envision the founding of a National Slovak Society in America and he planned to urge vehe- �SLOVAKIA 139 mently that all creeds and classes of Slovaks should belong to this organization. It seemed to be such a wonderful enterprise and so necessary. His pen and all his gifts he would dedicate to this cause. He had great dreams and great energies, and he was in a land where no laws hindered their fulfillment. In his homeland he had suffered severe penalties for his devotion to Slovak interests. In spite of all, however, he had refused to renounce his Slovak language or to deny his nationality. Magyar students had mocked him and his professors openly showed their disfavor of his Slovak loyalty though they had to credit his brilliance and his scholastic achievements. While he was a student at the theological seminary in Budapest all this ferment mounted to a climax. Now in Cleveland he remembered distinctly how he had learned about the active literary club which an earlier generation of Slovak students had cultivated at this same Budapest seminary. He recalled how he had discovered a locked room in the library. He knew that it was the room where the Slovak books of this society were stored because the Magyar authorities had suppressed the organization and had put its library under ban. He was determined to reach that forbidden collection and to feast his spirit upon it. It was still exciting for him to recall how he had ingratiated himself with the seminary librarian who was a Czech; how he had won his sympathies and confidence and finally held in his hand the coveted key to that book treasure. A trusted ally was with him-Andrew Bielek. Secretly they explored this proscribed territory; very cautiously they ventured there once, twice, oftener. The risk was great but they felt that the rewards were greater. Here they had access to a wonderland of unparalleled beauty expressed in Slovak prose and poetry. Gradually they grew bolder, bold enough to hide some of these books under their coats, to smuggle them out on loan to their own rooms and to revel in the reading there. With utmost care they would lock these books into their trunks after the reading because it was a serious offense �140 SLOVAKIA to read Slovak books or to have them in one's possession here. Over two hundred Slovak students had been expelled from Hungarian schools for this reason, and the Magyar government would not allow the Slovaks to have any schools of their own. It was a case of obey the law, renege your Slovak loyalties, or else. Of course, the inevitable happened to Rovnianek and his colleagues. They were suspected; they were watched; they were reported. There followed an investigation of their rooms by the authorities and when the locks were wrenched off their trunks for an offcial searching, the contraband books were found and confiscated. Expulsion followed because this transgression was considered unpardonable . This was the sequence of events that had really made Rovnianek leave his homeland. He continued his studies in Austria where there was more freedom but finally the lure of America was irresistible and here he was. In this spring of 1889, Peter was about ready for ordination but his bishop felt that he was too young for the sacred oils and the aspiring seminarian himself realized that it was so. The impatience of youth, however, prompted him to wait no longer. He toyed with the idea that he would rather return to Europe than wait longer in an American seminary. Should he really do that? He sensed that the attraction for returning home grew upon him steadily. This was the problem with which he was troubled as he looked out upon the seminarians on the grounds of St. Mary's College as we opened our account. How did he decide? Did he leave or did he stay? No one interfered with his free choice. There was urgent need for priests among the Slovak people of America but no one would induce Peter to stay against his own will. He battled in spirit. All his life of twenty-two years he had been looking forward to the priesthood and preparing for it. By his own free choice he did not become a priest. Nor did he return to Europe as he had planned. On June 28, 1889, he left Cleveland and his life's dreams to follow the call of ambition through a journalistic career. He had the �SLOVAKIA 141 capacities for leadership and he had a gifted and prolific pen. He easily set himself to become the teacher of thousands. He had many inborn virtues and ideal home training yet he did not attain the renown or the nobility for which he seemed to have been destined. He worked tirelesly and persistently but perhaps he was under some undesirable influence or in unwholesome surroundings which warped his natural goodness or stilled the workings of God's grace within him. It is pathetic to read in his memoirs that when he left Pittsburgh on July 26, 1911, after twenty-three years of uninterrupted labors in behalf of nationalism, he was not only far poorer in material goods than he had been when he first entered that Pittsburgh newspaper office but he was also woefully impoverished in spiritual assets. We are not to conclude, however, that his whole life and efforts were just wasted. He did attain some of his goals. In the first place, he raised the tone, the literary standards, and the circulation of the Amerikansko-Slovenske Noviny, and in 1889 he launched the organization of the N<irodny Slovensky Spolok v Amerike. This was just three months before the Reverend Stephen Furdek founded the Katolicka Slovensk<i Jednota. Peter Rovnianek's ambition was to organize all the Slovaks in America, regardless of creed, for beneficial and national purposes whereas Father Furdek aimed to create a purely Catholic fraternal organization which would in the first place preserve moral and religious ideals and secondarily safeguard Slovak national culture and help Slovak immigrants living in America. Rovnianek did all in his power to gain Father Furdek's support in organizing the N<irodny Spolok, urging that one strongly organized body was the prime necessity but Father Furdek refused to be attracted by gilded values and by proffered honors, and he consistently declined association with Rovnianek's group . Father Furdek's priestly zeal made it a vital duty for him to shepherd the soul of his good people and he was convinced that once their spiritual interests were secure, it would naturally follow that the Slovak spirit in America would be preserved together with Slovakia's heritage, the Catholic faith . Father Furdek gener- �142 SLOVAKIA ously gave Rovnianek credit for his upright aims but he insisted that the things of God must come first. It was Rovnianek's tragic mistake to compromise and to capitalize on the interest of this world even at the cost of spiritual values. Consequently, the Slovak element in America seemed to be drawn into two great camps: Rovnianek's under the national emblem alone and Father Furdek's bearing the cause of nationalism under the symbol of the cross. Many Slovaks were members of both societies but the years eventually bred more or less rivalry between them. Both survived, however, and today Rovnianek's Ndrodny Spolok in America numbers over 30,000 members, Furdek's Katolicka Jednota has a membership of 105,000. Its counterpart for the ladies, the Katolicka zenskd Jednota numbers 103,000 members. Rovnianek at this time became an outstanding Slovak leader in America. He was noticed and honored in political circles. He was also very successful in the business of publication, was much in demand as a lecturer, and he was a capable editor. By 1901 his weekly Gazette had 30,000 subscribers and his Daily had 8,000. He began a literary magazine called Majak (Beacon) which showed great promise but survived only eighteen months. His humorous Rardsek (Puck) fared better. It continued to appear for eighteen years. Success smiled on Rovnianek and he enjoyed prosperity. People had very great confidence in him and entrusted their savings to him. He became a promising banker. If Rovnianek had died with these accomplishments in fraternalism and journalism and business to his credit, we might still look to him with a measure of undisguised admiration. Unfortunately he became involved in major business reverses and financial troubles which took on tragic proportions and affected hundreds of poor and middle class Slovak people. In 1902 he had reached the peak of his fame and he gloried in the fact that he had effected the cooperation of Catholics and atheists and mixed creeds in behalf of a national cause. But he did not reap joy in his accomplishment. Did his ambition reach too far? Did he �SLOVAKIA 143 build on an unworthy foundation? Did he allow his own plans to become perverted? Or was he just victimized? We cannot judge. One after another his banking and business enterprises failed in the hard years around 1908. Then the fickle voices of acclaim that had once hailed him began to shout loud reproach and even hate. Rovnianek tasted of both the ambrosia of glory and the ashes of humiliation. He knew blackmail and fraud, lawsuits and scheming, and in the bitterness of his disillusion and frustration he walked the brink of near-despair as he left Pittsburgh on July 26, 1911, beggared both materially and spiritually. He set out for a secluded place in the open spaces of the West and tried to numb painful memories with hard work in Nevada and in California. From 1911 on, he lived in virtual exile and in 1916 he was even divested of membership of the N <irodny Spolok, the very organization he had founded. He did not regain recognition in his lifetime. He died on November 16, 1933, at Hornitos in California. He is buried in the Bohemian National Cemetery in Chicago. Sister M. Martina, SS.CM. SOURCES: Peter V. Rovnianek, Zapisky za ziva pochovaneho . Kon~tantin Culen, Slovaci v Amerike. Narodny Kalendar, 1935. Dr. Jozef Pauco, 75 rokoi, Prvej Katolickej Slovenskej Jednoty. Vincent Bolecek, Peter V . Rovnianek. THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA is dedicated to American Democracy, the American way of life, and encourages Americans of Slovak descent to be loyal and alert citizens of America; it urges and aids Slovak emigrants to become U. S. citizens by publishing appropriate manuals and brochures in Slovak and English. � SLOVAKIA 137 PETER V. ROVNIANEK (1867-1967) He sat in his room at St. Mary's College in Cleveland, Ohio, and looked upon groups of seminarians who were out for a bit of relaxation. Spring quickened the air. It was the spring of 1889 and memories thronged upon him, and prospects and promise burned in his soul. But problems lay heavy upon his heart. It is likely that you have never heard of him although he had been a striking personality and a powerful leader of men in his day. He was Peter Victor Rovnianek. God blessed him with many gifts: a mind that was keener than average, a strong body and distinguished appearance, noble idealism and energetic force, unusual qualities for leadership and organization, and apparently a vocation to the priesthood. He was born in Dolny Hricov, Trencin County, Slovakia, on June 27, 1867 and had come to America on September 5, 1888, one of many hopeful immigrants brought tram the port of Bremen, Germany, on the ship Adler (Eagle). Here he hoped to find freedom to assert his Slovak nationalism, the opportunity to complete his priestly studies without oppression or political interference, and a pastorate among Slovak immigrants. All this he wished to do, vibrant with patriotism and fortified by the religious training of a good Catholic mother and father. He seemed to be filled with eagerness almost beyond control. "Studying your lecture notes?" It was his friend Vaclav Panuska who addressed him. "Don't need to," Peter answered. "I've studied most of this before I reached America, so it comes easily. Besides, I think I've completed the prescribed studies." He had been terribly lonely in this new country but he had gradually adjusted himself. "You're gifted anyway," commented Vaclav with admiration. He knew of Peter's brilliant achievements in Europe, of his prizes for scholarship and writing and pub- �138 SLOVAKIA lie speaking. "Then what do you do with all your spare time?" Vaclav asked. "O, I follow the schedule of prayers and meditations, and then the rest of the time is for something like this," answered Peter as he pointed to his much loved collection of Slovak books. "I read, I think, and I write." Vaclav Panuska noticed that among the Slovak books there were other volumes, works by Dostojevsky, Lermontov, Turgenev, and Tolstoj. He may have commented that French writers were missing on the shelves, for Peter observed that he had studied French literature but considered it frivolous. Neither did he care for German literary influence because he found it materialistic in comparison with Slav culture. The Slavs respect the soul. He had long cultivated a taste for foreign writers and he was fond of translating stories from his favorite works. Often he sent translations out for newspaper publication, using the pen name of Rovinov. In this capacity of free lance writer he gradually became associated with several Catholic newspapers as well as with the non-sectarian Ndrodne Noviny abroad. In America he had made close connections with Novd Vlast' of Streator, Illinois, and even closer bonds with the Amerikdnsko-Slovenske Noviny founded by Julius Wolf and Janko Slovensky in Pittsburgh. Just at this moment Wolf and Slovensky were pleading with him for the benefit of his talents. For a moment Peter's racing thoughts turned to the past and he recalled that in the course of time he had, as Rovinov, varied the tone of his writings. His first contributions had been entertaining stories. Later he wrote essays of various sorts, then instructive and religious articles. As time went on, however, he became more and more carried away by nationalism. The spirit of freedom that America offered to all comers inspired him to work with unbounded energies in behalf of his countrymen living here in a land of opportunity. Now he began to envision the founding of a National Slovak Society in America and he planned to urge vehe- �SLOVAKIA 139 mently that all creeds and classes of Slovaks should belong to this organization. It seemed to be such a wonderful enterprise and so necessary. His pen and all his gifts he would dedicate to this cause. He had great dreams and great energies, and he was in a land where no laws hindered their fulfillment. In his homeland he had suffered severe penalties for his devotion to Slovak interests. In spite of all, however, he had refused to renounce his Slovak language or to deny his nationality. Magyar students had mocked him and his professors openly showed their disfavor of his Slovak loyalty though they had to credit his brilliance and his scholastic achievements. While he was a student at the theological seminary in Budapest all this ferment mounted to a climax. Now in Cleveland he remembered distinctly how he had learned about the active literary club which an earlier generation of Slovak students had cultivated at this same Budapest seminary. He recalled how he had discovered a locked room in the library. He knew that it was the room where the Slovak books of this society were stored because the Magyar authorities had suppressed the organization and had put its library under ban. He was determined to reach that forbidden collection and to feast his spirit upon it. It was still exciting for him to recall how he had ingratiated himself with the seminary librarian who was a Czech; how he had won his sympathies and confidence and finally held in his hand the coveted key to that book treasure. A trusted ally was with him-Andrew Bielek. Secretly they explored this proscribed territory; very cautiously they ventured there once, twice, oftener. The risk was great but they felt that the rewards were greater. Here they had access to a wonderland of unparalleled beauty expressed in Slovak prose and poetry. Gradually they grew bolder, bold enough to hide some of these books under their coats, to smuggle them out on loan to their own rooms and to revel in the reading there. With utmost care they would lock these books into their trunks after the reading because it was a serious offense �140 SLOVAKIA to read Slovak books or to have them in one's possession here. Over two hundred Slovak students had been expelled from Hungarian schools for this reason, and the Magyar government would not allow the Slovaks to have any schools of their own. It was a case of obey the law, renege your Slovak loyalties, or else. Of course, the inevitable happened to Rovnianek and his colleagues. They were suspected; they were watched; they were reported. There followed an investigation of their rooms by the authorities and when the locks were wrenched off their trunks for an offcial searching, the contraband books were found and confiscated. Expulsion followed because this transgression was considered unpardonable . This was the sequence of events that had really made Rovnianek leave his homeland. He continued his studies in Austria where there was more freedom but finally the lure of America was irresistible and here he was. In this spring of 1889, Peter was about ready for ordination but his bishop felt that he was too young for the sacred oils and the aspiring seminarian himself realized that it was so. The impatience of youth, however, prompted him to wait no longer. He toyed with the idea that he would rather return to Europe than wait longer in an American seminary. Should he really do that? He sensed that the attraction for returning home grew upon him steadily. This was the problem with which he was troubled as he looked out upon the seminarians on the grounds of St. Mary's College as we opened our account. How did he decide? Did he leave or did he stay? No one interfered with his free choice. There was urgent need for priests among the Slovak people of America but no one would induce Peter to stay against his own will. He battled in spirit. All his life of twenty-two years he had been looking forward to the priesthood and preparing for it. By his own free choice he did not become a priest. Nor did he return to Europe as he had planned. On June 28, 1889, he left Cleveland and his life's dreams to follow the call of ambition through a journalistic career. He had the �SLOVAKIA 141 capacities for leadership and he had a gifted and prolific pen. He easily set himself to become the teacher of thousands. He had many inborn virtues and ideal home training yet he did not attain the renown or the nobility for which he seemed to have been destined. He worked tirelesly and persistently but perhaps he was under some undesirable influence or in unwholesome surroundings which warped his natural goodness or stilled the workings of God's grace within him. It is pathetic to read in his memoirs that when he left Pittsburgh on July 26, 1911, after twenty-three years of uninterrupted labors in behalf of nationalism, he was not only far poorer in material goods than he had been when he first entered that Pittsburgh newspaper office but he was also woefully impoverished in spiritual assets. We are not to conclude, however, that his whole life and efforts were just wasted. He did attain some of his goals. In the first place, he raised the tone, the literary standards, and the circulation of the Amerikansko-Slovenske Noviny, and in 1889 he launched the organization of the N<irodny Slovensky Spolok v Amerike. This was just three months before the Reverend Stephen Furdek founded the Katolicka Slovensk<i Jednota. Peter Rovnianek's ambition was to organize all the Slovaks in America, regardless of creed, for beneficial and national purposes whereas Father Furdek aimed to create a purely Catholic fraternal organization which would in the first place preserve moral and religious ideals and secondarily safeguard Slovak national culture and help Slovak immigrants living in America. Rovnianek did all in his power to gain Father Furdek's support in organizing the N<irodny Spolok, urging that one strongly organized body was the prime necessity but Father Furdek refused to be attracted by gilded values and by proffered honors, and he consistently declined association with Rovnianek's group . Father Furdek's priestly zeal made it a vital duty for him to shepherd the soul of his good people and he was convinced that once their spiritual interests were secure, it would naturally follow that the Slovak spirit in America would be preserved together with Slovakia's heritage, the Catholic faith . Father Furdek gener- �142 SLOVAKIA ously gave Rovnianek credit for his upright aims but he insisted that the things of God must come first. It was Rovnianek's tragic mistake to compromise and to capitalize on the interest of this world even at the cost of spiritual values. Consequently, the Slovak element in America seemed to be drawn into two great camps: Rovnianek's under the national emblem alone and Father Furdek's bearing the cause of nationalism under the symbol of the cross. Many Slovaks were members of both societies but the years eventually bred more or less rivalry between them. Both survived, however, and today Rovnianek's Ndrodny Spolok in America numbers over 30,000 members, Furdek's Katolicka Jednota has a membership of 105,000. Its counterpart for the ladies, the Katolicka zenskd Jednota numbers 103,000 members. Rovnianek at this time became an outstanding Slovak leader in America. He was noticed and honored in political circles. He was also very successful in the business of publication, was much in demand as a lecturer, and he was a capable editor. By 1901 his weekly Gazette had 30,000 subscribers and his Daily had 8,000. He began a literary magazine called Majak (Beacon) which showed great promise but survived only eighteen months. His humorous Rardsek (Puck) fared better. It continued to appear for eighteen years. Success smiled on Rovnianek and he enjoyed prosperity. People had very great confidence in him and entrusted their savings to him. He became a promising banker. If Rovnianek had died with these accomplishments in fraternalism and journalism and business to his credit, we might still look to him with a measure of undisguised admiration. Unfortunately he became involved in major business reverses and financial troubles which took on tragic proportions and affected hundreds of poor and middle class Slovak people. In 1902 he had reached the peak of his fame and he gloried in the fact that he had effected the cooperation of Catholics and atheists and mixed creeds in behalf of a national cause. But he did not reap joy in his accomplishment. Did his ambition reach too far? Did he �SLOVAKIA 143 build on an unworthy foundation? Did he allow his own plans to become perverted? Or was he just victimized? We cannot judge. One after another his banking and business enterprises failed in the hard years around 1908. Then the fickle voices of acclaim that had once hailed him began to shout loud reproach and even hate. Rovnianek tasted of both the ambrosia of glory and the ashes of humiliation. He knew blackmail and fraud, lawsuits and scheming, and in the bitterness of his disillusion and frustration he walked the brink of near-despair as he left Pittsburgh on July 26, 1911, beggared both materially and spiritually. He set out for a secluded place in the open spaces of the West and tried to numb painful memories with hard work in Nevada and in California. From 1911 on, he lived in virtual exile and in 1916 he was even divested of membership of the N <irodny Spolok, the very organization he had founded. He did not regain recognition in his lifetime. He died on November 16, 1933, at Hornitos in California. He is buried in the Bohemian National Cemetery in Chicago. Sister M. Martina, SS.CM. SOURCES: Peter V. Rovnianek, Zapisky za ziva pochovaneho . Kon~tantin Culen, Slovaci v Amerike. Narodny Kalendar, 1935. Dr. Jozef Pauco, 75 rokoi, Prvej Katolickej Slovenskej Jednoty. Vincent Bolecek, Peter V . Rovnianek. THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA is dedicated to American Democracy, the American way of life, and encourages Americans of Slovak descent to be loyal and alert citizens of America; it urges and aids Slovak emigrants to become U. S. citizens by publishing appropriate manuals and brochures in Slovak and English. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1967, Vol. 17 Description An account of the resource Special Issue: Sixty Years of the Slovak League of America Vol. 17 (No. 40), 1967. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1967 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document SLOVAKIA 137 PETER V. ROVNIANEK (1867-1967) He sat in his room at St. Mary's College in Cleveland, Ohio, and looked upon groups of seminarians who were out for a bit of relaxation. Spring quickened the air. It was the spring of 1889 and memories thronged upon him, and prospects and promise burned in his soul. But problems lay heavy upon his heart. It is likely that you have never heard of him although he had been a striking personality and a powerful leader of men in his day. He was Peter Victor Rovnianek. God blessed him with many gifts: a mind that was keener than average, a strong body and distinguished appearance, noble idealism and energetic force, unusual qualities for leadership and organization, and apparently a vocation to the priesthood. He was born in Dolny Hricov, Trencin County, Slovakia, on June 27, 1867 and had come to America on September 5, 1888, one of many hopeful immigrants brought tram the port of Bremen, Germany, on the ship Adler (Eagle). Here he hoped to find freedom to assert his Slovak nationalism, the opportunity to complete his priestly studies without oppression or political interference, and a pastorate among Slovak immigrants. All this he wished to do, vibrant with patriotism and fortified by the religious training of a good Catholic mother and father. He seemed to be filled with eagerness almost beyond control. "Studying your lecture notes?" It was his friend Vaclav Panuska who addressed him. "Don't need to," Peter answered. "I've studied most of this before I reached America, so it comes easily. Besides, I think I've completed the prescribed studies." He had been terribly lonely in this new country but he had gradually adjusted himself. "You're gifted anyway," commented Vaclav with admiration. He knew of Peter's brilliant achievements in Europe, of his prizes for scholarship and writing and pub- 138 SLOVAKIA lie speaking. "Then what do you do with all your spare time?" Vaclav asked. "O, I follow the schedule of prayers and meditations, and then the rest of the time is for something like this," answered Peter as he pointed to his much loved collection of Slovak books. "I read, I think, and I write." Vaclav Panuska noticed that among the Slovak books there were other volumes, works by Dostojevsky, Lermontov, Turgenev, and Tolstoj. He may have commented that French writers were missing on the shelves, for Peter observed that he had studied French literature but considered it frivolous. Neither did he care for German literary influence because he found it materialistic in comparison with Slav culture. The Slavs respect the soul. He had long cultivated a taste for foreign writers and he was fond of translating stories from his favorite works. Often he sent translations out for newspaper publication, using the pen name of Rovinov. In this capacity of free lance writer he gradually became associated with several Catholic newspapers as well as with the non-sectarian Ndrodne Noviny abroad. In America he had made close connections with Novd Vlast' of Streator, Illinois, and even closer bonds with the Amerikdnsko-Slovenske Noviny founded by Julius Wolf and Janko Slovensky in Pittsburgh. Just at this moment Wolf and Slovensky were pleading with him for the benefit of his talents. For a moment Peter's racing thoughts turned to the past and he recalled that in the course of time he had, as Rovinov, varied the tone of his writings. His first contributions had been entertaining stories. Later he wrote essays of various sorts, then instructive and religious articles. As time went on, however, he became more and more carried away by nationalism. The spirit of freedom that America offered to all comers inspired him to work with unbounded energies in behalf of his countrymen living here in a land of opportunity. Now he began to envision the founding of a National Slovak Society in America and he planned to urge vehe- SLOVAKIA 139 mently that all creeds and classes of Slovaks should belong to this organization. It seemed to be such a wonderful enterprise and so necessary. His pen and all his gifts he would dedicate to this cause. He had great dreams and great energies, and he was in a land where no laws hindered their fulfillment. In his homeland he had suffered severe penalties for his devotion to Slovak interests. In spite of all, however, he had refused to renounce his Slovak language or to deny his nationality. Magyar students had mocked him and his professors openly showed their disfavor of his Slovak loyalty though they had to credit his brilliance and his scholastic achievements. While he was a student at the theological seminary in Budapest all this ferment mounted to a climax. Now in Cleveland he remembered distinctly how he had learned about the active literary club which an earlier generation of Slovak students had cultivated at this same Budapest seminary. He recalled how he had discovered a locked room in the library. He knew that it was the room where the Slovak books of this society were stored because the Magyar authorities had suppressed the organization and had put its library under ban. He was determined to reach that forbidden collection and to feast his spirit upon it. It was still exciting for him to recall how he had ingratiated himself with the seminary librarian who was a Czech; how he had won his sympathies and confidence and finally held in his hand the coveted key to that book treasure. A trusted ally was with him-Andrew Bielek. Secretly they explored this proscribed territory; very cautiously they ventured there once, twice, oftener. The risk was great but they felt that the rewards were greater. Here they had access to a wonderland of unparalleled beauty expressed in Slovak prose and poetry. Gradually they grew bolder, bold enough to hide some of these books under their coats, to smuggle them out on loan to their own rooms and to revel in the reading there. With utmost care they would lock these books into their trunks after the reading because it was a serious offense 140 SLOVAKIA to read Slovak books or to have them in one's possession here. Over two hundred Slovak students had been expelled from Hungarian schools for this reason, and the Magyar government would not allow the Slovaks to have any schools of their own. It was a case of obey the law, renege your Slovak loyalties, or else. Of course, the inevitable happened to Rovnianek and his colleagues. They were suspected; they were watched; they were reported. There followed an investigation of their rooms by the authorities and when the locks were wrenched off their trunks for an offcial searching, the contraband books were found and confiscated. Expulsion followed because this transgression was considered unpardonable . This was the sequence of events that had really made Rovnianek leave his homeland. He continued his studies in Austria where there was more freedom but finally the lure of America was irresistible and here he was. In this spring of 1889, Peter was about ready for ordination but his bishop felt that he was too young for the sacred oils and the aspiring seminarian himself realized that it was so. The impatience of youth, however, prompted him to wait no longer. He toyed with the idea that he would rather return to Europe than wait longer in an American seminary. Should he really do that? He sensed that the attraction for returning home grew upon him steadily. This was the problem with which he was troubled as he looked out upon the seminarians on the grounds of St. Mary's College as we opened our account. How did he decide? Did he leave or did he stay? No one interfered with his free choice. There was urgent need for priests among the Slovak people of America but no one would induce Peter to stay against his own will. He battled in spirit. All his life of twenty-two years he had been looking forward to the priesthood and preparing for it. By his own free choice he did not become a priest. Nor did he return to Europe as he had planned. On June 28, 1889, he left Cleveland and his life's dreams to follow the call of ambition through a journalistic career. He had the SLOVAKIA 141 capacities for leadership and he had a gifted and prolific pen. He easily set himself to become the teacher of thousands. He had many inborn virtues and ideal home training yet he did not attain the renown or the nobility for which he seemed to have been destined. He worked tirelesly and persistently but perhaps he was under some undesirable influence or in unwholesome surroundings which warped his natural goodness or stilled the workings of God's grace within him. It is pathetic to read in his memoirs that when he left Pittsburgh on July 26, 1911, after twenty-three years of uninterrupted labors in behalf of nationalism, he was not only far poorer in material goods than he had been when he first entered that Pittsburgh newspaper office but he was also woefully impoverished in spiritual assets. We are not to conclude, however, that his whole life and efforts were just wasted. He did attain some of his goals. In the first place, he raised the tone, the literary standards, and the circulation of the Amerikansko-Slovenske Noviny, and in 1889 he launched the organization of the N<irodny Slovensky Spolok v Amerike. This was just three months before the Reverend Stephen Furdek founded the Katolicka Slovensk<i Jednota. Peter Rovnianek's ambition was to organize all the Slovaks in America, regardless of creed, for beneficial and national purposes whereas Father Furdek aimed to create a purely Catholic fraternal organization which would in the first place preserve moral and religious ideals and secondarily safeguard Slovak national culture and help Slovak immigrants living in America. Rovnianek did all in his power to gain Father Furdek's support in organizing the N<irodny Spolok, urging that one strongly organized body was the prime necessity but Father Furdek refused to be attracted by gilded values and by proffered honors, and he consistently declined association with Rovnianek's group . Father Furdek's priestly zeal made it a vital duty for him to shepherd the soul of his good people and he was convinced that once their spiritual interests were secure, it would naturally follow that the Slovak spirit in America would be preserved together with Slovakia's heritage, the Catholic faith . Father Furdek gener- 142 SLOVAKIA ously gave Rovnianek credit for his upright aims but he insisted that the things of God must come first. It was Rovnianek's tragic mistake to compromise and to capitalize on the interest of this world even at the cost of spiritual values. Consequently, the Slovak element in America seemed to be drawn into two great camps: Rovnianek's under the national emblem alone and Father Furdek's bearing the cause of nationalism under the symbol of the cross. Many Slovaks were members of both societies but the years eventually bred more or less rivalry between them. Both survived, however, and today Rovnianek's Ndrodny Spolok in America numbers over 30,000 members, Furdek's Katolicka Jednota has a membership of 105,000. Its counterpart for the ladies, the Katolicka zenskd Jednota numbers 103,000 members. Rovnianek at this time became an outstanding Slovak leader in America. He was noticed and honored in political circles. He was also very successful in the business of publication, was much in demand as a lecturer, and he was a capable editor. By 1901 his weekly Gazette had 30,000 subscribers and his Daily had 8,000. He began a literary magazine called Majak (Beacon) which showed great promise but survived only eighteen months. His humorous Rardsek (Puck) fared better. It continued to appear for eighteen years. Success smiled on Rovnianek and he enjoyed prosperity. People had very great confidence in him and entrusted their savings to him. He became a promising banker. If Rovnianek had died with these accomplishments in fraternalism and journalism and business to his credit, we might still look to him with a measure of undisguised admiration. Unfortunately he became involved in major business reverses and financial troubles which took on tragic proportions and affected hundreds of poor and middle class Slovak people. In 1902 he had reached the peak of his fame and he gloried in the fact that he had effected the cooperation of Catholics and atheists and mixed creeds in behalf of a national cause. But he did not reap joy in his accomplishment. Did his ambition reach too far? Did he SLOVAKIA 143 build on an unworthy foundation? Did he allow his own plans to become perverted? Or was he just victimized? We cannot judge. One after another his banking and business enterprises failed in the hard years around 1908. Then the fickle voices of acclaim that had once hailed him began to shout loud reproach and even hate. Rovnianek tasted of both the ambrosia of glory and the ashes of humiliation. He knew blackmail and fraud, lawsuits and scheming, and in the bitterness of his disillusion and frustration he walked the brink of near-despair as he left Pittsburgh on July 26, 1911, beggared both materially and spiritually. He set out for a secluded place in the open spaces of the West and tried to numb painful memories with hard work in Nevada and in California. From 1911 on, he lived in virtual exile and in 1916 he was even divested of membership of the N <irodny Spolok, the very organization he had founded. He did not regain recognition in his lifetime. He died on November 16, 1933, at Hornitos in California. He is buried in the Bohemian National Cemetery in Chicago. Sister M. Martina, SS.CM. SOURCES: Peter V. Rovnianek, Zapisky za ziva pochovaneho . Kon~tantin Culen, Slovaci v Amerike. Narodny Kalendar, 1935. Dr. Jozef Pauco, 75 rokoi, Prvej Katolickej Slovenskej Jednoty. Vincent Bolecek, Peter V . Rovnianek. THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA is dedicated to American Democracy, the American way of life, and encourages Americans of Slovak descent to be loyal and alert citizens of America; it urges and aids Slovak emigrants to become U. S. citizens by publishing appropriate manuals and brochures in Slovak and English.  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Peter V. Rovnianek (1867-1967) Description An account of the resource Sister M. Martina, SS.C.M. Slovakia, Vol. 17 (No. 40), 1967 pp. 137-143 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Tybor, Sister M. Martina, SS.C.M. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1967 name https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/17b7ca1d231920a27cc633036a53e854.pdf 299806ede12f42cac45ebfcebe34b2b3 PDF Text Text 36 SLOVAKIA Phiiip A. Hrobak (1904-1964) Generally the biographical facts of a man's life can be assembled without great difficulty. Cold facts of this kind, however, do not give us the complete or satisfying image of an individual. They lack the true lineaments of his character, the appreciable measure of his stature and the contributions of his lifetime of striving and achieving. Simplistically we can gather the key dates that marked the life span of Philip A. Hrobak, one of our American Slovak "greats" who would have reached his seventieth birthday in 1974 had not death cut him down in his life's prime. The bare data would include these statistics: Philip Anthony Hrobak was born in Cleveland, Ohio on May 1, 1904. Michael and Mary Hrobak, his parents, were Slovak immigrants from the Spis region who had sought and found a kindlier way of life in the American mid-West. On May 6, 1914, just a few days after Philip's tenth birthday, his widowed mother brought Philip and his four year old sister Mary to the Immaculate Conception Home in Middletown, Pa. They were the first children received into the newly established home for children which the Jednota organization founded under the guiding spirit of Father Furdek. The children had lost their father in February of that year and their mother was concerned about providing for their care, for she too was in poor health. When a merciless blood malady ended her life a few months later, the Hrobak children had no one to look after them but the Sisters of SS. Cyril and Methodius to whose care the Jednota had entrusted this home. Philip continued the studies that he had begun in St. Wendelin's parochial school in Cleveland and as soon as she was ready for school, Mary also attended classes. On completing his elementary education at Jednota Home, Philip went on to high school and college at St. �SLOVAKIA 37 Procopius in Lisle, Ill. From 1924 to 1927 he taught at St. Procopius and then accepted an assistantship as he pursued advanced studies in the department of chemistry at New York University. By the fall of 1929 he was again in his native city Cleveland where he taught a varied program of classes and coached the football team at the flourishing Benedictine High. For nine years he was a very successful teacher here, distinguishing himself especially in his chemistry, history and language classes as well as in his relationship with high school students. From all appearances, he seemed to be destined for a brilliant carrer as an educator. In August 1931 he married Rose Jasko and they became the devoted parents of nine children. His school work and parental cares could have absorbed all his time and talent yet his eager mind together with his vital interest in life and in his fellow man prompted him to cultivate an active concern in the issues and problems of those around him as well as the world at large. From time to time he gave expression to some of his thinking through contributions to various publications. Problems of youth and education as well as Slovak history ranked among his prime interests. In the matter of Slovak history he found not merely a static record of the past but also an on-going chain of direction and a development of history in his own day. He could not look upon man's interaction with man or nation with nation and remain a detached spectator. He was both an observer and a maker of history. Out of his experiences as a teacher, Philip Hrobak came to the realization that he could do more than just use books as tools of learning; he authored a practical and comprehensive Slovak grammar for the use of English speaking persons. He also compiled a sizable English-Slovak dictionary. Both served as important adjuncts in learning the Slovak language. Even today there are many who value his revised dictionary as a very useful reference. In 1937 when Joseph Husek yielded his Jednota editorship in order to seek the presidency of the Jednota organization, Philip Hrobak was elected editor of the weekly organ. No better replacement could have been made. From �38 SLOVAKIA this time on, Hrobak became a formidable force in Slovak and Slovak-American public life. His position was further strengthened when he became vice president of the Slovak League of America in 1949, and it was additionally confirmed when he assumed the presidency of Slovak League of America in 1950. For twelve years he gave this office distinctively dynamic force and singular meaningfulness. Hrobak's role in public life as well as the magnetism of his gifts and personality brought him into close contact and association with distinguished expatriated Slovak leaders and intellectuals. One of his closest co-workers was Dr. Joseph Pauco who continues to work in the same editorial office that he once shared with Philip Hrobak. Among other notable associates from abroad were Constantine Culen, Francis Hrusovsky, Joseph Kirschbaum, Joseph Mikus and Karol Sidor. An outstanding achievement of Hrobak's career in the Slovak League of America was the establishment of a highly desirable and eminently successful Office of Information functioning in Washington, D. C. under the distinguished chairmanship of the Slovak diplomat Dr. Joseph Mikus. This professional department became a vital public relations center as well as a liason agency in American-Slovak life. The journalistic genius of Philip Hrobak expressed itself not only through the Jednota weekly and the Jednota annual almanac which are the official publications of the Jednota organization and which even then served the need for both information and inspiration on behalf of its membership but he further initiated and sponsored other valuable publications as well. In 1949, for example, he began the Slovak Newsletter, a bulletin for public information. In 1951 he undertook a Slovak politico-cultural quarterly Slovakia, the voice of the Slovak League of America. In 1961 he launched another project, Furdek, an annual which became an English counterpart to the long established Jednota Kalendar. He gave this new work a content and style of its own, directing its appeal largely to readers who were not able to read the Slovak Kalendar. When Father Lach entrusted in 1959 the newspaper Slovak v Amerike to Philip Hrobak, the new publisher �39 SLOVAKIA collaborated on this weekly with Dr. Joseph Pauco and expanded his publishing scope to include the annual Literdrny Almanach Slovdka v Amerike as well as an affiliated series of book publications through which he often provided a public to well seasoned writers as well as to capable aspiring novices in journalism. With unbounded vigor and zeal Philip Hrobak worked from his Middletown office, serving the cause of God and man to his dying day. When illness struck him down it was hard to accept the fact that this was a mortal ailment. Although those who were close to him hoped against hope that he would recover, he ended his life on January 10, 1964 in Harrisburg, Pa. and was buried in Cleveland, Ohio. These are some of the essential facts in the life story of Philip Hrobak. * * When one undertakes the task of evaluating the stature of this leader Philip Hrobak and his literary output, the impressive factor becomes not only the quantity of his excellent published writings but also the quality of the man that shows through his works and the temper of his thought. Hrobak was above all a writer with a message. He was purposeful and dedicated, for he had a cause that was rooted in conscience. His personal integrity and Christian philosophy of life inspired him with a profound sense of honesty and justice which could not be confined to private life but clamored for redress even in the market place and public forum. With him morality and the full impact of the Ten Commandments had a place before God and man. For this reason he was intolerant of oppression and he championed the rights of man. This included basic justice and freedom in private life, within all levels of the social structure and within national and international relationships. Hrobak was gifted with a clarity of inner vision that penetrated surface appearances and subtle diplomatic maneuverings. He had an inborn alertness that was adroit and discriminating in dealing with political smooth talk, long standing inequities that tried to stay covered up, and outward niceties. He was not one to be easily deceived. And he had the courage of his convictions as well as the �40 SLOVAKIA ability to deal incisively with critical issues and difficult problems. He not only propagated the slogan Za Boha a ndrod! he lived the ideal, for all his life and energy, all his purpose and dedication was to translate into real life the spirit of devotion to God and abiding patriotism to the United States as well as to Slovakia, the ancestral homeland of American Slovaks. And as he set himself to these tasks, he was fully conscious of the duty that, as an officer and a leader in American Slovak fraternalism, he was to inspire others with a zeal for truth and right action. Circumscribi ng this study to a close review of the first fourteen volumes of Slovakia (1951-1964) which Philip Hrobak compiled and edited, we find even within this representativ e range of his work enough tangibles to assess the caliber of Hrobak's journalism, Christian philosophy and leadership. Like much of his journalistic output, these volumes of Hrobak's Slovakia were devoted largely to political content. We see in them Philip Hrobak the American patriot, the champion of Slovak statehood and a first class editor. His objective is truth and justice. For this reason he is a persistent and merciless fact-finder and incidentally he becomes an ideal publicist. He does not avoid issues or pretend that he does not see them and he does not feel that he can afford to be an overly fastidious respecter of persons. He was not an unfeeling individual and he knew how to cherish and express profound deference for constituted authority and public office but when he sensed that "Something is rotten in the state ... " he was relentless in uncovering the festering realities that were lurking under misleading outward appearances. His Christian uprightness, his idealism and sense of fairness bound him to flay inequity and to denounce oppression of every kind. Hrobak did not produce his 35 issues of Slovakia singlehandedl y. He opened his colums to Slovak diplomats, statesmen, historians and leaders as well as to thinking Americans who also championed the cause of freedom, justice and truth, especially the concept of historical truth. His formal objective was openly published in a number of issues of Slovakia: �SLOVAKIA 41 The chief purpose of Slovakia is to promote a better under standing and appreciation of the Slovak nation and its long struggle for freedom and independence. As Americans, members of the Slovak League of America believe that the Slovak nation, like all nations, has an interest 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. Because this periodical was a vehicle of information to both a Slovak and a non-Slovak readership of serious intent, especially to American scholars, public officials, diplomats and university people, Hrobak made every effort to give it the widest possible dissemination into the homes and offices of American and foreign diplomats, politicians and public leaders as well as the libraries and departments of history and political science in many American colleges and universities. Of course, many average readers who sought to be well-informed also subscribed to it. Under Hrobak's gifted editorship and management, the circulation of Slovakia increased steadily. To provide the information and understanding that he had in mind, Hrobak attracted the most highly qualified of contributors to bring their works to Slovakia. Some of them were expatriated Slovak leaders and makers of Slovak history; some of them were scholars and historians of Slovak as well as non-Slovak origin; some were critics and analysts of political thought and nationalism; some were American legislators. Dr. Joseph M. Kirschbaum, a Slavistic scholar who taught and lectured at the University of Montreal in Canada produced a substantial article for practically every issue (30 articles in 37 issues, to be precise) . In the main, he examines the historical theses that warrant the existence of an autonomous Slovak state, basic principles and circumstances on which federation could be structured in central Europe, the subject of Slovakia and international relationships, the underlying causes of incompatability with Czech pretensions, the matter of Czech duplicity and oppressive arrogance, and Slovak politics past and present. His gifts, however, are multifaceted and out of the diversity of his �42 SLOVAKIA broad interests he also prepared papers on cultural topics such as: Slovak literature under the Soviet impact (VI, 2/ 19, pp. 34-51) , Mickiewicz in Slovak poetry and translations (VII, 1/22, pp. 32-41) , Universi ty traditions in Slovakia (VIII, 2/ 27, pp. 18-30), Contemporary tendencies in Slovak philology (X, 7/ 32, pp. 25-32) , The Canadian translator of Slovak poetry: Professor Watson Kirkconnell (XIV, 37, pp. 9-18). Dr. Kirschbaum consistently provided book reviews as well. Dr. Joseph Pauco has always been a faithful contributor also. He is a professional writer with a rich background in publishing and journalism. For a number of years he was editor-in-chief of the daily Slovak published in Bratislava. He lived through many a promising and too many a tragic experience in Slovak national life. He has tasted prosperity and good fortune as well as much disappointment at home and abroad. He is a journalist with the conviction that the editor, the reporter, the columnist is called to serve the people by illuminating facts, defending truth, and inspiring to action. These principles are embodied throughout his articles in Slovakia, most of which are devoted to political analysis and historical report; e.g. The practical aspect of federation (III, 2, pp. 26-36), The failures of communist politics in Slovakia (V, 4/ 17, pp. 3-20), The 1944 communist rebellion in Slovakia (VII, 3-4, 24/ 25, pp. 28-34) , and Slovakia under communism--which was serialized in three issues (IX, 30; X, 31 ; XI, 33 ). Among other significant contributors who brought enrichment to the early issues of Slovakia these must be mentioned: culen, Hrusovsky, Vnuk, Mikus, Sidor, Grebert, Cieker, t>urcansky, Murin, Rekem and Kruzliak. Their works are marked with the authority of those who had witnessed this history of Slovakia in the making and with the conviction of those who knew only too well what absolutes and what cause they were defending. Contributions on the scholarly level are thoroughly researched and documented; they are singularly important for their cultural value. With the aid of national figures like these, Philip Hrobak made of Slovakia a unique journal that analyzed �SLOVAKIA 43 Slovak and Czech politics and exposed the truth and the falsity behind the facade of the Czecho-Slovak state. Still other contributors also expressed themselves in Slovakia. We meet on its pages, for example, a critical examination which Kurt Glaser made of Radio Free Europe: How free is Radio Free Europe-The Voice of Doubletalk? (II, 2, pp. 25-28) and The " Russia First" Boys in Radio Free Europe. (III, I, pp. 31-38) as well as several of his other articles. Edward L. Delaney also wrote incisively and perceptively on The Betrayal of Slovakia (I, 2, pp. 1-7), on Tiso, Horthy and Benes as well as his personal experiences I was in Slovakia (II, 1, pp. 25-45). Hrobak further drew upon American public officials to express their views in Slovakia also. He published their patriotic addresses and expressions of concern and sympathy for minority groups as well as related matters from diplomatic circles for the interest of readers of Slovakia. As one reviews back issues, one cannot help noting the contributions of congressmen and persons like Michael A. Feighan, Edward J. Bonin, Charles J. Kersten, B. Carroll Reece, Lieut. Col. F. 0. Miksche, Ray J. Madden. In volume one, no. two, we find some thoughts of Prince Adolf zu Schwarzenberg, head of one of the oldest families of Bohemia. Interestingly, his contribution is on Czech Double Dealing. By way of balancing this heavy concentration on political fare, Hrobak took pains to offer other reading matter too. Occasionally he would publish something as different as the English translation of a treasured Slovak folk tale. He also ran a series on castles in Slovakia as well as occasional articles on other cultural topics like Slovak museums, the natural beauty of the Slovak countryside, the national folk hero Janosik, a study in contrasting ~vejk vs. Janosik, the natural springs and the spas of Slovakia, considerations on semantics and philology, Slovak university life and traditions, insights into Slovak church music, various types of Slovak customs, historical essays, thumbnail biographies. He also presented a serialization of Slovak history that he himself wrote and a serious study Slovak Nationalism which was researched by B. S. Bue. Applicable excerpts from American journalism were �SLOVAKIA 44 intended to provoke thought or reaction, and for this kind of prodding Hrobak quoted from The Washington Post, New York Times, the Cleveland Press, The Chicago Sun, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, The Slavonic Monthly. He also culled from the Osservatore Romano, the Eudovy dennik of Chicago, cas (the official organ of Lettrich's Democratic Party and the Benes mouthpiece) as well as from other likely and unlikely sources. The personal trademark of Hrobak in these earlier issues of Slovakia was the filler feature titled Who Said It? Invariably these items were either ironic or revealing or they were couched in the full glow of patriotic ardor, depending on their portent. Hrobak felt that as a journalist he could not afford to be blandly genteel. He was dealing with subject matter that made demands on him to be ruthless rather that ineffectively mild. He knew that he had to be uncompromising rather than deferential. He was committed to the consideration of callous inequities and rank duplicity, and he needed the keenest of scalpels directed to the root of the issue. The Who Said It? feature was especially effective in quoting from Masaryk and Benes, Stransky and Lettrich, Peroutka and Ripka, Sramek and Gottwald. It held a full beam of light up to their pronouncements and exposed their ideas to re-evaluation. On the other hand, Hrobak also featured positive thinking from persons like Senator Robert A. Taft, Edward R. Murrow, H. W. Kaltenborn as well as from Dean Acheson, R. W. Seton-Watson, Congressman Daniel Flood and Alvin E. O'Konski. Readers found the material quoted in these fillers very apt, rather questionable, witty, thought-provoking or bitter. It was meant to be entertaining although an element of entertainment might sometimes develop out of it as a kind of byproduct. We present some samplings: "Some pussy-footing ostriches criticize the treaty between Soviet Russia and Czechoslovakia. Our close collaboration with the Soviet Union needs no explanation. We do not want anything from the Russians except protection from the Germans, and the Russians want nothing whatsoever from us." - Jan Masaryk in Business Week, May 13, 1944. (Slovakia vn, 2, p. 64). "The Slovak nation, one of the oldest Christian nations in �SLOVAKIA 45 central Europe is distinct ethnic unit. Just as the Czechs are and want to remain Czechs, just so the Slovaks are and want to remain Slovaks. The history, culture and national traditions of the Slovak nation are distinct from the history, culture and national traditions of the Czechs. The Slovaks never were, nor are they now, a part of the Czech nation. Slovaks here and abroad resent being called Czechoslovaks." - P.A. Hrobak, Detroit, Mich., November 18, 1951 ( Slovakia IV, 3-4, p. 58) . RED GEOGRAPHY: The news service of the Central Slovak Catholic Bureau in Rome recently published a story about a certain school inspector of the Trnava district in Slovakia who gave directives to teachers on how to teach. Among other things he said that if nuns we:re able to interest children in a non-existe nt being, God, then the teachers certainly should be able to interest children in Stalin who actually exists. "The Marx-Lenin doctrines of our Stalin," he continued, "must be applied in all classes. For example, in geog:raphy you teach the children about the East and the West. Now you could say: The sun rises in the East; there is our g:reat Stalin, the sun of all the nations which enlightens all nations with his knowledge. The sun sets in the West; thel'le you find decayed capitalism, the treacherous bourgeoisie and murderous imperialism." -But most of the Slovak teachers and pupils prefer the advice of Horace Gre eley: Go West, young man! (Slovakia II, 2, p. 19) . No assignment that came to Philip Hrobak was too demanding or time consuming. As a journalist and as an American Slovak leader, Philip Hrobak was a fully committed person. After the University of California Press released a new printing of a 504 page book Czechoslovakia, edited by Robert J . Kerner, which was represented as "an honest, unprejudiced, and frank appraisal of the important contribution which the Czechoslovak nation made to the history of our time in its two decades of independence between two world wars," Philip Hrobak took the book under close scrutiny in order to examine its merits. Characteristically, he read it with balanced judgment and undertook a detailed search into the allegations that were made in the volume by the twenty collaborators who wrote their ideas into it. He made pertinent notes, comments and a record of his explanations and refutations. Subsequently, every issue of Slovakia from v. V., 2-3 (15-16) June-Sept. 1955 to v. VII, 3-4 (24-25) Sept.-Dec 1957 carried part of Hrobak's chapter by chapter analysis (through all 23 chapters) under the heading: "Professor �46 SLOVAKIA Kerner's CZECHOSLOVAKIA: History or Propaganda?" He granted, in all fairness, that the twenty writers who had contributed to the composite work were not necessarily dishonest or prejudiced but he did not yield the point that they had become Czech propagandists exporting established Masaryk-Benes theories at the expense of the Slovaks and their national history. In pointing out the errors and misconceptions of these writers and in refuting their specious theses, Hrobak could hardly help becoming occasionally vehement. It was in his very nature to be less than tolerant of that long standing tendency to relegate the Slovaks to second place or to no place at all, and this bias had again appeared through the pages of Kerner's work. It was part of Hrobak's scholarly conditioning that made him at least impatient with inept history that distorted authentic records and shaped a narrative fashioned to its own devising. In his refutations of error, both in this case and on other occasions, Hrobak set the record right by controverting claims that were all too easily made for an easy and ready acceptance. He did this by tracing his facts to prime sources for reference and documentation: He was especially skillful in drawing upon arguments and statements from Czech sources and authorities and he was often able to use this matter in order to substantiate his arguments and to confound some contemporary writers of history who had a way of misrepresentating facts. Nor was he above ridicule when the conditions were patently offered to invite ridicule. He had an instinct for examining promises made and conditions underscoring events that transpired in order to contrast them with promises honored and promises forgotten as well as with the aftermath of events that were shaped by the hard realities of circumstances. Summing it all up, he was a fearless and formidable adversary in the arena of fact vs. fiction, truth vs. deception. And in this encounter he did not shrink from handling the rhetoric and the claims of an entire collective force of writers not merely a single author. This was his consistent line of action. When it came to dealing with a denial of truth or with historic distortions, he did not stop to assess the odds. With him there were no �SLOVAKIA 47 prohibitive odds when truth and justice were to be vindicated. There was only a matter of conscience and professional ethics to be heeded. Fired with this spirit and singlemindedness of purpose, Hrobak worked on tirelessly. From his editorial office in Middletown he steadfastly waged his crusade in the press. One can see why he indefatigably set out to flay injustice and denounce "the synthetic Czechoslovak state," why he castigated the execution of President Tiso as political murder and judicial murder, why he was preoccupied with the cause "history or propaganda?" as well as with the futility of efforts to fuse the Slovak and the Czech nations into one impossible amalgam, why he was concerned with matters of Church and state. Very often the choice of expression that appears either in his own work or in the writing of his contributors reflects the depth of his own feeling and betrays its real measure of intensity. Note these phrases by way of example: Benes "King of political cheats;" the " Russia first" boys in RFE; how the Czechs deceived us; intrigues and t he entrapment of individuals; Czechoslovak pseudo-democracy; the machinations of Czech Socialists . . . But Hrobak was by no means a hidden away recluse of some kind bound to his editorial desk. Besides being a gifted journalist and editor, he was also a dynamic fraternalist and a forceful lecturer. Through outstanding personal participation he became the soul of many a significant national movement especially through the Slovak League of America, the Matica Skolskd (Foundation to promote schooling and education) and the Priatelia slovenskej slobody (Friends of Slovak freedom). He distinguished himself as the motivating force in the Slovak League and, if figures are telling indicators of any kind, it is worth noting that within two years after he accepted the presidency of this organization, its membership increased by two thousand. After the guiding leadership of Hrobak had succeeded in establishing the Washington Office of Information, Dr. Joseph Mikus, the talented diplomat who headed this agency, made of it an invaluable department for public relations. Further, a notable program of sixty film showings �48 SLOVAKIA was received with widespread appreciation. More importantly still, various committees of the U.S. Congress charged with investigating the denial of rights under totalitarian aggression heard the testimony and an exposition of Slovak history from Philip Hrobak and gave attentive hearing to the testimony.of a number of Slovak witnesses who appealed against the situation behind the iron curtain. This series of sessions gave American officials in Washington a realistic representation of the sufferings to which a number of countries were being subjected in central Europe. It also provided a formal documentation of tactics that were enslaving the Slovak people. There was a special American subcommittee before which depositions were made about conditions in Slovakia and after these hearings, the full reports were printed in a publication titled Investigation of Communist Takeover and Occupation of Poland, Lithuania and Slovakia. Through the Washington Office of Information and the dynamism of Philip Hrobak excellent rapport was established with a number of American congressmen and statesmen who came to understand and feel for the plight of the Slovak people in their homeland. In 1954 Congressmen Kersten and Bentley openly manifested their interest in the Slovak cause. In 1955 Vice President Nixon expressed the sympathetic feeling of the administration in a written message that was addressed to the 34th congress of the Slovak League of America. In 1956 Secretary of State Dulles received an eight-member delegation of the Slovak League led by Philip Hrobak and engaged in animated discussion of vital topics with them. Philip Hrobak worked on and on with boundless devotion. It was very fitting then, that this dedication and wholehearted service was recognized when a public presentation of honor was made to him in 1957 in the course of the golden jubilee of the founding of the League. A special committee of Slovak leaders singled him out for the award designated as the Hlinka Cup. This was an unusually high honor, for the Hlinka Cup was a trophy which had never before been bestowed upon American soil. The address of presentation was made by Dr. Joseph M. Kirschbaum in recognition of Hrobak's merits as president �SLOVAKIA 49 of the Slovak League of America, as an eminent and intrepid editor of Jednota and Slovakia, as an outstanding champion in American Slovak life, as the compiler of a grammar and a dictionary and "because with his aggressive elan, his perseverance and fearlessness both as a journalist and as an organizer, he personifies the finest qualities that had endowed not only :Cudovit stur (a leading patriot), but also the first recipient of the cup, Andrew Hlinka." In 1961 another public honor was conferred on Philip Hrobak. This was the Charles IV Award or Karl's Prize that was presented to him by the Sudeten German Council of West Germany. It is a recognition that is awarded annually to a political leader, scientist or publicist who has made an outstanding contribution to the concept of a United Europe. The ceremonies were held in Cologne on Sudeten German Day, May 20, with over 200,000 Sudeten German expellees participating. Mr. Hrobak responded to the honor with a glowing address titled "Self Determination for All." His words bespoke the aspirations and the innermost feelings of Sudeten Germans as well as of the Slovak people and other victims of self-rule denied under the crushing force of communism. Among other Americans who participated in this observance were U.S. Congressmen Morgan D. Moulder, Gordon H. Scherer, Roy A. Taylor, and Henry C. Schadeberg. Willy Brandt, the mayor of Berlin, and several other Sudeten German leaders also delivered addresses. In these numberless events and situations we cannot fail to see the greatness of Philip Hrobak as an American and Slovak patriot, as a man of ideals and of forceful action, as a fraternalist and an organizer but we must not overlook his stature as a man of God also. It must never be forgotten that Hrobak served God at least as well as he served his nation and his fellow man. Religious principles and obligations had first place in his life and his life style. All his zeal and purpose was rooted in the law and the love of God; his spending of self on behalf of others was within the Christian concept. He was as ready to promote and defend Christian virtue and idealism as he was to crusade for national honor and welfare. Although his days were incredibly crowded with constant activity, �50 SLOVAKIA he did not put God in second place in his personal life. As a teacher and educator, he was aware of the importance of Catholic schools. As a parent, he was solicitous about a genuinely Christian atmosphere in the home and true religious training in the family. As a journalist, he faithfully promoted the interests of the Church and ethical principles. That was the reason why he combated the atheistic and the Away-from-Rome! attitude that was being sponsored by some leaders in Czecho-Slovakia. As 1963 was moving in on the calendar, Philip Hrobak prepared copy for a special issue of Slovakia and for the Jednota publications that he managed and edited. Out of regard for the Christian heritage of the Slovak people, he began to prepare to honor the 1100th anniversary of the mission of SS. Cyril and Methodius to Great Moravia and the Christianization of the Slovak nation. The annuals that he prepared for this occasion became a kind of crown of excellence that climaxed his literary and scholarly output and gave singular expression to his religious devotion as well. Truly, as we review the life and the accomplishments of Philip Hrobak who would have been seventy years old this year, we have reason to thank God for his idealism and example, and we are impressed and inspired by this great man's patriotism, his scholarship, his leadership and his personal dynamism. Sr. Martina Tybor, SS.C.M. THE FAMOUS Slovak folk-dance group, "Lucnica," from Bratislava returned from a 6-weeks' tour of several South American. countries. The 47-member company represented the current silver jubilee ensemble. Lucnica was organized in 1948. THE HIGH TATRAS in Slovakia last year attracted 2 and ½ million tourists. An even larger number was expected in 1974. � 36 SLOVAKIA Phiiip A. Hrobak (1904-1964) Generally the biographical facts of a man's life can be assembled without great difficulty. Cold facts of this kind, however, do not give us the complete or satisfying image of an individual. They lack the true lineaments of his character, the appreciable measure of his stature and the contributions of his lifetime of striving and achieving. Simplistically we can gather the key dates that marked the life span of Philip A. Hrobak, one of our American Slovak "greats" who would have reached his seventieth birthday in 1974 had not death cut him down in his life's prime. The bare data would include these statistics: Philip Anthony Hrobak was born in Cleveland, Ohio on May 1, 1904. Michael and Mary Hrobak, his parents, were Slovak immigrants from the Spis region who had sought and found a kindlier way of life in the American mid-West. On May 6, 1914, just a few days after Philip's tenth birthday, his widowed mother brought Philip and his four year old sister Mary to the Immaculate Conception Home in Middletown, Pa. They were the first children received into the newly established home for children which the Jednota organization founded under the guiding spirit of Father Furdek. The children had lost their father in February of that year and their mother was concerned about providing for their care, for she too was in poor health. When a merciless blood malady ended her life a few months later, the Hrobak children had no one to look after them but the Sisters of SS. Cyril and Methodius to whose care the Jednota had entrusted this home. Philip continued the studies that he had begun in St. Wendelin's parochial school in Cleveland and as soon as she was ready for school, Mary also attended classes. On completing his elementary education at Jednota Home, Philip went on to high school and college at St. �SLOVAKIA 37 Procopius in Lisle, Ill. From 1924 to 1927 he taught at St. Procopius and then accepted an assistantship as he pursued advanced studies in the department of chemistry at New York University. By the fall of 1929 he was again in his native city Cleveland where he taught a varied program of classes and coached the football team at the flourishing Benedictine High. For nine years he was a very successful teacher here, distinguishing himself especially in his chemistry, history and language classes as well as in his relationship with high school students. From all appearances, he seemed to be destined for a brilliant carrer as an educator. In August 1931 he married Rose Jasko and they became the devoted parents of nine children. His school work and parental cares could have absorbed all his time and talent yet his eager mind together with his vital interest in life and in his fellow man prompted him to cultivate an active concern in the issues and problems of those around him as well as the world at large. From time to time he gave expression to some of his thinking through contributions to various publications. Problems of youth and education as well as Slovak history ranked among his prime interests. In the matter of Slovak history he found not merely a static record of the past but also an on-going chain of direction and a development of history in his own day. He could not look upon man's interaction with man or nation with nation and remain a detached spectator. He was both an observer and a maker of history. Out of his experiences as a teacher, Philip Hrobak came to the realization that he could do more than just use books as tools of learning; he authored a practical and comprehensive Slovak grammar for the use of English speaking persons. He also compiled a sizable English-Slovak dictionary. Both served as important adjuncts in learning the Slovak language. Even today there are many who value his revised dictionary as a very useful reference. In 1937 when Joseph Husek yielded his Jednota editorship in order to seek the presidency of the Jednota organization, Philip Hrobak was elected editor of the weekly organ. No better replacement could have been made. From �38 SLOVAKIA this time on, Hrobak became a formidable force in Slovak and Slovak-American public life. His position was further strengthened when he became vice president of the Slovak League of America in 1949, and it was additionally confirmed when he assumed the presidency of Slovak League of America in 1950. For twelve years he gave this office distinctively dynamic force and singular meaningfulness. Hrobak's role in public life as well as the magnetism of his gifts and personality brought him into close contact and association with distinguished expatriated Slovak leaders and intellectuals. One of his closest co-workers was Dr. Joseph Pauco who continues to work in the same editorial office that he once shared with Philip Hrobak. Among other notable associates from abroad were Constantine Culen, Francis Hrusovsky, Joseph Kirschbaum, Joseph Mikus and Karol Sidor. An outstanding achievement of Hrobak's career in the Slovak League of America was the establishment of a highly desirable and eminently successful Office of Information functioning in Washington, D. C. under the distinguished chairmanship of the Slovak diplomat Dr. Joseph Mikus. This professional department became a vital public relations center as well as a liason agency in American-Slovak life. The journalistic genius of Philip Hrobak expressed itself not only through the Jednota weekly and the Jednota annual almanac which are the official publications of the Jednota organization and which even then served the need for both information and inspiration on behalf of its membership but he further initiated and sponsored other valuable publications as well. In 1949, for example, he began the Slovak Newsletter, a bulletin for public information. In 1951 he undertook a Slovak politico-cultural quarterly Slovakia, the voice of the Slovak League of America. In 1961 he launched another project, Furdek, an annual which became an English counterpart to the long established Jednota Kalendar. He gave this new work a content and style of its own, directing its appeal largely to readers who were not able to read the Slovak Kalendar. When Father Lach entrusted in 1959 the newspaper Slovak v Amerike to Philip Hrobak, the new publisher �39 SLOVAKIA collaborated on this weekly with Dr. Joseph Pauco and expanded his publishing scope to include the annual Literdrny Almanach Slovdka v Amerike as well as an affiliated series of book publications through which he often provided a public to well seasoned writers as well as to capable aspiring novices in journalism. With unbounded vigor and zeal Philip Hrobak worked from his Middletown office, serving the cause of God and man to his dying day. When illness struck him down it was hard to accept the fact that this was a mortal ailment. Although those who were close to him hoped against hope that he would recover, he ended his life on January 10, 1964 in Harrisburg, Pa. and was buried in Cleveland, Ohio. These are some of the essential facts in the life story of Philip Hrobak. * * When one undertakes the task of evaluating the stature of this leader Philip Hrobak and his literary output, the impressive factor becomes not only the quantity of his excellent published writings but also the quality of the man that shows through his works and the temper of his thought. Hrobak was above all a writer with a message. He was purposeful and dedicated, for he had a cause that was rooted in conscience. His personal integrity and Christian philosophy of life inspired him with a profound sense of honesty and justice which could not be confined to private life but clamored for redress even in the market place and public forum. With him morality and the full impact of the Ten Commandments had a place before God and man. For this reason he was intolerant of oppression and he championed the rights of man. This included basic justice and freedom in private life, within all levels of the social structure and within national and international relationships. Hrobak was gifted with a clarity of inner vision that penetrated surface appearances and subtle diplomatic maneuverings. He had an inborn alertness that was adroit and discriminating in dealing with political smooth talk, long standing inequities that tried to stay covered up, and outward niceties. He was not one to be easily deceived. And he had the courage of his convictions as well as the �40 SLOVAKIA ability to deal incisively with critical issues and difficult problems. He not only propagated the slogan Za Boha a ndrod! he lived the ideal, for all his life and energy, all his purpose and dedication was to translate into real life the spirit of devotion to God and abiding patriotism to the United States as well as to Slovakia, the ancestral homeland of American Slovaks. And as he set himself to these tasks, he was fully conscious of the duty that, as an officer and a leader in American Slovak fraternalism, he was to inspire others with a zeal for truth and right action. Circumscribi ng this study to a close review of the first fourteen volumes of Slovakia (1951-1964) which Philip Hrobak compiled and edited, we find even within this representativ e range of his work enough tangibles to assess the caliber of Hrobak's journalism, Christian philosophy and leadership. Like much of his journalistic output, these volumes of Hrobak's Slovakia were devoted largely to political content. We see in them Philip Hrobak the American patriot, the champion of Slovak statehood and a first class editor. His objective is truth and justice. For this reason he is a persistent and merciless fact-finder and incidentally he becomes an ideal publicist. He does not avoid issues or pretend that he does not see them and he does not feel that he can afford to be an overly fastidious respecter of persons. He was not an unfeeling individual and he knew how to cherish and express profound deference for constituted authority and public office but when he sensed that "Something is rotten in the state ... " he was relentless in uncovering the festering realities that were lurking under misleading outward appearances. His Christian uprightness, his idealism and sense of fairness bound him to flay inequity and to denounce oppression of every kind. Hrobak did not produce his 35 issues of Slovakia singlehandedl y. He opened his colums to Slovak diplomats, statesmen, historians and leaders as well as to thinking Americans who also championed the cause of freedom, justice and truth, especially the concept of historical truth. His formal objective was openly published in a number of issues of Slovakia: �SLOVAKIA 41 The chief purpose of Slovakia is to promote a better under standing and appreciation of the Slovak nation and its long struggle for freedom and independence. As Americans, members of the Slovak League of America believe that the Slovak nation, like all nations, has an interest 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. Because this periodical was a vehicle of information to both a Slovak and a non-Slovak readership of serious intent, especially to American scholars, public officials, diplomats and university people, Hrobak made every effort to give it the widest possible dissemination into the homes and offices of American and foreign diplomats, politicians and public leaders as well as the libraries and departments of history and political science in many American colleges and universities. Of course, many average readers who sought to be well-informed also subscribed to it. Under Hrobak's gifted editorship and management, the circulation of Slovakia increased steadily. To provide the information and understanding that he had in mind, Hrobak attracted the most highly qualified of contributors to bring their works to Slovakia. Some of them were expatriated Slovak leaders and makers of Slovak history; some of them were scholars and historians of Slovak as well as non-Slovak origin; some were critics and analysts of political thought and nationalism; some were American legislators. Dr. Joseph M. Kirschbaum, a Slavistic scholar who taught and lectured at the University of Montreal in Canada produced a substantial article for practically every issue (30 articles in 37 issues, to be precise) . In the main, he examines the historical theses that warrant the existence of an autonomous Slovak state, basic principles and circumstances on which federation could be structured in central Europe, the subject of Slovakia and international relationships, the underlying causes of incompatability with Czech pretensions, the matter of Czech duplicity and oppressive arrogance, and Slovak politics past and present. His gifts, however, are multifaceted and out of the diversity of his �42 SLOVAKIA broad interests he also prepared papers on cultural topics such as: Slovak literature under the Soviet impact (VI, 2/ 19, pp. 34-51) , Mickiewicz in Slovak poetry and translations (VII, 1/22, pp. 32-41) , Universi ty traditions in Slovakia (VIII, 2/ 27, pp. 18-30), Contemporary tendencies in Slovak philology (X, 7/ 32, pp. 25-32) , The Canadian translator of Slovak poetry: Professor Watson Kirkconnell (XIV, 37, pp. 9-18). Dr. Kirschbaum consistently provided book reviews as well. Dr. Joseph Pauco has always been a faithful contributor also. He is a professional writer with a rich background in publishing and journalism. For a number of years he was editor-in-chief of the daily Slovak published in Bratislava. He lived through many a promising and too many a tragic experience in Slovak national life. He has tasted prosperity and good fortune as well as much disappointment at home and abroad. He is a journalist with the conviction that the editor, the reporter, the columnist is called to serve the people by illuminating facts, defending truth, and inspiring to action. These principles are embodied throughout his articles in Slovakia, most of which are devoted to political analysis and historical report; e.g. The practical aspect of federation (III, 2, pp. 26-36), The failures of communist politics in Slovakia (V, 4/ 17, pp. 3-20), The 1944 communist rebellion in Slovakia (VII, 3-4, 24/ 25, pp. 28-34) , and Slovakia under communism--which was serialized in three issues (IX, 30; X, 31 ; XI, 33 ). Among other significant contributors who brought enrichment to the early issues of Slovakia these must be mentioned: culen, Hrusovsky, Vnuk, Mikus, Sidor, Grebert, Cieker, t>urcansky, Murin, Rekem and Kruzliak. Their works are marked with the authority of those who had witnessed this history of Slovakia in the making and with the conviction of those who knew only too well what absolutes and what cause they were defending. Contributions on the scholarly level are thoroughly researched and documented; they are singularly important for their cultural value. With the aid of national figures like these, Philip Hrobak made of Slovakia a unique journal that analyzed �SLOVAKIA 43 Slovak and Czech politics and exposed the truth and the falsity behind the facade of the Czecho-Slovak state. Still other contributors also expressed themselves in Slovakia. We meet on its pages, for example, a critical examination which Kurt Glaser made of Radio Free Europe: How free is Radio Free Europe-The Voice of Doubletalk? (II, 2, pp. 25-28) and The " Russia First" Boys in Radio Free Europe. (III, I, pp. 31-38) as well as several of his other articles. Edward L. Delaney also wrote incisively and perceptively on The Betrayal of Slovakia (I, 2, pp. 1-7), on Tiso, Horthy and Benes as well as his personal experiences I was in Slovakia (II, 1, pp. 25-45). Hrobak further drew upon American public officials to express their views in Slovakia also. He published their patriotic addresses and expressions of concern and sympathy for minority groups as well as related matters from diplomatic circles for the interest of readers of Slovakia. As one reviews back issues, one cannot help noting the contributions of congressmen and persons like Michael A. Feighan, Edward J. Bonin, Charles J. Kersten, B. Carroll Reece, Lieut. Col. F. 0. Miksche, Ray J. Madden. In volume one, no. two, we find some thoughts of Prince Adolf zu Schwarzenberg, head of one of the oldest families of Bohemia. Interestingly, his contribution is on Czech Double Dealing. By way of balancing this heavy concentration on political fare, Hrobak took pains to offer other reading matter too. Occasionally he would publish something as different as the English translation of a treasured Slovak folk tale. He also ran a series on castles in Slovakia as well as occasional articles on other cultural topics like Slovak museums, the natural beauty of the Slovak countryside, the national folk hero Janosik, a study in contrasting ~vejk vs. Janosik, the natural springs and the spas of Slovakia, considerations on semantics and philology, Slovak university life and traditions, insights into Slovak church music, various types of Slovak customs, historical essays, thumbnail biographies. He also presented a serialization of Slovak history that he himself wrote and a serious study Slovak Nationalism which was researched by B. S. Bue. Applicable excerpts from American journalism were �SLOVAKIA 44 intended to provoke thought or reaction, and for this kind of prodding Hrobak quoted from The Washington Post, New York Times, the Cleveland Press, The Chicago Sun, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, The Slavonic Monthly. He also culled from the Osservatore Romano, the Eudovy dennik of Chicago, cas (the official organ of Lettrich's Democratic Party and the Benes mouthpiece) as well as from other likely and unlikely sources. The personal trademark of Hrobak in these earlier issues of Slovakia was the filler feature titled Who Said It? Invariably these items were either ironic or revealing or they were couched in the full glow of patriotic ardor, depending on their portent. Hrobak felt that as a journalist he could not afford to be blandly genteel. He was dealing with subject matter that made demands on him to be ruthless rather that ineffectively mild. He knew that he had to be uncompromising rather than deferential. He was committed to the consideration of callous inequities and rank duplicity, and he needed the keenest of scalpels directed to the root of the issue. The Who Said It? feature was especially effective in quoting from Masaryk and Benes, Stransky and Lettrich, Peroutka and Ripka, Sramek and Gottwald. It held a full beam of light up to their pronouncements and exposed their ideas to re-evaluation. On the other hand, Hrobak also featured positive thinking from persons like Senator Robert A. Taft, Edward R. Murrow, H. W. Kaltenborn as well as from Dean Acheson, R. W. Seton-Watson, Congressman Daniel Flood and Alvin E. O'Konski. Readers found the material quoted in these fillers very apt, rather questionable, witty, thought-provoking or bitter. It was meant to be entertaining although an element of entertainment might sometimes develop out of it as a kind of byproduct. We present some samplings: "Some pussy-footing ostriches criticize the treaty between Soviet Russia and Czechoslovakia. Our close collaboration with the Soviet Union needs no explanation. We do not want anything from the Russians except protection from the Germans, and the Russians want nothing whatsoever from us." - Jan Masaryk in Business Week, May 13, 1944. (Slovakia vn, 2, p. 64). "The Slovak nation, one of the oldest Christian nations in �SLOVAKIA 45 central Europe is distinct ethnic unit. Just as the Czechs are and want to remain Czechs, just so the Slovaks are and want to remain Slovaks. The history, culture and national traditions of the Slovak nation are distinct from the history, culture and national traditions of the Czechs. The Slovaks never were, nor are they now, a part of the Czech nation. Slovaks here and abroad resent being called Czechoslovaks." - P.A. Hrobak, Detroit, Mich., November 18, 1951 ( Slovakia IV, 3-4, p. 58) . RED GEOGRAPHY: The news service of the Central Slovak Catholic Bureau in Rome recently published a story about a certain school inspector of the Trnava district in Slovakia who gave directives to teachers on how to teach. Among other things he said that if nuns we:re able to interest children in a non-existe nt being, God, then the teachers certainly should be able to interest children in Stalin who actually exists. "The Marx-Lenin doctrines of our Stalin," he continued, "must be applied in all classes. For example, in geog:raphy you teach the children about the East and the West. Now you could say: The sun rises in the East; there is our g:reat Stalin, the sun of all the nations which enlightens all nations with his knowledge. The sun sets in the West; thel'le you find decayed capitalism, the treacherous bourgeoisie and murderous imperialism." -But most of the Slovak teachers and pupils prefer the advice of Horace Gre eley: Go West, young man! (Slovakia II, 2, p. 19) . No assignment that came to Philip Hrobak was too demanding or time consuming. As a journalist and as an American Slovak leader, Philip Hrobak was a fully committed person. After the University of California Press released a new printing of a 504 page book Czechoslovakia, edited by Robert J . Kerner, which was represented as "an honest, unprejudiced, and frank appraisal of the important contribution which the Czechoslovak nation made to the history of our time in its two decades of independence between two world wars," Philip Hrobak took the book under close scrutiny in order to examine its merits. Characteristically, he read it with balanced judgment and undertook a detailed search into the allegations that were made in the volume by the twenty collaborators who wrote their ideas into it. He made pertinent notes, comments and a record of his explanations and refutations. Subsequently, every issue of Slovakia from v. V., 2-3 (15-16) June-Sept. 1955 to v. VII, 3-4 (24-25) Sept.-Dec 1957 carried part of Hrobak's chapter by chapter analysis (through all 23 chapters) under the heading: "Professor �46 SLOVAKIA Kerner's CZECHOSLOVAKIA: History or Propaganda?" He granted, in all fairness, that the twenty writers who had contributed to the composite work were not necessarily dishonest or prejudiced but he did not yield the point that they had become Czech propagandists exporting established Masaryk-Benes theories at the expense of the Slovaks and their national history. In pointing out the errors and misconceptions of these writers and in refuting their specious theses, Hrobak could hardly help becoming occasionally vehement. It was in his very nature to be less than tolerant of that long standing tendency to relegate the Slovaks to second place or to no place at all, and this bias had again appeared through the pages of Kerner's work. It was part of Hrobak's scholarly conditioning that made him at least impatient with inept history that distorted authentic records and shaped a narrative fashioned to its own devising. In his refutations of error, both in this case and on other occasions, Hrobak set the record right by controverting claims that were all too easily made for an easy and ready acceptance. He did this by tracing his facts to prime sources for reference and documentation: He was especially skillful in drawing upon arguments and statements from Czech sources and authorities and he was often able to use this matter in order to substantiate his arguments and to confound some contemporary writers of history who had a way of misrepresentating facts. Nor was he above ridicule when the conditions were patently offered to invite ridicule. He had an instinct for examining promises made and conditions underscoring events that transpired in order to contrast them with promises honored and promises forgotten as well as with the aftermath of events that were shaped by the hard realities of circumstances. Summing it all up, he was a fearless and formidable adversary in the arena of fact vs. fiction, truth vs. deception. And in this encounter he did not shrink from handling the rhetoric and the claims of an entire collective force of writers not merely a single author. This was his consistent line of action. When it came to dealing with a denial of truth or with historic distortions, he did not stop to assess the odds. With him there were no �SLOVAKIA 47 prohibitive odds when truth and justice were to be vindicated. There was only a matter of conscience and professional ethics to be heeded. Fired with this spirit and singlemindedness of purpose, Hrobak worked on tirelessly. From his editorial office in Middletown he steadfastly waged his crusade in the press. One can see why he indefatigably set out to flay injustice and denounce "the synthetic Czechoslovak state," why he castigated the execution of President Tiso as political murder and judicial murder, why he was preoccupied with the cause "history or propaganda?" as well as with the futility of efforts to fuse the Slovak and the Czech nations into one impossible amalgam, why he was concerned with matters of Church and state. Very often the choice of expression that appears either in his own work or in the writing of his contributors reflects the depth of his own feeling and betrays its real measure of intensity. Note these phrases by way of example: Benes "King of political cheats;" the " Russia first" boys in RFE; how the Czechs deceived us; intrigues and t he entrapment of individuals; Czechoslovak pseudo-democracy; the machinations of Czech Socialists . . . But Hrobak was by no means a hidden away recluse of some kind bound to his editorial desk. Besides being a gifted journalist and editor, he was also a dynamic fraternalist and a forceful lecturer. Through outstanding personal participation he became the soul of many a significant national movement especially through the Slovak League of America, the Matica Skolskd (Foundation to promote schooling and education) and the Priatelia slovenskej slobody (Friends of Slovak freedom). He distinguished himself as the motivating force in the Slovak League and, if figures are telling indicators of any kind, it is worth noting that within two years after he accepted the presidency of this organization, its membership increased by two thousand. After the guiding leadership of Hrobak had succeeded in establishing the Washington Office of Information, Dr. Joseph Mikus, the talented diplomat who headed this agency, made of it an invaluable department for public relations. Further, a notable program of sixty film showings �48 SLOVAKIA was received with widespread appreciation. More importantly still, various committees of the U.S. Congress charged with investigating the denial of rights under totalitarian aggression heard the testimony and an exposition of Slovak history from Philip Hrobak and gave attentive hearing to the testimony.of a number of Slovak witnesses who appealed against the situation behind the iron curtain. This series of sessions gave American officials in Washington a realistic representation of the sufferings to which a number of countries were being subjected in central Europe. It also provided a formal documentation of tactics that were enslaving the Slovak people. There was a special American subcommittee before which depositions were made about conditions in Slovakia and after these hearings, the full reports were printed in a publication titled Investigation of Communist Takeover and Occupation of Poland, Lithuania and Slovakia. Through the Washington Office of Information and the dynamism of Philip Hrobak excellent rapport was established with a number of American congressmen and statesmen who came to understand and feel for the plight of the Slovak people in their homeland. In 1954 Congressmen Kersten and Bentley openly manifested their interest in the Slovak cause. In 1955 Vice President Nixon expressed the sympathetic feeling of the administration in a written message that was addressed to the 34th congress of the Slovak League of America. In 1956 Secretary of State Dulles received an eight-member delegation of the Slovak League led by Philip Hrobak and engaged in animated discussion of vital topics with them. Philip Hrobak worked on and on with boundless devotion. It was very fitting then, that this dedication and wholehearted service was recognized when a public presentation of honor was made to him in 1957 in the course of the golden jubilee of the founding of the League. A special committee of Slovak leaders singled him out for the award designated as the Hlinka Cup. This was an unusually high honor, for the Hlinka Cup was a trophy which had never before been bestowed upon American soil. The address of presentation was made by Dr. Joseph M. Kirschbaum in recognition of Hrobak's merits as president �SLOVAKIA 49 of the Slovak League of America, as an eminent and intrepid editor of Jednota and Slovakia, as an outstanding champion in American Slovak life, as the compiler of a grammar and a dictionary and "because with his aggressive elan, his perseverance and fearlessness both as a journalist and as an organizer, he personifies the finest qualities that had endowed not only :Cudovit stur (a leading patriot), but also the first recipient of the cup, Andrew Hlinka." In 1961 another public honor was conferred on Philip Hrobak. This was the Charles IV Award or Karl's Prize that was presented to him by the Sudeten German Council of West Germany. It is a recognition that is awarded annually to a political leader, scientist or publicist who has made an outstanding contribution to the concept of a United Europe. The ceremonies were held in Cologne on Sudeten German Day, May 20, with over 200,000 Sudeten German expellees participating. Mr. Hrobak responded to the honor with a glowing address titled "Self Determination for All." His words bespoke the aspirations and the innermost feelings of Sudeten Germans as well as of the Slovak people and other victims of self-rule denied under the crushing force of communism. Among other Americans who participated in this observance were U.S. Congressmen Morgan D. Moulder, Gordon H. Scherer, Roy A. Taylor, and Henry C. Schadeberg. Willy Brandt, the mayor of Berlin, and several other Sudeten German leaders also delivered addresses. In these numberless events and situations we cannot fail to see the greatness of Philip Hrobak as an American and Slovak patriot, as a man of ideals and of forceful action, as a fraternalist and an organizer but we must not overlook his stature as a man of God also. It must never be forgotten that Hrobak served God at least as well as he served his nation and his fellow man. Religious principles and obligations had first place in his life and his life style. All his zeal and purpose was rooted in the law and the love of God; his spending of self on behalf of others was within the Christian concept. He was as ready to promote and defend Christian virtue and idealism as he was to crusade for national honor and welfare. Although his days were incredibly crowded with constant activity, �50 SLOVAKIA he did not put God in second place in his personal life. As a teacher and educator, he was aware of the importance of Catholic schools. As a parent, he was solicitous about a genuinely Christian atmosphere in the home and true religious training in the family. As a journalist, he faithfully promoted the interests of the Church and ethical principles. That was the reason why he combated the atheistic and the Away-from-Rome! attitude that was being sponsored by some leaders in Czecho-Slovakia. As 1963 was moving in on the calendar, Philip Hrobak prepared copy for a special issue of Slovakia and for the Jednota publications that he managed and edited. Out of regard for the Christian heritage of the Slovak people, he began to prepare to honor the 1100th anniversary of the mission of SS. Cyril and Methodius to Great Moravia and the Christianization of the Slovak nation. The annuals that he prepared for this occasion became a kind of crown of excellence that climaxed his literary and scholarly output and gave singular expression to his religious devotion as well. Truly, as we review the life and the accomplishments of Philip Hrobak who would have been seventy years old this year, we have reason to thank God for his idealism and example, and we are impressed and inspired by this great man's patriotism, his scholarship, his leadership and his personal dynamism. Sr. Martina Tybor, SS.C.M. THE FAMOUS Slovak folk-dance group, "Lucnica," from Bratislava returned from a 6-weeks' tour of several South American. countries. The 47-member company represented the current silver jubilee ensemble. Lucnica was organized in 1948. THE HIGH TATRAS in Slovakia last year attracted 2 and ½ million tourists. An even larger number was expected in 1974. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to 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 36 SLOVAKIA Phiiip A. Hrobak (1904-1964) Generally the biographical facts of a man's life can be assembled without great difficulty. Cold facts of this kind, however, do not give us the complete or satisfying image of an individual. They lack the true lineaments of his character, the appreciable measure of his stature and the contributions of his lifetime of striving and achieving. Simplistically we can gather the key dates that marked the life span of Philip A. Hrobak, one of our American Slovak "greats" who would have reached his seventieth birthday in 1974 had not death cut him down in his life's prime. The bare data would include these statistics: Philip Anthony Hrobak was born in Cleveland, Ohio on May 1, 1904. Michael and Mary Hrobak, his parents, were Slovak immigrants from the Spis region who had sought and found a kindlier way of life in the American mid-West. On May 6, 1914, just a few days after Philip's tenth birthday, his widowed mother brought Philip and his four year old sister Mary to the Immaculate Conception Home in Middletown, Pa. They were the first children received into the newly established home for children which the Jednota organization founded under the guiding spirit of Father Furdek. The children had lost their father in February of that year and their mother was concerned about providing for their care, for she too was in poor health. When a merciless blood malady ended her life a few months later, the Hrobak children had no one to look after them but the Sisters of SS. Cyril and Methodius to whose care the Jednota had entrusted this home. Philip continued the studies that he had begun in St. Wendelin's parochial school in Cleveland and as soon as she was ready for school, Mary also attended classes. On completing his elementary education at Jednota Home, Philip went on to high school and college at St. SLOVAKIA 37 Procopius in Lisle, Ill. From 1924 to 1927 he taught at St. Procopius and then accepted an assistantship as he pursued advanced studies in the department of chemistry at New York University. By the fall of 1929 he was again in his native city Cleveland where he taught a varied program of classes and coached the football team at the flourishing Benedictine High. For nine years he was a very successful teacher here, distinguishing himself especially in his chemistry, history and language classes as well as in his relationship with high school students. From all appearances, he seemed to be destined for a brilliant carrer as an educator. In August 1931 he married Rose Jasko and they became the devoted parents of nine children. His school work and parental cares could have absorbed all his time and talent yet his eager mind together with his vital interest in life and in his fellow man prompted him to cultivate an active concern in the issues and problems of those around him as well as the world at large. From time to time he gave expression to some of his thinking through contributions to various publications. Problems of youth and education as well as Slovak history ranked among his prime interests. In the matter of Slovak history he found not merely a static record of the past but also an on-going chain of direction and a development of history in his own day. He could not look upon man's interaction with man or nation with nation and remain a detached spectator. He was both an observer and a maker of history. Out of his experiences as a teacher, Philip Hrobak came to the realization that he could do more than just use books as tools of learning; he authored a practical and comprehensive Slovak grammar for the use of English speaking persons. He also compiled a sizable English-Slovak dictionary. Both served as important adjuncts in learning the Slovak language. Even today there are many who value his revised dictionary as a very useful reference. In 1937 when Joseph Husek yielded his Jednota editorship in order to seek the presidency of the Jednota organization, Philip Hrobak was elected editor of the weekly organ. No better replacement could have been made. From 38 SLOVAKIA this time on, Hrobak became a formidable force in Slovak and Slovak-American public life. His position was further strengthened when he became vice president of the Slovak League of America in 1949, and it was additionally confirmed when he assumed the presidency of Slovak League of America in 1950. For twelve years he gave this office distinctively dynamic force and singular meaningfulness. Hrobak's role in public life as well as the magnetism of his gifts and personality brought him into close contact and association with distinguished expatriated Slovak leaders and intellectuals. One of his closest co-workers was Dr. Joseph Pauco who continues to work in the same editorial office that he once shared with Philip Hrobak. Among other notable associates from abroad were Constantine Culen, Francis Hrusovsky, Joseph Kirschbaum, Joseph Mikus and Karol Sidor. An outstanding achievement of Hrobak's career in the Slovak League of America was the establishment of a highly desirable and eminently successful Office of Information functioning in Washington, D. C. under the distinguished chairmanship of the Slovak diplomat Dr. Joseph Mikus. This professional department became a vital public relations center as well as a liason agency in American-Slovak life. The journalistic genius of Philip Hrobak expressed itself not only through the Jednota weekly and the Jednota annual almanac which are the official publications of the Jednota organization and which even then served the need for both information and inspiration on behalf of its membership but he further initiated and sponsored other valuable publications as well. In 1949, for example, he began the Slovak Newsletter, a bulletin for public information. In 1951 he undertook a Slovak politico-cultural quarterly Slovakia, the voice of the Slovak League of America. In 1961 he launched another project, Furdek, an annual which became an English counterpart to the long established Jednota Kalendar. He gave this new work a content and style of its own, directing its appeal largely to readers who were not able to read the Slovak Kalendar. When Father Lach entrusted in 1959 the newspaper Slovak v Amerike to Philip Hrobak, the new publisher 39 SLOVAKIA collaborated on this weekly with Dr. Joseph Pauco and expanded his publishing scope to include the annual Literdrny Almanach Slovdka v Amerike as well as an affiliated series of book publications through which he often provided a public to well seasoned writers as well as to capable aspiring novices in journalism. With unbounded vigor and zeal Philip Hrobak worked from his Middletown office, serving the cause of God and man to his dying day. When illness struck him down it was hard to accept the fact that this was a mortal ailment. Although those who were close to him hoped against hope that he would recover, he ended his life on January 10, 1964 in Harrisburg, Pa. and was buried in Cleveland, Ohio. These are some of the essential facts in the life story of Philip Hrobak. * * When one undertakes the task of evaluating the stature of this leader Philip Hrobak and his literary output, the impressive factor becomes not only the quantity of his excellent published writings but also the quality of the man that shows through his works and the temper of his thought. Hrobak was above all a writer with a message. He was purposeful and dedicated, for he had a cause that was rooted in conscience. His personal integrity and Christian philosophy of life inspired him with a profound sense of honesty and justice which could not be confined to private life but clamored for redress even in the market place and public forum. With him morality and the full impact of the Ten Commandments had a place before God and man. For this reason he was intolerant of oppression and he championed the rights of man. This included basic justice and freedom in private life, within all levels of the social structure and within national and international relationships. Hrobak was gifted with a clarity of inner vision that penetrated surface appearances and subtle diplomatic maneuverings. He had an inborn alertness that was adroit and discriminating in dealing with political smooth talk, long standing inequities that tried to stay covered up, and outward niceties. He was not one to be easily deceived. And he had the courage of his convictions as well as the 40 SLOVAKIA ability to deal incisively with critical issues and difficult problems. He not only propagated the slogan Za Boha a ndrod! he lived the ideal, for all his life and energy, all his purpose and dedication was to translate into real life the spirit of devotion to God and abiding patriotism to the United States as well as to Slovakia, the ancestral homeland of American Slovaks. And as he set himself to these tasks, he was fully conscious of the duty that, as an officer and a leader in American Slovak fraternalism, he was to inspire others with a zeal for truth and right action. Circumscribi ng this study to a close review of the first fourteen volumes of Slovakia (1951-1964) which Philip Hrobak compiled and edited, we find even within this representativ e range of his work enough tangibles to assess the caliber of Hrobak's journalism, Christian philosophy and leadership. Like much of his journalistic output, these volumes of Hrobak's Slovakia were devoted largely to political content. We see in them Philip Hrobak the American patriot, the champion of Slovak statehood and a first class editor. His objective is truth and justice. For this reason he is a persistent and merciless fact-finder and incidentally he becomes an ideal publicist. He does not avoid issues or pretend that he does not see them and he does not feel that he can afford to be an overly fastidious respecter of persons. He was not an unfeeling individual and he knew how to cherish and express profound deference for constituted authority and public office but when he sensed that "Something is rotten in the state ... " he was relentless in uncovering the festering realities that were lurking under misleading outward appearances. His Christian uprightness, his idealism and sense of fairness bound him to flay inequity and to denounce oppression of every kind. Hrobak did not produce his 35 issues of Slovakia singlehandedl y. He opened his colums to Slovak diplomats, statesmen, historians and leaders as well as to thinking Americans who also championed the cause of freedom, justice and truth, especially the concept of historical truth. His formal objective was openly published in a number of issues of Slovakia: SLOVAKIA 41 The chief purpose of Slovakia is to promote a better under standing and appreciation of the Slovak nation and its long struggle for freedom and independence. As Americans, members of the Slovak League of America believe that the Slovak nation, like all nations, has an interest 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. Because this periodical was a vehicle of information to both a Slovak and a non-Slovak readership of serious intent, especially to American scholars, public officials, diplomats and university people, Hrobak made every effort to give it the widest possible dissemination into the homes and offices of American and foreign diplomats, politicians and public leaders as well as the libraries and departments of history and political science in many American colleges and universities. Of course, many average readers who sought to be well-informed also subscribed to it. Under Hrobak's gifted editorship and management, the circulation of Slovakia increased steadily. To provide the information and understanding that he had in mind, Hrobak attracted the most highly qualified of contributors to bring their works to Slovakia. Some of them were expatriated Slovak leaders and makers of Slovak history; some of them were scholars and historians of Slovak as well as non-Slovak origin; some were critics and analysts of political thought and nationalism; some were American legislators. Dr. Joseph M. Kirschbaum, a Slavistic scholar who taught and lectured at the University of Montreal in Canada produced a substantial article for practically every issue (30 articles in 37 issues, to be precise) . In the main, he examines the historical theses that warrant the existence of an autonomous Slovak state, basic principles and circumstances on which federation could be structured in central Europe, the subject of Slovakia and international relationships, the underlying causes of incompatability with Czech pretensions, the matter of Czech duplicity and oppressive arrogance, and Slovak politics past and present. His gifts, however, are multifaceted and out of the diversity of his 42 SLOVAKIA broad interests he also prepared papers on cultural topics such as: Slovak literature under the Soviet impact (VI, 2/ 19, pp. 34-51) , Mickiewicz in Slovak poetry and translations (VII, 1/22, pp. 32-41) , Universi ty traditions in Slovakia (VIII, 2/ 27, pp. 18-30), Contemporary tendencies in Slovak philology (X, 7/ 32, pp. 25-32) , The Canadian translator of Slovak poetry: Professor Watson Kirkconnell (XIV, 37, pp. 9-18). Dr. Kirschbaum consistently provided book reviews as well. Dr. Joseph Pauco has always been a faithful contributor also. He is a professional writer with a rich background in publishing and journalism. For a number of years he was editor-in-chief of the daily Slovak published in Bratislava. He lived through many a promising and too many a tragic experience in Slovak national life. He has tasted prosperity and good fortune as well as much disappointment at home and abroad. He is a journalist with the conviction that the editor, the reporter, the columnist is called to serve the people by illuminating facts, defending truth, and inspiring to action. These principles are embodied throughout his articles in Slovakia, most of which are devoted to political analysis and historical report; e.g. The practical aspect of federation (III, 2, pp. 26-36), The failures of communist politics in Slovakia (V, 4/ 17, pp. 3-20), The 1944 communist rebellion in Slovakia (VII, 3-4, 24/ 25, pp. 28-34) , and Slovakia under communism--which was serialized in three issues (IX, 30; X, 31 ; XI, 33 ). Among other significant contributors who brought enrichment to the early issues of Slovakia these must be mentioned: culen, Hrusovsky, Vnuk, Mikus, Sidor, Grebert, Cieker, t>urcansky, Murin, Rekem and Kruzliak. Their works are marked with the authority of those who had witnessed this history of Slovakia in the making and with the conviction of those who knew only too well what absolutes and what cause they were defending. Contributions on the scholarly level are thoroughly researched and documented; they are singularly important for their cultural value. With the aid of national figures like these, Philip Hrobak made of Slovakia a unique journal that analyzed SLOVAKIA 43 Slovak and Czech politics and exposed the truth and the falsity behind the facade of the Czecho-Slovak state. Still other contributors also expressed themselves in Slovakia. We meet on its pages, for example, a critical examination which Kurt Glaser made of Radio Free Europe: How free is Radio Free Europe-The Voice of Doubletalk? (II, 2, pp. 25-28) and The " Russia First" Boys in Radio Free Europe. (III, I, pp. 31-38) as well as several of his other articles. Edward L. Delaney also wrote incisively and perceptively on The Betrayal of Slovakia (I, 2, pp. 1-7), on Tiso, Horthy and Benes as well as his personal experiences I was in Slovakia (II, 1, pp. 25-45). Hrobak further drew upon American public officials to express their views in Slovakia also. He published their patriotic addresses and expressions of concern and sympathy for minority groups as well as related matters from diplomatic circles for the interest of readers of Slovakia. As one reviews back issues, one cannot help noting the contributions of congressmen and persons like Michael A. Feighan, Edward J. Bonin, Charles J. Kersten, B. Carroll Reece, Lieut. Col. F. 0. Miksche, Ray J. Madden. In volume one, no. two, we find some thoughts of Prince Adolf zu Schwarzenberg, head of one of the oldest families of Bohemia. Interestingly, his contribution is on Czech Double Dealing. By way of balancing this heavy concentration on political fare, Hrobak took pains to offer other reading matter too. Occasionally he would publish something as different as the English translation of a treasured Slovak folk tale. He also ran a series on castles in Slovakia as well as occasional articles on other cultural topics like Slovak museums, the natural beauty of the Slovak countryside, the national folk hero Janosik, a study in contrasting ~vejk vs. Janosik, the natural springs and the spas of Slovakia, considerations on semantics and philology, Slovak university life and traditions, insights into Slovak church music, various types of Slovak customs, historical essays, thumbnail biographies. He also presented a serialization of Slovak history that he himself wrote and a serious study Slovak Nationalism which was researched by B. S. Bue. Applicable excerpts from American journalism were SLOVAKIA 44 intended to provoke thought or reaction, and for this kind of prodding Hrobak quoted from The Washington Post, New York Times, the Cleveland Press, The Chicago Sun, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, The Slavonic Monthly. He also culled from the Osservatore Romano, the Eudovy dennik of Chicago, cas (the official organ of Lettrich's Democratic Party and the Benes mouthpiece) as well as from other likely and unlikely sources. The personal trademark of Hrobak in these earlier issues of Slovakia was the filler feature titled Who Said It? Invariably these items were either ironic or revealing or they were couched in the full glow of patriotic ardor, depending on their portent. Hrobak felt that as a journalist he could not afford to be blandly genteel. He was dealing with subject matter that made demands on him to be ruthless rather that ineffectively mild. He knew that he had to be uncompromising rather than deferential. He was committed to the consideration of callous inequities and rank duplicity, and he needed the keenest of scalpels directed to the root of the issue. The Who Said It? feature was especially effective in quoting from Masaryk and Benes, Stransky and Lettrich, Peroutka and Ripka, Sramek and Gottwald. It held a full beam of light up to their pronouncements and exposed their ideas to re-evaluation. On the other hand, Hrobak also featured positive thinking from persons like Senator Robert A. Taft, Edward R. Murrow, H. W. Kaltenborn as well as from Dean Acheson, R. W. Seton-Watson, Congressman Daniel Flood and Alvin E. O'Konski. Readers found the material quoted in these fillers very apt, rather questionable, witty, thought-provoking or bitter. It was meant to be entertaining although an element of entertainment might sometimes develop out of it as a kind of byproduct. We present some samplings: "Some pussy-footing ostriches criticize the treaty between Soviet Russia and Czechoslovakia. Our close collaboration with the Soviet Union needs no explanation. We do not want anything from the Russians except protection from the Germans, and the Russians want nothing whatsoever from us." - Jan Masaryk in Business Week, May 13, 1944. (Slovakia vn, 2, p. 64). "The Slovak nation, one of the oldest Christian nations in SLOVAKIA 45 central Europe is distinct ethnic unit. Just as the Czechs are and want to remain Czechs, just so the Slovaks are and want to remain Slovaks. The history, culture and national traditions of the Slovak nation are distinct from the history, culture and national traditions of the Czechs. The Slovaks never were, nor are they now, a part of the Czech nation. Slovaks here and abroad resent being called Czechoslovaks." - P.A. Hrobak, Detroit, Mich., November 18, 1951 ( Slovakia IV, 3-4, p. 58) . RED GEOGRAPHY: The news service of the Central Slovak Catholic Bureau in Rome recently published a story about a certain school inspector of the Trnava district in Slovakia who gave directives to teachers on how to teach. Among other things he said that if nuns we:re able to interest children in a non-existe nt being, God, then the teachers certainly should be able to interest children in Stalin who actually exists. "The Marx-Lenin doctrines of our Stalin," he continued, "must be applied in all classes. For example, in geog:raphy you teach the children about the East and the West. Now you could say: The sun rises in the East; there is our g:reat Stalin, the sun of all the nations which enlightens all nations with his knowledge. The sun sets in the West; thel'le you find decayed capitalism, the treacherous bourgeoisie and murderous imperialism." -But most of the Slovak teachers and pupils prefer the advice of Horace Gre eley: Go West, young man! (Slovakia II, 2, p. 19) . No assignment that came to Philip Hrobak was too demanding or time consuming. As a journalist and as an American Slovak leader, Philip Hrobak was a fully committed person. After the University of California Press released a new printing of a 504 page book Czechoslovakia, edited by Robert J . Kerner, which was represented as "an honest, unprejudiced, and frank appraisal of the important contribution which the Czechoslovak nation made to the history of our time in its two decades of independence between two world wars," Philip Hrobak took the book under close scrutiny in order to examine its merits. Characteristically, he read it with balanced judgment and undertook a detailed search into the allegations that were made in the volume by the twenty collaborators who wrote their ideas into it. He made pertinent notes, comments and a record of his explanations and refutations. Subsequently, every issue of Slovakia from v. V., 2-3 (15-16) June-Sept. 1955 to v. VII, 3-4 (24-25) Sept.-Dec 1957 carried part of Hrobak's chapter by chapter analysis (through all 23 chapters) under the heading: "Professor 46 SLOVAKIA Kerner's CZECHOSLOVAKIA: History or Propaganda?" He granted, in all fairness, that the twenty writers who had contributed to the composite work were not necessarily dishonest or prejudiced but he did not yield the point that they had become Czech propagandists exporting established Masaryk-Benes theories at the expense of the Slovaks and their national history. In pointing out the errors and misconceptions of these writers and in refuting their specious theses, Hrobak could hardly help becoming occasionally vehement. It was in his very nature to be less than tolerant of that long standing tendency to relegate the Slovaks to second place or to no place at all, and this bias had again appeared through the pages of Kerner's work. It was part of Hrobak's scholarly conditioning that made him at least impatient with inept history that distorted authentic records and shaped a narrative fashioned to its own devising. In his refutations of error, both in this case and on other occasions, Hrobak set the record right by controverting claims that were all too easily made for an easy and ready acceptance. He did this by tracing his facts to prime sources for reference and documentation: He was especially skillful in drawing upon arguments and statements from Czech sources and authorities and he was often able to use this matter in order to substantiate his arguments and to confound some contemporary writers of history who had a way of misrepresentating facts. Nor was he above ridicule when the conditions were patently offered to invite ridicule. He had an instinct for examining promises made and conditions underscoring events that transpired in order to contrast them with promises honored and promises forgotten as well as with the aftermath of events that were shaped by the hard realities of circumstances. Summing it all up, he was a fearless and formidable adversary in the arena of fact vs. fiction, truth vs. deception. And in this encounter he did not shrink from handling the rhetoric and the claims of an entire collective force of writers not merely a single author. This was his consistent line of action. When it came to dealing with a denial of truth or with historic distortions, he did not stop to assess the odds. With him there were no SLOVAKIA 47 prohibitive odds when truth and justice were to be vindicated. There was only a matter of conscience and professional ethics to be heeded. Fired with this spirit and singlemindedness of purpose, Hrobak worked on tirelessly. From his editorial office in Middletown he steadfastly waged his crusade in the press. One can see why he indefatigably set out to flay injustice and denounce "the synthetic Czechoslovak state," why he castigated the execution of President Tiso as political murder and judicial murder, why he was preoccupied with the cause "history or propaganda?" as well as with the futility of efforts to fuse the Slovak and the Czech nations into one impossible amalgam, why he was concerned with matters of Church and state. Very often the choice of expression that appears either in his own work or in the writing of his contributors reflects the depth of his own feeling and betrays its real measure of intensity. Note these phrases by way of example: Benes "King of political cheats;" the " Russia first" boys in RFE; how the Czechs deceived us; intrigues and t he entrapment of individuals; Czechoslovak pseudo-democracy; the machinations of Czech Socialists . . . But Hrobak was by no means a hidden away recluse of some kind bound to his editorial desk. Besides being a gifted journalist and editor, he was also a dynamic fraternalist and a forceful lecturer. Through outstanding personal participation he became the soul of many a significant national movement especially through the Slovak League of America, the Matica Skolskd (Foundation to promote schooling and education) and the Priatelia slovenskej slobody (Friends of Slovak freedom). He distinguished himself as the motivating force in the Slovak League and, if figures are telling indicators of any kind, it is worth noting that within two years after he accepted the presidency of this organization, its membership increased by two thousand. After the guiding leadership of Hrobak had succeeded in establishing the Washington Office of Information, Dr. Joseph Mikus, the talented diplomat who headed this agency, made of it an invaluable department for public relations. Further, a notable program of sixty film showings 48 SLOVAKIA was received with widespread appreciation. More importantly still, various committees of the U.S. Congress charged with investigating the denial of rights under totalitarian aggression heard the testimony and an exposition of Slovak history from Philip Hrobak and gave attentive hearing to the testimony.of a number of Slovak witnesses who appealed against the situation behind the iron curtain. This series of sessions gave American officials in Washington a realistic representation of the sufferings to which a number of countries were being subjected in central Europe. It also provided a formal documentation of tactics that were enslaving the Slovak people. There was a special American subcommittee before which depositions were made about conditions in Slovakia and after these hearings, the full reports were printed in a publication titled Investigation of Communist Takeover and Occupation of Poland, Lithuania and Slovakia. Through the Washington Office of Information and the dynamism of Philip Hrobak excellent rapport was established with a number of American congressmen and statesmen who came to understand and feel for the plight of the Slovak people in their homeland. In 1954 Congressmen Kersten and Bentley openly manifested their interest in the Slovak cause. In 1955 Vice President Nixon expressed the sympathetic feeling of the administration in a written message that was addressed to the 34th congress of the Slovak League of America. In 1956 Secretary of State Dulles received an eight-member delegation of the Slovak League led by Philip Hrobak and engaged in animated discussion of vital topics with them. Philip Hrobak worked on and on with boundless devotion. It was very fitting then, that this dedication and wholehearted service was recognized when a public presentation of honor was made to him in 1957 in the course of the golden jubilee of the founding of the League. A special committee of Slovak leaders singled him out for the award designated as the Hlinka Cup. This was an unusually high honor, for the Hlinka Cup was a trophy which had never before been bestowed upon American soil. The address of presentation was made by Dr. Joseph M. Kirschbaum in recognition of Hrobak's merits as president SLOVAKIA 49 of the Slovak League of America, as an eminent and intrepid editor of Jednota and Slovakia, as an outstanding champion in American Slovak life, as the compiler of a grammar and a dictionary and "because with his aggressive elan, his perseverance and fearlessness both as a journalist and as an organizer, he personifies the finest qualities that had endowed not only :Cudovit stur (a leading patriot), but also the first recipient of the cup, Andrew Hlinka." In 1961 another public honor was conferred on Philip Hrobak. This was the Charles IV Award or Karl's Prize that was presented to him by the Sudeten German Council of West Germany. It is a recognition that is awarded annually to a political leader, scientist or publicist who has made an outstanding contribution to the concept of a United Europe. The ceremonies were held in Cologne on Sudeten German Day, May 20, with over 200,000 Sudeten German expellees participating. Mr. Hrobak responded to the honor with a glowing address titled "Self Determination for All." His words bespoke the aspirations and the innermost feelings of Sudeten Germans as well as of the Slovak people and other victims of self-rule denied under the crushing force of communism. Among other Americans who participated in this observance were U.S. Congressmen Morgan D. Moulder, Gordon H. Scherer, Roy A. Taylor, and Henry C. Schadeberg. Willy Brandt, the mayor of Berlin, and several other Sudeten German leaders also delivered addresses. In these numberless events and situations we cannot fail to see the greatness of Philip Hrobak as an American and Slovak patriot, as a man of ideals and of forceful action, as a fraternalist and an organizer but we must not overlook his stature as a man of God also. It must never be forgotten that Hrobak served God at least as well as he served his nation and his fellow man. Religious principles and obligations had first place in his life and his life style. All his zeal and purpose was rooted in the law and the love of God; his spending of self on behalf of others was within the Christian concept. He was as ready to promote and defend Christian virtue and idealism as he was to crusade for national honor and welfare. Although his days were incredibly crowded with constant activity, 50 SLOVAKIA he did not put God in second place in his personal life. As a teacher and educator, he was aware of the importance of Catholic schools. As a parent, he was solicitous about a genuinely Christian atmosphere in the home and true religious training in the family. As a journalist, he faithfully promoted the interests of the Church and ethical principles. That was the reason why he combated the atheistic and the Away-from-Rome! attitude that was being sponsored by some leaders in Czecho-Slovakia. As 1963 was moving in on the calendar, Philip Hrobak prepared copy for a special issue of Slovakia and for the Jednota publications that he managed and edited. Out of regard for the Christian heritage of the Slovak people, he began to prepare to honor the 1100th anniversary of the mission of SS. Cyril and Methodius to Great Moravia and the Christianization of the Slovak nation. The annuals that he prepared for this occasion became a kind of crown of excellence that climaxed his literary and scholarly output and gave singular expression to his religious devotion as well. Truly, as we review the life and the accomplishments of Philip Hrobak who would have been seventy years old this year, we have reason to thank God for his idealism and example, and we are impressed and inspired by this great man's patriotism, his scholarship, his leadership and his personal dynamism. Sr. Martina Tybor, SS.C.M. THE FAMOUS Slovak folk-dance group, "Lucnica," from Bratislava returned from a 6-weeks' tour of several South American. countries. The 47-member company represented the current silver jubilee ensemble. Lucnica was organized in 1948. THE HIGH TATRAS in Slovakia last year attracted 2 and ½ million tourists. An even larger number was expected in 1974.  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Philip A. Hrobak (1907-1964) Description An account of the resource Sr. Martina Tybor, SS.C.M. Slovakia, Vol. 24 (No. 47), 1974 pp. 36-50 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Tybor, Sister M. Martina, SS.C.M. