This paper is a research paper that was supposed to deal with identity and force or in other words, humans and conflict. Regardless I chose to do my paper, after much conflict and mind changing, on the country of Slovakia and the effects that communism had on it. The length requirement was five pages and it was supposed to draw on at least three academic articles and two full length texts. You would not belive how few articles there are on the effects of communism on Slovakia or even eastern Europe in general. Nonetheless I finished it at five a.m. on the morning it was due and turned it in at ten a.m.
So without further ado I present to you my essay.
Slovakia & Communism
In 1939 Slovakia was a peaceful, pristine country composed of approximately 50% agrarian economy. By 1993 Slovakia was a country full of factories high-rise apartments, densely packed cities and an economy centered on industry. What happened in the intervening 54 years that brought such dramatic change to this small central European nation? It is my intent to show in this paper that the changes in Slovakia were a direct result of the communist regime. In this paper I will use periodicals, books and journals to present a short history of Slovakia, a brief description of typical communist practices, in demonstrate the impact communism had on the Slovak nation and people.
If Slovakia’s history could be summed up into one phrase it could very well be the history of a people conquered by those around them. From the early middle-ages through 1918 Slovakia was ruled by the Magyar (or Hungarian) empire, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
A truly Slovak history begins with the formation of the Greater Moravian Empire during the year 833. In his book, A History of Slovakia: The Struggle for Survival, Stanislav Kirschbaum describes Moravia’s short but violent history this way, “In oral Slovak tradition, its existence takes precedence over its short history; expressed in another way, this means that the Slovaks remember that they had a state in the ninth century but they hardly know its history” (Kirschbaum 26). The Empire of Great Moravia lasted for only seventy-four years but was able to give Slovakia a start point for a formal history and the formation of a national identity. The end of the Moravian empire in 907 came about at the hands of the Magyars and Kirschbaum points out that, “The history of the Slovaks after the fall of Great Moravia became interlocked until the twentieth century in the history of the Hungarian state.” (Kirschbaum 38). Tied to the history of Hungary for over a thousand years Slovakia was still able to develop its own language and culture. During this time the Magyars fell to the Austrian Empire which eventually made way for the combined monarchy of Austro-Hungary. After the end of World War I in 1918 the Allied powers divided the territory of the defeated powers and one of those powers was the Austro-Hungarian Empire which was the current ruler of Slovakia. The fallen empire was divided into several smaller states according to the treaty of Versailles and one of those states was the country of Czechoslovakia: a country made up of what is now the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Within Czechoslovakia the Slovak portion was given the short end of the stick. The policies of the government heavily favored the Czech role in the country. Necessary improvements were made in Slovakia and it was brought further along in modernization but in comparison to the state funds spent on Czech lands it is plain to see that there was a certain amount of favoritism on the Czech part. As Europe was tensing during Hitler’s pre war years Czechoslovakia was not forgotten. A primarily German region of Czechoslovakia called Sudentenland was annexed by Nazi Germany. Fearing that the state, not able even to protect itself, would not be able to protect Slovak interests, Slovakia seceded from Czechoslovakia. (Kirschbaum 180) Slovakia’s independence that started in 1939 was brief and illusionary for it was really no more than a puppet state of the Third Reich. As H. L. Agnew puts it, “Slovak independence, declared on 14 March 1939, was probably accepted if not welcomed by the great majority of Slovaks. … Nevertheless, the achievement of independent statehood for Slovakia came with strings attached: the course of the war ran against Hitler, [and] German relations with the new Slovakia amounted to a form of protectorate…” (Agnew 628, 627). In 1945 the war ended and Slovakia was reinstated into Czechoslovakia. Czechoslovakia after the war enjoyed democracy for only a brief time for in 1948 the country of Czechoslovakia was taken over from within by the Communist party of Czechoslovakia that instituted a Stalinist type regime. The communist takeover was nothing less than a coup; though some of the socialist leaders were elected into power democratically those elected quickly took control over the rest of the government and instituted a Stalinesque communist state. Under the communist regime every aspect of the life of a Slovak was altered social, economic, political, religious and national.
The social aspect of life in Slovakia was changed by the centralization of people, pulling them off of farms and putting them to work in the city. Those that remained on the farms were required to join large, state owned, collective farms (although not everybody did so). Apart from this there was also censorship of the press and the arts. All forms of media had to fit with the communist ideal or else they were not allowed. In a series of interviews with Czechs who lived during communism Megan Stride posed the question of journalistic integrity in the face of censorship, here is part of the answer: “Even the "best" newspapers and magazines were propagandistic, [Tomas] Nemecek says. “As a profession, journalism was seen as generally discredited and unfavorable." (Stride 34). Propaganda didn’t just come from news sources it also came from the many sculptures erected in praise of communist leaders such as Lenin or Stalin. Schools were also taken over and changed. All textbooks were modified to fit with the socialist world view every subject from history to science was used as another form of propaganda. Human rights were also neglected; the rights of the individual were placed second to the greater good of the collective. Slovakia and the Slovaks points out the capriciousness of the system, “Many were imprisoned simply because they had alienated someone in power.” (Slovakia and the Slovaks 578).
Also there were some major overhauls of the economy of Slovakia. Up to 1948 Slovakia had been involved in industry but after the communist takeover the regime threw everything it had into making industry the cornerstone of the Slovak economy. Slovak heavy industry boomed. Slovakia and the Slovaks reports that, “Between 1948 and 1989 industrial production increased by 3,251%. In 1963 Slovak industry produced more than that of the whole of Czecho-Slovakia in 1937.” (Slovakia and the Slovaks 578). The statistics do not present the whole situation of the economy of Slovakia and how communism affected it. Factories employed more workers than necessary, wages were low, and even common household necessities were not always available.
