From the castle in
Bratislava, a symbol of Slovak statehood, it is possible to see with the naked
eye the peaks of the Alps, the mountain range which stretches to the south-west
up to the shores of the Carpathians, the second mighty mountain range of Europe
which ends far to the east, at the plains near the Black Sea. This position of
Bratislava and of Slovakia in the middle of Europe, on the border between East
and West was and is symbolic.
Indeed,
its territory was encroached upon or its fate was jointly shaped by great
empires: the Roman and Byzantine Empires, by the Frank Empire in the ninth
century, by the Osman Empire during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and,
in the twentieth century, by Germany and Russia.
In
Slovakia, significant European intellectual trends and movements exercised long-term
influence: Christianity, the Renaissance and Reformation, nationalism, modern
liberalism, socialism and even fascism and communism. The history of Slovakia is,
therefore, the history of a European region. It was, to be sure, a region, which
did not stand at the center of events nor determine their direction. Yet it did
take part in important movements of European and world culture and left its mark
upon them. But since Slovakia, except for a very brief period of time, did not
exist as an independent state, most people knew little about its role in
European history.
It
is hoped that this sketch of the history of Slovakia and the Slovaks will
provide at least an introduction to their historical development.
PRE-HISTORY
Archaeology has
demonstrated the existence of man in the territory of Slovakia from the Middle
Paleolithic Era (200,000-35,000 B. C.). Museum in Poprad presents a unique find
from Gánovce - a travertine casting of the skull of a Neanderthal man.
Displayed in the Slovak National Museum in Bratislava is the "Moravian
Venus", a fascinating sculpture more than 22,800 years old. In the Bronze
Age (1,900-700 B. C.) the territory of Slovakia was a significant European
center of bronze production. To this period is ascribed the oldest known stone
architecture in Slovakia, the round bastions, walls and houses from the Iron Age
(700-500 B. C.), exhibit the influence of Greek civilization from the Black -Sea
region and from the Etruscan culture of the south.
The
first coins in Slovakia were made by the Celts who entered the region from the
west in the fifth century B. C. As they expanded here they encountered the
Dacians coming from the southeast. Shortly before the birth of Christ, the Roman
Empire spread to the Danube, north of which were settled the Germans who created
the first known state on the territory of Slovakia, the Regnum Vannianum.
Garrisons were maintained in Slovakia and the Romans built fortresses and
settlements. For four centuries, Slovakia was the border between the "civilized"
and "barbarian" elements of the Antique, Celtic, Dacian and German
cultures. In the era of the migrations of peoples (5-6 century A. D.) the Gauls
and the Langobards passed through Slovakia on their way to Northern Italy. From
the Danube plains, the nomadic Huns threatened western and southern Europe
during the fifth century.
THE GREAT MORAVIAN EMPIRE
The Slavs came to the
territory of Slovakia during the fifth century. They lived in a kind of
symbiosis with the Avars who come to the same region a bit later. They took part
in joint expeditions against the Franks, Langobards, Byzantines even though the
Slavs were suppressed by the Avars. Indeed, skirmishes among them provided the
occasion for the development of the first important state organization among the
western Slavs, the Empire of Samo, who fought against Avars and ruled the
territory for thirty-five years. After Samo's death in 658 there are no written
documents concerning this state. Only after one and a half centuries the reports
reveal the existence of a further state in the region - the principality of
Nitra, which was governed by Prince Pribina. At the beginning of the third
decade of the ninth century Pribina was expulsed by Mojmír, a prince from
neighboring Moravia. Through this union of the Old Moravian and the Nitra
principalities developed Great Moravia.
The
Great Moravian Empire encompassed the lands of modern Slovakia and Moravia as
well as parts of Hungary and Austria. For a short time the lands of Bohemia, the
southern part of Poland and Lusatia, today part of Germany, also belonged to it.
Letters, chronicles and archaeological findings provide information concerning
Great Moravian stone structures and the flowering of handicrafts, iron and other
metal workers as well as glass-makers skilled in various techniques as
demonstrated by the remarkable necklaces, earrings, buttons they produced. Great
Moravia was an equal partner with its neighbor to the west, the Frankish Empire.
They maintained lively commercial and cultural contacts. But military
confrontation between them also developed and called forth the attempts of the
rulers of the Frankish Empire to extend their sphere of influence to the east.
This also influenced the most significant cultural initiative of the era of
Great Moravia - the acceptance of Christianity.
Christianity
first penetrated the territory of Slovakia from the Frankish Empire already
during the era before the emergence of the Great Moravian Empire. In 828 or 829
Prince Pribina had a stone church in Nitra consecrated by the Archbishop of
Salzburg. In 863 the brothers Constantine and Method headed a mission to Great
Moravia at the invitation of Prince Rastislav who wished to free himself from
the influence of the Franks and to strengthen his own independence. They devised
the oldest Slavonic alphabet - Hlaholithic and translated liturgical books into
Old Church Slavonic. They also established an ecclesiastical organization and
founded a theological training center. Pope Hadrian II approved the use of Old
Slavonic as a liturgical language and in 870 consecrated Method as an archbishop
in Rome. However, after the death of Method, the use of the Slavonic liturgy was
terminated in Great Moravia due to the pressure of the Franks and as a result or
the decision of Svätopluk. But Method' s pupils, who were forced into exile in
Bulgaria and Macedonia, continued to cultivate the Slavonic liturgy and the old
Slavonic language. Later, the old Russian Christian culture was drawn from this
spring.