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1974 name https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/6d5187cb90418d8e7b5d34192f288914.pdf caf227434c407417333eb8efe42359c7 PDF Text Text 78 SLOVAKIA Philip A. Hrobak �SLOVAKIA 79 PHILIP A. HROBAK (May 1, 1904 - January 10, 1964) We were witnesses to honors paid to Philip A. Hrobak ... in life ... and in death. The dynamic Jednota editor for a quarter of a century performed gigantic tasks with devotion and courage. Father of nine, he extended his work far beyond his immediate family circle to the Slovak family scattered around the world. To characterize "Phil" (as he was known affectionately to his closest friends ... who were many) as a dedicated man is, in his case, an understatement, for the range of hi,s activities inspired by the hollowed motto of the Jednota, "Za Boha a narod," reached to the far corners of the globe, wherever his fellow Slovak countrymen foU!Ild a new home. A crusader for truth and justice, and stout-hearted champion of the Slovak nation's right to a free, democratic, self-governing state in a country that his ancestors inhabited since the 5th or 6th century after Christ, "Phil" was an ideal editor whose vision never clouded, whose zeal did not dimiiilish, and whose hopes never dimmed despite insurmountable odds -arrayed against a cause that was sacred to him until his untimely death. We, who knew 'Phil' and loved him for his genial personality, ,long admired his magnanimity of spirit, and grasped his hand in warm friend.shiip over the years, renew our pledge to remain true to our common heritage, the sacred legacy of faith and freedom to which he dedicated a lifetime of service and devotion. An American Slovak, Philip A. Hrobak, who enjoyed the freedom we all enjoy in our beloved America, was not content to treat this great democratic gift (taken for granted by so many) with complacency. He understood both the letter and the spirit of American freedom and sought to have its meaning become a reality in the oppressed land of the Slovak forefathers. Hence, his relentless drive to have this message heard and acted upon in the councils of the �80 SLOVAKIA United Nations where the destinies of nations are determined . . . that he and his colleagues so far have not succeeded is no fault of theirs. But some day that Message must be heard, for God placed the aspiration to liberty in the heart of every man; and every nation that He created has the right to freedom. In life 'Phil' wore his honors lightly but gratefully. In death the outpouring of so many of his friends was proof of a living testimony of esteem, affection and high regard for a man who was dedicated to noble ideals of faith and freedom under God. The presence of an overflow congregation and thirty Slovak priests at the funeral Mass offered up by one of his closest friends, Abbot Theodore Kojis, O.S.B. . . . the moV'1ng eulogy by both Msgr. Milos Mlynarovich and the Rt. Rev. Abbot ... the heartfelt singing of Requiem Mass by the Benedictine priest and clerics . . . the attendance of his fellow Supreme Officers of the First Catholic Slovak Union, as well as Supreme Officers of the fraternal organizations, such as the Zenska Jednota, the Pennsylvania Slovak Catholic Union and others ... the Slovak League of America headed by Dr. Peter P. Hletko, M.D., president . . . all these external manifestations of respect betoken ia deep and abiding love for one of the greatest American Slovak leaders of all time. Slovakia's lllational freedom, for which Hrobak fought indefatigably, and with such flaming courage, will sureiy come ... and the establishment of a free, Slovak state in the heart of Europe will one day witness the Slovak nation's tribute to the memory of a truly great American Slovak. Rev. Andrew Pie.r, O. S. B. "The Slovaks are not only the oldest Slovanic inhabitants of the Danube Basin, but also the oldest cultured nation on the middle Danube." - Philip A. Hrobak �SLOVAKIA 81 WHO WAS HROBAK? The answers to this question were eloquently and beautifully phrased in a number of immortal quotes from two eulogies at the Requiem Mass for Philip A. Hrobaik at SS. Cyril and Mtheodius Church, Lakewood, Ohio, on January 15, 1964. Taken from Msgr. Milos Mlynarovich's sermon: "Today a new and eternal light shines on our Slovak heaTth and in the Church, for Philip, our departed brother, was a shining light of virtue throughout his life ... and 1110w in death his immortal memory remains an inspiratioin of faith and devotion for the ages." "He was a devoted husband, a kind father, a fearless champion of the oppressed Slovak nation, a crusader for truth amd justice, a faitJhful member of the Jednota and a fine leader of the Slovak League of America. More than that ... he ~as a man of God, an outstanding Catholic layman." Taken from Abbot Theodore Kojis eulogy: "A good and faithful servamt he now has his reward from Almighty God. As an excellent teacher, a brilliant writer and author, a good family man, but above all Philip Hrobak was an exemplary Christian leader. We thank God for having given us suoh a man whose star now shines ilil the heavens as a guiding light to all of us." "A g,r eat nation hooors its great men. How much more should we, tJhe proud descendants of a small nation, honor a man who in his lifetime battled with unbowed head against great odds. Never once did he admit defeat. Truly a great warrior has fallen. We strongly believe he has won everlasting glory as we, the living, pay 1h omage to his memory." Philip A. Hrobak died in the Harrisburg Hospital January 10, 1964 at 12 :55 P. M. Philip A. Hrobak, Editor-illl-Chief of the Jednota weekly, official pub1ication of the First Catholic Slovak Union in MiddletoWlll, Pa., was born in Cleveland, Ohio, on May 1, 1904. He received his early elementary education in St. Wendelin's prurochial school and continued at the Jednota Home in Middletown, Pa. His high school and college education was completed under the Benedictine in St. Procopius Academy and St. Procopius College, Lisle, Ill. After teaching there �82 SLOVAKIA from 1924 to 1927, he continued his studies at New York University, where he was also an associate teacher during his postgraduate course of training. In 1929 he went to Cleveland where he was a teacher at Benedictine High School for 8 yearis. He taught Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics, Latin, Slovak and other subjects, amd was for a number of years football coach. Since 1937 after his election as Jednota editor, Hrobak was editor-in-chief of the Jednota weekly which has a circulation of 40,000. Moreover, from 1950 to 1962 he was president of the Slovak League of America, and from 1962 was a member of the executive cvommittee. In edition to his regular weekly duties of editing the Jednota newspaper Phi1ip Hrobak edited the Kalendar (annual); the Furdek amnual, (since 1961); the Slovak Newsletter (official publication of the Slovak League); Slovakia, a cultural, political, social and 'historical annual publication since 1950. The latter is a rich source of material on Slovak history, people, customs, etc. Besides, he was the author of a num ber of Slovak language textbooks, grammars and English-Slovak dictionary. As an authority on the Slovak people and their history here aind their homeland, Philip Hrobak published numerous articles in both English and Slovak. He was married to Rose Jasko on August 26, 1931, in Lakewood, Ohio. Mr. and Mrs. Philip A. Hrobak had nine children: Philip, Jr., Rosemary, Stephen, Joann, Robert, James, Mary Lou, Michael and Joseph. He is also survived by six grandcliildren, by a brother Michael amd a sister Maria. Philip Hrobak belonged to the following societies: First Catholic Slovak Union, First Catholic Slovak Ladies Union, Slovak League of America, Slovak Catholic Federation, Elks, Moose; he was also a member of the Slovak Institute in Cleveland, Ohio, iand was the first American Slovak leader to receive the Hlinka silver award (1957). In Slovak circles Philip Hrobak was considered to be one of the outstanding leaders in education, journalism, fraternal and national affairs, as well as an exemplary Catholic layman whose contribution to the Church and the country are immeasurably great. � 78 SLOVAKIA Philip A. Hrobak �SLOVAKIA 79 PHILIP A. HROBAK (May 1, 1904 - January 10, 1964) We were witnesses to honors paid to Philip A. Hrobak ... in life ... and in death. The dynamic Jednota editor for a quarter of a century performed gigantic tasks with devotion and courage. Father of nine, he extended his work far beyond his immediate family circle to the Slovak family scattered around the world. To characterize "Phil" (as he was known affectionately to his closest friends ... who were many) as a dedicated man is, in his case, an understatement, for the range of hi,s activities inspired by the hollowed motto of the Jednota, "Za Boha a narod," reached to the far corners of the globe, wherever his fellow Slovak countrymen foU!Ild a new home. A crusader for truth and justice, and stout-hearted champion of the Slovak nation's right to a free, democratic, self-governing state in a country that his ancestors inhabited since the 5th or 6th century after Christ, "Phil" was an ideal editor whose vision never clouded, whose zeal did not dimiiilish, and whose hopes never dimmed despite insurmountable odds -arrayed against a cause that was sacred to him until his untimely death. We, who knew 'Phil' and loved him for his genial personality, ,long admired his magnanimity of spirit, and grasped his hand in warm friend.shiip over the years, renew our pledge to remain true to our common heritage, the sacred legacy of faith and freedom to which he dedicated a lifetime of service and devotion. An American Slovak, Philip A. Hrobak, who enjoyed the freedom we all enjoy in our beloved America, was not content to treat this great democratic gift (taken for granted by so many) with complacency. He understood both the letter and the spirit of American freedom and sought to have its meaning become a reality in the oppressed land of the Slovak forefathers. Hence, his relentless drive to have this message heard and acted upon in the councils of the �80 SLOVAKIA United Nations where the destinies of nations are determined . . . that he and his colleagues so far have not succeeded is no fault of theirs. But some day that Message must be heard, for God placed the aspiration to liberty in the heart of every man; and every nation that He created has the right to freedom. In life 'Phil' wore his honors lightly but gratefully. In death the outpouring of so many of his friends was proof of a living testimony of esteem, affection and high regard for a man who was dedicated to noble ideals of faith and freedom under God. The presence of an overflow congregation and thirty Slovak priests at the funeral Mass offered up by one of his closest friends, Abbot Theodore Kojis, O.S.B. . . . the moV'1ng eulogy by both Msgr. Milos Mlynarovich and the Rt. Rev. Abbot ... the heartfelt singing of Requiem Mass by the Benedictine priest and clerics . . . the attendance of his fellow Supreme Officers of the First Catholic Slovak Union, as well as Supreme Officers of the fraternal organizations, such as the Zenska Jednota, the Pennsylvania Slovak Catholic Union and others ... the Slovak League of America headed by Dr. Peter P. Hletko, M.D., president . . . all these external manifestations of respect betoken ia deep and abiding love for one of the greatest American Slovak leaders of all time. Slovakia's lllational freedom, for which Hrobak fought indefatigably, and with such flaming courage, will sureiy come ... and the establishment of a free, Slovak state in the heart of Europe will one day witness the Slovak nation's tribute to the memory of a truly great American Slovak. Rev. Andrew Pie.r, O. S. B. "The Slovaks are not only the oldest Slovanic inhabitants of the Danube Basin, but also the oldest cultured nation on the middle Danube." - Philip A. Hrobak �SLOVAKIA 81 WHO WAS HROBAK? The answers to this question were eloquently and beautifully phrased in a number of immortal quotes from two eulogies at the Requiem Mass for Philip A. Hrobaik at SS. Cyril and Mtheodius Church, Lakewood, Ohio, on January 15, 1964. Taken from Msgr. Milos Mlynarovich's sermon: "Today a new and eternal light shines on our Slovak heaTth and in the Church, for Philip, our departed brother, was a shining light of virtue throughout his life ... and 1110w in death his immortal memory remains an inspiratioin of faith and devotion for the ages." "He was a devoted husband, a kind father, a fearless champion of the oppressed Slovak nation, a crusader for truth amd justice, a faitJhful member of the Jednota and a fine leader of the Slovak League of America. More than that ... he ~as a man of God, an outstanding Catholic layman." Taken from Abbot Theodore Kojis eulogy: "A good and faithful servamt he now has his reward from Almighty God. As an excellent teacher, a brilliant writer and author, a good family man, but above all Philip Hrobak was an exemplary Christian leader. We thank God for having given us suoh a man whose star now shines ilil the heavens as a guiding light to all of us." "A g,r eat nation hooors its great men. How much more should we, tJhe proud descendants of a small nation, honor a man who in his lifetime battled with unbowed head against great odds. Never once did he admit defeat. Truly a great warrior has fallen. We strongly believe he has won everlasting glory as we, the living, pay 1h omage to his memory." Philip A. Hrobak died in the Harrisburg Hospital January 10, 1964 at 12 :55 P. M. Philip A. Hrobak, Editor-illl-Chief of the Jednota weekly, official pub1ication of the First Catholic Slovak Union in MiddletoWlll, Pa., was born in Cleveland, Ohio, on May 1, 1904. He received his early elementary education in St. Wendelin's prurochial school and continued at the Jednota Home in Middletown, Pa. His high school and college education was completed under the Benedictine in St. Procopius Academy and St. Procopius College, Lisle, Ill. After teaching there �82 SLOVAKIA from 1924 to 1927, he continued his studies at New York University, where he was also an associate teacher during his postgraduate course of training. In 1929 he went to Cleveland where he was a teacher at Benedictine High School for 8 yearis. He taught Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics, Latin, Slovak and other subjects, amd was for a number of years football coach. Since 1937 after his election as Jednota editor, Hrobak was editor-in-chief of the Jednota weekly which has a circulation of 40,000. Moreover, from 1950 to 1962 he was president of the Slovak League of America, and from 1962 was a member of the executive cvommittee. In edition to his regular weekly duties of editing the Jednota newspaper Phi1ip Hrobak edited the Kalendar (annual); the Furdek amnual, (since 1961); the Slovak Newsletter (official publication of the Slovak League); Slovakia, a cultural, political, social and 'historical annual publication since 1950. The latter is a rich source of material on Slovak history, people, customs, etc. Besides, he was the author of a num ber of Slovak language textbooks, grammars and English-Slovak dictionary. As an authority on the Slovak people and their history here aind their homeland, Philip Hrobak published numerous articles in both English and Slovak. He was married to Rose Jasko on August 26, 1931, in Lakewood, Ohio. Mr. and Mrs. Philip A. Hrobak had nine children: Philip, Jr., Rosemary, Stephen, Joann, Robert, James, Mary Lou, Michael and Joseph. He is also survived by six grandcliildren, by a brother Michael amd a sister Maria. Philip Hrobak belonged to the following societies: First Catholic Slovak Union, First Catholic Slovak Ladies Union, Slovak League of America, Slovak Catholic Federation, Elks, Moose; he was also a member of the Slovak Institute in Cleveland, Ohio, iand was the first American Slovak leader to receive the Hlinka silver award (1957). In Slovak circles Philip Hrobak was considered to be one of the outstanding leaders in education, journalism, fraternal and national affairs, as well as an exemplary Catholic layman whose contribution to the Church and the country are immeasurably great. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1964, Vol. 14 Description An account of the resource Vol. 14 (No. 37), 1964. 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 1964 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 78 SLOVAKIA Philip A. Hrobak SLOVAKIA 79 PHILIP A. HROBAK (May 1, 1904 - January 10, 1964) We were witnesses to honors paid to Philip A. Hrobak ... in life ... and in death. The dynamic Jednota editor for a quarter of a century performed gigantic tasks with devotion and courage. Father of nine, he extended his work far beyond his immediate family circle to the Slovak family scattered around the world. To characterize "Phil" (as he was known affectionately to his closest friends ... who were many) as a dedicated man is, in his case, an understatement, for the range of hi,s activities inspired by the hollowed motto of the Jednota, "Za Boha a narod," reached to the far corners of the globe, wherever his fellow Slovak countrymen foU!Ild a new home. A crusader for truth and justice, and stout-hearted champion of the Slovak nation's right to a free, democratic, self-governing state in a country that his ancestors inhabited since the 5th or 6th century after Christ, "Phil" was an ideal editor whose vision never clouded, whose zeal did not dimiiilish, and whose hopes never dimmed despite insurmountable odds -arrayed against a cause that was sacred to him until his untimely death. We, who knew 'Phil' and loved him for his genial personality, ,long admired his magnanimity of spirit, and grasped his hand in warm friend.shiip over the years, renew our pledge to remain true to our common heritage, the sacred legacy of faith and freedom to which he dedicated a lifetime of service and devotion. An American Slovak, Philip A. Hrobak, who enjoyed the freedom we all enjoy in our beloved America, was not content to treat this great democratic gift (taken for granted by so many) with complacency. He understood both the letter and the spirit of American freedom and sought to have its meaning become a reality in the oppressed land of the Slovak forefathers. Hence, his relentless drive to have this message heard and acted upon in the councils of the 80 SLOVAKIA United Nations where the destinies of nations are determined . . . that he and his colleagues so far have not succeeded is no fault of theirs. But some day that Message must be heard, for God placed the aspiration to liberty in the heart of every man; and every nation that He created has the right to freedom. In life 'Phil' wore his honors lightly but gratefully. In death the outpouring of so many of his friends was proof of a living testimony of esteem, affection and high regard for a man who was dedicated to noble ideals of faith and freedom under God. The presence of an overflow congregation and thirty Slovak priests at the funeral Mass offered up by one of his closest friends, Abbot Theodore Kojis, O.S.B. . . . the moV'1ng eulogy by both Msgr. Milos Mlynarovich and the Rt. Rev. Abbot ... the heartfelt singing of Requiem Mass by the Benedictine priest and clerics . . . the attendance of his fellow Supreme Officers of the First Catholic Slovak Union, as well as Supreme Officers of the fraternal organizations, such as the Zenska Jednota, the Pennsylvania Slovak Catholic Union and others ... the Slovak League of America headed by Dr. Peter P. Hletko, M.D., president . . . all these external manifestations of respect betoken ia deep and abiding love for one of the greatest American Slovak leaders of all time. Slovakia's lllational freedom, for which Hrobak fought indefatigably, and with such flaming courage, will sureiy come ... and the establishment of a free, Slovak state in the heart of Europe will one day witness the Slovak nation's tribute to the memory of a truly great American Slovak. Rev. Andrew Pie.r, O. S. B. "The Slovaks are not only the oldest Slovanic inhabitants of the Danube Basin, but also the oldest cultured nation on the middle Danube." - Philip A. Hrobak SLOVAKIA 81 WHO WAS HROBAK? The answers to this question were eloquently and beautifully phrased in a number of immortal quotes from two eulogies at the Requiem Mass for Philip A. Hrobaik at SS. Cyril and Mtheodius Church, Lakewood, Ohio, on January 15, 1964. Taken from Msgr. Milos Mlynarovich's sermon: "Today a new and eternal light shines on our Slovak heaTth and in the Church, for Philip, our departed brother, was a shining light of virtue throughout his life ... and 1110w in death his immortal memory remains an inspiratioin of faith and devotion for the ages." "He was a devoted husband, a kind father, a fearless champion of the oppressed Slovak nation, a crusader for truth amd justice, a faitJhful member of the Jednota and a fine leader of the Slovak League of America. More than that ... he ~as a man of God, an outstanding Catholic layman." Taken from Abbot Theodore Kojis eulogy: "A good and faithful servamt he now has his reward from Almighty God. As an excellent teacher, a brilliant writer and author, a good family man, but above all Philip Hrobak was an exemplary Christian leader. We thank God for having given us suoh a man whose star now shines ilil the heavens as a guiding light to all of us." "A g,r eat nation hooors its great men. How much more should we, tJhe proud descendants of a small nation, honor a man who in his lifetime battled with unbowed head against great odds. Never once did he admit defeat. Truly a great warrior has fallen. We strongly believe he has won everlasting glory as we, the living, pay 1h omage to his memory." Philip A. Hrobak died in the Harrisburg Hospital January 10, 1964 at 12 :55 P. M. Philip A. Hrobak, Editor-illl-Chief of the Jednota weekly, official pub1ication of the First Catholic Slovak Union in MiddletoWlll, Pa., was born in Cleveland, Ohio, on May 1, 1904. He received his early elementary education in St. Wendelin's prurochial school and continued at the Jednota Home in Middletown, Pa. His high school and college education was completed under the Benedictine in St. Procopius Academy and St. Procopius College, Lisle, Ill. After teaching there 82 SLOVAKIA from 1924 to 1927, he continued his studies at New York University, where he was also an associate teacher during his postgraduate course of training. In 1929 he went to Cleveland where he was a teacher at Benedictine High School for 8 yearis. He taught Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics, Latin, Slovak and other subjects, amd was for a number of years football coach. Since 1937 after his election as Jednota editor, Hrobak was editor-in-chief of the Jednota weekly which has a circulation of 40,000. Moreover, from 1950 to 1962 he was president of the Slovak League of America, and from 1962 was a member of the executive cvommittee. In edition to his regular weekly duties of editing the Jednota newspaper Phi1ip Hrobak edited the Kalendar (annual); the Furdek amnual, (since 1961); the Slovak Newsletter (official publication of the Slovak League); Slovakia, a cultural, political, social and 'historical annual publication since 1950. The latter is a rich source of material on Slovak history, people, customs, etc. Besides, he was the author of a num ber of Slovak language textbooks, grammars and English-Slovak dictionary. As an authority on the Slovak people and their history here aind their homeland, Philip Hrobak published numerous articles in both English and Slovak. He was married to Rose Jasko on August 26, 1931, in Lakewood, Ohio. Mr. and Mrs. Philip A. Hrobak had nine children: Philip, Jr., Rosemary, Stephen, Joann, Robert, James, Mary Lou, Michael and Joseph. He is also survived by six grandcliildren, by a brother Michael amd a sister Maria. Philip Hrobak belonged to the following societies: First Catholic Slovak Union, First Catholic Slovak Ladies Union, Slovak League of America, Slovak Catholic Federation, Elks, Moose; he was also a member of the Slovak Institute in Cleveland, Ohio, iand was the first American Slovak leader to receive the Hlinka silver award (1957). In Slovak circles Philip Hrobak was considered to be one of the outstanding leaders in education, journalism, fraternal and national affairs, as well as an exemplary Catholic layman whose contribution to the Church and the country are immeasurably great.  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Philip A. Hrobak (May 1, 1904-January 10,1964) Description An account of the resource Rev. Andrew Pier, O.S.B. Slovakia, Vol. 14 (No. 37), 1964 pp. 78-82 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Pier, Andrew W., 1910-2003 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1964 name https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/7477e5a1a94b14d12344c3c38915c93f.pdf 4fae2823cf5ff5e42d36e0e20e1e2faf PDF Text Text 92 SLOVAKIA 2021 PICTURING A NATIO SLOVAK DOCUMENTARY FILM FROM ITS BIRTH UNTIL NICHOLAS 1950 1 HUDAC " Bude Slovak, cim bol medzi narodami'- to bola veta, s ktorou nasi otcovia vstavali a lihali, to bola veta, kotra hybala ich mysliami natol'ko, ze sa v6bec nehybali. Bolo, teda bude, bude i vtedy, ked' budeme len vylihovat'." Alexander Matuska 2 One of the fundamental aims of early Slovak mass produced images 3 (cinema, lithography, and photography, among other media) was to document and catalog the ethnic, geographic, and social uniqueness of the Slovak Lands. This essay intends to trace the influence of the importance of these media in the early 20th century for Slovaks, namely, non-fiction filmmaking, and its connection with Slovak populations not just in what would become Slovakia, but also in communities abroad- primarily in America. While foreign artists typically came to Slovakia to draw inspiration from its rugged countryside and colorful fo lk costumes, Slovak photographers, engravers, and ethnographers often saw their artistic missions as a way to build a Slovak nation through the documenttation, codification, and repetition of symbols common in a geographical location where historically no " Slovak" nation had ever existed . Although Slovak photographers and engravers enjoyed modest success in the 19th 1 This artic le was made possibl e with the support of the Univerzita Karl ova and has bee n undertaken with additional support from the their Progres QI 2 Initiati ve for Literature and Performance. Ta studie vznikla v souvislosti s fesenim programu rozvoje vyzkumu UK Progres Q12 Literatura a performativita. 2 MATUSKA, Al exander, "S love nska viera v minul osti ," in : C HM EL, Rudolf, ed., Slovenskti ottizka v 20. storoci (Bratis lava : Kalligram, 1997), 12 1. Unl ess noted otherwi se, a ll tra nslati ons are my own. 3 For more on the mass-produced image, see: HUDAC, icho las, " Picturing th e ati on: Slovak Nati onal Identity in the Age of the Mass Produced Image," PhD. Di ssertati on, Uni verzit a Karlova, 2020. �SLOVAKIA 2021 93 century, 4 their mediums were soon displaced in the cultural consciousness by the rise of another mass-produced medium, cinema, which provided several boons for the documenttarian . It combined the best qualities of its predecessors : fidelity to the referent image, affordability, durability, transportability, with a novel qualitymotion. This was a new, " lifelike" or "shadowy" 5 quality (to borrow Maxim Gorky's infamous tum of phrase). First, cinema recorded motion. This made it possible to expand the ethnographic activities of Slovak activists in order to capture more aspects of "traditional" culture, ranging from regional dances to the mechanical workings of various implements in Slovak handicrafts. Secondly, cinema also provided the illusion of objecttivity, a quality which could be more easily manipulated to form national and ethnic sentiments. Thirdly, cinema was understandable without any form of specialized training, or in the words of Karel Plicka- "understandable to any people of any country." 6 Lastly, cinema, as one of the first "new" mediums of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, functioned as a source of national and ethnic pride and a vehicle for showing a region's progression into " modernity." In this paper I will first explore how these earlier documentary media contributed to the rise of Slovak documentary filmmaking in the 20th century, and then examine the impact of this tradition . However, as tempting as it would be to think of documentary film (and by extension, the aesthetics of documentary and ethnographic film) as separate from other genres of cinematic expression, for Slovak filmmakers , documentary film proved to be one of the most essential foundations for the building of a national aesthetic, whose presence could be found within a variety of genres and subgenres. Slovak documentary films (as well as certain documentary films about 4 As noted by Macek and Hrubis incky, despite Slovakia's attractiveness for photographers, it lagged behind the Czechs, Austrians, and Hunga rians in the development of both avenues for amateur photographers to disp lay thei r work, and formal training. For more on thi s see: MACEK, Vaclav, and HR UB ISINSC KY Aurel, Dejiny slovenskej fotografie (Bratislava : Slovenska narodna galeria, 200 I), 12- 13. 5 GORKY, Maxim, "The Lumiere C inematograph" in : Si mpson, Philip, et al., Film Theory: Critical Concepts in Media and Cultural Studies. Vo l. III (New York: Routledge, 2004), 7-8 . 6 PLICKA, Karel, "Poznamky o filme - moznosti ac h a ulohach s lovenskych filmov," Slovenske poh/'ady, September 15, 1934, p. 593. �94 SLOVAKIA 2021 Slovakia produced by Czechs) were not merely reportage, but also an evolution of the same aestheticization and stylization of rural life which so captivated the early ethnographers, albeit with new influences and innovations drawn from various domestic and foreign avant-gardes and aesthetic movements. As we shall see, this repetition of personages, of landscapes, of fo lk culture or traditions, continued through Slovak fiction and animated films, working as both a metacommentary on larger issues of national and regional identities, and as a connecting thread , linking these films of different genres and ideological expressions back to a common foundation. ln most parts of the Western World, documentary, fiction , and non-documentary early film developed simultaneously and concordantly . Early filmmakers immediately realized (in the words of Bill Nicho ls), " film 's capacity to document the world around us." 7 However, documentary films about Slovakia and its people preceded any variety of domestic Slovak filmmaking by several decades, owning to several unique internal factors ; Slovakia's relatively impoverished economic situation, its isolated rural communities, and the relative lack of an educated, culturally-Slovak middle class in the Slovak Lands during the period of cinema's birth and global introduction (e.g. from 1895 to roughly 1905 8). This meant that, while cinema was known in Slovakia, this new medium was chiefly an urban and scientific phenomenon, and thus developed quite differrently in the Slovak Lands than in other neighboring regions. Un like the Czechs, who rapidly embraced this new technology and were soon developing their own domestic cinema industry, Slovak film production remained (at best) sporadic until the end of World War II , frequently dependent on Czech and American financing , talent, and interest for the production of films for a Slovak audience. However, while Slovakia's lack of cinematic infrastructure resulted in the delayed development of a Slovak national cinema, this a lso made the area highly desirable as a destination for documentary filmmakers 7 NICHOLS , Bill , " Documentary Film and the Modernist Avant-Garde," in Critical lnquirv 27, no. 4 , Summer, 200 I, p. 580. 8 Again, while actualites and trave l films of Slovakia were produced during thi s period of early film , Slovakia ' s lack of cinematic and cultural infrastructure seems to have resulted in a lack of both cinematic modernism and a cinematic avant-garde as is more commonly found in other Western film culture. See: NICHOLS , " Documentary Film and the Modernist Avant-Garde," p. 580 �SLOVAKIA 2021 95 from outside of the Slovak Lands, if not Slovaks themselves. Although urban Slovaks encountered film roughly at the same time as their Czech brethren to the west, the unique gestation and development of cinema in Slovakia deserves at least a cursory explanation. The first public exhibitions of cinema occurred in 1896, almost a full year after the new technology's unveiling in Paris, when, on December 16th, in Kosice's Hotel Schalkaz, local theatre director ~udovit Szalkay arranged for a demonstration of Edison's cinema technology to the public "at great financial sacrifice."9 On December 25th cinema made its debut in Bratislava (then Pressburg), when it was unveiled to the public in two local hotels- the Hotel Palugyay and the Hotel Kral' Uhorska. These projections were mostly silent, but according to eyewitnesses, they were also accompanied by an Edison phonograph on two occasions. 10 But despite these exhibitions, cinema remained confined to the major urban centers of Kosice and Pressburg/Bratislava, and even in those it was often uneasily tolerated. Early cinema projections were subject to intense governmental regulations, 11 and in 1912, the Press burg city government declared that cinema was "negatively" impacting the public. 12 Cinematic exhibitions and cinemas also faced opposition from the Roman Catholic clergy and laity, 13 who saw the technology as a sign of"moral decline" among the youth, 14 and the Hungarian theatrical community who often saw the newer, cheaper medium in a threatening Iight. 15 Despite this public opposition to the new media, cinema was not entirely absent from public life in the Slovak Lands- instead, it was merely curtailed, limited to a handful of cinemas in Bratislava and Kosice. Because of this, cinema production in the Slovak Lands was limited again to foreign or amateur producers, and little attempt was 9 MACEK Vaclav, PASTEKOVA, Jelena, Dejiny slovenskej kinomatografie (Martin : Osveta, 1997), 7. JO ibid. JI ibid. 12 ibid. 13 It is worth comparing the very simi lar opposition to cinema's development and expa nsion that developed in Czech Moravia at roughly the same time . For more on this see: HASAN, Petr, "' Neslusny a nevkusny ti Im nemuze byti krasnym '. Kato licka akce, struktury katolickeho tabora ajejich pusobnost na poli kinematografie v ceske m prostfedi prvni poloviny 20. stoleti," in: /1/uminace, I, 2016 . 14 MAC EK and PASTEKOVA, Dejiny s/ovenskej kinomatogrcifie, 17. 15 MACEK and PASTEKOVA, Dejiny slovenskej kinomatografle, 13. �96 SLOVAKIA 2021 made to make the medium accessible in both smaller locales, or in Slovak. I.I SUBJECTS NOT AUTHORS: THE EARLY YEARS OF SLOVAK NON-FICTION FILMMAKING Although film originally received a hostile reception from various social circles in the Slovak Lands, films were made during cinema's early decades, and many of these early films fell under the criteria of what David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson termed "actualities," or films showing an event from real life, and "scenic," 16 crude travelogues designed to showcase exotic places or striking vistas. While cinema started later in the Slovak Lands, by the early 20th century Slovakia had become a destination for Hungarian directors, mainly associated with companies in Budapest 17 who were interested in filming glimpses of Slovakia's mountains. In February of 1908, the Apollo theatre in Bratislava debuted one of the first recorded scenics/actualities set in Slovakia, Wintersport im Tatralomnicz/Zimny sport v Tatranskej Lomnici. 18 A few months later the Apollo's competitor, the Elektro-Biskop cinema projected a series of panoramic scenes as part of their Welt-Panorama special, which included two more films shot in distinctively Slovak locations: Die Hohe Tatra/ Vysoke Tatry and Tur6cz-Szt.-Marton/Turciansky Svaty Martin, as part of its travelogue series. 19 Travelogues, the close cousins of the scenic genre, were a popular genre of early film making, one which attempted to provide a replication or approximation of the traveling experience for audiences hungry for new sensations, as well as a more frugal way of "experiencing" a location for a cash-strapped audience. These films were often accompanied with lectures 20 or packaged as part of a longer cinematic experience, designed to replicate the idea of a larger trave l holiday, albeit condensed into on ly a few minutes. Although these early Slovak travelogues have been 16 BORDWELL, David, and THOMPSON, Kri stin , Film Histo,y : An Introduction (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1994), 12-13 . 17 MACEK and PASTEKOVA., Dejinyslovenskej kinomatografle. 18-19. 18 "Tagesneuigkeiten!" Pressburger Zeitung. February 5, 1908, p. 2 19 "Elektro-Bioskop nur im Hotel ' zum gri.inen Baum ' in Pozsony, Program vom 14. bis 2 1 Marz," Pressburger Presse, March 16, 1908, p. 5. 20 PETE RSON , Jennifer Lynn, "Travelogues" in : Abel, Rich ard, ed., The Encyclopedia of Early Film (London, New York: Routledge, 2005), 640-3. �SLOVAKIA 2021 97 lost, we can reasonnably infer what the experience wou ld have been like by surviving examples of the genre: travelogues were " highly kinetic ," "educational," and positioned as a morally and intell ectuall y healthy a lternative to the salacious or lascivious aspects of other, lesswholesome early films. While these travelogues, actualiti es, and sceni cs were originall y niche productions for audiences located far away from Slovak communities, they nonetheless sti ll largely adhered to the progression of ea rlier Slovak mass-produced images. In the first place, these travel films were essentially a new means of packaging, commodifying, standardizing, and commerciali zing the experience of being in the Slovak Lands, without having to travel and without the politically and socially divisive barrier of language. Secondly, we can clearly tell from the context in which these films were exhibited (e.g. only in the urban centers of Pressburg and Kosice, advertised through the nonSlovak press, and in cinemas that were attached to areas frequented by travelers, the upper classes, and tourists) that these films were again consumed by an Austro-Hungarian audience, not necessarily a "Slovak" one - much as the earl y engravings and lithographs of the Slovak landscape were enjoyed primarily by non-Slovak audiences first, and Slovak audiences later. Lastly, much as ethnographic lithography and photography were rapidly adopted by Slovaks as a means of preserving, codifying, and distributing visua l examp les of Slovak cu ltural identity, as we shall see in the next sections, the rationale behind these sceni cs and travelogues (name ly, that film shou ld give an impression of life in Slovakia, rather than a purely narrative structure) would later be embraced by both non-fiction and fiction filmmakers alike. 1.2 THE BEGIN NINGS OF SLOVAK DOCUMENTARY CINEMA After the dissolution of Austria-Hungary in 19 18, Slovaks suddenly fo und themselves, not just as a rural curiosity in a large empire, but the second largest Slavic partner in the newly-fonned Republic of Czechos lovakia. No longer subjects to the stringent censorship laws and the Magyarization policies of the former Kingdom of Hungary, film (as with other forms of mass-produced images) began to expand. Movie theaters grew in number (from three in the �98 SLOVAKIA 2021 early 1900s to 84 by the end of Austria-Hungary,2' and increasing to 153 by the end of the First Republic) and size, appearing all over the Slovak Lands, and not just in Kosice and the newly re-named Bratislava. Furthermore, while theaters had once been limited to showing a handful of Hungarian or Austrian films in Bratislava and Kosice, distributors throughout Slovakia began adding Czech, American, and German films 22 to their theaters, though these often met with resistance from more nationalist groups. 23 Unfortunately, this rapid infusion of new cinematic experiences, techniques, and choices did not necessarily result in Slovaks developing their own cinema industry. Throughout the First Republic, Slovakia remained primarily a destination for filmmaking, but with a few minor exceptions, there would be no Slovak documentaries produced by a Slovak director until well into World War II. However, documentary film was indeed expanding in Slovakia, again often along the same ethnographi c, folkloric , or scenic and, again also widely produced by non-Slovak academics such as the Czech directors, Vladimir Uh lela and Karel Plicka as part of a broader, Czechoslovak agenda. Both Plicka and Uhlela saw their documentary productions as a means of integrating Slovaks into the cultural life of Czechoslovakia, through cultivating an aesthetic appreciation for the fo lkl oric and rural aspects of Slovak culture in non-Slovak audiences, a lbeit in very different ways. Furthermore, directors were officially funded through both government sources, as well as the Matica slovenska, and as a result both sought to bring these traditional aspects of Slovak visual cu lture into a Czecho-Slovak cultural space. In his career as an ethnographer and a photographer, Karel Plicka was concerned with producing works of art which could bridge the growing divide between Czech and Slovak audiences. Plicka 's photographic, ethnographic, and musicological output was prodigious, and from the late 1920s onwards he began a second (or third or fourth career) as a documentary filmmaker in Slovakia and in Slovak MACEK and PASTEKOV A, Dejiny slovenskej kinomatografie, 597-8. Advertisements for the Kino Palace and Kino Meteor in Banska Bystrica. for example, show both American films and German films on their programs as early as 1928; larger cinemas in Bratis lava and Kosice had, of course, made international progra min g a staple of their repertoires from the very beginning . 23 " Potreba naprvy vo filmovej produckii a predvazdani filmov. Dockame sa v Kosic iach viacerych domacich ti lmov?" Slo vensky v_1ichod, January 24, 1933 , p. 3 . 21 22 �SLOVAKIA 2021 99 communities abroad. Starting with l 928's Za slovenskym /'udom, Plicka approached Slovak culture through the lenses of his earlier work as a musicologist and a photographer, meticulously documenting the exotic aspects of Slovak (and to a lesser extent, Rusyn) culture for Czech, Slovak, and international audiences. Like many early film directors, Plicka had little to no formal training, relying on his amateur knowledge of photography and supplementing this with his learned or natural talent as an ethnographer. For Plicka, this Slovakia, as of yet only barely codified and recognized as a political or social sphere, contained a wealth of information which needed to be documented: On my trips after Slovak folksongs , I came to many lesser known and even forgotten areas, to which almost 'no one' had ever come up until then . No one, or rather, hardly anyone except those with open eyes and trained ears. It ' s no wonder. Ethnographic Slovakia is a vast and extensive world, and there never will be enough of those who could satisfy the need to write down, draw , and photograph this richness.24 Although Plicka was wary of the mechanical " ripping" of folk songs and images from living performances into mechanized fossils, he soon embraced the advantages of these modern technologies. He began to experiment with film starting in the mid- I 920s as a "documentary tool for ethnographic and folkloric events," 25 which could satisfy, if not all of his documentary impulses, at least most of them. Although the Matica slovenska and Plicka had worked together numerous times on his ethnographic photographical and musicological expeditions throughout Slovakia, the organization felt that a movie camera was necessary for the broadening of their efforts in the young Czechoslovakia. 26 Archival records in Matica slovenska show that Plicka obtained a Pathe movie camera in the spring of 1926 in Prague, 27 where he learned to use the new tool; only a few months 24 PLICKA , Karel , " Ako sme filmov ali," S/ovenske poh/'ady. April I , 1930, pp. 215- 16 25 LAC KOVA , Sy lvia, LEXMANN , Juraj , and SLIVKA Martin , eds., Karol Plicka vo fl/m ove) faktografii, (Brati slava: S loven sky film ovy ustav , 1983), 36. 26 KRC M ERY , Ste fan , Tri rol..y Matice slovenskej I 924- 1926 (Turc iansky sv. Martin: Matica slovenska, 1927), 8-9. 27 PLIC KA , Karol. Co rres pondence. Coll ected in: LAC KOVA , Sl yv ia, LEXMANN , Juraj , and SLIVKA Martin , Karol Plicka vo jilmovej f i:1ktogra/ii, 187. �100 SLOVAKIA 2021 later, Plicka wrote to Matica slovenska to arrange the local permissions and cooperation necessary to start his cinematic work, saying: Please send a message immediately to inform the schools in Zliechova, and in Kosecke Rovne, as well as the parish office in Zliechova, that the ethnographic department of Matica Slovenska proposes to, after a number of days/starting from the 14th of this month, to start working there, and to: record songs, photograph, and to film scenes, which the Zleichovans demonstrated in Trencianske Teplice. Matica Slovenska requests moral support for this significant work in these historic villages." 28 In much of 1926, 1927, and 1928, Plicka traveled through Slovakia (primarily in the Liptov and Orava regions popularized by the pioneering ethnographic artists Pavol Sochan and Peter Michal Bohun), recording film footage, as well as continuing his other ethnographic activities. The resulting film Za s/o venskym f'udom was received with great fanfare in the Slovak community on both sides of the Atlantic. Slovaks in America marveled at Plicka's ethnographic ambition, noting that the film was a "powerful piece of cultural propagation," which was "very sympathetically accepted by all of the Slovak and even Czechoslovak public."29 The nationalistic daily Slovak praised the film as "something that is worthwhile for the part of our public, which does not have the possibility to see all the treasures of our national spirit,"30 while the more centrist Slovensky dennik labelled the ft Im "the loveliest surprise of the year" and thri lied at seeing Slovaks on the screen "where one is accustomed to seeing nowadays only the sorrows and joys of other nations ."3 1 The film combined not only Plicka 's photographic talent (indeed many of the scenes depicted on film were also photographed for Plicka's and Matica slovenska's later use) for finding the abstract patterns in the Slovak countryside with the athletic and physical prowess of hi s subjects, who dance traditional dances and display feats of strength while dressed in various traditional regional kroje. 28 Ibid. "Rok kulturnej prace," Ynungstownske slovenske novivny. May 3, 1929, p. 3 30 " Film za slovenskym l'udom ," Slovak (Bratislava), March I, 1929, p. 4. 31 "Za slovenskym l'udom," Slovensk_)1dennik (Bratislava), March 14, 1929, p. 6. 29 �SLOVAKIA 2021 101 Za s/ovenskym /'udom was funded largely by Matica slovenska, which experienced a resurgence of popularity and importance following the dissolution of Austria-Hungary. Matica slovenska's mission of preserving, codifying, and unifying Slovak culture internally as well as internationally, meshed with Plicka 's own natural urges to record and transmit. A second well-received documentary about highland Slovaks titled Po horach, po dolach followed in l 929, which received an even wider domestic release than Plicka's first film, as well as winning pri zes in international film and photographic competitions in 1932. Like Za slovenskym /'udom, Po horach, po dolach was also funded by Matica slovenska, and featured much of the same style and content as Plicka's debut film , and was shown to a wider variety of audiences, including Czechs. 32 By the early 1930s, Plicka had begun producing documentari es for both Matica slovenska and private concerns, such as an informative non-fiction quasiadvertisement for the town of Piest'any 's famous medicinal baths and mud treatments. Furthermore, his films were beginning to be utilized by American Slovak organizations like Jednota, the Slovak League of America, and others as a means to educate American Slovaks about their cultural heritage as well as the benefits of Slovak ethnic identity.33 Plicka 's most famous film might be considered to be his 1933 paean to Slovakia, Zem spieva, which combines scenes of rural Slovak folklore and traditional dress along with intertitles by the Slovak poet and translator Jan Smrek. Curiously, although Plicka was an early proponent of the ethnographic and educational possibilities of sound film, he elected to set the film to an impressionistic score by the Czech composer Frantisek Skvor, despite declaring that sound film as a medium is the " the ideal documentation" 34 in an interview with his collaborator Smrek only a few years earlier. Whil e Plicka 's early work 32 MALINA, Vladimir, "O moznostiach slovenskeho zvukoveho filmu ," Elim. November, 193 1. 33 See: CU LEN , Kon stantin, S/ovaci v Amerike: crty z kulturnych dejin (Tuciansky Sv. Martin: Matica slovenska, 1938) as we ll as ALEXANDER , June Granatir, Ethnic Pride, American Parriorism: Slovaks and Orher New Immigrants in rhe lnren var Era (Ph ilade lphia: Templ e Unive rsity Press, 2004). 34 SMREK, Jan, "O praci pre zac hovanie l'udovej piesne: rozhovor s jej znalcom a vasnyvim sbera tel'om Karlom Plickom," £/an: mesiacnik pre literaruru a umenie, March , 1933, p. 5. �102 SLOVAKIA 2021 was often mere documentation for the sake of preservation , Zem spieva is an expansion of Plicka 's more experimental photographic vision. Plicka takes the viewer on a musical and vis ual trip through Slovakia's wild mountains, not for the sake of scientific observation, but to experience the poetic essence of Czechoslovakia ' s most exotic locales. As Bill Nichols noted in his essay "Documentary Film and the Moderni st Avant-Garde," what separated interwar documentary film from mere reportage like newsreel s, was its artistic pretensions. 35 While the First Republic was full of newsreel s documenting world events and cultural phenomena from exotic locales, Slovakia included, Zem spieva represented two complimentary, yet different intentionsthe first was to continue to raise, on the one hand Czech appreciation and awareness of Slovak cu lture, whi le simultaneously allowing Slovaks an opportunity to have their own culture valued on equal standing with the more "sophisticated" and dominant Czech culture. Zem spieva 's modernist influences are most strongly fe lt in its theoretical conception and execution . While the film is a "sound" film in terms of its technical composition with Skvor' s pre-recorded soundtrack , the film ' s formal structure adheres more closely to the avant-garde experimentation of the late silent film era, featuring no diagetic sound or dialogue, and only intertitles explaining the significance of the scenes. 36 This suited Plicka, as he explained in his 1932 article "Poznamky o filme moznostiach a ulohach slovenskych filmov": Slovak films will be sound films , since today, unfortunately, it is impossible to make any other kind. But they will certainly not be I 00% dialogue film s, perhaps thanks to the producers, but an arti stic and commercial error. In the interest of internationali sm, it will be necessary to curb dialogs and really, the entire weight which bears the influence of the theatre, will have to be limited to the most modest, if not reduced entirely for that matter, in order to make the film as understandable as it was at its happi est, when it was silent. This mostly applies to the Slovak situation ; we will not be able to afford many films on ly for ourselves. It is better to 35 NI C HOLS, Bill, " Doc umentary Film and th e Modernist Avan t-Garde," Critical ln- qui,y . Vol. 27, No. 4, Summer, 20 11 , p. 588. 36 LAC KOVA. , Slyvia, LEXMANN, Juraj, and SLIVKA Martin, eds., Karol Plicka vo.filmovej.faktografii (Bratislava : Slovensky filmo vy ustav, 1983), 89 . �SLOVAKIA 2021 103 produce little, but except that which is thoughtful and valuable. 37 Although such an approach to sound design was dec idedly archaic (even in 1933),38 Plicka was, in some se nse, correct: this decision paradoxically increased Zem spieva 's international appeal. On the one hand, the relegation of the Slovak language within the film to small, easily digested intertitles meant that the film was easily accessible to Slovak populations in the United States, whose command of the language might have been fossilized or had languished through the process of assimilation. 39 On the other hand, the focus on the more purely abstract visual and musicological aspects of Slovak folk culture allowed the film to function as " poetry," without the di straction or potential friction of Slovak dialogue, an abstraction that also allowed the film to represent various different "S lovakias" for different audiences. While the American Slovaks rejoiced in finding a poetiziation of their ancestral homeland, Slovakia's most exotic and access ible qualities, such as its visual splendor, its vital folk culture, and its melodies, were easily absorbed by outsiders who did not require any specialized linguistic skill to appreciate them. Additionally, Plicka' s long-time editor, the Czech avant-garde photographer and filmmaker Alexandr Hackenschmied, was instrumental in reshaping the narrative structure of the film through his assured editing style, and via his suggestion that Plicka shoot additional introductory and ending footage. 40 Hackenschmied was born into a family of academics in Prague, and hi s childhood in the (then) industrial neighborhood of Karlin gave him ample opportunity to visit the numerous cinemas around that part of the city, 41 sowing the seeds of hi s great interest in film and photography. Following his high school graduation, Hackenschmeid bega n hi s architectural studies, but found himself drawn more strongly to cinema and photography, and 37 PLICKA , Karel , " Poznamky o filme - moznostiach a ulohach slovenskyc h filmov," S/ovenske poh/'ady, September 15, 1934, p. 593 . 38 For more on the problems of sou nd films in Slovak ia during the interwar period, see my Ph .D. dissertation . HUDAC, Nicholas, " Picturing the Na ti on: Slovak National Identity in the Age of the Mass Produced Image," Univerzita Karlova , 2020. 39 C.f. CU LEN, Konstantin, Slovaci V Amerike. 40 ANDEL, Jaroslav, Alexandr Hackenschmied(Praha: TORST, 2000), 29. 41 BROZ, A /exander Hackenschied (Praha: Ceskoslovensky filmovy ustav, 1973 ), 202 1. �104 SLOVAKIA 2021 various global avant-gardes active in the 1920s and 1930s, such as the work of Man Ray, the Soviet LEF group, Dziga Yertov, and more.42 While Hackenschmied was active in photographic circles from his student days, starting in 1930 he began to make his own films . More than a film enthusiast and a future film editor- he was a film theorist, a photographer, and a filmmaker himself, deeply concerned with the possibilities of montage and form . Hackenschmeid began editing Zem spie va in Prague in 1932, but completed the final cut after Plicka returned from additional shoots in Slovakia with more footage . In a conversation with Martin Sli vka, one of his former students, Plicka recounted his views on the finished product: What do I want Zem spie va to say via film? I would be happy if it was approached without interpretation . It deals with Slovakia as unknown as well as beautiful: the theme of the film is the lives of people in a village and their holy relationship to nature. As the film ' s subtitles suggest, Zem spieva is a cinematic poem celebrating precious traditions; it should be evidence of an enchantingly pure manifestation of life, which is so simple, yet so important. And the film shows a world in which our fathers ' healthy and precious heritage has, by some miracle, been preserved in some regions until today.',4 3 In this sense, Plicka' s intentions for Zem spie va represent an inversion of the earlier ethnographic assumptions that ethnographic subjects are worthy of documentation because of the interesting-yettlawed nature of their ancient practices. Instead, in both the content of Zem spie va and in his comments to the press, Plicka explicitly rejects the predominant political push by Czech (and some Slovak) political and cultural authorities to modernize and industrialize Slovakia .44 Rather, the film's premise is a twist on the time-honored modernist 42 BROZ, Alexander Hackenschied, pp. 2 1-22. SLIVKA , Martin , Karol Plicka. hasnik obrazu (Martin: Vydavatel'stvo Osveta, 1982), 175. 44 Although a compl ete accounting of th e industriali zation debate regarding Slovaki a is beyond th e scope of thi s arti c le, see, for example, MATULA, Antonin, " Dvacatyosmy fij en," in Ceska osveta: /isl venovan_y zajmum vdejneho knihovnictvi a organisaci lidoveho vzdelani. September, 1938, Vol. 35 , No. I, pp. 5-7; and HA VLiCE K, V., " Narodni problem Slovenska," in Nase doba: revue pro vedu. umeni a i ivo/ socia/ni, November, 1933, Vol. 41 , No. 2, pp. 68-73. 4 .1 �SLOVAKIA 2021 105 tradition of the city symphony, a genre of early avant-garde filmmaking practiced by directors such as Walter Ruttmann and Dziga Vertov, which sought to translate the immense vitality and activity of an urban space to the reproducible and distributable form of cinema as a celebration of modern industrialization and urbanization. While not every audience member could afford a trip to Berlin or Moscow, a city symphony provided an impressionistic vision of such urban locales that could satisfy the longings for new visual stimulation and locations for a reasonable price. Plicka ' s vision for Zem spieva followed a model similar to Ruttman's and Vertov's films , yet inverted. For the price of a mere ticket, audience members could journey away from Bratislava, deep into the wild Slovak mountains, where a visual feast of dancing, ethnic clothing and stunning vistas awaited them, accompanied with rapturous song. Although Zem spie va was produced under the auspices of Matica slovenska, the old vanguard of Slovak national sentiment and as part of a series of governmental programs to promote Slovak culture in the Republic, not all Slovak activists were thrilled by Plicka' s aims or the resources devoted to its production. As an anonymous letter in the Slovak periodical Nastup declared: When we think about our devastated Slovakia's economic ruin, about the misery of our Slovak people, the overwhelming question mark which stands before our Slovak intelligentsia is about the misery and scarcity at every step and yet on the other hand, we are making our sole Slovak film 'The Earth Sings,' and between these two, we clench our teeth and deeply sigh. Yes, we sing! But the stomach doesn't sing, it whines .45 Still other Slovak critics noted that, despite Slovakia's reliance on foreign producers and directors focusing on "a narrow slice of Slovakia in Czech films" 46 represented, as Stefan Hoza wrote in Kinorevue, a promising step forward , (the film ' s lack of Slovak financing notwithstanding) giving hope that Zem spieva would usher in a new era of Czech and Slovak films about Slovakia.47 Other Slovak 45 Nastupi sta od Zvolena [pseudonym] "Zem spieva ... " Nastup, March 15, 1935, p. 10. 46 HOZA, Stefan , "Hovom1e o slovenskom film e a - o moznostiach ," Kinorevue, Vol. I, No. 30, March 20, 1935, p. 5. 47 HOZA , Stefan , "Hovorme o slovenskom filme a - o moznostiach," p.6. �106 SLOVAKIA 2021 intellectuals argued amongst themselves as to whether or not Zem spieva counted as ethnographic reportage,48 nationalist "gyc," or a lyrical and stylized portrayal of Slovakia's essence, as Vlado Clementis argued in 1933 49--{;learly not all of Plicka 's artistic experimentation was received in earnest. Perhaps the best sign of the film 's Czechoslovak intent was how vociferously it was condemned on the grounds that Plicka himself, as a non-Slovak, was not qualified to make such a film. Although Czech critics often saw the film as a wonderful celebration of the venerated narodni dilo tradition, the Czech public, on the other hand-especially the fickle Prague audiences, at least according to the press, were not interested in Zem spieva, because of the lingering effect of the "Slovak question" (the repeated calls for Slovak autonomy) had poisoned the well of Czecho(Slovak) culture in the mind of the ordinary Prazak.50 As the Czech critic Jaroslav Broz wrote: We had anticipated that, because, in thi s day and age, when the Slovak question is such a burning domestic political problem of our state, a film about Slovakia would be especially welcomed and raise the interest of the public. But we were sadly disappointed. The numerical balance sheet of the premiere of Plicka 's film in Prague is a sad document of the cultural ignorance of the Prague public. 5 1 Although the film failed to find an audience in the larger Czech metropoles, Zem spieva 's international release and distribution meant that the film was often seen by American Slovaks, "who follow with great interest anything done in Slovakia," 52 and who turned it into both a means of expressing ethnic pride in multicultural American cities, while also using it as an educational tool for non-Slovaks and Slovaks alike. It is, thus, fitting that the artistic ambition of Plicka's last film was most appreciated in American circles, where the Slovak question was either a whispered query among ethnic boosters in a neighborhood 48 TUMA, J., "Zem spieva, ale o cem?" Tvorba. November 9, 1933 . CLEMENTIS, Vladoj "Je Plickov film folkloristickym gycom?" DAV. Vol. I, No. 10, p. 149. 50 SM REK, Jan , "Vel'kost a bieda jednoho vit'azstva," Elim. ovember, 1933 , p. 8. 51 Ibid. 52 GETTING , Milan , "O Slovensku treba prednasat' i Americanom anglickeho jazyka," S/o vensky dennik. September 4, 1935, p. I. 49 �SLOVAKIA 2021 107 bar or forgotten entirely in the multicultural din of American cities. While economic anxiety and nativist sentiment in some comers of Slovak society muted the film 's reaction among hardline nationalists, Zem spieva was warmly received in other areas not just as an artistic achievement, "something that does not have an analog in global [film] production," 53 as the Czech daily Lidove noviny called it, but as an educational tool. It would show the Czech population that Slovak culture could transcend its reputation for provincialism. Furthermore, Slovak cultural groups in America and the Czech Lands scheduled screenings, sometimes with Plicka 's participation in the case of the latter, as a means of promoting Czechoslovak unity. Although the film was shown fairly regularly in the 1930s, it was nearly lost entirely during World War 11 when the original negatives were destroyed by fire in 1944; afterwords, an imperfect and incomplete copy was salvaged from a positive negative in 1945. Zem Spieva was a mixed success in Czechoslovakia, but, perhaps more importantly, it was a striking critical success among avant-garde circles in America and Europe. There, Zem spieva was shown not only at Czech and Slovak ethnic theaters and events, but also in more mainstream settings, such as at the 1934 Venice Biennale, where Plicka was awarded the City Cup of Venice for Best Director. American Slovak institutions were likewise more enthusiastic audiences for Plicka's films . A feature in the Youngstownske slovenske noviny, written by Matica slovenska's Jozef Cincik, considered Zem spieva living history, which captured "the most important moments in Slovak life." 54 Unlike America, whose foundational historical moments were dead and only experienced in museums, Cincik argued that in Zem spieva "we Slovaks have captured in this picture and its subject, all of the moving, speaking, and sounds of music on film for our descendants, everything that Americans will never be able to capture of their own history for themselves." 55 In other words, Zem spieva was able to codify, and solidify, foundational moments in Slovak history and make them available to the entire nation- similar in many regards to the original aim of ethnographic 53 JEZE K, S., "Zem spieva," Lidove noviny , October 27, 1933, p. 16. CINCi K, Jozef, "O filme Zem spieva," Youngtownske slovenske noviny, February 14, 1936, p. 2. 55 Ibid. , p. 2. 54 �108 SLOVAKIA 2021 photography, albeit with a greater power to preserve, to fix in time, and to replicate. The relative success of the film encouraged Matica slovenska to again provi de Plicka with funding and resources for his next featurelength fi lm, I 936's Za Slovakmi od New Yorku po Mississippi. While Zem spieva focused on Plicka's attempts to bring the rhythms and visuals of life in the Slovak highlands to a diverse, urban audience in Czechoslovakia as part of building a modernist Czechoslovak culture, Za Slovakmi instead focused on Slovak expatriate communities and Matica slovenska's activities in America, as Plicka documented the arrival of three of the organization's top officials (Jozef CigerHronsky, Jozef Cincik and Kon stantin Culen,) to the United States in 1936, and the ways in which the ethnographic mission of Matica slovenska was replicated in America. Often considered "only reportage" 56 by Czech and Slovak film critics, this film was not widely shown in Czechoslovakia; however, it did receive a release in America via fraternal and civic American Slovak organizations such as the Slovak Catholic Sokol, and the First Catholic Ladies Slovak Association, another sign of the strong cultural interchange between Slovaks in Czechoslovakia and those in America, which lasted up until World War II . Although Plicka is more widely known today, in terms of contemporary historiography of Slovak film , Vladimir Uh lela was another colleague of Plicka whose personal history bears many simi larities to Plicka 's own. Uhlela was born in Vienna in 1888, studied physiology and botany in Prague and Strassbourg, and, after receiving his doctorate, he became enamored with the possibilities of film after being exposed to it through his postgraduate research.57 After a stint in military pri son during World War I for being a "dangerous Panslavist," 58 Uhlela was released, served honorably, and then returned to Czechoslovakia where he became both an academic in Brno, and a public intellectual. He acted as the science editor for lidove Noviny, as we ll as contributing to numerous other publiccations. Like Plicka, Uh lela was a passionate devotee of folklore, 56 NAVRATIL, Antonin, Ceslv k pravde ci Ii i: 70 lei ceskoslovenskeho dokumenlcirniho filmu (Praha: Akademie muzic kyc h umeni v Praze, 2002), 5 1. 57 STOLL, Martin, et al., Cesky.film: reiisefi - dokumen/arisle (Praha : Libre. 2009), 587-8. SN Ibid. �SLOVAKIA 2021 109 collecting songs and documenting folk culture, not only in Moravia, but in Slovakia as well. Although a well-known popularizer of science in the popular media (including in cinema as well as in print), in the early 1930s, Uhlela devoted himself to making ethnographic films , focusing especial ly on the borderlands between Moravia and Slovakia, where Slovak communities thrived in the mountains . Although Uh lela made several smaller films on ethnographic themes such as Slovacka pisen and Slovacka svatba, he is best known for his full-length ethnographic drama/documentary Mizejici svet/ Miznuci svet shot and released in 1932. Alth ough the film has many ethnographic moments featuring Moravian Slovak villagers from the locations it was shot in, the film is a romantic drama at its core, as it fo ll ows the troubles of a young Czech ethnographer, Stana Homa, who has come from Prague to a small vi ll age on the border of Moravia and Slovakia to document the inhabitants' customs, songs, and kroje (folk costumes). As young Stana becomes more enthralled with the village and a certain young vi ll ager, she finds herself integrating more and more into vi ll age li fe, until the arrival of her friends from Prague shatter the dream. Despite her attempts to become fully integrated into vi ll age life, the vi ll age and its inhabitants vanish, leaving the young ethnographer standing in the middle of an empty room, alone. At its heart Mizmici svet represented, in many ways, a fundamentally Czechoslovak approach to " traditional" Slovak culture, where the dividing line between Slovak and Czech is one not necessarily of language or ethnicity, but of a rural-urban divide. Despite its ethnic ambiguity, the Slovak press praised the film, especially on its visual merits, and eagerly considered it one of their own. Slovenska krajina enthusiastically complimented the film's "beautiful kroj" as "a treat for the eyes," 59 whereas Slovensky dennik enjoyed the film, but negatively compared it to the works of Plicka, saying that, if it were not for Plicka's film , " [Mizmici svet] will most likely be cons idered our first folkloric film , which has no antecedent." 60 Even the stoutly nationalist and famously anti-Czech Slovak grudgingly approved of parts of the film , even though 59 MAZEL, 8. , "Zo prazskeho tyzdna "S/ovenska Krajina, November 22, 1932, p. 2. "Plickov film' Po Horach, po dolach' a Matica Slov.," S/ovensky dennik, November 13 , 1932, p. I. 60 �110 SLOVAKIA 2021 "[ Miznuci svet] does not manage to overcome Plicka's Slovak film of this kind ," it was a sound film , "which captured the disappearing life of Slovak villages on the Moravian border" and the scenes "where the swift life of the majestic lads is best illustrated through dance." 61 The contrast between Uhela's and Plicka's visions was further intensified following its debut in 1932, as a review of Zem spieva in Slovensky dennik praised Plicka's film via a backhanded swipe at Miznuci svet, saying "Zem spieva isn't one of those films which are constructed with cold calculation, inorganically loaded down with so called natural or ethnographic ' action' shots, as was, for example, in the distracting moments in the otherwise superb Miznuci svet, "62 intensifying the competition between the two most prominent Slovak-themed films of the early 1930s. Although Plicka's films were heavily influenced by the Modernist leanings of the Czech avant-garde and Bauhaus, Uh lela's film was in many ways, a different aesthetic experience. Since Plicka 's background in photography meant that he often preferred immaculately composed static shots, with an emphasis on the geometrical patterns he so often found in the Slovak countryside, the collective footage shot by Otakar Schutz, Jan Calabek, Josef Sti'echa, and Josef Buzek used in Miznuci svet is often frenetically active, soaring and zooming around the landscape like a bird, and calling to mind (as the reviewer in Slovak contemptuously pointed out) the "Soviet" 63 influences of the film. Montage sequences also abound throughout the film , repeating shots of the countryside, the growth of plants, the changing of seasons- the very same subjects which were often found in Plicka 's photographic and cinematic work, only viewed through the lens of a different approach to cinematography. However, despite their differences of setting and their treatment of other external cinematic factors, such as sound, Plicka's films and Uhlela's lone ethnographic feature film do share several simi larities. Both films revolve around the allure of leaving civilized, urban environments and reconnecting with older traditions in the countryside. Furthermore, these films sought to break free of the rigid 61 "Film - Mizniici svet. " Slovak, April 5, 1933, p. 5. BALLO, Iva n, "Zem spieva (o prvom slovenskym film e zvukom)," Slo vensky dennik. January I 0, 1933, p. 3. 63 "Film - Mizniici svet. "Slovak. April 5, 1933, p. 5. 62 �SLOVAKIA 2021 111 trappings of purely ethnographic films in a variety of ways: through the hybridization of genre (e.g. Zem spieva 's mixture of the ethnographic film with elements of the city symphony genre, or Miznuci svet 's combination of non-fiction ethnography and fictional melodrama), by incorporating a variety of techniques from Czech or international avant-gardes such as montage and geometrical compositions, and by creating an impressionistic portrait of the experience of Slovakia without relying on the objective aims of scientific film making. And paradoxically, despite their attempts at creating "Czecho-Slovak" Slovak films, or film s about Slovaks and Slovakia within the context of a unified Czechoslovak nation, both directors were, in many ways failures at creating films that transformed their own personal aestheticizations of the Slovak experience into a more unifying one; Plicka 's films were embraced only among Slovak communities at home and abroad as well as among a select group of the urban Czech cultural elite, whereas Uhlela's film languished in obscurity on all fronts- neither Slovak enough for the Slovak nationalists, nor exotic enough for an urban Czech audience. 1.3 FASCISM AND THE RISE OF DOMESTIC SLOVAK PRODUCTION While nationalistic mass-produced images favored by both foreign ethnographers and Slovaks themselves could quickly be repurposed to promote various political ideologies, documentary film was no exception. With the growing support of the Hlinka Slovak People's Party (HSPP), in the mid-to-late 1930s, the Czecho-Slovak interests in Slovakia (most elegantly embodied in Plicka 's documentary and pedagogical work) found themselves under attack by Slovak nationalists. Indeed, many hardliners took offense at the prominence of Czech and foreign directors producing films about Slovakia and for Slovaks, or alternately ignoring the Slovak market altogether, despite the fact that Czech cinemas and cinema production companies were far more numerous, successful, and better-funded. 64 As a result, on November 4th, 1938, members of the ruling HSPP began to purge not only foreign influences (such as Soviet cinema) from Slovak movie theaters, but also began to initiate a broader range of policies which would eventually forbid Jews, Czechs, and other 64 MACEK Vaclav, PASTEKOVA., Jelena, Dejiny slovenskej kinomatografie (Martin : Vydavatel'stvo Osveta, 1997) 74. �112 SLOVAKIA 2021 minont1es from owning, operating, or participating in the Slovak cinema industry,65 with th e notable exception of a handful of stateapproved Czech directors and cameramen like Eugen Mateicka and Bohus Havranek. 66 In order to satisfy the need for cinema, the Slovak government appealed for outside help in order to replace the technical knowledge and talent driven away or excluded by its policies. In addition to receiving aid from film organizations in Vienna, Berlin, and elsewhere, the Slovak Republic set up three organizations for making non-fiction films : Nastup (which produced primarily weekly newsreel s), Skolfilm (which produced educational films) , and Luc (a film monthly company which produced primarily cultural films .)67 These organizations were respon sible for producing nearl y all of Slovak non-fiction films before 1950. While many of the prominent non-Slovak fi gures in early Slovak cinema such as Karel Plicka were driven out of Slovakia during thi s period, a handful of Slovak directors such as Pal'o Bielik were able to continue, openly and sometimes covertly, the cinematic process started by Plicka. Bielik (who rose to fame playing the infamous bandit Juraj Janosik in Martin Fric 's 1935 film of the same name), along with other young S lovak filmmakers in the late First Republic, had mostly learned their craft through either their time in the fi lm industry as actors (in the case of Bielik) or through studyi ng with Plicka and other instructors at (or loosely affiliated with) the Brati slava-based School of Applied Arts. This was a revolutionary institution which featured instruction not just in photography and filmmakin g, but also graphic design , painting, advertising, typogramphy, and textile design .68 However, regardless of their background, th e young Slovak filmmakers quickly found themselves actively constrained by government and industrial censorship, which sought to exorcise the " dangerous" elements harmful to the Slovak nation from Slovak cinematic production . In practice, this meant not only purging 65 HA AKOVA, Petra, " Proticeska agenda s lovenskeho filmu 1939- 1945 ," in : Minoriry a.film (Bratislava: Asociacia slovenskyc h filmovych klubov, 20 12), 46. 66 HANAKOV A, Petra, Palo Bielik a slovenska fi lmova kulllira ( Bratislava: Slovensky filmov y ustav, 20 I0). 49. 67 MIHA.LIK , Peter, Vznik slovenskej narodnej kinemarogra/ie / 896- 1948 (Bratislava : Kabinet divadlo a filmu Slovenskej akademi e vied, 1994), 94. 68 MOJZISOVA, Iva, "Avant-Garde Repercussions in the Schoo l of Applied Arts in Bratislava 1929- 1939, Journal of Design Histaty, Vol. 5, No. 4, 1992. p. 273. �SLOVAKIA 2021 113 Slovak cinema of the thematic and formal innovations imported from abroad, but also eliminating the influences of a trio of dangerous domestic ingredients namely the "Czech-Jewish-Bolshevik"69 influence. Nearly all of the official cinematic output during the short-lived Slovak Republic seems to have focused solely on two non-fiction fronts- periodic newsreels depicting the activities of the Slovak troops in World War n, and so-called " kultume filmy ," or "cultural films ,"70 which were an evolution of the pre-war ethnographic films (often influenced as well by Weimar and Fascist-era German nationalist film s), 7 1 designed to promote a se nse of Slovak nationalism and patriotism. The roots of these cultural film s can be traced back to the 1930s, with the rise of ethnographic feature films like Zem spieva. However, unlike Plicka 's work, little attention was paid to making an ethnographically accurate recording of Slovak life; rather, these cultural films were to celebrate an idealized "S lovakia," which never wholly existed. On November 5, 1934, the "S polok priatel'ov kulumeho filmu na Slovensku" was formed in Bratislava. It sought, as part of its educational mission, to establish "cinemas only for cultural film" in Bratislava and to coordinate with a wide circle of Slovak cultural organi zations throughout Slovakia to make " cultura l film s an accessory in the upbringing of children and uplifting the public." 72 In addition to being an educational tool , Slovak nationalists also saw film as a means to transcend the stereotypes of Slovakia as "a beautiful, but poor, land where life is very primitive"73 that had been established in prior ethnographic and documentary work . A second, less-frequently articulated goal (at least not publicl y) was to "make Slovak film production at least as well-regarded as those done by other bigger nations." 74 Finally, the drive for documentary cinema in the Slovak Republic was, ironically, based on an idea which would later be coopted by the communist regime a few years later, name ly that " film 69 HANAKOV A, Petra, " Proticeska agenda slovenskeho filmu 1939- 1945," 46. Ibid., 45. 71 "Charakter kultume ho film a: P6vodny rozhovor 'S lovaka ' s reziserom 'Tobisu, "' Slovak. March 27, 1942, p. 7. 72 " Pre kulturny film," Slovensky dennik. November 4, 1935, p 9. 73 CE RESNA, M., "S lovensky svojraz a cudzina," Nastup, Apri l I, 1940, p. 14. 74 "S lovenska filmova produkcia," Slovak. August, 6, 1942, p. 8. 70 �114 SLOVAKIA 2021 will help raise up a new kind of person ," 75 informing the Slovak population not only about various topical concerns, but also teaching them what it preci sely means to be "Slovak." In February of 1942 Pal'o Bielik, who had been a celebrated actor in interwar Czechoslovak cinema, as well as in the Slovak National Theatre, found himselfunemployed for budgetary and "other creative" reasons, 76 and so he turned to the newly-formed Slovak film agency Nastup for work as a librettist, before finding a position in the departments of short films and cultural films . Bielik, in many ways, was an accidental filmmaker, one who "fell into film ," and often felt quite ambivalent in regards to the medium. In a 1967 interview in Tvorba, Bielik recounted his first accidental exposures to cinema both as a director and as a spectator: "I fell, as they say, straight-legged into film . It was even worse, like when you throw a non-swimmer into cold water. Save yourself, if you know how! And I've saved myselfup until now. But I can't manage to get away from film ." 77 Bielik began his career directing short documentary and cultural films without any formal training, relying on his experiences in front of a camera during his career as an actor in the first Czechoslovak Republic. Although he was forced to work with the semi-fascist regime during this period, the early documentaries which Bielik produced were as apolitical as possible. 1942 's O zdravie robotnika, was a short film about a newly established sanatorium 78 and 1943 's Pod holym nebom, 79 was a 14-minute "artistic reportage" 80 focused on the daily activities around a traditional Orava shepherd's hut and "the romantic splendor of the Slovak countryside." 81 Some of Bielik 's other documentaries during this period included works on fish and the sport of fishing 82 ( 1943 's Hlavatky) , the manufacture and demonstration of traditional Slovak valasky in Miznuca romantika 75 -ik- " Film v novem zivote," Pravda, Vol. I, March I 0, 1944, p. 4. HANJ\KOV A, Petra, Palo Bielik a slovenska.filmova kulflira, 46. 77 JAN EK, Miroslav, " Vzpominky a plan y Pal'a Bielka," Tvorba: list pro kritiku a umeni. January 12, 196 1, No. 2, pp. 28-9. 78 HAN J\ KOV A, Petra, Palo Bielik a slovenska.filmova kult1ira. 57. 79 Ibid., 53. 80 Ibid. 81 "S loven ska filmova produkcia," Slo vak. August, 6, 1942, p. 8. 82 "Vel'konocny program premierovyc h kin Nastup a Urania," Slovak, April 7, 1944, and "Nove film y Nastupu," Gardista. November 28, 1943 , p. 4. 76 �SLOVAKIA 2021 115 ( I 943), and the production of flour and bread in Chlieb nas kai dodenny ( 1943). Although not all of Bielik's wartime documenttaries focused on the purely folkloric or ethnographic, by and large, they were films about the Slovak countryside and again, consistent with the aims of earlier ethnographic work. While it appeared that Bielik would spend the war attempting to draw little attention to himself with his documentaries on traditional Slovak subjects, the eruption of the Slovak National Uprising in August of 1944 suddenly changed the young director's career. While in the midst of shooting an unrelated film Hanka sa vydava in Brezena, Bielik and his crew caught wind of the Uprising and immediately rushed to join. As Bielik recalled in 1961, the group not only met with the partizans in order to get footage of the historic event, they actually joined the uprising itself: The Uprising caught me in Brezina during the filming of Hanka sa vydava. There were four other filmmakers with me: Krska, Richter, Plavec, a Sekula. We became lieutenants, they gave us uniforms, and we began to film . I led a group and wrote a scenario under the name 'Odboj 1944.' Krska filmed. It's thanks to him that we have authentic material from those days." 83 This raw reportage, which Bielik shot during his time in Brezina was later renamed, re-edited and repurposed into Bielik's 1945 documentary Za slobodu, although some of the film was lost when unknown persons stumbled upon the hiding place of some of the most sensitive footage: We buried part of the film negative underground in the village ofNemce in a graveyard underneath a tombstone. Some strangers, thinking that they found some treasure, collected the film strips, exposed them to light, and once again overexposed them. So they destroyed ten meters of an extraordinarily valuable film." 84 Although Za slobodu did not premiere during the war and was only finished in 1945,85 it nonetheless served as a potent anti-fascist KJ JAN EK, Miroslav, " Vzpomink y a plany Pal'a Bielka," Tvorba: list pro kritiku a o. 2, p.29. umeni, January 12, 196 1, K ➔ Ibid. 5 K MA CE K Vaclav, PA ST EKOVA , Jelena, Dejiny slovenskej kinumatugra/ie, 91 . �116 SLOVAKIA 2021 symbol, burnishing the bona-tides of Bielik's group of directors and cameramen as well as Bielik's own reputation as an anti-fascist filmmaker. The surviving film centers around the narrative retelling and reconstruction, not just of the uprising, but also of the "often frequently catastrophic consequences" of the doomed resistance, 86 a thematically daring approach which was seldom replicated in later documentaries. Furthermore, Za slobodu served as an aesthetic turning point for Slovak documentary film- while previous documenttary films about Slovakia had focused on the stylization of the Slovak experience, mediating reportage via romantic conceptions of the Slovak countryside a la PlickaBielik 's film focused on documentary realism, providing a cinematic experience that was out of touch with the postwar "antifascist euphoria." 87 It did not receive widespread distribution, being withdrawn by government officials because of it was "inappropriate for the delicate nature of the theme;" 88 it featured actual reportage, shot under dangerous conditions; and it did not glamorize or stylize the Slovak National Uprising. In short, Za slobodu can be seen as evidence of the first glimmers of cinematic neo-realism in Slovak documentary filmmaking . 1.4 POSTWAR RUPTURING: DOCUMENTARY AND NON-FICTION 1945 TO 1950 While the rise of fascism heralded the end of his career as a filmmaker, Karel Plicka 's legacy and influence on the burgeoning Slovak film industry was only beginning. Before World War II, Plicka had briefly held the position of film instructor in the experimental and short-lived Academy of the Applied Arts in Bratislava, before the institution was shut down due to rising anti-Czech and anti-Hungarian sentiment. While this institution was short-lived, the School of Applied Arts served to provide the basic educational preparation for the careers of several prominent early Slovak directors like Jan Kadar. In 1946, several months after the reunification of Czechoslovakia, Plicka was appointed the first Dean of the Filmova a televizni fakulta Akademie muzickych umenie (F AMU), 89 in charge of, not only FILMMAKING FROM 86 HANA KOY A, Petra, Pa/'o Bielik a slovenskafilmova kulflira, 63. MACEK Vaclav, PASTEKOY A, Jelena, Dejiny slovenskej kinomatografie, 91. RH Ibid. , 91 . 89 FRANC, Martin, and KRATKA Lenka, eds., Dejiny A MU: ve vypravenich (Praha : Nakladatelstvi AMU, 2017), I 0 . 87 �SLOVAKIA 2021 117 educating future Czech professsionals, but also the first major generation of academically-trained Slovak film professionals. Although the Slovak students began matriculating from FAMU in the late 1940s and early 1950s, director Eduard Greener (one of the first Slovaks to go to the academy) noted that a vast educational gap existed between the Slovak students and their Czech classmates. 90 Although FAMU contributed enormously to the creation of a stable and thriving Slovak film industry from the 1950s onwards, Slovak documentary cinema (and indeed Slovak cinema as a whole) suffered a rupture, from the mid- I 940s to the early 1950s, as directors who had enthusiastically participated in the Slovak Republic 's film program were "discredited ."91 While some directors, such as Pal'o Bielik, had served in the anti-fascist resistance during the war, those who had not found themselves in the position of Plicka and other minority filmmakers in Slovakia in the 1940s- unwelcome and unemployed. As a result, Slovak documentary production sharply declined in postwar years of the 1940s, with an average of seven nonfiction films per year produced from 1945 to 1948,92 as the most visionary and politically safe directors (such as Bielik) and talented beginners such as Jan Kadar rapidly transitioned into feature filmmaking. 93 Despite newly-increased state support and the establishment of institutions such as FAMU, Slovak nonfiction cinema remained fairly moribund for much of the late 1940s through the early I 960s, due to a lack of qualified personnel and, from 1948 onwards, the newly established communist government's ideological demands. 94 These demands, somewhat paradoxically, were very similar to those espoused by the fascist government: to unify Slovaks around visual tropes and folklore, to show the moderni zation of Slovakia and the tangible benefits of the state, 95 and to build a more- 90 "Eduard Greener: film ako vol'ny vers," interview in literarni noviny. August 4, 20 15. http: //literarky.cz/l iterat ura/cteni/20360-eduard-grener-fi lm-ako-vony-ver 91 Navratil , Antonin, Cesty k pravde ci Ii i : 70 let c'eskoslovenskeho dokumentarniho .filmu (Praha: FAMU, 2002), 159. 92 Ibid. , 16 1. 93 Ibid., 160-2. 94 MA CE K Vaclav, PASTEKOVA , Jelena. Dejiny slovenskej kinomatogrcifie. I 1719. 95 JA SSO, Julius, "Slovak Films in the Last Five Years," Czechoslovak Film, Vol. 7, No. 4, unpag inated. �118 SLOVAKIA 2021 ideologically pure Slovak soc iety96 through the use of mass-produced images. Perhaps the single most stereotypical " identifying characteristic" of a Slovak film , documentary or otherwise, during the postwar and early communist years was a reliance on the folkloric motifs and ethnographic themes which had been become so thoroughly codified by the 1950s. This particular fascination with folk culture was hardly a communist invention , as it drew on the ethnographic traditions which were so popular in the late Austro-Hungarian through interwar periods. Given that amateur ethnographers such as Pavel Sochan eagerly embraced photography as a way of documenting indigenous practices in an effort to distinguish region s and establish Slovak cultural identity during periodic moments of cultural trauma, ethnic repression , and attempts at forced assimilation, 97 it remains a littl e surpri sing how quickly the postwar and communist regimes embraced these formerly divisive aesthetic elements. While cinema had been nationalized by the Czechoslovak government-in-exile in August of 1945 as an important national resource, fo lk culture was also nationalized in Slovakia by presidential decree on November 7, 1945. 98 This decree also resulted in the creation of the first Slovak fo lk art collective, the Ustredie l'udovej umeleckej vyroby (UCUV), whose aims were to preserve Slovak folk culture. While ethnographic and folkloric activities had been decidedly controversial in the First Czechoslovak Republic and consisted of a definite part of the fascist propaganda machine during the war, following the 1948 Communist Putsch, the government further reaffirmed the need for fo lkl oric collectives by creating the Slovensky l'udovy umelecky kolekiv (SCUK) in 1949. Further still, the regime stated exp Iicitly ten years later that "folk arts and folk handicrafts make up an important part of our socialist culture," 99 further sanctioning not just the practice of these traditional pastimes, but 96 MACEK Vaclav, PASTEKOVA , Jelena, Dejinv slovenskej kinomatografie. 126. See PODOLAK. J. , "The Development of Ethnography in Slo va kia," Midwest Fo lklore, Vol. 8, No. 2, Summ er, 1958 , pp. 69-84. 97 98 " Prozatimni statni zfizeni ceskoslovenske," Dekret presidenta republiky o organisaci lidove a umelecke vvroby . November 7, 1945, Zakon c. I I 0/ 1945 Sb. Note that the decree did not come into effect until November 27th . 99 Zakon c. 56/ 1957 Sb. �SLOVAKIA 2021 119 affording them legal protection and financial support, albeit fossilizing these living traditions even more effectively than the ethnographic projects of the late Austro-Hungarian and interwar periods. By the early 1950s, Communists had not only assumed control of the government, but were also looking to infiltrate or redirect certain cultural outlets for the purposes of creating communist educational entertainment. The creation of Slovak folkloric collectives such as the S:CUK in the late 1940s, along with the overwhelming familiarity with mass-produced images of Slovakia, the prevalence of interest in the folkloric trappings of Slovak films in both the Czech and Slovak lands was, at one point, so prevalent that Czech film critic and dramaturge Jaroslav Bocek vociferously complained that " ... the Slovak cinema watched over the adjective 'Slovak' caring much less about the noun ' cinema.' No wonder there was such a rash of folklore , embroidered blouses, and national songs, since Czech directors could hardly be expected to understand Slovakia any different from the exotic, folklore , or tourist angle." 10° Compounding Bocek's irritation at the more stereotypical depictions of national identity was the fact that "these same features [folkloric trappings] began to creep even into the work of the emerging directors," to which the Czech critic added "Slovak cinema saw its raison d'etre in its very existence . .. such traits can be found in the beginnings of any cultural endeavor." 10 1 Bocek's paternal dismissal of Slovak cinema was, sadly, not an isolated incident, and echoes some of the earlier critiques of earlier ethnographic films by Plicka and others. 1.5 CONCLUSION As we have seen, Slovak documentary film followed the footsteps of earlier ethnographers and ethnographic photographers, whose original mission was to document and to codify Slovak ethnicity through the collection, reportage , and standardization of cultural and visual tropes. These early documentaries, like those in static media, were predominantly produced by non-Slovaks, who turned to Slovakia to record ways of living which had already receded out of living memory elsewhere. Although these early documentary 100 BOCE K, Jaroslav, 'Twenty Yea rs of Czechoslovak Film," in Modern Czechoslovak Film / 945/ 1965 (Praha: Arti a, dat e unknown [ 1966?)), no paginati on. 10 1 BOCE K, Jaros lav, " Twen ty Years of Czechoslovak Film." �120 SLOVAKIA 2021 films by Czech directors could be di visive in the Slovak intellectual community in Czechoslovakia, they were eagerly embraced by Slovaks li ving elsewhere as a necessary connection to their cultural roots, a connection that was prized not only for its entertainment va lue, but also for its ability to educate Slovaks abroad and in Czechoslovakia in the fundamental aspects of Slovak culture. Since Slovak documentary films were also the fundamental cinematic output of Slovak directors from the beginnings of the Slovak Republic in 1939 through the beginnings of the Slovak feature film era in the 1950s, they also proved to be the fundamental training ground for young Slovak directors, who incorporated several aesthetic aspects of documentary filmrnaking into their own feature film works. In each of these different eras of documentary film production, however, one constant remainsa continuation of the aestheticization of Slovakia, a process begun in the 19th century with the ethnographic activities performed by Hungarians, Austrians, Czechs, and eventually Slovaks themselves. The replicability of these aesthetics also helped ensure the spread of certain aspects of Slovak visual cu lture in the countryside, despite the occasional attempt to bring cinematic focus and cu ltural attention to Slovak urban communities. These attempts were ultimately foiled by the implied formal and aesthetic needs of the specifically "S lovak" documentary: since Slovak culture had been so rigorously defined through its codification period as a " rural" identity, attempts to focus on other aspects of Slovak identity (either in other urban locales or through a de-romanticization of the Slovak countryside) were met with political , cultural, and social resistance. � 92 SLOVAKIA 2021 PICTURING A NATIO SLOVAK DOCUMENTARY FILM FROM ITS BIRTH UNTIL NICHOLAS 1950 1 HUDAC " Bude Slovak, cim bol medzi narodami'- to bola veta, s ktorou nasi otcovia vstavali a lihali, to bola veta, kotra hybala ich mysliami natol'ko, ze sa v6bec nehybali. Bolo, teda bude, bude i vtedy, ked' budeme len vylihovat'." Alexander Matuska 2 One of the fundamental aims of early Slovak mass produced images 3 (cinema, lithography, and photography, among other media) was to document and catalog the ethnic, geographic, and social uniqueness of the Slovak Lands. This essay intends to trace the influence of the importance of these media in the early 20th century for Slovaks, namely, non-fiction filmmaking, and its connection with Slovak populations not just in what would become Slovakia, but also in communities abroad- primarily in America. While foreign artists typically came to Slovakia to draw inspiration from its rugged countryside and colorful fo lk costumes, Slovak photographers, engravers, and ethnographers often saw their artistic missions as a way to build a Slovak nation through the documenttation, codification, and repetition of symbols common in a geographical location where historically no " Slovak" nation had ever existed . Although Slovak photographers and engravers enjoyed modest success in the 19th 1 This artic le was made possibl e with the support of the Univerzita Karl ova and has bee n undertaken with additional support from the their Progres QI 2 Initiati ve for Literature and Performance. Ta studie vznikla v souvislosti s fesenim programu rozvoje vyzkumu UK Progres Q12 Literatura a performativita. 2 MATUSKA, Al exander, "S love nska viera v minul osti ," in : C HM EL, Rudolf, ed., Slovenskti ottizka v 20. storoci (Bratis lava : Kalligram, 1997), 12 1. Unl ess noted otherwi se, a ll tra nslati ons are my own. 3 For more on the mass-produced image, see: HUDAC, icho las, " Picturing th e ati on: Slovak Nati onal Identity in the Age of the Mass Produced Image," PhD. Di ssertati on, Uni verzit a Karlova, 2020. �SLOVAKIA 2021 93 century, 4 their mediums were soon displaced in the cultural consciousness by the rise of another mass-produced medium, cinema, which provided several boons for the documenttarian . It combined the best qualities of its predecessors : fidelity to the referent image, affordability, durability, transportability, with a novel qualitymotion. This was a new, " lifelike" or "shadowy" 5 quality (to borrow Maxim Gorky's infamous tum of phrase). First, cinema recorded motion. This made it possible to expand the ethnographic activities of Slovak activists in order to capture more aspects of "traditional" culture, ranging from regional dances to the mechanical workings of various implements in Slovak handicrafts. Secondly, cinema also provided the illusion of objecttivity, a quality which could be more easily manipulated to form national and ethnic sentiments. Thirdly, cinema was understandable without any form of specialized training, or in the words of Karel Plicka- "understandable to any people of any country." 6 Lastly, cinema, as one of the first "new" mediums of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, functioned as a source of national and ethnic pride and a vehicle for showing a region's progression into " modernity." In this paper I will first explore how these earlier documentary media contributed to the rise of Slovak documentary filmmaking in the 20th century, and then examine the impact of this tradition . However, as tempting as it would be to think of documentary film (and by extension, the aesthetics of documentary and ethnographic film) as separate from other genres of cinematic expression, for Slovak filmmakers , documentary film proved to be one of the most essential foundations for the building of a national aesthetic, whose presence could be found within a variety of genres and subgenres. Slovak documentary films (as well as certain documentary films about 4 As noted by Macek and Hrubis incky, despite Slovakia's attractiveness for photographers, it lagged behind the Czechs, Austrians, and Hunga rians in the development of both avenues for amateur photographers to disp lay thei r work, and formal training. For more on thi s see: MACEK, Vaclav, and HR UB ISINSC KY Aurel, Dejiny slovenskej fotografie (Bratislava : Slovenska narodna galeria, 200 I), 12- 13. 5 GORKY, Maxim, "The Lumiere C inematograph" in : Si mpson, Philip, et al., Film Theory: Critical Concepts in Media and Cultural Studies. Vo l. III (New York: Routledge, 2004), 7-8 . 6 PLICKA, Karel, "Poznamky o filme - moznosti ac h a ulohach s lovenskych filmov," Slovenske poh/'ady, September 15, 1934, p. 593. �94 SLOVAKIA 2021 Slovakia produced by Czechs) were not merely reportage, but also an evolution of the same aestheticization and stylization of rural life which so captivated the early ethnographers, albeit with new influences and innovations drawn from various domestic and foreign avant-gardes and aesthetic movements. As we shall see, this repetition of personages, of landscapes, of fo lk culture or traditions, continued through Slovak fiction and animated films, working as both a metacommentary on larger issues of national and regional identities, and as a connecting thread , linking these films of different genres and ideological expressions back to a common foundation. ln most parts of the Western World, documentary, fiction , and non-documentary early film developed simultaneously and concordantly . Early filmmakers immediately realized (in the words of Bill Nicho ls), " film 's capacity to document the world around us." 7 However, documentary films about Slovakia and its people preceded any variety of domestic Slovak filmmaking by several decades, owning to several unique internal factors ; Slovakia's relatively impoverished economic situation, its isolated rural communities, and the relative lack of an educated, culturally-Slovak middle class in the Slovak Lands during the period of cinema's birth and global introduction (e.g. from 1895 to roughly 1905 8). This meant that, while cinema was known in Slovakia, this new medium was chiefly an urban and scientific phenomenon, and thus developed quite differrently in the Slovak Lands than in other neighboring regions. Un like the Czechs, who rapidly embraced this new technology and were soon developing their own domestic cinema industry, Slovak film production remained (at best) sporadic until the end of World War II , frequently dependent on Czech and American financing , talent, and interest for the production of films for a Slovak audience. However, while Slovakia's lack of cinematic infrastructure resulted in the delayed development of a Slovak national cinema, this a lso made the area highly desirable as a destination for documentary filmmakers 7 NICHOLS , Bill , " Documentary Film and the Modernist Avant-Garde," in Critical lnquirv 27, no. 4 , Summer, 200 I, p. 580. 8 Again, while actualites and trave l films of Slovakia were produced during thi s period of early film , Slovakia ' s lack of cinematic and cultural infrastructure seems to have resulted in a lack of both cinematic modernism and a cinematic avant-garde as is more commonly found in other Western film culture. See: NICHOLS , " Documentary Film and the Modernist Avant-Garde," p. 580 �SLOVAKIA 2021 95 from outside of the Slovak Lands, if not Slovaks themselves. Although urban Slovaks encountered film roughly at the same time as their Czech brethren to the west, the unique gestation and development of cinema in Slovakia deserves at least a cursory explanation. The first public exhibitions of cinema occurred in 1896, almost a full year after the new technology's unveiling in Paris, when, on December 16th, in Kosice's Hotel Schalkaz, local theatre director ~udovit Szalkay arranged for a demonstration of Edison's cinema technology to the public "at great financial sacrifice."9 On December 25th cinema made its debut in Bratislava (then Pressburg), when it was unveiled to the public in two local hotels- the Hotel Palugyay and the Hotel Kral' Uhorska. These projections were mostly silent, but according to eyewitnesses, they were also accompanied by an Edison phonograph on two occasions. 10 But despite these exhibitions, cinema remained confined to the major urban centers of Kosice and Pressburg/Bratislava, and even in those it was often uneasily tolerated. Early cinema projections were subject to intense governmental regulations, 11 and in 1912, the Press burg city government declared that cinema was "negatively" impacting the public. 12 Cinematic exhibitions and cinemas also faced opposition from the Roman Catholic clergy and laity, 13 who saw the technology as a sign of"moral decline" among the youth, 14 and the Hungarian theatrical community who often saw the newer, cheaper medium in a threatening Iight. 15 Despite this public opposition to the new media, cinema was not entirely absent from public life in the Slovak Lands- instead, it was merely curtailed, limited to a handful of cinemas in Bratislava and Kosice. Because of this, cinema production in the Slovak Lands was limited again to foreign or amateur producers, and little attempt was 9 MACEK Vaclav, PASTEKOVA, Jelena, Dejiny slovenskej kinomatografie (Martin : Osveta, 1997), 7. JO ibid. JI ibid. 12 ibid. 13 It is worth comparing the very simi lar opposition to cinema's development and expa nsion that developed in Czech Moravia at roughly the same time . For more on this see: HASAN, Petr, "' Neslusny a nevkusny ti Im nemuze byti krasnym '. Kato licka akce, struktury katolickeho tabora ajejich pusobnost na poli kinematografie v ceske m prostfedi prvni poloviny 20. stoleti," in: /1/uminace, I, 2016 . 14 MAC EK and PASTEKOVA, Dejiny s/ovenskej kinomatogrcifie, 17. 15 MACEK and PASTEKOVA, Dejiny slovenskej kinomatografle, 13. �96 SLOVAKIA 2021 made to make the medium accessible in both smaller locales, or in Slovak. I.I SUBJECTS NOT AUTHORS: THE EARLY YEARS OF SLOVAK NON-FICTION FILMMAKING Although film originally received a hostile reception from various social circles in the Slovak Lands, films were made during cinema's early decades, and many of these early films fell under the criteria of what David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson termed "actualities," or films showing an event from real life, and "scenic," 16 crude travelogues designed to showcase exotic places or striking vistas. While cinema started later in the Slovak Lands, by the early 20th century Slovakia had become a destination for Hungarian directors, mainly associated with companies in Budapest 17 who were interested in filming glimpses of Slovakia's mountains. In February of 1908, the Apollo theatre in Bratislava debuted one of the first recorded scenics/actualities set in Slovakia, Wintersport im Tatralomnicz/Zimny sport v Tatranskej Lomnici. 18 A few months later the Apollo's competitor, the Elektro-Biskop cinema projected a series of panoramic scenes as part of their Welt-Panorama special, which included two more films shot in distinctively Slovak locations: Die Hohe Tatra/ Vysoke Tatry and Tur6cz-Szt.-Marton/Turciansky Svaty Martin, as part of its travelogue series. 19 Travelogues, the close cousins of the scenic genre, were a popular genre of early film making, one which attempted to provide a replication or approximation of the traveling experience for audiences hungry for new sensations, as well as a more frugal way of "experiencing" a location for a cash-strapped audience. These films were often accompanied with lectures 20 or packaged as part of a longer cinematic experience, designed to replicate the idea of a larger trave l holiday, albeit condensed into on ly a few minutes. Although these early Slovak travelogues have been 16 BORDWELL, David, and THOMPSON, Kri stin , Film Histo,y : An Introduction (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1994), 12-13 . 17 MACEK and PASTEKOVA., Dejinyslovenskej kinomatografle. 18-19. 18 "Tagesneuigkeiten!" Pressburger Zeitung. February 5, 1908, p. 2 19 "Elektro-Bioskop nur im Hotel ' zum gri.inen Baum ' in Pozsony, Program vom 14. bis 2 1 Marz," Pressburger Presse, March 16, 1908, p. 5. 20 PETE RSON , Jennifer Lynn, "Travelogues" in : Abel, Rich ard, ed., The Encyclopedia of Early Film (London, New York: Routledge, 2005), 640-3. �SLOVAKIA 2021 97 lost, we can reasonnably infer what the experience wou ld have been like by surviving examples of the genre: travelogues were " highly kinetic ," "educational," and positioned as a morally and intell ectuall y healthy a lternative to the salacious or lascivious aspects of other, lesswholesome early films. While these travelogues, actualiti es, and sceni cs were originall y niche productions for audiences located far away from Slovak communities, they nonetheless sti ll largely adhered to the progression of ea rlier Slovak mass-produced images. In the first place, these travel films were essentially a new means of packaging, commodifying, standardizing, and commerciali zing the experience of being in the Slovak Lands, without having to travel and without the politically and socially divisive barrier of language. Secondly, we can clearly tell from the context in which these films were exhibited (e.g. only in the urban centers of Pressburg and Kosice, advertised through the nonSlovak press, and in cinemas that were attached to areas frequented by travelers, the upper classes, and tourists) that these films were again consumed by an Austro-Hungarian audience, not necessarily a "Slovak" one - much as the earl y engravings and lithographs of the Slovak landscape were enjoyed primarily by non-Slovak audiences first, and Slovak audiences later. Lastly, much as ethnographic lithography and photography were rapidly adopted by Slovaks as a means of preserving, codifying, and distributing visua l examp les of Slovak cu ltural identity, as we shall see in the next sections, the rationale behind these sceni cs and travelogues (name ly, that film shou ld give an impression of life in Slovakia, rather than a purely narrative structure) would later be embraced by both non-fiction and fiction filmmakers alike. 1.2 THE BEGIN NINGS OF SLOVAK DOCUMENTARY CINEMA After the dissolution of Austria-Hungary in 19 18, Slovaks suddenly fo und themselves, not just as a rural curiosity in a large empire, but the second largest Slavic partner in the newly-fonned Republic of Czechos lovakia. No longer subjects to the stringent censorship laws and the Magyarization policies of the former Kingdom of Hungary, film (as with other forms of mass-produced images) began to expand. Movie theaters grew in number (from three in the �98 SLOVAKIA 2021 early 1900s to 84 by the end of Austria-Hungary,2' and increasing to 153 by the end of the First Republic) and size, appearing all over the Slovak Lands, and not just in Kosice and the newly re-named Bratislava. Furthermore, while theaters had once been limited to showing a handful of Hungarian or Austrian films in Bratislava and Kosice, distributors throughout Slovakia began adding Czech, American, and German films 22 to their theaters, though these often met with resistance from more nationalist groups. 23 Unfortunately, this rapid infusion of new cinematic experiences, techniques, and choices did not necessarily result in Slovaks developing their own cinema industry. Throughout the First Republic, Slovakia remained primarily a destination for filmmaking, but with a few minor exceptions, there would be no Slovak documentaries produced by a Slovak director until well into World War II. However, documentary film was indeed expanding in Slovakia, again often along the same ethnographi c, folkloric , or scenic and, again also widely produced by non-Slovak academics such as the Czech directors, Vladimir Uh lela and Karel Plicka as part of a broader, Czechoslovak agenda. Both Plicka and Uhlela saw their documentary productions as a means of integrating Slovaks into the cultural life of Czechoslovakia, through cultivating an aesthetic appreciation for the fo lkl oric and rural aspects of Slovak culture in non-Slovak audiences, a lbeit in very different ways. Furthermore, directors were officially funded through both government sources, as well as the Matica slovenska, and as a result both sought to bring these traditional aspects of Slovak visual cu lture into a Czecho-Slovak cultural space. In his career as an ethnographer and a photographer, Karel Plicka was concerned with producing works of art which could bridge the growing divide between Czech and Slovak audiences. Plicka 's photographic, ethnographic, and musicological output was prodigious, and from the late 1920s onwards he began a second (or third or fourth career) as a documentary filmmaker in Slovakia and in Slovak MACEK and PASTEKOV A, Dejiny slovenskej kinomatografie, 597-8. Advertisements for the Kino Palace and Kino Meteor in Banska Bystrica. for example, show both American films and German films on their programs as early as 1928; larger cinemas in Bratis lava and Kosice had, of course, made international progra min g a staple of their repertoires from the very beginning . 23 " Potreba naprvy vo filmovej produckii a predvazdani filmov. Dockame sa v Kosic iach viacerych domacich ti lmov?" Slo vensky v_1ichod, January 24, 1933 , p. 3 . 21 22 �SLOVAKIA 2021 99 communities abroad. Starting with l 928's Za slovenskym /'udom, Plicka approached Slovak culture through the lenses of his earlier work as a musicologist and a photographer, meticulously documenting the exotic aspects of Slovak (and to a lesser extent, Rusyn) culture for Czech, Slovak, and international audiences. Like many early film directors, Plicka had little to no formal training, relying on his amateur knowledge of photography and supplementing this with his learned or natural talent as an ethnographer. For Plicka, this Slovakia, as of yet only barely codified and recognized as a political or social sphere, contained a wealth of information which needed to be documented: On my trips after Slovak folksongs , I came to many lesser known and even forgotten areas, to which almost 'no one' had ever come up until then . No one, or rather, hardly anyone except those with open eyes and trained ears. It ' s no wonder. Ethnographic Slovakia is a vast and extensive world, and there never will be enough of those who could satisfy the need to write down, draw , and photograph this richness.24 Although Plicka was wary of the mechanical " ripping" of folk songs and images from living performances into mechanized fossils, he soon embraced the advantages of these modern technologies. He began to experiment with film starting in the mid- I 920s as a "documentary tool for ethnographic and folkloric events," 25 which could satisfy, if not all of his documentary impulses, at least most of them. Although the Matica slovenska and Plicka had worked together numerous times on his ethnographic photographical and musicological expeditions throughout Slovakia, the organization felt that a movie camera was necessary for the broadening of their efforts in the young Czechoslovakia. 26 Archival records in Matica slovenska show that Plicka obtained a Pathe movie camera in the spring of 1926 in Prague, 27 where he learned to use the new tool; only a few months 24 PLICKA , Karel , " Ako sme filmov ali," S/ovenske poh/'ady. April I , 1930, pp. 215- 16 25 LAC KOVA , Sy lvia, LEXMANN , Juraj , and SLIVKA Martin , eds., Karol Plicka vo fl/m ove) faktografii, (Brati slava: S loven sky film ovy ustav , 1983), 36. 26 KRC M ERY , Ste fan , Tri rol..y Matice slovenskej I 924- 1926 (Turc iansky sv. Martin: Matica slovenska, 1927), 8-9. 27 PLIC KA , Karol. Co rres pondence. Coll ected in: LAC KOVA , Sl yv ia, LEXMANN , Juraj , and SLIVKA Martin , Karol Plicka vo jilmovej f i:1ktogra/ii, 187. �100 SLOVAKIA 2021 later, Plicka wrote to Matica slovenska to arrange the local permissions and cooperation necessary to start his cinematic work, saying: Please send a message immediately to inform the schools in Zliechova, and in Kosecke Rovne, as well as the parish office in Zliechova, that the ethnographic department of Matica Slovenska proposes to, after a number of days/starting from the 14th of this month, to start working there, and to: record songs, photograph, and to film scenes, which the Zleichovans demonstrated in Trencianske Teplice. Matica Slovenska requests moral support for this significant work in these historic villages." 28 In much of 1926, 1927, and 1928, Plicka traveled through Slovakia (primarily in the Liptov and Orava regions popularized by the pioneering ethnographic artists Pavol Sochan and Peter Michal Bohun), recording film footage, as well as continuing his other ethnographic activities. The resulting film Za s/o venskym f'udom was received with great fanfare in the Slovak community on both sides of the Atlantic. Slovaks in America marveled at Plicka's ethnographic ambition, noting that the film was a "powerful piece of cultural propagation," which was "very sympathetically accepted by all of the Slovak and even Czechoslovak public."29 The nationalistic daily Slovak praised the film as "something that is worthwhile for the part of our public, which does not have the possibility to see all the treasures of our national spirit,"30 while the more centrist Slovensky dennik labelled the ft Im "the loveliest surprise of the year" and thri lied at seeing Slovaks on the screen "where one is accustomed to seeing nowadays only the sorrows and joys of other nations ."3 1 The film combined not only Plicka 's photographic talent (indeed many of the scenes depicted on film were also photographed for Plicka's and Matica slovenska's later use) for finding the abstract patterns in the Slovak countryside with the athletic and physical prowess of hi s subjects, who dance traditional dances and display feats of strength while dressed in various traditional regional kroje. 28 Ibid. "Rok kulturnej prace," Ynungstownske slovenske novivny. May 3, 1929, p. 3 30 " Film za slovenskym l'udom ," Slovak (Bratislava), March I, 1929, p. 4. 31 "Za slovenskym l'udom," Slovensk_)1dennik (Bratislava), March 14, 1929, p. 6. 29 �SLOVAKIA 2021 101 Za s/ovenskym /'udom was funded largely by Matica slovenska, which experienced a resurgence of popularity and importance following the dissolution of Austria-Hungary. Matica slovenska's mission of preserving, codifying, and unifying Slovak culture internally as well as internationally, meshed with Plicka 's own natural urges to record and transmit. A second well-received documentary about highland Slovaks titled Po horach, po dolach followed in l 929, which received an even wider domestic release than Plicka's first film, as well as winning pri zes in international film and photographic competitions in 1932. Like Za slovenskym /'udom, Po horach, po dolach was also funded by Matica slovenska, and featured much of the same style and content as Plicka's debut film , and was shown to a wider variety of audiences, including Czechs. 32 By the early 1930s, Plicka had begun producing documentari es for both Matica slovenska and private concerns, such as an informative non-fiction quasiadvertisement for the town of Piest'any 's famous medicinal baths and mud treatments. Furthermore, his films were beginning to be utilized by American Slovak organizations like Jednota, the Slovak League of America, and others as a means to educate American Slovaks about their cultural heritage as well as the benefits of Slovak ethnic identity.33 Plicka 's most famous film might be considered to be his 1933 paean to Slovakia, Zem spieva, which combines scenes of rural Slovak folklore and traditional dress along with intertitles by the Slovak poet and translator Jan Smrek. Curiously, although Plicka was an early proponent of the ethnographic and educational possibilities of sound film, he elected to set the film to an impressionistic score by the Czech composer Frantisek Skvor, despite declaring that sound film as a medium is the " the ideal documentation" 34 in an interview with his collaborator Smrek only a few years earlier. Whil e Plicka 's early work 32 MALINA, Vladimir, "O moznostiach slovenskeho zvukoveho filmu ," Elim. November, 193 1. 33 See: CU LEN , Kon stantin, S/ovaci v Amerike: crty z kulturnych dejin (Tuciansky Sv. Martin: Matica slovenska, 1938) as we ll as ALEXANDER , June Granatir, Ethnic Pride, American Parriorism: Slovaks and Orher New Immigrants in rhe lnren var Era (Ph ilade lphia: Templ e Unive rsity Press, 2004). 34 SMREK, Jan, "O praci pre zac hovanie l'udovej piesne: rozhovor s jej znalcom a vasnyvim sbera tel'om Karlom Plickom," £/an: mesiacnik pre literaruru a umenie, March , 1933, p. 5. �102 SLOVAKIA 2021 was often mere documentation for the sake of preservation , Zem spieva is an expansion of Plicka 's more experimental photographic vision. Plicka takes the viewer on a musical and vis ual trip through Slovakia's wild mountains, not for the sake of scientific observation, but to experience the poetic essence of Czechoslovakia ' s most exotic locales. As Bill Nichols noted in his essay "Documentary Film and the Moderni st Avant-Garde," what separated interwar documentary film from mere reportage like newsreel s, was its artistic pretensions. 35 While the First Republic was full of newsreel s documenting world events and cultural phenomena from exotic locales, Slovakia included, Zem spieva represented two complimentary, yet different intentionsthe first was to continue to raise, on the one hand Czech appreciation and awareness of Slovak cu lture, whi le simultaneously allowing Slovaks an opportunity to have their own culture valued on equal standing with the more "sophisticated" and dominant Czech culture. Zem spieva 's modernist influences are most strongly fe lt in its theoretical conception and execution . While the film is a "sound" film in terms of its technical composition with Skvor' s pre-recorded soundtrack , the film ' s formal structure adheres more closely to the avant-garde experimentation of the late silent film era, featuring no diagetic sound or dialogue, and only intertitles explaining the significance of the scenes. 36 This suited Plicka, as he explained in his 1932 article "Poznamky o filme moznostiach a ulohach slovenskych filmov": Slovak films will be sound films , since today, unfortunately, it is impossible to make any other kind. But they will certainly not be I 00% dialogue film s, perhaps thanks to the producers, but an arti stic and commercial error. In the interest of internationali sm, it will be necessary to curb dialogs and really, the entire weight which bears the influence of the theatre, will have to be limited to the most modest, if not reduced entirely for that matter, in order to make the film as understandable as it was at its happi est, when it was silent. This mostly applies to the Slovak situation ; we will not be able to afford many films on ly for ourselves. It is better to 35 NI C HOLS, Bill, " Doc umentary Film and th e Modernist Avan t-Garde," Critical ln- qui,y . Vol. 27, No. 4, Summer, 20 11 , p. 588. 36 LAC KOVA. , Slyvia, LEXMANN, Juraj, and SLIVKA Martin, eds., Karol Plicka vo.filmovej.faktografii (Bratislava : Slovensky filmo vy ustav, 1983), 89 . �SLOVAKIA 2021 103 produce little, but except that which is thoughtful and valuable. 37 Although such an approach to sound design was dec idedly archaic (even in 1933),38 Plicka was, in some se nse, correct: this decision paradoxically increased Zem spieva 's international appeal. On the one hand, the relegation of the Slovak language within the film to small, easily digested intertitles meant that the film was easily accessible to Slovak populations in the United States, whose command of the language might have been fossilized or had languished through the process of assimilation. 39 On the other hand, the focus on the more purely abstract visual and musicological aspects of Slovak folk culture allowed the film to function as " poetry," without the di straction or potential friction of Slovak dialogue, an abstraction that also allowed the film to represent various different "S lovakias" for different audiences. While the American Slovaks rejoiced in finding a poetiziation of their ancestral homeland, Slovakia's most exotic and access ible qualities, such as its visual splendor, its vital folk culture, and its melodies, were easily absorbed by outsiders who did not require any specialized linguistic skill to appreciate them. Additionally, Plicka' s long-time editor, the Czech avant-garde photographer and filmmaker Alexandr Hackenschmied, was instrumental in reshaping the narrative structure of the film through his assured editing style, and via his suggestion that Plicka shoot additional introductory and ending footage. 40 Hackenschmied was born into a family of academics in Prague, and hi s childhood in the (then) industrial neighborhood of Karlin gave him ample opportunity to visit the numerous cinemas around that part of the city, 41 sowing the seeds of hi s great interest in film and photography. Following his high school graduation, Hackenschmeid bega n hi s architectural studies, but found himself drawn more strongly to cinema and photography, and 37 PLICKA , Karel , " Poznamky o filme - moznostiach a ulohach slovenskyc h filmov," S/ovenske poh/'ady, September 15, 1934, p. 593 . 38 For more on the problems of sou nd films in Slovak ia during the interwar period, see my Ph .D. dissertation . HUDAC, Nicholas, " Picturing the Na ti on: Slovak National Identity in the Age of the Mass Produced Image," Univerzita Karlova , 2020. 39 C.f. CU LEN, Konstantin, Slovaci V Amerike. 40 ANDEL, Jaroslav, Alexandr Hackenschmied(Praha: TORST, 2000), 29. 41 BROZ, A /exander Hackenschied (Praha: Ceskoslovensky filmovy ustav, 1973 ), 202 1. �104 SLOVAKIA 2021 various global avant-gardes active in the 1920s and 1930s, such as the work of Man Ray, the Soviet LEF group, Dziga Yertov, and more.42 While Hackenschmied was active in photographic circles from his student days, starting in 1930 he began to make his own films . More than a film enthusiast and a future film editor- he was a film theorist, a photographer, and a filmmaker himself, deeply concerned with the possibilities of montage and form . Hackenschmeid began editing Zem spie va in Prague in 1932, but completed the final cut after Plicka returned from additional shoots in Slovakia with more footage . In a conversation with Martin Sli vka, one of his former students, Plicka recounted his views on the finished product: What do I want Zem spie va to say via film? I would be happy if it was approached without interpretation . It deals with Slovakia as unknown as well as beautiful: the theme of the film is the lives of people in a village and their holy relationship to nature. As the film ' s subtitles suggest, Zem spieva is a cinematic poem celebrating precious traditions; it should be evidence of an enchantingly pure manifestation of life, which is so simple, yet so important. And the film shows a world in which our fathers ' healthy and precious heritage has, by some miracle, been preserved in some regions until today.',4 3 In this sense, Plicka' s intentions for Zem spie va represent an inversion of the earlier ethnographic assumptions that ethnographic subjects are worthy of documentation because of the interesting-yettlawed nature of their ancient practices. Instead, in both the content of Zem spie va and in his comments to the press, Plicka explicitly rejects the predominant political push by Czech (and some Slovak) political and cultural authorities to modernize and industrialize Slovakia .44 Rather, the film's premise is a twist on the time-honored modernist 42 BROZ, Alexander Hackenschied, pp. 2 1-22. SLIVKA , Martin , Karol Plicka. hasnik obrazu (Martin: Vydavatel'stvo Osveta, 1982), 175. 44 Although a compl ete accounting of th e industriali zation debate regarding Slovaki a is beyond th e scope of thi s arti c le, see, for example, MATULA, Antonin, " Dvacatyosmy fij en," in Ceska osveta: /isl venovan_y zajmum vdejneho knihovnictvi a organisaci lidoveho vzdelani. September, 1938, Vol. 35 , No. I, pp. 5-7; and HA VLiCE K, V., " Narodni problem Slovenska," in Nase doba: revue pro vedu. umeni a i ivo/ socia/ni, November, 1933, Vol. 41 , No. 2, pp. 68-73. 4 .1 �SLOVAKIA 2021 105 tradition of the city symphony, a genre of early avant-garde filmmaking practiced by directors such as Walter Ruttmann and Dziga Vertov, which sought to translate the immense vitality and activity of an urban space to the reproducible and distributable form of cinema as a celebration of modern industrialization and urbanization. While not every audience member could afford a trip to Berlin or Moscow, a city symphony provided an impressionistic vision of such urban locales that could satisfy the longings for new visual stimulation and locations for a reasonable price. Plicka ' s vision for Zem spieva followed a model similar to Ruttman's and Vertov's films , yet inverted. For the price of a mere ticket, audience members could journey away from Bratislava, deep into the wild Slovak mountains, where a visual feast of dancing, ethnic clothing and stunning vistas awaited them, accompanied with rapturous song. Although Zem spie va was produced under the auspices of Matica slovenska, the old vanguard of Slovak national sentiment and as part of a series of governmental programs to promote Slovak culture in the Republic, not all Slovak activists were thrilled by Plicka' s aims or the resources devoted to its production. As an anonymous letter in the Slovak periodical Nastup declared: When we think about our devastated Slovakia's economic ruin, about the misery of our Slovak people, the overwhelming question mark which stands before our Slovak intelligentsia is about the misery and scarcity at every step and yet on the other hand, we are making our sole Slovak film 'The Earth Sings,' and between these two, we clench our teeth and deeply sigh. Yes, we sing! But the stomach doesn't sing, it whines .45 Still other Slovak critics noted that, despite Slovakia's reliance on foreign producers and directors focusing on "a narrow slice of Slovakia in Czech films" 46 represented, as Stefan Hoza wrote in Kinorevue, a promising step forward , (the film ' s lack of Slovak financing notwithstanding) giving hope that Zem spieva would usher in a new era of Czech and Slovak films about Slovakia.47 Other Slovak 45 Nastupi sta od Zvolena [pseudonym] "Zem spieva ... " Nastup, March 15, 1935, p. 10. 46 HOZA, Stefan , "Hovom1e o slovenskom film e a - o moznostiach ," Kinorevue, Vol. I, No. 30, March 20, 1935, p. 5. 47 HOZA , Stefan , "Hovorme o slovenskom filme a - o moznostiach," p.6. �106 SLOVAKIA 2021 intellectuals argued amongst themselves as to whether or not Zem spieva counted as ethnographic reportage,48 nationalist "gyc," or a lyrical and stylized portrayal of Slovakia's essence, as Vlado Clementis argued in 1933 49--{;learly not all of Plicka 's artistic experimentation was received in earnest. Perhaps the best sign of the film 's Czechoslovak intent was how vociferously it was condemned on the grounds that Plicka himself, as a non-Slovak, was not qualified to make such a film. Although Czech critics often saw the film as a wonderful celebration of the venerated narodni dilo tradition, the Czech public, on the other hand-especially the fickle Prague audiences, at least according to the press, were not interested in Zem spieva, because of the lingering effect of the "Slovak question" (the repeated calls for Slovak autonomy) had poisoned the well of Czecho(Slovak) culture in the mind of the ordinary Prazak.50 As the Czech critic Jaroslav Broz wrote: We had anticipated that, because, in thi s day and age, when the Slovak question is such a burning domestic political problem of our state, a film about Slovakia would be especially welcomed and raise the interest of the public. But we were sadly disappointed. The numerical balance sheet of the premiere of Plicka 's film in Prague is a sad document of the cultural ignorance of the Prague public. 5 1 Although the film failed to find an audience in the larger Czech metropoles, Zem spieva 's international release and distribution meant that the film was often seen by American Slovaks, "who follow with great interest anything done in Slovakia," 52 and who turned it into both a means of expressing ethnic pride in multicultural American cities, while also using it as an educational tool for non-Slovaks and Slovaks alike. It is, thus, fitting that the artistic ambition of Plicka's last film was most appreciated in American circles, where the Slovak question was either a whispered query among ethnic boosters in a neighborhood 48 TUMA, J., "Zem spieva, ale o cem?" Tvorba. November 9, 1933 . CLEMENTIS, Vladoj "Je Plickov film folkloristickym gycom?" DAV. Vol. I, No. 10, p. 149. 50 SM REK, Jan , "Vel'kost a bieda jednoho vit'azstva," Elim. ovember, 1933 , p. 8. 51 Ibid. 52 GETTING , Milan , "O Slovensku treba prednasat' i Americanom anglickeho jazyka," S/o vensky dennik. September 4, 1935, p. I. 49 �SLOVAKIA 2021 107 bar or forgotten entirely in the multicultural din of American cities. While economic anxiety and nativist sentiment in some comers of Slovak society muted the film 's reaction among hardline nationalists, Zem spieva was warmly received in other areas not just as an artistic achievement, "something that does not have an analog in global [film] production," 53 as the Czech daily Lidove noviny called it, but as an educational tool. It would show the Czech population that Slovak culture could transcend its reputation for provincialism. Furthermore, Slovak cultural groups in America and the Czech Lands scheduled screenings, sometimes with Plicka 's participation in the case of the latter, as a means of promoting Czechoslovak unity. Although the film was shown fairly regularly in the 1930s, it was nearly lost entirely during World War 11 when the original negatives were destroyed by fire in 1944; afterwords, an imperfect and incomplete copy was salvaged from a positive negative in 1945. Zem Spieva was a mixed success in Czechoslovakia, but, perhaps more importantly, it was a striking critical success among avant-garde circles in America and Europe. There, Zem spieva was shown not only at Czech and Slovak ethnic theaters and events, but also in more mainstream settings, such as at the 1934 Venice Biennale, where Plicka was awarded the City Cup of Venice for Best Director. American Slovak institutions were likewise more enthusiastic audiences for Plicka's films . A feature in the Youngstownske slovenske noviny, written by Matica slovenska's Jozef Cincik, considered Zem spieva living history, which captured "the most important moments in Slovak life." 54 Unlike America, whose foundational historical moments were dead and only experienced in museums, Cincik argued that in Zem spieva "we Slovaks have captured in this picture and its subject, all of the moving, speaking, and sounds of music on film for our descendants, everything that Americans will never be able to capture of their own history for themselves." 55 In other words, Zem spieva was able to codify, and solidify, foundational moments in Slovak history and make them available to the entire nation- similar in many regards to the original aim of ethnographic 53 JEZE K, S., "Zem spieva," Lidove noviny , October 27, 1933, p. 16. CINCi K, Jozef, "O filme Zem spieva," Youngtownske slovenske noviny, February 14, 1936, p. 2. 55 Ibid. , p. 2. 54 �108 SLOVAKIA 2021 photography, albeit with a greater power to preserve, to fix in time, and to replicate. The relative success of the film encouraged Matica slovenska to again provi de Plicka with funding and resources for his next featurelength fi lm, I 936's Za Slovakmi od New Yorku po Mississippi. While Zem spieva focused on Plicka's attempts to bring the rhythms and visuals of life in the Slovak highlands to a diverse, urban audience in Czechoslovakia as part of building a modernist Czechoslovak culture, Za Slovakmi instead focused on Slovak expatriate communities and Matica slovenska's activities in America, as Plicka documented the arrival of three of the organization's top officials (Jozef CigerHronsky, Jozef Cincik and Kon stantin Culen,) to the United States in 1936, and the ways in which the ethnographic mission of Matica slovenska was replicated in America. Often considered "only reportage" 56 by Czech and Slovak film critics, this film was not widely shown in Czechoslovakia; however, it did receive a release in America via fraternal and civic American Slovak organizations such as the Slovak Catholic Sokol, and the First Catholic Ladies Slovak Association, another sign of the strong cultural interchange between Slovaks in Czechoslovakia and those in America, which lasted up until World War II . Although Plicka is more widely known today, in terms of contemporary historiography of Slovak film , Vladimir Uh lela was another colleague of Plicka whose personal history bears many simi larities to Plicka 's own. Uhlela was born in Vienna in 1888, studied physiology and botany in Prague and Strassbourg, and, after receiving his doctorate, he became enamored with the possibilities of film after being exposed to it through his postgraduate research.57 After a stint in military pri son during World War I for being a "dangerous Panslavist," 58 Uhlela was released, served honorably, and then returned to Czechoslovakia where he became both an academic in Brno, and a public intellectual. He acted as the science editor for lidove Noviny, as we ll as contributing to numerous other publiccations. Like Plicka, Uh lela was a passionate devotee of folklore, 56 NAVRATIL, Antonin, Ceslv k pravde ci Ii i: 70 lei ceskoslovenskeho dokumenlcirniho filmu (Praha: Akademie muzic kyc h umeni v Praze, 2002), 5 1. 57 STOLL, Martin, et al., Cesky.film: reiisefi - dokumen/arisle (Praha : Libre. 2009), 587-8. SN Ibid. �SLOVAKIA 2021 109 collecting songs and documenting folk culture, not only in Moravia, but in Slovakia as well. Although a well-known popularizer of science in the popular media (including in cinema as well as in print), in the early 1930s, Uhlela devoted himself to making ethnographic films , focusing especial ly on the borderlands between Moravia and Slovakia, where Slovak communities thrived in the mountains . Although Uh lela made several smaller films on ethnographic themes such as Slovacka pisen and Slovacka svatba, he is best known for his full-length ethnographic drama/documentary Mizejici svet/ Miznuci svet shot and released in 1932. Alth ough the film has many ethnographic moments featuring Moravian Slovak villagers from the locations it was shot in, the film is a romantic drama at its core, as it fo ll ows the troubles of a young Czech ethnographer, Stana Homa, who has come from Prague to a small vi ll age on the border of Moravia and Slovakia to document the inhabitants' customs, songs, and kroje (folk costumes). As young Stana becomes more enthralled with the village and a certain young vi ll ager, she finds herself integrating more and more into vi ll age li fe, until the arrival of her friends from Prague shatter the dream. Despite her attempts to become fully integrated into vi ll age life, the vi ll age and its inhabitants vanish, leaving the young ethnographer standing in the middle of an empty room, alone. At its heart Mizmici svet represented, in many ways, a fundamentally Czechoslovak approach to " traditional" Slovak culture, where the dividing line between Slovak and Czech is one not necessarily of language or ethnicity, but of a rural-urban divide. Despite its ethnic ambiguity, the Slovak press praised the film, especially on its visual merits, and eagerly considered it one of their own. Slovenska krajina enthusiastically complimented the film's "beautiful kroj" as "a treat for the eyes," 59 whereas Slovensky dennik enjoyed the film, but negatively compared it to the works of Plicka, saying that, if it were not for Plicka's film , " [Mizmici svet] will most likely be cons idered our first folkloric film , which has no antecedent." 60 Even the stoutly nationalist and famously anti-Czech Slovak grudgingly approved of parts of the film , even though 59 MAZEL, 8. , "Zo prazskeho tyzdna "S/ovenska Krajina, November 22, 1932, p. 2. "Plickov film' Po Horach, po dolach' a Matica Slov.," S/ovensky dennik, November 13 , 1932, p. I. 60 �110 SLOVAKIA 2021 "[ Miznuci svet] does not manage to overcome Plicka's Slovak film of this kind ," it was a sound film , "which captured the disappearing life of Slovak villages on the Moravian border" and the scenes "where the swift life of the majestic lads is best illustrated through dance." 61 The contrast between Uhela's and Plicka's visions was further intensified following its debut in 1932, as a review of Zem spieva in Slovensky dennik praised Plicka's film via a backhanded swipe at Miznuci svet, saying "Zem spieva isn't one of those films which are constructed with cold calculation, inorganically loaded down with so called natural or ethnographic ' action' shots, as was, for example, in the distracting moments in the otherwise superb Miznuci svet, "62 intensifying the competition between the two most prominent Slovak-themed films of the early 1930s. Although Plicka's films were heavily influenced by the Modernist leanings of the Czech avant-garde and Bauhaus, Uh lela's film was in many ways, a different aesthetic experience. Since Plicka 's background in photography meant that he often preferred immaculately composed static shots, with an emphasis on the geometrical patterns he so often found in the Slovak countryside, the collective footage shot by Otakar Schutz, Jan Calabek, Josef Sti'echa, and Josef Buzek used in Miznuci svet is often frenetically active, soaring and zooming around the landscape like a bird, and calling to mind (as the reviewer in Slovak contemptuously pointed out) the "Soviet" 63 influences of the film. Montage sequences also abound throughout the film , repeating shots of the countryside, the growth of plants, the changing of seasons- the very same subjects which were often found in Plicka 's photographic and cinematic work, only viewed through the lens of a different approach to cinematography. However, despite their differences of setting and their treatment of other external cinematic factors, such as sound, Plicka's films and Uhlela's lone ethnographic feature film do share several simi larities. Both films revolve around the allure of leaving civilized, urban environments and reconnecting with older traditions in the countryside. Furthermore, these films sought to break free of the rigid 61 "Film - Mizniici svet. " Slovak, April 5, 1933, p. 5. BALLO, Iva n, "Zem spieva (o prvom slovenskym film e zvukom)," Slo vensky dennik. January I 0, 1933, p. 3. 63 "Film - Mizniici svet. "Slovak. April 5, 1933, p. 5. 62 �SLOVAKIA 2021 111 trappings of purely ethnographic films in a variety of ways: through the hybridization of genre (e.g. Zem spieva 's mixture of the ethnographic film with elements of the city symphony genre, or Miznuci svet 's combination of non-fiction ethnography and fictional melodrama), by incorporating a variety of techniques from Czech or international avant-gardes such as montage and geometrical compositions, and by creating an impressionistic portrait of the experience of Slovakia without relying on the objective aims of scientific film making. And paradoxically, despite their attempts at creating "Czecho-Slovak" Slovak films, or film s about Slovaks and Slovakia within the context of a unified Czechoslovak nation, both directors were, in many ways failures at creating films that transformed their own personal aestheticizations of the Slovak experience into a more unifying one; Plicka 's films were embraced only among Slovak communities at home and abroad as well as among a select group of the urban Czech cultural elite, whereas Uhlela's film languished in obscurity on all fronts- neither Slovak enough for the Slovak nationalists, nor exotic enough for an urban Czech audience. 