Slovakia in History Edited by Mikuláš Teich, Dušan Kováč and Martin D

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Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-80253-6 - Slovakia in History Edited by Mikuláš Teich, Dušan Kováč and Martin D. Brown Frontmatter More information

Slovakia in History

Until the dissolution of Czechoslovakia, Slovakia’s identity seemed inextricably linked with that of the former state. This book explores the key moments and themes in the history of Slovakia from the Duchy of Nitra’s ninth-century origins to the establishment of independent Slovakia at midnight 1992–1993. Leading scholars chart the gradual ethnic awakening of the Slovaks during the Reformation and Counter- Reformation and examine how Slovak national identity took shape with the codification of standard literary Slovak in 1843 and the subsequent development of the Slovak national movement. They show how, after a thousand years of Magyar–Slovak coexistence, Slovakia became part of the new Czechoslovak state from 1918 to 1939, and shed new light on its role as a Nazi client state as well as on post-war developments leading up to full statehood in the aftermath of the collapse of communism in 1989. There is no comparable book in English on the subject.

mikulA´ Sˇ teich is Emeritus Fellow of Robinson College, Cambridge, and Honorary Professor, Vienna University of Technology (Technische Universita¨t Wien). His publications include work on the history of chemistry, biomedical sciences and biotechnology; social, economic and national aspects of scientific and technical developments; and Slavica.

duSˇ an kovA´ Cˇ is Vice-President of the Slovak Academy of Sciences and President of the Slovak National Committee of Historians. His previous publications include Deˇjiny Slovenska (History of Slovakia, 1998). martin d. brown is an assistant professor of international history at Richmond, the American International University in London. His previous publications include Dealing with Democrats. The British For- eign Office’s Relations with the Czechoslovak E´ migre´s in Great Britain, 1939–1945 (2006).

© in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-80253-6 - Slovakia in History Edited by Mikuláš Teich, Dušan Kováč and Martin D. Brown Frontmatter More information

Slovakia in History

Edited by Mikula´sˇ Teich, Dusˇan Kova´cˇ and Martin D. Brown

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# Cambridge University Press 2011

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First published 2011

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Slovakia in history / edited by Mikula´sˇ Teich, Dusˇan Kova´c, Martin D. Brown. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-521-80253-6 (Hbk.) 1. Slovakia–History. 2. National characteristics, Slovak. 3. Slovakia– Politics and government. I. Teich, Mikula´sˇ. II. Kova´c, Dusˇan. III. Brown, Martin D. IV. Title. DB2763.S56 2010 943.73–dc22 2010022615

ISBN 978-0-521-80253-6 Hardback

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Contents

List of figures page viii List of maps x Notes on contributors xi Acknowledgements xvii

1 Slovakia, the Slovaks and their history 1 duSˇ an kovA´ Cˇ 2 The Duchy of Nitra 15 jA´ n steinhU¨ bel 3 The beginnings of the nobility in Slovakia 30 jA´ nlukaCˇ KA 4 Medieval towns 38 vladimI´ rsegeSˇ 5 Renaissance and humanist tendencies in Slovakia 54 eva frimmovA´ 6 The period of religious disturbances in Slovakia 71 viliam Cˇ iCˇ AJ 7 The Enlightenment and the beginnings of the modern Slovak nation 87 eva kowalskA´ 8 Slovak Slavism and Panslavism 101 (þ)l’ u d o v I´ t haraksim 9 The Slovak political programme: from Hungarian patriotism to the Czecho-Slovak state 120 duSˇ an kovA´ Cˇ

