i
Foreword
P
eople have all sorts of reasons for doing the things they do. Most of us emphasize the
rational ones. In view of the time and effort involved, writing a doctoral dissertation is hardly
an entirely rational thing to do in any case, and even less so when it involves learning a new
language and studying a period long gone in a country far away. In my case, it all started with
an infatuation with a city, the Golden City of Prague, as it used to be called in the travel
brochures issued by Čedok, the state tourist company. At the time the city was all but golden,
but magic nevertheless! My scholarly interest in Czechoslovakia was aroused even before my
first visit in 1987 and rekindled by new visits in 1988, 1990, and 1992. By then I had an
application ready for a grant from the Norwegian Research Council (NFR).
Without the infatuation, first with Prague and later with Czechoslovak history and society, I
doubt that it would have been possible to complete the manuscript. It has often been
emphasized how finishing a thesis is lonely work, and hard going. I have also felt that way at
times, but most of the time it has been a joy and a privilege to be working on something that
has interested me so much and given me so much pleasure. I would therefore like to take the
opportunity to thank some of the people who have made this venture possible.
In the first place, I would like to thank the institutions that financed me: A grant from the NFR
took care of the first three years of the project, and the Department of Political Science at the
University of Oslo, financed one year. The Department of Political Science has been my place
of work the whole time, and kindly provided me with office facilities and nice colleagues for a
whole year after my financing ran out. My mentor has been Professor Øyvind Østerud at the
Department of Political Science. In addition to helping me get the NFR grant, he was my
supervisor and support throughout the whole process. For this he deserves special thanks.
Without the help and inspiration of Czech and Slovak scholars who have shared their
knowledge with me, my task would have been much harder. I would like to thank Professor
Miroslav Hroch of the Department of World History at Charles University of Prague for
inspiration, valuable comments and lively discussions throughout the process. I would also
like to thank Dr. Eva Kowalská of the History Department of the Slovak Academy of
Sciences in Bratislava for her thorough comments, especially on the chapters in Part Two, and
for her enthusiasm. Dr. Alena Bartlová, also of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, went out of
her way to help me with literature, and gladly shared her great knowledge of the First
Republic with me on several occasions – also through letters. Dr. Dušan Kováč of the Slovak
Academy of Sciences, Professor Robert Kvaček of the Czech History Department at Charles
University and Dr. Jan Rychlík of the Masaryk Institute in Prague took the time and patience
to meet with me and answer my many questions. Dr. Rychlík also read the penultimate
version of the manuscript thoroughly (including proofreading of Czech and Slovak
quotations) and saved me from some embarrassing mistakes. For all this I am truly grateful.
Děkuji moc/ďakujem pekne!
ii
Several of my Norwegian colleagues have read parts of the manuscript. Participants at the
annual Norwegian conferences in political science at Geilo in the years 1994–98 have read bits
and pieces. For this I would especially like to thank Pål Bakka, Knut Heidar, Lauri Karvonen,
Hanne Marthe Narud, Henry Valen, and Bernt Aardal. Aardal deserves special thanks for
taking the time and effort to read the entire manuscript in the final stages. Thanks also to
Professor Trond Nordby for advising me on historical method, and to my anonymous referees
in Nations and nationalism, who read an earlier draft of Chapter 4 and offered valuable if not
always very welcome comments. The remaining errors are my responsibility alone.
I would also like to thank the staffs of the various libraries I have visited for their help. In
Prague, this includes the Czech National Library, the library of the Department of World
History at Charles University, the library of the Czech Bureau of Statistics, the Pedagogical
Library and the library of the Czech Parliament. Special thanks to Tomáš Samek and Jindra
Vačková, who also helped me out via the internet, and to Jordan Leff, who, in addition to
being a good friend, roamed the libraries of Prague for me. In Bratislava, I would like to thank
the staff of the Comenius University Library, the Slovak Pedagogical Library, and the library
of the History Department of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, especially Danka Schwarzová.
I am indebted to Dr. Karen Gammelgaard at the Czech Division of the Department of East
European and Oriental Studies, University of Oslo, for introducing me to the Czech language
and assisting me with various Czech and Slovak language problems along the way. My
teachers at the Czech summer school of Masaryk University in Brno, Eva Černá and Dr.
Zdeňka Hladká, deserve credit for bringing me a large step forwards in the mysteries of the
Czech language. Thanks are also due to other scholars at the University of Oslo: to Professor
László Keresztes of the Department of East European and Oriental Studies for helping out
with Magyar language problems, to Bohunka Stříteská of the Czech Division for her
assistance in finding literature on Czech and Slovak language questions, and to Professor Geir
Hellemo at the Faculty of Theology for helping me out with Catholic holidays. Finally, I
would like to thank my language editor Susan Høivik for her thorough work in correcting the
English of this unwieldy manuscript.
