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RW Seton-Watson and the Czechs, Slovaks, and Magyars

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RW Seton-Watson and the Czechs, Slovaks, and Magyars Jan RychlÖk, Thomas D. Marzik, Miroslav Bielik, eds.. R.W. Seton-Watson and His Relations with the Czechs and Slovaks: Documents 1906-1951/ R.W. Seton-Watson a jeho vztahy k CechÖ¹m a SlovÖ¡kÖ¹m: dokumenty 1906-1951. Praha: Ustav T.G. Masaryka; Martin: Matica slovenskÖ¡, 1995. 648 + 241 pp. ISBN 978-80-901478-9-8. Reviewed by James Ramon Felak Published on HABSBURG (March, 1998) Thanks to the initiative of Christopher Seton- pages. The overwhelming majority (p. 170) are in Watson and the efforts of Professors Rychlik, English, with around ffty in German and just a Marzik and Bielik, students of Czech and Slovak handful in Czech and Slovak, languages of which history now have a collection of documents per‐ Seton-Watson had only a passive knowledge and taining to R. W. Seton-Watson that both parallels in which very few Czechs and Slovaks wrote to and surpasses earlier collections on his relations him. Chronologically considered, ffty-three docu‐ with Yugoslavia and Romania from the previous ments pertain to the pre-World War I period, thir‐ two decades.[1] ty-one to the time of the First World War, ninety- Volume one of this project includes, in both seven to the time of the First Republic, thirty-sev‐ English and Slovak, a ffty-page essay by Christo‐ en to the period from the Munich Agreement pher Seton-Watson surveying the life of his father through the Second World War, and eight to the as it pertained to Czechoslovakia and its people. period after World War II. Although a few of the Thereafter follow 228 documents of various sorts, documents have been published elsewhere,[2] the covering 539 pages. Volume two consists of a de‐ overwhelming majority appear for the frst time tailed listing of the documents, name and place in‐ in print. Most of them (more than 150) come from dexes, a bibliography of Seton-Watson's main the R. W. Seton-Watson Papers at the School of works pertaining to Czechs and Slovaks, and the Slavonic and East European Studies in London. In brief itineraries of the twenty-two visits that he addition, the holdings of the Literary Archive of made to Central and Eastern Europe during the the Matica slovenska, the Slovak National Ar‐ course of his life. Co-sponsored by the T. G. chive, the Archive of the Institute of the T. G. Masaryk Institute in Prague and the Matica Masaryk Institute, and the Archive of the National slovenska in Martin, R. W. Seton-Watson and His Museum in Prague were sources of Seton-Wat‐ Relations with the Czechs and Slovaks provides son's correspondence with Czech and Slovak polit‐ valuable insight into both Seton-Watson himself ical, cultural, and intellectual elites. and into the history of Slovaks and Czechs during At least three basic issues permeate the docu‐ a number of key periods of their respective histo‐ ments as they run their course from the early ries. twentieth century, when Seton-Watson frst made The documents range from brief letters of a his acquaintance with Czechs and Slovaks, to the few lines to memoranda as long as seventeen aftermath of the Second World War. These are his H-Net Reviews concerns with the origin, health, and survival of Problems in Hungary in 1908,[3] to his efforts dur‐ the Czechoslovak Republic, with the Slovak ques‐ ing the Second World War to reconcile Slovak ex‐ tion, both in Old Hungary and the new Czechoslo‐ ile politicians such as Milan Hodza with Benes. vakia, and with the Hungarian question, both in The documents in this collection are quite exten‐ terms of post-Trianon Hungarian revisionism and sive with respect to Slovakia and the Slovaks, and the situation of the Magyar minority in Slovakia. include memoranda and correspondence connect‐ Regarding the Czechoslovak Republic, the ed with his two books on Slovakia published dur‐ documents show Seton-Watson's early acquain‐ ing the interwar period.[4] Both works were con‐ tance with and high regard for Tomas Masaryk. scious efforts by Seton-Watson to contribute in a Among the materials included are Seton-Watson's positive way to Czech and Slovak reconciliation account of a meeting with him in October 1915 in and to improve the image of Czechoslovakia in Rotterdam to sound out his views on the future of the eyes of the West. The documents underscore the Czech and Slovak lands, and, among other that, from the earliest years of the First Republic documents, a letter urging Masaryk to accept a through to the end of his life, Seton-Watson was lecturership at Kings College. After World War I, upset on numerous occasions with Slovak nation‐ Seton-Watson helped found the Anglo-Czech Re‐ alism, and irreconcilably after the events of au‐ lief Fund and the Czech