Bohemia's case for independence/The Czecho-Slovaks and the Magyars. A Legend to be Destroyed

by Edvard Beneš

IV

THE CZECHO-SLOVAKS AND THE MAGYARS.
A LEGEND TO BE DESTROYED

Now we must speak of our last adversary, the Magyars. The Slovaks had always lived in close relation with the Czechs of Bohemia and Moravia. At the end of the ninth aentury they were united under the sceptre of a national prince, and formed the Empire of Great Moravia, when, suddenly in 907, the Magyars invaded their country.

This invasion had serious consequences. The Northern Slavs were separated from their Yugo-Slav brothers, and the Magyars became neighbours of the Germans. From this period commenced the struggles of the Czechs with the Magyars. The Czechs of Bohemia and Moravia always resisted successfully and remained independent, but the Slovaks who occupied the region north of the Danube, in Hungary proper, found themselves in a painful situation as, geographically, the invasion of their country was easy. So in 1025 the Magyars succeeded in taking possession of Slovakia.

Since this date the country has remained under Magyar domination, but it has for several reasons always preserved its Czech and Slav character. The Magyars, repulsed on the Hungarian plains, had not sufficient moral and material strength to assimilate or to dominate this population, while on the other hand a pacific penetration was impossible for the Magyars who had remained too Oriental. Moreover, the Czechs soon began to make common cause with the Magyars against the Turkish peril.

From the end of the thirteenth century this union continued with little intermission, until the succession of the Jagellon dynasty (1471) rendered it almost permanent. The succession of the Habsburgs to the Bohemian and Magyar throne resulted in the Czechs and Slovaks finding themselves part of the same State. This greatly facilitated the economical, political, and especially the intellectual development of both branches of the Czecho-Slovak nation, and thereby saved the existence of the Slovaks and the national unity of the Czechs.

Moreover, at the commencement of the nineteenth century, when the Austro-Hungarian nationalities were beginning to rouse themselves, the Slovaks immediately recognised their racial union with the Czechs and co-operated with them. On their side, the Czechs opposed the dismemberment of Austria for the benefit of the Magyars in 1848, wishing to preserve their political relations with the Slovaks. So they fought together for the federalism of Austria-Hungary in order to unite the Czechs and Slovaks in a single independent national group. The Slovaks derived a great advantage from their geographical position; and in the great fight against the House of Austria, which ended so tragically for the Czechs, they escaped some of the persecutions and sacrifices the latter had to endure from the Habsburgs; it is owing to this that they were able more easily to preserve their national traditions and play such an important part in the regeneration of the Czechs at the beginning of the nineteenth century.

In 1848 began a new era for the national life of the Slovaks and the development of the relations between the Czechs and Magyars. Austria-Hungary was shaken by the revolution, and the Magyars to free themselves, undertook an armed fight against Vienna.

From the very beginning, the Austro-Hungarian Slavs fought for national, political, and constitutional liberty; they feared German and Magyar ambitions.

First of all, the Czechs rose up against the Pan-Germanistic Germans of Frankfort, while the Slovaks and Croats opposed the Magyar revolution, for, as was natural, they realised immediately that an independent Hungary under Magyar domination meant death to the Slavs, especially to the Slovaks.

For a long time the Magyars were believed in England and France to be the enemies of the Viennese Court and the champions of liberty, justice, and independence. Sympathies were shown to a people who, formerly oppressed, had been able in 1848 to throw off the yoke and raise the revolutionary flag. The respect which such energy called forth allowed them to pursue their political plans in 1861-1867, and even to the present day the outside world does not realise that for a long time they have been no longer an oppressed nation, but on the contrary have assumed the character of a most cruel and unscrupulous oppressor. They have emancipated themselves from Vienna to become the executioners of Slovaks, Serbs, Croats, and Rumanians, not to mention Ruthenes. Still the old belief in them remained, thanks to the manoeuvres of the able Magyar politicians. They had the power in their hands, as well as fame and money. They bought up the Press, published books, reviews, and newspapers. Their propaganda represented the Magyars as the foremost pioneers of civilisation. Moreover, their rich aristocracy contracted ties with most countries and had the entrée to the political centres of all nations; thus, helped by old tradition, they easily gained sympathies in England and France.

All we have experienceed since 1848 has given us good reason for fear. There were never worse oppressors than the Magyars. It would need columns to detail all that the Slovaks have suffered under the yoke of the Magyars. Everything was refused them; political rights, rights to found schools, freedom to use their own language. There are hardly any elementary Slovak schools, and no secondary or high schools. Liberty of the Press does not exist, and it would be difiicult to-day to find a single Slovak publicist who, having openly worked for the Slovak cause, has not several times made acquaintance with Magyar prisons. The three million Slovaks are represented by only three members in the Parliament at Budapest. Hungary still lives under an Oriental régime. Lack of space alone prevents me from recounting the long series of cruelties committed by the Magyars against the Slovaks and Yugo-Slavs.

For more than half a century they have employed every means to Magyarise the Slovaks. In certain districts they succeeded. They still persist in the attempt, for they feel that their domination is being menaced by the political, economical, and intellectual progress of the Czechs. The dualism which was to crush at the same time the Czechs and the Slovaks is their work. Whenever the Czechs were on the point of obtaining some concession or other from Vienna, it was always the Magyars, as in 1871, who prevented it. They are of necessity the traditional and most faithful allies of the German, and their whole national and political existence depends on this alliance. It is on them principally that the responsibility falls, of letting loose the present war.

The Balkan policy of the Monarchy was above all things a Magyar policy. The war against Serbia was brought about more by Hungary, who possessed over four million of Serbo-Croats, than by Austria, who counted only one million. The efforts to unite the Yugo-Slavs, endangered Hungary above all. The Customs war waged against Serbia since 1907 operated to the profit of the Hungarian landowners, but to the detriment of the Austrian industries. The Magyars claimed the sole right to exploit Bosnia and Herzegovina, and moreover considered the road to Salonika and the Ægean Sea as their privilege.

All the persecutions of the Serbo-Croats in Slavonia and in Croatia since 1907 have been their work, and it was they who engineered the famous Agram trial. After all, there are only eight million Magyars in Hungary, and, therefore, they are almost in a minority against the Slavs alone, without counting the Rumanians. The political and economic development of the Slav nations was already beginning to threaten the Magyar domination; they were insisting on universal suffrage, which would have completely deprived the Magyars of their predominance. For the Magyars there was only one possible solution of all these problems: that was a victorious war. Accordingly, when the Crown Council in July 1914 decided on the declaration of war with Serbia, it was Tisza and the Magyar nobles who gave the decisive vote.

One need not further be surprised at the actual part they played, for it is they who are "the third great culprits" of this war.

When the day of punishment, which will certainly come, strikes the great criminals of this war, the Germans, Europe must not target their most faithful associates, the Magyars. Not only Austria must be dismembered, but else, and above all, Hungary, according to the principle of nationality. The Magyars and Germans must be separated and limited to the territory inhabited by them, and the Slavs delivered from their intolerable hegemony.