Last, but not least, warm thanks to my "support crew" – my family and my partner Kristen
Bjørndal-Riis who believed in me, and to my hosts in Prague, Libuše and René Pavlík for
their hospitality and friendship. Without those many enjoyable moments of beer drinking and
chatting with friends in Prague (especially at the "Lůza net") and in Oslo along the way, my
life would have been much more boring. Special thanks go to Sindre Viken for his
impertinent e-mails from the edge of the civilized world. They cheered my days up.
All translations from Czech, Slovak, German and Norwegian in the text are my own, unless
otherwise noted.
Oslo, October 1998
Elisabeth Bakke
iii
Contents
Foreword…………………………………………………………………………..
A short note on names
Tables, figures and maps
i
viii
ix
Introduction………………………………………………………………………
Delimitation
Outline of the theoretical approach
Structure of the thesis
1
3
5
7
PART ONE: THEORETICAL APPROACH……………………………………………..
Introduction
9
11
One: On sources and method…………………………………………………….
Qualitative and quantitative method
On the sources and their collection
Critical approach to sources
More on interpretation
Concluding remarks
12
13
14
17
19
23
Two: To be reckoned among nations…………………………………………….
A nation is a state…
… is a "daily plebiscite"…
… is a community of culture
National identity – a combined notion
24
25
26
28
29
Three: Ancient bond or invented tradition?……………………………………..
What is nationalism?
Primordialist, modernist, post-modernist, or ethnicist?
A plague goes over the world
A side effect of modernization
Eric Hobsbawm: The invention of tradition
Ernest Gellner: A new horizon
Benedict Anderson: An imagined community
Michael Mann: The primacy of the modern state
The ethnic origins of nations
Phases of the nation forming process
Where do I stand?
From ethnie to national identity
Changing ideas of nation and legitimacy
Why did elites (and later masses) take up the national program?
How "voluntary" is national identity?
Concluding remarks……………………………………………………………….
30
31
33
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
44
48
48
51
52
54
55
iv
Four: A nationality policy framework……………………………………….…...
National demands and nationally relevant conflicts
Nationality policy strategies
The choice of strategy
Strategies and aims
Constraints on the choice of strategy
Prevailing beliefs and strategy
Nature of the national demands and group relations
Nationality policy strategies and conditions for success
Conditions for successful assimilation/integration
Conditions for successful accommodation
Concluding remarks
57
59
62
68
68
69
70
71
72
73
73
76
PART TWO: HISTORICAL BACKGROUND……………………………………….…..
Introduction
77
79
Five: Czech and Slovak history in outline……………………………………….
The coming of the Slavs and their first states
Czechs under Přemyslid rule
Slovaks under Arpad rule
Czechs under Luxembourg rule
Czechs under Hussism
A national or a religious movement?
Slovaks between Arpad and Habsburg rule
Slovaks during the Ottoman wars
Czechs under Habsburg rule to the Battle of the White Mountain
The Czech age of darkness (temno)
Czechs and Slovaks under Enlightened absolutism
From absolutism to revolution
The spring of the peoples, 1848
Neo-absolutism and political thaw
The Ausgleich of 1867
Czechs in Austria
Slovaks in Hungary
Towards independence
Concluding remarks
80
81
82
85
88
89
92
93
95
99
102
104
106
108
109
111
112
115
118
119
Six: Czech and Slovak national revival…………………………………………..
The role of enlightened absolutism
The Czech national revival
The scholarly phase
The phase of agitation
The mass phase
The Slovak national revival
The scholarly phase
The phase of agitation
Towards a mass phase
Concluding remarks……………………………………………………………….
120
121
122
122
124
127
128
128
129
132
133
v
Seven: Czech and Slovak identity redefined……………………………………..
Czech and Slovak conceptions of nation
Czech pre-national identity
Slovak pre-national identity
Changing ideas of "nation" in the Czech and Slovak revivals
Language and identity
History and identity
Conceptions of national character
The Slav idea in the Czech and Slovak national revival
Summary and conclusion
134
135
136
137
138
140
144
148
151
154
PART THREE: THE ANALYSIS……………………………………………………….
Introduction
157
158
Eight: Czech and Slovak political elite…………………………………………...
A constitutional democracy
Eight major Czechoslovak political parties
Slovak political representation
Czechoslovak governments
Slovaks in government
Masaryk and the "Hrad" faction
A political and educational elite
Concluding remarks
160
161
162
168
170
172
174
175
178
Nine: Official Czechoslovakism………………………………………………….
