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Czechoslovakia Ethnic Considerations
Another essential ingredient in Czechoslovak political
culture has been the varying political aspirations of the
nation's two major ethnic groups, the Czechs and the Slovaks
(see Ethnic Groups
, ch. 2). Slovaks were never as satisfied as the
Czechs with the nation created in 1918 because they felt
dominated by the numerically superior Czech nationals. Slovak
nationalists fought diligently throughout the 1920s for greater
Slovak autonomy, and in the next decade they succeeded in
obtaining constitutional changes granting more autonomy to
Slovakia. In March 1939, Slovakia, encouraged by Hitler, seceded
from the new state and allied itself with Germany, calling itself
the Slovak Republic. Although nominally independent under the
leadership of Monsignor Jozef Tiso, the new Slovak state in
reality functioned as a Nazi satellite. After Hitler's defeat,
Slovakia was reunited with the Czech lands.
The communist takeover in 1948 did not lead to equitable
treatment of Czechs and Slovaks. The Stalinist purges of the
early 1950s were particularly harsh on Slovaks; indeed, the
definition of "bourgeois nationalism" coincided quite precisely
with the aspirations of Slovak nationalism. Among the Slovak
leaders arrested and jailed in the early 1950s was Gustav Husak.
Husak later was rehabilitated and eventually named general
secretary (the title changed from first secretary in 1971) of the
KSC and president of the republic.
Slovak aspirations for greater autonomy played an important
role in the political environment during the 1960s. The reform
movement associated with the Prague Spring advocated greater
independence for Slovakia. The 1968 constitutional amendments
redefined Czechoslovakia as a federation of two equal states, the
Czech nation and the Slovak nation, and increased the
responsibilities of the constituent republics. However, this
decentralization of power did not survive the 1968 invasion and
subsequent normalization policies. On paper, the federation
remained and the Slovak Socialist Republic retained its separate
communist party organization and republic-level government
organs. In practice, whatever power the 1968 amendments gave to
the Slovaks was diminished when the Husak regime reestablished
centralized party and government control in the 1970s.
Data as of August 1987
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