APPROVED FOR RELEASE: 2009/06/16: CIA-RDP01-00707R000200110015-7
The Society
A. Introduction (C)
Although Czechs and Slovaks are of common Slavic ethnic and linguistic background, they differ in their cultural and institutional heritages. The Czechs, who inhabit the traditional areas of Bohemia and Moravia, have a rich cultural tradition and have long remained in the mainstream of central European development linked to Western Europe. As one of the chief industrial centers of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Czech Lands were much more economically developed than the eastern part of the country inhabited by the Slovaks who comprise slightly less than a third of the total population. Under the control of the Magyar part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Slovaks, in contrast to the Czechs, have traditionally been an agriculturally oriented society. Industrialization in their area has been more recent and far less extensive than in the western regions.
Despite a rapid transformation of Czechoslovakia's social structure and a remolding of its political, economic, and cultural institutions on the Soviet pattern, Czechoslovak society remains culturally part of the West. The highly centralized and authoritarian regime imposed on the Czechoslovaks in 1948 is alien to the traditional political and cultural aspirations of the nation. By a combination of resignation and passive resistance, developed through centuries of foreign political domination, the Czechoslovaks have learned to accommodate themselves to the demands of a superior power but to maintain their intellectual and national integrity. This enduring national trait has been personified in Jaroslav Hasek's "Good Soldier Schweik," a fictional hero who, as a conscript in the Austro-Hungarian Army, frustrates the will of his superiors by feigning obedience, insolence, and stupidity.
As they move into the mid-1970's, the Czechoslovaks appear to be striking an uneasy modus vivendi with the regime of Gustav Husak, following a stormy period of reform and rebellion that began in the 1960's and, after a "thaw" in the spring of 1968, ended in August of the same year with the dashing of hopes for political, economic, and social reform by a Soviet-led Warsaw Pact invasion of the country. A year later, the liberal and popular leader of the reform movement, Alexander Dubcek, was replaced by Gustav Husak, a leader acceptable to the Soviets. In late 1973, the Husak regime, after purging liberal and pro-Dubcek elements, was easing political and social controls imposed after the downfall of Dubcek. Limited improvements in living levels also were working to stabilize the society, although shortfalls in economic life still gave Czechoslovakia much to grumble about. The new mode of moderation was nevertheless very evident and a normalization of life seemed to suggest that the population was prepared to accept the current Soviet-dominated regime and get on with the task of improving their quality of life as best they could under the circumstances.
B. Structure and characteristics of the society (U/OU)
1. Ethnic makeup
Czechs and Slovaks, two closely related western Slavic peoples, make up about 95% of the population of Czechoslovakia. The Czechs, constituting about 65%, are the largest ethnic group; the Slovaks, with about 30%, are the next largest. The Czechs inhabit the so-called Czech Lands (Bohemia and western Moravia), their home since the time of the massive migration of Slavic tribes into eastern and central Europe in the sixth century. The Slovaks inhabit Slovakia, their home since the sixth century, as well as parts of eastern Moravia.
Czechoslovakia's ethnic minority problems were for the most part eliminated after World War II, following population exchanges with Germany and Hungary and the cession of Ruthenia, with its Ukrainian population, to the U.S.S.R. Czechoslovakia's minorities today make up only about 5% of the population in contrast to almost 40% during the 1930's. At the beginning of 1973, Hungarians (numbering some 582,000) constituted the largest minority followed by Germans (80,000), Poles (68,000), and Ukrainians and Russians (59,000). The
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APPROVED FOR RELEASE: 2009/06/16: CIA-RDP01-00707R000200110015-7