Czechoslovakism in war-time documents
From Czechoslovak to Czech and back
Czechoslovakism in the Constitution of 1920
The continuity of Czechoslovak state symbols
Official Czechoslovakism in statistics
Czechoslovakism in school textbooks
History textbooks for primary school
History textbooks for secondary school
Summary and conclusion
179
180
192
196
197
198
202
203
225
237
Ten: Czech, Slovak or Czechoslovak?……………………………………………
The interpretation of history: Scholars in the front line
Conceptions of nationhood
The demise of Great Moravia and the political separation
Czecho-Slovak contacts despite the separation
Consequences of Great Moravia's demise: Czecho-Slovak differences
The codification of Slovak and the linguistic separation
National project or existing fact?
The political debate
Party differences in national emphasis
Slovak symbolic demands
The 1924 budget debate as an example
Main lines of argumentation
239
240
241
246
247
254
262
273
277
277
279
283
286
vi
The Czechoslovak nation is a fiction………………………………………
Czechoslovakism is a threat to Slovak existence
Czechoslovakism is contrary to Slovak interests
Strength through Czechoslovak unity
The Magyarone card
The continuity argument
Who are the true representatives?
Changing identities
Czechoslovakism – a failed nation project?
From Magyar(one) back to Slovak identity
Voting behavior as a guide to identity?
Summary and conclusion
287
288
291
293
295
297
299
303
303
305
307
310
Eleven: A struggle for cultural equality………………………………………….
Unfinished Czech business
Religious issues
On the separation of church and state in the Constitution
"Away from Rome" and Švehla's religious realpolitik
Slovak religious demands
The struggle for confessional schools
Against Hus day
The Modus Vivendi of 1928
Language issues
The "Czechoslovak state, official language" in the Constitution
Language policy in principle and in practice
For that our Slovak language
The 20 crown note
"Slovak in Slovakia!"
The new Slovak orthography
Slovak schools with Slovak spirit
Demands for a complete educational system
Czech schools for the "state nation"
More Slovak schools
A complete university
Slovakia without a polytechnic – a Slovakia without a future?
Summary and conclusion
314
315
317
319
321
323
324
327
332
335
335
340
341
342
344
352
355
360
360
362
364
366
373
Twelve: A matter of Slovak bread?……………………………………………….
The Czech lands and Slovakia – worlds apart
Economic challenges
Economic liberation from Austria-Hungary
A matter of reorienting the infrastructure
The 1920s: Restructuring of the economy
The 1930s: Economic crisis and depression
A matter of "Slovak bread"
Who was contributing to whom?
Summary and conclusion………………………………………………………….
377
378
380
381
386
393
398
406
427
434
vii
Thirteen: Centralism against Slovak autonomism………………………………
Civil rights
The Law of the Protection of the Republic
The right to assembly and association
The law of protection of the republic and the censorship practice
Political representation
Political-administrative organization: Counties or regions?
The debate over the Constitution
The regional (země) reform of 1928
The struggle for Slovak autonomy
The first autonomy proposal of the Slovak People's Party (1922)
The second autonomy proposal of the Slovak People's Party (1930)
The third autonomy proposal of the Slovak People's Party (1938)
Other autonomy schemes
The argumentation around autonomy
Deprivation arguments
Contract-oriented arguments
The battle about the Pittsburgh agreement
The Martin declaration, the "secret clause" and the Constitution
Invoking the principle of national self-determination
We have the right to autonomy because we are a nation
A Czech and Slovak or a Czechoslovak nation-state?
The Magyarone card or: It is our state, too, and we are loyal to it
Summary and conclusion
438
439
439
440
443
445
449
449
454
465
466
469
470
473
477
478
481
481
489
496
497
498
504
511
Conclusion………………………………………………………………………...
Summary of the empirical findings
Composition of national demands over time
The nationality policy of the government
Why did Czechoslovakism fail and the conflict level rise?
Reasons internal to Czechoslovakism as ideology
The foundation for the increased conflict level
The Austrian-Hungarian heritage
Economic constraints
The government's responsibility
What were their motives?
Theoretical implications
Doomed to failure?
Evaluation of the theoretical approach
514
515
515
517
520
521
523
523
524
525
526
528
529
531
References…………………………………………………………………………
Appendixes
534
viii
A short note on names
In English-speaking countries, it is common to Anglicize the names of persons and places.