At
the beginning of the tenth century, Great Moravia, weakened by wars with its
neighbors, fell to the onslaught of the Magyars. Even if it existed only for
seventy years, the Great Moravian Empire is still considered to be a most
important part of the historical consciousness of the Slovaks. Constantine,
canonized under the name Cyril, and Method are considered national saints. Since
the era of romanticism, the princes Pribina, Mojmír, Rastislav and Svätopluk
have been the heroes of epic poems, prose and dramatic works. Many creative
artists and musicians have been inspired by their activity.
IN THE MEDIEVAL HUNGARY
After their bitter
defeat in the Western Europe, the Magyars, who penetrated the Danube plains
during the transition from the ninth to the tenth century, mastered settled life.
Exploiting the living tradition of Great Moravia, they created a new state in
the Carpathian basin - Hungary. From the Slavic inhabitants they took over
methods of cultivating the soil, learned several crafts and, at least in part,
the organization of a state. The Ugro-Finnish Hungarian language absorbed many
Slovak words connected with agriculture, habitation, spiritual life and state
administration. From the reign of St. Stephen of the Arpád family (997-1038),
Hungary was a strong state. At that time, the territory of Slovakia formed a
principality bestowed upon younger members of the Arpád family. By the end of
the eleventh century it became, for nearly one thousand years, an integral and
the most developed part of Hungary.
During
the eleventh through fifteenth centuries the region experienced a time of
economic growth and cultural advancement. The amount of arable land increased,
the economy improved, as did the crafts, trades and mining. The towns obtained
freedoms and privileges from the ruler or from the secular or ecclesiastical
authorities. However, the years 1241-1242 were catastrophic for Hungary as Tatar
troops plundered and laid waste the country. Following this, the cities grew,
numerous castles and roads were built and the pace of settlement in the region
quickened. At the invitation of the rulers and the landlords came settlers from
abroad, predominantly from Germany. They brought with them new civilizing forces.
Some of them were gradually assimilated while others created relatively compact
German regions which were preserved down to the twentieth century.
The
towns became centers of economic prosperity. Some of them became rich as a
result of long-distance trade along the Danube trade route between west and east
(Bratislava, Trnava); others, on the trade route between the Black Sea and the
Baltic, had contacts with Transylvania and Poland (Kežmarok, Košice, Levoča). Especially important
for Hungary were the numerous mining towns and villages in Slovakia since mining
represented a traditionally important branch of the economy. Its golden age can
be traced back to the hegemony of the Anjou’s in the fourteenth century when
precious metals from Slovakia prevailed in the European markets. Silver mining,
mainly in the region around Banská Štiavnica and gold from the Kremnica mines
represented about a quarter of the output of these metals from European mines.
During the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries Slovakia was again the most
important world producer and exporter of copper. From 1335 were struck in
Kremnica sought-after golden coins - the Kremnica Ducat. The mint there has
operated down to the present as the oldest in Europe.
Economic development
established the place for a rich spiritual and artistic life. Even today, the
land of Slovakia richly documents medieval, Romanesque rotundas and churches,
castles and fortresses as well as jewels of the Gothic churches in Bratislava,
Košice, Bardejov, Levoča and Prešov, sculptures of the Madonna, altar
panel paintings and wall paintings, exceptionally numerous in Spiš and Gemer.
It is possible to consider the gothic altar, created by Master Paul for the
church of St. James in Levoča, unique among the significant, monuments of gothic art.
The
role of education significantly increased in 14. and 15 century. Important
cities maintained schools but for university study, however, it was necessary to
travel abroad, especially to Italy (Padova, Bologna), to Paris or, after the mid
fourteenth century, to Prague and Vienna or, still later, to Krakow. In 1467, a
university began instruction in Bratislava, the Academia Istropolitana, founded
according to the model of the University of Bologna by King Mathias Corvinus
Hunyadi, a propagator of the new ideas of renaissance humanism in Hungary. Even
if the university soon closed, its existence nevertheless shows the development
of the region, which tried to keep pace with the most civilized regions of
Europe. This favorable trend of development was weakened at the end of the
fifteenth century by several negative circumstances, especially the expansion of
the Osman Empire.
PART OF THE HABSBURG MONARCHY
In the year 1521 a
Turkish army conquered Belgrade, which opened the way to Hungary. Five years
later they defeated the Hungarian army at Mohács and conquered the greater part
of the country. Royal Hungary was reduced to Slovakia, part of Croatia and a
narrow strip of land lying just to the east of the Austrian border. The
Habsburgs, a new dynasty, sat upon the Hungarian throne and incorporated Hungary
into their multi-national central European Empire. The significance of Slovakia
increased during this period. Along its southern region was drawn a defensive
line and the border between the Christian and Islamic worlds. In 1536 Bratislava
became the capital city of Hungary. It was the seat of the central
administrative offices; there sat the parliament until 1848, and for three
centuries the kings of Hungary were crowned there. The seat of the Archbishop of
Esztergom, which was occupied by the Turks, was transferred to Trnava. In 1635 a
Jesuit university opened in this city. Once again Košice became a center for
the administration of the eastern part of Hungary and there the ruler also
founded a university in 1657.