vi Contents

10 Slovakia in Czechoslovakia, 1918–1938 137 natA´ lia krajCˇ OVICˇ OVA´ 11 Slovakia from the Munich Conference to the declaration of independence 157 valeriA´ nbystrickY´ 12 The Slovak state, 1939–1945 175 ivan kamenec 13 The Slovak question and the resistance movement during the Second World War 193 jan rychlI´ k 14 The Slovak National Uprising: the most dramatic moment in the nation’s history 206 vilE´ mpreCˇ AN 15 The Slovak question, 1945–1948 229 (þ)michal barnovskY´ 16 Czechoslovakism in Slovak history 247 elisabeth bakke 17 The Magyar minority in Slovakia before and after the Second World War 269 Sˇ tefan Sˇ utaj 18 The establishment of totalitarianism in Slovakia after the February coup of 1948 and the culmination of mass persecution, 1948–1953 284 jan peSˇ ek 19 Slovakia and the attempt to reform socialism in Czechoslovakia, 1963–1969 299 stanislav sikora 20 Slovakia’s position within the Czecho-Slovak federation, 1968–1970 315 jozef Zˇ atkuliak 21 Slovakia under communism, 1948–1989: controversial developments in the economy, society and culture 330 miroslav londA´ k and elena londA´ kovA´

Contents vii

22 The fall of communism and the establishment of an independent Slovakia 351 michal Sˇ tefanskY´ 23 Afterword: Slovakia in history 370 mikulA´ Sˇ teich

Index 391

Figures

1 Mining regulations current in the Lower Hungarian Mining Towns (1703) page 46 2 Privilegium pro Slavis – decree by King Louis I the Great on German–Slovak parity in the town council of Zˇ ilina (1381) 50 3 Title page of J. B. Magin’s Apologia (1723) 106 4 Title page of J. Kolla´r’s Sla´wy dcera (Sla´va’s daughter) (1824) 110 5 Title page of Statutes of Matica slovenska´ in Slovak (Cyrillic and Latin alphabets) (1863) 129 6 Declaration of the Slovak Nation made in Turcˇiansky Sv. Martin (30 October 1918), published in Na´rodnie noviny 135 7 Milan Rastislav Sˇtefa´nik 139 8 Vavro Sˇroba´r 142 9 Andrej Hlinka 145 10 Milan Hodzˇa 145 11 The Vienna Arbitration (1938) 166 12 Jozef Tiso meeting Adolf Hitler (1941) 186 13 Jewish people in Trstena´ boarding transport to death camps in the East (possibly 1942) 189 14 Digging of an anti-tank ditch during the Slovak National Uprising 210 15 Slovak National Uprising armed fighters 215 16 Alexander Dubcˇek 306 17 Industrialisation (1954–1960): the East Slovakian Iron Works at Kosˇice 335 18 Gusta´vHusa´k 353 19 The two politicians who dissolved the Czech and Slovak Federative Republic (1992): Va´clav Klaus and Vladimı´r Mecˇiar 367

viii

List of figures ix

Illustrations 1, 2, 5 and 6 from Institute of Historical Studies of the Slovak Academy of Sciences. Illustrations 3 and 4 from D. Kova´cˇ, Deˇjiny Slovenska (1998). Illustrations 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 and 19 reproduced with kind permission of Cˇ TK Photobank/ Multimedia.

Maps

1 Slovak Republic page xviii 2 The Kingdom of Hungary in the year 1000 20 3 The Duchy of Nitra in the eleventh century 22 4 The First Czechoslovak Republic 1918–1938 138 5 Slovakia during the Second World War 176

Notes on contributors

elisabeth bakke is an associate professor and heads the bachelor programme in European studies at the University of Oslo. She studied political science and specialises in the politics and political history of Central Europe, especially Czechoslovakia. Her publications deal with questions of national identity, national self-determination, Czech– Slovak relations, and ideology and the concept of Czechoslovakism.

michael barnovskY´ was a historian at the Institute of Historical Studies, Slovak Academy of Sciences. His research was concerned with the history of Slovakia after the Second World War, particularly the period of ‘controlled democracy’ in the years 1945–1948. On this theme he published his principal work, Na ceste k monopolu moci. Mocenskopoliticke´ za´pasy na Slovensku v rokoch 1945–1948 (On the road to monopoly power. Power-political struggles in Slovakia in the years 1945–1948 (Bratislava, 1991)). martin d. brown is an assistant professor of international history at Richmond, the American International University in London, a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and a member of the steering committee of the British–Czech–Slovak Historians’ Forum. His most recent book, Dealing with Democrats. The British Foreign Office’s Relations with the Czechoslovak E´ migre´s in Great Britain, 1939–1945 (Frankfurt am Main, 2006), deals with British foreign policy formation and decision- making during the Second World War and in particular relations with the Czechoslovak government-in-exile. A Czech-language translation was published in October 2008. He is currently researching British foreign policy during the era of de´tente, leading up to the Helsinki Final Act of 1975.