1.3 FASCISM AND THE RISE OF DOMESTIC SLOVAK PRODUCTION While nationalistic mass-produced images favored by both foreign ethnographers and Slovaks themselves could quickly be repurposed to promote various political ideologies, documentary film was no exception. With the growing support of the Hlinka Slovak People's Party (HSPP), in the mid-to-late 1930s, the Czecho-Slovak interests in Slovakia (most elegantly embodied in Plicka 's documentary and pedagogical work) found themselves under attack by Slovak nationalists. Indeed, many hardliners took offense at the prominence of Czech and foreign directors producing films about Slovakia and for Slovaks, or alternately ignoring the Slovak market altogether, despite the fact that Czech cinemas and cinema production companies were far more numerous, successful, and better-funded. 64 As a result, on November 4th, 1938, members of the ruling HSPP began to purge not only foreign influences (such as Soviet cinema) from Slovak movie theaters, but also began to initiate a broader range of policies which would eventually forbid Jews, Czechs, and other 64 MACEK Vaclav, PASTEKOVA., Jelena, Dejiny slovenskej kinomatografie (Martin : Vydavatel'stvo Osveta, 1997) 74. �112 SLOVAKIA 2021 minont1es from owning, operating, or participating in the Slovak cinema industry,65 with th e notable exception of a handful of stateapproved Czech directors and cameramen like Eugen Mateicka and Bohus Havranek. 66 In order to satisfy the need for cinema, the Slovak government appealed for outside help in order to replace the technical knowledge and talent driven away or excluded by its policies. In addition to receiving aid from film organizations in Vienna, Berlin, and elsewhere, the Slovak Republic set up three organizations for making non-fiction films : Nastup (which produced primarily weekly newsreel s), Skolfilm (which produced educational films) , and Luc (a film monthly company which produced primarily cultural films .)67 These organizations were respon sible for producing nearl y all of Slovak non-fiction films before 1950. While many of the prominent non-Slovak fi gures in early Slovak cinema such as Karel Plicka were driven out of Slovakia during thi s period, a handful of Slovak directors such as Pal'o Bielik were able to continue, openly and sometimes covertly, the cinematic process started by Plicka. Bielik (who rose to fame playing the infamous bandit Juraj Janosik in Martin Fric 's 1935 film of the same name), along with other young S lovak filmmakers in the late First Republic, had mostly learned their craft through either their time in the fi lm industry as actors (in the case of Bielik) or through studyi ng with Plicka and other instructors at (or loosely affiliated with) the Brati slava-based School of Applied Arts. This was a revolutionary institution which featured instruction not just in photography and filmmakin g, but also graphic design , painting, advertising, typogramphy, and textile design .68 However, regardless of their background, th e young Slovak filmmakers quickly found themselves actively constrained by government and industrial censorship, which sought to exorcise the " dangerous" elements harmful to the Slovak nation from Slovak cinematic production . In practice, this meant not only purging 65 HA AKOVA, Petra, " Proticeska agenda s lovenskeho filmu 1939- 1945 ," in : Minoriry a.film (Bratislava: Asociacia slovenskyc h filmovych klubov, 20 12), 46. 66 HANAKOV A, Petra, Palo Bielik a slovenska fi lmova kulllira ( Bratislava: Slovensky filmov y ustav, 20 I0). 49. 67 MIHA.LIK , Peter, Vznik slovenskej narodnej kinemarogra/ie / 896- 1948 (Bratislava : Kabinet divadlo a filmu Slovenskej akademi e vied, 1994), 94. 68 MOJZISOVA, Iva, "Avant-Garde Repercussions in the Schoo l of Applied Arts in Bratislava 1929- 1939, Journal of Design Histaty, Vol. 5, No. 4, 1992. p. 273. �SLOVAKIA 2021 113 Slovak cinema of the thematic and formal innovations imported from abroad, but also eliminating the influences of a trio of dangerous domestic ingredients namely the "Czech-Jewish-Bolshevik"69 influence. Nearly all of the official cinematic output during the short-lived Slovak Republic seems to have focused solely on two non-fiction fronts- periodic newsreels depicting the activities of the Slovak troops in World War n, and so-called " kultume filmy ," or "cultural films ,"70 which were an evolution of the pre-war ethnographic films (often influenced as well by Weimar and Fascist-era German nationalist film s), 7 1 designed to promote a se nse of Slovak nationalism and patriotism. The roots of these cultural film s can be traced back to the 1930s, with the rise of ethnographic feature films like Zem spieva. However, unlike Plicka 's work, little attention was paid to making an ethnographically accurate recording of Slovak life; rather, these cultural films were to celebrate an idealized "S lovakia," which never wholly existed. On November 5, 1934, the "S polok priatel'ov kulumeho filmu na Slovensku" was formed in Bratislava. It sought, as part of its educational mission, to establish "cinemas only for cultural film" in Bratislava and to coordinate with a wide circle of Slovak cultural organi zations throughout Slovakia to make " cultura l film s an accessory in the upbringing of children and uplifting the public." 72 In addition to being an educational tool , Slovak nationalists also saw film as a means to transcend the stereotypes of Slovakia as "a beautiful, but poor, land where life is very primitive"73 that had been established in prior ethnographic and documentary work . A second, less-frequently articulated goal (at least not publicl y) was to "make Slovak film production at least as well-regarded as those done by other bigger nations." 74 Finally, the drive for documentary cinema in the Slovak Republic was, ironically, based on an idea which would later be coopted by the communist regime a few years later, name ly that " film 69 HANAKOV A, Petra, " Proticeska agenda slovenskeho filmu 1939- 1945," 46. Ibid., 45. 71 "Charakter kultume ho film a: P6vodny rozhovor 'S lovaka ' s reziserom 'Tobisu, "' Slovak. March 27, 1942, p. 7. 72 " Pre kulturny film," Slovensky dennik. November 4, 1935, p 9. 73 CE RESNA, M., "S lovensky svojraz a cudzina," Nastup, Apri l I, 1940, p. 14. 74 "S lovenska filmova produkcia," Slovak. August, 6, 1942, p. 8. 70 �114 SLOVAKIA 2021 will help raise up a new kind of person ," 75 informing the Slovak population not only about various topical concerns, but also teaching them what it preci sely means to be "Slovak." In February of 1942 Pal'o Bielik, who had been a celebrated actor in interwar Czechoslovak cinema, as well as in the Slovak National Theatre, found himselfunemployed for budgetary and "other creative" reasons, 76 and so he turned to the newly-formed Slovak film agency Nastup for work as a librettist, before finding a position in the departments of short films and cultural films . Bielik, in many ways, was an accidental filmmaker, one who "fell into film ," and often felt quite ambivalent in regards to the medium. In a 1967 interview in Tvorba, Bielik recounted his first accidental exposures to cinema both as a director and as a spectator: "I fell, as they say, straight-legged into film . It was even worse, like when you throw a non-swimmer into cold water. Save yourself, if you know how! And I've saved myselfup until now. But I can't manage to get away from film ." 77 Bielik began his career directing short documentary and cultural films without any formal training, relying on his experiences in front of a camera during his career as an actor in the first Czechoslovak Republic. Although he was forced to work with the semi-fascist regime during this period, the early documentaries which Bielik produced were as apolitical as possible. 1942 's O zdravie robotnika, was a short film about a newly established sanatorium 78 and 1943 's Pod holym nebom, 79 was a 14-minute "artistic reportage" 80 focused on the daily activities around a traditional Orava shepherd's hut and "the romantic splendor of the Slovak countryside." 81 Some of Bielik 's other documentaries during this period included works on fish and the sport of fishing 82 ( 1943 's Hlavatky) , the manufacture and demonstration of traditional Slovak valasky in Miznuca romantika 75 -ik- " Film v novem zivote," Pravda, Vol. I, March I 0, 1944, p. 4. HANJ\KOV A, Petra, Palo Bielik a slovenska.filmova kulflira, 46. 77 JAN EK, Miroslav, " Vzpominky a plan y Pal'a Bielka," Tvorba: list pro kritiku a umeni. January 12, 196 1, No. 2, pp. 28-9. 78 HAN J\ KOV A, Petra, Palo Bielik a slovenska.filmova kult1ira. 57. 79 Ibid., 53. 80 Ibid. 81 "S loven ska filmova produkcia," Slo vak. August, 6, 1942, p. 8. 82 "Vel'konocny program premierovyc h kin Nastup a Urania," Slovak, April 7, 1944, and "Nove film y Nastupu," Gardista. November 28, 1943 , p. 4. 76 �SLOVAKIA 2021 115 ( I 943), and the production of flour and bread in Chlieb nas kai dodenny ( 1943). Although not all of Bielik's wartime documenttaries focused on the purely folkloric or ethnographic, by and large, they were films about the Slovak countryside and again, consistent with the aims of earlier ethnographic work. While it appeared that Bielik would spend the war attempting to draw little attention to himself with his documentaries on traditional Slovak subjects, the eruption of the Slovak National Uprising in August of 1944 suddenly changed the young director's career. While in the midst of shooting an unrelated film Hanka sa vydava in Brezena, Bielik and his crew caught wind of the Uprising and immediately rushed to join. As Bielik recalled in 1961, the group not only met with the partizans in order to get footage of the historic event, they actually joined the uprising itself: The Uprising caught me in Brezina during the filming of Hanka sa vydava. There were four other filmmakers with me: Krska, Richter, Plavec, a Sekula. We became lieutenants, they gave us uniforms, and we began to film . I led a group and wrote a scenario under the name 'Odboj 1944.' Krska filmed. It's thanks to him that we have authentic material from those days." 83 This raw reportage, which Bielik shot during his time in Brezina was later renamed, re-edited and repurposed into Bielik's 1945 documentary Za slobodu, although some of the film was lost when unknown persons stumbled upon the hiding place of some of the most sensitive footage: We buried part of the film negative underground in the village ofNemce in a graveyard underneath a tombstone. Some strangers, thinking that they found some treasure, collected the film strips, exposed them to light, and once again overexposed them. So they destroyed ten meters of an extraordinarily valuable film." 84 Although Za slobodu did not premiere during the war and was only finished in 1945,85 it nonetheless served as a potent anti-fascist KJ JAN EK, Miroslav, " Vzpomink y a plany Pal'a Bielka," Tvorba: list pro kritiku a o. 2, p.29. umeni, January 12, 196 1, K ➔ Ibid. 5 K MA CE K Vaclav, PA ST EKOVA , Jelena, Dejiny slovenskej kinumatugra/ie, 91 . �116 SLOVAKIA 2021 symbol, burnishing the bona-tides of Bielik's group of directors and cameramen as well as Bielik's own reputation as an anti-fascist filmmaker. The surviving film centers around the narrative retelling and reconstruction, not just of the uprising, but also of the "often frequently catastrophic consequences" of the doomed resistance, 86 a thematically daring approach which was seldom replicated in later documentaries. Furthermore, Za slobodu served as an aesthetic turning point for Slovak documentary film- while previous documenttary films about Slovakia had focused on the stylization of the Slovak experience, mediating reportage via romantic conceptions of the Slovak countryside a la PlickaBielik 's film focused on documentary realism, providing a cinematic experience that was out of touch with the postwar "antifascist euphoria." 87 It did not receive widespread distribution, being withdrawn by government officials because of it was "inappropriate for the delicate nature of the theme;" 88 it featured actual reportage, shot under dangerous conditions; and it did not glamorize or stylize the Slovak National Uprising. In short, Za slobodu can be seen as evidence of the first glimmers of cinematic neo-realism in Slovak documentary filmmaking . 1.4 POSTWAR RUPTURING: DOCUMENTARY AND NON-FICTION 1945 TO 1950 While the rise of fascism heralded the end of his career as a filmmaker, Karel Plicka 's legacy and influence on the burgeoning Slovak film industry was only beginning. Before World War II, Plicka had briefly held the position of film instructor in the experimental and short-lived Academy of the Applied Arts in Bratislava, before the institution was shut down due to rising anti-Czech and anti-Hungarian sentiment. While this institution was short-lived, the School of Applied Arts served to provide the basic educational preparation for the careers of several prominent early Slovak directors like Jan Kadar. In 1946, several months after the reunification of Czechoslovakia, Plicka was appointed the first Dean of the Filmova a televizni fakulta Akademie muzickych umenie (F AMU), 89 in charge of, not only FILMMAKING FROM 86 HANA KOY A, Petra, Pa/'o Bielik a slovenskafilmova kulflira, 63. MACEK Vaclav, PASTEKOY A, Jelena, Dejiny slovenskej kinomatografie, 91. RH Ibid. , 91 . 89 FRANC, Martin, and KRATKA Lenka, eds., Dejiny A MU: ve vypravenich (Praha : Nakladatelstvi AMU, 2017), I 0 . 87 �SLOVAKIA 2021 117 educating future Czech professsionals, but also the first major generation of academically-trained Slovak film professionals. Although the Slovak students began matriculating from FAMU in the late 1940s and early 1950s, director Eduard Greener (one of the first Slovaks to go to the academy) noted that a vast educational gap existed between the Slovak students and their Czech classmates. 90 Although FAMU contributed enormously to the creation of a stable and thriving Slovak film industry from the 1950s onwards, Slovak documentary cinema (and indeed Slovak cinema as a whole) suffered a rupture, from the mid- I 940s to the early 1950s, as directors who had enthusiastically participated in the Slovak Republic 's film program were "discredited ."91 While some directors, such as Pal'o Bielik, had served in the anti-fascist resistance during the war, those who had not found themselves in the position of Plicka and other minority filmmakers in Slovakia in the 1940s- unwelcome and unemployed. As a result, Slovak documentary production sharply declined in postwar years of the 1940s, with an average of seven nonfiction films per year produced from 1945 to 1948,92 as the most visionary and politically safe directors (such as Bielik) and talented beginners such as Jan Kadar rapidly transitioned into feature filmmaking. 93 Despite newly-increased state support and the establishment of institutions such as FAMU, Slovak nonfiction cinema remained fairly moribund for much of the late 1940s through the early I 960s, due to a lack of qualified personnel and, from 1948 onwards, the newly established communist government's ideological demands. 94 These demands, somewhat paradoxically, were very similar to those espoused by the fascist government: to unify Slovaks around visual tropes and folklore, to show the moderni zation of Slovakia and the tangible benefits of the state, 95 and to build a more- 90 "Eduard Greener: film ako vol'ny vers," interview in literarni noviny. August 4, 20 15. http: //literarky.cz/l iterat ura/cteni/20360-eduard-grener-fi lm-ako-vony-ver 91 Navratil , Antonin, Cesty k pravde ci Ii i : 70 let c'eskoslovenskeho dokumentarniho .filmu (Praha: FAMU, 2002), 159. 92 Ibid. , 16 1. 93 Ibid., 160-2. 94 MA CE K Vaclav, PASTEKOVA , Jelena. Dejiny slovenskej kinomatogrcifie. I 1719. 95 JA SSO, Julius, "Slovak Films in the Last Five Years," Czechoslovak Film, Vol. 7, No. 4, unpag inated. �118 SLOVAKIA 2021 ideologically pure Slovak soc iety96 through the use of mass-produced images. Perhaps the single most stereotypical " identifying characteristic" of a Slovak film , documentary or otherwise, during the postwar and early communist years was a reliance on the folkloric motifs and ethnographic themes which had been become so thoroughly codified by the 1950s. This particular fascination with folk culture was hardly a communist invention , as it drew on the ethnographic traditions which were so popular in the late Austro-Hungarian through interwar periods. Given that amateur ethnographers such as Pavel Sochan eagerly embraced photography as a way of documenting indigenous practices in an effort to distinguish region s and establish Slovak cultural identity during periodic moments of cultural trauma, ethnic repression , and attempts at forced assimilation, 97 it remains a littl e surpri sing how quickly the postwar and communist regimes embraced these formerly divisive aesthetic elements. While cinema had been nationalized by the Czechoslovak government-in-exile in August of 1945 as an important national resource, fo lk culture was also nationalized in Slovakia by presidential decree on November 7, 1945. 98 This decree also resulted in the creation of the first Slovak fo lk art collective, the Ustredie l'udovej umeleckej vyroby (UCUV), whose aims were to preserve Slovak folk culture. While ethnographic and folkloric activities had been decidedly controversial in the First Czechoslovak Republic and consisted of a definite part of the fascist propaganda machine during the war, following the 1948 Communist Putsch, the government further reaffirmed the need for fo lkl oric collectives by creating the Slovensky l'udovy umelecky kolekiv (SCUK) in 1949. Further still, the regime stated exp Iicitly ten years later that "folk arts and folk handicrafts make up an important part of our socialist culture," 99 further sanctioning not just the practice of these traditional pastimes, but 96 MACEK Vaclav, PASTEKOVA , Jelena, Dejinv slovenskej kinomatografie. 126. See PODOLAK. J. , "The Development of Ethnography in Slo va kia," Midwest Fo lklore, Vol. 8, No. 2, Summ er, 1958 , pp. 69-84. 97 98 " Prozatimni statni zfizeni ceskoslovenske," Dekret presidenta republiky o organisaci lidove a umelecke vvroby . November 7, 1945, Zakon c. I I 0/ 1945 Sb. Note that the decree did not come into effect until November 27th . 99 Zakon c. 56/ 1957 Sb. �SLOVAKIA 2021 119 affording them legal protection and financial support, albeit fossilizing these living traditions even more effectively than the ethnographic projects of the late Austro-Hungarian and interwar periods. By the early 1950s, Communists had not only assumed control of the government, but were also looking to infiltrate or redirect certain cultural outlets for the purposes of creating communist educational entertainment. The creation of Slovak folkloric collectives such as the S:CUK in the late 1940s, along with the overwhelming familiarity with mass-produced images of Slovakia, the prevalence of interest in the folkloric trappings of Slovak films in both the Czech and Slovak lands was, at one point, so prevalent that Czech film critic and dramaturge Jaroslav Bocek vociferously complained that " ... the Slovak cinema watched over the adjective 'Slovak' caring much less about the noun ' cinema.' No wonder there was such a rash of folklore , embroidered blouses, and national songs, since Czech directors could hardly be expected to understand Slovakia any different from the exotic, folklore , or tourist angle." 10° Compounding Bocek's irritation at the more stereotypical depictions of national identity was the fact that "these same features [folkloric trappings] began to creep even into the work of the emerging directors," to which the Czech critic added "Slovak cinema saw its raison d'etre in its very existence . .. such traits can be found in the beginnings of any cultural endeavor." 10 1 Bocek's paternal dismissal of Slovak cinema was, sadly, not an isolated incident, and echoes some of the earlier critiques of earlier ethnographic films by Plicka and others. 1.5 CONCLUSION As we have seen, Slovak documentary film followed the footsteps of earlier ethnographers and ethnographic photographers, whose original mission was to document and to codify Slovak ethnicity through the collection, reportage , and standardization of cultural and visual tropes. These early documentaries, like those in static media, were predominantly produced by non-Slovaks, who turned to Slovakia to record ways of living which had already receded out of living memory elsewhere. Although these early documentary 100 BOCE K, Jaroslav, 'Twenty Yea rs of Czechoslovak Film," in Modern Czechoslovak Film / 945/ 1965 (Praha: Arti a, dat e unknown [ 1966?)), no paginati on. 10 1 BOCE K, Jaros lav, " Twen ty Years of Czechoslovak Film." �120 SLOVAKIA 2021 films by Czech directors could be di visive in the Slovak intellectual community in Czechoslovakia, they were eagerly embraced by Slovaks li ving elsewhere as a necessary connection to their cultural roots, a connection that was prized not only for its entertainment va lue, but also for its ability to educate Slovaks abroad and in Czechoslovakia in the fundamental aspects of Slovak culture. Since Slovak documentary films were also the fundamental cinematic output of Slovak directors from the beginnings of the Slovak Republic in 1939 through the beginnings of the Slovak feature film era in the 1950s, they also proved to be the fundamental training ground for young Slovak directors, who incorporated several aesthetic aspects of documentary filmrnaking into their own feature film works. In each of these different eras of documentary film production, however, one constant remainsa continuation of the aestheticization of Slovakia, a process begun in the 19th century with the ethnographic activities performed by Hungarians, Austrians, Czechs, and eventually Slovaks themselves. The replicability of these aesthetics also helped ensure the spread of certain aspects of Slovak visual cu lture in the countryside, despite the occasional attempt to bring cinematic focus and cu ltural attention to Slovak urban communities. These attempts were ultimately foiled by the implied formal and aesthetic needs of the specifically "S lovak" documentary: since Slovak culture had been so rigorously defined through its codification period as a " rural" identity, attempts to focus on other aspects of Slovak identity (either in other urban locales or through a de-romanticization of the Slovak countryside) were met with political , cultural, and social resistance. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 2021, Vol. 45 Description An account of the resource Vol. 45 (No. 84-85), 2021. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2021 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document 92 SLOVAKIA 2021 PICTURING A NATIO SLOVAK DOCUMENTARY FILM FROM ITS BIRTH UNTIL NICHOLAS 1950 1 HUDAC " Bude Slovak, cim bol medzi narodami'- to bola veta, s ktorou nasi otcovia vstavali a lihali, to bola veta, kotra hybala ich mysliami natol'ko, ze sa v6bec nehybali. Bolo, teda bude, bude i vtedy, ked' budeme len vylihovat'." Alexander Matuska 2 One of the fundamental aims of early Slovak mass produced images 3 (cinema, lithography, and photography, among other media) was to document and catalog the ethnic, geographic, and social uniqueness of the Slovak Lands. This essay intends to trace the influence of the importance of these media in the early 20th century for Slovaks, namely, non-fiction filmmaking, and its connection with Slovak populations not just in what would become Slovakia, but also in communities abroad- primarily in America. While foreign artists typically came to Slovakia to draw inspiration from its rugged countryside and colorful fo lk costumes, Slovak photographers, engravers, and ethnographers often saw their artistic missions as a way to build a Slovak nation through the documenttation, codification, and repetition of symbols common in a geographical location where historically no " Slovak" nation had ever existed . Although Slovak photographers and engravers enjoyed modest success in the 19th 1 This artic le was made possibl e with the support of the Univerzita Karl ova and has bee n undertaken with additional support from the their Progres QI 2 Initiati ve for Literature and Performance. Ta studie vznikla v souvislosti s fesenim programu rozvoje vyzkumu UK Progres Q12 Literatura a performativita. 2 MATUSKA, Al exander, "S love nska viera v minul osti ," in : C HM EL, Rudolf, ed., Slovenskti ottizka v 20. storoci (Bratis lava : Kalligram, 1997), 12 1. Unl ess noted otherwi se, a ll tra nslati ons are my own. 3 For more on the mass-produced image, see: HUDAC, icho las, " Picturing th e ati on: Slovak Nati onal Identity in the Age of the Mass Produced Image," PhD. Di ssertati on, Uni verzit a Karlova, 2020. SLOVAKIA 2021 93 century, 4 their mediums were soon displaced in the cultural consciousness by the rise of another mass-produced medium, cinema, which provided several boons for the documenttarian . It combined the best qualities of its predecessors : fidelity to the referent image, affordability, durability, transportability, with a novel qualitymotion. This was a new, " lifelike" or "shadowy" 5 quality (to borrow Maxim Gorky's infamous tum of phrase). First, cinema recorded motion. This made it possible to expand the ethnographic activities of Slovak activists in order to capture more aspects of "traditional" culture, ranging from regional dances to the mechanical workings of various implements in Slovak handicrafts. Secondly, cinema also provided the illusion of objecttivity, a quality which could be more easily manipulated to form national and ethnic sentiments. Thirdly, cinema was understandable without any form of specialized training, or in the words of Karel Plicka- "understandable to any people of any country." 6 Lastly, cinema, as one of the first "new" mediums of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, functioned as a source of national and ethnic pride and a vehicle for showing a region's progression into " modernity." In this paper I will first explore how these earlier documentary media contributed to the rise of Slovak documentary filmmaking in the 20th century, and then examine the impact of this tradition . However, as tempting as it would be to think of documentary film (and by extension, the aesthetics of documentary and ethnographic film) as separate from other genres of cinematic expression, for Slovak filmmakers , documentary film proved to be one of the most essential foundations for the building of a national aesthetic, whose presence could be found within a variety of genres and subgenres. Slovak documentary films (as well as certain documentary films about 4 As noted by Macek and Hrubis incky, despite Slovakia's attractiveness for photographers, it lagged behind the Czechs, Austrians, and Hunga rians in the development of both avenues for amateur photographers to disp lay thei r work, and formal training. For more on thi s see: MACEK, Vaclav, and HR UB ISINSC KY Aurel, Dejiny slovenskej fotografie (Bratislava : Slovenska narodna galeria, 200 I), 12- 13. 5 GORKY, Maxim, "The Lumiere C inematograph" in : Si mpson, Philip, et al., Film Theory: Critical Concepts in Media and Cultural Studies. Vo l. III (New York: Routledge, 2004), 7-8 . 6 PLICKA, Karel, "Poznamky o filme - moznosti ac h a ulohach s lovenskych filmov," Slovenske poh/'ady, September 15, 1934, p. 593. 94 SLOVAKIA 2021 Slovakia produced by Czechs) were not merely reportage, but also an evolution of the same aestheticization and stylization of rural life which so captivated the early ethnographers, albeit with new influences and innovations drawn from various domestic and foreign avant-gardes and aesthetic movements. As we shall see, this repetition of personages, of landscapes, of fo lk culture or traditions, continued through Slovak fiction and animated films, working as both a metacommentary on larger issues of national and regional identities, and as a connecting thread , linking these films of different genres and ideological expressions back to a common foundation. ln most parts of the Western World, documentary, fiction , and non-documentary early film developed simultaneously and concordantly . Early filmmakers immediately realized (in the words of Bill Nicho ls), " film 's capacity to document the world around us." 7 However, documentary films about Slovakia and its people preceded any variety of domestic Slovak filmmaking by several decades, owning to several unique internal factors ; Slovakia's relatively impoverished economic situation, its isolated rural communities, and the relative lack of an educated, culturally-Slovak middle class in the Slovak Lands during the period of cinema's birth and global introduction (e.g. from 1895 to roughly 1905 8). This meant that, while cinema was known in Slovakia, this new medium was chiefly an urban and scientific phenomenon, and thus developed quite differrently in the Slovak Lands than in other neighboring regions. Un like the Czechs, who rapidly embraced this new technology and were soon developing their own domestic cinema industry, Slovak film production remained (at best) sporadic until the end of World War II , frequently dependent on Czech and American financing , talent, and interest for the production of films for a Slovak audience. However, while Slovakia's lack of cinematic infrastructure resulted in the delayed development of a Slovak national cinema, this a lso made the area highly desirable as a destination for documentary filmmakers 7 NICHOLS , Bill , " Documentary Film and the Modernist Avant-Garde," in Critical lnquirv 27, no. 4 , Summer, 200 I, p. 580. 8 Again, while actualites and trave l films of Slovakia were produced during thi s period of early film , Slovakia ' s lack of cinematic and cultural infrastructure seems to have resulted in a lack of both cinematic modernism and a cinematic avant-garde as is more commonly found in other Western film culture. See: NICHOLS , " Documentary Film and the Modernist Avant-Garde," p. 580 SLOVAKIA 2021 95 from outside of the Slovak Lands, if not Slovaks themselves. Although urban Slovaks encountered film roughly at the same time as their Czech brethren to the west, the unique gestation and development of cinema in Slovakia deserves at least a cursory explanation. The first public exhibitions of cinema occurred in 1896, almost a full year after the new technology's unveiling in Paris, when, on December 16th, in Kosice's Hotel Schalkaz, local theatre director ~udovit Szalkay arranged for a demonstration of Edison's cinema technology to the public "at great financial sacrifice."9 On December 25th cinema made its debut in Bratislava (then Pressburg), when it was unveiled to the public in two local hotels- the Hotel Palugyay and the Hotel Kral' Uhorska. These projections were mostly silent, but according to eyewitnesses, they were also accompanied by an Edison phonograph on two occasions. 10 But despite these exhibitions, cinema remained confined to the major urban centers of Kosice and Pressburg/Bratislava, and even in those it was often uneasily tolerated. Early cinema projections were subject to intense governmental regulations, 11 and in 1912, the Press burg city government declared that cinema was "negatively" impacting the public. 12 Cinematic exhibitions and cinemas also faced opposition from the Roman Catholic clergy and laity, 13 who saw the technology as a sign of"moral decline" among the youth, 14 and the Hungarian theatrical community who often saw the newer, cheaper medium in a threatening Iight. 15 Despite this public opposition to the new media, cinema was not entirely absent from public life in the Slovak Lands- instead, it was merely curtailed, limited to a handful of cinemas in Bratislava and Kosice. Because of this, cinema production in the Slovak Lands was limited again to foreign or amateur producers, and little attempt was 9 MACEK Vaclav, PASTEKOVA, Jelena, Dejiny slovenskej kinomatografie (Martin : Osveta, 1997), 7. JO ibid. JI ibid. 12 ibid. 13 It is worth comparing the very simi lar opposition to cinema's development and expa nsion that developed in Czech Moravia at roughly the same time . For more on this see: HASAN, Petr, "' Neslusny a nevkusny ti Im nemuze byti krasnym '. Kato licka akce, struktury katolickeho tabora ajejich pusobnost na poli kinematografie v ceske m prostfedi prvni poloviny 20. stoleti," in: /1/uminace, I, 2016 . 14 MAC EK and PASTEKOVA, Dejiny s/ovenskej kinomatogrcifie, 17. 15 MACEK and PASTEKOVA, Dejiny slovenskej kinomatografle, 13. 96 SLOVAKIA 2021 made to make the medium accessible in both smaller locales, or in Slovak. I.I SUBJECTS NOT AUTHORS: THE EARLY YEARS OF SLOVAK NON-FICTION FILMMAKING Although film originally received a hostile reception from various social circles in the Slovak Lands, films were made during cinema's early decades, and many of these early films fell under the criteria of what David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson termed "actualities," or films showing an event from real life, and "scenic," 16 crude travelogues designed to showcase exotic places or striking vistas. While cinema started later in the Slovak Lands, by the early 20th century Slovakia had become a destination for Hungarian directors, mainly associated with companies in Budapest 17 who were interested in filming glimpses of Slovakia's mountains. In February of 1908, the Apollo theatre in Bratislava debuted one of the first recorded scenics/actualities set in Slovakia, Wintersport im Tatralomnicz/Zimny sport v Tatranskej Lomnici. 18 A few months later the Apollo's competitor, the Elektro-Biskop cinema projected a series of panoramic scenes as part of their Welt-Panorama special, which included two more films shot in distinctively Slovak locations: Die Hohe Tatra/ Vysoke Tatry and Tur6cz-Szt.-Marton/Turciansky Svaty Martin, as part of its travelogue series. 19 Travelogues, the close cousins of the scenic genre, were a popular genre of early film making, one which attempted to provide a replication or approximation of the traveling experience for audiences hungry for new sensations, as well as a more frugal way of "experiencing" a location for a cash-strapped audience. These films were often accompanied with lectures 20 or packaged as part of a longer cinematic experience, designed to replicate the idea of a larger trave l holiday, albeit condensed into on ly a few minutes. Although these early Slovak travelogues have been 16 BORDWELL, David, and THOMPSON, Kri stin , Film Histo,y : An Introduction (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1994), 12-13 . 17 MACEK and PASTEKOVA., Dejinyslovenskej kinomatografle. 18-19. 18 "Tagesneuigkeiten!" Pressburger Zeitung. February 5, 1908, p. 2 19 "Elektro-Bioskop nur im Hotel ' zum gri.inen Baum ' in Pozsony, Program vom 14. bis 2 1 Marz," Pressburger Presse, March 16, 1908, p. 5. 20 PETE RSON , Jennifer Lynn, "Travelogues" in : Abel, Rich ard, ed., The Encyclopedia of Early Film (London, New York: Routledge, 2005), 640-3. SLOVAKIA 2021 97 lost, we can reasonnably infer what the experience wou ld have been like by surviving examples of the genre: travelogues were " highly kinetic ," "educational," and positioned as a morally and intell ectuall y healthy a lternative to the salacious or lascivious aspects of other, lesswholesome early films. While these travelogues, actualiti es, and sceni cs were originall y niche productions for audiences located far away from Slovak communities, they nonetheless sti ll largely adhered to the progression of ea rlier Slovak mass-produced images. In the first place, these travel films were essentially a new means of packaging, commodifying, standardizing, and commerciali zing the experience of being in the Slovak Lands, without having to travel and without the politically and socially divisive barrier of language. Secondly, we can clearly tell from the context in which these films were exhibited (e.g. only in the urban centers of Pressburg and Kosice, advertised through the nonSlovak press, and in cinemas that were attached to areas frequented by travelers, the upper classes, and tourists) that these films were again consumed by an Austro-Hungarian audience, not necessarily a "Slovak" one - much as the earl y engravings and lithographs of the Slovak landscape were enjoyed primarily by non-Slovak audiences first, and Slovak audiences later. Lastly, much as ethnographic lithography and photography were rapidly adopted by Slovaks as a means of preserving, codifying, and distributing visua l examp les of Slovak cu ltural identity, as we shall see in the next sections, the rationale behind these sceni cs and travelogues (name ly, that film shou ld give an impression of life in Slovakia, rather than a purely narrative structure) would later be embraced by both non-fiction and fiction filmmakers alike. 1.2 THE BEGIN NINGS OF SLOVAK DOCUMENTARY CINEMA After the dissolution of Austria-Hungary in 19 18, Slovaks suddenly fo und themselves, not just as a rural curiosity in a large empire, but the second largest Slavic partner in the newly-fonned Republic of Czechos lovakia. No longer subjects to the stringent censorship laws and the Magyarization policies of the former Kingdom of Hungary, film (as with other forms of mass-produced images) began to expand. Movie theaters grew in number (from three in the 98 SLOVAKIA 2021 early 1900s to 84 by the end of Austria-Hungary,2' and increasing to 153 by the end of the First Republic) and size, appearing all over the Slovak Lands, and not just in Kosice and the newly re-named Bratislava. Furthermore, while theaters had once been limited to showing a handful of Hungarian or Austrian films in Bratislava and Kosice, distributors throughout Slovakia began adding Czech, American, and German films 22 to their theaters, though these often met with resistance from more nationalist groups. 23 Unfortunately, this rapid infusion of new cinematic experiences, techniques, and choices did not necessarily result in Slovaks developing their own cinema industry. Throughout the First Republic, Slovakia remained primarily a destination for filmmaking, but with a few minor exceptions, there would be no Slovak documentaries produced by a Slovak director until well into World War II. However, documentary film was indeed expanding in Slovakia, again often along the same ethnographi c, folkloric , or scenic and, again also widely produced by non-Slovak academics such as the Czech directors, Vladimir Uh lela and Karel Plicka as part of a broader, Czechoslovak agenda. Both Plicka and Uhlela saw their documentary productions as a means of integrating Slovaks into the cultural life of Czechoslovakia, through cultivating an aesthetic appreciation for the fo lkl oric and rural aspects of Slovak culture in non-Slovak audiences, a lbeit in very different ways. Furthermore, directors were officially funded through both government sources, as well as the Matica slovenska, and as a result both sought to bring these traditional aspects of Slovak visual cu lture into a Czecho-Slovak cultural space. In his career as an ethnographer and a photographer, Karel Plicka was concerned with producing works of art which could bridge the growing divide between Czech and Slovak audiences. Plicka 's photographic, ethnographic, and musicological output was prodigious, and from the late 1920s onwards he began a second (or third or fourth career) as a documentary filmmaker in Slovakia and in Slovak MACEK and PASTEKOV A, Dejiny slovenskej kinomatografie, 597-8. Advertisements for the Kino Palace and Kino Meteor in Banska Bystrica. for example, show both American films and German films on their programs as early as 1928; larger cinemas in Bratis lava and Kosice had, of course, made international progra min g a staple of their repertoires from the very beginning . 23 " Potreba naprvy vo filmovej produckii a predvazdani filmov. Dockame sa v Kosic iach viacerych domacich ti lmov?" Slo vensky v_1ichod, January 24, 1933 , p. 3 . 21 22 SLOVAKIA 2021 99 communities abroad. Starting with l 928's Za slovenskym /'udom, Plicka approached Slovak culture through the lenses of his earlier work as a musicologist and a photographer, meticulously documenting the exotic aspects of Slovak (and to a lesser extent, Rusyn) culture for Czech, Slovak, and international audiences. Like many early film directors, Plicka had little to no formal training, relying on his amateur knowledge of photography and supplementing this with his learned or natural talent as an ethnographer. For Plicka, this Slovakia, as of yet only barely codified and recognized as a political or social sphere, contained a wealth of information which needed to be documented: On my trips after Slovak folksongs , I came to many lesser known and even forgotten areas, to which almost 'no one' had ever come up until then . No one, or rather, hardly anyone except those with open eyes and trained ears. It ' s no wonder. Ethnographic Slovakia is a vast and extensive world, and there never will be enough of those who could satisfy the need to write down, draw , and photograph this richness.24 Although Plicka was wary of the mechanical " ripping" of folk songs and images from living performances into mechanized fossils, he soon embraced the advantages of these modern technologies. He began to experiment with film starting in the mid- I 920s as a "documentary tool for ethnographic and folkloric events," 25 which could satisfy, if not all of his documentary impulses, at least most of them. Although the Matica slovenska and Plicka had worked together numerous times on his ethnographic photographical and musicological expeditions throughout Slovakia, the organization felt that a movie camera was necessary for the broadening of their efforts in the young Czechoslovakia. 26 Archival records in Matica slovenska show that Plicka obtained a Pathe movie camera in the spring of 1926 in Prague, 27 where he learned to use the new tool; only a few months 24 PLICKA , Karel , " Ako sme filmov ali," S/ovenske poh/'ady. April I , 1930, pp. 215- 16 25 LAC KOVA , Sy lvia, LEXMANN , Juraj , and SLIVKA Martin , eds., Karol Plicka vo fl/m ove) faktografii, (Brati slava: S loven sky film ovy ustav , 1983), 36. 26 KRC M ERY , Ste fan , Tri rol..y Matice slovenskej I 924- 1926 (Turc iansky sv. Martin: Matica slovenska, 1927), 8-9. 27 PLIC KA , Karol. Co rres pondence. Coll ected in: LAC KOVA , Sl yv ia, LEXMANN , Juraj , and SLIVKA Martin , Karol Plicka vo jilmovej f i:1ktogra/ii, 187. 100 SLOVAKIA 2021 later, Plicka wrote to Matica slovenska to arrange the local permissions and cooperation necessary to start his cinematic work, saying: Please send a message immediately to inform the schools in Zliechova, and in Kosecke Rovne, as well as the parish office in Zliechova, that the ethnographic department of Matica Slovenska proposes to, after a number of days/starting from the 14th of this month, to start working there, and to: record songs, photograph, and to film scenes, which the Zleichovans demonstrated in Trencianske Teplice. Matica Slovenska requests moral support for this significant work in these historic villages." 28 In much of 1926, 1927, and 1928, Plicka traveled through Slovakia (primarily in the Liptov and Orava regions popularized by the pioneering ethnographic artists Pavol Sochan and Peter Michal Bohun), recording film footage, as well as continuing his other ethnographic activities. The resulting film Za s/o venskym f'udom was received with great fanfare in the Slovak community on both sides of the Atlantic. Slovaks in America marveled at Plicka's ethnographic ambition, noting that the film was a "powerful piece of cultural propagation," which was "very sympathetically accepted by all of the Slovak and even Czechoslovak public."29 The nationalistic daily Slovak praised the film as "something that is worthwhile for the part of our public, which does not have the possibility to see all the treasures of our national spirit,"30 while the more centrist Slovensky dennik labelled the ft Im "the loveliest surprise of the year" and thri lied at seeing Slovaks on the screen "where one is accustomed to seeing nowadays only the sorrows and joys of other nations ."3 1 The film combined not only Plicka 's photographic talent (indeed many of the scenes depicted on film were also photographed for Plicka's and Matica slovenska's later use) for finding the abstract patterns in the Slovak countryside with the athletic and physical prowess of hi s subjects, who dance traditional dances and display feats of strength while dressed in various traditional regional kroje. 28 Ibid. "Rok kulturnej prace," Ynungstownske slovenske novivny. May 3, 1929, p. 3 30 " Film za slovenskym l'udom ," Slovak (Bratislava), March I, 1929, p. 4. 31 "Za slovenskym l'udom," Slovensk_)1dennik (Bratislava), March 14, 1929, p. 6. 29 SLOVAKIA 2021 101 Za s/ovenskym /'udom was funded largely by Matica slovenska, which experienced a resurgence of popularity and importance following the dissolution of Austria-Hungary. Matica slovenska's mission of preserving, codifying, and unifying Slovak culture internally as well as internationally, meshed with Plicka 's own natural urges to record and transmit. A second well-received documentary about highland Slovaks titled Po horach, po dolach followed in l 929, which received an even wider domestic release than Plicka's first film, as well as winning pri zes in international film and photographic competitions in 1932. Like Za slovenskym /'udom, Po horach, po dolach was also funded by Matica slovenska, and featured much of the same style and content as Plicka's debut film , and was shown to a wider variety of audiences, including Czechs. 32 By the early 1930s, Plicka had begun producing documentari es for both Matica slovenska and private concerns, such as an informative non-fiction quasiadvertisement for the town of Piest'any 's famous medicinal baths and mud treatments. Furthermore, his films were beginning to be utilized by American Slovak organizations like Jednota, the Slovak League of America, and others as a means to educate American Slovaks about their cultural heritage as well as the benefits of Slovak ethnic identity.33 Plicka 's most famous film might be considered to be his 1933 paean to Slovakia, Zem spieva, which combines scenes of rural Slovak folklore and traditional dress along with intertitles by the Slovak poet and translator Jan Smrek. Curiously, although Plicka was an early proponent of the ethnographic and educational possibilities of sound film, he elected to set the film to an impressionistic score by the Czech composer Frantisek Skvor, despite declaring that sound film as a medium is the " the ideal documentation" 34 in an interview with his collaborator Smrek only a few years earlier. Whil e Plicka 's early work 32 MALINA, Vladimir, "O moznostiach slovenskeho zvukoveho filmu ," Elim. November, 193 1. 33 See: CU LEN , Kon stantin, S/ovaci v Amerike: crty z kulturnych dejin (Tuciansky Sv. Martin: Matica slovenska, 1938) as we ll as ALEXANDER , June Granatir, Ethnic Pride, American Parriorism: Slovaks and Orher New Immigrants in rhe lnren var Era (Ph ilade lphia: Templ e Unive rsity Press, 2004). 34 SMREK, Jan, "O praci pre zac hovanie l'udovej piesne: rozhovor s jej znalcom a vasnyvim sbera tel'om Karlom Plickom," £/an: mesiacnik pre literaruru a umenie, March , 1933, p. 5. 102 SLOVAKIA 2021 was often mere documentation for the sake of preservation , Zem spieva is an expansion of Plicka 's more experimental photographic vision. Plicka takes the viewer on a musical and vis ual trip through Slovakia's wild mountains, not for the sake of scientific observation, but to experience the poetic essence of Czechoslovakia ' s most exotic locales. As Bill Nichols noted in his essay "Documentary Film and the Moderni st Avant-Garde," what separated interwar documentary film from mere reportage like newsreel s, was its artistic pretensions. 35 While the First Republic was full of newsreel s documenting world events and cultural phenomena from exotic locales, Slovakia included, Zem spieva represented two complimentary, yet different intentionsthe first was to continue to raise, on the one hand Czech appreciation and awareness of Slovak cu lture, whi le simultaneously allowing Slovaks an opportunity to have their own culture valued on equal standing with the more "sophisticated" and dominant Czech culture. Zem spieva 's modernist influences are most strongly fe lt in its theoretical conception and execution . While the film is a "sound" film in terms of its technical composition with Skvor' s pre-recorded soundtrack , the film ' s formal structure adheres more closely to the avant-garde experimentation of the late silent film era, featuring no diagetic sound or dialogue, and only intertitles explaining the significance of the scenes. 36 This suited Plicka, as he explained in his 1932 article "Poznamky o filme moznostiach a ulohach slovenskych filmov": Slovak films will be sound films , since today, unfortunately, it is impossible to make any other kind. But they will certainly not be I 00% dialogue film s, perhaps thanks to the producers, but an arti stic and commercial error. In the interest of internationali sm, it will be necessary to curb dialogs and really, the entire weight which bears the influence of the theatre, will have to be limited to the most modest, if not reduced entirely for that matter, in order to make the film as understandable as it was at its happi est, when it was silent. This mostly applies to the Slovak situation ; we will not be able to afford many films on ly for ourselves. It is better to 35 NI C HOLS, Bill, " Doc umentary Film and th e Modernist Avan t-Garde," Critical ln- qui,y . Vol. 27, No. 4, Summer, 20 11 , p. 588. 36 LAC KOVA. , Slyvia, LEXMANN, Juraj, and SLIVKA Martin, eds., Karol Plicka vo.filmovej.faktografii (Bratislava : Slovensky filmo vy ustav, 1983), 89 . SLOVAKIA 2021 103 produce little, but except that which is thoughtful and valuable. 37 Although such an approach to sound design was dec idedly archaic (even in 1933),38 Plicka was, in some se nse, correct: this decision paradoxically increased Zem spieva 's international appeal. On the one hand, the relegation of the Slovak language within the film to small, easily digested intertitles meant that the film was easily accessible to Slovak populations in the United States, whose command of the language might have been fossilized or had languished through the process of assimilation. 39 On the other hand, the focus on the more purely abstract visual and musicological aspects of Slovak folk culture allowed the film to function as " poetry," without the di straction or potential friction of Slovak dialogue, an abstraction that also allowed the film to represent various different "S lovakias" for different audiences. While the American Slovaks rejoiced in finding a poetiziation of their ancestral homeland, Slovakia's most exotic and access ible qualities, such as its visual splendor, its vital folk culture, and its melodies, were easily absorbed by outsiders who did not require any specialized linguistic skill to appreciate them. Additionally, Plicka' s long-time editor, the Czech avant-garde photographer and filmmaker Alexandr Hackenschmied, was instrumental in reshaping the narrative structure of the film through his assured editing style, and via his suggestion that Plicka shoot additional introductory and ending footage. 40 Hackenschmied was born into a family of academics in Prague, and hi s childhood in the (then) industrial neighborhood of Karlin gave him ample opportunity to visit the numerous cinemas around that part of the city, 41 sowing the seeds of hi s great interest in film and photography. Following his high school graduation, Hackenschmeid bega n hi s architectural studies, but found himself drawn more strongly to cinema and photography, and 37 PLICKA , Karel , " Poznamky o filme - moznostiach a ulohach slovenskyc h filmov," S/ovenske poh/'ady, September 15, 1934, p. 593 . 38 For more on the problems of sou nd films in Slovak ia during the interwar period, see my Ph .D. dissertation . HUDAC, Nicholas, " Picturing the Na ti on: Slovak National Identity in the Age of the Mass Produced Image," Univerzita Karlova , 2020. 39 C.f. CU LEN, Konstantin, Slovaci V Amerike. 40 ANDEL, Jaroslav, Alexandr Hackenschmied(Praha: TORST, 2000), 29. 41 BROZ, A /exander Hackenschied (Praha: Ceskoslovensky filmovy ustav, 1973 ), 202 1. 104 SLOVAKIA 2021 various global avant-gardes active in the 1920s and 1930s, such as the work of Man Ray, the Soviet LEF group, Dziga Yertov, and more.42 While Hackenschmied was active in photographic circles from his student days, starting in 1930 he began to make his own films . More than a film enthusiast and a future film editor- he was a film theorist, a photographer, and a filmmaker himself, deeply concerned with the possibilities of montage and form . Hackenschmeid began editing Zem spie va in Prague in 1932, but completed the final cut after Plicka returned from additional shoots in Slovakia with more footage . In a conversation with Martin Sli vka, one of his former students, Plicka recounted his views on the finished product: What do I want Zem spie va to say via film? I would be happy if it was approached without interpretation . It deals with Slovakia as unknown as well as beautiful: the theme of the film is the lives of people in a village and their holy relationship to nature. As the film ' s subtitles suggest, Zem spieva is a cinematic poem celebrating precious traditions; it should be evidence of an enchantingly pure manifestation of life, which is so simple, yet so important. And the film shows a world in which our fathers ' healthy and precious heritage has, by some miracle, been preserved in some regions until today.',4 3 In this sense, Plicka' s intentions for Zem spie va represent an inversion of the earlier ethnographic assumptions that ethnographic subjects are worthy of documentation because of the interesting-yettlawed nature of their ancient practices. Instead, in both the content of Zem spie va and in his comments to the press, Plicka explicitly rejects the predominant political push by Czech (and some Slovak) political and cultural authorities to modernize and industrialize Slovakia .44 Rather, the film's premise is a twist on the time-honored modernist 42 BROZ, Alexander Hackenschied, pp. 2 1-22. SLIVKA , Martin , Karol Plicka. hasnik obrazu (Martin: Vydavatel'stvo Osveta, 1982), 175. 44 Although a compl ete accounting of th e industriali zation debate regarding Slovaki a is beyond th e scope of thi s arti c le, see, for example, MATULA, Antonin, " Dvacatyosmy fij en," in Ceska osveta: /isl venovan_y zajmum vdejneho knihovnictvi a organisaci lidoveho vzdelani. September, 1938, Vol. 35 , No. I, pp. 5-7; and HA VLiCE K, V., " Narodni problem Slovenska," in Nase doba: revue pro vedu. umeni a i ivo/ socia/ni, November, 1933, Vol. 41 , No. 2, pp. 68-73. 4 .1 SLOVAKIA 2021 105 tradition of the city symphony, a genre of early avant-garde filmmaking practiced by directors such as Walter Ruttmann and Dziga Vertov, which sought to translate the immense vitality and activity of an urban space to the reproducible and distributable form of cinema as a celebration of modern industrialization and urbanization. While not every audience member could afford a trip to Berlin or Moscow, a city symphony provided an impressionistic vision of such urban locales that could satisfy the longings for new visual stimulation and locations for a reasonable price. Plicka ' s vision for Zem spieva followed a model similar to Ruttman's and Vertov's films , yet inverted. For the price of a mere ticket, audience members could journey away from Bratislava, deep into the wild Slovak mountains, where a visual feast of dancing, ethnic clothing and stunning vistas awaited them, accompanied with rapturous song. Although Zem spie va was produced under the auspices of Matica slovenska, the old vanguard of Slovak national sentiment and as part of a series of governmental programs to promote Slovak culture in the Republic, not all Slovak activists were thrilled by Plicka' s aims or the resources devoted to its production. As an anonymous letter in the Slovak periodical Nastup declared: When we think about our devastated Slovakia's economic ruin, about the misery of our Slovak people, the overwhelming question mark which stands before our Slovak intelligentsia is about the misery and scarcity at every step and yet on the other hand, we are making our sole Slovak film 'The Earth Sings,' and between these two, we clench our teeth and deeply sigh. Yes, we sing! But the stomach doesn't sing, it whines .45 Still other Slovak critics noted that, despite Slovakia's reliance on foreign producers and directors focusing on "a narrow slice of Slovakia in Czech films" 46 represented, as Stefan Hoza wrote in Kinorevue, a promising step forward , (the film ' s lack of Slovak financing notwithstanding) giving hope that Zem spieva would usher in a new era of Czech and Slovak films about Slovakia.47 Other Slovak 45 Nastupi sta od Zvolena [pseudonym] "Zem spieva ... " Nastup, March 15, 1935, p. 10. 46 HOZA, Stefan , "Hovom1e o slovenskom film e a - o moznostiach ," Kinorevue, Vol. I, No. 30, March 20, 1935, p. 5. 47 HOZA , Stefan , "Hovorme o slovenskom filme a - o moznostiach," p.6. 106 SLOVAKIA 2021 intellectuals argued amongst themselves as to whether or not Zem spieva counted as ethnographic reportage,48 nationalist "gyc," or a lyrical and stylized portrayal of Slovakia's essence, as Vlado Clementis argued in 1933 49--{;learly not all of Plicka 's artistic experimentation was received in earnest. Perhaps the best sign of the film 's Czechoslovak intent was how vociferously it was condemned on the grounds that Plicka himself, as a non-Slovak, was not qualified to make such a film. Although Czech critics often saw the film as a wonderful celebration of the venerated narodni dilo tradition, the Czech public, on the other hand-especially the fickle Prague audiences, at least according to the press, were not interested in Zem spieva, because of the lingering effect of the "Slovak question" (the repeated calls for Slovak autonomy) had poisoned the well of Czecho(Slovak) culture in the mind of the ordinary Prazak.50 As the Czech critic Jaroslav Broz wrote: We had anticipated that, because, in thi s day and age, when the Slovak question is such a burning domestic political problem of our state, a film about Slovakia would be especially welcomed and raise the interest of the public. But we were sadly disappointed. The numerical balance sheet of the premiere of Plicka 's film in Prague is a sad document of the cultural ignorance of the Prague public. 5 1 Although the film failed to find an audience in the larger Czech metropoles, Zem spieva 's international release and distribution meant that the film was often seen by American Slovaks, "who follow with great interest anything done in Slovakia," 52 and who turned it into both a means of expressing ethnic pride in multicultural American cities, while also using it as an educational tool for non-Slovaks and Slovaks alike. It is, thus, fitting that the artistic ambition of Plicka's last film was most appreciated in American circles, where the Slovak question was either a whispered query among ethnic boosters in a neighborhood 48 TUMA, J., "Zem spieva, ale o cem?" Tvorba. November 9, 1933 . CLEMENTIS, Vladoj "Je Plickov film folkloristickym gycom?" DAV. Vol. I, No. 10, p. 149. 50 SM REK, Jan , "Vel'kost a bieda jednoho vit'azstva," Elim. ovember, 1933 , p. 8. 51 Ibid. 52 GETTING , Milan , "O Slovensku treba prednasat' i Americanom anglickeho jazyka," S/o vensky dennik. September 4, 1935, p. I. 49 SLOVAKIA 2021 107 bar or forgotten entirely in the multicultural din of American cities. While economic anxiety and nativist sentiment in some comers of Slovak society muted the film 's reaction among hardline nationalists, Zem spieva was warmly received in other areas not just as an artistic achievement, "something that does not have an analog in global [film] production," 53 as the Czech daily Lidove noviny called it, but as an educational tool. It would show the Czech population that Slovak culture could transcend its reputation for provincialism. Furthermore, Slovak cultural groups in America and the Czech Lands scheduled screenings, sometimes with Plicka 's participation in the case of the latter, as a means of promoting Czechoslovak unity. Although the film was shown fairly regularly in the 1930s, it was nearly lost entirely during World War 11 when the original negatives were destroyed by fire in 1944; afterwords, an imperfect and incomplete copy was salvaged from a positive negative in 1945. Zem Spieva was a mixed success in Czechoslovakia, but, perhaps more importantly, it was a striking critical success among avant-garde circles in America and Europe. There, Zem spieva was shown not only at Czech and Slovak ethnic theaters and events, but also in more mainstream settings, such as at the 1934 Venice Biennale, where Plicka was awarded the City Cup of Venice for Best Director. American Slovak institutions were likewise more enthusiastic audiences for Plicka's films . A feature in the Youngstownske slovenske noviny, written by Matica slovenska's Jozef Cincik, considered Zem spieva living history, which captured "the most important moments in Slovak life." 54 Unlike America, whose foundational historical moments were dead and only experienced in museums, Cincik argued that in Zem spieva "we Slovaks have captured in this picture and its subject, all of the moving, speaking, and sounds of music on film for our descendants, everything that Americans will never be able to capture of their own history for themselves." 55 In other words, Zem spieva was able to codify, and solidify, foundational moments in Slovak history and make them available to the entire nation- similar in many regards to the original aim of ethnographic 53 JEZE K, S., "Zem spieva," Lidove noviny , October 27, 1933, p. 16. CINCi K, Jozef, "O filme Zem spieva," Youngtownske slovenske noviny, February 14, 1936, p. 2. 55 Ibid. , p. 2. 54 108 SLOVAKIA 2021 photography, albeit with a greater power to preserve, to fix in time, and to replicate. The relative success of the film encouraged Matica slovenska to again provi de Plicka with funding and resources for his next featurelength fi lm, I 936's Za Slovakmi od New Yorku po Mississippi. While Zem spieva focused on Plicka's attempts to bring the rhythms and visuals of life in the Slovak highlands to a diverse, urban audience in Czechoslovakia as part of building a modernist Czechoslovak culture, Za Slovakmi instead focused on Slovak expatriate communities and Matica slovenska's activities in America, as Plicka documented the arrival of three of the organization's top officials (Jozef CigerHronsky, Jozef Cincik and Kon stantin Culen,) to the United States in 1936, and the ways in which the ethnographic mission of Matica slovenska was replicated in America. Often considered "only reportage" 56 by Czech and Slovak film critics, this film was not widely shown in Czechoslovakia; however, it did receive a release in America via fraternal and civic American Slovak organizations such as the Slovak Catholic Sokol, and the First Catholic Ladies Slovak Association, another sign of the strong cultural interchange between Slovaks in Czechoslovakia and those in America, which lasted up until World War II . Although Plicka is more widely known today, in terms of contemporary historiography of Slovak film , Vladimir Uh lela was another colleague of Plicka whose personal history bears many simi larities to Plicka 's own. Uhlela was born in Vienna in 1888, studied physiology and botany in Prague and Strassbourg, and, after receiving his doctorate, he became enamored with the possibilities of film after being exposed to it through his postgraduate research.57 After a stint in military pri son during World War I for being a "dangerous Panslavist," 58 Uhlela was released, served honorably, and then returned to Czechoslovakia where he became both an academic in Brno, and a public intellectual. He acted as the science editor for lidove Noviny, as we ll as contributing to numerous other publiccations. Like Plicka, Uh lela was a passionate devotee of folklore, 56 NAVRATIL, Antonin, Ceslv k pravde ci Ii i: 70 lei ceskoslovenskeho dokumenlcirniho filmu (Praha: Akademie muzic kyc h umeni v Praze, 2002), 5 1. 57 STOLL, Martin, et al., Cesky.film: reiisefi - dokumen/arisle (Praha : Libre. 2009), 587-8. SN Ibid. SLOVAKIA 2021 109 collecting songs and documenting folk culture, not only in Moravia, but in Slovakia as well. Although a well-known popularizer of science in the popular media (including in cinema as well as in print), in the early 1930s, Uhlela devoted himself to making ethnographic films , focusing especial ly on the borderlands between Moravia and Slovakia, where Slovak communities thrived in the mountains . Although Uh lela made several smaller films on ethnographic themes such as Slovacka pisen and Slovacka svatba, he is best known for his full-length ethnographic drama/documentary Mizejici svet/ Miznuci svet shot and released in 1932. Alth ough the film has many ethnographic moments featuring Moravian Slovak villagers from the locations it was shot in, the film is a romantic drama at its core, as it fo ll ows the troubles of a young Czech ethnographer, Stana Homa, who has come from Prague to a small vi ll age on the border of Moravia and Slovakia to document the inhabitants' customs, songs, and kroje (folk costumes). As young Stana becomes more enthralled with the village and a certain young vi ll ager, she finds herself integrating more and more into vi ll age li fe, until the arrival of her friends from Prague shatter the dream. Despite her attempts to become fully integrated into vi ll age life, the vi ll age and its inhabitants vanish, leaving the young ethnographer standing in the middle of an empty room, alone. At its heart Mizmici svet represented, in many ways, a fundamentally Czechoslovak approach to " traditional" Slovak culture, where the dividing line between Slovak and Czech is one not necessarily of language or ethnicity, but of a rural-urban divide. Despite its ethnic ambiguity, the Slovak press praised the film, especially on its visual merits, and eagerly considered it one of their own. Slovenska krajina enthusiastically complimented the film's "beautiful kroj" as "a treat for the eyes," 59 whereas Slovensky dennik enjoyed the film, but negatively compared it to the works of Plicka, saying that, if it were not for Plicka's film , " [Mizmici svet] will most likely be cons idered our first folkloric film , which has no antecedent." 60 Even the stoutly nationalist and famously anti-Czech Slovak grudgingly approved of parts of the film , even though 59 MAZEL, 8. , "Zo prazskeho tyzdna "S/ovenska Krajina, November 22, 1932, p. 2. "Plickov film' Po Horach, po dolach' a Matica Slov.," S/ovensky dennik, November 13 , 1932, p. I. 60 110 SLOVAKIA 2021 "[ Miznuci svet] does not manage to overcome Plicka's Slovak film of this kind ," it was a sound film , "which captured the disappearing life of Slovak villages on the Moravian border" and the scenes "where the swift life of the majestic lads is best illustrated through dance." 61 The contrast between Uhela's and Plicka's visions was further intensified following its debut in 1932, as a review of Zem spieva in Slovensky dennik praised Plicka's film via a backhanded swipe at Miznuci svet, saying "Zem spieva isn't one of those films which are constructed with cold calculation, inorganically loaded down with so called natural or ethnographic ' action' shots, as was, for example, in the distracting moments in the otherwise superb Miznuci svet, "62 intensifying the competition between the two most prominent Slovak-themed films of the early 1930s. Although Plicka's films were heavily influenced by the Modernist leanings of the Czech avant-garde and Bauhaus, Uh lela's film was in many ways, a different aesthetic experience. Since Plicka 's background in photography meant that he often preferred immaculately composed static shots, with an emphasis on the geometrical patterns he so often found in the Slovak countryside, the collective footage shot by Otakar Schutz, Jan Calabek, Josef Sti'echa, and Josef Buzek used in Miznuci svet is often frenetically active, soaring and zooming around the landscape like a bird, and calling to mind (as the reviewer in Slovak contemptuously pointed out) the "Soviet" 63 influences of the film. Montage sequences also abound throughout the film , repeating shots of the countryside, the growth of plants, the changing of seasons- the very same subjects which were often found in Plicka 's photographic and cinematic work, only viewed through the lens of a different approach to cinematography. However, despite their differences of setting and their treatment of other external cinematic factors, such as sound, Plicka's films and Uhlela's lone ethnographic feature film do share several simi larities. Both films revolve around the allure of leaving civilized, urban environments and reconnecting with older traditions in the countryside. Furthermore, these films sought to break free of the rigid 61 "Film - Mizniici svet. " Slovak, April 5, 1933, p. 5. BALLO, Iva n, "Zem spieva (o prvom slovenskym film e zvukom)," Slo vensky dennik. January I 0, 1933, p. 3. 63 "Film - Mizniici svet. "Slovak. April 5, 1933, p. 5. 62 SLOVAKIA 2021 111 trappings of purely ethnographic films in a variety of ways: through the hybridization of genre (e.g. Zem spieva 's mixture of the ethnographic film with elements of the city symphony genre, or Miznuci svet 's combination of non-fiction ethnography and fictional melodrama), by incorporating a variety of techniques from Czech or international avant-gardes such as montage and geometrical compositions, and by creating an impressionistic portrait of the experience of Slovakia without relying on the objective aims of scientific film making. And paradoxically, despite their attempts at creating "Czecho-Slovak" Slovak films, or film s about Slovaks and Slovakia within the context of a unified Czechoslovak nation, both directors were, in many ways failures at creating films that transformed their own personal aestheticizations of the Slovak experience into a more unifying one; Plicka 's films were embraced only among Slovak communities at home and abroad as well as among a select group of the urban Czech cultural elite, whereas Uhlela's film languished in obscurity on all fronts- neither Slovak enough for the Slovak nationalists, nor exotic enough for an urban Czech audience. 1.3 FASCISM AND THE RISE OF DOMESTIC SLOVAK PRODUCTION While nationalistic mass-produced images favored by both foreign ethnographers and Slovaks themselves could quickly be repurposed to promote various political ideologies, documentary film was no exception. With the growing support of the Hlinka Slovak People's Party (HSPP), in the mid-to-late 1930s, the Czecho-Slovak interests in Slovakia (most elegantly embodied in Plicka 's documentary and pedagogical work) found themselves under attack by Slovak nationalists. Indeed, many hardliners took offense at the prominence of Czech and foreign directors producing films about Slovakia and for Slovaks, or alternately ignoring the Slovak market altogether, despite the fact that Czech cinemas and cinema production companies were far more numerous, successful, and better-funded. 64 As a result, on November 4th, 1938, members of the ruling HSPP began to purge not only foreign influences (such as Soviet cinema) from Slovak movie theaters, but also began to initiate a broader range of policies which would eventually forbid Jews, Czechs, and other 64 MACEK Vaclav, PASTEKOVA., Jelena, Dejiny slovenskej kinomatografie (Martin : Vydavatel'stvo Osveta, 1997) 74. 112 SLOVAKIA 2021 minont1es from owning, operating, or participating in the Slovak cinema industry,65 with th e notable exception of a handful of stateapproved Czech directors and cameramen like Eugen Mateicka and Bohus Havranek. 66 In order to satisfy the need for cinema, the Slovak government appealed for outside help in order to replace the technical knowledge and talent driven away or excluded by its policies. In addition to receiving aid from film organizations in Vienna, Berlin, and elsewhere, the Slovak Republic set up three organizations for making non-fiction films : Nastup (which produced primarily weekly newsreel s), Skolfilm (which produced educational films) , and Luc (a film monthly company which produced primarily cultural films .)67 These organizations were respon sible for producing nearl y all of Slovak non-fiction films before 1950. While many of the prominent non-Slovak fi gures in early Slovak cinema such as Karel Plicka were driven out of Slovakia during thi s period, a handful of Slovak directors such as Pal'o Bielik were able to continue, openly and sometimes covertly, the cinematic process started by Plicka. Bielik (who rose to fame playing the infamous bandit Juraj Janosik in Martin Fric 's 1935 film of the same name), along with other young S lovak filmmakers in the late First Republic, had mostly learned their craft through either their time in the fi lm industry as actors (in the case of Bielik) or through studyi ng with Plicka and other instructors at (or loosely affiliated with) the Brati slava-based School of Applied Arts. This was a revolutionary institution which featured instruction not just in photography and filmmakin g, but also graphic design , painting, advertising, typogramphy, and textile design .68 However, regardless of their background, th e young Slovak filmmakers quickly found themselves actively constrained by government and industrial censorship, which sought to exorcise the " dangerous" elements harmful to the Slovak nation from Slovak cinematic production . In practice, this meant not only purging 65 HA AKOVA, Petra, " Proticeska agenda s lovenskeho filmu 1939- 1945 ," in : Minoriry a.film (Bratislava: Asociacia slovenskyc h filmovych klubov, 20 12), 46. 66 HANAKOV A, Petra, Palo Bielik a slovenska fi lmova kulllira ( Bratislava: Slovensky filmov y ustav, 20 I0). 49. 67 MIHA.LIK , Peter, Vznik slovenskej narodnej kinemarogra/ie / 896- 1948 (Bratislava : Kabinet divadlo a filmu Slovenskej akademi e vied, 1994), 94. 68 MOJZISOVA, Iva, "Avant-Garde Repercussions in the Schoo l of Applied Arts in Bratislava 1929- 1939, Journal of Design Histaty, Vol. 5, No. 4, 1992. p. 273. SLOVAKIA 2021 113 Slovak cinema of the thematic and formal innovations imported from abroad, but also eliminating the influences of a trio of dangerous domestic ingredients namely the "Czech-Jewish-Bolshevik"69 influence. Nearly all of the official cinematic output during the short-lived Slovak Republic seems to have focused solely on two non-fiction fronts- periodic newsreels depicting the activities of the Slovak troops in World War n, and so-called " kultume filmy ," or "cultural films ,"70 which were an evolution of the pre-war ethnographic films (often influenced as well by Weimar and Fascist-era German nationalist film s), 7 1 designed to promote a se nse of Slovak nationalism and patriotism. The roots of these cultural film s can be traced back to the 1930s, with the rise of ethnographic feature films like Zem spieva. However, unlike Plicka 's work, little attention was paid to making an ethnographically accurate recording of Slovak life; rather, these cultural films were to celebrate an idealized "S lovakia," which never wholly existed. On November 5, 1934, the "S polok priatel'ov kulumeho filmu na Slovensku" was formed in Bratislava. It sought, as part of its educational mission, to establish "cinemas only for cultural film" in Bratislava and to coordinate with a wide circle of Slovak cultural organi zations throughout Slovakia to make " cultura l film s an accessory in the upbringing of children and uplifting the public." 72 In addition to being an educational tool , Slovak nationalists also saw film as a means to transcend the stereotypes of Slovakia as "a beautiful, but poor, land where life is very primitive"73 that had been established in prior ethnographic and documentary work . A second, less-frequently articulated goal (at least not publicl y) was to "make Slovak film production at least as well-regarded as those done by other bigger nations." 74 Finally, the drive for documentary cinema in the Slovak Republic was, ironically, based on an idea which would later be coopted by the communist regime a few years later, name ly that " film 69 HANAKOV A, Petra, " Proticeska agenda slovenskeho filmu 1939- 1945," 46. Ibid., 45. 71 "Charakter kultume ho film a: P6vodny rozhovor 'S lovaka ' s reziserom 'Tobisu, "' Slovak. March 27, 1942, p. 7. 72 " Pre kulturny film," Slovensky dennik. November 4, 1935, p 9. 73 CE RESNA, M., "S lovensky svojraz a cudzina," Nastup, Apri l I, 1940, p. 14. 74 "S lovenska filmova produkcia," Slovak. August, 6, 1942, p. 8. 70 114 SLOVAKIA 2021 will help raise up a new kind of person ," 75 informing the Slovak population not only about various topical concerns, but also teaching them what it preci sely means to be "Slovak." In February of 1942 Pal'o Bielik, who had been a celebrated actor in interwar Czechoslovak cinema, as well as in the Slovak National Theatre, found himselfunemployed for budgetary and "other creative" reasons, 76 and so he turned to the newly-formed Slovak film agency Nastup for work as a librettist, before finding a position in the departments of short films and cultural films . Bielik, in many ways, was an accidental filmmaker, one who "fell into film ," and often felt quite ambivalent in regards to the medium. In a 1967 interview in Tvorba, Bielik recounted his first accidental exposures to cinema both as a director and as a spectator: "I fell, as they say, straight-legged into film . It was even worse, like when you throw a non-swimmer into cold water. Save yourself, if you know how! And I've saved myselfup until now. But I can't manage to get away from film ." 77 Bielik began his career directing short documentary and cultural films without any formal training, relying on his experiences in front of a camera during his career as an actor in the first Czechoslovak Republic. Although he was forced to work with the semi-fascist regime during this period, the early documentaries which Bielik produced were as apolitical as possible. 1942 's O zdravie robotnika, was a short film about a newly established sanatorium 78 and 1943 's Pod holym nebom, 79 was a 14-minute "artistic reportage" 80 focused on the daily activities around a traditional Orava shepherd's hut and "the romantic splendor of the Slovak countryside." 81 Some of Bielik 's other documentaries during this period included works on fish and the sport of fishing 82 ( 1943 's Hlavatky) , the manufacture and demonstration of traditional Slovak valasky in Miznuca romantika 75 -ik- " Film v novem zivote," Pravda, Vol. I, March I 0, 1944, p. 4. HANJ\KOV A, Petra, Palo Bielik a slovenska.filmova kulflira, 46. 77 JAN EK, Miroslav, " Vzpominky a plan y Pal'a Bielka," Tvorba: list pro kritiku a umeni. January 12, 196 1, No. 2, pp. 28-9. 78 HAN J\ KOV A, Petra, Palo Bielik a slovenska.filmova kult1ira. 57. 79 Ibid., 53. 80 Ibid. 81 "S loven ska filmova produkcia," Slo vak. August, 6, 1942, p. 8. 82 "Vel'konocny program premierovyc h kin Nastup a Urania," Slovak, April 7, 1944, and "Nove film y Nastupu," Gardista. November 28, 1943 , p. 4. 76 SLOVAKIA 2021 115 ( I 943), and the production of flour and bread in Chlieb nas kai dodenny ( 1943). Although not all of Bielik's wartime documenttaries focused on the purely folkloric or ethnographic, by and large, they were films about the Slovak countryside and again, consistent with the aims of earlier ethnographic work. While it appeared that Bielik would spend the war attempting to draw little attention to himself with his documentaries on traditional Slovak subjects, the eruption of the Slovak National Uprising in August of 1944 suddenly changed the young director's career. While in the midst of shooting an unrelated film Hanka sa vydava in Brezena, Bielik and his crew caught wind of the Uprising and immediately rushed to join. As Bielik recalled in 1961, the group not only met with the partizans in order to get footage of the historic event, they actually joined the uprising itself: The Uprising caught me in Brezina during the filming of Hanka sa vydava. There were four other filmmakers with me: Krska, Richter, Plavec, a Sekula. We became lieutenants, they gave us uniforms, and we began to film . I led a group and wrote a scenario under the name 'Odboj 1944.' Krska filmed. It's thanks to him that we have authentic material from those days." 83 This raw reportage, which Bielik shot during his time in Brezina was later renamed, re-edited and repurposed into Bielik's 1945 documentary Za slobodu, although some of the film was lost when unknown persons stumbled upon the hiding place of some of the most sensitive footage: We buried part of the film negative underground in the village ofNemce in a graveyard underneath a tombstone. Some strangers, thinking that they found some treasure, collected the film strips, exposed them to light, and once again overexposed them. So they destroyed ten meters of an extraordinarily valuable film." 84 Although Za slobodu did not premiere during the war and was only finished in 1945,85 it nonetheless served as a potent anti-fascist KJ JAN EK, Miroslav, " Vzpomink y a plany Pal'a Bielka," Tvorba: list pro kritiku a o. 2, p.29. umeni, January 12, 196 1, K ➔ Ibid. 5 K MA CE K Vaclav, PA ST EKOVA , Jelena, Dejiny slovenskej kinumatugra/ie, 91 . 116 SLOVAKIA 2021 symbol, burnishing the bona-tides of Bielik's group of directors and cameramen as well as Bielik's own reputation as an anti-fascist filmmaker. The surviving film centers around the narrative retelling and reconstruction, not just of the uprising, but also of the "often frequently catastrophic consequences" of the doomed resistance, 86 a thematically daring approach which was seldom replicated in later documentaries. Furthermore, Za slobodu served as an aesthetic turning point for Slovak documentary film- while previous documenttary films about Slovakia had focused on the stylization of the Slovak experience, mediating reportage via romantic conceptions of the Slovak countryside a la PlickaBielik 's film focused on documentary realism, providing a cinematic experience that was out of touch with the postwar "antifascist euphoria." 87 It did not receive widespread distribution, being withdrawn by government officials because of it was "inappropriate for the delicate nature of the theme;" 88 it featured actual reportage, shot under dangerous conditions; and it did not glamorize or stylize the Slovak National Uprising. In short, Za slobodu can be seen as evidence of the first glimmers of cinematic neo-realism in Slovak documentary filmmaking . 1.4 POSTWAR RUPTURING: DOCUMENTARY AND NON-FICTION 1945 TO 1950 While the rise of fascism heralded the end of his career as a filmmaker, Karel Plicka 's legacy and influence on the burgeoning Slovak film industry was only beginning. Before World War II, Plicka had briefly held the position of film instructor in the experimental and short-lived Academy of the Applied Arts in Bratislava, before the institution was shut down due to rising anti-Czech and anti-Hungarian sentiment. While this institution was short-lived, the School of Applied Arts served to provide the basic educational preparation for the careers of several prominent early Slovak directors like Jan Kadar. In 1946, several months after the reunification of Czechoslovakia, Plicka was appointed the first Dean of the Filmova a televizni fakulta Akademie muzickych umenie (F AMU), 89 in charge of, not only FILMMAKING FROM 86 HANA KOY A, Petra, Pa/'o Bielik a slovenskafilmova kulflira, 63. MACEK Vaclav, PASTEKOY A, Jelena, Dejiny slovenskej kinomatografie, 91. RH Ibid. , 91 . 89 FRANC, Martin, and KRATKA Lenka, eds., Dejiny A MU: ve vypravenich (Praha : Nakladatelstvi AMU, 2017), I 0 . 87 SLOVAKIA 2021 117 educating future Czech professsionals, but also the first major generation of academically-trained Slovak film professionals. Although the Slovak students began matriculating from FAMU in the late 1940s and early 1950s, director Eduard Greener (one of the first Slovaks to go to the academy) noted that a vast educational gap existed between the Slovak students and their Czech classmates. 90 Although FAMU contributed enormously to the creation of a stable and thriving Slovak film industry from the 1950s onwards, Slovak documentary cinema (and indeed Slovak cinema as a whole) suffered a rupture, from the mid- I 940s to the early 1950s, as directors who had enthusiastically participated in the Slovak Republic 's film program were "discredited ."91 While some directors, such as Pal'o Bielik, had served in the anti-fascist resistance during the war, those who had not found themselves in the position of Plicka and other minority filmmakers in Slovakia in the 1940s- unwelcome and unemployed. As a result, Slovak documentary production sharply declined in postwar years of the 1940s, with an average of seven nonfiction films per year produced from 1945 to 1948,92 as the most visionary and politically safe directors (such as Bielik) and talented beginners such as Jan Kadar rapidly transitioned into feature filmmaking. 93 Despite newly-increased state support and the establishment of institutions such as FAMU, Slovak nonfiction cinema remained fairly moribund for much of the late 1940s through the early I 960s, due to a lack of qualified personnel and, from 1948 onwards, the newly established communist government's ideological demands. 94 These demands, somewhat paradoxically, were very similar to those espoused by the fascist government: to unify Slovaks around visual tropes and folklore, to show the moderni zation of Slovakia and the tangible benefits of the state, 95 and to build a more- 90 "Eduard Greener: film ako vol'ny vers," interview in literarni noviny. August 4, 20 15. http: //literarky.cz/l iterat ura/cteni/20360-eduard-grener-fi lm-ako-vony-ver 91 Navratil , Antonin, Cesty k pravde ci Ii i : 70 let c'eskoslovenskeho dokumentarniho .filmu (Praha: FAMU, 2002), 159. 92 Ibid. , 16 1. 93 Ibid., 160-2. 94 MA CE K Vaclav, PASTEKOVA , Jelena. Dejiny slovenskej kinomatogrcifie. I 1719. 95 JA SSO, Julius, "Slovak Films in the Last Five Years," Czechoslovak Film, Vol. 7, No. 4, unpag inated. 118 SLOVAKIA 2021 ideologically pure Slovak soc iety96 through the use of mass-produced images. Perhaps the single most stereotypical " identifying characteristic" of a Slovak film , documentary or otherwise, during the postwar and early communist years was a reliance on the folkloric motifs and ethnographic themes which had been become so thoroughly codified by the 1950s. This particular fascination with folk culture was hardly a communist invention , as it drew on the ethnographic traditions which were so popular in the late Austro-Hungarian through interwar periods. Given that amateur ethnographers such as Pavel Sochan eagerly embraced photography as a way of documenting indigenous practices in an effort to distinguish region s and establish Slovak cultural identity during periodic moments of cultural trauma, ethnic repression , and attempts at forced assimilation, 97 it remains a littl e surpri sing how quickly the postwar and communist regimes embraced these formerly divisive aesthetic elements. While cinema had been nationalized by the Czechoslovak government-in-exile in August of 1945 as an important national resource, fo lk culture was also nationalized in Slovakia by presidential decree on November 7, 1945. 98 This decree also resulted in the creation of the first Slovak fo lk art collective, the Ustredie l'udovej umeleckej vyroby (UCUV), whose aims were to preserve Slovak folk culture. While ethnographic and folkloric activities had been decidedly controversial in the First Czechoslovak Republic and consisted of a definite part of the fascist propaganda machine during the war, following the 1948 Communist Putsch, the government further reaffirmed the need for fo lkl oric collectives by creating the Slovensky l'udovy umelecky kolekiv (SCUK) in 1949. Further still, the regime stated exp Iicitly ten years later that "folk arts and folk handicrafts make up an important part of our socialist culture," 99 further sanctioning not just the practice of these traditional pastimes, but 96 MACEK Vaclav, PASTEKOVA , Jelena, Dejinv slovenskej kinomatografie. 126. See PODOLAK. J. , "The Development of Ethnography in Slo va kia," Midwest Fo lklore, Vol. 8, No. 2, Summ er, 1958 , pp. 69-84. 97 98 " Prozatimni statni zfizeni ceskoslovenske," Dekret presidenta republiky o organisaci lidove a umelecke vvroby . November 7, 1945, Zakon c. I I 0/ 1945 Sb. Note that the decree did not come into effect until November 27th . 99 Zakon c. 56/ 1957 Sb. SLOVAKIA 2021 119 affording them legal protection and financial support, albeit fossilizing these living traditions even more effectively than the ethnographic projects of the late Austro-Hungarian and interwar periods. By the early 1950s, Communists had not only assumed control of the government, but were also looking to infiltrate or redirect certain cultural outlets for the purposes of creating communist educational entertainment. The creation of Slovak folkloric collectives such as the S:CUK in the late 1940s, along with the overwhelming familiarity with mass-produced images of Slovakia, the prevalence of interest in the folkloric trappings of Slovak films in both the Czech and Slovak lands was, at one point, so prevalent that Czech film critic and dramaturge Jaroslav Bocek vociferously complained that " ... the Slovak cinema watched over the adjective 'Slovak' caring much less about the noun ' cinema.' No wonder there was such a rash of folklore , embroidered blouses, and national songs, since Czech directors could hardly be expected to understand Slovakia any different from the exotic, folklore , or tourist angle." 10° Compounding Bocek's irritation at the more stereotypical depictions of national identity was the fact that "these same features [folkloric trappings] began to creep even into the work of the emerging directors," to which the Czech critic added "Slovak cinema saw its raison d'etre in its very existence . .. such traits can be found in the beginnings of any cultural endeavor." 10 1 Bocek's paternal dismissal of Slovak cinema was, sadly, not an isolated incident, and echoes some of the earlier critiques of earlier ethnographic films by Plicka and others. 1.5 CONCLUSION As we have seen, Slovak documentary film followed the footsteps of earlier ethnographers and ethnographic photographers, whose original mission was to document and to codify Slovak ethnicity through the collection, reportage , and standardization of cultural and visual tropes. These early documentaries, like those in static media, were predominantly produced by non-Slovaks, who turned to Slovakia to record ways of living which had already receded out of living memory elsewhere. Although these early documentary 100 BOCE K, Jaroslav, 'Twenty Yea rs of Czechoslovak Film," in Modern Czechoslovak Film / 945/ 1965 (Praha: Arti a, dat e unknown [ 1966?)), no paginati on. 10 1 BOCE K, Jaros lav, " Twen ty Years of Czechoslovak Film." 120 SLOVAKIA 2021 films by Czech directors could be di visive in the Slovak intellectual community in Czechoslovakia, they were eagerly embraced by Slovaks li ving elsewhere as a necessary connection to their cultural roots, a connection that was prized not only for its entertainment va lue, but also for its ability to educate Slovaks abroad and in Czechoslovakia in the fundamental aspects of Slovak culture. Since Slovak documentary films were also the fundamental cinematic output of Slovak directors from the beginnings of the Slovak Republic in 1939 through the beginnings of the Slovak feature film era in the 1950s, they also proved to be the fundamental training ground for young Slovak directors, who incorporated several aesthetic aspects of documentary filmrnaking into their own feature film works. In each of these different eras of documentary film production, however, one constant remainsa continuation of the aestheticization of Slovakia, a process begun in the 19th century with the ethnographic activities performed by Hungarians, Austrians, Czechs, and eventually Slovaks themselves. The replicability of these aesthetics also helped ensure the spread of certain aspects of Slovak visual cu lture in the countryside, despite the occasional attempt to bring cinematic focus and cu ltural attention to Slovak urban communities. These attempts were ultimately foiled by the implied formal and aesthetic needs of the specifically "S lovak" documentary: since Slovak culture had been so rigorously defined through its codification period as a " rural" identity, attempts to focus on other aspects of Slovak identity (either in other urban locales or through a de-romanticization of the Slovak countryside) were met with political , cultural, and social resistance.  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Picturing a Nation: Slovak Documentary Film from its Birth Until 1950 Description An account of the resource Nicholas Hudáč Slovakia, Vol. 45 (No. 84-85), 2021 pp. 92-120 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Hudáč, Nicholas Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2021 name https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/a2b785ff29172bb25725fc31a56885d4.pdf 6c84b656505739b67f12330875b66208 PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA 45 POLITICAL REFUGEES OK RED AGENTS? OR. JOHN VLK OLIN SKÝ The large number of Czech politicos, members of parliament, officers and soldiers who fled to Germany in 1940 raised the 11uestion: Could this possibly have happened without the assent of the Prague communist regime? The boundary between Bavaria and Bohemia is only several kilometers long, and already in the summer of 1948 - just several mon-ths ai~ter Beneš and ·his followers su1•rEmdered the government to tbe communists - Dr. Rlpka announced in Parls that some 18,000 Czecbs had fled to other countrles. rt is slgnificant that all the aces or Dr. Beneš's National Socialist Party - The Czech Nazi Party - began leavlng the country as if under orders. And all got away without incidents or accidents. After them, we flnd a stream of soldiers - tbose who enjoyed the sympatby or the wes-tern allies - "escaping" into the U. S. Zone of Germany. But who escaped from SLOVAKIA? Only members of certain families and a few persona wbo swore to promote the "Czechoslovak" program and had family ties with the Lettrlchites, ·the Hodžas, Palkos, etc. Many of them departed in luxurlous limouslnes, wlth diplomatlc passes and devlces, wlth visas for European and other countries. All those "little things" had been taken care of in Prague before their "mlraculous" escape. It is not at all strange, then, if some one asks how these '"enemles" of communism could have "escaped" so easlly without the consent of Gottwald? Robert Ingrim - author of the successful book " After Hitler Stalln ?" - wrote on the subject in 1948. His article " A Secret Czech 'ľreaty?" was published in the Swiss "VATERLANO" September 25, 1948. He wrote: "Thirteen generals, eight ministers, the Mayor of Prague - this is but a smalt group of the Czech emigrants that has crossed over to the west to date. "They have one thing in common: AII were leading members of the National Socialist Party of Dr. Beneš. Their famllies are with lhem, as well as a goodly number of diplomats and consuls, who jolned them. They have no financial difflcu lties. Tney are working energetically in Washington, London and Paris to establlsh a new exile government. After America beats up the Soviet Union, this exile government would be called to lead Bohemia 'back to Beneš.' "The interestjng thlng a bout all this is the fact that all these gentlemen had succeeded in crossing the Czech border without difficulty and wlthout incident. "The <Statement or Peter Zenkl, former Mayor of Ptrag,ue, that he was saved by some one wbo had blindrotded bim so that he could not see bis rescuers. is somethlng for political children of whom tbere are more In America tban in Europe. "Wberever the communists seizect power, tbere the leading opponent.s of communism were carefully watched, if not arrested. But �46 SLOVAKIA in this case, it seems that the Czech commun!st police failed completely. . . . ! "But other extraordlnary and strange things happened before ihat tlme. Why did not Beneš res!gn lmmedlately as a sign of protest agalnst the communlst putsch? Why dld he recognlze the new rulers and defend them? Why did he tbus glve them the signlClcant appearance of legltlmacy? "Besldes Beneš's trustworthies, there are in exile several of his politlcal opponents. In the past weeks I have read reports from varlous parts that motlvate the conjecture that there was a secret treaty concluded between Beneš and bis successor Gottwald before he declded to instalľ Zápotockťs government. Thls agreemen( is su pposed to embrace the following polnts: 1. War between America and the Soviet Union is inev!table; 2. but the outcome of thls war ls uncertaln; 3. when the war ends, the Czechs must be on the right side; 4. they must, therefore, be on both sides before the war; 5. the communlsts wlll enable the departure of the leadlng generals and clvllians of the Qzech Natlonal Socialist Party; and 6. In 1,eturn the Czeoh Nat!onal Soclal!sts, when they return to Czechoslovakla as victors, promi.se to spare the leadlng commun!sts. "Such an agreement would make many thlngs, wh!ch otherwise appear puzzllng, lntelligible. In reality the new exlles never openly attack Gottwald. Conversely they want lt felt that he is moderate and thlnks nat!onalistlcally. "Sucb genUemen as Rlpka, Zenkl, etc. - who now offer themselves to the west as the future government and already now are trying to direct the war aims of Amerlcan politics to their side count on, to be sure, tbe great ignorance and forgetfulness or tbe west. "lt was these very National Socialista who prepared the way for communist dictatorship. During the war they deserted the west for the east. They demanded that their country be ' liberateď by the Red army, because Ameríca did not want to consent to the expulsion of ' minorities.' They were responslble for the terrible murders and the expulsion of Sudeten Germans and so made their own natlon entirely dependent on the Soviets. lt was they who had already In 1946 made Bohemia the most socialist country outside of Russla. lt was Beneš who, after his return, outlawed the Agrarian Party, the National Democratic Party and the Slovak Populist Party so that he could assure a majority for the leftlst partles, by means of whlch the communists became the strongest group in Parliament. "These parties were outlawed, we were told, because they had 'collaborateď with the Nazis but lt is no secret that very many leading National Socialista collaborated no less wlth the Nazls! "The motto 'back to Beneš' - as a basls of any exile pol!tlcs can therefore hardly sound entlclng to the ears of the west. Tbis apparently inevitable alllance with communlsm agalnst nazlsm the west bas expiated heavlly. It does not want to repeat the same error. Witb chauvlnists one can bardly bulld a better Europe, and Bohemla and Moravla can be thought of as politlcal unlts only when the raclsts sball be excluded trom lnfluence. In the mouths of the Ripkas and the �SLOVAKIA 47 Zenkls the words •democracy' and 'freedom' sound the same as they do in the mo ut ha of Gottwald a nd Zápotocky." Ingrim's article showed that he fully understood the problems of Europe - especially those of centra! Europe. He is one of the very few writers who has solved the "Czechoslovak" riddle, the political emplre that Beneš built to destroy the Slovak nation and enslave other national "minorlties" to further the aims of Czech Natlonal Socialism and lmperialism. The men ,about whom lngrlm wrote in September 1948, formed the "Council of Free Czechoslovakia" in Washington in February 1949. They are the persons who collaborated with the communlsts of the Kremlin and Czechoslovakla and are re.s•p onsible for the terror and tyranny that reign in Czechoslovakia today. These "polltical roartyrs" wa.nt to fight ·the communist government in Prague from America, London and France, we are told. Another "Czechoslovak" fable! They had thelr great chance to fight the Reds ait home after the war, but failed miserably. Nay, they collaborated wlth the Reds and sold out the Czech and the Slo• vak nations to the Kremlin. And these same polltical opportunists and pseudodemocrats are telling the Slovaks at home and In exile that the United States and the other democratlc countries of the world are not interested in Slo• vak freedom and independence, in fact that they are oppO.'led to it. lf that were not so, they say, then "official" Washington, the Voice of America, and Radlo Free Europe would not recognize them and employ them. Imaglne: traitors representing the peoples they betrayed ! • • • • WHO SAID IT ? "The Czechosfovak government, from the beginning, maintained the rlght ot the people at home to decide the Republic's future. The governmenťs task abroad has been to ensure the freedom of this declsion and to take care tha4 the isola.ted home country does not lose the opportunities ensulng from the polltical and economic collaboratlon with the Allles. T he Czechoalovak gover nment achieved th is through t he st ron g, invio la ble SOVIET PACT, and the friendly relatlons with the greait western Allles. Thus the country is safeguarded BETT ER than ever before." - Msgr. Ján Šrámek, Prime Minister, Broadcast to Czechoslovakia, London, Jan. 1, 1945) . • "How far does Russla influence Czechoslovakia today? For some two years the Germans assured us that Czechoslovakia would be enslaved as soon as the Russian army came. Now, one year 1ater, we can see whether they were right. Our relations with Russfa are very coroial. WE ARE AN INDEPENDENT STATE, and our democratlc system has been re-established. The promise or Soviet Russia NO'ľ TO INTERFERE In our lnner struoture has been kept, The Russian army left our terrltory on the very day they had promised. The administration of the country ia In CZECHOSLOVAK hands." - (Prof. F. Bednár, D86n ot the Hus Theolog!cal Faculty, Prague, in the ~'SLOVAK SOKOL," Passa!c, N. J., September 26, 1946). � SLOVAKIA 45 POLITICAL REFUGEES OK RED AGENTS? OR. JOHN VLK OLIN SKÝ The large number of Czech politicos, members of parliament, officers and soldiers who fled to Germany in 1940 raised the 11uestion: Could this possibly have happened without the assent of the Prague communist regime? The boundary between Bavaria and Bohemia is only several kilometers long, and already in the summer of 1948 - just several mon-ths ai~ter Beneš and ·his followers su1•rEmdered the government to tbe communists - Dr. Rlpka announced in Parls that some 18,000 Czecbs had fled to other countrles. rt is slgnificant that all the aces or Dr. Beneš's National Socialist Party - The Czech Nazi Party - began leavlng the country as if under orders. And all got away without incidents or accidents. After them, we flnd a stream of soldiers - tbose who enjoyed the sympatby or the wes-tern allies - "escaping" into the U. S. Zone of Germany. But who escaped from SLOVAKIA? Only members of certain families and a few persona wbo swore to promote the "Czechoslovak" program and had family ties with the Lettrlchites, ·the Hodžas, Palkos, etc. Many of them departed in luxurlous limouslnes, wlth diplomatlc passes and devlces, wlth visas for European and other countries. All those "little things" had been taken care of in Prague before their "mlraculous" escape. It is not at all strange, then, if some one asks how these '"enemles" of communism could have "escaped" so easlly without the consent of Gottwald? Robert Ingrim - author of the successful book " After Hitler Stalln ?" - wrote on the subject in 1948. His article " A Secret Czech 'ľreaty?" was published in the Swiss "VATERLANO" September 25, 1948. He wrote: "Thirteen generals, eight ministers, the Mayor of Prague - this is but a smalt group of the Czech emigrants that has crossed over to the west to date. "They have one thing in common: AII were leading members of the National Socialist Party of Dr. Beneš. Their famllies are with lhem, as well as a goodly number of diplomats and consuls, who jolned them. They have no financial difflcu lties. Tney are working energetically in Washington, London and Paris to establlsh a new exile government. After America beats up the Soviet Union, this exile government would be called to lead Bohemia 'back to Beneš.' "The interestjng thlng a bout all this is the fact that all these gentlemen had succeeded in crossing the Czech border without difficulty and wlthout incident. "The <Statement or Peter Zenkl, former Mayor of Ptrag,ue, that he was saved by some one wbo had blindrotded bim so that he could not see bis rescuers. is somethlng for political children of whom tbere are more In America tban in Europe. "Wberever the communists seizect power, tbere the leading opponent.s of communism were carefully watched, if not arrested. But �46 SLOVAKIA in this case, it seems that the Czech commun!st police failed completely. . . . ! "But other extraordlnary and strange things happened before ihat tlme. Why did not Beneš res!gn lmmedlately as a sign of protest agalnst the communlst putsch? Why dld he recognlze the new rulers and defend them? Why did he tbus glve them the signlClcant appearance of legltlmacy? "Besldes Beneš's trustworthies, there are in exile several of his politlcal opponents. In the past weeks I have read reports from varlous parts that motlvate the conjecture that there was a secret treaty concluded between Beneš and bis successor Gottwald before he declded to instalľ Zápotockťs government. Thls agreemen( is su pposed to embrace the following polnts: 1. War between America and the Soviet Union is inev!table; 2. but the outcome of thls war ls uncertaln; 3. when the war ends, the Czechs must be on the right side; 4. they must, therefore, be on both sides before the war; 5. the communlsts wlll enable the departure of the leadlng generals and clvllians of the Qzech Natlonal Socialist Party; and 6. In 1,eturn the Czeoh Nat!onal Soclal!sts, when they return to Czechoslovakla as victors, promi.se to spare the leadlng commun!sts. "Such an agreement would make many thlngs, wh!ch otherwise appear puzzllng, lntelligible. In reality the new exlles never openly attack Gottwald. Conversely they want lt felt that he is moderate and thlnks nat!onalistlcally. "Sucb genUemen as Rlpka, Zenkl, etc. - who now offer themselves to the west as the future government and already now are trying to direct the war aims of Amerlcan politics to their side count on, to be sure, tbe great ignorance and forgetfulness or tbe west. "lt was these very National Socialista who prepared the way for communist dictatorship. During the war they deserted the west for the east. They demanded that their country be ' liberateď by the Red army, because Ameríca did not want to consent to the expulsion of ' minorities.' They were responslble for the terrible murders and the expulsion of Sudeten Germans and so made their own natlon entirely dependent on the Soviets. lt was they who had already In 1946 made Bohemia the most socialist country outside of Russla. lt was Beneš who, after his return, outlawed the Agrarian Party, the National Democratic Party and the Slovak Populist Party so that he could assure a majority for the leftlst partles, by means of whlch the communists became the strongest group in Parliament. "These parties were outlawed, we were told, because they had 'collaborateď with the Nazis but lt is no secret that very many leading National Socialista collaborated no less wlth the Nazls! "The motto 'back to Beneš' - as a basls of any exile pol!tlcs can therefore hardly sound entlclng to the ears of the west. Tbis apparently inevitable alllance with communlsm agalnst nazlsm the west bas expiated heavlly. It does not want to repeat the same error. Witb chauvlnists one can bardly bulld a better Europe, and Bohemla and Moravla can be thought of as politlcal unlts only when the raclsts sball be excluded trom lnfluence. In the mouths of the Ripkas and the �SLOVAKIA 47 Zenkls the words •democracy' and 'freedom' sound the same as they do in the mo ut ha of Gottwald a nd Zápotocky." Ingrim's article showed that he fully understood the problems of Europe - especially those of centra! Europe. He is one of the very few writers who has solved the "Czechoslovak" riddle, the political emplre that Beneš built to destroy the Slovak nation and enslave other national "minorlties" to further the aims of Czech Natlonal Socialism and lmperialism. The men ,about whom lngrlm wrote in September 1948, formed the "Council of Free Czechoslovakia" in Washington in February 1949. They are the persons who collaborated with the communlsts of the Kremlin and Czechoslovakla and are re.s•p onsible for the terror and tyranny that reign in Czechoslovakia today. These "polltical roartyrs" wa.nt to fight ·the communist government in Prague from America, London and France, we are told. Another "Czechoslovak" fable! They had thelr great chance to fight the Reds ait home after the war, but failed miserably. Nay, they collaborated wlth the Reds and sold out the Czech and the Slo• vak nations to the Kremlin. And these same polltical opportunists and pseudodemocrats are telling the Slovaks at home and In exile that the United States and the other democratlc countries of the world are not interested in Slo• vak freedom and independence, in fact that they are oppO.'led to it. lf that were not so, they say, then "official" Washington, the Voice of America, and Radlo Free Europe would not recognize them and employ them. Imaglne: traitors representing the peoples they betrayed ! • • • • WHO SAID IT ? "The Czechosfovak government, from the beginning, maintained the rlght ot the people at home to decide the Republic's future. The governmenťs task abroad has been to ensure the freedom of this declsion and to take care tha4 the isola.ted home country does not lose the opportunities ensulng from the polltical and economic collaboratlon with the Allles. T he Czechoalovak gover nment achieved th is through t he st ron g, invio la ble SOVIET PACT, and the friendly relatlons with the greait western Allles. Thus the country is safeguarded BETT ER than ever before." - Msgr. Ján Šrámek, Prime Minister, Broadcast to Czechoslovakia, London, Jan. 1, 1945) . • "How far does Russla influence Czechoslovakia today? For some two years the Germans assured us that Czechoslovakia would be enslaved as soon as the Russian army came. Now, one year 1ater, we can see whether they were right. Our relations with Russfa are very coroial. WE ARE AN INDEPENDENT STATE, and our democratlc system has been re-established. The promise or Soviet Russia NO'ľ TO INTERFERE In our lnner struoture has been kept, The Russian army left our terrltory on the very day they had promised. The administration of the country ia In CZECHOSLOVAK hands." - (Prof. F. Bednár, D86n ot the Hus Theolog!cal Faculty, Prague, in the ~'SLOVAK SOKOL," Passa!c, N. J., September 26, 1946). � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to 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 SLOVAKIA 45 POLITICAL REFUGEES OK RED AGENTS? OR. JOHN VLK OLIN SKÝ The large number of Czech politicos, members of parliament, officers and soldiers who fled to Germany in 1940 raised the 11uestion: Could this possibly have happened without the assent of the Prague communist regime? The boundary between Bavaria and Bohemia is only several kilometers long, and already in the summer of 1948 - just several mon-ths ai~ter Beneš and ·his followers su1•rEmdered the government to tbe communists - Dr. Rlpka announced in Parls that some 18,000 Czecbs had fled to other countrles. rt is slgnificant that all the aces or Dr. Beneš's National Socialist Party - The Czech Nazi Party - began leavlng the country as if under orders. And all got away without incidents or accidents. After them, we flnd a stream of soldiers - tbose who enjoyed the sympatby or the wes-tern allies - "escaping" into the U. S. Zone of Germany. But who escaped from SLOVAKIA? Only members of certain families and a few persona wbo swore to promote the "Czechoslovak" program and had family ties with the Lettrlchites, ·the Hodžas, Palkos, etc. Many of them departed in luxurlous limouslnes, wlth diplomatlc passes and devlces, wlth visas for European and other countries. All those "little things" had been taken care of in Prague before their "mlraculous" escape. It is not at all strange, then, if some one asks how these '"enemles" of communism could have "escaped" so easlly without the consent of Gottwald? Robert Ingrim - author of the successful book " After Hitler Stalln ?" - wrote on the subject in 1948. His article " A Secret Czech 'ľreaty?" was published in the Swiss "VATERLANO" September 25, 1948. He wrote: "Thirteen generals, eight ministers, the Mayor of Prague - this is but a smalt group of the Czech emigrants that has crossed over to the west to date. "They have one thing in common: AII were leading members of the National Socialist Party of Dr. Beneš. Their famllies are with lhem, as well as a goodly number of diplomats and consuls, who jolned them. They have no financial difflcu lties. Tney are working energetically in Washington, London and Paris to establlsh a new exile government. After America beats up the Soviet Union, this exile government would be called to lead Bohemia 'back to Beneš.' "The interestjng thlng a bout all this is the fact that all these gentlemen had succeeded in crossing the Czech border without difficulty and wlthout incident. "The <Statement or Peter Zenkl, former Mayor of Ptrag,ue, that he was saved by some one wbo had blindrotded bim so that he could not see bis rescuers. is somethlng for political children of whom tbere are more In America tban in Europe. "Wberever the communists seizect power, tbere the leading opponent.s of communism were carefully watched, if not arrested. But 46 SLOVAKIA in this case, it seems that the Czech commun!st police failed completely. . . . ! "But other extraordlnary and strange things happened before ihat tlme. Why did not Beneš res!gn lmmedlately as a sign of protest agalnst the communlst putsch? Why dld he recognlze the new rulers and defend them? Why did he tbus glve them the signlClcant appearance of legltlmacy? "Besldes Beneš's trustworthies, there are in exile several of his politlcal opponents. In the past weeks I have read reports from varlous parts that motlvate the conjecture that there was a secret treaty concluded between Beneš and bis successor Gottwald before he declded to instalľ Zápotockťs government. Thls agreemen( is su pposed to embrace the following polnts: 1. War between America and the Soviet Union is inev!table; 2. but the outcome of thls war ls uncertaln; 3. when the war ends, the Czechs must be on the right side; 4. they must, therefore, be on both sides before the war; 5. the communlsts wlll enable the departure of the leadlng generals and clvllians of the Qzech Natlonal Socialist Party; and 6. In 1,eturn the Czeoh Nat!onal Soclal!sts, when they return to Czechoslovakla as victors, promi.se to spare the leadlng commun!sts. "Such an agreement would make many thlngs, wh!ch otherwise appear puzzllng, lntelligible. In reality the new exlles never openly attack Gottwald. Conversely they want lt felt that he is moderate and thlnks nat!onalistlcally. "Sucb genUemen as Rlpka, Zenkl, etc. - who now offer themselves to the west as the future government and already now are trying to direct the war aims of Amerlcan politics to their side count on, to be sure, tbe great ignorance and forgetfulness or tbe west. "lt was these very National Socialista who prepared the way for communist dictatorship. During the war they deserted the west for the east. They demanded that their country be ' liberateď by the Red army, because Ameríca did not want to consent to the expulsion of ' minorities.' They were responslble for the terrible murders and the expulsion of Sudeten Germans and so made their own natlon entirely dependent on the Soviets. lt was they who had already In 1946 made Bohemia the most socialist country outside of Russla. lt was Beneš who, after his return, outlawed the Agrarian Party, the National Democratic Party and the Slovak Populist Party so that he could assure a majority for the leftlst partles, by means of whlch the communists became the strongest group in Parliament. "These parties were outlawed, we were told, because they had 'collaborateď with the Nazis but lt is no secret that very many leading National Socialista collaborated no less wlth the Nazls! "The motto 'back to Beneš' - as a basls of any exile pol!tlcs can therefore hardly sound entlclng to the ears of the west. Tbis apparently inevitable alllance with communlsm agalnst nazlsm the west bas expiated heavlly. It does not want to repeat the same error. Witb chauvlnists one can bardly bulld a better Europe, and Bohemla and Moravla can be thought of as politlcal unlts only when the raclsts sball be excluded trom lnfluence. In the mouths of the Ripkas and the SLOVAKIA 47 Zenkls the words •democracy' and 'freedom' sound the same as they do in the mo ut ha of Gottwald a nd Zápotocky." Ingrim's article showed that he fully understood the problems of Europe - especially those of centra! Europe. He is one of the very few writers who has solved the "Czechoslovak" riddle, the political emplre that Beneš built to destroy the Slovak nation and enslave other national "minorlties" to further the aims of Czech Natlonal Socialism and lmperialism. The men ,about whom lngrlm wrote in September 1948, formed the "Council of Free Czechoslovakia" in Washington in February 1949. They are the persons who collaborated with the communlsts of the Kremlin and Czechoslovakla and are re.s•p onsible for the terror and tyranny that reign in Czechoslovakia today. These "polltical roartyrs" wa.nt to fight ·the communist government in Prague from America, London and France, we are told. Another "Czechoslovak" fable! They had thelr great chance to fight the Reds ait home after the war, but failed miserably. Nay, they collaborated wlth the Reds and sold out the Czech and the Slo• vak nations to the Kremlin. And these same polltical opportunists and pseudodemocrats are telling the Slovaks at home and In exile that the United States and the other democratlc countries of the world are not interested in Slo• vak freedom and independence, in fact that they are oppO.'led to it. lf that were not so, they say, then "official" Washington, the Voice of America, and Radlo Free Europe would not recognize them and employ them. Imaglne: traitors representing the peoples they betrayed ! • • • • WHO SAID IT ? "The Czechosfovak government, from the beginning, maintained the rlght ot the people at home to decide the Republic's future. The governmenťs task abroad has been to ensure the freedom of this declsion and to take care tha4 the isola.ted home country does not lose the opportunities ensulng from the polltical and economic collaboratlon with the Allles. T he Czechoalovak gover nment achieved th is through t he st ron g, invio la ble SOVIET PACT, and the friendly relatlons with the greait western Allles. Thus the country is safeguarded BETT ER than ever before." - Msgr. Ján Šrámek, Prime Minister, Broadcast to Czechoslovakia, London, Jan. 1, 1945) . • "How far does Russla influence Czechoslovakia today? For some two years the Germans assured us that Czechoslovakia would be enslaved as soon as the Russian army came. Now, one year 1ater, we can see whether they were right. Our relations with Russfa are very coroial. WE ARE AN INDEPENDENT STATE, and our democratlc system has been re-established. The promise or Soviet Russia NO'ľ TO INTERFERE In our lnner struoture has been kept, The Russian army left our terrltory on the very day they had promised. The administration of the country ia In CZECHOSLOVAK hands." - (Prof. F. Bednár, D86n ot the Hus Theolog!cal Faculty, Prague, in the ~'SLOVAK SOKOL," Passa!c, N. J., September 26, 1946).  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Political Refugees or Red Agents? Description An account of the resource Dr. John Vlkolinský Slovakia, Vol. 1, No. 2 (2), December 1951 pp. 45-47 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Vlkolinský, John Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource December 1951 name https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/0ee6af3c46d6a3eb17d4267613a9684e.pdf eceed05f9d18c1d358c66f5733b8368e PDF Text Text 20 SLOVAKIA Political Views of 11udovit St(u Sister M. Delphina Opet, SS. C. M. INTRODUCTION Since this study will concern itself with :Cudovit $tur, the inspiration of modern national Slovak ideology, it may be beneficial first of all to review the life story of the man and then to consider his work and influence. Though his life was all too short, stur was a key figure in the Slovak national movement of the second third of the nineteenth century. He was heir to the cultural, political and social endeavors of his predecessors, and he developed his natural gifts to attain the strength, courage and vision, which it took to launch movements toward realizing a vital national organization on behalf of his people. Without these natural and acquired gifts, stur could hardly have been effective in his work toward attaining independence in Slovak national life and the pursuit of culture. His greatest merits lie in the fact that he assumed the historical challenge to unite the fragmented multicultural powers of the Slovaks into a liberation front against Hungarian oppressors. His contemporaries attributed to stur an almost legendary but realistic aura even during his lifetime. It was said of him that he had a magnetic personality, that his very presence bespoke patriotism and a vibrant national spirit. Worthy of specific mention is at least one evaluation by William Pauliny-T6th: "He is an extraordinary figure-a manifestation, as it were, of a leader charged to create a new epoch in the history of the Slovak nation." His young collaborator, Jozef M. Hurban, devoted to stur a commemorative and comprehensive monograph which was published in the first issue of the revitalized "Slovenske pohl'ady" (Slovak Views) . In his history of Slovak literature published in 1890, the literary critic and historian Jaroslav Vlcek rated stur as the central figure of the Romantic generations, even though he did not see �SLOVAKIA 21 in stur's poetry the merit which it rightly deserves. Criticism of stur was not wanting, but it did not detract from stur's merits or stature at all.1 This fiery patriot was born in Zay-Uhrovec, on the twentyninth of October, 1815. He was one of five children. His father was an elementary school teacher and a rigid disciplinarian both at school and at home. His mother's was a gentle and loving nature. The stur family home breathed a peaceful atmosphere graced with poetry. The natural surroundings of his boyhood, with their profusion of beauty and natural grandeur influenced stur's outlook on life. It was very likely here and because of his environment that his aesthetic taste developed to a remarkable degree. Leopold Petz, a Lutheran pastor, was his first teacher in the gymnasium at Rab. He kindled the glow of national consciousness and patriotism in stur's unfolding mind and animated his spirit with keen appreciation for the richness of his mother tongue. He also made him aware of the rightful place of the Slovaks in the Slavic world and of the potential concentrated within the new generation. After two years at Rab, stur continued his studies at the Lutheran Lyceum in Bratislava.2 Here stur and a memorable group of similarly ardent young men with him (Hurban, Hodza, Francisci, Sladkovic, Chalupka, et. al.) , were schooled under the powerful influence of seasoned literary personalities who were still devoted to fostering at least some forms of Czecho-Slovak orientation. It was around the chair of Czecho-Slovak language arts held by Juraj Palkovic that the Czecho-Slovak Society, later known as the Institute of Language and Literature, was formed. 3 stur was undeniably a talented leader who devoted himself first of all to lecturing on Slovak grammar, literature and history. He devoted much time and thought to Slovak national poetry, especially to works dealing with the themes of Great Moravia, Svatopluk, and the Slavic Apostles, Saints Cyril and Methodius. To the eager young members of the Czecho-Slovak Society, he spoke of Slavism, of the hardships and injustices heroically endured by Slav peoples over long centuries, and of the great responsibility �22 SLOVAKIA committed to the younger generation. He pointed out to them some possible means toward a better future and fanned their hopes for the building of a glorious large Slavic family. He made every effort to destroy all roots of doubt, pessimism, and prejudice, those divisive forces that plagued Slavic families of nations and fragmented their efforts toward unity. His aims for establishing a standard language for Slovak literary expression were not purely liiterary. Since Slovak national life was closely connected with literary expression, it bore a vigorous sense of purpose. Stu.r's prime objective was to unite the Slovak people culturally, politically and socially. A universally adopted standard language would greatly advance this couse. Granted, he suffered many reversals, but a wakened spirit cannot be stilled. As authorities intervened to support his Slavic group meetings at the Lyceum, new literary group in other places formed in their stead. The strain of the struggle to resist oppression in student centers left stur physically exhausted; spiritually, however, he remained strong and vigorous and indomitable. In 1838 stur left his center of Slovak literary activity in Bratislava and went to Halle, Germany. His courses of study at Halle strongly affected his theoretical foundations adding depth and fuller meaning to all his later activities. He learned to favor much in Hegelian thought, the theories advocated by a German idealist philosophy. This experience created a mental revolution in Stu.r's objectives and philosophy. It was, first of all a dialectical style of thinking which brought to naught all concept of a final validity in the results of human thinking and activity. This doctrine maintains that all is involved in a process of development, all is being perpetually transformed and changed, proceeding from a lower to a higher stage. It also maintains that human history is a steady process of development of this kind, as stur put it, an "uninterrupted chain."4 stur was not simply an unquestioning disciple of Hegelian philosophy, as is often said of him. Together with several other thinkers of his generation, he formed an independent philosophical school which exerted farreaching influence and excelled in originality of thought. �SLOVAKIA 23 stur's excellent book, "sturova filozofia zivota" ("stur's Philosophy of life"), embodies his philosophical conceptions. Though his propositions in general are original, stur's underlying ideas were greatly influenced by Hegel. He was motivated by the idea that national unity is strongly furthered by means of common language which gives rise to mutual understanding. After his return from Germany, stur set out in 1843 to establish a distinctive literary Slovak language which he boldly promoted. Its basis was the central Slovak dialect which he considered the last contaminated by neighboring or foreign influence. He realized also the need for a common political effort; Kollar's reciprocity was not enough. He spared no pains to achieve a social and national awakening of the Slovak people. In a sense, stur completed the work that Bernolak, the first codifier of literary Slovak, had begun in 1787. On his return from Germany stur became an assistant professor in the Pressburg (Bratislava) Lyceum. As he lectured in the department of history, students flocked to him with undivided attention, for this dynamic young professor had a wealth of attainable ideals to offer. But chauvinistic authorities viewed this influence with anxiety. In 1844, stur lost his post as Deputy Professor because the Magyar government began to tighten its political controls on Slovakia and found stur's flaming Slovak ardor a threat to its interests. When he was dismissed, many students left the Pressburg Lyceum in protest and continued their studies elsewhere. The Bratislava incident did not intimidate stur; as a matter of fact, it only stimulated him to press on. He kept in close touch with his patriotic adherents. Because the ground was fertile and properly prepared for a national change, stur was able to do the apparently impossible. He strongly voiced the long repressed aspirations and justified rights of the Slovaks, he formulated the demands of his people. 13udovit stur's publications of an article titled "Zaloby a ponosy Slovakov v Uhorsku" ("The Charges and Complaints of the Slovaks in Hungary") which appeared in Leipzig in 1843 which exposed the chief inspector of the �24 SLOVAKIA Lutheran Church and schools because of his measure to magyarize Slovaks for political gain became a sensation. The Slovaks had been resisting magyarization quietly but effectively; now, however, they were determined to secure an independent political status within the framework of the Hapsburg Empire. All petitions and demands presented in Vienna and in the Hungarian Diet in Bratislava were prompted by the following statement by stur: "We seek no rights established on favor, but we demand our rights on the basis of inherent right." These words became the underlying proposition on which were based all the subsequent petitions and demands of the Slovak leaders for equal rights. Stu.r's debates and controversies with Kossuth, the Slovak renegade, stemmed from this moral and democratic principle. He demanded "peace based on just rights and mutual understanding" declaring: "In the paper, Pesti Hirlap, Kossuth is fighting for equality of rights, but in the Diet he advocates orders to investigate and punish those who define and seek their rights ... That is Kossuth's concept of freedom and liberalism."5 stur continues to express his thoughts in writing. In 1844, after three years of waiting, he was granted permission to publish the periodical "Slovenske narodne noviny" ("The Slovak National News") through which he was resolved to defend the rights of the Slovak people. The supplement of the periodical was "Orol tatransky" ("The Tatra Eagle"). Both were widely supported and endorsed by all classes of people, for the Slovak public rejoiced in the realization that this publication was in itself a great step forward in their struggle. stur, too, was gratified. His program for action toward achieving ultimate freedom was a realistic one. He gave credit where it was due yet he did not hesitate to denounce the shortcomings of his people. His editorials defended not only the purity of the Slovak language, but also the recognition of the inherent rights of the Slovak nation-rights that affected all their levels of national freedom: political, literary, social, economic, etc. His exhortations are as timely today as they were in 1845: "Let us not yield, Slovak countrymen. Higher is the cause of the entire nation, higher is the cause of the �SLOVAKIA 25 whole than of the individual person, and even the individual harm us, the cause itself does not do so. But with us thus far, it has been so that individuals offended by our people, immediately abandoned the cause itself ... "6 stur's periodicals served their purpose effectively for three years, uniting the people, teaching and enlightening them and encouraging them during one of the most crucial periods of their history. This was almost too good to be true. When the Magyars began to realize what these publications were doing for the Slovak people, fanning the flames of Slovak patriotism to the detriment of Magyar hegemony, they raised an alarm and put in action measures to have them confiscated or proscribed. Despite this suppression, however, much of stur's purpose was already achieved. The Slovak people were nationally awakened. They were conscious of a cause and of an obligation to defend it. Most of this new stirring never would have been realized without stur's activities and publications. The codification of a literary language, which was perfected and universally adopted, concretized the efforts and fond aspir,a tions and hopes nurtured by Slovak literary leaders in bygone generations. I'..udovit stur knew that the times were ripe for the Slovak people to appear on the national scene of history as an independent political entity. No language, except their own Slovak language could move the people to political affectiveness. For this reason, stur chose to advocate the central-Slovak dialect as a political and literary instrument. stur was a deputy from Zvolen at the Presporok (Pressburg - Bratislava) Assembly in 1847-1848. In official sessions he spoke out honestly and courageously about the injustice of disregarding the protest of the subjugated peoples against enforced Magyarization. He also felt dutybound to advocate the equality of all people and sought the liberation of subjugated nations at the Hungarian Diet. The firm stand which stur took became a turning point in Slovak-Hungarian history. At the Slav Congress in Prague in 1848, stur and safarik defined the political aspirations of the Congress. safarik's view was prophetic, while stur made clear the �26 SLOVAKIA political program of the immediate present: "Our aim should be to preserve ourselves. First of all, we must serve the best interests of our own people and secondarily of others. Thus far Austria has flourished, but we have been declining and perishing. What would be the judgment of the world if we were to s tand for nothing but the preservation of Austria? Let us proclaim that we desire to stand as independent Slovanic communities within the government of Austria."7 stur was far ahead of his day, in visualizing a program to federalize Central Europe. According to Bartek, s tur was not a rebel. As long as there was evidence of national agreement with the Magyars, he was not for the destruction of the Hungarian State. He did warn the Magyar ruling class that it could not forever ignore and suppress the inherent rights of subject nationalities and exploit the Slavs of Hungary without expecting them to strike back with righteous demands for a free national life, for the very rights which the Magyars had resolved to defend for themselves in the Hapsburg Empire. 8 When all these representatio ns and demands continued to be ignored, only then did stur and his group decide to lead the Slovaks to revolt against the Magyar intolerance in 1848. The Slovaks were fully aware of Kossuth's ultimatum declaring that whatever rights they claimed to have in the kingdom they would have to secure with sword in hand. There was no alternative now except to resort to arms. The torch of national consciousnes s carried by s tur and his group became a beacon light in Slovakia's struggle for freedom. Though revolt was crushed and betrayed by Vienna, it stands as a milestone in Slovak history. The tragic reversal of the revolutionary attempt did not affect the leadership or the stature of ~udovit stur in the estimation of others. The Hungarian revolution paid dearly for its national intolerance. It too suffered in a common defeat. Kossuth was forced into exile. stur and his group were under constant police surveillance, and many were their thrilling escapes from police snares and power. A tragic death during a hunting event in January 1856 �SLOVAKIA 27 brought stur's life to an untimely end. He died according to his own predictions in which he had foreseen an analogy of his death in the death of Julius Caesar. Some Slavs considered him a setting star but actually he is a brilliant morning star marking a better day in the history of the Slavic world. We return to stur to evaluate his work in the light of today's standards when, after the passing of a hundred years, the Slovaks are building on this foundation laid by stur and his school of thought, the promise of hope fulfilled-if only a new power from the East did not frustrate the effort. Just as stur repudiated and condemned the hegemony of the Magyars, so the Slovaks today rebel against Communist domination and occupation. 13udovit stur's spirit lives on even though an Iron Curtain creates physical bariers to liberty. GERMAN PHILOSOPHICAL INFLUENCE ON STVR Among stur's earliest academic interests were the areas of linguistics, philosophy, history and literature. To pursue these in depth and to broaden his education, he decided to study at Halle University in Germany. It was in 1838 that he came to Halle as a twenty-three year old student-a gifted energetic man of large vision and great moral strength. He had been held in high repute at home and exerted notable influence among his peers. At Halle, he was an utter stranger in a big unknown world, and the weight of the strangeness that closed in upon him was of more than mere physical and social order. University life in Germany was at this time strongly influenced by the spirit and theories of Hegel. German thought and academic preoccupation bore upon the topic of races. Yet this was in a day when the concept of race, as such, was not even properly formulated. The Germans tended to construct entire systems of philosophy and humanistic theory centered on the concept of race at a period when formal anthropology was just emerging. Fundamental misconceptions of race overtook not only historical scholars but also philosophers of history like Hegel. His philosophical system meant on the one hand, equating the Prussian state with the prime law of men �28 SLOVAKIA and, on the other, constituting materialism as the ideal of men and of nations. Exposed to this stress of innovation which was spread throughout scholarly circles by a ready press and which was further generally publicized by novelists and writers of all sorts, stur did not escape acquaintance with these false principles and this false philosophy of life was what contaminated all Central Europe. Fresh from the schools of Bratislava, he was not yet adequately prepared to discern authentic philosophic truth from political propaganda; nevertheless, he instinctively sensed the need to withhold complete acquiescence with Hegel. He tried to come to terms with much of Hegel but by the very fact that stur placed the moral and spiritual values of men as top priorities he put himself at odds with some Hegelian principles. stur's courses of study at Halle deepened his perspectives even as life in Germany provided him with countless new impressions-views of life and the world, concepts and ideas in general. From the German idealistic philosophy, even as from Hegel, its chief representative, stur adopted some new theories which resulted in a mental revolution. First among these was the aspect of dialectical thinking which brought to naught his previous conceptions of a final validity of the results of human thinking and activity. This doctrine maintains that all is in process of development. All is being transformed and changed and proceeds from a lower to a higher stage. It affirms that human history is a process by which the Absolute Spirit unfolds, a "chain uninterrupted" in stur's words. 9 Hegel conceives of history as a process involving dialectical oppositions revaluating into a higher content of historical being. Freedom as an essential of history becomes an absolute necessity. Hegel's philosophy of history strongly took hold of stur's mind at this point. The world seemed to be created for jjudovit stur. He reveled in the thought of its systematic, architectural classification, its universality embracing all the dreams of the human spirit, its justice toward nations, all its sources of learning, its versatile penetration of all doctrine--all this bore upon him so overwhelming flood. 