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The Population of Czechia and Slovakia in 1918–1945

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The Population of Czechia and Slovakia in 1918–1945 THE POPULATION OF CZECHIA AND SLOVAKIA IN 1918–1945 Ludmila Fialová1) – Branislav Šprocha2) Abstract During the interwar period the development of the population in Czechoslovakia reflected long-term reproductive trends (decreasing fertility and mortality) and the effects of contemporary political and economic developments. The populations of Czechia and Slovakia followed more or less similar paths of development, the difference being that fertility in Czechia tended to be lower than in Slovakia and the mortality conditions in Czechia were also better. Keywords: Czechia, Slovakia, population development, population structure, 20th century Demografie, 2018, 60: 161–183 1. INTRODUCTION of Hungary, also became part of the state, but since In the development of European populations during it ceased to be a part of Czechoslovakia from March the first half of the 20th century it is possible to 1939, the overview of population development in distinguish features that reflect both long-term Czechoslovakia presented below covers only the Czech tendencies in population reproduction over time lands3) and Slovakia.4) (the completion of the first demographic transition) Ever since the early modern era, Czechia had and the effects of specific political and economic belonged more to the western part of Central Europe. conditions – i.e. the two world wars and changing It was one of the most developed regions within former economic cycles. In Czechoslovakia an important Austria-Hungary and the structure of its domestic role in population development was also played by the economy reflected this, as less than half the population heterogeneity of the country. Although the new state of was dependent on agriculture for their livelihood and Czechoslovakia was formed entirely from territory that there was already a developed system of secondary was formerly a part of the Austro–Hungarian Empire, and higher education. Slovakia, by contrast, had more until 1918 Bohemia, Moravia, and Silesia belonged to features in common with Eastern Europe, in terms of the Cisleithanian (i.e. Austrian) region of the Empire, the level and composition of the economy, but also in which they were autonomous administrative units, with respect to family structure and the character while Slovakia was newly delimited from the northern of population reproduction. It was still an agrarian part of Hungary. In September 1919 Carpathian country, and its industry focused on processing ore Ruthenia, territory which had previously been part and agricultural products. This was apparent from 1) Faculty of Science of Charles University, Department of Demography and Geodemography, contact: [email protected]. 2) Centre of Social and Psychological Sciences SAS, INFOSTAT – Demographic Research Centre, contact: [email protected]. 3) The Czech lands were made up of three parts - Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia; since 1993 the official name of the state is the Czech Republic or Czechia. 4) On the development of the population of Carpathian Ruthenia in the interwar period, see Šprocha – Tišliar, 2009a; Šprocha – Tišliar, 2009b. 161 2018 60 (3) ČLÁNKY the geographical distribution of the population: ethnic groups in Czechoslovakia. There were Poles in 1921, 45% of the population in Czechia were in part of Silesia and Ruthenians in eastern Slovakia. already living in communities with more than 2,000 Jews, more a religious than an ethnic minority, lived inhabitants, while in Slovakia the figure was 37% in communities scattered around the country, tending (despite the fact that some rural communities in to reside more in large towns in Czechia and in the Slovakia were numerically larger). In terms of family countryside in Slovakia. structure, in Czechia mean age at first marriage was In September 1938 Czechoslovakia was forced slightly higher than in Slovakia. When J. Hajnal to cede the border regions settled by Germans to differentiated the European population by type of Germany and the regions settled by Hungarians family behaviour, he drew a dividing line along to Hungary. In March 1939 the remaining territory the border between Moravia and Slovakia (Hajnal, of Czech became the Protectorate of Bohemia and 1965). At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, Moravia and came under the control of Germany, and changes appeared in reproductive behaviour in what remained of Slovakia was declared the Slovak both countries, as there were decreases in both the Republic, while the remainder of Carpathian Ruthenia fertility and mortality rates. These processes began was joined to Hungary. The joint state reformed in earlier in Czechia, and at the time the joint state was May 1945, but it came then to comprise only Czechia established Czech fertility and mortality was lower and Slovakia. than in Slovakia. Population development during the interwar The ethnic composition of the Czech lands