valeriA´ nbystrickY´ is a historian at the Institute of Historical Studies, Slovak Academy of Sciences. From 1998 to 2006 he was director of the institute. He has published widely in the area of Balkan studies. Lately his professional interests centre on the history of the Second

xii Notes on contributors

Czechoslovak Republic, concerning the period between the First Republic and the emergence of the Slovak state in 1939. The results of this research were recently published in Od autono´mie k vzniku slovenske´ho sˇta´tu (From autonomy to the emergence of the Slovak state (Bratislava, 2008)).

viliam Cˇ iCˇ aj is a historian at the Institute of Historical Studies, Slovak Academy of Sciences, and chairman of the Slovak Historical Association. His field of interest is the early modern history of Slovakia, especially religious disturbances at the time of Reforma- tion and Counter-Reformation.

eva frimmovA´ is a historian at the Institute of Historical Studies, Slovak Academy of Sciences. She is the author of books and articles dealing with humanism and the Renaissance on the territory of contemporary Slovakia, especially in the area of literature and book culture.

l’ u d o v I´ t haraksim wasahistorianattheInstituteofHistorical Studies, Slovak Academy of Sciences, before 1970. He was then obliged to give up his academic activities and worked in a museum without the possibility of publishing. In 1990 he was able to return to the Institute of Historical Studies. His research concentrated on Slavic historical studies, including Slavic reciprocity, political and ideological Panslavism, and Slovak–Russian and Slovak–Ukrainian relations in the nineteenth century. ivan kamenec is a historian at the Institute of Historical Studies, Slovak Academy of Sciences. His main area of interest is the history of the Slovak state (1939–1945). He authored a short history of the Slovak state (1992) and a biography of Jozef Tiso (1998). The main part of his research is dedicated to the holocaust of Slovak Jews. On this theme he has published numerous articles and the book Po stopa´ch trage´die (On the track of tragedy (Bratislava, 1991)).

duSˇ an kovA´ Cˇ is Vice-President of the Slovak Academy of Sciences and President of the Slovak National Committee of Historians. In the years 1990–1998 he was director of the Institute of Historical Studies, Slovak Academy of Sciences. His main field of interest is the history of Central Europe in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. He is the author of numerous books and articles dealing with the problems of nationalism, nationalistic political agendas, Czech–Slovak relations and national minorities in Central Europe. His books include Deˇjiny Slovenska (History of Slovakia (Prague, 1998, 2006)).

Notes on contributors xiii

eva kowalskA´ is a historian at the Institute of Historical Studies, Slovak Academy of Sciences. Her field of research is social and cultural history of the eighteenth century, problems of ‘enlightened absolutism’, and the reforms of Maria Teresa and Joseph II, including the Slovak Protestant movement in connection with the beginning of Slovak nationalism. Her principal work in this field is Evanjelicke´ a.v. spolocˇenstvo v 18. storocˇ´ı (Lutheran community in the eighteenth century (Bratislava, 2001)).

natalia krajCˇ oviCˇ ovA´ is a historian at the Institute of Historical Studies, Slovak Academy of Sciences. She is the author of several works on the history of the First Czechoslovak Republic, including the Slovak autonomist agenda and Czech–Slovak relationships in the years 1918–1939. She has also published on the history of the Slovak and Czechoslovak agrarian movement, the Agrarian Party and land reform. Her biography of the Slovak agrarian-liberal politician Emil Stodola was published in 2007.