The government of Czechoslovakia was run independently of the Kremlin, holding single party elections for the national parliament. But the Kremlin held enormous sway over the goings on of Czechoslovakia, as seen in the Prague Spring of 1968. The Prague Spring was a series of reforms led by the Communist party leader (the highest power in the Czechoslovak government) Alexander Dubcek. These reforms were an attempt to create "Socialism with a human face". Some of the reforms instated by Dubcek were, in the words of John C. McGinn: “Censorship and other restrictions on freedom of the press were allowed to lapse. Political figures sentenced during the show trials in the 1950s were rehabilitated” (McGinn 114). The reforms according to the encyclopedia, Slovakia and the Slovaks, were, “…unparalleled in the history of socialist countries until that time” (578). The reforms were also soundly halted. Fearing that Czechoslovakia was becoming too liberal the Soviet Union and several other Warsaw Pact countries invaded Czechoslovakia, put an end to the reforms, and removed Dubcek from power. The Soviet military would not leave Czechoslovakia until 1990. Before the invasion though, Dubcek put in motion a bill to federalize Czechoslovakia that was realized on January 1st 1969. Federalization was supposed to allow for greater autonomy of the Slovak nation but in actuality the normalization government put in place by the Soviets after they removed Dubcek nullified much of the power granted to Slovakia in the bill.
In Slovakia dissension towards the communist government was neither very organized nor vocal for the greater part of the time the communists were in power. Protests were usually conducted on the private level: Refusal to join a collective farm, minor sabotage of state equipment and occasional strikes. Overall protest took a more gentle form: That of showing religious devotion in the face of a fiercely atheistic government. Why would religion play a role in protesting the regime?
There was a great amount of religious persecution perpetrated by the regime in the predominantly Roman Catholic Slovakia. Religion was seen as an enemy of the regime and therefore was not tolerated by the ruling government. During its most oppressive phase, the early 1950s, the government, took the liberty of shutting down monasteries, convents and other religious organizations. It also proceeded to imprison priests and even denied children of the imprisoned access to a secondary education. Even when the outright persecution slowed considerably in 1953, oppressive laws were placed on churches restricting what could be done within the church walls and there was an outright ban on religious activities outside of church buildings. Despite these measures, the church continued to carry out its programs, albeit in secret. Not all churches were so rebellious though. The government did allow churches to operate if the church and its priest were registered with the government, which in essence meant that said church would have to toe the communist party line and the priest would be in the employ of the government.
The church in Slovakia however, would never be silenced and would later play a key role in the final deconstruction of the communist government. As Kirschbaum writes, “Historically a religious people, the Slovaks turned to the practice of their faith as a way of showing their opposition.” (Kirschbaum 248). During the late seventies and all throughout the eighties unrest and dissension was becoming more and more commonplace, and the church, particularly the Roman Catholic majority, had its own unique way of making itself heard. As opposed to the Czech protests that took its most dramatic form in the human rights plea Charter 77, Slovaks instead protested by participating in mass pilgrimages to holy shrines within Slovakia. The two largest of these pilgrimages took place in the towns of Levoca and Sastin, bringing together an estimated combined total of 200,000 people. Another significant demonstration was the Candlelight Demonstration of 1988 in the capital of Bratislava. About 2,000 people participated in the peaceful demonstration that was put down savagely by the regime. As outrage concerning this and other human rights infringements grew throughout the country, demonstrations become more and more commonplace culminating in the month of November 1989. Starting on the 17th of November protests were carried out in all of the main squares and thousands went on strike. These pressures provided the catalyst for the demolition of the Czechoslovak communist government.
In June 1990 Czechoslovakia held its first true elections in forty-two years. Due to disagreements in the subsequent two years on how to handle the federation of the two halves of Czechoslovakia, the national parliament of the two countries decided that the best option was to “divorce” the two countries and on January 1st 1993 Slovakia officially became an independent country. But what scars or improvements did the communist regime leave behind in the young countries not so distant past? Communism’s scars could be seen in the environment of the country polluted by the industrial boom, a high unemployment rate, a near vacuum of any major cultural achievements, and an economy that needed to be reorganized from the ground up. Did communism have any positive effects on the nation or the people of Slovakia? It helped to modernize the country, but that process had already been started before the coup happened. This country full of mountains and high-rises has forever been changed by the totalitarian communist regime that once ruled it only a short time ago.
Works Cited
Agnew, Hugh Lecaine. "NEW STATES, OLD IDENTITIES? THE CZECH REPUBLIC, SLOVAKIA, AND HISTORICAL UNDERSTANDINGS OF STATEHOOD." Nationalities Papers 28.4 (Dec. 2000): 619-650. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Portland Community Coll. Lib., Portland, OR. 4 December 2007. <http://0- search.ebscohost.com.library.pcc.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=5440681&si te=ehost-live>.
Encyclopedical Institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences. Slovakia and the Slovaks. Bratislava: Goldpress, 1994
Kirschbaum, Stanislav J. A History of Slovakia: the Struggle for Survival. 2nd ed. New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2005.
McGinn, John G. "The Politics of Collective Inaction: NATO's Response to the Prague Spring." Journal of Cold War Studies 1.3 (Fall 1999): 111-138. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Portland Community Coll. Lib., Portland, OR. 8 December 2007. <http://0- search.ebscohost.com.library.pcc.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=6934208&si te=ehost-live>.
Stride, Megan. "EVERYTHING YOU WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT COMMUNISM, BUT WERE AFRAID TO ASK." New Presence: The Prague Journal of Central European Affairs 9.2 (Summer 2007): 31-35. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Portland Community Coll. Lib., Portland, OR. 10 December 2007. <http://0- search.ebscohost.com.library.pcc.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=25954154&s ite=ehost-live>.
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