Czechoslovakism

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TG Masaryk and MR Štefánik , monument in Košice

The Czechoslovakism ( Czech : Čechoslovakismus , Slovak : Čechoslovakizmus ) is the one hand as ideology assume that Czech and Slovakrepresent a single nation, and on the other hand it represents a political program designed to unite both nations in a common state. Czechoslovakism existed in two versions: the first assumed that Czechs and Slovaks form a common Czechoslovak nation, which is formed from two tribes - Czechs and Slovaks. The second version assumed that the Slovaks were in fact less developed Czechs.

As a political program, Czechoslovakism was first formulated during the First World War by the independence movement active abroad to justify the establishment of a Czechoslovak state including the Czech lands and Slovakia. In contrast, the roots of the idea that Czechs and Slovaks are twins of the same nation go back to the national awakening movements of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The Czechoslovakian ideology experienced its heyday during the First Czechoslovak Republic (1918–1938) when it was elevated to state doctrine. After the Second World War , Czechoslovakism was officially rejected.

The main representatives of Czechoslovakism are Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk , Edvard Beneš and Vavro Šrobár .

Emergence

The idea of ​​a feeling of unity between Czechs and Slovaks preceded Czechoslovakism and played an important, albeit varied, role in the national awakening movements of both peoples. The early representatives on the Slovak side include the linguist and poet Ján Kollár and the scholar Pavel Jozef Šafárik , who were in contact with the pioneers of the Czech national revival . In the second half of the 19th century, Czech and Slovak politicians around TG Masaryk drafted Czechoslovakism as a practical solution to the question of the independence of the historical countries of Bohemia , Moravia , Moravian-Silesia and Slovakia . Czechoslovakism emerged from a rich context of competing theories about the situation of the Slavic population in the Empire, some of which were recognized by large parts of the Czech and Slovak intelligentsia.

Relationship to historical constitutional law

Czechoslovakism became the older, u. a. Opposed to the conception of historical constitutional law represented by the Bohemian nobility and the Old Czechs . According to this, the historical countries of the Bohemian crown should have political self-administration within a federalized Danube monarchy , analogous to the position of Transleithania after the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867. According to Masaryk, the latter is out of date and unattainable as a political goal. Independence within the historical limits could only have been secured at the price that a third of the population of the new state would have had German as their mother tongue. In contrast, merging with Slovakia or the Slovaks enables the new state to be expanded to the east and the German-speaking portion to be minimized. The concern of the first Czechoslovakists was by no means to deny the political independence of one of the two or both peoples, but rather to overcome the undesirable situation on both sides of the Leitha through mutual support.

Relationship to Pan-Slavism

Another ideology from which Czechoslovakism was to set itself apart in principle was Pan-Slavism . Karel Kramář , chairman of the Young Czech party represented it in a prominent position in Bohemia .

Pan-Slavism, especially its Pan-Russian variety, which propagated the merging of the Slavic nations under the leadership of Russia , was opposed above all by Masaryk, who was familiar with the conditions in the tsarist empire. In his stance, he referred to the Czech enlightener Karel Havlíček Borovský , who polemicized against contemporary Pan-Slavism precisely because of his knowledge of Russia. The Czechoslovakists opposed pan-Slavism as a political ideology that includes all Slavic nationalities with their local concept, from which an enforceable political program could be developed more easily.

implementation

In the course of the First World War, the Slavic peoples in the Habsburg Monarchy were given the opportunity to enforce their political independence. For the Slovaks, while alliances with Russia and Poland were being considered, alliance with the Czech countries proved to be the most promising. With the foreseeable defeat of the German Empire and Austria-Hungary , the destruction of the Habsburg Empire by the victorious powers became probable; At the same time, the Slovaks and Czechs in exile , especially in the USA , Switzerland and France , were ready to work together. Important wartime documents are the Cleveland Agreement , signed by Czech and Slovak emigrants in 1915, and the Pittsburgh Agreement of 1918; Thanks to this demonstration of unity, it was finally possible to persuade US President Woodrow Wilson to agree to the establishment of the Czech-Slovak state .

After the establishment of the ČSR, Czechoslovakism became a state doctrine, which was enshrined in the constitution in 1920.

Without Czechoslovakism, there would not have been a state nation in the Czech Republic that was so predominant. For the Slovaks, the merger with the Czechs created space for emancipation as an independent people, which was threatened by complete Magyarization before the war . While the recognition of Czechoslovakism among Czechs was a matter of course, the majority of Slovaks, aware of the Slovakian independence efforts, which went back to the first half of the 19th century, retained a view of Slovakia as an independent entity. In addition, the Czech-Slovak treaties, which paved the way for the founding of the state, were used by Slovak autonomists, especially from the Hlinka party , to undermine Czechoslovakism - according to the Pittsburgh Agreement, Slovakia should be granted autonomy. The Czech-Slovak state, with its officially Czechoslovakian doctrine, caused an aversion to this very doctrine in Slovakia.

