Slovakia 1867-1918 Slovakia 1929-1939






Slovakia within Czechoslovakia, 1918-1929



This chapter will only deal with events, developments affecting Slovakia; for a description of the history of Czechoslovakia click here.

Slovakia and the Establishment of the Czechoslovak State . On October 31st 1918 the Executive Committee of the Slovak National Council (the status of Slovakia yet undetermined, Hungary regarding it part of her country) approved a suggestion by Mr. Pantucek describing the position of Slovakia within a future Czechoslovakia, to be negotiated by representatives of Czechia and Slovakia. On November 4th 1918, the National Czecho-Slovak Committee in Prague appointed a Provisional Government of Slovakia. The armistice concluded between the Allies and Hungary on November 13th 1918 left Slovakia within the territory of Hungary. The National Czecho-Slovak Committee, also on November 13th 1918, imposed a provisional constitution, which resulted in Slovakia being underrepresented in the Czechoslovak parliament. On November 14th, the Provisional National Assembly met in the capital of Prague and proclaimed herself an independent republic, consisting of Bohemia, Moravia, Austrian Silesia, Slovakia and Carpatho-Ruthenia. In the new cabinet, Slovakia was represented by the ministers Stefanik and Srobar. King Charles, as King of Hungary, had abdicated November 13th 1918; the Republic of Hungary was proclaimed on November 16th. Meanwhile, large parts of Slovakia was held by Czech forces, which on December 5th 1918 were placed under the command of the Guard of Slovak Liberty. On December 6th 1918 a demarcation line separating Slovakia from Hungary was determined. On December 11th 1918 a (pro-Hungarian) Slovak People's Republic was proclaimed in Kosice; it became defunct with all of Slovakia coming under the control of Czecho-Slovak forces (Jan. 29th 1919; Bratislava had been occupied Jan. 1st).
Meanwhile, in Hungary the Communists took control, causing the Czecho-Slovak authorities to declare martial law in Slovakia (with her large Hungarian minority), on March 25th. On April 27th, Czecho-Slovak forces, in coordination with the Romanian army, entered into Hungarian territory (Carpatho-Ruthenia was still held by the Hungarians). The Hungarians initially defeated the Czecho-Slovak forces and on May 20th entered Slovak territory. In the territory held by the Hungarian forces, a Slovak Soviet Republic (Republic of Councils) was established. On June 13th Georges Clemenceau, President of France, demanded Hungary withdraw her troops; Hungary complied (July 5th 1919), and the Slovak Soviet Republic was terminated; the demarcation line became a permanent border; Carpatho-Ruthenia had become part of Czechoslovakia. The area of Tesin (Teschen), contested by Poland and Czechoslovakia, was, by decision of the Entente, partitioned on July 28th 1920, thus determining the border between the two countries.

The Effect of Czechoslovak Policies on Slovakia . Ethnicity . Czechoslovakia having been established as a state of the Slavic Czechs, Slovaks and Ruthenians placed the countries ethnic minorities, the Germans, Hungarians and Gypsies into an uncomfortable position. While Slovakia's Germans and Gypsies were accustomed to being a minority, the Hungarians felt uncomfortable with the situation and rather favored the restoration of Hungarian rule. Relations between Czechoslovakia and Hungary remained tense throughout the 1920es and 1930es; the Czechoslovak state regarded the political parties representing the Hungarian minority with suspicion; in 1929 Hungarian-Slovak politician Vojtech Tuka was tried for treason.
The German minority in Slovakia politically was represented by the a number of small political parties which closely cooperated with the Hungarian parties.
Religion . The end of Habsburg rule in Prague came with a certain degree of anticlerical sentiment, as the Catholic Church had been regarded as a pillar of Habsburg rule. On January 8th 1920 the Catholic Church in Czechoslovakia was reorganized as the Czechoslovak Church. It gained limited support in Czechia and was resented in Slovakia. Slovaks had had a very different historical experience, and a considerable segment of the Slovak population was appalled by the treatment the Catholic Church had been given by the new Czechoslovak administration. Catholic priest Andrej Hlinka, on December 19th 1918, restored the Slovak People's Party (HSLS), which would later become the strongest political party in Slovakia. It was sceptical of democracy, supportive of the Catholic Church and insisting on Slovak political autonomy within Czechoslovakia.
Nobility and Land Reform . Legislation passed December 10th 1918 banned nobles from continuing to use their noble titles; on April 16th 1919 large land holdings were confiscated by the state, to be distributed as farm-size plots (land reform). As the noble landholders in Slovakia mostly had been Hungarians, the policy directed against their interests only alienated parts of the minority of ethnic Hungarians already in opposition to the state. However, the Catholic Church also was deprived of considerable land holdings, and this was resented by the considerable number of Slovakia's practising Catholics (the HSLS).
Administration . As Czechoslovakia's constitution leaned on France's political experience, the state, despite its genesis, was centralist. The central government attempted to introduce administrative units, the zupa system, in Slovakia based on the structure of Czechia's administration (1923). This proved dificult, resulted in a disproportionate number of Czech administrative officials appointed in Slovakia. In 1927 an administrative reform established Czechoslovakia being reorganized in 4 lands - Czechia, Moravia-Silesia, Slovakia and Carpatho-Ruthenia, without establishing autonomous governments for these lands.

