Vztah Slezské Matice osvěty lidové k otázce železničních zaměstnanců na Těšínsku v období první republiky

• Authors: Gasior Grzegorz

Title variants

EN

APPROACH OF THE 'SLEZSKA MATICE OSVETY LIDOVE' TO THE RAILWAY WORKERS' ISSUE IN THE TESIN REGION UNDER THE FIRST REPUBLIC

• Languages of publication: CS

Abstracts

EN

The main objective of the Slezska Matice osvety lidove (SMOL) under the First Czechoslovak Republic was to develop the Czech school system and intensify position of the Czech national existence in the Czechoslovak regions of Tesin and Hlucin. Polish historiography perceives the SMOL's role as a key factor in the Czech enforcement policy. Czech scholars, however, presented it as a national defence association, which protected interests of the local population. Research of the organisation's history is very inadequate. This article analyses activities of this organisation leading to Czechism of the Czechoslovak Government Railway personnel on the Czechoslovak side of Silesian Tesin by moving Polish and German employees more inland. It is based on hitherto unpublished SMOL documents in the Opava Provincial Archive. These efforts were well received by governmental offices, i.e. the Head Office of the Czechoslovak Government Railways in Olomouc and Ministry of the Railways. Preserved lists compiled by SMOL workers (usually headmasters of Czech schools) contain brief characteristics of railway employees, e.g. their private data, information about family and property conditions, public activities, nationalities, schools to which they send their children, proposals for resettlements, etc. In this way, they document economic pressure of the Czech administration against minorities. Frequent examples of opportunistic tendencies, changes of nationality and clinging to the Czech national existence in an effort to escape bullying and persecutions are also proved. The number of Polish and German railway workers in municipalities on the Czechoslovak side of Silesian Tesin dropped during the 1920's and 30's. There is much evidence that the economic pressure greatly contributed to the reduction of Polish population in the Czechoslovak region of Silesian Tesin under the First Republic.

Keywords

EN

CZECHOSLOVAKIA 1918-1938; HISTORY; NATIONAL CIRCUMSTANCES; SLEZSKA MATICE OSVETY LIDOVE; TESIN REGION

Discipline

• HISTORY: HISTORY

• Publisher: Institute of History, Czech Academy of Sciences
• Journal: Slovanský přehled: historická revue pro dějiny střední, východní a jihovýchodní Evropy (Slavonic Review: Review for Central, Eastern and Southeastern European history)
• Year: 2009
• Volume: 95
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 381-401
• Document type: ARTICLE

Contributors

author

Gasior Grzegorz

• Grzegorz Gasior, Uniwersytet Warszawski, ul. Krakowskie Przedmiescie 26/28, 00-927 Warszawa, Poland

Identifiers

CEJSH db identifier

09CZAAAA065718