Society of Great Britain tumn 1938. References in his correspondence to (note the use of the term "Czech" for what were the autonomist Slovak regime as "damnable" and understood as Czechoslovak or Czecho-Slovak or‐ the government of the wartime republic as "spine‐ ganizations). During the interwar period, he made less" underscore his extreme bitterness at the frequent visits to Czechoslovakia and remained time. closely attentive to its affairs. The documents give Though loyally committed to Masaryk and accounts of some of these visits, and contain as Benes and the idea that Czechs and Slovaks con‐ well the correspondence with friends and col‐ stitute, at least politically, a single nation, Seton- leagues from which Seton-Watson received his in‐ Watson apportioned to the Czechs some blame for formation about the situation in Czechoslovakia. the "Slovak problem." As he wrote to his wife May This correspondence is in fact one of the more ex‐ from Kosice in 1923, "the whole problem seems to tensive and interesting parts of the collection. The me to be very largely one of tact or lack of tact. book also documents Seton-Watson's avid work With a little more of that valuable (but with them on Czechoslovakia's behalf during and after the rare) quality, the Czechs would carry all before Sudeten crisis. The image of Czechoslovakia that them: it would dissipate most of the grievances Seton-Watson loved and supported was that asso‐ which exist and indeed might easily have prevent‐ ciated with Masaryk and Benes, negative toward ed most of them from arising" (p. 374). In retro‐ the Austro-Hungarian past, suspicious of Slovak spect, this appears a vast underestimation of the nationalism, liberal, and steeped in an ardent ad‐ intractability of the problem of Slovak-Czech rela‐ miration for Jan Hus and the Hussite tradition. In tions, even though Seton-Watson clearly under‐ this respect, it is worth examining the two other stood its complexity, as evidenced by his work The issues that were prevalent in Seton-Watson's con‐ New Slovakia in 1923.[4] cern with the Czech and Slovak lands, the Slovak The Magyar question is also worth consider‐ and Magyar questions. ing. Seton-Watson was known, since the early Seton-Watson's involvement in the Slovak twentieth century, for his staunch opposition to question runs from early visits to Hungary, which Hungarian pretensions with regard to Slovakia, led to the publication of his well-known Racial either in the form of magyarization before 1918, 2 H-Net Reviews or revisionism afterwards. The documents, how‐ The above is just a sampling of the treasures ever, show Seton-Watson's position with regard to that can be found in this collection. From the doc‐ Hungary and the Hungarians as more nuanced uments, we learn that a Slovak delegation pre‐ than is sometimes understood. In an article in The sented a copy of Seton-Watson's Racial Problems New Europe during the time of the Paris Peace in Hungary to Theodore Roosevelt during the lat‐ Conference in 1919, he implies his approval of the ter's visit to Budapest. We fnd colorful descrip‐ Grosse Schuett(Zitny Ostrov) region remaining in tions of the hero's welcome that Seton-Watson re‐ Hungarian possession, based on the ethnic princi‐ luctantly enjoyed upon his visits to Slovakia in the ple. In 1928, he prepared a memorandum for 1920s. We see Slovak nationalist leader Andrej President Masaryk that pointed to the lack of Hlinka, himself hyper-sensitive to the confusion progress by Czechoslovakia in improving the situ‐ of "Slovak" with "Czech," refer to the Norwegian ation of the Magyar minority. Seton-Watson Bjornson as "the great Swedish writer" in a news‐ wrote: "indeed, I am reluctantly driven to the con‐ paper article, and Jan Masaryk describe himself clusion that their position is actually deteriorating as "a lazy and somewhat superficial bloke by na‐ and that they have to-day a number of very seri‐ ture" in a 1943 letter to Seton-Watson. ous grievances which require remedy" (p. 413). It is hard to fnd much fault with such a thor‐ He then went on to discuss these grievances in ough, interesting, and well-organized collection. twelve pages. Throughout the entire period of the In places, the editors could have pointed out fac‐ First Republic, Seton-Watson was acutely aware of tual errors in the texts. For example, on page 566, the benefits that would accrue to Czechoslovakia a report by Social Democratic editor and Lutheran should she satisfy her Magyar minority, and the minister Jan Caplovic refers to the Slovak People's problems that might ensue if she did not. Party assembly of 1938 at Piestany, and the burn‐ One of the assets of this collection is that it ing of the Czechoslovak-German pact at an SPP brings together of a number of relatively longer rally in summer 1938.
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