10 �SLOVAKIA 29 The wealth of views offered by Hegel's philosophy opened up an idealistic world of envisioned by spiritual concept of nations and not construed from previous assumptions. It provided a new vista into the domains of the rights of nations among which there existed the future tribunal of Slavic nations, too, and led stur to the realms of Christian idealism. stur's spirit was reanimated. The receptive soil of his mind was enriched with fertility for the germination of his own conceived seed. The Germanic world's new concept of views regarding world history in politics, religion and sociology at this time impressed and inspired stur more strongly than it had heretofore affected any other candidate from Slovak academies. When stur returned to his native land, he returned as a Slav, but foremost as a Slovak returned into the ranks of his confused and puzzled friends and countrymen. He brought radical concepts to the rational school and to liberal life. These concepts characteristically dealt mainly with the Slovak past, present and future, for he brought from Germany a wide and rich source of philosophical and economic knowledge as well as a firm determination to devote his life to the task of national development. stur translated Hegel's philosophy into Slovak only insofar as he accepted his concepts, for stur was a realist in his approaches to the phenomena of life. 11 In his studies at Halle, Germany, stur was also spiritually revived. He left the university imbued with strong tendencies for the policies of Kollar and safarik. He was, however, an ardent Slovak by conviction rather than by accident of birth as was their lot. He was an ardent, tireless worker. The versatility of his talents and the needs of his country brought him to the fore successively as an orator, a writer, a journalist, a politician and a soldier. Both his friends and enemies proclaimed him the most remarkable champion of Slovak rights since the days of Matthew Oak. r.udovit stur is sometimes accused of blindly accepting Hegel's philosophy and applying it to Slovak and Slavic life indiscriminately. It must be remembered, however, that political and national controversy existing at that time made it difficult, if not impossible to evaluate Slovak �30 SLOVAKIA philosophy correctly. Granted that stur manifests a dependance on Hegel and contemporary German philosophers, still to present him in this light alone--as his opponents have done--seems to be a distortion. According to cyzevski, a former professor of Halle, stur and his followers were significant for philosophic thought in general. He goes on to say that stur's generation included several thinkers who tried to create their own philosophical system, and who in these times, excelled among all Slovanic nations in originality of thinking in philosophy. cyzevski elucidated his point in the scholarly book Stur's Philosophy of Life in which he clearly points out that stur was not a simple student and advocate of Hegel's philosophy, but that he formed his own independent philosophical system, one which in many ways differed from Hegel's. cyzevski refutes the charge that: 1. stur was a simple student of Hegel's; 2. that his philosophical views were those of contemporary romantic philosophy. stur differed from Hegel in his approach to life's phenomena which he found realistic. Prior to his studies at Halle, stur had cultivated genuine national convictions which were anchored upon Herder's humanistic thought together with messianic dreams that were to glorify the future of the Slavs. These convictions enabled him to take a critical stand in regard to some of Hegel's ideals though he held Hegel in high esteem. On the other hand, Hegel's dynamic view of history matched stur's ideas and provided a justification of his thoughts concerning the Slavic world, especially his views of the historical development of the world history of nations comprising the Slavic world. Because of the influences of the Kollar-Herder conceptions of the historical mission of the Slavs, stur did not fully agree with Hegel in his concept of the absolute States of Germany and Prussia, for in these Hegel saw the completion of historical development. From the viewpoint of theology stur here saw in Hegel's philosophy definite dangers of pantheism. An authentic view of stur's attitude toward Hegel's philosophy is best provided from a personal letter which he wrote to Samo Bohdan Hrobon. In it he quotes from Hrobo:n's poem, in which he sees or perceives from a religious viewpoint, the shortcoming of Hegel's philosophy: �SLOVAKIA 31 Povez mi pisani! kde hledat spaseni? Na svete marnem, cili v pravde vecne? Cili v kouzelne prajine zpomneni? Cili v krase, lasce nekonecne ... ? Ach kam jsi zmisel svete me mladosti? Kam se rozplynul Buh otec milosti? Nenit ho vice! Usychejte kvety! Dechnite duse! do propasti svety! Nebot jiz umrel ten zakon vecnosti, Ze vlas sa nehne bez povedomosti. Tell me, 0 Poet, where to seek salvation? In the temporal world or in eternal truth? In the respective countries' pulpits? In beauty, in undying charity ... ? 0 where has disappeared the world of my youth? Where has vanished God the Father of Mercy? He is no longer? 0 wither away, ye flowers! Die, ye souls! until the world's end! Fear not for eternal laws have decreed That not a hair shall move without His knewing. 12 Hrobofl's next poem is encouraging and indicates that the religious home training and strength of Slavic convictions are more forceful than Hegel's philosophical doctrines: Zijet duse ma a zit bude vecne jit zadna bure, zaden boj nezlomi prave ponad ni s tisicmi hromy Jako stin lahky v uzase preleti mec obosecny Hegelove vedy. Duse ma citem plamennym roztopi Mee ten, do prichu padne zahanbeny. Mee ten v nicote jak stin se rozplyne Pred bleskom vecnym bozskeho nadseni! Antheus slaviansky Herkula porazi! My soul lives and will live forever Neither revolutions nor war shall ever break its spirit Directly above myriads of thunderbolts it soars, �32 SLOVAKI A Like a thin wall will crumble in confusio n The two-edge d sword of Hegel's doctrine. My soul senses a burning flame within it Melting away that sword that must fall in dust and shame As a wall crumblin g in disgrace, Before the divine lightning of eternal elan With which the Slavic Antheus Will destroy a vaunting Hercules . Both poems bear heavily the weight of tension and conflict which the sturists experienc ed because of their selective ness in analyzing and sponsori ng aspects of Hegel's philosoph y. In the first poem, stur expressly discourag es the publicizi ng of the new philosop hy for fear that the time is not right and many may be complete ly misled by Hegel. He advocate d that his followers benefit by the worthy gifts of the great mind of Hegel and accept his philosoph y only with due reservati ons; that they revamp it to meet the need of the Slavs. stur emphasiz ed the inevitabl e depth of philosoph ical studies to which Slavic youth would have to devote itself. Moreove r, he took a critical stand and used the German philosop hic system modified accordin g to his views regarding Slavdom and moral principle . Hegel's philosoph ical view became an impetus to stur in his compilat ion and formulat ion of lectures on Slavic history and poetry .13 In 1840 stur returned from Halle to Bratislav a where he was assigned to the chair of Slovak Studies in Language and Literatur e, succeedin g Palkovic in this post. Adequate ly to understa nd the nature of this assignme nt, it is importan t to realize the kind of world in which he was to teach. To say that it was riddled with rank feudalism is all too simple a generaliz ation. Far truer it is to realize that stur came to a land where the Slovaks were held in abyssmal serfdom, in an invincibl e vise of economic , moral, intellectual, spiritual and national bondage. It was the kind of situation in which misery bred misery, usually in such forms as alienatio n, alcoholis m, desperati on, extreme dehumaniz ation of the individua l and loss of personal dignity. �SLOVAKIA 33 - -- - - - - -- -- - - - - -- - - - - - - - Unmitigated serfdom was reducing the Slovak into stultified begger stricken with hunger and penury. Denied schooling and spiritual enlightenmen t he was all too readily becoming a prey to superstitious folly and to grossness. The three-fourths who lorded it over the onefourth that was condemned to pay all the land truces ever collected in the region saw to it that their victims had no outlook at all for better things to come-either economically or intellectually or in anyway whatever. The Slovak element enjoyed no public community life as such and even though some attempts had been made to root cultural interests and to rouse the people to national life (such as the organizations at Trnava, Bratislava, Banska Bystrica and Budapest), they were doomed to short-term existence for lack of material support. As a result, Slovak life became necessarily circumscribed to the primitive pattern of the familial unit highlighted with such events as christenings, weddings and funerals. Though the Slovak labored unstintingly, he was not given the joy of benefiting by the fruits of his soil. When stur surveyed this situation on his return from Germany, he was forced to recognize this herd of subjugated beggars as his own people committed to mere animal existence, and all his nobility of soul rose in revolt at such inhumanity of man to man. But an emotional responses alone was no solution to the problem. He set himself to explore underlying causes, mainly the attitudes of the people themselves, their thinking, their social structures, their training and development, their milieu from small dimensional areas to the broad perspectives of the Austro-Hung arian domain. Aware of the need for incentives for self-improvem ent, and realizing that the most effective incentive of all is man's conviction that he is a being of value and dignity, his own consciousnes s of self, stur readily understood what his main teaching role would be to raise a new generation for Slovakia. He devoted himself completely to the enlightenmen t of his people and never in the least deviated from this objective. Under his aegis there was a vital burgeoning of new life among Slovaks of the younger element. He led the �34 SLOVAKIA young to new founts of elemental truth and saving virtue. His personality readily put him into the forefront as an inspired leader as his peers at Bratislava extolled him for his idealistic elan as well as his admirable self-discipline, his moral charm and his firmness directed first of all toward himself and secondly toward others. Impressed by the spirit of stur, Joseph Hurbl!Il who was a close collaborator wrote at this time: "We must challenge youth to difficult moral endeavors and teach the young to be concerned about the future. We must offer them stur as their paragon." Influences of the Industrial Revolution as well as effects of the national revolutions in France and in the United States were not lost upon young men and women of the day. Innovations were rampant on the air-romanticism, humanism, realism, revolution, criticism, democracy, Pan-Slavic romanticism, and a steady stream of trends and thoughts swept in upon maturing minds. stur observed it all and amid all of it mourned the divisive tendencies that tended to break the nation into two camps: the Catholics and the Lutherans and only bred new disadvantage. With clear vision he wrote in his book N drecie ("Dialect"): "There must be an end to this kind of partisanship; we must effect brotherly unity." Also "Our entire Slovak family will be united in a common speech and after centuries of fragmentation and coldness the members of one family will recognize each other and greet each other and embrace." The work of stur, however, soon evoked harsh Magyar resistance and this alerted him to the reality that it was not possible to wait for the younger generation to carry on toward brighter ideals; the need was immediate; the solution had to be effected now. His efforts for political support were fruitless. Every country from which he could have expected help was interested in pursuing its own advantage rather than in relieving the plight of another. His last resort was to exploit-in the best sense of the word-the very language of his people. By establishing a standarized form of written expression he sought to bring about one unifying element for all the nation, one bond to give to all the Slovaks �SLOVAKIA 35 a sense of one-ness, and through this medium to reach into the broader spectrum of unified national consciousness and national thought. He was convinced that given one common treasure to cherish and defend, they would be ever ready to defend it, and in this very effort, they would preserve their national being; without such a common objective they could readily lose even their national identity. Their common language would be their talisman. To implement this idea stur collaborated with Joseph Hurban and Michael Hodza as early as 1843. All three were agreed that the dialect of the central regions would lend itself best as the basis for a standard Slovak literary medium. Bernolak's earlier (1787) experiments with a literary standard on the basis of western dialects had been effective to degree but not wholly successful. Perhaps this was due to the fact that Bernolak's ideas and efforts were in advance of his times. Perhaps it was because the western dialects were not the happiest choice he could have made for a common medium. Perhaps it was due also to the fact that traditionally the Catholic segment of Slovak people was ardent in promoting the Slovak cause while at the same time the Evangelical Slovaks promoted the Czech language and culture inasmuch a.s Czech had been adopted as the official liturgical language of the Lutheran Church. Nevertheless, Palkovic in 1831-32 translated and published the entire bible into Bernolak's new medium, and the renowned poet Jan Holly (1785-1849) wrote all his masterly works in the newly codified Slovak literary standard. It is understandable then, that Stu.r's innovative effort was not readily endorsed even by his own Evangelical critics. In 1840 an open assault on the Slovaks was made at the General Assembly of the Lutheran Church. Count Charles Zay, their Inspector-General and some leading laymen proclaimed racial apostasy as a duty which the Slovak Lutherans owed to their fatherland and their religion. They maintained that since "the Magyar language is the truest guardian and protector of the liberty of our country, of Europe, and the Protestant cause, it follows that Magyarization is the duty of every eager champion of freedom and intelligence." There followed a series of �36 SLOVAKIA attempts to ostracize the Slovak language from Lutheran Synods and presbyteries. Kossuth who was one of the elders of the Church and a Slovak renegade spoke publicly in favor of the abolition of all existing Slav societies in Lutheran schools. One such society at Levoca had already been suppressed, "as a breeding ground for Pan-Slavism," its library was closed and its president, ~udovit stur, was deprived of his post at the gymnasium.14 Magyarized Slovak overlords, noblemen and landlords untiringly sought to Magyarize the Slovaks, even imposing punishment on those who refused to be enticed into the Magyarized camp. Archbishop Patatic from Kolac, gave each of the subjects twelve sticks to beat up anyone who dared to speak in Slovak. It was publicly proclaimed that the Slovaks and their language must be exterminated.15 Convinced as s tur was, however, of the greater objectives to be attained, he pressed forward with his new venture. Youth groups espoused the cause very readily and this support augured well for the future. In 1844 Hurban's second volume of the annual Nitra appeared in the new literary standard and in the same year Hodza established the society Tatrin which officially recognized the new literary standard and at once put it to use in the publication of educational books, monographs and instructional pamphlets for the general public. Within two more years there appeared stur's political journal (three times a week ) Slovenske Ndrodne Noviny with its literary supplement Orol Tatransky. All these projects notably strengthened the newly devised Slovak literary form of expression and assured its permanent adoption. sT-0-R'S SEARCH FOR A SLOVAK LITERARY MEDIUM Its Effectiveness in Unifying Slovakia Slovak life was now assuredly given expression through the Slovak language. stur maintained that it could not be otherwise and the years have borne witness to his judgment. The task was demanding but largely because the ground for the identity of the new generation was properly prepared. stur not only understand existing conditions in Slovakia, he formulated, what the nation �SLOVAKIA a7 felt, what the nation needed. He gave expression to the righteous desires and demands of his Slovak nation and became its model of an inspired leader devoted to spiritual and public activity. 16 sttir's call for further action was answered by Sladkovic, Chalupka, Botto, Hurban and countless others who felt that the proper course had been taken in establishing their literary language. Even the Lutherans finally accepted the Central Slovak dialect as a form of Slovak expression touched by foreign influence of one kind or another. On this matter the Slovaks had been merely sorely split in the past but now there promised to be a common unity to face the momentous events which were to follow. The work initiated by Bernolak was completed by sttir. Even John Holly, the greatest Slovak poet and ideologist of his nation gave sttir his blessing in this venture. sttir and his collaborators found the Slovak language and literature an invaluable instrument for advancing all their endeavors especially in rousing the nation to selfconsciousness. They studied its historic past and revealed it to the people who knew little or nothing about their historic origins and so had little impulse for experiencing pride of nation. They wanted to lift up the people from poverty and abandonment, so they enlightened and trained the general public.17 sttir can rightly be called the reformer of literary Slovak. Under his dynamic leadership the Slovaks literally re-emerged from obscurity and oblivion. They asserted themselves not only culturally but also politically because they became qualified and fired to forthcoming uprisings and events that had trans-European reverberations. A new era unfolded in Slovak cultural and national life when sttir adopted aesthetic and philosophical principles in his literary school. At this point romanticism and nationalism were pactically identical. sttir's cultural activities were timely in Western and Central Europe where national consciousness, popular art, and folklore were the order of the day. In this climate sttir successfully organized his literary school and cultural activities, which marked a new era in �38 SLOVAKIA Slovak national life. The members of this school "imposed the most exacting task on themselves in order to elevate the Slovak people to the same cultural level as the rest of Europe, to release their creative energies and to enable a new national culture to arise from the existing popular art and language. 18 sttir and his school were imbued with objectives directed towards specific social goals. Hence the literature which they created echoed not only a melancholy restlessness and romantic involvement but also the call for a better world. In 1842 a petition signed by two hundred Slovaks led by their clergymen was submitted to the Emperor in Vienna. The only outcome of this effort was that is provoked Kossuth to charge Superintendent Jozeffy and his colleague Hodza with betraying the Magyar cause and the Protestant religion. Both men were publically embarrassed and howled down. By contrast, two voices were raised in defense of the Slovaks, those of Count John Mailath, Catholic historian of Hungary, and Count Stephen Szechenyi who stated in a public address to the Academy that he hardly knew a Magyar who "is not transformed into a madman and even more or less deaf to the laws of fairness and justice, whenever the question of our nationality and language is raised." He begged his compatriots to "do as you would be done by." But the day on which 'the greatest magyar' and his fellow-magnate entered these protests, the popularity of the two Counts began to fail; the frenzy of Kossuth, voiced in his brilliant and aggressive organ Pesti Hirlap, carried all before it. As early as 1842, Kossuth declared in one of its issues: "Indeed, indeed I tell you, a Slovak nation has never existed even in a dream." In 1843 he boasted of his glowing love for his nation as the only one in Hungary which has any future based upon politics or law. 19 The argument of the German people, Herrenfolk: "We must be masters in our own house," was already applied in the "forties" by Magyars to the "foreign inhabitants" of Hungary. At this critical time the Slovaks found three leaders, �SLOVAKIA 39 full of courage and self-sacrifice, r.udovit stur, Michael Hodza and Joseph Hurban. All three happened to be Slovak Lutherans, courageous enough to agree in favor of the central dialect of the Slovak language for essentially political reasons. This dialect was a unifying factor which they believed would help strengthen their position in the struggle against the Magyars and Magyarones. The Slovaks could no longer stand this type of op-pression. They appealed to King Ferdinand in Vienna. He in turn said to them: "Every nation in Hungary should educate and develop itself according to law and justice and develop its national language as much as possible. The highest power will not object to this, but rather aid it in its endeavor." The Slovak delegation returned home very hopeful. But at home disappointments and hardships awaited them, because the King's words fell on deaf ears and did not phase the Magyars. 20 In 1844 stur was dismissed from his post at the Bratislava College as Deputy Professor, because he resisted Count Zay's plans for Magyarization through the school. Yet stur continued to express his thoughts in writing in the newspaper he published, "Slovak National News" ("Slovenske Narodne Noviny"). The permission for the editing of this paper was given by the Hungarian government after an interim of four years. In this paper he resolved to defend the rights of the Slovak people. The joy was great in Slovakia. Most of the Slovaks realized the importance of this news media, and at what price it was made possible. When it was first issued the people rejoiced in diverse ways to express their appreciation of its accomplishment. The supplement to the "Slovak National News" was "Orol Tatransky" ("The Tatra Eagle") which was a power to be reckoned with. This newspaper was both instructive and amusing. It found favor with all classes of people, and reached all strata of the populace. stur's program was a realistic one. He gave credit where it was due. He voiced his opinions in regard to the shortcomings of his people and denounced their delinquencies. �40 SLOVAKIA The papers served their mission well for three years, uniting, teaching, exhorting and encouraging the people during the most stirring time of Slovak history. His exhortations today are as timely as they were in 1845: "Let us not abandon ourselves, Slovak country-men. Higher is the cause of the entire nation, higher is the cause of the whole, than of the individual and even though individuals harm us, the cause itself does not do so, but with us thus far, it has been that individuals offended by our people immediately abandoned the cause itself ... " 21 The Magyars came to realize what great influence the new publications were effecting on the Slovak people and began to clamor for the immediate suppression of this press. But the embe:rlS had been stirred. Much of the purpose of the publications had already been achieved. The Slovaks were finally reawakened nationally. In 1847, stur was elected to the Hungarian Parliament as a deputy for the town of Zvolen, Naturally he had limited influence since he was the only Slovak deputy in the House. However, his speeches reveal that he was an enlightened fighter for freedom and social reform, one who demanded equal rights for all nationalities in Hungary, in cultural and political life. He repeatedly insisted that the Diet adopt laws to free the peasant masses from a feudalistic Robot system and labor rent, and that the culture of the people and country be promoted by the establishment of schools in the national tongues of the people. Among other things he demanded the industrialization of Slovakia and the adoption of humanitarian laws between the gentry and the working class. One of the main topics of Stu.r's speeches was the obsolete social and political structure of Hungary. He was all for a federalistic system of government which would give equal justice to all peoples. He advocated that special efforts be made to develop the State in new social and political reforms, and to make it a partner of modern Europe. In creating their political program, stur and his followers, took into consideration not only their aims and desires, but also the existing circumstances. One was the fact that Slovakia was a part of the Hungarian state �SLOVAKIA 41 in which it did not constitute a distinctive separative administrative unit. The Slovaks were not planning to break away from Hungary. What they wanted most of all was to have the boundaries of the Slovak lands defined so that the Slovak people might have guaranteed equality with the Magyars in Hungary. This equality they urged was to apply in all areas of political, social and especially in cultural life. They intended to present these petitions to the Emperor and the Parliament but first they wished to have the endorsement and the views of the Slovak people regarding their aims and their achievements. In May of 1848 they met at the parsonage of Michael Hod.za in Liptovsky Sv. Mikulas where they drew up a form for Slovakia's future political program called: "Petitions of the Slovak Nation." 22 Its Contribution Towards a Pan-Slavic Movement Stu.r's role as a reformer of the Slovak literary language was significant and far-reaching. His great efforts to this direction contributed greatly even to modern Slovak ideology. It was he who first gave to his people a new vision of political freedom and of a better future. stur provided a strong impetus to Slovak life in general by his own example, and by his writings embracing fields as diversified as poetry, philosophy, history, sociology, etc. From his correspondence one learns that he had direct relations with the leaders of all Slavic peoples. During his stay in Vienna he came in contact with other Slav representatives: The Slovene Stanko Vraz, the Croatian Ban Jelacic, and the Serbian Patriarch Rajacic, who were working together and made a joint visit to the Imperial Court. stur's reforms of the literary language also brought about the unity of the Slovak people and this, in turn, was followed by flourishing cultural and literary activities. His influence was so vital that some of his principles and ideology still lives in the cultural life of Slovakia.23 The lyrical element is strong in Stu.r's poetry and prose. He passed from the sphere of the personal and social into national and Slavic thought in all his works. The soul of the nation--or of the Slavs-was his �42 SLOVAKIA constant subject. He concentrated on the pain of the nation's sufferings, struggles, and failures and this theme pervades the climate of his literary works. stur and his followers were gifted with keen insight into existing social problems and this vision they combined with the romantic inheritance of deep attachment to their country, its people and to the Slavic world at large. They did their utmost to advocate and to provide democratic enlightenment for the unpriviledged classes, viz. the peasants and workers. They defined, encouraged and glorified their importance, as they glorified the Slavs and all their past. One of stur's followers, Samo Tomasik, composed the Slav anthem, "Hej, Slovania," which bespoke new hope, a new ideal and a great pride comparable to that expressed in Vajansky's famous verse: I am proud to be a Slovak Elegant is my race; A hundred million souls it numbers, Over half the world it rules. With the Slovak tongue you can traverse The four parts of the earth! One of my brothers plants the palm Another does eternal iceland scan A third skims o'er the widespread seas! From the phantasy which Kollar inspired as the great dream of one great Slav nation and one unified Slav language, the Slovaks, as Hans Kohn agrees "feeling abandoned in Hungary and their national existence threatened, may have drawn strength and faith in the indeitructibility of the Slovak people and language," and it helped to continue to maintain contacts with the cultural life of other Slavic peoples. 24 stur's contemporaries indicated their Pan-Slavic sympathy and tendencies by reading Russian, Polish, Ukrainian, Czech, Croatian and Serbian authors in the original and were very fond of the famous "Ode to Youth" by Mickiewicz. According to Bobek: "Not even the Poles received it as enthusiastically as the Slovaks." The desire of the Slovak poets and novelists of stur's time was to imitate other Slav writers, and their enthusiastic belief in one "slavic" culture was intense. �SLOVAKIA 43 Cizevsky maintains: "The only book which shows similarities with Mickiewicz's "Book of the Polish Pilgrimage" is $tur's work "An Ancient and a New Age of Slovaks" ("Stary a novy vek Slovakov") because $tur speaks of another kingdom and of other peoples. However, $tur deviates, because he wanted to unfold a realistic program, and Mickiewicz's Book could not satisfy him. $tur's position among Slav intellectuals of the nineteenth century is well attested among other various media by his rich correspondence with practically all oustanding Slavic leaders of the day also the fact that his work "Slavdom and the World of the Future" was translated and twice published by Russian intellectuals in the last century and at the beginning of this century. $tur, Kollar and $afarik can rightly be regarded as great figures of the Slavic world to the Slovaks of the nineteenth century. All three expressed: "in the familiar mood of the period, a general belief in historical progress, in a bright future , in the advent of some great spiritual manifestation, of a new era for mankind which would establish forever a basis of liberty, peace and happiness." In visualizing the Slavs as a unified body with a great future, they helped the awakening of the national consciousness of their own Slav-speaking peoples.25 :CUDOVi T $ TOR'S ROLE IN THE PAN- SLAVIC MOVEMENT His Political and Social Thought Slovakia is sometimes called the mother of the PanSlavic Movement. One of her sons, John Herkel, first used the word "pan,slavic" in his Latin treaties of 1826. In addition, the Slovak poet Jan Kollar and the Slovak scholar P. J. $afarik were among the main leaders of the Pan-Slavic Movement. As a matter of fact these two are sometimes considered the fathers of Pan-Slavism in Slovakia. Herder, in his "Ideas on the Philosophy of the History of Humanity" ("Ideen zur Philosophie der Geschichte") prophesied that the Slavs, who up until then were held in bondage and oppression, would awaken from their lethargy and free themselves from the shackless, and eventually recover their possesion of the vast lands that �44 SLOVAKIA stretched from the Adriatic Sea to the Baltic, from the Don to the Mulda. In this heritage they would devote themselves to the peaceful development of the arts and commerce. Though unknowingly, Herder sowed the first germ of Pan-Slavtsm. 26 stur's significance in the Slavic world of this calibre was assessed by Seton Watson. In regard to the great literary efforts of stur, Hurban and safarik, Seton-Watson states: "their writings were of capital importance in the whole Slav revival of the last century, and form a strange sentimental link between the Western romantic school and the extravagancies of Pan-Slavism." In reference to the first Slav Congress in Prague in 1848 Seton-Watson maintains that stur "played a decisive part in the preparation for the Congress." safarik, stur, Hurban and Hodza played a part second to none except Palacky at that same Congress. An analysis is in order in regard to these two opinions to determine stur's significance in the Pan,Slavic Movement. As early as 1840, stur had recourse to the throne of Austria and there presented his petitions in regard to the injustices perpetrated by Hungary against the Slovak people. He formally presented his petitions to the Hungarian Assembly. It embodied these provisions for the betterment of the Slav situation: 1) A systematic investigation of the Slovaks who were maligned by the Magyars in order to obtain protection for the oppressed; 2) that there be two censors to safeguard Slovak official writings; 3) that a Slovak literary seat be established at the Bratislava Lyceum and at Pest University; 4) that certificates and church records be kept in Latin; 5) that church ceremonies be in the mother tongue and that every guarantee and assurance be provided for this practice. The country was up in arms because the Slovaks dared to present their cause to the throne. Voluble insults were heaped upon the Slovaks in the newspapers, at gatherings, etc. Those who aided the Slovaks or sympathized with their cause were also abused. 27 It was at this point that ~udovit stur asked for permission to publish his "Slovak National News" ("Slovenske �SLOVAKIA 45 Narodne Noviny"). Archprince Joseph retorted by saying: "The Slovaks do not need newspapers. The publishing of such newspapers would be considered traitorous." It was the consensus in 1840 that Austria would lean on the Slovaks for political reasons, that is Slavic Austria, against Hungarian Austria (Magyar). But in Hungary Archduke Joseph had the upper hand and things were shaped his way. He even had control over the deputation of Slovak Pest in Church matters. At this point he is to have said: "In Hungary I know only one people and those are the Magyars. " 28 The phantom of Pan-Slavism repeated its threat in 1830 when Russia established a Slovak literary seat at its university. The young Russian Slavists began to visit the Slavs in the South as well as in Central Europe. For the ensuing years the word Pan-Slavism had political connotation for the Russian and Germanic nations implying a belligerent attempt to replace their civilization with the Slavic civilization. The connotation derived largely from the subjugated position of the various Slavic nations at this time. In Vienna the guards were ordered to stress in each paragraph of the law of magyarization that every sermon in Slovak churches be preached in Magyar and in even remote towns and villages there was a strong ban against Pan-Slavism of any kind. "In our country and near its borders," wrote Wessel, in Kossuth's newspaper, Hirlap, December, 1842, "Slovak mistakes are dangerous and a threat to all Europe and to our dynasty and country . .. " "Everyone who defies our Magyar language and our nationalism and who supports the mistakes of the Slovaks knowingly or unknowingly is an enemy to the peace and to our federation, and to our throne." 29 stur did not advocate the destruction of the Hungarian State. As long as there was any hope for a settlement with the Magyars, he was amenable to living with a fair situation. But he warned the ruling Magyar class that they could not forever ignore and suppress the inherent rights of the lesser peoples and exploit the Slovaks and other nations of Hungary without expecting them to retaliate and to demand a free national life, just as the Magyars were themselves demanding it from the Hapsburg Empire. �46 SLOVAKIA stlir wrote a sensational article "Charges and Complaints of the Slovaks in Hungary" ( ~aloby a ponosy Slovakov v Uhorsku") published in Leipzig in 1843, in which he reprimanded the chief Inspector, Count Zay, for conniving to Magyarize the Slovaks for political reasons. Count Zay felt that he was truly aware of the political currents in Slovakia. By a logic all his own, he divided the Slovaks into three groups. One was to be concerned about literary matters. The second was eager to establish a Western-Slav kingdom in Austria; the third was accused of secret contacts with Russia. 30 It is uncertain whether these three groups were fully aware of the gravity of the situation of those times; however, all had one goal in mind: to save the Slovaks from utter Magyarization and to secure for the Slovak nation its independent political status within the framework of the Hapsburg Empire. "We do not want our rights established on favor, but we demand our rights on the basis of justice," stlir declared. These famous words laid the foundation to all petitions and demands presented in Vienna and at the Hungarian Diet in Bratislava. stlir's debates with Kossuth all stemmed from this moral and democratic attitude. On behalf of his nation stlir demanded "peace based on justice and mutual understanding." He went on to say: "In the Pesti Hirlap Kossuth is fighting for equality of rights, but in the Diet he wants to give the orders to investigate and punish those who stand up for the rights . . . That is his freedom and liberalism." 3 1 All of Stu.r's writings indicate a clear political view: Slovakia established as a sovereign crown land under the Hapsburgs, an equal partner of other nations in the Empire. In short, he was even back in his own day for a program of the federalization of Central Europe. In a sense stlir appeared as a Romantic visionary in the eyes 0f all who did not favor Slavic reciprocity or his vision of a great future for the Slavic world, his untiring demands for equal rights for the Slovak people and their national independence which he formulated in the following terms: "Each nation is only one part of humanity, and no �SLOVAKIA 47 nation can make for itself the claim that it alone attained the best possible human evolution and degree of perfect ability. Thereafter, no nation has a right to impose upon another nation its way of life when that nation wants to move for itself and educate itself as it sees fit. "So that we Slovaks might be revived and assume in history that place which is rightfully ottrs by reason of our native strength and abilities we must once and for all free ourselves, because a nation which is enslaved has its hands bound, its spirit stifled, and is forever threathened with danger that sooner or later it will perish." 32 The year 1848 was ushered in as a promising one, but before long it became stormy. The more the Magyars spoke of freedom, the more tyranically did they suppress all non-Magyars. They did their utmost to turn public opinion against the Slovaks. Wessel wrote to Kossuth that he would rather have 50,000 Germans settle the mountain countries than 10,000 Slavs. Once again intolerance charged all the climate. At this point, Pan-Slavism evolved as a defensive movement among the Slavs rather than as a political movement aimed at replacing western dominance in Europe. The term "Pan-Slavism" has been used generally to denote the historical tendency of the Slavic peoples to manifest in their tangible way, either cultural or political, their consciousness of ethnic kinship. Cultural Pan-Slavism had its origin in the remarkable national awakening of the Slavs at the dawn of the nineteenth century. Submerged for long centuries under cruel masters, the Slavs were quickened to a renewal of awareness of their national identities, not by political leaders, but by their cultural leaders. These Slavs realized how they had been deprived of their national identity. They nourished better hopes for the future by seeking to reanimate the faded memories of a glorious past. In this effort they discovered that they were brothers bound by a common misfortune yet endowed with a vast cultural heritage. 33 Slavic men of learning helped to initiate national �48 SLOVAKIA movements among their countrymen primarily in order to establish the individuality and cultural worth of each Slavic group: Bulgarians, Czechs, Slovaks, Poles, Slovenians, Croats, Serbs and Russians. The various romantic movements were propagated in individual ways and degrees yet through them the ideal of Slavic unity, which had been lost in the past by foreign oppression, was to be resurrected with the surmounting and overthrow of that oppression. Pan-Slavism as a cultural and even as a political ideal evolved not in Russia, but rather among the Western and Southern Slavs, who had far more need of unity than did the mighty Russian Empire. This stage of Pan-Slavism signaled the national awakening of central and eastern Europe, and was characterized by interest and emphasis within the areas of language, literature, and culture. Among the Slavic peoples many had experienced a thousand years of injustice and mistreatment which yielded an unhealthy state of discouragement and stagnation. Now in the hour of their national awakening, the Slovak people seek to forgive their cruel masters rather than to avenge themselves. This attitude was shaped by the acute yearning they bore for the selfdetermination of their country. As much as they decried the enslavement of other nations, they would not permit another to enslave them. The literary and scientific Pan-Slavism of Kollar and ::;afarik created a powerful national spirit among the Slavs. Then it became only natural that this desire for national unity and selfdetermination should demand to be heard and to begin to be realized within the context of political Pan-Slavism. It moved in this direction under I.:udovit ::;tur who perceived by what stages Pan-Slavism must go. He foresaw that to achieve their glorious destiny, the Slavic peoples had to attain an assured measure of political unity. At this point political Pan-Slavism had two alternatives: Austroslavism, which meant retaining a form of Austrian political influence, for which ::;tur was ready to settle when he advocated it at the Prague Congress in 1848, the first great manifestation of Pan-Slavism and of Slavic identity, apart from the Hapsburg rule, and Pan-Russianism which ::;tur adapted after the failure of the Prague Congress.34 �SLOVAKIA 49 As Magyar exploitation of the Slovaks and other minority nations of Hungary continued, stur's admonitions to the ruling powers fall on deaf ears. The Magyars stubbornly and universally refused to heed any demands for redress of any kind of settlement with the non-Magyar nations in Hungary. This attitude helped to precipitate the revolution of 1848-49, in which the Slovaks also participated. stur together with Hodza and Hurban led an armed resistance force supporting Austria against the revolution of the Magyar aristocrats. That the Hapsburgs were forgetful of this effort and ungrateful to the Slovaks, that they finally settled with the Magyars at the expense of the non-Magyar nations of Hungary, did not help the issue of the dissatisfied minorities. The settlement of 1867, referred to as Austro-Hungarian but being in reality Austro-Magyar, became the burial pit of the monarchy which could have become a mighty confederation in Central Europe. It was I.:udovit stur and not the Slovak Magyar chauvinist, Louis Kossuth, who was the genuine democrat. 35 No setback dismayed stur completely or caused him to lose heart. Under opposition and failure he tended to redouble his energy. stur was the heart, Hodza the brain, and Hurban the soul of the revolutionary movement. They set themselves anew to collect funds, provide weapons, organize a volunteer corps, choose trained soldiers to lead them, financially aid patriots who were in prison and conduct a vast correspondence. Though defeated and betrayed in the outcome by Vienna, the Slovak revolution of 1848-49 marked an important milestone in Slovak history. The first large public manifestation of the Sl0vaks occured on May 10, 1848 at Liptovsky Sv. Mikulas. On this occasion a historic memorandum embracing six articles expressing the demands of the people was adopted unanimously. In substance these articles were: We demand that our people be permitted to· take part in the legislative deliberations of the land, and this not only de jure but de facto. And as such participation can alone become real and profitable when conducted in a language that is intelligible to us, we ask for our representatives the right to speak Slovak in the Diet. �50 SLOVAKIA We demand the right to plead and answer cases in the courts of law in Slovak. We demand that the school training of our youth, which is now so woefully neglected, be conducted in the mother tongue. We demand just and equitable representatives in the Diet. We demand for ourselves, and shall forever ask that our nationality, which we will never renounce, remain inviolate and inviolable. We demand that this petition be made known within the entire juristiction of Hungary, in Croatia, and Slavonia and be brought to the notice of the viceroy and of the Hungarian ministry, to the end that all friends of liberty and humanity may plead our just cause.36 Open-air meetings were held in larger towns throughout all regions during the spring of 1848. Equality and liberty, the maintenance and defense of the Slovak language were the keynote of them all. The Liptovsky Sv. Mikulas program was endorsed by a dozen towns supplemented here and there with petitions to meet subordinate local needs. Swiftly spread the news that Louis Phillipe had forfeited his crown to the French republicans, in 1848, anfi it reached every corner of the Hapsburg monarchy. Vienna was seething with political excitement. Prague was in feverish anticipation of the approaching Slavic Congress scheduled to meet there on June 2, in protest against the bartering of Slavic Austria to Greater Germany. stur went to Vienna after the March Revolution. There he met other Slav representatives, especially Ban Jelacic and the Serbian Patriarch Rajacic, who were working hand in hand and paid joint visits to the Imperial Court. At this early stage of developments, stur received an invitation from the students at Prague which he accepted and through which he played a decisive part in the preparations for the Slav Congress. On April 30, he made a strong appeal in favor of united common action between the Slovaks and the Czechs. For the time being, at least, there was a healing of the breaches and disagreements.37 �SLOVAKIA 51 A manifesto program which was initiated by Hurban, was issued at Teplice in the name of the Slovaks as the original occupants of this region. It was addressed simultaneously to the Crown and to the newly-formed national government at Pest. Its main demand was that there be convened a General Parliament for the brother nations of Hungary. Precipitously, any further movement in this direction was promptly suppressed by the Magyar authorities. Kossuth thundered against the Pan-Slavs in Parliament. Hurban and a few others were obligated to flee and they joined stur in an attempt to rouse Bohemia, Moravia and Slovakia to common action, and acclaimed Prague as the heart of tl<le Slavic world. Meanwhile, Hodza issued a small book in German, presenting an answer to the Slovaks to Count Zay and his summons that a choice be made between Magyarizations and the Russian knout. Hodza's fiery response was: "Rather the Russian knout than Hungarian domination, for the one can only enslave our bodies, while the other threatens us with moral ruin and death." 36 The time was ripe for action by the Slavs. stur proclaimed a Slavic Congress and agreed with Czech writers to set the date for May 31, 1848. Prague was chosen for the site of the Congress. A total of 362 delegates were present representing various Slavic nations, especially those under the Hapsburg rule, but the Poles and the Russians were also represented. The express objective 1tf the meeting was the establishment of contacts and regular exchanges among the Slavic peoples and the drawing up of a program of action for all peoples living as subject nations under Austria and/ or Hungarian domination. The four Slovak leaders-safarik, stur, Hurban and Hodza-played a part second to none. They were determined to make Slovakia an equal with Bohemia and Moravia, as part of a Czech-Slav federal unit, such as Palacky had contemplated. At this Congress stur offered a program for federalizing Central Europe. The Czech were consistent supporters of Austroslavism. Consequently the problem came to be narrowed down to a definition of terms: The objectives of the Congress was either to save Austria, for with her lay the best chances of maintaining Slavic identity, or �52 SLOVAKIA immediate prov1s10n for the Slavic peoples living under Austria. stur made it clear, that his aim was not specifically to preserve Austria, under whom the Slavs had hitherto rotted, but to preserve his own people; Austria, he added, was decrepit and lay under a curse. He went on to say: Our aim should be to save ourselves, not to save Austria. First we must work for ourselves, then for others. Thus far Austria has been flourishing but we have been languishing. What would the world say to us if we stood for nothing but the preservation of Austria? Let us say that we want to stand as independent Slovanic communities under the government of Austria . . . this will give our work a genuinely Slovanic accent ...39 stur felt that the program of the Congress should be: 1) the creation of independent Slavic united states within Austria, and 2) prompt agreement to this, so that the Austrian armies might be authorized to destroy Magyar encroachments into Slovakia. stur stressed Slavic independence: "If we are to assume that place in history which rightfully belongs to us by reason of our ability and strength, we must once and for all free ourselves from this intolerable foreign thraldom and gain national independence for ourselves." 40 The necessity of remaining with the Austrian cadre was crystal clear to stur yet he made no secret of his distrust of Austria. The Czechs felt otherwise. Because they had not been mistreated as were the Slovaks under the Magyars, they were willing to accept and abide by the vague promises of the Austrian Emperor that Slavic rights would be recognized and respected. In return for these promises, the delegates of the Congress pledged full support to Austria in her effort to subdue the Magyars. In addition, they adopted a "Manifesto t o the European Nations" which called for the following objectives: 1. That the Slavic people under Turkish rule be freed. 2. That the Magyars acknowledge the rights of the �SLOVAKIA 53 Slovak nation, including the right of its own language. 3. That the Croatian autonomy be maintained. 4. That the Slovenians be permitted to possess their land. 41 sttir felt that the Congress was a failure, because it seemed simply to reduce the Pan-Slavic movement to an attempt to reorganize Austria in a way to satisfy the nationalism of the Slavs. The insurrection of 1848 against the Magyars had also failed. sttir was disappointed to say the least and in the Pan-Slavic Movement was shaken. But he still cherished the hope that Slavic independence would be possible. In his despair and disillusionment, he became almost convinced that a small nation could not attain its freedom alone. Twice he had experienced having his great hopes in behalf of Pan-Slavism shaken. Now only one more possibility remained: alliance or association with Russia, for Russia alone of the Slavic nations was powerful enough to lead others to independence. This conclusion became the basic idea developed in his book, "Slavdom and the World of the Future," a work which extols the cultural, moral and political forces of the Russian Empire. It also presents a detailed program for the union of Slavs under the leadership of Russia. HIS POLITICAL RE-ORIENTATIO N In 1848 and 1849 when the Magyars under Kossuth arose in armed rebellion against Austria, demanding complete independence, the Slovaks braced themselves against a new wave of Magyarization pressures. Led by sttir and his collaborators, they fought in their units with the Austrians and then with the Russian Armies to subdue the Magyar rebels. In return the Slovaks hoped to gain from Vienna recognition of their own national aspirations. Vienna, however, disappointed them and overlooked guaranteeing their rigl;lts against the encroachment of the Magyars. Furthermore, influenced by Kollar, the imperial court used the antiquated Biblical Czech of the Protestants as the official Slovak language in the translation of the laws, for instruction in the schools, and in the newly established newspaper sponsored by the government, �54 SLOVAKIA "Slovak News" ("Slovenske Noviny"), published in Vienna. The fruits of Stu.r's labors seemed doomed and at this point he turned with greater hope to Russia. The Revolution that erupted in Paris in February 1848, and reverberated throughout Europe, encouraged the movement in Hungary. It affected the development of Slovak life and helped to bring the Slav political program to greater maturity. Individual regions of Slovakia rebelled against the imposition of Hungarian as the only recognized legal language and strove to secure sanctions for Slovak as their official language. The native tongue of the Slovak people represented the very survival of Slovakia. stur's basic concept in "Slavdom and the World of the Future" ("Das Slawenthum und die Welt der Zukunft") was an exceptional tribute to the cultural, moral and political forces at work within the Russian Empire. This work also included a detailed plan for the union of all Slavs with Russia, "the most complete and consistently developed program for the subjugation of Slavs to Russia," according to Professor Lednicki. stur adopted Herder's and Hegel's ideas which in turn provided the Slavs with a consciousness of unity based upon the communal element of language and a glorious destiny, proclaiming them as the prospective leaders of Europe. stur stressed the belief that the Slavs have a mission to fulfill in universal history, and that this mission can be fulfilled only if they are united. There were three procedures to consider: 1. Slavic federation without Russia. 2. Transformation of Austria into a Slavic federation. 3. Union with Russia as a monarchic empire under Russian leadership, united in the Orthodox Church and the Russian literary language. The first two approached did not appeal to stur's vision gf a Slavic world of the future. Because of geographical features and considerations, internal rivalries, religious and cultural differences, and intermingled nonSlavic elements, any attempt to federalize the Slavic nations at this time seemed doomed to failure. 42 Since the Slavs were to be leaders of the "new" Europe, stur set out to determine whether the Slavs really �SLOVAKIA 55 had a role of their own to fulfill in world history. At this point they were not in position to do anything significant but history was a progression of spent nations being replaced by young one, and stur envisioned a future in which Slavic emancipation would eventually occur. There was no use in looking to the West for support in securing Slovakia's self-determination for, the West was already on the downward path to moral, political and social dissolution. Western civilization had deteriorated, the West itself needed help. Only Slavs could aid the Slavs. stur went on to paint a highly romantic picture of the Slavs, representing them as good at heart, patient, humble, kind and democratic. These were the general characteristics of all the Slavs, but especially of the Russians who were visualized as being at the apex of all the nobles features of the Slavic nations. stur did not know them personally. He had never been in Russia, neither had he any prolonged contact with Russians. He simply claimed that it had to be so logically, since the Russians were the leaders of the Slavs; they had to be the best Slavs. He was convinced too that unity was an absolute necessity if the Slavs were to achieve their historic mission. The only alternative left was union with Russia. 43 "Russia is the prime mover and the leader of our national family. Our people are but a fragment of a single nationality. They can be reborn and united into a single whole only by a elated benevolent and great Power." In stur's mind that power was Russia. "Let us go forth together in the spirit of our own people, under the leadership of the racial elders given to us by history." The Slavist, Professor Petrovich maintains that "The failure of the Slovak revolution and other political demonstrations brought stur to the conclusion that it was u.seless for his people to seek its own freedom alone or in the framework of Austroslavism." 44 This definitive decision on the part of stur amazed contemporary experts in his Slavic world. Yet it is not hard to understand stur's position when one realized the facts with which stur had to live in the 1850's. Since his primary goal was Slavic nationalism, Slavic unity, Russia was the only leader to whom to turn since Austroslavism �56 SLOVAKIA failed. His main objective was the creation of a federation of independent Slavic states under the Russian leadership, the same kind of action he had urged at the Prague Congress in 1848 for Austrian leadership. The Slavic peoples of the Austrian Empire, such as Czechs and Slovaks, and the smaller groups looked more and more toward Russia for help, since they found themselves outnumbered by the ruling Germans and Magyars. A second Pan-Slav Congress met in Moscow in 1867. The Poles were not represented. They considered the Russians their national enemies and oppressors. Russian chauvini&m was apparent throughout the congress. From that time on Russian nationalists wished to use Pan-Slavism as a tool for Russian expansion at the expense of nonRussian Slavs for the destruction of the Austrian Empire and the Turkish Empire. Both Empires contained large Slavic minorities. The Russian war against Turkey in 1877 was accompanied by Pan-Slavic agitation to liberate the Balkan Slavs, especially the Bulgarians, from the Turkish domination. World War I also started partly because the Russians supported the Slavic Serbs against the Austrian Empire. The fact that Russia herself oppressed several Slavic peoples--the Poles, the Ukrainians, and the Byelorussian s -and the fact that the Russian tsarist autocracy was politically and socially backward militated before 1914 against the claim of the Russians to be regarded as the spokesmen of all Slavs.45 All the peoples, with the exception of the Croatians, Slovenians and Serbs were united under Moscow's leadership, and thus many of the extravagant Russian aspirations, voiced during the Pan-Slav Congress in Moscow, in 1867, were fulfilled .46 Stu.r's great dream of a family of Slavic peoples united under Russia may also become a reality -but not under an Orthodox Church as a dedicated community, nor under an enlightened Russian Tsar with humanist and liberal views, nor as a Russian group struggling for the highest ideals of freedom and respect for human beings, as stur wished to see it in his work "Das Slawenthum und die Welt der Zukunft" ("Slavdom and the World of the Future"), but under a disastrous �SLOVAKIA 57 policy, the cornerstone of which was laid at Yalta in February, 1945. This policy destroyed Europe's individuality and enlarged the power of the Kremlin, a power that has kept all humanity under constant tension since 1945 and is a threat to the freedom of all the states it has not yet captured. It led to the subjugation of an additional 200 million Europeans. On the soil in Northern, Central and Southern Europe, there arose a new Soviet colonial system. At a time when in the free world, peoples who have never enjoyed self-govenment in the past are gradually attained nationhood and are assisted by the United Nations in the achievement of their rightful aspiration-the exact reverse process has been taking place in Central and Eastern Europe. 47 ST-OR'S IMPACT ON SLOVAKIA Revival of Slovak National Life stur knew it was imperative that the Slovaks be awakened nationally; otherwise they were doomed as a nation. The nation needed scholars who would delve into antiquity and from the glory of the past raise a national enthusiasm and groundwork on which to build for the future. He assumed the task of providing them. The Slovak historian, Julius Botto, says of stur: "He trained for the Slovak nation energetic, selfless men, genuine national heroes." Since the Slovak gentry continued to yield its national identity and was overshadowed and even absorbed by Magyar influences, the Slovak people became abandoned in the midst of a rising alien nationalism and political transformation. Slovak intellectuals had the vision to realize what was happening and considered it mandatory to take over the culture of the Slovak peasants, middle classes and a sparse number of nationally minded aristocrats and garner from these elements their own national culture and new national consciousness. Without stur's important role in this effort, the Slovaks might now be a forgotten nation. stur successfully organized his literary school and cultural activities in this climate and was successful in �58 SLOVAKIA bringing about a new era of Slovak national life. Since he had a mystical idea of the nation, and respected it as a person, his approach was a philosophical one. Aesthetic and philosophical principles were inaugurated into his literary school and became the foundation of the Slovak nation revival of the nineteenth century. In the past, Slovak national life was little more than a conglomerate of regrets and passive laments, a life of hapless "do nothing." stur set up positive perspectives to create higher cultural and political values and he did not rest until the people were persuaded to adopt these new views. He repeatedly advocated a higher and stronger degree of national pride. He asked the Slovaks not to seek the source of their national pride in foreign gardens since they had it right at home in their midst. stur and his school knew what hopes were directed toward attaining concrete political and social gains; he realized how ready his people were to entertain enthusiasm and spirit for a better world. National and Slavistic themes permeate stur's poetry and prose. The soul of the nation-or of the Slavs-was his constant subject; he was always preoccupied with the nation's sufferings, struggles and failures. These topics are the substance of all his written works. The Slovaks, as Hans Kohn rightly says, "feeling abandoned in Hungary and their national existence threatened, may have drawn strength and faith in the indestructibility of the Slovak people and language." This thought supported them and enabled them to continue to maintain contacts with the cultural life of other Slavic peoples. Although stur was not the only leader during the national revival, he embodied more vitally than did the others the true spirit of 1848. In his own right he is called the Daniel O'Connell of Slovak history. At this point is was not only necessary for the Slovak nation to map out definite goals, but it was also imperative to chart the way for coming generations of the Slovak nation in order that this goal might be realized and preserved. The task challenging stur and his followers was very complicated. Besides honoring, they had to find a way and means to discharge all the work before them in a way �SLOVAKIA 59 that would be worthy of scrutiny both in their own day and in the light of history. Much of their work had to be accomplished under duress, when revolutionary forces were mounting, when fierce struggles had to be met to insure national existence and the ennobling of the social stratum of the Slavic people. $tlir's generation had no alternative, but to play the role of a vanguard of the Slovak bourgeoisie which had to be inspired with national consciousness and formed into a worthy class. The group v0luntarily assuming this role is called the $tlir generation; in literature it is called the stur school, since it was Cudovit stur and his group who adopted the traditions of the Bernolakians for the Slovak linguistic cultural and national independence. In short, they gave the Slovak nation both a solid ideology and definite direction under the leadership of Cudovit $tlir.48 Cudovit stur's activities were directed mainly on behalf of his native country, his main interest being the Slovak people caught in an insufferably miserable situation and desperately needing a solution of their problems. He threw all his efforts into achieving a social and national awakening of his people and into raising their standards so that they could be counted as a social and national force. In the memorable Bratislava parliament of 1847, he tangled in a heated discussion with Kossuth. stur declared: "We want freedom. It is easily said that there is plenty of freedom in our homeland: yes, not only an abundance, but even an oversupply of freedom." And he went on to add, "but only the landowner's brand of freedom; for of the real, human and personal freedom there is very little. If our towns had had more freedom, our people would never have fallen into such thraldom." Kossuth's reply to this was: "That cannot be helped; that is the way the world moves. It is the fate of one who stands lower in the community to be suppressed and bear the burden and taxes; on the other hand, the one who comes along better in civic life receives rights and stands in honor. At this time I am opposed to granting towns a vote in our Assembly." stur could not be silenced. Again he met Kossuth in the Hungarian Assembly and said: "Recently when I was �60 SLOVAKIA present here and mentioned the sorrowful plight of the wretched taxpayers, the worthy deputy of Pest County, Mr. Kossuth, saw the hand of fate in the oppression of the people and said that is the way of the world when the lower class is suppressed and the higher class arrogates more rights to itself. I see no hand of fate in the matter, because then the status of the oppressed could never be corrected. We demand freedom in the country and the assignment of urbanial jobs which are not in line with freedom. Does a person who works, who works for the benefit of others and receives contempt instead of reward, have a fatherland? Will such a person become as devoted to his country as he would be to his mother? The sacred cause of mankind challenges us to declare the principle of the liberation of people and honestly bring it into reality. When this redemption is accomplished, the judical power of the landowner and the country gentry must cease, because freedom would not be served if a people liberated from the robot would continue to remain under the staves of the Lords." 49 stur's main aspiration was freedom. If his only achievement had been his effort for the rights of the enslaved and subjugated at the Bratislava Assembly, he would have deserved to be honored among the most distinguished sons of the Slovak nation. But he did not only that but even more and because of this fact he is loved and revered by the Slovak nation. In him were concentrated the cultural and social endeavors of his predecessors, with the strength and courage needed for a living national organization. Without his concentration the pursuits of an independent national culture would have been impossible. His greatest merit lies in the fact that he assumed the historical task of uniting the multi-cultural strength of the Slavs into a national liberation front. A legendary atmosphere was built around the magnetic personality of stur by those who knew him. Around him there crystallized, as it were, a veritable aura of national life as is reported by William Pauliny Toth who said of him : ":Cudovit stur is favored epochally as a created vision in the history of. the Slovak- Nation." 50 �SLOVAKIA 61 Shir in his time understood that the Slovak national process had matured and that Slovakia must appear on the scene of history as an independent political factor. It is in this foresight also that Shir's merit lies. He exemplifies the Slovak national spirit as a man possessed with deep convictions and great strength of will sufficient to execute them. His prime purpose, as we have already mentioned, was to see Slovakia united culturally, politically and socially. We must recall for our own benefit and on behalf of the free world that stur did not hesitate to accept and carry to completion the work of preceding Catholic generations; he was ready to press on in order to preserve the heritage of the Slovak nation, though he was not a Catholic, but a Lutheran and a member of the Protestant Evangelical Church. Contributions as an Energizing Stimulant to Slovak Life in General It can be said with assurance that in the history of the Slovak nation, no individual accomplished as much in so short a time as did :Cudovit stur, who was only forty-one years of age when he died. This was possible only because of the gifts of this phenomenal leader and because of the fact that the ground and the time were ripe for the ascension of a new generation. stur found that he could approve of much that already existed in Slovakia and he was ready to formulate what the nation needed and demanded in his day. One wonders how it was possible at this critical time for a man to dare to undertake structuring a spiritual foundation of modern life for the long slighted and forgotten Slovak people. Though we cannot understand the force that inspired him we can appreciate the phenomenon that in one generation, only one extraordinary person, one :Cudovit stur, appeared as a great leading luminary among approximately two million of his people. It goes without s~ying that the Slovak people are grateful to stur and to those who sacrificed much with him for the Slavic cause. Their work was aimed toward the realization of the spiritual plan of Slovak life envisioned by genius and inspiration. �62 SLOVAKIA The Slovak nation was not fortunate enough at this time to have a 1,1mg and cherished tradition or the advantage of experienced mature people on which to rely. Over long centuries of oppression under a foreign element, it was their fate to be wholly submissive and in this attitude to develop no leaders. Now they had to rely entirely on comparatively young men for new ideas and new leadership. The Slovak youth was entrusted with the new dawn and to project future goals, because the difficult life of the Slovaks in the past did not allow the elders to foster a strong national life. While many other European nations had their noble classes to fight their battles and to lead them to new eras, the Slovaks had no social upper strata on which to rely for inspiration. Their nobility and their middle class as well were lost by fusion with other elements predominantly Magyar milieu. Slovak national awakening consequently was achieved by the sons of humble people, usually the strong leaders from among the Catholic and Protestant clerical circles. The Slovak language as a literary medium which was chosen by l'..udovit stur and his collaborators was accepted by the Slovak population in 1843. Under his dynamic leadership the Slovaks literally re-emerged from obscurity and oblivion. They asserted themselves not only culturally but also politically by their participation in the uprising in 1848-49. During this revolutionary upheaval they sided with the Emperor in Vienna but were ill-rewarded for their services. Their repeated petitions for self-determination and for guarantees of unhindered cultural development were repeatedly denied them.5 1 In 1867, when the Austrians concluded a dual agreement with the Magyars, the Slovaks were left at the mercy of the Magyars. Under this arrangement, Slovak high schools and cultural organizations were suppressed. Education on an elementary level was permitted in the Magyar language only. Any who dared to resist magyarization were victimized and inprisoned. Thousands of Slovaks found it necessary to leave their native country and migrated to the United States of America. I.:udovit stur and his generation fired the Slovaks with new national life, a clear goal and a firm sense of direction �SLOVAKIA 63 in the spirit of stt1r's slogan: "Backward we cannot go, Forward we must!" "Forward" means to free the people from the yoke of slavery and lead them along the road of independence and true national cultural growth within a truly free country. To achieve this tne Slovak nation needs a political program. The cataclysm of the Revolution of 1848 that struck Europe impelled the Slovaks to develop their political program without further hesitation or delay. The Slovaks reassessed their aims, and aspirations as well as prevailing circumstances. Since Slovakia was part of the Hungarian State, they wished primarily to have the boundaries of the Slovak lands clearly defined in order that they might have guaranteed equality with the Magyars living in Hungary. The Magyars opposed the justified petitions of the Slovak nation. They banned all Slovak assemblies and treated Slovak leaders as traitors deserving imprisonment. When the Slovaks perceived what obstacles their political program met with in Hungary, they resorted to arms against the Magyars who themselves were engaged in a rebellion against the Emperor. The Slovak rebellion in 1848-49 ended indecisively. The Russian army was asked to help subdue the revolting Magyars and absolute rule was imposed in the country. The Magyars were punished and the Slovaks were forgotten. 52 The Slovaks renewed their political activity in 1861. They detailed their principles in newspapers and later called an assembly at Turciansky Sv. Martin where they formulated a renewed Slovak policy within the comprehensive "Memorandum of the Slovak Nation." They asked that the Slovaks be permitted the right to develop their own life without restriction. They asked that they be recognized as a nation by a special proclamation, and that Slovakia constitute a distinctive administrative unit in Hungary. These petitions were submitted to Emperor Franz Josef (1849-1916). The only concession granted to the Slovaks was permission to establish a cultural institute called "Matica Slovenska" ("The Slovak Institute"). They were also allowed to use private funds to build three high schools for the education of Slovak youth. �64 SLOVAKIA The position of the Slovaks grew steadily worse in Hungary. Feeling the pressure of denationalization at every step, they did not stop pledging their allegiance to Hungary. All these attempts even at appeasement proved futile . The Hungarian Parliament passed legislation which suppressed Slovak life yet not even these adversities broke the Slovak nation, for the Slovaks believed "That truth has never yet suffered in vain, nor will our Slovak truth suffer needlessly," according to the prophetic dictum of Andrej Hlinka in 1907 spoken as he was being led to prison.53 $TOR IN CONTEMPORAR Y HISTORIC PERSPECTIVE Practicality of Stur's Ideals :r.udovit stur's role in the revival of Slovak national life was far reaching and vitally important. As a reformer of the Slovak literary medium he contributed to modern national Slovak ideology. He gave his people a new perspective and vision of political freedom and of a better future. His writings provided a powerful impetus to Slovak life in general. His manifold contributions to the Slovak national revival were not limited to Slovakia alone, but to the over-all Slavic world, since Slovakia and the Slovak people are a part of the Slavic world. Neither is his greatness only by the role he played at the first Slavic Congress in Prague, but also by his rich correspondence with all outstanding Slavic leaders, as well as his work "Slavdom and the World of the Future" which was translated and published twice by Russian intellectuals in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. stur's school of thought laid the foundation for the self-determinatio n of Slovakia more than a century ago. Even in the present the Slovaks are building upon this foundation. They will keep on pressing their point and cherishing their hope of success until they do attain complete freedom from all foreign domination. Just as stur had defied and condemned the hegemony of the Magyars and the materialistic philosophy of Marx and Engels, so do they hope in this day to overcome all obstacles to true freedom. �SLOVAKIA 65 The followers of stur made the entire nation their concern. They applied themselves to improve the country's economy; they did their utmost to wipe out alcoholism, indifference, and illiteracy; they labored unceasingly to arouse national consciousness in more ways than one. The people at large responded and co-operated generously when r:,tur began to publish his "Slovenske Narodne Noviny" ("Slovak National News") which had great influence on the thinking of the common people. stur's articles recalled the heritage of the Slovak people, the glory of its language, morals, customs, and its homeland-which unites the nation as a whole and constrains it to press forward towards attaining the goal of unity. It was necessary to make the nation feel that someone was supporting it and was concerned about its welfare. The people had to be dealt with humanely. This applied to individuals as well as to groups. The Slovaks were threatened with complete annihilation, hence stur had to appeal to the mind, the feelings and the very character of the nation. Without first uniting this nation he could gain nothing. The sturists envisioned their task as not the conversion of renegades, but the instruction of the people to help themselves, to recognize and to fight for their God-given rights. Stu.r's newspaper served all classes of people to some degree-the intelligentsia, the laborer, the peasant, the minister of the Gospel, the merchant and the tradesman. The Slovaks did rouse themselves to national consciousness. Without effective journalism of the type provided by stur it would have been impossible to unite the Slovaks in so short a time. stur and his collaborators were realists. They encouraged and exhorted the people to better themselves by overcoming indolence and ignorance. They provided and encouraged private enterprise and more efficient ways of doing things in all fields of endeavor. The school problem was a factor of great concern to stur and his coterie. They indicated the necessity of cultivating the native language, the importance of enlightenment, the value of reading centers, libraries, sound agricultural programs, progress in industrial and financial enterprise, �66 SLOVAKIA revision in tax scales, improvement in animal husbandry and many other subjects. Temperance societies were promoted as were cultural and social institutions. Many stur followers taught Sunday school classes. This innovation of stur was probably the most interesting of all movements in Slovakia. stur and his followers were not dreamers; they were practical idealists who had the welfare and security of the Slovak people at heart.54 stur's school of thought built the foundation for the independence movement as well. With the help of his co-workers ::;tur's literary school to a great extent fulfilled the function of a political and military leadership, thereby elevating the Slovak people to the cultural level of the rest of Europe. For these achievements stur's progressive pedagogical heritage shall continue to live among us for a long time. His practical and wise suggestions, his courage, his vision, selflessness, his many precedents which could be used and developed in our day serve as an undying example for future generations of Slovaks, inspiring them to work for their country's freedom, independence and recognition. At the same time future generations are challenged to keep alive the flame of the torch which was passed to them by stur's unfaltering hope of a better world on the morrow. Despite stur's comparatively youthful age, his cultural and social activities were many-sided and diversified. Slovaks in the free world can gain much by a study of his works. Because stur and his co-workers were human, they naturally made some mistakes. However, their mistakes were those of the century in which they lived. It behooves us to judge them according to the fruit of their labor, the results of their work which brought a new perspective to the Slovak nation. stur can rightly be numbered among the outstanding European revolutionaries of his time. He was a great apostle of democracy and freedom for all people. The shining light among the Slovaks of the nineteenth century, the formulator of their political and social program, as well as the interpreter of their national desires was ~udovit stur-the Father of modern Slovak nationalism .55 �SLOVAKIA 67 Application of stur's Theories in Subsequent Slovak History The evolution of Slovak national life and the role of ~udovit stur in its development are mutually inclusive. Once one delves into a study of stur's life work, he becomes permanently fascinated with it and cannot be shed the charm of this genial creator of modern national Slovak ideology. stur was endowed with extraordinary creativity and originality of concepts. Only a genius could create works of lasting value which survive long after his death. It is only natural that we return to stur and find support in him. He is an incentive to future generations to do even better things than he did. However, to date, he ranks as one of the most outstanding Slovaks of all time. Slovakia is grateful to many Slovak leaders who sacrificed everything for the nation. But most of these also worked for the realization of the spiritual plan of Slovak life which was spelled out and left to us by stur and his co-workers. They gave expression to the righteous desires of the Slovak nation and became the unsurpassed model in spiritual and civic activity:56 For more than a century, nothing new nor shaking has appeared than that which was expressed by stur for the Slovak nation. Hence it behooves us to return to him, because it is evident that every new and great plan of Slovak life must first pass the aqua regia test of stur's thinking. The aims of the Slovak nation which were conceived by stur are still the criteria of the life of the Slavic people. Whatever counters stur also runs counter to the vital interest of the Slovak nation. stur's words: "Let us not abandon ourselves, Slovak fellow citizens! " is just as timely today as they were in 1845. He was a man ahead of his time. His philosophical views, his democratic thinking, his principles and his social demands are timely, too. It is necessary for our generation to recognize the fact that the Slovaks over one hundred years ago fought to change the political structure of Central Europe, that they demanded a deserved independent status for their nation within the framework of a solid federation built on principles of justice and equity. �68 SLOVAKIA Great ideas may be temporarily suppressed and silenced, but in the end they will triumph. That accounts for the inability of the enemies within and without the Slovak nation to destroy the concept of individuality of the Slovak nation, its language, culture and its right to an independent life. Even today after a lapse of more than a hundred years, this idea is very much alive. Despite the fact that Pan-Slavism did not achieve any notable results during stur's time, it nevertheless had inherent value. For the first time it revealed the Slavic mind to the rest of Europe. This is important in the light of the present role which the Slavs play in Europe today. The Prague Congress too proved significant by reason of the fact it was the first expression of Slavic unity, of Slavic identity, distinct from the Hapsburg rule. It imbued the Slavs with greater courage and confidence and a guide for the future action. Slavdom and the World of Future is today a relatively unknown work, even in the Slavic world. Yet it had exerted great influence on Russian thinking in the 1870's and was a beacon light and incentive to furthering their program and goals. At the time of s tur's death in 1856, the whole Pan-Slavic movement was pretty much a failure. It failed because the very nationalism that it promoted led to its defeat. Pan-Slavism created dissent among the various Slav nations because it pressured national consciousness. The more the people became aware of their individuality, their historical traditions, and their language, the less they wanted to sacrifice them for a non-existent Slav federation . Another hindering factor was the centuries-old and traditional antagonism between the various Slavic nations, such as the Poles and the Russians, Czechs and Slovaks, Croatians and Serbs, prevented any success for a plan that would unite them. Hence Pan-Slavism was hindered from excercising any dominant or stable influence on European thought at that time. 57 For two decades after World War I Pan-Slavism seemed dead. The Western Slavs-the Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, Croatians, Slovenes and Serbs--established their own states in 1918. They looked more to the West than to Moscow for guidance and inspiration. After the German �SLOVAKIA 69 aggression against Soviet Russia in the summer of 1941, Joseph Stalin revived Pan-Slavism for the duration of the war and appealed for the support of all Slavic peoples. The Soviet Union again discarded Pan-Slavism after World War II. It was under the aegis of Communism rather than Pan-Slavism that the U. S. S. R. established control over the Western and Southern Slavic peoples in the post war period. $tur's vision of a unified Slovak cultural, political and social life did not indicate that he was a mere visionary. After a century of struggle there exists a Slovak nation with its own literature and cultural institutions and it is a strongly literate one. There also exists a sound national consciousness and a wholesome social stratification, which is unbalanced only by the unfortunate present Communist regime. The new generation is imbued with a spirit of national and social justice among Central European peoples and constantly resists Communistic ideology, about which £udovit $tur wrote more than a century ago: "Communism not only commits outrageous injustice against all civil society ... it also ruins all personal initiative, endeavor and enthusiasm. It divides the family, it destroys the household and thus it opens wide the door to every type of immorality, dissolution, and indulgence. It degrades· man to bestial level ... "Communism has matured to the same degree as atheism and defection from Christianity . . . In all types of Communism whatever their classification may be, the outlook is only toward a dismal life. It brings in its wake despotism of the grossest kin. It ,shatters all bonds of social living. In place of holy ties, it offers profiteering, rioting and their like." Today when our mighty nation is fighting for freedom of all enslaved and oppressed nations, this freedom must not be overlooked for Slovakia. The Slovaks of today still have the inherent and God given rights to complete freedom as do all other nations. To fight for the freedom of all nations, including Slovakia, is the obligation of all lovers of truth and freedom. The Slovaks have existed and will continue to exist if they live and remember $tur's words: "Let us not abandon ourselves, Slovak fellow citizens!" �70 SLOVAKIA Today a foreign regime in Slovakia is persecuting and crushing all that stlir stood for, because it is above all else concerned with the extermination of the Slovak traditions which in his time Eudovit stur had recreated and reformed in such a manner that they remain in permanent basis of Slovak national development. The spirit of stur lives on! One can kill a man but never the idea he stands for . In history there are myriad examples of movements, faiths and ideologies triumphant "in spite of dungeon, fire and sword." The Slovak nation did not give up the right to live in an independent state even if this state was forcibly liquidated, its rules killed and its adherents persecuted. All this has made the struggle for independence even more imperative, because if the idea was worth dying for, it i~ worth fighting for. More than a century after his death :Cudovit stur is very much alive. His name is often on the lips of his followers and his opponents. Books are written about him, his policies, his philosophy, on both sides of the Iron Curtain by his friends and his enemies. With no perceptible results to show, the situation of the Slovak nation does not look very promising today. The nation is without its state, lives in slavery but also lives in hope. There is strong evidence to indicate a living and vibrant independence movement at home where the Slovaks after an interim of partial independence are convinced that there is no substitute for complete independence. The indeology of :Cudovit stur is the source of strength and belief that independent Slovakia with a government "of the people, by the people, for the people" will re-appear on the map of Europe:58 CONCLUSION The essential part of this study dealt with the assumption that :Cudovit stur and his achievements have long been recognized by the Slovaks, that he is a great national figure and is revered as the "Father of Modern Slovak Nationalism." But what of his place in the history of the Slavs at this time? Looking for stur's place in the Slavic world, after the passing of a century which tested many of his conceptions �SLOVAKIA 71 and achievements, one cannot avoid some purely Slovak cultural and political issues. One cannot help but also agree with Hans Kohn's words that "the Slovak nation with its own literary language, was definitely established."59 stur's manifold activities made this possible. Since Pan-Slavism remained the primary concern of Slavic poets, newsmen, literary scholars, philologists, and historians, Slavic nationalism was far removed from the political plan and was situated in the literary field. These individuals expressed an optimistic belief in man's inevitable progress, in the spiritual rejuvenation which would result in the assurance of liberty, peace and happiness. These visionaries felt that perhaps the Slavs were heralds of a new era. They promised a unified betterment in a future Slavic world. According to his book "Slavdom and the World of the Future" r.udovit stur set out to accomplish four tasks. He wanted an assurance to determine whether the Slavs really had a specific role to fulfill in world history. The Slavic past would yield an affirmative answer, for this certainty was the basis for the entire Pan-Slavic movement. Without doubt, the Slavs were to be the leaders of a "New Europe." Since history is a progression of spent nations being replaced by young and energetic ones, Slavic Emancipation and self-determination would eventually be realized. stur's gift of prophecy and Kollar's poetic vision of one Slav nation, language, and culture as expressed in Kollar's "Daughter of Slavs" ("Slavy dcera"): "What will the Slavs be in a hundred years? What will the whole of Europe come to be? Slav life, just as a mighty flood appears, shall everywhere extend its boundary. The science shall Slav exponents see, our peoples' customs, dress and music on both the Seine and Danube modish be." His second task was to describe the Slavic mission in universal history against the background of the cultural difference between Western and Eastern Europe.60 stur could only visualize the destruction of the peasantry by a moral, political and social dissolution in the West and the culmination of a schism between religion and daily life. The West could do little to help, since it was gradually losing face because of its prodigality. �72 SLOVAKIA Western society and its institutions were not worth the effort of imitation since they were contributing to the downfall of the West. Hence the Slavs could depend only on themselves for existence. Thirdly, Shir presents a highly romantic picture of the Slavic peoples. They are endowed with extraordinary virtue. The West was held accountable for the vices of the Slavs who were presented as being by nature kind, patient, humble, and democratic. These characteristics were typical of all Slavs, but especially the Russians, who were the embodiment of all the best and noblest features of the entire Slav nation. Logically, he concluded, that since the Russians were to be the leaders of the Slavs, they had to be the cream of the Slavic element.61 His last task dealt with the problems of Slavic political unification. If the Slavs were to attain their goal, unity was an absolute necessity. There were three possibilities. The first was a Slavic confederation without Russia, which could never succeed because of internal disputes among multi-Slavic peoples. These nation were of about equal strength, hence the emergence of a leader from these nations was an impossibility. The second was the transformation of Austria into a Slavic Empire. Attempts of this nature had been made before and failed. Shir felt that Austro-Slavism should not be considered. The only alternative left was alliance with Russia. Since she was powerful enough to unite all the Slavic nations, she was the natural leader that was needed. stur was impressed by Russia's power and influence. If Slavic peoples united under Russia, their equal would be second to none in Europe. One wonders how it came that such a decisive document was left to us by stur. Yet under the circumstances with which he had to contend in the 1850's it is not surprising. His primary concern was Slavic Nationalism, and Slavic unity. His interest in Russia came only as a result of this, since he never had any prolonged contact with the Russians, neither had he ever been in Russia. 62 After more than a century's lapse of time Stu.r's big dream of a United Slavic peoples under Russia may yet �SLOVAKIA 73 become a reality, in a strange and unfortunate nature, because of recent political developments in Central and Eastern Europe. Moscow has became a political powerhouse of the Slavic world and Russian leadership has technically materialized. Stu.rs drive and his vision of Slovak cultural, political and social betterment did not prove to be a myth either. There now exists a Slovak nation with its own literature, cultural institutions and almost universal literacy. Its people are nationally conscious and they can boast of sound social stratification, which was recently unbalanced only by the presence of an unwelcome Communist regime. They are proud of their fighting spirit for national and social justice, which was passed on them with the flame of Stu.r's burning torch. There is a constant resistance among them to Communist ideology and this attitude is another legacy of Stu.r's. Over a century ago he said: "Communism not only commits _o utrageous injustices against all civil society ... but it also ruins all personal initiative, endeavor and enthusiasm ... It degrades man to a bestial level ... " 63 Although Pan-Slavism did not achieve notable results during Stu.r's time, it had an inherent value in that it revealed for the first time to the rest of Europe the Slavic mind. This is important in the light of the present role which the Slavs play in Europe. The Prague Congress, too, was the first expression of Slavic unity and identity which was separate from the Hapsburg rule. It also gave the Slavs courage and confidence. Stu.r's book, mentioned earlier in this section, has had a strong influence on Russian thinking in the 1870's and was a forerunner of some later developments. stur and his followers executed their tasks beyond human expectation, for they came upon a scene of history when the situation of the Slovaks under the Magyars in Hungary seemed truly hopeless. The significance of Eudovit stur in the evolution and revival of Slovak national life is tremendous and far. reaching. His role as a reformer of the Slovak literary language greatly contributed to Slovak national ideology. It gave his people a new vision and perspective of political �74 SLOVAKIA freedom and of a better future. By his example and writings he provided a strong impetus to Slovak life in general. stur rightfully belongs with Jan Kollar and Pavol J. safarik to the Slovaks of the nineteenth century who are regarded as great figures of the Slavic world, since Slovakia and its people are part of the Slavic world. All three found willing echo in all the Slavic peoples. As Hans Kohn states: "They were imbued in the familiar mood of the period, a general belief in historical progress, in a bright future, in the advent of some great spiritual manifestation, of a new era for mankind, which would establish for ever the basis of liberty, peace, and happiness."64 (Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in History at Marywood College.) FOOTNOTES 1) Jan V. Ormis, Bibliografia Uudovita Stura ("Stur's Bibliography") (Turc. Sv. Martin: Matica Slovenska, 1958), p. 8. 2) Jaroslav Vlcek, Mala Ruko vat' literarno-historicka (A small Hanpbook of Literary History") (Turc. Sv. Martin: Matica Slovenska, 1932). p. 195. 3) Jan V. Ormis, Bibliografia Uu,dovita Stura ("Stur's Bibliography") (Turc Sv. Martin: Matica Slovenska, 1958), p. 199. 4) Ibid., p. 199. 5) Marian Ziar, "Stur" Father of Modern Slovak Nationalism." Slovakia, March, 1956, pp. 8-9. 6) Philip A. Hrobak, "Stur and the Slovak Independence Movement," Slovakia, September-December, 1956, p. 39. 7) Karol Golan, "Sturove reci na slovanskom sjazde roku 1848," ("Stur's Lectures at the Slavic Congress of 1848,") Slovak Views, AugustSeptember, 1936, p. 422. 8) Henrich Bartek, "Our Tradition and Louis Stur," Slovakia, June, 1956, p. 7. 9) Jan Ormis, Bibliografia Uudovita Stura ("Stur's Bibliography") (Turc. Sv. Martin : Matica Slovenska, 1958) , p. 199. 10) Jaroslav Vlcek, Dejiny literatury slovenskej (History of Slovak Literature") Turciansky Sv. Martin: Matica Slovenska, 1923), p. 184. 11) St. Osusky, Filozofia Sturovcov ("Sturist Philosophy") (Myjava: Typ. Daniel Pazicky, 1926), p. 10. 12) Uudovit Bakos, Uul:iovit 5tiir (Bratislava: Vydavatel'stvo Slovenskej Akademie Vied, 1957 ), p. 34. 13 ) . Ibid., p. 50. 14) Seton-Watson, R. H., A History of the Czechs and Slovaks. (London : Archon Books, 1943), p. 260. 15) John cajak, Second Slovak History ("Bejepis Slovakov") (Pennsylvania-Pittsburgh: National News, 1914), p. 97. �SLOVAKIA 75 16) Marian .Ziar, "Stur: Father of Modern Slovak Nationalism," Slovakia, March, 1956, p. 6. 17) Henrich Bartek, " Our Tradition and Uudovit Stur," Slovakia, June 1956, p. 4. 18) Joseph Kirschbaum, UU/dovit Stur and His Place in the Slavic World (Cleveland: The Slovak Institute, 1958), p. 14. 19 ) R. H. Seton-Watson, A History of the Czechs and Slovaks (London: Arc hon Books, 1943), PP- 260-261. 20) John cajak, "Slovak History" ("Dejepis Slovakov") (Pittsburgh: National News, 1914), p. 97. 21 ) Joseph Kirschbaum, "Uudovit Stu!· and His Place in the Slavic World," Slovakia, March, 1958. 22) Francis Hrusovsky, "Point of No Return," This is Slovakia (Scranton: Obrana Press, 1954), p. 46. 23) Joseph Kirschbaum, "Uudovit Stur in His Place in the Slavic World." (Cleveland: Slovak Institute, 1958) , p. 20. 24) Ibid., pp. 20-21. 25) Ibid., p. 28. 26 ) Thomas Capek, The Slovaks of Hungary (New York: Knickerbocker Press, 1906) , pp. 22-23. 27) Joseph Skultety, Sto Dvadsat' Pat' Rokov zo Slovenskeho .Zivota. 1790-1914. ("One Hundred Twenty-five Years of Slovak History") Turc. Sv. Martin: Knih. -Ocast., 1920), p. 44. 28) Ibid., p. 46. 29 ) Ibidem., p. 46. 30) Joseph Kirschbaum. "Louis Stur Centenial" Slovakia, March, 1956. (Middletown ) p. 8. 31) Marian .Ziar, "Stur: Father of Modern Slovak Nationalism," Slovakia, March, 1956, pp. 8-9. 32) Joseph Kirschbaum , Uudovit Stur and His Place in the Slavic World," (Cleveland: The Slovak Institute, 1958), p. 23. 33) Michael B. P e trovich. The Emergence of Russian Pan-Slavism. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1956), pp. 18-19. 34) Suzanne Mikula, "Uudovit Stur a~d the Pan-Slavic Movement," Slovakia, 1966, pp. 106-107. 35) Henrich Bartek, "Our Tradition and Uudovit Stur," Slovakia, June, 1956, pp. 7-8. 36 ) Thomas Capek. The Slovaks of Hungacy (New York: Knickerbocker Press, 1906) , pp. 70-71. 37) Ibid., p. 71. 38) Seton-Watson. History of the Czechs and Slovaks (London : Archon Books, 1943) , p. 162. 39) Suzanne Mikula. "Uudovit Stur and the Pan-Slavic Movement," Slovakia, 1966, pp. 109-110. 40 ) Ibid., p. 110. 41) Ibid., p. 110. 42) Joseph Kirschbaum. Uu)dovit Mur and His Place in the Slavic World (Cleveland: Slovak Institute, 1958), pp. 8-9. 43 ) Suzanne Mikula, "Uudovit Stur and the Pan..Slavic Movement," Slovakia, 1966, pp. 110-111. �76 SLOVAKIA 44) Michael Petrovich, "l!udovit Stur and Russian Pan-Slavism," Journal of Central European Pan-Slavism, 1952, p. 6. 45) Hans Kohn, "Pan-Slavism," Encyclopedia International, XIX, 44-45. 46) Ibid., pp. 44-45. 47) ACEN statement, September 20, 1954. 48) Jan V. Ormis, Bibliografia I!udovita Stura ("Bibliography of I!udovit Stur") (Turc. Sv. Martin: Matica Slovenska, 1958), pp. 198-199. 49) Philip Hrobak, "Stur and the Slovak I'*-1ependence Movement," Slovakia (Sept., Dec., 1956), p. 38. 50) Jan Ormis. Bibliografia L'udovita Stura ("Stur's Bibliography") (Turc. Sv. Martin: Matica Slovenska, 1958), p. 199. 51) Francis Vnuk, Dr. Jozef Tiso. (Sydney: Orbis Printing Co. pty. Ltd., 1967), pp. 5-6. 52) Francis Hrusovsky, "This Is Slovakia," Slovakia, 1969, pp. 91-92. 53 ) Karol Sidor, Andrej Hlinka (Bratislava: 1934), p. 198. 54) Joseph Pauco, "Stur's Group in -the Service of the People," Slovakia, March, 1956, pp. 12-15. 55 ) Marian .Ziar, "Stur: Father of Modern Slovak Nationalism," Slovakia , March, 1956, pp. 10-11. 56) Henrich Bartek, Our Tradition and Louis Stur," Slovakia, June, 1956, pp. 3-4. 57) Suzanne Mikula, "l!udovit Stur and the Pan-Slavic Movement," Slovakia, 1966, p. 113. 58 ) Frantisek Vnuk, Dr. Jozef Tiso, (Sidney: Orbis Printing and Publishing Co., Pty Ltd., 1967), p. 43. 59) Hans Kohn, "Pan-Slavism, Its History a'*-1 Ideology," (University of Notre Dame Press, 1953), p. 21. 60 ) Suzanne Mikula, "I!uldovit Stur and the Pan-Slavic Movement,·• Slovakia, p. 111, 1966. 61) Ibid., p. 112. 62) Ibid., p. 112. 63) Joseph Kirschbaum , I!udovit Stur and His Place in the Slavic Wor~:i (Cleveland: Slovak Institute, 1958), p. 26. 64) Hans Kohn, "Pan-Slavism, Its History and Ideology," (Indiana : University of Notre Dame Press), p. 22. BIBLIOGRAPHY Books Stur, L'udovit. Listy L'udovita Stura. (Letters of I!udovit Stur.") ed. Dr. Jozef Ambrus. Bratislava: Slovenska Akademia Vied, (Slovak Academy of Sciences), 1956, pp. 64-375. Stur, I!udovit, 1864 Nauka Reci Slovenskej. ("Slovak Language Lessons from r;ui:lovit Stur.") Bratislava, 1946, pp. 1-10. Bakos, I;udovit. Cudovit Stur. ("Louis Stur.") Bratislava: Slovenska Akademia Vied, 1957, pp. 34-161. Bartek, Henrich, C. Stur a Slovencina. ("I;udovit Stur and the Slovak Language. ") Turc. Sv. Martin: Kompas, 1943, pp. 6-18. Botto, Julius. Michal M. Rodia. Turciansky Sv. Mart.in: -Ocastinarsky Spolok, 1911, pp. 11-41. l'.:ajak, Janko. Dejepis Slovakov. ("History of the Slovaks.") Pittsburgh: Tlac Narodnych Novin, 1914, pp. 97-110. �SLOVAKIA 77 tapek, Thomas. The Slovaks of Hungary. New York: Knickerbocker Press, 1906, .pp. 18-52. Chrobak, Dobroslav. Rukoviit'. ("Handbook.") Prague: L. Mazac, 1932, pp. 25-37. Czambel, Samo. Slovaci a Ich Rec. ("The Slovaks and Their Language.") Budapest: C. A. Kr. Dvornej Knihtlac Victoria Horney Anskeho, 1903, pp. 25-42. Golan, Karol. Revolucne Pokolenie 1848-1849. ("The Revolutionary Generation 1848-1849.") Myjava: Daniel Pazisko, 1926, pp. 91-94. Hqdal, Juraj. Jan Holly. Trnava: Spolok sv. Vojtecha, 1923, pp. 91-94. Hrobak, .Philip. Czechoslovakia. Middletown: Jednota Press, 1958, .p. 17. Hrusovsky, Francis. This Is Slovakia. Scranton: Obrana Press, 1954, pp. 42-47. Hurban, Jozef M. r.udovit Stur. Turc. Sv. Martin: Matica Slovenska, 1928, pp. 7-216. Kacka, Jozef. Dejiny Slovenskej Literatury. ("History of Slovak Literature.") Ruzomberok: Lev, 1928, pp. 36-39. Kalal, Karol. Dejiny Slovenska ("History of Slov,alda.") Turc. Svaty Martin: Matica Slovenska, 1916, .pp. 89-105. Kirschbaum, Joseph. Nas Boj o Samostatnost' Slovenska. ("Our Struggle for Slovak Independence.") Cleveland: Slovak Institute, 1968, pp. 292-324. Kohn, Hans. Hapsburg Empire 1804-1918. An Anvil Original. Princeton: K. Vian Nostrand Company, 1961, pp. 65-95. Medvecky, Karol A. Slovensky Prevrat. ("The Slovak Revolution.") I-IV: 4 vols. Trnava: Spolok sv. Vojtecha, 1930-1931. Mraz, Andrej. Jozef Skultety. Turc. Sv. Martin: Matica Slovenska, 1933, p. 7. Novak, Uuldovit. Jazykovedne Glosy k Ceskoslovenskej Otazke. ("Linguistic Sounds of the Czecho-Slovak Question.") Turc. Sv. Martin: Matica Slovenska, 1935, p. 233. Oddo, Gilbert. Slovakia and Its People. New York: Robert Spelle,r and Sons, 1960, pp. 108-204. Ormis, Jan. Bibliografia E,udovita Stura. ("L'udovit Stur and His Bibliography.") Turc. Sv. Martin: Matica Slovenska, 1958, pp. 3-201. Pauco, Jozef. r.udovychova u Sturovcov. ("Popular Education among the Sturists.") Turc. Sv. Martin: Matica Slovenska, 1943, pp. 5-11. Pauliny, Heinrich. Dejiny Spisovnej Slovenciny. ("History of Literary Slovak.") Bratislava: Slovenska Akademia, 1948, p. 393. Petrovich, Michael B. The Emergence of Russia Pan-Slavism 1856-1870. New York: Columbia University Press, 1956, p. 18. Porubsky, Jan. K Ste-mu Vyrociu Literarnej Slovenciny 1856-1944. ("The One Hundredth Year of Literary Slovak." ) Scranton: Obrana Press, 1944, pp. 154-166. Ruppelt, Fedor. Koncentracne Snahy Slovenske. ("Concentrated Slovak Endeavors.") Turc. Sv. Martin: Knihtlaciarsky a Ucastinarsky Spolok, 1928, pp. 64-71. Skultety, Jozef. Sketches from Slovak History. Middletown: Jednota Press, 1930, pp. 183-186. Sto Dvadsat' Pat' Rokov zo Slovenskeho tivota 1790-1914. ("One �78 SLOVAKIA Hundred Twenty-five Years of Slovak History." ) Turc. Sv. Martin: Knihtlaciarsky -Ocast. Spolok, 1920, pp. 31-65. Vlcek, Jaroslav. Dejiny Literatury Slovenskej. ("History of Slovak Literature." ) Turc. Sv. Martin: Matica Slovenska, 1932, pp. 194-204. Mala Rukoviit' Literarno-Historicka. ("A Small Handbook of Literary History.") Turc. Sv. Martin: Matica Slovenska, 1932, pp. 194-204. Wagner, J;udovit. Slovensky Plutarch. (" Slovak Plutarch.") Nove Mesto naid Vahom: Jan Trnovsky, 1920, pp. 27-30. Address-Published Kirschbaum , Joseph M. 13udovit Stur and His Place in the Slavic World. An Address to the Annual Meeting of the Canadian Association of Slavists on June 9, 1957, at the University of Ottawa, Canada. Periodicals Bartek, Henrich. " Our Tradition and J;udovit Stur." Slovakia, June, 1956, pp. 3-10. Bue, Bonaventure. " Conflicts of Slovak Nationalism. " Slovakia, June , 1958, pp. 1-17. Hrobak, Philip. "Stur and the Slovak Independence Movement." Slova• kia, September-December, 1956, pp. 34-39. Kir schbaum, Joseph. "Independence and the Slovak Past." Slovakia, March, 1957, pp. 44-53 . "Louis Stur Centennial." Slovakia, March, 1956, pp. 3-6. 'Misconceptions of American Slavists." Slovakia, March-June, 1962, pp. 25-43 . "The Slovak Language and Its Place Among the Slavic Languages." ' Slovakia, 1966, pp. 1-17. Mikula, Suzanne. "!;udovit Stur and the Pan-Slavic Movement." Slovakia, 1966, pp. 104-115. Pauco, Joseph. "Stu.r's Group in the Service of the People." Slovakia, March, 1956, pp. 11-15. Rekem, John. "The Origin and Development of the Slovak Language ." Slovakia, March-April, 1962, pp. 1-13. 2iar, Marian. "Stur: Father of Mqdern Slovak Nationalism." Slovakia, March, 1956, pp. 6-11. Banik, Anthony A. "Posledni Zastancovia Spi:sovnej Cestiny." (The Last Supporters of the Literary Czech Language.") Sbornik LiterarnoV edeckeho Odboru SSV., 1935, pp. 18-35. Horak, Juraj . "Sturova Kniha o Narqdnych Piesnach a Povestiach Plemien Slovanskych." ('Stu.r's Book on Naitional Hymns and Slavic Popular Tales.") Sbornik Matice Slovenskej, January-February, 1923, pp. 97-128. Vlcek, Jaroslav. "Povodina Sturovho Spisu o Narodnych Povestiach Slovanskych." ("Stu.r's Original Writings on Slavic National Tales.") Sbornik Matice Slovenskej, pp. 58-63. Unpublished Material McCoy, Sheila Marie, Sister. 'The School of Stur," (Unpublished Thesis) Cabrini College, 1965. � 20 SLOVAKIA Political Views of 11udovit St(u Sister M. Delphina Opet, SS. C. M. INTRODUCTION Since this study will concern itself with :Cudovit $tur, the inspiration of modern national Slovak ideology, it may be beneficial first of all to review the life story of the man and then to consider his work and influence. Though his life was all too short, stur was a key figure in the Slovak national movement of the second third of the nineteenth century. He was heir to the cultural, political and social endeavors of his predecessors, and he developed his natural gifts to attain the strength, courage and vision, which it took to launch movements toward realizing a vital national organization on behalf of his people. Without these natural and acquired gifts, stur could hardly have been effective in his work toward attaining independence in Slovak national life and the pursuit of culture. His greatest merits lie in the fact that he assumed the historical challenge to unite the fragmented multicultural powers of the Slovaks into a liberation front against Hungarian oppressors. His contemporaries attributed to stur an almost legendary but realistic aura even during his lifetime. It was said of him that he had a magnetic personality, that his very presence bespoke patriotism and a vibrant national spirit. Worthy of specific mention is at least one evaluation by William Pauliny-T6th: "He is an extraordinary figure-a manifestation, as it were, of a leader charged to create a new epoch in the history of the Slovak nation." His young collaborator, Jozef M. Hurban, devoted to stur a commemorative and comprehensive monograph which was published in the first issue of the revitalized "Slovenske pohl'ady" (Slovak Views) . In his history of Slovak literature published in 1890, the literary critic and historian Jaroslav Vlcek rated stur as the central figure of the Romantic generations, even though he did not see �SLOVAKIA 21 in stur's poetry the merit which it rightly deserves. Criticism of stur was not wanting, but it did not detract from stur's merits or stature at all.1 This fiery patriot was born in Zay-Uhrovec, on the twentyninth of October, 1815. He was one of five children. His father was an elementary school teacher and a rigid disciplinarian both at school and at home. His mother's was a gentle and loving nature. The stur family home breathed a peaceful atmosphere graced with poetry. The natural surroundings of his boyhood, with their profusion of beauty and natural grandeur influenced stur's outlook on life. It was very likely here and because of his environment that his aesthetic taste developed to a remarkable degree. Leopold Petz, a Lutheran pastor, was his first teacher in the gymnasium at Rab. He kindled the glow of national consciousness and patriotism in stur's unfolding mind and animated his spirit with keen appreciation for the richness of his mother tongue. He also made him aware of the rightful place of the Slovaks in the Slavic world and of the potential concentrated within the new generation. After two years at Rab, stur continued his studies at the Lutheran Lyceum in Bratislava.2 Here stur and a memorable group of similarly ardent young men with him (Hurban, Hodza, Francisci, Sladkovic, Chalupka, et. al.) , were schooled under the powerful influence of seasoned literary personalities who were still devoted to fostering at least some forms of Czecho-Slovak orientation. It was around the chair of Czecho-Slovak language arts held by Juraj Palkovic that the Czecho-Slovak Society, later known as the Institute of Language and Literature, was formed. 3 stur was undeniably a talented leader who devoted himself first of all to lecturing on Slovak grammar, literature and history. He devoted much time and thought to Slovak national poetry, especially to works dealing with the themes of Great Moravia, Svatopluk, and the Slavic Apostles, Saints Cyril and Methodius. To the eager young members of the Czecho-Slovak Society, he spoke of Slavism, of the hardships and injustices heroically endured by Slav peoples over long centuries, and of the great responsibility �22 SLOVAKIA committed to the younger generation. He pointed out to them some possible means toward a better future and fanned their hopes for the building of a glorious large Slavic family. He made every effort to destroy all roots of doubt, pessimism, and prejudice, those divisive forces that plagued Slavic families of nations and fragmented their efforts toward unity. His aims for establishing a standard language for Slovak literary expression were not purely liiterary. Since Slovak national life was closely connected with literary expression, it bore a vigorous sense of purpose. Stu.r's prime objective was to unite the Slovak people culturally, politically and socially. A universally adopted standard language would greatly advance this couse. Granted, he suffered many reversals, but a wakened spirit cannot be stilled. As authorities intervened to support his Slavic group meetings at the Lyceum, new literary group in other places formed in their stead. The strain of the struggle to resist oppression in student centers left stur physically exhausted; spiritually, however, he remained strong and vigorous and indomitable. In 1838 stur left his center of Slovak literary activity in Bratislava and went to Halle, Germany. His courses of study at Halle strongly affected his theoretical foundations adding depth and fuller meaning to all his later activities. He learned to favor much in Hegelian thought, the theories advocated by a German idealist philosophy. This experience created a mental revolution in Stu.r's objectives and philosophy. It was, first of all a dialectical style of thinking which brought to naught all concept of a final validity in the results of human thinking and activity. This doctrine maintains that all is involved in a process of development, all is being perpetually transformed and changed, proceeding from a lower to a higher stage. It also maintains that human history is a steady process of development of this kind, as stur put it, an "uninterrupted chain."4 stur was not simply an unquestioning disciple of Hegelian philosophy, as is often said of him. Together with several other thinkers of his generation, he formed an independent philosophical school which exerted farreaching influence and excelled in originality of thought. �SLOVAKIA 23 stur's excellent book, "sturova filozofia zivota" ("stur's Philosophy of life"), embodies his philosophical conceptions. Though his propositions in general are original, stur's underlying ideas were greatly influenced by Hegel. He was motivated by the idea that national unity is strongly furthered by means of common language which gives rise to mutual understanding. After his return from Germany, stur set out in 1843 to establish a distinctive literary Slovak language which he boldly promoted. Its basis was the central Slovak dialect which he considered the last contaminated by neighboring or foreign influence. He realized also the need for a common political effort; Kollar's reciprocity was not enough. He spared no pains to achieve a social and national awakening of the Slovak people. In a sense, stur completed the work that Bernolak, the first codifier of literary Slovak, had begun in 1787. On his return from Germany stur became an assistant professor in the Pressburg (Bratislava) Lyceum. As he lectured in the department of history, students flocked to him with undivided attention, for this dynamic young professor had a wealth of attainable ideals to offer. But chauvinistic authorities viewed this influence with anxiety. In 1844, stur lost his post as Deputy Professor because the Magyar government began to tighten its political controls on Slovakia and found stur's flaming Slovak ardor a threat to its interests. When he was dismissed, many students left the Pressburg Lyceum in protest and continued their studies elsewhere. The Bratislava incident did not intimidate stur; as a matter of fact, it only stimulated him to press on. He kept in close touch with his patriotic adherents. Because the ground was fertile and properly prepared for a national change, stur was able to do the apparently impossible. He strongly voiced the long repressed aspirations and justified rights of the Slovaks, he formulated the demands of his people. 13udovit stur's publications of an article titled "Zaloby a ponosy Slovakov v Uhorsku" ("The Charges and Complaints of the Slovaks in Hungary") which appeared in Leipzig in 1843 which exposed the chief inspector of the �24 SLOVAKIA Lutheran Church and schools because of his measure to magyarize Slovaks for political gain became a sensation. The Slovaks had been resisting magyarization quietly but effectively; now, however, they were determined to secure an independent political status within the framework of the Hapsburg Empire. All petitions and demands presented in Vienna and in the Hungarian Diet in Bratislava were prompted by the following statement by stur: "We seek no rights established on favor, but we demand our rights on the basis of inherent right." These words became the underlying proposition on which were based all the subsequent petitions and demands of the Slovak leaders for equal rights. Stu.r's debates and controversies with Kossuth, the Slovak renegade, stemmed from this moral and democratic principle. He demanded "peace based on just rights and mutual understanding" declaring: "In the paper, Pesti Hirlap, Kossuth is fighting for equality of rights, but in the Diet he advocates orders to investigate and punish those who define and seek their rights ... That is Kossuth's concept of freedom and liberalism."5 stur continues to express his thoughts in writing. In 1844, after three years of waiting, he was granted permission to publish the periodical "Slovenske narodne noviny" ("The Slovak National News") through which he was resolved to defend the rights of the Slovak people. The supplement of the periodical was "Orol tatransky" ("The Tatra Eagle"). Both were widely supported and endorsed by all classes of people, for the Slovak public rejoiced in the realization that this publication was in itself a great step forward in their struggle. stur, too, was gratified. His program for action toward achieving ultimate freedom was a realistic one. He gave credit where it was due yet he did not hesitate to denounce the shortcomings of his people. His editorials defended not only the purity of the Slovak language, but also the recognition of the inherent rights of the Slovak nation-rights that affected all their levels of national freedom: political, literary, social, economic, etc. His exhortations are as timely today as they were in 1845: "Let us not yield, Slovak countrymen. Higher is the cause of the entire nation, higher is the cause of the �SLOVAKIA 25 whole than of the individual person, and even the individual harm us, the cause itself does not do so. But with us thus far, it has been so that individuals offended by our people, immediately abandoned the cause itself ... "6 stur's periodicals served their purpose effectively for three years, uniting the people, teaching and enlightening them and encouraging them during one of the most crucial periods of their history. This was almost too good to be true. When the Magyars began to realize what these publications were doing for the Slovak people, fanning the flames of Slovak patriotism to the detriment of Magyar hegemony, they raised an alarm and put in action measures to have them confiscated or proscribed. Despite this suppression, however, much of stur's purpose was already achieved. The Slovak people were nationally awakened. They were conscious of a cause and of an obligation to defend it. Most of this new stirring never would have been realized without stur's activities and publications. The codification of a literary language, which was perfected and universally adopted, concretized the efforts and fond aspir,a tions and hopes nurtured by Slovak literary leaders in bygone generations. I'..udovit stur knew that the times were ripe for the Slovak people to appear on the national scene of history as an independent political entity. No language, except their own Slovak language could move the people to political affectiveness. For this reason, stur chose to advocate the central-Slovak dialect as a political and literary instrument. stur was a deputy from Zvolen at the Presporok (Pressburg - Bratislava) Assembly in 1847-1848. In official sessions he spoke out honestly and courageously about the injustice of disregarding the protest of the subjugated peoples against enforced Magyarization. He also felt dutybound to advocate the equality of all people and sought the liberation of subjugated nations at the Hungarian Diet. The firm stand which stur took became a turning point in Slovak-Hungarian history. At the Slav Congress in Prague in 1848, stur and safarik defined the political aspirations of the Congress. safarik's view was prophetic, while stur made clear the �26 SLOVAKIA political program of the immediate present: "Our aim should be to preserve ourselves. First of all, we must serve the best interests of our own people and secondarily of others. Thus far Austria has flourished, but we have been declining and perishing. What would be the judgment of the world if we were to s tand for nothing but the preservation of Austria? Let us proclaim that we desire to stand as independent Slovanic communities within the government of Austria."7 stur was far ahead of his day, in visualizing a program to federalize Central Europe. According to Bartek, s tur was not a rebel. As long as there was evidence of national agreement with the Magyars, he was not for the destruction of the Hungarian State. He did warn the Magyar ruling class that it could not forever ignore and suppress the inherent rights of subject nationalities and exploit the Slavs of Hungary without expecting them to strike back with righteous demands for a free national life, for the very rights which the Magyars had resolved to defend for themselves in the Hapsburg Empire. 8 When all these representatio ns and demands continued to be ignored, only then did stur and his group decide to lead the Slovaks to revolt against the Magyar intolerance in 1848. The Slovaks were fully aware of Kossuth's ultimatum declaring that whatever rights they claimed to have in the kingdom they would have to secure with sword in hand. There was no alternative now except to resort to arms. The torch of national consciousnes s carried by s tur and his group became a beacon light in Slovakia's struggle for freedom. Though revolt was crushed and betrayed by Vienna, it stands as a milestone in Slovak history. The tragic reversal of the revolutionary attempt did not affect the leadership or the stature of ~udovit stur in the estimation of others. The Hungarian revolution paid dearly for its national intolerance. It too suffered in a common defeat. Kossuth was forced into exile. stur and his group were under constant police surveillance, and many were their thrilling escapes from police snares and power. A tragic death during a hunting event in January 1856 �SLOVAKIA 27 brought stur's life to an untimely end. He died according to his own predictions in which he had foreseen an analogy of his death in the death of Julius Caesar. Some Slavs considered him a setting star but actually he is a brilliant morning star marking a better day in the history of the Slavic world. We return to stur to evaluate his work in the light of today's standards when, after the passing of a hundred years, the Slovaks are building on this foundation laid by stur and his school of thought, the promise of hope fulfilled-if only a new power from the East did not frustrate the effort. Just as stur repudiated and condemned the hegemony of the Magyars, so the Slovaks today rebel against Communist domination and occupation. 13udovit stur's spirit lives on even though an Iron Curtain creates physical bariers to liberty. GERMAN PHILOSOPHICAL INFLUENCE ON STVR Among stur's earliest academic interests were the areas of linguistics, philosophy, history and literature. To pursue these in depth and to broaden his education, he decided to study at Halle University in Germany. It was in 1838 that he came to Halle as a twenty-three year old student-a gifted energetic man of large vision and great moral strength. He had been held in high repute at home and exerted notable influence among his peers. At Halle, he was an utter stranger in a big unknown world, and the weight of the strangeness that closed in upon him was of more than mere physical and social order. University life in Germany was at this time strongly influenced by the spirit and theories of Hegel. German thought and academic preoccupation bore upon the topic of races. Yet this was in a day when the concept of race, as such, was not even properly formulated. The Germans tended to construct entire systems of philosophy and humanistic theory centered on the concept of race at a period when formal anthropology was just emerging. Fundamental misconceptions of race overtook not only historical scholars but also philosophers of history like Hegel. His philosophical system meant on the one hand, equating the Prussian state with the prime law of men �28 SLOVAKIA and, on the other, constituting materialism as the ideal of men and of nations. Exposed to this stress of innovation which was spread throughout scholarly circles by a ready press and which was further generally publicized by novelists and writers of all sorts, stur did not escape acquaintance with these false principles and this false philosophy of life was what contaminated all Central Europe. Fresh from the schools of Bratislava, he was not yet adequately prepared to discern authentic philosophic truth from political propaganda; nevertheless, he instinctively sensed the need to withhold complete acquiescence with Hegel. He tried to come to terms with much of Hegel but by the very fact that stur placed the moral and spiritual values of men as top priorities he put himself at odds with some Hegelian principles. stur's courses of study at Halle deepened his perspectives even as life in Germany provided him with countless new impressions-views of life and the world, concepts and ideas in general. From the German idealistic philosophy, even as from Hegel, its chief representative, stur adopted some new theories which resulted in a mental revolution. First among these was the aspect of dialectical thinking which brought to naught his previous conceptions of a final validity of the results of human thinking and activity. This doctrine maintains that all is in process of development. All is being transformed and changed and proceeds from a lower to a higher stage. It affirms that human history is a process by which the Absolute Spirit unfolds, a "chain uninterrupted" in stur's words. 9 Hegel conceives of history as a process involving dialectical oppositions revaluating into a higher content of historical being. Freedom as an essential of history becomes an absolute necessity. Hegel's philosophy of history strongly took hold of stur's mind at this point. The world seemed to be created for jjudovit stur. He reveled in the thought of its systematic, architectural classification, its universality embracing all the dreams of the human spirit, its justice toward nations, all its sources of learning, its versatile penetration of all doctrine--all this bore upon him so overwhelming flood. 10 �SLOVAKIA 29 The wealth of views offered by Hegel's philosophy opened up an idealistic world of envisioned by spiritual concept of nations and not construed from previous assumptions. It provided a new vista into the domains of the rights of nations among which there existed the future tribunal of Slavic nations, too, and led stur to the realms of Christian idealism. stur's spirit was reanimated. The receptive soil of his mind was enriched with fertility for the germination of his own conceived seed. The Germanic world's new concept of views regarding world history in politics, religion and sociology at this time impressed and inspired stur more strongly than it had heretofore affected any other candidate from Slovak academies. When stur returned to his native land, he returned as a Slav, but foremost as a Slovak returned into the ranks of his confused and puzzled friends and countrymen. He brought radical concepts to the rational school and to liberal life. These concepts characteristically dealt mainly with the Slovak past, present and future, for he brought from Germany a wide and rich source of philosophical and economic knowledge as well as a firm determination to devote his life to the task of national development. stur translated Hegel's philosophy into Slovak only insofar as he accepted his concepts, for stur was a realist in his approaches to the phenomena of life. 11 In his studies at Halle, Germany, stur was also spiritually revived. He left the university imbued with strong tendencies for the policies of Kollar and safarik. He was, however, an ardent Slovak by conviction rather than by accident of birth as was their lot. He was an ardent, tireless worker. The versatility of his talents and the needs of his country brought him to the fore successively as an orator, a writer, a journalist, a politician and a soldier. Both his friends and enemies proclaimed him the most remarkable champion of Slovak rights since the days of Matthew Oak. r.udovit stur is sometimes accused of blindly accepting Hegel's philosophy and applying it to Slovak and Slavic life indiscriminately. It must be remembered, however, that political and national controversy existing at that time made it difficult, if not impossible to evaluate Slovak �30 SLOVAKIA philosophy correctly. Granted that stur manifests a dependance on Hegel and contemporary German philosophers, still to present him in this light alone--as his opponents have done--seems to be a distortion. According to cyzevski, a former professor of Halle, stur and his followers were significant for philosophic thought in general. He goes on to say that stur's generation included several thinkers who tried to create their own philosophical system, and who in these times, excelled among all Slovanic nations in originality of thinking in philosophy. cyzevski elucidated his point in the scholarly book Stur's Philosophy of Life in which he clearly points out that stur was not a simple student and advocate of Hegel's philosophy, but that he formed his own independent philosophical system, one which in many ways differed from Hegel's. cyzevski refutes the charge that: 1. stur was a simple student of Hegel's; 2. that his philosophical views were those of contemporary romantic philosophy. stur differed from Hegel in his approach to life's phenomena which he found realistic. Prior to his studies at Halle, stur had cultivated genuine national convictions which were anchored upon Herder's humanistic thought together with messianic dreams that were to glorify the future of the Slavs. These convictions enabled him to take a critical stand in regard to some of Hegel's ideals though he held Hegel in high esteem. On the other hand, Hegel's dynamic view of history matched stur's ideas and provided a justification of his thoughts concerning the Slavic world, especially his views of the historical development of the world history of nations comprising the Slavic world. Because of the influences of the Kollar-Herder conceptions of the historical mission of the Slavs, stur did not fully agree with Hegel in his concept of the absolute States of Germany and Prussia, for in these Hegel saw the completion of historical development. From the viewpoint of theology stur here saw in Hegel's philosophy definite dangers of pantheism. An authentic view of stur's attitude toward Hegel's philosophy is best provided from a personal letter which he wrote to Samo Bohdan Hrobon. In it he quotes from Hrobo:n's poem, in which he sees or perceives from a religious viewpoint, the shortcoming of Hegel's philosophy: �SLOVAKIA 31 Povez mi pisani! kde hledat spaseni? Na svete marnem, cili v pravde vecne? Cili v kouzelne prajine zpomneni? Cili v krase, lasce nekonecne ... ? Ach kam jsi zmisel svete me mladosti? Kam se rozplynul Buh otec milosti? Nenit ho vice! Usychejte kvety! Dechnite duse! do propasti svety! Nebot jiz umrel ten zakon vecnosti, Ze vlas sa nehne bez povedomosti. Tell me, 0 Poet, where to seek salvation? In the temporal world or in eternal truth? In the respective countries' pulpits? In beauty, in undying charity ... ? 0 where has disappeared the world of my youth? Where has vanished God the Father of Mercy? He is no longer? 0 wither away, ye flowers! Die, ye souls! until the world's end! Fear not for eternal laws have decreed That not a hair shall move without His knewing. 12 Hrobofl's next poem is encouraging and indicates that the religious home training and strength of Slavic convictions are more forceful than Hegel's philosophical doctrines: Zijet duse ma a zit bude vecne jit zadna bure, zaden boj nezlomi prave ponad ni s tisicmi hromy Jako stin lahky v uzase preleti mec obosecny Hegelove vedy. Duse ma citem plamennym roztopi Mee ten, do prichu padne zahanbeny. Mee ten v nicote jak stin se rozplyne Pred bleskom vecnym bozskeho nadseni! Antheus slaviansky Herkula porazi! My soul lives and will live forever Neither revolutions nor war shall ever break its spirit Directly above myriads of thunderbolts it soars, �32 SLOVAKI A Like a thin wall will crumble in confusio n The two-edge d sword of Hegel's doctrine. My soul senses a burning flame within it Melting away that sword that must fall in dust and shame As a wall crumblin g in disgrace, Before the divine lightning of eternal elan With which the Slavic Antheus Will destroy a vaunting Hercules . Both poems bear heavily the weight of tension and conflict which the sturists experienc ed because of their selective ness in analyzing and sponsori ng aspects of Hegel's philosoph y. In the first poem, stur expressly discourag es the publicizi ng of the new philosop hy for fear that the time is not right and many may be complete ly misled by Hegel. He advocate d that his followers benefit by the worthy gifts of the great mind of Hegel and accept his philosoph y only with due reservati ons; that they revamp it to meet the need of the Slavs. stur emphasiz ed the inevitabl e depth of philosoph ical studies to which Slavic youth would have to devote itself. Moreove r, he took a critical stand and used the German philosop hic system modified accordin g to his views regarding Slavdom and moral principle . Hegel's philosoph ical view became an impetus to stur in his compilat ion and formulat ion of lectures on Slavic history and poetry .13 In 1840 stur returned from Halle to Bratislav a where he was assigned to the chair of Slovak Studies in Language and Literatur e, succeedin g Palkovic in this post. Adequate ly to understa nd the nature of this assignme nt, it is importan t to realize the kind of world in which he was to teach. To say that it was riddled with rank feudalism is all too simple a generaliz ation. Far truer it is to realize that stur came to a land where the Slovaks were held in abyssmal serfdom, in an invincibl e vise of economic , moral, intellectual, spiritual and national bondage. It was the kind of situation in which misery bred misery, usually in such forms as alienatio n, alcoholis m, desperati on, extreme dehumaniz ation of the individua l and loss of personal dignity. �SLOVAKIA 33 - -- - - - - -- -- - - - - -- - - - - - - - Unmitigated serfdom was reducing the Slovak into stultified begger stricken with hunger and penury. Denied schooling and spiritual enlightenmen t he was all too readily becoming a prey to superstitious folly and to grossness. The three-fourths who lorded it over the onefourth that was condemned to pay all the land truces ever collected in the region saw to it that their victims had no outlook at all for better things to come-either economically or intellectually or in anyway whatever. The Slovak element enjoyed no public community life as such and even though some attempts had been made to root cultural interests and to rouse the people to national life (such as the organizations at Trnava, Bratislava, Banska Bystrica and Budapest), they were doomed to short-term existence for lack of material support. As a result, Slovak life became necessarily circumscribed to the primitive pattern of the familial unit highlighted with such events as christenings, weddings and funerals. Though the Slovak labored unstintingly, he was not given the joy of benefiting by the fruits of his soil. When stur surveyed this situation on his return from Germany, he was forced to recognize this herd of subjugated beggars as his own people committed to mere animal existence, and all his nobility of soul rose in revolt at such inhumanity of man to man. But an emotional responses alone was no solution to the problem. He set himself to explore underlying causes, mainly the attitudes of the people themselves, their thinking, their social structures, their training and development, their milieu from small dimensional areas to the broad perspectives of the Austro-Hung arian domain. Aware of the need for incentives for self-improvem ent, and realizing that the most effective incentive of all is man's conviction that he is a being of value and dignity, his own consciousnes s of self, stur readily understood what his main teaching role would be to raise a new generation for Slovakia. He devoted himself completely to the enlightenmen t of his people and never in the least deviated from this objective. Under his aegis there was a vital burgeoning of new life among Slovaks of the younger element. He led the �34 SLOVAKIA young to new founts of elemental truth and saving virtue. His personality readily put him into the forefront as an inspired leader as his peers at Bratislava extolled him for his idealistic elan as well as his admirable self-discipline, his moral charm and his firmness directed first of all toward himself and secondly toward others. Impressed by the spirit of stur, Joseph Hurbl!Il who was a close collaborator wrote at this time: "We must challenge youth to difficult moral endeavors and teach the young to be concerned about the future. We must offer them stur as their paragon." Influences of the Industrial Revolution as well as effects of the national revolutions in France and in the United States were not lost upon young men and women of the day. Innovations were rampant on the air-romanticism, humanism, realism, revolution, criticism, democracy, Pan-Slavic romanticism, and a steady stream of trends and thoughts swept in upon maturing minds. stur observed it all and amid all of it mourned the divisive tendencies that tended to break the nation into two camps: the Catholics and the Lutherans and only bred new disadvantage. With clear vision he wrote in his book N drecie ("Dialect"): "There must be an end to this kind of partisanship; we must effect brotherly unity." Also "Our entire Slovak family will be united in a common speech and after centuries of fragmentation and coldness the members of one family will recognize each other and greet each other and embrace." The work of stur, however, soon evoked harsh Magyar resistance and this alerted him to the reality that it was not possible to wait for the younger generation to carry on toward brighter ideals; the need was immediate; the solution had to be effected now. His efforts for political support were fruitless. Every country from which he could have expected help was interested in pursuing its own advantage rather than in relieving the plight of another. His last resort was to exploit-in the best sense of the word-the very language of his people. By establishing a standarized form of written expression he sought to bring about one unifying element for all the nation, one bond to give to all the Slovaks �SLOVAKIA 35 a sense of one-ness, and through this medium to reach into the broader spectrum of unified national consciousness and national thought. He was convinced that given one common treasure to cherish and defend, they would be ever ready to defend it, and in this very effort, they would preserve their national being; without such a common objective they could readily lose even their national identity. Their common language would be their talisman. To implement this idea stur collaborated with Joseph Hurban and Michael Hodza as early as 1843. All three were agreed that the dialect of the central regions would lend itself best as the basis for a standard Slovak literary medium. Bernolak's earlier (1787) experiments with a literary standard on the basis of western dialects had been effective to degree but not wholly successful. Perhaps this was due to the fact that Bernolak's ideas and efforts were in advance of his times. Perhaps it was because the western dialects were not the happiest choice he could have made for a common medium. Perhaps it was due also to the fact that traditionally the Catholic segment of Slovak people was ardent in promoting the Slovak cause while at the same time the Evangelical Slovaks promoted the Czech language and culture inasmuch a.s Czech had been adopted as the official liturgical language of the Lutheran Church. Nevertheless, Palkovic in 1831-32 translated and published the entire bible into Bernolak's new medium, and the renowned poet Jan Holly (1785-1849) wrote all his masterly works in the newly codified Slovak literary standard. It is understandable then, that Stu.r's innovative effort was not readily endorsed even by his own Evangelical critics. In 1840 an open assault on the Slovaks was made at the General Assembly of the Lutheran Church. Count Charles Zay, their Inspector-General and some leading laymen proclaimed racial apostasy as a duty which the Slovak Lutherans owed to their fatherland and their religion. They maintained that since "the Magyar language is the truest guardian and protector of the liberty of our country, of Europe, and the Protestant cause, it follows that Magyarization is the duty of every eager champion of freedom and intelligence." There followed a series of �36 SLOVAKIA attempts to ostracize the Slovak language from Lutheran Synods and presbyteries. Kossuth who was one of the elders of the Church and a Slovak renegade spoke publicly in favor of the abolition of all existing Slav societies in Lutheran schools. One such society at Levoca had already been suppressed, "as a breeding ground for Pan-Slavism," its library was closed and its president, ~udovit stur, was deprived of his post at the gymnasium.14 Magyarized Slovak overlords, noblemen and landlords untiringly sought to Magyarize the Slovaks, even imposing punishment on those who refused to be enticed into the Magyarized camp. Archbishop Patatic from Kolac, gave each of the subjects twelve sticks to beat up anyone who dared to speak in Slovak. It was publicly proclaimed that the Slovaks and their language must be exterminated.15 Convinced as s tur was, however, of the greater objectives to be attained, he pressed forward with his new venture. Youth groups espoused the cause very readily and this support augured well for the future. In 1844 Hurban's second volume of the annual Nitra appeared in the new literary standard and in the same year Hodza established the society Tatrin which officially recognized the new literary standard and at once put it to use in the publication of educational books, monographs and instructional pamphlets for the general public. Within two more years there appeared stur's political journal (three times a week ) Slovenske Ndrodne Noviny with its literary supplement Orol Tatransky. All these projects notably strengthened the newly devised Slovak literary form of expression and assured its permanent adoption. sT-0-R'S SEARCH FOR A SLOVAK LITERARY MEDIUM Its Effectiveness in Unifying Slovakia Slovak life was now assuredly given expression through the Slovak language. stur maintained that it could not be otherwise and the years have borne witness to his judgment. The task was demanding but largely because the ground for the identity of the new generation was properly prepared. stur not only understand existing conditions in Slovakia, he formulated, what the nation �SLOVAKIA a7 felt, what the nation needed. He gave expression to the righteous desires and demands of his Slovak nation and became its model of an inspired leader devoted to spiritual and public activity. 