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František Jehlička and His Activity in Support of the Hungarian Revision in Czechoslovakia in 1919–1938 OPEN ACCESS

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František Jehlička and His Activity in Support of the Hungarian Revision in Czechoslovakia in 1919–1938 OPEN ACCESS František Jehlička and his activity in support of the Hungarian revision in Czechoslovakia in 1919–1938 OPEN ACCESS Janek István After the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, international political relations in Central Europe had become impenetrable and uncertain. The content of the peace treaty with Hungary remained an open question for a long time, which determined the fate of the territories in Northern Hungary. This provisional period was closed with the Peace of Trianon on 4 June 1920. Up to that moment, the Hungarian government was doing intense diplomatic activity in order to modify the border between Hungary and Czechoslovakia to their favour as much as possible. Even after signing the treaty, the Hungarian administration never gave up the idea of regaining Slovakia or a part of it by diplomatic or military means.1 For the Hungarian politicians the loss of Upper Hungary was the second most painful experience next only to the loss of Transylvania, for the crucial role the territory had played in the economic system of the Kingdom of Hungary. Hungarian propaganda implied that regaining the lost territories would be the easiest from Czechoslovakia, as this country had no history as a state, and therefore no historical traditions, either. Czechoslovakia, in their argument, was an artificial construction which could thank its existence only to the great powers, which made it easier to defeat in an appropriate moment.2 Hungarian government circles did not consider the establishment of Czechoslovakia as the unification of the Slavonic peoples of historical Hungary with their mother country; they even denied consistently that the Slovaks and Czechs would belong to one nation. By doing so, they denied, in effect, the Czechoslovak state theory, which regarded Czechs and Slovaks as two branches of the same nation. The Hungarian government endeavoured, through two decades, to hinder the approach of the Slovak and Czech nations. For them the Slovaks were people under Czech occupation, who, together with other national minorities, were struggling to liberate themselves. 1 ANGYAL, Béla, Érdekvédelem és önszerveződés. Fejezetek a csehszlovákiai magyar pártpolitika történetéből 1918–1938, Galánta — Dunaszerdahely 2002, pp. 46–47; ZEIDLER, Miklós, A revíziós gondola, Pozsony 2009, p. 97. 2 The necessity of revision was self-evident for Hungarian politicians and the public. They rejected reconciliation with the situation created by the peace of Trianon. See Valóság 2001, Vol. 3, pp. 10–11. 44 DVACÁTÉ STOLETÍ 2/2015 In their view, the Slovaks formed a nation ethnographically, linguistically and historically separate from the Czechs. The Hungarian leaders agreed that Slovakia, or at least its territory with Hungarian majority had to return to Hungary in some way. They believed that if a referendum had been held, the Slovaks and the Ruthenians would vote for reunification with Hungary. They expected the pro-Hungarian faction of Hlinka’s Slovak People’s Party to be a help in the dissolution of Czechoslovakia. They were hoping that the Slovak clergy, having socialised in the Monarchy, would strengthen pro-Hungarian sentiments in the Slovak people, and the Slovaks would eventually choose the Kingdom of Hungary instead of the Czechoslovak Republic. Thus, the Hungarian policy-makers targeted to gain the support of certain Slovak circles. Revisionist Hungarian politicians found an excellent partner in František Jehlička (1879–1939).3 His career is a strange example for the quest for the road among contemporary national ideas, between Slovak national identity and former Magyarisation and the official Czechoslovak ideology. Jehlička is a very intricate and contradictory figure of Slovak and Czechoslovak history, who got to crossroads several times in those troublesome days. The objective of this study is to introduce the career of this interesting personality in the short period indicated in the title. Jehlička was born as a son of a teacher in Jókút (Kúty, Senica district) on 24 January 1879. He studied theology in Vienna. A man of exceptional talent, he received doctorate in theology at the age of 26 in 1905. He was rewarded with a ring with jewels by Francis Joseph for his excellent academic results. It was a great honour, for only two people received the ring in that year. There was a promising ecclesiastic career awaiting the young priest. He became professor of religious studies in the teacher training college of Modor (modern Modra), and later served as a priest in Pozsony (Bratislava) in 1904–1907. Under the impact of Ferdinand Juriga,4 he became a fervent supporter of the new Slovak national movement. They were co-editors of the conservative Catholic Journal (Katolické noviny). He was a founder of the Slovak People’s Party, and he became an MP of Bazin (Pezinok) in the Hungarian parliament. Due to political attacks from the Hungarian government, Jehlička resigned from his membership in 1907 and moved to Budapest. The great hope of Slovak politics thus deserted from political life.5 He probably made this decision on the pressure of his ecclesiastic supervisors, and also to prevent the destruction of his career as a clergyman. He was appointed professor of 3 The biography of František Jehlička see Slovenský biografický slovník, Martin 1987, Vol. II., p. 546. Also: HERTEL, Marián (the first name of the Author is misspelt; the correct form is Maroš), František Jehlička. Nočná mora politického života, in: MICHÁLEK, Slavomír — KRAJČOVIČOVÁ, Natália (eds.), Do pamäti národa, Bratislava 2003, pp. 231–241. 