The proximity of the
Turks effected a retardation of the economy. War, cross-boarder raids, pillage,
fires, taking captives as hostages or as slaves became the customary way of life
in the region for the next 150 years. The cities maintained substantial
garrisons of troops. The poorly paid Habsburg mercenaries, among them perhaps
members of almost all European peoples, sometimes caused greater damage than did
the Turkish enemy or the noble rebels. Life in Hungary during the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries was complicated by long-term conflicts and struggles for
power.
One of the reasons for
the defeat of Hungary by the Turks was the reluctance of the nobility to give up
a portion of their privileges and to respect the central authority. The
Habsburgs, who joined under one scepter Bohemia, the Austrian territory and
Hungary, sought to legitimize their authority by citing the need to defend
central Europe from the expansion of the Turks. Their policy was often directed
towards limiting the privileges of the Hungarian nobility and the independence
of the Hungarian state and, at the same time, towards the strengthening of the
central Habsburg power. The dissatisfaction of the Hungarian nobility often
developed into open opposition and a refusal of allegiance to the Habsburgs. The
whole of the seventeenth century was marked by uprisings against the Habsburgs.
Their leaders Bocskay (1604-1606), Bethlen (1619-1629), George I. Rákóczi
(1643-1645), George II. Rákóczi (1648-1660), Thököly (1678-1687) often were
aided by the Turks.
In
addition to the defense of noble privileges and the resistance to the absolutism
these uprisings were caused also by deep religious controversies. The
Reformation penetrated Slovakia already during the first half of the 1520 s.
Because it also legitimized the secularization of church property, it attracted
a greater proportion of the nobility. In Slovakia, the Lutheran movement was
most wide-spread while Calvinism spread mostly among the Hungarians. By the end
of the sixteenth century an independent Lutheran church was established. In the
following century, however, the recatholization movement was so intense that, by
the beginning of the twentieth century, only sixteen percent of the Slovak
population were Lutherans.
After their defeat at
Vienna 1683, the Turkish army was pushed out of Hungary. In 1711 was defeated
also the last and biggest uprising of Ferencz II. Rákóczy. The country offered
a very sad picture, but in peaceful conditions it was able to recover with
remarkable speed. The population growth in Slovakia was so high that Slovaks
migrated to the depopulated south of Hungary. The Slovak Diaspora and
communities have been preserved up to the present day in northern and southern
Hungary, Serbia and Romania. The reforms of Maria Theresa (1740-1780) and those
of her son, Joseph II (1780-1790), in the spirit of the Enlightenment, formed
the basis of a modern state administration, tax and transportation system, army
and schools. Thanks to them, the obligations of the serfs decreased and serfdom
was ultimately abolished. The Habsburg court supported the establishment of
manufacturing and reformed primary and secondary education. In 1763 Maria
Theresa established in Banská Štiavnica the college for training mining,
foundry and forestry specialists, the Mining and Forestry Academy. In 1781, the
Edict of Toleration of Joseph II increased the rights of Protestants and
actually ended the era of the Counter-Reformation in Hungary.
NATIONAL REVIVAL
AND THE REVOLUTION OF
1848/49
By the end of the
eighteenth century even the central European region was affected by the ideas,
which were more fully developed during the next century, equality of the
citizens and national consciousness. In the public life and culture of Hungary
Latin language had maintained a dominant position for a long time. But both of
the Enlightenment rulers, Maria Theresa and Joseph II, tried to
strengthen the monarchy by implementing the use of the German language. The
Hungarian nobility, however, repudiated Joseph II policy and the use of German
and tried to replace it with Hungarian. During this period, the majority of the
nobility, which ruled the political and public life of Hungary and which spoke
various languages and had different ethnic allegiances, began spontaneously to
identity themselves with the Hungarian environment. Thanks to the support of the
state the Hungarian nationality had good prerequisites for their own national
emancipation. But for the Slovaks conditions were not very favorable. Except for
the short period of Great Moravia, they lacked their own tradition of statehood,
ecclesiastical autonomy and especially the support of the political powers. In
the absence of the nobility, the transmitters of their national life were
primarily the lesser intellectuals, teachers and clerics, who supported the
equality of peoples, equal civic rights and human dignity. In light of the
political weakness, the question of the joining of culture and language played a
great role in the Slovak national movement. Particular political ambitions and
requirements only gradually moved to the foreground. Weak feelings of national
unity and a barrier to magyarization, which in the fourth decade of the
nineteenth century already resulted in radical expressions, had to be
strengthened by the idea of Slavonic solidarity and by patient cultural work.
In 1787 Anton Bernolák
(1762-1813) as the first codified Slovak as a literary language which, however,
was utilized only among Catholics. The Lutheran intellectuals continued to
employ the Czech language which had been the liturgical language of Slovak
evangelicals for more than two centuries. It was the next generation of national
revivalists, led by Ľudovít Štúr (1815-1856) which overcame this
division and discord concerning the codification of the Slovak language. Štúr's
Slovak created the basis of modern standard literary Slovak.