16 sttir's call for further action was answered by Sladkovic, Chalupka, Botto, Hurban and countless others who felt that the proper course had been taken in establishing their literary language. Even the Lutherans finally accepted the Central Slovak dialect as a form of Slovak expression touched by foreign influence of one kind or another. On this matter the Slovaks had been merely sorely split in the past but now there promised to be a common unity to face the momentous events which were to follow. The work initiated by Bernolak was completed by sttir. Even John Holly, the greatest Slovak poet and ideologist of his nation gave sttir his blessing in this venture. sttir and his collaborators found the Slovak language and literature an invaluable instrument for advancing all their endeavors especially in rousing the nation to selfconsciousness. They studied its historic past and revealed it to the people who knew little or nothing about their historic origins and so had little impulse for experiencing pride of nation. They wanted to lift up the people from poverty and abandonment, so they enlightened and trained the general public.17 sttir can rightly be called the reformer of literary Slovak. Under his dynamic leadership the Slovaks literally re-emerged from obscurity and oblivion. They asserted themselves not only culturally but also politically because they became qualified and fired to forthcoming uprisings and events that had trans-European reverberations. A new era unfolded in Slovak cultural and national life when sttir adopted aesthetic and philosophical principles in his literary school. At this point romanticism and nationalism were pactically identical. sttir's cultural activities were timely in Western and Central Europe where national consciousness, popular art, and folklore were the order of the day. In this climate sttir successfully organized his literary school and cultural activities, which marked a new era in �38 SLOVAKIA Slovak national life. The members of this school "imposed the most exacting task on themselves in order to elevate the Slovak people to the same cultural level as the rest of Europe, to release their creative energies and to enable a new national culture to arise from the existing popular art and language. 18 sttir and his school were imbued with objectives directed towards specific social goals. Hence the literature which they created echoed not only a melancholy restlessness and romantic involvement but also the call for a better world. In 1842 a petition signed by two hundred Slovaks led by their clergymen was submitted to the Emperor in Vienna. The only outcome of this effort was that is provoked Kossuth to charge Superintendent Jozeffy and his colleague Hodza with betraying the Magyar cause and the Protestant religion. Both men were publically embarrassed and howled down. By contrast, two voices were raised in defense of the Slovaks, those of Count John Mailath, Catholic historian of Hungary, and Count Stephen Szechenyi who stated in a public address to the Academy that he hardly knew a Magyar who "is not transformed into a madman and even more or less deaf to the laws of fairness and justice, whenever the question of our nationality and language is raised." He begged his compatriots to "do as you would be done by." But the day on which 'the greatest magyar' and his fellow-magnate entered these protests, the popularity of the two Counts began to fail; the frenzy of Kossuth, voiced in his brilliant and aggressive organ Pesti Hirlap, carried all before it. As early as 1842, Kossuth declared in one of its issues: "Indeed, indeed I tell you, a Slovak nation has never existed even in a dream." In 1843 he boasted of his glowing love for his nation as the only one in Hungary which has any future based upon politics or law. 19 The argument of the German people, Herrenfolk: "We must be masters in our own house," was already applied in the "forties" by Magyars to the "foreign inhabitants" of Hungary. At this critical time the Slovaks found three leaders, �SLOVAKIA 39 full of courage and self-sacrifice, r.udovit stur, Michael Hodza and Joseph Hurban. All three happened to be Slovak Lutherans, courageous enough to agree in favor of the central dialect of the Slovak language for essentially political reasons. This dialect was a unifying factor which they believed would help strengthen their position in the struggle against the Magyars and Magyarones. The Slovaks could no longer stand this type of op-pression. They appealed to King Ferdinand in Vienna. He in turn said to them: "Every nation in Hungary should educate and develop itself according to law and justice and develop its national language as much as possible. The highest power will not object to this, but rather aid it in its endeavor." The Slovak delegation returned home very hopeful. But at home disappointments and hardships awaited them, because the King's words fell on deaf ears and did not phase the Magyars. 20 In 1844 stur was dismissed from his post at the Bratislava College as Deputy Professor, because he resisted Count Zay's plans for Magyarization through the school. Yet stur continued to express his thoughts in writing in the newspaper he published, "Slovak National News" ("Slovenske Narodne Noviny"). The permission for the editing of this paper was given by the Hungarian government after an interim of four years. In this paper he resolved to defend the rights of the Slovak people. The joy was great in Slovakia. Most of the Slovaks realized the importance of this news media, and at what price it was made possible. When it was first issued the people rejoiced in diverse ways to express their appreciation of its accomplishment. The supplement to the "Slovak National News" was "Orol Tatransky" ("The Tatra Eagle") which was a power to be reckoned with. This newspaper was both instructive and amusing. It found favor with all classes of people, and reached all strata of the populace. stur's program was a realistic one. He gave credit where it was due. He voiced his opinions in regard to the shortcomings of his people and denounced their delinquencies. �40 SLOVAKIA The papers served their mission well for three years, uniting, teaching, exhorting and encouraging the people during the most stirring time of Slovak history. His exhortations today are as timely as they were in 1845: "Let us not abandon ourselves, Slovak country-men. Higher is the cause of the entire nation, higher is the cause of the whole, than of the individual and even though individuals harm us, the cause itself does not do so, but with us thus far, it has been that individuals offended by our people immediately abandoned the cause itself ... " 21 The Magyars came to realize what great influence the new publications were effecting on the Slovak people and began to clamor for the immediate suppression of this press. But the embe:rlS had been stirred. Much of the purpose of the publications had already been achieved. The Slovaks were finally reawakened nationally. In 1847, stur was elected to the Hungarian Parliament as a deputy for the town of Zvolen, Naturally he had limited influence since he was the only Slovak deputy in the House. However, his speeches reveal that he was an enlightened fighter for freedom and social reform, one who demanded equal rights for all nationalities in Hungary, in cultural and political life. He repeatedly insisted that the Diet adopt laws to free the peasant masses from a feudalistic Robot system and labor rent, and that the culture of the people and country be promoted by the establishment of schools in the national tongues of the people. Among other things he demanded the industrialization of Slovakia and the adoption of humanitarian laws between the gentry and the working class. One of the main topics of Stu.r's speeches was the obsolete social and political structure of Hungary. He was all for a federalistic system of government which would give equal justice to all peoples. He advocated that special efforts be made to develop the State in new social and political reforms, and to make it a partner of modern Europe. In creating their political program, stur and his followers, took into consideration not only their aims and desires, but also the existing circumstances. One was the fact that Slovakia was a part of the Hungarian state �SLOVAKIA 41 in which it did not constitute a distinctive separative administrative unit. The Slovaks were not planning to break away from Hungary. What they wanted most of all was to have the boundaries of the Slovak lands defined so that the Slovak people might have guaranteed equality with the Magyars in Hungary. This equality they urged was to apply in all areas of political, social and especially in cultural life. They intended to present these petitions to the Emperor and the Parliament but first they wished to have the endorsement and the views of the Slovak people regarding their aims and their achievements. In May of 1848 they met at the parsonage of Michael Hod.za in Liptovsky Sv. Mikulas where they drew up a form for Slovakia's future political program called: "Petitions of the Slovak Nation." 22 Its Contribution Towards a Pan-Slavic Movement Stu.r's role as a reformer of the Slovak literary language was significant and far-reaching. His great efforts to this direction contributed greatly even to modern Slovak ideology. It was he who first gave to his people a new vision of political freedom and of a better future. stur provided a strong impetus to Slovak life in general by his own example, and by his writings embracing fields as diversified as poetry, philosophy, history, sociology, etc. From his correspondence one learns that he had direct relations with the leaders of all Slavic peoples. During his stay in Vienna he came in contact with other Slav representatives: The Slovene Stanko Vraz, the Croatian Ban Jelacic, and the Serbian Patriarch Rajacic, who were working together and made a joint visit to the Imperial Court. stur's reforms of the literary language also brought about the unity of the Slovak people and this, in turn, was followed by flourishing cultural and literary activities. His influence was so vital that some of his principles and ideology still lives in the cultural life of Slovakia.23 The lyrical element is strong in Stu.r's poetry and prose. He passed from the sphere of the personal and social into national and Slavic thought in all his works. The soul of the nation--or of the Slavs-was his �42 SLOVAKIA constant subject. He concentrated on the pain of the nation's sufferings, struggles, and failures and this theme pervades the climate of his literary works. stur and his followers were gifted with keen insight into existing social problems and this vision they combined with the romantic inheritance of deep attachment to their country, its people and to the Slavic world at large. They did their utmost to advocate and to provide democratic enlightenment for the unpriviledged classes, viz. the peasants and workers. They defined, encouraged and glorified their importance, as they glorified the Slavs and all their past. One of stur's followers, Samo Tomasik, composed the Slav anthem, "Hej, Slovania," which bespoke new hope, a new ideal and a great pride comparable to that expressed in Vajansky's famous verse: I am proud to be a Slovak Elegant is my race; A hundred million souls it numbers, Over half the world it rules. With the Slovak tongue you can traverse The four parts of the earth! One of my brothers plants the palm Another does eternal iceland scan A third skims o'er the widespread seas! From the phantasy which Kollar inspired as the great dream of one great Slav nation and one unified Slav language, the Slovaks, as Hans Kohn agrees "feeling abandoned in Hungary and their national existence threatened, may have drawn strength and faith in the indeitructibility of the Slovak people and language," and it helped to continue to maintain contacts with the cultural life of other Slavic peoples. 24 stur's contemporaries indicated their Pan-Slavic sympathy and tendencies by reading Russian, Polish, Ukrainian, Czech, Croatian and Serbian authors in the original and were very fond of the famous "Ode to Youth" by Mickiewicz. According to Bobek: "Not even the Poles received it as enthusiastically as the Slovaks." The desire of the Slovak poets and novelists of stur's time was to imitate other Slav writers, and their enthusiastic belief in one "slavic" culture was intense. �SLOVAKIA 43 Cizevsky maintains: "The only book which shows similarities with Mickiewicz's "Book of the Polish Pilgrimage" is $tur's work "An Ancient and a New Age of Slovaks" ("Stary a novy vek Slovakov") because $tur speaks of another kingdom and of other peoples. However, $tur deviates, because he wanted to unfold a realistic program, and Mickiewicz's Book could not satisfy him. $tur's position among Slav intellectuals of the nineteenth century is well attested among other various media by his rich correspondence with practically all oustanding Slavic leaders of the day also the fact that his work "Slavdom and the World of the Future" was translated and twice published by Russian intellectuals in the last century and at the beginning of this century. $tur, Kollar and $afarik can rightly be regarded as great figures of the Slavic world to the Slovaks of the nineteenth century. All three expressed: "in the familiar mood of the period, a general belief in historical progress, in a bright future , in the advent of some great spiritual manifestation, of a new era for mankind which would establish forever a basis of liberty, peace and happiness." In visualizing the Slavs as a unified body with a great future, they helped the awakening of the national consciousness of their own Slav-speaking peoples.25 :CUDOVi T $ TOR'S ROLE IN THE PAN- SLAVIC MOVEMENT His Political and Social Thought Slovakia is sometimes called the mother of the PanSlavic Movement. One of her sons, John Herkel, first used the word "pan,slavic" in his Latin treaties of 1826. In addition, the Slovak poet Jan Kollar and the Slovak scholar P. J. $afarik were among the main leaders of the Pan-Slavic Movement. As a matter of fact these two are sometimes considered the fathers of Pan-Slavism in Slovakia. Herder, in his "Ideas on the Philosophy of the History of Humanity" ("Ideen zur Philosophie der Geschichte") prophesied that the Slavs, who up until then were held in bondage and oppression, would awaken from their lethargy and free themselves from the shackless, and eventually recover their possesion of the vast lands that �44 SLOVAKIA stretched from the Adriatic Sea to the Baltic, from the Don to the Mulda. In this heritage they would devote themselves to the peaceful development of the arts and commerce. Though unknowingly, Herder sowed the first germ of Pan-Slavtsm. 26 stur's significance in the Slavic world of this calibre was assessed by Seton Watson. In regard to the great literary efforts of stur, Hurban and safarik, Seton-Watson states: "their writings were of capital importance in the whole Slav revival of the last century, and form a strange sentimental link between the Western romantic school and the extravagancies of Pan-Slavism." In reference to the first Slav Congress in Prague in 1848 Seton-Watson maintains that stur "played a decisive part in the preparation for the Congress." safarik, stur, Hurban and Hodza played a part second to none except Palacky at that same Congress. An analysis is in order in regard to these two opinions to determine stur's significance in the Pan,Slavic Movement. As early as 1840, stur had recourse to the throne of Austria and there presented his petitions in regard to the injustices perpetrated by Hungary against the Slovak people. He formally presented his petitions to the Hungarian Assembly. It embodied these provisions for the betterment of the Slav situation: 1) A systematic investigation of the Slovaks who were maligned by the Magyars in order to obtain protection for the oppressed; 2) that there be two censors to safeguard Slovak official writings; 3) that a Slovak literary seat be established at the Bratislava Lyceum and at Pest University; 4) that certificates and church records be kept in Latin; 5) that church ceremonies be in the mother tongue and that every guarantee and assurance be provided for this practice. The country was up in arms because the Slovaks dared to present their cause to the throne. Voluble insults were heaped upon the Slovaks in the newspapers, at gatherings, etc. Those who aided the Slovaks or sympathized with their cause were also abused. 27 It was at this point that ~udovit stur asked for permission to publish his "Slovak National News" ("Slovenske �SLOVAKIA 45 Narodne Noviny"). Archprince Joseph retorted by saying: "The Slovaks do not need newspapers. The publishing of such newspapers would be considered traitorous." It was the consensus in 1840 that Austria would lean on the Slovaks for political reasons, that is Slavic Austria, against Hungarian Austria (Magyar). But in Hungary Archduke Joseph had the upper hand and things were shaped his way. He even had control over the deputation of Slovak Pest in Church matters. At this point he is to have said: "In Hungary I know only one people and those are the Magyars. " 28 The phantom of Pan-Slavism repeated its threat in 1830 when Russia established a Slovak literary seat at its university. The young Russian Slavists began to visit the Slavs in the South as well as in Central Europe. For the ensuing years the word Pan-Slavism had political connotation for the Russian and Germanic nations implying a belligerent attempt to replace their civilization with the Slavic civilization. The connotation derived largely from the subjugated position of the various Slavic nations at this time. In Vienna the guards were ordered to stress in each paragraph of the law of magyarization that every sermon in Slovak churches be preached in Magyar and in even remote towns and villages there was a strong ban against Pan-Slavism of any kind. "In our country and near its borders," wrote Wessel, in Kossuth's newspaper, Hirlap, December, 1842, "Slovak mistakes are dangerous and a threat to all Europe and to our dynasty and country . .. " "Everyone who defies our Magyar language and our nationalism and who supports the mistakes of the Slovaks knowingly or unknowingly is an enemy to the peace and to our federation, and to our throne." 29 stur did not advocate the destruction of the Hungarian State. As long as there was any hope for a settlement with the Magyars, he was amenable to living with a fair situation. But he warned the ruling Magyar class that they could not forever ignore and suppress the inherent rights of the lesser peoples and exploit the Slovaks and other nations of Hungary without expecting them to retaliate and to demand a free national life, just as the Magyars were themselves demanding it from the Hapsburg Empire. �46 SLOVAKIA stlir wrote a sensational article "Charges and Complaints of the Slovaks in Hungary" ( ~aloby a ponosy Slovakov v Uhorsku") published in Leipzig in 1843, in which he reprimanded the chief Inspector, Count Zay, for conniving to Magyarize the Slovaks for political reasons. Count Zay felt that he was truly aware of the political currents in Slovakia. By a logic all his own, he divided the Slovaks into three groups. One was to be concerned about literary matters. The second was eager to establish a Western-Slav kingdom in Austria; the third was accused of secret contacts with Russia. 30 It is uncertain whether these three groups were fully aware of the gravity of the situation of those times; however, all had one goal in mind: to save the Slovaks from utter Magyarization and to secure for the Slovak nation its independent political status within the framework of the Hapsburg Empire. "We do not want our rights established on favor, but we demand our rights on the basis of justice," stlir declared. These famous words laid the foundation to all petitions and demands presented in Vienna and at the Hungarian Diet in Bratislava. stlir's debates with Kossuth all stemmed from this moral and democratic attitude. On behalf of his nation stlir demanded "peace based on justice and mutual understanding." He went on to say: "In the Pesti Hirlap Kossuth is fighting for equality of rights, but in the Diet he wants to give the orders to investigate and punish those who stand up for the rights . . . That is his freedom and liberalism." 3 1 All of Stu.r's writings indicate a clear political view: Slovakia established as a sovereign crown land under the Hapsburgs, an equal partner of other nations in the Empire. In short, he was even back in his own day for a program of the federalization of Central Europe. In a sense stlir appeared as a Romantic visionary in the eyes 0f all who did not favor Slavic reciprocity or his vision of a great future for the Slavic world, his untiring demands for equal rights for the Slovak people and their national independence which he formulated in the following terms: "Each nation is only one part of humanity, and no �SLOVAKIA 47 nation can make for itself the claim that it alone attained the best possible human evolution and degree of perfect ability. Thereafter, no nation has a right to impose upon another nation its way of life when that nation wants to move for itself and educate itself as it sees fit. "So that we Slovaks might be revived and assume in history that place which is rightfully ottrs by reason of our native strength and abilities we must once and for all free ourselves, because a nation which is enslaved has its hands bound, its spirit stifled, and is forever threathened with danger that sooner or later it will perish." 32 The year 1848 was ushered in as a promising one, but before long it became stormy. The more the Magyars spoke of freedom, the more tyranically did they suppress all non-Magyars. They did their utmost to turn public opinion against the Slovaks. Wessel wrote to Kossuth that he would rather have 50,000 Germans settle the mountain countries than 10,000 Slavs. Once again intolerance charged all the climate. At this point, Pan-Slavism evolved as a defensive movement among the Slavs rather than as a political movement aimed at replacing western dominance in Europe. The term "Pan-Slavism" has been used generally to denote the historical tendency of the Slavic peoples to manifest in their tangible way, either cultural or political, their consciousness of ethnic kinship. Cultural Pan-Slavism had its origin in the remarkable national awakening of the Slavs at the dawn of the nineteenth century. Submerged for long centuries under cruel masters, the Slavs were quickened to a renewal of awareness of their national identities, not by political leaders, but by their cultural leaders. These Slavs realized how they had been deprived of their national identity. They nourished better hopes for the future by seeking to reanimate the faded memories of a glorious past. In this effort they discovered that they were brothers bound by a common misfortune yet endowed with a vast cultural heritage. 33 Slavic men of learning helped to initiate national �48 SLOVAKIA movements among their countrymen primarily in order to establish the individuality and cultural worth of each Slavic group: Bulgarians, Czechs, Slovaks, Poles, Slovenians, Croats, Serbs and Russians. The various romantic movements were propagated in individual ways and degrees yet through them the ideal of Slavic unity, which had been lost in the past by foreign oppression, was to be resurrected with the surmounting and overthrow of that oppression. Pan-Slavism as a cultural and even as a political ideal evolved not in Russia, but rather among the Western and Southern Slavs, who had far more need of unity than did the mighty Russian Empire. This stage of Pan-Slavism signaled the national awakening of central and eastern Europe, and was characterized by interest and emphasis within the areas of language, literature, and culture. Among the Slavic peoples many had experienced a thousand years of injustice and mistreatment which yielded an unhealthy state of discouragement and stagnation. Now in the hour of their national awakening, the Slovak people seek to forgive their cruel masters rather than to avenge themselves. This attitude was shaped by the acute yearning they bore for the selfdetermination of their country. As much as they decried the enslavement of other nations, they would not permit another to enslave them. The literary and scientific Pan-Slavism of Kollar and ::;afarik created a powerful national spirit among the Slavs. Then it became only natural that this desire for national unity and selfdetermination should demand to be heard and to begin to be realized within the context of political Pan-Slavism. It moved in this direction under I.:udovit ::;tur who perceived by what stages Pan-Slavism must go. He foresaw that to achieve their glorious destiny, the Slavic peoples had to attain an assured measure of political unity. At this point political Pan-Slavism had two alternatives: Austroslavism, which meant retaining a form of Austrian political influence, for which ::;tur was ready to settle when he advocated it at the Prague Congress in 1848, the first great manifestation of Pan-Slavism and of Slavic identity, apart from the Hapsburg rule, and Pan-Russianism which ::;tur adapted after the failure of the Prague Congress.34 �SLOVAKIA 49 As Magyar exploitation of the Slovaks and other minority nations of Hungary continued, stur's admonitions to the ruling powers fall on deaf ears. The Magyars stubbornly and universally refused to heed any demands for redress of any kind of settlement with the non-Magyar nations in Hungary. This attitude helped to precipitate the revolution of 1848-49, in which the Slovaks also participated. stur together with Hodza and Hurban led an armed resistance force supporting Austria against the revolution of the Magyar aristocrats. That the Hapsburgs were forgetful of this effort and ungrateful to the Slovaks, that they finally settled with the Magyars at the expense of the non-Magyar nations of Hungary, did not help the issue of the dissatisfied minorities. The settlement of 1867, referred to as Austro-Hungarian but being in reality Austro-Magyar, became the burial pit of the monarchy which could have become a mighty confederation in Central Europe. It was I.:udovit stur and not the Slovak Magyar chauvinist, Louis Kossuth, who was the genuine democrat. 35 No setback dismayed stur completely or caused him to lose heart. Under opposition and failure he tended to redouble his energy. stur was the heart, Hodza the brain, and Hurban the soul of the revolutionary movement. They set themselves anew to collect funds, provide weapons, organize a volunteer corps, choose trained soldiers to lead them, financially aid patriots who were in prison and conduct a vast correspondence. Though defeated and betrayed in the outcome by Vienna, the Slovak revolution of 1848-49 marked an important milestone in Slovak history. The first large public manifestation of the Sl0vaks occured on May 10, 1848 at Liptovsky Sv. Mikulas. On this occasion a historic memorandum embracing six articles expressing the demands of the people was adopted unanimously. In substance these articles were: We demand that our people be permitted to· take part in the legislative deliberations of the land, and this not only de jure but de facto. And as such participation can alone become real and profitable when conducted in a language that is intelligible to us, we ask for our representatives the right to speak Slovak in the Diet. �50 SLOVAKIA We demand the right to plead and answer cases in the courts of law in Slovak. We demand that the school training of our youth, which is now so woefully neglected, be conducted in the mother tongue. We demand just and equitable representatives in the Diet. We demand for ourselves, and shall forever ask that our nationality, which we will never renounce, remain inviolate and inviolable. We demand that this petition be made known within the entire juristiction of Hungary, in Croatia, and Slavonia and be brought to the notice of the viceroy and of the Hungarian ministry, to the end that all friends of liberty and humanity may plead our just cause.36 Open-air meetings were held in larger towns throughout all regions during the spring of 1848. Equality and liberty, the maintenance and defense of the Slovak language were the keynote of them all. The Liptovsky Sv. Mikulas program was endorsed by a dozen towns supplemented here and there with petitions to meet subordinate local needs. Swiftly spread the news that Louis Phillipe had forfeited his crown to the French republicans, in 1848, anfi it reached every corner of the Hapsburg monarchy. Vienna was seething with political excitement. Prague was in feverish anticipation of the approaching Slavic Congress scheduled to meet there on June 2, in protest against the bartering of Slavic Austria to Greater Germany. stur went to Vienna after the March Revolution. There he met other Slav representatives, especially Ban Jelacic and the Serbian Patriarch Rajacic, who were working hand in hand and paid joint visits to the Imperial Court. At this early stage of developments, stur received an invitation from the students at Prague which he accepted and through which he played a decisive part in the preparations for the Slav Congress. On April 30, he made a strong appeal in favor of united common action between the Slovaks and the Czechs. For the time being, at least, there was a healing of the breaches and disagreements.37 �SLOVAKIA 51 A manifesto program which was initiated by Hurban, was issued at Teplice in the name of the Slovaks as the original occupants of this region. It was addressed simultaneously to the Crown and to the newly-formed national government at Pest. Its main demand was that there be convened a General Parliament for the brother nations of Hungary. Precipitously, any further movement in this direction was promptly suppressed by the Magyar authorities. Kossuth thundered against the Pan-Slavs in Parliament. Hurban and a few others were obligated to flee and they joined stur in an attempt to rouse Bohemia, Moravia and Slovakia to common action, and acclaimed Prague as the heart of tl<le Slavic world. Meanwhile, Hodza issued a small book in German, presenting an answer to the Slovaks to Count Zay and his summons that a choice be made between Magyarizations and the Russian knout. Hodza's fiery response was: "Rather the Russian knout than Hungarian domination, for the one can only enslave our bodies, while the other threatens us with moral ruin and death." 36 The time was ripe for action by the Slavs. stur proclaimed a Slavic Congress and agreed with Czech writers to set the date for May 31, 1848. Prague was chosen for the site of the Congress. A total of 362 delegates were present representing various Slavic nations, especially those under the Hapsburg rule, but the Poles and the Russians were also represented. The express objective 1tf the meeting was the establishment of contacts and regular exchanges among the Slavic peoples and the drawing up of a program of action for all peoples living as subject nations under Austria and/ or Hungarian domination. The four Slovak leaders-safarik, stur, Hurban and Hodza-played a part second to none. They were determined to make Slovakia an equal with Bohemia and Moravia, as part of a Czech-Slav federal unit, such as Palacky had contemplated. At this Congress stur offered a program for federalizing Central Europe. The Czech were consistent supporters of Austroslavism. Consequently the problem came to be narrowed down to a definition of terms: The objectives of the Congress was either to save Austria, for with her lay the best chances of maintaining Slavic identity, or �52 SLOVAKIA immediate prov1s10n for the Slavic peoples living under Austria. stur made it clear, that his aim was not specifically to preserve Austria, under whom the Slavs had hitherto rotted, but to preserve his own people; Austria, he added, was decrepit and lay under a curse. He went on to say: Our aim should be to save ourselves, not to save Austria. First we must work for ourselves, then for others. Thus far Austria has been flourishing but we have been languishing. What would the world say to us if we stood for nothing but the preservation of Austria? Let us say that we want to stand as independent Slovanic communities under the government of Austria . . . this will give our work a genuinely Slovanic accent ...39 stur felt that the program of the Congress should be: 1) the creation of independent Slavic united states within Austria, and 2) prompt agreement to this, so that the Austrian armies might be authorized to destroy Magyar encroachments into Slovakia. stur stressed Slavic independence: "If we are to assume that place in history which rightfully belongs to us by reason of our ability and strength, we must once and for all free ourselves from this intolerable foreign thraldom and gain national independence for ourselves." 40 The necessity of remaining with the Austrian cadre was crystal clear to stur yet he made no secret of his distrust of Austria. The Czechs felt otherwise. Because they had not been mistreated as were the Slovaks under the Magyars, they were willing to accept and abide by the vague promises of the Austrian Emperor that Slavic rights would be recognized and respected. In return for these promises, the delegates of the Congress pledged full support to Austria in her effort to subdue the Magyars. In addition, they adopted a "Manifesto t o the European Nations" which called for the following objectives: 1. That the Slavic people under Turkish rule be freed. 2. That the Magyars acknowledge the rights of the �SLOVAKIA 53 Slovak nation, including the right of its own language. 3. That the Croatian autonomy be maintained. 4. That the Slovenians be permitted to possess their land. 41 sttir felt that the Congress was a failure, because it seemed simply to reduce the Pan-Slavic movement to an attempt to reorganize Austria in a way to satisfy the nationalism of the Slavs. The insurrection of 1848 against the Magyars had also failed. sttir was disappointed to say the least and in the Pan-Slavic Movement was shaken. But he still cherished the hope that Slavic independence would be possible. In his despair and disillusionment, he became almost convinced that a small nation could not attain its freedom alone. Twice he had experienced having his great hopes in behalf of Pan-Slavism shaken. Now only one more possibility remained: alliance or association with Russia, for Russia alone of the Slavic nations was powerful enough to lead others to independence. This conclusion became the basic idea developed in his book, "Slavdom and the World of the Future," a work which extols the cultural, moral and political forces of the Russian Empire. It also presents a detailed program for the union of Slavs under the leadership of Russia. HIS POLITICAL RE-ORIENTATIO N In 1848 and 1849 when the Magyars under Kossuth arose in armed rebellion against Austria, demanding complete independence, the Slovaks braced themselves against a new wave of Magyarization pressures. Led by sttir and his collaborators, they fought in their units with the Austrians and then with the Russian Armies to subdue the Magyar rebels. In return the Slovaks hoped to gain from Vienna recognition of their own national aspirations. Vienna, however, disappointed them and overlooked guaranteeing their rigl;lts against the encroachment of the Magyars. Furthermore, influenced by Kollar, the imperial court used the antiquated Biblical Czech of the Protestants as the official Slovak language in the translation of the laws, for instruction in the schools, and in the newly established newspaper sponsored by the government, �54 SLOVAKIA "Slovak News" ("Slovenske Noviny"), published in Vienna. The fruits of Stu.r's labors seemed doomed and at this point he turned with greater hope to Russia. The Revolution that erupted in Paris in February 1848, and reverberated throughout Europe, encouraged the movement in Hungary. It affected the development of Slovak life and helped to bring the Slav political program to greater maturity. Individual regions of Slovakia rebelled against the imposition of Hungarian as the only recognized legal language and strove to secure sanctions for Slovak as their official language. The native tongue of the Slovak people represented the very survival of Slovakia. stur's basic concept in "Slavdom and the World of the Future" ("Das Slawenthum und die Welt der Zukunft") was an exceptional tribute to the cultural, moral and political forces at work within the Russian Empire. This work also included a detailed plan for the union of all Slavs with Russia, "the most complete and consistently developed program for the subjugation of Slavs to Russia," according to Professor Lednicki. stur adopted Herder's and Hegel's ideas which in turn provided the Slavs with a consciousness of unity based upon the communal element of language and a glorious destiny, proclaiming them as the prospective leaders of Europe. stur stressed the belief that the Slavs have a mission to fulfill in universal history, and that this mission can be fulfilled only if they are united. There were three procedures to consider: 1. Slavic federation without Russia. 2. Transformation of Austria into a Slavic federation. 3. Union with Russia as a monarchic empire under Russian leadership, united in the Orthodox Church and the Russian literary language. The first two approached did not appeal to stur's vision gf a Slavic world of the future. Because of geographical features and considerations, internal rivalries, religious and cultural differences, and intermingled nonSlavic elements, any attempt to federalize the Slavic nations at this time seemed doomed to failure. 42 Since the Slavs were to be leaders of the "new" Europe, stur set out to determine whether the Slavs really �SLOVAKIA 55 had a role of their own to fulfill in world history. At this point they were not in position to do anything significant but history was a progression of spent nations being replaced by young one, and stur envisioned a future in which Slavic emancipation would eventually occur. There was no use in looking to the West for support in securing Slovakia's self-determination for, the West was already on the downward path to moral, political and social dissolution. Western civilization had deteriorated, the West itself needed help. Only Slavs could aid the Slavs. stur went on to paint a highly romantic picture of the Slavs, representing them as good at heart, patient, humble, kind and democratic. These were the general characteristics of all the Slavs, but especially of the Russians who were visualized as being at the apex of all the nobles features of the Slavic nations. stur did not know them personally. He had never been in Russia, neither had he any prolonged contact with Russians. He simply claimed that it had to be so logically, since the Russians were the leaders of the Slavs; they had to be the best Slavs. He was convinced too that unity was an absolute necessity if the Slavs were to achieve their historic mission. The only alternative left was union with Russia. 43 "Russia is the prime mover and the leader of our national family. Our people are but a fragment of a single nationality. They can be reborn and united into a single whole only by a elated benevolent and great Power." In stur's mind that power was Russia. "Let us go forth together in the spirit of our own people, under the leadership of the racial elders given to us by history." The Slavist, Professor Petrovich maintains that "The failure of the Slovak revolution and other political demonstrations brought stur to the conclusion that it was u.seless for his people to seek its own freedom alone or in the framework of Austroslavism." 44 This definitive decision on the part of stur amazed contemporary experts in his Slavic world. Yet it is not hard to understand stur's position when one realized the facts with which stur had to live in the 1850's. Since his primary goal was Slavic nationalism, Slavic unity, Russia was the only leader to whom to turn since Austroslavism �56 SLOVAKIA failed. His main objective was the creation of a federation of independent Slavic states under the Russian leadership, the same kind of action he had urged at the Prague Congress in 1848 for Austrian leadership. The Slavic peoples of the Austrian Empire, such as Czechs and Slovaks, and the smaller groups looked more and more toward Russia for help, since they found themselves outnumbered by the ruling Germans and Magyars. A second Pan-Slav Congress met in Moscow in 1867. The Poles were not represented. They considered the Russians their national enemies and oppressors. Russian chauvini&m was apparent throughout the congress. From that time on Russian nationalists wished to use Pan-Slavism as a tool for Russian expansion at the expense of nonRussian Slavs for the destruction of the Austrian Empire and the Turkish Empire. Both Empires contained large Slavic minorities. The Russian war against Turkey in 1877 was accompanied by Pan-Slavic agitation to liberate the Balkan Slavs, especially the Bulgarians, from the Turkish domination. World War I also started partly because the Russians supported the Slavic Serbs against the Austrian Empire. The fact that Russia herself oppressed several Slavic peoples--the Poles, the Ukrainians, and the Byelorussian s -and the fact that the Russian tsarist autocracy was politically and socially backward militated before 1914 against the claim of the Russians to be regarded as the spokesmen of all Slavs.45 All the peoples, with the exception of the Croatians, Slovenians and Serbs were united under Moscow's leadership, and thus many of the extravagant Russian aspirations, voiced during the Pan-Slav Congress in Moscow, in 1867, were fulfilled .46 Stu.r's great dream of a family of Slavic peoples united under Russia may also become a reality -but not under an Orthodox Church as a dedicated community, nor under an enlightened Russian Tsar with humanist and liberal views, nor as a Russian group struggling for the highest ideals of freedom and respect for human beings, as stur wished to see it in his work "Das Slawenthum und die Welt der Zukunft" ("Slavdom and the World of the Future"), but under a disastrous �SLOVAKIA 57 policy, the cornerstone of which was laid at Yalta in February, 1945. This policy destroyed Europe's individuality and enlarged the power of the Kremlin, a power that has kept all humanity under constant tension since 1945 and is a threat to the freedom of all the states it has not yet captured. It led to the subjugation of an additional 200 million Europeans. On the soil in Northern, Central and Southern Europe, there arose a new Soviet colonial system. At a time when in the free world, peoples who have never enjoyed self-govenment in the past are gradually attained nationhood and are assisted by the United Nations in the achievement of their rightful aspiration-the exact reverse process has been taking place in Central and Eastern Europe. 47 ST-OR'S IMPACT ON SLOVAKIA Revival of Slovak National Life stur knew it was imperative that the Slovaks be awakened nationally; otherwise they were doomed as a nation. The nation needed scholars who would delve into antiquity and from the glory of the past raise a national enthusiasm and groundwork on which to build for the future. He assumed the task of providing them. The Slovak historian, Julius Botto, says of stur: "He trained for the Slovak nation energetic, selfless men, genuine national heroes." Since the Slovak gentry continued to yield its national identity and was overshadowed and even absorbed by Magyar influences, the Slovak people became abandoned in the midst of a rising alien nationalism and political transformation. Slovak intellectuals had the vision to realize what was happening and considered it mandatory to take over the culture of the Slovak peasants, middle classes and a sparse number of nationally minded aristocrats and garner from these elements their own national culture and new national consciousness. Without stur's important role in this effort, the Slovaks might now be a forgotten nation. stur successfully organized his literary school and cultural activities in this climate and was successful in �58 SLOVAKIA bringing about a new era of Slovak national life. Since he had a mystical idea of the nation, and respected it as a person, his approach was a philosophical one. Aesthetic and philosophical principles were inaugurated into his literary school and became the foundation of the Slovak nation revival of the nineteenth century. In the past, Slovak national life was little more than a conglomerate of regrets and passive laments, a life of hapless "do nothing." stur set up positive perspectives to create higher cultural and political values and he did not rest until the people were persuaded to adopt these new views. He repeatedly advocated a higher and stronger degree of national pride. He asked the Slovaks not to seek the source of their national pride in foreign gardens since they had it right at home in their midst. stur and his school knew what hopes were directed toward attaining concrete political and social gains; he realized how ready his people were to entertain enthusiasm and spirit for a better world. National and Slavistic themes permeate stur's poetry and prose. The soul of the nation-or of the Slavs-was his constant subject; he was always preoccupied with the nation's sufferings, struggles and failures. These topics are the substance of all his written works. The Slovaks, as Hans Kohn rightly says, "feeling abandoned in Hungary and their national existence threatened, may have drawn strength and faith in the indestructibility of the Slovak people and language." This thought supported them and enabled them to continue to maintain contacts with the cultural life of other Slavic peoples. Although stur was not the only leader during the national revival, he embodied more vitally than did the others the true spirit of 1848. In his own right he is called the Daniel O'Connell of Slovak history. At this point is was not only necessary for the Slovak nation to map out definite goals, but it was also imperative to chart the way for coming generations of the Slovak nation in order that this goal might be realized and preserved. The task challenging stur and his followers was very complicated. Besides honoring, they had to find a way and means to discharge all the work before them in a way �SLOVAKIA 59 that would be worthy of scrutiny both in their own day and in the light of history. Much of their work had to be accomplished under duress, when revolutionary forces were mounting, when fierce struggles had to be met to insure national existence and the ennobling of the social stratum of the Slavic people. $tlir's generation had no alternative, but to play the role of a vanguard of the Slovak bourgeoisie which had to be inspired with national consciousness and formed into a worthy class. The group v0luntarily assuming this role is called the $tlir generation; in literature it is called the stur school, since it was Cudovit stur and his group who adopted the traditions of the Bernolakians for the Slovak linguistic cultural and national independence. In short, they gave the Slovak nation both a solid ideology and definite direction under the leadership of Cudovit $tlir.48 Cudovit stur's activities were directed mainly on behalf of his native country, his main interest being the Slovak people caught in an insufferably miserable situation and desperately needing a solution of their problems. He threw all his efforts into achieving a social and national awakening of his people and into raising their standards so that they could be counted as a social and national force. In the memorable Bratislava parliament of 1847, he tangled in a heated discussion with Kossuth. stur declared: "We want freedom. It is easily said that there is plenty of freedom in our homeland: yes, not only an abundance, but even an oversupply of freedom." And he went on to add, "but only the landowner's brand of freedom; for of the real, human and personal freedom there is very little. If our towns had had more freedom, our people would never have fallen into such thraldom." Kossuth's reply to this was: "That cannot be helped; that is the way the world moves. It is the fate of one who stands lower in the community to be suppressed and bear the burden and taxes; on the other hand, the one who comes along better in civic life receives rights and stands in honor. At this time I am opposed to granting towns a vote in our Assembly." stur could not be silenced. Again he met Kossuth in the Hungarian Assembly and said: "Recently when I was �60 SLOVAKIA present here and mentioned the sorrowful plight of the wretched taxpayers, the worthy deputy of Pest County, Mr. Kossuth, saw the hand of fate in the oppression of the people and said that is the way of the world when the lower class is suppressed and the higher class arrogates more rights to itself. I see no hand of fate in the matter, because then the status of the oppressed could never be corrected. We demand freedom in the country and the assignment of urbanial jobs which are not in line with freedom. Does a person who works, who works for the benefit of others and receives contempt instead of reward, have a fatherland? Will such a person become as devoted to his country as he would be to his mother? The sacred cause of mankind challenges us to declare the principle of the liberation of people and honestly bring it into reality. When this redemption is accomplished, the judical power of the landowner and the country gentry must cease, because freedom would not be served if a people liberated from the robot would continue to remain under the staves of the Lords." 49 stur's main aspiration was freedom. If his only achievement had been his effort for the rights of the enslaved and subjugated at the Bratislava Assembly, he would have deserved to be honored among the most distinguished sons of the Slovak nation. But he did not only that but even more and because of this fact he is loved and revered by the Slovak nation. In him were concentrated the cultural and social endeavors of his predecessors, with the strength and courage needed for a living national organization. Without his concentration the pursuits of an independent national culture would have been impossible. His greatest merit lies in the fact that he assumed the historical task of uniting the multi-cultural strength of the Slavs into a national liberation front. A legendary atmosphere was built around the magnetic personality of stur by those who knew him. Around him there crystallized, as it were, a veritable aura of national life as is reported by William Pauliny Toth who said of him : ":Cudovit stur is favored epochally as a created vision in the history of. the Slovak- Nation." 50 �SLOVAKIA 61 Shir in his time understood that the Slovak national process had matured and that Slovakia must appear on the scene of history as an independent political factor. It is in this foresight also that Shir's merit lies. He exemplifies the Slovak national spirit as a man possessed with deep convictions and great strength of will sufficient to execute them. His prime purpose, as we have already mentioned, was to see Slovakia united culturally, politically and socially. We must recall for our own benefit and on behalf of the free world that stur did not hesitate to accept and carry to completion the work of preceding Catholic generations; he was ready to press on in order to preserve the heritage of the Slovak nation, though he was not a Catholic, but a Lutheran and a member of the Protestant Evangelical Church. Contributions as an Energizing Stimulant to Slovak Life in General It can be said with assurance that in the history of the Slovak nation, no individual accomplished as much in so short a time as did :Cudovit stur, who was only forty-one years of age when he died. This was possible only because of the gifts of this phenomenal leader and because of the fact that the ground and the time were ripe for the ascension of a new generation. stur found that he could approve of much that already existed in Slovakia and he was ready to formulate what the nation needed and demanded in his day. One wonders how it was possible at this critical time for a man to dare to undertake structuring a spiritual foundation of modern life for the long slighted and forgotten Slovak people. Though we cannot understand the force that inspired him we can appreciate the phenomenon that in one generation, only one extraordinary person, one :Cudovit stur, appeared as a great leading luminary among approximately two million of his people. It goes without s~ying that the Slovak people are grateful to stur and to those who sacrificed much with him for the Slavic cause. Their work was aimed toward the realization of the spiritual plan of Slovak life envisioned by genius and inspiration. �62 SLOVAKIA The Slovak nation was not fortunate enough at this time to have a 1,1mg and cherished tradition or the advantage of experienced mature people on which to rely. Over long centuries of oppression under a foreign element, it was their fate to be wholly submissive and in this attitude to develop no leaders. Now they had to rely entirely on comparatively young men for new ideas and new leadership. The Slovak youth was entrusted with the new dawn and to project future goals, because the difficult life of the Slovaks in the past did not allow the elders to foster a strong national life. While many other European nations had their noble classes to fight their battles and to lead them to new eras, the Slovaks had no social upper strata on which to rely for inspiration. Their nobility and their middle class as well were lost by fusion with other elements predominantly Magyar milieu. Slovak national awakening consequently was achieved by the sons of humble people, usually the strong leaders from among the Catholic and Protestant clerical circles. The Slovak language as a literary medium which was chosen by l'..udovit stur and his collaborators was accepted by the Slovak population in 1843. Under his dynamic leadership the Slovaks literally re-emerged from obscurity and oblivion. They asserted themselves not only culturally but also politically by their participation in the uprising in 1848-49. During this revolutionary upheaval they sided with the Emperor in Vienna but were ill-rewarded for their services. Their repeated petitions for self-determination and for guarantees of unhindered cultural development were repeatedly denied them.5 1 In 1867, when the Austrians concluded a dual agreement with the Magyars, the Slovaks were left at the mercy of the Magyars. Under this arrangement, Slovak high schools and cultural organizations were suppressed. Education on an elementary level was permitted in the Magyar language only. Any who dared to resist magyarization were victimized and inprisoned. Thousands of Slovaks found it necessary to leave their native country and migrated to the United States of America. I.:udovit stur and his generation fired the Slovaks with new national life, a clear goal and a firm sense of direction �SLOVAKIA 63 in the spirit of stt1r's slogan: "Backward we cannot go, Forward we must!" "Forward" means to free the people from the yoke of slavery and lead them along the road of independence and true national cultural growth within a truly free country. To achieve this tne Slovak nation needs a political program. The cataclysm of the Revolution of 1848 that struck Europe impelled the Slovaks to develop their political program without further hesitation or delay. The Slovaks reassessed their aims, and aspirations as well as prevailing circumstances. Since Slovakia was part of the Hungarian State, they wished primarily to have the boundaries of the Slovak lands clearly defined in order that they might have guaranteed equality with the Magyars living in Hungary. The Magyars opposed the justified petitions of the Slovak nation. They banned all Slovak assemblies and treated Slovak leaders as traitors deserving imprisonment. When the Slovaks perceived what obstacles their political program met with in Hungary, they resorted to arms against the Magyars who themselves were engaged in a rebellion against the Emperor. The Slovak rebellion in 1848-49 ended indecisively. The Russian army was asked to help subdue the revolting Magyars and absolute rule was imposed in the country. The Magyars were punished and the Slovaks were forgotten. 52 The Slovaks renewed their political activity in 1861. They detailed their principles in newspapers and later called an assembly at Turciansky Sv. Martin where they formulated a renewed Slovak policy within the comprehensive "Memorandum of the Slovak Nation." They asked that the Slovaks be permitted the right to develop their own life without restriction. They asked that they be recognized as a nation by a special proclamation, and that Slovakia constitute a distinctive administrative unit in Hungary. These petitions were submitted to Emperor Franz Josef (1849-1916). The only concession granted to the Slovaks was permission to establish a cultural institute called "Matica Slovenska" ("The Slovak Institute"). They were also allowed to use private funds to build three high schools for the education of Slovak youth. �64 SLOVAKIA The position of the Slovaks grew steadily worse in Hungary. Feeling the pressure of denationalization at every step, they did not stop pledging their allegiance to Hungary. All these attempts even at appeasement proved futile . The Hungarian Parliament passed legislation which suppressed Slovak life yet not even these adversities broke the Slovak nation, for the Slovaks believed "That truth has never yet suffered in vain, nor will our Slovak truth suffer needlessly," according to the prophetic dictum of Andrej Hlinka in 1907 spoken as he was being led to prison.53 $TOR IN CONTEMPORAR Y HISTORIC PERSPECTIVE Practicality of Stur's Ideals :r.udovit stur's role in the revival of Slovak national life was far reaching and vitally important. As a reformer of the Slovak literary medium he contributed to modern national Slovak ideology. He gave his people a new perspective and vision of political freedom and of a better future. His writings provided a powerful impetus to Slovak life in general. His manifold contributions to the Slovak national revival were not limited to Slovakia alone, but to the over-all Slavic world, since Slovakia and the Slovak people are a part of the Slavic world. Neither is his greatness only by the role he played at the first Slavic Congress in Prague, but also by his rich correspondence with all outstanding Slavic leaders, as well as his work "Slavdom and the World of the Future" which was translated and published twice by Russian intellectuals in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. stur's school of thought laid the foundation for the self-determinatio n of Slovakia more than a century ago. Even in the present the Slovaks are building upon this foundation. They will keep on pressing their point and cherishing their hope of success until they do attain complete freedom from all foreign domination. Just as stur had defied and condemned the hegemony of the Magyars and the materialistic philosophy of Marx and Engels, so do they hope in this day to overcome all obstacles to true freedom. �SLOVAKIA 65 The followers of stur made the entire nation their concern. They applied themselves to improve the country's economy; they did their utmost to wipe out alcoholism, indifference, and illiteracy; they labored unceasingly to arouse national consciousness in more ways than one. The people at large responded and co-operated generously when r:,tur began to publish his "Slovenske Narodne Noviny" ("Slovak National News") which had great influence on the thinking of the common people. stur's articles recalled the heritage of the Slovak people, the glory of its language, morals, customs, and its homeland-which unites the nation as a whole and constrains it to press forward towards attaining the goal of unity. It was necessary to make the nation feel that someone was supporting it and was concerned about its welfare. The people had to be dealt with humanely. This applied to individuals as well as to groups. The Slovaks were threatened with complete annihilation, hence stur had to appeal to the mind, the feelings and the very character of the nation. Without first uniting this nation he could gain nothing. The sturists envisioned their task as not the conversion of renegades, but the instruction of the people to help themselves, to recognize and to fight for their God-given rights. Stu.r's newspaper served all classes of people to some degree-the intelligentsia, the laborer, the peasant, the minister of the Gospel, the merchant and the tradesman. The Slovaks did rouse themselves to national consciousness. Without effective journalism of the type provided by stur it would have been impossible to unite the Slovaks in so short a time. stur and his collaborators were realists. They encouraged and exhorted the people to better themselves by overcoming indolence and ignorance. They provided and encouraged private enterprise and more efficient ways of doing things in all fields of endeavor. The school problem was a factor of great concern to stur and his coterie. They indicated the necessity of cultivating the native language, the importance of enlightenment, the value of reading centers, libraries, sound agricultural programs, progress in industrial and financial enterprise, �66 SLOVAKIA revision in tax scales, improvement in animal husbandry and many other subjects. Temperance societies were promoted as were cultural and social institutions. Many stur followers taught Sunday school classes. This innovation of stur was probably the most interesting of all movements in Slovakia. stur and his followers were not dreamers; they were practical idealists who had the welfare and security of the Slovak people at heart.54 stur's school of thought built the foundation for the independence movement as well. With the help of his co-workers ::;tur's literary school to a great extent fulfilled the function of a political and military leadership, thereby elevating the Slovak people to the cultural level of the rest of Europe. For these achievements stur's progressive pedagogical heritage shall continue to live among us for a long time. His practical and wise suggestions, his courage, his vision, selflessness, his many precedents which could be used and developed in our day serve as an undying example for future generations of Slovaks, inspiring them to work for their country's freedom, independence and recognition. At the same time future generations are challenged to keep alive the flame of the torch which was passed to them by stur's unfaltering hope of a better world on the morrow. Despite stur's comparatively youthful age, his cultural and social activities were many-sided and diversified. Slovaks in the free world can gain much by a study of his works. Because stur and his co-workers were human, they naturally made some mistakes. However, their mistakes were those of the century in which they lived. It behooves us to judge them according to the fruit of their labor, the results of their work which brought a new perspective to the Slovak nation. stur can rightly be numbered among the outstanding European revolutionaries of his time. He was a great apostle of democracy and freedom for all people. The shining light among the Slovaks of the nineteenth century, the formulator of their political and social program, as well as the interpreter of their national desires was ~udovit stur-the Father of modern Slovak nationalism .55 �SLOVAKIA 67 Application of stur's Theories in Subsequent Slovak History The evolution of Slovak national life and the role of ~udovit stur in its development are mutually inclusive. Once one delves into a study of stur's life work, he becomes permanently fascinated with it and cannot be shed the charm of this genial creator of modern national Slovak ideology. stur was endowed with extraordinary creativity and originality of concepts. Only a genius could create works of lasting value which survive long after his death. It is only natural that we return to stur and find support in him. He is an incentive to future generations to do even better things than he did. However, to date, he ranks as one of the most outstanding Slovaks of all time. Slovakia is grateful to many Slovak leaders who sacrificed everything for the nation. But most of these also worked for the realization of the spiritual plan of Slovak life which was spelled out and left to us by stur and his co-workers. They gave expression to the righteous desires of the Slovak nation and became the unsurpassed model in spiritual and civic activity:56 For more than a century, nothing new nor shaking has appeared than that which was expressed by stur for the Slovak nation. Hence it behooves us to return to him, because it is evident that every new and great plan of Slovak life must first pass the aqua regia test of stur's thinking. The aims of the Slovak nation which were conceived by stur are still the criteria of the life of the Slavic people. Whatever counters stur also runs counter to the vital interest of the Slovak nation. stur's words: "Let us not abandon ourselves, Slovak fellow citizens! " is just as timely today as they were in 1845. He was a man ahead of his time. His philosophical views, his democratic thinking, his principles and his social demands are timely, too. It is necessary for our generation to recognize the fact that the Slovaks over one hundred years ago fought to change the political structure of Central Europe, that they demanded a deserved independent status for their nation within the framework of a solid federation built on principles of justice and equity. �68 SLOVAKIA Great ideas may be temporarily suppressed and silenced, but in the end they will triumph. That accounts for the inability of the enemies within and without the Slovak nation to destroy the concept of individuality of the Slovak nation, its language, culture and its right to an independent life. Even today after a lapse of more than a hundred years, this idea is very much alive. Despite the fact that Pan-Slavism did not achieve any notable results during stur's time, it nevertheless had inherent value. For the first time it revealed the Slavic mind to the rest of Europe. This is important in the light of the present role which the Slavs play in Europe today. The Prague Congress too proved significant by reason of the fact it was the first expression of Slavic unity, of Slavic identity, distinct from the Hapsburg rule. It imbued the Slavs with greater courage and confidence and a guide for the future action. Slavdom and the World of Future is today a relatively unknown work, even in the Slavic world. Yet it had exerted great influence on Russian thinking in the 1870's and was a beacon light and incentive to furthering their program and goals. At the time of s tur's death in 1856, the whole Pan-Slavic movement was pretty much a failure. It failed because the very nationalism that it promoted led to its defeat. Pan-Slavism created dissent among the various Slav nations because it pressured national consciousness. The more the people became aware of their individuality, their historical traditions, and their language, the less they wanted to sacrifice them for a non-existent Slav federation . Another hindering factor was the centuries-old and traditional antagonism between the various Slavic nations, such as the Poles and the Russians, Czechs and Slovaks, Croatians and Serbs, prevented any success for a plan that would unite them. Hence Pan-Slavism was hindered from excercising any dominant or stable influence on European thought at that time. 57 For two decades after World War I Pan-Slavism seemed dead. The Western Slavs-the Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, Croatians, Slovenes and Serbs--established their own states in 1918. They looked more to the West than to Moscow for guidance and inspiration. After the German �SLOVAKIA 69 aggression against Soviet Russia in the summer of 1941, Joseph Stalin revived Pan-Slavism for the duration of the war and appealed for the support of all Slavic peoples. The Soviet Union again discarded Pan-Slavism after World War II. It was under the aegis of Communism rather than Pan-Slavism that the U. S. S. R. established control over the Western and Southern Slavic peoples in the post war period. $tur's vision of a unified Slovak cultural, political and social life did not indicate that he was a mere visionary. After a century of struggle there exists a Slovak nation with its own literature and cultural institutions and it is a strongly literate one. There also exists a sound national consciousness and a wholesome social stratification, which is unbalanced only by the unfortunate present Communist regime. The new generation is imbued with a spirit of national and social justice among Central European peoples and constantly resists Communistic ideology, about which £udovit $tur wrote more than a century ago: "Communism not only commits outrageous injustice against all civil society ... it also ruins all personal initiative, endeavor and enthusiasm. It divides the family, it destroys the household and thus it opens wide the door to every type of immorality, dissolution, and indulgence. It degrades· man to bestial level ... "Communism has matured to the same degree as atheism and defection from Christianity . . . In all types of Communism whatever their classification may be, the outlook is only toward a dismal life. It brings in its wake despotism of the grossest kin. It ,shatters all bonds of social living. In place of holy ties, it offers profiteering, rioting and their like." Today when our mighty nation is fighting for freedom of all enslaved and oppressed nations, this freedom must not be overlooked for Slovakia. The Slovaks of today still have the inherent and God given rights to complete freedom as do all other nations. To fight for the freedom of all nations, including Slovakia, is the obligation of all lovers of truth and freedom. The Slovaks have existed and will continue to exist if they live and remember $tur's words: "Let us not abandon ourselves, Slovak fellow citizens!" �70 SLOVAKIA Today a foreign regime in Slovakia is persecuting and crushing all that stlir stood for, because it is above all else concerned with the extermination of the Slovak traditions which in his time Eudovit stur had recreated and reformed in such a manner that they remain in permanent basis of Slovak national development. The spirit of stur lives on! One can kill a man but never the idea he stands for . In history there are myriad examples of movements, faiths and ideologies triumphant "in spite of dungeon, fire and sword." The Slovak nation did not give up the right to live in an independent state even if this state was forcibly liquidated, its rules killed and its adherents persecuted. All this has made the struggle for independence even more imperative, because if the idea was worth dying for, it i~ worth fighting for. More than a century after his death :Cudovit stur is very much alive. His name is often on the lips of his followers and his opponents. Books are written about him, his policies, his philosophy, on both sides of the Iron Curtain by his friends and his enemies. With no perceptible results to show, the situation of the Slovak nation does not look very promising today. The nation is without its state, lives in slavery but also lives in hope. There is strong evidence to indicate a living and vibrant independence movement at home where the Slovaks after an interim of partial independence are convinced that there is no substitute for complete independence. The indeology of :Cudovit stur is the source of strength and belief that independent Slovakia with a government "of the people, by the people, for the people" will re-appear on the map of Europe:58 CONCLUSION The essential part of this study dealt with the assumption that :Cudovit stur and his achievements have long been recognized by the Slovaks, that he is a great national figure and is revered as the "Father of Modern Slovak Nationalism." But what of his place in the history of the Slavs at this time? Looking for stur's place in the Slavic world, after the passing of a century which tested many of his conceptions �SLOVAKIA 71 and achievements, one cannot avoid some purely Slovak cultural and political issues. One cannot help but also agree with Hans Kohn's words that "the Slovak nation with its own literary language, was definitely established."59 stur's manifold activities made this possible. Since Pan-Slavism remained the primary concern of Slavic poets, newsmen, literary scholars, philologists, and historians, Slavic nationalism was far removed from the political plan and was situated in the literary field. These individuals expressed an optimistic belief in man's inevitable progress, in the spiritual rejuvenation which would result in the assurance of liberty, peace and happiness. These visionaries felt that perhaps the Slavs were heralds of a new era. They promised a unified betterment in a future Slavic world. According to his book "Slavdom and the World of the Future" r.udovit stur set out to accomplish four tasks. He wanted an assurance to determine whether the Slavs really had a specific role to fulfill in world history. The Slavic past would yield an affirmative answer, for this certainty was the basis for the entire Pan-Slavic movement. Without doubt, the Slavs were to be the leaders of a "New Europe." Since history is a progression of spent nations being replaced by young and energetic ones, Slavic Emancipation and self-determination would eventually be realized. stur's gift of prophecy and Kollar's poetic vision of one Slav nation, language, and culture as expressed in Kollar's "Daughter of Slavs" ("Slavy dcera"): "What will the Slavs be in a hundred years? What will the whole of Europe come to be? Slav life, just as a mighty flood appears, shall everywhere extend its boundary. The science shall Slav exponents see, our peoples' customs, dress and music on both the Seine and Danube modish be." His second task was to describe the Slavic mission in universal history against the background of the cultural difference between Western and Eastern Europe.60 stur could only visualize the destruction of the peasantry by a moral, political and social dissolution in the West and the culmination of a schism between religion and daily life. The West could do little to help, since it was gradually losing face because of its prodigality. �72 SLOVAKIA Western society and its institutions were not worth the effort of imitation since they were contributing to the downfall of the West. Hence the Slavs could depend only on themselves for existence. Thirdly, Shir presents a highly romantic picture of the Slavic peoples. They are endowed with extraordinary virtue. The West was held accountable for the vices of the Slavs who were presented as being by nature kind, patient, humble, and democratic. These characteristics were typical of all Slavs, but especially the Russians, who were the embodiment of all the best and noblest features of the entire Slav nation. Logically, he concluded, that since the Russians were to be the leaders of the Slavs, they had to be the cream of the Slavic element.61 His last task dealt with the problems of Slavic political unification. If the Slavs were to attain their goal, unity was an absolute necessity. There were three possibilities. The first was a Slavic confederation without Russia, which could never succeed because of internal disputes among multi-Slavic peoples. These nation were of about equal strength, hence the emergence of a leader from these nations was an impossibility. The second was the transformation of Austria into a Slavic Empire. Attempts of this nature had been made before and failed. Shir felt that Austro-Slavism should not be considered. The only alternative left was alliance with Russia. Since she was powerful enough to unite all the Slavic nations, she was the natural leader that was needed. stur was impressed by Russia's power and influence. If Slavic peoples united under Russia, their equal would be second to none in Europe. One wonders how it came that such a decisive document was left to us by stur. Yet under the circumstances with which he had to contend in the 1850's it is not surprising. His primary concern was Slavic Nationalism, and Slavic unity. His interest in Russia came only as a result of this, since he never had any prolonged contact with the Russians, neither had he ever been in Russia. 62 After more than a century's lapse of time Stu.r's big dream of a United Slavic peoples under Russia may yet �SLOVAKIA 73 become a reality, in a strange and unfortunate nature, because of recent political developments in Central and Eastern Europe. Moscow has became a political powerhouse of the Slavic world and Russian leadership has technically materialized. Stu.rs drive and his vision of Slovak cultural, political and social betterment did not prove to be a myth either. There now exists a Slovak nation with its own literature, cultural institutions and almost universal literacy. Its people are nationally conscious and they can boast of sound social stratification, which was recently unbalanced only by the presence of an unwelcome Communist regime. They are proud of their fighting spirit for national and social justice, which was passed on them with the flame of Stu.r's burning torch. There is a constant resistance among them to Communist ideology and this attitude is another legacy of Stu.r's. Over a century ago he said: "Communism not only commits _o utrageous injustices against all civil society ... but it also ruins all personal initiative, endeavor and enthusiasm ... It degrades man to a bestial level ... " 63 Although Pan-Slavism did not achieve notable results during Stu.r's time, it had an inherent value in that it revealed for the first time to the rest of Europe the Slavic mind. This is important in the light of the present role which the Slavs play in Europe. The Prague Congress, too, was the first expression of Slavic unity and identity which was separate from the Hapsburg rule. It also gave the Slavs courage and confidence. Stu.r's book, mentioned earlier in this section, has had a strong influence on Russian thinking in the 1870's and was a forerunner of some later developments. stur and his followers executed their tasks beyond human expectation, for they came upon a scene of history when the situation of the Slovaks under the Magyars in Hungary seemed truly hopeless. The significance of Eudovit stur in the evolution and revival of Slovak national life is tremendous and far. reaching. His role as a reformer of the Slovak literary language greatly contributed to Slovak national ideology. It gave his people a new vision and perspective of political �74 SLOVAKIA freedom and of a better future. By his example and writings he provided a strong impetus to Slovak life in general. stur rightfully belongs with Jan Kollar and Pavol J. safarik to the Slovaks of the nineteenth century who are regarded as great figures of the Slavic world, since Slovakia and its people are part of the Slavic world. All three found willing echo in all the Slavic peoples. As Hans Kohn states: "They were imbued in the familiar mood of the period, a general belief in historical progress, in a bright future, in the advent of some great spiritual manifestation, of a new era for mankind, which would establish for ever the basis of liberty, peace, and happiness."64 (Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in History at Marywood College.) FOOTNOTES 1) Jan V. Ormis, Bibliografia Uudovita Stura ("Stur's Bibliography") (Turc. Sv. Martin: Matica Slovenska, 1958), p. 8. 2) Jaroslav Vlcek, Mala Ruko vat' literarno-historicka (A small Hanpbook of Literary History") (Turc. Sv. Martin: Matica Slovenska, 1932). p. 195. 3) Jan V. Ormis, Bibliografia Uu,dovita Stura ("Stur's Bibliography") (Turc Sv. Martin: Matica Slovenska, 1958), p. 199. 4) Ibid., p. 199. 5) Marian Ziar, "Stur" Father of Modern Slovak Nationalism." Slovakia, March, 1956, pp. 8-9. 6) Philip A. Hrobak, "Stur and the Slovak Independence Movement," Slovakia, September-December, 1956, p. 39. 7) Karol Golan, "Sturove reci na slovanskom sjazde roku 1848," ("Stur's Lectures at the Slavic Congress of 1848,") Slovak Views, AugustSeptember, 1936, p. 422. 8) Henrich Bartek, "Our Tradition and Louis Stur," Slovakia, June, 1956, p. 7. 9) Jan Ormis, Bibliografia Uudovita Stura ("Stur's Bibliography") (Turc. Sv. Martin : Matica Slovenska, 1958) , p. 199. 10) Jaroslav Vlcek, Dejiny literatury slovenskej (History of Slovak Literature") Turciansky Sv. Martin: Matica Slovenska, 1923), p. 184. 11) St. Osusky, Filozofia Sturovcov ("Sturist Philosophy") (Myjava: Typ. Daniel Pazicky, 1926), p. 10. 12) Uudovit Bakos, Uul:iovit 5tiir (Bratislava: Vydavatel'stvo Slovenskej Akademie Vied, 1957 ), p. 34. 13 ) . Ibid., p. 50. 14) Seton-Watson, R. H., A History of the Czechs and Slovaks. (London : Archon Books, 1943), p. 260. 15) John cajak, Second Slovak History ("Bejepis Slovakov") (Pennsylvania-Pittsburgh: National News, 1914), p. 97. �SLOVAKIA 75 16) Marian .Ziar, "Stur: Father of Modern Slovak Nationalism," Slovakia, March, 1956, p. 6. 17) Henrich Bartek, " Our Tradition and Uudovit Stur," Slovakia, June 1956, p. 4. 18) Joseph Kirschbaum, UU/dovit Stur and His Place in the Slavic World (Cleveland: The Slovak Institute, 1958), p. 14. 19 ) R. H. Seton-Watson, A History of the Czechs and Slovaks (London: Arc hon Books, 1943), PP- 260-261. 20) John cajak, "Slovak History" ("Dejepis Slovakov") (Pittsburgh: National News, 1914), p. 97. 21 ) Joseph Kirschbaum, "Uudovit Stu!· and His Place in the Slavic World," Slovakia, March, 1958. 22) Francis Hrusovsky, "Point of No Return," This is Slovakia (Scranton: Obrana Press, 1954), p. 46. 23) Joseph Kirschbaum, "Uudovit Stur in His Place in the Slavic World." (Cleveland: Slovak Institute, 1958) , p. 20. 24) Ibid., pp. 20-21. 25) Ibid., p. 28. 26 ) Thomas Capek, The Slovaks of Hungary (New York: Knickerbocker Press, 1906) , pp. 22-23. 27) Joseph Skultety, Sto Dvadsat' Pat' Rokov zo Slovenskeho .Zivota. 1790-1914. ("One Hundred Twenty-five Years of Slovak History") Turc. Sv. Martin: Knih. -Ocast., 1920), p. 44. 28) Ibid., p. 46. 29 ) Ibidem., p. 46. 30) Joseph Kirschbaum. "Louis Stur Centenial" Slovakia, March, 1956. (Middletown ) p. 8. 31) Marian .Ziar, "Stur: Father of Modern Slovak Nationalism," Slovakia, March, 1956, pp. 8-9. 32) Joseph Kirschbaum , Uudovit Stur and His Place in the Slavic World," (Cleveland: The Slovak Institute, 1958), p. 23. 33) Michael B. P e trovich. The Emergence of Russian Pan-Slavism. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1956), pp. 18-19. 34) Suzanne Mikula, "Uudovit Stur a~d the Pan-Slavic Movement," Slovakia, 1966, pp. 106-107. 35) Henrich Bartek, "Our Tradition and Uudovit Stur," Slovakia, June, 1956, pp. 7-8. 36 ) Thomas Capek. The Slovaks of Hungacy (New York: Knickerbocker Press, 1906) , pp. 70-71. 37) Ibid., p. 71. 38) Seton-Watson. History of the Czechs and Slovaks (London : Archon Books, 1943) , p. 162. 39) Suzanne Mikula. "Uudovit Stur and the Pan-Slavic Movement," Slovakia, 1966, pp. 109-110. 40 ) Ibid., p. 110. 41) Ibid., p. 110. 42) Joseph Kirschbaum. Uu)dovit Mur and His Place in the Slavic World (Cleveland: Slovak Institute, 1958), pp. 8-9. 43 ) Suzanne Mikula, "Uudovit Stur and the Pan..Slavic Movement," Slovakia, 1966, pp. 110-111. �76 SLOVAKIA 44) Michael Petrovich, "l!udovit Stur and Russian Pan-Slavism," Journal of Central European Pan-Slavism, 1952, p. 6. 45) Hans Kohn, "Pan-Slavism," Encyclopedia International, XIX, 44-45. 46) Ibid., pp. 44-45. 47) ACEN statement, September 20, 1954. 48) Jan V. Ormis, Bibliografia I!udovita Stura ("Bibliography of I!udovit Stur") (Turc. Sv. Martin: Matica Slovenska, 1958), pp. 198-199. 49) Philip Hrobak, "Stur and the Slovak I'*-1ependence Movement," Slovakia (Sept., Dec., 1956), p. 38. 50) Jan Ormis. Bibliografia L'udovita Stura ("Stur's Bibliography") (Turc. Sv. Martin: Matica Slovenska, 1958), p. 199. 51) Francis Vnuk, Dr. Jozef Tiso. (Sydney: Orbis Printing Co. pty. Ltd., 1967), pp. 5-6. 52) Francis Hrusovsky, "This Is Slovakia," Slovakia, 1969, pp. 91-92. 53 ) Karol Sidor, Andrej Hlinka (Bratislava: 1934), p. 198. 54) Joseph Pauco, "Stur's Group in -the Service of the People," Slovakia, March, 1956, pp. 12-15. 55 ) Marian .Ziar, "Stur: Father of Modern Slovak Nationalism," Slovakia , March, 1956, pp. 10-11. 56) Henrich Bartek, Our Tradition and Louis Stur," Slovakia, June, 1956, pp. 3-4. 57) Suzanne Mikula, "l!udovit Stur and the Pan-Slavic Movement," Slovakia, 1966, p. 113. 58 ) Frantisek Vnuk, Dr. Jozef Tiso, (Sidney: Orbis Printing and Publishing Co., Pty Ltd., 1967), p. 43. 59) Hans Kohn, "Pan-Slavism, Its History a'*-1 Ideology," (University of Notre Dame Press, 1953), p. 21. 60 ) Suzanne Mikula, "I!uldovit Stur and the Pan-Slavic Movement,·• Slovakia, p. 111, 1966. 61) Ibid., p. 112. 62) Ibid., p. 112. 63) Joseph Kirschbaum , I!udovit Stur and His Place in the Slavic Wor~:i (Cleveland: Slovak Institute, 1958), p. 26. 64) Hans Kohn, "Pan-Slavism, Its History and Ideology," (Indiana : University of Notre Dame Press), p. 22. 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("The Slovaks and Their Language.") Budapest: C. A. Kr. Dvornej Knihtlac Victoria Horney Anskeho, 1903, pp. 25-42. Golan, Karol. Revolucne Pokolenie 1848-1849. ("The Revolutionary Generation 1848-1849.") Myjava: Daniel Pazisko, 1926, pp. 91-94. Hqdal, Juraj. Jan Holly. Trnava: Spolok sv. Vojtecha, 1923, pp. 91-94. Hrobak, .Philip. Czechoslovakia. Middletown: Jednota Press, 1958, .p. 17. Hrusovsky, Francis. This Is Slovakia. Scranton: Obrana Press, 1954, pp. 42-47. Hurban, Jozef M. r.udovit Stur. Turc. Sv. Martin: Matica Slovenska, 1928, pp. 7-216. Kacka, Jozef. Dejiny Slovenskej Literatury. ("History of Slovak Literature.") Ruzomberok: Lev, 1928, pp. 36-39. Kalal, Karol. Dejiny Slovenska ("History of Slov,alda.") Turc. Svaty Martin: Matica Slovenska, 1916, .pp. 89-105. Kirschbaum, Joseph. Nas Boj o Samostatnost' Slovenska. ("Our Struggle for Slovak Independence.") Cleveland: Slovak Institute, 1968, pp. 292-324. Kohn, Hans. Hapsburg Empire 1804-1918. An Anvil Original. Princeton: K. Vian Nostrand Company, 1961, pp. 65-95. Medvecky, Karol A. Slovensky Prevrat. ("The Slovak Revolution.") I-IV: 4 vols. Trnava: Spolok sv. Vojtecha, 1930-1931. Mraz, Andrej. Jozef Skultety. Turc. Sv. Martin: Matica Slovenska, 1933, p. 7. Novak, Uuldovit. Jazykovedne Glosy k Ceskoslovenskej Otazke. ("Linguistic Sounds of the Czecho-Slovak Question.") Turc. Sv. Martin: Matica Slovenska, 1935, p. 233. Oddo, Gilbert. Slovakia and Its People. New York: Robert Spelle,r and Sons, 1960, pp. 108-204. Ormis, Jan. Bibliografia E,udovita Stura. ("L'udovit Stur and His Bibliography.") Turc. Sv. Martin: Matica Slovenska, 1958, pp. 3-201. Pauco, Jozef. r.udovychova u Sturovcov. ("Popular Education among the Sturists.") Turc. Sv. Martin: Matica Slovenska, 1943, pp. 5-11. Pauliny, Heinrich. Dejiny Spisovnej Slovenciny. ("History of Literary Slovak.") Bratislava: Slovenska Akademia, 1948, p. 393. Petrovich, Michael B. The Emergence of Russia Pan-Slavism 1856-1870. New York: Columbia University Press, 1956, p. 18. Porubsky, Jan. K Ste-mu Vyrociu Literarnej Slovenciny 1856-1944. ("The One Hundredth Year of Literary Slovak." ) Scranton: Obrana Press, 1944, pp. 154-166. Ruppelt, Fedor. Koncentracne Snahy Slovenske. ("Concentrated Slovak Endeavors.") Turc. Sv. Martin: Knihtlaciarsky a Ucastinarsky Spolok, 1928, pp. 64-71. Skultety, Jozef. Sketches from Slovak History. Middletown: Jednota Press, 1930, pp. 183-186. Sto Dvadsat' Pat' Rokov zo Slovenskeho tivota 1790-1914. ("One �78 SLOVAKIA Hundred Twenty-five Years of Slovak History." ) Turc. Sv. Martin: Knihtlaciarsky -Ocast. Spolok, 1920, pp. 31-65. Vlcek, Jaroslav. Dejiny Literatury Slovenskej. ("History of Slovak Literature." ) Turc. Sv. Martin: Matica Slovenska, 1932, pp. 194-204. Mala Rukoviit' Literarno-Historicka. ("A Small Handbook of Literary History.") Turc. Sv. Martin: Matica Slovenska, 1932, pp. 194-204. Wagner, J;udovit. Slovensky Plutarch. (" Slovak Plutarch.") Nove Mesto naid Vahom: Jan Trnovsky, 1920, pp. 27-30. Address-Published Kirschbaum , Joseph M. 13udovit Stur and His Place in the Slavic World. An Address to the Annual Meeting of the Canadian Association of Slavists on June 9, 1957, at the University of Ottawa, Canada. Periodicals Bartek, Henrich. " Our Tradition and J;udovit Stur." Slovakia, June, 1956, pp. 3-10. Bue, Bonaventure. " Conflicts of Slovak Nationalism. " Slovakia, June , 1958, pp. 1-17. Hrobak, Philip. "Stur and the Slovak Independence Movement." Slova• kia, September-December, 1956, pp. 34-39. Kir schbaum, Joseph. "Independence and the Slovak Past." Slovakia, March, 1957, pp. 44-53 . "Louis Stur Centennial." Slovakia, March, 1956, pp. 3-6. 'Misconceptions of American Slavists." Slovakia, March-June, 1962, pp. 25-43 . "The Slovak Language and Its Place Among the Slavic Languages." ' Slovakia, 1966, pp. 1-17. Mikula, Suzanne. "!;udovit Stur and the Pan-Slavic Movement." Slovakia, 1966, pp. 104-115. Pauco, Joseph. "Stu.r's Group in the Service of the People." Slovakia, March, 1956, pp. 11-15. Rekem, John. "The Origin and Development of the Slovak Language ." Slovakia, March-April, 1962, pp. 1-13. 2iar, Marian. "Stur: Father of Mqdern Slovak Nationalism." Slovakia, March, 1956, pp. 6-11. Banik, Anthony A. "Posledni Zastancovia Spi:sovnej Cestiny." (The Last Supporters of the Literary Czech Language.") Sbornik LiterarnoV edeckeho Odboru SSV., 1935, pp. 18-35. Horak, Juraj . "Sturova Kniha o Narqdnych Piesnach a Povestiach Plemien Slovanskych." ('Stu.r's Book on Naitional Hymns and Slavic Popular Tales.") Sbornik Matice Slovenskej, January-February, 1923, pp. 97-128. Vlcek, Jaroslav. "Povodina Sturovho Spisu o Narodnych Povestiach Slovanskych." ("Stu.r's Original Writings on Slavic National Tales.") Sbornik Matice Slovenskej, pp. 58-63. Unpublished Material McCoy, Sheila Marie, Sister. 'The School of Stur," (Unpublished Thesis) Cabrini College, 1965. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1971, Vol. 21 Description An account of the resource Vol. 21 (No. 44), 1971. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1971 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document 20 SLOVAKIA Political Views of 11udovit St(u Sister M. Delphina Opet, SS. C. M. INTRODUCTION Since this study will concern itself with :Cudovit $tur, the inspiration of modern national Slovak ideology, it may be beneficial first of all to review the life story of the man and then to consider his work and influence. Though his life was all too short, stur was a key figure in the Slovak national movement of the second third of the nineteenth century. He was heir to the cultural, political and social endeavors of his predecessors, and he developed his natural gifts to attain the strength, courage and vision, which it took to launch movements toward realizing a vital national organization on behalf of his people. Without these natural and acquired gifts, stur could hardly have been effective in his work toward attaining independence in Slovak national life and the pursuit of culture. His greatest merits lie in the fact that he assumed the historical challenge to unite the fragmented multicultural powers of the Slovaks into a liberation front against Hungarian oppressors. His contemporaries attributed to stur an almost legendary but realistic aura even during his lifetime. It was said of him that he had a magnetic personality, that his very presence bespoke patriotism and a vibrant national spirit. Worthy of specific mention is at least one evaluation by William Pauliny-T6th: "He is an extraordinary figure-a manifestation, as it were, of a leader charged to create a new epoch in the history of the Slovak nation." His young collaborator, Jozef M. Hurban, devoted to stur a commemorative and comprehensive monograph which was published in the first issue of the revitalized "Slovenske pohl'ady" (Slovak Views) . In his history of Slovak literature published in 1890, the literary critic and historian Jaroslav Vlcek rated stur as the central figure of the Romantic generations, even though he did not see SLOVAKIA 21 in stur's poetry the merit which it rightly deserves. Criticism of stur was not wanting, but it did not detract from stur's merits or stature at all.1 This fiery patriot was born in Zay-Uhrovec, on the twentyninth of October, 1815. He was one of five children. His father was an elementary school teacher and a rigid disciplinarian both at school and at home. His mother's was a gentle and loving nature. The stur family home breathed a peaceful atmosphere graced with poetry. The natural surroundings of his boyhood, with their profusion of beauty and natural grandeur influenced stur's outlook on life. It was very likely here and because of his environment that his aesthetic taste developed to a remarkable degree. Leopold Petz, a Lutheran pastor, was his first teacher in the gymnasium at Rab. He kindled the glow of national consciousness and patriotism in stur's unfolding mind and animated his spirit with keen appreciation for the richness of his mother tongue. He also made him aware of the rightful place of the Slovaks in the Slavic world and of the potential concentrated within the new generation. After two years at Rab, stur continued his studies at the Lutheran Lyceum in Bratislava.2 Here stur and a memorable group of similarly ardent young men with him (Hurban, Hodza, Francisci, Sladkovic, Chalupka, et. al.) , were schooled under the powerful influence of seasoned literary personalities who were still devoted to fostering at least some forms of Czecho-Slovak orientation. It was around the chair of Czecho-Slovak language arts held by Juraj Palkovic that the Czecho-Slovak Society, later known as the Institute of Language and Literature, was formed. 3 stur was undeniably a talented leader who devoted himself first of all to lecturing on Slovak grammar, literature and history. He devoted much time and thought to Slovak national poetry, especially to works dealing with the themes of Great Moravia, Svatopluk, and the Slavic Apostles, Saints Cyril and Methodius. To the eager young members of the Czecho-Slovak Society, he spoke of Slavism, of the hardships and injustices heroically endured by Slav peoples over long centuries, and of the great responsibility 22 SLOVAKIA committed to the younger generation. He pointed out to them some possible means toward a better future and fanned their hopes for the building of a glorious large Slavic family. He made every effort to destroy all roots of doubt, pessimism, and prejudice, those divisive forces that plagued Slavic families of nations and fragmented their efforts toward unity. His aims for establishing a standard language for Slovak literary expression were not purely liiterary. Since Slovak national life was closely connected with literary expression, it bore a vigorous sense of purpose. Stu.r's prime objective was to unite the Slovak people culturally, politically and socially. A universally adopted standard language would greatly advance this couse. Granted, he suffered many reversals, but a wakened spirit cannot be stilled. As authorities intervened to support his Slavic group meetings at the Lyceum, new literary group in other places formed in their stead. The strain of the struggle to resist oppression in student centers left stur physically exhausted; spiritually, however, he remained strong and vigorous and indomitable. In 1838 stur left his center of Slovak literary activity in Bratislava and went to Halle, Germany. His courses of study at Halle strongly affected his theoretical foundations adding depth and fuller meaning to all his later activities. He learned to favor much in Hegelian thought, the theories advocated by a German idealist philosophy. This experience created a mental revolution in Stu.r's objectives and philosophy. It was, first of all a dialectical style of thinking which brought to naught all concept of a final validity in the results of human thinking and activity. This doctrine maintains that all is involved in a process of development, all is being perpetually transformed and changed, proceeding from a lower to a higher stage. It also maintains that human history is a steady process of development of this kind, as stur put it, an "uninterrupted chain."4 stur was not simply an unquestioning disciple of Hegelian philosophy, as is often said of him. Together with several other thinkers of his generation, he formed an independent philosophical school which exerted farreaching influence and excelled in originality of thought. SLOVAKIA 23 stur's excellent book, "sturova filozofia zivota" ("stur's Philosophy of life"), embodies his philosophical conceptions. Though his propositions in general are original, stur's underlying ideas were greatly influenced by Hegel. He was motivated by the idea that national unity is strongly furthered by means of common language which gives rise to mutual understanding. After his return from Germany, stur set out in 1843 to establish a distinctive literary Slovak language which he boldly promoted. Its basis was the central Slovak dialect which he considered the last contaminated by neighboring or foreign influence. He realized also the need for a common political effort; Kollar's reciprocity was not enough. He spared no pains to achieve a social and national awakening of the Slovak people. In a sense, stur completed the work that Bernolak, the first codifier of literary Slovak, had begun in 1787. On his return from Germany stur became an assistant professor in the Pressburg (Bratislava) Lyceum. As he lectured in the department of history, students flocked to him with undivided attention, for this dynamic young professor had a wealth of attainable ideals to offer. But chauvinistic authorities viewed this influence with anxiety. In 1844, stur lost his post as Deputy Professor because the Magyar government began to tighten its political controls on Slovakia and found stur's flaming Slovak ardor a threat to its interests. When he was dismissed, many students left the Pressburg Lyceum in protest and continued their studies elsewhere. The Bratislava incident did not intimidate stur; as a matter of fact, it only stimulated him to press on. He kept in close touch with his patriotic adherents. Because the ground was fertile and properly prepared for a national change, stur was able to do the apparently impossible. He strongly voiced the long repressed aspirations and justified rights of the Slovaks, he formulated the demands of his people. 13udovit stur's publications of an article titled "Zaloby a ponosy Slovakov v Uhorsku" ("The Charges and Complaints of the Slovaks in Hungary") which appeared in Leipzig in 1843 which exposed the chief inspector of the 24 SLOVAKIA Lutheran Church and schools because of his measure to magyarize Slovaks for political gain became a sensation. The Slovaks had been resisting magyarization quietly but effectively; now, however, they were determined to secure an independent political status within the framework of the Hapsburg Empire. All petitions and demands presented in Vienna and in the Hungarian Diet in Bratislava were prompted by the following statement by stur: "We seek no rights established on favor, but we demand our rights on the basis of inherent right." These words became the underlying proposition on which were based all the subsequent petitions and demands of the Slovak leaders for equal rights. Stu.r's debates and controversies with Kossuth, the Slovak renegade, stemmed from this moral and democratic principle. He demanded "peace based on just rights and mutual understanding" declaring: "In the paper, Pesti Hirlap, Kossuth is fighting for equality of rights, but in the Diet he advocates orders to investigate and punish those who define and seek their rights ... That is Kossuth's concept of freedom and liberalism."5 stur continues to express his thoughts in writing. In 1844, after three years of waiting, he was granted permission to publish the periodical "Slovenske narodne noviny" ("The Slovak National News") through which he was resolved to defend the rights of the Slovak people. The supplement of the periodical was "Orol tatransky" ("The Tatra Eagle"). Both were widely supported and endorsed by all classes of people, for the Slovak public rejoiced in the realization that this publication was in itself a great step forward in their struggle. stur, too, was gratified. His program for action toward achieving ultimate freedom was a realistic one. He gave credit where it was due yet he did not hesitate to denounce the shortcomings of his people. His editorials defended not only the purity of the Slovak language, but also the recognition of the inherent rights of the Slovak nation-rights that affected all their levels of national freedom: political, literary, social, economic, etc. His exhortations are as timely today as they were in 1845: "Let us not yield, Slovak countrymen. Higher is the cause of the entire nation, higher is the cause of the SLOVAKIA 25 whole than of the individual person, and even the individual harm us, the cause itself does not do so. But with us thus far, it has been so that individuals offended by our people, immediately abandoned the cause itself ... "6 stur's periodicals served their purpose effectively for three years, uniting the people, teaching and enlightening them and encouraging them during one of the most crucial periods of their history. This was almost too good to be true. When the Magyars began to realize what these publications were doing for the Slovak people, fanning the flames of Slovak patriotism to the detriment of Magyar hegemony, they raised an alarm and put in action measures to have them confiscated or proscribed. Despite this suppression, however, much of stur's purpose was already achieved. The Slovak people were nationally awakened. They were conscious of a cause and of an obligation to defend it. Most of this new stirring never would have been realized without stur's activities and publications. The codification of a literary language, which was perfected and universally adopted, concretized the efforts and fond aspir,a tions and hopes nurtured by Slovak literary leaders in bygone generations. I'..udovit stur knew that the times were ripe for the Slovak people to appear on the national scene of history as an independent political entity. No language, except their own Slovak language could move the people to political affectiveness. For this reason, stur chose to advocate the central-Slovak dialect as a political and literary instrument. stur was a deputy from Zvolen at the Presporok (Pressburg - Bratislava) Assembly in 1847-1848. In official sessions he spoke out honestly and courageously about the injustice of disregarding the protest of the subjugated peoples against enforced Magyarization. He also felt dutybound to advocate the equality of all people and sought the liberation of subjugated nations at the Hungarian Diet. The firm stand which stur took became a turning point in Slovak-Hungarian history. At the Slav Congress in Prague in 1848, stur and safarik defined the political aspirations of the Congress. safarik's view was prophetic, while stur made clear the 26 SLOVAKIA political program of the immediate present: "Our aim should be to preserve ourselves. First of all, we must serve the best interests of our own people and secondarily of others. Thus far Austria has flourished, but we have been declining and perishing. What would be the judgment of the world if we were to s tand for nothing but the preservation of Austria? Let us proclaim that we desire to stand as independent Slovanic communities within the government of Austria."7 stur was far ahead of his day, in visualizing a program to federalize Central Europe. According to Bartek, s tur was not a rebel. As long as there was evidence of national agreement with the Magyars, he was not for the destruction of the Hungarian State. He did warn the Magyar ruling class that it could not forever ignore and suppress the inherent rights of subject nationalities and exploit the Slavs of Hungary without expecting them to strike back with righteous demands for a free national life, for the very rights which the Magyars had resolved to defend for themselves in the Hapsburg Empire. 8 When all these representatio ns and demands continued to be ignored, only then did stur and his group decide to lead the Slovaks to revolt against the Magyar intolerance in 1848. The Slovaks were fully aware of Kossuth's ultimatum declaring that whatever rights they claimed to have in the kingdom they would have to secure with sword in hand. There was no alternative now except to resort to arms. The torch of national consciousnes s carried by s tur and his group became a beacon light in Slovakia's struggle for freedom. Though revolt was crushed and betrayed by Vienna, it stands as a milestone in Slovak history. The tragic reversal of the revolutionary attempt did not affect the leadership or the stature of ~udovit stur in the estimation of others. The Hungarian revolution paid dearly for its national intolerance. It too suffered in a common defeat. Kossuth was forced into exile. stur and his group were under constant police surveillance, and many were their thrilling escapes from police snares and power. A tragic death during a hunting event in January 1856 SLOVAKIA 27 brought stur's life to an untimely end. He died according to his own predictions in which he had foreseen an analogy of his death in the death of Julius Caesar. Some Slavs considered him a setting star but actually he is a brilliant morning star marking a better day in the history of the Slavic world. We return to stur to evaluate his work in the light of today's standards when, after the passing of a hundred years, the Slovaks are building on this foundation laid by stur and his school of thought, the promise of hope fulfilled-if only a new power from the East did not frustrate the effort. Just as stur repudiated and condemned the hegemony of the Magyars, so the Slovaks today rebel against Communist domination and occupation. 13udovit stur's spirit lives on even though an Iron Curtain creates physical bariers to liberty. GERMAN PHILOSOPHICAL INFLUENCE ON STVR Among stur's earliest academic interests were the areas of linguistics, philosophy, history and literature. To pursue these in depth and to broaden his education, he decided to study at Halle University in Germany. It was in 1838 that he came to Halle as a twenty-three year old student-a gifted energetic man of large vision and great moral strength. He had been held in high repute at home and exerted notable influence among his peers. At Halle, he was an utter stranger in a big unknown world, and the weight of the strangeness that closed in upon him was of more than mere physical and social order. University life in Germany was at this time strongly influenced by the spirit and theories of Hegel. German thought and academic preoccupation bore upon the topic of races. Yet this was in a day when the concept of race, as such, was not even properly formulated. The Germans tended to construct entire systems of philosophy and humanistic theory centered on the concept of race at a period when formal anthropology was just emerging. Fundamental misconceptions of race overtook not only historical scholars but also philosophers of history like Hegel. His philosophical system meant on the one hand, equating the Prussian state with the prime law of men 28 SLOVAKIA and, on the other, constituting materialism as the ideal of men and of nations. Exposed to this stress of innovation which was spread throughout scholarly circles by a ready press and which was further generally publicized by novelists and writers of all sorts, stur did not escape acquaintance with these false principles and this false philosophy of life was what contaminated all Central Europe. Fresh from the schools of Bratislava, he was not yet adequately prepared to discern authentic philosophic truth from political propaganda; nevertheless, he instinctively sensed the need to withhold complete acquiescence with Hegel. He tried to come to terms with much of Hegel but by the very fact that stur placed the moral and spiritual values of men as top priorities he put himself at odds with some Hegelian principles. stur's courses of study at Halle deepened his perspectives even as life in Germany provided him with countless new impressions-views of life and the world, concepts and ideas in general. From the German idealistic philosophy, even as from Hegel, its chief representative, stur adopted some new theories which resulted in a mental revolution. First among these was the aspect of dialectical thinking which brought to naught his previous conceptions of a final validity of the results of human thinking and activity. This doctrine maintains that all is in process of development. All is being transformed and changed and proceeds from a lower to a higher stage. It affirms that human history is a process by which the Absolute Spirit unfolds, a "chain uninterrupted" in stur's words. 9 Hegel conceives of history as a process involving dialectical oppositions revaluating into a higher content of historical being. Freedom as an essential of history becomes an absolute necessity. Hegel's philosophy of history strongly took hold of stur's mind at this point. The world seemed to be created for jjudovit stur. He reveled in the thought of its systematic, architectural classification, its universality embracing all the dreams of the human spirit, its justice toward nations, all its sources of learning, its versatile penetration of all doctrine--all this bore upon him so overwhelming flood. 10 SLOVAKIA 29 The wealth of views offered by Hegel's philosophy opened up an idealistic world of envisioned by spiritual concept of nations and not construed from previous assumptions. It provided a new vista into the domains of the rights of nations among which there existed the future tribunal of Slavic nations, too, and led stur to the realms of Christian idealism. stur's spirit was reanimated. The receptive soil of his mind was enriched with fertility for the germination of his own conceived seed. The Germanic world's new concept of views regarding world history in politics, religion and sociology at this time impressed and inspired stur more strongly than it had heretofore affected any other candidate from Slovak academies. When stur returned to his native land, he returned as a Slav, but foremost as a Slovak returned into the ranks of his confused and puzzled friends and countrymen. He brought radical concepts to the rational school and to liberal life. These concepts characteristically dealt mainly with the Slovak past, present and future, for he brought from Germany a wide and rich source of philosophical and economic knowledge as well as a firm determination to devote his life to the task of national development. stur translated Hegel's philosophy into Slovak only insofar as he accepted his concepts, for stur was a realist in his approaches to the phenomena of life. 11 In his studies at Halle, Germany, stur was also spiritually revived. He left the university imbued with strong tendencies for the policies of Kollar and safarik. He was, however, an ardent Slovak by conviction rather than by accident of birth as was their lot. He was an ardent, tireless worker. The versatility of his talents and the needs of his country brought him to the fore successively as an orator, a writer, a journalist, a politician and a soldier. Both his friends and enemies proclaimed him the most remarkable champion of Slovak rights since the days of Matthew Oak. r.udovit stur is sometimes accused of blindly accepting Hegel's philosophy and applying it to Slovak and Slavic life indiscriminately. It must be remembered, however, that political and national controversy existing at that time made it difficult, if not impossible to evaluate Slovak 30 SLOVAKIA philosophy correctly. Granted that stur manifests a dependance on Hegel and contemporary German philosophers, still to present him in this light alone--as his opponents have done--seems to be a distortion. According to cyzevski, a former professor of Halle, stur and his followers were significant for philosophic thought in general. He goes on to say that stur's generation included several thinkers who tried to create their own philosophical system, and who in these times, excelled among all Slovanic nations in originality of thinking in philosophy. cyzevski elucidated his point in the scholarly book Stur's Philosophy of Life in which he clearly points out that stur was not a simple student and advocate of Hegel's philosophy, but that he formed his own independent philosophical system, one which in many ways differed from Hegel's. cyzevski refutes the charge that: 1. stur was a simple student of Hegel's; 2. that his philosophical views were those of contemporary romantic philosophy. stur differed from Hegel in his approach to life's phenomena which he found realistic. Prior to his studies at Halle, stur had cultivated genuine national convictions which were anchored upon Herder's humanistic thought together with messianic dreams that were to glorify the future of the Slavs. These convictions enabled him to take a critical stand in regard to some of Hegel's ideals though he held Hegel in high esteem. On the other hand, Hegel's dynamic view of history matched stur's ideas and provided a justification of his thoughts concerning the Slavic world, especially his views of the historical development of the world history of nations comprising the Slavic world. Because of the influences of the Kollar-Herder conceptions of the historical mission of the Slavs, stur did not fully agree with Hegel in his concept of the absolute States of Germany and Prussia, for in these Hegel saw the completion of historical development. From the viewpoint of theology stur here saw in Hegel's philosophy definite dangers of pantheism. An authentic view of stur's attitude toward Hegel's philosophy is best provided from a personal letter which he wrote to Samo Bohdan Hrobon. In it he quotes from Hrobo:n's poem, in which he sees or perceives from a religious viewpoint, the shortcoming of Hegel's philosophy: SLOVAKIA 31 Povez mi pisani! kde hledat spaseni? Na svete marnem, cili v pravde vecne? Cili v kouzelne prajine zpomneni? Cili v krase, lasce nekonecne ... ? Ach kam jsi zmisel svete me mladosti? Kam se rozplynul Buh otec milosti? Nenit ho vice! Usychejte kvety! Dechnite duse! do propasti svety! Nebot jiz umrel ten zakon vecnosti, Ze vlas sa nehne bez povedomosti. Tell me, 0 Poet, where to seek salvation? In the temporal world or in eternal truth? In the respective countries' pulpits? In beauty, in undying charity ... ? 0 where has disappeared the world of my youth? Where has vanished God the Father of Mercy? He is no longer? 0 wither away, ye flowers! Die, ye souls! until the world's end! Fear not for eternal laws have decreed That not a hair shall move without His knewing. 12 Hrobofl's next poem is encouraging and indicates that the religious home training and strength of Slavic convictions are more forceful than Hegel's philosophical doctrines: Zijet duse ma a zit bude vecne jit zadna bure, zaden boj nezlomi prave ponad ni s tisicmi hromy Jako stin lahky v uzase preleti mec obosecny Hegelove vedy. Duse ma citem plamennym roztopi Mee ten, do prichu padne zahanbeny. Mee ten v nicote jak stin se rozplyne Pred bleskom vecnym bozskeho nadseni! Antheus slaviansky Herkula porazi! My soul lives and will live forever Neither revolutions nor war shall ever break its spirit Directly above myriads of thunderbolts it soars, 32 SLOVAKI A Like a thin wall will crumble in confusio n The two-edge d sword of Hegel's doctrine. My soul senses a burning flame within it Melting away that sword that must fall in dust and shame As a wall crumblin g in disgrace, Before the divine lightning of eternal elan With which the Slavic Antheus Will destroy a vaunting Hercules . Both poems bear heavily the weight of tension and conflict which the sturists experienc ed because of their selective ness in analyzing and sponsori ng aspects of Hegel's philosoph y. In the first poem, stur expressly discourag es the publicizi ng of the new philosop hy for fear that the time is not right and many may be complete ly misled by Hegel. He advocate d that his followers benefit by the worthy gifts of the great mind of Hegel and accept his philosoph y only with due reservati ons; that they revamp it to meet the need of the Slavs. stur emphasiz ed the inevitabl e depth of philosoph ical studies to which Slavic youth would have to devote itself. Moreove r, he took a critical stand and used the German philosop hic system modified accordin g to his views regarding Slavdom and moral principle . Hegel's philosoph ical view became an impetus to stur in his compilat ion and formulat ion of lectures on Slavic history and poetry .13 In 1840 stur returned from Halle to Bratislav a where he was assigned to the chair of Slovak Studies in Language and Literatur e, succeedin g Palkovic in this post. Adequate ly to understa nd the nature of this assignme nt, it is importan t to realize the kind of world in which he was to teach. To say that it was riddled with rank feudalism is all too simple a generaliz ation. Far truer it is to realize that stur came to a land where the Slovaks were held in abyssmal serfdom, in an invincibl e vise of economic , moral, intellectual, spiritual and national bondage. It was the kind of situation in which misery bred misery, usually in such forms as alienatio n, alcoholis m, desperati on, extreme dehumaniz ation of the individua l and loss of personal dignity. SLOVAKIA 33 - -- - - - - -- -- - - - - -- - - - - - - - Unmitigated serfdom was reducing the Slovak into stultified begger stricken with hunger and penury. Denied schooling and spiritual enlightenmen t he was all too readily becoming a prey to superstitious folly and to grossness. The three-fourths who lorded it over the onefourth that was condemned to pay all the land truces ever collected in the region saw to it that their victims had no outlook at all for better things to come-either economically or intellectually or in anyway whatever. The Slovak element enjoyed no public community life as such and even though some attempts had been made to root cultural interests and to rouse the people to national life (such as the organizations at Trnava, Bratislava, Banska Bystrica and Budapest), they were doomed to short-term existence for lack of material support. As a result, Slovak life became necessarily circumscribed to the primitive pattern of the familial unit highlighted with such events as christenings, weddings and funerals. Though the Slovak labored unstintingly, he was not given the joy of benefiting by the fruits of his soil. When stur surveyed this situation on his return from Germany, he was forced to recognize this herd of subjugated beggars as his own people committed to mere animal existence, and all his nobility of soul rose in revolt at such inhumanity of man to man. But an emotional responses alone was no solution to the problem. He set himself to explore underlying causes, mainly the attitudes of the people themselves, their thinking, their social structures, their training and development, their milieu from small dimensional areas to the broad perspectives of the Austro-Hung arian domain. Aware of the need for incentives for self-improvem ent, and realizing that the most effective incentive of all is man's conviction that he is a being of value and dignity, his own consciousnes s of self, stur readily understood what his main teaching role would be to raise a new generation for Slovakia. He devoted himself completely to the enlightenmen t of his people and never in the least deviated from this objective. Under his aegis there was a vital burgeoning of new life among Slovaks of the younger element. He led the 34 SLOVAKIA young to new founts of elemental truth and saving virtue. His personality readily put him into the forefront as an inspired leader as his peers at Bratislava extolled him for his idealistic elan as well as his admirable self-discipline, his moral charm and his firmness directed first of all toward himself and secondly toward others. Impressed by the spirit of stur, Joseph Hurbl!Il who was a close collaborator wrote at this time: "We must challenge youth to difficult moral endeavors and teach the young to be concerned about the future. We must offer them stur as their paragon." Influences of the Industrial Revolution as well as effects of the national revolutions in France and in the United States were not lost upon young men and women of the day. Innovations were rampant on the air-romanticism, humanism, realism, revolution, criticism, democracy, Pan-Slavic romanticism, and a steady stream of trends and thoughts swept in upon maturing minds. stur observed it all and amid all of it mourned the divisive tendencies that tended to break the nation into two camps: the Catholics and the Lutherans and only bred new disadvantage. With clear vision he wrote in his book N drecie ("Dialect"): "There must be an end to this kind of partisanship; we must effect brotherly unity." Also "Our entire Slovak family will be united in a common speech and after centuries of fragmentation and coldness the members of one family will recognize each other and greet each other and embrace." The work of stur, however, soon evoked harsh Magyar resistance and this alerted him to the reality that it was not possible to wait for the younger generation to carry on toward brighter ideals; the need was immediate; the solution had to be effected now. His efforts for political support were fruitless. Every country from which he could have expected help was interested in pursuing its own advantage rather than in relieving the plight of another. His last resort was to exploit-in the best sense of the word-the very language of his people. By establishing a standarized form of written expression he sought to bring about one unifying element for all the nation, one bond to give to all the Slovaks SLOVAKIA 35 a sense of one-ness, and through this medium to reach into the broader spectrum of unified national consciousness and national thought. He was convinced that given one common treasure to cherish and defend, they would be ever ready to defend it, and in this very effort, they would preserve their national being; without such a common objective they could readily lose even their national identity. Their common language would be their talisman. To implement this idea stur collaborated with Joseph Hurban and Michael Hodza as early as 1843. All three were agreed that the dialect of the central regions would lend itself best as the basis for a standard Slovak literary medium. Bernolak's earlier (1787) experiments with a literary standard on the basis of western dialects had been effective to degree but not wholly successful. Perhaps this was due to the fact that Bernolak's ideas and efforts were in advance of his times. Perhaps it was because the western dialects were not the happiest choice he could have made for a common medium. Perhaps it was due also to the fact that traditionally the Catholic segment of Slovak people was ardent in promoting the Slovak cause while at the same time the Evangelical Slovaks promoted the Czech language and culture inasmuch a.s Czech had been adopted as the official liturgical language of the Lutheran Church. Nevertheless, Palkovic in 1831-32 translated and published the entire bible into Bernolak's new medium, and the renowned poet Jan Holly (1785-1849) wrote all his masterly works in the newly codified Slovak literary standard. It is understandable then, that Stu.r's innovative effort was not readily endorsed even by his own Evangelical critics. In 1840 an open assault on the Slovaks was made at the General Assembly of the Lutheran Church. Count Charles Zay, their Inspector-General and some leading laymen proclaimed racial apostasy as a duty which the Slovak Lutherans owed to their fatherland and their religion. They maintained that since "the Magyar language is the truest guardian and protector of the liberty of our country, of Europe, and the Protestant cause, it follows that Magyarization is the duty of every eager champion of freedom and intelligence." There followed a series of 36 SLOVAKIA attempts to ostracize the Slovak language from Lutheran Synods and presbyteries. Kossuth who was one of the elders of the Church and a Slovak renegade spoke publicly in favor of the abolition of all existing Slav societies in Lutheran schools. One such society at Levoca had already been suppressed, "as a breeding ground for Pan-Slavism," its library was closed and its president, ~udovit stur, was deprived of his post at the gymnasium.14 Magyarized Slovak overlords, noblemen and landlords untiringly sought to Magyarize the Slovaks, even imposing punishment on those who refused to be enticed into the Magyarized camp. Archbishop Patatic from Kolac, gave each of the subjects twelve sticks to beat up anyone who dared to speak in Slovak. It was publicly proclaimed that the Slovaks and their language must be exterminated.15 Convinced as s tur was, however, of the greater objectives to be attained, he pressed forward with his new venture. Youth groups espoused the cause very readily and this support augured well for the future. In 1844 Hurban's second volume of the annual Nitra appeared in the new literary standard and in the same year Hodza established the society Tatrin which officially recognized the new literary standard and at once put it to use in the publication of educational books, monographs and instructional pamphlets for the general public. Within two more years there appeared stur's political journal (three times a week ) Slovenske Ndrodne Noviny with its literary supplement Orol Tatransky. All these projects notably strengthened the newly devised Slovak literary form of expression and assured its permanent adoption. sT-0-R'S SEARCH FOR A SLOVAK LITERARY MEDIUM Its Effectiveness in Unifying Slovakia Slovak life was now assuredly given expression through the Slovak language. stur maintained that it could not be otherwise and the years have borne witness to his judgment. The task was demanding but largely because the ground for the identity of the new generation was properly prepared. stur not only understand existing conditions in Slovakia, he formulated, what the nation SLOVAKIA a7 felt, what the nation needed. He gave expression to the righteous desires and demands of his Slovak nation and became its model of an inspired leader devoted to spiritual and public activity. 16 sttir's call for further action was answered by Sladkovic, Chalupka, Botto, Hurban and countless others who felt that the proper course had been taken in establishing their literary language. Even the Lutherans finally accepted the Central Slovak dialect as a form of Slovak expression touched by foreign influence of one kind or another. On this matter the Slovaks had been merely sorely split in the past but now there promised to be a common unity to face the momentous events which were to follow. The work initiated by Bernolak was completed by sttir. Even John Holly, the greatest Slovak poet and ideologist of his nation gave sttir his blessing in this venture. sttir and his collaborators found the Slovak language and literature an invaluable instrument for advancing all their endeavors especially in rousing the nation to selfconsciousness. They studied its historic past and revealed it to the people who knew little or nothing about their historic origins and so had little impulse for experiencing pride of nation. They wanted to lift up the people from poverty and abandonment, so they enlightened and trained the general public.17 sttir can rightly be called the reformer of literary Slovak. Under his dynamic leadership the Slovaks literally re-emerged from obscurity and oblivion. They asserted themselves not only culturally but also politically because they became qualified and fired to forthcoming uprisings and events that had trans-European reverberations. A new era unfolded in Slovak cultural and national life when sttir adopted aesthetic and philosophical principles in his literary school. At this point romanticism and nationalism were pactically identical. sttir's cultural activities were timely in Western and Central Europe where national consciousness, popular art, and folklore were the order of the day. In this climate sttir successfully organized his literary school and cultural activities, which marked a new era in 38 SLOVAKIA Slovak national life. The members of this school "imposed the most exacting task on themselves in order to elevate the Slovak people to the same cultural level as the rest of Europe, to release their creative energies and to enable a new national culture to arise from the existing popular art and language. 18 sttir and his school were imbued with objectives directed towards specific social goals. Hence the literature which they created echoed not only a melancholy restlessness and romantic involvement but also the call for a better world. In 1842 a petition signed by two hundred Slovaks led by their clergymen was submitted to the Emperor in Vienna. The only outcome of this effort was that is provoked Kossuth to charge Superintendent Jozeffy and his colleague Hodza with betraying the Magyar cause and the Protestant religion. Both men were publically embarrassed and howled down. By contrast, two voices were raised in defense of the Slovaks, those of Count John Mailath, Catholic historian of Hungary, and Count Stephen Szechenyi who stated in a public address to the Academy that he hardly knew a Magyar who "is not transformed into a madman and even more or less deaf to the laws of fairness and justice, whenever the question of our nationality and language is raised." He begged his compatriots to "do as you would be done by." But the day on which 'the greatest magyar' and his fellow-magnate entered these protests, the popularity of the two Counts began to fail; the frenzy of Kossuth, voiced in his brilliant and aggressive organ Pesti Hirlap, carried all before it. As early as 1842, Kossuth declared in one of its issues: "Indeed, indeed I tell you, a Slovak nation has never existed even in a dream." In 1843 he boasted of his glowing love for his nation as the only one in Hungary which has any future based upon politics or law. 19 The argument of the German people, Herrenfolk: "We must be masters in our own house," was already applied in the "forties" by Magyars to the "foreign inhabitants" of Hungary. At this critical time the Slovaks found three leaders, SLOVAKIA 39 full of courage and self-sacrifice, r.udovit stur, Michael Hodza and Joseph Hurban. All three happened to be Slovak Lutherans, courageous enough to agree in favor of the central dialect of the Slovak language for essentially political reasons. This dialect was a unifying factor which they believed would help strengthen their position in the struggle against the Magyars and Magyarones. The Slovaks could no longer stand this type of op-pression. They appealed to King Ferdinand in Vienna. He in turn said to them: "Every nation in Hungary should educate and develop itself according to law and justice and develop its national language as much as possible. The highest power will not object to this, but rather aid it in its endeavor." The Slovak delegation returned home very hopeful. But at home disappointments and hardships awaited them, because the King's words fell on deaf ears and did not phase the Magyars. 20 In 1844 stur was dismissed from his post at the Bratislava College as Deputy Professor, because he resisted Count Zay's plans for Magyarization through the school. Yet stur continued to express his thoughts in writing in the newspaper he published, "Slovak National News" ("Slovenske Narodne Noviny"). The permission for the editing of this paper was given by the Hungarian government after an interim of four years. In this paper he resolved to defend the rights of the Slovak people. The joy was great in Slovakia. Most of the Slovaks realized the importance of this news media, and at what price it was made possible. When it was first issued the people rejoiced in diverse ways to express their appreciation of its accomplishment. The supplement to the "Slovak National News" was "Orol Tatransky" ("The Tatra Eagle") which was a power to be reckoned with. This newspaper was both instructive and amusing. It found favor with all classes of people, and reached all strata of the populace. stur's program was a realistic one. He gave credit where it was due. He voiced his opinions in regard to the shortcomings of his people and denounced their delinquencies. 40 SLOVAKIA The papers served their mission well for three years, uniting, teaching, exhorting and encouraging the people during the most stirring time of Slovak history. His exhortations today are as timely as they were in 1845: "Let us not abandon ourselves, Slovak country-men. Higher is the cause of the entire nation, higher is the cause of the whole, than of the individual and even though individuals harm us, the cause itself does not do so, but with us thus far, it has been that individuals offended by our people immediately abandoned the cause itself ... " 21 The Magyars came to realize what great influence the new publications were effecting on the Slovak people and began to clamor for the immediate suppression of this press. But the embe:rlS had been stirred. Much of the purpose of the publications had already been achieved. The Slovaks were finally reawakened nationally. In 1847, stur was elected to the Hungarian Parliament as a deputy for the town of Zvolen, Naturally he had limited influence since he was the only Slovak deputy in the House. However, his speeches reveal that he was an enlightened fighter for freedom and social reform, one who demanded equal rights for all nationalities in Hungary, in cultural and political life. He repeatedly insisted that the Diet adopt laws to free the peasant masses from a feudalistic Robot system and labor rent, and that the culture of the people and country be promoted by the establishment of schools in the national tongues of the people. Among other things he demanded the industrialization of Slovakia and the adoption of humanitarian laws between the gentry and the working class. One of the main topics of Stu.r's speeches was the obsolete social and political structure of Hungary. He was all for a federalistic system of government which would give equal justice to all peoples. He advocated that special efforts be made to develop the State in new social and political reforms, and to make it a partner of modern Europe. In creating their political program, stur and his followers, took into consideration not only their aims and desires, but also the existing circumstances. One was the fact that Slovakia was a part of the Hungarian state SLOVAKIA 41 in which it did not constitute a distinctive separative administrative unit. The Slovaks were not planning to break away from Hungary. What they wanted most of all was to have the boundaries of the Slovak lands defined so that the Slovak people might have guaranteed equality with the Magyars in Hungary. This equality they urged was to apply in all areas of political, social and especially in cultural life. They intended to present these petitions to the Emperor and the Parliament but first they wished to have the endorsement and the views of the Slovak people regarding their aims and their achievements. In May of 1848 they met at the parsonage of Michael Hod.za in Liptovsky Sv. Mikulas where they drew up a form for Slovakia's future political program called: "Petitions of the Slovak Nation." 