Slovak Participation in Czecho-Slovak Democracy . Czechoslovak cabinets, formed on Nov. 14th 1918, May 25th 1920, Dec. 9th 1925, Jan. 15th 1927, Feb. 1st 1929 included Slovak ministers, who (except the latter two) were exclusively chosen from Czechoslovakists.
Andrej Hlinka's HSLS, which in the elections of 1920 had emerged as the third strongest party in Czechoslovakia with 18.1 %, and improved her share of the Slovak votes to 34.3 % in 1925; in the 1929 elections she gained 28.3 %. The HSLS, on August 3rd 1922, proposed autonomous status for Slovakia as suggested during the negotiations leading to the establishment of Czechoslovakia. The proposal remained unanswered.
There was a number of further political parties representing Slovak interests only, most notably the Slovak National Party. On the other hand, parties representing all of Czechoslovakia had considerable appeal on Slovak voters - the Social Democrats, the Agrarians, the Communists etc.

The Slovak Economy . The introduction of a Czechoslovak currency on February 25th 1919 resulted in the containment of rampant inflation; the Czechoslovak economy thus avoided the hyperinflation which continued until 1923 / 1924 in Germany and Austria. The law of April 16th 1919 regarding land reform, due to the political instability of the situation in Slovakia, could not be implemented immediately. While the large land holdings were confiscated, the distribution of the land proceeded slowly and with problems.
In the brief war with Hungary over the Czechoslovak-Hungarian border, Slovakia's infrastructure had suffered considerable damage, and the departing Hungarians had taken with them items they deemed Hungarian property.
The central administration in Prague regarded Slovakia as agrarian territory and failed to develop a Slovak industry. Slovakia, in consequence, experienced high emigration figures.

Slovak Culture . On November 11th 1919 the Jan Amos Comenius University in Bratislava was established, using the facilities of the Hungarian Elizabeth University which had been dissolved. On March 1st 1920 the Slovak National Theatre in Bratislava opened.
The constitution of Czechoslovakia adopted on February 29th 1920 stated a (conceived) Czechoslovak Language to be the official language of the state.
Among the achievements of the Czechoslovak state in Slovakia is elementary education; the illiteracy rate was significantly reduced over the years.






EXTERNAL
LINKS 		The First Czechoslovak Republic, Chapter 8 of the History of Slovakia by Prof. Jozef Komornik, Univ. Bratislava
History, from Eastern Slovakia Genealogy
Article Slovakia, Jozef Tiso, Slovak People's Party, Vojtech Tuka, Slovak National Party, Andrej Hlinka, Milan Hodza, Slovaks in Czechoslovakia, from Wikipedia
Profiles of the main leaders of the Clerofascist Regime, posted by Prometheus Society
DOCUMENTS Constitution of Czechoslovakia 1920, from Virtual Archive of East EuropeanHistory, in English
Virtual Archive of East European History, click State Collections : Czechoslovakia. Documents in English
REFERENCE Julius Bartl et al., Slovak History, Chronology & Lexicon, Wauconda, Illinois : Bolchazy-Carducci 2002
Peter A. Toma, Slovakia in the Pre-Munich Czechoslovak RepublicI, pp.78-120 in : Peter A. Toma, Dusan Kovac, Slovakia from Samo to Dzurinda, Stanford : Hoover Institution Press 2001 [G]
Ehemaliges Bundesministerium für Vertriebene, Flüchtlinge und Kriegsgeschädigte (ed.), Die Vertreibung der Deutschen Bevölkerung aus der Tschechoslowakei (The Expulsion of the German population from Czechoslovakia), München : Weltbild 1994 [G]
C.A. MacArtney, Hungary and her Successors, 1919-1937 (1937) posted by Hungarian History, online book
Charles Wojatsek, From Trianon to the First Vienna Arbitral Award (1981), posted by Hungarian History, online book


This page is part of World History at KMLA
First posted on April 17th 2006, last revised on June 5th 2006

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