The Slovak national
movement developed a mature political and constitutional program only in the
spring of 1848. It accepted the ideals of revolution, demanded the abolishment
of serfdom, and general suffrage, which would have guaranteed the participation
of the nation in the political administration of a federalized Hungary in which
Slovaks would have been an autonomous unit. The demands of the Slovaks as well
as those of Serbians, Rumanians, Ruthens and the Germans met with the opposition
of the leaders of the Hungarian revolution and the Hungarian state. The Slovak
and the Hungarian national movements developed into open conflict, which
revealed itself most clearly in the unsuccessful September uprising of 1848.
During the revolt, however, the Slovak national council (Ľudovít Štúr,
Jozef Miloslav Hurban and Michal Hodža) developed as the first representative
Slovak political body in modern history. During the whole year of 1849, its
members endeavored through cooperation with imperial Vienna to effect the
separation of Slovakia from Hungary and its incorporation as an autonomous
entity within the system of a federal Habsburg monarchy. Despite the fact that
this constitutional effort of 1848-1849 was practically without result, the
Slovak national movement permanently adopted, up to the year 1918, the idea of
an autonomous position of Slovakia within the framework of Hungary. It was best
expressed in the Memorandum of the Slovak Nation of 1861.
PERIOD OF NATIONAL OPPRESSION
The rapid changes in
civilization, which changed the face of Europe during the second half of the
nineteenth century did not pass Slovakia by. Here also was built a network of
railways, small workshops and manufactures were transformed into factories,
banks and savings societies were established, insurance companies formed and,
with the growth in the number of secondary and trade schools, illiteracy
declined. Even though this advance was behind that of Western Europe by several
decades, it was ahead of developments in many areas in Eastern Europe during the
same period.
The social and cultural
development on the whole was retarded, however, by the backward political
situation in Hungary. This manifested itself in the remnants of serfdom, which
was abolished only gradually as, through the non-democratic electoral system,
the nobility sought to preserve its privileged position and implemented in
Hungary magyarization. Their hands were freed by the Austro-Hungarian "Ausgleich"
of 1867, which resolved the constitutional crisis of the monarchy by
constructing a dualistic state - Austro-Hungary. The traditional goal of the
vast majority of the Hungarian politicians, to turn Hungary into a Hungarian
national state, seemed within reach. Nevertheless, since, even in the year 1880
ethnic Magyars made up only 46.6 % of the total population of the country, it
was possible to achieve their goal only through great pressure and the
systematic de-nationalization of ethnic minorities. For example, from 1867
until1912, the number of primary schools with Slovak as the language of
instruction decreased from 2000 to 377. Slovak cultural efforts were blocked and
discriminated against by official authorities. In the year 1875 the government
closed the only Slovak cultural institution, the Matica slovenská, and even
before that three Slovak secondary schools (gymnasiums). A series of political
trials of Slovak patriots took place.
As the century came to a
close, Slovak politics, in accordance with European trends, fragmented in
several directions: conservative-national, Catholic, agrarian, liberal and
social-democratic. What held it together was protection from magyarization. It
was also joined to attempts to activate politically the broadest spectrum of the
Slovaks, namely the farmers and craftsmen, and therefore proclaimed the need for
a general voting right. In 1914, six percent of the inhabitants had a right to
vote and so the Slovaks were represented in the parliament by only two
representatives, although they made up more than ten percent of the total
population of Hungary.
The First World War
(1914-1918) did not diminish the chauvinism of the Hungarian government but it
did bring to an end the faith of Slovak politicians in the possibility of
reforming and democratizing Hungary. It speeded up the change in the orientation
of Slovak policy. Before the war, this occurred on the soil of the Hungarian
state. But it supported, however, such concepts by which the Slovaks could
achieve an autonomous position in a federal Austro-Hungary. In foreign affairs
the majority of Slovak politicians expected positive initiatives from Russia.
From the beginning of the twentieth century cooperation with Czech political
parties, organizations and individuals also increased significantly. The years
before World War I saw the maturation of a new generation of politicians who
would lead the political life of Slovakia after 1918, namely Milan Hodža, who
belonged among the co-workers of the pretender to the Habsburg throne, Franz
Ferdinand, Andrej Hlinka, Vavro Šrobár, Ivan Dérer and others.
The first public speeches advocating the
formation of a common state for the Slovaks and Czechs were made abroad, in
France, England and in the United States of America. From the end of the
nineteenth century up to the First World War more than half a million Slovaks
emigrated to the United States. In the democratic conditions there they matured
and from the distance they realized how unbearable the situation in Hungary was
and what was the actual position of the Slovaks there. In 1915 the
representatives of the Slovak and Czech ethnic organizations signed the
Cleveland Agreement concerning the establishment of a common federal state. The
Pittsburgh Agreement, signed in May 1918 by Slovak and Czech emigrants and Tomáš
Garrigue Masaryk, proclaimed the autonomous position of Slovakia within a
democratic Czecho-Slovak Republic.