The process of eradicating Czechoslovakism was completed in 1968 with the introduction of the Czechoslovak federal constitution and the de jure establishment of two People's Republics, the Slovak and the Czech Socialist Republics , which together formed the ČSSR . The federalization of the Czechoslovakia was the only measure of the Prague Spring reformers that was not revised after the military intervention of the Warsaw Five, but was retained during normalization .

See also

literature

Monographs and Articles

  • Elisabeth Bakke: Czechoslovakism in Slovak history. In: Mikuláš Teich, Dušan Kováč, Martin D. Brown (Eds.): Slovakia in History. Cambridge University Press, New York 2011, ISBN 978-0-521-80253-6 , pp. 247-268.
  • Jörg K. Hoensch : Czechoslovakism or autonomy. The dispute over the integration of Slovakia into the Czechoslovak Republic. In: Hans Lemberg, et al. (Ed.): Studia Slovaca. Studies on the history of the Slovaks and Slovakia. (Publications of the Collegium Carolinum, Volume 93), Oldenbourg Verlag, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-486-56521-4 , pp. 71-106.
  • Adam Hudek, Michal Kopeček, Jan Mervart: Čechoslovakismus [= Czechoslovakism]. Nakladatelství lidové noviny, 2020. (Czech)
  • Jan Rychlík : Czechoslawism and Czechoslovakism. In: Walter Koshaben, Marek Nekula, Joachim Rogall (eds.): Germans and Czechs: History, Culture, Politics. Second, revised edition, Verlag CH Beck, Munich 2003, ISBN 3-406-45954-4 , pp. 91-101.

Overview representations and further literature

  • Carol Skalnik Leff: National Conflict in Czechoslovakia. The Making and Remaking of a State, 1918-1987. Princeton University Press, Princeton 1988.
  • Carol Skalnik Leff: The Czech And Slovak Republics: Nation Versus State. New York 1997.

Footnotes

  1. ^ Bakke: Czechoslovakism in Slovak history. P. 247.
  2. ^ Bakke: Czechoslovakism , p. 248.
  3. ^ Ján Mlynárik: História česko-slovenských vzťahov. In: Karel Vodička (ed.): Dělení Československa. Deset let poté… Prague 2003, ISBN 8-072-07479-2 , pp. 11–29, 18 f.
  4. ↑ Zdeněk Veselý: Ke koncepcím české státnosti od konce 18 do počátku 20. století. In: Stanislava Kučerová et al. (Ed.): Českoslovenství Středoevropanství Evropanství 1918–1998. Úvahy, svědectví a fakta. Brno 1998, ISBN 8-085-61526-6 , pp. 85-95.
  5. ^ Dušan Kováč: Slováci a Česi. Bratislava 1997, ISBN 8-088-88008-4 , pp. 55-57.
  6. ↑ Antonín Měšťan: Slovanský prvek při vzniku Československa. In: Stanislava Kučerová et al. (Ed.): Českoslovenství Středoevropanství Evropanství 1918–1998. Úvahy, svědectví a fakta. Brno 1998, ISBN 8-085-61526-6 , pp. 156-159.
  7. ↑ Jaroslav Opat: Filozof a politik TG Masaryk 1882-1893. Příspěvek k životopisu. Prague 1990, pp. 207-217.
  8. ↑ Jaroslav Opat: Průvodce životem a Dilem TG Masaryk. Česká otázka včera a dnes. Prague 2003, ISBN 8-086-14213-2 , pp. 122-133.
  9. ↑ Kováč, pp. 63–67.
  10. ↑ That is, no explicit constitutional distinction was made between Czech and Slovak territory, while according to § 3 this was very much the case with regard to Carpathian-Ukraine . The preamble is formulated in the 1st person plural and the Czechoslovak people are indicated as the speaker . Furthermore, § 131 speaks of a Czechoslovak language (Constitution of Czechoslovakia, § 121/1920 Sb., Czech online: www.lexdata.cz  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically defective Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ). The language law was, however, separated into a separate law (§ 122/1920 Sb., German online: http://www.verfassungen.net ).@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.lexdata.cz  
  11. ↑ Mlynárik, p. 24 f.
  12. ↑ Kováč, p. 68 f.
  13. ^ Kieran Williams: The Prague Spring and its Aftermath. Czechoslovak politics, 1968-1970. Cambridge 1997, ISBN 0-521-58803-0 , p. 223.