Czechoslovakism

Czechoslovakism (Czech: Čechoslovakismus, Slovak: Čechoslovakizmus ) is the political concept of a unitary state nation in the common Czechoslovak state, which is composed of Slovaks and Czechs.

In the definition of the Czechoslovak nation-state, the use of two different languages, and the cultural and historical differences are largely disregarded. In the First Czechoslovak Republic the Czechoslovakism was enshrined in the Constitution. As the main representative of the Czechoslovakism Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, Edvard Beneš and Vavro Šrobár apply.

Formation

The idea of ​​the Slovak-Czech unit, be it national, linguistic or literary unit, can be traced back to the 20s of the 19th century. One of the early representatives count on the Slovak side of the linguist and poet Ján Kollár and Pavel Jozef Šafárik the scholars who were in communication with the pioneers of the Czech National Revival. In the second half of the 19th century Czech and Slovak politicians designed to TG Masaryk the Czechoslovakism as a practical solution to the question of the autonomy of the historical lands of Bohemia, Moravia, Moravian- Silesia and Slovakia. Here, the Czechoslovakism was competing in a rich context, partly in large parts of the Czech and Slovak intelligence recognized theories concerning the situation of the Slavic population in the Empire out.

Relation to the historical state law

The Czechoslovakism was opposed to the older, inter alia, by the Bohemian nobility and the Old Czechs represented conception of the historical state law. According to this should be given political autonomy within a federalized Habsburg monarchy the historic lands of the Bohemian crown, roughly analogous to the position Transleithaniens after the Austro-Hungarian balance of 1867. Latter is outmoded and out of reach as a political goal, according to Masaryk. The self alone in the historic boundaries would have been just to secure the price that a third of the population of the new state would be German. In contrast, enables a merger with Slovakia respectively the Slovaks to extend the new state to the east and to minimize the German share. Concerns the first Tschechoslowakisten was by no means to deny the political independence of the two or both peoples, but to overcome through mutual support, the undesirable situation on both sides of the Leitha.

Relation to the Pan-Slavism

Another ideology, of which the Czechoslovakism should settle in principle, put the pan-Slavism represents this represented in Bohemia in a prominent place Karel Kramář, Chairman of the Young Czech Party.

The Pan-Slavism, in particular its panrussischer touch which advocated a merger of the Slavic nations under the leadership of Russia, it turned against the mainly familiar with conditions in the Tsarist Empire Masaryk. In his position, he relied on the Czech Karel Havlicek reconnaissance Borovský, the polemic because of his knowledge of Russia against the contemporary Pan-Slavism. The Pan-Slavism as a political ideology that involves all Slavic nationalities, held the Tschechoslowakisten against their local conception, from the lighter an enforceable political program was to develop.

Implementation

During the first World War, the Slavic peoples was an opportunity to assert their political autonomy in the Habsburg monarchy. For the Slovaks proved, while alliances with Russia and Poland were certainly considered joining forces with the Czech lands as the most promising. With the foreseeable defeat of the German Empire and Austria -Hungary, the destruction of the Habsburg Empire by the victorious powers was likely; same time, the Slovaks and Czechs were in exile, particularly in the U.S., Switzerland and France, ready to work together. Important wartime documents written for this are the agreement of Cleveland, signed by Czech and Slovak emigrants in 1915, and the Pittsburgh Agreement of 1918; Finally, thanks to this demonstration of unity succeeded, the U.S. President Woodrow Wilson to persuade them to consent to the Czech-Slovak statehood.

After the establishment of the Czechoslovak Republic the Czechoslovakism became the state doctrine, which has been enshrined in the Constitution of 1920.

Without the Czechoslovakism there had been in Czechoslovakia no overwhelming to this extent nation-state. For the Slovaks, the merger with the Czechs in a sense created space for emancipation as a people, which had been threatened before the war of utter Magyarization. While recognizing the Czechoslovakism course, was among the Czechs, the majority of Slovaks preserved in the consciousness of Slovak independence aspirations, dating back to the first half of the 19th century, a view of Slovakia as an independent entity. In addition, the Czech-Slovak contracts, on the prepared the way for the founding of the state, of the Slovak autonomists, especially from the Hlinka Party, were used to undermine the Czechoslovakism - according to the Pittsburgh Agreement Slovakia should be given autonomy. The Czech- Slovak state with its official doctrine caused tschechoslowakistischen therefore in Slovakia dislike this very doctrine.

The process of removing the Czechoslovakism with the introduction of the Czechoslovak Federal Constitution and the de jure establishment of two republics, the Slovak and the Czech Socialist Republic, which together formed the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, completed in 1968. With the federalization of Czechoslovakia it was the only measure of the reformers of the Prague Spring, which not revised after the military intervention of the Warsaw Five, but was also maintained during the normalization.