and period has been of abiding interest to demographers, Slovakia was very heterogeneous: in both parts of including demographers contemporary to the the new state Czechs and Slovaks, the nationalities interwar period (e.g. Boháč, 1936; Korčák, 1947). that spearheaded the movement to create the new Until 1992, as well as papers devoted either to Czechia state, made up two-thirds of the total population in (e.g. Vávra, 1962) or Slovakia (Svetoň, 1958), there Czechoslovakia, while one-third of the population were also studies that focused on the population of in Czechia were Germans and one-third of the Czechoslovakia as a whole, most notably the work of Slovak part were Hungarians. Neither Germans nor V. Srb (e.g. 1968, 1978) and M. Kučera (1988). There Hungarians agreed with the formation of the new state was a move away from this approach after 1992, though and tried to prevent it, and enduring conflicts between studies still tend to include comparisons between the two the different ethnic groups marked their subsequent now separate countries. For Czechia detailed summaries co-existence within the new state. of population development in 1918–1945 can be found Czechs and Germans tended to live in separate in studies by M. Kučera (Kučera, 1994; Kučera, 1998), areas in Czechia, as did Slovaks and Hungarians in V. Srb (Srb, 2004), and Z. Pavlík (Pavlík – Rychtaříková Slovakia, and each group maintained its own cultural – Šubrtová, 1985), and J. Musil’s contribution to Dějiny traditions, and this reality had a fateful impact on obyvatelstva českých zemí (History of the Population the future development of the state. In Czechia the of the Czech Lands) is also very interesting (Dějiny, Czech population lived in inland areas, while the 1998). In recent years, population development German population resided in the regions along in Slovakia has received extensive attention from the borders with Germany and Austria, where in some B. Šprocha and P. Tišliar, who have written a number districts Germans made up as much as 98% of the of studies on this subject (e.g. Šprocha – Tišliar, 2008a, population. The Hungarian minority in Slovakia was 2008b, 2009c, 2012, 2014a, 2014b, 2016, 2017). For similarly settled within a compact area in Slovakia’s Slovakia there are detailed studies of population southern border with Hungary stretching from development analysed using modern demographic Bratislava to Žitný ostrov and all the way to the border methods. They too include comparisons with with Romania in Carpathian Ruthenia. This fostered development in other countries and often in particular a sense of mutual alienation between communities with development in Czechia. And there are also that grew into mutual antagonism and eventually into books of maps that capture population development the rejection of a shared state. There were also other in the period of concern (e.g. Láska – Pantoflíček, 1935; 162 Ludmila Fialová – Branislav Šprocha The Population of Czechia and Slovakia in 1918–1945 Tab. 1: Population of Czechia and Slovakia in 1918–1938*) Population (in thous.) Population density per 1 km2 Date Czechia Slovakia Czechia Slovakia 31.12.1910 10,079 2,917 128 60 28.10.1918 9,987 2,968 127 61 15.02.1921 10,010 2,994 127 61 01.12.1930 10,674 3,324 135 68 30.09.1938 10,905 3,580 138 73 Note: *) Calculated in relation to the area of territory today. Source: Federální statistický úřad, 1982. Purš, 1965; Semotanová et al., 2016; Ouředníček – Jíchová for prisoners of war. If the size of the population on the – Pospíšilová, 2017; Tišliar et al. 2017). territory of Czechoslovakia (without Carpathian Ruthenia) Somewhat less is known about the situation in is retrospectively estimated as 12,955,000 (cf. Tab. 1) back 1938–1945. The reason for this is the problem with to the date the new state was founded, this number is data availability, as demographic statistics on the ceded a fictitious one that includes these men and other persons border regions were processed outside the territory temporarily absent from the territory. Nevertheless, for of Czechia and Slovakia, and not in one place but Czechia this figure was 70,000 fewer people than the in the different territories to which one or the other number recorded during the census in 1910 (though on region had been annexed. Staff at the Czech statistical smaller territory), and, conversely, 51,000 more than the office in Prague continued to maintain data for the number recorded in Slovakia. In the population census territory of the Protectorate and the Slovak statistical carried out in the spring of 1921, 23,000 more people office in Bratislava did the same for the territory of the were counted in Czechia and 26,000 more in Slovakia.5) Slovak Republic, and immediately after the war the two Estimates indicate that by the end of September 1938 institutions tried to estimate population development in the population was 14,485,000 inhabitants. The number the occupied border regions. These estimates continue of inhabitants thus grew between 1918 and 1938 by to be used up to now.
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