THE BEGINNING, DEVELOPMENT AND DECLINE OF CZECHOSLOVIAKISM (Poczatki, rozwoj i zanik czechoslowakizmu)

• Authors: Rychlik Jan
• Languages of publication: PL

Abstracts

EN

The theory of Czechoslovakism stated that the Czechs and Slovaks formed one nation with one language consisting of two literary forms. The idea of Czechoslovakism was very much alive among the Czech society in the 19th c. There were few Slovakian Czechoslovakists, and they were recruited mostly from the ranks of Slovakian Evangelical minority, which constituted about 13 per cent of the population. The idea was not popular among the Catholic majority; however, Catholics did not dismiss the possibility of closer cooperation with the Czechs and, consequently, creating a new country. The idea of Czechoslovakism was used on an international forum to present the formation of Czechoslovakia as a 'Czechoslovakian nation-state'. From the Czech perspective, the new Czechoslovakian country was in fact a Czech country extended by Slovakia and Carpathian Ruthenia, and that is how it was understood abroad. On the other hand, the view of the most Slovakians was that Czechoslovakia should be a union of the Czech and Slovakian nations with real common competences. In the 1930s, it was already apparent that the idea of a Czechoslovakian country was only wishful thinking and Chechoslovakism withered away. The idea was stricken with the creation of independent Slovakia on 14 March 1939. The post-war Chechoslovakia did not relate to Czechoslovakism anymore. In the 1950s and 60s, the Czech society accepted the existence of the Slovak nation as an irreversible fact.

Keywords

EN

CZECH; CZECHOSLOVAKIA; CZECHOSLOVIAKISM; LANGUAGE; NATION; SLOVAK

Discipline

• HISTORY: HISTORY

• Publisher: Polska Akademia Nauk. Instytut Historii im. Tadeusza Manteuffla PAN w Warszawie
• Journal: Studia z Dziejów Rosji i Europy Środkowo-Wschodniej
• Year: 2010
• Volume: 45
• Pages: 42-58
• Document type: ARTICLE

Contributors

author

Rychlik Jan

• Jan Rychlik, Charles University in Prague, Ovocny trh 5, 116 36 Praha 1, Czech Republic

Identifiers

CEJSH db identifier

11PLAAAA099910