miroslav londA´ k heads the Department of Contemporary History at the Institute of Historical Studies, Slovak Academy of Sciences. His special interest is the contemporary economic history of Slovakia. With Stanislav Sikora and Elena Londa´kova´ he authored Predjarie. Politicky´,ekonomicky´ akultu´rny vy´voj 1960–1967 (Before Spring. Political, economic and cultural development in Slovakia 1960–1967 (Bratislava, 2002)). Recently he published Rok 1968 a ekonomicka´ realita na Slovensku (The year 1968 and economic reality in Slovakia (Bratislava, 2007)).

elena londA´ kovA´ is a research fellow at the Institute of Historical Studies, Slovak Academy of Sciences. Her field of interest is the history of culture in Slovakia after the Second World War. In articles and monographs she has analysed controversial developments in culture and cultural politics during the Communist dictatorship. With Stanislav Sikora and Miroslav Londa´k she published Predjarie. Politicky´, ekonomicky´ a kultu´rny vy´voj 1960–1967 (Before Spring. Poli- tical, economic and cultural development in Slovakia 1960–1967 (Bratislava, 2002)).

jA´ nlukaCˇ ka is an associate professor at Comenius University, Brati- slava, and head of the Department of Medieval History, Institute of Historical Studies, Slovak Academy of Sciences. He has published numerous articles on the early history of the Kingdom of Hungary (1000–1526), with an emphasis on ethnic Slovak society and its social and cultural development.

xiv Notes on contributors

jan peSˇ ek is a research fellow at the Institute of Historical Studies, Slovak Academy of Sciences. His field of research is the Communist totalitarian system in Slovakia, persecution in the early years of the totalitarian Communist regime, and the system and structure of the totalitarian machinery in Czechoslovakia. His works include (with Michal Barnovsky´) Sˇ ta´tna moc a cirkvi na Slovensku 1948–1953 (State power and churches in Slovakia 1948–1953 (Bratislava, 1997)) and biographical sketches of representatives of the Communist totalitarian regime: Jan Pesˇek, et al., Akte´ry jednej e´ry na Slovensku 1948–1989 (Actors of one era in Slovakia 1948–1989 (Bratislava, 2003)).

vilE´ mpreCˇ an is professor of history at Charles University, Prague, and head of the Czechoslovak Documentation Centre, Prague. His main area of interest is contemporary Czech and Slovak history. After the military occupation of Czechoslovakia in August 1968 he co- edited documents of the occupation Sedm prazˇsky´ch dnu˚ 21.–17.srpen 1968 (translated as The Czech Black Book (1969)) which led to his political persecution. He was obliged to leave the Institute of History of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences. In 1976 he emigrated to Germany where he established the Czechoslovak Documentation Centre of Independent Literature. After returning to Czechoslovakia, he headed the newly established Institute of Contemporary History from 1990 to 1998. Among other works, he has published two volumes of documents on the Slovak National Uprising and three volumes of documents on Charter 77.

jan rychlI´ k is professor of history at Charles University, Prague. His main area of research is Slovak history and history of Czech–Slovak relations. He has published two volumes on relations between Czechs and Slovaks in the twentieth century: Cˇ esˇi a Slova´ci ve 20. stoletı´. Cˇ esko-slovenske´ vztahy 1914–1945 (Czechs and Slovaks in the twentieth century. Czech–Slovak relations 1914–1945 (Bratislava, 1996)) and Cˇ esˇi a Slova´ci ve 20. stoletı´.Cˇ esko-slovenske´ vztahy 1945–1992 (Czechs and Slovaks in the twentieth century. Czech–Slovak relations 1945–1992 (Bratislava, 1998)). On the division of Czechoslovakia in 1993, he has published Rozpad Cˇ eskoslovenska (Disintegration of Czechoslovakia (Bratislava, 2002)).

vladimI´ rsegeSˇ is a historian at the Institute of Military History, Slovak Ministry of Defence, Bratislava. His field of interest is medieval military history and history of towns in medieval Upper Hungary, including the history of law and criminality. This theme is the subject of his recent book Presˇporsky´ pitaval. Zlocˇin a trest v stredovekej