The idea of a common state for the Czechs and
Slovaks, linguistically closely related nations, had a rational basis. It could
diminish the German hold upon the Czech lands and open the way for it to the
east and south-east. For the Slovaks it would end forced
magyarization and a non-democratic regime so that the development of their
culture and national emancipation would become easier and come about more
quickly. The representatives of both nations collaborated very closely in the
resistance abroad against the Habsburg Monarchy. The Slovak, Milan Rastislav Štefánik,
an astronomer and a general in the French Army, was T. G. Masaryk's closest
collaborator and the first to initiate a Czecho-Slovak resistance. Many Slovaks
fought in the Czecho-Slovak legions in France, Italy and Russia.
By the end of the war,
the idea of dissolving the Habsburg Monarchy and the establishment of an
independent Czecho-Slovakia was fully supported by the allied
powers, the United States, England, France and Italy. In this spirit
labored also the domestic resistance. On 28 October 1918 the Czecho-Slovak
National Committee in Prague proclaimed the existence of Czecho-Slovakia. On 30
October not yet having received information concerning events in Prague, the
Slovak National Council also declared in Martin, its desire to join Slovakia
with the Czech lands in one common state. The Czecho-Slovak Republic was one of
the many successor states of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Its development
brought to an end the hundreds years affiliation with Kingdom of Hungary.
IN THE CZECHO-SLOVAKIA BETWEEN THE WARS
The borders of Czecho-Slovak
Republic were guaranteed by the international treaties of Versailles, St.
Germaine and Trianon of the years 1919-1920. Internally it was established as a
parliamentary democracy with a president as head of state (1918-1935 T. G.
Masaryk, 1935-1938 Edvard Beneš). The democratic government was preserved, in
contrast to all of the neighboring states, for twenty years.
The new state was
composed of two parts with different histories, cultural traditions, ethnic
makeup and level of economic development. The Czechs, living under incomparably
better Austrian conditions, were able to develop their own schools, scientific
and cultural institutions so that the new state only finalized their
emancipation. The Slovaks and, to a greater extent, the Ruthens, did not have
such an opportunity in Hungary so that their institutions and political agencies
were formed only after 1918. Therefore, the Czech upper-hand and hegemony was
clearly evident and felt from the very beginning. It was supported also by the
transfer of the bureaucratic and centralistic traditions of imperial Vienna and
by the complicated ethnic composition of the Czecho-Slovak Republic.
Czecho-Slovakia had
about fifteen million inhabitants, which included only seven million Czechs.
There were also other nationalities: about three million Germans, 700,000
Magyars and about 500,000 Ruthens, Jews and Poles. The Czechs formed the
majority together with the only 2.2 million Slovaks. This was one of the reasons
why Czech policy was to maintain the fiction of a Czechoslovak nation included
in the Constitution of 1920.
The autonomous movement,
which was represented primarily by the catholic and the evangelical national
party held the allegiance of nearly one-third of the voters in Slovakia. But
there were also other parties in opposition to the government. The opposition in
Slovakia obtained a majority of the votes not only due to demands for autonomy
but also as result of economic difficulties which were most clearly exhibited
during two economic crises (1921-1923, 1930-1934). The Slovak economy, strongly
affected by the breakup of the Hungarian market, was decimated by the
competition from more modern Czech enterprises, banks and insurance companies.
In the 1920s a number of factories, enterprises and financial institutions in
Slovakia were abolished. In 1937 there were as many people employed in the
industrial sector in Slovakia as there had been employed in 1913. Widespread
unemployment could not be solved either by land reform or by emigration to west
European countries or across the sea.
Despite the complicated
social and national situation, Slovakia was moving towards a stabile and strong
civil society. The left-wing radicalism represented by the communists was
limited only to 10-12 percent of the voters, right-wing radicalism was only a
marginal manifestation. The stability of the young state was strengthened also
by strong concerns in the face of the revisionist demands of Hungary whose
governments between the wars sought to reconstitute pre-war Hungary. Slovakia
recorded in democratic Czecho-Slovakia evident progress and profit in various
areas of life. For the first time it had its own borders, its own capital,
Bratislava, it had numerous political agencies, various political parties and
representatives in Parliament. There were many interest organizations of
entrepreneurs, farmers, small businesses, dozens of central and regional
cultural institutions. Among these should be mentioned the Matica slovenská, a
newly established national theater, university, and numerous publishing houses
and the press. The language of instruction at schools respected regional
requirements.
Rapid positive changes
were accomplished due to many Czech clerks, teachers, professors and soldiers.
They were active especially in the state administration and institutions. This
fact, however, became more and more the subject of dispute because they occupied
posts suitable for the growing number of young Slovak intellectuals and they
disseminated concepts concerning a Czechoslovak nation which were unacceptable
to the Slovaks.
Opposition forces led by
Hlinka's People's Party demanded the recognition of the national independence of
the Slovaks and the formation of an autonomous Slovakia with its own parliament
and government. They considered autonomy to be a tool for strengthening the
republic. But the centralist parties, which defended the unitary character of
the Czecho-Slovak Republic, considered them separatists. There was, however, no
opportunity to test either of these concepts. The Czecho-Slovak government, led
from 1935 by a Slovak, Milan Hodža, was not courageous enough to resolve the
Slovak question. In time, a completely different political situation led to the
proclamation of Slovak autonomy as the Czecho-Slovak Republic lived through a
deep crisis called forth by the agressivity of Hitler' s Germany. As a result of
his pressure, on 29 September 1938, a meeting in Munich of the representatives
of four powers took place: Germany, Italy, France and England. On the basis of
their decree, Czecho-Slovakia was to cede to Germany a large section of its
territory in the west, which was inhabited by Germans (the Sudetenland). At the
same time Hungary and Poland presented territorial claims against Slovakia.
