The Czechoslovak Review/Volume 4/Number 2/Slovakia on the Road to Internal Consolidation

by Peter Kompiš

Slovakia on the Road to Internal Consolidation

By PETER KOMPIŠ.

If the October revolution is an important milestone in the history of the former lands of the Bohemian crown, for Slovakia its importance is incomparably greater. It closes the era of slavery which lasted a thousand years, accompanied by cultural and economic poverty. For Slovakia free development begins with the end of the year 1918.

One year of free national life in Slovakia contributed a great deal toward the crystalization of political currents and tendencies. Magyars and Magyar sympathizers carry on their propaganda with new intensity and with all possible weapons. Emissaries are sent by Magyar government to scatter insurectionary bills. In Bratislava, Košice, Užhorod, Nová Ves, Rožnava etc. a surprisingly large number of Magyar dailies and weeklies are published. In the majority of cases it is plain from the manner of writing and from the low subscription price that the papers are not independent publications, but draw their financial support from beyond the boundaries. In Košice, Lučenec, Nová Ves, Rožnava, Nové Zámky, Komárno and other cities near the frontier there is evident passive resistance of the Magyar element in school matters. It is due to hostile propaganda that in these cities some 3000 children that ought to be in school are keeping out.

One of the favorite means of Magyar propaganda in Slovakia are unauthorized Magyar schools. Thus in Košice you will see Magyar children on the streets at a time, when they are supposed to be in school, but that they go to some school is plain from their conversation. They attend classes, where they are taught Magyar literature and history and geography in the Magyar chauvinist spirit. In some places this propaganda is carried on in the guise of private instruction given by former Magyar professors and teachers who are supposed to get thus an opportunity to earn their living. In many cases even public schools are used for hostile agitation against the Czechoslovak Republic, and especially in Catholic schools conducted by sisters children are exhorted to pray for the “holy, suffering Magyar fatherland.”

The center of this activity is Budapest, and serving Magyar propaganda are many who are Slovaks by birth, as for instance Hlinka’s best known co-worker Dr. Fr. Jehlička, but many more who never before pretended to be Slovaks, such as Dr. Bulissa, Karel Csecsotka and others. The Magyar government publishes in Budapest a periodical in Slovak under the name “Slovenský Národ”, written completely from the Magyar point of view and “Slovák Zahraničný”, intended for smuggling into Slovakia. Just what kind of poison Budapest sends to Slovakia can be illustrated from No. 3 of the “Slovák Zahraničný”, where we read the following about our liberators: “Masaryk and Beneš walked by the Vltava river and discussed what should be done. Masaryk said: “We really should do something that would please the Slovaks.” Beneš tried in vain to think of something that would answer. But a Slovak remarks to that: ‘Jump into the Vltava; that will be real joy for Slovak hearts.”

Handbills with similar sentiments were smuggled into Slovakia by the million. The headquarters of this activity is the “League for the Restoration of Hungarian Integrity” in Budapest. But on the whole one may say that this subversive Magyar activity in Slovakia is getting weaker. The bourgeois elements were cured of their Magyar enthusiasm by the bolshevist regime, and Magyar social-democratic workingmen in Slovakia are not exactly pleased with Huszar’s monarchistic and reactionary regime. Magyar workingmen have mostly joined Czechoslovak labor unions. In Prešov there is now a Magyar weekly which writes in a spirit friendly to our republic. And even the Košice and Bratislava Magyar papers employ lately better manners.

The intensive organization of Magyar propaganda could not remain without effect on the new-born Slovak politics. The most active work was done by the social democrats and by Hlinka’s “Slovak People’s Party”. This last went so far in its political activity as to step outside the limit of loyalty to the Republic, thus creating a veritable enthusiasm for itself among Magyar and Jewish circles, so that in many places the local leadership of the party got into untrustworthy hands. As against the hustling followers of Hlinka and the socialists the old Slovak National Party, with its headquarters in St. Martin, did not seem to be able to make a stand. Since the revolution not a single large meeting or party conference was held. The Hlinka party in many places captured the field without a fight. Under these circumstances the establishment of the National Republican Farmers’ Party was a very significant event; the founders were minister Šrobár, Dr. Milan Hodža, Dr. Pavel Bláho, Dr. Okanik, Kornel Stodola, Ant. Štefánek, Dr. Milan Ivanka, Dr. Slavík, Dr. Halla, Fr. Votruba and other distinguished Slovaks. The party formulated its program, established good newspapers, created district and town organizations and opened agitation all over Slovakia. The success of the farmers’ party stirred up the leaders of the Slovak national party, and the political cry became the consolidation of political parties. The leaders of St. Martin commenced negotiations about co-operation both with the farmers and with the Hlinka folowers and for a time an understanding between the old party and Hlinka’s men seemed very likely. But in the end the healthy common sense of the majority prevailed, and on December 15 in Pišťany the national party fused with the republican farmers’ party. Judging by what both social democratic and Hlinka papers had to say about the fusion one may confidently say that the new party will become the rallying point for all truly national, non-socialist Slovak elements and will form a strong block in opposition to the Hlinka faction and the friends of the Magyars.

Beside the political situation the school situation also cleared up. In fact schools constitute the most important asset of the first year of Slovak fredom. In the elementary schools of Slovakia there are some 5000 teachers, in the grammar, secondary, technical and university grades there are about 600 Czech professors besides many Slovaks.

Today 42 secondary schools are open in Slovakia; of them 28 are purely Slovak, 5 Magyar, 1 German, 2 Slovak-German and 6 Slovak-Magyar or German-Magyar. Slovak pupils number 4781; that means that the number of educated Slovaks will increase each year by at least 500.

The growth of Slovak press, libraries, theaters and fine arts keeps pace with the development of schools. In Liptovský St. Nicholas and in Trnava there were held exhibits of Slovak and Moravian painters. Even the question of a permanent representative theater is solved. In November 1919 a theatre association was formed at Bratislava which received a concession as the Slovak National Theater. Its operatic branch will begin to play on March 1 in the Municipal Theater of Bratislava, and the season will continue to the end of June. From July till fall operas will be given at Pišt'any. The dramatic section will give plays commencing with February 1 in all important cities of Slovakia.

It is natural that the liberated energies of Slovakia are also making themselves felt in the economic field. Slovak banks have become emancipated from the control of the Magyar-Jewish capital, they have increased in size and spread their activities into all parts of Slovakia, so that they are now ahead of the Jewish-Magyar banks which are paralyzed because their cash was for the most part kept in the big banks of Budapest and is not available to them now.

Consolidation of conditions in Slovakia is making excellent progress. The new year opens with elections as the big feature. Let us hope that the electoral fight will result in victory for the loyal national elements, strengthened by recent fusion.

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Translated from the “Venkov,” Prague, Jan. 4, 1920.