Notes on contributors xv

Bratislave (Prebburg’s criminal cases. Crime and punishment in medieval Bratislava (Bratislava, 2005)). stanislav sikora is a research fellow at the Institute of Historical Studies, Slovak Academy of Sciences. His field of interest is the period of the Prague Spring 1968. He has published articles on the reform process from the mid 1960s in Slovakia. With Miroslav Londa´k and Elena Londa´kova´ he has co-authored Predjarie. Politicky´, ekonomicky´ a kultu´rny vy´voj na Slovensku v rokoch 1960–1967 (Before Spring. Polit- ical, economic and cultural development in Slovakia 1960–1967 (Bratislava, 2002)).

michal Sˇ tefanskY´ is a research fellow at the Institute of Military History, Slovak Ministry of Defence, Bratislava. His interests centre on contemporary political and military history, in particular the year 1968, the period of ‘normalisation’ (1969–1989) and the ‘velvet revo- lution’ in 1989, which are dealt with in numerous publications, including books and articles.

jA´ nsteinhU¨ bel is a medievalist at the Institute of Historical Studies, Slovak Academy of Sciences. His main field of research is the early medieval history of Central Europe, especially the Duchy of Nitra, Great Moravia and the beginnings of the Kingdom of Hungary. His principal work is Nitrianske kniezˇatstvo (Duchy of Nitra (Bratislava, 2004)).

Sˇ tefan Sˇ utaj is professor of history at the University of Presˇov, Slovakia, and a research fellow at the Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences, Slovak Academy of Sciences. He heads the Slovak section of the Slovak–Hungarian Historical Commission. He is the author of numerous monographs and studies on ethnic-national minorities in Slovakia after the Second World War, especially the Magyar minority.

mikulA´ Sˇ teich is Emeritus Fellow of Robinson College, Cambridge, and Honorary Professor, Vienna University of Technology (Technische Universita¨t Wien). His publications include work on the history of chemistry, biomedical sciences and biotechnology; philosophical and methodological aspects of the history of science and technology; social, economic and national aspects of scientific and technical developments; the history of scientific institutions; and Slavica.

josef Zˇ atkuliak is a historian at the Department of Contemporary History of the Institute of Historical Studies, Slovak Academy of

xvi Notes on contributors

Sciences. His main area of interest centres on Czech–Slovak federalisation and its beginnings in 1968. His principal work in this field is Federaliza´cia cˇeskoslovenske´ho sˇta´tu 1968–1970. Vznik cˇeskoslovenskej federa´cie roku 1968 (Federalisation of the Czechoslovak state 1968– 1970. Beginning of the Czech–Slovak Federation in 1968 (Prague and Bratislava, 1996)).

Acknowledgements

It is a great pleasure to offer thanks to colleagues and friends who gave helpful comments and suggestions in the early/later stages of the project: Dr Gertrude Enderle-Burcel, Professor Andrea Komlosy, Professor Michael Mitterauer, Dr Albert Mu¨ller, Dr Milan Ota´hal and Dr Joachim Whaley. We think warmly of William Davies for his early encouragement and are grateful to Michael Watson, his successor at Cambridge Univer- sity Press, for his unwavering support of the project. Thanks are also due to Chloe Howell of Cambridge University Press for aiding with press- work and to Karen Anderson Howes for carefully copy-editing the text. We thank Angela Spindler-Brown for her assistance in sourcing photo- graphs from the Czech Republic archives. We would also like to thank the anonymous reviewer at CUP for his/her comments. We remember with deep sorrow Michal Barnovsky´ (1937–2008) and L’udovı´t Haraksim (1928–2008), who died before the publication of the book. We thank the Institute of Geographical Studies of the Slovak Academy of Sciences for the map of the Slovak Republic (by Magister Ro´bert Pazu´r). We are indebted to the Institute of Historical Studies of the Slovak Academy of Sciences for making it possible to draw on its archives, including illustrations and maps (by Michal Kostovsky´) from A Concise History of Slovakia (edited by Elena Mannova´). Dusˇan Kova´cˇ is most grateful to the British Academy for generous financial support, which enabled him to travel to Britain and participate in direct editorial consultations. Once again Mikula´sˇ Teich offers public gratitude to Professor Alice Teichova who helped in many different ways – his debts to her are incalculable.

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