Under the pressure the Government fulfilled the Polish requirements. On 2
November 1938, Germany and Italy awarded, in an arbitration decision in Vienna,
one-fifth of the territory of Slovakia and one-quarter of its inhabitants to
Hungary. Czecho-Slovakia, dismembered and weakened became in fact a tool in the
power interests of Germany.
In such a situation, the
Prague government expressed its approval of the autonomy of Slovakia, which was
proclaimed on 6 October 1938 in Žilina. After Munich Treaty the democracy in
Prague and Bratislava was liquidated. In Slovakia all parties were swallowed up
by the People's Party or the government prohibited them. The autonomy of
Slovakia was the only thing they wanted, but Hitler however, was looking for an
excuse to break up Czechoslovakia. The German Nazis supported the groups within
the People's Party, which desired the full independence. On 13 March 1939,
during a time of severe disputes between the Prague government and
representatives of Slovakia, Hitler invited Jozef Tiso, the president of the
Slovak government, to Berlin and presented him with only one alternative: the
division of Slovakia between Germany, Hungary and Poland or a proclamation of
Slovak independence as a state. On 14 March 1939 the autonomous parliament
proclaimed the independence of the Slovak state. The next day the German army
marched into Prague.
SLOVAKIA DURING THE WAR
The Slovak Republic
(1939-1945) was recognized by more than twenty-five states. But its independence
was greatly limited by its strong, economic, military and political dependence
on Germany. The political regime of the Slovak state was an authoritarian
dictatorship with one party and ideology. Fascist groups, led by Vojtech Tuka,
the Prime Minister, supported by organizations of a German minority in Slovakia
fought for power and influence in the country. In suppressing the opposition,
the regime proceeded very slowly in comparison with the neighboring states.
However, this was not true when it came to the Jewish population. The government
seized all their property, their civil and human rights. They were sent to
concentration camps and from March 1942, they transported to German occupied
parts in the East 57 628 Jews from which only few hundreds lived through. From
13 500 transported in period 1944-5 died more than 10 000. Even though the
Slovak Republic declared itself to be a Christian state and Tiso was himself a
priest, this genocide was not prevented despite the protests of the Church and
the Vatican.
Slovakia took part in
the war to a lesser extent than the surrounding countries. The prosperity
generated by the war abolished unemployment and supplies for the inhabitants
were, in wartime conditions, satisfactory. Despite this, there developed, from
its very beginning, a strong opposition to the totalitarian regime. At home many
"illegal" groups were active. As they did during the First World War,
many Slovaks joined Czecho-Slovak army in the Soviet Union. The members of the
Slovak army joined the Soviet army in such large numbers that the Germans had to
withdraw the Slovak divisions from the Eastern front. By the end of the war
there were more Slovaks fighting with the Allies than there were on the German
side.
By
the end of 1943, the many resistance groups formed illegal Slovak National
Council. In cooperation with the Czechoslovak government in exile in London,
some capable fighters in the Slovak army prepared an uprising. In the summer of
1944 the partisan groups increased, namely in the mountain areas. The government
in Bratislava could not handle the situation and Slovakia was occupied by German
troops. On 29 August 1944, the "illegal" military command in Banská
Bystrica issued the order to start the uprising.
The Slovak National
Uprising belongs to the largest armed resistance activities, which took place on
the "German” territory during the World War II. Within two months, nearly
sixty thousand soldiers and about eighteen thousand guerrillas were defending a
compact region in Central Slovakia against German troops. All of the legislative
and governmental power in the territory controlled by the insurgents was assumed
by the Slovak National Council and life in the insurgent villages was organized
by national committees. A rebel radio and press were also active together with
various political parties and trade unions.
According to the
original plan, the German army should have been attacked from behind in order to
break the Carpathian front and open the way into the Danube basin for the Soviet
army. But this did not happen. By the end of October, the Germans conquered
Banská Bystrica. Part of the rebel army was captured and part of it withdrew
and joined the partisans. Their generals Ján Golian and Rudolf Viest, died in
German captivity. Slovakia was liberated by fierce fighting by the Soviet,
Czecho-Slovak and Rumanian armies in May 1945.
The 1944 uprising
represents one of the key events of modern Slovak history. Even though people of
different ideas and interest took part in it, a basic idea was common to all of
them - to fight against the inhuman system introduced to Europe by Hitler. The
uprising also strengthened the national consciousness of the Slovaks. Before
this event, Slovakia had been mostly an object of alien interests. But, during
the uprising, Slovakia took its own fate into its own hands. The uprising also
inhibited the return to the pre-war Prague centralism. It supported the idea of
a Czecho-Slovakia in which the Czechs and Slovaks would live as equal nations.