This is not a tradition I am very fond of. I have thus tried to use the native names of people, at
least where persons of Czech, Slovak, German and Magyar origins are concerned. A special
problem arises when the Czech and Slovak spellings differ. As a rule I have used the Czech
spelling of the names of people from Czech history and the Slovak spelling for people from
Slovak history. Thus, the Czech king Karel IV is referred to as Karel, and not as Karol
(Slovak), Karl (German), or Charles.
There are some cases that defy this rule. The Slovak-born Czech awakener Pavel Josef
Šafařík wrote his name in Czech, and I have therefore elected to use the Czech spelling,
except when quoting Slovak scholars and politicians, who naturally spelled his name in the
Slovak way: Pavol Jozef Šafárik. An especially tricky case concerns two of the rulers of Great
Moravia, a state that united the forefathers of the Czechs and the Slovaks in the 9th century.
Their names are respectively Rostislav and Svatopluk in Czech and Rastislav and Svätopluk in
Slovak. Here I have opted for the Slovak spelling, except in quotations with a Czech original.
As for place names, I have used the local names, except in cases where the English form is
well established, as with Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia, Lusatia, Slovakia, Transylvania, Prague,
Constance and the Danube. English names are of course also used for the various states. I
have chosen to use the term Sub-Carpathian Ruthenia1 to refer to those areas of present-day
Ukraine that formed a part of the First Czechoslovak Republic. I have consistently used
Bratislava for the present-day Slovak capital, even though Prešpurk (Czech/Slovak), Pozsony
(Magyar) and Pressburg (German) have been more common historically.
In line with this general approach to the use of native names, in this work I have used the
Czech/Slovak/German abbreviations of party names (set out below) that were common during
the First Czechoslovak Republic (1918–38).
Agr. –
BL –
ČND –
ČS –
ČSD –
ČSL –
ČSŽ –
1
Czechoslovak Agrarian Party
German Agrarian Party
Czechoslovak National Democrats
Czechoslovak (National) Socialists
Czechoslovak Social Democrats
Czechoslovak People's Party
Czechoslovak Small Traders' Party
DCV – German Christian-Socialist Party
DSA – German Social Democratic Party
HSĽS – Hlinka's Slovak People's Party
KSČ – Communist Party of Czechoslovakia
Nsj. –
National Unity (from 1934)
Pokrok. – Czech Progressive Party (1905–20)
SNS –
Slovak National Party
The Czech/Slovak names are respectively Čechy, Morava, Slezsko/Sliezsko, Lužice, Slovensko,
Sedmihradsko/ Sedmohradsko, Praha, Kostnice (German: Konstanz), Dunaj, Podkarparská Rus.
ix
Tables, figures and maps
Table 1: Nationality policy strategies
Table 2: Election results for Czechoslovak parties, 1920–35
Table 3: National distribution of mandates, Chamber of Deputies
Table 4: Slovak deputies in relation to votes cast in Slovakia
Table 5: Slovaks in Czechoslovak governments, 1918–38
Table 6: Social composition of Czech and Slovak parties, 1920–35
Table 7: Age cohorts in the Parliament, 1929–35
Table 8: Sample of history textbooks
Table 9: Czech views of Czecho-Slovak relations (percentages)
Table 10: Slovaks and Magyars in Slovakia (changes)
Table 11: Nationality, religion and election results in Slovakia, 1929
Table 12: Religious denomination of Czechs and Slovaks
Table 13: Schools with Slovak and Magyar as medium of instruction
Table 14: Czech and German schools in the Czech lands
Table 15: Czech and German pupils in each other's schools
Table 16: Students from Slovakia attending polytechnics in the Czech lands
Table 17: Population according to sector (percentages)
Table 18: Czech and Slovak infrastructure
Table 19: Unemployment in percentage by region, 1930–36
Table 20: Average unemployment in Slovakia, the 1930s
Table 21: Slovak activists registered 1913
Table 22: Public employees in Slovakia, 1921
Table 23: Public employees in Slovakia, 1930
Table 24: Publicly employed Czechs in Slovakia
Table 25: Teachers, railway and postal employees by status
Table 26: Slovaks in the central administration
Table 27: Interpellations on censorship/confiscation 1918–38
Table 28: Distribution of deputies and population size
63
164
168
169
173
176
177
202
304
305
309
317
327
361
362
371
378
379
401
404
408
410
416
421
424
425
443
447
Figure 1: Czechoslovak 10 and 20 crown bank-notes after 1926
Figure 2: Czechoslovak import–export balance, 1920–1937
343
399
Map 1: Slovak railways, 1918–38
Map 2: State roads and planned east–west links in Slovakia
Map 3: National distribution according to county and region
388
392
462