22 Its Contribution Towards a Pan-Slavic Movement Stu.r's role as a reformer of the Slovak literary language was significant and far-reaching. His great efforts to this direction contributed greatly even to modern Slovak ideology. It was he who first gave to his people a new vision of political freedom and of a better future. stur provided a strong impetus to Slovak life in general by his own example, and by his writings embracing fields as diversified as poetry, philosophy, history, sociology, etc. From his correspondence one learns that he had direct relations with the leaders of all Slavic peoples. During his stay in Vienna he came in contact with other Slav representatives: The Slovene Stanko Vraz, the Croatian Ban Jelacic, and the Serbian Patriarch Rajacic, who were working together and made a joint visit to the Imperial Court. stur's reforms of the literary language also brought about the unity of the Slovak people and this, in turn, was followed by flourishing cultural and literary activities. His influence was so vital that some of his principles and ideology still lives in the cultural life of Slovakia.23 The lyrical element is strong in Stu.r's poetry and prose. He passed from the sphere of the personal and social into national and Slavic thought in all his works. The soul of the nation--or of the Slavs-was his 42 SLOVAKIA constant subject. He concentrated on the pain of the nation's sufferings, struggles, and failures and this theme pervades the climate of his literary works. stur and his followers were gifted with keen insight into existing social problems and this vision they combined with the romantic inheritance of deep attachment to their country, its people and to the Slavic world at large. They did their utmost to advocate and to provide democratic enlightenment for the unpriviledged classes, viz. the peasants and workers. They defined, encouraged and glorified their importance, as they glorified the Slavs and all their past. One of stur's followers, Samo Tomasik, composed the Slav anthem, "Hej, Slovania," which bespoke new hope, a new ideal and a great pride comparable to that expressed in Vajansky's famous verse: I am proud to be a Slovak Elegant is my race; A hundred million souls it numbers, Over half the world it rules. With the Slovak tongue you can traverse The four parts of the earth! One of my brothers plants the palm Another does eternal iceland scan A third skims o'er the widespread seas! From the phantasy which Kollar inspired as the great dream of one great Slav nation and one unified Slav language, the Slovaks, as Hans Kohn agrees "feeling abandoned in Hungary and their national existence threatened, may have drawn strength and faith in the indeitructibility of the Slovak people and language," and it helped to continue to maintain contacts with the cultural life of other Slavic peoples. 24 stur's contemporaries indicated their Pan-Slavic sympathy and tendencies by reading Russian, Polish, Ukrainian, Czech, Croatian and Serbian authors in the original and were very fond of the famous "Ode to Youth" by Mickiewicz. According to Bobek: "Not even the Poles received it as enthusiastically as the Slovaks." The desire of the Slovak poets and novelists of stur's time was to imitate other Slav writers, and their enthusiastic belief in one "slavic" culture was intense. SLOVAKIA 43 Cizevsky maintains: "The only book which shows similarities with Mickiewicz's "Book of the Polish Pilgrimage" is $tur's work "An Ancient and a New Age of Slovaks" ("Stary a novy vek Slovakov") because $tur speaks of another kingdom and of other peoples. However, $tur deviates, because he wanted to unfold a realistic program, and Mickiewicz's Book could not satisfy him. $tur's position among Slav intellectuals of the nineteenth century is well attested among other various media by his rich correspondence with practically all oustanding Slavic leaders of the day also the fact that his work "Slavdom and the World of the Future" was translated and twice published by Russian intellectuals in the last century and at the beginning of this century. $tur, Kollar and $afarik can rightly be regarded as great figures of the Slavic world to the Slovaks of the nineteenth century. All three expressed: "in the familiar mood of the period, a general belief in historical progress, in a bright future , in the advent of some great spiritual manifestation, of a new era for mankind which would establish forever a basis of liberty, peace and happiness." In visualizing the Slavs as a unified body with a great future, they helped the awakening of the national consciousness of their own Slav-speaking peoples.25 :CUDOVi T $ TOR'S ROLE IN THE PAN- SLAVIC MOVEMENT His Political and Social Thought Slovakia is sometimes called the mother of the PanSlavic Movement. One of her sons, John Herkel, first used the word "pan,slavic" in his Latin treaties of 1826. In addition, the Slovak poet Jan Kollar and the Slovak scholar P. J. $afarik were among the main leaders of the Pan-Slavic Movement. As a matter of fact these two are sometimes considered the fathers of Pan-Slavism in Slovakia. Herder, in his "Ideas on the Philosophy of the History of Humanity" ("Ideen zur Philosophie der Geschichte") prophesied that the Slavs, who up until then were held in bondage and oppression, would awaken from their lethargy and free themselves from the shackless, and eventually recover their possesion of the vast lands that 44 SLOVAKIA stretched from the Adriatic Sea to the Baltic, from the Don to the Mulda. In this heritage they would devote themselves to the peaceful development of the arts and commerce. Though unknowingly, Herder sowed the first germ of Pan-Slavtsm. 26 stur's significance in the Slavic world of this calibre was assessed by Seton Watson. In regard to the great literary efforts of stur, Hurban and safarik, Seton-Watson states: "their writings were of capital importance in the whole Slav revival of the last century, and form a strange sentimental link between the Western romantic school and the extravagancies of Pan-Slavism." In reference to the first Slav Congress in Prague in 1848 Seton-Watson maintains that stur "played a decisive part in the preparation for the Congress." safarik, stur, Hurban and Hodza played a part second to none except Palacky at that same Congress. An analysis is in order in regard to these two opinions to determine stur's significance in the Pan,Slavic Movement. As early as 1840, stur had recourse to the throne of Austria and there presented his petitions in regard to the injustices perpetrated by Hungary against the Slovak people. He formally presented his petitions to the Hungarian Assembly. It embodied these provisions for the betterment of the Slav situation: 1) A systematic investigation of the Slovaks who were maligned by the Magyars in order to obtain protection for the oppressed; 2) that there be two censors to safeguard Slovak official writings; 3) that a Slovak literary seat be established at the Bratislava Lyceum and at Pest University; 4) that certificates and church records be kept in Latin; 5) that church ceremonies be in the mother tongue and that every guarantee and assurance be provided for this practice. The country was up in arms because the Slovaks dared to present their cause to the throne. Voluble insults were heaped upon the Slovaks in the newspapers, at gatherings, etc. Those who aided the Slovaks or sympathized with their cause were also abused. 27 It was at this point that ~udovit stur asked for permission to publish his "Slovak National News" ("Slovenske SLOVAKIA 45 Narodne Noviny"). Archprince Joseph retorted by saying: "The Slovaks do not need newspapers. The publishing of such newspapers would be considered traitorous." It was the consensus in 1840 that Austria would lean on the Slovaks for political reasons, that is Slavic Austria, against Hungarian Austria (Magyar). But in Hungary Archduke Joseph had the upper hand and things were shaped his way. He even had control over the deputation of Slovak Pest in Church matters. At this point he is to have said: "In Hungary I know only one people and those are the Magyars. " 28 The phantom of Pan-Slavism repeated its threat in 1830 when Russia established a Slovak literary seat at its university. The young Russian Slavists began to visit the Slavs in the South as well as in Central Europe. For the ensuing years the word Pan-Slavism had political connotation for the Russian and Germanic nations implying a belligerent attempt to replace their civilization with the Slavic civilization. The connotation derived largely from the subjugated position of the various Slavic nations at this time. In Vienna the guards were ordered to stress in each paragraph of the law of magyarization that every sermon in Slovak churches be preached in Magyar and in even remote towns and villages there was a strong ban against Pan-Slavism of any kind. "In our country and near its borders," wrote Wessel, in Kossuth's newspaper, Hirlap, December, 1842, "Slovak mistakes are dangerous and a threat to all Europe and to our dynasty and country . .. " "Everyone who defies our Magyar language and our nationalism and who supports the mistakes of the Slovaks knowingly or unknowingly is an enemy to the peace and to our federation, and to our throne." 29 stur did not advocate the destruction of the Hungarian State. As long as there was any hope for a settlement with the Magyars, he was amenable to living with a fair situation. But he warned the ruling Magyar class that they could not forever ignore and suppress the inherent rights of the lesser peoples and exploit the Slovaks and other nations of Hungary without expecting them to retaliate and to demand a free national life, just as the Magyars were themselves demanding it from the Hapsburg Empire. 46 SLOVAKIA stlir wrote a sensational article "Charges and Complaints of the Slovaks in Hungary" ( ~aloby a ponosy Slovakov v Uhorsku") published in Leipzig in 1843, in which he reprimanded the chief Inspector, Count Zay, for conniving to Magyarize the Slovaks for political reasons. Count Zay felt that he was truly aware of the political currents in Slovakia. By a logic all his own, he divided the Slovaks into three groups. One was to be concerned about literary matters. The second was eager to establish a Western-Slav kingdom in Austria; the third was accused of secret contacts with Russia. 30 It is uncertain whether these three groups were fully aware of the gravity of the situation of those times; however, all had one goal in mind: to save the Slovaks from utter Magyarization and to secure for the Slovak nation its independent political status within the framework of the Hapsburg Empire. "We do not want our rights established on favor, but we demand our rights on the basis of justice," stlir declared. These famous words laid the foundation to all petitions and demands presented in Vienna and at the Hungarian Diet in Bratislava. stlir's debates with Kossuth all stemmed from this moral and democratic attitude. On behalf of his nation stlir demanded "peace based on justice and mutual understanding." He went on to say: "In the Pesti Hirlap Kossuth is fighting for equality of rights, but in the Diet he wants to give the orders to investigate and punish those who stand up for the rights . . . That is his freedom and liberalism." 3 1 All of Stu.r's writings indicate a clear political view: Slovakia established as a sovereign crown land under the Hapsburgs, an equal partner of other nations in the Empire. In short, he was even back in his own day for a program of the federalization of Central Europe. In a sense stlir appeared as a Romantic visionary in the eyes 0f all who did not favor Slavic reciprocity or his vision of a great future for the Slavic world, his untiring demands for equal rights for the Slovak people and their national independence which he formulated in the following terms: "Each nation is only one part of humanity, and no SLOVAKIA 47 nation can make for itself the claim that it alone attained the best possible human evolution and degree of perfect ability. Thereafter, no nation has a right to impose upon another nation its way of life when that nation wants to move for itself and educate itself as it sees fit. "So that we Slovaks might be revived and assume in history that place which is rightfully ottrs by reason of our native strength and abilities we must once and for all free ourselves, because a nation which is enslaved has its hands bound, its spirit stifled, and is forever threathened with danger that sooner or later it will perish." 32 The year 1848 was ushered in as a promising one, but before long it became stormy. The more the Magyars spoke of freedom, the more tyranically did they suppress all non-Magyars. They did their utmost to turn public opinion against the Slovaks. Wessel wrote to Kossuth that he would rather have 50,000 Germans settle the mountain countries than 10,000 Slavs. Once again intolerance charged all the climate. At this point, Pan-Slavism evolved as a defensive movement among the Slavs rather than as a political movement aimed at replacing western dominance in Europe. The term "Pan-Slavism" has been used generally to denote the historical tendency of the Slavic peoples to manifest in their tangible way, either cultural or political, their consciousness of ethnic kinship. Cultural Pan-Slavism had its origin in the remarkable national awakening of the Slavs at the dawn of the nineteenth century. Submerged for long centuries under cruel masters, the Slavs were quickened to a renewal of awareness of their national identities, not by political leaders, but by their cultural leaders. These Slavs realized how they had been deprived of their national identity. They nourished better hopes for the future by seeking to reanimate the faded memories of a glorious past. In this effort they discovered that they were brothers bound by a common misfortune yet endowed with a vast cultural heritage. 33 Slavic men of learning helped to initiate national 48 SLOVAKIA movements among their countrymen primarily in order to establish the individuality and cultural worth of each Slavic group: Bulgarians, Czechs, Slovaks, Poles, Slovenians, Croats, Serbs and Russians. The various romantic movements were propagated in individual ways and degrees yet through them the ideal of Slavic unity, which had been lost in the past by foreign oppression, was to be resurrected with the surmounting and overthrow of that oppression. Pan-Slavism as a cultural and even as a political ideal evolved not in Russia, but rather among the Western and Southern Slavs, who had far more need of unity than did the mighty Russian Empire. This stage of Pan-Slavism signaled the national awakening of central and eastern Europe, and was characterized by interest and emphasis within the areas of language, literature, and culture. Among the Slavic peoples many had experienced a thousand years of injustice and mistreatment which yielded an unhealthy state of discouragement and stagnation. Now in the hour of their national awakening, the Slovak people seek to forgive their cruel masters rather than to avenge themselves. This attitude was shaped by the acute yearning they bore for the selfdetermination of their country. As much as they decried the enslavement of other nations, they would not permit another to enslave them. The literary and scientific Pan-Slavism of Kollar and ::;afarik created a powerful national spirit among the Slavs. Then it became only natural that this desire for national unity and selfdetermination should demand to be heard and to begin to be realized within the context of political Pan-Slavism. It moved in this direction under I.:udovit ::;tur who perceived by what stages Pan-Slavism must go. He foresaw that to achieve their glorious destiny, the Slavic peoples had to attain an assured measure of political unity. At this point political Pan-Slavism had two alternatives: Austroslavism, which meant retaining a form of Austrian political influence, for which ::;tur was ready to settle when he advocated it at the Prague Congress in 1848, the first great manifestation of Pan-Slavism and of Slavic identity, apart from the Hapsburg rule, and Pan-Russianism which ::;tur adapted after the failure of the Prague Congress.34 SLOVAKIA 49 As Magyar exploitation of the Slovaks and other minority nations of Hungary continued, stur's admonitions to the ruling powers fall on deaf ears. The Magyars stubbornly and universally refused to heed any demands for redress of any kind of settlement with the non-Magyar nations in Hungary. This attitude helped to precipitate the revolution of 1848-49, in which the Slovaks also participated. stur together with Hodza and Hurban led an armed resistance force supporting Austria against the revolution of the Magyar aristocrats. That the Hapsburgs were forgetful of this effort and ungrateful to the Slovaks, that they finally settled with the Magyars at the expense of the non-Magyar nations of Hungary, did not help the issue of the dissatisfied minorities. The settlement of 1867, referred to as Austro-Hungarian but being in reality Austro-Magyar, became the burial pit of the monarchy which could have become a mighty confederation in Central Europe. It was I.:udovit stur and not the Slovak Magyar chauvinist, Louis Kossuth, who was the genuine democrat. 35 No setback dismayed stur completely or caused him to lose heart. Under opposition and failure he tended to redouble his energy. stur was the heart, Hodza the brain, and Hurban the soul of the revolutionary movement. They set themselves anew to collect funds, provide weapons, organize a volunteer corps, choose trained soldiers to lead them, financially aid patriots who were in prison and conduct a vast correspondence. Though defeated and betrayed in the outcome by Vienna, the Slovak revolution of 1848-49 marked an important milestone in Slovak history. The first large public manifestation of the Sl0vaks occured on May 10, 1848 at Liptovsky Sv. Mikulas. On this occasion a historic memorandum embracing six articles expressing the demands of the people was adopted unanimously. In substance these articles were: We demand that our people be permitted to· take part in the legislative deliberations of the land, and this not only de jure but de facto. And as such participation can alone become real and profitable when conducted in a language that is intelligible to us, we ask for our representatives the right to speak Slovak in the Diet. 50 SLOVAKIA We demand the right to plead and answer cases in the courts of law in Slovak. We demand that the school training of our youth, which is now so woefully neglected, be conducted in the mother tongue. We demand just and equitable representatives in the Diet. We demand for ourselves, and shall forever ask that our nationality, which we will never renounce, remain inviolate and inviolable. We demand that this petition be made known within the entire juristiction of Hungary, in Croatia, and Slavonia and be brought to the notice of the viceroy and of the Hungarian ministry, to the end that all friends of liberty and humanity may plead our just cause.36 Open-air meetings were held in larger towns throughout all regions during the spring of 1848. Equality and liberty, the maintenance and defense of the Slovak language were the keynote of them all. The Liptovsky Sv. Mikulas program was endorsed by a dozen towns supplemented here and there with petitions to meet subordinate local needs. Swiftly spread the news that Louis Phillipe had forfeited his crown to the French republicans, in 1848, anfi it reached every corner of the Hapsburg monarchy. Vienna was seething with political excitement. Prague was in feverish anticipation of the approaching Slavic Congress scheduled to meet there on June 2, in protest against the bartering of Slavic Austria to Greater Germany. stur went to Vienna after the March Revolution. There he met other Slav representatives, especially Ban Jelacic and the Serbian Patriarch Rajacic, who were working hand in hand and paid joint visits to the Imperial Court. At this early stage of developments, stur received an invitation from the students at Prague which he accepted and through which he played a decisive part in the preparations for the Slav Congress. On April 30, he made a strong appeal in favor of united common action between the Slovaks and the Czechs. For the time being, at least, there was a healing of the breaches and disagreements.37 SLOVAKIA 51 A manifesto program which was initiated by Hurban, was issued at Teplice in the name of the Slovaks as the original occupants of this region. It was addressed simultaneously to the Crown and to the newly-formed national government at Pest. Its main demand was that there be convened a General Parliament for the brother nations of Hungary. Precipitously, any further movement in this direction was promptly suppressed by the Magyar authorities. Kossuth thundered against the Pan-Slavs in Parliament. Hurban and a few others were obligated to flee and they joined stur in an attempt to rouse Bohemia, Moravia and Slovakia to common action, and acclaimed Prague as the heart of tl<le Slavic world. Meanwhile, Hodza issued a small book in German, presenting an answer to the Slovaks to Count Zay and his summons that a choice be made between Magyarizations and the Russian knout. Hodza's fiery response was: "Rather the Russian knout than Hungarian domination, for the one can only enslave our bodies, while the other threatens us with moral ruin and death." 36 The time was ripe for action by the Slavs. stur proclaimed a Slavic Congress and agreed with Czech writers to set the date for May 31, 1848. Prague was chosen for the site of the Congress. A total of 362 delegates were present representing various Slavic nations, especially those under the Hapsburg rule, but the Poles and the Russians were also represented. The express objective 1tf the meeting was the establishment of contacts and regular exchanges among the Slavic peoples and the drawing up of a program of action for all peoples living as subject nations under Austria and/ or Hungarian domination. The four Slovak leaders-safarik, stur, Hurban and Hodza-played a part second to none. They were determined to make Slovakia an equal with Bohemia and Moravia, as part of a Czech-Slav federal unit, such as Palacky had contemplated. At this Congress stur offered a program for federalizing Central Europe. The Czech were consistent supporters of Austroslavism. Consequently the problem came to be narrowed down to a definition of terms: The objectives of the Congress was either to save Austria, for with her lay the best chances of maintaining Slavic identity, or 52 SLOVAKIA immediate prov1s10n for the Slavic peoples living under Austria. stur made it clear, that his aim was not specifically to preserve Austria, under whom the Slavs had hitherto rotted, but to preserve his own people; Austria, he added, was decrepit and lay under a curse. He went on to say: Our aim should be to save ourselves, not to save Austria. First we must work for ourselves, then for others. Thus far Austria has been flourishing but we have been languishing. What would the world say to us if we stood for nothing but the preservation of Austria? Let us say that we want to stand as independent Slovanic communities under the government of Austria . . . this will give our work a genuinely Slovanic accent ...39 stur felt that the program of the Congress should be: 1) the creation of independent Slavic united states within Austria, and 2) prompt agreement to this, so that the Austrian armies might be authorized to destroy Magyar encroachments into Slovakia. stur stressed Slavic independence: "If we are to assume that place in history which rightfully belongs to us by reason of our ability and strength, we must once and for all free ourselves from this intolerable foreign thraldom and gain national independence for ourselves." 40 The necessity of remaining with the Austrian cadre was crystal clear to stur yet he made no secret of his distrust of Austria. The Czechs felt otherwise. Because they had not been mistreated as were the Slovaks under the Magyars, they were willing to accept and abide by the vague promises of the Austrian Emperor that Slavic rights would be recognized and respected. In return for these promises, the delegates of the Congress pledged full support to Austria in her effort to subdue the Magyars. In addition, they adopted a "Manifesto t o the European Nations" which called for the following objectives: 1. That the Slavic people under Turkish rule be freed. 2. That the Magyars acknowledge the rights of the SLOVAKIA 53 Slovak nation, including the right of its own language. 3. That the Croatian autonomy be maintained. 4. That the Slovenians be permitted to possess their land. 41 sttir felt that the Congress was a failure, because it seemed simply to reduce the Pan-Slavic movement to an attempt to reorganize Austria in a way to satisfy the nationalism of the Slavs. The insurrection of 1848 against the Magyars had also failed. sttir was disappointed to say the least and in the Pan-Slavic Movement was shaken. But he still cherished the hope that Slavic independence would be possible. In his despair and disillusionment, he became almost convinced that a small nation could not attain its freedom alone. Twice he had experienced having his great hopes in behalf of Pan-Slavism shaken. Now only one more possibility remained: alliance or association with Russia, for Russia alone of the Slavic nations was powerful enough to lead others to independence. This conclusion became the basic idea developed in his book, "Slavdom and the World of the Future," a work which extols the cultural, moral and political forces of the Russian Empire. It also presents a detailed program for the union of Slavs under the leadership of Russia. HIS POLITICAL RE-ORIENTATIO N In 1848 and 1849 when the Magyars under Kossuth arose in armed rebellion against Austria, demanding complete independence, the Slovaks braced themselves against a new wave of Magyarization pressures. Led by sttir and his collaborators, they fought in their units with the Austrians and then with the Russian Armies to subdue the Magyar rebels. In return the Slovaks hoped to gain from Vienna recognition of their own national aspirations. Vienna, however, disappointed them and overlooked guaranteeing their rigl;lts against the encroachment of the Magyars. Furthermore, influenced by Kollar, the imperial court used the antiquated Biblical Czech of the Protestants as the official Slovak language in the translation of the laws, for instruction in the schools, and in the newly established newspaper sponsored by the government, 54 SLOVAKIA "Slovak News" ("Slovenske Noviny"), published in Vienna. The fruits of Stu.r's labors seemed doomed and at this point he turned with greater hope to Russia. The Revolution that erupted in Paris in February 1848, and reverberated throughout Europe, encouraged the movement in Hungary. It affected the development of Slovak life and helped to bring the Slav political program to greater maturity. Individual regions of Slovakia rebelled against the imposition of Hungarian as the only recognized legal language and strove to secure sanctions for Slovak as their official language. The native tongue of the Slovak people represented the very survival of Slovakia. stur's basic concept in "Slavdom and the World of the Future" ("Das Slawenthum und die Welt der Zukunft") was an exceptional tribute to the cultural, moral and political forces at work within the Russian Empire. This work also included a detailed plan for the union of all Slavs with Russia, "the most complete and consistently developed program for the subjugation of Slavs to Russia," according to Professor Lednicki. stur adopted Herder's and Hegel's ideas which in turn provided the Slavs with a consciousness of unity based upon the communal element of language and a glorious destiny, proclaiming them as the prospective leaders of Europe. stur stressed the belief that the Slavs have a mission to fulfill in universal history, and that this mission can be fulfilled only if they are united. There were three procedures to consider: 1. Slavic federation without Russia. 2. Transformation of Austria into a Slavic federation. 3. Union with Russia as a monarchic empire under Russian leadership, united in the Orthodox Church and the Russian literary language. The first two approached did not appeal to stur's vision gf a Slavic world of the future. Because of geographical features and considerations, internal rivalries, religious and cultural differences, and intermingled nonSlavic elements, any attempt to federalize the Slavic nations at this time seemed doomed to failure. 42 Since the Slavs were to be leaders of the "new" Europe, stur set out to determine whether the Slavs really SLOVAKIA 55 had a role of their own to fulfill in world history. At this point they were not in position to do anything significant but history was a progression of spent nations being replaced by young one, and stur envisioned a future in which Slavic emancipation would eventually occur. There was no use in looking to the West for support in securing Slovakia's self-determination for, the West was already on the downward path to moral, political and social dissolution. Western civilization had deteriorated, the West itself needed help. Only Slavs could aid the Slavs. stur went on to paint a highly romantic picture of the Slavs, representing them as good at heart, patient, humble, kind and democratic. These were the general characteristics of all the Slavs, but especially of the Russians who were visualized as being at the apex of all the nobles features of the Slavic nations. stur did not know them personally. He had never been in Russia, neither had he any prolonged contact with Russians. He simply claimed that it had to be so logically, since the Russians were the leaders of the Slavs; they had to be the best Slavs. He was convinced too that unity was an absolute necessity if the Slavs were to achieve their historic mission. The only alternative left was union with Russia. 43 "Russia is the prime mover and the leader of our national family. Our people are but a fragment of a single nationality. They can be reborn and united into a single whole only by a elated benevolent and great Power." In stur's mind that power was Russia. "Let us go forth together in the spirit of our own people, under the leadership of the racial elders given to us by history." The Slavist, Professor Petrovich maintains that "The failure of the Slovak revolution and other political demonstrations brought stur to the conclusion that it was u.seless for his people to seek its own freedom alone or in the framework of Austroslavism." 44 This definitive decision on the part of stur amazed contemporary experts in his Slavic world. Yet it is not hard to understand stur's position when one realized the facts with which stur had to live in the 1850's. Since his primary goal was Slavic nationalism, Slavic unity, Russia was the only leader to whom to turn since Austroslavism 56 SLOVAKIA failed. His main objective was the creation of a federation of independent Slavic states under the Russian leadership, the same kind of action he had urged at the Prague Congress in 1848 for Austrian leadership. The Slavic peoples of the Austrian Empire, such as Czechs and Slovaks, and the smaller groups looked more and more toward Russia for help, since they found themselves outnumbered by the ruling Germans and Magyars. A second Pan-Slav Congress met in Moscow in 1867. The Poles were not represented. They considered the Russians their national enemies and oppressors. Russian chauvini&m was apparent throughout the congress. From that time on Russian nationalists wished to use Pan-Slavism as a tool for Russian expansion at the expense of nonRussian Slavs for the destruction of the Austrian Empire and the Turkish Empire. Both Empires contained large Slavic minorities. The Russian war against Turkey in 1877 was accompanied by Pan-Slavic agitation to liberate the Balkan Slavs, especially the Bulgarians, from the Turkish domination. World War I also started partly because the Russians supported the Slavic Serbs against the Austrian Empire. The fact that Russia herself oppressed several Slavic peoples--the Poles, the Ukrainians, and the Byelorussian s -and the fact that the Russian tsarist autocracy was politically and socially backward militated before 1914 against the claim of the Russians to be regarded as the spokesmen of all Slavs.45 All the peoples, with the exception of the Croatians, Slovenians and Serbs were united under Moscow's leadership, and thus many of the extravagant Russian aspirations, voiced during the Pan-Slav Congress in Moscow, in 1867, were fulfilled .46 Stu.r's great dream of a family of Slavic peoples united under Russia may also become a reality -but not under an Orthodox Church as a dedicated community, nor under an enlightened Russian Tsar with humanist and liberal views, nor as a Russian group struggling for the highest ideals of freedom and respect for human beings, as stur wished to see it in his work "Das Slawenthum und die Welt der Zukunft" ("Slavdom and the World of the Future"), but under a disastrous SLOVAKIA 57 policy, the cornerstone of which was laid at Yalta in February, 1945. This policy destroyed Europe's individuality and enlarged the power of the Kremlin, a power that has kept all humanity under constant tension since 1945 and is a threat to the freedom of all the states it has not yet captured. It led to the subjugation of an additional 200 million Europeans. On the soil in Northern, Central and Southern Europe, there arose a new Soviet colonial system. At a time when in the free world, peoples who have never enjoyed self-govenment in the past are gradually attained nationhood and are assisted by the United Nations in the achievement of their rightful aspiration-the exact reverse process has been taking place in Central and Eastern Europe. 47 ST-OR'S IMPACT ON SLOVAKIA Revival of Slovak National Life stur knew it was imperative that the Slovaks be awakened nationally; otherwise they were doomed as a nation. The nation needed scholars who would delve into antiquity and from the glory of the past raise a national enthusiasm and groundwork on which to build for the future. He assumed the task of providing them. The Slovak historian, Julius Botto, says of stur: "He trained for the Slovak nation energetic, selfless men, genuine national heroes." Since the Slovak gentry continued to yield its national identity and was overshadowed and even absorbed by Magyar influences, the Slovak people became abandoned in the midst of a rising alien nationalism and political transformation. Slovak intellectuals had the vision to realize what was happening and considered it mandatory to take over the culture of the Slovak peasants, middle classes and a sparse number of nationally minded aristocrats and garner from these elements their own national culture and new national consciousness. Without stur's important role in this effort, the Slovaks might now be a forgotten nation. stur successfully organized his literary school and cultural activities in this climate and was successful in 58 SLOVAKIA bringing about a new era of Slovak national life. Since he had a mystical idea of the nation, and respected it as a person, his approach was a philosophical one. Aesthetic and philosophical principles were inaugurated into his literary school and became the foundation of the Slovak nation revival of the nineteenth century. In the past, Slovak national life was little more than a conglomerate of regrets and passive laments, a life of hapless "do nothing." stur set up positive perspectives to create higher cultural and political values and he did not rest until the people were persuaded to adopt these new views. He repeatedly advocated a higher and stronger degree of national pride. He asked the Slovaks not to seek the source of their national pride in foreign gardens since they had it right at home in their midst. stur and his school knew what hopes were directed toward attaining concrete political and social gains; he realized how ready his people were to entertain enthusiasm and spirit for a better world. National and Slavistic themes permeate stur's poetry and prose. The soul of the nation-or of the Slavs-was his constant subject; he was always preoccupied with the nation's sufferings, struggles and failures. These topics are the substance of all his written works. The Slovaks, as Hans Kohn rightly says, "feeling abandoned in Hungary and their national existence threatened, may have drawn strength and faith in the indestructibility of the Slovak people and language." This thought supported them and enabled them to continue to maintain contacts with the cultural life of other Slavic peoples. Although stur was not the only leader during the national revival, he embodied more vitally than did the others the true spirit of 1848. In his own right he is called the Daniel O'Connell of Slovak history. At this point is was not only necessary for the Slovak nation to map out definite goals, but it was also imperative to chart the way for coming generations of the Slovak nation in order that this goal might be realized and preserved. The task challenging stur and his followers was very complicated. Besides honoring, they had to find a way and means to discharge all the work before them in a way SLOVAKIA 59 that would be worthy of scrutiny both in their own day and in the light of history. Much of their work had to be accomplished under duress, when revolutionary forces were mounting, when fierce struggles had to be met to insure national existence and the ennobling of the social stratum of the Slavic people. $tlir's generation had no alternative, but to play the role of a vanguard of the Slovak bourgeoisie which had to be inspired with national consciousness and formed into a worthy class. The group v0luntarily assuming this role is called the $tlir generation; in literature it is called the stur school, since it was Cudovit stur and his group who adopted the traditions of the Bernolakians for the Slovak linguistic cultural and national independence. In short, they gave the Slovak nation both a solid ideology and definite direction under the leadership of Cudovit $tlir.48 Cudovit stur's activities were directed mainly on behalf of his native country, his main interest being the Slovak people caught in an insufferably miserable situation and desperately needing a solution of their problems. He threw all his efforts into achieving a social and national awakening of his people and into raising their standards so that they could be counted as a social and national force. In the memorable Bratislava parliament of 1847, he tangled in a heated discussion with Kossuth. stur declared: "We want freedom. It is easily said that there is plenty of freedom in our homeland: yes, not only an abundance, but even an oversupply of freedom." And he went on to add, "but only the landowner's brand of freedom; for of the real, human and personal freedom there is very little. If our towns had had more freedom, our people would never have fallen into such thraldom." Kossuth's reply to this was: "That cannot be helped; that is the way the world moves. It is the fate of one who stands lower in the community to be suppressed and bear the burden and taxes; on the other hand, the one who comes along better in civic life receives rights and stands in honor. At this time I am opposed to granting towns a vote in our Assembly." stur could not be silenced. Again he met Kossuth in the Hungarian Assembly and said: "Recently when I was 60 SLOVAKIA present here and mentioned the sorrowful plight of the wretched taxpayers, the worthy deputy of Pest County, Mr. Kossuth, saw the hand of fate in the oppression of the people and said that is the way of the world when the lower class is suppressed and the higher class arrogates more rights to itself. I see no hand of fate in the matter, because then the status of the oppressed could never be corrected. We demand freedom in the country and the assignment of urbanial jobs which are not in line with freedom. Does a person who works, who works for the benefit of others and receives contempt instead of reward, have a fatherland? Will such a person become as devoted to his country as he would be to his mother? The sacred cause of mankind challenges us to declare the principle of the liberation of people and honestly bring it into reality. When this redemption is accomplished, the judical power of the landowner and the country gentry must cease, because freedom would not be served if a people liberated from the robot would continue to remain under the staves of the Lords." 49 stur's main aspiration was freedom. If his only achievement had been his effort for the rights of the enslaved and subjugated at the Bratislava Assembly, he would have deserved to be honored among the most distinguished sons of the Slovak nation. But he did not only that but even more and because of this fact he is loved and revered by the Slovak nation. In him were concentrated the cultural and social endeavors of his predecessors, with the strength and courage needed for a living national organization. Without his concentration the pursuits of an independent national culture would have been impossible. His greatest merit lies in the fact that he assumed the historical task of uniting the multi-cultural strength of the Slavs into a national liberation front. A legendary atmosphere was built around the magnetic personality of stur by those who knew him. Around him there crystallized, as it were, a veritable aura of national life as is reported by William Pauliny Toth who said of him : ":Cudovit stur is favored epochally as a created vision in the history of. the Slovak- Nation." 50 SLOVAKIA 61 Shir in his time understood that the Slovak national process had matured and that Slovakia must appear on the scene of history as an independent political factor. It is in this foresight also that Shir's merit lies. He exemplifies the Slovak national spirit as a man possessed with deep convictions and great strength of will sufficient to execute them. His prime purpose, as we have already mentioned, was to see Slovakia united culturally, politically and socially. We must recall for our own benefit and on behalf of the free world that stur did not hesitate to accept and carry to completion the work of preceding Catholic generations; he was ready to press on in order to preserve the heritage of the Slovak nation, though he was not a Catholic, but a Lutheran and a member of the Protestant Evangelical Church. Contributions as an Energizing Stimulant to Slovak Life in General It can be said with assurance that in the history of the Slovak nation, no individual accomplished as much in so short a time as did :Cudovit stur, who was only forty-one years of age when he died. This was possible only because of the gifts of this phenomenal leader and because of the fact that the ground and the time were ripe for the ascension of a new generation. stur found that he could approve of much that already existed in Slovakia and he was ready to formulate what the nation needed and demanded in his day. One wonders how it was possible at this critical time for a man to dare to undertake structuring a spiritual foundation of modern life for the long slighted and forgotten Slovak people. Though we cannot understand the force that inspired him we can appreciate the phenomenon that in one generation, only one extraordinary person, one :Cudovit stur, appeared as a great leading luminary among approximately two million of his people. It goes without s~ying that the Slovak people are grateful to stur and to those who sacrificed much with him for the Slavic cause. Their work was aimed toward the realization of the spiritual plan of Slovak life envisioned by genius and inspiration. 62 SLOVAKIA The Slovak nation was not fortunate enough at this time to have a 1,1mg and cherished tradition or the advantage of experienced mature people on which to rely. Over long centuries of oppression under a foreign element, it was their fate to be wholly submissive and in this attitude to develop no leaders. Now they had to rely entirely on comparatively young men for new ideas and new leadership. The Slovak youth was entrusted with the new dawn and to project future goals, because the difficult life of the Slovaks in the past did not allow the elders to foster a strong national life. While many other European nations had their noble classes to fight their battles and to lead them to new eras, the Slovaks had no social upper strata on which to rely for inspiration. Their nobility and their middle class as well were lost by fusion with other elements predominantly Magyar milieu. Slovak national awakening consequently was achieved by the sons of humble people, usually the strong leaders from among the Catholic and Protestant clerical circles. The Slovak language as a literary medium which was chosen by l'..udovit stur and his collaborators was accepted by the Slovak population in 1843. Under his dynamic leadership the Slovaks literally re-emerged from obscurity and oblivion. They asserted themselves not only culturally but also politically by their participation in the uprising in 1848-49. During this revolutionary upheaval they sided with the Emperor in Vienna but were ill-rewarded for their services. Their repeated petitions for self-determination and for guarantees of unhindered cultural development were repeatedly denied them.5 1 In 1867, when the Austrians concluded a dual agreement with the Magyars, the Slovaks were left at the mercy of the Magyars. Under this arrangement, Slovak high schools and cultural organizations were suppressed. Education on an elementary level was permitted in the Magyar language only. Any who dared to resist magyarization were victimized and inprisoned. Thousands of Slovaks found it necessary to leave their native country and migrated to the United States of America. I.:udovit stur and his generation fired the Slovaks with new national life, a clear goal and a firm sense of direction SLOVAKIA 63 in the spirit of stt1r's slogan: "Backward we cannot go, Forward we must!" "Forward" means to free the people from the yoke of slavery and lead them along the road of independence and true national cultural growth within a truly free country. To achieve this tne Slovak nation needs a political program. The cataclysm of the Revolution of 1848 that struck Europe impelled the Slovaks to develop their political program without further hesitation or delay. The Slovaks reassessed their aims, and aspirations as well as prevailing circumstances. Since Slovakia was part of the Hungarian State, they wished primarily to have the boundaries of the Slovak lands clearly defined in order that they might have guaranteed equality with the Magyars living in Hungary. The Magyars opposed the justified petitions of the Slovak nation. They banned all Slovak assemblies and treated Slovak leaders as traitors deserving imprisonment. When the Slovaks perceived what obstacles their political program met with in Hungary, they resorted to arms against the Magyars who themselves were engaged in a rebellion against the Emperor. The Slovak rebellion in 1848-49 ended indecisively. The Russian army was asked to help subdue the revolting Magyars and absolute rule was imposed in the country. The Magyars were punished and the Slovaks were forgotten. 52 The Slovaks renewed their political activity in 1861. They detailed their principles in newspapers and later called an assembly at Turciansky Sv. Martin where they formulated a renewed Slovak policy within the comprehensive "Memorandum of the Slovak Nation." They asked that the Slovaks be permitted the right to develop their own life without restriction. They asked that they be recognized as a nation by a special proclamation, and that Slovakia constitute a distinctive administrative unit in Hungary. These petitions were submitted to Emperor Franz Josef (1849-1916). The only concession granted to the Slovaks was permission to establish a cultural institute called "Matica Slovenska" ("The Slovak Institute"). They were also allowed to use private funds to build three high schools for the education of Slovak youth. 64 SLOVAKIA The position of the Slovaks grew steadily worse in Hungary. Feeling the pressure of denationalization at every step, they did not stop pledging their allegiance to Hungary. All these attempts even at appeasement proved futile . The Hungarian Parliament passed legislation which suppressed Slovak life yet not even these adversities broke the Slovak nation, for the Slovaks believed "That truth has never yet suffered in vain, nor will our Slovak truth suffer needlessly," according to the prophetic dictum of Andrej Hlinka in 1907 spoken as he was being led to prison.53 $TOR IN CONTEMPORAR Y HISTORIC PERSPECTIVE Practicality of Stur's Ideals :r.udovit stur's role in the revival of Slovak national life was far reaching and vitally important. As a reformer of the Slovak literary medium he contributed to modern national Slovak ideology. He gave his people a new perspective and vision of political freedom and of a better future. His writings provided a powerful impetus to Slovak life in general. His manifold contributions to the Slovak national revival were not limited to Slovakia alone, but to the over-all Slavic world, since Slovakia and the Slovak people are a part of the Slavic world. Neither is his greatness only by the role he played at the first Slavic Congress in Prague, but also by his rich correspondence with all outstanding Slavic leaders, as well as his work "Slavdom and the World of the Future" which was translated and published twice by Russian intellectuals in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. stur's school of thought laid the foundation for the self-determinatio n of Slovakia more than a century ago. Even in the present the Slovaks are building upon this foundation. They will keep on pressing their point and cherishing their hope of success until they do attain complete freedom from all foreign domination. Just as stur had defied and condemned the hegemony of the Magyars and the materialistic philosophy of Marx and Engels, so do they hope in this day to overcome all obstacles to true freedom. SLOVAKIA 65 The followers of stur made the entire nation their concern. They applied themselves to improve the country's economy; they did their utmost to wipe out alcoholism, indifference, and illiteracy; they labored unceasingly to arouse national consciousness in more ways than one. The people at large responded and co-operated generously when r:,tur began to publish his "Slovenske Narodne Noviny" ("Slovak National News") which had great influence on the thinking of the common people. stur's articles recalled the heritage of the Slovak people, the glory of its language, morals, customs, and its homeland-which unites the nation as a whole and constrains it to press forward towards attaining the goal of unity. It was necessary to make the nation feel that someone was supporting it and was concerned about its welfare. The people had to be dealt with humanely. This applied to individuals as well as to groups. The Slovaks were threatened with complete annihilation, hence stur had to appeal to the mind, the feelings and the very character of the nation. Without first uniting this nation he could gain nothing. The sturists envisioned their task as not the conversion of renegades, but the instruction of the people to help themselves, to recognize and to fight for their God-given rights. Stu.r's newspaper served all classes of people to some degree-the intelligentsia, the laborer, the peasant, the minister of the Gospel, the merchant and the tradesman. The Slovaks did rouse themselves to national consciousness. Without effective journalism of the type provided by stur it would have been impossible to unite the Slovaks in so short a time. stur and his collaborators were realists. They encouraged and exhorted the people to better themselves by overcoming indolence and ignorance. They provided and encouraged private enterprise and more efficient ways of doing things in all fields of endeavor. The school problem was a factor of great concern to stur and his coterie. They indicated the necessity of cultivating the native language, the importance of enlightenment, the value of reading centers, libraries, sound agricultural programs, progress in industrial and financial enterprise, 66 SLOVAKIA revision in tax scales, improvement in animal husbandry and many other subjects. Temperance societies were promoted as were cultural and social institutions. Many stur followers taught Sunday school classes. This innovation of stur was probably the most interesting of all movements in Slovakia. stur and his followers were not dreamers; they were practical idealists who had the welfare and security of the Slovak people at heart.54 stur's school of thought built the foundation for the independence movement as well. With the help of his co-workers ::;tur's literary school to a great extent fulfilled the function of a political and military leadership, thereby elevating the Slovak people to the cultural level of the rest of Europe. For these achievements stur's progressive pedagogical heritage shall continue to live among us for a long time. His practical and wise suggestions, his courage, his vision, selflessness, his many precedents which could be used and developed in our day serve as an undying example for future generations of Slovaks, inspiring them to work for their country's freedom, independence and recognition. At the same time future generations are challenged to keep alive the flame of the torch which was passed to them by stur's unfaltering hope of a better world on the morrow. Despite stur's comparatively youthful age, his cultural and social activities were many-sided and diversified. Slovaks in the free world can gain much by a study of his works. Because stur and his co-workers were human, they naturally made some mistakes. However, their mistakes were those of the century in which they lived. It behooves us to judge them according to the fruit of their labor, the results of their work which brought a new perspective to the Slovak nation. stur can rightly be numbered among the outstanding European revolutionaries of his time. He was a great apostle of democracy and freedom for all people. The shining light among the Slovaks of the nineteenth century, the formulator of their political and social program, as well as the interpreter of their national desires was ~udovit stur-the Father of modern Slovak nationalism .55 SLOVAKIA 67 Application of stur's Theories in Subsequent Slovak History The evolution of Slovak national life and the role of ~udovit stur in its development are mutually inclusive. Once one delves into a study of stur's life work, he becomes permanently fascinated with it and cannot be shed the charm of this genial creator of modern national Slovak ideology. stur was endowed with extraordinary creativity and originality of concepts. Only a genius could create works of lasting value which survive long after his death. It is only natural that we return to stur and find support in him. He is an incentive to future generations to do even better things than he did. However, to date, he ranks as one of the most outstanding Slovaks of all time. Slovakia is grateful to many Slovak leaders who sacrificed everything for the nation. But most of these also worked for the realization of the spiritual plan of Slovak life which was spelled out and left to us by stur and his co-workers. They gave expression to the righteous desires of the Slovak nation and became the unsurpassed model in spiritual and civic activity:56 For more than a century, nothing new nor shaking has appeared than that which was expressed by stur for the Slovak nation. Hence it behooves us to return to him, because it is evident that every new and great plan of Slovak life must first pass the aqua regia test of stur's thinking. The aims of the Slovak nation which were conceived by stur are still the criteria of the life of the Slavic people. Whatever counters stur also runs counter to the vital interest of the Slovak nation. stur's words: "Let us not abandon ourselves, Slovak fellow citizens! " is just as timely today as they were in 1845. He was a man ahead of his time. His philosophical views, his democratic thinking, his principles and his social demands are timely, too. It is necessary for our generation to recognize the fact that the Slovaks over one hundred years ago fought to change the political structure of Central Europe, that they demanded a deserved independent status for their nation within the framework of a solid federation built on principles of justice and equity. 68 SLOVAKIA Great ideas may be temporarily suppressed and silenced, but in the end they will triumph. That accounts for the inability of the enemies within and without the Slovak nation to destroy the concept of individuality of the Slovak nation, its language, culture and its right to an independent life. Even today after a lapse of more than a hundred years, this idea is very much alive. Despite the fact that Pan-Slavism did not achieve any notable results during stur's time, it nevertheless had inherent value. For the first time it revealed the Slavic mind to the rest of Europe. This is important in the light of the present role which the Slavs play in Europe today. The Prague Congress too proved significant by reason of the fact it was the first expression of Slavic unity, of Slavic identity, distinct from the Hapsburg rule. It imbued the Slavs with greater courage and confidence and a guide for the future action. Slavdom and the World of Future is today a relatively unknown work, even in the Slavic world. Yet it had exerted great influence on Russian thinking in the 1870's and was a beacon light and incentive to furthering their program and goals. At the time of s tur's death in 1856, the whole Pan-Slavic movement was pretty much a failure. It failed because the very nationalism that it promoted led to its defeat. Pan-Slavism created dissent among the various Slav nations because it pressured national consciousness. The more the people became aware of their individuality, their historical traditions, and their language, the less they wanted to sacrifice them for a non-existent Slav federation . Another hindering factor was the centuries-old and traditional antagonism between the various Slavic nations, such as the Poles and the Russians, Czechs and Slovaks, Croatians and Serbs, prevented any success for a plan that would unite them. Hence Pan-Slavism was hindered from excercising any dominant or stable influence on European thought at that time. 57 For two decades after World War I Pan-Slavism seemed dead. The Western Slavs-the Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, Croatians, Slovenes and Serbs--established their own states in 1918. They looked more to the West than to Moscow for guidance and inspiration. After the German SLOVAKIA 69 aggression against Soviet Russia in the summer of 1941, Joseph Stalin revived Pan-Slavism for the duration of the war and appealed for the support of all Slavic peoples. The Soviet Union again discarded Pan-Slavism after World War II. It was under the aegis of Communism rather than Pan-Slavism that the U. S. S. R. established control over the Western and Southern Slavic peoples in the post war period. $tur's vision of a unified Slovak cultural, political and social life did not indicate that he was a mere visionary. After a century of struggle there exists a Slovak nation with its own literature and cultural institutions and it is a strongly literate one. There also exists a sound national consciousness and a wholesome social stratification, which is unbalanced only by the unfortunate present Communist regime. The new generation is imbued with a spirit of national and social justice among Central European peoples and constantly resists Communistic ideology, about which £udovit $tur wrote more than a century ago: "Communism not only commits outrageous injustice against all civil society ... it also ruins all personal initiative, endeavor and enthusiasm. It divides the family, it destroys the household and thus it opens wide the door to every type of immorality, dissolution, and indulgence. It degrades· man to bestial level ... "Communism has matured to the same degree as atheism and defection from Christianity . . . In all types of Communism whatever their classification may be, the outlook is only toward a dismal life. It brings in its wake despotism of the grossest kin. It ,shatters all bonds of social living. In place of holy ties, it offers profiteering, rioting and their like." Today when our mighty nation is fighting for freedom of all enslaved and oppressed nations, this freedom must not be overlooked for Slovakia. The Slovaks of today still have the inherent and God given rights to complete freedom as do all other nations. To fight for the freedom of all nations, including Slovakia, is the obligation of all lovers of truth and freedom. The Slovaks have existed and will continue to exist if they live and remember $tur's words: "Let us not abandon ourselves, Slovak fellow citizens!" 70 SLOVAKIA Today a foreign regime in Slovakia is persecuting and crushing all that stlir stood for, because it is above all else concerned with the extermination of the Slovak traditions which in his time Eudovit stur had recreated and reformed in such a manner that they remain in permanent basis of Slovak national development. The spirit of stur lives on! One can kill a man but never the idea he stands for . In history there are myriad examples of movements, faiths and ideologies triumphant "in spite of dungeon, fire and sword." The Slovak nation did not give up the right to live in an independent state even if this state was forcibly liquidated, its rules killed and its adherents persecuted. All this has made the struggle for independence even more imperative, because if the idea was worth dying for, it i~ worth fighting for. More than a century after his death :Cudovit stur is very much alive. His name is often on the lips of his followers and his opponents. Books are written about him, his policies, his philosophy, on both sides of the Iron Curtain by his friends and his enemies. With no perceptible results to show, the situation of the Slovak nation does not look very promising today. The nation is without its state, lives in slavery but also lives in hope. There is strong evidence to indicate a living and vibrant independence movement at home where the Slovaks after an interim of partial independence are convinced that there is no substitute for complete independence. The indeology of :Cudovit stur is the source of strength and belief that independent Slovakia with a government "of the people, by the people, for the people" will re-appear on the map of Europe:58 CONCLUSION The essential part of this study dealt with the assumption that :Cudovit stur and his achievements have long been recognized by the Slovaks, that he is a great national figure and is revered as the "Father of Modern Slovak Nationalism." But what of his place in the history of the Slavs at this time? Looking for stur's place in the Slavic world, after the passing of a century which tested many of his conceptions SLOVAKIA 71 and achievements, one cannot avoid some purely Slovak cultural and political issues. One cannot help but also agree with Hans Kohn's words that "the Slovak nation with its own literary language, was definitely established."59 stur's manifold activities made this possible. Since Pan-Slavism remained the primary concern of Slavic poets, newsmen, literary scholars, philologists, and historians, Slavic nationalism was far removed from the political plan and was situated in the literary field. These individuals expressed an optimistic belief in man's inevitable progress, in the spiritual rejuvenation which would result in the assurance of liberty, peace and happiness. These visionaries felt that perhaps the Slavs were heralds of a new era. They promised a unified betterment in a future Slavic world. According to his book "Slavdom and the World of the Future" r.udovit stur set out to accomplish four tasks. He wanted an assurance to determine whether the Slavs really had a specific role to fulfill in world history. The Slavic past would yield an affirmative answer, for this certainty was the basis for the entire Pan-Slavic movement. Without doubt, the Slavs were to be the leaders of a "New Europe." Since history is a progression of spent nations being replaced by young and energetic ones, Slavic Emancipation and self-determination would eventually be realized. stur's gift of prophecy and Kollar's poetic vision of one Slav nation, language, and culture as expressed in Kollar's "Daughter of Slavs" ("Slavy dcera"): "What will the Slavs be in a hundred years? What will the whole of Europe come to be? Slav life, just as a mighty flood appears, shall everywhere extend its boundary. The science shall Slav exponents see, our peoples' customs, dress and music on both the Seine and Danube modish be." His second task was to describe the Slavic mission in universal history against the background of the cultural difference between Western and Eastern Europe.60 stur could only visualize the destruction of the peasantry by a moral, political and social dissolution in the West and the culmination of a schism between religion and daily life. The West could do little to help, since it was gradually losing face because of its prodigality. 72 SLOVAKIA Western society and its institutions were not worth the effort of imitation since they were contributing to the downfall of the West. Hence the Slavs could depend only on themselves for existence. Thirdly, Shir presents a highly romantic picture of the Slavic peoples. They are endowed with extraordinary virtue. The West was held accountable for the vices of the Slavs who were presented as being by nature kind, patient, humble, and democratic. These characteristics were typical of all Slavs, but especially the Russians, who were the embodiment of all the best and noblest features of the entire Slav nation. Logically, he concluded, that since the Russians were to be the leaders of the Slavs, they had to be the cream of the Slavic element.61 His last task dealt with the problems of Slavic political unification. If the Slavs were to attain their goal, unity was an absolute necessity. There were three possibilities. The first was a Slavic confederation without Russia, which could never succeed because of internal disputes among multi-Slavic peoples. These nation were of about equal strength, hence the emergence of a leader from these nations was an impossibility. The second was the transformation of Austria into a Slavic Empire. Attempts of this nature had been made before and failed. Shir felt that Austro-Slavism should not be considered. The only alternative left was alliance with Russia. Since she was powerful enough to unite all the Slavic nations, she was the natural leader that was needed. stur was impressed by Russia's power and influence. If Slavic peoples united under Russia, their equal would be second to none in Europe. One wonders how it came that such a decisive document was left to us by stur. Yet under the circumstances with which he had to contend in the 1850's it is not surprising. His primary concern was Slavic Nationalism, and Slavic unity. His interest in Russia came only as a result of this, since he never had any prolonged contact with the Russians, neither had he ever been in Russia. 62 After more than a century's lapse of time Stu.r's big dream of a United Slavic peoples under Russia may yet SLOVAKIA 73 become a reality, in a strange and unfortunate nature, because of recent political developments in Central and Eastern Europe. Moscow has became a political powerhouse of the Slavic world and Russian leadership has technically materialized. Stu.rs drive and his vision of Slovak cultural, political and social betterment did not prove to be a myth either. There now exists a Slovak nation with its own literature, cultural institutions and almost universal literacy. Its people are nationally conscious and they can boast of sound social stratification, which was recently unbalanced only by the presence of an unwelcome Communist regime. They are proud of their fighting spirit for national and social justice, which was passed on them with the flame of Stu.r's burning torch. There is a constant resistance among them to Communist ideology and this attitude is another legacy of Stu.r's. Over a century ago he said: "Communism not only commits _o utrageous injustices against all civil society ... but it also ruins all personal initiative, endeavor and enthusiasm ... It degrades man to a bestial level ... " 63 Although Pan-Slavism did not achieve notable results during Stu.r's time, it had an inherent value in that it revealed for the first time to the rest of Europe the Slavic mind. This is important in the light of the present role which the Slavs play in Europe. The Prague Congress, too, was the first expression of Slavic unity and identity which was separate from the Hapsburg rule. It also gave the Slavs courage and confidence. Stu.r's book, mentioned earlier in this section, has had a strong influence on Russian thinking in the 1870's and was a forerunner of some later developments. stur and his followers executed their tasks beyond human expectation, for they came upon a scene of history when the situation of the Slovaks under the Magyars in Hungary seemed truly hopeless. The significance of Eudovit stur in the evolution and revival of Slovak national life is tremendous and far. reaching. His role as a reformer of the Slovak literary language greatly contributed to Slovak national ideology. It gave his people a new vision and perspective of political 74 SLOVAKIA freedom and of a better future. By his example and writings he provided a strong impetus to Slovak life in general. stur rightfully belongs with Jan Kollar and Pavol J. safarik to the Slovaks of the nineteenth century who are regarded as great figures of the Slavic world, since Slovakia and its people are part of the Slavic world. All three found willing echo in all the Slavic peoples. As Hans Kohn states: "They were imbued in the familiar mood of the period, a general belief in historical progress, in a bright future, in the advent of some great spiritual manifestation, of a new era for mankind, which would establish for ever the basis of liberty, peace, and happiness."64 (Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in History at Marywood College.) FOOTNOTES 1) Jan V. Ormis, Bibliografia Uudovita Stura ("Stur's Bibliography") (Turc. Sv. Martin: Matica Slovenska, 1958), p. 8. 2) Jaroslav Vlcek, Mala Ruko vat' literarno-historicka (A small Hanpbook of Literary History") (Turc. Sv. Martin: Matica Slovenska, 1932). p. 195. 3) Jan V. Ormis, Bibliografia Uu,dovita Stura ("Stur's Bibliography") (Turc Sv. Martin: Matica Slovenska, 1958), p. 199. 4) Ibid., p. 199. 5) Marian Ziar, "Stur" Father of Modern Slovak Nationalism." Slovakia, March, 1956, pp. 8-9. 6) Philip A. Hrobak, "Stur and the Slovak Independence Movement," Slovakia, September-December, 1956, p. 39. 7) Karol Golan, "Sturove reci na slovanskom sjazde roku 1848," ("Stur's Lectures at the Slavic Congress of 1848,") Slovak Views, AugustSeptember, 1936, p. 422. 8) Henrich Bartek, "Our Tradition and Louis Stur," Slovakia, June, 1956, p. 7. 9) Jan Ormis, Bibliografia Uudovita Stura ("Stur's Bibliography") (Turc. Sv. Martin : Matica Slovenska, 1958) , p. 199. 10) Jaroslav Vlcek, Dejiny literatury slovenskej (History of Slovak Literature") Turciansky Sv. Martin: Matica Slovenska, 1923), p. 184. 11) St. Osusky, Filozofia Sturovcov ("Sturist Philosophy") (Myjava: Typ. Daniel Pazicky, 1926), p. 10. 12) Uudovit Bakos, Uul:iovit 5tiir (Bratislava: Vydavatel'stvo Slovenskej Akademie Vied, 1957 ), p. 34. 13 ) . Ibid., p. 50. 14) Seton-Watson, R. H., A History of the Czechs and Slovaks. (London : Archon Books, 1943), p. 260. 15) John cajak, Second Slovak History ("Bejepis Slovakov") (Pennsylvania-Pittsburgh: National News, 1914), p. 97. SLOVAKIA 75 16) Marian .Ziar, "Stur: Father of Modern Slovak Nationalism," Slovakia, March, 1956, p. 6. 17) Henrich Bartek, " Our Tradition and Uudovit Stur," Slovakia, June 1956, p. 4. 18) Joseph Kirschbaum, UU/dovit Stur and His Place in the Slavic World (Cleveland: The Slovak Institute, 1958), p. 14. 19 ) R. H. Seton-Watson, A History of the Czechs and Slovaks (London: Arc hon Books, 1943), PP- 260-261. 20) John cajak, "Slovak History" ("Dejepis Slovakov") (Pittsburgh: National News, 1914), p. 97. 21 ) Joseph Kirschbaum, "Uudovit Stu!· and His Place in the Slavic World," Slovakia, March, 1958. 22) Francis Hrusovsky, "Point of No Return," This is Slovakia (Scranton: Obrana Press, 1954), p. 46. 23) Joseph Kirschbaum, "Uudovit Stur in His Place in the Slavic World." (Cleveland: Slovak Institute, 1958) , p. 20. 24) Ibid., pp. 20-21. 25) Ibid., p. 28. 26 ) Thomas Capek, The Slovaks of Hungary (New York: Knickerbocker Press, 1906) , pp. 22-23. 27) Joseph Skultety, Sto Dvadsat' Pat' Rokov zo Slovenskeho .Zivota. 1790-1914. ("One Hundred Twenty-five Years of Slovak History") Turc. Sv. Martin: Knih. -Ocast., 1920), p. 44. 28) Ibid., p. 46. 29 ) Ibidem., p. 46. 30) Joseph Kirschbaum. "Louis Stur Centenial" Slovakia, March, 1956. (Middletown ) p. 8. 31) Marian .Ziar, "Stur: Father of Modern Slovak Nationalism," Slovakia, March, 1956, pp. 8-9. 32) Joseph Kirschbaum , Uudovit Stur and His Place in the Slavic World," (Cleveland: The Slovak Institute, 1958), p. 23. 33) Michael B. P e trovich. The Emergence of Russian Pan-Slavism. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1956), pp. 18-19. 34) Suzanne Mikula, "Uudovit Stur a~d the Pan-Slavic Movement," Slovakia, 1966, pp. 106-107. 35) Henrich Bartek, "Our Tradition and Uudovit Stur," Slovakia, June, 1956, pp. 7-8. 36 ) Thomas Capek. The Slovaks of Hungacy (New York: Knickerbocker Press, 1906) , pp. 70-71. 37) Ibid., p. 71. 38) Seton-Watson. History of the Czechs and Slovaks (London : Archon Books, 1943) , p. 162. 39) Suzanne Mikula. "Uudovit Stur and the Pan-Slavic Movement," Slovakia, 1966, pp. 109-110. 40 ) Ibid., p. 110. 41) Ibid., p. 110. 42) Joseph Kirschbaum. Uu)dovit Mur and His Place in the Slavic World (Cleveland: Slovak Institute, 1958), pp. 8-9. 43 ) Suzanne Mikula, "Uudovit Stur and the Pan..Slavic Movement," Slovakia, 1966, pp. 110-111. 76 SLOVAKIA 44) Michael Petrovich, "l!udovit Stur and Russian Pan-Slavism," Journal of Central European Pan-Slavism, 1952, p. 6. 45) Hans Kohn, "Pan-Slavism," Encyclopedia International, XIX, 44-45. 46) Ibid., pp. 44-45. 47) ACEN statement, September 20, 1954. 48) Jan V. Ormis, Bibliografia I!udovita Stura ("Bibliography of I!udovit Stur") (Turc. Sv. Martin: Matica Slovenska, 1958), pp. 198-199. 49) Philip Hrobak, "Stur and the Slovak I'*-1ependence Movement," Slovakia (Sept., Dec., 1956), p. 38. 50) Jan Ormis. Bibliografia L'udovita Stura ("Stur's Bibliography") (Turc. Sv. Martin: Matica Slovenska, 1958), p. 199. 51) Francis Vnuk, Dr. Jozef Tiso. (Sydney: Orbis Printing Co. pty. Ltd., 1967), pp. 5-6. 52) Francis Hrusovsky, "This Is Slovakia," Slovakia, 1969, pp. 91-92. 53 ) Karol Sidor, Andrej Hlinka (Bratislava: 1934), p. 198. 54) Joseph Pauco, "Stur's Group in -the Service of the People," Slovakia, March, 1956, pp. 12-15. 55 ) Marian .Ziar, "Stur: Father of Modern Slovak Nationalism," Slovakia , March, 1956, pp. 10-11. 56) Henrich Bartek, Our Tradition and Louis Stur," Slovakia, June, 1956, pp. 3-4. 57) Suzanne Mikula, "l!udovit Stur and the Pan-Slavic Movement," Slovakia, 1966, p. 113. 58 ) Frantisek Vnuk, Dr. Jozef Tiso, (Sidney: Orbis Printing and Publishing Co., Pty Ltd., 1967), p. 43. 59) Hans Kohn, "Pan-Slavism, Its History a'*-1 Ideology," (University of Notre Dame Press, 1953), p. 21. 60 ) Suzanne Mikula, "I!uldovit Stur and the Pan-Slavic Movement,·• Slovakia, p. 111, 1966. 61) Ibid., p. 112. 62) Ibid., p. 112. 63) Joseph Kirschbaum , I!udovit Stur and His Place in the Slavic Wor~:i (Cleveland: Slovak Institute, 1958), p. 26. 64) Hans Kohn, "Pan-Slavism, Its History and Ideology," (Indiana : University of Notre Dame Press), p. 22. 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New York: Columbia University Press, 1956, p. 18. Porubsky, Jan. K Ste-mu Vyrociu Literarnej Slovenciny 1856-1944. ("The One Hundredth Year of Literary Slovak." ) Scranton: Obrana Press, 1944, pp. 154-166. Ruppelt, Fedor. Koncentracne Snahy Slovenske. ("Concentrated Slovak Endeavors.") Turc. Sv. Martin: Knihtlaciarsky a Ucastinarsky Spolok, 1928, pp. 64-71. Skultety, Jozef. Sketches from Slovak History. Middletown: Jednota Press, 1930, pp. 183-186. Sto Dvadsat' Pat' Rokov zo Slovenskeho tivota 1790-1914. ("One 78 SLOVAKIA Hundred Twenty-five Years of Slovak History." ) Turc. Sv. Martin: Knihtlaciarsky -Ocast. Spolok, 1920, pp. 31-65. Vlcek, Jaroslav. Dejiny Literatury Slovenskej. ("History of Slovak Literature." ) Turc. Sv. Martin: Matica Slovenska, 1932, pp. 194-204. Mala Rukoviit' Literarno-Historicka. ("A Small Handbook of Literary History.") Turc. Sv. Martin: Matica Slovenska, 1932, pp. 194-204. Wagner, J;udovit. Slovensky Plutarch. (" Slovak Plutarch.") Nove Mesto naid Vahom: Jan Trnovsky, 1920, pp. 27-30. Address-Published Kirschbaum , Joseph M. 13udovit Stur and His Place in the Slavic World. An Address to the Annual Meeting of the Canadian Association of Slavists on June 9, 1957, at the University of Ottawa, Canada. Periodicals Bartek, Henrich. " Our Tradition and J;udovit Stur." Slovakia, June, 1956, pp. 3-10. Bue, Bonaventure. " Conflicts of Slovak Nationalism. " Slovakia, June , 1958, pp. 1-17. Hrobak, Philip. "Stur and the Slovak Independence Movement." Slova• kia, September-December, 1956, pp. 34-39. Kir schbaum, Joseph. "Independence and the Slovak Past." Slovakia, March, 1957, pp. 44-53 . "Louis Stur Centennial." Slovakia, March, 1956, pp. 3-6. 'Misconceptions of American Slavists." Slovakia, March-June, 1962, pp. 25-43 . "The Slovak Language and Its Place Among the Slavic Languages." ' Slovakia, 1966, pp. 1-17. Mikula, Suzanne. "!;udovit Stur and the Pan-Slavic Movement." Slovakia, 1966, pp. 104-115. Pauco, Joseph. "Stu.r's Group in the Service of the People." Slovakia, March, 1956, pp. 11-15. Rekem, John. "The Origin and Development of the Slovak Language ." Slovakia, March-April, 1962, pp. 1-13. 2iar, Marian. "Stur: Father of Mqdern Slovak Nationalism." Slovakia, March, 1956, pp. 6-11. Banik, Anthony A. "Posledni Zastancovia Spi:sovnej Cestiny." (The Last Supporters of the Literary Czech Language.") Sbornik LiterarnoV edeckeho Odboru SSV., 1935, pp. 18-35. Horak, Juraj . "Sturova Kniha o Narqdnych Piesnach a Povestiach Plemien Slovanskych." ('Stu.r's Book on Naitional Hymns and Slavic Popular Tales.") Sbornik Matice Slovenskej, January-February, 1923, pp. 97-128. Vlcek, Jaroslav. "Povodina Sturovho Spisu o Narodnych Povestiach Slovanskych." ("Stu.r's Original Writings on Slavic National Tales.") Sbornik Matice Slovenskej, pp. 58-63. Unpublished Material McCoy, Sheila Marie, Sister. 'The School of Stur," (Unpublished Thesis) Cabrini College, 1965.  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Political Views of Ľudovít Štúr Description An account of the resource Sister M. Delphina Opet, SS.C.M. Slovakia, Vol. 21 (No. 44), 1971 pp. 20-78 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Opet, Sister M. Delphina, SS.C.M. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1971 name https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/9fb5dee5b865bf5c0596256b4d8b6877.pdf 1f753216e874a382a1ed9ac6419dbe6d PDF Text Text 94 SLOVAKIA Powers of Darkness and Powers of Truth Marian Jankovsky Alexander Dubcek, a Slovak communist politician whose name swept around the globe like a comet and found a place among nominees for the Nobel Prize described his efforts, his political program, with the expression: To show the human face of Communism. This slogan which suddenly magnetized other European nations under communistic imperialism, sounded an alarm within Kremlin walls. Moscow's anger found expression in the occupation of Bohemia and Slovakia on the night of August 21, 1968. Armed occupation was at the same time an answer to Dubcek and other reformers and it served notice to the rest of the world that Communism does not have a human face. Dubcek was not the only one nor the first to undertake social reforms in such a way as to preserve the dignity of man. Perhaps even Lenin himself and even Engels, the teacher of Marx had entertained such ideas at the beginning of their career. And history records similar attempts in the eighteenth century and in earlier times. All of them, however, reached a cul de sac situation, when they directed the attempt to reform society without violence into utopian channels-to something fictitious and unrealizable. Since this need, this cry to preserve man's dignity is ageless and man himself is unable to find the approach and the means of attaining it, God himself came to man's aid: He sent to earth his Son who dispelled this hopelessness and announced a gospel and principles under which a society of brothers, of friends, could be realized. Man had experienced frustrations and found himself on erroneous paths since he chose to act alone-to disregard God, to oppose God and to defy God in his effort to found a social order on norms that would provide respect for the dignity of man. Though in certain instances these aspirations were sincere and honorable, they either remained on the utopian plane or degenerated into coarse violence primarily because they denied the fundamental nature of man which is �SLOVAKIA 95 theocentric. It is the nature of a man to tend toward God with his heart and mind just as it is natural for a child to direct affections toward his parents. It is a law of origin; of the created and the Creator; of Cause and effect. Many modern-day reformers returned to Plato; they drew instruction from the teachings of Thomas More, but in the final resolution, they cloaked all these concepts in the Marx-Lenin and Stalin-Brezhnev realities and imposed on them the most brutish form to which a social philosophy could ever degenerate. From the spiritual standpoint, this happened because Lenin-Bolshevik Communism was established on dogmas of a single category: the denial of God and of all that is supernatural. And if man: is not to have God's image, there remains for him nothing else only the face of the enemy of God whose name is Satan. Politically, this inhuman face of bolshevism assumed its form from the fact that bolshevism is founded, perpetuated, and disseminated solely by force and methods of open-or what is more base--disguised violence. Lenin the ideologist became a cruel avenger when, after unsuccessful attempts at murder at the gallows, executions with bullets, imprisonments and deportations to Siberia, he initiated the liquidation of adversaries both real and suspected. And bloody hands that were bloodied were never again washed clean. Stalin, the most tyrannical exponent of bolshevism, revealed in a conversation with Churchill that the number of victims whom he had physically liquidated exceeded millions. History which one day, please God, will see light, records twenty million persons executed, shot, tortured to death with hunger and beatings during Stalin's day. Modern sociology and philosophy habitually labels as fascism the evils and political errors of some regimes of this century. Assuredly, every type of fascism is evil because it is based upon violence and denies the human and supernatural rights of the men and nations which it subjugates. Communism zealously over-reacts in dealing with fascist propaganda. Every regime, each person whom Communism set out to destroy, it first accused of fascism . And here lies the great irony of hypocritical baseness, for such denouncing of the evils of fascism was simply a convenient device by which communistic bolshevism tried to �96 SLOVAKIA avert the attention of the world away from the evil of which it was itself guilty. And we know that this kind of political trickery of diverting attention sometimes serves the communists well. As a matter of fact, however, the truth is that long before there was a black (Mussolinist) or brown (Hitlerist) fascism, there already existed a red or Kremlin fascism . Long before some European countries resorted to concentration camps and began to liquidate political opponents, Soviet Russia already had a well-tested tradition of such procedures. And so it is evident that both with its ideology and its program, and principally with its despotic methods, Communism lost all right to be called a progressive movement, a social program. It is, on the contrary, in every aspect reactionary, abusive, and dangerous to nations. It is the deformation of the human face of man to whom it promised paradise on earth and delivered him hell. Under the following headings we wish to point our several features of this inhuman face of Communism in general, as well as with specific references to Slovakia. We choose primarily issues on which Communism counted most heavily and in which it failed deplorably. Communism disavowed, maligned, and betrayed these ideals and values: a) the ideal of the personal freedom of man and the freedom of nations; b) the ideal of work upon which it stamped a bold seal of slavery; c) the ideal of society (family, town, state) which it yoked with laws of violence and dictatorship; d ) the ideal of the dignity of man who did not become the subject of its program, but rather its tool; e ) and finally, Communism disavowed its own political ideals: the struggle against imperialism, inasmuch as it is itself hard-grained imperialism; the struggle against exploitation, since it is itself a most cruel exploiter; the ideal of coexistence, which it crushes always and everywhere with its notorious "veto," "njet". MAN IS CREATED FOR FREEDOM Freedom ranks very high on the scale of values. God who ordained laws for man, who defined for him and �SLOVAKIA 97 illumined paths to perfection, who permitted his Son to shed blood on the wood of the cross for the redemption of humanity, left to man such a degree of freedom that even He himself respects it. Man's freedom was the communist regime's first target. No tyrannical power, no regime of fear and violence could survive if men were permitted their freedom. Today the whole world can judge to what an extent freedom is being suppressed in the Soviet Union. This it can learn from the scattered articles, rallies, demonstrations, and testimonies which some Soviet people themselves, communists at that, felt compelled to give or were able to release either in hiding or in some brief period of political moderation, when there was an exchange of political sides; e. g. after Kruschev came into power. Pasternak, Kuznecov, Solzhenicyn, Ehrenburg, and others revealed in their writings at least part of the picture of the absurd non-freedom prevalent in Soviet Russia. The nations of central Europe caught in the misfortune of being "liberated" by the Soviet regime all too soon experienced the burden of non-liberty in all areas of public and private life. An elaborate spy-system covered and controlled every aspect of living. There was spying in schools, in churches, among afficials, in cafes, on the street, in factories, and even in prison cells where the regime planted its agents as ostensibly sympathetic fellow-prisoners in order ·to draw from those in jail information that they could not obtain otherwise. In Slovakia the communist regim e was not content with creating a universal atmosphere of fear and distrust but everywhere in public life it especially resorted to a persistent and unmerciful use of tactics of power--display and coercion. It introduced numerous clauses in schools of higher learning, and in departments of theology it . assumed the prerogative of deciding who may and who may not pursue studies. It filled positions in government and public life as well as in agricultural departments not on the basis of professional merit and competence but rather according to their degree of party loyalty and their proficiency in informing. Highly educated qualified people �98 - -- SLOVAKIA - - - -- - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - -- were given assignments as store-keepers; tailors were appointed school principals. The communist regime restricted or completely forbade change of residence; it ordered Slovaks to move to Bohemian borderline territory and in this way effected massive and enforced denationalization. Agents of the regime had the authority to awaken anyone at anytime during the night for investigation. An interminable circulation of cadre forms held people in continual check. Peasants were stripped of freedom when farm cooperatives were established in many areas with the help of the police force. Compulsory quotas of produce were imposed upon them regardless whether they raised these products or not, regardless of their ability to supply them or not. If they failed to meet the quota, farmers lost their property and were often evicted from their homes. By assigning commissioners to seminaries, to theology faculties, to bishops' offices, to church societies and the press, and by organizing a so-called peace-movement of the Catholic clergy which was communist devised, the party usurped control of the Church subsequent to its liquidation of convents and imprisonment of many priests, of bishops, and Catholic laymen. Naturally, while this curtailment of freedom afflicted oppoments of communistic ideology most seriously, it also served to hold in check the members of the Party who had only one choice: either absolute obedience or expulsion and social degradation or perhaps-not infrequently-imprisonment. The execution of Clementis, the imprisonment and torture of Husak, Lobl, Holdos, Viest and thousands of other communists shows that bolshevism does not tolerate freedom even on behalf of its most faithful adherents. It knows how to crush anyone who dares to exercise free choice. And so, by its despotic reaction toward freedom, Communism proves that as a tyrant, it does not deserve freedom of any kind; that it is in theory and practise superlatively reactionary, anti-human, and inhuman. MAN IS CREATED FOR WORK God himself works. The creation and preservation of the world is the result of work, understood in the divine �SLOVAKIA 99 sense. Jesus Christ spent his maturing years working, and he blessed work. Man himself by his vocation and purpose in life is so constituted that work helps him to develope; in work he creates values; in work he manifests his freedom. Communism wove a significant web of symbolism around work and even formulated an official greeting intended to bestow honor on work. In essence, however , it all degenerated into profanity and mere hypocritical expression. Those who best succeeded in avoiding work were the loudest in shouting "Honor to work! "-laborers, farmers, and often representatives from anti-social circles -persons now transformed into public officials and officious functionaries . In reality work became odious when people had to be forced into it, when the regime paid it poor wages or rather exploited it to such an extent that most of the profits poured into hands that did not labor. Consequently, work was performed carelessly, lazily, superficially, unreliably. Much was said about work each morning before a construction job or in the factory in the so-called tenminute warm-ups that usually lasted up to an hour. Poet5 composed odes to work and were honored for them by government awards. But work itself became more and more burdensome. If, therefore, slave labor was some kind of communist ideal, for communism did bring it to that concept, then the era of slavery should have to be considered the pinnacle of civilization. As a result of communist conditioning, work in Slovakia appeared in two forms: on the one hand labor was overplayed to the populace; on the other, people were driven to work. This was all that Communism was capable of doing with an otherwise priceless value. Finally, the fact that in a communist state living standards among the populace--principally in the working class- by comparison with workers' standards in the free democratic worlct declined by steady stages confirms the devaluation 0f work by bolshevism and its hypocritical attitude toward it. Because if during the previous Republic- to offer at least one illustration-the inhabitants of one town annually hauled to the public market 400 wagonloads of grain and �100 SLOVAKIA during the peak of the great cooperative movement a town's inhabitants were forced to buy their supply of flour and milk, what is the only inference to be made? That there was no production; that work, which is also generative force of prosperity, lost its economic effectiveness. MAN IS CREATED FOR SOCIETY Psychologically man is constituted to tend toward companionship. He establishes families and is in his element within a family group. Common interests draw him toward smaller and larger societies; he forms nations and states, and he endows all his interrelationship with neighbors with a friendly spirit. Here too, in the area of familial ties, Communism has failed even as a philosophical and sociological system. It brought into social relationships hatred, mistrust, suspicion, and intolerance. All too familiar are examples like these: communist teachers persuaded or induced children to denounce their parents-to report when they meet, to what radio programs they listen, with whom they correspond, what contacts they have with persons in a foreign country, the nature of conversations and discussions in the home. Like procedures were directed to offices, among teachers, in schools, at work, in factories. In the Soviet Union where this type of upbringing prevailed for fifty years it was bound to yield its pernicious fruit, for even the family circle was affected by the Party program. In her novel Dva veky the writer Golubkovova presents instances of the alienation of couples and the estrangement of parents from their children because the tyranny of Party ideology penetrates into the innermost circles of family life and compels primacy for Party interests over the needs and interests of family living and even over conjugal love. Social life in Slovakia, marked by traditionally recognized trust and friendship, was forced under this system of informing to retreat into the core of the family circle. And even there, the people carefully scrutinize and observe whom they may be entertaining at table. If someone strange �SLOVAKIA 101 came to visit, or if there was a guest before whom they knew they ought to be silent, the entire conversation shifted to trivial matters. Finally, the extensive system of listening in on conversations which was installed in restaurants, offices, and business establishments as well as the presence of a vast network of informers inevitably caused people to resort to whispering, to prefer silence in the company of unknown persons. Confidence and friendship were being lost--these necessary values on which is built friendship and tolerance. And so instead of idealized collectivism which Communism so greatly stressed, there developed a society of individuals locked within themselves or narrowed to only the relationships cultivated in a private family. Even good friends began to suspect one another if their conversation happened to reach the ears of the state police even though they themselves were not guilty of transmitting the information which may have been picked up by the hearing devices that seemed to be omnipresent, even in private dwellings . A person living in a democratic free world can hardly imagine such diabolical inventions. But such it was and is, and its father is bolshevism. THE CENTRAL POINT OF ALL PROGRESS IS MAN Every advance in science, civilization, hygiene, and economy relates to man and his welfare. Families as well as nations and states are social institutions designed to enable every good to reach man who is worthy of every effort and endeavor. Communism repudiated even this worth of man, making him not the object but the instrument of its own politics. This was done first of all by denying man the right of free choice. Man was not permitted to decide for himself his prospects for education and schooling, type of work, place of work, place of residence--all this he had to accept on orders from the Communist party. And so it was that people could not choose a profession, either according to personal preference or inherent talent but had to be satisfied with whatever official ordained. Reflecting on the fact that such unwise management caused great cultural and economic loss to society, one must also �102 SLOVAKIA deplore the dichotomy effected by such decisions and the personal liberty of man and his human dignity. Specific mention must be made at this point of judicial r eprisals, investigations under inhuman conditions-beatings and torture to compel confessions of guilt-imprisonments during inquest lasting even beyond a year and this without court decision, false accusations and the like. If the almost 80-year old bishop Jan Vojtassak on orders from a sub-intelligent prison guard had to make a given number of knee-bends in jail, this was not the fruit only of the stupidity of the guard but the harvesting of the r egime which approved and countenanced such methods, delighted in them, and with them bullied the people. Communism failed to appreciate even its own members. It valued them only in so far as they were statistical numbers. Before the idol of the communist divinity every human value had to prostrate. That was in itself deplorable and outrageous, but in relation to the dictatorship of despotic bolshevism it was also unbelievably hopeless and painful. IDEALS Communism raised for itself a number of ideals with which it hoped to justify its existence. For example, the unification of nations, avowed opposition to exploitation, the fight against colonialism and imperialism, a program for the common welfare, and the idea of peace. Not a single one of these ideals fructified under Communism. E x p l o i t a t i o n. Even though the matter of opposition to exploitation became one of the basic principles of the communist program, it is ironic that there is perhaps no other regime that so exploits people, especially the working class, as does the communist system. It is well known that the earnings of workmen in Slovakia, compared with wages paid in other countries, were so low that they did not even satisfy the living minimum of families. It was impossible to conceive that a wife and children could subsist on the father 's pay. In every family the wife too had to seek employment; this meant a rush in early �SLOVAKIA 103 morning to bring the children to the nursery, and after work returning for them, cooking dinner, doing household chores, etc. Every person was exploited; and if ever woman was a slave, it was definitely in the communist state. The exploitation of workers was all the worse since they had no right to call a strike or to use any other fonn of protest for manifesting personal dissatisfaction or making known their demands. Strikes were constitutionally outlawed. Even the farmer was exploited, since profits from his labors were distributed among several middlemen before his produce reached the consumer. For a kilo of fruit of which the consumer paid about five crowns on the warket, the producer received one crown. The remainder became the shared profit of the business machine, organizations of various sorts, the state taxes, etc. Exploited too was the apparatus of officialdom, especially teachers who, by comparison, received the lowest of wages, even less than laborers and many other less qualified employees. Communism greatly harmed the concept of the unification of nations by sowing hatred, and by creating an insurmountable barrier with its two-world-comm unistic and capitalistic-prop aganda; it lowered an iron curtain. The struggle against colonialism and imperialism was communism's theoretically powerful weapon in an age marked with the liberalizing of colonialized nations. On the other hand, however, Communism defamed this very idea when it formed the Soviet Union by means of imperialist wars and pressures, especially after World War II when it structured the entire communist empire by resorting to armed force, invasions, and the occupation of territories which it forcibly seized as its own. The question of well-being or prosperity in communistic regimes is so illusory, that today communist powers are embarassed to speak of it publicly, As long as it was possible to do so, communism placed the guilt for economic failure on its previous regimes, on reactions within the state itself, on crop failure. However, when the economic �104 SLOVAKIA slump reached such proportions that it was impossible to hide it any longer, the regime stopped explaining and simply gave orders, constantly repeating its frequently initiated but seldom completed 5-year plan and its competitions with capitalistic nations which it consecutively lost. And finally, the idea of peace which was such a convincing cloak for the whole international politicking of the Soviet Union and its satellite countries: Peace by communistic thinking meant nothing else but exclusive communistic world government. Not only examples of brutal aggressiveness in Hungary, in Czecho-Slovakia, in the endless conflicts disturbing the Russo-Chinese border, but the entire content of activities within the organization which Communism called "peaceful" and stand evidently, and remain a priori in direct conflict with the fundamentals of peace. The regime, which evokes insecurity and fear, which tramples underfoot the basic rights of man, which disrespects the principles of personal and national freedom, which enslaves man, cannot seriously speak of peace. And so it seems, that it is in this area that the communist regime has most seriously wounded the dignity of man. And today, this cloud hangs over Slovakia. A nation, which knew how to survive for over a thousand years under numerous forms of oppression, today unceasingly resists and will continue to resist this yoke because the spirit simply cannot tolerate submission to the violence of brutal materialism. Therefore, as oil rises to the surface, so this spirit will also rise and celebrate its triumph of extraordinary patience and interior strength drawn from the infinity of God. (Translated by Sister M. Raymund Horvath, SS.C.M.) THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA through its Ladies AtJxiliary, the "VCIELKY" (Bees), sponsors Slovak culb1rai displays. concerts, lectures, art exhibits, folk festi vals, social evenings, etc. our aim is to have a "Hive" of our "Vcielky" in every large Slovak community. � 94 SLOVAKIA Powers of Darkness and Powers of Truth Marian Jankovsky Alexander Dubcek, a Slovak communist politician whose name swept around the globe like a comet and found a place among nominees for the Nobel Prize described his efforts, his political program, with the expression: To show the human face of Communism. This slogan which suddenly magnetized other European nations under communistic imperialism, sounded an alarm within Kremlin walls. Moscow's anger found expression in the occupation of Bohemia and Slovakia on the night of August 21, 1968. Armed occupation was at the same time an answer to Dubcek and other reformers and it served notice to the rest of the world that Communism does not have a human face. Dubcek was not the only one nor the first to undertake social reforms in such a way as to preserve the dignity of man. Perhaps even Lenin himself and even Engels, the teacher of Marx had entertained such ideas at the beginning of their career. And history records similar attempts in the eighteenth century and in earlier times. All of them, however, reached a cul de sac situation, when they directed the attempt to reform society without violence into utopian channels-to something fictitious and unrealizable. Since this need, this cry to preserve man's dignity is ageless and man himself is unable to find the approach and the means of attaining it, God himself came to man's aid: He sent to earth his Son who dispelled this hopelessness and announced a gospel and principles under which a society of brothers, of friends, could be realized. Man had experienced frustrations and found himself on erroneous paths since he chose to act alone-to disregard God, to oppose God and to defy God in his effort to found a social order on norms that would provide respect for the dignity of man. Though in certain instances these aspirations were sincere and honorable, they either remained on the utopian plane or degenerated into coarse violence primarily because they denied the fundamental nature of man which is �SLOVAKIA 95 theocentric. It is the nature of a man to tend toward God with his heart and mind just as it is natural for a child to direct affections toward his parents. It is a law of origin; of the created and the Creator; of Cause and effect. Many modern-day reformers returned to Plato; they drew instruction from the teachings of Thomas More, but in the final resolution, they cloaked all these concepts in the Marx-Lenin and Stalin-Brezhnev realities and imposed on them the most brutish form to which a social philosophy could ever degenerate. From the spiritual standpoint, this happened because Lenin-Bolshevik Communism was established on dogmas of a single category: the denial of God and of all that is supernatural. And if man: is not to have God's image, there remains for him nothing else only the face of the enemy of God whose name is Satan. Politically, this inhuman face of bolshevism assumed its form from the fact that bolshevism is founded, perpetuated, and disseminated solely by force and methods of open-or what is more base--disguised violence. Lenin the ideologist became a cruel avenger when, after unsuccessful attempts at murder at the gallows, executions with bullets, imprisonments and deportations to Siberia, he initiated the liquidation of adversaries both real and suspected. And bloody hands that were bloodied were never again washed clean. Stalin, the most tyrannical exponent of bolshevism, revealed in a conversation with Churchill that the number of victims whom he had physically liquidated exceeded millions. History which one day, please God, will see light, records twenty million persons executed, shot, tortured to death with hunger and beatings during Stalin's day. Modern sociology and philosophy habitually labels as fascism the evils and political errors of some regimes of this century. Assuredly, every type of fascism is evil because it is based upon violence and denies the human and supernatural rights of the men and nations which it subjugates. Communism zealously over-reacts in dealing with fascist propaganda. Every regime, each person whom Communism set out to destroy, it first accused of fascism . And here lies the great irony of hypocritical baseness, for such denouncing of the evils of fascism was simply a convenient device by which communistic bolshevism tried to �96 SLOVAKIA avert the attention of the world away from the evil of which it was itself guilty. And we know that this kind of political trickery of diverting attention sometimes serves the communists well. As a matter of fact, however, the truth is that long before there was a black (Mussolinist) or brown (Hitlerist) fascism, there already existed a red or Kremlin fascism . Long before some European countries resorted to concentration camps and began to liquidate political opponents, Soviet Russia already had a well-tested tradition of such procedures. And so it is evident that both with its ideology and its program, and principally with its despotic methods, Communism lost all right to be called a progressive movement, a social program. It is, on the contrary, in every aspect reactionary, abusive, and dangerous to nations. It is the deformation of the human face of man to whom it promised paradise on earth and delivered him hell. Under the following headings we wish to point our several features of this inhuman face of Communism in general, as well as with specific references to Slovakia. We choose primarily issues on which Communism counted most heavily and in which it failed deplorably. Communism disavowed, maligned, and betrayed these ideals and values: a) the ideal of the personal freedom of man and the freedom of nations; b) the ideal of work upon which it stamped a bold seal of slavery; c) the ideal of society (family, town, state) which it yoked with laws of violence and dictatorship; d ) the ideal of the dignity of man who did not become the subject of its program, but rather its tool; e ) and finally, Communism disavowed its own political ideals: the struggle against imperialism, inasmuch as it is itself hard-grained imperialism; the struggle against exploitation, since it is itself a most cruel exploiter; the ideal of coexistence, which it crushes always and everywhere with its notorious "veto," "njet". MAN IS CREATED FOR FREEDOM Freedom ranks very high on the scale of values. God who ordained laws for man, who defined for him and �SLOVAKIA 97 illumined paths to perfection, who permitted his Son to shed blood on the wood of the cross for the redemption of humanity, left to man such a degree of freedom that even He himself respects it. Man's freedom was the communist regime's first target. No tyrannical power, no regime of fear and violence could survive if men were permitted their freedom. Today the whole world can judge to what an extent freedom is being suppressed in the Soviet Union. This it can learn from the scattered articles, rallies, demonstrations, and testimonies which some Soviet people themselves, communists at that, felt compelled to give or were able to release either in hiding or in some brief period of political moderation, when there was an exchange of political sides; e. g. after Kruschev came into power. Pasternak, Kuznecov, Solzhenicyn, Ehrenburg, and others revealed in their writings at least part of the picture of the absurd non-freedom prevalent in Soviet Russia. The nations of central Europe caught in the misfortune of being "liberated" by the Soviet regime all too soon experienced the burden of non-liberty in all areas of public and private life. An elaborate spy-system covered and controlled every aspect of living. There was spying in schools, in churches, among afficials, in cafes, on the street, in factories, and even in prison cells where the regime planted its agents as ostensibly sympathetic fellow-prisoners in order ·to draw from those in jail information that they could not obtain otherwise. In Slovakia the communist regim e was not content with creating a universal atmosphere of fear and distrust but everywhere in public life it especially resorted to a persistent and unmerciful use of tactics of power--display and coercion. It introduced numerous clauses in schools of higher learning, and in departments of theology it . assumed the prerogative of deciding who may and who may not pursue studies. It filled positions in government and public life as well as in agricultural departments not on the basis of professional merit and competence but rather according to their degree of party loyalty and their proficiency in informing. Highly educated qualified people �98 - -- SLOVAKIA - - - -- - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - -- were given assignments as store-keepers; tailors were appointed school principals. The communist regime restricted or completely forbade change of residence; it ordered Slovaks to move to Bohemian borderline territory and in this way effected massive and enforced denationalization. Agents of the regime had the authority to awaken anyone at anytime during the night for investigation. An interminable circulation of cadre forms held people in continual check. Peasants were stripped of freedom when farm cooperatives were established in many areas with the help of the police force. Compulsory quotas of produce were imposed upon them regardless whether they raised these products or not, regardless of their ability to supply them or not. If they failed to meet the quota, farmers lost their property and were often evicted from their homes. By assigning commissioners to seminaries, to theology faculties, to bishops' offices, to church societies and the press, and by organizing a so-called peace-movement of the Catholic clergy which was communist devised, the party usurped control of the Church subsequent to its liquidation of convents and imprisonment of many priests, of bishops, and Catholic laymen. Naturally, while this curtailment of freedom afflicted oppoments of communistic ideology most seriously, it also served to hold in check the members of the Party who had only one choice: either absolute obedience or expulsion and social degradation or perhaps-not infrequently-imprisonment. The execution of Clementis, the imprisonment and torture of Husak, Lobl, Holdos, Viest and thousands of other communists shows that bolshevism does not tolerate freedom even on behalf of its most faithful adherents. It knows how to crush anyone who dares to exercise free choice. And so, by its despotic reaction toward freedom, Communism proves that as a tyrant, it does not deserve freedom of any kind; that it is in theory and practise superlatively reactionary, anti-human, and inhuman. MAN IS CREATED FOR WORK God himself works. The creation and preservation of the world is the result of work, understood in the divine �SLOVAKIA 99 sense. Jesus Christ spent his maturing years working, and he blessed work. Man himself by his vocation and purpose in life is so constituted that work helps him to develope; in work he creates values; in work he manifests his freedom. Communism wove a significant web of symbolism around work and even formulated an official greeting intended to bestow honor on work. In essence, however , it all degenerated into profanity and mere hypocritical expression. Those who best succeeded in avoiding work were the loudest in shouting "Honor to work! "-laborers, farmers, and often representatives from anti-social circles -persons now transformed into public officials and officious functionaries . In reality work became odious when people had to be forced into it, when the regime paid it poor wages or rather exploited it to such an extent that most of the profits poured into hands that did not labor. Consequently, work was performed carelessly, lazily, superficially, unreliably. Much was said about work each morning before a construction job or in the factory in the so-called tenminute warm-ups that usually lasted up to an hour. Poet5 composed odes to work and were honored for them by government awards. But work itself became more and more burdensome. If, therefore, slave labor was some kind of communist ideal, for communism did bring it to that concept, then the era of slavery should have to be considered the pinnacle of civilization. As a result of communist conditioning, work in Slovakia appeared in two forms: on the one hand labor was overplayed to the populace; on the other, people were driven to work. This was all that Communism was capable of doing with an otherwise priceless value. Finally, the fact that in a communist state living standards among the populace--principally in the working class- by comparison with workers' standards in the free democratic worlct declined by steady stages confirms the devaluation 0f work by bolshevism and its hypocritical attitude toward it. Because if during the previous Republic- to offer at least one illustration-the inhabitants of one town annually hauled to the public market 400 wagonloads of grain and �100 SLOVAKIA during the peak of the great cooperative movement a town's inhabitants were forced to buy their supply of flour and milk, what is the only inference to be made? That there was no production; that work, which is also generative force of prosperity, lost its economic effectiveness. MAN IS CREATED FOR SOCIETY Psychologically man is constituted to tend toward companionship. He establishes families and is in his element within a family group. Common interests draw him toward smaller and larger societies; he forms nations and states, and he endows all his interrelationship with neighbors with a friendly spirit. Here too, in the area of familial ties, Communism has failed even as a philosophical and sociological system. It brought into social relationships hatred, mistrust, suspicion, and intolerance. All too familiar are examples like these: communist teachers persuaded or induced children to denounce their parents-to report when they meet, to what radio programs they listen, with whom they correspond, what contacts they have with persons in a foreign country, the nature of conversations and discussions in the home. Like procedures were directed to offices, among teachers, in schools, at work, in factories. In the Soviet Union where this type of upbringing prevailed for fifty years it was bound to yield its pernicious fruit, for even the family circle was affected by the Party program. In her novel Dva veky the writer Golubkovova presents instances of the alienation of couples and the estrangement of parents from their children because the tyranny of Party ideology penetrates into the innermost circles of family life and compels primacy for Party interests over the needs and interests of family living and even over conjugal love. Social life in Slovakia, marked by traditionally recognized trust and friendship, was forced under this system of informing to retreat into the core of the family circle. And even there, the people carefully scrutinize and observe whom they may be entertaining at table. If someone strange �SLOVAKIA 101 came to visit, or if there was a guest before whom they knew they ought to be silent, the entire conversation shifted to trivial matters. Finally, the extensive system of listening in on conversations which was installed in restaurants, offices, and business establishments as well as the presence of a vast network of informers inevitably caused people to resort to whispering, to prefer silence in the company of unknown persons. Confidence and friendship were being lost--these necessary values on which is built friendship and tolerance. And so instead of idealized collectivism which Communism so greatly stressed, there developed a society of individuals locked within themselves or narrowed to only the relationships cultivated in a private family. Even good friends began to suspect one another if their conversation happened to reach the ears of the state police even though they themselves were not guilty of transmitting the information which may have been picked up by the hearing devices that seemed to be omnipresent, even in private dwellings . A person living in a democratic free world can hardly imagine such diabolical inventions. But such it was and is, and its father is bolshevism. THE CENTRAL POINT OF ALL PROGRESS IS MAN Every advance in science, civilization, hygiene, and economy relates to man and his welfare. Families as well as nations and states are social institutions designed to enable every good to reach man who is worthy of every effort and endeavor. Communism repudiated even this worth of man, making him not the object but the instrument of its own politics. This was done first of all by denying man the right of free choice. Man was not permitted to decide for himself his prospects for education and schooling, type of work, place of work, place of residence--all this he had to accept on orders from the Communist party. And so it was that people could not choose a profession, either according to personal preference or inherent talent but had to be satisfied with whatever official ordained. Reflecting on the fact that such unwise management caused great cultural and economic loss to society, one must also �102 SLOVAKIA deplore the dichotomy effected by such decisions and the personal liberty of man and his human dignity. Specific mention must be made at this point of judicial r eprisals, investigations under inhuman conditions-beatings and torture to compel confessions of guilt-imprisonments during inquest lasting even beyond a year and this without court decision, false accusations and the like. If the almost 80-year old bishop Jan Vojtassak on orders from a sub-intelligent prison guard had to make a given number of knee-bends in jail, this was not the fruit only of the stupidity of the guard but the harvesting of the r egime which approved and countenanced such methods, delighted in them, and with them bullied the people. Communism failed to appreciate even its own members. It valued them only in so far as they were statistical numbers. Before the idol of the communist divinity every human value had to prostrate. That was in itself deplorable and outrageous, but in relation to the dictatorship of despotic bolshevism it was also unbelievably hopeless and painful. IDEALS Communism raised for itself a number of ideals with which it hoped to justify its existence. For example, the unification of nations, avowed opposition to exploitation, the fight against colonialism and imperialism, a program for the common welfare, and the idea of peace. Not a single one of these ideals fructified under Communism. E x p l o i t a t i o n. Even though the matter of opposition to exploitation became one of the basic principles of the communist program, it is ironic that there is perhaps no other regime that so exploits people, especially the working class, as does the communist system. It is well known that the earnings of workmen in Slovakia, compared with wages paid in other countries, were so low that they did not even satisfy the living minimum of families. It was impossible to conceive that a wife and children could subsist on the father 's pay. In every family the wife too had to seek employment; this meant a rush in early �SLOVAKIA 103 morning to bring the children to the nursery, and after work returning for them, cooking dinner, doing household chores, etc. Every person was exploited; and if ever woman was a slave, it was definitely in the communist state. The exploitation of workers was all the worse since they had no right to call a strike or to use any other fonn of protest for manifesting personal dissatisfaction or making known their demands. Strikes were constitutionally outlawed. Even the farmer was exploited, since profits from his labors were distributed among several middlemen before his produce reached the consumer. For a kilo of fruit of which the consumer paid about five crowns on the warket, the producer received one crown. The remainder became the shared profit of the business machine, organizations of various sorts, the state taxes, etc. Exploited too was the apparatus of officialdom, especially teachers who, by comparison, received the lowest of wages, even less than laborers and many other less qualified employees. Communism greatly harmed the concept of the unification of nations by sowing hatred, and by creating an insurmountable barrier with its two-world-comm unistic and capitalistic-prop aganda; it lowered an iron curtain. The struggle against colonialism and imperialism was communism's theoretically powerful weapon in an age marked with the liberalizing of colonialized nations. On the other hand, however, Communism defamed this very idea when it formed the Soviet Union by means of imperialist wars and pressures, especially after World War II when it structured the entire communist empire by resorting to armed force, invasions, and the occupation of territories which it forcibly seized as its own. The question of well-being or prosperity in communistic regimes is so illusory, that today communist powers are embarassed to speak of it publicly, As long as it was possible to do so, communism placed the guilt for economic failure on its previous regimes, on reactions within the state itself, on crop failure. However, when the economic �104 SLOVAKIA slump reached such proportions that it was impossible to hide it any longer, the regime stopped explaining and simply gave orders, constantly repeating its frequently initiated but seldom completed 5-year plan and its competitions with capitalistic nations which it consecutively lost. And finally, the idea of peace which was such a convincing cloak for the whole international politicking of the Soviet Union and its satellite countries: Peace by communistic thinking meant nothing else but exclusive communistic world government. Not only examples of brutal aggressiveness in Hungary, in Czecho-Slovakia, in the endless conflicts disturbing the Russo-Chinese border, but the entire content of activities within the organization which Communism called "peaceful" and stand evidently, and remain a priori in direct conflict with the fundamentals of peace. The regime, which evokes insecurity and fear, which tramples underfoot the basic rights of man, which disrespects the principles of personal and national freedom, which enslaves man, cannot seriously speak of peace. And so it seems, that it is in this area that the communist regime has most seriously wounded the dignity of man. And today, this cloud hangs over Slovakia. A nation, which knew how to survive for over a thousand years under numerous forms of oppression, today unceasingly resists and will continue to resist this yoke because the spirit simply cannot tolerate submission to the violence of brutal materialism. Therefore, as oil rises to the surface, so this spirit will also rise and celebrate its triumph of extraordinary patience and interior strength drawn from the infinity of God. (Translated by Sister M. Raymund Horvath, SS.C.M.) THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA through its Ladies AtJxiliary, the "VCIELKY" (Bees), sponsors Slovak culb1rai displays. concerts, lectures, art exhibits, folk festi vals, social evenings, etc. our aim is to have a "Hive" of our "Vcielky" in every large Slovak community. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1970, Vol. 20 Description An account of the resource Vol. 20 (No. 43), 1970. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1970 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document 94 SLOVAKIA Powers of Darkness and Powers of Truth Marian Jankovsky Alexander Dubcek, a Slovak communist politician whose name swept around the globe like a comet and found a place among nominees for the Nobel Prize described his efforts, his political program, with the expression: To show the human face of Communism. This slogan which suddenly magnetized other European nations under communistic imperialism, sounded an alarm within Kremlin walls. Moscow's anger found expression in the occupation of Bohemia and Slovakia on the night of August 21, 1968. Armed occupation was at the same time an answer to Dubcek and other reformers and it served notice to the rest of the world that Communism does not have a human face. Dubcek was not the only one nor the first to undertake social reforms in such a way as to preserve the dignity of man. Perhaps even Lenin himself and even Engels, the teacher of Marx had entertained such ideas at the beginning of their career. And history records similar attempts in the eighteenth century and in earlier times. All of them, however, reached a cul de sac situation, when they directed the attempt to reform society without violence into utopian channels-to something fictitious and unrealizable. Since this need, this cry to preserve man's dignity is ageless and man himself is unable to find the approach and the means of attaining it, God himself came to man's aid: He sent to earth his Son who dispelled this hopelessness and announced a gospel and principles under which a society of brothers, of friends, could be realized. Man had experienced frustrations and found himself on erroneous paths since he chose to act alone-to disregard God, to oppose God and to defy God in his effort to found a social order on norms that would provide respect for the dignity of man. Though in certain instances these aspirations were sincere and honorable, they either remained on the utopian plane or degenerated into coarse violence primarily because they denied the fundamental nature of man which is SLOVAKIA 95 theocentric. It is the nature of a man to tend toward God with his heart and mind just as it is natural for a child to direct affections toward his parents. It is a law of origin; of the created and the Creator; of Cause and effect. Many modern-day reformers returned to Plato; they drew instruction from the teachings of Thomas More, but in the final resolution, they cloaked all these concepts in the Marx-Lenin and Stalin-Brezhnev realities and imposed on them the most brutish form to which a social philosophy could ever degenerate. From the spiritual standpoint, this happened because Lenin-Bolshevik Communism was established on dogmas of a single category: the denial of God and of all that is supernatural. And if man: is not to have God's image, there remains for him nothing else only the face of the enemy of God whose name is Satan. Politically, this inhuman face of bolshevism assumed its form from the fact that bolshevism is founded, perpetuated, and disseminated solely by force and methods of open-or what is more base--disguised violence. Lenin the ideologist became a cruel avenger when, after unsuccessful attempts at murder at the gallows, executions with bullets, imprisonments and deportations to Siberia, he initiated the liquidation of adversaries both real and suspected. And bloody hands that were bloodied were never again washed clean. Stalin, the most tyrannical exponent of bolshevism, revealed in a conversation with Churchill that the number of victims whom he had physically liquidated exceeded millions. History which one day, please God, will see light, records twenty million persons executed, shot, tortured to death with hunger and beatings during Stalin's day. Modern sociology and philosophy habitually labels as fascism the evils and political errors of some regimes of this century. Assuredly, every type of fascism is evil because it is based upon violence and denies the human and supernatural rights of the men and nations which it subjugates. Communism zealously over-reacts in dealing with fascist propaganda. Every regime, each person whom Communism set out to destroy, it first accused of fascism . And here lies the great irony of hypocritical baseness, for such denouncing of the evils of fascism was simply a convenient device by which communistic bolshevism tried to 96 SLOVAKIA avert the attention of the world away from the evil of which it was itself guilty. And we know that this kind of political trickery of diverting attention sometimes serves the communists well. As a matter of fact, however, the truth is that long before there was a black (Mussolinist) or brown (Hitlerist) fascism, there already existed a red or Kremlin fascism . Long before some European countries resorted to concentration camps and began to liquidate political opponents, Soviet Russia already had a well-tested tradition of such procedures. And so it is evident that both with its ideology and its program, and principally with its despotic methods, Communism lost all right to be called a progressive movement, a social program. It is, on the contrary, in every aspect reactionary, abusive, and dangerous to nations. It is the deformation of the human face of man to whom it promised paradise on earth and delivered him hell. Under the following headings we wish to point our several features of this inhuman face of Communism in general, as well as with specific references to Slovakia. We choose primarily issues on which Communism counted most heavily and in which it failed deplorably. Communism disavowed, maligned, and betrayed these ideals and values: a) the ideal of the personal freedom of man and the freedom of nations; b) the ideal of work upon which it stamped a bold seal of slavery; c) the ideal of society (family, town, state) which it yoked with laws of violence and dictatorship; d ) the ideal of the dignity of man who did not become the subject of its program, but rather its tool; e ) and finally, Communism disavowed its own political ideals: the struggle against imperialism, inasmuch as it is itself hard-grained imperialism; the struggle against exploitation, since it is itself a most cruel exploiter; the ideal of coexistence, which it crushes always and everywhere with its notorious "veto," "njet". MAN IS CREATED FOR FREEDOM Freedom ranks very high on the scale of values. God who ordained laws for man, who defined for him and SLOVAKIA 97 illumined paths to perfection, who permitted his Son to shed blood on the wood of the cross for the redemption of humanity, left to man such a degree of freedom that even He himself respects it. Man's freedom was the communist regime's first target. No tyrannical power, no regime of fear and violence could survive if men were permitted their freedom. Today the whole world can judge to what an extent freedom is being suppressed in the Soviet Union. This it can learn from the scattered articles, rallies, demonstrations, and testimonies which some Soviet people themselves, communists at that, felt compelled to give or were able to release either in hiding or in some brief period of political moderation, when there was an exchange of political sides; e. g. after Kruschev came into power. Pasternak, Kuznecov, Solzhenicyn, Ehrenburg, and others revealed in their writings at least part of the picture of the absurd non-freedom prevalent in Soviet Russia. The nations of central Europe caught in the misfortune of being "liberated" by the Soviet regime all too soon experienced the burden of non-liberty in all areas of public and private life. An elaborate spy-system covered and controlled every aspect of living. There was spying in schools, in churches, among afficials, in cafes, on the street, in factories, and even in prison cells where the regime planted its agents as ostensibly sympathetic fellow-prisoners in order ·to draw from those in jail information that they could not obtain otherwise. In Slovakia the communist regim e was not content with creating a universal atmosphere of fear and distrust but everywhere in public life it especially resorted to a persistent and unmerciful use of tactics of power--display and coercion. It introduced numerous clauses in schools of higher learning, and in departments of theology it . assumed the prerogative of deciding who may and who may not pursue studies. It filled positions in government and public life as well as in agricultural departments not on the basis of professional merit and competence but rather according to their degree of party loyalty and their proficiency in informing. Highly educated qualified people 98 - -- SLOVAKIA - - - -- - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - -- were given assignments as store-keepers; tailors were appointed school principals. The communist regime restricted or completely forbade change of residence; it ordered Slovaks to move to Bohemian borderline territory and in this way effected massive and enforced denationalization. Agents of the regime had the authority to awaken anyone at anytime during the night for investigation. An interminable circulation of cadre forms held people in continual check. Peasants were stripped of freedom when farm cooperatives were established in many areas with the help of the police force. Compulsory quotas of produce were imposed upon them regardless whether they raised these products or not, regardless of their ability to supply them or not. If they failed to meet the quota, farmers lost their property and were often evicted from their homes. By assigning commissioners to seminaries, to theology faculties, to bishops' offices, to church societies and the press, and by organizing a so-called peace-movement of the Catholic clergy which was communist devised, the party usurped control of the Church subsequent to its liquidation of convents and imprisonment of many priests, of bishops, and Catholic laymen. Naturally, while this curtailment of freedom afflicted oppoments of communistic ideology most seriously, it also served to hold in check the members of the Party who had only one choice: either absolute obedience or expulsion and social degradation or perhaps-not infrequently-imprisonment. The execution of Clementis, the imprisonment and torture of Husak, Lobl, Holdos, Viest and thousands of other communists shows that bolshevism does not tolerate freedom even on behalf of its most faithful adherents. It knows how to crush anyone who dares to exercise free choice. And so, by its despotic reaction toward freedom, Communism proves that as a tyrant, it does not deserve freedom of any kind; that it is in theory and practise superlatively reactionary, anti-human, and inhuman. MAN IS CREATED FOR WORK God himself works. The creation and preservation of the world is the result of work, understood in the divine SLOVAKIA 99 sense. Jesus Christ spent his maturing years working, and he blessed work. Man himself by his vocation and purpose in life is so constituted that work helps him to develope; in work he creates values; in work he manifests his freedom. Communism wove a significant web of symbolism around work and even formulated an official greeting intended to bestow honor on work. In essence, however , it all degenerated into profanity and mere hypocritical expression. Those who best succeeded in avoiding work were the loudest in shouting "Honor to work! "-laborers, farmers, and often representatives from anti-social circles -persons now transformed into public officials and officious functionaries . In reality work became odious when people had to be forced into it, when the regime paid it poor wages or rather exploited it to such an extent that most of the profits poured into hands that did not labor. Consequently, work was performed carelessly, lazily, superficially, unreliably. Much was said about work each morning before a construction job or in the factory in the so-called tenminute warm-ups that usually lasted up to an hour. Poet5 composed odes to work and were honored for them by government awards. But work itself became more and more burdensome. If, therefore, slave labor was some kind of communist ideal, for communism did bring it to that concept, then the era of slavery should have to be considered the pinnacle of civilization. As a result of communist conditioning, work in Slovakia appeared in two forms: on the one hand labor was overplayed to the populace; on the other, people were driven to work. This was all that Communism was capable of doing with an otherwise priceless value. Finally, the fact that in a communist state living standards among the populace--principally in the working class- by comparison with workers' standards in the free democratic worlct declined by steady stages confirms the devaluation 0f work by bolshevism and its hypocritical attitude toward it. Because if during the previous Republic- to offer at least one illustration-the inhabitants of one town annually hauled to the public market 400 wagonloads of grain and 100 SLOVAKIA during the peak of the great cooperative movement a town's inhabitants were forced to buy their supply of flour and milk, what is the only inference to be made? That there was no production; that work, which is also generative force of prosperity, lost its economic effectiveness. MAN IS CREATED FOR SOCIETY Psychologically man is constituted to tend toward companionship. He establishes families and is in his element within a family group. Common interests draw him toward smaller and larger societies; he forms nations and states, and he endows all his interrelationship with neighbors with a friendly spirit. Here too, in the area of familial ties, Communism has failed even as a philosophical and sociological system. It brought into social relationships hatred, mistrust, suspicion, and intolerance. All too familiar are examples like these: communist teachers persuaded or induced children to denounce their parents-to report when they meet, to what radio programs they listen, with whom they correspond, what contacts they have with persons in a foreign country, the nature of conversations and discussions in the home. Like procedures were directed to offices, among teachers, in schools, at work, in factories. In the Soviet Union where this type of upbringing prevailed for fifty years it was bound to yield its pernicious fruit, for even the family circle was affected by the Party program. In her novel Dva veky the writer Golubkovova presents instances of the alienation of couples and the estrangement of parents from their children because the tyranny of Party ideology penetrates into the innermost circles of family life and compels primacy for Party interests over the needs and interests of family living and even over conjugal love. Social life in Slovakia, marked by traditionally recognized trust and friendship, was forced under this system of informing to retreat into the core of the family circle. And even there, the people carefully scrutinize and observe whom they may be entertaining at table. If someone strange SLOVAKIA 101 came to visit, or if there was a guest before whom they knew they ought to be silent, the entire conversation shifted to trivial matters. Finally, the extensive system of listening in on conversations which was installed in restaurants, offices, and business establishments as well as the presence of a vast network of informers inevitably caused people to resort to whispering, to prefer silence in the company of unknown persons. Confidence and friendship were being lost--these necessary values on which is built friendship and tolerance. And so instead of idealized collectivism which Communism so greatly stressed, there developed a society of individuals locked within themselves or narrowed to only the relationships cultivated in a private family. Even good friends began to suspect one another if their conversation happened to reach the ears of the state police even though they themselves were not guilty of transmitting the information which may have been picked up by the hearing devices that seemed to be omnipresent, even in private dwellings . A person living in a democratic free world can hardly imagine such diabolical inventions. But such it was and is, and its father is bolshevism. THE CENTRAL POINT OF ALL PROGRESS IS MAN Every advance in science, civilization, hygiene, and economy relates to man and his welfare. Families as well as nations and states are social institutions designed to enable every good to reach man who is worthy of every effort and endeavor. Communism repudiated even this worth of man, making him not the object but the instrument of its own politics. This was done first of all by denying man the right of free choice. Man was not permitted to decide for himself his prospects for education and schooling, type of work, place of work, place of residence--all this he had to accept on orders from the Communist party. And so it was that people could not choose a profession, either according to personal preference or inherent talent but had to be satisfied with whatever official ordained. Reflecting on the fact that such unwise management caused great cultural and economic loss to society, one must also 102 SLOVAKIA deplore the dichotomy effected by such decisions and the personal liberty of man and his human dignity. Specific mention must be made at this point of judicial r eprisals, investigations under inhuman conditions-beatings and torture to compel confessions of guilt-imprisonments during inquest lasting even beyond a year and this without court decision, false accusations and the like. If the almost 80-year old bishop Jan Vojtassak on orders from a sub-intelligent prison guard had to make a given number of knee-bends in jail, this was not the fruit only of the stupidity of the guard but the harvesting of the r egime which approved and countenanced such methods, delighted in them, and with them bullied the people. Communism failed to appreciate even its own members. It valued them only in so far as they were statistical numbers. Before the idol of the communist divinity every human value had to prostrate. That was in itself deplorable and outrageous, but in relation to the dictatorship of despotic bolshevism it was also unbelievably hopeless and painful. IDEALS Communism raised for itself a number of ideals with which it hoped to justify its existence. For example, the unification of nations, avowed opposition to exploitation, the fight against colonialism and imperialism, a program for the common welfare, and the idea of peace. Not a single one of these ideals fructified under Communism. E x p l o i t a t i o n. Even though the matter of opposition to exploitation became one of the basic principles of the communist program, it is ironic that there is perhaps no other regime that so exploits people, especially the working class, as does the communist system. It is well known that the earnings of workmen in Slovakia, compared with wages paid in other countries, were so low that they did not even satisfy the living minimum of families. It was impossible to conceive that a wife and children could subsist on the father 's pay. In every family the wife too had to seek employment; this meant a rush in early SLOVAKIA 103 morning to bring the children to the nursery, and after work returning for them, cooking dinner, doing household chores, etc. Every person was exploited; and if ever woman was a slave, it was definitely in the communist state. The exploitation of workers was all the worse since they had no right to call a strike or to use any other fonn of protest for manifesting personal dissatisfaction or making known their demands. Strikes were constitutionally outlawed. Even the farmer was exploited, since profits from his labors were distributed among several middlemen before his produce reached the consumer. For a kilo of fruit of which the consumer paid about five crowns on the warket, the producer received one crown. The remainder became the shared profit of the business machine, organizations of various sorts, the state taxes, etc. Exploited too was the apparatus of officialdom, especially teachers who, by comparison, received the lowest of wages, even less than laborers and many other less qualified employees. Communism greatly harmed the concept of the unification of nations by sowing hatred, and by creating an insurmountable barrier with its two-world-comm unistic and capitalistic-prop aganda; it lowered an iron curtain. The struggle against colonialism and imperialism was communism's theoretically powerful weapon in an age marked with the liberalizing of colonialized nations. On the other hand, however, Communism defamed this very idea when it formed the Soviet Union by means of imperialist wars and pressures, especially after World War II when it structured the entire communist empire by resorting to armed force, invasions, and the occupation of territories which it forcibly seized as its own. The question of well-being or prosperity in communistic regimes is so illusory, that today communist powers are embarassed to speak of it publicly, As long as it was possible to do so, communism placed the guilt for economic failure on its previous regimes, on reactions within the state itself, on crop failure. However, when the economic 104 SLOVAKIA slump reached such proportions that it was impossible to hide it any longer, the regime stopped explaining and simply gave orders, constantly repeating its frequently initiated but seldom completed 5-year plan and its competitions with capitalistic nations which it consecutively lost. And finally, the idea of peace which was such a convincing cloak for the whole international politicking of the Soviet Union and its satellite countries: Peace by communistic thinking meant nothing else but exclusive communistic world government. Not only examples of brutal aggressiveness in Hungary, in Czecho-Slovakia, in the endless conflicts disturbing the Russo-Chinese border, but the entire content of activities within the organization which Communism called "peaceful" and stand evidently, and remain a priori in direct conflict with the fundamentals of peace. The regime, which evokes insecurity and fear, which tramples underfoot the basic rights of man, which disrespects the principles of personal and national freedom, which enslaves man, cannot seriously speak of peace. And so it seems, that it is in this area that the communist regime has most seriously wounded the dignity of man. And today, this cloud hangs over Slovakia. A nation, which knew how to survive for over a thousand years under numerous forms of oppression, today unceasingly resists and will continue to resist this yoke because the spirit simply cannot tolerate submission to the violence of brutal materialism. Therefore, as oil rises to the surface, so this spirit will also rise and celebrate its triumph of extraordinary patience and interior strength drawn from the infinity of God. (Translated by Sister M. Raymund Horvath, SS.C.M.) THE SLOVAK LEAGUE OF AMERICA through its Ladies AtJxiliary, the "VCIELKY" (Bees), sponsors Slovak culb1rai displays. concerts, lectures, art exhibits, folk festi vals, social evenings, etc. our aim is to have a "Hive" of our "Vcielky" in every large Slovak community.  