RESTORED CZECHO-SLOVAKIA
The first three post-war
years were very dramatic for Slovakia. The territory formerly occupied by
Hungary was returned to Slovakia, which was also confirmed by the Paris peace
agreement of 1947. As in the Czech lands, the Germans had to leave Slovakia. The
agreed exchange of inhabitants between Hungary and Slovakia was not fully
realized. Germans and Hungarians were seized the civil rights, schools, the
government tried to press Hungarians to became Slovaks. After 1948 the
discrimination measures were step by step abolished. The mines, forges, the
majority of industry and financial institutions were nationalized. The political
system, officially called a peoples democracy, was characterized by very little
democracy in practice. A complicated three years struggle between the forces
supporting parliamentary democracy and the communists, who called for a regime
of the Soviet type, concluded in February 1948 with the defeat of democracy in
Czecho-Slovakia. In Slovakia, it culminated even sooner.
In contrast to the Czech
lands, where the communists were victorious in the election of 1946, in Slovakia
the majority of the inhabitants (62%) supported the Democratic Party. It was in
the majority in parliament (the Slovak National Council) and in the Slovak
government (Board of Commissioners). In the Autumn of 1947 the joint effort of
the Czech and Slovak communists and the Czech anti-Slovak parties to try to
limit the autonomy of Slovakia and restore the prewar unitary state culminated
in a non parliamentary and anti-constitutional change in the distribution of
power in favor of the communists. Terror and provocations by the police,
determined the future development of Czecho-Slovakia after February 1948.
STALINIST TOTALITARIANISM
The communist
dictatorship in Czechoslovakia was the same in all of its basic features with
that of Stalin's regime in the Soviet Union and other eastern European countries.
The rapidly installed totalitarian regime liquidated non-communist political
parties, interest groups and unions. The opposition groups and even potential
opponents (namely the farmers, small tradesmen, members of the prohibited
political parties and representatives of the Church) were often removed by
direct terror: imprisonment, confinement in labor camps, the confiscation of
property, expulsion from towns and show trials. Public life, the economy and
culture were subordinated to the communist party and Leninist ideology. After a
radical nationalization, all spheres of life found themselves in the hands and
power of the state, not only large factories and businesses and financial
institutions but also small enterprises, lawyers offices, and medical offices.
The existence of all of the inhabitants depended completely upon the state.
The radical changes
deeply influenced the structures of society, which had been formed over many
centuries, as well as its customs and values. Industrialization resulted in a
greater mobility of the population. While in 1948 there were 216,000 employed in
industry, by 1965 the number was almost 504,000 and in 1985 it had reached
800,000. Others were employed in the transport and building industries, in
health sector and schools. A whole scale migration of inhabitants from the
villages to the towns occurred hand in hand with an increase in formal education.
In 1970, one-third of the population of Slovakia received either secondary or
vocational education. The extreme centralism halted any real creative initiative
but offered a minimum of social security and a simple standard of living to all.
The intellectuals held back in manifestations of disapproval both because of
fear of prosecution and because of the evident quantitative growth of education
and culture. Strong social and cultural changes resulted after the terror in the
1950s. The next decade witnessed a kind of relaxation and there appeared a few
strong groups within the communist party and its non members, which tried to
abolish the system or to reform it. This process became known in the history as
an attempt of “socialism with human face”.
The struggle to change
the system was the same all over the country. But between the development in
Czechia and Slovakia there were certain differences. The establishment of a communist dictatorship also resulted
in a strong centralism. First it limited the legal power of the Slovak
authorities, the Slovak National Council and the Board of Commissioners. After
the adoption of the “socialist” constitution law of 1960 they were
practically liquidated. While the Czech reform movement of the 1960s emphasized
the democratization of the system, the Slovak movement joined to this the
restoration of the independence of Slovakia and the federalization of
Czechoslovakia.
UNFULFILLED FEDERATION
AND NORMALISATION
In
1968, parliament passed a constitutional law concerning the federation.
Czechoslovakia was changed into a federal state. Alongside the federal
authorities were the parliamentary National Councils and Governments of Czechs
and Slovaks. The occupation of the country in August 1968 by the troops of the
Warsaw Pact nipped the reform policy in the bud. The power was seized by
dogmatic communists and Czechoslovakia became in effect a vassal state of the
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Alexander Dubček, the Slovak reform
communist and the symbol of the “Prague spring” was replaced in April 1969
by Gustáv Husák. Even though he was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1954 as
a Slovak "nationalist", as the General secretary of the communist
party and President of the republic, he joined in preventing the full
implementation of the federation.
Under the conditions of a
state monopoly of power and the neo-Stalinist communist party the organs of the
Slovak Republic had more of a symbolic than a practical significance. They
actually had less power, in some cases, than the regional offices, which existed
in the unitary Czechoslovak Republic between the wars. It is understandable,
therefore, that as in the 1960s, the opposition in Slovakia devoted its
attention to national and constitutional questions even during the 1970s and
1980s. In comparison with the 1960s, the criticism of the totalitarian regime
was of a more radical character. The dogmatism and the intolerance of the
communist party leadership, which limited itself to copying Moscow standpoints
and views, affected the life of the country in a negative manner and,
paradoxically, suppressed the communist party itself. A great majority of the
afflicted followers of the reform movement of 1968 found communism hopeless and
accepted the idea of a parliamentary democracy and a market economy. During the
last two decades, the younger generations were immune to the ideology of
communism. The movement made up of those who believed in the freedom of religion
and civil equality, of environmentalists with crucial goals, non-conform artists
and scientists.