4 Ferdinánd Juriga (1874–1950), Slovakian Catholic priest, politician, essayist, the leading figure of the Slovak national movement. He studied theology in Esztergom and received doctorate in Vienna. He was an MP in the Hungarian parliament in 1905–1918. He was imprisoned for two years for his anti-Hungarian activity in 1906. A founding member of the Slovak People’s Party in 1918, at the same time a representative in the Czechoslovak National Assembly. He was excluded from the people’s party in the trial of Béla Tuka in 1929, which eventually led to his departure from political life in 1930. 5 HOLEC, Roman, Tragédia v Černovej a slovenská spoločnosť, Martin 1997, p. 103. janeK István 45 the Faculty of Theology in Budapest with the help of Archbishop János Csernoch6 (he himself being of Slovak origin) in 1915.7 Jehlička returned to politics in October 1918. He gave up his new Hungarian orientation and started arguing for the unification of Czechs and Slovaks in one state.8 Upon the foundation of Czechoslovakia, Jehlička had great hopes in the new state. He was appointed government commissioner of Elizabeth University in Bratislava then he became an MP in the Czechoslovak parliament in March 1919. At the beginning, he was among the closest colleagues of Andrej Hlinka.9 He participated in the reorganisation of the people’s party as well as in the establishment of the Slovák, the paper of the party.10 Jehlička, among other Slovak intellectuals, soon raised doubts about the ideal of the Czechoslovak state. They saw that the equality between Slovaks and Czechs was far from reality in the new republic. He could not, and he would not accept the conception of a Czechoslovak nation propagated by Eduard Beneš, which said that the two nations were actually one.11 Jehlička thought that the Czechs did not want to keep the ideas of the Pittsburgh agreement,12 which promised autonomy for Slovakia with separate government, parliament and jurisdiction. Disappointed about this, he started to change his political views and developed an anti-Czech attitude. Jehlička became the mouthpiece of Slovak autonomy rejecting the idea of a Czechoslovak state. He won over Andrej Hlinka, president of the Slovak People’s Party, which had been renewed in December 1918. 6 János Csernoch (1852–1927), Cardinal Primate, Archbishop of Esztergom, MP. He came from a deeply religious Slovak peasant family. Bishop of Csanád from 1908, Archbishop of Kalocsa from 1911. Pope Pius X appointed him Archbishop of Esztergom and Cardinal in 1913. 7 MICHELA, Miroslav, František Jehlička politikai pálfordulatai 1918–1920­ban, 2005/tél, p. 33. 8 HERTEL, M., František…, p. 264. 9 Andrej Hlinka (1864–1938), Slovak Catholic priest, politician, ecclesiastic writer. He started his political career in the Catholic People’s Party of János Zichy. He often published articles about the situation of the Slovaks in Slovakian papers. In 1901, he broke with the Zichy party and joined the Slovak National Party. He sharply defended the interests of the Catholic church; he supported the autonomy of Slovakia. After the political turn, he reorganised the Slovakian People’s Party, which adopted the name Hlinka’s Slovak People’s Party in 1925. From 1918, he was a member of the Czechoslovak National Assembly until his death. 10 HERTEL, M., František…, p. 264. 11 The Czechoslovak state was founded on the doctrine of Czechoslovakism, which stated that Czechs and Slovaks formed one nation, or, in the more extreme version, the Slovaks were in fact Czechs. Czechoslovakism did not recognise Slovak national identity, and therefore the Slovaks rejected it. The founders of the state (Masaryk and Beneš) used the fiction of Czechoslovakism to explain the contradiction that the new country had been born as a nation state while it was multi-national. The constitution made Czechoslovakian official language; its Czech dialect was used in Bohemia and Slovak in Slovakia. The Czech leaders were hoping that the two nations would mix in time and develop a common identity. It is obvious that this idea only wanted to ensure the Slavonic majority of the newly born state. 12 The Pittsburgh agreement was made by the American, Slovak and Czech organisations on 30 May 1918. The agreement, which was signed also by T. G. Masaryk, promised autonomy for the Slovaks. 46 DVACÁTÉ STOLETÍ 2/2015 THE TRIP OF FRANTIŠEK JEHLIČKA AND ANDREJ HLINKA TO THE PARIS PEACE CONFERENCE From about the middle of 1919 onwards, Jehlička focussed on the destruction of Czechoslovakia and the separation of Slovakia.
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