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Powers of Darkness and Powers of Truth Description An account of the resource Marián Jankovský Slovakia, Vol. 20 (No. 43), 1970 pp. 94-104 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Jankovský, Marián Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1970 name https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/72ae2df1d1cdf5152db9c5f89f2ed7a7.pdf d9c4a0a36a86f95851b02290cdc71713 PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA 83 PRAGUE BETWEEN MOSOOW AND BERLIN By Heinrich Kuhn Politically speaking, Czecho-Slovakia is a product of World War I. At its very creation the State was handicapped by the German problem: internally by more than three and a half million Germans who were incorporated into it against their will by the peace treaty of St. Germain, and foreign politically as well as geopolitically by the fact that it was born of decisions made by the Great Powers and directed against Germany. Between the two world wars Czecho-Slovakia was a strategic spearhead aimed at Germany even long before Hitler became head of the German State. It was of strategic importance to France, and the foreign-political conception Czecho-Slovakia, linked for all time with the name of Benes, was based on the irrelevant idea that it could amount to anything if it played the role of mediator between East and West, between Paris and Moscow. As a result of the second world war, Czecho-Slovakia was divested of the internal problem of "its Germans." They were ruthlessly expelled from their native homes. Czecho-Slovakia's geopolitical situation had likewise undergone a critical change. The "strategic spearhead," until then encircled by the German language area as if by a pincers, had lost its original significance as a foreign-political factor. Germany had been completely defeated. Soviet Army troops stood at the Elbe, the Danube, in the north and in the south, troops of a State to which CzechoSlovakia had sold its-:!lf lock, stock and barrel. Sold out primarily in the sense that the Soviet Union had not only "liberated" Czecho-Slovakia but, by its resolute attitude, had made possible the "cleansing of the State of its German minority." With that move the switches were set, from the standpoint of foreign policy, for the future. No longer was there a road open to Paris, to the West, but only to Moscow. This fact makes it possible to understand the tactical attitude of Czecho-Slovak foreign policy within recent years as regards the German question. Czecho-Slovakia and tnbricht's State, the Soviet Zone of Germany, are the only �84 SLOVAKIA countries of the East Block that border on the free part of Germany. No amount of barbed-wire is capable of relieving the Czechs of the danger that - despite the expulsion of the Sudeten Germans - the German people are still their immediate neighbor. The psychological factor of guilt has become the main driving force behind Prague's foreign policy. Since 1945, fear has been the primary factor involved. For approximately ten years the "fight against German revengism" has really been at the bottom of Prague's policy toward Germany. As long as Moscow could still hope to win the population of West Germany in some form or other for the East (as has happened in the "solution of the Ulbricht State"), or at least to neutralize the German Federal Republic as a political power, these trends in Czecho-Slovak policy toward Germany remained chiefly in the background. To the degree, however, to which the Ulbricht State became an important card in Moscow's foreign-political game, Moscow's and Prague's foreign~political goals grew closer and closer. Ulbricht's State became, just as Prague's former ambassador to Pankov, Dr. Ota Klicka, described on television, a bastion of Czecho-Slovak security. As long as the "GDR" (German Democratic Republic) existed, no aggression against Czecho-Slovakia would be possible. State President Antonin Novotny stated in similar terms, at his very first international appearance before the General Assembly of the UN, in the fall of 1960, that GDR was a guarantee of Czecho-Slovak security. Paralleling the deeping bond between Prague and Pankov was a common incitement of both Satellite States against the German Federal Republic. Some 400,000 foreignlanguage propaganda pamphlets have been sent from Prague to Western countries within the past years in order to spread abroad a frightful picture of German militarism coupled with anti-Czech revengism. When Khrushchev triggered the German question last year with his Berlin ultimatum, the CSSR warmly welcomed his initiative. At the time the Czech Communist Party politicians, in keeping with Khrushchev's political line, were still talking of the two German States with equal �SLOVAKIA 85 rights. The world at large ha.s scarcely noticed· that Prague and Pankov have meanwhile reached beyond this political line. Even during the visit to Prague of Ulbricht's president of the People's Chamber, Dr. Dieckmann, in April 1961, an attempt was made to forge a new policy according to which the "GDR would be the only legally valid German State because, in conformance with the Potsdam Agreement, the roots of German militarism" have been removed. This new tactic as to Prague's policy on Germany, which has become more pronounced ever since April of last year, dovetails nicely with Khrushchev's strategic concept a.s to policy on Germany. It enables him now and again to appear before the international public a.s a moderating factor, meanwhile pursuing with even greater intensity his immediate goal in the German issue: Making a free city of West Berlin, concluding a peace treaty between "all interested States" and Ulbricht's State in order to bring about the de facto recognition of the conditions established within Central Europe by World War II. In the coming weeks and months it will be left to Prague to make new tactical moves with roles assigned to different players in the drama that is directed from Moscow, thus reaching out beyond the issues that are important to Moscow and Ulbricht. Details as to Prague's new tactical role within Moscow's broader strategic plan as to Germany were revealed at an international press conference in July of last year by Vaclav Kathy, head of the department of Socialist States in Prague's Institute for International Politics and Economy. The tenor of this role is, that since the German Federal Government is virtually the main source of "political revengism," the "change in the social and economic structure of the German Federal Republic by the signing of a German peace treaty," would be a timely move. This, it claimed, is the only possibility for peaceful coexistence in Europe, since these changes alone would guarantee the liquidation of "German militarism and revengism." This alone would be the actual and ultimate aim of CzechoSlovakia's foreign-political endeavors. Indeed, one can hardly describe that country's foreignpolicy aims more clearly. � SLOVAKIA 83 PRAGUE BETWEEN MOSOOW AND BERLIN By Heinrich Kuhn Politically speaking, Czecho-Slovakia is a product of World War I. At its very creation the State was handicapped by the German problem: internally by more than three and a half million Germans who were incorporated into it against their will by the peace treaty of St. Germain, and foreign politically as well as geopolitically by the fact that it was born of decisions made by the Great Powers and directed against Germany. Between the two world wars Czecho-Slovakia was a strategic spearhead aimed at Germany even long before Hitler became head of the German State. It was of strategic importance to France, and the foreign-political conception Czecho-Slovakia, linked for all time with the name of Benes, was based on the irrelevant idea that it could amount to anything if it played the role of mediator between East and West, between Paris and Moscow. As a result of the second world war, Czecho-Slovakia was divested of the internal problem of "its Germans." They were ruthlessly expelled from their native homes. Czecho-Slovakia's geopolitical situation had likewise undergone a critical change. The "strategic spearhead," until then encircled by the German language area as if by a pincers, had lost its original significance as a foreign-political factor. Germany had been completely defeated. Soviet Army troops stood at the Elbe, the Danube, in the north and in the south, troops of a State to which CzechoSlovakia had sold its-:!lf lock, stock and barrel. Sold out primarily in the sense that the Soviet Union had not only "liberated" Czecho-Slovakia but, by its resolute attitude, had made possible the "cleansing of the State of its German minority." With that move the switches were set, from the standpoint of foreign policy, for the future. No longer was there a road open to Paris, to the West, but only to Moscow. This fact makes it possible to understand the tactical attitude of Czecho-Slovak foreign policy within recent years as regards the German question. Czecho-Slovakia and tnbricht's State, the Soviet Zone of Germany, are the only �84 SLOVAKIA countries of the East Block that border on the free part of Germany. No amount of barbed-wire is capable of relieving the Czechs of the danger that - despite the expulsion of the Sudeten Germans - the German people are still their immediate neighbor. The psychological factor of guilt has become the main driving force behind Prague's foreign policy. Since 1945, fear has been the primary factor involved. For approximately ten years the "fight against German revengism" has really been at the bottom of Prague's policy toward Germany. As long as Moscow could still hope to win the population of West Germany in some form or other for the East (as has happened in the "solution of the Ulbricht State"), or at least to neutralize the German Federal Republic as a political power, these trends in Czecho-Slovak policy toward Germany remained chiefly in the background. To the degree, however, to which the Ulbricht State became an important card in Moscow's foreign-political game, Moscow's and Prague's foreign~political goals grew closer and closer. Ulbricht's State became, just as Prague's former ambassador to Pankov, Dr. Ota Klicka, described on television, a bastion of Czecho-Slovak security. As long as the "GDR" (German Democratic Republic) existed, no aggression against Czecho-Slovakia would be possible. State President Antonin Novotny stated in similar terms, at his very first international appearance before the General Assembly of the UN, in the fall of 1960, that GDR was a guarantee of Czecho-Slovak security. Paralleling the deeping bond between Prague and Pankov was a common incitement of both Satellite States against the German Federal Republic. Some 400,000 foreignlanguage propaganda pamphlets have been sent from Prague to Western countries within the past years in order to spread abroad a frightful picture of German militarism coupled with anti-Czech revengism. When Khrushchev triggered the German question last year with his Berlin ultimatum, the CSSR warmly welcomed his initiative. At the time the Czech Communist Party politicians, in keeping with Khrushchev's political line, were still talking of the two German States with equal �SLOVAKIA 85 rights. The world at large ha.s scarcely noticed· that Prague and Pankov have meanwhile reached beyond this political line. Even during the visit to Prague of Ulbricht's president of the People's Chamber, Dr. Dieckmann, in April 1961, an attempt was made to forge a new policy according to which the "GDR would be the only legally valid German State because, in conformance with the Potsdam Agreement, the roots of German militarism" have been removed. This new tactic as to Prague's policy on Germany, which has become more pronounced ever since April of last year, dovetails nicely with Khrushchev's strategic concept a.s to policy on Germany. It enables him now and again to appear before the international public a.s a moderating factor, meanwhile pursuing with even greater intensity his immediate goal in the German issue: Making a free city of West Berlin, concluding a peace treaty between "all interested States" and Ulbricht's State in order to bring about the de facto recognition of the conditions established within Central Europe by World War II. In the coming weeks and months it will be left to Prague to make new tactical moves with roles assigned to different players in the drama that is directed from Moscow, thus reaching out beyond the issues that are important to Moscow and Ulbricht. Details as to Prague's new tactical role within Moscow's broader strategic plan as to Germany were revealed at an international press conference in July of last year by Vaclav Kathy, head of the department of Socialist States in Prague's Institute for International Politics and Economy. The tenor of this role is, that since the German Federal Government is virtually the main source of "political revengism," the "change in the social and economic structure of the German Federal Republic by the signing of a German peace treaty," would be a timely move. This, it claimed, is the only possibility for peaceful coexistence in Europe, since these changes alone would guarantee the liquidation of "German militarism and revengism." This alone would be the actual and ultimate aim of CzechoSlovakia's foreign-political endeavors. Indeed, one can hardly describe that country's foreignpolicy aims more clearly. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to 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 83 PRAGUE BETWEEN MOSOOW AND BERLIN By Heinrich Kuhn Politically speaking, Czecho-Slovakia is a product of World War I. At its very creation the State was handicapped by the German problem: internally by more than three and a half million Germans who were incorporated into it against their will by the peace treaty of St. Germain, and foreign politically as well as geopolitically by the fact that it was born of decisions made by the Great Powers and directed against Germany. Between the two world wars Czecho-Slovakia was a strategic spearhead aimed at Germany even long before Hitler became head of the German State. It was of strategic importance to France, and the foreign-political conception Czecho-Slovakia, linked for all time with the name of Benes, was based on the irrelevant idea that it could amount to anything if it played the role of mediator between East and West, between Paris and Moscow. As a result of the second world war, Czecho-Slovakia was divested of the internal problem of "its Germans." They were ruthlessly expelled from their native homes. Czecho-Slovakia's geopolitical situation had likewise undergone a critical change. The "strategic spearhead," until then encircled by the German language area as if by a pincers, had lost its original significance as a foreign-political factor. Germany had been completely defeated. Soviet Army troops stood at the Elbe, the Danube, in the north and in the south, troops of a State to which CzechoSlovakia had sold its-:!lf lock, stock and barrel. Sold out primarily in the sense that the Soviet Union had not only "liberated" Czecho-Slovakia but, by its resolute attitude, had made possible the "cleansing of the State of its German minority." With that move the switches were set, from the standpoint of foreign policy, for the future. No longer was there a road open to Paris, to the West, but only to Moscow. This fact makes it possible to understand the tactical attitude of Czecho-Slovak foreign policy within recent years as regards the German question. Czecho-Slovakia and tnbricht's State, the Soviet Zone of Germany, are the only 84 SLOVAKIA countries of the East Block that border on the free part of Germany. No amount of barbed-wire is capable of relieving the Czechs of the danger that - despite the expulsion of the Sudeten Germans - the German people are still their immediate neighbor. The psychological factor of guilt has become the main driving force behind Prague's foreign policy. Since 1945, fear has been the primary factor involved. For approximately ten years the "fight against German revengism" has really been at the bottom of Prague's policy toward Germany. As long as Moscow could still hope to win the population of West Germany in some form or other for the East (as has happened in the "solution of the Ulbricht State"), or at least to neutralize the German Federal Republic as a political power, these trends in Czecho-Slovak policy toward Germany remained chiefly in the background. To the degree, however, to which the Ulbricht State became an important card in Moscow's foreign-political game, Moscow's and Prague's foreign~political goals grew closer and closer. Ulbricht's State became, just as Prague's former ambassador to Pankov, Dr. Ota Klicka, described on television, a bastion of Czecho-Slovak security. As long as the "GDR" (German Democratic Republic) existed, no aggression against Czecho-Slovakia would be possible. State President Antonin Novotny stated in similar terms, at his very first international appearance before the General Assembly of the UN, in the fall of 1960, that GDR was a guarantee of Czecho-Slovak security. Paralleling the deeping bond between Prague and Pankov was a common incitement of both Satellite States against the German Federal Republic. Some 400,000 foreignlanguage propaganda pamphlets have been sent from Prague to Western countries within the past years in order to spread abroad a frightful picture of German militarism coupled with anti-Czech revengism. When Khrushchev triggered the German question last year with his Berlin ultimatum, the CSSR warmly welcomed his initiative. At the time the Czech Communist Party politicians, in keeping with Khrushchev's political line, were still talking of the two German States with equal SLOVAKIA 85 rights. The world at large ha.s scarcely noticed· that Prague and Pankov have meanwhile reached beyond this political line. Even during the visit to Prague of Ulbricht's president of the People's Chamber, Dr. Dieckmann, in April 1961, an attempt was made to forge a new policy according to which the "GDR would be the only legally valid German State because, in conformance with the Potsdam Agreement, the roots of German militarism" have been removed. This new tactic as to Prague's policy on Germany, which has become more pronounced ever since April of last year, dovetails nicely with Khrushchev's strategic concept a.s to policy on Germany. It enables him now and again to appear before the international public a.s a moderating factor, meanwhile pursuing with even greater intensity his immediate goal in the German issue: Making a free city of West Berlin, concluding a peace treaty between "all interested States" and Ulbricht's State in order to bring about the de facto recognition of the conditions established within Central Europe by World War II. In the coming weeks and months it will be left to Prague to make new tactical moves with roles assigned to different players in the drama that is directed from Moscow, thus reaching out beyond the issues that are important to Moscow and Ulbricht. Details as to Prague's new tactical role within Moscow's broader strategic plan as to Germany were revealed at an international press conference in July of last year by Vaclav Kathy, head of the department of Socialist States in Prague's Institute for International Politics and Economy. The tenor of this role is, that since the German Federal Government is virtually the main source of "political revengism," the "change in the social and economic structure of the German Federal Republic by the signing of a German peace treaty," would be a timely move. This, it claimed, is the only possibility for peaceful coexistence in Europe, since these changes alone would guarantee the liquidation of "German militarism and revengism." This alone would be the actual and ultimate aim of CzechoSlovakia's foreign-political endeavors. Indeed, one can hardly describe that country's foreignpolicy aims more clearly.  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Prague Between Moscow and Berlin Description An account of the resource Heinrich Kuhn Slovakia, Vol. 13, No. 1 (36), March 1963 pp. 83-85 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Kuhn, Heinrich, 1922-1997 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource March 1963 LCNAF+dates https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/acec2c5db69f47b46d0909a1d21b118e.pdf 30516e1e999cb239056f61180e379ec0 PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA Published by the Slovak League of America VOL. XI MARCH-J,UNE, 1961 NO. 1 (33) PRAGUE: RED ESPIONAGE CENTER By Philip A. Hrobak (Among the Slwaik esoarpees snaitched by the Czech Reds in Austria, alild West Germany is one Jioserph Bla-skovic. Shortly before his aibducti-on, this Slovak pa-tr,i ot sent ain a11ticle to his friend, alil escapee from .Slovailcia ruow residing in New York. T.hiis stor,y is based on tha,t article whicll was wri1bt,e n in Slovak.) The Czecho-Slovakia the American public is acquainted with is not the real Czecho-Slovakia of Thomas Guarrigue Masaryk and Dr. Edward Benes. This glorified "·isle of democracy in Europe," painted in such roseate color-s to deceive the West, particularly the United States of America, was destined to become the European beachhead for communism from its very inception. Believe it or not, the simple fact is that the Russian OGPU (Secret Police) was organized in the propaganda state of Masaryk and Benes already in 1918, after Dr. Benes had concluded a secret agreement with Moscow. The OGPU was directed by the notorious agent Skoblin, who personally bossed the group in Prague whose task it was to kidna:p White Russians and ship them to Russia. Skoblin's outfit organized the Red Cells of volunteers, which were approved by Benes and his intimates, and also made all the arrangements for political murders in Poland. Prague thus became a center of the Cominform, second only to Moscow. The Prague Cominform set up an espionage office under the name of the Central European Bureau (1Stredo-Europska Kancelaria - SEK). This office directed the organized Cells and paid off underground espionage groups in the Central European states for services rendered, which included sabotage, kidnapping, and murder. Skoblin's group also organized the West~European Bureau (Zaipado-Eu- �2 SLOVAKIA ropska Kancelaria - ZEK) in Prague to promote communist interests in the Wes't European States. To organize the communists in the Balkan States, a bureau was set up in Vienna under the supervision of the Prague Bureau. The Vienna office at that time was headed by Dimitrov, the Secretary-General of the Cominform who had gained favor in the W esit. The Prague Bureau was made up of such Red worthies as Dimitrov, Gottwald, Manuilsky, Pakosta, Florin, and Ercoli - all graduates of the Moscow School of Red Leaders. Gottwald and Pakosta, both Czechs were ordered by Moscow to work in Slovakia. Pakosta came to the Turiec province and soon got a jeib in the Tatra furniture enterprise a t Turciansky Svaty Martin. Several months later he was elected an official of the local Sick-Benefit Insurance Association; and six months later he became manager of the branch office at Trnava. Pakosta didn't do too bad for himself in Slovakia: within a year he bought himself a large tract of land in the vicinity of Trnava, even though he kept on bellowing "down with the bourgeoisie"! Gottwald was sent to Vrutky in Slovakia where he was employed by the State railway system as a caibinet-maker. After Gottwald became a "master" of his trade, he began to publish a Red periodical in Banska Bystrica. Gottwald and Pakosta had the task of selecting the "right" people for the Red School in Moscow. Among the first selectees were Stephen Hadera, Vlado Clemen'tis, and Gustav Husak. After this trio completed its schooling in Moscow, it formed a "triangle" in Slovakia. Later on Moscow made Gottwa:ld a liaison officer to relay orders of the Cominform to States that had an organized underground. Orders were sentt from Turkey to the Gibraltar and Copenhagen. Gottwald was assisted by Hlozknecht and Prochniak and, later, also by the Polish Reds of Galicia Krumlov, Berend, Doppler, and Ackermann. The Prague Central Bureau directed the Red organizations in Germany, Poland, Hungary, Rumania, Yugoslavia, and Bulgaria, where the communists engaged in -s ubversive activities as "Social Democrats." As in Czecho-Slovakia, so �SLOVAKIA 3 here too, only "reliable" communists were selected for schooling in Moscow. After graduation, the Reds returned to their respective countries as "socialists" of one shade or another to form "triangles." Whenever things would get too hot for them, they would resort to the tactic of uncovering and repor~ing ordinary laborers as "dangerous communists." It so happened that while innocent people sweated it out in jails, the real subversives, parading as Social Democrats, were free to continue in their nefarious work. In March, 1933, Moscow had prepared detailed plans for the Prague Central Bureau to initiate revolutions in C::echo-Slovakia and Austria. German intelligence, however, uncovered the plot and rushed into action, occupying Austria on March 13. The Reds were lucky to save the incriminating documents of the Vienna office. Otto Katz, alias Andrei Simone, a member of the Zionist and communist organizations, brought them to Bratislava where he personally handed them over to Sankoff-Rappaport, a Zionist, and ·::. o Kreschner, a leader of the German Reds. The latter collaborated closely with the Prague Central Bureau in preparing a revolt in Germany. You may not find it easy to believe, but the fact is that the Russian Revolution of 1917 was organized in Prague. The story was published by the Czech press of Prague in June, 1946, when Lenin's Hall in the "Peoples Home" (Lidovy dum) on Hybernska Street in Prague was ceremoniously opened to the public. It was in this hall that Vladimir Iljic Lenin presided at a meeting of the Russian Social Democratic Party, January 19-30, 1912. And it was at this meeting that J osip Visarionovich Dzhugashvili, later known as Stalin, was eleoted a member of the Central Committee of the party. At that time Lenin used the name of "Majer." The dedication ceremony in 1946 was attended by Soviet Ambassador Zarin, who thanked the government of Benes-Gottwald for honoring the memory of Lenin in such a noble fashion. �4 SLOVAKIA After Hitler came to power and ordered a general round-up of Reds in Germany, the Reds moved their office from Vienna to Paris where they operated under the title "Auslandskomite" (Foreign Committee). Dr. Benes, however, concurred secretly with Litvinov-Finkelste in that it would be more advantageous to transfer the Red German outfit to Prague, making it an adjunct of the Central European Bureau (CIDB). In Prague this group operated under the label "Komunistische Deutsche Partein (KDP). It was assigned the task of organizing Red movements, espionage, sabotage, and political murders in Silesia, central Germany, the Saar, Berlin, Brandenburg, and Bavaria. The Prague Central Bureau of the Reds was charged with the responsibility of promoting communism in twothirds of Europe. Dr. Edward Benes, highly trusted and favored by the West, was well aware of this activity. He had his agents in the KDP and other ReJd groups: and he had them in England, America, and Mexico, as well. He knew that Reds operaJted from the Czecho-Slovak embassy in Washington, because he placed them there himself. Nevertheless the West regarded Benes as a non-Marxist socialist and the "greatest democrat" of Europe. The entire CzechoSlovak State propaganda apparatus was controlled by Benes and his political henchmen: the West knew Benes as Benes wanted it to know him. But the West is gradually waking up to the fact that it did not know the real Benes, Benes, the Marxist socialist, Benes, the servant of Moscow. (Edwaird B. Hiitchcook, who had the privilege of knowing Dr. Benes iruttmateI,y, wrote the only complete biography oif Benes. Nevertheless, the author teHs ,u s thalt Benes, ear]Jy in life, "d•eveloped iiruto a believer of brute materia11ilsm, anarch1is,m, socialism. He was aga.inst <religion. He was opposed to almost every estalblished order in bhe world of that day.") The Prague Central Bureau also had to care for Red refugees from Germany; together with the "Zentral Fraktionsleitung" (Central Group Leadership), the Prague Bureau had to train the most capaible Reds in espionage and underground work. The "Rote Hilfe" (Red Aid), a communist banking institution, and the organiza!Uon called "Union flir Freiheit und Recht" (Union for Freedom and Justice) were connected with the Prague Bureau of the �SLOVAKIA 5 Reds. When this motley outfit stamped one as unfit for espionage and subversive work in Germany, it would report him to the Czech police, who in turn would be ordered to surrender him to Germany as a communist. In the eyes of the world this made Dr. Benes and his intimates appear very "anti-communistic" - indeed, the cleanest of all socialists. Duplicity was the hallmark of Benes and his colleagues. Prior to February 25, 1948, when the Reds took over complete power in Czecho-Slovakia, they could not find enough words of prnise for Stalin and the Soviet Union. Then suddenly they were "expelled" from the country and became "anti-communists"! As followers of Benes, Peter Zenkl, Hubert Ripka, Ferdinand Peroutka, and others, nevertheless, had little difficulty in being employed by Radio Free Europe to broadcast "words of truth" to those whom they had helped to betray to the Moloch of Moscow. The Prague Bureau established "Homes For Escapees" in Prague, Strasnice, Kosice, Brno, Msec, and several other cities. The Prague home was managed by a former deputy of the German Reich, one Mrs. Hana Sandtner, a confidante of Karl Schwab who was in charge of the organization called "Vereinigung zur Unterstutzung deutscher Emigranten" (The Alliance for the Aid of German Emigrants), the outfit that cared for Red refugees from Germany. One of the largest homes for Red escapees, the Salda Home, was situated in Msec, Bohemia; it was named after the eminent Israelite warrior who was a Red. In this home escapees were given six-month courses in Marxism, espionage, sabotage, and underground activities. The graduates were then sent out to battle for universal communism (the "International Brigades," for example, in Spain). Military training was in charge of Leon Schnittmann, whose real name was Adol,ph Lejba, one of the best the Soviet had in the business. Officers from the Czech General Staff, selected by Lejba himself, helped with the training of recruits; so dii:l French officers who spoke Russian fluently. Lejba at one time had served as military attache in Prague. After Moscow announced that it had removed Lejba :from his position, he did not return to Russia but remained in Prague, where he opened a private business office. As a �6 SLOVAKIA businessman Lejba was free to travel; and he was in constant touch with the authorities, the ministries and political personalities. It was thus that Lej1ba succeeded in building up a "Czechoslovak-Russian" army. When Schnittman-Lejba visited neighboring States, he called on cryptocommunists in the Social Democratic parties to gather information and give orders. His reports were delivered in person to the Central European Bureau in Prague. Thanks to Lejba and the collaboration of Dr. Benes, Moscow had, in 1938, over 2,000 trained spies in Prague who were dispatched to aH countries of Europe and the West. While the press, the diplomats, and the statesmen of the West referred to the republic of Masairyk and Benes as a "model democracy" and an "isle of democracy in Europe," in reality Czecho~Slovakia was a state in which the Reds ruled under the guise of socialists. Financial help for these Red spies and saboteurs also came from the United States. The president of the "Friends of Nature" (3911 Greenview Avenue, Chicago, Ill.) sent money to the Red Bureau in Prague from the account of the "Ocean Travel Bureau" (2233 N. Ashland Avenue). The money was sent to Karl Schwab of the "Vereinigung zur Unterstutzung deutscher Emigranten." Comrade Dr. Goldschneidt, a "persecuted" Jew, was in charge of the office in Prague (Jachymov Street, 3), which busied itself with espionage under the label of "Zentral Hilfstelle flir Deutsche Fllichtlingskinder" (Central Office to Help Children of German Escapees). With the outbreak of the civil war in Spain, spies were sent there by these Red training centers. During the first weeks of the revolution more than a thousand men were dispatched to Spain by the Prague Bureau. Karl Schwab took care of all the arrangements: with the Czech police he prepared false passes and provided for the transportation of Reds to Spain. After a time, however, Moscow ordered the leading Reds to quit Spain and return to the haven of the Reds, Benes's Czecho-S'1ovakia. After the Slovak Republic was establi,shed on March 14, 1939, by the proclaimation of independence of the autonomous parliament · of Slovakia, the Prague-trained Reds �SLOVAKIA 7 presented quite a problem. Communism and Freemasonry had been outlawed already in 1938 by autonomous Slovakia while it was still witthin the framework of Czecho-Slovalda. The Reds went underground, but most of their leaders fled from Prague and Bratislava to Moscow. To ferret out the Reds and disarm them, the Slovak Sta.te ordered Imrich (Henry) Sudsky of the State Security Police to organize a special security uni!t of 100 mem!bers. Sudsky was a brilliant police official, having served under the Masaryk-Bene s regimes. Slovak authorities, however, did not know that Sudsky was also a secret agent of the Czech Reds. Charged with the task of rounding up the Reds in Slovakia, Sudsky applied himself diligently and eventually caught up with Stephen Hadera. The latter exposed the Red movement in Slovakia under questioning and the Red "triangle" was disrupted. This was followed by mass arrests of Reds and communist activities practically ceased in Slovakia until the last year of the war. When the Red armies overran the Slovak Republic in May, 1945, and Stalin made Benes "presiden!t" of Czecho-Slovak ia again, Sudsky was immediately placed into service by the Czech Reds. In 1957 he was held res,ponsible for the abduction of several Slovak patriots from Austria. The Czecho-Slovak Republic of Masaryk and Benes which western powers regarded as the most exemplary democratic country in Europe, was in fact the beachhead of Communism in Europe, as Stojadinovich , Yugoslav Minister of the Interior, had declared to newsmen on April 24, 1936, adding that "the Yugoslav communists are financially supported by Benes's Czecho-Slovak Republic." About an hour after he made this statement, Stojadinovich was a dead man, murdered by an agent of the Reds. His assailant escaped to Czecho-Slovakia through Hungary. The Prague Central Bureau of the Reds fixed him up with a new set of forged papers so that he might conltinue in his dastardly trade. In the free western world, there are thousands of agents roaming about, promoting the program of Moscow. After the great massacre of World War II, some of them were employed by Radio Free Europe in Munich. I knew them from �8 SLOVAKIA back home. There was, for example, Robert Valuch of Salzburg, an adjutant of a Brigade Commissioner during the Red putsch in Slovakia in August, 1944; then, Mi.so (Michael) Sagat, whose last known address was Etst Delast Marcheprime girange, France, who issued orders to murder people and murdered many himself; also one Joseph Micudik, a captain of the paritsans who was schooled in Moscow; and then, Joseph Antl, and so many others employed by Radio Free Europe and moving aJbout freely in the service of the Reds. In the light of the above, it is surprising indeed that responsi'ble people of western governments do not see, or pretend not to see or know what is going on in their countries to promote the scourge of communism and enslave the remaining free peoples of the earth. Thus far goes the story of the Slovak patriot, Joseph Bla,skovic, written a ,s hort time before he was abducted !from Austria and imprisoned in Prague by the Czech Reds. The people and governments of the West know that Moscow has its trained agents everywhere. But apparently they do not know thaJt Prague is second only to Mo·s oow as a Red espionage center. Governments of the West, if they do know about it, are loathe to divulge information. CzechoSlovakia and its builders, Thomas G. Masaryk and Dr. Edward Benes, are still regarded highly, and their followers are still the favored "experts" of government ,people. They still .are the "unltoucha1bles" of the political West. Blaskovic' s story is highly plausi-ble, because it is backed by events past and present. Lausman, B. Cerny, Kucera, Folta, Machacek, Ka;las, Sychrava, Haulik, Molin, Marie Dvorak, and other Czechs, posing a,s "esca,pees" and employed by Radio Free Europe, returned to Prague to broadcast to the world how "stupid" Americans were. These agents received Amer.ican "trnth dollars" for their dastardly work. Back in the days of the Office of War Information (OWI), headman Elmer Davis assured Congress that he could spot Communists by a simple rule of thumb: if he was against Polish.iBritish-French resistance to dictator- �SLOVAKIA 9 ship aggression in the days of the Stalin-Hitler , pact • and then howled for war against Germany when Russia was attacked, then he was a Commie. N :, the very time Davis was speaking, and even afterwards, the chief of the Czech division of the OWI, was a Red Czech, Adolph Hoffmeister, an agent of Dr. Edward Benes, who was not only a card carrying Communist, but later the ambassador to Paris for the first Red Czech government. During the trial of one Emil Swiertina, a Red spy caught and sentenced to 12 years by American authori!ties in Munich, the names of several politicians of Benes's socialistic entourage were mentioned. The matter was treated as hush-hush, getting practkally no publicity here. It was known that Swiertina worked wit h a Czech Colonel, Dr. Springer, a subordinate of Colonel Koenig. After his imprisonment, Swiertina's correspondence was handled by Dr. Patek. On orders .from Col. Koenig, these letters were not turned over to American authorities, because it was feared that ,they would incriminate some of Benes's followers, members of the so-called "Council of Free Czechoslovakia," an organization highly favored by our State Department and the Radio Free Europe people. Otto Katz (alias Andre Simone, alias Kofatko), liquidated in the 1952 Red purge trial in Prague, was an intimate of Dr. Hubert Ripka who was regarded as the righthand man of Dr. Edward Benes. Katz, a Red spy who at one time edi!:ed the Rude Pravo (Red Justice), the official organ of the Czech Communists, spent the war years in Mexico and returned to Prague in 1946. Guenther Reinhardt, author af "Crime Without Punishment," links Katz with the 1943 murder of Ca-rlo Tresca in New York. At his trial Katz declared that he once was hired to work for the Overseas News Agency (ONA) which was affiliated with the Jewish Telegraphic Agency untH 1949. Katz had contacts with Adolph Hoffmeister of the OWI; also with Dezider Benau, wartJi.me editor of the New Y orksky Dennik, a newspaper published in Slovak, and with Karel Leitner, editor of the New Yorkske Listy, published in Czech - both papers at that time being owned by one �SLOVAKIA 10 Richard Vogel who did big business with Czecho-Slovalri'a. Katz was also in touch with Dr. Erwin Munk, Otto Biheller, and T. Florin-Hrkel, Czech agents who worked out of the Czech Embassy in Washington when Dr. Juraj Slavik was Benes's ambassador there. It is signif.icant that Miss Pavlina Svoboda, testifying before the House Committee on Un-American Activities, Feb. 5, 1952, was not even asked the names of the newspapers which Benau and Leitner edited. Both newspapers published many editorials by leading Communists. After his escape from the United States, Gerhard t Eisler ended up in Prague, haven of the Reds. When Communist Albert S. Stern, whose wife is the Red Martha Dodd Stern, was wanted to testify in the Jack Soble-Soviet spy case, both made off for Prague via Mexico. There they were joined by Maurice Halpern, a former Boston University teacher. In his testimony before the HUAC (released May 10, 1960), Frantisek Tisler, former Military and Air Attache of Cziecho-Slovakia at the embassy in Washington, declared that "one of the main reasons for the maintenance of a Czechoslovak Embassy in Washington, D. C., is to conduct espionage against the United Sfates." It is a matter of record tha:t most of .the politicians of Dr. Edward Benes's official family were active supporters of his pro-Sovi et poHcy. They were members of CzechoSlovakia's communist-dominated National Front government which eliminated all anti-communist elements from the political life of the country. Now, posing as "democratic" exiles and "an/ti-communist" fighters, they would have the West believe that they alway,s were on our side against the diabolic forces of communism. Incredible as it may sound, the fact is that these Red collaborators were accepted immediately by our Staite Department (under Acheson) as "democratic exiles," and their organiza:tion in America, the Council of Free Czechoslovakia, was recognized as "the supreme political body of the Czech and Slovak exile." With the _b lessing of the State Department, the fellow-1ravelers from Czecho-,Slovakia had no trouble at all in finding employment with Radio Free Europe, The Voice of America , 1 �SLOVAKIA 11 the CIC, the Library of Congress, and other agencies of U. S. Government, as well as our universities. More incredi'ble yet is the fact that some of these people are still holding their jobs. Red Prague is paying off to Red Moscow: with the help of the Czechs, who were "remade" under the regimes of T. G. Masaryk and Dr. Edward Benes, Soviet Russia 's campaign of penetration is proceeding successfully in Africa, South America, Mexico, and Nol'lth America, in a word, everywhere! Czech and Soviet officers are instructing Castro's men in tactics and use of Czech arms at Gramma, Baracoa Beach and Managua - the three major bases of Castro's Army. A Czech officer commands the Cuban troops fighting the rebels i-n the Escambray Mountains. Anti-Castro forces in Cuba are trying to speed up the time for civil war there, because Castro, as of now, still does not have much of an air force. But he has about 1000 young Cubans in Czecho-Slovakia learning to fly jets. When they are ready, the Red Russians can create a Cuban air force in less than a day. In the new nations of Africa, you see few Russians, but plenty of Czech salesmen and diplomats. Not Russians, but Czechs are doing the groundwork for Moscow. According to U. S. News and World Report (April 3, 1961) : "Cairo is the Center of Czech operartions i-n, Africa. From Cairo, Czech goods are f11oiwin,g - art twice the 1950 level - to bobh North and West Aifrioa. A Czech airline operates from Praigu:e tlhrowgth Cairo to po'ints in West Afri~. "Am,e,ricans fo Gui•n ea h1ave notioed how fast the Czechs have moved in Wlhen French pulled out. Now, pro-Moscow Guinea is headquarters £or Czech opera,tions in au West Africa. A Czech shoe factory was shipped to Giha;na via Conakry, Gu~•nea. Czech machine to'o1s, preci£·ion instruments for Glhaina and Mali c-ame the same way. "Tirade is jus;t a part of i,t. A total of 270 Czech experts - military advisers, poUce adviisers, teachers - were counted in Cornaik,r,y at one time recently. "To date, this· Sorvi>et-Czech arran,gement has wol'ked smoothly. The Czec1hs are seUing Czech ,goods in Africa for themselves and Commundsm for Moscow." When the Slovaks, over thirty years ago, told America and the world that Benes and his Czech National Socialists were peddling Communism for Moscow, they were ignored �12 SLOVAKIA and scorned. The socialistic state created by Masaryk and Benes came into being in 1918 because of America's intervention. Now we are gradually learning the truth about the poli:tical monstrosity we not only made possible, but nurtured and enriched for over forty years. Imagine, American know-how and doUars are in a large mea·s ure responsible for the fact that Czech Prague has become a Red espion • age training center, second only to Moscow! SLOVAK PEASANT ART: a kitchen in Vinicne � SLOVAKIA Published by the Slovak League of America VOL. XI MARCH-J,UNE, 1961 NO. 1 (33) PRAGUE: RED ESPIONAGE CENTER By Philip A. Hrobak (Among the Slwaik esoarpees snaitched by the Czech Reds in Austria, alild West Germany is one Jioserph Bla-skovic. Shortly before his aibducti-on, this Slovak pa-tr,i ot sent ain a11ticle to his friend, alil escapee from .Slovailcia ruow residing in New York. T.hiis stor,y is based on tha,t article whicll was wri1bt,e n in Slovak.) The Czecho-Slovakia the American public is acquainted with is not the real Czecho-Slovakia of Thomas Guarrigue Masaryk and Dr. Edward Benes. This glorified "·isle of democracy in Europe," painted in such roseate color-s to deceive the West, particularly the United States of America, was destined to become the European beachhead for communism from its very inception. Believe it or not, the simple fact is that the Russian OGPU (Secret Police) was organized in the propaganda state of Masaryk and Benes already in 1918, after Dr. Benes had concluded a secret agreement with Moscow. The OGPU was directed by the notorious agent Skoblin, who personally bossed the group in Prague whose task it was to kidna:p White Russians and ship them to Russia. Skoblin's outfit organized the Red Cells of volunteers, which were approved by Benes and his intimates, and also made all the arrangements for political murders in Poland. Prague thus became a center of the Cominform, second only to Moscow. The Prague Cominform set up an espionage office under the name of the Central European Bureau (1Stredo-Europska Kancelaria - SEK). This office directed the organized Cells and paid off underground espionage groups in the Central European states for services rendered, which included sabotage, kidnapping, and murder. Skoblin's group also organized the West~European Bureau (Zaipado-Eu- �2 SLOVAKIA ropska Kancelaria - ZEK) in Prague to promote communist interests in the Wes't European States. To organize the communists in the Balkan States, a bureau was set up in Vienna under the supervision of the Prague Bureau. The Vienna office at that time was headed by Dimitrov, the Secretary-General of the Cominform who had gained favor in the W esit. The Prague Bureau was made up of such Red worthies as Dimitrov, Gottwald, Manuilsky, Pakosta, Florin, and Ercoli - all graduates of the Moscow School of Red Leaders. Gottwald and Pakosta, both Czechs were ordered by Moscow to work in Slovakia. Pakosta came to the Turiec province and soon got a jeib in the Tatra furniture enterprise a t Turciansky Svaty Martin. Several months later he was elected an official of the local Sick-Benefit Insurance Association; and six months later he became manager of the branch office at Trnava. Pakosta didn't do too bad for himself in Slovakia: within a year he bought himself a large tract of land in the vicinity of Trnava, even though he kept on bellowing "down with the bourgeoisie"! Gottwald was sent to Vrutky in Slovakia where he was employed by the State railway system as a caibinet-maker. After Gottwald became a "master" of his trade, he began to publish a Red periodical in Banska Bystrica. Gottwald and Pakosta had the task of selecting the "right" people for the Red School in Moscow. Among the first selectees were Stephen Hadera, Vlado Clemen'tis, and Gustav Husak. After this trio completed its schooling in Moscow, it formed a "triangle" in Slovakia. Later on Moscow made Gottwa:ld a liaison officer to relay orders of the Cominform to States that had an organized underground. Orders were sentt from Turkey to the Gibraltar and Copenhagen. Gottwald was assisted by Hlozknecht and Prochniak and, later, also by the Polish Reds of Galicia Krumlov, Berend, Doppler, and Ackermann. The Prague Central Bureau directed the Red organizations in Germany, Poland, Hungary, Rumania, Yugoslavia, and Bulgaria, where the communists engaged in -s ubversive activities as "Social Democrats." As in Czecho-Slovakia, so �SLOVAKIA 3 here too, only "reliable" communists were selected for schooling in Moscow. After graduation, the Reds returned to their respective countries as "socialists" of one shade or another to form "triangles." Whenever things would get too hot for them, they would resort to the tactic of uncovering and repor~ing ordinary laborers as "dangerous communists." It so happened that while innocent people sweated it out in jails, the real subversives, parading as Social Democrats, were free to continue in their nefarious work. In March, 1933, Moscow had prepared detailed plans for the Prague Central Bureau to initiate revolutions in C::echo-Slovakia and Austria. German intelligence, however, uncovered the plot and rushed into action, occupying Austria on March 13. The Reds were lucky to save the incriminating documents of the Vienna office. Otto Katz, alias Andrei Simone, a member of the Zionist and communist organizations, brought them to Bratislava where he personally handed them over to Sankoff-Rappaport, a Zionist, and ·::. o Kreschner, a leader of the German Reds. The latter collaborated closely with the Prague Central Bureau in preparing a revolt in Germany. You may not find it easy to believe, but the fact is that the Russian Revolution of 1917 was organized in Prague. The story was published by the Czech press of Prague in June, 1946, when Lenin's Hall in the "Peoples Home" (Lidovy dum) on Hybernska Street in Prague was ceremoniously opened to the public. It was in this hall that Vladimir Iljic Lenin presided at a meeting of the Russian Social Democratic Party, January 19-30, 1912. And it was at this meeting that J osip Visarionovich Dzhugashvili, later known as Stalin, was eleoted a member of the Central Committee of the party. At that time Lenin used the name of "Majer." The dedication ceremony in 1946 was attended by Soviet Ambassador Zarin, who thanked the government of Benes-Gottwald for honoring the memory of Lenin in such a noble fashion. �4 SLOVAKIA After Hitler came to power and ordered a general round-up of Reds in Germany, the Reds moved their office from Vienna to Paris where they operated under the title "Auslandskomite" (Foreign Committee). Dr. Benes, however, concurred secretly with Litvinov-Finkelste in that it would be more advantageous to transfer the Red German outfit to Prague, making it an adjunct of the Central European Bureau (CIDB). In Prague this group operated under the label "Komunistische Deutsche Partein (KDP). It was assigned the task of organizing Red movements, espionage, sabotage, and political murders in Silesia, central Germany, the Saar, Berlin, Brandenburg, and Bavaria. The Prague Central Bureau of the Reds was charged with the responsibility of promoting communism in twothirds of Europe. Dr. Edward Benes, highly trusted and favored by the West, was well aware of this activity. He had his agents in the KDP and other ReJd groups: and he had them in England, America, and Mexico, as well. He knew that Reds operaJted from the Czecho-Slovak embassy in Washington, because he placed them there himself. Nevertheless the West regarded Benes as a non-Marxist socialist and the "greatest democrat" of Europe. The entire CzechoSlovak State propaganda apparatus was controlled by Benes and his political henchmen: the West knew Benes as Benes wanted it to know him. But the West is gradually waking up to the fact that it did not know the real Benes, Benes, the Marxist socialist, Benes, the servant of Moscow. (Edwaird B. Hiitchcook, who had the privilege of knowing Dr. Benes iruttmateI,y, wrote the only complete biography oif Benes. Nevertheless, the author teHs ,u s thalt Benes, ear]Jy in life, "d•eveloped iiruto a believer of brute materia11ilsm, anarch1is,m, socialism. He was aga.inst <religion. He was opposed to almost every estalblished order in bhe world of that day.") The Prague Central Bureau also had to care for Red refugees from Germany; together with the "Zentral Fraktionsleitung" (Central Group Leadership), the Prague Bureau had to train the most capaible Reds in espionage and underground work. The "Rote Hilfe" (Red Aid), a communist banking institution, and the organiza!Uon called "Union flir Freiheit und Recht" (Union for Freedom and Justice) were connected with the Prague Bureau of the �SLOVAKIA 5 Reds. When this motley outfit stamped one as unfit for espionage and subversive work in Germany, it would report him to the Czech police, who in turn would be ordered to surrender him to Germany as a communist. In the eyes of the world this made Dr. Benes and his intimates appear very "anti-communistic" - indeed, the cleanest of all socialists. Duplicity was the hallmark of Benes and his colleagues. Prior to February 25, 1948, when the Reds took over complete power in Czecho-Slovakia, they could not find enough words of prnise for Stalin and the Soviet Union. Then suddenly they were "expelled" from the country and became "anti-communists"! As followers of Benes, Peter Zenkl, Hubert Ripka, Ferdinand Peroutka, and others, nevertheless, had little difficulty in being employed by Radio Free Europe to broadcast "words of truth" to those whom they had helped to betray to the Moloch of Moscow. The Prague Bureau established "Homes For Escapees" in Prague, Strasnice, Kosice, Brno, Msec, and several other cities. The Prague home was managed by a former deputy of the German Reich, one Mrs. Hana Sandtner, a confidante of Karl Schwab who was in charge of the organization called "Vereinigung zur Unterstutzung deutscher Emigranten" (The Alliance for the Aid of German Emigrants), the outfit that cared for Red refugees from Germany. One of the largest homes for Red escapees, the Salda Home, was situated in Msec, Bohemia; it was named after the eminent Israelite warrior who was a Red. In this home escapees were given six-month courses in Marxism, espionage, sabotage, and underground activities. The graduates were then sent out to battle for universal communism (the "International Brigades," for example, in Spain). Military training was in charge of Leon Schnittmann, whose real name was Adol,ph Lejba, one of the best the Soviet had in the business. Officers from the Czech General Staff, selected by Lejba himself, helped with the training of recruits; so dii:l French officers who spoke Russian fluently. Lejba at one time had served as military attache in Prague. After Moscow announced that it had removed Lejba :from his position, he did not return to Russia but remained in Prague, where he opened a private business office. As a �6 SLOVAKIA businessman Lejba was free to travel; and he was in constant touch with the authorities, the ministries and political personalities. It was thus that Lej1ba succeeded in building up a "Czechoslovak-Russian" army. When Schnittman-Lejba visited neighboring States, he called on cryptocommunists in the Social Democratic parties to gather information and give orders. His reports were delivered in person to the Central European Bureau in Prague. Thanks to Lejba and the collaboration of Dr. Benes, Moscow had, in 1938, over 2,000 trained spies in Prague who were dispatched to aH countries of Europe and the West. While the press, the diplomats, and the statesmen of the West referred to the republic of Masairyk and Benes as a "model democracy" and an "isle of democracy in Europe," in reality Czecho~Slovakia was a state in which the Reds ruled under the guise of socialists. Financial help for these Red spies and saboteurs also came from the United States. The president of the "Friends of Nature" (3911 Greenview Avenue, Chicago, Ill.) sent money to the Red Bureau in Prague from the account of the "Ocean Travel Bureau" (2233 N. Ashland Avenue). The money was sent to Karl Schwab of the "Vereinigung zur Unterstutzung deutscher Emigranten." Comrade Dr. Goldschneidt, a "persecuted" Jew, was in charge of the office in Prague (Jachymov Street, 3), which busied itself with espionage under the label of "Zentral Hilfstelle flir Deutsche Fllichtlingskinder" (Central Office to Help Children of German Escapees). With the outbreak of the civil war in Spain, spies were sent there by these Red training centers. During the first weeks of the revolution more than a thousand men were dispatched to Spain by the Prague Bureau. Karl Schwab took care of all the arrangements: with the Czech police he prepared false passes and provided for the transportation of Reds to Spain. After a time, however, Moscow ordered the leading Reds to quit Spain and return to the haven of the Reds, Benes's Czecho-S'1ovakia. After the Slovak Republic was establi,shed on March 14, 1939, by the proclaimation of independence of the autonomous parliament · of Slovakia, the Prague-trained Reds �SLOVAKIA 7 presented quite a problem. Communism and Freemasonry had been outlawed already in 1938 by autonomous Slovakia while it was still witthin the framework of Czecho-Slovalda. The Reds went underground, but most of their leaders fled from Prague and Bratislava to Moscow. To ferret out the Reds and disarm them, the Slovak Sta.te ordered Imrich (Henry) Sudsky of the State Security Police to organize a special security uni!t of 100 mem!bers. Sudsky was a brilliant police official, having served under the Masaryk-Bene s regimes. Slovak authorities, however, did not know that Sudsky was also a secret agent of the Czech Reds. Charged with the task of rounding up the Reds in Slovakia, Sudsky applied himself diligently and eventually caught up with Stephen Hadera. The latter exposed the Red movement in Slovakia under questioning and the Red "triangle" was disrupted. This was followed by mass arrests of Reds and communist activities practically ceased in Slovakia until the last year of the war. When the Red armies overran the Slovak Republic in May, 1945, and Stalin made Benes "presiden!t" of Czecho-Slovak ia again, Sudsky was immediately placed into service by the Czech Reds. In 1957 he was held res,ponsible for the abduction of several Slovak patriots from Austria. The Czecho-Slovak Republic of Masaryk and Benes which western powers regarded as the most exemplary democratic country in Europe, was in fact the beachhead of Communism in Europe, as Stojadinovich , Yugoslav Minister of the Interior, had declared to newsmen on April 24, 1936, adding that "the Yugoslav communists are financially supported by Benes's Czecho-Slovak Republic." About an hour after he made this statement, Stojadinovich was a dead man, murdered by an agent of the Reds. His assailant escaped to Czecho-Slovakia through Hungary. The Prague Central Bureau of the Reds fixed him up with a new set of forged papers so that he might conltinue in his dastardly trade. In the free western world, there are thousands of agents roaming about, promoting the program of Moscow. After the great massacre of World War II, some of them were employed by Radio Free Europe in Munich. I knew them from �8 SLOVAKIA back home. There was, for example, Robert Valuch of Salzburg, an adjutant of a Brigade Commissioner during the Red putsch in Slovakia in August, 1944; then, Mi.so (Michael) Sagat, whose last known address was Etst Delast Marcheprime girange, France, who issued orders to murder people and murdered many himself; also one Joseph Micudik, a captain of the paritsans who was schooled in Moscow; and then, Joseph Antl, and so many others employed by Radio Free Europe and moving aJbout freely in the service of the Reds. In the light of the above, it is surprising indeed that responsi'ble people of western governments do not see, or pretend not to see or know what is going on in their countries to promote the scourge of communism and enslave the remaining free peoples of the earth. Thus far goes the story of the Slovak patriot, Joseph Bla,skovic, written a ,s hort time before he was abducted !from Austria and imprisoned in Prague by the Czech Reds. The people and governments of the West know that Moscow has its trained agents everywhere. But apparently they do not know thaJt Prague is second only to Mo·s oow as a Red espionage center. Governments of the West, if they do know about it, are loathe to divulge information. CzechoSlovakia and its builders, Thomas G. Masaryk and Dr. Edward Benes, are still regarded highly, and their followers are still the favored "experts" of government ,people. They still .are the "unltoucha1bles" of the political West. Blaskovic' s story is highly plausi-ble, because it is backed by events past and present. Lausman, B. Cerny, Kucera, Folta, Machacek, Ka;las, Sychrava, Haulik, Molin, Marie Dvorak, and other Czechs, posing a,s "esca,pees" and employed by Radio Free Europe, returned to Prague to broadcast to the world how "stupid" Americans were. These agents received Amer.ican "trnth dollars" for their dastardly work. Back in the days of the Office of War Information (OWI), headman Elmer Davis assured Congress that he could spot Communists by a simple rule of thumb: if he was against Polish.iBritish-French resistance to dictator- �SLOVAKIA 9 ship aggression in the days of the Stalin-Hitler , pact • and then howled for war against Germany when Russia was attacked, then he was a Commie. N :, the very time Davis was speaking, and even afterwards, the chief of the Czech division of the OWI, was a Red Czech, Adolph Hoffmeister, an agent of Dr. Edward Benes, who was not only a card carrying Communist, but later the ambassador to Paris for the first Red Czech government. During the trial of one Emil Swiertina, a Red spy caught and sentenced to 12 years by American authori!ties in Munich, the names of several politicians of Benes's socialistic entourage were mentioned. The matter was treated as hush-hush, getting practkally no publicity here. It was known that Swiertina worked wit h a Czech Colonel, Dr. Springer, a subordinate of Colonel Koenig. After his imprisonment, Swiertina's correspondence was handled by Dr. Patek. On orders .from Col. Koenig, these letters were not turned over to American authorities, because it was feared that ,they would incriminate some of Benes's followers, members of the so-called "Council of Free Czechoslovakia," an organization highly favored by our State Department and the Radio Free Europe people. Otto Katz (alias Andre Simone, alias Kofatko), liquidated in the 1952 Red purge trial in Prague, was an intimate of Dr. Hubert Ripka who was regarded as the righthand man of Dr. Edward Benes. Katz, a Red spy who at one time edi!:ed the Rude Pravo (Red Justice), the official organ of the Czech Communists, spent the war years in Mexico and returned to Prague in 1946. Guenther Reinhardt, author af "Crime Without Punishment," links Katz with the 1943 murder of Ca-rlo Tresca in New York. At his trial Katz declared that he once was hired to work for the Overseas News Agency (ONA) which was affiliated with the Jewish Telegraphic Agency untH 1949. Katz had contacts with Adolph Hoffmeister of the OWI; also with Dezider Benau, wartJi.me editor of the New Y orksky Dennik, a newspaper published in Slovak, and with Karel Leitner, editor of the New Yorkske Listy, published in Czech - both papers at that time being owned by one �SLOVAKIA 10 Richard Vogel who did big business with Czecho-Slovalri'a. Katz was also in touch with Dr. Erwin Munk, Otto Biheller, and T. Florin-Hrkel, Czech agents who worked out of the Czech Embassy in Washington when Dr. Juraj Slavik was Benes's ambassador there. It is signif.icant that Miss Pavlina Svoboda, testifying before the House Committee on Un-American Activities, Feb. 5, 1952, was not even asked the names of the newspapers which Benau and Leitner edited. Both newspapers published many editorials by leading Communists. After his escape from the United States, Gerhard t Eisler ended up in Prague, haven of the Reds. When Communist Albert S. Stern, whose wife is the Red Martha Dodd Stern, was wanted to testify in the Jack Soble-Soviet spy case, both made off for Prague via Mexico. There they were joined by Maurice Halpern, a former Boston University teacher. In his testimony before the HUAC (released May 10, 1960), Frantisek Tisler, former Military and Air Attache of Cziecho-Slovakia at the embassy in Washington, declared that "one of the main reasons for the maintenance of a Czechoslovak Embassy in Washington, D. C., is to conduct espionage against the United Sfates." It is a matter of record tha:t most of .the politicians of Dr. Edward Benes's official family were active supporters of his pro-Sovi et poHcy. They were members of CzechoSlovakia's communist-dominated National Front government which eliminated all anti-communist elements from the political life of the country. Now, posing as "democratic" exiles and "an/ti-communist" fighters, they would have the West believe that they alway,s were on our side against the diabolic forces of communism. Incredible as it may sound, the fact is that these Red collaborators were accepted immediately by our Staite Department (under Acheson) as "democratic exiles," and their organiza:tion in America, the Council of Free Czechoslovakia, was recognized as "the supreme political body of the Czech and Slovak exile." With the _b lessing of the State Department, the fellow-1ravelers from Czecho-,Slovakia had no trouble at all in finding employment with Radio Free Europe, The Voice of America , 1 �SLOVAKIA 11 the CIC, the Library of Congress, and other agencies of U. S. Government, as well as our universities. More incredi'ble yet is the fact that some of these people are still holding their jobs. Red Prague is paying off to Red Moscow: with the help of the Czechs, who were "remade" under the regimes of T. G. Masaryk and Dr. Edward Benes, Soviet Russia 's campaign of penetration is proceeding successfully in Africa, South America, Mexico, and Nol'lth America, in a word, everywhere! Czech and Soviet officers are instructing Castro's men in tactics and use of Czech arms at Gramma, Baracoa Beach and Managua - the three major bases of Castro's Army. A Czech officer commands the Cuban troops fighting the rebels i-n the Escambray Mountains. Anti-Castro forces in Cuba are trying to speed up the time for civil war there, because Castro, as of now, still does not have much of an air force. But he has about 1000 young Cubans in Czecho-Slovakia learning to fly jets. When they are ready, the Red Russians can create a Cuban air force in less than a day. In the new nations of Africa, you see few Russians, but plenty of Czech salesmen and diplomats. Not Russians, but Czechs are doing the groundwork for Moscow. According to U. S. News and World Report (April 3, 1961) : "Cairo is the Center of Czech operartions i-n, Africa. From Cairo, Czech goods are f11oiwin,g - art twice the 1950 level - to bobh North and West Aifrioa. A Czech airline operates from Praigu:e tlhrowgth Cairo to po'ints in West Afri~. "Am,e,ricans fo Gui•n ea h1ave notioed how fast the Czechs have moved in Wlhen French pulled out. Now, pro-Moscow Guinea is headquarters £or Czech opera,tions in au West Africa. A Czech shoe factory was shipped to Giha;na via Conakry, Gu~•nea. Czech machine to'o1s, preci£·ion instruments for Glhaina and Mali c-ame the same way. "Tirade is jus;t a part of i,t. A total of 270 Czech experts - military advisers, poUce adviisers, teachers - were counted in Cornaik,r,y at one time recently. "To date, this· Sorvi>et-Czech arran,gement has wol'ked smoothly. The Czec1hs are seUing Czech ,goods in Africa for themselves and Commundsm for Moscow." When the Slovaks, over thirty years ago, told America and the world that Benes and his Czech National Socialists were peddling Communism for Moscow, they were ignored �12 SLOVAKIA and scorned. The socialistic state created by Masaryk and Benes came into being in 1918 because of America's intervention. Now we are gradually learning the truth about the poli:tical monstrosity we not only made possible, but nurtured and enriched for over forty years. Imagine, American know-how and doUars are in a large mea·s ure responsible for the fact that Czech Prague has become a Red espion • age training center, second only to Moscow! SLOVAK PEASANT ART: a kitchen in Vinicne � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to 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 SLOVAKIA Published by the Slovak League of America VOL. XI MARCH-J,UNE, 1961 NO. 1 (33) PRAGUE: RED ESPIONAGE CENTER By Philip A. Hrobak (Among the Slwaik esoarpees snaitched by the Czech Reds in Austria, alild West Germany is one Jioserph Bla-skovic. Shortly before his aibducti-on, this Slovak pa-tr,i ot sent ain a11ticle to his friend, alil escapee from .Slovailcia ruow residing in New York. T.hiis stor,y is based on tha,t article whicll was wri1bt,e n in Slovak.) The Czecho-Slovakia the American public is acquainted with is not the real Czecho-Slovakia of Thomas Guarrigue Masaryk and Dr. Edward Benes. This glorified "·isle of democracy in Europe," painted in such roseate color-s to deceive the West, particularly the United States of America, was destined to become the European beachhead for communism from its very inception. Believe it or not, the simple fact is that the Russian OGPU (Secret Police) was organized in the propaganda state of Masaryk and Benes already in 1918, after Dr. Benes had concluded a secret agreement with Moscow. The OGPU was directed by the notorious agent Skoblin, who personally bossed the group in Prague whose task it was to kidna:p White Russians and ship them to Russia. Skoblin's outfit organized the Red Cells of volunteers, which were approved by Benes and his intimates, and also made all the arrangements for political murders in Poland. Prague thus became a center of the Cominform, second only to Moscow. The Prague Cominform set up an espionage office under the name of the Central European Bureau (1Stredo-Europska Kancelaria - SEK). This office directed the organized Cells and paid off underground espionage groups in the Central European states for services rendered, which included sabotage, kidnapping, and murder. Skoblin's group also organized the West~European Bureau (Zaipado-Eu- 2 SLOVAKIA ropska Kancelaria - ZEK) in Prague to promote communist interests in the Wes't European States. To organize the communists in the Balkan States, a bureau was set up in Vienna under the supervision of the Prague Bureau. The Vienna office at that time was headed by Dimitrov, the Secretary-General of the Cominform who had gained favor in the W esit. The Prague Bureau was made up of such Red worthies as Dimitrov, Gottwald, Manuilsky, Pakosta, Florin, and Ercoli - all graduates of the Moscow School of Red Leaders. Gottwald and Pakosta, both Czechs were ordered by Moscow to work in Slovakia. Pakosta came to the Turiec province and soon got a jeib in the Tatra furniture enterprise a t Turciansky Svaty Martin. Several months later he was elected an official of the local Sick-Benefit Insurance Association; and six months later he became manager of the branch office at Trnava. Pakosta didn't do too bad for himself in Slovakia: within a year he bought himself a large tract of land in the vicinity of Trnava, even though he kept on bellowing "down with the bourgeoisie"! Gottwald was sent to Vrutky in Slovakia where he was employed by the State railway system as a caibinet-maker. After Gottwald became a "master" of his trade, he began to publish a Red periodical in Banska Bystrica. Gottwald and Pakosta had the task of selecting the "right" people for the Red School in Moscow. Among the first selectees were Stephen Hadera, Vlado Clemen'tis, and Gustav Husak. After this trio completed its schooling in Moscow, it formed a "triangle" in Slovakia. Later on Moscow made Gottwa:ld a liaison officer to relay orders of the Cominform to States that had an organized underground. Orders were sentt from Turkey to the Gibraltar and Copenhagen. Gottwald was assisted by Hlozknecht and Prochniak and, later, also by the Polish Reds of Galicia Krumlov, Berend, Doppler, and Ackermann. The Prague Central Bureau directed the Red organizations in Germany, Poland, Hungary, Rumania, Yugoslavia, and Bulgaria, where the communists engaged in -s ubversive activities as "Social Democrats." As in Czecho-Slovakia, so SLOVAKIA 3 here too, only "reliable" communists were selected for schooling in Moscow. After graduation, the Reds returned to their respective countries as "socialists" of one shade or another to form "triangles." Whenever things would get too hot for them, they would resort to the tactic of uncovering and repor~ing ordinary laborers as "dangerous communists." It so happened that while innocent people sweated it out in jails, the real subversives, parading as Social Democrats, were free to continue in their nefarious work. In March, 1933, Moscow had prepared detailed plans for the Prague Central Bureau to initiate revolutions in C::echo-Slovakia and Austria. German intelligence, however, uncovered the plot and rushed into action, occupying Austria on March 13. The Reds were lucky to save the incriminating documents of the Vienna office. Otto Katz, alias Andrei Simone, a member of the Zionist and communist organizations, brought them to Bratislava where he personally handed them over to Sankoff-Rappaport, a Zionist, and ·::. o Kreschner, a leader of the German Reds. The latter collaborated closely with the Prague Central Bureau in preparing a revolt in Germany. You may not find it easy to believe, but the fact is that the Russian Revolution of 1917 was organized in Prague. The story was published by the Czech press of Prague in June, 1946, when Lenin's Hall in the "Peoples Home" (Lidovy dum) on Hybernska Street in Prague was ceremoniously opened to the public. It was in this hall that Vladimir Iljic Lenin presided at a meeting of the Russian Social Democratic Party, January 19-30, 1912. And it was at this meeting that J osip Visarionovich Dzhugashvili, later known as Stalin, was eleoted a member of the Central Committee of the party. At that time Lenin used the name of "Majer." The dedication ceremony in 1946 was attended by Soviet Ambassador Zarin, who thanked the government of Benes-Gottwald for honoring the memory of Lenin in such a noble fashion. 4 SLOVAKIA After Hitler came to power and ordered a general round-up of Reds in Germany, the Reds moved their office from Vienna to Paris where they operated under the title "Auslandskomite" (Foreign Committee). Dr. Benes, however, concurred secretly with Litvinov-Finkelste in that it would be more advantageous to transfer the Red German outfit to Prague, making it an adjunct of the Central European Bureau (CIDB). In Prague this group operated under the label "Komunistische Deutsche Partein (KDP). It was assigned the task of organizing Red movements, espionage, sabotage, and political murders in Silesia, central Germany, the Saar, Berlin, Brandenburg, and Bavaria. The Prague Central Bureau of the Reds was charged with the responsibility of promoting communism in twothirds of Europe. Dr. Edward Benes, highly trusted and favored by the West, was well aware of this activity. He had his agents in the KDP and other ReJd groups: and he had them in England, America, and Mexico, as well. He knew that Reds operaJted from the Czecho-Slovak embassy in Washington, because he placed them there himself. Nevertheless the West regarded Benes as a non-Marxist socialist and the "greatest democrat" of Europe. The entire CzechoSlovak State propaganda apparatus was controlled by Benes and his political henchmen: the West knew Benes as Benes wanted it to know him. But the West is gradually waking up to the fact that it did not know the real Benes, Benes, the Marxist socialist, Benes, the servant of Moscow. (Edwaird B. Hiitchcook, who had the privilege of knowing Dr. Benes iruttmateI,y, wrote the only complete biography oif Benes. Nevertheless, the author teHs ,u s thalt Benes, ear]Jy in life, "d•eveloped iiruto a believer of brute materia11ilsm, anarch1is,m, socialism. He was aga.inst <religion. He was opposed to almost every estalblished order in bhe world of that day.") The Prague Central Bureau also had to care for Red refugees from Germany; together with the "Zentral Fraktionsleitung" (Central Group Leadership), the Prague Bureau had to train the most capaible Reds in espionage and underground work. The "Rote Hilfe" (Red Aid), a communist banking institution, and the organiza!Uon called "Union flir Freiheit und Recht" (Union for Freedom and Justice) were connected with the Prague Bureau of the SLOVAKIA 5 Reds. When this motley outfit stamped one as unfit for espionage and subversive work in Germany, it would report him to the Czech police, who in turn would be ordered to surrender him to Germany as a communist. In the eyes of the world this made Dr. Benes and his intimates appear very "anti-communistic" - indeed, the cleanest of all socialists. Duplicity was the hallmark of Benes and his colleagues. Prior to February 25, 1948, when the Reds took over complete power in Czecho-Slovakia, they could not find enough words of prnise for Stalin and the Soviet Union. Then suddenly they were "expelled" from the country and became "anti-communists"! As followers of Benes, Peter Zenkl, Hubert Ripka, Ferdinand Peroutka, and others, nevertheless, had little difficulty in being employed by Radio Free Europe to broadcast "words of truth" to those whom they had helped to betray to the Moloch of Moscow. The Prague Bureau established "Homes For Escapees" in Prague, Strasnice, Kosice, Brno, Msec, and several other cities. The Prague home was managed by a former deputy of the German Reich, one Mrs. Hana Sandtner, a confidante of Karl Schwab who was in charge of the organization called "Vereinigung zur Unterstutzung deutscher Emigranten" (The Alliance for the Aid of German Emigrants), the outfit that cared for Red refugees from Germany. One of the largest homes for Red escapees, the Salda Home, was situated in Msec, Bohemia; it was named after the eminent Israelite warrior who was a Red. In this home escapees were given six-month courses in Marxism, espionage, sabotage, and underground activities. The graduates were then sent out to battle for universal communism (the "International Brigades," for example, in Spain). Military training was in charge of Leon Schnittmann, whose real name was Adol,ph Lejba, one of the best the Soviet had in the business. Officers from the Czech General Staff, selected by Lejba himself, helped with the training of recruits; so dii:l French officers who spoke Russian fluently. Lejba at one time had served as military attache in Prague. After Moscow announced that it had removed Lejba :from his position, he did not return to Russia but remained in Prague, where he opened a private business office. As a 6 SLOVAKIA businessman Lejba was free to travel; and he was in constant touch with the authorities, the ministries and political personalities. It was thus that Lej1ba succeeded in building up a "Czechoslovak-Russian" army. When Schnittman-Lejba visited neighboring States, he called on cryptocommunists in the Social Democratic parties to gather information and give orders. His reports were delivered in person to the Central European Bureau in Prague. Thanks to Lejba and the collaboration of Dr. Benes, Moscow had, in 1938, over 2,000 trained spies in Prague who were dispatched to aH countries of Europe and the West. While the press, the diplomats, and the statesmen of the West referred to the republic of Masairyk and Benes as a "model democracy" and an "isle of democracy in Europe," in reality Czecho~Slovakia was a state in which the Reds ruled under the guise of socialists. Financial help for these Red spies and saboteurs also came from the United States. The president of the "Friends of Nature" (3911 Greenview Avenue, Chicago, Ill.) sent money to the Red Bureau in Prague from the account of the "Ocean Travel Bureau" (2233 N. Ashland Avenue). The money was sent to Karl Schwab of the "Vereinigung zur Unterstutzung deutscher Emigranten." Comrade Dr. Goldschneidt, a "persecuted" Jew, was in charge of the office in Prague (Jachymov Street, 3), which busied itself with espionage under the label of "Zentral Hilfstelle flir Deutsche Fllichtlingskinder" (Central Office to Help Children of German Escapees). With the outbreak of the civil war in Spain, spies were sent there by these Red training centers. During the first weeks of the revolution more than a thousand men were dispatched to Spain by the Prague Bureau. Karl Schwab took care of all the arrangements: with the Czech police he prepared false passes and provided for the transportation of Reds to Spain. After a time, however, Moscow ordered the leading Reds to quit Spain and return to the haven of the Reds, Benes's Czecho-S'1ovakia. After the Slovak Republic was establi,shed on March 14, 1939, by the proclaimation of independence of the autonomous parliament · of Slovakia, the Prague-trained Reds SLOVAKIA 7 presented quite a problem. Communism and Freemasonry had been outlawed already in 1938 by autonomous Slovakia while it was still witthin the framework of Czecho-Slovalda. The Reds went underground, but most of their leaders fled from Prague and Bratislava to Moscow. To ferret out the Reds and disarm them, the Slovak Sta.te ordered Imrich (Henry) Sudsky of the State Security Police to organize a special security uni!t of 100 mem!bers. Sudsky was a brilliant police official, having served under the Masaryk-Bene s regimes. Slovak authorities, however, did not know that Sudsky was also a secret agent of the Czech Reds. Charged with the task of rounding up the Reds in Slovakia, Sudsky applied himself diligently and eventually caught up with Stephen Hadera. The latter exposed the Red movement in Slovakia under questioning and the Red "triangle" was disrupted. This was followed by mass arrests of Reds and communist activities practically ceased in Slovakia until the last year of the war. When the Red armies overran the Slovak Republic in May, 1945, and Stalin made Benes "presiden!t" of Czecho-Slovak ia again, Sudsky was immediately placed into service by the Czech Reds. In 1957 he was held res,ponsible for the abduction of several Slovak patriots from Austria. The Czecho-Slovak Republic of Masaryk and Benes which western powers regarded as the most exemplary democratic country in Europe, was in fact the beachhead of Communism in Europe, as Stojadinovich , Yugoslav Minister of the Interior, had declared to newsmen on April 24, 1936, adding that "the Yugoslav communists are financially supported by Benes's Czecho-Slovak Republic." About an hour after he made this statement, Stojadinovich was a dead man, murdered by an agent of the Reds. His assailant escaped to Czecho-Slovakia through Hungary. The Prague Central Bureau of the Reds fixed him up with a new set of forged papers so that he might conltinue in his dastardly trade. In the free western world, there are thousands of agents roaming about, promoting the program of Moscow. After the great massacre of World War II, some of them were employed by Radio Free Europe in Munich. I knew them from 8 SLOVAKIA back home. There was, for example, Robert Valuch of Salzburg, an adjutant of a Brigade Commissioner during the Red putsch in Slovakia in August, 1944; then, Mi.so (Michael) Sagat, whose last known address was Etst Delast Marcheprime girange, France, who issued orders to murder people and murdered many himself; also one Joseph Micudik, a captain of the paritsans who was schooled in Moscow; and then, Joseph Antl, and so many others employed by Radio Free Europe and moving aJbout freely in the service of the Reds. In the light of the above, it is surprising indeed that responsi'ble people of western governments do not see, or pretend not to see or know what is going on in their countries to promote the scourge of communism and enslave the remaining free peoples of the earth. Thus far goes the story of the Slovak patriot, Joseph Bla,skovic, written a ,s hort time before he was abducted !from Austria and imprisoned in Prague by the Czech Reds. The people and governments of the West know that Moscow has its trained agents everywhere. But apparently they do not know thaJt Prague is second only to Mo·s oow as a Red espionage center. Governments of the West, if they do know about it, are loathe to divulge information. CzechoSlovakia and its builders, Thomas G. Masaryk and Dr. Edward Benes, are still regarded highly, and their followers are still the favored "experts" of government ,people. They still .are the "unltoucha1bles" of the political West. Blaskovic' s story is highly plausi-ble, because it is backed by events past and present. Lausman, B. Cerny, Kucera, Folta, Machacek, Ka;las, Sychrava, Haulik, Molin, Marie Dvorak, and other Czechs, posing a,s "esca,pees" and employed by Radio Free Europe, returned to Prague to broadcast to the world how "stupid" Americans were. These agents received Amer.ican "trnth dollars" for their dastardly work. Back in the days of the Office of War Information (OWI), headman Elmer Davis assured Congress that he could spot Communists by a simple rule of thumb: if he was against Polish.iBritish-French resistance to dictator- SLOVAKIA 9 ship aggression in the days of the Stalin-Hitler , pact • and then howled for war against Germany when Russia was attacked, then he was a Commie. N :, the very time Davis was speaking, and even afterwards, the chief of the Czech division of the OWI, was a Red Czech, Adolph Hoffmeister, an agent of Dr. Edward Benes, who was not only a card carrying Communist, but later the ambassador to Paris for the first Red Czech government. During the trial of one Emil Swiertina, a Red spy caught and sentenced to 12 years by American authori!ties in Munich, the names of several politicians of Benes's socialistic entourage were mentioned. The matter was treated as hush-hush, getting practkally no publicity here. It was known that Swiertina worked wit h a Czech Colonel, Dr. Springer, a subordinate of Colonel Koenig. After his imprisonment, Swiertina's correspondence was handled by Dr. Patek. On orders .from Col. Koenig, these letters were not turned over to American authorities, because it was feared that ,they would incriminate some of Benes's followers, members of the so-called "Council of Free Czechoslovakia," an organization highly favored by our State Department and the Radio Free Europe people. Otto Katz (alias Andre Simone, alias Kofatko), liquidated in the 1952 Red purge trial in Prague, was an intimate of Dr. Hubert Ripka who was regarded as the righthand man of Dr. Edward Benes. Katz, a Red spy who at one time edi!:ed the Rude Pravo (Red Justice), the official organ of the Czech Communists, spent the war years in Mexico and returned to Prague in 1946. Guenther Reinhardt, author af "Crime Without Punishment," links Katz with the 1943 murder of Ca-rlo Tresca in New York. At his trial Katz declared that he once was hired to work for the Overseas News Agency (ONA) which was affiliated with the Jewish Telegraphic Agency untH 1949. Katz had contacts with Adolph Hoffmeister of the OWI; also with Dezider Benau, wartJi.me editor of the New Y orksky Dennik, a newspaper published in Slovak, and with Karel Leitner, editor of the New Yorkske Listy, published in Czech - both papers at that time being owned by one SLOVAKIA 10 Richard Vogel who did big business with Czecho-Slovalri'a. Katz was also in touch with Dr. Erwin Munk, Otto Biheller, and T. Florin-Hrkel, Czech agents who worked out of the Czech Embassy in Washington when Dr. Juraj Slavik was Benes's ambassador there. It is signif.icant that Miss Pavlina Svoboda, testifying before the House Committee on Un-American Activities, Feb. 5, 1952, was not even asked the names of the newspapers which Benau and Leitner edited. Both newspapers published many editorials by leading Communists. After his escape from the United States, Gerhard t Eisler ended up in Prague, haven of the Reds. When Communist Albert S. Stern, whose wife is the Red Martha Dodd Stern, was wanted to testify in the Jack Soble-Soviet spy case, both made off for Prague via Mexico. There they were joined by Maurice Halpern, a former Boston University teacher. In his testimony before the HUAC (released May 10, 1960), Frantisek Tisler, former Military and Air Attache of Cziecho-Slovakia at the embassy in Washington, declared that "one of the main reasons for the maintenance of a Czechoslovak Embassy in Washington, D. C., is to conduct espionage against the United Sfates." It is a matter of record tha:t most of .the politicians of Dr. Edward Benes's official family were active supporters of his pro-Sovi et poHcy. They were members of CzechoSlovakia's communist-dominated National Front government which eliminated all anti-communist elements from the political life of the country. Now, posing as "democratic" exiles and "an/ti-communist" fighters, they would have the West believe that they alway,s were on our side against the diabolic forces of communism. Incredible as it may sound, the fact is that these Red collaborators were accepted immediately by our Staite Department (under Acheson) as "democratic exiles," and their organiza:tion in America, the Council of Free Czechoslovakia, was recognized as "the supreme political body of the Czech and Slovak exile." With the _b lessing of the State Department, the fellow-1ravelers from Czecho-,Slovakia had no trouble at all in finding employment with Radio Free Europe, The Voice of America , 1 SLOVAKIA 11 the CIC, the Library of Congress, and other agencies of U. S. Government, as well as our universities. More incredi'ble yet is the fact that some of these people are still holding their jobs. Red Prague is paying off to Red Moscow: with the help of the Czechs, who were "remade" under the regimes of T. G. Masaryk and Dr. Edward Benes, Soviet Russia 's campaign of penetration is proceeding successfully in Africa, South America, Mexico, and Nol'lth America, in a word, everywhere! Czech and Soviet officers are instructing Castro's men in tactics and use of Czech arms at Gramma, Baracoa Beach and Managua - the three major bases of Castro's Army. A Czech officer commands the Cuban troops fighting the rebels i-n the Escambray Mountains. Anti-Castro forces in Cuba are trying to speed up the time for civil war there, because Castro, as of now, still does not have much of an air force. But he has about 1000 young Cubans in Czecho-Slovakia learning to fly jets. When they are ready, the Red Russians can create a Cuban air force in less than a day. In the new nations of Africa, you see few Russians, but plenty of Czech salesmen and diplomats. Not Russians, but Czechs are doing the groundwork for Moscow. According to U. S. News and World Report (April 3, 1961) : "Cairo is the Center of Czech operartions i-n, Africa. From Cairo, Czech goods are f11oiwin,g - art twice the 1950 level - to bobh North and West Aifrioa. A Czech airline operates from Praigu:e tlhrowgth Cairo to po'ints in West Afri~. "Am,e,ricans fo Gui•n ea h1ave notioed how fast the Czechs have moved in Wlhen French pulled out. Now, pro-Moscow Guinea is headquarters £or Czech opera,tions in au West Africa. A Czech shoe factory was shipped to Giha;na via Conakry, Gu~•nea. Czech machine to'o1s, preci£·ion instruments for Glhaina and Mali c-ame the same way. "Tirade is jus;t a part of i,t. A total of 270 Czech experts - military advisers, poUce adviisers, teachers - were counted in Cornaik,r,y at one time recently. "To date, this· Sorvi>et-Czech arran,gement has wol'ked smoothly. The Czec1hs are seUing Czech ,goods in Africa for themselves and Commundsm for Moscow." When the Slovaks, over thirty years ago, told America and the world that Benes and his Czech National Socialists were peddling Communism for Moscow, they were ignored 12 SLOVAKIA and scorned. The socialistic state created by Masaryk and Benes came into being in 1918 because of America's intervention. Now we are gradually learning the truth about the poli:tical monstrosity we not only made possible, but nurtured and enriched for over forty years. Imagine, American know-how and doUars are in a large mea·s ure responsible for the fact that Czech Prague has become a Red espion • age training center, second only to Moscow! SLOVAK PEASANT ART: a kitchen in Vinicne  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Prague: Red Espionage Center Description An account of the resource Philip A. Hrobak Slovakia, Vol. 11, No. 1 (33), March-June 1961 pp. 1-12 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-June 1961 LCNAF https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/b82ed8c61ed3319932e3d806c6540f03.pdf 2e72961d4ce3f6b710526c3db9d5b85a PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA 71 Ladies Association assets are approaching fifty-five million dollars with over 95,000 members ranking as the largest ethnic society of women in America? Did you realize that the Slovak Catholic Sokol, with its over 51,000 members and assets of over twenty-five million dollars spends hundreds of thousands of dollars on gymnastic and athletic activities for its members annually? There is no better way of saying that I am proud to be of Slovak ancestry than to become a member of one of these organizations. I have faith in our Slovak societies because of what they represented in the past and I am optimistic that in the future they will continue to be the valiant supporters of a gallant Slovak nation. The Slovak fraternals have been very much a part of my life and I know that if you show some interest they will enlighten and enliven each one of you to become better Americans, better humanitarians and better Slovaks. The finest thing I can say is that I am a member of the Jednota, the Slovak Catholic Sokol, the zenska Jednota and the Pennsylvania Slovak Catholic Union. Praised-be in the Coal Region ( though a hardcoal fire simmers through the tunnels and shafts of the mine year in and year out, though on rainy days the culm bank steams and on the stillest, humid days the sulfur-fog chokes, and the governor investigates by helicopter; though the slovak papa dies of black lung, and his widow files for benefits when the congressman comes) pochvdleny bud' shamokin creek and furnace run, the colliery and cranes, the slag piled mountain-high, the oldtime coalminers in boots, overalls, helmets with headlamps who shouldered pickaxes and lugged lunchpails, �72 SLOVAKIA down before daybreak and up at night, blackfaced and hacking, blessing the waterpumps, the coal cars, the breaker, the sky, pochvdleny bud' jezis kristus for the fuhrmann-schmidt brewery and polka parties, the "anthratones" at barbershop song and beer-barrel accordian, for the long, cool chug-a-lug and a quick, hot, footstomping cardas, jezis kristus for christmas eve vilija supper, matka and babicka rolling bobal'ky (mother, grandma, doughballs), baking kolac, poppy seed or black walnut, boiling saurkraut soup, then breaking the wafers, oblatky, spread with honey, praised be work, play, and the family ( though stefan pavelko wheezed himself to coaldust and cyril dorko was buried alive in a cave-in landslide), praised be jesus christ, now and forever (bittersweet) jezis kristus a ten-year old boy in a ski-jacket and a cossack hat pelts a freight with snowballs from a footbridge over the railroad tracks, a coal truck dripping water down its mudflaps fumes up the red ash road where the blessed mother, st. joseph, and the infant reside enshrined in the slovensky window of run-down company houses and two old ladies in babushkas huff and hobble arm-in-arm down a hill naveky (naveky) (naveky) amen. Sister M. Pamela Smith, SS.C.M. � SLOVAKIA 71 Ladies Association assets are approaching fifty-five million dollars with over 95,000 members ranking as the largest ethnic society of women in America? Did you realize that the Slovak Catholic Sokol, with its over 51,000 members and assets of over twenty-five million dollars spends hundreds of thousands of dollars on gymnastic and athletic activities for its members annually? There is no better way of saying that I am proud to be of Slovak ancestry than to become a member of one of these organizations. I have faith in our Slovak societies because of what they represented in the past and I am optimistic that in the future they will continue to be the valiant supporters of a gallant Slovak nation. The Slovak fraternals have been very much a part of my life and I know that if you show some interest they will enlighten and enliven each one of you to become better Americans, better humanitarians and better Slovaks. The finest thing I can say is that I am a member of the Jednota, the Slovak Catholic Sokol, the zenska Jednota and the Pennsylvania Slovak Catholic Union. Praised-be in the Coal Region ( though a hardcoal fire simmers through the tunnels and shafts of the mine year in and year out, though on rainy days the culm bank steams and on the stillest, humid days the sulfur-fog chokes, and the governor investigates by helicopter; though the slovak papa dies of black lung, and his widow files for benefits when the congressman comes) pochvdleny bud' shamokin creek and furnace run, the colliery and cranes, the slag piled mountain-high, the oldtime coalminers in boots, overalls, helmets with headlamps who shouldered pickaxes and lugged lunchpails, �72 SLOVAKIA down before daybreak and up at night, blackfaced and hacking, blessing the waterpumps, the coal cars, the breaker, the sky, pochvdleny bud' jezis kristus for the fuhrmann-schmidt brewery and polka parties, the "anthratones" at barbershop song and beer-barrel accordian, for the long, cool chug-a-lug and a quick, hot, footstomping cardas, jezis kristus for christmas eve vilija supper, matka and babicka rolling bobal'ky (mother, grandma, doughballs), baking kolac, poppy seed or black walnut, boiling saurkraut soup, then breaking the wafers, oblatky, spread with honey, praised be work, play, and the family ( though stefan pavelko wheezed himself to coaldust and cyril dorko was buried alive in a cave-in landslide), praised be jesus christ, now and forever (bittersweet) jezis kristus a ten-year old boy in a ski-jacket and a cossack hat pelts a freight with snowballs from a footbridge over the railroad tracks, a coal truck dripping water down its mudflaps fumes up the red ash road where the blessed mother, st. joseph, and the infant reside enshrined in the slovensky window of run-down company houses and two old ladies in babushkas huff and hobble arm-in-arm down a hill naveky (naveky) (naveky) amen. Sister M. Pamela Smith, 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 71 Ladies Association assets are approaching fifty-five million dollars with over 95,000 members ranking as the largest ethnic society of women in America? Did you realize that the Slovak Catholic Sokol, with its over 51,000 members and assets of over twenty-five million dollars spends hundreds of thousands of dollars on gymnastic and athletic activities for its members annually? There is no better way of saying that I am proud to be of Slovak ancestry than to become a member of one of these organizations. I have faith in our Slovak societies because of what they represented in the past and I am optimistic that in the future they will continue to be the valiant supporters of a gallant Slovak nation. The Slovak fraternals have been very much a part of my life and I know that if you show some interest they will enlighten and enliven each one of you to become better Americans, better humanitarians and better Slovaks. The finest thing I can say is that I am a member of the Jednota, the Slovak Catholic Sokol, the zenska Jednota and the Pennsylvania Slovak Catholic Union. Praised-be in the Coal Region ( though a hardcoal fire simmers through the tunnels and shafts of the mine year in and year out, though on rainy days the culm bank steams and on the stillest, humid days the sulfur-fog chokes, and the governor investigates by helicopter; though the slovak papa dies of black lung, and his widow files for benefits when the congressman comes) pochvdleny bud' shamokin creek and furnace run, the colliery and cranes, the slag piled mountain-high, the oldtime coalminers in boots, overalls, helmets with headlamps who shouldered pickaxes and lugged lunchpails, 72 SLOVAKIA down before daybreak and up at night, blackfaced and hacking, blessing the waterpumps, the coal cars, the breaker, the sky, pochvdleny bud' jezis kristus for the fuhrmann-schmidt brewery and polka parties, the "anthratones" at barbershop song and beer-barrel accordian, for the long, cool chug-a-lug and a quick, hot, footstomping cardas, jezis kristus for christmas eve vilija supper, matka and babicka rolling bobal'ky (mother, grandma, doughballs), baking kolac, poppy seed or black walnut, boiling saurkraut soup, then breaking the wafers, oblatky, spread with honey, praised be work, play, and the family ( though stefan pavelko wheezed himself to coaldust and cyril dorko was buried alive in a cave-in landslide), praised be jesus christ, now and forever (bittersweet) jezis kristus a ten-year old boy in a ski-jacket and a cossack hat pelts a freight with snowballs from a footbridge over the railroad tracks, a coal truck dripping water down its mudflaps fumes up the red ash road where the blessed mother, st. joseph, and the infant reside enshrined in the slovensky window of run-down company houses and two old ladies in babushkas huff and hobble arm-in-arm down a hill naveky (naveky) (naveky) amen. Sister M. Pamela Smith, 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 Praised-be in the Coal Region Description An account of the resource Sister M. Pamela Smith, SS.C.M. Slovakia, Vol. 25 (No. 48), 1975 pp. 71-72 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/61f7383a7c1f833e76ab21ff25507d49.pdf cbe51529c06c366ec59bc030c5e6ac8b PDF Text Text SLOVAKIA 91 Preludes to nCharter '77" THEODORIC J. ZUBEK, O.F.M. The occupation of Czecho-Slovakia by the Soviet armies and their satellites in August, 1968, brought new enslavement. The Soviets did not achieve their goal immediately, but they gradually tightened the political relaxations of the Dubcek era. The Russians imprisoned Dubcek and his closest associates and dragged them to Russia. This gravely irritated public opinion. The leadership of the Communist Party of Czecho-Slovakia insisted on the release of Dubcek and his co-workers and their own restoration to positions of leadership in Czecho-Slovakia. At first, the Russians were not able to find a person agreeable to collaborate with occupation authorities. They had to restore Dubcek and permit him to continue as the first Secretary of the Central Committee and leading member of the Presidium of the Communist Party. But the Russians worked feverishly to split the leadership of the Party. Dr. Gustav Husak proved to be the most able and articulate politician in the chaotic situation. In the early fifties, Husak, a Slovak, had been imprisoned and condemned for so-called bourgeois nationalistic deviation. He was ousted from the Communist party. In the period of de-Stalinization in 1963, he was released from prison and re-admitted into the Party, but held no official position. But, he was active behind the scenes in fomenting a movement against President Novotny and his Stalinist methods. In April, 1968, Husak became one of the vice-premiers of the government, and after the occupation also became a member of the Presidium. Though he had been politically rehabilitated through the moderate policy of Alexander Dubcek, it was, after the occupation that Husak became an open critic of "Communism with a human face." Dubcek was gradually pushed to the background, and lost one position after another. Finally, under increasing pressure, on April 17, 1969, Dubcek resigned as first secretary of the Communist Party, and was stripped of his membership in the Party. On the same day, Husak took his position as first secretary. Husak had considerable support among the people, especially in Slovakia, since he had suffered 12 years of imprisonment for his Slovak nationalism and later fought against Prague centralism. He had promoted the federalization of Czecho-Slovakia. He also seemed to favor Dubcek's liberalization. After the Russian occupation, many accepted Husak's argument that there was no military possibility of defending the country, and that it was necessary to yield to Russian pressure to some degree, and to consolidate the internal situation in the country in order to persuade Moscow that there was no need for the �92 SLOVAKIA continued presence of Russian armies in Czecho-Slovakia. Some also believed Husak's pledge that there would never be a return to Stalinism and that the earlier process of democratization would continue. Nevertheless , it became clear that Husak was primarily interested in gaining Moscow's confidence and in strengthening his own leading position. He fully accepted suppression and terrorism and in a short time, under the guise of "normalization, " he once again enslaved the country. In his hatred of religion, Husak outdid his Moscow bosses. Religion had strong roots, especially in Slovakia, so Husak's antireligious campaign is aimed particularly against the Catholic Church. Present day persecution of the Catholic Church in Czecho-Slovakia is more brutal than in any other communist-dominated country of Europe. It is more pervasive and more cunning than it was during the regimes of Gottwald or Novotny. In recent years, more and more news stories about the terrorism of Husak's regime and the suppression of human rights appeared in the free world. At the beginning of 1977, a transcript of Charter '77 was published in many newspapers of the Western world. In this document, more than 600 Czech and Slovak signers protested against the suppression of human rights, specifically mentioning suppression of the rights to religious conviction. These rights are guaranteed by the . Czecho-Slovak Constitution as well as by the Helsinki Agreement which was by signed Czecho-Slovakia. This Charter '77 was preceded by several public protests of individual citizens, laymen and priests, who openly denounced the abuses of government power and the systematic campaign against religion. Some of these written protests found their way to the free world. A number of them were written before the Helsinki Agreement (September, 1975) and they refer to the Czecho-Slovak Constitution and other laws; later protests also refer to the Helsinki Agreement. It was a number of these protests that prepared the mood for Charter '77. It is proper to express admiration and respect for these individual dissidents for their courage and strength. In a Communist regime, it is riskier for an individual to protest against government abuses than it is for a group. Individual internationally unknown dissidents are taken care of quickly. Under the pretext of anti-state activity, they are silenced in prison or labor camps without much notice or commotion, and without comment in the free world. The Case of Pavol Carnogursky Pavol Carnogursky is a sixty-eight year old layman, who from his youth played an important role in the Catholic life of Slovakia. As an employee of the Catholic Agency in Bratislava, he organized and led Catholic Action programs among Slovak young people, patterned �SLOVAKIA 93 largely on the practices of the French and Belgian Catholic Workers and Catholic Organizations of intellectuals. During the period of Slovak autonomy and independence (19381945), he was a member of the Slovak Parliament and was esteemed as an expert on education and school matters. He opposed the Nazi tendencies of some Slovak politicians and belonged to the group of Slovak Catholic moderates headed by President Joseph Tiso and Dr. Martin Sokol, speaker of the Slovak Parliament . For this reason the Germans regarded him as a persona non grata. Immediately after World War II , Pavol Carnogursky tried to organize the Christian Republican Party as a platform for defending human rights and freedom of conscience in Slovakia, when the country was again made part of Czecho-Slovakia. On the insistence of Slovak bishops, however, the Slovak Catholics joined forces with the predominantly Lutheran Democratic Party and helped it attain an overwhelming victory in Slovakia, triumphing over the communists and other small parties in the 1946 elections. Although Carnogursky was clearly anti-Nazi, yet because of his position as a deputy during the Slovak Republic, he was not found acceptable for any public role in the political life of post-war Slovakia. In 1947 , because of his well known anti-communist stand and his involvement in re-organizing the Catholic workers and the intelligentsia, he was imprisoned and eventually forced into seclusion and silence, providing for his family as a manual worker in a Bratislava factory . Nevertheless, during all those years of seclusion, Carnogursky carefully observed the political and religious situation in Slovakia, read all the biased works of communist historians about the Slovak Republic, and occasionally expressed his critical views in letters he sent to his friends abroad . After the fall of Dubcek in 1969, there began an era of brutal suppression of human rights and a systematic denial of freedom of religion. A pro-communist organization of the clergy, called Pacem in Terris, was established and the priests of Czecho-Slovakia were again torn into two groups, each distrusting the other. The Catholic press, i.e. the Katolicke nouiny (Catholic News) and Duchouny Pastier (Spiritual Shepherd) were put under strict communist control. The pro-communist speeches and articles of Canon Jozef Dovala, pastor in Ziar nad Hronom in the Banska Bystrica Diocese and vicar general of the Diocese , a prominent member of the Pacem in Terris movement, brought the patience and silence of Pavol Carnogursky to an end. The corruption of the Katolicke nouiny offended Carnogursky in a special way, since for some time after the war he had been the editor of this Catholic weekly and worked earnestly to bring it to a high journalistic level. On September 11 , 1974, the executive board of the Federal Association of the Catholic Clergymen, Pacem in Terris , celebrated the �94 SLOVAKIA thirtieth a nniversary of the Slovak upri sing in Banska Bystrica. Canon Joze f Dov ala was the main speaker. He equated the so-called '' political Catholicism ' ' of the Slovak Republic with collaboration with Ge rman Naz ism, and made it co-responsible for the death of about four thou sand priests in Nazi concentration camps. In a letter to Dovala, Carnogursky said it was ab surd to draw a connection between the regime of the Slovak Republic and Ge rman atrocities during the war. He wrote: In a few months it will be thirty years since the e nd of the S econd World War. During this p eriod a countless multitude of articles, political or pseudo-political, as well as scholarly and professional works on the current situation in Slo vakia appeared. Only in exceptional cases are they free of anti-Catholic tendencies. The great majority of the m obtusely describe the situation prejudicially, as you did. I read all tho se articles and books. In the last analysis, they have the same goal: to destroy Catholic ideology and Catholic life in Slo vakia. For that reason the arguments, of which even a mildly honest man and more so a scholar would be ashamed, are crude, unfounded, even hostile, negative and degrading. But what you, Father, associated with the ideas of political Catholicism in Slovakia, surpasses e verything. W e should give credit to anti-Catholic propaganda for using such tricks. The Slo vak State had to be proclaimed at that particular time (March 14, 1939, ed.) and under prevailing circumstances, if we were to make sure that among the thousands of priests murdered (in other countries) in Hitler 's concentration camps there would not be Slo vak priests. In the last analysis, our administrative authorities were not motivated only by a concern for the priests, but for the whole nation as well. And the nation has been saved. I cannot understand why you are angered and prompted to attack it (Slovak independence), since its existence gave you guarantees assuring that you yourself did not become a victim of Hitler 's concentration camp, if you were ordained before World War II. (Douala was ordained March 17, 1938.) I cannot understand why they talk only about political Catholicism and not about political Lutheranism, political Judaism, political atheism, and about the means by which these denominations and institutions have in that day and even to our day influenced and affected public life. Catholicism in Slovakia was a historical force in the nation. Without the care of the Catholic church for education, the social structure, schools, the press, agriculture and social and economic institutions, especially without the work and sacrifices of the best sons of the nation who as Catholic priests defended its voice and language, developing and enriching it through the centuries and assuring its cultural and economic growth - we would have perished. I can well understand why in the Protestant milieu, among the Jews and other denominations in Slovakia, there was not a similar �SLOVAKIA 95 attack on their own. They are fully conscious of the consequences of such a step. Your attack on so-called political Catholicism during the span of the Slovak Republic, unfounded and, to say in openly, irresponsible as it is, is the more tragic because it came at the time when large-scale militant atheism was active in Slovakia and aimed its fury against the Catholic Church, its doctrine, essence and its historical influence upon the thinking and feeling of our people. And this is done by repressive methods not invoked now at the end of the twentieth century by any other Socialist country, not even in black Africa. No teacher, no educator among us, is permitted to enter a classroom, to work among the students, to teach even technical subject matter, unless he declares that he has solved the religious question, which means that he proclaims that he is an atheist. He must avow that he is an atheist not only in his private convictions, but in an active sense as well, ready to teach and educate in the atheistic way. Any doubt in this area, any evidence of religious feelings, such as attendance at divine services, reception of any sacrament, excludes him from a teaching position. Parents who enrolled their children for religious instruction are exposed to unheard of pressure from the school officials and from their employers. Children who attended religious instruction are denied advanced studies. There is a general rule valid even among the most primitive social groups that under-age children are not responsible for a transgression of the law. In our case, children are punished for attending religious instructions, while the Constitution of the peoples' democratic system ironically guarantees freedom of religious conviction. And these sanctions against children are not for a limited period of time, but for their whole lifetime. Father, how will the history of the Church in Slovakia and the general history of mankind call this kind of Catholicism, which, witnessing all this, still feels and expresses itself as you did in this case? My letter to you cannot delineate a complete description of the tragic situation of the Catholic Church in Slovakia. This situation has the dimensions of a world problem that cannot be contained in one letter. The core of the problem is the effort at the eradication of Christian consciousness in the life and culture of a nation which by its very nature and because of its Christian Catholic roots contributed to the civilization process in the heart of Europe ever since the ninth century. We cannot blind our eyes with illusions, assuming that the working of divine grace alone will defeat the imperiled Christianity of our n(!,tion. Without our personal co-operation, our struggle and our living faith, we cannot count on perpetuating the religious life and spirit of our universally Christian country. Doubtless, this struggle demands not only our standing up as Christians but also our intelligent approach to find reasonable �96 SLOVAKIA possibilities to solve the problems facing us without craven concessions and compromises. But an attack like yours, coming in such a form and content, inveighing upon political Catholicism as you have done, cannot be accounted as an acceptable line of conduct. Pavol Camogursky's second letter of protest was addressed to Bishop Jozef Feranec, Ordinary of the Diocese of Banska Bystrica. It deals with an article by Jozef Dovala published in the Katolicke Nouiny (Catholic News) August 29, 1976, in which the author states that the priests and laity participate in up building the new way of life in CzechoSlovakia where freedom of religion is constitutionally safeguarded. Dovala wrote this article after his return from the Eucharistic Congress in Philadelphia (August 1-7, 1976) where he attended the Slovak services as the only priest from Slovakia. The text of Camogursky' s letter of August 29, 1976, is as follows: Your Excellency, after reading the editorial in the last issue of the Katolicke Nouiny (no. 53, August 29, 1976) even the simplest believer cannot refrain from reacting in protest, realizing how severe is the extermination process against the Church in Slovakia and how this bitter reality opposes his religious conviction and undermines his devotion to the duties which bind him to the Church. In this article vicar Jozef Douala of Banska Bystrica, wrote among other things: 'Priests as well as laymen participate in the up building of our new life and they also share in its fruits. The Constitution of our state system respects the conviction of every citizen and guarantees the freedom of religion'. With pain in my heart I must state that reality in no way bears out the import of these words. Only a cynical scoffer could write thus, bringing the paper to the level of absurdity and compromising the reader in whose name he so dares to write. What then is the factual status of religious affairs, notwithstanding what the Constitution and Article 7 of the Helsinki Agreement provide? Two weeks ago, on August 18, 1976, the daily Pravda, organ of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Slovakia, published a report on the conclusions of the Party Congress and on atheistic education in Slovakia. The gist of these conclusions by the reporting officer read: 'Slovakia became a country of mass atheism. 