NOVEMBER 1989
On
the end of 80`s the communist dictatorship was in crisis. Downfall of the Soviet
Union power enabled weakening of the regime also in its full externally. The
waves of demonstrations, protests and in the end the general strike forced the
in November 1989 the Government to step back. The opposition groups in Prague
united in the “Občanské fórum“, in Bratislava was created
“Verejnosť proti násiliu”. In six weeks they succeeded to
upturn more than 40 years built communist monopoly. The Government of national
understanding was built from representatives of opposition groups and communists
as well, as Chairman of the Federal Parliament was elected Alexander Dubček,
as President of the Republic was elected dissident and drama writer Václav
Havel.
The
first free elections in 1990 have shown, that the communists have lost the
trust, in Slovakia they received only 13.3 % of votes. The sovereignty of the
state was strengthened also by departure of the last Soviet troops in June 1991.
The liquidation of the state monopoly on property and economic management
started. The citizens received back the after 1948 nationalized enterprises,
houses, real estate, shops, workshops, the privatization of the big enterprises
started. The discussion on the rights of republican bodies took the politicians
three years. In the end many discussions collapsed on too different ideas about
future Czecho-Slovakia. The idea of Czech party was close to unitary state, the
Slovak idea was about free federation to confederation. So, after “velvet
revolution” followed agreement on “velvet divorce”. In July 1992 the
Slovak National Council adopted Declaration on Slovak Sovereignty, on 1
September was adopted Slovak Constitution, in the end of November the Federal
Assembly in Prague voted for cease of the federation. On 1 January 1993 on the
world scene appeared new sovereign state - Slovak Republic.
SLOVAK REPUBLIC
Peaceful
divorce gave to the little known Slovakia abroad valuable political capital. SR
became member of UN, OSCE, IMF, etc. Less satisfactory was development of
internal politics and economy, which got into severe crisis. Compared with 1989
in 1993 GDP dropped to 74%, unknown mass unemployment appeared. Slovak industry,
producing until than mainly for the Soviet market collapsed. In Slovakia was
concentrated also great part of military industry, which lost its traditional
markets, too. Opening of the Slovak market to the world economy decimated
producers of the textile and electronics. Necessary reorientation on western
markets was long and painful.
The
restructuring was slowed down also by lack of capital, the foreign investors
were hesitating because of the political climate.
From
elections in 1992 to 1998 with short few month break was at power the political
party of Vladimír Mečiar Movement for Democratic Slovakia. In
contradiction to parliamentary habits the opposition was pushed out from
parliamentary committees and from privatization of the state property. The
followers of the ruling party became from one day to the another owners of steel
works, chemical factories, hotels, spas, agricultural enterprises with thousands
of hectares of soil. Corruption and clientelism made the reforms, functioning of
the state administration and courts of justice impossible. Because of the lack
of democratic principles Slovakia was excluded from list of candidates for EU
and NATO. There was threat of international isolation, the lagging behind the
dynamic developing neighbors was deepening.
This
policy mobilized the opposition, which after elections in 1998 formed government
headed by Mikuláš Dzurinda. It was formed by broad coalition of left and right
parties. In direct elections was elected President Rudolf Schuster. With great
effort the lost years were caught up. The economical reforms made progress,
decentralization of the state administration, privatization of banks, insurance
companies, telecommunications, large companies. The flow of foreign capital in
the country increased. The Government was successful also in break through the
isolation of the country. In 2000 Slovakia became member of OECD, again was
included in the list of candidates for membership in NATO and European Union.
With great effort the lost years were overcome. In spite the elections in
September 2002 were won by HZDS, again they did not succeed to form the
government. It was formed by Slovak Democratic and Christian Union of Mikuláš
Dzurinda together with other three right oriented parties. In the end of 2002
Slovakia received invitation to NATO, few days later the negotiations with
European Union were finished.
In
present time the country has modern political and economical structures, in
human development as followed by United Nations the country was in 1999 on 35
place from 162 followed countries.
Slovak
Republic has succeeded to develop good relations with all neighbors, questions
of dispute were always solved by patient negotiations. The history is not such a
burden for the present and to set the future. With the Czech Republic has
Slovakia over the standard relationship, the 10 % Hungarian minority is organic
part of the political life and management of the country. Slovakia has also many
unsolved complicated economical, social and political problems inherited from
the history as well fresh ones. Nontransparent privatization left behind the
swamp of corruption and clientelism, long time postponed reforms are burden for
the schools, health sector, pensions. Long term and burning is also problem of
life of several hundreds thousands of Romas. They were most affected by
economical changes, lack of jobs for nonqualified workers. Their fate was always
hard, but in the last decade the Roma problem became from social clearly
political.
After
the velvet revolution the frequent subject of discussion was “Slovakia
entering Europe”. Even this short draft of Slovak history gives evidence that
Slovakia was always part of European culture, civilization, its rises and falls.
It was never in front rows, but never too long in the last. Its historical
ambition was to be in the leading group, if not on the top, than close. This was
the fate and objective of many generations. It is tradition, but also present
and future.
Ľubomír
Lipták