'A competent representative would hardly dare to make such a bold and far reaching statement in the Party organ of any other Socialist state. Since it cannot be doubted that P. Prusak 's report was factual, even if he did not elaborate about what means were used where it was attained, one must take it as a hard fact. In Slovakia there is a special campaign against religion. I am convinced that Church leadership in Slovakia definitely and carefully concerns itself with the gravity of this article and will weigh its consequences both for itself and for the sake of the Church in Slovakia. �SLOVAKIA 97 I am merely emphasizing the fact that the core of such purported success of atheism in Slovakia is viewed by the author as a purposeful atheistic work which has assumed a systematic character, as he specifically underlines it. In this systematic character of mass abandonment of the paternal heritage - the Catholic Church - by her sons and daughters, one must also see the fact that in Church leadership there are some persons whose high positions serve as the necessary front windows for facilitating apostasy and promoting mass atheism by playing a role assigned to them in their high functions. On the very same level, alas, one must also place the paper Katolicke Noviny which is degenerating into a publication of professional flatterers writing explicitly about themes that have very little in common with authentic religion. This attitude is in total contradiction to the contemporary difficult position of the Church, especially with the mentality of tormented parent-believers. It does not serve the serious matter of peace and rapprochement and easing of tensions. Forgive me, my Bishop, for the bitter tone of this letter. Truly, it is not as bitter as it is painful. And it is precisely for that reason that I must react to the slap on the face inflicted by the aforementioned writing of your vicar general. But not to write would pose an impossible dilemma for me: Am I still a Catholic? Has Mr. Prusak also rightfully included me in his concept of 'mass atheism' in Slovakia? For a responsible member of the Church not to react righteously to this critical development at a time when the very existence of the Church is at stake would be tantamount to not being in rapport with her, with this historic force which endowed Slovakia with all her spiritual, moral and cultural wealth. (1) Pavol Camogursky was imprisoned on November 10, 1976, undoubtedly for this daring analysis of the religious situation in Slovakia and his sharp criticism of Jozef Dovala. In such cases, stock charges of anti-state activities are readily found in the deformed communist system of justice. When Carnogursky ' s case evoked wide publicity in the free world, he was released from prison. He is awaiting trial for purported anti-state activity in the near future. A Speech by Aloysius Tkac Aloysius Tkac is a Catholic priest of the Diocese of Kosice (Eastern Slovakia). He is now 43 years old. He was an archivist in the bishop's chancery and as such he was a member of the pro-communist priestly organization Pacem in Terris. Seeing all the abuses perpetrated against the Church by the communist regime, he decided to publicly denounce them at the festive meeting of this organization on October 23, 1974. On the occasion of the celebration of the Thirtieth Anniversary of the Slovak Uprising, in the presence of communist officials controlling �98 SLOVAKIA all activities of the said organization, he first recalled the Constitution of the Czecho-Slovak Socialist Republic (art. 32) guaranteeing religious freedom of all citizens. Then he cited the government decrees and pertinent regulations of the Ministry of Culture from 1970 and 1972, by which religious education of children of second to seventh grades is permitted. He mentioned recent statements of the President about religious freedom; and no. 326 of the criminal code, by which all those hindering religious freedom and religious activity by force should be prosecuted and punished. He then proceeded to give accounts of actual religious situations in the country: We cannot pass with silence the unpleasant fact which causes both priests and believers great suffering; we feel we are being discriminated against. The procedure in regard to the spiritual needs many times is reckless and we consider it extremely harsh. The guidelines of the Ministry of Culture of the Slovak Socialist Republic concerning the enrollment of children for religious instructions are in many places disregarded. Groups were formed which not only belittle religious instructions, but hold back parents from the enrollment of their children in religious instruction by direct terror. Contrary to official guidelines about the enrollment, both parents have to present the enrollment petition; often the father or the mother have to excuse themselves from their jobs and complete their work after working hours. It was brought forth to some parents: 'Don't you want to send your children to a higher level of education? Do you want to bury the future of your children in technical schooling?' The behavior of many teachers was harsh, arrogant (such as tearing to pieces the enrollment petition or throwing it away), an illegal act, and it offended the dignity of the citizen-believers. Children attending religious instructions are often excluded from activities with their peers; they cannot make the Pioneers' pledge. During the school year there is also a great deal of peer and teacher pressure put on them. Parents and their children are going through Calvary. They are really martyrs. But how does all this square with the above mentioned state decrees? Even if there were only a few of thse examples, still we must not be silent. Unfortunately, such incidents are very frequent! The fact is that only a small percentage of the children are enrolled for religious instructions. Does this mean that parents and students have renounced their faith and become atheists? By no means! It is largely the result of a natural fear concerning the future! Citizen-believers are being deterred from fulfilling their religious needs, from receiving sacraments (Mass, Holy Communion, Confirmation, Matrimony). Only with difficulty can a priest secretly administer the sacraments of the dying in a hospital. Under various, even false, accusations state permission for priestly work has been revoked to several priests. Does that not bother �SLOVAKIA 99 us? Does not the fate of our brothers in the priesthood concern us? Do we not stand up for the defense of the honor of the priestly state? If not, it is a tragedy! Fifteen newly ordained priests, four months after their ordination, are still waiting for their assignments. Other college graduates have their work assignments in their pockets the moment they have finished their studies. And there are so many parishes and chaplaincies unoccupied/ There are other pains, but others should speak about them! Brothers, friends, I have brought up our common pains. I have spoken to you about the suffering of our believing people. We are not too sensitive, nor are we asking for privileges. We are in pain from the thorns that we have to wear with our people. We are happy to live in our Czecho-Slovak Socialist Republic. We would not betray it for anything. But let us eliminate the mistakes and inadequacies which make our lives difficult. This frank statement shocked the priests and the communist government representatives who always attend such meetings . As a rule, only praise of and gratitude to the regime are expressed at such gatherings. The statement was not even mentioned in the so-called Catholic press of Czecho-Slovakia, or other newspapers. It was secretly smuggled to the free world. What happened to this brave Catholic priest who openly expressed both the facts and the feelings of all conscientious priests and Catholic lay people? Nothing immediately . But then in July of 1975 , almost a year later, news came from Slovakia that several priests who expressed their anti-communist feelings were attacked and some of them severely injured by some individuals who were never apprehended by the police . One of those attacked and severely injured was Aloysius Tkac. In December , 1975 the state permit of Aloysius Tkac to perform priestly duties was withdrawn. His present fate is not known . It may be either manual work or jail. (2) Protests of Monsignor Trstensky Monsignor Victor Trstensky is a prominent Slovak priest. He was born in Trstena (District Orava) on March 29, 1908. After finishing his basic and high school studies in Trstena, he enrolled in the Spis Diocesan Seminary, and was ordained on June 29, 1931. Because of his pastoral zeal and exemplary priestly life, he early became pastor of St. Catherine Church in Dolny Kubin, where he was also a teacher of religion at the local gynmasium. On the recommendation of his Bishop, John Vojtassak, he was made Papal Prelate (Monsignor) while still a very young priest. During the Slovak Republic (1939-1945), as a prominent member of the Hlinka Slovak Populist Party, he took an active part in the public life of his town; at the same time he was involved in the Catholic Action Movement. �100 SLOVAKIA For this activity, after the Second World War he was imprisoned and spent twenty-one years in various prisons, in labor camps, and in manual work. During the Dubcek era, he was rehabilitated and received a state permit for pastoral work on October 7, 1969. The Ordinary of the Spis Diocese , Reverend Joseph Ligos, appointed him adminstrator of St. Nicholas Church in Stara Lubovna where he worked tirelessly for four years. In the post-Dubcek era, the communists in Czecho-Slovakia could not tolerate strong personalities like Monsignor Trstensky in pastoral work . They were afraid of his moral influence on parishioners and particularly on youth. With the year 1974, a new Calvary began for Monsignor Trstensky. The communist-dominated District Committee in Stara Lubovna decided that Trstensky had to leave the town and again be removed from pastoral work . He was notified about his imminent dismissal on January 21, 1974 by the new Ordinary of the Diocese, Stephen Garaj. On January 27, 1974 , Monsignor Trstensky preached to his stunned parishioners a memorable homily, which was secretly taped and later found its way to the free world. The principal reasons for Trstensky's dismissal, given to the vicar capitular by Communist officials, were as follows: 1. preaching against atheism and atheists; 2. sending gifts to old people on Christmas; 3. meetings with altar boys in the church and rectory; 4. keeping in his parish religious Sisters in violation of state regulations; 5. blessing the homes of parishioners after Epiphany. In his classic homily, Monsignor Trstensky explained his activity as pastor of the church in Stara Lubovna and argued convincingly that there was nothing illegal in his pastoral work . He concluded his homily with these words: What does matter is the truth. Whoever distorts the truth cannot build the country. Only truth can save the nation and the country. Remember, if I have to leave here, I am not leaving as a criminal, murderer, traitor of the nation and country. I love my country. Twice I was abroad - in Vienna, Rome, Paris. I could have stayed there. I was invited to do so. But I said: 'I am a Slovak. I did not do anything wrong. I want to live among our people because I love my country and my people.' I returned home. I sincerely love my country, and not only in words but more so by teaching you to love God and one another; by teaching you to work diligently and to live morally. I do not talk about peace, but I promote it with my whole life and work. (3) The decision of the County Committee, Department of Culture, in Stara Lubovna, prohibiting Trstensky to perform priestly ministry was dated January 30, 1974 and delivered to him on February 1, 1974. The reasons for his dismissal are formulated as follows : From the beginning of his assignment to Stara Lubovna, Victor Trstensky in various ways manifested his dissent with the development �SLOVAKIA 101 of our socialist society. For that reason, several sessions were held with him where he was notified that he was breaking the norms established for state-church relationships. In recent times he has increased his reactionary activity and in his sermons he openly and vituperatively spoke against progressively thinking citizens and incited against them. In one of his sermons he said that the unbelievers will once again experience the supremacy of god (sic) and will wish to become believers, but it will be too late. By this activity he was systematically breaking the established laws regarding state-church relations. Such was the case during the last Christmas season, when with the help of school children he distributed to some families packages containing wine, oranges, soap and other items. During his assignment to the parish of Stara Lubovna he intentionally infringed upon the directives on religious instructions by gathering a group of altar boys and choir singers in the church and rectory for practice; furthermore, he organized meetings with a considerable number of children in the rectory. During his assignment at the parish of Stara Lubovna, three religious Sisters came to him and, under his direction, performed church functions and worked actively on the revitalization of the church in the city and among the youth. For these reasons and for his dangerously anti-socialist stand, shown particularly in recent times and in these last days, when he caused among the believers a high and dangerous tension, his continuance in church administration would seriously endanger peaceful social life and the interests of our working people; therefore, with immediate effectiveness, we take away his state permit to work in church administration. On February 14, 1974, Monsignor Trstensky appealed this verdict. As a preliminary to his letter of appeal, he pointed to the irregularities in the whole procedure against him by quoting eight paragraphs of law 71-1967, which were disregarded in his case. Then, in eight pages, he convincingly refuted all the vague or completely false charges against him. He referred to the public and well-known record of his activity as pastor of Stara Lubovna parish. He emphatically stated that he only fulfilled his duties as pastor of a parish, never acting against the state laws and official regulations. The only real reason for the removal of Monsignor Trstensky from pastoral work was his exemplary priestly life and his zealous work for the spiritual welfare of his flock. The appeal of Monsignor Trstensky had no effect and the District Committee in Kosice which by the decision of February 19, 1974, confirmed the verdict of the County Committee in Stara Lubovna and made the decision final, precluding any further appeal. Monsignor Trstensky thereafter went to live in his town of birth, Trstena, in the region of Orava. Grateful parishioners of Stara Lubovna did not forget their beloved pastor. As a token of their appreciation and �102 SLOVAKIA gratitude during the rest of the year 1974, they traveled to Trstena in trucks loaded with construction material and built a home for him. He lives there today. Letters to Highest Authorities After spending years in prison and now being deprived of the permit to work as a priest, Monsignor Trstensky became a fearless witness to communist persecution of loyal priests, and a bold defender of the minimal rights of religion. Monsignor Trstensky carefully observes the situation in his country, sharply analyzes it, and sends his observations to the highest government places. He is sending protest letters to Dr. Peter Colotka, Prime Minister of Slovakia, and even to the President of Czecho-Slovakia, Dr. Gustav Husak. Copies of some of his letters have found their way to the free world. They are quite revealing, since they contain the first-hand experiences and observations of a man who lives there, sees with open eyes, and is able to analyze the situation. One such letter was addressed to Dr. Colotka as a reaction to his television talk on the occasion of the International Year of Women, on March 7, 1974. Colotka is a native of Orava region, and Trstensky was his teacher of religion in Dolny Kubin gymnasium. The letter starts with acknowledgements to Colotka for his fine tribute to women, to Slovak mothers and grandmothers, who taught their children honesty, loyalty and readiness to sacrifice for the truth even with their lives. In his letter Trstensky asks Colotka what these women get from the communist regime. Isn't it tearing apart the hearts of our mothers and grandmothers and their offspring, when religious education of children is being hindered more and more? I heard, for example, that in Banska Bystrica, because of brutal terror at the time of enrollment for religious instructions, not one child was registered. It is the same in many cities of Slovakia. Not that the parents and children would not be interested in religion, as purported, but because of the fear for their existence, they do not dare to register their children for religious instructions. Isn't it a punishment for our mothers and grandmothers, when it is made impossible for their sons to devote themselves to a priestly state of life? And even when they have achieved it after years of demanding studies, obtusely to deprive them of a permit to work in the Church ministry, despite a great shortage of priests? In Slovakia, every year 50 to 60 priests die, while hardly 20 to 22 newly ordained priests come out of the seminary. The reason for this is the unfortunate numerous clauses (restricted number) by which only a small number of the candidates can be accepted into the seminary, and this number only on the evaluation of various non-ecclesiastical authorities. Isn't it a punishment for our mothers and grandmothers, when their daughters and granddaughters are not permitted to choose a vocation in which �SLOVAKIA 103 they could peacefully serve God and their neighbors? Even those religious Sisters who previously had chosen this vocation are, so to say, thrown out from their own houses to the streets? lsn 't it hurting our mothers and grandmothers to see how their children, plying their vocations as teachers, civil servants, or factory foremen cannot fulfill their religious obligations for fear of being/ired or transferred to some other job with a lower salary? What can our mothers and grandmothers say about the so-called Catholic press, which in fact does not exist? ''The statements of Pacem in Terris officers that everything is all right here in the matters of religion, do not change these sad facts. By such statements they compromise not only themselves and the Church, but put into a bad perspective our whole system. We are like open cards, and whoever stops here can evaluate religious situations himself and can see the one-sidedness of such self-serving statements. It would be much more fruitful, it those from our priestly ranks who are writing for Pacem in Terris and who think they are promoting peace and social progress, mainly and openly told the heads of our regime that man is not only a body, but also a soul, which is in need of spiritual food. Our simple old women in Orava are shaking their heads when, while reading in the Katolicke Noviny all those praises about religious life in our country, they live in sadness with their daughters who were thrown out of religious life not by Church but by State authorities, or with their sons who were stripped of the State permit for Church administration, or when they see their sons and daughters sneaking away, if they want to pray, get married in church, or have their child baptized. (4) In July, 1976, Monsignor Trstensky asked for travel permission to see his sick brother and his aged sister living in the U.S.A. His petition was turned down by the government officials. Trstensky again sent appeals to the Slovak Prime Minister, Peter Colotka, and to the President of Czecho-Slovakia, Dr. Gustav Husak. In his letter to the President dated January 6, 1977, Trstensky again presented a sharp analysis of the situation in Slovakia. I still have not received an answer about my own sufferings and those of believing people. Probably the reason is that it regards a Roman Catholic priest, thus a man outside the law. This confirms my conviction that the main task of some of our circles is to harrass the citizens, especially believers, and to unleash a ruthless war against religion and its adherents. By watching television, by reading newspapers, and magazines and books about so-called "scientific" atheism, by talking with believers, by watching their sad faces, by seeing hundreds of priests outside pastoral work, tormented Sisters, the fear of teachers, civil servants, nurses, foremen in factories, one gets a clear testimony what injustices are being perpetrated against believers. A member of the Party can be like a stump of wood, as long as he knows some phrases about atheism, Marxism. He is preferred to a non- �104 SLOVAKIA Party man, no matter how intelligent, conscientious and patriotic the latter may be. How much more useful would it be to our country, if those much needed billions squandered on anti-religious propaganda, on so-called civil baptisms, weddings, burials, and on the tens of thousands of atheistic propagandists, were used for real re-education in the spirit of justice and mutual love, and for the promotion of material, spiritual, cultural and social development. Wherever there is an anti-religious campaign and justice is trampled upon, morality declines, the families fall apart, enthusiasm for work vanishes, honesty and responsibility disappear, criminality among adults and even among adolescents increases, and the very foundations of the country are undermined. If there is to be a lasting peace, it must be built on justice, truth, freedom and love. (5) It is interesting to note that despite his sharp protest letters, some of which were published in the Western press , Monsignor Trstensky is still not in jail. He is harrassed and intimidated, as appears from his letters . The reason for his not being imprisoned may be the notoriety of his case throughout Czecho-Slovakia and, to some extent, even throughout the free world. The regime fears the out-cry of the free world which follows the imprisonment of well-known dissidents. Examples of Living Faith Not all opponents of militant atheism express their protests against the persecution of the Church by letters and manifestos. In Slovakia there are many priests and lay people resisting the communist oppression of religion with their lives. There are people filling the churches on Sundays and holy days, receiving the sacraments regularly , enrolling their children for religious instructions - ready to pay for it with a loss of better jobs and in some instances with a loss of personal freedom. There are still priests who are in a real sense spiritual fathers of their flock, risking the loss of a state permit to function as priests, or risking the loss of liberty. There are priests and lay people who by the depth of their religious life equal the heroism of the Christians of the early Church. They are luminaries of deep faith in these hours of darkness. One such is John Chrysostom Korec. At the time of the suppression of religious orders in 1950, John Korec was a Jesuit cleric. After nearly completing his regular theological studies, he was secretly ordained a priest and in 1951, bishop. He was then 27 years old, the youngest bishop in the world. He had to go through military service. He then became a factory worker. He worked as a bishop in the underground by secretly preaching to small groups of people, administering the sacrament of Confirmation , teaching young clerics, ~d �SLOVAKIA 105 eventually ordaining them as priests. In 1960, communist spies discovered who John Korec really was. He was sentenced to twelve years in a high security prison. But even in those years of imprisonment, he continued his priestly work among his fellow inmates. In 1968, Bishop Korec was released from jail, weakened in body. He became one of the leading personalities in revitalizing the religious life of Slovakia during this period of thaw. In 1969, he visited Rome and had a private audience with the Holy Father, who gave him one of his personal croziers and a pectoral cross as a sign of his appreciation for the young bishop's work. After the fall of Dubcek (April 17, 1969), renewed terrorism began in Czecho-Slovakia. The state permit to publicly celebrate the Mass was taken away from Bishop Korec. He was not permitted to take part in any official functions of the Church. He became a factory worker in Bratislava. Today, the whole of Slovakia knows about the case of Bishop Korec. People distressed by harsh religious repression, particularly the highly educated, come to Bishop Korec for his words of advice and consolation. This is not looked upon favorably by the communist authorities. They would like to get rid of Bishop Korec, but without further disturbing the populace. They offered him an opporutnity to emigrate from Slovakia. Bishop Korec rejected the suggestion. They offered him a state permit to perform a ministry in some parish outside Bratislava. Bishop Korec said he would accept the ministry outside Bratislava, on the condition that all other priests to whom the state permit was denied or taken away be given permission to function as priests. The communist authorities rejected this condition. The case of the heroic Bishop Korec was reported in the Catholic press throughout the free world. Perhaps this will protect him temporarily against imprisonment. (6) Stephen J avorsky, a Salesian priest, administrator of the parish in Muran, was imprisoned by the state police on November 26, 1975 and sentenced to eighteen months in jail. His state permit to perform his priestly duties was suspended for two years after the expiration of his jail sentence. For this verdict the following reasons are given by the County Court in Muran: ''He enticed youth, especially university students, by inducing them to listen to the Vatican Radio; he distributed books among them; in their presence, he projected film strips and played tapes containing unacceptable conferences on religious philosophy directed against the interests of our socialist society and against materialistic philosophy, with the aim of involving into this work a large group of religious lay people who besides their regular vocation should exercise missionary activity as well. On June 1, 1975, during the divine services in the parish church of Muran, he tried to influence parents, calling the County Spartakiad (gymnastic exhibition) a worldly vanity fair to be opposed by the parents in the future. " Javorsky's appeal of this verdict to a higher court was rejected and the length of his prison term was prolonged to two full years. (7) �106 SLOVAKIA Among Slovak dissidents are also brave writers and distributors of anonymous pamphlets which sporadically appear in various parts of the country. Such a leaflet distributed in June, 1975, analyzes the religious situation in Slovakia and exhorts Christian believers to defend religious rights guaranteed by the Constitution and state laws.(8) Another pamphlet, distributed in Slovakia in April of 1976, warns Slovak Catholics of the biased news published in the Katolicke Noviny and against the priest-collaborators active in the pro-communist organization Pacem in Terris. (9) It is proper to express our respect and admiration of these known and unknown heroes. They suffer for their deep religious convictions . The whole country lives in an atmosphere of imprisonment. Their suffering sooner or later will bring about the liberty of the Church and of the people in Slovakia. FOOTNOTES The complete text of both Camogursky letters was published in HORIZONT ' 77 , March-April , 1977, p . 8-9. (2) The text of Rev. Tkac 's speech can be found in " SITUATION DER KATHOLISHEN KIRCHE IN DER TSCHECHOSLOWAKEI," Ed . JUSTITIA ET PAX 1976, p. 134138. (3) Frantisek Vnuk : Prenasledo uanie katolickeho ducho uenst ua sa stupi'tuje . (Mounting Persecution of the Catholic Clergy) . SLOVAK V AMERIKE (Slovak in America), May 8, 1974, p . 1, 3. (4) The text of this Jetter was published in HLASY Z RIMA (Voices of Rome), July 1976, p. 22-23. (5) The main parts of this letter were published in JEDNOTA , March 30, 1977, p. 20, 17; also in HLASY Z RIMA , April 1977, p. 21-23 . (6) " Narodeniny biskupa-robotnika Jana Korea " (The Birthday of Bishop-Worker, John Korec) . SLOVAK V AMERIKE , Jan. 26, 1977 , p . 1. (7) HLASY Z RIMA , January 1977, p . 22. (8) The complete text of this pamphlet was published in " SITUATION DER KATHOLISCHEN KIRCHE IN DER TSCHECHOSLOWAKEI," p. 123-130. (9) Ibid. , p . 84-85 ; HLASY Z RIMA , August-September, 1976, p . 31. (1) � SLOVAKIA 91 Preludes to nCharter '77" THEODORIC J. ZUBEK, O.F.M. The occupation of Czecho-Slovakia by the Soviet armies and their satellites in August, 1968, brought new enslavement. The Soviets did not achieve their goal immediately, but they gradually tightened the political relaxations of the Dubcek era. The Russians imprisoned Dubcek and his closest associates and dragged them to Russia. This gravely irritated public opinion. The leadership of the Communist Party of Czecho-Slovakia insisted on the release of Dubcek and his co-workers and their own restoration to positions of leadership in Czecho-Slovakia. At first, the Russians were not able to find a person agreeable to collaborate with occupation authorities. They had to restore Dubcek and permit him to continue as the first Secretary of the Central Committee and leading member of the Presidium of the Communist Party. But the Russians worked feverishly to split the leadership of the Party. Dr. Gustav Husak proved to be the most able and articulate politician in the chaotic situation. In the early fifties, Husak, a Slovak, had been imprisoned and condemned for so-called bourgeois nationalistic deviation. He was ousted from the Communist party. In the period of de-Stalinization in 1963, he was released from prison and re-admitted into the Party, but held no official position. But, he was active behind the scenes in fomenting a movement against President Novotny and his Stalinist methods. In April, 1968, Husak became one of the vice-premiers of the government, and after the occupation also became a member of the Presidium. Though he had been politically rehabilitated through the moderate policy of Alexander Dubcek, it was, after the occupation that Husak became an open critic of "Communism with a human face." Dubcek was gradually pushed to the background, and lost one position after another. Finally, under increasing pressure, on April 17, 1969, Dubcek resigned as first secretary of the Communist Party, and was stripped of his membership in the Party. On the same day, Husak took his position as first secretary. Husak had considerable support among the people, especially in Slovakia, since he had suffered 12 years of imprisonment for his Slovak nationalism and later fought against Prague centralism. He had promoted the federalization of Czecho-Slovakia. He also seemed to favor Dubcek's liberalization. After the Russian occupation, many accepted Husak's argument that there was no military possibility of defending the country, and that it was necessary to yield to Russian pressure to some degree, and to consolidate the internal situation in the country in order to persuade Moscow that there was no need for the �92 SLOVAKIA continued presence of Russian armies in Czecho-Slovakia. Some also believed Husak's pledge that there would never be a return to Stalinism and that the earlier process of democratization would continue. Nevertheless , it became clear that Husak was primarily interested in gaining Moscow's confidence and in strengthening his own leading position. He fully accepted suppression and terrorism and in a short time, under the guise of "normalization, " he once again enslaved the country. In his hatred of religion, Husak outdid his Moscow bosses. Religion had strong roots, especially in Slovakia, so Husak's antireligious campaign is aimed particularly against the Catholic Church. Present day persecution of the Catholic Church in Czecho-Slovakia is more brutal than in any other communist-dominated country of Europe. It is more pervasive and more cunning than it was during the regimes of Gottwald or Novotny. In recent years, more and more news stories about the terrorism of Husak's regime and the suppression of human rights appeared in the free world. At the beginning of 1977, a transcript of Charter '77 was published in many newspapers of the Western world. In this document, more than 600 Czech and Slovak signers protested against the suppression of human rights, specifically mentioning suppression of the rights to religious conviction. These rights are guaranteed by the . Czecho-Slovak Constitution as well as by the Helsinki Agreement which was by signed Czecho-Slovakia. This Charter '77 was preceded by several public protests of individual citizens, laymen and priests, who openly denounced the abuses of government power and the systematic campaign against religion. Some of these written protests found their way to the free world. A number of them were written before the Helsinki Agreement (September, 1975) and they refer to the Czecho-Slovak Constitution and other laws; later protests also refer to the Helsinki Agreement. It was a number of these protests that prepared the mood for Charter '77. It is proper to express admiration and respect for these individual dissidents for their courage and strength. In a Communist regime, it is riskier for an individual to protest against government abuses than it is for a group. Individual internationally unknown dissidents are taken care of quickly. Under the pretext of anti-state activity, they are silenced in prison or labor camps without much notice or commotion, and without comment in the free world. The Case of Pavol Carnogursky Pavol Carnogursky is a sixty-eight year old layman, who from his youth played an important role in the Catholic life of Slovakia. As an employee of the Catholic Agency in Bratislava, he organized and led Catholic Action programs among Slovak young people, patterned �SLOVAKIA 93 largely on the practices of the French and Belgian Catholic Workers and Catholic Organizations of intellectuals. During the period of Slovak autonomy and independence (19381945), he was a member of the Slovak Parliament and was esteemed as an expert on education and school matters. He opposed the Nazi tendencies of some Slovak politicians and belonged to the group of Slovak Catholic moderates headed by President Joseph Tiso and Dr. Martin Sokol, speaker of the Slovak Parliament . For this reason the Germans regarded him as a persona non grata. Immediately after World War II , Pavol Carnogursky tried to organize the Christian Republican Party as a platform for defending human rights and freedom of conscience in Slovakia, when the country was again made part of Czecho-Slovakia. On the insistence of Slovak bishops, however, the Slovak Catholics joined forces with the predominantly Lutheran Democratic Party and helped it attain an overwhelming victory in Slovakia, triumphing over the communists and other small parties in the 1946 elections. Although Carnogursky was clearly anti-Nazi, yet because of his position as a deputy during the Slovak Republic, he was not found acceptable for any public role in the political life of post-war Slovakia. In 1947 , because of his well known anti-communist stand and his involvement in re-organizing the Catholic workers and the intelligentsia, he was imprisoned and eventually forced into seclusion and silence, providing for his family as a manual worker in a Bratislava factory . Nevertheless, during all those years of seclusion, Carnogursky carefully observed the political and religious situation in Slovakia, read all the biased works of communist historians about the Slovak Republic, and occasionally expressed his critical views in letters he sent to his friends abroad . After the fall of Dubcek in 1969, there began an era of brutal suppression of human rights and a systematic denial of freedom of religion. A pro-communist organization of the clergy, called Pacem in Terris, was established and the priests of Czecho-Slovakia were again torn into two groups, each distrusting the other. The Catholic press, i.e. the Katolicke nouiny (Catholic News) and Duchouny Pastier (Spiritual Shepherd) were put under strict communist control. The pro-communist speeches and articles of Canon Jozef Dovala, pastor in Ziar nad Hronom in the Banska Bystrica Diocese and vicar general of the Diocese , a prominent member of the Pacem in Terris movement, brought the patience and silence of Pavol Carnogursky to an end. The corruption of the Katolicke nouiny offended Carnogursky in a special way, since for some time after the war he had been the editor of this Catholic weekly and worked earnestly to bring it to a high journalistic level. On September 11 , 1974, the executive board of the Federal Association of the Catholic Clergymen, Pacem in Terris , celebrated the �94 SLOVAKIA thirtieth a nniversary of the Slovak upri sing in Banska Bystrica. Canon Joze f Dov ala was the main speaker. He equated the so-called '' political Catholicism ' ' of the Slovak Republic with collaboration with Ge rman Naz ism, and made it co-responsible for the death of about four thou sand priests in Nazi concentration camps. In a letter to Dovala, Carnogursky said it was ab surd to draw a connection between the regime of the Slovak Republic and Ge rman atrocities during the war. He wrote: In a few months it will be thirty years since the e nd of the S econd World War. During this p eriod a countless multitude of articles, political or pseudo-political, as well as scholarly and professional works on the current situation in Slo vakia appeared. Only in exceptional cases are they free of anti-Catholic tendencies. The great majority of the m obtusely describe the situation prejudicially, as you did. I read all tho se articles and books. In the last analysis, they have the same goal: to destroy Catholic ideology and Catholic life in Slo vakia. For that reason the arguments, of which even a mildly honest man and more so a scholar would be ashamed, are crude, unfounded, even hostile, negative and degrading. But what you, Father, associated with the ideas of political Catholicism in Slovakia, surpasses e verything. W e should give credit to anti-Catholic propaganda for using such tricks. The Slo vak State had to be proclaimed at that particular time (March 14, 1939, ed.) and under prevailing circumstances, if we were to make sure that among the thousands of priests murdered (in other countries) in Hitler 's concentration camps there would not be Slo vak priests. In the last analysis, our administrative authorities were not motivated only by a concern for the priests, but for the whole nation as well. And the nation has been saved. I cannot understand why you are angered and prompted to attack it (Slovak independence), since its existence gave you guarantees assuring that you yourself did not become a victim of Hitler 's concentration camp, if you were ordained before World War II. (Douala was ordained March 17, 1938.) I cannot understand why they talk only about political Catholicism and not about political Lutheranism, political Judaism, political atheism, and about the means by which these denominations and institutions have in that day and even to our day influenced and affected public life. Catholicism in Slovakia was a historical force in the nation. Without the care of the Catholic church for education, the social structure, schools, the press, agriculture and social and economic institutions, especially without the work and sacrifices of the best sons of the nation who as Catholic priests defended its voice and language, developing and enriching it through the centuries and assuring its cultural and economic growth - we would have perished. I can well understand why in the Protestant milieu, among the Jews and other denominations in Slovakia, there was not a similar �SLOVAKIA 95 attack on their own. They are fully conscious of the consequences of such a step. Your attack on so-called political Catholicism during the span of the Slovak Republic, unfounded and, to say in openly, irresponsible as it is, is the more tragic because it came at the time when large-scale militant atheism was active in Slovakia and aimed its fury against the Catholic Church, its doctrine, essence and its historical influence upon the thinking and feeling of our people. And this is done by repressive methods not invoked now at the end of the twentieth century by any other Socialist country, not even in black Africa. No teacher, no educator among us, is permitted to enter a classroom, to work among the students, to teach even technical subject matter, unless he declares that he has solved the religious question, which means that he proclaims that he is an atheist. He must avow that he is an atheist not only in his private convictions, but in an active sense as well, ready to teach and educate in the atheistic way. Any doubt in this area, any evidence of religious feelings, such as attendance at divine services, reception of any sacrament, excludes him from a teaching position. Parents who enrolled their children for religious instruction are exposed to unheard of pressure from the school officials and from their employers. Children who attended religious instruction are denied advanced studies. There is a general rule valid even among the most primitive social groups that under-age children are not responsible for a transgression of the law. In our case, children are punished for attending religious instructions, while the Constitution of the peoples' democratic system ironically guarantees freedom of religious conviction. And these sanctions against children are not for a limited period of time, but for their whole lifetime. Father, how will the history of the Church in Slovakia and the general history of mankind call this kind of Catholicism, which, witnessing all this, still feels and expresses itself as you did in this case? My letter to you cannot delineate a complete description of the tragic situation of the Catholic Church in Slovakia. This situation has the dimensions of a world problem that cannot be contained in one letter. The core of the problem is the effort at the eradication of Christian consciousness in the life and culture of a nation which by its very nature and because of its Christian Catholic roots contributed to the civilization process in the heart of Europe ever since the ninth century. We cannot blind our eyes with illusions, assuming that the working of divine grace alone will defeat the imperiled Christianity of our n(!,tion. Without our personal co-operation, our struggle and our living faith, we cannot count on perpetuating the religious life and spirit of our universally Christian country. Doubtless, this struggle demands not only our standing up as Christians but also our intelligent approach to find reasonable �96 SLOVAKIA possibilities to solve the problems facing us without craven concessions and compromises. But an attack like yours, coming in such a form and content, inveighing upon political Catholicism as you have done, cannot be accounted as an acceptable line of conduct. Pavol Camogursky's second letter of protest was addressed to Bishop Jozef Feranec, Ordinary of the Diocese of Banska Bystrica. It deals with an article by Jozef Dovala published in the Katolicke Nouiny (Catholic News) August 29, 1976, in which the author states that the priests and laity participate in up building the new way of life in CzechoSlovakia where freedom of religion is constitutionally safeguarded. Dovala wrote this article after his return from the Eucharistic Congress in Philadelphia (August 1-7, 1976) where he attended the Slovak services as the only priest from Slovakia. The text of Camogursky' s letter of August 29, 1976, is as follows: Your Excellency, after reading the editorial in the last issue of the Katolicke Nouiny (no. 53, August 29, 1976) even the simplest believer cannot refrain from reacting in protest, realizing how severe is the extermination process against the Church in Slovakia and how this bitter reality opposes his religious conviction and undermines his devotion to the duties which bind him to the Church. In this article vicar Jozef Douala of Banska Bystrica, wrote among other things: 'Priests as well as laymen participate in the up building of our new life and they also share in its fruits. The Constitution of our state system respects the conviction of every citizen and guarantees the freedom of religion'. With pain in my heart I must state that reality in no way bears out the import of these words. Only a cynical scoffer could write thus, bringing the paper to the level of absurdity and compromising the reader in whose name he so dares to write. What then is the factual status of religious affairs, notwithstanding what the Constitution and Article 7 of the Helsinki Agreement provide? Two weeks ago, on August 18, 1976, the daily Pravda, organ of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Slovakia, published a report on the conclusions of the Party Congress and on atheistic education in Slovakia. The gist of these conclusions by the reporting officer read: 'Slovakia became a country of mass atheism. 'A competent representative would hardly dare to make such a bold and far reaching statement in the Party organ of any other Socialist state. Since it cannot be doubted that P. Prusak 's report was factual, even if he did not elaborate about what means were used where it was attained, one must take it as a hard fact. In Slovakia there is a special campaign against religion. I am convinced that Church leadership in Slovakia definitely and carefully concerns itself with the gravity of this article and will weigh its consequences both for itself and for the sake of the Church in Slovakia. �SLOVAKIA 97 I am merely emphasizing the fact that the core of such purported success of atheism in Slovakia is viewed by the author as a purposeful atheistic work which has assumed a systematic character, as he specifically underlines it. In this systematic character of mass abandonment of the paternal heritage - the Catholic Church - by her sons and daughters, one must also see the fact that in Church leadership there are some persons whose high positions serve as the necessary front windows for facilitating apostasy and promoting mass atheism by playing a role assigned to them in their high functions. On the very same level, alas, one must also place the paper Katolicke Noviny which is degenerating into a publication of professional flatterers writing explicitly about themes that have very little in common with authentic religion. This attitude is in total contradiction to the contemporary difficult position of the Church, especially with the mentality of tormented parent-believers. It does not serve the serious matter of peace and rapprochement and easing of tensions. Forgive me, my Bishop, for the bitter tone of this letter. Truly, it is not as bitter as it is painful. And it is precisely for that reason that I must react to the slap on the face inflicted by the aforementioned writing of your vicar general. But not to write would pose an impossible dilemma for me: Am I still a Catholic? Has Mr. Prusak also rightfully included me in his concept of 'mass atheism' in Slovakia? For a responsible member of the Church not to react righteously to this critical development at a time when the very existence of the Church is at stake would be tantamount to not being in rapport with her, with this historic force which endowed Slovakia with all her spiritual, moral and cultural wealth. (1) Pavol Camogursky was imprisoned on November 10, 1976, undoubtedly for this daring analysis of the religious situation in Slovakia and his sharp criticism of Jozef Dovala. In such cases, stock charges of anti-state activities are readily found in the deformed communist system of justice. When Carnogursky ' s case evoked wide publicity in the free world, he was released from prison. He is awaiting trial for purported anti-state activity in the near future. A Speech by Aloysius Tkac Aloysius Tkac is a Catholic priest of the Diocese of Kosice (Eastern Slovakia). He is now 43 years old. He was an archivist in the bishop's chancery and as such he was a member of the pro-communist priestly organization Pacem in Terris. Seeing all the abuses perpetrated against the Church by the communist regime, he decided to publicly denounce them at the festive meeting of this organization on October 23, 1974. On the occasion of the celebration of the Thirtieth Anniversary of the Slovak Uprising, in the presence of communist officials controlling �98 SLOVAKIA all activities of the said organization, he first recalled the Constitution of the Czecho-Slovak Socialist Republic (art. 32) guaranteeing religious freedom of all citizens. Then he cited the government decrees and pertinent regulations of the Ministry of Culture from 1970 and 1972, by which religious education of children of second to seventh grades is permitted. He mentioned recent statements of the President about religious freedom; and no. 326 of the criminal code, by which all those hindering religious freedom and religious activity by force should be prosecuted and punished. He then proceeded to give accounts of actual religious situations in the country: We cannot pass with silence the unpleasant fact which causes both priests and believers great suffering; we feel we are being discriminated against. The procedure in regard to the spiritual needs many times is reckless and we consider it extremely harsh. The guidelines of the Ministry of Culture of the Slovak Socialist Republic concerning the enrollment of children for religious instructions are in many places disregarded. Groups were formed which not only belittle religious instructions, but hold back parents from the enrollment of their children in religious instruction by direct terror. Contrary to official guidelines about the enrollment, both parents have to present the enrollment petition; often the father or the mother have to excuse themselves from their jobs and complete their work after working hours. It was brought forth to some parents: 'Don't you want to send your children to a higher level of education? Do you want to bury the future of your children in technical schooling?' The behavior of many teachers was harsh, arrogant (such as tearing to pieces the enrollment petition or throwing it away), an illegal act, and it offended the dignity of the citizen-believers. Children attending religious instructions are often excluded from activities with their peers; they cannot make the Pioneers' pledge. During the school year there is also a great deal of peer and teacher pressure put on them. Parents and their children are going through Calvary. They are really martyrs. But how does all this square with the above mentioned state decrees? Even if there were only a few of thse examples, still we must not be silent. Unfortunately, such incidents are very frequent! The fact is that only a small percentage of the children are enrolled for religious instructions. Does this mean that parents and students have renounced their faith and become atheists? By no means! It is largely the result of a natural fear concerning the future! Citizen-believers are being deterred from fulfilling their religious needs, from receiving sacraments (Mass, Holy Communion, Confirmation, Matrimony). Only with difficulty can a priest secretly administer the sacraments of the dying in a hospital. Under various, even false, accusations state permission for priestly work has been revoked to several priests. Does that not bother �SLOVAKIA 99 us? Does not the fate of our brothers in the priesthood concern us? Do we not stand up for the defense of the honor of the priestly state? If not, it is a tragedy! Fifteen newly ordained priests, four months after their ordination, are still waiting for their assignments. Other college graduates have their work assignments in their pockets the moment they have finished their studies. And there are so many parishes and chaplaincies unoccupied/ There are other pains, but others should speak about them! Brothers, friends, I have brought up our common pains. I have spoken to you about the suffering of our believing people. We are not too sensitive, nor are we asking for privileges. We are in pain from the thorns that we have to wear with our people. We are happy to live in our Czecho-Slovak Socialist Republic. We would not betray it for anything. But let us eliminate the mistakes and inadequacies which make our lives difficult. This frank statement shocked the priests and the communist government representatives who always attend such meetings . As a rule, only praise of and gratitude to the regime are expressed at such gatherings. The statement was not even mentioned in the so-called Catholic press of Czecho-Slovakia, or other newspapers. It was secretly smuggled to the free world. What happened to this brave Catholic priest who openly expressed both the facts and the feelings of all conscientious priests and Catholic lay people? Nothing immediately . But then in July of 1975 , almost a year later, news came from Slovakia that several priests who expressed their anti-communist feelings were attacked and some of them severely injured by some individuals who were never apprehended by the police . One of those attacked and severely injured was Aloysius Tkac. In December , 1975 the state permit of Aloysius Tkac to perform priestly duties was withdrawn. His present fate is not known . It may be either manual work or jail. (2) Protests of Monsignor Trstensky Monsignor Victor Trstensky is a prominent Slovak priest. He was born in Trstena (District Orava) on March 29, 1908. After finishing his basic and high school studies in Trstena, he enrolled in the Spis Diocesan Seminary, and was ordained on June 29, 1931. Because of his pastoral zeal and exemplary priestly life, he early became pastor of St. Catherine Church in Dolny Kubin, where he was also a teacher of religion at the local gynmasium. On the recommendation of his Bishop, John Vojtassak, he was made Papal Prelate (Monsignor) while still a very young priest. During the Slovak Republic (1939-1945), as a prominent member of the Hlinka Slovak Populist Party, he took an active part in the public life of his town; at the same time he was involved in the Catholic Action Movement. �100 SLOVAKIA For this activity, after the Second World War he was imprisoned and spent twenty-one years in various prisons, in labor camps, and in manual work. During the Dubcek era, he was rehabilitated and received a state permit for pastoral work on October 7, 1969. The Ordinary of the Spis Diocese , Reverend Joseph Ligos, appointed him adminstrator of St. Nicholas Church in Stara Lubovna where he worked tirelessly for four years. In the post-Dubcek era, the communists in Czecho-Slovakia could not tolerate strong personalities like Monsignor Trstensky in pastoral work . They were afraid of his moral influence on parishioners and particularly on youth. With the year 1974, a new Calvary began for Monsignor Trstensky. The communist-dominated District Committee in Stara Lubovna decided that Trstensky had to leave the town and again be removed from pastoral work . He was notified about his imminent dismissal on January 21, 1974 by the new Ordinary of the Diocese, Stephen Garaj. On January 27, 1974 , Monsignor Trstensky preached to his stunned parishioners a memorable homily, which was secretly taped and later found its way to the free world. The principal reasons for Trstensky's dismissal, given to the vicar capitular by Communist officials, were as follows: 1. preaching against atheism and atheists; 2. sending gifts to old people on Christmas; 3. meetings with altar boys in the church and rectory; 4. keeping in his parish religious Sisters in violation of state regulations; 5. blessing the homes of parishioners after Epiphany. In his classic homily, Monsignor Trstensky explained his activity as pastor of the church in Stara Lubovna and argued convincingly that there was nothing illegal in his pastoral work . He concluded his homily with these words: What does matter is the truth. Whoever distorts the truth cannot build the country. Only truth can save the nation and the country. Remember, if I have to leave here, I am not leaving as a criminal, murderer, traitor of the nation and country. I love my country. Twice I was abroad - in Vienna, Rome, Paris. I could have stayed there. I was invited to do so. But I said: 'I am a Slovak. I did not do anything wrong. I want to live among our people because I love my country and my people.' I returned home. I sincerely love my country, and not only in words but more so by teaching you to love God and one another; by teaching you to work diligently and to live morally. I do not talk about peace, but I promote it with my whole life and work. (3) The decision of the County Committee, Department of Culture, in Stara Lubovna, prohibiting Trstensky to perform priestly ministry was dated January 30, 1974 and delivered to him on February 1, 1974. The reasons for his dismissal are formulated as follows : From the beginning of his assignment to Stara Lubovna, Victor Trstensky in various ways manifested his dissent with the development �SLOVAKIA 101 of our socialist society. For that reason, several sessions were held with him where he was notified that he was breaking the norms established for state-church relationships. In recent times he has increased his reactionary activity and in his sermons he openly and vituperatively spoke against progressively thinking citizens and incited against them. In one of his sermons he said that the unbelievers will once again experience the supremacy of god (sic) and will wish to become believers, but it will be too late. By this activity he was systematically breaking the established laws regarding state-church relations. Such was the case during the last Christmas season, when with the help of school children he distributed to some families packages containing wine, oranges, soap and other items. During his assignment to the parish of Stara Lubovna he intentionally infringed upon the directives on religious instructions by gathering a group of altar boys and choir singers in the church and rectory for practice; furthermore, he organized meetings with a considerable number of children in the rectory. During his assignment at the parish of Stara Lubovna, three religious Sisters came to him and, under his direction, performed church functions and worked actively on the revitalization of the church in the city and among the youth. For these reasons and for his dangerously anti-socialist stand, shown particularly in recent times and in these last days, when he caused among the believers a high and dangerous tension, his continuance in church administration would seriously endanger peaceful social life and the interests of our working people; therefore, with immediate effectiveness, we take away his state permit to work in church administration. On February 14, 1974, Monsignor Trstensky appealed this verdict. As a preliminary to his letter of appeal, he pointed to the irregularities in the whole procedure against him by quoting eight paragraphs of law 71-1967, which were disregarded in his case. Then, in eight pages, he convincingly refuted all the vague or completely false charges against him. He referred to the public and well-known record of his activity as pastor of Stara Lubovna parish. He emphatically stated that he only fulfilled his duties as pastor of a parish, never acting against the state laws and official regulations. The only real reason for the removal of Monsignor Trstensky from pastoral work was his exemplary priestly life and his zealous work for the spiritual welfare of his flock. The appeal of Monsignor Trstensky had no effect and the District Committee in Kosice which by the decision of February 19, 1974, confirmed the verdict of the County Committee in Stara Lubovna and made the decision final, precluding any further appeal. Monsignor Trstensky thereafter went to live in his town of birth, Trstena, in the region of Orava. Grateful parishioners of Stara Lubovna did not forget their beloved pastor. As a token of their appreciation and �102 SLOVAKIA gratitude during the rest of the year 1974, they traveled to Trstena in trucks loaded with construction material and built a home for him. He lives there today. Letters to Highest Authorities After spending years in prison and now being deprived of the permit to work as a priest, Monsignor Trstensky became a fearless witness to communist persecution of loyal priests, and a bold defender of the minimal rights of religion. Monsignor Trstensky carefully observes the situation in his country, sharply analyzes it, and sends his observations to the highest government places. He is sending protest letters to Dr. Peter Colotka, Prime Minister of Slovakia, and even to the President of Czecho-Slovakia, Dr. Gustav Husak. Copies of some of his letters have found their way to the free world. They are quite revealing, since they contain the first-hand experiences and observations of a man who lives there, sees with open eyes, and is able to analyze the situation. One such letter was addressed to Dr. Colotka as a reaction to his television talk on the occasion of the International Year of Women, on March 7, 1974. Colotka is a native of Orava region, and Trstensky was his teacher of religion in Dolny Kubin gymnasium. The letter starts with acknowledgements to Colotka for his fine tribute to women, to Slovak mothers and grandmothers, who taught their children honesty, loyalty and readiness to sacrifice for the truth even with their lives. In his letter Trstensky asks Colotka what these women get from the communist regime. Isn't it tearing apart the hearts of our mothers and grandmothers and their offspring, when religious education of children is being hindered more and more? I heard, for example, that in Banska Bystrica, because of brutal terror at the time of enrollment for religious instructions, not one child was registered. It is the same in many cities of Slovakia. Not that the parents and children would not be interested in religion, as purported, but because of the fear for their existence, they do not dare to register their children for religious instructions. Isn't it a punishment for our mothers and grandmothers, when it is made impossible for their sons to devote themselves to a priestly state of life? And even when they have achieved it after years of demanding studies, obtusely to deprive them of a permit to work in the Church ministry, despite a great shortage of priests? In Slovakia, every year 50 to 60 priests die, while hardly 20 to 22 newly ordained priests come out of the seminary. The reason for this is the unfortunate numerous clauses (restricted number) by which only a small number of the candidates can be accepted into the seminary, and this number only on the evaluation of various non-ecclesiastical authorities. Isn't it a punishment for our mothers and grandmothers, when their daughters and granddaughters are not permitted to choose a vocation in which �SLOVAKIA 103 they could peacefully serve God and their neighbors? Even those religious Sisters who previously had chosen this vocation are, so to say, thrown out from their own houses to the streets? lsn 't it hurting our mothers and grandmothers to see how their children, plying their vocations as teachers, civil servants, or factory foremen cannot fulfill their religious obligations for fear of being/ired or transferred to some other job with a lower salary? What can our mothers and grandmothers say about the so-called Catholic press, which in fact does not exist? ''The statements of Pacem in Terris officers that everything is all right here in the matters of religion, do not change these sad facts. By such statements they compromise not only themselves and the Church, but put into a bad perspective our whole system. We are like open cards, and whoever stops here can evaluate religious situations himself and can see the one-sidedness of such self-serving statements. It would be much more fruitful, it those from our priestly ranks who are writing for Pacem in Terris and who think they are promoting peace and social progress, mainly and openly told the heads of our regime that man is not only a body, but also a soul, which is in need of spiritual food. Our simple old women in Orava are shaking their heads when, while reading in the Katolicke Noviny all those praises about religious life in our country, they live in sadness with their daughters who were thrown out of religious life not by Church but by State authorities, or with their sons who were stripped of the State permit for Church administration, or when they see their sons and daughters sneaking away, if they want to pray, get married in church, or have their child baptized. (4) In July, 1976, Monsignor Trstensky asked for travel permission to see his sick brother and his aged sister living in the U.S.A. His petition was turned down by the government officials. Trstensky again sent appeals to the Slovak Prime Minister, Peter Colotka, and to the President of Czecho-Slovakia, Dr. Gustav Husak. In his letter to the President dated January 6, 1977, Trstensky again presented a sharp analysis of the situation in Slovakia. I still have not received an answer about my own sufferings and those of believing people. Probably the reason is that it regards a Roman Catholic priest, thus a man outside the law. This confirms my conviction that the main task of some of our circles is to harrass the citizens, especially believers, and to unleash a ruthless war against religion and its adherents. By watching television, by reading newspapers, and magazines and books about so-called "scientific" atheism, by talking with believers, by watching their sad faces, by seeing hundreds of priests outside pastoral work, tormented Sisters, the fear of teachers, civil servants, nurses, foremen in factories, one gets a clear testimony what injustices are being perpetrated against believers. A member of the Party can be like a stump of wood, as long as he knows some phrases about atheism, Marxism. He is preferred to a non- �104 SLOVAKIA Party man, no matter how intelligent, conscientious and patriotic the latter may be. How much more useful would it be to our country, if those much needed billions squandered on anti-religious propaganda, on so-called civil baptisms, weddings, burials, and on the tens of thousands of atheistic propagandists, were used for real re-education in the spirit of justice and mutual love, and for the promotion of material, spiritual, cultural and social development. Wherever there is an anti-religious campaign and justice is trampled upon, morality declines, the families fall apart, enthusiasm for work vanishes, honesty and responsibility disappear, criminality among adults and even among adolescents increases, and the very foundations of the country are undermined. If there is to be a lasting peace, it must be built on justice, truth, freedom and love. (5) It is interesting to note that despite his sharp protest letters, some of which were published in the Western press , Monsignor Trstensky is still not in jail. He is harrassed and intimidated, as appears from his letters . The reason for his not being imprisoned may be the notoriety of his case throughout Czecho-Slovakia and, to some extent, even throughout the free world. The regime fears the out-cry of the free world which follows the imprisonment of well-known dissidents. Examples of Living Faith Not all opponents of militant atheism express their protests against the persecution of the Church by letters and manifestos. In Slovakia there are many priests and lay people resisting the communist oppression of religion with their lives. There are people filling the churches on Sundays and holy days, receiving the sacraments regularly , enrolling their children for religious instructions - ready to pay for it with a loss of better jobs and in some instances with a loss of personal freedom. There are still priests who are in a real sense spiritual fathers of their flock, risking the loss of a state permit to function as priests, or risking the loss of liberty. There are priests and lay people who by the depth of their religious life equal the heroism of the Christians of the early Church. They are luminaries of deep faith in these hours of darkness. One such is John Chrysostom Korec. At the time of the suppression of religious orders in 1950, John Korec was a Jesuit cleric. After nearly completing his regular theological studies, he was secretly ordained a priest and in 1951, bishop. He was then 27 years old, the youngest bishop in the world. He had to go through military service. He then became a factory worker. He worked as a bishop in the underground by secretly preaching to small groups of people, administering the sacrament of Confirmation , teaching young clerics, ~d �SLOVAKIA 105 eventually ordaining them as priests. In 1960, communist spies discovered who John Korec really was. He was sentenced to twelve years in a high security prison. But even in those years of imprisonment, he continued his priestly work among his fellow inmates. In 1968, Bishop Korec was released from jail, weakened in body. He became one of the leading personalities in revitalizing the religious life of Slovakia during this period of thaw. In 1969, he visited Rome and had a private audience with the Holy Father, who gave him one of his personal croziers and a pectoral cross as a sign of his appreciation for the young bishop's work. After the fall of Dubcek (April 17, 1969), renewed terrorism began in Czecho-Slovakia. The state permit to publicly celebrate the Mass was taken away from Bishop Korec. He was not permitted to take part in any official functions of the Church. He became a factory worker in Bratislava. Today, the whole of Slovakia knows about the case of Bishop Korec. People distressed by harsh religious repression, particularly the highly educated, come to Bishop Korec for his words of advice and consolation. This is not looked upon favorably by the communist authorities. They would like to get rid of Bishop Korec, but without further disturbing the populace. They offered him an opporutnity to emigrate from Slovakia. Bishop Korec rejected the suggestion. They offered him a state permit to perform a ministry in some parish outside Bratislava. Bishop Korec said he would accept the ministry outside Bratislava, on the condition that all other priests to whom the state permit was denied or taken away be given permission to function as priests. The communist authorities rejected this condition. The case of the heroic Bishop Korec was reported in the Catholic press throughout the free world. Perhaps this will protect him temporarily against imprisonment. (6) Stephen J avorsky, a Salesian priest, administrator of the parish in Muran, was imprisoned by the state police on November 26, 1975 and sentenced to eighteen months in jail. His state permit to perform his priestly duties was suspended for two years after the expiration of his jail sentence. For this verdict the following reasons are given by the County Court in Muran: ''He enticed youth, especially university students, by inducing them to listen to the Vatican Radio; he distributed books among them; in their presence, he projected film strips and played tapes containing unacceptable conferences on religious philosophy directed against the interests of our socialist society and against materialistic philosophy, with the aim of involving into this work a large group of religious lay people who besides their regular vocation should exercise missionary activity as well. On June 1, 1975, during the divine services in the parish church of Muran, he tried to influence parents, calling the County Spartakiad (gymnastic exhibition) a worldly vanity fair to be opposed by the parents in the future. " Javorsky's appeal of this verdict to a higher court was rejected and the length of his prison term was prolonged to two full years. (7) �106 SLOVAKIA Among Slovak dissidents are also brave writers and distributors of anonymous pamphlets which sporadically appear in various parts of the country. Such a leaflet distributed in June, 1975, analyzes the religious situation in Slovakia and exhorts Christian believers to defend religious rights guaranteed by the Constitution and state laws.(8) Another pamphlet, distributed in Slovakia in April of 1976, warns Slovak Catholics of the biased news published in the Katolicke Noviny and against the priest-collaborators active in the pro-communist organization Pacem in Terris. (9) It is proper to express our respect and admiration of these known and unknown heroes. They suffer for their deep religious convictions . The whole country lives in an atmosphere of imprisonment. Their suffering sooner or later will bring about the liberty of the Church and of the people in Slovakia. FOOTNOTES The complete text of both Camogursky letters was published in HORIZONT ' 77 , March-April , 1977, p . 8-9. (2) The text of Rev. Tkac 's speech can be found in " SITUATION DER KATHOLISHEN KIRCHE IN DER TSCHECHOSLOWAKEI," Ed . JUSTITIA ET PAX 1976, p. 134138. (3) Frantisek Vnuk : Prenasledo uanie katolickeho ducho uenst ua sa stupi'tuje . (Mounting Persecution of the Catholic Clergy) . SLOVAK V AMERIKE (Slovak in America), May 8, 1974, p . 1, 3. (4) The text of this Jetter was published in HLASY Z RIMA (Voices of Rome), July 1976, p. 22-23. (5) The main parts of this letter were published in JEDNOTA , March 30, 1977, p. 20, 17; also in HLASY Z RIMA , April 1977, p. 21-23 . (6) " Narodeniny biskupa-robotnika Jana Korea " (The Birthday of Bishop-Worker, John Korec) . SLOVAK V AMERIKE , Jan. 26, 1977 , p . 1. (7) HLASY Z RIMA , January 1977, p . 22. (8) The complete text of this pamphlet was published in " SITUATION DER KATHOLISCHEN KIRCHE IN DER TSCHECHOSLOWAKEI," p. 123-130. (9) Ibid. , p . 84-85 ; HLASY Z RIMA , August-September, 1976, p . 31. (1) � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1977, Vol. 27 Description An account of the resource Vol. 27 (No. 50), 1977. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1977 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document SLOVAKIA 91 Preludes to nCharter '77" THEODORIC J. ZUBEK, O.F.M. The occupation of Czecho-Slovakia by the Soviet armies and their satellites in August, 1968, brought new enslavement. The Soviets did not achieve their goal immediately, but they gradually tightened the political relaxations of the Dubcek era. The Russians imprisoned Dubcek and his closest associates and dragged them to Russia. This gravely irritated public opinion. The leadership of the Communist Party of Czecho-Slovakia insisted on the release of Dubcek and his co-workers and their own restoration to positions of leadership in Czecho-Slovakia. At first, the Russians were not able to find a person agreeable to collaborate with occupation authorities. They had to restore Dubcek and permit him to continue as the first Secretary of the Central Committee and leading member of the Presidium of the Communist Party. But the Russians worked feverishly to split the leadership of the Party. Dr. Gustav Husak proved to be the most able and articulate politician in the chaotic situation. In the early fifties, Husak, a Slovak, had been imprisoned and condemned for so-called bourgeois nationalistic deviation. He was ousted from the Communist party. In the period of de-Stalinization in 1963, he was released from prison and re-admitted into the Party, but held no official position. But, he was active behind the scenes in fomenting a movement against President Novotny and his Stalinist methods. In April, 1968, Husak became one of the vice-premiers of the government, and after the occupation also became a member of the Presidium. Though he had been politically rehabilitated through the moderate policy of Alexander Dubcek, it was, after the occupation that Husak became an open critic of "Communism with a human face." Dubcek was gradually pushed to the background, and lost one position after another. Finally, under increasing pressure, on April 17, 1969, Dubcek resigned as first secretary of the Communist Party, and was stripped of his membership in the Party. On the same day, Husak took his position as first secretary. Husak had considerable support among the people, especially in Slovakia, since he had suffered 12 years of imprisonment for his Slovak nationalism and later fought against Prague centralism. He had promoted the federalization of Czecho-Slovakia. He also seemed to favor Dubcek's liberalization. After the Russian occupation, many accepted Husak's argument that there was no military possibility of defending the country, and that it was necessary to yield to Russian pressure to some degree, and to consolidate the internal situation in the country in order to persuade Moscow that there was no need for the 92 SLOVAKIA continued presence of Russian armies in Czecho-Slovakia. Some also believed Husak's pledge that there would never be a return to Stalinism and that the earlier process of democratization would continue. Nevertheless , it became clear that Husak was primarily interested in gaining Moscow's confidence and in strengthening his own leading position. He fully accepted suppression and terrorism and in a short time, under the guise of "normalization, " he once again enslaved the country. In his hatred of religion, Husak outdid his Moscow bosses. Religion had strong roots, especially in Slovakia, so Husak's antireligious campaign is aimed particularly against the Catholic Church. Present day persecution of the Catholic Church in Czecho-Slovakia is more brutal than in any other communist-dominated country of Europe. It is more pervasive and more cunning than it was during the regimes of Gottwald or Novotny. In recent years, more and more news stories about the terrorism of Husak's regime and the suppression of human rights appeared in the free world. At the beginning of 1977, a transcript of Charter '77 was published in many newspapers of the Western world. In this document, more than 600 Czech and Slovak signers protested against the suppression of human rights, specifically mentioning suppression of the rights to religious conviction. These rights are guaranteed by the . Czecho-Slovak Constitution as well as by the Helsinki Agreement which was by signed Czecho-Slovakia. This Charter '77 was preceded by several public protests of individual citizens, laymen and priests, who openly denounced the abuses of government power and the systematic campaign against religion. Some of these written protests found their way to the free world. A number of them were written before the Helsinki Agreement (September, 1975) and they refer to the Czecho-Slovak Constitution and other laws; later protests also refer to the Helsinki Agreement. It was a number of these protests that prepared the mood for Charter '77. It is proper to express admiration and respect for these individual dissidents for their courage and strength. In a Communist regime, it is riskier for an individual to protest against government abuses than it is for a group. Individual internationally unknown dissidents are taken care of quickly. Under the pretext of anti-state activity, they are silenced in prison or labor camps without much notice or commotion, and without comment in the free world. The Case of Pavol Carnogursky Pavol Carnogursky is a sixty-eight year old layman, who from his youth played an important role in the Catholic life of Slovakia. As an employee of the Catholic Agency in Bratislava, he organized and led Catholic Action programs among Slovak young people, patterned SLOVAKIA 93 largely on the practices of the French and Belgian Catholic Workers and Catholic Organizations of intellectuals. During the period of Slovak autonomy and independence (19381945), he was a member of the Slovak Parliament and was esteemed as an expert on education and school matters. He opposed the Nazi tendencies of some Slovak politicians and belonged to the group of Slovak Catholic moderates headed by President Joseph Tiso and Dr. Martin Sokol, speaker of the Slovak Parliament . For this reason the Germans regarded him as a persona non grata. Immediately after World War II , Pavol Carnogursky tried to organize the Christian Republican Party as a platform for defending human rights and freedom of conscience in Slovakia, when the country was again made part of Czecho-Slovakia. On the insistence of Slovak bishops, however, the Slovak Catholics joined forces with the predominantly Lutheran Democratic Party and helped it attain an overwhelming victory in Slovakia, triumphing over the communists and other small parties in the 1946 elections. Although Carnogursky was clearly anti-Nazi, yet because of his position as a deputy during the Slovak Republic, he was not found acceptable for any public role in the political life of post-war Slovakia. In 1947 , because of his well known anti-communist stand and his involvement in re-organizing the Catholic workers and the intelligentsia, he was imprisoned and eventually forced into seclusion and silence, providing for his family as a manual worker in a Bratislava factory . Nevertheless, during all those years of seclusion, Carnogursky carefully observed the political and religious situation in Slovakia, read all the biased works of communist historians about the Slovak Republic, and occasionally expressed his critical views in letters he sent to his friends abroad . After the fall of Dubcek in 1969, there began an era of brutal suppression of human rights and a systematic denial of freedom of religion. A pro-communist organization of the clergy, called Pacem in Terris, was established and the priests of Czecho-Slovakia were again torn into two groups, each distrusting the other. The Catholic press, i.e. the Katolicke nouiny (Catholic News) and Duchouny Pastier (Spiritual Shepherd) were put under strict communist control. The pro-communist speeches and articles of Canon Jozef Dovala, pastor in Ziar nad Hronom in the Banska Bystrica Diocese and vicar general of the Diocese , a prominent member of the Pacem in Terris movement, brought the patience and silence of Pavol Carnogursky to an end. The corruption of the Katolicke nouiny offended Carnogursky in a special way, since for some time after the war he had been the editor of this Catholic weekly and worked earnestly to bring it to a high journalistic level. On September 11 , 1974, the executive board of the Federal Association of the Catholic Clergymen, Pacem in Terris , celebrated the 94 SLOVAKIA thirtieth a nniversary of the Slovak upri sing in Banska Bystrica. Canon Joze f Dov ala was the main speaker. He equated the so-called '' political Catholicism ' ' of the Slovak Republic with collaboration with Ge rman Naz ism, and made it co-responsible for the death of about four thou sand priests in Nazi concentration camps. In a letter to Dovala, Carnogursky said it was ab surd to draw a connection between the regime of the Slovak Republic and Ge rman atrocities during the war. He wrote: In a few months it will be thirty years since the e nd of the S econd World War. During this p eriod a countless multitude of articles, political or pseudo-political, as well as scholarly and professional works on the current situation in Slo vakia appeared. Only in exceptional cases are they free of anti-Catholic tendencies. The great majority of the m obtusely describe the situation prejudicially, as you did. I read all tho se articles and books. In the last analysis, they have the same goal: to destroy Catholic ideology and Catholic life in Slo vakia. For that reason the arguments, of which even a mildly honest man and more so a scholar would be ashamed, are crude, unfounded, even hostile, negative and degrading. But what you, Father, associated with the ideas of political Catholicism in Slovakia, surpasses e verything. W e should give credit to anti-Catholic propaganda for using such tricks. The Slo vak State had to be proclaimed at that particular time (March 14, 1939, ed.) and under prevailing circumstances, if we were to make sure that among the thousands of priests murdered (in other countries) in Hitler 's concentration camps there would not be Slo vak priests. In the last analysis, our administrative authorities were not motivated only by a concern for the priests, but for the whole nation as well. And the nation has been saved. I cannot understand why you are angered and prompted to attack it (Slovak independence), since its existence gave you guarantees assuring that you yourself did not become a victim of Hitler 's concentration camp, if you were ordained before World War II. (Douala was ordained March 17, 1938.) I cannot understand why they talk only about political Catholicism and not about political Lutheranism, political Judaism, political atheism, and about the means by which these denominations and institutions have in that day and even to our day influenced and affected public life. Catholicism in Slovakia was a historical force in the nation. Without the care of the Catholic church for education, the social structure, schools, the press, agriculture and social and economic institutions, especially without the work and sacrifices of the best sons of the nation who as Catholic priests defended its voice and language, developing and enriching it through the centuries and assuring its cultural and economic growth - we would have perished. I can well understand why in the Protestant milieu, among the Jews and other denominations in Slovakia, there was not a similar SLOVAKIA 95 attack on their own. They are fully conscious of the consequences of such a step. Your attack on so-called political Catholicism during the span of the Slovak Republic, unfounded and, to say in openly, irresponsible as it is, is the more tragic because it came at the time when large-scale militant atheism was active in Slovakia and aimed its fury against the Catholic Church, its doctrine, essence and its historical influence upon the thinking and feeling of our people. And this is done by repressive methods not invoked now at the end of the twentieth century by any other Socialist country, not even in black Africa. No teacher, no educator among us, is permitted to enter a classroom, to work among the students, to teach even technical subject matter, unless he declares that he has solved the religious question, which means that he proclaims that he is an atheist. He must avow that he is an atheist not only in his private convictions, but in an active sense as well, ready to teach and educate in the atheistic way. Any doubt in this area, any evidence of religious feelings, such as attendance at divine services, reception of any sacrament, excludes him from a teaching position. Parents who enrolled their children for religious instruction are exposed to unheard of pressure from the school officials and from their employers. Children who attended religious instruction are denied advanced studies. There is a general rule valid even among the most primitive social groups that under-age children are not responsible for a transgression of the law. In our case, children are punished for attending religious instructions, while the Constitution of the peoples' democratic system ironically guarantees freedom of religious conviction. And these sanctions against children are not for a limited period of time, but for their whole lifetime. Father, how will the history of the Church in Slovakia and the general history of mankind call this kind of Catholicism, which, witnessing all this, still feels and expresses itself as you did in this case? My letter to you cannot delineate a complete description of the tragic situation of the Catholic Church in Slovakia. This situation has the dimensions of a world problem that cannot be contained in one letter. The core of the problem is the effort at the eradication of Christian consciousness in the life and culture of a nation which by its very nature and because of its Christian Catholic roots contributed to the civilization process in the heart of Europe ever since the ninth century. We cannot blind our eyes with illusions, assuming that the working of divine grace alone will defeat the imperiled Christianity of our n(!,tion. Without our personal co-operation, our struggle and our living faith, we cannot count on perpetuating the religious life and spirit of our universally Christian country. Doubtless, this struggle demands not only our standing up as Christians but also our intelligent approach to find reasonable 96 SLOVAKIA possibilities to solve the problems facing us without craven concessions and compromises. But an attack like yours, coming in such a form and content, inveighing upon political Catholicism as you have done, cannot be accounted as an acceptable line of conduct. Pavol Camogursky's second letter of protest was addressed to Bishop Jozef Feranec, Ordinary of the Diocese of Banska Bystrica. It deals with an article by Jozef Dovala published in the Katolicke Nouiny (Catholic News) August 29, 1976, in which the author states that the priests and laity participate in up building the new way of life in CzechoSlovakia where freedom of religion is constitutionally safeguarded. Dovala wrote this article after his return from the Eucharistic Congress in Philadelphia (August 1-7, 1976) where he attended the Slovak services as the only priest from Slovakia. The text of Camogursky' s letter of August 29, 1976, is as follows: Your Excellency, after reading the editorial in the last issue of the Katolicke Nouiny (no. 53, August 29, 1976) even the simplest believer cannot refrain from reacting in protest, realizing how severe is the extermination process against the Church in Slovakia and how this bitter reality opposes his religious conviction and undermines his devotion to the duties which bind him to the Church. In this article vicar Jozef Douala of Banska Bystrica, wrote among other things: 'Priests as well as laymen participate in the up building of our new life and they also share in its fruits. The Constitution of our state system respects the conviction of every citizen and guarantees the freedom of religion'. With pain in my heart I must state that reality in no way bears out the import of these words. Only a cynical scoffer could write thus, bringing the paper to the level of absurdity and compromising the reader in whose name he so dares to write. What then is the factual status of religious affairs, notwithstanding what the Constitution and Article 7 of the Helsinki Agreement provide? Two weeks ago, on August 18, 1976, the daily Pravda, organ of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Slovakia, published a report on the conclusions of the Party Congress and on atheistic education in Slovakia. The gist of these conclusions by the reporting officer read: 'Slovakia became a country of mass atheism. 'A competent representative would hardly dare to make such a bold and far reaching statement in the Party organ of any other Socialist state. Since it cannot be doubted that P. Prusak 's report was factual, even if he did not elaborate about what means were used where it was attained, one must take it as a hard fact. In Slovakia there is a special campaign against religion. I am convinced that Church leadership in Slovakia definitely and carefully concerns itself with the gravity of this article and will weigh its consequences both for itself and for the sake of the Church in Slovakia. SLOVAKIA 97 I am merely emphasizing the fact that the core of such purported success of atheism in Slovakia is viewed by the author as a purposeful atheistic work which has assumed a systematic character, as he specifically underlines it. In this systematic character of mass abandonment of the paternal heritage - the Catholic Church - by her sons and daughters, one must also see the fact that in Church leadership there are some persons whose high positions serve as the necessary front windows for facilitating apostasy and promoting mass atheism by playing a role assigned to them in their high functions. On the very same level, alas, one must also place the paper Katolicke Noviny which is degenerating into a publication of professional flatterers writing explicitly about themes that have very little in common with authentic religion. This attitude is in total contradiction to the contemporary difficult position of the Church, especially with the mentality of tormented parent-believers. It does not serve the serious matter of peace and rapprochement and easing of tensions. Forgive me, my Bishop, for the bitter tone of this letter. Truly, it is not as bitter as it is painful. And it is precisely for that reason that I must react to the slap on the face inflicted by the aforementioned writing of your vicar general. But not to write would pose an impossible dilemma for me: Am I still a Catholic? Has Mr. Prusak also rightfully included me in his concept of 'mass atheism' in Slovakia? For a responsible member of the Church not to react righteously to this critical development at a time when the very existence of the Church is at stake would be tantamount to not being in rapport with her, with this historic force which endowed Slovakia with all her spiritual, moral and cultural wealth. (1) Pavol Camogursky was imprisoned on November 10, 1976, undoubtedly for this daring analysis of the religious situation in Slovakia and his sharp criticism of Jozef Dovala. In such cases, stock charges of anti-state activities are readily found in the deformed communist system of justice. When Carnogursky ' s case evoked wide publicity in the free world, he was released from prison. He is awaiting trial for purported anti-state activity in the near future. A Speech by Aloysius Tkac Aloysius Tkac is a Catholic priest of the Diocese of Kosice (Eastern Slovakia). He is now 43 years old. He was an archivist in the bishop's chancery and as such he was a member of the pro-communist priestly organization Pacem in Terris. Seeing all the abuses perpetrated against the Church by the communist regime, he decided to publicly denounce them at the festive meeting of this organization on October 23, 1974. On the occasion of the celebration of the Thirtieth Anniversary of the Slovak Uprising, in the presence of communist officials controlling 98 SLOVAKIA all activities of the said organization, he first recalled the Constitution of the Czecho-Slovak Socialist Republic (art. 32) guaranteeing religious freedom of all citizens. Then he cited the government decrees and pertinent regulations of the Ministry of Culture from 1970 and 1972, by which religious education of children of second to seventh grades is permitted. He mentioned recent statements of the President about religious freedom; and no. 326 of the criminal code, by which all those hindering religious freedom and religious activity by force should be prosecuted and punished. He then proceeded to give accounts of actual religious situations in the country: We cannot pass with silence the unpleasant fact which causes both priests and believers great suffering; we feel we are being discriminated against. The procedure in regard to the spiritual needs many times is reckless and we consider it extremely harsh. The guidelines of the Ministry of Culture of the Slovak Socialist Republic concerning the enrollment of children for religious instructions are in many places disregarded. Groups were formed which not only belittle religious instructions, but hold back parents from the enrollment of their children in religious instruction by direct terror. Contrary to official guidelines about the enrollment, both parents have to present the enrollment petition; often the father or the mother have to excuse themselves from their jobs and complete their work after working hours. It was brought forth to some parents: 'Don't you want to send your children to a higher level of education? Do you want to bury the future of your children in technical schooling?' The behavior of many teachers was harsh, arrogant (such as tearing to pieces the enrollment petition or throwing it away), an illegal act, and it offended the dignity of the citizen-believers. Children attending religious instructions are often excluded from activities with their peers; they cannot make the Pioneers' pledge. During the school year there is also a great deal of peer and teacher pressure put on them. Parents and their children are going through Calvary. They are really martyrs. But how does all this square with the above mentioned state decrees? Even if there were only a few of thse examples, still we must not be silent. Unfortunately, such incidents are very frequent! The fact is that only a small percentage of the children are enrolled for religious instructions. Does this mean that parents and students have renounced their faith and become atheists? By no means! It is largely the result of a natural fear concerning the future! Citizen-believers are being deterred from fulfilling their religious needs, from receiving sacraments (Mass, Holy Communion, Confirmation, Matrimony). Only with difficulty can a priest secretly administer the sacraments of the dying in a hospital. Under various, even false, accusations state permission for priestly work has been revoked to several priests. Does that not bother SLOVAKIA 99 us? Does not the fate of our brothers in the priesthood concern us? Do we not stand up for the defense of the honor of the priestly state? If not, it is a tragedy! Fifteen newly ordained priests, four months after their ordination, are still waiting for their assignments. Other college graduates have their work assignments in their pockets the moment they have finished their studies. And there are so many parishes and chaplaincies unoccupied/ There are other pains, but others should speak about them! Brothers, friends, I have brought up our common pains. I have spoken to you about the suffering of our believing people. We are not too sensitive, nor are we asking for privileges. We are in pain from the thorns that we have to wear with our people. We are happy to live in our Czecho-Slovak Socialist Republic. We would not betray it for anything. But let us eliminate the mistakes and inadequacies which make our lives difficult. This frank statement shocked the priests and the communist government representatives who always attend such meetings . As a rule, only praise of and gratitude to the regime are expressed at such gatherings. The statement was not even mentioned in the so-called Catholic press of Czecho-Slovakia, or other newspapers. It was secretly smuggled to the free world. What happened to this brave Catholic priest who openly expressed both the facts and the feelings of all conscientious priests and Catholic lay people? Nothing immediately . But then in July of 1975 , almost a year later, news came from Slovakia that several priests who expressed their anti-communist feelings were attacked and some of them severely injured by some individuals who were never apprehended by the police . One of those attacked and severely injured was Aloysius Tkac. In December , 1975 the state permit of Aloysius Tkac to perform priestly duties was withdrawn. His present fate is not known . It may be either manual work or jail. (2) Protests of Monsignor Trstensky Monsignor Victor Trstensky is a prominent Slovak priest. He was born in Trstena (District Orava) on March 29, 1908. After finishing his basic and high school studies in Trstena, he enrolled in the Spis Diocesan Seminary, and was ordained on June 29, 1931. Because of his pastoral zeal and exemplary priestly life, he early became pastor of St. Catherine Church in Dolny Kubin, where he was also a teacher of religion at the local gynmasium. On the recommendation of his Bishop, John Vojtassak, he was made Papal Prelate (Monsignor) while still a very young priest. During the Slovak Republic (1939-1945), as a prominent member of the Hlinka Slovak Populist Party, he took an active part in the public life of his town; at the same time he was involved in the Catholic Action Movement. 100 SLOVAKIA For this activity, after the Second World War he was imprisoned and spent twenty-one years in various prisons, in labor camps, and in manual work. During the Dubcek era, he was rehabilitated and received a state permit for pastoral work on October 7, 1969. The Ordinary of the Spis Diocese , Reverend Joseph Ligos, appointed him adminstrator of St. Nicholas Church in Stara Lubovna where he worked tirelessly for four years. In the post-Dubcek era, the communists in Czecho-Slovakia could not tolerate strong personalities like Monsignor Trstensky in pastoral work . They were afraid of his moral influence on parishioners and particularly on youth. With the year 1974, a new Calvary began for Monsignor Trstensky. The communist-dominated District Committee in Stara Lubovna decided that Trstensky had to leave the town and again be removed from pastoral work . He was notified about his imminent dismissal on January 21, 1974 by the new Ordinary of the Diocese, Stephen Garaj. On January 27, 1974 , Monsignor Trstensky preached to his stunned parishioners a memorable homily, which was secretly taped and later found its way to the free world. The principal reasons for Trstensky's dismissal, given to the vicar capitular by Communist officials, were as follows: 1. preaching against atheism and atheists; 2. sending gifts to old people on Christmas; 3. meetings with altar boys in the church and rectory; 4. keeping in his parish religious Sisters in violation of state regulations; 5. blessing the homes of parishioners after Epiphany. In his classic homily, Monsignor Trstensky explained his activity as pastor of the church in Stara Lubovna and argued convincingly that there was nothing illegal in his pastoral work . He concluded his homily with these words: What does matter is the truth. Whoever distorts the truth cannot build the country. Only truth can save the nation and the country. Remember, if I have to leave here, I am not leaving as a criminal, murderer, traitor of the nation and country. I love my country. Twice I was abroad - in Vienna, Rome, Paris. I could have stayed there. I was invited to do so. But I said: 'I am a Slovak. I did not do anything wrong. I want to live among our people because I love my country and my people.' I returned home. I sincerely love my country, and not only in words but more so by teaching you to love God and one another; by teaching you to work diligently and to live morally. I do not talk about peace, but I promote it with my whole life and work. (3) The decision of the County Committee, Department of Culture, in Stara Lubovna, prohibiting Trstensky to perform priestly ministry was dated January 30, 1974 and delivered to him on February 1, 1974. The reasons for his dismissal are formulated as follows : From the beginning of his assignment to Stara Lubovna, Victor Trstensky in various ways manifested his dissent with the development SLOVAKIA 101 of our socialist society. For that reason, several sessions were held with him where he was notified that he was breaking the norms established for state-church relationships. In recent times he has increased his reactionary activity and in his sermons he openly and vituperatively spoke against progressively thinking citizens and incited against them. In one of his sermons he said that the unbelievers will once again experience the supremacy of god (sic) and will wish to become believers, but it will be too late. By this activity he was systematically breaking the established laws regarding state-church relations. Such was the case during the last Christmas season, when with the help of school children he distributed to some families packages containing wine, oranges, soap and other items. During his assignment to the parish of Stara Lubovna he intentionally infringed upon the directives on religious instructions by gathering a group of altar boys and choir singers in the church and rectory for practice; furthermore, he organized meetings with a considerable number of children in the rectory. During his assignment at the parish of Stara Lubovna, three religious Sisters came to him and, under his direction, performed church functions and worked actively on the revitalization of the church in the city and among the youth. For these reasons and for his dangerously anti-socialist stand, shown particularly in recent times and in these last days, when he caused among the believers a high and dangerous tension, his continuance in church administration would seriously endanger peaceful social life and the interests of our working people; therefore, with immediate effectiveness, we take away his state permit to work in church administration. On February 14, 1974, Monsignor Trstensky appealed this verdict. As a preliminary to his letter of appeal, he pointed to the irregularities in the whole procedure against him by quoting eight paragraphs of law 71-1967, which were disregarded in his case. Then, in eight pages, he convincingly refuted all the vague or completely false charges against him. He referred to the public and well-known record of his activity as pastor of Stara Lubovna parish. He emphatically stated that he only fulfilled his duties as pastor of a parish, never acting against the state laws and official regulations. The only real reason for the removal of Monsignor Trstensky from pastoral work was his exemplary priestly life and his zealous work for the spiritual welfare of his flock. The appeal of Monsignor Trstensky had no effect and the District Committee in Kosice which by the decision of February 19, 1974, confirmed the verdict of the County Committee in Stara Lubovna and made the decision final, precluding any further appeal. Monsignor Trstensky thereafter went to live in his town of birth, Trstena, in the region of Orava. Grateful parishioners of Stara Lubovna did not forget their beloved pastor. As a token of their appreciation and 102 SLOVAKIA gratitude during the rest of the year 1974, they traveled to Trstena in trucks loaded with construction material and built a home for him. He lives there today. Letters to Highest Authorities After spending years in prison and now being deprived of the permit to work as a priest, Monsignor Trstensky became a fearless witness to communist persecution of loyal priests, and a bold defender of the minimal rights of religion. Monsignor Trstensky carefully observes the situation in his country, sharply analyzes it, and sends his observations to the highest government places. He is sending protest letters to Dr. Peter Colotka, Prime Minister of Slovakia, and even to the President of Czecho-Slovakia, Dr. Gustav Husak. Copies of some of his letters have found their way to the free world. They are quite revealing, since they contain the first-hand experiences and observations of a man who lives there, sees with open eyes, and is able to analyze the situation. One such letter was addressed to Dr. Colotka as a reaction to his television talk on the occasion of the International Year of Women, on March 7, 1974. Colotka is a native of Orava region, and Trstensky was his teacher of religion in Dolny Kubin gymnasium. The letter starts with acknowledgements to Colotka for his fine tribute to women, to Slovak mothers and grandmothers, who taught their children honesty, loyalty and readiness to sacrifice for the truth even with their lives. In his letter Trstensky asks Colotka what these women get from the communist regime. Isn't it tearing apart the hearts of our mothers and grandmothers and their offspring, when religious education of children is being hindered more and more? I heard, for example, that in Banska Bystrica, because of brutal terror at the time of enrollment for religious instructions, not one child was registered. It is the same in many cities of Slovakia. Not that the parents and children would not be interested in religion, as purported, but because of the fear for their existence, they do not dare to register their children for religious instructions. Isn't it a punishment for our mothers and grandmothers, when it is made impossible for their sons to devote themselves to a priestly state of life? And even when they have achieved it after years of demanding studies, obtusely to deprive them of a permit to work in the Church ministry, despite a great shortage of priests? In Slovakia, every year 50 to 60 priests die, while hardly 20 to 22 newly ordained priests come out of the seminary. The reason for this is the unfortunate numerous clauses (restricted number) by which only a small number of the candidates can be accepted into the seminary, and this number only on the evaluation of various non-ecclesiastical authorities. Isn't it a punishment for our mothers and grandmothers, when their daughters and granddaughters are not permitted to choose a vocation in which SLOVAKIA 103 they could peacefully serve God and their neighbors? Even those religious Sisters who previously had chosen this vocation are, so to say, thrown out from their own houses to the streets? lsn 't it hurting our mothers and grandmothers to see how their children, plying their vocations as teachers, civil servants, or factory foremen cannot fulfill their religious obligations for fear of being/ired or transferred to some other job with a lower salary? What can our mothers and grandmothers say about the so-called Catholic press, which in fact does not exist? ''The statements of Pacem in Terris officers that everything is all right here in the matters of religion, do not change these sad facts. By such statements they compromise not only themselves and the Church, but put into a bad perspective our whole system. We are like open cards, and whoever stops here can evaluate religious situations himself and can see the one-sidedness of such self-serving statements. It would be much more fruitful, it those from our priestly ranks who are writing for Pacem in Terris and who think they are promoting peace and social progress, mainly and openly told the heads of our regime that man is not only a body, but also a soul, which is in need of spiritual food. Our simple old women in Orava are shaking their heads when, while reading in the Katolicke Noviny all those praises about religious life in our country, they live in sadness with their daughters who were thrown out of religious life not by Church but by State authorities, or with their sons who were stripped of the State permit for Church administration, or when they see their sons and daughters sneaking away, if they want to pray, get married in church, or have their child baptized. (4) In July, 1976, Monsignor Trstensky asked for travel permission to see his sick brother and his aged sister living in the U.S.A. His petition was turned down by the government officials. Trstensky again sent appeals to the Slovak Prime Minister, Peter Colotka, and to the President of Czecho-Slovakia, Dr. Gustav Husak. In his letter to the President dated January 6, 1977, Trstensky again presented a sharp analysis of the situation in Slovakia. I still have not received an answer about my own sufferings and those of believing people. Probably the reason is that it regards a Roman Catholic priest, thus a man outside the law. This confirms my conviction that the main task of some of our circles is to harrass the citizens, especially believers, and to unleash a ruthless war against religion and its adherents. By watching television, by reading newspapers, and magazines and books about so-called "scientific" atheism, by talking with believers, by watching their sad faces, by seeing hundreds of priests outside pastoral work, tormented Sisters, the fear of teachers, civil servants, nurses, foremen in factories, one gets a clear testimony what injustices are being perpetrated against believers. A member of the Party can be like a stump of wood, as long as he knows some phrases about atheism, Marxism. He is preferred to a non- 104 SLOVAKIA Party man, no matter how intelligent, conscientious and patriotic the latter may be. How much more useful would it be to our country, if those much needed billions squandered on anti-religious propaganda, on so-called civil baptisms, weddings, burials, and on the tens of thousands of atheistic propagandists, were used for real re-education in the spirit of justice and mutual love, and for the promotion of material, spiritual, cultural and social development. Wherever there is an anti-religious campaign and justice is trampled upon, morality declines, the families fall apart, enthusiasm for work vanishes, honesty and responsibility disappear, criminality among adults and even among adolescents increases, and the very foundations of the country are undermined. If there is to be a lasting peace, it must be built on justice, truth, freedom and love. (5) It is interesting to note that despite his sharp protest letters, some of which were published in the Western press , Monsignor Trstensky is still not in jail. He is harrassed and intimidated, as appears from his letters . The reason for his not being imprisoned may be the notoriety of his case throughout Czecho-Slovakia and, to some extent, even throughout the free world. The regime fears the out-cry of the free world which follows the imprisonment of well-known dissidents. Examples of Living Faith Not all opponents of militant atheism express their protests against the persecution of the Church by letters and manifestos. In Slovakia there are many priests and lay people resisting the communist oppression of religion with their lives. There are people filling the churches on Sundays and holy days, receiving the sacraments regularly , enrolling their children for religious instructions - ready to pay for it with a loss of better jobs and in some instances with a loss of personal freedom. There are still priests who are in a real sense spiritual fathers of their flock, risking the loss of a state permit to function as priests, or risking the loss of liberty. There are priests and lay people who by the depth of their religious life equal the heroism of the Christians of the early Church. They are luminaries of deep faith in these hours of darkness. One such is John Chrysostom Korec. At the time of the suppression of religious orders in 1950, John Korec was a Jesuit cleric. After nearly completing his regular theological studies, he was secretly ordained a priest and in 1951, bishop. He was then 27 years old, the youngest bishop in the world. He had to go through military service. He then became a factory worker. He worked as a bishop in the underground by secretly preaching to small groups of people, administering the sacrament of Confirmation , teaching young clerics, ~d SLOVAKIA 105 eventually ordaining them as priests. In 1960, communist spies discovered who John Korec really was. He was sentenced to twelve years in a high security prison. But even in those years of imprisonment, he continued his priestly work among his fellow inmates. In 1968, Bishop Korec was released from jail, weakened in body. He became one of the leading personalities in revitalizing the religious life of Slovakia during this period of thaw. In 1969, he visited Rome and had a private audience with the Holy Father, who gave him one of his personal croziers and a pectoral cross as a sign of his appreciation for the young bishop's work. After the fall of Dubcek (April 17, 1969), renewed terrorism began in Czecho-Slovakia. The state permit to publicly celebrate the Mass was taken away from Bishop Korec. He was not permitted to take part in any official functions of the Church. He became a factory worker in Bratislava. Today, the whole of Slovakia knows about the case of Bishop Korec. People distressed by harsh religious repression, particularly the highly educated, come to Bishop Korec for his words of advice and consolation. This is not looked upon favorably by the communist authorities. They would like to get rid of Bishop Korec, but without further disturbing the populace. They offered him an opporutnity to emigrate from Slovakia. Bishop Korec rejected the suggestion. They offered him a state permit to perform a ministry in some parish outside Bratislava. Bishop Korec said he would accept the ministry outside Bratislava, on the condition that all other priests to whom the state permit was denied or taken away be given permission to function as priests. The communist authorities rejected this condition. The case of the heroic Bishop Korec was reported in the Catholic press throughout the free world. Perhaps this will protect him temporarily against imprisonment. (6) Stephen J avorsky, a Salesian priest, administrator of the parish in Muran, was imprisoned by the state police on November 26, 1975 and sentenced to eighteen months in jail. His state permit to perform his priestly duties was suspended for two years after the expiration of his jail sentence. For this verdict the following reasons are given by the County Court in Muran: ''He enticed youth, especially university students, by inducing them to listen to the Vatican Radio; he distributed books among them; in their presence, he projected film strips and played tapes containing unacceptable conferences on religious philosophy directed against the interests of our socialist society and against materialistic philosophy, with the aim of involving into this work a large group of religious lay people who besides their regular vocation should exercise missionary activity as well. On June 1, 1975, during the divine services in the parish church of Muran, he tried to influence parents, calling the County Spartakiad (gymnastic exhibition) a worldly vanity fair to be opposed by the parents in the future. " Javorsky's appeal of this verdict to a higher court was rejected and the length of his prison term was prolonged to two full years. (7) 106 SLOVAKIA Among Slovak dissidents are also brave writers and distributors of anonymous pamphlets which sporadically appear in various parts of the country. Such a leaflet distributed in June, 1975, analyzes the religious situation in Slovakia and exhorts Christian believers to defend religious rights guaranteed by the Constitution and state laws.(8) Another pamphlet, distributed in Slovakia in April of 1976, warns Slovak Catholics of the biased news published in the Katolicke Noviny and against the priest-collaborators active in the pro-communist organization Pacem in Terris. (9) It is proper to express our respect and admiration of these known and unknown heroes. They suffer for their deep religious convictions . The whole country lives in an atmosphere of imprisonment. Their suffering sooner or later will bring about the liberty of the Church and of the people in Slovakia. FOOTNOTES The complete text of both Camogursky letters was published in HORIZONT ' 77 , March-April , 1977, p . 8-9. (2) The text of Rev. Tkac 's speech can be found in " SITUATION DER KATHOLISHEN KIRCHE IN DER TSCHECHOSLOWAKEI," Ed . JUSTITIA ET PAX 1976, p. 134138. (3) Frantisek Vnuk : Prenasledo uanie katolickeho ducho uenst ua sa stupi'tuje . (Mounting Persecution of the Catholic Clergy) . SLOVAK V AMERIKE (Slovak in America), May 8, 1974, p . 1, 3. (4) The text of this Jetter was published in HLASY Z RIMA (Voices of Rome), July 1976, p. 22-23. (5) The main parts of this letter were published in JEDNOTA , March 30, 1977, p. 20, 17; also in HLASY Z RIMA , April 1977, p. 21-23 . (6) " Narodeniny biskupa-robotnika Jana Korea " (The Birthday of Bishop-Worker, John Korec) . SLOVAK V AMERIKE , Jan. 26, 1977 , p . 1. (7) HLASY Z RIMA , January 1977, p . 22. (8) The complete text of this pamphlet was published in " SITUATION DER KATHOLISCHEN KIRCHE IN DER TSCHECHOSLOWAKEI," p. 123-130. (9) Ibid. , p . 84-85 ; HLASY Z RIMA , August-September, 1976, p . 31. (1)  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Preludes to "Charter '77" Description An account of the resource Theodoric J. Zubek, O.F.M. Slovakia, Vol. 27 (No. 50), 1977 pp. 91-106 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 1977 SNK https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/ad5ad6569148152357724a975663bcdc.pdf 85e08313d02b14b2643eec56feb18bbf PDF Text Text 58:.__ _ _ _ _ _ _ _...::S:.:L:.;:O...::V..:..AKIA,..:.._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ PRESIDENT TISO AND AMERICA BY KONSTO CULE1N During the war, the propaganda of Dr. Edward Benes, headquarters London, prevailed. The little man, who always had a plan, had surrendered Czecho-Slovakia and its peoples to Hitler at Munich, in 1938, without even consulting parliament. Benes then resigned and fled the country. He fled the country not only to escape capture by the Nazis, but also to escape the wrath of his own people, the Czechs, who felt that he had betrayed them. Of course, after he settled in London and had time to think a-bout his cowardly flight from responsibility, he left no stone unturned to justify his actions. Secretly he swore vengeance on the Slovaks and the Sudeten Germans - and even the Czechs who dared to tell the truth about what had happened in Czecho-Slovakia while Benes was top man. And that was Dr. Benes's postwar policy. For official circles in London and Washington, only Benes was the accepted authority. Benes could do no wrong. His word was the gospel truth. That is, until he told London and Washington off, too, as Stalin's stooge - the pay-off for his being "appointed" president of Czecho-610vakia by Moscow. Benes's London propaganda apparatus attacked the Slovaks and their leaders viciously and maliciously: the Slovaks declared war on the United States; President Tiso sold out to Hitler; the Slovaks mistreated and murdered American flyers; the Slovaks had surrendered Americans to the Nazis, etc. Lies that made Goe'bbels look like an amateur! The fact is that President Tiso and the Slovaks were well aware of their hapless situation - a situation they had not created or asked for. Bombs fell on Slovakia, not on the Czech Skoda Works that worked for Hitler, but the Slovaks understood, because they figured it was not America bombing them, but Dr. Benes whose military advice prevailed with Washington. Of course, the Slovaks were �SLOVAKIA 59 hurt, but they suffered without blasting off against America. When Tiso learned that American flyers of Slovak origin were captured by the Germans, he requested that they be transferred to Slovakia. The president wanted to set up a detention camp for them in Central Slovakia where they might spend the rest of the war. "If we coUJld only get them here," Tiso told me on one occasion, we could be sure they would be safe and we could show them all of our Slovakia." When several Americans were taken in Slovakia ( after their mission for Benes had failed), they were treated royally by the Slovaks. They were housed in one of the summer resorts in the Tatras and were practically on their own, with all their needs taken care of. When I visited them, one of them told me outright: "This reaMy is something. I could never have imagined that being captured could be so pleasant. Everybody treats us so kindly and we have just about everything we want." The American prisoners were free to move about, to go to town, have their teeth repaired, to bathe in the spa, etc. And they played tennis with Slovak officers. The only complaint I had heard from them was that they were getting too much meat and not enough vegetables! One of them was of Slovak origin. "How fortunate," he said, "that I had learned at least some Slovak from my mother and now can ad as interpreter for my buddies!" Tiso was very much concerned about their fate and about their comfort. I was present when he ordered our people to give the best possible care to "our American friends" - the sons of our brethren in America. Things went along fine, until one day the Germans demanded the surrender of the American flyers in Slovakia. I happened to be with Tiso when t he order was received. "This is a terriible situation. We shall have to fight for them," he said. "I have already told Mracna of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to do what he can to forestall the execution of the order." It was plainly evident that President Tiso was really worried. I suggested that Mracna use the argument that �60 SLOVAKIA surrendering our American friends could be used propaganda-wise against the independence of Slovakia; our adversaries could say: what kind of an independence does Slovakia enjoy if she has to surrender her own prisoners? Tiso listened nervously and then said: "Go to Mracna at once and talk the matter over with him. We must find a way of keeping the Americans here." It so happened that the Americans were not surrendered to the Germans. We prepared a note, telling just how much harm would come to the Slovak Republic from such a surrender, especially since one of the prisoners was of Slovak origin. If we are forced to surrender the Americans, our American Slovaks would then certainly be led to believe that we ourselves do not control the internal affairs of our country. Furthermore, that it is President Tiso's personal wish that the Americans remain in Slovakia. The result surprised even us : The Germans no longer presented demands to surrender our Americans to them. They spent the rest of the war in comparative comfort. President Tiso was a real friend of America during the most trying times, when the war was on, when the allies were bombing Slovakia according to the strategy planned by Dr. Benes. The Slovaks did not hate America, and never could. Too many of them had been to America and tasted of the fruits of liberty and freedom. They knew America. America was not at war with Slovakia - Benes was. And, unfortunately, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was gullible enough to trust Benes, the errand boy of Stalin! THE TROUBLEMAKER He is the silent one. He never speiak,s up on issues. He never sounlds off in the letter column O'f his looa'l newspaiper. He never writes his Oon,gressman or the Sllaite Deipartment. He is quiet as a clam. How could Democracy succeed if all of us, lilk,e 1!his one, wi1!hheld our opiniions, our idea.s, our cr'i'hcisms? Vo'tiing on election day is only part of a citizen!s duty. Active, day-lby-diay ,parl.iciipation in gov,e rnment, in society, in, busJness associations is a responsilb'ility for each and every one of us. The silent troull:ilemaker foils to understand this. In his worship df " law and order," he never dares to question an oppressive law, never distin·g uishes "o·r der" from stagna'tli'on. He is the aipostle of social deCla-y, not Democracy. In his Wiish t,o offend nobody, he oofends Democracy. And forget it ndt: Democracy, like Charity, begins at home. � 58:.__ _ _ _ _ _ _ _...::S:.:L:.;:O...::V..:..AKIA,..:.._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ PRESIDENT TISO AND AMERICA BY KONSTO CULE1N During the war, the propaganda of Dr. Edward Benes, headquarters London, prevailed. The little man, who always had a plan, had surrendered Czecho-Slovakia and its peoples to Hitler at Munich, in 1938, without even consulting parliament. Benes then resigned and fled the country. He fled the country not only to escape capture by the Nazis, but also to escape the wrath of his own people, the Czechs, who felt that he had betrayed them. Of course, after he settled in London and had time to think a-bout his cowardly flight from responsibility, he left no stone unturned to justify his actions. Secretly he swore vengeance on the Slovaks and the Sudeten Germans - and even the Czechs who dared to tell the truth about what had happened in Czecho-Slovakia while Benes was top man. And that was Dr. Benes's postwar policy. For official circles in London and Washington, only Benes was the accepted authority. Benes could do no wrong. His word was the gospel truth. That is, until he told London and Washington off, too, as Stalin's stooge - the pay-off for his being "appointed" president of Czecho-610vakia by Moscow. Benes's London propaganda apparatus attacked the Slovaks and their leaders viciously and maliciously: the Slovaks declared war on the United States; President Tiso sold out to Hitler; the Slovaks mistreated and murdered American flyers; the Slovaks had surrendered Americans to the Nazis, etc. Lies that made Goe'bbels look like an amateur! The fact is that President Tiso and the Slovaks were well aware of their hapless situation - a situation they had not created or asked for. Bombs fell on Slovakia, not on the Czech Skoda Works that worked for Hitler, but the Slovaks understood, because they figured it was not America bombing them, but Dr. Benes whose military advice prevailed with Washington. Of course, the Slovaks were �SLOVAKIA 59 hurt, but they suffered without blasting off against America. When Tiso learned that American flyers of Slovak origin were captured by the Germans, he requested that they be transferred to Slovakia. The president wanted to set up a detention camp for them in Central Slovakia where they might spend the rest of the war. "If we coUJld only get them here," Tiso told me on one occasion, we could be sure they would be safe and we could show them all of our Slovakia." When several Americans were taken in Slovakia ( after their mission for Benes had failed), they were treated royally by the Slovaks. They were housed in one of the summer resorts in the Tatras and were practically on their own, with all their needs taken care of. When I visited them, one of them told me outright: "This reaMy is something. I could never have imagined that being captured could be so pleasant. Everybody treats us so kindly and we have just about everything we want." The American prisoners were free to move about, to go to town, have their teeth repaired, to bathe in the spa, etc. And they played tennis with Slovak officers. The only complaint I had heard from them was that they were getting too much meat and not enough vegetables! One of them was of Slovak origin. "How fortunate," he said, "that I had learned at least some Slovak from my mother and now can ad as interpreter for my buddies!" Tiso was very much concerned about their fate and about their comfort. I was present when he ordered our people to give the best possible care to "our American friends" - the sons of our brethren in America. Things went along fine, until one day the Germans demanded the surrender of the American flyers in Slovakia. I happened to be with Tiso when t he order was received. "This is a terriible situation. We shall have to fight for them," he said. "I have already told Mracna of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to do what he can to forestall the execution of the order." It was plainly evident that President Tiso was really worried. I suggested that Mracna use the argument that �60 SLOVAKIA surrendering our American friends could be used propaganda-wise against the independence of Slovakia; our adversaries could say: what kind of an independence does Slovakia enjoy if she has to surrender her own prisoners? Tiso listened nervously and then said: "Go to Mracna at once and talk the matter over with him. We must find a way of keeping the Americans here." It so happened that the Americans were not surrendered to the Germans. We prepared a note, telling just how much harm would come to the Slovak Republic from such a surrender, especially since one of the prisoners was of Slovak origin. If we are forced to surrender the Americans, our American Slovaks would then certainly be led to believe that we ourselves do not control the internal affairs of our country. Furthermore, that it is President Tiso's personal wish that the Americans remain in Slovakia. The result surprised even us : The Germans no longer presented demands to surrender our Americans to them. They spent the rest of the war in comparative comfort. President Tiso was a real friend of America during the most trying times, when the war was on, when the allies were bombing Slovakia according to the strategy planned by Dr. Benes. The Slovaks did not hate America, and never could. Too many of them had been to America and tasted of the fruits of liberty and freedom. They knew America. America was not at war with Slovakia - Benes was. And, unfortunately, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was gullible enough to trust Benes, the errand boy of Stalin! THE TROUBLEMAKER He is the silent one. He never speiak,s up on issues. He never sounlds off in the letter column O'f his looa'l newspaiper. He never writes his Oon,gressman or the Sllaite Deipartment. He is quiet as a clam. How could Democracy succeed if all of us, lilk,e 1!his one, wi1!hheld our opiniions, our idea.s, our cr'i'hcisms? Vo'tiing on election day is only part of a citizen!s duty. Active, day-lby-diay ,parl.iciipation in gov,e rnment, in society, in, busJness associations is a responsilb'ility for each and every one of us. The silent troull:ilemaker foils to understand this. In his worship df " law and order," he never dares to question an oppressive law, never distin·g uishes "o·r der" from stagna'tli'on. He is the aipostle of social deCla-y, not Democracy. In his Wiish t,o offend nobody, he oofends Democracy. And forget it ndt: Democracy, like Charity, begins at home. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to 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 58:.__ _ _ _ _ _ _ _...::S:.:L:.;:O...::V..:..AKIA,..:.._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ PRESIDENT TISO AND AMERICA BY KONSTO CULE1N During the war, the propaganda of Dr. Edward Benes, headquarters London, prevailed. The little man, who always had a plan, had surrendered Czecho-Slovakia and its peoples to Hitler at Munich, in 1938, without even consulting parliament. Benes then resigned and fled the country. He fled the country not only to escape capture by the Nazis, but also to escape the wrath of his own people, the Czechs, who felt that he had betrayed them. Of course, after he settled in London and had time to think a-bout his cowardly flight from responsibility, he left no stone unturned to justify his actions. Secretly he swore vengeance on the Slovaks and the Sudeten Germans - and even the Czechs who dared to tell the truth about what had happened in Czecho-Slovakia while Benes was top man. And that was Dr. Benes's postwar policy. For official circles in London and Washington, only Benes was the accepted authority. Benes could do no wrong. His word was the gospel truth. That is, until he told London and Washington off, too, as Stalin's stooge - the pay-off for his being "appointed" president of Czecho-610vakia by Moscow. Benes's London propaganda apparatus attacked the Slovaks and their leaders viciously and maliciously: the Slovaks declared war on the United States; President Tiso sold out to Hitler; the Slovaks mistreated and murdered American flyers; the Slovaks had surrendered Americans to the Nazis, etc. Lies that made Goe'bbels look like an amateur! The fact is that President Tiso and the Slovaks were well aware of their hapless situation - a situation they had not created or asked for. Bombs fell on Slovakia, not on the Czech Skoda Works that worked for Hitler, but the Slovaks understood, because they figured it was not America bombing them, but Dr. Benes whose military advice prevailed with Washington. Of course, the Slovaks were SLOVAKIA 59 hurt, but they suffered without blasting off against America. When Tiso learned that American flyers of Slovak origin were captured by the Germans, he requested that they be transferred to Slovakia. The president wanted to set up a detention camp for them in Central Slovakia where they might spend the rest of the war. "If we coUJld only get them here," Tiso told me on one occasion, we could be sure they would be safe and we could show them all of our Slovakia." When several Americans were taken in Slovakia ( after their mission for Benes had failed), they were treated royally by the Slovaks. They were housed in one of the summer resorts in the Tatras and were practically on their own, with all their needs taken care of. When I visited them, one of them told me outright: "This reaMy is something. I could never have imagined that being captured could be so pleasant. Everybody treats us so kindly and we have just about everything we want." The American prisoners were free to move about, to go to town, have their teeth repaired, to bathe in the spa, etc. And they played tennis with Slovak officers. The only complaint I had heard from them was that they were getting too much meat and not enough vegetables! One of them was of Slovak origin. "How fortunate," he said, "that I had learned at least some Slovak from my mother and now can ad as interpreter for my buddies!" Tiso was very much concerned about their fate and about their comfort. I was present when he ordered our people to give the best possible care to "our American friends" - the sons of our brethren in America. Things went along fine, until one day the Germans demanded the surrender of the American flyers in Slovakia. I happened to be with Tiso when t he order was received. "This is a terriible situation. We shall have to fight for them," he said. "I have already told Mracna of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to do what he can to forestall the execution of the order." It was plainly evident that President Tiso was really worried. I suggested that Mracna use the argument that 60 SLOVAKIA surrendering our American friends could be used propaganda-wise against the independence of Slovakia; our adversaries could say: what kind of an independence does Slovakia enjoy if she has to surrender her own prisoners? Tiso listened nervously and then said: "Go to Mracna at once and talk the matter over with him. We must find a way of keeping the Americans here." It so happened that the Americans were not surrendered to the Germans. We prepared a note, telling just how much harm would come to the Slovak Republic from such a surrender, especially since one of the prisoners was of Slovak origin. If we are forced to surrender the Americans, our American Slovaks would then certainly be led to believe that we ourselves do not control the internal affairs of our country. Furthermore, that it is President Tiso's personal wish that the Americans remain in Slovakia. The result surprised even us : The Germans no longer presented demands to surrender our Americans to them. They spent the rest of the war in comparative comfort. President Tiso was a real friend of America during the most trying times, when the war was on, when the allies were bombing Slovakia according to the strategy planned by Dr. Benes. The Slovaks did not hate America, and never could. Too many of them had been to America and tasted of the fruits of liberty and freedom. They knew America. America was not at war with Slovakia - Benes was. And, unfortunately, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was gullible enough to trust Benes, the errand boy of Stalin! THE TROUBLEMAKER He is the silent one. He never speiak,s up on issues. He never sounlds off in the letter column O'f his looa'l newspaiper. He never writes his Oon,gressman or the Sllaite Deipartment. He is quiet as a clam. How could Democracy succeed if all of us, lilk,e 1!his one, wi1!hheld our opiniions, our idea.s, our cr'i'hcisms? Vo'tiing on election day is only part of a citizen!s duty. Active, day-lby-diay ,parl.iciipation in gov,e rnment, in society, in, busJness associations is a responsilb'ility for each and every one of us. The silent troull:ilemaker foils to understand this. In his worship df " law and order," he never dares to question an oppressive law, never distin·g uishes "o·r der" from stagna'tli'on. He is the aipostle of social deCla-y, not Democracy. In his Wiish t,o offend nobody, he oofends Democracy. And forget it ndt: Democracy, like Charity, begins at home.  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource President Tiso and America Description An account of the resource Konšto Čulen Slovakia, Vol. 11, No. 2 (34), September-December 1961 pp. 58-60 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 September-December 1961 SNK https://slovakia.wordsofpassage.net/files/original/9c5a91b4d81ccee7ea296689cadfafca.pdf a3cf960c15ff0b7080d4617154213bf3 PDF Text Text 48 SLOVAK.IA Priest, Teacher, President and National Hero Dr. Joseph Tiso, war-time president of the Slovak Republic, was born October 13, 1887, in Vel'ka Bytca, Slovakia. After completing his elementary training, he studied in zilina and Nitra, then completed his theological studies in Vienna. He was ordained priest in 1910 and a year later attained the degree of Doctor of Theology. Father Tiso served as chaplain in Oscadnica, Rajec and Banovce. In 1914 he served in the army as field chaplain and in 1915 was named spiritual director of the seminary at Nitra and professor of religion at the college and high school there. In 1918 he was appointed professor of theology. In 1921, he was honored by the Holy Father with the title of Monsignor. Dr. Joseph Tiso was very active as an organizer and writer. He was imprisoned twice by the government for "anti-state" activities, the general term for anything that did not coincide with the political ideology of the government. While incarcerated Dr. Tiso tranlated several apologetic works into Slovak. Father Tiso was truly a man of his people and for his people. He strained every effort to elevate them spiritually and materially. In 1924 Dr. Joseph Tiso became pastor of the church at Banovce and served the spiritual and temporal needs of the people there until he was imprisoned in 1945. As a member of Hlinka's People's Party, he was elected to parliament in 1925 and in 1927 was appointed Minister of Health and Physical Culture by the Masaryk regime. Dr . Tiso visited America only once; that was in 1937 when he came as a member of a delegation of the Society of St. Adalbert, Slovakia's greatest Catholic publishing house. When Slovakia was granted autonomy on October 6, 1938, the Prague government named Dr. Tiso premier of the autonomous Slovak government. The following year, when Czecho-Slovakia collapsed completely, the Slovak �SLOVAKIA 49 parliament declared the independence of Slovakia on March 14. The parliament elected Dr. Joseph Tiso president of the independent Slovak Republic on October 26, 1939. Under Tiso's guidance Slovakia fared quite well even during the war years. He saved whatever he could for his nation. Even his political enemies admit that. When the wild Red armies tore toward Bratislava, Dr. Joseph Tiso and the Slovak government withdrew to Kremsmtinster. Austria, where they formally surrendered to the U.S. Army. At the insistence of the provisional Czecho-Slovak government, the U. S Department of State ordered the U.S. Army authorities in Austria to surrender Dr. Tiso and his group to the Czecho-Slovak War Crimes Commission. In November 1945 Dr. Tiso and members of the Slovak government were delivered to Czecho-Slovak authorities though their status was never investigated by the U. S. authorities. From Prague Dr. Tiso and several of his group were sent to Bratislava to stand trial before the Slovak National Court. The trial began December 2, 1946, and ended March 14, 1947. Sentence was pronounced by the Court on April 15, and Father Tiso, reciting the rosary out loud, was led to the gallows at 5.30 A.M. on April 18, 1947; he was pronounced dead seven minutes later. Slovaks the world over agree with Father Tiso's aged mother: Dr. Tiso died a martyr for the cause of his people and his Church. Bratislav a. It has been noted that representatives of foreign news agencies who "covered" the first days of the trial left Bratislava about ten days ago and r eturned to Prague where they obtained information on the progress of the trial from second-hand sources. In view of these conditions it appears doubtful to observers personally present at the trial whether foreign public opinion is being enabled to gain an authentic and objective view of the defense presented by Dr. Tiso against the 113 charges in the 212-page indictment. - J an Mauthner Special Correspondent, N.C.W.C. News Service, January 1. 1947. "Dr. Tiso died for his Church and his nation. He always did and ever shall belong to us. We bow our heads to his memory and pray for his soul that his martyr's death encourage us to greater sacrifices for genuine freedom according to the Four Freedoms and the Atlantic Charter. " - Msgr. S. J . Krasula, New York City, April 30, 1947. � 48 SLOVAK.IA Priest, Teacher, President and National Hero Dr. Joseph Tiso, war-time president of the Slovak Republic, was born October 13, 1887, in Vel'ka Bytca, Slovakia. After completing his elementary training, he studied in zilina and Nitra, then completed his theological studies in Vienna. He was ordained priest in 1910 and a year later attained the degree of Doctor of Theology. Father Tiso served as chaplain in Oscadnica, Rajec and Banovce. In 1914 he served in the army as field chaplain and in 1915 was named spiritual director of the seminary at Nitra and professor of religion at the college and high school there. In 1918 he was appointed professor of theology. In 1921, he was honored by the Holy Father with the title of Monsignor. Dr. Joseph Tiso was very active as an organizer and writer. He was imprisoned twice by the government for "anti-state" activities, the general term for anything that did not coincide with the political ideology of the government. While incarcerated Dr. Tiso tranlated several apologetic works into Slovak. Father Tiso was truly a man of his people and for his people. He strained every effort to elevate them spiritually and materially. In 1924 Dr. Joseph Tiso became pastor of the church at Banovce and served the spiritual and temporal needs of the people there until he was imprisoned in 1945. As a member of Hlinka's People's Party, he was elected to parliament in 1925 and in 1927 was appointed Minister of Health and Physical Culture by the Masaryk regime. Dr . Tiso visited America only once; that was in 1937 when he came as a member of a delegation of the Society of St. Adalbert, Slovakia's greatest Catholic publishing house. When Slovakia was granted autonomy on October 6, 1938, the Prague government named Dr. Tiso premier of the autonomous Slovak government. The following year, when Czecho-Slovakia collapsed completely, the Slovak �SLOVAKIA 49 parliament declared the independence of Slovakia on March 14. The parliament elected Dr. Joseph Tiso president of the independent Slovak Republic on October 26, 1939. Under Tiso's guidance Slovakia fared quite well even during the war years. He saved whatever he could for his nation. Even his political enemies admit that. When the wild Red armies tore toward Bratislava, Dr. Joseph Tiso and the Slovak government withdrew to Kremsmtinster. Austria, where they formally surrendered to the U.S. Army. At the insistence of the provisional Czecho-Slovak government, the U. S Department of State ordered the U.S. Army authorities in Austria to surrender Dr. Tiso and his group to the Czecho-Slovak War Crimes Commission. In November 1945 Dr. Tiso and members of the Slovak government were delivered to Czecho-Slovak authorities though their status was never investigated by the U. S. authorities. From Prague Dr. Tiso and several of his group were sent to Bratislava to stand trial before the Slovak National Court. The trial began December 2, 1946, and ended March 14, 1947. Sentence was pronounced by the Court on April 15, and Father Tiso, reciting the rosary out loud, was led to the gallows at 5.30 A.M. on April 18, 1947; he was pronounced dead seven minutes later. Slovaks the world over agree with Father Tiso's aged mother: Dr. Tiso died a martyr for the cause of his people and his Church. Bratislav a. It has been noted that representatives of foreign news agencies who "covered" the first days of the trial left Bratislava about ten days ago and r eturned to Prague where they obtained information on the progress of the trial from second-hand sources. In view of these conditions it appears doubtful to observers personally present at the trial whether foreign public opinion is being enabled to gain an authentic and objective view of the defense presented by Dr. Tiso against the 113 charges in the 212-page indictment. - J an Mauthner Special Correspondent, N.C.W.C. News Service, January 1. 1947. "Dr. Tiso died for his Church and his nation. He always did and ever shall belong to us. We bow our heads to his memory and pray for his soul that his martyr's death encourage us to greater sacrifices for genuine freedom according to the Four Freedoms and the Atlantic Charter. " - Msgr. S. J . Krasula, New York City, April 30, 1947. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 1972, Vol. 22 Description An account of the resource Vol. 22 (No. 45), 1972. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available The Slovak League of America Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1972 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document 48 SLOVAK.IA Priest, Teacher, President and National Hero Dr. Joseph Tiso, war-time president of the Slovak Republic, was born October 13, 1887, in Vel'ka Bytca, Slovakia. After completing his elementary training, he studied in zilina and Nitra, then completed his theological studies in Vienna. He was ordained priest in 1910 and a year later attained the degree of Doctor of Theology. Father Tiso served as chaplain in Oscadnica, Rajec and Banovce. In 1914 he served in the army as field chaplain and in 1915 was named spiritual director of the seminary at Nitra and professor of religion at the college and high school there. In 1918 he was appointed professor of theology. In 1921, he was honored by the Holy Father with the title of Monsignor. Dr. Joseph Tiso was very active as an organizer and writer. He was imprisoned twice by the government for "anti-state" activities, the general term for anything that did not coincide with the political ideology of the government. While incarcerated Dr. Tiso tranlated several apologetic works into Slovak. Father Tiso was truly a man of his people and for his people. He strained every effort to elevate them spiritually and materially. In 1924 Dr. Joseph Tiso became pastor of the church at Banovce and served the spiritual and temporal needs of the people there until he was imprisoned in 1945. As a member of Hlinka's People's Party, he was elected to parliament in 1925 and in 1927 was appointed Minister of Health and Physical Culture by the Masaryk regime. Dr . Tiso visited America only once; that was in 1937 when he came as a member of a delegation of the Society of St. Adalbert, Slovakia's greatest Catholic publishing house. When Slovakia was granted autonomy on October 6, 1938, the Prague government named Dr. Tiso premier of the autonomous Slovak government. The following year, when Czecho-Slovakia collapsed completely, the Slovak SLOVAKIA 49 parliament declared the independence of Slovakia on March 14. The parliament elected Dr. Joseph Tiso president of the independent Slovak Republic on October 26, 1939. Under Tiso's guidance Slovakia fared quite well even during the war years. He saved whatever he could for his nation. Even his political enemies admit that. When the wild Red armies tore toward Bratislava, Dr. Joseph Tiso and the Slovak government withdrew to Kremsmtinster. Austria, where they formally surrendered to the U.S. Army. At the insistence of the provisional Czecho-Slovak government, the U. S Department of State ordered the U.S. Army authorities in Austria to surrender Dr. Tiso and his group to the Czecho-Slovak War Crimes Commission. In November 1945 Dr. Tiso and members of the Slovak government were delivered to Czecho-Slovak authorities though their status was never investigated by the U. S. authorities. From Prague Dr. Tiso and several of his group were sent to Bratislava to stand trial before the Slovak National Court. The trial began December 2, 1946, and ended March 14, 1947. Sentence was pronounced by the Court on April 15, and Father Tiso, reciting the rosary out loud, was led to the gallows at 5.30 A.M. on April 18, 1947; he was pronounced dead seven minutes later. Slovaks the world over agree with Father Tiso's aged mother: Dr. Tiso died a martyr for the cause of his people and his Church. Bratislav a. It has been noted that representatives of foreign news agencies who "covered" the first days of the trial left Bratislava about ten days ago and r eturned to Prague where they obtained information on the progress of the trial from second-hand sources. In view of these conditions it appears doubtful to observers personally present at the trial whether foreign public opinion is being enabled to gain an authentic and objective view of the defense presented by Dr. Tiso against the 113 charges in the 212-page indictment. - J an Mauthner Special Correspondent, N.C.W.C. News Service, January 1. 1947. "Dr. Tiso died for his Church and his nation. He always did and ever shall belong to us. We bow our heads to his memory and pray for his soul that his martyr's death encourage us to greater sacrifices for genuine freedom according to the Four Freedoms and the Atlantic Charter. " - Msgr. S. J . Krasula, New York City, April 30, 1947.  Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Priest, Teacher, President and National Hero Description An account of the resource Slovakia, Vol. 22 (No. 45), 1972 pp. 48-49 Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1972